08-11-26 Part Two - WNBA Madness

Now, it's Red Eye Radio, Gary McNamara, and Eric Hurley talk about everything from

politics to social issues and news of the day, whether you're up late or you're just starting your day. Welcome to the show from the Relief Factor Studios. This is Red Eye Radio. All across America, we are Red Eye Radio, he is early and I'm Gary McNamara, as I was telling you,

“to start the show, hours and hours and hours ago. Yes, I think it was one of those days.”

I just got entertained by what everybody else was saying. And here's more of it. All right. Okay. Steven A Smith, on the WNBA. All right. Now, what I like is how we start at one level,

and slowly it starts going up and this is not a criticism. I actually love it because it's like,

okay, as the amplification goes up, slowly you're like, what's coming next? What's coming next? What's coming next? I think it's a great style. I can't, couldn't stand him when he did doing he did sports and would do it all the time over things that were meaningless. Right. Right. But now that he's talking, you know, things politics issues that actually matter to the world, and when he has more of a populist right leaning, I like it. But here we go. All right. Here,

on the WNBA. The current WNBA collective bargaining agreement says only players who are women are

eligible, but it does not further define women or specify criteria involving gender identity,

sex-assigned at birth, hormone levels or physical characteristics. It also does not say that self-identification alone automatically makes a player eligible. So because that's open for debate, it required a response from WNBA Commission at Kathy Engelberg who sent the memo to teams last Friday saying that issue would be discussed by task force of team presidents and general managers. The WNBA separately defended inclusion and condemned hate while saying that union quote will

not be used as political pawns. His Stephen A talking is two damn late. It's two damn late. If your rules were more finite and clear, you wouldn't have to have a meeting of team presidents

“in general managers. You're the commissioner you should already know. We literally are living in”

a society where there has to be a debate involving a collective bargaining agreement that explicitly states that the league is for women, only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA. So one could easily surprise. Okay, you're a woman that makes you eligible. If you're not a woman, you're not eligible. It's simple and plain. What's the complication? The complication is that our society has evolved to a point where we're not clear what defines a woman,

at least in the eyes of some. So our voice white or inus can't to freedom may be accused of trolling and engaging in mockery and being a bit ridiculous. Fine. What about WNBA? Well, that WNBA. We will not be used as political pawns when you go white to hell up. And then William McGurne in the Wall Street Journal is this all fits. I guess that it was a wonderful day of reading and observing yesterday. Yeah. And it's funny because when I hear anybody else,

again, the on this issue with just speaking reality and science, I find it extremely entertaining because I can't believe we're actually having this debate. Yeah. When I do what I'm so close to it that, you know, but when I see other people doing it and listen to them or watch them or read from them, I just, I find it absolutely hilarious. I'm like, I can't believe we're actually talking about this. I can't believe there were people that actually this delusional and I walked around yesterday

with a huge smile of my face going, this is great. But William McGurne wrote in his column yesterday,

“the key to understanding this fight is recognizing that as much as progressives want men”

who say they are women to be allowed in women's sports, they don't have to get that to get the win. The activists will be happy enough if they can simply destroy the game for those fighting to keep women's sports for women. For what this movement really opposes is truth and the norm's based on the truth. If all they achieve is to advance the idea that norms are arbitrary,

That's what makes Ms. Cunningham a target. Her offense is recognizing the truth that differences between

“men and women are real and substantive. I want to protect young girls in the locker room”

or young girls in sport who shouldn't have to go against biological men. She told ESPM, it's a legitimate concern rooted in her experience as a professional basketball player and widely shared in a 2025 New York Times poll reported that 79% of Americans believe men who identify as female should not be allowed to compete in women's sports. Yet, this is the headline in the Atlantic, the sports department of the New York Times

after the Cunningham Carrington dust-up where she got clobbered. The WMBA conversation is no longer

about basketball and Sophie Cunningham doesn't get why. That was the headline. Well, maybe it's

“Atlantic and the larger world of sports journalism that doesn't get it. Still, the challenge”

for the powers that be in sports is to find women in a way that is once is coherent and makes sense to everybody, the WMBA answers to say that only players or our women are eligible to play in the WMBA without ever saying what a woman is. We've been saying this for God for decades. Yes! The contradiction is proving untenable. WMBA Commissioner Kathy Engelbert issued a memo on Friday, promising a task forced to discuss the topic,

thoughtfully, respectively, and an alignment with the longstanding values of our league. Plainly, the last thing Miss Engelbert wants, is an official NBA declaration on what a woman is. Miss Engelbert did point out one interesting fact about the asylum that is today's WMBA, it's run by the inmates. Our player eligibility rules, unlike the eligibility rules of some leagues, and governing bodies are collectively bargained, she wrote. Only a few years back,

this is a great point. Only a few years back, men playing on women's teams largely centered on non-contacts sports, such as track and swimming. Lea Thomas started out as a male swimmer at the University of Pennsylvania, but after transitioning won the NCAA Division 1 National Championship in the women's 500 yard freestyle in 2022. Now we're debating men competing in women's basketball, a contact sport. When a jurist nominated for the Supreme Court,

cannot say what a woman is, we are perhaps too hard on the WMBA during the March 2022 Senate hearing on a Brown Jackson's nomination, Senator Marsha Blackburn asked her a simple question, "Can you provide a definition for the word woman?" She answered, "No, I can't." Now it's under the absurd, two men who played for the NBA, have just announced so in her next year's NBA draft. Mr. Canter, who said he's going to go in explained on X,

"if simply declaring who you are is all that's required, then I meet every single requirement necessary to compete in the WMBA." And he's right. WMBA has worshiped the gods of identity

for so long that it can now insist on a reasonable definition for the first word in its name.

The league has surrendered the most potent weapon at its disposal. Reality. I can't wait to see what they come up with. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know because, again, we've started saying this years ago. You set out to appease, right? You're going to be the hero by wearing a t-shirt. You're going to be a hero by saying things and I support this and

“then hold on. Hold on. You're part of an organization. If you support it, then you should be,”

in fact, petitioning for whatever group you're advocating for to be a part of your organization. You should be in fact, if you're want to be a hero because making wearing a t-shirt doesn't make you a hero. I wore a t-shirt for the longest time said hero wanted. Turned out, not a hero.

that you're advocating for. In this case, the trans group to be part of your organization.

Are you doing that? And they painted themselves into the corner. The U.S. soccer podcast. I'm your host Megan Klingerberg and after interviewing so many dudes during this men's world cup, I'm so happy to be back with my U.S. one zash team players. I know the U.S. men's national team

“has changed how I think about myself, how I think about being an American, how I think about”

being on a team. It's one year out from that world cup and we're going to talk about the

brightest prospects in U.S. soccer. You ready? It looks good. The U.S. soccer podcast presented

by Henkel. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. They once again, we've seen happen with organizations. Remember, you know, the NFL thing. Remember when they all just, it seemed like all the teams that went like, okay, this weekend, we're all going to even the Cowboys said it. I'm going to show solidarity. We'll all take a knee and then we'll be done with it. We'll just move on. They think if we just, all right, let's all do it together.

It's all hold hands and whatever or what and then we'll just put that will be enough to appease everybody and we move on. In this case with this issue, it does not work that way. Well, it's, it's a little bit different. The WNBA is was is embedded in politics. The NFL got into it because of the, uh, what's going to call it? I forgot his name. The cabinet. The cabinet. The whole cabinet thing. I don't think the owners ever wanted this. I don't think they ever wanted it.

And as I said, when you have the next generation of players come in and remember the next generation

“is always four years away. That's why something that was an issue in 2015, 2016, is not really an”

issue. But it all starts with that. The similarity is that it all starts with that attitude that, oh, we're going to appease. Yeah, come off as, you know, you know, I use the word hero, but I can come off as a, I don't know, good person, whatever. It's a virtue signaling thing and, you know, I'm all for it. And it's, well, how much are you for it? Because the question has to be answered now with the WNBA. When LeBron is done at the 76ers and he decides he wants to just simply

by saying so identify as a woman. Are you going to let him play? Now, you know, that's kind of tongue-in-cheek. But there are not anymore. No, now with the man? Well, well, I mean LeBron

“specifically. Oh, okay. Yeah, right, that's tongue-in-cheek. Yes. Because I think by the time he gets”

to that age, most of the women in the WNBA will be better players than he is. But yeah, but this is but this is his chance. No, to beat Will Chamberlain's record and score more than 50 points a game for a season. If Kaepernick had only chosen basketball. Am I wrong? Am I wrong? No. He'd probably be playing today. And, but, but that's you, you don't mean in the NBA, though. No, no, no, no, no, no. That's where we are on this. And there has to be a decision that is made.

The most wonderful thing about all this, though, is when LeBron's take a position on something they can't define. I mean, that's really the ultimate. I mean, that's where you've gotten into the

absurd, because people say, well, you know, what's your critical thinking opinion on this particular

issue? And you can say, well, we don't even have to, you know, say the critical thinking. It's what's the truth on the issue, because the other side is making an argument on an issue, they can't even define what the issue is. If you can't define what a woman is, what are you protecting? Right. What woman's just a word for? Right. Another word for it is woman like people or human. Right. I mean, is it is it encompassing of everyone or does it have a specific meaning?

you've had the most fun with over these years is you knew it was eventually going to blow up in their face

as it's doing right now. Yeah. They're mocking. Well, you're transformed. What do you mean they're mocking? You trans, you're transphobic. Yeah. If anybody goes after canter or white and and mocks them that they're transphobic, you don't know what they're thinking in their minds. Of course. You don't know what we need to find out what their intent is. You haven't said that before. You've just become a hypocrite because intent of why you were doing something didn't matter before.

Now it does. And because Mr. White is there involved in it, you're racist. Well,

“you're Mr. White's his last name, not in color of his skin. And here's the thing,”

why did they create the WNBA? Why did they create it in the first place? Say it out loud.

So that women could play professional basketball women. But I don't know what I don't know what a woman is, so I don't understand your passion at point there. Well, I'd say like this. Ed Sheeran, the singer. He could probably call me. I actually like Ed Sheeran, I'm just joking. And he seems like I saw an interview of him and he seems like a really, really under earth guy. And he actually is very funny too. Yeah. But no, I mean, you have to go back to

why the league was created.

“Well, because they can't play in the NBA, you create a league of their own.”

You know, they should make a movie, a league of their own. This time about basketball,

but it's going to be a very different way for what's their own. Yeah. Well, no, here's the thing. What are they claiming? What are they claiming their own is? I'll tell you this, there's no crying in baseball, but there's a lot of crying in the WNBA. Yeah, right. I radio brought to you by FPPF fuel power max idling a diesel uses about a gallon of fuel per hour, which can cost you about $180 per week at 450 per gallon. If your truck idles eight hours a day,

idling easily can cost you a few thousand more in fuel alone for a year, not including the

“added engine maintenance expense that results from excessive idling. In addition to operating cost,”

many governments impose no idling laws and regulations with fines as high as $25,000. Instead, there are many alternatives. An extra blanket for cold temperatures. Window screens for when the weather is warm. Bunk heaters and various auxiliary power unit options about in this day and age two, many power just by batteries. On our operator business one of one is provided by Overdrive's Partners and Business Program. Go to OverdriveOnline.com

to the partners of business section of the website for more details on this and many other topics. Brought to you by Shell Rotella with advanced synthetic technology is designed to help keep your rig running with more mileage and less maintenance. Get in touch with what I radio told free at E-6X and my D-Rit-I. Bearing a video, he's a crummy and I'm Gary McNamara. Hi, but it's a center of Tom Cotton Road to

yesterday about the WNBA. In his canter plane and the WNBA would be a comical, would be comical except it's a reminder. This is true. We've put in so many times before. It is still the official position of the Democratic Party. Almost zero elected Democrats disagree that gender is a social construct and kids should be given gender surgeries. It's the official position of the Democrats. You know, I mean, that's it. Look, this insanity is going to go to a point. I don't know where

it ends. I don't think it's going to end in our lifetime. But how does the far left even defend what they're doing anymore? They can't, it's insane. Catch Red-I Radio Live every night on the Red-I Radio

I just, I bookmarked. Just go through X and I bookmark everything and almost said I looked and I

“went, wow. Look how many bookmarks I had of one person and it was the writer,”

conservative writer, Jim Garry. On X, and he had a number of posts yesterday and I guess one was relating to one of the articles that he had. I read the article later on. But I just want to read the X post because really interesting stuff, one showing you where the Democratic Party is going and one where the Republican Party is going and the one here on Democrats, I want to read because of AOC with her whole the woke one comment. You know, that was just crazy. What was going on,

trying to separate themselves from it. They're not going to be successful in doing it because it was pointed out yesterday. Well, woke one that was that was crazy. But woke one has gone through the osmosis wall right into woke two. They haven't dropped woke one. Right. They've simply added anti-Semitism to fund the military, get rid of the Senate, and get rid of the Supreme Court, get rid of the presidency, you know, changed the changing entire country. So they really haven't

“changed, but they're attempting, this is her attempt to do it. And that's why people were saying”

on social media yesterday. This is her attempt to run her first attempt to run for president

of the United States. She tried to separate what she was from what she actually is, which is the same thing. She did the same thing when asked about where you remember the DSA. We had New York City. Well, then not the national. No, no, just New York City. As if there's a difference. Right. In fact, you might be able to make the case. Not sure if you could, but I bet you you probably could that the New York version of the Democrat Socialist of America is more communist and

socialist. Right. So, but he wrote this about Democrats, a Gallup poll from 2025 found that

“68% of Democrats believed Dr. Assistant Suicide was morally acceptable. 27% said the same about”

polygamy, 11% of Democrats said marital affairs were morally acceptable, 9% of independence,

and 4% of Republicans said the same. A December you gov survey found that among those who self-identify as very liberal, 47%. 47% of self-identified very liberal Democrats, 47% felt either very favorable or somewhat favorable towards Luigi Mangione who was on trial for murdering the United Healthcare CEO Ryan Thompson. Wow. And all of this is separate from the increasing socialist takeover of the Democratic Party. Now, comparing the Republican party, he did it later

post. He wrote an article in National Review on this. This is from Ex though on Democrats and Republicans. And this is pretty interesting. Many of the things here we've covered. Some are correct, a few are, I don't believe our correct. But he said the argument that there's no difference between the Republican Party and the Democratic Party is often wildly overstated. But what is painfully clear is that over the past decade or two, both the Republican Party and the Democratic

Party have grown more statused in their economics, generally more dubious, non-interventionalist, or isolationist in their foreign policy, the Iran War being the glaring exception, and more libertine in their social policies. It's not that we don't have a choice. It's that the window shifted dramatically to the left over the past 20 years. And yet we're more frustrated with our politics government and conditions than ever. I don't think that's coincidental. No. No.

And then he writes here, this is a socially conservative administration and Congress that allowed Planned Parenthood to receive federal funding again. The Trump administration approved a new generic version of an abortion pill. President Trump told Republicans that they had to be flexible on the high amendment, which restricts taxpayer funding for abortions.

not different from the Biden years, and significantly higher than the Obama years.

And then finally, the other point that he make, in short, we have two parties who are

pretty darn status in their economies. Neither one wants to do a darn thing about entitlements. Yeah. No one cares about the deficit and debt. Both parties intermittently talk about China, but then get a lot softer the moment they're meeting face to face with Xi. Both act as if some of the biggest problems facing the country are not enough abortions, not enough weed,

“and not enough opportunities for gambling. Wow. Wow. And what was the other one here?”

It is. And the final one. This is something you and I talked about. The Republican

President keeps taking a government stake in private companies now up to 30 firms.

As the Kato Institute observes, the United States government taking an ownership stake in private companies is now routine. And a Republican-controlled house and Senate are ready to make an official federal policy under law, not just some rogue administrations actions. Zorin Memdani wants to want to seize the means of production. Today's Republicans want to establish a federal ownership stake in the means of production. A future president, AOC, or some other progressive

“Democrat will appreciate Trump-era Republicans establishing the president and the legitimacy”

of the federal government strong-arming many kinds of companies into giving them ownership shares. Exactly what you and I have been saying since that was brought up by Republicans and since Trump did that. Conversation with one of my best friends who posted something on Trump talking about communism and socialism. I wrote back to him. I said, "Look at what Trump's doing." Trump's making an easy for Democrats now to move to socialism and communism. He's talking all

over about us, they're talking about him and JD Vance. He's talking about huge stakes in large corporations and AI corporations that there should be a sovereign, a damn sovereign, well-fanned of government money to invest. Are we out of our freaking minds? And that's coming from Republicans. We're out of our freaking minds. I just want to sound like Steven A. Smith for a minute. Freaking minds. It's, I mean, we were seriously, you know, let's criticize the Democrats

and so the response from my buddy, oh, the global for Democrats. Go, you know that's not my point. My point is not to ignore it. My point is to speak up against it. My point is not to sit there and just take one side and be tribal and say, no, all my allegiance to this particular person. I don't care what they do. Let me bow down about you because I'm a subhuman who cannot make any

critical thinking decisions on my own. It must be the person who I worship, who makes my decisions

“for me. Yeah. Instead of this person as a civil servant, here are my ideas. Here's what I believe.”

This is wrong. I don't like Democrats doing it. I don't like Republicans doing it. Why is that so damn hard for so many Republicans in Congress and so many Republicans overall to do? No, you know, you make a good point because it's, well, what's that, you know, what's the, what is the tribe one you're in this tribal atmosphere? What if it's becoming, look, I'm I'm supporting him because he does this. No, no, no, is it a good idea? Does it make sense?

More importantly, because that's actually a very mundane and boring question. Is it a good idea? No, no, let's start with what are the risks? Where does it go from here? When you talk about things like government ownership in the private sector, where does it go from there? Because if you're, I don't know, whoever in the GOP and you go, no, this would be a good thing. You just kicked the door. Why do I open for a Lisbonth Warren?

And then he finishes. He goes, let's observe. This is a president who is malleable. Not just a party, but a president who is malleable and almost every issue, including his signature issue on immigration,

“telling Laura Ingraham, you and I remember this, that the U.S. had to maintain the status quo”

on H1B visas because you also do have to bring in talent. Now, he was back and forth, remember remember how he changed his mind three times in 36 hours when he ran in 2016 on the H1B visa. But he actually said that on a debate stage because it was Megan Kelly was the moderator who asked him the question and he goes, he goes, no, no, no, I'm changing. I'm changing. He used those words

during the debate. Now, he, from what I know, though, he's always been in favor of legal immigration

because of the expansion of the economy. You deemed that the flip flop flip, because it's from one thing to the other, but then back. Right. But that's on the H1B visas. Right. Immigration overall. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He has been pro-immigration because he believes the economy will expand better, faster than the birth rate. Right. We remember the Jim Acosta back and forth. So to be fair, he did hold that opinion.

When Ingram inserted that the U.S. had plenty of talented people Trump replied, no, you don't. No, you don't. I wonder what J.D. Bans would think about that. In the same interview, Trump said that the U.S. did not continue maintaining its current level of 50,000 Chinese college students. You would have half the colleges in the United States go out of business. And we

“went at that point. We went, you need to shut up. Yeah. You can't sell that to your own, but”

the party said nothing. He didn't get any blowback from Republicans on that. Maybe a few. Yeah. Right. To save the Republican Party, Trump turned it into a party that supports state intervention in the economy, more dovish or isolationist in foreign affairs is wishy-washy on abortion and other social issues and is negotiable on immigration when large employers complain. Yeah. Most of that is true. Some of it has nuance to it.

Yeah. Right. Like on the, on the immigration, for example, because I think he's always said that

belief. But as we said, remember from 2001 to 2009, he was registered Democrat. Yeah. So. Yeah. But yeah. By the way, I wasn't really angry. I just wanted to do my Stephen A. Smith thing. All right. I like doing that at the drive-thru. Stephen A Smith. Number two. Day, poke.

“So that's why we complain. That's why when people, they would sit there when the whole”

rhino thing came along. You're a rhino. Well, actually, I, I, I may, you know, I vote in, I voted for all Republicans the last, I don't know, as long as I can remember decades about decades. And I vote in the Republican primary only, I have to make a choice. Yeah. But I'm in, I'm, been in independence since 2006. Right. But if I was a Republican and you called me a rhino,

I would say absolutely 1,000 percent I am because I'm way more conservative than where the

Republican party is going. Based on where the scale is for the Republican party today. Yeah. Absolutely truth. Yeah. And that stopped at real quick. Yeah. Is it like, well, yeah. I'll wear that as a badge. But you're making the case that I'm a liberal and it's the opposite. Right. Exactly. The liberals, as, and I remember you saying a long time ago, the biggest fear you had about a second term of Trump is that his liberal side would come out. Right. Right.

And we've, we've seen that happen. You know, look, George W. Bush, you know, when the whole 2008 ended 2008 thing, world was coming to an end thing happened. Well, sometimes we have to abandon our economic principles, economic principles. Yeah. No, that's when you would hear to them. That's because it may have been a deeper recession, but it would have been a greater recovery and faster recovery. Yeah. If you hadn't done what you did, we are right. I radio.

We'll be right back with more red eye radio with every currently and Gary McNamara. We are running over to you. He is our call, and I'm Gary McNamara.

When I mentioned a couple of before, supervisor calls for four hour meeting to discuss why work is

“not getting done. That is so funny because it's true. You know, the best thing about this job now.”

What? You know, really since we've been on red eye, no meetings.

Are we show meeting? Right. Me and you. We rarely have a really rarely ever have a meeting.

“And what we do, it's actually a meeting of substance. Yes. And we have great management, by the way,”

who respects the fact that, you know, we sleep during the day and the whole thing. Yeah.

And they've been very responsive, but they don't require like tons of meetings. Yeah. Wonderful. This is Red Eye, Radio. On Westwood One. For a drink to all follow and listen on your favorite platform. The Dan Bontino show. Folks,

“it's not my job this city here and like try to stir you up for clicks. I think I've been very”

level headed. I've had to tell people a lot of things they didn't want to hear. So let me tie together into a bullet point storyline. This information warfare against your mind is very real. Be careful where you're getting your information. Do not gap this off. Telling you like this is why I've been so passionate. This stuff is real. Now does it make sense? The Dan Bontino show. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.