The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – A Voter’s Handbook: Effective Solutions to America’s Problems by James P Gray

Episode Date: September 9, 2026

A Voter’s Handbook: Effective Solutions to America’s Problems by James P Gray https://www.amazon.com/dp/1637928610 Judgejimgray.com Over the years, special interests and mismanagement have driven the federal and state governments completely off the track. Once prosperous and flourishing, many American states today are insolvent, dysfunctional, and ungovernable. Now, based upon his experiences as a veteran trial court judge, his solid Libertarian principles and his observations on the election process based on his personal involvement, Judge James P. Gray (ret.) presents a number of effective solutions for some of America’s most pressing problems. Judge Gray addresses bedrock principles that made America great in the first place and suggests particular changes in our nation’s governmental, tax and energy systems. He shows how we would be safer, healthier, better educated and more successful by implementing specific changes in our systems of Criminal Justice, Healthcare, Education and Immigration. The suggestions made by Judge Gray are straightforward and workable. Democracy is a participatory exercise and the best way to turn government around is to heed Judge Gray’s Call to Action. This provocative and perceptive book should be required reading for all of our public servants.-JIM DOTI, PRESIDENT, CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY An informed electorate is essential to preserving liberty. Jim Gray’s book stands out for its clear and insightful discussion of key issues confronting America. -MANNY KLAUSNER CO-FOUNDING EDITOR, REASON MAGAZINE We must get copies of this book in the hands of our candidates as quickly as possible.-KEVIN TAKENAGA, CHAIRMAN, LIBERTARIAN PARTY OF CALIFORNIA James P. Gray is a retired trial court judge of the Orange County Superior Court, a former federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, criminal defense attorney in the US. Navy JAG Corps, and Peace Corps Volunteer in Costa Rica. He has received a number of prestigious awards and honorary degrees. He presently works as a private mediator and arbitrator in Irvine, California. About the author Judge Jim Gray was a trial court judge in Orange County, California for 25 years, and was awarded the Orange County Bar Association’s highest lifetime achievement award. Judge Gray also started what was probably the first drug court in the country within six months of his appointment to the bench, this one addressing alcohol-related offenses. Prior to becoming a judge, Jim Gray was a federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, a criminal defense attorney in the Navy JAG Corps, and a Peace Corps Volunteer in Costa Rica, where he probably should be in the Guinness Book of Records for brushing his teeth in front of more elementary school classes than anyone else in history. Jim also founded Teen Court, which takes real juvenile delinquency cases to 14 different high schools in Orange County, thus helping not only the subjects and their parents focus upon responsible behavior, but similarly helping the high school jurors and members of the audience to do the same thing. “You show me your friends, and I’ll show you your future” is one of the lessons demonstrated by Judge Jim Gray. He also founded the “William P. Gray” Chapter of the American Inns of Court, which is a legal professional group that focuses upon ethics and camaraderie in the practice — which is what his father, Judge William P. Gray, stood for throughout his legal career. Judge Jim is happily married to his wife, Dr. Grace Walker Gray, DPT, DOT, and has four children, Ky (adopted from an orphanage in Vietnam in 1973), William and his wife Carla, Jennifer, and Morgan and his wife Nicole — and their two children/his grandchildren(!) Hudson and Elisabeth.

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of any kind. Today's featured author is brought to you by majestic authors' media, specializing in strategic marketing and publishing to help authors reach their ideal audience and maximize their book success, turning powerful messages into global impact, one story at a time. Today, an amazing young man on the show. We're here to be talking about his books and insight. and his life experience. The book is entitled,

A Voter's Handbook, Effective Solutions to America's Problems by James P. Gray. We're going to be talking to him about some of his insights and what we can do. And, of course, we have November 3rd coming up for our midterm, what do they call that, mid-presidential elections, mid-term elections. So we're going to get into some of the deets and all that good stuff with him, some of his experience of life and the insights that he can bring to that. He was a peace corpse volunteer in Costa Rica, a criminal defendant attorney in the Nisi Jagg corpse, and a federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, and a trial court judge in Orange County, California.

Judge Gray has written six books, which are why our drug laws have failed and what we can do about it, a judicial indictment of the war on drugs, wearing the robe, the art and responsibilities of judging in today's courts. Two paragraphs, for liberty, solutions that are proud. practical, effective, responsible libertarian. A voter's handbook, effective solutions to America's problems, all rise, the libertarian way with Judge Jim Gray, and with his wife, Dr. Grace Walker Gray, 20-30 kids. We are raising, we are the rising heroes of the planet.

He's written two musicals, which are Americans all, which is meant to help mentor our nationally young people, and convention, the birth of America's, which is about our nation. Constitution's Constitutional Convention of 1787. Welcome to show, Judge Jim. How are you, sir? Chris, I'm just fine. Thank you.

I've been looking forward to being with you. No, we've been looking forward to have you, too. Yeah, yeah, you've got quite the extensive background defending the Constitution and upholding its laws. Give us your dot-coms. Where could people find you on the interweb, sir? It's Judge Jimgray.com. Gray is G-R-A-Y.

I've been fighting that battle all my life, but Judge Jimgray. com. And you can contact me through that as well. What we try to do, Chris, and what you do, and I tip my cap to you, is discuss issues. In fact, I'm going to ask our viewers to do one thing. Someday, when there's a really important thing that happens in the world, it doesn't matter what it is. Listen to five different news broadcasts, and they'll get the names right, but everything else is different. It's skewed because they cater to the biases of their listeners.

And so it used to be, remember a fellow by the name of Ronald Reagan by any chance? conservative Republican president. And there was a guy named Tip O'Neill, who was a very liberal Speaker of the House at the time, a Democrat, but they could talk with each other, and they could discuss. And that's what we're trying to do. And I tell people all the time that I don't have all the answers, and I prove it with regularity. But at least we can discuss things. And then, Chris, you bring up something, hey, I hadn't thought of that before. I'll adjust my view a little bit over more toward this to take that into account. We've gotten away from that totally almost in our country. And we're paying a big price.

for it. Yeah, we definitely are. Everyone's at odds with each other. And yeah, we had, oh, who's that used to do? Was it a Dateline? I forget the name of the gentleman who used to do the show on MSNBC for a long time, but he worked for Tip O'Neill back in the day. He came on the show and was telling the stories about how they were infamously getting along many times, and sometimes they would pretend to be at odds with each other. But you're right. They would sit down sometimes with a drink and sit down and work out their issues and try and find a way to make everybody as happy as you can possibly be because you can't be happy. So how did we get so polarized? And my view is 20, what is it, 20 years ago when we had all these cable TV, 3,300 cable

these stations come out, I thought to myself, wow, it's going to be wonderful. Well, we're all going to get a variety of information, a variety of news. And boy, was I wrong, because like we say, now they'll find out your biases and they'll cater directly to your biases. And it's just, it's a terrible thing. But it's up to us, as I tell people into sobering thought. It's our government, Chris, and if it's not working, we have no one to blame but ourselves. It's true.

It's true. There's one thing I say a lot, and let me see if I can get your approval or concurrence or disapproval. I approve. I approve already. I always say we are all stewards of our democracy. It is each one of our jobs to vote and to make sure that whoever we elect, is going to pass that baton on four years from now. And you're basically just hiring a placeholder for democracy

to make sure that they uphold the Constitution, they uphold the future of this country, and that they pass that baton from president to president. And, well, this union may not be perfect. That's the whole intent of the living document of the Constitution, is that it can be amended, it can be adjusted, it can, it's going to have to adjust as things change. And so we've got to have people that respect that and uphold that.

In order to become a more perfect union, we've never been perfect and we're not perfect now. We had slavery, we had segregation and the rest of that. But we're doing better. But I'm going to bring up one issue with you that you said it's our duty to vote. Yes, but it's also our duty, importantly enough to be an educated voter, to look into the issues and not just, oh, I like the name gray better than blacks. No, look into them and understand the issues and discuss the issues. and discuss them and listen to the Chris Foss show and others as well. We do this because, again, it's our government, and right now we're flunking, in my opinion.

Yeah, and what I tell people that complain about the government is I go, as I tell people, the government is a mirror to the people. You're the ones electing them. So if you don't like what you're seeing, the problem is you. And you're right. People need to be more educated. There's so many people that judge voting based upon how somebody looks, their character. We found out that a lot of people with the advent of television with that famous Kennedy Nixon debate, you know, where people on the radio thought Nixon won,

but people who saw it on TV could see Nixon's issues and insecurities and the confidence of John F. Kennedy. And that really changed maybe how we vote, because even women are known to vote if a guy's bald, but the other guy has hair, she'll vote for the guy who has hair, because it's just more attracted to her. Women will also vote for someone who's more masculine over one or the other. And so we seem to be voting a lot on emotions, all of us.

We're human, and that's a logical thing to have happen. But if you talk to people, discuss with people, listen to shows, listen to a variety of shows. Then instead of just, oh, I like this person because of his hair, think, wait a minute, no, he voted to do this, and I prefer to do that. Immigration. Look, let's remember two important things. Immigration is very important. We're a nation of immigrants. So number one, we're a nation of laws, and we have to respect and follow our laws. And number two, we're dealing with human beings. And right now we've gotten away from that. You get ice and stuff out there. And I person, in fact, let me take you a step back. You said that I was a federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, and I was. And I'll never forget this. And I've mentioned it numbers of times to a variety of people. When I was being interviewed by the chief of the Division at the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles, he said, Jim, in this office, you will do the right thing for the right reason every time. You make a mistake, we've got your back. But if you do think for political reasons, personal reason, we're going to hold you accountable. I were the President of the United States, and Cherup, there's no danger of that. I would myself swear in the Attorney General and tell him or her exactly that. You will do the right thing for the right reason. Even if you think I have committed a crime, you will hold me accountable. gotten away from that. Let me get philosophical with you for a minute if that's okay. Sure, let's do that. What is the worst thing that can happen to a person? And I know that's a very general question, but my answer to that is to be on your deathbed, to look back over your life and think,

I wish I would have or I wish I would not have. And that's really terrible. Now, you and I and everybody watching still can keep that from happening to us. It's never too late. But what's the best thing that can happen to a person? And that is to look back over your life and think, Chris, because I spent my span of years here. The world's a somewhat better place. Save the Redwoods, help raise children to be happy, well-adjusted and successful, help dogs get adopted, whatever, that sort of thing. But worship the religion of my yacht is bigger than your yacht, but it's shallow, as we say. You can always find somebody with a bigger yacht. Try to be of service to others and to make the world a better place. And I was blessed that I had two loving, wonderful parents, nurturing, and in fact, they cared for me.

me, they educated me, but they also held us accountable. To the degree that my sister and I received an allowance every week of 25 cents. That was more money back then. But if you didn't make your bed before breakfast, you'd lose five cents off your allowance. So it wasn't a punishment, but it was just accountability. And I owe a great deal to Bill and Elizabeth Gray. To the degree that, yes, I joined the Peace Corps in Costa Rica, and I think I'm still in the Peace Corps. You try to do things that will help your fellow human beings as well as the rest of the world. And that's what you're doing, and I'm doing my best also. Yeah. What was interesting about your generation and people during the 60s and 70s, I believe, was many of them, they started out life going into the Peace Corps

and traveling the world and kind of seeing how the rest of the world operates and getting education about that. And I think that's what's missing from a lot of people's lives. I remember when I grew up, But when 9-11 happened, I was in shock. I was like, wait, wait, I thought we were the greatest country in the world. People hate us? What's going on? Why is this happening? Right?

And so then I had to start learning about the world and what was going on and different environments. I kind of grew up with that whole kind of spoiled American, we're the greatest, blah, blah, blah, that sort of thing. But your generation really did that peace core thing. And you guys seem to have gained more insight and knowledge to how the world works and, of course, how America is exemplary in many ways, but also some are fallacies. It's broadening. You can open your eyes. In fact, again, my parents did something really helpful to me.

Between the seventh and eighth grades in the summer, they took me and my sister to Europe. And we first went across the country by train, as though we could see how big the country was, then across the ship and a ship to the rest, but it opened my eyes. And in fact, we went to Zilla, Switzerland, which was a little cow town, which is where my parents, my mother's grandparents were raised and came up. And you could look around them and see, hey, they live a totally different life than I do. But they're having a good time. They're really enjoying themselves. So you don't have to be from California in order to, or the United States. You can really enjoy yourself. It opens your eyes. Then you think, wait, I too can travel. I too can go and see and share. And we've gotten away from that all.

lot, but I've been blessed and I try to pass that along to others. Now, in your book, let's talk about some of the techniques the U.S. spouse to, as voters' handbook and how they can do solutions. What are some of the solutions that you advise? We could get into real fundamentals. And one of them the first thing I think I write about in my book is to pass sunset laws. We go back and we pass laws and we're going to establish this commission or that group or whatever. And then it goes on forever. You know, you get a bureaucracy and they keep expanding and getting bigger and bigger and stronger and more expensive. No, put a sunset provision on them.

Okay, we're going to have the AAA company, but after six years, it's going to expire by its natural terms unless Congress reinvigorates it. And just get into something like that, because we have seen our government get so large. We don't even know what it is or what it's doing, but it just keeps getting there and more expensive and more intrusive, so we should pass sunset laws. And that's one of the first really rather obvious things we should do, but hold Congress accountable by having them look at these things again and discuss them publicly. Oh, this company is, this corporation, this public service group really isn't doing what it was intended to. Or that part is, this part isn't, let's cut it back, save some taxpayer money, and do what we really want to do. So I think sunset laws are really the first thing to talk about. What about age limits and there really should be term limits that would fix the age limits problem.

But we now have someone in Congress who's, and it really doesn't matter what their party affiliation is, but I think they're 93 or something and they're running for the Senate again. I may have that number wrong, but I know we have somebody who's really like the oldest probably anyone's ever been in the Senate. I don't know. There was that one Southern guy. I think it was in the Senate for 60 or 70 years or something. But Specter. But yeah, I'm just, we're seeing, we're living longer than ever before.

So we have, we're seeing stuff that we really haven't seen before. Now we have parents that are what they call the sandwich generation. They have children they're trying to raise and care for. And they have parents that are older now than most people live through the history of our, of our humanity. And they're experiencing dementia and Alzheimer's. experiences, all these problems that come with really extending that age. And so they're stuck between taking care of both these parties instead of just raising kids. And there's a certain point where I think you start losing a bit of effectiveness. Now, it might be different for everybody,

but we've got, we haven't seen Mitch McConnell now for, for, I think, 60 days. And the rumors are that he's not here, yet they're playing a game with for the thing. And for a long time, he's been really out of it. We had, there was the Democratic Senator Feinstein, I believe, who really went over the edge. We've got another person who's no one seen for 60 to 90 days or he's on some sort of mental health break. And don't get me starting on the president Trump. It's really wild to see people that clearly are entering the stage of dementia and Alzheimer's or one of the other. And I don't know what your thoughts are. Do we need an age cap or term cap? I have some thoughts because you have to leave it to the voters. And I thought the media in a large

degree, you'll go back to Woodrow Wilson before my time. But he wasn't president of the country. He was his wife that was making the decisions. And a lot of people were saying thing with regard to Joe Biden that we really didn't know who was calling the shots when Biden was president. But you've got to leave it to the voters because otherwise you should, if you're going to pass a law, it's going to be tilted one way or the other. And you'll have to leave it to the voters. Get the media in there. Hey, folks, what about Joe Smith? We haven't seen him in 90 days where that sort of thing. Get the word out. But otherwise, if you're going to have the government, Congress, start passing laws saying, If your last name starts with V, you can't be in the office after you're 60 years old.

And they'll do that for political reasons. Yeah. It's just wild what's going on now. You see so many, the Congress has basically become an old folks home. And I'm fine if people are functional and their brains are there and I can hold up two fingers and they can tell me how many fingers I'm holding up. But there's some of these folks that you're seeing that they're gone. And Chris, leave it up to me.

I will decide if you're gone or not. Okay. Now all of a sudden, I'm in this party or that party, so you're gone and she's gone and he isn't or something. It's dangerous. Yeah, okay. You just can't do it. Yeah. Term limits might fix that because if we just say, hey, you get two terms, that's it. I love term limits. I think that's a great idea. Sit out one and then you can run again for Congress. Say five term limits of two years for Congress. Sit one out and then you can run again. Oh, I like that. for U.S. Senate. That's 12 years. Sit one out and you've got to run for something else. That keeps it vibrant. I think that's a great idea. Yeah. And then your idea, one of the reasons these people

keep getting elected is because they sit on these eternal committees like you mentioned. And if you're like Tennessee, you're like, our guys on the appropriations of yada, yada, yada, we want to keep him on that seat. You got, it's like a senior seat they have there. There's that. But I like your idea of where people need to listen to five different sources and verify things. I can't tell you how much the social media is polluted by the most by people now. And people are being paid now to run disinformation for the government. They just hire. Or for anybody else. Yeah. Yeah. And you can look at multiple news sources and find the threat of truth and start building on that. And you can go, okay, if I set aside some of the, slant of opinion, what is really happening? What is the happening part, not the opinion part? And that's kind of what I focus on. No, no, no, Chris. Chris, I know it's true because I saw it on the internet. You're right. You're right. You're doing all the jokes on the show today.

So now, and voting is important. I think, I don't know what your thoughts are on this, so I'll throw these out, but I think there's what, a third of our country that doesn't even bother to register to vote or vote? which leaves us to this tribal mess that we have. Yes, but if they don't care enough to register to vote, I'd really prefer they not vote because they're not going to be educated voters. That's true. I want people to be educated.

I encourage people to register to vote, but if they're just not interested, they're not going to be a very intelligent voter. That's true. I'm not sure about some of the people who vote too. So, based on what I've seen. And so, yeah, maybe we need to, to maybe you need to pass a test to really register to vote. And I know this sounds like it's something

I'm creating that is to disenfranchise voters. No, I'm afraid of that one too. Are you? You have a voters test. You decide what the criteria are and the rest. Let me let me start at the basics again. One of the greatest people I've ever met and one of my heroes is a fellow named Dr. Milton Friedman. And I'm sure you've heard of him a great economist. And in fact, he one time said that, look, if the federal government were in charge of the Sahara Desert. Within five years, there'd be a shortage of sand. That's really where we are, that you get the federal government, and it's just all-knowing, all-inclusive. They don't have any idea how much money they're spending. In fact, I tell people, and I've written about this, too, that my generation is going to be fine. I've got Social Security. I'm getting a lot of

money out of Social Security. And when I was in the U.S. Attorney's Office, we didn't contribute to Social Security. I didn't when I was in the Navy either, so that sort of thing, but nonetheless. But what about my children? My children are in financial trouble and my grandchildren are bankrupt. Who is speaking for our grandchildren now that are going to be bankrupt? If we are spending trillions of dollars more each year than we bring in, somebody's going to have to address that. It's not going to be my generation. It'll be my children and my grandchildren and shame on us.

Yeah, shame on us. So how do you want people to utilize your book? to get better at voting, knowing what's going on, and some of the solutions that you offer in it. Get a wide variety of information. I try to write about this and be neutral and bring up various issues. One is just free to choose. In fact, let me take this back a little bit. I was a lifelong Republican until 9-11. And when you see all of the responses we had, putting our civil liberties at risk, I became a libertarian and still am. And libertarians, we have allowed people to define us and it's our mistake, but they think, oh, survival of the fittest.

Oh, you don't care about people. Nonsense. We really do, but we want people to thrive. And so the way you thrive is to produce. In fact, I was on a radio show five years ago and talked about criminal justice issues. And as a result of that, received letters from 12 different men who were incarcerated in various prisons around the country. And I started writing to them, not asking what they were convicted of or how long they're in, but what's your plan for the future, that sort of thing. So now turned into about 40 people,

and I'm just cocking to them. And I commend them. Oh, you're really, you're taking a class. Good for you. I'm proud of you for that. Oh, you're pushing one of your Confederates around in a wheelchair. Good for you. But one of them was complaining. He said, oh, Judge Gray, you're white. You've had all these benefits, and I'm black, and I've got all these things happen. Everything happens bad to me is because I'm black. responded to him, look, victimization is going the wrong way in a one-way street. It just doesn't work. Yes, we had slavery. Yes, there were problems, but you have to produce. I want you to promise me something. Not only will you not talk about being black as being a victim, but don't even think it. Change your attitude. And I got a letter from this guy two months ago saying it's changed

his life. It's changed his attitude. He's still in prison, but now he's working. He's taking classes. He's getting along with the guards where before he was combative. It's just changed his life. The attitude is huge. And we have to get that attitude back. Yeah, most definitely. There seems to be a significant rise, I call it the victimhood Olympics, where people now are just like, oh, you were a victim? Oh, wait, my victim story is bigger than yours. That's right. It's like a competition. It is a competition. So you pay me more money because I'm a bigger victim. which means in effect, you've got to show that you're hopeless. That's just going the wrong way in a one-way street.

That's a very good example. Most definitely. It's just wild to see now. And I remember I queued into it one time when I watched someone who was presented with the suffrage of the Jews during the Holocaust and someone who was African-American who spoke up and said, no, the African-Americans had it worse. And I'm like, how is this horror competition? Like, it's both horror.

It's, it's, you can't go once less than the other. People died. People were tortured and treated poorly on both sides of that debate. And, but to watch it in real time on television, I saw it. It was Whoopi Goldberg. And she got a lot of flack for it because people are like, we're running victim competition things now. But yeah, that's kind of the, that's kind of what that's brought to us. What are some other, I think you talk about our drug laws in the book.

Tell us a little bit about your thoughts on that. Okay, so I had been a criminal defense attorney in the Navy Jag Corps. I was a federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, and I'd been a trial court judge for nine years in Orange County, California. And I did something very unusual for a sitting trial court judge, and that is, I held a press conference. Judges don't do that. But I would tell anyone that would listen, our nation's policy of drug prohibition had failed, and we needed to change it. And it made some headlines and stuff and the rest. But it's just true.

And if you look at it, in fact, my wife and I are going to take a cruise from Los Angeles down to Panama City in a few months. And I'm thinking seriously of not getting off the ship in Mexico because you have these Mexican drug cartels, really gangs down there. And they're ruling the roost. They control the police in a lot of ways. And who better than some gringo that has some money? And if you think of it, Chris, it's all these bad things are happening. and it's our drug money that's doing it. It's our drug money that's causing.

Let me ask you a question. Ask our viewers a question. How many people in the United States of America have died from a fentanyl overdose last year? And the answer is almost none. Almost none. They don't die from a fentanyl overdose. They die from a fentanyl poisoning because they don't know it's there. Or if they take the same thing, it looks the same thing to me now that I took yesterday, unbeknownst to me,

it's three times stronger, and I die when I put it into my body. That's caused by drug prohibition. Yes, alcohol had some problems with it. Those problems went away when we repealed alcohol prohibition, because then we had purity standards. We had truth in advertising. We had truth in labeling. We had all this sort of stuff.

So when it comes down to it, and I still talk about this, if what I do as an adult and I put something into my body and all I'm doing is causing harm for myself, that should not be a crime. It should not bring me closer to men. medical professionals that can help me instead of making me a criminal and pushing me farther away. But if I steal from you to get money for my drugs or I drive a motor vehicle under the influence of cocaine or methamphetamine or alcohol, that is a crime. So we just need to make those distinctions.

Am I harming just myself? That's a medical issue. If I'm harming others, that's a criminal justice issue. But United States of America, right this minute, has 5% of the world's population and 20% of its prisoners. Hey, maybe we're doing something wrong somewhere, do you think? Get tough on crime and that sort of stuff. Vote for me. I'm going to put all those villains in prison. No, you don't know what you're talking about. But there's no accountability because, oh, I sound tough on crime. If I'm, if I sound, oh, wait a minute, let's treat people as individuals and the rest. Now I'm weak on crime and I don't get elected. So those are things that we talk about with great, great frequency. Let me get into one more, if I may. And that is, again, Milton Friedman, the first time I ever met him, I was running a drug policy conference, actually at the Hoover Institute at Stanford University, which, where he was. And at a recess, he was talking about school choice.

And I was listening to him. And finally, I'm a product of the public schools. I don't want to do anything that will harm the public schools. And he said, Jim, let me ask you two questions. The first question is, if you're the parent of a high school age child, what country in the world do you want your child to live in to get the best education he or she can? And I said, I'm not sure, but probably not the United States of America. He said, I agree with you.

Second question, if you're the parent of a college age child, what country in the world do you want your child to live in to get the best education? He or she can. I said, that probably would be the United States of America. He said, I agree with you there, too. Do you know the difference? In high school, the parents cannot choose where their money is going to be spent for the education of their child. In college, they can. He converted me to school choice right away.

And that gave rise to you'd mentioned it, but our book, 2030, kids with my wife, Grace Walker Gray. And we're talking, putting into, it's a novel, but we're talking about school choice, about having parents be able to affect and choose how their children are educated. And they'll care. We live in Newport Beach, California. It's a pretty upscale place, but we didn't like the public school so much for our son. We sent him to private schools. If you're in a lower economic class, you can't do that. And if we would go to the public school and say, I don't want Mr. Jones to teach my child. I don't think he's a very good teacher. And pretty soon, Mr. Jones gets out of business.

So they transfer him to a lower economic area where the parents don't have that choice. And so we have, it's a failing of our public schools today. It's a tragedy, mostly in our lower economic areas where our children are not getting the education that they really must have. Yeah. What sort of education do you think that they need to have that's missing now? Just simple mathematics. Don't get into politics and all this sort of stuff. You still need to add up one plus four is five and that sort of thing.

But if you have the parents involved with that, go on field trips, go to museums, that sort of thing. And some children are not meant to be engineers. So why should they take upper algebra when they really just want to be involved with music or whatever? Parents can choose to put their child in a music class. They can't choose that in public schools. So bring the parents much more involved in how their children are educated. And by the way, then, too, even if some parents don't care, and I must confess, some care more than others. But those children are going to have friends of other parents that do care, so they're going to send their child to another school, and the coattails effect will happen here, too.

It will really help. Pay teachers for being good teachers. Today, they're mostly paid because of longevity, seniority, and that is not the way to go. Yeah. We've had a lot of professors that have come on the show that are, forget what the term is, but there are, indentured to the long term. They can't be fire basically. Sometimes by the college. And, and some of them have been on the show that I've really questioned their competence and, and part of it's their age. They're clearly not up to par. And I've been like, you're still talking to students

telling them this bullshit. One of the challenges you have with that school thing, my mom was a teacher for 20 years. And I watched through listening to her talk about what's going on. It moved from the child is behaving improperly and needs to be corrected to basically parents wanted the teachers to be their parents and raise them. And it turned in this thing where if the kid's failing, the teacher is the enemy instead of, okay, what's wrong with the student? What's going on there? And part of this comes from this whole matrix. hierarchical victimhood that we've really moved into. And there's people that you see what they're usually up to.

I would see what they're up to with my mom. Because if the kids was failing, they come in and start pushing to have different teacher and the teacher's the problem. My kid's not learning. And usually there's problems at home where the kid's out of control and the parents are absent and not present or watching their phones on me. But recently I started watching the, teachers that are going on TikTok and they're reading the emails that are being

speaking to them by some of these job parents and they are complete feminine victimhood anti-logic anti-reason Bobby didn't feel like doing the homework today so I need you to give him a break it's the poor baby syndrome oh poor me helicopter sure sure it's always the teacher's fault or he feels repressed because he you You corrected him in class and he's a special person. You gave him a C, and so he feels depressed. It waters down the grades. But look, let me be clear.

I love teachers. I love police officers. But the public employees unions really have some things going where they get into some sweetheart deals for their members and it has nothing to do with contributing. Let me tell you a quick story. When I was in the Santa Ana Courthouse, I'd play basketball pretty much every Thursday. in the receiving area at the courthouse. And every day the sheriff's bus would drive by with their custodies.

And one day a sheriff's deputy was playing with us. And he said, you see that driver? Yes. Next month he's going to retire at 150% of his salary. I said, really? How does he do that? He says, what the formula is, they will compute your life. They'll give you for the rest of your life, 75% of your last year's salary.

So your supervisor is in on it with you. And he'll give you all the overtime you can possibly spend. in the last year. And you don't spend any vacation that last year. You sell your vacation back, so that counts as well. So it's a fraud on the taxpayers. But nobody speaks up on it. Nobody talks about it. I love teachers, but look, this sort of thing is going on with teachers and with public employees all the time. Who cares more about who is elected to the county board of supervisors? and that is the county employees because it's the supervisors that set their rates and get their payments. So you get these county employees unions who really will help you become a member of the board of supervisors.

And then you know full well, boy, if you don't do everything they tell me when I'm elected, they're going to not only support somebody else, they're going to affirmatively work against me for my reelection. So you've got them in your pocket. And the cartoon was, hey, we elect our employers. and it's pretty close to true. We elect our boss in effect, and that's what's happening. People need to realize this, not because you don't love teachers or police officers,

but because it's a sweetheart deal that's out of control, and nobody is talking about it. I'm not sure how much of a sweetheart deal it is, because one of the problems is they don't get enough funding most of these teachers. My mom would call me, I remember the first time she did it. She goes, yeah, I just came from the craft store. She teach elementary kids, and she goes, I just spent $250 there,

and bought all these wonderful things. I'm so excited. My kids are going to be excited. And I go, that's great that the school gives you a fund to pay for these things. She goes, no, I don't get reimbursed for this. I go, what do you mean? You don't get reimbursed? $250, right?

And she says, no, they don't, there's no reimbursement. This is, I do this out of the love for the teachers, the kids. Plus, I can't decorate the schools. They've cut back our budgets for decorating schools and all that good stuff. So that was routine for her to spend money on her kids that she would never get back. Right now, we've got schools that are so poor, they have to hold a bake sale. But meanwhile, we'll spend trillions on military crap. It's really jacked up, and I'm not sure it's quite as a greatest gig as you think it is.

A lot of these teachers now are working three different jobs because they don't get paid shit. So I'm not sure where that was from with the one person. But, you know, yeah, unions fight for workers' rights, but I'm not really sure that it's as, it's as biased as you think it is on the one side. It's really a job of love, and it's not a job of money. That's for sure. It certainly is a job of love, and I look back at some of my teachers, and they cared about us, and you could tell. And, in fact, like your mother, if she was doing that out of the goodness of her heart, bless her forever. So many people are teachers because they want to help children grow.

up into being well-established adults. So I think that's a wonderful thing. And it's a balance like anything else in the world. Some get paid more than others, I suppose. I'd like to know who's getting paid more than others, that's for sure. Because my understanding, and a lot of these teachers across the country are just getting killed. They're having to work two jobs, three jobs sometimes in the Midwest, in the middle of America. Some of them are, but not the older ones, not the ones who have been established. And they get a real good retirement system. I think you may be talking about professors because those guys get they get great retirements and like I say some of them are just the school system supports a thing but I think it's more like a collegiate level I'm not sure

I'm seeing that in elementary schools in junior highs and high schools let's have the media go in and investigate and then show us and tell us that's the reason a lot of men left teaching and it's just filled with women now is because men couldn't make enough money to support a family and said we're out of here and then they were kind of driven out by activist teachers as well. On your other books, do we want to plug your other books as well? We have you on the show. You've got quite a few books. Well, yes, I do. I've written with one. One is called wearing the robe, like you said, and it's the art and responsibility of judging in today's courts. And it's the only how-to book for judges I'm aware of, but not only for judges, but for attorneys to might like to become judges or like to know how judges think. I'm proud of that. It's boots on the ground sort of thing. And I'm proud of that. So, and I'm proud of that. sort of thing. I surprised myself. I never expected that I would write anything. I never did that much in school, but you learn and you want to provide that to other people. Americans all is my first musical, and it's meant to help mentor our students, to help them see things and grow up into them. And I'm proud of that. And I've got to tell you, my second one, like you had said, was Convention, the Birth of America. It's about the Constitutional Convention of 1787. And I went to the lady, who was the director who put on my first musical American soul,

asking her if she'd be interested in having convention of the Birth of America performed. And she said, Jim, today's world, our students don't want to do anything that will glorify America. I thought, my goodness, this was a private religious school in Orange County. If they're feeling that way, what about the big institutions, the rest of this stuff too? We need to educate our children. No, America is not perfect, never has been, but we can become a more perfect union. And I think we are. We're the most successful country, really, in the history of the world, as far as our ability to support ourselves

and to be able to help and support others around the world. I'm proud of us. Yes, we can be better, but we need to educate ourselves better about what's good and what isn't. Yeah. It almost seems like the lazy American syndrome has gotten out of hand where people are just lazy. They would rather sit and watch the Bachelor or whatever CSI show. You get rewarded for it. You get rewarded for it too.

Oh, I'm on welfare. I believe, like I say, I was in the Peace Corps. I care about people, but the best thing you can do for most people, if you have handicaps and that sort of thing, that's different. But the best thing you can do for them is show them that if they're productive, they will have a bigger, happier, more successful life than if they're a victim. Yeah. And people are just, they're just too busy doing it.

They'll sit and spend hours. And I'm guilty of this too, so I'm going to throw myself out of the bus here a little bit. But they'll spend hours doom scrolling on TikTok rather than reading the news and comparing sources and researching. It's amazing online how many people say, just talk out their ass about stuff. And you'd be like, you can Google this. And in five seconds, know that you've been sold disinformation. It's really not that hard to check it. and they won't and they're just lazy they're just a lot of a lot of the ideology i think that people

tribalize now with politics is they're just lazy they just want to drop in i vote for this i don't think about it you've got to research all the platforms of what's going into the next person who's going to hold office you've got to really vet them and i think like i say each of us are stewards of that responsibility and maybe we need to make a thing where I don't know once again we get into what you would you mentioned correctly that that once we start making rules we end up and and Chris in fairness the younger generation's been going to the dogs forever you know my generation was my children that sort of thing so it's always people have always been lazy out there and they've always did the tick-tock or crossword puzzles or whatever sit and drink beer to a

o'clock in the afternoon. So that's always been the case, but what you don't want to do is reinforce it. You don't want to actually have them make benefits because of that laziness. And get the word out. Again, the media is really the place to go where we need to educate ourselves, but the media needs to go in, like we were saying before, go in and investigate. I would have the media be able to go into every prison in our country. I told you, I'm in correspondence with a lot of people in a The stories I'm hearing about the terrible food issues, the health care, I've had medical doctors tell me this too. We need to expose that. If we have people in a women's prison that are being played upon sexually by the guards, that's an outrage.

That is not what we stand for, whether it's happening or not. I don't know. All I can do is report what people tell me, but we need the media to go into our prison, go into our medical facilities, go into anywhere and report. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It has become where a lot of media has catered to what their particular audience slant is. Where the money is. Yeah. And a lot of it, sadly, they own these big companies owned by these billionaires who are politically running them. It's sad to see the Washington Post fall to Jim, to Bezos and what he's up to now. You're so cynical. You really think money makes that much different?

It's wild. It's interesting to see, and you're just like, remember CBS, the great Walter Concrete. I grew up watching him. And back then you had three channels of opinions and facts mattered. And now I think with bloggers and everything, it's just become opinion-based. As we round out the show, give people a final pitch out on picking up your book and checking out your other books as well. And thank you for the opportunity. It's go to Judge Jimgray.com and you can read all of my two paragraphs for Liberty that I've sent out pretty much every year. Sunday for the last 575 weeks, that sort of thing. We talk about issues. The idea is to discuss and to learn. It's just exciting. I ask people, I send out two paragraph for liberty. I request people to respond to me. And it's great to hear it. Sometimes they're very favorable. Sometimes, what about this? What about that? Good. That's what we need to do is to have that. Gee,

I hadn't thought about that before. That's important. So we're all in this together. I'm proud of our country. Yes, we could be better. Yes, we will be better. Yes, we've done some awful things, but we've also done some really good things around the world, too. And I'm proud of us. And I think the more people look into who we are, our founders, and everything has happened since. Yes, some could be better than others. Some are lazy.

Some are even corrupt. But by and large, it's better than any other government in the world as far as I'm concerned. And I'm proud of us. Yeah. It's been a wonderful journey for, that has been a wonderful journey. But you're right, the good, bad, and ugly. But we used to be a country people looked to around the world and exemplified. So, Judge Jim, give me your dot-com.

Where can people find you on the internet? Sure, it's Judge Jimgray.com, G-R-A-Y, Judge Jimgray.com. Let me leave you if you would. And I know that you have a lot of listeners that are pretty doing well-right well-off. So would you like to have Chris a really good investment opportunity? And I know you didn't expect to hear that from a judge on your program. But have you heard that Federal Express and United Parcel Service are actually in the process of merging companies? No.

It's going to be a revolution. Yes. Oh, and the name of the new company is going to be fed up. Wonderful setup. Ben, you're doing all the jokes in the show. I'm just going to step back here. People frequently tell me the jokes on me. Maybe that's what you're saying.

No, no. That's not what I'm saying. No, you are right. I have such a complaint against FedEx and UPS right now. They have gone completely to shit. They're making the UPS look good. The U.S. Postal Service look amazing. And part of it's this joke that's going on with Amazon

and shipping and costs and probably gas prices too. But I totally agree with you, man. UPS. I used to be able to rely on them in FedEx more than U.S. Postal Service. And now every package I have from UPS is getting rescheduled. Sometimes the other day I got five reschedule the same package. What the f is going on over there? So, yeah, I totally agree with you on that joke.

No, okay, but the purpose was just the joke. I wasn't talking about FedEx or UPS either for that matter. Fed up. All right, well, thank you very much for coming to the show. Judge Jim, we really appreciate it. It was fun to have you. Nice to be with you. Thank you, sir.

And thanks for much for tuning in. Order up his book, wherever fine books are sold and get his other books as well. The book we featured today was called A Voter's Handbook, effective solutions to America's problems. And the judge said, folks care, put in effort, put in work, know what's going on. I think too many people, they just vote and they just forget about whatever for two to four years. And they don't check in, they don't follow up, they just figure whatever he's doing, whatever. You'll see voter interviews, and they're like, so what did the guy do that improved whatever that you're happy about?

And they're like, I can't think of anything right now. and stay in tune. Every day your job is to be a proponent of your democracy. And if you don't take care of it, you'll lose it. That's how democracies work. We've seen that in lots of different cases over the history of this country in the world. Thanks to my audience for tuning in. Go to goodreads.com, Fortresschristch, Chris Foss,

LinkedIn.com, Fortresschchchchchchchchchfoss, YouTube.com, Fortresschch, Chris Foss, and all this crazy place on the internet. Be good to each other. Stay safe. We'll see you next. You've been listening to the most amazing, intelligent podcast ever made to improve your brain and your life. Warning. Consuming too much of the Chris Walsh Show podcast can lead to people thinking you're smarter, younger, and irresistible sexy. Consume in regularly moderated amounts.

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