FM Talk 1065 Podcasts
State Senator Chris Elliott - Jeff Poor Show- Friday 7-26-24
Let's take it on to have some muscle shells through the potatoes. Mmm, burning half. Ooh, my gosh. Right above the Spanish floor into Mobile, my home town, Mr. Team. Welcome back to the Japore Show of the Talk with 065. You're just thinking with us on this Friday, what's led to this Friday morning, soon to be Friday afternoon. Joining us now on the line, he is our returning champion. We talked to him about this time every week. State Senator Chris Elliott, Senator Elliott, good morning, how are you? I am doing great coming to you from a Starlink Wi-Fi connection, so we'll see how it goes. Oh, we are really testing the waters here, aren't we? I'm in color. It's not only coming across a cell tower somewhere, but it's also being zapped into space and right into the, well, it is kind of a very circuitous route, especially considering I am at the Farrow Bureau this morning, but anyway, let's kick it off here. So I know we spent last week talking national politics, I just want to start with that real quick. The chaos was supposed to be over when Joe Biden was elected in 2020 and 2021 was going to dawn a new age of just, we were all going to be like, spared from the rigmarole of the tweeting Donald Trump and his chaos. I don't remember a more chaotic time than these last month or so of politics in American history, at least in my lifetime, maybe the Civil War, I don't know. No question. I mean, you know, you have to wonder if they should just go ahead and move the Democratic National Convention back to Chicago and go through that again, and you know, maybe they can, maybe they can top it this time around, but it's, it's off the hook. I mean, it's just like, it's just really happening, and I've had a couple of people reach out to me and say, boy, we're really given the civics teachers of, you know, a lot to talk about here, because, you know, you have these folks running around one side of the aisle talking about democracy and how they're defending democracy and then disenfranchising all of their voters that have voted for one person to do a switcheroo right in the middle of everything. I just don't know how the American people can get behind a party that can't get their, you know, their stuff together. It's just things that are demonstrably untrue, then it gets that they're untrue, then backs up from them and then goes through a whole 'nother, you know, trying to rebrand and, you know, if this is, this is much, I'm ready to get President Trump back in office and have some adult trying to think. Well, and here's the, how effective do you think all this is that they're doing? Because I was telling Todd Stacey this earlier, like the before Sunday, before Joe Biden announced he was stepping aside for the first time in a while, probably since Trump won in '16, it felt like Republicans kind of had our conservatives, I should say, had a little bit of wind in their sails. It was Democrats on defense. They were having to defend a, and they were split, they were divided on what Joe Biden ought to do. It was just, it was kind of amusing to watch and didn't like a, just as soon as she is the presumptive nominee, a, there was like the American media, mainstream media, the, the switch lit up and then, I mean, they just went full on. I mean, even like a very bland, typically bland, a wire copy from the Associated Press become flowery about Vice President Harris and, and, and just like, but, but I'm looking at it. And here it is. It's 2024. I know we're like kind of segregated, aware at our own sides, we get our media from our sources on each side. I, I just wonder this like sort of full court press in America right now, does it really matter? Does it, how meaningful is it to the whole presidential election process? It's a good point. I don't know that it, that it matters a whole lot because I think the folks that are Trump voters or Trump voters and I think the folks that are, you know, are not Trump voters are going to vote for anybody else. There's a little bit in the middle there, certainly, and I am amazed at the mainstream media and it, and it, it amazes me that I'm still, I guess, naive enough to be surprised that, that they are handling this in the way that they are, but they're falling over themselves to talk about a woman whose record is just so flawed that, uh, that she finished it, you know, distant, distant, distant in the Democratic primary for president just four years ago. And so you have to wonder how all of a sudden has this all, all changed. I mean, she certainly hasn't done anything, uh, good while she's been in office, uh, as vice president, as a matter of fact, she's piling on more bad. The only thing she's done is, is take the Democratic party and hand her to its base, which, uh, Joe Biden had lost, right? Joe Biden's an old, uh, you know, fairly centrist white guy and, and so, you know, he, he's not, you know, he, that's his background is fairly centrist. Now certainly they tried to push him farther and farther to the left, uh, in order to get elected and certainly while he was president, but, you know, he wasn't the champion of, of Palestinian transsexuals, you know, and then all of a sudden, um, you know, here she is and she's this multicultural, you know, Palestinian, uh, you know, love and, you know, LGBTQ, you know, crummy borders are, and, and you got to wonder what, what in the world does that say to centrist Americans who are looking for, you know, somebody to just get the economy back on track and stop, you know, stop pandering to the extreme left? Yeah, I, I don't know what the country wants right now. I mean, we're told, well, young voters really want all that sort of low progressivism and anything, it's time for a change. I'm not, I don't think they care enough, Madden 25 is out or not bad, but college football, 25 is out and they care more about that, but we're supposed to pretend like that's, that's the key to election success. I, but I, I just, I don't know if it, what it used to be like what, like sick of caucus or, uh, but governor even, uh, these, these far left figures, Howard Dean, they never really caught on. I think she's in that category of out of, you know, I'll just, just enough outside the mainstream where people will be like, I don't think so, but it's, it's 2024 different now. Have we really turned a corner as the culture more secular and does this, is this, is this the time that it will actually work? Uh, I don't think it will, but I'm more of the mindset that it could work more now than it has ever in the past. I don't think it's going to work. I think this selection is going to be decided by blue collar workers who want to see their work valued. I think, uh, they are tired of this woke social ideology and are more interested in, uh, the economy and, and making their, you know, very income go as far as it can. They've seen disastrous, uh, economic implications of this administration, uh, the Biden Harris administration. And then I also think that, uh, you know, centrist, you know, soccer moms, if you will, uh, are going to be the others that are going to make the difference in this election that they're going to have to decide, you know, which, which side of this are we on, um, a president that keeps us out of, out of war, uh, through being very strong and very assertive, uh, or one that, um, that absolutely will, will get us back into war where, uh, their children may very well end up serving, uh, our country and putting their lives at risk. And so I think obviously that the answer on that is very clear, uh, but we will, we will see how those, you know, those swing state moms and, and, uh, swing state, blue collar, voters, great. Well, I'll bring it back to Alabama. First off, uh, just your thoughts on the, the Baykeeper lawsuit. Uh, I haven't done enough justice on this. We had Bradley Bern on earlier this week. Um, I know Sean's done a lot on it, but the dredging of the port and what to do with the spoil and the threat to the Gulf's sturgeon. And I mean, you understand this stuff fairly well. What do you, what do you think of that whole saga? Well, I think first and foremost, it's important to note that Baykeeper is an organization that is funded off of donations. And just like, you know, clickbait media or, or any other political entity or association, you have to show that your members that, and your donors that you're doing something, right? And, and so I think that Baykeeper has chosen this, uh, is the issue to demonstrate to their members that they're fighting for something, and therefore we should donate more money to them. Um, I think that the outrage you heard from Bradley Bern was, was justified. I really do. This is a process that has been going on since 2006. It has been studied, uh, acknowledgement. The core of engineers is a tough federal agency to get anything through and done. And, and they have, uh, we have the, this entire community has worked very hard to get to the point where we are right now. And, and so I think that the core studies of, of, you know, done by, you know, really esteemed scientists have demonstrated that this is a perfectly acceptable way, uh, to, to remove or dispose of the stretch material. And, and that the environmental entities that aren't more focused on fundraising and instead are focused on the environment are, are the ones that have been at the table with the core of engineers trying to figure out as much, uh, beneficial use as they can for these stretch materials, up to and including the, the, the mobile national estuary program who is in my opinion, you know, kind of the go to, um, environmental entity who's going to talk to you straight about what's going on without some sort of, you know, profit motive behind it. Um, and so I think, you know, latching on to the, the gold sturgeon as an environmentally, you know, endangered species and trying to attack the core of engineers is, is probably the wrong way to go for bankkeeper. And it's certainly the wrong way to go for our community. This has been vetted. This is safe. And, um, and we need to press on with, with what we've got and not upset the apple car here at the end. Another topic, uh, here was just five minutes or so. So kind of Boswell, uh, with a deck, uh, pen, pen day, uh, I don't know if he pended or he had a staffer or somebody, but it was just lengthy op ahead, uh, we chose not to run it at 18, 19, but I think Gillahammer and maybe APR ran it about the virtues of fiber and fiber internet. And just really, really down on satellite, uh, or any other means of internet delivery, broadband internet delivery. I know you've been really on this kick, uh, senator with Starlink and you have a Starlink, um, uh, subscription and the equipment and you've loaned it to some of your colleagues in the Alabama Senate to try out. And there's, I, I'm a little surprised to see a op-ed come out time to when it did. Uh, and, and, you know, what's going on here? Why, why is this necessary? But, uh, tell me this, uh, you see something like that. The real broadband discussion, you and I are going to be old men before, that is fully realized in this country. I, I mean, in this state, I think the way they are selling it to us, what are you making what's going on right now? And I mean, is there any chance that we would see some kind of alternate delivery method besides what they're trying to do with the fiber optic cable? Well, we need to see some comprehension and grasp of, uh, an alternative delivery method if we're going to get, you know, uh, high speed internet to, uh, the majority of the state. I mean, look, what Senator Scofield and, and Representative Shad, you know, started through idea is, is commendable, has worked well. The feds have come in, um, with a ton of money, uh, to, uh, to really push out, uh, fiber. And, and, and the grant requirements are such that it will only go to fiber. And that's okay. Um, there's nothing wrong with fiber. Uh, it's great. Um, the, you know, and I've read, uh, Boswell's, uh, opiate and I will tell you how it's just shocked. I mean, my first, first thing that I thought of when I saw this is like what, what in the world is, is his problem with the kid having internet, high speed internet access tomorrow. I mean, if I was waiting on fiber to come to my house right now, I, we wouldn't have high speed internet at my house in Baldwin County. If I was just sitting around waiting on Boswell's fiber to get there and there are a lot of things in that thing. So you can spend what you can spend less than what you would spend on a pipeline and health service. Hey, Senator, uh, Hey, Senator, if you were right now, you'd be doing like seven days and suppose it's seven years or however long it's going to take. I said, well, I think that what a tech is trying to do, uh, is, is certainly good to be good through the long term future of Alabama. Uh, to invest in that, uh, that infrastructure, that's not our infrastructure. Why are you fighting a solution that could work for our Indians today? That's the part that doesn't make any sense to me. I mean, he talks about this being the holy grail of broadband infrastructure. I get that, but maybe instead of providing the holy grail, how about a, how about just a couple of things? I mean, especially 13, I ain't got anything, anything to drink about single to talk about all the time. You know, he, he, he, he, he's right. Not, it's not five weeks ago. And so let's, let's mix this stuff in and realize that technology that is changing is rapidly as broadband infrastructure technology. Let's embrace something that works in the short term. And listen, if it's not the solution in five years, you know, throw it away and move on. But good gracious alive and inexpensive as it is and as effective as it is right now. Why would we not consider that it's a solution? So forget the states on it. If I'm almost suspended all on five, we're ready. If we're under us to spend all our letter. But if you're in an underserved area right now, and you don't have access to healthy diversity, starting to change your life and then make sure your kids are better than access tomorrow while you wait on the speedy government to actually get something sent to you. Senator, I don't know if you can hear me or not, but your Bluetooth connection dropped. I think we got to just stop it there on the speaker. But we will catch up again next week. Thanks for making time for us. Thanks for having me. Sorry, there was a Bluetooth there. Now that's not Starlink here. All right, I think the Bluetooth drop. We'll be right back. This is the Jet Force show on Epic Talk. One of six five in the same now. Okay. Say I got to hold out of cares. I'm in the red neck of every year. Getting crazy. I'm getting hammered sitting right here.