January 21, 2025 • 33 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
It's that time time, time, time, Luck and Load.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Michael vari show is on the air. I wis just
sent a video of which I posted to Facebook of
(00:38):
Houston firefighters and Houston police officers in the middle of
a good natured but very intense snowball fight. Looks to
be the case that fire may be getting the better
of this particular battle, but it starts in the middle
(01:00):
of it. So you know, both of those guys. If
you've ever been to the uh what's it called hoses
and noses? They got they got a they got a
boxing match every year at George R. Brown. I'm assuming
they still do it. I used to go to it
every year back in the day. But what was it
called something in hoses? Guns and hoses. Yeah, it's called
(01:25):
guns and hoses, and it would be uh firefighters fighting
police officers and it was well, that was a whole
lot of fun. That was a heck of an evening.
Uh Anyway, under Sylvester Turner, the relations with the fire
(01:47):
department were so rancorous that it affected your health and safety.
Many people don't understand the importance of the fire department,
the likelihood that you're ever going to need a fire
fighter to fight a fire on your behalf is very low.
What's going on in La is rare and a big
(02:11):
part of that is the winds, because typically when you
have a fire, they're going to be able to get there,
shut it down, and it's not going to spread and
burn and just keep burning. It's those high winds and
of course the governmental failures policy and personnel matter that
have prevented them from being able to kind of build
(02:31):
to cordon off those fires and put a wall against it.
Where you're going to need a firefighter is when you
have a heart attack or a stroke or a serious accident,
and that's who's going to first get to you and
get you to the hospital. And God help you if
(02:53):
you ever do need to be in the back of
one of those ambulances, because what nobody tells you is
the suspension systems on those things. See nobody's in Nobody's
in an ambulance twice. So it's not like you go
down and buy your your your suburban from or your
(03:14):
Silverado from from Mike Batchets at lone Star Chevy and
you go, well, Mike, this isn't exactly what I want.
He Oh, let's go over here and get this for you.
Let's get this, let's this's got this package for you.
This was got this package. If you are strapped down
in the back of an ambulance, which I have been,
I'm going to tell you it's not your primary concern
(03:35):
right then, or if it is, it's not a real emergency.
But you do think to yourself, this is a very
very uncomfortable ride. So UH, my mother decided on a
Wednesday night she was at UH she was in Houston
at Methodist, and she decided, I can't, I don't, I
(03:56):
don't want any more treatment. I want to go home.
I'm ready, And we honored that. She's my mama. You know,
it's not for me to decide, and so my wife's
sweetheart that she is, we said, well, Mom, when do
you want to do this. I want to go home
tomorrow morning. I want to sleep, and I want to
go home. She was in so much pain she didn't
sleep that night. But my wife got over there and
(04:20):
they were going to bring her back in an ambulance
because she had to have so many drugs that we
couldn't put her just in the car. And I have
some friends that have an ambulance service that serves southeast
Texas and southwest Louisiana, and they said, we'll do it,
we'll handle it. So they come over and my wife.
(04:40):
They arrive in Orange and I've gotten there already to
tell my dad. Good news is she's coming home. Bad
news is she's just got a few days left and
she's suspending all treatments. And that's not a conversation you
want to have with your dad, I assure you. So
we get there, get her all settled in and all that.
So we're going back. My wife said, man, I don't
(05:04):
want to sound like I'm complaining. That was a rough ride.
I said, what do you mean? He said, well, I
think I don't know if they needed to get home
fast or what. But we weren't in an emergency situation.
Your mom's going home to die. We don't need to
rush to get We're gonna make it. She said, I
(05:25):
felt because she rode in the back of My mom
held her hand and she said, they let me hit
the presser for more pain meds. And she said every
time she moaned, she called my mom. Mom. I said, Mom,
you want some more pay yep, And she said, I'm
sitting there hitting it, thinking I wouldn't mind a little
(05:45):
for myself, she said, when I got off that aimless,
I didn't want you to feel bad, so I didn't
tell you. My back was hurting so bad, my knees,
my hips, it's uncomfortable in those things. Anyway, I got
this video from a few minutes ago of the firefighters
(06:05):
and police officers throwing snowballs at each other. And that
might seem like the kind of silly stuff you would expect,
but that didn't happen before. And I will give Whip
Myer credit for that. That didn't happen. And if Sheila
Jackson Lee had won, that wouldn't have happened because she
(06:26):
had her problems with the fire department. She didn't like them.
And I'll tell you this goes back to lee Pee
Brown used to believe it or not, the cops were
on the outside with the mayor, and the firefighters were
beloved by the mayor. That went on for a very
long time. You will hear them talk about the concept
of parody at the city. Parody meant the cops wanted
(06:50):
to keep pace with the firefighters. The firefighters got a
new contract, we want a contract to match. Well, that
flipped and when it flipped was Leap Brown. Lee P.
Brown hated the fire department, and the reason was he
is an ultimate confirmed racist, and the fire department at
(07:15):
that time was a lot of white guys with Polish backgrounds,
the yon Keys and the ilk and he didn't like
those white guys. They were white guys that liked to
fish and hunt, and he doesn't like that type of person.
And that's a fact I served with Lee Brown. I
can tell you that man is a nasty, vile racist.
(07:38):
And the incredible part is he was propped up by
rich white men his entire career who did not realize
what he did to the rank and file white guys. Now,
he was okay with the cops because they supported him,
gave him a lot of money, did his bidding, covered
up why he was driving his car himself when he
never drove his car otherwise and got in an accident.
(08:00):
But anyway, all by way of saying, Sylvester Turner continued
that trend, he hated the fire department. It was so
nasty and to see our firefighters and police officers getting
along because these are long shifts they're pulling right now,
and they're away from their families, and you've got to
do Something's kind of the way Gallows humor works. You've
got to do something to break that tension. So if
(08:20):
you see a first responder, offer them some coffee, thank
them for their service. You know, do what you do,
like lack Aberry ship Joe, You're on the Michael Berry Show.
Welcome to the.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Program, serom, Hey, Michael, I got two questions. So what
is the likelihood of getting rid of the I R
S and with the replacement of the UH the External
Revenue Service? And the question I thought about one of
we were waiting for you is UH, what is the
likelihood of getting mandatory E verified to help the illegals,
(09:00):
the shelf people if they can't have a job.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Let's take your second question first. I think mandatory everify
is Look, I think the administrative process for verification is
extremely doable. It's the sort of thing the labyrinth that
(09:24):
is the federal government and making any level of changes
not as easy as it sounds. I think that is
imminently doable. Now, you have to have good systems because
if someone gives you a number, Now, how much burden
do you put on the employer to say do you
simply say well, you asked for a number, and you
(09:47):
got a number, and you know, a guy who looks
like he might be named Jose Garcia comes in with
a name that sounds like he's from timbuk Two. You
go out or do you go? I got a number,
which is what some people do. I got a number.
That's enough. I got a number. I've done my job.
(10:12):
This is a tough issue. It's a very tough issue.
And I'll tell you where this issue becomes very difficult
is that there are people the restaurant industry, the construction
industry who have grown dependent on illegal employees. That it's
going to be it's going to be very it's going
(10:35):
to be disruptive in the short term to replace that.
This issue is a big issue, doesn't mean we can't
stop it. It's a big issue for a number of reasons.
The immediate reaction people will have is, well, nobody wants
to work as they're on welfare, partly, but there's more
than that. Over a period of time, prices get baked
(11:00):
in for what we pay for things because we're used
to them. If no restaurant uses any illegal aliens. So
the president does what he's promised to do, and there's
full deportation. You do understand we're going to pay more
at a sit down restaurant a society that says, I
(11:24):
am so priced sensitive, And it's not that people are poor.
Many people view pricing and money as a power source.
And it's not that they're going to be bankrupt or
starve if someone increases the prices by a dish by
(11:45):
ten percent. I've watched people do this. They enjoy the
battle over money. So as a society, we're going to
have to get comfortable with cheap illegal labor is baked
into our economy. Now, if you're going to extract that,
which we all agree you're going to, then you're necessarily
(12:08):
going to pay more for goods and services because there
is no replacement. Some people live under the illusion, or
maybe it's a delusion that no, no, no, Once you
get those people out of there, there's a lot of
people waiting to get that job. In some cases that
is true construction industry especially, But when it comes to
(12:33):
bus boys, when it comes to a lot of positions
that are unpleasant, we're going to have to have our
own citizens buck up and part of the problem. And again,
when you talk about talk about how complex this problem is.
We got a lot of people who have graduated college
and can't find a job. They're upside down on debt.
(12:56):
They got all these student loans. So the answer for
the government to keep revolution tamped down, to keep these
young people from being angry because historically they voted democrat,
is oh, we'll wipe out your student loan debt. Well,
you could have paid off the student loan debt with
the university endowment. The dirty little secret nobody talks about
(13:19):
is the trillions of dollars that are locked up in
university endowments. So the government is subsidizing the university when
the university is taking money from in one hand from
the taxpayer and in the other hand from wealthy patrons.
Which is great to build a bunch of new buildings,
to do all the wonderful things that universities want to do.
(13:43):
But why then is the student paying increasing rates for
tuition that they can't afford so they take out loans,
and then they can't pay those loans back because guess
what college wasn't what was promised. You don't just graduate
and immediately get a good job paying a lot of money.
(14:04):
They're just not out there all the while we are
pumping out these kids who got a one hundred thousand
dollars in debt. You've be shocked how many young people
have one hundred thousand dollars in debt and you are
twenty two to twenty three years old. Some of them
didn't even graduate. And there's no Abercomie and Fitch around
for them to go, you know, fold clothes anymore, which
(14:24):
is what they would do before go to the mall.
There's no jobs for them. You got a bunch of
kids with psychology degree. There's no jobs for them. But
what they don't want to do, which is what our
economy needs, is be a plumber, an electrician. I've got
a show sponsor called Independent Electrical Contractors and it's the
(14:46):
it's the non union electrical contractors. And these companies have
all the business they can handle. What they need is
young people willing to come in take a course. They'll
train you up right, you will develop, you know, from
the minor leagues to rookie to all star. They will
train you up and pay you while they're doing it.
(15:08):
It is hard to get particularly young white kids to
get comfortable with the idea of becoming a plumber or
an electrician. They send me a class when they have
a graduating class, it's four fifths Hispanic, ten percent black,
and a handful of whites. And the only whites are
(15:28):
that kid had nobody in their family that ever went
to college. We've got a lot of young people who
have been taught the only way to go is to
go to the university. I mean, it's it's a big problem.
So we got all these tasks that need to be
completed that pay well that we got people that don't
(15:49):
want to do the butterflies with the Michael Ferry, they're
all Duncans, and you know Duncan means yo yo.
Speaker 4 (16:01):
No.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
I'm sorry to hear that. Garth Hudson of the band
has passed away. I think he was the last surviving member.
Richard Vanuel, who does the can you turn that up?
(16:25):
He's the one that doesn't all said up here? He
is right here.
Speaker 5 (16:34):
Every protection.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Richard Manuel died of his own hand in about ninety
one or ninety two. The band was on tour and
they were all drinking in one of them's hotel room,
and he was just going to go back to his
room for a minute and grab someone and come back,
and he took his own life. Nobody knows what happening,
(17:08):
you know. I have really grown in my life to
take a very different approach to mental health. When I
was young and didn't know anything and didn't know anyone
who I respected and admired and loved who suffered with
mental health problems, I was judgmental. I thought, well, crazy
(17:31):
people are just crazy. And as I've grown older, I've
come to find out that many people mask extreme pain
and depression that is fatiguing. It's also the case that
some of the drugs that they put people on, I
(17:52):
think make it worse. It's a very complicated issue and
probably not the right time to go into it now.
But Richard Manuel's passed, I think is such a tragedy
for that band. He was so special. And then of
course Levon Helm who in my opinion, is the breakout
star of the band. He's the drummer and the lead
(18:13):
singer and the writer and the Arkansas vibe that gives
that band so much of so much of what makes
them special. And then you got Robbie Robertson, who we
had the honor of interviewing. He wrote a book called Testimony,
but he passed away a year or two ago. He
was the one that I mean, you would have thought
he was the lead singer because he was out front.
(18:35):
And then of course Gareth Well, it's a bummer. That's
my second favorite band of all time. And now they
are there is no one left to tell the stories.
President Trump signed an executive order pardoning fifteen hundred January
sixth hostages and a commutation of the sentences for about
(18:56):
six more. They are reviewing those cases. This is five
h two, mister Ramon, Yes, sir.
Speaker 6 (19:06):
So this is January sixth. These are the hostages, approximately
fifteen hundred for a pardon, full part.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Full full part. That's very important. I watched last night
and this morning, rugged tough military veterans, tats all up,
an arm all up, down armed, Marcus de Treul looking guys.
(19:42):
I watched them breaking down into tears, thankful that the
President has pardoned them. It's man, it's what was done
to those people. I really like this one. It's not
getting a lot of rest, but it will. Clip number
(20:02):
five oh five. President Trump signed an executive order yesterday
withdrawing from the World Health Organization. This is the kind
of stuff that pushed COVID. This is the kind of
mindset that that bullied Mary Tally Boden and tried to
destroy her career and tried to keep us from life
saving treatments. This is a good one withdrawing from the
(20:26):
World health organizations.
Speaker 5 (20:27):
Ooh, that's a big one.
Speaker 7 (20:30):
So we paid five hundred million dollars to World Health
when I was here and I terminated China with one
point four billion people. We have three point fifteen we
have Nobody knows what we have because so many people
came in illegally.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
But let's say we have three twenty five. They had
one point four billion. They were paying thirty nine million.
We were paying five hundred million. It seemed a little
unfair to me, so that wasn't the reason. But I
dropped out. They offered me to come back for thirty
nine million.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
In theory, should be listening to that.
Speaker 7 (21:05):
But you know, and when Biden came back, they came
back for five hundred million.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
He knew that you could have come back for thirty
nine million.
Speaker 6 (21:16):
They wanted us back so madly.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
So we'll see what happens. What Trump understands that many
people don't is that if you want to negotiate. You
don't do it with a smile on your face. You
walk up to somebody, you punch them in the face,
you walk off, you turn back and go you wanted something,
(21:41):
and you'll get much better terms. The Wall Street journal
is beclowning themselves with these constant editorials every day on
how the tariffs won't work and what it's going to
do to the economy. It's going to destroy the economy.
What they don't understand is the tariffs are a negotiating
POI Canada, Mexico. You want the American market, You want
(22:09):
to Canada, you want to send aluminum into this country, Well,
you're going to have to open your market to these
products that you're keeping us from and you're gonna have
to do this, this, and this. See, they wouldn't want
to do that until they lose our market because their
tariff doesn't work. Yes, tariffs are inflationary to the consumer.
(22:35):
It is true. If there are products that you are
buying that we are importing from let's say Mexico, and
Trump slaps a tariff on that product, you are going
to pay the cost of that tariff, not the Mexican company.
They're going to suffer if you don't pay it. So
(22:58):
let's say he slaps a tariff on avocados. I don't
know what avocados cost, but let's say it was ten
dollars a pound, and he puts a five dollars terrif
on it. So now it's fifteen dollars a pound. If
you will pay fifteen dollars a pound and you were
paying ten, then that means that the price was inelastic.
(23:20):
It doesn't change. The demand was inelastic. They could have
charged more than they were charging, and you will gladly
pay it, because, like me, you love avocados. Well, did
I ever tell you Eddie's allergic to avocados and bananas?
I mean, I'd have to really question my will to
live if I didn't have avoc Huh. It is why
(23:42):
he's grumpy all time. Can you imagine you didn't have
any avocados or bananas? I don't know what I'd eat,
or really don't anyway. So what Trump says in this
case is five dollars terif on the avocados in Mexico, says,
and so then Americans say, We're going to start buying
California avocados. Okay. So Mexico. So the demand for the
(24:07):
avocados plunges. You remember supply and demand. When the supply
remains steady because they're still growing just as many avocados.
Cartels control the avocados. But the demand goes down, then
what happens to the price. It plummets. So now Mexico
comes to the table and says, hey, we'll stop letting
the illegal aliens come into your country if you'll let
(24:28):
the avocados. One of these women are cheaper. I think
that there might.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
I got nothing going on down there.
Speaker 5 (24:34):
Probably go Yanna, he's in the valley.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
The next executive order I'm going to play for you,
many of you may not realize, but I bet most
of you do, could make an absolute difference, not just
to the country generally as energy consumers. This could create
a wealth ripple effect across Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi like you
(25:21):
would not imagine. President Trump signed an executive order Unleashing
American Energy five h six from one, but just one.
Speaker 4 (25:32):
That's unleashing American energy. Serve relates to using permitting processes
and other regulatory systems to ensure that we can produce
energy efficiently to drive the American economy forward.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
If you study World War Two, you find that one
of the great downfalls of Germany, which seduced them to
make very dumb strategic decisions militarily, was a lack of
sufficient energy. It's it's a problem Germany suffers from to
(26:05):
this day. Their dependence on Russia for energy to this
day causes them problems. The United States is the best
in the world at finding oil, getting to it, extracting it,
(26:27):
moving it, and refining it. There's nobody in the world
that even comes close to our expertise. Now, you don't
choose how much of it. You just happen to be
sitting on top of You don't, that's not a choice.
You may, but we do happen to be sitting on
a lot of it. And these fracking techniques, these these
(26:53):
forms of extraction that our intellectual capital discovered. It's amazing
these guys explain to me how they're going in to do.
If you've seen a Landman, they talk about a lot
of this, and people in the old patch will tell you, oh,
that's not reality. Okay, you only say that because it's
(27:16):
the first movie you've ever seen where they use terms
like workovers. Blowouts. Do you think that every cops scene
is exactly the way cops are or every loss scene
is exactly the way of the courtroom, Because it's not, but
it's closer to reality than anything you're ever going to see.
We are so good at energy, and energy is so
(27:42):
critical to your national security. We fight wars over it,
and you will lose wars if you don't have it.
We went from who was the woman from Minnesota, Michelle
She had fostered about twenty Bachmann's she was running for president,
I think twenty twelve. She said we could have two
(28:04):
dollars a gallon oil during the debate, and they laughed
at her. Oh, it's the most ridiculous thing ever by
the Trump. By the time Trump got elected, we had
two dollars oil, and I don't know if you remember,
we had John Hoffmeister, former president of Shell Oil on here.
There was a situation where oil had dropped so cheap
(28:27):
that there was a case where they were literally paying
people to take oil to offload it because they needed
the rail capacity. When the price of oil hits a
certain number where the oil patches making money, but we're
paying a lot less for it. It's good for all
the people in the industry and all those jobs. And
(28:49):
by the way, you talk about good paying jobs for
people that don't have college degrees, those are great jobs.
I had people in my family and a lot of
people I grew up with that went and did three
weeks on, three weeks off that went to offshore platforms.
I got one of my best buddies, Toby Schultz, is
(29:09):
in Midland right now. Works was working for Excell. He
was just telling me the other day that was asking
him for his report on Midland. Real smart guy, hardworking guy.
I've got classmates that are in Midland, Odessa, Permian Basin,
Iglefords Shell You. Here's a deal. We may not be
able to sell more shoes or more textiles or more
(29:33):
cameras overnight because the market is but the worldwide market
for energy is so far above what we are currently
producing buck could and we've got people in our country
who go, no, no, you can't do that. We don't
want you to do that. You're killing the earth. No
(29:53):
less fuel is purchased, whether we do it or somebody
else does it. Why wouldn't you want your native Mbers
to do well. When they do well, they fund the
Little League. They buy cars from you, They pay for
your little scholarships for your kid can go to school.
We should want to unleash American energy. And what you're
(30:14):
about to watch is you are about to watch Texas
take off. Oh, it's going to be good in Louisiana
as well. President Trump signed an executive order opening Alaska
for oil exploration, as he should. Five oh seven, mister Roblis.
Speaker 4 (30:30):
First three have Alaska, sir. This is an executive order
relating to unleashing Alaska's potential as an energy reservoir for.
Speaker 5 (30:36):
The entire nations.
Speaker 4 (30:37):
And what about NWAR, I believe that would be included
in aspects of the orders.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
En War is the African National Wildlife Reserve. I believe
that's what it stands for. The left, led by loonies,
doesn't want us to develop our own natural resource. We
are a resource rich nation. But if you don't monetize
(31:07):
that resource because you let people create a religion behind it,
then you end up, as we were doing, importing oil
from countries like Saudi Arabia and Cutter. You end up
giving Russia all the power. You end up Visa VI
(31:28):
China in a weakened position. And you cost yourself trillions
of dollars in economic development. Why would you do this
over the snail darter or some little thing or some
little thing there. President Trump. By the way, one of
the executive orders is to open up the watershed so
(31:50):
the natural water flow could be used for the La fires.
You didn't know that was an option, but it is now.
There will be the snail darter tree huggers who will say, oh,
my goodness, but there's one little bug that might go
in extinct. We don't know that. Well, how about how
many how many Americans? How many Los Angelinos went extinct
(32:15):
because they burned to death? How about that? You know,
these aren't the thing about it is what Trump's doing here.
This didn't require a PhD in energy or natural resources
or border security. He's just doing common sense things that
(32:37):
could simply be done with the stroke of a pen.
And you've been told for decades they couldn't. Politicians love
to tell you that a problem can't be solved because
it's too complex, too many moving parts, it's politically not feasible.
It would upset the wrong people. Trump is proving not
(32:59):
just Democrats, but Republicans are full of it. They don't
want to solve the problem. You know, tire makers have
made tires for sixty years that would last for a lifetime.
Once they discovered the technology, they ditched it because how
many tires.
Speaker 3 (33:15):
Would you buy?
Speaker 2 (33:17):
The planned obsolescence that makes up so much of the
manufacturing of consumer products that you use would blow your mind.
It's not that they can't make a product that would
last and you wouldn't have to throw away. It's that
they wouldn't make as much of a profit if they did.
I'm a capitalist through and through, and it is time
(33:38):
that America's energy is opened up. And I'm so grateful
to Donald Trump. Is hey, thank a first responder If
you see them, they're working long hours.
It's that time time, time, time, Luck and Load.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Michael vari show is on the air. I wis just
sent a video of which I posted to Facebook of
(00:38):
Houston firefighters and Houston police officers in the middle of
a good natured but very intense snowball fight. Looks to
be the case that fire may be getting the better
of this particular battle, but it starts in the middle
(01:00):
of it. So you know, both of those guys. If
you've ever been to the uh what's it called hoses
and noses? They got they got a they got a
boxing match every year at George R. Brown. I'm assuming
they still do it. I used to go to it
every year back in the day. But what was it
called something in hoses? Guns and hoses. Yeah, it's called
(01:25):
guns and hoses, and it would be uh firefighters fighting
police officers and it was well, that was a whole
lot of fun. That was a heck of an evening.
Uh Anyway, under Sylvester Turner, the relations with the fire
(01:47):
department were so rancorous that it affected your health and safety.
Many people don't understand the importance of the fire department,
the likelihood that you're ever going to need a fire
fighter to fight a fire on your behalf is very low.
What's going on in La is rare and a big
(02:11):
part of that is the winds, because typically when you
have a fire, they're going to be able to get there,
shut it down, and it's not going to spread and
burn and just keep burning. It's those high winds and
of course the governmental failures policy and personnel matter that
have prevented them from being able to kind of build
(02:31):
to cordon off those fires and put a wall against it.
Where you're going to need a firefighter is when you
have a heart attack or a stroke or a serious accident,
and that's who's going to first get to you and
get you to the hospital. And God help you if
(02:53):
you ever do need to be in the back of
one of those ambulances, because what nobody tells you is
the suspension systems on those things. See nobody's in Nobody's
in an ambulance twice. So it's not like you go
down and buy your your your suburban from or your
(03:14):
Silverado from from Mike Batchets at lone Star Chevy and
you go, well, Mike, this isn't exactly what I want.
He Oh, let's go over here and get this for you.
Let's get this, let's this's got this package for you.
This was got this package. If you are strapped down
in the back of an ambulance, which I have been,
I'm going to tell you it's not your primary concern
(03:35):
right then, or if it is, it's not a real emergency.
But you do think to yourself, this is a very
very uncomfortable ride. So UH, my mother decided on a
Wednesday night she was at UH she was in Houston
at Methodist, and she decided, I can't, I don't, I
(03:56):
don't want any more treatment. I want to go home.
I'm ready, And we honored that. She's my mama. You know,
it's not for me to decide, and so my wife's
sweetheart that she is, we said, well, Mom, when do
you want to do this. I want to go home
tomorrow morning. I want to sleep, and I want to
go home. She was in so much pain she didn't
sleep that night. But my wife got over there and
(04:20):
they were going to bring her back in an ambulance
because she had to have so many drugs that we
couldn't put her just in the car. And I have
some friends that have an ambulance service that serves southeast
Texas and southwest Louisiana, and they said, we'll do it,
we'll handle it. So they come over and my wife.
(04:40):
They arrive in Orange and I've gotten there already to
tell my dad. Good news is she's coming home. Bad
news is she's just got a few days left and
she's suspending all treatments. And that's not a conversation you
want to have with your dad, I assure you. So
we get there, get her all settled in and all that.
So we're going back. My wife said, man, I don't
(05:04):
want to sound like I'm complaining. That was a rough ride.
I said, what do you mean? He said, well, I
think I don't know if they needed to get home
fast or what. But we weren't in an emergency situation.
Your mom's going home to die. We don't need to
rush to get We're gonna make it. She said, I
(05:25):
felt because she rode in the back of My mom
held her hand and she said, they let me hit
the presser for more pain meds. And she said every
time she moaned, she called my mom. Mom. I said, Mom,
you want some more pay yep, And she said, I'm
sitting there hitting it, thinking I wouldn't mind a little
(05:45):
for myself, she said, when I got off that aimless,
I didn't want you to feel bad, so I didn't
tell you. My back was hurting so bad, my knees,
my hips, it's uncomfortable in those things. Anyway, I got
this video from a few minutes ago of the firefighters
(06:05):
and police officers throwing snowballs at each other. And that
might seem like the kind of silly stuff you would expect,
but that didn't happen before. And I will give Whip
Myer credit for that. That didn't happen. And if Sheila
Jackson Lee had won, that wouldn't have happened because she
(06:26):
had her problems with the fire department. She didn't like them.
And I'll tell you this goes back to lee Pee
Brown used to believe it or not, the cops were
on the outside with the mayor, and the firefighters were
beloved by the mayor. That went on for a very
long time. You will hear them talk about the concept
of parody at the city. Parody meant the cops wanted
(06:50):
to keep pace with the firefighters. The firefighters got a
new contract, we want a contract to match. Well, that
flipped and when it flipped was Leap Brown. Lee P.
Brown hated the fire department, and the reason was he
is an ultimate confirmed racist, and the fire department at
(07:15):
that time was a lot of white guys with Polish backgrounds,
the yon Keys and the ilk and he didn't like
those white guys. They were white guys that liked to
fish and hunt, and he doesn't like that type of person.
And that's a fact I served with Lee Brown. I
can tell you that man is a nasty, vile racist.
(07:38):
And the incredible part is he was propped up by
rich white men his entire career who did not realize
what he did to the rank and file white guys. Now,
he was okay with the cops because they supported him,
gave him a lot of money, did his bidding, covered
up why he was driving his car himself when he
never drove his car otherwise and got in an accident.
(08:00):
But anyway, all by way of saying, Sylvester Turner continued
that trend, he hated the fire department. It was so
nasty and to see our firefighters and police officers getting
along because these are long shifts they're pulling right now,
and they're away from their families, and you've got to
do Something's kind of the way Gallows humor works. You've
got to do something to break that tension. So if
(08:20):
you see a first responder, offer them some coffee, thank
them for their service. You know, do what you do,
like lack Aberry ship Joe, You're on the Michael Berry Show.
Welcome to the.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Program, serom, Hey, Michael, I got two questions. So what
is the likelihood of getting rid of the I R
S and with the replacement of the UH the External
Revenue Service? And the question I thought about one of
we were waiting for you is UH, what is the
likelihood of getting mandatory E verified to help the illegals,
(09:00):
the shelf people if they can't have a job.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Let's take your second question first. I think mandatory everify
is Look, I think the administrative process for verification is
extremely doable. It's the sort of thing the labyrinth that
(09:24):
is the federal government and making any level of changes
not as easy as it sounds. I think that is
imminently doable. Now, you have to have good systems because
if someone gives you a number, Now, how much burden
do you put on the employer to say do you
simply say well, you asked for a number, and you
(09:47):
got a number, and you know, a guy who looks
like he might be named Jose Garcia comes in with
a name that sounds like he's from timbuk Two. You
go out or do you go? I got a number,
which is what some people do. I got a number.
That's enough. I got a number. I've done my job.
(10:12):
This is a tough issue. It's a very tough issue.
And I'll tell you where this issue becomes very difficult
is that there are people the restaurant industry, the construction
industry who have grown dependent on illegal employees. That it's
going to be it's going to be very it's going
(10:35):
to be disruptive in the short term to replace that.
This issue is a big issue, doesn't mean we can't
stop it. It's a big issue for a number of reasons.
The immediate reaction people will have is, well, nobody wants
to work as they're on welfare, partly, but there's more
than that. Over a period of time, prices get baked
(11:00):
in for what we pay for things because we're used
to them. If no restaurant uses any illegal aliens. So
the president does what he's promised to do, and there's
full deportation. You do understand we're going to pay more
at a sit down restaurant a society that says, I
(11:24):
am so priced sensitive, And it's not that people are poor.
Many people view pricing and money as a power source.
And it's not that they're going to be bankrupt or
starve if someone increases the prices by a dish by
(11:45):
ten percent. I've watched people do this. They enjoy the
battle over money. So as a society, we're going to
have to get comfortable with cheap illegal labor is baked
into our economy. Now, if you're going to extract that,
which we all agree you're going to, then you're necessarily
(12:08):
going to pay more for goods and services because there
is no replacement. Some people live under the illusion, or
maybe it's a delusion that no, no, no, Once you
get those people out of there, there's a lot of
people waiting to get that job. In some cases that
is true construction industry especially, But when it comes to
(12:33):
bus boys, when it comes to a lot of positions
that are unpleasant, we're going to have to have our
own citizens buck up and part of the problem. And again,
when you talk about talk about how complex this problem is.
We got a lot of people who have graduated college
and can't find a job. They're upside down on debt.
(12:56):
They got all these student loans. So the answer for
the government to keep revolution tamped down, to keep these
young people from being angry because historically they voted democrat,
is oh, we'll wipe out your student loan debt. Well,
you could have paid off the student loan debt with
the university endowment. The dirty little secret nobody talks about
(13:19):
is the trillions of dollars that are locked up in
university endowments. So the government is subsidizing the university when
the university is taking money from in one hand from
the taxpayer and in the other hand from wealthy patrons.
Which is great to build a bunch of new buildings,
to do all the wonderful things that universities want to do.
(13:43):
But why then is the student paying increasing rates for
tuition that they can't afford so they take out loans,
and then they can't pay those loans back because guess
what college wasn't what was promised. You don't just graduate
and immediately get a good job paying a lot of money.
(14:04):
They're just not out there all the while we are
pumping out these kids who got a one hundred thousand
dollars in debt. You've be shocked how many young people
have one hundred thousand dollars in debt and you are
twenty two to twenty three years old. Some of them
didn't even graduate. And there's no Abercomie and Fitch around
for them to go, you know, fold clothes anymore, which
(14:24):
is what they would do before go to the mall.
There's no jobs for them. You got a bunch of
kids with psychology degree. There's no jobs for them. But
what they don't want to do, which is what our
economy needs, is be a plumber, an electrician. I've got
a show sponsor called Independent Electrical Contractors and it's the
(14:46):
it's the non union electrical contractors. And these companies have
all the business they can handle. What they need is
young people willing to come in take a course. They'll
train you up right, you will develop, you know, from
the minor leagues to rookie to all star. They will
train you up and pay you while they're doing it.
(15:08):
It is hard to get particularly young white kids to
get comfortable with the idea of becoming a plumber or
an electrician. They send me a class when they have
a graduating class, it's four fifths Hispanic, ten percent black,
and a handful of whites. And the only whites are
(15:28):
that kid had nobody in their family that ever went
to college. We've got a lot of young people who
have been taught the only way to go is to
go to the university. I mean, it's it's a big problem.
So we got all these tasks that need to be
completed that pay well that we got people that don't
(15:49):
want to do the butterflies with the Michael Ferry, they're
all Duncans, and you know Duncan means yo yo.
Speaker 4 (16:01):
No.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
I'm sorry to hear that. Garth Hudson of the band
has passed away. I think he was the last surviving member.
Richard Vanuel, who does the can you turn that up?
(16:25):
He's the one that doesn't all said up here? He
is right here.
Speaker 5 (16:34):
Every protection.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Richard Manuel died of his own hand in about ninety
one or ninety two. The band was on tour and
they were all drinking in one of them's hotel room,
and he was just going to go back to his
room for a minute and grab someone and come back,
and he took his own life. Nobody knows what happening,
(17:08):
you know. I have really grown in my life to
take a very different approach to mental health. When I
was young and didn't know anything and didn't know anyone
who I respected and admired and loved who suffered with
mental health problems, I was judgmental. I thought, well, crazy
(17:31):
people are just crazy. And as I've grown older, I've
come to find out that many people mask extreme pain
and depression that is fatiguing. It's also the case that
some of the drugs that they put people on, I
(17:52):
think make it worse. It's a very complicated issue and
probably not the right time to go into it now.
But Richard Manuel's passed, I think is such a tragedy
for that band. He was so special. And then of
course Levon Helm who in my opinion, is the breakout
star of the band. He's the drummer and the lead
(18:13):
singer and the writer and the Arkansas vibe that gives
that band so much of so much of what makes
them special. And then you got Robbie Robertson, who we
had the honor of interviewing. He wrote a book called Testimony,
but he passed away a year or two ago. He
was the one that I mean, you would have thought
he was the lead singer because he was out front.
(18:35):
And then of course Gareth Well, it's a bummer. That's
my second favorite band of all time. And now they
are there is no one left to tell the stories.
President Trump signed an executive order pardoning fifteen hundred January
sixth hostages and a commutation of the sentences for about
(18:56):
six more. They are reviewing those cases. This is five
h two, mister Ramon, Yes, sir.
Speaker 6 (19:06):
So this is January sixth. These are the hostages, approximately
fifteen hundred for a pardon, full part.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Full full part. That's very important. I watched last night
and this morning, rugged tough military veterans, tats all up,
an arm all up, down armed, Marcus de Treul looking guys.
(19:42):
I watched them breaking down into tears, thankful that the
President has pardoned them. It's man, it's what was done
to those people. I really like this one. It's not
getting a lot of rest, but it will. Clip number
(20:02):
five oh five. President Trump signed an executive order yesterday
withdrawing from the World Health Organization. This is the kind
of stuff that pushed COVID. This is the kind of
mindset that that bullied Mary Tally Boden and tried to
destroy her career and tried to keep us from life
saving treatments. This is a good one withdrawing from the
(20:26):
World health organizations.
Speaker 5 (20:27):
Ooh, that's a big one.
Speaker 7 (20:30):
So we paid five hundred million dollars to World Health
when I was here and I terminated China with one
point four billion people. We have three point fifteen we
have Nobody knows what we have because so many people
came in illegally.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
But let's say we have three twenty five. They had
one point four billion. They were paying thirty nine million.
We were paying five hundred million. It seemed a little
unfair to me, so that wasn't the reason. But I
dropped out. They offered me to come back for thirty
nine million.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
In theory, should be listening to that.
Speaker 7 (21:05):
But you know, and when Biden came back, they came
back for five hundred million.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
He knew that you could have come back for thirty
nine million.
Speaker 6 (21:16):
They wanted us back so madly.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
So we'll see what happens. What Trump understands that many
people don't is that if you want to negotiate. You
don't do it with a smile on your face. You
walk up to somebody, you punch them in the face,
you walk off, you turn back and go you wanted something,
(21:41):
and you'll get much better terms. The Wall Street journal
is beclowning themselves with these constant editorials every day on
how the tariffs won't work and what it's going to
do to the economy. It's going to destroy the economy.
What they don't understand is the tariffs are a negotiating
POI Canada, Mexico. You want the American market, You want
(22:09):
to Canada, you want to send aluminum into this country, Well,
you're going to have to open your market to these
products that you're keeping us from and you're gonna have
to do this, this, and this. See, they wouldn't want
to do that until they lose our market because their
tariff doesn't work. Yes, tariffs are inflationary to the consumer.
(22:35):
It is true. If there are products that you are
buying that we are importing from let's say Mexico, and
Trump slaps a tariff on that product, you are going
to pay the cost of that tariff, not the Mexican company.
They're going to suffer if you don't pay it. So
(22:58):
let's say he slaps a tariff on avocados. I don't
know what avocados cost, but let's say it was ten
dollars a pound, and he puts a five dollars terrif
on it. So now it's fifteen dollars a pound. If
you will pay fifteen dollars a pound and you were
paying ten, then that means that the price was inelastic.
(23:20):
It doesn't change. The demand was inelastic. They could have
charged more than they were charging, and you will gladly
pay it, because, like me, you love avocados. Well, did
I ever tell you Eddie's allergic to avocados and bananas?
I mean, I'd have to really question my will to
live if I didn't have avoc Huh. It is why
(23:42):
he's grumpy all time. Can you imagine you didn't have
any avocados or bananas? I don't know what I'd eat,
or really don't anyway. So what Trump says in this
case is five dollars terif on the avocados in Mexico, says,
and so then Americans say, We're going to start buying
California avocados. Okay. So Mexico. So the demand for the
(24:07):
avocados plunges. You remember supply and demand. When the supply
remains steady because they're still growing just as many avocados.
Cartels control the avocados. But the demand goes down, then
what happens to the price. It plummets. So now Mexico
comes to the table and says, hey, we'll stop letting
the illegal aliens come into your country if you'll let
(24:28):
the avocados. One of these women are cheaper. I think
that there might.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
I got nothing going on down there.
Speaker 5 (24:34):
Probably go Yanna, he's in the valley.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
The next executive order I'm going to play for you,
many of you may not realize, but I bet most
of you do, could make an absolute difference, not just
to the country generally as energy consumers. This could create
a wealth ripple effect across Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi like you
(25:21):
would not imagine. President Trump signed an executive order Unleashing
American Energy five h six from one, but just one.
Speaker 4 (25:32):
That's unleashing American energy. Serve relates to using permitting processes
and other regulatory systems to ensure that we can produce
energy efficiently to drive the American economy forward.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
If you study World War Two, you find that one
of the great downfalls of Germany, which seduced them to
make very dumb strategic decisions militarily, was a lack of
sufficient energy. It's it's a problem Germany suffers from to
(26:05):
this day. Their dependence on Russia for energy to this
day causes them problems. The United States is the best
in the world at finding oil, getting to it, extracting it,
(26:27):
moving it, and refining it. There's nobody in the world
that even comes close to our expertise. Now, you don't
choose how much of it. You just happen to be
sitting on top of You don't, that's not a choice.
You may, but we do happen to be sitting on
a lot of it. And these fracking techniques, these these
(26:53):
forms of extraction that our intellectual capital discovered. It's amazing
these guys explain to me how they're going in to do.
If you've seen a Landman, they talk about a lot
of this, and people in the old patch will tell you, oh,
that's not reality. Okay, you only say that because it's
(27:16):
the first movie you've ever seen where they use terms
like workovers. Blowouts. Do you think that every cops scene
is exactly the way cops are or every loss scene
is exactly the way of the courtroom, Because it's not, but
it's closer to reality than anything you're ever going to see.
We are so good at energy, and energy is so
(27:42):
critical to your national security. We fight wars over it,
and you will lose wars if you don't have it.
We went from who was the woman from Minnesota, Michelle
She had fostered about twenty Bachmann's she was running for president,
I think twenty twelve. She said we could have two
(28:04):
dollars a gallon oil during the debate, and they laughed
at her. Oh, it's the most ridiculous thing ever by
the Trump. By the time Trump got elected, we had
two dollars oil, and I don't know if you remember,
we had John Hoffmeister, former president of Shell Oil on here.
There was a situation where oil had dropped so cheap
(28:27):
that there was a case where they were literally paying
people to take oil to offload it because they needed
the rail capacity. When the price of oil hits a
certain number where the oil patches making money, but we're
paying a lot less for it. It's good for all
the people in the industry and all those jobs. And
(28:49):
by the way, you talk about good paying jobs for
people that don't have college degrees, those are great jobs.
I had people in my family and a lot of
people I grew up with that went and did three
weeks on, three weeks off that went to offshore platforms.
I got one of my best buddies, Toby Schultz, is
(29:09):
in Midland right now. Works was working for Excell. He
was just telling me the other day that was asking
him for his report on Midland. Real smart guy, hardworking guy.
I've got classmates that are in Midland, Odessa, Permian Basin,
Iglefords Shell You. Here's a deal. We may not be
able to sell more shoes or more textiles or more
(29:33):
cameras overnight because the market is but the worldwide market
for energy is so far above what we are currently
producing buck could and we've got people in our country
who go, no, no, you can't do that. We don't
want you to do that. You're killing the earth. No
(29:53):
less fuel is purchased, whether we do it or somebody
else does it. Why wouldn't you want your native Mbers
to do well. When they do well, they fund the
Little League. They buy cars from you, They pay for
your little scholarships for your kid can go to school.
We should want to unleash American energy. And what you're
(30:14):
about to watch is you are about to watch Texas
take off. Oh, it's going to be good in Louisiana
as well. President Trump signed an executive order opening Alaska
for oil exploration, as he should. Five oh seven, mister Roblis.
Speaker 4 (30:30):
First three have Alaska, sir. This is an executive order
relating to unleashing Alaska's potential as an energy reservoir for.
Speaker 5 (30:36):
The entire nations.
Speaker 4 (30:37):
And what about NWAR, I believe that would be included
in aspects of the orders.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
En War is the African National Wildlife Reserve. I believe
that's what it stands for. The left, led by loonies,
doesn't want us to develop our own natural resource. We
are a resource rich nation. But if you don't monetize
(31:07):
that resource because you let people create a religion behind it,
then you end up, as we were doing, importing oil
from countries like Saudi Arabia and Cutter. You end up
giving Russia all the power. You end up Visa VI
(31:28):
China in a weakened position. And you cost yourself trillions
of dollars in economic development. Why would you do this
over the snail darter or some little thing or some
little thing there. President Trump. By the way, one of
the executive orders is to open up the watershed so
(31:50):
the natural water flow could be used for the La fires.
You didn't know that was an option, but it is now.
There will be the snail darter tree huggers who will say, oh,
my goodness, but there's one little bug that might go
in extinct. We don't know that. Well, how about how
many how many Americans? How many Los Angelinos went extinct
(32:15):
because they burned to death? How about that? You know,
these aren't the thing about it is what Trump's doing here.
This didn't require a PhD in energy or natural resources
or border security. He's just doing common sense things that
(32:37):
could simply be done with the stroke of a pen.
And you've been told for decades they couldn't. Politicians love
to tell you that a problem can't be solved because
it's too complex, too many moving parts, it's politically not feasible.
It would upset the wrong people. Trump is proving not
(32:59):
just Democrats, but Republicans are full of it. They don't
want to solve the problem. You know, tire makers have
made tires for sixty years that would last for a lifetime.
Once they discovered the technology, they ditched it because how
many tires.
Speaker 3 (33:15):
Would you buy?
Speaker 2 (33:17):
The planned obsolescence that makes up so much of the
manufacturing of consumer products that you use would blow your mind.
It's not that they can't make a product that would
last and you wouldn't have to throw away. It's that
they wouldn't make as much of a profit if they did.
I'm a capitalist through and through, and it is time
(33:38):
that America's energy is opened up. And I'm so grateful
to Donald Trump. Is hey, thank a first responder If
you see them, they're working long hours.
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