City councilor shares exciting updates for New Bedford’s community and future

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[music] Good morning. Good morning. Beautiful day out there as we get ready to celebrate Independence Day. They had um city council meetings last couple of days. They they had an aborted one last night. Um public safety didn't go off the way it was supposed to. They had the raising of the Cape Verdian flag [clears throat] and for here to talk all about all of that and to wish everybody a wonderful Independence Day is longtime city councelor Ian Abrew. Good morning, Council Abram. How are you? Good morning, Chris. How are you? I'm doing well. Um, good, good. It's a little warm out there today, so make sure we're all staying cool. It's July 1st. It ought to be warm, right? I love it. Bring it on. Bring on the heat. So councelor um you were doing the raising of the indep the cape cape verdian independence flag yesterday at city hall. It's always a big event. Talk about that. It was a great time. Uh I love going. Um I've gone every year since I've been on the council I believe. So this is my 11th um converting flag raising. And and I made the joke of some of my colleagues. I said, "Boy, you know, us Portuguese and even even you guys, the Irish, right, Chris? We have to up our game for these flag raisings because the Cape Verdian Americans and Cave Verdian residents uh here in New Bedford, I mean, as I'm sure you saw on Facebook or through cable access, I mean, they're bringing the drums and the dancing and the music and the poetry. It was phenomenal. And um you know, our story is forever intertwined with the Cape Verdian community for generations. Um they've helped shape the fabric and character of this community. So, it was great to celebrate with them and I can't wait for the parade on Sunday the 5th. Uh we step off at 12:00 p.m. noon. So, it'll be a great time and a great party. No, certainly the cave the Kvering community is very valuable. We had a big cave community relative out in there in Freetown when I was growing up out there and of course they're very valuable here in the whole region. Um Ian, talk about some of the things that happen in the property committee that are very important for the taxpayers of the city of New Bedford. talk about Philip school as an example. Finally, we'll talk about it. You talk about it, council. Sure. Well, we we did a lot of important work uh last night and uh we're just coming off the heels of the budget. So, but we're tying up some loose ends and getting some things uh tidied up and in order. And last night was some of that work. As you alluded to, uh the property committee um chaired by Sean Oliver. I am the vice chair of the committee. Uh we put forth um five now RFPs for requests for proposals for development and developments as well for several properties that were once either schools or whatnot here in the city of New Bedford for development. And we for example the old former police station on Cove Street that's now up for an RFP. the new Bedford Armory, which goes back to even when I was city council president and us working with the state to purchase it for $25 to get obviously that state investment back and which we have to the tune of millions of dollars. So, we own it uh as we know now through all the work we've done in the property committee in the past. So, now we're we have an RFP out for that. The old Armory on Pleasant Street, the Phillips Avenue School, right, you alluded to that. that's going to be back out for an RFP. The old Horatio Kemp School on Shammed Avenue, we're putting that out to bid. And in my neck of the woods in the south end where I happen to live, the old William H. Taylor school where I went to for a couple of years, that's going out for an RFP as well. So, this is a great chance to get these city-owned blighted properties onto our tax roles, create construction jobs, create a housing need, and put properties on the tax roles to generate more revenue for the community. So, it's really a win-win winwinwin in every aspect. We're speaking with city councelor Ian Abbrew, former president of the city council, talking about the property committee last night, which is helmed by chaired by Sean Oliver. Yeah, that Philip school that was a real black eye. The way Maria Giesta handled that for the city of New Bedford, it was already put out to a developer. They wanted to do it. It couldn't be transferred. Real black eye and I think drove a lot of developers away from the city of New Bedford. I'm glad that was remedied last night. Well, we have a chance now to really get serious about housing and get serious about development and uh density is density all throughout the city. Uh you can't fix density. Uh our neighborhoods are what they are, but we can't talk out of both ends. We can't say we're broke. We have to lay people off. We have to tighten the purse strings and we have to tighten our belts here and there and everywhere, but also be very nimi on development in certain neighborhoods. And we talked about that in pockets in the north end, far north end. We're talking about it here in this uh area. and uh this the entire New Bever city council seems to be supportive of all these RFPs going forward uh for uh proposals and then for eventually uh development investment and getting these properties on the tax roles. So I think I don't want to speak for the 10 other colleagues of mine but based on the votes that were taken right in the full council to get Phillips Avenue back forward the vote last night on the property committee they were all unanimous votes. So, we'll let the votes speak for themselves. Speaking with city councelor Ian Abbrew. Councelor, um I was looking forward to a public safety meeting last night about about some of the cameras. Scott Peton had had asked about it. Um what happened last night? Oh, well, two nights ago, the chair, sorry, the chairman uh cancelled the meeting uh due to no quorum at the time. Um uh there were several of us that were down for the flag raising. Um I don't know. I mean the the meeting was scheduled uh it's been rescheduled for September I believe it is. I've got to look at the calendar. Um it's chairman's discretion to cancel the meeting. Uh I'm not sure uh you know you know perhaps maybe why or why not, but that was the chairman's call and it is what it is. But hopefully uh the next time we meet there'll be a quorum and we can get this this stuff heard. Councelor Abrew, you you texted me while um during the last hour because you heard one of the callers uh ask about um the pirate what I said I told that Ray Maderas had moved down to Florida and she knew that but he opened a pirate store and she said I was kidding. You've been to the pirate store, right? I have. It's called Dave Jones. It's in a mall in Fort Myers. Ray Maderas when I was down for New Bedford days I go every year to run now with a couple of people. He hit me up and said, 'Hey, come to my store. It's Davy Jones. And I said, Davy Jones, you mean the former monkey, right? The Englishman, right? And he goes, "No, Davy Jones the pirate." I said, "Okay." So, I went and uh yeah, you're absolutely correct. Uh it was all pirate gear, pirate stuff, uh eye patches, the whole deal. So, you know, uh yeah. No, Ray, you might be listening. If you are, good to uh it was great to see you. And maybe we'll see you next year again for New Bedford Day. But yeah, no, he really has a pirate store. It's pretty crazy. You can buy uh uh toy swords and all kind. Not real swords, not real weapons, war, but uh some toys and you know, the usual pirate clothing and garb. Fun stuff. Fun stuff. I just I wanted Sket to know I wasn't making it up. Um so Ian Abra, I really appreciate you. How do you celebrate the fourth year? Are you a fireworks guy, Ian? Uh kind of. I mean, so here's the deal. Um, my children now are 10 and six, so I think they're old enough now to do the downtown thing with us. So, we're going to we're going to try it. We're going to take them downtown. It'll be past their bedtime. We're going to go out to eat downtown, support local restaurants, and hang for the fireworks. Of course, Moresy Boulevard will be playing uh on Friday night, and they're just fantastic. Um, so they'll be playing. the fireworks come off at 9:00 and I know it'll be synchronized with you guys at WBSM for the patriotic music, right? So, I'll make sure that I've got uh the app up and uh we're listening to that as the music goes on and the fireworks go on. That'll be a lot of fun. Um so, we'll be doing that. Typically, we would hang on the south end and kind of watch them from uh East Beach, but we're going to do the downtown thing this year. We'll see how it goes. Pray for me. Okay. uh past [laughter] their bedtime and hopefully hopefully the fire hopefully the fireworks uh keeps them engaged enough to to care and have a good time. So, you know, it's my understanding um that not my understanding, but I know that there'll be uh obviously uh businesses downtown with extended uh operating hours for that evening and there'll be some other vendors around uh the downtown corridor area uh you know by the Johnny Cake Hill uh block and whatnot. So, that'll be a lot of fun. and I look forward to hanging out and seeing many of you uh in the community and looking forward to a great time. Hey, thanks Conor Abra. We really appreciate you making time for us this morning. Thank you. No problem, Chris. And again, to you and your family and all of your listeners and New Bedford residents, please be safe. Please be hydrated. Have a great fourth and leave the fireworks to the professionals. I don't want to hear about anyone blowing their hands off, okay? Not this year. Thank you. Thanks, Councelor Abra, for the warning. Please heed the warning. 508996 0500. So I do think that's a good thing that chairman uh the property committee Sean Oliver got those properties out of the committee and now moving forward. The city of New Bedford certainly wants to get those into private developers hands, those city properties and so they can get paying sharing the tax burden across more properties. That's really how you keep taxes from going up in part. 508996500. I'm going to take a break, guys. There's a couple of things pending in the legislature. There is a conversation going on about subsidizing directly from the state budget the foreign companies that are in the offshore wind business. It's really um I think a bad president. We've been talking about it quite a bit here over the years really. Now there's a move in the Senate to start paying the bill. Well, you and me as taxpayers and the rateayers to start subsidizing failed offshore wind. So, it's kind of crazy. We're going to um take a break. It'll be a two-minute break and we'll be back. Go right to the phones. Stick around. People, this portion of programming on WBSM [music] is brought to you by De's Hot Dogs in New Bedford, where you can get two hot dogs, chips, and a soda for just six [music] bucks. Back to Chris McCarthy and South Coast now on WBSM. Call 508996500. Welcome back to the program. I'm Chris McCarthy. You're the audience. You can reach me at 508996500. Let's go to the phones. Good morning. Thanks for holding. Good morning, Chris. Gilly Fio. Hey, Gilly. What's happening? You know, even called in because it he just exchanged feet. The the meeting got cancelled Monday because there was only Scott Pamilton, Leo Shaker, and Council Bones. That's when they raised the flag Monday night, right? Okay. He wasn't there. Okay. He wasn't even outside maybe. But you know why? Because Brian canled it knowing that the people were outside after he canled it like 7:15. The only persons that came in was uh Mr. Berg. Okay. Um Mr. Uh um Connie and Roy was the only three people that came in after like 7:15 7:20. He wasn't outside at the you know like he's taking credit that raising the flag. That's when he got raised. He was there last night. How can you say he was there when he wasn't there? I don't know. I wasn't there either. You were there though, right? Well, I was there. Yeah, I know. I was there. So, there was only three city councils. That's why Brian made the comment three, four times that he was going to cancel because he said that the people that were there were worked all day like Jamie, you know, from uh and even uh Danny Remisitz was there. There was other people from the city that worked all day, but they made a point to come, right? The city council came on. There was only three of them there and they flagged the raised Monday. Didn't get raised last night like you said. Then then you're corrected. Why was he telling stories? He's working in Brockton. That's where he was. He doesn't care about November no more. So somebody better check the facts when they come on the radio. Thanks for the call, Gilly. I do appreciate the contribution of the program. 508996500 Mac Auto Sales is a family-owned business right in the city of New Bedford. Located right on Rivet Street, Mac Auto Sales repairs all makes and models of automobiles, including the one you're driving right now. If you need to get your car ready for the coming hot weather, and I'm sure you do, call and make an appointment today with Mac Auto Sales at 5085656221. They're open weekdays 9 to 5 for your convenience. They service the whole fleet of vehicles here between Fun 107 and WBSM take care of all the vehicles. You have a foreign car, that's perfect. Mac Auto Sales specializes in servicing foreignade automobiles. They do a great job with Americanmade as well. Mention WBSM. They'll give you a nice break on the repair bill. Ask about their aftermarket accessories and their quality used cars for sale. You can take a take a ganders at him. Just drive by Mac Auto Sales, 188 Rivet Street in the city of New Bedford. So guys, I mentioned the fact that they're discussing subsidizing offshore wind, the most expensive form of electricity available intermittently at that. Right. So there was a really important article in the um the mass news. All right, I'm going to play the article. They got a robot voice. It's pretty good though. This article um it's an opinion piece full of facts. It's written by the very talented Lori Belceto, policy director at the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance. You can trust the Mass Fiscal Alliance. They do a nice job. Here's a robot reading you a little clip about what's going on in the in our state senate. This is going to be your tax dollars, your electric rate, your bill that we're talking about here. The failure of offshore wind development has prompted the Massachusetts legislature to double down on its efforts in that direction. The Senate plans to take up a bill Wednesday entitled an act to save people money, repair the climate, and grow the economy that proposes an enormous increase in offshore wind power, and also shifts project risks from developers onto rateayers. The state currently has a statutory target to procure 5,600 megawatts MW of industrial offshore wind by June 30th, 2027. Having secured only 800 megawatts of offshore wind capacity so far, with future projects delayed or uncertain, the Senate bill is proposing raising the procurement target to an incredible 10,000 megawatt by 2040. This is a very bad plan. Offshore wind costs roughly 2.5 times as much as onshore wind at around $2 million per megawatt. That makes a 10,000 megawatts target roughly a 20 billion commitment that Massachusetts rateayers will ultimately be asked to fund. Governor Mora Healey and legislative leaders continue to tout offshore wind as reliable and affordable, neither of which is true. Wind power is as unreliable as the weather. It takes sustained wind of over 30 mph to get full power from a wind generator. And this seldom happens off Massachusetts. But below 10 mph, no substantial power is produced. And this happens frequently, sometimes for several days. In between, the electricity output varies constantly with the wind. As I write this, wind speeds around Cape Cod near where many offshore wind turbines would operate are forecast to remain below 10 mph for most of the coming week. The one exception is a single day reaching roughly 15 mph. During a stretch like that, a $20 billion offshore wind buildout would produce only a small fraction of its rated capacity even as electricity demand could remain high. At the same time, Boston is forecast to see 4 days above 90° with one approaching 100. That is exactly when demand for electricity becomes most urgent. This is not a coincidence. Heat waves are often associated with stagnant high-pressure systems, which can also mean weaker winds and lower wind output. That is not reliability. Reliability means having power available when people need it most. Offshore wind, by contrast, depends on weather conditions that cannot be scheduled, dispatched, or guaranteed. Batteries cannot save the day, as their potential contribution in cases like this is trivial at best. Massachusetts already has a program to underwrite 5,000 megawatts of batteries, also costing billions of dollars. A typical gridscale battery provides about 4 megawatt hours MW of storage per MW of battery capacity. At that scale, 5,000 megawatts of batteries would provide roughly 20,000 megatt hours of storage. Enough to back up 10,000 megawatts of offshore wind for only about 2 hours. Backing up several days of low wind output would require vastly more storage at staggering cost. Nor is offshore wind affordable. It typically costs around $120 per megawatt hour, while Massachusetts wholesale power prices are more like $45 most of the time. The state does see prices near $120 during peak need because the supply of natural gas for power generation is artificially constrained by the lack of new natural gas pipelines. But the obvious solution here is to increase our natural gas supply, not build more incredibly expensive, unreliable wind turbines. So that is from the Massachusetts Daily News. You can see it online. You can [clears throat] um also contact or go to Mass Fiscal Alliance to get that thing. But think about this. the state senate is considering and I would hope to God given the high electrical bills and all the other high costs that we're endearing enduring right that Senator Rodrik, Senator Montgney, Senator Duner would vote against mo moving the financial costs, the risks of offshore wind under the rateayers and the taxpayers. I'd hope they wouldn't do that. You heard that factladened piece that I just played for you. Think about this. Offshore wind typically costs $120 per megawatt hour, while the wholesale price that Massachusetts normally pays is like $45 most of the time. The state does see prices that go up to 120 because the supply of natural gas for power generation is artificially constrained by the lack of new natural gas pipelines. So the obvious solution here is more natural gas, not more unreliable, hyperexpensive offshore wind. Now, I know some people living and renting in the greater New Bedford area and some individual businesses in the area do see a financial gain due to the construction and maintenance of offshore wind. But the vast majority of individuals and small businesses have to pay the higher electrical costs associated with this Green New Deal energy. So the only way you can really represent everybody is to find the most efficient source of energy and contract for more of it. clear the way for more of it to be developed, right? You don't find the most expensive source of energy in contract for that simply because some local people, and when I mean local, they're simply renting while they work in the offshore energy industry. and some business owners, some politically connected, many of them politically connected, let's be honest, are going to benefit from this foreign source of energy. So, I think it's the numbers are very clear. Nobody can deny that anything you build in the ocean is going to cost more and have to be maintained at a much more aggressive rate. We know that we all live by the ocean. We all understand. So, the fact that some people are going to benefit from the coming and going and the additional maintenance, personally, the rest of us are all going to have to pay much higher electrical costs. And that's not a good economic development plan. I'm sorry. It's not simply not. 508996. Whatever's on your mind, I want to hear about it. I got some people on hold. Good morning. Thanks, holding. Hey, Chris, it's Gilly. What's up? I'm calling back. I'm calling back cuz somebody sent me a video that Ian was outside. Okay. With his family. Okay. Okay. Now, why I never went outside. I seen it when I pulled up. They were doing that. But I was when the meeting ended, the only people that came in through that chambers, like I said, Virgo, Naomi, Connie, and Roy. And I stood there and I didn't see him walk in. He was outside. Okay. But still, he knew there was a meeting. That's why Brian cancelled it. He should have been doing his job as a city councelor to come. He knew there was a meeting in there. He has brought his wife in the chambers before. So, I want to apologize what I said. I appreciate. You know what I mean? No, I do. I appreciate that though. Yeah, I appreciate that. Um, thanks for calling and correcting it. Yeah, I do, Kelly. I appreciate that. Okay. All right. Thank you, my friend. 5089960. That's a big man, right? To correct yourself. Do appreciate that. Um, so anyway, the offshore wind thing is being discussed. I don't know if they debate much, but a little bit in [snorts] the state senate. Um, I would hope that this clearly a failing industry, right? and they they're being sued by a Massachusetts landlord for not paying their rent and we're going to subsidize that. I hope the the state senate, Mark Montgney, Mike Rodri, Kelly Duner, those are our local senator. Of course, you got Julian Sea who represents the Capeen Islands as well and um other people obviously in the Senate. uh the very affable and let's not forget flexible Senator Brady of Brockton. Senator Brady of Brockton who's dancing his heart out at night in the in the fine drinking establishments of um of Brockton. You can see him on Instagram. Senator Brady, I hope he doesn't vote to subsidize offshore wind. He's certainly very energetic. I don't know if you've seen the the videos of the dancing Senator Brady. Dancing Senator Brady. All right. So, the other thing 508996 0 500. Hopefully with the actions of the city council under chairman um Sean Oliver, the property committee, hopefully that'll get a lot of these taxpayer supported properties into private hands where they can provide housing and economic development and help share the tax burdens. Okay, hopefully they were styi for so long under the multiple terms of Maria Giesta as the um prop chairman of property. Maria Fiesta having a party on the taxpayers's dime who became Maria Siesta asleep at the switch while these pro properties deteriorated. I'm not sure they have any value left. You may have to pay developers now to take them off your hands. They It's that bad. I mean, really, quite frankly. All right, let's go back to the phones. Open phones. Good morning. Thanks for holding. Good morning, Chris. How are you? Hey, what's happening? Hey, Chris. You know that article that that you just played back, I hope that short sleeve and Sean puts that on their website so people could read what's going on because the biggest story is this. That kind of proves we have foreign lobbyists in Beacon Hill buying off our politicians. What kind of deal is that? You have a foreign entity, a foreign person, a foreign investment, and we're going to pay for their wealth cuz wind doesn't work just like solar doesn't work. You know, solar destroys more than actually natural gas for all if you had all solar panels, you have no trees left. Right. Right. Look at all the trees that got taken down in mata poison as an example because I know a lot of people were upset with that. And there's a tree farm also going up. A tree farm uh a solar farm going up which it was a dairy field but it's going to be up there like in a Kushnet I I heard in the old Aruda dairy. Okay. It's going to be a huge solar plant over there. I heard. So it's this is what I don't get. And you know, so I was kind of hoping because this is the only way it's going to change and I hate to say it because the average voter is stupid. It's just a fact. Okay. No, I'm serious. And I'll tell you why. I was kind of hoping for this heat wave to be bad. I want brown outs. I want blackouts. I want to prove that they don't have enough energy right now. That's that's the only thing that's going to change people's idea. It's kind of like taking away their cell phones, taking away their comfort or their Facebook or their AC. That's when they're going to pay attention because right now she's on remote control right now and that's what concerns me and what concerns me is this short sleeve I'm going to vote for that ticket now because what what did what the Democrats like we're doing they knew about the fraud and short sleeve did us a favor okay by by exposing it now because they were holding on to it and as soon as Mano got the nomination it's done that will come out and it's over. So the only shot we have now is short sleeve and Sean to win the ticket and and it's it's honestly it's the only shot that we have now. So it's very frustrating how how I even thought that man was brighter than this. Okay. And I can't understand why the Republican party is still standing behind him because you know the Democrats are going to destroy him if if he wins it. They're going to put that fraud because it's going to be so hypocritical how the Republican party talks about fraud constantly, voter fraud. And there's proof that voter fraud existed to get his um lieutenant and also a lot of other Republicans on the ballot. This is insane, Chris. And you know it's insane. Oh, I agree with you. I know it's not. No, listen. I am totally I came out right away again. I mean, it's so easy. I don't even want to celebrate myself for coming out against fraud. It's obvious you cannot be anywhere near election fraud. No, no, you can't. You can't. So, this is what concerns me. And and we are going through climate change. I know we are because the climate change that we're going through right now, it's called summer, right? I was going to say that. It's called July, right? It's called July. It's called summer. It's funny. I went down to the Carolinas almost a year ago. Uh, and I was down there. It was in North Carolina. We had It was hot at this. It is even that bad today. I guess tomorrow for us, tomorrow's going to be supposedly the worst day. Okay, fine. And then it's going to be hot for a couple of days. It's called Florida weather. It's called the jetream. Everybody talks about climate change. I want people to really study weather. It depends where the jetream lands. Where the jetream is positioned in in the United States is the type of weather you're going to get. Okay? So, it just blows my mind. people people know nothing about when it comes to basic weather. Look at the jet sheet. Look at the way it's positioned. It's shooting up the heat now. It's like this this is just insane. And I hope I'm you know short sleeve and Sean, I'm going to be honest with you. It's a Hail Mary because this Democrat people are so entrenched. That's why I'm hoping for brownouts because I am because that's the only people need to suffer and understand that this form of government is not going to work. And I'm concerned is by the time that people realize that it doesn't work, it's going to be too late. Just like throughout this country, this this Democratic Socialist Party, it's it's it's a new Kool-Aid everybody's drinking. Okay? So once they realize it doesn't work, then we become Cuba or some Venezuela, some foreign country where it's will never come back to the There's nobody coming to rescue America. As Ronald Reagan said, there's nobody coming to a rescue America and nobody wants to Chris and everybody's everybody's rooting for the fall of this country and and people don't realize that you know so I I don't know where we go from here now, Chris. I hope the Cayman Islands I hope the listen if if you look at a lot of the Democrats a lot of their money's in the Cayman Islands. If you really did a real deep dive at all these politicians, you can't do a deep dive into Cayman Island bank accounts. That's what makes the Cayman Islands so important. There you go. There you go. They literally Thanks for the call, my friend. They literally have um non laws designed to prevent disclosure. That's what makes the Cayman Islands a vast um and u fundamental part of the world economy. really tiny island, lot of lot of economic power. Um, there's another thing going on kind of in theme with that last caller. I do appreciate his phone call and all his contributions to WBSM. It's called the Save America Act. I want to play a little bit about that. You've been hearing a lot more about it. It's been going on now for a while in the US Senate and in the House. Save America. It's basically voter ID. It's no big deal. Something that everybody agrees with, Democrats and Republicans. You should have to show ID before you can cast a vote, particularly after the borders have been open for so long. So, President Trump, to his credit, is playing a little bit of hard ball with the legislative branch, saying he's not going to s sign the housing bill until they pass the Save America Act. And I do appreciate that. It's what I voted for and campaigned for with President Trump. But here's Chip Roy, longtime congressman. I've used his clips before because I think he speaks the truth. He's a Texas congressman who's running actually for attorney general now in Texas, but this is him on the House floor. I am here right now because the American people are demanding that we, the elected leaders in Washington, that we in the people's house, that we secure the elections of the United States. They are tired of wondering whether their vote matters. They are tired of wondering if those who have no right to vote, those who are non-citizens are actually packing our ballot boxes with illegal votes. I am more determined than ever to secure our elections. But in an age of progressive suicidal empathy, basic concepts such as voter ID and proof of citizenship have been attacked as suppression. Let me be clear, nothing could be further from the truth. Voter ID, voter identification is arguably the single most common sense proposal to ever grace this chamber. and a proof of citizenship requirement to register to vote is an idea so basic, so assumed, so inherent to a functioning republic that opposition to it would offend every man who signed his name to our Declaration of Independence. I have good news for the American people. No longer will our elections be governed by a checkbox if we do our job in this House Chamber and our colleagues in the Senate do their job. No longer will people pretend to be an American and thus influence our elected leaders. No longer will our elections be insecure if we do our job. Last week, I joined with my friend, Senator Mike Lee, in the Senate Chamber to introduce a bill that we call the Save America Act. This legislation builds upon bills that we introduced last Congress, the Save Act. legislation that was focused on a simple idea of requiring demonstration of citizenship and for states to guarantee that their voter roles are matched to guarantee citizenship to to be able to have an election in that state. We had a simple bill to guarantee that only citizens are voting in American elections. Now we have added another simple concept voter identification. Under the Save America Act, individ individuals will be required to provide that proof of citizenship in order to register and on election day required to demonstrate voter identification in accordance, by the way, with a majority of American states. Now, the problem is we passed the Save Act. We passed the Save Act in the previous Congress and Chuck Schumer and Democrats stopped it. We passed the Save Act in this body last year in this Congress. And so far, Chuck Schumer and Democrats are saying that they wish to stop it in the Senate. So, the question is, what will we do here in this House chamber? And I'm proud to say that our House leadership is working with us to advance the Save America Act as early as next week to be able to move that bill off of the House floor to get it sent over to the Senate and thereby allowing the Senate to be able to move that legislation if if the Senate will do what it can do, which is force those who are saying they're to filibuster to actually take the floor of the Senate and filibuster. See, people don't understand Senate rules. They think that the Mr. Smith goes to Washington version of the filibuster is the filibuster. But the truth is, senators for for a long time hidden behind the rules to say that there's somehow a magical 60 vote threshold to move legislation through the Senate. There is not. The 60 vote number is simply a fake filibuster, a zombie filibuster as my friend Mike Lee calls it. meaning it's an arbitrary rule that was put in place to yes, if you have 60 votes, you can shut off debate. But the core of the Senate, the core of the filibuster was about people being able to speak because on the Senate floor, you can speak, you can vote, or you can be assessing whether you have a quorum. Those are pretty much the things you can do on the Senate floor. So guess what? If you have a quorum, if you have 51 senators sitting on the floor of the Senate demanding action for the American people, such as passing the Save America Act, then you can force the vote unless a member wishes to speak. So if members in the Senate wish to speak against passing a common sense piece of legislation that polls at 80%, then let them do it. Let Democrats go to the floor of the Senate. Let them take the floor. Let them look at 51 Republicans sitting on the Senate floor who want to move a bill that 85% of white Americans, 82% of Hispanic Americans, 76% of black Americans, 71% of Democrats, and 95% of Republicans believe we should pass so we can have security in our elections. We can pass the Save America Act. We will do that in the House chamber next week. We will have citizenship. We will have voter ID. We will send it to the Senate. And if the Senate does its job, if Senate Republicans put this on the floor on the Senate, then we can force action and force Democrats to stand up on the Senate floor and oppose the will of over 3/4 of the American people. I want to see them try. I think if we do it, I think we'll win. And I think we'll save this republic and we'll save America. And so that's Congressman Chip Roy. He's also a candidate for attorney general of Texas. The bill, obviously, that's a little bit of a dated clip a couple months ago. It has made it through the House, the Save America Act. It's at the Senate level. So, if you get a chance to see John Deon out there, he's running. He's a Republican nominee. Ask him about the Save America Act. I think he supports it. You see Ed Marky out there, ask him how he feels about it. If you see Seth Molton, ask him how he feels about it. I would tell you that despite his valent service in the Marine Corps, I would guess that Seth Molton is against voter ID. I would tell you that Ed Marky is against voter ID. So you got to make a decision in November whether you're with Seth Molton or Ed Marky. I guess that for you would be in September, right? If you're voting in the Democrat primary, it's going to be very interesting. You're you're going to I'm going to guess that there's going to be less people pulling the Democrat ballot than pulling the Republican ballot in September in the sound of my voice. I bet a lot of you, and that'll depend really on how much competition Shawn Oliver ends up with in part, but I think a lot of you are going to show up to vote one way or the other in the governor's race, either Brian Shortsleeve or Mike Manugg. And that will mean that if you pull the Republican ballot as an unenrolled voter, you will not be able to pull the Democrat ballot. You get that? But we've seen that play out in other elections when people show up to get the Republican ballot as an unenrolled and they can't take the Democrat ballot. I can tell you that I can think of a couple of different state representative races that were impacted because the top of the ticket was so interesting on the Republican side that people who normally would have voted in the Democrat primary because they're unenrolled chose a Republican ballot and that impacted how the Democrat primary turned out. It's really, really interesting. 508996500. Good morning. Thanks for holding. Chris, is that me? Yes, sir. It's Bob. Hey, Bob. How you been? I'm doing all right for an old guy. I love it. Another Fourth of July. Oh, what's that? Another Fourth of July. I know. And I just had a birthday last Sunday. I was 89. Happy birthday. 89 years old. Isn't that amazing? The reason why I call is this the Freetown. Okay. Was talking about walking with a walker. Yes. I do about a half an hour on my stationary bike every day. And I still get around pretty good. I don't need a walker or a cane. Yes. So, I just figured I'd give you a call and maybe he's still listening. Get an exercise. You got to keep the blood flowing, you know, because if you don't, they seize up on you and then you need a walk or a cane or whatever. It [clears throat] seems that way. Yes. You've been doing that exercise bike for a long time, Bob. Long, long time. Yeah. Even when I was playing golf, I was doing it. So, I don't know if that's keeping me around, but I don't My legs are pretty good for 89 year old. I agree. I agree. and the blood flow to your brain. Everything's very strong. That's it. Oxygen rich blood to the brain. And you got to get the blood flowing in your legs and the arteries because if you don't, they just, like I said, just seize up on you, Bob. I appreciate that. Um, I really do. Thank you, my friend. All right. Thanks. Have a good day. You too, my friend. Have a great independence. Isn't that great? 89 years old, still does the exercise bike. I think he says he's still out there golfing. I hope he is. And I know he lifts weights, by the way, too. Very important. Oxygenerrich blood to the brain. Very, very important. And even if you're a young man or a young woman, you you should start doing that stuff and recognizing the importance of moving around, right? Limiting your tobacco and other things. 508996500. the president of United States. And I know it happens to be Donald Trump now, but it won't always be. Certainly, it won't always be. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the executive branch. And I would think that most Democrats, if they can get the present political situation out of their mind, for some of them it's impossible and it's quite tragic really. um the Trump derangement syndrome. It's really insidious, quite frankly. But it started when the Democrats started telling you the president was a Russian spy. And many of you agree with it. You didn't know why you agreed with it, but you believed it. So, you're infected with Trump arrangement syndrome, the origins of which are the Central Intelligence Agency under President Obama, Hillary Clinton's campaign. They infected your mind and some of you have never been able to get over it. Well, anyway, Supreme Court ruled that the president of the United States has the power to remove executive appointments from the previous administration. Common sense. And many people right now are nashing their teeth and ringing their hands saying, "Oh my god, President Trump got more power." It's not Donald Trump's. The executive branch, the democratically elected president United States got the ability to remove their predecessors appointments, which means next time around, if it's Michelle Obama or Hillary Clinton or Michelle Woo, whoever the Democrats nominate, because it's obviously going to be a woman, that's their party now. It's a it's the party of women. are the Democrats, although a lot of women like to vote Republican and we understand why. Um, but the the whoever the women of the Democrat party and the men who identify as men elect to be the next president can remove the Republican appointees. So, it's a good decision by the Supreme Court. Phenomenal decision by the Supreme Court that's going to apply not just to Donald Trump. I'm watching CNN and uh MS LSD, whatever it is, right? MSDNC. Um, and they're all upset. They're upset. They think Trump like he's never going to be replaced by a Democrat. Maybe not right away, but eventually the Democrats will get the power to remove previously appointed government officials that don't agree with the currently Democrat democratically elected president. So I think it's a victory for democracy quite frankly. 50896500. Remember New Bedford's fireworks won't just be up in the sky. They'll have a soundtrack, a star spangled soundtrack. On Friday, July 3rd, the city's fireworks over New Bedford Harbor will be synchronized to patriotic music here on WBSM. Bringing that playlist to