Excel College in Western NC aims to build 150 homes in 2 years (11-19-2024--Hour3)

[00:00:04] What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to 3 on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to thepetekalinershow.com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button, get every episode for free, right to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support.

[00:00:28] We've been talking about the North Carolina recovery and relief efforts and the budgetary problems up in Raleigh, but I want to focus your attention for a moment. Up in Black Mountain, there is a small Christian school. It's called Excel College, EX-CEL, Excel College. And the head of campus life there is Andrew Chambers, and he joins me now. Hello, Andrew. How are you?

[00:00:54] Hey, Pete. I'm doing good. How are you?

[00:00:56] I am doing well. So for people who are not aware of the college, tell people what EX-CEL College is. Do you prefer EX-CEL or EX-CEL?

[00:01:05] Yeah.

[00:01:05] Or EX-CEL?

[00:01:06] Yeah.

[00:01:06] EX-CEL College.

[00:01:07] Yep, EX-CEL College.

[00:01:08] EX-CEL College.

[00:01:09] Okay.

[00:01:10] Yep. And we're a small Christian school. We do a mixed-with-apprenticeships in the context of a Christian community to help students graduate, become wise, mature, productive adults.

[00:01:23] And they graduate debt-free, ready to build healthy marriages and families.

[00:01:27] Well, Aaron, so you guys are located in Black Mountain?

[00:01:30] We are in Black Mountain. We're right up in the Ridgecrest neighborhood, so literally on the crest of the ridge here before you go down into the plains.

[00:01:39] So, and if people don't know where that is, if they're driving up, what is it, I-40, see the big cross from the interstate, that's basically Ridgecrest, right?

[00:01:49] Yes, sir. You can actually, so we're literally right across the street from Ridgecrest. You can hit it with a baseball from us.

[00:01:54] Okay. Not that they were advocating you hit baseballs at the school. Okay.

[00:01:59] All right. So, first off, tell us a little bit about the rebuilding effort that you guys have been doing at the school with the students, I guess.

[00:02:10] Yeah. So, you know, when Helene hit, we went from, we lost power and water overnight.

[00:02:19] We had over 100 students and staff members trapped on campus.

[00:02:24] And we, luckily, where we're at, the water went east and went down into Old Fort and went west into Suananoa, and those places got decimated.

[00:02:33] But our campus, besides Treesdown, was largely left in Oasis.

[00:02:37] And we had just built a, or we had just paved a 12,000-square-foot concrete pad and put a 3,500-square-foot structural tent up, and they were both sitting empty.

[00:02:46] And so we got some calls from people that said, hey, would you mind running a distribution center?

[00:02:50] United Cajun Navy was one of those guys.

[00:02:51] And we said, yeah, we'd love to.

[00:02:54] And so we just got semis that started rolling in with stuff.

[00:02:57] So all of our students who, they are required to work as part of their tuition, most of them lost their jobs overnight.

[00:03:03] So we just jumped right into the distribution game.

[00:03:06] So for the first four weeks, we were, some of our former students that are paramedics now, they were doing wellness checks for the town of Black Mountain.

[00:03:14] We pushed out over 2 million pounds in supplies, got some amazing help from guys like Sean Hendricks and J.P. Decker over at Mercury One.

[00:03:24] And we're able to get over 150 generators out in the community, three RVs matched with families.

[00:03:30] And it was just really an amazing effort.

[00:03:33] And now we've partnered with Operation Blessing, Adventures Relief, and World Vision.

[00:03:39] And our goal is to rebuild 150 homes over the next two years.

[00:03:43] So that's what we're up to.

[00:03:46] Well, that might be a faster pace than the North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency has managed to...

[00:03:54] I'm kidding. I'm kidding.

[00:03:56] No, but that's awesome.

[00:03:57] 150 homes in two years.

[00:03:59] And you mentioned Mercury One.

[00:04:01] I will put in an endorsement for them.

[00:04:04] I've donated money to Mercury One for years.

[00:04:06] I find it to be a very good nonprofit.

[00:04:08] It's a great organization.

[00:04:09] That's the one that Glenn Beck helped to start up.

[00:04:12] I don't know.

[00:04:12] Is he still involved with them?

[00:04:15] I've lost track.

[00:04:16] Yeah.

[00:04:17] Okay.

[00:04:17] Yeah.

[00:04:17] So he actually signed some of the boxes that came our way.

[00:04:21] And they sent notes.

[00:04:23] It said, FEMA doesn't love you, but Fort Worth does.

[00:04:28] All right.

[00:04:29] And so if people want to help with that effort, is there a way for people to help with that effort?

[00:04:35] Yeah.

[00:04:35] Yeah.

[00:04:36] That's a great question.

[00:04:37] So we're doing a couple things right now.

[00:04:39] We're rebuilding homes, but we're also trying to really help our economy right now because Black Mountain is built on small business.

[00:04:46] And small businesses lost all of their October.

[00:04:48] So what we're trying to do is buy gift cards from some of our favorite small businesses in town and actually give them to first responders and disaster workers.

[00:04:56] So what we're doing is we're taking care of the local economy and disaster workers at the same time.

[00:05:01] So you can find us on Twitter.

[00:05:03] We have a link to give to that Helene Holiday Fund.

[00:05:07] I'll say Mercury One jumped in with a big purchase of rooms from a local B&B that we love, and we're trying to match them with dinners and nights out for people.

[00:05:17] So just doing what we can to try to keep the local economy alive.

[00:05:21] So, again, they can find that link on our Twitter.

[00:05:24] What's the Twitter account?

[00:05:26] Is it XL College?

[00:05:28] Yep.

[00:05:28] XL College.

[00:05:29] Yep.

[00:05:30] I can tweet it to you as well.

[00:05:31] Okay.

[00:05:31] XL College is on Twitter.

[00:05:34] And so you're asking for people to essentially purchase these gift cards for the small businesses themselves.

[00:05:42] Is that right?

[00:05:43] Yeah.

[00:05:44] So they can give to our Helene Holiday Fund is what the name of it is.

[00:05:47] Okay.

[00:05:48] And then we're actually – a lot of our students work at these small businesses.

[00:05:51] And so the students are going to go in and buy them from the owners.

[00:05:54] But we're trying to get, you know, $10,000 for the bakery and $10,000 for the pizza place because that's the amount of revenue that they lost.

[00:06:03] And we're going into dry season here.

[00:06:05] So we're trying to do big chunks at a time.

[00:06:07] So, yeah, it's one of the things people don't realize.

[00:06:09] I've worked up in Asheville for eight years.

[00:06:12] And so much of the economy, you know, is tourist-driven.

[00:06:16] I think people do know that.

[00:06:17] But there is – traditionally, historically, there's always been this surge around this time of year.

[00:06:23] And then it tapers off and there's not a lot going on for a lot of the – especially the smaller rural communities outside of Asheville.

[00:06:32] Not a lot going on after, say, Christmas.

[00:06:35] It really does wind down for quite a while.

[00:06:38] And so people make a lot of their money during the tourist season.

[00:06:42] And there were also all of these, like, festivals and art shows and stuff all around the mountains.

[00:06:47] A lot of those got canceled.

[00:06:48] I know some artists, they're just – you know, for this year, they're just financially ruined because they can't go to any of these shows to sell their wares.

[00:07:00] Yeah.

[00:07:00] I mean, it's like a one-two punch.

[00:07:02] Imagine you miss your biggest month of the year right before you're entering into your dry season.

[00:07:06] And then some people lost homes or they have to do repairs.

[00:07:09] And it's just – I mean, they call it the economic disaster after the disaster.

[00:07:12] And we're trying to do our best to help prevent that from happening.

[00:07:16] Yeah.

[00:07:16] Yeah.

[00:07:17] The website is thexlcollege.com, thexlcollege.com, E-X-C-E-L, Excel College, thexlcollege.com.

[00:07:26] The Twitter account is the same name, Excel College, on Twitter.

[00:07:30] So you can look up the Helene Holiday Fund there.

[00:07:32] They're also on Instagram and Facebook, as everybody is.

[00:07:37] So is there anything else that you want to add that you think is interesting or important to mention here for folks to know before we let you go?

[00:07:43] Yeah.

[00:07:44] I would just say don't forget about us.

[00:07:45] You know, we've got a lot of rebuilding to do, a lot of rebuilding.

[00:07:49] And from what people tell us, you know, after 60 to 90 days is really when that compassion window closes.

[00:07:56] But we've got homes that we're going to have to replace, and it's going to take a while.

[00:08:00] And so we'll have volunteers coming for the next two years.

[00:08:03] We'd love for people to come to Earth.

[00:08:05] Yeah.

[00:08:06] Yeah.

[00:08:06] There's, and I always take the opportunity to mention Hearts with Hands.

[00:08:09] They're based out of Swan and Noah.

[00:08:12] They're a disaster relief organization.

[00:08:14] They do great work.

[00:08:15] Obviously, Samaritan's Purse does great work.

[00:08:18] Are there any other charities you guys are hooked up with?

[00:08:20] I know you mentioned a couple earlier.

[00:08:22] You said Operation Blessing.

[00:08:24] World Vision is another.

[00:08:26] Adventures Relief.

[00:08:27] You also had one list that I saw.

[00:08:30] Beast Philanthropy.

[00:08:31] Is that Mr. Beast, the YouTuber guy?

[00:08:34] That is Mr. Beast.

[00:08:35] So they did more.

[00:08:36] They provided a lot of materials, actually, in our first couple of weeks.

[00:08:40] They had a lot of brand partnerships that were able to send really helpful stuff.

[00:08:44] So we got literally an entire semi of jerky.

[00:08:49] And you think, what are we going to do with this?

[00:08:50] Well, we realized a lot of the first responders in the EMS were working around the clock.

[00:08:55] And they were tired of eating pasta.

[00:08:56] So let's go give them some jerky and some prime and some chocolate and cheer those guys up a little bit.

[00:09:00] So our students were doing a lot of that.

[00:09:01] So it doesn't, am I, did you see the jerky packages?

[00:09:05] Because is it, does he have a jerky?

[00:09:08] Does Beast, Mr. Beast have a, like, I don't even remember.

[00:09:11] Because I know he's got some products that.

[00:09:13] I think he's got jerky.

[00:09:14] I know for sure he's got chocolate.

[00:09:16] It's all feasible.

[00:09:17] And I had about a quarter million dollars worth of chocolate sitting on our pad at one point before we came to it all out.

[00:09:23] Well, I'm glad you said sitting on the pad and not like you had eaten it all.

[00:09:27] So, no, that's good.

[00:09:29] All right.

[00:09:29] Hey, I appreciate you making time for us, joining us.

[00:09:32] Good luck with the effort.

[00:09:33] We appreciate that.

[00:09:34] God bless you.

[00:09:34] Andrew Chambers, head of campus life at the Excel College, thexcelcollege.com.

[00:09:39] Thank you, sir.

[00:09:40] Man, Pete, thanks so much.

[00:09:41] God bless.

[00:09:42] You too.

[00:09:42] Take care.

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[00:10:46] I have put a link to the Hurricane Helene fund that Andrew Chambers was talking about.

[00:10:55] I've put a link to there.

[00:10:56] It's a GoFundMe.

[00:10:57] And so I put that into the description of the podcast here.

[00:11:00] So if you are looking to help out with their efforts to help support the local businesses that lost basically all of their revenue because of Hurricane Helene,

[00:11:11] you can check out the description there for the link.

[00:11:15] It'll take you right to it.

[00:11:17] I'm a giver.

[00:11:18] What can I say?

[00:11:19] Joanne, welcome to the program.

[00:11:21] Hello, Joanne.

[00:11:23] Hi.

[00:11:24] I've been sitting for a while, but I was looking on X.

[00:11:27] Apparently there are hundreds of RVs sitting in some parking lot in Florida that FEMA owns that they could be shipping up to help the families in Western North Carolina, but it's not happening.

[00:11:39] So, okay, I have not seen whatever tweet you're talking about.

[00:11:44] So the first questions I would have would be were the trailers, these are like for people to live in, I'm assuming, the FEMA trailers.

[00:11:53] So were they needed for the people that got hit with Hurricane Helene or Milton in Florida?

[00:12:01] As far as I know, they're not needed or they probably are needed by either one.

[00:12:07] But as far as I know, they're just sitting in a parking lot.

[00:12:10] How do you know that?

[00:12:12] That's what the tweet said.

[00:12:15] It was from Don Ingram, I-N-G-R-A-M.

[00:12:19] His URL or whatever you want to call it is at Chief28REP.

[00:12:26] Oh, all right.

[00:12:27] Well, that sounds legit.

[00:12:28] No, look, this is the problem with reading the social media post is it's hard to know what's true.

[00:12:36] So, like, have you...

[00:12:39] You said it was from a emergency RV and there are hundreds of RVs just sitting there.

[00:12:44] Right.

[00:12:44] No, I guess...

[00:12:46] Yeah, so I don't know what to do with that information because I can't confirm its veracity.

[00:12:54] And I don't know who the person is.

[00:12:56] I don't know who the person is.

[00:12:57] So I don't know whether or not to attach any kind of just assumed credibility, you know,

[00:13:02] because I don't recognize the name of the person or the outlet that you've shared.

[00:13:08] So that's kind of the...

[00:13:10] That's the problem with social media, you know?

[00:13:14] I know.

[00:13:15] But I figured if it was true, hopefully somebody can figure it out and maybe get FEMA to bring them up there if it's true.

[00:13:22] Yeah, no, I would agree.

[00:13:24] Like, that seems like a pretty big problem.

[00:13:27] I don't know how they allocate resources like that.

[00:13:30] But, yeah, I mean, if they've got trailers for people to live in and there aren't any more storms, you know,

[00:13:36] barren down on Florida, then it does seem to me like that would be something that they should do is to ship them up there

[00:13:41] because there are people living in tents still.

[00:13:44] 58, 59 days later, whatever.

[00:13:47] I know, and it's down to freezing.

[00:13:49] Yeah.

[00:13:50] Yeah.

[00:13:51] Now, Joanne, I appreciate the call.

[00:13:52] By the way, the Hearts with Hands organization, they are, you know, always in need of what they call buddy heaters.

[00:14:03] So these are the small personal heaters, sleeping bags, blankets, coats.

[00:14:09] You can go to their website, heartswithhands.org, heartswithhands.org, in order to make donations.

[00:14:17] I have not heard about the trailers, but I caution people when, because, look, I see this stuff, too.

[00:14:25] I have seen so many things on social media about Hurricane Helene and Western North Carolina.

[00:14:31] It is very difficult to know what is true, and that's part of the problem with social media,

[00:14:39] is that you get all the information.

[00:14:42] 20 years ago, there were people that you essentially trusted to aggregate all things happening in the world

[00:14:50] and presented to you in a digestible format, whether it was newspapers, TV, radio, whatever,

[00:14:58] that you trusted, you know, a person or a team of people to create this sort of distilled publication

[00:15:06] of the most important things that you should know about in their opinion,

[00:15:10] and then they would verify that these things are true.

[00:15:14] That was the model.

[00:15:16] And right now, we are in a disruption episode in media.

[00:15:22] And so it's kind of the Wild West.

[00:15:24] You can see all sorts of reports from individuals.

[00:15:27] I'm not saying that they're all hoaxes or fake news.

[00:15:30] I'm not at all.

[00:15:31] That's what a lot of being in the media was about, is getting leads and then tracking them down,

[00:15:37] trying to verify, talk to the people, get information.

[00:15:40] That's a longer process.

[00:15:42] So I just caution people that just because you see it on the social media,

[00:15:47] if you don't do any research to verify that this thing is in fact true,

[00:15:52] then people could just be using your click or your share or your like or whatever

[00:15:57] because they're doing what's called engagement farming.

[00:16:00] They're putting stuff in front of you so you interact with it,

[00:16:04] and then they get paid for that.

[00:16:06] So just keep that in mind.

[00:16:08] This isn't an attack on Joanne by any stretch.

[00:16:10] I'm just saying like it's just it's an example of I'm not in a position to be able to tell you that that's true

[00:16:17] because I haven't even seen it.

[00:16:19] All right.

[00:16:20] Hey, real quick.

[00:16:20] If you would like to get your product or service in front of about 10,000 people multiple times a day,

[00:16:26] send me an email at Pete at the Pete Calendar Show dot com and ask me about advertising.

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[00:16:41] Pete at the Pete Calendar Show dot com.

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[00:16:45] Run the numbers with you.

[00:16:46] Again, that's Pete at the Pete Calendar Show dot com.

[00:16:50] Let us, ham and tomato, go to the phones.

[00:16:53] Here is Ray.

[00:16:55] Welcome to the show, Ray.

[00:16:56] I was just wanting to ask you, in this past election,

[00:17:00] I know nationally and maybe some local races,

[00:17:04] there were people, different voting demographics jumping on the bandwagon of conservatism and Republicans.

[00:17:12] And I was thinking, wondering how big a part you think in the future elections,

[00:17:19] the future years, your preference cascade theory will play it

[00:17:26] in that of people wanting to jump on the winning bandwagon.

[00:17:30] Well, that would require me to predict future elections, which I don't do,

[00:17:37] let alone that far out.

[00:17:39] But I will say, if you're looking at like the what we saw in this last election cycle,

[00:17:46] we I don't think I don't think we can say that people were jumping on a bandwagon for conservatism,

[00:17:53] I think, and even really Republican Party platforms.

[00:17:59] Right. I don't even know if that and maybe it was.

[00:18:02] I don't think so, though, especially for conservatism,

[00:18:06] because the modern iteration now of the Republican Party is not a conservative party.

[00:18:11] Yes, there are conservatives who are in the Republican Party,

[00:18:15] but there are a lot of conservatives that are not happy with some of the platform changes

[00:18:20] of the Republican Party and what they're seeing at the national level.

[00:18:26] So I think, though, that that if the Republican Party as an organization is able to sort of capture

[00:18:33] the MAGA sentiment, make America great or America first, if they can capture that

[00:18:39] and not just promise but also then deliver on the promises to kind of restore a quote unquote normalcy,

[00:18:49] then, yeah, I think the Democrats are in some serious trouble nationally.

[00:18:53] I mean, I'm seeing the I saw today the projections were for California.

[00:18:58] I think they're going to be losing like four or five congressional seats because people are leaving the state.

[00:19:05] New York is going to lose some seats as well again in 2030.

[00:19:10] So that that that that means that the electoral prospects for the Democrats become more challenging to win the electoral college vote.

[00:19:19] Right. Well, I was just wondering that.

[00:19:22] Yeah. Well, no, I appreciate the the reference to the preference cascade,

[00:19:27] because I do think that that's what we're well, we could be seeing.

[00:19:33] Let me say like that. We could be seeing that right now,

[00:19:36] because that's the thing about these cascades is that you don't really recognize how big of a wave is occurring until you're kind of into it.

[00:19:45] And this appears to be just sort of the very beginning of one.

[00:19:50] OK. Yeah. So I don't know. We're going to find out, though, I guess. Right.

[00:19:54] Right. Yeah. Thanks a lot.

[00:19:55] All right, man. Good to hear from you, Ray. I appreciate the call.

[00:19:58] No, it's a good question. I just I know my limitations.

[00:20:01] I am self-aware. I cannot make that.

[00:20:05] I cannot make predictions. I mean, I could I could be like, this is the beginning of.

[00:20:10] A hundred years of Republican domination, I could say that, but I don't know that.

[00:20:15] And I'm not going to, you know, insult your intelligence to make you think that I know something like that.

[00:20:20] Nobody can know that.

[00:20:23] But it does seem like that.

[00:20:24] And if the sentiments that were expressed in the exit polling is any indication in the, you know, the surveys and polling that exists,

[00:20:35] it does seem like there is a really good opportunity for the Republican Party to capture some pretty good chunks out of the Democrat coalition.

[00:20:45] I have said for years, if black voters as a demographic group, as a cohort, right, if black voters were to divide up their support between Republicans and Democrats in anything approximating all other racial demographics,

[00:21:04] then the Democrats don't win nationally anymore.

[00:21:08] And that's just the numbers.

[00:21:09] And they know this.

[00:21:10] Democrats know this.

[00:21:11] I went over some of this stuff before the election because black voters vote so overwhelmingly for Democrats that losing any of their any of the members of that cohort.

[00:21:27] Has sort of a multiplier effect if they go over to the Republicans.

[00:21:32] And the Democrats have also coupled their losses with the inability to attract new people to their messages because their messages come from the faculty lounge in colleges.

[00:21:47] And.

[00:21:49] Most people do not go to college.

[00:21:52] They don't have college degrees.

[00:21:53] They are not swimming in that in that pool.

[00:21:56] And so they hear this stuff.

[00:21:58] Like, for example, we're about to find out the rubber is about to hit the road in Congress.

[00:22:02] You know why?

[00:22:03] Because there is a trans.

[00:22:05] Member of Congress now.

[00:22:07] About to get sworn in.

[00:22:09] Mike Johnson came out, did a little press gaggle Q&A.

[00:22:12] And somebody asked him, what are you going to call this trans member of Congress?

[00:22:17] It's a male to female, if I remember correctly.

[00:22:20] So this male is identifying as a woman.

[00:22:25] Are you going to call this person the gentleman from Colorado, wherever they're from, or the gentle lady?

[00:22:32] Right.

[00:22:33] What bathrooms?

[00:22:35] What what gym showers are they going to be allowed to go to?

[00:22:42] And Johnson dodged it.

[00:22:44] He dodged the question.

[00:22:47] That's not a good start, because I suspect that the vast majority of people would prefer that.

[00:22:52] Just like just stop this insanity.

[00:22:54] No, they're going to have to go use the women's showers because they are a biological woman.

[00:22:58] Right.

[00:22:58] Or you have to come up with a separate shower for them.

[00:23:03] I know.

[00:23:03] How about a FEMA camp outside of the Capitol?

[00:23:06] There you go.

[00:23:06] Problem solved.

[00:23:07] Look at me.

[00:23:08] I'm all about solutions.

[00:23:10] So a couple of things going on up in Raleigh.

[00:23:12] They are now debating the override of House Bill 10.

[00:23:15] House Bill 10 is the funding of the school vouchers, the additional funding.

[00:23:23] But also the override or sorry, the.

[00:23:26] The law that would force sheriffs like Gary, not my fault, McFadden, Mecklenburg County to fully cooperate, because I heard he's very upset that people say he's not cooperating with ICE.

[00:23:37] But to fully cooperate with ICE.

[00:23:41] As ICE requests detainers.

[00:23:44] So.

[00:23:46] It looks like they've they're banking on there being enough votes to override the governor's veto on that.

[00:23:53] Republican legislative leaders.

[00:23:57] Also have unveiled a.

[00:24:02] Hurricane Helene storm relief bill.

[00:24:06] And.

[00:24:09] Got some of the it's got a bunch of other stuff in it, too.

[00:24:13] One of which is to transfer authority over the state's board of elections.

[00:24:19] To the state auditor's office.

[00:24:22] So to take it from the governor and give it to the state auditor.

[00:24:27] That is a Republican, by the way.

[00:24:29] A Republican won that race.

[00:24:32] A move that will place administration and appointment of its members under GOP purview.

[00:24:37] The plan included in a bill that also funds further aid for Hurricane Halif relief.

[00:24:42] Hurricane Helene relief would further strip power from the governor's office, which currently has appointment power and will remain in Democrat control under governor elect Josh Stein.

[00:24:52] So this is now one of the outrages because they're like, you know what?

[00:24:56] You guys have not done a good.

[00:24:58] But there's still by the way, they're still counting in some of these counties.

[00:25:01] Did you know that?

[00:25:02] We got like five or six counties.

[00:25:04] They haven't finalized their votes.

[00:25:06] And.

[00:25:07] I haven't.

[00:25:08] I didn't have time to get to it today, but.

[00:25:09] The Republican judge running for the Supreme Court.

[00:25:16] Griffin.

[00:25:18] He finished Election Day, 10,000 votes over Allison Riggs, the incumbent Democrat.

[00:25:25] And after now 11 days, she's leading by like somewhere like 70 votes or something.

[00:25:32] A 10,000 vote swing in provisionals and absentee ballots.

[00:25:38] It's like this is this is ridiculous to me.

[00:25:42] This is ridiculous that that because he he in order to file recounts and.

[00:25:47] And, you know, like to try to get information, he has to go through the board of elections.

[00:25:50] And he claims and they have now filed a lawsuit.

[00:25:53] He claims that they have not been giving him the information.

[00:25:57] Like this again, I said this after the election.

[00:26:01] A week over a week ago, almost two, two weeks ago now, right?

[00:26:05] Anyway.

[00:26:06] You look at Florida.

[00:26:08] They went from a laughingstock.

[00:26:10] To now being able to count somewhere in the neighborhood of like 10 million votes.

[00:26:14] And they can do it in like an hour and a half.

[00:26:16] Like every state should be looking to Florida, going down there, booking trips and saying, what are you doing?

[00:26:25] We're going to do that because obviously you guys have cracked the code.

[00:26:29] You figured it out.

[00:26:30] Every state should be running like that.

[00:26:32] This is a choice.

[00:26:34] These are choices that politicians make to not have a better run election system.

[00:26:41] Anyway, so this is the this is the the part of the bill that now a lot of leftists are upset about.

[00:26:49] And I found this funny because we're doing this thing again where like when Roy Cooper comes out and says, hey, don't take that money for the school vouchers.

[00:26:59] Instead, let's fund hurricane relief.

[00:27:02] That's not playing politics.

[00:27:04] That's not being political, partisan.

[00:27:06] That's not false choicing.

[00:27:08] That's none of that.

[00:27:10] Right.

[00:27:10] That's just Roy Cooper looking out for people.

[00:27:13] And we're playing this game where the media and they do this all the time where they can't seem to figure out any kind of a political motivation that a Democrat might have.

[00:27:23] But they know every political motivation of every Republican.

[00:27:26] And so when they see this, it's seize and pounce time.

[00:27:30] I'm just kidding.

[00:27:31] You don't seize and pounce onto Republicans.

[00:27:33] Only Republicans do that to Democrats.

[00:27:35] Anyway.

[00:27:37] King Hui, who is or Kung Hui, who is the writer at the News and Observer, he does education reporting.

[00:27:46] And he says, because he can determine this, he says the GOP has boxed Democrats into a corner by placing so many non Hurricane Helene relief provisions

[00:27:55] into the disaster relief bill.

[00:27:58] If Democrats vote no, they'll be accused of not helping Helene victims.

[00:28:02] If they vote yes, the GOP will say that the changes got bipartisan support.

[00:28:09] Oh.

[00:28:11] What about Roy Cooper?

[00:28:12] Did he do that same thing?

[00:28:13] Did he box Republicans in on that?

[00:28:15] Is he trying to box them in on this with the vouchers versus Helene recovery?

[00:28:19] Or is that different?

[00:28:20] Is it different when Democrats do it?

[00:28:23] We all know the answer to that.

[00:28:24] Yes, it's different.

[00:28:25] There is a double statement.

[00:28:26] All right.

[00:28:27] That'll do it for this episode.

[00:28:28] Thank you so much for listening.

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[00:28:43] Again, thank you so much for listening.

[00:28:45] And don't break anything while I'm gone.