FM Talk 1065 Podcasts
John Sharp from AL.com City Council voted for Amtrak - Midday Mobile - Tuesday 8-06-24
There will be no personal nor direct attacks on anyone and I would ask that you please try to keep down the loud cheering and the clapping. There will be no booing and no unruly behavior. With that, this is painful and it will be for a long time. After all, these are a couple of high-stepping turkeys and you know what to say about a high stepper. No step too high for a high stepper. This is Midday Mobile with Sean Sullivan on FM Talk 1065. Well, Sean's a tough guy. I mean, I think everybody knows that. You know, Sean, he took some licks, he hangs in there. Yeah, what's wrong with the beer we got? I mean, the beer we got drank pretty good, don't it? Did you hear what I said? So this is a bad council. I had no doubt about them. That doesn't suck. If you don't like it, you're bad. Last question. Were you high on drugs? Last question, kiss my ****. All right. Here we go. FM Talk 1065 at Midday Mobile and glad to have you along on this Tuesday 343 0106 343 0106 for phone calls and text. We'll get to my friend John Sharp from AL.com in just a second. Do want to give you a heads up because it's that time of year. I know it because like I was just telling John, if you all see some F 150 looking like the Beverly Hillbillies heading north today, that's me moving college stuff for my oldest up to college. Bicycles are part of that, right? So if you're getting a blank for the kid going to college or the kids at school, we were talking about that yesterday. I mean, can you imagine being a kid and having an e-bike to get to school? Man, I would have you couldn't have told me nothing. But listen, my buddy Clint Jameson, the adventure with bicycles has a great selection of e-bikes. I talk about what's gotten me back into riding bicycles in my 50s. He's got 75 e-bikes ready to go at any point for you come down, take a test ride. He's got 400 non e-bikes in stock for you to check out as well, whether you got kids bikes or ladies bikes or guys bikes or they got the three wheel three wheel bikes, all those in stock and they do all the service work right there on those bikes. And if you need work done on your bike, you can bring it by and get it done there, get the bikes tuned up wherever you're going. Go see my friend at Adventure Earth Bicycles. Clint Jameson, tell him us at high adventure-earth.com. His website, he's at the corner of airport and little flower in Midtown, everything inside to get you outside at Adventure Earth Bicycles. All right, without further ado, good to talk to this man. It's been like two weeks or so. We can have it's too long. John Sharp, hey, man, how are you? Good, John. How you doing? I'm good. I'm good. It's, it's, it's, I don't, you know, there's these stories you and I talk about over the years, right? There's been many of them and I guess some of them continue. I don't know that we put many of them to bed. Is there a chance we're going to be putting this will Amtrak come to mobile thing to bed? Finally, what happened today? Well, yeah, like I told, I told Knox Ross, the chairman of the Southern rail today, I looked at him, I said, you know, this thing is not over until the train's here. And that's the truth. It's not over until we see a train arrive because that's been the, like you said, the stories we talked about, we call them the greatest hits and they get the Amtrak story is right atop the greatest hit list. And yeah, I think the last of the really the government setting bureaucratic moments in this odyssey is, was completed today, today was a milestone day and Mobile City Council voted unanimously on the three agreements, the lease agreement, the funding agreement, and then an intergovernmental report authority to help offset some of the city's local obligation for the funding agreement. So yes, all the agreements that were required to be voted on by the city of Mobile for a state supported route were completed today. The agreements, as we've talked about over and over for three years, so they commence when the train starts. So it doesn't begin the calendar year 2025. The agreements, you know, the funding agreement triggers when the train arrives sometime in early 2025. And from there, it'll be 2025, 26, 2027. And then at that point, you know, the ball's in most likely the state of Alabama's court on whether or not they want to continue with this route. And we should know whether or not, you know, it's seen the economic benefits to the region, as some folks have suggested. But, you know, we'll wait and see how that all plays out. But, you know, you know, the approvals were made today. There's still some things that need to be done before the train arrives, the big thing being infrastructure work, stuff that doesn't give as much attention. But there's underground utility work that needs to be addressed. That could take some time. And then CSX needs to build a 3000 foot on a track, basically, layover track to accommodate the passenger train. And we don't know yet on how long that'll take. But the estimates are that the train should be in operation by spring of 2025. I think the optimists are saying, you know, by the Super Bowl, which has been at the Superdome this year. But, you know, Amtrak kind of said, we'll calm that one down. Wait and see, it's a problem. Yeah, yeah, it's it's August. I mean, you know, there's people that like to just be negative, just be negative. I'm trying to be honest about it in watching this over time. I'd be I'd be real surprised if all that what you just laid out, infrastructure wise, is done by February, whatever the Super Bowl is. That's a that's a lot of work. That's correct. But exactly when, you know, the start is, we don't know, and nobody's committing to a startup day. And actually, and it's interesting, the last state supported route that Amtrak has started in the in the country was up by a Saint Paul, Minnesota to Chicago through Milwaukee. It's called the Borealis. And the start of that service wasn't known. The exact date wasn't known until was announced 10 days before the route actually started. So, through wasn't much, you know, time to to say, Hey, you know, the train's coming. Well, it was literally within 10 days. So this, you know, it could be a quick turn. We don't know yet. But the next date that I I gather that will be kind of a moment, I guess, on this project will be the daining of the train, the branding of the train, you know, maybe some of marketing initiatives that will be announced. And my understanding, according in discussions with Knox Ross, with the Southern rail conditions, we should anticipate something more or less than what they call a groundbreaking, maybe for the actual train depot and mobile before or around Halloween. So that's kind of the next date, I guess, you could say to look forward to. Okay, I've got, I'm going to run back at that. But I'm going to go back. I have so many questions of you, John. First of all, unanimous vote on this. And that means Joel Davis was a yes vote. Yes, Joel voted. Yes. And he's been a long time critic. He acknowledged that during his comment. Yeah, he has. But he's been I think he's been fair. He's asked fair quite I've enjoyed my conversations with him. But but he so he voted yes. Yeah, he voted yes, largely because of the satisfaction from the port. And I don't think it's any surprise who folks that follow Joel's career on the council has been very adamantly a booster backer of the port of Mobile, Alabama State Port Authority. And, you know, the ports on board with this project, they're spending a million dollars on it. And you're looking, I think largely because of well over $70 million in federal funds that are coming through a grant to support this project that will be utilized to improve the rail infrastructure in Mobile. And, you know, at least four million of that is directed to a project of importance to the port of Mobile or to the to the rail to the port to the port itself. And then there's a lot of indirect benefits that the portal get through improvements to the freight rail, which is, you know, Amtrak will be sharing the freight rail with with CS CSX. But that $72 million included improvements to that rail line. So it's, it's, you know, a benefit rail is part of the ports operations and you're talking $72 million. That's a lot of money. And that's money coming from the federal government. No, it is. But I but something that Councilman Dave's not talked about and that I've talked about on my own a whole bunch. But he and I had some agreement. My worry was this and Councilman, when Councilman Josh Woods came in and talked about it, he said, you know, he changed his vote because he said at the end of the three million at the sunset, there was no continued requirement for Mobile to spend the money. But this is me talking once there's a once you establish a huge a user base, right? Of this, however many people there are, there will be there'll be leverage to continue it. And then who pays for what if the state Alabama says, now we're not going to pay for it. Then I mean, do the city fathers and mothers just say, well, the heck with it. And then people are calling them everything but a child of God. Well, I mean, that's, you know, it's, and it's also going to be a different city council by the time that comes up, mind the city election during 2025. Councilman Dave is not running for re-election. But I think there's some feeling that the language written into that agreement, police agreed, that satisfied some of the, you know, the concerned council members about the project that, you know, after three years, you are to go to the state or some other source for this funding that you don't come back to the city of Mobile. So whoever's elected on the calendar, they're going themselves. Yeah. Okay. So, but they, but at that point, you know, says don't come back. And then the state says, no, and then other people say, yeah, but I love it so much. And it's, you know, it's a great thing. Even though, even by right, even by Amtrak's projections, things are going to lose money. It's not going to, it's not going to break even, right? Right. Well, we'll see what the, you know, we've heard about projections of hotels, $1.7 million in lodging tax revenue. If that's the projection, that actually comes to fruition. I mean, the train then, you know, generating the revenue to defend itself. I mean, so there are questions that, you know, we'll see how this thing goes. I mean, you know, I know there's a lot of skepticism out there. And the Southern Rail Commission officials that acknowledge, you know, hey, folks are skeptical. There's a lot of pressure too. This is the only state supported routes in the deep south outside of one that's connecting Fort Worth, Texas to Oklahoma City. So, I mean, you know, there's a lot of people riding on this thing as far as reputation and, you know, you know, the future of these state supported routes in the Amtrak Amtrak network. Amtrak wants to get this thing right. It's going to be interesting to see how they do that and see how they market this thing. But yeah, I agree with what you're saying, but right now, we're talking about a million dollars in the city of Mobile. If the state of Alabama, which we understand, I think Councilwoman Gina Gregory expressed, expressed it well, they feel confident that the state's going to appropriate a million dollars. And it's fun and it's general fun next year to help support this route. So ultimately, it'll be Mobile spending a million dollars spread out over three years for the basically that it's been described by the mayor as a pilot project. And if you look at it that way, maybe that we're getting 72 million dollars in capital expenditures. I think, yeah, I know what you're saying after three years. What do you do with that? Well, the agreement says, you know, if the project is continued, Amtrak's got to remove its equipment. It's got to remove, restore the property back to where it was before they build a train depot here in the next couple of months. If you're joining us, I'll come to john sharp with ale.com on that other line of questioning too. So infrastructure wise, the city's grounded, granted a ground lease to Amtrak, but Amtrak builds the structure. Is that how it works? Yeah, Amtrak's got to do construction there in which they will build a train depot. I got to have a flat somewhere where people are going to board on to the train. So they're going to build a basically a platform right across from the Explorium. Part of that challenge, though, there's some underground utilities that I think some of the folks with Amtrak and CSX and others did not really account for that they were surprised that it could be an issue. And now you got the state historic preservation commission, state agency involved as well, because there could be some digging involved and what could get unearthed. And as I don't know if you remember, but the i10 project had quite a lengthy archaeological dig going on. And so, you know, there's no anticipation that, you know, some, you know, 3,000 year old artifact might pop up. But, you know, if it does, that could delay the project as well. So there's some interesting elements there that I don't think have been discussed a lot that could lead to the delay as part of construction. I don't think it's that normal with the big construct with the construction project, but that's that's out there as well. The i10 project that archaeological dig, by the way, was not very far from what we're talking about. Yeah. So, and there's a water main that needs to be relocated by Mars. There's some fiber optics as well. So there's underground issues that need to be addressed still. And it's just, so like I said, until the terrain comes, it's not over until it's over. Just, so it's right, until the terrain comes. And then you mentioned some point here, the groundbreaking for the marketing or whatever. We've talked about this a lot. I'm trying to make sure that I keep my citizen immobile and fiscally conservative hat on. But yes, I am a person that thinks trains are cool. And I'll give this damn track. There's a lot of things to take away from Amtrak. But whoever names, like you mentioned, the Borealis names of roots, they got cool names. They really, like whoever is in that department, I mean, you go down the list of these roots and they're really cool names from Borealis to Hiawatha, Empire Builder, the Maple Leaf, the Peabot. They're really cool. Of course, Sunset Limited, we talked about. Do we have any idea what it might be? I mean, you have a story up on the lead about it, maybe Mardi Gras themed? Yeah, that's correct. And by the way, I think some of that predates Amtrak. Amtrak was created in 1971. Remember, the Sunset Limited was a name before Amtrak came online. And so that, you know, that name's been there for a long time. So they've been able to incorporate some of these names as well. But yeah, this line, I had a story, it's up on mail.com, available in our daily digital edition as well. But it's about, you know, the name change, I think the most likely one right now. And the question is whether or not it'll be a big disappointment that isn't related to Mardi Gras on Carnival, because it's the thing that's shared between the two cities and pretty much shared throughout the Gulf Coast. I mean, you know, we could be to find other things that, you know, the seafood drain or something. But I mean, this is something that, you know, it seems to be a good idea. It's a Mardi Gras thing. Seafood on the train, but yeah, Mardi Gras being trained. And he had that fun factor in, I mean, you know, they're trying to put what you call what's in the seats, right? So yes, you got to get people into the train and you want them to get in the train and have fun and whether or not it's just during Mardi Gras season, which were, you know, had that festive flavor to it or not versus a Thursday afternoon in August. You know, there might be different, you know, different vibes at different times of the year on that train. But you have the, you have a lot going on in New Orleans. Yeah, festivals going on in Mississippi. You have stuff, you know, yeah, festivals going on here in Mobile. You have things that are going on and, you know, the train should be, the state supported train should be, you know, whoever's marketing and operating, it should be well aware of those things and coordinate appropriately. And I think that's, that that's the idea behind it. I think there's some discussions with the casinos and Biloxi as well as far as providing, you know, whether it's discounts or, or getting them involved. All that needs to be involved and, and I think, you know, as a result of these agreements being finalized today, my understanding that those talks will be in internets going forward. So I guess the next day to somewhere around Halloween, we should know a little bit more about how this train will be marketed and organized and delivered. That's interesting stuff. John, people can read, like you said, more over at ail.com, or if they want to find you directly on Twitter or X, which, by the way, if you didn't get the note, I know you're on vacation. Our college football pick them has gotten crank back up, signed it up. John's always a competitive player in this. So people want to read your stories or talk trash about college football. Where do they find you online? Yeah, it's the season for that, but at John Sharp 99 on X. All right, good stuff, John. Glad to talk to you and talk to you soon. All right, John, thanks. There goes, John, and we're coming right back a bunch of texts to get to and get your phone calls at 343 0106. The train, Mardi Gras train. Let's go at the Jocaine train, huh? You're listening to Midday Mobile with Sean Sullivan on FM Talk 1065. At the 126 FM Talk 1065 Midday Mobile, you did the roots. If you look at the, the root map, they actually kind of show a root map still through here. They have an updated the Amtrak map. But there are cool roots and root names. And like the Texas Eagle, Steve Earl's song, Texas Eagle. Y'all know that one. We made, we made, the boy and I may run that song on our extended road trip here. It's a great, great fiddle song out there. All right, to to the text line and, let's see, first, if you don't clean your cycle, does that become a dirt bike? Yes. Well, my bicycle is a dirt bike when I took it in for service at venture with bicycles, plants like dude, I'm like, my man, I'm off road. It stays dirty. Ed said, Sean, I have a half chow, half lab that's my daughter's, her best trade is. She doesn't like men. She lives up at Auburn for four years and wouldn't let guys sit close to her. Only bit three young men. I'll render to you if you like. Considering that, although Ed, my daughter is a little bit pit bullwood in her too. I mean, pity the fool. I'll just put it that way. CB Carl said I was at one of the eight or ten dollar generals between Foley and Boston, secure. You should see it in West Mobile. Same thing. CB Carl saw some young punks in a pickup with Trump flag and Trump 24, no BS, you know, the full thing written out on the windows. I wanted to explain to them that they were not helping the cause by being vulgar. Then I remembered you can't fix stupid, but you can. I think you can nudge stupid. If you didn't hear that conversation from last hour, it was like the boat parade. Cool. Do the boat parade fly your flat Trump, 2024 Trump fans. Even if you want to go, let's go branding because that's subtle. But all the F this and F that I don't know how that just tactically helps. I don't I mean, to make you if you're trying what are you trying to accomplish? You're trying to flex or you're trying to make sure that double Trump wins the election, which one's more important? Ask yourself that and you consider what you're putting on a flag or a sticker or all that. Yeah, it could be this texture says they should name it the moon pie express. And it may be, but of course it's got to have buy-in from both sides. Of course, maybe a mobile guy. I want it to be the Joe Kane train, right? I think but it'll be something that obviously you have a brute that goes from mobile to New Orleans to mobile. It fits that fits the Mardi Gras theme. So it'll be it'll be something to that effect. John has said there was some talk about that. And I guess in October, we'll find out what the theme or the name just hopefully they make it cool because somehow there are so many cool roots name roots. We'll get to more text about the train coming up in just a little bit three, four, three, zero, one, zero, six. Next, we got news. This is Midday Mobile with Sean Sullivan on FM Talk 1.0.6.5. At 135 FM Talk 1.0.6.5. Midday Mobile. Check in with my buddy playing price over Paris Tracker and Robert's Tale. Although Paris Tracker playing y'all are everywhere. You talked about the more locations in Florida. Of course, we know Mississippi y'all are all over the place. That's right. So we do have three stores in Mississippi. We have one store here in Robert's Tale that I met. And we just acquired a coastal machinery out of Pensacola and Cresvy. So we've added two more stores this month over across the line in Florida. Good stuff. Now you mentioned during the news break to me, you said, Hey, Sean, by the way, lawn mower shell just got a big shipment of lawnmower. What do you have? What came in? We had three truck load, three 18-wheeler loads this morning show up, 30-something lawnmowers of all sizes anywhere down from a 42-inch homeowner series all the way up to a 72-inch diesel, all cabotas. They all qualify for that zero interest financing through cabotas as well. It's got a lot of people moving on getting that piece of food. Even if they have a mower they like, maybe a cabotamower, they like. But you mentioned going up in deck size, and you and I, both are guys that have to mow a lot of grass. Another 10 or 12 inches gives you some of your life back, man, time-wise. Absolutely. Time is key for me on the weekends. And here lately, I've been spending every weekend mowing grass. So the bigger the deck for me, the better. Absolutely. So y'all, you know, may upgrade that way. And also, you talk about the rental world here. Y'all got, I know people think about y'all with big equipment, but you've got from that to residential stuff. Absolutely. We got a little bit of everything in rental. We, and I haven't mentioned before, we actually have zero turns in rental as well. But we've got a little bit of everything. All the JOG, man lifts, scissor lifts, forklifts. We've got some PJ Dump trailers, trackers, excavators, skid steers, trenches, a little bit of everything for everyone, not just the commercial guys, but also the homeowner looking to knock out a weekend project. We got a little bit of everything. Singing my song, man. Tell folks how to come find you. We're right here in Robert Still on Highway 59. Come see us Monday through Friday, 8 to 5, or Saturday's 8 till noon, or give us a call at 2-5-1-947-4-1-7-1. Thank you, Blaine. Thank you, Sean. All right. There he goes. Blaine price, over Paris tractor at Robert Still. I mean, they've got the 0% too. I was thinking about that for upgrading the rotary mower that we all, of course, we call them bush olives, but that's a brand that's like calling tissues Kleenex, right? I got some land pride rotary mowers out there that are fantastic. All right, to the text line at 3-4-3-0-1-0-6, Ron says, "Thanks, Sean. Passenger Service for Mobile will prove to be a federally subsidized novelty." The problem is, Ron is also going to be state and municipal right now, just municipally subsidized. Said, "I had personal experience with attempting to use Amtrak passenger service for a planned business trip several years ago out of Birmingham. What a folly. 60 days of planning went up in smoke on the day of the planned trip. Train was four hours and possible to make the rental car connection, got my refund and drove a personal vehicle." The idea that it is a novelty is the right word, Ron. I'm interested in it because the novelty reason. Will we go ride the train? We sure will. Will I do it all the time? No, I won't. Once a year or every two years, a trip to New Orleans and back on the train, sure I will. Am I going to be that button of seat? Any more than that? Nope. I think it's cool, but it's not the most efficient way to get there. And then you talk about for business, it would make me nervous. Although you could turn around, Ron, and say the airlines also leave people stranded a lot as well. But we're not, now we are supporting them as well, in a way, giving them airports to come and go from. But then we charge them fees at the gate. So, I don't know where that all works out. Let's see. Somebody sent me something about World War Three. I have an initial that stays on my mind. Joshua said, "I like the Jocaine train name. New Orleans will not get it though." That's for sure. It's going to have to be some kind of... I'm just saying what I want, Joshua. I'm not going to say what they end up with. But see the Jocaine train and have picture old slack on there. Wouldn't that be cool? Pat says, "Marty Graw Show Train." On the "Marty Graw" thing too, the fact that they would name it that, if you grew up here, do you remember that point where... And maybe some of y'all were always tuned in. But "Marty Graw" was this thing that we celebrated each year, and sometime between end of deer season or senior pole and before Easter, right? It was a big thing. Always enjoyed it. Been part of my life, my whole life, from a kid going to parades to being adult that is still going to parades and just enjoy "Marty Graw." But it was this thing that was kind of like a certain time of year. When they started marketing, and you'd see the "Marty Graw" stuff, and, "Hey, we're going to do a parade in July, and we got this bowl game coming, so we're going to do a parade." I remember sitting and going, "Why are we doing that?" I was wrong. It's a great branding and a great marketing thing. But I guess you grew up with something, and you don't see it as being this different. It's just part of life, right? Yeah, it's a "Marty Graw" time. We're going to go to a parades, we're going to go to balls, go have big time. But it wasn't something that I branded with year round. Do y'all remember that moment? It started changing where we're marketing it and saying, "Yeah, we're the home of "Marty Graw," which we all knew, but elsewhere, and it became "Marty Graw" all the time, which kind of felt weird at first to me. But it's obviously proven to be good. The sexor says they should name it "The "Marty Graw Limited." Okay, I like that. I don't know how limited it is going to be, but hopefully it won't be too limited. Jerry Fort Borgen said, "The train coming back from New Orleans should always be referred to as a steel beer and corn dog bag express, Sean. What will we have to do to purchase that domain name?" Go to GoDaddy.com, see if you can get it, Jerry. Although I own three domain names that I thought were going to be genius at one point. I was going to do something with, and now I just have to pay my fee. I don't do anything with them. I just have to pay my fee to GoDaddy every year to hold on to them. But think it one day, it'll be a big payoff for me. Sean says, "Mr. Show, yesterday, did you talk about RFK Jr. leaving roadkill in his van while eating at a Michelin star-rated steak at Peter Luger?" How many stars is Luger? I don't know if I've been to -- what is like the top? Is it three, the top Michelin rating three star? I don't know. I don't think I've been to one at that level. I mentioned it briefly. The RFK story, it's a mix of things. The left is jumping on it too, and the right, because everybody's going to jump on it that they think they're going to lose some votes to RFK. I think we've proven that if you share too much in politics, it's going to come out, it can bite you on the butt. Maybe there's too much in podcasting and interviews, in cable news shows, too much time for these people to talk, and they end up painting themselves into a corner. This is a Christian Ohm effect, right? She doubled down. I didn't know that was in the book, and then she wrote the book, and then she read the book and did the audio version. You're like, what are you doing to yourself? But what Sean's talked about is that the article that came out about RFK Jr., so I guess he was driving -- the story, here's the problem with it. Part of it is really kind of cool, right? He was out -- I guess they were out running falcons, doing falcon rate, hunting with falcons. If you stop there, that's kind of cool. Here's a candidate for the presidency that knows something about running falcons. That's kind of cool. But then he was out doing that, and then somebody killed a bear. I don't know if it's a cub or a yearling, anything immediate. It's a baby cub. I don't know what it was. So he gets it roadkill-wise, picks it up, which we had a great show a year or two ago about the roadkill rules in Alabama, because I admitted that I had picked up -- I saw a deer killed on the road right in front of me, and we picked it up and threw it in our boat and went on home with it. We had the folks on for the state to talk about that. So he gets -- his story is that he picks up the roadkill bear, right? He was going to skin it and eat the meat, which you can say he's going to get in trouble, because you'd have to -- I don't know if he was licensed and all that stuff. But here's the part where Sean's talk about that it goes from being a regular every-person story, to being tone deaf maybe to way this sounds. AP says this. Eventually, he says he was in Manhattan and needed to get the bear carcass out of his vehicle. I like the fact he pulls in Manhattan with the bear carcass in his vehicle, even with the possible game ball violations. He said his friends, fueled by alcohol, concocted a central park plan as a prank, adding he was not drunk -- he was not drunk himself. But that kind of stuff like, okay, they're going to prank. Said at the time, bicycle accidents were getting significant media attention, so Kennedy and his friends thought it would be funny to make it look like the bear was hit by a bicycle. Drunk guy stuff. But it says two men walking -- two women walking their dogs found the dead bear alert of authorities touching off a mystery that captivated the city for a few days. Bearers are not among the parks known wildlife population. True, but they could move in. I mean, put those pictures up and talk to them. What was it last week? The bear that was right there by municipal park. But what Sean's getting to is the fact that he didn't end up taking the bear and skinning it and eating it because he was at a fancy restaurant. See, that's the part that they miss. Like, you either don't share the story at all or edit that fact. You know, say, "Oh, you know, we're young and dumb, and I was going to eat it, and then my buddies decided to make it like a prank." Still not to go. I don't know why you tell the story, but to say, "Well, wanted to do that," but it ended up spoiling because I was at a fancy restaurant eating. I mean, then you lose it. So why even start the story in the first place? So Sean, yeah, I have a few thoughts on it. Tim and Foley says the no-mo driving limited. Yeah, that's the idea, right? You can go to New Orleans and get tanked and come back, and I guess sober up before you get in your vehicle. Yeah, CB Carl, thank you. Yeah, today is the anniversary of dropping of a little boy on Hiroshima. I was on... How do you pronounce that? Is it Tinian, instead of the pitch where the bombs were loaded? Well, what a moment. You know, and yesterday as well was the... I don't know, it was the 300th anniversary of the battle, under 300th, the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Mobile Bay. I think that's right. August 5th. I should know I got a big map, a tactical map on the wall of my office at home that shows that battle. I think it's kind of commonplace in Mobile. I don't know. You got one of those? Yeah, I missed that one yesterday, too. News is coming up next. We'll be right back. More midday mobile. This is Midday Mobile with Sean Sullivan on FM Talk 106.5. Thank you, CB Carl, for the audio update. Ken, it's how you pronounce it. Always learning. Always learning. Love, love, too. The boring stuff, the good thing my son has some headphones. The boring history and science, it's boring to maybe to him, fascinating to me, podcast and books I'm going to listen to on a long trip. I'm excited. Keep learning every day. Keep learning. Hey, let me learn you this, y'all. You've got junk at the house. You've got junk at the storage unit. You've got junk at the office. It's stuff that's in your way. You've been forever going to get around to it. Well, get around to it and get rid of it with 1-800-GOD-JUNK. That's a personal friend of mine, so Trey and I have been knowing each other a long time. A homeboy, local guy, running 1-800-GOD-JUNK here. His family member is working for the business as well. I've used him personally, used him with this radio station. A bunch of us have, but go beyond that. You can look at the Google reviews, the number of people that are your friends, family, people we got church with, school with that have used the service from 1-800-GOD-JUNK. It's pretty darn easy. It's an actual appointment, which I've pointed out many, many times. None of this, I've had to deal with it with some stuff from my mother lately where they say, "I'll be there sometime between 7 in the morning and like 3 in the afternoon." I'm like, "Well, people have to work." They make actual appointments with 1-800-GOD-JUNK, so you go online 1-800-GOD-JUNK.com or call them. The name is the number 1-800-GOD-JUNK. They work out an appointment that works for you, and then they show up. All you do is point the junk you went gone. It could be any kind of stuff. We're talking about the number of big stuff they move as well. You might be thinking, "Yeah, just boxes or furniture." They got that, but storage buildings, above-ground pools, trampolines, swing sets, all that kind of stuff. You need it gone. You need 1-800-GOD-JUNK. Get it done. Get it off your list and make that appointment today online at 1-800-GOD-JUNK.com or on the telephone. 1-800-GOD-JUNK. Thank you, Tim. I'm sorry, Tim. Some days, I'm doing too many things in here. Same time, so that no-mo driving limited mean New Orleans for NO and MO for mobile. Thank you, Tim. Sometimes I'm slow, and that was one of those examples of me showing off how slow I could be. Let's see. I don't have an answer to that. I have not heard anything more that's happening at home. How about this? Somebody asked about the shooting slightly, and WKRG had that story. Three mobile shootings at three gated apartment complexes in three days. What do we know? I know this, the gates don't keep guns out. And they obviously don't keep people with guns out. So there you go. How about while I'm gone? People don't be shooting. Don't be shooting each other. We make that a challenge there, a challenge to just keep it non-gun violence while I'm gone. Also, we talked about a little bit earlier, but it's out. I don't know. Adding Minnesota's governor walls as the VP for Kamala Harris, I keep trying to open my mind and think about the move here, other than maybe the younger voters that are really pro-Palestinian and you wouldn't have Shapiro in the mix, but Pennsylvania, you trade a governor in a state that's a sure thing lock for the Democrats for their battleground state of Pennsylvania. The governor Shapiro in Pennsylvania has like a 67% approval rate. I mean, it's pretty popular in the state. I'm about to go quiz some kinfolk when I'm up there about it, but you trade that for Tim Walz. The people that would be energized by how left Tim Walz is, aren't they energized, and I'm asking this. It's not just rhetorical. For Democrats, wouldn't they be just as energized by Kamala Harris? Who would say, "I wasn't going to vote for Kamala Harris, but now she's added Tim Walz." If the idea is it's identity politics, well, we've got a black or Asian woman on the ticket, so we need to have a white dude. I find that as offensive as the flip side. When you say when Biden said, "I'm going to absolutely get a black female for my VP," I don't want to hear that, "Oh, well, we got to have a white male. Get the best person." But maybe that's the idea. Identity politics is going to have the white. I don't know why it wouldn't have been Shapiro, but that's the move. This economy thing, we'll see. I've been watching the markets rebounding some as people have I'd love to buy a bargain, right? People out there buying a bargain on Wall Street. Let's see what the Dow is today, because we talked about it when it was dropping yesterday, today, up 701, S&P up 120, Nasdaq 399, Wiggles back up. It would be of interest here to see if this stays that way. Are they too late? Because you can have the stock market can come back up, but those jitters in the economy that caused what happened yesterday, I don't know that that is gone. Is that going to be something that may be more important than any kind of identity politics, or who says what on the stump, or whatever viral moment happens for the undecided voters in this country? Will that be a question? Is it the Harris economy? Because it's too late now. This has been done before, where you have you inherit a economy that's good, and you say, look, I did a good job with the economy, look what I, and then the person that was there before said, well, they're just taking credit for what I had set up, but it's been four years. This belongs to Biden and Harris. So how do you spend that? And you get those people that vote, maybe not single issue voters, maybe they are on the economy. But does this situation with the economy make more of a difference in who your running mate is? And if they're from Minnesota and whether they support Israel or not, I mean, maybe that's the bigger thing. There's some things to think about. All right. Let's see. This says, sounds like things always happen when you're on vacation. I think Waltz will have a heart attack while you're out. Oh, let's see. Hopefully, hopefully, nobody has heart attacks. All right, just falls on the political sword, not any other short. All right. Paul Feynbaum on the way next got a great bunch of folks that will be filling in for me for the next few days. You'll be polite to him. How about that? Your act right? I know you can. All right. (upbeat music) Oh