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January 9, 2025 • 119 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:21):
Welcome friends, day two of the twelve Days of Preston,
and that of course means we're going to chronicle the
month of February. This is kind of our gift to
you as opposed to having you listen to something that
a lot of you don't enjoy listening to over and
over again, because I had just heard it the hour before.

(00:43):
We decided a few years back that we would do
a year in review and sort of kind of a
best of the Morning Show with Preston Scott and offer
it as a gift, a way of saying thank you
and keeping you a little entertained by going back through
a very interesting year. Right the year twenty twenty four

(01:06):
was quite the year, and we're going to take you
through it. Yesterday was the month of January. Today is
December twentieth. More on that in just a few moments.
But today is the second day of Preston, So it's
the month of February. And so we'll knock off each
month with each show as we go through the process

(01:27):
of building these twelve days out for you. And so
while we are away on a little vacation time for us,
we still wanted to take the time because these do
take some time to produce. We wanted to take the
time to share what we thought were key interviews and
segments from the programs in a given month and repackage

(01:49):
them and boil them down into our three hours together.
So that's what we will do, and as we always do,
we will we will art this program as we do
every show, with some scripture, because you know, what's the
old expression that you see on the cards. You can't

(02:09):
spell Christmas without Christ. And so you can do all
you want to celebrate Christmas. I mean, that's that's awesome
and fine, But to do it without acknowledging Christ, I
just think it'd be a shame.

Speaker 2 (02:25):
You know.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
It's it's interesting to me that, for one reason or another,
basically everything around the world shuts down on December twenty fifth,
which of course is just a few days a few
days away. And so even though the world does not

(02:46):
all acknowledge Jesus as the Son of God and worthy
of celebration, they sure acknowledge him by shutting down everything
at Christmas time on Christmas Day. And so our verse
today it's actually a series of verses. You know, Christmas
is the day that we celebrate the birthday of Jesus.

(03:08):
Was it December the twenty fifth? Well, no, probably not,
but that's the day that we've settled on, and we're
going to honor Jesus on December the twenty fifth. But
it's accurate to say that Jesus has a birthday in
the same sense as anyone else in history. Right, can

(03:30):
a day in December truly mark the beginning of the
Son of God? Well, but that's where things change, right,
That's where Jesus separates himself, because unlike every other baby,
Jesus really didn't have a beginning point. We acknowledge his
birth in human form, but he existed before his birth.

(03:51):
The apostle John stated in the beginning was the word.
The word had already existed. The word was Jesus. Jesus
himself declared his pre existence before Abraham was even born.
I am, he said in John eight fifty eight, and

(04:12):
he affirmed his true origins. I've come down from heaven.
John the Baptizer was born before Jesus, testified to Jesus's
eternal nature, saying he existed long before me. But yet
John was born before him, so he knew the nature.

(04:33):
If you will of Jesus and eternity passed. Jesus as
the son of God, communed in perfect harmony with his
Father and the Holy Spirit. This is the mystery of
the trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit three and one, coequal, coexistent,
co eternal. And so you then have to get to

(04:54):
wrestling with the question of why did God the Father
send his so to creation? What was the purpose? Well,
we kind of touched on that yesterday John three point sixteen,
But today I just want you to consider that gift
that God so loved the world he gave. It's the

(05:17):
gift of grace. But like any other gift, it's meaningless
unless you receive it. You know, if I give my
wife or my children a present, I take the time
to wrap it up, and yes, I do the gift
wrapping because I'm just that way. I love wrapping gifts.

(05:39):
It's something my mom and I did together. It's a
pretty good gift wrapper. So if I wrap a gift,
it's not a gift until it's received. Until then, it's
just a good intention. It's what is something that I've

(06:02):
planned to give, But you've got to receive that gift.
My children have to receive. My wife has to receive
any gift that I offer her, and for you and me,
God has to be received. We have to make that choice,
all right. As I mentioned, it is December the twentieth.

(06:24):
It's a Friday. Opening up the American Patriots Almanac to
the twentieth we have. In sixteen oh six, Jamestown settlers
set sail from England for Virginia. Seventeen ninety first successful
American cotton mill begins operating in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, Louisiana.
Purchase formally completed in New Orleans in eighteen oh three.

(06:46):
South Carolina becomes the first state to seceed from the
Union in eighteen sixty. In eighteen ninety one, in late December,
John Nasmith works out the basics of basketball, and in
nineteen fifty one, an ex nmental reactor near Rco, Idaho
produces the first electricity ever generated by atomic power.

Speaker 3 (07:10):
What are you kidding me?

Speaker 1 (07:14):
So there you go this date in history. From time
to time, as we do the twelve days, we're gonna
let you listen to a little sound of the season
if you will. And so I think that's what we'll do.
We'll head into break come back we'll start unpacking the
month of February. It's the Twelve Days of Preston, and

(07:36):
we're going to go through each and every month, each
and every day through the twelve days as we recap
a year twenty twenty four on The Morning Show with
Preston Scott Dude.

Speaker 4 (08:00):
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Do Do Do Do Do Do Do Do Do Do

(08:21):
Do Do do do do do bo bardavadam ba ba.

Speaker 3 (08:31):
Baaa baaaaaaaaaa do do do do do do do bo.

Speaker 4 (08:48):
Bo davada ba ba.

Speaker 3 (08:53):
Baada didity di Tity.

Speaker 1 (09:11):
Welcome back to the Twelve Days of Preston. This is
day two, which means the second month of the year
and the month of February. We'll kick it off with
a visit with state Chief financial Officer Jimmy Patronis covered
a lot of ground, including some hurt feelings after Florida
State University got snubbed out of the college football playoffs,
but we also talked about Jimmy's career in a broader sense,

(09:34):
including how far back it goes.

Speaker 5 (09:37):
So I did eight in the state legislature and I
was working at the restaurant, so you know, doing what
I was supposed to work and have a real job
at home. Then I was term limited out I was
going home. Rick Scott asked me to go on the
Public Service Commission, so I was there three years and
then twenty seventeen he appointed me to be CFO after

(10:01):
my Kadie, my wife, gave me permission. So then elected
in eighteen and re elected in twenty two. So I'm
I'm about to cross the threshold of you know, working
on my I guess my seventh year.

Speaker 1 (10:14):
How many is it term limited?

Speaker 5 (10:17):
Yeah, it's term limited. If I finished this term, which
I'm tending to, I'll be the longest servant's CFO in
the state's history.

Speaker 1 (10:25):
And that's it. You're done.

Speaker 5 (10:28):
Yeah, I mean, well, I mean there's there's I mean,
unless you're going to change the constitution. But yeah, I'm done.
I bet. I do think I got the best job
in the state. Nobody nobody shows up the work unless
I find the paycheck. So when everybody takes my phone
call because of that, So it's it's it's good stuff.

Speaker 1 (10:44):
How would you describe to somebody like you're sitting down
with a person that's not involved in politics, They don't
really know, probably don't care, and they say, what is
the job of the CFO. How do you describe your
job in life like a coffee table discussion.

Speaker 5 (11:02):
Yep. For the first thing I tell them, I said,
it's like I'm the state's business manager. I payl the bills,
a balance, a checkbook. You know, a license. You know,
over a million insurance licenses in the States of whether
it be your you know, guy says your car insurance,
life insurance, health insurance. I do all insurance consumer fraud.

Speaker 1 (11:23):
You know.

Speaker 5 (11:23):
Here's another one people don't realize, you know. I ask them,
you know, a licensed funel homes and then funerals. Why
do your license fuels? Because people by pre need. It's
like an insurance product. So where there's where there is
a a fiduciary responsibility with an insurance role and it's
tied to the consumer, I have a responsibility. I'm the

(11:46):
state fire marshal. I regulate blasting anything is like the
governor's office didn't want I ended up getting when they
rewrote the constitution twenty years ago.

Speaker 1 (11:55):
When we look at the legislative process, we're in session
right now, and the one mandate is to balance the budget.
As you well know, how much, if any input do
you have on it on the front end or the
back end.

Speaker 5 (12:10):
So it's interesting, not a tremendous amount. But you know,
back during COVID to the legislature, the Speaker and the
Senate President and the governor have the revenue estimating conference
where they're going to have the projections, and they built
the budget. But what I did, which ruffled some feathers,
buff All was important to do, is I started, I

(12:33):
saw what was happening with COVID, and I started sending it.
People don't like him when you send letters, but I
sent a letter to those those different parties saying, you know,
these are some concerns I've got. Oh, they didn't like
me sending letters, but you know that's part of my
job is I managed a checkbook even though they dictate
what I can spend and I can stop payment on something.

(12:56):
But you know, I've been around this process long enough.
I've seen more than one dip in the me and
I get paranoid. When are states, you know, cash reserves
where again we're where like a seasonal business on a
beach destination. We ever ups and downs of the cash
flow of the state. When tourism's here. We've got lots
of money right now, it's just all the way around.

(13:17):
We've got plenty of money, but time is fleeting. And
you know, like I said, COVID, COVID wiped out the
state financially, but we bounced back very quickly.

Speaker 1 (13:26):
Jimmy word association, I say, ESG.

Speaker 6 (13:30):
You say, worst thing you could do to the profitability
of a company. Explain that's that's a word style that
I gave him more than a word.

Speaker 1 (13:41):
Oh no, no, no, sir, that you are not even
close to Kamala Ra's territory.

Speaker 5 (13:48):
You say ESG, which is three letters, and I say that.

Speaker 1 (13:53):
Explain to people why why is Florida's so focused on
fighting ESG. It started last year with stuff that made
national headlines, but the fight is continuing. Explain why so
ESG is.

Speaker 5 (14:09):
It seems to continue to weave itself into corporate boardrooms.
Corporate boardrooms don't know what to do with it. You've
gotten the situations where a chairman or a board of
directors is saying, you've got to adopt these ESG policies.
Some of this stuff has been dictated by some of
the stock exchanges. That stands for environmental, social and governance.

(14:29):
So I mean, if you understand what the term woke is,
if you woke kind of goeskin in hand with ESG.
And the more environmental friendly you are, the more social
agenda friendly you are, the more your governess reflects supportive
of those two. You know, they score you as like
having a high ESG score. And you have companies that

(14:50):
praise themselves on the media about being that, but that
has zero sensitivity to the bottom line. So this is
where like in the case of black Rock, black got
way out in front on this, but they're also one
of the biggest managing of assets in the world. You know,
it started affecting their bottom line, which is firefighter's pensions,

(15:13):
it's law enforcement pensions. And I just said, you know,
I don't want it doesn't perform well. But two, you know,
it's not what's going to create the best thing for
the buck when it comes to investment of people like
that in the long run.

Speaker 1 (15:27):
I'm curious, Jimmy, you know there's a story. We haven't
even talked about it yet today and I doubt we
will today. Disney got whipped one more time in court
the state of Florida, one against Disney. It was a
pretty significant ruling yesterday. But Disney is all in on ESG.

(15:48):
But yet they somehow are escaping their fiduciary responsibility to
their shareholders. It's a publicly traded company. At what point
does that rooster come home to roost?

Speaker 5 (16:00):
I think at some point it will. As long as
you've got stock exchanges that have some form of an
es G expectation in their governance, then then this is
going to make the water, you know, kind of murky
when it goes into a court. It comes down from
a lot of influence from Washington, out of the White House.

(16:20):
And so where we feel like we have the high
ground we take is to call them out as ESG
doesn't always have the best outcomes on investment. And Daddy
always said, you want to get somebody's attention to get
into their pocketbook. So I mean where you have dollars
fleeing the ESG funds or the es G companies. Because
some companies proudly, you know, put it front and center.

(16:43):
Some of them they check the box and they do
whatever they mentally have to do because they've got a
border of directors that still believes and have a maximum
profitability every single year. But yeah, it's in the case
of Disney, they they they've you know, doubled down on it. Yes,
they wasn't a good day for Disney bottom line.

Speaker 1 (17:04):
In the state of Florida, the lawmakers, and I'm guessing
with some guidance from your office, they're erecting barriers between
the public and the businesses of Florida and the banking
and lending institutions that want to try to score companies
and businesses and loan applications with ESG.

Speaker 5 (17:22):
Yeah, basically said, if you're going to only lend money
to a business and the more woke that they are,
the more ESG friendly that they are, we're going to
give you a lower interest rate.

Speaker 7 (17:34):
That's horrible.

Speaker 5 (17:36):
That's horrible, you know. So we said, if you're going
to do that, we made one hundred and seventeen banks
they sign attestation inform saying we do not score loans
in this method or manner. So, okay, as long as
you don't do that and you really care about somebody's
business fundamentals, then you can do business. With the State
of Florida and the scheme of things, that's a pretty

(17:56):
big stick we have to use over the banks, because
if if the State of Florida starts pulling out my
checking account of loan's got sixty billion dollars in it,
that's to included in the two hundred billion that we've
got in retirement and funds. The state of flord is
int a great financial place, but we've got a lot
of financial.

Speaker 1 (18:11):
Ice too, And I'm going to remind the CFO that
we we stress on this program no profanity. And I
say that because, as I mentioned this next word association.
So I say NC double A and you say say

(18:34):
for broadcasting.

Speaker 5 (18:36):
Uhar, you were stuck.

Speaker 1 (18:44):
Because your first instinct is I want to say something
with four letters, all right, So I say NC double A.
You made a lot of waves publicly in the wake
of Florida State being axed out of, snubbed whatever from
the college football playoff. We talked in the break Senator
Rick Scott's asked for documentation, has he gotten any?

Speaker 5 (19:08):
So they immediately fired back a letter from their compliance officer,
which you know was was careful not to expose any
any liability. But I tell you, the NCAA is in
Washington a lot and they and they use it for
cover because they've got such a train wreck of an

(19:30):
administration right now. They're getting nothing solved with NIL, the portal,
the challenges that's created, the debacle that happened with the
playoff system, How.

Speaker 1 (19:41):
That playoff workouts, Well, we're in the midst of it.
You'd be the judge of that. We'll be back with
more the Twelve Days of Preston here on the Morning
Show with Preston Scott. Welcome back to the Twelve Days

(20:13):
of Preston. Our gift to you a year in review
the month of February today on the Morning Show with
Preston Scott and one of our favorite guests. One of
your favorite guests is Sal Newso then with the James
Madison Institute, now Executive director of Consumer's Defense, but always
talking about what's going on inside the legislative halls of

(20:36):
the Sunshine State. The Governor's office. Go, yeah, the governor's.

Speaker 8 (20:41):
Definitely getting more involved in legislative Well, he's back, Yeah,
he's back. In addition, there's something I wanted to highlight
because it's a pretty big deal. He filed suit against
the Biden administration and it's in respect to the children's
health insurance program in Florida. Chip it's a subsidized insurance offering,
and it has a lighting scale for really really small

(21:01):
premiums at certain income thresholds, so it's meant to be
a safety net. So Florida was the first state to
operate this program. Now, under the parameters, the legislature was
able to expand this program to cover even more kids
as recently as last year. So the Biden administration issued
a ruling through the Center for Medicaid Service as CMS

(21:24):
stating that states must provide continuous coverage even if people
have stopped paying those tiny premiums. So in effect, it
would create a free for all into the program. People
go in, they stop paying, and they can't get the
state has no way to get them back on track.
It's definitely a push by the FEDS to backdoor control

(21:46):
over how the state does health insurance policy. I mean,
it's clearly aimed by the leftists to come in, and
as you would imagine, the left media has gone upon
oplectic just claiming that all that the Dysantas administration wants
to do is kick kids off of insurance, which is

(22:07):
ridiculous considering we've expanded the program and we're doing it
in a way that helps protect the state's budget and
ability to continue to expand it, and so DeSantis filed suit.
It's something we know conservative should all get behind because
it's actually protecting the people who need this the most

(22:27):
and allowing the state to do what it can.

Speaker 1 (22:29):
And then, look, life teaches us that if you don't
have a little skin in the game, no matter how
small it is, you have no value of it.

Speaker 8 (22:37):
Well, and if you think about it, from the left's
ultimate goal is a completely universal, quote unquote government controlled
health system. This is one little step along those yep,
along that road. And wisely the governor sees it for
what it is and says, oh, no, we are doing
this in a way that you can't do. That you've

(22:58):
shown you're completely incap bull of doing, and we're going
to sue to keep that going. All right, The governor
got a huge win. We mentioned it briefly in court
against Disney. Explained, Yeah, so federal court Judge Allan Windsor
tossed the Disney defamation suits. So Disney had sued the governor,
claiming that it was political retaliation for them speaking their

(23:19):
mind on a particular bill, and the judge in the
case tossed it, and now Disney has said they're going
to appeal. I think this is just a loser for them.
They continue to get egg on their faces as continues.
So you know, if I was a consultant for him,
I would say.

Speaker 1 (23:36):
Just go away. The governor also came out publicly regarding
four specific resolutions. What were those and why do you
think he came out on these?

Speaker 8 (23:43):
Well, one the political calculus. This may be a good
kind of political narrative for him if he is thinking
about running four years from now. The resolutions are to
adopt term limits for Congress, to pass a balanced budget
of men for the United States Congress, a line item
veto for the President, which would need to be an

(24:06):
amendment because the Congress passed it in the nineties and
it was tossed by the Supreme Court. And then I
love this one. Force Congress to be subject to all
laws that it passes. What a novel idea go figure.
So that's it's a pretty big deal. There are what
they call Article five conventions around the country.

Speaker 1 (24:28):
Constitutional Yeah, the Convention of States days coming up on
the twentieth of February.

Speaker 8 (24:32):
These are all efforts to invoke Article five, which allows
the states to come together and propose amendments of the Constitution.
Florida is moving all of these and so looking forward
to seeing how this plays out.

Speaker 1 (24:44):
Governor Rondasanus very publicly didn't just support Texas. He's sending
the Florida National Guard.

Speaker 8 (24:52):
Yeah, not only the Florida National Guard, but the State Guard,
which was established for him a session or two ago,
I think it was two years back.

Speaker 1 (24:59):
Well deeps there or FDL E and even some state
troopers are there and so forth.

Speaker 8 (25:05):
Yeah, so you've got this effort of partnership between two
very conservative states. Both are border states, but approach border
control very differently, Texas as a landmass border, Florida as
a coastal border. But the fact that this is kind
of sent the left also into its He reveals to

(25:26):
me just how bent they are on nothing but complete
open borders. And we were talking before the show about
you know, I'm trying to pay attention to the border
bill that they're trying to pass, and it just seems
like it's got a complete lack of Logically, we're going
to allow five thousand a day through the border, I
mean the number should be zero, but you in addition
to that You've got the district attorney in New York City.

(25:49):
I think it's Alvin Bragg. Yep, he indicted Trump and
he's refusing to do anything about illegal immigrants and crime
in his own district in New York. I mean he's
letting them out in are going out and committing more crimes.

Speaker 9 (26:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (26:03):
So it's a something that while JMI doesn't, you know,
kind of do immigration and border policy, it's something we're following.

Speaker 1 (26:11):
Quite a bit. What are the highlights of what happened
in a really busy week in the legislature.

Speaker 10 (26:16):
Yeah, it was.

Speaker 8 (26:16):
It was a really really busy week. HB fourteen oh
three is a big one. It's making changes to the
vehicles for school choice programs in Florida.

Speaker 1 (26:25):
It passed the full House.

Speaker 8 (26:27):
Now what it would do is expand the Family Empowerment Scholarship,
which goes to special needs kids. It's a different pot
of money, and it also consolidates the Hope Scholarship into
the new ESA. The Hope one was for the kids
who were bullied and assaulted. They're just moving that into
the ESA and that one's going away. In addition, thirteen

(26:49):
sixty one past the full House, which would expand the
ESA into the VPK program for kids that aren't reaching
early reading and math benchmarks. And this is something where
I think they're going to start taking little bites at
the apple on VPK and try to get school choice
into those programs as well. Okay, HB forty nine, We've

(27:10):
talked about this a couple of times, easing employment restrictions
on sixteen and seventeen year olds. It passed the full House,
the Senate version. Danny Burgess, Senator Burgess has got it.
It's made it through one stop, so I see that
moving as well. HB six thirty five from Fiona McFarlane.
We haven't talked about this one, but I got a

(27:31):
look at it, and it's a really really great bill
offering tax breaks for businesses that offer childcare for employees.
So if a business offers either childcare in house or
they provide childcare payment as a benefit, they can take
a deduction from their either their corporate income tax insuran's
premium taxes, a few other taxes of the state levies.

(27:54):
I saw this one late, but I absolutely loved it.
The Senate version is moving as well. Kudos to Ret
MacFarlane for kind of the foresight on this one, fake
weed on the chopping block HB sixteen thirteen, It passed
a committee. It would severely restrict products that mimic some

(28:14):
of the effects of THHC, but you can buy them
without a medical marijuana license or what have you. Thus far,
it's legal. They're trying to as I've read about it,
they're trying to gear up for when recreational marijuana does
in fact get on the ballot and likely passes. So

(28:34):
it's one that if you're into those things, you're likely
paying attention and you may not like the restriction, but
be prepared because I.

Speaker 1 (28:42):
Do see that when moving all right, pitbull owners pay
close attention.

Speaker 11 (28:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (28:45):
House built eight seventy three from Representative Pain Dangerous Dog
Liability Insurance. It pass committee unanimously, also moving in the Senate.
Now it's not based on breeds, and that's very important,
but rather dogs that have a specific individual history. So
if your dog attacks or bites, or there's a complaint
and it's and it's verified, then you would be required

(29:10):
to obtain one hundred thousand dollars of liability coverage.

Speaker 1 (29:15):
Or get rid of the dog.

Speaker 8 (29:16):
And so it's been implemented in a couple of other
states very effectively, and I kind of and you like it.

Speaker 1 (29:23):
Because there's there's in every breed. There are sweetheart dogs
and there are more aggressive dogs.

Speaker 8 (29:28):
Yeah, and a blanket either ban or requirement to have
liability insurance if you've got some, you know, fifteen year
old pit bull that isn't doing anything at all except
lying around on your couch. I like the approach that
really kind of targets this in a manner that's that
that is better than a blanket co approach.

Speaker 1 (29:47):
We've got more of our legislative update with sal Nowzo
coming up next on the twelve Days at Preston. All Right,

(30:09):
we're in the month of February in the twelve Days
of Pressent and continuing our legislative update in the middle
of the session with sal new Zoe.

Speaker 8 (30:17):
We talked briefly last week about a couple of reform bills,
one that would restrict third party financing of litigation. It
was on the agenda for a committee hearing, but it
got postponed and as of yesterday I couldn't figure out why,
and nobody seems to be saying why. It could be
some technical language, but I'm paying attention to that. However,

(30:39):
Senator Jim Boyd's bill, Senate Bill seventeen sixteen, would allow
what are called surplus lines insurance providers to take over
policies from citizens property. Surplus lines are kind of specialty
insurance providers. They had been banned from citizens for a
variety of reasons. But we need to offload citizens policies

(30:59):
into the mark. So this is a good move. There
another tort reform bill beginning to move, Senate Bill two
thirty eight, limiting litigation against assisted living facilities. Now, the
crux of this bill is in regard to who can
be sued in many cases, als have independent operators, they're
owned by large companies, hedge funds. We've got an aging

(31:23):
population that's growing, a lot of people are going to
be going into ALFs, and so this is kind of
a foresight bill to get ahead of the game. There, Okay,
HB fifteen sixty one, Good luck.

Speaker 9 (31:36):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 8 (31:36):
Representative Demi Busata Cabrera is moving specific reforms to what
procedures can be performed in an office versus a surgical center.
It's targeted at something called Brazilian butt lifts. And I
only mentioned it because I wanted to say Brazilian butt
lift on the show. Who doesn't exactly along those same

(31:57):
lines will continue. Senator Clay Yard Senate Bill sixteen to
ninety requiring employees of adult establishments to all be twenty
one years or older.

Speaker 1 (32:08):
It's moving.

Speaker 8 (32:09):
So if you want to be an adult dancer, first off,
I would say please reconsider. But if that doesn't work,
you have to wait until you're twenty one.

Speaker 1 (32:18):
Rep.

Speaker 8 (32:19):
Amnesty in the House as a companion, that's moving. House
built three ninety five from Dean Black protecting historical monuments.
It's moving in both chambers. He's been kind of championing
this for a couple of sessions. The Senate Companion Bill
gets a second stop this week. The bill was changed
a bit so the monument has to have been in

(32:40):
place for twenty five years. I don't know why they
picked that year or that number of years as a
starting point, but that's the way that they're kind of
getting some folks over over onto their side. There one
more twelve to twenty three from Bobby Pain lowering the
age to buy a long rifle back to eighteen. It's

(33:02):
moving in the House. I'm I feel it's likely to
pass but according to the Senate President, it is a
non starter for them. So just wanted to call attention
to that one as it as it continues to move forward, how.

Speaker 1 (33:14):
Long before that ends up in court and tossed out.

Speaker 8 (33:17):
Well, somebody's got somebody's got a an eighteen or nineteen
or twenty year old has to sue, and then it's
got to move through the process.

Speaker 1 (33:25):
There. This is what normally happens midway through the legislature, Gosha,
things start going, yeah.

Speaker 8 (33:31):
This is this is the first of the two, kind
of like moving weeks where stuff is just all of
a sudden, now the floodgates are open. Moving on HB
five point thirty three from Fabricio would close the loophole
and require all inmates in state facilities to have DNA
samples collected. It's ready for the House floor Senator and
Goolia has a Senate Command Companion that's moving the full

(33:55):
Senate past SB two eighty, which would provide a state
level regulatory system for vacation rentals. House Companion has made
it through its first stop, but it has two others,
and that would preempt most of the local regulations that
are in place around the state for airbnbs and whatnot
interesting tack and a large agency bill for the Department

(34:18):
of Agriculture and Consumer Services. The bill now has a
provision banning the production or sale of fake meat. And
we don't mean like veggie burgers, we mean like lab created,
cultivated meat. So the agency bills typically get passed, so
I'm paying attention to see how this looks.

Speaker 1 (34:36):
Moving ahead.

Speaker 8 (34:38):
Sixteen thirty nine, requiring official documents to identify an individual's
sex as opposed to gender identity. It passed its second stop,
and I expect the House to pass it. It currently
does not have a Senate companion, so one of two
things will happen. Either it'll pass the House and that'll

(34:59):
be it for this or a proposed committee bill could
pop up. Those can be filed late in the session,
in which case it could move really really quickly. So
we'll have to see what happens there. All right, what's
coming up this week? This week, we've got today We've
got a first Senate committee hearing for the companion bills
to HB one in HB three, that's this afternoon. I'm

(35:22):
hearing that the version that the House passed it's going
to be changed before it gets to the Senate floor,
but I'm definitely paying attention to how it progresses and
what the amendment changes, because, as we've talked about, there
are some concerns on whether or not the age verification

(35:43):
piece is constitutional given what other states have done. And
you know, as the governor has said, as others have said,
you really want this to stick. You want it to
make it past any kind of court issues, and that's
something that I'm kind of paying attention to as.

Speaker 1 (35:58):
We move forward. It's one of my biggest complaints with
Congress is that they pass laws that don't pass constitutional muster.
Why bother?

Speaker 8 (36:08):
Yeah, yeah, And you know, I understand where the Speaker
and others are coming from. I agree with the intention,
but kind of the direction that it's going. I'm paying
attention to what the Senate does. Final segment here, What
else is coming up this week? Can we just first
talk about the fact that it looks like we're going
to make it through all five pages of notes?

Speaker 1 (36:29):
Well not now, you just wasted time.

Speaker 8 (36:31):
Darn it all right, Senate Regulated Industries, they're gonna hear
Jay Trumbell's bill, which would lift regulations on the size
of wine containers, which personally I am all in favor of.
I want gallons of wine available at restaurants and wherever
you had it. Hook up an iv man if someone

(36:52):
wants to whatever allow I believe in free markets.

Speaker 1 (36:57):
Preston. I've never had a glass of wine in my life.
I don't care, but I don't care what the government
thinks about how big a wine glasses.

Speaker 8 (37:04):
Exactly, exactly, all right. Kudos to Chip Lamarca, who's got
the House bill. He's been championing this for many years.
Also first stop for a really great bill to establish
what's called a limited barber license. What this would do
is it's almost like an apprenticeship for a barber, and

(37:24):
it allows an individual and I want you to think
about someone kind of returning from to society from prison
or who you know can't afford yet to get into
barbering school or pay the eleven thousand dollars average tuition.
It would allow them a limited scope under the tutelage
of an existing barber with supervision. And so the House

(37:48):
and the Senate committees are taking that up this today
and tomorrow. We've also got a bill from Rep. Allison
Tant It would make Florida a hands free state, so
if you're in your car and your phone is there,
you would not be able to touch it. After that
bill passes, if it does in fact move Tuesday, we've

(38:08):
got a big Banking and Insurance Committee hearing in the House.
In addition, in that bill or in that committee hearing,
you've got a cybersecurity bill from Rep. Mike ga Lombardo.
It gets a second committee stop. We're starting to pay
attention to it. It's really really good, but the goal
is really to position Florida, especially on the state government side,

(38:31):
to protect it from the inevitable thousands and in some
cases millions of hack attempts that come in from China
and other adversaries. A ton of bills in the Senate
Community Affairs Committee along with the Government Oversight and Accountability Committee.
I looked at the calendar for that. I think it

(38:53):
was like twenty bills or something like that. Healthcare Appropriations
Committee is also going to hear several bills we've met
in prior weeks, including one that I spoke about I
think it was last week on dental therapy. Pay attention
to this because, as I've mentioned, Florida has tremendous healthcare
provider shortages. What this one would do is establish a

(39:14):
mid level provider category to do very routine stuff, basic fillings,
basic extractions, and some other things along those lines. And
the idea is you've got rural areas in the state
that have maybe one or two dentists for one hundred
thousand people, and it just can't be allowed to continue

(39:36):
as we grow.

Speaker 1 (39:37):
Sow New zoh now with Consumers Defense, offering a look
inside the legislative session about halfway through, but early in
the month of February, here on the Twelve Days of Preston.

(40:06):
Welcome to the second hour of the second day of
the Twelve Days of Preston. Good morning friends, I'm Preston Scott.
This is our Christmas gift to you. While we are
away taking our Christmas break, we're keeping you company by
doing a best of kind of a look back at

(40:27):
the year of twenty twenty four and reminding you of
the stories that shaped the year. A tumultuous year, an
incredible year, and we're just going to ease you right
on through it. So Day one was the month of January.
That was yesterday. Day two today Friday, December the twentieth

(40:48):
is the month of February, and so we begin this
second hour with what really ended up being one of
the biggest stories of the year, because you you mark
the times sometimes with events that you know. I described

(41:09):
this one as bittersweet, and it was the passing of
FSU baseball coach Mike Martin sor eleven.

Speaker 5 (41:20):
Was is.

Speaker 1 (41:24):
A legend as far as coaching, definitely one of the
very few goats on the mountain. No coach in any
sport won more games in the NC two A than
Mike Martin did as coach of FSU baseball. And so

(41:45):
we're going to take some time here this morning and
hour number two to remember the day that we talked
about with great great fondness, our dear friend Mike Martin Senior,
otherwise known as eleven.

Speaker 11 (42:00):
Doubt the most difficult, the most unpredictable sport. I mean,
who would have ever thought six weeks ago that we
would get to Omaha.

Speaker 10 (42:08):
I'm just so proud of the young men.

Speaker 11 (42:10):
They're obviously very disappointing now, but what they accomplished just
will not go unnoticed. To get to Omaha and have
an opportunity a lot of credit just goes to those
young men, and all the credit goes to our staff.

Speaker 1 (42:28):
That is the legend. Eleven Mike Martin courtesy of ESPN
in the wake of Florida State's last appearance in the
College Baseball World Series with Mike Martin at the Helm
in twenty nineteen, the seventeenth appearance in the World Series

(42:48):
with eleven running the baseball program, forty years as head coach,
forty visits to the NCAA tournament. That's just insane. Good morning, everybody,
The Morning Show with Preston Scott, The Big Story in

(43:08):
the press Box, brought to you by Restore Carpet Karen Tyle.
It is a It is a bittersweet morning. It was
a bittersweet day yesterday. If you met Mike Martin ever
in your life, you felt like he was your friend.

(43:31):
Eleven passed away yesterday at the age of seventy nine,
just eleven days short of his eightieth birthday. Three year
battle with louis body dementia. It was about a year ago.

(43:51):
I played golf with eleven and saw some signs, but
I first met Mike at the FCA Golf Tournament more
than twenty some odd years ago. In that particular year.

(44:14):
It was being played out at Seminole and he was
standing at a par three and for a donation to
fca an extra donation, he did a golf ball for
you on the on that whole, you should know eleven
could play golf. Not only was he an amazing baseball player.

(44:39):
In fact, when he left Wingate Junior College enrolled at
Florida State, he helped lead the Noles to the sixty
five World Series and then the UNCAA Tournament the next
year as well. He coached at Cobb Middle School, He
coached at Godby High School. He coached at TCC. Then

(45:02):
he was hired by Woody Woodward as an assistant in
nineteen seventy five. Spent four seasons as an assistant under
Woodward and one under Dick Hauser. When Hawser took a
job as the manager of the New York Yankees, FSU
Baseball hired Mike Martin as their head coach and never

(45:23):
looked back forty consecutive seasons. The winningest coach of any
sport in NCAA history, Baseball, of course, any sport. It's
an amazing accomplishment, but all of that pales by comparison

(45:49):
to who Mike Martin was. He was a gentleman. I
think he's one of the finest people I have ever
been privileged to know in my entire life. I have
a baseball here that he signed to preston a true friend,

(46:16):
Mike Martin Proverbs three five and six, where it says
trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do not
lean on your own understanding in all your ways. Acknowledge
him and he will make straight your paths. You know,
there were so many people writing and reminiscing, and I

(46:38):
read a lot of that stuff, listen to a lot,
watched a lot of things because Mike Martin Sr. Is
just such an incredible guy. And I shared one article
that I read that I thought offered a really nice
glimpse into eleven. I was reading Corey Clark at war
Chant and he talked about how he was introduced two

(47:00):
friends of Mike at a dinner or banquet or something,
and he said, he made me feel so special because
he just said, my friend Corey. It wasn't the writer,
the sportswriter, the reporter. It was my friend Corey. That's eleven.
That's exactly who he was. He just was a gentleman

(47:23):
at all times loved to win. Fierce competitor, absolute fierce competitor.

Speaker 6 (47:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 12 (47:30):
I was watching the news last night and they were
showing highlights from that last twenty nineteen College World Series
run and that was like the most energy I think
I had ever seen Mike Martin have. And it was
his final season. Everyone knew it was his final season.
They were the last team or one of the final
four teams to make it into the NCAA Tournament, win

(47:54):
the regional sweep in the Supers, going to the College
World Series, and Mike was his amped as ever and that.

Speaker 1 (48:01):
Was like, that was magical. Two years earlier when they
went to Omaha, here's how it sounded. Ah, that was
ethically cool. How good is that? Former producer of The
Morning Show with Preston, Scott Grant Allen with me on

(48:23):
that day. Big baseball fan and Grant loved himself some eleven.
But we decided we'd clear some time out and let
listeners call in and share any special stories they had.
And that's next. Counting down the Big Stories of twenty
twenty four. We're in the month of February, on the
second day of the Twelve Days of Preston Here On

(48:44):
The Morning Show with Preston Scott. Welcome back to the

(49:07):
Twelve Days of Preston the second day. It's Friday, the
twentieth of December, and being the second day of the
Twelve Days of Preston, we are chronicling the month of
February and in this segment we turned it over to
the listeners of the Morning Show to share their remembrances
of seminal legend baseball coach Mike Martin, who passed away

(49:31):
on February the first. This was the very next day
and we opened up the phone line. So let me
remind you that if you hear me give the phone number,
don't call because we're not We're not at the studios.
We're on a break. But we kicked it off with Linda.

Speaker 13 (49:52):
So back in nineteen ninety six, my son was turned
five and we were taking him to an FSU baseball
game on his birthday.

Speaker 14 (49:59):
Back then, they was.

Speaker 13 (50:00):
Placed the name of the birthday boy or girl on
the scoreboard. But when I called about three months ahead,
they told me they already met their quota and they
couldn't add one more name. They couldn't really do anything
for him. So I emailed coach Martin and told him
what had happened and asked if maybe a bat boy
could bring my son a ball just to toss it
to him from the field. And Coach Martin actually called

(50:22):
me and said he could do so much better than that,
And so Adam got to shadow Coach Martin on game
day from warm up to the locker room to the game.
He got to sit on the bench with the team.
And it was actually Coach Martin that taught my son
to shake hands like a man. He had got an
autograph baseball by the whole entire team, including all the

(50:44):
coaches as well, and that was just because well when
he called me, he said, I can't believe that people
can't go to the trouble to make something special for
you know, the youth.

Speaker 15 (50:55):
So I can do so much.

Speaker 13 (50:56):
Better than that. And that's why he got to spend
the whole entire game day shadowing Coach Martin.

Speaker 1 (51:02):
I would imagine that is something that your son is
just holding in his heart as what an amazing day
that was.

Speaker 13 (51:13):
Yeah, and he had his little red baseball glove and
right now in his room and home. My son is
in the army now, but I still have his things
in his room at home, and I have his little
red glove with that autograph.

Speaker 2 (51:26):
Baseball in that.

Speaker 1 (51:27):
Glove, Ricky, thanks for calling in your memories.

Speaker 15 (51:31):
Yes, when I was in the sixth grade. This is
back in nineteen sixty six at Leonard Western Elementary School,
Mike Martin was our intern. He interned and he always
walked around with a bat that had led on the
end of it, so we all knew he was a
baseball you know something. And he was getting ready to

(51:54):
try out for the Mets, and we had a softball unit.
And my little league and cub League coaches had taught
me to try to teach me the bat right handed,
so my grip was like a right hander, but I
was a left hander, so I was cross hand batting
and he noticed that and he came.

Speaker 5 (52:12):
Up to me.

Speaker 15 (52:13):
He said, Ricky, you're never gonna have much power that way.
Switch switch your hands so you'll have some power when
you hit the ball from the left side. And so
he did, and when he got ready to leave, he
he I got his autograph, and I still have it today.
It said to a cross hand slugger, Mike Martin, Oh.

Speaker 1 (52:32):
My goodness, gracious, what an amazing story. How special is
this'll have that?

Speaker 6 (52:38):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (52:38):
I was just gonna say, how special of a momento
is that?

Speaker 5 (52:43):
Right?

Speaker 9 (52:43):
Yeah?

Speaker 10 (52:45):
Wow?

Speaker 5 (52:46):
Yep, that's a fun.

Speaker 1 (52:47):
Time, awesome story, Ricky, thanks so much for calling in.
It's the Morning Show with Preston Scott. Twelve minutes past
the hour of the Morning Show with Preston Scott. Mike Martin,
senior FSU's baseball coach of forty seasons and forty consecutive

(53:10):
years in the NCAA tournament, passed away yesterday at the
age of seventy nine, result of dementia. And we are
remembering Mike. We are honoring Mike with our words and
our memories. And Roy, thanks for calling in this morning.

Speaker 14 (53:28):
He was my pe coach back in seventh grade. I'm
sixty two years old, so that would put him at
Cobb Middle School. And I want to tell you a
funny quick story. It was during gym class and these
guys he was our gym teacher, and these guys had
been a couple of friends of mine, had been kind

(53:49):
of picking at each other all week like they wanted
to fight. So he shut down the class a little
early and brought us all into the locker room. He
locked the door behind us, and he got these two
guys and said, all right, I've been noticing you guys
have been wanting to go at it, So here we go.

(54:10):
We all lined up on the on the wall and
he told them the rules. You know, there was gonna
be no no biting, kicking or anything like, just kind
of rattling, right. So he let him go at it,
and we were all sitting there watching. He let him

(54:30):
go at it for about five or ten minutes, and
then he stopped it.

Speaker 5 (54:34):
And says, all right, y'all had enough.

Speaker 14 (54:38):
Y'all shake hands, but I'm gonna have to give you all,
both of you a couple of licks. They went and
got his big paddle, brought it out there and made
them assume the position, and we were all counting down
like one, two, and on the third swing he went
a little high and the lights up overhead what for

(55:03):
us at lights were and and busted them all to hell.
At that point he just said to us, all right,
y'all get out of here and don't tell anybody anything.
I never will forget that. He was the coolest coach man.

Speaker 1 (55:24):
Oh buddy, what a great story. How fun was it
to watch his career unfold as head coach of FSU baseball.

Speaker 14 (55:31):
It was amazing, Yeah it was.

Speaker 5 (55:33):
It was great.

Speaker 14 (55:34):
But yeah, that's one thing I'll always remember about him
is that that incident that happened in the locker room.
I don't think many people know about.

Speaker 1 (55:44):
Until now.

Speaker 14 (55:49):
I can come out with it now.

Speaker 1 (55:50):
Thank you, Roy, I appreciate that story so very much.
Twenty one minutes after the hour, if you missed the
big story this morning and the news broke yesterday afternoon
that FSU's longtime baseball coach, He's a member of every

(56:10):
notable hall of fame that there is. Mike Martin Senior
passed away yesterday at the age of seventy nine. He
had a three year battle with Louis body dementia. And
we're just taking some time to remember eleven, share some stories.
We'll talk to Adam Farrow in just a little bit,
who played for eleven in nineteen ninety five and ninety six.

(56:32):
But let's go back to the phone lines. Bryce, thanks
for being patient. What are your favorite memories or thoughts?

Speaker 16 (56:37):
Hey, good morning, guys. One of the biggest memories of
eleven that I have is going to all the camps
and gritting to meet and Greed and he was always
one of the nicest guys I remember talking to there.
But even bigger than that, I was struggling in school
as a young, young child, and I remember coming home
one day and having a voicemail and eleven was just

(56:58):
encouraging me to keep keep my head up and keep
trying to do the right things. And you know I was,
I was not on a good track to to make
it through, but I was able to go off his
encouraging words and put the pedal to the metal and
get through the things I was struggling with. So that's
something that's always going to stick with me.

Speaker 1 (57:16):
On for eleven, How did that happen?

Speaker 16 (57:21):
I think my mom must have reached out to him
or something other. You know, I was young, I didn't.
You know, it was magical to me just I thought
I was the biggest guy in the whole world when
when I got home, when I had a voicemail and
you know, he used my name and he was talking
directly to me about all this stuff I was going
through and struggling with. So, uh, something that's always stuck

(57:42):
with me. And you know, I always remember, just keep
your head up right to you you're doing the right
things and you'll make it through.

Speaker 1 (57:47):
Wow. What a great story. Does that just it typify
and exemplify who Mike Martin was.

Speaker 7 (57:56):
Absolutely it does.

Speaker 16 (57:57):
And you know, my grandfather always had seasons, so we
were always in the stands there and as a young
boy always dreamed of play in for him at Dick
Heal the.

Speaker 17 (58:07):
Stadium there, and you know, just great guy.

Speaker 16 (58:10):
And it's sad that, you know, we've lost another legend
at FSU along with Bobby Valden.

Speaker 1 (58:15):
Bryce, thank you for sharing that story. That's just a
wonderful story. And I'm certain at some point the family
is going to hear some of these stories and it
will encourage them. And again, these are things he did
routinely to just reach out and try to make a
difference in people's lives. When he was asked, boy, he
just did. Greg you're the final caller here. What are

(58:36):
your thoughts and remembrances.

Speaker 9 (58:38):
This is a story from twenty five years ago at
Blockbuster Video. Okay, I was going in to get some
videos and walking around my usual thing, and there was
this guy alone against the wall, looking perplex and looking around.
But I had to go by there and I couldn't

(59:00):
help saying, because I'm a forty year fs you person,
so I knew who he was. I said, hey, coach,
and he didn't. He didn't. He actually answered me nicely.
He said, hey, do you have any recommendations for a movie?

(59:21):
I'm so skinned of movie for my family. I don't
know what to do, and I didn't have an answer.
I showed him a few places to go, but I
could tell in those few seconds this is one of
the nicest guys I've ever met. I knew what a
genius he was on the Diamond, but you know, it

(59:44):
really affected me.

Speaker 1 (59:45):
Back with more of the Twelve Days of Preston. Let's

(01:00:08):
get back to it the Twelve Days of Preston, and
in this segment we chronicle our visit with doctor ed
Moore a little more history, and in this case the
month of February, we decided to talk about the history
of the Sunshine State.

Speaker 10 (01:00:25):
It's a fascinating bunch of stories. I keep going down
these different rabbit holes on all of this, and essentially
on this date was the signing of the Adams o'nice Treaty.
Adams o'nice Adams Onice, said John Quincy Adams was Secretary
of State under President Monroe. And this fellow o'nee was
the some kind of name plen of potentiary something. Oh yeah,

(01:00:49):
he was a minister from Spain. And the reality of
it all is that Florida went to Florida had East
Florida and West Florida, and being American early on, they
just decided on West Florida. They just moved down in
there and took it over. I mean, so from that
they meaning settlers, okay, and Spain. Spain had been tied

(01:01:14):
up since around eighteen ten for seven or eight years
in what was called the Peninsular War, was against Napoleon Spain,
Portugal and England against France and his empire ambitions fought
on the Peninsula, the Iberian Peninsula if you think of
the Gulf of Mexico. At that point, Spain controlled the

(01:01:36):
entire Gulf of Mexico basically from Florida all the way
around across South America. They just didn't have the money
to do all of that. I mean, the reach to
the old reach exceeded their grasp.

Speaker 9 (01:01:51):
You know.

Speaker 10 (01:01:51):
And that wasn't for Havn, that was for Jungle sure,
you know. So it was kind of tough on them.
US got pretty favorable terms. Basically, they didn't have to
pay anything. This is for East Florida. We had already
seated West Florida just by that's ours. We got for
the equivalent debt of five million dollars not paid to Spain,

(01:02:15):
but paid to other people that Spain owed money to.

Speaker 1 (01:02:19):
This is how this So we took on their debt.

Speaker 10 (01:02:21):
We basically took on their debt, you know, so sort
of a Trumpian kind of mode.

Speaker 11 (01:02:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 10 (01:02:25):
I was just going to say yeah, yeah, and ended
up with territory. Now, I pulled some numbers because the
numbers are fascinating. Around that time, we didn't do a
census until eighteen thirty, so you got to go back
eleven years. But you can get a picture of this
Leon County. Leon County was the largest populated county in Florida. Now,

(01:02:49):
this is by eighteen thirty. When this took place, there
were only two counties in Florida, Okay, Saint John's County
and Escambia County. Those were the only counties that were
in Florida, and then they were spun off Jackson County
in the Panandle and Duval County spun off. So then
we had four counties in Florida. But by eighteen thirty,

(01:03:09):
Leon County had roughly sixty five hundred people.

Speaker 7 (01:03:14):
That was it.

Speaker 10 (01:03:16):
But did the city of Districts Florida Florida. Florida only
had thirty five thousand people in eighteen thirty. Now I
trace my ancestry in Florida back to around eighteen thirty five.
They started coming here and you realized they're hardly there
was nobody here, you know. And why Spain wanted to
get rid of it. One was just because it was

(01:03:37):
just burdensome to them. And two is they were getting
constant complaints because what became the Seminole tribe of Florida
was going across into Georgia out of Florida and stealing
slaves and bringing them back and freeing some and keeping some.
There was all of this kind of stuff. So all
the plantation owners all across Georgia and Alabama were mad

(01:04:00):
about what was going on down in Florida and looking
to Spain to try to straighten it out. Spain was
incapable of straightening it out, so they We're going to
give you the problem that and Andy Jackson, who became
the first governor. Florida was run by the military basically
once we took it over in this timeframe, but he

(01:04:21):
had already done incursions down into Florida. They formed first.
Our area here has so much history that most people
aren't aware of. If you go on Lake Seminole up
towards the top, there was Fort Scott that was formed
there where the Flint River comes down. Then the Fort Gadsden,
which is just above Appalachicola. When you come up that way,

(01:04:43):
you'll come by the signs on the river, right on
the Apalachicola River. At that time, they called it the
Negro Fort because it was mainly occupied by runaway slaves
that had arms. And Andy Jackson came in and blew
that whole place up, using Fort's god as a way
to get in and out of Florida. They just gradually

(01:05:04):
militarily just took over the state. You know, we all
know the story. Most of it's wrong about how Tallahassee
got founded as the capital, but there really weren't good
roads anywhere. So they put out a contract and a
guy named Bellamy that lived in Monticella picked up the
contract and he used mostly slaves to build the road

(01:05:26):
from the San Marcos Monastery to Saint Augustine. They paid
him somewhere thirteen or fourteen thousand dollars to build the
road that far. He built it too narrow that two
cars could have carts couldn't pass each other. They left

(01:05:47):
the stumps in along the road, and they thought they
cut him short enough so that the wagon would clear it.
But you had to go all around. I mean, it
was kind of a mess. They had to ford probably
half a dozen rivers between Tallahassee and Augustine. That fourteen
thousand dollars. I couldn't find a calculator that would tell
me how much that was worth today, but most of

(01:06:08):
the calculators go from nineteen thirteen for some weird reason,
inflation calculators from nineteen thirteen to now. That would be
four hundred and sixty seven thousand dollars, probably four times
that value to build a road that far for only
fourteen thousand dollars. But the crew that hired them included
people like a guy named Zephaniah Kingsley Stefania How would

(01:06:33):
you like that for a handle?

Speaker 1 (01:06:34):
Okay?

Speaker 5 (01:06:35):
He was a.

Speaker 10 (01:06:36):
Plantation owner, a slave owner, polygamists. He had four wives
that had been slaves that he freed and took on
as his wives and had children with all of them.
He was one of those thirteen legislators appointed by the President,
and what he pushed in Florida developing the territory was

(01:06:58):
to allow for polygamy and allow for slaves if they
were family to inherit be able to inherit under US
law and Florida law at the time, if you had
a child with a slave, that child wasn't entitled any
of your property and ay of your parents, and you

(01:07:18):
couldn't really leave it to him. The will could be
challenged as being insufficient if you tried to do that.
His wives, the four of them and all their kids
fled from Florida when he passed and went to Haiti,
and his sister and her family tried to take over
his plantation. Anna Is, one of the wives, came back

(01:07:39):
and they challenged all of this in federal court in
Duval County, and one they ended up winning because going
back to the Adams Honest Treaty or Onee Treaty, the
provision in there that went to Spanish law, and under
Spanish law, any slave born prior that was freeborn prior

(01:08:04):
to eighteen twenty two, was entitled to equal treatment under
the law.

Speaker 1 (01:08:09):
And so she ended up people what tangled.

Speaker 10 (01:08:13):
Now let's say I'm going down these rabbit holes and
you're reading all this, and then she went a bridge
too far, basically because what she then demanded was getting
back the slaves from the plantation, from his Kingsley's plantation,
at which they forced the people who had taken them
all to give them back to her. But then she
tried to go in the slave rental business. Oh boy,

(01:08:36):
and that's how she was going to fund everything. Because
here I thought you were going to tell me she
got them back to freedom. No, not at all. It's
an interesting freed slave owning slaves and then trying to
rent slaves out to other plantations.

Speaker 1 (01:08:48):
And you can't make that up.

Speaker 10 (01:08:50):
No, you can't make that up at all. But that's Florida.
There's a whole other series that maybe we'll talk about
a little bit next time. I could talk about this
stuff forever, dealing with Amelia Island and Fernandina Beach and
how it got invaded. There was a backroom deals in
Washington paying some Georgians to go down. This is when

(01:09:11):
Florida still was owned by Spain, sending troops in coming
across from Saint Mary's down and taking control and then
trying to move down to Saint Augustine, and Congress got
mad about it, and Monroe kind of went oops, never mind,
called them all back, gave it back to Spain, Spain

(01:09:31):
saying it's nuestro, it was theirs. Yeah, they just came
right they left from the troops, ran away from them.
And then when the troops left, Patriot group and a
troop group, two different armies Spanish came right back in
and took over a millia island again. So Florida's always
been kind of strange that people coming and going.

Speaker 1 (01:09:54):
Doctor edmore with me here on the Twelve Days of Preston.
We'll be back when more. Welcome back to the Twelve
Days of Preston as we look back in the year
twenty twenty four and get you ready for Christmas. It

(01:10:18):
is Friday, the twentieth of December, but it is the
second of the Twelve Days of Preston, and that means
it's the month of February. Now. In this segment, it's
our visit with Matt Staver of Liberty Council fighting the
good fight, going before the State Supreme Court in early
February to try to argue against putting Amendment four on

(01:10:40):
the November ballot, which sadly it was. Here's our discussion.

Speaker 17 (01:10:45):
Well, tomorrow at nine o'clock at the Florida Supreme Court
will be having oral arguments on the Florida Portion Amendment.
They have now gotten over eight hundred thousand signatures to
put on the ballot. So the last thing is this
argument here. Any voter initiative has to comply with two things.
Number one, it has to be very clear and nonambiguous,
without any deceptive language or information, you can't deceive the voters.

(01:11:10):
And number two, it must address only a single subject,
not multiple subjects. So your yes is just a yes
on one specific issue, rather than a yes on some
things you agree with but not on other things that
you don't agree with. So that's the issue. Tomorrow at
the Florida Supreme Court, I'll be presenting an argument along
with the Florida Attorney General and then the proponents. This

(01:11:32):
language is so broad. It says that no law shall
prohibit penalized delay or restrict abortion prior to our buildy.
It means no law, no law. Just listen to these words.
No law shall restrict abortion before viability. Now that's going
to be late second, early third trimester. That means no

(01:11:53):
parental consent, no informed consent, no waiting periods, no licensing
requirements of doctors, no health and safety standards, no ban
on partial birth abortion nothing. No law can restrict abortion.
Every law restricts its subject matter. And if you say
no law shall restrict abortion, that means nothing. Everything is

(01:12:17):
wiped out, totally wiped out, with his abortion totally unregulated.
And then after viability, after viability, a healthcare provider can
have an absolute veto over any late term abortion law
just by saying that it's necessary to protect the health
of the woman. Now, who is a health care provider, Well,

(01:12:39):
that's not defined, but under Florida law, healthcare practitioners include
fifty eight categories, which includes a nine to one to
one operator, a tattoo artist even or an orthodic fitter
assistant somebody who assists an orthodic person to put, you know,

(01:13:00):
things in your shoes that have no medical training, an
audiologist someone who's an optimologist. It has a huge list
fifty eight categories. When you and I think of health
care provider, we think of a medical doctor. No, these
are non medical people that would be under the term
health care provider, and they would have the ability to

(01:13:22):
determine post viability, whether the baby's viable, and even if
it is viable, it doesn't matter what the law is,
whether that person could still have an abortion. So really
you have totally unregulated abortion through all nine months of
pregnancy at any time for any reason uptil the point
of birth. And that is very deceptive. That is not

(01:13:46):
explained to the voter in this ballot summary that they
have proposed to go on the ballot. The voter will
not read what I just said. But that's in fact
what this amendment does, and.

Speaker 18 (01:13:58):
That's why it's deceptive.

Speaker 17 (01:14:00):
It fools the voters intentionally to vote for something that
they would never vote for. Floridians, no matter where they
are on this issue, would never vote for no regulation,
no health regulation, nothing.

Speaker 19 (01:14:14):
You are listening to the Mad Radio Network where you're
challenged to make a difference each and every day. Good morning,
and welcome to the Morning Show with Preston Scott. Making
a difference. It's why I support the Liberty Council challenge.
You to do the same, go to lc dot org.
Matt stab the founder and chairman with me Man. I

(01:14:37):
want to focus on two words here for a quick
couple minutes each. The first word is health. The liberal left.

Speaker 1 (01:14:44):
Loves to be ambiguous when it uses words assault weapons, health.
How are we defining the health of a mother?

Speaker 17 (01:14:55):
It's not defined. That's another problem, So before viability law
at all. After viability, a healthcare provider that I've already
talked about has an absolute veto power over any law
if that person says it's necessary for the patient's health.
But health is not defined health. You know, when you

(01:15:17):
go back to do versus Bolton back in nineteen seventy three,
the companion of Roe v. Wade abortion decision use the
World Health Organization definition of health, and that included physical, mental, emotional, psychological, chiological, financial,
the age of the woman, all kinds of things that

(01:15:37):
you wouldn't normally think of as health. When you look
at the who's definition of health today, it's even broader,
So it means not just the absence of disease. It
is everything, whether it's financial or whatever. It is sociological,
the location where you live, where you work, what your
career is it is undefined. That's why when this amendment

(01:16:03):
says that after viability, a healthcare provider can still say
an abortion is necessary to protect that health is undefined.
You can't challenge that because health is anything. There's no
objective reality here, Matt.

Speaker 1 (01:16:18):
The other word I want to focus on is a
word that's been used a lot here, and that's the
word viability. You know, when I used to speak on
some college campuses, the topic would come up and I
would tackle the what I think is the fallacy of
the argument of viability because in technical, literal and I
think legal terms, when you define viability, a child isn't

(01:16:39):
viable until they can speak, communicate, walk and talk and
communicate what their needs are. They are dependent on others
for the first five, six, seven years of life. We
could joke and say, well some into college years, but
you get my point.

Speaker 17 (01:16:53):
That's right, and that's exactly right. You know, some people
think of viability and this is also another problem with
the deceptive nature of the baby being able to live
outside of the mother's womb. So maybe late third trimes,
late second trimester, early third trimester, twenty two to twenty
four weeks and we're in there. Well, that may be
somebody's definition, right, but that's not the universal definition, because

(01:17:17):
viable could be something like you're talking about. If the
baby is outside the mother's womb, they always need assistance, right.
You can't just birth a baby and let it sit there.
It's going to die on its own, So it needs assistance,
whether it's in the womb at the third trimester or
out of the womb, you know, and it's actually physically
there by itself, it needs assistance. So is that baby viable?

(01:17:42):
I know for a fact that there are some people
that are advocating professors at different universities. A professor by
the name of Singer at Princeton University. He used to
say that it would be like two years post a
birth that you would give a right to life to
a child, because until two years they're not able to

(01:18:04):
make it on their own, and therefore they wouldn't be
viable in that respect. So you know, you have the
word viable necessary. What's necessary? It's not because of the
dire you know, life and death of the mother. It's
whatever anybody says.

Speaker 6 (01:18:19):
It is.

Speaker 17 (01:18:20):
Health and healthcare provider, all undefined and all exceptionally brought well.

Speaker 1 (01:18:26):
Matt Stabor tried. Ashley Moody didn't show up, which was
kind of weird, but Matt tried. Unfortunately, the State Supreme
Court weird. The four male justices put the thing on
the ballot back in November, and the female justices said, no,

(01:18:47):
this is this is not clear, it is not single subject,
and on and on the objections went. But what's done
is done. It still gives you a snapshot of the fight, right,
and Matt Staver Liberty Council the best fighting across the
country frequently before the United States Supreme Court on behalf

(01:19:09):
of all of us. All right, it's the Twelve Days
of Preston. We've got two hours of the month of
February all condensed together. And now we'll move to our
number three. It's the second day of the Twelve Days
of Preston and the month of February. And we'll get
to our three next right after the news here on

(01:19:30):
the Morning Show with Preston Scott, get right to it.

(01:20:01):
The third hour of the Twelve Days of Preston, day
number two. This a visit with us Senator Rick Scott.

Speaker 20 (01:20:07):
Let me tell you it's wonderfully on your program but
I is shooting and said, your faroh government is completely dysfunctional.

Speaker 1 (01:20:15):
I was going to ask you where do you start?
I mean, let me before we get to the media issues.
How big of a shock was it to your system
to leave Florida's governance, governing this state, the legislative atmosphere,
the balance, budget, term limits and going to that nonsense
in Washington.

Speaker 20 (01:20:37):
You know, the thing is, you know, I've always I've
done a bunch of business startups, so when you know,
it's like it's like a startup and but I've taken
over a lot of businesses and fixed them. This is
a broken down business up here. It's you know, what
you're trying to figure out is why don't these people
care about like the budget, national security, you know, families, voters.

(01:21:03):
I mean, it's just fascinating when you look at the
decisions that are made up here. You think, who in
their right mind would allowing eight million people let's say
ten percent of them are bad actors, one percent are
bad actors, criminals.

Speaker 5 (01:21:18):
Drug sellers, you know, terrorists.

Speaker 20 (01:21:21):
That that pretty bad day for this country. And that's
what's going on every day. You look at that, and
you look at why wouldn't Why would we not focus
on having a lethal military rather than a woke military.

Speaker 5 (01:21:32):
Or I mean, and.

Speaker 20 (01:21:34):
Krestin, you realize how bad the budget is. We've had
a one point eight percent increase in population in five
years and the budgets up fifty five percent.

Speaker 1 (01:21:43):
Well, I was going to ask you what's the bigger problem,
the border or the budget or are they one A
and one B.

Speaker 20 (01:21:49):
They're all the it's all the same. There's you know
what's interesting is nothing's getting better, nothing's getting fixed. It's
not that hard. I walked in, you know, when I
became governor, I walked in with the four billing dollar
budget debt, said what do you have to do? Say, well,
this is how much I make, this is what I'm
going to spend. It's not the hardest thing in the world, right,
And so so I did that when I was governor,

(01:22:11):
I said, Okay, this is what we're going to take in.
We're not going to spend more than that. I mean,
that's what this is what the voters have decided to
give us in tax revenues. So we're not we're not
going to do anymore. And by the way, we don't
need more tax revenues. So but up here, numbers they
are irrelevant. People have no idea. Do you realize that
that your federal budget, we're re collecting less revenues every year. Now,

(01:22:34):
our revenues are going down, but are spending going up.

Speaker 1 (01:22:38):
Well, I was going to say, the largest source of
revenue right now is borrowing money, and that's unsustainable.

Speaker 5 (01:22:45):
Think about it.

Speaker 20 (01:22:46):
We are borrowing more money than the increase in our
gross domestic product. It our debt is going up faster
than our economy is growing.

Speaker 7 (01:22:59):
How do you do that?

Speaker 20 (01:23:01):
But don't worry. You know, up here, no one cares.

Speaker 18 (01:23:05):
It's free.

Speaker 20 (01:23:06):
It's everything's free up here.

Speaker 1 (01:23:08):
Well, you know, the Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell is
vowing we're not going to have a government shutdown. Senator,
I think there's a bunch of us out here that
don't fear one bit of government shut down.

Speaker 20 (01:23:20):
No one wants to shut down. But McConnell and Schumer
they orchestrate this so they can do it omnious. I've
did appear my fifth year. This is the first year
we haven't done it. What they do is they orchestrate
it right before Christmas. I say, oh, if you don't
vote for this. The world's going to end.

Speaker 1 (01:23:36):
Yep, you know that.

Speaker 20 (01:23:37):
You know nobody will be able to survive tomorrow, you
know so, And you know why they wanted because they
get their ear marks. Last last year we had seventy
five hundred ear marks. So you're paying for roller skating
rinks and sidewalks and private country clubs, all sorts of stuff.
I mean, because you know that's what your federal government.
You know, that's what you're expected, right, So that's but

(01:23:59):
you know, if you're if you're Schumer, McConnell, then you
get all your special projects. Nobody knows the button, no,
so you realize here's how they give it to us,
because they gave us the Omnimus. This last one at
one through in the morning to Tuesday be for Christmas,
and they wanted to vote, vot vote on it that day.
It was three times to size the Bible, not as interesting,
harder to read. Okay, they wanted to vote that day.

(01:24:21):
We at least postponed it for two days. But nobody could.
Nobody knew it was in it. But they got the
votes because they got all the Democrats and McConnell got
his his friends to vote for it. So so it
was one point seven trillion dollars with no accountability, all
alas borrowed money.

Speaker 1 (01:24:37):
It's not enough to just get control of the House,
the Senate, and the White House. To try to get
some common sense in place. We have to have like
minded people. How do we do that? How do we
make sure that the Republican Party isn't filled with rhinos?

Speaker 11 (01:24:52):
Right?

Speaker 1 (01:24:52):
You know, how do we get there?

Speaker 20 (01:24:55):
You need Here's what you need to do. Anybody that's
running bet them. I mean, think about it. When you
hire somebody to do anything at your house, you look
at the background. You know what happens in politics. Look,
Johnny gave a great talk, Let's make him something. No,
Johnny's never had any success. He might be a good talker,
And look at their background. If they can't budget, if

(01:25:16):
they can't bounce their own budget, you think they're going
to balance somebody else's. So I think it starts with
the voters have to have higher expectations and then hold
people accountable when they get in. When somebody's running, so
I'm running for reelections, people should ask me what are
you going to do? Right? What is your focus going
to be? And then it's my job to do that

(01:25:38):
or I don't get hired again. And so it's our
fault as voters. We don't have high enough standards. We said, well,
he's the right party, so I'll vote for him. No,
if you want something done, remember have pressure ways. If
you want something done, and get the busiest person to
do it, right, why don't we elect people that have
had success. Let's get to the background, right. If they've

(01:26:02):
had success in that background, you're probably gonna have success
in this.

Speaker 1 (01:26:06):
But there comes a point where you know, we get
only so many choices, and we hear people talk about
picking the lesser of evils.

Speaker 20 (01:26:14):
I tell people, go run for office, Go volunteer on campaigns.
You can make a difference. And you know the other
thing is everybody can write not bed. Everybody can write
letters to the answer. Everybody can show up and support
our you know, opposed candidates.

Speaker 6 (01:26:29):
Go do it.

Speaker 20 (01:26:30):
I mean make this is this is rip. If you
want your government to get better, get your button gear
and get more active. Don't don't don't complain, get active
like I like it. I have people that just bug
the living daylights out of me. Guess what it's good
for me? Because they care about issue, and they probably
know more about than I do. And it gives me

(01:26:51):
ideas how I can solve their issue.

Speaker 9 (01:26:54):
That's my job.

Speaker 20 (01:26:55):
Like I've got a guy that gets up every day
it says, how can Rick Scott get it there, get
rid of the Casher regime?

Speaker 5 (01:27:00):
You know what?

Speaker 20 (01:27:01):
I work on it a little bit every day because
his name's Tony Costa. He's get up every day and
says he's a Cuban refugee. He bought in the Bay
of Pigs. He says, I want that guy. I want
the cashier scene gone. Rick Scott's got power. I'm gonna
see what I can do the game done. And he
gives me ideas and I work on him. That's how
this is supposed to work.

Speaker 5 (01:27:19):
Be active.

Speaker 1 (01:27:20):
We've got the shutdown looming again on Friday, and then
another deadline a week later.

Speaker 20 (01:27:26):
Well, the only real answer right now, Construc Schumer won't
do spending bills. The only real answer, and I just
not bet on this in the hill, is that we
should do a continued resolution through the end of the
fiscal year and then start next year and actually try to.

Speaker 9 (01:27:38):
Pass the budget.

Speaker 20 (01:27:39):
I'm on the Budget Committee. We don't have meetings about
the budget. We don't have a vote on a budget.
I mean, the first thing they have to do is
if you want to pass a budget, start talking about it.
But they don't. But Schumer McConnell don't want it because
they'll go do a spending bill and they'll get just
what they want in and nobody else will know what's
in it. Every Wendy have a dinner with a bunch

(01:28:01):
of fiscal responsibility people in the House, and no one
none of us want a continue resolution. None of us do.
But do we want an omnibus? That's way worse. And
so I think it's our only option out right now.
But with the person we've got, we've got that going on,
We've got the Israel Aid we've got Are we going
to support or not Ukraine? Are we going to secure

(01:28:22):
a border? You know how remember how PISA was used
to surveil the Trump campaign. Well that's going to expire.
I think it's April eleventh, or we're going to get
it fixed to where you know, this doesn't happen again.
We got to I mean, but all these things are
coming to head because mccollin Schumer sit there and they
think they'll just cramp something down our throat at the
last minute.

Speaker 1 (01:28:42):
He is a hoot to talk to, all right. Twelve
Days of Preston continues next on The Morning Show with
Preston Scott. Welcome back to the Twelve Days of Preston.

(01:29:09):
Third hour of The Morning Show with Preston Scott. We're
on vacation. That doesn't mean there's not great content because
we're sharing the month of February with you. On the
second day of the Twelve Days of Preston, and this
is my visit with one of the most distinguished members
of the Florida Legislature, served our country for years and

(01:29:31):
is just a wonderful man. And here's my visit with
Florida House Speaker Paul Renner from February.

Speaker 18 (01:29:37):
Preston, good morning. Great to be with you.

Speaker 1 (01:29:39):
I appreciate your time. Let's get started because there's a
lot to talk about. A very busy session. We chronicle
it all throughout the legislative session with sal News at
the James Madison Institute, but a lot of attention. It
has the number one House Bill one. First, give everybody
kind of an overview of the intent of the House

(01:30:00):
Bill one and then its evolution as it's gone through
the legislative process and where we are now.

Speaker 18 (01:30:06):
Sure, Well, I mean House Bill one in essence says
that kids under sixteen years of age should not be
allowed on to addictive technology platforms that use addictive technology
as distinguished from the rest of the Internet. It carves
out email and text messaging and really the line share
of the Internet. But those platforms that use addictive technologies,

(01:30:27):
the dopamine hits of likes and hearts and notifications that
get kids on keep them on for hours and hours,
and we know that that leads to depression, self harm,
even suicide. We're aiming to say, look, stay off it
until you're age sixteen, and then you can get on
and go from there. And so that's what the bill does.

Speaker 1 (01:30:47):
How do you keep it from becoming And forgive me
for making a crude comparison, but one of my complaints
with the left side of the aisle is they talk
about an assault weapons band, but yet they never can
figure out how to define assault weapon. How do you
define a platform that is a danger versus one that
is not?

Speaker 9 (01:31:07):
Sure?

Speaker 18 (01:31:07):
Yeah, there's actually five different paragraphs, all of which have
to be mad and I can't quote it to you verbata. Essentially,
you have to be able to track you're tracking kids
data without their knowledge or consent. You're you're taking that
data and targeted target marketing to them again without them knowing.
And then these addictive components, it's got to be addictive
or deceptive features that lead to uh, you know, addictive

(01:31:30):
kind of habit forming behavior online. We were going to
further define that in an upcoming amendment UH in the
Senate that says that you've got to be on a
certain number of hours. You've got to show that the
platforms are capturing a number of kids for a number
of hours to evidence that addiction. And that's how we
define it. If you if you're not in that window,

(01:31:51):
you're not in the bill. And so the easy thing
for the platforms to do is take away the addictive components.
But it's so lucrative that the number of hours translates
into money. So you have a situation, we have kids,
you have addiction, you have harm, and you have money.
Kind of sounds like trafficking to me, and so you
have this life form of digital trafficking that is happening
really without the kids knowledge and understanding. Because it's almost imperceptible.

(01:32:13):
They don't know why they have to stay on all
this time, but these addictive techniques are keeping them on
the platforms and it's extremely lucrative and also extremely harmful
to our kids.

Speaker 1 (01:32:23):
What has informed the evolution of the bill has the
similar bills in other states that have been enjoined by courts?
How is it moving through? What changes have been made
from start to where it is now?

Speaker 18 (01:32:38):
Yeah, yeah, we have tried to, you know, obviously look
at what other states have done, including states where the
courts have shot their bills down and aim at the technologies.
You're completely clear of content, which of course could run
a foul of the First Amendment. And so that's really
that I think the unique thing. And we're working with
lawyers at a national level on the conservative side of
the Aisle to make sure that this can get through

(01:33:00):
Supreme Court challenge ultimately. And so the evolution we had
some language in there that included seventeen and eighteen year
olds that had some notifications and this kind of thing,
and quite frankly I and others felt, you know, and
looking at it, we want to be a smaller target
for the courts that this is probably not what we
need to deal with this year. So we took that
out and the Senate stopped. It just happened yesterday, so

(01:33:22):
there's nothing to do with seventeen and eighteen year olds anymore.
We'll have a few other modifications in the next Senate
committee stop, and then they'll vote for it, send it
over to us, and we'll vote on that final bill.

Speaker 1 (01:33:33):
I think a lot of us agree with the intent
of what you're trying to do with House Bill one. Similarly,
what about the simple step of banning cell phones in
schools other than that circumstance when that phone can be
used to make a call from the school office.

Speaker 18 (01:33:47):
Yeah, and I know they took credit for that, but
we actually did that in a bill last year. Now,
what we did is say it can't be in the classroom,
so in between classroom periods they could jump on the phone.
And maybe we need to go back and just make
it from the time you walk in all the time
you walk out. But clearly you shouldn't be on the
phone while your teacher's trying to teach you or taking
a picture of the smart kids test, no doubt, and
to your friends, you know, but what we've seen is,

(01:34:10):
as you said, is disciplinary actions are down, kids are
engaging with each other, and you know, when you go
and talk about the parental component of this. I was
just with a group last night. They said, you know,
when I got my kids and it's a fight, you know,
just put your phone down while we have lunch or
dinner together. And the difference is they come out of
the stupor and they're real kids again. And so you know,
you see, you see how this really does put our

(01:34:32):
kids in this almost a trance or stupor sometimes and
we've got to get them out of that. It helps
them learn better, it helps their mental health, it helps them,
you know, do a whole bunch of things that you
know I probably did as kids. It didn't involve social
media because it didn't exist back then. And so it's
been very helpful just to get the school the phones
out of the classroom alone. And I think you're going

(01:34:53):
to see increases in academics, You're going to see improvements
in mental health and issues that revolve around the school,
especially in the disciplinary area.

Speaker 1 (01:35:00):
But what about the expansion of it, Because I mean,
it's a no brainer in the classroom, but where the
violence is really taking place is in those in between times.
It's in those lunch hours. It's when kids are getting
picked on the most, and it's being picked they're doing
it to videotape, to set up an incident to videotape.
Let's get them out of their hands.

Speaker 18 (01:35:19):
Yeah, I'm one hundred percent for it. And you know,
we did it in a way we thought was measured.
But I think it's it's perfectly appropriate to just say
schools for school, and you put your phone down. If
you have an issue, like you and I I did
when we were that age, you go to the front desk,
principal calls your parents if you need to go home,
you're sick, or something happens, you know, so you don't
need to have a phone in during.

Speaker 20 (01:35:39):
The school year.

Speaker 18 (01:35:40):
And I think that's an appropriate next.

Speaker 1 (01:35:42):
Step along the same lines I have. You know, I
was involved in private education for many years, mister speaker,
and we had an advantage over the public schools. If
we had a kid a set of parents that weren't
doing the right things, we could just put them out.
I am of the opinion that we need to do
for our public schools what we've done with law enforcement.

(01:36:03):
Let's put cameras in every single classroom.

Speaker 18 (01:36:06):
Yeah, I mean, I think we're talking about something that's
internal to the school that can monitor, you know, disciplinary actions.

Speaker 5 (01:36:12):
Yep.

Speaker 18 (01:36:12):
You know, going back to the topic we just covered
back in my hometown, I don't if you remember last
year a guy had as a student, got his phone
taken away from him by a teacher. He comes up
behind her and pumbles her to the ground and she
went to the hospital. She had some severe, I think,
some long, long, long standing injuries from that over a
cell phone, and so it was captured on video, and

(01:36:33):
obviously from a prosecution standpoint, you could prove what happened.
And so you know, there are problems, and you're absolutely
right that some of these teachers. You know, we pass
a law and they just laugh at it and ignore it.
And we're chipping away at that each and every year.
And as you know, K twelve, education and higher education
for that matter, are super important to me, and we've
done a lot in in that space and we'll continue

(01:36:54):
to do.

Speaker 1 (01:36:54):
So let's switch to the Convention of States. You recently
wrote a piece that was published in The Hill. There's
a rally coming up on February twentieth. I'm going to
be at it. Your thoughts on Florida being kind of
signed on to the Convention of State's idea.

Speaker 18 (01:37:09):
Yeah, you know, I've had some people kind of eye
roll and this is kind of gimmicky. This is deadly
serious to me. And there's the reason why I did
it on the very first day of session. We normally
don't go into session on the first day to do
balance budget and term limits, which you know we did
a decade ago, but because of the spotlight Florida's in,
I wanted to really just you know, hit the drum
and make sure other state legislatures join on because I

(01:37:31):
truly believe, and I said it in my opening day speech,
if we're going to save the country, we need these amendments.
We need a balanced budget, we need term limits. The
Governor and I have talked and he wanted to do
line on in veto and also something that says if
Congress passes a law, they can't exempt themselves, which I love, and.

Speaker 9 (01:37:47):
So we're doing that now.

Speaker 18 (01:37:48):
I think it's up this week or you know, we'll
kept on the floor here soon. The Senate's already passed
balanced budget and term limits. I expect them to follow
on the other two and these are really If we
did these four things, especially the first three, it would
be transformative and it's really necessary. So we're going to
save our country.

Speaker 1 (01:38:03):
Yeah, Sadly the lawmakers have abused their privilege up in Washington,
and I think it's the last resort that we have
as citizens is to call the Convention of States. I
agree with you wholeheartedly. Lastly, back several years ago, in fact,
it's been a few decades, the legislature passed that Florida
was going to be you know, English is the official

(01:38:24):
language of the state, but it's never been implemented, it's
never been enforced. But yet it costs taxpayers a lot
of money in the public education space as well as
other locations. What's preventing us from from you know, attacking
that issue because it helps immigrants to speak the language,
it doesn't It doesn't help us at all for them

(01:38:47):
to continue to speak a tongue that we don't know
what they're saying.

Speaker 18 (01:38:51):
Yeah, I mean, like, I think it's great to speak
multiple language. It gives you advantages. But English has been
and always should be our official language. There's not a
lot of unites us anymore in a common language is
one of those things. Yep, that's important. So I'm certainly
supportive of the notion overall that we continue to swim
in that direction. We don't let people just do whatever.

(01:39:12):
I think it's important that we continue to find places
where we can be united.

Speaker 1 (01:39:15):
Great visit with Florida House Speaker Paul Renner from the
month of February. That's where we are. It's the second
day of the Twelve Days of Preston. We've got so
much more to come as we bring you the best
of twenty twenty four. Stay with us, back with you

(01:40:02):
on this Friday, December the twentieth, the Twelve Days of Preston.
It's day number two and that means the month of February.
And one of our favorite visits each and every month
is with the entertainment editor at breitbar dot com. He's
the author of the Fifty Things books and he is

(01:40:22):
a former intern of this fine radio program, Jerome Hudson,
and we talked about, among many other things, Peter Schweizer's
new book Blood Money.

Speaker 2 (01:40:35):
The executives at HarperCollins for forty eight hours didn't actually
believe their own eyes. The book was selling so fast.
I mean, you know, that you're creating something that is
really touching the nerve. When you know, people who I

(01:40:58):
assume is dedicated most their professional lives selling books, don't
even believe that a political non fiction writer. And Peter
Schweitzer is selling as many books as fast as he is.

Speaker 18 (01:41:13):
But he's but he's he's he is.

Speaker 2 (01:41:17):
What Mark Levin, Peter Switzer is what Mark Levin says.
I mean, he's the most important investigative journalist on the planet.
And I think I've said this before because I left
Jai coincidentally. I mean, when I left in twenty sixteen, man,

(01:41:38):
they've really been on a heater. But working on Clinton
Cash and seeing you know, award winning New York Times
best selling reporters sort of putting their their professional lives,
you know, on the line reporting how the Clinton family,

(01:42:01):
Hillary and Bill Clinton used their foundation to sell out
America and rich themselves.

Speaker 9 (01:42:09):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:42:09):
I think that was a turning point. That book came
out twenty fifteen, and Peter has done. I thought Clinton
Cash was at least ten to twenty percent of the
reason why people were just turned off to Hillary Clinton.
They just didn't they just couldn't bring themselves to support
the woman because of what Peter exposed, the corruption and

(01:42:32):
graft in that book, and he's done it. It's bipartisan.
I think Blood Money is Peter in the Fine People
over at Gai's best work. I think it's God's work.
I mean, who else is doing this, Preston, I mean,
it's Peter Schweitzer's Government Accountability Institute, and it's Breitbart and

(01:42:54):
a handful of others. But it's really you know, Peter
in his his brain and his guts and his will.
I mean, it's not sixty minutes, is my point. Right,
it's not in NBC Universal. These are billion dollar conglomerates.
But the reason they don't do it is because they're
so beholden to China, right and and and that's that's

(01:43:19):
you know, that's why the book's called Blood Money. I mean,
these people are literally have literally launched a campaign to
kill US citizens. And if I say that, the first
thing that people probably think about is, you know, a
black plague level pandemic being unleashed from China.

Speaker 6 (01:43:39):
No.

Speaker 9 (01:43:39):
No, these people have.

Speaker 2 (01:43:43):
Have war gained a plan, a concerted, well funded effort
to pump poison into our communities, and it is happening.
They spread propaganda. I mean the aforementioned Hillary Clinton blaming
her law us on Putin when her husband was in
Moscow giving you know, forty five minute speeches for half

(01:44:08):
a million dollars to Russian bankers. I mean, it's it's
just awful. It takes the eye off of the big
bad demon, which is China. But anyway, it's incredible. It's
I mean, it's like Michelle Obama, Preston and then Peter
Switzer and book sales.

Speaker 1 (01:44:28):
I mean, hang on a second. Peter Schweitzer hopefully will
be with us next week. The book is Blood Money.
Why the powerful turn of blind eye? While China kills Americans?
Time flies when you're having fun. And we were just
laughing off air about conversations we probably ought to have
on air, but we we would have to we would

(01:44:49):
have to edit them, and not for reasons of language,
but for reasons of disclosure, because we talk about people
that we know that we were common friends with that
wouldn't necessarily want to be discussed publicly. But let me
just real quickly, and then we'll get to talking about
guns and firearms if you want. Let's let's for a
second go back to that segment. About China. I have

(01:45:13):
been beating the drum about all of the reasons why
TikTok is a danger.

Speaker 5 (01:45:19):
Now.

Speaker 1 (01:45:19):
I was watching the testimony of the guy who's allegedly
the founder of TikTok. He's saying, you guys are barking
up the wrong tree. I'm from Singapore, I've got no
ties to China. Who's telling the truth here, Jerome.

Speaker 2 (01:45:33):
Well, I mean in the documents, I guess, I guess
it's on the term of use of TikTok has got
to be buried in there somewhere. But the owner, China
owns the company that owns TikTok. And if you do
business with China, your intellectual property, any of your trade secrets,

(01:45:57):
it is, it is a law in China. Once you
sign on the dotted line to do business with the
Communist Party, they can look at your books, they can
look at your IP, they can take it. It's just
a fact. I mean, in the coming you know, months
to a year, we're going to see what was always

(01:46:18):
a very rosy relationship with Elon Musk in the Chinese government,
it's already gotten nasty. I mean, China's declared war on
Elon Musk. Because he's a smart man and he had
to know that he was getting in bed with the
worst people to do business on the planet. But you
know it anyway, now, TikTok is poisoned.

Speaker 5 (01:46:41):
And I was literally.

Speaker 2 (01:46:42):
Driving just a nice five thirty am drives what I
like to do. I needed to get gaff and I
was listening to the Fox News break and it was
just it was just another TikTok store. It's some challenge
or something, and it was just like, it's poison to me.

Speaker 1 (01:47:00):
The overarching issue is China has stated publicly their hope
is to take this country, literally take this country without
destroying any infrastructure because they need the resources, they need
the infrastructure, and so it's all about gleaning intel about
what Americans think, what they watch, what they do. And

(01:47:22):
by being part of TikTok, you're giving them all of
that psychological profile info they want.

Speaker 5 (01:47:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:47:29):
Maybe, folks, I mean we're talking about it. Sound like
Joe Biden. Folks, We're talking about a country.

Speaker 1 (01:47:36):
Come on, man, come on man.

Speaker 2 (01:47:40):
I mean they're doing ethnic cleansing, cleansing to the tune
of one to two million people. Yeah, I mean, they
harvest organs, they test you know, the fusion between monkeys
and humans. So and they they they have hackers who
corrupt twenty three and meter databases. They will use your

(01:48:01):
face every like everything you share, uh, you know, to
the advantage of taking down the West, the Western world.

Speaker 7 (01:48:12):
I don't.

Speaker 2 (01:48:13):
It's just it's crazy, Like I don't have TikTok on
my phone. I just told you I didn't even embed
a TikTok uh link into a bright barred article because
I just it just feels.

Speaker 1 (01:48:25):
Dangerous, it feels dirty.

Speaker 5 (01:48:27):
But you know, look, and as we.

Speaker 2 (01:48:29):
Were talking off the air, I mean, you know, China's
the biggest, the largest manufacturer or they have the largest
steak in control in the largest manufacturers of surgical gloves,
Like you can't you can't touch a patient without wearing
surgical gloves. And as I said, if China just wanted
to do like an oopsie, I think you're absolutely right,

(01:48:51):
you can't. I'm a niacle regime like the government being
run in Beijing. Man, it's just you can't put anything
past these people because they've done everything. They've done every
atrocity under the sun. And I mean that's why what
Peter Swizer and his team are doing with blood money,

(01:49:14):
because they're not only calling out in great detail explaining
what China's plan for America is, but they are They're
naming names. They're us politicians, people we've elected to protect
and promote America's best centers, who are literally selling us
out to the worst people on the planet in China.

Speaker 1 (01:49:36):
From bright Barton dot com. Jerome Hudson, Entertainment Editor, our
guest on the Morning Show, back with more our final
segment on the Twelve Days of Preston. Come back to

(01:50:00):
the Twelve Days of Preston. I'm Preston Scott, our Christmas
gift to you. This is the month of February. We're
wrapping it up with a visit with Lee Williams, the
gun writer. We talked about all the things the Biden
administration was doing to attack the Second Amendment, and I
just commented that it seems as though we have to
rely on the courts to stop these unconstitutional and illegal acts.

Speaker 7 (01:50:26):
Biden's cub all of anti gun people in the White
House have pushed the ATF into criminalizing bumpstocks, pistol braces,
aftermarket triggers, locks of metal that they say could be
turned into a firearm, and the courts are slapping all
of these down and they just keep going, man, I mean,

(01:50:47):
they just keep going, knowing full well that they're going
to get overturned by the courts. Like it's cool, Like
they don't care. Now we're going to see that statement
for Biden that he made, I mean, all of us
in the second the men of community just rolled our
eyes like, yeah, we've seen this going on for months,
years already since Joe was elected. He doesn't care what

(01:51:09):
the Supreme Court says. We think, however, that that's just
going to energize at Supreme Court right now. Second amend
of Foundation, NRA, Gun Owners of America and National Association
and Gun Rights are all asking very politely, but very consistently,
asking the Supreme Court to review the Illinois assault weapon
ban or so called assault weapon ban. We think this

(01:51:30):
will be the case that will overturn this all of
this crap about America's most popular rifle, and folks will
be able to own the best tool to defend themselves
regardless of where they live. Right now, your ability to
own an AR or an AK depends on your zip
code here in Florida. Thankfully, we live in a semi
three state we can own them. You can't in California,

(01:51:53):
you can't in Illinois, can'ton Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Hawhi,
you name it. That should not be the case. Your
rights should not be dependent upon where you live. So
we're hoping that the court is so angry at what
the Biden Harris administration is doing to our civil rights
today that they'll take it out and start getting up

(01:52:13):
some more victories.

Speaker 1 (01:52:14):
You know, we've been paying attention to a bill it's
likely not to pass the House, but Democrats try and
introduce a bill that in essence, would ban any level
of training at a gun range. What less you wrote
about what goes on in Finland, tell us a little
bit about that.

Speaker 7 (01:52:30):
Well, being a proud half thin, I am very proud
of the country from where my grandparents came. Finland has
an eight hundred and thirty mile border with Russia, and
they take the Soviet Union or the former Soviet Union,
very seriously because they've been invaded and they kicked their butt.
So Finland incorporates armed citizens into their national defense plan,

(01:52:54):
which I think is brilliant. And you know, they just
joined NATO last year and Putin vowed to retaliate so well.
The Fins take that seriously. So they're increasing the availability
of rifle ranges to their citizens who are part of
their plan, part of their defensive plan. They're building three
hundred more ranges and some one of my readers did

(01:53:15):
the math for a country of our size to make
an increase of an increase of that amount, we would
need thirty thousand more ranges. And I hope we get them.
You know, it's one thing to keep and bear, it's
another thing to have access to range. A lot of
these blue states they're not going to let you train anywhere.

Speaker 9 (01:53:33):
Man.

Speaker 5 (01:53:33):
It's sad.

Speaker 1 (01:53:34):
Lee Williams, thegunwriter dot substack dot com, has written a
piece that really speaks to Black History Month as it
relates to the Second Amendment. Lee, go, this is a
brilliant piece.

Speaker 7 (01:53:47):
Thank you. It was fun. It was an idea from
Alan Gottlieb, the founder of the Second Amendment Foundation. He said,
why don't you write it, but take a look at this.
Call these guys up. And I got to tell you, man,
I had a great time and I learned so much
doing this. I mean, you got to look at the
tradition of farms as different for Black Americans, there were
codes after the Civil War that prevented them from owning firearms.

(01:54:08):
That was there, and that's why gun control has its
roots in racism.

Speaker 1 (01:54:13):
Yep.

Speaker 7 (01:54:13):
In Florida, you know, a white person could enter a
black owned home and just look for guns without a warrant. Louisiana,
white folks could stop blacks wherever they were searching for weapons.
If they refused, they could use deadly force. And you
can't mention black history and firearms without mentioning the Reverend
Martin Luther King. He was denied to carry permit by

(01:54:34):
the Sheriff's office in Montgomery, Alabama after his home was firebombed. Okay,
Martin was a gun owner and he believed in self defense.
Obviously he espoused a nonviolent political action, but he was
a gunner. Same with Malcolm x E. There's that famous
picture of him with the m one carbing looking out
his windows scared. So I talked to Robert Kottrell, who

(01:54:57):
was a professor. He's a law professor George Washington University,
probably one of the top three minds scholars in the
Second Amendment world. And it was just fantastic. I ran
the interview with him. As a Q and A because
his words I just couldn't paraphrase anything he said.

Speaker 20 (01:55:18):
It was just too important.

Speaker 7 (01:55:20):
And he talks about the black codes. He talks about
firearm ownership getting lower among blacks, but now it's finally
catching up. But I spoke to the Reverend Ken Blanchard,
and he wrote a book that I think should be
on everybody's bookshelf, Black Man with a Gun. It's an
ownership manual. But when it came out, it's designed for

(01:55:40):
first time gun owners who are black, but it should
be required reading for anybody who wants to start talking
and getting into the gun world. It is a fantastic book.
And he said he when he got out of the
military's brain and when he got out of federal law enforcement,
he just wanted to start teaching and training. But he
had to overcome hundreds of years of conditioning. It was bad,

(01:56:06):
I mean three hundred years of cultural conditioning that said
to blacks, guns are bad, leave them alone. Even the
gun owners he was running into were pretty much undercovered
and not public about owning guns. And then we looked
at the great Walter E. Williams. He's a professor. Unfortunately

(01:56:27):
he passed away in twenty twenty and I resurrected.

Speaker 5 (01:56:30):
Some of his columns.

Speaker 7 (01:56:32):
His column appeared in more than one hundred and fifty newspapers.
He was an economist, a great friend of the libertarian
mister Soowell, a professor Soowell, and man did he have
an acerbic wit in his column. When Congressman John Lewis
said the British are not coming. We don't need guns
to kill people, Williams just handed him his hat with

(01:56:53):
his head in it. A brilliant writer. I've been reading
his columns that are still out there online ever since.
Was eulogized by Ted Cruz, who said his legacy will
endure as we continue to fight for liberty. It was
really fun, President, and I learned a heck of a lot.
And let me tell you, Professor cottro has a new
book coming out that's going to be huge in the

(01:57:14):
Second Amendment world, to trust the people with arms. He
looks at the Supreme Court the Second Amendment. I asked
him if he was a black scholar or a scholar
who just happened to be black, and he said both.
You can't separate what he and his people have gone
through culturally. And a fantastic interview and a great guy.

Speaker 1 (01:57:37):
You know, when you mentioned doctor Williams, it makes me
smile because he was a friend of ours. He was
a regular guest. Wow, he was a regular guest on
my show. And never ever did I send him a
note asking him to come on the program that he
didn't respond within hours And just a gentleman. And as
you as you note, a brilliant mind. And we lost

(01:58:01):
a treasure when we lost doctor Williams. What is the
biggest takeaway for you having spent time in this case
talking to and reading about these three men.

Speaker 7 (01:58:15):
Wow, I would say that what they said about how
the Second Amendment affected them and how blacks in general
were treated, it's still going on today. We're still seeing
the same type of discrimination in this case with the
Second Amendment that they faced in their youth. Look at
the Biden Harris administration. They're still trying to ban guns

(01:58:37):
in public housing. People are being discriminated against in terms
of the Second Amendment based upon their race. Look at Chicago.
Look at how difficult it is for these urban cities
for people to own guns for self defense. Now, keeping
that in mind, you know the largest segment of new
gun buyers right now are black females, and they're finally

(01:58:58):
getting through, getting passed this racial conditioning, this cultural conditioning,
and they're realizing, you know, I got drug deals being
committed right outside my front door. I want a gun
for self defense, and they're buying him and they're getting trained,
which I think is fantastic.

Speaker 1 (01:59:12):
Lee Williams. You find his work at his site, The
gun Writer dot substack dot com. It's great newsletter, all
right friends, that polishes off the month of February on
Monday back with the third day of the Twelve Days
of Preston with the month of March. Until then, have
a great weekend and thanks for listening.
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