May 29, 2025 • 30 mins
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
It's that time, time, time, time, luck and load. Michael
Varry Show is on the air. You're gonna make a
lot of money, right, yeah right, that's not yours? Well
it comes ours. How is that not stealing? I don't think.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
I don't think that. I'm explaining this very well.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
It's seven eleven, right, you take a penny from the tray.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
From the crippled children. No, that's the job.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
I'm talking about the tray the you know, the pennies
for for everybody.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Oh, for everybody?
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Okay, yeah, well those are whole pennies right, all right,
I'm just talking about fractions of a penny here, okay,
But we do it from a much bigger tray, and
we're doing a couple of million times, So what's wrong
with that?
Speaker 2 (00:55):
It's to spend.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
As the spend.
Speaker 4 (01:05):
In a post on x, Doge said the Department of
Health and Human Services had terminated a contract paying family
Endeavors eighteen million dollars a month to operate an empty
facility in West Texas. Doge also claims Endeavors received its
HHS contract in twenty twenty one after a former ICE
(01:26):
employee and Biden transition team member joined the nonprofit endeavors.
Government disclosure forms show its revenues shot up in twenty
twenty one from fifty million to six hundred and fifty
eight millions.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
As the spin as the spend.
Speaker 5 (01:55):
And when you see people there in Tennessee fifty percent
of their inc un the state, federal, and local taxes
through other end, you know, through everything else, fees and
everything else, and then they see us sending literally billions overseas.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
To our enemies.
Speaker 5 (02:10):
You know, I've uncovered forty million dollars going to the Taliban.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
A guy named Sean Ryan.
Speaker 5 (02:17):
Over Middle Tennessee, former Navy seal podcaster. He and another
guy named Legend had brought this to my attention. And
you know, last term I could not even get the
Democrats to bring it up in the Senate. It passed
unanimous in the House, not even a question because they're
going to have to admit they made a mistake, and
they continuously made a mistake, and they did it on purpose,
(02:38):
is the worst part about it. And this graph that
you're seeing, and that's one hundred percent what it is.
I think you're going to see a paper trail come
back to Washington, d C. And that's why I think
a lot of people are nervous and you'll see a
lot of retirements because they are stealing from the American
taxpayer and now they've got their handcott in the cookie
jar and all they can do is attack elon busk this.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
I'm surprised this was still a policy, but apparently it
was because the announcement that HPD has eliminated the policy
that required officers to initiate at least one traffic stop
per day. The story the story from k p r
C TV.
Speaker 6 (03:42):
APD is officially banning quotas for traffic stops after a
new ordinance passed on Wednesday.
Speaker 7 (03:49):
Currently, under state law, there's a there is statue that
already bars quotas for ticketing, but there's nothing that bars
quote us for stops. And what we found is in
the past, there have been policy within HPD that required
officers to make at least one stop per shift.
Speaker 6 (04:10):
Council Member Edward Pollard says the previous quota causing uptick
in police stops over the.
Speaker 7 (04:15):
Past years, and we've seen by the numbers that there
has been disportionate number of black and brown individuals who
have been stopped, and there has been also an increase
in officer involved incidents.
Speaker 6 (04:29):
Mayor John Whitmyer says the quota was created under previous administration.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Thank you for putting it in an ordinance form, but
it's not been the practice of HPD since the new
administration and a new police chief.
Speaker 6 (04:43):
Other council members showed their support for the ordinance by
sharing their experiences.
Speaker 8 (04:48):
When I was twenty four years old, I was arrested
in front of my child's daycare center at eleven PM
for allegedly stopping and rolling through.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
A stop sign.
Speaker 8 (04:57):
The officer was aggressive, he threatened me, he had cuff me,
and he took me to jail. I was treated like
a number, a target, and a threat.
Speaker 9 (05:05):
As someone who has taught hundreds of cadets at the
Police Academy on search and Seizure, I can tell you
that this kind of policy that is being addressed that
requires a minimum number of stops per shift invites Fourth
Amendment violations and can lead to unnecessary uses of force.
Speaker 6 (05:24):
By the end of the meeting, Whitmeyer hit the gabble
finalizing the ordinance and council member Pollard Think Community Advocates,
and the Houston Police Officers Union. He says their conversations
about traffic stop quotas led to the ordinance. He also
received a letter of support from Police Chief No ideas.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
So I remember the first year I was on city council,
two thousand shows, elected in November of one, and budget
time is where council has its most influence because the
departments have to come in and ask for money, and
then they go through their operations and that's when you
really get to ask some tough questions. And I remember
(06:07):
that the police department budget had several line items. There
were expenses, and there were revenues and in their revenue department,
and I'm just going to.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Make this number up.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
I really don't remember what the number was. But let's
say I think this might actually be about right. But
this is just because the number just popped in my head.
Let's say that they were projecting to make or that
they had made twenty million dollars a year before in
ticket revenue, but this year they were projecting twenty five
(06:43):
Why because the city needed more money. Lee Brown was
making people rich who had supported him. He had made
a pledge that he was going to make one hundred
black millionaires in Houston, and by God, it had to
come from somewhere. So if you got a ticket for
a rolling through a stop sign and you felt you didn't,
really that was the reason Lee Brown needed to spread
(07:05):
the wealth around. And hey, if some of it ended
up in his back pocket, and no shame in that
is there that he's first black mayor in all got
to get rich. What's the point of being mayor not
going to get rich? People ask me all the time,
how come Sheila jacksonally fought so hard to be mayor?
She was a congressman. A congressman has no power. A
mayor has a lot, especially the ability to get rich.
(07:30):
So I asked a question of the then chief. I'm
not opposed to writing tickets for infractions. That's that's how
you keep the road safe and all that. But how
can you know if you only write a ticket when
someone does something wrong, how can you know more people
(07:52):
are going to do more wrong things. Well, we're going
to aggressively try to write more tickets, which we think
that's a good idea. It wasn't long, just a couple
of years later that they stopped responding to accidents. You
get in an accident, your your insurance wants to know
this one. But we can't respond to accidents. But we
(08:14):
got people pulling people over for not for rolling through
a stop.
Speaker 5 (08:18):
Sat the King of Ding and this other guy, Michael.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Barry Well Elon Musk I'm formally announced on Twitter last
night that his time in government is over, thanking the
President for the opportunity to cut wasteful spending and promising
(08:45):
that doge will only strengthen over time as it becomes
a way of life throughout the government. Oh, would that
that were true? Would that that true? Most people don't notice.
But the last week we going to have the doge folks,
(09:07):
the young whipper snappers in there who are just young
enough and idealistic enough, like a Ron Paul convention, to
actually want to cut wasteful spending. See, there are a
lot of people that claim they want to cut wasteful
spending who are Republicans in positions of power, but when
it comes right down to it, they don't see the
(09:31):
wasteful spending as wasteful spending. Fascinating how this works. Everybody
agrees we shouldn't allow for wasteful spending. We agree, yeah, yeah,
there's never someone in the back corner. It's like hold
on man ho hold own ho own. Why can we
(09:51):
have wasteful spending? Everybody is against wasteful spending, But where
the rubber hits the road is what isn't isn't wasteful spending?
Why do we send money to other countries charitable contributions?
Why do we fund research in other countries? Why do
(10:12):
we fund so much research here? I really don't care
if a bullfrog and a horn toad get their feelings
hurt after having sex on a Sunday when the temperature
drops below forty or whatever other goofy things. They spend
(10:33):
a fortune researching. The universities would look very different if
you took away their research dollars. Dirty little secret, the
university is not an academic institution to enlighten and improve
your child from eighteen to twenty two. That's long gone.
(10:54):
They found pots of money, and that pot of money
is not your tuition check or in the fancy dorm
you pay for. That's a nice little side hustle for
the university. But that's not what a university is anymore.
Make no mistake. A university is a handout seeking, grant
(11:15):
applying institution that is trying to get hold of the
billions of dollars that are handed out for research. Faculty
advancement is no longer in any way, shape or form
related to classroom performance, student review, any of that. And
(11:36):
just like with everything else, the universities make a show
of that because there needs to be a reason that
the general populace doesn't complain that they get so much,
so much money. And the way they do that is
you get football, you get basketball, but mostly football. You
get basketball at least during March, and the for a
smaller group of people baseball, but not enough to keep
(11:58):
the money this big, it open like, it's all football.
Football is more interesting than professional football now college football
and that's the fact I know well for college graduates
and high earners, college football is the only game in town.
(12:22):
For working class people that didn't go to college, some
of them will support a college football team, but a
lot of those folks, especially the working class, will pick
a professional team, usually their home professional team, but doesn't
have to be, and they will root for them. But
the university is not an institution of hired learning any
(12:44):
longer in any way. That is all a little show
to keep the that's bred and circuses. In fact, that's
why if you have a kid in school, you know
that most of the classes are taught by teaching assistants.
In places like engineering, you don't see a full professor
until at best your third year in most cases, and
(13:06):
that's at the elite schools. You got a teaching assistant
who was brought here from India or God help you, China.
Did I ever tell you the story about that? Or
my wife came here to do a PhD in economics.
So she was in the graduate school and she had
a calculus class, and she's very good in the higher mass.
(13:28):
She's Indian. You would expect that, right, So she is
complaining constantly about this calculus teacher. Ing was his name.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
I think he was just ng.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
They forgot to eye and no I and Ing. She's complaining,
complaining the classes. At seven o'clock at night. I said,
you know what, I'm gonna go to that class with you.
I gotta hear this from myself because she never complains
about anything. So but she was more frustrated than anything else.
I would have had very I would have I would
have described the situation differently if it was me. But
(13:58):
that's more my vent process. So I go to the class,
and I think, well, I'm gonna I'm gonna get up close.
I'm gonna see maybe if you get sit down front,
I'm gonna sit on the front road. Guy, don't mind
telling you, I'm gonna sit down front. IM gonn pay attention.
I'm gonna take my notes, and I'm gonna see if
I grasp what he's doing here. He walks in after
(14:21):
everyone is seated. He never looks at anyone. He walks
up to the board. I'm lying, I'm done. He's who
I'm doing. He's at the board with his back to us,
and he begins writing on a chalkboard that has not
been washed in years, so the chalkboards, you know, layers
of dusty chalk on it. And he just starts talking
(14:44):
like he's solving an equation. We don't know what the
equation is, but he just starts talking. But that's best
I can tell. He might have been telling how to
skin a cat or travel to the moon. I had
no idea what he was talking about. And he was marking
on the on the board, cho cho chuch.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
I hadn't know.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
I like to think I'm pretty good at figuring out
people with foreign accents and I had no idea, and
I'm sitting there bug eye, thinking that this is the
classroom in America today. Okay, Southern Pride, Southern Fried to
Michael Barry Show, Why does it show? Drunk? Mark is
(15:30):
on the line. He's on the line. Is he still
in a tent under a shade tree at roberts In
two ninety across from La Placito waiting on them to
open it forth so he can apply to be a
bus boy? Anxious over his July first court date for
two outstanding warrants. Okay, I'm just checking. That's our Mark update. Ramon?
(15:55):
What day did you start to work at? Then the
Clear Channel Radio? August first, nineteen ninety nine. Folks, when
somebody can tell you the day they started to work
in the only job they've ever had in their life? Well,
what you did? Pizza Hut? And what else do you do?
(16:16):
In part video? Where was that in Texas City? Okay?
So his first big boy job all Ramone ever wanted
to do, all he ever wanted to do. Who was
it that got you that you say you were listening
to as a kid Stevens and Pruitt? So Ramon would
listen to Stevens and Pruitt, and he wanted to make radio.
(16:39):
That's all he ever wanted to do. And didn you
go to the CBS the what's the school you went to?
Didn't you? You went to Alvin Community College? But I
thought you went to that one Connecticut School of Broadcasting. Yeah.
But the funny thing is our company doesn't hire out
of the Connecticut School of Broadcasting, and I don't know
(17:01):
anybody that does. So I don't know why you go
get some certification from the Connecticut School of Broadcasting because
it doesn't help you. But they don't tell me I
ain't get in radio. I guess I got to go
to the Connecticut School of Broadcasting August first, nineteen ninety nine.
So there was a tradition Eddie Martini, charismatic leader, reward
(17:28):
people for especially in an industry that went through a
lot of change, still going through change, and it will
always go through change. He would reward people who'd been
at the company. Your anniversary, Your five year would be
you know, golf collap your ten year would be a
woman you know, you'd ask for you know, beads and
(17:48):
she'd you pull his shirt up, and you know, the
whole and then fifteen twenty was was twenty the watch
twenty or twenty five twenty you would get a watch.
So August first, twenty nineteen, there's ramone. He's happy and
we get in his watch watch. There's no COVID yet,
(18:10):
no disruption. So Eddie does these meetings that go on
for hours. It starts as a lunch, but it turns
into a very boozy afternoon, and then they bring in
blackjack dealers and all that and it becomes quite the party.
(18:32):
But it starts with this big you know, here's our numbers.
Because Eddie is still a corporate guy, right, He's still
got to report to a CEO in New York. So
here's the details. Here's what Here's how much money we made.
Here's how many people we have. Here's here's our listener.
Here's our number of listeners. Here's how many show sponsors
(18:52):
we have. Here's a He goes through all that, and
it's a raw rob because Houston's the top market for
the company you're in year out. The highlight is at
the end there's the new editions, which is the new babies,
people who've gotten married. That's always a big thing. And
then and then there is a guess which year this is,
(19:17):
and that's the year that the person who's about to
be honored started at the company. Well you knew it
was a ten or a twenty, so you could you
could you know if you were in twenty nineteen, you'd
guess two thousand and nine, not eight or ten. So
there's Ramon waiting on his watch. He's probably washed his
hand real good. He rubbed his arm down. Really he
gets he's not warning his other watch that day, so
(19:39):
he can, you know, save space. He'd make a space
for his watch. Now, if you think I'm kidding, because
I do kid a lot, I want to be as
clear as I can, I'm dead serious. Ramon didn't tell anybody,
but he was crestfallen, I mean devastated over not getting
(20:01):
a watch. So I kind of passive aggressively passed along that,
you know, Oh well he hadn't been here twenty years. No,
he has, trust me, he knows exactly the day he started.
So I thought, well, I'm gonna say anything when he
hits twenty years. What they think is twenty years. It's
not Eddie's fault, somebody else's fault. But anyway, so the
(20:24):
twenty years twenty one comes and goes, twenty two comes
and goes, no watch, No watch, twenty three, twenty four
turns into twenty five, no watch. We are now approaching
in a matter of weeks twenty six and it comes
(20:45):
up more than is healthy. So I got a call
from Maddie Martinez yesterday and he has rectified the problem.
So can you play some music so that I might
present to you your twenty year watch six years late?
Play some music because I got I got to leave
the microphone. Sorry about that. Long and short is and
(21:08):
I give the credit to Eddie Martini. But as you know,
when you go to the dentist office, it's the hygenius
that does all the work. And at the end they go,
you know, doctor Moore will be in in just a moment.
And then doctor Moore comes sauntring, how are we doing
in here? And oh, isn't he a strapping, handsome, powerful
dentist man. And he's asked the dentist has as as
(21:33):
she's telling him, you know on E nine he's got
this and on B thirteen and he kind of looks
in there, yeah ye. Then he upsells, you know something,
and he goes on out the way, but she did
all the work. Well, I'll have to tell you what
happened just a moment. I mean, what I'm saying is
Sylvia and Charley do all the work cold on the
(21:53):
information that I get from the show that I don't
seem to get from other places the Michael Barry Show.
We will post a video to the Facebook page. But
this was Eddie, Sylvia and Charlie's idea. I presented him
with a beautifully wrapped and presented box, and he knew
(22:19):
that it was at some point another I was going
to have to personally buy him a nice watch because
I'm so sorry to hear it about it. So this
came out of nowhere that Eddie, Sylvia and Charlie at
iHeart came up with this idea. And so they got
two watches. One was an eighties electric that you wore
(22:41):
in sixth grader that I wore in sixth grade, which
I actually have several watches like this. I get a
kick out of wearing them anyway. So I bring in
the watch and I go to hand it to him,
and I said, let's take a photo of you holding
the box before he opens it, and his hands are
shaking he's so emotional. There's so much pent up. You know,
it's the quiet ones you gotta worry about, right, So
(23:02):
he's been seething all this year, all these years being unappreciated,
and you know, unappreciated people are dangerous, like the Bernie
bro guy that shot up the softball, you know, falling
down man. People that don't feel appreciated. You got to
watch them, right, they're kind of crazy. So anyway, unappreciated
man sitting across the glass, and so it results in
(23:23):
a lot of you know, you think, oh he's grumpy. No,
he's just unappreciated man. So there's the box. He takes
the picture and his hands are shaking, and Ramon's not
an emotional guy, and I think he's gonna cry. His
face is turned very red, and Emily's taking the photo
and he's thinking, I mean, he doesn't know what to do.
It's like one of the moment you really people use
the word surreal because they don't know what other word
(23:43):
there is. It was surreal, So there it was. He
opens it and he sees the watch and he chuckles
because he's on camera, but he really doesn't think it's
funny and he's thinking, they visited a further indignity upon me,
and this was the present they sent me, And so
I was going to drag that out for a while
(24:04):
and let him suffer. But it was also emotional for
him that I went back in my studio and got
the bigger gift they gave him, which is a very
very nice watch, very nice watch, extremely nice watch. And
he was sufficiently moved. He said, I feel appreciated, and
(24:26):
I thought, oh, you poor fellow. But that's what happened,
and it was a beautiful, wonderful moment. So twenty five
years almost in twenty six seriously, so from Eddie, Sylvia,
Charlie and the iHeart Gang, congratulations and you are appreciating.
(24:56):
I don't feel really good about going into a story
about a pair of Venezuela and Venezuelan illegal aliens arrested
in a hit and run Chetsky death. I feel like
that moment should should linger in the air for a moment. See,
this has been a great time to go to drunk
mark because he would have said, hey, uh, gratulations, Ramone
was good. He did that what I sold my wa
(25:21):
I remember I sold my will I had had a
nice watch. It wasn't as nice as what it sound
like they gave him. They give him a nice watch.
I remember he has a little cookie monster. A little
cookie monster sound to him. If you have ever met
Ramone roblist, or just finish out this segment and we'll
go back to or you have a Ramone roblist story
(25:42):
to tell very quickly seven one three nine nine one thousand,
seven one three nine nine nine one thousand, and then
at the beginning of the next hour we will get
back into the regular show and the blood and gore
that is the world and the craziness. Uh seven one
three nine at nine one thousand, So we're on. You'll
have to turn your mic on for this is a
(26:03):
very rare moment whereon will be talking.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
Who hired you? Tim Collins?
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Tim Collins heard you? Okay, I think I might have
known that.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
Let me walk that back. Bill Van Riisdam, actually.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Bill van Rysdam who ended up over at six ten. Okay,
remember can you talk into the microphone? Uh So Bill
was Bill Van Risdam at kt EACH at that time.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Yeah, he was a PD.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
He was the PD, all right, and he himself hired you.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 10 (26:30):
But now remember i'd send in five six resumes, I'd
been rejected five or six times.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Just out of curiosity. What was on your resume? Pizza
Hut and Empire.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
Video Customer Service.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
And Texas City sting of reeze. Yeah, okay, all right,
you got to start somewhere.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
I didn't have a criminal record back then. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
So then how much did they pay you? Oh?
Speaker 2 (26:56):
I minimum wage seven bucks seven bucks.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
Seven bucks was more than it is today. Seven bucks
then was more than seven bucks today.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
More importantly, I got my foot in the door, though,
You got.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
Your foot in the door. And whether they put you weekends,
overnight a production.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
I was just doing. I was recording, dubbing in spots.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Oh wow, oh wow, okay, and just regular daytime. How
many hours?
Speaker 10 (27:19):
It was part time for a few months, so it
was twenty twenty five hours a week.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
Remember how we talked about talking into the microp.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
I'm sorry about that. I'm not used to talking into
the microphone.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
I know, I know you did not. So were you
working another job at the time. Were you living with
your parents?
Speaker 8 (27:33):
Oh?
Speaker 10 (27:33):
Yeah, I was down in Galveston working at another radio station,
KGBC in Galveson fifteen forty.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
Oh, that's the one that was being run by the
guy that turned out to be a fraud. Remember he
skipped out on his wife.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
So Ramon and I we were driving to Galveston for
so we had a meeting for something. And we're driving
along and I said, Ramon, tell me something about you
that after all these years, I don't know. And he said,
have you ever heard of what's the guy's name, Tim Kingsbury?
Tim Kingsbury? I said I have not. He said, look
him up. I said, well, how about we have more
(28:07):
fun with this while we're driving. You tell me why
I'm looking him up. He said, well, you skipped out
on his wife, faked his own death and relocated. He
was in Ohio. Yeah, and relocated in Galiston, Texas. And
he ran a radio station that I worked at. And
you waited all these years, you know. I love a
story like that. All right, So then you were you
(28:29):
were in the production department, and then what was the
first station you worked for? It was k t RH
ktr H doing what overnights?
Speaker 10 (28:37):
Yeah, overnights and then production and then the morning board
op for Lanta and JP was persona on Grada and
they who was that.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
David Hold? Is that his name should to be saying
his David?
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeh yeah, okay, that was
before me, but I remember, yeah, yeah, okay. And so
you did Lanta JP in the morning.
Speaker 10 (28:55):
Yep, got hired full time? Then all right, and I
thought you worked for Randy Lemon. I did remember Randy
was on ten am weekdays.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
Oh, that's right, so it would be Landing JP in
the morning and then Randy Lemon weekdays. That was when
Rush was on nine to fifty. Yeah okay, and then
after that after that, what so your career progression? Oh man,
it's all a blur.
Speaker 10 (29:19):
Then we moved over to San Felipe, right, and then
some city councilman started doing talk and asked me to
help with production. They had brought in Sam Malone and
Joe Pegs and Deborah Duncan. So I got more involved
in the production site.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
In the producing site, that's when I enter I think
I might be the sum city councilman. People don't know that.
We had fobcards with an extender. I don't know if
you call that. And we used to whip each other
with the fobcards. Who could take the bigger whipping? And
I went home one day and I have my shirt
off and my wife says, what happened to you? I
(29:57):
looked like I'd been in a car wreck or something. Oh,
Ramona and I play this little game where we whip
each other and we just laugh and laugh
It's that time, time, time, time, luck and load. Michael
Varry Show is on the air. You're gonna make a
lot of money, right, yeah right, that's not yours? Well
it comes ours. How is that not stealing? I don't think.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
I don't think that. I'm explaining this very well.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
It's seven eleven, right, you take a penny from the tray.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
From the crippled children. No, that's the job.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
I'm talking about the tray the you know, the pennies
for for everybody.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Oh, for everybody?
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Okay, yeah, well those are whole pennies right, all right,
I'm just talking about fractions of a penny here, okay,
But we do it from a much bigger tray, and
we're doing a couple of million times, So what's wrong
with that?
Speaker 2 (00:55):
It's to spend.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
As the spend.
Speaker 4 (01:05):
In a post on x, Doge said the Department of
Health and Human Services had terminated a contract paying family
Endeavors eighteen million dollars a month to operate an empty
facility in West Texas. Doge also claims Endeavors received its
HHS contract in twenty twenty one after a former ICE
(01:26):
employee and Biden transition team member joined the nonprofit endeavors.
Government disclosure forms show its revenues shot up in twenty
twenty one from fifty million to six hundred and fifty
eight millions.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
As the spin as the spend.
Speaker 5 (01:55):
And when you see people there in Tennessee fifty percent
of their inc un the state, federal, and local taxes
through other end, you know, through everything else, fees and
everything else, and then they see us sending literally billions overseas.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
To our enemies.
Speaker 5 (02:10):
You know, I've uncovered forty million dollars going to the Taliban.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
A guy named Sean Ryan.
Speaker 5 (02:17):
Over Middle Tennessee, former Navy seal podcaster. He and another
guy named Legend had brought this to my attention. And
you know, last term I could not even get the
Democrats to bring it up in the Senate. It passed
unanimous in the House, not even a question because they're
going to have to admit they made a mistake, and
they continuously made a mistake, and they did it on purpose,
(02:38):
is the worst part about it. And this graph that
you're seeing, and that's one hundred percent what it is.
I think you're going to see a paper trail come
back to Washington, d C. And that's why I think
a lot of people are nervous and you'll see a
lot of retirements because they are stealing from the American
taxpayer and now they've got their handcott in the cookie
jar and all they can do is attack elon busk this.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
I'm surprised this was still a policy, but apparently it
was because the announcement that HPD has eliminated the policy
that required officers to initiate at least one traffic stop
per day. The story the story from k p r
C TV.
Speaker 6 (03:42):
APD is officially banning quotas for traffic stops after a
new ordinance passed on Wednesday.
Speaker 7 (03:49):
Currently, under state law, there's a there is statue that
already bars quotas for ticketing, but there's nothing that bars
quote us for stops. And what we found is in
the past, there have been policy within HPD that required
officers to make at least one stop per shift.
Speaker 6 (04:10):
Council Member Edward Pollard says the previous quota causing uptick
in police stops over the.
Speaker 7 (04:15):
Past years, and we've seen by the numbers that there
has been disportionate number of black and brown individuals who
have been stopped, and there has been also an increase
in officer involved incidents.
Speaker 6 (04:29):
Mayor John Whitmyer says the quota was created under previous administration.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Thank you for putting it in an ordinance form, but
it's not been the practice of HPD since the new
administration and a new police chief.
Speaker 6 (04:43):
Other council members showed their support for the ordinance by
sharing their experiences.
Speaker 8 (04:48):
When I was twenty four years old, I was arrested
in front of my child's daycare center at eleven PM
for allegedly stopping and rolling through.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
A stop sign.
Speaker 8 (04:57):
The officer was aggressive, he threatened me, he had cuff me,
and he took me to jail. I was treated like
a number, a target, and a threat.
Speaker 9 (05:05):
As someone who has taught hundreds of cadets at the
Police Academy on search and Seizure, I can tell you
that this kind of policy that is being addressed that
requires a minimum number of stops per shift invites Fourth
Amendment violations and can lead to unnecessary uses of force.
Speaker 6 (05:24):
By the end of the meeting, Whitmeyer hit the gabble
finalizing the ordinance and council member Pollard Think Community Advocates,
and the Houston Police Officers Union. He says their conversations
about traffic stop quotas led to the ordinance. He also
received a letter of support from Police Chief No ideas.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
So I remember the first year I was on city council,
two thousand shows, elected in November of one, and budget
time is where council has its most influence because the
departments have to come in and ask for money, and
then they go through their operations and that's when you
really get to ask some tough questions. And I remember
(06:07):
that the police department budget had several line items. There
were expenses, and there were revenues and in their revenue department,
and I'm just going to.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Make this number up.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
I really don't remember what the number was. But let's
say I think this might actually be about right. But
this is just because the number just popped in my head.
Let's say that they were projecting to make or that
they had made twenty million dollars a year before in
ticket revenue, but this year they were projecting twenty five
(06:43):
Why because the city needed more money. Lee Brown was
making people rich who had supported him. He had made
a pledge that he was going to make one hundred
black millionaires in Houston, and by God, it had to
come from somewhere. So if you got a ticket for
a rolling through a stop sign and you felt you didn't,
really that was the reason Lee Brown needed to spread
(07:05):
the wealth around. And hey, if some of it ended
up in his back pocket, and no shame in that
is there that he's first black mayor in all got
to get rich. What's the point of being mayor not
going to get rich? People ask me all the time,
how come Sheila jacksonally fought so hard to be mayor?
She was a congressman. A congressman has no power. A
mayor has a lot, especially the ability to get rich.
(07:30):
So I asked a question of the then chief. I'm
not opposed to writing tickets for infractions. That's that's how
you keep the road safe and all that. But how
can you know if you only write a ticket when
someone does something wrong, how can you know more people
(07:52):
are going to do more wrong things. Well, we're going
to aggressively try to write more tickets, which we think
that's a good idea. It wasn't long, just a couple
of years later that they stopped responding to accidents. You
get in an accident, your your insurance wants to know
this one. But we can't respond to accidents. But we
(08:14):
got people pulling people over for not for rolling through
a stop.
Speaker 5 (08:18):
Sat the King of Ding and this other guy, Michael.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Barry Well Elon Musk I'm formally announced on Twitter last
night that his time in government is over, thanking the
President for the opportunity to cut wasteful spending and promising
(08:45):
that doge will only strengthen over time as it becomes
a way of life throughout the government. Oh, would that
that were true? Would that that true? Most people don't notice.
But the last week we going to have the doge folks,
(09:07):
the young whipper snappers in there who are just young
enough and idealistic enough, like a Ron Paul convention, to
actually want to cut wasteful spending. See, there are a
lot of people that claim they want to cut wasteful
spending who are Republicans in positions of power, but when
it comes right down to it, they don't see the
(09:31):
wasteful spending as wasteful spending. Fascinating how this works. Everybody
agrees we shouldn't allow for wasteful spending. We agree, yeah, yeah,
there's never someone in the back corner. It's like hold
on man ho hold own ho own. Why can we
(09:51):
have wasteful spending? Everybody is against wasteful spending, But where
the rubber hits the road is what isn't isn't wasteful spending?
Why do we send money to other countries charitable contributions?
Why do we fund research in other countries? Why do
(10:12):
we fund so much research here? I really don't care
if a bullfrog and a horn toad get their feelings
hurt after having sex on a Sunday when the temperature
drops below forty or whatever other goofy things. They spend
(10:33):
a fortune researching. The universities would look very different if
you took away their research dollars. Dirty little secret, the
university is not an academic institution to enlighten and improve
your child from eighteen to twenty two. That's long gone.
(10:54):
They found pots of money, and that pot of money
is not your tuition check or in the fancy dorm
you pay for. That's a nice little side hustle for
the university. But that's not what a university is anymore.
Make no mistake. A university is a handout seeking, grant
(11:15):
applying institution that is trying to get hold of the
billions of dollars that are handed out for research. Faculty
advancement is no longer in any way, shape or form
related to classroom performance, student review, any of that. And
(11:36):
just like with everything else, the universities make a show
of that because there needs to be a reason that
the general populace doesn't complain that they get so much,
so much money. And the way they do that is
you get football, you get basketball, but mostly football. You
get basketball at least during March, and the for a
smaller group of people baseball, but not enough to keep
(11:58):
the money this big, it open like, it's all football.
Football is more interesting than professional football now college football
and that's the fact I know well for college graduates
and high earners, college football is the only game in town.
(12:22):
For working class people that didn't go to college, some
of them will support a college football team, but a
lot of those folks, especially the working class, will pick
a professional team, usually their home professional team, but doesn't
have to be, and they will root for them. But
the university is not an institution of hired learning any
(12:44):
longer in any way. That is all a little show
to keep the that's bred and circuses. In fact, that's
why if you have a kid in school, you know
that most of the classes are taught by teaching assistants.
In places like engineering, you don't see a full professor
until at best your third year in most cases, and
(13:06):
that's at the elite schools. You got a teaching assistant
who was brought here from India or God help you, China.
Did I ever tell you the story about that? Or
my wife came here to do a PhD in economics.
So she was in the graduate school and she had
a calculus class, and she's very good in the higher mass.
(13:28):
She's Indian. You would expect that, right, So she is
complaining constantly about this calculus teacher. Ing was his name.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
I think he was just ng.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
They forgot to eye and no I and Ing. She's complaining,
complaining the classes. At seven o'clock at night. I said,
you know what, I'm gonna go to that class with you.
I gotta hear this from myself because she never complains
about anything. So but she was more frustrated than anything else.
I would have had very I would have I would
have described the situation differently if it was me. But
(13:58):
that's more my vent process. So I go to the class,
and I think, well, I'm gonna I'm gonna get up close.
I'm gonna see maybe if you get sit down front,
I'm gonna sit on the front road. Guy, don't mind
telling you, I'm gonna sit down front. IM gonn pay attention.
I'm gonna take my notes, and I'm gonna see if
I grasp what he's doing here. He walks in after
(14:21):
everyone is seated. He never looks at anyone. He walks
up to the board. I'm lying, I'm done. He's who
I'm doing. He's at the board with his back to us,
and he begins writing on a chalkboard that has not
been washed in years, so the chalkboards, you know, layers
of dusty chalk on it. And he just starts talking
(14:44):
like he's solving an equation. We don't know what the
equation is, but he just starts talking. But that's best
I can tell. He might have been telling how to
skin a cat or travel to the moon. I had
no idea what he was talking about. And he was marking
on the on the board, cho cho chuch.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
I hadn't know.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
I like to think I'm pretty good at figuring out
people with foreign accents and I had no idea, and
I'm sitting there bug eye, thinking that this is the
classroom in America today. Okay, Southern Pride, Southern Fried to
Michael Barry Show, Why does it show? Drunk? Mark is
(15:30):
on the line. He's on the line. Is he still
in a tent under a shade tree at roberts In
two ninety across from La Placito waiting on them to
open it forth so he can apply to be a
bus boy? Anxious over his July first court date for
two outstanding warrants. Okay, I'm just checking. That's our Mark update. Ramon?
(15:55):
What day did you start to work at? Then the
Clear Channel Radio? August first, nineteen ninety nine. Folks, when
somebody can tell you the day they started to work
in the only job they've ever had in their life? Well,
what you did? Pizza Hut? And what else do you do?
(16:16):
In part video? Where was that in Texas City? Okay?
So his first big boy job all Ramone ever wanted
to do, all he ever wanted to do. Who was
it that got you that you say you were listening
to as a kid Stevens and Pruitt? So Ramon would
listen to Stevens and Pruitt, and he wanted to make radio.
(16:39):
That's all he ever wanted to do. And didn you
go to the CBS the what's the school you went to?
Didn't you? You went to Alvin Community College? But I
thought you went to that one Connecticut School of Broadcasting. Yeah.
But the funny thing is our company doesn't hire out
of the Connecticut School of Broadcasting, and I don't know
(17:01):
anybody that does. So I don't know why you go
get some certification from the Connecticut School of Broadcasting because
it doesn't help you. But they don't tell me I
ain't get in radio. I guess I got to go
to the Connecticut School of Broadcasting August first, nineteen ninety nine.
So there was a tradition Eddie Martini, charismatic leader, reward
(17:28):
people for especially in an industry that went through a
lot of change, still going through change, and it will
always go through change. He would reward people who'd been
at the company. Your anniversary, Your five year would be
you know, golf collap your ten year would be a
woman you know, you'd ask for you know, beads and
(17:48):
she'd you pull his shirt up, and you know, the
whole and then fifteen twenty was was twenty the watch
twenty or twenty five twenty you would get a watch.
So August first, twenty nineteen, there's ramone. He's happy and
we get in his watch watch. There's no COVID yet,
(18:10):
no disruption. So Eddie does these meetings that go on
for hours. It starts as a lunch, but it turns
into a very boozy afternoon, and then they bring in
blackjack dealers and all that and it becomes quite the party.
(18:32):
But it starts with this big you know, here's our numbers.
Because Eddie is still a corporate guy, right, He's still
got to report to a CEO in New York. So
here's the details. Here's what Here's how much money we made.
Here's how many people we have. Here's here's our listener.
Here's our number of listeners. Here's how many show sponsors
(18:52):
we have. Here's a He goes through all that, and
it's a raw rob because Houston's the top market for
the company you're in year out. The highlight is at
the end there's the new editions, which is the new babies,
people who've gotten married. That's always a big thing. And
then and then there is a guess which year this is,
(19:17):
and that's the year that the person who's about to
be honored started at the company. Well you knew it
was a ten or a twenty, so you could you
could you know if you were in twenty nineteen, you'd
guess two thousand and nine, not eight or ten. So
there's Ramon waiting on his watch. He's probably washed his
hand real good. He rubbed his arm down. Really he
gets he's not warning his other watch that day, so
(19:39):
he can, you know, save space. He'd make a space
for his watch. Now, if you think I'm kidding, because
I do kid a lot, I want to be as
clear as I can, I'm dead serious. Ramon didn't tell anybody,
but he was crestfallen, I mean devastated over not getting
(20:01):
a watch. So I kind of passive aggressively passed along that,
you know, Oh well he hadn't been here twenty years. No,
he has, trust me, he knows exactly the day he started.
So I thought, well, I'm gonna say anything when he
hits twenty years. What they think is twenty years. It's
not Eddie's fault, somebody else's fault. But anyway, so the
(20:24):
twenty years twenty one comes and goes, twenty two comes
and goes, no watch, No watch, twenty three, twenty four
turns into twenty five, no watch. We are now approaching
in a matter of weeks twenty six and it comes
(20:45):
up more than is healthy. So I got a call
from Maddie Martinez yesterday and he has rectified the problem.
So can you play some music so that I might
present to you your twenty year watch six years late?
Play some music because I got I got to leave
the microphone. Sorry about that. Long and short is and
(21:08):
I give the credit to Eddie Martini. But as you know,
when you go to the dentist office, it's the hygenius
that does all the work. And at the end they go,
you know, doctor Moore will be in in just a moment.
And then doctor Moore comes sauntring, how are we doing
in here? And oh, isn't he a strapping, handsome, powerful
dentist man. And he's asked the dentist has as as
(21:33):
she's telling him, you know on E nine he's got
this and on B thirteen and he kind of looks
in there, yeah ye. Then he upsells, you know something,
and he goes on out the way, but she did
all the work. Well, I'll have to tell you what
happened just a moment. I mean, what I'm saying is
Sylvia and Charley do all the work cold on the
(21:53):
information that I get from the show that I don't
seem to get from other places the Michael Barry Show.
We will post a video to the Facebook page. But
this was Eddie, Sylvia and Charlie's idea. I presented him
with a beautifully wrapped and presented box, and he knew
(22:19):
that it was at some point another I was going
to have to personally buy him a nice watch because
I'm so sorry to hear it about it. So this
came out of nowhere that Eddie, Sylvia and Charlie at
iHeart came up with this idea. And so they got
two watches. One was an eighties electric that you wore
(22:41):
in sixth grader that I wore in sixth grade, which
I actually have several watches like this. I get a
kick out of wearing them anyway. So I bring in
the watch and I go to hand it to him,
and I said, let's take a photo of you holding
the box before he opens it, and his hands are
shaking he's so emotional. There's so much pent up. You know,
it's the quiet ones you gotta worry about, right, So
(23:02):
he's been seething all this year, all these years being unappreciated,
and you know, unappreciated people are dangerous, like the Bernie
bro guy that shot up the softball, you know, falling
down man. People that don't feel appreciated. You got to
watch them, right, they're kind of crazy. So anyway, unappreciated
man sitting across the glass, and so it results in
(23:23):
a lot of you know, you think, oh he's grumpy. No,
he's just unappreciated man. So there's the box. He takes
the picture and his hands are shaking, and Ramon's not
an emotional guy, and I think he's gonna cry. His
face is turned very red, and Emily's taking the photo
and he's thinking, I mean, he doesn't know what to do.
It's like one of the moment you really people use
the word surreal because they don't know what other word
(23:43):
there is. It was surreal, So there it was. He
opens it and he sees the watch and he chuckles
because he's on camera, but he really doesn't think it's
funny and he's thinking, they visited a further indignity upon me,
and this was the present they sent me, And so
I was going to drag that out for a while
(24:04):
and let him suffer. But it was also emotional for
him that I went back in my studio and got
the bigger gift they gave him, which is a very
very nice watch, very nice watch, extremely nice watch. And
he was sufficiently moved. He said, I feel appreciated, and
(24:26):
I thought, oh, you poor fellow. But that's what happened,
and it was a beautiful, wonderful moment. So twenty five
years almost in twenty six seriously, so from Eddie, Sylvia,
Charlie and the iHeart Gang, congratulations and you are appreciating.
(24:56):
I don't feel really good about going into a story
about a pair of Venezuela and Venezuelan illegal aliens arrested
in a hit and run Chetsky death. I feel like
that moment should should linger in the air for a moment. See,
this has been a great time to go to drunk
mark because he would have said, hey, uh, gratulations, Ramone
was good. He did that what I sold my wa
(25:21):
I remember I sold my will I had had a
nice watch. It wasn't as nice as what it sound
like they gave him. They give him a nice watch.
I remember he has a little cookie monster. A little
cookie monster sound to him. If you have ever met
Ramone roblist, or just finish out this segment and we'll
go back to or you have a Ramone roblist story
(25:42):
to tell very quickly seven one three nine nine one thousand,
seven one three nine nine nine one thousand, and then
at the beginning of the next hour we will get
back into the regular show and the blood and gore
that is the world and the craziness. Uh seven one
three nine at nine one thousand, So we're on. You'll
have to turn your mic on for this is a
(26:03):
very rare moment whereon will be talking.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
Who hired you? Tim Collins?
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Tim Collins heard you? Okay, I think I might have
known that.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
Let me walk that back. Bill Van Riisdam, actually.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Bill van Rysdam who ended up over at six ten. Okay,
remember can you talk into the microphone? Uh So Bill
was Bill Van Risdam at kt EACH at that time.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Yeah, he was a PD.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
He was the PD, all right, and he himself hired you.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 10 (26:30):
But now remember i'd send in five six resumes, I'd
been rejected five or six times.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Just out of curiosity. What was on your resume? Pizza
Hut and Empire.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
Video Customer Service.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
And Texas City sting of reeze. Yeah, okay, all right,
you got to start somewhere.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
I didn't have a criminal record back then. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
So then how much did they pay you? Oh?
Speaker 2 (26:56):
I minimum wage seven bucks seven bucks.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
Seven bucks was more than it is today. Seven bucks
then was more than seven bucks today.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
More importantly, I got my foot in the door, though,
You got.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
Your foot in the door. And whether they put you weekends,
overnight a production.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
I was just doing. I was recording, dubbing in spots.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Oh wow, oh wow, okay, and just regular daytime. How
many hours?
Speaker 10 (27:19):
It was part time for a few months, so it
was twenty twenty five hours a week.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
Remember how we talked about talking into the microp.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
I'm sorry about that. I'm not used to talking into
the microphone.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
I know, I know you did not. So were you
working another job at the time. Were you living with
your parents?
Speaker 8 (27:33):
Oh?
Speaker 10 (27:33):
Yeah, I was down in Galveston working at another radio station,
KGBC in Galveson fifteen forty.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
Oh, that's the one that was being run by the
guy that turned out to be a fraud. Remember he
skipped out on his wife.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
So Ramon and I we were driving to Galveston for
so we had a meeting for something. And we're driving
along and I said, Ramon, tell me something about you
that after all these years, I don't know. And he said,
have you ever heard of what's the guy's name, Tim Kingsbury?
Tim Kingsbury? I said I have not. He said, look
him up. I said, well, how about we have more
(28:07):
fun with this while we're driving. You tell me why
I'm looking him up. He said, well, you skipped out
on his wife, faked his own death and relocated. He
was in Ohio. Yeah, and relocated in Galiston, Texas. And
he ran a radio station that I worked at. And
you waited all these years, you know. I love a
story like that. All right, So then you were you
(28:29):
were in the production department, and then what was the
first station you worked for? It was k t RH
ktr H doing what overnights?
Speaker 10 (28:37):
Yeah, overnights and then production and then the morning board
op for Lanta and JP was persona on Grada and
they who was that.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
David Hold? Is that his name should to be saying
his David?
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeh yeah, okay, that was
before me, but I remember, yeah, yeah, okay. And so
you did Lanta JP in the morning.
Speaker 10 (28:55):
Yep, got hired full time? Then all right, and I
thought you worked for Randy Lemon. I did remember Randy
was on ten am weekdays.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
Oh, that's right, so it would be Landing JP in
the morning and then Randy Lemon weekdays. That was when
Rush was on nine to fifty. Yeah okay, and then
after that after that, what so your career progression? Oh man,
it's all a blur.
Speaker 10 (29:19):
Then we moved over to San Felipe, right, and then
some city councilman started doing talk and asked me to
help with production. They had brought in Sam Malone and
Joe Pegs and Deborah Duncan. So I got more involved
in the production site.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
In the producing site, that's when I enter I think
I might be the sum city councilman. People don't know that.
We had fobcards with an extender. I don't know if
you call that. And we used to whip each other
with the fobcards. Who could take the bigger whipping? And
I went home one day and I have my shirt
off and my wife says, what happened to you? I
(29:57):
looked like I'd been in a car wreck or something. Oh,
Ramona and I play this little game where we whip
each other and we just laugh and laugh
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I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com