Transcript
The Jacobsen Group with Jon Jacobsen · Mon May 19, 2025
Sometimes life's challenges leave you feeling alone.
We all need someone who understands and listens without judgment.
That's what the 988 Wisconsin Lifeline is for.
988 is free and confidential.
Trained counselors are ready to listen and provide support 24-7 for mental health and substance use concerns.
You can contact 988 for yourself or for someone you know.
Don't wait, call or text 988 or chat online at 988wisconsin.org.
988 24-7, call, text, chat here to support you.
Who used-
All the Wi-Fi!
Ah, apartment life.
Bad Wi-Fi, mystery laundry piles, and a roommate who says, I'll Venmo you.
Maybe 2027 deserves an upgrade.
Coming August 2027, Four Lakes Properties introduces the brand new Union Station apartments.
Furnished, in-unit washer and dryer.
Internet included.
A great central downtown location.
One to five bedroom apartments.
And no double occupancy fees.
That's less adulting and more actually enjoying where you live.
Union Station apartments.
Now leasing from Four Lakes Properties.
Wait, we have a washer and dryer in the apartment?
If you're enjoying this KXEL podcast, then we invite you to listen to KXEL's great programming in real time too.
You can hear us on the radio, statewide at AM 1540 and in the Cedar Valley at FM 100.5.
We stream live on the web, not only through KXEL.com, but also through our free KXEL mobile app.
And Alexa knows how to find us too.
It's where Iowa comes to talk, News Talk 1540, KXEL.
Good Saturday morning, KXEL, the Jacobson group here on America's original 1540 50,000 watt clear channel of Kerming into the 14 original big 10 states and neighbors.
two Canadian provinces on FM Band 100.5 out of Cedar Rapids.
And listen live on KXL.com.
John Jacobson here with the inimitable Mike Shane, our great engineer.
News Talk 1540, KXL where Iowa comes to talk.
I'm Jeff Stein.
KXL live and local continues now.
We've made the connection via the magic zoom machine with John Jacobson.
You know, Mr. Jacobson as the host of the Jacobson group program airs Saturday mornings for one hour at 730 right after.
the Iowa Business Report.
Mr. Jacobson, good morning.
Thank you for the time, sir.
Good morning,
Jeff.
Always great to be with you and congrats to you and the station on the tremendous ratings you guys have been getting.
You're registering in two markets and you're dominating your primary market with huge market shares.
Very impressive.
Well, we aim to change that with this conversation.
Now, I want to have a serious conversation
with
you because you are a man of deep faith.
You are a Catholic.
These are statements that you have professed to on your program Saturday mornings at 7 30.
So I'm not telling anyone anything that they don't know.
But give us a sense of your background.
You are more than just a Sunday church going fellow.
Well, I
I'm, you know, I'm the greatest sinner out there, Jeff, in need of God's mercy.
And that's why I tell people I'm a practicing Catholic.
I got to keep practicing it because I'm obviously the farthest away from perfect that you can possibly be.
As a matter of fact, that is such the case that my Protestant brothers and sisters who have, you know, they don't think this purgatory thing necessarily is so annoying, my long suffering wife, they say, you know, you've made us reconsider.
that purgatory does indeed exist because she's living hers on earth, being married to you.
So that's kind of my background.
But despite being very unworthy, I have been a very big proponent, obviously, of the Catholic schools, have served as the president of the Des Moines Catholic Schools Board, presided over the Cathedral Arts Project to bring free of charge.
to all the folks in the Midwest arts that edifies, that appeals to the better angels of our nature, that uplifts, draws us to beauty, to truth, to goodness, to unity.
So the Cathedral Arts Project was a wonderful project.
And my next Columbus group was head of the Pope John Paul II pro-life committee.
And of course, the Knights have done really marvelous
work in that area.
So, Jeff, I try to bring some of my faith in Jesus Christ to the public square as unworthy as I am.
And I think what's so important to undergird our discussion today is, regardless of where you are theologically, whether you're Jewish or Muslim or Protestant,
professing Christian, either mainline or evangelical, whether you are, you know, whatever your faith background, Hindu, you know, are Jewish brothers and sisters.
The thing about Catholicism is it is the world's longest ongoing institution.
It has 1.5 billion, the B adherence, and it traces that office of the seat of Peter, the Bishop of Rome.
There is a documented uninterrupted chain of succession that goes back to 33 AD.
We know where the bodies are buried, as we say, of the of the prior popes.
Pope means papa.
It's really not the formal term.
It's an affectionate term, meaning papa.
Pontifex means bridge builder when they say the pontiff.
And so we use those terms, but
What gives the primacy is that it is the bishop of Rome, the bishopric of Rome.
When you think about it, in the world, the largest infrastructure that is there in terms of hospitals, universities, high schools, grade schools, orphanages, med, dent, law, nursing, pharmacy colleges, diplomatic cores.
They've got their own nuncia chair.
The Holy See has a diplomatic courts recognized by the United Nations.
The ambassadors, the nuncios are recognized between the Vatican City State and the United States.
You've got basically all the artistic endeavors that the church has sponsored, much of the great classical music, the artwork over the ages, and of course, all these great, for lack of better words, social welfare organizations that feed
and clothe the poor.
So I have found during this process the intrigue of all people of good faith who say we need the Bishop of Rome to be a very solid person because of the history, because of the infrastructure, and essentially it's a prime custodial ship of Western civilization, if you will.
So I think regardless of what your religious pedigree is, it's a pretty big deal.
Well, obviously, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, as you say, more than one billion with a B, followers on this planet, it has moral significance, it has political significance because, again, of the sheer volume of followers, you have undertaken some study.
I know you did in advance for your own radio programs in the Midwest, including on KXEL, assess
the potential Cardinals who could be elevated to Pontiff will now we have Pope Leo the 14th to give us your sense as a Practicing Catholic and as someone who has done research give us a sense of what to expect from this new Pope
Yeah, Jeff, it's a great question.
The lead is that it's a great pick It went far better frankly than I thought it would
Taking the name Leo the 14th is of import.
So let's peel back the onion a little bit on this.
So here's some context, Jeff.
The last 12 years under Pope Francis, he had many virtues,
his
emphasis hammering away at the mercy of God, the forgiveness, the mercy of God.
Very, very important.
Oftentimes, even in Catholicism, there's still that emphasis of guilt and
fear of hell and things like that.
And I think Francis built that bridge of the perduring mercy and infinite patience of God.
And that was very, very important to the teaching and healing ministry of Jesus Christ in the sacramental life.
And he did very well on that.
If you recall, Pope Francis consecrated Russia to the Macthat Hart
of Mary as urged immediately to do so by the Ukrainian bishops when the war broke out when Putin was the aggressor into Ukraine.
Many popes in the past have believed there is a real key to the conversion of Russia from Russia's errors, beginning with warnings right prior to the Bolshevik Revolution.
And I would argue that Francis finally perfectly did the consecration to Russia
And many people believe that those prayers mitigated what could have been a World War III situation between Russia and Ukraine without going too deep in the woods here on that.
He also brought in people from the peripheries.
He appointed more cardinals than ever from Asia, from Africa, from some of the other areas there.
And so, you know, he did many good things.
However, in terms of temperament, he could be fiery.
He could be
sometimes not nice.
He did offend a sizable, not a majority, but a sizable of what I would call your base, traditional Catholics that are very devout and almost insulting at times and sometimes repressive at times.
And I would say that after 12 years, the change is welcome, frankly.
Now,
None of us had Robert Robbie prevost on our grid and so here's what really I think happened of course you've got the conclave and Francis appointed 108 out of these 100 and 33 voting cardinals Francis would be deemed not that you can reduce religion all the politics because faith transcends these right and left
Monarchers and Markers, but France is definitely a liberal, much more so than Ratzinger, Pope Benedict, John Paul II, Carl Wojtyła, and he basically had somewhat of a stacked deck of cardinals.
It's that the thought was that even very hard left cardinals like Togli from the Philippines or Zupy could get elected pope, but the
I think the real smart men in the room thought it would be Parline.
Parline was Italian.
He was the Secretary of State, clearly a favorite of Francis.
But you have to get two thirds of the vote to become a pope.
And there's an old saying, you go in to the Conclave of Pope, you come out a cardinal.
And that's what happened to Parline.
It really did.
He was the favorite going in.
But I think what happened, frankly, is there were some Cardinals who thought, even though they like Pope Francis, from a governing and temperament standpoint, there needed to be somewhat of a course correction of movement toward more of a centrist Pope.
And I think the Cardinals on the right, who were in a minority, but along with moderates, I think they blocked Parallene.
I think they prevented Parallene from getting the two-thirds.
So, there were some conservative candidates out there, such as Erdo from Hungary, but, you know, he probably couldn't get the two-thirds vote, because the moderates and the more liberal cardinals were the larger majority.
Well, was Robert Kravos a compromise or a convergence candidate?
I think he was a little bit of both, Jeff, because
I think Parlene probably, they realized, had capped out at a number that was not going to get to two-thirds.
And so, they're in a situation where, where do you go from there?
I think going into the conglade, Prevost already had a lot of support, amazingly, from all sides.
He had the support of the
liberal American Cardinals, I think the conservative American Cardinals at some point during the Conclave, maybe not before, but during, I think there was a coalescence along with African and Asian Cardinals, these ones from the peripheries.
There had to be to get essentially 90 votes out of 133, 89 to be precise.
And this was a fourth ballot.
That's a rapid result.
That's a very rapid result.
for someone who's not a front-runner.
So why, why Rob Prevost?
Well, if you can't get Parlene in, Prevost would still be identified as friendly to Francis.
Francis picked him to be head of the Dicastry for bishops.
That's kind of putting a guy in a good position also to be Pope.
Secretary of State's a great role that Parlene had.
But Pravos got to kind of go and meet and visit with all these bishops all over the world, including these Cardinals.
And he's a Peruvian by also dual citizenship in American, but he spent a lot of missionary time in Peru.
He checked a lot of boxes.
He's a polyglot.
He speaks a lot of languages.
I've noticed over the weekend, his Italian is flawless.
The Latin is beautiful.
He's obviously conversational in English, but being in Peru, he's got Spanish, Portuguese.
So he's a very good communicator.
He's been in the Roman Curia, the government.
He knows the bishops.
He's been in that Dicastery office.
He's an Augustinian, which resonates with a lot of people, including our Protestant Christian brothers and sisters, St.
Augustine.
They claim him.
All Christians claim him.
He talks so much about the grace of God and is effective, the heart.
of that love of God.
He's an Augustinian.
He ran the Augustinian Order.
He's a math major at Villanova, where he ran the pro-life club at Villanova.
But also, he's a lawyer, Jeff.
You'll be glad to know this.
He's a canon lawyer.
So he's got a great skill set.
But I think they saw this and thought, okay, here's the guy.
He's not going to lurch way to the right, but he's going to tone it down a little bit, at least in terms of temperament.
and style from Francis, and he seems to be somebody that everybody claims to have a piece of.
It's interesting, his ethnic background, his mother is Hispanic, Martinez, Spanish background there, perhaps a Mexican background, his father's side, Creole, he has African American blood, French blood, and so, and being in Peru all those years,
He's a pope from America, but in the past they always said an American could never be elected pope because they wouldn't want to give the presidents already the leader of the free world.
They wouldn't also give the papacy, the Americans.
But I think part of this is very interesting.
I think the left thought, well, the new pope, Robert Privoz, has pushed back on what would be considered the right wing stands policy-wise on immigration.
on climate, on the death penalty.
So some of the liberals are happy with those positions.
And of course, as a Catholic, we all want to clean environment, right?
And, you know, we all want to treat the alien, the widow and the stranger in our midst well.
These come down to policy considerations for how do you do that?
But I think what's interesting, there are some tells here.
Prey Vost has done, you talk about the first hundred days of Trump,
Cravels has had a magnificent first 100 hours.
He is coming in as the great unifier.
I'll give you a few tells on this.
He gave a nod right out of the gate on the loge when he came out.
He was out there in the Mosetta.
And if you remember, when you saw Pope John Paul and Pope Benedict, they always came out with a red Mosetta to bless the crowd.
Bergoglio Francis.
came out in white vestments.
He was not wearing the mozzetta.
That was really a break with tradition.
He did not live in the papal apartments.
He lived at St.
Marta.
Pope Leo is going back to the papal apartments, where things are a great idea.
People wanted to be in St.
Peter's Square, see the light on in the papal apartment.
In some ways, Santa Marta was kind of, I mean, they had to square off an extra floor for the Pope and
It kind of complicated things there is actually simpler in some ways to go back to papal apartments.
I mean, it's a style choice, but I like the adherence to the tradition there.
He did the blessing in perfect Latin, the optics.
He led the congregation in St.
Peter's Square in the Ave Maria in Latin.
I mean, yes, the Pope is Catholic on Sunday.
He sang.
What a great voice.
He sang.
He belted out the Regina Chaley prayer.
At noon, in beautiful Latin, he gave the triple gloria, patria e fili e spiritu e sancti prayer three times.
The repetition there in the Latin.
Already some of the traditional Latin masses have been restored and a couple of major churches there in Italy.
I think he has the character and the temperament more to be a little more diplomatic, a little more measured, a little more thoughtful.
perhaps.
He's a good listener.
I think he's a unifier.
Taking the name Leo the 14th is very interesting.
That's what encouraged me.
Leo the 13th was a great pope from the late 19th into barely the early 20th century.
Jeff, he was trying to figure out how to repel communism while at the same time maintaining the rights and the dignity of workers because the pope knew that
Pope Leo XIII, that communism was not the way to go.
But on the other hand, if there weren't amendments made to protect the rights and the dignity of workers and just wages and salaries, that the world may go totally to that bad side, to the communist side.
Leo threaded the needle very beautifully in his teachings.
And I think, you know, Prevost has talked about we're in an AI age now, all the technology.
How do we address it?
And he's not one to run into a ghetto and hide.
He knows we have to address it head on.
So I think, you know, for those of us that like to put things in a, I hate the political analogy because theology is so different than politics, but think of it this way by analogy.
The Catholic right would be like the Republican conservatives in 1952.
They want Robert Taft to be their nominee.
Well, Democrats would want a hard leftist like Adley Stevenson with Eleanor Roosevelt backing him.
And what we got was Eisenhower.
We essentially got a centrist who was very likable, who can unify people like Ike did with Montgomery and Patton and DeGal and all those guys.
I think praevos can do that.
And some of it's just his Chicago background.
You know, he was one of those kids as a young boy.
He played priest and turned the ironing board into an altar table.
The lady down the street prophesied that he would be Pope someday.
He would disarm bullies with with kind of rhetoric.
Part of the reason he can't grin widely and do guffawing, chuckles and laughs is that he sustained a jaw injury when it was crushed by a car when he basically
pushed a young girl out of harm's way from oncoming traffic that was about to hit her and he took the, you know, the auto to the face, basically.
So this is a good man, a holy man who loves Jesus.
And I think that that goes to the to the heart of it also.
And I mean, I did not have Da Pope, a guy named Father Rob from Chicago.
uh, being on the bingo card.
I mean, this just shows you the surprises.
This is as shocking as when Voitiwa came out as the first poll and the first non-Italian in 500 years in 1978.
There's some cute things.
There's pictures of Prevost, now Leo the 14th, uh, at the, at the White Sox game, uh, the World Series game in 05.
He's on there in the crowd, shot up there with his, you know, nephew or whatever, watching the game or with his
Brothers watch the game.
He's got two regular brothers who remind me more of Mike Ditka and Maybe the blues brothers, you know, but you've got this he's on a mission from God from Chicago and you know You know that he's got empathy for the downtrodden and and for the martyrs because by virtue of being a Chicago White Sox fan you are downtrodden and you are a martyr and I think the thing is just that amazes da bears fans
is that Chicago got a Pope before they got a guy who could pass for 4,000 yards a season in the NFL, you know.
So I think this is really good.
I mean, yes, you know, the Pope is Catholic.
I think he's going to be a great net plus for us, Jeff, because there's so much in the social media age, there's been so much intrigue and fascination about what, you know, the
Church is doing such that there are jokes out there that the Pope Mobile is going to be afford pickup truck and that McDonald's are going to be sprouting up around Rome and you know that Dick Wolf's going to create a new TV series called Chicago Pope and You know even even from a Trump standpoint people saying the smart play made by the Vatican to get an American Pope to avoid tariffs, but you know, I think that the
This pope will be very diplomatic.
He will speak loudly on issues like immigration and climate when he thinks things need to be said.
But I think he will not be perhaps so much an in-the-face pope as Bergoglio Francis was, and maybe a little more tactful, a little more immeasured.
And I think right now that is good.
I think the last 12 years were good in many respects, but maybe chaotic.
And I think people want to chill a little bit and maybe return to a little bit more low-key.
And I think right now I have seen more goodwill in the last 100 hours being put up by the disaffected.
It's a minority, but a very important minority of traditional Catholics that just felt, to some extent, beaten down by the last 12 years, almost like there's a sigh of
palpable relief and a return to some of the traditions.
And so Jeff, I really, I'm shocked.
I really am.
I thought out of the stack deck going in, there was no way to essentially get a centrist cardinal.
I thought it might be Pizabala from the Holy Land because he's legendary there.
He's trying to, you know, be in the middle of the Palestinians and the
Israelis and the Christian community in Gaza.
He offered himself a piece of baladit to replace the child Israeli hostages.
Many thought that he might be that middle candidate.
I think in many ways we still need him there in the Holy Land.
And he was maybe a bit young to be Pope at 59 or 60.
That would be the prospects of maybe a 30 year pontificate that might scare some folks off.
What if, you know, you know,
It's a tenure that you don't want to be there for 30 years.
So it is amazing that it's an American, Jeff.
You and I, going back, would have thought never possible for an American to be Pope.
I think the Peruvian aspect that he was in Peru for so many years made him in the minds of the South Africans and Latin Americans, a Pope they could relate to.
I think that the Orthodoxy,
of the african cardinals probably made them think hey it's not bad to have more of a centrist here uh i see the german the german clergy already they're the most liberal leftist brand in catholicism right now the germans don't seem terribly happy uh they think that prevoz leo probably isn't going to give them what they've wanted and i think the salient virtue of prevoz is i think he's absolutely going to head off
any talk of Sism or a break.
I think he's Eisenhower in the center, and I think he's going to be able to hold up both the left and right wings.
And so that's why I think this was a home run hit, Jeff.
I really do.
Who used all the Wi-Fi?
Ah, apartment life.
Bad Wi-Fi, mystery laundry piles, and a roommate who says, I'll Venmo you.
Maybe 2027 deserves an upgrade.
Coming August 2027, Four Lakes Properties introduces the brand new Union Station Apartments.
Furnished, in-unit washer and dryer, internet included, a great central downtown location, one to five bedroom apartments, and no double occupancy fees.
That's less adulting and more actually enjoying where you live.
Union Station Apartments, now leasing from Four Lakes Properties.
Wait, we have a washer and dryer in the apartment?
If
you're enjoying this KXEL podcast, then we invite you to listen to KXEL's great programming in real time too.
You can hear us on the radio statewide at AM 1540 and in the Cedar Valley at FM 100.5.
We stream live on the web, not only through KXEL.com, but also through our free KXEL mobile app.
And Alexa knows how to find us too.
It's where Iowa comes to talk, News Talk 1540, KXEL.
Before the break, you were talking a bit about some of the political implications or comparisons, and one thing I found quite striking, and again, to set the table, your pedigree is of a man of faith, you are a Catholic, you've supported Catholic education through positions in school boards, et cetera, and it's something you speak freely about on your program and elsewhere.
There's a real similarity is there not to how Americans have been voting especially for president lately where we have this mass in the middle that decides elections and so you will get these wild swings if you will from Obama to Trump to Biden to Trump and and our friend Gentry Collins calls these change elections if you start including Congress in the mix because that toggles back and forth and
So, is it a matter that Francis was the right pope for the right time in terms of, again, not wearing the typical vestments, etc., pointing out the inequities in the world and making very clear political statements to a point that those who gathered said, well, I like that, we don't get 60%.
Well, I like that, we're not getting 60%.
So, let's have something that's the same but different.
Jeff, that's a very, very intuitive comment that she just made.
John Paul was known for his missionary travels and his outreach and that forceful ability to evangelize.
Pope Benedict was the great teacher, the biblical scholar, the teacher from the chair, Bergoglio Francis, the weak, the downtrodden.
And I think they found somebody.
I mean, everybody's saying, well, he's going to carry on a lot with Francis.
Absolutely.
Leo the 14th is a big supporter of Vatican II.
The changes made in the church in the 60s.
He's not going to go back and repeal Vatican II.
And that's where the lion's share of the church is right now.
But I think you also have a very serious
intellectual in Prey Vost, who's an Augustinian like Pope Benedict, who's going to teach, and perhaps with clarity like Benedict, sometimes being the good Jesuit that he is, I was surrounded by the Jesuits for many years in my education.
They're great teachers, but they are players in terms of being able to work in difficult situations that involve nuance.
and sometimes shades and threading needles.
And there was some ambiguity with Bergoglio Francis.
I think there might be a little more clarity called for now.
But I do think he's going to be very much like a John Paul.
He reminds me of John Paul's singing the other day.
He's belting out the Regina Chaley, the Potter Noster, the Avi Maria.
And so, yeah, I think he's combining all of those.
And you're right, there's an old saying in Rome.
After a fat pulp, they get a skinny pulp.
After a skinny pulp, they get a fat pulp.
And I think here, you know, it is very interesting.
These guys are hard to pigeonhole.
It is not lost on me that although there was a rebuke by Prevost on one of his Twitter posts, a rebuke of JD Vance and one of his comments that nonetheless, Robert Prevost
was a registered Republican who voted in Republican primaries in Chicago, who has one of his two brothers who's quite an unabashed Trump fan.
And one of his brothers, huh, which one said that, that Pravos is a centrist.
And I think you're going to see in the line of John Paul and in the line of Benedict, you'll see a Pope who's against the death penalty.
who will emphasize things like climate and social justice and humane immigration programs.
But you're going to see a pope that is Catholic.
He's going to stand up for traditional marriage.
He's going to push back on the gender identity revolution.
He's going to be staunchly pro-life.
And I think that on balance, you're right, Jeff, he's going to incorporate basically an amalgam
of the last three or four popes, but it is telling.
He did not take the name John or Paul, which is identified with the more progressive popes, or Francis II.
He did not take that name.
He also did not take the name John Paul III, or Benedict the 17th, or Pius the 13th, which would have been a real conservative tell.
Leo's a great name, because Leo again, going back to Leo the 13th,
rights of workers, but anti-communism.
And then Leo the Great, very much a defender of everything taught by the Catholic Church about Jesus Christ.
And so I think the name is good.
He's definitely setting a pace.
It's kind of cute to see the reactions in Chicago of family members and friends.
There was a great Instagram video, Jeff.
of some younger women and they're on the phone just literally squealing and laughing and shouting at each other.
These are siblings talking because it's the Pope is Robbie Prevost, mom's old boyfriend.
I mean, he dated girls and you know, one of the girls that he used to date, her daughters and I was saying,
Bobby Ravens is the Pope mom's former situation ship, you know from when she was a girl So it's neat to think that we've got a guy that goes to White Sox games and You know dated a girl from Chicago and You know a math major and went to Villanova and it's just it's just amazing You talk about the surprises out there, but Jeff I think you hit on it right there the pendulum always does swing and I think there was a sense
that it had really swung too far to the left, and that even more so than that, the temperament needed to change.
There was a group of Catholics that felt almost bullied during this last pontificate of 12 years that were tradition-minded.
And so, you know, we need to breathe with both lungs.
We need everybody on board right now.
And I think where Parley maybe came in with some baggage,
There are some that did not like the concordant that the Vatican set up with China.
You know, Cardinal Zen, the 90-some-year-old Cardinal came in from China.
Communist China allowed him to go to the pre-conclave.
He was too old to vote the conclave, but he did not like the deal that the Vatican made with Communist China.
And it is interesting, again, if people say, well, this new pope, Francis loved him,
He's a commie.
Well, if you're registered Republican Chicago voting Republican primaries, you're not a commie.
Now, yeah, he'll push back on Trump on immigration policy.
But again, it might be on policy, but everyone agrees that a nation has sovereignty over its borders.
That's right out of the Catholic Catechism.
Every nation believes you have to be defend people from crime.
How best to do that?
The church takes a stance against the death penalty.
How do you deal with climate?
We're all conservationists.
Shoot, I'm a conservative, but I'm a Boy Scout.
I was planting trees before most of these earth-huggers were, Jeff, when I was in Boy Scouts.
The question is always, how do you do it, you know, pragmatically?
But I really think that I have not seen it.
Here's the moment.
If Blaze Supich and Tobin
from the American Cardinals on the left, and Cardinal Burke and Cardinal Dolan of the American Cardinals on the right, can all be enthusiastic about the same fellow.
Again, he's partially a compromise, but more than that, people converged on him.
It was a convergence, because I think, again, a fourth ballot gets two thirds if you're a dark horse.
That is truly a phenomenal and shocking result, Jeff.
This is the sort of insight you get, including those sports analogies that sometimes work when John Jacobson leads the Jacobson Group at Saturday mornings at 7.30, right after the Iowa Business Report, only here on KXEL.
John, it is always a privilege.
Thank you much, sir.
Thanks for the
insight.
Always good to be with you.
You were still the brightest law student at the University of Iowa from 1985 to 1988.
And truth at law is always a defense, so you can't sue me for inaccuracy on that.
That's a low bar, but all right.
I'll take it as a fellow member of the class.
John, thanks so much.
Saturday morning, 7.30, the Jacobson Group here on KXEL.
This is where
I welcome- Thanks, chef.
God bless
you.
You as well.
Who used all the Wi-Fi?
Ah, apartment life.
Bad Wi-Fi, mystery laundry piles, and a roommate who says, I'll Venmo you.
Maybe 2027 deserves an upgrade.
Coming August 2027, Four Lakes Properties introduces the brand new Union Station Apartments.
Furnished, in-unit washer and dryer.
Internet included a great central downtown location, one to five bedroom apartments, and no double occupancy fees.
That's less adulting and more actually enjoying where you live.
Union Station Apartments now leasing from Four Lakes Properties.
Wait, we have a washer and dryer in the apartment?
apartment?
John Jacobson back here with him the mighty blowtorch KXEL Waterloo Sea Rapids America's original 50,000 watt blowtorch coming in with that haul of trophies and plaques from the Iowa Broadcast News Association Awards Thanks in part to this wonderful ensemble that always includes Barbara Haymes Bryant She is the worthy custodian of her father and mother's the late Great Curt and Norma Haymes wonderful American veterans from World War two who came to Eastern Iowa and
over half-century ago, and now the legacy of safe, beautiful, affordable, manufactured homes.
Barbara, those strands of Neil Diamond instrumental that we just heard, Cracklin' Rosie, that goes back over 50 years, the initial TV ad that your dad mom did on WMT, now KGAN television, that I'm going to be adding
to the archive of the Iowa Hall of Fame.
How's that, Barbara?
Oh, I hope people will also like us on Facebook, our Haines Holmes page on Facebook, because about once a month we post one of those old commercials, and they are so corny, they're hilarious.
I remember, Barbara, you and I are roughly the same age.
I'm a little bit older than you, but as a kid watching those,
and then seeing your father be striding the world like a colossus coming in to see Dr. Jacobson for a dental appointment.
We thought John Wayne was arcing through the building.
You know, as a teenager, that just embarrassed the hell out of me.
Looking back on it now, it was really a special time.
He was larger than life.
He knew everybody, and if he didn't know you, he'd get to know
you.
That is so true, and I had the real honor of getting to, they say, never beat your heroes.
You'll be disappointed.
I was never disappointed.
I met Kurt Haymes later in life.
Prior to my entry into politics, it was about 2015, and I told Kurt that I was thinking of running for office someday.
two years before I dipped my toe in successfully thanks to good people like Kurt and Norma and I just walked in to say hi and he treated me like a king barber he had me shadow him for the rest of the day that meant a trek out to the golf course for a luncheon that he hosted for one of our GOP candidates and he encouraged me publicly
to run and he even wrote me a large check that I never cashed.
I wish I had framed it before I gave it back because it was a little premature for me to run at that juncture.
But Barbara, we stand on the shoulders of giants.
Do we not?
We do.
It's something that happens year after year.
Each brick builds on another one.
And before you know it, we've got this just amazing.
wall of fame of all the people that have come before us and all the good that we're doing now and we're adding to it and fighting the good fight.
And good is the operative word there because you guys have been recognized by various different citations including the corridor but what you folks have done in the community, the derecho recovery, the food banks, the
dog parks, the recreational opportunities you have at your cities there in southwest Cedar Rapids.
The homage to the veterans, you're always so respectful for those that paid the ultimate price and whenever I come to your complex, old glory flies along with our liberties reprise and rights we maintain.
Iowa Blue, White and Red, and then that POW flag.
Barbara, you guys love America, and you've shown that in your service statewide in many of the Republican civic organizations.
We like to serve our community, and as you mentioned, one of the big ways we serve our community is we have a food bank.
It's open on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at our Summit View office at 100 Haines Street, Southwest, from 10 a.m.
to 2 p.m.
And a week ago Sunday, we were mentioned and reported about in the Cedar Rapids Gazette.
So if you go to the Iowa Today section, it talks about the food bank.
It talks about a lot of food banks, but it gives a special shout out to some of our volunteers that we have here at Ames Fones.
And Barbara is beautiful at Summit View and Grand View.
Folks, you are just
minutes away from, I call it the Cedar Rapids Airport, but it's the eastern Iowa airport now.
You're literally a couple minutes away from all the retail there in just beaming and teeming southwest Cedar Rapids.
The landscaping, you know, everything is lush, it's springtime, but the lawns are beautiful, they're plentiful, they're green, you've got flag poles, you've got shrubbery, you've got pristine streets, you've got
magnificent street lighting.
And Barbara, talk about safe communities there at Summit View and Grand View.
You vet to protect people when you screen those who come into the communities.
And you also have your own, let's just say peace officers that patrol and make sure it's a good area.
My hat's off to you for doing that.
Well, thank you.
Grand View and Summit View and Southwest Cedar Rapids are
planned and managed communities.
They're called manufactured home communities, but the kind of homes we have isn't as important as the fact that they are really nice neighborhoods.
We have managers that are on call 24-7 for any resident issues.
In addition, we have a very good relationship with Cedar Rapids Police.
We actually pay them to come out and do a couple of extra rounds here on the weekends
Because they tell us that there's no crime here, so they normally won't come in and cruise our neighborhood.
We also have security cameras.
We have two emergency storm shelters in each community.
And people here, neighbors, watch out for neighbors.
That is the biggest way
to be safe is to just look out for each other and that's what they do here.
It is safe and you're right Barbara there's not any noticeable crime there but part of that is preventive.
You've got that good front end deterrence there by going the extra mile and the storm shelters where you guys are are huge although it's so ironic that your manufactured homes were sturdier and did better from the derecho than
commercial and residential, traditional housing.
That shows you how safe and well-built these homes are, Barbara.
That is so true.
When we had that derecho, none of our homes tipped over or blew away, and we still get so aggravated with the National Weather Service when there's a tornado warning, when they say, mobile homes will be damaged or destroyed.
Well, let me tell you what, I got proof positive they won't be destroyed, damaged of course because the wind was 140 miles an hour.
What a lot of people don't understand is that a mobile home hasn't been built since 1976.
Since then, they've been manufactured homes and they've been built to a national building standard with the same building materials that are included in site-built homes.
There's no difference between a manufactured home and a site-built home.
except that one was built indoors and one was built outdoors.
You know, we're here with Macy Raver, a young college graduate who's now beginning her professional career.
She was a star athlete, this young woman.
And Barbara, isn't it nice to know that for University of Iowa kids, they're 15 minutes away from your communities there.
Parents can live there, they can buy there if they want to be close to their kids, adult.
University of Iowa folks can live there.
They're literally proverbial stones throw away.
It is a very affordable option for them to even look at that as a possibility, isn't it?
Just one exit away from Highway 30, which gets you on 380, which gets you to Iowa City.
And you mentioned earlier, the Cedar Rapids Airport, excuse me, the Eastern Iowa Air Force.
I do
the same thing.
Since since I do it road.
It's a north-south road goes all the way through to the airport to write brothers Boulevard It's only 12 minutes from door-to-door from here to Eastern Iowa Airport
awesome
We're close to Whirlpool Nana.
We're close to CRST We're close to everything the monarchs the
monarchs all the restaurants and all the retail It's just a hop skip and a jump Barbara.
Yes, but when you
It makes that turn, that left turn from Williams or Wilson Avenue into Grandview or Summitview, you feel like you're in a whole other world.
It's quiet.
You feel like you're living out in the country.
But yet, you know, leave there and you're 10, 15, 20 minutes away from anything.
It's a pastoral landscape.
You go out to those two communities and you're literally in a pastoral landscape and yet five to ten minutes away from all the amenities including healthcare, transportation and retail.
Barbara, we want people to get over there and buy and get into the neighborhood and you've got quite an impressive sales team and on this beautiful blog
on hamshomes.com, that's H-A-M-E-S, H-O-M-E-S, hamshomes.com.
A great article on the blog on the sales team.
This is a proud multi-generational family business.
You guys are very devoted custodians.
Talk about this great new young sales team, Barbara.
Consist of Troy Curtis Haynes IV.
He is my brother Troy's son, so my nephew.
He's been with us for over 10 years.
And the other gentleman, Clint Alderman, is my brother Troy's son-in-law.
And he's been with us for five years.
And they are both excellent at working with customers and making sure that they are matched with a home that really suits them.
Not just in price, but also in layout and function and size.
On the website, they're called salesmen, but they're really not salesmen.
What they are are housing
consultants.
They are the ones that take what you need, what people need, and translate it into how we can serve them and make their lives better.
This is so great to visit with Barbara Hames Bryant and the good folks at Hames Homes.
And if you read the testimonials on the website, it is really impressive.
People love the Hames Homes communities.
Lorene Svoboda says, I am proud and happy to be living in my home in Summit View.
And Brenda Visley says, extremely well kept in quiet community.
when selling our home, Haynes was very professional and nice to deal with, highly recommend.
And Terrence and Patricia Himes, we would be honored to recommend Haynes to anyone.
And Rebecca Ease says, living in Grandview has been wonderful.
The community is so pretty and clean.
And, you know, how can you beat first-hand, first-person testimonials like that, Barbara?
Well, there's a lot of superlatives in there.
And that proves that we didn't ask for those testimonials because they would have been a lot more bland.
But people really do love living here and we love having these neighbors.
Like I said, they look out for each other.
They are screened and vetted, as you mentioned, because we're a private community.
We take applications.
We do a criminal background check and a credit check to make sure everybody who lives in Grandview and Summitview will get along with their
neighbors.
Mary Stutt says, love living here, been here for 12 years.
Management is awesome.
Hames really cares.
And Chris and Mickey Balmer say, we really are enjoying our new home.
Thanks to Hames for making it all possible for us.
I can't wait to get out there and see you.
We're going to do a live remote someday.
And maybe I'll take Torres and Raver with us for a road trip.
But how do we find you?
You know, we're with a great
Beacon from Waterloo Sea Rapids on 1540 and 100.5 and you know Barbara you're part of this winning team that cleaned up on awards but we need people to get out and see you guys live and in person.
How do they get you on that legacy phone number?
How do they find you on the web and how do they drive and see it with their own eyes Barbara?
To reach us by phone we still have our old Marion phone number 319-377-48
That's 319-377-4863.
Best thing to do is just to come and see us in person though.
We're open seven days a week at the corner of Wilson Avenue and West Post Roads, Southwest and Cedar Rapids.
That's Wilson Avenue, West Post Road, and Cedar Rapids seven days a week.
And our website is where most people find us first.
H-A-M-E-S-H-O-M-E-S dot com.
And I promise you, you can get out there and find Barbara Hames.
Much to my sad chagrin, Macy and Sean, I cannot convince her to take a run at the governorship of Iowa.
Now that Governor Reynolds is leaving, I can think of nobody better.
Talk about in the Elizabethan and Margaret Thatcher mole.
We could have Barbara Hames as our governor with that great business experience and prowess.
Barbara, it's almost a sin if you don't run for governor, but you're going to be fighting for the angels by continuing to bring safe, affordable, and beautiful homes to eastern Iowans.
It sounds like I can't get you to run, huh?
I think that I'm doing God's work right here, John.
Well, I think that's true as your family has done for generations, bringing a Christian work ethic.
to the public square and to the commerce that they engage in daily.
You guys are awesome, Barbara.
You are such a worthy custodian of your father and mother's great legacy.
They are proud of you.
Well, thank you.
And if I may add just two things at the end of this interview here.
Number one is a shout out to my son, Sean Bryant, who's assistant manager at Grandview.
He's one of the ones that keeps the neighborhoods looking so lush.
and green and clean and picked up.
And I would also like to say, Macy, please come and look at our homes.
We have something for you.
That sounds like a great invitation.
And indeed, Sean does a great job.
You know, Barbara?
There's a rumor that Edward Scissor's hands love the landscaping so much he asked you if he could trim the premises That's how beautiful it is out there with the landscaping for crying out loud is in springtime the lawns are green It is just in the streets and the lighting it boy if every city had infrastructure There was his new and his pristine condition as yours is every mayor in the country would get reelected Barbara your de facto mayor
of two communities and it is not lost on me that the Haymes family has sold over 13,000 manufactured homes in the last several decades.
And the other thing is that information on the website
that I gave you as old.
We've actually sold over 14,000 homes
now.
How epic.
That's absolutely awesome.
Well, guys, get out there today and thank this family that feeds the poor, that salutes our veterans, that built storm shelters and extra policing and vetting so that this is so friendly and safe for the American family.
We appreciate all you do, Barbara.
It's always a joy to have you on, Barbara.
Thank you, John.
You're the best.
And you are, too.
And that's why we're always going to make sure we've got Neil Diamond in the background for continuity.
The Jacobson Report on KXEL.
Thank you to all of our listeners, the ensemble that allowed us to sweep the Iver Broadcast News Association Awards.
for larger market radio, 61 IBNAs in 10 years, a record.
Also, our friends at Midwest Renewable Energy, LLC, Jim and Cindy Janron, Renewable Energy, ethanol, as clean as clean as green, energy for small America, life runners, liferunners.org, get your t-shirt, walk and run for life, like the lovely and gracious Mrs. Jacobson, helping build the culture of life for expected mothers and their babies on the way.
Barbara Hames Bryant to the great people at Hames Homes in Southwest Cedar Rapids.
beautiful, safe, affordable, manufactured housing, and guys, it has been a joy to be with you all.
Listen to the podcast, kxl.com slash Jacobson, J-A-C-O-B-S-E-N.
We'll be back next week.
Continue this great Easter celebration up until Pentecost Sunday.
In the meantime, be safe, be smart, be good, be strong, love Jesus Christ, and thank Him for His sacrifice.
His death, his passion, his resurrection from the dead to afford us that great gift of eternal life.
Until we meet again, bye bye!
Who used all the Wi-Fi?
Ah, apartment life.
Bad Wi-Fi, mystery laundry piles, and a roommate who says, I'll Venmo you.
Maybe 2027 deserves an upgrade.
Coming August 2027, Four Lakes Properties introduces the brand new Union Station apartments.
Furnished, in-unit washer and dryer, internet included, a great central downtown location, one to five bedroom apartments, and no double occupancy fees.
That's less adulting and more actually enjoying where you live.
Union Station apartments, now leasing from Four Lakes Properties.
Wait, we have a washer and dryer in the apartment?
Apartment?
