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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 humor. Grab your coffee. It's time for The Morning Drip on WRTO.FM, Radio Free Georgia.

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Hey, good morning. Welcome to another broadcast of The Morning Drip. It is Wednesday, the 12th

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of August, 2026. It's me, Grady D, with Mike B in the house. Word up. You know, every time I say

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in the house. And whenever I do the summarizations of this, the AI thinks, I mean, you're actually in

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studio and I'm having to train it to go. That doesn't necessarily mean that you are in the

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studio, you know? Yeah. But I mean, I guess it does mean when you do have somebody in the studio

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and you go, we have so-and-so in the house, it's going to assume the wrong thing again.

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Well, then I'll just have to.

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Just make sure you make sure you say in the studio with us.

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In the studio with us.

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Yeah.

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Yep.

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It's Wacky Wednesday.

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Or as you say in German, it's what?

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Mitfock.

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Ah, yes.

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That's not naughty at all.

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Oh, phone lines are open.

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229-520-5957.

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Again, 24-7 text as well.

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229-520-5957.

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shoot us an email, morningdrip at wrto.fm. You know what? What's going on? What'd you do yesterday?

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I worked all day, like all day long. Did you work or did Claude work?

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I mean, I. You managed. We worked all day long. And then Claude worked all night long.

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Oh, wow. Oh, wow. You just let it go off just on his own, huh?

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I say, yeah, finish this tonight. And it goes, got you, boss. And then, you know, a couple hours later, it just stops with something it can't, it can't finish by itself.

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Yeah.

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It's like, I'm not going to do this without your approval. And so it waits eight hours for me to get up and.

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I know, I know that's, I'm, I'm, I'm doing a kind of a pet project right now. And, uh, it's going, it's already done the planning phase and now it's broken everything into.

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And I love how it does this sometimes. I don't know where it gets this from, how it decides to, to name the sections that it does. But it's this, this project, it started with m.0. And then when it finished that, it was like, are you ready to do m.1, m.11, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4. And apparently there's going to be an m.2 and further and further. And I'm just, it does each one of those phases. And then it waits on me to tell it to move forward.

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Yeah. If you can pull up that markdown plan file and you'll see what M1 and M1.2 and all of that are.

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Yeah. Yeah. What I've started doing is I create anytime I'm doing a new project, I create a folder.

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I've got a folder in the dev server called projects.

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And up under that, I create subfolders based on what the project is.

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And then in that subfolder, I create a project.md where I use the markdown to basically name

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the project, describe what it is, what I would like to see as far as the tech stack, but then

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basically, you know, leave some things up in the air that it needs to, you know, essentially

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the last line is ask any questions you have.

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And then whenever I start the project, I tell it, read the project.md file and let me know

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when we're ready to get started and then we just go through a series of q a yep so what a time to

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be alive yeah yeah what a time to be alive talking about what time to be alive on this day in 1909

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georgia lawmakers urged congress to offer five million dollars to anyone who could eradicate

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the boll weevil this is the cotton killer that wasn't fully eradicated in the state until 1990

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which is good and it's a it's a good thing that it doesn't need a vaccine because otherwise it

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probably it probably come back well it's funny in 1909 what uh how much of what percentage of the

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entire economy was five million dollars you know i need to that's actually something i need to look

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up let's do this on the fly uh what is five million dollars in 2026 money five million in 20

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what no no no you gotta go you gotta go from it i didn't do that i mean in 1909 yeah my brain said

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i typed it but apparently my fingers did not you have the second part right um holy bejesus

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How much would that be today?

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$183,490,109.90 in 2026 when adjusted for inflation.

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That's because inflation has grown from 1909 to today at 3,569.80%,

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which means it's roughly 36.7 times higher than it was in 1909.

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So 183 million, you say?

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Yeah.

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That's worth 81 years of work.

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Yeah, I guess so.

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I guess so.

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I can't complain.

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I mean, I'm not a farmer.

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I don't raise or grow cotton.

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My dad was a farmer up until I was six.

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So, and honestly, I don't remember what crops.

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I think he grew soybeans and peanuts.

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That's what I remember most.

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He may have done some corn, but I want to say that the majority of what they grew and granted, you know, this I'm relying on four year, five year old me trying to remember this stuff at 56.

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but yeah, I do remember peanuts. I do remember, uh, soybeans. I remember being a young kid

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out in the hot sun, having to manually me, my mom and my dad out manually weeding a field.

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That was not a fun time for a kid. Probably once what you, what you get, if you want organic.

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I know, right? I know. This would have been, this had to be like 74, 75, somewhere in there.

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So, yeah, but I have a recollection of, you know, sitting on the tailgate of a truck

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and it being hot, me being miserable. You know, I was probably whiny as a four or five-year-old

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could be because why am I out here? Um, which is probably the reason why whenever I got older

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and we, we would have a garden on our property, which was almost, the property was almost two

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acres. So at one point our garden was almost half of that. And my summer vacation sucked

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for several summers because we'd be getting up at the crack of dawn, getting out there

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so that it's not so hot going down those rows of peanut, uh, of, uh, butter beans and, um,

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potatoes and all kinds of [bleep] like that, and that dew coming off. And another pet peeve I had,

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okra. Number one, I can't stand the taste of okra. I can't stand the texture of okra,

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but then the physical touch of okra and, you know, picking it was like, just made my skin crawl.

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So, yeah. I don't know why I always liked okra. Really? Yeah, but my wife hates it,

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So I'm not sure I've had it more than five times in the past quarter century.

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If it's, if it's buried inside some type of stew or possibly a soup, then I'm okay with it because I don't really detect it.

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But for those folks out there that, that like to, you know, have it as a, as a good side, whether it's, I don't know how you cook this, this [bleep].

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I guess you can boil it, you can fry it, you can deep fry it, you can bake it.

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I don't know, but you guys are mad [bleep] if you eat that [bleep].

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You know, I get the texture thing.

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I can't stand chicken fat.

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Yeah.

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If I get a piece of chicken fat or a tendon or something, I don't know.

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It just sets me off.

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But for some reason, okra doesn't bother me at all.

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It is unique.

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It's the only slimy plant that I'll eat.

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But see, that's like it is different.

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That's like coconut.

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My daughter and I both love the flavor of coconut.

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We can't stand the texture of coconut.

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So if you can get coconut flavoring into something like a dessert or whatever, but you don't think they figure that out.

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Well, yeah, but I mean, there are still recipes that actually use real coconut, you know, and I'm like, no, no, I don't.

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I don't know what it is, but it's a mouthfeel thing that, as you say, just sets me off.

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And I'm like, nope.

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I mean, I'll accept that.

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I can't empathize with you because just to me, it's just a crunchy, you know, it's like

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sweet paper.

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Sweet paper.

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Oh, that's funny.

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I like that.

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I'm eating sweet paper.

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Oh, well, I guess we probably should get to some news.

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And of course, you're going to get sick of me covering this flock stuff, but it keeps cropping up.

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It's because your algorithm's still feeding it to you.

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Actually, no, it's not an algorithm.

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I'm getting a lot of this stuff from other newsletters and those newsletters.

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I mean, maybe it's their algorithm.

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I don't know how they're sourcing their stuff.

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But, you know, I'm not I'm not getting this from any algorithmic feed or RSS feed or anything like that.

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But this one, this one is right here in Georgia.

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You've got three former Bibb County Sheriff's deputies.

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That's up in Macon area.

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We're arrested after allegedly using flock license plate cameras to repeatedly track people with whom they had personal relationships.

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And the misuse was uncovered after repeated searches of the same license plates were flagged despite having no connection to legitimate criminal investigations, which led the sheriff's office to audit more than 200 accounts.

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And then they tightened up access requirements.

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Sheriff David Davis says that Bibb County will continue to use Flock because of its value in solving crimes and locating stolen vehicles and missing people.

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The searches must now be tied to an active case and documented law enforcement purpose.

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Of course, privacy advocates say the arrest illustrate the potential for abuse of license plate surveillance technology.

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And they're calling for the county to stop using FLOC altogether.

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So this goes back to something we said yesterday about accountability.

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Yeah.

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Well, my question is, why was the association with an active case not required to begin with?

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I mean, if you want to search DCIC, you've got to have a good reason.

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Yeah.

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And cops have been fired for looking at people, you know, in their in-car computers or at the office that have nothing to do with a criminal case.

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They're just snooping.

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Yeah.

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And they get fired for that.

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Yeah.

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No, I agree.

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I agree.

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So, Flock is the same thing.

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It is.

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And I still come back to the fact that, to me, there's two areas of accountability that are failing.

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One is at the local level.

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And when I say local, I mean the local, you know, sheriff's department or police department or whatever, local law enforcement.

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So, like in this case, Bibb County Sheriff's Department.

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Number one, as you pointed out, why wasn't this already a requirement?

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You know, you should have to, the system should be set up in such a way that when you go to do a search, you have to enter an active case number.

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Because, I mean, I've never been in law enforcement, but, you know, we've been around law enforcement.

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We kind of have an idea of how these things work.

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And whenever you work in a case, there is a case file.

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There is an identifier that is associated with that case.

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Yeah. You know, short of putting in a BS case number when you go to do a search, why wasn't that already a requirement? And if it's not a requirement, then why doesn't Flock have that built into their system to make it a requirement?

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Well, they don't. Flock doesn't make the policy. They doesn't make the platform.

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Yeah, but they still they're still culpable.

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What?

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And Microsoft's culpable for every attack on the Internet.

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They are whenever it's using a Windows computer.

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They are whenever it's a vulnerability or a feature that wasn't, I guess, thoroughly thought out that allowed it to happen.

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Yeah, I mean, I get what you're saying.

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You know, at what point does this responsibility shift away from the company that makes the technology to the people that actually use it?

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And I do agree with that.

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That's the reason why I said I think there's accountability in two areas that have failed.

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There should be a requirement, a policy requirement at the Sheriff's Department that you always have an active case when you're doing a search.

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But how do you maintain that?

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Well, that goes to Flock, where their searching system should say, enter case number here, and you must enter it in.

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Now, it doesn't necessarily have to connect back to the local system and go, uh-uh-uh, that's not a valid case number.

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But at least it'll be in the audit trail that someone should.

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I mean, if it could.

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And, you know, we're technology people.

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We know it's possible.

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Yeah.

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So I don't know.

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These things just keep cropping up and it's turning the tide.

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I've got another story that we're not going to cover today and probably put it off till next week.

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But this is actually starting to become a bipartisan issue in federal government where they're looking at pulling funding from cities that are actually using these flock camera systems.

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But we'll we'll we'll see how that works out.

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But on the heels of that, this technology right here, I am dead set against.

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It's it's called Signal Trace.

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It's a new surveillance system.

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Oh, yeah.

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Where it turns a person into an air tag.

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Kind of.

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Yeah, it's it's designed to work alongside license plate readers by detecting wireless signals from nearby phones and smartwatches and other devices.

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And so that by recognizing those devices that repeat repeatedly travel together and then they can associate those patterns with particular vehicles and locations, then investigators could potentially track a vehicle or develop leaves leads without even knowing that it's the license plate or the identity of the people that are involved.

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Now, the company that's behind Signal Trace says that it collects electronic signatures rather than personally identifying people.

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But of course, researchers, privacy researchers are warning that those supposedly anonymous signals can become identifying when they're combined with vehicle registrations and locations and other records.

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And of course, this technology raises significant privacy and Fourth Amendment questions because people could potentially draw police attention simply because their devices repeatedly appeared near a person or a vehicle, a protest or a group that's under investigation, even though they themselves were not originally suspected of any wrongdoing.

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just basically wrong, wrong time, wrong place. But instead of that just being a visual thing

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where it's like, okay, I'm walking along the sidewalk and yes, there's a protest here.

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I'm not part of this. And some people do get caught up in getting arrested for that kind of

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stuff. Usually they get out of it when they can prove, look, I was just going and getting,

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I was just going and getting my 16 ounce cup of alcohol during our, you know,

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Dillio here in Tifton, but this is, I don't like this at all, at all.

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It's nuclear technology.

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Nuclear technology.

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It can do great things, but it can cause lots of havoc too.

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Depending on whose hands it's in.

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See, everybody should be living by the Spider-Man edict.

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With great power comes great responsibility.

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I mean, if we're all more like Spider-Man.

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We should just be like Stranger Things.

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Which part?

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what's a cell phone? Yeah. We just don't have them. You know, I've talked, we talked to people

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face to face. Shocking. What is that like? You know? Yeah. I've, I've, I've often on considered,

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and I don't know, it's one of those things I'm like, it'd be very difficult for me to give up

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my smartphone right now. Is it impossible? No. But I have considered buying a $60 flip phone and

210
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just putting it on a, you know, a Mint Mobile or something, $15, $20 a month plan, just so that,

211
00:18:09,440 --> 00:18:13,080
you know, maybe if I want to go somewhere, not that I'm looking at doing anything

212
00:18:13,080 --> 00:18:19,100
illegal or anything, but, you know, if I want to leave my smartphone at home and, but I still want

213
00:18:19,100 --> 00:18:22,960
to have a way of communicating if, you know, I, you know, break down on the side of the road or

214
00:18:22,960 --> 00:18:28,900
something like that, at least I have a phone. But the problem is even some of these smartphones,

215
00:18:29,160 --> 00:18:30,220
They're running Android.

216
00:18:30,220 --> 00:18:34,300
So I don't know at what point they're not trackable too.

217
00:18:34,300 --> 00:18:39,160
And it's not like you can go back and get an early aughts Motorola Razr

218
00:18:39,160 --> 00:18:40,840
and it work on any network today.

219
00:18:40,840 --> 00:18:42,180
That just doesn't happen.

220
00:18:42,180 --> 00:18:43,180
Yeah.

221
00:18:43,180 --> 00:18:44,780
So just don't carry one.

222
00:18:44,780 --> 00:18:50,320
I mean, how, how much do you believe in this?

223
00:18:50,320 --> 00:18:51,600
I don't know.

224
00:18:51,600 --> 00:18:52,240
I don't know.

225
00:18:52,240 --> 00:18:56,080
I mean, it's one of the, it's one of those things where, you know,

226
00:18:56,120 --> 00:19:00,080
18-year-old me, 16-year-old me, you know, we went everywhere.

227
00:19:00,080 --> 00:19:01,340
We didn't have a cell phone.

228
00:19:01,340 --> 00:19:06,220
Cell phones weren't, I mean, they were a thing, but only in like large metropolitan areas,

229
00:19:06,220 --> 00:19:07,760
but they were not even handheld.

230
00:19:07,760 --> 00:19:09,160
They were usually car phones.

231
00:19:09,160 --> 00:19:14,500
I mean, Miami Vice, he had one in his Ferrari.

232
00:19:14,500 --> 00:19:21,280
And, you know, 16 to 17, 18-year-old me wouldn't have had a second thought about going anywhere

233
00:19:21,280 --> 00:19:22,600
without being able to communicate.

234
00:19:23,160 --> 00:19:27,300
It's kind of like, I think you pointed out yesterday, you know, we'd go out and do whatever.

235
00:19:27,300 --> 00:19:32,760
And then as long as we were home by, by dark, it's not like anybody had any way of communicating with us.

236
00:19:32,760 --> 00:19:43,200
I mean, even in stranger things, the most they had was two way radios, which ironically in the show worked greater distances than they actually do.

237
00:19:43,200 --> 00:19:48,620
But okay, I let that one go, you know, nerd.

238
00:19:48,920 --> 00:19:52,640
I know. I know. I mean, I don't know.

239
00:19:52,640 --> 00:19:59,280
It's one of these things that's like, look, I see the potential that we're veering into, but what am I willing to give up?

240
00:19:59,280 --> 00:20:02,280
You know, can I really put my money where my mouth is kind of thing?

241
00:20:02,280 --> 00:20:07,740
Yeah. How closely related are your thoughts to those of Kaczynski?

242
00:20:07,740 --> 00:20:09,920
I don't know.

243
00:20:09,920 --> 00:20:12,140
Because, I mean, he was pretty serious. He was dedicated.

244
00:20:12,140 --> 00:20:12,840
True.

245
00:20:12,840 --> 00:20:14,540
To not being tracked.

246
00:20:14,540 --> 00:20:16,840
True.

247
00:20:17,620 --> 00:20:20,820
Well, you know, I win the billion-dollar Powerball tonight.

248
00:20:20,820 --> 00:20:22,100
I won't have to worry about it.

249
00:20:22,100 --> 00:20:23,620
Yeah.

250
00:20:23,620 --> 00:20:25,260
I mean, just pick your battles.

251
00:20:25,260 --> 00:20:27,200
Turn your Bluetooth off.

252
00:20:27,200 --> 00:20:28,600
Yeah, that's true.

253
00:20:28,600 --> 00:20:29,940
That's true.

254
00:20:29,940 --> 00:20:33,020
But then again, well, that's a good question.

255
00:20:33,020 --> 00:20:33,680
Let me ask you that.

256
00:20:33,680 --> 00:20:35,740
Do you have yours turned off most of the time?

257
00:20:35,740 --> 00:20:36,660
No.

258
00:20:36,660 --> 00:20:42,240
Yeah, me either, because I think Bluetooth is required for my AirPods to actually work in sync.

259
00:20:42,240 --> 00:20:43,020
Yeah.

260
00:20:43,020 --> 00:20:43,820
Yeah.

261
00:20:44,340 --> 00:20:50,420
And then like yesterday, I was driving my son's truck and a check engine light came on.

262
00:20:50,420 --> 00:20:52,780
And so he's got one of these code readers.

263
00:20:52,780 --> 00:20:53,740
It's called Blue Driver.

264
00:20:53,740 --> 00:20:58,080
And so I was like, well, let me read the code so I can tell him what's going on with the truck.

265
00:20:58,080 --> 00:20:59,520
And of course, it connects over Bluetooth.

266
00:20:59,520 --> 00:21:03,440
So I don't think you can get away from this kind of stuff anymore.

267
00:21:03,440 --> 00:21:06,640
It's just, I guess you guard yourself as best you can.

268
00:21:06,640 --> 00:21:08,520
And I hate this line.

269
00:21:08,520 --> 00:21:12,180
Well, if you ain't doing anything illegal, you got nothing to worry about.

270
00:21:12,180 --> 00:21:13,620
Shut the hell up.

271
00:21:14,340 --> 00:21:22,280
i hate that saying because it's not true well we keep pretending that uh people in the government

272
00:21:22,280 --> 00:21:29,720
and law enforcement aren't people who can actually just make sense of of things well yeah your phone

273
00:21:29,720 --> 00:21:38,120
was near this protest but then you walked right past it so we won't even talk to that person

274
00:21:38,120 --> 00:21:43,780
that that's what we need that's what we need people people with common sense and the ability

275
00:21:43,780 --> 00:21:50,020
to go, no, we're, we're good. Yeah. But that's the problem. We don't, we're, we're sorely lacking

276
00:21:50,020 --> 00:21:55,820
in, in the pool of people with common sense. It's our education system. I, I believe that.

277
00:21:55,820 --> 00:22:03,560
I really do. I really do. And our politics. And our politics, unfortunately. Well, we're going to

278
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take a break. When we come back, we'll talk about a little bit more about some politics,

279
00:22:07,860 --> 00:22:14,700
but not really, you know, we got to get back on that whole data center thing, which, man, I don't,

280
00:22:14,700 --> 00:22:19,080
I don't know. It's just, I don't know what to do with this anymore. I really don't.

281
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Let's go to a commercial and get to it.

282
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All right. Well, y'all can weigh in. Phone lines are open. 229-520-5957 or text 24-7-229-520-5957.

283
00:22:30,860 --> 00:22:34,220
Email morningjep at wrto.fm. We'll be back.

284
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Your alarm clock is a liar.

285
00:22:40,440 --> 00:22:43,980
It says it's time to wake up, but you're still sleepwalking through life.

286
00:22:43,980 --> 00:22:46,420
Stop the snooze, start the brew.

287
00:22:46,420 --> 00:22:49,360
It's The Morning Drip on WRTO.fm.

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00:22:49,360 --> 00:22:52,760
We're serving up unfiltered truth, questionable advice,

289
00:22:52,760 --> 00:22:57,120
and enough caffeine-fueled energy to power the entire Piedmont Plateau.

290
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The Morning Drip.

291
00:22:58,460 --> 00:23:01,440
Because sleeping in is for people with nothing to say.

292
00:23:01,440 --> 00:23:04,260
Weekdays, only on Radio Free Georgia.

293
00:23:07,860 --> 00:23:15,960
Hey, everybody. Welcome back to The Morning Drip for Wednesday, August 12th, 2026. Grady D and Mike B in the house with you.

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00:23:15,960 --> 00:23:16,500
Yep.

295
00:23:16,500 --> 00:23:33,780
Follow us on the socials, Facebook, WRTO FM, on bluesky at wrto.fm. Call in number is 229-520-5957 or text 247-365. Same number. Shoot us an email, morningdrip at wrto.fm.

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This segment is brought to you by Visible, and I keep asking this question, why are you

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paying hundreds of dollars for cell phone service when you can cut that bill by 50% to

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80% still get the same quality of service that the big boys provide?

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And I'm talking about Visible.

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You see, my family and I, we went from paying over $400 a month for service with Verizon

301
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to just $25 per phone with Visible.

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And you know what the big kicker is Visible is owned and operated by Verizon right on Verizon's nationwide 5G network.

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So it's a win-win.

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00:24:14,900 --> 00:24:20,480
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So you need to get on it and switch right now.

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00:24:26,020 --> 00:24:28,260
And we want to thank Visible for being an affiliate.

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with wrto.fm.

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All right.

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00:24:32,260 --> 00:24:35,380
Data centers, we can't,

313
00:24:35,380 --> 00:24:36,820
it's just like flock cameras.

314
00:24:36,820 --> 00:24:38,480
We can't seem to get away

315
00:24:38,480 --> 00:24:41,120
from everything about data centers.

316
00:24:41,120 --> 00:24:46,200
OpenAI plans to build

317
00:24:46,200 --> 00:24:48,820
a $20 billion data center campus

318
00:24:48,820 --> 00:24:49,560
in Effingham.

319
00:24:49,560 --> 00:24:51,360
Is it Effingham or Effingham?

320
00:24:51,360 --> 00:24:53,320
It's your choice.

321
00:24:53,320 --> 00:24:53,880
Okay.

322
00:24:53,880 --> 00:24:55,140
I usually say Effingham.

323
00:24:55,140 --> 00:24:55,740
Effingham.

324
00:24:55,740 --> 00:24:57,320
But they probably say Effingham.

325
00:24:57,320 --> 00:24:57,840
Yeah.

326
00:24:57,980 --> 00:24:59,700
You know, it's like Jeff Dunham.

327
00:24:59,700 --> 00:25:01,120
Anyway, that's a.

328
00:25:01,120 --> 00:25:04,200
Well, I mean, it's there's Birmingham, Alabama.

329
00:25:04,200 --> 00:25:04,680
Yeah.

330
00:25:04,680 --> 00:25:06,900
But over in England, people live in Birmingham.

331
00:25:06,900 --> 00:25:07,600
Birmingham.

332
00:25:07,600 --> 00:25:08,420
Yeah, that's true.

333
00:25:08,420 --> 00:25:09,660
That's true.

334
00:25:09,660 --> 00:25:12,560
I guess that's like around around here.

335
00:25:12,560 --> 00:25:16,540
A lot of people pronounce it Albany, but I pronounce it Albany.

336
00:25:16,540 --> 00:25:18,720
They say theater.

337
00:25:18,720 --> 00:25:19,640
I say theater.

338
00:25:19,640 --> 00:25:20,800
Theater.

339
00:25:20,800 --> 00:25:21,400
Theater.

340
00:25:21,400 --> 00:25:27,700
So anyway, it's Effingham County, one of the largest private investments in coastal

341
00:25:27,700 --> 00:25:33,600
Georgia history known as Project Camellia. And I checked to make sure I was pronouncing that right.

342
00:25:33,600 --> 00:25:39,200
I wanted to say Camellia, but it's Camellia. It's four syllables. The facility is expected to create

343
00:25:39,200 --> 00:25:46,720
about 400 permanent jobs, generate substantial tax revenue that local officials say could help

344
00:25:46,720 --> 00:25:53,380
reduce property taxes. I love it. That's how you get people. It's like, look, we know that this

345
00:25:53,380 --> 00:26:00,560
thing is going to probably destroy the environment, but don't worry. We can reduce or possibly

346
00:26:00,560 --> 00:26:06,540
eliminate your property taxes if you'll just stop [bleep] and whining about it being here.

347
00:26:06,540 --> 00:26:13,200
How about that? And then they go on and say, and additional funding and opportunities for schools

348
00:26:13,200 --> 00:26:19,440
and local businesses, right? There aren't enough people in Effingham County.

349
00:26:20,440 --> 00:26:21,840
I didn't look it up.

350
00:26:21,840 --> 00:26:23,360
I don't know how big it is.

351
00:26:23,360 --> 00:26:26,180
Well, I mean, it's pretty close to Savannah.

352
00:26:26,180 --> 00:26:29,840
So there are people there, but it is kind of rural in parts.

353
00:26:29,840 --> 00:26:31,740
What is the population?

354
00:26:31,740 --> 00:26:34,140
See if I can get this one right.

355
00:26:34,140 --> 00:26:39,520
Effingham County, Georgia.

356
00:26:39,520 --> 00:26:41,140
Georgie.

357
00:26:41,140 --> 00:26:44,200
73.15.

358
00:26:44,200 --> 00:26:46,880
So about 73,000 people.

359
00:26:46,880 --> 00:26:50,040
I don't know what Savannah is as compared.

360
00:26:50,300 --> 00:26:50,780
Probably more.

361
00:26:50,780 --> 00:26:51,660
Let's see.

362
00:26:51,660 --> 00:26:52,480
What is Savannah?

363
00:26:52,480 --> 00:26:53,160
A few hundred thousand.

364
00:26:53,160 --> 00:26:54,120
Savannah.

365
00:26:54,120 --> 00:26:57,360
311,000 as of 2025.

366
00:26:57,360 --> 00:26:58,560
So, yeah.

367
00:26:58,560 --> 00:27:03,880
So, this campus will require roughly 3,200 megawatts of electricity.

368
00:27:03,880 --> 00:27:11,080
Open AI has agreed to pay the infrastructure costs and reduce demand during peak periods

369
00:27:11,080 --> 00:27:13,720
under a 25-year agreement with Georgia Power.

370
00:27:13,720 --> 00:27:18,880
Of course, you got residents that are concerned about the project's potential impact on those

371
00:27:18,880 --> 00:27:24,600
electricity rates and the water and traffic and other infrastructure. And of course, local leaders

372
00:27:24,600 --> 00:27:31,020
argue the economic benefits and safeguards built into the project will make it a long-term benefit

373
00:27:31,020 --> 00:27:37,600
for the county. I don't know if I've actually asked you this. What is your actual take? Like,

374
00:27:37,600 --> 00:27:46,320
if it were to come out that OpenAI or Google or anybody, because there is one that's going in,

375
00:27:46,480 --> 00:27:54,580
I don't know where it stands, but I know several months ago, one of my friends asked me what I knew about data centers.

376
00:27:54,580 --> 00:28:00,700
And he was telling me all the rhetoric and BS that was being told to them about the one they want to put in Irwin County.

377
00:28:00,700 --> 00:28:05,140
So if they were going to come and say, well, we want to put one in Tiff County, what would your feeling be?

378
00:28:05,140 --> 00:28:05,900
Bring it.

379
00:28:05,900 --> 00:28:06,260
Really?

380
00:28:06,260 --> 00:28:11,120
Well, it's going to make money.

381
00:28:11,120 --> 00:28:12,440
It's going to provide some jobs.

382
00:28:12,440 --> 00:28:13,480
Not enough.

383
00:28:13,480 --> 00:28:15,440
Look, I'm talking here.

384
00:28:16,480 --> 00:28:23,620
so it's going to provide some jobs of course no not enough we're not going to erase unemployment

385
00:28:23,620 --> 00:28:31,640
in tiff county if that happens but there there will be infrastructure improvements

386
00:28:31,640 --> 00:28:37,100
uh that will have to go in for something like that uh and that would kind of bring us

387
00:28:37,100 --> 00:28:44,860
up to speed a little more a little bit faster um and if it doesn't go here it's going to go

388
00:28:44,860 --> 00:28:48,780
somewhere and do the same thing it's going to provide benefits somewhere else if it's not here

389
00:28:48,780 --> 00:28:56,360
i guess my biggest issue is the fact that the way these things are are typically sold

390
00:28:56,360 --> 00:29:02,260
to the areas that they're trying to put them in is the first thing that you said was it's going to

391
00:29:02,260 --> 00:29:10,580
be it's going to bring jobs and the problem with that is on the front end yes you're going to have

392
00:29:10,580 --> 00:29:16,160
people coming in. You got construction crews, you got all of this stuff. And I mean, there's going

393
00:29:16,160 --> 00:29:22,280
to be an uptick in employment, money going through the local economy because people are

394
00:29:22,280 --> 00:29:28,860
buying stuff there. They're working in the area. But once the thing is up and operational,

395
00:29:28,860 --> 00:29:35,900
I call BS even on this one where they're talking about 400 permanent jobs. I looked at the one,

396
00:29:35,900 --> 00:29:42,220
the size of the one that they were looking at putting in Irwin County. At most, 25 jobs. At

397
00:29:42,220 --> 00:29:48,720
most, 25 jobs. Because once these things are built and up and operational, they're pretty

398
00:29:48,720 --> 00:29:55,000
much automatic. You don't need a [bleep] ton of people working in the facility to, oh, we've got

399
00:29:55,000 --> 00:30:01,300
a server that's dead, DRack it, put in a new one and move on with your life. You don't need 400

400
00:30:01,300 --> 00:30:09,960
people doing that so they never said it would open uh open ai would be directly hiring 400 people for

401
00:30:09,960 --> 00:30:14,840
permanent positions he said the facility is expected to create about 400 permanent jobs

402
00:30:14,840 --> 00:30:20,720
that but they never said they would work at open ai they well then what what's the point of the

403
00:30:20,720 --> 00:30:27,020
facility creating 400 permanent jobs what because it sounds good they're selling it i know it's a

404
00:30:27,020 --> 00:30:38,860
lie that's not a lie well it's uh over exaggeration it's lofty and it can be calculated in a number of

405
00:30:38,860 --> 00:30:44,620
ways so in other who will the people who will work at the facility the people who will build the

406
00:30:44,620 --> 00:30:52,980
facility um and then with everything with all the people that it brings in and by the way they won't

407
00:30:52,980 --> 00:30:56,920
be able to hire local people to run the data center they're they're going to move people there

408
00:30:56,920 --> 00:31:07,700
true um so the their the um increased traffic will cause them uh the locals to put in more gas

409
00:31:07,700 --> 00:31:14,740
stations uh there may be another shopping center and you know those 400 jobs will include everybody

410
00:31:14,740 --> 00:31:21,800
who works at the circle k and the wawa and and the walmart so that that's what you're that's what

411
00:31:21,800 --> 00:31:26,300
you're saying is is they're glossing over those i think those are the jobs that they're saying will

412
00:31:26,300 --> 00:31:31,060
be created by this project because there's no way it's going to take 400 people to run a data center

413
00:31:31,060 --> 00:31:37,260
you could probably do it with 50 yeah and that would be too many yeah okay i i get what you're

414
00:31:37,260 --> 00:31:41,480
saying and i don't disagree with you on that i just don't like the way it's presented i don't

415
00:31:41,480 --> 00:31:49,280
like no it's it's never presented properly it's it's twisted yeah i just think i'm not i'm not

416
00:31:49,280 --> 00:31:56,520
against data centers per se. You know, we've got to have them, you know, email. I mean, everything

417
00:31:56,520 --> 00:32:02,780
we do nowadays has got to have some data center. There's got to be a location where, you know,

418
00:32:02,780 --> 00:32:09,220
fiber's going in, tons of fibers going in, and tons of servers are sitting there. And as long

419
00:32:09,220 --> 00:32:16,520
as these companies will do what they say, like this one says, look, we're going to pay the

420
00:32:16,520 --> 00:32:23,220
infrastructure costs and we're going to reduce our demand during peak periods for the next 25 years.

421
00:32:23,220 --> 00:32:29,260
And as long as Georgia Power and all the other co-ops that are dealing with this don't do a

422
00:32:29,260 --> 00:32:35,320
bait and switch and suddenly, you know, your power bill has gone up by $50 a month because they're

423
00:32:35,320 --> 00:32:41,220
having to subsidize infrastructure costs. Okay. You know, as long as those are in and people will

424
00:32:41,220 --> 00:32:47,920
follow it. Okay, let's have a discussion. I'm with you on how the fact that it could potentially

425
00:32:47,920 --> 00:32:54,440
spawn off all these other businesses, all these other support businesses that is what accounts

426
00:32:54,440 --> 00:33:00,000
for these 400 permanent jobs. Just present it like that. Don't say, we're going to create 400

427
00:33:00,000 --> 00:33:06,500
permanent jobs. You're not doing it directly. Explain it to the general public that says,

428
00:33:06,500 --> 00:33:10,960
look, we put this in, we're going to have potentially X number of employees working

429
00:33:10,960 --> 00:33:16,860
around the clock in this place, but it also has the potential to create all these other

430
00:33:16,860 --> 00:33:22,560
industries around it. So that's all I'm saying, but they never present it that way. They basically,

431
00:33:22,560 --> 00:33:26,440
I still call it a lie. It's a lie of omission, but it's still a lie.

432
00:33:26,440 --> 00:33:28,760
Figures don't lie, but liars can figure.

433
00:33:33,200 --> 00:33:38,900
So moving on to some other Georgia news, this one I thought you might, I'll pick your brain

434
00:33:38,900 --> 00:33:43,000
about it because you do travel up toward Atlanta more than I do.

435
00:33:43,000 --> 00:33:49,180
Heck, the last time I was even up there close to that was when my son and I went up there

436
00:33:49,180 --> 00:33:53,960
for him to buy his, this truck that he has, this 2003 Ford Ranger, which I think was in

437
00:33:53,960 --> 00:33:55,500
2021 or 2022.

438
00:33:55,500 --> 00:34:01,700
But anyway, so Georgia is moving ahead with a $3.5 billion project to build 41 miles of

439
00:34:01,700 --> 00:34:08,680
barrier-separated, toll-free, truck-only lanes along northbound I-75 between Macon and McDonough.

440
00:34:08,680 --> 00:34:15,160
Construction is expected to run from 2027 through 2032, with the lanes designed to move most

441
00:34:15,160 --> 00:34:20,540
commercial truck traffic away from regular interstate lanes along a corridor, while trucks

442
00:34:20,540 --> 00:34:25,380
account for nearly 30% of the vehicles. The Georgia Department of Transportation says the

443
00:34:25,380 --> 00:34:30,660
project should reduce congestion, improve safety, and speed freight movement through one of the

444
00:34:30,660 --> 00:34:35,780
nation's worst truck bottlenecks. And while the proposal has generally received public support,

445
00:34:35,780 --> 00:34:41,540
there are concerns about traffic merging back onto the interstate near McDonough and disruptions

446
00:34:41,540 --> 00:34:47,300
during the five-year construction period, which at last part, disruptions during the five-year

447
00:34:47,300 --> 00:34:52,920
construction period, I-75 is in a constant state of construction. That's not going to be anything

448
00:34:52,920 --> 00:35:00,620
new. I say that kind of tongue in cheek, but I'm also being serious. I mean, how many days

449
00:35:00,620 --> 00:35:05,000
do you go, whether it's down to Valdosta or where it's up north to Macon and Atlanta,

450
00:35:05,000 --> 00:35:12,180
some section of I-75 is being worked on. Oh yeah. Every, every single time.

451
00:35:12,180 --> 00:35:15,460
What do you think about this? You think it's a good idea? Because like I say,

452
00:35:15,460 --> 00:35:20,000
you're someone that goes up there more than I do. Hell yeah. And put the RVs on there too.

453
00:35:20,000 --> 00:35:27,320
That would be good. And I, I saw that and I saw, I saw the 41 miles. I was like,

454
00:35:27,380 --> 00:35:34,680
what's that going to do? But the more I think about it, that is a terrible place to be a driver

455
00:35:34,680 --> 00:35:45,160
between, um, between South Atlanta, uh, like exit two 38 down to, uh, McDonough, like exit

456
00:35:45,160 --> 00:35:53,440
two 12, um, Locust Grove. So yeah, if they, if the truckers get to skip that,

457
00:35:53,660 --> 00:36:07,060
That will take so many off the road and that would speed up a whole lot because the traffic backups are caused by everybody trying to get on or off the interstate.

458
00:36:07,060 --> 00:36:07,880
Mm-hmm.

459
00:36:07,880 --> 00:36:15,080
They're busy, especially at Locust Grove and where everybody lives in McDonough because they don't want to live in Atlanta.

460
00:36:15,080 --> 00:36:19,220
So they just choose another congested area to reside in.

461
00:36:21,500 --> 00:36:30,060
um so it's on and off the interstate with the trucks yeah so that it'll stop the right lane

462
00:36:30,060 --> 00:36:36,260
and then people go try to go from that one over to the left and so it just kind of mucks everything

463
00:36:36,260 --> 00:36:41,280
up but if we get rid of the trucks i think that would go a lot smoother if we get rid of the rvs

464
00:36:41,280 --> 00:36:44,100
i think we just outlaw rvs on interstate

465
00:36:44,100 --> 00:36:53,900
i'm not sure you could do that but i'm i'm in agreement with you let's you know how you got

466
00:36:53,900 --> 00:36:58,840
you got neighborhoods in certain sections where you got the signs that says no no trucks and i

467
00:36:58,840 --> 00:37:03,660
always thought growing up i was like well what's what's wrong with my daddy's truck driving up in

468
00:37:03,660 --> 00:37:09,000
here no they they mean semis and and things like that and big box trucks and what have you

469
00:37:09,000 --> 00:37:15,200
yeah but yeah i i think i agree with you you know if you're going to allow semi-truck trailers and

470
00:37:15,200 --> 00:37:22,220
what have you move the rvs over there too and and just let that section of interstate be for

471
00:37:22,220 --> 00:37:28,480
regular size vehicles if you will and we along that whole thing we put in flock cameras and we

472
00:37:28,480 --> 00:37:36,380
find any rv driver who's not in the right lane oh god does it have to be flock can it just be

473
00:37:36,380 --> 00:37:42,060
regular surveillance come on man well come on flock's better at spying on people than anybody

474
00:37:42,060 --> 00:37:47,880
as evidence according to sources according to sources that's true you know what's interesting

475
00:37:47,880 --> 00:37:56,700
talking about um bypasses and what have you like this one years ago probably let's see 26

476
00:37:56,700 --> 00:38:04,800
15 15 to 20 years ago there was talk and i actually saw the plans because we were going

477
00:38:04,800 --> 00:38:08,840
to have to reroute some infrastructure and what have you for the cable and broadband system.

478
00:38:08,840 --> 00:38:18,020
But there was a talk of a bypass that would go, you would get off of it at 319 or onto it at 319

479
00:38:18,020 --> 00:38:25,400
and it would literally take you over to 82 East. And I think they may have looked at it. Well,

480
00:38:25,400 --> 00:38:29,980
I mean, you're already over there for 82 West. So you could literally, if you were coming in

481
00:38:29,980 --> 00:38:38,900
the westward lanes on 82, you'd be able to get on this bypass, bypass all of downtown Tifton,

482
00:38:38,900 --> 00:38:44,440
all the major sections of Tifton, and the bypass would take you over to 319, where you could either

483
00:38:44,440 --> 00:38:52,040
then go however you needed to go on 319 or come off of 319 and get back on 82 headed west again.

484
00:38:52,040 --> 00:38:59,320
So it would lessen the congestion that we have basically of 82 all the way through Tifton.

485
00:38:59,700 --> 00:39:01,040
But they never did it.

486
00:39:01,040 --> 00:39:05,200
I thought it was a great idea, but they just never did it.

487
00:39:05,200 --> 00:39:13,580
Every time you go through town in the middle of the day on 82, you think, you know, these trucks probably don't like doing this.

488
00:39:13,580 --> 00:39:24,720
Especially that when you get up to the intersection of 82 and, oh damn, what is that?

489
00:39:24,720 --> 00:39:25,360
Is it TIF?

490
00:39:25,360 --> 00:39:25,760
Virginia.

491
00:39:25,760 --> 00:39:26,960
Or is it Virginia?

492
00:39:27,080 --> 00:39:30,580
Well, I'm thinking about the one right there.

493
00:39:30,580 --> 00:39:31,000
Downtown.

494
00:39:31,000 --> 00:39:35,020
You get past the end mark.

495
00:39:35,020 --> 00:39:38,580
You get to the wings place right there on the right.

496
00:39:38,580 --> 00:39:40,020
And then as you go through that one

497
00:39:40,020 --> 00:39:42,820
and you come up to that furniture store place on the right

498
00:39:42,820 --> 00:39:44,560
where you basically have an incline.

499
00:39:44,560 --> 00:39:45,880
That's Main Street.

500
00:39:45,880 --> 00:39:48,740
Yeah, they probably don't like that one

501
00:39:48,740 --> 00:39:51,380
because you have to sit there on an incline and idle.

502
00:39:51,380 --> 00:39:54,360
I know whenever I was driving a standard shift,

503
00:39:54,460 --> 00:40:04,820
I hated it because you'd have to you'd have to sit there and play this game with your accelerator just pushed up down enough that the the vehicle would stay engaged.

504
00:40:04,820 --> 00:40:13,480
Because, you know, if you're if you're holding the brake in the clutch and as soon as you try to get get to the accelerator, you're going to roll back unless you're really damn good.

505
00:40:13,480 --> 00:40:18,820
And I mean, I drove a stick shift for a couple of decades and I was really damn good, but I still hated it.

506
00:40:18,820 --> 00:40:20,580
You know, that incline.

507
00:40:22,120 --> 00:40:27,900
But yeah, I think anytime, and not only that, but hey, let's go back to, you know, the open AI thing.

508
00:40:27,900 --> 00:40:32,500
That would have created all kinds of business opportunities on that bypass route.

509
00:40:32,500 --> 00:40:37,720
You know, new stores and gas stations and et cetera, et cetera.

510
00:40:37,720 --> 00:40:40,560
I think it would have been good for the economy, but I don't know.

511
00:40:40,560 --> 00:40:41,540
They just didn't do it.

512
00:40:41,540 --> 00:40:42,560
Didn't do it at all.

513
00:40:42,560 --> 00:40:49,940
Because somebody whose family's been here for 400,000 years didn't want it.

514
00:40:50,500 --> 00:40:58,320
probably. That's a guess. Yeah. I'm not an insider. That's like I-75. I have it on. I think I've told

515
00:40:58,320 --> 00:41:03,120
you this one before, but as it comes in here, you know, Tifton is kind of like, we're, we're this

516
00:41:03,120 --> 00:41:09,580
nexus point because we have 41, 319 and I-75 that all come in and corridor Z, if you will, with

517
00:41:09,580 --> 00:41:16,760
82, all come into this nexus of Tifton, Tiff County. I-75 originally was not going through

518
00:41:16,760 --> 00:41:22,020
tifton it was going through albany but it made more sense a certain mayor if i remember correctly

519
00:41:22,020 --> 00:41:26,980
he's either the mayor or he was the city manager at the time who is related to someone we know

520
00:41:26,980 --> 00:41:33,320
managed to get it moved from albany to tifton whenever it was being constructed and coming

521
00:41:33,320 --> 00:41:38,960
down this way it's like their great great grandfather or something or some relation to them

522
00:41:38,960 --> 00:41:48,380
so you know you never know money talks yeah i mean the only reason not to do it is feelings

523
00:41:48,380 --> 00:41:54,360
and somebody just had feelings somebody didn't want somebody mad at somebody what's the adage

524
00:41:54,360 --> 00:42:01,480
now you know facts don't give a [bleep] about your feelings yeah anyway all right we're going to take

525
00:42:01,480 --> 00:42:08,560
another break call in line is 229-520-5957 or you can text 24 7 365 the same number

526
00:42:08,560 --> 00:42:13,000
or shoot us an email, morningdrip at wrto.fm.

527
00:42:13,000 --> 00:42:15,620
Let's pay some bills and we'll be back in a bit.

528
00:42:15,620 --> 00:42:25,180
Your coffee is weak.

529
00:42:25,180 --> 00:42:26,500
Your commute is long.

530
00:42:26,500 --> 00:42:29,160
Your boss is, well, you know.

531
00:42:29,160 --> 00:42:30,860
It's time to wake up.

532
00:42:30,860 --> 00:42:32,920
Join the revolution of the caffeine addicted,

533
00:42:32,920 --> 00:42:36,860
The Morning Drip, every morning on wrto.fm.

534
00:42:36,860 --> 00:42:38,240
It's not just a show.

535
00:42:38,560 --> 00:42:40,260
is your daily jolt of reality.

536
00:42:40,260 --> 00:42:43,880
Warning, make all sudden outbursts of free thought.

537
00:42:43,880 --> 00:42:52,320
Hey everybody, welcome back to The Morning Drip

538
00:42:52,320 --> 00:42:55,980
for Wednesday, the 12th of August, 2026.

539
00:42:55,980 --> 00:42:58,060
Grady D might be here with you

540
00:42:58,060 --> 00:43:00,640
as we get into our final segment.

541
00:43:00,640 --> 00:43:04,740
Again, our call-in number is 229-520-5957.

542
00:43:04,740 --> 00:43:07,240
Text the same number or shoot us an email,

543
00:43:07,540 --> 00:43:16,080
morning drip at wrto.fm. Follow us on Facebook at wrto.fm and on blue sky at wrto.fm. So we have

544
00:43:16,080 --> 00:43:22,120
a new GAO report. That is the Government Accountability Office, I think is what that

545
00:43:22,120 --> 00:43:28,220
stands for. Finds that millions of Americans rely on Medicaid and SNAP despite being employed,

546
00:43:28,220 --> 00:43:33,940
including 13.8 million working adults enrolled in Medicaid and 10.6 million living in households

547
00:43:33,940 --> 00:43:41,420
receiving SNAP in 2024. About two-thirds worked full-time, although many had inconsistent hours

548
00:43:41,420 --> 00:43:47,300
or did not work full-time throughout the entire year. About 88% of these workers were employed

549
00:43:47,300 --> 00:43:51,800
in the private sector, particularly in transportation, food service, and retail.

550
00:43:51,800 --> 00:43:58,420
Data from 11 states also found thousands of benefit recipients working for some major employers,

551
00:43:58,420 --> 00:44:05,660
including 17 companies ranked among the nation's 50 largest Fortune 500 employers, highlighting how

552
00:44:05,660 --> 00:44:11,220
many working Americans still earn too little or have insufficiently consistent employment to meet

553
00:44:11,220 --> 00:44:19,780
basic needs without public assistance. And one of those 50 largest Fortune 500 employers is Walmart.

554
00:44:19,780 --> 00:44:27,740
Amazon is also one of them, I'm fairly certain. Regarding those who actually work in, say,

555
00:44:27,740 --> 00:44:29,740
like the warehouse and stuff like that.

556
00:44:29,740 --> 00:44:33,100
They're AWS people, completely different story.

557
00:44:33,100 --> 00:44:35,180
I know how much those people make.

558
00:44:35,180 --> 00:44:37,540
They're not living on food stamps.

559
00:44:37,540 --> 00:44:39,040
Yeah, I don't think they would qualify.

560
00:44:39,040 --> 00:44:40,560
No, no, no, no, no.

561
00:44:40,560 --> 00:44:42,520
I think the cheapest you get off there

562
00:44:42,520 --> 00:44:47,100
is probably $175,000 a year or something like that.

563
00:44:47,100 --> 00:44:49,840
And even if you're living in Washington state,

564
00:44:49,840 --> 00:44:54,160
and I know stuff is a heck of a lot more expensive there,

565
00:44:54,980 --> 00:45:01,400
You're you're unless you're managing your money terribly, you should not need benefits of any any type.

566
00:45:01,400 --> 00:45:08,020
But yeah, it's kind of sad because and this is a recurring thing that I've seen, especially when it comes to Walmart.

567
00:45:08,020 --> 00:45:16,220
People, people working for Walmart, even full time jobs and still cannot afford to put food on their table.

568
00:45:16,220 --> 00:45:20,940
And, you know, we're not talking about the fact that they're making seven dollars and twenty five cents an hour.

569
00:45:20,940 --> 00:45:28,100
But even today, a living wage of $15 is really not a living wage anymore.

570
00:45:28,100 --> 00:45:34,780
It needs to be closer to $20 or $25 an hour, which I know that's hard to get to, especially

571
00:45:34,780 --> 00:45:35,860
for small businesses.

572
00:45:35,860 --> 00:45:42,200
And honestly, I think the cities in the states that have actually done $15 to $20, I want

573
00:45:42,200 --> 00:45:46,560
to say California is raising theirs to like $27.

574
00:45:46,560 --> 00:45:48,200
It's either $22 or $27.

575
00:45:48,200 --> 00:45:49,140
I can't remember.

576
00:45:50,060 --> 00:45:59,400
But I think there should be a carve out for small businesses, you know, just like there was or is for insurance.

577
00:45:59,400 --> 00:46:07,020
You know, if you've got a small business of 50 or less, then you don't have to meet certain requirements when it comes to insurance.

578
00:46:07,020 --> 00:46:09,340
Probably the same thing should be.

579
00:46:09,340 --> 00:46:15,160
And I don't know if there is a carve out for this in these places that have minimum wage of $15 and up.

580
00:46:15,160 --> 00:46:19,220
You know, if you're less than 50 or less than 25, then maybe you don't have to meet that.

581
00:46:19,620 --> 00:46:24,360
You know, I don't know, but I think that's, I think that's something that, that always

582
00:46:24,360 --> 00:46:29,280
needs to be looked at because I can, I can tell you if I had to hire somebody to work

583
00:46:29,280 --> 00:46:32,640
in my business, I could not afford to pay them $25 an hour.

584
00:46:32,640 --> 00:46:35,260
I don't think I could afford to pay them $15 an hour.

585
00:46:35,260 --> 00:46:36,060
No, I couldn't either.

586
00:46:36,060 --> 00:46:41,180
So, but it's a problem.

587
00:46:41,180 --> 00:46:41,740
Yeah.

588
00:46:41,740 --> 00:46:42,620
It's a problem.

589
00:46:42,620 --> 00:46:48,420
It is, and I don't think increasing the minimum wage is going to solve it.

590
00:46:49,620 --> 00:46:59,560
I don't think I don't think it will solve it in its totality, but I think it is a part of the overall process that needs to happen.

591
00:46:59,560 --> 00:47:06,100
I mean, I think it's 2009 is the last time that the national minimum wage was actually adjusted.

592
00:47:06,100 --> 00:47:11,880
And that's the reason why states do it themselves or municipalities do it themselves.

593
00:47:11,880 --> 00:47:17,260
I mean, I remember back in the early 90s, I thought I was doing great because I was making 10 cents above minimum.

594
00:47:17,380 --> 00:47:21,200
And at that time, I think the minimum was $5.35 or something.

595
00:47:21,200 --> 00:47:22,380
Yeah.

596
00:47:22,380 --> 00:47:25,980
When I went to Walmart Distribution Center, I mean, I was an eye cotton.

597
00:47:25,980 --> 00:47:28,060
I was making $6.10 an hour.

598
00:47:28,060 --> 00:47:31,200
You know, so.

599
00:47:31,200 --> 00:47:31,760
Yeah.

600
00:47:31,760 --> 00:47:35,600
I was in a management position.

601
00:47:35,600 --> 00:47:38,620
I think I was making $6.80 an hour.

602
00:47:38,620 --> 00:47:39,660
Oh, wow.

603
00:47:39,660 --> 00:47:40,760
Back in the 90s.

604
00:47:40,760 --> 00:47:41,920
Oh, wow.

605
00:47:41,920 --> 00:47:44,980
I started with the city making $3.6.

606
00:47:47,000 --> 00:47:49,680
I started with the city making 20.

607
00:47:49,680 --> 00:47:54,680
Yeah, that's, you know, that's because we didn't pay the underlings enough.

608
00:47:54,680 --> 00:47:55,680
I'm kidding.

609
00:47:55,680 --> 00:47:57,600
I wasn't surprised.

610
00:47:57,600 --> 00:48:01,900
I think this requires some knowledge.

611
00:48:01,900 --> 00:48:10,140
Hey, it wasn't until, and I don't know if you were still, I don't think you were there at this time, but they.

612
00:48:10,140 --> 00:48:12,340
No, I didn't stay any longer than I had to.

613
00:48:12,340 --> 00:48:13,400
Oh, I know, I know.

614
00:48:13,400 --> 00:48:23,960
They actually brought in a company to do a survey to look at every single department within the city of Tifton as to pay scale.

615
00:48:23,960 --> 00:48:32,720
And when they got to the city net slash IT department, they looked at it and went, you guys have got a problem.

616
00:48:32,720 --> 00:48:35,240
And what they did, I thought it was the funniest thing.

617
00:48:35,600 --> 00:48:44,540
They they went to management and counsel and said, you do realize that this organization is an upside down pyramid.

618
00:48:44,540 --> 00:48:59,820
And at the very bottom of that pyramid, the point of that pyramid, it sits on top of your IT department, because without your IT department, you're in your entire business doesn't work and you're not paying them enough.

619
00:49:00,420 --> 00:49:07,340
So I suddenly went from making sixty two thousand dollars a year.

620
00:49:07,340 --> 00:49:10,060
I got a ten thousand dollar pay pay rates.

621
00:49:10,060 --> 00:49:15,080
So basically everybody in that department got a pay raise at some percentage.

622
00:49:15,080 --> 00:49:22,000
And I was like, well, it's about damn time that somebody recognizes the importance of of certain departments within this organization.

623
00:49:22,000 --> 00:49:24,360
So, you know, that doesn't happen often.

624
00:49:24,360 --> 00:49:26,840
No, I was I was pleasantly surprised.

625
00:49:26,840 --> 00:49:30,640
I had no idea that that was even going to happen, but I was like, wow.

626
00:49:30,640 --> 00:49:39,880
I mean, I remember talking whenever the guy came in to do the assessment to figure out how much they could spin out or sell the department for.

627
00:49:39,880 --> 00:49:43,060
He told me, he said, you're still not making enough.

628
00:49:43,060 --> 00:49:44,460
I said, what do you mean?

629
00:49:44,460 --> 00:49:52,120
He said, as a general manager of a broadband cable system, your minimum should be about $125,000 a year.

630
00:49:52,120 --> 00:49:56,320
And I looked at him and I said, dude, that's what the city manager makes right now.

631
00:49:56,840 --> 00:50:01,760
he's like, oh, I know, I know. He said, your position is more important than his. I'm like,

632
00:50:01,760 --> 00:50:07,220
oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. We're not going there. But I would agree.

633
00:50:07,220 --> 00:50:11,840
Personal question. You don't have to answer it if you don't want to. Have you ever been on,

634
00:50:11,840 --> 00:50:18,780
on a food stamps or SNAP benefits? We, when my daughter was born, I had just lost my job.

635
00:50:18,780 --> 00:50:22,860
Like I got fired on a Friday and my daughter was born that Sunday morning.

636
00:50:23,600 --> 00:50:33,980
oh [bleep]. So, um, my mother worked with, you know, county officials and whatever she interacted with

637
00:50:33,980 --> 00:50:38,600
those kinds of people in her job. So she knew people and somebody came out and said,

638
00:50:38,600 --> 00:50:45,000
you guys would qualify for WIC. And so we got, we got WIC. Um, cause I didn't have a job.

639
00:50:45,000 --> 00:50:52,140
Yeah. And we had a baby. Um, and we took advantage of it. We got, uh, we got formula

640
00:50:52,140 --> 00:50:59,420
when we needed formula when um when we're done breastfeeding yeah i said we didn't we switched

641
00:50:59,420 --> 00:51:05,980
the formula when um when i got the job in uh with the city of tifton and we moved to tifton

642
00:51:05,980 --> 00:51:14,220
and couldn't take care that's when we that's too long of a story um no i understand that's that

643
00:51:14,220 --> 00:51:31,840
That's all. Yeah. Otherwise, no, no food stamps or snap or we, we had, of course I have three kids. They're all adults now, but we use, and at the time, I mean, I was working, but I wasn't making a lot of money.

644
00:51:31,840 --> 00:51:41,000
I think I think whenever our first child was born, I was probably making four hundred dollars a week at best.

645
00:51:41,000 --> 00:51:48,660
So all of in every one of our pregnancies, we qualified for WIC.

646
00:51:48,660 --> 00:51:54,580
Matter of fact, we paid nothing for any of our children to be born.

647
00:51:54,580 --> 00:51:56,840
No hospital bills, nothing.

648
00:51:56,840 --> 00:52:01,500
It was all covered by the government or whatever.

649
00:52:01,840 --> 00:52:10,980
Medicaid? I guess, uh, you know, this was 90, 92 and 94 and heck even in 97, we, uh, and, and,

650
00:52:10,980 --> 00:52:18,900
and 97, I was still making about the same amount of money, $400 a week. And, uh, so all three of

651
00:52:18,900 --> 00:52:24,860
my kids, every bit of their, you know, we had to pay for like pediatricians and stuff like that

652
00:52:24,860 --> 00:52:30,400
whenever we go, but some of it was also covered, but yeah, we did the WIC thing. Um, been on,

653
00:52:30,540 --> 00:52:38,580
We've been on Snap once and it's when I lost my job in 2012 and we did it for six months, I think.

654
00:52:38,580 --> 00:52:45,400
And we managed to, we were getting $600 a month on the EBT card and we actually found,

655
00:52:45,400 --> 00:52:51,980
because my wife was very frugal, we actually found it difficult for a family of five to

656
00:52:51,980 --> 00:53:00,480
actually use all $600 each month. Nowadays, it'd be easy. You know, two grocery

657
00:53:00,480 --> 00:53:11,500
runs $600 so oh yeah yeah my wife went to sam's a couple months ago and when she swipes the card

658
00:53:11,500 --> 00:53:19,580
i get an alert on my phone and uh your transaction for $680 was approved i was like what

659
00:53:19,580 --> 00:53:24,060
[bleep] we better be eating good

660
00:53:24,060 --> 00:53:32,920
yeah i know i track our grocery our our i haven't looked at it in a couple of weeks

661
00:53:32,920 --> 00:53:41,600
but i've been comparing from 2024 2025 and 2026 and so i put it in a spreadsheet and then i let

662
00:53:41,600 --> 00:53:49,560
it average out so that i can see what our average monthly is and we are for a family of three right

663
00:53:49,560 --> 00:53:58,080
now, we're averaging about $640 a month. And again, we don't, you know, I try to target $150

664
00:53:58,080 --> 00:54:02,920
a week. That's my target. We don't always hit it. You know, some, there are just some weeks where

665
00:54:02,920 --> 00:54:07,600
it's like, okay, well, I'm going to have to eat into this target and it's going to be 170 or 180

666
00:54:07,600 --> 00:54:16,600
or whatever. But yeah, it has definitely edged up, I would say easily by 20% from 2024 to 2026.

667
00:54:17,540 --> 00:54:31,560
Yeah. Food's a huge cost anymore. It is. It is. I mean, hamburger meat. If you get if you get the [bleep] hamburger meat, it's still it's still going to run you for four dollars a pound.

668
00:54:31,560 --> 00:54:40,300
We buy one pound of grass fed beef every week and just keep it stored. And it's between seven and eight dollars for that one pound.

669
00:54:40,300 --> 00:54:47,180
but you want some inexpensive meat that works just as well, get turkey. I don't know why,

670
00:54:47,180 --> 00:54:55,980
but one pound of turkey in a turkey roll frozen is like $2 and something. And you can make turkey

671
00:54:55,980 --> 00:55:01,120
burgers out of it. You can substitute it pretty much into anything that you use beef. You may have

672
00:55:01,120 --> 00:55:06,480
to season it a little bit more because of the fact that turkey kind of like chicken is bland

673
00:55:06,480 --> 00:55:11,540
without any seasoning, but it is a good substitute. It is an expensive substitute.

674
00:55:11,540 --> 00:55:17,120
Now that I've said that, they'll probably jack the price on it, but that's what we've discovered.

675
00:55:17,120 --> 00:55:20,300
Well, if you have a texture issue, turkey's not the same.

676
00:55:20,300 --> 00:55:29,740
That's true. Turkey bacon is an abomination. Oh, trust me. There's only one kind of bacon,

677
00:55:29,740 --> 00:55:35,380
and that is the bacon bacon. I do not care for turkey bacon. I will tolerate it, but no,

678
00:55:35,380 --> 00:55:41,160
Give me, give me just, give me just good old hog bacon the way God intended.

679
00:55:41,160 --> 00:55:41,560
Yeah.

680
00:55:41,560 --> 00:55:42,980
I don't, why call it bacon?

681
00:55:42,980 --> 00:55:46,200
If it's, if it's not, if it's turkey, why call it bacon?

682
00:55:46,200 --> 00:55:46,560
Yeah.

683
00:55:46,560 --> 00:55:48,760
I mean, bacon means pig, right?

684
00:55:48,760 --> 00:55:49,200
Bacon.

685
00:55:49,200 --> 00:55:51,060
You could just call them bacon flavored.

686
00:55:51,060 --> 00:55:52,600
Turkey sticks.

687
00:55:52,600 --> 00:55:53,520
Turkey strips.

688
00:55:53,520 --> 00:55:56,240
Oh, all right.

689
00:55:56,240 --> 00:55:57,540
Let's move on to the last thing.

690
00:55:57,540 --> 00:56:04,020
Despite shrinking production budgets and growing competition from other states and countries,

691
00:56:04,020 --> 00:56:08,640
Georgia's film and television industry remain relatively steady for fiscal year 2026.

692
00:56:08,640 --> 00:56:11,920
280 productions spent about $2 billion in the state.

693
00:56:11,920 --> 00:56:15,380
Georgia continues to attract productions because of its tax incentives.

694
00:56:15,380 --> 00:56:21,160
Experienced crews, studio infrastructure, statewide support network, and television and streaming

695
00:56:21,160 --> 00:56:26,300
series remain particularly important with more than 440 episodic productions filming

696
00:56:26,300 --> 00:56:29,040
in the state over the past three fiscal years.

697
00:56:29,040 --> 00:56:31,300
One thing I will note, I put a comment in here.

698
00:56:31,860 --> 00:57:00,220
I do remember reading an article several years ago that after Marvel wrapped up their original saga with the with Endgame, basically the work up in North Georgia for the studios and all of the extras and everybody that worked on these productions just kind of went away because it was like, you know, think about it for a period of roughly 10 to 15 years because pretty much all the Marvel movies were filmed in North Georgia.

699
00:57:00,220 --> 00:57:09,120
They had steady work because they would move from one film to another or they'd work on, you know, television series that were being streamed on Disney Plus and that kind of stuff.

700
00:57:09,120 --> 00:57:13,620
And then after Endgame, it was like, yep, OK, we're done.

701
00:57:13,620 --> 00:57:20,860
And all of that work just started drying up and people were actually having to leave and go to other places to find work.

702
00:57:20,860 --> 00:57:23,540
So I find this interesting.

703
00:57:23,540 --> 00:57:28,920
And I mean, granted, you know, we've got a whole new Marvel saga that's coming with Doomsday and all of that.

704
00:57:28,920 --> 00:57:42,040
That's that's that's cool. Stranger Things was primarily filmed in North Georgia. The Vampire Diaries back in the day, not True Blood, but Vampire Diaries back in the day was filmed up in, I think, northeast Georgia.

705
00:57:42,040 --> 00:57:54,840
So and they also point out here that independent filmmaking is growing rapidly. Georgia indie productions increased 83 percent from the previous year and beyond production spending and jobs, filming continues to benefit.

706
00:57:54,840 --> 00:58:09,560
And this goes back to something about the open AI thing, benefits to restaurants, hotels, and other businesses while generating tourism in communities featured on screen with shows such as Stranger Things, continuing to draw visitors long after the production has ended.

707
00:58:09,560 --> 00:58:11,380
So, yeah, that's another thing.

708
00:58:11,380 --> 00:58:23,340
When you've got all these support businesses and industries that are there to support this production, and then the production goes away, all these other industries start getting hurt.

709
00:58:23,340 --> 00:58:25,200
Same thing happened in the automotive industry.

710
00:58:25,200 --> 00:58:36,040
You know, when you have when you would have a car plant closed down in a city, it wasn't it wasn't just a few hundred people that were working in the plant that were affected.

711
00:58:36,040 --> 00:58:48,860
It was all the ancillary support businesses that supported that that provided like the widgets and the bolts and this and that and the other or maybe catering services or food services and restaurants and fast food and all of that.

712
00:58:49,020 --> 00:58:52,960
It's like, I mean, it's almost like the economy is an ecosystem.

713
00:58:52,960 --> 00:58:53,800
Am I right?

714
00:58:53,800 --> 00:58:55,240
Oh, yeah.

715
00:58:55,240 --> 00:59:04,360
I mean, and even with like a major car plant where you've got thousands laid off when the place closes, you'll even see changes in the school.

716
00:59:04,360 --> 00:59:05,580
They'll close schools.

717
00:59:05,580 --> 00:59:06,060
Yeah.

718
00:59:06,060 --> 00:59:10,100
Because there'll be nobody, no kids left around to attend them.

719
00:59:10,100 --> 00:59:12,020
Yeah, that's true.

720
00:59:12,020 --> 00:59:13,240
That's true.

721
00:59:13,240 --> 00:59:18,440
And so teachers have got to go find something else and janitors and all that.

722
00:59:18,820 --> 00:59:21,720
And then it starts affecting property values and property taxes.

723
00:59:21,720 --> 00:59:39,820
And yeah, it's it's amazing how how one industry can totally gut an entire area when they when they leave or how they can really prop it up and make it exponentially prosperous when they come in.

724
00:59:39,820 --> 00:59:46,500
And, you know, I'm not I'm not dead to the fact that that's what a lot of data centers could potentially do.

725
00:59:46,500 --> 00:59:55,480
But I just I think there needs to be more discussion about them and safeguards put into place because water is a big issue.

726
00:59:55,480 --> 01:00:02,000
And, you know, we we're now officially, quote, officially out of a drought here in Georgia.

727
01:00:02,000 --> 01:00:04,640
But there are other places in the United States.

728
01:00:04,640 --> 01:00:08,940
I mean, the Colorado River and those those states over there, they're fighting.

729
01:00:08,940 --> 01:00:18,200
They're having to reduce the amount of consumption because all the reservoirs are down lower than they've ever been in like 50 or 75 years or some nonsense.

730
01:00:18,200 --> 01:00:29,640
Well, when when we were there 20 plus years ago, they they had watering restrictions in place even back then.

731
01:00:29,640 --> 01:00:30,120
Yeah.

732
01:00:30,120 --> 01:00:33,860
You can only water your lawn on like even days or something.

733
01:00:33,860 --> 01:00:36,620
That is still a pet peeve of mine.

734
01:00:36,620 --> 01:00:48,380
When we were still under a drought here in Georgia, the number of people that I would see in this neighborhood I live in have a sprinkler going, you know, trying to water their grass.

735
01:00:48,380 --> 01:00:57,280
And I'm like, would you rather have water available to nourish your body and your family's needs or do you want green grass?

736
01:00:57,280 --> 01:01:03,540
I like green grass, but I like drinking water better, you know.

737
01:01:03,540 --> 01:01:06,560
It's always awesome to have water to drink.

738
01:01:06,620 --> 01:01:13,440
yeah it is so it you know i remember we had restrictions here at one point where it's like

739
01:01:13,440 --> 01:01:18,800
you can only water your lawn on if you if you had an even address or not address it was like

740
01:01:18,800 --> 01:01:24,340
on tuesday and thursday you can't wash your cars except on mondays and friday it's some

741
01:01:24,340 --> 01:01:29,520
nonsense like that and i'm like yeah i i get that it aggravates some folks but

742
01:01:29,520 --> 01:01:37,860
you know again i i think having water to drink is important so anyway all right well unless you

743
01:01:37,860 --> 01:01:42,300
got anything to add i think that's going to wrap up today's broadcast of the morning drip right

744
01:01:42,300 --> 01:01:49,360
here on wrto you ready to get out of here i think uh several years ago when i heard about

745
01:01:49,360 --> 01:01:55,220
the influx of of movie production going coming to georgia there was supposed to be

746
01:01:55,220 --> 01:02:01,620
um a studio facility built in effingham county really i don't know if that ever happened

747
01:02:01,620 --> 01:02:06,860
but that's that's what i heard so well even if it didn't happen they could still

748
01:02:06,860 --> 01:02:13,440
uh produce a new reality show focusing on the community resistance to the data center

749
01:02:13,440 --> 01:02:22,340
i'm just tossing ideas oh there's actually somebody would watch it somebody would watch

750
01:02:22,340 --> 01:02:34,420
There actually is a studio over in Ben Hill County because they were part of the Bruce Willis, I think it was Gasoline Alley or whatever that was filmed here in Tifton.

751
01:02:34,420 --> 01:02:46,840
But, you know, and I know Bruce suffers, he doesn't really know who he is anymore, but, and it's not Alzheimer's, it's this other aphasia thing.

752
01:02:46,840 --> 01:02:51,720
But you look at the last five or six movies that he was in, they are horrible.

753
01:02:52,340 --> 01:02:54,600
They are absolutely trash.

754
01:02:54,600 --> 01:02:57,420
I think it was more than five or six.

755
01:02:57,420 --> 01:02:58,120
Probably.

756
01:02:58,120 --> 01:02:59,320
Probably.

757
01:02:59,320 --> 01:03:01,240
Like everything in the last 20 years.

758
01:03:01,240 --> 01:03:09,340
Well, the last Die Hard movie, that was probably the last good one.

759
01:03:09,340 --> 01:03:10,720
I mean, honestly, I don't know.

760
01:03:10,720 --> 01:03:15,580
He was in Unbreakable, and that was in 2000, because we were just looking at this.

761
01:03:16,160 --> 01:03:22,420
And then he was in Glass, which wrapped up the whole, that whole M. Not Shyamalan storyline.

762
01:03:22,420 --> 01:03:27,700
Because you had Unbreakable, then you had Split, and then Glass brought all of the characters together.

763
01:03:27,700 --> 01:03:30,660
And I think that was 2018. I never watched it.

764
01:03:30,660 --> 01:03:32,220
So yeah, that was after The Sixth Sense.

765
01:03:32,220 --> 01:03:34,300
Oh yeah, way after that.

766
01:03:34,300 --> 01:03:34,520
Yeah.

767
01:03:34,520 --> 01:03:36,080
Yeah, so.

768
01:03:36,080 --> 01:03:40,200
Anyhow, all right, well, we're going to get out of here.

769
01:03:40,840 --> 01:03:45,500
This has been the Morning Drip for Wednesday, the 12th of August, 2026.

770
01:03:45,500 --> 01:03:52,920
Phone lines are now closed, but you can still call and leave a voicemail, 229-520-5957.

771
01:03:52,920 --> 01:04:00,600
You can text that number, 247-365, again, 229-520-5957, or shoot us an email, morningdrip

772
01:04:00,600 --> 01:04:02,000
at wrto.fm.

773
01:04:02,000 --> 01:04:07,940
Follow us on Facebook, wrtofm, and on bluesky at wrto.fm.

774
01:04:08,740 --> 01:04:18,060
We'll be back tomorrow morning for another broadcast of The Morning Drip, usually around 7.30 a.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

775
01:04:18,060 --> 01:04:23,820
Everybody have a great, wacky Wednesday, or how do you say it again? What's Wednesday in German?

776
01:04:23,820 --> 01:04:25,160
Mittwoch.

777
01:04:25,160 --> 01:04:32,080
We're going to get out of here before I screw up anymore. Everybody take care. Have a great Wednesday. Good morning, everybody.

778
01:04:38,740 --> 01:04:55,460
We'll see you next time.