August 6, 2025 • 32 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
It's that time.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Time, time, time, luck and load. The Michael Vari Show
is on the air.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
I returned to this chamber tonight to report that America's
momentum is back, our spirit is back, our pride is back,
our confidence is back, and the American dream is surging
bigger and better than ever before. This will be our
(00:36):
greatest era. With God's help, over the next four years,
we are going to lead this nation even higher, and
we are going to forge the freest, most advanced, most dynamic,
and most dominant civilization ever to exist on the face
of this earth. We are going to create the highest
(00:58):
quality of life, the safest and wealthiest, and healthiest and
most vital communities anywhere in the world. We are going
to conquer the vast frontiers of science, and we're going
to lead humanity into space and plant the American flag
on the planet Mars and even far beyond.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Yavi From the governor of California is threatening to redistrict
in California, where Republicans are already woefully underrepresented given their
percentage of the state population. This is also true in Illinois,
and not to be outdone, you ready for this, Marra Healy,
(02:07):
the governor of Massachusetts says that Donald Trump and Greg
Abbott have left her with no choice. She must Jerrymander
Massachusetts to get rid of all the Republican congressmen. Massaachusetts
(02:28):
doesn't have any Republican congressman, so she uh, yeah, thank you, Mara.
Next speaker will be Jasmine Crockett, because we need someone
to bring some brain power to this conversation. Someone. So
(02:54):
the Democrats are going to fight this with everything they've got.
They fight much harder than the Republicans always have. Trump
has taught Republicans to at least appear like you're fighting,
because the voters care. Trump will fight. We've been cursed
with a bunch of John Wayne mccornyn's and their big
(03:17):
money donors. And if you want to know who the
big money donors are, go look at who supported Nicki
Haley in the primary. Did you forget that Nicki Haley
ran against Trump even last year, even in twenty twenty four.
She was on the ballot in Texas in twenty twenty four.
And by the way she raised money, she raised money
(03:38):
from Houstonians and Texans. Go look at who they are
and you'll you'll know everything of who's funding all of this,
you'll know who's funding Cornyan and always has. We've always
had a Republican who was the Washington Generals to their
Haarlem globetrotters. We have always had a Republican who was
(03:59):
the Robert the Bruce, not William Wallace, who held the
position and then chose not to do anything with it
by design, by design. So the Democrats hired are funded
Chad Done. You probably don't know who Chad Done, is
(04:21):
no reason you would. He's the general counsel for the
Texas Democrats. And after this redistricting effort, Chad Done, general
council for the Texas Democrats, went to Galveston County to
challenge their maps. Oh he's going to show them. This
is what is known as the Petaway case. You hear
(04:42):
referenced Chad Done their lawyer, and the Democrats literally fayed
in FOED. They thought they could win a case against
Galveston County's maps, which were drafted by Republicans in office
because compos versus City of Baytown has long permitted coalition
(05:07):
districts that added black and Hispanic voters to be treated
as a single legal coalition under Section two of the
voting Rights Act. In other words, you can stack these
districts based on race. But in this case times are changing.
(05:29):
The Democrats lost the Fifth Circuit on Bank, which means
that all of them together as a group, as a unit,
overturned Campos versus City of Baytown and the law of
the land as it applied on this issue. And now
the Fifth Circuit Law of the Land is that coalition
(05:52):
districts are not allowed. You can't just create a district
so that a black person will be elected. We're not
doing that anymore. During the case, Fifth Circuit Judge Edith
Jones told the Democrats and in legal circles, this line
(06:14):
is making its way around. This was a very powerful line,
she said, a bit understated, but it got through. You
are not so subtly here using race as a proxy
for partisan politics. Or read that again, you are not
(06:37):
so subtly here using race as a proxy for partisan politics.
I know you know what she said, but it's easier
for me because I'm reading it. You're having to hear it.
In other words, you think you're being real smooth. You
think we don't catch what you're doing. You aim you
(07:00):
want to represent black people. We know exactly what you're doing.
You're taking areas of black Democrats and creating districts so
that Democrats will be elected. And you're not being so
smooth about it as you think you are. You're saying, well,
(07:22):
we have to help the black people, but what you're
really saying is we have to help the Democrats. This
is a powerful statement and a powerful move. Bravo, is Jones, Bravo.
(07:42):
You are not so subtly here using race as a
proxy for partisan politics. You're not being so clever. You're
You're not hiding the fact of what you're doing. I'm
(08:05):
calling it out. When you say black, you mean democrats.
We need to make sure that blacks have more seats Democrats.
Where is the term anal intercourse on your.
Speaker 4 (08:23):
Program, Michael Berry, if it's relevant to his story for
journalistic purposes, When there is a hotly contested election, the
day to day business.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Of officeholders in those elections takes on a whole new
level of intensity and public attention, whether it be action
or inaction. This is Cornan's biggest problem is that Cornyn
has been on the outside for so long. Because Cornyn
went to DC to cut deals and enrich himself and
(09:02):
build power so Cornin doesn't have those relationships in Texas
that he can draw on, and it feels weird for
Cornyn to have an opinion on a Texas issue, So
he's kind of iced out of his own doing. I
have heard that the big money guys in DC have
(09:30):
heard on good authority that they want him out. The
polls are ugly. He's losing over twenty percentage point instituent
to Ken Paxon. Because it's a Republican primary, that makes
it more dangerous because it's a smaller group of people
(09:50):
who will vote in a primary. Off handedly, many people
will think, well, you got half the people vote in
a Republican primary, and half the people vote a Democrat primary,
and then they come back in November to make up
one hundred percent. That's not how this works. You've got
a much smaller group of people who will vote in
(10:10):
a Republican primary. Many people will vote in November who
will not vote in a Republican primary. A Republican primary
voter is more red than a November general election Republican voter.
So your country club guy, your private equity guy, your
(10:31):
guy that travels a lot, your guy that has votes
and planes and went to Dartmouth. He considers himself a Republican.
He's a Bush Republican, a Romney Republican. You want Republicans
because the Democrats will do something crazy. But some of
these Republicans say what Trump and Paxton and those guys. Boy,
(10:54):
they get out there sometimes I mean I can't. Sometimes
I'm embarrassed by some of the stuff they do. That's
this guy, right, He doesn't vote in Republican primaries. This
is the guy who votes for Corning. This is a
guy who likes a Republican who doesn't say anything that
sounds icky. Because this guy, this particular Republican, he associates
(11:19):
with a lot of Democrats. His wife is on social boards,
the disease Ball, the cancer Ball, the different dishlots of them.
And they go to events at the ri Rose Country
Club and Houston Country Club, and they they are seen
(11:40):
in public a lot at the right restaurants. They've got
their club events, they got their social events. They've got
friends at their favorite restaurants. These people, and and they
go to kind of a what are built as good
government events where they are are a lot of Democrats
(12:01):
and they really like that. They have friends who are Democrats,
and they'll kid around with their friends who are Democrats
about who's going to win or not, but it's not
they're not that passionate about it. They're not passionate about
it at all. So these sorts of people don't vote
in the spring, and Cornan struggles to get them to vote,
and that's where he's in trouble. And it's hard to
(12:25):
get people to break the pattern that they have demonstrated
over a long period of time. So if Cornan's not
going to get his voters out to vote, and he's
going to lose and Paxton's going to win, the big
money guys don't want Paxton. It's a six year term.
They cannot have Paxton there because Paxton knows who's working
(12:49):
hard against him. He's well aware. So these guys don't
want to lose. They don't want to lose their access
in Texas, and don't want to lose being able to call.
So they're working very hard to replace corn In because
corn is not a young man. He's what is he
Ramon's seventy two, I don't know. I looked it up earlier,
(13:10):
not today, but a while back. He's in his seventies
it's a six year term and you can't change who
he is. He's very stiff. He's not a good retail politician.
Seventy three. He looks like a politician. He looks like
a senator from years going by. Old white guy ties
(13:33):
his tie properly, gets his shoes shined at the downstairs
in the Capitol every day. Where's the navy suit? He
got his flag lapel. He's supported by the right guys.
He says the right things, God, Country veterans. He pleurs, unhem,
you know, whatever, whatever he needs to spout to show.
(13:54):
You know, he'd like to bring back the pledge in
the schools. Yep. He's got a couple of throwdown things
that they've used since the fifties that, you know. I
like to bring back prayer in school. I'll tell you
all what we y'all can talk about. You know, we
can talk about y'all. You asked a question about deportational
and we'll get that in a minute. We get to deportation,
close the border. The things he doesn't want to do
anything about. Let me tell you something I like. I
(14:16):
you know, I say it's all the time, I say,
I tell my staff, I told my wife. The other day,
I was speaking to a group down there, down there
and where we're at now, yeah, in that in that community. Yeah,
it was somewhere in your community. And I told him,
I said, you know, we don't able to solve any
these problems till we bring prayer back in school. What
I'm saying, kids played say the pledge of allegiance in school,
(14:37):
Like like like when when when I was in school,
you know, we're not We're not gonna be able to
solve We can talk about all these other issues, but
they're downstream to prayer in school. Pledge of allegiance. You know,
why not start to day with the pledge of allegiance?
You know, stand up, show some respect. That's how it
(14:58):
was when I was in school. Some of you y'll
probably identify with me, am I right, all right, show
respect for veterans, you know, let's bring that back. You know,
as a kid, you respected, you know, and the police
and and show respect for that too. And uh, and
balance the budget, you know, why can't we balance the
durned budget? You know you balance the budget at your house.
(15:19):
Won't we balance the budget?
Speaker 5 (15:21):
You know?
Speaker 1 (15:22):
And get people off drugs, you know, and uh, and
driving into left lane. You know, you got a lot
of people driving, and get people, you know, move down
that left lane, get that left lane where you can pass,
and then still wear in the right lane. You know
what I'm saying. And uh, and comb your hair. You know,
I think we don't have to get into all these issues.
First we've got people need to comb their hair. You know.
(15:43):
You notice that people they don't comb their hair nowadays,
you know. And and uh, and take pride in your
your appearance, you know, tuck your shirt in. You know,
let's let's go back to the days. That's what I want.
I want in America. You know, people tuck their shirt in.
You know what I'm saying, tuck your shirt and pull
your pants up. You know, and and we you know,
(16:04):
that's really what we can talk about. All emissions, you know, deportation,
all stuff people I'm wronging, Let's talk about it. That's
why I want that. You know, I pull your pants,
it'll take your shirt in.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Bring it on.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
What would you do with the brain if you had one?
Bring it on? Because there is nothing here? Michael Arry
shows most underrated Cherristmas song. Know, well, there are songs,
(16:37):
there are good songs that don't get much attention. You know,
when you when you measure the delta between how much
attention they get and how good the song is, and
then you got crying, which gets a little attention, but
it's a damn good song. You know. I was never
(16:57):
a big Aerosmith fan, but in the last few years
I have really really grown. I think I grew into them. Yeah,
I think that's fair to say, that's for sure. I
got an email from a sweet lady. I can't understand
why this woman is single, because she would make somebody
(17:19):
such a great wife. You know, certain people would find
that statement offensive. That's the highest company when I can
give anyway. So she emails me sometimes and she wrote,
I missed the Confederate House originally on sam Phillippi and Drexel,
then went to Highland Village and finally at twenty nine
(17:39):
to twenty Wesleyan originally owned by Bill and Betty Edge,
then later owned by Frankie B. Mandola and Joe but Terra.
Butterra my parents spent almost every Friday and Saturday night
there with friends. I knew the telephone number by heart
as I would call up there wanting to know when
they were coming. Home. John L was a bartender and
(18:02):
everyone knew him. I've heard of John L. And I
didn't go there by the time he was still there.
I spent many a birthday there over the years and
always ordered the saft shell crap. No fact doesn't make you.
It reads the Confederate Club. I mean the Confederate House.
I did. And I'm going to tell you something. It was.
(18:25):
It was a look into sixties seventies Houston. It was
a special man it was, and it was it was
the closest thing to New Orleans in Houston other than Brennan's,
in that the waiters had all been there a long time.
The waiters dressed very nice. It was such a smooth
(18:46):
ease to the place. And the food was so heavy,
so buttery, so savory, so tasty. Oh, and then you
did a nap afterwards. It's just you just have to
have a nap afterwards. So the woman that sent out
to me is Janejiamalva of the Gamalva family here in town.
(19:06):
And the funny thing is, when I started my real
estate company in the late nineties, Janejamalva was a legend
and I never met her, but people would tell me
you know, she'd have the big houses listed. She ran
with the right circle. Jane gam Malva was everything. So
(19:27):
the first time a few years ago I got an
email from Janejia Maalva, I thought, well, I have arrived.
Janegy of Malva has sent me an email, and now
we've become nothing else. Email Buddies our sponsor Muscle Cars
of Texas. Vinnie, his wife and their crew have renewed again.
(19:48):
They've been with us for one year. They have renewed
their sponsorship of our show, for which we are grateful.
Vinnie does these car shows down in Galveston that are
a big deal. He did the car for the woman
who was burned up in Iraq, and all she wanted
(20:08):
was this particular vehicle, and the guy told her, if
you'll survive, I'll give you mine and we'll have it redone.
And then the mortgage guy.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Gosh.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
I hate when I can't remember things because people take
it personally. If if their name is the one you
can't remember, they think that's a sign that you don't
have any respect for them. It's not that at all.
It's a frustration that I can't remember things the way
I used to could, and that drives me crazy. In
any case, we go back to the drama unfolding over
(20:41):
the the Democrats and what exactly is going on there.
You've got the Governor going to the Supreme Court, and
now you've got the Attorney General and strange bedfellows, the
Saker of the House, and they've taken their action. The
(21:04):
governor's action would remove gene Wu, who is the leader
of the Democrats, gene Wu and only jene Wu, which
feels a little odd, but I guess you're trying to,
you know, you want to fire a shot across the bow,
maybe take his ear off, not you know, the whole
(21:24):
head of the Democrat machine. It's it's an interesting choice
to go after the leader of the Democrats and only
the leader of the Democrats. I don't know how I
feel about that. Ched Nakanishi made the point, if they've
all shown a quote willful refusal, what the hell was that?
Speaker 2 (21:49):
The what?
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Oh? Okay? That was a gong Jews, the same gung y'all. Well,
I was trying to find it on my screen, but
I had printed it out here, and so between the
two I was in such deep thought. All I heard
was something in the backshund he was rating outside. So
(22:15):
so the pleading says, House Democrats have shown a willful
refusal to return, so why go after Wu? I mean,
I get it. I mean I understand. Practically speaking, you
don't want to say you're kicking all the Democrats out.
It looks more partisan, and you're claiming in there that
(22:39):
respondent Wu is the is the leader led by Respondent Wu.
But it does seem to me on a purely principal
basis that why Jane Wu. If you're going after if
you're going to expel them from the House, you're going
to take their seat away. They're all leaving. He's not
the only one. I understand, he is the face of
(23:02):
the Democrats. And then I get that. But they they've
all they're all just as gone as he is. I mean,
it's just it. It has a it has a weird,
weird thing to it. There. State Representative Brian Harrison says,
this story's being framed all wrong. Let's see if we
can get this in clip number seventeen. I don't know
(23:24):
how long it is, bus I'll set.
Speaker 5 (23:25):
Aside for a second the fact that the weak Republican
leadership in the state of Texas allowed this to happen
the fact that the Republican speaker of the Texas House
dismissed the Democrats so that they could go and break
corm Okay, let's set that aside.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
Where are we are, Where we are? I want actions.
Speaker 5 (23:40):
So like you said, number one, every week they're gone,
we redraw the maps and we add one.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
More Republican congressional seat.
Speaker 5 (23:45):
But number two short of that, hit him where it
hurts every Democrat. Reset your seniority. We have Democrats that
have been in the Texas House over fifty years. You said,
see their offices like palatial castles. Okay, around here, let
me tell you what these politicians. They care about their
real estate and their square pillage and the drakes in
those windows. Take their seniority away, drop them to the
bottom of the line.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Michael Berry, tell me about Pallunteer.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
A little while back, I didn't know much about them.
I didn't, But Wall Street Journal reports this morning Pallunteer,
a one time Silicon Valley upstart, has emerged as a
power player in Trump's second term. The company's blind shift
(24:42):
to artificial intelligence has positioned it today as a significant
player in the Trump administration. An integral tool for national
security and the most expensive stock in the S and
P five hundred. I'm not a tech guy. It's not
exactly a big revelation. Most people know that people who
(25:09):
love tech love tech. I love sports, I love bourbon,
I love food, I love good conversation with human beings,
other human beings. It is not a thing that excites me,
the possibilities of technology, the intricacies of technology. But I
(25:32):
have come to understand that technology is on a warp speed,
going to affect our lives and already is at levels
we never imagined, and to an extent, I don't think
we can imagine today. And I do think there will
be a certain amount to varying degrees based on the
(25:54):
person and the role and the action, there will be
a replacement of much of human life as we know it.
I do believe that whether that excites you or scares you,
I think it is inevitable. I think it is a
tidal wave on the way. And I decided that I
(26:20):
needed to learn more about this and understand it. And
I think that what we were entering and have entered
is an era of scale on a basis that we
never imagined. Because for most businesses, if not the greatest.
One of the greatest expenses and impediments is labor. Now
(26:46):
we can say we love people and people are great
and all that. I can tell you if you've ever
had employees, not every person is great. Many are horrible.
Employees can show up late, they can have excuses, they
can have addictions, they can have vices, they can sexually harass,
(27:09):
they can file lawsuits that are fraudulent, they can insult
your customers, they can steal. These are the realities, and
nobody wants to admit to that, but those are the
shortcomings of labor. That's not everybody that's going to do that,
but it's some and the guys sitting at the top
(27:29):
who can. We're not at the payoff stage, but we're
increasingly seeing the investment by companies in technology that purely
and simply replace these human beings to make a burger,
to order, to answer phone calls, to respond on websites
(27:54):
as a chatbot to basic questions. I hate these experiences.
I liked them at all. I'll take the worst human
being over that any day. But that is where we're heading,
and there is no doubt about it. I saw a
headline the other day that Washington DC had pushed for
(28:17):
a seventeen dollars ninety five cent minimum wage in the
district for all employees, even tipped employees. The amount that
you get paid as a tipped employee by the restaurant
has not changed since I was waiting tables thirty years ago,
and the idea was you're gonna have to pay them
(28:41):
eighteen bucks an hour even if they're getting a tip
on top of that. Well, restaurants started closing. Some restaurants
closed and moved out of the district somewhere else. It's
a pretty traumatic experience because for a restaurant, you've got
your loyal customers, some of whom, especially in the district,
(29:01):
just walked over. They lived right upstairs or next door,
or it was on their way home. Stop in and
have a couple of drinks, and you've built up a
loyal customer base. It may only be thirty to fifty
people you start over. You've got to rebuild that. People
already have their place to which they are loyal. You've
got to rebuild that whole thing. Closing a restaurant and
(29:21):
reopening elsewhere is no minor matter. Too much Fertita can
do it relatively easily, but even he doesn't want to
do it. Chris Pappas can do it, but it's a burden.
But when you're one guy, you can't do that lightly.
Policies like that have attacked companies for so long as
(29:47):
it relates to labor. The more restriction, the more regulation,
the more direction you give to companies as to how
much they will pay labor, how long they will work.
Then all the protections of the craziest person that's filed
five lawsuits against their last five bosses, by the way,
which is you get these folks who are serial sewers.
(30:08):
They sue, and then they get their judgment, and then
they go somewhere else to start to work and they
sue there. That should be a material fact in considering
the case. No, what we are doing is driving industry,
driving business away from labor, and I don't think we'll
(30:29):
ever get that back. I think a number of jobs
that we have today will not exist in three years,
and within ten years most jobs that we recognize today,
at least in major urban centers where the density makes
sense to invest in the replacement technology. I saw that
a it was like a motel, but it was part
(30:54):
of a chain, a Marriott or Hilton or one of
those reward program kind of conglomerates. We're in Florida, and
the people filmed it. They walked in to check in
and there was a big screen turned sideways, so it
wasn't wide. It was so it wasn't landscape, it was
what do you call it from a vertical. And he
(31:15):
walked up and it said push the button. You pushed
a button and some Indian guy in India with a
headset on says, oh, welcome to the place. And uh,
I know it's not how he said I but you
get the point. And so they had to check in
with the with no human being. Here, here's your code
(31:35):
to the box, here's your code to get into your room.
Here's your things. Push this button if you if you
need something. We still have a human being and legal
alien for Mexico who will come and replace your towels.
But you know, nobody at the front desk anymore. And
that has created an uproar, and it will but that's
where we'll be in five years, that's where we'll be.
(31:59):
So you would think with that in mind, if you
were concerned about what are because some people are going
to companies are going to become much more profitable. The
stock market is going to continue to rise, and people
are going to go. How is it The stock market
is going higher and higher and higher, and my life
is getting worse and worse and worse because laborers at
(32:21):
all levels of labor are going to increasingly not be
part of the of the profit and loss of companies.
It's that time.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Time, time, time, luck and load. The Michael Vari Show
is on the air.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
I returned to this chamber tonight to report that America's
momentum is back, our spirit is back, our pride is back,
our confidence is back, and the American dream is surging
bigger and better than ever before. This will be our
(00:36):
greatest era. With God's help, over the next four years,
we are going to lead this nation even higher, and
we are going to forge the freest, most advanced, most dynamic,
and most dominant civilization ever to exist on the face
of this earth. We are going to create the highest
(00:58):
quality of life, the safest and wealthiest, and healthiest and
most vital communities anywhere in the world. We are going
to conquer the vast frontiers of science, and we're going
to lead humanity into space and plant the American flag
on the planet Mars and even far beyond.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Yavi From the governor of California is threatening to redistrict
in California, where Republicans are already woefully underrepresented given their
percentage of the state population. This is also true in Illinois,
and not to be outdone, you ready for this, Marra Healy,
(02:07):
the governor of Massachusetts says that Donald Trump and Greg
Abbott have left her with no choice. She must Jerrymander
Massachusetts to get rid of all the Republican congressmen. Massaachusetts
(02:28):
doesn't have any Republican congressman, so she uh, yeah, thank you, Mara.
Next speaker will be Jasmine Crockett, because we need someone
to bring some brain power to this conversation. Someone. So
(02:54):
the Democrats are going to fight this with everything they've got.
They fight much harder than the Republicans always have. Trump
has taught Republicans to at least appear like you're fighting,
because the voters care. Trump will fight. We've been cursed
with a bunch of John Wayne mccornyn's and their big
(03:17):
money donors. And if you want to know who the
big money donors are, go look at who supported Nicki
Haley in the primary. Did you forget that Nicki Haley
ran against Trump even last year, even in twenty twenty four.
She was on the ballot in Texas in twenty twenty four.
And by the way she raised money, she raised money
(03:38):
from Houstonians and Texans. Go look at who they are
and you'll you'll know everything of who's funding all of this,
you'll know who's funding Cornyan and always has. We've always
had a Republican who was the Washington Generals to their
Haarlem globetrotters. We have always had a Republican who was
(03:59):
the Robert the Bruce, not William Wallace, who held the
position and then chose not to do anything with it
by design, by design. So the Democrats hired are funded
Chad Done. You probably don't know who Chad Done, is
(04:21):
no reason you would. He's the general counsel for the
Texas Democrats. And after this redistricting effort, Chad Done, general
council for the Texas Democrats, went to Galveston County to
challenge their maps. Oh he's going to show them. This
is what is known as the Petaway case. You hear
(04:42):
referenced Chad Done their lawyer, and the Democrats literally fayed
in FOED. They thought they could win a case against
Galveston County's maps, which were drafted by Republicans in office
because compos versus City of Baytown has long permitted coalition
(05:07):
districts that added black and Hispanic voters to be treated
as a single legal coalition under Section two of the
voting Rights Act. In other words, you can stack these
districts based on race. But in this case times are changing.
(05:29):
The Democrats lost the Fifth Circuit on Bank, which means
that all of them together as a group, as a unit,
overturned Campos versus City of Baytown and the law of
the land as it applied on this issue. And now
the Fifth Circuit Law of the Land is that coalition
(05:52):
districts are not allowed. You can't just create a district
so that a black person will be elected. We're not
doing that anymore. During the case, Fifth Circuit Judge Edith
Jones told the Democrats and in legal circles, this line
(06:14):
is making its way around. This was a very powerful line,
she said, a bit understated, but it got through. You
are not so subtly here using race as a proxy
for partisan politics. Or read that again, you are not
(06:37):
so subtly here using race as a proxy for partisan politics.
I know you know what she said, but it's easier
for me because I'm reading it. You're having to hear it.
In other words, you think you're being real smooth. You
think we don't catch what you're doing. You aim you
(07:00):
want to represent black people. We know exactly what you're doing.
You're taking areas of black Democrats and creating districts so
that Democrats will be elected. And you're not being so
smooth about it as you think you are. You're saying, well,
(07:22):
we have to help the black people, but what you're
really saying is we have to help the Democrats. This
is a powerful statement and a powerful move. Bravo, is Jones, Bravo.
(07:42):
You are not so subtly here using race as a
proxy for partisan politics. You're not being so clever. You're
You're not hiding the fact of what you're doing. I'm
(08:05):
calling it out. When you say black, you mean democrats.
We need to make sure that blacks have more seats Democrats.
Where is the term anal intercourse on your.
Speaker 4 (08:23):
Program, Michael Berry, if it's relevant to his story for
journalistic purposes, When there is a hotly contested election, the
day to day business.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Of officeholders in those elections takes on a whole new
level of intensity and public attention, whether it be action
or inaction. This is Cornan's biggest problem is that Cornyn
has been on the outside for so long. Because Cornyn
went to DC to cut deals and enrich himself and
(09:02):
build power so Cornin doesn't have those relationships in Texas
that he can draw on, and it feels weird for
Cornyn to have an opinion on a Texas issue, So
he's kind of iced out of his own doing. I
have heard that the big money guys in DC have
(09:30):
heard on good authority that they want him out. The
polls are ugly. He's losing over twenty percentage point instituent
to Ken Paxon. Because it's a Republican primary, that makes
it more dangerous because it's a smaller group of people
(09:50):
who will vote in a primary. Off handedly, many people
will think, well, you got half the people vote in
a Republican primary, and half the people vote a Democrat primary,
and then they come back in November to make up
one hundred percent. That's not how this works. You've got
a much smaller group of people who will vote in
(10:10):
a Republican primary. Many people will vote in November who
will not vote in a Republican primary. A Republican primary
voter is more red than a November general election Republican voter.
So your country club guy, your private equity guy, your
(10:31):
guy that travels a lot, your guy that has votes
and planes and went to Dartmouth. He considers himself a Republican.
He's a Bush Republican, a Romney Republican. You want Republicans
because the Democrats will do something crazy. But some of
these Republicans say what Trump and Paxton and those guys. Boy,
(10:54):
they get out there sometimes I mean I can't. Sometimes
I'm embarrassed by some of the stuff they do. That's
this guy, right, He doesn't vote in Republican primaries. This
is the guy who votes for Corning. This is a
guy who likes a Republican who doesn't say anything that
sounds icky. Because this guy, this particular Republican, he associates
(11:19):
with a lot of Democrats. His wife is on social boards,
the disease Ball, the cancer Ball, the different dishlots of them.
And they go to events at the ri Rose Country
Club and Houston Country Club, and they they are seen
(11:40):
in public a lot at the right restaurants. They've got
their club events, they got their social events. They've got
friends at their favorite restaurants. These people, and and they
go to kind of a what are built as good
government events where they are are a lot of Democrats
(12:01):
and they really like that. They have friends who are Democrats,
and they'll kid around with their friends who are Democrats
about who's going to win or not, but it's not
they're not that passionate about it. They're not passionate about
it at all. So these sorts of people don't vote
in the spring, and Cornan struggles to get them to vote,
and that's where he's in trouble. And it's hard to
(12:25):
get people to break the pattern that they have demonstrated
over a long period of time. So if Cornan's not
going to get his voters out to vote, and he's
going to lose and Paxton's going to win, the big
money guys don't want Paxton. It's a six year term.
They cannot have Paxton there because Paxton knows who's working
(12:49):
hard against him. He's well aware. So these guys don't
want to lose. They don't want to lose their access
in Texas, and don't want to lose being able to call.
So they're working very hard to replace corn In because
corn is not a young man. He's what is he
Ramon's seventy two, I don't know. I looked it up earlier,
(13:10):
not today, but a while back. He's in his seventies
it's a six year term and you can't change who
he is. He's very stiff. He's not a good retail politician.
Seventy three. He looks like a politician. He looks like
a senator from years going by. Old white guy ties
(13:33):
his tie properly, gets his shoes shined at the downstairs
in the Capitol every day. Where's the navy suit? He
got his flag lapel. He's supported by the right guys.
He says the right things, God, Country veterans. He pleurs, unhem,
you know, whatever, whatever he needs to spout to show.
(13:54):
You know, he'd like to bring back the pledge in
the schools. Yep. He's got a couple of throwdown things
that they've used since the fifties that, you know. I
like to bring back prayer in school. I'll tell you
all what we y'all can talk about. You know, we
can talk about y'all. You asked a question about deportational
and we'll get that in a minute. We get to deportation,
close the border. The things he doesn't want to do
anything about. Let me tell you something I like. I
(14:16):
you know, I say it's all the time, I say,
I tell my staff, I told my wife. The other day,
I was speaking to a group down there, down there
and where we're at now, yeah, in that in that community. Yeah,
it was somewhere in your community. And I told him,
I said, you know, we don't able to solve any
these problems till we bring prayer back in school. What
I'm saying, kids played say the pledge of allegiance in school,
(14:37):
Like like like when when when I was in school,
you know, we're not We're not gonna be able to
solve We can talk about all these other issues, but
they're downstream to prayer in school. Pledge of allegiance. You know,
why not start to day with the pledge of allegiance?
You know, stand up, show some respect. That's how it
(14:58):
was when I was in school. Some of you y'll
probably identify with me, am I right, all right, show
respect for veterans, you know, let's bring that back. You know,
as a kid, you respected, you know, and the police
and and show respect for that too. And uh, and
balance the budget, you know, why can't we balance the
durned budget? You know you balance the budget at your house.
(15:19):
Won't we balance the budget?
Speaker 5 (15:21):
You know?
Speaker 1 (15:22):
And get people off drugs, you know, and uh, and
driving into left lane. You know, you got a lot
of people driving, and get people, you know, move down
that left lane, get that left lane where you can pass,
and then still wear in the right lane. You know
what I'm saying. And uh, and comb your hair. You know,
I think we don't have to get into all these issues.
First we've got people need to comb their hair. You know.
(15:43):
You notice that people they don't comb their hair nowadays,
you know. And and uh, and take pride in your
your appearance, you know, tuck your shirt in. You know,
let's let's go back to the days. That's what I want.
I want in America. You know, people tuck their shirt in.
You know what I'm saying, tuck your shirt and pull
your pants up. You know, and and we you know,
(16:04):
that's really what we can talk about. All emissions, you know, deportation,
all stuff people I'm wronging, Let's talk about it. That's
why I want that. You know, I pull your pants,
it'll take your shirt in.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Bring it on.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
What would you do with the brain if you had one?
Bring it on? Because there is nothing here? Michael Arry
shows most underrated Cherristmas song. Know, well, there are songs,
(16:37):
there are good songs that don't get much attention. You know,
when you when you measure the delta between how much
attention they get and how good the song is, and
then you got crying, which gets a little attention, but
it's a damn good song. You know. I was never
(16:57):
a big Aerosmith fan, but in the last few years
I have really really grown. I think I grew into them. Yeah,
I think that's fair to say, that's for sure. I
got an email from a sweet lady. I can't understand
why this woman is single, because she would make somebody
(17:19):
such a great wife. You know, certain people would find
that statement offensive. That's the highest company when I can
give anyway. So she emails me sometimes and she wrote,
I missed the Confederate House originally on sam Phillippi and Drexel,
then went to Highland Village and finally at twenty nine
(17:39):
to twenty Wesleyan originally owned by Bill and Betty Edge,
then later owned by Frankie B. Mandola and Joe but Terra.
Butterra my parents spent almost every Friday and Saturday night
there with friends. I knew the telephone number by heart
as I would call up there wanting to know when
they were coming. Home. John L was a bartender and
(18:02):
everyone knew him. I've heard of John L. And I
didn't go there by the time he was still there.
I spent many a birthday there over the years and
always ordered the saft shell crap. No fact doesn't make you.
It reads the Confederate Club. I mean the Confederate House.
I did. And I'm going to tell you something. It was.
(18:25):
It was a look into sixties seventies Houston. It was
a special man it was, and it was it was
the closest thing to New Orleans in Houston other than Brennan's,
in that the waiters had all been there a long time.
The waiters dressed very nice. It was such a smooth
(18:46):
ease to the place. And the food was so heavy,
so buttery, so savory, so tasty. Oh, and then you
did a nap afterwards. It's just you just have to
have a nap afterwards. So the woman that sent out
to me is Janejiamalva of the Gamalva family here in town.
(19:06):
And the funny thing is, when I started my real
estate company in the late nineties, Janejamalva was a legend
and I never met her, but people would tell me
you know, she'd have the big houses listed. She ran
with the right circle. Jane gam Malva was everything. So
(19:27):
the first time a few years ago I got an
email from Janejia Maalva, I thought, well, I have arrived.
Janegy of Malva has sent me an email, and now
we've become nothing else. Email Buddies our sponsor Muscle Cars
of Texas. Vinnie, his wife and their crew have renewed again.
(19:48):
They've been with us for one year. They have renewed
their sponsorship of our show, for which we are grateful.
Vinnie does these car shows down in Galveston that are
a big deal. He did the car for the woman
who was burned up in Iraq, and all she wanted
(20:08):
was this particular vehicle, and the guy told her, if
you'll survive, I'll give you mine and we'll have it redone.
And then the mortgage guy.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Gosh.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
I hate when I can't remember things because people take
it personally. If if their name is the one you
can't remember, they think that's a sign that you don't
have any respect for them. It's not that at all.
It's a frustration that I can't remember things the way
I used to could, and that drives me crazy. In
any case, we go back to the drama unfolding over
(20:41):
the the Democrats and what exactly is going on there.
You've got the Governor going to the Supreme Court, and
now you've got the Attorney General and strange bedfellows, the
Saker of the House, and they've taken their action. The
(21:04):
governor's action would remove gene Wu, who is the leader
of the Democrats, gene Wu and only jene Wu, which
feels a little odd, but I guess you're trying to,
you know, you want to fire a shot across the bow,
maybe take his ear off, not you know, the whole
(21:24):
head of the Democrat machine. It's it's an interesting choice
to go after the leader of the Democrats and only
the leader of the Democrats. I don't know how I
feel about that. Ched Nakanishi made the point, if they've
all shown a quote willful refusal, what the hell was that?
Speaker 2 (21:49):
The what?
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Oh? Okay? That was a gong Jews, the same gung y'all. Well,
I was trying to find it on my screen, but
I had printed it out here, and so between the
two I was in such deep thought. All I heard
was something in the backshund he was rating outside. So
(22:15):
so the pleading says, House Democrats have shown a willful
refusal to return, so why go after Wu? I mean,
I get it. I mean I understand. Practically speaking, you
don't want to say you're kicking all the Democrats out.
It looks more partisan, and you're claiming in there that
(22:39):
respondent Wu is the is the leader led by Respondent Wu.
But it does seem to me on a purely principal
basis that why Jane Wu. If you're going after if
you're going to expel them from the House, you're going
to take their seat away. They're all leaving. He's not
the only one. I understand, he is the face of
(23:02):
the Democrats. And then I get that. But they they've
all they're all just as gone as he is. I mean,
it's just it. It has a it has a weird,
weird thing to it. There. State Representative Brian Harrison says,
this story's being framed all wrong. Let's see if we
can get this in clip number seventeen. I don't know
(23:24):
how long it is, bus I'll set.
Speaker 5 (23:25):
Aside for a second the fact that the weak Republican
leadership in the state of Texas allowed this to happen
the fact that the Republican speaker of the Texas House
dismissed the Democrats so that they could go and break
corm Okay, let's set that aside.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
Where are we are, Where we are? I want actions.
Speaker 5 (23:40):
So like you said, number one, every week they're gone,
we redraw the maps and we add one.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
More Republican congressional seat.
Speaker 5 (23:45):
But number two short of that, hit him where it
hurts every Democrat. Reset your seniority. We have Democrats that
have been in the Texas House over fifty years. You said,
see their offices like palatial castles. Okay, around here, let
me tell you what these politicians. They care about their
real estate and their square pillage and the drakes in
those windows. Take their seniority away, drop them to the
bottom of the line.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Michael Berry, tell me about Pallunteer.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
A little while back, I didn't know much about them.
I didn't, But Wall Street Journal reports this morning Pallunteer,
a one time Silicon Valley upstart, has emerged as a
power player in Trump's second term. The company's blind shift
(24:42):
to artificial intelligence has positioned it today as a significant
player in the Trump administration. An integral tool for national
security and the most expensive stock in the S and
P five hundred. I'm not a tech guy. It's not
exactly a big revelation. Most people know that people who
(25:09):
love tech love tech. I love sports, I love bourbon,
I love food, I love good conversation with human beings,
other human beings. It is not a thing that excites me,
the possibilities of technology, the intricacies of technology. But I
(25:32):
have come to understand that technology is on a warp speed,
going to affect our lives and already is at levels
we never imagined, and to an extent, I don't think
we can imagine today. And I do think there will
be a certain amount to varying degrees based on the
(25:54):
person and the role and the action, there will be
a replacement of much of human life as we know it.
I do believe that whether that excites you or scares you,
I think it is inevitable. I think it is a
tidal wave on the way. And I decided that I
(26:20):
needed to learn more about this and understand it. And
I think that what we were entering and have entered
is an era of scale on a basis that we
never imagined. Because for most businesses, if not the greatest.
One of the greatest expenses and impediments is labor. Now
(26:46):
we can say we love people and people are great
and all that. I can tell you if you've ever
had employees, not every person is great. Many are horrible.
Employees can show up late, they can have excuses, they
can have addictions, they can have vices, they can sexually harass,
(27:09):
they can file lawsuits that are fraudulent, they can insult
your customers, they can steal. These are the realities, and
nobody wants to admit to that, but those are the
shortcomings of labor. That's not everybody that's going to do that,
but it's some and the guys sitting at the top
(27:29):
who can. We're not at the payoff stage, but we're
increasingly seeing the investment by companies in technology that purely
and simply replace these human beings to make a burger,
to order, to answer phone calls, to respond on websites
(27:54):
as a chatbot to basic questions. I hate these experiences.
I liked them at all. I'll take the worst human
being over that any day. But that is where we're heading,
and there is no doubt about it. I saw a
headline the other day that Washington DC had pushed for
(28:17):
a seventeen dollars ninety five cent minimum wage in the
district for all employees, even tipped employees. The amount that
you get paid as a tipped employee by the restaurant
has not changed since I was waiting tables thirty years ago,
and the idea was you're gonna have to pay them
(28:41):
eighteen bucks an hour even if they're getting a tip
on top of that. Well, restaurants started closing. Some restaurants
closed and moved out of the district somewhere else. It's
a pretty traumatic experience because for a restaurant, you've got
your loyal customers, some of whom, especially in the district,
(29:01):
just walked over. They lived right upstairs or next door,
or it was on their way home. Stop in and
have a couple of drinks, and you've built up a
loyal customer base. It may only be thirty to fifty
people you start over. You've got to rebuild that. People
already have their place to which they are loyal. You've
got to rebuild that whole thing. Closing a restaurant and
(29:21):
reopening elsewhere is no minor matter. Too much Fertita can
do it relatively easily, but even he doesn't want to
do it. Chris Pappas can do it, but it's a burden.
But when you're one guy, you can't do that lightly.
Policies like that have attacked companies for so long as
(29:47):
it relates to labor. The more restriction, the more regulation,
the more direction you give to companies as to how
much they will pay labor, how long they will work.
Then all the protections of the craziest person that's filed
five lawsuits against their last five bosses, by the way,
which is you get these folks who are serial sewers.
(30:08):
They sue, and then they get their judgment, and then
they go somewhere else to start to work and they
sue there. That should be a material fact in considering
the case. No, what we are doing is driving industry,
driving business away from labor, and I don't think we'll
(30:29):
ever get that back. I think a number of jobs
that we have today will not exist in three years,
and within ten years most jobs that we recognize today,
at least in major urban centers where the density makes
sense to invest in the replacement technology. I saw that
a it was like a motel, but it was part
(30:54):
of a chain, a Marriott or Hilton or one of
those reward program kind of conglomerates. We're in Florida, and
the people filmed it. They walked in to check in
and there was a big screen turned sideways, so it
wasn't wide. It was so it wasn't landscape, it was
what do you call it from a vertical. And he
(31:15):
walked up and it said push the button. You pushed
a button and some Indian guy in India with a
headset on says, oh, welcome to the place. And uh,
I know it's not how he said I but you
get the point. And so they had to check in
with the with no human being. Here, here's your code
(31:35):
to the box, here's your code to get into your room.
Here's your things. Push this button if you if you
need something. We still have a human being and legal
alien for Mexico who will come and replace your towels.
But you know, nobody at the front desk anymore. And
that has created an uproar, and it will but that's
where we'll be in five years, that's where we'll be.
(31:59):
So you would think with that in mind, if you
were concerned about what are because some people are going
to companies are going to become much more profitable. The
stock market is going to continue to rise, and people
are going to go. How is it The stock market
is going higher and higher and higher, and my life
is getting worse and worse and worse because laborers at
(32:21):
all levels of labor are going to increasingly not be
part of the of the profit and loss of companies.
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