Hello, my name is David Oles and I'm your cohost for Mississippi Happenings.
Joining me today is my co-host, Jim Newman.
Jim, how are you buddy?
I'm doing fine this morning.
How is the arm and physical therapy going?
Well, I got occupational and physical therapies today.
Yeah, three hour session.
It's getting better, but it's a slow process.
And it's the arm seems to be okay, but it's the wrist and the fingers now.
Oh, yikes.
Three hours of physical therapy, is that what I heard?
yeah, and then I come home and I'm exhausted and want to go to sleep.
Don't blame me for that.
In today's episode, we're just talking about Mississippi.
Jim, go ahead and start us off.
Well, some of the things we were gonna talk about are upcoming issues in the legislative session,
We got a constitutional question because the constitution says we have five congressional districts, when in reality we only have four.
And a couple of years back, we had a petition on the ballot and
I've forgotten the mayor.
from someplace close to Jackson.
said that because the petition signatures came from all over the state.
But there were none from the fifth congressional district.
And we don't have one.
So the Supreme Court threw out the initiative ballot.
Additionally, the legislature is going to be talking about voters' rights and early voting and probably mail-in voting.
I make note that Trump's not in favor of mail-in voting, but the statistics bear out that mail-in voting worked to his advantage, certainly in Pennsylvania.
And then...
There's another issue about school vouchers that they're going to take up again.
And it just seems like, it seems like we send the same people back to try to solve the same issues and they don't get them solved.
And then the next election, we send them back again to try to solve those same issues.
And I'm about ready for some new faces in Jackson that are willing to take on the difficult issues and try to come up with some answers.
it seems like you're absolutely right.
We're doing the same thing, using the same people, same old ideas.
And if all that being the same, we're going to get the same results, which is nothing.
You mentioned the voters' rights.
in looking at the Mississippi Today article, dated, September the 11th, it says, members of a House select committee on voters' rights heard from Samantha Buckley, who's the
director of policy.
for Secure Democracy Foundation.
I have not had an opportunity to reach out to Mrs.
Buckley, but I will.
And we know that Representative Noah Sanford, who's a Republican out of Collins, is co-chairing the committee
He believes the reform of felony suffrage restitution can pass the House.
So we're talking about reinstating, voters' rights for nonviolent, criminals and those that have, served their time.
I think it involves a lot more than that.
I think it involves early mail-in voting.
and
Yes, that's also one of the select committees that House Speaker Jason White has selected the committee for.
But what is most puzzling to me is the initiative petition.
It seems to me the state constitution says we have five CDs.
Supreme Court says, no, we got four.
I don't know how many years ago that was, but it's certainly three or four, maybe even five years ago.
Why has it taken this legislature this long?
to pass a bill amending the Constitution to four congressional districts and putting it on a ballot for everybody to vote.
because that's what it's going to take before we can have an initiative petition.
How long do these people have to have before they wake up and start doing something?
Could it be that these lawmakers do not want a ballot initiative?
Well, that's probably exactly right.
And I'm not exactly sure how many legislators we have, but I know it's less than 200.
And we've got...
right at three million people in the state of Mississippi that disagree with them, that want the right to initiative petition.
And we can't have it.
And the United States Constitution even says we have the right to petition, but not in Mississippi.
Good ole' Mississippi.
And if you really want, for a citizen and for a voter and all citizens to really express their opinion and to have a voice in a democracy, in a government, ballot initiative is
where it's at.
And I don't remember the exact what happened, but know, ballot initiative was for medical marijuana, is how it started.
But then it got kicked out once again, like you were saying, because of, you know, not enough, and I don't remember if it was because of the four or five,
congressional districts or if it's because there enough voters for it or it wasn't enough petition enough petitioners to get it done so I can't remember the exact
David, there was enough petitioners.
The problem was there were no petitioners from the fifth congressional district.
And where's it Jim?
Because it doesn't exist.
Yes, I knew that was going to be the That's the answer I was looking for.
With the passion.
uh Yes, I love that.
And, you know, they're getting, they're having all these, they're having meetings right now about the upcoming legislature.
And you know what?
I haven't read in the newspaper or heard through the media any town hall meetings around the state where any of these brilliant legislators might have gone and asked the people.
What's the most important thing we need to concentrate on this year?
What's at the top of your list?
And I'd ask you, David, what's at the top of your list?
What do you think the Mississippi legislature ought to concentrate on as the number one item this upcoming legislature?
Public education, public education, public education.
We cannot continue to take away money that is designated, is designed.
You go back to the Mississippi Constitution.
It's in the Mississippi Constitution that you do not take away money from public education and give it to.
charter schools give it to private institution, but it's happening.
And this is what I'm passionate about.
You it's the public education.
You cannot continue to destroy it.
And they're doing it.
Our mega super majority is absolutely doing that.
And it is wrong.
And Trump supports it.
Pro wrestler.
I don't think she was a wrestler, but she could be.
But Linda McMahon.
with the Wrestling Foundation or Federation, whatever they want to call it.
Yes.
the wife of the president of Amway.
Ah, okay.
talking about your pyramid scheme or whatever you want to call it.
Amway, that was so.
be wrong, I think that's where she came from.
yeah, and it's all out front.
They want to destroy public education.
They want to destroy the Federal Department of Education.
And we had a great conversation with Danita Monday about that.
We're gonna have a conversation again with Nancy Loom about that.
And that's what they're doing.
And it is wrong.
It is wrong in Mississippi.
It is wrong for the nation because someone, and especially in Mississippi, has to be held accountable for what we're doing to our students.
And also, I will, you know, to what we're doing for our special, or not doing, for our special needs students.
It is wrong.
We must have
an educated workforce, we must have an educated society.
And one could get the perception, one could get the idea in that.
the mega super majority in Mississippi does not want that.
So, okay, you got me fired up.
Thank you for that, Jim.
Everybody is in favor of that.
I know they're not.
the long end of that is that if you eventually end up with basically uneducated electorate, you've got control of them.
They will believe whatever they hear.
Absolutely.
You can see it daily.
I've never seen a president in my lifetime.
And I go, I can go back to Eisenhower and I don't ever remember a president that practically has on a daily basis, a national press conference, no matter where he is.
He comes up with something to get on the media, but.
and they cover everything.
When you've got that kind of power and that kind of control, the uneducated will believe what they hear.
aside from that, ah we got to get voting rights extended.
ah We've got to get mail-in ballots and make it easier for people to vote.
We don't have enough people voting as it is in the last election.
at least here in Lee County.
And I suppose it was pretty close to the same in DeSoto.
You could pick the precincts and they ranged from 10 % or I had one 9 % up to I think one had 18 % but they only had less than 50 voters or so.
There's gotta be a way to make it easier to because obviously requiring everybody to go to...
a precinct on Tuesday, which is a workday, is not working as it used to be.
When the majority of the population lived in rural areas and they were farmers, and they could take off the time to go vote.
Now they can't.
Now we're majorly in metropolitan cities who require their workers to be at work.
And we need to start seriously looking at changing the days of voting to maybe Friday and Saturday and have mail-in voting.
And I think maybe then we could start to see some more people turning out to vote.
Absolutely.
It's got to be, we want things quick and easy.
I mean, that's who we are as a society.
We want it quick, we want it easy.
One of the things that yes, voting should be a holiday.
It should be a federal day.
Now, throw away, people argue, well, we've already got too many paid federal holidays.
Okay, my answer to that would be, well, throw away one of these other days that doesn't really matter, and I don't have the complete list in front of me, throw away one of that,
and then replace it with, okay, the first Tuesday in November is gonna be a national holiday.
Let people vote.
Let people go to the votes.
know, go to the polls.
me interrupt you.
I'm talking about the state elections and the state controls when the elections are.
They do not have to be on a Tuesday.
It's states' rights.
We control within our legislature the days that we vote.
there's gotta be somebody down there that the light bulb ought to go off.
And they can figure this out.
I don't think it's too difficult.
to.
One of the things that that would be also early voting and once again I'm going back to the Mississippi Today article Mississippi is one of three states along with Alabama and
New Hampshire that does not allow in-person early voting.
Now as someone who's over 65, barely, yes, could go at a certain time and vote.
It's early voting is one of the things to make it easy.
And it's one of the things that Governor Tate Reeves opposes.
He does not want early voting.
And according to, Noah Sanford from Collins.
He says that early voting.
might face the most uphill battle.
My perception is because, and this is what I read and but it's also yes, it's my perception, Democrats would love early voting.
Democrats would take advantage of the early voting.
Therefore, you know,
Democrats would possibly be more successful.
Now that's just a theory, but early voting would be for everybody.
Early voting is for everybody, not just the Republicans, not just the Democrats, but...
You know, the super majority in Jackson, they look at it, this is going to help the Democrats.
They don't look at it like they do most of the issues.
This is going to help the Democrats not knowing or not admitting this is for everybody.
Well, everything these days is political.
It's either right or it's left.
ah And I personally took offense at our president calling the left-wing radicals as if they were the ones to blame for everything bad that's going on.
It's always the left-wing radicals.
Well, you know, really, it's not.
It's not the left wing.
It's not the right wing.
It's
people and not everybody agrees with all the positions.
But most of the things that we have are not of a political nature.
It's who is going to be limited the most.
Who's it gonna be toughest on to get out to vote?
Who's it gonna be more expensive for them to buy a car?
Everything seems to be political.
And...
uh
Like a friend of mine, David Brevard, who owns B &B Concrete says, potholes are not political.
And so many things are just not political until people decide to make them political.
And we need to get away from that.
And I truly wish that the president would learn to curb his language a little bit.
I mean, just a little bit would be wonderful because we are at a time right now.
where there are more shootings and bomb threats, et cetera, than there have been in a long, long time.
And when he starts calling...
the left, the radicals and scum, et cetera.
He's not helping the country.
And he needs to, he really needs to curb that somewhat.
But to quote Donald Trump in an interview that I saw recently, could not care less about the nation, could not care less about what's going on.
And as he said, this is gonna make a lot of people mad, but I could not care less.
You know, we're talking about bringing the nation together.
That's not what he, that's not him.
That's not what he wants to do.
That it will never happen.
oh It's just.
on is what's going on in our own home.
Like Jack Reed Jr.
said, his dad told him what goes on in his house is more important than what goes on in the White House.
And we here in Mississippi need to get down to the grassroots and start making things more important in our home.
and quit worrying about what's going on in Washington.
What goes on in Washington.
at least for the most part has not had.
some severe, dire effects on individuals in Mississippi.
It's coming.
Health care costs are going up, I hear, anywhere from 40 to 60 % ah by the end of the year.
So we will start feeling that.
But we need to start concentrating on what's going on in our own home and our own house.
And that's Mississippi.
and we've got problems that need solving that can be solved if our legislators want to sit down with the people and have serious discussions and come to a resolution and pass a
bill, we can have the initiative petition.
We can stop charter schools getting money.
There's so much we can do.
if we start concentrating on our own home.
I mostly agree with that, but we also can't do it while we still have a Trump super majority in Mississippi.
And the only way
I wouldn't call them a Trump supermajority because now you're falling into the same trap.
We have a supermajority.
Some of those supermajority are not staunch Trump supporters.
They're good, reasonable, sensible people.
They may just be outnumbered, but they're sensible people.
then they need to step up.
Yes, that's true.
So you can defend them and yeah, you're right.
I'm judging everybody, but the Republicans hold the super majority in Mississippi.
And I would also argue the point, and this is getting off a little bit.
I would argue the point to say there is not a Republican party.
It is the Trump party.
And that's a whole different discussion.
we had a great conversation and I had the utmost respect for Representative Becky Curry.
You know, because a lot of the things, you know, expanded healthcare, yes, she's Republican, but she voted for that.
So you're right, there are others out there.
but they continue to do and vote how Tate Reeves tells them to.
I don't disagree with that.
That's what a supermajority does.
But, you know, right there in DeSoto County, you've got four legislative elections coming up.
DeSoto County can break that supermajority in the House.
If DeSoto County wants to turn out and vote, they can do it.
Hattiesburg can do it.
So it's up to the voters.
And that when I say it's time to get involved in your own house, that's what I'm talking about.
The vote is there.
The opportunity is there.
Will they take care, take advantage of it?
I don't know.
We'll see.
It's going to be a difficult battle, but the Democrats in Desoto County.
knew was when Custer got beat by the Indians.
Well, that was not an easy battle for him, but it was quick and easy.
It was quick anyway, I guess.
easy for the Indians.
But, you know, it takes work.
You just can't sit there and say, well, somebody will do it.
Well, you know, somebody died a month ago and nobody has stepped in to take over what somebody was doing.
So it's up to each of us if you want to change that supermajority and you live in a county where there is a contested legislative district, you have the opportunity.
If the Democrats don't turn out to vote and the Republicans do, shame on them.
It's that simple.
And also, we have asked several of the Republican lawmakers to join us, and they have not responded.
I think he reached out to Chad White also, and I don't think you, did you ever get a response from him?
And, you know, I would love to have them.
I would like to hear the other side of the story.
I would love to, for someone to explain to me why Roger Wicker, excuse me, Roger Wicker and Cindy Hyatt Smith voted no.
to releasing the Epstein files.
And once again, I'm pulling this off subject, but that would be an excellent question to have answered from those two people.
Well, I think Cindy Hyde's got two people running for her place in the Republican primary.
And there's
at least two people running in the Democratic Party primary.
And then there's an independent.
know the independents running against Trent Kelly.
Yeah.
But so there's another opportunity.
You know, we have elections practically every year in Mississippi.
And when you don't go out and vote, and you don't take your children with you when you vote, how do you expect them to grow up knowing that
That's a treasure.
practice that we have in this country is the right to vote, the right to elect who represents us.
And we're losing that.
take the state of Texas, and I know we're off the subject, we'll get back on it, but the state of Texas has redistricted Texas to pick up five new Republican votes.
Yes.
That's the case of those who are elected are now getting to decide.
Who can vote for them?
Yep.
and it's supposed to be the other way around.
And we're falling into that.
And California has got a petition on the ballot to counteract what the Texans have done.
And Missouri is working on it.
I mean, this is absolutely ridiculous.
This is not what democracy is about.
But when people don't turn out to vote,
The majority is gonna write the rule book and we're gonna have to abide by it.
So.
And you know, as a white male, we were born with the right to vote, but women had to fight for their right to vote.
African Americans had to fight for their right to vote.
And I think that...
I think that people need to be reminded of that.
People fought and died for their right to vote.
it's so important.
you know, yes, there's an apathy is one of the reasons why, you know, well, know, Mississippi is a Republican state and Mississippi is going to go for the Republican, you
know, for president.
So why bother?
are all excuses.
Exactly.
we got the course, we've got the school vouchers.
But I'd like to come back to it's still time.
I think the select committee needs to travel around the state and have hearing sessions on these issues and find out what the people think.
It's not all that hard.
to get a place to have a town hall meeting.
If they want to come to Tupelo, I'll be more than happy to supply a place, pay for it.
And they can listen to what the citizens have to say is their priorities for this upcoming election.
There are lots of issues, but
The number one issue should be education.
The number two issue.
It should probably be the school vouchers.
Number three, possibly.
At least on my mind, the number three issue is, despite what I hear in the media, the price of groceries is still going up.
It's not going down.
And if you've been to the grocery store, you know I'm telling the truth.
Things are going up or the uh size of the bag is maybe an ounce or an ounce and a half smaller, but it's the same price.
My wife went to the store to buy coffee and the coffee she used to buy was slightly over $5 and now it's 10, thanks to Trump's tariffs.
There are things that are working and there are things that are not working and the legislature needs to hear about them and try to do what the people want to have done, not
what our legislators think the people want done.
I'm not sure all the people in the state of Mississippi would have voted to have the income tax completely eliminated.
because they turned right around, the legislature turned right around and made it possible for the supervisors to raise the millage to make up for the loss of tax money.
So either pay Peter or you pay Paul.
I prefer that we pay the state and the state continue to pay for the highway patrol and our infrastructure and social issues that need taking care of.
We've got plenty of that that needs help.
Absolutely,
one of the things that is really gonna start
hitting hard is the tariffs and how that's gonna affect the farmers in Mississippi.
And we know that Cindy Hyde-Smith,
You know, she says all these wonderful things that she and Trump have done for the farmers, but that ain't the case.
And the farmers are about to feel the pain from that.
And you talk about these town hall meetings.
They don't have them.
Trent Kelly recently attended a fundraiser, invitation only, and yes.
You had to donate all of that.
That was a fundraiser.
That was not to find out what the issues are in Mississippi.
I'm very serious about the town hall listening sessions and I would encourage anybody that's listening to call their state legislator and tell them that they would like for
this select committee to come to their city and have a listening session and listen to what the people want.
this next legislative session to concentrate on.
Otherwise, they're going to concentrate on what they want to concentrate on or what they think the people of Mississippi want them to concentrate on.
It's just, it's just, I don't trust their judgment.
There being told what
never asked me or anybody I know, what do you think about this bill or that bill or anything else?
They just make up the bills and pass them right on through.
And I go ahead and
We had a great conversation with Jamie and Mary Jane
down at Tupelo.
A great group.
I think that's where we all need to be.
We all need to be in a grassroots effort like the Indivisibles.
We also need to get involved with our county.
and I'll say Republican or Democrat organizations.
We need to get involved with that, but we've got to hold our elected officials accountable.
And we do not, we do not do that.
And we got to have a two party system.
We don't do that.
We're not going to have that until we get Democrats and progressive elected in Mississippi.
You're absolutely right.
And I would love to talk to any Republicans that would like to come on.
I don't want to argue with you, but I'd like to have a conversation with you.
And most of the time when I've had conversation with my Republican friends, strangely enough, we end up
agreeing on more things than we disagree.
So, you know, if you're afraid to have a conversation, I because you think somebody's going to do a hatchet job on you or argue with you, I can tell you you're wrong.
What we want to have is a conversation.
We can have our own little town hall meeting right here.
Just give us a call and we can set it up.
and we'll have a conversation.
Each side will be thoroughly heard and no issues are off the table and your opinion will be appreciated and respected.
And I expect that we'll find, like I said, we probably agree on quite a few things that we didn't even know we did.
And I agree with you Jim on that.
We all have the same issues.
We're all concerned about our children, our safety.
We're concerned about the price of gas.
We're concerned about the price of groceries.
The difference is how do we solve these problems?
last week was an extremely difficult week for our nation for a bunch of reasons.
along with a couple months ago as well.
And it's not getting any easier for our nation as we go on.
Jim?
interviews coming up next week and the following week.
A young lady by the name of Cat O'Shea, is that right?
ah
Who is an attorney, but she is a...
appears to be somewhat of an expert on the big beautiful bill that Congress passed.
And then we've got another interview coming up with Nancy Loon with the Parents Organization regarding schools.
And we're working on
an interview which we'll actually record I guess tomorrow afternoon with Mr.
Schrader.
Yeah, Dr.
Schroeder.
One of the things that we want to, and I'm glad you mentioned those.
One of the things that we do want to try to talk about, and we will talk about this with Dr.
Schroeder, is how do we come together as a nation?
We Mississippians are not stupid.
Let's make that perfectly clear.
Things happen in our legislature over which we don't have any control except for the ballot box.
those who do have control, I think are in a minority.
So when we start talking about other people in positions of power like legislators or congressmen or senators, I don't want to be disrespectful.
They got elected by a majority of the people, they're there, and their term for reelection is coming up.
And we'll have the opportunity to change things or to leave things as they are.
And it's up to us to make that decision.
I guess let's go ahead and wind this up.
ah Jim, you know, let's talk, will you talk a little bit about uh sponsorships, donations, and subscribers?
Will you share that with us?
Sure.
David came up with this idea, I don't know, a year ago or so, and about seven or eight months ago, we got it started finally.
And...
ah
The initial funding of it came out of David's pocket and my pocket.
And then we picked up.
One, two, three, four, five other sponsors that have helped us along the way with periodic donations, which are greatly appreciated, believe me.
ah But, you know, it's not important that you agree with us or that you disagree with us.
What's important is that we have the conversation and we invite you, no matter who you are, to call us.
And if you want to have a conversation with us and it's of interest to the majority of the people that are listening to us, we'll have that conversation.
But you know, those conversations cost money.
And we appreciate every single contributor more than you realize.
Yes.
So if you would like to make a contribution, David can tell you how.
And if you think you have a topic that is deserving of a...
spending our money or that the population ought to hear about.
Give David or myself a call or text and we'll be glad to talk to you and see what we can set up.
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Any and all donations would be greatly appreciated.
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That's mshappenings1@gmail.com We would love to hear from you.
Yes, we're on Spotify, we're on YouTube, we're available audio and video and this podcast is free of charge to you.
We do want your input.
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We want to talk to those that do not agree with us as well, because that's what conversation is.
It's two way.
So Jim, any last notes for us?
Yeah, I want to talk to some people that
I might not disagree with, but I need more information before I can say that.
When you have conversation, ideas are transferred and exposed and sometimes ideas can become reality.
I'm always really upset when I go into a restaurant and I see two people or four people sitting at a table and all they're doing is looking at their phones.
We're not talking to each other anymore, people.
We need to be talking to each other.
And sitting on an iPhone, typing out texts to your friends or whatever's going on that you want to be part of is not conversation.
Conversation is between one, two, three, four or more people.
And that's how ideas are brought forth.
And that's what brings about change.
Absolutely, absolutely.
Well, thank you for watching.
Thank you for listening.
And I will leave, as I always leave with this, may we never become indifferent others.
Thanks.