Showdown
Showdown Episode 91 6-26-24
(upbeat music) - Welcome to Showdown, I'm Mark Casein. And it is Wednesday, June 26th. And we have a whole host of people here to meet with us and talk with us about all kinds of good things that have happened in the last several days at the Missouri Capitol. And we're really looking forward to this conversation. And I'm gonna get into this with you all in just a moment. And let me just say that in the midst of all the work that the young people have been doing with our elected officials in Jefferson City, it's unbelievable today. It's just an interesting and important day, certainly in our current environment where so many things are up in the air and we don't know what government is doing or not doing. And certainly Missouri is in the midst of all of this because there's an abortion issue in Missouri that's hot on everybody's list of what do we do. And here we are, the Supreme Court today released a document, and I say a document because it's been told to us that it was not an official opinion and it's on the Idaho abortion case and it's a very important case. And everybody's trying to figure out what it means. And the Supreme Court has been very clear by being unclear that they don't know what they're about to do or they're not telling us or anybody. And so you all who were in the midst of government in the last several days, you're coming on the air at a time when government is certainly front and center and everybody is trying to make sense out of what is happening. And then of course, we wanna talk about what you all did which was very important work because it's bringing young people into the civics of the United States through the work in Missouri. So first of all, let me introduce some people here. I've got Isabella White, right Isabella? - Yes, sir. - Okay, and Jenabu, is it Diallo? - Yes. - Okay, very good, Jenabu. And then I've got my very good friend, Yolanda Fountain Henderson. How are you, Yolanda? Okay, we're having a little problem with your connection. Okay, are you, can you hear me now, Yolanda? - Yes. - Oh, there we go, I got you. - Okay, how are you? - I am great and we're so happy to have you. And I'm trying, I'm, that's a problem. Okay, so let's see, let me get this off. Okay, so now Michael Johnson, how are you? - I'm doing well, thank you, how are you? - I'm great, and you're, let's start with you for a second, Michael, where are you a representative? - I'm a Missouri State Representative of the District 23, the 23rd District in Kansas City, Missouri. - Gotcha, very good. And Yolanda, tell everybody where you're a representative. You there, Yolanda? - Okay, 85th District in St. Louis County of St. Louis. - Excellent, excellent. And then my favorite young people, one is I know the floor leader, who's that? - That's me. - Okay, and so that was your position over the weekend. And then Isabella, what was your position? - Speaker of the house. - Speaker of the house. So, okay, so let's, let's back up for a second. Either Isabella or Genibou, you wanna tell me, what were you trying to accomplish here on these four days? - I can start, it was really a conference to learn more about policy and continue our leadership skills. And I learned a lot about communication and collaboration, I will say. So it was mostly to teach all the students there about the legislative process in our state. - Okay, Genibou, you wanna add into that? - Yeah, so it's basically just what she said. We had the opportunity to learn a lot more about kind of what goes down in like our government and how laws are actually made. So it was really cool opportunity as we also got to work on our leadership, doing like seminars and just a lot of collaboration. - Right, now I've discussed some of this with Cheryl Dozier, who is the person who put all of this together for us for this evening. And she certainly gave me some information. Was there some kind of a substance abuse meeting as well that was going on here? - We had the opportunity to join in on like actual committee hearing and that was one of the things that they're discussing during that hearing. It was like about substance abuse. - So give me some feedback here. Now you spent some days with all of these people that are supposed to know what they're doing, but can't even put a Supreme Court case out to the public on time or the right way. So tell me about what you learned about government. What's going on here? - I will say we definitely learned more about the process of government and how it builds our past, that it's not a simple process and it takes a very long time. We went through our own mock committee hearings and kind of a fast forward version of a house floor session. And we did meet some legislators and hear from their points of view as well. - Yeah. How many students did you have involved in this? - About 50. - 50, okay. Really nice, very nice. And so my real representatives, okay, talk to me a little bit about what you saw happening here. You wanna hear from me? - Yolanda, you wanna go? You can go ahead, Yolanda. - Yolanda, go ahead. You can tell us. - Okay. All right. When I, okay. When I stepped in and everything, I saw some great. Can you hear me? - Yes, yes. - Okay. The children came prepared and I was very proud of them. And I told them, you're doing what we do. And even we threw some curve balls in there and they were sharp. These students were very sharp. They were eager to learn. And now they understand what we do up in Jefferson City. And they asked very good questions if they had questions and they all were attentive. They all were paying attention. And I was very, very proud of this bunch of, I call future leaders. - Sure. - No, I can tell already. I mean, you can see how poised both of these young ladies are. I mean, you can see, I mean, they're very comfortable on the camera. And I mean, I almost feel like they were elected to something already. - Thank you. - Yeah. Yeah, tell them. - Exactly, because we already know they're gonna take our spot. - Yeah, for sure. What did you think about what happened here, Michael? - Well, I think that first of all, ladies, you did an awesome job. And I really mean that genuinely because what you did was you stepped up to the plate and it takes courage to do the things that you all were doing inside of the chamber interacting and having those mock sessions with us in the committee and inside of the chamber. So I could be in both of you first of all, and I'm very proud of both of you for stepping up to the plate and taking those challenges and running with it and doing a great, great job. It was to the point that I love the way that you all were transparent with one another. The way you interacted, it actually was, as if though you all were our floor leader and also our speaker of the house. So to my, to Madam Speaker and to Madam floor leader, Kudos, excellent job. I like the way that you all did come prepared. You had the attention, the detail was there and you all were very, very focused. And you did actually inquisitive and intriguing questions. And you did pick up on the curveballs that we were throwing. So overall, I commend them. And this is something that is needed because as my colleague representative, Yolanda Town Henderson stated, it's an opportunity for us to be able to see our future successes. And I think that a lot of, a lot of countries, they have a hundred year plan. This is an opportunity for us to start our own 100 year plan right throughout the state of Missouri to make sure that we have great leadership long, long after we are no longer here. So great job ladies. - So thank you, Representative. - What was the controversy, I mean, there must have been maybe more than one, you know, but you only had four days. But what were the controversies that you were dealing with in your session? - I can start. So we had four bills, I believe, and correct me if I'm wrong, Jenaboo, but we had the Crown Act regarding protective hairstyles and discrimination against them. We had the Law Enforcement Accountability Act. We had a tax on feminine hygiene and diapers. And we had a bill about making the general election day a holiday, a public holiday. And so we passed all of the bills, except for the one about the general election day should be a public holiday. And I think that one had a lot of controversy. Some people thought that closing colleges and universities on that day would be an excuse for college students not to go to classes. And others were saying that it was really important that young people got the opportunity to vote and that those colleges and universities could be used as a polling place. So that was one of the controversies that we had. - Okay, and by the way, was this somehow supported or put together along with the University of Missouri, Columbia, is that, am I right about that or not? - No, these were real bills. - No, no, I understand that part. No, I just, I saw something that suggested that MU was involved in this somehow, but maybe I'm wrong. Or maybe you all were just staying there or so, I don't know, tell me about that. - No, at that point it was a group effort. At that point, yes, it most definitely was. So I would go on record to say that they were involved. - Okay. - And then on our end, the representation was there from the Missouri legislative black caucus. - Exactly. And, you know, look, we got a country that is so deeply divided. Were your 50 students divided? Did you have that same thing going on? - I think, I think personally from what I could see as a student, when we would vote the students, they were more genuine. You could tell that they didn't have any hidden agendas or anything extra, of course, because this was the training opportunity for them. So it was very genuine. So a lot, I think that a lot were in favor, a lot of times that they would vote, and we would use a hand vote, and a lot of them would be in favor in support of a lot of the bills. And as Madam Speaker stated, that the one bill that they didn't pass was one that still needed to be worked on, and a lot of people did feel as if they were being out of school that they would just give them an extra excuse to not be in class on that day. So I think that they did a great job in being supportive of something that needed support. - Yeah, and some of the students, I think they were told to reject the bill. - Told to reject it by who? - I mean, you know, just saying, you know, the reason why I don't, you know, I don't be, you know, they say that they're opinion. - Right, totally made for a better mock session. - Okay. - It gave them opportunity to see what a lot of times where we're up against, and just so that they can see it from both sides of the aisle as well. - There, I will add on and say there were parties. So we had like party one and party two, as if it were Democrats and Republicans. But like Representative Johnson stated, people were very genuine with their voting. So there wasn't really a voting with your party, or even a voting across party lines, people just voted the way that they believed. And if people wanted to oppose a bill, even just to challenge the bill sponsor and see if they knew what they were talking about, or if they had thought of something already, they did. - So in those bill sponsors were right on point. So was there anything that you picked up, now I'm talking about Isabella and Jenabu, as far as what you saw happening in your sessions, and then connecting that to what's going on in the real world right now. Were there any connections that you specifically made that might be important for us to hear? - I mean, like Isabella said, we kind of saw like, we were able to see both sides. Like even though some people genuinely just opposed it, so that they just opposed it so that we would kind of see both sides. You kind of see that happen in real life. Like just people playing devil's advocate essentially. But that was kind of interesting to see. - Are you two strongly political in your regular lives? I mean, do you walk around all day, tuned into CNN, MSNBC and all these other stuff, trying to figure out what's going on? Or is that just a bunch of sick people like us? - Probably not as much as I should be, but I try to be everyone's in all. - I'll say I stay somewhat tuned in, but I do unplug sometimes for my own mental health and benefits and just to be with my family and friends. - Oh no, they're, forget them. They don't, yeah, who are they, right, yeah. No, this is intensive work and extremely consequential. Talk to me about that. I mean, what do you feel about the consequences of the work that our representatives are doing? - It really affects everyone in the state or whoever they are representing, whether that be their district or on a national level of the entire country. So when a bill was passed or when a bill was not passed, even in the committee hearing, you felt a sense of relief or a sense of disappointment. And as if they were real, that would really be affecting everyone. So that's very consequential. - And I think like the work they were doing with us is honestly like this super important, the opportunity for us, like young people to be involved, it kind of helps us later down the line. There's a lot of people that came, they said they didn't really, but they weren't really interested in politics beforehand, but after getting this experience, they kind of see it through an inline. And I think that's very impactful. - Well, that's an interesting question too. The two of you are at the top of all of this, but as far as the other 48 students, what I hear you saying is, I mean, everybody didn't walk in here intensely focused on political results, is that correct? - Somewhat, I'd say they didn't walk in. Some of them might not have walked in with the intention to be super political or participate, but I saw a ton of participation across the scale as Speaker of the House. People got up who I would not have expected to get up, multiple people wanted to speak on bills. It got to the point where sometimes I would have to, for the sake of time, look at Jenaboo and she'd stand up and I'd say majority floor leader and we had to end that. And that was kind of like a real session where the Speaker of the House might end it with his floor leader and just vote on whether or not they continued the bill, but I saw a lot of participation, even if some was more and some was less. - Oh, they pued us a lot. They pued us a lot. - Yeah, they did. - So now I'm still with my students here a second. What schools were represented in this? - Well, Raytown South High School and there was a lot of people from my school probably about like seven of us, but also there was some people from University Academy. These are all Kansas City schools, but they're-- - Okay. - So then Isabella School. - I asked McClure. - Okay. - So we had a lot of St. Louis, a lot of St. Louis schools. - I'm also from Kansas City. So I go to Lincoln College Preparatory Academy and that's the school that I and two others represented, but there were a lot of Raytown students. I think there was a center and a lot of St. Louis schools. And then there were kids from Sykston, Senior High as well. - Eight. (laughs) - Okay, interesting. You know, first of all there's so many things going on at the Capitol all the time. One of them is, it's this, and you probably are all aware of these, but youth in government in Missouri is a program that some of my students from St. Louis participated in during this last year. And there were hundreds and hundreds of students up at, well, at the Capitol and at one of the hotels right next to the Capitol where all of this was done. Some of them were working on legislative issues. Some of them were working on judicial issues. I mean, it's just the kind of thing that you all, Isabella and Jenabu, are you involved in those things? Or are those things that you're considering being more active in now? - We don't have a youth in government at my school. If they did, I would definitely be a part of it. But I'm a part of speech and debate. And last year, one of my main events was actually Congress. So it was actually pretty similar to how the real life, like how the House of Representatives interacted with her. So I kind of had some experience in that do Congress debate. - Okay, and Isabella, any thoughts from you on that? Go ahead. - That is something that I'm interested in. And I do participate in as many political programs or policy programs that I can, because it's something that I want to look into for my future. I am also in speech and debate, but a guy right above me in grade started a future legal professionals club, actually a good friend of mine. And I'm now the president starting this upcoming school year. So that's a club that was started by students. And I'm hoping to expand it even further. - You want to talk about all of this, Michael, in terms of what you all are trying to accomplish as the real elected representatives right now. What do you think about this? - We understand the importance of making sure that we have future leaders in position and giving them all of the tools and the resources that they need, especially those like Isabella and the rest of the students that were home then on making sure that they got this. And I mean, it's so important because we can't just allow ourselves to let our leadership go astray, especially in the importance of us being able to flip seats as Democrats and to make sure that we do that. I normally don't like to say that it's a red or a blue state. And if it's a red state right now, we just need more blue seats being flipped and more people are voting. And this is a great opportunity for our future leaders to grasp hold of what it is we do and see who can migrate towards it and who does that. And we can have opportunities to hand select the best of the best throughout the state of Missouri. And this is what this is for. And I think it's doing a great job and it's doing a good benefit, not only for them, but for us as well. - Yeah, and I've had government students of mine over the years who have actually made it into the legislature in Missouri. And actually one of the people that I had on the air like 34 years ago became governor of Missouri. And that of course is Eric Ritens, who certainly got himself into a lot of trouble. But I knew Eric when he was 16 years old and he was just like you young ladies thinking about government and how to get involved and how to be a leader sometime 30 years forward. So it's exactly what our representatives here have said and that is how important all of this work is that you're doing because I have no doubt looking at the two of you young women that you're poised. I mean, I know that if you want it, you're gonna be in the legislature somewhere and you may end up being Speaker of the House. What do you think? - That'll be a great job. - Go ahead, go ahead. - So that'll just be in the future, yeah. - I'd say that I do want to look towards the legislative branch and just government in general, but not a but and my goals are my goals and if that's a method to get there, then that's the method I'll take. But I want to be more focused on the goals so that corruption or anything else doesn't come into play. And that's just one of my own personal values. - Yeah, how about this upcoming election? I mean, it's right at our doorstep here almost and what are you doing? Are you doing anything in the real world? - I am encouraging my friends who will make the cutoff to vote to do so, to go and vote or to register to vote. I will miss it by about two months, which is sad that I'll vote the next year. - Right, Janibou, what do you think? - Right now I'm actually in contact with the representative just trying to get into like volunteer opportunities to help campaign for parties that, the party that I, though that I want to uplift. - Okay, and here's just another opportunity, which I'll make sure that I get this to you girls. And so you'll know about this. I know you're in Kansas City, it might be too far away to even deal with or maybe not. And that is Washington University in September is putting on a town hall meeting. And certainly with schools in St. Louis, but there's no reason Kansas City couldn't be represented as well. And it's gonna be on September 21st. And there're gonna be a lot of people involved. And it's all put together by the Black Studies Department at Washington University, really outstanding professors, but also who are sort of like Michael and Yolanda and that they want the young people to come in and do the talking and do the work. And so this is not a bunch of old people getting up and talking at you all. This is how can you all get together and come up with ideas that are meaningful to you? - That sounds quite interesting. I would be interested in having more information about that. - Yeah, I'll get it to you all. And I'm sure you'll have other students that maybe possibly wanting to get involved too. Everybody hears it's Washington University and says, yeah, I'd certainly like to have a connection to that. And that's a good thing 'cause the people that watch you are just like your mentors from the legislature here who really want to get you all involved so that you're thinking and talking and trying to come up with ideas that obviously we need at this point. I mean, we're sort of desperate for it, aren't we? Michael, Yolanda, you wanna talk to it? - Yes, yes, the young people, I told them to get registered at 17 and a half and they're ready. So as she says, she missed to buy a couple of months, we still got the November election coming up. - Yeah, so what are you thinking? Tell me about your thoughts related to this upcoming election, Isabella and Janabou. What are you thinking? Is it good? Is it a problem? Are you worried? What do you think? - Isabella, you okay? - Okay, I have a lot of thoughts, but one of them I have is that I see a lot of division among the people, even within parties, if we're talking about parties, there's a lot of division within parties and I'd love to see something that brought the people together more, I'd love to see something different and I don't see, I see a lot of people being excluded, I don't see everyone being represented and I'm a little disappointed, to be honest, but we'll see how it plays out. - Yeah, it looks- - Yeah, go ahead, go ahead, Jeff. - There's definitely a lot of division right now with, I mean, a lot of people are kind of just, I guess, having to choose between the lesser of two evils, that's kind of how most people see it. So, like she said, we'll just see how it plays out. This is really an interesting time right now because of just how much conflict there is and just the tensions. - Do you think that your peers are worried about what's happening politically or are they into other issues? - My peers are, and I'd say it's making a lot of people not want to vote because they don't know who to vote for. The candidates that are most shown that they see the most are ones that have interests that are not my peers' interests, that are not interests of the youth. The youth want someone who is bringing people together. - Yeah, oh. - Yeah, go ahead. - Also pretty interested in what's going on right now. So, you see kind of a lot of disengagement on social media, people posting about kind of what they believe. I do think that a lot of us are definitely interested in like kind of this. - Yeah, so that raises a really important question, Anabu, what do you think about social media? Is it something, does it have value? Are you all intensely involved with it either politically or just personally? - I think it's honestly just like a tool like it just depends on how you use it. Most people that I've seen pretty much use for good use, share more information about things that we may not hear about in like regular media, but I mean, also there's also the downsides of you know, spreading misinformation or just viewing hatred. And yeah, I'd just say it depends on how you use it, but I honestly do think that social media is a really helpful tool, especially for our generation right now in getting information across to people. A lot of us don't watch the news like we kind of mentioned earlier, but social media can be that outlet for us. We learn more about what's going on in our lives. - Isabella? - I completely agree with what Jenabu said. I think that social media right now is being used as a method to reach the youth because they're more interested in watching that than the news. And in these past few months, a lot of my peers have seen a lot of bias in the news. I've seen a lot of bias on both sides or in every aspect of news. And while there are good channels, social media has been a way for my peers to get information that they otherwise wouldn't and then use that as kind of a base to go and research more about the affairs of the world. - Yeah, I'm gonna go to Michael and Yolanda in a second, but I wanna ask this question which I've asked all my students and where do you get your news? - Yeah, I've been completely honest. A lot of it probably does come from social media. But like Isabella said, I kind of use it as like kind of like the first step. I learn about it there and then kind of do further research on more legitimate sites. - Where do you think? - Yeah, I would say a little bit of social media and using that as the first step, I also use news like websites. I don't like to watch the news because it's easier for me personally to catch bias or even just to understand better when I'm reading it. And then I'd also say journalists, like different journalists that I trust and that I see. - Okay, so now going to Michael and Yolanda, let me just say to you all that when I ask my students where they get their news, they all jump up and say TikTok, which really scares the heck out of me. As legislators, you know, what do you all think about this? What do we need to do about social media or nothing? You tell me. - Well, I get my news from Channel 2 news here in St. Louis. I get my news from Channel 2 in St. Louis, and then I do go to CNN sometimes. But social media, like she said, can be biased, it can be no truth to it. But I do watch the news a lot so I can stay informed on what's going on. - Michael, I'm more of a reader and then I do stream the news as well. And then it does give me a better outlook on it when I have an opportunity to read it. But also when there is news on social media, I'll take a glance at it. If it's something that I think that is very pertinent and also in the process of doing that, we have to be careful because what is happening is a lot of our readers are users of social media. What they'll do is they'll look more at the opinions of others and I think that that's where we become problematic because they're looking at, it's like they're keeping track or voting or taking a vote of how many people's opinions are like alike. And that can sway that person into that opinion as well. It's also like, for instance with Donald Trump, he's been able to have this platform because it was created before he first ran for presidency because what he was doing was he was having self-content on social media so people could see him a lot, see him a lot. And if you have videos more than you have pictures, people are gonna stop and they're gonna press that play button. And I think that sometimes we can possibly follow victim to whom we show those views too. - Yeah, and I always talk about the fact, I mean, for 10 years he had the apprentice and it was really embedded in this reality TV world. And it's just like I always say if you have appendicitis, I don't think you think about Marcus Welby and you want Robert Young to take your appendix out, but that's about where we are. You know, with a guy who is incapable of anything but no one knows it because they watch that 10 year show and they think he was somebody. Yeah, it made him somebody. - Yes, exactly. - But it's also important for our young people to think about, you know, their involvement as they get going into both politics and media because they're clearly very connected, very important, and we wanna be sure when we give information to people that we're accurate. We'd like to be. - Most definitely. - Yeah. Okay you all, listen, I wanna thank you for joining us here and I'm gonna get through Cheryl, Cheryl Dozier. I'll get in touch with our leaders at the youth movement. So yeah, I'm talking about Isabella and Jenna Boo. I'll make sure we reach out to you on this upcoming thing at Washington University and see if there's, you know, any possibility of getting some Kansas City involvement as well. So we'll do that. We'll follow up. - Thank you. - Any last words? - Thank you so much for getting us. - I'd like to say. - Go ahead. - Go ahead. - Oh, I was just gonna say thank you so much for inviting us and letting us have this opportunity and asking us thought-provoking questions. I really enjoyed it. - And Jenna Boo, I'm sorry, go ahead. - Great job young ladies. - Yeah, that was me. (laughing) - Jenna Boo and Isabella, great job. And we appreciate you for having us on as well. And that this is a great opportunity and this is something that we should keep up. And I hope to keep up with the, you know, a chance to look at you all's future and we all are headed and if you need any help from any of our state representatives or our senators, please reach out to us and let us know. And we look forward to a great success from the both of you, thank you. - Yeah, and let me say in finishing up here, Michael and Yolanda. And Yolanda has been on here before and been involved in other media things with me and other friends over the years. But very importantly, this is a real opportunity, the platform that we've got right here. To reach out, talk to each other. As you pointed out, Michael, to flip people towards the blue side, I understand, you know, there's the red side too, but you know, they all have their programs and they're all getting, you know, their word out. And so, you know, to have a place where we can, you know, have some impact is important, I think. - It is and I thank you for it. - Well, we'll work more with you all as well. Any last word, Yolanda? - Yes, young ladies, I'm so proud of you. I'm so proud of you. Keep up the good work. And don't forget to get registered to vote 'cause you already see what it means. It means a lot. - Okay, listen, thank you all. And for those who are driving, drive carefully. And I will certainly be in touch all the way around here. Thank you. - Thank you. - Thank you. You have a good one. - You too. - Okay, so right now we're going to sell a few things and then we'll come back and talk about what's happening in the world today and plenty is. But right, you know, at the moment, I'm sort of thinking about dinner. I mean, it is 440 and, you know, dinner's coming up and WENTI's is absolutely the place to go. It's at 18,000 Chesterfield Airport Road and they have great food. When I talk about the wings, everybody jumps up and down there. So excited about going to WENTI's for the wings and then I tell them, yeah, the wings are great but I just don't like wings. But that's okay because you all can go out and enjoy your wings and you will find them at WENTI's. Now for me, it's the baby back ribs. I love them. So that's where I'm interested in WENTI's but there's something for everybody and you've got pizza and you've got hamburgers and cheeseburgers and salads and patty melts and you name it pizza. It's just terrific. That's WENTI's and at 18,000 Chesterfield Airport Road, you're gonna get a great meal. And don't forget, there's the new WENTI's and that's in Defiance and the WENTI's in Defiance, the Road House there at 29.99 South Highway 94. Same great food, same great place, same great environment. Go there, enjoy WENTI's, we love them. Okay, how about jewelry? You know, you can get some really great jewelry at 4506 Hampton and that's in Jules on Hampton. And my good friends there, Al and AJ, his son, they're there every day and there's their cases filled with jewelry. They're, it's everywhere. This is a great place to go to look at the different jewelry, see what's there, get involved, decide what you want or maybe you've got gems that you would like to have set in a special way, they can do that. They design jewelry, they will do what you want, they'll follow your design if you're looking for that and they'll buy and sell coins in jewelry because they do everything at Jules on Hampton. Again, 4506 Hampton in St. Louis and I always point out, if you're walking out, after you've been there for a long time, you've got a lot to do, you don't know what time it is, you'll look down at your watch, it's broken. Well, guess what? They'll fix your watch too. That is Jules on Hampton. How about clothing? You know, I love my men's clothing that I get from the St. Louis suit company. I've been buying it there for a long time, certainly not for the entire 29 years that they've been there but for a good part of it and I can tell you that I get the greatest suits, shirts, shoes, of course we've got to talk about the shoes, ties. Listen, everybody that wears a tie looks at me and says, "Nice tie." And then I say, "Yeah, $5." And they go, "Yeah, right." But it is. These ties are $5, they're silk, they're beautiful, they're excellent. You can't beat it. And when I tell people, they say, where'd you say that was again? And that's at the corner of Forsyth and Central in Clayton where you can get, even in the middle of the summertime, you can get an overcoat, put it away and then you're ready to wear it in the fall. And I can tell you right now the prices are better right now because you don't have a lot of people running around wanting to get an overcoat, but you can. Now when it comes to the shoes, they've got everything, they've got all the dress shoes. They've also got some of the dress shoes that look more like the tennis shoe style that's sort of gaining traction right now. But I can also tell you, I personally, where are my chucks, can't get those at the St. Louis Sioux Company, but you can get everything else. And you might look at those tennis shoes that they've got and say, "Wow, these are really cool too." So check it out, St. Louis Sioux Company in Clayton, 29 years, you'll love them the way I do if you just get yourself in there in Clayton. Okay, so we've got a few minutes left today and there's no question that what happened today at the Supreme Court is pretty supreme, if you ask me. This is really important and the question is, what did they do? The answer is, so far nothing, and nobody is really sure what they're doing. And you got two important cases that are really right at the end of the line here 'cause the first week of July, nothing comes out after then. This is the end. So we're about a week away from everything. And what came down today was a document, and I say document because clearly it was not a decision. It wasn't intended to be, and we don't even know how this document showed up the way it did. But it's related to this Idaho abortion case, and it's all complicated like all of these abortion situations. This one has to do with emergency situations that people face, can you have an abortion under those situations? And we don't know because we haven't seen the case. So we're waiting to find out what people will be allowed to do and what they won't, and what different states will be allowed to do and what they won't. But if you take a look this afternoon and this evening at this document, and all of this is available online, don't listen to what somebody else is telling you. Go take some time, download it, and read through what's going on here, what's gonna take you an hour, an hour out of your life, and you're gonna find out what's really happening and you ought to know. First of all, it appears that the Supreme Court decided not to decide. That's what it appears. But that's assuming that what we read this afternoon is actually the real decision. And we're sort of being encouraged to believe that it's not. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. And then behind that comes the real question. Why are we still waiting for the decision from the Supreme Court on presidential immunity? We all know that this presidential immunity issue was right in front of everybody, months ago. And there was an attempt to get this expedited. And there was some talk about, in fact, expediting things. And really, they didn't. They sort of moved the discussion at the court, the conversation among justices and lawyers. They moved that up a little bit, the oral arguments, but here we are at the end. And this is gonna be the last case that we see, or next to the last, it's right here at the end. And the question is, why? What's their problem? You know, there was this important decision that the lower court, the D.C. Court had written. And everybody at the time said, this was beautifully written, well thought out, an important addition to our judicial record. And if the Supreme Court wanted to, they could have just said, forget it all, just we're gonna go with the D.C. Court. And that's the end of it, but they didn't. They said, we're gonna look at it ourselves. And well, what we're gonna find out now is why. Why did they want to look at it themselves? We know what the court said in U.S. versus Nixon, which is presidents who break the law, they break the law, we need to hold them accountable. Now Nixon, of course, was a little different. He was held accountable by resigning. Then he was pardoned. So that sort of changed things a little bit. But in the meantime, we do have the case, U.S. versus Nixon. And that was included in what the D.C. Court worked on. So what happened here? And we're gonna know in a matter of days, we're gonna find out exactly what happened. We're gonna find out where this all hits the road. What has the decision been here? We've got six conservatives. Certainly we've got five plus John Roberts who is sort of conservative. He is, he's a conservative, but he's a little worried about institutions in 2024. So it'll be interesting to see where he comes down on all of this. We know where the three liberals are going to be. And now we're gonna have to find out what the five conservatives are saying. Plus, obviously, Alito and Clarence Thomas, who have those very extreme positions on the far right, including turning flags upside down and all that mess. So we've got an important couple of days, maybe a week in front of us, important reading to do in order to understand what is actually being decided here by the court. And then back up again to this whole abortion question. And it's so interesting where we've ended up because there are a lot of people in the country, and I'll say even better, many people in the country who are not thrilled about anybody having an abortion. And frankly, I'm not supporting people having abortions. That's not my idea here. But here's the problem. And this is a problem that I didn't even know about until this afternoon. And when I said I didn't know about it, after two children, which I had, my wife, and then four grandchildren, that both of my daughters had recently, it just never crossed my mind. And why would it? I'm a man, I didn't go to medical school, but just never crossed my mind that thousands of women all over the United States every year are having children, but then partway through the process, their water breaks early. Well, when you say it to me, I can say, okay, that makes sense, I understand. I've been through six different kids here now. So I get it, but I wouldn't have thought about it in advance because I'm not a doctor. And apparently, the people who are running this country are in the same situation where number one, they're not doctors, and number two, they haven't thought about it either. Because one of the things that I heard talked about today is that once these women are faced with a situation where their water breaks, they must immediately get medical care. And this isn't two or three or four who are bleeding out. This is thousands and thousands every year who have their water break. And they have to do something immediately because all of a sudden, there is no sterile environment for that fetus. And the question is, what do you do? And the answer is clearly, you do what the doctor thinks, that's what you do. And you've got a medical emergency, and you have to decide, what do you do in the face of this medical emergency? How do you handle the problem? And first of all, I couldn't begin to tell you how to handle the problem, like I say. I miss that day in medical school, actually, never. So the point is, I don't know. I have no idea what a doctor has to do in those situations, and you know what? Our leaders don't know either. They haven't the slightest idea what needs to be done, except for maybe some of the women leaders have more of an idea. But I can guarantee you. I mean, you can go anywhere you want and start asking men, what do you do when a woman's water breaks early in her pregnancy? And I'll tell you right now, you're gonna have a lot of men looking at you like, what are you talking? I don't know. I guess it happens. And if it does, what do you do? Is the baby gone? Is that the end of it? Or is there a way to save the baby? How do you deal with this? How do you help somebody in those circumstances? And listen, here we are in 2024, and you can believe it or not if you don't want to go watch Fox and listen to them talk about the weather report. But I'm telling you right now that this is a bad situation where women are facing potential infections that affect both the life of the fetus and the woman as well, both in extremely dangerous situations. And how do you fix this? How do you decide what to do? And look, if you're not a doctor, you gotta get out of this conversation because you don't know what to do. I certainly don't. I wouldn't want to be in a situation like that. If I'm a cab driver and I got somebody in the back that's water breaks, I don't want to be the one to decide what to do about that problem. You know what I'm telling you, it only makes sense. You are opening up the sterile environment for that growing fetus baby. And what you're doing now is you're asking people to make decisions. First of all, who don't know what they're talking about. And secondly, just given the likely chance that you could be anywhere when this happens, that you're gonna have to quickly get to a doctor who can solve the problem. And if you've got doctors and you do all over this country now, who don't know what they can do under the law. I mean, yes, they know the medical problem. They know exactly what they would believe that they should do for this woman, which could be different in all cases. You could have thousands of people going through this and you could have thousands of different circumstances that result in this problem. And so then you need a doctor to look at the situation and to size it up and make very quick decisions about how to fix things. How do you save this woman? How do you possibly save the child? What do you do? And here's the thing, because of Roe v. Wade, being removed, these doctors are frightened. They don't know what to do. First of all, they know that this could affect their careers forever based on what they do, which somebody with automatical degree may criticize. And then the next problem is if there's something that you have to do that some legislator or police officer or sheriff or someone in the country that has no idea what they should be doing, steps up and says, you're under arrest? Are you kidding me? Is that what we want here? Because that's what we've got. There's no question about that. I mean, you can get off this abortion discussion because that's not the issue. The issue is what do we do with these women, thousands of women who need immediate emergency medical care, but can't get it because the Supreme Court jumping up and down thinking they did something along with that nutcase Trump who's so proud every day, still saying it, he's so proud of what he did. He doesn't even know what he did. And that's the last guy you would want around if you were a woman and you had your water break and you had to decide what do we do to save some lives? No, you don't want that nut around because all you're looking at is danger, danger, and more danger, anything he touches, you know, the book, anything that man touches dies anyway and listen, we are facing a few days here where we're gonna try to make sense out of this because as I said, when you read the document, if you do, and I hope you do, if you read the document tonight, the thing that's gonna happen is you're not gonna be sure what this all means. You're still gonna wonder and then the case is coming. Is it coming tomorrow? Is it coming next week? Because you do have until the first week of July, that's possible, but we have to get some answers. What's the case? What's just some document that somebody happened to post that might have represented a way of thinking on the court, might've been a week ago, might've been a month ago, it might be today, we don't know. But we're gonna know a lot more tomorrow, that's for sure. So come back tomorrow and we'll find out as much as we can about what these people who are running the country are really up to. The only people you can rely on in this world, as far as I can tell, is Wendy's, that's on Chesterfield Airport Road and in Defiance, you can rely on Jules on Hampton, they'll help you to figure out your jewelry at 4506 Hampton, and if you wanna wear great suits, well, St. Louis Suit Company, 29 years, that's the place to go. Right now, I'm gonna go out of here. I'm Mark Casein, this is Showdown, good night.