Live from Music Row Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed creator of the Huey Report and direct mail expert, Craig Huey, in-studio to reflect on his recent trip to California citing a “spirit of fear” as citizens continue to wear masks and heavily fined ticketing for non-compliance.
Leahy: Craig Huey, our favorite new California refugee. Did you ever think you’d be in studio on Music Row talking about your new home in Tennessee?
Huey: Never. Absolutely. Never dreamed of such a thing. Never dreamed of ever living in Tennessee? I have throughout my life spoken probably in every state in the nation to different groups.
Tennessee, I can’t remember ever coming to Tennessee to speak to a group. It’s never been on my radar until this move that we took.
Leahy: So here’s sort of my take on this. I think you’re a surfer as a kid. Grew up in the ’60s? A Beach boy kind of kid. Southern California.
Huey: My California house is right on the cliffs of the beach.
Leahy: There is a sunny disposition from people that grew up in California in the ’60s? It’s a positive can-do disposition, isn’t it?
Huey: When I was in college, this was back in the early ’70s and I tell you, I was able as an entrepreneur to make the decision not to become a teacher because I have a secondary education credential, but to be a business owner.
And I knew so many entrepreneurs who were able to do what they couldn’t do today. And that is to take a dream and build that dream and build a profitable company. California under Ronald Reagan became the entrepreneurship capital of the world.
Leahy: It’s interesting you say Ronald Reagan because there’s that sunny disposition. There’s that optimism there’s that can-do attitude. The classic in many respects, California in the ’50s, ’60s, and the ’70s was the epitome of the American dream. Plus, the weather was great, right?
Huey: (Laughs) The weather is awesome. And of course, the socialist Democrats call it the weather tax that they can do their socialist policies because people will stay there because of the weather. So the weather tax. But you know what? The weather is great, but the government is so bad and so oppressive. In fact, I just flew back to Tennessee last night.
Leahy: So you went to California?
Huey: I had to go to California.
Leahy: You had to go behind the lines back to California. Tell us about that. By the way, you do look tan, rested, and ready. Did you go surfing?
Huey: I didn’t go surfing but we went down and got the California sunshine.
Leahy: You look like you got the sunshine. By the way, I just have to say this one of the times you were on, I got a call from one of our regular listeners and they said, you know, thank you so much for having that young man, Craig Huey on. (Huey laughs) I said, really? Oh, he sounds very young, although he’s got a lot of experience. He is a young man.
Huey: Young at heart. But I love that. It’s very encouraging. But here’s the thing, Michael. There is such a difference between being in Tennessee flying to California. You can tell the second you get off the airplane.
Leahy: So what’s the first sign that you’re behind enemy lines?
Huey: Fear.
Leahy: Really?
Huey: You see such fear in regards to the pandemic. The brainwashing that has gone on, the conditioning that has come on, the fear of kids looking at you if you’re not wearing a mask.
Leahy: Hold it. Even now, after all of the vaccinations?
Huey: Yes.
Leahy: If you’re not wearing a mask, kids look at you like your Darth Vader or something?
Huey: You add the vaccinations. You add the fact that how many people have already had COVID and have already had it, the masks are ridiculous. But if you look at the high school kids on track, they’re running in the heat with masks.
Leahy: Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. No. No. They can’t be doing something that stupid in California.
Huey: Probably 30 percent, 40 percent of the people are driving by themselves with a mask.
Leahy: Okay. How did so many people become so stupid?
Huey: If you listen to the local media and if you are on social media, the brainwashing that has gone on, I was talking to one driver, and he was telling me Dr. Fauci said, I needed to wear this and I’m going to do it. I said, well, Senator Dr. Rand Paul said this was political theater.
It was politics, not science. He said, well, I’m going to trust Dr. Fauci, not Dr. Paul. And there’s a moral superiority, Mike. They feel they’re protecting other people with a mask. And that if you don’t have that mask, you’re harming people.
Leahy: Did people give you a hard time for not wearing a mask?
Huey: I can’t believe how many people were saying you don’t have a mask on.
Leahy: Set the stage here. Where were you when this happened?
Huey: One place is walking along the beach.
Leahy: You’re walking outside along the beach?
Huey: Yes.
Leahy: Just you? You and your wife?
Huey: My wife and I are walking along the Beach, and we have somebody come up and say, Be very careful. You don’t have your mask on. And down the road is the security. The city of Manhattan Beach hired private security people to go out and give $500 tickets to people who don’t have a mask on the beach.
Leahy: On the beach?
Huey: In the fresh air.
Leahy: I’m stunned at how stupid exactly these rules are.
Huey: Oh, it’s terrible.
Leahy: No wonder you left California.
Huey: It is so oppressive. There’s the spirit of fear. I was in a restaurant. My wife and I went to this Italian restaurant, and we walk in and they go, put on your mask, put on your mask because you’re going to walk 20 feet to sit down.
So we put on this mask and we sit down. And in some restaurants, they keep it on to the foods there and then keep pulling it up. But in this one, we had it on. We sat down and the waiter came up to us, and I said something like, we don’t have our masks.
You don’t need to wear your mask unless you want to. He says I have to wear my mask. I cannot stand wearing the mask. And I’m so mad at Governor Newsom because he said that on June 15, he extended the emergency orders to June 15.
And then he said, everybody who is at work and employee and of any company has to wear a mask. Even after June 15. He says I can’t stand wearing this mask. And you can’t see if people are smiling.
You can’t see if people are angry. It becomes a faceless society, and it is a political symbol of obedience to the state. I’m bowing down to it. I’m obeying false science, and I’m obeying the politician.
Leahy: For decades, we’ve cultivated a spirit of conformity in our public schools. A lack of intellectual curiosity and a lack of common sense. (Dumb voice) I’ll just give the answer the teacher wants and what answer the teacher wants? I think particularly in California, what is the fruit of the poison tree?
Huey: The whole thing with schools. And we have to be careful here in Tennessee. Most listeners can think back to when they were in school. It’s so much different today. My wife, who was 15 years a teacher in public schools and who specialized in special needs kids, says about 35 percent of all the teachers should be fired because they’re incompetent.
They don’t care. Beyond the incompetence is the fact that there’s political indoctrination going on that teachers now have, whether it’s math, science or history, are indoctrinating the kids. And it’s happening here in Tennessee as well as everywhere else in the U.S. And it’s finally come to light because of the Critical Race Theory.
Listen to the full second hour here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Welcome to California” by Famartin. CC BY-SA 4.0.
Live from Music Row Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed the creator of the Huey Report and direct mail expert, Craig Huey, in-studio to discuss what he saw in California on a recent trip citing limited amounts of liberty and freedom and an environment of fear.
Leahy: We welcome to our studios our good friend, a California refugee, a smart man who’s come to Nashville, Tennessee. Has a business in Nashville and lives in Williamson County now, Craig Huey. Good morning, Craig.
Huey: Michael, it’s great to be with you.
Leahy: Did we send you off on a reconnaissance mission back to your home state of California recently?
Huey: Yeah. I snuck back into California, and I got to tell you, it is pretty oppressive.
Leahy: It’s gotten worse in the years since you left.
Huey: Oh, my gosh. Over 12 months, I officially left in June. I bought a place out here back in March of last year. And so I’ve been back and forth. And the devastation is unbelievable. So back in California, I was there just when they started opening up the restaurants after 12 months.
Leahy: You went back to Los Angeles or Orange County.
Huey: The Los Angeles area in San Bernadino area. That area.
Leahy: Did they require that you show an ID before you got on the plane?
Huey: They did require it. How about that?
Leahy: Was it Delta or some other airline?
Huey: This one was Delta.
Leahy: So let me just be clear.
Huey: Yes.
Leahy: Delta Airlines, which is a virtue-signaling opposition to the Georgia law election law that requires an ID to get an absentee ballot.
Huey: That’s right.
Leahy: The same people that cheered on Major League Baseball, moving the All-Star game from 50 percent Black Atlanta.
Huey: Yes.
Leahy: To 10 percent Black Denver, where they have the same election laws.
Huey: Yes.
Leahy: This company, Delta Airlines, would not allow you to get on the plane unless you show them your ID.
Huey: Michael, the hypocrisy is so clear and so damning. But you know what? The hypocrisy extends throughout California. You take a look here in Tennessee. I see a booming economy. I see people in restaurants. I see people in churches. I see people going about their lives. I see more and more people being free from the fear that has happened over the last 12 months. And in California, the fear is real.
Leahy: So let’s track your journey. So you show your ID.
Huey: Yes.
Leahy: You get on Delta Airlines. They don’t allow you to get on unless you show that ID.
Huey: That’s right.
Leahy: You wear your mask the whole time.
Huey: Oh, I have to.
Leahy: Got to wear the mask. You land in California, at LAX, probably.
Huey: LAX.
Leahy: Los Angeles International Airport. You get out. Describe what you see after you land.
Huey: I get out. And as soon as I walk through the airport, it’s so much different than the Nashville airport. You feel a feeling of fear and oppression just on the people themselves. In Nashville, I can kind of have the mask down and not have it fully on. In LA people will turn you in.
Leahy: They’ll turn you in? Where’s that? Were there people out there looking for Craig Huey to see if he wasn’t wearing that mask ready to turn you in?
Huey: There were people looking to see and make sure they had it over their noses. And so I get into the car and the car is taking me to my place there.
Leahy: Okay. You’ve got a driver.
Huey: I have a driver. Super nice guy. And let me tell you what this driver goes. I say, in Tennessee, I go to the market and we go to a store and people aren’t really wearing masks. People are at concerts. People are doing different things. But out here, they’re not. And he goes, I can’t believe that. He had no clue that people weren’t living in fear and in a lockdown-type society.
He had not been to a restaurant in 12 months. He doesn’t go outside his home without a mask. And even if he’s walking the street alone, even if he’s in the car alone, he’s got the mask on in fear. Because, first of all, Dr. Fauci told him and President Biden told him to do so. And second, he doesn’t want to have the neighbors turn him in.
Leahy: He doesn’t want to have the neighbors turn him in.
Huey: That’s right.
Leahy: Another good reason to leave California. Your neighbors are crazy.
Huey: Crazy. Well, I went down to the place called Manhattan Beach. Absolutely beautiful.
Leahy: It’s in Southern Los Angeles County, almost into Orange County, right on the beach.
Huey: That’s where I grew up. In that area. I was surfing in that ocean throughout junior high.
Leahy: And by the way, just for our listeners, Craig Huey is the ultimate California kid. Craig Huey was a surfer boy.
Huey: Love it.
Leahy: When the Beach Boys got started, you were part of that crowd.
Huey: I was part of that crowd. That was my music. So I go down to Manhattan Beach and I’m not wearing a mask. And somebody on what’s called the Strand which is a walkway along the beach comes up to me, says, you can’t do this. You don’t have a mask on. I said, what are you talking about? They’re going to give you a ticket.
They’re giving thousands of tickets to people who don’t have the mask on or properly. $500 tickets. They have an army of people out there making sure everybody’s regulated when they’re out in the fresh air when they’re maybe by themselves, and they may have nobody around them, they have to be obedient.
Leahy: And there’s no science that backs up any of that stuff. And by the way, so I looked at the latest COVID stats from free states like Texas. No masks. And Florida, no masks. You’re free to roam about the state. They have lower cases of COVID.
Huey: Yes. Lower cases, hospitalizations, and death.
Leahy: In those free states. Unlike California, New York, Michigan, all of the blue authoritarian control you’ve got to wear a mass state.
Huey: Yes. It’s the principle of freedom and personal responsibility versus collectivism statism where the government’s telling you what to do. And there’s not individual freedom being respected in a state like California or New York or Connecticut. But in Florida, in Texas, and here in Tennessee, we have liberty. We have choices to make. And our choices are something where you see it in unemployment. In Florida, the unemployment rate is around three percent. In California, it’s close to 10 percent.
In California, half the restaurants are closed forever. In Florida, I was down there with my wife in Florida at a conference, a full-on conference mind you, with people there in the conference. I was down there in Florida about a week ago, and the restaurants are expanding. They’re booming. They’re full. People are back. And that’s freedom and in action. That’s freedom working. And in California, it’s like, I don’t know if I can go to a restaurant. I’m afraid.
Leahy: It’s kind of crazy. By the way, this is new information for you, but it fits our theme here. So I was down in Tallahassee and about a week and a half ago and cooking up a little expansion of the Star News Network. As you know, I’m the majority owner of Star News Digital Media. We operate the Star News Network. We currently have six conservative, state-based news sites. The Tennessee Star, The Georgia Star News, The Virginia Star, The Ohio Star, The Michigan Star, and The Minnesota Sun. And on April 21 we are opening The Florida Capital Star. How about that?
Huey: Congratulations. That’s awesome.
Leahy: Then then wait for it. Wait for it. In May, we’re gonna open up The Texas Lone Star. Do you like that?
Huey: I love it.
Leahy: And what is our theme here? Our theme is liberty. Yes, we are featuring state, state-based pushback to federal usurpations. Right now ironically, Craig, if you look at our new sites, we get a lot of traffic from California.
Huey: I’m not surprised. Let me tell you, the exodus out of California is huge. Where I live, in my community, out in Williamson County I would say the neighbors are from California. I was at church. A car pulls up next to me and a family gets out. I look at the license plate. It’s like mine. (Leahy chuckles) It’s from California. They had just moved out just a couple of weeks ago. And we’re seeing Californians making a decision to leave family, friends, work, and places they were born to venture out in freedom and get away from the oppression of California.
Leahy: Famously, in 1876, a newspaper publisher and presidential candidate who did not succeed, Horus Greely famously said, Go West Young Man. I think now, go away from the West of California is the theme.
Listen to the second hour here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
