FM Talk 1065 Podcasts
Mobile City Councilman William Carroll talked about Amtrak and other projects - Mobile Mornings - Monday 7-29-24
(upbeat rock music) - News, sports, weather from Dr. Bill Williams, traffic info from Kane, and one of the Gulf Coast's most familiar voices. It's Mobile Mornings with Dan Brennan and Dalton R. Wig. - Good to have you along on this Monday. Dan and Dalton, if I'm talking 106.5, it's seven minutes after eight o'clock. And again, good to have you along. Thanks for listening. We're gonna get very local here real quick. - We are and staying local. As on Friday, we had Councilman Ben Reynolds on to speak with us about everything going on with the city. And this morning, we have District Two Councilman, William Carroll. Good morning, Councilman. - Good morning, guys. How are y'all? And good morning to the city of Mobile and everyone that's out there listening is a pleasure to be here this morning. - It's always good to have you. Thank you for being here. We've got a lot of things we wanna touch on. We can maybe start with where we are with the special council report that came back and what's your take on that, William? - Well, I think that the special council did. It's job and the council did it's job also. And there's quite a bit of information there for everyone to read and see and understand how the process worked and how the administration came to their decisions. - Yeah, and I'm sure there's a lot pending on that as we've seen report after report. I was telling my wife last week, I said, I wish they would just stop putting these reports out that I have to read. But saying it's sarcastic when you're on it. So that saga continues and I guess we'll see what the next move is but probably have to wait possible pending stuff between people here. - You don't know, I don't know. I just said when you don't know, push upon. So let's just see what happens in the game of chess here. But I think that the process was a good process. And I think that the administration has watched, heard and listened and have made the best decisions possible for the city of Mobile. - He hasn't, there's no lawsuit yet. Is that a lawsuit that he is? - Well, that's NBC 15 was according to their mind to something on the way. So we'll see later this week on that. Let's talk about what'll be on the council agenda for tomorrow, another story we've been following closely for some time and demolition for the Civic Center, I believe will be up for vote tomorrow. How are things looking, are we financially on track? Are we as far as the timeline still on track for tearing this one down and putting up the new Civic Center? - You know that, let's look at things two ways real quick. Number one, in order for the city to take on any contract, it has to have all the financing in place to start it. So the demolition of the Civic Center is one separate contract. It's not taught to the construction or renovation or what's gonna happen with the new building itself. So the city can take on that contract as an individual project by itself. It's worth roughly four million in some change or right there. So the money's in place for it. It's ready to move forward. The resolution is on the agenda to move forward with it, it could possibly move forward tomorrow too. - Okay, we're turning our attention to the construction of the new Civic Center. There's a lot of people who are concerned that there may not be a theater as part of that new construction and new Civic Center. I think it's gonna be an incredible building. It looks like the venue itself is gonna be pretty amazing, but there are those in the art community, I guess, starting with them that are concerned about a theater or lack thereof. - Well, you know, I tend to agree with everyone that's concerned about a theater there. I thought originally that we shouldn't tear down a theater that was in place. I thought it was a good structure itself. - Mobile that stage is probably the largest stage in between Jacksonville and New Orleans. And sometimes you have to have these larger stages to have the larger place come to your city. Sanger can accommodate the type of plays and acts that the theater can at this time. Matter of fact, our local dancers, I don't know if the stage at the Sanger is large enough to accommodate them with some of the plays, some of the acts that they perform. So I think that there's a dire need for theater. And I think that the city needs to come up with a way to make sure that we're gonna have a theater for those performing arts or a plan to have a theater for those performing arts here in a very near future. It's important to us here. - District two, Councilman William Carroll in studio. - And I've talked about it before, but that skyline is just, it'll be changing rapidly. It already is with the Corps of Engineers building that's going up and looking pretty good so far. And then once if the Civic Center plans state a form, be moving the whole thing a little closer to the interstate, right? So we're gonna have a completely different look right down there. - Yeah, that's right. It moves to the east, I wanna say, maybe 60 yards from where it is originally now and it'll run along the Clareborn Street side and the face of it, which is the western elevation looks great, you know? I kind of commented on the northern elevations and I think we needed a little bit more pop, you know, a little wall effect right there. Kind of didn't like my personal opinion. I didn't like the windows. I thought that they could change a little bit, look more like that building across the street from them. I don't know where the ARB is on this, but hopefully they've seen some of the same things that I have and we have as a Councilman. I know that the architects have said the same thing. So I think we can look for some minor changes there. - What does a demolition look like? And you know, you know a lot about this kind of stuff, of course, we're not blowing it up, which I think some people wanted to see just for the view of it, but demolishing it a little bit by little bit, how's that gonna look, you think? Are they just taking walls down or how exactly do you demolish it without blowing it up? - Well, I mean, it's an easy task, but it's a little bit longer than the others. Well, the first thing that happens is you go in and you take out any piece of portion of the building that needs to be saved or wants to be saved or people that wanna get certain things out that are usable elsewhere. Those things will happen first and pretty quick. The removal of the murals and things like that will happen before you know, you have to take a wrecking ball to it. So those things will happen and then after that, you'll see a bunch of safety stuff go up and a bunch of area alarms should go up also because of the proximity of the neighborhoods. Then you'll see dust control items start to appear, especially with the way that it's being demolished and then you'll see pathways taken in areas of ingress and egress that are set up to get the trucks in and out. Once those things are done, you'll start to see them push it over now. How they gonna push it over if they're gonna use maybe a long-arm reach excavator or a ball or a hammer or a sectional piece or they just take down the brick off the walls and then start stripping the steel, we don't know. So we just have to see how cyber approaches it. - Well, are the other council members jealous of you 'cause all the cool stuff happens in your district? - You know, I don't know. (laughing) - I mean, so today it's a cavalcade of stars down on the water with Governor Ivey and Senator Britton. - Hey, Congressman Carl, everyone will be down to celebrate the grant for the Mobile River Bridge and Bayway Project, $550 million grant there. So they're celebrating it, but as we know, the celebration of money coming in is a far cry from celebrating the bridge being started or done. - Well, you know, I beg to differ there. I don't know what's gonna truly happen, but the $550 million actually gives us a way to actually start a groundbreaking here. So, you know, I think we can start to look forward to have some type of progress made with the bridge itself. You know, as all of you know, I live downtown. I'm in the heart of it. I'm on Broad Street. So on a Thursday, Friday afternoon, sometimes on a Saturday morning, there's so much traffic due to the delays at the tunnel that traffic backs up in front of my house from government all the way back to Texas and sometimes back to, you know, Virginia Street on a bad day. On any given day, it's high traffic. But when you look at the interstate, it backs all the way back to, I think that's almost due, the Duval X. And then going through government street on a Friday afternoon is almost impossible than doing this time of year, trying to get through the tunnel. So this will be a welcome approach to getting traffic across the Mobile River and into Baldwin County and over into the vacation and tourist spots. You know, it helps us downtown breathe a little bit. So we're looking forward to it. - How long has that situation been this bad on government in particular? I don't remember that always being the case and you've lived down there for a long time. So you would know, but this backing up government passed broad. Is that a new twist to all of this? - Well, I think that in the '70s, it wasn't so bad. In the '80s, when I was in high school, we could jump on and actually we used to leave McGill sometimes and run over to the Gulf. It wasn't as bad as this, but you gotta look at it like this as more and more people began to drive, have cars, larger families with multiple kids. God, it's five cars in my driveway when all my kids were there. I mean, some of my friends say I have a parking lot. So imagine that the driving is a little bit different than what it was 20 years ago with more cars and needing additional access. So I was saying from the late '90s through now, it's gotten increasingly worse because of the additional cars that added to the market. - Now we're talking with district two councilman, William Carroll, and yeah, driving across this weekend. Seems to me like more people are on the causeway than ever also and not necessarily just to get some food down there, but just to get across these summer backups, both ways have absolutely gotten insane. I imagine opening things up with a new bridge and new Bayway, that'll cost an effect economically for the city as well. - Well, you mean if people aren't gonna stop because they had to have to wait, I would think so. I love the causeway, it's a local secret for some of us. And also how to exit at Canal Street is also a local secret too for some of us, knowing how to jump down and go back around now 165 and come over to the Cochrane African town bridge, sometimes to avoid the traffic, but you can't even do that anymore because of the two lights that are there but at the tunnel and in front of also. So it backs up now, even in front of also at the Cochrane African town bridge here. - Yeah, you gotta be really careful going. If you're on one, let's see if you're on I-165, that's the connector, right? - That's the connector, yeah. - So I've done that a couple of times and wasn't ready for the volume of traffic right there, trying to get off onto-- - By sure. - Yeah, it's like, wait a minute, wow. So it's like all the secrets are out now, it feels like. - Yeah, to be honest, in this bridge, hopefully it saws in the six-length capacity will alleviate some of the backup and additional traffic. My question is, is what happens when it bottlenecks down into our tent on the other side? - I know. - You know, what's gonna happen there? So we have yet to see what's gonna happen. And the other thing is, in my mind, is the closing of the change of the Cloverleaf downtown at Fort Conde, what's gonna happen there too. You know, there's a lot of things that we haven't seen yet, and we don't know what the traffic studies look like, but I'm interested to see what it's gonna do to downhill. - We're talking with District Two Councilman William Carroll. When we come back, Amtrak back in the news and whether the city will put forward some money for that, so we'll ask about Amtrak, and then we haven't even gotten to the airports. With a lot of questions for Councilman Carroll, as we come back right here on Mobile Morning's. - Yeah, thanks for coming in William. If you want to text a question that, you know, an answer you're curious about, two, five, one, three, four, three, zero, one, zero, six, to Dan and Dalton and Mobile Morning's. (upbeat music) - Good morning from Dan and Dalton, FM Talk 10065. It's 22. - Hello, I'm John Town, friend of William Carroll, is the District Two Councilman, and you agreed to come in and chat with us about a lot of things City Council this morning. Thank you, man, for coming in. - Oh, man, I'm glad to be here, thank you. - So, it looks like we're coming to the finish line on a few things, like you're saying Dalton, we follow these things, and not everything's at the finish line, but it looks like Amtrak is just about their way, and where are you on this? Where's Council on this? - Well, you know, the Council, we were faced with a lot of things to think about right here. One, originally the business deal on this was kind of shaky, kind of, you know, off the wall. How is it that they're asking Mobile to put up $3 million when, everywhere else, the states actually pay for the Amtrak itself. I think that that was originally just a bad way to go. I actually told the administration that. I think we got to a point to where we've had the port contribute a million dollars, and also the city contributed a million dollars, and hopefully the state will come on with a portion of that $3 million dollars also and get us there. Currently, the administration's come up with a way for Amtrak or them not to come back to us until after the third year and the fourth year, so that they can't ask us for any more money in between, you know, the contract starting and ending before they actually ask for money for the next go-around, which gives us a chance to evaluate whether or not it was a worthy adventure for us. But what we have to remember is, is that two things here. One, we live in a drive market where people are used to driving, you know, two to three hours to get to a venue. That's a given. But what you also have to remember about that is, is that people age, they don't drive like that. There are other people out there that need a different type of transportation to get around. And I think that the non-driving market is also entitled to a way to travel from city to city or from point to point for entertainment and tourism. Tourist of venues also. So that was a major point in my decision. In district two, we have so many places that we have seniors that don't drive, we have cathedral place, we have centers, we have the one across the street with me from me, Emerson Gardens, where people actually either ride the bus or they need a different type of transportation. So this helps them actually. So in my mind, it's a positive move, even if the city is losing a little bit, 'cause you have to look at the same way you look at the transit system. We subsidize the metro transit system, no matter what you say. Every year, we're probably giving them, I think, somewhere between five and $600,000 to subsidize the transit system and the bus system that we have in the city. So you have to look at it that way. - And I guess down the line with all these new projects, more incentive for people to come from New Orleans or Mississippi into Mobile to see events at the Civic Center or Heritage House. There's plenty of museums, things of that nature that people might wanna come to, but going actually from Mobile to New Orleans for the Saints games. Or I imagine a lot of people will be hopping on just to go to Biloxi. I remember growing up and seeing at the bus stop in town every Friday, people would just drive over there, hopping the bus and head over to Biloxi for the weekend. I could see the Amtrak being used for that by a lot of people. - Oh, God, you're right. You know, I don't know if they have a platform there to stop, but you know, that's an idea in itself. You know, in my mind, I truly see Amtrak as a more of an entertainment venue for people going from Mobile to New Orleans or Mobile, Moss Point, Biloxi in between simple, because that's a day trip sometimes. You know, people get on, they don't have to be worried about a cocktail or something like that. You know, can it have an enjoyable trip going back over and back? So that's what I mean when I say we are a drive market. When you're driving yourself, you can't enjoy those types of things. But if you actually own the train, you can have a very relaxing and enjoyable day and a good time and enjoy the ride and have great communications with your friends. You have to go to a great venue and come back and do the same thing and have a great day. So it adds to the value of a weekend trip as opposed to having to do some of the drive work yourself. - You and the council have been through dealing with so much stuff in the past year, maybe more than that. A lot of these council members are first time council members as well. Where's the, you know, describe to me what this council is. Where's their drive? Where's their energy? Where's their sense of duty? I think all this is war at the city and we're just viewing it and you guys are in the middle of it. - Well, you know, we have some young council members there and sometimes the learning curves on things are a little bit different. Sometimes you have people with their own ideals, principles and values. And sometimes that's an office conversation where you say, hey man, there's 210,000 people in the city of Mobile and sometimes you have to listen to the voices of everybody here. It's a nonpartisan situation and ideals and values and political fronts don't fit. You know, our job is to fit the footprint of what the people are asking us for and to make sure that we accommodate the needs of the city and what those basic needs are. A lot of times, if you're watching the council meetings, you'll hear in particular council members say, well, I think this is the best way to go and people have hired me to do a task and to make a decision. And then I'll go back and tell them what I did. And I just don't see it operating that way. I take a lot of breath to hear what's happening out there to put the fillers out to make sure that we're making the right decisions. And I think probably 95% of us do that all the time and sometimes there's some 5% decisions that are made with what I call best value and background knowledge. 'Cause sometimes they're just some things that are going on in the background that everybody just doesn't see that are inside the city. - Sure. Councilman William Carroll, we appreciate you coming on with us. Just, we have this last minute here. The Africa Town Heritage House seems like things are really rolling along there and business picking up a little bit. Pretty cool to have that here in our own backyard. - You know, it's great. They just had a weekend out there. That was, you know, intensely good. And I hope to see more and more people coming to the Africa Town Heritage House. The Africa Town Redevelopment Corporation is doing well with new structures and new homes. They've got, I think, two or three now completed. I think we need to get everybody to go out there and see how the neighborhood's coming back and encourage everybody to invest in the neighborhood themselves so that we can continue to grow places in the city that are less fortunate and that are underserved. - Yeah, but a cool, that is a cool neighborhood out there. And reviving that would be awesome. William Carroll, thanks for dropping by. - No problem. Thanks for inviting me. - District two, Councilman William Carroll, 830. FM Talk 1065, more mobile mornings after the break. We'll turn up your voice. 251-34301-06. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) 834, FM Talk 1065 and Mobile Mornings on a Monday. Right now, it's time to head over to McConnell Automotive and talk with Louis Arrata. Hey, Louis. - Hey, good morning, guys. How are you? - Hey, we are good and some are coming to a close for so many as school gets started here for a lot of folks here in the next week or so. I think some parents out there might need some bigger kid haulers for this fall and moving forward. And I know at McConnell Automotive, you have some big ones and some really nice ones. - That's right, we do. We got a bunch of UConn Excels on the new car side. Brand new, they're nice. Wanna thank everybody for coming in this weekend. We got a lot of trades traded in a 24AT4C era. It's got the diesel in it and has hardly any miles on it. The guy bought a new boat and came over here and bought a three quarter time. So, like I said, we've got a great selection over here. You can check everything out online at mcconnellautomotive.com. And come on by and see us, check out the live. It looks like it's a beautiful day today. So, we got a mile sitting out front, waiting to go. - All right, sounds good, Louis. We appreciate your time this morning. - Hi, thank y'all. - As Louis erratic, go see him at McConnell Automotive on Dolphin Street, just east of I-65 and the website mcconnellautomotive.com. (dramatic music) - We're definitely Olympic reports with Dan and Dalton on FM Talk 10065 in Mobile mornings. And just a fabulous opening show. I thought it was so artsy and so alive and vibrant. And crude and disgusting. (laughing) Also, did you see that not to rag on military people, but I think it was, members of the French military, they proudly raved the Olympic flag and it was upside down. (laughing) So, they're really, they're not getting, was that a sign of distress or? - I don't think that was, it was unintentional. - Okay. - It wasn't to, it wasn't to like signal distress to the audience that you're not gonna believe this opening ceremony coming up. You know, kind of let us know. - With that being the French military, I don't think that would have been outside of the range of possibilities. Because not everyone in France was okay with how that opening ceremony went. - Yeah, I would think not. - Yeah, it was vulgar, I think, to say the least. And then the whole back and forth about weather. And let me say, I didn't watch the whole opening ceremony, but being on online this weekend, I think I've got a pretty good handle and saw video and pictures. Some that I can't believe were actually, were there actually testicles viewed in? Did one guy have him hanging out of the bottom of his pants there in that last supper thing? That's what online was telling me. - Well, sometimes there is, how do I say this? I probably don't. But sometimes you can make a mistake, like say at the pool, you know, you're not trying. So maybe this guy just, maybe he wasn't, you know, that wasn't his intention. - Sure, yeah. So I don't know. - You wear short enough shorts. It's bound to happen, I guess. And that's what this person was doing. But the last supper thing, and then people coming out to say, "Oh, it wasn't the last, it wasn't the last supper." It was a nod to, you know, the Olympics. Well, yeah, Dionysus, the Greek God. - Yeah. - And he's like the God of partying, right? So he's, Mr. Let's have a good time. Or which one, Bacchus, right? The little blue guy that they had on the-- - You got me on that one. - So this is what happens when you put the theater kids in charge. And I know a lot of people are boycotting, and I understand, and I sympathize, and I was incredibly perplexed, first off, that they would take it in that direction, but then I step back and thought for a second, this is France, they're doing French things. I think they were trying to, I don't know if the intent was to mock Christianity. That's certainly how it came off. - I think they were looking for shock value. - Yeah, and honestly, the people that think you're gonna get shock value from mocking Christianity, it's, and I saw several people say, it's kind of passé these days. Like Christianity, for a lot of the world, is the punching bag, and Christians are upset about it, but who are they trying to impress, really? I mean, if you really wanted a shocking opening ceremony, this place that's had terrorist attack after terrorist attack on its walls, I would maybe take a look at mocking some of those people, but we all know that they're too scared and that the social justice media would absolutely be running that story. If they mocked Muslims, that would be front page, every single day, every single hour. - You're right. - But it's just, we've seen it over and over again. I would just love to have an Olympics where I can be fine watching the Olympics. I love it for the sport of it. The opening ceremony, it's been fine in the past, whatever. I think a lot of people tune in, tune in, before the opening ceremony, and don't give a rip about the rest of the games. I'm kind of the opposite. I love the sport. I love seeing, especially local athletes in individual sports that don't get the time of day during football season, baseball. - Well, but Paige Madden, Paige Madden, I don't think Paige Madden had a part in putting together that opening ceremony. - It ties in with what William Carroll was talking about. Paige Madden had to take a transit bus to get to a pool. I mean, the sport isn't even supported widely in Mobile. And here she is again in the Olympics. - And it's so cool. - It's amazing. - She and so many other Americans have put their life into what used to be an amateur sport. I guess it still is technically in a lot of ways, even though they're getting big sponsorship deals and things of that nature. But they grind day in and day out. And she started that grind here in Mobile. And it's so great for me to watch some of these athletes reach the peak, the absolute peak of their abilities and really the human ability, and then go out and put it on the line. And these artsy fartsy opening ceremony people who are looking to get a shock out of people, that's, they want you to be shocked. They want you to talk about boycotting or whatever. And all it does is take away from the people who these Olympic games are really supposed to be about. And that's what I hate. And I understand and I sympathize people who are gonna boycott all of the Olympics. But you have two and a half, three weeks here of pure sport, for the most part, with people going at it. And I know some athletes over the years have also caused boycotts of their own from their political leanings and making their political stances known. Like Steve Kerr coming out and endorsing Kamala Harris, day one of being over there, the coach of the men's basketball team. It's like you didn't need to do that. We're supposed to be Team America right now, all together. But yeah, I didn't know we did that. I'm gonna keep watching the games because I love the actual sport of it. So one thing I noticed about the coverage of the opening ceremonies was big time and blasted, really, critical of the opening ceremonies on Fox News and Breitbart and there was outrage, right? And I think there was a level of outrage, you know, there was a level of outrage for sure. And then I said, well, let me just find out. Let me go to NBC, the Olympics are on NBC, aren't they? They're on NBC. So I went to and found this article from today.com, not even NBC News.com, there was, I didn't see any coverage of it there. - No, I think they might have taken it offline. - And NBC, to today.com just had like some people found a fence to the, it was in a broader article about the Olympics opening ceremony, not in the vein of being critical of it, just in talking about the entire ceremony itself, on by the way, some people found a fence to some of the things done. And then I thought that the organizers or organizer, people who were behind that piece of theater, I could call it a piece of something else, but they were quickly, I'm with you. I think that they knew this was gonna get a rise at a lot of people. And then they quickly said, no, no, no, no, this is, you've misinterpreted this, like we're the artists here, we'll tell you how to feel about this. You misinterpreted it, it was about X, not Z, and also, boy, if we offended anybody, we're sorry about that, but they were standing by their work, they were almost too ready with a reply, not to think they didn't need a reply. - Yeah, like most people say, the art is in the eye of the beholder, right, whoever's looking at that art can make of it what they will. But in this case, they're like, no, no, no, no, no, that's not what you, but their actual apology. And remember, this wasn't just state-side outrage, this isn't just US getting upset about this. You had the Catholic Bishops Conference of France, and politically, there isn't just as much or more of a politically charged environment left versus right in France right now, with immigration also being a huge, huge issue. And you have the right and Le Pen saying, we need to get France back to France, for the French, instead of importing so many people, many of whom are trying to cause harm. I mean, some of the footage from France, kind of like a lot of the footage from Ireland, they just can't believe it's happening in some of these places, but England too, but the left is also very fringe there, and that's what they did, they put the very far left in charge of putting together this opening ceremony, their actual response over the weekend, the organizers, brief apology, they said, there was never an intention to show disrespect to a religious group if people have taken any offense, we are, of course, really sorry. And according to their description of the scene here, so the one with DJ Barbara Butch, that was the squatty lady in the middle. Man, I don't even know, no clue. DJ Barbara Butch, so at the center there, described by organizers as an LGBT icon, the scene continued with a mostly naked figure painted blue and portrayed by some actor singing a raunchy song and character as Dionysus, the Greek god of wine, according to the Paris' own description of this scene, the one that people said, well, that looks a lot like the Last Supper, said, the banquet table is transformed into a dance floor to showcase a variety of dance styles, while on the barge, the choreographic ensemble performs to the sound of Eurodance. I mean, it sounds incredibly artsy-fartsy, like you said, and European at the same time. Elon Musk, he said, this was extremely disrespectful to Christians, the Catholic Bishop's Conference of France said that certain elements, quote, "made Christianity the subject of derision and mockery," which we deeply deplore this morning, our thoughts are with all Christians of all continents who were offended by the outrageousness and provocation of a few scenes. And Katie Britt, you know, she also posted on Twitter, our own US Senator, this was an intentional choice to mock Christianity in Christians, it's disgraceful. And it's the same kind of bizarre craziness that's being pushed on children and teenagers across America. We need to turn our eyes back to God and restore common sense. And there are some of you out there right now, maybe you're mocking Dalton and I for trying to explain away what it's hard to explain. You know, this is not our lane, okay? A production like this, maybe for some of you, it is your lane, okay. Don't do it at the Olympics. That's all I'm saying. It's like, it's art, it's expressive, it's okay. All right, that's fine. The opening ceremony of the Olympics, it's not, you know, sorry. I would, my hands up and all I'm saying, and you can say you're wrong, Brennan, fine. I'm saying, that's not where it belongs. That sort of art, that sort of production, have it, enjoy it. But the world is watching the Olympic games, including children, it doesn't belong there. That's not the platform. Let's look at the text line. Buddy says the blue guy was Gerard Depardu's son-in-law. Is that true? He was a little bitty blue guy that they had up there on the, I think they had a dish over him like he was being unveiled as the entree. Gardner says, "Boycott the sponsors, not the sports." And that's, you know, I agree with it. And we saw her jumped out. These spire jumped out. I just hate, maybe it's because I've, you know, I've loved sports for so long. I hate that athletes are being dragged into this thing. And, but I think, you know, a lot of people, if you want a boycott, that's fine. I'm not selling people, whether it's a boycott or not, texture here. Yeah, asking why would NBC cover something that doesn't portray the Olympics in the best light possible? You're talking about NBC. They want a completely memory hole this thing. At least for the next three weeks, while they try to get people to download the Peacock app and keep their TV on NBC. So they're going to make his little comment on this as possible. And not have because C-spire making the decision that they did this Mississippi-based company we're all familiar with, they just said, "Look, the ads that we're going to be running, "they're out, we're not doing it." And I would think that I'm not, I don't know how the sales department at NBC, maybe scrambling to take the temperature of other major sponsors to make sure they don't do the same thing. Yeah, well, I mean, if Tucker Carlson would have been in the opening ceremony, there would have been immediate advertiser boycotts. We can't have him on the screen. Doesn't have met us as y'all at France, know the next time a foreign country, or other group tries to invade them, call the woke trainees to come save them. The Christian nations aren't interested in saving our enemies. He also said the blue guy needed a cowbell. Oh, that would have been great. Sean, the heavy metal show was badass though. Yeah, the Marie Antoinette in her head and then they had some popular French metal band playing at some castle. Pretty cool, but I don't know, is that Olympic opening ceremony? I liked that part, for sure. But it was again kind of, well, did they do the beheading? I think she was just standing there with her head and hands. But again, I didn't see the entire thing. Is it true that the Israeli athletes were turned away? I'm not sure I need to look into that further. Let's see here. I know that they were warning Israeli athletes and fans that were going to the games to their nation put out. Well, that was the big, careful thing going in. And I thought with the major part of this opening ceremony was how were they gonna keep it safe? Because terrorism is such a major worry, especially right now there. And to have all of these athletes sailing down the river sin. And they, at the time before the train stations were firebombed Friday morning, they were saying they were gonna be around 800,000 people along the banks of the river watching this. And just think of how much law enforcement they had to put out there and how all of the different pre searches and everything, just to make sure this state is safe as possible. Not out of the woods, obviously. And then you had this big power outage that happened in Paris, I think Saturday or Sunday. Yeah, I don't know if we've seen a result from what that was exactly, but that's another major story is avoiding any kind of violence in these next three weeks. No doubt, the weather was a problem, the avoiding of the violence. And then you have to do something really, really out there to top all of that in terms of the coverage of the Olympics and the games themselves. And with that opening ceremony, congratulations, France. You pulled it off. You pulled it off. It is a damn brand in Dalton, or we're glad to have you along on this Monday. Again, that text line, 2513430106. Feel free to join the show. [MUSIC PLAYING] All right. Yeah, that was good. Give a quick shout out to my grandpa, riding with my dad, driving from Florida to Pennsylvania, long drive today. They're listening in this morning, so-- Hey, grandpa. Hey, grandpa. Hey, grandpa. That's cool. I like that. What kind of board out of their mind with this show they're listening to? Your grandpa feels like a hostage. Like, can we change the channel? I'd like to hear some country music. I'm like, Jeff Borschow on the way, and he'll have a state representative Jennifer Fiddler on in hour number one, state rep Shane Stringer in hour two. That's a rare double up with those two. Oh, yeah. State representatives. And then Dale Jackson from WVNN in hour number three. Let's clear up some misunderstandings here. We have an apology. So I asked, because I got so much of my news of the opening ceremony, after everyone was talking about it, I said, well, I really just don't want to watch that. But I've seen enough clips of it online. And I thought that maybe during that scene where they had the little blue guy on the table, that one of the transgender people behind him, they were saying that his-- His exposed beans were hanging out. And turns out, this was a big misunderstanding, although it appears to be the person's testicles hanging out in this photo, further photos and video. So someone really investigated this. Clearly shows, in fact, a whole ripped in his pantyhose. So big misunderstanding, folks. Boy, oh boy, we're going to have to fall on the sword for that one. So sorry. That's absolutely insane. This was the opening ceremony we're talking about here. OK, Steve says, I'm a Christian. I'm not surprised when non-Christians do non-Christian things. And that's exactly where I stand on the Steve. I think that eight years ago, this would have been shocking. And there would have been people saying, no, no, no. It's their right to free expression. They're totally in the right. You're just a bigot. I'm seeing a lot fewer people come out and play defense for this opening set. I think so many more people in the West are now have woken up. And like I said, it's all passé at this point. It's boring. Them doing this kind of stuff is boring and expected. And I think that a lot of that is contributing to this move, where people are wanting to see normal stuff. We just want to see a beautiful opening ceremony that I think things are changing before I as well, say. Yeah, and China was praised for their opening ceremony back when it was in Beijing. But of course, everybody that was executing that at such a high level, it's a prisoner in their own country. So it's kind of like, when you give them too much free-- I mean, you see what happens. You got France. Yeah? Freedom. China, great execution. We need to find a middle ground, right? I think. Someone with just a little bit of freedom. Thank you. 859, Jet Force Show, straight ahead on FM Talk 10065.