Speaker 1: Let's try Ty from Iowa.
Ty from Iowa.
Welcome to the program.
Speaker 3: Hello, David, can you hear me?
Speaker 1: Yes, I can.
Speaker 3: Okay.
So I just wanted to bring this up because there's just something I've kind of noticed.
So, I mean, this is kind of a while ago, but I always kind of notice whenever there's a
shooting and they just say, like, well, there's nothing we can really do about it because
there's you're never going to stop a shooting by doing this.
Are still going to happen.
Right.
But there is a shooting done by a person that was trans I mean, that happened a while ago.
And I've never seen people on the right talk about shootings as much as they did, but they
just came out.
Speaker 1: Yes.
Speaker 3: And I was like, do you realize how many people have done shootings that were
like neo-Nazis and right wing extremists and all this other stuff?
Yeah, I mean, I don't know.
It just doesn't really make a lot of sense to me.
It kind of feels like they need to say This side that I don't like is the one doing, and
that's when I can actually care about this issue and actually acknowledge that it's an
actual issue.
But I want to focus on the fact that.
I don't know.
Like maybe people do this because they're propagated and all this other stuff.
They people might listen to what I say and then I go out and commit violence or that
there really isn't.
The gun restrictions on the United States really aren't strong enough.
People keep getting all these guns.
The United States is the only one with this problem.
And I'm like, just one happens.
And it's just kind of they go nuts.
And I was just kind of I don't know, I guess.
What do you make of that?
Speaker 1: Yeah.
And I mean, to focus in on what you said, a lot of different things.
Many of them, most all of them valid.
One of the particulars that you mentioned is this idea of, well, there's no way to prevent
every mass shooting.
Like if someone's really determined, blah, blah, blah.
You know, we've heard that before.
And it's it's a very silly argument because aren't we still better off if we dramatically
reduce the number of mass shootings or we reduce the number of people killed in each
mass shooting?
Like these are still all worthy goals.
And it's sort of like, hey, you know, seatbelt laws aren't going to save people if the car
ends up at the bottom of a lake.
Okay.
Right.
But in some scenarios, the seatbelts will save people.
So we should still do it.
And then let's figure out what to do about the drowning.
Maybe we need better guardrails on bridges and simple things like this.
It's a similar sort of idea.
And it's it's it doesn't even remotely pass the.
I seriously want to fix this test.
When people start with you're never going to prevent every mass shooting or there's
no way to stop a truly determined person.
Well, a lot of people are aren't maybe as determined and they would be dissuaded by
any of the ten or 12 different initiatives I've proposed.
So it's not a serious argument when people start with that, that's it's defeatist and
it's unrealistic in terms of finding improvements that we can make.
And there's many improvements we can make.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, it applies to a lot of other things.
I just think that was probably the one that sickened me the most was they just kind of
felt like they were just using the lives of people that were killed and all this other
stuff just had to be transphobic and it just absolute it was kind of disgusting.
Speaker 1: All of a sudden, they have ten ideas of how we would prevent shootings by
trans people, and they all involve denying people gender affirming care and not not using
their preferred pronouns.
It's crazy.
It's a crazy situation.
Speaker 3: Know, and some fortunate.
Yeah.
Speaker 1: All right.
Ty from Iowa, thanks for the call.
Speaker 3: Thank you for taking my call, David.
Speaker 1: All right, there goes Ty.
Let's go next to Jessica from Indiana.
Jessica from Indiana.
Welcome to the program.
What's on your mind today?
Speaker 3: Hello?
Hello?
Can you hear me?
Speaker 1: Yes, I can.
Speaker 3: Perfect.
Perfect.
So I do want to go ahead and say I am from Indiana.
I do want to go ahead and apologize for Mike Pence.
Speaker 1: Apology accepted.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
So I am a brand new voter.
I just recently with my first local election, with it being speculated that Romney is going
to be running for the Republican nomination.
And like next week, Trump having even more accusations of corruption and sexual harassment
and so on.
How do you see the near future of American politics being especially for a young person
in a very, very red state like Indiana?
Speaker 1: I hate to say this, but I think until the 2024 election is resolved, I don't
think we are going to see any serious adult policy conversations about materially improving
the lives of young people in red states.
I do believe that Joe Biden has done a lot of little things that are good, little things
on health care, little things on student loans, etc..
And I think to the extent that he's able to act unilaterally, he will.
But this election is shaping up to be such a mess that I just don't think there's going
to be the bandwidth for serious national conversations about substantive policy that will move us
more the direction of where we want to go.
So my message to young people in red states where things aren't going well, this is a
sad message and it's not a realistic one for many people, but it's if you want to immediately
improve your circumstances, you may want to consider moving to a state where things are
already better.
If you don't think you can wait it out at least until 2025, I hate that that's what's
going on.
But I will say one more thing that's a little less negative, which is that there are still
opportunities to make other types of improvements if you get involved locally.
And that might mean city council in Indianapolis or whatever the case may be.
I don't want to say that there's no opportunities to make progress, but from the federal discussion,
it's going to be a mess until the next at least until the next president is inaugurated.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I will say Indianapolis is relatively good.
I mean, we just had we elected a Democratic socialist to city council here in Indianapolis.
So that's pretty cool.
Speaker 1: There you go.
Speaker 3: And one one final question.
So myself, my family, do you have to drive out of state typically to Mission Michigan
to enjoy ourselves, America once a married state, if you will.
When do you think that it is going to be legalized in all 50 states?
Speaker 1: I honestly have no idea.
I genuinely don't know.
Could it be five years?
Could it be ten?
I'm not sure.
I think that there will be some red state holdouts for a very long time.
Speaker 3: Mm hmm.
Well, fair enough.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: All right, Jessica from Indiana, thank you very much for the call.
Why don't we go next to Dev from Syracuse?
Dev from Syracuse, New York.
Welcome to the program.
Speaker 3: Hello again, David.
How are you?
I'm doing well.
I have a question for today that's not related to politics.
Well, everything is loosely, but I hope that excites you.
Something that's very important to me is the live event music space.
I've been going to concerts since my early twenties, regularly, all year, every year.
And some thing that I've been seeing that's very concerning is a lot of acts or festivals
are basically not able to continue in the way that they envisioned their event to to
take place because of the stranglehold from Live Nation and Ticketmaster.
Sure, I'm in the same now.
There's some estimates that Live Nation Ticketmaster own over 70% of all the live event space at
this point in the United States.
Yeah.
So I think there's a big problem when the artists aren't able to, you know, make the
event the way that they planned on it.
I mean, music itself is an art.
It should be expressed in from an artist perspective, in my opinion, at least not so corporatized.
I'm curious if you yourself attend live music with any frequency and what's your take on
this corporate takeover of something that I truly love?
Speaker 1: So the corporate takeover of the ticket sales I have been speaking about for
more than a decade, it's outrageous between the consolidation as well as the fees.
Unmitigated disaster.
And I've been crystal clear about that.
As far as me attending live music, I used to attend music very regularly when the pandemic
started.
I stopped attending live music events and I haven't gone back.
And I'll tell you why.
It's a couple of different things.
My tolerance for the crowds and the parking and the security line and the traffic on the
way out, the bumper to bumper in the parking lot and all of this stuff.
I've lost my patience for it, Deb, I really have.
Maybe I've just gotten too old for it.
And then number two, you know, let's be honest, the body odor and the Tendler waters and the
entire thing, I just like I did it for decades.
I've been to endless shows.
I love music.
I'll listen to live albums all the time, but it has not piqued my interest to get back
to live music events since since the pandemic.
Speaker 3: Fair enough.
I mean, to each their own.
I still revel in the body odor.
And while I don't like the tender waters, I love crowds and the excitement, the activity,
meeting new people.
One of my favorite things about it besides the music itself.
Speaker 1: Well, this is the great thing about America.
You can go and I don't have to, and everybody is better for it.
Speaker 3: I just wanted to give a shout out to Summer Camp Music Festival.
I'll be attending that next week.
Fortunately, it's another one that is going to go on an unknown term hiatus due to difficulties
with logistical challenges.
They didn't spell it out in plain English, but I have my suspicion that it has a lot
to do with this corporatization of that.
Speaker 1: Where is that event held?
Speaker 3: That's in Illinois.
Speaker 1: Oh, okay.
You know, I'll.
Speaker 3: Try one for.
Speaker 1: Hours.
This is so insane.
This was one of my my worst live concert experience was I went to this insane right wing notary
thing called Country Thunder.
Now, I know people will say, David, not everybody is a right wing nut who goes to Country Thunder.
Okay.
The environment was total right wing nut tree in like, Wisconsin.
This was like 15 years ago or a long time ago.
I got roped into it by people who like country music, which I don't like.
And it was an absolutely fetid environment.
I mean, it just just it was a never again moment for me.
Speaker 3: To speak of.
I'm sorry that you had to go through that.
But, hey, I appreciate your time, David.
All right.
Speaker 1: There is Deb from Syracuse going to have at it at the live music events.
Exciting, exciting stuff.
All right, everybody.
That's where we're getting to today.
We will take a break.
I will take calls again.
That and unless they silence me.
Which they're trying to do, by the way.
Who is they?
I don't know.
Unless they silence me.
We will take calls again.
And we will also be right back after this extremely short break.