Hey
and good morning. Welcome to the Morning Drip right here on Radio Free Georgia.
Listen to the 24-7 stream at RadioFreeGA.com.
Glad you're with me today. This is basically a radio check of a morning show that we're thinking
about putting together and starting right here on Radio Free Georgia. Today is Thursday. It is
July 17th, 2025. Quick take, quick, quick look at the weather here. So today we are looking at
scattered, if I could talk today, scattered clouds with the possibility of an isolated thunderstorm
developing this afternoon. We're looking at a high of 94 wind south-southeast at 5 to 10 miles per
hour, maybe about a 30% chance of rain. And don't let that high of 94 fool you. We're looking at a
real feel of about 103, probably around about 5 o'clock this afternoon. Tomorrow's not going to
be much better. Intervals of clouds and sunshine, slight chance of a rain shower high of 92, wind south
5 to 10 miles per hour. And again, the real feel is probably going to get up there around 101 or 102.
So basically, take care of yourself. Drink a lot of water. If you're working outside,
I feel for you, brother and sister. Because, well, even in hot warehouse locations, I used to work for a
company. And we had these, we had these big, huge, huge fans in the back of the building. It was like
a warehouse type thing, but there's a lot of machinery in there. And as part of my job, I also
handled safety. And one of the things I had to do was, of course, put up notices around the place.
It basically said, hey, every 15 minutes to 30 minutes, you need to take a break and
make sure you consume copious amounts of water. Keep yourself hydrated. And here we are again.
Here we are again. So the idea of the morning drip is basically a morning show where we talk about
any and everything going on in South Georgia, Middle Georgia, Georgia, the entire country.
I mean, there's a lot of stuff going on. A lot of stuff going on. You can't shake a stick without
hitting something about the Epstein files.
Oh, I don't know what you think about it, whether you're a Trump supporter or not. And this is
interesting. It's so telling that his own, a portion of his own supporting base, MAGA, is turning on him
because they ran his entire platform. Well, not his entire platform, but part of the thing that he ran
on was always talking about transparency. And there are multiple, multitudes, multitudes of clips out
there that you can find in all his various outings where they talked about as soon as they got back into
control of government that the Epstein files, that client list, everything would be brought out into
the open. And you have to wonder, did they do that as a way to inspire the base to go, OK, yeah, this is
this is something that's really this summit's really important to us. And so this is the reason why we
we want to vote for this man. One of the reasons why there's a litany of reasons why people voted
for Donald Trump. Some of them kind of make sense. Ninety percent of them do not.
But you have to wonder, you know, did they look at it and go, OK, we have no intention of of actually
releasing any of this stuff? Or did they intend to do it? And then they saw what was in it and went, oh,
hell no, we can't. We can't do that. Whether it implicates Trump or not, it may implicate other
powerful people that Teflon Don does not want to piss off, basically. I don't think it's any stretch
of the imagination to know that when it comes to make America great again, Donald Trump really doesn't
care about the average citizen. I mean, let's be fair. He doesn't care about citizenship at all,
but he doesn't really care about the average citizen. He really only cares about the ones that are are
basically in the oligarchical arena with him, the really powerful elites, the billionaires. We don't
we can't even say millionaires haven't been able to say that for a decade or more. You know, I remember
back in the 80s as I was coming of age to be a millionaire, that was something. But now,
oh, I forget the number of millionaires we have in this country. I'm asking how many millionaires does
the United States have? And the answer is from statista.com. As of 2024, the United States
had approximately 23.8 million millionaires, accounting for about 40% of the global total.
This figure reflects an increase of 379,000 new millionaires in that year, averaging over 1,000
individuals attaining millionaire status each day. This growth was largely driven by strong financial
markets, a stable U.S. dollar, and rising asset values, despite representing only about 4% of the
world's world's population. The U.S. continues to lead in wealth creation, surpassing the combined
totals of Western Europe and greater China. And then finally, projections indicate that the number
of U.S. millionaires will continue to rise with an estimated 5.34 million additional individuals
reaching millionaire status by 2029. So basically, we're around about 24, 24 and a half million millionaires
now. So the question is, how many billionaires? And the number is 902 billionaires, which makes the United
States the country with the most billionaires in the world. Which tracks? I mean, we are the richest
country in the world. We have the biggest economy in the world. We are the most capitalistic country
in the world, for better or for worse. The Forbes 2025 billionaires list shows 3,028 billionaires
globally, 902 based in the U.S., as I already said. Investopedia confirms this figure, noting the U.S.
leads with 902 billionaires, an increase from 813 in 2024. So there you have it. So it does make me wonder,
what's the reason for not being transparent? What's the reason not to do what it, what they said they
would do, what they ran on? And I know there's a lot of right-wing influencers, podcasters that are
just pissed off. I mean, you had, you've got Kash Patel and Don Bongino, Bongino, both, who is the FBI
director and the assistant director of the FBI. Leading up to the election, every time they were
on some type of show, some type of podcast, they would invariably bring up the Epstein files and how
once they could get power, they were going to just bust this whole thing wide-ass open. Now, from their
perspective, I'm quite confident that they believe that they were going to be able to stick it to the
Democrats, that once all this information came out, it was going to put the Democrats in a very poor
light. And I'm not going to sit here and tell you that there aren't, weren't some Democrats that were
mixed up in that thing. I mean, this is, this is essentially a child pedophilia ring, if you will.
Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine, I think is how you pronounce the name anyway, Maxwell. I mean, it was a,
it was a sex trafficking ring with younger women. And so I'm not going to tell you that there aren't
some Democrats that were probably wrapped up in that, but it's not a difficult stretch. It's not
even an academic exercise to look at the fact that Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump were best friends
for what, over a decade, if not more. Look at the clips, look at the fact that, that Trump owned the,
what was it, the Miss America pageant. I mean, do you need the breadcrumbs? I, if I, if I were a betting
man, my $1 that I'm willing to throw into this to lose, I would bet that there's definitely some
incriminating evidence, or if not incriminating to the criminal level, but some evidence that would
not look favorably on Donald Trump. It would not look favorably and possibly rise to the level of
criminality with some of his, for some of his rich buddies. But the thing is, we won't know unless they
release the files. What do you think about the whole situation? Right now, I do not have a call
in line. I don't even really have a voicemail set up, but you can text 229-234-1307. Again, that's
229-234-1307. If we think that this morning show actually has legs and can get off the ground,
then we'll add a voicemail line, maybe a call in line. Right now, we have a text line 229-234-1307.
We'll be back.
Hey, and welcome back to the morning drill.
Yep. My name is Donovan. Glad you could join us. So in the previous segment, of course,
we talked about the Epstein files. Something else that we want to talk about, especially,
I mean, it affects the education system. It affects it across the entire country, but I'm
in Georgia. And so, of course, it affects, we're really concerned about how it affects Georgia.
And we're here in Tifton, Georgia. And so here's what's interesting about this. So it's something
to the tune of about $800,000 that the Tiff County school system is missing. And of course,
that's going to impact certain types of programs, afterschool programs, continuing education for
teachers, I believe, English language, like teaching English, I guess, to legal immigrants,
things of that nature. And I haven't really, I haven't spoken to anybody about this, but I did
ask the question in the Tifton Talks Facebook group, because the annual property tax assessments
started being delivered, being mailed out. And so I was curious, I asked, hey, how, how's it going?
How's it looking for everybody? And it's, it's, it's negative. It's pretty, pretty negative. I said,
for those of those who have received their annual assessment notice for property taxes, how are things
looking this year? And so far we've had 17 comments, uh, hate the way, hate the way Facebook
does comments. So pretty crappy went up and more from the evaluation last year, which is, uh, I responded
to that one directly and said, well, that's, that's what I was curious about. If anyone had theirs go up
again, another person said, uh, that I'm going to be broke sooner than I thought. Same as last year,
crappy. One that I found interesting was found out this morning from the tax assessor office that you
will not be able to discuss an appeal in person until you go through the initial appeal process
and you ask to go to BOE. Then you can discuss at the BOE meeting. Another person set up several more
thousand stupid and no basis followed by bad went up again, no improvements, no changes,
still waiting on result of appeal from last year, going to do another appeal this year. Also BOE
millage rate is ridiculous. Plus East floss, uh, mine tripled. And then I believe the last one was
some of this money going into somebody's pocket. And so I did put a comment in there. And I said,
when the Tifton BOE announced on June 13th, 2025, that they would provide taxpayers with property tax
relief in the coming year, that was based on their assumption. They were going to get the $800,000.
I'm presuming it was because from what I know, what I, what I have read, what I have heard, what I've been
told is this was basically everybody had the rug pulled out from under them. These funds were supposed
to be available July 1st. And on the 30th, it was announced that they were being put on hold for
review. So knowing the budgets had to be approved and ready to go by July 1st, everything the Board of
Education did as far as their, their budget, budgetary requirements and necessities was based
on the fact I would, again, presume that they were going to get this $800,000. So now that that's up in
the air, I have to wonder if that rollback that they mentioned, I believe on June 13th, as I said,
you can look it up June 13th. I wonder if that's going to happen now. Were these assessments prepared
before July 1st? And I mean, I guess it doesn't really matter because we've been, we've been down
this road before just because the assessment and this assessment is not a bill. So that does mean
that when the bill is due in November, it could be higher or it could be lower. If the Board of Education
decides that in lieu of them missing this $800,000, and even though they've announced to the general public
June 13th, that, Hey, we're going to give you guys some tax relief, they may have no choice if they
need to fill the void where that $800,000 was going to go. So I think they've got two, I got two options
here, maybe three, any of those programs that was funded by the $800,000, just kill them. That's option
one, just kill them. You can't pay for it. The money's not there. You're not going to get it.
And there's a good possibility that you won't get it. Even though I think 24 states, which Georgia is
not one of them for some reason, 24 states have sued the Trump administration to release those funds
because they are in violation of the constitution, couple laws, et cetera, et cetera. Because the thing
you need to understand is when Congress approves appropriations of monies to go for various
programs, the president cannot stop those funds legally. He basically has to get somebody to
sponsor a bill, create a bill and try to claw some of that money back. Like what they're doing for NPR and
PBS and all of that, that $9 billion rescission package. That's the way you're supposed to do it.
The executive branch is not supposed to have unilateral power to just go, yeah, I'm not,
you know, there's supposed to be $20 billion going to education. Yeah, we're not, we're not doing that.
We're going to review it to make sure that none of that money was going to some politically slanted
one way or the other, wink, wink, we know what they're saying, or DEI or any of that. We've got
to do a full review and make sure that that money is being well spent. So completely abolish those
programs, reallocate funds potentially from certain line items within the budget. I know this for a
fact as far as city government, because as the guy who used to prepare the budget and ran CityNet
until it was purchased by Plant Telephone, we would set our budget, everything would be approved.
And then I, you know, I started running out of money out of one line item. I'd have to do paperwork
and move money from one place to another. If they have those line items for the Board of Education,
the Tiff County School System, that's option number two. They may have to, they may have to
reduce funding for some other things for multiple areas of things if they want to keep these programs
that this $800,000 was going to fund. Option three, go back on their word and raise the millage rate.
Now, I don't know. I haven't done the calculus on it. I don't know how much they'd have to raise the
rate to accommodate an extra $800,000 in revenue. Could probably do the calculation, but I'm not going
to right now. So to me, those are the only three options they have. Now, within a week or two,
this could all be moot. The administration could back down in lieu of the lawsuits, or they could
let it go to court, and a judge decides that the Trump administration is in the wrong. We just don't
know at this point. What we do know is that the money's on hold, and it has basically caused a cluster.
A cluster. You know what I'm about to say. In the educational arena, knowing that the federal
government, Trump's goal, and he's already told the Secretary of Education, it's time, dismantle the
Department of Education at the federal level and toss it all back to the states. If you're someone who
supports that, I don't think you understand exactly all the ramifications of what that could mean.
I'll simply say this. If the eradication of the federal Department of Education results in funding shortages
or any of the school systems, the school systems, the state, will have to make that funding shortfall up,
and the only place that they're going to be able to get it is from you and me.
Yeah. 229-234-1307. Text if you've got an opinion on this. We'll be back.
So, let's get started.
Welcome back to The Morning Drip. My name is Donovan. I am your host.
Our text number is 229-234-1307. 229-234-1307. This is a test run of The Morning Drip. Trying to see if
it's something that we want to start here on Radio Free Georgia over at RadioFreeGA.com.
One of the new laws that took effect in Georgia is the new cell phone law when it comes to school systems.
And it expands on the restrictions. I love it. I love this. It expands beyond just drivers. It now impacts students and educators.
So, what are the key changes for schools?
Well, cell phones are banned in public school classrooms during instructional time because the law aims to reduce distractions and improve academic focus.
Teachers must ensure that devices are silenced and put away unless specifically used for education.
How does that impact teachers and parents?
Well, teachers can't use phones while actively teaching unless it's tied to lesson plans.
And parents may face limited access to students during school hours, especially for non-emergency contact.
Why was this law passed?
Well, lawmakers have cited concerns about academic performance, social media distractions, and increasing cyberbullying.
It was backed by studies showing students performed better when phones are removed from classrooms.
And to go on further, this law builds on Georgia's previous hands-free driving legislation.
But this one's all about keeping the learning environment basically tech-free.
I think this is a good thing. I think this is a good thing.
Now, I do understand from the perspective of some of the parents how they feel that it's – I guess it's necessary that they be able to contact their kids during school hours.
This makes no sense to me.
As a child of the 80s, as someone who came to life, if you will, in the 80s – I mean, I was born in 70s, so I wasn't born in the 80s.
But the 80s were my informative years.
And I – you know, we didn't have cell phones, of course.
And if your parents needed to get in touch with you, if it was that of much of an emergency that they needed to get in touch with you,
then they would call the school or they would go up there and pull your ass out of class.
Now, I do realize that in the several decades since then, we've had a significant, significant uptick in school shootings.
And that does seem to be one of the concerns of parents is if something were to happen like that, heaven forbid,
if anything like that were to happen, they want their children to be able to contact them, let them know what's going on.
We didn't have this issue in the 80s.
So, I guess that's the reason why I approach it from the point of view that I do.
And the fact that my kids, my youngest is 28, so they haven't been in school for quite a while.
Not to mention that we homeschooled, so there was that.
And so, I do, I can appreciate the concern of the modern parent that has children in elementary school and even high school.
I get that.
I understand that.
But at the same time, I can also see the other side that you don't need children sitting in the classroom,
texting with their friends, Facebooking, TikToking, or whatever, when they're supposed to be learning.
I mean, that's the biggest issue.
That's the reason why it impacts academia.
So, though I can appreciate the need, the desire of the parents to be able to communicate with their children,
I get it, but I think this is a good law.
And Georgia's not the only one that has done this.
This has been rolling out in a wide variety of states.
I would imagine even what you would consider liberal states, maybe California and Washington state, places like that.
It just makes sense.
It's not a First Amendment issue.
You're not squashing the rights of the children.
Nothing like that.
As a child that goes to school of schooling age, if you will, you have one job, and that is to go to school and learn to the best of your ability.
So that you can prepare yourself to either go to a secondary school, go to a trade school, but be a productive member of society.
If on your own time, you want to try to be a TikTok star or a YouTube star or some social media influencer, more power to you.
That's between you and your parents.
But when it comes to being in class, I think it's a smart move to remove the cell phones.
And my understanding is the law here now, it's not required that you pull the cell phones from high schoolers.
That can be left up to the district.
I don't think high schoolers need cell phones either.
I mean, a lot of high schoolers, especially when you get to the driving age, you'll drive yourself to school.
I know that was like a rite of passage for us, is as soon as you turn 16 and you could go get that parking permit from the school system and you could start parking in the parking lot.
In Fitzgerald, which is where I was born and raised, we parked in the National Guard Armory, which was right across from Fitzgerald High School.
Later, they built a new gym, had a whole new parking lot, and that's where they stopped using.
I don't know exactly when that was, maybe it was 1990, 91, somewhere in there, but they stopped using the National Guard Armory parking lot.
So what I'm saying is, is if you drive yourself to high school, you drive yourself to school, leave your phone in the car.
If you need to hop and skip out there during lunch, make a few phone calls, check your socials, then more power to you.
But I don't believe that cell phones should be allowed in any grade, whether that's kindergarten, first grade, or 12th.
That's just my opinion on it.
All right, I think that's going to wrap up this test stream of the morning drip.
Put this thing together and throw it out there on the Radio Free Georgia website at RadioFreeGA.com.
Again, if you got any comments right now, the best way to do that is to text 229-234-1307.
We'll evaluate how this ran, we'll see what else we can do, if it's something that we'll want to try to do at least three or four times a week, and we'll go from there.
Anyway, if you've taken the time to listen to this after the fact, I appreciate it.
Leave a comment right there on the page that this podcast episode will be hosted, because, yes, it will be posted as a podcast.
It's currently 77 degrees.
It's going to be another hot one here in South Central Georgia.
Everybody take care.
We'll see you next time.