06-18-24 FULL SHOW - When Not To Shoot An Intruder, + Randy Travis Sings Again

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome, Welcome, Welcome. Ontoday's show, we talked to a very
interesting man who has helped give singerRandy Travis his voice back after he lost
it after a stroke. We've gotJohn Carson on. He wants to be
a Douglas County commissioner. I don'tknow why we have a Supreme Court ruling
about when you can or can't shootan intruder. And Jack Phillips says,
facing his nuisance accuser in court againtoday, that ends so much more.

(00:23):
It's a really full show today.I have a very cool show I think
planned today. I mean, itcould go completely south. You never know.
These things are always a crapshoot.But a few weeks ago, you
guys know, I love CBS SundayMorning, and they did a really interesting
story on Randy Travis, the countrysinger. And I love nineties country because
that was my era and those werethe Let me just walk back in time

(00:48):
for all of you non nineties countryparticipants, okay, because back in the
nineties there were so many great countrybars and they all have these incredible dance
floors, and it would be Ladies'Night on Wednesday night one, and Ladies'
Night on Thursday night on another one. It was just fantastic and the music
was great and everybody danced and hada wonderful time and it was spectacular,

(01:08):
wonderful time to be alive. Andso I like Randy Travis because of that
timeframe. And Randy Travis had amassive stroke and was struck with a phasia
which took away his ability to speakand sing. So obviously he has been
sidelined as his health has not beengreat. But technology that it uses artificial

(01:29):
intelligence and the voice of another man, has actually been able to recreate Randy
Travis's voice and it is the mostinteresting story ever. And today we're going
to talk to the man who participatedin that process. James Dupray, is
the guy who actually sings the songsthat are then manipulated by AI, and

(01:52):
the result is amazing, absolutely amazing, and it just it's kind of an
interesting story about A because we've talkedabout that so much and that we're now
I think in this election cycle youare going to begin to see AI that
is good enough to fool a chunkof people. And what's interesting, you

(02:15):
guys, have you noticed the newtalking point from the left right now is
that's a cheap fake. It's acheap fake. Look at that cheap fake.
It's a cheap Oh when you say, and Ayrod, I didn't even
I don't even think I put oneof the videos. Oh yes I did.
I did put the video you sentme of Barack Obama leading Joe Biden

(02:35):
off the stage. Now you canwatch the video yourself. Wait, it
actually happened. Yeah. So manypeople are saying no, no, just
you can watch the video yourself.And here's the thing. It's like people
are saying, did he freeze?I think, honestly, he's standing there
basking in the adoration of the peoplein front of him, because his ego
is such that he likes doing that, and that's a very human emotion.

(03:00):
But he's just standing there, dullstare at the dairy cow arms by his
side, not waving or anything asone would do, bowing, doing something
cheesy. That's what I do,as if that ever happens. But he's
standing there and Obama leads him offthe stage. Okay, And and much
ado has been made about this becauseit does look really bad. He looks

(03:20):
like he has no idea where heis, and Obama leads him off the
stace. It's the event that himand Kamala were also recently at where it
was the exact same stare, exactsame freez, just dull stare. It
looks the same every time, Yep, exactly. But I put that on
the blog today so you could gosee it. But now as soon as
people start to talk about it,everyone on the left is like, there're
these cheap fake videos they're doing.That's fake. That's not a fake video.

(03:45):
Wait, so they're claiming they're claimingnews cheap. Yes, that's their
very That was my whole point.This is their version of fake news,
cheap fake. So it's not evena well produced fake even though it's literally
reality. We live in nineteen eightyfour, you guys, We are squarely
in nineteen eighty four. When itcomes to this, they are trying to
tell us that no matter what wesee in front of our faces, it's

(04:10):
not what we thought we saw.Why stop there, Let's go a little
bit back in nineteen sixty eight orsome time for the DNC, which I'm
so excited about. Hey, Rinand I are going to be going to
both the RNC and the DNC thisyear, and I cannot wait, I've
never had the chance to go,and I have to thank are amazing sponsors,
Golden Spike Roofing, Spike McCarthy,my friend and longtime sponsor, and

(04:31):
then Rocky Mountain Voice, which isthe new news aggregate site started by Heidiganal
and they're doing a great job onreporting election stuff. So I linked to
one of their stories yesterday or today, I don't remember which, but she
is the sponsor for the RNC andSpike is the sponsor for the DNC.

(04:53):
And Spike actually asked me, hesaid, which one do you think I
should sponsor? I was like,honestly, I think the DNC is going
to be such a dumpster fire thateveryone's going to tune in to want to
hear that. And I don't meanpolitical philosophy wise. I mean I think
that there's going to be a tonof protesters out there. There are people
that are vowing to make this likenineteen sixty eight. It's going to be
chaos, and now a rod andare going to be there right in the

(05:15):
middle of it doing Mandy on theStreet interviews. What what can't wait?
Whip Anyway, So I've got Jamesdu Pray coming on at one o'clock.
I just thought that story was supercool. We have a lot of stuff
on the blog. We got alot of court stories today, and I
want to start with one of thoseright now. So oh oh gosh,
I haven't done the blog yet.Oh my goodness. I did sleep last

(05:36):
night. You guys, what timeyou get up? Wow? No,
I got about three forty five thismorning. But I also improvement. Wait,
I also fell asleep at seven pmand I fell asleep and so that's
like eight hours. I got goodsleep last night. Son, you need
to almost fully recover. I needto You are one step away. All
you didn't need to do is tonightstay up really late. That's not a

(05:58):
thing I do, no I know, but to eliminate the jet lag for
good. No, I don't know. You don't understand. I don't stay
up late. That's the thing youneed to tonight. Well, I'm old
drink a red Bull one night.Zero percent chance that I am drinking a
Red Bull and in twelve hours goingto sleep, right, that's not a
thing that's gonna happen. Red Bulland I love vastly underestimate the effect of

(06:21):
caffeine on me. I'm just tellingyou when you get old, you come
find me and I'll be like,oh, there you go, Clock,
We're goorn. Fine, I don'tneed any tooth picks. It's fine.
Okay, let's do the blog.Go find it at mandy'sblog dot com.
That's mandy'sblog dot com. Look forthe headline that says six eighteen twenty four
blog when not to Shoot an Intruderplus Randy Travis sings again. Click on

(06:44):
that and here are the headlines youwill find within any office half of American
all the ships and clippas, andsay that's going to press plats tell you
on the blog. AI gives RandyTravis his voice back. John Larson wants
to be a Doug co commissioner.I agree with the gazette endorsements. Wait
before you shoot an intruder. JackPhillips is facing his nuisance accuser in court

(07:05):
today. Utah's governor is super mad. We're shipping illegal aliens there. The
Denver City Council wants more of yourmoney. A majority of Hispanic Americans favor
mass deportation. The ugly truth aboutour debt. We're all so Viets now.
Are the Palestinians really worse than thenazis. A reporter for a US
paper held the hostages in Gaza.Tattered cover is independent no more. Colorado

(07:30):
is the sixth month patriotic state?Do animalists have consciousness? Hi? Fat
diets could raise anxiety? Don't bean a hole in a restaurant. Unionize
They said it'll be fun, theysaid. Millionaires are ditching the UK is
the Evy Camino, the perfect momcar. Kansas is suing Fizer over the
vaccine. Democrats are hoping Biden stepsdown. Magic explained how bad is soda

(07:55):
for you? Really? This explainsa Rod's wife eating mayo on hot dogs.
Yes, Obana led Biden off stage. Chuck Schumer even fakes being a
real human. Those Oh, theworld's most valuable stampus sold. Team USA
is gonna look sharp. Those arethe headlines on the blog at Mandy's blog
dot com. As you can see, today's blog is voluminous. Did you

(08:18):
see the new Olympic uniforms? Didyou see him love them? Do they
adust them from the last criticized ones? They do them all. They do
new ones every Olympics. No,I know, when are we criticize them
the last year? Yeah? Becausethey had the big crutch, So they
didn't change those again that No,those are gone. These are just opening
and closing ceremonies. Once they dothey do new new unis for the Olympics.

(08:39):
Within the last year, we haveseen and criticized oneged remember No,
that was the one that that waslike barely there, the high cut track
uniforms. Everybody's the jjs would havebeen hanging out. Yeah, I think
they changed those. Looking they cameback and said those were prototypes. Yeah
that's what Yeah, the sonic effect. Yes, these are I see what

(09:03):
you're saying. So these are fullon for opening ceremonies. Yes. The
other ones within the last year probablythe same one. No, they were
tracked uniforms. Those were Aren't thosecool? Don't you want that jackets jacket?
Yes? I want both of these, and we're looking like astronauts that
I want the blazer and I wantthe whole like leather jacket, astronaut jacket
lifted off the US style. Baby, we're gonna look good. Ralph Lauren

(09:28):
Chef's kiss once again. Well done. He does Americana fashion pull. We're
gonna turn it out in Paris.We should have some kind of pool in
the office for the Olympics. Don'tyou think is that a thing? Do
people do that? Like metal countsomething? We should have a metal count
pool. Are we like all teamUSA or like we're like we're splitting up

(09:50):
countries like some of these No,no, no, just countries just by
nation, like the USA is goingto win one hundred gold, fifty silver,
twenty five bronze and those are obviouslywe're just round numbers that I just
made up. I think. Sohe gets more into it because I mean
we're Yeah, I love the Olympics, so I'm already into summer or winter
more. Uh, summer for sure, Oh, winter for sure. No

(10:11):
summer for sure, because you gotswimming, you got diving, you got
gymnastics. I like track and fieldat the Olympics. I don't normally watch
it otherwise all the all snowboarding andskiing and the speedwalking O the one that
you'll listen a ferguson that you mean, I know, Yeah, unfortunately you
did not qualify for the twenty twentyfour speed walking competition. Hey, let
me tell you earn after this vacation, you're not working out. I went

(10:33):
for a walk today and I feltlike I was one hundred years old.
I was like, uh, itmaking noises the entire time. It was
sad. Okay, let me getto some actual news, because there's some
really good stuff on the blog.As you just heard. It's huge,
very funny videos to look at,as well a really sobering video by John
Stossel on the debt. I'm kindof tempted to play that later because it's
like, oh my goodness, notthat you don't know it if you listen

(10:56):
to the show, but yeah,our debt is uh is reached critical mass.
Now I want to talk about thisstory because yesterday the Colorado Supreme Court
ruled that a defendant in Colorado whoand here's the situation. Here's what happened.
So a gentleman named Joseph Howell wasin his apartment with his mother and

(11:20):
a guy was outside their ground floorapartment in Denver, and he was wild,
he was being crazy, he wasout of his mind whatever, And
at one point he stepped onto theconcrete pad that separated the apartment complex's yard
from the door of their apartment.So basically the front stoop right, mister

(11:41):
Howell shot the man in the facethrough the closed door that was locked,
and he tried to say that hewas going to invoke the castle doctrine.
And the castle doctrine is a statuethat exists in Colorado and many, many,
many other states, which I thinkis a very good statute by the
way, that says you are allowedto yourself even with deadly force if someone
comes into your home or into yourproperty in Florida, and I don't know

(12:05):
if this is the same one inColorado, so someone could correct me if
I'm wrong. In Florida, itapplies to your vehicles, your RVs,
things of that nature as well.So anything that you are inside of that
you own that is your property inthe castle doctrine is up applicable there.
Well. The Colorado's Supreme Court justthat this particular shooting is not applicable when

(12:26):
it comes to the castle doctrine becausethe outside patio pad is not enclosed,
doesn't have a roof, and thereforeis not part of the residence. And
the reason I wanted to do thisstory, you know, I don't have
a lot of faith in the ColoradoSupreme Court because they are overturned so often
by the US Supreme Court, andsome of their rulings are so dumb.

(12:46):
That being said, from what Ican tell, they are interpreting this law
correctly, so there may be aflaw in the law. But I'm just
going to say this. When Iwas in Florida and they passed the Castle
Doctrine in Florida, and you shouldhave heard the catterwauling from the Democrats in
Florida about how this was going tolead. People were just going to be

(13:07):
shooting their neighbors. They were justgoing to be standing at the end of
their driveway just shooting everybody walking by. I mean, you should have heard
the stupidity that came out against this. But a law enforcement officer told me
on my radio show down there.He said, look, if someone is
breaking into your house and you freakout and you shoot them, make sure

(13:28):
part of their body is inside,Like if they're coming in a window,
make sure they fall half in,half out, and if they don't drag
him up. I mean, hewas kidding, but he was making the
point that they had to be insideyour property. They have to be inside
trying to get inside your car,inside your RV, inside your home,
And that's what I think applies here. But I think this is very useful

(13:52):
information to have, especially if youprotect your home with a firearm, and
there's this temptation. Sometimes you heara noise outside, you know, you
get your gun, you go outside. Don't shoot anyone outside your house because
you will go to jail because thecastle doctrine will not give you cover unless
you're being you know, I guessimmediately attacked, whereas someone is laying their

(14:13):
hands on you or trying to Butknow this kind of stuff if you are
a person who has a firearm inyour home to protect your house, because
the worst thing ever is when someonewho is trying to protect their family or
protect themselves ends up being the onethat's punished for doing that very thing.
I just think that's wrong. Sothe only way to avoid that is do

(14:35):
the best you can to live withinthe rules. And the Colleadged Supreme Court
has said if they are not insideyour physical property, then you are not
able to use that defense. Sonot that I ever want to have this
conversation, by the way, butI think that for me, like I
never want to shoot someone breaking intomy house. I never want to have
that experience. It's not I don'tI don't care what the rush feels like.

(14:56):
I don't ever want to have thatexperience, but by thinking through how
I would behave in that situation,I feel like I've given myself a slightly
better edge if I ever do findmyself in that situation. So that's where
I bring this stuff up to you. I think everybody should have these conversations
in your head about what that wouldlook like, how you would react,

(15:16):
what you would do, and whatyou would not do. I just think
that's a good way to go throughlife, not just when it comes to
your personal safety, but when itcomes to how you run your life.
Now, when we get back,little free advice from me to you.
When we get back, I gotto talk about Jack Phillips, and y'all,
I never want to talk about JackPhillips again. This man has been
in the news like seven years now, and today he is getting his day

(15:39):
at the Colorado Supreme Court. We'lltalk about why when we get back.
Rob Dawson's in the studio. We'regonna get serious because we have a serious
topic to talk about with a seriousnewsman, and that is Rob Dawson.
Okay, we got to talk aboutthe Jack Phillips situation. And let me
just read my headline to give youan idea of my feelings about this.
Jack Phillips is facing his nuisance accuserin court today. Now you were at
the press conference. Was at thepress conference? What happened to the press

(16:00):
conference? Two press conferences to JackPhillips and John McHugh with Autumn Scardina his
client. So both sides are representedhere at about a half hour. First
of all, it's beautiful, sothat was outside, so it was good.
But you know, I noticed that, you know, Jack Phillips,
he I've seen him before, butnever seen him in person. I've seen

(16:22):
pictures of him. Looks weary,Yeah, as you might imagine. Yeah,
well this has been going on.A text or pointed out that this
all started in July of twenty twelve, so this is been for twelve years
now. So what the key partof this case continues to be is whether
this is about the message? Isthere a message with the cake that he

(16:45):
fakes for or was asked to befrom automn Scardia. Yeah, let me
give the backstory real quick. Sowe know Jack Phillips and Masterpiece Cakes were
the center of a lawsuit but allegedby gay couple who said violated. He
violated their civil rights because he refusedto make them a gay wedding cake.
That went through the courts for years, eventually ending up the Supreme Court,

(17:07):
and they ruled in Jack Phillips case, but on a very narrow basis.
So in walks trans lawyer Autumn Scardina, and she already knows who Jack Phillips
is, and she goes to himand says, I want a cake that's
blue inside and pink on the outside. And he said fine, and then
she said to celebrate my gender transition. And he said no, thank you,
right, And that's where the partof this is. I was asking

(17:32):
about both attorneys about the sequencing,like, you know, they Jack's teams
today said if she had said makea cake transgender, they would do that.
But then she described the messaging aboutthe transition. So I asked about

(17:52):
that, and they have a differentview of the sequencing. They also have
brought up the fact that she hasasked for other cakes that were clearly something
that he was going to reject.It seemed like just a little bit of
a beating. Yeah. And thenon the other side we heard a little
bit about you know, she said, well, if he if if if

(18:15):
you went in she was pointing tome, asked this question, Right,
if you had went in and askedfor a pink and blue cake and the
same design that I asked, hewould he would make it for you.
And because he won't do anything forme, because he now knows that I'm
trained, I believe didn't he sayyes to the cake until she was still
what it was for and what itwas for. There is now that question

(18:40):
about well, she's intending the caketo send a message. So it would
seem to me that if they wereconsistent, then you're admitting that a cake
sends a message. Does the cakemean a different message for different people?
I don't know if that is apart of this too. Again, they
want to make this this is thisis anti discrimination or free speech, and
I will say that in my mind, it is not a just system that

(19:03):
does not allow Jack Phillips to seekrelief from nuisance lawsuits. And that's what
this is. Right, and camein looking for a lawsuit. This was
the only reason she came to MasterpieceCakes. Yeah, and I wanted to
ask, But then we had asituation where we had a Christian publication that
tried to debate US Autumn Scardina atthe podium and the her legal team said,

(19:25):
no, we're out of here,goodbye. But the question is,
I mean, did she did sheenjoy did she go to Masterpiece Cake because
it was received a high yelp right? Or is she going to try and
make a point to try and nabthem on a technicality. And that's what
I think obviously is right. Imean, she's she's an activist. Trans
attorney Jack Phillips believes that. Yes, I believe. Oh what does that

(19:47):
show? Hang on? Got anauto start therapist? Sorry about that?
My bad? No, I meanit's fun, I know exactly. But
it's going to be interesting to seewhat the Colorado Supreme Court does on this,
because I think they are They're wronga lot, and they've been overturned
by the Supreme Court multiple times recently. Think about that, like it's not

(20:07):
even far away. And the ColoradoSupreme Court when they issue not the Colorado
Supreme Court, the US Supreme Courtissued a pretty stm rebuttal to the Colorado
Civil Rights Commission over the way theytreated Jack Phillips. And then what we'll
see also is again, could itbe narrow? Could this go the Supreme
Court again. You know, Iwould think so. I would definitely think

(20:30):
so. It's an issue that needsto be decided. And I've said this
since this case first popped up,and I wasn't even in Denver. This
is the kind of stuff that isgoing to make a LGBTQ activist. Sorry.
One thing I wanted to notice aboutthe press conference with Autumn Scurtina.
She's an attorney. She was,as you would expect an attorney, pretty

(20:51):
well spoken out there. And isshe using her legal knowledge to try and
you know, as a turn andhe's doing try to seek out technicallect?
Callit these little things that are wrong. We know all about the Supreme Court
decision, but does this fall outof the narrowness of that decision to try
and go on another avenue. Shesaid, if he can, if he

(21:15):
can reject every one of my kind, we should all be concerned that this
could open up the floodgates. Well, thanks for that. It's just Jack
Phillips is and well, yeah,so he looks weary, you know.
He again he's in court again,you're starting out with his wife. The
Alliance Defending Freedom was there representing him. They say that this is a case

(21:41):
about freedom of speech. Everyone shouldwin if we get ruled in our favor
because of the freedom of speech.No one should be able to make a
cake on a message they don't believe. And I agree, I agree.
I think this whole thing is amanufacturer and ginned up controversies secifically designed to
go after Jack Phillips again to punishhim for winning at the Supreme Court.

(22:04):
That is where I hope this entirething is. And he should be able
to counter sue. I'm sorry,he should be able to sue her for
defamation. If he wins, thenhe should be able to sue her for
defamation and you know, doing allthe things she's done. And then the
question is Kendy got sued again byanother repeat. I think what you're interested
in is can this finally cut offlawsuits against him? Yes? I mean

(22:26):
it needs to be enough, right, it needs to be enough. This
person on the text line said,how can we contribute to mister phillips defense?
Find the Alliance Defending Freedom is theorganization that is providing I'm pretty sure
pro bono to him, Like there'sno, he's not coming out. I've
had certain on that. But againI think they had before, though,
right, I mean, I knowthey have before, and I believe that
they are now. So if youwant to make a donation to the Alliance

(22:48):
Defending Freedom, specifically earmarked for misterPhillips, they would happily do that for
you. Yeah. And the otherquestion, just real quick, I wonder
if this is a tougher case forhim to win now. I don't know.
I've been trying to think about thatas I've been reporting on that.
If it was, see, here'sthe thing coming at it from using Jack

(23:10):
Phillips again, knowing he's already beenknowing the timeline of this, I think
that if it makes it, especiallyto the US Supreme Court, it actually
makes it less likely to succeed.Now the Colorado Supreme Court, I'm not
dazzled with their jurisprudence, Okay,I'm just not. So we'll see if
they do the right thing. We'lljust have to wait and find out see
if they're swayed by his argument orhers. And they've already been cracked down

(23:33):
on once before, so we'll seewhat happens this time. I'm putting something
together for one o'clock, all right, so I have more from Rob at
one o'clock. We are going tocomment right back in just a minute.
You guys, we have ticked offUtah, and I just didn't think that
was possible. People in Utah areso nice. But we've ticked off Utah?
Or did we? Or is itjust the governor trying to play tough.

(23:55):
Oh, it's a tangled web.I'll explain when we get back Ron
DeSantis and Greg that sent illegal aliensup to Martha's vineyard to make a point.
Remember back in the olden times whenthat happened, and everybody on the
news media outlets were apoplectic because,oh the humanity. Oh it's just they're
using these people as political bonds andit's just terrible. Well, we have

(24:18):
ticked off Utah Governor Spencer Cox.That's right. He is madder than a
wet hen. He's mad because hesays Mayor Mike Johnston has been bussing illegal
immigrants to Salt Lake City. Now, for the record, he has a
point here. He said on Twitter. We recently learned that the Democrat mayor

(24:41):
of Denver has been sending illegal immigrantsto Utah without proper notification or approval.
This is completely unacceptable and follows onthe failed catch and release policy of the
Biden administration, and everybody's like,well, Denver's been doing this for a
while, dude, thanks for checkingin. Now. The background story on

(25:02):
this is that Governor Cox is ina very heated primary election right now with
a guy to his right who sayshe's not tough on crime, he hasn't
done anything to stem the flow ofa legal immigration. He's just kind of
weak. He's been accused of weakleadership. So this is his big I'm
in the sand of things he's goingto be super mad about. But that
being said, he has a point. And I'm not saying Denver and Colorado

(25:29):
deserve it, but Denver and Coloradodeserve it. Denver in Colorado each passed
various ordinances or statutes that make thema sanctuary city where police are law enforcement
is prohibited from cooperating with ice inmany situations. We invited them. Remember
the big Welcome Immigrants sign? Doyou remember that on city Hall? It

(25:55):
was all so we could let everybodyknow that Denver and Colorado thought Orangeman bat
right. That's all it was.And that was before the massive influx of
illegal aliens that has been happening underJoe Biden. So what happened was is
that the Democrats wanted to take anopportunity to do Orangeman bad. Look at

(26:15):
how much better we are. Butthen when all the immigrants were like,
oh my god, Denver seems nice, let's go there, Denver's like,
whoa, hey, what are wetalking about here? You know what I
said, you were pretty once.I didn't want you to show up on
my doorstep and then try to dealwith the the ensuing chaos. They've quietly

(26:36):
adopted the same strategies that were beingadopted by Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis in
order to bring attention to the situationat the border. And guess what,
it worked. It worked. That'swhy you have no criticism anymore in the
news about the buzzing of illegal aliens. None, So like it doesn't exist.
They're no longer political pawns. Nope, now they're just they're just nomads.

(27:00):
Excuse me, undocumented nomads. That'swhat they are now. So we'll
see what happens in Utah. Haveyou ever been to Salt Lake City?
A Rod, you ever gone toSalt Lake City? I think when I
was younger. It's a nice town. Yeah, Grina, haven't been there
in twenty years. It could bea complete crap, you know, dung
keep now. I don't know,but it was a very nice place when
I went there before. U Man, wait a minute, I just do

(27:22):
the math. It's been like thirtyyears since I've been there. Oh the
year is how they passed? Shutup a rod last time I was in
Salt Lake City, you weren't evenalive yet. How about that? Are
you not sa h hr hall hrmans being you know surly again? You

(27:45):
a nap? I wish I could. No, I don't if I were
an a legal immigrant and I gothere in the middle of the winter and
they said, you know, wewant to be here, you want to
be in Salt Lake. I thinkSalt Lake at this point is probably cleaner.
I don't know as anybody been toSalt Lake lately that can text me
five six six nine our and letme know. Saucy. Yes, we
do have some text messages about this. Mandy. Poulis and Cox were supposed

(28:07):
to disagree better right. Therefore,Poulis will distance himself from Johnston on this
issue of Denver sending immigrants to UtahYEP. Yep, Mandy. I wonder
if the activist lawyers suing Jack Phillipsis using the lawsuits to earn a living
because of other activist organizations donating money. That's quite possible. Mandy. Did

(28:30):
you tick off Utah when you suggestedstorm and Mormons for the hockey team.
I'm telling you that would be anamazing name. No, Yetti is so
awesome? White Bread? Why no, Well, so are Storman Mormons?
To be clear, and that isnot Abo. That's actually a compliment the
Utah yeties does kind of have aring. He would have a fantastic mascot

(28:52):
too. Well. Good thing theAvs change theirs because they had like the
Abominable Snowman before it was kind ofsimilar. Now they have Pernie. What
is Bernie's mountain dog? Yeah,that's right, Yeah, not Sanders.
All right, there you go.Excellent. We're gonna take a quick time
out when we get back. We'vegot the guy who gave Randy Travis his
voice back. It is such acool story. We're going to talk to

(29:14):
James. Do pray next, Keepit right here. I want to bring
you guys on the blog today.There is a really cool story that I
saw on CBS Sunday Morning a fewweeks ago about a new song by Randy
Travis. And that is remarkable becauseTravis had a significant stroke and he ended
up with a phasia which has robbedhim of the ability to sing and he
struggles to speak as well. Buthe's got a new song out that uses

(29:38):
a combination of artificial intelligence and thevoice of my next guest to truly bring
Randy Travis back to life. Andjoining me now is the man who's giving
voice to this project, James Dopray. James, thanks for making time
for us today. Absolutely, thankyou for having me. Now. You
are a musician and a singer inyour own right, and I have to

(30:00):
I wonder how did this come aboutfor you that someone either called you or
heard you and said, hey,would you like to be Randy Travis?
How did that conversation occur? Well, so first I should say that you
know, Randy and I have beenworking together for quite a few years now.
I've known him since before his strokein twenty thirteen, and we've been

(30:22):
touring together since twenty nineteen. Butthis particular song is one that I recorded
in twenty eleven and it was justnever released and I thought it was just
you know, collecting dust on ashelf all these years. But apparently Kyle
Lenning, who produced that project onme, who also produced Randy's entire career,

(30:45):
he had had this song in hisback pocket all these years after we
recorded it. And basically when Iwent to I went to Nashville earlier this
year to for a meeting. Whatthey told me was a meeting about the
tour dates this year, and itwas actually to show me the song and
to see, if you know,what I thought about it, and to
see if I wanted to work withthem on this project moving forward. So

(31:07):
it was, you know, quitea surprise, but very fascinating and exciting.
It is fascinating, and I'm gladyou used that word because just the
technology behind this, and if youcould, I don't know how how much
you know about the technology behind this, but if you can explain how they
took your voice and yet made itsound so much like Randy Travis. And

(31:32):
I listened to one of your songsthis morning, and you have a beautiful
voice, and you sound kind oflike Randy Travis, but you don't sound
exactly like him. So how didthey make that happen. Yeah, well,
you know, Randy has a veryunique tone and voice in general,
so it's very hard to sound tosound like this. But the technology,

(31:53):
from what they explained to me,was for months that they've been wor Kyle
Inning, like I said, whoproduced Randy, had been working with these
people from England. I believes thathe took like forty two tracks of Randy's
vocals from his early career all theway through his later years, and they

(32:14):
built this AI model around his vocals, and then they took this song,
this new song, and they ranmy vocal track through the Randy AI model
and it came out sounding more orless like Randy Travis. It's amazing.
I mean, it's really really amazing. But I have to ask you,
as an artist, is this Imean, how does this fit in with

(32:37):
your own ego? And I'm it'skind of an existential question really because I
think it would be kind of hardto know that that is you singing.
But at the same time, ithas to be really cool to give him
his voice back. Yeah, exactly. I mean, I appreciate the recognition

(32:58):
that I've gotten from this and thecredit, and I mean, and honestly
just to be part of something sogroundbreaking, Yeah, is really cool,
you know, and uh, youknow, they're inventing a new uh credit
for for my part. It's calleda vocal bed, which which I just
find really cool. But also,you know, like I said, Randy

(33:19):
and I have known each other fora long time and he's done a lot
for me and my family and mycareer, and this is something that he
chose to do and wanted to doand asked me to be a part of
and up and I'm you know,gladly wou you know, be a part
of that. Well. You youhave a very similar timber in your voice,
and it's not, like I said, it's not exactly the same.

(33:40):
You don't get a vocal clone.But I think that is what makes this
work. I think if you didn'thave that same timber to your voice,
I don't know if it would work. I mean, did you hear them
try to do this with any othersinger? That's kind of what I what
I'm getting at. Could they dothis with another singer? Is it because
your voice is already complimentary to him? Is? I think that's what it

(34:01):
is? Because they did they didlike experiment around with other singers and other
songs and it you know, Kylejust said it didn't quite sound right.
It didn't sound like Randy. Andnobody knows Randy's voice more than Kyle inning
right, and so he, youknow, he basically said, my voice
was quote unquote the magic sauce.So you made it work. That's really

(34:25):
really cool. Now you guys havebeen doing a little bit of touring together,
right even now, how does thatwork? I mean, because it's
my understanding, Randy can't release singat all, can't he correct he So
in twenty nineteen, Mary, hiswife, called me and said, uh,
you know, Randy, it's beensix years. At the time,
it was six years since the stroke. And you know, Randy's wants to

(34:46):
go on the road. He misseshis band, he misses, you know,
seeing his fans. And they've gotthis idea of doing this this concert,
this tour of you know, withhis old band, and it's basically
Randy Travis concert. It's his music, it's his man. He does a
meet and greet, he's on thestage for the entire performance. The only

(35:07):
difference is that it's me singing hissongs and not him. But he's still
there. Interacting with the fans,and you know, it's it's a really
cool, cool and there's video,Yeah, it's video of like his career
and you know, his acting careergoes into and you know, horse his
trick horse training, and I meanit's just a really fascinating type of things.

(35:30):
So if if anybody, we werein Colorado Springs in twenty twenty two
and it was an amazing time.And you know, if anybody is curious,
to go on YouTube and check itout. It's a really great show.
Now are you still you're touring underyour own name and your own music,
right, correct, Yes, I'mstill doing my own thing on the

(35:51):
side as far as i'm you know, whenever I'm not on the road with
Randy. You know, I justthink this is such an interesting story on
so many levels. I didn't knowyou guys were friends for a long time
before this happened. That makes iteven better because that whole angle. I
think that also probably if you hadsomebody who was either not a friend or
not as familiar with Randy's music,I wonder if the ego thing would be

(36:14):
harder. And that's that's one ofthose things where it's like you've created now
you're a Jeopardy answer. You realizethis, right, James, because now
in thirty years is going to belike what artists got the first vocal bed
credit from you. But I dothink it's going to be an interesting genre
as artists get older and they don'tthey can't hit the notes that they used

(36:35):
to hit anymore. I mean,I know that I've seen some older artists
that I thought to myself after atthe concert, they probably should have hung
it up a few years ago.I think this is like a very groundbreaking
thing that could help artists continue todo what Randy's doing right now. I
just think it's super cool. Yeah, you know, and you know,
technology and music have been kind ofworking together for a long time now.

(36:57):
This is obviously a whole different kindof worm you know that you know,
could end up being used in thewrong ways. And that's that's really the
big story I think about this wholething is that you know, is this
a good thing or a bad thing? And you know, in this particular
case, I believe this this wasa good use of AI because yeah,

(37:17):
you can't sing anymore, and hisinvolvement is also very crucial. Well,
that's a great distinction to make thatthere are going to be downsides, and
this was one of the big issueswith the Actors strike recently in Hollywood is
how can my image and my voicebe used when I am not actively a
part of something, And that wasa big sticking point. So that's a
great point. This is it's beingused for good and we can already see

(37:40):
where bad actors are going to useit for ill, So at least there's
a positive here. Yes, absolutely, James you Pray is my guest.
You can find him at James dupraydot com. I linked on the blog
today. I also embedded the videoof the song so you can hear the
song, and I embedded the CBSSunday Morning, which was really interesting.

(38:00):
So that's kind of why you're herebecause I saw that and I just thought,
wow, that's that's really really cool. James. I really appreciate you
making time for us today. Absolutely, thank you so much for having me.
All Right, I have a greatone that is James Dupray. And
you know, the ego part,I think is really the part that interests
me the most in the whole conceptof vocal beds goes back to like back

(38:22):
in the day when they cast AudreyHepburn at not A. Yes, Audrey
Hepburn in My Fair Lady, butthey didn't let her sing it, and
they would have people go in andsing the songs vera, uh, what's
her name, vera, vera whateverfrom White Christmas. She didn't sing in

(38:42):
that film. Someone else sang.I believe her is. Mary Clooney sang
her parts. But now we havea situation where you're gonna have entire songs
that sound like one artist but theyare not. I think that is very
This is an amazing time to bealive, guys, an amazing time to
be alive. Now back to theblog because I got a bunch of more

(39:04):
stuff that we're going to get totoday. Dinversity Council, we've kind of
talked about this a little bit overthe last week or last few weeks,
last month or so. Dinversity Councilis starting to push back against the Mayor's
office. Now they're still capitulating,they're still giving the mayor whatever he wants,
but there's been more pushback now.Last night they just threw another ten

(39:25):
million dollars. They're just throwing anincredible amount of money at the homeless issue,
and a lot of the money thatthey're throwing at this they're one time
funds. There are pa money.They were supposed to be used for COVID
relief, and now we're just usingthem for whatever we want, because that
was always intended to be a giantslush fund and it is. But those

(39:49):
funds are going to run out.And last night at the Denver City Council
meeting, two of the council memberssaid, wait a minute, we're just
spending a ton of money. Theyalso criticized the mayor's office by saying,
you know, maybe if we hadtaken a little more time to do this
right the first time, we wouldn'tbe in the position that we're in now
of having spent all this money tohave a lower percentage of people exiting the
shelter system into stable housing than thenational average. And that's where Denver is.

(40:14):
They're getting less bang for the buck. They're warehousing people and not getting
them into permanent housing. So it'sI don't know how much longer, how
much more goodwill the mayor has whenit comes to continuing to just strike ten
million dollar checks. The second issuethat came up last night that I think
is going to be really important,especially if you live in Denver. They're

(40:37):
putting another sales tax increase on theballot. They voted last night and there
was only one abstention from Kevin Flynn. He did say he would not campaign
against it, but he also said, you know, when is enough enough?
And what's going to be really fascinatingto meet watch in this situation is

(40:57):
Denver voters have never met a taxinggrease that they did not love. They
love to vote themselves tax increases,They can't wait to vote themselves tax increases.
But we just came off the biggestproperty tax increase in the modern era,
and everything is so much more expensive. I'm curious as to whether or

(41:17):
not this is gonna pass. Andif you live in the city of Denver
and you're in this listening audience,I bet the answer is no, absolutely
not. So it's you're gonna haveto vote on that November. It's you
know, there's got to be atipping point. There's got to be a
point where people just say enough,you have enough of my money. Of

(41:39):
the story that I had on theblog yesterday by the Common Sense Institute,
we didn't get into it. Becauseyou know, it's very nerdy. A
lot of numbers, but local governmentsare swimming in money after that property tax
increase, and I am loath togive them another dime. Now, I
don't live in Denver to vote againstit. You can vote against it.

(42:00):
If you live in Denver, youcan urge everybody else to vote against it.
But that's the question I would loveto ask. How much is enough?
And by the way, a highersales tax rate also stands to hurt
businesses who have been struggling in Denver. Now I don't live in Denver,
so if I was on the DouglasCounty Economic Council or whatever economic development council,

(42:23):
I would be calling businesses and saying, you know what our property taxes
are. I mean, our salestaxes are much lower in Douglas County.
You know you want to open arestaurant. We can help you do that.
We're going to streamline the process.So I don't know Denver voters text
me five, six, six nine. Now, although this is going to
be a silly effort because you're gonnasay no, I bet there's not a

(42:45):
single person in this listening audience islike, yes, please raise my taxes
more right now, please, Wedo have some text messages about the Randy
Travis story, not only old singersbut dead ones that errors can authorize others
to sing and use AI to replicatethe voice. The royalties of recording revenue
could be split. That is see, that's what I'm talking about. Could

(43:06):
you imagine a new Elvis album andwhat would that even sound like? I
like Elvis, I don't love Elvis. I'm not one of those people.
I'm just I like Elvis's music.But what do you do with Elvis Presley's
voice in the modern era? Howdo you make that work? Are you
just looking to sell it to peoplethat were around when Elvis was young?

(43:28):
This person, and this is reallyfunny, saw Willy Nelson in Madison,
Wisconsin. Thought his son was goingto sing with him, but he wasn't
there. He could use this newtech like Randy Travis. Is glad we
went, But ninety one is prettyold for a live concert. Here's the
good news, Texter. I sawWilly Nelson twenty years ago, so he

(43:49):
was seventy one, and he stillwasn't very good. As a matter of
fact, my brother leaned over inthe middle of the show and said,
does he seem like we're bothering himby having him come out? He just
said all the lyrics to all ofhis songs like this on the road again.
Just can't wait to get on theroad again. Yeah, only I

(44:10):
actually sound better than Willie Nelson didthat night at the House of Blues in
Orlando twenty sum Actually it was longerthan that. It was probably twenty five
years ago. Easily. Those Randypicks were November twenty twenty in the Springs
Fantastic Show, especially when Randy Travisgot up and sang the final amen in
Forever and Ever, Amen, Mandy, Texas will keep increasing until morale improves

(44:36):
along with the beatings. You're absolutelyright, so inhuman and so depressing,
says this texter. And I couldunderstand that, but is it really inhuman
when you have a singer whose voiceis then manipulated because ultimately you have a
singer. You can make the sameargument though about auto tune. I don't

(44:59):
understand the auto tune thing. I'mglad that's over. That's over, right,
a rod autoteen is over. We'renot doing that anymore. T Pain
can do it whenever. He sopleases, but t Pain has now come
out of his t pain auto tuneshell and it's singing lights out, absolutely
true, phenomenal singer. He's stillallowed to do it if he needs to
or wants to, I mean,just on occasions. Yeah, everyone out

(45:20):
here. Yeah, No, it'smore of a bit now everyone kind is
aware of it. You know,it's now a bit Willy Nelson being horrible
in concert because I got another text. Also saw Willie Nelson twenty plus years
ago and it was horrible. Nice. How did word not get out about
Willie Nelson being terrible in concert untilright now? Have people come around to
the And this is where you andI can relate to this. Is it
about the being in his prisence kindof thing? And I will relate to

(45:43):
it in the fact that one nightof Weird al you went to, and
one night of Weird Howl I wentto. And it was not a matter
of have been doing all these hits, No, it was we're in the
presence of greatness and we're watching himdo all of his non hits. Totally
different. Because the concept for thepeople that were buying tickets to the show,
that they read the show description ofthat weird al show was amazing,
and Willie Nelson sang all the hits, saying is in quotation marks fairpoint he

(46:08):
you know, he talked yes,going into it different, but in hindsight
a matter of well we were therewith him, you know, we were
of him, but sometimes honestly Ileft the show and I was like,
you know, I wish I'd seenhim when he was in his prime,
because that that was not not good. We went to a show check and

(46:28):
I went to a show at theParamount a few years ago and it was
Todd Rudgren, Nickey Dolan's Christopher Crossand the lead singer of Blackfoot. I
think there's name I can never remember. He had no voice left over whatsoever,
like none, to the point wherehe would try to sing something and

(46:49):
he would start laughing because it wasso bad. And I'm thinking to myself,
at what point do you just go, you know what? This is
not for me anymore. I can'tdo this anymore. Mandy. Have you
heard a new Beatles song? Themethod they used to publish it is fascinating.
The song is Now and Then bythe Beatles. They used John Lennon's
vocals, Harrison's guitar playing from yearsago, Ringo stars drumming from now,

(47:12):
and Paul finishes. I want toanswer this question very very quickly. From
the text line. We have alot of you texting it about bad concerts
you've seen. What is the whatis the worst concert you've ever seen?
A rod That's a good question.I saw the Outfield in the eighties and
I asked for my money back atthe end of it. Charlie Blackman saved
the outfield for me. But theywere terrible. Willie Nelson terrible, absolutely

(47:37):
terrible. I literally black him outof my head. I can't I know
there's been bad concerts. I can'tthink of any of those. Are my
two worsts anyway, but I wantto answer this question. Mandy, pardon
my naivea and congratulations on the properspelling of naivete. I'm a wilder and
not politically adept. I live inCD four. My wife Life and I

(48:00):
both got our primary ballots. Howeverthey are different from one another. I'm
a registered Libertarian and my wife isa registered Republican. Hers has the primary
ballot choices, in mine only hasthe CD four vacancy choices. I thought,
if you were a third party,you could vote in a primary.
Nope, you are a member ofa party, the Libertarian Party. You
just don't have anyone to vote onbecause they're not running candidates. If you

(48:22):
were unaffiliated, truly unaffiliated, youwould have gotten a copy of both to
choose accordingly. So that's why youonly have the Libertarian ballot and your wife
has the other one. If youwant to have the opportunity to vote in
either, then become an unaffiliated voter. Okay, and you're not really missing
anything leaving the Libertarian Party. I'mjust letting you know as a former Libertarian,

(48:44):
just throwing that out there, allright, Joe Biden is coming up
with a new scheme to try andbuy votes from somebody. Let's hear what
he's doing now with immigration. First, Billy and introducing as president of limigration
bill that included this provision, butit never got off the ground, proved
me no more. Hell, butnow today a significant portion of us being
past are meaning by executive order.Thank you, stop right there. Okay,

(49:08):
so he doesn't even know that he'sdoing this via executive order? Is
that what I just heard? Okay? Go ahead, hip play doctors.
We've been a significant consumer of healthcarein my family and a lot of time
in hospitals. And well his wife'sa doctor. Oh wait, not that

(49:28):
anyway. And uh I always saidthat doctors let you live, nurses make
you want to live. Not ajoke. A lot of time. And
I see you a lot of timewith my son, a lot of time.
And uh, you know it's there'sany angels in heaven, they are
all nurse. What is he talkingabout? I thought we were talking about
immigration, men and women, nota joke. So thank you what you

(49:51):
did help us get through the pandemic, pal and for all you're doing for
our country. What always talking aboutimmigrants? Who's talking about? So here's
the story here. He's her nameis Joe Biden. I'm Joe Biden.
Thanks to all the members of Congress. Okay, stop right there, stop
right there. You know what hejust did. And you and your a

(50:14):
lovely wife. You're Mayo on hotDog eating wife. I just can't see
her the same ever again. Butyou haven't do you already have the jokes
that you start telling the joke andshe just goes Joe has Chuck has one.
And I'm not telling you what itis on the air. Typically don't
tell the same one twice. Sono, you got old enough. Trust
me, there's enough went out ofmaterial. You went on a material,

(50:36):
You'll find the one that you lovethe most. He just did that this.
I'm Joe Biden. I'm married todoctor Jill. But that's his joke.
Anyway, go ahead, play something. I'm not sure. Wait wait,
please go back. I'll pull itin a second secretary with Sarah and
advocates and families for law enforcement,faith leaders. I mean, but he's

(51:00):
just here. Two weeks ago.I did what Republics and the Congressations do.
I took action to secure our borderthat included restricting and unlawful crossings at
our southern border, making decisions onasylum more quickly, and so much more,
and so far it's working. Okayto stop here, because I'd like
to point out to the President thatthe Republicans in the House of Representatives over

(51:22):
a year ago, past HR two, it provided real, actual, meaningful
border security, and the Democrat leftsaid it would not take it up.
So I'm not sure going to allaywhat came right before that. I mean,
what's right before that, old blaze, Let's see, please it was

(51:47):
this joke. Anywhere, go ahead, anywhere, go ahead something. Let's
see. He gives us a moregoals, drop twenty five percent of the
border, and we're seen the lowestnumber we've seen in a long time,
well since you took office. Ittook this step after the bipartisan agreement one

(52:08):
of the most conservative Republican senators hadhelped work through and over a five week
period the strongest bipart of the securityagreement that's ever been seen. Is bad,
but we were about to move forwardwhen Republicans walked away from the deal.
On the most is not accurate atall because truck Schumer wouldn't take up

(52:31):
hr T blah blah blah blah blahand started the press, can let me
with the passage of time. Afterthat I need I need passage of time,
and that back to back, andI took these strips secure the border.
Also said that I would move tofixed problems and major immigration system unfair

(52:52):
time and for visions that simply madeit no sense at all, specifically steps
that will be good for dreamers,married couples, and for Americans. That's
why we're here today. A fewdays ago we marked the twelfth anniversary taking
care of the Dreamers as that PresidentObama and I put in place. Okay,
stop right there, because really,you took care of dreamers twelve years

(53:15):
ago, they still have no status. Taking care of Dreamers means that they
have some they have They're not livingin legal limbo like they are now.
I mean, you guys, sohere, I can't anymore, la la
lah do it more? Time tothe texture has said Mandy, be patient.

(53:44):
It takes a while for Joe toget there. Ain't that the truth?
But passage of time, the passageof time so bad, I'm not
sure. Stop it. Stop itright now. We are making fun of
an obviously aduled old man. Heis not well, you guys, And

(54:06):
I'm not even being sarcastic right now. I'm being serious. He's struggling.
It's the middle of the day andhe's struggling to get through this sad This
man is punting cup anyway. Thatactually sounds like he's eating the pudding cup.

(54:27):
Anyway, Try to move fun here. What he's trying to do is
he's decided to issue a clearly illegalexecutive action that is going to give a
path to citizenship for illegal aliens whoare married to someone who is a legal
citizen. And I cannot tell youhow bad this is going to piss off

(54:49):
every single American couple that is madeup of an American and illegal immigrant,
because the process to immigrant here whenyou are a fiance or a huzz been
or wife of an American citizen isinsane. And I know this because I
know not one, not two,but multiple people more people that have tried

(55:10):
to get their spouse here, andsome of them were already married to these
people and had been for years.This person said, is putting got stuck
on the roof of his mouth arod. Yeah right, mm yeah,
yeah, I'm not sure. Eightymillion votes, says another Texter. Another

(55:35):
Texter says, elder abuse. Thereyou go, there you go. But
that's here's what's going to happen.And Ross said this at the NFS show,
and he's absolutely right. This isgoing to be challenging court. It's
going to be declared unconstitutional by theUS Supreme Court, and Joe Biden's gonna
blame it on Trump somehow. That'sexactly what's going to happen tomorrow. We
are going to ask a very specialfavor of our long, long Time listeners,

(56:00):
we are coming up on a biganniversary for Koa and we want your
favorite Koa memories. So we're goingto do that tomorrow. So start to
think of those. Yeah, startto mold that over a little bit in
your in your brain. Wait,I'm trying to find this. Wait a
minute, very pathetic that right wingmedia chooses certain clips of Biden, but
when it comes to Donnie and Sharksin Las Vegas, I don't hear anything.

(56:22):
We were literally playing it as ithappened. And when something like that
happens, like say this, Hey, Rod was going to do this instead?
You are fake? Is we definitelyplayed on the other side too,
were you talking about? Yes wedo. But when you just get the
gold, I mean, come on, that ain't cut up. You can't

(56:45):
buy that kind of kind of pressright there, the passage of time,
yep, ye writes itself yep.Anyway, I don't want to talk about
that anymore. One thing I doto talk about since he's giving away immigration
and you know you get immigration,you get it, He's just given it
all away. I do want toshare this is kind of interesting if the

(57:07):
Democrats thought that allowing millions of peopleto walk over the southern border was a
sure fireway to win over the Hispanicvote. It is not working. A
survey between June fifth and June seventhshows quite the opposite. Now, sixty
two percent of registered voters would favora mass deportation of all undocumented immigrants living

(57:29):
in the US. Only thirty eightpercent said they would oppose it. But
here you go, how did itdo with Hispanics, Well, Hispanics,
fifty three percent of them said kickthem out, forty seven percent said they
would oppose it. However, thoseare Hispanics. A majority of Hispanics say,
I'm in favor of mass deportation.So I'm not sure this is going

(57:52):
quite the way they thought it wasgoing to go. But I do know
this, legal immigrants from wherever,wherever they legally graded from our furious about
what's happening at the southern border.Even if they understand why the people want
to come here. They did too, but they all did it the legal
way. They paid through the nose, they followed all of the rules,

(58:13):
they did all of those things thatthis particular group of people is being Well,
they're crapping all over it. Sothey're furious. It's gonna be really
interesting to see how this plays outin the fall. So there we go,
show some trumpy speech. Why don'tyou He's not the president and he's
not talking about a big policy decisionthat he just made. That's why we

(58:37):
dipped into Joe Biden. We don'tdip into Joe Biden very often because,
frankly, you are fake news.It's not that good most of the time,
and it makes me sad to beperfectly frank just sad. I have
a column that I want to sharewith you in the next hour, but
we also have to talk about somestuff like how do you not behave like

(58:58):
an a hole in a restaurant?And the tables are turning when it comes
to deciding whether or not animals haveconsciousness? Talk about that too. All
coming up for the next hour.We're gonna have a chit chat with Ben
Lassner for a few minutes, andthen it's gonna be time for of the
day and then it's time to go. So I don't have time for the
two minute drill. So there's thedumb stories. You're gonna have to go

(59:19):
to the blog yourself at mandy'sblog dotcom. No Apostrophe and you'll have to
check it out. We do havesome really good videos on the blog today,
so we're working on that. Anyway, I do want to share part
of this column with you. Itis a column by Dennis Prager, who
is a talk show host and anoted Jew. And I say that just

(59:42):
because Dennis's Jewishness is a big partof who he is, and he's been
writing and talking about things since Octoberseventh, the attacks in Israel, and
today's column the headline I'm gonna I'mgonna be honest, I rolled a little
bit because I felt like it wasunnecessarily hyperbolic, you know. It was

(01:00:07):
just like a little over the topof the headline is the Palestinians are worse
than the Germans in World War Two? And I was like, Okay,
Dennis, what are we doing?Because I like Dennis Prager a lot.
But then I read it and I'mgoing to share a part of it with
you. And he makes the case. He says, immediately after the burnings,

(01:00:29):
rapes, mutilations and murders of Jewson October seventh, I was not
alone in noting the one moral differencebetween Hamas and the Nazis. The Nazis
tried to hide their crimes against theJews from the German people and the world,
while Hamas proudly publicized their crimes againstthe Jews to the Palestinian people and
didn't mind that the world would inevitablysee them bragging about killing Jews. In

(01:00:52):
addition to videotaping their atrocities, Hamasparaded captured Jews, dead and alive,
clothed and naked in front of cheeringPalestinian crowds in Gaza. This leads to
a sobering realization. Hamas boasting totheir fellow Palestinians about what they did to
Jews while the Nazis tried to hidewhat they did from fellow Germans means there

(01:01:15):
is not only a moral difference betweenHamas and the Nazis, but a moral
difference between the German people during theNazi era and the Palestinian people today and
for nearly the last hundred years.Morally speaking, it would be difficult to
name a less impressive people than thePalestinians over the past century. For those

(01:01:35):
who do not understand that a generalizationmeans by definition that there are exceptions,
I should note that there are andhave always been noble Palestinian individuals, but
the cumulative Palestinian record of evil overthe last century has few peers. Let's
begin in the nineteen forties. Theleading Palestinian religious leader in the early nineteen

(01:01:57):
forties, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Alami al Husseini, was a
major supporter of the Nazis and theirextermination campaign against the Jews. There's a
famous photo of al Husseini meeting withHitler in Berlin on November twenty eighth of
nineteen forty one. As reported inthe Holocaust Encyclopedia, al Husseini pointed out

(01:02:17):
that Germany alone recognized the global threatof the quote Jewish problem and took steps
to solve it globally. The encyclopediafurther notes that on December eighteenth, nineteen
forty two, Arab emigres opened anIslamic Central Institute in Berlin, with al
Huseini as a senior sponsor and keynotespeaker. In his speech, al Husseini

(01:02:43):
lashed out of the Jews, statingthat the Quran judged the Jews to be
the most irreconcilable enemies of the Muslims. The Heratz newspaper, which is a
left wing and rabidly anti Benjamin Yahupaper described al Husini as quote the father
of Palestinian nationalism. In nineteen fortyfive, Yugoslavia sought to indict the father

(01:03:05):
of Palestinian nationalism as a war criminalfor recruiting twenty thousand Muslim volunteers to join
the Waffen SS and participate in itsextermination of the Jews of Croatia and Hungary.
All of that Nazi like Palestinian antiSemitism predates the establishment of the State
of Israel. Before describing decades ofPalestinian butchery of Jews in Israel, it's

(01:03:28):
also important to note the moral recordof the Palestinian people with regard to fellow
Arabs. The Palestinians came to bewidely loathed in the Arab world for good
reason. Wherever they went in largenumbers, they created havoc. On September
sixth, nineteen seventy, Palestinian terroristshijacked Transworld Airlines Swiss Air and PanAm airplanes.

(01:03:50):
A few days later, they hijackeda British air airliner. The Palestinian
terrorists segregated the flight crews and Jewishpassengers, keeping the fifty six Jewish hostages
in custody while releasing the non Jews. In total, five planes were hijacked
and three of them were landed ata desert airstrip in Jordan. These hijackings,
plus Palestinian violence in Jordanian cities,led to a Jordanian Palestinian civil war

(01:04:15):
in September of nineteen seventy, duringwhich, according to the Palestinians, Jordan
killed twenty five thousand Palestinians. Sevenmonths later, in April of nineteen seventy
one, Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian'sleader, called for the overthrow of Jordan's
King Hossein. In November that sameyear, four members of the Black September
terrorist group, which took its namefrom the Palestinian September nineteen seventy defeat in

(01:04:40):
Jordan, assassinated Jordanian Prime minister Waspeitalin Cairo. As reported in The New
York Times, an assassin kneeled besidehis victim to lick his blood. A
photo of a Palestinian assassin drinking,not merely licking Tal's blood, was widely
published after destableized Jordan, and losingthe civil war they caused. Hundreds of

(01:05:02):
thousands of Palestinians went to Lebanon,where they quickly proceeded to ruin that country.
Their love of violence and terror ledto the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil
War in nineteen seventy five, whichlasted until nineteen ninety. That war led
to the estimated death of one hundredand fifty thousand Lebanese, tens of thousands
wounded, hundreds of thousands displaced inleft destitute, and a decrease in the

(01:05:26):
Christian population of Lebanon from fifty fivepercent in nineteen seventy to thirty five percent
in twenty twenty two. Meanwhile,throughout Israel's history, Palestinians murdered Jews in
Israel whatever possible, and then Bragerproceeds to list the multiple ways and the
multiple mass murderers that were committed inIsrael by Palestinians, And there are so

(01:05:48):
many that I'm going to skip overso I have time to finish this column.
The Palestinian people love killing Jews,says Prager, and have loved doing
so for nearly a century. Palestinianwomen routinely pass out candy in the streets
in celebration of terror attacks against Jews. Compare this to Israel, which has

(01:06:09):
many human rights organizations holding Israel toaccount regarding its treatment of Palestinians. Compare
this to Israelis who for years hadvolunteered to drive Palestinians from the West Bank
and Gaza to receive medical treatment inIsraeli hospitals. To be pro Palestinian today
means being pro Hamas, just asto be pro German during World War II

(01:06:30):
was the same as being pro Nazi. The only difference is that the Germans
as a whole were a better peoplethan the Palestinians. If you support the
Palestinians, you should know who yousupport, and I'd urge you to go
read the rest of the column wherehe lists all of the hundreds of people
that were murdered by Palestinian terrorists inIsrael, people doing outrageous things like sitting

(01:06:53):
in a pizza parlor, going toa satyr uh going to high school where,
by the way, Palestinians in nineteenseventy four took one hundred and five
high school students hostage, and theyeventually killed twenty five of those high school
students. Eh excuse me, twentytwo. They killed twenty five of the

(01:07:13):
hostages, just twenty two students.No big whup. Here's an interesting story,
and this story is one of thosethat makes you begin to help you
understand the point that Dennis Brager wastrying to make in the column that I
shared part of in the last segment, when they killed a bunch of people
who were holding hostages hostage when Iwas on vacation. One of the people

(01:07:38):
that they killed was named Abdallah aJamal. He was killed by the IDF
during the raid that freed hostages fromhis home in New Zerat. He was
also a regular correspondent for The PalestineChronicle and Olympia, Washington State based news
outlet established in nineteen ninety nine,was sister publications in France and Italy.

(01:08:02):
The hard left professor Noam Chomsky sitson the editorial board. His articles for
the website had been lamenting the evilsof war. He wrote one as recently
as right before the June eighth gradewhere he lost his life. Many seemingly
written while Jewish hostages taken by Hamaswere captive in his home. So the

(01:08:29):
notion that people are out there protestingon behalf of the Palestinian people is just
steeped in the ignorance that the Palestinianpeople are all in on what's going on
there. And if you want toknow whey they had to kill fifty four
people to rescue four, it's becausethey were being held in people's homes and
apartments, not in military facilities.That's how you do it when you're hamas,

(01:08:51):
because you know that useful idiots willmake hay for you. We're going
to take a very quick time outwhen we get back. We're going to
talk to John Larson. He wantsto be Dougoe County Commissioner. Join the
soap opera. We're gonna get allthat and some more coming up next.
It's time to bring it back localagain when we've got John Carson in the
studio with me. John, welcometo the show. Thank you, Mandy,

(01:09:13):
good to be on. You appreciateit. And I said this to
Laura Thomas yesterday. I'm not reallytalking to county commission candidates because there's too
many of them. But the soapopera that has been Douglas County and the
County Commission has been so ridiculous.That I'm having people that I want on
the County commission on the show justto kind of shove it down the throats
of those who are trying to raparouse and really create I think chaos.

(01:09:33):
But that's just me talking about things. But tell me why do you want
to stick your face in the woodchipperof the Douglas County Commission. Well,
I got into this race for mainlythree reasons. The property taxes, of
course, are out of control upat least thirty percent on average in Douglas
County. Commissioners can keep reducing those, preserve and expand the open space protections.

(01:09:56):
You know, I want to makesure we have a good balance in
Douglas County between development and preservation ofopen space. And third, support law
enforcement, particularly with this illegal immigrationissue. That our current commissioners have really
been strong on that, and I'llcontinue that. You know, we got
to make it clear we're not providingsubsidies or anything of that nature. We're
going to enforce the law in DouglasCounty. Well, you know, I

(01:10:18):
know that Douglas County has filed suitagainst the state. Yes, tell me
a little bit about that. Wouldyou support that lawsuit? Yes, definitely.
That basically is saying that the stateis out of line in restricting our
ability to comply with federal law.I mean, the state has come in
and said Douglas County can't cooperate withfederal immigration agencies and officials on criminal issues.

(01:10:44):
And it's ridiculous. I mean,this is as a county, we
have to stand up for our rights. I think what the state's doing is
unconstitutional, and I think we'll prevail. I do too, I hope.
So. Anyway, let me askyou about the controversy I think that has
been raging at the Douglas County Commissionhas come from a very controversial water project

(01:11:08):
called We're Done from a company calledRWR. That's correct, and they want
to from the way I understand it, you can correct me if I wrong,
buy and dry out of the SandLouis Valley. They say they have
all these people who want to selltheir water, all these farmers who want
to sell their water. And theyalso say that there's all these water providers
in Douglas County that want the water. Well, I called the water providers

(01:11:29):
a year and a half ago,and not a single one of them wanted
the water. Yeah, what isyour take on this. Well, I'm
one hundred percent opposed to it.I would vote the way Commissioner Thomas did.
It's it's a bad proposal. Itwould cost the taxpayers money. In
Douglas County. Our water providers donot want it. We have fourteen great
water districts, we have other waterproviders. They're in good shape, they

(01:11:53):
have good plans they want Initially theywanted ten million dollars, but that would
just be a down pain of taxpayermoney, not a good project. And
as for the farmers and the agriculturalinterest in the San Louis Valley, they
do not support it at all.And I've tried to get information from one
of the commissioners that he says hewould provide. He has not. I've

(01:12:16):
just asked for any kind of documentation. And when I talk to water providers,
some of them were quite mythed atthe suggestion that they had not done
their planning for the last twenty yearsthat they've been doing. So I'm happy
to hear you say that, butthat has really been a huge issue in
the county. Commission has created ahuge schism. I think it is at
the root of the sort of vitriolthat's been leveled at Laura. But how

(01:12:38):
do you avoid just stepping into that? How do you avoid not being in
the position that Laura is in now, where you are triangulated out of anything
by two commissioners who want this project. Well, I think public sentiment is
the key there and talking to folksin this campaign, and Laura Thomas has
done a great job of highlighting thisissue. I can't find anybody that supports

(01:13:01):
this among the voters, and theyknow about it now. The education is
out there. I think if thecommission County commission tried to pass this policy
or this proposal, there would bea citizen uprising. I'm very confident.
I mean, that's the job ofa commissioner. You've got to stand up
for what you believe in, andthat's certainly what I'll do if I get

(01:13:24):
elected. Now, you have ahistory of being involved in the schools and
the school board. So how doyou, as a county commissioner continue to
advocate for things like school choice?Well, I will be very vocal on
that issue. When I was presidentof the school board in Douglas County,
we put all the school choice policiesin today one in four students in Douglas

(01:13:45):
County is in a charter school.There's nobody else in the state that comes
close to that, probably in thecountry. Huge believer in school choice.
So I'll work with the school districtkeep supporting that supports school security an issuetives.
I will mention too, it's justcome up that there's a proposal before
the school board tonight to you know, implement this Biden administration directive to allow

(01:14:12):
men in women sports and locker roomsand those type of things. So I
would urge parents to really vocalize theiropposition to that. This has just come
up and they're going to consider itinitially tonight. So I know already a
lot of parents are and I wouldcertainly oppose it. What do you you
said that when you were knocking doors, a lot of people were talking about

(01:14:33):
illegal immigration. But what do youpersonally feel is the biggest challenge facing Douglas
County right now? Well, Ido think that's the issue that comes up,
illegal immigration. You know, theCommon Sense Institute just put out a
study. Went to their breakfast theother day. They're saying up to three
hundred and fifty million dollars is beingspent in Colorado now to subsidize the illegal

(01:14:57):
immigration, you know, everything fromhealthcare, to education, to transportation and
housing. You know, the citizensare already the cost of living is really
the key issue, and he's thecost of living is hitten from all ends,
you know, inflation, taxes,government subsidies to illegal immigrants. People
have had enough, and that's whatI hear is the cost of living is

(01:15:20):
out of control. We got todo whatever we can at the county level
to reduce the taxes, to reducethe regulations and burdens on the citizens.
Would you be in favor if propertyvalues keep doing what they're doing now of
considering a further reduction of the mill? Levey and Laura talked yesterday about the
creative ways that the current County Commissionhad been trying to bring down the property

(01:15:44):
tax hit we all took. Sothat's an option going forward, is it
not. Yes, They've done thata number of times in the past.
I would support it in the futureto make sure that the county government doesn't
get more revenue. You know,I'm a big believer in tabor. I
think it should be limited to populationgrowth and inflation. Anything above that should
be refunded to the taxpayers. Isupport all of the property tax relief options.

(01:16:09):
The county commissioners what they can do, what we did, our legislators
did. The Republicans really led thefight there. It's not perfect, but
it's the start of reducing what wouldbe very high property taxes. In third,
I'm supportive of what we can doat the ballot box this fall to
reduce property tax I think that's goingto be I hope that's going to pass.

(01:16:30):
We shall see. There's going tobe a ton of stuff on the
ballot this fall. Have you hada chance to look at ranked choice voting
at all? Well, I have, and I'm one hundred percent opposed to
it. You know, I thinkthere's a lot of things we might want
to change in our election. Peopleneed to get more involved. But this
ranked choice voting that's going to beon the ballot, I don't think that's

(01:16:54):
what people want. You're going toend up with, you know, candidates
that don't don't have you know,the certainly the party support. Uh.
You know, it's something that Ithink has been implemented in a couple of
states, and you can end upsome uh strange decisions. Well, I
actually think the Douglas County GOP doesa good job, but the state GOP

(01:17:16):
is a mess. Yes, anabsolute mess. Have you come out either
for or against the the various initiativesthat are asking Dave Williams to step down.
Well, I haven't been involved init directly, but I but I
think the state party needs to focuson winning elections and bringing people together.
I've been disappointed in you know,just a lot of division and and uh,

(01:17:42):
you know, loyalty tests and thesetype of things we need, we
need to unite as a Republican party, get more people involved in right now,
we're heading down the road to gettingfewer people involved. There's a lot
of special interest money coming into thisrace, a lot, yes, yeah,
why is that? And where arethey? Who are they? Well,
the RWR project is a big partof it. And not only are

(01:18:03):
they supporting one of my opponents withtens of thousands of dollars to her campaign,
but also in independent expenditures and they'regoing after Laura Thomas as well in
her race for the state legislature inHighlands Ranch. They're spending independent money all
coming you know, from folks behindthis RWR water project. Though they want

(01:18:27):
to get the back at Laura foropposing it. Well, they they certainly
must think it is going to beextremely profitable, and that makes it look
even what's the word I'm looking for, more shady to me. I want
to John, I want to giveyou the chance to pitch your Why should
people vote for John Carson for Dougco commissioner. Well, I think I've

(01:18:48):
demonstrated the tough leadership. You know, when I was school board president,
we ended the teachers union contract,we put those school choice policies in.
I've got a backbone. I'm tough. You mentioned the OWR project and other
things. I'll be able to standup to other commissioners if I need to
get the job done. I'll standup for the taxpayers. I'm a fighter

(01:19:09):
for lower taxes when I've got theexperience. As a CU region I oversaw
a four billion dollar budget, youknow, the county budget seven hundred million,
So you need someone in there withexperience. I've been in law and
business for over three decades in theprivate sector, and I'm very well prepared
for this job. John, Iappreciate it. I've got your website linked

(01:19:30):
on my blog today. Carsonfrocommissioner dotcom and hopefully you make it through the
primary and then we'll have a conversationgoing to the general about you and why
you should be on the county commission. Great. I appreciate you coming into
Thank you. I told John,I said, I got to cut you
a little short because I got tobring Ben in. Ben Lassiter is our
newsman, and Ben is moving onto a new job, and we want

(01:19:55):
to give him an affair. We'llsend off after I beat him out of
the day. I think I'm gonnabeat you today, Ben on your last
day. Ben's confident, he feelsgood about things. He is ready to
go. I'm letting him plug usat Fund said, So, Ben last
Er, where are you going?Where are you going? Well, I'm

(01:20:15):
not going anywhere geographically. I'm stayinghere in Denver. I'm gonna be working
for Novatas Communications downtown. I've beenworking there as well formerly, but I
have an opportunity to go work therefull time. And that's the only reason
that I would ever leave this place. I really have enjoyed working here,
really enjoyed doing the news during yourshow and listening. It's fun. I
mean, this is a fun job. And that's the thing. Once you're

(01:20:39):
in radio, it's kind of likethe mafia, right, Like you try
to get out and then they pullyou back here. And may you try
to get out and they pull youback in. I would welcome that.
I would welcome being pulled back in. Well, we'll make room for you
if we need it. But whatare you doing at Novatas? I'm doing
and what is Novatas? For peoplewho don't know Novatas, I know because
I get their press releases. Sure, yeah, comms firm, we send

(01:21:00):
press releases. And then we alsohave clients who are looking to do things
here in the area. And someof them might be bigger and they need
a local focus. Some of themmight be small and they're looking to grow,
and they're looking to use channels likethe news media. And that's why
they're I think they wanted to bringme on is because I've had the exposure
here and so I kind of helpround out the office a bit with a

(01:21:21):
little more news, a little bitmore news background on the resume, I
guess. So I guess I shouldexpect to see the quality of the Novatas
press releases elevate from Ben Is thatwhat I'm looking for? Oh? Sure,
Yeah, you can expect the highestquality press releases. You you can
just publish them exactly how I sendthem. Yeah, trust me, some

(01:21:45):
newspapers do that already. I've beenworking. I'm trying to help Ross.
Ross is trying to help somebody elselearn how to do a great press release.
So I've been trying to walk himthrough the press releases that I read.
So I'll give you some pro tipsbefore you lab on. What makes
me Mandy Connell talk show host reada press release? So sounds good?
Yeah, John, who do youpay for your press releases? John Carson

(01:22:09):
for Commissioner, Well, it's allvolunteers County Commissioner, pretty low budget.
Yeah, I was gonna ask you. I mean, I know there's a
lot of money coming in from outside, but do you know what the average
spend on County commission races is?It's about one hundred and one hundred to
one hundred and fifty thousand. Ithink that's probably what I would have guessed,

(01:22:30):
But there's gonna be millions in thisone. Gotta wonder why. I
gotta wonder why. Ben, what'sthe favorite story that you've covered while you
were here, Well, I washere. I gotta go with the Broncos
coverage. It's been so fun.I mean, you know, I'm a
big fan of sports in general.I'm from Utah, last I'm from Alabama.
Originally I never had an NFL team, so I think I might be
the biggest Broncos fan in town.Just to make some listeners out there.

(01:22:54):
So you're currently sitting in Dave Loganseats, So I don't know about that.
Been great? Yeah, let's seewhat else is good though. I've
enjoyed the breaking news, the weatherevents. Yeah, the fast paced.
This newsroom just operates in such aprofessional manner, and it's the exposure has
been great to these large topics.Do you think it's like if people could

(01:23:14):
see how the newsroom worked, theywould be really it's very cool. It's
like a little insider baseball thing.But there's so much activity, and you
guys aren't working just on stuff forthe station, so there's a lot of
things going on, but it's veryquiet, and the newsies all sit back
there in their cubicles as I walkin and greet them all with hello newsies.
Yeah, it's a mad dash tothe thirty minute mark. Sometimes I

(01:23:36):
think the thing that I hear themost that surprises people is how few of
us there are in there, andthat's a testament to Kathy and Rob and
everybody else who's just such seasoned professionalbig That's right, and best of love
to you, my friend. Thanksvery much joking, but I am expecting
a great press release from you veryvery soon. You'll get it and I
look forward to hearing you on theradio all the time. And thanks for

(01:23:59):
having me, Thanks for letting medo the news for you. Oh it
is my pleasure. And John Carson, thank you so much for coming in.
All right, we're gonna make room. We've got the guys from Kawa
Sports coming up next. I'm prettysure they're gonna spend three hours talking about
the cricket World Finals, so andmaybe some basketball or whatever. It's fine,
it's all, yeah, that's probablymore like it. We will be

(01:24:20):
back tomorrow. We got a fullshow Thursday. I'm not gonna be here,
but we gotta. I'll explain tomorrow. We got baseball. But it's
all, it's coming. It's gonnabe fine. And don't forget to enter
the Rolling Stone concert and our Instagrampage at Kiawa, Colorado. Just look
for mctagger and follow the directions.We'll be back tomorrow