Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Hey, it's Bubba, hey, Bubba, Bubba,
Got it going on. Got to come and check.
Hello again everybody and welcome to Bubba on the Lake. It is a new year, a new start, and we are so glad to be with you again here in 2026. A lot to cover. We have a great show. Hunter is going to be checking in with us and updating us on stranger things. Some of y'all are big fans of that, and they had their big finale.
Betty is going to talk to us a little bit about our Christmas and Wendy Garner. Many of you remember seeing her on NBC 13 for many, many years.
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Chapter 2: What recent events are happening in Venezuela?
She is going to be checking in with us and telling us what she's doing and a whole lot more, so you don't want to miss a bit of it. We want to remind you our website is BubbaOnTheLake.com. You can drop me an email, Bubba at BubbaOnTheLake.com. Or you can leave a message on the 308 Big Lake comment line. Always love those. And, of course, we are back in the Mellow Yellow studio for another year.
And we're excited to be here. I want to thank all of you for what you have done for us and these podcasts last year. Amazing. When we started it, we really didn't know how it was going to go, what was going to happen. We didn't get to do everything we wanted to do because of my knee replacement and the surgeries we had to have after that, but I'm doing well.
We're probably going to start a little rehab. I'm getting around so well, I don't really feel like I need rehab, but... Uh, we probably will just to strengthen everything up. And I hope to get back out, play a little pickleball, a little tennis here before long. So everything is moving along very well with that.
Um, I will talk with Betty and Hunter a little bit about our Christmas, but just, uh, briefly before we start, it was a wonderful Christmas. We, uh, we really focused on what was going on this year. What is much about gifts? Uh, we, uh, We counted the time we had with loved ones. Very important. A lot of family get together, a lot of friends.
And it was, I think, one of the more productive Christmases we've ever had far as just socializing. And, you know, that's a great gift for me. It really is. Now, a little bit on the political front. We cannot move forward without at least talking about what went on in Venezuela last. And El Presidente Maduro is now a prisoner in New York and has pled not guilty in a New York courtroom.
He was indicted and charged as a drug runner, among other things, him and his wife. Many people have pointed out that he wasn't really the president of Venezuela, which is true. He lost the election but just didn't leave. And the opposition leaders and the people of Venezuela seem to be pretty happy he's gone. He basically was the CEO of a drug operation. And I knew something.
And just before we go any further. A bit of history, because I had relatives that actually worked in the oil business in Venezuela back before Hugo Chavez took over. That was the elected dictator, if you will, before Maduro. And he... you know, turn that country from one of the highest standard of livings in Central America to shambles. And, you know, this is the thing that always amazes me.
The socialist slash communist always come in with a good sales pitch. The U.S. went in, leased land, leased mineral rights, built massive – Oil operations in Venezuela. Venezuela has more oil than Saudi Arabia does. It is eat up with precious metals and oil. And the U.S. went in, funded this. It raised the standard of living.
People there were flourishing because they were making good money working in these oil fields. And then Hugo Chavez comes in. And this is what the communist socialists always do. They have a great sales pitch to the people who have fallen through the cracks or who are not moving up the ladder in the free market.
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Chapter 3: What are the highlights of the final season of Stranger Things?
President Obama promised us lower coverage, all this stuff. It was going to be great. Prices, all that. The thing is broke. If Congress doesn't keep pumping more money into it and the rates are going up. It was called the Affordable Care Act. It is anything but affordable. Anything but affordable. So, I don't know why we keep falling for this. The free market system is not perfect.
Never will be because humans are involved and we're in a fallen creation. But it is by far the best thing going. And it has created more wealth and raised more people's standard of living in the world than any time ever. And... I just I'm just perplexed sometimes. I just I don't know why we keep doing it. I guess it's the easy sell to the uninformed masses.
I've always called socialism that because you go in and you say, hey, those guys over there getting rich are taking your money. Vote for me and I'll stop it. It's just like this character in New York now. He's gone in and promised free bus fares. Just wait on that one. That'll be sweet. I will tell you the one example of where communism has survived. Let me put it that way. It's in China.
And you know why? China was in the same boat and they changed their economy over to more of a free market. Now, they still have a death grip on everybody. And if you get out of line, they'll squash you like a bug. But their economy, for the most part, is much, much more like the United States economy than it is Russia. or Venezuela or Iran or wherever you want to plug in dictator.
Dictators just don't work. Never does. Never does.
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Chapter 4: How did the family celebrate Christmas and New Year's?
And I know some of you like to call Trump a dictator. He's been elected twice. Sorry. And he'll leave when his term is up. He's not a dictator. He's a strong leader with strong opinions. I tell you the thing about the Venezuelan deal is,
The fact that our military could go in and grab this guy, literally take him and his wife out of their bed wearing their pajamas and not have a casualty is incredible. Do you realize the odds of that? I don't know the full details, but somebody in his inner circle sold him out. That's the only way they could pull this off. The CIA was on the ground.
They had trained extensively for the operation, even reconstructed the house where they went into. But Cuba was running his secret service. And somebody in that Secret Service turned. That's the only way we could have gotten to him in his pajamas and got him out of there without anybody being killed. Somebody turned. I don't know who it was. We'll get more details as time goes on.
But he was arraigned in New York today while we're doing this and pleaded not guilty. So he'll have his day in court like everybody else. But I don't think it's going to end up well for him. And I know many of you have sent me the video of him at the podium screaming, here I am, come get me, you coward. Well, I wouldn't say that to Donald Trump too many times.
You'll end up in a jail in New York, my friend. All right, once again, Trump does what he says he is going to do. I really thought he was pulling the military down there to do a little saber rattling. But I noticed it was the week before he was picked up. I heard him make a public statement that he was ready to share Venezuelan's oil revenues with Trump. He wanted to share.
He wanted to make a deal. And that was so shocking to me that he would change his verbiage so dramatically that I thought, one, he's either crazy, or two, they are scaring him and they're getting real close. I really didn't expect him to go in and get him out of bed. To be honest with you, that kind of blows me away that they could do that.
But hey, hats off to our military guys and the planners that did it. We've had some failed operations in the past, but they were spot on on this one, buddy. I mean, got him and his wife. They're both wanted on drug trafficking charges, and I'm afraid that they've got an overwhelming amount of evidence against them. So we'll see. What about Venezuela? What happens now? I would assume...
The lady who won the election, and her name slips my memory currently, will eventually become the president. Trump, of course, drove the left crazy by saying, we're running Venezuela right now. I knew he was going to do that just to stir them up. I think he enjoys that. I mean, the rest of us are going, my gosh, Trump, you know, go easy. But he loves stirring them up, and it is kind of funny.
I mean, he's kind of like the— Coach Cignetti of politics. You know, I mean, it's just it's just refreshing, isn't it? But anyway, that's that's the latest. We'll find out more about the raid and what happened with that. But, you know, the these drug boat and oh, gosh, I've heard people crying about the drug boats. Oh, we're killing people. And listen.
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Chapter 5: What is Wendy Garner's background in television?
So... If you're bringing drugs in the U.S., look out, because Trump's serious about it, and I'm glad. I've had too many friends lose kids and whatnot, and we've all known people who have succumbed to drug addiction, and a lot of that is just due to the ridiculous availability of it. So I appreciate President Trump doing that. All right, we'll be right back. We have a lot to cover.
Thank you again, and buckle in. Where's Bubba? I'll tell you where.
He's on the lake.
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Thank you.
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Chapter 6: What unique insights does Wendy share about her nonprofit work?
Like each episode was like an hour and a half, two hours, just because Netflix gave them a bigger budget to play with. And for good reason, it was possibly their best show they've ever put out since they've been a streaming service.
But the overall like, and I don't want to spoil it for anybody that hadn't watched it yet, but the overall plot is basically in the first season, there's a boy that goes missing and there's some government coverups in the 1980s. in the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana.
And it's based off of, if anyone knows what Montauk is, there was like a conspiracy about some lab in New York State that was doing these government tests on kids, and that was what inspired the Duffer Brothers to make this show. And the original name for it was Montauk, and they just ended up changing it to Stranger Things, which ended up working out. So...
So we had a kid go missing. We had strange things going on. We had a government secret lab cover-up. Is that kind of—am I on the general plot line?
Yes, yes. And then there's some other, you know, not really supernatural things that happen in it, but it's more of like, you know, sci-fi. Like, if you're a sci-fi 80s junkie, this is for you.
Because there was a portal— And there was a upside-down world that people got into that was like opposite of our current world, right? Correct. Correct. But they would see buildings and places and towns like we had, but it was... Totally different. It was like dark and weird and thunder and lightning all the time and all that, right?
Yeah, it was rotted out, you know, old buildings that mimicked what was, you know, basically in their hometown of Hawkins. So it was, it's one of those things where you learn, you know, in the series, like why that is, but... It's one of those things where you look at it and it's like, that's kind of cool. And the concept of it's kind of cool because what if that actually was a thing?
And thank goodness it's not if you've watched the show. But it's a cool concept. I liked it a lot.
Well, so did a lot of other people. It was huge, and it's been, like you said, one of the most successful series in current time. Where do they go from here? I know you don't want to tell the ending, but did they leave it open so that they could do more? I mean, anything that makes money, the business people hate to just put a cold ending to it.
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Chapter 7: How does Bubba reflect on personal growth and the new year?
Wendy, you started out in Tuscaloosa in TV, right?
They're saying, no, I really don't. It's been a long time.
Well, you started in Tuscaloosa, right? And then you move to NBC 13 in Birmingham.
I actually worked at WHOA TV, W-H-O-A, in Montgomery for six hot months. WHOA TV? W-H-O-A. Our newsroom was literally the attic. And when I was hired, the same week I was hired, the news director was resigning, and she asked me to be the news director.
Chapter 8: What are the plans for future podcast episodes and projects?
And I was like 24 years old, and I cried. And I said, no. I can't do that. I can't. I can't. It was great experience because I ended up, you know, producing also in addition to anchoring and reporting. But when I started at Channel 33, which, as you know, is part of 3340. Right. I started there in 94. And Bubba, we still had typewriters. And that's where you met your hubby at, right? No, no.
Was he doing sports there?
No.
I thought he did on air for a while, too.
You don't remember any of this. No, I don't.
No, I do remember you. Now, I remember you met at Auburn because we had a long discussion about how exactly you met at Auburn. But for some reason, I thought he was.
So you guys made up. So y'all threw me under the bus and made up because it was completely untrue.
Something about a beer bust. I don't remember exactly what it was.
Yeah, what it was. It was a long time ago. It went over. Okay, so back in the olden days, when y'all were small time and looking for, you know, just people to fill, you asked the local, you know, new news people to come out. And I probably was 26, 25 years old, maybe. And y'all got Tim on the line, my husband. And we were talking about how we met. And it was a party at Auburn.
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