Show Rewind 10-16-2025

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Jesus, hell y Same America and Jery Hollen for.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Fination God.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
And yes is wrong.

Speaker 3 (00:20):
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.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
It is fourteen minutes after six o'clock. Good morning, and
welcome in Colombia's Morning News. Back on the radio for Thursday,
October the sixteenth.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
You're back on the radio. Yeah, welcome back. Thank you
very much, sir. It's good to be back. I don't
know if you I did not, Okay, share what folks
was back now, but not my business. No, I know,
and I appreciate that.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
But yeah, my mother passed earlier this week after about
a week or so in the hospital, so that we've
been I guess last week was all, you know, NonStop
at the hospital and then.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
What was it. I was here Monday, right, you were
here Wednesday of last week? Yeah, but I was here
this past Monday too, were you yeah? Okay, yeah barely yeah,
and I was barely here yeah, oh yes, yes you are.
You're right, You're right, you were here. I think it showed, yeah,
but yeah it did show. But yeah, a mom, mom
passed on. Uh, I've lost track of the days this week. Golly,

(01:36):
it's crazy Tuesday, Yeah, yes, Tuesday afternoon.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
Yeah. So uh yeah, it's been been that kind of
week and a half. But I have a peace enjoy
that she's uh reunited with not only her savior Jesus Christ,
but with her with her husband of sixty eight years,
my dad, who we lost a little over a year ago.
So uh yeah, it's been it's been a year. But

(02:05):
as they say, the show goes on, right.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
You had a lot of concerned people reach out and
I simply said that you were dealing with some family issues. Yeah,
and and I appreciate that to everybody who did. Uh.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
So you know, we're always you know about full transparency
on the program. There you go, and uh for those
of you that that listen on a regular basis or
just every now and then, I mean, we consider all
of the all family and I know many of you
have obviously been the same sorts of things. So it's
it's it's all.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
It's all that that part of life, right, happens to
all of this adventure as it does.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
So uh yeah, back at it. I will be out
next Tuesday. But aside from that, you know, unless I
kicked the bucket or something. And I'm glad to be
here so uh anyway, it's good to be back. Uh,
and thank you mister Thompson for See. Here's what y'all
don't know. The back into all this is that not
only does the still have to carry the load here,
but then of all times, during football season, right, but

(02:58):
I don't think.

Speaker 1 (02:59):
I don't think dudes let the building in like a
week and a half. And here's the Well, I did
leave the building yesterday. I haven't had a new car
in a while, so I didn't know this could happen.
But apparently when the automaker sends you wireless software updates,
it can crash your car. What well, not crash your car,
but crash the car's system. And I experienced that yesterday

(03:20):
and this it has still not been fixed. So your
car is inoperable. It is not inoperable with there are
emergency lights on everywhere in the the radio doesn't work,
the you know, the infotainment system in the middle, the
entire system is out. Wow. Yeah, yeah, see this this
is technology going too far, man, Yeah, way too far.

(03:43):
And it happened when I was driving how did you
figure out what had happened? Well, I took it to
a dealership and they said, yeah, we've we've had we've
heard this problem, and can they fix it? Haven't heard
about a Okay, great, so you'll just keep driving around

(04:03):
a little bit like a Christmas tree. Yeah, your vehicle
and with no rear You don't realize that, you know,
all of us old people, you know, were we got
used to driving with our elbow over the back seat,
you know, looking back when we had to back up. Yeah,
oh yeah, but you do. You do get used to
those rearview cameras pretty quick. I'm so dependent on that thing,
you wouldn't believe it. Yes, well mine's gone for the moment. Okay,

(04:28):
so I had to be careful getting out of the
driveway this morning. I had to go back old school, right, right, elbow.

Speaker 2 (04:34):
Over the and at our age, you know, the neck
doesn't turn as far as you exactly. So then you
got that issue to deal with, right, goodness sakes good
to have you back.

Speaker 1 (04:43):
It's good to be here. All right, let's let's let's
jump jump on it now.

Speaker 2 (04:48):
The rundown, the big Stories, the hot topics for Thursday,
October sixteen, well, we we've learned more about the reason
for all the drama over the Election Commission.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
Exclamations.

Speaker 2 (05:01):
And hey, listen, by the way, if I if I
double down on something that you've already spent some time discussing,
let me know, because I would say I've been adel
loop for almost two weeks now this is branded basically
so yeah, I.

Speaker 1 (05:13):
Thought it was so yeah.

Speaker 2 (05:15):
More reasons given, explanations as to why Howard Napp was
axed as the executive director of the Election Commission, And well,
this time I did have something to do with voting. Yeah,
the voting machines. Apparently, among other things, a secretly broken

(05:36):
agreement to purchase voting machines, the one that could could
potentially as the posting courier rights, result in hundreds of
them being repossessed by the bank that financed the thirty
two million dollars deal.

Speaker 1 (05:50):
Great, okay, And the guy who's running the show over there,
by the way, the Commission chairman is a former federal
judge and he is not around. Mm hmmm.

Speaker 2 (06:03):
So we're talking a missing money, four million dollars missing.
What's what's going on here? We'll break that all down
for you on this this edition of the program, member
of the Eumo Town Council under investigation after being named
in a criminal sexual conduct complaint.

Speaker 1 (06:23):
This goes back a lot of years. Yeah, the incident date.

Speaker 2 (06:28):
Beginning, according to reports, in June of twenty sixteen, so
nearly ten years ago.

Speaker 1 (06:36):
And apparently there has already been an investigation underway.

Speaker 2 (06:40):
Yeah, yeah, so low, we'll get the more what that's
all about. He didn't file taxes for three years. Some
of the headlines coming out of the House, the House
Ethics investigation onto a former Rep. R. J.

Speaker 1 (06:55):
May. We did have that story. Yea, Well, that's the
least it is.

Speaker 2 (06:57):
Worries, Yeah, right, But is there anything more in this
ethics report that, you know, I'm particularly interested in the
consulting business and all that.

Speaker 1 (07:07):
You'll dealt with all that yesterday, I guess a little bit.

Speaker 2 (07:09):
Okay, all right, yeah, well yeah, let's I say that's
that's the least of his worries.

Speaker 1 (07:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (07:14):
More than one hundred students up of the Upstate quarantine
now amid that measles outbreak, Apparently there are a lot
of students in the Upstate who are never did get
that measles vaccine, and now officials here, warning that that
outbreak could move beyond the Upstate. A rash of closings
here of well establishments that serve alcohol. Another one is

(07:38):
shut down Dale's Beer Garden and Bottle Shop, which announced
over the weekend they'd be shutting down as of this
coming Friday tomorrow. And it all has to do with
those liquor liability issues.

Speaker 1 (07:52):
I think it's that. You know, we talked about this
a little bit yesterday while you were out, but I
didn't mention. You know, we keep reading that there's the
young people if today are changing, they're not drinking beer.
That's true. It's you know, if they're doing anything, it's
these seltzers and all the other new fangled stuff that's
popped up. Yeah. And it's not cheap, right, true. The

(08:15):
good stuff isn't The good stuff isn't cheap. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (08:18):
So yeah, I because I'm sitting around talking to the
boys last couple of days, they were kind of keeping
me filled in on some of the stuff going on,
and they were talking about what you've got to You've.

Speaker 1 (08:28):
Had a rash of these recently. There were very popular places.

Speaker 2 (08:32):
Yeah, at one time at least, And I wondered if
it's more than just the liquor liability issue, but that
still is an issue. So we got a guy going
around town who's been taking shots at people with a
paintball gun, three separate incidents, and now an eighteen year
old who has been charged with three counts of assault

(08:52):
and battery good and then the first degree and breach
a piece.

Speaker 1 (08:58):
Yeah, I don't know that your mind processes what kind
of gun it is. All you do is you see
a gun pointed at you, and you know those potato
gun things. Are you familiar with those? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (09:09):
This was probably fifteen, twenty years ago, whatever, how long
long time ago. Drive into area to work one morning,
down a you know, back road and election in county
and just out of nowhere, I mean, something explodes on
my windshield and this car was approaching me, drives by
and I kind of stopped. Then I don't know that

(09:30):
was one of those potato guys. Somebody took a shot
at my car the potato gun. So yeah, anyway, they're
not airing this the Columbia Airport or the Greenville Airport,
but other airports of the states say they don't have
any power to shut it down. That is the Christy
Nome video that has been well showing in airports blaming
the Democrats for this shutdown. You got a couple of

(09:53):
airports to say they don't have any control over shutting
down these video feeds, but others like Columbia Metro and
Greenville Spartan bringing nationals say they do and they have
shut it down.

Speaker 1 (10:02):
I don't like this, you know, I mean, come on,
I don't like this. This video.

Speaker 2 (10:11):
Put out by a government official in the administration blaming
the other party for something like this is showing in
places like the airports, you know.

Speaker 1 (10:18):
But that's just me. That's just me.

Speaker 2 (10:22):
Supreme Court, well, are the days of drawing up congressional
maps by race almost over here? Reports are it seems
like they may be as the Supreme Court, again with
a conservative majority makeup, seemed to be pretty skeptical about

(10:44):
all of this, and that may go by the wayside.
A judge ordering a shutdown of the Trump order for
mass layoffs during the government shut now where we had
day sixteen, now.

Speaker 1 (10:54):
I think so, yeah, we're yeah, we're in the third week.

Speaker 2 (10:58):
Yeah, that again not surprising. A judge stepping in there
kind of thought that might be the case, and it is.
Ben Or has been the CIA. Well, Trump's saying it
has been granted the authority to conduct covert operations in Venezuela,
and Trump in an interview asked and saying that, well, yeah,
he is wanting to get land strikes against Venezuelan cartels.

(11:22):
Now that doesn't mean boots on the ground land strikes. Well,
we have all sorts of capabilities to try to take out,
you know, in this case, cartel operations without actually putting
people in. But somebody's got to be there to provide
the intell I guess that's what the CIA is for. Right,
So all this kind of goes together. Meantime, Trump and
cash matel giving a major update on the crime crackdown.

(11:45):
The numbers are pretty impressive, they really are. And here
they go again, another King No King's Day protest as
I coming up.

Speaker 1 (11:52):
You want to take part?

Speaker 2 (11:54):
Of course you don't, but just so you're aware, it's
this Saturday, I'm gonna do it again.

Speaker 1 (11:59):
Some Republicans is speculated that this shutdown will go on
until at least this celebration or this protest takes place.
That that's that's been the Democrats target along. Okay, you know,
keep keep the government shut down keep all the attention.

Speaker 2 (12:16):
Because they want a successful no Kings Day protests across
the contact.

Speaker 1 (12:19):
Okay, sure, why not?

Speaker 2 (12:21):
All right, friends, we got that and more coming up
on this the back at a Thursday edition at least
for me of Columbia's Morning News.

Speaker 1 (12:27):
It is good to have you with us. I'm just saying,
if you're a squatter, you have more rights than homeowners.

Speaker 3 (12:33):
Shot edity just saying one on three point five FM
and five sixty am w VOC. This is Columbia's Morning
News with Gary David and Christopher Thompson on one on
three point five FM and five sixty am w VOC.

Speaker 1 (12:52):
It is six forty morning to you. Good to have
you along.

Speaker 2 (12:54):
Thursday edition of Columbia's Morning News. So the President and
Pattel FBI head was a major update yesterday about the
crackdown on crime, and I mentioned going into the break
that this was not just illegal immigrants that are creating crime.
This is all all thugs out there. It is a

(13:16):
part of operations Summer Heat. Now, this operation that started
what back in Over the course of the last seven months,
so since what the last March, the FEDS have arrested

(13:37):
a record twenty eight six hundred violent criminals, Patel said yesterday,
all right, let's put that in some context. These are
FBI arrests twenty eight six hundred arrests, folks who puttel

(13:58):
called violent criminals throughout the Biden administration. Okay, four years
with Biden and the White House, the FBI arrested somewhere
between fifteen and seventeen thousand violent criminals total four years.

(14:19):
In seven months under Trump, the FBI putting close to
thirty thousand getting them off the streets. And in the
period just between June twenty fourth and September twentieth, so
a span there of a little less than three months

(14:42):
that again dubbed Operation Summer Heat, just over eighty six
hundred arrests, more than twenty two hundred and fifty firearms, seized,
four hundred and twenty one kilograms of fentanyl. That's got
to be enough to kill the world how many times over,
you know, right, and nearly forty five thousand kilograms of cocaine. Again,

(15:09):
we're talking about an eighty six percent increase in arrest
of violent criminals compared to the Biden administration. Not to
mention the crackdowns on crime in major US cities starting
in d C. Of course, now we've got we've got others.
The guard's been deployed to Memphis, to Chicago. We've been

(15:33):
following how that's going. Right. Memphis alone, the Memphis Safe
Task Force has arrested at least eight hundred people as
of this past Monday, including those suspected of narcotics and homicides.
So yeah, it's been a it's been a major, a
major victory. And while certainly all the all the headlines

(15:57):
of the news media, being with the news media is
are negative when it comes to this, I'm gonna tell
you you live one of these cities, well, this many,
these many, this many thugs, these been the number of guns,
this amount of narcotics is being taken off the streets.
People got to be feeling pretty good about that. Pretty

(16:19):
good that is, of course, if the courts do what
they need to do. What was I guess I was
I don't know if it was yesterday or maybe the
day before, but this young man in d C, this
was the member of the the whole you know, sending
the Guard and this all started. This idea started when
that uh well kid basically who was part of the

(16:43):
doze effort got attacked on the streets in d C.
He was he was his girlfriend was being harassed by
this mob of teenagers. He steps in for his trouble.
He gets a beat down, and that's what prompted Trump
to to say, you know what, I'm in the guard here.
We're going to clean this mess up. Well, there were

(17:06):
police estimates some of some ten individuals that were involved
in that beat down. They only made two arrests, and
now a judge, by the way, based on the prosecution's suggestion,

(17:27):
sentencing those two, a teenage boy teage girl to probation
and community service.

Speaker 1 (17:34):
That was it. The other eight they don't even know
where they are.

Speaker 2 (17:38):
I haven't arrested them yet, but why bother Now, you're
just gonna have them go out and clean streets or something.
And that was what the prosecutor's office in DC sow.
It just probation, that's it. Okay, So anyway, that's that.

Speaker 1 (17:53):
Now.

Speaker 2 (17:54):
I came across this piece and I found it enlightening
and very disturbing. Go back a couple of weeks and
this was so I guess this was before I guess
Trump spoke of the UN was and it's where they
discovered all these sim cards, remember that, right, And the

(18:18):
the problem was is they had the ability to make
you know, so many connection attempts to so many different
you know, mobile phones, what have you. They could have
basically shut down the entire nine to one one grid
everything else in New York City. Okay, but it goes
further now, and Glenn Beg was talking about this the

(18:41):
other day. Swarms of sophisticated chatbots that had been well
put enabled by the Chinese, the Chinese communist government, are
embedded in platforms like Redded and Discord with an attempt
by the Chaikams to radicalize our youth, to bring about

(19:04):
political division, and to encourage violence. Just according to intelligence
reports that the Chinese now with all these sim farms
as they call them, have created millions of online personas
to invade these chat groups and social media sites again

(19:27):
in essence destabilize American society. These are again the same
Chinese built sim farms, like the ones that were shut
down around New York City that was last month. There
are so many things going on in attempts to destabilize
this country. Listen, you hop on social media, if you've

(19:51):
been there for a while, if You're our age of
you social media is probably Facebook. Haven't you seen a
marked difference in what you see on that site, say
ten years ago versus today.

Speaker 1 (20:06):
You mean the cheering of you know, pictures of the
garden and the grandchildren. You don't see as much of
that anymore.

Speaker 2 (20:13):
Right, what I had for dinner last night? Yeah, you know,
this is not what you're seeing now, and the you
walk away from it under the assumption, yeah, this is
what you know. This is what my fellow users on
this platform are feeling right now. They're posting all this
stuff about you know, politics and democracy and violence and

(20:34):
this and that. You know that that's that's that's not
your uh, your your former or your current Facebook friend
or whatever. These are these Chinese chatbots and these SIMP
farms that are pumping this information out there left and
right and again. The goal is to destabilize.

Speaker 1 (20:54):
This country.

Speaker 2 (20:55):
And guess what, it's working. And at this point, according
to at least one analyst saying that they're able to
use this sim network to initiate social media accounts by
the millions. This is an intelligence analyst who is familiar

(21:19):
with this ongoing operation. This is all being looked into
by DHS, Secret Service, other federal agencies social media accounts
by the millions, and they all have the ability to
do multi factor authentication, which is again that extra step
you got to do to make sure you're who you

(21:41):
say you are, and that at this point, this analyst says,
the US government is basically clueless. Somehow we have to
stop this.

Speaker 1 (21:56):
And now you.

Speaker 2 (21:57):
Add AI onto all of this, it makes the situation
and exponentially worse. And they are using you know, things
like chat GPT to spread certain themes and messages. So
this is the uh And listen, I don't pretend to
understand how all this works. I'll never understand. I'm too

(22:18):
old for that. Okay, maybe your kids, your grandkids could
explain it to you, but just to know this is
this is going on and again it has the old
the end product to destabilize American society, and they're doing
a pretty good job of it. So something else to
be concerned about.

Speaker 3 (22:39):
Here, 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.

Speaker 2 (22:52):
It is thirteen and a half past seven o'clock Thursday,
October sixteenth, Good morning, good to have you with us.

Speaker 1 (23:00):
Okay, more Shenanigans, more tom foolery.

Speaker 2 (23:03):
When it comes to a well, politics and state agencies
around the state to talk about in the segment here,
let's start with over an irmo. We're a member of
a Hermo town council now is under investigation state paper
reporting after being named in a criminal sexual conduct complaint. Okay,

(23:26):
this report was made about Councilman Gabriel Penfield, which he
hasn't been in office all that long, has he?

Speaker 1 (23:35):
No?

Speaker 2 (23:35):
Matter of fact, he's running next month. He's on the
ballot for his first full term on town council. He
won a special election just last year.

Speaker 1 (23:43):
Was he the one who replaced Oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (23:48):
Yeah, because he had an Hermo Town councilman who was,
what in a allegedly involved in a relationship with a teenage.

Speaker 1 (23:56):
Boy, right I think so? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (23:58):
Is I recall might have been that probably was. I
don't know if a fact, but that would make sense.
So what's weird about this one is is Penfield is
named as a suspect and a report that was filed
with the HERMOPD in December of twenty twenty nearly five

(24:20):
years ago. The report says, a person walked into Hermo
Police department to report she believed another person whose name
and relationship to that person was redacted, that been sexually abused.

(24:42):
Now this goes back even further. The individual making the
complaint gave a timeline of events to the hermopde and
lists the incident date of this sexual abuse as beginning
in June of twenty sixteen. So now we're backing up

(25:04):
nearly ten years and in the meantime, again, these are
all allegations by one individual. An individual came forward again
nearly five years ago, listing a complaint of abuse that
started nearly five years before that, or nearly ten years before.

(25:28):
We sitting here today talking about it.

Speaker 1 (25:33):
And for his part, Finfield telling the Newer Remo News
that this has already this has already been examined, the
DSS has looked at it, and now apparently SLID has
got the file and is ready to just about be
done with it too.

Speaker 2 (25:47):
Yeah. A spokesperson for the town said the report was
previously released by the department before it turned the case
over to the state in twenty twenty four. February twenty
twenty four so two and a half years ago. I'm
sorry last that was last year. Pardon me, Mallivan road here,

(26:10):
So this was February year ago. That was when he
first was elected to town council.

Speaker 1 (26:17):
Yeah, so this could just be an allegation that apparently
has been sitting on someone's desk for a while and
they couldn't find enough evidence to support it, or there
may be more to the story. We'll have to wait
and see.

Speaker 2 (26:30):
According to the town spokesperson, sled is assisting the MOPD
in this investigation, so it's either been open or has
been reopened.

Speaker 1 (26:37):
And yeah, in fact, that was not the seat. It
was Eric.

Speaker 2 (26:43):
Sickinger we were referring to earlier, who was arrested and
charged earlier this year with criminal section contact with a minor.
That special X was back in June. Mike Ward won
that seat. So this is not the same thing, all right,
So there's that. Now here's this.

Speaker 1 (27:01):
More detail.

Speaker 2 (27:03):
As the election Commission in our state has now explaining
their reasons for firing Howard Knapp, it was what about
a month back, I guess, yeah, yeah, September seventeenth month ago.
So the accused nap of again a number of instances

(27:25):
of misconduct, including fostering a hostile work environment, falsifying financial
documents behind the agency's back, and according to the head
of the election Board, Dennis shed, the misconduct was so
bad that a secretly brokered agreement to buy voting machines

(27:50):
could result in hundreds of them being repossessed by the
bank that financed the thirty two million dollar deal.

Speaker 1 (28:00):
How did we get to this, I don't know now
the numbers sound And Joe McCullough, the attorney for how
for nap Is, responded and said, the overage is just
simply a matter of sales tax on the sale.

Speaker 2 (28:22):
Okay, But if you're gonna buy something, you're gonna pay
the sales tax. Shouldn't it be factored into what the
purchase price is going to.

Speaker 1 (28:29):
Be, you would think, especially if you've got to take
out a loan to pay for it.

Speaker 2 (28:38):
So we heard a lot about how the state Election
Commission is having a hard time paying the first installment
of this thirty two million dollar financing agreement.

Speaker 1 (28:52):
I mean, it just sounds like it was a circus
over there, and everybody's been paying attention to this fight
between you know that this issue between South Carolina and
some of the states and the federal government. As far
as turning over voter data, they weren't even concerned about
that over there. They were mentioning it publicly, but behind

(29:14):
the scenes it was a whole separate circus with again
according to the allegations, falsifying records and you know, behind
the scenes affairs and demeaning him, other employees, wiretapping. Just
it's total peyton place. And I mentioned this earlier. The

(29:35):
head of the Commission is he's a retired federal judge.
He doesn't play games, and if you saw any of
his statement yesterday, he's not playing when it comes to
NAP oh No.

Speaker 2 (29:50):
So you know, allegations of a four million dollar overrun
on this apparently the company they bought him from, which
is our only low the only approved vendor we have.
That's that's a problem right there.

Speaker 1 (30:05):
You got no, we only have one approved vendor familting
machines in the state. You want to think about how
controversial they became in the last few years.

Speaker 2 (30:12):
Yeah, the initial quote was thirty million dollars now shed Again,
the head of the Commission didn't like that price, and
he told NAT to renegotiate for a lower rate, and
Shed says eventually he approved and then endorsed agreement to
pay the company twenty eight million dollars. But under the

(30:38):
terms the agreement, Shed said, well, those terms were misrepresented
to the board by a tune of about four million
dollars and nobody can see him explain how that happened.
But yeah, as you mentioned, an as attorney says, it
was about sales taxes. Okay, well, again, if this was

(30:58):
you know, company X y ors, we wouldn't care. But
this is say government and this is state taxpayer dollars,
so yeah, we do care. Now again, there's been no
allegations or any even any innuendo that all this drama

(31:20):
at the Election Commission could or may have resulted in well,
elections not maybe turning out the way they might otherwise
have had. No, thank goodness, nobody's talking about that, Thankfully.
That'd be a whole other, bigger wop daddy ball of
wax right there. So yeah, there's there's there's no no

(31:45):
allegation that that that kind of tom foolery was going on.

Speaker 1 (31:48):
Wasn't the way Isn't that the way it usually is?
In government? You know, you have people, the lower level
people are just doing their jobs, just working hard from
nine to five. And then you've got the upper level people,
the people who you know, make money and have power.
You know, they're the ones who end up being corrupt.
M So thank goodness. The election workers down the line

(32:12):
were doing their jobs. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (32:14):
Anytime we have talked about any kind of issues with
any sort of election board, you know, whether it be
Richland County or the state or whomever, it's never about
the people on the front lines, and it's always about
the people that are that will you lead these agencies.
I don't know this one's had, you know, I guess

(32:37):
his a deputy director, Pais Assaulnage. How you say your
name dropping that to recording device into the the boardroom.

Speaker 1 (32:46):
My goodness. We've had a little bit of everything with
this one. But again because she wanted to hear apparently
what they were saying about him.

Speaker 4 (32:52):
Mm hmm.

Speaker 2 (32:55):
But but again, no, no, no allegations, not even any
inn window, not even any rumors that this all this
drama has in any way, shape or form affected the
outcome of elections, at least not yet. Now we got,
you know, a number of elections coming up. But again

(33:17):
the machinery, the boots on the ground here. They're not
involved in all this, so that there's no there's no
reason to be concerned that they're going to be issues
coming up here with these municipal elections that are now
just a couple of weeks away.

Speaker 1 (33:37):
And you would think whoever takes that role next will
be held to a pretty straight and narrow path. Oh yeah,
I mean there is an acting director, but eventually they'll
find somebody new for that position.

Speaker 2 (33:50):
Yeah, you better believe the board is going to be Ah,
they're gonna have somebody, you know, kind of like opposing
football teams, you'll put a put a put a spy on,
like you know, Lenora sellers every game. Right, there's gonna
be a board member that's constantly watching what the next
head of the agency is going to be doing on
a daily basis. What you have for lunch today?

Speaker 4 (34:11):
Oh yeah, the state fairs in town, and so are
the sooners Cape Day starts at the best game Cock
coverage on one O three point five FM and five
sixty AM w VOC.

Speaker 3 (34:29):
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.

Speaker 2 (34:39):
It is seven thirty eight, It is Thursday, and it
is the sixteenth of October.

Speaker 1 (34:43):
Good morning to you. Who's the fair end Sunday this weekend? Yeah? Wow, Yeah,
that's great Sunday. And they've had great weather with the
exception of the opening the opening weekend.

Speaker 2 (34:56):
Yeah yeah, it's kind of nasty that weekend, but it's
been very very and we'll continue to be throughout the
the rest of the run of the fair very nice.

Speaker 1 (35:05):
All right.

Speaker 2 (35:07):
Now, we talked about this when the administration first started
talking about it and what were threats to start laying
people off as a results of this government shutdown, which
is now in day sixteen, which, by the way, noted earlier,
well I noticed earlier, I should say, reports that well,

(35:30):
outfits like The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal
yesterday not a single story in their publications about the
government shutdown.

Speaker 1 (35:41):
Really why, I don't know. It wasn't the sexy story anymore,
I guess not.

Speaker 2 (35:51):
And another outlet you had to dig way deep into
to try to find any single mention about it. I mean,
today's day sixteen.

Speaker 1 (36:00):
That's all Bernie and AOC talked about last night on
their CNN town hall.

Speaker 2 (36:05):
Oh yeah, well, and thank you seeing then for giving
them a town hall that's for their socialist, communist viewpoints,
the Communist News Network. There you go. But no surprise
that once layoffs were announced, that they've been halted at
least for now by a federal judge, a judge appointed

(36:31):
or nominated by Bill Clinton. So she's been around for
a while, and a judge guess where the Northern District
of California. Of course, two unions filed lawsuits about the layoffs,
and the judge says the White House is acting out
of political motivation, saying it has a human cost. It's

(36:55):
a human cost that cannot be tolerated. Now, all right,
I've said all lot you know this is there's there's
two sides to this coin right here. Number one. Yes,
there is bloat in government. The whole doge thing pointed
that out, but doesn't seem like it was when it

(37:18):
was all said and done, very effective in eliminating much
of that, if if if any right.

Speaker 1 (37:24):
We didn't hear a whole lot of follow up stories
mm hmmm about how this saved us this money.

Speaker 2 (37:31):
We had that website up for a while and yeah,
you know, but but but a lot of those a
lot of the things they uncovered either didn't get followed
through on, or you know, court stopped it from happening, YadA, YadA, YadA.
So there's there's no there's no argument here as to
the bloat. And when we had as many federal workers

(37:52):
working quote unquote allegedly at home for as long as
they were, long after the pandemic was over, were yeah, well,
flip side of that is again people were being laid off.

(38:12):
Did they deserve to be laid off or were they
really bloat or were And we saw this, don't forget
in the aftermath of DOGE, where you had certain agencies
laying people off and then having to come back and
re hire them afterwards because you know, they were a
little too important to be laid off. They were getting

(38:35):
the job done. The concern is that amongst these layoffs again,
are you in cutting the fat, trimming into some lean
muscle as well that happened with DOGE. And just from
a political standpoint, I've always felt like the optics of
this were going to be bad, that you'd have more

(38:57):
people blaming the Republicans now for all this as opposed
to the Democrats. So at least for now, you have
to worry about it because this judge says, no, it
cannot happen. Okay, there we go. Now, Trump yesterday saying
that he is considering US military strikes on land targets

(39:22):
in Venezuela. We've taken out five of these were said
to be drug running boats here in the last number
of weeks. There have been five of those attacks. So
Trump considering military strikes. Now the regime, the Maduro regime,

(39:46):
saying this is all about regime change, and quite honestly,
it might be.

Speaker 1 (39:51):
Do you have a problem with that? I mean, I
don't honestly. Let's just add that this is one day
after he said if Hamas doesn't disarm, we'll disarm them. Yes,
this is you know, for for Trump, who said he
was going to stay close to home and not get
involved in war. This is a this is a very

(40:13):
different Donald Trump.

Speaker 2 (40:14):
Yeah, he's uh, he's he's waving a number of sabers
right now around.

Speaker 1 (40:20):
Now.

Speaker 2 (40:20):
Again, we're not talking about he didn't say boots on
the ground. We don't need boots on the ground to
make land target strikes, but we do need intel. Right,
We got to know where they are, who to strike.

Speaker 1 (40:38):
Now.

Speaker 2 (40:38):
He made these remarks after the Times of New York
Times reported that the White House had secretly authorized this
CIA to convert conduct COVID operations in Venezuela. Now the
White House is not confirming that, of course. And when

(41:03):
I asked yesterday that that question, uh, Trump responded about, well,
I think we may have that those remarks here somewhere
right here, if I can fucking find them. Let's see
if we've got access to those right now.

Speaker 5 (41:15):
Oh, I don't want to answer a question like that.
That's a ridiculous question for me to be given. Not
really a ridiculous question, but wouldn't it be a ridiculous
question for me to answer?

Speaker 1 (41:25):
But I think Venezuela is.

Speaker 5 (41:26):
Feeling heat, but I think a lot of other countries
are feeling heat too.

Speaker 2 (41:29):
Yeah, no president authorizes a covert CIA operations. Says, oh, yeah,
I did it. That doesn't happen. So he said, maybe
not a stupid question, but it'll be a stupid question
for me to answer. But that New York Times report
saying that's exactly what's happened. Again, this is just this
is there there they're reporting.

Speaker 1 (41:50):
On this.

Speaker 2 (41:52):
Now back up a second. If you're talking about, you know,
strikes on on land targets in Venezuela.

Speaker 1 (41:59):
Again you need you need human right, you need what human? Oh?
Human intelligence? Yes, okay, yes, talking code.

Speaker 2 (42:07):
There dropping into my CIA code here.

Speaker 1 (42:13):
Uh no, that's Trucker sorry, Roger that Roger that. So
you need that.

Speaker 2 (42:19):
But that's not really what the CIA does in covert operations.
I'm sure they're the cave. Yeah they yeah, they could
do that, but covert CIA operations are usually designed to
do one thing, that is to uh to undermine in
this case, the uh, the regime of Nicolas Modura. But

(42:41):
again I got no problem with under this new CIA authority.
Again New York Times reporting the agency could take action
against Madureau in a unilateral manner or with a military operation.
So you base that reporting with Again, Trump's saying that

(43:04):
considering strikes on land targ manybody he talks about land takas.
He's not talking about cartel operations. Maybe he's talking about
Maduro himself. Now that would helpen a whole nother can
of worm certainly. But yeah, point bing as you mentioned
mister Thompson, uh for for for a Trump who has

(43:26):
said he doesn't want to.

Speaker 1 (43:27):
He wants to get us out.

Speaker 2 (43:28):
Of wars, not involved in wars America first, right, that
we need to worry about the homeland here, worry about us,
not the rest of the world. He's doing them doing
a lot of that right now.

Speaker 1 (43:38):
This is one of many reasons why some WHOP high
profile MAGA folks like Marjorie Taylor Green have broken off
from the president. Mm hmm. That's been interesting to watch it.
I haven't. That wasn't the only issue between the two,
but this was one of them.

Speaker 2 (43:51):
Yeah, they've been. There have been a number of them. Yeah,
so uh, there you go. Lindsey Graham's got to be
this huh a bigger war warhawk Capitol Hill than Lindsey Graham.
He's the top remaining one.

Speaker 1 (44:07):
Yeah, he is.

Speaker 3 (44:10):
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.

Speaker 1 (44:21):
It's fourteen after eight.

Speaker 2 (44:22):
Good morning, and good to have you along for a Thursday,
October sixteenth. I'm Gary David, that is Christopher.

Speaker 1 (44:28):
Thompson, and we're glad to have you back with us.
Good to be back. Thank you so much. Our sympathies
obviously with you and your family, but thank you, my friend.

Speaker 2 (44:35):
Yeah, if you're weren't with us when we first came
on the air, I did share the news at well.
We lost my mother a couple of days ago, after
littleber a week hospitalized and ninety one years old, and
you told me fantastic life.

Speaker 1 (44:53):
You told me you were at peace I am, which
made me feel much better. Yeah, I mean, hey, in
ninety one, she was married. She and my dad, remember
for sixty eight years. We lost him a year ago September,
and so that they are reunited again, I am at peace,
tired peace so but but thank you for so many

(45:17):
of you who have reached out. And I'm losing uh
and maybe I'm sure of that the betevieaw, I've already
lost both your parents. I can't believe how blessed I
was that both my parents lived to be ninety one
years old, to see your kids grow up. Oh yeah, yeah,
that's very fortunate. Yes it is.

Speaker 2 (45:38):
And trust me, I don't I don't I understand that,
I really do.

Speaker 1 (45:42):
So thank you.

Speaker 2 (45:44):
All. Right, back to the program. Here, this is uh,
this is this is an unbelievable story. We talked about
this a while back. There was a case in Virginia
and so as I say, it was in county Goes
Oh yeah, okay, of course, so Louden County public schools.

(46:06):
This was a case where two boys, two high school students,
I think it might have been middle school, but anyway,
two students were videotaped by a well a biological female
who identified as a male and walked into the boys

(46:31):
locker room. Obviously, you know, with all intentions of getting
all this on tape, right video. The video caught the
two two boys complained to each other about the fact
there was a girl using their facility. Okay, so again

(46:53):
this is Louden County, Virginia, so you better believe and
you know that they're not.

Speaker 1 (46:59):
Going to come down to this.

Speaker 2 (47:00):
The two males who you know, a biological female enters
their locker room and again with all intents and purposes
of getting them on video, complaining about that, then goes
to school administrators, shows the videotape, and the result was

(47:20):
not the female who entered the boys locker room, but
the two boys that were there in the boy's locker
room got suspended and the district filed harassment complaints against them. Well,
they sued because again they you know, they as it

(47:42):
stands right now, these two young men are basically being
accused of sexual harassment. It's on their record, all right,
So they filed lawsuit the parents of one of these
students to have the judge in the case order a bond,

(48:07):
all right. This judge Northern Virginia told the parents that
in order to keep this case going, in order to
keep it in a courtroom and defend their sons, both
both parents, both sorts of parents were involved here, they
had to raise one hundred and twenty five thousand dollars.

Speaker 1 (48:31):
What what and what are they calling that money a bribe?
This was originally ordered by this judge last Friday.

Speaker 2 (48:45):
They had until yesterday to come up with the money
if they wanted to keep this case alive. And now,
why is this judge saying you gotta come up with
one hundred and twenty five thousand dollars to keep this
lawsuit in court?

Speaker 1 (48:57):
What is that? Well is that court costs?

Speaker 2 (49:02):
And the judge said the money was meant to ensure
that the parents will be able to pay for the
school district's attorney fees if they wound up losing this case.

Speaker 1 (49:12):
Ah, so it's almost like a retainer of sorts. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (49:16):
Now, I don't know how often this happens causes Yeah,
maybe this happens a lot.

Speaker 1 (49:19):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (49:25):
Co counsel of the parents said that we have serious
doubts that such a bond can be legally required. And
this requirement the plan has put up the money to
pay for the government's attorneys is certainly very unusual and unexpected.

Speaker 1 (49:39):
So I guess it doesn't happen every.

Speaker 2 (49:40):
Day, going on to say, especially when the government acknowledged
in court that it's insurance policy is covering legal costs. Okay,
so the government's insurance policy, the school districts policy, would
pay for these costs for their attorneys regardless you have.
A judge went ahead and said, no, you got post
one hundred and twenty five thousand dollars bond or we're

(50:02):
not going a step further in this case.

Speaker 1 (50:04):
Wow. Well late last night.

Speaker 2 (50:12):
The parents, well, we're able to raise one hundred and
twenty five thousand dollars required, So good for them.

Speaker 1 (50:26):
Now you talk about tipping the scales of justice.

Speaker 2 (50:29):
Huh wow, Now I'm going to assume, and I don't
know this for a fact, but I'm going to assume.

Speaker 1 (50:41):
That if they win this case.

Speaker 2 (50:45):
They get their one hundred and twenty five k back,
and I'm sure again they would probably give it back
to the people who gave it to them. Unbelievable, But
it's loud in County, Virginia, so maybe it's not unbelievable.

Speaker 1 (51:02):
Huh.

Speaker 2 (51:03):
All right, we're on the topic of courtrooms. The Supreme
Court yesterday signaling that the days of creating congressional districts
based on race may be numbered and necessarily, you know,
redrawing of congressional districts has been a hot topic these
last few months now Justice Kavanaugh, whose vote along with

(51:31):
the Chief Justice John Roberts, could prove decisive. This is
the case Louisiana v. Clay, Klay not Clay. The issue,
Kavanaugh says is that the courts cases in a variety
of context, have said that race based remedies are permissible

(51:54):
for a period of time, sometimes for a long period
of times in some cases, but that they should not
be indefinite and should have an endpoint. And they've been
around well since the Voting Rights Act. There is a
definitive possibility, a definite possibility here that drawing congressional districts

(52:21):
based on race may be coming to an end. So
again it looks like the thinking of some of the
conservative judges here is that, yeah, this was not meant
to be an indefinite thing, that it would have a

(52:42):
period where it's sunset it. Now, this case has to
do with congressional maps in Louisiana, and this has been
in litigation for years, but this was to be a
major change, and depending on the court's ruling, then I

(53:07):
guess you're going going back and redrawing a lot of
congressional districts.

Speaker 1 (53:09):
Around the country.

Speaker 2 (53:16):
The principal Deputy solicitor supporting Louisiana on behalf of the
DOJ noted that, for example, West Virginia, he says, has
zero democratic districts, though there are many white people in
West Virginia that are Democrats. There's just no reason, he says,

(53:38):
to assume that because there's a large Democratic population in
Louisiana that doesn't have a district, that it is a
racial reason rather than a partisan reason. So this is
very interesting. It does again to court watchers it looks
like there is growing skepticism amongst the at least the
conservative justices, that this is something that could continue to

(54:02):
be done.

Speaker 3 (54:03):
Fascinating, exciting times on the Glenbeck Program, It's so rare
for me to be excited.

Speaker 1 (54:10):
It's going to be very exciting.

Speaker 3 (54:11):
One on three point five FM and five sixty am
w VOC. This is Columbia's morning News with Gary David
and Christopher Thompson on one on three point five FM
and five sixty am Double VOC.

Speaker 2 (54:28):
It's a thirty nine and our final thoughts for Thursday,
October the sixteenth. Here we go, no new information according
to the Viewford Sheriff, no new details into the investigation
of that mass shooting this past weekend. Remember that took
the lives of four people in twenty one injured, all told,

(54:48):
some of those of gunshot wounds, others of other wounds
in the melee that followed. Only thing new we heard
from Sheriff PJ. Tanner was while they believe they know
who the shooters are, they're between two and three. They say,

(55:11):
not a single witness has come forward to confirm any details.
But like seven hundred people at that party, not a
single one has come forward to confirmed details.

Speaker 1 (55:24):
Does that mean they don't know, or they were just
they're too scared or too intimidated, probably both. I mean,
you know, that's a pretty small area. You would think
the police in that area would have a pretty good

(55:45):
handle on who the bad guys are in that area.
This is Saint Helena Island. I mean it's not a
big place.

Speaker 2 (55:52):
Yeah, they've been necessarily been from that area, but still
you'd think somebody at all those partygoers would be to
confirm something.

Speaker 1 (56:03):
And I'll throw this out there because it's the obvious choice.
But you know, anytime you've got coastline with the chance
to get boats in and out and there's that there's drugs. Yeah.
I'm not saying anybody at this party that you know,
this Battery Creek Alumni function had anything to do with it,
but you know, maybe the bad guys did well.

Speaker 2 (56:26):
The chilling part about this is the sheriff yesterday went
asked if there was still no danger to the public
or is there still I suppose was the question, given
the fact that these shooters were still at large. His response,
I cannot tell you that you are safe in Beauford County,

(56:49):
said no. Sheriff ever, right, yeah, wow, so you can't
tell the people of Beautford, Canada are safe, not at
least while these people are still out there somewhere. Make
it to more than one hundred students now quarantined amid
the up measles outbreak, that is the schools in our state. Again,

(57:09):
we're talking about upstate, not all those a total of
sixteen total cases that we confirmed this year. And I
know that that doesn't sound like a big number, and
it's not, but it's considering so something have been pretty
much eradicated. It is a story, and they're now the

(57:30):
state's top epidemiologist. I can never say that word. Epidemiologist
doctor Linda Bell is saying that, well, there's that chance
it will move beyond just the Upstate man behind bars
for shooting at well three different incidents over the last

(57:51):
couple of days in Richland County. Difference this time is
what he was shooting with a paintball gun. Champion eighteen
charged with three counts with selling battery first degree and
a few other charges as well. Shooting at people with
a paintball gun, Well, maybe he thought, no big deal.

Speaker 1 (58:19):
It's anytime you get a gun aimed at you, whether
it's in the light of day, or the dark even
more so. I mean that's scary stuff. Yeah, your mind
didn't have time to process. Oh that's just a paintball gun. Right.
We mentioned this briefly earlier.

Speaker 2 (58:38):
You again, with the Thanksgiving holiday going to be here
before you know it, and air traffic just crazy, insane
and governments shut down. Could it last until Thanksgiving? I
don't see how, but boy, if it does, that's a
recipe for total disaster right there. Again, not that TSA

(58:59):
is not on the not that air traffic controllers aren't
on the job. But again, we're seeing slowdowns because you know,
many of these folks, especially these controllers, keep calling in
sick because they're not getting a paycheck. So you know,
even now, we're seeing delays, and we have since this
government shutdown started sixteen. Now we're day sixteen.

Speaker 1 (59:23):
So some of these some of these workers have got
plenty of sick time built. Oh yeah, oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (59:30):
So we saw things we talked about in the last
couple of weeks that the administration was oh depart of
Education reply emails out of a line blaming the Democrats
for the shutdown, or a couple other instances of that too. Well,
now there's a video being shown in airports. You know,
the people who were you know, being delayed because of
all this. And there's a video showing on airport screens

(59:51):
of a Christinomes blaming Democrats for this shutdown. Okay, say
what you want it again. If the shoe were on
the other foot and it was a Democrat administration airing
videos in an airport blaming Republicans for the government shutdown
while you're standing there waiting for your flight to finally
arrive or take off, you wouldn't be thrilled with that.

Speaker 1 (01:00:13):
Yeah, it's bad enough. We have to watch CNN and most.

Speaker 2 (01:00:17):
Right, So I don't agree with this tactic at all.

Speaker 1 (01:00:22):
It's not the right place.

Speaker 2 (01:00:24):
No, but you know, I mean Christy, let's face it,
Christy nelwill she grabscreen time whatever she can.

Speaker 1 (01:00:30):
It doesn't matter at her. You've got the biggest bullhorn
in the world. And Donald Trump, you don't need to,
you know, send your message over the airport.

Speaker 2 (01:00:40):
So in Columbia Metro and up at Greenville Sparmburg International,
they're they're refusing to show these messages. Spokeswoman at Greenville
Sparmburg saying that they're keeping these checkpoints screens focused on
travel guidance and not showing this video. At Columbia Metro
they determined that the partisan message crossed political line and

(01:01:01):
likely and it probably does, violate federal law. But there
are other airports in the state, Charleston Myrtle Beach, for example,
where leadership there says they're powerless to intervene. They have
no authority to turn off these video screens. These are
these are these checkpoints? Okay, this isn't this the stuff
here while you're sitting there, you know, in the in
the terminal, you know, in one of those very uncomfortable chairs,

(01:01:21):
waiting for your flight to finally board. We're not talking
about that. We're talking about at these TSA checkpoints, right.

Speaker 1 (01:01:27):
Wow, Okay, if it doesn't help me get from Place
A to Place B safely and quickly, then I'm not interested.
You can save that message for another time.

Speaker 2 (01:01:38):
Yes, Hell is not frozen over as far as we know.
But you've got people like Joe Biden, like Bill Clinton,
like Jimmy Kimmel praising Donald Trump for this deal in
the gaza.

Speaker 1 (01:01:51):
How can you not well, exactly, there's one notable exception.
Oh what's your name? No, what's his name? Bock Obama.
Well there two then, okay, who is the other one?
Zm ah yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:02:10):
Zil Rahnmondami yesterday declined to say whether or not Hamas
should disarm and relinquished power here.

Speaker 1 (01:02:18):
Yeah he got he got an extended interview on Fox
last night or yesterday? Yeah, yesterday, Martha McCallum, I think right, Yeah,
and dodged a lot of questions. He does dodge a
lot of questions, doesn't it. But he was, I mean
he was very cheerful, very friendly, always is. Yeah, that's
part of the ruse man. Look at me. I'm a happy,
go lucky guy. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:02:41):
He won't he won't give credit with credits due either.
Oh yeah, so I missed that. So Barack Obama is
not Okay, Well I didn't know that the Biden folks
are taking credit for laying the groundwork for all.

Speaker 1 (01:02:54):
Yes, yeah, and Trump took it across the finish line.

Speaker 2 (01:02:58):
So they got into like the one yard and then
Trump with the with the with the tush push got
it over the goal line.

Speaker 1 (01:03:03):
Huh. Oh, okay, is that how that worked? Sorry?

Speaker 2 (01:03:07):
I just don't remember the stories, you know, back you know,
in January this year, how they were close to resolving
all this.

Speaker 1 (01:03:14):
And the problem is Biden doesn't remember those stories either.
Well it's true. I mean, who who who's telling who's
telling him or who's saying that he was a key
member of this team that got this so close for
Donald Trump to take it over the finish.

Speaker 2 (01:03:32):
Line, Yeah, Kamala, Yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:03:40):
Yeah, I don't know. I mean, were there any stories
at all about we were working a deal here? Well,
like we said, every president does or every president tries.
But yeah, no, it's you didn't. You didn't have Israel
and Gaza lined up to meet prior to Trump taking
the White House. Yeah, no, And you might have heard
this man. Sure.

Speaker 2 (01:04:00):
The money updated early on the hour. The average selling
price down for a new car in this country too much,
too much. Average price last month fifty thousand and eighty dollars.
Now it's only up three point five percent from a
year ago, but it's crossed that fifty thousand mark. The
average asking price or MSRP, also at record. I have

(01:04:22):
fifty two thousand and one eighty three, which means that
it's probably always going to be now above fifty. By
the way, the average EV last month sold for fifty
eight thousand dollars in some change.

Speaker 1 (01:04:36):
I guess the only saving grace is that, you know,
after COVID we exhausted our used car supply. We're finally
starting to, I think, catch up with the used car
inventory again. Yes, finally. We talked about this a few
weeks ago.

Speaker 2 (01:04:50):
You've got people that are financing cars now and paying
what you know a lot of people would be paying
for a mortgage payment every month.

Speaker 1 (01:04:57):
Wow. Crazy. I don't know we'll ever see you go
back down