June 8, 2026 • 36 mins
Today on the Jimmy Barrett Show:
- Data centers in the Houston area
- How much fraud is there in America?
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Well, what we need is more common sense, more.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Common breaking down the world's nonsense about how American common sense.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
Will see us through with the common sense of Houston.
I'm just pro common sense for Houston. From Houston dot Com.
This is the Jimmy Barrett Show, brought to you by
viewind dot Com.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Now here's Jimmy Barrett.
Speaker 4 (00:31):
All right, we if we start today with the topic
I've really admitt I don't know as much about as
I would like to, and maybe it's something that bears
doing another story on. Maybe we should work on this
for a morning show over on kt r H. Data centers. Uh,
(00:52):
I know we have sixty two. I checked. I checked
on what's it Friday? Yeah, I checked on Friday. I
looked it up. We have like sixty two as in
data centers here in the Greater Houston area. We have
more popping up all the time. And I'm guessing we're
a big attractor for something like a data center because
we don't have any zoning laws, so there's nothing that
(01:15):
in the for the most part, there's nothing that really
can prevent them from coming in. I mean, you can
tell them you don't want them. I guess the community
could tell them we don't want you, and maybe they
would look for somewhere else. In fact, we're already seeing
that in Alvin. In fact, that let's start with that story.
In Alvin, the city council voted unanimously to let data
(01:38):
centers know that they're not really interested in having data
centers within the city limits of Alvin. I mean, technically,
I guess if the data center really wanted to happen,
there's only so much Alvin could do to fight it.
But they wanted to make sure that they understood that
they really didn't want to have them there. Here's the
report from our television partner, KPRC.
Speaker 5 (01:59):
Too.
Speaker 6 (01:59):
City typically bend over backwards to welcome new construction, businesses,
and development, but when it comes to data centers, it
seems there's not enough cities across Texas can do keep
them away.
Speaker 7 (02:11):
We don't want them to lower home value, we don't
want them to nuisance residents with noise, pollution or national
resource affected.
Speaker 6 (02:18):
Now Here in Elvin, there was a data center doing
some poking around, seeing that the city would even be
open to the idea of a data center on the
outskirts of town. Now it was nothing concrete but it
was more than enough to cause a stir and a
quick defense from the city, basically shutting down any and
all thoughts and ideas of a data center.
Speaker 8 (02:37):
Lead are aware that the data centers, you know, create noise, pollution,
other pollution.
Speaker 6 (02:41):
At Thursday's Alvin City Council meeting, the mayor introducing an
ordinance opposing any and all data centers. It's not often
everyone agrees on a single topic.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Motion passes unanimously.
Speaker 6 (02:52):
It puts on paper that we're opposed the data center
resigning up an area northwest of Elvin, between the city
and nearby.
Speaker 7 (02:57):
Manville, one hundred and two hundred acres. It was close
to two hundred megawatts day one, and it would scale
up to one gigawatt. Two hundred megawats is the daily
power consumption for the city of Alvin.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
So I wasn't a fan right away. What's your reaction
to that word data centers. It's a bad reaction. It's
a bad it's a bad reaction.
Speaker 6 (03:15):
Both Judy Miller and Jeffrey Adcock rely on well water
at their homes just a few miles up the street
in Manville.
Speaker 9 (03:21):
Yes, technology is wonderful, but I think they're letting it
get ahead of earth, the human.
Speaker 6 (03:27):
Yeah, I gotta ask you, is it a matter of
not in my backyard?
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Put these things in somebody else's backyard?
Speaker 7 (03:32):
It might not be fair, you know, I one hundred
percent agree with that. My first response is, I'm elected
to support Alvin residents.
Speaker 6 (03:39):
While the ordinance past here at Alvin isn't an outright
ban on data centers at all, it's just more of
a policy and opposition, and it.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Already seems to be working.
Speaker 6 (03:47):
The data center I'm told that was looking to build
here is already looking elsewhere.
Speaker 4 (03:52):
I wonder where that elsewhere is. Maybe it's in your backyard, maybe,
but in back your neighbor. Again, no zoning means that
you know, you can pretty much build these things, put
them up wherever you want to, wherever you can find
enough land in order to be able to put it up.
And here's what we do know about them. We know
(04:13):
that they stuck up a lot of resources. They use
a lot of electricity. I guess if they're coming in
and they're building their own little power plant to provide
for electricity needs, and that takes that issue off the table.
But if they're not, you just heard that report that
that data center, that one data center was going to
(04:35):
use right from the get go, as much power as
the entire city of Alvin uses. It would double the
power needs in the city of Alvin. Plus you get
all these reports of like a humming noises from the
equipment running. I don't know what it sounds like, to
be honest with you, but that could be annoying. They
(04:56):
use a tremendous amount of water in order to be
able to keep their equipment cooled off. If you are
in an area where you're primarily relying on well water,
that doesn't seem like that's a good idea for rural
areas to have well water being taken up by these
data centers. And then there's this guy who called this morning.
(05:18):
I don't really understand exactly what it is he's saying.
Maybe you do at ADR.
Speaker 10 (05:23):
This is Nick, I have direct industry knowledge when it
comes to these darn data centers.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
The amount of df D soul.
Speaker 11 (05:32):
And a ton of other stuff that comes from the.
Speaker 6 (05:35):
Midstream oil and gas industry, which I directly work.
Speaker 10 (05:37):
In, is intense, and I'm talking like disturbing amounts of stuff.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
I'm not sure what he what he means, I don't
nobody When he says DEFs, I don't know what that is.
So if somebody that can explain that to me, that'd
be great. Or maybe we need to get somebody on
who can explain exactly how data centers work and what
(06:09):
it sounds like he's talking about them omitting something. I
don't know if he's some sort of frequencies. Maybe that's
what he's talking about. I'm not quite sure, but he
makes it sound pretty ominous, doesn't he. Yeah, so maybe
we need to get somebody on our show who can
talk a little bit about how data centers operate, how
(06:29):
much power they consume, how much water they consume, what
are the pros and the cons I know a lot
more about constantly do about pros.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
What are the pros?
Speaker 4 (06:41):
Most of these data centers, I would think are automated,
at least the vast majority of it. So I don't
think it's a big job creator. It may be a
good tax revenue, although I have heard stories that there
are a lot of municipalities who have been offering tax
breaks in order to attract them. Anyone how big the
tax break is, then maybe you're not even getting a
(07:03):
big boost from that. So you'd have to really put
together a pro and a con list, I guess, like
anything else in life. Right, here are the pros, here
the cons. See which out ways which before you decide
whether or not this is something you want to support
or something you want to fight. All right, quick little
break back with more in a moment, Jimmy Bairt show
care on a nine fifty KPRC. All right, So now
(07:47):
that I've got worried about data centers opening up in
our backyard, let's worry about oil and gas. We still
do not have a resolution as it relates to the
strait of horror.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Mooz.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
We have cotton workm holding steady as far as gas
prices right now, but there is a potential shortage coming
that could drive up prices. Although I did see a
story today, to be fair, I did see a story
today that would seem to indicate that OPEK has agreed
to raise their production. I know that American refineries are
(08:23):
doing their best to raise their production to try to
make up for this this oil shortage. We have used
a lot of strategic oil in order to be able
to keep up with demand. In fact, here's the report
just listen to this guy, Mike Summers. Mike Summers has
been on our program before. He's the American Petroleum Institute.
(08:43):
Here is talking about a coming oil shortage that has
him concerned.
Speaker 12 (08:48):
We're at the point, Maria, where we should start getting
concerned about shortages in the United States because of the
fact that we are reaching a level of inventories that
we have not seen in many, many years. We're draining
the spr at about eight million barrels a week deesel inventories,
or a record lows. Since March, we've drained about thirty
(09:09):
eight million barrels of gasoline from our inventories. That's the
equivalent of the full summer driving season. So we're starting
to get concerned about where inventories are. Fortunately, American producers
are stepping up. You're starting to see rig counts go
up in response to this supply crisis.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
So at this point, we need to produce more.
Speaker 12 (09:31):
And fortunately President Trump's policies have really pushed producers to
produce more here in the United States, and we see
evidence of that every single day. And because we're now
producing more than thirteen point five million barrels of oil
a day, that has provided a buffer for American consumers
during this time of crisis, but it can't last forever,
(09:52):
which is why we're sounding the alarm on these inventories
going to record lows. We need to be very concerned
about that, particularly on the the East Coast and the
West Coast. On the West coast, you're already seeing it.
You see near six dollars gasoline.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
On the West Coast.
Speaker 12 (10:06):
Fortunately, President Trump put into place JONZAC waivers so we
can actually move product to and from the Gulf Coast
to the West Coast. The same is going to be
true on the East Coast as well. We should be
concerned about what prices are going to, what prices we're
going to see over the course of the next few weeks.
We have to solve this problem in the Strait of Hormuz. Fortunately,
(10:27):
American production has been a buffer for American consumers.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Okay, again, as Mike Summer's American Petroleum Institute.
Speaker 6 (10:35):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (10:36):
And of course, what you got to worry about is
whether or not you know that drags down the economy
along with it, Although it's hard to imagine that happening
right now. The main job numbers were so strong one
hundred and seventy two thousand. We'll get into the nuts
and bolts of where the jobs were. Is that the
job's report. It's just a number and it really doesn't
(10:56):
give you an inside look at where the job creation is.
But let's do this first. This is from the Big
Money Show over on Fox Business, marveling at one hundred
and seventy two thousand jobs graded in the month of bank.
Speaker 10 (11:08):
I thought the job market was okay for a while,
last month better. I'm a big believer in jobs that
the trend is your friend, and the trend is turning up,
simple as that, and let's hope it continues. I will
be happy when I see two fifty a month. That
will be real good. Now everybody's talking about the market
dropping today. I got two things for your number. One,
(11:29):
eighty percent of the market at least has been technology
stocks on this move up. Number Two, it's getting a
big haircut today because of how.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Big of a move up it is.
Speaker 10 (11:38):
And that's what you're seeing right now. The other part
of that equation is big part of the market, and
the president needs to know is easy money versus tighter money.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
That's what drives markets.
Speaker 10 (11:48):
We've had easy money, the money supply has been skyrocketing.
This will tend to slow that down. We'll get tighter.
The Fed doesn't need to raise rates. We'd four and
a half on the ten year. The FED funds is
a three and a half. That's a good spot. Growth
does not mean inflation. I'm amazed that so many people
say that if the Fed stood where, it is just
(12:09):
fine and dandy. As far as the market corrections happen,
it's normal. And if you look at the chart of
the semiconductors and some of the AI, vertical is the
word that comes to mind. So this type of pullback
is going to be harsh and probably has got some
more to go.
Speaker 4 (12:24):
Okay, all right, so you know he's talking about you know,
tech stocks, not really anything related Doyle that's having any
negative impact as far as the stock market goes all right.
On the jobs report, you know, let's let's get into
the nitty gritty of it. Herody's foundation, he kind of
e j Antonio, I guess on our program this morning
over on kat r H. You know, to help us
(12:46):
analyze the numbers, where where were the jobs coming from?
What kind of jobs? Were they full time or part time?
It's not just the number of jobs. That doesn't give
you much of a story. What gives you the story
is where are the jobs coming from, and are they
full time or our time? Are they good banging jobs
or not good bang jobs. Here's my conversation with EJ
and Tony. Why do you think that number was so high? Great,
(13:08):
great question, Jimmy. You know, there's a couple of reasons.
But I got to say, not only did you have
that good headline number in terms of the total number
of jobs added, but when we look at the survey
of households that's also within this report, that's where we
get things like the unemployment rate statistic from that showed
that the total number of people employed rose ninety nine thousand,
(13:28):
and that was the first positive move in terms of
month over month for this entire year. So that was
also a really, really good development. But to get back
to your question, so it looks like in May you
had a disproportionate amount of hiring coming from local government,
which was a bit unusual, and then you also had
a lot in healthcare and a lot in the leisure
(13:50):
and hospitality sector. My guess is, looking at that last
one that has to do with the World Cup Okay, Well,
that would be good news because up until now we
having hotel sales at least Aaron Houston and rather disappointing
ticket sales have been kind of disappointing. So it's nice
to know that the FIFA World Cup is adding to
the economy at least somewhere.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 11 (14:11):
Absolutely, And I think that also shows up too when
we break down in terms of kinds.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Of jobs being added.
Speaker 11 (14:18):
All of the job growth on net last month was
part time work. Now, ideally we don't see that. Ideally
we see a lot more full time work because we
want to see good, high paying jobs with benefits. So
one of the red flags in the report again was
the fact that full time jobs actually fell slightly month
over a month, and all of the net job growth
(14:39):
was part time.
Speaker 4 (14:40):
Okay, and you mentioned local government. Do we have any
idea what kind of jobs local government was hiring for
and why they're hiring more people.
Speaker 11 (14:47):
So this is one of those categories, Jimmy, where it's
actually really really hard to seasonally adjust during the summer
because you don't have the same kind of clear patterns
that you do with a lot of other data sets.
So don't be surprised if this actually gets revised down somewhat.
But that being said, if the numbers are really accurate,
(15:10):
then it looks like essentially what you're seeing right now
is local governments across the country making up for some
delayed hiring where they previously did not have the normal
level of hiring that we would have expected in the
first half or the first several months, i should say,
of the year, and now they're kind of.
Speaker 4 (15:29):
Playing catch up. All right, you mentioned leisure and hospitality.
I'm guessing that a lot of those are seasonal jobs
summer jobs.
Speaker 11 (15:36):
Well, theoretically, we've already adjusted for that in the data
now post COVID. Of course, some of these seasonal adjustments
have not done a very good job of representing what's
going on in the economy. That's part of the reason
why we've seen such dramatic revisions.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
In the data.
Speaker 11 (15:54):
But if we look at let's stretch it out, Jimmy,
So instead of just looking month over month, let's look
year over a year, and there you don't have to
worry about seasonal adjustments nearly as much.
Speaker 4 (16:06):
And if we look at.
Speaker 11 (16:07):
That in leisure and hospitality, that was the second fastest
growing sector.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
It was up one hundred and fifty.
Speaker 11 (16:12):
Thousand jobs year over year, So measuring from May of
twenty twenty five to May of twenty twenty six, the
only larger sector, of course, was healthcare that was up
over four hundred and fifty thousand over that same timeframe.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
Safe to say that healthcare is just one of those
categories that's going to keep growing and growing builder the
population gets. Don't you think.
Speaker 11 (16:35):
That's a really really big part of it, Absolutely, Jimmy.
But the other thing is that as we keep making
so many different advancements within the healthcare field and you're
able to treat so many more illnesses and diseases and
different infirmities, whatever the case may be, what's happening there
is the fact that it's attracting more and more people
(16:56):
to the field, not just to keep very old people healthy,
but also even among younger people, because again, you're coming
up with all these different cures, even for things like
childhood cancers, not just things like prostate cancer. Let's say
that's primarily affecting the silent.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Generation and baby boomers.
Speaker 11 (17:16):
So a lot of people think that healthcare is just
growing because all these baby boomers are retiring and going
into nursing homes. That's really not the whole story, okay.
Speaker 4 (17:26):
But the only thing that really concerns me about what
EJ said is that a lot of those jobs, the
majority of the jobs sounds like, are part time jobs.
They're not full time jobs. They're part time jobs. So
part time jobs, you know, generally don't pay much compared
to full time jobs. These might not be great paying jobs.
I mean, it's good that we've got these jobs, but
(17:48):
you know, better paying full time jobs, I think is
ultimately what you're looking for. The other thing concerns me
is all the local government jobs. You know, a little
bit of a concern too. All right, quick little break
back with born a moment, Jimmy Barrett AM nine fifty APRC.
(18:18):
All right, time to do a little crime. Let's do
a little crime and fraud segment. Fraud is crime. We'll
start with the fraud. Let's start with that. I really,
at this point, I wonder if the answer to how
much money has been stolen from American taxpayers through fraud
is closer to trillions versus billions of dollars. I'm glad
(18:40):
to see this administration working so hard on the issue,
and I'm glad to see that we finally have some
prosecutions that are happening. Latest comes from the Small Business Administration.
And this all this happened evidently during COVID, during the
COVID pandemic, when Congress authorized just an incredible sums of
money as economic stimulus for small business to be given
(19:06):
out in loans to small business. This is not money
that's supposed to be given away. This is money that's
supposed to be loaned out to keep small businesses afloat.
And as it turns out, there's a ton of fraud
in connection with that. And as it also turns out,
these are things that we should have seen coming because
(19:26):
the people applying for this. If if anybody had really
bothered within the Biden administration to check on these people,
they would have seen that some of the applicants were
like one hundred and fifteen years old. You're running a business,
a small business at age one hundred and fifteen. Yeah,
I don't think so, not so much so. Kelly Loffler,
(19:48):
who's the Small Business Administrator, saw her over the weekend
talking about this crackdown in Ohio to the tune of
something like twenty two point five billion dollars. It makes
you wonder that's that's one state. Thanks, you wonder how
much more's out there.
Speaker 13 (20:01):
If you remember, under COVID, one point two trillion dollars
in PPP and idle loans went out and it was
estimated by the Biden era Office of Inspector General that
two hundred billion was fraudulent. And then the Biden administration
proceeded to sweep that under the rug and try to
forget about it and make hard working taxpayers forgive criminal activity. Well,
(20:25):
in the Trump administration, thanks to the task force that
can you know, we've convened in the last sixty days,
we've had over five hundred and fifty law enforcement enforcements,
and we have gone state by state, as you said,
and now in Ohio yesterday, along with Acting Attorney General
Todd Blanche, we announced that there were twenty seven thousand
ohions suspended thanks to one point one trillion and fraudulent loans,
(20:50):
suspected fraudulent loans that we found. So we are going
state by state, and we have referred twenty two billion
dollars to the US Treasury for collections and to the
for enforcement.
Speaker 14 (21:01):
Wow, so you're saying it's one point one trillion dollars
in fraud.
Speaker 13 (21:05):
One point one trillion was the total COVID era pandemic relief.
Twenty two billion is what we've referred so far to
Treasury and to the DOJ. And we are just getting
started because we are going to go after the entire
two hundred billion of fraudulent lending that happened during COVID
And yesterday, you know, we announced even four indicement for indictments,
(21:28):
so it was for one point four million dollars, showing
that no amount of fraud is too small. If you
ripped off taxpayers, there's going to be accountability and you
may face jail time.
Speaker 10 (21:40):
And is this because just no one was watching?
Speaker 14 (21:42):
I mean, how do you allow all that fraud to
just go out the door?
Speaker 8 (21:47):
Was it that we did not have a focus and a.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Policing of any of this? Maria?
Speaker 13 (21:52):
There were three tranches of PPP and there was the
first one in March twenty twenty, but then when the
Biden administration came in, they forced out two more and
reduced the guardrails, but still borrowers attested that they needed
the money that they had.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
The employees and.
Speaker 13 (22:11):
The borrowers defrauded the American people by making false statements allegedly,
and so that's what we're looking at. That's what we're
working with the DOJ on. But look, we have changed
SBA's programs. Now for the first time in the history
of the agency, we require a birth date, we require
citizenship checks. We know that during the pandemic, hundreds of
millions went out to people over the age of one
(22:33):
hundred and fifteen years old. So it's guardrails are on
and we have to make sure that this never happens again.
Speaker 4 (22:41):
Yeah, yeah, never happens again. It always happens again. I know,
I'm real cimic when it comes to this, but doesn't
it always seem to happen again. It may not happen
with this administration, but it will happen with a future administration.
You're not going to keep the Democrats out forever. They'll
be back. They'll be back. They'll be stealing, all right.
(23:03):
That's that's that's crime, crime against all of us as
American taxpayers. Here's a different kind of crime. This is
and we've talked a little bit about this, but this
is a real hot button issue for me and maybe
it is for you. Too, because I believe in in
safety from crime, and I believe that criminals belong behind bars,
and I believe that if you are somebody who's been
(23:25):
accused of something like murder, we need to have a
more accountable system to know where you are and what
you're doing. I don't really believe that people who have
been accused of murder should be on an ankle monitor program.
I think we need to be doing a better job
at keeping tabs on these people. Probably should have them
in jail, especially if they try out to be a
(23:45):
flight risk, and we've had some very well publicized cases
of this. We had Andy Kahn from Crime Stoppers on
our program this morning to talk about all the holes
in the ankle monitoring business in Harris County because, as
it turns out, Harris County does not monitor those ankle
monitors twenty four to seven. As it also turns out,
(24:06):
been talking to Andy that if if something happens where
there's a it would appear that an ankle monitor's been
tappered with at five o'clock on a Friday that doesn't
even get reported until Monday, Well by Monday, they could
be all across the world. Here's my conversation this morning
with Andy Kahn, who should be eligible to have an
ankle bracelet?
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Well, Jimmy.
Speaker 5 (24:26):
Unfortunately, if you bought stock in ankle monitors, you got
one hell of an investment because the numbers have doubled
and in some cases tripled over the last few years.
Used to be just a couple thousand people who were
on bond were given an ankle monitor put on GPS,
and that number has gone close to over ten thousand
(24:47):
defendants right now.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
So it's a big, big issue.
Speaker 8 (24:51):
The way I kind of describe any defendant having an
ankle monitor, wearing an ankle monitor is as good as
the person who wants to honor it.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
They want to honor it. It's the greatest tool in
the world.
Speaker 8 (25:04):
But guess what if they don't want to honor it,
there is nothing you can do to prevent them from
removing it.
Speaker 4 (25:10):
And that is the problem I have with the legal system.
They don't seem to be putting any thought into who
is likely to honor that ankle monitor and who isn't.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Yeah, pretty much so.
Speaker 8 (25:22):
So Obviously, we had some hot profile cases over the
last few months, including Lee Gilly, who removed his ankle
monitor on a Friday and then managed to get in
Italy by Monday. But the big issue to me was
the fact that Harris County pre Trial Services stated on
the record that they don't notify authorities, the courts, law
(25:45):
enforcement until the next business day. So here you had
a defendant on bond for capital murder of his pregnant
wife on an ankle monitor that removed it Friday afternoon,
and no one gets notified until Monday. So the message
you're sending other defendants on an ankle monitor is, if
(26:06):
you want to go ahead and remove your ankle monitor,
your best bet is on a Friday, because we're not
going to.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
Let anybody know until Monday. That's absurd.
Speaker 4 (26:14):
So you're telling me that they're running bankers hours there.
If it happens Monday through Friday between nine and five,
maybe he'll get handled. But if it happens at any
other time, forget about it.
Speaker 8 (26:25):
If it happens on a Friday, authorities aren't going to
get notified until Monday.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
And here's the real trucks of this.
Speaker 8 (26:32):
You know, the two guys that have made the news.
You know that's not an anomaly. We've seen this happen
multiple times and It's particularly tedious when a defendant is
getting really close to a jury trial. So we had
another defendant who was waiting at jury trial was supposed
to start in a few days, and he just decided,
(26:53):
you know, and this isn't looking too good for me,
I'm out of here, removed his ankle monitor. Nobody was no,
nobody knew about it.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
And that that was years ago. I found it just
by just.
Speaker 8 (27:06):
Doing some digging on capital murder suspects and I'm looking
going okay, So was any alerts put out? Was there
any press releases saying jer Corey Randolph is wanted he
was charged with capital or murder and removed his ankle
monitor before he could be sentenced.
Speaker 4 (27:25):
That was in twenty twenty three. That's graying. That's crazy,
absolutely crazy. So you were mentioning we've had like ten
thousand defendant who have gone on these ankle monitors? Is
it because I know what it must be? The the
jails overcrowded, right, Andy conn There's just we have no
place to put any of these people. It's not because
we don't want to punish them. We just don't have
(27:45):
any place to put them.
Speaker 8 (27:47):
Now you have a lot, it's Basically, you're giving a
false sense of security when you're being put in an
ankle monitors seat all the time, and he's going to
be put on an ankle monitor in under house arrests
and quote under supervision, which sounds good on the news,
but the reality is you're not really supervising anyone. It's
not like it's twenty four to seven. It's not like
(28:08):
if there is a tamper alert that someone's gonna immediately
come out and check to see if you still have
your ankle monitor on. One of the suggestions that I
have is that when defendants are getting really close to
actually coming to trial, is there needs to be kind
of a twenty four to seven approach to any defendant
(28:32):
wearing an ankle monitor who is facing a trial, because
basically you're looking at someone that's going to recognize that
they're going to be spending, if they're convicted, a large
amount of time in prison. So that's where things kind
of go a little bit skewery for defendants who just
don't want to go to prison.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
So you know, that needs to change.
Speaker 4 (28:54):
The Police Department operates twenty four or seven nine one
operates twenty four seven. Why can't we have the like
Monitoring Operate twenty four to seven.
Speaker 8 (29:03):
Because that's logic in criminal justice and logic here's one
of my favorite things, and I got a lot of
them because I've been around. Criminal justice and logic are
often oxymoronic terms that have difficult times meeting each other,
and you're seeing.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Living proof of that with Ankle Monitors.
Speaker 4 (29:23):
There you go. It don't make no sense. I guess
it's never going to quick li a break back with
Born of Mom. Final segment coming up, Jimmy verchow Am
nine fifty KPRC. All right, but I want to share
(29:49):
this with you. We haven't done much in the way
of politics on the show today. I just want to
share this with you because the audio is so good.
It's from Fox News Sunday. They were talking about Graham Platner.
I guess everybody seemingly knows who this guy is now
if you're not aware of the name, it's the Democrat
Senate candidate in Maine, the guy who has the Nazi
(30:12):
tattoo on his chest, the guy that's been accused of
abusing women and you know, being a big trime drinker,
and well, you know, just all kinds of things that
you would think, from a character's standpoint, wouldn't really qualify
him to be a United States Senator. But the Democrats
(30:32):
are sticking with this guy, and presumably he will have
an opportunity to win in November. We shall see what
happens with that. There have been a few Bill Maher
types who've come out against him, but James Carville, we'll
start with it. This starts with the James Carvill cut
explaining why, despite all the character flaws, he's more than
(30:53):
happy to support this guy. And the answer is really
quite simple, because he's not a Republican. So if he's
a Democrat, Evidently, to a Democrat it doesn't matter what
his character flaws are. Is the only fatal character flaw
for any politician is to be a Republican. So it
starts with James Carvel in reaction to it on Fox
New Sunday.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
We got a step guy who he could be one
hundred times more step than he is. He'd never be
as stuff as what we got in Washington now anyway,
Milly Well.
Speaker 9 (31:24):
James Carville went on to say he'd be saying the
exact opposite about his support for this candidate if he
were a Republican, which there's some honesty there. But the
Democratic Party has this issue. They have been unable to
attract white voters, male voters. They think that putting someone
forward who purports to be a populist is a way
to capture that vote. It's unclear whether Graham Platner is
(31:44):
an actual populist. I haven't really seen him differ from
the typical establishment Democrat party on many issues. But the
idea that voters in Maine will have to accept someone
with a literal Nazi tattoo, with a past of a
bad treatment of girlfriends, and he's only been married a
couple of years and he's sexting with all these other women.
It would be one thing to ask them to do
(32:06):
this if they had a problem with their current representation.
But Susan Collins is truly the most moderate member of
the United States Senate and has done a good job
with constituent services.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
So whether he will win, you know, and she.
Speaker 9 (32:18):
Has a very good track record of defeating opponents, so
whether he'll be able to pull it off in November
is another thing entirely well.
Speaker 14 (32:24):
And it's a big issue for Democrats obviously, if they
want to retake the Senate. This is kind of one
of those critical seats they have to get. But you
heard when I was asking sed Or Werner about I
could not get a straight answer from him about whether
or not he's going to support him if he wins
the primary.
Speaker 15 (32:36):
Well, I think that he will, and I think the
Democrats will support Graham Platner because should they. At the
end of the day, Susan Collins has done horrible things
in the United States that Democrats will argue she helped
was one of the key votes to get Brett Kavanaugh confirmed,
got helped grow versus weight get overturned.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
So I think, why.
Speaker 9 (32:54):
Would it be bad to support Brett Kavanaugh? I think
arguing for Graham Plattner.
Speaker 15 (32:59):
But what I am saying is that voters have told
us over and over again that policy matters than personal character.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
Whether it's Donald Trump or Ken Paxton.
Speaker 15 (33:09):
The Republican candidate for Senate in Texas with huge issues
in his personal life with his divorce and with women
in general, voters have told us they care about their
policy preferences and when it comes to who supports women.
The reason I bring up Britt Cavanaugh or Roe versus
Wait is if we're going to talk about who supports
women more. Democrats are going to make the case that
Susan Collins has not stood by women.
Speaker 4 (33:30):
So in other words, you know, it's the Ken Paxton
reference there that that's rapidly becoming a stock answer with
Democrats over this Grand Platner. Well, you have Ken Paxton,
he cheated on his wife, he doesn't have good character,
blah blah blah, but you voted for it because you
(33:51):
like his policies. Well, same thing for Graham Platner. He
may not yo, he may not treat women that well,
and he may have a Nazi tattoo, but he has
good policies. And you know what, maybe they have a
little bit of an argument there. I mean, if you
want to compare apples to affles, Now, is Ken Paxton
(34:14):
anything approaching Graham Platter No, he's not.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
He doesn't.
Speaker 4 (34:16):
He doesn't have a Nazi simple tattooed anywhere on his
body as far as I know. And he may have
had a falling out in a nasty divorce with his wife,
but that doesn't mean that he treats all women badly.
So But but you see what we're doing here, We're
comparing one set of sins against another set of sins.
Used to be a time where, at all levels hard
(34:40):
to believe, but at all levels of politics, character mattered.
I don't know that character matters that much anymore. Character
still matters to me, It still matters to the way
I conduct my own personal life. But I'm rapidly beginn
to believe that I might be rapidly headed towards the
(35:03):
minority on this one. That if we like somebody, what
somebody stands for from a political standpoint, or we like
other things about them, maybe we think they're a great actor.
For example, we don't like their politics, but we think
they're a great actor. So and we don't you know,
we know that they're sleeves bag in their personal life,
but hey, on camera, they're really really good. I really
(35:25):
like his movies. We're kind of doing the same thing
now with politicians.
Speaker 5 (35:30):
You know.
Speaker 4 (35:31):
You know, I agree he's got some character problems, but
I really like his policies. I really like the fact
he's a fighter. So characters becoming less and less of
an issue, it seems, in virtually every walk of life.
You know, it's like we've taken the phrase, you know,
don't judge me and we've taken it now to the extreme.
We're not willing to judge anybody based on their character.
(35:54):
All right, We'll have to leave it at that for today.
Thank you for listening. I do appreciate it. See you
tomorrow morning, bright, early five a m over on news
Radio seven forty k t r H. We are back
here at four on a m nine fifty k t
r C.
Speaker 11 (36:14):
The
Well, what we need is more common sense, more.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Common breaking down the world's nonsense about how American common sense.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
Will see us through with the common sense of Houston.
I'm just pro common sense for Houston. From Houston dot Com.
This is the Jimmy Barrett Show, brought to you by
viewind dot Com.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Now here's Jimmy Barrett.
Speaker 4 (00:31):
All right, we if we start today with the topic
I've really admitt I don't know as much about as
I would like to, and maybe it's something that bears
doing another story on. Maybe we should work on this
for a morning show over on kt r H. Data centers. Uh,
(00:52):
I know we have sixty two. I checked. I checked
on what's it Friday? Yeah, I checked on Friday. I
looked it up. We have like sixty two as in
data centers here in the Greater Houston area. We have
more popping up all the time. And I'm guessing we're
a big attractor for something like a data center because
we don't have any zoning laws, so there's nothing that
(01:15):
in the for the most part, there's nothing that really
can prevent them from coming in. I mean, you can
tell them you don't want them. I guess the community
could tell them we don't want you, and maybe they
would look for somewhere else. In fact, we're already seeing
that in Alvin. In fact, that let's start with that story.
In Alvin, the city council voted unanimously to let data
(01:38):
centers know that they're not really interested in having data
centers within the city limits of Alvin. I mean, technically,
I guess if the data center really wanted to happen,
there's only so much Alvin could do to fight it.
But they wanted to make sure that they understood that
they really didn't want to have them there. Here's the
report from our television partner, KPRC.
Speaker 5 (01:59):
Too.
Speaker 6 (01:59):
City typically bend over backwards to welcome new construction, businesses,
and development, but when it comes to data centers, it
seems there's not enough cities across Texas can do keep
them away.
Speaker 7 (02:11):
We don't want them to lower home value, we don't
want them to nuisance residents with noise, pollution or national
resource affected.
Speaker 6 (02:18):
Now Here in Elvin, there was a data center doing
some poking around, seeing that the city would even be
open to the idea of a data center on the
outskirts of town. Now it was nothing concrete but it
was more than enough to cause a stir and a
quick defense from the city, basically shutting down any and
all thoughts and ideas of a data center.
Speaker 8 (02:37):
Lead are aware that the data centers, you know, create noise, pollution,
other pollution.
Speaker 6 (02:41):
At Thursday's Alvin City Council meeting, the mayor introducing an
ordinance opposing any and all data centers. It's not often
everyone agrees on a single topic.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Motion passes unanimously.
Speaker 6 (02:52):
It puts on paper that we're opposed the data center
resigning up an area northwest of Elvin, between the city
and nearby.
Speaker 7 (02:57):
Manville, one hundred and two hundred acres. It was close
to two hundred megawatts day one, and it would scale
up to one gigawatt. Two hundred megawats is the daily
power consumption for the city of Alvin.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
So I wasn't a fan right away. What's your reaction
to that word data centers. It's a bad reaction. It's
a bad it's a bad reaction.
Speaker 6 (03:15):
Both Judy Miller and Jeffrey Adcock rely on well water
at their homes just a few miles up the street
in Manville.
Speaker 9 (03:21):
Yes, technology is wonderful, but I think they're letting it
get ahead of earth, the human.
Speaker 6 (03:27):
Yeah, I gotta ask you, is it a matter of
not in my backyard?
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Put these things in somebody else's backyard?
Speaker 7 (03:32):
It might not be fair, you know, I one hundred
percent agree with that. My first response is, I'm elected
to support Alvin residents.
Speaker 6 (03:39):
While the ordinance past here at Alvin isn't an outright
ban on data centers at all, it's just more of
a policy and opposition, and it.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Already seems to be working.
Speaker 6 (03:47):
The data center I'm told that was looking to build
here is already looking elsewhere.
Speaker 4 (03:52):
I wonder where that elsewhere is. Maybe it's in your backyard, maybe,
but in back your neighbor. Again, no zoning means that
you know, you can pretty much build these things, put
them up wherever you want to, wherever you can find
enough land in order to be able to put it up.
And here's what we do know about them. We know
(04:13):
that they stuck up a lot of resources. They use
a lot of electricity. I guess if they're coming in
and they're building their own little power plant to provide
for electricity needs, and that takes that issue off the table.
But if they're not, you just heard that report that
that data center, that one data center was going to
(04:35):
use right from the get go, as much power as
the entire city of Alvin uses. It would double the
power needs in the city of Alvin. Plus you get
all these reports of like a humming noises from the
equipment running. I don't know what it sounds like, to
be honest with you, but that could be annoying. They
(04:56):
use a tremendous amount of water in order to be
able to keep their equipment cooled off. If you are
in an area where you're primarily relying on well water,
that doesn't seem like that's a good idea for rural
areas to have well water being taken up by these
data centers. And then there's this guy who called this morning.
(05:18):
I don't really understand exactly what it is he's saying.
Maybe you do at ADR.
Speaker 10 (05:23):
This is Nick, I have direct industry knowledge when it
comes to these darn data centers.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
The amount of df D soul.
Speaker 11 (05:32):
And a ton of other stuff that comes from the.
Speaker 6 (05:35):
Midstream oil and gas industry, which I directly work.
Speaker 10 (05:37):
In, is intense, and I'm talking like disturbing amounts of stuff.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
I'm not sure what he what he means, I don't
nobody When he says DEFs, I don't know what that is.
So if somebody that can explain that to me, that'd
be great. Or maybe we need to get somebody on
who can explain exactly how data centers work and what
(06:09):
it sounds like he's talking about them omitting something. I
don't know if he's some sort of frequencies. Maybe that's
what he's talking about. I'm not quite sure, but he
makes it sound pretty ominous, doesn't he. Yeah, so maybe
we need to get somebody on our show who can
talk a little bit about how data centers operate, how
(06:29):
much power they consume, how much water they consume, what
are the pros and the cons I know a lot
more about constantly do about pros.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
What are the pros?
Speaker 4 (06:41):
Most of these data centers, I would think are automated,
at least the vast majority of it. So I don't
think it's a big job creator. It may be a
good tax revenue, although I have heard stories that there
are a lot of municipalities who have been offering tax
breaks in order to attract them. Anyone how big the
tax break is, then maybe you're not even getting a
(07:03):
big boost from that. So you'd have to really put
together a pro and a con list, I guess, like
anything else in life. Right, here are the pros, here
the cons. See which out ways which before you decide
whether or not this is something you want to support
or something you want to fight. All right, quick little
break back with more in a moment, Jimmy Bairt show
care on a nine fifty KPRC. All right, So now
(07:47):
that I've got worried about data centers opening up in
our backyard, let's worry about oil and gas. We still
do not have a resolution as it relates to the
strait of horror.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Mooz.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
We have cotton workm holding steady as far as gas
prices right now, but there is a potential shortage coming
that could drive up prices. Although I did see a
story today, to be fair, I did see a story
today that would seem to indicate that OPEK has agreed
to raise their production. I know that American refineries are
(08:23):
doing their best to raise their production to try to
make up for this this oil shortage. We have used
a lot of strategic oil in order to be able
to keep up with demand. In fact, here's the report
just listen to this guy, Mike Summers. Mike Summers has
been on our program before. He's the American Petroleum Institute.
(08:43):
Here is talking about a coming oil shortage that has
him concerned.
Speaker 12 (08:48):
We're at the point, Maria, where we should start getting
concerned about shortages in the United States because of the
fact that we are reaching a level of inventories that
we have not seen in many, many years. We're draining
the spr at about eight million barrels a week deesel inventories,
or a record lows. Since March, we've drained about thirty
(09:09):
eight million barrels of gasoline from our inventories. That's the
equivalent of the full summer driving season. So we're starting
to get concerned about where inventories are. Fortunately, American producers
are stepping up. You're starting to see rig counts go
up in response to this supply crisis.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
So at this point, we need to produce more.
Speaker 12 (09:31):
And fortunately President Trump's policies have really pushed producers to
produce more here in the United States, and we see
evidence of that every single day. And because we're now
producing more than thirteen point five million barrels of oil
a day, that has provided a buffer for American consumers
during this time of crisis, but it can't last forever,
(09:52):
which is why we're sounding the alarm on these inventories
going to record lows. We need to be very concerned
about that, particularly on the the East Coast and the
West Coast. On the West coast, you're already seeing it.
You see near six dollars gasoline.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
On the West Coast.
Speaker 12 (10:06):
Fortunately, President Trump put into place JONZAC waivers so we
can actually move product to and from the Gulf Coast
to the West Coast. The same is going to be
true on the East Coast as well. We should be
concerned about what prices are going to, what prices we're
going to see over the course of the next few weeks.
We have to solve this problem in the Strait of Hormuz. Fortunately,
(10:27):
American production has been a buffer for American consumers.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Okay, again, as Mike Summer's American Petroleum Institute.
Speaker 6 (10:35):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (10:36):
And of course, what you got to worry about is
whether or not you know that drags down the economy
along with it, Although it's hard to imagine that happening
right now. The main job numbers were so strong one
hundred and seventy two thousand. We'll get into the nuts
and bolts of where the jobs were. Is that the
job's report. It's just a number and it really doesn't
(10:56):
give you an inside look at where the job creation is.
But let's do this first. This is from the Big
Money Show over on Fox Business, marveling at one hundred
and seventy two thousand jobs graded in the month of bank.
Speaker 10 (11:08):
I thought the job market was okay for a while,
last month better. I'm a big believer in jobs that
the trend is your friend, and the trend is turning up,
simple as that, and let's hope it continues. I will
be happy when I see two fifty a month. That
will be real good. Now everybody's talking about the market
dropping today. I got two things for your number. One,
(11:29):
eighty percent of the market at least has been technology
stocks on this move up. Number Two, it's getting a
big haircut today because of how.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Big of a move up it is.
Speaker 10 (11:38):
And that's what you're seeing right now. The other part
of that equation is big part of the market, and
the president needs to know is easy money versus tighter money.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
That's what drives markets.
Speaker 10 (11:48):
We've had easy money, the money supply has been skyrocketing.
This will tend to slow that down. We'll get tighter.
The Fed doesn't need to raise rates. We'd four and
a half on the ten year. The FED funds is
a three and a half. That's a good spot. Growth
does not mean inflation. I'm amazed that so many people
say that if the Fed stood where, it is just
(12:09):
fine and dandy. As far as the market corrections happen,
it's normal. And if you look at the chart of
the semiconductors and some of the AI, vertical is the
word that comes to mind. So this type of pullback
is going to be harsh and probably has got some
more to go.
Speaker 4 (12:24):
Okay, all right, so you know he's talking about you know,
tech stocks, not really anything related Doyle that's having any
negative impact as far as the stock market goes all right.
On the jobs report, you know, let's let's get into
the nitty gritty of it. Herody's foundation, he kind of
e j Antonio, I guess on our program this morning
over on kat r H. You know, to help us
(12:46):
analyze the numbers, where where were the jobs coming from?
What kind of jobs? Were they full time or part time?
It's not just the number of jobs. That doesn't give
you much of a story. What gives you the story
is where are the jobs coming from, and are they
full time or our time? Are they good banging jobs
or not good bang jobs. Here's my conversation with EJ
and Tony. Why do you think that number was so high? Great,
(13:08):
great question, Jimmy. You know, there's a couple of reasons.
But I got to say, not only did you have
that good headline number in terms of the total number
of jobs added, but when we look at the survey
of households that's also within this report, that's where we
get things like the unemployment rate statistic from that showed
that the total number of people employed rose ninety nine thousand,
(13:28):
and that was the first positive move in terms of
month over month for this entire year. So that was
also a really, really good development. But to get back
to your question, so it looks like in May you
had a disproportionate amount of hiring coming from local government,
which was a bit unusual, and then you also had
a lot in healthcare and a lot in the leisure
(13:50):
and hospitality sector. My guess is, looking at that last
one that has to do with the World Cup Okay, Well,
that would be good news because up until now we
having hotel sales at least Aaron Houston and rather disappointing
ticket sales have been kind of disappointing. So it's nice
to know that the FIFA World Cup is adding to
the economy at least somewhere.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 11 (14:11):
Absolutely, And I think that also shows up too when
we break down in terms of kinds.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Of jobs being added.
Speaker 11 (14:18):
All of the job growth on net last month was
part time work. Now, ideally we don't see that. Ideally
we see a lot more full time work because we
want to see good, high paying jobs with benefits. So
one of the red flags in the report again was
the fact that full time jobs actually fell slightly month
over a month, and all of the net job growth
(14:39):
was part time.
Speaker 4 (14:40):
Okay, and you mentioned local government. Do we have any
idea what kind of jobs local government was hiring for
and why they're hiring more people.
Speaker 11 (14:47):
So this is one of those categories, Jimmy, where it's
actually really really hard to seasonally adjust during the summer
because you don't have the same kind of clear patterns
that you do with a lot of other data sets.
So don't be surprised if this actually gets revised down somewhat.
But that being said, if the numbers are really accurate,
(15:10):
then it looks like essentially what you're seeing right now
is local governments across the country making up for some
delayed hiring where they previously did not have the normal
level of hiring that we would have expected in the
first half or the first several months, i should say,
of the year, and now they're kind of.
Speaker 4 (15:29):
Playing catch up. All right, you mentioned leisure and hospitality.
I'm guessing that a lot of those are seasonal jobs
summer jobs.
Speaker 11 (15:36):
Well, theoretically, we've already adjusted for that in the data
now post COVID. Of course, some of these seasonal adjustments
have not done a very good job of representing what's
going on in the economy. That's part of the reason
why we've seen such dramatic revisions.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
In the data.
Speaker 11 (15:54):
But if we look at let's stretch it out, Jimmy,
So instead of just looking month over month, let's look
year over a year, and there you don't have to
worry about seasonal adjustments nearly as much.
Speaker 4 (16:06):
And if we look at.
Speaker 11 (16:07):
That in leisure and hospitality, that was the second fastest
growing sector.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
It was up one hundred and fifty.
Speaker 11 (16:12):
Thousand jobs year over year, So measuring from May of
twenty twenty five to May of twenty twenty six, the
only larger sector, of course, was healthcare that was up
over four hundred and fifty thousand over that same timeframe.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
Safe to say that healthcare is just one of those
categories that's going to keep growing and growing builder the
population gets. Don't you think.
Speaker 11 (16:35):
That's a really really big part of it, Absolutely, Jimmy.
But the other thing is that as we keep making
so many different advancements within the healthcare field and you're
able to treat so many more illnesses and diseases and
different infirmities, whatever the case may be, what's happening there
is the fact that it's attracting more and more people
(16:56):
to the field, not just to keep very old people healthy,
but also even among younger people, because again, you're coming
up with all these different cures, even for things like
childhood cancers, not just things like prostate cancer. Let's say
that's primarily affecting the silent.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Generation and baby boomers.
Speaker 11 (17:16):
So a lot of people think that healthcare is just
growing because all these baby boomers are retiring and going
into nursing homes. That's really not the whole story, okay.
Speaker 4 (17:26):
But the only thing that really concerns me about what
EJ said is that a lot of those jobs, the
majority of the jobs sounds like, are part time jobs.
They're not full time jobs. They're part time jobs. So
part time jobs, you know, generally don't pay much compared
to full time jobs. These might not be great paying jobs.
I mean, it's good that we've got these jobs, but
(17:48):
you know, better paying full time jobs, I think is
ultimately what you're looking for. The other thing concerns me
is all the local government jobs. You know, a little
bit of a concern too. All right, quick little break
back with born a moment, Jimmy Barrett AM nine fifty APRC.
(18:18):
All right, time to do a little crime. Let's do
a little crime and fraud segment. Fraud is crime. We'll
start with the fraud. Let's start with that. I really,
at this point, I wonder if the answer to how
much money has been stolen from American taxpayers through fraud
is closer to trillions versus billions of dollars. I'm glad
(18:40):
to see this administration working so hard on the issue,
and I'm glad to see that we finally have some
prosecutions that are happening. Latest comes from the Small Business Administration.
And this all this happened evidently during COVID, during the
COVID pandemic, when Congress authorized just an incredible sums of
money as economic stimulus for small business to be given
(19:06):
out in loans to small business. This is not money
that's supposed to be given away. This is money that's
supposed to be loaned out to keep small businesses afloat.
And as it turns out, there's a ton of fraud
in connection with that. And as it also turns out,
these are things that we should have seen coming because
(19:26):
the people applying for this. If if anybody had really
bothered within the Biden administration to check on these people,
they would have seen that some of the applicants were
like one hundred and fifteen years old. You're running a business,
a small business at age one hundred and fifteen. Yeah,
I don't think so, not so much so. Kelly Loffler,
(19:48):
who's the Small Business Administrator, saw her over the weekend
talking about this crackdown in Ohio to the tune of
something like twenty two point five billion dollars. It makes
you wonder that's that's one state. Thanks, you wonder how
much more's out there.
Speaker 13 (20:01):
If you remember, under COVID, one point two trillion dollars
in PPP and idle loans went out and it was
estimated by the Biden era Office of Inspector General that
two hundred billion was fraudulent. And then the Biden administration
proceeded to sweep that under the rug and try to
forget about it and make hard working taxpayers forgive criminal activity. Well,
(20:25):
in the Trump administration, thanks to the task force that
can you know, we've convened in the last sixty days,
we've had over five hundred and fifty law enforcement enforcements,
and we have gone state by state, as you said,
and now in Ohio yesterday, along with Acting Attorney General
Todd Blanche, we announced that there were twenty seven thousand
ohions suspended thanks to one point one trillion and fraudulent loans,
(20:50):
suspected fraudulent loans that we found. So we are going
state by state, and we have referred twenty two billion
dollars to the US Treasury for collections and to the
for enforcement.
Speaker 14 (21:01):
Wow, so you're saying it's one point one trillion dollars
in fraud.
Speaker 13 (21:05):
One point one trillion was the total COVID era pandemic relief.
Twenty two billion is what we've referred so far to
Treasury and to the DOJ. And we are just getting
started because we are going to go after the entire
two hundred billion of fraudulent lending that happened during COVID
And yesterday, you know, we announced even four indicement for indictments,
(21:28):
so it was for one point four million dollars, showing
that no amount of fraud is too small. If you
ripped off taxpayers, there's going to be accountability and you
may face jail time.
Speaker 10 (21:40):
And is this because just no one was watching?
Speaker 14 (21:42):
I mean, how do you allow all that fraud to
just go out the door?
Speaker 8 (21:47):
Was it that we did not have a focus and a.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Policing of any of this? Maria?
Speaker 13 (21:52):
There were three tranches of PPP and there was the
first one in March twenty twenty, but then when the
Biden administration came in, they forced out two more and
reduced the guardrails, but still borrowers attested that they needed
the money that they had.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
The employees and.
Speaker 13 (22:11):
The borrowers defrauded the American people by making false statements allegedly,
and so that's what we're looking at. That's what we're
working with the DOJ on. But look, we have changed
SBA's programs. Now for the first time in the history
of the agency, we require a birth date, we require
citizenship checks. We know that during the pandemic, hundreds of
millions went out to people over the age of one
(22:33):
hundred and fifteen years old. So it's guardrails are on
and we have to make sure that this never happens again.
Speaker 4 (22:41):
Yeah, yeah, never happens again. It always happens again. I know,
I'm real cimic when it comes to this, but doesn't
it always seem to happen again. It may not happen
with this administration, but it will happen with a future administration.
You're not going to keep the Democrats out forever. They'll
be back. They'll be back. They'll be stealing, all right.
(23:03):
That's that's that's crime, crime against all of us as
American taxpayers. Here's a different kind of crime. This is
and we've talked a little bit about this, but this
is a real hot button issue for me and maybe
it is for you. Too, because I believe in in
safety from crime, and I believe that criminals belong behind bars,
and I believe that if you are somebody who's been
(23:25):
accused of something like murder, we need to have a
more accountable system to know where you are and what
you're doing. I don't really believe that people who have
been accused of murder should be on an ankle monitor program.
I think we need to be doing a better job
at keeping tabs on these people. Probably should have them
in jail, especially if they try out to be a
(23:45):
flight risk, and we've had some very well publicized cases
of this. We had Andy Kahn from Crime Stoppers on
our program this morning to talk about all the holes
in the ankle monitoring business in Harris County because, as
it turns out, Harris County does not monitor those ankle
monitors twenty four to seven. As it also turns out,
(24:06):
been talking to Andy that if if something happens where
there's a it would appear that an ankle monitor's been
tappered with at five o'clock on a Friday that doesn't
even get reported until Monday, Well by Monday, they could
be all across the world. Here's my conversation this morning
with Andy Kahn, who should be eligible to have an
ankle bracelet?
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Well, Jimmy.
Speaker 5 (24:26):
Unfortunately, if you bought stock in ankle monitors, you got
one hell of an investment because the numbers have doubled
and in some cases tripled over the last few years.
Used to be just a couple thousand people who were
on bond were given an ankle monitor put on GPS,
and that number has gone close to over ten thousand
(24:47):
defendants right now.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
So it's a big, big issue.
Speaker 8 (24:51):
The way I kind of describe any defendant having an
ankle monitor, wearing an ankle monitor is as good as
the person who wants to honor it.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
They want to honor it. It's the greatest tool in
the world.
Speaker 8 (25:04):
But guess what if they don't want to honor it,
there is nothing you can do to prevent them from
removing it.
Speaker 4 (25:10):
And that is the problem I have with the legal system.
They don't seem to be putting any thought into who
is likely to honor that ankle monitor and who isn't.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Yeah, pretty much so.
Speaker 8 (25:22):
So Obviously, we had some hot profile cases over the
last few months, including Lee Gilly, who removed his ankle
monitor on a Friday and then managed to get in
Italy by Monday. But the big issue to me was
the fact that Harris County pre Trial Services stated on
the record that they don't notify authorities, the courts, law
(25:45):
enforcement until the next business day. So here you had
a defendant on bond for capital murder of his pregnant
wife on an ankle monitor that removed it Friday afternoon,
and no one gets notified until Monday. So the message
you're sending other defendants on an ankle monitor is, if
(26:06):
you want to go ahead and remove your ankle monitor,
your best bet is on a Friday, because we're not
going to.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
Let anybody know until Monday. That's absurd.
Speaker 4 (26:14):
So you're telling me that they're running bankers hours there.
If it happens Monday through Friday between nine and five,
maybe he'll get handled. But if it happens at any
other time, forget about it.
Speaker 8 (26:25):
If it happens on a Friday, authorities aren't going to
get notified until Monday.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
And here's the real trucks of this.
Speaker 8 (26:32):
You know, the two guys that have made the news.
You know that's not an anomaly. We've seen this happen
multiple times and It's particularly tedious when a defendant is
getting really close to a jury trial. So we had
another defendant who was waiting at jury trial was supposed
to start in a few days, and he just decided,
(26:53):
you know, and this isn't looking too good for me,
I'm out of here, removed his ankle monitor. Nobody was no,
nobody knew about it.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
And that that was years ago. I found it just
by just.
Speaker 8 (27:06):
Doing some digging on capital murder suspects and I'm looking
going okay, So was any alerts put out? Was there
any press releases saying jer Corey Randolph is wanted he
was charged with capital or murder and removed his ankle
monitor before he could be sentenced.
Speaker 4 (27:25):
That was in twenty twenty three. That's graying. That's crazy,
absolutely crazy. So you were mentioning we've had like ten
thousand defendant who have gone on these ankle monitors? Is
it because I know what it must be? The the
jails overcrowded, right, Andy conn There's just we have no
place to put any of these people. It's not because
we don't want to punish them. We just don't have
(27:45):
any place to put them.
Speaker 8 (27:47):
Now you have a lot, it's Basically, you're giving a
false sense of security when you're being put in an
ankle monitors seat all the time, and he's going to
be put on an ankle monitor in under house arrests
and quote under supervision, which sounds good on the news,
but the reality is you're not really supervising anyone. It's
not like it's twenty four to seven. It's not like
(28:08):
if there is a tamper alert that someone's gonna immediately
come out and check to see if you still have
your ankle monitor on. One of the suggestions that I
have is that when defendants are getting really close to
actually coming to trial, is there needs to be kind
of a twenty four to seven approach to any defendant
(28:32):
wearing an ankle monitor who is facing a trial, because
basically you're looking at someone that's going to recognize that
they're going to be spending, if they're convicted, a large
amount of time in prison. So that's where things kind
of go a little bit skewery for defendants who just
don't want to go to prison.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
So you know, that needs to change.
Speaker 4 (28:54):
The Police Department operates twenty four or seven nine one
operates twenty four seven. Why can't we have the like
Monitoring Operate twenty four to seven.
Speaker 8 (29:03):
Because that's logic in criminal justice and logic here's one
of my favorite things, and I got a lot of
them because I've been around. Criminal justice and logic are
often oxymoronic terms that have difficult times meeting each other,
and you're seeing.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Living proof of that with Ankle Monitors.
Speaker 4 (29:23):
There you go. It don't make no sense. I guess
it's never going to quick li a break back with
Born of Mom. Final segment coming up, Jimmy verchow Am
nine fifty KPRC. All right, but I want to share
(29:49):
this with you. We haven't done much in the way
of politics on the show today. I just want to
share this with you because the audio is so good.
It's from Fox News Sunday. They were talking about Graham Platner.
I guess everybody seemingly knows who this guy is now
if you're not aware of the name, it's the Democrat
Senate candidate in Maine, the guy who has the Nazi
(30:12):
tattoo on his chest, the guy that's been accused of
abusing women and you know, being a big trime drinker,
and well, you know, just all kinds of things that
you would think, from a character's standpoint, wouldn't really qualify
him to be a United States Senator. But the Democrats
(30:32):
are sticking with this guy, and presumably he will have
an opportunity to win in November. We shall see what
happens with that. There have been a few Bill Maher
types who've come out against him, but James Carville, we'll
start with it. This starts with the James Carvill cut
explaining why, despite all the character flaws, he's more than
(30:53):
happy to support this guy. And the answer is really
quite simple, because he's not a Republican. So if he's
a Democrat, Evidently, to a Democrat it doesn't matter what
his character flaws are. Is the only fatal character flaw
for any politician is to be a Republican. So it
starts with James Carvel in reaction to it on Fox
New Sunday.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
We got a step guy who he could be one
hundred times more step than he is. He'd never be
as stuff as what we got in Washington now anyway,
Milly Well.
Speaker 9 (31:24):
James Carville went on to say he'd be saying the
exact opposite about his support for this candidate if he
were a Republican, which there's some honesty there. But the
Democratic Party has this issue. They have been unable to
attract white voters, male voters. They think that putting someone
forward who purports to be a populist is a way
to capture that vote. It's unclear whether Graham Platner is
(31:44):
an actual populist. I haven't really seen him differ from
the typical establishment Democrat party on many issues. But the
idea that voters in Maine will have to accept someone
with a literal Nazi tattoo, with a past of a
bad treatment of girlfriends, and he's only been married a
couple of years and he's sexting with all these other women.
It would be one thing to ask them to do
(32:06):
this if they had a problem with their current representation.
But Susan Collins is truly the most moderate member of
the United States Senate and has done a good job
with constituent services.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
So whether he will win, you know, and she.
Speaker 9 (32:18):
Has a very good track record of defeating opponents, so
whether he'll be able to pull it off in November
is another thing entirely well.
Speaker 14 (32:24):
And it's a big issue for Democrats obviously, if they
want to retake the Senate. This is kind of one
of those critical seats they have to get. But you
heard when I was asking sed Or Werner about I
could not get a straight answer from him about whether
or not he's going to support him if he wins
the primary.
Speaker 15 (32:36):
Well, I think that he will, and I think the
Democrats will support Graham Platner because should they. At the
end of the day, Susan Collins has done horrible things
in the United States that Democrats will argue she helped
was one of the key votes to get Brett Kavanaugh confirmed,
got helped grow versus weight get overturned.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
So I think, why.
Speaker 9 (32:54):
Would it be bad to support Brett Kavanaugh? I think
arguing for Graham Plattner.
Speaker 15 (32:59):
But what I am saying is that voters have told
us over and over again that policy matters than personal character.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
Whether it's Donald Trump or Ken Paxton.
Speaker 15 (33:09):
The Republican candidate for Senate in Texas with huge issues
in his personal life with his divorce and with women
in general, voters have told us they care about their
policy preferences and when it comes to who supports women.
The reason I bring up Britt Cavanaugh or Roe versus
Wait is if we're going to talk about who supports
women more. Democrats are going to make the case that
Susan Collins has not stood by women.
Speaker 4 (33:30):
So in other words, you know, it's the Ken Paxton
reference there that that's rapidly becoming a stock answer with
Democrats over this Grand Platner. Well, you have Ken Paxton,
he cheated on his wife, he doesn't have good character,
blah blah blah, but you voted for it because you
(33:51):
like his policies. Well, same thing for Graham Platner. He
may not yo, he may not treat women that well,
and he may have a Nazi tattoo, but he has
good policies. And you know what, maybe they have a
little bit of an argument there. I mean, if you
want to compare apples to affles, Now, is Ken Paxton
(34:14):
anything approaching Graham Platter No, he's not.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
He doesn't.
Speaker 4 (34:16):
He doesn't have a Nazi simple tattooed anywhere on his
body as far as I know. And he may have
had a falling out in a nasty divorce with his wife,
but that doesn't mean that he treats all women badly.
So But but you see what we're doing here, We're
comparing one set of sins against another set of sins.
Used to be a time where, at all levels hard
(34:40):
to believe, but at all levels of politics, character mattered.
I don't know that character matters that much anymore. Character
still matters to me, It still matters to the way
I conduct my own personal life. But I'm rapidly beginn
to believe that I might be rapidly headed towards the
(35:03):
minority on this one. That if we like somebody, what
somebody stands for from a political standpoint, or we like
other things about them, maybe we think they're a great actor.
For example, we don't like their politics, but we think
they're a great actor. So and we don't you know,
we know that they're sleeves bag in their personal life,
but hey, on camera, they're really really good. I really
(35:25):
like his movies. We're kind of doing the same thing
now with politicians.
Speaker 5 (35:30):
You know.
Speaker 4 (35:31):
You know, I agree he's got some character problems, but
I really like his policies. I really like the fact
he's a fighter. So characters becoming less and less of
an issue, it seems, in virtually every walk of life.
You know, it's like we've taken the phrase, you know,
don't judge me and we've taken it now to the extreme.
We're not willing to judge anybody based on their character.
(35:54):
All right, We'll have to leave it at that for today.
Thank you for listening. I do appreciate it. See you
tomorrow morning, bright, early five a m over on news
Radio seven forty k t r H. We are back
here at four on a m nine fifty k t
r C.
Speaker 11 (36:14):
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