June 17, 2025 • 32 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
It's that time time time, time, Luck and load. The
Michael Verie Show is on the air.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
James Wright, maybe you think you're slur about Suparoo vehicles
in an ad you read on air. Is cute, but
it raises the question if you are really that ignorant
about the quality of the subaroof vehicles.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
We have two Subaru I guess Subaru's plural.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
The first forester we bought new, then later a used
one with about one hundred miles one hundred thousand miles
as a spare.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
That's from James. He's a very angry lesbian.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
He does not appreciate me making a slur against the Subaru,
a very quality vehicle.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
He owns two.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
He bought one new and very responsibly. He bought a
second one second one has over one hundred thousand miles
on it. And he doesn't appreciate me making slurs from him.
And now he wonders, am I really that dumb? Am
I really that dumb that I don't know about his Subaru?
It was the Dean Goss Dinner Theater. Several folks kind
(01:41):
enough to just send it was Dean Goss Dinner Theater.
I think there were two that and another one that
competed called the Something Club. I just can't remember what
it's called, like the Sportsman's Club or the Summ's Club.
There was a Dean Gos Dinner Theater and another one,
and I'll never know because I didn't live here, but
somebody will tell me by email Michael Berryshow dot com.
(02:02):
Someone said I would like to see the drive in
with car Hops return. I agree, Sonic doesn't quite get
you there.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
I like the old especially if they're cute. All right,
let's start.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
What concept would you like to see brought back or
brought to Houston?
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Tom, you're up, yeah, I tell you all right. There
on fifty nine, across from where you find Cactus Records
in the water Burger, there's an old club I believe,
like an Egyptian looking thing.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Oh magic, I think it.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Used to be.
Speaker 4 (02:38):
Yeah, And they said that was going to be coming back,
and I ain't heard nothing else. In twenty twenty four
there was an article in the Chronicle about it, but
you know, Chronicle doesn't tell the truth very often. But
the other place Dinner and the show Doci Dough in.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
The Woodlands, Oh yeah, man.
Speaker 5 (02:56):
They.
Speaker 4 (02:58):
Got they got at sitting there and every musician I've
ever talked to says it's one of the top five
venues that they've played in their lives.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Yeah, love that place. That is true.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
That is one of the places you can still get
dinner in the show. I did forget that. Thank you
for the call.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Tom.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
The issue on Magic Island, I think this is the
one case where it wasn't the Chronicle's fault. I don't
want to speak out of turn, but the ownership of
that space used to be owned by a guy named
doctor Atari.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
He was.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
I believe he was an Irani doctor, and I don't
think he owns the property any longer. But there have
been some efforts to bring that property back, and there's
been some drama associated with it. I should probably stay
out of that because yeah, I'll stay out of that
for now.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Windshield, you're up, Go ahead.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
What should Houston bring back or bring to the greater
Houston area.
Speaker 6 (04:10):
Addie Michael, there was a concept called Spaghetti Western there
in the Heights and he's still there.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
It was.
Speaker 6 (04:18):
She Oh, is it?
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Yeah? Still there?
Speaker 6 (04:20):
I'll be darned.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (04:22):
Well, you know, everything seems like it was yesterday, but
then I realized it was twenty years ago. Do you
remember concept called Antiqua.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Yeah, uh, where was that? I remember they had a
goofy logo.
Speaker 6 (04:35):
That was it was owned by an Iranian and an
Italian guy who was there I think in bel Air's
were all the doctors and lawyers. That was their everyday eatery.
It was a little you had to really know about it,
a little hole in the wall. They closed down. I
was really sad to hear about it because we had
just moved back and they had closed down. But I
had called on them for a very long time and
(04:58):
they were an amazing duo. And the one of the owners,
he had a little ranch and I'd come back in
there and I'd bring him some fish or something that
I had.
Speaker 7 (05:07):
Caught, and he'd have rabbit heads or a hoghead.
Speaker 6 (05:09):
Sitting on his back line. I guess I can say
this now because the health department can't go in there,
but he'd be cooking up, you know, all kinds of
rabbit and hog that he'd shoot out at his ranch
for a nilgai and stuff or people like me and
his staff. But it was a very unique place, fantastic
Iran that was the Italian, the Iranian guy. He was
(05:33):
one of the coolest men you'd ever met. He was
an absolute nut job, but he could fix anything in
that restaurant. I mean anything. And anytime I had to
make numbers for wine and stuff, They'd let me sell
in whatever I wanted. They didn't care like I.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Just ship it, Just ship it.
Speaker 6 (05:48):
It don't matter to ship it.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
It was nice. Who were you a rep for Republic?
Speaker 6 (05:53):
It was there, very nice. I was a rep for
first for Southern in South Florida, and then then Republic
when I did for most Southern Republic in South Florida,
and then Republic when I moved here before they merged
with Glaziers.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
I was going to tell you the number of people
I've known who at one point or another work for
Republic and or Glaziers is a lot. They turned over
a lot of staff and nobody. Nobody is still working there.
It's people who tell me, you know, oh, I used
to work as a as a rep at Glaziers or
at Republic.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
You know, Irani's are interesting people. In the United States.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
You almost never meet an unsuccessful Irani professionally, and you
will meet a lot of very shrewd, very successful Iranis.
I mean, I know over one hundred Iranis and every
one of them is a multi millionaire, every single one
of them. And I think part of that is that
(06:51):
it was the best and brightest that fled Iran in
seventy nine. But now we're on the second generation of
them and they're still They're like Indians. They're very focused
on six us. You know, you don't don't embarrass the
family by being homeless. You know, you've got to be
You've got to be successful to them, so you don't
embarrass the family.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Ray you're on the Michael Berry Show.
Speaker 5 (07:11):
Hey, Michael, we go to a small place in Tomball
called Main Street Crossing. I know it, and they have
different kinds of foods. Yeah, I was there just a
week ago and saw Sundance. We've seen. They have all
kinds of cover bands, tribute bands, Texas artists and it's
(07:31):
a really good place to go, very small, and so
that's one of my favorite places.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
That is that is the Unicorn in the business. He
and I used to talk a lot. Uh it's the
Unicorn because the owner is also himself a musician.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Uh loves the business.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
It's set up as a church, so they don't have
you know, a lot of the hassles. Tomball really wants
it there, so so they're helpful to them. There's really
nothing else out in that area. But that place works
because the owner, who's a relatively young guy, he's ten years.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Older than when we were last talking, but because he
is so hands on.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
If they brought in enough that you know, there's hardly
any meat on that bone to make any money, and
he doesn't care.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
That's why that place.
Speaker 8 (08:20):
Was can actually break your ball.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
The Michael Berry Show.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
We will be talking to several folks three to be exact,
maybe four this week regarding the Texas legislative session that
just concluded.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Luke Macys will be our guest in the next segment.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Luke is one of the guys who follows the session
day by day, Brandon Walton's with Texas Scorecard and also
Michael quinn Sullivan with Texas Scorecard to get their thoughts
on what passed and what didn't and why we're talking
about concepts that you wish would come to town or
that you wish would come back to town. The Dean
(09:07):
Gos Dinner Theater is a fan favorite. I never got
to go. I came to Houston in eighty nine, my
wife and I got married and we paid for it ourselves.
We didn't want her father in India or my parents
to have to pay for it, so we kept it
pretty simple. We didn't have all the things that add
(09:27):
up the big rehearsal dinner and all that. But everybody
came in. Her family came in from around the country,
Chicago and New Jersey primarily, and so we only had
twenty people at the wedding, but ten or twelve them
were from her side to come in. So the evening
before her aunt, who had kind of taken us under
her wing. She was a psychiatrist, she was married to
(09:48):
a Internish doctor, and she said, do you all have
dinner planned? And AA said no, it wasn't really in
the budget, and she was just going to make something.
Ant said no, no, no, to Michael to pick a place
and we'll take you all and it should be nice.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
I didn't know what was nice. It was nineteen ninety two.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
And I'd only been in town for three years and
I was a student, So I picked something very nice. Ramon,
at least I thought the old San Francisco Steakhouse. That
is correct, that phones ran the old San Francisco Steakhouse
out on West Timer.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
I don't know what's there now, but that's where we went.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
And the bread, you know, the old steakhouses would always
have real buttery bread on the table when you got there.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
I missed that.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Even Hofbrow had that, and it had to grow on
the swing the whole time.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Those were good times.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
All right.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
What concept would you like to see come to town
or come back to town?
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Melissa yet you're up?
Speaker 8 (10:53):
Hello?
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Yeah?
Speaker 6 (10:55):
Okay?
Speaker 9 (10:55):
How about belly dancing and whirling dervish?
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Yeah? You know, is there one that you're thinking of?
Speaker 4 (11:05):
Ye?
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Like it?
Speaker 3 (11:07):
Well?
Speaker 9 (11:08):
I lived in Cairo for six years and it was
super cheesy, but anytime we had visits, had to go
do the belly dancing and really nervous show. And I
think it kind of fits into the whole culture right
now because half the times we kind of thought that
the belly dancers were cross dressers, you know, like drag queens.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Yeah. There, What were you doing in Cairo?
Speaker 9 (11:36):
I was a trailing spouse. My husband worked for a
patch oil and gas.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
How'd you like that?
Speaker 4 (11:44):
Oh?
Speaker 9 (11:45):
It was amazing, amazing. I went, I did not want
to go. I went kicking and screaming and wow, what
an adventure.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
What years did you did? He worked for a patchy
that you were with him?
Speaker 9 (12:00):
It was we went there in O two and then
stay for six years. So just before the upriving.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
So I used to live across the street from a
fellow in Paul Bragg, who was the CEO of Apache,
and I lived in West u in a tear down that.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
I had gotten on a deal.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
And everybody in the neighborhood thought that I'd buy it
and tear it down, but I couldn't afford to tear
it down. We lived there. It was uninhabitable, it was awful.
But Paul Bragg was He kept himself, didn't bother anybody.
I probably shouldn't tell this, but he was married to
the hottest woman, kind of dark skinned, brown hair.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
I forget her name.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
And in the five years we lived there, that woman
never smiled. Now, come to find out, they were going
to be getting a divorced soon. So maybe he didn't
like that she never smiled, or maybe she never smiled
because she wasn't happy at home. But I have never
because I would flirt with her or try so. I'd
go out for my job and she'd be on her job.
Hey and hm and I used to think that poor bastard,
(13:08):
he's got a tough job at home and then he's
got to come home and his hot little wife not
not ever smile. That can't be pleasant. Phil, you're on
the Michael Berry Show. What concept it's called?
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Meet and three? They're popular like Ville. I lived in Nashville.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Yes, I've eating it. My friend and Endham took me
there in Nashville. That's a fantastic like a cafeteria style,
the old style your plate has Yeah, yes, I'll do that.
Speaker 6 (13:34):
Say they'll have maybe three different meats to offer and
then about maybe eight or eight to ten vegetables.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
It's a flat rate. You pick one meat and three vegetables.
You're in and out.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Yes, great, Yeah, So he was the CEO of UR.
He was the Eddie Martinez of our Houston office. Used
to mean of our Nashville office. Used to be the
number two, the director of sales at at our Houston office.
But what I'm hearing from a lot of people is
is in emails is cafeteria style. People want some concept
(14:04):
of the cafeterias brought back. Uh and and I have
a friend who eats it at Rachel Palmer Hooper who
eats it at cleeburnd a lot. That's where she takes
her parents. But that is to me what a cafeteria
should be. Big heapen portions, the owner down there at
the end, good Greek fella, the owner down at the end,
(14:27):
and everything coming out of the bowls.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
You know, these big portions. That's what a That's what
a cafeteria should be.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
There used to be one over on the east side,
like on way side where just past the under, just
just where it went under, and I think it was
called Dinner Bell. I don't know if that's still there
or not. Chuck, what concept.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
Rudy's Rudy's barbs.
Speaker 7 (14:51):
Right across from uh from Tony's back in the.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
I know what Tony's was. I guess that's probably where
Cafe Annie is now.
Speaker 7 (15:04):
It was in that center. But if Cafe Annie was
on the end cap and came later, But Rudy's was
there before, and it was more in the center of
that center, and it had a great food. Wasn't as
good as Tony's, but it was close and it had
a bar that had a trio or a combo in it.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Oh wow, you know, I shouldn't mention Foo odds because
I don't want anybody to go in there, so it's
kept it from me. We need a place like I
think people have changed the idea of a place that
a couple would go to, and people their desires changed dramatically.
Unlike the United States, Congress is not continuously more or
(15:46):
less in session. It doesn't even meet every year. It
meets by annially for one hundred and fifty days every
other year in odd numbered years. If something doesn't get done,
you're going to have to wait two years for it
to be accomplished, if at all. Now the governor can
(16:08):
call a special session, and they will do that for
a specific issue. But by and large, whatever you were
promised and haven't received yet, you're not going to get.
Luke Macius is our guest. I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly.
He has a blog, a show. He follows the legislature
very closely, and I read most of what he writes,
(16:30):
and he's got I think we're somewhat aligned on what
we would like to see out of Texas State government.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Luke, welcome to the program, sir, Thank you, Michael, thanks
for having me on So let's talk about this particular session.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Organically, start to finish one of the and I have
a series of questions, and then I'll open it up
to you to what I don't ask. Obviously, I was
frustrated with the election of Dustin Burroughs. We may to
bounce Daide Feeling so drunk day's out of power, but
basically we replaced him with what I would argue is
someone who's still cutting a deal with the Democrats to
(17:08):
get the power.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Your thoughts, I think that's accurate.
Speaker 8 (17:12):
I think the start of the session was definitely frustrating,
with a small group of Republicans teaming up with Democrats
to keep the power, and ultimately a lot of the
people that did that were people that had power under
Dad Feeling. Now, it is worth acknowledging that a significant
amount of the leadership team of DAID were defeated in
their primaries, so you had at least a sum reorganization
(17:36):
that needed to happen based on the fact that a
lot of the more liberal Republican chairmen were defeated by
very conservative people coming into reform. But you're correct, the
start of the session felt like deja vu. We're starting
out with the same problems that Straus, Bond and Dade had.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
Yeah, and I would argue that Burrows was just Dade
feeling two point zero. Was there much difference that you saw?
I mean, maybe he wasn't drunk all the time, but well.
Speaker 8 (18:04):
Yeah, so I can't speak to the alcohol consumption, but
what I can speak to is the fact that he was.
The difficulty in comparison comparing session to session is that
the actual chamber, the Texas House of Representatives, was so
substantially more conservative. You had what I would argue is
(18:25):
a twenty to twenty five point or seat swing in
the legislature. So there are eighty six Republicans last session,
there were eighty eight this session, and of the eighty eight,
there were twenty five more conservatives in the caucus, which
took the consistent.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Conservative voting block.
Speaker 8 (18:42):
Just as a quick example, if a conservative had an
idea to make a bill more conservative in sessions past,
he might get fifteen to twenty votes on any given amendment,
and this session those individuals were easily getting forty or
fifty votes. So forty or fifty of the eighty eight
Republicans were consistently voting to push things in a right direction,
(19:03):
which then just kind of has a snowball effect in
the legislature. So we did accomplish a lot more big picture.
I think a lot of that was just due to
the fact that the Texas House was so much more conservative,
even if the leadership still was more loyal to Democrats
than what we would have had if we had had
somebody like David Cook who was elected in the Republican Caucus.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
What was drunk Dade's role behind the scenes, How much
influence did he have, What was his body language?
Speaker 2 (19:31):
What was how involved he was completely I mean he
was honestly completely absent, And I'll give you an example.
Speaker 8 (19:40):
So first of all, you almost never saw him on
the floor ever, His committee met very little. His office
was hardly ever open. He officed just below the chamber.
In fact, what's funny is his surface pro he could
vote from his office. So one of the reasons people
realized that he wasn't on the floor a lot is
he because it works based on geography. So because it's
(20:02):
right underneath the floor, the surface provo still thought he
was on the floor, so he could actually vote from
his office.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
And I heard from.
Speaker 8 (20:11):
Even business lobbyists about how his office was hardly ever available,
he wasn't there to meet. He was chairing a rather
powerful committee. So Dade seemed to check out a little
bit when he lost his power. He thought two days
before the caucus met he was still going to be
speaker and kind of had the wake up when everyone
(20:31):
realized he didn't have a path, and so I don't
think he adjusted very well to that.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
He really was not active.
Speaker 8 (20:38):
He had a couple of those bills, as you mentioned,
the meme criminalization bill, which I don't even think Dan
Patrick sent to a committee. I think he even just
killed it on his desk. He didn't even refer it.
So the Senate never even took that bill seriously. But
he did have his bill to criminalize memes that depict politicians,
and other than that, he was pretty absent.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
I was flattered because there were a number of articles
that were written that said that that was directed at
me and you know, I mean spell my name, you know,
the old pt Barnum line. Obviously, jen Wu elected the
leader of the Democrat Caucus, wielding more power I think
than most.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Democrat leaders over the years.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
I understand people hate him, but even worse, he's far
more effective than typical Democrat leaders. How influential did you
since they were the Democrats in crafting what was going on,
because it looked to me like they, at a minimum
had the ability to sandbag anything that the Senate Republicans
wanted done, and probably.
Speaker 8 (21:43):
More so early on, they had more influence. And what
they also influenced heavily was the watering down of certain bills. Ultimately,
and I'll give the grassroots credit for this before I
say what I think happened, but recognized that because you
(22:04):
and so many people across Texas actually are talking about
the Texas House, when they cut the deal with Democrats,
they did so in a public way. They've never done that,
and so the average Texan was way more upset about
the Texas House than they had ever been. And what
I think that ultimately set up was that the House
knew they needed to give some major wins to Republicans
(22:25):
that had not been given to Republicans in the past,
and so where it looked like Jean wu was winning
in some respect, the House would water substantially down certain
major Republican bills, like the China Land Bill, the Parental
Bill of Rights that was going to get rid of
sex and gender theory and classrooms, you know, the thing
that was going to work on peorn in school libraries.
(22:47):
But what ultimately happened at the end in many of
those instances was that when the Senate went to conference,
the House basically let them restore the bills back to
exactly what Republicans wanted. And so that's why it was
just a couple of days ago. Jean Wu actually told
the Texas Observer that he felt like the Texas House
got rolled this session, and I would disagree with him
(23:07):
to some extent, because I think there were some conservative
policies they definitely killed. But in the last thirty days,
the House acquiesced to the Senate on more than a
number of occasions, and it gave Republicans some pretty substantial
wins that date. We the wins that we've criticized date
feeling for killing r So.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Just a moment. Luke mas is our guest.
Speaker 10 (23:27):
You can find him at lukemacus dot com.
Speaker 11 (23:37):
E Mary, you are more to Ring the King's English.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Luke not and listened to an opening of one of
his podcasts during the break so that I could be
sure I was getting it right.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
So it's Luke m Acias. You can find him at
lukemcius dot com. He does a blog and he has
a podcast.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
I try to triangulate information from various sources, including liberals, democrats,
liberal media, as well as folks who I think are
probably far more aligned with me than the other folks,
to get a sense of what's going on, for instance,
in the state legislature, because I will confess I don't
spend as much time on the day to day as
(24:30):
people like Luke Macius does, so he's one of the
sources that I look to for what the heck is
going on.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
Luke, you in a I guess it's June eleventh.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
You put up a post session overview the good Let's
talk about some of the things that came out of
this session, not just the House, but the House, the Senate,
and the governor has or you expect will sign.
Speaker 8 (24:55):
So I think the top positive aspects, if I'm going
to go give people a big picture view, is the
Republican Party of Texas had eight legislative priorities at the
beginning of the session. Okay, when it came to I'm
gonna the most positive parts were the China land ban,
and again all of our conservative Republicans fought to make
sure that it was a real band that ultimately passed,
(25:18):
because they tried multiple times to open up a bunch
of loopholes where Chinese nationals could still buy land. But
I think the version of that that passing got signed
by Governor Rabbit is a very strong, if not the
strongest in the nation. When it comes to stop sexualizing
Texas children. There were a number of bills that passed,
probably eight, nine or ten that were all pretty substantive,
but the most substantive one was SB twelve, the Parental
(25:39):
Bill of Rights. Do you remember when there was all
the protests and riots in Florida over what the left
called don't Say Gay that Ron Desanta's passed. Texas passed
a version of that that is even better. So that
version stopped at sixth grade. This version goes all the
way through high school. It says no gender identity, no
(25:59):
sexual orientation, no diversity, no equity, no inclusion. All DEI
and SOGI policies are out. And we actually had this.
I mean, the Democrats all got up because one of
the things that the Senate insisted on the House tried
to keep it out, but the Senate insistent on it
was language that said no gender sexuality clubs. We have
gender and sexuality clubs on forty six percent of school
(26:21):
campuses in Texas public school campuses. They start as early
as second grade, and when that ban came to the floor,
the language was in it. The Democrats ended up giving
three hours of speeches where most of them shared stories
about how they the reason they were a pan sexual
or a bisexual, or a lesbian or whatever they were
as they identify. They talked about how the clubs that
(26:43):
they attended in middle school and high school were formative
to their experimentation and their sexual orientation. So what we
really found out was that the ban that the Senate
fought very hard to keep in ended up being really
important to that bill. But it also says that your
kid's not going to get sex education at school unless
you opt them into that program instead of having to
go opt out. So there's many different aspects. Basically, teachers
(27:06):
can't talk about sex and gender to students. Teach them
how to read, teach them how to multiply. You're not
even doing a good job of that, So just do
that and don't talk about it.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
SB twelve.
Speaker 8 (27:15):
SB seventeen is the China land ban. There were a
number of grid protection policies that passed. When it comes
to election integrity, there were a number of good policies
that pass. What I say is when it came to
stop sexualizing kids, they probably passed eighty percent of the
bills we wanted to pass. Election integrity was closer to
thirty percent. The Senate passed a lot of legislation that
(27:35):
the House still killed on election integrity, but there were
three or four different bills that were able to pass
to make it make our elections slightly more secure. We
were able to pass also the two to eighty seven
G program, and I will say that in the version
that it passed very impactful and statewide. So this is
to team up with President Trump's agenda and make sure
(27:56):
that every single county in America is participating with the
government in a coordinated way with ICE. That's what the
two eighty seven G program does. We even have rural
counties in East Texas that haven't participated with ICE, that
aren't routinely running everybody they arrest and put into jail
through the ICE database to then let ICE know, oh,
we've got a detainer request.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
You can come pick this guy up.
Speaker 8 (28:19):
We have places that are Republican counties that aren't even engaged.
So this mandates that every single county in Texas, including
the blue counties, do it. It tells them that they
have to have a full time employee that's doing it,
that the state of Texas will pay for that person
in reimbursement. But you will get somebody in, you will
start coordinating with the federal government, and you will do that.
So I think that is a strong win on the
(28:40):
immigration front. Those are the good things. There are many others,
but those are some of the top good things that
I think came out of the session.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
What are some of the big issues.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
I know you had a piece on TLR Texas w
lawsuit reform, being upset with boroughs. What are some of
the issues that did not get past of note?
Speaker 8 (29:00):
So when I look at the things that didn't get
past a note, that are most obvious for Republicans.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
First, there was a bill.
Speaker 8 (29:06):
SB twenty eight eighty that the Senate passed that was
going to significantly crack down on the abortion pill. We
have about nineteen thousand numborn children that die via the
abortion pill. That are shipped in from out of state
every year, and this bill would have significantly lowered that
number from nineteen thousand. We made it much harder to
ship those abortion pills in. That passed the Senate died
in the House. There was a bill that would have
(29:27):
banned Drag Queen's Story Hour that the Senate passed as
a priority piece of legislation. That seemed like an obvious win.
Nobody likes Drag Queen Story Hour. It would have defunded
the libraries that host that. The Senate in the House
both put an additional constitutional amendment that says that if
you're not a citizen, you can't vote, which is already
in our constitution in a couple places, so it made
(29:47):
it triply illegal. But what the Senate passed in the
House killed was a bill that said that when you
register to vote, your citizenship must be verified, and that
was what the Democrats held the line on. Unfortunately died
in the Texas House. So there was a provision and
that is a very strong election integrity bill that I
think should have been an obvious wind. There was a
build a Senate pass on election integrity that said that
(30:10):
Harris County go ahead.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
So this is the issue.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
If your citizenship is not checked at the point at
which you register, once you are a registered voter and
you show up to vote, it is then never checked.
So our constitution, I know you know this, but it's
worth noting. Our constitution says you must be a United
States citizen in order to vote in Texas elections, and
everybody says, yes, that's a degree.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
We ought to do that.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
So then somebody goes to register and they're not a citizen,
they get registered, they go and vote, They effectively break
the law and there's nothing to stop them. So you
have to have some teeth in this. You have to
have a mechanism by which you actually these aren't self
enforcing laws, and I think that's important. So what we
were trying to do here was ensure that the constitutional
(31:02):
provision that you must be a citizen is protected and
a president it's not there are non citizens voting anyway,
worth noting on that.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
I just want to make sure you're absolutely right to
take back to you.
Speaker 8 (31:12):
While you and I were talking, Ken Paxson put a
pressure lease out saying that he has currently opened up
an investigation into thirty three non citizens that they've identified
the voted in the last election. I guarantee you those
are not the only thirty three, of course, to be clear,
but these are thirty three that the Secretary of State
found when it crossed, referenced just one federal database with
(31:33):
the people that voted, and they referred those to the.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
General and General Packson is on it. So you're right,
that's why we should verify it. When you register to vote,
verify citizenship.
Speaker 8 (31:42):
Does they send the past that the House killed it?
Speaker 1 (31:44):
Hold with me for just a moment. You can find
him at lutmacius dot com. There's a blog. Does a podcast.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
Will continue our conversation on what bills, what we're going
to Obviously, we're going to talk about Dan Patrick's crazy
and high hemp bill.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
I don't know it looks position on that, but we'll
talk about that more than I
Speaker 9 (32:09):
M hm
It's that time time time, time, Luck and load. The
Michael Verie Show is on the air.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
James Wright, maybe you think you're slur about Suparoo vehicles
in an ad you read on air. Is cute, but
it raises the question if you are really that ignorant
about the quality of the subaroof vehicles.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
We have two Subaru I guess Subaru's plural.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
The first forester we bought new, then later a used
one with about one hundred miles one hundred thousand miles
as a spare.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
That's from James. He's a very angry lesbian.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
He does not appreciate me making a slur against the Subaru,
a very quality vehicle.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
He owns two.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
He bought one new and very responsibly. He bought a
second one second one has over one hundred thousand miles
on it. And he doesn't appreciate me making slurs from him.
And now he wonders, am I really that dumb? Am
I really that dumb that I don't know about his Subaru?
It was the Dean Goss Dinner Theater. Several folks kind
(01:41):
enough to just send it was Dean Goss Dinner Theater.
I think there were two that and another one that
competed called the Something Club. I just can't remember what
it's called, like the Sportsman's Club or the Summ's Club.
There was a Dean Gos Dinner Theater and another one,
and I'll never know because I didn't live here, but
somebody will tell me by email Michael Berryshow dot com.
(02:02):
Someone said I would like to see the drive in
with car Hops return. I agree, Sonic doesn't quite get
you there.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
I like the old especially if they're cute. All right,
let's start.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
What concept would you like to see brought back or
brought to Houston?
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Tom, you're up, yeah, I tell you all right. There
on fifty nine, across from where you find Cactus Records
in the water Burger, there's an old club I believe,
like an Egyptian looking thing.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Oh magic, I think it.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Used to be.
Speaker 4 (02:38):
Yeah, And they said that was going to be coming back,
and I ain't heard nothing else. In twenty twenty four
there was an article in the Chronicle about it, but
you know, Chronicle doesn't tell the truth very often. But
the other place Dinner and the show Doci Dough in.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
The Woodlands, Oh yeah, man.
Speaker 5 (02:56):
They.
Speaker 4 (02:58):
Got they got at sitting there and every musician I've
ever talked to says it's one of the top five
venues that they've played in their lives.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Yeah, love that place. That is true.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
That is one of the places you can still get
dinner in the show. I did forget that. Thank you
for the call.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Tom.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
The issue on Magic Island, I think this is the
one case where it wasn't the Chronicle's fault. I don't
want to speak out of turn, but the ownership of
that space used to be owned by a guy named
doctor Atari.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
He was.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
I believe he was an Irani doctor, and I don't
think he owns the property any longer. But there have
been some efforts to bring that property back, and there's
been some drama associated with it. I should probably stay
out of that because yeah, I'll stay out of that
for now.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Windshield, you're up, Go ahead.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
What should Houston bring back or bring to the greater
Houston area.
Speaker 6 (04:10):
Addie Michael, there was a concept called Spaghetti Western there
in the Heights and he's still there.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
It was.
Speaker 6 (04:18):
She Oh, is it?
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Yeah? Still there?
Speaker 6 (04:20):
I'll be darned.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (04:22):
Well, you know, everything seems like it was yesterday, but
then I realized it was twenty years ago. Do you
remember concept called Antiqua.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Yeah, uh, where was that? I remember they had a
goofy logo.
Speaker 6 (04:35):
That was it was owned by an Iranian and an
Italian guy who was there I think in bel Air's
were all the doctors and lawyers. That was their everyday eatery.
It was a little you had to really know about it,
a little hole in the wall. They closed down. I
was really sad to hear about it because we had
just moved back and they had closed down. But I
had called on them for a very long time and
(04:58):
they were an amazing duo. And the one of the owners,
he had a little ranch and I'd come back in
there and I'd bring him some fish or something that
I had.
Speaker 7 (05:07):
Caught, and he'd have rabbit heads or a hoghead.
Speaker 6 (05:09):
Sitting on his back line. I guess I can say
this now because the health department can't go in there,
but he'd be cooking up, you know, all kinds of
rabbit and hog that he'd shoot out at his ranch
for a nilgai and stuff or people like me and
his staff. But it was a very unique place, fantastic
Iran that was the Italian, the Iranian guy. He was
(05:33):
one of the coolest men you'd ever met. He was
an absolute nut job, but he could fix anything in
that restaurant. I mean anything. And anytime I had to
make numbers for wine and stuff, They'd let me sell
in whatever I wanted. They didn't care like I.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Just ship it, Just ship it.
Speaker 6 (05:48):
It don't matter to ship it.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
It was nice. Who were you a rep for Republic?
Speaker 6 (05:53):
It was there, very nice. I was a rep for
first for Southern in South Florida, and then then Republic
when I did for most Southern Republic in South Florida,
and then Republic when I moved here before they merged
with Glaziers.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
I was going to tell you the number of people
I've known who at one point or another work for
Republic and or Glaziers is a lot. They turned over
a lot of staff and nobody. Nobody is still working there.
It's people who tell me, you know, oh, I used
to work as a as a rep at Glaziers or
at Republic.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
You know, Irani's are interesting people. In the United States.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
You almost never meet an unsuccessful Irani professionally, and you
will meet a lot of very shrewd, very successful Iranis.
I mean, I know over one hundred Iranis and every
one of them is a multi millionaire, every single one
of them. And I think part of that is that
(06:51):
it was the best and brightest that fled Iran in
seventy nine. But now we're on the second generation of
them and they're still They're like Indians. They're very focused
on six us. You know, you don't don't embarrass the
family by being homeless. You know, you've got to be
You've got to be successful to them, so you don't
embarrass the family.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Ray you're on the Michael Berry Show.
Speaker 5 (07:11):
Hey, Michael, we go to a small place in Tomball
called Main Street Crossing. I know it, and they have
different kinds of foods. Yeah, I was there just a
week ago and saw Sundance. We've seen. They have all
kinds of cover bands, tribute bands, Texas artists and it's
(07:31):
a really good place to go, very small, and so
that's one of my favorite places.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
That is that is the Unicorn in the business. He
and I used to talk a lot. Uh it's the
Unicorn because the owner is also himself a musician.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Uh loves the business.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
It's set up as a church, so they don't have
you know, a lot of the hassles. Tomball really wants
it there, so so they're helpful to them. There's really
nothing else out in that area. But that place works
because the owner, who's a relatively young guy, he's ten years.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Older than when we were last talking, but because he
is so hands on.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
If they brought in enough that you know, there's hardly
any meat on that bone to make any money, and
he doesn't care.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
That's why that place.
Speaker 8 (08:20):
Was can actually break your ball.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
The Michael Berry Show.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
We will be talking to several folks three to be exact,
maybe four this week regarding the Texas legislative session that
just concluded.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Luke Macys will be our guest in the next segment.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Luke is one of the guys who follows the session
day by day, Brandon Walton's with Texas Scorecard and also
Michael quinn Sullivan with Texas Scorecard to get their thoughts
on what passed and what didn't and why we're talking
about concepts that you wish would come to town or
that you wish would come back to town. The Dean
(09:07):
Gos Dinner Theater is a fan favorite. I never got
to go. I came to Houston in eighty nine, my
wife and I got married and we paid for it ourselves.
We didn't want her father in India or my parents
to have to pay for it, so we kept it
pretty simple. We didn't have all the things that add
(09:27):
up the big rehearsal dinner and all that. But everybody
came in. Her family came in from around the country,
Chicago and New Jersey primarily, and so we only had
twenty people at the wedding, but ten or twelve them
were from her side to come in. So the evening
before her aunt, who had kind of taken us under
her wing. She was a psychiatrist, she was married to
(09:48):
a Internish doctor, and she said, do you all have
dinner planned? And AA said no, it wasn't really in
the budget, and she was just going to make something.
Ant said no, no, no, to Michael to pick a place
and we'll take you all and it should be nice.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
I didn't know what was nice. It was nineteen ninety two.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
And I'd only been in town for three years and
I was a student, So I picked something very nice. Ramon,
at least I thought the old San Francisco Steakhouse. That
is correct, that phones ran the old San Francisco Steakhouse
out on West Timer.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
I don't know what's there now, but that's where we went.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
And the bread, you know, the old steakhouses would always
have real buttery bread on the table when you got there.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
I missed that.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Even Hofbrow had that, and it had to grow on
the swing the whole time.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Those were good times.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
All right.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
What concept would you like to see come to town
or come back to town?
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Melissa yet you're up?
Speaker 8 (10:53):
Hello?
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Yeah?
Speaker 6 (10:55):
Okay?
Speaker 9 (10:55):
How about belly dancing and whirling dervish?
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Yeah? You know, is there one that you're thinking of?
Speaker 4 (11:05):
Ye?
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Like it?
Speaker 3 (11:07):
Well?
Speaker 9 (11:08):
I lived in Cairo for six years and it was
super cheesy, but anytime we had visits, had to go
do the belly dancing and really nervous show. And I
think it kind of fits into the whole culture right
now because half the times we kind of thought that
the belly dancers were cross dressers, you know, like drag queens.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Yeah. There, What were you doing in Cairo?
Speaker 9 (11:36):
I was a trailing spouse. My husband worked for a
patch oil and gas.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
How'd you like that?
Speaker 4 (11:44):
Oh?
Speaker 9 (11:45):
It was amazing, amazing. I went, I did not want
to go. I went kicking and screaming and wow, what
an adventure.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
What years did you did? He worked for a patchy
that you were with him?
Speaker 9 (12:00):
It was we went there in O two and then
stay for six years. So just before the upriving.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
So I used to live across the street from a
fellow in Paul Bragg, who was the CEO of Apache,
and I lived in West u in a tear down that.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
I had gotten on a deal.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
And everybody in the neighborhood thought that I'd buy it
and tear it down, but I couldn't afford to tear
it down. We lived there. It was uninhabitable, it was awful.
But Paul Bragg was He kept himself, didn't bother anybody.
I probably shouldn't tell this, but he was married to
the hottest woman, kind of dark skinned, brown hair.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
I forget her name.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
And in the five years we lived there, that woman
never smiled. Now, come to find out, they were going
to be getting a divorced soon. So maybe he didn't
like that she never smiled, or maybe she never smiled
because she wasn't happy at home. But I have never
because I would flirt with her or try so. I'd
go out for my job and she'd be on her job.
Hey and hm and I used to think that poor bastard,
(13:08):
he's got a tough job at home and then he's
got to come home and his hot little wife not
not ever smile. That can't be pleasant. Phil, you're on
the Michael Berry Show. What concept it's called?
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Meet and three? They're popular like Ville. I lived in Nashville.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Yes, I've eating it. My friend and Endham took me
there in Nashville. That's a fantastic like a cafeteria style,
the old style your plate has Yeah, yes, I'll do that.
Speaker 6 (13:34):
Say they'll have maybe three different meats to offer and
then about maybe eight or eight to ten vegetables.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
It's a flat rate. You pick one meat and three vegetables.
You're in and out.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Yes, great, Yeah, So he was the CEO of UR.
He was the Eddie Martinez of our Houston office. Used
to mean of our Nashville office. Used to be the
number two, the director of sales at at our Houston office.
But what I'm hearing from a lot of people is
is in emails is cafeteria style. People want some concept
(14:04):
of the cafeterias brought back. Uh and and I have
a friend who eats it at Rachel Palmer Hooper who
eats it at cleeburnd a lot. That's where she takes
her parents. But that is to me what a cafeteria
should be. Big heapen portions, the owner down there at
the end, good Greek fella, the owner down at the end,
(14:27):
and everything coming out of the bowls.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
You know, these big portions. That's what a That's what
a cafeteria should be.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
There used to be one over on the east side,
like on way side where just past the under, just
just where it went under, and I think it was
called Dinner Bell. I don't know if that's still there
or not. Chuck, what concept.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
Rudy's Rudy's barbs.
Speaker 7 (14:51):
Right across from uh from Tony's back in the.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
I know what Tony's was. I guess that's probably where
Cafe Annie is now.
Speaker 7 (15:04):
It was in that center. But if Cafe Annie was
on the end cap and came later, But Rudy's was
there before, and it was more in the center of
that center, and it had a great food. Wasn't as
good as Tony's, but it was close and it had
a bar that had a trio or a combo in it.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Oh wow, you know, I shouldn't mention Foo odds because
I don't want anybody to go in there, so it's
kept it from me. We need a place like I
think people have changed the idea of a place that
a couple would go to, and people their desires changed dramatically.
Unlike the United States, Congress is not continuously more or
(15:46):
less in session. It doesn't even meet every year. It
meets by annially for one hundred and fifty days every
other year in odd numbered years. If something doesn't get done,
you're going to have to wait two years for it
to be accomplished, if at all. Now the governor can
(16:08):
call a special session, and they will do that for
a specific issue. But by and large, whatever you were
promised and haven't received yet, you're not going to get.
Luke Macius is our guest. I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly.
He has a blog, a show. He follows the legislature
very closely, and I read most of what he writes,
(16:30):
and he's got I think we're somewhat aligned on what
we would like to see out of Texas State government.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Luke, welcome to the program, sir, Thank you, Michael, thanks
for having me on So let's talk about this particular session.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Organically, start to finish one of the and I have
a series of questions, and then I'll open it up
to you to what I don't ask. Obviously, I was
frustrated with the election of Dustin Burroughs. We may to
bounce Daide Feeling so drunk day's out of power, but
basically we replaced him with what I would argue is
someone who's still cutting a deal with the Democrats to
(17:08):
get the power.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Your thoughts, I think that's accurate.
Speaker 8 (17:12):
I think the start of the session was definitely frustrating,
with a small group of Republicans teaming up with Democrats
to keep the power, and ultimately a lot of the
people that did that were people that had power under
Dad Feeling. Now, it is worth acknowledging that a significant
amount of the leadership team of DAID were defeated in
their primaries, so you had at least a sum reorganization
(17:36):
that needed to happen based on the fact that a
lot of the more liberal Republican chairmen were defeated by
very conservative people coming into reform. But you're correct, the
start of the session felt like deja vu. We're starting
out with the same problems that Straus, Bond and Dade had.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
Yeah, and I would argue that Burrows was just Dade
feeling two point zero. Was there much difference that you saw?
I mean, maybe he wasn't drunk all the time, but well.
Speaker 8 (18:04):
Yeah, so I can't speak to the alcohol consumption, but
what I can speak to is the fact that he was.
The difficulty in comparison comparing session to session is that
the actual chamber, the Texas House of Representatives, was so
substantially more conservative. You had what I would argue is
(18:25):
a twenty to twenty five point or seat swing in
the legislature. So there are eighty six Republicans last session,
there were eighty eight this session, and of the eighty eight,
there were twenty five more conservatives in the caucus, which
took the consistent.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Conservative voting block.
Speaker 8 (18:42):
Just as a quick example, if a conservative had an
idea to make a bill more conservative in sessions past,
he might get fifteen to twenty votes on any given amendment,
and this session those individuals were easily getting forty or
fifty votes. So forty or fifty of the eighty eight
Republicans were consistently voting to push things in a right direction,
(19:03):
which then just kind of has a snowball effect in
the legislature. So we did accomplish a lot more big picture.
I think a lot of that was just due to
the fact that the Texas House was so much more conservative,
even if the leadership still was more loyal to Democrats
than what we would have had if we had had
somebody like David Cook who was elected in the Republican Caucus.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
What was drunk Dade's role behind the scenes, How much
influence did he have, What was his body language?
Speaker 2 (19:31):
What was how involved he was completely I mean he
was honestly completely absent, And I'll give you an example.
Speaker 8 (19:40):
So first of all, you almost never saw him on
the floor ever, His committee met very little. His office
was hardly ever open. He officed just below the chamber.
In fact, what's funny is his surface pro he could
vote from his office. So one of the reasons people
realized that he wasn't on the floor a lot is
he because it works based on geography. So because it's
(20:02):
right underneath the floor, the surface provo still thought he
was on the floor, so he could actually vote from
his office.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
And I heard from.
Speaker 8 (20:11):
Even business lobbyists about how his office was hardly ever available,
he wasn't there to meet. He was chairing a rather
powerful committee. So Dade seemed to check out a little
bit when he lost his power. He thought two days
before the caucus met he was still going to be
speaker and kind of had the wake up when everyone
(20:31):
realized he didn't have a path, and so I don't
think he adjusted very well to that.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
He really was not active.
Speaker 8 (20:38):
He had a couple of those bills, as you mentioned,
the meme criminalization bill, which I don't even think Dan
Patrick sent to a committee. I think he even just
killed it on his desk. He didn't even refer it.
So the Senate never even took that bill seriously. But
he did have his bill to criminalize memes that depict politicians,
and other than that, he was pretty absent.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
I was flattered because there were a number of articles
that were written that said that that was directed at
me and you know, I mean spell my name, you know,
the old pt Barnum line. Obviously, jen Wu elected the
leader of the Democrat Caucus, wielding more power I think
than most.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Democrat leaders over the years.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
I understand people hate him, but even worse, he's far
more effective than typical Democrat leaders. How influential did you
since they were the Democrats in crafting what was going on,
because it looked to me like they, at a minimum
had the ability to sandbag anything that the Senate Republicans
wanted done, and probably.
Speaker 8 (21:43):
More so early on, they had more influence. And what
they also influenced heavily was the watering down of certain bills. Ultimately,
and I'll give the grassroots credit for this before I
say what I think happened, but recognized that because you
(22:04):
and so many people across Texas actually are talking about
the Texas House, when they cut the deal with Democrats,
they did so in a public way. They've never done that,
and so the average Texan was way more upset about
the Texas House than they had ever been. And what
I think that ultimately set up was that the House
knew they needed to give some major wins to Republicans
(22:25):
that had not been given to Republicans in the past,
and so where it looked like Jean wu was winning
in some respect, the House would water substantially down certain
major Republican bills, like the China Land Bill, the Parental
Bill of Rights that was going to get rid of
sex and gender theory and classrooms, you know, the thing
that was going to work on peorn in school libraries.
(22:47):
But what ultimately happened at the end in many of
those instances was that when the Senate went to conference,
the House basically let them restore the bills back to
exactly what Republicans wanted. And so that's why it was
just a couple of days ago. Jean Wu actually told
the Texas Observer that he felt like the Texas House
got rolled this session, and I would disagree with him
(23:07):
to some extent, because I think there were some conservative
policies they definitely killed. But in the last thirty days,
the House acquiesced to the Senate on more than a
number of occasions, and it gave Republicans some pretty substantial
wins that date. We the wins that we've criticized date
feeling for killing r So.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Just a moment. Luke mas is our guest.
Speaker 10 (23:27):
You can find him at lukemacus dot com.
Speaker 11 (23:37):
E Mary, you are more to Ring the King's English.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Luke not and listened to an opening of one of
his podcasts during the break so that I could be
sure I was getting it right.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
So it's Luke m Acias. You can find him at
lukemcius dot com. He does a blog and he has
a podcast.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
I try to triangulate information from various sources, including liberals, democrats,
liberal media, as well as folks who I think are
probably far more aligned with me than the other folks,
to get a sense of what's going on, for instance,
in the state legislature, because I will confess I don't
spend as much time on the day to day as
(24:30):
people like Luke Macius does, so he's one of the
sources that I look to for what the heck is
going on.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
Luke, you in a I guess it's June eleventh.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
You put up a post session overview the good Let's
talk about some of the things that came out of
this session, not just the House, but the House, the Senate,
and the governor has or you expect will sign.
Speaker 8 (24:55):
So I think the top positive aspects, if I'm going
to go give people a big picture view, is the
Republican Party of Texas had eight legislative priorities at the
beginning of the session. Okay, when it came to I'm
gonna the most positive parts were the China land ban,
and again all of our conservative Republicans fought to make
sure that it was a real band that ultimately passed,
(25:18):
because they tried multiple times to open up a bunch
of loopholes where Chinese nationals could still buy land. But
I think the version of that that passing got signed
by Governor Rabbit is a very strong, if not the
strongest in the nation. When it comes to stop sexualizing
Texas children. There were a number of bills that passed,
probably eight, nine or ten that were all pretty substantive,
but the most substantive one was SB twelve, the Parental
(25:39):
Bill of Rights. Do you remember when there was all
the protests and riots in Florida over what the left
called don't Say Gay that Ron Desanta's passed. Texas passed
a version of that that is even better. So that
version stopped at sixth grade. This version goes all the
way through high school. It says no gender identity, no
(25:59):
sexual orientation, no diversity, no equity, no inclusion. All DEI
and SOGI policies are out. And we actually had this.
I mean, the Democrats all got up because one of
the things that the Senate insisted on the House tried
to keep it out, but the Senate insistent on it
was language that said no gender sexuality clubs. We have
gender and sexuality clubs on forty six percent of school
(26:21):
campuses in Texas public school campuses. They start as early
as second grade, and when that ban came to the floor,
the language was in it. The Democrats ended up giving
three hours of speeches where most of them shared stories
about how they the reason they were a pan sexual
or a bisexual, or a lesbian or whatever they were
as they identify. They talked about how the clubs that
(26:43):
they attended in middle school and high school were formative
to their experimentation and their sexual orientation. So what we
really found out was that the ban that the Senate
fought very hard to keep in ended up being really
important to that bill. But it also says that your
kid's not going to get sex education at school unless
you opt them into that program instead of having to
go opt out. So there's many different aspects. Basically, teachers
(27:06):
can't talk about sex and gender to students. Teach them
how to read, teach them how to multiply. You're not
even doing a good job of that, So just do
that and don't talk about it.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
SB twelve.
Speaker 8 (27:15):
SB seventeen is the China land ban. There were a
number of grid protection policies that passed. When it comes
to election integrity, there were a number of good policies
that pass. What I say is when it came to
stop sexualizing kids, they probably passed eighty percent of the
bills we wanted to pass. Election integrity was closer to
thirty percent. The Senate passed a lot of legislation that
(27:35):
the House still killed on election integrity, but there were
three or four different bills that were able to pass
to make it make our elections slightly more secure. We
were able to pass also the two to eighty seven
G program, and I will say that in the version
that it passed very impactful and statewide. So this is
to team up with President Trump's agenda and make sure
(27:56):
that every single county in America is participating with the
government in a coordinated way with ICE. That's what the
two eighty seven G program does. We even have rural
counties in East Texas that haven't participated with ICE, that
aren't routinely running everybody they arrest and put into jail
through the ICE database to then let ICE know, oh,
we've got a detainer request.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
You can come pick this guy up.
Speaker 8 (28:19):
We have places that are Republican counties that aren't even engaged.
So this mandates that every single county in Texas, including
the blue counties, do it. It tells them that they
have to have a full time employee that's doing it,
that the state of Texas will pay for that person
in reimbursement. But you will get somebody in, you will
start coordinating with the federal government, and you will do that.
So I think that is a strong win on the
(28:40):
immigration front. Those are the good things. There are many others,
but those are some of the top good things that
I think came out of the session.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
What are some of the big issues.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
I know you had a piece on TLR Texas w
lawsuit reform, being upset with boroughs. What are some of
the issues that did not get past of note?
Speaker 8 (29:00):
So when I look at the things that didn't get
past a note, that are most obvious for Republicans.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
First, there was a bill.
Speaker 8 (29:06):
SB twenty eight eighty that the Senate passed that was
going to significantly crack down on the abortion pill. We
have about nineteen thousand numborn children that die via the
abortion pill. That are shipped in from out of state
every year, and this bill would have significantly lowered that
number from nineteen thousand. We made it much harder to
ship those abortion pills in. That passed the Senate died
in the House. There was a bill that would have
(29:27):
banned Drag Queen's Story Hour that the Senate passed as
a priority piece of legislation. That seemed like an obvious win.
Nobody likes Drag Queen Story Hour. It would have defunded
the libraries that host that. The Senate in the House
both put an additional constitutional amendment that says that if
you're not a citizen, you can't vote, which is already
in our constitution in a couple places, so it made
(29:47):
it triply illegal. But what the Senate passed in the
House killed was a bill that said that when you
register to vote, your citizenship must be verified, and that
was what the Democrats held the line on. Unfortunately died
in the Texas House. So there was a provision and
that is a very strong election integrity bill that I
think should have been an obvious wind. There was a
build a Senate pass on election integrity that said that
(30:10):
Harris County go ahead.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
So this is the issue.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
If your citizenship is not checked at the point at
which you register, once you are a registered voter and
you show up to vote, it is then never checked.
So our constitution, I know you know this, but it's
worth noting. Our constitution says you must be a United
States citizen in order to vote in Texas elections, and
everybody says, yes, that's a degree.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
We ought to do that.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
So then somebody goes to register and they're not a citizen,
they get registered, they go and vote, They effectively break
the law and there's nothing to stop them. So you
have to have some teeth in this. You have to
have a mechanism by which you actually these aren't self
enforcing laws, and I think that's important. So what we
were trying to do here was ensure that the constitutional
(31:02):
provision that you must be a citizen is protected and
a president it's not there are non citizens voting anyway,
worth noting on that.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
I just want to make sure you're absolutely right to
take back to you.
Speaker 8 (31:12):
While you and I were talking, Ken Paxson put a
pressure lease out saying that he has currently opened up
an investigation into thirty three non citizens that they've identified
the voted in the last election. I guarantee you those
are not the only thirty three, of course, to be clear,
but these are thirty three that the Secretary of State
found when it crossed, referenced just one federal database with
(31:33):
the people that voted, and they referred those to the.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
General and General Packson is on it. So you're right,
that's why we should verify it. When you register to vote,
verify citizenship.
Speaker 8 (31:42):
Does they send the past that the House killed it?
Speaker 1 (31:44):
Hold with me for just a moment. You can find
him at lutmacius dot com. There's a blog. Does a podcast.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
Will continue our conversation on what bills, what we're going
to Obviously, we're going to talk about Dan Patrick's crazy
and high hemp bill.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
I don't know it looks position on that, but we'll
talk about that more than I
Speaker 9 (32:09):
M hm
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