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 life comes at you fast most of it is just smoke and mirrors we're here to clear the air whether

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 it's the can't make this up moments or the hard truths hitting our streets in our state

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 we're finding the signal and all that noise no spin no nonsense just the facts the fallout

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 and a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of humor grab your coffee it's time for the morning drip on wrto.fm radio free Georgia. Hey everybody welcome and good morning welcome to the morning drip it is the morning drip for Tuesday June 16th 2026 we're halfway through June already folks.

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 July I'll be here with you know I'll be here with you know I'll be here with you

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 the big American 250 bash or whatever the hell it was called the UFC fight that spectacular from all things that I've seen pretty much has been a failure

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 uh it it really really really gave america a black eye in my opinion that is not the way

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 that a country like the united states of america should be celebrating 250 years of existence

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 you know this is not rome we don't have gladiators though some would argue that that's what the ufc

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 actually is they're more gladiators than wrestlers because well the wwe is all scripted it's a story

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 it's a it's a male version of a soap opera and if you enjoy that kind of thing okay that's that's fine

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 i have nothing against that but yeah this this whole ufc thing i don't know i don't want to i don't

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 want to spend too much time on it because it was it was insulting it was embarrassing that's not what

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 america is at all and if that's what you think america is then how sad for you because you don't

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 i don't want to do it and i don't want to do it and i don't want to do it

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 we fell back down and talking about falling back down except this is not falling back down

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 it's actually going back up you want to talk about inflation some interesting information about

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 inflation and a lot of people do not understand how inflation works and you know i've talked about

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 this before but during during the pandemic and everything that was happening there and then after

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 the pandemic where we were we were dealing with the repercussions of what we had to do to survive

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 as a nation and as a people you know the inflation was high i think it hit nine or ten percent here in

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 the united states but we're also the only country that got it down as fast as we did and whether you

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 agree with me or not that is in large part to the biden administration look it up you can do your own

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 research but i think you're going to come back and find that that administration the things that they did

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 the steps that they took help bring down our inflation quicker than any other nation on the planet

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 but inflation what is inflation what's the broad sustained rise in prices across the economy

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 that reduces the purchasing power of every dollar americans earn and save

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 and see here's the thing you know we talk about i think the fed wants to keep it around two percent

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 and you may not understand well what does that mean well that means that they'd like to see prices

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 the consumer price index and some other indexes they like to see those rise a maximum of two percent

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 and you may be thinking well why not zero percent just because that's not the way the economy works

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 and if it did we'd have a stagnant economy and then we run the risk of deflation which is not good

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 either but that's the thing about inflation when it's two percent that means that means if you maintain

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 a two percent per year inflationary number for five years straight that means prices have gone up

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 ten percent in five years that's the way it works but it reduces the purchasing power of every dollar

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 americans earn and save rather than being caused by a single factor however the inflation surge of 2021 to 2022

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 resulted from what they call a perfect storm of forces strong consumer demand which was fueled by pandemic

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 stimulus spending because we all got money to try to keep the economy going

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 but then that collided with supply chain disruptions and well labor shortages because everybody was sitting at home

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 energy costs were going up and the consumer behavior just honestly it changed when we were sequestered in our homes

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 whether we were laid off or where we were doing our best to work from home our consumption our purchasing

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 methodologies if you will changed most of us started buying a crap ton of stuff from amazon

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 or walmart anybody that could deliver it to us initially driven by shortages of goods the

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 inflation later became more concentrated in services and housing as the supply chains recovered

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 but wages didn't and as i said before the government primarily measures inflation using two indexes

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 the consumer price index also known as cpi it tracks out-of-pocket costs for consumers

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 and is used to adjust programs like social security the other one is the personal consumption

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 expenditures price index known as pce which is the federal reserve's preferred gauge because it better

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 reflects changes in the spending habits of the average consumer the federal reserve typically raises interest

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 rates in an attempt to combat inflation to cool demand by making borrowing more expensive

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 you know if interest rates if inflation's high then they that's the reason why the feds have these meetings

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 all the time and they're they're looking at the state of the economy and side note contrary to popular belief

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 but the stock market is not the economy it is not a true indicator of how well the overall economy is doing

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 but they they make these decisions and if inflation is high then they raise interest rates so that they can

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 make it more expensive for you to borrow money congress and the president can influence inflation through fiscal

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 policies which involve taxes and government spending but the challenge is timing actions taken today

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 for example may take months or even years to fully affect prices and sometimes those those actions it's it's kind of weird

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 from what i've seen some of the actions an illegal iran war maybe can have almost immediate results you know our last

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 inflationary numbers were up and it's you can easily point at what's happening with this nonsense between the united states and iran for american families and i think you probably understand this and have felt this inflation can have some real consequences during the peak of this recent surge prices rose faster than wages which reduces purchasing power

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 purchasing power also strains your budgets lower income households and retirees well they they were hit especially hard because they spend a large share of their income on essentials you know little things like food and energy and housing many of them are on fixed incomes or their own savings that lose value as prices rise you know the spending power of that dollar and while inflation has

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 has moderated real wages have improved more recently up until this iran war thing the experience has underscored how fragile price stability can actually be and how if we just understand inflation it can help people me and you make better decisions when we budget when we save when we invest and honestly as we're planning for the future i track my grocery spending in a spreadsheet

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 and i've i've i compare i started this will be my third year doing it and i compare year after year after year if my cost and groceries have gone up and they have they have i used to try to keep a budget of about 125 a week for a family of three now i'm doing good if i can keep it between 150 and 175 and granted there are going to be weeks where things just align perfectly

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 and i don't have to go up and i don't have to go up and i don't have to go up and then there are weeks where everything is just freaking out of whack

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 and i wind up spending over 200 it all averages out true but you know it's still it's still a pain

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 and especially i mean when you're paying eight dollars a pound for hamburger meat come on you know

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 that's just it's ridiculous and i mean look at all the streaming services if you're someone who

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 which a lot of us are now i mean we don't have a quote cable package any longer i mean we pay for youtube tv

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 but we also i dropped netflix months ago matter of fact it might have been last year because they just got

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 ridiculous 26 27 a month i pay for youtube premium

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 because i don't like ads interrupting when i'm trying to watch a 10 minute or 15 minute news video

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 or something on youtube started out i think it was around 10 bucks or 12 bucks now it's like 16

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 it's ridiculous there's an app called mile iq that i use to track my mileage for my business

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 it's on the phone automatically knows whenever you're going from point a to point b the accelerometer in the phone

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 and when i first started using that it was around five dollars then it went up to around

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 eight dollars or nine dollars somewhere in there google bought it now i got an email last week or week before

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 it's going up to basically 16 dollars and i'm like why you haven't added any features to this app

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 it still does the same exact thing that it did before so unfortunately as good as the app is

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 and and and how easy it is to use i've got to make a decision whether or not i want to continue to spend

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 almost 16 or 17 a month for something that shouldn't cost more than four or five six dollars at most

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 because i do have i do have an alternative it does it's not as smooth but i do have an alternative

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 anyway that's a little tidbit on inflation if you didn't understand it

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 hopefully it helped you come to terms with a little bit of it

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 kind of a moving target actually isn't it

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 anyway uh it's uh coming up on eight o'clock

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 here on this tuesday morning down here in south central georgia

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 our call in number is 229-520-5957

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 229-520-5957

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 you can also text that number 24 7

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 again 229-520-5957

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 you can shoot us an email

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 the email for the show is morningdrip at wrto.fm

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 we're going to take a short break

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 and uh talk soon

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 your coffee is weak your commute is long your boss is well you know it's time to wake up join the

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 revolution of the caffeine addicted the morning drip every morning on wrto.fl it's not just a show

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 is your daily jolt of reality warning

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 make all sudden outburst of free thought

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 hey everybody welcome back to the morning drip it is the morning drip for

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 tuesday june 16th 2026

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 i hope you're doing well

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 you know yesterday afternoon we had some

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 it seems like afternoon storms of course become a norm when you get into the spring and summer months

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 and uh as i'm sitting here this morning

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 uh right at the uh top of the hour

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 it's cloudy

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 look and and i think the weather forecast said today's high is going to be 11 degrees cooler

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 than it was yesterday

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 you know what else is happening today

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 georgia voters head to the polls today tuesday the 16th of june to decide several high profile republican runoff races

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 that will shape the state's 2026 general election ballot

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 now the biggest contests are for the republican nominations for the u.s senate governor

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 in the senate race

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 mike collins faces former university of tennessee football coach derrick dooley

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 for the chance to challenge democratic senator john ossoff in november

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 and collins entered the runoff after winning support many rural counties

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 while duly strength

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 not surprising

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 came from georgia's more populous metro areas

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 believe it or not there are some republicans in atlanta

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 not a lot of them

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 uh the republican gubernatorial runoff pits lieutenant governor burt jones

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 against health care executive rick jackson

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 raise your hand

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 if you're sick and freaking tired of all these damn political ads

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 with rick jackson and burt jones

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 raise your hand

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 because they're they're irritating as all hell

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 i mean in my opinion rick jackson

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 now granted i'm not going to vote for either one of them

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 i'm not a republican

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 but rick jackson rick jackson's own commercials

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 that man is just creepy as all hell

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 and you know burt jones

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 hey brother

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 if you if you got your faith and you want to embrace it

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 that's that's fine

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 but your faith is not a determining factor for me

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 if i were even voting republican

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 i don't care about your faith

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 personally

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 i think it's a bad sign

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 when you have to put that out

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 where you wear it on your sleeve

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 because you don't understand christianity at all

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 if that's the case

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 you know

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 you're not supposed to be out

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 and be boisterous

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 and

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 and

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 publicly

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 look at me

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 look at me

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 you know i'm a follower of christ

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 i believe in god

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 and all of that

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 no read your freaking bible dude

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 you're not supposed to be doing it that way

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 you may proud of it

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 but it's not a factor for me

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 in any of this

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 matter of fact

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 it makes me question

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 if you're really the one

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 you know

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 jackson

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 i

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 i can't

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 i can't say anything else

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 jones led the initial primary by building support across rural georgia

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 later secured endorsements from both president donald trump and governor brian kemp

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 jackson remained competitive by performing well in larger counties and of course atlanta suburbs

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 the polls closed at 7 p.m today tuesday georgia's early voting and absentee ballots expect

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 are expected to make up a significant portion of the vote more than 340,000 runoff ballots

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 had already been cast before election day i'm one of them as i've said i am a big big proponent

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 of mail-in ballots and contrary to popular belief they're not fraudulent there is no fraud

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 when it comes to mail-in ballots you don't have to take my word for it do your own research but

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 you're going to discover i'm right the associated press notes that most counties release nearly all

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 of their early voting totals in their first reports of the evening meaning that the initial

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 results could provide an early indication of the winners under georgia law only voters who

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 participated in the same party's may 19th primary may vote in that party's runoff meaning if you voted in

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 the primary as republican or democrat you can only vote as in that party during the runoff but if

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 you did not vote in the primary if you skipped it well then you can choose either party's runoff which

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 i don't understand why would you skip it anyway recounts are not automatic but may be requested if the

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 the margin is 0.5 percent or less now in conjunction with our we're voting the fact that we're you know

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 doing a runoff voting today i also want to bring in that georgia lawmakers are returning to the

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 the capitol this week to solve a problem that they made the state's current voting system relies on qr

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 codes to tabulate ballots but a 2024 law banned the use of those qr codes for official vote counts after

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 july 1st 2026 so we've got this looming deadline but the lawmakers were all sitting around with the

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 thumbs up their butts and never approved a replacement system i mean i don't understand

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 what they thought they were doing did they really really take to the heart when trump said in one of

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 his rallies you're not gonna have to worry about voting anymore everything's gonna be great and they

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 just said well we don't have to worry about it because we're not going to be voting anymore is is

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 was that it i don't understand so they never approved a replacement system so of course this creates

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 uncertainty just weeks before a july 28 special election to fill the late congressman david scott's

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 seat see right now it's not affected because the law doesn't go into effect until july 1st so if you're

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 voting today you didn't do mail in you didn't do early well you do the machines things are still

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 going to get tabulated by qr code the confusion has been compounded by conflicting guidance from state

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 officials you've got the georgia secretary of state's office which of course is led by secretary

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 of state brad raffensperger says that counties must continue using the existing touch screen voting

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 machines and qr code scanners while relying on optical character recognition software ocr to produce the

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 official count from the human readable text on balance so it's going to do the qr code but then

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 they're going to go through one further step and ocr the things to make sure that the human readable

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 tabulation is the same as the qr codes but the human readable tabulation is the one that's going

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 to be the official tabulation meanwhile our currently trump aligned georgia state election board has

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 recommended counties switch to emergency backup procedures using hand marked paper ballots and scanners

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 if lawmakers fail to extend the qr code deadline state attorneys have warned that the contradictory

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 instructions could leave local fiction election officials uncertain about how to proceed that's

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 the last thing you want during your elections is uncertainty which is the playbook of project 2025

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 in this current administration county election administrators of course are now waiting for lawmakers to provide

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 some clarity before next month's special election not to mention a little thing in november some

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 candidates have expressed concern that changing voting procedures at the last minute could invite legal

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 challenges you think while others in the legislature simply uh you know hope that extending the qr

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 code deadline temporarily is the way to go so what they've something that began as an effort to address

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 concerns about georgia's voting machines which there was nothing wrong with the voting machines but

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 even i as a techie have to admit um i don't i would like the qr code thing is fine all right that's fine

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 but i want some assurances i i i want a secondary check that what the qr code tabulated is accurate with some

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 other form that we can we can be more comfortable with that it we can be more comfortable that it's

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 correct oh yeah i'm fine with that but this is this is straight out of the the 2025 playbook guys project

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 2025 uncertainty because as soon as you start sowing the seeds of doubt in our elections people just give

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 up they're like well what does it matter my vote doesn't count or i could vote for x and it's going to turn

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 out that it registered for why and it's all there's nothing wrong with the voting machines if anything

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 if you want to point to potential fraud when it comes to voting machines pay attention to all the

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 stuff that's come out about elon musk and even trump's own statements about musk knowing those voting

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 machines better than anyone and winning in pennsylvania or wherever where he wants to thank elon

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 if anybody if anybody did any kind of election fraud it was during the the last presidential election

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 i'm just saying just saying and i wish to god trump would stop saying he won by a landslide you won by

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 one point five percent in the popular vote dude that is not that is not a landslide all right but anyway

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 as i said you know it's a race against the calendar officials are scrambling to ensure voters can cast

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 ballots without any kind of confusion and that the results can withstand scrutiny in one of the nation's

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 most closely watch battleground states i never thought in my 56 years on this planet that i would

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 be living in a state that has become controversial in elections you know it's it's really wild so have you

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 voted have you already cast your vote in the runoff election for today uh tuesday june 16th did you do early

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 voting did you vote today you're gonna vote today you didn't vote at all what what are your thoughts

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 you can text me 24 7 229-520-5957 the phone lines are open at the same number during the live broadcast

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 of the morning drip 229-520-5957 email address is morning drip at wrto.fm we're going to take a short break

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 and we'll be back in a little bit

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 your coffee is weak your commute is long your boss is well you know it's time to wake up join the

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 revolution of the caffeine addicted the morning drip every morning on wrto.fl it's not just a show

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 is your daily jolt of reality warning may cause sudden outburst of free thought

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 hey everybody welcome back to the morning drip it is tuesday

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 june 16th 2026 hope you're doing well again our text number 24 7 229-520-5957 you can call that

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 number phone lines are open right now during the live broadcast of the morning drip

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 229-520-5957 or shoot us an email anytime day or night morning drip at wrto.fm uh two things we're

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 going to talk about in this uh segment one of them uh kind of rough one of them kind of like uh hey

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 so georgia's devastating 2026 wildfire season it has already cost the state an estimated 35 million

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 dollars in firefighting expenses this is according to johnny sabo more than half of the agencies

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 entire 52 million dollar annual budget uh the massive price tag stems largely from the pineland road

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 and highway 82 fires in south georgia two of the largest places the state has faced in recent years

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 those figures cover suppression efforts alone and do not include the cost of rebuilding homes or

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 assisting displaced families or even supporting long-term recovery sabo told lawmakers that georgia has

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 experienced an 88 increase in the number of wildfires this year hello little thing i'd like to direct your

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 attention to is called climate change fueled by persistent drought conditions and unusually dry vegetation

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 and while the state's average wildfire historically burned about 5.6 acres that figure has ballooned to

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 18.8 acres this fiscal year which is 595 increase compared with the previous five-year average and

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 since the start of the current fiscal year the georgia forestry commission has responded to 4

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 990 wildfires that scorched more than 92 400 acres with nearly 83 800 acres burning during calendar year

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 2026 alone and the human toll has been significant the highway 82 fire destroyed 110 homes firefighters did

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 manage to save an estimated 350 others crews relied heavily on state and federal partnerships conducting so many

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 aerial water and retardant drops that officials temporarily ran short of jet fuel and fire

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 retardant supplies approximately 5 800 applications have already been filed for recovery assistance

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 officials say the focus has shifted from emergency response to helping communities rebuild and the fires

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 serve as a stark reminder that in georgia wildfire season is no longer an occasional threat

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 it's become a year-round challenge with enormous economic and personal consequences we're you know for many

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 years we just simply saw we just simply saw california california was was where basically the

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 state just kept getting burned down it seemed like every year but over the course of the last couple of

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 years here in georgia especially as they pointed out the drought and what have you it's not become

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 uncommon to have what i would deem california-style wildfires here in georgia it's sad it sucks it really

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 does so we all have to be very very careful whenever we're burning yard debris and things like that you

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 know in like in the county here in tiff county we can burn you can't burn in the within the city limits

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 but they also have you know they they'll pick that stuff up they won't pick it up out here so you got a

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 choice of burning it or taking it to landfill so but you got to be careful you got to be careful because out

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 here in the county i mean i've already talked about the fact that we we cut down like 17 18 trees whatever the number

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 was i now forget because of the fact that we were concerned about uh the the high winds of the

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 thunderstorms and potential hurricanes and stuff some of these trees were i mean they were tall and they if

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 they'd come down they in the wrong direction they would come straight down on my house but

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 my property still butts up against an entire pine forest if you if you will so there's always that

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 and you know there's pine straw so there's always a possibility uh you know i've gotta i've gotta make

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 sure that when i'm burning i'm out there with a water hose in a in a spray nozzle constantly trying to

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 make sure that there aren't any little stragglers that float up into the air and float across my back

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 fence and the next thing i know i got my neighbor's property on fire i don't think she would appreciate

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 that all right let's let's wrap up today with something that if you are dieting you're trying

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 to lose weight i would say this might be a a positive thing but you know it's it's nuanced

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 it's nuanced the first thing that i call out of this that i thought was funny is the fact that listen to

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 this line a new study presented at the endocrine society's endo 2026 conference all right that's

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 what i giggled i was like the endocrine endocrine society's endo endo 2026 conference

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 hey i guess everybody's got a conference right so at this conference it suggests that completely

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 eliminating sugar from your diet may not always produce the health benefits that people expect that's

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 that's the reason why i'm saying all you dieters out there trying to go low sugar low carb all this

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 other stuff pay attention pay attention this is not hard science yet but you'll you'll see the

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 realization by the time we get to the end of it researchers at the dasmond i think that's how you

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 say that the dasmond diabetics institute found that mice fed a low fat diet with no sucrose for 16 weeks

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 developed impaired glucose control insulin resistance imbalances in gut bacteria intestinal

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 inflammation and early signs of fatty liver disease compared with mice that consumed a low fat diet

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 containing some sucrose more importantly the mice in both groups maintain similar body weights

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 researchers have to emphasize that the findings do not suggest people should consume

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 large amounts of sugar but nutrition is more nuanced than simply eliminating a single ingredient the

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 results indicate that balanced carbohydrate intake may help maintain a healthy gut by a microbiome

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 and support immune and metabolic function and because the study was conducted in my scientists caution

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 that the findings cannot be directly applied to humans without further research but mice seem to be our

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 primary target for when we're testing stuff and then they go into human trials and that kind of stuff

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 but the overall takeaway for us is moderation not a free pass on dessert experts say the study highlights

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 the importance of overall dietary quality rather than extreme restrictions future human studies will be needed

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 of course to determine whether completely sugar-free diets carry similar risk but for now

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 the research does suggest that it comes when it comes when it comes to nutrition

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 that balance may be more beneficial than cutting entire food groups out of the picture completely i know

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 there's all kinds of diet fads out there and i know that one of them is like i just cut sugar out of my life

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 completely. One, I'd like to know how you did that, because have you looked at all of the foods that we consume, even the ones that we think are, quote, healthy and the amount of sugar that is still in it? It's like whenever I make bread, I make bread for my wife because we use unbleached, unfortified flour.

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 We have to because she has discovered that she's in this small group.

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 And I say small group.

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 When you compare it to 330 million Americans that live in this country, I call it a small group.

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 But she has a corn sensitivity, not a right out allergy, so to speak.

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 But she started narrowing down that if she avoided foods that had corn or some type of corn derivative.

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 And it is amazing. And it is amazing. And it is amazing. And it is amazing. And it is amazing. And it is amazing. And it is amazing. So, you know, she's, unfortunately, one of these that's trying to cut out an entire ingredient in foods.

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 But if you look at all the foods, the amount that just have sugar.

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 When I make the bread, as I started to say, I use I use the healthy flour for her, but I still have to use sugar.

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 Otherwise, the bread tastes like shit. And even with the amount of sugar that I put in, which is not a crap ton, it's only a few tablespoons.

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 It's still healthy bread for her. It doesn't cause her any problems, which reminds me, I think I've got to make some more.

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 I just noticed that that it's gone.

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 Anyway, folks, that's going to wrap it up for your Tuesday edition of the Morning Drip right here on WRTO.FM.

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 I hope that you had the opportunity to join me live.

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 But if not, don't worry.

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 You can always get the past episodes by going to morningdrip.show, where I convert this into a podcast episode.

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 And those podcasts go up.

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 They're free for the first seven days.

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 But if you want to go through the back catalog, all you have to do is pay a measly $7 per month,

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 and you get access to the entire catalog of the Morning Drip.

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 As I say, our text number is 24-7 at 229-520-5957.

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 Phone lines at that number are only open during the live broadcast,

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 but you can text 24-7-229-520-5957 or drop us an email.

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 Email address is morningdrip at wrto.fm.

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 All right, everybody, I hope you have a wonderful Tuesday.

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 The weather down here looks like it's going to be rainy, so do what you can.

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 Do what you got to do.

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 Hug your loved ones if I can speak.

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 Take care of yourselves.

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 Have a great, fantastic Tuesday.

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 Go vote if you haven't already.

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 And we'll see you in the morning, right here on the Morning Drip.

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 Good morning, everybody.