June 4, 2025 • 37 mins
Today on the Jimmy Barrett Show:
- TPPF's Chuck DeVore on the latest Texas Session
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Well, what we need is more common sense.
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.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
From Houston where.
Speaker 4 (00:24):
This is the Jimmy Barrett Show, brought to you by
viewind dot Com. Now here's Jimmy Barrett. You know, when
I was a kid, Welcome to the show. By the way,
When I was a kid, I never really understood why
it was that older people like to talk about the
old days or reminiscent about the old days. I think
it takes getting to a certain age where you can
(00:46):
really appreciate that right where you can kind of look
back over your youth and remember some of the things
fondly from your past. Where you're where you have more time.
You spent more time on Earth, I guess than you
have time left, so you feel kind of nostalgic for
the things that you grew up with, and of course
you only remember the really good things. You don't remember
(01:07):
all the reasons why you did like being a kid.
You know, once you get to a certain point in life,
and one of those one of those stories that kind
of came up on this morning show was was sound
sounds from when you were a kid that don't exist anymore. Now,
this is kind of a useless exercise, I guess for
people who are under the age of thirty, but I
think most of our audience is basically thirty five plus.
(01:29):
So that being the case, there's gonna be, you know,
there's gonna be things that you remember from your youth
that are sounds that don't exist anymore. Here here's a
couple we came up with. I'll share some from our
listeners this morning too. The actually this is only halfway true.
The clink of metal seat belts. Remember how your seat
belts in your car. Wait, when when seat belts in
(01:52):
particular first kind of came out or the older days
were made out of metal instead of what they're made
up which is more plastic material today. And it had
a very distinctive noise. You know, it's like the seat
belts you see in airplanes. So if you remember how
those things click, that's that's what that sounds like. A cassette,
a cassette machine rewinding faster and faster and faster until
(02:13):
you get that final thump and of course going it's
going back cassette machines. Yeah, does anybody use those anymore?
I think my wife still has one that she used
when she was working in Virginia the Medical Examiner's office.
But you don't see those very much anymore. Oh, here's
a here's a nostalgic one from the restaurant days. Do
(02:36):
you are you old enough to remember the host or
hostess asking you if you wanted smoking or non smoking? Yes,
they're used to. And by the way, you used to
be able to smoke in airplanes too, smoking or non smoking,
the smoking section in the non smoking section. The thing
that was always so funny about that was that the
(02:56):
smoking section and the non smoking section were right next
each other. So if you were in a certain part
of the non smoking section, you were getting as much
smoke as you did in the smoking section. You're getting
that secondhand smoke. The chunk of a manual credit card machine.
Oh yeah, back in the day, this I remember my
(03:19):
mom had a I try to remember who was for.
I probably Sears or J. C. Penny or something like that.
She had a department store credit card, and back then
they would put the credit card. The credit card had
embossed numbers on it, not like today where it's flat,
and of course there weren't eight chips or any of
that stuff in the credit cards, and they'd put the
(03:41):
they put the credit card in the machine and then they'd,
you know, they'd make a copy, basically carbon copy of
your credit card with their credit card number on it,
and that's what you would sign way back then. How
about the sound of a payphone or a vending machine, Well,
I remember when I was a little kid, my dad
(04:03):
would send me into the store at the corner that
had a vending machine for cigarettes way back when he smoked,
before he quit smoking, and he would send me in
there with probably like fifty cents or something like that,
because it wasn't very expensive back then to get him
a pack of cigarettes, and nobody would say anything about it.
Nobody would think twice about it, nobody would think. Nobody
(04:26):
think would think as a young kid, you were buying
them for yourself, and if you were, they didn't really
care anyway. So you used to be able to do
things like that. So here's what some of our morning
show listeners on KTRH said today about the sounds they
remember from their youth that no longer exists.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
Jimmy, This is Dean from Magnolia. The sound that I
miss when I was growing up as my mother hollering
out the back door to come home for dinner.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
This is Bill from Fairview, Tennessee.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
The sounds I don't hear anymore is a dial tone.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Morning Jimmy Kevin from Texas City. The sound of dialing.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
A rotoryfhone and then having to slam the phone down
and pick it back up again to redial because you
messed it up.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
The sound of a whirling ice cream maker. And then
my Grandpa Zippo clicking closed. Jimmy Dwayne from a task Asta.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Remember the sound of white noise late at night when
the TVs went off?
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Man, Could I sleep well to that noise? Yeah? The
test pattern would be on the TV and they know.
All he give is the.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
Did you ever see the movie Poltergeist? They had a
scene like that in Poltergeist, and Poltergeist was like from
the early eighties?
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Were there so I guess, were.
Speaker 4 (05:46):
There still TV stations signing off at like eleven PM
or midnight back in the early nineteen eighties when that
movie came out, Because that's what they showed that they
would either they chowed, usually like the national anthem, right,
and then a test pattern would come on, or it
would just go to stat when they shut down the
signal and you just get that static. See that's what
But that's what I think of now when I think
(06:06):
of that. You know, a TV that's got nothing but
the white noise and the static going on there is
it's a way for the ghosts to communicate with you.
Those are good ones. I remember as a kid too.
Do you ever do you ever get lost in the
store when you were a kid and you'd hear the intercom,
come on, this is Barrett, your son, your shirt, Jimmy
(06:27):
the shirt in the front of the store, who's looking
for you?
Speaker 2 (06:30):
That kind of thing.
Speaker 4 (06:31):
The only time you ever hear anything on the on
the grocery store or or the Walmart for example, paces
to memoirs. They're playing music and then they may they
may have a message for an associate. But do you
or playing up a mile five you still hear that
kind of a thing going on, but you don't hear
you don't hear them looking for people anymore. I wonder
(06:52):
why that is, Why did stop doing that. I'm sure
there's still kids that get lost in the store. Right,
here's a couple more, uh the square making noise of
cranking up your car window. This is in the day
before they had electronic windows, and I've oftentimes thought to myself,
I hope I'm never in a situation where I regret
(07:13):
not having an old fashioned crank up window. The only
thing I ever thought of about that is that, all right,
what happens this because is the way my mind works.
What happens if I drive the car into a pond, right,
and it starts to sink, and the electronics go out
on the car and I and I can't get the
window open because the electronics are out. How am I
(07:35):
supposed to How am I supposed to get out of
that window? At least with the crank window, you don't
have to worry. Just crank the window down and get
the hell out. So there are even though you know
there's some major improvements thanks to technology, there are some
safety things. I have to wonder if maybe they're worse
off than when we did it the old fashioned way.
All right, nothing nostalgia for one day. Y'all stand by.
We'll be back with more of them on a Jimmy
(07:56):
Barrett Show. Here on AM nine fifty KTRC.
Speaker 5 (08:14):
I thought we could talk a little bit about the
new This seems to me, the new direction that the
that the progressive leftists decided to go in.
Speaker 4 (08:24):
Do you hear them talk much about climate change anymore?
I don't either, not not a lot anyway, not the
way they used to. You know, they tried to get
all that money out the door at the end of
the Biden administration for eco groups, but I think that
that was just more about spreading the money around than
it was about actually working on anything for the environment.
(08:46):
Have you also noticed whatever happened to uh Greta Thundberg?
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Remember her?
Speaker 4 (08:51):
The of course she's from Sweden, Norway and one of
the one of those Scandinavian countries. You know that the
little girl who was you know, walking walking around complaining
about climate change and going to different countries and petitioning
governments to do more about climate change. Whatever happened to her?
I guess she's moved on. Climate change Evidently is no
(09:13):
longer her pet her pet cause. Evidently now her pet
cause is to free Palestine.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
What.
Speaker 4 (09:23):
Yeah, here's Greg Guttfeld having some fund at her expense.
Speaker 6 (09:27):
So remember when the left was all in on climate change.
Every conversation was about melting ice caps, heat waves, and floods.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Though to be fair, we were the first to.
Speaker 6 (09:36):
Report on the environmental impact of farting cows. But then
then after October seventh, suddenly climate took a backseat to
Free Palestine signs and spray painting Zionis go Home.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
They went from save the Whales.
Speaker 6 (09:55):
To Jews without missing a beats.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Which brings us to Greta Thunberg.
Speaker 6 (10:02):
She's twenty two now, or as Hamas calls it, a cougar,
and she's literally on a boat bound for the Middle
East called the Freedom Flotilla. It's a lot like the
Love Boat, except Isaac is making Molotov cocktails.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Or Isaac yeah.
Speaker 6 (10:25):
So yeah, that'll work, because if there's one thing the
idf fears, it's a humorless Scandinavian with a.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Bowl cut and crazy eyes.
Speaker 6 (10:32):
Then again, she might be the only person to unite
the region, you know, against Greta Thunberg. Hell, her presence
might even get Hamas.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
To kill themselves.
Speaker 6 (10:42):
But for those of you once put this lone on
a pedestal, who cried at her un speeches, who reposted
her dramatic Instagram videos.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Well you got suckered.
Speaker 6 (10:51):
You fell for it harder than Joe Biden on a
flight of stairs. Turns out she really is a mentally
unwell theater kid with a deep need for validation. She
went for being the mascot for climate alarmism to the
poster child for Gaza virtue signaling with God knows what
in between. You know, why couldn't she just do what
(11:12):
an American teenage girl does who needs attention and date
a black guy.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Oh say it happens, it does. Yeah, yeah, ridiculous.
Speaker 6 (11:27):
But she's the perfect hill loud, resentful, and spoiled by
the culture she hates. But if you called out her
bs all the left wing.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Nuts you muster, She's just a child.
Speaker 6 (11:38):
They act like you barged into a shriner's hospital and
made the kids do keg stands. But Greta is really
just a hood ornament for a generation as screwed up libs.
One study from twenty twenty two shows that just twenty
percent of them say they have excellent mental health, forty
five percent say they have poor mental health. No wonder
they look up to Greta crazy crazy.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
Yeah, and she's definitely crazy. And speaking of crazy, speaking
of crazy, you know that there's some guy who has
tried twice now to scale the wall outside mari A
Lago wanting to go in and talk to President Trump
(12:21):
and marry his marry his granddaughter.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
What who is this guy?
Speaker 4 (12:28):
And how is it that he's gotten the second opportunity
to try to get into the place. That's what I
would like to know. Here's a report for the folks
at Fox about this latest security breach at mar A Laga.
Speaker 7 (12:39):
A man detained by the Secret Service early this morning
after attempting to jump the wall at mar A Lago
reportedly told law enforcement he wanted to gain entry to
quote unquote spread the gospel to Trump and marry his
teenage granddaughter there Kai Trump Now. His name Anthony Thomas Reyes.
(13:00):
He's twenty three years old. He was arrested by the
Palm Beach Police Department early this morning after attempting to
unlawfully enter the President's Florida resort. That's according to booking
records from the Palm Beach Sheriff's office. The police report
detailing the incident reportedly chronicled how Reyus, who was previously
arrested over the New Year's holiday after once again trying
to illegally enter mar A Lago, told officers he wanted
(13:24):
to get into Trump's resort to quote unquote spread the
Gospel to the President and marry.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
His granddaughter Kai.
Speaker 7 (13:32):
So according to these reports, this is now the second
time he has tried to.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Gain access and entry into mar A Lago.
Speaker 7 (13:40):
Now, the Secret Service a spokesman with the agency putting
this statement out. Posted by our colleague and friend pat
Ward Fox and his White House producer, and this is
from the Secret Service.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
I'm reading it now.
Speaker 7 (13:53):
An adult male was arrested early Tuesday morning by the
Palm Beach Police Department for unlawfully entering the mar A
Lago Club property in Florida, surely after midnight. The individual
scaled a perimeter fence and triggered alarms. US Secret Service
personnel detained him without incident at the scene. Palm Beach
Police officers responded to the scene and took the individual
into custody, charging him with occupied trespassing. We appreciate the
(14:17):
continued partnership and swift response of the Palm Beach Police Department.
No Secret Service protectees were present at the time.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
Well isn't that special. But this is the second time
he's done it, so so here's the question, of course,
you know, has has he had his mental health evaluated?
You know, it's a little crazy to try to think
that you can just go climb the wall of Mary
Lago and get an audience with the President of the
United States, and you know that you would think he's there, because,
(14:49):
after all, you know, he's a little busy, he's in
DC these days. Even crazier is to think that Ky
Trump is going to be somehow interested in dating this dude,
let alone marrying him. So it seems to me that
this guy needs a very thorough mental health evaluation. And
because he's done it more than once, I think that
proves that he does have a mental health issue. So
(15:11):
he needs to be treated for that. And and somehow
they have to bring criminal charges against him, right, not
that that would necessarily stop him. I mean, this shows
you how difficult it is to stop the crazies, because
you know, you have to you have to arrest them,
you have to have a mental health evaluation. Then you
(15:32):
have to have a reason, compelling reason to force them
into some sort of treatment. And most of them, of course,
don't want any treatment, so and then I guess after
they get treatment, there's no real guarantee that they're going
to be cured whatever the problem is that's causing them
to do what it is they're doing. So it's it's
pretty difficult to control crazy people. Crazy people are tough
(15:55):
that that that's a tough one to come up with.
One more for you for this particular segment, because this
is a this is a bit of a scary story.
This story is about comes out of Detroit and Detroit
Metropolitan Airport and a University of Michigan student who's of
Chinese origin and her Chinese boyfriend, who evidently is now
(16:17):
back in China trying to smuggle in some sort of
poisonous fungus that could impact wheat and corn and you know,
some of our other crops and not only killing off
the crops, but potentially killing people. Supposedly, he wanted her
to do some research on it for him at the
University of Michigan. But who's the research for because they're
(16:41):
both diehard members evidently the Communist Party of China. So
you got to wonder if they're just bringing this stuff
in and an attempt to infect our crops and our
food source. Here is the story out of Fox two
in Detroit.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
Well.
Speaker 8 (16:55):
The complaint has certainly made for some interesting reading. Rubn
Terarran investigators say this fungut could be you in agro terrorism,
wifes out crops and sickens people and animals, and right
now it's just not clear what these Chinese scientists intended
to do.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Oh my name Spinintia.
Speaker 8 (17:11):
Thirty three year old Yushenjian, a scientist and student from
China working as a postdoctoral research fellow in a lab
at the University of Michigan, on Tuesday inside federal court
charged with conspiracies, smuggling, and making false statements. It's alleged
her boyfriend, thirty four year old Jung yong Lu, also
was scientists from China, was caught at Detroit Metro Airport
(17:34):
smuggling a dangerous fungus into the country useram gramminerum attacks barley, corn,
and wheat and could be used for purposes of agro terrorism,
according to this complaint. In July of twenty twenty four,
Customs and Border Patrol found a lot of tissues in
a pocket in a loose backpack. Investigators say the tissues
(17:55):
concealed a note in Chinese, a round piece of filter
paper with a series of surpas drawn on it, and
four clear plastic baggies with small clumps of reddish plant
material inside. Investigators say Lou lied about the materials before
admitting he was smuggling them in to do research at
the lab where his girlfriend was working at the University
(18:15):
of Michigan. Investigators say Lou's iPhone contained an article titled
twenty eighteen Plant pathogen Warfare under Changing climate Conditions. They
also uncovered messages between the two conspiring to bring pathogens
into the United States. He was denied entry and sent back.
It's believed he's currently back in China. His girlfriend, Jenne
(18:37):
is still here now facing serious charges conspiracy to commit
an offense or defraud the United States, smuggling goods into
the United States, false statements. We're not allowed to have
cameras in federal court, but I can tell you that
this defendant looked very scared.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
She was handcuffed and shackled at the waist.
Speaker 8 (18:56):
She closed her eyes as the charges against her were red.
According to the complaint, investigators say they found evidence that
Gien smuggled biological materials into the United States prior to this,
and that she is loyal to the Chinese Communist Party,
which they say helped finance her studies and research.
Speaker 4 (19:15):
Okay, well, then you know, if she's loyal to the
Chinese Communist Party, then we should treat her the way
the Chinese Communist Party would treat an American if an
American went to China and tried to do the same thing,
which would be at the minimum, life in prison.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
That seems fair.
Speaker 4 (19:33):
Life in prison, all right, No sense sending her back
so she can try to sneak back in again. Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope,
life in prison. All right, quick little break, We're going
to visit with the Texas Public Policy Foundations. His name Chuck.
All of a sudden, his name was escaping me. Chuck
de Var, Chuck de Var coming up. The legislative session
(19:54):
is over. We'll see what he thought with the pros
and the cons about what would they were able to
accomplish in Austin during this legislative session, of course, the
governor was in town signing bail reform. Some of that
bail reform didn't get passed by the state legislature, so
maybe we'll start with that back with more in a moment.
Jimmy Bart, Joe Am nine fifty KPRC chuckl the moors
(20:29):
with his taxis on mccolsey Foundation. He follows Texas government
for a living, and that's a hard living. If you
asked me, very glad, I'm sure that the Texas State
Legislative Session is over, unless, of course, the governor is
going to call the special session. You think there's any
chance of that happening.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Well, I certainly don't supposed to read the governor's mind,
but I think he's checked all the boxes that he
wants wanted to check.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
And even with bail reform. You know, the governor was
here talking about bill reform yesterday calling out Democrats for
the part of bail reform that didn't get done. But
it sounds to me like you're saying that they may
have gotten enough done to avoid a special session.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Well, he got the biggest part out of three parts
for the bail reform. So did he get everything he
wanted to know? Did he get the most important thing?
Speaker 2 (21:21):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (21:23):
All right, let's take a look at some of these
other things that the state the legislature came up with
and see what you think about what the governor's going
to do, because there's a lot of bills that passed
that now basically are sitting on the governor's desk waiting
to be signed. Obviously, the priority bills, he's signing those
right away. There's a few other ones, many of which
(21:45):
I can't find out anything about it. I'm wondering if
you know anything about the daylight saving Time bill. For
the first time, a daylight saving time bill making it
permanent year round here in Texas made it out of
the state legislature and went on to the governor for signature.
Is he going to sign that bill? Is he going
to veto that bill? Is he going to ignore that bill?
Speaker 1 (22:05):
That is actually a more controversial measure than most people realize,
because people have strong opinions one way or the other.
If you're going to shift it, some people would prefer
it to be earlier, some people would prefer to be later.
And so this is one of those things where you
don't really win if you're the governor. So I don't know,
(22:26):
maybe he doesn't sign it now.
Speaker 4 (22:28):
Was it would it make that automatically make that a
part of Texas law? Or was this to have it
on the ballot as a constitutional amendment, I think it.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Also has to be approved by Congress. If I'm not mistaken, Yes,
that much is true.
Speaker 4 (22:42):
But with the Trump administration, I think President Trump's already
pretty much said that he's in favor of, you know,
not switching the clocks back and forth. So I don't
think they'd have a problem with the government on this one, right.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
I think everyone agrees it's not good for human health
to shift the clocks a year. The main issue is
what time do you set it at?
Speaker 4 (23:06):
Well, true, and there's something we said for both sides.
I guess a year around daylight saving time won this
particular race because more people seem to like more light
at the end of the day than more light at
the beginning of the day, unless you have a small
school age child.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
Right, exactly.
Speaker 4 (23:22):
All right, Let's also talk about the THC bill, because
that one, I think has generated a lot of controversy.
There's been a lot of veterans groups that have come
out and have urged the governor not to sign this bill.
This is Dan Patrick's baby, and I have to admit
I'm having a hard time understanding how he's become so
zealous about this to the point where I'm beginning to wonder,
(23:45):
you know, if there's a component here I'm not considering.
In other words, has he been lobbied by certain groups
and organizations to on this THHC bill or is this
just his personal conviction that he thinks that, you know,
using THC is morally wrong.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
I think what you're seeing is that it's difficult to
control once you open things up and you allow people,
some with legitimate purposes to use this drug. And so
I think what we're seeing is increasing numbers of youth
improperly using very powerful THHC. And I believe that's what
the Lieutenant governor is concerned about.
Speaker 4 (24:22):
Okay, and fair enough on that. But isn't the answer
on that better regulations and better law enforcement versus making
a total ban.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Well, again, that's certainly the part of the controversy, because
once you allow a product to be in general circulation,
how do you prevent it from being used by people
who aren't supposed to use it? And you look at
other states that have had similar more broad legalization Colorado
and California, for its instance, it has not helped. It's
(24:55):
made things worse in those States.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
How so, how's it made it worse?
Speaker 1 (25:00):
Well, you certainly look at the homeless situation. You look
at the number of youth that have been using THC
and the studies that have come out and shown that
it has a disproportionate effect on young brains, especially people
under the age of twenty five.
Speaker 4 (25:14):
All Right, let me play a little Devil's advocate with you.
If we were to go, let's say to California, and
you're from California originally, so you know something about the topic,
And if we were to deep dive into homeless people
and why they're homeless, how many of those people do
you think are homeless because of using THC versus using
heroin or cocaine or alcohol in abusing those things.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
Yeah, that's a great question. So we do know that
somewhere north of seventy five percent of people who are
on the street, specifically street homelessness, have mental illness and
or drug addiction. We also know that powerful THC tends
to be associated with increased rates of schizophrenia, and that
(26:02):
it often ends up being used by individuals who are
self medicating without the advice of a doctor, and so
it doesn't help things. That's The point is that if
you look at the rate of homelessness in California since
THC became more widely available, it is skyrocketed.
Speaker 4 (26:22):
Okay, And again, you know, I'm not here to argue
with you about any of this. I think you know
from from a libertarian standpoint, and I you know, I
have to admit I pick and choose what I decided
to be libertarian about as most of us do, Right,
I have to admit that it's hard for me to
take a look at this and say, why is it
okay to ban THC and not ban alcohol. Well, we
(26:48):
know that banning alcohol doesn't work. Clearly we have we
have the prohibitionion of alcohol and what resulted from that
as a as a great guide. But I would also
suggest I also wonder if we have the same issue
with something like THCHC, which to me seems fairly comparable
to alcohol as far as the effects that it has
(27:10):
on you, and that we know that people will find
a way to get it, They will buy it from
the illegal sources and risk jail time in order to
get their hands on it, just like they would for alcohol.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
Yeah, so let me push back on two different things there. Sure,
First of all TC is very different than alcohol in
terms of how it is fat soluble and how it
affects the brain. Secondly, we often hear, well, you know,
prohibition didn't work. In fact, it did work. If you
look at per capita alcohol consumption among males, it fell
(27:45):
by more than half during the period of alcohol prohibition
and it stayed there. So, in other words, today's men
drink about half as much per capita as they did
prior to prohibition. So it fundamentally changed culture in a
way that, frankly, the advocates of prohibition were seeking to do.
(28:06):
So we through the lens of history one hundred years
later can just kind of throw away, well, it didn't
work because it was repealed, But in fact it achieved
a lot of its objectives. Now I'm not saying that
had I been around at the time, I would have
supported it. But we can't just say it didn't work,
because it in fact.
Speaker 4 (28:23):
Did well, except for the whole al Capone thing. But
we don't have time to argue about al Capone and
gangsters and all that kind of stuff. Let me ask
you what you think. Chuck Devor was the biggest win
for the conservative movement in the legislative session, and maybe
the biggest loss or missed opportunity, Well, I think.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
The biggest win, without a doubt, was school choice. I mean,
this is something that the Texas Public Policy Foundation has
been trying for thirty six years to empower parents who
are locked into a poor school district by dint of
their zip code, and somewhere north of one hundred thousand
and Texas children are going to be able to benefit.
(29:03):
We'll see how the program works and whether or not
there's appetite to expand it in future years, but this
is going to be a huge benefit for parents, for children,
and frankly for public schools because they will improve they
have to improve night.
Speaker 4 (29:18):
As far as the biggest missed opportunity, what do you
think that might be, Well.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
You know, the biggest missed opportunity, pardon me, the biggest
missed opportunity I think is difficult to completely measure. I
would say that we've missed the opportunity to really fortify
our electric grid. We continue to suffer from an over
investment in wind and solar because of federal policy, and
(29:46):
you're seeing that at the federal level they're kind of
tinkering around with the Green New Deal. They're kind of
going halfway and trying to roll back some of these
generous subsidies. And the challenge for Texas is that as
time goes on and you get more and more win
and solar and proportionately less thermal like nuclear, natural gas, coal,
(30:06):
it makes the grid more and more vulnerable to winter
storms or summer events.
Speaker 4 (30:12):
Yeah, you're right, you're right. Hey, listen, good to talk
to you as always. Enjoy your break. Hopefully there's no
you know, extra session that you have to deal with.
Enjoy your break and we'll talk to you soon. Chuck Devar,
Thank you, you met Chuck Devar from the Texas Public
Policy Foundation. Back with Morte moment, Jimmy Verchow a KPRC.
(30:51):
All right, let's wrap up today with one of my
favorite topics. It's called meat. Well food in general, but
meat in particular. I'm a meat of source. I love
my meat. I love steak, I love beef. In fact,
I cannot think of any form of beef I do
not like. I like pork. I like chicken. Am I
(31:12):
missing oh I mentioned chicken?
Speaker 2 (31:14):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (31:14):
Turkey. I like turkey. I don't know if it counts
as meat, but I like sausage. I don't know, can
I count sausage. I mean, there's some meat in there,
but you know there's lots of parts too. Parts is parts.
I like hot dogs, I like hamburgers. There is a
whole lot of meat I don't like. My problem in
this world is vegetables, convincing myself to eat enough vegetables.
(31:36):
But as somebody who is a meat lover is, it's
a very painful experience at the grocery store and at
restaurants because restaurants, after all, continue to pass along the
cost of meat and other things that they're serving in
their restaurants, and restaurant bills have gotten quite ridiculous along
with the tipping thing. But I don't know if I
(31:56):
have time to get into the tipping well, if we
have time, we'll sneak something on the end here. But
let's talk about the price of meat first and foremost.
The price of meat is up about twenty four percent
over the course of the last two years, and beef
in particular is up on average ten to twelve percent
over where it was. The problems we have with the
(32:16):
price of meat all has to do with production or
lack thereof. In other words, there's not enough supply to
keep up with a demand. And you know, we know that.
I don't know if we're taking enough measures to try
to solve that, but we really need to work on that.
(32:36):
I saw the CEO of Omaha Steak Company. I saw
him on Fox. Here's what he had to say yesterday
about where we're at and where we're going with the
price of meat.
Speaker 3 (32:50):
You and I talked last time we got together about
supplying demand. And at this point, boy, you know, the
number head of cattle in the United States is at alone.
Oh really, not seen since nineteen fifties. In fact, it's wild.
In nineteen fifty two, Omaha Steaks started shipping meat coast
to coast and wax line containers with dry ice, and
(33:11):
we've not seen the size of the herd the same
size since that year. About eighty six point seven million.
Herd now in the.
Speaker 7 (33:20):
Lunch menu doesn't have maple flavory griddle cakes.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
Set your alarm.
Speaker 3 (33:25):
Us back in nineteen fifty two is about eighty eight million.
So that supply pressure is really putting a lot of
upward pressure on price, especially as demand is still so
strong in the US. Supplies a tricky issue you can't
just flip a switch adjust to tariff. We need to
rebuild the herd and that's going to happen over the
next roughly twelve months. My guess is by Q three
(33:48):
twenty six, we'll kind of start to come out of this.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
You know, Look, I like exports.
Speaker 3 (33:53):
I like what it does for the industry and for
the country. You know, foreign buyers tend to pay more
for beef. That's good for meat pack kis for ranchers.
There's one point three million jobs in our industry. But
we do have to balance, right, We have to balance
that supply because you know, America loves beef, and you
know that's something.
Speaker 2 (34:11):
I definitely love.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
But we have to have the supply to do that,
and we've got some work to do.
Speaker 4 (34:17):
No kidding, By the way, I don't that must have
been a little commercial the from the YouTube video of
this thing that we lifted that from. Sorry we didn't
get that edited out, but at any rate, here's the
thing that stuck out to me. He went by real fast,
like it's like really matter of factly, but you might
have noticed that he said, maybe we'll start to get
(34:39):
out of this by third quarter of twenty six. This
is the second quarter, jennuiny if I March April, Baintia. Well, yeah,
we're at the tail end of the second quarter, getting
ready to start the third quarter of twenty twenty five,
so we're talking more than a year from now before
there's any real relief in this. You know, the only
(35:02):
thing that could change would be if somehow the demand
went down. But we've seen, despite higher prices, the demand
has gone up and continues to go up. So we
still want our meat and we are willing to pay
extra money to have our meat. We're willing to sacrifice
(35:23):
other things in order to have our meat. Now, here's
the other part of the inflation thing, because I think
most of the inflation we have left right now is
in the food category and in the eating out category.
We did feature on a morning show today about you know,
how tips continue to go up and how they continue
to ask for warn tips. No, he's asking for fifteen
percent anymore. When you have that automatic thing you fill
(35:44):
out at the end for the tip, they're asking for
a minimum of eighteen percent is to fifteen percent. This
is on top of the fact that prices have been rising.
So if you are continuing to give the same percentage
tip that you were let's say two years ago, you're
you're adding a lot more money onto the tip because
the price of the bill is higher. I mean, maybe
(36:07):
we need to rethink this entire tip thing. Why did
we decide to make tips a percentage thing? Why should
it be a percentage of your bill? Is a weight
person working any harder when you were giving them a
five dollar tip, now you're giving them a seven dollar
tip because the bill's higher? Are they Is the service
any better? Is it two dollars better than it was before?
(36:29):
Or are we just adding money on because of inflation?
I think maybe we need to rethink that. Listen, you
all have a great day. Thanks for listening. I'll see
you tomorrow morning, bright and early, five am over on
news Radio seven forty k T or H. We're back
here at four an am, nine fifty KTRC
Well, what we need is more common sense.
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.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
From Houston where.
Speaker 4 (00:24):
This is the Jimmy Barrett Show, brought to you by
viewind dot Com. Now here's Jimmy Barrett. You know, when
I was a kid, Welcome to the show. By the way,
When I was a kid, I never really understood why
it was that older people like to talk about the
old days or reminiscent about the old days. I think
it takes getting to a certain age where you can
(00:46):
really appreciate that right where you can kind of look
back over your youth and remember some of the things
fondly from your past. Where you're where you have more time.
You spent more time on Earth, I guess than you
have time left, so you feel kind of nostalgic for
the things that you grew up with, and of course
you only remember the really good things. You don't remember
(01:07):
all the reasons why you did like being a kid.
You know, once you get to a certain point in life,
and one of those one of those stories that kind
of came up on this morning show was was sound
sounds from when you were a kid that don't exist anymore. Now,
this is kind of a useless exercise, I guess for
people who are under the age of thirty, but I
think most of our audience is basically thirty five plus.
(01:29):
So that being the case, there's gonna be, you know,
there's gonna be things that you remember from your youth
that are sounds that don't exist anymore. Here here's a
couple we came up with. I'll share some from our
listeners this morning too. The actually this is only halfway true.
The clink of metal seat belts. Remember how your seat
belts in your car. Wait, when when seat belts in
(01:52):
particular first kind of came out or the older days
were made out of metal instead of what they're made
up which is more plastic material today. And it had
a very distinctive noise. You know, it's like the seat
belts you see in airplanes. So if you remember how
those things click, that's that's what that sounds like. A cassette,
a cassette machine rewinding faster and faster and faster until
(02:13):
you get that final thump and of course going it's
going back cassette machines. Yeah, does anybody use those anymore?
I think my wife still has one that she used
when she was working in Virginia the Medical Examiner's office.
But you don't see those very much anymore. Oh, here's
a here's a nostalgic one from the restaurant days. Do
(02:36):
you are you old enough to remember the host or
hostess asking you if you wanted smoking or non smoking? Yes,
they're used to. And by the way, you used to
be able to smoke in airplanes too, smoking or non smoking,
the smoking section in the non smoking section. The thing
that was always so funny about that was that the
(02:56):
smoking section and the non smoking section were right next
each other. So if you were in a certain part
of the non smoking section, you were getting as much
smoke as you did in the smoking section. You're getting
that secondhand smoke. The chunk of a manual credit card machine.
Oh yeah, back in the day, this I remember my
(03:19):
mom had a I try to remember who was for.
I probably Sears or J. C. Penny or something like that.
She had a department store credit card, and back then
they would put the credit card. The credit card had
embossed numbers on it, not like today where it's flat,
and of course there weren't eight chips or any of
that stuff in the credit cards, and they'd put the
(03:41):
they put the credit card in the machine and then they'd,
you know, they'd make a copy, basically carbon copy of
your credit card with their credit card number on it,
and that's what you would sign way back then. How
about the sound of a payphone or a vending machine, Well,
I remember when I was a little kid, my dad
(04:03):
would send me into the store at the corner that
had a vending machine for cigarettes way back when he smoked,
before he quit smoking, and he would send me in
there with probably like fifty cents or something like that,
because it wasn't very expensive back then to get him
a pack of cigarettes, and nobody would say anything about it.
Nobody would think twice about it, nobody would think. Nobody
(04:26):
think would think as a young kid, you were buying
them for yourself, and if you were, they didn't really
care anyway. So you used to be able to do
things like that. So here's what some of our morning
show listeners on KTRH said today about the sounds they
remember from their youth that no longer exists.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
Jimmy, This is Dean from Magnolia. The sound that I
miss when I was growing up as my mother hollering
out the back door to come home for dinner.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
This is Bill from Fairview, Tennessee.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
The sounds I don't hear anymore is a dial tone.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Morning Jimmy Kevin from Texas City. The sound of dialing.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
A rotoryfhone and then having to slam the phone down
and pick it back up again to redial because you
messed it up.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
The sound of a whirling ice cream maker. And then
my Grandpa Zippo clicking closed. Jimmy Dwayne from a task Asta.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Remember the sound of white noise late at night when
the TVs went off?
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Man, Could I sleep well to that noise? Yeah? The
test pattern would be on the TV and they know.
All he give is the.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
Did you ever see the movie Poltergeist? They had a
scene like that in Poltergeist, and Poltergeist was like from
the early eighties?
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Were there so I guess, were.
Speaker 4 (05:46):
There still TV stations signing off at like eleven PM
or midnight back in the early nineteen eighties when that
movie came out, Because that's what they showed that they
would either they chowed, usually like the national anthem, right,
and then a test pattern would come on, or it
would just go to stat when they shut down the
signal and you just get that static. See that's what
But that's what I think of now when I think
(06:06):
of that. You know, a TV that's got nothing but
the white noise and the static going on there is
it's a way for the ghosts to communicate with you.
Those are good ones. I remember as a kid too.
Do you ever do you ever get lost in the
store when you were a kid and you'd hear the intercom,
come on, this is Barrett, your son, your shirt, Jimmy
(06:27):
the shirt in the front of the store, who's looking
for you?
Speaker 2 (06:30):
That kind of thing.
Speaker 4 (06:31):
The only time you ever hear anything on the on
the grocery store or or the Walmart for example, paces
to memoirs. They're playing music and then they may they
may have a message for an associate. But do you
or playing up a mile five you still hear that
kind of a thing going on, but you don't hear
you don't hear them looking for people anymore. I wonder
(06:52):
why that is, Why did stop doing that. I'm sure
there's still kids that get lost in the store. Right,
here's a couple more, uh the square making noise of
cranking up your car window. This is in the day
before they had electronic windows, and I've oftentimes thought to myself,
I hope I'm never in a situation where I regret
(07:13):
not having an old fashioned crank up window. The only
thing I ever thought of about that is that, all right,
what happens this because is the way my mind works.
What happens if I drive the car into a pond, right,
and it starts to sink, and the electronics go out
on the car and I and I can't get the
window open because the electronics are out. How am I
(07:35):
supposed to How am I supposed to get out of
that window? At least with the crank window, you don't
have to worry. Just crank the window down and get
the hell out. So there are even though you know
there's some major improvements thanks to technology, there are some
safety things. I have to wonder if maybe they're worse
off than when we did it the old fashioned way.
All right, nothing nostalgia for one day. Y'all stand by.
We'll be back with more of them on a Jimmy
(07:56):
Barrett Show. Here on AM nine fifty KTRC.
Speaker 5 (08:14):
I thought we could talk a little bit about the
new This seems to me, the new direction that the
that the progressive leftists decided to go in.
Speaker 4 (08:24):
Do you hear them talk much about climate change anymore?
I don't either, not not a lot anyway, not the
way they used to. You know, they tried to get
all that money out the door at the end of
the Biden administration for eco groups, but I think that
that was just more about spreading the money around than
it was about actually working on anything for the environment.
(08:46):
Have you also noticed whatever happened to uh Greta Thundberg?
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Remember her?
Speaker 4 (08:51):
The of course she's from Sweden, Norway and one of
the one of those Scandinavian countries. You know that the
little girl who was you know, walking walking around complaining
about climate change and going to different countries and petitioning
governments to do more about climate change. Whatever happened to her?
I guess she's moved on. Climate change Evidently is no
(09:13):
longer her pet her pet cause. Evidently now her pet
cause is to free Palestine.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
What.
Speaker 4 (09:23):
Yeah, here's Greg Guttfeld having some fund at her expense.
Speaker 6 (09:27):
So remember when the left was all in on climate change.
Every conversation was about melting ice caps, heat waves, and floods.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Though to be fair, we were the first to.
Speaker 6 (09:36):
Report on the environmental impact of farting cows. But then
then after October seventh, suddenly climate took a backseat to
Free Palestine signs and spray painting Zionis go Home.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
They went from save the Whales.
Speaker 6 (09:55):
To Jews without missing a beats.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Which brings us to Greta Thunberg.
Speaker 6 (10:02):
She's twenty two now, or as Hamas calls it, a cougar,
and she's literally on a boat bound for the Middle
East called the Freedom Flotilla. It's a lot like the
Love Boat, except Isaac is making Molotov cocktails.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Or Isaac yeah.
Speaker 6 (10:25):
So yeah, that'll work, because if there's one thing the
idf fears, it's a humorless Scandinavian with a.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Bowl cut and crazy eyes.
Speaker 6 (10:32):
Then again, she might be the only person to unite
the region, you know, against Greta Thunberg. Hell, her presence
might even get Hamas.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
To kill themselves.
Speaker 6 (10:42):
But for those of you once put this lone on
a pedestal, who cried at her un speeches, who reposted
her dramatic Instagram videos.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Well you got suckered.
Speaker 6 (10:51):
You fell for it harder than Joe Biden on a
flight of stairs. Turns out she really is a mentally
unwell theater kid with a deep need for validation. She
went for being the mascot for climate alarmism to the
poster child for Gaza virtue signaling with God knows what
in between. You know, why couldn't she just do what
(11:12):
an American teenage girl does who needs attention and date
a black guy.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Oh say it happens, it does. Yeah, yeah, ridiculous.
Speaker 6 (11:27):
But she's the perfect hill loud, resentful, and spoiled by
the culture she hates. But if you called out her
bs all the left wing.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Nuts you muster, She's just a child.
Speaker 6 (11:38):
They act like you barged into a shriner's hospital and
made the kids do keg stands. But Greta is really
just a hood ornament for a generation as screwed up libs.
One study from twenty twenty two shows that just twenty
percent of them say they have excellent mental health, forty
five percent say they have poor mental health. No wonder
they look up to Greta crazy crazy.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
Yeah, and she's definitely crazy. And speaking of crazy, speaking
of crazy, you know that there's some guy who has
tried twice now to scale the wall outside mari A
Lago wanting to go in and talk to President Trump
(12:21):
and marry his marry his granddaughter.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
What who is this guy?
Speaker 4 (12:28):
And how is it that he's gotten the second opportunity
to try to get into the place. That's what I
would like to know. Here's a report for the folks
at Fox about this latest security breach at mar A Laga.
Speaker 7 (12:39):
A man detained by the Secret Service early this morning
after attempting to jump the wall at mar A Lago
reportedly told law enforcement he wanted to gain entry to
quote unquote spread the gospel to Trump and marry his
teenage granddaughter there Kai Trump Now. His name Anthony Thomas Reyes.
(13:00):
He's twenty three years old. He was arrested by the
Palm Beach Police Department early this morning after attempting to
unlawfully enter the President's Florida resort. That's according to booking
records from the Palm Beach Sheriff's office. The police report
detailing the incident reportedly chronicled how Reyus, who was previously
arrested over the New Year's holiday after once again trying
to illegally enter mar A Lago, told officers he wanted
(13:24):
to get into Trump's resort to quote unquote spread the
Gospel to the President and marry.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
His granddaughter Kai.
Speaker 7 (13:32):
So according to these reports, this is now the second
time he has tried to.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Gain access and entry into mar A Lago.
Speaker 7 (13:40):
Now, the Secret Service a spokesman with the agency putting
this statement out. Posted by our colleague and friend pat
Ward Fox and his White House producer, and this is
from the Secret Service.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
I'm reading it now.
Speaker 7 (13:53):
An adult male was arrested early Tuesday morning by the
Palm Beach Police Department for unlawfully entering the mar A
Lago Club property in Florida, surely after midnight. The individual
scaled a perimeter fence and triggered alarms. US Secret Service
personnel detained him without incident at the scene. Palm Beach
Police officers responded to the scene and took the individual
into custody, charging him with occupied trespassing. We appreciate the
(14:17):
continued partnership and swift response of the Palm Beach Police Department.
No Secret Service protectees were present at the time.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
Well isn't that special. But this is the second time
he's done it, so so here's the question, of course,
you know, has has he had his mental health evaluated?
You know, it's a little crazy to try to think
that you can just go climb the wall of Mary
Lago and get an audience with the President of the
United States, and you know that you would think he's there, because,
(14:49):
after all, you know, he's a little busy, he's in
DC these days. Even crazier is to think that Ky
Trump is going to be somehow interested in dating this dude,
let alone marrying him. So it seems to me that
this guy needs a very thorough mental health evaluation. And
because he's done it more than once, I think that
proves that he does have a mental health issue. So
(15:11):
he needs to be treated for that. And and somehow
they have to bring criminal charges against him, right, not
that that would necessarily stop him. I mean, this shows
you how difficult it is to stop the crazies, because
you know, you have to you have to arrest them,
you have to have a mental health evaluation. Then you
(15:32):
have to have a reason, compelling reason to force them
into some sort of treatment. And most of them, of course,
don't want any treatment, so and then I guess after
they get treatment, there's no real guarantee that they're going
to be cured whatever the problem is that's causing them
to do what it is they're doing. So it's it's
pretty difficult to control crazy people. Crazy people are tough
(15:55):
that that that's a tough one to come up with.
One more for you for this particular segment, because this
is a this is a bit of a scary story.
This story is about comes out of Detroit and Detroit
Metropolitan Airport and a University of Michigan student who's of
Chinese origin and her Chinese boyfriend, who evidently is now
(16:17):
back in China trying to smuggle in some sort of
poisonous fungus that could impact wheat and corn and you know,
some of our other crops and not only killing off
the crops, but potentially killing people. Supposedly, he wanted her
to do some research on it for him at the
University of Michigan. But who's the research for because they're
(16:41):
both diehard members evidently the Communist Party of China. So
you got to wonder if they're just bringing this stuff
in and an attempt to infect our crops and our
food source. Here is the story out of Fox two
in Detroit.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
Well.
Speaker 8 (16:55):
The complaint has certainly made for some interesting reading. Rubn
Terarran investigators say this fungut could be you in agro terrorism,
wifes out crops and sickens people and animals, and right
now it's just not clear what these Chinese scientists intended
to do.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Oh my name Spinintia.
Speaker 8 (17:11):
Thirty three year old Yushenjian, a scientist and student from
China working as a postdoctoral research fellow in a lab
at the University of Michigan, on Tuesday inside federal court
charged with conspiracies, smuggling, and making false statements. It's alleged
her boyfriend, thirty four year old Jung yong Lu, also
was scientists from China, was caught at Detroit Metro Airport
(17:34):
smuggling a dangerous fungus into the country useram gramminerum attacks barley, corn,
and wheat and could be used for purposes of agro terrorism,
according to this complaint. In July of twenty twenty four,
Customs and Border Patrol found a lot of tissues in
a pocket in a loose backpack. Investigators say the tissues
(17:55):
concealed a note in Chinese, a round piece of filter
paper with a series of surpas drawn on it, and
four clear plastic baggies with small clumps of reddish plant
material inside. Investigators say Lou lied about the materials before
admitting he was smuggling them in to do research at
the lab where his girlfriend was working at the University
(18:15):
of Michigan. Investigators say Lou's iPhone contained an article titled
twenty eighteen Plant pathogen Warfare under Changing climate Conditions. They
also uncovered messages between the two conspiring to bring pathogens
into the United States. He was denied entry and sent back.
It's believed he's currently back in China. His girlfriend, Jenne
(18:37):
is still here now facing serious charges conspiracy to commit
an offense or defraud the United States, smuggling goods into
the United States, false statements. We're not allowed to have
cameras in federal court, but I can tell you that
this defendant looked very scared.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
She was handcuffed and shackled at the waist.
Speaker 8 (18:56):
She closed her eyes as the charges against her were red.
According to the complaint, investigators say they found evidence that
Gien smuggled biological materials into the United States prior to this,
and that she is loyal to the Chinese Communist Party,
which they say helped finance her studies and research.
Speaker 4 (19:15):
Okay, well, then you know, if she's loyal to the
Chinese Communist Party, then we should treat her the way
the Chinese Communist Party would treat an American if an
American went to China and tried to do the same thing,
which would be at the minimum, life in prison.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
That seems fair.
Speaker 4 (19:33):
Life in prison, all right, No sense sending her back
so she can try to sneak back in again. Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope,
life in prison. All right, quick little break, We're going
to visit with the Texas Public Policy Foundations. His name Chuck.
All of a sudden, his name was escaping me. Chuck
de Var, Chuck de Var coming up. The legislative session
(19:54):
is over. We'll see what he thought with the pros
and the cons about what would they were able to
accomplish in Austin during this legislative session, of course, the
governor was in town signing bail reform. Some of that
bail reform didn't get passed by the state legislature, so
maybe we'll start with that back with more in a moment.
Jimmy Bart, Joe Am nine fifty KPRC chuckl the moors
(20:29):
with his taxis on mccolsey Foundation. He follows Texas government
for a living, and that's a hard living. If you
asked me, very glad, I'm sure that the Texas State
Legislative Session is over, unless, of course, the governor is
going to call the special session. You think there's any
chance of that happening.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Well, I certainly don't supposed to read the governor's mind,
but I think he's checked all the boxes that he
wants wanted to check.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
And even with bail reform. You know, the governor was
here talking about bill reform yesterday calling out Democrats for
the part of bail reform that didn't get done. But
it sounds to me like you're saying that they may
have gotten enough done to avoid a special session.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Well, he got the biggest part out of three parts
for the bail reform. So did he get everything he
wanted to know? Did he get the most important thing?
Speaker 2 (21:21):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (21:23):
All right, let's take a look at some of these
other things that the state the legislature came up with
and see what you think about what the governor's going
to do, because there's a lot of bills that passed
that now basically are sitting on the governor's desk waiting
to be signed. Obviously, the priority bills, he's signing those
right away. There's a few other ones, many of which
(21:45):
I can't find out anything about it. I'm wondering if
you know anything about the daylight saving Time bill. For
the first time, a daylight saving time bill making it
permanent year round here in Texas made it out of
the state legislature and went on to the governor for signature.
Is he going to sign that bill? Is he going
to veto that bill? Is he going to ignore that bill?
Speaker 1 (22:05):
That is actually a more controversial measure than most people realize,
because people have strong opinions one way or the other.
If you're going to shift it, some people would prefer
it to be earlier, some people would prefer to be later.
And so this is one of those things where you
don't really win if you're the governor. So I don't know,
(22:26):
maybe he doesn't sign it now.
Speaker 4 (22:28):
Was it would it make that automatically make that a
part of Texas law? Or was this to have it
on the ballot as a constitutional amendment, I think it.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Also has to be approved by Congress. If I'm not mistaken, Yes,
that much is true.
Speaker 4 (22:42):
But with the Trump administration, I think President Trump's already
pretty much said that he's in favor of, you know,
not switching the clocks back and forth. So I don't
think they'd have a problem with the government on this one, right.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
I think everyone agrees it's not good for human health
to shift the clocks a year. The main issue is
what time do you set it at?
Speaker 4 (23:06):
Well, true, and there's something we said for both sides.
I guess a year around daylight saving time won this
particular race because more people seem to like more light
at the end of the day than more light at
the beginning of the day, unless you have a small
school age child.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
Right, exactly.
Speaker 4 (23:22):
All right, Let's also talk about the THC bill, because
that one, I think has generated a lot of controversy.
There's been a lot of veterans groups that have come
out and have urged the governor not to sign this bill.
This is Dan Patrick's baby, and I have to admit
I'm having a hard time understanding how he's become so
zealous about this to the point where I'm beginning to wonder,
(23:45):
you know, if there's a component here I'm not considering.
In other words, has he been lobbied by certain groups
and organizations to on this THHC bill or is this
just his personal conviction that he thinks that, you know,
using THC is morally wrong.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
I think what you're seeing is that it's difficult to
control once you open things up and you allow people,
some with legitimate purposes to use this drug. And so
I think what we're seeing is increasing numbers of youth
improperly using very powerful THHC. And I believe that's what
the Lieutenant governor is concerned about.
Speaker 4 (24:22):
Okay, and fair enough on that. But isn't the answer
on that better regulations and better law enforcement versus making
a total ban.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Well, again, that's certainly the part of the controversy, because
once you allow a product to be in general circulation,
how do you prevent it from being used by people
who aren't supposed to use it? And you look at
other states that have had similar more broad legalization Colorado
and California, for its instance, it has not helped. It's
(24:55):
made things worse in those States.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
How so, how's it made it worse?
Speaker 1 (25:00):
Well, you certainly look at the homeless situation. You look
at the number of youth that have been using THC
and the studies that have come out and shown that
it has a disproportionate effect on young brains, especially people
under the age of twenty five.
Speaker 4 (25:14):
All Right, let me play a little Devil's advocate with you.
If we were to go, let's say to California, and
you're from California originally, so you know something about the topic,
And if we were to deep dive into homeless people
and why they're homeless, how many of those people do
you think are homeless because of using THC versus using
heroin or cocaine or alcohol in abusing those things.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
Yeah, that's a great question. So we do know that
somewhere north of seventy five percent of people who are
on the street, specifically street homelessness, have mental illness and
or drug addiction. We also know that powerful THC tends
to be associated with increased rates of schizophrenia, and that
(26:02):
it often ends up being used by individuals who are
self medicating without the advice of a doctor, and so
it doesn't help things. That's The point is that if
you look at the rate of homelessness in California since
THC became more widely available, it is skyrocketed.
Speaker 4 (26:22):
Okay, And again, you know, I'm not here to argue
with you about any of this. I think you know
from from a libertarian standpoint, and I you know, I
have to admit I pick and choose what I decided
to be libertarian about as most of us do, Right,
I have to admit that it's hard for me to
take a look at this and say, why is it
okay to ban THC and not ban alcohol. Well, we
(26:48):
know that banning alcohol doesn't work. Clearly we have we
have the prohibitionion of alcohol and what resulted from that
as a as a great guide. But I would also
suggest I also wonder if we have the same issue
with something like THCHC, which to me seems fairly comparable
to alcohol as far as the effects that it has
(27:10):
on you, and that we know that people will find
a way to get it, They will buy it from
the illegal sources and risk jail time in order to
get their hands on it, just like they would for alcohol.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
Yeah, so let me push back on two different things there. Sure,
First of all TC is very different than alcohol in
terms of how it is fat soluble and how it
affects the brain. Secondly, we often hear, well, you know,
prohibition didn't work. In fact, it did work. If you
look at per capita alcohol consumption among males, it fell
(27:45):
by more than half during the period of alcohol prohibition
and it stayed there. So, in other words, today's men
drink about half as much per capita as they did
prior to prohibition. So it fundamentally changed culture in a
way that, frankly, the advocates of prohibition were seeking to do.
(28:06):
So we through the lens of history one hundred years
later can just kind of throw away, well, it didn't
work because it was repealed, But in fact it achieved
a lot of its objectives. Now I'm not saying that
had I been around at the time, I would have
supported it. But we can't just say it didn't work,
because it in fact.
Speaker 4 (28:23):
Did well, except for the whole al Capone thing. But
we don't have time to argue about al Capone and
gangsters and all that kind of stuff. Let me ask
you what you think. Chuck Devor was the biggest win
for the conservative movement in the legislative session, and maybe
the biggest loss or missed opportunity, Well, I think.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
The biggest win, without a doubt, was school choice. I mean,
this is something that the Texas Public Policy Foundation has
been trying for thirty six years to empower parents who
are locked into a poor school district by dint of
their zip code, and somewhere north of one hundred thousand
and Texas children are going to be able to benefit.
(29:03):
We'll see how the program works and whether or not
there's appetite to expand it in future years, but this
is going to be a huge benefit for parents, for children,
and frankly for public schools because they will improve they
have to improve night.
Speaker 4 (29:18):
As far as the biggest missed opportunity, what do you
think that might be, Well.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
You know, the biggest missed opportunity, pardon me, the biggest
missed opportunity I think is difficult to completely measure. I
would say that we've missed the opportunity to really fortify
our electric grid. We continue to suffer from an over
investment in wind and solar because of federal policy, and
(29:46):
you're seeing that at the federal level they're kind of
tinkering around with the Green New Deal. They're kind of
going halfway and trying to roll back some of these
generous subsidies. And the challenge for Texas is that as
time goes on and you get more and more win
and solar and proportionately less thermal like nuclear, natural gas, coal,
(30:06):
it makes the grid more and more vulnerable to winter
storms or summer events.
Speaker 4 (30:12):
Yeah, you're right, you're right. Hey, listen, good to talk
to you as always. Enjoy your break. Hopefully there's no
you know, extra session that you have to deal with.
Enjoy your break and we'll talk to you soon. Chuck Devar,
Thank you, you met Chuck Devar from the Texas Public
Policy Foundation. Back with Morte moment, Jimmy Verchow a KPRC.
(30:51):
All right, let's wrap up today with one of my
favorite topics. It's called meat. Well food in general, but
meat in particular. I'm a meat of source. I love
my meat. I love steak, I love beef. In fact,
I cannot think of any form of beef I do
not like. I like pork. I like chicken. Am I
(31:12):
missing oh I mentioned chicken?
Speaker 2 (31:14):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (31:14):
Turkey. I like turkey. I don't know if it counts
as meat, but I like sausage. I don't know, can
I count sausage. I mean, there's some meat in there,
but you know there's lots of parts too. Parts is parts.
I like hot dogs, I like hamburgers. There is a
whole lot of meat I don't like. My problem in
this world is vegetables, convincing myself to eat enough vegetables.
(31:36):
But as somebody who is a meat lover is, it's
a very painful experience at the grocery store and at
restaurants because restaurants, after all, continue to pass along the
cost of meat and other things that they're serving in
their restaurants, and restaurant bills have gotten quite ridiculous along
with the tipping thing. But I don't know if I
(31:56):
have time to get into the tipping well, if we
have time, we'll sneak something on the end here. But
let's talk about the price of meat first and foremost.
The price of meat is up about twenty four percent
over the course of the last two years, and beef
in particular is up on average ten to twelve percent
over where it was. The problems we have with the
(32:16):
price of meat all has to do with production or
lack thereof. In other words, there's not enough supply to
keep up with a demand. And you know, we know that.
I don't know if we're taking enough measures to try
to solve that, but we really need to work on that.
(32:36):
I saw the CEO of Omaha Steak Company. I saw
him on Fox. Here's what he had to say yesterday
about where we're at and where we're going with the
price of meat.
Speaker 3 (32:50):
You and I talked last time we got together about
supplying demand. And at this point, boy, you know, the
number head of cattle in the United States is at alone.
Oh really, not seen since nineteen fifties. In fact, it's wild.
In nineteen fifty two, Omaha Steaks started shipping meat coast
to coast and wax line containers with dry ice, and
(33:11):
we've not seen the size of the herd the same
size since that year. About eighty six point seven million.
Herd now in the.
Speaker 7 (33:20):
Lunch menu doesn't have maple flavory griddle cakes.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
Set your alarm.
Speaker 3 (33:25):
Us back in nineteen fifty two is about eighty eight million.
So that supply pressure is really putting a lot of
upward pressure on price, especially as demand is still so
strong in the US. Supplies a tricky issue you can't
just flip a switch adjust to tariff. We need to
rebuild the herd and that's going to happen over the
next roughly twelve months. My guess is by Q three
(33:48):
twenty six, we'll kind of start to come out of this.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
You know, Look, I like exports.
Speaker 3 (33:53):
I like what it does for the industry and for
the country. You know, foreign buyers tend to pay more
for beef. That's good for meat pack kis for ranchers.
There's one point three million jobs in our industry. But
we do have to balance, right, We have to balance
that supply because you know, America loves beef, and you
know that's something.
Speaker 2 (34:11):
I definitely love.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
But we have to have the supply to do that,
and we've got some work to do.
Speaker 4 (34:17):
No kidding, By the way, I don't that must have
been a little commercial the from the YouTube video of
this thing that we lifted that from. Sorry we didn't
get that edited out, but at any rate, here's the
thing that stuck out to me. He went by real fast,
like it's like really matter of factly, but you might
have noticed that he said, maybe we'll start to get
(34:39):
out of this by third quarter of twenty six. This
is the second quarter, jennuiny if I March April, Baintia. Well, yeah,
we're at the tail end of the second quarter, getting
ready to start the third quarter of twenty twenty five,
so we're talking more than a year from now before
there's any real relief in this. You know, the only
(35:02):
thing that could change would be if somehow the demand
went down. But we've seen, despite higher prices, the demand
has gone up and continues to go up. So we
still want our meat and we are willing to pay
extra money to have our meat. We're willing to sacrifice
(35:23):
other things in order to have our meat. Now, here's
the other part of the inflation thing, because I think
most of the inflation we have left right now is
in the food category and in the eating out category.
We did feature on a morning show today about you know,
how tips continue to go up and how they continue
to ask for warn tips. No, he's asking for fifteen
percent anymore. When you have that automatic thing you fill
(35:44):
out at the end for the tip, they're asking for
a minimum of eighteen percent is to fifteen percent. This
is on top of the fact that prices have been rising.
So if you are continuing to give the same percentage
tip that you were let's say two years ago, you're
you're adding a lot more money onto the tip because
the price of the bill is higher. I mean, maybe
(36:07):
we need to rethink this entire tip thing. Why did
we decide to make tips a percentage thing? Why should
it be a percentage of your bill? Is a weight
person working any harder when you were giving them a
five dollar tip, now you're giving them a seven dollar
tip because the bill's higher? Are they Is the service
any better? Is it two dollars better than it was before?
(36:29):
Or are we just adding money on because of inflation?
I think maybe we need to rethink that. Listen, you
all have a great day. Thanks for listening. I'll see
you tomorrow morning, bright and early, five am over on
news Radio seven forty k T or H. We're back
here at four an am, nine fifty KTRC
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