July 21, 2025 • 33 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
It's that time time time time lucking load the Michael
Arry Show.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
It's on the air, joking into mic week. Gotta feed
every beard. I don't plan to shave, and it's good
the thing, but I just gotta.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
See I'm doing it all right, will I'm.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Making support me's I'm beating ridictu.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
That's a true. It's neither drinking, no drug and snool.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
I'm just doing all right.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
It's a great dad.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Be I know the sun's still shining on a close Yes,
it's five times in the neighborhood, but whyk it every day?
Speaker 4 (01:00):
Yes, well, happy Monday to you.
Speaker 5 (01:18):
I hope you had a refreshing weekend. I hope you
nourish the soul and mind and body, and you are
prepared to take on a great week plenty of rest,
family time, let your brain relax. And yes, I am
(01:40):
mindful that some people do work on the weekend. Some
people have the counter schedule to what the rest of
us do. But for most folks, hopefully you had a
very RESTful weekend and you are back at.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
It and back ready to get after it.
Speaker 5 (02:00):
So I try not to do. Oh by the way,
ramone is back after two weeks of suspension. A continuation
of that is for the by agreement. Mutual agreement is
that he wouldn't communicate at all during this first segment.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
And only this first segment.
Speaker 5 (02:23):
So if I was to mention, say, Damn Pastorini or
Eddie Martini or Tilman for Tita or calmuc Nair, you
wouldn't hear him.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
As you normally would.
Speaker 5 (02:36):
Or if I was to point out that sometimes he
takes a nap while we're doing the show, or two
weeks is a long time to take a vacation in
the middle of the show when the rest of the
team had to be here, and even Chad works while
he's in Hawaii, and Jim had to come into the
studio when he doesn't normally and that's not really fair
that Ramon would do that. He's not allowed to comment,
(03:00):
but Ramone is back. So for those of you, and
there were many, may I say, who expressed your preference
for Jim's bump music, my apologies, but Ramone is back
at the Helm. And for the poor fellow his name
is Wes Hobbs who called up and said, hey, when
(03:21):
you're out, instead of playing a rerun of Ted NuGen,
why don't you. Why don't you have Ramone set in?
Oh we had a good laugh at that one. Well,
the real answer is because when I'm out, Ramone's out,
and that's a fact sometimes.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
But anyway, he sent me the nicest apology.
Speaker 5 (03:44):
He said, Dude, I was just trying to give Ramone
a compliment, and I said, it's okay.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
I was just in a mood. I was just having
a day.
Speaker 5 (03:53):
So anyway, yes, that was I'd like to think a
slightly out of character meltdown from somebody that was probably
just tired or irritable or I don't know what I
will tell you before we dive into the discussion. It's
such an interesting time to be an American and things
(04:20):
that were sacred be trampled and things that were never
opened or being revealed, and it is such a weird,
weird time. And we'll get into to some of those
things all the way down to finally, Barack Obama if
(04:42):
not being held accountable, then at least a discussion of it,
because that never happened, and that's a discussion worth having.
The golden goose Barack Obama being talked about in terms
of prosecution. No, I don't think he will ever be
prosecuted if he were, which would be such a wonderful moment,
(05:05):
because I can't stand him. He's so arrogant, and this
idea that he was held up as this sacred, you know,
a savior of the country when he.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Was quite the opposite.
Speaker 5 (05:18):
It's these are just such interesting times, and I will
confess I walk away from the show every day exhausted,
trying to process and put into some level of context
things that we've never seen before. And you don't want
to overstate what's happening, but you can't help but understate either.
(05:42):
And this coming a few days after the one year
anniversary of our president being shot in the head.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
You know, James.
Speaker 5 (05:51):
Wilkes Booth was a rogue operator. He was a lone gunman.
I do think there was an uneasiness in the country
after Kennedy was shut up, because I think a lot
of people recognize the likelihood of the accuracy of Lee
Harvey Oswald from that distance, even a slow moving car,
(06:11):
and that particular weapon at such an odd angle, and
the troubling connections the man had before.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
I think there's a there's a there's a there's.
Speaker 5 (06:21):
An uneasiness to that, and I do take it all
very seriously, and some some feeble attempt to make sense
of it all, at least while we're on the air.
Uh But in any case, that's where we are. We
have a lot to talk about, both local, national, and international.
It's going to be an interesting week, a lot of
(06:42):
earnings reports coming in, and for all the talk of politics,
the economy and how people feel about the economy tends
to be the undercurrent that that guides and moves and
effects and shapes our conversation and our feelings about the.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Politics of the country.
Speaker 5 (07:10):
And we've got some very very interesting earnings reports, the
dollar hitting its lowest mark in fifty years, and how
that affects folks. I mean, you know, the automatic reaction
when I was fourteen would probably have been, well, this
is terrible news, but for many people, including many Americans,
(07:30):
it's not. And if we see a rate cut, which
we're expecting a rate cut, whether it's fifty basis points
or one hundred basis points or I would like to
see much more, then we're going to see the dollar
week in of course, as a result as well, those
of you taking the European vacation in the coming weeks
are going to feel that, But again, this is a sophisticated,
(07:53):
complex economy where there are winners and losers with everything
that happens. A recession helps some folks, I mean, just
the nature of it all. But we have the complete
team back in place of Chad and Jim and Ramon
and Kunda and Rachel and Chance Sandy, and we are
(08:15):
delighted to do so and a lot to get into today.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
We're glad you're here the Michael Berry Show. And then
if I share with you.
Speaker 5 (08:29):
My story, will do share your got of me?
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Bad?
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Time to come in?
Speaker 5 (08:35):
And I read what out of sw Well, let me tell.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
You something, Oh that that isn't good.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
It's been a long old trouble longo troubles road, and
I'm looking for.
Speaker 6 (09:09):
Hey, they the cats eat food, get out of there,
say shake their hat at you. So what do you
think about that?
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Let's think about.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
That cat or something like that.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
We'll probably sit around and cook some soups and eat
bread and desserts and just get on fat and sassy.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
I got a miss in my mouth, shoot.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Shoes.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Did we get that out of our system? Are we
good now? Yes? Yes? Good? I'm glad to hear that.
Speaker 5 (10:13):
Today begins the first of what may be several special
sessions in the Texas Legislature. Reminder, the special session shall
be no longer than thirty days. That is Article three,
Section forty. When the Legislature shall be convened in special session,
(10:34):
there shall be no legislation upon subjects other than those
designated in the proclamation of the Governor calling such session,
or presented to them by the Governor, And no such
session shall be of longer duration than thirty days. The
Texas House will convene at noon today, July twenty first,
(10:54):
and recess until Thursday, July twenty fourth. So what we'll
have is a lot of show pony stuff. We'll have
a lot of We'll have a lot of talk about
what is and isn't going to happen, and then there
will be hey, look, I had to come in from
(11:17):
my time off to be in Austin and do the
job I was elected to do. But I really only
spend a few days every other year doing and so
let me get some.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Press coverage for myself out of it.
Speaker 5 (11:33):
And that will be every person that's involved, and that's
just how that will go.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Consumable.
Speaker 5 (11:40):
THC will be a big, big, issue, and it will
be an issue that will split Republicans. There's no way
around that, and it is not an avoidable issue. Another
of the issue use on the docket is flood dangers.
(12:04):
If you're the governor of the state of Texas, considering
what we just went through with particularly Camp Mystic and
Camp Lahunta and all the folks along the Flash Flood
Alley Corridor, they'd like to see that if our legislature
(12:25):
is going to be in session, then at least.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
Review what happened and see if we can't plug a
gap or two.
Speaker 5 (12:36):
So you would expect that the flood issue would be
taken up even if nothing is done about it.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Because it is a complex issue.
Speaker 5 (12:47):
You're going to have a lot of things to discuss
and it's not going to be an overnight solution, and
it can't be. This is complex. You're going to have
to talk about warning systems, and this is what we do.
This is what sophisticated civilizations do. I'm not talking about
(13:07):
finger pointing, I'm not talking about blame gaming. I'm talking
about what you do when there is a breakdown in
your systems or we don't know breakdown sirs.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
When there is a tragedy when something goes wrong.
Speaker 5 (13:23):
The scientific method says, accountability says good, Proper operating procedures
say best practices. Say you look back at what happened,
you see if there are failures in what would be
your standard operating procedure, And then you look at your
standard operating procedure and say is that good enough? Because
(13:46):
I think we all know this can't happen again. It
cannot happen again. It would dishonor these little girls. It
would dishonor Pat Green's brother and sister in law and
their kids. It would dishonor the the teacher and his
family in Kingwood. It would dishonor the guy who smashed
through the window to get his family out and dies
(14:09):
of the blood loss from the glass cutting, but managed
to save his life. It would dishonor all the people.
And this is the thing. I spend a lot of
time thinking about all the people, most of whom will
be lost to memory, who dove in and saved people
in one way or another. All the people who in
(14:30):
the moment and afterward jumped in in one way or
another to save, to help, to serve, to heal. It's incredible.
I hate that it requires that, But nothing short of
what has happened in Kerville and the surrounding counties, nothing
(14:51):
short of a situation like that can move the iPhones
and iPads and drama and pettiness and silliness and distraction
to the back burner and force a focus on life. Boy,
I tell you, I've heard from so many people whose
(15:13):
children survived that situation and how they have hugged their
kids so closely and appreciate. I mean, I know every
parent I know has had a statement of some sort
or another that you don't realize.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (15:36):
One of the emails in the thousands I got on
the subject said, when you bury your parents, you bury
your past. When you bury your spouse, you bury your present.
But when you bury your child, you bury your future.
And I have thought about that. That's been a week,
and I have thought about that so many times. What
(15:59):
are a profound level makes it so difficult to bury
a child?
Speaker 1 (16:05):
And I think that's it.
Speaker 5 (16:06):
That's our future, that's our hope, that's our everything. Michael
Berry Show Journal had an editorial this morning entitled the
Real Risk to the Electric Grid. Power shortages are coming
thanks to wind and solar subsidies. Here's how they distort
(16:27):
energy investment. No matter how diligent you are, no matter
how hard you work, there are factors at play that
affect your personal life and your business, your community, that
are bigger than your personal decisions, even if you make
(16:51):
great personal decisions. And one of them is the extent
to which your tax dollars and.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
You pay so much. Many of them.
Speaker 5 (17:02):
Are used for the infrastructure necessary necessary to conduct your life.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Let's take it to the lowest level. I talked last
week about Metro.
Speaker 5 (17:12):
Over a penny out of every dollar you spend locally
goes to Metro. Now, it doesn't seem like a lot,
but sure adds up to be a lot. It sure
adds up to be a lot. And in the course
of a year, between eating out and buying clothes and
(17:32):
buying this and buying that, the amount of money that
you personally hand to Metro and never even think about it.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
When the odds are you never use Metro for anything anything.
Speaker 5 (17:49):
There's a bus system which is basically a welfare program,
a subsidized transportation program.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
And you've heard me say before, and I will say
it again.
Speaker 5 (17:58):
I don't have a problem with an efficient subsidized bus program,
if the subsidy is at a maximum minimal amount, if
the buses are efficiently programmed, if they're clean and well
run and safe and not wasteful. But what happened was
(18:24):
you get these huge pockets and money, and Metro's one
of them. And Metro's a great one because you never
notice Metro. You even notice Harris County. Of course you
notice the city of Houston, but Harris County can hide
out there, or at least it could until Rodney got
out of control. We'll talk about Lina's meltdown. By the way,
there's talk of Lena resigning before the term is up.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
It is being openly floated.
Speaker 5 (18:49):
There are conversations being held right now, and Rodney is
behind this, but we have that in just a moment.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
So you got this pocket of money, and there are
a lot of them out.
Speaker 5 (18:58):
There, Houston can Unity College, Houston Independent School District. So
you've got Metro, whi's got this huge pocket of money.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
And then you've got these folks who come in and
they go.
Speaker 5 (19:11):
Running a bus service that really doesn't How can we
benefit from that?
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Hard to benefit from that?
Speaker 5 (19:19):
Well, the most efficient thing that the Metro system does
that affects the most people is actually the parking ride.
You might be sitting on a parking ride right now.
Many many folks use the parking ride. It's actually the
best thing that Metro does. It's a very very efficient
(19:41):
way to accomplish a couple of good public policy goals
that we all support. Number one, reducing the overall traffic.
Believe it or not, parking ride really does that. So
whatever your parking ride is, northwest, north, northeast, southwest, south, wherever,
out west, wherever you are. The ability to live in
(20:04):
Katie or the Woodlands or wherever else.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Not the Woodlands but Kingwood.
Speaker 5 (20:10):
The ability to pull up, park your car in a
safe lot that is patrolled. Get on the parking ride
which runs at a consistent time. I'll tell you if
you want to see one of the most efficient governmental
functions you will ever see in the entire world. I
(20:34):
think it's called the shins end. I forget my wife
could tell me, but ride the train system in Japan.
I have never been more impressed with a governmental function
performance in my life. In fact, the system runs, I
(20:54):
can't remember if it goes down to the second. I
don't want to exaggerate, but it runs down to the minute,
much so that if you're catching the train from Kyoto
to Japan, or sorry, Kyoto to Tokyo, and your train
is supposed to be there at eight twenty two and
(21:15):
it's rolling in at eight twenty one, he will slow
it down. Or if he's running late and he's and
he's a little behind, he will speed it up because
he wants it.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
To arrive at exactly the moment. You can count. You
can set your watch by the train system.
Speaker 5 (21:33):
Now, the Japanese are not as free expression as i'd like.
They're certainly not libertarian by nature. But what they do
do is a strict adherence to rules, norms, standards, expectations, effectiveness, efficiency.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
They're really really good at it.
Speaker 5 (21:56):
The bus system is necessarily how you transport people who
are the working poor, who cannot afford a functioning vehicle,
and the smaller the core the footprint that you try
to service, the more likely you can make that work.
(22:18):
All right, I'm okay with that. Just don't waste a
bunch of money. Make it as efficient as possible. We
all agree we need people to staff fast food restaurants
in tree level positions for older people. I'm great with that.
Move people around. The parking ride is the best thing
(22:42):
they do. But they don't care about that. That's not
something that they wanted to expand that's not something they
want to improve on. They fall under the sway of
people who can make a bunch of money on light rail.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Who was that?
Speaker 5 (23:00):
There are people that got rich off of buying the
property along the light rail path. Remember we started with downtown,
huge bust. We drove a bunch of business out of there.
I never forget Adrian's Cantena. It had been there forever
and when he closed down, he said, close down after whatever.
It closed down after twenty eight years due to metro
(23:22):
or yeah, metro rail, and nobody rides the metrorail. The
few people who are riding the metrorail were already riding
the bus that ran along the same corridor.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
So what did they do.
Speaker 5 (23:33):
They shut the bus system down to force them onto
the rail so there'd be somebody on the rail. We
didn't need a fixed rail, We didn't need to buy
the land. You could have used the lane miles and
a bus could have traveled there. We didn't need to
buy the technology at grade rail is the worst kind
of rail you can do. You have to either bury it,
which costs twice as much, or elevate it, which costs
(23:57):
four times as much. And we wouldn't have had the
money to do it.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
It was already fifty.
Speaker 5 (24:03):
Million dollars a lane mile, and they were doing seven
miles three hundred and fifty million dollars. I think it
ended up costing five hundred million dollars. Anyway, back to
the point, the infrastructure of the roads you drive, and
the water you drink and the energy that is provided
to you are things that are slightly out of your
immediate control, and our government has bungled power.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
The Michael Berry shows.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
Suk Kid, watch you weave them, Bring we sik.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
Kid.
Speaker 5 (24:58):
Marcus Petrel and his brother Morgan, the Congressman, went to Kerrville,
as many of you did, and they conducted dives, hoping
for a survivor, but at a minimum, hoping to give
closure to families. My understanding is there are only three.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
Folks still missing. Now.
Speaker 5 (25:20):
The good news to come of this is that some
folks who were reported missing have been recovered or have
been rescued excuse me, rescued alive. They lived somewhere along
there or they were vacationing somewhere along there, and they
have connected with family members who said, you're listed among
the missing, and they reported no, they're okay. Thank goodness,
(25:46):
they have survived. I read a gut wrenching commentary over
the weekend about why you continue to search for bodies
when it's almost as if what you're going to find
is only going to bring sadness. But the concept of
closure is so powerful that a rescue operation is is
(26:11):
a must. And we'll talk to Marcus about that. I
love the thought of the fact that we train warriors
like seals.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
And other warriors. They're not the only ones.
Speaker 5 (26:25):
They've just been talked about a lot since Marcus's book
Long Survivor, But there are lots of these guys a
Special Forces that do different amazing things, and there are
guys that are just in our military that do amazing things.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
But we'll talk to.
Speaker 5 (26:38):
Him about why he went and what they what they discovered,
what they saw coming up in just a few moments.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
But first we go to the phone line seven.
Speaker 5 (26:46):
One three one thousand, Kevin Europe.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
Sir, Well, good morning, good morning, Kevin.
Speaker 6 (26:58):
I know whenever I do my Houston laws Uh, I'm
a truck driver of course, which uh on which right
now I'm I'm driving towards Houston from Austin, which means
Austin is in its great place, which is in my
rear view mirror.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
And uh, but.
Speaker 6 (27:20):
I do I do my little when I work out
of a Houston yard. I passed by the Woodlands Parking
Ride and uh, there is a company. I don't think
it is associated with Houston Metro, but it services Houston
(27:40):
Metro and it's it's called the Woodlands in the Woodlands Express,
which uh with which Sex Takes takes takes buses down
from the from the Booty Road, UH, parking ride all
the way downtown and back. And I've had a lot,
(28:02):
I've had a lot of friends actually use that, actually
use that, and during the rodeo, I use that because
once I get downtown, it's easy, it's easy to uh
to get to rail down down to the down to
(28:23):
the as Asper Domain. And I still call it that.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
You can call it that for me because that's my childhood. Kevin.
Speaker 5 (28:34):
I know I've told you this before, but I feel
the need to tell you every time you call. I
admire you calling our show knowing you're going to have
to stutter through it. I admire that. And let me
give you the best example I can possibly give. It
might not be a good analogy, but I'm gonna give
(28:55):
you the best one I can. I cannot dance, Kevin.
When I say I can't dance, people, you know, if
we're out in public. I love music.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
I love music. I love musicians.
Speaker 5 (29:09):
I love the sounds, I love the stories, I love
the feel, I love the beat.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
I love to see.
Speaker 5 (29:15):
An audience engage in interect I love music and I
love concerts, and I love to beat at him. So
when I'm with a group of people and people have
had a few drinks and they're getting friendlier, and you know,
breaking down the.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
Barriers that you they don't know you that well.
Speaker 5 (29:33):
They all think I'm gonna be the one that gets
Michael to dance, and he's gonna love me for it
because he doesn't dance. And I'm going to tell you something.
You drag me out on the floor and you think
that I'll go.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Hell, we're already out here.
Speaker 5 (29:48):
I'm gonna turn and walk off because I'm horrified of dancing. Horrified,
And so you know what, I don't do I don't
go out and dance in front of people because I'm
not brave enough, because I'm not strong enough, because I'm
not tough enough. The fact that you dial our number
(30:08):
to make a point, knowing good and well, you could
be the subject of ridicule, knowing good and well, that
you may not make your point knowing good and well.
I just my hat's off to.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
You, dude. You are one badass. Dude. I love it
so much.
Speaker 5 (30:24):
And I hope that by saying that, anybody who ever
wants to be on the show because you have content
to offer that whatever your delivery mechanism is. You got
a odd voice, you got a weak voice, you got
a high pitched voice, you got a horse voice, you
gotta stutter, you got a speech impediment, whatever that is,
(30:46):
I hope you understand you will be judged by the
quality of your content. Doesn't mean I won't remark on
your accent or whatever else. But you know, Kevin, when
I started in radio, the guy who was the head
of the station would tell the coll.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Screeners, don't put old people on.
Speaker 5 (31:05):
Don't put people on with a speech impediment or an accent.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
And do you know there were five calls that came in.
Speaker 5 (31:12):
When your call came in and Ramon puts you to
the front as the stuttering dude, and I immediately remembered who.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
It was, and he knew I would.
Speaker 5 (31:20):
He numbers the calls what order he wants me to
take them, based on how he thinks they'll be. He
knew that we would want to put you on first.
So I will get to the content of the Woodlands Express,
which is incredible. But I want to make sure everybody
understands if you ever want to be on this show,
you've got something to offer, a question to ask, and
(31:41):
you got.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
Whatever whatever your delivery.
Speaker 5 (31:45):
Mechanism is that you think is an impediment to you
being on the show, Trust me it's not. And if
I remark on your accent or your stutter, or your
the way you say certain words, rest assured it is
because it is the Henry Higgins of me from my
fair lady. I study those things. I'm fascinated by those things.
I'm interested in those sorts of things. It is not ridicule.
(32:08):
We want you on the show. And Ramona will tell
you we went from from the admonition the edict don't
put people on with funny accents or odd speech impediments
or who are old.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
Don't put them on the air. That's who we put
on first.
Speaker 5 (32:25):
That is God's Hon's true because we find those to
be the most interesting cause. As for the Woodlands Express,
first of all, the Woodlands is probably the best run
local municipality community corporation.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
It's canniballe in the region and it always has been.
Speaker 5 (32:45):
George Mitchell Howard Hughes Corporation, that whole amalgam and by
the way, that's why people love to live there.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
That's why people love to live in the Woodlands. You
can live in the Woodlands.
Speaker 5 (32:56):
Right the Woodlands Express into downtown and work, get your
work done on your way, come home to your family distressed.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
It's it's brilliant, good call. Kevin
It's that time time time time lucking load the Michael
Arry Show.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
It's on the air, joking into mic week. Gotta feed
every beard. I don't plan to shave, and it's good
the thing, but I just gotta.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
See I'm doing it all right, will I'm.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Making support me's I'm beating ridictu.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
That's a true. It's neither drinking, no drug and snool.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
I'm just doing all right.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
It's a great dad.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Be I know the sun's still shining on a close Yes,
it's five times in the neighborhood, but whyk it every day?
Speaker 4 (01:00):
Yes, well, happy Monday to you.
Speaker 5 (01:18):
I hope you had a refreshing weekend. I hope you
nourish the soul and mind and body, and you are
prepared to take on a great week plenty of rest,
family time, let your brain relax. And yes, I am
(01:40):
mindful that some people do work on the weekend. Some
people have the counter schedule to what the rest of
us do. But for most folks, hopefully you had a
very RESTful weekend and you are back at.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
It and back ready to get after it.
Speaker 5 (02:00):
So I try not to do. Oh by the way,
ramone is back after two weeks of suspension. A continuation
of that is for the by agreement. Mutual agreement is
that he wouldn't communicate at all during this first segment.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
And only this first segment.
Speaker 5 (02:23):
So if I was to mention, say, Damn Pastorini or
Eddie Martini or Tilman for Tita or calmuc Nair, you
wouldn't hear him.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
As you normally would.
Speaker 5 (02:36):
Or if I was to point out that sometimes he
takes a nap while we're doing the show, or two
weeks is a long time to take a vacation in
the middle of the show when the rest of the
team had to be here, and even Chad works while
he's in Hawaii, and Jim had to come into the
studio when he doesn't normally and that's not really fair
that Ramon would do that. He's not allowed to comment,
(03:00):
but Ramone is back. So for those of you, and
there were many, may I say, who expressed your preference
for Jim's bump music, my apologies, but Ramone is back
at the Helm. And for the poor fellow his name
is Wes Hobbs who called up and said, hey, when
(03:21):
you're out, instead of playing a rerun of Ted NuGen,
why don't you. Why don't you have Ramone set in?
Oh we had a good laugh at that one. Well,
the real answer is because when I'm out, Ramone's out,
and that's a fact sometimes.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
But anyway, he sent me the nicest apology.
Speaker 5 (03:44):
He said, Dude, I was just trying to give Ramone
a compliment, and I said, it's okay.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
I was just in a mood. I was just having
a day.
Speaker 5 (03:53):
So anyway, yes, that was I'd like to think a
slightly out of character meltdown from somebody that was probably
just tired or irritable or I don't know what I
will tell you before we dive into the discussion. It's
such an interesting time to be an American and things
(04:20):
that were sacred be trampled and things that were never
opened or being revealed, and it is such a weird,
weird time. And we'll get into to some of those
things all the way down to finally, Barack Obama if
(04:42):
not being held accountable, then at least a discussion of it,
because that never happened, and that's a discussion worth having.
The golden goose Barack Obama being talked about in terms
of prosecution. No, I don't think he will ever be
prosecuted if he were, which would be such a wonderful moment,
(05:05):
because I can't stand him. He's so arrogant, and this
idea that he was held up as this sacred, you know,
a savior of the country when he.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Was quite the opposite.
Speaker 5 (05:18):
It's these are just such interesting times, and I will
confess I walk away from the show every day exhausted,
trying to process and put into some level of context
things that we've never seen before. And you don't want
to overstate what's happening, but you can't help but understate either.
(05:42):
And this coming a few days after the one year
anniversary of our president being shot in the head.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
You know, James.
Speaker 5 (05:51):
Wilkes Booth was a rogue operator. He was a lone gunman.
I do think there was an uneasiness in the country
after Kennedy was shut up, because I think a lot
of people recognize the likelihood of the accuracy of Lee
Harvey Oswald from that distance, even a slow moving car,
(06:11):
and that particular weapon at such an odd angle, and
the troubling connections the man had before.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
I think there's a there's a there's a there's.
Speaker 5 (06:21):
An uneasiness to that, and I do take it all
very seriously, and some some feeble attempt to make sense
of it all, at least while we're on the air.
Uh But in any case, that's where we are. We
have a lot to talk about, both local, national, and international.
It's going to be an interesting week, a lot of
(06:42):
earnings reports coming in, and for all the talk of politics,
the economy and how people feel about the economy tends
to be the undercurrent that that guides and moves and
effects and shapes our conversation and our feelings about the.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Politics of the country.
Speaker 5 (07:10):
And we've got some very very interesting earnings reports, the
dollar hitting its lowest mark in fifty years, and how
that affects folks. I mean, you know, the automatic reaction
when I was fourteen would probably have been, well, this
is terrible news, but for many people, including many Americans,
(07:30):
it's not. And if we see a rate cut, which
we're expecting a rate cut, whether it's fifty basis points
or one hundred basis points or I would like to
see much more, then we're going to see the dollar
week in of course, as a result as well, those
of you taking the European vacation in the coming weeks
are going to feel that, But again, this is a sophisticated,
(07:53):
complex economy where there are winners and losers with everything
that happens. A recession helps some folks, I mean, just
the nature of it all. But we have the complete
team back in place of Chad and Jim and Ramon
and Kunda and Rachel and Chance Sandy, and we are
(08:15):
delighted to do so and a lot to get into today.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
We're glad you're here the Michael Berry Show. And then
if I share with you.
Speaker 5 (08:29):
My story, will do share your got of me?
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Bad?
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Time to come in?
Speaker 5 (08:35):
And I read what out of sw Well, let me tell.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
You something, Oh that that isn't good.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
It's been a long old trouble longo troubles road, and
I'm looking for.
Speaker 6 (09:09):
Hey, they the cats eat food, get out of there,
say shake their hat at you. So what do you
think about that?
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Let's think about.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
That cat or something like that.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
We'll probably sit around and cook some soups and eat
bread and desserts and just get on fat and sassy.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
I got a miss in my mouth, shoot.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Shoes.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Did we get that out of our system? Are we
good now? Yes? Yes? Good? I'm glad to hear that.
Speaker 5 (10:13):
Today begins the first of what may be several special
sessions in the Texas Legislature. Reminder, the special session shall
be no longer than thirty days. That is Article three,
Section forty. When the Legislature shall be convened in special session,
(10:34):
there shall be no legislation upon subjects other than those
designated in the proclamation of the Governor calling such session,
or presented to them by the Governor, And no such
session shall be of longer duration than thirty days. The
Texas House will convene at noon today, July twenty first,
(10:54):
and recess until Thursday, July twenty fourth. So what we'll
have is a lot of show pony stuff. We'll have
a lot of We'll have a lot of talk about
what is and isn't going to happen, and then there
will be hey, look, I had to come in from
(11:17):
my time off to be in Austin and do the
job I was elected to do. But I really only
spend a few days every other year doing and so
let me get some.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Press coverage for myself out of it.
Speaker 5 (11:33):
And that will be every person that's involved, and that's
just how that will go.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Consumable.
Speaker 5 (11:40):
THC will be a big, big, issue, and it will
be an issue that will split Republicans. There's no way
around that, and it is not an avoidable issue. Another
of the issue use on the docket is flood dangers.
(12:04):
If you're the governor of the state of Texas, considering
what we just went through with particularly Camp Mystic and
Camp Lahunta and all the folks along the Flash Flood
Alley Corridor, they'd like to see that if our legislature
(12:25):
is going to be in session, then at least.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
Review what happened and see if we can't plug a
gap or two.
Speaker 5 (12:36):
So you would expect that the flood issue would be
taken up even if nothing is done about it.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Because it is a complex issue.
Speaker 5 (12:47):
You're going to have a lot of things to discuss
and it's not going to be an overnight solution, and
it can't be. This is complex. You're going to have
to talk about warning systems, and this is what we do.
This is what sophisticated civilizations do. I'm not talking about
(13:07):
finger pointing, I'm not talking about blame gaming. I'm talking
about what you do when there is a breakdown in
your systems or we don't know breakdown sirs.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
When there is a tragedy when something goes wrong.
Speaker 5 (13:23):
The scientific method says, accountability says good, Proper operating procedures
say best practices. Say you look back at what happened,
you see if there are failures in what would be
your standard operating procedure, And then you look at your
standard operating procedure and say is that good enough? Because
(13:46):
I think we all know this can't happen again. It
cannot happen again. It would dishonor these little girls. It
would dishonor Pat Green's brother and sister in law and
their kids. It would dishonor the the teacher and his
family in Kingwood. It would dishonor the guy who smashed
through the window to get his family out and dies
(14:09):
of the blood loss from the glass cutting, but managed
to save his life. It would dishonor all the people.
And this is the thing. I spend a lot of
time thinking about all the people, most of whom will
be lost to memory, who dove in and saved people
in one way or another. All the people who in
(14:30):
the moment and afterward jumped in in one way or
another to save, to help, to serve, to heal. It's incredible.
I hate that it requires that, But nothing short of
what has happened in Kerville and the surrounding counties, nothing
(14:51):
short of a situation like that can move the iPhones
and iPads and drama and pettiness and silliness and distraction
to the back burner and force a focus on life. Boy,
I tell you, I've heard from so many people whose
(15:13):
children survived that situation and how they have hugged their
kids so closely and appreciate. I mean, I know every
parent I know has had a statement of some sort
or another that you don't realize.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (15:36):
One of the emails in the thousands I got on
the subject said, when you bury your parents, you bury
your past. When you bury your spouse, you bury your present.
But when you bury your child, you bury your future.
And I have thought about that. That's been a week,
and I have thought about that so many times. What
(15:59):
are a profound level makes it so difficult to bury
a child?
Speaker 1 (16:05):
And I think that's it.
Speaker 5 (16:06):
That's our future, that's our hope, that's our everything. Michael
Berry Show Journal had an editorial this morning entitled the
Real Risk to the Electric Grid. Power shortages are coming
thanks to wind and solar subsidies. Here's how they distort
(16:27):
energy investment. No matter how diligent you are, no matter
how hard you work, there are factors at play that
affect your personal life and your business, your community, that
are bigger than your personal decisions, even if you make
(16:51):
great personal decisions. And one of them is the extent
to which your tax dollars and.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
You pay so much. Many of them.
Speaker 5 (17:02):
Are used for the infrastructure necessary necessary to conduct your life.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Let's take it to the lowest level. I talked last
week about Metro.
Speaker 5 (17:12):
Over a penny out of every dollar you spend locally
goes to Metro. Now, it doesn't seem like a lot,
but sure adds up to be a lot. It sure
adds up to be a lot. And in the course
of a year, between eating out and buying clothes and
(17:32):
buying this and buying that, the amount of money that
you personally hand to Metro and never even think about it.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
When the odds are you never use Metro for anything anything.
Speaker 5 (17:49):
There's a bus system which is basically a welfare program,
a subsidized transportation program.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
And you've heard me say before, and I will say
it again.
Speaker 5 (17:58):
I don't have a problem with an efficient subsidized bus program,
if the subsidy is at a maximum minimal amount, if
the buses are efficiently programmed, if they're clean and well
run and safe and not wasteful. But what happened was
(18:24):
you get these huge pockets and money, and Metro's one
of them. And Metro's a great one because you never
notice Metro. You even notice Harris County. Of course you
notice the city of Houston, but Harris County can hide
out there, or at least it could until Rodney got
out of control. We'll talk about Lina's meltdown. By the way,
there's talk of Lena resigning before the term is up.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
It is being openly floated.
Speaker 5 (18:49):
There are conversations being held right now, and Rodney is
behind this, but we have that in just a moment.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
So you got this pocket of money, and there are
a lot of them out.
Speaker 5 (18:58):
There, Houston can Unity College, Houston Independent School District. So
you've got Metro, whi's got this huge pocket of money.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
And then you've got these folks who come in and
they go.
Speaker 5 (19:11):
Running a bus service that really doesn't How can we
benefit from that?
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Hard to benefit from that?
Speaker 5 (19:19):
Well, the most efficient thing that the Metro system does
that affects the most people is actually the parking ride.
You might be sitting on a parking ride right now.
Many many folks use the parking ride. It's actually the
best thing that Metro does. It's a very very efficient
(19:41):
way to accomplish a couple of good public policy goals
that we all support. Number one, reducing the overall traffic.
Believe it or not, parking ride really does that. So
whatever your parking ride is, northwest, north, northeast, southwest, south, wherever,
out west, wherever you are. The ability to live in
(20:04):
Katie or the Woodlands or wherever else.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Not the Woodlands but Kingwood.
Speaker 5 (20:10):
The ability to pull up, park your car in a
safe lot that is patrolled. Get on the parking ride
which runs at a consistent time. I'll tell you if
you want to see one of the most efficient governmental
functions you will ever see in the entire world. I
(20:34):
think it's called the shins end. I forget my wife
could tell me, but ride the train system in Japan.
I have never been more impressed with a governmental function
performance in my life. In fact, the system runs, I
(20:54):
can't remember if it goes down to the second. I
don't want to exaggerate, but it runs down to the minute,
much so that if you're catching the train from Kyoto
to Japan, or sorry, Kyoto to Tokyo, and your train
is supposed to be there at eight twenty two and
(21:15):
it's rolling in at eight twenty one, he will slow
it down. Or if he's running late and he's and
he's a little behind, he will speed it up because
he wants it.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
To arrive at exactly the moment. You can count. You
can set your watch by the train system.
Speaker 5 (21:33):
Now, the Japanese are not as free expression as i'd like.
They're certainly not libertarian by nature. But what they do
do is a strict adherence to rules, norms, standards, expectations, effectiveness, efficiency.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
They're really really good at it.
Speaker 5 (21:56):
The bus system is necessarily how you transport people who
are the working poor, who cannot afford a functioning vehicle,
and the smaller the core the footprint that you try
to service, the more likely you can make that work.
(22:18):
All right, I'm okay with that. Just don't waste a
bunch of money. Make it as efficient as possible. We
all agree we need people to staff fast food restaurants
in tree level positions for older people. I'm great with that.
Move people around. The parking ride is the best thing
(22:42):
they do. But they don't care about that. That's not
something that they wanted to expand that's not something they
want to improve on. They fall under the sway of
people who can make a bunch of money on light rail.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Who was that?
Speaker 5 (23:00):
There are people that got rich off of buying the
property along the light rail path. Remember we started with downtown,
huge bust. We drove a bunch of business out of there.
I never forget Adrian's Cantena. It had been there forever
and when he closed down, he said, close down after whatever.
It closed down after twenty eight years due to metro
(23:22):
or yeah, metro rail, and nobody rides the metrorail. The
few people who are riding the metrorail were already riding
the bus that ran along the same corridor.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
So what did they do.
Speaker 5 (23:33):
They shut the bus system down to force them onto
the rail so there'd be somebody on the rail. We
didn't need a fixed rail, We didn't need to buy
the land. You could have used the lane miles and
a bus could have traveled there. We didn't need to
buy the technology at grade rail is the worst kind
of rail you can do. You have to either bury it,
which costs twice as much, or elevate it, which costs
(23:57):
four times as much. And we wouldn't have had the
money to do it.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
It was already fifty.
Speaker 5 (24:03):
Million dollars a lane mile, and they were doing seven
miles three hundred and fifty million dollars. I think it
ended up costing five hundred million dollars. Anyway, back to
the point, the infrastructure of the roads you drive, and
the water you drink and the energy that is provided
to you are things that are slightly out of your
immediate control, and our government has bungled power.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
The Michael Berry shows.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
Suk Kid, watch you weave them, Bring we sik.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
Kid.
Speaker 5 (24:58):
Marcus Petrel and his brother Morgan, the Congressman, went to Kerrville,
as many of you did, and they conducted dives, hoping
for a survivor, but at a minimum, hoping to give
closure to families. My understanding is there are only three.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
Folks still missing. Now.
Speaker 5 (25:20):
The good news to come of this is that some
folks who were reported missing have been recovered or have
been rescued excuse me, rescued alive. They lived somewhere along
there or they were vacationing somewhere along there, and they
have connected with family members who said, you're listed among
the missing, and they reported no, they're okay. Thank goodness,
(25:46):
they have survived. I read a gut wrenching commentary over
the weekend about why you continue to search for bodies
when it's almost as if what you're going to find
is only going to bring sadness. But the concept of
closure is so powerful that a rescue operation is is
(26:11):
a must. And we'll talk to Marcus about that. I
love the thought of the fact that we train warriors
like seals.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
And other warriors. They're not the only ones.
Speaker 5 (26:25):
They've just been talked about a lot since Marcus's book
Long Survivor, But there are lots of these guys a
Special Forces that do different amazing things, and there are
guys that are just in our military that do amazing things.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
But we'll talk to.
Speaker 5 (26:38):
Him about why he went and what they what they discovered,
what they saw coming up in just a few moments.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
But first we go to the phone line seven.
Speaker 5 (26:46):
One three one thousand, Kevin Europe.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
Sir, Well, good morning, good morning, Kevin.
Speaker 6 (26:58):
I know whenever I do my Houston laws Uh, I'm
a truck driver of course, which uh on which right
now I'm I'm driving towards Houston from Austin, which means
Austin is in its great place, which is in my
rear view mirror.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
And uh, but.
Speaker 6 (27:20):
I do I do my little when I work out
of a Houston yard. I passed by the Woodlands Parking
Ride and uh, there is a company. I don't think
it is associated with Houston Metro, but it services Houston
(27:40):
Metro and it's it's called the Woodlands in the Woodlands Express,
which uh with which Sex Takes takes takes buses down
from the from the Booty Road, UH, parking ride all
the way downtown and back. And I've had a lot,
(28:02):
I've had a lot of friends actually use that, actually
use that, and during the rodeo, I use that because
once I get downtown, it's easy, it's easy to uh
to get to rail down down to the down to
(28:23):
the as Asper Domain. And I still call it that.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
You can call it that for me because that's my childhood. Kevin.
Speaker 5 (28:34):
I know I've told you this before, but I feel
the need to tell you every time you call. I
admire you calling our show knowing you're going to have
to stutter through it. I admire that. And let me
give you the best example I can possibly give. It
might not be a good analogy, but I'm gonna give
(28:55):
you the best one I can. I cannot dance, Kevin.
When I say I can't dance, people, you know, if
we're out in public. I love music.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
I love music. I love musicians.
Speaker 5 (29:09):
I love the sounds, I love the stories, I love
the feel, I love the beat.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
I love to see.
Speaker 5 (29:15):
An audience engage in interect I love music and I
love concerts, and I love to beat at him. So
when I'm with a group of people and people have
had a few drinks and they're getting friendlier, and you know,
breaking down the.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
Barriers that you they don't know you that well.
Speaker 5 (29:33):
They all think I'm gonna be the one that gets
Michael to dance, and he's gonna love me for it
because he doesn't dance. And I'm going to tell you something.
You drag me out on the floor and you think
that I'll go.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Hell, we're already out here.
Speaker 5 (29:48):
I'm gonna turn and walk off because I'm horrified of dancing. Horrified,
And so you know what, I don't do I don't
go out and dance in front of people because I'm
not brave enough, because I'm not strong enough, because I'm
not tough enough. The fact that you dial our number
(30:08):
to make a point, knowing good and well, you could
be the subject of ridicule, knowing good and well, that
you may not make your point knowing good and well.
I just my hat's off to.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
You, dude. You are one badass. Dude. I love it
so much.
Speaker 5 (30:24):
And I hope that by saying that, anybody who ever
wants to be on the show because you have content
to offer that whatever your delivery mechanism is. You got
a odd voice, you got a weak voice, you got
a high pitched voice, you got a horse voice, you
gotta stutter, you got a speech impediment, whatever that is,
(30:46):
I hope you understand you will be judged by the
quality of your content. Doesn't mean I won't remark on
your accent or whatever else. But you know, Kevin, when
I started in radio, the guy who was the head
of the station would tell the coll.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Screeners, don't put old people on.
Speaker 5 (31:05):
Don't put people on with a speech impediment or an accent.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
And do you know there were five calls that came in.
Speaker 5 (31:12):
When your call came in and Ramon puts you to
the front as the stuttering dude, and I immediately remembered who.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
It was, and he knew I would.
Speaker 5 (31:20):
He numbers the calls what order he wants me to
take them, based on how he thinks they'll be. He
knew that we would want to put you on first.
So I will get to the content of the Woodlands Express,
which is incredible. But I want to make sure everybody
understands if you ever want to be on this show,
you've got something to offer, a question to ask, and
(31:41):
you got.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
Whatever whatever your delivery.
Speaker 5 (31:45):
Mechanism is that you think is an impediment to you
being on the show, Trust me it's not. And if
I remark on your accent or your stutter, or your
the way you say certain words, rest assured it is
because it is the Henry Higgins of me from my
fair lady. I study those things. I'm fascinated by those things.
I'm interested in those sorts of things. It is not ridicule.
(32:08):
We want you on the show. And Ramona will tell
you we went from from the admonition the edict don't
put people on with funny accents or odd speech impediments
or who are old.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
Don't put them on the air. That's who we put
on first.
Speaker 5 (32:25):
That is God's Hon's true because we find those to
be the most interesting cause. As for the Woodlands Express,
first of all, the Woodlands is probably the best run
local municipality community corporation.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
It's canniballe in the region and it always has been.
Speaker 5 (32:45):
George Mitchell Howard Hughes Corporation, that whole amalgam and by
the way, that's why people love to live there.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
That's why people love to live in the Woodlands. You
can live in the Woodlands.
Speaker 5 (32:56):
Right the Woodlands Express into downtown and work, get your
work done on your way, come home to your family distressed.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
It's it's brilliant, good call. Kevin
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