November 14, 2024 • 35 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
It's that time time time, time, luck and load. The
Michael darry Show is on.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
The air, and you're coming to message this from my
(00:47):
friend Michael, you're talking about me. No, I forgot your
wife opened to boutique. I got of the friends I have,
of the river Oaks Country Club and Houston Country Club
member of friends I have. There's two types of guys
(01:08):
over there because they're all rich. Some of them are
real rich, like generational wealth, and some of them made
a little money. And there's two types of dudes over
there because all of their wives want to open a
boutique of some sort or another. And there's two types
of dudes. The dudes who said, hell, no, we're not
doing that. Your best friend opened a boutique, you can
(01:31):
go hang out, you can work for free for her.
Over there, y'all can sit around and own a boutique
that loses a fortune, but we're not doing it. We
don't have their kind of money. And then you got
Then you got the guy who can't tell his wife
no because he got caught cheating, or she knows he's
got so much money that she can she can lose
(01:52):
a half million a year on the boutique and it
won't hurt them. Besides, she really wants to do it,
and she's got him convinced. All those trips I take
to Paris, we can write those off. Those are buying trips.
I am hitting. I am hitting close to the bone
with this one. There's only about one hundred people that
(02:15):
I'm personally poking at right now, all in good Sport.
They all know each other, and they're all gonna go.
Michael's on there running his mouth again. Well, I assure
you I'm not talking about Houston. This story is based
in Laredo. This is not a Houston story, I assure you.
So here we are. I want to be clear on this.
(02:41):
It's just not a personal attack on these people. There
are people who have the best of intentions there really are.
They're good people. They're honest, honorable, decent people, and they're rich.
And when you're rich, there's a sense of no bless
obleeg you're supposed to do things for the city. And
so there's another class of people who are not rich,
(03:05):
and these class of people feed like plankton off of
the rich people. This class of people are executive directors
of nonprofits, so they'll be the Memorial Park Conservancy and
the Zoo Conservancy and the light rail promotion campaign and
political campaigns will feed off of them too. But there
(03:28):
is a class of people and they move from nonprofit
to nonprofit and they are known for having a great rolodex.
They're great guests to have at your party in River Oaks,
and they know how to manage really rich people. It's
(03:51):
an art, and these people know how to do it.
You know, many people think you go to rich people
and you ask them for twenty five million dollar donation
and they got to write a check somewhere, and so
they just write it. That's not how it works. They
insinuate themselves in there. And these people, these executive directors.
(04:13):
United Way was a big one for years. They go
on vacation with these rich people. They go to their
house in Montana or Aspen or Martha's Vineyard or Dana
Island or Palm Beach. They become friends. They spend the afternoon,
you know, rose all day having frozs. They do favors
(04:36):
for them, they show up. They develop these close relationships.
So these rich women they get called in by the guys,
by the executive director type. And if you read the news, carefully,
you'll see the executive director class. You'll see exactly who
(04:57):
they are. And I'm not saying they're bad people not
I'm just saying that there is a group of these
people and they put together these deals and the money
comes when they can pitch the engineers and the architects
and the contractors and the surveyors, because that's who's going
(05:19):
to make money on these projects. The end user of
this project is never going to make money. They're going
to the astronome redevelopment. Oh, the finance guys, and if
you look at the people around say Rodney Ellis, and
if you look at the downtown lawyers that do public
bond work, it's the same guys. I know all of them,
and by the way, I like them, I don't dislike them.
(05:41):
This is why I can't socialize anymore, is because when
I beat up on deals like this and expose what's
really going on, people think I don't like them, because
I've been to all their houses and I genuinely do
like them. But that doesn't mean that I want you
the taxpayer. Doesn't mean I want the guy that's busted
(06:02):
his hump all day every day who makes one hundred
and twenty thousand dollars. Sounds like a lot of money
if you don't make a hundred twenty thousand dollars. But
he's got three kids off at college. They shouldn't have
all three gone to college, but they are the kids
taking college loans. Dad feels like he's got to pay
for it. Wife used to work as a teacher, but
she doesn't anymore. Their mortgage to the hilt. It's a
(06:25):
rough life. It's not the worst. It's not a coal
miner's life, but it's a rough life. That's the guy
being stuck with the taxes. That's the guy who's got
a house he bought for two seventy five that's now
worth six fifty. So what he got, where's he gonna go?
And that is these people populating all these buildings all around,
(06:49):
and they're gonna be hit with more taxes on all
this and this thing is gonna come and go. They're
trying to redo. I guess they've redone gun's point mall. Now, Oh,
I've heard it on, Michael, you're beating up on it.
Why won't you come out here and tour it? Because
I've driven by on the way to the airport. You
(07:09):
show me that neighborhood turning with more than the project
you're doing with a bunch of government money. By the way,
downtown's dying. You've been to downtown lately. There's no retail.
There's probably half the number of restaurants. You know, in
the old days, you had the Chronicle, big building down there,
(07:32):
you had all the law firms, you had all the
financial firms. Well that died. A lot of those people
moved out. A lot of those people. You got people
that live out at what's that awesome place that used
(07:53):
to be Tenneco's employee deal? Steve Alvis did it? Chuck
uh I can't remember anything. I can't tell stories anymore.
I can't remember anything. I quit. What's the name of
the Houston Houston Oaks? You got people. You look at
the numbers, you look at every person that moved to
(08:14):
Houston Oaks. You can trace them one by one. You
do it be a great case study. The guys that
moved out to Houston Oaks. Every one of them used
to have a big house in River Oaks and was
invested in a big company in downtown. When they move,
they take all that intellectual capital, social capital, with them,
they start focusing on new things. Now you look at
(08:36):
every home that's that's five million dollars or above out
and round top. Every single one of those people has moved.
That they were the downtown domes and their wives were
the doions, that these were the holy Polloi of the
city of Houston. That's all mood. What's left now is
to scrap people.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Bi'll just go ahead and say it.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Sorry, Michael Barry Show.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
There must be lies burning brighter somewhere.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
You got to be birds. I am high in the
sky more blue.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
If I can dream, I'm.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
A better land where all my brothers walking in and
tell me.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
I watched the new Elvis. You saw it?
Speaker 3 (09:43):
I can.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Quick review. Netflix has a documentary on what is known
as the Elvis Comeback Special in nineteen sixty eight. So
I should just caught the Comba Special because nine nine
point nine percent of people called the Comeback Special. But
my dear friend and private investigator, Paul Bakery gets upset
(10:11):
because hardcore Elvis fan, which I am, but I still
call it the comeback Special, just not around him. It's
kind of an LL cool Jay thing, you know. Don't
call it a comeback I've been here for years, was
that Elvis didn't need to come back. He was always Elvis.
Now the truth is he did need to come back.
(10:34):
He'd been off the scene of entertaining as a singer
or a pure singer in front of a live audience
for seven years. He hadn't had a hit in five years.
What I am happy about with this one that Los
Berman did on him and now this one is that
now we got people openly trashing Colonel Tom Parker constantly,
(10:59):
and that was important that needed to be done. But anyway,
so the documentary, I'll give you the reviews. It's not
(11:21):
a spoiler alert ramon. Everybody knows what happened. This song
right here. What made me think of it is how
it closes, because this was the closing song to the
sixty eight special. I don't think they gave enough time
airtime to how this song was chosen. This was right
after MLK was assassinated. This was very important. This was
(11:45):
Elvis's artistic statement and they didn't want it in there.
They thought it was too controversial, and he did not
want to do this song in his black leather onesie
that he'd done the whole night in that was important
to him that this have If you ever see that
(12:06):
video of him in front of the big read Elvis,
that is the clo of If I Can Dream. That's
the closing of that sixty eight special, which really was
the resurgence of Elvis, and it was the moment where
they stopped the stupid movies that he'd been in. Twenty
(12:28):
seven films that were all dumb. We're not all dumb,
twenty twenty four of them are dumb. Twenty three of
them are dumb. They're just churning out movies and songs
and there's him and a girl and in fake backdrop.
His career was better than that. But anyway, then he
begins the glorious Elvis period in my opinion, and that's
(12:52):
when you get to seventy two special, which is the
biggest thing in the history of man kay Anyway, it's
a documentary worth watching. They don't spend enough time on
the documentary itself. They spent a lot of time telling
you what led up to why that was important, and
I think that was part of the story that needed
to be told. The Beatles on the scene in sixty
four in the US that really rocked everybody. The Beach
(13:16):
Boys fed off of Beatlemania and kind of competed with them,
and pet Sounds was a reaction to all of that,
and that was, you know, arguably, well arguably the greatest
thing the Beach Boys would do. And there was a lot,
there was a lot to come out of the Beatles,
the British invasion between Mick Jagger, but particularly the Beatles.
(13:36):
That everybody that was somebody in American pop music, Elvis Sinatra,
Chuck Berry, you name it. That the Beach Boys. That
was the moment where they It was like you live
in a little small town and all of a sudden,
you know you're running back. You thought was so good,
and no, there's real running backs over there. There's big
(13:58):
boys over there. That was that moment. All right, So
back to the Astronomy and I'm gonna open up the call.
I want you to This is called Boosterism. I want
you to listen to Khou telling about They unveiled the
scheme yesterday for the over billion dollar renovation of the Astronome.
Speaker 4 (14:17):
Nearly sixty years after opening as the world's first indoor
air conditioned dome stadium, advocates are pushing a new plan
for the iconic Astrodome.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
We envision a dynamic redevelopment of the Astrodome accessible to
all through creative.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Programming, innovative partnerships, and economic development.
Speaker 4 (14:36):
The nonprofit Astrodome Conservancy, founded to help preserve yet reimagine
the dome, spent three and a half million dollars on
this latest proposal, one that would transform mostly the interior
of what remains a robust structure. Basically, new buildings would
rise within the dome, along with arena, entertainment, restaurant, and
other space. I think this is actually the only viable
(14:58):
project out there. Attorney Shawan Stevens.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
I have an astronymb of my star, sits on.
Speaker 4 (15:03):
The Conservacy's board and believes unlike a twenty thirteen bond
to fix up the dome that voters rejected, this plan
offsets the burden on taxpayers by using historic tax credits
and private investment, with a combined cost topping a billion dollars.
Next step is us working with the county, because the
county owns it and the county makes the decisions. The
(15:25):
Houston Livestock Show in Rodeo, a major NRG park tenant,
issued a statement from its CEO, who said in part quote,
the proposed plan by the Astrodome Conservancy does not align
with the Houston Livestock Show in Rodeo's strategic vision in
operational requirements. The Rodeo Texans and Harris County Sports and
Convention Corporation have been working on plans for NRG Park's future. Meanwhile,
(15:48):
the Harris County Sports and Convention Corporations chairman said, in
part quote, over the last few years, we have seen
several concepts that, while thought provoking, haven't resulted in viable
funding and maintenance solutions. We are currently working with Harris
County and a team of industry leading experts to plan
for the future of NRG Park, a future that many
(16:08):
hopes still includes this huge part of Houston's.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Past thirty years of doing this. Let me tell you
the important words that were just used in that story
that was straight from a press release. It's going to
be dynamic, okay, it's going to be accessible. That means
rich people in port people. These are all code words,
dog whistles, and economic development. Those were the first three
(16:34):
things that were that were highlighted. That's straight from the
press release. You know what that's supposed to tell you
That is supposed. That's how you justify things that don't work.
It's going to be for economic development. The idea there is,
if we spend just a billion and a half on
this thing, huh, it'll generate ten billion. No it won't, No,
(16:59):
it won't. They've already spent three point five million on
the proposal. So the proposal people are being paid to
hype this. There are people that go around just putting
together these things and writing proposals. They don't care if
the damn thing's ever done. They've already got three and
a half million. The building is robust, is it. Well,
let's me and you go take the lock off and
walk in it. Oh we can't walk in it. Why
(17:21):
can't we if it's so robust, Well, the mechanical systems
don't work. There's deadly mold growing inside. You can't breathe
the air inside the thing, and it's rotting. The thing
is rotting. You know what's robust? The pillars are so
(17:46):
sound that knocking that thing down is going to be
a challenge. I've had engineers tell me it's built like
a brick. Well, you know what I mean to say.
We just kind of glossed over the fact that voters
rejected the renovation from a few years ago. Go back
(18:07):
and look at that plan that voters rejected. That plan
is completely contradictory to what this is. Well, what if
voters hadn't rejected it, we'd be chasing good money after
bad from that stupid thing. Oh but you're not going
to have to pay for it. It's historic tax credits.
Do you understand what they're doing here? Anytime they tell
(18:29):
you you're not paying for something, it's actually coming from
this pool of money over here. That's the problem in
this country, is those pools of money over there.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
This is the Michael Barry Show.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Yeah, that's the one.
Speaker 4 (18:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
The government murdered Peanut the squirrel, claiming they didn't know
if he had rabies. I've been told now squirrels don't
often have rabies. And the report came back Peanut didn't
have rabies. Peanut was innocent. They killed Peanut.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Will she was a ricon squirrel raised us promises.
Speaker 5 (19:29):
She couldn't have thinking it was a little lay somewhere
else was a great, big world with lots of faces
to run to.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
Yeah, the shit.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Try the one of the promised.
Speaker 5 (19:51):
To was gone, kid. Oh yeah, all right, take it easy,
Baba squirrel, squirrel. It was CINDI cool, and.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
That news story wasn't as much boosterism as I had remembered.
I don't watch the local news, not because I'm some
great person, but because I just I'm done at that point.
But when I get up, our team pulls everything, so
(20:34):
I get a lot of information in a very short
period of time. And I had reviewed the news coverage
and that was the one we went with. But that
one wasn't as hyperbolic as some of the others. Let's
(20:56):
see if I can find this one. Okay, here KPRC
TV channel two posted the astrodome is set for a
billion dollar comeback exclamation mark and then a star with
entertainment venues, a hotel, and much more. This beloved Houston
(21:18):
landmark will soon be buzzing with life again. And then
the artist rendering that's what three and a half million
dollars will get you of a glitzy astrodome is shown
in the post. Now, look, the person that posted that
is not exactly Bill by Yessa. It's not necessarily the
(21:40):
most respected anchor is not Ron Stone. What was that
real cute girl they took from traffic and put there
you remember what I'm talking about a little by yes, and.
Speaker 4 (21:59):
No.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Jennifarana in there to she's still in traffic. She's a looker.
That one. What was her name, she had the short
crop hair. Dominique Saxa, Yeah, Dominique Saxa. I had lunch
with Steve Wasserman one time. He was the general manager
of Channel Too. I think he's a good general manager.
(22:21):
And he used to do Steve's takes or whatever. He
did a little editorials. Do you remember. It'd be on
issues of the day. I liked him. He had come here,
I think from Orlando anyway, I said. I asked him
over lunch, what's the best thing you ever did? What's
the one best thing you ever did in your career
at any of the stations? And he said, oh, that's easy.
(22:42):
I took a young lady from the from the traffic
desk who worked on a computer filling in traffic information
that would be sent to populate the screen for our
traffic reporters on air. She wasn't even on air, and
I took her and put her in front of the
camera because I knew she had the look for television
(23:04):
and she had such a bearing, such a presentation, and
that was Dominique Saksa and that was he. He said
that in my entire career, that's the best move I
ever made. And there you go. She still does something
like she has like a social media page and and
all that. She still looks beautiful. I mean, just glorious.
(23:24):
She's got Huh, she's remarried. Are you sure? I didn't
know that? You know, I used to live down the
street from Lisa. What was a girl? She had kind
of a Hawaiian Asian Look what was her? Huh? She
(23:45):
was on Channel eleven, Lisa Uh. I think she. I
think she was like Polynesian or something. She was very,
very cute. But we lived on this little, be tiny lane.
It's it's the kind of road that can only be
referred to as a lane. And you would turn onto
(24:05):
it and there was never any traffic there. Lisa Farnda
was that Lisa Farnda. I am creeping myself out by
remembering these names. It's funny that those are the names
I remember. And I'd turn on this lane and I'd
go around the first bend and there would be this
just gorgeous body in front of me. Jogging, and it
(24:26):
was clearly ethnic or as I like to refer to it, exotic.
And I would think it was my wife, because my
wife's a runner, and I go, no, she's taller than
my wife. And I would get closer and closer. I mean,
just a beautiful, beautiful body, and so I go real slow,
because you know, I don't want to hit her, you know,
(24:47):
gentleman that I am. I'd creep by real slow, and
then i'd get up beside her and it'll be, oh,
it's Lisa Fronda. And I would honestly forget that she
lived there because I don't talk to my neighbors. And
I'd roll my way in the head, Hey Lisa, how
are you doing? And then i'd mark it down in
my diary. I'd go, all right, today was two fourteen,
and the next day, I'm just kidding. I didn't do that.
(25:09):
I'm not that creepy. Good grief, it's a joke. So anyway,
back to the astrodom, the phone lines were open seven one, three,
nine nine, nine, one thousand. I'm going to tell you
something that this is how cities die. You take on
so much debt. Let me just lay the groundwork for
(25:30):
you for just a moment. Want you to think about this.
I want you to think about our region as a
profit and law statement. Okay, because you can only soak
taxpayers for so much money. Now, these these finance guys,
deal guys gotta make deals. I'm not mad at them.
Deal guys gotta make deals. Deal guys can't survive on
(25:54):
little towns that don't build stadiums. And there are people,
a lot of them. They're all college educated, they go
to college. Where they go to college is very important
to them, and how good the football team is, and
maybe the baseball and basketball while we're at it. And
these are the types of people who when they're at
the airport they're either proud or embarrassed when someone asks
(26:18):
them where they are based on how their team is
doing and how many new restaurants have gotten. Michelin stars this.
This is a huge group of people. They're young white
people between the ages of twenty five and forty five,
before they start having kids and moving out of the city.
These are the people that are going to hype this
thing up. This is who they're counting off.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
Marriage.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Christine Weaver, our state planning attorneyment, sent me a picture
last night. You know, the sweet lady, elderly lady that
she was visiting down in Parland and she had worn
her Michael Berry show t shirt Christine's visit. Christine is
an old fashioned lawyer. She makes house calls. You can
(27:54):
go to her office. She makes house calls. We did
our estate planning on my back porch. It had been
twelve years, and obviously a lot has happened in twelve years,
and it was fun. We sat outside on the back porch.
It was a pretty day. And my wife's barefoot, because
(28:16):
she's always barefoot. And I've taken my wear house slippers
to the studio and I've just come home from the
show and I kick off my house slippers, and so
the two of us are. We have this brick paved porch,
and it feels good to put your naked feet on
that porch and kind of tighten them, kind of grind
(28:38):
into them. That brick feels very good on your bottom
of your feet. Now, there's usually peacock poops, so you
got to wash that all first, because I don't like
to put my feet in peacock poop. Not a weirdoh.
So anyway, So I love that she makes house calls,
and so she sent me a picture of this sweet
little old lady in Parlean with her Michael Barry Show
(28:58):
shirt and she said she strategically wears it when she
goes to her favorite restaurant in Paarland and they always
serve her free because she's wearing a Michael Berry Show shirt.
And I said, oh, that's got to be gotta be gringos, right,
there's no way that's not gringos. I said, what's the
name of the restaurant and she said, I don't know,
(29:19):
let me check. What's gonna be gringos. But it's not.
It's Painias. You've been to Painias? Yeah, Painias in Parland
apparently wear Michael Berry Show shirt. And now they may
not do it anymore, but apparently you're a sweet little
lady and you wear Michael Berry Show shirt, you get
a free meal at pen. So since she wears it
every time she goes and they keep not charging her
(29:40):
and say, no, no, we like your shirt. How about that?
How about that? Oh I didn't think of that. Lumberton, Yeah, Lumberton.
A lot of people I know from Orange moved to
Lumberton seven one three, nine nine nine, one thousand, So
when you look at this region, Houston Region as a
(30:02):
profit and law statement, a couple of things I want
you to consider. Number One, we built n our G.
That's a county facility. Taxpayers pay for that. Now you
could say, well, we had to do that to get
a sports professional football team. Okay, and I want a
professional football team in my town. Okay. Look, everybody gets
(30:25):
a vote here. Crockett and I with Michael gone, I
got two years with Crockett at home, so I had
time with Michael before Crockett came home. Now I got
time with Crockett on the back end while Michael's gone.
So these are when I got to make my memories.
So our thing we do is we go the football
game together because he loves to go to the football game.
(30:47):
And so that's our that's our little time together that
we spend. And we have a ball. I mean, we
just we make a go of it. So I enjoyed
that experience. And it's a concert venue, and if you
want that, that's fine you. I just want to make
sure we all understand what we're doing, all right. So
we got ENERG, which I'm told is going to need renovations.
(31:11):
Those stadiums require up upkeep. Okay, so you've got NRG
that's big, but you also have the rodeo there, so
you got a lot going on on those grounds. All right,
that's a county facility. Now you've got the Toyota Center
and it's been around long enough that it's going to
need some renovations. But you got the rockets there, and
(31:33):
people want a professional basketball team. I got that, and
uh Compact Center was let go and Lakewood grabbed hold
of that. So now you don't get any tax dollars
out of that. Okay, there we go. You know, call
me crazy. If we're going to tax people, I think
(31:54):
we ought to tax people. And if we're going to
say some people aren't going to be taxed, we're going
to say this guy over here's gonna be tax but
you over here are not gonna be tax It's kind
of like, get out of the road. Roads are for driving.
Stop doing your fun runs there, Stop doing your protests there,
Stop leaving the car park there because it's a hooptie.
(32:16):
The roads are for driving, They're not for anything else.
Stop using them for other stuff. You're pissing me off,
and stop taking property off the tax rolls, churches, government, nonprofit,
all of it. Do you know why we continue to
(32:36):
do that? Because Christians have decided, you know, we're getting
screwed in every other way. We're gonna flex our muscles.
You're not gonna charge us for taxes. Okay, but you
do understand if we're trying to raise a trillion dollars,
we've got to get it somewhere, right, So if he
(32:56):
doesn't have to pay it, and all the government properties
don't have to pay it, and then we give this
over here for people of a certain age, and we
give this over here because it's historic. You do understand
that when you take seven out of ten people, seven
out of ten properties, out seven out of ten incomes
out of your potential stream of revenue. The other people
have to pay a disproportionately high amount of money. I'm
(33:19):
sorry if this is reasonable and in some way steps
on your toes. This is the problem. So the last
person left is that poor schlub, that poor slub who's
working for a living and watching everything he makes go
to the government and can't figure out why. But don't
(33:40):
you dare make his church pay? Don't you dare make
this group pay? And don't take away the historic abatement,
and don't make the old people pay. Old people have
more money than young people. This is the craziest thing.
Old people do not get a tax break because they're
old or because they're poor. They're not. At some point.
Look look at the data. Old people have way more
(34:02):
money than young people, way more money, considerably more money.
Old people vote. You give old people tax advantages, and
you give young people student loans paid off. That's why
those are done. Those are the It's not good policy.
Very little policy is good policy because it's it's a good, smart,
(34:26):
effective way to raise money or spend money. It's all
about that's a huge block of votes. Asked Claude Pepper,
the man stayed in Congress for forty years on the
basis of it, Ramon, have I not? Is there a
single demographic I have not pissed off today? Well, we
hadn't hit blacks, not really? Gaze? Yeah, all right, coming up,
(34:51):
I'm gonna punch Gaze. Who else? Huh? I don't want
to punch lead. No, we've grown our lesbian audience a
lot the last couple of weeks. I don't know. I'm
making inroads, making roads you see that woman in Seattle
use a pick.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
Ax and her partner.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
Her wife runs a blog for Conde Nast called them
It's a transgender blog. They described that woman as a
power lesbian. Now, I don't know if that's how she
swung the pick axe. Jesse Kelly said, when you put
a hitch post on your Subaru, that makes you a
power lesbian.
It's that time time time, time, luck and load. The
Michael darry Show is on.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
The air, and you're coming to message this from my
(00:47):
friend Michael, you're talking about me. No, I forgot your
wife opened to boutique. I got of the friends I have,
of the river Oaks Country Club and Houston Country Club
member of friends I have. There's two types of guys
(01:08):
over there because they're all rich. Some of them are
real rich, like generational wealth, and some of them made
a little money. And there's two types of dudes over
there because all of their wives want to open a
boutique of some sort or another. And there's two types
of dudes. The dudes who said, hell, no, we're not
doing that. Your best friend opened a boutique, you can
(01:31):
go hang out, you can work for free for her.
Over there, y'all can sit around and own a boutique
that loses a fortune, but we're not doing it. We
don't have their kind of money. And then you got
Then you got the guy who can't tell his wife
no because he got caught cheating, or she knows he's
got so much money that she can she can lose
(01:52):
a half million a year on the boutique and it
won't hurt them. Besides, she really wants to do it,
and she's got him convinced. All those trips I take
to Paris, we can write those off. Those are buying trips.
I am hitting. I am hitting close to the bone
with this one. There's only about one hundred people that
(02:15):
I'm personally poking at right now, all in good Sport.
They all know each other, and they're all gonna go.
Michael's on there running his mouth again. Well, I assure
you I'm not talking about Houston. This story is based
in Laredo. This is not a Houston story, I assure you.
So here we are. I want to be clear on this.
(02:41):
It's just not a personal attack on these people. There
are people who have the best of intentions there really are.
They're good people. They're honest, honorable, decent people, and they're rich.
And when you're rich, there's a sense of no bless
obleeg you're supposed to do things for the city. And
so there's another class of people who are not rich,
(03:05):
and these class of people feed like plankton off of
the rich people. This class of people are executive directors
of nonprofits, so they'll be the Memorial Park Conservancy and
the Zoo Conservancy and the light rail promotion campaign and
political campaigns will feed off of them too. But there
(03:28):
is a class of people and they move from nonprofit
to nonprofit and they are known for having a great rolodex.
They're great guests to have at your party in River Oaks,
and they know how to manage really rich people. It's
(03:51):
an art, and these people know how to do it.
You know, many people think you go to rich people
and you ask them for twenty five million dollar donation
and they got to write a check somewhere, and so
they just write it. That's not how it works. They
insinuate themselves in there. And these people, these executive directors.
(04:13):
United Way was a big one for years. They go
on vacation with these rich people. They go to their
house in Montana or Aspen or Martha's Vineyard or Dana
Island or Palm Beach. They become friends. They spend the afternoon,
you know, rose all day having frozs. They do favors
(04:36):
for them, they show up. They develop these close relationships.
So these rich women they get called in by the guys,
by the executive director type. And if you read the news, carefully,
you'll see the executive director class. You'll see exactly who
(04:57):
they are. And I'm not saying they're bad people not
I'm just saying that there is a group of these
people and they put together these deals and the money
comes when they can pitch the engineers and the architects
and the contractors and the surveyors, because that's who's going
(05:19):
to make money on these projects. The end user of
this project is never going to make money. They're going
to the astronome redevelopment. Oh, the finance guys, and if
you look at the people around say Rodney Ellis, and
if you look at the downtown lawyers that do public
bond work, it's the same guys. I know all of them,
and by the way, I like them, I don't dislike them.
(05:41):
This is why I can't socialize anymore, is because when
I beat up on deals like this and expose what's
really going on, people think I don't like them, because
I've been to all their houses and I genuinely do
like them. But that doesn't mean that I want you
the taxpayer. Doesn't mean I want the guy that's busted
(06:02):
his hump all day every day who makes one hundred
and twenty thousand dollars. Sounds like a lot of money
if you don't make a hundred twenty thousand dollars. But
he's got three kids off at college. They shouldn't have
all three gone to college, but they are the kids
taking college loans. Dad feels like he's got to pay
for it. Wife used to work as a teacher, but
she doesn't anymore. Their mortgage to the hilt. It's a
(06:25):
rough life. It's not the worst. It's not a coal
miner's life, but it's a rough life. That's the guy
being stuck with the taxes. That's the guy who's got
a house he bought for two seventy five that's now
worth six fifty. So what he got, where's he gonna go?
And that is these people populating all these buildings all around,
(06:49):
and they're gonna be hit with more taxes on all
this and this thing is gonna come and go. They're
trying to redo. I guess they've redone gun's point mall. Now, Oh,
I've heard it on, Michael, you're beating up on it.
Why won't you come out here and tour it? Because
I've driven by on the way to the airport. You
(07:09):
show me that neighborhood turning with more than the project
you're doing with a bunch of government money. By the way,
downtown's dying. You've been to downtown lately. There's no retail.
There's probably half the number of restaurants. You know, in
the old days, you had the Chronicle, big building down there,
(07:32):
you had all the law firms, you had all the
financial firms. Well that died. A lot of those people
moved out. A lot of those people. You got people
that live out at what's that awesome place that used
(07:53):
to be Tenneco's employee deal? Steve Alvis did it? Chuck
uh I can't remember anything. I can't tell stories anymore.
I can't remember anything. I quit. What's the name of
the Houston Houston Oaks? You got people. You look at
the numbers, you look at every person that moved to
(08:14):
Houston Oaks. You can trace them one by one. You
do it be a great case study. The guys that
moved out to Houston Oaks. Every one of them used
to have a big house in River Oaks and was
invested in a big company in downtown. When they move,
they take all that intellectual capital, social capital, with them,
they start focusing on new things. Now you look at
(08:36):
every home that's that's five million dollars or above out
and round top. Every single one of those people has moved.
That they were the downtown domes and their wives were
the doions, that these were the holy Polloi of the
city of Houston. That's all mood. What's left now is
to scrap people.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Bi'll just go ahead and say it.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Sorry, Michael Barry Show.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
There must be lies burning brighter somewhere.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
You got to be birds. I am high in the
sky more blue.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
If I can dream, I'm.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
A better land where all my brothers walking in and
tell me.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
I watched the new Elvis. You saw it?
Speaker 3 (09:43):
I can.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Quick review. Netflix has a documentary on what is known
as the Elvis Comeback Special in nineteen sixty eight. So
I should just caught the Comba Special because nine nine
point nine percent of people called the Comeback Special. But
my dear friend and private investigator, Paul Bakery gets upset
(10:11):
because hardcore Elvis fan, which I am, but I still
call it the comeback Special, just not around him. It's
kind of an LL cool Jay thing, you know. Don't
call it a comeback I've been here for years, was
that Elvis didn't need to come back. He was always Elvis.
Now the truth is he did need to come back.
(10:34):
He'd been off the scene of entertaining as a singer
or a pure singer in front of a live audience
for seven years. He hadn't had a hit in five years.
What I am happy about with this one that Los
Berman did on him and now this one is that
now we got people openly trashing Colonel Tom Parker constantly,
(10:59):
and that was important that needed to be done. But anyway,
so the documentary, I'll give you the reviews. It's not
(11:21):
a spoiler alert ramon. Everybody knows what happened. This song
right here. What made me think of it is how
it closes, because this was the closing song to the
sixty eight special. I don't think they gave enough time
airtime to how this song was chosen. This was right
after MLK was assassinated. This was very important. This was
(11:45):
Elvis's artistic statement and they didn't want it in there.
They thought it was too controversial, and he did not
want to do this song in his black leather onesie
that he'd done the whole night in that was important
to him that this have If you ever see that
(12:06):
video of him in front of the big read Elvis,
that is the clo of If I Can Dream. That's
the closing of that sixty eight special, which really was
the resurgence of Elvis, and it was the moment where
they stopped the stupid movies that he'd been in. Twenty
(12:28):
seven films that were all dumb. We're not all dumb,
twenty twenty four of them are dumb. Twenty three of
them are dumb. They're just churning out movies and songs
and there's him and a girl and in fake backdrop.
His career was better than that. But anyway, then he
begins the glorious Elvis period in my opinion, and that's
(12:52):
when you get to seventy two special, which is the
biggest thing in the history of man kay Anyway, it's
a documentary worth watching. They don't spend enough time on
the documentary itself. They spent a lot of time telling
you what led up to why that was important, and
I think that was part of the story that needed
to be told. The Beatles on the scene in sixty
four in the US that really rocked everybody. The Beach
(13:16):
Boys fed off of Beatlemania and kind of competed with them,
and pet Sounds was a reaction to all of that,
and that was, you know, arguably, well arguably the greatest
thing the Beach Boys would do. And there was a lot,
there was a lot to come out of the Beatles,
the British invasion between Mick Jagger, but particularly the Beatles.
(13:36):
That everybody that was somebody in American pop music, Elvis Sinatra,
Chuck Berry, you name it. That the Beach Boys. That
was the moment where they It was like you live
in a little small town and all of a sudden,
you know you're running back. You thought was so good,
and no, there's real running backs over there. There's big
(13:58):
boys over there. That was that moment. All right, So
back to the Astronomy and I'm gonna open up the call.
I want you to This is called Boosterism. I want
you to listen to Khou telling about They unveiled the
scheme yesterday for the over billion dollar renovation of the Astronome.
Speaker 4 (14:17):
Nearly sixty years after opening as the world's first indoor
air conditioned dome stadium, advocates are pushing a new plan
for the iconic Astrodome.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
We envision a dynamic redevelopment of the Astrodome accessible to
all through creative.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Programming, innovative partnerships, and economic development.
Speaker 4 (14:36):
The nonprofit Astrodome Conservancy, founded to help preserve yet reimagine
the dome, spent three and a half million dollars on
this latest proposal, one that would transform mostly the interior
of what remains a robust structure. Basically, new buildings would
rise within the dome, along with arena, entertainment, restaurant, and
other space. I think this is actually the only viable
(14:58):
project out there. Attorney Shawan Stevens.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
I have an astronymb of my star, sits on.
Speaker 4 (15:03):
The Conservacy's board and believes unlike a twenty thirteen bond
to fix up the dome that voters rejected, this plan
offsets the burden on taxpayers by using historic tax credits
and private investment, with a combined cost topping a billion dollars.
Next step is us working with the county, because the
county owns it and the county makes the decisions. The
(15:25):
Houston Livestock Show in Rodeo, a major NRG park tenant,
issued a statement from its CEO, who said in part quote,
the proposed plan by the Astrodome Conservancy does not align
with the Houston Livestock Show in Rodeo's strategic vision in
operational requirements. The Rodeo Texans and Harris County Sports and
Convention Corporation have been working on plans for NRG Park's future. Meanwhile,
(15:48):
the Harris County Sports and Convention Corporations chairman said, in
part quote, over the last few years, we have seen
several concepts that, while thought provoking, haven't resulted in viable
funding and maintenance solutions. We are currently working with Harris
County and a team of industry leading experts to plan
for the future of NRG Park, a future that many
(16:08):
hopes still includes this huge part of Houston's.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Past thirty years of doing this. Let me tell you
the important words that were just used in that story
that was straight from a press release. It's going to
be dynamic, okay, it's going to be accessible. That means
rich people in port people. These are all code words,
dog whistles, and economic development. Those were the first three
(16:34):
things that were that were highlighted. That's straight from the
press release. You know what that's supposed to tell you
That is supposed. That's how you justify things that don't work.
It's going to be for economic development. The idea there is,
if we spend just a billion and a half on
this thing, huh, it'll generate ten billion. No it won't, No,
(16:59):
it won't. They've already spent three point five million on
the proposal. So the proposal people are being paid to
hype this. There are people that go around just putting
together these things and writing proposals. They don't care if
the damn thing's ever done. They've already got three and
a half million. The building is robust, is it. Well,
let's me and you go take the lock off and
walk in it. Oh we can't walk in it. Why
(17:21):
can't we if it's so robust, Well, the mechanical systems
don't work. There's deadly mold growing inside. You can't breathe
the air inside the thing, and it's rotting. The thing
is rotting. You know what's robust? The pillars are so
(17:46):
sound that knocking that thing down is going to be
a challenge. I've had engineers tell me it's built like
a brick. Well, you know what I mean to say.
We just kind of glossed over the fact that voters
rejected the renovation from a few years ago. Go back
(18:07):
and look at that plan that voters rejected. That plan
is completely contradictory to what this is. Well, what if
voters hadn't rejected it, we'd be chasing good money after
bad from that stupid thing. Oh but you're not going
to have to pay for it. It's historic tax credits.
Do you understand what they're doing here? Anytime they tell
(18:29):
you you're not paying for something, it's actually coming from
this pool of money over here. That's the problem in
this country, is those pools of money over there.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
This is the Michael Barry Show.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Yeah, that's the one.
Speaker 4 (18:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
The government murdered Peanut the squirrel, claiming they didn't know
if he had rabies. I've been told now squirrels don't
often have rabies. And the report came back Peanut didn't
have rabies. Peanut was innocent. They killed Peanut.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Will she was a ricon squirrel raised us promises.
Speaker 5 (19:29):
She couldn't have thinking it was a little lay somewhere
else was a great, big world with lots of faces
to run to.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
Yeah, the shit.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Try the one of the promised.
Speaker 5 (19:51):
To was gone, kid. Oh yeah, all right, take it easy,
Baba squirrel, squirrel. It was CINDI cool, and.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
That news story wasn't as much boosterism as I had remembered.
I don't watch the local news, not because I'm some
great person, but because I just I'm done at that point.
But when I get up, our team pulls everything, so
(20:34):
I get a lot of information in a very short
period of time. And I had reviewed the news coverage
and that was the one we went with. But that
one wasn't as hyperbolic as some of the others. Let's
(20:56):
see if I can find this one. Okay, here KPRC
TV channel two posted the astrodome is set for a
billion dollar comeback exclamation mark and then a star with
entertainment venues, a hotel, and much more. This beloved Houston
(21:18):
landmark will soon be buzzing with life again. And then
the artist rendering that's what three and a half million
dollars will get you of a glitzy astrodome is shown
in the post. Now, look, the person that posted that
is not exactly Bill by Yessa. It's not necessarily the
(21:40):
most respected anchor is not Ron Stone. What was that
real cute girl they took from traffic and put there
you remember what I'm talking about a little by yes, and.
Speaker 4 (21:59):
No.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Jennifarana in there to she's still in traffic. She's a looker.
That one. What was her name, she had the short
crop hair. Dominique Saxa, Yeah, Dominique Saxa. I had lunch
with Steve Wasserman one time. He was the general manager
of Channel Too. I think he's a good general manager.
(22:21):
And he used to do Steve's takes or whatever. He
did a little editorials. Do you remember. It'd be on
issues of the day. I liked him. He had come here,
I think from Orlando anyway, I said. I asked him
over lunch, what's the best thing you ever did? What's
the one best thing you ever did in your career
at any of the stations? And he said, oh, that's easy.
(22:42):
I took a young lady from the from the traffic
desk who worked on a computer filling in traffic information
that would be sent to populate the screen for our
traffic reporters on air. She wasn't even on air, and
I took her and put her in front of the
camera because I knew she had the look for television
(23:04):
and she had such a bearing, such a presentation, and
that was Dominique Saksa and that was he. He said
that in my entire career, that's the best move I
ever made. And there you go. She still does something
like she has like a social media page and and
all that. She still looks beautiful. I mean, just glorious.
(23:24):
She's got Huh, she's remarried. Are you sure? I didn't
know that? You know, I used to live down the
street from Lisa. What was a girl? She had kind
of a Hawaiian Asian Look what was her? Huh? She
(23:45):
was on Channel eleven, Lisa Uh. I think she. I
think she was like Polynesian or something. She was very,
very cute. But we lived on this little, be tiny lane.
It's it's the kind of road that can only be
referred to as a lane. And you would turn onto
(24:05):
it and there was never any traffic there. Lisa Farnda
was that Lisa Farnda. I am creeping myself out by
remembering these names. It's funny that those are the names
I remember. And I'd turn on this lane and I'd
go around the first bend and there would be this
just gorgeous body in front of me. Jogging, and it
(24:26):
was clearly ethnic or as I like to refer to it, exotic.
And I would think it was my wife, because my
wife's a runner, and I go, no, she's taller than
my wife. And I would get closer and closer. I mean,
just a beautiful, beautiful body, and so I go real slow,
because you know, I don't want to hit her, you know,
(24:47):
gentleman that I am. I'd creep by real slow, and
then i'd get up beside her and it'll be, oh,
it's Lisa Fronda. And I would honestly forget that she
lived there because I don't talk to my neighbors. And
I'd roll my way in the head, Hey Lisa, how
are you doing? And then i'd mark it down in
my diary. I'd go, all right, today was two fourteen,
and the next day, I'm just kidding. I didn't do that.
(25:09):
I'm not that creepy. Good grief, it's a joke. So anyway,
back to the astrodom, the phone lines were open seven one, three,
nine nine, nine, one thousand. I'm going to tell you
something that this is how cities die. You take on
so much debt. Let me just lay the groundwork for
(25:30):
you for just a moment. Want you to think about this.
I want you to think about our region as a
profit and law statement. Okay, because you can only soak
taxpayers for so much money. Now, these these finance guys,
deal guys gotta make deals. I'm not mad at them.
Deal guys gotta make deals. Deal guys can't survive on
(25:54):
little towns that don't build stadiums. And there are people,
a lot of them. They're all college educated, they go
to college. Where they go to college is very important
to them, and how good the football team is, and
maybe the baseball and basketball while we're at it. And
these are the types of people who when they're at
the airport they're either proud or embarrassed when someone asks
(26:18):
them where they are based on how their team is
doing and how many new restaurants have gotten. Michelin stars this.
This is a huge group of people. They're young white
people between the ages of twenty five and forty five,
before they start having kids and moving out of the city.
These are the people that are going to hype this
thing up. This is who they're counting off.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
Marriage.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Christine Weaver, our state planning attorneyment, sent me a picture
last night. You know, the sweet lady, elderly lady that
she was visiting down in Parland and she had worn
her Michael Berry show t shirt Christine's visit. Christine is
an old fashioned lawyer. She makes house calls. You can
(27:54):
go to her office. She makes house calls. We did
our estate planning on my back porch. It had been
twelve years, and obviously a lot has happened in twelve years,
and it was fun. We sat outside on the back porch.
It was a pretty day. And my wife's barefoot, because
(28:16):
she's always barefoot. And I've taken my wear house slippers
to the studio and I've just come home from the
show and I kick off my house slippers, and so
the two of us are. We have this brick paved porch,
and it feels good to put your naked feet on
that porch and kind of tighten them, kind of grind
(28:38):
into them. That brick feels very good on your bottom
of your feet. Now, there's usually peacock poops, so you
got to wash that all first, because I don't like
to put my feet in peacock poop. Not a weirdoh.
So anyway, So I love that she makes house calls,
and so she sent me a picture of this sweet
little old lady in Parlean with her Michael Barry Show
(28:58):
shirt and she said she strategically wears it when she
goes to her favorite restaurant in Paarland and they always
serve her free because she's wearing a Michael Berry Show shirt.
And I said, oh, that's got to be gotta be gringos, right,
there's no way that's not gringos. I said, what's the
name of the restaurant and she said, I don't know,
(29:19):
let me check. What's gonna be gringos. But it's not.
It's Painias. You've been to Painias? Yeah, Painias in Parland
apparently wear Michael Berry Show shirt. And now they may
not do it anymore, but apparently you're a sweet little
lady and you wear Michael Berry Show shirt, you get
a free meal at pen. So since she wears it
every time she goes and they keep not charging her
(29:40):
and say, no, no, we like your shirt. How about that?
How about that? Oh I didn't think of that. Lumberton, Yeah, Lumberton.
A lot of people I know from Orange moved to
Lumberton seven one three, nine nine nine, one thousand, So
when you look at this region, Houston Region as a
(30:02):
profit and law statement, a couple of things I want
you to consider. Number One, we built n our G.
That's a county facility. Taxpayers pay for that. Now you
could say, well, we had to do that to get
a sports professional football team. Okay, and I want a
professional football team in my town. Okay. Look, everybody gets
(30:25):
a vote here. Crockett and I with Michael gone, I
got two years with Crockett at home, so I had
time with Michael before Crockett came home. Now I got
time with Crockett on the back end while Michael's gone.
So these are when I got to make my memories.
So our thing we do is we go the football
game together because he loves to go to the football game.
(30:47):
And so that's our that's our little time together that
we spend. And we have a ball. I mean, we
just we make a go of it. So I enjoyed
that experience. And it's a concert venue, and if you
want that, that's fine you. I just want to make
sure we all understand what we're doing, all right. So
we got ENERG, which I'm told is going to need renovations.
(31:11):
Those stadiums require up upkeep. Okay, so you've got NRG
that's big, but you also have the rodeo there, so
you got a lot going on on those grounds. All right,
that's a county facility. Now you've got the Toyota Center
and it's been around long enough that it's going to
need some renovations. But you got the rockets there, and
(31:33):
people want a professional basketball team. I got that, and
uh Compact Center was let go and Lakewood grabbed hold
of that. So now you don't get any tax dollars
out of that. Okay, there we go. You know, call
me crazy. If we're going to tax people, I think
(31:54):
we ought to tax people. And if we're going to
say some people aren't going to be taxed, we're going
to say this guy over here's gonna be tax but
you over here are not gonna be tax It's kind
of like, get out of the road. Roads are for driving.
Stop doing your fun runs there, Stop doing your protests there,
Stop leaving the car park there because it's a hooptie.
(32:16):
The roads are for driving, They're not for anything else.
Stop using them for other stuff. You're pissing me off,
and stop taking property off the tax rolls, churches, government, nonprofit,
all of it. Do you know why we continue to
(32:36):
do that? Because Christians have decided, you know, we're getting
screwed in every other way. We're gonna flex our muscles.
You're not gonna charge us for taxes. Okay, but you
do understand if we're trying to raise a trillion dollars,
we've got to get it somewhere, right, So if he
(32:56):
doesn't have to pay it, and all the government properties
don't have to pay it, and then we give this
over here for people of a certain age, and we
give this over here because it's historic. You do understand
that when you take seven out of ten people, seven
out of ten properties, out seven out of ten incomes
out of your potential stream of revenue. The other people
have to pay a disproportionately high amount of money. I'm
(33:19):
sorry if this is reasonable and in some way steps
on your toes. This is the problem. So the last
person left is that poor schlub, that poor slub who's
working for a living and watching everything he makes go
to the government and can't figure out why. But don't
(33:40):
you dare make his church pay? Don't you dare make
this group pay? And don't take away the historic abatement,
and don't make the old people pay. Old people have
more money than young people. This is the craziest thing.
Old people do not get a tax break because they're
old or because they're poor. They're not. At some point.
Look look at the data. Old people have way more
(34:02):
money than young people, way more money, considerably more money.
Old people vote. You give old people tax advantages, and
you give young people student loans paid off. That's why
those are done. Those are the It's not good policy.
Very little policy is good policy because it's it's a good, smart,
(34:26):
effective way to raise money or spend money. It's all
about that's a huge block of votes. Asked Claude Pepper,
the man stayed in Congress for forty years on the
basis of it, Ramon, have I not? Is there a
single demographic I have not pissed off today? Well, we
hadn't hit blacks, not really? Gaze? Yeah, all right, coming up,
(34:51):
I'm gonna punch Gaze. Who else? Huh? I don't want
to punch lead. No, we've grown our lesbian audience a
lot the last couple of weeks. I don't know. I'm
making inroads, making roads you see that woman in Seattle
use a pick.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
Ax and her partner.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
Her wife runs a blog for Conde Nast called them
It's a transgender blog. They described that woman as a
power lesbian. Now, I don't know if that's how she
swung the pick axe. Jesse Kelly said, when you put
a hitch post on your Subaru, that makes you a
power lesbian.
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