I'm right, eesus fly hell yeah, sat America and ll for regious one nation, your God in your nasal verity, and this is wrong.
This is Columbia's Morning News with Gary David and Christopher Thompson on one O three point five FM and five sixty AM w VOC.
Good morning and welcome, welcome into where it's nice and warm and toasty. Oh that's a little Chile in the studio this morning.
Actually, yeah, there's nothing like being outside, right.
Yeah.
We shouldn't complain, No, we should not.
It's uh, well, there's we We've got a few spots on the teens this morning. That's the air temperature by the way, Newbery at nineteen right now it's twenty one here at the radio range and a little bit of a wind chill. Not bad yet, but it may get a little worse before it gets better. So yeah, you may be a spot right now where you step outside. It's going to feel like the teens, maybe mid teens depending it is cold as expected, but yeah, that's time to mention the warm ups on the way just hang
on for a few more days. Where was the place I saw? Oh, I guess I think somewhere in North Dakota, South Dakota where they're going to have a swing, a temperature swing, and just a matter of days now, a swing of eighty degrees. Oh my gosh, yeah, crazy, just crazy. It's the one that's pretty volad all these days. Whatever the cause. Well, good morning to you, good to have you in. It is Friday, that's the good news. Twenty first of February, sixteen minutes after six. I'm Gary David.
That is Christopher Thompson right there, Good morning. Got a big weekend planned.
Yeah, a little bit. We'll go get a new celebrating a birthday in Atlanta. So okay, I'm gonna try and see some relatives while I'm over that.
Way, heading to the atl all right. Yeah, I'm gonna keep getting emails about Braves tickets and oh first time, I mean last year we made it the new ballpark for the first time. Right, well it's only been there, what now, five six seven years, so it's been a little while. Yeah, I don't know what we were doing, but what a great experience that was. And they start this weekend too. In fact, they're first to spring training games tomorrow. Yeah, so it is getting to be that time,
all right. The Rundown. The big story is the hot topics. Oh, we got a potpoury of things to look at today now here at home. And you know this, this would just really grab my attention. Uh. There have been twenty nine people now here in South Carolina who have pled guilty to a COVID fraud extortion scheme. Okay, but here's the kicker. This this scheme, this fraud, this extortion was run from inside. In other words, yeah, inside prisons here
in South Carolina. These people, it doesn't going to prison doesn't seem to stop their business at all. Does it imagine that this result of a five year investigation and not not all the people here were inside prison walls, but they were communicating back and forth. This has been the find that Brian Sterlink has been waging now for a long long time, trying to crack down, try to try to and we've we've made some strides, but no thanks to the FCC in shutting down cell phone signals.
Some of the tightest prisons. Wow, the governor is among the list of Trump's appointments to the Council of Governors. So add Henry McMaster to that list. That, by the way, they're not all Republicans. There are a number of notables on there, Glenn Younkin and Ron DeSantis and Brian Kemp, along with a government master. But there are Democrats on the list as well, like Gretchen Whitmer and Kathy Hogel. That's kind of a surprising pic but well, anyway, there
it is our We mentioned this yesterday. We may get into it a bit more today. It seems like they are a hell bent over at the State House. On the House side, Republicans are to try to get this private school boucher thing done the same way they did it last year. It's almost a car and copy of that. And this is what as you'll recall, the State Supreme Court struck down and said, hit Son's Constitution, you can't do it that way and basically gave them a looprin
on how to do it. Well, the Senate came up with an idea of tapping lottery funds to pay for these scholarships, but the House is going to stick with what they tried last year, thinking that a change in the court may change the outcome this time.
Okay, that's a big gamble, it is, and a lot of time wasted if it doesn't work.
Well, exactly, And this was going to be the big topic. This was the fast track topic to start this year. And yeah, you pass this legislation and the State Supreme Court they knock it down again. Wow, a tremendous waste of time. You're right, it's a busy season at the state House. Tort reform built, advancing. This could have an impact on insurance rates, raises for state employees in the budget, but also state employees. Looks like we pay more for
their health insurance. Curtis Loftus will testify next week, set to address a Senate panel on the one point eight billion dollars in missing money that wasn't never there at all, so it wasn't really missing. They have been talking to some members of his office, so we mentioned this yesterday. The state Controller General, not in the treasured office of course, Brian Gaines, was in front of a Senate panel yesterday
for a couple hours. It looks like next week that Curtis office will be there that that'll expect fireworks of that album. The Justice Department warning that executions in our state we have another one lined up here, uh, that
these executions might be causing unnecessary pain and suffering. This is the Trump Justice Department under Pam BONDI huh, okay, well again, I I don't want to be insensitive here or anything, but I'm suspecting that the victims of these convicted murderers probably experienced some unnecessary pain and suffering as well. They are they empathy for them?
Are they suggesting another route instead of well?
Are we are only using one drug? Used to be a cocktail of drugs right now, we use just one one drug for this? Uh? What is it? Sodium pentathle I guess it is. And they're trying to make the case that this well, yeah, oh, we'll see where it goes. Asian Wilson, Well, it's been a good couple of years for Asia Wilson, hadn't it? Sure has named one of Time Time Magazines Women of the Year. Good for her.
Up on Capitol Hill, it was a vote rama and center Republicans scored a win over their counterparts on the other side of the House early this morning as they officially passed their preferred budget resolution to take on some of the President's priorities, including securing the border. So they voted off and on all night long to get to this now again, this is not and Trump preferred the House bill, you know, the big beautiful bill. The Senate though they have their own ideas, they passed that and
the wee hours of the morning. When's the last time a hockey game has gotten so much attention? It's been a while, it's been a while. This four nations face off?
Oh that was a massive success for the NHL.
Oh it wasn't it though? Huh? I mean people that could care less about hockey we're talking about this one. Well that's because of the Canadians doing our national anthem. And then they wrap things up in Boston last night. Toping probably got results of sports. I want to I do steal the lead on now and cash matel in as FBI director. Let the fun and forvolity begin. My friends, the two that you thought would vote against him, well we're a couple you thought might have. But yeah, Murkowski
and Collins didn't go along with the vote. But he didn't get a vote from Mitch McConnell, who also told us yesterday he's not gonna run for office again. Well, I hope not. How old is Mitch mcconaugh out like one hundred and three?
Not that old?
But eighty three. Yes, and these are six year terms, and at times Mitch mccollin's looked like he checked out a long time ago. And yeah, he decided to run again when Kentucky sent him back again. Probably, So all right, we got that to deal with this morning. Junk food and snap. They've tried many times to say you can't use food stamps to buy junk food. Well you still can't now. RFK Junior is hoping to change that. We'll see if he's successful or not. And oh, I just
told you. Was it yesterday that the odds of that asteroid hitting us had gone down?
Yes?
Guess why they've gone back up again. It seems to be a daily thing now, all of a sudden, this asteroid that has a chance to strike Earth. It's they're calling it a city killer in the holidays of what twenty thirty two I think it is. Now it's back up to a three point one percent chance it'll hit Earth, which, by the way, that is the highest risk level ever recorded. Okay, but then again, it's got a ninety six point nine percent chance of missing Earth. So let's look at the
glass half full of that one. At least for now, shall we that more. Come on your way here on this a frigid Friday morning edition at Columbias Morning. It was good to have you with us.
You never know when the news will break, but leave us on and you will.
I think we want to see more details right now.
One oh three point five FM and five sixty Double VOC. This is Columbia's Morning News with Gary David and Christopher Thompson on one O three point five FM and five sixty AM Double VOC the.
Six forty one, and good morning to you on a frigid Friday morning. It's temperatures and the teens in a few spots, a low twenties everywhere else, and we've got some windshills down on the teens and even mid teens in a few places this morning. So yeahs as advertised, it's cold this morning, bitterly cold. Suddenly hockey is hot. We were out of having dinner last night with the boys and I saw something, you know, in this establishment, that you don't typically see around here, and that's on
one of the TVs. They had a hockey game playing. You're not used to that here in the midlands of South Carolina, right, Well, it was a big deal for a number of reasons. Yeah, but it really had nothing much to do with the game as to why everybody was so interested.
Right, well, I would disagree, but I know where you're going, so i'll I'll wait.
Let's put it this way. It would have gotten nowhere near the amount of attention had it not been for rough well Donald Trump.
Right again, I disagree, but I'll give you that.
Well, it would have gotten put it this way from your at least in this neck of the woods, you're average sports fan.
It changed the dynamics, certainly, Yes.
Wouldn't wouldn't pay, would have paid a little attention. There's more than a So what you have You got four nations playing two of them USA and Canada, and so all this starts, well you go back to well well tariffs and making Canada fifty first state. Right, so this gets a lot of attention. I guess was was it early this week or last.
Week Saturdays when they played Okay for the first time.
It Actually it could go back a little further than that, because you had what in the in the NBA, you had this this happened where a game being played. This is in Toronto, wherever it was. I keep up with the NBA just slightly more I do with the NHL. But you had Canadian fans booing when the national anthem was played, all right? So then so then you go back to last weekend and you have these same two
teams squaring off on the ice. You know the story, Canadians are booing the national anthem, and uh, within what the first couple of minutes of that of that game, you had three fights, breakouts. It was heated, which I didn't Again, knowing very little about hockey, I didn't realize this little tidbit either that while you know fights are commonplaces in the NHL, it's been what twenty or more years since you actually had fisticuff breakout in an international hockey game.
It doesn't happen that often at that level.
Right, But you had it three times in the first few minutes last weekend.
It was heated.
Yeah, and the Americans won that that. I'm sorry, I'm showing my ignorance here of hockey, the refertile hockey. That match it's not a game, it's a match, right, whatever.
You could say it either, Okay, and then things got really interesting, right, and it turns out these same two squad's face off last night, this time in Boston.
And how's the Boston crowd going to react? How do you think? Well, yeah, but the Canadian fans apparently sang loud enough to drown out some of the booze when their anthem was being played. Trump places the phone call to the American team yesterday, and you know again your trumpet fashion uh, you know, goes after Canada and Governor Trudeau.
There were ruvers. He was going to be there last night.
Right, he had another commitment. Otherwise he probably would have been there. I mean, why not Super Bowl Daytona final of the Four Nations Trophy, but he was not unable to attend. So yeah, Trump's you know, calling Trudeau, the governor of Canada, back and forth of course about becoming the fifty first state. So Canada winds up winning the winning the match last night, okay, in overtime, in overtime. Yeah, So it played out just like a Hollywood script, isn't it.
And who knows they may wind up meeting again next year in the Olympics.
Yeah, maybe this could all be prelude. So justin Trudeau, who's on the way out. How long does it take to get this guy out?
Of there.
He's been on the way out now for a couple of months, hasn't he anyway? Uh? Posting on X you can't take our country and you can't take our game. For the record, when is the last time a team from Canada won the I actually know the name of this, but I can't think of it right now. What's What's what's the when you win the NHL Crown? What's the cup?
The Stanley Cup?
Stan duh? I knew that. I don't know. We'll have to look at that. I think it's been a while since a Canadian team has won the Stanley Cup. So this was very important to Canada. I guess. I'm sure there's they probably today. It's probably a holiday in Canada because they won this game last night. But again the point, whenever you interject Trump into something, things get very very interesting, don't they.
By the way, Canadian team has won the Stanley Cup since nineteen ninety three.
Nineteen how three? Wow? Wow? So what thirty three years? I'm not sure it's still your game, uh, Governor Trudeau. I think maybe we have taken your game, whether you know it or not. Anyway, I can honestly say this is the first time we've ever spent more than just a you know, a score maybe talking about hockey on this program. But everybody was talking about it yesterday.
Well, and it wasn't just about the international competition between the United States and Canada. It was I mean that hockey got lucky because the NBA had its All Star Game and fell flat on its face on the same week they were scheduling this. So it just, I mean, it looked great for hockey, and it was. It brought on, brought some attention, it did instead of one of these All Star flops.
But had it not been for Trump and them fifty first date and the tariffs and all that, they would have got nowhere near the amount of tension that they got. So hockey can thank Trump for that one. Okay, how all this plays out in the long run, who knows, but at least for now they can they can thank Trump for that. The Trump effect, it's a powerful thing.
You're listening to Columbia's Morning News on one oh three point five FM on five sixty AM WVOC. Once again, here's Gary David and Christopher Thompson.
If we were fiscally conservative, why wouldn't we take the savings from Elon Musk.
And Doge and move it over here and help.
With the border.
Why would wedding a brand new bill to increase spending by three hundred and forty billion dollars. That's because the Senate is acting as it always has.
A good morning to you. It is fifteen minutes after seven o'clock. There was the only dissenter among the GOP and the Senate overnight.
Gotta love Rand Paul.
Rand Paul, I mean he he just tells the lie it is. I mean, yeah, why not why not take some of these Doze savings and use it for the border wall? Why not?
Uh?
Well, instead, this package includes one hundred and seventy five billion dollars for border operations and immigration enforcement, something we obviously need. But if there's another way to get it by cutting stuff from other places, like Doze is looking to do. He brings up a good point. Well, anyway, the voteo rama and the Senate wound up voting fifty two to forty eight the long party lines, with the exception of Rand Paul, who voted against this. So ten
hours this took. Democrats kept trying to throw up roadblocks, and Republicans kept getting over them. So this is three hundred and fifty billion dollars in funding, yet, as I mentioned, one hundred and seventy five billion for the border, one hundred and fifty billion defense spending. Lindsey Graham calling this resolution a complete game changer when it comes to securing our border and making our military more lethal. That it will allow Trump to fulfill the promises he made the
American people. He called a very big deal. But this wasn't the package that Trump favored. Trump was it was all in with the House spending bill that's the one he endorsed, and the Senate package is one that well House Speaker of Mike Johnson has previously called, you know, a non starter. So how do you get to the House is going to have to agree, lockstock and barrel to the Senate plan for this thing to move forward.
And well, it's going to be more difficult. Even if Republicans in the House wanted to go along with this, they got to get Democrat buy in to make it happen. This is how the Sausage has made it. It ain't pretty, but it is ran. Paul brings up a good point, and you know, for us little people It's can be very confusing. Where you know, we have a Republican effort with the Department of Government Efficiency looking to save taxpayers all sorts of money by eliminating this frivolous spending or
maybe even dare I say in some cases criminal spending. You, yeah, here we go. They gotta get something done here, and we need the money for border security. Absolutely. I don't think you're gonna find too many, at least too many conservatives who argue against that. But where does that money come from? And could it be could it come from the savings that Doze is uncovering here? Of course, part of the problem with the Doze plan is that they
uncover these things. But all right, actually stopping that spending and recouping that money is not as something's going to happen overnight, if ever at all.
Well, this would be a great way to a great leaping off point, a jumping off point. If rand Paul said, Okay, here's if you've found this much in savings, let's divert that money. And the only way we can pay for border security is if we use these funds that were previously dedicated to whatever.
Exactly.
Transgender movies in Egypt.
It's not far fetched, though it's not unfortunately, you know, and again you find enough of these things. For example, Lee's Elton is uncovering all sorts of things over at EPA. The We talked about this a few days ago, finding that the bear of the Biden Harris white House parked some of the neighborhood of twenty billion dollars at an outside financial institution as part of what he called a scheme purposefully designed to obligate all the money in a
rush job with reduced oversight. They just took some twenty billion dollars. Eldons has the doses uncovered this and put it in basically in a bank.
To be spent at a future date.
Right exactly, there's our ready day fund or whatever. When we get back in power, we're gonna get that money back out and spend it like crazy. But something new is developed here out of this, and Zelda now is questioning about one of the intended recipients or at least a portion of these funds, and it is lo and Behold a new nonprofit that is linked to wait for it, Stacey Abrams staunch ally of Biden and Harris, failed political
candidate one of the original election deniers. Zelden says that the Biden White House gave two billion dollars to a
Stacy Abrams length climate outfit. Two billion dollars. So this was again part of a twenty seven billion dollar greenhouse game as reduction fund program that was created under the Inflation Reduction Act, which, by the way, one of Obama's former who it was now but somebody that was in the Obama staff that was, you know, dealing with budgets and finances and all that, has come out just in the last few days and said the Inflation Reduction Act
was a total bust. But of that money parked at an outside banking institution, about twenty billion dollars, two billion of that earmarked to go to a Stacey Abrams link group. This group, Power Forward Communities, was one of only eight groups that got awards out of this twenty seven billion dollar fund program, one of just eight. I find that interesting.
And by the way, the timing of this, the Stacy Abrams group got this two billion dollar grant one month after Abrams push back against calls for Biden to drop out of the race. See anything suspicious there. I don't know how much of this the doge can uncover. I'm sure they're gonna be things they miss, but already, I mean, in short order here, it's just it's staggering when you stop and think about what this government.
And it ain't just Democrats exactly. This is nonpartisan. This is wasteful spending, Democrats, Republicans, everyone, This is wasteful spending that impacts all of us.
Sometimes it's wasteful. Sometimes it's payback. Sometimes it's say, you know, i'll do this for you, you do that for me, little quid pro quo, And I'm i just thinking sometimes it's probably at least bordering on criminal.
But that's that's Rand Paul's point. He's not saying we shouldn't be spending money on border security at this point. He's saying, if we've got all this money that we're wasting, why not save why not save it and spend it on what we need instead of printing more money and spending more money. Oh yeah, that we don't have.
That twenty billion dollars you've talked at a you know, a bank somewhere in the Caymans or wherever it is. Let's cost some of that bag. No, it won't pay for the border security. But it makes a din in it. He's got he raises a good point, all right, So we'll see how the House responds to this. But it's not going to be an easy, an easy an easy road to uh to get down here, but we'll keep it posted.
The conversation begins here.
The society problem just those way if people like nowadays, they don't think they've just added one O.
Three point five six AM w VOC. This is Columbia's Morning News with Gary David and Christopher Thompson on one O three point five FM and five sixty AM w VOC.
It's seven forty one. So here's something we talked about at some link yesterday, but we have a little more detail on it today. That discussed and now that is what was like the you know priority NEWMERO UNO going into this current state House session, and that was the funding of private school vouchers. I mean, this thing was supposed to be the first thing they tackled. Get it done. You know, we we had got it, We got it
done in the last session. Then the State Supreme Court came in and said, wait a minute, you can't do that. That's unconstitutional. And that left you know, a lot of families and a lot of students in the larch. Wait a minute, you know our kids are enrolled in these schools and we're depending upon these vouchers. And wait a minute. So when this current session began, it was all right, we're going to get this scene taken care of. And again hats off to the Senate this time for a
fast tracking this legislation, getting it done pretty quickly. Remember, the Senate decides, okay, we'll get around this whole unconstitutional thing, which, by the way, for the record, it is in the constitution. It's an Article eleven, section four, if you're falling along at home with your copy of the state Constitution, where it states no money shall be paid from public funds for the direct benefit of any religious or private educational institution.
It's not like that section of the constitution just kind of popped up out of nowhere after the state House voted last year to do just that, to use money from public funds for the direct benefit of any religions of private educational institution. Okay, So the Senate says, I tell you what we'll do. We're gonna take money from the lottery. Okay, And they also rolled back a few things like you know, how much money you could make and still be eligible for such things. So they got
that done after about two weeks of debate. They fast tracked it. Well, so riddle me this. You know, we're more than a month, well maybe almost a month and a half into this this session, and it's still in committee on the House side. Well, it's a twist of what we usually see. You know, the House is usually rushing to get stuff done. The Senate's taken you know, forever in a day. But what the House is looking about doing, as we discussed yesterday, is pretty much the
same thing they did last year. Really is the same thing they did last year, and that is to use public funds to fund these vouchers. And as we discussed yesterday, the difference here is is that you got House members who think that, well, we have a different makeup on the court now, the new Chief Justice John Kiddridge, who
dissented in the earlier case. At least one representative, Sharon Ercksford Buford, telling The Posting Courier that that it gave her confidence that it was not the source of funding that was the issues, It was how the money flowed. So I guess they feel like, you know, kid ridging his descent till last year's three to two decision. Well, we just kind of it's yeah, okay, we'll still publicly funded.
We just kind of change the way it flows and everybody will be happy and the Supreme Court will say, yeah, sure, this is this is fine. I'm not convinced personally.
Well, I would hope to have more than that just the conference exactly. I mean, I would hope to have that vote in my back pocket. I don't know. I'm a little befuddled by the Again, as you pointed out, the pace of this, nothing happens quickly, even in the House, at the State House. But no, still, this was one
of their big priorities. And yet we're still in committee here, and you know, we're still arguing about the Treasurer and the Controller General and how much money we lost and whether that money was really it's things drag on over there. But yeah, this was this was going to be a big deal. This was going to be a Republican priority, and you would think they would be a lot further along in the process before going completely back to Okay, we're going to try plan A again.
Just knna, you know, take that off the rack and and and roll through again now and then again. If this is if this is the House's plan, then guess what they have to get the Senate to agree to it again. And I don't see that happening.
Well, you're going to get the Senate to go along with it. You better be able to convince them that you've got the.
I don't want to.
You've got the justices in your back exactly, You've got the votes.
Now. There are other changes too. The are the differences between what the Senate has passed and what the House wants to do. The House proposal would keep the maximum family income for eligible students capped at three hundred percent of the federal poverty line in year one, but then move it to four hundred percent in year two. Remember the Senate says, you know, this is that's that's that's that's too much income. They rolled it back to a
to a lower amount. If you make it over. I can't remember what the number is right now, but it's it's it's much lower than what the House wants. The House wants to only keep it at a higher level, but actually increase it in year two. You can be making well over two hudred thousand dollars a year, I think, and this House plan and still qualify for theseus.
The whole point of this was to show this plan will work by allowing lower income families to move their kids around from schools that are failing within their own district where they're forced to live because of their lower income, to better schools. That's how we were going.
To show that school choice works, and that's how you're going to get Democrats to do some at least to go along with it. But it looks like the House is doing just the opposite right now. Well, okay, so long story short, they think that it again, a change in the court means that, and again exactly mean we're
parsing words out, we're playing games. We're going to keep taking public money, but we're going to rout it a different way, and somehow that's going to make it palatable to enough justices to say this is okay, yeah, this is constitutional. Don't even try to figure it out one out because I'm not I want to try to wrap my head around that one. But it sure seems good. If this was your business you were running and you're yeah, right, I got it, I get it.
You're listening to Columbia's morning news on one oh three point five FM and five sixty am WVOC. Once again, here's Gary David and Christopher Thompson's.
Sixteen minutes half to eight o'clock in the morning on a bubble up Friday morning. Here temperature still in the low twenties across the Midlands.
Yeah, just a note, I can't wait to hear Clay and Buck this afternoon because I'm curious to hear the bud Light saga. Yeah, I mean they're they're advertising is taking a dramatic turn since oh yeah, they embraced what they embraced, you know, and it caused them to go down. They lost all their entire share of the market, and now they're advertising. I mean it's they've they're entertaining commercials again.
They're oh yeah, they're great.
They're hitting the sweet spot you would think of who their their demographic is. So I'm curious to see how it's affecting their sales at this point, because boy, they cratered for a while.
It was Mandela who overtook bud Light as the number one it was, which was again it's who's Medella owned by and Heuser Busch. Okay, so anyway, that should be interesting.
Yeah, I can't wait to hear that this afternoon.
Yeah, busy day inside the Belway. Yesterday, wasn't it? Yesterday the one month mark of Trump being sworn back in as the President of the United States of America. One month and what a month it was? Huh wow. And yesterday at the one month mark, the Senate confirming Cash Betel as the Director of the FBI. I think there's still some more. There are more minor roles that need to be confirmed by the Senate, but of the big ones.
And hey, listen, I don't know how you felt, but but Matt Gates aside of course that short lived nomination. But yeah, you looked at this slate and if nothing else between, well let's see Pete Hagseth Tulci Gabbard RFK Jr. And Cash Battel. You looked at that and you thought, man, it's going to be just turned near impossible for all four of those to get through. But they did so, Cash Pateel, he couldn't went over Lisa mccowski or Susan Collins.
They're not Republicans anyway, not really, but he did win over Mitch McConnell, interestingly enough, and we go McCollum, who's talk about two here in a moment. But this is now again the Democrats and the left wing media totally freaking out over even the concept of Cash Battel being considered to be fbid or actor. I hope he proves him wrong.
I don't think. I don't think he would have gotten through a couple of weeks ago.
I don't think so.
I think this is all the result of you know, these congressmen, these senators looking at the polls and saying, you know what, not only did Americans give Trump the keys to the government back in November, but now they like what he's doing. And I don't want to be the unpopular guy or gal who stands in his way at this point. Maybe it's politically possible in a year if some of these policies fail, but for now I don't want to be left standing.
That ain't the hill you want to die on right there?
Not right now.
So Cash Betel, he will be sworn in today taking over the reins of the FBI, and this should be good. So Mitch McConnell again is you know, announcing yesterday he will not seek reelection in twenty twenty six, he would be eighty four years old. Running for reelection for another six years would put him at you know, ninety ninety if you were to finish up. I mean, again, this is as we talked about earlier this week. I mean, there's a resolution being introduced over at our state House
that would enact term limits. This would be again a change to the US Constitution require you know what, thirty four states I guess to sign on to it.
He hasn't shown he's mentally out of it, but physically, he said.
For those moments when he just totally blanks out.
Well, I think I don't know if that's mental or physical. Maybe, I mean, his whole body seems to freeze it. I don't know that it's his brain's not working, but he just can't talk, So I don't know, but yeah, it's you make a great point. I mean, there's term limits are being considered for a reason, and he and Pelosi are two of those reasons.
Exactly. Mitch McConnell has been a US Senator since nineteen eighty four. Some of you aren't even born when Mitch McConnell was first elected to the Senate, and you know, this would have been curious have you decided to run for reelection next year. Kentucky probably would have sent him back again. Of course, this is a fabulous news for you know, Donald Trump. But there you go. I can't say I'm terribly shocked by that. I'm not now plese to get Nancy Pelosi to go off of that that
that good night. I don't think of course she ought serves two year terms. I guess you know. Anyway, federal judge yesterday ordering the White House to comply with his prior order to temporarily lift a freeze on nearly all four and eight. This judge of Biden appointee. So let's stop right there. I had an idea and not not to there be guarantees that a you know, an appellate level court. It might be partisan this way or that, but you know it's something the idea that politically appointed judges.
And let's face it, when when when when somebody files a suit over an executive order like this, uh, you know, they go judge shopping, right boy, if they can get a Biden and Obama appointee dog on it. That's where they're going to try to get this thing hurt. This is really a Trump's talked about this, Musks has talked
about this. Could we at the very least, if we're gonna have all these lawsuits and and tell a president he can't do what well, president's having an authority to do in an executive order, we're going to follow all these lawsuits. Shouldn't we try to least make the playing field somewhat level. You know, it'd be like having a football game Ivan Carolina and Clemson play and have all the referees as you know on the coaching staff at Clemson R Carolina, Right.
The Democrats wouldn't be appealing Otherwise they know they've got a friendly audience, and exactly that's why they're fighting. Where they're fighting, I'd say, you know it's Jason Miller made a great point. He was in the White House press room yesterday and made a great point about, you know, all these talks about challenges to democracy and Elon Musk and Donald Trump are taking down democracy and Musk is unelected,
and Miller made a great point. He explained exactly what the constitution says about there's one person who is elected. That's the president of the United States. He's the only one who's elected by the entire country. Judges are appointed, Congressmen and women run from their district. Senators run from their state. The President of the United States has given executive power because he is elected by the entire country, right, and he can then make decisions that impact the entire country.
Yeah, so you're gonna bring lawsuits. Okay, bring the lawsuit, But the idea that it's it's you already know the outcome based on who the judge is gonna be, because you judge shop to get your case in front of that judge. I mean, how is that fair to anybody, whether you like the policy or not, whether it's a Republican president, a Democrat president, whatever. And yes, I get it, it's gonna go to the appellate level and then you're gonna get maybe a more of a fair shake and
all that. But in the meantime, you know, it's almost like we're just trying to bring all this things to a grinding halt.
Anyway, just a thought, as was pointed out yesterday, that's that's the real threat to democracy.
Yet nothing gets done because you got one person standing in the way, who's not been elected exactly.
Yeah, I'm just saying, if you're a squatter, you have more rights than homeowners.
Shot edity, just saying what.
On three point five FMN, five sixty AM w VOS, this is Columbia's Morning News with Gary David and Christopher Thompson on one O three point five FM and five sixty AM WVOC.
And time to get caught up in a couple of things we haven't gotten to yet this morning. It's funny how three hours it goes by every day. Man, Just that it's eight forty all right.
Uh.
Now Thomas has mentioned this in the updates the story of the US Attorney's Office, saying that at A thirty one and dieted defendants twenty nine now pled guilty in an elaborate use of harvested information to apply for COVID nineteen unemployment benefits. Now we've heard a lot of these stories since COVID, a lot of them. But in this case, a number of these defendants are already behind.
Bars with nothing but time on their hands. And listen, if these.
These people have a way of figuring things like this out, imagine if some of the some of these people must be pretty smart, man. Imagine if you put it to good use. All of it, investigators say was led by inmates inside the South Can Departments corrections. Not all thirty one of these indicted defendants were already behind bars. They will be now. You had inmates leading the charge here, running the operation from inside prison walls. And I'm sorry,
how is that possible? Because the FCC continues to say, yeah, you can't jam cell phone signals, Well, remember you can do it in a federal prison, just not in a state prison. How that ever made any sense to anybody? And how many I don't know how Brian Sterling feels. You know, Sterling, maybe just you know what the heck? What it? Yeah? Yeah, give me the US Attorney's job. I'm done with this whole prison thing. Startling's got to
feel like he's been banging this. He's been banging his head against the wall for a good decade now, trying to get that changed.
Here's one reason why he wants it change, because it gives criminals a chance to continue being criminals.
Yeah. Uh, the Department of Justice. Now, if I told if I had said this, if I passed this story along, you know, two months ago, you thought, yeah, it's typical. But this is the Department of Justice under Pam BONDI now is warning that the drugs that we're using in our executions in our state might cause unnecessary pain and suffering. We have another inmate schedule to die here well the next week or so. I don't regardless, but the DOJ
is saying. Medical experts are warning that the three we put to death so far may have died in agony. That the chemical being used, and it's used to be a cocktail of multiple drugs, house just one. That this lethal chemical as caustic, they say as household cleaners, likely burns as it works its way through the body and fills lungs with fluid. And it's the last thought these prisoners may have, excuse me, these convicted murderers may have,
is the feeling of drowning. Wonder what their victims felt like. I wonder what their last conscious thoughts were. State House is working to do a few other things aside of what we've been focusing on recently, which has been like energy and as we discussed earlier this morning, private school vouchers. Tort reform another big item, and the bill is advancing tort reform discussed yesterday, this bill, which leaders in the
Senate say is needed to lower insurance rates. Remember again, we've got this issue with you know, establishments that are are overserving or a ledged to have overserved people, and the changes that the legislature made a couple of years ago has led to you know, some insurance companies leaving the market and others that are left or charging rates that are driving some of the establishments out of business, which was not the intent, I'm sure, but that was
the effect. Under current state law, you can sue and collect full damages from one defendant even if they weren't the most at fault. So what happens, Well, attorneys say, let's let's find who's got the deepest pockets, and that's who we're going after here. And remember we have a lot of these same attorneys that serve over the State House. Now, the new bill would only allow someone to be fully responsible if they were found to be at more than fifty percent fault. So tort reform is on the docket
over at the state House. They're working to try to get that done.
I don't know what to believe about this bill. If you follow social media.
Oh, Donald Trump Junior has been weighing in on this.
One, even he's gotten involved. But you've got, you know, sides that are saying that, you know, whoever proposed this bill, you know, one of his clients is an insurance company, and you know he's got special interests in mind. And then others are saying this bill is perfect, it's exactly what we need. It's it's hard to tell. Bottom line is I only care about us the citizens. I'm not really interested in whether the insurance company's benefit. I'm not
interested in whether the attorney's benefit. How does it benefit us as consumers?
Well, well, certainly there needs to be nobody'eds to be off the hook if they are guilty in a case like this, that that that leads to somebody being overserved and causing injury or or you know, God forbid death, which happens way too often. Nobody should be left off the hook. But now suddenly you can't go to your favorite watering hole anymore because they had to shut down because they couldn't afford their insurance rates. That's not pro business,
not at all. And they supposedly business friendly state. So but this is this is this is one again, like everything else in politics, you got way too many special interest groups with way too much power and influence that sometimes see them making the decisions when it comes to these things. Okay, now I don't know quite what to believe about this because they keep bouncing back and forth. You know. I brought this topic up a day or two back, and Tovey mentioned at the time, oh, they
ows have gone down. I said, yeah, they did, but now they've gone up. But they went back down again. Now they've gone back up again. This is this asteroid. Okay, then soon we'll all know by name Asteroid twenty twenty four. Why are four? This is the one that NASA says, you know, could strike Earth what somewhere around Christmas twenty thirty two I think is the year, right, seven years from now. Yeah, well the odds are back up again.
This a day after we told you that NASA is apparently taking this thing seriously, seriously about maybe trying to go up there and blow this thing up. But at the time they said, wow, the odds have decreased to like one point nine percent. Well now they're back up to three point one percent. Okay, slight odds, I know, but it's the highest odds that have ever been assigned to one of these things of this size hitting the Earth, and this would be a city killer. Now, we got
lots of them out there. Astronomers know of some thirty seven thousand large space rocks. It really is pretty phenomenal. We hadn't been hit more often than we I've been with one of these things, but nothing to the quite this level, I guess. But this one is the only one that they say that has any chance of hitting Earth.
And that chance is what again?
Uh back up to three point one percent now highest risk level ever recorded, or if you want to look at it like this, there's the ninety six point nine percent chance it won't hit us. I'll go without one for now, all right, and we'll see where it takes us. It's eight forty eight. I mean, what are you gonna
do anyway? Right? What are we gonna do? Well, hopefully, at least if it happens, I'll tell us it's gonna come down and right about here, So if you're there, you can go ahead and skid attle and get out of the way. Those aren't the ones I'm worried about. It's the ones we don't see coming right, the ones, the dinosaurs. But whoa, what's that boom boom, Lights out,