Today. Against Major League Baseball over the moving of the All Star game from Atlanta to Colorado. I've referred to it as a theft before, and I believe this lawsuit uses that same language. I have read the lawsuit document itself called The Called The Complaint because I'm intrigued is Try a lawyer myself for Last 37 years. I'm intrigued by the legal theory on a moral level is, you know we've had this conversation before This lawsuit was filed on a moral level. I think this is clearly a theft. This is a theft from the good people of Atlanta and Polish and Hancock were accomplices on a moral level. The question is now can this be converted to a legal cause of action? So We're going to be diving into that with Mr Ortiz, who is again President of Job Creators Network, and then after we have that conversation, I want to get back to this very serious allegation that's been made. We'll get back to the Tae Andersen story, But let me go first to the V A T line. Okay. Thank you. Shannon. For that heads up, Elaine, now welcome to the Dan Caplis show. Hey, Dan, How are you? I am great, Thank you and apologize that I don't have a proper introduction in place. I had intended to talk to Mr Ortiz. But we're grateful to have you with us. So let's just start with your role in job Creators Network and then we'll dive into the lawsuit. Sure, I'm the chief communications officer for the job Creators Network and we're in national small business advocacy organization. So we fight for what I what we call Main Street small businesses, and that's exactly what we're doing in this lawsuit. Yeah, and I have talked with our audience before And I think there is widespread agreement that on a moral level, the thistles, the theft, the taking of the All Star game from the good people of Atlanta. Bringing it to Colorado on the false pretense of this Georgia voting rights law. Timmy on a moral level is a theft. But how do you convert that into a viable legal claim against MLB? Yeah, So, so we're obviously we think it's sad that it's come down to this that we've had to file this lawsuit. We certainly tried to have for the last two months conversation. With Commissioner Man Fred. We sent letters to him. We took out full page ads in The New York Times. We put a billboard in Times Square right near his office building on D simply there was no response from Major League baseball. And so we're filing this lawsuit and and now he has no choice, but it's not only listen to us, but he's going to have to be accountable to the businesses of Atlanta because they've been damaged by this decision. On them. We're suing the Major League Baseball and the Players association to right this wrong and demand that they immediately bring the game back to Atlanta or establish a relief fund for all small businesses that been hurt in the amount of $100 million, which is the estimated amount of lost economic activity as a result of this egregious decision. Oh, yeah, And it certainly was that I mean, it was wrong again, I think on every moral level in terms of the legal claim itself from having read the lawsuit that was filed It appears that job creators network is claiming, and it's very intriguing to me. I haven't researched it independently, but claiming that Major league Baseball in the individual teams are state actors because they receive state Financial support and therefore suing them under federal civil rights and similar claims the same way that somebody might sue, for example, law enforcement and so it's. It's a very interesting legal theory, and I'm anxious to see how it plays out. Yeah, I mean, unfortunately, Commissioner Manfred believes that he knows better than the elected officials of Georgia about what the laws in Georgia should be. He didn't like the voter Integrity Act that Georgia legally past when we find in the law by the governor governor, So he decided to punish the Georgia in Georgia business owners by moving the All Star Game out of Atlanta to Denver and this decision much like what you said, basically violated the constitutional rights of Job Creators network and its members in Georgia but also every citizen in the state of Georgia. And unlike private businesses, Hugh mentioned since MLB received billions of dollars from state and local governments. It does make them a state actor, and so they don't have the right to dictate what laws should be in any state. They don't ever right. You know, just like, for instance, the National Park Ranger doesn't have the right to decide who comes into the park, based on their skin color and will be can't decide that they don't want to play the game because they don't like the politics of the state. Yeah, they don't have that. Right. Gonna be fascinating to see how the court rules on this state actor issue. I mean, I get your point. They take all of this public money and and so it'll be interesting to see it. Play out. Do you have a timetable in mind? When when you expect the court tacked on this Well, we've just found the lawsuit last night. So obviously it's making its way through and and there's a process for that as well, Um, you know, but we're continuing to fight on. We'll continue to carry this message. We've been out there, you know, in the media talking about this for the last two months, um, you know, trying to get a smudge supported possible when we continue to have people. Extremely supportive on both sides of the aisle. I mean, the reality is 85% of Americans support voter I d laws on And so, you know, Commissioner Manfred Wade into politics, which you know there's there's no way to understand what was going through his mind when he decided this is a great thing to do for America's favorite sport. Baseball. Let's make it political when all they were simply asking, you know, Essentially they were expanding the voter laws. The voter opportunities is what the Washington Post found. But they did require voter ID. And there's nothing wrong with that. Because you know why Major League Baseball requires ideas. When you go to the box office to get your ticket across the entire country, Every single franchise requires you to have an I D to get your tickets and the reason why says they want to make sure that the right person is picking up the tickets. No, that That's right. The only type of voting they're trying to limit is illegal voting. And so let me end with this question. If I may, and that is, you know we have brainstormed done air here with our wonderful listeners across the state has some type of peaceful, legal creative actions surrounding the All Star game just to try to let the rest of the country know that. Hey, it's not like all of Colorado is good with this. We see it for what it is. It's It's wrong and a moral level. It's a theft. So it is job creators Network. Where have you heard of anybody else? Who's planning any kind of creative, peaceful public actions surrounding our All Star game here? You know, I'm not aware of any of the activities in Colorado. I mean, I think if if we prevail because the reality is and I'll be moved this game in four days, we believe they can move it back just as expeditiously because the city of Atlanta the businesses of Atlanta, they spent the last 21 months Preparing for this game, so they're probably more ready than Denver is, believe it or not, But MLB is it will be to blame for any losses to Denver. You know they violated the civil rights. On Separate apart from the lawsuit issue. I think just on the right and wrong level, Colorado should not have accepted the game, and there's no doubt in my mind that let's say this was happening because of some political issue raised by the right. There's no way in the world, Jared Polish and Michael Hancock would be accepting the game. It's a purely political play by them. And and I think that's very sad, but I am doing my very small part. It's gonna break my heart. But I will not be at the game. We're season ticket holders, so we we would have tickets, but but I myself am not going to go so That means nothing to anybody except me. But I thought I'd virtue signal and get it out there. But, hey, appreciate all you're doing appreciate your time on the show today, and we'll see where the court goes. Thanks for having me. Thanks, Elaine. You take care. By that selling Parker, President, Job Creators Network Foundation chief communications officer at the job Creators network. So if you have thoughts and that I'd still love to brainstorm, you know Possible creative type of actions surrounding the game. It's Zob Vesely..