Episode 23 - Inspection Stickers with QR Codes, the new bridge and St. George Schools

Dave and Drew innovate the inspection sticker QR code debate, talk about schools, and Baltimore has built, destroyed, and rebuilt a bridge while we are still studying a new bridge.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Episode number 23. We are back. It's the Savaged Podcast with Dave and Drew. We are your humble host. I'm Drew Merle, St. George City Councilman, local attorney, along with Savagate writer Dave Ropolo. Where have we been, Dave? What happened?

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Dave took a little vacation last week. You deserve it. Well needed. You deserve it. Well needed, right? Right.

SPEAKER_02 0:20

Family deserves it. You deserve it.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

Well, I didn't take them with me.

SPEAKER_02 0:23

Savaged haters deserve it.

SPEAKER_00 0:25

It was just me. It was a real vacation away from everything.

SPEAKER_02 0:29

Could you say that marriages could be more I I have I have a uh a friend that he just got married and they're not living together? Did you talk him out of it? No. But hey, uh, leading cause of divorce is marriage. And so I told him, I was like, how's it going so far? He goes, Ah, we're not living together. I'm like, so it's going great. It's like, it's like, it's like Edwin Edwards in prison. You get conjugal visits like once or twice a month. And you're like, why would I leave?

SPEAKER_00 0:54

Fantastic. It's a great setup. No, I really did take the family, though. It was a great vacation.

SPEAKER_02 0:58

You did. It's a wonderful family. So you're back from vacation. Um, let's cover some news.

SPEAKER_00 1:04

Yeah, we got um, I I uh did we miss well we didn't miss much because I literally disconnected, didn't look at the news all last week. We could have missed some good stuff, um, but I didn't I didn't look. But but uh recently though, we've had a couple of good things pop up that we could talk about. Um looks like Louisiana drivers could face a new test requirement to renew licenses under a proposed house bill. I think it's every six years.

SPEAKER_02 1:28

I feel you know, uh so years ago I proposed a mandatory non-driving age that when you hit a certain age, you're no longer allowed to have a driver's license. And my theory was it would take some unsafe folks off the road who no longer have the reflexes to drive a killing machine. Yeah, and it would also fuel public transportation because now these folks got to get places.

SPEAKER_00 1:54

I think they would just call their nephews and nieces and sons and daughters. I don't think they'd call Uber.

SPEAKER_02 1:59

You'd like to think so, but either way, that's that's not them driving, and I was good with that. So if you're telling me we can do like a, you know, and I I remember at the DMV, the guy is freaking blind. I'm not guessing, he's freaking blind. Had the stick and all he is renewing his driver's license, and and and so everybody around us was horrified and watching this process as the girl's like, hey, can you read line four? And he's mumbling, and she's clearly not paying attention.

SPEAKER_00 2:27

That was literally on an episode of Mary with Children. Hal was in line to get his driver's license renewed, and a guy walked in with the dark glass and the stick to get his driver's license.

SPEAKER_02 2:34

Meanwhile, I don't have one little form checked correctly, and I gotta go to the back of the line.

SPEAKER_00 2:38

But look, this is actually genius, okay, because I've seen some Baton Roots drivers, some Louisiana drivers, okay? I don't think many of them could pass this test. This is a great traffic reduction method.

SPEAKER_02 2:49

I agreed.

SPEAKER_00 2:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:51

How hard is this test gonna be?

SPEAKER_00 2:53

Uh I mean, if it's just about the regular laws, it's impossible for most drivers.

SPEAKER_02 2:57

What do you mean I gotta stop at a stop sign? This is green light crap. Green yellow means go faster, right?

SPEAKER_00 3:03

Yeah, yeah, no, no. Uh this is uh got a lot of pushback, but I think this was uh something that uh was this Dixon McMain?

SPEAKER_02 3:10

Maybe. He tends to have he tends to have fun bills that we have to talk about a lot.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

I thought I saw his name. It could be wrong because he's he's been all over uh Facebook with some of these bills, but could be wrong. But yeah. Um also in uh Louisiana news, uh the Louisiana inspection sticker bill moves on to the Senate.

SPEAKER_02 3:28

So the inspection sticker bill is such a conundrum because I think I think I'll say 90% of the state would like this just to go away. It doesn't serve its purpose. We no longer really need it. No, no one cares about it, no one's enforcing it.

SPEAKER_00 3:48

There are no officers out there writing tickets for this because every law enforcement agency is shorthanded.

SPEAKER_02 3:53

That's right. So all you see is a fleet of orange stickers riding down the road, and then I'm the one that gets pulled over if I'm in Port Allen or Bruley trying to get on the bridge and they're pulling me off because I'm uh six months out of date.

SPEAKER_00 4:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:06

So getting rid of it makes a lot of sense. The problem is the replacement. The idea they have the QR code. So how is what's on the QR code? All my driving stuff?

SPEAKER_00 4:22

Well, uh, I don't think they've been real specific about that. But I'll tell you, that is a lot of room for some trolling. People put their own QR codes on their cars. State trooper comes up and scans it, a picture of his wife pops up.

SPEAKER_02 4:35

You know what? Ready? We're gonna do a series of them that the Savagate can sell online. Yeah, it's gonna be a Savagate QR code that's gonna go to a meme of someone trying to scan a QR code.

SPEAKER_00 4:48

Diabolical. I mean that would be we could sell we could get 10 bucks a piece for those.

SPEAKER_02 4:53

Brilliant.

SPEAKER_00 4:53

And I would donate half of it to the Louisiana State Police so they'd get some of their money.

SPEAKER_02 4:57

Hear the truth. This is what it's all about. The only reason we still have inspection stickers, we didn't get rid of them three, five, six years ago. Yeah, is because it's about ten million to the state police annually. It's a cash grab. Can we find another bucket to give them the money from?

SPEAKER_00 5:13

I would be all for just donating nine dollars per year to the state police in my registration, right? Yep. And don't bother making me go plug in and get this damn sticker every two years or whatever.

SPEAKER_02 5:27

I mean, let's just do that. We're gonna put a QR code on the bottom of your car, yeah, and it's gonna have all your registration information in it. That just seems silly.

SPEAKER_00 5:37

How about I'll pay 10 bucks a year if you let me put my own QR code? Vanity? At the end of the year, state troopers and police officers could vote on who had the best QR code idea.

SPEAKER_02 5:48

Vanity QR code. Yes. Brilliant. I mean, brilliant. Yeah. You know, you think we're all just funning games here at the Savicate, but we're really about better government.

SPEAKER_00 5:55

This is gonna come up at the state capitol next week. Bank on it.

SPEAKER_02 5:58

Dixon, Dixon. Vanity QR codes, buddy. He's not listening. He only listened. He said he'd only listen if he was on the show. Absolutely not listening. But we said Dixon's name a bunch, and he'll be happy about that.

SPEAKER_00 6:08

Yeah, he'll probably send us the bill for that. Um, up next, Baton Rouge Police to receive pay raises. EMS increase is coming soon, Mayor says. Our good buddy, Mr. TJ Morse, is very excited about this.

SPEAKER_02 6:21

And we're very excited about this, too. This when he tells you that they did to be competitive regionally, they needed a 33% increase, and he's correct.

SPEAKER_00 6:31

And that is scraping bottom.

SPEAKER_02 6:33

That is that's to not not get ahead. That's to barely keep up.

unknown 6:37

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 6:37

And they're 100, 150 officers short. And uh and it's a horrible, it's a horribly tough job. Yep. Um, well deserved. I'm so glad the uh Metro Council, despite itself, could get this done.

SPEAKER_00 6:52

And they haven't yet. Uh but wait, there's more 22nd, a week from today, the Metro Council meeting is when this vote takes place.

SPEAKER_02 7:02

So if you want the police to get a pay raise, you should probably show up there. If you don't show up, you know, somebody we'll say, like a Shauna Banks relative or somebody else who's been grafted, given a nepotism job, an EBR parish government doing nothing all day making money is gonna get a pay raise too. Yeah. Because that's what they're looking at. That's their argument. Hey, you know, I know we should be shrinking the size of government because it doesn't make sense. We're gonna go the opposite direction and keep it fat and bloated and give them pay raises instead of our police. Yay!

SPEAKER_00 7:37

Yep, exactly. But April 22nd, um, 222 St. Louis Street Metro Council meeting. I mean, if you want to show up, show your support for the Baton Ridge Police and EMS.

SPEAKER_02 7:47

I would tell you that could be the beginning of a date night. If you have not been to a Metro Council meeting, you can go.

SPEAKER_00 7:52

This will be the one to go to.

SPEAKER_02 7:53

I mean, downtown development would love it. You go to the meeting, you get a police pay raise, you go have a nice dinner downtown. I will be there. Get you a room at the watermark or something. Yeah, just make a whole government night of it.

SPEAKER_00 8:06

Make a good showing of it.

SPEAKER_02 8:07

Uh watch them steal your dollars and allocate it to projects you didn't know existed.

SPEAKER_00 8:12

As I understand now, they have the votes, but there are a couple of holdouts.

SPEAKER_02 8:17

I'm telling you now, if if you vote against a Baton Rouge police pay raise, you deserve the bad press at minimum you're about to get.

SPEAKER_00 8:27

Hopefully, no one who was arrested last month for stealing tax money from taxpayers is voting against giving a raise to the police. If you've been kind of odd.

SPEAKER_02 8:38

If you've been indicted, and I was going to give a time frame for it, and I said, wait a second. If you've been indicted period. Period.

SPEAKER_00 8:44

Period.

SPEAKER_02 8:45

You probably should abstain from this.

SPEAKER_00 8:47

Yeah, but that's odd that someone who was indicted for stealing tax money is voting. Steal tax money? Yeah, yeah. Odd. Crazy, crazy world we live in.

SPEAKER_02 8:57

And I'm still trying to find a word that sounds like steel that rhymes with Cleve.

SPEAKER_00 9:02

Yeah. Um next up, uh parents voicing concerns. One month away from St. George School District vote. Now, what kind of concerns would there be for trying to make a better school district?

SPEAKER_02 9:16

Okay, so I'm gonna get in trouble with uh WAFB again. Still? Still that is the most biased news story we've had in a while about St. George. How do I know? They chose one parent who was opposed to St. George.

SPEAKER_00 9:31

But the title says parents with us.

SPEAKER_02 9:33

Not in that article, one parent. And then instead of going out and doing some homework and some hard journalistic work and looking at Facebook for five seconds and messaging all the pro-St. George school people, they only put our mayor on there, so it looks like it's an administration versus a parent. When the reality is there are thousands of parents who are supporting this school district in the region, not just in the area. Uh biased journalism, it's a terrible story. I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_00 10:04

Did they even mention that the entire St. George idea started with this, right? All we want was a school district.

SPEAKER_02 10:11

That was it. The most Baton Rouge thing ever, because it keeps happening over and over again, is a Baton Rouge politician saying if you want a school district, you have to form a city. And then oh crap, you formed a city, I'm gonna sue you for it. And now they doing they're doing the same thing over and over again. Hey, your leadership told us to go form a city to get a school district. We did it. You think you should be like, hey, congratulations. Well played, following the democratic process. Let's hold hands and work to move this forward.

SPEAKER_00 10:39

And I feel like there's probably a lot of people who are pro EBR schools that are for this because if you take a ton of people out of the EBR school system, it should be able to run more efficiently, right? Smaller is better.

SPEAKER_02 10:55

We're making you nimble, more flexible.

SPEAKER_00 10:58

They've tried everything for what, 50 years now and they can't get it right. They're they're getting better, but better is not what people want. People want best if you're in your money. Right.

SPEAKER_02 11:11

What this would do for you if if this school district is created is your kids will not be bused across town in St. George Schools. So in essence, instead of your kid being at the bus stop at 5 30, 6 in the morning, they'll go back to their neighborhood school.

SPEAKER_00 11:26

Right. Which is exactly what St. George wanted. So in retrospect, if the St. George School passes, which we hope it will, then East Baton Rouge reaps the benefits just as much as St. George going back to local schools, and they don't have to do anything except vote for St. George.

SPEAKER_02 11:40

And I can tell you now, the St. George school system is going to have the highest paid teachers in the state. Can you repeat that? The highest paid teachers in the state. From day one? From day one. So if you're what that's going to mean is if you're in the other systems around us, you're going to have to raise teacher pay. That's great for the teachers.

SPEAKER_00 11:58

So it's good for every system.

SPEAKER_02 11:59

Well, that's where the money needs to be spent, right? Teachers and principals need to drive this system and be in charge of these school systems. And if we give all of our money to dedicate the lion's share to them, then we're putting the best people in place to teach our that spend eight hours a day with our kids.

SPEAKER_00 12:15

Which sets it up for success. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 12:17

Quit period. Quit accepting failure. Right. Do better. Well, I'm glad I brought that up. I know. I get, I'm sorry. Not very savaged.

SPEAKER_00 12:25

Moving right along. Thank you. Baker Mayer proposes, he's not coming to the show. Darnell. This is new. This is news. Baker Mayer proposes limit on new hair salons, barbershops, and tire shops along busy quarters. Now that is a hell of a headline.

SPEAKER_02 12:41

Darnell, number one, that's racist. Barbershops? Are you kidding me? That is like the epicenter of culture and conversation and dialogue for an entire community. Why would you get rid of these?

SPEAKER_00 12:57

But how do you limit this? Do you put a number and like there's like now there's a lottery to where if if you limit it to 25 and a 26 one comes and applause, you're like, we're sorry, you can't have your hair salon.

SPEAKER_02 13:08

You just want to get a low taper fade, man.

SPEAKER_00 13:10

Come on. Right. How do you how do you put a limit on this?

SPEAKER_02 13:14

I mean, hair salon. What is the list? Hair salons, barbershops.

SPEAKER_00 13:17

Hair salons, barbershops, entire shops. I mean he's like stereotyping some businesses. I am gonna have to do an Stavakit podcast uh experiment, and I'm gonna have to drive through Baker and count how many tire shops, hair salons, and barbershops there are. I would stop and get my hair cut, but I don't have any hair.

SPEAKER_02 13:35

So he's not doing the uh it's a proposal now.

SPEAKER_00 13:38

It's only a proposal. This might be a good council meeting to go sit in on. There's probably be a hundred tire shops, hair shops, and barbershop owners in there.

SPEAKER_02 13:46

I mean, what about, okay, if we're gonna make this list? I mean, is there anything else we could put on it? That's true. I mean, quit narrowing the list down. Let's expand it. What about I don't see on there liquor stores.

SPEAKER_00 13:58

What about vape shops? There's probably 40 vape shops.

SPEAKER_02 14:01

Medical marijuana.

SPEAKER_00 14:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:03

What about what about car washes? Car washes.

SPEAKER_00 14:08

Like uh, like the the old spray. Yeah, the old spray ones. I don't even think they have any of those anymore. Benny's is taking over. In fact, Benny's just opened one in Baker. Gorgeous, absolutely beautiful. But I think Benny's has put all them out of business.

SPEAKER_01 14:21

Huh.

SPEAKER_00 14:22

You don't, it's not even, it's not even worth going get the quarters out and spraying your car if you can drive through Benny's and do the same thing.

SPEAKER_02 14:27

Prepaid cell phones. Prepaid cell phones.

SPEAKER_00 14:29

Oh, you know those are there.

SPEAKER_02 14:30

I gotta put that on the list.

SPEAKER_00 14:31

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:32

We might have to.

SPEAKER_00 14:33

Drew and I might attend this next. You know what this is?

SPEAKER_02 14:35

This is the opposite of economic development.

SPEAKER_00 14:40

This is economic restriction.

SPEAKER_02 14:42

That's right. Cash advanced places. Uh God, I can keep going forever.

SPEAKER_00 14:48

Baker made it in the news. Someone reach out to the mayor and let him know we mentioned him. And uh, this is a great plan. If you want to come on the show and talk about this, we'd love to have you.

SPEAKER_02 14:55

We would love to talk about this.

SPEAKER_00 14:56

This is fascinating because we would even arrange to get one of your best barbershops to come on the show and give you a haircut while we're doing the show.

SPEAKER_02 15:07

Well, yeah, he's protecting the ones that are already there.

SPEAKER_00 15:10

You know, they love it.

SPEAKER_02 15:11

Could we have a barbershop episode?

SPEAKER_00 15:14

Could this ever happen in St. George? Would would you guys ever vote?

SPEAKER_02 15:17

I feel like we don't have enough barbershops. Now, to be fair, I I I I have proposed limiting certain establishments in certain places.

SPEAKER_00 15:27

Yeah, but we don't have any strip clubs in St. George.

SPEAKER_02 15:30

No, not yet. Oh, what? Breaking me. No, I'm kidding. I'm kidding.

SPEAKER_00 15:35

Okay, moving right along. Uh, debate continues over proposed school start time changes in EBR. They want to go from 7 10 a.m. to 8 30 a.m. As I recall, you were all for this.

SPEAKER_02 15:46

All in. All in for this. I think uh because you're self-employed. What about people who have to be at work at 30. You're you're you know, think about your normal work day for us like as adults. And it's already a long day. You get home and you're tired and you're exhausted and you want to eat dinner. Now think about your children. And because EBR is such a screwed-up school system, our poor babies are on the street corners at at 5 45, 6 a.m. in the morning.

SPEAKER_00 16:11

But but but that's because they're going halfway across town.

SPEAKER_02 16:14

That's right, but that's part of their day, right? They gotta be up early. Somebody was telling me they got their kids up at 5 to get to the bus stop before 6.

SPEAKER_00 16:21

I see them at 5 45 at one of my neighborhoods.

SPEAKER_02 16:23

So you're going to school at that point, you gotta take the bus home and you bust across town. Again. So now you're going 12-hour days, five days a week, and then you're expected to come home and do homework. You're set up for failure. The school system is set up to fail. It's not set up to succeed. 8 30 would be way better for those kids. Uh if you're gonna keep the system like that, you don't have an alternative.

SPEAKER_00 16:48

If they push the start time, don't they have to push the end time? So it's still the same.

SPEAKER_02 16:52

I agree, but now you're matching up closer to a regular adult's day.

SPEAKER_00 16:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:56

I think that's probably think about this way. Who's gonna pick that kid up at 3 30, 3 o'clock in the afternoon? I mean, that's hard.

SPEAKER_00 17:02

That's true. Uh if you put those work days on in then.

SPEAKER_02 17:05

If you do 8 30 and pick them up at at four, that's more matching a normal work day.

SPEAKER_00 17:12

But this is out the window if they go to the four-day school.

SPEAKER_02 17:14

Look, the other thing I'm supporting about it is this is actually based on real research, not some idiot school board member going, hey, I think this is a great plan and let's just do do it. It's actually based on research and there's some background to it.

SPEAKER_00 17:27

So you're gonna propose 830 for the St. George School District.

SPEAKER_02 17:30

I love 830 for the St. George School District. I do. I like it a lot.

SPEAKER_00 17:34

All right. Well, we know who's not here, little bird.

SPEAKER_02 17:37

I'm not gonna be on the school board.

SPEAKER_00 17:40

Allegedly.

SPEAKER_02 17:41

Allegedly.

SPEAKER_00 17:42

Unless unless there's a position that opens that no one runs for, then you could just 100%.

SPEAKER_02 17:47

I'm only here for uncontested races. That's all that's all I want to do.

SPEAKER_00 17:53

He wants to die knowing he won 100% of the races he ran.

SPEAKER_02 17:56

Ryan Heck told me once, you're gonna wish one day you had an opponent because then somebody's gonna be mad at you when you do something stupid and they're gonna say, I wish he'd had an opponent. I could have voted for the other guy. No, Ryan, I'm never gonna feel that way. I'm always gonna feel pretty good about not having to run a campaign.

SPEAKER_00 18:15

Oh, that's crazy. Wish you had an opponent. Yeah. Nope. Well, look, that's it for the news. Uh, but we do have a couple of texts and emails. So people still text. How do they text us if they want to get a hold of it? Uh you could text us at 225-255-2480, or you can email us at podcast at thesadvocate.com. And if uh they're good enough, we'll read them on the air. We had a bunch this week. I only broke it down to five.

SPEAKER_02 18:37

Oh, we had a lot? Okay.

SPEAKER_00 18:38

Yeah, we had a bunch because we had two weeks.

SPEAKER_02 18:40

That's true.

SPEAKER_00 18:41

Um, so yeah, uh, there's an episode skipped in the list of podcasts with a question mark.

SPEAKER_02 18:46

That is true.

SPEAKER_00 18:47

Um I'll let our tech, I'll let our tech department answer. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 18:52

Exactly. Uh, I'm struggling with technology at the moment. Uh, I'm I've reached the age in life where I'm now shaking my fist at the computer and wondering what happened. Uh, there's a a go is a very complicated answer because I don't understand. There's a ghost in the SD card that I use to record the podcast. Um, so I'm working on it.

SPEAKER_00 19:11

Now, in his defense, he still uses Windows 95. So it's really not his fault.

SPEAKER_02 19:17

They they told me it's still supported. Is that not true?

SPEAKER_00 19:20

What is MS DOS?

SPEAKER_02 19:21

I use an advocate to do math.

SPEAKER_00 19:24

Yes, we do have an episode that we're having some technical difficulty with.

SPEAKER_02 19:27

Yes, the hidden, the ghost episode.

SPEAKER_00 19:29

The hidden episode, yeah. In 40 years, when your grandchildren are listening to this, they'll be like, there's the hidden episode around.

SPEAKER_02 19:35

I couldn't find it. You know what? I feel like I could magically find this episode and get it out if more people liked, subscribed, and left positive reviews of our podcast.

SPEAKER_00 19:46

And listen, it might also help to know that the episode in question is from a very amazing guy named Brian Trevor.

SPEAKER_02 19:52

Yeah, of all the episodes I lost, I couldn't lose the Wade Evans episode. Absolutely. Yeah, I could have could have done that. Dustin Yates could have redone that one anytime I want. Literally, I lost the most important episode. United Nation Navy president. Say it out loud.

SPEAKER_00 20:08

It makes it more real. Well, he texts me once a week.

SPEAKER_02 20:10

I know he does.

SPEAKER_00 20:11

And he goes, What's up with the podcast? I know it sucks. You know, I feel like if we don't get this podcast online and one of us comes up missing, they're not coming to help. They're gonna call the United Cajun Navy.

SPEAKER_02 20:23

It's gonna float by and say, uh, Jure, not that guy.

SPEAKER_00 20:27

My family will call the Cajun Navy up and they'll say, Listen, uh, Dave Rapolo's missing. Is that the Savagate guy? You know, I'm sorry, we can't help. What are you talking about?

SPEAKER_02 20:36

Don't put a hand out, put a foot on his head. Hold it down.

SPEAKER_00 20:40

So for our safety, Drew, we need to get this episode online. I couldn't agree more. Um, yeah. So uh it's coming. Uh bear with us, please. Um, how are you two guys connected to the Savagate?

SPEAKER_02 20:51

How are we connected to the? Well, Dave, you're the writer for the Savagate. I'm just a guy who had a couple of microphones uh and a mixer.

SPEAKER_00 20:56

That's whenever, whenever, listen, whenever we put out uh a help wanted ad for the podcast, we insisted on having a politician, possibly an attorney, but the rules were the politician had to have won his election unopposed.

SPEAKER_02 21:10

That's right. There was only one guy in town, that was Drew Merle. Thank you. Waving, waving uh Miss America style. Uh, yeah. So no, Dave, Dave uh writing the Savagate.

SPEAKER_00 21:20

I'm a writer at the Savaket, and Drew is uh just a supporter and a uh a podcaster.

SPEAKER_02 21:24

Dave is the talent, I'm just hero support.

SPEAKER_00 21:28

That's right. Do y'all sell cups and shirts or anything anymore? We do have some, and I apologize. Uh we have not got the store back online yet. But we will, we will, but you know what? If you want something, you can always just shoot us an email or text me or message on this advocate. Someone will reply to you and get you set up. We have some uh some tumblers, some shirts, but we do have some stuff coming up. We're working on some red, white, and blue stuff for the tour.

SPEAKER_02 21:53

America, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:54

So yeah, look for that. We'll uh send an email out when that comes out.

SPEAKER_02 21:57

There are still people that love America.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

Yes, and we are two of them.

SPEAKER_02 22:01

We are two of them.

SPEAKER_00 22:02

Baltimore will have this was a this was a we uh It's not funny.

SPEAKER_02 22:06

It's not funny. Baltimore is true.

SPEAKER_00 22:09

Baltimore will have their bridge built and in service before Louisiana even has selected a location.

SPEAKER_02 22:15

I mean, it's not even something you can go on the prediction market and bet on because it's so it's absolutely a hundred percent true.

SPEAKER_00 22:23

For context, uh the Baltimore Bridge uh that got hit by the barge exactly two years ago this month. So has already work being done on. It is like in it is like in motion. It will be done in two years. It is a very long bridge. I think it's a mile, 1.4 miles, and Louisiana has been talking about their new bridge for going on 40 years now, and we still don't have a location. As a Savagate writer, I am not mad at all. As a traveler, I am pissed.

SPEAKER_02 22:54

I mean, you think about it this way Louisiana alone, we've got you know, our bridge issues. Those folks in Lake Charles are on a death trap every day.

SPEAKER_00 23:03

Now that thing's in motion, they got funding. There, it's moving forward.

SPEAKER_02 23:06

But it's still not built yet.

SPEAKER_00 23:08

It still might fall down before uh yeah, but but yes, um, that just goes to show you right there. The jokes we write about the Louisiana Bridge are legit low-hanging fruit.

SPEAKER_02 23:17

Well, and the reality is if you don't laugh about it, you'd be crying about it because it's so embarrassingly big.

SPEAKER_00 23:22

Exactly. But Michael Eccles shout out has a plan to name it the Donald Trump Bridge, which hopefully gets Donald Trump's attention, and he signs uh some federal dollars and gets some gets them pushed to us faster because I think the price is going up ten million dollars every day.

SPEAKER_02 23:38

That bridge has gone up a billion dollars since they started. You know what's sad is a government official that's connected to this bridge project is gonna hear this Savagate podcast, and that little rat's gonna start churning on all the excuses. Well, you do realize we gotta go to the Army Corps and get a feasibility. You gotta realize we've got to do all this stuff.

SPEAKER_00 23:56

You gotta realize great, but this has not been going on a year. This has been going on for 40 years. That's right.

SPEAKER_02 24:01

You're past the naive public who doesn't know how things really work, and you're into incompetence or stealing.

SPEAKER_00 24:08

Why don't we get together with the Council of St. George? I have a great idea.

SPEAKER_02 24:11

You want to build a bridge?

SPEAKER_00 24:12

Let's offer up, right? We go from Blue Bonnet all the way to the river, right? Isn't that St. George?

SPEAKER_02 24:20

I believe so.

SPEAKER_00 24:21

Okay. Why don't we donate from Blue Bonnet at Nicholson to the river, to the state, as the landing, the bridge could come down right there. Oh that then they only have to deal with one side of the Mississippi River and St. George get all the through traffic. Blue Bonnet would be upgraded to interstate status. I mean it dead ends right there at Nicholson.

SPEAKER_02 24:41

I feel like we'd have to do a feasibility study and we'd go.

SPEAKER_00 24:44

A feasibility study. Singular. I like it.

SPEAKER_02 24:48

The reality is it's a bunch of dudes who bought a bunch of property thinking they're about to cash in and get rich and they're fighting over the location because that's where they bought their property.

SPEAKER_00 24:57

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 24:58

It really works.

SPEAKER_00 24:59

No reason in the world any of these locations wouldn't say, just make us an offer. We definitely want the bridge to come right here.

SPEAKER_02 25:05

That's it. That's exactly right.

SPEAKER_00 25:06

If we did it in the St. George, a casino right down the street, would say, Listen, we'll put up the money, have an exit right in the casino parking lot.

SPEAKER_02 25:12

I bet they would. Yes. Exactly right.

SPEAKER_00 25:15

It's a winning plan. Think about that, Dustin Yates. You hear me? You listening?

SPEAKER_02 25:19

Get on it. Get to work, mayor.

SPEAKER_00 25:22

What does Wade Evans have to do with the Sadvocate? I saw him flashing a tumbler on a Facebook.

SPEAKER_02 25:29

Kind of like a rash you can't get rid of. You know, you get you put some cream on it, you think you got it solved, and then like a week later. Ah crap.

SPEAKER_00 25:37

Wade Evans is a very faithful member of the Savicate, follower of the Savicate, contributor to the Savicate.

SPEAKER_02 25:42

We love Wade Evans.

SPEAKER_00 25:43

The most memed man at the Savicate is Wade Evans.

SPEAKER_02 25:46

Would he be the king of memes?

SPEAKER_00 25:48

He's the meme king. Uh he's in fact, he's overdue for a meme. So uh meme guys at the Savocate, if you're listening, we need a Wade Evans meme.

SPEAKER_02 25:58

I feel like at the Savagate headquarters, and in somewhere in the bowels of the Savagate headquarters, there's a group of folks that are just sitting in the dark. Yeah. And they're just churning out memes. And there's a guy dedicated solely to Wade Evans memes. Uh you're in the Wade Evans department. Oh, thank you, God.

SPEAKER_00 26:16

That is actually his title, Wade Evans meme guy.

SPEAKER_02 26:18

Yes. And it you're right. It's due.

SPEAKER_00 26:20

I mean it's not Wade either.

SPEAKER_02 26:21

He's got he's got a new city hall. Yeah. Beautiful. Uh to try to cut us out. He built his own studio in there.

SPEAKER_00 26:27

I believe the uh the grand opening open to the public to their city hall is next week.

SPEAKER_02 26:33

Uh you know what's weird is I have not gotten a key to that yet.

SPEAKER_00 26:36

Have you got a card?

SPEAKER_02 26:38

No, I don't have anything. I feel like I should have gotten some kind of access card, a punch code, something special. Um, you know, so when I want to visit the the the city hall for central and see our friend Wade Evans, I could do that. Um, you know, when I'll hear updates on surf lakes and other projects, I I I would like to to to be able to do that.

SPEAKER_00 26:58

I feel like uh I feel like we will definitely get VIP access to the surflake.

SPEAKER_02 27:05

And I mean look, Wade Evans is I don't want my own boat slipper. Wade is so important and big time that he is no longer confined by the city limits of Central. That's true. He's on the Breck Board of Supervisors. That's true. So he's caught up in the city park caught up in the city park debacle. I was gonna say debacle, debacle. Yeah. Debacle.

SPEAKER_00 27:25

He's loving it though. It's a reason for him to get him on Facebook Live. Speaking of Central, Tuesday, April 28th, 2026, 325 open house at the new Central City Hall. However, uh, it's right at the corner of Hooper and Sullivan, uh, which has been a construction nightmare for several years. Not Wade's fault, L A D O T D. Bloom hanging fruit. But Wade is gonna solve that problem as soon as they're done. He's gonna put it back under construction for the traffic circle. Our boy.

SPEAKER_02 27:58

Progress.

SPEAKER_00 27:59

It's gonna be the Wade Evans Memorial Traffic Circle.

SPEAKER_02 28:02

Progress is often painful and slow.

SPEAKER_00 28:05

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_02 28:06

But when you've got the conductor Wade Evans at the front of your train, you better get out the way.

SPEAKER_00 28:11

Conductor Wade Evans sounds like a good idea.

SPEAKER_02 28:14

You've already done train memes.

SPEAKER_00 28:16

Not with Wade.

SPEAKER_02 28:18

Well, no, he doesn't get to ride in the train. No, no. All right, well, that's it. That's our text messages. If you want to reach the show, you got two ways to do it, Dave. How do you text us?

SPEAKER_00 28:27

Uh, you could text us at 225-255-2480, or you could email us at podcast at the sadvocate.com.

SPEAKER_02 28:35

Uh, what's coming up next week?

SPEAKER_00 28:37

I believe we have uh Mr. Jimmy Manasseh, who is the 19th JDC District Court candidate.

SPEAKER_02 28:44

That's excellent.

SPEAKER_00 28:45

Yeah, another another judge candidate coming up next week on Wednesday.

SPEAKER_02 28:48

Excellent. And and I I will tell you over and over again, these these judges are more important than we give them credit for. Yes. Uh we only pay attention when somebody lets a criminal out of jail. We should pay attention at election time when we elect the judges. This is important.

SPEAKER_00 29:03

Very important.

SPEAKER_02 29:04

Uh so Jimmy Manasseh coming on the show. Jimmy's gonna be fun.

SPEAKER_00 29:07

It's gonna be a fun show.

SPEAKER_02 29:08

Um judges can have personality too.

SPEAKER_00 29:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:11

Sometimes they'll be great. So that's another episode of the Savaging Podcast with Dave and Drew every single week for the most part. You can download our podcast episodes uh everywhere podcasts are found. So Apple, iTunes, uh if you can find uh Buzz Sprout, Spotify.

SPEAKER_00 29:29

And and when you when you find us on your favorite podcast app, please subscribe.

SPEAKER_02 29:33

Yeah, subscribe, like it, leave a positive review. This is how more people find us, which gives us the ability to do this more often. Yeah. If you don't like it, then Dave told you how to text and email the show and you can get in touch with us directly.

SPEAKER_00 29:46

And if you don't like it, you don't have to listen. It's not a requirement.

SPEAKER_02 29:48

Uh hashtag America. Don't like it, change the channel. That's what I'm talking about. All right, thank you very much. That's episode twenty-three. It's been the S uh Savaged Podcast with Dave and Drew.

SPEAKER_00 30:02

Thirty minutes on the news.