FM Talk 1065 Podcasts
Shomari Figures Congressional Hopeful come in for the first time - Todd Stacy - Midday Mobile - Tuesday 9-03-24
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 106-5. 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 great council. I had no dollar bounce in. That doesn't suck. If you don't like it, you're bad. Last question, were you high on drugs? Last question, kiss my **** right. Here we go, FM Talk 106-5 Midday Mobile on this Tuesday, this shortened week here. I coached myself up not to say Monday as we get started with a short week here on Midday Mobile. Phone number hadn't changed for 15 years, didn't change over the weekend. 343-0106, get your phone call through. Also your text, 343-0106, reminder to when you have the FM Talk 106-5 app. One of the many things that goes on on that app, if you look at the front page of that app, you'll see a microphone icon. If you'll press that, let's your recorded message, emails it to the show and we can play it back here as well. So some of the ways to get in touch with us today and throughout the week, 56 hours a week of live local shows. So make sure you take part of it. All right, I mentioned it at the end of Jeff's show. So I'm at the end of last week, joining us now AL2, Democrat nominee for Congress, Shamari Fingers, enters the studio. Good to see you. Thanks for coming in. Hey, thanks, man. Thanks for having us, man. Glad to be here. It's, you know, I've known your mother. I've known the senator for a long time. Of course, heard her speak of you and all that, but I've never gotten to meet you in person. So it's the first time. So good to see you. And got this note from a friend. Happy birthday. Yeah, man. I appreciate it, man. I appreciate it. I'm blessed to see another year and happy to be spending it with you. Well, I'll say this, that either of y'all win AL2 by age, you'll drop the general age of Congress by 10, 15 years of the average. So there is the benefit of that younger people roughly the same. I think she's a little bit younger than me, but I think we're roughly the same age. Right, which contrasts you with, you know, you've spent some time in Washington, contrast you with some of the people that may be really long in the tooth. Yeah, yeah, it's some, there's certainly some, um, uh, a lot of them up there that ain't, that ain't quite rookies. It's a nice, very political way to put it. Not in a rookie year anymore. Very political way to put it. All right. Uh, we'll say, you know, I'd be your, your, your name, your family name, proceeds you, uh, but you obviously took the baton and ran with it as well, getting into the world of, of politics. Uh, this happened back when you, uh, you graduated Alabama Rotan, Rotan, which by the way, side note, Alabama fan question 63 to nothing win for the first game of the year. Is that enough or should we have done better? Look, I think it was enough given the circumstances. Look, while we're on the subject, I just got to give a shout out to Ryan Williams. Yeah. I mean, that kid 17 years old and represents this, this, this region, this city, this, uh, this, this, this state, uh, Sierra land high school. Uh, he's been on that. I mean, like, that, he's a class act of a kid. I've only met him a couple of times, but, um, he, you know, he really showed out and showed up in that way. 17. Yeah. 17 and plan on national TV and, and representing us like that. So roll tide to that. Absolutely roll tide to it. Um, so as we, we talk about the, uh, the campaign here and talk about your time in Washington, you got into politics went, how over you? Cause I mean, like you said, you're young man. You're 39. Now it's kind of born into it, right? Because I've been campaigning since I could walk. I mean, I got, that's what I was wondering. If you're a figure, if you're in the family, your late father or your mom, I mean, was that part of like, what are we going to do that? We're campaigning. Oh, mom, we have to go campaign again. Look, I think it's part of, uh, whether they were elected officials and not, um, you know, their, their desire to be involved in the community. My parents also ran a, um, a local newspaper for years. Um, and so just always had, you know, uh, handprints and footprints into what was going on in the community. And so growing up, that's, you know, that's, that's what it was for us was always being at community events, always being, um, if there were elections going on, always being out there campaigning either for my parents or for, um, for other people. Um, that's just kind of the environment that we grew up in. I tell people like the dinner time conversations, um, you know, a miles growing up where, um, about all of the, you know, the regular things, but you sprinkle into that. Like, Hey, one day you got to ask yourself, like, how do you take what God has given you? Um, whether that's in the form of resources or experiences or skills or talents or, you know, whatever it is that God has blessed you with, how do you take that and use it for the benefit, um, of the people and places that are responsible for you being you in the first place? Um, that was a value that we were just kind of raised with and that sort of expectation because, um, you know, it's, it was just important to my parents, um, to raise us that way. And, you know, so we ended up, you know, or I ended up sort of, you know, taking heed to that and that kind of drove my career, um, in the way that it did. Okay. So you go, you go, you, you work in the Obama administration. Uh, at that point, does it take, uh, do you think, okay, I'm going to come back, I'm coming back to come back home and doing something or did you, I mean, what did that experience did it enter John's you to come back home or say, Hey, maybe I could do more good in Washington? Look, I think it, it sort of, it opens your eyes, right? It opens your eyes to the ways that, um, that government can influence the things that matter, um, most to you and matter that most to the communities that, um, that you come from. And so, um, I think a lot of people will tell you, uh, in that space, whether they are on the Democratic side or the Republican side, uh, if you've worked, um, and first I'll say this, like working in a White House, I don't care who was president. I don't care if it's Barack Obama. I don't care if it's George Bush. I don't care if it's Donald Trump or Joe Biden working in a White House, um, for anybody from Mobile Alabama is a, is a dream come true. It's a very special opportunity. It is something that is, you know, even growing up here, like you're not expected to leave here and go work in a White House, right? Regardless of who's president. Um, and so, you know, you know, being in that environment and being exposed to how government works in, in, in that respect, uh, really just open my eyes to wanting to be further involved. Anybody that's worked in those positions in, in Washington, I think they kind of, uh, there's like this common sort of career theme that you see where people, um, you know, you, you get one job and then that leads to an next job. It's not necessarily sitting down at the table one day saying, Hey, I want to be in Washington for five years or seven years with 20 years. Right. Um, and for me, it was kind of that way. I knew that I wanted to stay involved and knew that I wanted to stay involved in government. I mean, I had plenty of times where I could have stepped out and gone and worked at some, um, you know, big fancy company or, or, you know, gone to a law firm and, um, and I didn't because I, I kind of wanted to stay involved and stay, stay involved in government to try to make people's lives better. So you, you decided to bring that back home here. Uh, how much of that is driven by the redrawing of AL2 with that, with that change? Yeah. No, I think it, it, the, the redrawing on the district, um, it created exactly what the court, um, kind of framed it as as an opportunity district. Um, and I looked at, at my career in the, the skill, uh, the skills and the experiences that I've been able to gain. Um, and I saw this as an opportunity to put that, uh, skill set to use and put that experience to use, uh, to try to help the people of this district, to try to help, uh, the communities that I grew up in, the communities, my family comes from this district even going, you know, back to slavery. They come right out of this district, um, in Clark County, Coffeeville and, um, Coffeeville's technically not in the district, but part of Clark County is in the district, but my mom's family, Gossport, Watley, um, it, it, it kind of gave us that opportunity to, to look at how we can leverage all of this experience that we've been able to get. I've worked in all three branches of federal government. I've been a federal law clerk in the federal court system. I've worked in a White House. I've worked at an executive branch agency, uh, and spent several years working, uh, in Congress as well in the US Senate. And so I, I tell people, I don't agree with how government works. Um, in many respects, like most people, um, we can always point to the inefficiencies, uh, but I know how it works. And I think at the end of the day, what we need to, uh, uh, to be able to address the issues and priorities of this district is someone that can step in on day one and be able to navigate the intricacies of it and leverage the entirety of federal government for the benefit of this district. Okay. So how does, let's, let's break that down. So for this district, because we can talk about some national policies, but let's talk about how they reflect an AL2, uh, things you want to see, see changed and, uh, you know, going through, uh, playing through your platform here, you know, health and education part of it. So as a congressman elected for AL2, how do you make a difference? Yeah. Because you're, you're, you're at the federal level. How do you make a difference for AL2, specifically? Let's say for healthcare. Yeah. Look, so I think, um, from the healthcare perspective is this like you, I think you, we have to localize issues. We have to make people here, uh, in your district, understand the local impact of the, of the issues that we're talking about, right? And it can't always just be in big words like Medicaid expansion. Does that actually mean, right? Um, so here's what I know about healthcare in the state of Alabama, not just this district, but across the whole state. If you are born in the state of Alabama, you are expected to die before anybody else born in any other state in the United States of America with the exception of two states. And I'm sure you could guess one of them. Yeah, probably Mississippi, Mississippi, and then West Virginia. Okay. Um, and we only outlived them by just a few months, right? So it's not like, you know, we're, you know, in a distant third, right? Like it's, you know, for statistical purposes, we live the literal shortest lives of anybody born anywhere else in the United States of America. And so we have to ask ourselves, why is that right? Why is that right? And a lot of that stems from access to healthcare, a lot of that stems from the lack of healthcare in our rural parts of, uh, uh, this state, right? A lot of it stems from people who don't make enough money to reasonably be able to afford health insurance on the private marketplace, uh, but also make a little too much money to currently qualify for Medicaid, right? And that's what Medicaid expansion would do. It fixes that sort of gap. Um, in the state of Alabama, that gap is about 330,000 people estimated, uh, which means just doing some simple math, right? If we're just doing equal distribution here, um, about, you know, somewhere between 50 and what 75,000 of those people are located just in district two, right? Which would mean that 70% of that number is located just in Mobile and Montgomery. And so, you know, when we talk about Medicaid expansion, we, that's what we're talking about, bringing more healthcare coverage. Since we've been in this race, since we got in this race, uh, last, uh, November, uh, we've had three hospitals shut down in this district, three hospitals and all of them were in rural counties. But yeah, yeah, sure. But look at this. Here's the federal side, federal money coming in for Medicaid expansion, and it's tempting. And you see here's, here's this money, but then you look at the percentage that the state would be on for it. And I know they've gotten this discussion with the gaming, you know, and we could use this money for this or, but at the end of this, I mean, I've seen it at a local level. We've done some things here in the city of Mobile, taking federal money for a program and forgot about the fact that we have to match. That would be the worry, you know, so we'll leave it at, uh, could, could the state match it? I mean, if they say no, maybe it's, uh, really a fiscal decision of, oh, gosh, this is great. There's this federal buddy, but where are we going to come up with our, our side of it? Yeah. So I think it, I think it's, look, I think it's looking at and analyzing the, the priorities of it. So one thing about Medicaid expansion, one thing that the affordable care offered, uh, that's no longer on the table currently, um, is when you opt it into Medicaid expansion, the federal government will reimburse the states fully, uh, for a certain amount of time, I believe it was five years, five to seven years. Now that window has expired. So in terms of top priorities, it's getting back to DC and, and getting on with, uh, uh, uh, with Congresswoman Terry Sewell has been introducing the bill to try to, uh, reincentivize states like Alabama, how to do it. Over 40 states have opted into Medicaid expansion, right? So let's be clear, this is not a Democrat or Republican issue. This is not a conservative or liberal issue, a black, white issue over 40 states, the majority of whom have Republican governors, and Republican state leadership have opted into Medicaid, right? So it's not a political issue. It's about healthcare. It's about providing healthcare, right? So, um, I think what you would, what we have to understand and what we have to realize is that healthcare, uh, investments in healthcare, it's not going away, right? It's going to be something that governments continue to do going forward. And so when you look at the premise of Medicaid expansion, and when you look at the premise of healthcare expansion, um, it's premised on the fact that a healthier population when they are younger is cheaper to provide healthcare for as they get older. Okay. Their long term ounce of prevention, pound of care. Exactly. And that's what it's premised on, right? That's the whole reason that under the affordable care at kids can stay on their health insurance until they're 26. That's the whole reason we want to expand Medicaid to try to get more younger people healthcare coverage so they can have access to the resources and knowledge and treatments that they need. Look, it is much cheaper to send somebody to a doctor once or twice a year for an annual checkup, right? To, to, you know, to deal with just basic checkup issues, then it is for those people that we all know who just don't go to the doctor. Well, we can say this years to guys here. Okay. We lead a horse of water and can't make them drink. Exactly. I mean, so we can say that there are these things available here, but there's also, uh, probably more guys and women. I think that's true. I think that's true as well. Don't go. So don't go. I mean, you can have the facility, you can fund the facility if the guys don't go. And then it gets to be they don't go until they're so sick or so ill that they, that it's going to cost a lot of money. Yeah, which you, but, but I think, um, I agree with you. I think, I think that, um, and I think statistics will back us up here that that men are less likely to go to the doctor than women. Um, but I think statistically speaking, people with health insurance are also more likely to go to the doctor than people without it, right? I think more people are afraid of a bill than they are of the diagnosis, right? In too many, in too many cases and that, that motivates them to not go to the doctor. But I think, you know, it's, it getting people to go to the doctor if they have, or giving people to have access to go to the doctor, if they, you know, assuming that, uh, that they go, it's much cheaper to pay for them for annual checkups for 20 years than it is for them when they finally become eligible for Medicaid later in life or Medicare, then now we're paying for them to be on dialysis, right? For conditions that could have been detected, treated, educated against, you know, years before. Gotta, gotta run the break coming right back. More Weshmari figures right here on Midday Mobile. This is Midday Mobile with Sean Sullivan on FM Talk 1065. I've got 1222 FM Talk 1065 and a little bit more time here. We're shimari, uh, shimari figures AL2, Democrat candidate for the general coming up in November. Yeah, we talked about some issues back here in AL2, and I wanna, this is where you have the federal side and the state side next, and there's a lot more blanks in the platform in the future. Hopefully we talk about it. But would you be in a situation? I know that at Senator Doug Jones, we'd come on with me, and we'd talk about some things. I always thought my interest always peaks where somebody will depart from the party orthodoxy because of, you know, for him, it was the state, obviously, as a senator for you would be. AL2, do you see a situation where you would be a no vote on something that may be popular with the national party, Democrat party, but you look at it and it's not good for AL2. I mean, those situations do come up. They do come up and they should come up, right? They should come up for every single member of Congress. And the reason I say they should come up is because, look, there used to be this concept of being a statesman or a stateswoman, meaning that you went to Washington, DC to do exactly what the people of your district sent you there to do, right? Or at least representing those interests that were important there locally, right? It wasn't so polarized around like these national issues. Information wasn't all consumed from, you know, two or three primary national sources, right? You still have local news papers, local talk shows, local radio stations that influenced how you could amplify the things that meant the most locally. And for me, that is, that's still the goal, right? That is still the goal that you go to Washington, DC, not to be a pawn in a political game, not to be a pawn of a political party, but you're going up there to represent the people here. And so for me, what do those potential departures look like? Any situation that comes up where this district needs me to be in a place where others in the party may not be or where party leadership may not be or even where a president may not be. For me, that looks like, look, I have no problem going up there advocating for every type of investment that we need to make from an infrastructure standpoint here, from an economic development standpoint here, from a workforce development standpoint here, bringing in what we need, both the resources and the regulatory environment that we need for businesses to be here in the state of Alabama, to be here in this district to provide the types of jobs of the future that we want to do, that we want in this community. And so that's what that looks like. For me, you got to stand up Alabama first, because at the end of the day, guess what? When you go to Washington, I don't care if your name is Shamari figures or Caroline Dobson. The Republican Party or the Democratic Party did not elect us to be there. That's correct, right? Like the people of this district elected you to be there. And so you have to keep that top of mind every single day. Obviously, you don't sacrifice your core values and your core beliefs of who you are as a person and how you were raised and what you believe in. But at the end of the day, it's bigger than you, right? It's about a community. It's about a district. It's about a state. It's about people who need government to be there for them in a certain type of way to improve life outcomes in this district. Simple as that. It was something I saw that headline recently here that you're talking about Dobson's trip to the border and said there was a photo up. And I'm paraphrasing you. You can actually quote yourself, but you said something in addition to supplement, you said, like in your travels around AL2, people aren't asking you about immigration, which for me, a guy who's a talk show host in AL2 seems wild because it drives so many phone calls for me. Listen, let me be clear. Securing our border is and always has to be a top priority, right? From a national perspective, and it will be I've worked to secure our border and jobs I've had before in Washington, D.C. I know that our immigration system is a mess, but that's not a democratic mess. That's not a Republican mess. That is an American mess. That is a mess that has been accumulating for decades, five, six decades since we've passed any sort of substantive immigration reform to change the system. That is a mess that if we're honest with ourselves, right? If we just step back and we're honest with ourselves, those are failures of democratic administrations and democratic led Congresses. Those are failures of Republican led administrations and Republican led Congresses. We have not gotten the job done on fixing our immigration system. Period. Nobody can say we have, right? But what I can tell you is this, you know, Bullitt County just had a hospital shutdown. One causes illegal immigration. Our kids here in the state of Alabama read at the sixth worst literacy rate in the United States of America. That ain't because of illegal immigration, right? Yeah, we got the lowest life expectancy in the United States of America. It ain't because of illegal immigration. So when we talk about localizing issues, yes, we have drugs come in because of that. We have people come in on top of, you know, just regular Americans that seem to hurt each other, you know, with right routine. Now we have people come in from elsewhere. But you mentioned on the on the education side, and I'm going to run out of time, got to come back, but look at this. And you talk about on playing your platform about how, and I agree with you, I think it's unacceptable, the levels of performance for our students. That's why Bush, I wanted to have literacy act in these things where we've made sure a kid could read before you moved them on to the next level. But Alabama teachers, you're not growing up. They were not paid well. But now you talk about some of the lowest paid in the nation, but there's some of the highest paid in the Southeast. I mean, more than Florida. I think Georgia beats it more than Florida, more than Mississippi, more than Tennessee, more than Arkansas. So we all so something else has to be there as well. We can put money here, but we have. Okay. We got to learn. Look, it's a it's a it's a totality of the circumstances. And I'm not as familiar with the with the comparative stats of teacher pay versus, you know, neighboring states. I'm also not as familiar with their with the educational outcomes in the states that you mentioned. But I do know, I think every state you just mentioned, they do have an education lottery. Hint, hint, Alabama, but we got talked about because Georgia passed theirs and then they did a little three card money and took the money that they had been putting in general fund for education and replaced it with lottery money instead of doing it then. But they still have the whole scholarship there and yeah, allow people to, you know, continue education. But at the end of the day, like investments in education is beyond teacher pay. I do think that we have to treat our teachers. Look, I I'm a big believer. I think teachers and school support personnel are the single most important professions to the future of this state, this district and of this country. You cannot name me another profession that prepares every other profession at some point in their life. Right. So we do have to make investments there, right? And the average teacher, average first year teacher in a classroom now in Alabama is gone by year four. No longer in the classroom for a variety of reasons, pay being, but one of them. But I think at the end of the day, like our education systems have to reflect our priority. You show me where you spend your time in your money, and I'll show you your priorities. And I don't think we spend enough time, enough focus, enough care, enough concern in both from our education system. The other thing I'll say on this is look workforce development is a huge issue that we talk about, right? Preparing the workers in our community to attract the types of companies that we want. Regardless of how you feel about charter versus private versus public schools, there is a statistical fact. There are not enough charter in private schools in the state of Alabama to educate the masses. The majority of kids have been, and will be, and will continue to be educated in our public school systems. So it is in all intents and purposes our biggest workforce development program. We cannot continue to divest in our biggest workforce development program when we're saying that we're serious about workforce development. Shma, I appreciate your time. Thanks for coming. Please come back. Thank you, man. This is Midday Mobile with Sean Sullivan on FMTalk 1065. At 1236, FMTalk 1065 at Midday Mobile. Glad to have you. Along on this Tuesday, feels like a Monday for many people, but a Tuesday nonetheless, and we'll get some text here in just a second. Leona, I know you're waving at me, am I supposed to know something here? Okay, we'll just... Oh, there we go. That's what I was watching. So Leona opened the door, and I pressed the button, and ladies and gentlemen, if I did this correctly, Todd Stacey from Alabama Daily News and Capitol Journal joins us. Hey, Sean. It is him. Okay, good. Good. I want to ask you, the first hard-hitting question today. I just had Shmaury figures on the show and asked him if 63-0 was a satisfying win for an Alabama fan, you know, for opening game. Auburn scored even more points. Did leave three on the field, you know, for Alabama A&M? How do you feel as an Auburn fan with Performance for Week 1? Hey, it's hard to complain about that. I mean, plus, you know, I went up to how we played Alabama A&M. You know, obviously, we probably paid them close to a million dollars, but at least that money stays in state. I like that. And they also had a great fan performance. But yeah, man, look, for Auburn fans, we actually threw some forward passes. It's kind of a foreign concept to us. Forward passes that were caught, and like, cross the goal line. I mean, I didn't know what I had to have somebody explain it to. What is it? It was really exciting. Well, good. Good. So it was great for, you know, both schools in the state. Well, some others not like A&M, but for Alabama and Auburn. Good. You know, this is perfect because in your email that came out this morning, I just finished up talking to Shmaury figures. And one of the things we were talking about is education in the state and kind of the outcomes here. And a top story in your email this morning, the Literacy Act credited for third grade English score improvements. So could you go back if people were under a rock and talk about quickly, what is the Literacy Act? And then let's talk about what these improvements are. Yeah, so we had some real success in reading back in the late 90s and early 2000s with the Alabama Reading Initiative. Folks might remember that name. But I would say during the Bentley years, the state kind of took its foot off the gas and we saw some really horrible backsliding in math and science and in reading. And look, if you can't read, you're going to have a real hard time in life. You're probably not going to graduate high school. If you do, you're going to have a hard time finding a job. So the state wanted to focus on, okay, how do we get the younger grades trained up better in reading? So they passed the Literacy Act, which targets a lot of resources, funding new school resources, reading coaches into those early years, think pre-k through third grade, summer camps, summer reading camps, things like that. But also an important component was that it's the accountability. If you can't read by third grade, then you're not allowed to be promoted to fourth grade, right? That went into effect this year. And so look, it's been almost five years. I haven't five years since that law was passed. It's been a long implementation. Obviously, COVID is in the middle of that. But yeah, you're starting to see the data prove and that parka report really shows it. How this law, this reform, it took a while, obviously, but it's starting to really work. It's starting to really show that those third grade, early grade scores are improving dramatically. Sean was talking about 10 percentage points gained in just a year. That's incredible. And it also shows how, okay, if we focus, if we do the right thing, if we make the hard choices and pass the right policies, it can actually work. So I hope it's a lesson for other areas of state government in education saying, okay, if you do it right, it really can work. And this is why I like to is a lesson here, education, for the people who said, listen, you can't, those, I mean, I got cold names, not by tons of people, but some people out there in the blogosphere, that the mean-spirited nature that I want to require a test for a kid to matriculate to the next grade, to be able to read. And this was not going to do anything making a difference. I mean, here it is, proofs in the pudding, right? I mean, here's here the gains. And now these kids are ready to be able to read to learn. That's right. And look, I think they do have some, you know, provisions in place for those kids that really aren't good test takers or whatever. They can kind of assess in other ways. We look, assessment is part of life. We all take tests every day, you know, but- You don't know if it's working. If you don't take it, I mean, all the other things delineated there, I support the extra reading camps, the coaches, the tutors, all for that. But if you don't put something concrete to show that you retain the information, then you're just screwing around. And it's not fair to the students. And that's what I like to always get back to, is you're just passing along a student that cannot read. And you're not doing that student any favors. They're going to be worse for wear in the upper grades, just trying to fly by because that's what the data shows. If you can't read by third grade, because that's when the flip switches, the switch flips, whatever, you learn to read. And then like you just said, you read to learn at starting at fourth grade, you're expected to know how to read because that's how you learn the other subjects. And so it's really important. Look, we don't have a whole lot of success stories in education in Alabama. This is a success story, and folks should be proud of it, but there's another lesson. You know, as I said, during the Bentley years, the state took its foot off the gas on reading. I can't let that happen this time. I've spoken to Dr. Mackey, lead lawmakers, and they're committed to that. They know that history, and they don't want to see it happen again. No, and that's, I mean, that's why the guardrails of testing would protect from that, because then you find out at a year basis that something's not working versus letting it go years before you do. That's right. And they've done a good job in recent years of streamlining the test. You know, for years, you had all kinds of different kind of disparate tests that were being, you know, required to students for this and that. Now it's one test. It's the, you know, it's called the LCAP test. All the students take it, and so there's, you know, for as much as it can be streamlined and simplified, it is. And so I think that's good. But yeah, testing's just part of it, man. You got to know students are doing well, but all the way to do that is a test. All right, if you're just joining us talking to Todd Stacy, Alabama Daily News and Capitol Journal, let's take it from here at home to Washington, although it does play into, I mean, conversation I just had with Schmory figures, and we have with Caroline Dobson, control of Congress, and where that goes, and what happens in the White House. Pulling out there right now, I mean, you pick your poll, pick your result, I guess, right? But I don't think this is a shoe in for either candidate, either for Trump or Harris. I think you're right about that. The one takeaway that I have kind of over the weekend of digesting some of this stuff is that I think the Kamala Harris bump, I think the honeymoon has finally finished. And look, it lasted. It lasted a good month, right? And and was impressed that she had some really impressive numbers. I think a lot of that Sean was Democrats coming back home, right? A lot of those Democrats. We lost Todd. Hey, hey, Todd, are you back? Yeah, we lost you for a second there. Sorry about that. Yes, so not only do we need to widen 60, I asked Lieutenant Governor next time, not only do we need to widen the actual lanes, how about widening the cell signal on 65? Well, yeah, there's always that spot in Clinton, right? I always glad. But yeah, I think it's a dead heat. And remember, Democrats to win the White House, Democrats need to win the popular vote by about four three or 4%, because Republicans have a built in advantage in the electoral college. Harris right now is about, you know, one or two percent. So I think it is a dead heat. You're talking about four to seven states where this is going to play out. So we'll see, man. I just, I keep going back to say that's not what we're talking about before. The race has always been Trump's to lose. And if he can actually get all message and stay on measures and stop screwing around, I think he's got a, you know, he could probably walk into the White House. He can. I mean, he does have forces aligned against him. I mean, can we imagine the way the narrative goes? I about once a week ago, you know, it was just back in July when somebody attempted to kill him, you know, like it, like it hardly gets a blip now. Ancient history, ancient history. Shall we talk about what happened? I mean, in the old, I mean, how long, I'm a little older than you, but I mean, when, when the attempted assassination Reagan happened, it was part of the news cycle for, for months. I mean, water cooler talker, maybe, maybe even longer. Well, yeah. And, you know, you had the whole Jodi Foster thing. Yeah, that was, but yeah, the new cycle is annoying because it moved just, it really is a 24 hour news cycle. I think, you know, Trump has done some good things in terms of pointing out some contrast and everything. They would just stay on message and point out the different, just remind people of the good things about his presidency. I think, I think he, he went too often, he reminds people of the bad things about his presidency, the, you know, kind of craziness and unpredictability and weird tweets and weird statements, stuff like that. Don't remind people of that. Remind people of the good thing. Yeah, the economy. Yeah. It's stable, war, all the things like that. Don't remind people of the craziness. People want to catch up with these emails. I keep talking about how do they get those in their inbox like, like I do? How do they get cool? It's really easy. Just go to aldailynews.com. You can enter your email address and your name right there on the website and you'll be on the list. Look forward to having me as a subscriber. And Capitol Journal Friday nights. Friday nights at 730 on APT. And if you didn't catch last week's show, just go to YouTube. There's our Capitol Girl channel there and you can catch up the latest episodes. Good stuff. As always, Todd, I appreciate you braving 65 and this radio show at the same time. So thank you. All right, there goes Todd Sacy. We're coming right back. [Music] This is Midday Mobile with Sean Sullivan on FM Talk 1065. All right, 1252 FM Talk 106 5 Midday Mobile. Glad to have you along and check in with my buddy Anna at Mobile Bay Coins and find jewelry because I know Ron might get on and talk precious metals, like spot value day in and day out and I find it very interesting. But also, if you're ahead of the game enough to be already thinking about Christmas gifts or you got a birthday or something special coming up, what Anna, when you tell us about the unique jewelry at Mobile Bay Coins and find jewelry, one of the ways you get that is the state sale jewelry, right? Yes, we do have a lot of states that come in and it's, you know, you need gorgeous heirloom pieces and a lot of the time, it's a one time and a lot, once in a lifetime piece that you just don't see anywhere. And also, we get in like flatware, goblets. I do have a really nice goblet at the moment that doesn't have a monogram and that, you know, a lot of the time people put their initials on them and you would have to match up, you know, the initial to make it work. But it's goblets and strongly fill a flatware, make a great wedding gift or just, you know, a birthday gift as well to somebody. I like it. Also, talk about, you know, about customizing things. You all do that on silver rounds or whatever, that they can get something and be a goblet, be it a silver round. Y'all can do that work right there to customize it and put somebody's name on it or date or something like that. Yes, we can put any, any type of engraving they choose on there. Yes, sir. All right, tell them how to find you. We're at 2204 Government Street and we're just a block west of Little Fire Catholic School and Church. Good stuff and I will check back soon. Sounds good. All right, there she goes. All right, let's go to the text line here. A couple of things. We'll actually stack of them since we got started. We didn't really have a chance to get to text earlier this hour. Squirrel Vereen, which, so what did you... Squirrel Vereen, am I like... I think I say it the right way because I heard Jeff say something that you're like Wolverine, but squirrel Vereen. So we need to hear from John C. Young after Shmari figures and just in general anyway. Yep, I do. I hadn't and talked to him on the air in a while. Squirrel Vereen. Sometimes I go, I could see not talking a good bit, but I don't think he's been on the show in a couple of weeks. So John, if you're listening, we're going to get that set up. Pat said, "If I'm not mistaken, Mr. Figure's bought some land at my neighborhood and is building a house." Is that his or just another member of the Figure's family? I don't know. Hopefully, we can get that asked. I might have him come back because there's just no way in 30 minutes to get into meeting somebody for the first time and then digging into policy. Yeah, because David asked him, "What's Mr. Figure's stance on decriminalization of drugs at a federal level? Is there any drug that he would not decriminalize?" That's a great question. I wish I'd gotten to that. A named Textor says, "Figure's is lying about everything. He's not going to go against the demon craps. If he was going to be the true representative, he would have spoken. If he was going to be the true representative, he would have spoken at the DNC." He did speak at the DNC. Maybe he said he wouldn't have. Maybe he meant wouldn't have. I don't know if not. He did speak. Preston says, "Shmari Figure's sounds good, and I agree and disagree with him." See, that's normal stuff, man. That's it. It's okay. He said, "I think he's a fine man, very smart, known as mamasons high school, and he was daddy for my business. I do think that he would do what's best for our state, but my other concern nationally is we need a conservative vote from Alabama." Well, that's the thing too, Preston, right, that you've got this... AL2 is very pivotal for control of the house. It depends on how some other states go, but very pivotal. It's always that rub back. I think you've got two people here. I'll say this. They're younger. I have more knowledge about Carolyn Dobson and what she would do and what she believes in than shmari figures, but I'm going to learn more about shmari. Because either person, one of these two people will be AL2's member of Congress. Time to get to know him is right now, for sure. Firedog said, "Why are these people who need Medicaid not on Obamacare? Isn't that what it was designed to do? Give affordable health care to everyone?" Yeah. In Firedog, good for you. I did not get a chance to get to that question. Probably ask it in a further one, but there is this... Where somebody makes too much money, but not enough money, right? Look at the price of health care out there. The Medicaid expansion thing is, if you look at just the federal money, it's like when we take on projects here at home, there's federal money for it, and it's all exciting because there's big federal money. But can we, at a state, or in this case, municipal level, make up the difference? And I do hear there are... I mean, stats do bear out, if you can get people to doctor earlier, then you don't have as big a cost when they come in later. But you have to get those people to go in the first place. And then second of all, when you do that, how much of Alabama's budget has to go to make up the difference for the expansion? Monty says, Shamari speaks with intellect and intelligence, yet he is with a party of liars, cheaters, and race baiters. The Democratic Party have promised their constituents the same thing as long as I can remember. They just keep them dependent on them with hands-outs and assistance. Democrats make me absolutely sick. Terry says, "Come on, Sean. It was the hilltoppers on the SEC team. It better be a blowout." Okay, so I should have read that to Todd. On the Bama score, by the way, 63 to 0, how many... Just be honest with yourself, and I'm one of y'all, graduate and a fan of the University of Alabama, said they probably should have done a little more than that. 63 to 0, it's just... I think they could have done better. Or her job. Well, Mac was complaining about the defense, like, would they miss things up? Well, they did hold them to 0. So, a name, Texas, said they changed the standards. How do our scores rank nationally compared to last year? Is that for the school testing? Coming right back. We'll try to pick up with that question. Also, April Rifogel joining us, and my man Wayne Dean, all coming up next hour, right here on Midday Mobile. [Music]