FM Talk 1065 Podcasts
Jeff Poor Show - Thursday 6-27-24
right here on Fox News. From Bucks pocket to the shores of Orange Beach at all points in between an insider's perspective on Alabama politics. It's the Jeff Porsche show. I don't think ain't done it this way. Good morning. Welcome to the Jeff Porsche show. Let's talk with us. Six five. Thank you very much for being with us on this show. I'm going to take a look at what you're going to be doing. It's going to be a zero one zero six. You'll be in touch with the program. Like I do. It's text me and we will respond to whatever it is that is on your mind. Could have bought today's program here about a half hour Joshua Mobile City Councilman. I've known Josh for many, many years. Guess how they settle it into the job, but made some interesting remarks about Amtrak. Like you guys, the people who want Amtrak back in Mobile are kind of like, yeah, it'll be nice to have. We just have it here. Maybe I use it. Maybe I don't. But it's cost prohibitive. And like I said, you're not going to. You're just not going to want to spend like four days. Getting somewhere on the train that you could get there and four to six, seven, eight hours. By plane at the same cost and don't text me who I forget who you are telling me that well, some people just want to take their time and get places because that's not what does not want the our infrastructure this country is going to be there. It's going to be a good time for for your little leisure pursuit or whatever. It is. We just had to get from point A to point B in a very efficient way and a way that is cost effective. And I don't care if you want to go to sight, see an excursion on Amtrak guy. That's that's like you know, go do that somewhere else at your own expense. Don't do that in our expense. So we were talking about that in a very efficient way. Maybe we'll get into Paul Brian. I don't know. We'll see April Murray Fogle in the 10 o'clock hour. And he'll talk to us. It's about about once a month. We get him on Andrew Sorrell state auditor. Give us kind of an update, but I get even talking about being the banked. So stick around for that list. So Supreme Court decisions being put out right now as we speak. One dealing with Purdue pharma and a their opioid settlement. Trying to read chirides here. I don't know what it is. And then the other I think we do because they kind of let the Ken on the back a little early. About abortion and Idaho. And under emergency circumstances. You could have an abortion. The big ones we may not get. But until tomorrow. It feels like the court is dragging its feet here on putting the decisions that we really care about out. But in case anything else gets put out there, we'll keep an eye out. I don't know what is what that entails. So that is what's going on right now. They're sort of behind the Capitol. The Supreme Court building in case you've ever been up to Washington D.C. I'll see here. Okay. A little text line a little early here because this was kind of got me triggered. Their civic center was the most prohibitive until they fixed I did. No, it's not. You're missing the point. A new civic center will do Mardi Gras balls just like the old civic center and generate revenue. The city needs a civic center. The city needs an airport because people actually fly. The cost prohibitive part of Amtrak and a texture is you're paying as much as you would for a plane ticket and you're spending about ten times the amount of time getting there. Now, look, it's fine if you, uh, I suppose it's not even fine if you're just going a short distance like the Pascogoulo trade, but it'll take you like two hours. We don't have real infrastructure in America like you think it is. We don't have high speed bullet trains. You think about what a high speed rail entails? You have to build the tracks where they don't go through every little town cross over every little nook and cranny road. You have to build like an overpass. Essentially, an overpass from here to New Orleans. How much do you think that would cost? You think that would cost you? Crossing all of those little rivers there. Pascogoulo, the Escitaba, or singing river, all that stuff going. The continuing down over there by the pass and all of that and then over the, you know, the twin spans. That's just the waterways, but you got to, you know, building that infrastructure is time-consuming. It doesn't exist right now. So, the way the train goes, it goes over the old whatever rail line that is. And it goes through all the little towns and you know, the NTSB and all these other regulatory authorities mandate a train slow down to like 15 miles per hour, whether there's a rail crossing or whatever. Pascogoulo, just stop. And how many times you know the safety, the warnings, you see the gate down and the signals flashing, don't try to cross. People do it all the time. So, the point here is like it's cost prohibitive, it's time consuming. You're just not going, you're better off taking a bus. You're better off taking a bus until they build the right infrastructure. That's why it's cost prohibitive to take Amtrak. So, what are you guys? So, like, kill the die on for passage or rail. I don't understand this. I don't think you, like, if you really want it, raise your hand if you've ever actually used it. And you'll be so disappointed. It's not a efficient means of transportation in 2024. Maybe in 1924 it was. That's a great idea. And I kind of go over the history of this guy's like, at a certain point we became more reliant upon the automobile. So, country's stuck with the train. And we decided a long time ago that we liked our independence so we liked our ability, our mobility, and not to be a group of people or whatever. So, instead of focusing on mass transit, we decided to go the opposite direction, build roads and highways and bridges and interstate highways and whatnot instead of high speed railways bypassing towns. And so today our primary means of transit is the automobile. We abandoned train travel a hundred years ago. In some countries it maybe makes sense to have gone that direction, especially like communist countries where they just kind of steer the populace wherever they want to steer it. So, bring an Amtrak back. Not necessarily that Amtrak is like a bad thing to have, but the amount of money the millions of dollars we have to sink into that is just not worth it. It's not really because no one took it when we had it here last time. Um, debate tonight. I don't really think we have very high expectations for anyone in this. Do these things never really matter in the end? They are just kind of I think for like fodder for cable news and guys like me who do this for a living. I guess the interest here though, not necessarily. The debate never makes the candidate, but it can break a candidate. If something bad happens, disastrous, this is like K. I never did a debate. So, uh, I'm eager to see how Joe Biden's going to handle this. A week of rest. And I see this kind of trend on the Republican side, McCarthy others saying, okay, Biden's going to be prepared for this. He better be ready, Trump. You better be ready. Better be ready to land some blows. Do you want to be prepared? If it takes a week of preparation for something as trivial as a televised presidential debate, is that really like presidential? Where you have to go up on the shelf for a week? I mean, seriously, like, think about this. Joe Biden has had to go away from the presidential duties to camp David for an entire week. Laylow, not be seen, because he's, quote, unquote, prepared for the debate. He's been president for four years. Is it the job itself preparation for that? I mean, in every arena, the policy, the public speaking, the presentation, like as a president of the United States, you're at the power in the world and you need a week to go prepare. Well, you have a couple of days, what a week. Why does anybody, like, what the heck is going on here? And we've ever seen this in the history of America where before one of these debates, a president kind of goes away and says, no one seems to, not even on the Republican side, like, that doesn't seem right. Why is he getting a pass on that? As I said, look, the job itself ought to be preparation for the debate. You're, you should know the policy. You should be prepared. You should be aware. You shouldn't be asleep. You should be well rested or whatever. But a couple of days, it's just kind of satisfying what Joe Biden here because he's clearly not. Look, there are people, I think, who are kind of pushing his buttons and leading him around. And he's the kind of guy, like, later up in years, later in life, shouldn't he be, like, playing with his, like, illegitimate grandchildren or something? Sipping, like, sweet tea somewhere, like, the villages. And instead, he's, like, being injected with who knows what. I don't know. Maybe that's a, an age of stereotype or something, but when you see it, you look okay. You look at it like, it's just, there's something kind of sad about it. Like, he's been doing this against his will. All right, guys, we'll get a break in here. We shall return. Thank you for listening. This is the Jeff Porte Show at the talk. 106.5. Everybody making my prediction. So if I get stoned, I'm just carrying on and on. Man. He's found it down. Naughty enough and trucking. Are we going to do what they say can't be done? Are we going to do what they say can't be done? Are we cutting long way to go? And it's short time to get there. Time is kind of what no man can run. I want to make the Jeff Porte Show at the talk. 106.5. Hey, just stick it with us on this. Thursday morning, 25.1. 3, 4, 3, 0, 1, 0, 6, decisions roll out slowly but surely. Uh, ruling on emergency abortion. We already know that one. That one, uh, came, uh, yesterday by accident. We were told, we're in the blueburg. It's kind of got released, right? It was, uh, not, uh, uh, it was by accident and they deleted it. I don't, I just like wanted to just pull these out. If they're ready, let them go. Like, why are we doing it? This one? Why, why this is the tradition of the Supreme Court? I don't understand. So, uh, keep it out of that as we, uh, as they come, I will do my best to make sense of them. Uh, we got a bunch of text here. I already went through that. Uh, shot. I would hope SCOTUS would defer a release in the immunity in January 6th instead of adding fodder for tonight's. I mean, I, I don't know. I don't think that immunity case is going anywhere. Guys, we're going to be let down. Look, I don't, the Trump's legal team on some of these leads much to be desired. But why has happened? And this, this happened in 2020, 2021 when Trump was challenging the election results and you hear this? Well, uh, 99 out of a hundred or 99 out of 99.5 court decisions showed there was the 2020 election was absolute and infallible. And if you question it, you're an election denier and should be sent to Siberia. But during all of that, the big law firms that would have been like very effective and challenging these election results were told they would be blackballed if they took any of Trump's money. And they said, well, and also, like Trump's probably not going to pay you anyway. There was that going on in our legal system. The big, big, big law firms in DC, the guys who know how to deal with this, there is, it's all like just corporate shenanigans anyway. But the Trump team, that Trump campaign, remember, just like Giuliani just kind of like melting before our eyes. What was going on there? He could not find qualified legal help. They wanted America, the, the, the power structure in this country wanted Trump out of office that bad and they were, you know, strong arming law firms. Hey, you like to be corporate contract with Proctor Gamble. If you represent Trump, you're not getting a dime of that money. We're dropping you as our legal representation. Hey, it was that kind of stuff going on in the country at the time. I guess to the extent that they wanted that talking point to where all these court cases would be just dismissed and these judges will look at it since this is not a very good argument or brief or whatever. Uh, the moderators are Russia. Collusion brochures not participating. Jeff does not matter what locals want. Federal government tyrants are all that matters. Is that on trains? They want us to all like stop driving guys. So you'll take the stupid train and reduce your carbon footprint. It's all about control. There shouldn't even be money available for something in this acidine, this stupid going back a hundred years to train travel. It's a novelty and you don't need to be spending your own tack, our local tax dollars on novelies. Okay. Go to Tweetsie Railroad or go to Chattanooga or wherever and go ride to Choo Choo if you want to, uh, harken back to another age and take your time getting somewhere. But don't think that this is like a something we need in this country to prove our infrastructure. Third digger, Jeff, Joe has been a politician for over 40 years and still not ready to be president as perfect the last four years. Two, five, one, three, four, three, zero, one, zero, six, I'll be right back. This is the Jeff four show. What I have to talk about. Oh, six, five. I got a dime, but what I got is my tight, rich, but lord, I'm free and I'm a real old, I'm more. I keep a close watch on this heart of looking back to the Jeff pore shoulder from talk one oh, six, five. Thanks for staying with us on this Thursday morning and text on you and be in touch with the show two five one three four three zero one zero six. It's looking a bunch of text here. I will get to those here over the next, uh, you know, 30 minutes or so. So, uh, he giving us feedback. You will get a response still to come on the program. April Murray Fogle about an hour from now in two hours. Our state auditor, Andrew Sorrell will be with this. We'll talk to him about debaking and some other things going on around the state of joining us now. Somebody had known for a real long time, actually, but now a city councilman here in Mobile. Josh Woods joins us on the line. Councilman. Good morning. How are you? I'm good. Thanks for having me. Jeff. I appreciate it. Thanks for making time. Thanks for coming on. Uh, well, uh, let's before we get into what we're talking about, how is the job? How you settling in there? I mean, uh, yet I haven't talked a whole lot since so you got elected, but here you are. I mean, you know, it's been a while. Yeah. So, uh, you know, the past, uh, obviously stepped in halfway through a term, um, and really kind of kind of getting up to speeds, taking some time, but really figuring it out. A lot of times, uh, just just takes time to figure out, uh, who's in charge of what, who, who do I ask, uh, for certain things and, and really, uh, getting to know the people that I have a wonderful opportunity to work, work with on, you know, every Tuesday, getting to know their personalities and, and open up communication. So overall, um, it's been, uh, been great. I really appreciate the voters giving me the opportunity to serve them. Yeah, I took a couple of tries here, but here you are. Well, and I, I know I told you, but, uh, congratulations anyway. Hey, um, this Amtrak stuff and it is, I just, I remember the old Amtrak immobile, uh, 20 years ago, Josh before Katrina, it showed up like two in the morning if you wanted to take the train and it just was a now they say this time around should it come back will be better, but I don't, I don't think people who want it, I don't think understand what they're getting. And I don't think the people really are like clamoring for it here in Mobile. Yeah, um, basically, I mean, you know, in the day that the sunset unlimited that sees, um, after Katrina, I mean, you, you are right. It was that, you know, was that why I think we're from Jacksonville to New Orleans and, um, you know, theoretical, all the way to California. Um, but it, you know, that, that, since that season in times past, um, now Amtrak's back or, or the opportunities back to reinsteal service from Mobile to New Orleans. I'm, I want to say the stops be mobile, um, passing below, which I had been to the, um, I guess about a month and a half ago to spend some time in Pascal and even saw their train station, um, and then Gulfport, Biloxi and, uh, you know, on the New Orleans. Um, and, and end of the day, uh, you know, anticipated ridership, there's gonna be, you know, starting off at least going to be 300 seats going back and forth every day. Uh, you know, the, what was told to us is, you know, this, this service would be more accommodating to, to, to rail travel, um, you know, back and forth from New Orleans as far as times and everything. And, uh, you know, end of the day, I mean, coming down to it, it's still going to be a four or five hour trip, um, for Mobile all the way to New Orleans if you wanted to take it. So, um, you know, there are some factors. Uh, but, you know, really, I don't foresee anybody doing business in a single day, uh, you know, taking the, taking the Amtrak line between Mobile and, and New Orleans. But, um, you know, that, that's really even need, uh, here in North Air as far as, uh, the conversation is it's really what it boils down to is, uh, who's going to need to fund this. And that's, that's kind of where we're at. That's where my discussion point is, uh, I guess, you know, at this moment. Yeah, it's, it's, um, heavily, going to be heavily subsidized to trade fair itself. But like it's like, once they get you started on this and then you're on the hook for it beyond a certain point, right? Like, you're going to, there's a potential here that the city could have to foot a bill for something that is like the one's going to use it. Yeah. And this is a really kind of, you know, just to set the record straight. I'm not anti-intratic. I'm not anti-intratic coming to make a bill. Um, you know, I am in favor of, of, you know, if this is what, what they want to do, um, I'm in favor of proving the least for the train station and, um, you know, all that jazz. I guess the real point is, and I think what's being lost, kind of the message you can across the, across the board is is, uh, right now there is a, a government guarantee that the government's going to come in and they're going to, they're going to underwrite, um, the majority of the next three years of, of, of losses that Amtrak has. And, you know, what's on the hook is is, um, the city or the, the state of Louisiana is contributing, uh, 3 million, Louisiana contribute 3 million. And then, you know, what's being asked is that the city of Mobile, the, the city of Mobile, not state of Alabama, but the city of Mobile, um, contribute, uh, 3 million initially over the next three years. And then after that three years, the government subsidy underwriting the losses goes away. And then it's going to be left, you know, years four or five and into eternity is going to be left for, you know, Louisiana, Mississippi, and again, the city of Mobile to figure out how to fund, you know, the losses to continue the route. And, and best case scenario, um, you know, back in the napkin, um, when we were beaten with Amtrak folks in the, in the beaten, best case scenario is that this route loses $7 million a year. That means that's, that's best case scenario. That's projected ridership and it's still going to lose $7 million a year. So after year three, you know, the state of Louisiana, the state of Mississippi, and again, the city of Mobile will have to figure out how to cover those losses to, you know, best case scenario to the tune of 2.3 million a year. And, um, I just, every action that I do on council, um, I think I, I try to make sure that it's right for our residents or what is what the residents or the residents are pushing for that, that they see the benefit. Also that make sure that that decision is, is appropriate and also responsible to the taxpayers of Mobile. And then at the day, I also make a decision thinking, you know, I want this city to be a place where my kids grow up. I don't want to settle them with, with, you know, a liability for, for perpetuity to make sure, you know, that something continues. So that, that's really where I'm in. I'm not against Amtrak, not against the train station. I'm just, don't see the benefit of signing the city and potential, potential councils moving forward in the future, settling in with a 2.3 best case or even more, um, liability they got to maintain every year. Well, tell me this, uh, how, uh, how much feedback are you getting? Like, does anybody like, Hey, councilman, you need to get this going. Like, I really want this coming back. Are you hearing any of that? Um, so really since last week, uh, you know, I've received more comments, I'll, I'll tell you, for my constituents, uh, you know, majority of the comments, I'm receiving from my constituents district six, um, you know, they, they see the benefit of, of trying to be responsible. And you know, they see my side of it and they agree with my side of it. There are some constituents that have expressed, um, expressed, you know, they, they feel that this is good for the city that, you know, uh, the city should, you know, go ahead and, and go and proceed, you know, has been presented. Um, but, uh, I will tell you, since the past 48 hours, there's been a lot of, of extra emails coming from California of Illinois, um, uh, up in the northeast. Um, so really locally, um, as far as my constituent base is concerned, you know, the majority of the comments that I'm receiving are, are, you know, supporting my stance on this. Just was by this push. I mean, it's like a lot of things that were told it's, it's got to be great, but like, this isn't a grassroots thing at all. It feels very asked if like, like, why, why all of a sudden here in, in, in June, 2024 is this Amtrak thing, like front and center, like, what, why is pushing? What is behind this? Yeah, I'm, you know, not really sure. I mean, I could, you know, I could guesstimate or I could make assumptions, but, um, you know, what I do know is I mean, I do believe that, um, you know, transportation infrastructure is key in the United States. I think, I think it's lagging at a lot of, a lot of places and a lot of places. So I do know, you know, the previous administration and then this administration, as far as presidents concerned, I know that that's been a focus for both of them. Um, I believe, uh, you know, this administration does have a higher priority for rail transportation. So, um, yeah, that, that could be where the push is coming from, but, you know, I, I can't really comment or give you an exact fact. I just, just know that infrastructure is a key component. I believe that, uh, Amtrak is a key component of this administration's, uh, I guess, a plan for infrastructure. I feel like you could say it's not coming from your constituents. Yeah, I, you know, vast majority, um, vast majority comments I've received are, you know, Amtrak would be nice, uh, but do you see the, you know, the fiscal side of it and, and, you know, trying to make sure that the city doesn't, doesn't, um, you know, get encumbered for, uh, you know, future liabilities that could exceed, uh, you know, 2.3 million every year. Um, you know, the solution of this, really, the, the comfortable solution is, to me, the state of Alabama step up and, and, you know, ensure that after year three, um, you know, they're gonna, they're gonna ensure the liability versus us. I would say the funding agreement, I believe the funding agreement probably the easiest route would be to get the state to do like what its other sister states, Louisiana, Mississippi did is to come along and sign a funding agreement. Wasn't it this though to the, uh, you know, uh, not, not some kind of fanboy from the Port of Mobile, but you are going to delay their, the freight coming in and out of there with a passenger rail kind of having to come through there, right? Well, so that, that was the conversation. That kind of, that's kind of what got us to this point. Today, um, you know, numerous conversations have been sued between the Port and also the, you know, the various rail entities. Um, at the moment, the Port is fine with, with the current plan for, for how Amtrak tends to operate. Um, the Port, you know, in, in, you know, in, in exchange for, you know, Amtrak happening, uh, the rail lines between New Orleans and Mobile would be improved. Um, 72 million dollars would be invested in the rail line between the Alabama state line and the city of Mobile. And then out of that 72, 50 million would actually be spent on the rail lines in the city line of the mobile. So that's, that's kind of what got the Port okay with, with this position. Um, so, you know, the investments that are going to take place, um, that the Port feels comfortable wanting to come for their productivity moving forward. But, um, you know, that's the improvements are needed improvements, you know, should take place, but I think it's unfair to kind of hang that around the neck of Mobile saying, uh, you know, we're going to miss out on 72 million in, in, uh, in rail investment, if y'all don't do this. The other, the other thing I would think with this, Josh, uh, the, I mean, no matter how many times the city elders say no, or the, or, or Governor Ivy, or whoever says, no, we're not really interested. It'll come back in two years, or we'll be having the same discussion, probably, because it's just, it's like the thing that won't go away, no matter how many times you tell them, no. Yeah. And that, and again, I, I'm not, I'm not anti-intract. A fact of the matter is, is, if Amtrak was in Mobile, there's a chance of me and my wife would take a weekend trip to New Orleans, spend some time there, get a hotel, um, you know, go to go spend some time in New Orleans, go out to eat, and then maybe we take the train back. I mean, but, but, you know, as far as frequency, I, I'm not going to be a frequent user of Amtrak, but I'm, I'm also not spreading or painting a broad, broad brushstroke across the citizens of Mobile. But, you know, end of the day, what it does come down to me though, is that his core responsibility of signing up future councils, signing up future mayors, signing up the city of Mobile, future budgets for liability that could start at 2.3 million. And again, I want to harp on that. Best case scenario for this rail line is that they lose $7 million a year, and those losses will have to be funded by whomever signs the funding agreement. So, um, you know, the, the partner states and, and the city of Mobile would be on the line for upwards of 7 million, um, best case and possibly more of that. If, if ridership, you know, the ridership doesn't meet the predictions. Joined by Mobile City Councilman Josh Woods here on the program. Joshua, I just try to ask this. I'm just going to toss it. Do you like to have a softball, but, uh, any thoughts on this Paul Pride saga? Where, how that's playing out? Yeah. So, um, obviously that that's been a conversation or discussion that's ensued. Really for the, the better part of the, the start of this year, um, I will tell you that I'm proud of the work that the city council has done as far as, um, you know, hearing the, the requests, um, to look into these accusations and, and I, I believe we went out and we found the right person to do the job. Um, you know, very totally independent. Um, you know, very matter of facts. I do know that they are progressing and purposely, uh, I and the city council members are not talking to that independent investigator. Um, you know, if anything's needed, um, he contacts, uh, our, our attorney and our attorney, you know, works with him to get what he needs. If you need something, and, um, so, you know, we've already said or our council member, um, Smalls present, Smalls has already said, uh, July 23rd to be the date we meet as a, uh, committee as a whole and receive the report and, uh, release, uh, the findings. So, um, you know, I am looking forward to kind of getting the report out there, uh, you know, showing whatever it shows and then moving on with, uh, with the business of the city of Mobile and try to at least, um, you know, put some closure to, to this, this, um, episode and, and in our, um, in our time. Any, uh, any, uh, has ever had any input in y'all's investigation? No, um, not to my knowledge, uh, we've, you know, there's not been any, um, anything that's came back saying that hold on a second here. There, the administration's doing this, the administration's not doing this. Uh, as of the end of last week, um, the administration is cooperating fully. It's the, it's the message we got back from, uh, from our investigator. So I hope that continues, um, and, um, I appreciate them cooperating and, um, I, you know, look forward to the 23rd. We, we kind of announce this, get the, get the report out there and, and move on with the city business. We, no matter what we do, we can't get hung up on, on issues that we have to make sure as a council and as administration that we, we push the city forward and, and we look, we look for tomorrow and make sure that we continue forward and not just get hung up on all the issues. So it sounds like in general, you just, you kind of, you're okay with things, how they proceeded so far. Yeah. Um, again, nothing's came to us. Um, our, our independent investigators has relayed through our attorney that, that people are cooperating. There's no issues at the moment. Um, let us know if there was an issue. And, um, you know, I'm very proud of what we did as far as, as, you know, the structure of this. Um, and again, very proud of who we chosen and look forward to an independent report coming out. Josh, thanks for your time this morning. We appreciate you hopping on real quick with us, but let's talk again soon. Sounds good. I appreciate it. Have a great day. You do the same. Josh Woods, ladies and gentlemen, Mobile City Councilman. We got to get a break in here. We'll be right back. This is the Jeff Moore show. I've been talking one oh six five. I didn't mean to treat you bad. Didn't know just what I had, but honey now. And don't it make my brown eyes. Don't it make my brown eyes. Don't it make my brown eyes blue. Look back to the Jeff Moore show. And if I talk with oh six five, thanks for being with us on this Thursday morning, two five one three four three zero one zero six. It wouldn't be a touch with the show. All you do is text me. We got a bunch of texts to get to you. A lot of texts to get to here. And we'll roll through those. Also yesterday, if you're listed a program, but if you missed it, I encourage you to go go to eighteen nineteen news.com right now. Tony can bear of Orange Beach coming out swinging. I knew he was anti gambling, but I didn't think he would go that hard into the paint yesterday on the on the issue of gambling. And essentially, what he said was, look, you do away with that constitutional amendment. And then the threat of casinos is real in Baltimore County, like casinos right now, illegal. Unless you're on a under the guidance of a local constitutional amendment, and even then it's the legality is legality is questionable. Are your own federally recognized tribal and as to Puerto Creek Indians are right now, like Jeff Porsche on Sullivan, Dan Brennan and Don nor we could go in together and start their own casino at airport and I 65. What a place what they just take the old bell air mall and just put a big casino there or whatever we could do that. If if we had to count, I mean, you'd have to like they would never grant us the license, but but assuming that we were able to like somehow get you just can it's it's not constitutional, according to the Alabama Constitution. And Mayor Kennan's like, look, yeah, once you open that door, who does what can happen once you remove a constitutional amendment? Anyway, so he says that on the show yesterday, we got it posted at 1890 news.com. And one of the guys who voted for it in the house tweeting right now, Vasipson read to the program, I quote, tell me you didn't read the bill without telling me you didn't read the bill on quote referring to I guess, mayor Kennan's comments. But I see that and I'm like, well, it misses the point. The big point here is that there's once you take a constitutional amendment away, and it's hard to I mean, once you take the constitutional prohibition away with a constitutional amendment, and the constitution's hard to change. I think that's the agreement. I'll just want to write the vote on a lottery. Well, you're not just voting on a lottery. You're taking a sit in stone engraved in stone. You can't gamble. You can't have legalized gambling in Alabama, at least that's the court's interpretation of it. You can't have casinos. It's much better than just wherever. Why don't you take that out of the Constitution? Then the legislature has the authority. Let's take it out. The overall authority, the appointing authority, the legal authority to determine what kind of gambling you have. And if they had that authority, why wouldn't they decided to? They could put casinos in the ball, a county by decree. Anyway, more on that in a moment. We'll be right back. This is F and talk. Well, there's six five from buckspucket to the shores of Orange Beach at all points in between an insider's perspective on Alabama politics. It's the Jeff Porsche show. I don't think this way. Welcome back to the Jeff Porsche show. I can talk about it was six five hour number two now underway. Thank you for listening on this Thursday morning. Tonight, presidential debate. I'm trying to get well, I give you my thoughts on it. I head into it. I don't know. It's way early. This is very peculiar. I think an early debate makes it even less relevant in the long term. Joe Biden's not going anywhere. Donald Trump's not going anywhere. That's that's even if if either one of these guys falls off the stage has to be carried off in a stretcher. Anything short of death, they're going to be on the ticket in November. That's just a reality. So we'll see. We'll watch it tonight. I don't know that other than fodder for programs like mine. I don't know that it matters. Maybe I can be wrong, but we'll see. Also, so Supreme Court decisions are still waiting on the big ease to January 6th. One, I think a lot of people care about and the presidential immunity ruling, which I guess will come tomorrow, but they could extend the term being on tomorrow. So we'll keep an eye out on that. Before I went to break there, oh, by the way, two, five, one, three, four, three, zero, one, zero, six is the tax line. Keep them coming. I'm going to get to those in just a moment, April and Mary Fogle coming up in about a half hour. Then we got a state auditor in your Surreal and the 11 o'clock hours to stick around for that. But back to the gambling discussion. So catch up once again, in case you're just tuning in yesterday on this program, Tony Kennedy's Mayor of Orange Beach. And I was kind of interested in hearing about how the the toll free bridge is going and how that's how that's really working around Orange Beach. But that's sort of a question on the way out yesterday. So what do you think of this gambling discussion? It really kind of like got fired up about it. It made some very intriguing compelling remarks about gambling. So he essentially was not very thrilled with the, I think, some members of his delegation in Balecati voting for changing the Alabama Constitution. Essentially said, look, you know, you do it at constitutional amendment. Are you doing away with the constitutional prohibition to a constitutional amendment, which is what a lot of you say, I just want to write the vote on a lottery that you're not just voting on a lottery. You are voting on giving the Alabama legislature the ability to legalize gambling. Any kind of gambling that it sees fit by a simple majority, at least from the constitutional amendment, it's a preface vote of both chambers plus a vote of the people. So there's, it's very hard to change the Alabama Constitution. But on the other side of that, kind of talking and thinking about this, like, once you take that away, once you take that impediment away, then it's just a simple majority. The whim of the legislature and the governor, and even you can do it without the governor calls, governor can veto something. And all the, all the legislature has to do is come back around and override her veto or his veto. And I say this, guys go back. So let's assume most people in Balecati don't want casino gambling there. Maybe some of you do. I think Joel probably wants like gambling and prostitution and whatever. But most people don't want to add in Balecati who live in Balecati. But from Little River to Fort Morgan to the Florida, don't lie any kind of gambling. They don't want prisons or gambling in Balecati. But that that's not how things are going to be determined. If you don't want gambling, you live in Balecati, well, you could be overridden by the entire state and go back to the BP settlement when there was a hole to fill with Medicaid and they used to be peace settlement to fill that Medicaid hole. It was done by the North Alabama Republicans led the effort there. Guys, I have sit in meetings and I have listened to. I'll never forget it. Howard Sanderford and Sam Govan during the toll bridge saga. Just say those people down there want the bridge. They don't want to pay for it. That it's as if if they wanted to bridge that the whole state paid for it would be like it's us. That's Alabama. But it was as if us people down here are kind of separate. I mean, it's just it I grew up in Birmingham. People look at the coastal part of the state differently, almost as if it's its own state from the Orleans to Appalachia Cola. But it's not we're all Albanians here. Okay. But there's that perception. What's the stop difference saying? Well, who cares what those guys say down there? We need money right now. We're hard. The state needs money to make sure to little children get educated and we're not going to have those beach going. Jimmy Buffett listed flip flop where in South Alabama is tell us that we're not going to be able to do what we got to do in our state for our survival. We're putting a casino at the beach because we need the money. The money is what we need. You never could have it. I'm money for government. I'm not saying they're saying that now, but who does what they'll say at 20 years or 10 years or whatever? All they got to do is have a simple majority vote 50 plus one to green light, single gambling at the beach without that constitutional amendment in place. It doesn't matter what the enabling legislation that passes with the constitutional amendment says because that could be changed. And I think that was Mayor Kenneth Boyd. Do you trust the Alabama legislature? Do you? Maybe you want casino gambling involved county. Some of you do. But think of it like this. There's a lawmaker in Gunnersville or wherever and he's like, yeah, my school's really on hard times right now. My kids are really the kids of my district. They just don't have chalk for their chalkboard or whatever. And people here just don't want to pay any more taxes. Let's put a casino at the beach and bring in that out of state money. And that way we can fund things that we need funded here in Alabama. To stop that from happening. And then you would have a number of lawmakers of all kind of hell. No. And guess what? They would they really needed it. They would cloture them in the Senate and assuming I don't know, you know, whoever senator then was against this. Plutcher, the whoever would be full of us during good in the Senate and a house that would just steamroll them like they steamrolled every other anti gambler this time around. Why should we believe you? This is how it works. We're all Americans and we they get, you know, they get a lot of say, two five one three four three zero one zero six. So I get kids. That's kid's point. Representative Simpson says, uh, please tell me you didn't read the bill without telling me you didn't read the bill. Well, it's not about the bill. It's about the constitutional amendment representative. If you put the language in the constitutional amendment prohibiting casino gambling in Baltimore County, I think then maybe that's different. But this wasn't about the bill. And where Mayor Kiddo was like, very aggressive was you had three members. You had Matt Simpson, Francis Holt Jones and Donna Givens vote for it. You had a bunch of people vote against it for different reasons. I represent Fiddler, Sarah Elliott, Sitter Albritton, Representative Baker, there's a stringer as part of a Baldwin County, there's a Easterbrook voted for it. Maybe it figures state Senator apart part of Spanish four voted for it. But historically, it's not really something a Baldwin County Republicans would ever vote for is casino gambling. It's just not what what people at Baldwin County would do. It is safe for Shelby County. Uh, same for like, um, like a limestone county or whatever. And it's kind of weird now the how moods have changed on that. Anyway, uh, that's kind of a long winded explanation of what happened yesterday, uh, generating a little bit of us this morning. Uh, shot right since look what they did to the bipolar guy. And they about bankrupted him. Um, John, how is the train going to help mobile international airport? Why is the train station not adjacent to the mobile international airport? It's pretty close though, isn't it? Well, if you want to talk about Berkeley field, Tuscers, here's a thought, build the bridge first, but the environmentalist socialist left wants us all on mass transit. It's about control guys. And Amtrak back in mobile is a drop in the bucket, but they're played a long game here. What happens if they start saying, well, we don't think you should be driving as much. It pollutes. But you can take the train as much as you want. Um, Amtrak is essentially socialism. It just has not been done correctly yet. We would get it right next time. And they've text here. Our roads suck. We were struggling to buy groceries and essentials. We need to live wages are down. Inflation is through the roof and these yahoo's are worried about a pansy train ride. I don't get it. I honestly, I don't know where this push is coming from. It's not coming from you guys. And those, you know, it's like a lot of things the government wants to do and they try to convince us that people want it. The people that aren't really clamoring for this, where is this coming from? You could go 10 more miles to Waterville for under $70 because I left and went there. I don't and made enough at the stupid casino or if you used to pay over four times the price for another water park that close, Bikahoot is only 165, I believe. Um, Amtrak is a scam for government pork slash fund. I used to work with them. It's this texture. Damn Yankee. Right. It's this great point, Mr. Poor trains or cocaine areas like New York and Jersey, but not in the swamp. He's out too much distance between populated areas and no demand for mass transit. Well, let's we forget big brother knows what's best. Well, fair, uh, that's kind of crazy, but it's, I can't like trying to create this like New Orleans, the mobile metropolitan sort of the train is not add a few extra lanes to I 10 or something. We don't have the infrastructure a real and it's just too cost prohibitive to build a essentially would have to be like an overpass from mobile to New Orleans holding a single train track. And even then, it's like it's one way. And a lot of the rail is one way between here and there and when the trains come in the other direction, I mean, that's to pull over to the side on a side rail and let that train pass. So you can't really, it's not even like a two lane road. It's just not efficient guys. We'll be right back. This is Epic Talk. 106 five crazy. I'm getting hammers sitting right here at the floor of Bama. Bama. I fly a starship across the universe divide. And when I reach the other side, I'll find a place to risk my spirit if I can. We'll get back to the Japur shoulder from talk with us. Six five 24 minutes after the hour. Coming up in the next segment, we'll hear from April Murray Fogle. I'll be able to day in occasionally 18 19 news. Joel says he's a mean head or here we go. I don't know Joel's in context, so it's a text here because they don't want us to drive cars. They want us to eliminate on vehicles. They want us to be depending on the blinking train. Joe Biden is front of Amtrak and then about 13 minutes later, he's a mean head. I think he's going to be voted out of office. He threatens wants to threaten people at office. He looks like he needs to look at his own self. I'm not sure what that was pertaining to. I'll see here Keith. Let's make a compact with the creeks so they can do level three gambling. You'll trust land. And they agree to pay us $300 million per year. As they say, they will. Nothing more. Just that. Let's say they must have a compact with the state in which they live to gamble off tribal land there, Keith. A couple of things here though. Look at the Seminole tribe in Florida. I'm not saying the porch Creek would do this here, but they're always in Florida. They're always late paying their bills, paying what they they promised the state of Florida. And just the outsized influence they have over Tallahassee lawmakers. Dan, Republican, West Florida for the win. Yeah. I mean, that's the way people like what you cross that Dolly part bridge of the eyes of a lot of people. It's just like totally different world. But like as somebody who like has lived all over the state from top to bottom, we're not that much different. We have our own like economies and our own expertise. You know, generally go deer hunting in the fall and chair for Alabama and football. And there's a lot of similarities here. But it's as if like where it's it's like Jolly Mon are something the eyes of these folks when you cross the across in the ball with Caddy. It's just not true. But they also like that that sort of like perception of a cultural difference. They think gives them a license to think less of the people from this part of the state that their votes don't they don't count as much as we do. It's weird. And I've always thought that it's always been strange to me. It's a place you go a couple times a year and you think of it as like, okay, well, I'm going to the beach. And how do people think mobile is the beach is just insane? Chris, it won't be the beach. It'll be at Owa. Why do you think those Indians built that? Well, that's what everybody's been saying for years. I guess the question is in our lifetime in the next 50 years will it be casino gambling there? And I think there probably will be cultures change things change, but right right now is something people don't want. Has there been a solution as money been the solution for album skills? No, not yet, at least we'll see after king of all, and named textures. And then finally, Jeff, I'm from Mobile to Mobile County from North Alabama, 1993. I had three people who had lived around there, basically, telling me the same thing. You may love it down here, but it is in Alabama. I had to say they are right. Pensacola, Mike, Alabama, and Mobile's more Louisiana. That's not a criticism necessarily, but it is my opinion. Well, I don't I disagree with that. But even if it is true, it doesn't matter. You live in Alabama. You pay taxes to Montgomery. Your state elected officials go to Montgomery to represent you. You got to be part of Alabama. But it's not necessarily what we're doing here in Mobile, Mobile County. It's just its perception from the rest of the state. Why they think Mobile County or someone diminished in the entire picture. I'll be right back. This is if it talk. One oh six five. I just wanna roll in the winter flow. Folks said that I. He asked me how I bought it. I told him on Reddit that it just smiled. I'll never forget it. Daddy never once. I'm a Cadillac cat. He sits. Look about to the chapter four show it up and talk with those six five. They're staying with us on this Thursday morning. 2513430106. You want to be in touch with the program? All you do is text me and I'll do my best to respond to whatever it is that is on your mind. A few days house cleaning gear. We will hit on obviously debate tonight. It'll be it'll be fun to watch and we'll have plenty to talk about tomorrow. But does it matter in the long run? I don't think so. Also hitting on this gambling stuff. And finally Amtrak. I don't know why in June 2024. We want to bring the choo choo train back to Mobile. More importantly guys. I don't even understand like why this is coming up now. Who is pushing this? It's not is it. Somebody said, Hey, you know what? It'd be great if we had train travel and mobile. So I don't know where this is coming from. Someone's pushing it besides me. I think we got her on the line but our now Thursday regular. April Marie Fogel joins us. April Marie. Good morning. How are you? Good morning. I'm doing well. I'm starting to worry. You're not going to call. No, we we got you on the line. Sometimes I get distracted by other things going on. It's the choo choo. The choo choo train has attracted you. You're so excited to get on the Amtrak and ride over more. Is it going to New Orleans? New Orleans. That's it. Nobody wants to go to Baton Rouge. Like, I don't know what you want to go. Go smell of like cheap whiskey and sewer at a Saturday night. Baton Rouge is the place for you. But anyway, I digress. Hey, uh, have you seen the, uh, well, uh, the, uh, Birmingham police officer. Apparently that the ladies are off. Yes. Not only have I seen him. I saw it. I spent about 20 minutes down the rabbit hole of comments that were hysterical. And then I sent it to Erica Thomas that so that she could enjoy it with me. Now she's trying to get it on the pages of 18 19. You better put it on the pages of 18 19. That's right there. One small, small problem. I mean, like Carol Robinson's already done it for A.L.com. Well, I didn't know she had done it. I'm just telling you this is how viral this story is going for those who don't know what we're talking about. Birmingham PD did like this officer spotlight and the officer is a total cutie pie. He's that phenomenal hair and he's he's a cutie. Yeah. And the women are going wild in the comments. This guy is a douchebag. Oh, stop it. Actually, some of the comments are by people women who have interacted with him and say he's a really decent call. Oh my God. Birmingham has all these problems like, uh, guns just going off randomly and they're spotlighting their, uh, uh, absolutely. That is the best distraction ever. I mean, whatever PR person thought in the midst of a crazy crime wave and, um, you know, gun violence everywhere. Let's get the entire woman population of Birmingham. Stop playing their game though. Don't let them don't give them this double you. Oh, I am so good. Like I said, I sent it to Erica because I knew she would appreciate it with me. Um, I'm going to go ahead and give them the study. As a matter of fact, I might even message, um, Ed Bowser, or, um, or returning and say good job to your police department PIO. Uh, this is, I figured you would have seen it at this point. Uh, but, uh, absolutely. I, I saw it yesterday and then I went back for more comments this morning and one of them was about, uh, you know, misdemeanor crime going up among eligible women. I'm enjoying it. Thetic. You know what? I should have known you wouldn't appreciate Officer Hardy. Well, I mean, it, it, it, it was, Birmingham is such a disaster. Even if it were like, if there were like offers, Officer Bikini woman, I like, what the hell is this? Why are you insulting my intelligence? Why are you catering to the lowest common denominator of society by doing this? And that's what you're doing here. And you're like, what a great move. Yay, Birmingham PD. Well, uh, too bad somebody got shot this afternoon, but that's okay. We got some kind of poster child, uh, with good, good hair and, and then the big old tattoo on his arm, Wazzy flexes. Uh, who cares about the murder? Who cares about the other sides? How many times have you stared at this picture? Come on. Those, those are nice muscles. Also, by the way, just, it is a, it is a three second distraction before the next person gets shot and I, we all take all the distractions I can move here. I hear that routinely hear that. Um, yes, I've tried that and failed that. We'll work on it. There's nothing in Birmingham. And then the, the, the ship tower there can't fight enough tenants. It's about to be put in a receivership. No one wants to be in Birmingham. Yeah, it's a bad. These are a bad shape in Birmingham. It is a dying city because of the failed leadership there and the only place worse is maybe Montgomery. I mean, Montgomery has state government like an obligation. The state has to stay there in Montgomery. Birmingham doesn't have that. You know, you, you, who cool on Birmingham, but we've got some cool things. We, we, it is not as bad. The places that are awful are absolutely awful. But then there are places you can go and you would have no idea. Um, what's going on in other parts of town? It's a, it is a very segmented, very siloed. I'm not talking, I'm not talking about Hoover. I'm not talking about, I'm not talking about Homewood, the state, get out of the city of Birmingham and you live in the city of Birmingham and this is what the city of Birmingham. This is what the taxpayers here are doing. It is a dying town with failed leadership and you don't get to say, well, we have leads. You just get all you got, Birmingham. We got Bucky. We got Bucky is really close. No, I'm just. That's leads. That's leads. Um, I know that was such a, um, okay. So this, by the way, for the listeners, this is what every phone call between Jeff for and I devolved into every call that's longer than five minutes. You are now listening in on a personal phone call between me and Jeff for. Yeah. Uh, this is as exciting as it gets. Like, what are you doing with your life, April, Barry? Get out of that, God, for sake of town myself all the time. Um, I, I tried to go to Huntsville this morning. I was going to go to jail Jackson show, but he messed up his calendar and he's got me coming in two weeks instead. So, uh, so I'll escape to Huntsville for a day. Huntsville is, uh, it's okay. It's a little overrated. I was all there up there for year and a half. And, um, I, I don't know. There's just a lot of people moving there for work, but there's nothing to do there. What's there to do? And, uh, we're, you live in Fair Hope? You live in, you live somewhere down there. What's going to be on there besides look at the pretty water? Oh, we got like the bed. We got better restaurants here than what I had in Washington, D.C. I mean, everywhere is walkable. Um, you could, you could just hop, skip down to the beach. Uh, you know, this, there's a lot to do here. And I've been here. I bought a house here in 21 and I, there's still places I haven't been. I lived in Huntsville for a year and a half and it's like, okay, space rocket center, uh, a few trips up to Nashville every now and then, um, the four good restaurants have hit them like multiple times. Uh, it's just, it's a little, I find it culturally just a little overrated. Have you ever seen the movie The Greatest Showman? No. Okay. You need to watch it because there's a, um, there's a theater critic in there who you're reminding me of is a theater critic. You can't find joy in the theater. You can't find joy anywhere. That's your problem. Oh, I can find joy places. Uh, my standards are a little higher than yours. Apparently, I mean, I would say one thing that Birmingham has has on Huntsville, it made it does have like a, a more of a cultural scene, uh, and then a history. It really, that Huntsville, the Birmingham has phenomenal restaurants. You want to talk about food? We've got some, it's a national word winning food here. Um, we do have walkable areas. I know you can't wrap your head around that, but we do. And, uh, where can you walk? Where can you walk in Birmingham? And I get shot at, um, I can walk down my road over to the pizza place or the barbecue place, across the, across the mountain, Brooke. It's close to my book. All right. All right. Let's talk the top presidential debates. Do you think there's going to be anything interesting to happen? It'll be interesting stuff. It is worth watching. It doesn't matter though. I don't think so. It's all a sort of a Rorschach test. You'll see, you'll get out of it what you want. And, uh, that's what we'll say tomorrow. I saw what I'll say tomorrow less. Like something calamitous could happen, but April, I think even if, uh, Joe Biden or Donald Trump falls off the stage, has to be carried off in a stretcher to the emergency room, whatever is nearby in Atlanta, Grady Memorial Hospital or whatever has operated on. They will still be the nominee on the ballot that we're voting on in November. Absolutely. And whoever whoever were to have done that, their handlers will have all the great, uh, spinners lined up to say, you know, it's absolutely nothing. Don't believe your eyes. Um, it was, it was a trick by the other side. It'll be a whole thing. I just want, I like the, the sound bites that are genuine. My, you know, I keep going back to this Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump debating taxes and her saying, well, you didn't pay taxes and, you know, you basically used all the loopholes and that, and him saying, absolutely, I did. And you had the opportunity to change and didn't. Those are the moments that stick with me. The moment where you're like, that is, that is a raw truth that we all needed to hear. Joined by April, Marie Fogle, Alabama today and sometimes, uh, 18, 19 news, 18, 19 news.com. Um, I used, you feel, uh, you're filling the fire in your belly like you were after the, the, um, the, the, the law fair episode for Donald Trump right now. You know, I, I, I'm, I'm back to a, back to a simmer. I'm back, I'm back to a, you know, um, I, I really wish you would, and I know I've said this probably going on like 12 years, but I really wish you just stopped posting on social media because his social media posts still kill me. And I know we're supposed to be immune and ignore them, but he, he, he just shows himself as so petty. And it, the level of cuttiness of this man, the structure, it's the heck out of me. Yeah. Um, I don't know, but I think as far as just like personal preference, perhaps, but look at it. Doesn't that kind of appeal to people for some, whatever? I, like human beings can be petty people and they kind of see some, you know, they, they can identify with that. You should see my latest stop on Jupyter. Um, yes, there's a time to play sport, but we post after post after post seems that way to me, it's just frustrating. Um, I know that he, he feels very put upon, he's, he's been attacked every way they can possibly attack him. Um, which is frustrating. And it's frustrating not, it's not just for him, but for as a nation, you know, what would President Trump have been if he wasn't under attack his entire presidency, dealing with lies, BS, you know, wanting to impeach him, wanting to put him in jail. We'll always have that. What if question? I think that is what earns him the sympathy. That's for me, at least that earns him something. I don't, I have no sympathy for the shenanigans against he got in with, uh, with Stormy, but I, I do have sympathy for the rig system that gotten in that trial. Well, yeah, I mean, it's, it's like a different standard of justice because they don't like him as president. That's just un-American. And, and, but I, I think it kind of pulls the curtain back on like the American criminal justice system that this happens all the time when there's a big fish or there's some kind of political angle here. They, they go, or even just a cultural angle here, they go after these guys that they wouldn't normally go after. They were just a average person, right? Well, and they go, yeah, they go after them. They go after them more publicly. They go, they, it's a, um, it is part of us. It's a side show. It's in, and we do fall for it. We have fallen for it over the years. And I would say that was, in terms, if this, if the story Daniel's trial wasn't so like drama-filled, nobody would have paid attention. What was it? They were talking about, you know, documents. Nobody would have cared about that, but they knew that the prosecution and the judge were going to allow crazy things to happen. Well, tell me this, because I think this right now is the low point, the low tide mark for the Trump campaign, that this was the worst, this is the worst of the storm here. And I don't think this is good enough for Democrats. Like they needed a bigger blow here coming out of that. I think the rest of the law fair stuff is going to come too late. Um, to, to matter, um, maybe they could get him with sentencing or whatever, but just the shock of a convicted felon and the buzz that that's going to generate, like right now is the, or like a week ago, I would say probably, was the low point and it's all uphill from here. I agree. I think that, um, coming off of, out of that lawsuit, uh, he wasn't, uh, he wasn't weakened the way that they thought he would be. Um, I think going into the convention and the vice presidential nomination, I think you're right. I think it picks up steam and we get to see where, you know, kind of get energized for the, the rest of this thing. Yeah, I just, to me, like his base only, or even his campaigns just kind of clawing their way out. Democrats needed a real fatal blow here to end this and they just didn't even barely landed a glancing blow. This was their big offensive and they couldn't, they didn't move the ball enough. They didn't get the first down they needed to keep playing. Well, I think it was a big part of that. It's just the way that the trial, um, it was so evident. Those frequent press or, you know, even after the gag stuff, the frequent being in the press, the doing the events in New York, those things were genius. It was, he didn't just go there and, you know, put his head down and soak during the trial. He embarrassed them day after day during the trial and then when they tried to embarrass him, it just didn't hit the same. Um, you know, the, the, the salacious details of his sex life, people just don't didn't hate her. It was a one day story. And then it was over. April, Marie, folks will define you online. How can they do so? Um, best place is Twitter, um, at a PRYL and A.R.I.E. As you mentioned, occasionally, 1819 and I would end up. April, Marie, folks, ladies and gentlemen, we'll be right back. This is F.M. Talk. One, oh, six, five. [Music] From Carolina, down to Georgia, smell the Tasman and Magnolia, sleep is sweet home. Alabama, roll tight, roll. I'm looking back at your show. I'm gonna talk one of those six, five. Had to stay with us on Thursday morning 2513430106, uh, Andrew Sorrell, coming up in the next hour. Our state auditor, Horo, state lawmaker as well. That's at the bottom of the 11 o'clock hour. In the meantime, you want to get in, uh, touching the program 2513430106, somebody can see those, uh, in Baltimore County and this is, uh, Tony Ken in the Mayor at Orange Beach. See a little, um, let's say, uh, a little too exercised about that possibility, uh, that, uh, Amtrak back in Mobile, who really wants it? And all I ever get when I raise this question is, stop badmouthing Amtrak. You need to slow down and enjoy life. Uh, not everybody's in a hurry like you, which is the dumbest, dumbest justification. You can offer me personally for Amtrak, uh, make me a better case that I need to slow down in life with, uh, you know, a family and multiple jobs and, uh, very limited, uh, leisure time to do things as if I am going to go on a four to five, six hour train ride to New Orleans, Louisiana, and then a four to five, six hour train ride back from the Orleans to Mobile as it's somehow that is some kind of, uh, way to spend my leisure time. Okay. That is not the way you need to sell it to me personally. Oh, it's not for everybody. Well, then why like who's it for people afraid to fly? The deal is with train. It's, it's a hub and spoke sort of system. The hub would be the Orleans and you get on the train into Orleans. And from New Orleans, you can pick, you can go to Chicago up the, the, the, the, uh, city of New Orleans train, you get on the crescent and you can go to Washington, New York, Philly, wherever Boston are. You can date the sunset limited when it still exists to LA, California points west. And if that's what you want to do and you've got a couple of weeks of time and so be it, but you can also take a drive to Mobile, Pensacola, Gulfport, or even drive to the New Orleans, Louis Armstrong International Airport and fly any of those places in a fraction of the time at probably a much lower cost. That is what you need to recognize. We talk about sinking big money, big time money, million dollars from the city of Mobile into train travel. So hit on that. Got a couple of texts to get to here on the other side. Please stick around. This is the jet pore show it. If you talk about our six five from bucks pocket to the shores of Orange Beach at all points in between an insider's perspective on Alabama politics. It's the Jeff Porsche show. I don't think this way. Welcome back to the Jeff Porsche show. Let me talk about a six five page for staying with us on this Thursday morning to five one three four three zero one zero six. Text me will get into it here in just a moment. Watching not the big Supreme Court cases not really hitting yet. Maybe they were worried they would didn't want to be they didn't want to overshadow the debate or whatever. I don't know the US Supreme Court as always I had scratch here and anybody tells you they understand it is lying, but we are watching for that just a abortion case allowing for emergency abortions. Now I guess the law of the land and a Purdue farm settlement involving what kind of striking down the settlement and allowing some of the returns made by investors to be culpable for whatever the damages are for these openness opioid. This way going about business promoting opioids two five one three four three zero one zero six and her surreal or state auditor coming up in about a half hour. That is on the way. In the meantime, I'm going to plow through some text here, Sommerdale, Tony writes April Marine, most never Trumpers are petty. Just like she said, all they worry about. I don't like what he posts. He's mean, but that's just that's just I mean, that's something you got to deal with, though, Tony. I don't understand it. It's irrational. But it's sort of the mentality of a lot of female voters. And you can't just disregard that. Now policy is one thing, but style is something you could change. They don't like the vulgar um, toxic masculinity is all putting to them. That kind of stuff they don't stop. They'd rather have the hair gel tatt tatted up a police officer or whatever. I guess I don't know. Adam Jeff, I am a positive person and I've seen anything good for mobile makes sense, but there's no way this Amtrak and mobile will ever be close to be unsuccessful. I'm not saying that no one will write it, but if there are more than a few a day, it would be a miracle as to the few people who want it. I wonder how today we'll write it as far as saying it will be scenic if you want to see what's here between here in New Orleans drive highway 90. You will see small scenery and you can stop if you want. Also, I drive a large SUV and can make the trip for 60 bucks. Yeah, I mean, there's lots of scenery to see like a a moss point strip ball or, you know, the pawn shop near the casinos. Oh, you can see the casinos and nothing like passing by the parking garage out in front of the bar of eyes. Yeah, and all the don't forget the billboards telling us what carrot top is going to be playing and whatever the other casinos are there. They change names. And you can just you can just hop skip along down U.S. Highway 90 there and see all the great scenery there is to see. I mean, you can see some scenery before you get to Mississippi Theodore guys, Elmo or what say Elmo a great, great Grand Bay. There's lots to see there. So, rather than have a taxpayer subsidized train ride where you can see like the both sides of the tracks and slide El Louisiana, you can just take your automobile and go see it at your own discretion. So you're absolutely right there, Adam. Jim, I'm trying to only exist because it's subsidized by the government. We don't need it. It works in in the Northeast and it's still subsidized. But there's there's some merit to this. Washington DC in New York City and people go back and forth back and forth. The national capital is the country's biggest city. And if you fly from DC to New York, you got to you got to get out to Reagan and then you take a plane to LaGuardia and you're in Queens. You're not in Manhattan. So, you're flying essentially from Arlington, Virginia to Queens, but the train you get right on there at the Capitol Hill at Union Station. And it gets you to like not Grand Central Station, but the other train station under Madison Square Garden. And you're there. We are at you're right in the middle of Midtown Manhattan. You don't have to taxi it in and out. And it's it's there are not every line that way is high speed. You want to do the high speed of silly. You're paying like a hundred bucks more. So, that's it works in between Boston and DC. And maybe someday it'll work between LA and San Francisco, but that is years away. Michael, Jeff, we need Amtrak for the line up guys to go to New Orleans and drink and not have to drive. I did a New Orleans trip with the line. You have guys one year and nothing that they did. They come to regret it in my older age. They took a bus actually. It didn't be about 10 years ago. It's just not. Anyway, the idea though is that you're going to get on the train pregame with a cooler beard and go to the Saints game. Then after the Saints game, you're going to hop like the three o'clock train back to Mobile. It's just not how it's going to work. You may be waiting a day. Maybe they maybe they have a special and they do this sometimes will put to put up a special train just for the Saints game. And it like does the the Superdome is real close to the train station and you can go what you could do. I guess you could say, okay, an hour after the game's over. We'll have a train that heads back and they'll charge like $200 a ticket or something. Would you pay for that? Because they just had a special train just for the Saints game. Would you do that? And if you would do that, why don't they just do that and not make it an everyday thing. One other reason is to go to New Orleans. Unless you're just going there to go do whatever it is you do a bourbon street. Maybe you're going there to catch a flight. Oh, Dan. Wait here, Tony. It doesn't matter that you don't want to enter. Other people in Mobile and Ballwood counties want it. Yeah, but like how many Tony five, 10, 15, 20, give me a quantity here. It does matter that I don't want it because my my opinion matters just as much as the people who wanted some opinion matters. So it does matter. So I disagree with that. I think the overwhelming majority of people in this this area are like, sure, I want it, but I'm never going to use it. I guess we should ask this question and it's going to hurt. But this is the question you need to ask. Do we need Amtrak in Mobile, Alabama? If you want something to pay for it yourself, if you need something that I guess there is a public interest that we can sync taxpayer revenue into that, do we need it? Isn't a necessity? Does the economic success ride on Amtrak to Mobile? And I say, do you need it? And they're varying degrees of need. Do we need Amtrak in Mobile, Alabama? Yes or no? Because I say, if you say we need it, you're lying to me. Dan, I may not be the smartest person in the world, but if I live in Sims and I'm going to catch the trade in New Orleans, it's going to take at least 30 minutes to get down to the train station where I have to sit and wait to board the train and then a six hour ride to New Orleans where I can just go west and be in New Orleans for three hours or less. That's sort of the point here. It's not efficient. Toothless bam mare. Maybe the most lame text of the year, you only go around once in life, slow down and take the train. See the tourist attractions on the train. Goshay mall. Just like, what are you going to do there? Our friends at the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. I mean, that's not scenery. It's not like you're seeing canyons and geysers and a forest land here. It's kind of the, it's where there are like stops for freight and very industrial. Listen, I have experienced train rider here. I've just been burned too many times by Amtrak and I'm trying to tell you guys, even if you think you needed, it's not going to deliver on its expectations. You're going to buy a ticket and you're going to miss kickoff if you think you're going to make it to the Saints game in time. My name text are definitely not needed in this crappy town. Well, that's one man's opinion. A name texture. We'll be great for catching a cruise ship in the woods. I hate driving. We'll love train rides, but who has time? You'll miss your departure. It's that other thing about rail travel as a whole, it's unreliable in America. That's why freight travels because it doesn't really have a set time. But if you need to be somewhere, if you need to catch that cruise ship before your departure, you better build in a lot of extra time. Tell the story before where it kind of broke me. I was okay with being an hour too late and a freelance assignment in Virginia Beach. That's kind of looking at it about the same price of renting a car was Amtrak. And it was advertised to be like four hours. It's like, well, I need to work and I don't need to make that long drive. I'll do the train. And what it worked at the time was you take the train from you get on, you get on in Arlington or Alexandria or even DC or whatever, and it would take you down to Norfolk, Virginia, and from Norfolk, it puts you on the bus to Virginia Beach because you got to go over, but you'll go over anything just the train lines just don't go out that far to the east. All right, sure, whatever. Get down there. It's about an hour longer than advertised. No big deal. We made it in time. Got some work done. Coming back, the bus picks up, get to Norfolk. Actually, if you get to Newport News, you cross, it stops the Norfolk and it goes on the Virginia Beach. So that's what it was. I'm sorry, I'm memory here. Oh, I told the store before and you're in Newport News and there's no train. Two hours later, no train, three hours later, no train, five hours later, no train, seven hours later, no train. What's going on here? Oh, we're having some mechanical issues. And then finally, another train they get and everybody gets on board, try to get home. Like it's already like seven hours late. Okay. The problem is getting back, you have to let all the passing traffic come by. It's not like a two way street. It's a one way road. And that adds a few more hours because you're at all these pull offs, wait for these freight rail to get down south as you go and counter to the flow, I guess, when you're not on your scheduled time, stop enrichment. There's another hour. It's like three in the morning before we get back to Union Station. And I don't know if you have been to, when you're anticipating to be back at like three forty afternoon, back at three in the morning, in the middle of Washington, D.C., you're like, what the heck's going on here? But like kind of talking to people, that's, that happens occasionally. It happens. Oh, it happens like what's a week here on this route. And it's just, sure, what do you do about it? Don't want that here in Mobile. I'm telling you guys, we'll be right back. This is F.M. Talk with us. You got to know when to hold up. Know when to hold up. Know when to walk away. Know when to run. You never count your money. When you're sitting at the table, there'll be time enough to count. When the deal is done. We'll go back to the Jeff Porte showed up and talk about 06/5. They stay with us on this Thursday morning. Programming, no, coming up tomorrow on the show. Todd Stacey, Alabama Daily News and our returning champion, Stacey, or Chris Elliott, and a guest to be named later, tentatively, it was very more. But I understanding his scheduled votes for his scheduled time tomorrow. So he won't be available. So we're going to find a quick fill in if possible. But that is like a get out of town kind of day so people can catch their flights. Or I suppose there are some who will take the choo-choo train home. But I like what if like the name of member, Darrell Isa from Orange County, Florida, I mean, Orange County, California had to like take the train home for August recess or whatever. It take a week. Maybe Chief and Foley, let's call the same track deal what it is. It's a bill at play for Amtrak at taxpayer expense. Exactly. I don't know why we it's on life support. Rail travel in America is it is designed. It has been co-opted. It is for freight, be it aggregate, be it shipping containers or whatever. It is a primarily the American rail system is built for freight. It is not built for passengers. And we have gone about our business as such. We have done historically the upgrades that have been made have been done. So for freight travel, that is just the reality of it guys. And we never at a certain point, I don't know, like I am just assuming a lot of you out there listening to my voice are driving in your car, listening to this show. You're accustomed to having that mobility to go from point A to point B. Even if you're just you're hauling some, hey, or you're going down to the eye doctor or whatever it is you're doing. There is a there are institutions in this country that want to take that mobility away and wants you to rely the collective transit. And that I mean, it may be not be widespread in Alabama, but like in these big cities, they don't understand. And it's not like we're rural Alabama here. It's not like you live in like Union town and you got to go like an hour either way to the doctor or something. But you do have this mobility. They want to take that away from you and make you take a bus or an underground mass transit or some kind of light rail or some kind of garbage like that. It just doesn't work. This are parts of the country because the people don't understand that. They just never been outside of a metropolitan setting. They don't understand why you would want to live anywhere like that. It doesn't make sense to them. That being said, that's why there's this push towards mass transit in this Amtrak stuff. I am convinced it's just part of that ideological. It's ideological infrastructure. She's it isn't practical. Shane. Oh, some people just don't understand maritime museum, Ringabelle. Ricky asked what happened to flying cars. Well, that got to be a thing in the I you see these old real to real tapes of a flying car advertisements want to expect someday. Anyway, two, five, one, three, four, three, zero, one, zero, six. I like I always appreciate the feedback. Well, I mean, as long as Amtrak keeps showing up in the news, you're going to have chronic malcaten right wing radio dot job here telling you how awful it is. And I don't I don't understand like once the city and the city elders say no to the rail planning commissions to Amtrak to all these lobbyists. They show up like three days later and continued to pound the drums. Like where is this coming from? This is not a grass roots effort. This is being placed in upon us somehow from somewhere somewhere far. And they're trying to convince enough people. Oh, it'll be just kind of like a classic charming kind of thing and it'll be so much fun. We got to do it. That's not the question that we need. Trans is real transit. Two, five, one, three, four, three, zero, one, zero, six. Make the case for deed. Show me the need. And maybe I could be convinced we're probably not. We'll be right back. This is if you talk one of six, five a couple guys in first class on a flight from New York to Los Angeles. Welcome back to the chapter four show the talk. One of six, five. They just stay with us on this Thursday morning. Two, five, one, three, four, three, zero, one, zero, six. Text me. I'm still waiting for somebody to convince me that we need Amtrak and mobile again. And if you can, I mean, maybe there's a case to be made. But so far, the only like really like pro passenger rail people have been like, oh, it'd be just be nice to have. That's not really gonna. I don't think cut it when he comes to using government resources to have something. You need a little more there, but I'm not making that decision. I am just a dumbass with a microphone. Anyway, joining us now, somebody is not a dumbass. Always a pleasure to bring on my next guess. He is our state auditor. Andrew Sorrell is with us. Andrew, good morning. How are you? That was quite the introduction there, Jeff. I'm doing pretty well. Thanks for having me on. Well, before we get into what I wanted to ask you to come on about, how is the job going? It's always good to catch up with you and I kind of get you to fill in the auditor role in this state. Jobs going well this week's been a little bit tougher than normal because we've got my team for staff and one other kind of key employee. They're both out on vacations this week, but they deserve their time off and I was glad for them to take it. So other than the rest of us picking up maybe a little bit of the slack, everything's going great. One update on that bill that, you know, I got my bill out of the house and Senate committees this year, got it to the Senate floor and it got carried over to the call of the chair. This is the bill, of course, who would expand the state auditor's duties. There was a little bit of resistance in the house. What's it made it out of committee? There was some resistance to getting it to the floor and I actually was able to have go have lunch with rules chairman Joe Lovern about two weeks ago over in Auburn. He treated me nice lunch there. We had a good time. A long discussion stopped in and saw Senator Jay Hovey there as well at downtown Auburn. But nonetheless, one of the things that Joe Lovern I expressed was that he had said there might have been some concern about the investigations division that was being created in the state auditor's office. Some of the legislators were concerned about that. What is this investigation's division going to be investigating? And my response was those people probably didn't read the bill because if they read the bill, they wouldn't have been concerned. The investigations division was only going to investigate loss or theft or misuse of state property. That's all it did. So I think people were fearing it was much more comprehensive investigations division being created. Maybe something that like some law enforcement agency would be doing. And I said that's not it at all. So on his recommendation, I have reworked the bill. We are renaming that is not going to be the property investigation division to hopefully dispel any confusion about what that new investigation division is actually going to do. So with minor changes like that, it was not a substantive change at all. It was just kind of more a technical change. But I think it'll help clear up confusion with the legislators. And so anyway, I'm more optimistic than ever that I can get that bill to the floor and the House and Senate next year. Tell me about that property investigation division. What kind of authority does it have? How? I mean, can it get to demand things or compel agencies to do things? And then once you completed investigation, what purposes that investigation does binding serve? Yeah, good question. Let me start with a story of why we need a property investigations division. We had a Department of Public Health employee about two months ago who went to state surplus. And his job was to take a box truck there and drop off surplus inventory that was going to be auctioned off is what we do with all state property that is of a certain value, certain threshold, has to go to surplus and be auctioned off. And surplus is run through a deck. So the guy pulls up and instead of waiting for help to unload the box truck, I didn't have a lift gate. So he would have had to had assistance unloading this heavy stuff. He just proceeds to throw it off the back of the truck on the concrete floor and break it all. And he denied doing it. And unfortunately, for him, it was all caught on video. And I've seen the video. I requested it and they sent it. And surplus has said this guy has never allowed back when that's how bad this was. And it was over $20,000 of equipment. Now the depreciated value of the equipment, if you'd appreciate it at 10% a year, depreciated value was more in the $5,000 or less range. But still, nobody should be throwing taxpayer property off the back of the truck and breaking. So my question was, how was the form marked? Because when when property is lost or damaged, there's a form that has to be filled out by the agency and they either market as negligent or non-negligent. In the past, we've seen agencies always market as non-negligent. Because if the market is non-negligent, they don't have to do anything else with it. And most of the time, they don't feel like fiddling with it. But in a case like this, it was clearly negligent. My question was, have they actually marked it negligent? So I got a hold of the form and thankfully, yes, they had marked it negligence. Now, one of the things my bill would do is allow my office to overrule them. If they had marked that a non-negligent loss, we could overrule them and say, no, that is negligent if this bill passes. So that's thing number one, but they got at least that portion right. But then I looked down at the corrective action. And the corrective action taken was told the employee to be more patient. That's all it said. I said, that's not adequate corrective action. It should have said and required employee to repay for the damaged property. So I've been in communication with him the last 60 days. And I have basically said, I'm not letting this go until you make this employee repay the taxpayers for the property that he broke. And last I heard this week, they are setting up a payment plan, and the taxpayers are actually going to be getting reimbursed to that property. So this property investigations division is going to investigate scenarios just like what I described, because this is not isolated. That's just the one I pulled off the top of my head to tell you about. But we got to make sure that taxpayer property is not being carelessly disposed of, stolen, things like that. That's what we're going to be looking into. Now, as far as what authority would we have to do something if this new bill passes after the investigations complete, we can issue a demand letter. I don't know about you, but if I'm a state employee and I got a demand letter from the state auditor's office, I'd probably go ahead and send the check in. But if they don't, they would allow me to refer it to the attorney general for further civil action. So it's not criminal. It's just civil. Well, I mean, I guess if they don't pay it, the hits or credit report, I mean, like what's the consequences here? Well, I mean, first of all, if the attorney general, again, if the AG sent me a letter saying you owe the state some money, I would just write the check. I wouldn't wait to find out what the consequences are. But yes, we're not trying to pursue people criminally. We're not trying to throw you in jail. If you, you know, let's say you left your car unlocked and the state laptop got stolen out of it. I don't think that's criminal. I just think you were careless, and the remedy should be you have to pay the state back for the property. I don't think a remedy is you get a criminal action on your, you know, on your, on your background or anything like that. We're not trying to overcorrect here. I just want to make sure that the people are being reimbursing the agencies when they lose or break, carelessly break, state property. Now, I've heard stories, you know, a state docs worker bends over and a cell phone falls out of his pocket into the water. Stuff like accidents happen. That's what the investigation's revisions for. We're not just going after everybody. I had a state senator I talked to, and he got off the airplane and left his state issued laptop on the airplane totally by accident. My question was, did you try to recover it? Yes, he immediately tried to recover it, and he eventually did get it back. So you got to look at the facts of each situation before you make a determination. And ultimately, my office isn't the one with the ultimate enforcement, it would still be the attorney general. So that should dispel any fears I think the legislature has of too much power for the auditor's office. Ultimately, it's still rest with the attorney general. But I could get the ball rolling because frankly, the attorney general is out there fighting, you know, for the transgender surgery bill we passed four years ago. We got their fighting vaccine mandates like he's got big things going on. And I don't want to trouble him with these $5,000 property loss cases if we can just handle it internally. Joy by state auditorator Sorrell here on the program. I really want to get you out here, Andrew, just team baking. We now we had Senator Andrew Jones on a couple of weeks ago to talk about this. And it just kind of stunning to think this happens. But because of the business that you're in, banks that your customers will just can just drop you based on that, that that that is something that they do just indiscriminately, it seems. Well, I guess it would be discriminatory technically. But talk about that and why this is something that Alabama needs to take action on. I don't believe that large companies, these large institutions, banks, insurance companies, et cetera, should be able to discriminate against you for your religious or political beliefs. And that's exactly what's happening. So these large vote corporations, they don't believe you have a Second Amendment right, for instance. And they if they don't agree with your First Amendment right, a free speech, if you're out there saying something they don't like, they can just de-bank you. And that's exactly what happened to me, though, the connection for me was not First Amendment, it was Second Amendment, because I own a gun store actually on two gun stores, one in Florence and one in Huntsville, had them for a number of years, had a credit card company we had been with for about six years, paid our bill on time, every time. I mean, we were the model customer for them. One day we get a letter, you are that your account is being closed, no explanation, 30 days your account's closed. So we had to scramble and we were very confused by it. We had no idea, like we've been late on our payments and stuff, I would have understood, but that wasn't the case. We've been a great customer. So we went and we got another credit card. And you know, you know how it is, Jeff, you have all of your auto bill stuff, your internet, your phone pane, all your suppliers, like everything's built. It's annoying to have to take many hours to go through the process of changing all that over to another credit card. The next year, our credit card processor drops us and says, in 30 days, you will no longer be able to take credit cards. And again, major problem, no explanation. Why is this happening to us? So we went to a local bank, we went to First Metro Bank in Florence, and they are not woke, and they were happy to have our business. And we set up credit card processing with them, albeit at a slightly higher percentage rate than what we had been paying this other company. The third year comes around and our insurance company drops us. And I'm like, what is happening? I was mad by this point. For culture insurance broker, he said, yeah, you're a gun store. He said, this is happening to all the gun stores. And then it clicked. Then I understood why we were being canceled by all of these big banks. It's because we sell guns, and it just infuriated me. We are operating a legal business, and these big banks decide they don't like that we're selling guns. And that's why Shane Stringer and Tim Nelson's bill prohibiting the merchant category codes for firearm sales. This year was so important, is because stuff like that allows companies to discriminate against you. So I wrote an op-ed, which which, you know, you in 1819 published for me about a month ago, I appreciated it. I needed to get the word out there. Because if this is happening to me, it's happening to everybody else. And unlike, you know, me, not everybody else has the opportunity as a statewide official to write an op-ed and get it published statewide. So everybody can see that this is happening. How many people have been debanked that are just average ordinary alabamians just trying to live their life and run their business that we don't even know about? That's my concern. And when I spoke to Senator Jones about my concern, he immediately said, oh my goodness, this is actually happening in Alabama. And I said, yeah, it is. I told him my story. And he said, I'm going to fix it. I'm going to bring a bill. And I recommend it. He look at Tennessee and see what they had done and try to model our bill after that. But he immediately just said, I'm going to pick up the torch and run with it on this issue. This isn't something we can ignore. This is going to get worse not better. Well, Toby, what I don't understand, like, how does it fall on this? Is this typically a duty of the states? Can they regulate? Because it seems to me like big baking firms and New York or Delaware or wherever would be governed by federal regulations. Well, sure. But if they want to do business in Alabama, they're going to be governed by our state regulations to some extent. And this regulation, see, what the companies are going to say is, you shouldn't pass a law telling us who we can and can't do business with. Government shouldn't be telling private businesses who they have to do business with. To which I would respond, yeah, that sounds real conservative until you realize this is a discrimination issue. We already tell you who you can and can't do business with. For instance, you can't deny doing business with somebody because they're African American. You can't deny them for services because they're female. I say you shouldn't be able to deny them because they're Republican or because they put out conservative social media posts or because they sell guns. That's also discrimination. And these large banks, you know, they're the first ones to run for help to the government for a bailout when they overextend themselves and put the whole country in a crisis like happened back in 2007 and 2008. They were too big to fail. And we had to bail them out. That's what they said. I say if you're if you're big enough, you need to bail out, then you are too big to discriminate. So my thinking is we don't have a problem with community banks in Alabama. They're not the ones doing this. It's the large woke corporations that are doing this. And I'm tired of it. We need to put an end to it. Well, tell me, how do you make that connection? Like if they drop you and they say they don't offer you a reason. I mean, it's pretty obvious why. But they're not saying that's the reason why. What would what would give a bank that they wanted to drop a customer the ability to do so? So this this is where it gets a little tricky. You're getting down in the weeds on the details of the bill. And this is an important question. And we need to have good answers for this. So first of all, if they in mass drop, you know, let's say 50 gun stores in Alabama at once, then that's very, very obvious what they're doing. If they do it one by one and spread it out over time, I admit it's still going to be harder to catch. But remember, if they get caught breaking the law, there's going to be some pretty stiff consequences I think that are built into this bill. If they get caught breaking the law, and quite honestly, I don't think the banks are going to be willing to take that risk. You've also got to remember it's easy to beat up on the banks for doing this. But I'm not sure the banks even want to do this. If you're a bank, you want to do business that way you can to make as much money as you can, right? There's a profit motive there. Why are the big banks all doing this? I think they're being pressured from the federal government to do things like this. And I think they're being pressured on their ESG scores. Other companies are pressuring them to do this. Say, hey, we'll increase your ESG score if you will stop doing business with gun stores. And I feel pressured to do that. Well, if they had the excuse of, well, Alabama has passed the law saying we can't do this. Therefore, it almost gives them some cover, you know what I'm saying? Like, maybe it's not the bank that's the ultimate problem. Do you remember Operation Choke Point under Obama? Things like that. I mean, it's basically the federal government telling people, hey, we're going to view your business more negatively if you don't start doing XYZ. Well, and you know, how it works, I mean, that's, I look at it like this, though, like who's if I had a business and who's going to tell me that I can't or I can't, I have to do business with somebody seems that does seem to kind of tread into some dangerous water. I mean, that's already happening, though. I mean, again, if you have a business, the government already tells you you can't discriminate against somebody because of, you know, age, sex, you know, religious background, things like that, exactly. So, that we've already decided discrimination is wrong. This is just adding another class of discrimination on, and by the way, I'm against discrimination the other way, too. I don't want people being de-banked because they're liberals either. Why don't we just have our political fights in the political arena and not have it in the business arena? Because we're messing with people's lives. Like, there's jobs at stake here. If you de-bank a gun store, they're not allowed to process credit cards. How are they supposed to pay their employees? And you're just going to run them out of business. That's my kind of argument to that. I think that's the hope. But glad to see Lisa trying to stand up to some of that. Andrew, we got to get out of here, but thanks for making time for us, and we'll talk to you soon. Yeah, always a pleasure. Enjoy the discussion. Pedro Sorrell, our state auditor, we got to get a break here. We'll be right back. This is the Jeff Ford show on FIT Talk 106.5. Hey, I was country. I was in two. Yeah, I was country. From my act down, oh, welcome back to the Jeff Ford show on FIT Talk 106.5. Thanks for staying with us. Tomorrow the program will wrap up the week with Todd Stacey Alabama Daily News and state Senator Chris Elliott, our returning champion real quick. Yeah, Jeff, anyone know how used anyone know how used Amtrak was before I would shut it down. I seem to remember all the numbers, Katrina, I believe. Yes, low numbers indeed, a name texture. And you're exactly what the people of Alabama need representing the citizens. Thank you, sir. And finally, John, how about on a case he just described getting fired? That's what I was thinking. Just fire them. That's, you know, put the on this on him to pay it back, I guess. But the attorney general seems like you're adding another layer of bureaucracy. But who knows? Not for me to decide. Cut up your shortly midday mobile, Sean Sullivan. Take it away, Sean. Yeah, I just, you know, earlier you talked about flying cars, right? I think you're talking about Ricky. Yeah. If you remember, so at the second day to row of reference, watch man with the golden gun the other night, you know, James Bond fan, they had a flying car. Scaramanga had a flying car back then. I mean, and here we are in 2024. Was that 71? There he was in his flying car. And, and here we are without him. And we're not expecting like George Jetson or whatever. Right. Right. Well, I mean, I talked about the Jetson, but I had forgotten that. So yeah, you'd scare muggy one of his getaways. He's got the car. And then the next thing you know, it's like taking off and society is devolving and going back. What's next? Horse and muggy. We need a horse. That'd be cool. We need a corral downtown mobile for our horses or something. I just what? Why are we doing this? Are you saying we should push for hitch and post? Yeah, it's like, where's the need at? And whenever I bring this up, it'll be nice to have it. It'll work in concert with the terminal, like, no, and I'm a person that I don't have your general disdain for Amtrak. But I do have a general disdain for signing the city up to something that's, you know, by Amtrak's estimations, it's going to lose millions of dollars every year. Who pays for that? Like, if it was break even, and you could guarantee that, sure, do it, you know? But like, you're the son of a flight attendant. I mean, like, this is a competition with that. It's government subsidized and it's less quality. I mean, I just, no, just don't need it. But that that's the reason to have strong feelings about this. But obviously, my passion is to run a mug. I got to get out of here. It has been a pleasure. I will try to do better tomorrow. Sorry, Phyllis. I forgot to say goodbye. This has been the Jet Force Show. What if it talked 106-5? [Music]