Good morning, friends, Welcome to another edition of the Twelve Days of Preston. I gotta tell you this is one of my I think this is going to go down as one of my favorite ideas ever in the history of this show. I like to take time off at the Christmas season. I'm afforded by my years of employment the opportunity to take four weeks off in the year, and then we have another two weeks and a couple
of days of company holidays. So why not, right, My wife and I celebrate our anniversary just after Christmas, so we just kind of turn it into a nice long break. But I don't like leave you high and dry. Trust me, when I did that over the years, I heard from you. And so we decided some time ago that we would we would do this the Twelve Days of Preston, where we would do a best of and still at the same time kind of a recap of the year that was,
in this case, the year twenty twenty five. Now, the way we've done it is each month is assigned today. So this is the eighth show of the Twelve Days of Preston. So it's the eighth month, and so we will take care of the month of August. And as we are we are prone to do, we will we will start the show with a little bit of scripture. We'll get into the history, and then we'll start to unpack the month of August, and we'll kind of set
some perspective on that in just a few minutes. But let's start with what we start with each and every day. Some scripture. John Twine verses thirty one, I should just say, is this simply one verse. These are written scriptures that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son
of God. Back in November, we talked about a mosaic that was found that dates back to roughly two hundred AD, give or take a few years, that was commissioned by a Roman, a Roman general, perhaps an official highly regarded. In that mosaic, it was inscribed, it was laid out entile Jesus is God. It's the earliest known expression that
is found outside the Bible. And it testifies to the fact that the early Christian Church and even Romans, which if you know anything about your history, you know that the Roman Empire threw down Israel destroyed it in seventy eight. But the message of Christ the early Christian Church was found in this inscription. It was found in the lives of Roman citizens. It just testifies to the power of
God's word. You know, God caused the Bible to be written for the express purpose a revealing to us his plan, his plan for redemption. God caused the Bible, the book to be written, and if you will, the Bible is kind of like a library of many books. God wrote it to make sure that his laws we're clearly expressed
for generations to come, and those are unwavering. They don't change that children would learn the wisdom contained inside that book, going back to its very beginning, spoken inspired by God himself. Scripture is there to reveal Christ. That's the whole point and the purpose of it. You know, I have always used this definition. Religion is man's attempt to reach God. Religion, whether it's Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, it all revolves around what
the person does to achieve acceptance before God. And there are even some expressions of Christianity that fall into that same dogma. Christianity separates itself from religion. It's not about man reaching God, it's about God reaching man. And there is a big, big difference and so John twenty reminds us that scriptures written so that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, doesn't get
any more fundamental than that. All right, let's take a look inside the American patron salmonac as we began here on Monday, December the thirtieth. So inside we look. And it was on this date in eighteen fifty three James Gadsden, Minister to Mexico, signs the Gadsden Purchase, in which the United States buys nearly thirty thousand square miles of land from Mexico. Eighteen sixty two, the ironclad USS monitor sinks in a storm of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. Wait a minute,
that wouldn't have been a hurricane in December? Would it? What they had global warming back then? Sorry? Nineteen twenty four, astronomer Edwin Hubbell announces evidence of the existence of a galaxy outside our own, hence the name of the telescope that was launched into orbit. Nineteen forty, California opens its first freeway, the Arroyo Sicco Parkway, connecting Los Angeles and Pasadena.
And on this date in nineteen fifty one, the TV Western The Roy Rogers Show debuts on December thirtieth, So there you go, this date in history. All right, let me tell you about the show. These shows will reveal the month of all August. So keep in mind this is going to sound a little dated, because there'll be things talking about the upcoming election, and there'll be things talking about you know, primaries that are going on in various states, and you know early elections and the news
that happened in the month of August. So we're we're taking this through in chronological order so that you can remember and kind of get a feel for the flow of the year. The year. Man, I think we're all grateful that the election is over it for no other reason. We don't have to get bombed in our email box with a bunch of advertisements and no more text messaging,
and no more ads on TV. I've been going through my DVR just polishing off shows just so I don't have to watch the political advertising that's buried inside of them. My goodness, gracious, that got old in a hurry. And so in this show, we'll start to share interviews and maybe a few segments that give you a bit of the flava for the month of August. But just remember we're counting down to the election in November, so we still have a couple shows to go, because tomorrow we'll
deal with the month of September. And yes, we will be on the air on tomorrow, that's New Year's Eve, and we will be on the air New Year's Day and the two days after. So this week is our final week of the Twelve Days of Preston as we count down the year of twenty twenty four. Glad to be with you. I'm Preston Scott. We will be sharing a little bit of music as we go along the way, because after all, I never get tired of hearing Christmas music.
I know some of you are like, really stay with us, we'll be back all right, let's get busy the Twelve Days of Preston. This is the month of August, the eighth day. It's Monday, December thirtieth. Here in the Morning Show with Preston's Scott, and this is a visit with the gun writer. Well, let me back up a second and let this segment introduce itself. Here we are show
fifty two to eight. That is Jose Can you see in Studio one A I am here in Studio one B, and I figured it was time have a little walk up music for our guest ladies and gentlemen. He's the gun writer, Lee Williams. Lee. How you doing?
I'm doing great?
Dan?
How are you?
Don't you think a little spaghetti Western music just works?
I like it. I like it. I'd like to get that going wherever I go, you know, walk into a room, walking to restaurant. Right, I'd like that.
You look at the may or d and you just nod to the left and the music starts.
Sure, sure I could do with it.
Hey, how are you.
Busy? I assume you are too. This has been a whirlwind of a ride. We've got people running for office that want to come to my house and take away my ars, or I should say.
You know, mandatory buy back my ars, right right, right, of course, there's a lot I want to get to. I got to get to a piece that you just wrote about the Venezuelan elections. But I want to just ask your thoughts because I mentioned this last hour. You know, the US military, Lee is just struggling. They can't recruit at all. And if I'm an enemy of this country,
I'm looking at that. But the only thing that would cause me pause if I'm China, if I'm Russia, if I decide we're going to work together even is the Second Amendment of the United States and the importance of that to the overall defense of this nation.
You know, I couldn't agree more. It has been cited by our enemies since World War Two as a reason why they want to stay away. Look at, as I pointed out to this piece, we've seen what happens when you don't have a cadre of armed citizenry. And we saw it in Israel, God, after those horrible attack. We saw it in Ukraine when the Russians started streaming across the border, they start ripping open cases of aks and just handing him out. And now we see it, of
course in Venezuela, where obviously this guy's cheated. He's going to do a third six year term. Now, Maduro, he's a best spot, he's a dictator, he's a mass murderer, and there's really not a help a lot the country can do about it, other than, you know, demonstrate and maybe throw a Molotov cocktail. The first thing he did in twenty twelve was take away all their guns, and that's what every day tator does. Take away the guns, say we'll reduce crime, just like they're trying to do here.
The parallels are stunning. But you know, this is the third example we've seen on the international's stage about why we need or why we should venerate our Second Amendment rights. And as I point out here, you know, rather than getting all focused on the fact that they are trying to take away our guns and she is, Harris is trying to disarm us, we should start asking why why does she want a disarmed populous Why does she need her citizenry defenseless?
You know, our founders understood. I mean, they looked at at what happened in Europe, what happened in England. They saw what happened when a citizenry could not defend themselves. And that was the whole point of the Second Amendment. It wasn't hunting, my god, everybody needed to provide food and use as a firearm for that. It was enshrined in the constitutionally to keep us and to protect the rest of the constitution.
Yeah, everybody nowadays, the other team is always talking about hunting. I mean, look at Joe Biden, how many times has he mentioned deer wearing kevlar vest? How many times has he said if you're if you need thirty rounds, you're a terrible hunter. It's not about hunting. The Second Amendment is about defending ourselves from all enemies, foreign and domestic. And look at Venezuela. They've got a lot of domestic issues down there right now. You know that's a very
rich country. Should be Yeah, it is floating on a lake of oil. Unfortunately Maduro is siphoning off all of the bundy, all of the profits, and there's nothing people could do. His corruption was enabled by his disarming of the populast. The national sandwich in Venezuela needs ketchup. The people are so poor they don't even have access to ketchup.
Right now, Preston Lee, we haven't had a chance to talk since the terrible events of July thirteenth. With your vast background, I just want to get your perspective on what happened there.
Massive screw up complacency, first of all on the part of Secret Service, the fact that a lot of the people that they were there supposedly providing security were not trained to protective. Secret Service agents and complacency. I mean, anybody that does executive protection of any kind has to fight or is in law enforce, has to fight through the complacency. It can't happen. It's not going to happen to me. You have to force yourself to be on
edge constantly. And I mean when I used to stop cars when I was a policeman, I would walk up looking to shoot the person and then looking for reasons not to, Like I see their hands and there's nothing, there's nothing in them, no threat, no weapons. And they got complacent, and you know what, probably a little bit of the fact that that agency is a little leans,
a little more left now than it used to. And I cannot believe what we're seeing as far as the cover up goes, and it is a cover up, it's pretty simple what happened, Yet we still don't in all the facts. All these secret service bosses coming in and exasperatingly, you know, claiming that they're going to get to the bottom of it in front of our lawmakers, it just makes me sick. We got so lucky. I mean that you know what would have happened if if he hadn't
turned his head a little bit to the right. It would have been tragic. It would have been horrible for the country, horrible for him. My heart goes out to the Corey conference with the firefighter that was injured and the two other people that were hit. Just a total breakdown on the part of the Secret Service. And now they're trying to blame it on local law enforcement. Hey, I had worked one detail with Secret Service when I
was a cop. Barbara Bush came to town and I was pretty much told stand here by this door, don't let anybody in. That was the extent of my liaison with the Secret Service. They do a lot of these things. They take local law enforcement for granted. That kind of stuff needs to stop.
I have come to the place and feel free to, you know, to correct me if you disagree, Lee, But I've come to a place where I've looked at the amount of ineptitude in what happened and the failures here, plus the whistleblowers that are coming forward, sending letters that the Secret Service has deleted but have gotten to members of Congress, and I've come to the conclusion that if this was not an overt conspiracy to have Trump killed, and I believe it was in the wake of a
failed debate, and they felt like we have nothing left to lose. And I personally think John Brennan and people like John Brennan would have their hands all over this. If this was not an overt conspiracy. It was allowed at the very least, they just allowed it to happen.
You know, I'm not ready to go there yet, Okay, but i am. Unfortunately I'm heading to that in that direction.
It was.
It was so bad. If you just taken on the facts on their face, say okay, here's what happened, it leads you toward that conspiratorial place where you're at. But yeah, you're right. I mean, the errors were so massive and sweeping, The fact that people weren't in their posts, the fact that this kid was there one hundred and thirty yards away, one hundred and thirty yards away with a rifle from a proposition president. That's a chip shot.
He's Lee Williams, the gun Writer, and his work is found. You can subscribe get great articles and a lot of investigated type digging the Gunwriter dot substack dot com. Lee, you've written a piece. We've touched on it briefly. Kamala Harris, we've talked about it. She tracks well left of even Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. But as it relates to the Second Amendment, she's a real, real danger to our Second Amendment rights.
She is, and unfortunately the legacy media, the corporate media, they love her because of it. She said she wants to come to your home and take your guns away, which she calls a mandatory buyback. The media should be asking her about that, how does she plan to skirt the second, fifth fourteenth Amendments. But they aren't because she's an anti gun radical. They're anti gun radicals, so they love her. And the coverage is disgusting. I mean, you know,
David Hogg is Little March for Our Lives charity. They said that they were going to endorse her. The media absolutely went crazy. Rolling Stone did a piece on it, The Brits did pieces on it. Sky News, the Guardian, ABC News is falling all over themselves to get next to her because they love her, and the reason is
guns are bad. I did it in this piece. I really explained, you know, having spent twenty years as a card carrying member of the legacy media, the corporate media, what they think about guns and what they think about gun owners, and the media makes no bones about it. They believe guns are evil, all gun should be banned. No one needs a gun, so they that's why they love Harris, That's why they are going to do nothing
but support her and her anti gun efforts. They look at you and me Preston as Rubes, Hicks and Hillbillies and early that owns a gun, and they believe that anybody who would actually sponsor legislation pro gun legislation is crazy. All program lawmakers are crazy. All Antigonon lawmakers are heroes. They support they being the media. They support every bit of anti gum legislation, including the stuff that doesn't work.
It's always good to visit with Lee Williams looking out for our Second Amendment rights. The gun writer dot substack dot com. What a way to start the eighth day of the Twelve Days of Preston. Huh, now leave us. We've got a ton of great segments, great interviews, and more still to come. All right, we are going back through the year twelve Days of Preston. This is day
number eight. It's Monday, December the thirtieth, but for the purposes of the show, this is the month of August and if you remember, Democrats booted Joe Biden to the curb and in his place was Kamala Harris, and everybody was waiting for Kamala to say something about what her policy vision would be. And lo and behold, it happened. Your guide to what you're talking about, what you will be talking and most importantly, what you should be talking about.
It's The Morning Show with Preston Scott. When Kamala was asked just a few days ago what her plan was to bring down inflation.
Prices have gone up.
And families and individuals are dealing with the realities of that bread costs more, that gas costs more, and we have to understand what that means. That's about the cost of living going on. That's about having to stress and stretch limited resources.
That's about a source of stress.
For families that is not only economic, but is on a daily level, something that is a heavy weight to carry.
So it is something that we take very seriously.
All Right, I'm gonna pause there because she said so many things. So her plan is to not address why things cost more. Guess costs more? Well, why does gas cost more? Kamala, Because your boss screwed over America's energy production, and you'll do worse. Why are food prices higher because of energy costs, mandated wages, the regulatory environment in businesses, light bulbs, all of these things that you did raise the prices of everything and force the prices to expand,
i e. Inflation. So what she's suggesting is I'm just going to make them sell things for less. Here's what happens. Let's say that's the approach we somehow get stuck with. First, I don't think she can do that without Congress, but let's just say she could. Let's say you people put her in position to do it. Those businesses go bankrupt because they can't afford to stay afloat. They can't do it.
So then what happens, Well, these are critical needs to the American people, So we'll step in until a solution is found in new ownership and will take control. All of a sudden, you've nationalized food, fuel, anything else. That's Cuba, that's Venezuela, that's Russia, that's China. What the heck's wrong with you people that are thinking of voting for Kamala Harris. No, seriously, you've got to You've got to be smarter than that. You can't. And here's all of a sudden, I'm speaking
to non sequiturs. Finish a thought, Preston. There are people when she introduces this that are going to be holding up pre made signs extolling the virtues of stop price gouging or whatever they're going to lift up and show, when in reality, businesses have been gouging themselves. If you look sector bi sector industries have reduced their margins to
try their best to keep things modestly affordable. You know when margins were higher, when we had a strong economy and people were making more money against the price of the goods and the services. And we have people Republicans for Harris, evangelicals for Harris. You folks have sold your souls to the devil if you believe voting for Kamala Harris is somehow a noble thing to save the Republican Party or Conservatism. The Republican Party doesn't need saving. It
needs to go through an overhaul as well. Remember when Kamala was asked just a couple of weeks ago for her plan, what are your plans to deal with inflation? This was her response, prices have gone up.
And families and individuals are dealing with the realities of that bread costs more, the gas costs more. She has an answer, we have to understand what that means. That's about the cost of living. Wow, that's about having to stress and stretch limited resources. That's about a source of stress for families that is not only economic, but is on a daily level, something that is a heavy weight to carry.
So it is something that we take very seriously.
And she never answered the question. So she finally rolls out her economic plan. We'll get to the housing portion of it a little bit later. But now the mainstream media is trying to do a little bit of an about face because they realized that when they all just slammed it. I mean we're talking about the Washington Post, CNN, Newsweek, they all just killed it, just destroyed her plan. Not
based in reality, not good idea. When someone's calling you a communist, to come out and do something that's communist, I mean, it's you know, the whole price control thing. It's just I've got I got comment after comment here. Washington Post columnist Catherine Rample. It's hard to exaggerate how bad this policy is. It is in all but name. A sweeping set of government and forest price controls across
every industry, not only food. Supply and demand would no longer determine prices and profit levels far off Washington bureaucrats would the FTC would be able to tell, say, Kroger in Ohio, the acceptable price that can charge for milk. And I mean, I'm just scratching the surface. So the mainstream media, now, here's what's happening. And you knew what was going to happen. They've realized that coming out just
dis damages Kamala and Tim dramatically. So so they're starting to say, well, you know, the actual plan isn't quite as bad, and they're trying to find a way. Here's the bottom line. They've said it, and what they said was this plan is only for people who are economic illiterates that won't understand the nuance of it and the disastrous impacts of it. They can't take that back. They're gonna try, They're gonna try and rewrite their narrative because
it's bad. And this is the week of the DNC Democrats are meetings starting today and the murder capital of the world. I mean, and it might not literally be that. But it's close. More shootings over the weekend, more deaths over the weekend, and we still haven't had a mainstream Democrat national candidate for president or president or past president. I mean Obama still has not gone to Chicago and called for an end of the gun violence, which is
primarily predominantly black on black crime. Won't say it, they won't do it, and they're holding their convention. There one other big story, Supreme Court struck down the Title nine changes that the Biden administration pushed. Now there's a lot more are inside that ruling that meets the eye because it was five to four and Neil Gorsch ruled with the minority on this, But I had to do some digging. Next hour, I'll talk more about this particular big story.
The good news is that as of right now they can't change Title nine. They're letting the lower court rulings which are just saying no, you can't do this stand. Have I mentioned how much I love what I do The month of August, we're recapping it here in the Morning Show with Preston Scott, The Twelve Days of Preston. It's Monday, December thirtieth. I know, but this is August. For the purposes of this radio program, more of the Morning Show with Preston Scott still to come. Welcome back
to the twelve days of Preston. I'm your host, Preston Scott. It's the Morning Show with Preston Scott, but with a twist. These are the best segments, interviews, guests, topics from the year. And this is the month of August and with the election coming up fast and furious, a lot of focus on election integrity. Jason Snead is executive director of the Honest Elections Project and joins us this morning. Jason, how are you, friend.
I'm doing great.
Thanks for having me on the program.
My pleasure. Let's give everybody just kind of a quick overview, a macro view of the Honest Elections Project. You know, where was this birth? Why was this birth? Tell me about its origination.
Well, we've been around for about five years and the entire idea behind the Honest Elections Project is that Americans citizens need a voice for them, not someone pushing an ideology, but someone fighting for their right to vote and free
and fair elections. And so over the last few years, we've used every tool at our disposal from advocacy to policy work to litigation to advance the basic idea that it should be easy to vote and part of the cheap because there are very large and deep pocketed special interests that are intent on getting rid of all of the rules, all of the safeguards that keep our elections from turning into chaos and that bring confidence to put
in public. So we're always working to promote public confidence and elections, which it turns out actually is the best way to promote voting in the first place.
What define easy, because I think that becomes almost a little bit of a political football depending on who's talking about it.
Well, you know, I want to I want to make it easy to vote for anybody that is eligible to cast ballot. But the times in this debate about what kind of voting rules do we want, there are a lot of people, particularly on the political left, who don't want it to be easy. They want it to be effortless. They don't want you to have to register, they don't want you to have to request the mail ballot. They almost don't even want you to have to fill out
about it. Right, So there's this distinction between what most people think, which is we should have reasonable rules, reasonable safeguards, but it doesn't have to be effortless. And then there are other people that say, if there is so much as a crack in the sidewalk between a voter and casting a ballot, that is voter suppression. We think there need to be reasonable rules. So as we say, we want it to be easy to vote, but we also want it to be hard to achieve.
Jason Snead is the executive director of something called the Honest Elections Project. Jason, if I were to ask, I mean, you mentioned that this was this group is five years old. That places it ahead of the twenty twenty election in and of itself white form in twenty nineteen, what was it? I mean, did you suspect that we might have issues in the twenty twenty election.
Well, we thought the twenty twenty election was going to be one of the most litigious elections in history, and we were right. Now, of course, we didn't predict COVID
being one of the big disruptors. But in every election cycle going back about a decade before twenty twenty, groups on the left and the Democratic Party itself had filed more and more lawsuits going to courts trying to get activist judges to essentially act as super lawmakers and rewrite the rules of our elections for their own political gain.
So we wanted to step into that pray, anticipating that in twenty twenty was so much on the line that they were going to basically take this massive funding engine that they had assembled that was directed towards lawfare and use it to try to disrupt elect in ways that
the voting public would not countenance. And so we wanted to make sure again that the public had a voids in this fight, and that courts were hearing from groups like ours that we're going to point out that, hey, the Constitution says that our election laws, like any law, are supposed to be written by the people we elect to make laws, not unelected judges, and that the partisan groups should not be able to change the rules of elections, change the rules of the democratic process in the middle
of voting, any more than an umpire should be able to change the definition of balls and strikes. And the seventh inning of a baseball game that we formed ahead of that, and then COVID happened and we were off to the races far far earlier that election year than
we could have ever imagined. But that year alone, we had over two hundred lawsuits filed from groups that were aligned with the left, trying to change voting laws, get rid of voter ID, get rid of all of those basic safeguards, allow unlimited vote tracks, a collection by party activists,
and so forth. They were trying to fundamentally change the rules of our elections, and we were engaged in court battles all year long along with other groups that we're trying to defend the law again, because we the people elect lawmakers to make our laws, and we expect those laws to be honored and followed from the beginning of an election to the end, and not be written or rewritten for partisan game.
We've talked about some of the things that have happened in some of the states. Jason, what about the postal service? What kind of role do they play with so much mail balloting taking place?
Well, with so much mail voting going on in elections these days, you know your mailman is more important than ever, and they're almost an election worker in the sense that they're carrying so many ballots. You know, it's an important function. Anytime you're carrying even a single ballot.
But obviously, you.
Know, even more so now there are some concerning reports about delays in the Postal Service, and I think that
we might be covering that here too. But you know, there's always been problems with you relying on the Postal Service to transmit your ballot, and there's a lot of skepticism, and I think reasonable skepticism from the public, since it's often difficult to track your vote, to make sure that your mail in ballot is actually received or counted, and there's problems with mail in voting in general.
Right.
A lot of states have laws, for instance, but say, but you can request a mail ballot as soon as two or three days before the election. But here's the kicker. It takes at least two weeks, according to the Postal Service itself, for you to basically do a round trip
through the mail. So that means that if you are submitting a request to vote by mail three days before the election, but the Postal Service is saying you should allot fifteen days at least for a ballot to be sent to that voter and then for that ballot to be returned to state officials, you're setting that are up for failure. So there's lots of problems like that with state laws mail in voting, and then of course there's the potential for errors that wind up getting your ballots
spoiled and thrown out. There's the potential for vote trafficking, which is where parties and political operatives to go door to door and quote unquote help voters. That's a recipe for potential fraud, coercion, intimidation, and disenfranchisement. We've seen that in plenty of places. In North Carolina. There was even a congressional election that was thrown out because of why it's tampering with boots using that very process. So there's
lots of issues. And then of course the postal service delays that we're reading about only exacerbate these problems, which I think is why Americans overall are much more prone to vote in person, whether earlier on election day, than they are to vote by mail.
Have we made it too easy to vote?
I don't think that we've made it necessarily too easy to vote writ large, but there are certainly states that have gone a little bit too far in that direction, and they have gone more towards the voting should be effortless side of the equation. If you look at the laws in California, if you look at the laws in Nevada, other states that do all vote by mail. These are states where as soon as you get a driver's license, you're automatically registered to vote, so you don't have so
much just lit the finger to register to vote. You don't have to request a ballot. A ballot is sent to you automatically. These are states that will legalize unlimited, unregulated vote trafficking. So someone will come to your door when you get your ballot, assuming, of course, your voter at the right political persuasion. They will come to the door.
They will help you fill out your ballot. They will collect your ballots so you don't even have to bother returning it or putting so much as a stamp on a mail ballot, and then they'll take it off your hands and turn it in. They've made voting almost effortless, and that, in my opinion, is too far in the wrong direction. We have to think of the right to
vote as essentially two rights. You have the right to cast a ballot if you are an eligible, lawful citizen and a lawful voter, but you also have the right to a secure election, right, which is why we always say we want to make it easy to vote but also hard to cheat. It's a two sided coin.
And when you get.
Rid of all of the rules that prevent cheating, when you get rid of all of the safeguards that give confidence, and you focus exclusively on the access side of this equation, which is what the left does, then you wind up creating an election system which is chaotic and which people don't trust, and that actually deters people from putting in the first place.
Election integrity. Sadly, I think it's always going to be a vogue topic on any election, for any election that we have. All right, let's get to the second hour. Now it's the Twelve Days of Preston the month of August. We continue with our number two. Next, Welcome to the second hour of the Twelve Days of Preston show number eight, which is the month of August. We're sharing some of the more interesting segments, interviews, topics, and let's get going
here with our number two. Good to be with you, Hose running the program in Studio one A. I'm here in Studio one B, and I am joined on the program by attorney Jared Ross and Jared affiliated with Justice for Dan. For those of you that are longtime listeners of the program, we have been following the murder of FSU law professor Dan Markel since it happened ten years ago last month. It's crazy, Jared that it's been going it's been that long. How are you today?
Good?
Thanks Preston for having me. I truly appreciate it, and it is very surreal that it's been ten years since Danny was tragically taken from us. And you know, it's really hard to believe at time that it's been that long.
Jared. I don't want to take a lot of time going into the details because we've covered that and there'll be more to come with the trial of Donna Adelson that's coming up. But give us a little snapshot of your interconnection with Dan and the Markell family.
Yeah.
Absolutely. I actually got to know Danny when he and Wendy were together. I went to high school with Charlie Aedelson down in South Florida and Wendy Adleson. We all went to the same high school. Wendy was one of the first people that I had met when I moved to Florida back when I was a sophomore in high school, and when she came up here for law school for her last year of law school as a visiting student, and Danny had just become a professor at Florida State.
She and I were in a trial advocacy class together and reconnected, and I got to know Danny very well through his relationship with Wendy and became a friend. We spent Jewish holidays together, you know, enjoyed some of life's milestones together, like having children. And when all this occurred, you know, I took a keen interest in the case because of the interconnectivity of my life with with the abel Fins and with Danny Uh And since that time,
I've gotten involved with the Justice for Dan movement. I was asked recently earlier this year to become a co director of the organization, and through that have also gotten to know Ruth Markel pretty well.
Why did you say yes to the opportunity to serve in this capacity, Jared.
Well, Danny was a brilliant, brilliant person, not just a brilliant lawyer, but a brilliant person. And you know, his his contributions to society were taken too early, and the ability to be part of something that not only advocates for justice for the Marquel family, but also to carry on Danny's life and legacy and its scholarship. It was extremely intriguing to me and just a little way that I could give back to a friend that we've lost.
Yeah, I want to zero in on the next segment a little bit more on that scholarship, because I mean, to be honest with you, that's kind of news to me. I learned about that when I got a note from Karen Ciphers, who of course has been interwoven with the Justice for Dan movement. But at the FSU School of Law, what do they know? I mean, it's been ten years. Are they aware of Dan's legacy?
Yes?
Absolutely.
We actually engaged the dean of the law school, who was not the dean at the time that Danny was a professor there, and even even she knows Danny's legacy. Through Florida State, there are still several professors that were there when Danny was there. There are adjunct professors that were students when Danny was a professor at the College of Law, so his legacy is still well known within the university within the College of Law, and it's something that they were excited to be a part of as well.
Jared, Let's talk about Justice for Dan and that scholarship. Where did this get established, what does it do? How is it funded?
Yeah, so this was actually an idea that was brought up through the directors with Justice for Dan. We were trying to think of a way as we neared the ten year tragic anniversary of Danny's murder, how could we honor him in a way that's more than just lighting candles, which is extremely important, or praying for his family. What
could we do that was tangible? And the idea of creating a best Paper scholarship, whatever you want to call it, a program to reward budding legal scholars or law students for carrying on Danny's legacy in research on criminal law theory just seemed really apropos for for who Danny was.
We wanted to engage law schools and current legal scholars and professors to participate as part of the selection committee and be mentors for these these rising scholars and it just seemed like such a great opportunity to not just you know, keep Danny's name alive, but actually do something in his name that he would have done had had he been alive. And so we started this program. We announced it on the tenth anniversary of the murder uh,
and we've started fundraising for it. It's all the award money for the the best papers are going to be through donations. We you know, we are not a nonprofit organization and we're not a charity.
UH.
We are a not for profit. We are not collecting money for ourselves. This is not something that we're going to make money. This is all money is going to go toward this Justice for Dan movement. And but but it's all funded through donations and we've already gotten several nice sized donations. We're uh, and we're really excited about where we're you know where we're headed.
Are you hoping to establish an endowed scholarship of some kind or something a little simpler?
At first, we're looking at something a little simpler, but that is not off our radar. We've discussed that and certainly that's a possibility and an opportunity in the future.
What does the the roadmap look like? How does someone find out more about this specific scholarship and how would they give if they wanted to give, so.
To give, we have a venmo, and the venmo is at Justice for d M as in Markel. If you go to our social media, we're on Facebook, Instagram, x, Twitter, whatever you want to call it, it's at Justice for Dan M or you can just search for in Facebook Justice for Dan. There's a whole lot of information there.
There was a Florida Politics article which is published on our social media that has even more information on this, on how students can apply, or how professors or legal scholars can apply to the mentors and on the selection committee. And we're hoping shortly we'll start receiving papers and be able to award some folks for their hard work.
Is there any possibility of this making its way to the website Justice for Dan dot com.
Yes, we'll make sure that that gets on there.
I think links there would be really useful because I know that listeners of this program are well aware of of that site. Lastly, and closing, Jared, thank you so much for what you're doing. But have you had has there been any contact with Ruth and and the family with their grandchildren.
The last I heard from Ruth she had met with them earlier this summer she had met with the grandchildren. Her and another one of her grandchildren from Canada went down to South Florida and met with the boys.
In the course of a year, we cover a lot of ground on The Morning Show with Preston Scott. Stay with us. More to come from the month of August. Here on the Twelve Days of Preston. Welcome back to the Twelve Days of Preston. This is the eighth of the twelve days, which means we're in the month of August.
And it occurred to me this is the second hour of the Morning Program and those of you that listen in the second hour exclusively, you may not even know about the twenty two year tradition of What's to Be Friday, which happens in the third and final hour each and every Friday.
So I figured, why not give you a little bit of a taste.
Let's do this What's to Be Friday Show fifty two to twenty two of The Morning Show with Preston Scott Jose taking your calls at eight five zero two zero five WSLA eight five zero two zero five ninety three fifty two. Whatever you want to complain about, we have two simple rules no profanity, and don't make it personal. Rule Number one is because well it's just bad form and we have kids listening. This is a safe harbor. You can do it. As it relates to the second rule,
we don't want to hurt of business. If you have a bad experience, tell us what happened. Just leave the name of the business out of it. Leave things like wrecking a business to just professionals like me. Sorry, I couldn't resist. Let's go to Joel, who's standing by waiting the longest. Hello, welcome, what's the beef?
Good morning, Preston my beef? Is the joy of the DNC. Two big lies that they just seem to revel.
Then.
One of them is the banning books. There is no banning of any books, just keeping pornography away from elementary children.
Correct.
And then the.
Second big one is this that there was a border a bipartisan border deal that was got a little by Trump. That deal would have allowed five thousand illegals and every single day at a minimum, and would have allowed up to two million a year. It was no deal at all, but boy, they harper on those two lives all the time, among many others.
Let's go to Royn, Hi, Ryan, you're up. What's the beef?
Hello?
President? Always a big thank you to you. It just you have to me. It took the Rush's place, so I can just say you're doing a great, great job. And I'd like to step up to that guy and say, hey, he did a good job stepping up saying he didn't vote. But like my friends, when they said, well I don't vote, it don't do no good, I said, well, don't say nothing. Then don't complain. You know, you got no righte to
say anything. Just shut up and sit down, you know, because that's the problem, you know, But that's that's the problem. And I heard the ag and Arizona there talk on another show yesterday and he was talking about, hey, if everybody that would get up and vote that don't vote, hey, that would overwhelm the cheating because you know the other side is cheating so so much. But that's that's my begin People get out. We got to get out. We've
all got to stand up and do something. And this is a big movement that we need to do this November and get things going because it's terrible what the other side is trying.
To do to us.
And you bring up so much, so so much. Pay attention everybody. It doesn't cost anything to pay attention.
Hi Bob, thanks for calling in. Hello, good morning. What's the beef?
My beef is the revelation we've received from the DNC and the participants. There is no doubt who they are. If we the people, allow their victory, we will get exactly what we deserve. And don't wait to vote in November. Vote early, so if there's any problems you can correct it.
Thank you, sir. Appreciate the phone call. I hope you feel better getting that off your chest. That frees up a line. Let's go to Lynn, who has been patiently waiting. Good morning, Land, Welcome, Good.
Morning Preston, and I'm first of all, I don't you thank you for being the Christian you are. It's so nice to hear someone thinks of our Holy Father, God, Christ, Jesus and the blessed beloved Holy Spirit. I love it the way you have that in your heart.
Thank you. I thank Jesus for it.
Yes well, I thank you every day. And my grinth is those people that are too lazy to say doha guitar and they call it cutter. It's no such name. There's no cutter. It's cut tar. So I just wish that some people wouldn't be so he is to not dig into that, investigate it. Why did they call it cutter?
Please?
This sounds really Dumblynn.
Thank you so much for calling in. I can explain it just a little bit. I'm guilty of having said cutter at different times because I can't find a settled pronunciation. I've heard it pronounced so many different ways. My instinct had always been katar, but I kept hearing military experts and others say cutters. I don't know, but I'm gonna take your word for it, Lynn, because you just sound like you know. So thank you very much for calling in. Eight five zero two zero five to b FLA John,
Good morning, Welcome. What's the beef goome.
On impressing morning.
My beef is with the repetition of the advertising, some of it more repetitive and annoying than others. I just president if you had a way that you could measure the repetition against the significance of the passage of time. I think that to be able to see there is.
That life is just too short for us to.
Be told again and again and again and again by the world's largest wind bag with the world's largest ego, then we should all be voting yes with him on Amendment three. That just gives me the world's largest headache every time I hear it.
But again, my thief is with the.
Repetition of the advertising, not anyone at in particular, never anything personal, Jod.
That's really one of the most clever, well constructed beefs I've heard.
Good Morning, pestion.
I called last week, I called last Friday. I got through and brought up the whole thing about one of cackling come on, all his policies of wanting to give you know, twenty five thousand dollars for our first time home buyers, and that led me to wanting to pay attention a little bit to the DNC convention and all I've heard, all I heard this whole.
Week was abortion, abortion, abortions, and preston, if that is what this party is running on, I really think anybody who is on the side of that party really needs to reconsider what they're voting for, because I will die on the hill of protecting not only the unborn, but the born from womb to tomb. And it saddens me that the likes of Oprah can get on national television and proclaim that if we can't have abortions, we can't go forward as women.
That is absolutely disgusting. That is my beef on this Friday.
Thank you, appreciate the phone call. Thank you, Thank you Nancy. Good time for two more. Let's go to Tim. Tim, you're up. What's the beef?
Good morning? My beef is I guess with the customers at a grocery store here, and they got an express checkout line and people pull in there and start unloading the courtload of groceries when the sign clearly says ten items are less, and the cashiers I apparently cannot tell them no, they have to be polite to them. And then in front of the grocery store, they got three spaces for people to parking bring their groceries out to
them if they can't go into the store. And I see people park there and go in shopping, and it's just I don't know if it's I think it's I guess it's society in general that just has quit following any rules, does their own thing regardless.
Thank you, Tim, I appreciate you calling in tim, I got a roll to the final caller here. Yeah, I've been in those store and I've seen the same thing. There are self checkouts that are ten or less, and then there are self checkouts that are for whatever. If you want to go through all that, you go right ahead. But yeah, kind of look above and the workers. You're right, they need to redirect them. Final caller here is Julie. Julie, you are it. What's the beef?
Good morning? My beef is to do with this deceptive pilam maneure that would served with smiles at this week's Democratic Communist Party convention by Comrade Harris VP, puff and stuff and all the hypocritical celebrities and politicians.
My father used to.
Tell us the cold truth about socialism communism when he traveled to communist Russia and other socialist countries. He come back home telling us how good we have it here
in America. He tell us about the empty grocery store shells over there after the government price controls, toilet paper like sandpaper, horrible socialized healthcare systems, and citizens who had everything stolen from them by greedy governments who turned them into permanent surf with no freedoms left to achieve anything they dreamed about.
So all this.
Dangerous nonsense this week about their new hope and joy is just a poisonous carrot on a stick, leading those who follow it to a big lie where it will be too late when they realize the ugly truth, because socialism nahborly and communism ain't joyful.
As I always say, if it matters to you, it matters to us. Oh, every Friday, what's the meat? By the way, Hopefully the phone number, if it was given, didn't mess you up. There's nobody at the studio answer in the phones. Hey, we're back with the second half of the eighth show of the Twelve Days of Preston. Stay with us. Welcome back to the Twelve Days of Preston. Here on the Morning Show with Preston Scott recapping the year twenty twenty four. This is the eighth day, thus
the eighth month, the month of August. Topic that was on a lot of people's minds and still is is the defense of our nation. The incoming president Donald Trump has a real mountain to climb. And whoever his secretary of Defense is, whether it's Pete Hegseth or somebody else is going to have some problems to solve. Our guest, James Carafano, is a twenty five year Army vet. He's
got his master's in dark doctorate from Georgetown. He is an expert in national security and foreign policy and serves as Senior counsel Counselor to the President of Heritage Foundation and is the E. W. Richardson Fellow at the Heritage Foundation. James, it's a long and distinguished resume. Thank you so much for honoring us with your presence today. How are you, sir?
So you're upe for your third hour? Did you get like two o'clock in the morning?
How at work?
Yeah, I'm up early, no doubt about it, go to bed early, up early. But James, thank you for serving our country first and foremost, and thank you for making time for us. I want to ask, as you started to watch the numbers decline in the recruiting, at what point did it start to concern you? Or are we not? Are we worried for nothing?
Well, this is kind of.
A good news bad news thing. And when I get to the punchline about why this is important, it's not what people think. So the good news is the the services are doing a better job getting to their numbers. We saw a significant decline in propensity to serve, particularly because of the woke and everything else, and and and most people don't know that, like somewhere between seventy percent of American youths are not actually qualified to serve in
the military because of the physical standards. They've got health issues, they've got a criminal record, they have completed high school something I thought. So you think that the vast majority can't even serve, right, So, so isn't this great because we're actually getting close to making our numbers now? Well, no, because one is under Biden. The size of the military
continues to decline. And you know, we do this thing every year called the Index of US Military Strengths to the Harry's Foundation, We've done for over a decade, and we consistently see in the last four years declining in military rending. As part of that is just because the numbers are smaller.
So their goal isn't it's high.
The other thing is that they started to do something which sound smart but actually it's a it's a red flag, and that is they started kind of pre enlistment training, so they're actually bringing kids in months early, putting them through PT so they could get up to the physical standards, actually educating them enough so they could be equivalent of a high school graduate. And so that's how they're rounding out the numbers. The problem with that is that's not
a sustainable model. The Brits have been doing this for years because they were literally running out of people, so they were taking unqualified people and they're investing in them to get them to be qualified.
That's expensive.
First of all, it's not scalable, like you can't really do that on a mass scale. And if we ever had needed numbers in the military, legitimate numbers and a three and a half million or so, we couldn't sustain that. So this is not going to work long term. And we have two problems. One is our military is too small. The other thing is if we're going to have kids who both have the propensity and capability to serve that is not a military problem. That is a that is
a whole of us problem. We're not educating our children. We're not we're not making sure our children are physically and mentally fit. And that is not a problem for the military solved. That is a problem for us to solve our education system as crap are are the nutrition.
And the physical of our children.
It's not about money, it's not about poverty or anything else. It's literally about not having families. Because the lack of a family means you're never going to do any of these things. Well, you're never going to produce healthy, responsible kids. That's the real root of this problem.
Use weather, traffic, and the big stories in the press box. The fastest three hours in media, and don't be surprised if you have a chuckle here and there. Just like that, It's The Morning Show with Preston Scott's.
Minutes after the hour, James Carafano with us from the Heritage Foundation. We're talking about military recruiting. This has been an issue. I've gotten a lot of email about how do we turn this around? James, what would your response be?
I mean, let's say you and I have kids that are you know, they're they're from an from an intelligence standpoint, they've got their their high school out of the way, they're maybe taking some college, they're physically fit, But would you want them to serve under the leadership that is leading our nation's military right now?
Well?
Uh, look, you know I would look. I think I was in the military under Jimmy Carter. This is when I first came in, and it was probably wasn't in badas now. But I still think military service is a is a great opportunity and a great thing for kids. And there's a lot of sergeants and captains and young leaders out there who want to take care of these kids and serve them well. So I think the politics will turn around. I still think the military is great. I'll tell you what the problem is not, and the
solution is not a draft. You probably saw the Singer there's a bill they want to draft women, which has nothing to do with military readiness at all. First of all, women have plenty of opportunity to serve in the military, so it's not like it's an equal opportunity thing. The second thing is is the draft is completely useless. If eighty percent of the of the of the draft pool is eligible to serve, you're drafting the people who are volunteering.
So it's it's nonsensical. We don't have training ground, we don't have equipment to outfit a draft military. So the draft is really an anachronism. It's something you would be if if we needed to put twenty million people under arms, which I hope our foreign policy never gets kind of that screwed up. So it's about it's about woke politics
and about erasing the difference between men and women. It's not a serious thing to see to see Congress kind of mess and around with this, and then people always say, well, we should draft everybody, right, Well, the problem with that is, you know, again most people aren't eligible for the draft too. You're only in the military for two years, so by the time you get trained, you're gone.
It's very, very expensive.
It's not efficient at all. And people say, well, they'll learn discipline. Well, look right now they're learning to go to drag shows. The military is not. You can build character in the military, but you have to be a person of character when you go in. I mean, I learned my character before I went to West Point. And
again it goes back to families. So if you ask me, what's the first thing I would do if I wanted to have a stronger military, is I would start to work on the things that build healthy, strong families in America.
But and I don't disagree with one thing you're saying. James but if the people at the very top that are making ultimately the decisions on deployments and so forth. I always have felt high regard for those in in you know, the basic levels of military leadership, but higher command, the people that are ordering all of this wake ideology down the chain. I feel as though until that changes, I'm not sure I'm sacrificing or recommending my child sacrifice himself.
At that point, well, I would I'd take two, think one as uh, you know, the nation still has to be defended. Uh, here's where I agree with you. I think we should fight. There's virtually I can I can think of maybe one or two I would fire.
Most of the generals, agreed.
These are all people that got promoted initially under Obama, and they were all designed to give us a political military leadership, not not a leadership dedicated to military service.
So they're all corrupted.
Most of them should go. The political leaders should go. The political leadership of the Pentagon should completely go. But this is a fixable problem. We had a terrible military inner, Jimmy, we fixed it. But they all should be gone.
That's the thing.
But here's the thing. We're absolutely right people. The number one reason people enlist, and more importantly, re enlist and stay in the military. The number one reason is they feel like they're doing something useful. It's not pay it's not the GI bill, it's not promotions, it's not pay raises. It is and I feel like I am contributing to something positive and constructive. And so you're right when you throw kids in Afghanistan and then you tell, oh, this
is just a big mistake. We're leieving, and then thirteen die and you say, oh, it's a perfect operation that does not instill trusting competence in the rank and file of the military.
Back with more of the Twelve Days of Preston here on the Morning Show with Preston Scott. We got to get right to it. This is a very important segment from the month of August. Here on the twelve Days oppressed him. Now, this is a fascinating survey because it chronicles the steep decline in knowledge and understanding of American history, civics, the political system of this country. Stuff that's pretty important. If you don't have an understanding of how the Framers
set this country up. Well, I'll quote somebody involved with the survey, and the survey was conducted by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni. It was a survey of thirty five questions. The results are called Losing America's Memory two point zero. They asked more than three thousand students from all fifty states questions about history and government Senate terms of length quotes from the Gettysburg Address. Survey was
conducted in June. The vice president for the association at Least Vice president for Policy, Bradley Jackson, told a online outlet called The College Fix, it seems that many students are completely tuned out of politics, lacking the knowledge to participate effectively in a democracy. That's a recipe for disaster. I want to underscore something before I get to the results. Did you notice what he said? In a democracy, we're not a democracy. We could be called a representative democracy,
but we are a constitutional republic. A democracy is mob rule. The Framers recognize the importance of balancing out pure democracy with something that actually did a better job of preserving the rights of a minority. And that's when they're how they arrived at a constitutional republic. So notice that even here, when he's describing the recipe for disaster, he's using the word democracy, we've we've taken something that is unique and
overly simplified it for the purposes of communication. No, we need to say it's a constitutional republic. It's sort of like I started using the word illiberal years ago, and it certainly I wasn't the only one, but I was the first one to use it that I know of. I know others did and probably before me, but I've not heard it. And so if we all start saying, when we hear democracy, go a constitutional republic, and you might get a rolling of the eyes and you might
get a but it's important. It's a distinction. Now, let's get to the survey results. When asked who is the current president of the US Senate, only twenty seven percent of students were able to say Kamala Harris, which is correct. Over a quarter thought it was Joe Biden. They didn't understand the distinction between president and President of the Senate. The vice president is the president of the Senate. Many students were unaware that the term of a US senator
is six years. Almost a third thought it was four. Nearly a fifth incorrectly said representatives to the US House serve four year terms. They serve two year terms. Members of the US House have to be re elected every two years. You could argue that's terrific. It allows for a changeover. You could argue that puts some in constant fundraiser mode. I know for a fact members of Congress that get elected are told within weeks of their election time to start raising money by their leaders in the
Democrat or Republican side. Start raising money. What about being a representative to the House and representing your district takes a back seat to raising money both sides. We are recapping the results of a survey called Losing America's Memory, thirty five question survey asking more than three thousand students
in all fifty states questions about history and geography. Twenty three percent of students could identify the Gettysburg Address as the source of the quote the government of the people, by the people, for the people. Less than one in four knew that that came from Lincoln at Gettysburg. Thirty seven percents of students correctly identified the current Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, John Roberts. Thirty two percent responded they weren't sure. Less than one third we're able to
identify James Madison as the father of the Constitution. Almost half forty four percent responded with Thomas Jefferson historian Hillsdale College professor Wilfred Maclay, interviewed for this article, was appalled and saddened by another finding. Now, to put this last little nugget into perspective, I pulled something off my wall.
I have a lot of things in my studio, and one of the things I have is something that I printed out that I talked about, dated March seventh, twenty twenty two, and it's a Quinnipiac University national poll what would Americans do as if the world witnesses what is happening to Ukraine? Americans were asked what they would do if they were in the same position as Ukrainians are now, stay and fight or leave the country. A majority fifty five percent say they would stay and fight, while thirty
eight percent say they would leave the country. Broken down, Republicans sixty eight percent would stay, twenty five percent would leave, Independence, fifty seven percent would stay, thirty six percent would leave. Democrats fifty two percent would stay, forty percent would leave the country. So, when confronted with the hypothetical, the numbers
that would flee the country are pretty high. Now we get to this last question in the survey, fifty seven percent of students would flee the country rather than stay and fight in case of an invasion. Fifty seven percent
would leave. That is the end result and the symptom of all the other questions, the lack of knowledge and understanding and i'll say appreciation of the founding of this country, the uniqueness of America's political and governance system and the abuses of it by those in elected office, sitting on the bench as judges acting as activist judicial persons versus originalist just ruling on the law. If the law is flawed, so be it. Your job is to rule on the law,
make lawmakers fix the law that's bad. All of this lack of knowledge, the judicial it all adds up to fifty seven percent would leave the country versus fight to defend it because they don't think America is worth defending. Back with our number three of the twelve days of Preston on the Morning Show with Preston Scott, third and final hour of this day eight of the twelve days of Preston, there are some issues that quite frankly, I
miss the first time around, but there's always time. Now this really hit my I mean, I knew about it, but I I guess you could smack me in the head on this one. I missed it, and that's fair. The governor and others and I don't necessarily have the ability to explain who the others are. Believe that the state parks are underutilized, even though they're visited by thirty
million people a year. I guess is the number. Jeremy Redfern, who is the press secretary for Governor de sand has said Teddy Roosevelt believe the public parks were for the benefit and enjoyment of the people, and we agree with him, but it's high time we made public lands more accessible to the public. And so their idea the plan, as it's been explained to me, and as I've researched, and I forgive me, I've got a thousand things in front
of me. It could be adding lodging, certain types of hotels, cabins, disc golf, golf, pickleball at state parks. And in one of those rare occasions, it seems as though Democrats, Republicans, and even members of Florida's cabinet do not agree with this idea or plan, and there's pushback. At least one golf course has been canceled at least from one developer. But what do you think? And so I'm taking your calls and I want to hear what you have to say.
Eight five zero two zero five WFLA. Roy Thanks for calling in.
Hey for Rest, and thanks, Yeah, I want to call it. I want to talk about the development of the state parks. I'm an outdoor a hunt, a fish and hike all that. Developing a state park just for people to tramp across nature and things like that. The developer guy that probably he wanted it for a song, as they say, there's plenty of golf courses in the state of Florida. You're not talking about, oh, you undeveloped, turn the base into
cabins or anything like that. You want to develop another golf course which turns into a hotel, which turns into non access for the outdoorsmen.
To the outdoors.
It's you're talking about just bringing in another area for tourists to go that don't utilize and don't care about the environment. And then we'll complain about, oh, you know, the water's bad. This is bad well, who did it? We did by allowing more development of the nature that's already there, and as a conservationist, that should be the last thing we should do is mess up what is already there.
Is it CA C or KC.
It is the letters KC.
Okay, fair enough. Tell me your thoughts on this idea that the governor has that not everyone's in agreement.
With the signage outside of every Florida State park says welcome to the real Florida. It is not the real Florida. If you've got three golf courses proposed for John Diggerson, I know they've taken one away, but it's probably the nine hole, not to two eighteen holes, three hundred and fifty rooms. That's a huge structure at the Saint Augustine State Park that will obliterate the views of the pristine beaches. Top Sail is already overcrowded, but there are specific trails
and woods there that are preserved for wildlife. And the same for Grayton where they've got coe oats and sand dunes. I mean, this is ridiculous. We need to preserve real Florida.
Tell me this. How many of the state parks have you been to because you sound like you've been to a few of them.
Thirty seven you're counting it is. I check them off there on my bucket list to see them all.
Good for you. All right, Casey, thank you very much. I appreciate you sharing your thoughts. That's exactly why we're doing this. Let's go to Richard. Richard, thanks for calling into the radio program.
Hey, Pression, how you doing.
I'm good.
Okay, let me ask you a question real quick. Aren't we the fishing capital and the golf capital of the world.
Yes, some might say that, Others might say that it's Myrtle Beach as far as golf, But I what do you think I.
Think we have? And I work at a golf course here in Tallahassee. We have plenty of golf courses plenty. We cannot do this whatsoever. The state parks are we have the prettiest in the world with our springs, our rivers and there, and but no one's mentioning. You know, that's where a lot of the Florida panthers lives, and we they're they're endangered, and I don't want to mess that up.
There's a lot of people that are agreeing with you out there, Richard, because I'm seeing the pushback happen in real time, and yeah, you're not kidding. Did you have something you want to share about Facebook? As well?
He's an idiot, who's the he suck and we all knew what he was doing. We all knew it, and it's just hopefully I still don't trust.
This a watch.
I don't fair enough. Thank you, Richard, appreciate the call. Let's go to Chris. Chris, thanks for being patient.
Hey, I agree with Casey on everything she said, but this is specific to hotels. When I saw the Facebook banter about the state park situation, I said, well, haven't we had a hotel on Wacola Springs State Park for decades And granted that structure was part of the part before it became a park, and the money does go to the state, but I would think that if we could fit something on state land that didn't obstruct views or didn't harm wildlife, and I don't think they're planning
to do that anyway. I don't see why we couldn't, because you know, my wife hates camping, but we love parts, so it's usually a day trip. It's usually a situation where we don't stay overnight, which means we come back home limits what parks we go to. So if there was a place like Topsail where they had little cabins or a hotel or something with amenities, it would make the parks more enjoyable to people who you know, aren't aren't into camping, or don't own a camp or so.
Well, I'm just curious, do you think there's a way to integrate that while respecting what others are saying. It relates to preserving, you know, for the animals and the wildlife, and.
I do think I think the golf courses are a little harder sell because you know, trees have to come down that kind of thing, or pains prairie or something has to be used, and it's hard to golf with buffalo running around. But you know, as far as the hotels, I think it can be strategically done in terms of like cabins or building that's low impact, or maybe even integrated into the environment such that, you know, if it was a Spanish settlement, maybe they're small Spanish themed type things.
And I think our previous caller made a very interesting point. Not everybody loves to camp, but they really enjoy being in the parks? Is there room for certain types of low impact? I liked his terminology housing lodging to be made available, not housing lodging to may be made it made available. I can say that, Bill, Thanks for calling in.
Good morning, Preston.
What do you think.
I'm thinking? Nobody brought it up. I don't believe. But why not build this golf course and hotel ten to fifteen miles away from the park and they would be close enough. It wouldn't be, you know, problem for them to go to the park and take ten minutes to get to their hotel.
The plan for the parks was eventually scrapped. Back to the drawing board, Governor said, I have anything to do with it. I don't know, but you had your say back with more of the Twelve Days of Preston. Welcome back to the Twelve Days of Preston. This is day number eight, the month of August. This interview had to be included in the show because the reaction to this interview was, well, it was a little off the chain
because people were shocked. They were shocked that there was someone like this out there, let alone someone like this out there sitting in my studio talking to me. And there's a backstory that I well, let me just let me share the backstory from the day that I did the interview here on the Morning show with Preston Scott. I was surprised because here's the headline, the Democratic Party has failed young Floridians like me. And it's a short op ed piece written by a young man named Owen Gerard.
And so I did what I do. I say, somebody's got to know this guy. Someone has to know him and can say, hey, Preston talked about your column and wants to get you on the show to talk with you. Lo and behold, not a half hour went by and the connection was being made. And so sitting here with me is one Owen Girard. How are you.
I'm doing great today.
How are you? First of all, thanks for coming in.
Thanks for calling out for me.
Yeah, if you ever listened to the.
Show occasionally, yeah, you're in there, yep occasionally.
Huhah. I'm gonna try not to have my feelings hurt about it.
Well, you know, we all got busy lives.
That's all right, it's all right. I thought young people like you would know about something called a podcast but you know, never mind us older people are all into that technology. Okay, let's get to the meat of this. You are described at the tail end of this piece, Owen Girard is a lifelong Tallahassee resident. Let's start there.
Yeah, yeah, lifelong Tallahassee resident.
Where you go to school?
I was homeschooled, actually raised in Northeast Lyon, you know, with my family, lived in the same neighborhood my whole life, you know, really proud of my community, proud of the you know how the city, you know, the people in the city, seeing it change a lot over the years,
as I'm sure you have. And uh yeah, I just care a lot about North Florida, care a lot about the Panhandle, and really do everything I can to make sure my values are represented even in these types of you know, communities that are deep blue like Leon.
It says right after that liberal turned conservative student activists. Let's take the first half of that, all right, because homeschooled and liberal don't usually go in the same sentence. How did that end up being your situation? Get me to that liberal thing?
Yeah, so I was raised at one point in you know, exposed to a lot of different communities growing up that you know, had a lot of progressive ideologies, especially with social issues, spirituality.
You know.
I was taught to believe that all religions were totally equal and valid, and you know, all this stuff which is, you know, it sounds nice and all, and then you realize that they all fundamentally contradict each other and they can't all be true, right, So it leads to a lot of questions, a lot of issues, and I embraced a lot of that you know, left wing you know ideology really pushed by you know people I was told to, you know, look up to mentors, you know, peers.
Do you mind checking off a list of some of the names that we might recognize that we're listed to you as people to look to.
Oh yeah, well nationally, I mean I was a big Bernie Sanders fan, okay off until the twenty twenty election.
I was a Bernie bro I was. Yeah, absolutely, And I'm not going to make fun of any of that. I'm and I hope you'll hear my heart and maybe you've heard the show enough to know I'm just genuinely interested to know your journey. So you started kind of in this process from a political perspective, look looking at and embracing the philosophies of a guy like Bernie Sanders. What appealed to you about that?
The populist rhetoric, the idea that you know, you can stand up for the working class, stand up for the common man, and fight against the establishment, the political establishment which is so corrupt and so evil and you know, is working against the interests of the you know, the American family and the American worker and all this stuff. And a guy like Bernie can go up and he
can give his pitch. And of course I don't agree with him on a lot of issues anymore, but I respect him for the fact that he went up against the Democratic establishment. And of course they ended up I believe, you know, they they did everything they could to make sure that he wasn't president. They're there nominee in twenty sixteen and twenty twenty, they put, you know, millions behind
Hillary and Joe Biden. And that's why we never had a president nominee Bernie Sanders, because he was very popular, especially amongst the youth, but really amongst common people on both sides. Again recognizing that populist that rhetoric.
So we're going back now to a time when you are in favor of Bernie Sanders, but not old enough to vote for Bernie.
Sanders, that is correct, YEP. Twenty twenty election. I was very invested in the Democratic primary and very proud of you know, Bernie and everything that he represented. I really wanted him to be that nominee, and I wanted him to you know, lead us into the future.
What happened.
So as time went on, really through COVID, it started to change a lot of my views on a lot of different issues, and I started to realize that, you know, the big government approach to a lot of issues is is not the solution.
Now.
I know I talked about the populist rhetoric. I still think, you know, something that I like about someone like Trump now is also that populist rhetoric. I think that fighting against the establishment, being an anti establishment figure is very appealing, especially in today's day and age, especially to young people. So I still think that's that's very important. But I mean in the bigger picture, I mean, you know, I I started looking, I started you know, realizing, you know,
what was going on the world around me. You see the lockdowns, you see the mandates. You see other states, you see the way people are living during COVID, and then you compare it to the a state like Florida, which was relatively free and open and appealing, and then you see the results of that. And I, of course I talked about that in the article that I did.
Is the fact that you know, you got hundreds of thousands of people moving to Florida ever since COVID because they've realized how great of a state it is, how affordable it is. You know, you got your no income tax and everything, no state income tax, you got, like I said, the affordability. You've got a good climate, and you've got a government that actually, you know, cares about
the people. And you've got Democrats Republicans everywhere coming from states like California and New York primarily to a state like here. So I think, you know, seeing all that kind of really shifted my views on a lot of the the economic issues and things like that.
I sometimes note in some people's journey because unlike you, I came out of the box conservative thinking, even though my family was all except for one brother, liberal, very liberal. But I had a different philosophy from the get go.
But even in that there are what I call Aha moments where you look back and go ahh, and I'm wondering, looking back now at what you were thinking when you were in your formative teen years, and then looking at Bernie Sanders and looking at the big government, and this is the solution for all people? Were there such things as Aha moments where things just started to make sense in a very different way for you?
I think it was it was a gradual process. I went from you know, going so far to the left at one point that you know, once Biden became the nominee in twenty twenty, I was like, well, time for the Green Party, you know. But after that, you know, is when I started to you know, I started to look at alternative perspectives on different issues, you know, using the lockdowns and everything as an opportunity to just explore
different ideologies, different belief systems. Not that I was necessarily going to you know, support them or get indoctrinated by them or whatever. I just wanted to learn, you know, I was curious about politics, and I learned about you know, libertarianism and things like that, and you know, it's it becomes very appealing to me.
Over time, and so what was feeding that? What was your source? What were sources for you to learn those alternative perspectives.
I think it definitely stemmed from a change in my faith life. You know, as I mentioned before, I was raised with exposed to a lot of different belief systems, Western and non Western religions. I ended up over time, you know, picking up the Bible and becoming Catholic actually, and that really opened me up. It opened up my heart and my mind to the opportunity that you know,
there are alternative ways of thinking and that's okay. People with alternative view is you know, that's that's okay, and exploring those So I think that's when it started to happen.
Owen Gerard with me described as a liberal turned activist, do you agree with my supposition that liberalism is gone and it's been replaced by illiberalism. I don't think people are. I think there are liberals out there, and those are kind of old school Democrats that are today considered moderate and maybe leave the party because they believe fundamentally in liberty. But that what's called liberalism today and progressivism is actually illiberalism.
Yeah, absolutely, I mean, you know the idea of liberalism is liberty and freedom, you know. I mean, that's much of what our country was founded on, is you know, classical liberalism obviously is a term that a lot of libertarians and you know, people like Thomas Jefferson liked to use. And but no, I mean what you see today is you see big government. You see you know, the regulatory state.
You see these people that are you know, really just crushing the American dream, people that are making it impossible to own a home, raise a family, get a decent job, have a decent career, or even be proud of where you come from and who you are. And I think that's really tragic that that's the direction it has led to.
That was just part of my sit down with Owen Girard. If you want to hear all the interview, like a lot of the interviews here, I just edited down just a little bit, you can check it out on the Conversations podcast. You'll just have to do a little digging. We have more to come, a full half hour more on the Twelve Days of Preston recapping the year twenty twenty four. This is the month of August, back with more.
Welcome back to the Twelve Days of Preston here on The Morning Show with Preston Scott of August twenty twenty four, and of course this now, this segment is from after the primary in Florida and my reaction to the incredibly low vote totals people didn't turn out to vote, and I open up the phone lines the email box and asked why. All right, rut Ledge, tell me why you didn't Why didn't you vote?
Well, Preston, I think it's just I feel beat down as a conservative in this town, and I really feel like my vote would not have made a change, which is bad. This is an excuse in if we all get beat down like this and don't go out and vote, there's never going to be a change. But unfortunately, that's how I feel. I drive right by the polling spot on my way home. I have zero excuses other than the fact I just feel like it just does not
make a difference right now. But on the other hand, if we don't start making a difference in making our small vote count, then it's not ever going to change. So I really appreciate you bringing this up, and you know I'm part of the problem. If I'm not part of the solution.
Well, First of all, kudos to you for owning it. Well done. I respect that. Do you mind me asking a couple questions? Sure, I take it. You listen to the show and as a result, you heard, I'm sure at least a few times that while there are no Republicans, no Conservatives really in any of the races except one school board race, what does happen will make a significant difference? Did that just not Did that not register with you or what was it?
Yeah? It just really didn't register with me. I mean I listen, you know, and for Jack Porter, I think she needs to be out. I don't know where I vote because I'm way out on the west side of town. You know, I'm not even, to be honest with you, I was not even aware of who I would be able to vote for or not on the ballot. I didn't even do that much research other than listen to the radio program, listen to Steve Stewart and do a
little bit of stuff there. But at the same time, I'm almost so turned off by the whole election process right now, even on a national level. You know, even though I like Trump and I try to dig through things, you know, the silly things he says on both sides have just you know, that's to me, the most corrupt thing that you could be used to be a car salesman,
now it's a politician. I mean, so you know, I just try to cut some of that drama out of my life, and I think it put me into a shell, be honest with you.
So has just our conversation and just the I hate to use the word confrontation about it, but you know what I mean by that? Has that caused you to rethink? I mean, are you going to vote next primary? Are you going to vote in the general?
Yeah?
Yeah? No, no, no, yeah, I'm gonna yeah, no, I'm going to get back out. So what I'm saying, I think this is good that you're doing this today and saying hey, guys, we need to get up and vote your vote, whether you think it counts or not, Eventually, as a group, as a whole, it's going to make a difference. And when we have poor politicians in there that are just running us down, we just get so just beat down by all of it. But there's only one way that we can make the difference, and that's
to make our voice heard. Luckily, you are on the program and on the radio and sending out a message along with other avenues. But it takes the individual getting up and doing something. Unfortunately, I did not get up yesterday and do anything fair.
Enough, rule, Thanks very much. I appreciate you calling in and, like I said, being honest about it. Uh, Steve, you're gonna be next. We're gonna take we got it. We're a little late here into the break. I'd love to hear from more people, just you know, why did you not take advantage of the early voting, the mail in voting, and the day of voting. Thirty three percent voted in this community, and if you're outside this community, it's even worse.
Seventy eight percent stayed home or did not participate in voting, even though we have early voting, getting a ton of email. I'll start going through those in a second. But Stephen has been waiting very patiently, and the question is why you didn't vote, either in early voting, mail in voting, or in person. Steve, thanks for calling in.
Sure, Thanks Presiden, It's great to talk with you. And thanks SoSE I did vote, actually, and I'm coming to your conversation here with a little more ammunition of why.
You should vote.
So I voted early. I was probably done by about seven fifteen in the morning, and the counter on the machine read about fifteen people by that point, and so I was think the fifteenth person to get my vote cast.
My wife voted much much later in the day, and I asked her what the machines read, and she said one of them read one hundred and the other one read about thirty, So one hundred and thirty people, and accounting for you know, partisan divide and all that being a partisan primary, I would hazard a guess if I had about one percent of the say in my precincts for yesterday's vote cast, and that is way too much power for people to be addicating to me, you should
be making your own voice heard. Why would you trust me to vote on your behalf because essentially by staying home, that's what you're doing. So don't do that, you know, stand up and vote and during the primary, because your people vote, you actually have a greater say in the outcome of the primary, which is going to have a direct influence on the general election.
Yeah, if not more so, because we have races that will not go to the general election. They've been settled exactly. Do you agree with my thought that we should not allow that that no race should be settled in the primary. Quote, all races should be in the general election. In other words, top two vote getters general election. But we have a general election for all offices.
Yes, I do, and for this reason alone that not enough people vote in the primary, and it needs to be all the final decisions that you made. At the same time, I think that making any final decision prior is a bad model.
Steve, Thanks very much. I appreciate you calling in. Let me get to some email here. This is my first time voting as non affiliated. In the past, I was registered Republican. When I got my ballot, there were only two or three offices to vote on. Why wasn't I able to vote on the judge? Why is the judge of partisan official? You were able to vote on a judge. I don't know what you missed. That was on all ballots, Republican, Democrat, and nonpartisan. I have it from me. I have the
nonpartisan sample ballot. The judges race was on there, so I can't help you with that one. Jess just wrote in I did vote, but I almost didn't because honestly, I did not know there was an election yesterday. I've heard you guys talking about the local races, but I just assumed it was November. Then I heard you talk about it yesterday morning, so I made sure I went and vote. Roy wrote in as an independent voter, I did not get to vote in the primary for any
party candidates. If I like somebody from either one, my choice is then away until it's that has changed. I'm stuck with the whatever is chosen, and the so called nonpartisan races are a joke. So that's why I did not vote yesterday. Will vote in general election. The problem with that, Roy, is their races are gone. Now there are some races they're done. You didn't have a say and it might have made a difference. My wife and I voted, but my friends believe our elections are rigged
and no longer bother. That's pathetic because they're not rigged in Florida, no matter what you think about other places. Chris wrote in, I did not go to war, but many did so that I could vote. How can I never vote and flush their sacrifice down the toilet? Thank you? Chris. Michael wrote in I've asked several friends and some family if they were going to vote. The most common answers to those they chose not to vote because elections are rigged.
They don't think their vote will matter. Those are two different issues. Yes, your vote matters, even if it's to cancel out the vote of somebody who's voting opposite of what you want. Course it matters. Rigged again not in Florida. Ray wrote in I voted, but being registered as an independent county resident, I literally had two races on my ballot. His wife had four races on hers. I wonder if lack of choices, lack of races keeps some people from voting.
I would imagine those are some of the excuses that are out there. I'm looking at an independent ballot and there were one, two, potentially three races if you were in District two or four in the school board. If you weren't, then two races. But it still matters, gathering insight, keeping it real. It's the twelve Days of Pressed and more to come on The Morning Show with Preston Scott. Final segment of the Twelve Days of Preston for the month of August. The eighth of the twelve days, you
know twice a month. We make a little time on the program to talk about our four legged friends, though they're not always four legged, now are they? Let's talk about our pets, dogs, cats, and other Doctor Steve Steverson joins us from the Bradfordville Animal Hospital. Good morning, sir, Hey Preston, how are you doing. I'm doing well. Let me tell you what inspired all of this. My oldest son adopted from my grandson a red bearded dragon, and when I looked into it, I was amazed at how
big those things get. But I was curious. How often do you see in practice exotic pets.
You're not very often, Preston, West are so busy with dogkin cats. We'll see the occasional bird or reptile, but not as often. There's nothing sort of there's no vaccine for reptiles or birds, so we typically will see them when they have a medical problem. If they're healthy, we don't see them that often.
How does someone know if and go through the litany, I mean, whether it's a snake, a lizard, a bird, a ferret, how do you know if your pet's not doing well?
Yeah, you get you know, people that have a snake or a bird or some other reptile. You get to know your pet, and so you know it's eating habits, and it's sleeping habits and where it hangs out in it in its environment, and so you get to know it if something's wrong, you know, he's not eating well, or he's not going to his normal hot rock, or the bird's not perching like it usually does. They get
to where they just know. They'll bring them in and a lot of times they're bringing with some non specific descriptions of a problem, and then we have to kind of figure out what's happening and why they're behaving the way they are, and what the problem really is. So you know, usually it's something like that that they stop eating or stop sleeping where they normally do something like that. That's what we the reason that we see them.
To begin with doctor Severson with with like lizards and snakes, how often are problems traced to what people are feeding those pets?
You know, president a lot of times that's a huge issue. That's probably the number that is the number one reason we see reptiles at least is because they're not on a proper diet. They'll come in and they've been on some diet if someone bought that in any advice or the advice from just the part time in the wage work through at the pet store, and so they're feeding
the inappropriate diet. And now you know, very often what we'll see is we'll see a you know, like a red beer a dragon that's on an inappropriate diet and then they have a efficiency of calcium or vitamin D. They don't get a good bone structure, and they'll come in with what we call a pathologic fracture when they have weak bones, and they'll break a bone because of it. Hopefully it's not a severe situation. We can get them on the right diet and they'll heal very quickly. So
absolutely nutrition is extremely important. Definitely, if they're new to having an exotic bet, you want to talk to your veterinaria and make sure that you have them on the right diet, the right environment, the right setup in your terrium or whatever their environment is, so that they are going to be safe and healthy.
What are the best ways to keep birds healthy?
So birds take a lot of need a lot of stimulation preston, so you know, if they just stay in that little cage and they spend their whole life in that cage. Then they get bored and anxious and stress. They have all kinds of psychological behavioral problems. They start doing what we call feather picking and plucking at their feathers and pull them out, and they'll have a bird that's half bald because they're just so stressed they start
plucking their feathers. And so it's really important that you have a bird has a very rich environment in and out of their cage. They need to be in a cage overnight that a lot of times is safest, but they need to be able to be out of the cage and interact with people, so they have a lot
of stimulation. So a lot of a lot of advice is given to a person that's new to having a bird, whether that's from a veterinarian or you have someone who's a seasoned bird owner that can talk to you about that, how to handle them, how to keep a bird properly. That's really really important.
Always appreciate my visits doctor Steve Steverson of the Bradfordville Animal Hospital or Pause for Thought segment. It was fun to just talk about something other than dogs and ca ads because we always do. I figured it would be useful to talk about some other kinds of animals and different types of birds that people have as pets. So yeah, but we do that on the first and third Thursdays of each month most months here on the Morning Show with Preston Scott. It says just one of many features.
We try to throw these features in that improve your life, inform you, help you out, just toss you a little bone out there. To not mix the metaphors. There's another segment though, that we do only this one is every week every Friday, every Friday. We feel like it's very important for our psyche to just push away from all of the noise and offer something just a little bit more uplifting. Okay, do you have any good news for a kings so much? Just spell it's time for some
good news. It's true even I need a little good news now and then. Wouldn't it be lovely if we had just a little bit of good news? I have recommended to you for years and I guess it's an extension of the Mad Radio Network. Make a difference to always have your discernometer working, because you'll never know unless you're kind of paying attention to the world around you. The opportunities that you will have to make a difference in someone's life unless you're listening and paying attention to
the world around you. This story comes from New Hampshire. Janelle Marie came across a guy named Donald and listened now at US Gold and Pond in Manchester, New Hampshire. Donald was selling jewelry. And Donald is ninety years old, and you're looking at an older gentleman that's selling things that obviously were very meaningful to him at a pawn shop,
and she struck up a conversation. He was selling his jewelry to pay rent for him and for his wife, who had been diagnosed with dementia, and to avoid eviction, and so struggling to keep up with the bills, he resorted to pawning everything that he owned to try to find the money to pay what he could of the rent, at least to buy himself some time. Well, Miss Janelle decided to do something about it. She put it on
TikTok and started a GoFundMe page. Shortly after she started, she was able to get twelve hundred dollars of cash, and she found Donald because she'd figured out a way to reach to him. He didn't want to accept the money, and she said, look, people want to help you, and
so it paid the rent that was due. I'm not sure whether he was prepared for the three hundred and sixty five thousand dollars that was raised as of Monday this week, but it seems that Donald and his lovely wife's situation has been taken care of because one person paid attention and looked around and saw a need and made a difference. And that is good news. Here in the Morning Show with Preston Scott. Even the music in that segment makes you feel better, doesn't it? Good news?
You know, I'm frequently asked, why didn't you just do that? All the time? You go ahead and try it, let them know how it works out for you. We do our best to try to break up the monotony of news, which is inherently a little bit on the negative side, and even sometimes poke a little fun at ourselves and at the news that we're talking about. But anyway, all right, we're back, Yes even New Year's Eve show number nine on the twelve Days of Preston, where we highlight the
month of September. Look forward to visiting with you tomorrow Morning