May 11, 2026 • 54 mins
Hy McHenry & Christopher Tidmore talk about legislative efforts to reform the board of the New Orleans Sewerage & Water Board. Will there be a property service fee imposed? We discuss courts, Salt Coast, cars, foster care, and Trump killing petrodollars in the aftermath of the Iran War. Hy finishes by reflecting on the Great Awakening.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Bat holes, the politicians addressed, the digitators and magicians choose
to see the money. They just don't. There's nothing to
fill the holes while then are filling their pockets bid holes,
the politicians bouncing down the road. Everybody's wish for no moment,
(00:25):
corruption and dysfunction. It's gonna take you. Divide is of vention.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
New Orleans, Clerks of Court and the swords, and waterboard,
saltwater incursion, automobiles and Foster Care aging out Trump and
Petro dollars and our very own arts economy. All of
this and much more on today's show of The Founder's Show.
(00:52):
God bless you all out there. You are now listening
to the Founder's Show, the voice of the founding Fathers.
You're founding for there's coming to you. Deep within the
bowels are those mystic and cryptic alligator swamps of the
Big Easy, that old Crescent City, New Orleans, Louisiana. And
high up on top of that old Liberty cypress tree
(01:14):
draped in Spanish moss, way out on the Eagles Branch.
It's none of that. Then you're Spinary Babbao the Republic
Chaplain Hi mcinnoy.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Christopher Tidmorey a roving reporter, resident radical moderate and associate
editor of the Louisiana Weekly newspaper at Louisiana Weekly dot net.
And Hi, I'm broadcasting live from Gatlinburg, Tennessee. I'm actually
doing the show from the river House at the Park Inn,
looking at the Little Pigeon Forge River. That's the kind
of rumble you hear in the background as the stream
(01:45):
goes by. And I'm going to be talking about Gatlinburg
is a lesson to New Orleans. It's a very different place.
But what North Carolina could teach Louisiana. I'm particularly New
Orleans about the economy.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
Right now.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
We're losing population and this area definitely, most assuredly, is
not when it would be a time I would say
Appalachia is gaining and Louisiana is losing.
Speaker 4 (02:07):
But that's happening. But before we get into.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
That, we've got to talk a little bit about the
Louisiana legislative session, which is nearing its conclusion, and there's
several pieces of legislation that would directly.
Speaker 4 (02:17):
Affect New Orleans.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
One that has gotten a huge amount of coverage is
the sewageon water Board. The Sojion water board itself and
Mayor Helena Moreno have taken opposing stands on a very
controversial bill authored by Representative Stephanie Hilfordy. She's a Republican
from Lakeview and Bucktown. She's the only Orleans Parish Republican
in the legislature. House Built five seven three would give
(02:42):
the New Orleans City Council broad authority to reorganize the
sojion Water Boards membership basically appoint the members of the
board set water and sewage rates, and the City Council
would be able to better provide and coordinate oversight with
city departments vally. Most people don't really understand this why
(03:04):
City Hall has always had this tense relationship with the
sewageon Waterboard. It's because it's a historic reason. It's a
state chartered entity. It predates the city's home rule charter.
Before we were a formal merged city, there was a
surgeon Waterboard created by the state, and that's why we
have this weird condition. The first eight inches of the
(03:25):
road to control by the city and public Works. The
next six feet are controlled by the sewageon Waterboard.
Speaker 4 (03:30):
And it's always been white.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
As a street here ripped up and the Sewgeon Waterboard
comes back.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
The mayor has a limited authority.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
In fact, to give you an idea, Mayor Helena Moreno,
who has offered to come on this show, and we're
going to try to get that work down in the
next couple of weeks. She said on another radio program
that under the current rules she couldn't appoint member a
majority of the Surgeon Waterboard till her fourth year in office.
As anybody knows, we have a failing sewer system. Kind
(03:59):
of this problem of the limited power that the city
government has via VISAVI the Surgeon water Board was really
articulated when there was a proposal to change the way
we pay for the Surgeon water Board to raise more
money while still not increasing fees on homeowners.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
The previous director of the Surgeon water Board, who I
liked very much.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
He was a good guy, wonderful water engineer, but he
came across purposes. He wanted a property services fee to
be able to pay for the Surgeon water Board.
Speaker 4 (04:30):
This is a little controversial, but it has support.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Basically says, look, if you have a building in Orleans Parish,
you were getting sewage services, you are getting pumping services.
You got to pay whether you're a nonprofit governmental entity,
it doesn't matter.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
You got to pay university church.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
What it was is effectively more than half some say
almost as much as two thirds of the properties in
Orleans Parish are not taxable.
Speaker 4 (04:59):
You can't charge proper but tax on them.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
They're owned by nonprofits, owned by universities that a lot
of them are federal government. Well, here's the great thing,
and this has done in other cities. A property service
fee says it's a fee. You got to pay it
regardless of who you are. So we could actually tax
the federal government to help pay for our sewer services.
And we could do it in such a way that
if we replaced all the property taxes that we have
(05:23):
now with its property service fee, the average homeowner would
pay the same or more likely less than they're paying now,
and we would generate hundreds of millions of more dollars
in revenue. The idea had a lot of popular support,
but when the Sewage water Board brought it up, they
wanted it as an additional fee authorized by the city council,
but they didn't want to give up the property taxes,
(05:44):
and Council President JP Morrell looked at them and said,
what are you crazy in the the middle of a reception.
I'm not going to here's a huge increase on homeowners
even if we need the money. No, in debates, we
got a sewer system that has fallen apart. We need
probably a billion dollars, most several billion dollars. In fact,
(06:04):
he actually have the statistic it would seven hundred million
dollars will fix five percent of our sewer system in
Orleans Parish. This is such a big issue that Stephaniehilferdy,
who is running for the Public Service Commission, actually has
bringing up seuge and waterboard at meetings in Livingston Parish
and up in the North Shore as part of that
PSC district. So it's a district. It's an issue that
(06:26):
has come up in big things. It's not a new issue.
Back in twenty twenty three, the Bureau of Governmental Research,
which is not a government bureau, it's a watchdog group
for those that don't know well. The BGR came out
and basically said, look, you got to do one of
two things. The Soujian water Board has got to be
completely spun off from the city. It's just a separate entity.
(06:47):
It has nothing to do with it or more better choices,
let the city take it over, and actually they were
recommending putting in the Department of Public Works.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
This is kind of the next best thing.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Plus, you know a lot of people, the Susian Water
Board members are very much in opposition for it. They
send an eleven page letter to state lawmakers saying don't
pass this bill. The Governance Committee chair Courtney Scrubbs basically
said it would undermine integrity and their bondability to be
under the control of the New Orleans City government. There's
(07:17):
some truth in that. We haven't exactly had a great
track record with mayors of New Orleans. But at the
same time, we're the only parish in the state where
our sewer system is controlled by a state entity, that
where we have to raise the.
Speaker 4 (07:33):
Money for it.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
It's not money that comes from the state, but we
don't have the authority of how to spend that money.
That's what we're talking about here, and it comes down
to local control. If you are a conservative, you believe
that government works best the closer it is to people,
and that you may not always agree with the politicians
in New Orleans in Orleans Parish, but they are elected
(07:56):
directly by the people who are paying the taxes for
these elements. And so this bill has come to a
very directed thing and it's a highly controversial issue.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
But if Helena Morino succeeds, basically she.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Could appoint a new surgeon warter Board, the council will
have oversight and while it will not be part of
city government, it'll effectively be under the control of city government,
and we won't end up with a road being ripped
up that was just fixed by the Surgeon water Board
who hasn't coordinated with city departments, or at least that's
the theory, But that's not the most controversial bill.
Speaker 4 (08:32):
Of more controversy is.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
There's currently legislation going out to merge the Clerk and
the Clerk of Criminal District Court and the Clerk of
Civil District Court. Now, for those that do not know
the current Clerk of Civil District Court Criminal District Court,
it was just recently elected.
Speaker 4 (08:52):
He defeated Darryl Lumbard. His name is Calvin Duncan.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
He's a former Angola inmate who was exonerated of his crime.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
And under the.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Leggislation as it's currently passed, and it passed overwhelmingly in
the Senate with twenty five votes. Of a thirty five
vote body, only one vote against that actually voted, and
that was Royce Duplessis of New Orleans. This would abolish
that office and merge it into the civil District Court office.
Speaker 4 (09:18):
In twenty twenty six.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
This year, Calvin Duncan would end up with one three
months in office before his office is abolished. Interestingly, he's
going to take office two weeks before the coming election,
which is to say in another week.
Speaker 4 (09:33):
So just to make things confusing.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
What Duplessis said was, Okay, if we're going to merge
the office, let it be for twenty thirty, let him
complete his term. Let's give some time to get this together.
I was asked by my publisher, what's really pushing this?
Speaker 4 (09:49):
True? Other parishes only have one.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Clerk of court, not a civil clerk of court and
a criminal clerk of court. And admittedly New Orleans has
certain concerns in the civil that other parishes don't. The
civil clerk is also the recorder of mortgages, is also
the holder of the colonial archives. Basically, you have a
(10:13):
huge archivist role and a huge records role a civil
district court.
Speaker 4 (10:18):
But actually that's not what this is about.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
It's the other half of her or his job, and
that is the fact that we have separate criminal and
civil district courts. Because of that, there's some positives and negatives.
The positives is with a civil bench where we become
the primary court for filing corporate resolution, corporate cases a
(10:41):
lot of complex because that's all these judges deal with
are civil cases. We also have a juvenile branch that's
much bigger and much more able to work than a
lot of other areas. Or at least that's the theory.
I don't know how true it is in reality, but
we're able to do it. We're able to concentrate the course,
and so that generates a lot of fees. It's a
(11:03):
money maker for the civil courts. It makes a lot
of money. That's why these judges have been talking about
building a new courthouse for years. Admittedly the courthouse, the
civil district courthouse, and push is falling apart.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
The problem is in every other parish in the state.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
Like Jefferson, with a twenty fourth judicial District court twenty
fourth DC, you have a situation where the criminal and
civil judges are the same people that might do civil
one afternoon, criminal the next or one week on, one
week off. But the upside of that is that the
criminal the civil fees, and there's a lot of fees
(11:39):
that come in help subsidize the criminal docket and the
funding of the criminal bench. What's happens in in Orleans
is effectively the criminal courts, which do get some money
from assailants and from you know, from people who are
accused and bond things. It's criminally underfunded if you'll forgive
(12:02):
the pun and so we can't fund a lot of
our evidence maintenance, so a lot of people go free.
We have a lot of logistical problems, and the idea
of merging the courts in the current bill before the legislature,
it would actually get rid of a couple of the
judges too, It would cut the expenses, would be to
bring those expenses together. The interesting part of both of
(12:25):
these is in theory would require one would think would
require a vote to the.
Speaker 4 (12:29):
People of New Orleans. The answer is no, it doesn't.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
These are pieces of statutory legislation that affect the people
of New Orleans. And I'm actually not opposed to the
ideas of merging the courts, merging the clerk's office, but.
Speaker 4 (12:47):
I'd like the people to have a vote on this.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
You know, there's something A lot of states are removing
people's ability for referendums. Louisiana doesn't we have a in
theory a referendum system.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
It doesn't. It's not really true. It's so hard to
get anything in the ballot.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
Well, other states that where it is relatively simple to
get things on a ballot, they're kind of get anything way.
I believe that for major structural changes, not just constitutional changes,
which to me in the way this is a basic
constitutional as in fundamental law, fundamental structure of government change,
the people.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
Ought to be able to vote.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
I have also always believed that if you raised taxes
in any way, state, local, whatever, in every situation, the
people taxes or fees should be done by a vote.
Speaker 4 (13:33):
Of the people.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
As the power to taxes the power destroy the people
should have the final roard. So what's going on in
the legislature in these issues with Seuerge and waterboard at
the clerk.
Speaker 4 (13:44):
Of court is the idea?
Speaker 3 (13:45):
Can the legislature decide things for Orleans Parish without the
people of Orleans Parish having a vote?
Speaker 4 (13:51):
Is that right? Or should the changes just be made
I mean, it doesn't.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
Matter if we have opposition from Orleans Parish legislators, the
legislature votes.
Speaker 4 (14:02):
Should that be enough? Right now? The support of Orleans
Parish legislators cit these ideas is not exactly overwhelming.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Your thoughts high, very impressive, Christopher. You've really done your
homework on this one, and thank you for giving them
such a good packet of information here. And what's going
on with our search and water board and the clerks
of court. I think that there needs to be major
overhauls on all of this, like you're recommending, and folks
(14:33):
are op our property taxes and make it so that
everybody has to pay their share. You know, they're making
profits and all this real estate, the schools and the
churches and whatnot. Okay, that's profit making. They should be
paying their share for our sewerage and waterboard and you
know everything else that all the various city services, instead
(14:54):
of getting a pass on it because they don't have
to pay property taxes. There's just something very unequitable about
that and wrong about that. And especially for churches. I
understand the taxes, but no, they should carry they can
carry their share. Let's go for efficiency. Efficiency in government
we need a strong leader manage as well and governs least.
As Thomas Servis said, government that governs least governs best. Boy,
(15:17):
you sure had it figured out, it, didn't he All right? Well, folks,
of course, I know you got something else exciting for us.
Can't wait to hear about it. And uh, let's see
now how we deal doing with our saltwater incursion in
South Louigiana. You got anything for us on that?
Speaker 4 (15:34):
There is so.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
Much more we could talk about this legislative session, high,
but I do want to go in one positive.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
Thank God.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
It looks like break texts are gonna be a think
of the past. What they're going to place them with.
It looks like is a QR code that will check
your status of your car, whether you have insurance, if
you're stopped, but you get that through the mail, never
having to go to get your brake tag renewed. It'll
be for like the perpetual time of the car. It's
a much greater better situation.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
So I think we goes.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
What intrigues me though, is the one thing we're not
talking about in this legislative session, and that's fresh water.
And you're like, wait, what does that have to do
with the lewisand legislature. Well, I don't mean just fresh
water and the sewage and water board.
Speaker 4 (16:18):
I mean the Mississippi River.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
So Ron Chapman, prominent resident Saint Bernard, opponent of the
Louisiana International Terminal or the Portinola project for the container
port in Saint Bernard, made an observation and I don't
have a good answer of this, and I'm sort of
throwing this out to the group mind of our errordite
listener base, and so maybe somebody can give me a
(16:41):
better answer on this.
Speaker 4 (16:43):
But I've asked around and I still haven't gotten one.
It's this issue.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
One of the things that Louisiana in National Terminal will
do is be able to have major cargo ships. Major
cargo ships require a fifty five foot fundamental base to
be able to come into a waterway. Okay, Well, the
Mississippi River up to New Orleans is one hundred and
twenty five feet, no problem. Right, Well, here's the problem.
(17:09):
If you remember, we had saltwater incursion in the Mississippi
River about three or four years ago, and it was
really endangering our water systems because we get our fresh
water from the Mississippi and it was traveling up the river.
So the core of engineers, as a temporary measure, created
a below water, a sub hydro barrier, basically a levee
(17:36):
underwater that reduced river levels to thirty feet. And what
that did was pushed It created salt water is heavier
than freshwater, and it created a pressure to where the
salt water couldn't incur into the Mississippi River. It was
supposed to be for one year, one emergency, but we've
done it every year since and.
Speaker 4 (17:56):
It's been very effective.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Our water systems have been very clean, very clear, and
we've been able to, you know, have as much fresh
water as we want it. That's the great gift of
the Mississippi River. What happens though, when we have to
have a fifty five foot draft for major cargo ships
at fifty five feet, saltwater incursion happens. And whether you
(18:19):
believe in global warming as a man made phenomena or
as a natural phenomenon, and you know, we can have
that debate some other day, and I have even questions
about the natural phenomena, it is kind of clear that
the planet is getting a little warmer and that sea
levels are going to rise. How much, we don't know,
but enough to where saltwater incursion the Mississippi River might
(18:43):
be a more common occurrence even than the most conservative scenarios.
So Ron Chapman brings up this idea and he basically says, okay,
so we're gonna spend four five billion dollars building this
cargo port in Saint Bernard, a place where the locals
don't want a cargo port. It's important for our overall economy,
(19:07):
but they don't want it there.
Speaker 4 (19:10):
He said. In order to do that, we.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
Will, likely though nobody's addressing it, have to get rid
of this barrier that's keeping the salt water out. And
so that means salt water could consistently come up the
Mississippi River and we don't have drinking water. What do
we do then, Because you can have the greatest economy
on earth if you don't have water, you die. So
here in Louisiana, the place of the most abundant fresh
water in the world, practically outside of the Great Lakes,
(19:34):
we would have to import water like we're in the desert.
And nobody in the legislature's talk about. They talked a
lot about and they voted down an economic development district
that would basically take tax dollars to support the port
from other businesses in and around Violet and Saint Bernard.
That went down Representative Mike Bayhem do Yeoman's work and
opposing that. But this particular issue, which I know Bayham's
(19:58):
aware of, is not thing the legislature's talking about. As
it's ready, as it's pumping billions of dollars into Port
Nola to build.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
This container port in Saint Bernard. What is the answer?
I swear Hi, I have no earthly idea.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Your thoughts, yes, Christopher, I've got many thoughts about this.
I've been thinking about it and talking about it for years.
I've even been down to the Armic engineers and try
to talk with them. You know, the easiest way to
fix our salt water incursion and to save our wetlands
and save our coast is just to do what the
river used to do. It would overflow and build the delta.
(20:37):
We had a growing delta. We had a growing state
rather than a shrinking one geographically speaking. And so what
you do is you put cuts along the Mississippi River
and then you channel that water to the coast where
then it is released and all that magnificent silt coming
down the river. It builds land. They did that in
(20:59):
one place and it literally built thousands of acres in
a very short period of time. You can see it
on the map. It looks like a square. The it works.
And they could do it from you know around let's say,
Baton Rouge, all the way down to the and they
could do it on both sides of the river, because
we also need it on the on the east side
of the river, like you know, down around Saint Bernard
(21:20):
and plaquem and whatnot. We need to have some We
need to be rebuilding and reclaiming our coast. Hilarious. They
could do that, but for whatever reason they want to
do it, it's very frustrating. You know, the oil industry
come and put all kinds of canals and pipes in
and it's okay, but we can't do anything to save
our coast. It's I tell you it's And now I've
got another theory too, another thing that would work. Florida
(21:41):
did it, and that's we need to have mangrove bushes
put in. They will save your coast. I mean, they
hold the land together. They're magnificent. It's a wonderful place
for wildlife. The wildlife loves it. It's just a real winner.
It's a win win situation. And I think we should
play a mangroves all up and down the coast. I
(22:03):
think we could also be planting rosas. That's a giant
grass that love salt water, and we could have that
growing along the coast also. And then on and you know,
I would have a rowse of of roseaus. A roseau
is like a twenty foot tall blade of grass. Literally,
it's amazing. It's an amazing planet. I love them. They're
(22:24):
all down by. They fill the mouth of the river.
If you go to the mouth of river, it's it's
a wonderland of these things. And then and then after that,
do your mangroves, and folks, we would we would do
miracles to save our coast, stop the salt water incursion,
and just and then and then I think we need
to get this this poort in too. I mean, there's
no reason why we can't figure out out a way
(22:45):
to do it where it works for everybody. We just
need to have leadership that is much more focused on
we the people and serving the state than on themselves.
That's the big problem here. They're so focused on their
greedy cells that usually they don't have time to really
do their job the way it should be done as
real real public servants, remember their public servants. They run
(23:07):
around really acting like their public dictators. Well, folks say
it is time for us to take a break. We'll
be right back after this brief commercial break.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
Louisiana State Museum's Presbyterier Museum, there's an incredible exhibit on
the Illinois Clubs, one of the great exhibits in the
Carnival collection. If you've never seen the Carnival collection on
the second floor of the Presbyteri.
Speaker 4 (23:28):
It is incredible. So many locals. You can see everything
from a King of England bowery.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
Before the King of Carnival, to our great parading traditions,
to the marti gras Indians to Southwest Louisiana. But the
newest exhibit on the Illinois Clubs is the root of
African American formal marti Gras.
Speaker 4 (23:45):
It is fantastic.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
The young Illinois Club, the Illinois Club, their roots, how
they grew, what happened. The incredible sets, including this beautiful
set from the nineteen sixty eight Young Men's Illinois Club
of the French Opera House, the costumes, the Crown, It's beautiful.
Speaker 4 (24:00):
You want to check it out.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
And while you're there, go to the Cabildo and check
out the new exhibit on the two hundred and fiftieth
anniversary of the Independence and Galvez and the Expedition. How
Louisiana was the key to providing American independence thanks to
Bernardo the Galvez and all the wonderful patriots of Creoles
and Cajuns that took Baton Rouge Pensacola and funded all
(24:22):
of Washington's forces. All that available through next March at
the Louisiana State Museum's Cabildo and PRESBYTERI.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Well, folks, it is Chaplinhei mcinnry, and I'm here to
tell you about our ministry, LAMB and Ministries. We're an
inner city ministry with an inner city farmula and focus
for inner city folks. Please check us out, go to
our website lambnola dot com, or just call me Chapelinhi
mcinenry at area code five zero four seven two three
nine three six nine, and we'll be glad to tell
(24:51):
you all about it. We need all the help we
can get. This is a very wonderful ministry, folks. We
work with the inner city, urban poor, and inner city
kids and we bring them hope and we bring them
change lives. These kids have almost no hope for the future.
Many of them, by their own confessions, call themselves short
(25:14):
time termers. And what that means is by their mid twenties,
they're either gonna be dead in jailful life a living
at the homeless mission. And they all know it. And
the great tragedy is they don't know there's any other way.
They think that's a normal lifestyle for people. They have
no idea they could have good, long lives and do
great things and have families and everything. It's just tragic
(25:36):
to see what the government systems have done to turn
generations of people into hopeless cases. And of course I'm
talking about the welfare system. It has destroyed so many people.
It's unnecessary, It has raped our tax vaults, it has
caused so much problem. Anyway, we go in there and
(25:59):
we try to revert, we reverse the evil that's been done,
and we bring hope for these kids. We've seen close
to five thousand of them come to Christ. They're born again.
We've seen hundreds more going to live productive, successful lives
where they literally finished school, go to college, get jobs,
get good jobs, get married, and raise good families. We're
(26:19):
working on our third generation of kids right now that
have been with us that for three generations now, so
it's been very exciting to see all this. We need
all the help we can get. We need volunteers, we
need financial support, and we need prayer warriors. So if
you have any interest, please contact us again. You can
call me chapelhih mcenry at area code five zero four
seven two three nine three six nine and thank you
(26:41):
so very very much.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
Give the gift of flowers by calling Villaries Floorist at
one eight hundred VI l l ere are going online
to Villariesflowers dot com. Road specials available at both locations
at Highway one ninety in Covington and on Martin Berman
wrightoff Veterans right near the Orleans Jefferson Line. But also
gift baskets that are perfect for a festival season to
bring a gift by and wonderful arrangements for summer, all
(27:04):
available at Hillaries Florest.
Speaker 4 (27:06):
Give them a call one eight hundred v I L
L E R E and tell them you heard it
here in the Founders battles by the two shows.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
And we're back and you are listening to the Founders,
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(27:36):
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(27:57):
the world. We're one of their top podcasts. That's a
play and you can listen to us at your convenience.
You know a show that happened a couple months ago,
listen to it, find it? Do it are the one
that the most recent one. If you don't want to
get up at eight o'clock in the morning, send me
no worries. Check it out that afternoon. Folks, thank you
so much for being on the show with us. And
(28:17):
again this is Chaplin High mce henry with Christopher Tidmore
and Christopher, what's going on with foster care? You know,
work with inner city kids. I like to find a
new what's the latest on it? Take it away, Christopher.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
I wanted to give one last legislative update to a friend,
Representative Kim Carver. And sometimes there are good ideas that
really aren't that controversial, but people just don't think about them,
act on them, or really propose them. And Representative Carver, Kim,
who I have known for many years for introduced House
Built five seventy five, which unanimously passed the House is
(28:51):
now moving to the Senate, has over fifty co sponsors
at both parties.
Speaker 4 (28:55):
It's a great idea.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
It provides a priority to purchase state surplus vehicles for
youth in extended foster care. So for people that don't
know if you're a kid in foster care and a
lot of your kids high have been or spent their
entire lives in foster care or spent periods of it.
You're aged out at eighteen and you're basically on your own,
(29:18):
and too often the foster care system doesn't provide any
real movement for kids for further education defense. Let's face it,
at eighteen, you're still a kid, and there's a good
argument of foster care or at least your oversight should
last longer, at least into your twenty or twenty one,
but you don't have it, and so you end up
(29:39):
out of the system with no money, no place to live,
sometimes a high school degree, sometimes not. Maybe you go
to college, but you don't have any body helping you.
There exceptions that there are foster parents who really take
the job of being foster parents like being parents, but
let's face it, it's not every foster parent. Sometimes they're
(30:00):
foster parents to many kids and they just can't take responsibility.
Speaker 4 (30:03):
So the idea that you're a kid.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
You're going to have to get a job or God forbid,
you manage to get into college and you're trying to
work a job and you're trying to stay alive, how do.
Speaker 4 (30:13):
You do that? Well, you need a car. I you
haven't checked it, folks.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
Buy a car is really expensive, but by providing state
surplus vehicles, which are some of the cheapest ways a
person getting car, and it's provided to foster kids that
are aging out of the system that are sixteen, seventeen, eighteen. First,
what you're doing is you're giving them a leg up
in life. It's stuff that state has to get rid
of anyway. So how are we losing anything. It's a
(30:40):
simple idea. It doesn't cost a state any money, It
doesn't cost anyone any money.
Speaker 4 (30:44):
It's a good idea.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
But it's these kinds of good ideas that sometimes aren't
really presented. And I give Kim Carr for credit, and
I hope House Bill five seventy five flies past to
the Governor's desk and assigned your thoughts. I how a
few kids dealt with getting out of the foster system
with no car and no contact.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
Oh yes, Christopher, my mind and heart are pregnant with
thoughts on this because this is a big issue for us.
But we found out in most of our kids, they
aren't going through foster care. What happens is they have
ways of shifting kids around and letting their relatives or
whatever I have the kids, and then they get to check.
(31:26):
That's what they want, and they just don't really use
the foster care system a whole lot with our inner
city kids here in New Orleans, so it's kind of
out of our loop. But one thing I noticed at
you know, in age eighteen, you're not really ready for life.
The military knows that. By the way, they know that.
(31:47):
It's been proven. Psychiatric studies have proven that people's brains
have not fully developed ti they're about twenty one years
of age, and anything before that means that the kids
are the people are are They're Yeah, they're registered as adults,
but they're Their thinking process usually does not have a
lot of wisdom, and they usually end up doing crazy things.
(32:09):
So like if you tell some young folks charge the hill,
you know in the military, they can't wait to do it.
They're all gonna get slaughtered. But they're not thinking like that.
And so that's a real problem of how to help
kids from eighteen to twenty one, and they really need
a lot of help. I think the system should go
through twenty one, or there should be another backup system
(32:31):
to put them into to help them get through those
last few years. So they their minds have been biologically
medically according to medical science, fully developed. And so you know,
those are my thoughts on a Christopher good point. Good
issue to bring up, though, and thank you so very much.
And so I'm wondering, let's see now we're gonna you know,
(32:53):
what's going on with the dollar right now and the
petro dollar and there is Trump dealing with this, what's
going on with a Christpher.
Speaker 3 (33:01):
Well, you know, we have to talk a little bit
about Iran comma and Trump's comment about civilizational destruction of Iran.
And you know what, everybody, you always accuse me of
Trump arrangement syndrome. I'm not If this was a bluster
to get Iran to actually negotiate or to the negotiating
table to agree to a ceasefire, and it works, then
(33:25):
maybe it took a little bit of crazy to get
the crazies to come to the table. Maybe it was
a very effective, in other words, negotiating tactic. Maybe it
was premeditai, maybe it wasn't. But if it works, I
give him all the credit. Here's where I am a
little critical. An interesting thing's been happening. It started in
twenty twenty four, but it accelerated in the course of
(33:48):
the Iran War with Trump and it has to do
with the Saudis. Now, most people don't realize this, but
Henry Kissinger negotiated an agreement with Saudis in nineteen seventy
four that basically all oil will be denominated in.
Speaker 4 (34:05):
US dollars, the petro dollars. It was a good deal.
It was called it was an informal deal. It's not
a treaty. It was a handshake.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
But since then global essentially, the United States has maintained
its status is a reserve currency because it was the.
Speaker 4 (34:21):
Only way you could buy oil.
Speaker 3 (34:22):
You had to buy them in dollars, You had to
negotiating dollars, you had trading dollars, and that has been
the major way the United States maintained its status is
a reserve currency.
Speaker 4 (34:32):
Why is that important, Well, there's.
Speaker 3 (34:34):
Over two trillion dollars out there that has been brought
up of US currencies for this problem, which means that
that's equivalent to our US budget deficit. Because there's so
much demand on the dollar, the dollar doesn't fall when
we have a deficit, so we don't have to raise
interest rates to absurd degrees. So we can run huge
deficits and it doesn't hurt our economy because everybody on
(34:57):
Earth wants.
Speaker 4 (34:57):
Dollars, but particularly the oil. You can't buy oil without dollars.
Speaker 3 (35:03):
Well, something frightening has been happening, and it's accelerated in
the Iran war. It's started beforehand, to be honest with you,
It started in twenty twenty four, but it has been
accelerating very fast the last three months. At this point,
we've gone from a few percentage points to nearly twenty
percent of global oil being denominated either in bitcoin or
(35:26):
in Chinese you Wan, the Chinese currency, and the Saudis
most importantly have started accepting Chinese currency as opposed to
dollars in exchange for oil. And they control such a
huge portion of the market that essentially they can now say,
you know, you can buy in a lot of different currencies.
Speaker 4 (35:45):
And when that happens, the US dollar as.
Speaker 3 (35:47):
The denominated dollar of trade internationally starts to diminish very fast.
To give you an idea, just a few years ago,
we were seventy five percent of all global trade was
in dollars. Now it's fifty seven percent. Now here's what
happens when that starts happening. If the demand of for
dollars goes down, and our deficit, federal deficit doesn't go down,
(36:11):
and it's not going to because I don't care who's
President Trump, Biden, you know, bodhach Edge, Josh Shapiro, jd Vance,
It doesn't matter. We've got a problem that nobody seems
to want to deal with. It's a bipartisan problem. It's
the fact that there is a retiree for every two
workers in America, and Social Security is scheduled to run
(36:32):
out of money in twenty thirty two and benefits to
be cut by twenty five percent and a minimum as
much as a third. That's automatic, except we all know
what's gonna happen. No politician is gonna allow Social scurity
benefits to be cut. So what's gonna happen Social Medicare,
by the way, he has the same problem.
Speaker 4 (36:50):
It's going broke.
Speaker 3 (36:51):
So they're gonna fund it, and we're gonna just bar
even more money. So you could you could fire everybody
in the federal government. You could have.
Speaker 4 (36:58):
Doage on steroids.
Speaker 3 (36:59):
You could have of basically the entire US military being
a few AI guided drones. It wouldn't matter. We have
so much in entitlements that effectively.
Speaker 4 (37:11):
Hi, we have got to find a way.
Speaker 3 (37:15):
To keep these deficits that we're going to have to
support you baby boomers getting through to your eternal reward.
Speaker 4 (37:23):
And if you lose the planetary reserve currency, and if.
Speaker 3 (37:26):
You lose oil, you lose the planetary reserve currency because
it's the major commodity that we trade. Well, what happens,
effectively is you lose the American dominance on the planet.
And that is the part of this of Trump's behavior
that is making people say, maybe we'll look at a
different location. So it's a straight It might be in
(37:47):
a strange situation that his bluster and his over the.
Speaker 4 (37:50):
Top comments got us peace.
Speaker 3 (37:52):
And Iran, or at least the closest Middle Eastern idea
of peace, which is, you know, shooting each other for
a while and.
Speaker 4 (37:59):
Then turns around and cost to the currency.
Speaker 3 (38:03):
Then again, suddenly the Iranians are saying Israel has to
stop fighting in Lebanon, which Trump is not part of
the deal.
Speaker 4 (38:09):
So it might fall apart.
Speaker 2 (38:11):
Anyway, your thoughts, Oh, Christopher, I do I have thoughts
on this, and I'm sorry, I'm still the jury is
still out on your trunk. Trump derangement syndrome I noticed
some of the cheap shots you just took on him.
I mean, come on, Christopher, you wouldn't do that to
your you know, Clinton or Obama or any of the
(38:33):
other big Democrats. Anyway, this is a very difficult situation,
as you can only imagine that when you get into
all these very complex and big, big, big things going
on in the world, it gets very very touchy. You know.
Trump is probably the greatest negotiator in the history of
(38:54):
the twentieth and the twenty fourth century. The guy is amazing.
That's how he built such a great success so business
and you can read about it in the Art of
the Deal. Uh. He's he took his extreme success in
business that made him billions of dollars, and now he's
turned that into politics, negotiating business negotiations, but applying him
(39:17):
to politics, it has been extremely successful with it. The
guy is amazing. We don't know how this is all
going to work out, but it is very tenuous right now.
That's true. We're dealing with some insane people. And I
assure you, if Trump did a big, you know, blustering attack,
(39:37):
going to destroy yells of those ass That's like patent
needs to do stuff like that. It's to throw them
off balance and get the advantage in the in the negotiation.
He didn't want to destroy their society. And Trump Trump
hates war and he doesn't like seeing people die at all.
He's he's very, very concerned for human death. Told you
(39:59):
can see that with what going on in the Ukraine War.
He hates war and he's been the best president to
end war because he hates it so much. Sometimes you
have to fight a war to end a war. Anyway,
We'll just have to see how this turns out. The
petro dollar has been under the attack, under attack from
you know, since Bretton Woods probably, and that's when it
(40:19):
all started, when the dollar was decided by the nations
of the world to be the currency of the world,
and it's been like that ever since. Of course, we
also focused on it being part of oil purchases and
whatnot on large scales. So we'll just have to see
all this works out. But you got some good points here,
Christmas food for thought, and we need to be thinking
about this, so thank you so very much. It's no
(40:40):
time for us to take a brief look into the
art economy of New Orleans. Let's see what's going on.
And it's tragic to think that New Orleans, the birthplace
of opera, jazz, rock and roll, some even say the
blues and theater for for all of America is We're
(41:02):
not even in the game anymore, hardly, and yet we've
still produced great musicians. But they leave, they go to
other places because we have not developed that industry here
in New Orleans. It's a great one of the many
great tragedies of this city and of the state, and
shame on us. We need to fix it because states
that have had no opportunities like we have, like Tennessee, Nashville,
(41:24):
are smoking everybody right now. And it's just because they
have good policies. Why don't we bring in good policies
and save our ours and make money out of it.
They're making tons of money out of it. We should
be doing that well, folks. It is time for us
to take our next break. We'll be back shortly.
Speaker 5 (41:44):
Rescue, recovery, re engagement. These are not just words. These
are the action steps we at the New Orleans Mission
take to make a positive impact on the homeless problem
facing the greater New Orleans area. Know in twenty twenty,
homelessness in our community increased by over forty percent. We
(42:07):
are committed to meet this need through the work being
done at the New Orleans Mission. We begin the rescue
process by going out into the community every day to
bring food, pray, and share the love of Jesus with
the hopeless and hurting in our community. Through the process
of recovery, these individuals have the opportunity to take time out,
(42:30):
assess their life, and begin to make new decisions to
live out their God given purpose. After the healing process
has begun and lives are back on track, we walk
each individual as they re engage back into the community
to be healthy, thriving, and living a life of purpose.
No one is meant to live under a bridge. No
(42:52):
one should endure abuse, no one should be stuck in addiction.
The New Orleans Mission is a stepping stone out of
that life of destruction and into a life of hope
and purpose. Partner with us today go to www dot
New Orleans Mission dot org or make a difference by
(43:13):
texting to seven seven ninety eight.
Speaker 4 (43:19):
Got ows God.
Speaker 2 (43:21):
The two shoes folks are back and you are listening
to the founders showing this is none other than your
spend Gary Bobby all the republic chaplain. Hi, McHenry, and
it is not a time for us to go into
our chaplain.
Speaker 4 (43:31):
Bye.
Speaker 2 (43:31):
By patriotic moment, We'll just take a brief moment to
remind you of the biblical foundations of our country, our
Judeo Christian jurisprudence. What actually made America great two hundred
and fifty years ago? God did. So let's take a
look into our Finding Fathers and what was going on there.
We just quote show you a little history. Can't don't
(43:52):
have a lot of time that proves beyond the shadow
of a doubt. Our Finding Fathers definitely wanted to keep
God in the middle of government. And today I want
to talk about the Great It's called the Great Awakening,
and there's now a movie about that called An Awakening,
and it's powerful. It's in the movie theaters right now.
It's extremely well done. The cinematography, the acting, the scenes,
(44:13):
you know, the scenery, the settings, everything, the costumes. It
is so well done. You will think you will really
think that you are now a close friend of Benjamin
Franklin once you see this movie. It makes him so
intimate to the viewers. It's one of the great one
of the finest movies ever ever seen in American history.
It's just fascinating. But it's the story of something that
(44:35):
happened some about three hundred, no, about two hundred and
seventy five years ago in the mid eighteenth century, right
the seventeen fifties, where through a series of events. I
don't have time to go into it all, but it
had to do with George Whitfield, who then brought in
his two buddies, the Wesley brothers, John Jarls Wesley and
who himself was inspired by an American preacher named Jonathan Edwards,
(44:58):
one of the most influential peace in the entire history
of this country. A remarkable story on him. We'll tell
it one day in this show. Anyway, they came and
they preached the gospel, which you hear me just what
you hear me saying every day on this show, folks.
It had an atomic bomb impact and effect on the colonies.
(45:21):
In fact, historians for decades, for several hundred years, have said,
how did America get the strength and the courage and
the wisdom to fight the greatest nation in the world,
the greatest army in the world. We did't have a
chance of winning. How did we do that? And it
was said that what gave us the courage, the backbone,
and the wisdom to accomplish an impossible challenge, an impossible task,
(45:45):
was a great awakening the impact it had on the colonies.
And so, folks, on encourage you to go see that movie.
It will blow you wate. The central person is George Whitfield,
the great preacher, who was very good friends with Franklin,
and this man was amazing. Well, folks, you can know
about all this and be excited about it, and thank
(46:07):
God that the Gospel had such an impact on early
America and the thinking in the minds and thoughts of
our finding fathers. But what about you? Where are you
on all this? You know, you could be the greatest
biblical patriot that ever lived, fighting for biblical values and
government and everything, and still dye and go to hell.
You know why? You knew a lot about God, You
knew a lot about the Bible, but you just didn't
know God, and He certainly didn't know you. You had religion,
(46:30):
which is guaranteed to damn your soul to hell. So
let me show you how you can avoid religion and
just get down to the plain simple childlike faith that
God is looking for in all of us. And it
goes like this. The Bible says, the gospel is the
power of God into salvation. Hey, that's the way you
(46:50):
get to God. That's the way you get saved from
hell and guaranteed heaven. It says, the Gospel is the
power of God into salvation. And it says that the
what the gospel is in one Corinthians fifteen. For I
declared to you the gospel that Christ God for all
of our sins according to the scripture, that he was buried,
and that he rose from the dead according to the scripture.
(47:13):
And that faith is required for this to work for you.
Not just paraphrase. This is the rest of it. But
I made it short. But folks, you know, you know
who understood this. Benjamin Franklin. You know, at twenty two
years of age, he wrote this, The Body of B. Franklin.
This was his epitaph for his his gravestone, The Body
(47:35):
of B. Franklin printer Like the cover of an old book,
its contents torn out and stripped of the lettering and gilding.
Lies here food for worms. But the work shall not
be wholly lost, for it will be as he believed,
appear once more in a new and more perfect edition,
corrected and amended by the author. Folks, I think Benjamin
(47:57):
Franklin knew Jesus. I think he knew the Lord. Do
you know him like that? Do you know them up
close in person like that? Where you need to do it?
If you don't, you have to do two things. The
first thing you have to do is repent. And that
word repentance means plainly and simply quit trusting in yourself.
See yourself how God sees you. You're a complete loser
(48:17):
before your creator. You're totally incapable of saving yourself or
even helping God out do it. You can't do anything.
You're hopeless and help us without God destined to a
burning hell. And so just give up on yourself, let
go and let God believe you cannot save yourself. And
the moment you do that and you really mean it,
you have just repented. That's what biblical repentance is. It's
(48:39):
not turning from your sins, cleaning up your life, repenting
of your sins, you know, giving money to the church,
handing out gospel tracks, singing in a choir, and all
the things you could do. It's none of that. That's
all religion, and it's okay, that's good things. Those are
good things to do, but it's still not good enough
for God's perfect standard, way beyond our ability to attain.
(49:04):
So he knew we could never do this, so he
did it for us. When God became a man, God,
the son we call him Jesus, became a man. He
died for all of our sins, was buried, and rose
to the dead. He did that so you wouldn't have
to go to hell. He did it because he knew
you could not do it. So repent, believe you can't
save yourself. And now you're free to put faith alone
and Christ alone. You're free to believe in Jesus and
(49:27):
his work on the cross and his resurrection, which we
just celebrated incidentally for Easter. The resurrection story of the
Eastern Story is actually the Gospel story, death, burial, and resurrection.
You're free to put all of your heart now, not
half in what you can do, in half of what
God can do, but one hundred percent of the yard
in Jesus and his work on the Cross and the resurrection.
(49:48):
If you've never done this before, please do it. Now,
don't wait till it's too late. Folks. There's coming a
time where it will be too late, because you're got
to die. And if you die before you make this decision,
you are gonna bust hell wide open. Please don't do that.
God loves you. He didn't want you to go to hell.
The Bible says he suffers long for you. He's long suffering,
not one that any should perish, but that all should
(50:10):
come to repentance. Please, folks, if you've never done this before,
do it now. Well, folks, it's not time for us
to go into our chaplain by by a testimony time
where again, I just take a brief moment to give
you a story about some great person in history. It
could have been way back in Old Testament times. It
could have been Job. He could have been Abraham, it
(50:32):
could have been somebody. Recently, I've had people from every
age and generation in my testimony time. And today we're
going to go back about two hundred and fifty years ago,
two it and seventy five years ago to none other
than the man we just talked about, George Whitfield. He
was raised in a tavern. He had to work hard
(50:54):
all of his life. He had a single mother that
she owned the tavern, and he had a heart. But
he loved acting and he had tremendous talent. He was
a natural born Thespian and they would have actors in
the tavern, and one day one of the actors took
a keen interest in him and saw the talent he
had and decided he needed to go to school. So
(51:15):
he got him into Oxford, which he couldn't the Whitfields
could not afford. They were very poor. But he got
him into Oxford on a work program, and folks, the
rest is history. He got to be friends with the Wesleys.
He found out about the Methodist Club also known as
a Holy Club, where he started learning the things of
God in the Bible, and before you knew it, his
(51:36):
natural talent that God had given him, his spiritual gift
of evangelism, began to blossom. And before you knew it,
he was preaching all over the place. And the next
thing you knew, he'd know he's out in the highways
and the byways, preaching in the coal mines and on
the in the bar rooms and in the streets, the
(51:56):
taverns and drawing huge crowds upwards of thirty thousand. When
Benjamin Franklin first heard him, he could not believe the
size of the crowd, and so he wanted to measure
and find how many people, said, you know, he took
out his mathematical stuff and measurements and tapes and everything
and went out and started measuring. He found out there
were thirty thousand people, and at the farthest point you
(52:17):
could hear George Whitfield as if he was right next
to you. Franklin could not explain it scientifically, baffled him.
And then when he realized Philadelphia only had twenty thousand people,
where did the extra ten thousand from? Where did they come?
They had come from in the country, from the mountains,
from the seas, they had come from all over the place.
Wherever Whitfield went, he drew cross and nobody knew how
(52:38):
they got there. Remember, they didn't have TV, television, radio,
a and of that. No, one can't understand how people
as far away would find out about it and literally
would run to the meeting, would get on their horses
and gallop to the meeting. It was just an amazing thing.
It swept the colonies. And then he brought it back
to England and it swept. They ended up taking it.
(52:58):
He and the two Wesley others. They were the three leaders,
brought it all the way, even into the continent of Europe.
It was a huge success. Here's a wonderful story about
a man who was just a poor kid and God
used him mightily. What a testimony, folks. Well, it's not
time for us to close, as we're closed with a
mind Saint Martin singing a Creole goodbye, and God bless
(53:24):
you all of it.
Speaker 4 (53:31):
They call you cREL goodbye.
Speaker 1 (53:36):
They think we're just wasted the time, all three sibyl.
Speaker 3 (53:48):
Of me.
Speaker 1 (53:51):
There's time for a Creo goodbye.
Bat holes, the politicians addressed, the digitators and magicians choose
to see the money. They just don't. There's nothing to
fill the holes while then are filling their pockets bid holes,
the politicians bouncing down the road. Everybody's wish for no moment,
(00:25):
corruption and dysfunction. It's gonna take you. Divide is of vention.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
New Orleans, Clerks of Court and the swords, and waterboard,
saltwater incursion, automobiles and Foster Care aging out Trump and
Petro dollars and our very own arts economy. All of
this and much more on today's show of The Founder's Show.
(00:52):
God bless you all out there. You are now listening
to the Founder's Show, the voice of the founding Fathers.
You're founding for there's coming to you. Deep within the
bowels are those mystic and cryptic alligator swamps of the
Big Easy, that old Crescent City, New Orleans, Louisiana. And
high up on top of that old Liberty cypress tree
(01:14):
draped in Spanish moss, way out on the Eagles Branch.
It's none of that. Then you're Spinary Babbao the Republic
Chaplain Hi mcinnoy.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Christopher Tidmorey a roving reporter, resident radical moderate and associate
editor of the Louisiana Weekly newspaper at Louisiana Weekly dot net.
And Hi, I'm broadcasting live from Gatlinburg, Tennessee. I'm actually
doing the show from the river House at the Park Inn,
looking at the Little Pigeon Forge River. That's the kind
of rumble you hear in the background as the stream
(01:45):
goes by. And I'm going to be talking about Gatlinburg
is a lesson to New Orleans. It's a very different place.
But what North Carolina could teach Louisiana. I'm particularly New
Orleans about the economy.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
Right now.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
We're losing population and this area definitely, most assuredly, is
not when it would be a time I would say
Appalachia is gaining and Louisiana is losing.
Speaker 4 (02:07):
But that's happening. But before we get into.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
That, we've got to talk a little bit about the
Louisiana legislative session, which is nearing its conclusion, and there's
several pieces of legislation that would directly.
Speaker 4 (02:17):
Affect New Orleans.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
One that has gotten a huge amount of coverage is
the sewageon water Board. The Sojion water board itself and
Mayor Helena Moreno have taken opposing stands on a very
controversial bill authored by Representative Stephanie Hilfordy. She's a Republican
from Lakeview and Bucktown. She's the only Orleans Parish Republican
in the legislature. House Built five seven three would give
(02:42):
the New Orleans City Council broad authority to reorganize the
sojion Water Boards membership basically appoint the members of the
board set water and sewage rates, and the City Council
would be able to better provide and coordinate oversight with
city departments vally. Most people don't really understand this why
(03:04):
City Hall has always had this tense relationship with the
sewageon Waterboard. It's because it's a historic reason. It's a
state chartered entity. It predates the city's home rule charter.
Before we were a formal merged city, there was a
surgeon Waterboard created by the state, and that's why we
have this weird condition. The first eight inches of the
(03:25):
road to control by the city and public Works. The
next six feet are controlled by the sewageon Waterboard.
Speaker 4 (03:30):
And it's always been white.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
As a street here ripped up and the Sewgeon Waterboard
comes back.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
The mayor has a limited authority.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
In fact, to give you an idea, Mayor Helena Moreno,
who has offered to come on this show, and we're
going to try to get that work down in the
next couple of weeks. She said on another radio program
that under the current rules she couldn't appoint member a
majority of the Surgeon Waterboard till her fourth year in office.
As anybody knows, we have a failing sewer system. Kind
(03:59):
of this problem of the limited power that the city
government has via VISAVI the Surgeon water Board was really
articulated when there was a proposal to change the way
we pay for the Surgeon water Board to raise more
money while still not increasing fees on homeowners.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
The previous director of the Surgeon water Board, who I
liked very much.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
He was a good guy, wonderful water engineer, but he
came across purposes. He wanted a property services fee to
be able to pay for the Surgeon water Board.
Speaker 4 (04:30):
This is a little controversial, but it has support.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Basically says, look, if you have a building in Orleans Parish,
you were getting sewage services, you are getting pumping services.
You got to pay whether you're a nonprofit governmental entity,
it doesn't matter.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
You got to pay university church.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
What it was is effectively more than half some say
almost as much as two thirds of the properties in
Orleans Parish are not taxable.
Speaker 4 (04:59):
You can't charge proper but tax on them.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
They're owned by nonprofits, owned by universities that a lot
of them are federal government. Well, here's the great thing,
and this has done in other cities. A property service
fee says it's a fee. You got to pay it
regardless of who you are. So we could actually tax
the federal government to help pay for our sewer services.
And we could do it in such a way that
if we replaced all the property taxes that we have
(05:23):
now with its property service fee, the average homeowner would
pay the same or more likely less than they're paying now,
and we would generate hundreds of millions of more dollars
in revenue. The idea had a lot of popular support,
but when the Sewage water Board brought it up, they
wanted it as an additional fee authorized by the city council,
but they didn't want to give up the property taxes,
(05:44):
and Council President JP Morrell looked at them and said,
what are you crazy in the the middle of a reception.
I'm not going to here's a huge increase on homeowners
even if we need the money. No, in debates, we
got a sewer system that has fallen apart. We need
probably a billion dollars, most several billion dollars. In fact,
(06:04):
he actually have the statistic it would seven hundred million
dollars will fix five percent of our sewer system in
Orleans Parish. This is such a big issue that Stephaniehilferdy,
who is running for the Public Service Commission, actually has
bringing up seuge and waterboard at meetings in Livingston Parish
and up in the North Shore as part of that
PSC district. So it's a district. It's an issue that
(06:26):
has come up in big things. It's not a new issue.
Back in twenty twenty three, the Bureau of Governmental Research,
which is not a government bureau, it's a watchdog group
for those that don't know well. The BGR came out
and basically said, look, you got to do one of
two things. The Soujian water Board has got to be
completely spun off from the city. It's just a separate entity.
(06:47):
It has nothing to do with it or more better choices,
let the city take it over, and actually they were
recommending putting in the Department of Public Works.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
This is kind of the next best thing.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Plus, you know a lot of people, the Susian Water
Board members are very much in opposition for it. They
send an eleven page letter to state lawmakers saying don't
pass this bill. The Governance Committee chair Courtney Scrubbs basically
said it would undermine integrity and their bondability to be
under the control of the New Orleans City government. There's
(07:17):
some truth in that. We haven't exactly had a great
track record with mayors of New Orleans. But at the
same time, we're the only parish in the state where
our sewer system is controlled by a state entity, that
where we have to raise the.
Speaker 4 (07:33):
Money for it.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
It's not money that comes from the state, but we
don't have the authority of how to spend that money.
That's what we're talking about here, and it comes down
to local control. If you are a conservative, you believe
that government works best the closer it is to people,
and that you may not always agree with the politicians
in New Orleans in Orleans Parish, but they are elected
(07:56):
directly by the people who are paying the taxes for
these elements. And so this bill has come to a
very directed thing and it's a highly controversial issue.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
But if Helena Morino succeeds, basically she.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Could appoint a new surgeon warter Board, the council will
have oversight and while it will not be part of
city government, it'll effectively be under the control of city government,
and we won't end up with a road being ripped
up that was just fixed by the Surgeon water Board
who hasn't coordinated with city departments, or at least that's
the theory, But that's not the most controversial bill.
Speaker 4 (08:32):
Of more controversy is.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
There's currently legislation going out to merge the Clerk and
the Clerk of Criminal District Court and the Clerk of
Civil District Court. Now, for those that do not know
the current Clerk of Civil District Court Criminal District Court,
it was just recently elected.
Speaker 4 (08:52):
He defeated Darryl Lumbard. His name is Calvin Duncan.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
He's a former Angola inmate who was exonerated of his crime.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
And under the.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Leggislation as it's currently passed, and it passed overwhelmingly in
the Senate with twenty five votes. Of a thirty five
vote body, only one vote against that actually voted, and
that was Royce Duplessis of New Orleans. This would abolish
that office and merge it into the civil District Court office.
Speaker 4 (09:18):
In twenty twenty six.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
This year, Calvin Duncan would end up with one three
months in office before his office is abolished. Interestingly, he's
going to take office two weeks before the coming election,
which is to say in another week.
Speaker 4 (09:33):
So just to make things confusing.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
What Duplessis said was, Okay, if we're going to merge
the office, let it be for twenty thirty, let him
complete his term. Let's give some time to get this together.
I was asked by my publisher, what's really pushing this?
Speaker 4 (09:49):
True? Other parishes only have one.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Clerk of court, not a civil clerk of court and
a criminal clerk of court. And admittedly New Orleans has
certain concerns in the civil that other parishes don't. The
civil clerk is also the recorder of mortgages, is also
the holder of the colonial archives. Basically, you have a
(10:13):
huge archivist role and a huge records role a civil
district court.
Speaker 4 (10:18):
But actually that's not what this is about.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
It's the other half of her or his job, and
that is the fact that we have separate criminal and
civil district courts. Because of that, there's some positives and negatives.
The positives is with a civil bench where we become
the primary court for filing corporate resolution, corporate cases a
(10:41):
lot of complex because that's all these judges deal with
are civil cases. We also have a juvenile branch that's
much bigger and much more able to work than a
lot of other areas. Or at least that's the theory.
I don't know how true it is in reality, but
we're able to do it. We're able to concentrate the course,
and so that generates a lot of fees. It's a
(11:03):
money maker for the civil courts. It makes a lot
of money. That's why these judges have been talking about
building a new courthouse for years. Admittedly the courthouse, the
civil district courthouse, and push is falling apart.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
The problem is in every other parish in the state.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
Like Jefferson, with a twenty fourth judicial District court twenty
fourth DC, you have a situation where the criminal and
civil judges are the same people that might do civil
one afternoon, criminal the next or one week on, one
week off. But the upside of that is that the
criminal the civil fees, and there's a lot of fees
(11:39):
that come in help subsidize the criminal docket and the
funding of the criminal bench. What's happens in in Orleans
is effectively the criminal courts, which do get some money
from assailants and from you know, from people who are
accused and bond things. It's criminally underfunded if you'll forgive
(12:02):
the pun and so we can't fund a lot of
our evidence maintenance, so a lot of people go free.
We have a lot of logistical problems, and the idea
of merging the courts in the current bill before the legislature,
it would actually get rid of a couple of the
judges too, It would cut the expenses, would be to
bring those expenses together. The interesting part of both of
(12:25):
these is in theory would require one would think would
require a vote to the.
Speaker 4 (12:29):
People of New Orleans. The answer is no, it doesn't.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
These are pieces of statutory legislation that affect the people
of New Orleans. And I'm actually not opposed to the
ideas of merging the courts, merging the clerk's office, but.
Speaker 4 (12:47):
I'd like the people to have a vote on this.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
You know, there's something A lot of states are removing
people's ability for referendums. Louisiana doesn't we have a in
theory a referendum system.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
It doesn't. It's not really true. It's so hard to
get anything in the ballot.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
Well, other states that where it is relatively simple to
get things on a ballot, they're kind of get anything way.
I believe that for major structural changes, not just constitutional changes,
which to me in the way this is a basic
constitutional as in fundamental law, fundamental structure of government change,
the people.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
Ought to be able to vote.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
I have also always believed that if you raised taxes
in any way, state, local, whatever, in every situation, the
people taxes or fees should be done by a vote.
Speaker 4 (13:33):
Of the people.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
As the power to taxes the power destroy the people
should have the final roard. So what's going on in
the legislature in these issues with Seuerge and waterboard at
the clerk.
Speaker 4 (13:44):
Of court is the idea?
Speaker 3 (13:45):
Can the legislature decide things for Orleans Parish without the
people of Orleans Parish having a vote?
Speaker 4 (13:51):
Is that right? Or should the changes just be made
I mean, it doesn't.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
Matter if we have opposition from Orleans Parish legislators, the
legislature votes.
Speaker 4 (14:02):
Should that be enough? Right now? The support of Orleans
Parish legislators cit these ideas is not exactly overwhelming.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Your thoughts high, very impressive, Christopher. You've really done your
homework on this one, and thank you for giving them
such a good packet of information here. And what's going
on with our search and water board and the clerks
of court. I think that there needs to be major
overhauls on all of this, like you're recommending, and folks
(14:33):
are op our property taxes and make it so that
everybody has to pay their share. You know, they're making
profits and all this real estate, the schools and the
churches and whatnot. Okay, that's profit making. They should be
paying their share for our sewerage and waterboard and you
know everything else that all the various city services, instead
(14:54):
of getting a pass on it because they don't have
to pay property taxes. There's just something very unequitable about
that and wrong about that. And especially for churches. I
understand the taxes, but no, they should carry they can
carry their share. Let's go for efficiency. Efficiency in government
we need a strong leader manage as well and governs least.
As Thomas Servis said, government that governs least governs best. Boy,
(15:17):
you sure had it figured out, it, didn't he All right? Well, folks,
of course, I know you got something else exciting for us.
Can't wait to hear about it. And uh, let's see
now how we deal doing with our saltwater incursion in
South Louigiana. You got anything for us on that?
Speaker 4 (15:34):
There is so.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
Much more we could talk about this legislative session, high,
but I do want to go in one positive.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
Thank God.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
It looks like break texts are gonna be a think
of the past. What they're going to place them with.
It looks like is a QR code that will check
your status of your car, whether you have insurance, if
you're stopped, but you get that through the mail, never
having to go to get your brake tag renewed. It'll
be for like the perpetual time of the car. It's
a much greater better situation.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
So I think we goes.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
What intrigues me though, is the one thing we're not
talking about in this legislative session, and that's fresh water.
And you're like, wait, what does that have to do
with the lewisand legislature. Well, I don't mean just fresh
water and the sewage and water board.
Speaker 4 (16:18):
I mean the Mississippi River.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
So Ron Chapman, prominent resident Saint Bernard, opponent of the
Louisiana International Terminal or the Portinola project for the container
port in Saint Bernard, made an observation and I don't
have a good answer of this, and I'm sort of
throwing this out to the group mind of our errordite
listener base, and so maybe somebody can give me a
(16:41):
better answer on this.
Speaker 4 (16:43):
But I've asked around and I still haven't gotten one.
It's this issue.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
One of the things that Louisiana in National Terminal will
do is be able to have major cargo ships. Major
cargo ships require a fifty five foot fundamental base to
be able to come into a waterway. Okay, Well, the
Mississippi River up to New Orleans is one hundred and
twenty five feet, no problem. Right, Well, here's the problem.
(17:09):
If you remember, we had saltwater incursion in the Mississippi
River about three or four years ago, and it was
really endangering our water systems because we get our fresh
water from the Mississippi and it was traveling up the river.
So the core of engineers, as a temporary measure, created
a below water, a sub hydro barrier, basically a levee
(17:36):
underwater that reduced river levels to thirty feet. And what
that did was pushed It created salt water is heavier
than freshwater, and it created a pressure to where the
salt water couldn't incur into the Mississippi River. It was
supposed to be for one year, one emergency, but we've
done it every year since and.
Speaker 4 (17:56):
It's been very effective.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Our water systems have been very clean, very clear, and
we've been able to, you know, have as much fresh
water as we want it. That's the great gift of
the Mississippi River. What happens though, when we have to
have a fifty five foot draft for major cargo ships
at fifty five feet, saltwater incursion happens. And whether you
(18:19):
believe in global warming as a man made phenomena or
as a natural phenomenon, and you know, we can have
that debate some other day, and I have even questions
about the natural phenomena, it is kind of clear that
the planet is getting a little warmer and that sea
levels are going to rise. How much, we don't know,
but enough to where saltwater incursion the Mississippi River might
(18:43):
be a more common occurrence even than the most conservative scenarios.
So Ron Chapman brings up this idea and he basically says, okay,
so we're gonna spend four five billion dollars building this
cargo port in Saint Bernard, a place where the locals
don't want a cargo port. It's important for our overall economy,
(19:07):
but they don't want it there.
Speaker 4 (19:10):
He said. In order to do that, we.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
Will, likely though nobody's addressing it, have to get rid
of this barrier that's keeping the salt water out. And
so that means salt water could consistently come up the
Mississippi River and we don't have drinking water. What do
we do then, Because you can have the greatest economy
on earth if you don't have water, you die. So
here in Louisiana, the place of the most abundant fresh
water in the world, practically outside of the Great Lakes,
(19:34):
we would have to import water like we're in the desert.
And nobody in the legislature's talk about. They talked a
lot about and they voted down an economic development district
that would basically take tax dollars to support the port
from other businesses in and around Violet and Saint Bernard.
That went down Representative Mike Bayhem do Yeoman's work and
opposing that. But this particular issue, which I know Bayham's
(19:58):
aware of, is not thing the legislature's talking about. As
it's ready, as it's pumping billions of dollars into Port
Nola to build.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
This container port in Saint Bernard. What is the answer?
I swear Hi, I have no earthly idea.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Your thoughts, yes, Christopher, I've got many thoughts about this.
I've been thinking about it and talking about it for years.
I've even been down to the Armic engineers and try
to talk with them. You know, the easiest way to
fix our salt water incursion and to save our wetlands
and save our coast is just to do what the
river used to do. It would overflow and build the delta.
(20:37):
We had a growing delta. We had a growing state
rather than a shrinking one geographically speaking. And so what
you do is you put cuts along the Mississippi River
and then you channel that water to the coast where
then it is released and all that magnificent silt coming
down the river. It builds land. They did that in
(20:59):
one place and it literally built thousands of acres in
a very short period of time. You can see it
on the map. It looks like a square. The it works.
And they could do it from you know around let's say,
Baton Rouge, all the way down to the and they
could do it on both sides of the river, because
we also need it on the on the east side
of the river, like you know, down around Saint Bernard
(21:20):
and plaquem and whatnot. We need to have some We
need to be rebuilding and reclaiming our coast. Hilarious. They
could do that, but for whatever reason they want to
do it, it's very frustrating. You know, the oil industry
come and put all kinds of canals and pipes in
and it's okay, but we can't do anything to save
our coast. It's I tell you it's And now I've
got another theory too, another thing that would work. Florida
(21:41):
did it, and that's we need to have mangrove bushes
put in. They will save your coast. I mean, they
hold the land together. They're magnificent. It's a wonderful place
for wildlife. The wildlife loves it. It's just a real winner.
It's a win win situation. And I think we should
play a mangroves all up and down the coast. I
(22:03):
think we could also be planting rosas. That's a giant
grass that love salt water, and we could have that
growing along the coast also. And then on and you know,
I would have a rowse of of roseaus. A roseau
is like a twenty foot tall blade of grass. Literally,
it's amazing. It's an amazing planet. I love them. They're
(22:24):
all down by. They fill the mouth of the river.
If you go to the mouth of river, it's it's
a wonderland of these things. And then and then after that,
do your mangroves, and folks, we would we would do
miracles to save our coast, stop the salt water incursion,
and just and then and then I think we need
to get this this poort in too. I mean, there's
no reason why we can't figure out out a way
(22:45):
to do it where it works for everybody. We just
need to have leadership that is much more focused on
we the people and serving the state than on themselves.
That's the big problem here. They're so focused on their
greedy cells that usually they don't have time to really
do their job the way it should be done as
real real public servants, remember their public servants. They run
(23:07):
around really acting like their public dictators. Well, folks say
it is time for us to take a break. We'll
be right back after this brief commercial break.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
Louisiana State Museum's Presbyterier Museum, there's an incredible exhibit on
the Illinois Clubs, one of the great exhibits in the
Carnival collection. If you've never seen the Carnival collection on
the second floor of the Presbyteri.
Speaker 4 (23:28):
It is incredible. So many locals. You can see everything
from a King of England bowery.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
Before the King of Carnival, to our great parading traditions,
to the marti gras Indians to Southwest Louisiana. But the
newest exhibit on the Illinois Clubs is the root of
African American formal marti Gras.
Speaker 4 (23:45):
It is fantastic.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
The young Illinois Club, the Illinois Club, their roots, how
they grew, what happened. The incredible sets, including this beautiful
set from the nineteen sixty eight Young Men's Illinois Club
of the French Opera House, the costumes, the Crown, It's beautiful.
Speaker 4 (24:00):
You want to check it out.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
And while you're there, go to the Cabildo and check
out the new exhibit on the two hundred and fiftieth
anniversary of the Independence and Galvez and the Expedition. How
Louisiana was the key to providing American independence thanks to
Bernardo the Galvez and all the wonderful patriots of Creoles
and Cajuns that took Baton Rouge Pensacola and funded all
(24:22):
of Washington's forces. All that available through next March at
the Louisiana State Museum's Cabildo and PRESBYTERI.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Well, folks, it is Chaplinhei mcinnry, and I'm here to
tell you about our ministry, LAMB and Ministries. We're an
inner city ministry with an inner city farmula and focus
for inner city folks. Please check us out, go to
our website lambnola dot com, or just call me Chapelinhi
mcinenry at area code five zero four seven two three
nine three six nine, and we'll be glad to tell
(24:51):
you all about it. We need all the help we
can get. This is a very wonderful ministry, folks. We
work with the inner city, urban poor, and inner city
kids and we bring them hope and we bring them
change lives. These kids have almost no hope for the future.
Many of them, by their own confessions, call themselves short
(25:14):
time termers. And what that means is by their mid twenties,
they're either gonna be dead in jailful life a living
at the homeless mission. And they all know it. And
the great tragedy is they don't know there's any other way.
They think that's a normal lifestyle for people. They have
no idea they could have good, long lives and do
great things and have families and everything. It's just tragic
(25:36):
to see what the government systems have done to turn
generations of people into hopeless cases. And of course I'm
talking about the welfare system. It has destroyed so many people.
It's unnecessary, It has raped our tax vaults, it has
caused so much problem. Anyway, we go in there and
(25:59):
we try to revert, we reverse the evil that's been done,
and we bring hope for these kids. We've seen close
to five thousand of them come to Christ. They're born again.
We've seen hundreds more going to live productive, successful lives
where they literally finished school, go to college, get jobs,
get good jobs, get married, and raise good families. We're
(26:19):
working on our third generation of kids right now that
have been with us that for three generations now, so
it's been very exciting to see all this. We need
all the help we can get. We need volunteers, we
need financial support, and we need prayer warriors. So if
you have any interest, please contact us again. You can
call me chapelhih mcenry at area code five zero four
seven two three nine three six nine and thank you
(26:41):
so very very much.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
Give the gift of flowers by calling Villaries Floorist at
one eight hundred VI l l ere are going online
to Villariesflowers dot com. Road specials available at both locations
at Highway one ninety in Covington and on Martin Berman
wrightoff Veterans right near the Orleans Jefferson Line. But also
gift baskets that are perfect for a festival season to
bring a gift by and wonderful arrangements for summer, all
(27:04):
available at Hillaries Florest.
Speaker 4 (27:06):
Give them a call one eight hundred v I L
L E R E and tell them you heard it
here in the Founders battles by the two shows.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
And we're back and you are listening to the Founders,
so the voice of the funding fathers and I want
you to know you can hear us every Sunday morning
from eight to nine am on wr and O that's
ninety nine point five on your FM dial, or during
the week drivetime eight to nine am on WSLA and
that's ninety three point nine on the FM doal or
one five six zero on the AM dial. You can
(27:36):
also hear us on our website, the foundershow dot com.
Or to even make it easier and better, get the
iHeartMedia app. It's free, it's free, downloaded for free, and
it's bigger and better than satellite. It has everything on it.
Any whatever your interest is, you'll find it on the
iHeartMedia app. iHeartMedia is the largest broadcast in company in
(27:57):
the world. We're one of their top podcasts. That's a
play and you can listen to us at your convenience.
You know a show that happened a couple months ago,
listen to it, find it? Do it are the one
that the most recent one. If you don't want to
get up at eight o'clock in the morning, send me
no worries. Check it out that afternoon. Folks, thank you
so much for being on the show with us. And
(28:17):
again this is Chaplin High mce henry with Christopher Tidmore
and Christopher, what's going on with foster care? You know,
work with inner city kids. I like to find a
new what's the latest on it? Take it away, Christopher.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
I wanted to give one last legislative update to a friend,
Representative Kim Carver. And sometimes there are good ideas that
really aren't that controversial, but people just don't think about them,
act on them, or really propose them. And Representative Carver, Kim,
who I have known for many years for introduced House
Built five seventy five, which unanimously passed the House is
(28:51):
now moving to the Senate, has over fifty co sponsors
at both parties.
Speaker 4 (28:55):
It's a great idea.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
It provides a priority to purchase state surplus vehicles for
youth in extended foster care. So for people that don't
know if you're a kid in foster care and a
lot of your kids high have been or spent their
entire lives in foster care or spent periods of it.
You're aged out at eighteen and you're basically on your own,
(29:18):
and too often the foster care system doesn't provide any
real movement for kids for further education defense. Let's face it,
at eighteen, you're still a kid, and there's a good
argument of foster care or at least your oversight should
last longer, at least into your twenty or twenty one,
but you don't have it, and so you end up
(29:39):
out of the system with no money, no place to live,
sometimes a high school degree, sometimes not. Maybe you go
to college, but you don't have any body helping you.
There exceptions that there are foster parents who really take
the job of being foster parents like being parents, but
let's face it, it's not every foster parent. Sometimes they're
(30:00):
foster parents to many kids and they just can't take responsibility.
Speaker 4 (30:03):
So the idea that you're a kid.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
You're going to have to get a job or God forbid,
you manage to get into college and you're trying to
work a job and you're trying to stay alive, how do.
Speaker 4 (30:13):
You do that? Well, you need a car. I you
haven't checked it, folks.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
Buy a car is really expensive, but by providing state
surplus vehicles, which are some of the cheapest ways a
person getting car, and it's provided to foster kids that
are aging out of the system that are sixteen, seventeen, eighteen. First,
what you're doing is you're giving them a leg up
in life. It's stuff that state has to get rid
of anyway. So how are we losing anything. It's a
(30:40):
simple idea. It doesn't cost a state any money, It
doesn't cost anyone any money.
Speaker 4 (30:44):
It's a good idea.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
But it's these kinds of good ideas that sometimes aren't
really presented. And I give Kim Carr for credit, and
I hope House Bill five seventy five flies past to
the Governor's desk and assigned your thoughts. I how a
few kids dealt with getting out of the foster system
with no car and no contact.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
Oh yes, Christopher, my mind and heart are pregnant with
thoughts on this because this is a big issue for us.
But we found out in most of our kids, they
aren't going through foster care. What happens is they have
ways of shifting kids around and letting their relatives or
whatever I have the kids, and then they get to check.
(31:26):
That's what they want, and they just don't really use
the foster care system a whole lot with our inner
city kids here in New Orleans, so it's kind of
out of our loop. But one thing I noticed at
you know, in age eighteen, you're not really ready for life.
The military knows that. By the way, they know that.
(31:47):
It's been proven. Psychiatric studies have proven that people's brains
have not fully developed ti they're about twenty one years
of age, and anything before that means that the kids
are the people are are They're Yeah, they're registered as adults,
but they're Their thinking process usually does not have a
lot of wisdom, and they usually end up doing crazy things.
(32:09):
So like if you tell some young folks charge the hill,
you know in the military, they can't wait to do it.
They're all gonna get slaughtered. But they're not thinking like that.
And so that's a real problem of how to help
kids from eighteen to twenty one, and they really need
a lot of help. I think the system should go
through twenty one, or there should be another backup system
(32:31):
to put them into to help them get through those
last few years. So they their minds have been biologically
medically according to medical science, fully developed. And so you know,
those are my thoughts on a Christopher good point. Good
issue to bring up, though, and thank you so very much.
And so I'm wondering, let's see now we're gonna you know,
(32:53):
what's going on with the dollar right now and the
petro dollar and there is Trump dealing with this, what's
going on with a Christpher.
Speaker 3 (33:01):
Well, you know, we have to talk a little bit
about Iran comma and Trump's comment about civilizational destruction of Iran.
And you know what, everybody, you always accuse me of
Trump arrangement syndrome. I'm not If this was a bluster
to get Iran to actually negotiate or to the negotiating
table to agree to a ceasefire, and it works, then
(33:25):
maybe it took a little bit of crazy to get
the crazies to come to the table. Maybe it was
a very effective, in other words, negotiating tactic. Maybe it
was premeditai, maybe it wasn't. But if it works, I
give him all the credit. Here's where I am a
little critical. An interesting thing's been happening. It started in
twenty twenty four, but it accelerated in the course of
(33:48):
the Iran War with Trump and it has to do
with the Saudis. Now, most people don't realize this, but
Henry Kissinger negotiated an agreement with Saudis in nineteen seventy
four that basically all oil will be denominated in.
Speaker 4 (34:05):
US dollars, the petro dollars. It was a good deal.
It was called it was an informal deal. It's not
a treaty. It was a handshake.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
But since then global essentially, the United States has maintained
its status is a reserve currency because it was the.
Speaker 4 (34:21):
Only way you could buy oil.
Speaker 3 (34:22):
You had to buy them in dollars, You had to
negotiating dollars, you had trading dollars, and that has been
the major way the United States maintained its status is
a reserve currency.
Speaker 4 (34:32):
Why is that important, Well, there's.
Speaker 3 (34:34):
Over two trillion dollars out there that has been brought
up of US currencies for this problem, which means that
that's equivalent to our US budget deficit. Because there's so
much demand on the dollar, the dollar doesn't fall when
we have a deficit, so we don't have to raise
interest rates to absurd degrees. So we can run huge
deficits and it doesn't hurt our economy because everybody on
(34:57):
Earth wants.
Speaker 4 (34:57):
Dollars, but particularly the oil. You can't buy oil without dollars.
Speaker 3 (35:03):
Well, something frightening has been happening, and it's accelerated in
the Iran war. It's started beforehand, to be honest with you,
It started in twenty twenty four, but it has been
accelerating very fast the last three months. At this point,
we've gone from a few percentage points to nearly twenty
percent of global oil being denominated either in bitcoin or
(35:26):
in Chinese you Wan, the Chinese currency, and the Saudis
most importantly have started accepting Chinese currency as opposed to
dollars in exchange for oil. And they control such a
huge portion of the market that essentially they can now say,
you know, you can buy in a lot of different currencies.
Speaker 4 (35:45):
And when that happens, the US dollar as.
Speaker 3 (35:47):
The denominated dollar of trade internationally starts to diminish very fast.
To give you an idea, just a few years ago,
we were seventy five percent of all global trade was
in dollars. Now it's fifty seven percent. Now here's what
happens when that starts happening. If the demand of for
dollars goes down, and our deficit, federal deficit doesn't go down,
(36:11):
and it's not going to because I don't care who's
President Trump, Biden, you know, bodhach Edge, Josh Shapiro, jd Vance,
It doesn't matter. We've got a problem that nobody seems
to want to deal with. It's a bipartisan problem. It's
the fact that there is a retiree for every two
workers in America, and Social Security is scheduled to run
(36:32):
out of money in twenty thirty two and benefits to
be cut by twenty five percent and a minimum as
much as a third. That's automatic, except we all know
what's gonna happen. No politician is gonna allow Social scurity
benefits to be cut. So what's gonna happen Social Medicare,
by the way, he has the same problem.
Speaker 4 (36:50):
It's going broke.
Speaker 3 (36:51):
So they're gonna fund it, and we're gonna just bar
even more money. So you could you could fire everybody
in the federal government. You could have.
Speaker 4 (36:58):
Doage on steroids.
Speaker 3 (36:59):
You could have of basically the entire US military being
a few AI guided drones. It wouldn't matter. We have
so much in entitlements that effectively.
Speaker 4 (37:11):
Hi, we have got to find a way.
Speaker 3 (37:15):
To keep these deficits that we're going to have to
support you baby boomers getting through to your eternal reward.
Speaker 4 (37:23):
And if you lose the planetary reserve currency, and if.
Speaker 3 (37:26):
You lose oil, you lose the planetary reserve currency because
it's the major commodity that we trade. Well, what happens,
effectively is you lose the American dominance on the planet.
And that is the part of this of Trump's behavior
that is making people say, maybe we'll look at a
different location. So it's a straight It might be in
(37:47):
a strange situation that his bluster and his over the.
Speaker 4 (37:50):
Top comments got us peace.
Speaker 3 (37:52):
And Iran, or at least the closest Middle Eastern idea
of peace, which is, you know, shooting each other for
a while and.
Speaker 4 (37:59):
Then turns around and cost to the currency.
Speaker 3 (38:03):
Then again, suddenly the Iranians are saying Israel has to
stop fighting in Lebanon, which Trump is not part of
the deal.
Speaker 4 (38:09):
So it might fall apart.
Speaker 2 (38:11):
Anyway, your thoughts, Oh, Christopher, I do I have thoughts
on this, and I'm sorry, I'm still the jury is
still out on your trunk. Trump derangement syndrome I noticed
some of the cheap shots you just took on him.
I mean, come on, Christopher, you wouldn't do that to
your you know, Clinton or Obama or any of the
(38:33):
other big Democrats. Anyway, this is a very difficult situation,
as you can only imagine that when you get into
all these very complex and big, big, big things going
on in the world, it gets very very touchy. You know.
Trump is probably the greatest negotiator in the history of
(38:54):
the twentieth and the twenty fourth century. The guy is amazing.
That's how he built such a great success so business
and you can read about it in the Art of
the Deal. Uh. He's he took his extreme success in
business that made him billions of dollars, and now he's
turned that into politics, negotiating business negotiations, but applying him
(39:17):
to politics, it has been extremely successful with it. The
guy is amazing. We don't know how this is all
going to work out, but it is very tenuous right now.
That's true. We're dealing with some insane people. And I
assure you, if Trump did a big, you know, blustering attack,
(39:37):
going to destroy yells of those ass That's like patent
needs to do stuff like that. It's to throw them
off balance and get the advantage in the in the negotiation.
He didn't want to destroy their society. And Trump Trump
hates war and he doesn't like seeing people die at all.
He's he's very, very concerned for human death. Told you
(39:59):
can see that with what going on in the Ukraine War.
He hates war and he's been the best president to
end war because he hates it so much. Sometimes you
have to fight a war to end a war. Anyway,
We'll just have to see how this turns out. The
petro dollar has been under the attack, under attack from
you know, since Bretton Woods probably, and that's when it
(40:19):
all started, when the dollar was decided by the nations
of the world to be the currency of the world,
and it's been like that ever since. Of course, we
also focused on it being part of oil purchases and
whatnot on large scales. So we'll just have to see
all this works out. But you got some good points here,
Christmas food for thought, and we need to be thinking
about this, so thank you so very much. It's no
(40:40):
time for us to take a brief look into the
art economy of New Orleans. Let's see what's going on.
And it's tragic to think that New Orleans, the birthplace
of opera, jazz, rock and roll, some even say the
blues and theater for for all of America is We're
(41:02):
not even in the game anymore, hardly, and yet we've
still produced great musicians. But they leave, they go to
other places because we have not developed that industry here
in New Orleans. It's a great one of the many
great tragedies of this city and of the state, and
shame on us. We need to fix it because states
that have had no opportunities like we have, like Tennessee, Nashville,
(41:24):
are smoking everybody right now. And it's just because they
have good policies. Why don't we bring in good policies
and save our ours and make money out of it.
They're making tons of money out of it. We should
be doing that well, folks. It is time for us
to take our next break. We'll be back shortly.
Speaker 5 (41:44):
Rescue, recovery, re engagement. These are not just words. These
are the action steps we at the New Orleans Mission
take to make a positive impact on the homeless problem
facing the greater New Orleans area. Know in twenty twenty,
homelessness in our community increased by over forty percent. We
(42:07):
are committed to meet this need through the work being
done at the New Orleans Mission. We begin the rescue
process by going out into the community every day to
bring food, pray, and share the love of Jesus with
the hopeless and hurting in our community. Through the process
of recovery, these individuals have the opportunity to take time out,
(42:30):
assess their life, and begin to make new decisions to
live out their God given purpose. After the healing process
has begun and lives are back on track, we walk
each individual as they re engage back into the community
to be healthy, thriving, and living a life of purpose.
No one is meant to live under a bridge. No
(42:52):
one should endure abuse, no one should be stuck in addiction.
The New Orleans Mission is a stepping stone out of
that life of destruction and into a life of hope
and purpose. Partner with us today go to www dot
New Orleans Mission dot org or make a difference by
(43:13):
texting to seven seven ninety eight.
Speaker 4 (43:19):
Got ows God.
Speaker 2 (43:21):
The two shoes folks are back and you are listening
to the founders showing this is none other than your
spend Gary Bobby all the republic chaplain. Hi, McHenry, and
it is not a time for us to go into
our chaplain.
Speaker 4 (43:31):
Bye.
Speaker 2 (43:31):
By patriotic moment, We'll just take a brief moment to
remind you of the biblical foundations of our country, our
Judeo Christian jurisprudence. What actually made America great two hundred
and fifty years ago? God did. So let's take a
look into our Finding Fathers and what was going on there.
We just quote show you a little history. Can't don't
(43:52):
have a lot of time that proves beyond the shadow
of a doubt. Our Finding Fathers definitely wanted to keep
God in the middle of government. And today I want
to talk about the Great It's called the Great Awakening,
and there's now a movie about that called An Awakening,
and it's powerful. It's in the movie theaters right now.
It's extremely well done. The cinematography, the acting, the scenes,
(44:13):
you know, the scenery, the settings, everything, the costumes. It
is so well done. You will think you will really
think that you are now a close friend of Benjamin
Franklin once you see this movie. It makes him so
intimate to the viewers. It's one of the great one
of the finest movies ever ever seen in American history.
It's just fascinating. But it's the story of something that
(44:35):
happened some about three hundred, no, about two hundred and
seventy five years ago in the mid eighteenth century, right
the seventeen fifties, where through a series of events. I
don't have time to go into it all, but it
had to do with George Whitfield, who then brought in
his two buddies, the Wesley brothers, John Jarls Wesley and
who himself was inspired by an American preacher named Jonathan Edwards,
(44:58):
one of the most influential peace in the entire history
of this country. A remarkable story on him. We'll tell
it one day in this show. Anyway, they came and
they preached the gospel, which you hear me just what
you hear me saying every day on this show, folks.
It had an atomic bomb impact and effect on the colonies.
(45:21):
In fact, historians for decades, for several hundred years, have said,
how did America get the strength and the courage and
the wisdom to fight the greatest nation in the world,
the greatest army in the world. We did't have a
chance of winning. How did we do that? And it
was said that what gave us the courage, the backbone,
and the wisdom to accomplish an impossible challenge, an impossible task,
(45:45):
was a great awakening the impact it had on the colonies.
And so, folks, on encourage you to go see that movie.
It will blow you wate. The central person is George Whitfield,
the great preacher, who was very good friends with Franklin,
and this man was amazing. Well, folks, you can know
about all this and be excited about it, and thank
(46:07):
God that the Gospel had such an impact on early
America and the thinking in the minds and thoughts of
our finding fathers. But what about you? Where are you
on all this? You know, you could be the greatest
biblical patriot that ever lived, fighting for biblical values and
government and everything, and still dye and go to hell.
You know why? You knew a lot about God, You
knew a lot about the Bible, but you just didn't
know God, and He certainly didn't know you. You had religion,
(46:30):
which is guaranteed to damn your soul to hell. So
let me show you how you can avoid religion and
just get down to the plain simple childlike faith that
God is looking for in all of us. And it
goes like this. The Bible says, the gospel is the
power of God into salvation. Hey, that's the way you
(46:50):
get to God. That's the way you get saved from
hell and guaranteed heaven. It says, the Gospel is the
power of God into salvation. And it says that the
what the gospel is in one Corinthians fifteen. For I
declared to you the gospel that Christ God for all
of our sins according to the scripture, that he was buried,
and that he rose from the dead according to the scripture.
(47:13):
And that faith is required for this to work for you.
Not just paraphrase. This is the rest of it. But
I made it short. But folks, you know, you know
who understood this. Benjamin Franklin. You know, at twenty two
years of age, he wrote this, The Body of B. Franklin.
This was his epitaph for his his gravestone, The Body
(47:35):
of B. Franklin printer Like the cover of an old book,
its contents torn out and stripped of the lettering and gilding.
Lies here food for worms. But the work shall not
be wholly lost, for it will be as he believed,
appear once more in a new and more perfect edition,
corrected and amended by the author. Folks, I think Benjamin
(47:57):
Franklin knew Jesus. I think he knew the Lord. Do
you know him like that? Do you know them up
close in person like that? Where you need to do it?
If you don't, you have to do two things. The
first thing you have to do is repent. And that
word repentance means plainly and simply quit trusting in yourself.
See yourself how God sees you. You're a complete loser
(48:17):
before your creator. You're totally incapable of saving yourself or
even helping God out do it. You can't do anything.
You're hopeless and help us without God destined to a
burning hell. And so just give up on yourself, let
go and let God believe you cannot save yourself. And
the moment you do that and you really mean it,
you have just repented. That's what biblical repentance is. It's
(48:39):
not turning from your sins, cleaning up your life, repenting
of your sins, you know, giving money to the church,
handing out gospel tracks, singing in a choir, and all
the things you could do. It's none of that. That's
all religion, and it's okay, that's good things. Those are
good things to do, but it's still not good enough
for God's perfect standard, way beyond our ability to attain.
(49:04):
So he knew we could never do this, so he
did it for us. When God became a man, God,
the son we call him Jesus, became a man. He
died for all of our sins, was buried, and rose
to the dead. He did that so you wouldn't have
to go to hell. He did it because he knew
you could not do it. So repent, believe you can't
save yourself. And now you're free to put faith alone
and Christ alone. You're free to believe in Jesus and
(49:27):
his work on the cross and his resurrection, which we
just celebrated incidentally for Easter. The resurrection story of the
Eastern Story is actually the Gospel story, death, burial, and resurrection.
You're free to put all of your heart now, not
half in what you can do, in half of what
God can do, but one hundred percent of the yard
in Jesus and his work on the Cross and the resurrection.
(49:48):
If you've never done this before, please do it. Now,
don't wait till it's too late. Folks. There's coming a
time where it will be too late, because you're got
to die. And if you die before you make this decision,
you are gonna bust hell wide open. Please don't do that.
God loves you. He didn't want you to go to hell.
The Bible says he suffers long for you. He's long suffering,
not one that any should perish, but that all should
(50:10):
come to repentance. Please, folks, if you've never done this before,
do it now. Well, folks, it's not time for us
to go into our chaplain by by a testimony time
where again, I just take a brief moment to give
you a story about some great person in history. It
could have been way back in Old Testament times. It
could have been Job. He could have been Abraham, it
(50:32):
could have been somebody. Recently, I've had people from every
age and generation in my testimony time. And today we're
going to go back about two hundred and fifty years ago,
two it and seventy five years ago to none other
than the man we just talked about, George Whitfield. He
was raised in a tavern. He had to work hard
(50:54):
all of his life. He had a single mother that
she owned the tavern, and he had a heart. But
he loved acting and he had tremendous talent. He was
a natural born Thespian and they would have actors in
the tavern, and one day one of the actors took
a keen interest in him and saw the talent he
had and decided he needed to go to school. So
(51:15):
he got him into Oxford, which he couldn't the Whitfields
could not afford. They were very poor. But he got
him into Oxford on a work program, and folks, the
rest is history. He got to be friends with the Wesleys.
He found out about the Methodist Club also known as
a Holy Club, where he started learning the things of
God in the Bible, and before you knew it, his
(51:36):
natural talent that God had given him, his spiritual gift
of evangelism, began to blossom. And before you knew it,
he was preaching all over the place. And the next
thing you knew, he'd know he's out in the highways
and the byways, preaching in the coal mines and on
the in the bar rooms and in the streets, the
(51:56):
taverns and drawing huge crowds upwards of thirty thousand. When
Benjamin Franklin first heard him, he could not believe the
size of the crowd, and so he wanted to measure
and find how many people, said, you know, he took
out his mathematical stuff and measurements and tapes and everything
and went out and started measuring. He found out there
were thirty thousand people, and at the farthest point you
(52:17):
could hear George Whitfield as if he was right next
to you. Franklin could not explain it scientifically, baffled him.
And then when he realized Philadelphia only had twenty thousand people,
where did the extra ten thousand from? Where did they come?
They had come from in the country, from the mountains,
from the seas, they had come from all over the place.
Wherever Whitfield went, he drew cross and nobody knew how
(52:38):
they got there. Remember, they didn't have TV, television, radio,
a and of that. No, one can't understand how people
as far away would find out about it and literally
would run to the meeting, would get on their horses
and gallop to the meeting. It was just an amazing thing.
It swept the colonies. And then he brought it back
to England and it swept. They ended up taking it.
(52:58):
He and the two Wesley others. They were the three leaders,
brought it all the way, even into the continent of Europe.
It was a huge success. Here's a wonderful story about
a man who was just a poor kid and God
used him mightily. What a testimony, folks. Well, it's not
time for us to close, as we're closed with a
mind Saint Martin singing a Creole goodbye, and God bless
(53:24):
you all of it.
Speaker 4 (53:31):
They call you cREL goodbye.
Speaker 1 (53:36):
They think we're just wasted the time, all three sibyl.
Speaker 3 (53:48):
Of me.
Speaker 1 (53:51):
There's time for a Creo goodbye.
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