Show Rewind 11-11-2025

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Jesus fright.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Hell yeah, America.

Speaker 3 (00:06):
And for.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
For nation is from.

Speaker 3 (00:20):
This is Colombia'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):
And a frigid Tuesday morning too. I'll come in. It
is sixteen after six. It is Veterans Day, Tuesday, November
the eleventh. Good morning to you. The parade kicks off
at eleven o'clock this morning downtown Columbia, the forty seventh
annual Bettersday Parade, and they do it right here.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
Coat's not included. You got to bring your own coat,
bring your own and you'll need it.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
And you will need it, yeah, especially for those of
you taking part in the parade, as you gotta get
there earlier and get lined up and ready to go.
It's uh yeah, it's it's just gonna be a it's
gonna be a whole day here. I'm just perusing around
the Midlands right now. We're seeing temperatures like, let's see
Blythewood at twenty seven right now, but you know, we

(01:16):
got that little wind we're dealing with two, so it
feels like twenty degrees in Blythewood. This morning, and that
mercury will drop a little bit more right about the
time the sun comes up, so be prepared for that.
Orangeburg air temp twenty six feels like twenty four. Yeah, shaping,
and you got that lake wind blowing out there, twenty seven,

(01:39):
wind chill about twenty three, So it is. It's it's
sub freezing all across the Midlands this morning, and a
little colder in a few places than others, but it works.
This is part of that big Laandina Arctic air blast
that is impacting a lot of folks around the country millions,
more than a hundred and seventy million. Tim's below freezing

(02:04):
in thirty five stays this morning. Yeah, that's a pretty
big arctic blast right there. Well, good morning to you.
Thanks for joining us. We appreciate that. Again, we mentioned
the parade eleven o'clock. Now that will I'm not sure.
I have to check in with Tumbleweed just to what
time they'll start closing some streets, but the parade will
begin at the intersection of Sumter Street and Laurel Streets,

(02:26):
so I don't Since it's eleven o'clock parade and there'll
be no shutdowns for the morning commute. I wouldn't imagine,
but we'll check in and have tumble effort that information
for us. By the way, here at Veterans Day, the
news that the state has launched a new program to
help vets transition from military to civilian life. Much needed program,

(02:50):
the South Klinda Smart Start program. So you might if
you're finding yourself, you know, getting everybody to make that move.
Check that out, all right, run down big stories, hot
topics for this Veterans Day Tuesday. The air travel woes continue.
Now again, the big story today is is that the
Senate has passed that House budget package with a few changes.

(03:15):
Now we'll get to that here in just a minute
or two, because now the House has got to come
back into session and that won't happen till tomorrow. So
in the meantime of the misery and a lot of
fronts continues, the snap benefits issue, federal workers without paychecks. Yeah,
we'll get the back pay, hopefully you'll be able to
make it. So far, and of course the air travel

(03:36):
woes and we're seeing those delays continue. And today, by
the way, is today that the FAA imposed slow down
traffic air traffic restrictions at those forty big airports goes
from four percent to six percent. So the situation gets
a little more dire today. And well, remember the House

(03:58):
has to come back in. They got out a vote
whether not to accept the Senate's package to get the
government back open again. But we'll see how this affects
air travel because if things aren't reopening by Friday, those
slowdowns go to ten percent. We actually had a Delta
flight over the weekend that took off from Columbia Metro

(04:21):
heading to LaGuardia and then had to turn around and
come back. Yeah, because of.

Speaker 1 (04:29):
Air traffic control in New York.

Speaker 2 (04:34):
It had gotten all the way to Richmond, Virginia, and
then had to turn around and come back to Columbia. Wow. Yeah,
it's just a total disaster.

Speaker 1 (04:42):
What a waste of time and money, right right.

Speaker 2 (04:46):
So, yeah, this continues to be an issue across the
country and it is impacting us here in the Palmetto
State as well, even though none of our airports have
these restrictions. You know, it's pretty much everywhere you fly
out of Columbia particular, you're gonna run into that. So
they it Speaking of airports, there's a new Political Action
Committee ad A pack ad out one that's supporting Alan

(05:08):
Wilson for governor. A new ad that is attacking Nancy
Mace over her airport outburst. Okay, it's a thirty second spot,
and yeah, it's entitled f Bombs. We're going to see more.
We'll continue to see this all the way through the
primary in June. You can bet your bottom dollar on that. Meanwhile,

(05:29):
a former governor, Nikki Haley's son, I don't think it's
ever been in the news that I'm aware of. The
Daily Mail with a piece that, well, he's apparently got
some different ideas than her than his mom does when
it comes to politics. Apparently he's far more conservative and
on a podcast he called for a ban on legal

(05:53):
legal immigration and for all fourign need to be slashed.
This is a Naylan Haley, twenty four year old who
apparently has been making waves for his very conservative Republican views.
I've not been up to date on that, tell you
the truth. No, I haven't heard much from him at all. No, huh.
The vandalism that hit Finley Park before it's opening grand

(06:14):
reopening this weekend. This happened over the weekend. We've talked
about it yesterday it was some graffiti. It wasn't a lot.
They easily painted it over quickly. But it has led
to we wondered this whether it was there security at
the park already or not. Well, they actually had planned
for security to start patrolling the park as of yesterday
ahead of the grand reopening. But and now we know

(06:35):
that's too late. Yeah, that was too late. So they
actually wound up moving that up and they started patrolling
on Sunday. But yeah, it was too late. By the way,
they have amended the clear bag policy for Finley Park
because a lot of folks got outraged over this, so
a slight amendment here. It was, you know, everything's clear bag.
The city announcing yesterday the policy will now allow for wristlets.

(07:00):
They call these the very small bags, whether to clutch
purse or a cross body purse. Those in diaper or
medical bags will not need to be clear bags as
long as they meet the size requirements. They're trying their
darnest to.

Speaker 1 (07:14):
Keep place safe any time or just during events. They're
going to enforce that. Yeah, yeah, that doesn't make it.
What about a picnic basket.

Speaker 2 (07:26):
Well, that's what you were out on Friday, the same thing.
The heck, bring a picnic basket of Finley Park. Well,
that doesn't make any sense. I gotta feel there more
changes to coming on that front. You gotta think they will,
all right, So the Senate has well at least for
their business officially into the government shutdown. They took that

(07:48):
vote late last night advancing the funding package, and they
got those eight Democrats to cross the line and as
they did on Sunday in the test vote. So this
Senate has done their job. Now there were some changes,
some amendments made to the original House bill, so it
goes back to the House for them to take it up.

(08:09):
Of course, you know the Democrat's gonna put a big
fight there, needless to say. By the way, the one
Republican who could have stood in the way of this
ran Paul and mentioned this yesterday. He didn't want a
himp production in Kentucky to be curtailed. He put up
an amendment that was pretty quickly blocked. So they were
able to move on and get it done. So when

(08:31):
does a House take it up, Well, Speaker Johnson anticipates
it'll be tomorrow. So House members having to get to airports.
I don't know where Nancy Base is right now on airports.
She's going to get to but they will have a
vote as early as tomorrow on reopening the government. We'll
see how it goes. Meantime, Democrats enraged over what they're

(08:53):
calling a betrayal. And yeah, the biggest political loser out
of all this looks like it's Chuck Schumer. It's become
a circular firing squad amongst Dems now they want Schumer out.
And what about the Obamacare subsidies, Well, that's going to
be the next hot item on the plate. The Republicans

(09:13):
have their own ideas. The Democrats just want them extended.
Schumer want them extended for a year. What might happen
here if these things don't get extended. We'll talk about it.
And as we mentioned at the airports, there's a flight
reductions increased to six percent today and as we mentioned yesterday,
a lot of retirees. The Sean Duffy, the Transportation Secretary,

(09:34):
mentioned that over the weekend, how is that going to
affect things moving forward? So we got that, We got
some Supreme Court news to pass along and more on this.
It is the frigid Tuesday Morning Veterans Day edition of
Columbia's Morning News. It's fabulous to have you with.

Speaker 3 (09:48):
Us anywhere, anytime, take your infot to go.

Speaker 1 (09:52):
I listened to you on iHeartRadio.

Speaker 3 (09:54):
Powered by one on three point five at THEM and
five sixty 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.

Speaker 2 (10:12):
It's six forty one. It's the big freeze Tuesday morning,
Veterans day, Good morning to you. Just to check it
again across the Midlands, our sensors across the area, it
looks like Blythwood right now is the hands down coldest
spot now. The air temperature in Blythewood right now is
twenty six, the windshill fourteen. Yeah, it's it's cold all

(10:35):
across the middle of this morning, but that that's gonna you.
Usually Cedar Creek out there near Bythwoods a cold spot,
but now they are at twenty eight now with the
windshill eighties. So it's it's brutally cold no matter where
you go here on this Tuesday morning. Bottle them up.
So a couple of ideas flow. We talked about these yesterday.

(10:56):
Over the weekend by the trumpel White House when it
comes to the economy, when it comes to your economy,
and well, number one the idea which Trump is mentioned before,
and he posted about it over the weekend, floating this
idea of a two thousand dollars dividend check because let's

(11:17):
face it, our government has profited quite handsomely with these tariffs,
that and the fifty year mortgage idea. So let's start
with this two thousand dollars a dividend idea. Wall Street
Journal editorial board calls it a hail Mary Pass. Yeah,

(11:42):
I gotta be honest, as I always am, and sometimes
that you may not agree, it may even anger you.
This seems like a hail Mary.

Speaker 1 (11:54):
Well, I'm not even sure why we're talking about it
right now. I mean, given what we're going through with
the shutdown and this fight that's not over about insurance
and everything else, you know, and plus the fact that
the Supreme Court has yet to decide whether these tariffs
are even constitutional.

Speaker 2 (12:12):
Well, some people think that that's part of the whole
thing here, is to try to put pressure on the
Supreme Court to allow these tariffs to continue, because the
American people can get a two thousand dollars or maybe
more rebate check.

Speaker 1 (12:26):
I mean, it's just bottom line, When your government's that
deeply in debt thirty seven trillion, do you expect them
to send you more money?

Speaker 2 (12:36):
Well, some people do, Yeah, some people got They really
liked that pandemic thing, didn't they all those those checks
that the Biden administration issued. But no, this is it's
just it's to me, all right, how many people will
get these? Again, we're talking about two thousand dollars. That's

(12:59):
a lot of dough. Now, through September, the Treasury Department
collected one hundred and ninety five billion dollars from tariffs.
That's up to two hundred and fifty percent from fiscal twenty
four when it was one hundred and eighteen billion dollars. Okay,
a lot of money, granted, but we were already collecting

(13:19):
one hundred and eighteen billion in FY twenty four and
it's gone up to one hundred and ninety five billion. Okay,
nice increase, but still in the grander scheme of things,
with a nation that's in the whole thirty seven trillion dollars,
that's not much of an increase right there. By the way,
the actual number now is thirty eight point one two

(13:40):
trillion dollars. It just got updated. Now. Trump is said
that they would use the tariffs to pay down the
national debt. But you can take a big old chunk
of whatever you had to do that to do this
hum or? Is this just trying to in the court
public opinion, get the American voter to to like the

(14:05):
idea of tariffs, thinking, oh, these checks will keep flowing.

Speaker 1 (14:10):
I mean, well, if I'm work again, we said this yesterday.
If I'm worried about influencing the American people, I want
to do it closer to an election. I don't want
to do it now right. I mean, they're not going
to have any impact on the Supreme Court's decision. No,
what they will impact is the mid terms and then
the next presidential election. So that's that's where I would

(14:32):
But I don't even Yeah.

Speaker 2 (14:35):
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, well they got
they got their work cut out for him.

Speaker 1 (14:40):
Where have they been the last twenty years?

Speaker 2 (14:42):
Yeah? Right, This watchdog group they are estimating now and
their studies are this that tariff freebay checks might actually
add to the national debt, That these checks would likely
assuming that they're they're cut and distributed. Of the guidelines
used for those stimulus payments during the pandemic, that these

(15:04):
rebate checks would likely cost six hundred billion dollars, okay,
more than a half a trillion dollars, whereas tariffs are
only projected to generate about three hundred billion dollars in
federal revenue by the end of the year.

Speaker 1 (15:23):
There is no math that you could use to justify.

Speaker 2 (15:26):
There really isn't. So they're running and they're crunching the
numbers on this, and the way they see it, it
don't look good. I think I mentioned this yesterday a
good friend of mine a week or two backs saying,

(15:46):
what about this idea of these these rebate checks for
the tariff that I'm seeing on Facebook? And oh it's
on Facebook. Yeah. Trump had mentioned this before, but I
honestly I didn't think it was serious about it. Apparently
he is now this other idea, and that's the fifty
year mortgage. M Well, Bill Poulti, the director of the

(16:12):
Federal Housing Finance Agency, posting on X over the weekend,
thanks to President Trump, we are indeed working on the
fifty year mortgage, a complete game changer. Well, we know
that the first time. Now we're at a point where
the average age for a first time home buyer in
this country is forty years old. Kind of like these

(16:38):
Obamacare subsidies, we're not addressing the root problem, the root
cause of the problem here, we're just trying to put
a band aid on it. The cost of a home
these days is beyond the reach of many Americans. And
what says what screens the American dream more than owning

(16:59):
your own home? Right true? And if you're not able
to do that until you're forty years old, and that's
that's your starter home right there. Well, there are issues.
So this is of course the idea. You know, a
fifty year mortgage brings down that that that monthly mortgage amount.

(17:21):
But now we're hearing from economists who were pretty skeptical
of this, pointing out that, well it would likely come
with a higher interest rate than a traditional thirty year mortgage.
Would make sense, right, if you want to take out
a fifteen year mortgage's going to get a better rate
than a thirty year mortgage. Right now, why would these
lending companies, you know, penalize you. Okay, you want the

(17:45):
fifty five, but your rate's going to be this and that.
Uh well, let's just let's just assume that it was
the same a six point two percent mortgage rate on
a fifty year versus a thirty year. Well, your total
interest on the fifty year mortgage would be eight hundred

(18:06):
and sixteen thousand, plus on a thirty year loan your
interest would be four hundred and thirty eight thousand. So
you're nearly doubling how much money you're paying an interest
over the life of a fifty year mortgage. And I
don't know how, especially if the average home buyers is

(18:28):
forty years old, you're never paying this house off, right.

Speaker 1 (18:31):
Yeah, what lender's not going to love that? And again,
I mean you're talking about if you retire at sixty five,
you're talking about having this mortgage hanging over your head
for years after you retire.

Speaker 2 (18:46):
Well, yeah, but I'm not sure these days how many
people are actually paying off mortgages anymore. That's always like
the gold standard, you know, to do that before or
when you retire, but I'm not sure how often that's
really happening these days, and with home prices being what
they are. Yeah, well, anyway, these these are just two
ideas that you know, gained a lot of team over
the weekend, and there are a lot of folks look

(19:06):
at these and go really, and I'm one of those.

Speaker 3 (19:13):
You're listening to Columbia's morning news on one oh three
point five FM and five sixty am w VOC. Once again,
here's Gary David and Christopher Thompson in sixteen.

Speaker 2 (19:23):
After seven o'clock. It is a very cold Veterans Day morning, Tuesday,
November the eleventh. Good to have you on board with us.
All across the buildings were below freezing and the wind
chills and some spots are in the even middle teens.

Speaker 1 (19:37):
Is it as windy right now as it was yesterday?
Because by late last night it was it.

Speaker 2 (19:41):
Was holling man, Yeah, I get, I gotta hear. It
was like what you know, we were sitting there watching
one of these Frankenstein movies we should have had before Halloween.
I don't know why we did it last night, and
the window was howling outside. It's early set the mood.
I bet only thing we lacked was you know, power
going out. Apparently you did hear the radio ran at
some point last night. All my stuff was reset when

(20:02):
I came in this morning. But yeah, it's cold. We
saw windshills this morning and places like Bythwood about fourteen
or so. The parade at eleven o'clock. Again, we have
some road closures already underway, as tumble he is alluded to.
It'll keep us up to date on that, but it's
worth it. Huh right, Just grab your heavy coat and
head out. The forty seventh right, forty seventh Annual Bettersday Parade, Yeah,

(20:24):
forty seven underway at about eleven o'clock this morning, and
it is one of the best ones around. And thank
you to h to each and every one of you
listening or will have family members who serve or have served. Again,
we thank you always for your service.

Speaker 1 (20:41):
With yesterday being as you brought up the Marine Corps
birthday and fifty years stumbled across Sands of View with
Jima last night?

Speaker 2 (20:48):
Oh did you so? That was? That was my watching? Yeah? Wow?
All right? Where'd you find that?

Speaker 1 (20:54):
HD Net movies? I don't know?

Speaker 2 (20:56):
Wow? Okay? What it's like? A million streaming services exactly?

Speaker 1 (21:00):
Do you have all of them?

Speaker 2 (21:02):
I think you do? Can we have a few? All right?
Late last night the Senate voted to reopen The government.

Speaker 1 (21:12):
Had eight senators like Senator Fetterman who put the country
ahead of party and I cannot thank him and the
other seven enough. They did the country great service.

Speaker 2 (21:22):
Benji Graham wagh in late last night, So the Senate
finally got around to getting their job done. How many
votes took place, and there were a number of votes
yesterday before after that test vote someday. So we you know,
we came in yesterday morning looking like the impasse was
about to be broken, the ice was gonna thaw and
the Senate would get it done. And they did last night,

(21:45):
late last night, on the forty first day of the shutdown.
Today is day forty two, still shut down today. So
they updated the Continuing Resolution, the CR throing a trio
spending bills, you know snap benefits all the way through
next year, regardless of what happens, and maybe in the

(22:06):
in the process, sealed the fate of one Chuck Schumer,
Senate minority leader. Democrats are up in arms over this Schumer.
The Republicans referred to it as the Schumer shutdown. And
uh and now Democrats are you know, they they want

(22:27):
blood and they're probably going to get it too.

Speaker 1 (22:32):
I don't know what else they expected him to do. Right,
The polling was starting to show that the American people
were turning and holding Democrats responsible. Now both parties have
been held responsible, but Democrats' numbers as far as negativity,
were starting to grow, and he didn't have anything else

(22:53):
to hold out for. I mean, this is again, it's
all politics.

Speaker 2 (22:59):
Oh sure, So if you're if you're like us, your
average every day America, you're gonna say, well, what was
the point? M hmm, all right, if you're gonna if
if you're gonna give in now on this for the
the subsidies you could have given in forty one days ago. Sure,
and and had more time to try to work out
a deal with the Republicans before the subsidies expire at

(23:20):
the end of next month.

Speaker 1 (23:21):
I'm sure he was watching the polling numbers and thinking, Okay,
this is sure. This is no longer working for us.
It's not as effective as it was, let's wrap it up.
But he knew he was gonna take hits regardless from
the He's unpopular anyway with sure that far left wing. Yeah,
it's not as if Bernie Sanders is going to ever

(23:42):
celebrate him.

Speaker 2 (23:43):
Not gonna happen.

Speaker 1 (23:45):
But those numbers are growing, and it maybe maybe one
more reason why humor leaves as a result.

Speaker 2 (23:50):
Oh absolutely, this is it. This This is a Swan
song right here, and not a good one. Well that aside,
so uh, all his time wanting an ironclad guarantee that
these tax breaks, these subsidies for Obamacare would continue, and
the latest was just in the last couple of days

(24:11):
that Schumer said, well, let's get a one year extension
on them. How about that, listen, and which I thought
was actually brilliant because that one year extension means that
when we hit the polls next November in the midterm elections,
well guess what's getting set to expire again. And that's
that's that's a huge campaign point for the Democrats. But

(24:33):
he didn't get that.

Speaker 1 (24:35):
It's been brilliant all the way around. It was brilliant
the way it was designed, you know, to sunset and
make Republicans take them away.

Speaker 2 (24:42):
Oh yeah, exactly. There was no guarantee. Well, there was
a guarantee from John Thune to vote on legislation to
come up with some sort of a deal for these subsidies,
and he last night reiterated that promise, said the vote
would come no later than the second week of December. Well,

(25:05):
that's pushing it awful close. Then you get that other
thing happens in December. What is it? Oh yeah, Christmas
at a Christmas break. Doesn't leave a lot of time
to get it done. So that was Thune. Well, the
House speaker, as you heard Fox News mentioned a few
minutes ago, he's not making any guarantees, he says, I

(25:27):
don't have to, you know, I have to see what
the what what is caucus is feeling like with these
So while foone guarantees the vote at least in the Senate,
Mike Johnson is not guaranteeing even a vote in the House. So,
I mean the odds are you know, quite honestly, I
think they'll get something done. Yeah, I don't. It won't
be what it is right now, but they'll get something.
Now that's just my opinion. We'll see how it how

(25:49):
it turns out. I don't think you can be on
the side. I don't think you can look to the
American people like you're on the side that's keeping government
from going I mean, keeping planes from staying in the air,
et cetera. I don't think are keeping people from being
fed I don't think you can afford that look for

(26:11):
that long. No, no, And if congressional approval ratings were
dismal before, look at them now. So what happens next, Well,
the House that hasn't been in session in what seven
weeks I think it is, it's been a while. Yeah,
they get called back, so you know it's time to

(26:33):
I first wondered, well, why not get him back in
there today and take a vote today on in the House. Well,
probably because as of today, the four percent reduction in
flights around those forty big airports rams up to a
six percent reduction in flights, So you might've had a
lot of folks who wouldn't be able to get there today.

Speaker 1 (26:54):
And today's a work well sorry, today's Veterans Day, but
normally it's a work day. I mean, we've talked so
much about holiday travel, but think about all the people
that have to travel every day for work.

Speaker 2 (27:05):
Sure, oh, I wouldn't want that job anyway. So Mike
Johnson is saying that he expects a vote in the
House sometime tomorrow, probably late late tomorrow. The House has
to approve the changes the Senate made now, and you

(27:28):
can bet your bottom dollar that if nothing else, Hakme,
Jeffreys and the Democrat Caucus is going to try to
make life difficult far as I can see. I mean,
John says, okay, let's move this thing ahead. But the
Democrats in the House are going to have to make
some noise, right, Sure, they can't. They're not just going
to roll over and again, when you talk about the

(27:49):
progressive wing of that party, you know, Bernie Sanders aside
over the Senate side, I mean, they're more you know,
the progresses are in the House and they're going to
make a bunch of noise over this thing. So that's
the that's the game plan. So the idea here now
is to try to get the government reopened by the
end of the week. We'll see if they can do that.

Speaker 3 (28:08):
Keeping you informed, Dad's up to date now now more
than ever.

Speaker 2 (28:12):
I like knowing what's happening in the world.

Speaker 3 (28:14):
One on three point five FM and five sixty am
doub 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 (28:31):
It's seven forty good morning, our first heart freeze the season,
and yeah, we got some windshields and the teams a
lot of spots feeling sixteen seventeen degrees right now. The
air temps are in the just below freezing. But yeah,
that windshield is a pretty brutalless noise. You haven't been outsideea? Yeah,
have you already know that? What are you telling me?

Speaker 3 (28:49):
You?

Speaker 2 (28:49):
I already know this? Well, it's a it's a goal.
The parade, the Bettersday Parade, eleven o'clock this morning. Some
street closures are already underway, tomb weeds keeping us up
to date on that. But that's all price to pay
to thank to thank our vets, and we got lots
of them around here. You may be won yourself. I
don't know. If anybody doesn't have somebody somewhere close to him,

(29:11):
it has not served our nations military. Well, what number
to dine here earlier today? I what as big as?
I thought? It was like five five and a half percent?

Speaker 1 (29:20):
Yeah, I would think it would be bigger than that. Yeah,
that seemed awfully low to me.

Speaker 2 (29:23):
But anyway, all right, we talked about the vandalism over
at Finley Park yesterday. We'll get to that Nancy Base
ad here in a second. But the vandalism. Well it
was you know, some graffiti wasn't that much and it
was easily painted over. But that apart up the question. Okay,
do you have security there yet? Well, no, the security

(29:46):
was supposed to start yesterday. This happened either late Saturday
night or early Sunday morning, so it prompted the city
to go ahead and start the security patrols Sunday night
instead of last night. But what the plans to keep
the park secure? It's going to take a lot of folks.

(30:11):
The idea is to have at least five park rangers
at a time at the park, seven days a week.

Speaker 1 (30:21):
Well, it's a lot of ground to cover.

Speaker 2 (30:23):
Well is it really? I mean it's not a small place,
but whow five Now, that's between the hours of six
am and nine thirty pm. In addition to Columbia Police
officers will be stationed in the park during those same
hours scenario time, there will be seven five park rangers

(30:45):
to City of Columbia police officers patrowing the grounds from
six in the morning until nine thirty at night. It's
a lot of coverage, man.

Speaker 1 (30:54):
Yeah, well, they've spent a lot of money on that park.

Speaker 2 (30:59):
Yeah, do you think that will never change though. I mean,
this is this forever and ever. Amen, maybe it.

Speaker 1 (31:06):
Does if they feel like they've established a level of
safety and they can keep it up with less people.
But I mean, I'm happy with them going over on
the number they need right now, okay, because that's you've
got to establish to citizens who have been around that
park for a while that they are safe there, that

(31:26):
you know they're they're going to be okay, and that
everything that Columbia spent money on to rejuvenate this park
is going to be cared for.

Speaker 2 (31:35):
It's a shame you got to do this. It is
a shame, but I understand why. But I don't know
what the budget is for this. Of course, you know
they dropped twenty five million dollars to reopen it. So
right anyway, in addition too, by the way, the five
park rangers into City Columbia cops, there'll be a five

(31:56):
person grounds maintenance crew that's also on site doing those hours,
so plenty of the other job is not to you know,
enforce security. But again that's that's that's five more sets
of eyeballs out there. So as bottom line is I
Vienna and you know, head out to Finley Park you
won't be able to spit without hitting somebody. They started

(32:18):
keeping an eye on the ground. That's good, okay, Uh
for those overnight hours, the nine thirty six am. Uh,
the plan has to have it at least two private
security officers on the site.

Speaker 1 (32:32):
That and more than a dozen cameras. Okay, So well,
I mean look at it. It's not even open yet.
It's already been vandalized. Yeah, So if you're questioning the need,
I would say, there's your there's the reason right there.

Speaker 2 (32:44):
I got a suspicion though, that this is this is
kind of the you know, this is the this is
the you know, the reopening of the park security. I
don't think it stays at that level forever. That's a
lot of that's a lot of man and woman power
right there.

Speaker 1 (32:57):
Man, Well, then then you have to fear that we're
going to see the park slip right back to where
it was when nobody went and when it was in disrepair.

Speaker 2 (33:06):
And you know what, to me, though, that begs the
question it was it a good idea to reopen it
to begin with? If you got to put that much
money and effort and time into keeping at a safe place,
was it a good idea to reopen it to begin with. Anyway,

(33:28):
is there it was beautiful at one time.

Speaker 1 (33:30):
Yeah, I mean it's a park downtown Colombia.

Speaker 2 (33:33):
Now, by the way, they've admitted their clear bag policy
because they got a lot of folks upset with this one. Yeah,
we're used to that. You get you to Williams Brice
or Death Valley or the Clinical Life Arena, anywhere like that. Concerts,
sporting events, you know, those are the clear bag policies.
But they got to some blowback on their first policy

(33:53):
they had announced last week, so they will now as
of yesterday, they announced they would be allowing for the
small small bags, the crossbody purses and such diaper bags
or medical bags, as long as they're not too big,
they meet the size requirements.

Speaker 1 (34:10):
They don't have to be clear at least is there
gonna be one or two checkpoints? Are there going to
be one or two checkpoints that you have to go through?

Speaker 2 (34:19):
That's a good question.

Speaker 1 (34:20):
I mean, how is that going to be enforced?

Speaker 2 (34:25):
This is gonna either have to be right or or
then again, maybe it's just the you know, all the
security running around the grounds, they see you with a
bag that's too big. That's not clear they're gonna take
it from you or whatever. Then people be really upset.

Speaker 1 (34:36):
This is a park where you bring toys and kids
and basket. Yeah it's yeah, okay, all right.

Speaker 2 (34:44):
Well the first ad is Hit taking hit at Dancy
Base for her airport meltdown. That was nearly two weeks ago.
A pack ad supporting Alan Wilson has launched a thirty
second spot, fitzdoos a entitled f Bombs. I haven't seen
this yet, but uh this uh this is uh you're

(35:10):
going to see this all the way through June. Now. Uh,
of course, you know Mace is embracing this. But you
know from folks that that that that talked to me
about all this, you know, the whole Mace trying to
channel her inner Donald Trump kind of thing. We talked

(35:34):
about this last week. And maybe it's not fair. I
get it. You know, a man can get away with
doing things that a woman can't. I get it. But
you know, the the general consensus from folks I talk
to is that you know, when Trump does it, uh,
well number one, you're used to all that, but but
it comes off as as strength, and when Mace does it,

(35:55):
it comes off as kind of whiny, right kind of
you know, woe is me. I'm always the victim, which
Trump does a lot too, but somehow it hits different.
I can't really explain it, but it just this is,
this is what people tell me. So this thirty second
ad is out now, uh, taking taking shots at makes

(36:19):
for her shots at the airport security.

Speaker 1 (36:25):
I don't think anybody's going to be talking about this
in May.

Speaker 2 (36:31):
April. I don't think even in March. Well, you know,
because something else happened between now and then. That's your theory, right, yeah,
the Nancy base.

Speaker 1 (36:38):
Well, I mean tons of things. I mean the current
events period. You know, the news cycle travels too fast
or goes too fast these days.

Speaker 2 (36:44):
Well I would say yes, but again we're we're not
even close to filing day yet, that's not until what March,
and we're a long way away from June ninth. But
we've already seen one ad. Now, my contentions, we're going
to see more, and the closer we get to the primary,

(37:05):
we'll see more and more of these, and quite possibly
it won't just be about this meltdown, but this is
going to be the way that her opponents are going
to attack her with with broadcast ads, and that is,
you know, being unstable, unhinged a Karen, if you will,

(37:26):
I think we're going to see a lot of these.
I don't think that her opponents will allow us to
forget about this, but yeah, a lot will happen between
now and then, so who knows where will be by them.

Speaker 3 (37:42):
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 (37:53):
It's fifteen after eight o'clock on this Veterans Day, Tuesday,
November the eleventh, twenty twenty five. I hope you're not
planning on traveling today. Just stay at home, go to
the parade instead. Eleven o'clock this morning, downtown Coola. The
pain at the airports continues to work. Actually, yesterday wasn't
quite as bad as Sunday. Of course it was a

(38:13):
Monday as opposed to a weekend. But Sunday there were
let's see the exact numbers, two thousand, nine hundred and
fifty four flight cancelations, eleven two hundred and twenty nine delays.
A little better yesterday. It was Monday, after all. Probably
more business travels than anything else. Twy four hundred and

(38:37):
twenty flight cancelations yesterday delays three hundred nineteen, so a
slight improvement. But something happens today the well again, yeah,
the Senate has voted to reopen the government, but that's
going to pend to House vote, which won't take place
till tomorrow at the earliest. Those flight restrictions at those

(39:04):
forty airports go from four percent to six percent today,
so now we're at six percent. So now we ramp
it up, and if the government's not reopened by Friday,
it goes up to ten percent. And how many people
do you think heard the headlines over the weekend or
yesterday even that the shutdown was ending, and thought, okay,

(39:27):
well I can travel now, Oh sure, oh yeah, yeah,
you see a headline Senate votes to reopen with the government. Great,
happy days are here again. No, not yet. So far,
as of this morning, we're only the eight o'clock hour,
one one hundred and seventy seven cancelations and six hundred

(39:50):
and thirteen delay so far. Now, remember yesterday we had
a grand total of two thousand, four hundred and twenty
cancelations as of eight am this morning, we're already at
one thousand, one hundred and seventy seven, so we're at
about half the number of flights canceled yesterday all day,
and that's just as of eight o'clock this morning, so

(40:11):
that number will grow, and we're feeling it here in
South Carolina. No, none of our airspace has been restricted,
but I mean, let's face it, anywhere you fly out
of airports here, you're going to go into an airspace
that is restricted. And a lot of flights out of
Columbia Metro of course go to Charlotte and Atlanta for connections.

(40:33):
So everybody's feeling it. We actually had this happened on Sunday.
We had a delta flight takeoff about seven thirty Sunday night.
It was its destination was to LaGuardia. Okay, takes off

(40:54):
at seven thirty, gets to about Richmond, Virginia, and starts
circling and then turned around and came back to Columbia.
So they were just told the airspace was closed. Go back. Yeah,
they couldn't fit that one in. You take off at

(41:15):
seven point thirty for a four and a half hour
flight to nowhere just to come back home and land
at Columbia around midnight Sunday night. This is craziness. And
I'm sure that's not the only one that had that
happened to. But again, today it's going to be worse.
The UH restrictions move up to six percent. Okay, by

(41:41):
the way, uh is it today? Yeah? Today? Right? Or
was it yesterday that the air traffic controllers missed their
second full paycheck of the shutdown? Now? Trump has set
an interview with Laura Ingram that for those controllers who
stayed on the job, that he was going to give
them each a ten thousand dollars bonus. She said, well,

(42:04):
where do you get that money from? I don't know.
We'll find it somewhere.

Speaker 1 (42:08):
I mean, not that the government doesn't have it, but yeah,
I mean you can't budget willy nilly and just say
you're giving this money away here in this money away there?

Speaker 2 (42:17):
Right?

Speaker 1 (42:19):
Did they deserve it? Probably?

Speaker 2 (42:22):
Well, yeah, they deserve it, But I mean it's not
the answer to everything. And again, this is just part
of a longer term issue when it comes to flying
in this country. We were already lacking appropriate number of
controllers in airports across the country to begin with, before
this shutdown. Happened, and as Sean Duffy, the Transportation Secretary said,

(42:46):
over the weekend, we're seeing fifteen to twenty or so
air traffic controllers retire each and every day during their shutdown.
So you get the government reopened, it doesn't mean that's

(43:07):
still you know, things are back to normal, because they
won't be. There will be controllers who sat in those
chairs for many, many, many moons who won't be going back.
Fox Business talked to a woman who worked as a
controller at JFK and was there for more than two

(43:28):
decades before she retired. She says, this move it's going
on right now to reduce the volume of flights is
just more like a band aid to prevent a meltdown.
Doesn't solve the crisis, just prevents a complete meltdown. She
says that again, staffing has not been adequate for decades,

(43:49):
that these controllers are overworked, they're fatigued, and that's shut
down or not. You know, you stop and think about it,
how fortunate we have been in this country that we
have not had major air disasters as a result of well,
the problems we've gotten these control towers across the country.

(44:13):
This is not the sort of job that just anybody
can do. You sit there and you look at a monitor,
and who knows how many flights you're controlling at any
given time. But let's say that on average, each and
every one of thee's got what between one hundred and
fifty maybe two hundred souls on board. And you may
be looking at five or six up on your screen
right now that you're in charge of. That's a lot

(44:34):
of human lives.

Speaker 1 (44:35):
Did you see the movie Sully?

Speaker 2 (44:37):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (44:38):
Did you think they made that look too simple? Not
what he did to fly that plane and land it
in the river. I'm talking about the air traffic controller.
It seemed like he was essentially focused only on Sully's plane.

Speaker 2 (44:52):
Oh you know, I'm trying to recall the movie now this.
I do know that in a situation where there is
the potential for a problem, right okay, like in that
and in that incident, they they often will have a
single controller.

Speaker 1 (45:11):
Follow that flight, U zero in and everybody else takes
your other pick up the rest of your stuff. I
don't know that it just seemed simple even then. I mean,
you figure in a place, I mean New Jersey, New York,
all those flights and it just seemed like it was
fairly chaos free workplace.

Speaker 2 (45:30):
Well it's anything but that. That's what I thought. Yeah,
if you ever want and oh, don't do it right
now because we've got restricted flights. But in any regular times,
go to flight aware dot com and bring up the
map of the United States and you look at that
Northeastern corridor in particular and start to zoom in, and
it is crazy how many planes are in the air
at the same time. By the way, Hollywood elite and

(45:54):
big corporations are starting to feel this, big corporate elites
because now basically it looks like the FAA is for
all intents and purposes, prohibiting private jets from flying into
an out of major airports. A ton of hop on
one with the rest of us low lifes. See how
you like that?

Speaker 3 (46:13):
Keeping you connected? I check in throughout the day twenty
four to seven.

Speaker 1 (46:17):
I just like being informed, know what's happening.

Speaker 3 (46:19):
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 dou w VOC.

Speaker 2 (46:35):
It's take thirty nine. Time for our final thoughts here
for Tuesday, November the eleventh Veterans Day. The parade at
eleven again downtown Columbia, the forty seventh annual, one of
the best ones around and you know here just days
before Veterans Day hit, the state announced state launched a
new program one to help vets transition from military to
civilian life. And that's much needed and we have so

(46:57):
many we have. We have such an incredible base of
veterans who wound up here, stationed here around the Midlands,
and you know, when they got out, they said, just
stay in here, man.

Speaker 1 (47:09):
And it's a big competition these days because every state
wants to be retirement friendly for everyone in general, but
particularly for these veterans.

Speaker 2 (47:17):
Yeah. Now, I can tell you this as an Air
Force brat, even as a kid, that transition from a
military life to civilian life can be a shock to
the system. Man. I went through that at the age
of about what thirteen, I guess it was. Imagine for
these men and women, if you've never served, who you know,
some have given you a good chunk of their life

(47:38):
decades to military service and it's a shock to the system.
It really is in a lot of ways. All right,
So again to recap the Senate last night voting to
reopen the government. Now they've added a couple of things
in there. So this has to go back to the
House for the House to okay this, and that won't

(48:01):
happen before tomorrow. Speaker Johnson calling you for the first
time in seven weeks, the members of the House back
into session. I don't know. I mean, this is just
my take on this. I the Progressives are gonna put
up as much of a fight and try to stall
this as long as they can because they are irate.

(48:21):
I mean, they want Chuck Schumer, you know, drawn and
quartered man on the on the of the public square.

Speaker 1 (48:27):
I think this was his plan all along, just see
what he could get as long as he could get it.

Speaker 2 (48:31):
And he got nothing.

Speaker 1 (48:32):
He got nothing he got he.

Speaker 2 (48:34):
Got he got a guarantee from John Thune that the
Senate would take up these subsidies subsidies to try to
extend them past the end of the year. But there
are no guarantees coming from Speaker Johnson over the House side.
He says, we'll just have to kind of, you know,
get a feel for what is Caucaus is thinking about this.
So he's not making any guarantees that the House would

(48:56):
even entertain the thought. So yeah, Chucky squat.

Speaker 1 (49:01):
Well, it just means we're kicking this can like so
many that we do down the road, though, because eventually
we're going to have to have this argument and Republicans
are Oh I never thought i'd say this on the ear.
Marjorie Taylor. Green's not wrong at least on this issue.
I mean Republicans this day down. Yeah, I know, Republicans

(49:24):
need to have a plan, and they need to come
up with something besides saying, Okay, you're going to start
paying more for health care.

Speaker 2 (49:31):
Well, and the Republican plan, well, if there is one,
is to try to get away from this debate over
these subsidies, these tax credits for Obamacare and develop their
own health policy agenda.

Speaker 1 (49:46):
But what is it?

Speaker 2 (49:49):
Yeah, Trump wants an alternative solution. He said things like,
you know, just give the American people enough money to
buy their own health insurance and then have some left over.
But again it's it's just how does that work?

Speaker 1 (50:05):
I don't know?

Speaker 2 (50:05):
Okay, I don't know, And is that any more cost
efficient at the end of the day than what's going
on right now? I don't know.

Speaker 1 (50:14):
Well, we've we've had years to figure this out, and
we knew this was coming. Isn't that the problem though
we've had we knew when this was gonna sunset, right,
and and we're just now here, you know, a month
and a half away from its sunset and going, well,
we need to come up, Republicans with an alternative plan
what y'all been doing all this time? Right, And whether

(50:35):
you like Obamacare or not, you can't be facing the
midterms next year and causing American people to pay massive
amounts more for their healthcare, whether you liked the system
or not. And it was, it was, it was a
flawed system to begin with. But now you're turning around
and saying, just before an important election, yeah, well you're

(50:57):
gonna have to start paying more, like it or not.

Speaker 2 (50:59):
And I'll say it again because you know, like we here,
you know, I'm covered under the employee sponsored health care
plan and such. And if you, you know, are working
and you're covered by your employer under their plan, well
you might it might not occur to you that there
are a lot of people who vote Republican who you know,

(51:19):
are freelancing, gig economy workers, business owners, what have you?
Or work for small businesses that are.

Speaker 1 (51:27):
On Obamacare and they're gonna get socked.

Speaker 2 (51:29):
They're gonna get socked just like any liberal would. Now
would it be enough for them not to vote Republican
in twenty twenty six or in twenty twenty eight, Well,
given the alternative, probably not.

Speaker 1 (51:43):
But still think about all those upset the undecideds out
there are the independence yes vote simply based on how
they feel at the time.

Speaker 2 (51:52):
Right, So this is I mean, this is a solution
that unfortunately the Republican Party didn't bother to worry about
till now. And you can't do it here what seven
weeks before the end of the year, Thun says. His

(52:12):
promise is to take this up in the Senate by
mid December. Mid December, you mean, like ten days before Christmas? Okay, Well,
it'd have been nice if they'd had a plan, and
you could have used that plan this whole time as
a bargaining chip and as a way to you know,
soothe the fears of the American people. But there was

(52:33):
no plan, all right. Supreme Court news yesterday the Supreme
Court rejecting a call to overturn the landmark decision that
legalized same sex marriage nationwide without comment. The Court turned
away an appeal from Kim Davis, the former Kentucky court

(52:55):
clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses the same secont couples.
After that twenty fifteen ruling, A.

Speaker 1 (53:04):
Little surprised none of the conservatives on the court even
wanted to take this up.

Speaker 2 (53:08):
I'm a little surprised. Well, all in all, I'm not
surprised that they refused to take it up, or even
if they had, I'd have been very surprised had they
overturned Oberkfell. I mean, I'm not saying I agree with it.
I'm just saying I would have been surprised had they
done that. But yeah, yeah, that none of them even

(53:29):
wanted to say anything about it is a bit surprising.
But if you if you go back to that ruling
in twenty fifteen, John Roberts and Samuel Alito were dissenters
at the time. There were four descending justices and those

(53:51):
two are still in the court today. But yet they
saying about it. The court also agreed, well, this time
they agree on this case to decide whether or not
states can continue to count late arriving mail ballots. This
is something that Trump is wanting them not to do.
And again, when I go into my bank online account

(54:16):
to pay bills, and yes, I was one of the
last people on the planet to do it that way.
But when I do, it says right at the top,
you know, mail is slow these days. It could take
at least five to seven days for your check to arrive. Wait,
this has been the case for a long time. You know,

(54:36):
if you're can have mail in a ballot to wait
to the last minute. If you do, then that's on you.
This is a case involving Mississippi, one of sixteen states
in the District of Columbia that are accepting mail ballots
after election day as long as they are postmarked before

(54:57):
that date. This just gets to the whole you know,
the NonStop When are we going to finally get a
result here? And now I was still counting ballots. We've
still got ballats coming in. Nice to streamline that process,
wouldn't it. And then there's this guy by the name

(55:19):
of Kyrie Holbert, alleged to be a gang member in Omaha,
was one of the convicted felons that was set loose
by the Joe Biden auto pen Doubtful that Joe had

(55:42):
even heard that name quite honestly, or would have remembered it,
or would have remembered it. This guy one of twenty
four hundred and ninety auto pin commutations granted back in January. Well,
guess what he's back by bars now and what did
he do this time? Involved in a shooting spree? Wow?

(56:11):
The auto pen. Oh and by the way, we talk
so much around here about these AI centers, these big
data centers sucking up energy, Well, guess what. In California,
there is a There are data centers there that the
lights aren't even on it right now because they can't
provide enough electricity to operate them. Moral of the story

(56:35):
is if they did, that means that some homeowners somewhere
would go without right. This is the problem with these
big data centers, and we're dealing with it right now
here in South Carolina.