Mississippi Happenings

You

Hey, hello, my name is David Oles and I'm the co-host for Mississippi Happenings.

Joining me each week is my friend Jim Newman.

Jim, how are you today and do you have a joke for us?

Hello David.

Yes, I got a joke for you.

Let's hear it.

This minister tells his congregation one Sunday, he says, you know, the church needs some
remodeling and redecoration and we're going to hang a chandelier.

And my gosh, created a big uproar in the church.

One lady stood up and said, no, we're not.

No one even...

knows how to spell it.

And the other one says, no, we're not going to do that.

No one even knows how to play it.

Finally, a third lady gets up and says, and by the way, what we really need is a little
more light in here.

you

Very good, very good.

Okay, well let me ask you this.

What do you call a polar bear in the jungle?

Hot.

Hmm.

no.

What was that, Ty?

You got me, I don't know.

You call him lost As as as we do each week in our podcast we want to talk about The
kitchen table issues that we face in Mississippi and right now it is crazy with the state

with the possible elimination of the state income tax public education and the elimination
of diversity equity and inclusion and in my

opinion, the opposite of DEI is segregation.

And I think that's where we're getting back to.

So we want to talk about those.

And the other thing we want to talk about is what the hell is going on in Washington.

It seems that every day our freedoms are being taken away by Donald Trump and Elon Musk.

And it's

crazy what's going on.

And also what we do when we discuss those issues, we try to offer solutions as well.

Today I want to introduce a very good friend of mine.

My guest today is Ty Pinkins.

He is the proud son of the Delta.

He attended Tugloog College.

He dropped out.

He was working as a waiter.

He was selling plasma to the local blood bank.

and because of financial hardships, he dropped out and enrolled in the military.

He served active duty for 21 years.

And Ty, we do appreciate your service to our country.

He earned his undergrad degree while in Japan and also received his law degree and a
master's in national security law in Georgetown.

He is seeking the Democratic nomination for Senate to replace Cindy Hyde Smith.

in 2026.

Ty, my friend, it's so good to see you and my wife says hello and she sends her regards.

Ty, great to have you with us.

Happy to be here with you David and Jim and thank you for having me on.

Let's start with what is going on in the state of Mississippi and the income tax.

I've read several articles today and one says it's a done deal.

And the other, it's what's, wait a minute, not so fast.

The Build Up Mississippi Act,

And this is what our Governor Reeve said about it.

Congratulations to the Mississippi Legislator on passing historic tax reform and
eliminating income tax.

And then he goes on to say congratulations.

You know, what a great day for Mississippi taxpayers.

Now, I'm quite concerned about this and looking at, you know, doing research on this.

It's my opinion that this is a plan that is only going to help the rich.

And I was there was a senior analyst, Deva Butkus,

and she's with the Institute of Taxation and Economic Policies.

She wrote in February that the move would benefit only the state's richest citizen.

She says the plan is so regressive, the wealthiest Mississippi households benefiting more
than three times as much the lower to moderate income families.

Ty, tell me what your thoughts about, let's talk about what,

Tell us your thoughts about this income tax.

Well, my biggest concern with the income tax is I think what it's in the back of
everybody's mind, whether that be someone working up in DeSoto County down on the coast in

Jackson or in the Delta, a teacher, a farmer, or a factory owner, or a business owner.

One thing that we all know is that Mississippi

is one of those states or the state that depends most on federal funds for our budget.

Over 40 % of our annual budget comes from the federal government.

And we see what's happening on a national level where they're cutting federal funding.

But at the same time, we have people like Governor Tate Reeves and Republicans in our
state legislature.

have decided to eliminate income tax in Mississippi.

My question is, who's gonna make up that shortfall?

How are we gonna make up that shortfall?

On whose back is that economic, budgetary shortfall going to rest?

And you will not already know the answers to that question.

It ain't gonna be on the wealthy.

They're not gonna pay somehow pay additional Taxes in order to to make up their budgetary
shortfall.

It's gonna be on low-income community members the poor They're gonna have to figure out a
way to make that up and they've already hinted at it increasing the gas the tax on gas

Other ways that they're gonna increase taxes me.

I'm what I'm looking at is property taxes.

We see what

happens in Texas.

Texas is a state that doesn't have state taxes.

Florida is also a state that does not have state taxes.

The one thing that those two states have in common is that they have high property taxes.

Is that something that Mississippi is about to see and have to deal with?

So my concern is how do we make up the budgetary shortfall when we already depend on the
federal government for 40 % of our annual budget?

Yeah, you're absolutely right.

It's going to fall on the poor people.

And the other thing, you know, we'll start talking about federal issues here in the state,
national issues here in a minute.

if you, if today, know, Trump or yesterday was Trump has, you know, started the process of
eliminating the Department of Education.

Go ahead.

Well, that only exacerbates the situation.

When you talk, we're talking about our state, our governor, our leaders deciding to
eliminate federal taxes and you handed out what the federal government is doing with the

Department of Education wanting to eliminate the Department of Education.

Well, income taxes is one of the most stable sources of revenue that a state can have.

one of the most, you know it's coming.

One reason you know it's coming because people don't have a choice but to pay it.

So states know that revenue is coming to support public education, to support healthcare
access in rural hospitals, to support infrastructure, our roads and our bridges and our

water systems, and to support our public safety and emergency response programs.

So what they're telling us is they have to figure out another way

to fund those essential systems that support society.

They have to figure out another way to support public education, especially given that on
the federal level, they're talking about dismantling the Department of Education.

have to figure out another way to support healthcare instead of drawing state taxes at the
same time that our leaders don't want to participate in Medicaid expansion.

They have to figure out another way to support infrastructure.

maintenance and also public safety.

I don't get it.

It's almost like they're burning the candle from two ends.

One, we're going to turn down money that the federal government sends us on one end of the
candle.

And two, we're going to shoot ourselves in the foot by eliminating our state taxes and
assume somehow, somehow assume that we can move ourselves from the back of the line to the

middle of the pack to winning a race economically in Mississippi.

David, it doesn't make sense.

It makes no sense at all.

I agree with you and I'm happy to say there's a lot of Democrats in Mississippi that agree
with you as well on the on the public education in this case.

This comes from Mississippi Today, the editor in chief Adam.

Getcha, you know he talks about, you know, educational standards are set by state leaders
are woefully low.

And he says, how low routinely Mississippians lucky enough to earn a high school diploma
are illiterate when they entered the workforce.

Schoolhouses are failing in and barely usable.

Hungry kids are, were too ill to return to class and special education programs.

And this can go back to the elimination of diversity, equity and inclusion, you know.

for our most vulnerable students literally do not exist.

Overlooked communities were wildly undereducated with fewer than half of the rural
Mississippi and fewer than half of black Mississippians holding high school diplomas.

And he goes on to say, the political power structure of the influence state curriculum.

One example of this, in America's blackest state, Mississippi, and the heart of the civil
rights movements, public school students were only taught one version of history, and that

is the white version of history.

So I really applaud Adam for writing this article.

And let's talk about that a minute.

It talks about the money that we're going to be losing.

Like you say, where does this money come from?

You know, where's it going to make it up?

And, you know, we've had the opportunity to talk to Nancy Lu with the Paris campaign.

We've had a chance to talk to Erica Jones with MAE.

then, you know, what money, what little money we have for public education.

seems to be funneled away from and going to school vouchers.

It's like, you know, my opinion, and this is me, the super majority in Jackson,
Mississippi, they want to keep Mississippians poor and uneducated.

And that's where we're at today.

That's my soapbox.

Well, look, one of the things that concern me is back to my earlier point, which directly
gets to your question, sales tax revenue is tied to consumer spending.

That is a fact.

when economic downturns happen, which is what many economists are estimating is going to
happen,

So in the near future, with tariffs coming from the federal government, consumer spending
goes down.

That means that when families are struggling most, the state's ability to help them could
be most limited.

And that, in my opinion, is going to shift the burden on these local governments, where
the state, because it now is not drawing these taxes from everyday Mississippians.

And in conjunction with the fact that I think that we're about to have an economic
downturn, potentially a recession, that pressure is going to be put on local governments,

counties and cities who will have to respond back.

And here's the circle.

We have to respond by increasing property taxes and cutting local services for everyday
community members who depend on them.

You depend on that hospital.

that's barely struggling to stay open and rule Rolling Fork Mississippi or Issaquena
County Mississippi or Greenville Mississippi, well guess what?

Because the state is not drawing income taxes, one, and because the state does not want to
participate in Medicaid expansion, two, and because the federal government is cutting

funding that they're sending to the states, three,

Local communities are going to struggle to get the resources that they need in order to
keep these hospitals and these services open and active for people to participate in.

And it goes all the way back again to what many of our leaders on the state level, these
decisions that they are making.

They are making decisions that I believe, not in the long term, I'm talking about in the
near term, that are going to cause Mississippians, everyday Mississippians, a lot of pain

that's unnecessary.

One of the things that neither one of you have mentioned that seems obvious to me is that
if they do away with the state tax, whether it's graduated or all at once.

the rural communities, it's gonna be a repeat of what we've seen all over the country.

like in the city of Jackson, where the tax base disappeared.

And the only people left the tax were those who could least afford it.

And that's going to happen as this loss of the income comes and local jurisdictions, local
counties have to raise their

taxes, will be the ad valorem taxes, which is on your house, your car, everything that
you've got.

And the counties that are rural that do not have the tax base are going to suffer big
time.

So what are the citizens going to do?

There will be, in my opinion,

A lot of them, I don't want to call it a mass migration, but there's going to be a
migration to the cities that have the money and the tax base.

and that may be good, but the bad part of it is those cities are not prepared for that.

If we in Tupelo had a 2,000 people move in or 3,000 people move in, you've got roads,
you've got schools, you've got the hospital, you've got so many things that the city would

be required to take.

to take care of the people.

We're not set up for that.

They're having the same problem in Europe with mass migration out of the Middle East.

They came in and the governments weren't set up for that big influx.

But the people in Mississippi, you know, if you want a good education, you're gonna go to
the areas that have good schools.

Mm-hmm.

And where are they going to be?

Going to be on the coast?

Going be in Madison?

They're going to be in North Mississippi?

In between, it may be a desert.

Look, there are three F's that I try, when people, like some of our leaders in Jackson
now, bring to mind for me, and I call them falsehoods, fantasies, what are Falsehoods,

fantasies, and fallacies.

There's a falsehood, a fallacy, and a fantasy that by that...

A lot of our Republican friends in Jackson think that by eliminating the state tax, that
they're going to draw this influx of people from outside of Mississippi into Mississippi

to flood the state with new residents and job creators.

I don't think that's the case.

That's a myth.

It's a myth that eliminating state taxes alone will cause a big migration of people or
businesses.

into the state because Mississippi already has one of the lowest costs of living in the
country.

Yet people aren't flocking to our state.

Big businesses aren't developing all over our state.

Even though we're the cheapest state to live in in the country, what actually draws people
in is a quality of life, good quality of life, good schools, strong healthcare systems,

and safe communities and infrastructure by eliminating the

Tax, I think you actually damage all of those things, good schools, strong healthcare,
communities and infrastructure and incentivize people to not relocate to Mississippi and

create jobs and businesses.

I think you're absolutely, absolutely correct on that.

Public education is so important to get companies to come here.

They have to have a good workforce.

And health care, and you brought up expanding, you know, because we do not accept federal
funds for, to expand health care.

don't,

We don't accept those funds.

And we have a sick workforce.

We have an unhealthy workforce.

Whereas that could help so many people remain in the job market longer and be more
productive and of course pay their state income tax.

Yeah, you bring up a good point when you talk about education system.

One, eliminating or eroding the Department of Education and the fact that in rural states
like Mississippi, we have a sick and uneducated workforce.

Those two things together, that is a national security issue.

That equals a national security crisis.

You can't have...

a strong military if you have uneducated and unhealthy people.

It's not possible.

It is a disaster.

And we're not even going to talk about what just happened with the nomination and
confirmation of Pete Hexf as the secretary of the Department of Defense.

I'm a, David, you know, I'm a veteran, years old.

And I don't want to get you, get us off, off, off course, but

That just, that just made me itch.

Do you know how many retired active and retired generals we have in this country trained
to lead our sons and daughters?

Train to lead our sons and daughters.

And we Americans who love our military.

love our service members.

We treasure our service members.

We sat there and we watched Roger Wicker, who is a veteran, chair of the Armed Services
Committee.

he the chair of the Armed Services Committee?

Yeah.

Chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Nominate, well, confirm someone like Pete Hexley.

who has almost no experience leading.

the size of an organization as Department of Defense.

Think about that.

Think about what just happened today.

Let me draw this stitch for you, which is why I think we have a national security crisis
on our hands right now.

Think about what just happened today.

What is this?

March 21st, 2025.

March 21st, 2025.

Pete Hicks after.

the Secretary of the Department of Defense invited Elon Musk to the Pentagon.

allegedly, according to some, to participate in a private briefing, a private briefing
containing national security secret information on China.

Right?

That's point one.

Let me stitch it together for you.

Elon Musk is in debt to China.

They loan him over a billion dollars to open a Tesla factory in China.

In China.

If that conflict of interest does not exist, not, is not visible, what is?

And we have people like Senator Wicker, and you haven't heard a word out of him.

People like Cindy Hyde-Smith, Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, you haven't heard a word out of
them with regard to the issues.

the conflict of issue that that represents for our national security.

The last thing I heard from Roger Wicker was, as the reporters were trying to get a
statement from him, was, I'm going to remain silent.

Well, that's acceptance.

If he's going to be silent about what's going on, that's acceptance.

He's OK with it.

If he's not going to speak out, yes.

And it's crazy.

That's.

If you, again, Senator Wicker, are the chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, that
screams military.

If you're the chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee and a person that has invested
in China, our greatest adversary on the planet, is literally walking through the Pentagon.

sitting in briefings, top secret briefings, and your response is, I'm going to remain
silent.

You're not doing your job, one, and you're capitulating to people who don't have our
country's best interests at hand, two, and three, you're not fit to represent the people

of the great state of Mississippi in the United States Senate.

And I know that your editorials are on your website, typhacids.com, where you talked about
Sidney Hyde Smith and also the betrayal of our troops.

Jim, you had something?

Yeah, was just gonna, for clarification's sake, there's a number of newspapers that say
that this was not a top secret type meeting.

And they also point out that Musk already has clearance through his SpaceX program.

So I'm not condoning it.

But I'm just trying to make sure that we...

Keep the record.

understandable.

And the fact that he already has a clearance, that's another problem.

That's an issue in itself.

Yeah.

There's so much going on, so much corruption in Washington that, everybody seems to, it's
okay.

you know, it's, they think all these wonderful things are happening.

He's doing this, this, and this.

But they don't understand, but people don't understand the effects.

What's gonna happen?

you know, when the Department of Education is gone, how's that going to affect
Mississippians and other small states?

Well, you know, I think right now on how these changes on the national level will affect
the state of Mississippi, I think for a lot of people, that's not what's bubbling to on

the top of the surface.

Right now, a lot of people are focused on the fact that our government is under attack
right now.

The three branches of government, co-equal branches of government are being tested.

Our constitution is being stressed, test, tested right now.

We have an executive branch that doesn't respect nor appreciate the legislative branch.

We have a legislative branch that has capitulated to the executive branch.

And we have a judicial branch that's hanging on by a thread as the last best hope.

a last guardrail against some of these things that are happening.

You have USAID, you know, for some strange reason we have leaders in Washington right now
that seem to not be able to put together or the idea or understand how much

USAID plays a role in our national security.

How much it plays a role in making sure that some of these countries that need help with
regard to feeding poor people in these countries, how that is a tool that we use to make

sure that sometimes we get quality intelligence from these countries.

Some of these countries are our allies because they can depend on us.

Again, back to China.

Yeah.

adversary.

When we pull our resources out of these countries, who do you think is going to say, you
know what, here, I'll help you out.

I'll help you out.

And so we're creating a power vacuum on the international level that the United States has
filled for nearly 80 years since World War II.

Somebody's going to fill that vacuum.

Okay, well let me just let me ask you two questions, Ty.

Why are you running?

Hmm.

And secondly, if you get elected.

What are you going to do?

Are you going to go up there and be...

Are you gonna go up there and join the club?

Or are you gonna go up there and make waves?

I'll answer your last question first.

Am I going to go up there and join the club or am I going to go up there and make waves?

The latter.

I think one of the biggest problems we have on a national level is too many people have
gone up and joined the club.

We have too many people who have, one, presented themselves to the people of Mississippi
and told them one thing.

but gone to Washington and done another thing, incapable of not toeing the political line,
even when their party does something that hurts Americans and Mississippi.

So why am I running?

I'm running because Mississippi, have to do something different on the federal level.

Our democracy is at risk right now.

It is.

We need leaders that are not afraid to make difficult decisions and allow those decisions
to matriculate, to marinate, and trust the people of Mississippi, trust Americans to make

a decision in the long term as opposed to short term gratification.

And I think we have leaders on the federal level right now

that are terrified of that.

They're terrified of allowing Mississippians to really to judge them.

And one of my approaches is to tell people if and when elected to be Mississippi's next
United States Senator, they can depend on me to do one thing, be honest with them, be

straight up with them and make decisions not based on

whether or not somebody likes me today, or whether or not based upon if it's going to help
me win election four or six years later, but make decisions based upon the information

that I have that many people may not have access to if I'm in that position, and thinking
that this is going to benefit Mississippians in the long term, and trusting Mississippians

to make their own decisions four or six years later.

And I think that's part of the problem.

We have people that aren't comfortable with doing that.

How did you feel about Senator Schumer agreeing with the continuing budget resolution when
he could have held it up and bargained and possibly shut the government down for a few

days, but gotten some goodies for the people?

I think, unfortunately, think Senator Truman fell into the same trap the Republicans have
been forcing Democrats to fall into for the longest, where Republicans break something,

right?

And then they go and say, well, it's broken now, and it has to be the Democrats' because
they didn't vote for what we put on the table.

That's like me baking a pie.

that has jello in it, cheese, tomato sauce, all kinds of crazy stuff in it.

And it ain't even cooked.

It's just a pie.

It ain't even been cooked.

And me putting it on a table and you tasting it and saying it tastes bad.

And I said, well, that's your fault.

You know what I mean?

So that's what Republicans do all the time.

unfortunately, I believe Senator Schumer fell into that trap of saying, well,

If the government shuts down, we don't want to be blamed and it's going to hurt so many
people.

Well, guess what?

They're already hurting people.

They're already firing people.

They're already closing federal agencies.

The Department of Education, USAID, firing thousands of people, veterans, everyday
Americans that have been serving in these organizations, people, Social Security

Administration, you name it.

The Trump administration and Republicans for the over the, for the last two months of this
administration have already been doing all of that stuff.

And they're telling us in project 2025 that they told us exactly what they were going to
do.

So my question is, what was his point in helping them to do what they're already doing?

Essentially what he just did was saying, you know what?

I'm going to help you find what it is that you want to do.

I'm going to vote to support this continuing resolution to help you do, to help you hurt
people, which is what I'm afraid of.

So I disagree with it.

I would have voted against it.

And my last point, my last point is this.

The American people voted in November.

They voted.

They gave Republicans

the executive branch, they gave them the house and the Senate.

They already had the Supreme Court.

So if Republicans want to drive this bus in the ditch, they own it.

They own it.

But they will never admit to that.

Go ahead.

Do you think the Democratic party nationally needs some new leadership?

Yes, I think we need new leadership.

One of the reasons I'm running is because I think one of the shortcomings with our form of
government, I love our democracy.

I love the United States of America.

But I think one of the shortcomings is that people are capable of serving for so long that
they outlive

the pace at which society is moving forward.

They out serve the pace at which society is moving forward.

They out serve the pace at which our economy is moving forward.

They out serve the pace at which everyday people are moving forward.

Not saying that people shouldn't be able to serve for a long time, but when you have today
18, 19 year olds, 20, 25,

30 year old, 35 year old, 40 year old people who are saying what the heck is going on with
my country?

I don't understand why are my elected officials not paying attention to me?

And those elected officials that are not paying attention to these people, this voting
group are 65, 78, sometimes 80 years old and have been in office for 30, 35 years.

We are disconnected.

And then you have

You have the Republican Party and back to your initial point, Jim, who puts forth a
continuing resolution that is clearly, clearly not made to benefit Mississippians and

Americans.

And the person who could have shut this thing down, Chuck Schumer, 70 something years old.

And this is not, I'm not trying to play the ageism game here, but this is just a fact.

Votes.

in accordance with a method of being a politician that existed decades ago and not with
regard to the situation that we're in today.

I think we have a disconnect and I think that's why younger people, a new generation of
people should run for office.

And that's one of the reasons why I'm running for office.

It's, or at least it seems clear to me, and I'm in that older generation, obviously.

I don't know about AI.

I don't know how to.

take care of computers.

And most of the people my age don't.

And I'm willing to bet that.

The legislators, senators, and congressmen that are over the age of 50, 55, don't have
that ability either.

So the younger generation, I'm willing to turn it over to them and let them see what they
can do.

The only thing we can provide with our age is a little bit of wisdom.

Mm-hmm.

sure as heck can't tell them how AI is going to do or how it works or what the next
generation of computers is going to look like or any of that kind of stuff.

It's the younger generation.

If I've got to go to the hospital and see a doctor, oh yeah, it's great to see a doctor
that's got gray hair and is 65, 70 years old.

But really, I'd rather have the guy that just got out of medical school five years ago and
is up to date on all the latest stuff.

And I think it only works, the gray hair thing only works when you get on an airplane.

I like to a gray haired pilot.

But other than that, it's...

I guess I'm saying I'm ready for term limits because I don't think we're going to get rid
of these people any time soon.

And the people we send up there, they just immediately join the club.

When Trent Kelly went up there, boy, one of the first things he did was join the
conservative caucus and been there ever since.

But I also like to remind people that Trent Kelly met with the Patriot group from
Mississippi on January the 6th, when during that insurrection, during that riot, he met

with him that morning.

Ty, you were gonna say something.

I was gonna tell Jim, look, we have some brilliant, capable, and knowledgeable elderly
community members that are serving.

now some absolutely brilliant, brilliant people that are doing a wonderful job.

What I'm saying is that those people with all of that knowledge, I'm not saying that they
shouldn't serve.

I'm saying that we need the younger people to step up.

Our form of government, our form of government says operates off of the fact of
participation.

People getting engaged and part of getting engaged is saying, well, you know what?

I don't agree with that policy from my senator or from my congressman who has been serving
for 25 years.

I'm going to challenge you.

I'm going to challenge you.

I'm going to run against you.

That's not a bad thing.

That's a beautiful thing.

That is beautiful.

It's not saying anything bad.

It's saying that we're abiding by a constitution that says get in the fight.

Challenge this challenge what's been going on for a long time because maybe it's not
working the same right now.

Maybe maybe it's what everyday Mississippians want.

They want to continue, but they won't have the option to choose if nobody gets in.

in the fight and challenges them.

And that's one of the reasons I'm running Jim and David because a lot of people say, well,
Ty, who are you?

A young boy from the Mississippi Delta.

You ain't got no money.

You ain't wealthy.

You never served in Congress.

You served in the military, but well.

But who are you to think that you can climb that mountain running against an incumbent
senator?

for the second time.

And my response is this, the Constitution not only says that I can do it, the Constitution
demands that we do it.

It demands that we get in these races and challenge these people who have been in office
for a long time and give the, give Mississippians and the American people an opportunity

to choose.

And at the end of the day, they'll say, hey, I like what you got to offer.

Go ahead on.

Or they'll say, you know what, I'm not buying that right now.

You go do something else.

And I think that's what makes our country so great.

One of the things that Bill Crawford brings out in his book, he talks about, of course,
Mississippi, and he talks about the need for a two-party system.

And right now, we don't have a two-party system.

Mississippi, it's all, and I don't even call it a Republican party anymore, it's the Trump
party, you know?

So it's Mississippi, it's the Trump.

super majority in Mississippi.

Mm-hmm.

But what we're seeing right now is the culmination of 40 years of work on Republican side
of the aisle.

It's absolutely necessary that we have a multi-party system, whether there be a two-party
system or a three-party system or whatever.

And you're right that that second party is slowly evaporating.

And I think it's 40 years of continuous work.

to convince, to misguide, to mislead people and force people to see someone who doesn't,
who may not necessarily agree with them as an other.

You have to be, simply because you don't agree with me, means that you are against me or
you don't like me.

And so I have to attack, and that's not how it should be.

I think, me personally, I'm hopeful I think that we can come back from this.

I really do.

But it's going to take participation.

And is it going to be easy?

No.

Is it going to be painful and is it going to be loud?

Yes, it is.

But that's our one of the things that we all know is our democracy, our form of
government, our politics has been loud since the 1770s, since its beginning has been loud.

One of the things that our forefathers and our founders taught us, Madison and Jefferson
and Washington, they taught us is that we have to participate.

We have to play.

You got to get in.

You got to ask the tough, you got to have the tough conversations.

You have to say the difficult things and have a debate about it.

And I think that's where we are.

We have to, at this point, unfortunately,

There are multitude of things that people have to do.

They have to protest.

First Amendment.

You have to rally.

Get together.

First Amendment.

You got to do podcasts like this and send it out to people so they can hear it and they
can say, you know what, guy, Ty Pinkins, he makes some sense.

Or somebody else can say, that bozo, no, I don't agree with that.

You know what I mean?

And David, that's okay.

That's why I love this country.

Because we can do that.

Let me ask you another question.

Let's assume that two or four years from now, the Democrats take over the House and the
presidency, and the Supreme Court is still there.

Would you be in favor of expanding the Supreme Court to create a majority that's different
than what presently exists?

I wouldn't want to expand it to create a majority that's different from what it exists.

I wouldn't want to expand it specifically for Democrats or Republicans.

But I do agree with expanding it though, because we are at a place right now where people
like Donald Trump and the Republican Party, that they have manipulated and done things in

a way to where without expansion, we don't get back to center.

We don't get back to a place where the Supreme Court can be respected like it used to be
respected or depended upon like it used to be depended upon.

For example, we saw where Merrick Garland, when he was, when President Obama wanted to put
him up for confirmation and Mitch McConnell squashed that for months, for months, which

resulted in a conservative Supreme Court justice.

being confirmed to Supreme Court.

The following year, Amy Coney Barrett was put up for confirmation in December between the
point in which the election took place and the inauguration date.

She was confirmed.

And so the actions that they took at that particular point in time, because Mitch
McConnell, even though he's getting ready to retire, he's caused a lot of damage.

a lot of damage.

Because they didn't follow norms, they created such an imbalance at the Supreme Court that
the American people now don't trust the court.

And I think the only way we get back to it is expanding the court, not to benefit
Democrats, not to benefit Republicans, but to benefit Americans.

And I think me, for me, a great number.

We have nine Supreme Court justices right now, six conservatives.

three liberal justices.

A great number for me would be 13 Supreme Court justices, 13 colonies, 13 Supreme Court
justices.

Add four more, figure out a way to get them incorporated on a rolling basis, not all four
at once, but maybe on a rolling basis, one every three years or every four years until we

get to that point.

But then, in addition to having 13 Supreme Court justices,

We have term limits for the Supreme Court as well.

They no longer become life terms, but maybe you stagger them.

You have 13 Supreme Court justices and stagger them one after, let them serve for the next
20 years, and then you say, you know what, one has to go, has to switch out each

presidential election cycle or something like that.

I don't know.

Some kind of calculation.

Would you be in favor of an age limit?

An age limit on Supreme Court justices?

Yes, sir.

I don't, with regard to an age limit, think, well, we don't vote for Supreme Court
justice, so that thought, I won't even say that.

That's something that I would have to think about with regard to an age limit.

don't think we've ever, when you say age limit, you mean an age at which Supreme Court
justices have to retire?

Is that what you said?

Yes.

I don't think that would be necessary because we would have under my thought process where
we had 13 Supreme Court justices and we said that after so many years, a Supreme Court

justice has to change because we have that part of the equation in there, the age limit
thing would take care of itself.

Either that person unfortunately may

pass away and we have to fill that spot or the person that has to change after, I don't
know, 19, 20 years, that person that's reached a specific age range is the one that

switches out.

So basically term limits for Supreme Court justice.

Yes, I think we should have term limits and we should expand the court to 13th Supreme
Court Justice.

not necessarily an age where they have to be retired.

No.

back to my first point, we have some brilliant, brilliant older community members who have
a whole lot of wisdom to offer us in these positions.

One of the things I want to go back just a little bit, we're talking about Elon Musk and
Dodge, D-O-G-E, in Mississippi, there was first gonna be 13 federal offices were gonna be

closed.

Well, now they dropped that to nine.

So in Mississippi.

You talking about Social Security, David?

No, we're talking about federal offices in Mississippi that are going to be closed.

One of them is the US Marshals Service in Oxford, Natural Resources Conservation Service
in Pearl, IRS in Oxford, EPA in Gulfport, Forest Service in Ackerman, National Wildlife

Service in Jackson, Natural Resources in Greenwood.

Internal IRS in Columbus and Food and Safety Inspection in Ridgeline.

So those are nine federal offices.

Is it going to be closed?

Jimmy, did you want to say something about Social Security?

No, I was just asking if you were talking about social security offices being closed.

There are, I'm glad you bring it up, are 27,000 federal employees in Mississippi.

27,000.

And their annual wages total over $2.3 billion.

over $2.3 billion.

And with these doge cuts and firing of people, again, we go back to what's going to be the
impact on Mississippi's annual budget, on Mississippi's finances.

One, we already have one of the highest unemployment rates.

We already have some counties with the highest rate of poverty.

Look at Sunflower County.

The poverty rate in Sunflower County at some point was, over the last year, couple of
years, was 39%.

compared to the state poverty rate or national poverty rate, which sits at 12%.

That's a 27 % gap in a county in Mississippi.

And so when you say that you're going to cut these federal jobs, when you're going to
remove that economic input into Mississippi in addition to eliminating taxes in

Mississippi, I think that's a recipe for disaster.

Kansas found it that way when they did away with their state income tax and went bankrupt.

So doesn't seem to work.

Well, no, it absolutely doesn't.

I was watching the governor from New York last night and she put it, she said something
that really caught my eye.

And she said the state of New York is a donor state.

And I didn't understand what she was talking about until I heard someone talking about
Mississippi later in the thing.

So New York is a donor state because they send a whole lot of tax dollars to the federal
government.

They send more in taxes to the federal government than they receive.

Kind of like California.

It's a donor state.

They send more money into the federal government than they get out of the federal
government.

Mississippi's on the opposite end of the spectrum.

We send, for every one dollar we send to the federal government, we're getting two to
three dollars back from the federal government.

Remember that the statistic, 40 % of Mississippi's annual budget comes from federal
dollars.

And so when, and she was making the point that these federal cuts, yes, they're going to
hurt states like New York, because New York, but it's not as much as they're going to hurt

states like Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama, West Virginia, are going to get
clobbered because they're donor states and we're recipient states.

Gotcha.

What do you think about the...

Go ahead, Jim.

Do you think that there is any waste or abuse?

Absolutely, absolutely in any organization there's there's waste there's abuse There's
people that that that do things that are fraudulent in the system that exists in any

business You can open a lawnmower business With five employees there's gonna be some waste
or abuse somewhere someone someone gonna steal a wrench that they shouldn't they shouldn't

take home because they want to fix something at their house somebody

Somebody is going to put enough oil in the lawnmower and it's going to tear up or
something.

There's waste and abuse all over the place.

But what you don't do, Jim, is you don't look at the federal government, the Department of
Education, Social Security Administration, the USAID, these institutions that have existed

for decades, for generations.

You've had Americans that have worked

in these institutions for the last 80, 100 years, working out the fraud, the waste, and
abuse.

100 % clean?

No, absolutely not.

But you have people that have created institutions that everyday Americans depend on.

So you don't take a sledgehammer to those institutions today and assume that you're not
going to hurt everyday Americans who depend on those

those things.

For instance, Elon Musk just, what, a week ago, two weeks ago, called a Social Security, a
Ponzi scheme.

Do you know how many people, how many people have invested in Social Security?

Unwillingly, because you don't have a choice.

You invest in a savings program so that you can

have some type of security when you turn 65, 66, 67 years old, and the irony in it all is
the person, one of the people, the richest man on the planet, who is benefiting from

billions of dollars in federal contracts, telling my grandmama, your granddaddy, you're,
you.

that you don't get the benefit from the money that you've invested in the system that's
paying his contract.

That doesn't make sense to me.

in an entitlement.

And that just, it's crazy what people call it in an entitlement.

It's my money.

I know he wants to privatize it.

That scares me, know, talking about privatizing it.

Are you in favor of it privatizing?

have an example of what that looks like.

Social Security used to be a well, well, well-funded system.

Our Social Security system at one point had a surplus.

Then we had people, elected officials, that thought it was a good idea to borrow from it.

They broke it.

The American people didn't break it.

The people who invested in Social Security did not break Social Security.

And so you're telling me and I have to shift myself in the chair because this gets me.

So you're telling me David, you're telling me that one, we're the richest country on the
planet.

Two, we can send a robot to Mars and communicate with that robot while it's millions of
miles away on a planet that we have never set foot on.

We can do that.

We can land a person on the moon.

We can have an international space station that orbits this planet, but we got people in
Washington DC that can't figure out how to take care of social security.

That's a problem.

That is an issue.

And so you, and it gets me animated because once again, they're taking the easy way out.

Our elected officials are taking the easy way out.

And the easy way out is to blame people who have invested in the system and call them,
call the system a Ponzi scheme and to assume that everyday Americans, elderly community

members, people who have deposited their money

trusting the federal government, no, they're telling them you're the people that did
something wrong, therefore we need to fix this on your back.

No, no, how about making sure that the wealthy pay their fair share?

What is so hard about that?

I don't understand.

I don't understand how we have elected officials, congressmen and senators sitting in
Washington DC, and they are terrified to say these three words.

The wealthy, the wealthiest 1 % need to pay their fair share in order to help fix the
social security system, help fix our tax system.

And let me calm down, See you did, See, Jim, you got me all hot and bothered over here.

Well, let me ask you maybe a little easier, tone it down maybe a little bit, maybe not.

Why is it we have to have elections on Tuesdays?

Why can we not, like most of the world, have our elections on Saturdays and Sundays so
that there's two days or even three days?

Why can't we do that?

What's so difficult about...

it national holiday.

See now, don't both of those questions.

See now y'all want to get me in trouble here.

Why, why, why, why do we have that?

Absolutely.

And Jim, that's the problem.

It's what the people want.

People want to have elections at a point in time where most of the people can participate,
where you don't have a school teacher that has to work on a Tuesday because it's not a

federal holiday.

So a school teacher, one has to wake up, go to school, teach our kids eight hours a day,
figure out how to get off, rush to the polling place and vote on a Tuesday or a person

that's working at a factory or a person that's working at the grocery store or a waitress
that's struggling to serve us food.

problem is for, I think Jim is, there he is.

The problem is I think that for some,

in office and in power.

Making election day take place on a weekend gives too many people access to the ballot.

Too many people get to come and vote.

The people's voice really get heard at that point.

There are people who are afraid of that.

They're afraid of that single mother who's struggling to take care of her child and
working two jobs.

to have time to go to the polling place on a Saturday and really voice her opinion, to say
what she wants.

They're worried about that waitress who is working five days a week at the local diner to
be able to go on a Sunday morning and vote so she can tell you what she really, really

feels.

They're terrified about that farmer or that farm worker.

who was just trying to feed his family.

And David, I agree with you.

I think Election Day should be a federal holiday.

In fact, I'll give you another radical one.

I think Election Day and Veterans Day should be combined.

I think Veterans Day and Election Day should be combined.

Veterans have fought and died on foreign soil so that we

have the right to vote.

And I think having something like that would one, it would be just a national love or
whatever.

I can't come up with the right question.

But I think at the least it should be a federal holiday, at the least.

agree with you there.

And I like your reasoning behind it as well.

Yeah, there you go.

Jim?

I think he's muted.

Yeah Jim, think you got muted somehow.

got muted.

But no, I really, I think we need to make sure that as many people as possible have access
to the ballot box.

And there are some who, that frightens some people, some elected leaders.

And having an election day like that, it's for everyone.

It's not just for Democrats.

It's not just for Republicans.

It's for everybody.

Absolutely.

Everybody feels included.

our march to the polls, to the ballot box, should be our proudest moment as Americans.

It should be our proudest moment every two years or for congressional elections, for
midterm elections, or every four years for presidential elections, or for local elections,

for municipal elections.

Whatever it is, our march to that ballot box should be our proudest moment as Americans
and our leaders should make that as accessible as they can.

Did you know there are states right now that vote 100 % online?

We can't even register to vote online in Mississippi.

We can't even register to vote online.

We got states that are voting online.

And I just think it could be so much more convenient for everyday Mississippians if we had
people in office that are not afraid, and this one might get me in trouble, and I know Jim

might have a follow-up question from this one.

We have to have people in Washington that are not afraid to step out of line.

They are not afraid to step out of line.

And that's why I call myself proudly an independently minded Democrat.

Independently minded Democrat.

What does that mean?

That means that if and when I were to win an election and go to Washington DC to represent
the people of the great state of Mississippi and the opposing party puts forth a policy

that benefits everyday Mississippians and the party that I'm a part of tells me you need
to get on a team and you need to stand in line you need to toe the line well I'm sorry

there are going to be some people that are upset with me because that's not why
Mississippians sent me to Washington they sent me to vote on their behalf even if the

other party puts forth a policy that benefits them

For me, it's not about toeing the line.

We're going to toe the line and we're going to save our powder.

No.

No.

If the opposing party puts forth a policy that benefits Mississippians to make sure that
more Mississippians have access to quality, affordable healthcare, guess what?

Tyrone's responsibility is to vote in favor of that policy and have enough courage to
stand in front of Mississippians

and explain to them why I did it.

Or explain to them why I didn't vote a certain way.

We have people in Washington DC now who don't have enough intellectual courage to come
back and say to Mississippians, here's the bill that got put forward.

And here's the point in the bill that forced me to vote on your behalf.

Now here's the bad thing, here's the poison pill that was there.

mississippi here's the poison pill this is the bad part of that bill and i had to make a
choice on your behalf so here to the good thing in the bad thing this is why i voted for

it this is why i voted against it and at the end of the day and this is the most important
part let mississippians go to the polls in four years and tell you whether they agree with

you or not

Fantastic.

That's great.

That's good.

We love that.

But David, look, man, y'all got me all excited over here.

I love this show.

I love the show.

I do, I do.

Ty, this has been great, it's good to see you again.

And I love that passion.

I love that animation that you have.

we're brothers on that.

We are, because I do it too.

And Jim has to calm me down a little bit.

I get on my soapbox.

But it's time, you know, we've got to get excited in order to get other people excited, to
get people to the PO, to get people to look at the issues.

And in Mississippi, I cannot understand, and Jim will agree with me, the poor people, the
underemployed people continue to vote against their best interests.

And that shocks me.

So I do want to tell everyone to go to learn more about

Ty Pinkins, go to typinkins.com.

Also, if you've got any questions or comments about Mississippi Happenings, you could
reach us at mississippihappenings1 at gmail.com.

That's mshappenings, the number one at gmail.com.

Ty, once again, it was great seeing you.

Jim, good to see you.

I think you had some technical difficulties.

David, can I make a quick announcement?

So first of all, thank you both for having me on.

Thank you for the wonderful, tough questions.

I really, really appreciate it.

Jim, my friend, David, I appreciate you.

Thanks for letting me spend the night at your house.

I appreciate you.

And look, we got to get loud and we got to get fast.

On April 5th, there will be a rally at the Mississippi State Capitol in Jackson.

in defense of democracy and on May 24th, Memorial Day weekend, there will be a veterans
defending democracy rally at the state capitol.

We got to stand up for our democracy, we got to fight for our democracy and again you can
learn more about me and my campaign at typenguin.com, T-Y-P-E-S and Paul, I-N-K-I-N-S dot

com.

Thank you guys, I really appreciate you.

We appreciate you.

Jim, did you have something?

Are you good?

I'm good.

All right, sounds good.

All right, guys, this has been fun.

Thank you so much.

And we do want to thank our subscribers and we do want to thank our sponsors as well.