Transcript

Today's Issues continues on afr. com with Steve Jordal and Ed Battagliano

>> Steve Jordahl: Today's Issues continues on afr.

>> Tony Vitagliano: We are back. Welcome. I'm, Tony Battagliano sitting in for Tim Wildmon while he is out this week. Joining me in studio is once again Ed Battagliano. Welcome back, Ed.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah, good to be back.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Ray Pritchard coming to us from Zoom Land. And with us in studio now is the impeccable Steve Jordal.

>> Steve Jordahl: Impeccable.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah. You know, I didn't get this. We had the mic snafu. I had new, adjectives for everybody, but we missed that, folks.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, what does peckable mean?

>> Steve Jordahl: I don't know. I can't be pecked. Impactful.

>> Tony Vitagliano: It means, basically, your presentation is without.

>> Ed Vitagliano: But impeccable. Is there a peckable? I mean, what is.

>> Tony Vitagliano: What you wrote. You wrote for the stand for 25 years.

>> Steve Jordahl: It's like I'm gruntled.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Well, irregardless, regardless of what it means. well, welcome, Steve.

>> Steve Jordahl: Thank you.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Glad you're here.

>> Steve Jordahl: Thank you.

>> Tony Vitagliano: And I didn't add. I don't know if I asked you yesterday, you have any plans for Thanksgiving?

>> Steve Jordahl: we're gonna be going. I think we're gonna be going to family. Heather's family. And, hopefully we're gonna have some.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Turkey and eat some food. Eat some food, Eat some turkey, take a nap. You know, it's a trip to fan. It makes everybody. Brings out their trip to fan knowledge.

>> Steve Jordahl: Yeah, there'll probably be some football in there.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah, okay. Yeah, absolutely. It'll be some football at the Battagliano house as well. go Dogs. So.

Tony Epstein: Democrats are not doing any better at coming up with quality candidates

All right, Steve, well, get us started on the news.

>> Steve Jordahl: All right. I want to say that the Democrats are not doing any better at coming up with quality candidates. we've seen, Zoro hot streak here lately.

>> Tony Vitagliano: I know it's hard to snap.

>> Steve Jordahl: I know we've seen Zoram Dani in, in, NewSong York City. And there's a Seattle mayor. there's courses, AOC and, the squad. They're just coming up with a whole bunch of people. And now they have a new candidate that's running for Congress in Nashville from Tennessee, The United States Congress from East Nashville. her name is Afton Ben. Now, I don't have this particular bit of sound, but you may remember we might have talked about Afton Ben was the candidate who said she hates Nashville. She's running to represent Nashville, but she hates everything about it.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yep.

>> Steve Jordahl: And, she was on msnow, and she was asked about some tweets that she did, some defund the police tweets. Does she have. Will she change her mind on these at all?

>> Tony Vitagliano: I don't know.

>> Steve Jordahl: let's see. Cut 11.

>> Tim Wildmon: representative, in 2020, you made some tweets that have since been deleted that were very critical of police. You said in those since deleted tweets, that the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department should be dissolved. Another cheered on a teachers union saying that defund the police should be a requirement for schools reopening. And another saying, good morning, especially to the 54% of Americans that believe burning down a police station is justified. 2020 was obviously a very fraught year. Do you still stand by those comments? And if not, is there anything you want to clarify? I'm not going to get in, cable news talking points, but what I will say is that, you know, our communities need solutions. We need local people deciding, solving local problems with local solutions. and that's not the overreach of a federal government or state government of. Is of what we are dealing with and in Nashville and in our cities across the state of Tennessee. So you don't want to clarify whether you still believe that the police should be defunded. Once again, I don't remember these tweets, but what I'm saying is, is that, I'm not asking if you remember, what is your position today? How's that on this issue? I mean, once again, I'm here to talk about my race, which is in literally nine days.

>> Tony Vitagliano: She's here to talk about what?

>> Steve Jordahl: Her race.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Her race. She said raise. I was like, that's bold right there. I don't want to paid. Listen, that's, Ed. Local problems. You said local problems require local solutions. Local problems like crime? yeah, local problems like crime, rioting, protests, they require local solutions. Now, what is the best local solution for local crime?

>> Ed Vitagliano: I would say it's police, Tony.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Law enforcement. Yeah, that's right. you know, this. This seems to be like a pattern, and I think I made this comment in the. In the meeting we had before the show that. That Democrats are now just becoming emboldened, to be able to say whatever they want to say without recourse and to just double down on it. So you have Jones, who won the, Attorney General race in Virginia, talking about, he was the one who made the threat or said he would like to see, Who was it he wanted to see killed and his family killed?

>> Ed Vitagliano: well, was it. I forget the position, but.

>> Tony Vitagliano: But it was a political opponent.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah, it was, Attorney General, something the individual. Wife and kids.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah. Said that you have Mamdani, who's an open Islamic, Communist, talking about, you know, we're gonna make all the buses free. you know, we don't care if, if billionaires, leave, we don't need them.

>> Steve Jordahl: You have government.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Government.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Government run grocery stores. Grocery stores. You have Crockett, in Texas saying, you know, well, I wasn that Epstein, but I'm still not even gonna take it back. So there's this, there's this trail of just snafus, bungles, and threats. And in this climate, the Democrats just don't seem to want to take back anything or correct themselves at all. they're just kind of doubling down. What do you think? What do you think that leads?

>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, I think the reason, I think you're exactly right and I think the reason for it is that any, smart politician on the left in the Democratic Party. Let me put it that way. Let me start here. any Democratic politician who's paying attention knows that the radical left now owns the Democratic Party.

>> Ed Vitagliano: And you cannot back down from talking about defund the police. Even if with moderate Democrats and independents, that's going to probably be a losing issue. The foot soldiers of the Democratic Party and the people who are going to come out and vote for sure are radicalized. And whether it is official or not, they're the ones who have taken control of the party. So you not only are not going to see someone like Afton, Ben, walk this back, she'll lose if she does. She knows it. And she now her odds of winning have dropped as some of these things come out. But I still wouldn't put it past, the electorate on the left to vote this woman in.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah, I mean, Mamdani himself had, out what seems like to any normal person or any moderate, outrageous, policies in mind and things that he said he was going to do, and he won the mayoral position of NewSong York City, you know, arguably one of the most powerful, cities.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Wasn't even close.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Wasn't even close. Yeah. And that was, Brent did a great job. Our producer. That was Jay Jones making a comment about Todd Gilbert. So Brent's on the case, making us look better. So.

Ray: She's not willing to back down from an extremely foolish statement

>> Steve Jordahl: Ah.

>> Ed Vitagliano: And it's hard to do we look so good already.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Well, yeah.

>> Ed Vitagliano: To make us look better.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Woman say impeccable.

>> Tim Wildmon: Impeccable.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Ray, what do you think about this?

>> Tim Wildmon: Look, it would have been so easy and politically expedient if she had said, I Did say that at one time, but I've rethought this, and I'm a big supporter of the police. But you put your finger on it. Tony, she does not dare to do that because she is bought and sold and owned completely, not just by the left, but the most radical, most leftward lean people have gone off the cliff. So, did she speak the truth? Well, she's. I think she spoke the truth by not answering the question.

>> Steve Jordahl: Right.

>> Tim Wildmon: She's not willing to back down from an extremely foolish, statement. Because people who want to defund the police should not be in Congress, Period.

>> Steve Jordahl: Right. The latest polling, by the way, I just looked this up, as of October 19th, so that would be about six days ago, impact Research did a poll of likely voters and found that Ben is at 44%. And her opponent, Vanliere Epps, his name is, Matt. Matt Vanliere Epps, who says he will back the blue. he's at 52. So 44 for Ben, 52 for Epps. Workbench Strategy had a poll the same date, same likely, voters. 41 for Ben and 51 for Vanliere. So at this point, she's hurting.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah. Well, hopefully the. The people of Nashville, and we have listeners there. Hopefully the people of Nashville make the, make a wise choice. I won't say what is the right choice.

>> Steve Jordahl: Right.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Learning. Learning.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah. Because we can't do that.

>> Steve Jordahl: Yeah.

>> Tony Vitagliano: We'll make a wise decision.

>> Ed Vitagliano: But I will say that if either of those two candidates would like to appear.

>> Tim Wildmon: That's right.

>> Ed Vitagliano: On today's issues, we be more than happy to let them speak to their possible constituents.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Very good, Steve.

>> Steve Jordahl: There you go.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Keep us going.

Democrats put together video urging military people to disobey an illegal order

>> Steve Jordahl: We are still talking in this country, of ours about this video that a bunch of Democrats put together telling military people, you feel free to disobey what you believe is an illegal order from your commander in chief. it's still going around. And in fact, one of the people, that was on that video is a guy, named Mark Kelly. Senator, Mark Kelly from Arizona. And he is a retired US Navy veteran, also an astronaut and the War Department. this is. Mr. Hegseth just put out a, little statement. Let me read this to you. The Department of War has received serious allegations of misconduct against Captain Mark Kelly. In accordance with the Uniform Code of Military justice and other applicable regulations authority, thorough review of these allegations has been initiated to determine further actions which may include recall to active duty for court martial proceedings.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Wow. Well, I wouldn't say it's, not warranted I mean, the. As far as I, As I'm aware, there are federal statutes in place that prohibit actions, that undermine military loyalty or discipline, especially from current and retired military personnel. So, you know, whether this lead, what this leads to, I'm not, I'm not confident this will lead to any serious, action. But it is, it is, it should give people pause, especially the people in this video, and you know, who are thinking about doing future videos. It should give pause to say that, you know what, what we are advocating for, is actually illegal and we should probably, we should probably taper our reactions and taper our future, future actions to be a little bit more moderate, a little less openly hostile. Ed, what do you think?

>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, yeah, I. It would be extraordinary for Mark Kelly. Now, my understanding for Mark, conversation in our story, meeting this morning when we were talking about this, Steve, is that what this would do was you, you recall, Mark Kelly out of retirement. Yep. And you and, and the military can do that.

>> Steve Jordahl: Yes.

>> Ed Vitagliano: And then once you are once, once again, in the military in a status, where you can do this, then you court martial and then I guess he loses his benefits, maybe he loses his pensions.

>> Steve Jordahl: Could end up at Leavenworth.

>> Tim Wildmon: I doubt it.

>> Ed Vitagliano: But yeah, that would, that, would, that. Wow, that'd be extreme.

Ed: Mark Kelly encouraging troops to disobey lawful orders on social media

But one, thing I was thinking about as you guys were talking about this is it just blows my mind that we, that we have entered into a time in our culture where everyone seems to be doing things because of social media. Hey, we're going to put out. In other words, when I was growing up, Mark Kaylee might have talked about this privately with people. or had they might have had a meeting and said, hey, you know, spread the word, but don't let this get to the higher ups. We can get in big trouble for this now. Everyone posts it on social media and they get into all sorts of trouble. Remember all the people who lost their jobs because the first thing they wanted to do after Charlie Kirk was assassinated, Right. Was get, post something on social media saying, I'm glad he did. I'm great with it. And they would mock him. And then they lost their jobs because they've had somehow the need to let everybody know what they were thinking. Even when these people were complete unknowns.

>> Steve Jordahl: Ray, Everybody thinks that their, view on something, their opinion is like all important and has to be broadcast over loudspeakers.

>> Tim Wildmon: You mean, you mean our opinions are not all important? No idea.

>> Ed Vitagliano: My wife tells me that all the time. Your, your opinion is not all that important.

>> Tim Wildmon: That's right.

>> Steve Jordahl: That's right.

>> Tim Wildmon: It's part of what marriage is all about.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah, I'm kidding.

>> Tim Wildmon: The whole thing, the whole idea of Mark Kelly, decorated veteran, going, going on this film, this video and encouraging American soldiers, sailors, airmen, airwomen, whatever, basically saying to them, you should not obey an order given by the President or by his, representatives because you think it's, illegal. There already is a way in the military to handle that. The soldiers are told you take it upward if you believe the order is illegal. But you don't just on yourself say, I am going to disobey this order. President Trump has called that sedition. And that, you know, sedition is an old timey word, Ed. We all have to have to run to the dictionary to figure out what it means. But it's not good, right? It's not good. And it is, then this is a case where President Trump is right. It's an attack on the American military system, an attack on our, a system of constitutional government. So, I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe it.

>> Steve Jordahl: In full disclosure, I, probably should play this. 35 seconds from this is Andrew McCarthy on Fox News who says that these men and women who are on this video have the First Amendment right to say what they want to say. This is cut six.

>> Ed Vitagliano: The Democrats, if they want to complain about lawless orders, should specify what orders they're talking about. That's perfectly reasonable. But in a country with the First Amendment, they're allowed to make even incorrect statements as it happens. It's a correct statement of law to say that troops don't have to follow illegal orders and you'd never be able to make a case out of that. at most what you would have if they were truly interfering with the carrying out of lawful orders, you'd have insubordination. You wouldn't have anything like sedition or insurrection.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah, I mean, that's, that's good, good on him to, to reaffirm that. But to go back to Ed's point, you know, social, ah, media has created this, ah, this idea that you're insulated. Just because you post something on social media means you're insulated from the consequences of what you're saying. And I think what people are starting to find out is that is not, the case. Yes. Do, would a person have the right to go out and say, you know, taxes are illegal, income tax is illegal? I'M not paying my income tax anymore. Who's with me? I'm going to post it all over, you know, TikTok. And then you say, well, I just got this audit notice from the irs. You know, this is it.

>> Ed Vitagliano: You're. You.

>> Tony Vitagliano: You can't just say whatever you want, and without there being consequences to it. So, this could be a very.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Serious consequence for, I would say. I appreciate what Andrew McCarthy's saying. I disagree with him. Okay. Because I think the First Amendment protection would be for Mark Kelly and others to create a video saying, I think we need to have serious conversations about whether the President has the authority to send the, National Guard into Chicago.

>> Tony Vitagliano: That's a good point.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, I think that we need to have conversations. I don't think this is a lawful order. To me, that's different than encouraging people to possibly commit a crime. I don't know that it rises to the degree that we've been discussing that. You know, I don't think Mark Kelly's going to prison, over this. I'm not even sure he'll get into any trouble simply because I don't think anybody pays price anymore for things they do, almost no matter how heinous it is.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Right.

>> Ed Vitagliano: but I think, I think there is a difference between having your First Amendment rights out there and saying what you believe about what the president's doing and then encouraging, folks who are still in the military. And, man, if there's anybody listening, Mark Kelly, if you, if, if you get court martialed for insubordination in the military, that's not going to be on Mark Kelly. That's going to be on you. Right. So before you heed what the people in this video are saying, just remember the consequences come to your, room if you, act on them.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Right, Steve?

Cook County Judge Teresa Molina Gonzalez let man go after 72 arrests

>> Steve Jordahl: All right. People, are upset with Cook County Judge Teresa Molina Gonzalez, Cook County, Illinois. Seems that she set free a guy named Lawrence Reed who had been arrested not 10, not 20, not 50, but 72 times. She let him go and he went, bought some gasoline, walked on a train on November 17, doused a young woman with gasoline and set her on fire. Her name is, Brooke. I had it just here. Bethany, Bethany McGee, 26 years old. She was. She is now in critical condition.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah, this one, this one's a tough. I mean, it gets my blood pressure up, when I hear stories like this. We talked about, I talked about this something similar yesterday with the, the, the case in Maine with the mother who was banned, from Talking about God taking her daughter to church. Right. By a low lower court judge, the. The dereliction of duty that our judiciary, at really, at this point, at every level, top to bottom, lower court, all the way up to my opinion, in some certain cases, the supreme court, is. Is. Is infuriating. And there need to be. There needs to be serious consequences not just for the criminals. Right. obviously, we all agree the criminals should be. For. This guy should have never been out on the street. I don't know what. I don't even know what number to assign of arrest before you're not allowed in the streets, you know, before you're locked up. If he has mental issues before you're locked up somewhere, for good. but there needs to be consequences for these judges letting these criminals roam free. And the consequence, in my opinion, needs to be on them also for the heinous crimes that they commit, because he should never have been out. just a horrible, horrible crime, that was committed. And like I said, it gets me, a little upset.

An AI artist named Solomon Ray has topped the Christian Gospel Albums

>> Steve Jordahl: All right, hey, I want to end with this here real quick. there's a guy named Solomon Ray who has topped the iTunes Top 100 Christian Gospel Charts who doesn't really exist. Remember, we talked the other day about a country artist. This is an AI artist named Solomon Ray who's totally made up, and he actually now has topped the iTunes Top 100 Christian Gospel Albums. This is the big chart. So it has happened. Now people ask, I didn't bring into this. There's a whole debate about whether or not it's ethical to play this stuff because it's ripped off from other people. So I decided not to, play this. But I will tell you that it's not the only chart that AI is topping now. There's an international chart, there's a nice song, that's topping the international charts right now. That's getting a lot of play. I do feel okay about playing this one. Cut 16.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Ed Vitaliano eats pasta by the moon. He sings to the stars with a big silver spoon Spills olive oil like it's holy perfume La vita's a party his life's in bloom.

>> Steve Jordahl: Kind of catchy, too, didn't it?

>> Ed Vitagliano: I like it. I want it for my, my Spotify playlist.

>> Steve Jordahl: You got it?

>> Tony Vitagliano: yeah. Italian. It's going to top the Italian charts, before we know it.

>> Ed Vitagliano: So was that AI?

>> Steve Jordahl: Yes.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah, of course. Look, folks, we promise you think they.

>> Steve Jordahl: Really did a song about you.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Listen, apparently my life is in bloom. That's what that song said.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Look, folks, one thing I can promise you to our listeners here at afr, we will never replace our show hosts with AI show hosts. You're always going to be listening to, you'll be listening to people.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Very flawed.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah, even, even, even pre record shows will be human beings. yeah, this is, we're, we're at. We're on the cusp of something that a lot of people I don't think are prepared for. you see it on social media, these videos, these pictures, that are almost getting to be even more indistinguishable from reality. we're on the cusp of something that a lot of people aren't ready for. There are industries not ready for this. You want to talk about an industry that's not ready to compete with AI? It's the, the music industry.

>> Steve Jordahl: Yeah, yeah.

>> Tony Vitagliano: you know, the, the movie industry. it's. Oh, and this is still this technology, folks, in its infancy. It's only going to get better and quicker. Yeah, that's, it's going to be crazy over the next, five years. As far as AI technology goes, folks, that is all the time we have. we appreciate you listening to us on afr.net and AFR and on the radio. it's Thanksgiving week. Hope you enjoy your plans. We have more great programming ahead on American Family Radio.