Best of the Program | Guests: Dave Isay, David Harsanyi & Sara Place | 2⧸12⧸19
Episode Stats
Length
1 hour and 1 minute
Words per Minute
163.98416
Summary
On today's show, Glenn and Sarah discuss Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's apology for anti-Semitism, the Green New Deal, and the White House stockpile of body bags. Plus, David Harsani joins the show to talk about the panic on Brexit and the latest in the war on Portland, Oregon.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
Wow, it's Tuesday and what a great podcast lined up for you. First of all,
00:00:04.240
oh, the mistakes, the mistakes, the learning opportunities that are just ahead of you on
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this podcast. This is going to be like you could just listen to this podcast and then have a
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degree from Harvard. That's how much education you're going to find. Yeah, you're going to learn
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a lot of things to not do. And we start with Congresswoman Omar's apology. It's a great
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apology. Wow. We really learned an awful lot. Also, David Harsani is here to tell us about the
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Green New Deal. And then the panic on Brexit. You know, they're stockpiling body bags. They are.
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Yeah. And this is a this is a conversation that you probably should be exposed to because we have
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some questions on the body bags and the horror of living in Portland today. It's one of the most
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dangerous times to ever be alive. If you're if you live in Portland, it certainly is. You will
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not believe what those poor souls have to go through right now. All on today's podcast.
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You're listening to the best of the Glenn Beck program.
00:01:15.880
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So Congresswoman Omar from Minnesota is a little misunderstanding. There was a little
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misunderstanding. She had no idea. No, she didn't know. She did not. She did not know. This happens
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from time to time. People aren't perfect. And people have to give time to be able to learn
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about different things in the world. There's a lot of new concepts for people. Right. Did you know,
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Glenn, that in the past, no Jews have had some issues and some people have not liked them?
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All right. This is all news to me. And well, let me just read. Anti-Semitism is real. And I am
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grateful for Jewish allies and colleagues who are educating me on the painful history of anti-Semitic
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tropes. Did you know? I had no idea. I had no idea. There were tropes out there like Jews use money
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to influence people and control the world. I had never heard it before. I had never heard it before.
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That's probably one of the smaller tropes, don't you think? Oh, I think so. Yeah. My intention was
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never to offend my constituents or Jewish Americans as a whole. Oh, no. We always have to be willing to
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step back and think through criticism, just as I expect people to hear me when others attack me
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for my identity. This is why I unequivocally apologize. Now, it's interesting because she
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is using this opportunity of her own anti-Semitism to point out that she's also a victim.
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She's also a victim, Glenn. She gets attacked all the time. All the time she gets attacked. And she
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hopes people listen to her. Now, look, as a Palestinian, or as a woman who is, what's her
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background? She's Muslim. She's Muslim. She's Muslim. How could she possibly in her life have
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come up with someone saying something anti-Semitic? No. It's all, it's incredibly unlikely that at any
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time in her background would she ever come across someone else with an opinion like that? Yeah.
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No. She's learning. She has nobody around her ever in her life. She has never heard,
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as a Muslim, anything that might be anti-Semitic. In fact, she skips the parts of the Quran where it's
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like, oh, rocks, cry out. There's a Jew hiding behind me. Oh, trees, cry out. She avoids those
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things. She doesn't know. But she does say she unequivocally apologizes. At the same time,
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I reaffirmed the problematic role of lobbyists in our politics. Wait. Hmm? Didn't she say it was
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unequivocal? Yeah, it was unequivocal. But she's equivocating here just a bit. She just wants to
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point out that Jews are influencing our politics with their money. So basically she's saying she
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apologizes for any possible offense. She wants you to know. Let me summarize. She wants you to know,
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Stu, that anti-Semitism is real. There are real problems. She wants to point out that there are
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real problems. Unequivocally. Unequivocally. Yeah. Real problems with anti-Semitism. But
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perhaps they wouldn't be so bad if there weren't so many Jews. That makes sense because it's true. I
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mean, if there were less Jews, maybe the problem would be... Correct. Would be slightly less.
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It would be less. You know what I mean? And here's Linda Sarsour to tell us more. Now,
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Linda Sarsour, if you... This is unbelievable. I mean, that is not the character witness you need
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at this time, man. No. I love this. Linda, a women's march leader, Linda Sarsour,
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rushes to Representative Omar's defense. I'm thinking with friends like this, who needs enemies?
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Yeah. You don't know, Linda. No. Back away. Back away. Now, we remember Linda because Linda was the
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one in the women's march that we told you just recently, as it was falling apart, that, remember,
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she was meeting with some Jewish women at the very beginning of the women's march. And she was,
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you know, she was perhaps explaining some of these Jewish tropes, these anti-Jewish tropes.
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To the Jewish women there. It sounded like she was being very anti-Semitic, but I'm sure she was
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learning. Anyway, she said, I will not be silenced in the face of attacks, harassment, and targeted
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policing of speech. So wait, Linda Sarsour is concerned about targeted speech. Very concerned about it.
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Now, sure, her entire organization exists to get people fired for things that they've said online.
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But, you know, she's very concerned about the targeted speech thing. And she's a great character.
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I know, like, if I knew someone who was accused of sexual harassment, I would want Harvey Weinstein
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to jump right in and defend. Right? Right in there. Please, Harvey, jump in. Hang on, hang on, hang on,
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hang on just a second. I'm receiving a message from beyond. Hang on, I'm just trying to translate
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I'm getting some sort of message. Somebody wants to communicate from beyond that is telling us
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that she's okay. Oh, good. She's okay. She's got support here in this life and beyond, according
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to the Ouija board today. That's good to hear. So anyway, she says she is not going to stand by
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and see attacks and harassment and targeted policing of speech from a black Muslim woman
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elected official, our sister, Sister Omar, in the name of combating anti-Semitism.
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We can stand up for Congresswoman Omar knowing her record and what she stands for.
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She's been in Congress for like several weeks, so her record is very well.
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Yeah, she definitely has a record. The record's not in Congress. It's been the things that she's
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said over her lifetime, which indicate perhaps maybe she has heard some of these tropes before.
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Maybe, maybe, just there's a slight possibility that what she's saying now is complete bullcrap.
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I mean, she's found humor in so many situations, Glenn. So many wonderful situations. Like when
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she was talking about Al-Qaeda and Hezbollah in 2013. This is, she was fantastic. Let's listen
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A product of this sensationalized media. You know, you have these sound bites and you
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have these words and everybody says it with such an, you know, intensity.
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And so it must mean, it must hold a bigger meaning.
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You know, and I remember when I was in college, I took a terrorism class.
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And so it was, it was the thing that was interesting in the class was every time the, the, the professor
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said Al-Qaeda, he sort of like his shoulders went up and, you know, Al-Qaeda, you know,
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And he was, you know, as it, we are not, we are not saying.
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Is it like he was an expert on Al-Qaeda, you know, or Hezbollah, like he knows what terrorists
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Um, she has, uh, in 2006, a lot of people didn't know this, but.
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But how would any of these people come across anti-Semitic tropes?
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Well, she was talking about how Israel has a delusional ISIS-like ideology.
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Uh, and that the creation of that country was a crime.
00:11:01.800
Uh, by the way, and I'm not making this up, David Duke also came in to, uh, tweet his
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On the front of his business card, it says, I don't like black people.
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But if you really look at the resume, you notice he does not like Jews all that much
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Like, like, uh, Congresswoman Omar said, you know, look, I don't want to be anti-Semitic,
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He's like, I don't want to, I'm sorry that I was using a trope.
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If it wasn't for all these Jews, you know, we wouldn't have all these problems if it wasn't
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I'm getting another, I'm getting another message from beyond with the Ouija board.
00:12:11.240
So some, some, him, him, somebody, I don't know.
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Cause they got $1.375 billion to build a full 55 miles of border wall.
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I thought we know that estimates, and they're always wrong.
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Estimates are that it's going to take at least $20 billion to build a fence.
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It's $25 billion, but now we're, we're, no, it's fixed.
00:13:07.120
Well, it was, initially, it was, initially it was $25 billion.
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They did offer the full amount, uh, just a year ago, uh, but that, that, that, that's no
00:13:16.660
And then before the shutdown, they did offer $1.7 billion.
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Um, and now after the shutdown, they're getting everything they need, the $1.5 billion.
00:13:29.240
Well, through deft and expert negotiation, they were able to get just a little bit less
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The great thing, the reason why Donald Trump is one of the best negotiators, and I mean
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this sincerely, my favorite Donald Trump story, you've heard it a million times, is how he
00:14:01.920
So Tiffany's, which is on the corner opposite of, uh, of Trump Tower and about half a block
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away, Tiffany's actually owns all of the air above Fifth Avenue for a couple of blocks.
00:14:16.340
And so you couldn't build anything over like, I think four stories on Fifth Avenue in those
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Um, and he said, um, he, before he left, he talked to his architect and said, I want
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I want you to drop the Trump Tower that we we've been talking about a beautiful tower.
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And I want you to draw up the plans for the ugliest building that is five stories, ugliest
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And he brought them both to a meeting and he said, Hey, I want to build Trump Tower.
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And, uh, the owner of the air rights said, no, well, uh, well, there won't be anything
00:15:02.180
over five stories here because we own the air rights and we're not going to sell them
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Now I've already bought this property with plans to build this, but I knew that you might
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If you don't sell me the air rights and he laid it out and he said, I'll leave it up
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to you, but I want you to know I will build that building.
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And he's a great negotiator because when he got back to the office, they were already on
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We'll do that because they knew that son of a bitch will do it.
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He blinked, he, he made a promise that he wasn't willing to keep.
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Remember he is the president that I've been looking for, for a while.
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And this one category, a guy with a twitchy eye, I've said this for years.
00:16:08.820
You want your enemies need to feel like the president has a twitchy eye where they look
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at each other and go, that guy just might do it.
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So I preferred that that's the way Russia looked at our, our president, not necessarily the
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people in our own country, but he has that twitchy eye and you never know what he's going
00:16:31.820
Well, he telegraphed that he was willing to cave.
00:16:39.140
So they, this deal was supposedly struck up between Republicans and Democrats.
00:17:00.180
55 miles of border protection is like finding out you have lung cancer and your doctor says,
00:17:12.400
That's what 55 miles of border is when you have a 2000 mile border.
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I think where you can look at this and say, there's a real problem is that Democrats know
00:17:31.980
And part of that is because Trump came out and said it was me.
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But he, I think he found out that didn't work for him because he didn't make the case
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The American people could have been with him if he made the case.
00:17:55.000
Yeah, but they also have, they also have the press, which makes it really easy.
00:18:09.420
Remember what president Obama was doing message.
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Remember what president Obama was doing at the end of his term.
00:18:22.480
Why the president isn't on, um, you know, uh, Ben Shapiro's show.
00:18:30.820
I mean, I'll, I'll understand why he wasn't on our show.
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It might be a little, uh, wounding, uh, for him or for me either way.
00:18:44.760
I mean, people are aware that what's going on in the border and they still not.
00:18:52.480
Look at the poll numbers, even from Republicans towards the end.
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And we've been talking about this for how long.
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We're coming up on four years since he came down that escalator and made that speech.
00:19:08.520
The border's been the biggest issue in the country ever since.
00:19:10.940
Look, the problem is with the Republicans is they don't have any big ideas.
00:19:19.660
Look at how the Green New Deal is being embraced by millennials.
00:19:25.280
You can sell the Green New Deal to your base, but we can't.
00:19:38.920
He signed an executive order for AI, but it was not an inspirational AI executive order.
00:19:48.060
It said, okay, to the, to the departments all in the United States government, you should
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look into AI and see if we can develop, you know, friendly AI, et cetera.
00:20:00.360
There's a moment here where he could have said, look, the world is on the edge of profound
00:20:06.820
change and it's either going to be good or it's going to be bad.
00:20:09.480
We're going to be the leaders of good while everyone else is pursuing AI just to conquer
00:20:16.960
We are going to pursue AI to help us solve cancer and cure cancer and muscular dystrophy
00:20:25.840
We are going to cure things in the next 10 years because the United States is going to
00:20:35.380
Everyone else wants to have it so they can conquer the world.
00:20:54.780
You could, this would be the time to do it with all the extreme proposals on the left.
00:21:04.640
I mean, the flat tax isn't new, but at least it's bold.
00:21:07.300
It is new because nobody's, nobody's ever really seriously considered it and done it.
00:21:11.840
I mean, I think that was one of the issues with the speech, which was a good speech,
00:21:15.960
But there was not a bold new idea there, right?
00:21:18.580
I thought there was at the end and the beginning, but it was all about coming together and uniting.
00:21:24.240
But you have to unite around an idea bigger than unification.
00:21:32.340
He started out great when he said, look, we united, you know, against the Nazis for freedom of the world.
00:21:41.880
Yes, it does bring us together when there's a big idea.
00:21:45.420
And in a vacuum where there are no big ideas, a big idea like let's get rid of every car and airplane in the next 10 years, people like the sound of a new deal.
00:21:59.140
You'll notice the college campus reform just did a video that's really telling.
00:22:12.440
I like these ideas where we're going to go take something on.
00:22:18.620
As soon as they start reading the details, they're like, wait, no, that's stupid.
00:22:30.080
Where are the things that we can all unite around?
00:22:42.880
You have to spend it on a uniting idea, a big idea.
00:22:50.840
If you want to make it about the wall, Mike Lee says there is a legal way, constitutional way, to build it in some areas.
00:23:16.160
But then add in things like, let's make this easier for people who really want to be here to come in.
00:23:26.380
Let's widen the door while at the same time we shut off the illegal immigration.
00:23:38.880
If you have a mind for AI, if you're one of the best AI people around, we want to use it to cure cancer, not to control people.
00:23:51.460
Your green card, your visa will be easy to get.
00:23:54.320
It'll be the easiest place to come in to research for AI.
00:23:57.920
He's got to start making, he's got to start showing progress on the future instead of digging into the past because the left is not digging into the past.
00:24:30.420
If you're a subscriber to the podcast, can you do us a favor and rate us on iTunes?
00:24:35.020
If you're not a subscriber, become one today and listen on your own time.
00:24:41.020
Dave Isay is the guy who came up with the idea of StoryCorps.
00:24:46.740
And StoryCorps is this really cool service, if you will, that is recording voices for our national archives.
00:24:55.080
And they're recording our stories, and they do this all over the country in many different ways.
00:25:01.620
But we wanted to talk to Dave on Valentine's Week about the people who they have found that are deeply, deeply in love.
00:25:21.020
This is the story you were mentioning a little bit earlier.
00:25:24.440
Danny and Annie, and as you said, StoryCorps is this project where we have booths all across the country.
00:25:30.140
We're a nonprofit, and you come with a loved one for the most part, and you sit for 40 minutes and record your story with each other just in audio.
00:25:38.020
And then you keep a copy, and another goes to the Library of Congress so your great, great, great, great grandkids can get to know you through your voice and story.
00:25:45.080
So this is a love story that goes back to the first week of StoryCorps when we launched 15 years ago in Grand Central Terminal.
00:25:51.140
Back then, like, nobody understood what we were doing, and very few people actually came.
00:25:55.920
We've now had half a million people participate.
00:26:01.160
They're from Brooklyn, and Danny was a betting clerk, and Annie was a nurse, and they came to the booth to tell the story of their first date that had happened 25 years before.
00:26:14.360
Now, they have thick Brooklyn accents, so you have to listen very carefully.
00:26:21.400
She started to talk, and I said, listen, I'm going to deliver a speech.
00:26:24.760
I said, at the end, you're going to want to go home.
00:26:30.680
I said, if we're going anywhere, we're going down the aisle because I'm too tired, too sick, and too sore to do any other damn thing.
00:26:36.620
And she turned around, and she said, well, of course I'll marry you.
00:26:41.100
And the next morning, I called her as early as I possibly could.
00:26:46.480
To make sure she hadn't changed her mind, and she hadn't.
00:26:50.560
And every year on April 22nd, around 3 o'clock, I called her and asked her, if it was today, would she do it again?
00:27:01.200
You see, the thing of it is, I always feel guilty when I say I love you to you, and I say it so often.
00:27:08.380
I say it to remind you that as dumpy as I am, it's coming for me.
00:27:13.120
It's like hearing a beautiful song from a busted old radio.
00:27:17.140
And it's nice of you to keep the radio around the house.
00:27:19.620
If I don't have a note on the kitchen table, I think there's something wrong.
00:27:24.520
The only thing that could possibly be wrong is I couldn't find a silly pen.
00:27:27.380
To my princess, the weather out today is extremely rainy.
00:27:39.280
When a guy is happily married, no matter what happens at work, no matter what happens in the rest of the day,
00:27:46.120
There's a knowledge, knowing that you can hug somebody without them throwing you downstairs and saying,
00:27:52.420
Being married is like having a color television set.
00:28:02.340
And in listening to that, it makes me want to start the tradition far too late of writing a note to my wife every day.
00:28:15.820
Danny was not, you know, if you saw a picture of him, you can almost get it from his voice.
00:28:32.600
And the guy had more romance in his little pinky than all the phonies in the Hollywood put together.
00:28:37.020
And, you know, he was a guy like, you know, people used to laugh at him walking down the street because, you know, he talked funny and he looked funny.
00:28:46.640
And I think that coming to StoryCorps with Annie and having a lot of people respond to that first story, we're going to play another story later.
00:28:53.640
They're just, you know, it's about reminding people that they matter and they're important and they won't be forgotten.
00:28:58.720
And Danny and those, you know, that was the first week of StoryCorps.
00:29:02.360
And, you know, it speaks to he was what StoryCorps is all about.
00:29:05.820
It's about the grace and the poetry and the eloquence and the beauty in the stories of us, of all around us, hiding in plain sight if we just take the time to listen.
00:29:16.700
So they became big hits with the StoryCorps audience and everybody loved them, as you can imagine.
00:29:24.900
But then just a couple of years later, Danny and Annie received some news and they came back to StoryCorps to talk about the fact that he had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and it was a very fast spreading cancer.
00:29:45.100
And he wanted one to record one last interview with Annie.
00:29:56.780
When we after he got Danny had come back to StoryCorps with Annie to read their love letters over and over again over the years.
00:30:02.960
And he brought every character he'd ever met in his life to StoryCorps, undercover narcotics detectives and major league umpires.
00:30:10.680
And he'd have a cataract operation and want to come in and document it.
00:30:15.100
And when he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, stage four and stage, we actually that week named renamed our original booth, the Danny and Annie Parasa StoryCorps booth.
00:30:25.340
And then the next week he said, will you come up?
00:30:28.140
I'm too sick to get to the booth, but I need to record one last interview with Annie.
00:30:32.100
Will you come to our house in Sunset Park in Queens?
00:30:46.060
Listen, even downhill, a car doesn't roll unless it's pushed, and you're giving me a great push.
00:30:52.240
The deal of it is, we try to give each other hope, and not hope that I'll live, hope that she'll do well after I pass, hope that people will support her, hope that if she meets somebody and likes him, she marries him.
00:31:18.520
I guess that's the way to do it, because when we were married, you know how your brother takes you down, your father takes you down?
00:31:27.720
She said, well, I don't know which of my brothers to walk in with.
00:31:34.880
I said, you walk in with me, you walk out with me.
00:31:37.460
And the other day, I said, who's going to walk down the aisle with you behind the casket, you know, to support her?
00:31:54.060
There's a thing in life where you have to come to terms with dying.
00:32:01.240
I want to come to terms with being sure that you understand that my love for you up to this point was as much as it could be, and it'll be as much as it could be for eternity.
00:32:16.120
I always said the only thing I have to give you is a poor gift, and it's myself.
00:32:23.860
And if there's a way to come back and give it, I'll do that, too.
00:32:35.820
It is a day on which we share our love, which still grows after all these years.
00:32:41.200
Now that love is being used by us to sustain us through these hard times.
00:32:56.020
She lights up the room in the morning when she tells me to put both hands on her shoulders so she gets...
00:33:01.760
She lights up my life when she says to me at night, wouldn't you like a little ice cream?
00:33:11.560
I mean, those aren't very romantic things to say.
00:33:18.080
In my mind, in my heart, there has never been, there is not now, and never will be another Annie.
00:33:36.540
And she came in to record one more story core to thank everyone and tell everyone that she's doing fine.
00:33:52.020
Yes, she got, after the last interview with Danny was broadcast on the radio, on public radio,
00:34:06.140
and Danny actually heard it and then died about an hour later,
00:34:09.260
Annie got thousands and thousands and thousands of condolence letters.
00:34:13.900
And still to this day, many years later, she reads one of those letters instead of the love letter
00:34:20.400
She buried a copy of those letters with Danny in the casket
00:34:23.620
because she wanted to let him know that his life did matter.
00:34:31.920
Dave, thank you so much for sharing these with us.
00:35:07.780
And, uh, you know, there is young love and then there's real love.
00:35:16.100
And young love is all about, uh, how somebody looks, how hot they are, how, how, how.
00:35:29.560
So, whatever shallow thing, I'm just thinking of, they're all just so shallow.
00:35:46.160
And if you do it right, it grows into something, as he said, when she says, put your hands on
00:36:02.060
my shoulders so I can get, get up and out of bed or have some more water.
00:36:07.400
He said, those aren't romantic things, but they are with a mature love.
00:36:22.800
The things that you will do for your spouse or your spouse will do for you as you grow old
00:36:37.880
together are the things that make all the difference.
00:36:44.420
And they're the things that inspire the next generation is the couple that still holds hands.
00:36:56.320
It's the couple that still just hugs each other in the kitchen.
00:37:04.300
I always wanted to be that guy who grew old with his wife.
00:37:16.880
And I am so blessed to have that in my wife, Tanya, who has just been a remarkable woman.
00:37:34.600
And this Valentine's Day, it doesn't take chocolate and it doesn't take, you know, it doesn't take
00:37:45.840
It helps, you know, to remind, but it is everything else that goes around Valentine's Day that really
00:37:57.380
David Harsani, the author of Freedom First, a guy who is a senior editor at The Federalist
00:38:28.680
I know you've done a lot of work on the Green New Deal, which on its surface seems absolutely
00:38:38.340
But you've you've really, you know, you've put the hood up on this thing and you've really
00:38:43.120
looked at it to see using the facts of the actual deal to see what's in it.
00:38:56.060
I wouldn't consider it work because it was actually a lot of fun to read through in one
00:39:02.880
And it really, you know, I know she walked it back and I know that the authors walked
00:39:08.280
But obviously, the very core of it is just nuts.
00:39:11.720
And that the core of it is that we're going to get rid of all our fossil fuels in 10 years,
00:39:15.340
not just fossil fuels, but also nuclear energy.
00:39:17.620
If anyone's at all serious about clean energy and moving away from carbon emissions and
00:39:24.500
dismisses nuclear energy, they can't be taken seriously.
00:39:31.900
We could use all of the nighttime energy just to be able to make hydrogen.
00:39:39.520
I mean, there is so much that can be done with nuclear energy that would help us be completely
00:39:45.480
emission free that anybody who says that they're serious about having energy and clean
00:39:53.880
energy and they dismiss nuclear, they're they're they're they're frauds.
00:40:00.520
Well, they are or very immature or don't understand how the world works.
00:40:04.740
And, you know, this plan does not have any sort of it does not embrace economic reality
00:40:12.440
I mean, imagine having to retrofit every single building in America in 12 years.
00:40:17.040
Imagine having to retrofit every car or get a new car so they can run on electricity, which
00:40:22.080
won't even be there because we won't have anything to generate.
00:40:26.380
And then in another way that it's nuts is that it's a Trojan horse for or was a Trojan
00:40:29.960
horse for a bunch of socialistic plans like economic security for people, quote unquote,
00:40:35.200
unwilling to work, you know, and a bunch of even if you are willing to work, this is a
00:40:44.640
This is FDR's second Bill of Rights, is it not?
00:40:49.040
And, you know, free education, you know, free housing or guaranteed housing.
00:40:53.860
And a bunch of other things of that nature that really have nothing to do with with green
00:40:58.720
energy or anything, anything like that to begin with.
00:41:01.840
So, David, is there is there anything serious in it that you can look at and say, well, you
00:41:16.020
Banning meat, giving everyone a house, you know, free education.
00:41:21.200
I think that there are many progressives who believe these are, you know, this was pulled
00:41:25.580
back by by the authors because it was mocked, not because they don't believe these things
00:41:32.000
So we have to remember that these are the goals.
00:41:36.660
I mean, it tells you how to live your life on every level.
00:41:38.900
It wouldn't be OK with me, even if we had if I thought a climate disaster was over the
00:41:43.720
We have to we have to think about other things, including the economy, including our
00:41:49.920
So, David, the real tell here is, to me, the nuclear power thing.
00:41:53.240
It's like if you are really concerned with the globe and the way it's warming, you're
00:41:58.580
going to want to embrace nuclear power if you're actually serious about it.
00:42:08.160
I guess they don't mention coal and I didn't think of that.
00:42:11.360
I would just say this, though, you're right about nuclear energy, but also we lead the
00:42:15.880
world in reducing carbon emissions over the last few years, mostly, I think, because of
00:42:22.540
So if you eliminate that and you eliminate nuclear power, you're not really working towards
00:42:27.600
You just want an excuse to control the lives of people, because once you control all carbon,
00:42:32.640
you control all life, which I think this is just a power play sort of thing.
00:42:36.340
So how frightened are you that there are 70 co-sponsors of something that is truly ridiculous?
00:42:47.680
I mean, I'm pretty frightened that all these Democratic candidates, leading ones, Kamala
00:42:53.520
Harris and others, immediately endorse this plan while the initial fact page was out there
00:43:05.000
Now, I don't think I'm not scared because I know it can't really happen, but I am scared
00:43:09.240
with what will do the economy trying to make things like this happen.
00:43:15.460
Well, you say that it can't happen, but you listen to people who are not paying attention.
00:43:21.440
And David, honestly, if we went through another 2008 or worse, which I do believe is on the
00:43:28.820
horizon just because of Europe alone, this is the kind of thing that socialists say, hey,
00:43:37.840
we're going to take care of your housing, your housing.
00:43:40.340
We're going to take care of your car, your food, your guaranteed job.
00:43:44.140
And if there is a serious, serious, and I'm talking about a depression, this is the kind
00:43:52.400
I mean, 10 years ago, if I called a Democrat a socialist, they would feign indignation and
00:43:58.240
Today, most Democrats seem to think that that's a pretty swell idea.
00:44:01.960
So I think the debate has actually gotten a lot more honest, and this and other things
00:44:08.560
are just part, really, of the fight between people who believe in free markets and people
00:44:15.800
And I do wonder, though, I just want to quickly say if people understand what they're supporting.
00:44:20.720
For instance, I saw a poll that said, you know, 72% of people want Medicare for all.
00:44:26.560
But when they explained to them what Medicare for all actually meant, it dropped to 36%.
00:44:34.940
It means we're going to take away your private insurance and throw you into a government program
00:44:47.580
So once they hear about the specifics, they don't like it.
00:44:50.080
So if I want to be positive about the future, I say to myself, there are sort of these grand
00:44:54.180
plans people like in theory but might not like in reality.
00:44:57.920
And that's usually what socialism is actually about.
00:45:02.120
Well, unfortunately, it fools country after country after country.
00:45:06.800
Tell me what it – the idea of getting rid of grounding all planes.
00:45:14.080
Well, the plan is that we're going to have high-speed rail.
00:45:18.860
It's hard not to laugh when you talk about this stuff, but it's scary too.
00:45:22.400
But she claims that we're going to have high-speed rails and they'll work so well that we will
00:45:28.100
sort of crowd out any need for air travel or actually for cars as well in urban areas.
00:45:33.980
As you see in California, they have a high-speed rail that I think is $100 billion in debt
00:45:40.760
So I'm not sure how we can envision that throughout the country.
00:45:45.720
Every city that I've ever lived in that talks about having a high-speed rail, it always
00:46:05.860
And moreover, in the middle of America – I lived in Denver, for instance, for many years.
00:46:09.880
There's no way you can use a train to get around.
00:46:14.300
So is she talking about actual bans or some sort of a carbon tax that would discourage things
00:46:24.920
Because it sounds like in 10 years we're just going to stop air travel.
00:46:37.580
They don't get into specifics about how they would ban things.
00:46:41.340
And I don't think she uses the word ban on the planes.
00:46:43.820
But she does use some sort of language when it comes to cars in urban areas of having government
00:46:48.140
sort of explain to you how many cars you need or don't need and following through in that
00:46:53.700
I can't say that she's put kind of the thought into this that would be nuts and baltsy.
00:47:00.820
We don't know how these things are supposed to be accomplished for the most part, only
00:47:06.780
And occasionally she'll say – she uses euphemisms for ban.
00:47:29.700
But I suspect there are a bunch of, you know, special interest, greenie types who helped
00:47:36.100
I mean, it's just a grab bag of everything they want thrown in there.
00:47:42.820
But, you know, politicians who endorse this thing should be held accountable for doing
00:47:56.760
And there is now a growing Marxist community that is arrogant, is self-centered, and will
00:48:16.220
Kamala Harris had her CNN – I think she's probably one of the frontrunners, or is the
00:48:21.100
frontrunner – and she had a CNN town hall where she just was bragging about how she
00:48:25.740
wanted to take everyone's insurance away from them, health insurance.
00:48:28.860
And it's a hugely important part of people's lives.
00:48:34.820
I have to say, you know, I was not a fan of Donald Trump, and, you know, I generally
00:48:39.700
But when he dropped a line about socialism in the State of the Union address, it made me
00:48:46.220
And I think it's an important battle to be won.
00:48:49.400
I think young people don't understand it because they never lived through the Cold War and they
00:48:54.940
You know, my own parents defected from a communist country.
00:48:59.360
And I think it's going to be a pretty ugly fight.
00:49:03.640
I thought when the president said, we will not be socialist, I just talked about this
00:49:08.020
yesterday in a monologue where what he was really saying is, I will protect and defend
00:49:13.140
the Constitution of the United States of America.
00:49:16.080
Anyone who's pushing for these kinds of things, this Green New Deal, they are in violation of
00:49:23.500
You're not protecting and defending the Constitution.
00:49:27.900
The core of the Constitution is individual rights.
00:49:38.780
O'Rourke who said, who boiled down the Constitution to stay off my lawn and keep your hands to
00:49:44.200
And neither of those things, socialists care about neither of those things.
00:49:51.640
You know, there might not always be down to the definition socialists, but if they want
00:49:56.360
to control what you buy, what you eat, what you see, what you say, and all that stuff,
00:50:00.520
to me, they're just, you know, it's just tyranny.
00:50:02.360
I don't know to what level it's going to come here, but it's worth fighting against, I think.
00:50:09.480
Thank you for your help and your research, and we'll talk to you again.
00:50:14.200
We want to take you to another socialist country that was also very into the planet.
00:50:31.000
As you know, as a longtime listener of this program, world-renowned for our study and exposés
00:50:43.020
We've won the, from the Academy of American Scientists and Scientific Stuff, three years
00:50:49.740
running now, have won the show of the year, 2001, 2007, and again last year.
00:50:57.080
And so now that we are looking at the Green New Deal, we want to get to the nuts and bolts
00:51:04.440
And that is, of course, what Ocasio-Cortez says they are not interested in, you know,
00:51:10.980
eliminating all cattle and cattle ranches and beef farms.
00:51:15.500
But we know that if you're going to address global warming, you have to take care of cow farts.
00:51:22.500
But if you're, again, a longtime listener to this program, you know that the problem is
00:51:26.020
not on the back end of the cow, but the front end of the cow.
00:51:30.400
She's a senior director of sustainable beef production.
00:51:32.800
She's a researcher and an expert in upcycling in human nutrition and just, I would assume,
00:51:44.220
also, you know, knows something about cow farts.
00:51:52.740
So let's talk seriously here for a minute about the people who are seriously trying to get
00:52:00.000
cattle ranches and cows eliminated from our diet entirely.
00:52:12.760
Yeah, I think what, you know, we always try to emphasize to people is really cattle and
00:52:17.820
people that are cattle raisers are part of the climate change solution, not
00:52:22.720
So as you mentioned, cow farts off the top, that definitely is fake news.
00:52:28.020
I can say before I was at National Cattlemen's, that was actually part of my research was measuring
00:52:34.240
So it does come out the front end of the animal, but it's overblown in terms of its contribution
00:52:40.480
to climate change, particularly in the United States.
00:52:45.200
So it is cow burps that is the actual, where the methane comes from.
00:52:57.560
So I think it's important to just zoom out and look at the big picture context.
00:53:01.840
You know, the Environmental Protection Agency in the United States puts out a greenhouse gas
00:53:07.520
And if you look at that, you know, methane from cows is about 1.8% of emissions in the
00:53:17.280
But wait, I mean, the IPCC report, correct me if I'm wrong, Stu, because you know this
00:53:22.140
Now, don't they say cattle, that is the number one cause of the problem for greenhouse gases?
00:53:29.660
Well, the entire, they say the entire meat industry, right?
00:53:32.860
Sarah, this is their claim that this is one of the biggest drivers of global climate change.
00:53:39.760
So there was a report that came out in like 2006 called Livestock's Long Shadow from the
00:53:44.540
UN Food and Agriculture Organization that looked at all livestock.
00:53:49.520
It would be all cattle, sheep, goats, poultry, everything.
00:53:53.840
And they claimed in that report that 18% of global emissions, so not US, but global emissions
00:54:00.480
And that report also had a erroneous claim that that was a bigger portion than transportation.
00:54:08.380
The UNFAO has actually come out and said that was wrong, but that doesn't prevent it
00:54:13.660
from being repeated, you know, still 12 years, 13 years later, like it's fact.
00:54:19.880
What part of it do they say was wrong, that it was more than transportation, or that 18%
00:54:26.900
So the first thing that was truly wrong was the comparison to transportation.
00:54:31.680
So essentially how they got that 18% number was they did what's called life cycle assessment.
00:54:37.680
So it's a bit into the weeds, but essentially you add up everything that gets emitted over
00:54:44.140
So we're going to talk about livestock, that would be everything that comes from feed production
00:54:48.160
to feed the livestock, all the way through to, you know, the slaughter of the animals.
00:54:53.320
And what was really key in that report was the biggest chunk of that 18%, a third of it,
00:55:01.540
So specifically things like deforestation down in Brazil, which is, of course, again,
00:55:06.760
another pressing issue, but we don't have a deforestation problem here in the United States.
00:55:10.960
So that was really one of the key problems was they added in everything for livestock.
00:55:15.680
And then when they compared it to transportation, they just looked at tailpipe, you know, or
00:55:23.360
They didn't add in all the emissions that go into building vehicles, that go into maintaining
00:55:28.120
all of our transportation infrastructure from roads to airports, et cetera, et cetera.
00:55:36.060
It was kind of an apples to oranges comparison.
00:55:38.820
We're talking to Dr. Sarah Place, and she is the Senior Director for Sustainable Beef Production
00:55:50.720
I have, well, this time of year, I think I now have about 100 head, so it's not a lot.
00:56:03.700
And, you know, we're trying to do, you know, right by the animal, right by the planet.
00:56:10.780
Everybody I know who's a rancher or a farmer, they are more concerned about the environment
00:56:16.260
than any environmentalist because their living is made on making sure that that soil and those
00:56:27.580
Are you concerned at all about this new hybrid beef product that is coming out as people
00:56:38.180
are saying that that's going to be much better for you?
00:56:43.280
So are you talking about some of these so-called plant-based products and the cell-cultured stuff?
00:56:51.020
So I think a lot of things in this space are just, there's a lot of media hype relative
00:56:59.060
So as you just pointed out, I mean, you're the same as all the other ranchers across America,
00:57:04.800
and there's over 700,000 cattle producers in this country.
00:57:09.120
It's the single largest segment of American agriculture.
00:57:12.560
So people, the reality is, is people are dedicated to doing the right thing, as you said.
00:57:18.880
And in terms of those products, you know, again, it is a lot of hype in terms of their sales.
00:57:23.760
They're fairly small in the grand scheme of things.
00:57:27.700
And, of course, the cell-cultured products don't actually even exist yet.
00:57:31.640
You know, there's just a lot of media coverage about them coming out at some point, but they're
00:57:37.040
I think our biggest challenge is just this real big chasm we have in terms of understanding
00:57:44.180
between the normal consuming public that's disconnected from agriculture by a few generations
00:57:50.080
and some of this marketing that is surrounding some of these products, because they're trying
00:57:55.060
to use some of the misinformation that's out there to their advantage, especially with
00:57:59.220
regard to environmental impacts of cattle production.
00:58:02.040
I have to tell you, Sarah, there is nothing more healthy for a family than to go and spend
00:58:14.200
Something happened to us when we moved away from the farm.
00:58:24.500
As my kids and I went out to go capture a sheep that was lost from the flock, and we had
00:58:32.480
to go out and we spent about an hour chasing this darn thing, because we're city slickers.
00:58:42.700
You learn everything about the circle of life and how to take care of the planet.
00:58:47.600
There is something to be said that as we lose these things in an agrarian culture, as we
00:58:54.920
have lost them, it's one of the sources for losing our way on so many things, because there
00:59:01.440
is what you read about is not what life on the farm or life on a ranch is actually like.
00:59:13.540
I mean, in the last 100 years, we've gone to, you know, from a majority population in
00:59:18.600
rural areas and in agriculture to now it's, you know, less than 15% of the U.S. population
00:59:27.960
And it's sometimes, like you point out, some of these basic things, you know, cycle of life
00:59:33.000
that have been lost, that connection has been lost for people.
00:59:37.080
And that, you know, what you mentioned earlier, the upcycling, I mean, that's really our way
00:59:41.460
to try to drive that home to people is highlighting.
00:59:45.900
Yeah, so everybody's heard of recycling, right?
00:59:47.960
Essentially taking one thing and making something of equivalent value.
00:59:51.100
Upcycling is taking something of little or no value to people and making a higher value
00:59:56.860
And again, when we think about beef production, cattle production, that's exactly what's happening,
01:00:02.020
I mean, cattle are eating plants that we can't eat and they're using lands that we
01:00:09.620
And they're making this super nutrient-rich food for us.
01:00:13.360
And so, again, it's just using a different word to kind of try to drive home to people
01:00:17.200
the basics that, again, if you are on a ranch or you are connected with agriculture, some
01:00:24.660
But because people are removed a few generations, you know, we do have to kind of explain the basics
01:00:33.420
Dr. Sarah Place, you can find her and follow her at DRS Place.
01:00:45.420
The entire agricultural community is uncomfortable with you calling yourself a rancher.
01:01:09.260
I wouldn't say that all the family is, but I certainly am.
01:01:16.660
No, because they would look good right over there.
01:01:23.260
Anyway, I apologize to everyone in my 500-person town in Idaho for embarrassing you on so many levels.