Former state lawmaker and French Quarter resident Garey Forster comments on the recent incident on Bourbon Street. Financial advisor Fred Dent gives a review of the 2024 markets and also what's to come in 2025 with Trump as president. Louisiana Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell talks various topics including the Bourbon Street tragedy and the passing of the 39th president, Jimmy Carter.
Talk Louisiana
Garey Forster, Fred Dent, Foster Campbell
(upbeat music) - This is Jim Inkster, and thank you for joining us for Talk Louisiana, originating from the Investart Tower in Baton Rouge. Happy New Year to you, and New Orleans, it's anything but happy. About six hours ago, just after three o'clock this morning, a terrible tragedy at Bourbon and Canal, a driver went down the street, plowed into a large crowd, and now 10 people are dead, and many others injured. The report now is that 35, at least 35 people, are injured, 26 hospitalized, and he were celebrating New Year's Eve on Bourbon Street, which of course is famous for its nightlife, and crowds had gathered to attend an open-air concert, and New Year's Countdown with restaurants offering special deals, and witnesses described the revelry turning into horror, saying they heard yelling and screaming before people went into lockdown. The suspect is reported to be dead by federal authorities, and we don't know all the particulars, but the chief of police described this as a terrorist act. Federal officials are wary of using that term, but it is a horrible tragedy, and of course New Orleans is trying to put its best foot forward. The Sugar Bowl is tonight, it will be played as scheduled, at least for now, that's the plan, Georgia and Notre Dame in a major game, and the Super Bowl is a month away, and Mardi Gras is March 4th, so New Orleans, which is the crown jewel of Louisiana, is facing mass carnage on the first day of 2025. Your number, if you'd like to chime in, is 877-2175757, e-mails to talk, at talkloisiana.org, and we're joined now for a few moments by Gary Forster, the former state lawmaker from New Orleans, and former labor and workforce development secretary, under Mike Foster, and he calls the French Quarter home, and good morning to you, Gary Forster. - Good morning, Jim, happy new year, and I much prefer to talk to you about politics than murdering mayhem, but I hope this is not a sign of what 2025 is gonna be like. - Yeah, and Governor Landry has received plaudits for curbing crime in New Orleans. Today, there is actually an editorial in the advocate and the picayune, which points to major gains in New Orleans in 2024, but what a horrible way to start 2025, and I guess the questions will ensue about whether this could have been averted, I don't know, but it is a terrible stain on New Orleans, and places like the French Quarter are sometimes targeted, and you live there, do you feel unsafe at all? - Well, I live at the other end, I live at what we used to call the residential end, that's really the commercial end, and Jim, let me tell you, that first block of bourbon has been notorious for as long as I can remember, with murders and shootings, particularly during the bioclastic, like every year, there's at least one or two people's shot. It's a terrible place, a lot of drug deals go down in that first block, I would recommend to you and your listeners that you avoid at all costs, the first block of bourbon street, 'cause there's nothing good going on there, unless you're going into Ralph Brennan's redfish grill, or Dickie Brennan's bourbon house, but you shouldn't be hanging around outside. Now, the police chief said that she had 300 police officers on duty in the area, and that they tried to stop the pickup truck from going down bourbon street, 'cause it was blockaded, but for whatever reason and however, and I want you to know, Jim, I was home with sleep at 350 in the morning, I was not cutting up on bourbon street. Some way, somehow, this guy got through, shot a couple of police officers who are recovering from it, and I don't understand how this happened, but it's not like this is an unexpected event. It's, you know, we have, as you said, The Sugar Bowl Tonight, which is a quarter-final game. We're among many other cities bidding on the championship game and future Super Bowls, and for this mayor to allow this kind of tragedy to happen at this time of year is I just don't understand it. It's not like there isn't a history of these events happening in this location, there is. - All right, well, there are reports that the bollards which are in place on bourbon street were not used, and if they had been, it would be impossible to get a truck through there. Obviously, they weren't in place at bourbon and canal, and that has to be a question that will be posed to law enforcement authorities, because, as you say, this is an area that could be targeted and appears it was. - Well, and the thing that I read this morning in trying to prepare for your call is that the Fed's are in charge now, and look, the police chief said, this was not a DUI incident. This was an intentional terrorist act, or at least the FBI is declaring it that, but by the FBI being in charge and taking over, it gets it out of the hands of our George Soros elected DA. So now the Fed are in charge, they have unlimited resources, and hopefully they'll get to the bottom of it, and questions like, how the heck can somebody on New Year's Eve actually at this point, New Year's Day gets on to Bourbon Street in a pickup truck, shouldn't happen. - No, it shouldn't, but we live in a free society, and these things will happen, and the guy could have been on foot with a gun, and he could have killed a lot of people just that way, but it wasn't a vehicle involved, and you wonder what is going through the mind of somebody like that, because they have to know that the odds of them coming out of this alive are not good, and it appears this man was killed, but New Orleans is such a beautiful city, and you've chosen to live your whole life there, and now in what would be called retirement, but Gary Forster doesn't retire, you're living in the French Quarter, on the other side you say, but you know, when you walk around it, you realize how compact it really is. It seems-- - It's 10 by 14. It's 10 blocks by 14 blocks. It's an easy walk, not necessarily a safe walk, depending on when and where you do it, but it's a very walkable enjoy. That's why I live here. It was the place that I enjoyed most of my life, because on foot you can pretty much do anything you want, and not have to, you know, use a car or an Uber or whatever. You can get there and get home as easy as anything. - Well, when did you find out about it? Could you hear mayhem, or did you not know? - No, no, one of the news feeds, I think it was WDSU, Channel 6, was the first news thing that popped up on my phone early this morning, and actually it was one of my daughters. They contacted me early this morning to make sure I was home and safe, and asking that very question, did any of it get down to Esplanade, 'cause I live on Esplanade and not the Canal Street end? - We're gonna let Gary Forster go in just a moment. He had a tough day as I guess anybody in Louisiana does, as I mentioned, as New Orleans goes, so goes the rest of the state. We can't ignore what is the crown jewel, and this is a mark that will endure for a while, and tonight the game will be totally overshadowed. It's reminiscent of when Ronald Reagan was shot in Washington, D.C., March 30, 1981. The final four was in full bloom. The championship game tipped off at 11 p.m. Eastern time, because they couldn't decide whether to play or not, but I suspect they will play in the Superdome tonight, and security will be very tight for Georgia in Notre Dame. - David in Atlanta's calling in, I know David grew up in the French Quarter. David, good morning to you, sir. - Good morning. Mr. Forster, how do you base your statement at the mayor allotted to happen? You've been nothing but a cheap-- - All right, okay, okay. Let's not take shots at people, but it is a valid question. How much can a mayor do to avert something like this? - Well, as I repeat to you and to your caller, this is not the first time we have had murders on Bourbon and Iberville. It's probably the 20th time. It doesn't take a genius to realize that with huge crowds in for the sugar bowl, that you need to have protection on Bourbon Street. And evidently, 300 police officers is not enough because they pick up truck, got down Bourbon Street at three o'clock in the morning. That should not be allowed to happen. - Well, Gary Forster, it's a sad day, but I know you are symbolic of New Orleans, a city that doesn't quit, and I'm sure the city will fight on, but I certainly send my condolences to those who were injured, those who were killed, family members, friends, and people who love New Orleans like you. Thank you for joining us today. - Thank you, Jim. - We'll be back after this. This is Jim Inster. Thank you for joining us for Talk Louisiana, your number is 877-217-5757. Robin Dow is producing and happy new year to you and some listeners who just woke up, who've already sent me text messages. And I'm reading my email and they are just learning of the tragedy in New Orleans with 10 people dead, a man in a white truck, drove right down Bourbon Street, Bourbon and Canal, and mayhem ensued and 35 others are injured, and of course, some of them have life-threatening injuries. So it is a terrible day for New Orleans and it is anything but a happy new year. And all this happened just six hours ago and we will continue to follow it. And as they say, this story has legs. It's not a one day story. And Fred Den is here. As he is every month, then obviously this is a case in which all other news has been submerged, but we do have a new president taking office in 19 days in Donald John Trump. And the new president is one of the most familiar people. He is the most familiar person on the planet. And markets have already been affected by his election. If you had Tesla, it went way, way, way up. Almost doubled in a month after Donald Trump's election. It's come back to the pack, but it's still way ahead of where it was. And the New York Times puts it this way. Investors are heading into 2025 in an optimistic mood, believing that with the economy on a firm footing and the White House in their corner, the stock market will continue to climb. That wasn't the case at the start of 2024 when the most bullish analyst underestimated the strength of the market, even after slipping for the final four trading days of the year down 0.4% on Tuesday. The S&P 500 rose 23.3% last year, matching its gain of 2023. It's the first time the benchmark has risen by more than 20%. In consecutive years since Bill Clinton was in the White House in 1997 and '98. Can the rally continue? Red Dent, how does it look? - Well, who knows? Happy New Year. And I think with the sad debacle that occurred in New Orleans this morning, we see that life is really unpredictable. Anything can happen at any time and it's fragile. And this could be for the souls that were affected this morning, our last day on Earth. And so we never know. So we should live life as if it's going to end at any moment. And that means to live with joy and optimism and connection with others. So given to this idea of predicting the market, as you mentioned, the analysts to, the most bullish analysts underrated the market. Analyst predictions are usually wrong. Nobody can consistently forecast the market. You will see the big banks and brokerage firms every year come out with predictions of what the market is going to do. They really have no idea. They're usually wrong, but they must do it because the clients expect it. And so there's a drive to keep doing that. A friend of mine sent me a picture this morning, a happy New Year picture. And it was a photo of a tiger at rest and someone sneaking up behind the tiger about to pinch its tail. And I think as we go into 2025, it's one of those things. We're going to have probably a more volatile year this coming year. That sounds like a prediction, but volatility has been really low lately. And it's typically followed by periods of higher volatility, especially with the new administration coming in and all of the executive orders expected to come down. 877-217-5757. And I'm getting a question, well, what is the prediction? And the New York Times preview of 2025 on its front business page today says analysts are forecasting the S&P will rise around 10%. They're most likely going to be wrong. It can go either way. And 10% would be paltry compared to the last two years under the much maligned Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. I would take 10% if you were a guaranteed kind of return, of course, but nobody knows. After the spectacular year that we had this past year with the S&P rising, 24%. The Dow up, Bitcoin doubled, gold up, 27%. The one flat spot was in bonds. Bonds did not have a good year. But one of the things that we can't predict, for example, what do you think was the best performing stock of 2024? Major stock, I would say Tesla. Tesla, maybe Nvidia? Nvidia early in the year, yeah. Yeah, Nvidia, the chip maker, ended up 171% for the year. 171. Yes, however, there are the top five performing stocks last year. I bet you don't know any of these companies. Gene Dx, Rigetti Computer, Sazzle Incorporated, Dave Incorporated, and Soundhound, all of the stocks were up over 1,000%. And there's no way to predict that. And it's the old axiom, Milo and Sell High. And usually people, like a lot of people, I'm sure, got real juiced up by Tesla. And if you bought it two months ago, you're in great shape. But if you bought it two weeks ago, you're behind. But your strategy-- and I think it's consistent with most people in your line of work-- is you don't follow the trend lines as much as you're in for the long haul. What I like to say with Jim is to use a religious metaphor. We're agnostic always about the short term. But we have a fervor over the long term. Now, a listener just sent me something about Lumen Technologies, which, by the way, is one of the two Fortune 500 companies in Louisiana, saying that a year ago-- and I think this is right, I need to look at the symbol, l-u-m-n. But it's at 5 and 1/2 now, 531. And it was under $1, according to our listener in Howlin Monroe last year, 2023. So that would be a major-- That's a nice hit. Yeah, yeah. But that was a company that looked like it was going down. And now it's moving up. But if you calculate it right, you can really do well if you get a stock that's ready to rebound. And especially when you're talking about low price stocks, it doesn't take a lot for them to have hyper-centred gains if they move. So a stock that's priced at a dollar that goes to $5 is a huge rise. But again, that stock underperformed the top five performing stocks, which nobody I would hazard in our listening audience has ever heard of. Well, Louisiana stocks sometimes move in their own direction like the Louisiana people. And there are those who believe that you don't root for the home team. You just got to put passion aside because some of the stocks, for example, another listener notes, whatever happened to Picadilly, not much. It's stock went way, way, way, just went away, right? I haven't followed Picadilly in years. I see that they're still open. But at one time, yeah, they're still open. They're still open. Still get a balanced meal there for under $20. You can't do that in most places. It used to be $5. I know, I know. But Lumen Technologies, I'm just looking at the trend. Over the past 10 years is down 33%. But over the last year, it's up. Now, it's come back to the Paxum. But it did well if you bought it really low. But most people, they're not going to buy a stock if it looks like it's going down. Like waiters, another one that was good Louisiana stock and went way, way, way up in the COVID tragedy. But then it went way, way, way down when things got back to normal. Yeah, there was also this NFT, the non-fungible token called, I believe it was Game Coin, that a local person started that would sell-- or you could make bets on the feature of name and image and likeness NIL with sports stars. And that minted a lot of millionaires in this area. Now, it's zilch. Well, here's a good question. And it's from David in Atlanta. And David, I must say, this is a much better question than the only way to ask Gary Forrester. But he says as far as Tesla, do the markers really indicate that that stock's worth as much as it is? It's, of course, some britches-- My sense is that Tesla has done well because its CEO has been camping at the doorstep of Mar-a-Lago. And so perhaps some kind of favor will come along to return the divorce. Until the divorce. And it seems like there is some bickering going on at this point, so we'll see how that unfolds. Well, yeah, you got to wonder how long those two can stay together, but Elon Musk pumped $277 million into Trump's campaign. And the guy's worth half a trillion almost. Yeah, so it's just a flesh wound. Yeah, it's like me pulling out a-- I think a penny, a penny from my pocket on a scale would be worth more than the $2.77 million that Elon Musk spent of his own money to help Donald John Trump return to the White House. We'll sit in a few more minutes with Fred Columbus then after this time out on "Talk Louisiana." This is Jim Inkster. You're listening to "Talk Louisiana." On New Year's Day, live show 877-217-5757. A terrible tragic morning in New Orleans and shows you how life can change in the blink of an eye. That's still only about six hours and 18 minutes ago that this happened, but 10 or dead and many others injured two police officers wounded. And the assailant, the suspect, is reported to be dead as well. We'll talk about many matters with Foster Campbell, the venerable public service commissioner who's on deck, but we're wrapping it up with Fred Dent, financial analyst. And we're about to have a new person in charge in Washington. The most familiar face on the planet in Donald Trump. 19 days from now, he takes office. And Fred, many are saying that he will shake things up. And supposedly he's a darling of Wall Street, but Wall Street generally doesn't like tariffs. And that's what Trump is saying he'll do. What do you think will happen? He's got the capacity as president to do all kinds of things. It could affect the market both positively and adversely. Yeah, it remains to be seen. I think it will create volatility and distortions because the markets will have to quickly digest all of these moves. And sometimes what can be seen as a positive can quickly turn into a negative and vice versa. So indeed we have tariffs on that, but certainly tariffs will become the negotiating cudgel after the inauguration. We'll see how markets respond. Immigration, we'll see how draconian the immigration response is, taxes, and reduced regulations. So there are a whole lot of cross current hurricane force winds that'll be coming into play. Well, we thank you for your insights. And Fred Columbus-Dent will be back next month. He has a new book out, by the way. So we'll hear more about that come February. But thanks for joining us on New Year's Day. Thank you, sir. We're joined now by Foster Campbell. He's been in public life now since January of 1976. That's 49 years as of now. And he has seen many tragedies through the years as a public service commissioner since 2002. And a state lawmaker since being elected in 1975. And we're going to talk with him about many matters today. But the reason he primarily was booked for today was to talk about one Jimmy Carter who he admired immensely. But before we get there, Foster Campbell, I know you're a son of North Louisiana. But New Orleans is a place that we cannot ignore. And there is a terrible tragedy today with a mass killing, 10 people dead in the French Quarter, with the sugar bowl to be played tonight. And Governor Landry has received, I think, justified plaudits for curbing crime in the quarter. But what an awful way to start 2025. Yeah, I've been watching on television this morning. Unbelievable, certain you can't say anything, but you hate it. It's a terrible tragedy if people lost their lives. It's not good for New Orleans. It scares people to death to go to in the French Quarter. I've been there many times. And I know how crowded it is. I've been to Margaret when you couldn't walk. Can't believe that somebody thought about doing the terrible thing they did with a car or a truck or whatever, unbelievable. I certainly hope they find out who did it and what the reasons for them. And they're punished, so it's a tragedy. The federal authorities say the person who did it is no longer with us, but it would be nice to find out what consumes somebody to do something like this. Because there's no percentage of anything good happening to anybody, including the person who does it. But we live in a fractured society and mental illness and other matters. But the accessibility to guns, and in this case, Gary Forster was on before you, and the accessibility to just driving down Bourbon Street at 3 o'clock in the morning on perhaps the busiest day of the year, one of the two or three busiest. That is a question, I think, that Gary Forster was correct, that local authorities will have to answer, how could this have happened? But you don't expect it. People are having a good time. And as you say, the French Quarter is a wonderful place. You learn a lot about humanity, and most of it is good. But this is not good. And it's the worst thing that could happen. And New Orleans, with all these major events, including the Super Bowl in just a few weeks, and Mardi Gras, which comes early this year, this is the last thing New Orleans needed. In North Louisiana, there's this impression that people there just don't care about New Orleans. But I don't think that's the case, Foster Campbell. Now, I love New Orleans. It's a show place for the United States. There are people, when they come to the United States, I say there are three places I want to see. One of them is New York. The next one, it's New Orleans. They always like to go there, or Chicago. So New Orleans is a great city. And the people losing and love New Orleans. They have crime there, like a lot of other cities have. I'm proud of New Orleans. And I'm glad we've got it. It's done a lot of great things for Louisiana. We have the Superdome. It never would have happened if it wouldn't have been from the Tiffany and the people in New Orleans. It's drawed thousands of people there. It's been a great economic benefit for just like it is today. But this is a tragedy. And I hate that it happened in New Orleans. They don't need any more bad news. We're looking for good news. But hopefully whoever did this will be punished, and they'll find out who did it. Well, I think we know who did it. But you can't bring those people back. But we did want to hit you with a few other topics. And the reason why we called was that Jimmy Carter, the peanut farmer, who won the presidency in the wake of Watergate in Envy, Vietnam. And endured one defeat after the other in his only term in the White House and was unable to carry but six states in his re-election quest in 1980 against Ronald Reagan. But then was recognized as perhaps the greatest global humanitarian of all time. And mind you, it's been almost 45 years since he left office, 44 years. He died Sunday 100, the oldest living president or vice president in our country's history. And his wife made it to '96. She died 13 months before Jimmy Carter, Rosalind Carter. But Jimmy Carter was, I think, a great man. The jury is out on how good of a president or not he was. But he was a great man. And Foster Campbell, I know you had immense admiration for him. I certainly did. What I liked about Jimmy Carter the most-- and a lot of politicians don't have as humility. He was very humble, fellow. And there's no question in my mind. And he worried about the people and tried to take care of the people rather than helping himself. When he got defeated, he came back to Georgia. He didn't hear him whining and making excuses. He just got beat, and he took it. And he went to work on humanitarian projects to build houses for people that didn't have houses. He cured diseases in Africa. He went over there and got medicine for people with that-- I forgot what the name of the worm is. At that time, they had thousands of cases of these parasites in people's bodies. And I understand the other day that 2022 and '23, there was 12 cases. Yeah, it's like any worm. Any worm brought 12 cases there. They had three and a half million cases at one time. Three and a half million. And it was down to 12, two years ago. That's incredible. We're going to do that. And he did everything he could do to bring peace to people. He tried to go everywhere and talk about peace. One thing he certainly did was it was near and near them. This is nothing spectacular, but it shows you. It was a great sportsman too. It was David Quailhammer in Georgia. Georgia was a lot of Quailhammer's over there. And Jimmy Carter was-- they say he was a crack shot. He shot a 410, which is the smallest bore shotgun there is. And he was a crack shot. But anyway, that was just on his sporting side. He promoted good health. Certainly exercise ran all the time. You see him. He was always happy. I remember he fainted when he was president, though. He had a lot of bad breaks when he was president. But he said an example of humanity for, I think, all of us to follow. But he was a tough politician. He's a one-term governor of Georgia. But as you know, and I, he like John McKithin, he campaigned as a segregationist. And then he turned out to be anything but a segregationist. But some friends of mine who are in the political consulting world, they say, look, if you don't win, you can't do anything to help people. But how much do you have to bend when you're campaigning to get to where you want to go? Well, as much as you're willing to do, I guess, there are certain things that you shouldn't do. You should draw on certain things that you just won't do. And I think Carter was like that. I think Carter could have-- there were some things that he could have done to make things politically. He would have probably been better, but he didn't do it. What I liked about him most is that when he got beat, he took it. He didn't-- of course, he got overwhelmingly defeated. But he didn't blame it on anybody else. He didn't blame it on the country. He didn't blame me, so he didn't blame that. He took it like a man, and he went home. Now, one thing you don't see much, or I haven't seen, is that when politicians defeated, usually he's pretty much over with. That's just the option of Jimmy Carter. When he got defeated, he went to work helping poor people, and he was awarded the Nobel Prize after he was defeated. Correct. 877-217-5757, Foster Campbell's with us for another segment when we return. [MUSIC PLAYING] This is Jim Inkster. You're listening to talk. Louisiana, Foster Campbell is on deck, and it is New Year's Day, and this is a live show. If you'd like to get in under the wire 877-217-5757, and another reason we dialed Foster Campbell today-- and of course, this was done well before the incident in New Orleans just after 3 o'clock this morning, in which 10 people were killed, and a mass killing, involving a man in a white truck, and a guy who opened fire and wounded two police officers well before he apparently was shot down himself. He is reported to be dead. 35 people reported to be injured or wounded as a result of the carnage at Canal and Bourbon Street about six and a half hours ago. 877-217-5757, but Foster Campbell, today, January 1, is a good day for prisoners who want to call their loved ones on a holiday, and this is something you've been fighting for for years. And it is an amazing turn about what happened. Well, you're right. For years and years and years, prisoners, let me just say this. I'm not trying to get anybody out of jail. I'm just trying to get them to be able to communicate with their loved ones on the outside. By the way, who paid for the telephone calls? A lot of prisoners in Louisiana were paying extremely high rates to use the telephone, and it has been reduced by the Congress. They reduced the rate from 30 cents, 30 something since I don't know, 32 or 3 cents, down to 6 cents a minute. This will help a lot of people talk to people on the other loved ones, the mothers and the children and whatever on the outside. And this is a good thing because it has been abused, abused, abused. And I've been trying to do something about it. I never could get it done because the sheriff's in Louisiana makes a lot of money out of this. They charge, they get a big fee out of these jailhouse phone calls. And they make a lot of money, and they didn't want it done. They want it rent the loan. So I was pretty much by myself with the exception of a few more people helping me on the commission. Jimmy Fields always helped. He helped me and required to, but it was real hard to do because the sheriff's in Louisiana got a lot of money out of jailhouse phones. And it was sort of kept a secret for a long time. Nobody knew about it. And they loved it very heavily to keep some money. And I can just understand that they wanted the money. But it's 6 cents now, which-- It's 6 cents today all across America, which is going to help a lot of people communicate with their families. Somebody's in jail having mental problems, which a lot of them do. They can call their folks and see if they can get them medicine or see if they can help them. It was a humanitarian thing to do. And I'm glad it's happened. It's been a long time coming. But it just shows you if you work hard on something, and it'll catch on. It's caught on in the United States. And it's a good thing. When you led the pack and congratulations, we do have some people waiting to talk. And I suspect some will want to talk about what happened in New Orleans. But Foster Campbell's always conversed on anything that comes his way. Please be brief in your remarks, though. Ian and Henderson, Louisiana. Good morning. You're on talk, Louisiana. Good morning, sir. On the front of the involving street, the doctor in Germany got access through the emergency access for fire trucks and ambulances that you need in a pedestrian area. And I would imagine this may be why the fellow with the pickup truck was able to kill all those people, because you have to be able to get in there with a fire truck or ambulance, should an emergency arise out with any knucklehead in a pickup truck. All right. Thank you, Ian. Byron and South Baton Rouge. Byron, you're on talk, Louisiana. Good morning, sir. Hi, Byron. From here with the sales tax going up, it was already the highest in the nation. It's gone up even more starting today. Instead of doing that, why didn't we, like with the Foster Campbell thing, about legalizing marijuana? All right. Well, the sales tax goes up that, well, it was 0.45. It's now half-cent. It went up a little bit, and that's designed, of course, to pay the bills. But legalizing marijuana would probably raise a lot of money. I don't know if that's something you're advocating, Foster Campbell. You have another plan that would raise even more money. But lawmakers have not been receptive to it, especially of late. Tell us what's going through as far as what you would do if you were Governor Campbell. Well, I could-- if I could get the legislature to go along and get rid of eating all the big steaks at Chris's State House and wine and dine, I would pass the tax on offshore oil, that Dave Creen was for, Mr. Dundee, I suppose, for just on television long ago. We have all this oil production on offshore. We don't get one penny out of it when it comes on shore. But if you drill them well, you know, Louisiana, they pay a tax. So I would tax on Chevron, Shell, Mobile, all those big companies that are renting millions of dollars offshore in Louisiana and bringing it on shore. And I would get some money from that. I would tax them and pay for schools and clean up the environment and lots of great things that you could do. But you have to have people that are independent from big oil companies, and that's the problem in Louisiana, the big oil companies that run our state forever and ever and ever. And they don't want to pay it, so it never gets done. I will say the only governor I was served with, and the only one that had the courage to take on the oil companies, was Dave Creen. He wanted to do it, but they beat Dave Creen because he-- I just think he turned on the oil companies, I would like to say, because he realized that cleaning up the coast and taxing oil companies was the right thing to do. And I didn't always agree with Dave Creen, but he was certainly right about this. And I might say, about all the governments I served with, Dave Creen was by far the most honest governor we've ever had. The different parties, but from a personality perspective and humanitarian perspective, I would say there's some apt comparisons between Creen and former president Jimmy Carter. Chuck and Spillman. Chuck, good morning. You're on Talk Louisiana. Good morning, Chuck. Good morning, Jim. Good morning to my hero, Foster Campbell. Prayer for everybody in New Orleans, and I just wanted to tell you two fine, distinguished individuals. Happy New Year. That's all I got. All right. Well, thank you. It's always good to get a pat on the back, and Happy New Year to you, Chuck, in Spillman. Foster Campbell knows all these towns. He knows where every speed trap is, too. I wish I had been riding with him yesterday. Phil and Jefferson Terrace, Phil, good morning, you're on Talk Louisiana with Foster Campbell. Good morning, gentlemen. I think we have to realize that this is a policy, that the people who have the power to do something about the AR-15 and all the guns that are awash in our society are not ever going to do anything about it, because it's a policy. All right. Well, Foster Campbell is pro-gun, as John Bell Edwards is, but I have talked with both of them, and I think on this one, they believe that we need to get these really powerful weapons of war off the streets, and I don't know that that's what this man was using in New Orleans. He primarily was using a truck, but, and by the way, vehicles can be just as deadly, but Foster Campbell, we do have, usually these mass shootings do involve high-powered weaponry that these weapons were made to kill people in a war, not on the streets. That's right, I'm a hunter, and I have a lot of shotguns, but I don't have any AR-15s, and I think those guns shouldn't be allowed on the street that you can shoot 30 times in a matter of few seconds, and, like you said, they use a lot of mass shootings. You know, if you're beer hunting or duck hunting, you're going to shoot three times or four times, that's one thing, but if you have a gun that's in shooting 30 or 40 or 50 times in a matter of few seconds, I don't know that you need that, but anyway, we have them, and anyway, people love them, and they have strong opinions about it. Well, and if you're a law-abiding citizen, I can understand why you think it's OK, because you're not going to do it, but people do things that you and I wouldn't do, and that's evident, and if you have access to one of these weapons, you can take out a lot of people in a short period of time, and unfortunately, it's happened in schools with little kids, and Donald Trump was hit with an assault weapon, as was Steve Scalise, and if that bullet had been another inch in the other direction, the carnage would have been so bad because of the type of weapon, Foster Campbell, that I doubt that we would even be seeing it anywhere, because it would be too hard to watch to see somebody who we kind of know, and Donald Trump, go out that way, but that's the way it is. Yeah, that's true, and like I say, I guess I'm different from a lot of politicians, but I don't believe in assault weapons. I think they have to take them off the street. Well, Foster Campbell, happy new year, an early happy birthday, and I hope we talk often in 2025. I'm sorry today has started out with a bang in the wrong direction, with New Orleans now mourning the passing of at least 10 people. Thank you, Mr. Commissioner and Senator Foster Campbell, great citizen, thank you. Back tomorrow, same time, same place. (upbeat music)