August 21, 2025 • 29 mins
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
It's that time, time, time, time, luck and load. So
Michael Varie Show is on the air.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Boston received a letter from the Attorney General of the
United States on official letterhead from the federal government, threatening
to prosecute city officials and withhold federal funds unless we
cooperate with carrying out mass deportations at a time when
this federal administration is already causing so much fear and
(00:38):
harm in our communities. These threats are serious and consequential.
But our same communities have told me loud and clear
that silence in.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
The face of oppression is not an option.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
That Tenth Amendment forbids the president from strong arming states
and city to use their own money and police to
carry out Trump's agenda of terror. It is a violation
of the Tenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. Trump
Trump wants the city of Boston may woo to bow
(01:17):
to his dream of absolute power.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
But today we.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
Are here to say Boston will not bow down.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Who asked for this. Americans were told that the most
violent individuals would be deported, and we're now seen in
the numbers that that is a very small percentage of
who is being targeted.
Speaker 5 (02:00):
All immigrants who are here illegally fifty five percent of
New York Times Marquette sixty four percent, CBS News fifty
ABC News with a slightly different question fifty six percent.
So what you're seeing essentially here.
Speaker 6 (02:10):
Is very clear indication that a majority of Americans, in fact,
when they're asked this one question, which I believe gets
that the underlying feelings, do in fact want at the
port all immigrants we're here illegally, just.
Speaker 7 (02:23):
Much and not a round.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Such time.
Speaker 5 (02:36):
You'd want immigration levels decrease. This includes legal and illegal immigration.
Look at this last year fifty five percent. That is
the highest level since the nine to eleven aftermath, you
go back just to twenty.
Speaker 8 (02:54):
And this again legal and legal want people want less
people coming into exactly.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
All right, here's your question. I looked up Daryl Hall
and Quaker Rose to see what year they had their
first hit. What year do you think? It was? Seventy five?
It is, you're good. I did not realize they had
a hit that that early. Had them much later, and
I thought, well, it's always going to be two years earlier,
(04:03):
And you thought it.
Speaker 7 (04:04):
Was nineteen seventy five. It is, Wow, that's pretty good.
Their first album was called Whole Oats. Oh that was clever,
little play on the oats. So what happened on July fourth?
I don't I don't know if I ever told you this,
(04:26):
but we were flying back from DC.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
And I like to fly on holidays because nobody else flies,
so you can always expect on the day itself, people
don't typically want to fly so often you can get
you can enjoy less stress at the airports and all
that sort of stuff. So we're flying over and my
(04:51):
wife has the windows seat and she looks that it
was raining as we were coming through Texas, and she
looks down and she sees what we now know is
the flooding. It was that morning, July fourth, and she
(05:14):
remarked on the flooding, I could not have cared less.
I mean, who knows at that point that this unspeakable
tragedy is happening. And she's much more in touch with
nature and things of the sort. Well, of course we
(05:37):
would come to learn what had happened, and she would
harken back to what she had said, and then we
realized that and as she said, we were at thirty
thousand feet and we were probably starting to descend by
that time. But her point was that I don't ever
(05:59):
remember seeing anything from that height that affected you. I
didn't see it, so I don't know exactly what she saw.
I don't think I knew. I may have heard this
term before, but I don't think I knew that that
region was known as flash flood Alley. I don't think
(06:21):
I had heard that before. I certainly was not aware
of the propensity of flash floods, how which are obviously
called flash floods for a reason. I don't think I
knew how quickly they could form and how devastating they
(06:44):
could be. So when it happened, I start immediately digging
in and starting to read about things, and I find
out that in eighty seven we had another erily similar situation.
And what surprised me with cam'p mystic is how many
(07:09):
people we knew that their families were involved. What what's
the song that Pat Green sings? Is it George's Bar?
Speaker 6 (07:25):
Right?
Speaker 1 (07:26):
George's Bar? See if you can find that when you
read the lyrics to George's Bar now, knowing that Pat
lost his brother and his brother's wife and kids, When
you read those lyrics now, it is as if that
song was written by Pat the day after the tragedy,
(07:50):
that the words are uncanny. It is, it is odd,
but I don't recall a mass casual the event where
we knew more people than what happened at camp missed it.
The number of people we know that we're involved who
(08:12):
survived was quite a bit. The families have begun speaking
before the state House about legislation, and we'll talk about
that right now, of Michael safety law. You may be gone,
(08:48):
but I'm still here. What a song when your brother
has just passed? How he held it together in the
concert tribute? I don't know, I really don't know. That
is when we were talking. Who was I talking to?
(09:12):
Jim Mudd? Jim Mud and I both had moms named Loretta,
that we've lost each of us within the last couple
of years. And I was talking about when my brother died.
It was a Tuesday evening, and as I was driving
in that night to Orange, I knew what I was
going to confront. My mother had absolutely my mother was destroyed.
(09:32):
Chris was her favorite. They were so close. He never left.
He stayed right there next to my parents so that
he could take care for them, take care of them
and you know, his kids were like their kids. They
practically raised his kids. He was over there every day.
I mean, it was just I didn't know. I knew
she was going to be devastated by his sudden death.
(09:54):
And my dad had very significant health problems, and so
in fact, we would have to hospitalize my dad the
next day and he wasn't able to come to my
brother's funeral. We thought we were going to lose him.
While during all of that, and I had watched, I mean,
the timing of things is uncanny. About two weeks earlier,
(10:15):
I had watched Jordan Peterson in a podcast plebul do
this podcast, I don't know who was asking him the questions,
but it was really almost like a speech, but in
a podcast form. He would be sitting there and he said, uh.
And Jordan Peterson had exploded that when he was at
a real high point and quoted a lot, and I
was watching everything he was saying. I had just read
(10:36):
his book and he said, you should be the strongest
man at your father's funeral. And that didn't really speak
to me until two weeks later it was my brother's funeral,
and I realized it would be indulgent for you to
call up the fetal position and cry, and everybody come
for you. Your job is to be tough right now.
(10:57):
Your job is to be strong, because somebody has to
do this. And I summoned a strength I didn't know
I had. And he was talking about when his mother
died and that his father was in no position to
handle the details and things like that. And it's all
a matter of perspective, you know how you do those
sorts of things. So the parents, more than a dozen
(11:19):
parents of the Camp Mystic girls who died in the
July fourth floods, spoke out for the first time at
a special session in Austin, pushing for Senate Bill one.
Remember we're now in our second special session. The first
one was destroyed by the Democrats who fled the state
because if they can't win the vote, they'll just keep
the state legislature from operating. We have a bill that
(11:42):
came out yesterday, a redistricting bill, the big beautiful map bill,
House Bill four, that is has been has passed the House.
So all the all of the fleeing the state, in
the quorum busting and all that that was all performative.
They weren't going to be able to stop the bill
(12:03):
from being passed. So that bill came out and now
it has been referred to the Senate Redistricting Committee, where
it will be passed and sent to the Texas Senate floor.
Dan Patrick will pass that bill to Greg Abbott, who
will sign it, and we will have redistricting. Now. Some
interesting things to talk about with regard to that, and
(12:23):
we'll get to those. I guess we'll get to those
now because I don't have time to play that clip
on the camp missed it girls yet the second so
Steve Toath is running against Dan Crenshaw, and that district
(12:44):
was sixty three percent Montgomery County thirty seven percent Harris County.
Dan Crenshaw polls much better against Harris County Republicans with
Harris County Republicans than he does Montgomery count Republicans. Montgomery
County Republicans are mac Republicans. They tend to be more independent,
more tea party MAGA Trump supporting Trump, despises despises Dan Crenshaw.
(13:12):
Crinshaw tried to show up at an event Republican rally.
He tried to go to Trump's tent for VIPs and
was denied. They told him leave and They leaked that,
and I heard it from multiple folks because they wanted it. No,
they wanted it known. In Texas. Trump does not like Crenshaw.
He's a little snake. So Crenshaw steve Toath head to
(13:37):
head would beat Dan Crenshaw. But the World Economic Forums
Swamp Republicans want Crenshaw because Crenshaw is a useful idiot.
He's exactly what you want. He's over here day trading
all day, just trying in any way to make more
money for himself and doing whatever the Romney, McCain, corn
(13:58):
and Wing wants. Well, with the redistricting, DC is trying
without Trump noticing it, they flipped that district. Now it's
sixty percent Harris County Montgomery County, so it's still going
to beat his ass. But they're trying everything they can
to protect Dan Prenshaw and DC Lady. For so many years,
(14:30):
I thought I'd never find you. Do you have come
into my life?
Speaker 6 (14:41):
Made me.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Eighty seven years ago today at Jefferson Davis High School
on Jefferson Davis Hospital Forever in downtown Houston, me Kenny
Rogers to see you every morning. You would not release
the gambler until he was forty amazing, what late success.
(15:04):
He had his last concert in Texas at the RCC,
which was a pretty pretty cool evening for those of
you who were there. He just had double knee replacement
and he was getting ready for his swan song, which
was kind of a farewell tribute to him that was
(15:26):
to be held in Nashville shortly after that, and he
had delayed this double knee surgery, and they timed it
where he could have the surgery and hopefully be able
to walk out on the stage in Nashville for his
(15:46):
final tribute, and it would of course be led by Dolly,
so he was not fully recovered yet. When he performed
for us, the intention was they were going to wi
him out on stage, but at the last minute he said, no,
I'd like to walk out on stage, but I will
(16:07):
sit when I get out there. And I think that
was just pride. He was a very vain man. I mean,
one of the reasons the ladies loved Kenny Rogers was
because he presented himself well and that was important to him.
One of my favorite evenings at the RCC. He didn't
have the voice he had once had, and he was
(16:30):
not in the health obviously, one would ideally like. But
what I'll never forget is that one of the rare
times that I did not insist that I get to
meet him after the show, because there's kind of a
courtesy that if the owner of the joint wants to
meet the artist, they'll agree to do it. Their manager
will agree to do it, and it may be a
(16:51):
hind and by, but they'll do it. It's it's I
don't recall anyone saying no to that. But this one night,
I thought, you know what, he did this show. He's
in a lot of pain. He didn't skimp on how
long he stayed out there. He put on a great show.
I'm happy because the people are happy. That's good. And
I get a tap on my shoulder, which liked to
(17:12):
meet Kenny absolutely. So we had a green room, and
then we had Uncle Jerry's what became Uncle Jerry's office,
which could be a second green room, both of which
were large enough to be a green room standalone. And
we had converted a side viewing area into another office
(17:32):
over to the side, and we made that his green
room because it was the most separated and it had
two doors to get to it. And I went and
spent a few minutes with him, and I told him
as very gracious of him to do that, I didn't
need to do it. He pretended he knew who I
was and was a fan. I don't. I never believe
that's the case, but I think somebody puts him up
(17:53):
to say that. But it was still nice to hear.
The only downside to the occasion, Ramon, is that the
photographs that were taken of me and him, which I
asked for and he graciously agreed to, are taken at
a side angle. I'm wearing a goateee and it's not
my skinniest shall we say, my weight at the time,
(18:17):
and the angle makes my face look bloated. And it
was the angle. It was the angle. Don't say that
it is not nice. That's not nice. It was the angle.
It absolutely was the angle. And that's what happened. And
so it was a great, great evening. He went up
in my esteem because of all the things that I
(18:40):
just mentioned. Except that photo. Except for that photo, photo
does not that's not that's not good. In the Texas House,
the parent more than a dozen parents of the Campnstic
girls who died in the July fourth floods spoke out
for the first time that story A number twenty four
(19:00):
from Chatakolnanakan is She's excellent prep of the day KPRCTV.
Speaker 9 (19:05):
We trusted Camp Mystic with her precious life, but that
trust was broken in the most devastating way.
Speaker 8 (19:09):
I think about how much she suffered and how scarce
she had to have been in a dark, cold water.
Speaker 10 (19:15):
Sometimes the dreams are identifying our daughter at the funeral
home and kissing her cold forehead over and over again,
only being certain that it is our daughter by her
necklace that just says Jamie.
Speaker 9 (19:30):
They're all parents of children lost at Camp Mystic, and
they're all here at the state Capitol in Austin asking
for the same thing, to.
Speaker 8 (19:36):
Ensure that there will never be another Heavens twenty seven
due to camp complacency.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Heaven's twenty seven.
Speaker 9 (19:42):
It's a name for those campers and counselors killed when
the floodwaters slammed into the summer camp on July fourth,
parents reliving their pain yet again for the first time,
giving a glimpse at the raw reality that they've been living.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Replaying the nightmare of having to identify.
Speaker 8 (19:56):
Her tiny, muddy body in the trauma and nightmare of
what we imagine she went through that night.
Speaker 9 (20:02):
These grieving mothers and fathers aren't talking about this because
they want to, but because it's the only way to
help protect someone else's child.
Speaker 10 (20:10):
Not build cabins in dangerous floodplanes period.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Surely don't put eight to nine year olds in them.
Speaker 9 (20:18):
Senate Bill one calls for several mandates. Those include escape
ladders to roofs for cabins built in floodplaines, requiring camps
to create an emergency plan, sharing it with local emergency management,
and having a safety orientation with campers. And for youth camps.
No kids can sleep in cabins that are built in
a floodplain.
Speaker 5 (20:37):
Corners cannot be cut, arms cannot be twisted, gray areas
cannot exist.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
These were our children's lives.
Speaker 9 (20:44):
These families, including some who for generations have spent summers
at Camp Mystic, are now slamming the camp's management, blaming
the camp for their daughter's death.
Speaker 8 (20:53):
I told her camp was the safest place she could
be and should make new friends and learn new things.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
To her, she not only wasn't safe, she died.
Speaker 9 (21:04):
While the state looks towards passing the law before next
camp season. One family is still looking for closure. Still
Stewart from Dallas is one of two people still missing
and the only camper yet to be found.
Speaker 8 (21:16):
Forty eight days later, Seal remains somewhere in the devastation
of the Guadalupe River.
Speaker 9 (21:26):
It's news that to this day, search crews are still
trying to.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Find John Welling. And our production crew have been in
Kerrville this week. They are our crew is not diving
the diving cruise. The guys are. They're still going down.
They're still trying to recover. They want one recovered now.
(21:52):
That is tough. We've all moved on and they're still
in there. I said that he was hearing yesterday regarding
Camp Mystic. Was in the morning. It was in the House.
It was not in the House. It was in the Senate,
the Senate Redistricting Committee. It is typically the case that
(22:13):
guests will be given two minutes to speak in both
the House and the Senate. The families of the Camp
Mystic victims were given unlimited time, which they did not abuse.
There was a great deal of respect and solemnity surrounding
the occasion. As you would imagine, I think the unspoken
(22:37):
mostly unspoken takeaway from all of this is everyone recognizes
that their needs to there need to be better safety
measures in place for summer camps. I don't. I don't.
(23:01):
I don't think anybody denies that. The bill itself requires
a number of things. One of them is banning youth
camps from operating cabins in designated floodplains. I do not
agree with that, and I will tell you why. When
(23:23):
you look at Camp Mystic and it's very rich history,
multi generation experience. One of the high points of that
camp and all the other camps that dot the landscape
there is that river. What happened is horrible. There need
(23:46):
to be changes made. There may perhaps be liability assessed.
They're certainly blamed to be passed to some people from
start to finish after a thorough investigation. But the river
is special and always has been. The river is at
(24:08):
the core of the camp experience. There's a reason that
camps are built along the river. And if you see
a map of the camps, there are way more camps
than I realized. I wasn't a camp kid, and my
kids weren't camp kids, but a lot of our friends,
their kids live for summer camp so much so that
(24:33):
those kids didn't skip summer summer camp this year. And
I would remember having a sort of sort of being
slightly startled that kids were still going to summer camp
after the loss of life. This year, those little girls
who were at that camp loved going to summer camp.
(24:56):
That's one of the things that comes through from these stories.
Flood plains are not in and of themselves evil. First
of all, I'll leave it there. Blood plains are not
in and of themselves evil. The answer is, and it
(25:18):
shouldn't require government for this. It should not require government's
government involvement for this. It was good business and the
right thing to do to have better plans. Because while
this thing happens so fast, I mean, it's frightening, and
(25:40):
it's almost not believable. I've spoken to so many people,
read so many things that when you understand how fast
this thing became a nuclear bomb, you're simply unable to
could do anything. You know, houses ripped off their their moorings,
(26:07):
their foundations. People who built ten feet up because they've
been around, they know about the floods, so they built
on concrete pillars ten feet up. Your floor, ten the
floor of your house ten feet above the ground, some
cases more and you're in your house. Well, thank god,
(26:31):
you're in your house and you're elevated. Thank goodness. We're
not in the old house we used to be that
was at ground level and the house literally swept off.
And now you're you're in a raft and water is
coming in. Do you stay in? Do you get out?
It's unthinkable. I don't think. I suppose you could move
(26:54):
these camps out in the middle of the desert, but
then it's not the camp anymore. Just there's just special
experience to these camps, and that river was central to that.
I do, however, think that there need to be, and
frankly should have been before a number of measures, because
(27:19):
it could have been expected that bad floods would occur.
Not on this level, but it could have been expected
and should have been expected.
Speaker 9 (27:28):
And and.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
You know, look, have I always taken every measure to
protect against things that are reasonably possible? Absolutely not, No,
absolutely not. And fortunately you know didn't get burned in
this case. We had a significant loss of life in
(27:51):
a state of mourning that everyone wants to fix. And
that gets to evacuation, better evacuation routes life vests, drills,
all of these things are in the are in the bill,
(28:16):
warning systems, all of those things. But I do think
it's the sort. I do think those conversations need to
be had, and that is not an insult to the
people who were involved, either in government or at the camp.
I think we owe it to the children who lost
their lives and the children who will never forget that experience,
(28:39):
and to children in the future. I don't want to
see the camps closed down, but I do think some
safety measures hand and should and now will be put
into place. And that's what civilized, sophisticated people do, and
that's what's going to happen. That's a good thing. Mary
Tally Boden is our guest coming up to talk to
COVID and all sorts of other stuffs. Zero
It's that time, time, time, time, luck and load. So
Michael Varie Show is on the air.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Boston received a letter from the Attorney General of the
United States on official letterhead from the federal government, threatening
to prosecute city officials and withhold federal funds unless we
cooperate with carrying out mass deportations at a time when
this federal administration is already causing so much fear and
(00:38):
harm in our communities. These threats are serious and consequential.
But our same communities have told me loud and clear
that silence in.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
The face of oppression is not an option.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
That Tenth Amendment forbids the president from strong arming states
and city to use their own money and police to
carry out Trump's agenda of terror. It is a violation
of the Tenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. Trump
Trump wants the city of Boston may woo to bow
(01:17):
to his dream of absolute power.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
But today we.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
Are here to say Boston will not bow down.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Who asked for this. Americans were told that the most
violent individuals would be deported, and we're now seen in
the numbers that that is a very small percentage of
who is being targeted.
Speaker 5 (02:00):
All immigrants who are here illegally fifty five percent of
New York Times Marquette sixty four percent, CBS News fifty
ABC News with a slightly different question fifty six percent.
So what you're seeing essentially here.
Speaker 6 (02:10):
Is very clear indication that a majority of Americans, in fact,
when they're asked this one question, which I believe gets
that the underlying feelings, do in fact want at the
port all immigrants we're here illegally, just.
Speaker 7 (02:23):
Much and not a round.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Such time.
Speaker 5 (02:36):
You'd want immigration levels decrease. This includes legal and illegal immigration.
Look at this last year fifty five percent. That is
the highest level since the nine to eleven aftermath, you
go back just to twenty.
Speaker 8 (02:54):
And this again legal and legal want people want less
people coming into exactly.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
All right, here's your question. I looked up Daryl Hall
and Quaker Rose to see what year they had their
first hit. What year do you think? It was? Seventy five?
It is, you're good. I did not realize they had
a hit that that early. Had them much later, and
I thought, well, it's always going to be two years earlier,
(04:03):
And you thought it.
Speaker 7 (04:04):
Was nineteen seventy five. It is, Wow, that's pretty good.
Their first album was called Whole Oats. Oh that was clever,
little play on the oats. So what happened on July fourth?
I don't I don't know if I ever told you this,
(04:26):
but we were flying back from DC.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
And I like to fly on holidays because nobody else flies,
so you can always expect on the day itself, people
don't typically want to fly so often you can get
you can enjoy less stress at the airports and all
that sort of stuff. So we're flying over and my
(04:51):
wife has the windows seat and she looks that it
was raining as we were coming through Texas, and she
looks down and she sees what we now know is
the flooding. It was that morning, July fourth, and she
(05:14):
remarked on the flooding, I could not have cared less.
I mean, who knows at that point that this unspeakable
tragedy is happening. And she's much more in touch with
nature and things of the sort. Well, of course we
(05:37):
would come to learn what had happened, and she would
harken back to what she had said, and then we
realized that and as she said, we were at thirty
thousand feet and we were probably starting to descend by
that time. But her point was that I don't ever
(05:59):
remember seeing anything from that height that affected you. I
didn't see it, so I don't know exactly what she saw.
I don't think I knew. I may have heard this
term before, but I don't think I knew that that
region was known as flash flood Alley. I don't think
(06:21):
I had heard that before. I certainly was not aware
of the propensity of flash floods, how which are obviously
called flash floods for a reason. I don't think I
knew how quickly they could form and how devastating they
(06:44):
could be. So when it happened, I start immediately digging
in and starting to read about things, and I find
out that in eighty seven we had another erily similar situation.
And what surprised me with cam'p mystic is how many
(07:09):
people we knew that their families were involved. What what's
the song that Pat Green sings? Is it George's Bar?
Speaker 6 (07:25):
Right?
Speaker 1 (07:26):
George's Bar? See if you can find that when you
read the lyrics to George's Bar now, knowing that Pat
lost his brother and his brother's wife and kids, When
you read those lyrics now, it is as if that
song was written by Pat the day after the tragedy,
(07:50):
that the words are uncanny. It is, it is odd,
but I don't recall a mass casual the event where
we knew more people than what happened at camp missed it.
The number of people we know that we're involved who
(08:12):
survived was quite a bit. The families have begun speaking
before the state House about legislation, and we'll talk about
that right now, of Michael safety law. You may be gone,
(08:48):
but I'm still here. What a song when your brother
has just passed? How he held it together in the
concert tribute? I don't know, I really don't know. That
is when we were talking. Who was I talking to?
(09:12):
Jim Mudd? Jim Mud and I both had moms named Loretta,
that we've lost each of us within the last couple
of years. And I was talking about when my brother died.
It was a Tuesday evening, and as I was driving
in that night to Orange, I knew what I was
going to confront. My mother had absolutely my mother was destroyed.
(09:32):
Chris was her favorite. They were so close. He never left.
He stayed right there next to my parents so that
he could take care for them, take care of them
and you know, his kids were like their kids. They
practically raised his kids. He was over there every day.
I mean, it was just I didn't know. I knew
she was going to be devastated by his sudden death.
(09:54):
And my dad had very significant health problems, and so
in fact, we would have to hospitalize my dad the
next day and he wasn't able to come to my
brother's funeral. We thought we were going to lose him.
While during all of that, and I had watched, I mean,
the timing of things is uncanny. About two weeks earlier,
(10:15):
I had watched Jordan Peterson in a podcast plebul do
this podcast, I don't know who was asking him the questions,
but it was really almost like a speech, but in
a podcast form. He would be sitting there and he said, uh.
And Jordan Peterson had exploded that when he was at
a real high point and quoted a lot, and I
was watching everything he was saying. I had just read
(10:36):
his book and he said, you should be the strongest
man at your father's funeral. And that didn't really speak
to me until two weeks later it was my brother's funeral,
and I realized it would be indulgent for you to
call up the fetal position and cry, and everybody come
for you. Your job is to be tough right now.
(10:57):
Your job is to be strong, because somebody has to
do this. And I summoned a strength I didn't know
I had. And he was talking about when his mother
died and that his father was in no position to
handle the details and things like that. And it's all
a matter of perspective, you know how you do those
sorts of things. So the parents, more than a dozen
(11:19):
parents of the Camp Mystic girls who died in the
July fourth floods, spoke out for the first time at
a special session in Austin, pushing for Senate Bill one.
Remember we're now in our second special session. The first
one was destroyed by the Democrats who fled the state
because if they can't win the vote, they'll just keep
the state legislature from operating. We have a bill that
(11:42):
came out yesterday, a redistricting bill, the big beautiful map bill,
House Bill four, that is has been has passed the House.
So all the all of the fleeing the state, in
the quorum busting and all that that was all performative.
They weren't going to be able to stop the bill
(12:03):
from being passed. So that bill came out and now
it has been referred to the Senate Redistricting Committee, where
it will be passed and sent to the Texas Senate floor.
Dan Patrick will pass that bill to Greg Abbott, who
will sign it, and we will have redistricting. Now. Some
interesting things to talk about with regard to that, and
(12:23):
we'll get to those. I guess we'll get to those
now because I don't have time to play that clip
on the camp missed it girls yet the second so
Steve Toath is running against Dan Crenshaw, and that district
(12:44):
was sixty three percent Montgomery County thirty seven percent Harris County.
Dan Crenshaw polls much better against Harris County Republicans with
Harris County Republicans than he does Montgomery count Republicans. Montgomery
County Republicans are mac Republicans. They tend to be more independent,
more tea party MAGA Trump supporting Trump, despises despises Dan Crenshaw.
(13:12):
Crinshaw tried to show up at an event Republican rally.
He tried to go to Trump's tent for VIPs and
was denied. They told him leave and They leaked that,
and I heard it from multiple folks because they wanted it. No,
they wanted it known. In Texas. Trump does not like Crenshaw.
He's a little snake. So Crenshaw steve Toath head to
(13:37):
head would beat Dan Crenshaw. But the World Economic Forums
Swamp Republicans want Crenshaw because Crenshaw is a useful idiot.
He's exactly what you want. He's over here day trading
all day, just trying in any way to make more
money for himself and doing whatever the Romney, McCain, corn
(13:58):
and Wing wants. Well, with the redistricting, DC is trying
without Trump noticing it, they flipped that district. Now it's
sixty percent Harris County Montgomery County, so it's still going
to beat his ass. But they're trying everything they can
to protect Dan Prenshaw and DC Lady. For so many years,
(14:30):
I thought I'd never find you. Do you have come
into my life?
Speaker 6 (14:41):
Made me.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Eighty seven years ago today at Jefferson Davis High School
on Jefferson Davis Hospital Forever in downtown Houston, me Kenny
Rogers to see you every morning. You would not release
the gambler until he was forty amazing, what late success.
(15:04):
He had his last concert in Texas at the RCC,
which was a pretty pretty cool evening for those of
you who were there. He just had double knee replacement
and he was getting ready for his swan song, which
was kind of a farewell tribute to him that was
(15:26):
to be held in Nashville shortly after that, and he
had delayed this double knee surgery, and they timed it
where he could have the surgery and hopefully be able
to walk out on the stage in Nashville for his
(15:46):
final tribute, and it would of course be led by Dolly,
so he was not fully recovered yet. When he performed
for us, the intention was they were going to wi
him out on stage, but at the last minute he said, no,
I'd like to walk out on stage, but I will
(16:07):
sit when I get out there. And I think that
was just pride. He was a very vain man. I mean,
one of the reasons the ladies loved Kenny Rogers was
because he presented himself well and that was important to him.
One of my favorite evenings at the RCC. He didn't
have the voice he had once had, and he was
(16:30):
not in the health obviously, one would ideally like. But
what I'll never forget is that one of the rare
times that I did not insist that I get to
meet him after the show, because there's kind of a
courtesy that if the owner of the joint wants to
meet the artist, they'll agree to do it. Their manager
will agree to do it, and it may be a
(16:51):
hind and by, but they'll do it. It's it's I
don't recall anyone saying no to that. But this one night,
I thought, you know what, he did this show. He's
in a lot of pain. He didn't skimp on how
long he stayed out there. He put on a great show.
I'm happy because the people are happy. That's good. And
I get a tap on my shoulder, which liked to
(17:12):
meet Kenny absolutely. So we had a green room, and
then we had Uncle Jerry's what became Uncle Jerry's office,
which could be a second green room, both of which
were large enough to be a green room standalone. And
we had converted a side viewing area into another office
(17:32):
over to the side, and we made that his green
room because it was the most separated and it had
two doors to get to it. And I went and
spent a few minutes with him, and I told him
as very gracious of him to do that, I didn't
need to do it. He pretended he knew who I
was and was a fan. I don't. I never believe
that's the case, but I think somebody puts him up
(17:53):
to say that. But it was still nice to hear.
The only downside to the occasion, Ramon, is that the
photographs that were taken of me and him, which I
asked for and he graciously agreed to, are taken at
a side angle. I'm wearing a goateee and it's not
my skinniest shall we say, my weight at the time,
(18:17):
and the angle makes my face look bloated. And it
was the angle. It was the angle. Don't say that
it is not nice. That's not nice. It was the angle.
It absolutely was the angle. And that's what happened. And
so it was a great, great evening. He went up
in my esteem because of all the things that I
(18:40):
just mentioned. Except that photo. Except for that photo, photo
does not that's not that's not good. In the Texas House,
the parent more than a dozen parents of the Campnstic
girls who died in the July fourth floods spoke out
for the first time that story A number twenty four
(19:00):
from Chatakolnanakan is She's excellent prep of the day KPRCTV.
Speaker 9 (19:05):
We trusted Camp Mystic with her precious life, but that
trust was broken in the most devastating way.
Speaker 8 (19:09):
I think about how much she suffered and how scarce
she had to have been in a dark, cold water.
Speaker 10 (19:15):
Sometimes the dreams are identifying our daughter at the funeral
home and kissing her cold forehead over and over again,
only being certain that it is our daughter by her
necklace that just says Jamie.
Speaker 9 (19:30):
They're all parents of children lost at Camp Mystic, and
they're all here at the state Capitol in Austin asking
for the same thing, to.
Speaker 8 (19:36):
Ensure that there will never be another Heavens twenty seven
due to camp complacency.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Heaven's twenty seven.
Speaker 9 (19:42):
It's a name for those campers and counselors killed when
the floodwaters slammed into the summer camp on July fourth,
parents reliving their pain yet again for the first time,
giving a glimpse at the raw reality that they've been living.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Replaying the nightmare of having to identify.
Speaker 8 (19:56):
Her tiny, muddy body in the trauma and nightmare of
what we imagine she went through that night.
Speaker 9 (20:02):
These grieving mothers and fathers aren't talking about this because
they want to, but because it's the only way to
help protect someone else's child.
Speaker 10 (20:10):
Not build cabins in dangerous floodplanes period.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Surely don't put eight to nine year olds in them.
Speaker 9 (20:18):
Senate Bill one calls for several mandates. Those include escape
ladders to roofs for cabins built in floodplaines, requiring camps
to create an emergency plan, sharing it with local emergency management,
and having a safety orientation with campers. And for youth camps.
No kids can sleep in cabins that are built in
a floodplain.
Speaker 5 (20:37):
Corners cannot be cut, arms cannot be twisted, gray areas
cannot exist.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
These were our children's lives.
Speaker 9 (20:44):
These families, including some who for generations have spent summers
at Camp Mystic, are now slamming the camp's management, blaming
the camp for their daughter's death.
Speaker 8 (20:53):
I told her camp was the safest place she could
be and should make new friends and learn new things.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
To her, she not only wasn't safe, she died.
Speaker 9 (21:04):
While the state looks towards passing the law before next
camp season. One family is still looking for closure. Still
Stewart from Dallas is one of two people still missing
and the only camper yet to be found.
Speaker 8 (21:16):
Forty eight days later, Seal remains somewhere in the devastation
of the Guadalupe River.
Speaker 9 (21:26):
It's news that to this day, search crews are still
trying to.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Find John Welling. And our production crew have been in
Kerrville this week. They are our crew is not diving
the diving cruise. The guys are. They're still going down.
They're still trying to recover. They want one recovered now.
(21:52):
That is tough. We've all moved on and they're still
in there. I said that he was hearing yesterday regarding
Camp Mystic. Was in the morning. It was in the House.
It was not in the House. It was in the Senate,
the Senate Redistricting Committee. It is typically the case that
(22:13):
guests will be given two minutes to speak in both
the House and the Senate. The families of the Camp
Mystic victims were given unlimited time, which they did not abuse.
There was a great deal of respect and solemnity surrounding
the occasion. As you would imagine, I think the unspoken
(22:37):
mostly unspoken takeaway from all of this is everyone recognizes
that their needs to there need to be better safety
measures in place for summer camps. I don't. I don't.
(23:01):
I don't think anybody denies that. The bill itself requires
a number of things. One of them is banning youth
camps from operating cabins in designated floodplains. I do not
agree with that, and I will tell you why. When
(23:23):
you look at Camp Mystic and it's very rich history,
multi generation experience. One of the high points of that
camp and all the other camps that dot the landscape
there is that river. What happened is horrible. There need
(23:46):
to be changes made. There may perhaps be liability assessed.
They're certainly blamed to be passed to some people from
start to finish after a thorough investigation. But the river
is special and always has been. The river is at
(24:08):
the core of the camp experience. There's a reason that
camps are built along the river. And if you see
a map of the camps, there are way more camps
than I realized. I wasn't a camp kid, and my
kids weren't camp kids, but a lot of our friends,
their kids live for summer camp so much so that
(24:33):
those kids didn't skip summer summer camp this year. And
I would remember having a sort of sort of being
slightly startled that kids were still going to summer camp
after the loss of life. This year, those little girls
who were at that camp loved going to summer camp.
(24:56):
That's one of the things that comes through from these stories.
Flood plains are not in and of themselves evil. First
of all, I'll leave it there. Blood plains are not
in and of themselves evil. The answer is, and it
(25:18):
shouldn't require government for this. It should not require government's
government involvement for this. It was good business and the
right thing to do to have better plans. Because while
this thing happens so fast, I mean, it's frightening, and
(25:40):
it's almost not believable. I've spoken to so many people,
read so many things that when you understand how fast
this thing became a nuclear bomb, you're simply unable to
could do anything. You know, houses ripped off their their moorings,
(26:07):
their foundations. People who built ten feet up because they've
been around, they know about the floods, so they built
on concrete pillars ten feet up. Your floor, ten the
floor of your house ten feet above the ground, some
cases more and you're in your house. Well, thank god,
(26:31):
you're in your house and you're elevated. Thank goodness. We're
not in the old house we used to be that
was at ground level and the house literally swept off.
And now you're you're in a raft and water is
coming in. Do you stay in? Do you get out?
It's unthinkable. I don't think. I suppose you could move
(26:54):
these camps out in the middle of the desert, but
then it's not the camp anymore. Just there's just special
experience to these camps, and that river was central to that.
I do, however, think that there need to be, and
frankly should have been before a number of measures, because
(27:19):
it could have been expected that bad floods would occur.
Not on this level, but it could have been expected
and should have been expected.
Speaker 9 (27:28):
And and.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
You know, look, have I always taken every measure to
protect against things that are reasonably possible? Absolutely not, No,
absolutely not. And fortunately you know didn't get burned in
this case. We had a significant loss of life in
(27:51):
a state of mourning that everyone wants to fix. And
that gets to evacuation, better evacuation routes life vests, drills,
all of these things are in the are in the bill,
(28:16):
warning systems, all of those things. But I do think
it's the sort. I do think those conversations need to
be had, and that is not an insult to the
people who were involved, either in government or at the camp.
I think we owe it to the children who lost
their lives and the children who will never forget that experience,
(28:39):
and to children in the future. I don't want to
see the camps closed down, but I do think some
safety measures hand and should and now will be put
into place. And that's what civilized, sophisticated people do, and
that's what's going to happen. That's a good thing. Mary
Tally Boden is our guest coming up to talk to
COVID and all sorts of other stuffs. Zero
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.