The Mark Arum Show 06-24-26 HR 2

Welcome back to the show and a good wedness day morning to you. Mark Aram here, you there. It's 10.5 minutes after 10 o'clock. This is the Mark Aram show live Monday through Friday, 9.m to noon, 9.955. W.S.B. The whole gang with us today. Executive producer and Gracie winning Deborah is producer of the program. We got Darius Manning the phones and Vinny D. Rip on the other side of the takeout window. Vinnie and I will discuss our... Our night out last night and a school night a little bit later on in the broadcast. Coming up in seven minutes, our gas and groceries giveaway. This is phenomenal. In about seven minutes, I'm going to open up the phone lines, and a lucky caller to Darius is going to win, Deborah. $150 gas card, boom, $150 grocery card, boom. We just talked about rising beef prices and a free HVAC. inspection for my friends at reliable heating and air. So coming up in seven, don't call now. I already see people calling. Janice, hang up. You can't win right now. There you go. Sorry, Janice. I didn't mean to yell. Seven minutes. We're going to do that. Political analyst, Stephen Lawson is going to join us live in studio talking about yesterday's primary results and very cool. In one hour from an act right now, Anna Vocino, local lady, voice actress. She is the new voice of Mrs. Potato Head. in Toy Story 5. And during the news break, I was catching Shrapnel from Debra and Vinny going through all these animated movies that I've never seen. Pixar movies. Man, I'm old, guys. I'm old. Gotta be a kid at heart, man. That's Disney. I feel like it transcends generations. All right, so Vinny's like, have you seen Nemo? No. Funny, Nemo is so good. Dory? Is that a thing? Dory is the follow-up, yeah. Never saw that. Aladdin? Nope. This is going to really hurt you. I've never saw, I've never seen Shrek. Please stop. That's not Disney. Well, whatever. That's, but that's Eddie Murphy. Yeah, that's Eddie Murphy. I understand. That's one of his favorite roles. When all those came out, I was out doing things and it's just never. I still make a point to watch Disney movies. I just told Vinny, did you see the new one yet? Yeah. So anyway, I just caught a bunch of shrapnel there. But I'm very excited, even though I've never seen a single Toy Story. Toy Story 5. breaking records. Killed it at the box office. Yeah. So the voice actress Anna Vocino, she's got local ties here too. So she's going to be live in studio coming up in one hour. Right now, though, let's continue our team coverage of the Iran negotiations, joining us from the State Department from ABC News, Shannon Kingston. Shannon, good morning. I kind of preview this yesterday, Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, arriving in Abu Dhabi yesterday. He's now headed to the region. To me, this seems like a really big deal that the Secretary of State is now. inserting himself into the situation. What can you tell us? Yeah, Mark, he's on a three nation tour. He is currently headed from the UAE. He's going over to Kuwait and then he'll hit Bahrain. Now, these are all countries that were hit pretty hard by Iran in retaliatory strikes. as a hit back for U.S. and Israeli attacks on that country. So what he's going to do here is try to reassure them that this preliminary agreement between the U.S. and Iran, that it is a good deal, that it could be headed towards a lasting peace.

But the problem is, Marco Rubio might not be the absolute best salesman for this. We know he has had his own doubts about that preliminary agreement. Oh, interesting little angle there. But at least, you know, when I think of the Secretary of State, he brings a certain level of gravitas, you know, to the table. And no offense to Jared Kushner, but if you meet with the Secretary of State Marco Rubio, that seems to be more important than a Steve Witkoff Jared Kushner kind of meeting. You know, absolutely. This is an official meeting right there. There are handshakes, pictures, traveling press, the whole thing here, right? So this is a more high-level diplomatic visit, if you will. So I think these are all allied governments that are very, or partner governments, I should say, that are very interested in having this kind of connection with the Trump administration. And they are countries, too, that have been, you know, at least aligned where Marco Rubio has normally been on Iran. which is pretty hawkish. So, you know, they do have a lot in common here. So Abu Dhabi and then Kuwait and Bahrain, do we know what our Arab allies in the region feel about this memorandum of understanding and what is expected to happen over the next 60 days? Well, they are wary. There's not a whole lot of trust for the Iranian regime among these countries. But they have been hit economically as well with the Strait of Hormuz being closed to traffic there, that's strategic waterway. So they've had some very direct impacts from that. So I think there is some pragmatic understanding here that the situation wasn't going to be in a good long term. They could keep fighting the fight. But this is not something that necessarily everybody would be okay with accepting those consequences that would have come with it. One of the bigger headlines this morning, Shannon, is kind of both sides being on different pages when it comes. comes to nuclear inspectors. The United States insists it's going to happen. Iran says it's not going to happen. Was the Secretary of State asked about that at all? He sure was. And he said, look, we know what they agreed to, right? Basically saying that at the table in Switzerland over the weekend, they were on the same page. And that now the Iranian officials are saying what they need to say, you know, either to sell the step to the country or other factions of Iranian leadership. But he said, really, it doesn't matter because either the... going to let it happen. They're going to let these UN watchdog agency inspectors come in and do fairly comprehensive searches, inspections of their nuclear sites, or this process isn't going to move forward, and President Trump is going to have a difficult decision to make, really, about potentially returning to open hostilities. We know that's not something that the president wants to do, but certainly Marco Rubio is going to say that's still on the table. Final quick question for you, Shannon, it seems to me the biggest speed bump in getting a long-term deal might be what's going on between Israel and Hezbollah. Was the Secretary of State asked about the Israel-Lebanese relationship right now? He was asked about it, and he insisted that this is on a separate track than U.S. and Iran negotiations. Now, the problem is, of course, that peace in Lebanon is included in that memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Iran in the very first point of that document. So clearly these things are intertwined here now, and we do know. that a set of discussions, negotiations between representatives of Israel and Lebanon are taking place in Washington right now. This will be day two today of three days of plan talks. And there's a lot of concern about where those discussions are headed. We saw the U.S. ambassador from Israel to the U.S. saying yesterday that he was very concerned that these talks were going on off the track, that the U.S. and Israel were no longer.

really aligned in where this was headed. Yeah. Keep us posted. Shannon Kingston at the State Department. Shannon, great stuff. Have a good day, my friend. Thank you, Mark, you too. All right. Shannon Kingston at the State Department. I'll tell you what, Deborah, the market's up right now. Dow's up 80, NASDAX, up 40. They all tumbled yesterday. But you're at, this is, this is worthy the breaking news, Sunderbend. For the first time since February 27th. Oil is now down below $70 a barrel. Oh. What are we going to see that? I know. It's dropped less than 4.66%. That's that sweet Texas crude. $69.80. That's phenomenal news. Speaking of when our gas prices are going to drop, we're going to talk to a Bloomberg news reporter. President Trump apparently saying, directing the DOJ. Investigate why gas prices are not falling as quickly as they rose. That's coming up at 1135. All right now, speaking of gas, gas and grocery giveaway. What are we giving away right now, Deborah? Yeah, this is amazing. So you're going to win a $150 gas gift card. You're going to have a $150 grocery store gift card and reliable will come out to your house and make sure that your H-FAC system is up to where it needs to be. They'll give it a once over and tell you, hey. Here's a deal. They do it at my house. I've got a reliable AC. They're fantastic. And they're doing this gas and grocery giveaway. All right, Darius. I love Darius. We're going to make it easy on Darius. The 11th caller. 11th caller to 404.872.075. Caller number 11 to 404.8720.50 wins the gas and grocery gift car giveaway, $150. Gas card, $150 grocery card and a free HVAC inspection from my friends at Reliable. Caller number 11 to 404-87-2-0-750 will win that amazing prize. Good job. Good luck, I should say. All right, so we talked to Shannon Kingston at the State Department about this Marco Rubio trip to the Middle East. And yet, I think it's a big deal. Moments ago at the White House, Kate, Elena Treene. Elena, how big a deal is this trip of Secretary of State Marco Rubio? Oh, it's incredibly important, Wolf. And really, the goal, I'm told, for the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, is to try and ease some of the concerns that many of these Gulf partners, Middle Eastern allies, have about not only this memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Iran, but of course, what a potential, more longer-term deal would look like at the end of these 60 days of technical negotiations. Now, Marco Rubio, as you mentioned, is in Kuwait now this morning, though. He had met with Emirati. leaders, again, really seeking to reassure some of these Gulf allies about the U.S. vision for what this is going to look like, particularly in the region moving forward. And I'd remind you that's because, of course, many of these countries who did not have a say when the U.S. joined Israel initially back in February to launch strikes on Iran, they faced a lot of the brunt of the retaliation that Iran had for that. And so it's very important for them to feel.

like not only that they are in approval of what a final deal could look like, but also that they have some sort of say in it. I know throughout the entire ceasefire, I actually talked to the president himself about this. One of the issues that Gulf allies were telling this administration was that they did not feel like they were getting a say or really thought of a lot throughout that process. So we'll be really there to try to ease some of those concerns and reassure allies during this very fragile time. of this ceasefire. All right, so we'll monitor that again, Secretary of State Marco Rubio. To me, that just signals to the world like this is, you know, we are serious about this. And, you know, the fact that he is visiting the, the Arab nations that have been, you know, inflicted by this, right? That was one of the first things that surprised both you and me, Deborah, when you and I. Me and you, both of us. After the war started, was Iran retaliating not against Israel or United States military assets, but their neighbors in the region. That was shocking, at least to me. So I think Marco Rubio there is going to try to get everyone on board of this memorandum of understanding, getting the straight of Hormuz open. The big two sticking points, we talked to Karen Travers, the White House correspondent about this at the top of the show, is... mixed messages on nuclear inspectors. President Trump, the administration saying, yes, they're going to be there. Iran saying, no, they're not. Hold the phone. And the other sticking point is going to be what's going on with Israel and Hezbollah. So obviously, a big thing. And we'll monitor Secretary of State Marco Rubio's trip throughout the mate at least over the next couple of days.

Legendary bass rift there. John Ilseley is the basis for dire straits. He turns 77 years old today. I loved this video back on MTV back in the day. So cutting edge at the time. It was amazing. Welcome back to the Mark Aram Show. If you have listened to the show for any amount of time, you know I am a Waffle House loyalist. I am ride or die. I will throw bows if you disparage the House of Waffles. That being said, if this lawsuit goes to court, you do not want me on the jury. The Jury, the Wadar of the jury, whatever you pronounce that. Kick me off this jury because I'm going to side with Waffle House. Waffle House getting sued because of what, Deborah? Yeah, this is down in Florida as an 84-year-old man. And if you look at the photos, you do feel really sympathetic. He's got a big bruise on his face. And what are he saying that him and his wife are going to Waffle House. And he got distracted by one of the giant ads they have in the window for strawberry pancakes or waffles. And it was so distracting that he wasn't paying attention to the curb, tripped on the curb and hit his face. So he is suing for an... abnormally high curb does he say how much he's looking for it doesn't say that it says that he's got these permanent damages he's torn his rotator cuff now he's so the strawberry waffle looks so delicious you know how they have the poster that takes up the whole window right and he said it was too big and they should have had a sign that said high curb instead and if he wasn't looking at the waffles he wouldn't have tripped Well, case dismissed. No, there's no. How old is he? 84. He's 84. And the bruise does look really bad. Well, high curbs can be dangerous, but you can't blame a delicious-looking straw. By the way, pecan waffle is the best of the waffles. I credit Maya for that. I was just regular plain. You never had a pecan waffle before? Me? Yeah. No, not until Maya introduced it to me. I was a purist. I'm a Waffle House purist. But it's good. It adds the crunch. It's delicious. I saw a bit on, this wasn't a Waffle House bit, but speaking of ads or banners on the thing, these pranksters on the tickety talk put like this fake, I think it was at KFC, and they put this fake promotion. They made a nice like promotion poster and put it on the front. And it was like 12 piece meal for $4.99 or something. And they went in, they're like, yeah, I want the, oh, yeah. They're like, I want the 12-piece meal for $4.99. And the lady of the cashier, she's like, I don't know what you're talking about. And he's like, there's a sign on the front. So she calls the manager over. The manager comes over and goes, oh, they must have put that up overnight. I never, all right, give him the 12-piece for $4. Wow. It was crazy. And he's like calling around. He's like, hey, do you? Y'all do that too, right? Yeah, he's like, what's this new 12-piece meal for $499? Wow. Yeah, it was pretty neat. That's finesse. Well, it was like the one guy that pretended to be a KFC general manager or the inspector. And he traveled everywhere. He had like a badge and a nameplate. He had a fake ID. Yeah. And he would just get free meals. He's like, I'm here to inspect your. Oh, that's a good one. Yeah. Yeah, that's a good. That's a smart criminal. That is a smart criminal. Yeah, but throw that Waffle House lawsuit out. What do they make not less delicious looking waffle posters?

Lower curbs. You know what? He's lying. I just realized it. He was looking at a hot chick leaving Waffle House with his wife there, hit the curb. And she's like, what happened? He's like, oh, I was looking at the... The poster. Strawberry Waffle poster. Yeah, that's what happened. Look at that. I could be a detective. I should be a detective. Hey, congrats to Claudio from Lawrenceville, our grocery and gas winner. Congrats, Claudio. All right, news weather and traffic with Sabrina in three. And when we come back... Politicalano Stephen Lawson live in studio talking Georgia politics and reacting to yesterday's primary results. Hey, it's Mindy Kaling and you're listening to The Mark Aram Show. Happy 47th birthday. Former guest to the Mark Aram Show, Mindy Kaling. Mindy Project, comedian, writer. There's a rumor. First of all, when she was single and I was single, we had Fortune Feimster, the comedian in studio. I remember that, yeah. And I was like, hey, you know, let's make it happen. And it never happened. So she had a child, Mindy Kaling. And apparently, you watch the office, Debra, right? Yeah, I've watched the office. There's rumors that the dad is Ryan from the office. Like they were just... Oh, really? Yeah. Oh, okay. Apparently, they actually had an on-again, off-again romance. And they were seen together with their kids or Mindy's kids at Disney World. Recently. Recently. Okay. Yeah. So she's never, she's been really hush-shash about who. I mean, I don't blame her, right? She's allowed to have privacy. Could have been my kids. It could have been my kids. She's got a new TV show out. Does she? Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, happy birthday, Mindy Kaelen. Stephen Lawson, you're like, what are we talking about here? This is not politics. This is. I'm a huge office fan, so I love this conversation. It's such a great. Maybe she stalked Ryan long enough to have that kids. I mean, I'm a huge office fan. I didn't know they had a relationship outside of working. Stephen, good to see you, my friend. We're going to get to Georgia in just a second. But I'm a little freaked out about what happened in New York. For folks that don't know, candidates endorsed by President Trump won swooping victories in last night's primary ahead of elections. November. Trump-backed candidate's waiting for Maryland to Utah is also a big night for New York City mayor, Zohran Mamdani, as ABC's Phil Tight reports. In New York's 7th congressional district where Congresswoman and Medea Velas's seat was up for grabs. Brooklyn BP Antonio Ray Noseau fell short to Claire Valdez, a Democratic socialist and union organizer who picked up the endorsement of Zohran Mamdani. Here in the 10th congressional district, former city comptroller Brad Lander unseated representative Dan Goldman. was also endorsed by the mayor, while Goldman was endorsed by Democrats, including Governor Kathy Hochul. Now, New York City is going full on Democratic Socialist after Zohran Mamdani's victory. Goldman, and he got, Goldman was the sitting representative, he got smashed like 70 to 30. Is this just a New York City thing? Or is this the future of the Democratic Party that we're going to have Democratic Socialists being elected everywhere?

Yeah, look, this may be the canary in the coal mine for Democrats, right? This is clearly a growing wave. I think what you've seen with this is now that Democrats in Congress are going to double the number of socialists they have overnight because of the mayor of New York. I mean, this is really unprecedented what we're seeing in this rise in socialism in this country. You've seen it a little bit in Georgia. There are a couple Georgia House members. And it seems to be growing and picking up steam. And now I think they have a ringleader and a flag bearer in the mayor of New York City. It's a really scary time, I think, for our country to see the progressive left go full bent on socialism. You know, one of the quotes from the mayor last night was a year ago, it was not the end of a political movement. It was the beginning. This is clearly something that he is trying to spread and create and grow, not just potentially in New York City, but I think the mayor of New York is clearly positioning himself as a national leader, not just of this movement. but potentially of the Democrat Party. It's concerning for me in a number of reasons. First off, the absolute anti-Israeli sentiment from the three candidates that won yesterday, that freaks me out quite a bit. It also freaks me out, you know, I am a centrist, right? I'm scared by the extreme left and by the extreme right. I'm, I'm one of those. middle 60 kind of guy. So anything to the extremes makes me nervous. The fact that they just whitewashed, quote, establishment Democrats. And I would imagine Republicans are like, yeah, you know, screw their establishment. Be careful what you wish for. Like, do you want this to spread in the opposition party? I'm a little freaked out right now. Yeah, especially, you know, to your point, Mark, you know, the, the, uh, really this rise in anti-Semitism that we're seeing across the country. I don't think you can unlink these two things. There is this movement on the far left to really attack Israel and really undermine the Jewish people, and you're seeing that. And I think it's a dangerous time in our country. We cannot let that type of hate spread, whether it's, to your point, on the far right or the far left, we've got to call it out universally. we've got to be very vigilant standing with the Jewish community against these sorts of attacks. And really, it's very concerning to see this rise and this spread of socialism on the far left. And just to reiterate how big and shocking this is, the Zohran Mamdani-backed candidates defeated, candidates backed by both Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, right? The minority leaders in both the House and the Senate, they backed the other candidates, and they got whitewashed. Yeah, it's going to be really interesting to see, I think, Mayor Zohran Mamdani, you know, he's going to clearly use this as a growing platform, and he's clearly accumulating a lot of power in New York. And I think the interesting thing, does that give him more power in the city of New York? And then what does it do for his political future, especially when he's right next up to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, right? And they're sort of running in this same lane. That's going to be a really interesting dynamic to watch.

Well, after Zohran Mamdani, like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez seems moderate to me now. Which is scary. That's scary. Right. Especially what people have uncovered about Zohran Mamdani's wives and her social media posts in the back. I'm a little, I'm hoping this is just. a New York City thing, because I don't want extremes on either side. All right, let's bring it back down to Georgia, my friend. Special session, recap. What do the listeners need to know? Yeah, absolutely. So there are three big things that were on the docket heading into this special session that just concluded yesterday. The first was redistricting. This question about redistricting, are we going to redraw the maps? Essentially what House and Senate leadership said is, We're going to do this and we're going to look at this, but we're not going to rush it and we're not going to do it right now. The context of that is that there were many Republicans that feared that redrawing the lines now over summer. ahead of a November election would energize and galvanize the Democrats, particularly African Americans, which are the core of the Democrat base. You know, I think politically for Republicans, that was probably a smart move to hold off on that. Now, they may come back in November or December. That was my guess. Yeah. Let's just wait until after November and then we'll revisit this. Which I think is the smart thing to do. It also allows them to get input from, you know, a lot of people and get it right, which I think is really important. The second thing was before we go on to the second thing. How many seats could the Republicans gain in redistricting here in Georgia? In terms of congressional districts, they could pick up two potentially. I think that that's a real possibility. And then the state house, they could pick up, you know, anywhere between five or ten potentially. That was my guess. Yeah. And then the state Senate probably one to two. Okay. But the, you know, as much as, you know, what matters at the local level. And all the redistricting talk is about, you know, the 530, whatever that represent in the House of Representatives. So it would be likely a two-gain Republican seat during redistricting. But again, with these margins that we have, that's a big deal. That is a big deal. All right, going to second point of the special session. Yeah. Property tax discussion. We had a number of bills. Obviously, you'll remember, Mark, in the regular session, this was a flashpoint as well. You had House Republicans really wanting and pushing for cutting and capping property taxes. They were able to get a measure pass that capped the assessments from rising, but it was not as much as they wanted. They came back this special session and pushed for it again, basically allowing local governments on a one-to-one swap for a one... percent sales tax increase for a reduction in property taxes but it was the the vote was to let local let put a referendum on the ballot to let voters decide if they wanted that democrats in the house blocked it universally three times they considered it three times in the special session

I think that's really, really risky for Democrats in Georgia. We know that people are getting crushed right now by property taxes. You're seeing local governments either hold their millage rate the same or in some cases increasing as property values are rising. So there's a lot of people getting crushed by property taxes right now. I think it's a risky, risky bet for House Democrats to die on that hill. And we'll see if it costs them in November. I understand the logic in this is like, all right, homeowners, you know, giving them a break. Does that unfairly impact the renters in society, et cetera? But as we were talking about Brookhaven, sorry to bring up a sore subject, like I used to live in Post Brookhaven, 40% property tax increase in Brookhaven. I am just going on the assumption that the owners of Post Brookhaven, if that's still what it's called, they are going to have to pay more in... tax now, and that's going to increase rents. They are. And the thinking behind the sales tax is, okay, if you have your home, right, you can choose on a consumption level, on a sales tax, what you want to buy, what you want to spend money on. You don't have any control as a homeowner what you're being taxed at. If your taxes on your home keep going up. you know you have no control over that and so i think that was the thinking behind the sales tax for property tax swap i think most voters most homeowners would be totally fine with that but they're not going to get a chance because Democrats in the House blocked it. So we'll see if that kind of reemerges in November. What about paper ballots? What's the deal here? Yeah. So the third thing was elections. There was the legislature passed a measure that would, two years ago, to remove the QR code from our election ballots. Obviously, you know when you go vote, you get a printout and there's a QR code on top, and that's how those votes are being counted. But there was no funding to be able to remove that. So they had to come back this special session and essentially kick the date out from doing that. But what they also considered this special session is creating a framework, a legislative committee, to look at a new voting system entirely ahead of next year when we have a new secretary of state and a new governor. There's obviously been a number of questions with our current voting system that we have in place that we've had since 2019. And the thinking was the legislature is going to form a new committee to look at a new voting system ahead of next year. So theoretically, if everything goes according to plan, I could be misreading this. But when I go to vote in 2027, it's pen on paper, not the... digital thing that I've been used to? What the study committee is going to look at is a number of recommendations and possibilities ahead of that RFP for a new system. There's a number of routes they could go. There's a system called ballot on demand, which again, you get a blank ballot, you put it into the machine, you input your choices, and it prints out your selections. That's one way to do it. There's obviously a contingent on the far right that wants nothing but paperback handmark.

paper ballots. In theory, that sounds good. Logistically, it becomes a nightmare to count all of those shads. Millions of ballots. There is no other state in the country that does that on a statewide basis. And so I think what this committee will be doing is weighing all of those options, looking at some of the best solutions out there. Like a hybrid kind of solution. Potentially, yeah. There's a lot of things they could do, maybe some in early voting on one system and then election day on another. But this committee made up of members of the legislature will be making those recommendations. Dentons.com and soon to have a go fund me to pay his property tax. It's Stephen Law. Do you have World Cup tickets for Saturday? We went last. to the South Africa game. It was a phenomenal experience. All the fans, international folks were great. Marta was easy. It was a great time. But you don't have tickets for Saturday. I don't. Mike Shield said the cheapest to get in on Saturday, Deborah, $2,700 right now. That's why we went and saw South Africa. Deborah, during the break, Debra, is going to tell you about her divine intervention of how she got to go to the World Cup. Thanks, Steve. Always good to see you, my friend. Always a pleasure.

10.56 on the Mark Aram Show. Sorry, we went long with Stephen Lawson, but a lot of big political stuff there. Good stuff. Stephen Lawson, political analyst. You hear him every Wednesday here on the Mark Aram Show, 95-5. WSP. All right, news weather and trafficking 3. When we come back, very excited, Anna Bochino is going to join us live in studio. She is the voice actress that plays Mrs. Potato Head in Toy Story 5. She's got local connections. She's going to join us live in studio. Very excited about that. Still to come, we're going to check in with Bloomberg News, the very latest on President Trump, directing the Department of Justice to find out why gas prices are not falling as fast as oil prices are. And Deborah's got a pair of tickets to give away to see Journey. Coming up at 1137. So so much more to come. And we're going to sprinkle in our top local stories and any developments in the Marco Rubio Secretary of State visit heading to the Middle East. Social media active through the broadcast at Mark Aram and at WSP Radio. And if you've never checked out the live stream, do it now. So you can see Mrs. Potato Head live in studio. Just go to YouTube or WSBRadio.com and watch the live stream of the Mark Aram show here on 955. WSB.