February 19, 2026 • 35 mins
Today, Doug Pike interviews Dr. John Higgins about National Heart Month.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Remember when it was impossible to misplace the TV remote
because you were the TV remote. Remember when music sounded
like this, Remember when social media was truly social?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Hey John, how's it going today? Well, this show is
all about you one. This is fifty plus with Doug Pike.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Helpful information on your finances, good health, and what to
do for fun. Fifty plus brought to you by the
UT Health Houston Institute on Aging, Informed Decisions for a healthier,
happier life.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
And now fifty plus with Doug Pike.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
All right, let me get this microphone down here where
it belongs. Welcome aboard fifty plus. Train rolls out of
the station right now. I'm gonna run around in a
big old circle till we get almost one o'clock and
then cash out after that Groundhog Day, Really this week anyway,
since this morning looked very much like the past several mornings,
and except that this afternoon is going to be on
(01:09):
the warmer than usual side for the end of February.
Good heavens, good heavens, eighty something degrees in February. That's
that's not unexpected if you've lived here a long time,
but you kind of wish it would go back to
a little bit cooler, and that's what we're gonna get.
There may be some scattered showers this evening.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
In nature.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
If you're listening, feel free to scatter some showers onto
my yard. That would be fine today though otherwise very uneventful.
And then tomorrow, actually I think it is we catch
a little cool front, not a cold front, but a
cool front, drop into the sixties for highs for a
few days and forties overnight. That will be quite welcome
(01:55):
for me anyway. From the marketplace roller coach. As you
just heard in that Fox report, the Dow is quite
down several hundred points, and I'm betting it's red across
the board. I wouldn't. I don't have time to go
back and look right now. But for some reason, well
I think a lot of it has to do with
(02:16):
what's going on with a run right now, and they're
flexing and posturing and threatening our military forces. They closed
the Straits of Hormuz. I talked about that yesterday. That
carries about a third of the nation's oil back and
forth or the world's oil back and forth every day,
and they said they were doing it for naval live
(02:41):
fire drills. I say, they were doing it just to
see how far they can push, and if they poked
the golden haired bear once too often, it probably won't
work out well for him. In any event, oil up
a couple of bucks, probably for the same reasons.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
It was close to sixty six.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Dollars a barrel the last time I looked, and gold
sitting comfortably north of five thousand dollars. Again. It would
take a big drop to take it down below five
thousand a day, I think. Moving into the news, the
University of Houston moving forward toward compliance with state bathroom
laws now and is reverting campus restrooms to designations either
(03:21):
as men's or women's facilities. Some students and I'm sure
some faculty members received that news with ruffled feathers, having
enjoyed I don't know, whatever you'd call it, other accommodations recently.
Her feelings don't change the law, though. And here's the deal.
(03:42):
If I had a daughter, I wouldn't want men using
the same restroom as she, And if that daughter was
an athlete, I wouldn't want men walking around naked in
the women's bathroom in locker rooms. That just it tends
not to be healthy for whomever is subjected to that,
(04:05):
and there's a a lot of study of that. I
just no, I don't want men in women's restrooms anymore
than I want to have to go into the ladies
room to use that at some point.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
From the Stranger, how much do you?
Speaker 3 (04:18):
I have two minutes? Okay? Good? From the Stranger Danger
Desk comes word by way of click to Houston that
a seventy year old guy in Fort ben County tried
to coax a young girl into his truck while she
walked one recent morning to her bus stop, the same
walk she's made every morning, probably and this time this
(04:42):
one I'm sure scarred her pretty badly. He didn't manage
to take her. That's the good news. I hate having
to even talk about stuff like this, I really do.
But it's still happening. There are still creeps walking and
living among us who would prey on children, and I doubt,
especially the way our courts are working in recent past,
(05:06):
I doubt that anything's gonna magically happen to make sexual
deviance and pedophiles go away. They're here. The difference only
in recent times is that when they've been caught and arrested.
I'm guessing, but I'm pretty confident with this guest that
a lot of them either get a slap on the
(05:27):
wrist or maybe probation, or maybe they might have to
be confined to home for a little while. I don't
think they. I don't think they spend that much time
in jail or prison honestly anymore. One more, by the way,
and now former school custodian in West Virginia faces more
than two dozen charges after being caught hiding in a
(05:48):
closet where Hu in the girls' locker room. If he'd
had jumped out of there and said I identify as
a woman, they'd have been in trouble, wouldn't They wouldn't
have known which way to turn. That very interesting. Also
from Clique to Houston and sticking with schools, last night,
the Magnolia School District voted to reinstate prayer time into
(06:09):
every school in its district. I don't believe that means
every student has to participate. I don't believe it means
that every student has to say the same prayer. It
just means the kids are going to have time to
worship each day if they choose to do that, or
they can sit quietly or doodle or whatever they want
(06:29):
to do. But just a little bit of time for
the kids who are being raised into whatever faith they're
being raised into them, let them soak up a little
of that every day. I think that's a good thing.
I really do, I really do. All right, will are
we close to the break time? I'm guessing one minute?
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Oh? I found I found.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
This little I used to have access to a site
that offered up little bits and pieces, little short chunks
of nothingness, and true to form, I've got I've gained
access again to it, and this one.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
I already asked two.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
People in the office, two of the women in the office,
to guess how long the longest the longest wedding veil,
wedding dress veil. Well, I guess it's a wedding veil,
not a dress veil gets the length of the world record,
(07:30):
And I guarantee it not a one of you, unless
you already know, is gonna get it right. The two
of them, I think guests ten feet and twelve feet
something like that. The record is just one of these
absolutely useless world records. I've talked about before. The record
longest wedding veil twenty three thousand, feet twenty three thousand
(07:54):
feet more than four miles for what reason, I'll never know.
All right, take a little break here on the way out,
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(09:00):
really can. Eight three to two nine three nine nine
three three zero eight three two nine three nine nine
three three zero.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Hell, they sure don't make them like they used to.
That's why every few months we wash him, check his fluids,
and spring on a fresh cod o wax. This is
fifty plus with Doug Pike.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
I remember this song very very well. It gets a
little bit more complicated than that down the road. Very
good song. Thank you will welcome back to fifty plus.
Thanks for listening. I certainly do appreciate it, you know
I do. As always, in this segment, we're gonna acknowledge
National Heart Month by bringing back into the show my
favorite cardiologist, doctor John Higgins from McGovern Medical School, Marathon runner,
(09:45):
official cardiologists for the Houston Rockets and Rice Athletics and
all around good guy.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Welcome back, Doc.
Speaker 4 (09:51):
Hey, Doug, welcome, Thank you for welcoming me in Happy,
Happy Heart Months for February.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
As long as it keeps ticking, I'll be happy as
a man.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
So we're Yeah, we're three weeks into National Heart Month,
and as much as I wish heart disease was in decline,
my gut says it's still a really major threat to Americans.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Is that correct?
Speaker 4 (10:13):
Absolutely? Doug. Number one of course of death, both nationally
and also in Texas, and just a couple of years
ago in Texas twenty twenty three. The data we have
fifth over fifty thousand deaths in our state from heart
disease in one year. So it's a very high number,
(10:34):
you know, one in you know, one in four or more.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
And didn't I say that that there are like one
point two million Texans that have some sort.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
Of heart disease exactly, Doug. You know we're talking about
you know, heart failures, Carni artery disease, as well as
a you know, a rhythmia's irregular heartbeats. I mean, lots
and lots probably. I mean, I'd be surprised if you
didn't you know, someone listening didn't know someone or have
(11:03):
heart disease themselves.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Yeah, and my question to you is how many people
have it and don't even realize it?
Speaker 4 (11:10):
Yeah, well that's the big one, Doug.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (11:12):
You know, certainly risk factors for heart disease like high
blood pressure. You know a lot of people are walking
around there, Doug with high blood pressure, don't know it
or you know, don't really want to worry about it.
And this is what you know, keeps us up at night, Doug,
because we've got a lot of people out there who
are on the on the fast train to having a
(11:34):
you know, a heart attackle stroke and they don't even
know it, you know, and we want to we want
to put them on the slow train, I hope.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
So gush. Yeah, I saw that about high blood pressure
leading being a leading cause of heart problems. How does
elevated pressure impact the heart? I guess just harder work
for the heart maybe, yeah.
Speaker 4 (11:52):
Absolutely, Doug. You know, the heart has to work harder.
So when the heart works harder, that means that the
must in the heart gets thicker and stiffer, which is
not good, you know, and that increases the rates of
heart failure. It also, when it's working harder and the
blood is kind of flowing faster, it actually tears up
(12:13):
kind of the walls of the arteries more, so they're
going to get more plaque build up and unstable plaque
small blood vessel disease. And then finally it also, high
blood pressure is a direct increase to aphib you know,
the regular heartbeat and kidney disease, and both of them
(12:33):
are related to increased strokes. So we got the trifecta.
You know, heart failure, cornery disease is stroke just with
blood pressure.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
If one doesn't get you, the other two mite. Oh
my gosh, that's right, that's pretty rough. I in recognition
of the world in which we live now too, Doc
talk about the importance of managing everyday stress to keep
your heart healthy.
Speaker 4 (12:59):
Absolutely, Doug. So we know that stress has pretty much
a direct effect on all of the risk factors for
heart disease and more. You know, this can stress with
the increased kind of sympathetic you know, the fight or
flight that can directly increase heart rate and blood pressure
(13:21):
and cause blood vessels to kind of clamp down. It also,
stress can result in increased levels of stress hormones like cortisol,
which we know is leads to you getting fat or
quicker in terms of getting abest and gaining weight and
insulin resistance. We know that stress also increases inflammation and
(13:46):
that can have effects on increasing your chance of getting
a blood clawed as well as strokes. And then it
can trigger various attacks from strokes, heart attacks and the
irregular heartbeats. And finally they're the direct effects, but they're
finally the indirect effects of stress. You know, people who
are stressed out, they don't exercise as much. Their diet
(14:09):
is bad, you know, they tend to eat more junk stuff.
They tend to smoke and drink at higher levels than
other people, and they sleep worse. So both direct and
indirect effects of stress are not good for the heart.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Talk if you would, doctor John Higgins on fifty plus here,
talk if you would for a minute about what we
can do. And I know the answers because I've heard
them from you before, but there's got to be somebody
listening today who hasn't What should we be doing to
steer clear of heart issues?
Speaker 4 (14:40):
Well, what we need to do, first of all, Doug,
is we need a thorough evaluation of ourselves, you know,
so we need to know do you know what's our cholesterol,
what's our blood pressure? So if you haven't you know
already this year, you know in the past year, schedule
an appointment with your primary position and get all of
your you know, risk factors and everything checked out. Obviously,
(15:02):
you know if you're overweight, and you know that if
you're overweight or not, you've got to try to cut
back on the unhealthy high weight foods as well as
exercise more. We like the Dash diet, the Mediterranean diet,
you know, lower sodium, high potassium type diets. And then
couple that doug with increasing your exercise, whether that be
(15:25):
both aerobic and resistance training, you know, and we should
be doing something, you know, to get a little bit
of a sweat and get the heart rate up most days.
Limit your alcohol, you know, one to two drinks per day.
Prioritize sleep if you've got if you're a bad snorer,
and you know the room now because the loud snorer,
(15:48):
that might mean that you've got sleep apnea, which again
that will play into all of those risk factors you know,
make your blood pressure worse all the rest. And then
finally if do if doing those healthy things, hopefully that
will take care of business. But if it doesn't, then
you know, it might be time to start a particular medicine,
whether it be for your blood pressure, your cholesterol, diabetes,
(16:12):
et cetera. So we prefer the natural approach if we can,
but at some point that may not cut it and
we might have to go to some medicines to help
reduce your risk.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
Oh boy, we're down to less than a minute. Okay,
So what I want to know is what feeling? What
sensation would somebody feel? We got to skip over the
kind of maybe not so bad stuff but if there's
one thing that they feel that should take them to
the er, what.
Speaker 4 (16:39):
Is it, I would say, Doug, that they're really really
out of breath or they're having you know, some sort
of chest discomfort, you know, breathing difficulty or pain in
the chest. Get to the ED, especially if it doesn't
get better real quick, yeah, real.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Quick, meaning like just a minute or so exactly.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
And of course, you know, if it didn't occur just
after you have the you know, thet you know, the
fiery pizza, all right, you know, uh do the basic
things and went in doubt. Let us check you out, Yes.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
Sir, thank you very much, doctor John Higgins. Always my pleasure, sir,
you here all right, We got to take a little
break on the way out the Institute on Aging ut
Health's Institute on Aging specifically, there are but a handful
of them around the entire country. So if you go
looking for one around here, that's the one you're gonna find.
(17:38):
That's the one that was started more than a decade
ago now, and for whom I've been speaking for which
I've been speaking for just about as long. This is
a group of providers of a tremendous collaborative thousands of
providers who have gotten additional training, additional time spent learning
on how to apply their medical knowledge specifically to us.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
We are seniors.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
We are different from juniors, if I may, and that
requires different attention to different things in different ways that
our body reacts to medications, reacts to exercise, all of
these things.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
It's important that you're.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Talking about your health with someone who understands that you're
a little bit different than that young guy that or
young girl that this doctor just saw. Take advantage of that.
Most of them are in the med center most of
their time. That should be taken for granted because that's
the epicenter of medicine in the southwestern United States. But
they also work in outlying clinics and hospitals and office
(18:41):
buildings wherever, just pretty much in any small town around here,
Katie Kingwood, pair Land, all of them Sugarland where I am.
A lot of those providers come out there on a
regular basis. Find what you want at the website, go
explore the resources. It's going to take you some time.
Once you get in there, you go down a rabbit
(19:01):
hole and be looking at that site half an hour,
thirty minutes, forty minutes an hour later, uth dot edu
slash aging. Once you've had your fill of all those resources,
you're gonna be happy you found. Then start your search
for a provider if you need one who can help
you with specific attention to you as a senior who's
a part of that UT Health Institute on aging uth
(19:25):
dot edu slash aging, uth dot edu slash aging.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
What's life without a NET? I suggest you go to
bed and sleep it off. Just wait until the show's over. Sleepy.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
Back to Dougpike as fifty plus continues.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
Fifty plus on this I'm pretty dog on nice day.
We don't have windows in here, as I've talked about before,
but I do. I do have one right next to
my desk, and I'm I get a nice view of
some town homes now I guess you'd call them, and
a couple of power lines, and and then in the
far far distance downtown Houston facing east, I am over
(20:05):
by the Galleria. The more I look and listen I
wanted to talk about this a little bit, the more
I come to realize that politics over the past twelve,
I don't know, fifteen twenty years has become a series
of fairly well orchestrated and divisive distractions for Americans, and
with persistent help from media, we've gotten ourselves caught up
(20:26):
in a pretty dangerous and volatile infighting kind of a pattern.
This kept us from watching what's happening in real time
to our country. And that's the undeniable fact that foreign
powers have entrenched themselves on our own soil. They're not
wearing uniforms, they're not carrying weapons. They're disguising themselves as Americans,
(20:48):
convincing us in different ways that they want to be
Americans when they really don't. Instead, they want to defraud
our federal government, which they got really really good at
doing up in Minnesota, in case nobody's been watching, to
the tune of billions and billions of dollars that you
and I paid these people to not do what they
(21:08):
said they needed the money to do. They presented themselves
as being noble and wanting to take care of the
impoverished people, the disabled people, anybody who was hungry, anybody
who had special needs. They were going to just take
our money and go help those people, and the only
people they helped were themselves. Just it's horrible, it's fraud
(21:32):
on just staggering scale, billions of dollars, and not in
a very long time either. They want us to accommodate
their cultural demands. In essence, they want us to stop
being American so that they can reconfigure towns and cities
and I guess eventually states to replicate the mud holes
they fled to take advantage of our resources. Think back
(21:55):
to the lines of people we used to see on
television who migrated here during the Biden mistration. Okay, a
lot of them, a lot of them brought their families
in hopes of finding a better life. They were still
illegal entry, but with good intention, which I do think
might count for something. There were some whose motives, though.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
Were.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
Just flat out illegal. They include millions of young men
traveling alone, coming here because just maybe they were ordered
to come here, maybe they volunteered to come here and
slowly disrupt our lives and ultimately just let us defeat ourselves.
We wake up, we find foreign powers and foreign powers
(22:41):
in high levels of government, people like Mondani, like Omar,
like Klay, and other people who are being elected at
lower levels of politics and onto school boards, city commissions,
and just one little step by another, changing changing what
America looks like and not for the better, I might add,
(23:03):
by the way, count on the upcoming State of the
Union address to be littered with attempts by the left
to disrupt President Trump. Some some of them have already
talked about walking out during the speech. Others say they
may bring guests meant to showcase policy disagreements. I would
presume they're going to try and bring some immigrants into
(23:27):
the chamber. I don't know what they intend to prove
by doing stuff like this. They've just turned our government
into a three ring circus and they're the clowns. Worst
ever display of disrespect ever, I think for a State
of the Union speech goes to drum roll. Please Nancy Pelosi,
(23:49):
who after President Trump's twenty twenty State of the Union address,
stood up and ripped up her copy of his speech,
the one in which he honored some very honorable people
that the left totally ignored. And from what I read
this morning, they intend to up the ante on disrespect
(24:11):
and just push all in on making fools of themselves.
And by the way, that you know, these theatrics of
theirs used to work on a fair number of Americans.
That's how they stayed in office, they could convince enough
people who didn't know any better that they were telling
the truth and it was the Right that was lying
(24:33):
when it really wasn't and they knew it. And now
Americans are getting the real story because we have people
who really investigate these things doing that, and they're seeing
just how disconnected that party is. That the traditional Democrat
party died years ago. It absolutely died years ago, and
(24:54):
this is it's been replaced with a bunch of fanatics
and crackpots and very potentially dangerous people to this country.
I'll talk about that a little bit in the final
segment on the way out here. I've got just a second. Oh,
I thought this was pretty interesting. All of the parking
spots in America covered the size of land that is
(25:18):
occupied by West Virginia. By West Virginia, all of the
parking spots in America add up to of space the
size of West Virginia. By the way, speaking of parking,
I went to the GRB yesterday to go to the
fishing show which is in town through the weekend.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
I parked.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
I found a spot on that perimeter street around the
little park down there, and so I pull into it.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
I get out.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
I go to pay for parking, I couldn't. That meter's broken.
The other meter's broken. I had to use the garage
where I was fleeced for thirty five bucks to park
my car for a couple of hours. Okay, I'll calm
down now. Cedar Cove Arvey Resort over there in down
Tri Citybeach Road, near Thompson's Bake Camp and right on
(26:04):
Galveston Bay. All the amenities you could want in a
place that's absolutely gorgeous to park your RV for a night,
a week, a month, whatever. Cedar Cove's got water and
sewer hookups at every site. They've got free Wi Fi
and a bathhouse. Concrete roads and slabs everywhere, so there's
no dust swirling around at all as people move in
(26:25):
and out of there. And also, like I've mentioned before,
it's a pretty dog one good fishing. I would highly
recommend going across the street to Thompson's Bake Camp and
getting yourself some live shrimp. If you've got a bucket
and a little aer rator. There's a pretty good chance
if you sat out there a full morning or a
full afternoon, or maybe just through the day, you'd get
(26:45):
at least one and maybe two. Keep a redfish plus
other fish that were swimming through. You'd have yourself a
nice little dinner. Cedar Cove Rvresort dot com is the website.
If you don't have an RV, Alan Nancy Kibby are
happy to rent you one that accommodates four people very well.
Get on the website, grab their phone number, give them
a call. Tell them I said, hello, Cedar Cove Rvresort
(27:07):
dot com.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
Old guy's rule. And of course women never get old.
If you want to avoid sleeping on the couch.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
Hello, I think that sounds like a good plan. Fifty
plus continues. Here's more with Doug we Go.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
Last segment of the program starts right now. Thank you
all for listening, and I hope you enjoyed my conversation
with doctor John Higgins a little while ago, cardiologist to
the Rockets and to Rice University athletics and just an
all around super great guy. Going back to a little
bit of semi political stuff, I guess let's go to
(27:45):
New York City, where mom Donnie hasn't been in office
two months. He's already nearly destroyed the city his free
grocery stores by the way. I saw a photo this morning.
I saw a photograph of one those one of his
free grocery stores. It's smaller then, and it's nicely appointed.
(28:06):
It looks really it's slick. It's brand new. It hadn't
gotten a chance to get torn up and beat up
yet from people running in there and stealing stuff. Well,
if it's free, I guess it doesn't matter, but there's
supposed to be limits. In any event, it is smaller
than the flower department at Kroger's. That's his free grocery store.
He plans on one per borough. Now, there's a lot
(28:31):
of money behind these these free stores. It's coming from
some of those online they're not they can't. They don't
call them gambling sites. It places where it well, it's Kalshi,
and I think there's another one. I can't remember what
it's called. In any event, they are operating within the law,
and more power to them, and they're helping out with
these free groceries in New York. But from what I saw,
(28:57):
there's nothing in there that would really make up a
good meal. I saw some organic chips, I saw several oils,
and it's all nice and neatly aligned It's clearly that
was a staged photograph, There's no question about it. And meanwhile,
outside one of those stores that was about to reopen
(29:17):
or about to open for the first time, the line
got to be several hundred people who needed to get
into one of these free food stores. How he's gonna
pay for that long term? Now the short term. He's
got these donations from these sites, and I'm sure other
do gooders, but once they get tired of funding it, thenwear,
(29:40):
thenwear okay, And you know what, maybe if the mayor
up there would eat only food he gets at the
free store after he and his entourage stand in the
cold for a few hours. Maybe no, never mind, he'd
never do that. But hey, make communism yay, you voted
for it in New York City, and get ready for it.
(30:02):
There's all kinds of problems he is, he is lining,
he's surrounding himself with staff who look exactly like him,
like him, He's he's gotten in some trouble from the
black residents up there in New York City, who say, hey, wait,
why aren't we getting a deputy mayor. I think it's
(30:22):
a second in command. And there are several positions and
he has yet to appoint anyone who is black to
one of those positions, which I think.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
He can.
Speaker 3 (30:35):
He had a point whoever he wants, but I think
that he's doing that community a disservice by totally ignoring them.
It stands to reason for all the yelling and screaming
he's done about taxing the rich and talking about just
who they are and going after high income earners in
white neighborhoods, and he's going to do this, that and
(30:56):
the other to white people.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
I would think that he would have the sense to.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
Recognize all the communities in that city and not just
not just focus on one or maybe two. I think
he's made a mistake up there. And the good news
for him is he's elected now he can do whatever
he wants. Pretty much. He's in a little do it
or else battle with Governor Kathy Hokel up there.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
She can allow he can.
Speaker 3 (31:27):
He can't tax wealthy people. That has to be a
state thing, but he can, and he's threatening to do
it tax everybody else, basically with a higher property tax
like hire by about nine and a half or ten percent.
Talked about that yesterday a little bit. And if she
(31:49):
doesn't cave. That's what he's going to do, and that
will affect millions of people in that city. That is,
by the way, the ticker, the number of resident in
that city is going down, down down every day. Every day.
People are leaving, and the rich people are getting out
faster because they can go to the airport and hop
on their private jet and take themselves and their families
(32:11):
and their prize belongings and all of their assets either
to Florida, to Texas, to pretty much anywhere but California.
I guarantee you there. I'd be willing to bet there
aren't any New York City residents scared of what's about
to happen who are getting on a jet and going
to La or San Francisco or anywhere in California. They're
(32:35):
going to Miami, They're going to Dallas, They're coming to
Houston because we offer them a better deal. Frankly, from
the It's happened again desk, this time from Stuart, Florida.
An illegal from Venezuela twenty six year old guy. Just
just yesterday afternoon. He attacks a woman on the beach,
(32:56):
grabs her by her throat and drags her in the
water and shoves her head underwater and holds it there
until he thinks he's killed her and leaves her there
for dead. Fortunately, though she was retrieved from the water
by bystanders, brought her in, got her back, and he's
(33:18):
been arrested. That's two good news things from that story.
But that woman's got to live with that for the
rest of her life. Horror. Fine, how much time will
two minutes? Oh good, I'll do some lighter stuff. And
there's a bunch of it here. I could check that
box that talked about that from the pretty big miss category.
According to the new report, the average American driver underestimates
(33:40):
the annual cost of vehicle ownership by more than forty
five hundred dollars a year.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
I I don't.
Speaker 3 (33:51):
Know where they come up with that number. Maybe they're
kind of advertising it over several years. And for example,
if you had to get a new transmission after forever
and then and they say, okay, that was part of
that every year maintenance program. But man, if you aren't
spot on with what it's costing you for insurance and
gas and tires and oil changes and all of that,
(34:16):
it doesn't take but a little bit of time to
set up some sort of a flow chart, and if
you have an older car, it might not be a
bad idea to just start throwing about one hundred bucks
a month or so, or maybe a little more, depending
on what kind of shape it's in. Throw that into
a jar so that when you do have a sudden
expense come up, you might be able to afford it.
(34:40):
I gotta try one of these. Brad Reese never heard
of him, right. He's the grandson of Reese's Peanut butter
Cups inventor HB.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Reese.
Speaker 3 (34:48):
He says, Hershey has changed the classic recipe, and not
for the better, says Bread. Hershey says, now we're making
them the same as we always have. Maybe Brad's taste
buds are messed up. Maybe as COVID. I remember I
thought I had COVID once because my sense of taste
(35:09):
or yeah it was taste, I think had kind of diminished.
It lasted for about twelve hours, and then I was fine,
you'll be fine tomorrow when we come back here to
wrap up the week. I appreciate you listening today. Thanks,
We will see you then. Ideos
Remember when it was impossible to misplace the TV remote
because you were the TV remote. Remember when music sounded
like this, Remember when social media was truly social?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Hey John, how's it going today? Well, this show is
all about you one. This is fifty plus with Doug Pike.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Helpful information on your finances, good health, and what to
do for fun. Fifty plus brought to you by the
UT Health Houston Institute on Aging, Informed Decisions for a healthier,
happier life.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
And now fifty plus with Doug Pike.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
All right, let me get this microphone down here where
it belongs. Welcome aboard fifty plus. Train rolls out of
the station right now. I'm gonna run around in a
big old circle till we get almost one o'clock and
then cash out after that Groundhog Day, Really this week anyway,
since this morning looked very much like the past several mornings,
and except that this afternoon is going to be on
(01:09):
the warmer than usual side for the end of February.
Good heavens, good heavens, eighty something degrees in February. That's
that's not unexpected if you've lived here a long time,
but you kind of wish it would go back to
a little bit cooler, and that's what we're gonna get.
There may be some scattered showers this evening.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
In nature.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
If you're listening, feel free to scatter some showers onto
my yard. That would be fine today though otherwise very uneventful.
And then tomorrow, actually I think it is we catch
a little cool front, not a cold front, but a
cool front, drop into the sixties for highs for a
few days and forties overnight. That will be quite welcome
(01:55):
for me anyway. From the marketplace roller coach. As you
just heard in that Fox report, the Dow is quite
down several hundred points, and I'm betting it's red across
the board. I wouldn't. I don't have time to go
back and look right now. But for some reason, well
I think a lot of it has to do with
(02:16):
what's going on with a run right now, and they're
flexing and posturing and threatening our military forces. They closed
the Straits of Hormuz. I talked about that yesterday. That
carries about a third of the nation's oil back and
forth or the world's oil back and forth every day,
and they said they were doing it for naval live
(02:41):
fire drills. I say, they were doing it just to
see how far they can push, and if they poked
the golden haired bear once too often, it probably won't
work out well for him. In any event, oil up
a couple of bucks, probably for the same reasons.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
It was close to sixty six.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Dollars a barrel the last time I looked, and gold
sitting comfortably north of five thousand dollars. Again. It would
take a big drop to take it down below five
thousand a day, I think. Moving into the news, the
University of Houston moving forward toward compliance with state bathroom
laws now and is reverting campus restrooms to designations either
(03:21):
as men's or women's facilities. Some students and I'm sure
some faculty members received that news with ruffled feathers, having
enjoyed I don't know, whatever you'd call it, other accommodations recently.
Her feelings don't change the law, though. And here's the deal.
(03:42):
If I had a daughter, I wouldn't want men using
the same restroom as she, And if that daughter was
an athlete, I wouldn't want men walking around naked in
the women's bathroom in locker rooms. That just it tends
not to be healthy for whomever is subjected to that,
(04:05):
and there's a a lot of study of that. I
just no, I don't want men in women's restrooms anymore
than I want to have to go into the ladies
room to use that at some point.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
From the Stranger, how much do you?
Speaker 3 (04:18):
I have two minutes? Okay? Good? From the Stranger Danger
Desk comes word by way of click to Houston that
a seventy year old guy in Fort ben County tried
to coax a young girl into his truck while she
walked one recent morning to her bus stop, the same
walk she's made every morning, probably and this time this
(04:42):
one I'm sure scarred her pretty badly. He didn't manage
to take her. That's the good news. I hate having
to even talk about stuff like this, I really do.
But it's still happening. There are still creeps walking and
living among us who would prey on children, and I doubt,
especially the way our courts are working in recent past,
(05:06):
I doubt that anything's gonna magically happen to make sexual
deviance and pedophiles go away. They're here. The difference only
in recent times is that when they've been caught and arrested.
I'm guessing, but I'm pretty confident with this guest that
a lot of them either get a slap on the
(05:27):
wrist or maybe probation, or maybe they might have to
be confined to home for a little while. I don't
think they. I don't think they spend that much time
in jail or prison honestly anymore. One more, by the way,
and now former school custodian in West Virginia faces more
than two dozen charges after being caught hiding in a
(05:48):
closet where Hu in the girls' locker room. If he'd
had jumped out of there and said I identify as
a woman, they'd have been in trouble, wouldn't They wouldn't
have known which way to turn. That very interesting. Also
from Clique to Houston and sticking with schools, last night,
the Magnolia School District voted to reinstate prayer time into
(06:09):
every school in its district. I don't believe that means
every student has to participate. I don't believe it means
that every student has to say the same prayer. It
just means the kids are going to have time to
worship each day if they choose to do that, or
they can sit quietly or doodle or whatever they want
(06:29):
to do. But just a little bit of time for
the kids who are being raised into whatever faith they're
being raised into them, let them soak up a little
of that every day. I think that's a good thing.
I really do, I really do. All right, will are
we close to the break time? I'm guessing one minute?
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Oh? I found I found.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
This little I used to have access to a site
that offered up little bits and pieces, little short chunks
of nothingness, and true to form, I've got I've gained
access again to it, and this one.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
I already asked two.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
People in the office, two of the women in the office,
to guess how long the longest the longest wedding veil,
wedding dress veil. Well, I guess it's a wedding veil,
not a dress veil gets the length of the world record,
(07:30):
And I guarantee it not a one of you, unless
you already know, is gonna get it right. The two
of them, I think guests ten feet and twelve feet
something like that. The record is just one of these
absolutely useless world records. I've talked about before. The record
longest wedding veil twenty three thousand, feet twenty three thousand
(07:54):
feet more than four miles for what reason, I'll never know.
All right, take a little break here on the way out,
I'll tell you about Medical Aesthetic by Angelica, where if
you're lucky, you'll meet doctor Ali in person. He's a
very busy man. He moves back and forth. If he's needed,
he comes to you. He's not, you can contact him otherwise.
(08:18):
But the bottom line is, as we talked about in
our interview yesterday, this is where men and women can
go to get whole body attention, to improve weight, to
improve appearance, energy confidence. It'll start with a simple blood
test to determine the right path for you, or you
and your partner or whatever individually now and then you
(08:39):
can get started on a sixteen week program that gives
your body enough time to adjust and to take on
whatever whatever protocol you're using to achieve whatever you want
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sugar Land you can call now for an appointment. You
(09:00):
really can. Eight three to two nine three nine nine
three three zero eight three two nine three nine nine
three three zero.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Hell, they sure don't make them like they used to.
That's why every few months we wash him, check his fluids,
and spring on a fresh cod o wax. This is
fifty plus with Doug Pike.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
I remember this song very very well. It gets a
little bit more complicated than that down the road. Very
good song. Thank you will welcome back to fifty plus.
Thanks for listening. I certainly do appreciate it, you know
I do. As always, in this segment, we're gonna acknowledge
National Heart Month by bringing back into the show my
favorite cardiologist, doctor John Higgins from McGovern Medical School, Marathon runner,
(09:45):
official cardiologists for the Houston Rockets and Rice Athletics and
all around good guy.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Welcome back, Doc.
Speaker 4 (09:51):
Hey, Doug, welcome, Thank you for welcoming me in Happy,
Happy Heart Months for February.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
As long as it keeps ticking, I'll be happy as
a man.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
So we're Yeah, we're three weeks into National Heart Month,
and as much as I wish heart disease was in decline,
my gut says it's still a really major threat to Americans.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Is that correct?
Speaker 4 (10:13):
Absolutely? Doug. Number one of course of death, both nationally
and also in Texas, and just a couple of years
ago in Texas twenty twenty three. The data we have
fifth over fifty thousand deaths in our state from heart
disease in one year. So it's a very high number,
(10:34):
you know, one in you know, one in four or more.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
And didn't I say that that there are like one
point two million Texans that have some sort.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
Of heart disease exactly, Doug. You know we're talking about
you know, heart failures, Carni artery disease, as well as
a you know, a rhythmia's irregular heartbeats. I mean, lots
and lots probably. I mean, I'd be surprised if you
didn't you know, someone listening didn't know someone or have
(11:03):
heart disease themselves.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Yeah, and my question to you is how many people
have it and don't even realize it?
Speaker 4 (11:10):
Yeah, well that's the big one, Doug.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (11:12):
You know, certainly risk factors for heart disease like high
blood pressure. You know a lot of people are walking
around there, Doug with high blood pressure, don't know it
or you know, don't really want to worry about it.
And this is what you know, keeps us up at night, Doug,
because we've got a lot of people out there who
are on the on the fast train to having a
(11:34):
you know, a heart attackle stroke and they don't even
know it, you know, and we want to we want
to put them on the slow train, I hope.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
So gush. Yeah, I saw that about high blood pressure
leading being a leading cause of heart problems. How does
elevated pressure impact the heart? I guess just harder work
for the heart maybe, yeah.
Speaker 4 (11:52):
Absolutely, Doug. You know, the heart has to work harder.
So when the heart works harder, that means that the
must in the heart gets thicker and stiffer, which is
not good, you know, and that increases the rates of
heart failure. It also, when it's working harder and the
blood is kind of flowing faster, it actually tears up
(12:13):
kind of the walls of the arteries more, so they're
going to get more plaque build up and unstable plaque
small blood vessel disease. And then finally it also, high
blood pressure is a direct increase to aphib you know,
the regular heartbeat and kidney disease, and both of them
(12:33):
are related to increased strokes. So we got the trifecta.
You know, heart failure, cornery disease is stroke just with
blood pressure.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
If one doesn't get you, the other two mite. Oh
my gosh, that's right, that's pretty rough. I in recognition
of the world in which we live now too, Doc
talk about the importance of managing everyday stress to keep
your heart healthy.
Speaker 4 (12:59):
Absolutely, Doug. So we know that stress has pretty much
a direct effect on all of the risk factors for
heart disease and more. You know, this can stress with
the increased kind of sympathetic you know, the fight or
flight that can directly increase heart rate and blood pressure
(13:21):
and cause blood vessels to kind of clamp down. It also,
stress can result in increased levels of stress hormones like cortisol,
which we know is leads to you getting fat or
quicker in terms of getting abest and gaining weight and
insulin resistance. We know that stress also increases inflammation and
(13:46):
that can have effects on increasing your chance of getting
a blood clawed as well as strokes. And then it
can trigger various attacks from strokes, heart attacks and the
irregular heartbeats. And finally they're the direct effects, but they're
finally the indirect effects of stress. You know, people who
are stressed out, they don't exercise as much. Their diet
(14:09):
is bad, you know, they tend to eat more junk stuff.
They tend to smoke and drink at higher levels than
other people, and they sleep worse. So both direct and
indirect effects of stress are not good for the heart.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Talk if you would, doctor John Higgins on fifty plus here,
talk if you would for a minute about what we
can do. And I know the answers because I've heard
them from you before, but there's got to be somebody
listening today who hasn't What should we be doing to
steer clear of heart issues?
Speaker 4 (14:40):
Well, what we need to do, first of all, Doug,
is we need a thorough evaluation of ourselves, you know,
so we need to know do you know what's our cholesterol,
what's our blood pressure? So if you haven't you know
already this year, you know in the past year, schedule
an appointment with your primary position and get all of
your you know, risk factors and everything checked out. Obviously,
(15:02):
you know if you're overweight, and you know that if
you're overweight or not, you've got to try to cut
back on the unhealthy high weight foods as well as
exercise more. We like the Dash diet, the Mediterranean diet,
you know, lower sodium, high potassium type diets. And then
couple that doug with increasing your exercise, whether that be
(15:25):
both aerobic and resistance training, you know, and we should
be doing something, you know, to get a little bit
of a sweat and get the heart rate up most days.
Limit your alcohol, you know, one to two drinks per day.
Prioritize sleep if you've got if you're a bad snorer,
and you know the room now because the loud snorer,
(15:48):
that might mean that you've got sleep apnea, which again
that will play into all of those risk factors you know,
make your blood pressure worse all the rest. And then
finally if do if doing those healthy things, hopefully that
will take care of business. But if it doesn't, then
you know, it might be time to start a particular medicine,
whether it be for your blood pressure, your cholesterol, diabetes,
(16:12):
et cetera. So we prefer the natural approach if we can,
but at some point that may not cut it and
we might have to go to some medicines to help
reduce your risk.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
Oh boy, we're down to less than a minute. Okay,
So what I want to know is what feeling? What
sensation would somebody feel? We got to skip over the
kind of maybe not so bad stuff but if there's
one thing that they feel that should take them to
the er, what.
Speaker 4 (16:39):
Is it, I would say, Doug, that they're really really
out of breath or they're having you know, some sort
of chest discomfort, you know, breathing difficulty or pain in
the chest. Get to the ED, especially if it doesn't
get better real quick, yeah, real.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Quick, meaning like just a minute or so exactly.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
And of course, you know, if it didn't occur just
after you have the you know, thet you know, the
fiery pizza, all right, you know, uh do the basic
things and went in doubt. Let us check you out, Yes.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
Sir, thank you very much, doctor John Higgins. Always my pleasure, sir,
you here all right, We got to take a little
break on the way out the Institute on Aging ut
Health's Institute on Aging specifically, there are but a handful
of them around the entire country. So if you go
looking for one around here, that's the one you're gonna find.
(17:38):
That's the one that was started more than a decade
ago now, and for whom I've been speaking for which
I've been speaking for just about as long. This is
a group of providers of a tremendous collaborative thousands of
providers who have gotten additional training, additional time spent learning
on how to apply their medical knowledge specifically to us.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
We are seniors.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
We are different from juniors, if I may, and that
requires different attention to different things in different ways that
our body reacts to medications, reacts to exercise, all of
these things.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
It's important that you're.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Talking about your health with someone who understands that you're
a little bit different than that young guy that or
young girl that this doctor just saw. Take advantage of that.
Most of them are in the med center most of
their time. That should be taken for granted because that's
the epicenter of medicine in the southwestern United States. But
they also work in outlying clinics and hospitals and office
(18:41):
buildings wherever, just pretty much in any small town around here,
Katie Kingwood, pair Land, all of them Sugarland where I am.
A lot of those providers come out there on a
regular basis. Find what you want at the website, go
explore the resources. It's going to take you some time.
Once you get in there, you go down a rabbit
(19:01):
hole and be looking at that site half an hour,
thirty minutes, forty minutes an hour later, uth dot edu
slash aging. Once you've had your fill of all those resources,
you're gonna be happy you found. Then start your search
for a provider if you need one who can help
you with specific attention to you as a senior who's
a part of that UT Health Institute on aging uth
(19:25):
dot edu slash aging, uth dot edu slash aging.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
What's life without a NET? I suggest you go to
bed and sleep it off. Just wait until the show's over. Sleepy.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
Back to Dougpike as fifty plus continues.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
Fifty plus on this I'm pretty dog on nice day.
We don't have windows in here, as I've talked about before,
but I do. I do have one right next to
my desk, and I'm I get a nice view of
some town homes now I guess you'd call them, and
a couple of power lines, and and then in the
far far distance downtown Houston facing east, I am over
(20:05):
by the Galleria. The more I look and listen I
wanted to talk about this a little bit, the more
I come to realize that politics over the past twelve,
I don't know, fifteen twenty years has become a series
of fairly well orchestrated and divisive distractions for Americans, and
with persistent help from media, we've gotten ourselves caught up
(20:26):
in a pretty dangerous and volatile infighting kind of a pattern.
This kept us from watching what's happening in real time
to our country. And that's the undeniable fact that foreign
powers have entrenched themselves on our own soil. They're not
wearing uniforms, they're not carrying weapons. They're disguising themselves as Americans,
(20:48):
convincing us in different ways that they want to be
Americans when they really don't. Instead, they want to defraud
our federal government, which they got really really good at
doing up in Minnesota, in case nobody's been watching, to
the tune of billions and billions of dollars that you
and I paid these people to not do what they
(21:08):
said they needed the money to do. They presented themselves
as being noble and wanting to take care of the
impoverished people, the disabled people, anybody who was hungry, anybody
who had special needs. They were going to just take
our money and go help those people, and the only
people they helped were themselves. Just it's horrible, it's fraud
(21:32):
on just staggering scale, billions of dollars, and not in
a very long time either. They want us to accommodate
their cultural demands. In essence, they want us to stop
being American so that they can reconfigure towns and cities
and I guess eventually states to replicate the mud holes
they fled to take advantage of our resources. Think back
(21:55):
to the lines of people we used to see on
television who migrated here during the Biden mistration. Okay, a
lot of them, a lot of them brought their families
in hopes of finding a better life. They were still
illegal entry, but with good intention, which I do think
might count for something. There were some whose motives, though.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
Were.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
Just flat out illegal. They include millions of young men
traveling alone, coming here because just maybe they were ordered
to come here, maybe they volunteered to come here and
slowly disrupt our lives and ultimately just let us defeat ourselves.
We wake up, we find foreign powers and foreign powers
(22:41):
in high levels of government, people like Mondani, like Omar,
like Klay, and other people who are being elected at
lower levels of politics and onto school boards, city commissions,
and just one little step by another, changing changing what
America looks like and not for the better, I might add,
(23:03):
by the way, count on the upcoming State of the
Union address to be littered with attempts by the left
to disrupt President Trump. Some some of them have already
talked about walking out during the speech. Others say they
may bring guests meant to showcase policy disagreements. I would
presume they're going to try and bring some immigrants into
(23:27):
the chamber. I don't know what they intend to prove
by doing stuff like this. They've just turned our government
into a three ring circus and they're the clowns. Worst
ever display of disrespect ever, I think for a State
of the Union speech goes to drum roll. Please Nancy Pelosi,
(23:49):
who after President Trump's twenty twenty State of the Union address,
stood up and ripped up her copy of his speech,
the one in which he honored some very honorable people
that the left totally ignored. And from what I read
this morning, they intend to up the ante on disrespect
(24:11):
and just push all in on making fools of themselves.
And by the way, that you know, these theatrics of
theirs used to work on a fair number of Americans.
That's how they stayed in office, they could convince enough
people who didn't know any better that they were telling
the truth and it was the Right that was lying
(24:33):
when it really wasn't and they knew it. And now
Americans are getting the real story because we have people
who really investigate these things doing that, and they're seeing
just how disconnected that party is. That the traditional Democrat
party died years ago. It absolutely died years ago, and
(24:54):
this is it's been replaced with a bunch of fanatics
and crackpots and very potentially dangerous people to this country.
I'll talk about that a little bit in the final
segment on the way out here. I've got just a second. Oh,
I thought this was pretty interesting. All of the parking
spots in America covered the size of land that is
(25:18):
occupied by West Virginia. By West Virginia, all of the
parking spots in America add up to of space the
size of West Virginia. By the way, speaking of parking,
I went to the GRB yesterday to go to the
fishing show which is in town through the weekend.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
I parked.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
I found a spot on that perimeter street around the
little park down there, and so I pull into it.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
I get out.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
I go to pay for parking, I couldn't. That meter's broken.
The other meter's broken. I had to use the garage
where I was fleeced for thirty five bucks to park
my car for a couple of hours. Okay, I'll calm
down now. Cedar Cove Arvey Resort over there in down
Tri Citybeach Road, near Thompson's Bake Camp and right on
(26:04):
Galveston Bay. All the amenities you could want in a
place that's absolutely gorgeous to park your RV for a night,
a week, a month, whatever. Cedar Cove's got water and
sewer hookups at every site. They've got free Wi Fi
and a bathhouse. Concrete roads and slabs everywhere, so there's
no dust swirling around at all as people move in
(26:25):
and out of there. And also, like I've mentioned before,
it's a pretty dog one good fishing. I would highly
recommend going across the street to Thompson's Bake Camp and
getting yourself some live shrimp. If you've got a bucket
and a little aer rator. There's a pretty good chance
if you sat out there a full morning or a
full afternoon, or maybe just through the day, you'd get
(26:45):
at least one and maybe two. Keep a redfish plus
other fish that were swimming through. You'd have yourself a
nice little dinner. Cedar Cove Rvresort dot com is the website.
If you don't have an RV, Alan Nancy Kibby are
happy to rent you one that accommodates four people very well.
Get on the website, grab their phone number, give them
a call. Tell them I said, hello, Cedar Cove Rvresort
(27:07):
dot com.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
Old guy's rule. And of course women never get old.
If you want to avoid sleeping on the couch.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
Hello, I think that sounds like a good plan. Fifty
plus continues. Here's more with Doug we Go.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
Last segment of the program starts right now. Thank you
all for listening, and I hope you enjoyed my conversation
with doctor John Higgins a little while ago, cardiologist to
the Rockets and to Rice University athletics and just an
all around super great guy. Going back to a little
bit of semi political stuff, I guess let's go to
(27:45):
New York City, where mom Donnie hasn't been in office
two months. He's already nearly destroyed the city his free
grocery stores by the way. I saw a photo this morning.
I saw a photograph of one those one of his
free grocery stores. It's smaller then, and it's nicely appointed.
(28:06):
It looks really it's slick. It's brand new. It hadn't
gotten a chance to get torn up and beat up
yet from people running in there and stealing stuff. Well,
if it's free, I guess it doesn't matter, but there's
supposed to be limits. In any event, it is smaller
than the flower department at Kroger's. That's his free grocery store.
He plans on one per borough. Now, there's a lot
(28:31):
of money behind these these free stores. It's coming from
some of those online they're not they can't. They don't
call them gambling sites. It places where it well, it's Kalshi,
and I think there's another one. I can't remember what
it's called. In any event, they are operating within the law,
and more power to them, and they're helping out with
these free groceries in New York. But from what I saw,
(28:57):
there's nothing in there that would really make up a
good meal. I saw some organic chips, I saw several oils,
and it's all nice and neatly aligned It's clearly that
was a staged photograph, There's no question about it. And meanwhile,
outside one of those stores that was about to reopen
(29:17):
or about to open for the first time, the line
got to be several hundred people who needed to get
into one of these free food stores. How he's gonna
pay for that long term? Now the short term. He's
got these donations from these sites, and I'm sure other
do gooders, but once they get tired of funding it, thenwear,
(29:40):
thenwear okay, And you know what, maybe if the mayor
up there would eat only food he gets at the
free store after he and his entourage stand in the
cold for a few hours. Maybe no, never mind, he'd
never do that. But hey, make communism yay, you voted
for it in New York City, and get ready for it.
(30:02):
There's all kinds of problems he is, he is lining,
he's surrounding himself with staff who look exactly like him,
like him, He's he's gotten in some trouble from the
black residents up there in New York City, who say, hey, wait,
why aren't we getting a deputy mayor. I think it's
(30:22):
a second in command. And there are several positions and
he has yet to appoint anyone who is black to
one of those positions, which I think.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
He can.
Speaker 3 (30:35):
He had a point whoever he wants, but I think
that he's doing that community a disservice by totally ignoring them.
It stands to reason for all the yelling and screaming
he's done about taxing the rich and talking about just
who they are and going after high income earners in
white neighborhoods, and he's going to do this, that and
(30:56):
the other to white people.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
I would think that he would have the sense to.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
Recognize all the communities in that city and not just
not just focus on one or maybe two. I think
he's made a mistake up there. And the good news
for him is he's elected now he can do whatever
he wants. Pretty much. He's in a little do it
or else battle with Governor Kathy Hokel up there.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
She can allow he can.
Speaker 3 (31:27):
He can't tax wealthy people. That has to be a
state thing, but he can, and he's threatening to do
it tax everybody else, basically with a higher property tax
like hire by about nine and a half or ten percent.
Talked about that yesterday a little bit. And if she
(31:49):
doesn't cave. That's what he's going to do, and that
will affect millions of people in that city. That is,
by the way, the ticker, the number of resident in
that city is going down, down down every day. Every day.
People are leaving, and the rich people are getting out
faster because they can go to the airport and hop
on their private jet and take themselves and their families
(32:11):
and their prize belongings and all of their assets either
to Florida, to Texas, to pretty much anywhere but California.
I guarantee you there. I'd be willing to bet there
aren't any New York City residents scared of what's about
to happen who are getting on a jet and going
to La or San Francisco or anywhere in California. They're
(32:35):
going to Miami, They're going to Dallas, They're coming to
Houston because we offer them a better deal. Frankly, from
the It's happened again desk, this time from Stuart, Florida.
An illegal from Venezuela twenty six year old guy. Just
just yesterday afternoon. He attacks a woman on the beach,
(32:56):
grabs her by her throat and drags her in the
water and shoves her head underwater and holds it there
until he thinks he's killed her and leaves her there
for dead. Fortunately, though she was retrieved from the water
by bystanders, brought her in, got her back, and he's
(33:18):
been arrested. That's two good news things from that story.
But that woman's got to live with that for the
rest of her life. Horror. Fine, how much time will
two minutes? Oh good, I'll do some lighter stuff. And
there's a bunch of it here. I could check that
box that talked about that from the pretty big miss category.
According to the new report, the average American driver underestimates
(33:40):
the annual cost of vehicle ownership by more than forty
five hundred dollars a year.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
I I don't.
Speaker 3 (33:51):
Know where they come up with that number. Maybe they're
kind of advertising it over several years. And for example,
if you had to get a new transmission after forever
and then and they say, okay, that was part of
that every year maintenance program. But man, if you aren't
spot on with what it's costing you for insurance and
gas and tires and oil changes and all of that,
(34:16):
it doesn't take but a little bit of time to
set up some sort of a flow chart, and if
you have an older car, it might not be a
bad idea to just start throwing about one hundred bucks
a month or so, or maybe a little more, depending
on what kind of shape it's in. Throw that into
a jar so that when you do have a sudden
expense come up, you might be able to afford it.
(34:40):
I gotta try one of these. Brad Reese never heard
of him, right. He's the grandson of Reese's Peanut butter
Cups inventor HB.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Reese.
Speaker 3 (34:48):
He says, Hershey has changed the classic recipe, and not
for the better, says Bread. Hershey says, now we're making
them the same as we always have. Maybe Brad's taste
buds are messed up. Maybe as COVID. I remember I
thought I had COVID once because my sense of taste
(35:09):
or yeah it was taste, I think had kind of diminished.
It lasted for about twelve hours, and then I was fine,
you'll be fine tomorrow when we come back here to
wrap up the week. I appreciate you listening today. Thanks,
We will see you then. Ideos
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