We’re back with another episode of Dixie Dems, the podcast from Lean to the Left that takes an irreverent look at politics in the south, as well as nationwide. T

Today, we’ll offer up some prognostications for 2023 as well as take a look at some of the key political developments in our three states, and if our comments turn nationally, don’t be surprised. With me are my partners, Arthur Hill, from North Carolina, and Robert Thompson, from Georgia. Arthur is communications chair of the Brunswick County, North Carolina, Democratic party. Robert Thompson is based in Atlanta and founded Peach News Now and its opinion podcast, Got Damn Liberals, which is worth a listen. Me…I’m based in South Carolina, home of Sens. Lindsey Graham and Uncle Tom Republican Tim Scott.

So, welcome guys… First, let’s get to the news. Arthur, what’s happening in the Tar Heel State? (Where did that name come from, anyway?)

How about you, Robert. You’ve got a lot of action there in Georgia, what with rabble rouser Marjorie Taylor Greene, the crazy one, apparently gaining influence and all.

She had a “meeting in the ladies room” with Boebert to tell her she needed to join the swamp monsters – ironic That guy in Florida calling congress to get mccarthy elected Notice how nothing is being said about Nancy Pelosi? Because Republicans have to come up with a whole new narrative on hakeem jeffries GA embracing electric vehicles.

And, hey, how about those reports that “John Doe,” a former staffer for the Hershel Walker campaign, has sued conservative leader Matt Schlapp for allegedly sexually assaulting him last October. The unnamed aide is seeking almost $9.4 million in damages. Schlapp is chairman of the Conservative Political Action Coalition and denies “any improper behavior.” See what happens when you get in bed with monsters?

And who's heard from Herschel lately anyway?

Exactly. What’s happening in South Carolina? Well, the Democrats have had a defection – Sen. Mia McLeod, who unsuccessfully sought the party’s nomination to run against Gov. Henry McMaster – has left the Democrats and is now identifying as an Independent. McLeod claimed her decision is because the state’s Democratic party “no longer espouses the values my constituents and I hold dear.”

“By not engaging, enlightening or expanding the electorate…refusing to publicize the June Primary and getting a historical top of the ticket ‘shellacking’ on November 8, the party ensured a Republican super-majority and the losses of eight Black legislators in the S.C. House, five of whom were black women,” McLeod said.

Her announcement sent shock waves through the party’s establishment, many of whom derided McLeod for being a lackluster candidate and simply driven by political ambition. Tough for Democrats to win statewide in SC…really tough.

The other big news in SC is in the state legislature, which now has a Republican super majority. And they show no signs of moderation. Already, more than a dozen bills have been introduced to attack LGBTQ+ people, and they’re trying to get around the state Supreme Court’s ruling that the state’s extremely restrictive abortion law is unconstitutional. That law banned abortion after six weeks. The court said the law violates a state constitutional right to privacy. Gonna be interesting to see what happens, but my money’s on McMaster and the Republicans to come up with some other draconian approach to deny women the right to control their own bodies.

OK, Now for predictions: Robert…how about you first?

The House will be even worse of a shit show Benghazi was nothing – if I hear one more thing about Hunter Biden and his laptop! The swamp will get choppy on a qwest to get to the craziest first – 23% national sales tax will fail I thought we were battling inflation? Extreme Mentally ill conservatives will continue to have access to too many...

Show Notes

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Show Transcript

[00:00:51] And if our comments turn nationally, don't be surprised. So welcome guys. Thanks for being with us today on on the Lean to the Left podcast. You guys ready to rock and roll? 

[00:01:02] Arthur Hill: Yeah, but I got one, Correction to your script.

[00:01:06] Bob Gatty: What's that? 

[00:01:07] Arthur Hill: It I'm not actually Arthur Hill. I'm George Santos, posing as Arthur Hill

[00:01:12] Robert Thompason: I've got some. Hey, George. I've got some property to sell you in South Carolina. Gimme a call. . 

[00:01:19] Bob Gatty: I'll tell you what I, know a property in South Carolina that probably isn't much in demand today. It's a residential property. , do you wanna know about it? 

[00:01:32] Robert Thompason: Sure. The lady buried the husband under it, right?

[00:01:37] Bob Gatty: Yeah, that's it. I think she cut him up, put 'em in a couple garbage bags buried a or, hit 'em, I don't know, buried under a trailer. And now she's been charged with all kind of nasty crimes and that happened in South Carolina. I guess it could happen anywhere, but to me it just, Is a symbol of the state of politics here in this state.

[00:02:06] In the trashcan. 

[00:02:08] Robert Thompason: in the trailer park. 

[00:02:10] Yeah. 

[00:02:11] Bob Gatty: Yeah. It's a 

[00:02:12] Arthur Hill: trailer park politics in New Mexico. I'll, say that. 

[00:02:17] Robert Thompason: Yeah. Wait a minute. Was the dumpster on fire too?

[00:02:20] Bob Gatty: I don't think so. The paper didn't say so. Yeah. Anyway. All right, so what's going on in North Carolina Arthur, why do they call it the Tar Hill State? Where'd that come from? 

[00:02:35] Arthur Hill: The, actual true story is, that it used to be a, pejorative to folks from North Carolina back in pre civil War days because they were considered kinda low class and.

[00:02:51] And they, used to used to farm pine trees, of which they're a lot in our state. And but during the Civil War, they they did a little bit of marketing, and and the, troops who fought in the Civil War for, who were from North Carolina were called the Tar Heel Boys.

[00:03:10] And and they turned that by virtue of the fact that they did pretty well in battle, performed well in battle. They turned that. , it turned it into a compliment. And that's where the Tar Hill state came from. Pine trees are used to harvest turpentine and tar and pitch and used to be used to in ship construction.

[00:03:32] So for a long time pine trees were a big cash crop in North Carolina. As a matter of fact, the place where I live, you can still go down, you can see some of the undeveloped lots. They have rows of pine trees that were obviously planted for, agriculture reasons. So the legend lives on 

[00:03:51] Bob Gatty: I always get my Christmas tree from North Carolina, 

[00:03:54] Arthur Hill: so there you go.

[00:03:56] Yeah. I always get my palmetto trees from South Carolina and my peach trees from Georgia. It's great. Free trade. Free trade is a good thing. 

[00:04:05] Bob Gatty: Yeah. Yeah. I need a couple peach trees. Robert. Can you arrange that for me? I need a couple peach trees. 

[00:04:12] Yep. 

[00:04:13] Robert Thompason: To get ' em right to you.

[00:04:15] Bob Gatty: All right. Good. Okay. All right. So what's going on? Arthur, what's going on in nc? 

[00:04:22] Arthur Hill: The, big news this week was the revelation that the speaker of the house who's a Republican, is getting ready to revive the bathroom bill. I, guess he thinks he, has veto proof majorities now, and so it's not gonna be a replica of the bathroom bill that made the circuit a few years ago. But it's gonna be some version state regulations or something that nobody's clear exactly on what Tim Moore has in mind. But but that's making the press this week up here.

[00:04:52] The other thing is 

[00:04:54] Robert Thompason: I, thought we were battling inflation. 

[00:04:57] Bob Gatty: But, wait a minute before we get onto inflation, and that's a good question, Robert. Explain a little bit for those who don't know what the hell the bathroom bill is. 

[00:05:08] Arthur Hill: The bathroom bill was was a state legislature action in 2018 or 2019.

[00:05:20] That would bar people whose gender had changed at some point during their life from using public bathroom facilities. And the the, bill which was passed into law had such an impact that a lot of folks who had plans to, come to, the state for various events like the NCAA tournament and the political convention, the Republican political Convention for that time were starting to have second thoughts and also there was a lot of film production that goes on in North Carolina and studios started pulling back on that so it had a serious adverse economic impact. And that plus the uproar from civic groups across the state led eventually to the repeal of the law.

[00:06:13] But but now we're, gonna get a different version of that apparently. And I don't have the details. I don't think there are details yet, other than the fact that the speaker of the house is thinking about reintroducing legislation along those lines. So that's a little bit of background about what happened and we thought we'd gotten through that, but apparently we haven't.

[00:06:37] Bob Gatty: So there's that. So the Republicans, are behind it. 

[00:06:41] Arthur Hill: Oh yeah, very much yeah. And which, goes to show you that elections have consequences because the yeah the the, Senate is veto proofed now, and the house is one vote away from being veto proof. So, even if Governor Cooper, who is a Democrat, vetoed the bill, there's a shot that that could pass anyway, whatever it is.

[00:07:03] So there's that. Plus there's a revolt in the Democratic party in the state. There's a, move afoot to prevent the chair of the state Democratic Party, Bobby Richardson from being reelected. She's running the the, state executive committee, which is 750 folks strong.

[00:07:26] We'll meet on February 11th to, to vote on whether she should get another four year term or two year term. Sorry. There are two people running against her. One is a member of the state establishment. She's the president of the county caucus, which means that she's responsible for communications from the state to the hundred county chairs, and the other person is the state chair. Happens to be the chair of Brunswick County. My county Eric Terashima. He's running for the state chair as well. There's there's that going on as well. There's a revolt in the party based on the poor results of the last election of the midterms.

[00:08:08] So there's that going on as well. . 

[00:08:11] Bob Gatty: Yeah. We have a little bit of a revolt in the Democratic party down here too. Is that right? In South Carolina? Yeah. I was going to Fill guys in on that little First I want to hear from from Robert though. What's cooking in in Georgia?

[00:08:28] You got a lot of shit going on there. 

[00:08:30] Robert Thompason: Speaking of the bathrooms, apparently Marjorie Taylor Green and Lauren Boebert had a little meeting in the ladies room off of the congressional chamber recently that apparently Marjorie, she is loving her swamp up there. Or swamp. Yeah. And, Boebert is not liking the swamp.

[00:08:49] She is doing everything she can to derail what the majority of Republicans, the slim majority of Republicans are trying to do. Remember, we had what, 20 votes to finally get to McCarthy. And guess who of all people was making phone calls. That guy in Florida That should be in jail.

[00:09:12] So they've got this leader down in Florida that has all this influence and is able to sway votes in Congress. I thought these people were representing their own districts. Do, you think that the people in these gerrymandered red districts thought that was progress?

[00:09:35] That they're all sitting around like school children and literally fighting on the congressional floor? to get to this. 

[00:09:43] Bob Gatty: Yeah, I know. That was an incredible thing. It took 15 votes and he had to give away the store McCarthy did in order to get that, that position and, now.

[00:09:58] I think there's gonna, it is gonna have some really serious economic consequences for this country. 

[00:10:05] Robert Thompason: And folks that you know are on government assistance, social security, Medicare, I'll get into this a little bit later again, that this, these are gonna be the trading cards. Yeah. That these incompetent people that are trying to claim that they're leading anything when, it's just blowing up America. But notice how, since no, nobody's saying anything about inflation, they're not saying anything about Nancy Pelosi. All of a sudden it's all of these little niche bills and all of these committees and investigations we're gonna have Benghazi popping up everywhere 

[00:10:42] Bob Gatty: again.

[00:10:42] Yes, it's gonna be. 

[00:10:45] Robert Thompason: And they've gotta have, they've got to put all this effort in putting a new narrative on Hakeem Jeffries, cuz he has not been a leader in the past. His name hasn't come up, but they have to find a way to villainize, vilify him. Yeah. Now that he's on the minority side.

[00:11:04] More close to home. It's interesting here that we see in Georgia seem to be embracing electric vehicles. So you've got these struggles here in Georgia. We're giving these huge tax breaks to folks like Rivian and others from a Republican led state that doesn't believe in climate change allegedly.

[00:11:23] So you, you still have this internal warring between the Trump Republicans and the Bush Republicans and whoever can write the biggest check to either one and get crap done. That's, what they're gonna resort to. It's, so unfortunate. 

[00:11:36] Bob Gatty: The, idea that there's a lot going on with electric vehicles, that's a good thing, right?

[00:11:44] Robert Thompason: You would think these Republicans that you know are around here in Georgia, I thought that they didn't believe in climate change that we're just gonna continue to draw all the oil out of the earth and just kill us 

[00:11:56] Bob Gatty: all. 

[00:11:56] All. I'll tell you what, Robert, I've interviewed a bunch of pe, interviewed a bunch of people on this on this podcast, on my Lean Left podcast.

[00:12:07] Talking about climate change in the environment. And, every single person that I talk to expert in, in, this field in one fashion or another they are convinced that the development of electric vehicles is moving along rapidly and will be totally beneficial but that it's not being done out of the idea of doing good for the environment, it's being done because it makes business sense. And I think that's true. I, think that EVs will, grow and become mainstream as, as soon as it's possible to get them charged quickly and the batteries last longer. And So that's, to me, that's a really positive thing.

[00:13:07] Robert Thompason: And it's not just cars. So Archer Aviation, they are putting a factory here in metro Atlanta, just outside in Covington to make a it's almost like a helicopter. It takes off this way and then starts flying and, they fly on their own. And then Jeep, of all people still on us and Chrysler, they're going to be a partner to help manufacture those.

[00:13:29] That's gonna start here in Georgia.. They've already given them the tax breaks for that. So 

[00:13:34] Bob Gatty: those, 

[00:13:34] vehicles that you're talking about, would they be. vehicles that you and I would purchase. 

[00:13:42] Robert Thompason: Not likely those, so those the airlines are getting in lock step and funding with some seed money on these types of like Archer Aviation and so forth.

[00:13:52] Bob Gatty: I see. The reason why I asked him the question, Robert, is because years ago not that many years ago, A few years ago when I worked in Washington DC and I lived in the suburbs and I used to commute every day on the Washington Beltway and and Interstate 270. Going north into the Maryland burbs from, dc every day I, would be sitting in traffic sometimes for an hour and, think to myself, man, it would be really nice if there was such a vehicle as a little personal helicopter that you could just jump into, or even better if you're in traffic, a big helicopter with a giant magnet would you could call it up and, it would come down and, grab onto your car and lift you up and carry you over the traffic and sometimes.

[00:14:57] Huh. Sometimes when I'm in sitting in, you know how when you're in traffic like that and you, gotta go to the bathroom and, you're stuck, man, that's when that came into my mind. How cool that would be if you could just hit a button and, one would show up and boom, pick you up, take you to where you need to go, and then you could go to the damn John that'd be cool.

[00:15:25] Robert Thompason: It's just like the, Jetsons actually, but 

[00:15:28] Bob Gatty: that's not what you're talking about. Robert 

[00:15:32] Robert Thompason: similar. These air routes for example, here in Georgia, you can fly from Atlanta to Columbus, Georgia. I believe it's about 85 miles. There is no reason that has to be a jet airline scheduled flight.

[00:15:50] Sure in investing in trains, high speed trains and, but obviously that infrastructure is not there. So this next thing that they're, looking at are literally these helicopter like things, but they're gonna be electric. I think they have about six engines on them, maybe for redundancy.

[00:16:08] But yeah, that's what it's looking at going forward, because we don't have the infrastructure, there's been zero effort to put more high speed rail in any of these area. 

[00:16:18] Bob Gatty: Yeah. Okay. So we talked a little bit the 

[00:16:21] Arthur Hill: government, the federal government's working on this too. For example in the inflation reduction Act that, that major bill that passed Congress and Biden signed late last year yeah, it was has an allocation like has millions and millions of dollars allocated to the postal service, which is replacing its aging fleet of mail, vehicle, mail, delivery vehicles. They were first purchased by the post service in the seventies, and they've been taping them together ever since. But anyway, they're finally scheduled to be replaced. And postmaster General, who was a Trump appointee. and who's still there?

[00:17:06] Originally put an order in for all gas engine vehicles, all I forget how many they are. There's a couple hundred thousand or something like that of these vehicles. And there was a great hue and cry about, that saying, why haven't why, haven't you jumpstarted the economy by, ordering electric vehicles?

[00:17:29] And and it turns out that he had some interesting lobbying done by the oil and gas industry to stop DeJoy from doing that. . But with the, money that's in Ira is there for him to buy the vehicles, but they have to be electric. DeJoy lost on that round, as did the oil and gas industry and postal service is gonna pur, is gonna purchase.

[00:17:54] 250,000 electric powered vehicles as its new delivery fleet, which is great. 

[00:18:00] Bob Gatty: That is a, that is really good news. Yeah. That's really that'll, help jumpstart a lot of this stuff. Yeah. Now we gotta get, I personally think that what, 

[00:18:09] Arthur Hill: so now we gotta do is get rid of the postmaster general.

[00:18:12] Bob Gatty: Yeah, there you go. . I personally think that we're gonna see where these big convenience stores are that now have gas pumps outside. I think we're gonna see those gas pumps slowly evolve into electric distribution systems for electric vehicles where we could just stop in and charge up.

[00:18:40] Just like we fill our tank up with gas and. 

[00:18:44] Arthur Hill: I think that's what'll they need to figure out a way to make the recharging a little bit faster, I think. But they can do that. They'll do that. That'll happen. 

[00:18:52] Bob Gatty: Yes, that's true. That's true. That'll happen. Some of my guesses. 

[00:18:56] Robert Thompason: The irony of this is, Yeah one irony here in Georgia, thus the Public Service Commission that regulates the the power companies and the the gas companies here in Georgia, they have allowed Georgia power to cap folks, putting solar panels on their homes.

[00:19:14] I think they opened up like a small additional window. But yeah, you can go out and get your solar panels, but Georgia power is not going to be any part of it. You know that they've already capped the folks that have already chosen to do this. Meanwhile they, operate one of the biggest coalfire plants here in Georgia.

[00:19:33] It actually looks like a nuclear plant. I flew over it recently and had to look it up. It's in middle Georgia. But no, it's not a nuclear plant. It's polluting with more coal, and I think it's in the top 10 of the top polluters across the world. So meanwhile, in Georgia we're, stuck in 1960 here.

[00:19:49] Arthur Hill: Yeah and, in North Carolina we have a a small company called Duke Power that is still fighting the state environmental folks over the pollution that the coal ash that they've been producing in their coal fire. and, the storage that they're putting that coal ash in is, polluting the water in the area where it is.

[00:20:12] And they've been the Department of Environmental Quality's been after 'em for years to try to do something about that without much success. 

[00:20:21] Robert Thompason: I think we found our conspiracy theories something related to coal ash, . Yeah. 

[00:20:26] Bob Gatty: Here in speaking of water, I don't know whether this really relates or not, but here in South Carolina, there's all kind of TV ads right now by ambulance chasing lawyers who are trying to capitalize on people who were stationed at Camp LaJeune back during the, I think it's fifties through into the mid seventies where the water supply was tainted and a lot of people have ended up with serious diseases, including some cancers and so on. And these freaking lawyers like Morgan and Morgan in 

[00:21:12] Robert Thompason: Oh, we have the strong arm here in Atlanta 

[00:21:15] Bob Gatty: Oh, there's a couple of other ones down here.

[00:21:19] Yeah, we've got 'em too. But, they all come on and say I, was stationed at Camp LaJeune , so let me get this millions of dollars for you. Yeah I think it's a terrible thing that happened, but I also think it's slimy that these law firms are just lined up trying to take advantage of the situation.

[00:21:41] I don't know. Maybe I'm just being a little bit 

[00:21:43] Arthur Hill: Yeah. Plus, it's we, that's government money too, I think. I think there's there's, funds. I mean it's not it's, not even a lawsuit. It's a settled, it's settled legislation and these 

[00:21:56] Bob Gatty: folks That's right. Hire a lawyer. . Yeah, exactly right.

[00:22:02] Robert Thompason: Crazy. But that's what we get for continuing to elect lawyers to make laws and write laws. 

[00:22:07] Bob Gatty: Yeah. There you go. That's a good point. That's a good point, Robert. Now I wanted to ask you, Robert, about this guy in Herschel Walker's campaign. Who, John Doe. Some something, somebody named John Doe. 

[00:22:23] Robert Thompason: Herschel Walker actually ran for Senate here.

[00:22:25] What are you talking about? 

[00:22:26] Bob Gatty: Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, this guy John Doe, who was the former staffer for the Herschel Walker campaign, has sued conservative leader, Matt Schlap, who's chairman of the conservative political election committee for allegedly sexually assaulting him last October.

[00:22:44] Now this unnamed aid is seeking nearly 9.4 million in damages.. And Schlap through his attorney denies any improper behavior. Now, Robert have you heard about this down there and what's going on with it? 

[00:23:00] Robert Thompason: I'm, still just, Herschel Walker disappeared. I don't even know who, when, how supposedly he had a house here and from Texas, but yeah, he's gone.

[00:23:12] Nobody is talking about Herschel Walker here. That was such a slap in the face. But are we surprised? This comes from the party that alternate facts. This is what happens when you get in bed with monsters and good luck to the gentleman. But if, you didn't have any idea who you were working for when you got in bed with all these crazy monsters, I don't have a whole lot of sympathy for you, but apparently he was driving his car, like driving Miss Daisy or something and it happened in the car.

[00:23:47] It seems to be that these Republicans, a lot of things happen when they get into drivers and such.

[00:23:52] Bob Gatty: So wait even what amazes me is that they, on the one hand, they like down here in South Carolina, I'm gonna talk about it in a minute. They. Keep, coming up with all this legislation, this anti-gay legislation and, there are so many homophobes in the Republican party, and yet it seems every time we hear something like this it's, a Republican guy that's 

[00:24:17] Robert Thompason: Look at Jerry Falwell Jr as well, and all the drama that they've been going through. 

[00:24:23] Bob Gatty: Yeah, exactly. Anyway now have we exhausted what you guys wanted to talk about from North Carolina and from Georgia? 

[00:24:35] Robert Thompason: I think we have put out all the dumpster fires. Okay. 

[00:24:40] Bob Gatty: Down here in the Palmetto State the Democratic Party has had a defection.

[00:24:48] And it's unusual during this last campaign it was the Republicans that were having internal problems especially locally here in Horry 

[00:25:00] the-lean-to-the-left_dixie-dems-jan-23_untitled-clip_composer-u6ivagwgn_clip_2023-jan-18-1914pm-utc-riverside: County, the the home of Myrtle Beach where the Republicans couldn't agree on anything.

[00:25:06] They ended up having competing chairs and arguments over what happened to the money and all kinds of crap like that. But nevertheless, they still sailed through the election with no problem. And it's just because of the way the population is. In this state. At any rate the Democrats had a defection, me and Senator Mia McLeod, a very attractive state senator who unsuccessfully sought the party's nomination to run against governor Henry McMaster.

[00:25:44] she left the Democrats and is now identifying as an independent, and this just happened I dunno, a couple weeks ago. And it caused a, big stink here locally within the party as to why she did it. But she claimed that her decision was because the state party no longer espouses the values, my constituents, and I hold dear, and she said, by not engaging, enlightening, or expanding the electorate, refusing to publicize the June primary and getting a historical top of the ticket shellacking on November 8th the party ensured a Republican super majority and the losses of eight black legislators in the South Carolina House, five of whom were black women. And that's what McLeod said, but party regulars say you were in a really shitty campaign. You didn't do much. And the state party does not raise money for individual primary candidates during the primary.

[00:26:54] And it was your job to do that. And if you didn't do it successfully, that's your problem. And last night I was in a local party meeting and the county chair here made a point of saying exactly, that. I don't know what is gonna come of it. If anything, I think that this, Mia McLeod for whatever potential she might have had she's probably cooked.

[00:27:24] But it doesn't, that kind of stuff does not help, certainly in a state. 

[00:27:30] Robert Thompason: I'm, 

[00:27:30] sure there's a Republican that will hire. 

[00:27:32] Bob Gatty: Maybe probably 

[00:27:36] Arthur Hill: What, does she, mean by that doesn't reflect her values anymore? What does that mean? What are her, values?

[00:27:43] Bob Gatty: How's that? I have no idea. I think that she was really, she was just whining that she wasn't getting the attention that she thought she should get from the state party. 

[00:27:54] Arthur Hill: I think that's such a, they. But to just 

[00:27:56] go on to say the party doesn't share her values is such a shallow excuse for wanting to do something that she thinks will be down to her benefit. It's, craziness. What the party should be doing, what any party does, anywhere that's worth its salt is it reflects the values of its constituents in, terms of in, terms of actually going out and, finding things that benefit the communities that they're in.

[00:28:29] This is how politics works. I, think what we need to do is we need to readjust how we run our political campaigns and get away from all this, all these social values and all that crap, and start thinking about how do we benefit the people that we represent directly do we how do we improve their communities? How do we improve their environment? How do we improve their infrastructure? That's what governments are supposed to do. And and to go out and, to say the party doesn't share my values anymore is, pile of crap.

[00:29:07] Bob Gatty: Yeah. You know what? I think that she, ran against former Congressman Joe Cunningham. He was a one-term congressman from down in the Charleston area. And he had turned that seat blue after many, years.

[00:29:28] And, he lost reelection to a Trump Republican candidate. And I think she was playing the race card because Cunningham is white, she's black. She made the point of saying that this lack of, Value sharing cost the seats of five black women in the state legislature.

[00:29:57] Eight black legislators altogether. Sounds to me like she was just playing the race guard. And, I think that's pissed a lot of people off. 

[00:30:05] Arthur Hill: That's unfortunate. Anyway. It's unfortunate a 

[00:30:09] Robert Thompason: number. Yeah. Best of luck too. Yeah I'm, sure there's a lovely event at Mar-a-Lago she can attend. 

[00:30:16] Bob Gatty: More than likely Matter of fact, when she made that announcement one of the people who have permission to post on the Horry County Democratic Party Facebook page posted, See ya, Mia and he actually posted it as the Horry County Democratic Party, not himself personally. And the county chair took offense at that saying that shouldn't shouldn't be making derogatory remarks like that.

[00:30:57] But I frankly felt pretty much that way. See if you don't want to be a Democrat, get the hell out. We'll see what happens. She's running as an independent and, I see on her Facebook page she's got a lot of stuff about all the things she's done to cross over and all that. So we'll see what happens.

[00:31:18] The other thing that's going on down here is that of course the state legislatures just started up and already there've been more than a dozen bills. to attack LGBTQ plus people. And, they're also trying to get around the state Supreme Court's ruling that the six week abortion law is unconstitutional.

[00:31:44] And so they're 

[00:31:46] Robert Thompason: And, Bob, I have to interrupt you all of that. Yeah. Bob, I to interrupt you, all of that has to do with inflation, how? 

[00:31:52] Bob Gatty: I have no idea, but you're right, Robert. We got in this country, we got all these problems with people complaining about inflation and the overall cost of living and so on and so forth.

[00:32:06] And, that's, 

[00:32:07] Robert Thompason: oh, so I, I hear you. I think I hear you right now. They have no plan to fix inflation. 

[00:32:12] Bob Gatty: There's, 

[00:32:12] no plan. And, all they have is complaints. and, that's the way it is both nationally and locally here in the state. I think. 

[00:32:21] Arthur Hill: Exactly. That's that way at all levels. 

[00:32:24] Yeah. 

[00:32:24] Yeah, it is.

[00:32:25] And if that was, if there was one thing that, that the fight for the speaker showed is that the Republicans are not in, in their current seats of power to govern the country. They're, in it to create havoc and chaos. And, bring attention to themselves.

[00:32:44] Robert Thompason: That's they take campaign donations too. I'll forget that. Yeah, they do. 

[00:32:50] Arthur Hill: They do. Yeah. 

[00:32:52] Bob Gatty: Why doesn't this, okay, so 

[00:32:55] Arthur Hill: I got a question about South Carolina politics. Why doesn't Nikki Haley run for the Senate?

[00:33:00] Bob Gatty: She wants to be president. 

[00:33:04] Arthur Hill: Yeah, but right now she's not anything. . And she, she could probably get elected to the Senate, couldn't she? 

[00:33:10] Bob Gatty: She probably could, but there aren't there's nothing open now for the next couple years. Because two years ago Lindsey Graham was reelected.

[00:33:23] And then this past year, Tim Scott was reelected. Oh, he was? Oh, I thought he, so what another. . Yeah. So it's at least another two years. Oh, okay. Till no, it'll be another four years till Graham is up and so that's, and that'll be the first one available. So I, would think that's probably the reason.

[00:33:46] No opportunity. Yeah. You think 

[00:33:49] Arthur Hill: she's gonna, is she gonna run for president next year? 

[00:33:52] Bob Gatty: Yeah, she's positioning herself. So is Tim. And which I think is a joke. He's done nothing since he's been in the legislature. The only thing he has gone for him, as far as I can see, is he's an African American Republican.

[00:34:10] And for whatever combination that whatever good that is. But I I think he's, I don't think he's got a prayer in the world, 

[00:34:18] Arthur Hill: but. I think from, a looking at it from a democratic point of view Nikki Haley I think is scary. I think she, would be a very effective campaigner for her 

[00:34:31] Bob Gatty: party.

[00:34:32] I do too. I think she's scary both in terms of. her effective ability to be an effective candidate, but also in terms of what her policies would be. Yeah. 

[00:34:46] Arthur Hill: Just like the 

[00:34:46] Robert Thompason: guy in Tallahassee, Des Sanos. 

[00:34:48] Arthur Hill: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Scary as 

[00:34:50] Robert Thompason: hell. Yeah. 

[00:34:52] Arthur Hill: Yeah, 

[00:34:53] Bob Gatty: very much so. I, don't know. All right, you guys ready to come up with some predictions for 2020?

[00:35:02] Robert Thompason: Sure. I got my crystal ball ready. Who wants to go first?

[00:35:07] Arthur Hill: My, my prediction at the national level is and, I'm running I'm, realize I'm running a little bit against the, trend here. But I think that that Biden will actually find a way to to get legislation through maybe not exactly in the form that he wants but he'll be able to get to some of his priorities.

[00:35:29] And the reason I think that is because The composition of the house right now. I think the the coalition between more moderate Republicans and Democrats and less progressive Democrats will emerge. That will be the balance of power in the house. And I think that in, spite of some of these draconian rule changes that you see in the house now I think that the coalition that emerges will help the White House get through some of its priorities, not the least of which it's things like shutting down the government and, that sort of thing. So that's my prediction for 23. 

[00:36:10] Bob Gatty: Okay. How about you, Robert? 

[00:36:12] Robert Thompason: The, house is gonna continue to be a shit show. They've already proven that they have no intentions of pushing forward any sort of legislation that is worth a damn that they put all of these crazy conspiracy theorists on committee appointments that they were removed from when there was actually some law and order.

[00:36:32] Or excuse me, order in, in the house, right? And, the swamp is gonna be choppy. Also if you've, you guys have heard of this 23% national sales tax, that thing is dead on arrival. If, they truly are able to get that through, that will be a, like moving a mountain. And again, I don't see where any of the above battles inflation and that's all they all griped about, was Biden causing inflation through the campaign?

[00:37:04] I've seen nothing. 

[00:37:06] Bob Gatty: What are you talking about? 23% national sales tax. 

[00:37:10] Robert Thompason: Yep. So the the bill has already been introduced in the house. They're gonna get rid of the income tax, they're gonna get rid of the inheritance tax, and we're all gonna pay a 23% national, excuse me, consumption tax that businesses, by the way, will not pay into only everybody buying.

[00:37:29] Bob Gatty: That's a joke. 

[00:37:31] Robert Thompason: But this is the best thing to come up with. Yeah. Also the, and the other thing too, the, these battles with the trying to allegedly balance the budget, things like Medicare or Medicaid are going to, and social Security, they're gonna be destructed more. If I'm not mistaken, there's a thousand dollars a month that our government pays to private insurers for Medicare Advantage.

[00:37:56] They're gonna try to cut that and probably traditional Medicare will be gone altogether.. If, they have their way. 

[00:38:03] That's the game plan of Rick Scott with that crazy plan that he had, right? Is that 

[00:38:13] Arthur Hill: right? Yeah, He was gonna, he was gonna, he wanted to he was reviving the version of social security that that, George W. Bush tried to push through, which was turn it all over to the private sector. 

[00:38:28] Bob Gatty: Yeah. And, he wants to all entitlement programs like Medicare, Medicaid, veterans benefits, et cetera. Every couple years, those programs would come up for renewal vote. And could easily be trashed or dramatically changed during that discussion. That's a bad, thing. Yeah, they need to do something to make sure that the trust funds are sound and the programs don't run outta money. But 

[00:39:12] Robert Thompason: If, you look at the Republican party, every time they come into power, they blow up the national debt.

[00:39:18] Yeah. They're only the, race to cut taxes wherever they can do, we expect them to do any better this time. Yeah. 

[00:39:26] Bob Gatty: What worries me is, I think we could be facing another stock market crash like we had in 2007. If, these guys continue to play this hardline game with expanding the debt limit, and forcing a government shutdown.

[00:39:46] If 

[00:39:46] Robert Thompason: You, have people here in Georgia, like Barry laudermilk. They just want to default on it and just start over. They have no intentions of funding this huge deficit and, national debt that they have built up over the past 30, 40 years, ever since Nixon's days. Yeah. 

[00:40:03] Bob Gatty: Two other things.

[00:40:05] Do you guys think that Garland, the Attorney General Garland will try to indict Trump on anything? And do you think anything would ever come of it if he did

[00:40:16] Robert Thompason: it? It go ahead, Arthur. 

[00:40:20] Bob Gatty: Yeah. Yeah, go ahead. You got the same answer I do. And, that is it's, a mystery. It is, to me it is. Garland seems weak we don't know what he's doing behind the scenes, but it's just taken so damn long. All this time is what and, we don't seem to be getting Anywhere.

[00:40:43] And we have the January 6th commission that laid everything out as clearly as could possibly be, I think. And, nothing's coming of it, but that's so far. So are, we being a little hasty in being, cynical of I think being a little overly cynical. 

[00:41:04] Arthur Hill: I, think there's a decent chance that the special prosecutor will be able to make a case of sedition or something less against Trump. And, maybe even take it to court. But if he does what'll probably happen is there'll be years of foot dragging by the defense that'll prevent the case from moving forward.

[00:41:31] Unless the, judge who's responsible for that, the federal judge is responsible for the case, makes it happen. Yeah, so I I think Garland is probably doing the right thing. And I think the, Smith, the special prosecutor has a good chance of of filing a case against Trump.

[00:41:53] But the problem's gonna be the delays that take place after that which, neither Garland or Smith have any control over.

[00:42:02] Bob Gatty: Very good point. Very good point. Arthur. Now, what do you guys think about the Republicans push against Biden wanting to impeach him for whatever now these these incidents of Biden taking classified documents home when he was vp, that's just muddied the water.

[00:42:24] How stupid could I don't understand how a, president or a vice president could do that. Cavalierly just taken documents like that away from the security that you remember 

[00:42:40] Arthur Hill: the, National Security Advisor under Clinton. Took home a couple of, took home a couple of classified documents, put it in his briefcase and walked it out of the White House and went home with it cuz he wanted to read 'em that night and he got.

[00:42:57] He didn't have to go to jail. He got canned and, it was immediate. There wouldn't any fooling around. He, was out. Yeah. 

[00:43:05] Bob Gatty: Yeah. 

[00:43:05] Arthur Hill: And, I guess you can't can the president or but it, it's it's amazing to me that all this hubub is going on when when if it happens to a lesser person, boy, he is out on his ear immediately.

[00:43:19] Bob Gatty: Yeah, for sure. Exactly. Exactly. Oh, okay. 

[00:43:25] Arthur Hill: Another special prosecutor and more delays. 

[00:43:29] Bob Gatty: Yeah, exactly. Okay. 

[00:43:32] Robert Thompason: It's a testament that that guy in Florida is still with us. I assume he's on Medicare, and I'll just make the point if, that guy in Florida's still around, Medicare must be working pretty damn well.

[00:43:45] Bob Gatty: Are you talking about the guy in Florida who's on my. This guy? 

[00:43:50] Allegedly, yes. Oh, okay. Yeah. I just, I wanna make sure you're not talking about death Santas . 

[00:43:57] Robert Thompason: No I, don't think he's old enough for Medicare yet, 

[00:44:01] Bob Gatty: so No, he is not. But why would Trump be on Medicare? So 

[00:44:07] Robert Thompason: something's keeping him alive. I don't know what it is,

[00:44:10] It's not, it's, I mean it's still, it's 

[00:44:12] not 

[00:44:12] Arthur Hill: McDonald's. Yeah, exactly. 

[00:44:16] Robert Thompason: a ketchup. . 

[00:44:18] Bob Gatty: That's right. Alright. The White House is Mitch missing a lot of ketchup from when he was president and I don't know if they've actually filled a pantry. No, from 

[00:44:31] Robert Thompason: Heinz went bankrupt. So 

[00:44:33] Bob Gatty: Heinz went bankrupt.

[00:44:37] That was because Trump threw their ketchup up against the wall. All right, so what else we got? Anything? Anybody else got other little words of wisdom here before we click off of this thing? 

[00:44:49] Robert Thompason: Just, be smart, but critical thinking is hard. Read between the lines, follow the money. and this shit show is, just gonna grab your popcorn.

[00:44:59] Even the, Democratic House people, they were literally grabbing bags of popcorn to go watch that drama unfold. Yeah, stay smart. Don't drink the Kool-Aid. I'll, quote Michel Andro Senior Rally, if any of you listen to him, he says, don't drink the Kool-Aid. Okay. 

[00:45:18] Bob Gatty: All right. Those are the words of wisdom before.

[00:45:21] Arthur Hill: I'm, wondering who the first member of the house that is gonna stand up at the start of a certain legislative day and, call for a vote of voter confidence on the speaker. Because they can, one guy can. Or one person can do it, ever can do it, and they can do it every day, 

[00:45:40] Bob Gatty: so you know it's gonna happen.

[00:45:42] Yeah. You know it's gonna happen. 

[00:45:44] Arthur Hill: And I wonder who's gonna be, is it gonna be, is it gonna be one of the Republican whackadoodles or is it gonna be somebody on the far left of the, on the democratic side? Because anybody can stand up and do it. . 

[00:45:57] Robert Thompason: And even Marjorie was trying to pull that crap when she got up there.

[00:46:00] She was standing up and moving to adjourn every day. Early , one of the, yeah, 

[00:46:05] Arthur Hill: so 

[00:46:06] Bob Gatty: one of the Republican wack of doodles. I have to tell you something. When, I was a young reporter back in Pennsylvania working for some local newspapers. I worked for three local newspapers in when I first started out, and they had me covering local political events like school board meetings and county council meetings and so on.

[00:46:32] And there was always, it never failed. There was always some Republican wackadoodle. Who, was like the pain in the ass guy that nobody liked? Who? Who? Held everything up all the time over some nitpicky piece of bullshit. And just like that guy Jim Jordan does right from Ohio. He just reminds me, every time I hear him talk, it puts me back when I was covering those things and I go, oh, please let me the hell outta here.

[00:47:08] This is just crap.

[00:47:09] Arthur Hill: A lot of that in the next couple years. 

[00:47:12] Bob Gatty: Yeah. And it just seems I don't know why, it just seems like it's the Republicans, but maybe it's cuz I'm not a Republican that I think that, I don't know. All right guys. It's been fun. If you don't have any other words of wisdom we're going to, we're gonna sign this thing off.

[00:47:34] Yeah. 

[00:47:34] Robert Thompason: Are we good? Catching up with you guys as. 

[00:47:37] Bob Gatty: Okay, it's, so we'll come at, we'll come back at you next, next month with another edition of the Dixie Dems and meantime be cool and be careful and have a great 2023. 

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