>> i think it's certainly a gross misinterpretation of who dad was. dad was elegant, dad was not arrogant, but certainly always elegant. i think that people are failing miserably if they are trying to portray him in the way that those images are. that's just not him. and, again, finally, we're better than that. i mean, we shouldn't go into the gutter. and so, you know, frankly, i just don't even acknowledge it exists. >> all right, martin luther king iii, i thank you so much for being with me, and an early happy king day to you. thanks so much. >> thank you so much, victor. and thank you at home for joining me today. i will see you back here next saturday at 8:00 a.m. eastern. smerconish is up next.

is it over before it begins? i'm michael smerconish in philadelphia. before a single primary vote has been cast, has donald trump already sown up the 2024 gop nomination, or is it still up for grabs? everybody has an opinion, but the data tells a pretty compelling story. peggy noonan in the "wall street journal" writing this week, i refuse to see the story is over. the voting begins now. after chris christie dropped out, "the new york times" wrote, the christie vote alone will probably not be enough, but haley has been steadily gaining in the polls and historically there's a lot of precedent for surging candidates to keep gaining, especially over a contest's final days. and new hampshire, which is second up, will be a wild card. independents can vote in the gop primary, and according to data released yesterday from gallup, 43% of americans consider themselves to be independent.

the rs and ds are tied at 27. it ties a record for an independent showing, making them the largest political bloc in the country. but then there's times columnist stevens who sums it up as follows, barring a political miracle or act of god, it's overwhelmingly likely that donald trump will likely be the party's nominee for president. and speaking of acts of god, you can throw into the mix unknowns like the dire iowa weather forecast for monday's caucuses. this year is shaping up to be the coldest ever, with temperatures as low as 15 degrees below zero, worse with the wind chill. this is likely to affect turnout, where in some rural areas, as few as ten people can make a big difference. but what does the historical data tell us? my next guest says that it points to trump's nomination being pretty much a done deal. as of december 15th, trump led the aggregate national polls

with 61%. desantis and haley essentially tied for second at 12% and 11%, writing for the website g. elliot morris, my next guest, compared this with the polls in every presidential election dating back to 1980. morris assembled a massive master list of where non-incumbent candidate stood in mid-december before the election year and how they ultimately fared. at that point, every non-incumbent with 40% in polls has gone on to win the party's nomination. trump is at 61%. if you look at trump's advantage at this stage compared to the other non-incumbents seeking the nomination, his polling is within his party higher than any of them. g.w. bush, hillary clinton,

analysis, as of mid-december, this gave trump a more than nine in ten chance of being the nominee. what are the historical chances for somebody in desantis or haley's current position to catch him? since 1980, there have been three non-incumbent candidates that were polling below 15% in december and did go on to win their party's nomination. michael dukakis, john mccain, and bill clinton. but those races were wide open. in those december polls, no other candidate was above 25%, where trump's current support is more than double that, which means there are fewer undecided voters to sway, and even if a challenger does surprisingly well in iowa, there's a historical limit to how big of a bump they receive. i want to know what you think. go to my website at smerconish.com and answer today's poll question, is the republican mnomination already over? joining me is g. elliot morris,

analytics at abc news, senior journalist for the economist, and the author of "strength in numbers: how polls work and why we need them" and we'll get to the data in a moment. the intangible, the weather is going to be cold. to me that says whoever has the most passionate base is going to come out and provide victory for their candidate. your thought? >> yeah, look, it's going to be minus 20, minus 30 wind chill in iowa. i do expect that that will have some impact on the race. we can expect, in other words, some level of polling error, i would suspect, just because you've brought up the historical data, michael, i'll just cite there's usually a five percentage point difference between now a candidate is polling and the actual share of the vote that they get. so there's some precedent for surprise. you add on top of that this nasty weather. i expect, as you say, that the

candidate with the more enthusiastic voters will beat their polls by even more. look, donald trump is up by our latest math 51 percentage points to nikki haley's 17. so it's not that she can really bridge that gap unless something truly catastrophic happens with the polling or that this weather has a much more measurable impact than we think it will. look, 10, 20 points off, totally within the realm of impossibility. >> if the polling data is accurate, i mean, i said the other night in watching the cnn debate between desantis and haley they had trained their guns exclusively on each other. if one totally decimated the other, it still doesn't give them enough unless trump's numbers take a tumble. here is my question for you. how many non-incumbents running for president have been in trump's position at this stage?

>> zero. donald trump is unique in his position in the republican primary right now historically. he's at 61%, again, in the national polls, according to the 538 average today. no non-incumbent presidential candidate has ever done that well in the polls, and gone on to lose the election. the closest candidate at this point is hillary clinton in 2008, about 39, high 30s in the polls. she, of course, goes on to lose a very closely contested race to barack obama that year. so the question, i guess, you can ask yourself and your listeners, is nikki haley barack obama? >> well, if i'm nikki haley or ron desantis, i want to talk about bill clinton or i want to talk about john mccain. there have been individuals who have defied the odds, but as

your data points out, in the december going into the election year, it was a wide-open race, and this hasn't been a wide-open race. >> yeah, that's right. bill clinton in 1991, when he goes on to become the comeback kid after new hampshire, he doesn't have a donald trump looming over him at 50%, 60% in the national polls. he has a clear path to a surge, because the candidate field is split. right now you have donald trump ahead of the two major candidates that are challenging him, and you have -- this time you have vivek ramaswamy, i guess, is somewhat of a factor taking votes away, taking delegates away, more importantly, from nikki haley or ron desantis, in the early states. asa hutchinson is also running for president. i don't expect him to get very many votes or delegates. >> elliot, something else that i took away from your data, the december numbers, the december numbers historically have been

predictive of what happens in iowa. that's observation one that i hope you'll speak to. and observation two is that even when there's an upset in iowa, the bounce is not what people might expect it to be headed into new hampshire. your thoughts? >> that's right. we looked at the historical data for an article next week coming out after the iowa caucuses because we wanted to know how much momentum does a candidate gain if they beat the polls or win iowa unexpectedly. we find that the candidate who does about one percentage point better -- i'll put it this way, every one percentage point a candidate beats their polls by, they gain about a percentage point in the national polls. so if you do this math backwards, we think nikki haley needs to gain about 35 percentage points in the national polls to be tied with donald trump. that would suggest she needs to beat her target, her polls in iowa by about 35 percentage

points as well. needless to say, that is a very tall task for her. i don't see the path forward for her with that level of a potential bounce needed to be ahead of donald trump. that's a very unlikely scenario. but that's the benchmark she needs. she needs a truly phenomenal performance in iowa. >> thank you so much for bringing the data. i really appreciate it. >> thanks, michael. it should go without saying, it's interesting to crunch the numbers. the numbers are telling a very consistent and compelling story, but the only numbers that matter are the numbers monday night. so if you're in iowa, go vote, vote in new hampshire, vote everywhere when it's your turn. remember, i want to know what you think. go to my website at smerconish.com where today's poll question, is the republican nomination already over? hit me up on social media throughout the course of the program. i'll share some responses in real time.

what do we have from the world of x? no, it starts monday with inclement weather, the republicans will turn out in large numbers to demonstrate they are not snowflakes. watches vivek's results. i do not have a dog in the fight. the weather tells me it's all about passion, right? it's all about passion, because in the end it's going to come with some degree of personal cost to actually leave the house, show up, hang out for a while and caucus with your neighbors. trump's base is passionate. give them props for the passion they've exhibited on his behalf. what does it say, also, about a ground organization? i don't know that haley has the ground organization she needs. these questions will all be answered on monday night. you can watch cnn and see it unfold. ahead, this week, the war on the border heated up between texas and the department of justice, following an order from governor greg abbott the texas

military blocked federal border patrol agents from accessing two and a half miles of the southern border. the students of a new york city high school forced to study remotely so that their high school building could be used to house migrants. the only thing certain about the border is that it's going to be a big 2024 election issue. be sure to sign up for my smerconish.com free daily newsletter. you'll find exclusive content from political cartoonists like two-time pulitzer prize winner. does that not sum up chris christie's week?

this week the conflict at the southern border became a war between texas and the doj. in december there were more than 300,000 migrant encounters on the u.s. southern border, or roughly the population of pittsburgh, pennsylvania. this week the texas military department enlisted the national guard to block the u.s. border patrol from accessing two and a half miles of the u.s./mexico border on the rio grande. the state had seized control and put up fencing and razor wire

under an emergency declaration. by way of explanation, abbott, who has shipped migrants to democratic-run cities, posted we are making clear that texas will be a tough place to cross. in response, the doj petitioned the u.s. supreme court, writing texas' actions demonstrate an escalation of the state's measures to block the border patrol's ability to patrol or surveil the border and be in a position to respond to emergencies, and asked the court to restore border patrol's access to the border it is charged with patrolling and the migrants it is responsible for apprehending, inspecting and processing. meanwhile, in new york city, the overwhelming number of asylum seekers needing to be housed led to one brooklyn high school having to switch its students to remote learning so that their high school building could house nearly 2,000 migrants due to bad weather. on trump's fox news town hall wednesday, he said this about the border -- >> we're going to have the

largest deportation effort in the history of our country, we're bringing everybody back to where they came from. we have no choice. >> meanwhile, california just became the first state to offer health insurance to all undocumented immigrants under a new expansion of medical, spearheaded by governor gavin newsom. all qualify, including an estimated 700,000 adults age 26 to 49, living in the state illegally. now back to texas, there was this written in a recent column in the "houston chronicle", the border plan includes surrender and stunts instead of solutions. he added, abbott is right about one thing, the entire nation must help with the migrants allowed to remain in the united states pending the resolution of their asylum claims. eagle pass has a population of 39,000, del rio with 43,000

residents cannot accommodate the families. he adds the governor diminishes his good deed by turning desperate migrants would political pawns. before joining the chronicle, he spent 20 years with the associated press, reporting from africa, the middle east and europe. thank you for being here. customs and border patrol intercepted, i think that's the way i should say it, intercepted 2.4 million people along the southwest border in fiscal year 2023. i then say, well, okay, if they stopped 2.4 million, how many got through? >> well, the border patrol says about 600,000, but there's a very good possibility it was many more than that. >> and that doesn't include asylum seekers, true? >> that's true. i mean, in the del rio region where we have most of the crossings in texas, 83% of the migrants are crossing at established border points and

asking for asylum. they're not trying to sneak into the country. they're trying to use our asylum system to stay here. >> so you've witnessed, you've personally witnessed mass migration all around the globe. what's the common denominator you've seen, and how does that apply to what's going on on the texas/mexico border? >> when i was a foreign correspondent, i specialized in covering conflicts and humanitarian disasters, so i frequently went to borders of countries that were undergoing civil war or some sort of insurgency, and i witnessed hundreds of thousands of people fleeing for their lives. you can literally hear the gunfire and the artillery in the background as they're coming across the border seeking safety. and that's what the asylum laws were set up for, if is you were suffering persecution, if you were fleeing for your life, the international law and, frankly, every religion has a policy of

asylum. but that's very different than what we're seeing today from the rio grande, the mediterranean, we are seeing people fleeing for economic reasons, because of climate change, because of fear of crime and wanting a better life for their families. and that's, frankly, not what asylum law was set up to cover. >> are they nevertheless claiming asylum, and are they being aided in doing so by those who are providing them passage? >> oh, i mean, they don't even have to wait for the people providing them passage. you can go to the internet right now and look up the questions that border patrol is going to ask you when you show up at the border. the internet provides answers, the kinds of answers that will force that border patrol agent to grant you temporary parole until your asylum case can be heard by a court. certainly the people who were transporting the migrants, they're also assisting in this

process. but it's a very different thing from fleeing for your life. so there's a good number of migrants who are probably arriving here well rehearsed, without probably a legitimate asylum claim. >> as part of your introduction, i summarized the doj and state of texas standoff. what is that all about? you're much closer to it and paying close attention. >> well, you know, governor greg abbott has long been a states rights advocate. when he was attorney general, he used to come -- he used to say i come to work every day just to sue the federal government over their laws and their overreach. it's another one of his stunts to seize 2.5 miles of border, clearly border patrol has the authority and the legal requirement to patrol that section. so he's creating a

confrontation, he's doing it on a weekend, he's doing it ahead of the iowa caucus to draw attention to himself and the gop. you know, if i were an officer in the texas national guard right now, i would have some serious questions about the legality of that order. >> chris, i deal with social media during the course of the program. let's see what's come in and i'll call for you, maybe, for some assistance in responding. from the world of twitter, now x, biden created this disaster in his first day when he took away trump's border policies. this will cost him the election: i'm so glad k.w. framed that question, because i wanted to ask you. is it perception or reality that there was a difference between biden and trump, trump and biden? i know there was title 42, i know it went away because it was tied to the pandemic. but is it a perception or reality issue when you look at the policies of these two

presidents? >> well, you know, the border policy has been subject to an immense amount of litigation, and so we've had judges giving -- federal judges giving orders in different directions. you know, we have to remember that barack obama deported more migrants than donald trump in his first four years in office. so the trump policy was not that great. up until title 42, the pandemic-era policy was rescinded by court order, biden deported 500,000 migrants. so it's not as clean-cut as k.w. would have us believe. but i do think he's right, if this crisis is allowed to perpetuate, it will hurt president biden's re-election opportunities, and i think that's what the gop wants. >> chris tomlin son, thank you o much for being here. appreciate your expertise.

>> thank you, michael. ahead, this week in retaliation for weeks of attacks on commercial ships in the red sea by iran-backed rebels, the u.s. and allies launched two days of assault. will this make the region safer or lead to mr escalation? and how about this, monitoring on public police communications used to be somewhat of an obscure hobby. with the advent of the internet, technology has made it easier to listen not only locally but nationally. so where is the line between the right to listen in and invasion of privacy? plus, don't forget, please vote on today's poll question at smerconish.com. is the republican nomination already over?

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information and an invasion of privacy when it comes to police scanners? for decades, police departments have communicated through public radio to dispatch their officers, attracting a relatively small number of listeners. technology has made it much easier. in 2012 with the launch of broadcastify, the largest platform for streaming audio, the company offers more than 7,600 live audio feeds in different cities across the country for police, fire, ems, aircraft, marine and amateur radio communications. they make their feeds easy to access through the website and smartphone apps, reaching 50,000 to 60,000 listeners on a typical weekday evening. ultimately the platform offers the public transparency to what's going on in their own back yards, but is there a cost? major cities including denver, san francisco, san diego, baltimore, and sioux falls, are encrypting their emergency public radio channels due to

concerns of oversharing details about private civilians with a much wider audience, publicizing names and addresses and phone numbers. encrypting radio channels from the public would mean that only authorized emergency professionals could access this information about an urgent matter in real time. we found several examples, for example, this, an elderly man in wisconsin who was in distress. >> 70-year-old male that fell in the kitchen, unable to get up. >> of course, one could argue that police scanners help the public identify individuals that might be a danger to themselves or to others. >> a violent, possibly mental elderly black male subject, walking with a stick or cane. he's going to be in front of the store wearing all black. >> but at what point does a radio channel that's meant to uphold public safety infringe on the private details of

someone's, say, mental health? >> feels like committing suicide, having suicidal thoughts and feeling violent. feels her husband is cheating on her. >> apart from the privacy considerations, might the widespread broadcasting cause hess hesitancy in someone who needs help. joining me is the founder and ceo of radio reference. thank you for being here. this used to be a niche hobby. on my street lived the fire chief, they were the only ones that i remember as having a scanner. but now lots of folks have access, including through your website. what changed? >> well, obviously the internet and streaming changed the hobby that we grew up with almost 50 years ago, listening in to our local public safety agencies to

bring it online, just like all streaming services. that's really what's changed in the hobby for those that listen to police scanners today. >> can we make it clear there's already some level of information that is not accessible, not shared, a s.w.a.t. team -- by the way, a great piece was written in the "new york times" about this. but explain what's off limits as things stand now. >> yes, most agencies encrypt highly sensitive information, such as s.w.a.t. team operations and surveillance operations. or they'll use alternate means of communication like cell phones or other methods to communicate these highly sensitive operations. but for the general routine dispatch operations, most public safety agencies leave that in the clear for the public to monitor because there is a benefit to the overall general public, understanding the day-to-day operations of their public safety agencies. >> and i'm one who believes that, you know, as they say,

sunshine is a great disinfectant. i like the public being able to provide some oversight role relative to public servants. but will you speak to some of the privacy concerns and considerations that i laid out in introducing this segment? >> yeah, sure. it's definitely a concern. most agencies, though, do not broadcast names and addresses and specific personal information over unencrypted airwaves. they'll typically take that to channels that broadcastify does not allow, so it would be difficult for the general public to be able to hear that information. so the privacy concerns are there, certainly. >> yeah. what level of concern do you have about this trend toward encryption? do you think it's gone too far? i rattled off some of the larger areas already headed in this direction. >> you know, public safety agencies have had encryption technology available to them for well over 40 years.

there's been a trend to do that. broadcastify has also seen a trend of some of the largest cities in the countries who have gone to encryption actually make their live audio available to the general public through broadcastify, cities like chicago and baltimore, who just recently encrypted their day-to-day communications. they provide a delayed live audio feed because they see the benefit of the community hearing the day-to-day operations of their agencies. >> when i read the story about this subject and started to think about it, i guess the greatest concern that i had is that it might cause hesitancy on the part of somebody who needs help, because maybe it's an embarrassing predicament or maybe they worry it will be perceived as embarrassing, maybe it's mental health, domestic. but you don't want somebody not to dial 911 who is in distress. your thoughts? >> you know, it's no different than the media publicizing an

event or, you know, covering a story about somebody. we're providing a service to the general public to keep them aware, keep them up to date on what's going on in their local communities. you know, at times during major events, hundreds of thousands of people will tune in and want to know what's going on. so there's a public good to the general public knowing what their local public safety agencies are doing on a day-to-day basis, and those agencies, they know that the general public is listening and they're cognizant of that. >> thank you so much for being here. appreciate it. >> thank you, michael. still to come, this week in retaliation for repeated attacks on commercial ships in the red sea, president biden ordered a coalition bombardment of the houthis, an iran-backed sect in yemen. are we one step closer to all-out war in the middle east? please don't forget to vote on today's poll question at

smerconish.com, is the republican nomination already over? while you're there voting, sign up for the free daily newsletter. award winning cartoonist, there's his take on lloyd austin this week, secretary austin.

will the war in the middle east escalate following military strikes by air strikes on houthi controlled areas of yemen? thursday and on friday coalition forces struck targets across more than two dozen locations of the houthi sect backed by iran, killing five and wounding six. president biden said he ordered the strikes in direct response to unprecedented houthi attacks against international maritime

vessels in the red sea. yemen sits at the opening to the red sea, a crucial shipping corridor, and yemen is where the houthis have been fighting a civil war against a coalition backed by saudi arabia. for weeks, the houthis have been launching drones and missiles at commercial vessels in the red sea claiming that it's in solidarity with the palestinian people. the aim is inflicting economic pain on israel's allies to increase pressure on israel to cease its military offensive in gaza, post october 7th. the coalition strikes were condemned by several leaders across the middle east, the president has now called the houthis a terrorist group, but said yesterday that it's irrelevant whether they'll be formally designated as such. biden had de-listed the houthis as a terrorist group in february of 2021. he says that he will not hesitate to direct further measures as necessary, quote, to protect our people and the free flow of international commerce. joining me now is retired air force lieutenant general, the air force's first chief of

intelligence, surveillance and reconnoissance, currently the dean of the mitchell aerospace studies. general, i've got the butch cassidy and sundance kid question. who are these guys? >> well, michael, the houthis are an iran-backed political anger organization and they've been fighting a war since 2014 against a coalition backed by saudi arabia. they control most of northern yemen and the capital, sanaa. in 2021, president biden announced the end of support in yemen and revoked the terrorist designation. in 2023, significant event, saudi and iran restored relations, and that raised the hope for perhaps a permanent settlement of the yemeni civil war. but quite frankly, the houthis

see themselves as part of the axis of resistance against israel and the u.s., along with hamas and hezbollah. so in a nutshell, that's who they are. >> would they act without the approval of iran? can we look at them and say whatever it is they're doing is with the permission of the iranian government? >> that's an interesting question, and really no one knows the exact answer, except the iranians and the leaders of the houthis. however, all of the significant weaponry that the houthis are provided comes from iran. so you can be sure that there is collaboration between the two. as a matter of fact, tactical level intelligence to the houthis on the location of shipping in the red sea comes from an iranian ship that's

located in the region. so there is collaboration, but the iranians are also interested in not getting directly involved in the conflict, so it's an interesting question, and clearly there's collaboration. we just don't know to what degree. >> i think what we all want to know is whether this is the start of something much larger, or a one-off. >> michael, again, interesting question, however what i would tell you is that the current coalition is committed to containing the houthi aggression. as a matter of fact, your audience might not be aware, but there actually as a u.n. security council resolution passed this past wednesday that demanded that the houthis immediately cease their attacks and implicitly condemned their weapon supplier, iran. it was approved by a vote of

11-0, with four abstentions, russia, china, algeria and mozambique. i believe the community of free nations are committed to ceasing these attacks against international shipping in the red sea region, and it can be limited to that particular area. >> final question, general deptula, a radio caller of mine yesterday on serious xm examined, what is the u.s. national security interest. what should i have said to that person? >> well, the first u.s. national security interest is defense against direct attacks against u.s. personnel and forces in the region. and, second, it is to support our commitment to freedom of navigation and freedom of the commons in order to allow

commerce to prosper, not just around the world, but particularly the united states. because the implications of the restrictions in shipping is having a significant impact already and, in fact, could undermine the trend in inflation going down, to reversing it to going up. so those are secondary issues, the economic ones. the most important ones are to protect american citizens and forces in the region. >> let me read a social media reaction allowed. i may need to lean on you for support. j.d. says it's about time targeted strikes focused on eliminating the houthis' ability to attack shipping lanes is a no-brainer. is it a no-brainer? >> i certainly believe so. i would also suggest to you that with respect to the houthis, we may find out that deterrence

will not be possible by coercion alone, but this coalition that has been formed may need to completely destroy the houthis' means of power and projection. that's within our capacity to be able to do so. the houthis are a rebel group inside yemen. if we cannot eliminate their ability to project power, we've got some serious thinking to do in terms of increasing our capabilities. but the other point that i would add, and appreciate the opportunity, this should be a wake-up call that the united states defense strategy needs to be based on having the capability and capacity to fight more than one regional contingency at a time. today we've got less than half the combat air forces that we had over 30 years ago when fighting the first gulf war, and the threats facing the united states and our allies are much

greater today. with we need to prepare accordingly. >> it's a lot to process, the houthis, hezbollah, hamas. thank you, general. >> have a great day. >> still to come, your best and worst social media comments and don't forget to vote on today's poll question at smerconish.com. is the republican nomination already over? if you subscribe to the newsletter when you're there, you'll get exclusive editorial cartoons from the legends. how about this from rob rogers this week?

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all right. there's the results so far of today's poll question. wow. 26,000 and change is the republican nomination already over, 52-48. 52% agreeing with my guest in saying, yeah, the voting hasn't begun, but it's pretty much a done deal. here's some of the social media reaction that has come in during the course of the program. what do we have? the 43% self-labeling as independent means the electorate is even more sick of politics as usual as it was in 2016 when trump was nominated and later elected. as a clear rejections of dominant political parties, their practices, and leadership. th thomas, you know who's -- who's elated to see 434 tieing with a -- 43 tieing with a previous tie, people with labels are thrilled. joe lieberman, there it is 43% -- i'm one of them -- 43% self-identify as independent as compared to 27% who say no, i'm an r or i'm a d.

if you take no labels at face value and joe lieberman was a radio guest of mine this week, you know, they're saying they're going to make a decision in march. what do they want to know? if the american people are looking for something else. by the metrics, the american people are looking for something else. what else came in during the course of the program today? we have this -- michael, you were auditioning to be trump's vp. you talk him up so much. didn't talk up trump at all. i analyzed the data. everybody has an opinion as to what's about to unfold monday in iowa and the 23rd in new hampshire. the reality is none of us know. so let's just review. i began the program today by giving you disparate opinions as to whether it's over. and then there was an analysis, a data-driven analysis, that i thought was worthwhile so we brought the guest on to crunch the numbers. you might not like the result of what the numbers say, but the numbers suggest that it would be unprecedented.

it would be historic if trump were to lose the nomination given his standing as of december in the polling that showed him at 61% nationally as a choice of republicans. we've never in all of those who have run for office for the presidency, 1980 forward, '80 through the present, republicans -- democrats, independents, no one's been at that level. no one has ever been at that level. if he were to lose it, that would truly be historic. does that mean i'm cheering for that outcome? it does not. it just means i'm giving you the information. do with it as you see fit. see you.

i think he's having a midlife crisis i'm not. you got us t-mobile home internet lite. after a week of streaming they knocked us down... ...to dial up speeds. like from the 90s. great times. all i can do say is that my life is pre-- i like watching the puddles gather rain. -hey, your mom and i procreated to that song. oh, ew! i think you've said enough. why don't we just switch to xfinity like everyone else? then you would know what year it was. i know what year it is.