October 30, 2025 • 33 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
It's that time.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Time, time, time.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Luck and load. The Michael Verie Show is on the air.
Comers go home for weeks at a time and there's
(00:28):
no real news, and then they're back for ten minutes
and we have a crisis on our hands. These people
are like the carnival coming through town. There's a lot
of hullabaloo and noise and attention and screaming and streamers
(00:50):
and bearded ladies and come on, come on, you don't
want to miss this. You'll never see it again. It's
the greatest show on Oh it got out. None of
what they're talking about matters of not one bit of it.
Think about this. Imagine the most powerful government in the
(01:10):
history of mankind and it shuts down every few months.
I mean, look, I don't want to ruin Christmas for
any of the kids or Easter, but there comes a
point where you kind of go, wait a second. I've
been thinking on this and it doesn't really make sense
(01:33):
to me. How does our government keep shutting down because
they don't have money? Why why do they What is
a continuing resolution that lasts for a few months and
then we're back doing this again. These are questions that
are reasonable to ask you should be asking. If you
(01:58):
had a friend you had to come bail out every
three or four months, you'd say, looks the last time. Okay,
I will bail you out here, my friend. But this
is a pattern, and you're choosing a set of behaviors
that trigger a chain reaction that end up here. But
(02:18):
can't you just come get me? I'm in jail. Yeah,
you're always in jail. That's just it. That's the point.
This isn't a one off thing. It's a series of
behaviors you consistently perform that has become a pattern. And
I don't want to be part of that anymore. I
don't want I don't want that drama. You'll see women
(02:42):
who date the kind of guy their dad hates, the
bad boy, and everything they like about that guy is
everything that's going to make him the abusive boyfriend. That's
everything that's going to make him the guy she's having
to flee from when she tries to leave him. But
give her a month, she'll be back with another one,
just like that flip of the coin. The guy who's
(03:06):
dating the girl who's the former stripper, who's wild, who
comes in she's got those lips that are slapping the
wall from the other end of the room. She's got
her hair all done, she's got the boobs so far
out they'll knock you over. She's dated everybody in town.
(03:26):
You know, there's girls in town. There's girls in Houston
that when they walk in, they're very striking at first
because there's been a lot of work done in massive boobs,
and then and then they've had a lot of lightpo
and then they've had the lippuckered way. There's big duck lips,
and then there's it's it's sunken in under the eyes
(03:49):
because they've just gone in and just carved out anything
that was flesh, so the eyes are kind of bugged out.
The eyelashes are eight inches long, so they're actually fanning
you if you're in the middle of a conversation. The
hair is dyed a color that there's no way it
could have been natural when she was eight years old,
much less thirty seven. And people will say that's fill
(04:12):
in the blinks, ex wife, that's her claim to fame. Okay,
so there is a guy that will marry that woman. Well,
first he'll start dating her, and the way he will
describe it will be like is. He knows, he knows
it's dumb, but he can't help himself. Yeah, are you dating?
(04:34):
You give me a name, Ramon, Okay, you're dating Michelle.
I am. Oh my goodness, that's a wild ride. I
don't know where this thing's going to go. That's a
wild ride. I uh man, she's uh, she's something else.
I'll tell you what it's. Uh, she's done.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
So.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
You know she used to be married to you know
so and so. Yeah, Well she's been and ridding more
time than Secretariat. I mean, hup up their jockey. But
I don't know where you're getting off. I don't know.
I don't know what this ride looks like for you.
And then you know two years later, Hey, Michael, can
(05:13):
you give me a good divorce attorney? Is this for you? Yeah?
I know I know what you're gonna say. I'm not
gonna say it's just the fourth time we've done this.
I'm not gonna say it, and I won't say it
when you do it with the next one that you
see out at the bar on Thursday night and you're
with your friends, and it just it's a pattern. The
patterns tend to repeat themselves, and even people in those
(05:37):
patterns feel powerless to stop the pattern. The shutdown of
the government is a pattern. It's a game we play,
and the reason we play it is it gets everybody
focused on Congress. The important thing for you to remember
is that you have no life. You do not matter,
(05:58):
You are not thing. The only thing that matters is
the government. And your whole role in life is to
be obsessed with the government at all times. And so
a lot of people will think, yeah, well, i'll just
be for the other side, and I'll just really be
for them, and we'll beat y'all, and then you will
you're already caught up in it. Our side wants it too,
(06:21):
They thrive on it. It wasn't always this way. The
Supreme Court didn't have the power over our lives that
it did now. The Supreme Court used to meet in
an afterthought room in the Senate Building, didn't have their own,
you know, museum to them. There was once a case
(06:47):
that people didn't really know much of who was in
the government, nor did they care. These shutdowns keep happening,
and anybody that turns this on my wife, let's see
if I can find it in. My wife was spending
the afternoon with my dad yesterday and he was very happy.
(07:07):
One of the things that they encourage at old folks
homes is anything to stimulate your brain. Well, my dad
doesn't like whatever it is that you have that stimulates
your brain. So he played checkers. So a woman came
at here's my wife's message. Dad's so excited. He was
in occupational therapy. A woman came up and played checkers
(07:28):
with him, and he beat her soundly, and he is thrilled.
You know that deal, like when you're a little kid
and the adults play with you and they let you
in and you feel pretty good about it. I feel
certain that's what's happened. But anyway, so she said, you know,
you really get a sense of the common man's anger
at government. While talking to Dad before Duck Dynasty, they
watched Duck Dynasty together. He had some form of Fox
(07:51):
News on and they were broadcasting line from the floor
of Congress where a congressman was droning on and on
about the shutdown and how it affected the common man
and how this was ridiculous that the Democrats were not
playing ball. Dad had a different take. He felt that
all of Congress and all the politicians should be fired
off with their heads, so to speak, and replaced with
a whole new set Democrats and Republicans, all of them fired.
(08:17):
That's my dad. This is the Michael Berry Show, locked
and loaded, locked and loaded.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
With sighs. The actors he have not god up to.
I'm houing for you.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Everybody's got a story about the fraud of welfare and
food stamps, Scott writes, is aar. Here's how food stamps
work with the four homeless people that I know in
Chambers County. Number one, homeless people get actual food from
Catholic and Baptist churches. Number two. With food in hand,
(09:16):
they then get food stamps for cash for their marijuana
that's laced with other drugs. Skunk weed is pipe doin nowadays.
Number three they work odd jobs for everything else from transportation,
to housing tents and to whatever else he didn't put.
(09:37):
Number four, Oh, this is four people. The three things
they do. Yes, food stamps are an alternate currency, just
like in prison at the commissary. Food stamps are what
you use to pay for sex and drugs. That's it.
Food is plentiful charities, these different organizations there, there's actual
(10:03):
food there. I keep getting questions about the food bank.
The food bank, the food bank. Very few people use
the food bank for their food. Now, that's going to
upset a lot of rich women who are on the
board of the food bank, I'm sure. But realistically, however,
(10:25):
many people the food bank is serving. It's a small
percentage of the people who are getting welfare for food
because it's not really about food, you see, It's not
about the food. It's about an alternate currency that can
be traded on a discount. Somebody gets food out of
(10:45):
it at some point it's being used for food. But
in the meantime there's going to be some tricks turned
and some drugs handed over. That's what's going to happen.
Renee writes zar your conversation this morning hits home. My
sister has been scamming the government for fifteen years, claiming
disability while she works for cash cleaning houses and final
(11:08):
cleanup on commercial and residential construction sites while also buying
Filet mignon with her snap card. Two weeks ago, she
went crazy when I settled my daddy's estate and deducted
a discounted amount for his car from her settlement. It's
worth fourteen thousand. I deducted ten. She claims she didn't
(11:29):
want the car, but she quote unquote borrowed it two
days after his passing and refused to park it or
give up the keys. She claims she's a conservative, but
she acts exactly like a democrat, wants everything for free,
and is the perpetual victim. There's a certain groundhogged day
element to people who live on benefits, they're in drug addictions.
(11:54):
These sorts of people are capable at any given time
of massing and and really believing it, which is what
makes it pathological, really believing that nobody's trying to help
me and I'm trying to help myself, and y'all don't
realize that I'm doing it. Okay, but you as we've
had this conversation trinder times. I'm just trying to get
(12:15):
through right now. I'm trying to do the right thing,
and nobody wants to help me, and I thought, I'm
a part of this family. And if y'all don't want
to help me, that's fine. I'll just got myself and
I'll do that. No, no, no, okay, but we've done
this a lot link this is what we do. We're
in this pattern perpetually, and you don't have the higher
(12:36):
reasoning skills that I'm cursed with to see that this
is the pattern you've been in your entire life, and
that we keep in that moment doing what it takes
to keep you alive in one way or another, to
keep you happy, to keep you from cutting us off,
to keep you from guilting us, to keep you out
(12:57):
of trouble. We all keep pitching in to get you
through this moment, and we're leaving living a whole life
of this moment, and this moments are a pattern that
cannot continue. People like that have to be allowed to fail,
because if they're not, they create a new pattern that
(13:19):
they grow to subsist on, like a barnacle and a
feed off of you. And it's not to their advantage either,
It's not in their interest to do this. So I
would like to hear from you. Listen carefully before you go.
I would like to hear from you if you are
a person who you hear me talking and you go, wow,
(13:40):
that was me. I was rock bottom. I was lazy,
I was addicted, I was on snap, I was on welfare.
I want to hear from you if you were a
person who was sucking up welfare benefits, and you made
a major life change, and you look back on that
(14:02):
now and you can't believe that person was you. But
you are so much happier now that you are responsible
for your own life. You may not make as money,
as much money as you like, but you make your money.
You know, growing up, we took such pride that we
(14:25):
didn't we didn't take government cheese. We didn't We didn't
need things or accept things from the government, but could have.
And that was a point of great pride to my dad.
And I think about that often. How many people don't
have any pride because when you make that compromise, you
(14:51):
know what, screw it. I don't care what people say
about me. I'm just going to live off the government.
I'm going to live off my neighbors. I'm going to
be the person who just lives off my neighbors that
everyone resents I don't provide for myself or my children.
When you make that decision, there is a certain there's
(15:12):
a certain party that dies. So if that is you,
or you have a brother or sister who is completely
scamming the system seven one three nine nine nine one thousand,
seven one three nine nine, nine one thousand, Chris was
on already go.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
Ahead, sweetheart, Michael, I'm calling. I'll go to there. I
just retired, seventy seven years old. I worked all my
life and I got to the store. These bit set
women that has covered all over the bodies, that have
(15:48):
the nails down, real party that sit on the phone
and then go on the register and buy with goush's
nothing but jump on the cart and with foots And
this is nothing but a big old scamp.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Chris Lean and I just want to give you a
big hug seven one thousand, I guarantee you. Chris was
a good word. And Michael Gurus tea issuers the part
of your life. Remember the EBT card, all the drama
(16:32):
behind that. This is how we waste our time in
this country, My goodness, These are the issues we waste
our time on. Not curing cancer, not space travel, not
great art or science, commerce or transportation. Oh no, no,
(16:59):
feeding the life of stock. It's like a pasture full
of useless, grazing animals. Maybe we can keep them from
stabbing us, shooting us, stealing our cars, raping the women. If,
dear God, we have to defend ourselves they've got lawyers
(17:21):
on standby. I heard Ben Crump moved into Houston. Did
you know this? Apparently Ben Crump is living in Houston
on the north side. Then they're the victims. So we
got George Floyd. George Floyd who goes down in history
as a victim. Now that, my goodness, it really makes
(17:41):
you wonder what have you been told about history that
turns out is not so accurate. That a bad person
was made into a hero and a good person was
made into a devil. It really makes you wonder, doesn't it.
Gym you're up, Go ahead.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
Yeah. I used sown to use car lock, and I
sold to a lot of these EBT recipients. And I'll
tell you what. They would come in. They would buy
a car. They'd have a car full of little kids
with sitting in a dirty diaper, throwing trash in my driveway.
(18:27):
Their kids would would age out, turn eighteen, and they
come in and say, oh, I can't make my payments
because my kids done growed up and I don't get
my money. They sit around and they breathe and get
free money from the state from you and me, and
(18:51):
you know it gets old. I told one I wish
I could sit around and get money from the state
for doing nothing all day and uh man, she chimped out,
like nobody's business.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Well, the thing about it is as disgusting as we
find that behavior, it's actually not very fulfilling. It is
surprising to people that the EBT cardholder, food snap Section
eight welfare recipient, constant victim person, that that person is
(19:26):
not more grateful and happy, because to most people they think, well,
this is what life. This is like being retired but
not having to work to get there. But it's actually
not that at all. If you don't have to work
to earn something, you don't enjoy that thing. Let me
(19:47):
tell you. I grew up across from a woman we
called granny. She wasn't my granny, she was Craig mcave's granny.
And she would call over to my mom and say,
y'all come over, I got some extra and then we'd
walk across the street and it was really something to do.
There's nothing to do out in the country. And you'd
(20:07):
walk over and there was her squash and there was
her tomatoes that had come in real good that year,
and you know, take some of this. Loretta and my
mom said no, no, no, these are beautifully and she'd
really just done it to humor her and sit and
have a cup of coff and then we'd go back home,
but she would insist on sending us with tomatoes and
squashing the different things she had raised right in her
(20:29):
front yard. There was Granny out there digging in the
dirt in the Texas heat and grow in the most
incredible garden. My grandmother and grandfather they had, which was
Papau and Nanny. They had some land to the side.
It was all flooded land, so they'd gotten it pretty cheap,
(20:51):
and they'd moved their trailer up there next to my
great grandmother, who I called Grandmother, and my great grandfather
who I called Papo Bob, and they had some land
that wasn't used for anything else, and so they had
planted it all. And I can remember they would be
so proud of the corn on the cob. Lurmona. If
you've never raised, if you've never eaten country raised corn
(21:12):
on the cob, you better hope you didn't get jolly
green giant before that, because when you've eaten grocery store
corn on the cob and then you come home with
some stuff that's been eaten half eaten by the squirrels.
And half of them are purple, and some of them
are brown, and some of them are yellow. And they're
not full and fluffy and hormone and jacketed and full
of cancer. They don't taste good. They're just they're kind
(21:37):
of just little bitty tiny kernels and it's not even
a full you know. I like to get on there.
I like to get the machine going, the rollers going right,
get it on both ends. We had those two little
yellow corns that the two little yellow whatever they had
the corn embroidered on there or whatever, and then they
got the two prongs. You stick it in both ends
(21:57):
and you go to town poof and get another one. Yeah, well,
you can't do that with homegrown. You can't do that
because there's not enough. The homegrown is not it's not
that way. You just you kind of pick around at it.
But they were so proud of it because they had
grown it. When people don't have to earn money, then
(22:21):
whatever they have they're not proud of. It's the power
to earn, the accomplishment of earning. It's never the thing itself.
It's never the thing itself. It's saving up for that
watch or that shotgun, or for a lady a purse.
It's the waiting, it's the earning. It's the accomplishment, it's
(22:44):
the pomp and circumstance. It's never the item itself. So
there is this false idea that these people are happy
because they don't have to work. But they're not happy.
Look at them. They're not happy. They're in a constant
state of emotional squalor. And you could put them in
a palace, it wouldn't matter. They have no meaning to
(23:05):
their lives. There's no structure and no meaning. They do
nothing that gives them any sense of accomplishment. And we
need that we thrive on that. Steve you' old Michael
Berry show, go ahead.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
Hey, good morning, sir. Hey, So I grew up pretty
well off. When I was younger. My dad was a
pain contractor and actually painted John Wayne's Long Beach home,
and so we started off really well. And as I
grew up, my dad got sick and slowly deteriorated over
thirty years, and so we got put into the system.
(23:42):
Like I've been on welfare. I can tell you what
government tastes like. It tastes like trash and bad feelings.
But as I got older, I started working in her
little family on my own had three little kids, and
I had to take them to this clinic that we
called the Dogtown. Family was so disrespected over the course
(24:02):
of nine hours of waiting that I said to myself,
never again. And so I went out there and I
worked every hour, every job I could get, so that
I could my family wouldn't be disrespected like that in
the future. And I think today's society just has a
broken wants to you, nobody wants to and they're okay
(24:25):
with the disrespect, and they don't want more. They're they're
they're comfortable in the setting the government is providing for them.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Yes, comfortable might not be the perfectly accurate word, but
it'll do for now because they are accepting of it.
How about that they have they're resigned to it. What
(24:58):
do you do now?
Speaker 4 (25:01):
I'm in sales.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
I work for a wheelchair MANUA or company that provides wheelchairs.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Hold on a second, hold on, it's good story. Thank
you for sharing. Hold on, God, I forgot how good
that line is. No, we're not the Jetsons where the
old chevroletsons. But ain't we got love. This is the
kind of thing you've seen in Mauriceville, sitting in your
(25:30):
trailer with shag carpet, watching the TV because it's not
very wide, single white right across, eating a TV dinner
and may I say, happy as all get out. The
funny thing is people think that country folk and poor
folk were working are so miserable. They're not. People think, well,
(25:53):
if I couldn't go on a fancy vacation, if I
couldn't do this, and if I lived there, and if
I was eating a TV and dringing a six pack
of beer, I mean, I can't imagine how miserable I'd be.
But they're not miserable. That's just it. There are people
who are happy who are living like that. It's just
(26:13):
you can't imagine being happy living like that. But if
they are happy, isn't that good? I mean, don't we
We don't want everyone to aspire to be a billionaire.
I have a really sad society. You want people to
aspire to live up to their own talents and skill
(26:36):
sets and goals and accomplishments, and to enjoy that and
to keep striving. It's a delicate balance. But no, that's
not an across the board a hell of a song, ramon, good,
good on you all right, Steve? So what are you
doing now, sir?
Speaker 3 (26:53):
I actually work in healthcare, work in healthcare for most
of my life, but currently I tell wheelchairs to skilled
nursing facilities.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
And who who do you work for? What kind of
company is this?
Speaker 3 (27:08):
The company I work for is called Total Care out
of Tyler, Texas.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
And where are you based?
Speaker 3 (27:16):
I'm out there in Tombull. I'm headed for Beaumont though today.
So we're all over the place.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
And so are Do they give you a company car?
Speaker 3 (27:26):
Yes, sir?
Speaker 1 (27:27):
What is it?
Speaker 3 (27:29):
It's a little Nissan Kicks. It's a little roller skate.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
I'm not making fun of it. I'm just curious what
it is. Hey, listen, it beats car.
Speaker 4 (27:37):
I ain't gonna lie.
Speaker 3 (27:38):
Kind of nice for a little car.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Does it have Total Care on the side of it?
Speaker 3 (27:43):
Yes, sir, it's all over all over the car.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
And and then so they give you that, and what
do you do? You go out and call on nurses.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
Yeah, we go out to nursing homes and call on
rehab staff and do wheelchair vouts for their patients.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Okay, so it so you don't you don't fit the
wheelchair or deliver the wheelchair for the patient. They're doing
ten wheelchairs at a time, presumably, No, it's.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
It's more rehab specific. It's it's a custom made to each individual.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
So they're going home for rehab and y'all deliver a
wheelchair to them.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
Yeah, mostly the long term patients that are staying at
the facility.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
And is that paid for it? Y'all build medicare or
how does that work?
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Sort of, there's some applied income involved and there is
uh pass our patients that are involved in that kind
of thing. But yeah, basically it comes down to the
state stay funded.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
So do they own the wheelchair at the end of
the day.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
Yes, sir. So. Basically applied income is basically your social
Security that comes in on the half or on your
behalf to the facility, and it's basically used as like
a copay. But you can use that funding for other
things such as wheelchairs, hearing aids, gents, all of that
kind of stuff.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
Steve, I want you to make as much money as
you possibly can. Don't think I don't. But it does
not seem efficient for me that we are selling a
wheelchair when in many cases, that is a temporary thing.
Are you saying these people going to be in a
wheelchair for the rest of their lives?
Speaker 3 (29:25):
Yes, sir, in many cases, so you can only get
one every five years. And these are not cheap wheelchairs, sir,
these I mean a wheelchair today you're write age two
hundred and fifty dollars. Specials aren't what I'm doing. I'm
doing custom chairs. They're anywhere from five thousand to twenty
five thousand to be fair.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
God. And are these motorized?
Speaker 3 (29:49):
Usually when you get into the fifteen twenty thousand dollar range, yeah,
they're going to be powerchairs.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Oh wow? And then what happens when that person dies?
What is there like a re cycle unit of of
these wheelchairs?
Speaker 3 (30:04):
Well, if the chairs paid off, it belongs to the family.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
No.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
Is there some sort of pick apart that somebody could
I mean, is there someplace you can you can sell
these on a discount or just pawn shop?
Speaker 3 (30:17):
You can. Most of the time, though the facilities will
donate them back to people who don't have the same
funding as as some of the other residents.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
Interesting, who makes this wheelchair?
Speaker 3 (30:31):
There's many manufacturers, most of which were up in Canada.
That since these tarriffs had come in, have come back
to the United States, but many of the companies are
out of Canada. There there's several of those, but again
they've kind of come home to give me one brand.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
I just want to know one brand so I can
drop it into conversation.
Speaker 3 (30:51):
Let's say Broda Seating, for instance, Broda Seating, they're at
a kitchener Ontario, Okay, but the companies here in the US.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
Okay, all right, all right? So what is your territory?
You go obviously to Beaumont.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
I go as far east as Beaumont, as far west
as Columbus, and then all the way out past Huntsville,
and so it's just kind of everywhere.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
Are you span?
Speaker 3 (31:25):
I'm sorry?
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Are you Hispanic?
Speaker 3 (31:28):
I did not hear you, sir, I'm sorry?
Speaker 1 (31:29):
Are you Hispanic? No, sir, where did you grow up?
Speaker 3 (31:35):
Well? Forgive me, I am a California refugee. Thanks, Dike avenuwsom.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
Okay, how did you end up here?
Speaker 3 (31:43):
Well, sir? My dad long story. I'll try and make
a brief. My dad was an orphan. I ended up
in the Navy during World War Two. When he got
done with the Navy, ended up in California, raised us
up there, and then he was actually originally out of
(32:05):
the Dallas area Fort Worth. So after visiting here a
few times, I decided to move down here permanently with
my family.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
And what was the turning point for you to get
off of government benefits, get a job and get to work.
What was that moment?
Speaker 3 (32:24):
Well, sir, honestly, I was in my early twenties. I
had a young family, and like John Wayne taught me
to blow bubbles in his pool, I saw his house.
I wanted that. I didn't want to be disrespected by
the system. I didn't want people looking down at me
when my mom had to take me to the store
and pay with food stamps. I didn't want that for
(32:46):
my family.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
Yeah, yeah, well, good call, Steve. Thank you for sharing
your story. Brother. That's just very kind, very enlightening. Actually,
it's interesting to get a window into people's life.
Speaker 3 (33:01):
M
It's that time.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Time, time, time.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Luck and load. The Michael Verie Show is on the air.
Comers go home for weeks at a time and there's
(00:28):
no real news, and then they're back for ten minutes
and we have a crisis on our hands. These people
are like the carnival coming through town. There's a lot
of hullabaloo and noise and attention and screaming and streamers
(00:50):
and bearded ladies and come on, come on, you don't
want to miss this. You'll never see it again. It's
the greatest show on Oh it got out. None of
what they're talking about matters of not one bit of it.
Think about this. Imagine the most powerful government in the
(01:10):
history of mankind and it shuts down every few months.
I mean, look, I don't want to ruin Christmas for
any of the kids or Easter, but there comes a
point where you kind of go, wait a second. I've
been thinking on this and it doesn't really make sense
(01:33):
to me. How does our government keep shutting down because
they don't have money? Why why do they What is
a continuing resolution that lasts for a few months and
then we're back doing this again. These are questions that
are reasonable to ask you should be asking. If you
(01:58):
had a friend you had to come bail out every
three or four months, you'd say, looks the last time. Okay,
I will bail you out here, my friend. But this
is a pattern, and you're choosing a set of behaviors
that trigger a chain reaction that end up here. But
(02:18):
can't you just come get me? I'm in jail. Yeah,
you're always in jail. That's just it. That's the point.
This isn't a one off thing. It's a series of
behaviors you consistently perform that has become a pattern. And
I don't want to be part of that anymore. I
don't want I don't want that drama. You'll see women
(02:42):
who date the kind of guy their dad hates, the
bad boy, and everything they like about that guy is
everything that's going to make him the abusive boyfriend. That's
everything that's going to make him the guy she's having
to flee from when she tries to leave him. But
give her a month, she'll be back with another one,
just like that flip of the coin. The guy who's
(03:06):
dating the girl who's the former stripper, who's wild, who
comes in she's got those lips that are slapping the
wall from the other end of the room. She's got
her hair all done, she's got the boobs so far
out they'll knock you over. She's dated everybody in town.
(03:26):
You know, there's girls in town. There's girls in Houston
that when they walk in, they're very striking at first
because there's been a lot of work done in massive boobs,
and then and then they've had a lot of lightpo
and then they've had the lippuckered way. There's big duck lips,
and then there's it's it's sunken in under the eyes
(03:49):
because they've just gone in and just carved out anything
that was flesh, so the eyes are kind of bugged out.
The eyelashes are eight inches long, so they're actually fanning
you if you're in the middle of a conversation. The
hair is dyed a color that there's no way it
could have been natural when she was eight years old,
much less thirty seven. And people will say that's fill
(04:12):
in the blinks, ex wife, that's her claim to fame. Okay,
so there is a guy that will marry that woman. Well,
first he'll start dating her, and the way he will
describe it will be like is. He knows, he knows
it's dumb, but he can't help himself. Yeah, are you dating?
(04:34):
You give me a name, Ramon, Okay, you're dating Michelle.
I am. Oh my goodness, that's a wild ride. I
don't know where this thing's going to go. That's a
wild ride. I uh man, she's uh, she's something else.
I'll tell you what it's. Uh, she's done.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
So.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
You know she used to be married to you know
so and so. Yeah, Well she's been and ridding more
time than Secretariat. I mean, hup up their jockey. But
I don't know where you're getting off. I don't know.
I don't know what this ride looks like for you.
And then you know two years later, Hey, Michael, can
(05:13):
you give me a good divorce attorney? Is this for you? Yeah?
I know I know what you're gonna say. I'm not
gonna say it's just the fourth time we've done this.
I'm not gonna say it, and I won't say it
when you do it with the next one that you
see out at the bar on Thursday night and you're
with your friends, and it just it's a pattern. The
patterns tend to repeat themselves, and even people in those
(05:37):
patterns feel powerless to stop the pattern. The shutdown of
the government is a pattern. It's a game we play,
and the reason we play it is it gets everybody
focused on Congress. The important thing for you to remember
is that you have no life. You do not matter,
(05:58):
You are not thing. The only thing that matters is
the government. And your whole role in life is to
be obsessed with the government at all times. And so
a lot of people will think, yeah, well, i'll just
be for the other side, and I'll just really be
for them, and we'll beat y'all, and then you will
you're already caught up in it. Our side wants it too,
(06:21):
They thrive on it. It wasn't always this way. The
Supreme Court didn't have the power over our lives that
it did now. The Supreme Court used to meet in
an afterthought room in the Senate Building, didn't have their own,
you know, museum to them. There was once a case
(06:47):
that people didn't really know much of who was in
the government, nor did they care. These shutdowns keep happening,
and anybody that turns this on my wife, let's see
if I can find it in. My wife was spending
the afternoon with my dad yesterday and he was very happy.
(07:07):
One of the things that they encourage at old folks
homes is anything to stimulate your brain. Well, my dad
doesn't like whatever it is that you have that stimulates
your brain. So he played checkers. So a woman came
at here's my wife's message. Dad's so excited. He was
in occupational therapy. A woman came up and played checkers
(07:28):
with him, and he beat her soundly, and he is thrilled.
You know that deal, like when you're a little kid
and the adults play with you and they let you
in and you feel pretty good about it. I feel
certain that's what's happened. But anyway, so she said, you know,
you really get a sense of the common man's anger
at government. While talking to Dad before Duck Dynasty, they
watched Duck Dynasty together. He had some form of Fox
(07:51):
News on and they were broadcasting line from the floor
of Congress where a congressman was droning on and on
about the shutdown and how it affected the common man
and how this was ridiculous that the Democrats were not
playing ball. Dad had a different take. He felt that
all of Congress and all the politicians should be fired
off with their heads, so to speak, and replaced with
a whole new set Democrats and Republicans, all of them fired.
(08:17):
That's my dad. This is the Michael Berry Show, locked
and loaded, locked and loaded.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
With sighs. The actors he have not god up to.
I'm houing for you.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Everybody's got a story about the fraud of welfare and
food stamps, Scott writes, is aar. Here's how food stamps
work with the four homeless people that I know in
Chambers County. Number one, homeless people get actual food from
Catholic and Baptist churches. Number two. With food in hand,
(09:16):
they then get food stamps for cash for their marijuana
that's laced with other drugs. Skunk weed is pipe doin nowadays.
Number three they work odd jobs for everything else from transportation,
to housing tents and to whatever else he didn't put.
(09:37):
Number four, Oh, this is four people. The three things
they do. Yes, food stamps are an alternate currency, just
like in prison at the commissary. Food stamps are what
you use to pay for sex and drugs. That's it.
Food is plentiful charities, these different organizations there, there's actual
(10:03):
food there. I keep getting questions about the food bank.
The food bank, the food bank. Very few people use
the food bank for their food. Now, that's going to
upset a lot of rich women who are on the
board of the food bank, I'm sure. But realistically, however,
(10:25):
many people the food bank is serving. It's a small
percentage of the people who are getting welfare for food
because it's not really about food, you see, It's not
about the food. It's about an alternate currency that can
be traded on a discount. Somebody gets food out of
(10:45):
it at some point it's being used for food. But
in the meantime there's going to be some tricks turned
and some drugs handed over. That's what's going to happen.
Renee writes zar your conversation this morning hits home. My
sister has been scamming the government for fifteen years, claiming
disability while she works for cash cleaning houses and final
(11:08):
cleanup on commercial and residential construction sites while also buying
Filet mignon with her snap card. Two weeks ago, she
went crazy when I settled my daddy's estate and deducted
a discounted amount for his car from her settlement. It's
worth fourteen thousand. I deducted ten. She claims she didn't
(11:29):
want the car, but she quote unquote borrowed it two
days after his passing and refused to park it or
give up the keys. She claims she's a conservative, but
she acts exactly like a democrat, wants everything for free,
and is the perpetual victim. There's a certain groundhogged day
element to people who live on benefits, they're in drug addictions.
(11:54):
These sorts of people are capable at any given time
of massing and and really believing it, which is what
makes it pathological, really believing that nobody's trying to help
me and I'm trying to help myself, and y'all don't
realize that I'm doing it. Okay, but you as we've
had this conversation trinder times. I'm just trying to get
(12:15):
through right now. I'm trying to do the right thing,
and nobody wants to help me, and I thought, I'm
a part of this family. And if y'all don't want
to help me, that's fine. I'll just got myself and
I'll do that. No, no, no, okay, but we've done
this a lot link this is what we do. We're
in this pattern perpetually, and you don't have the higher
(12:36):
reasoning skills that I'm cursed with to see that this
is the pattern you've been in your entire life, and
that we keep in that moment doing what it takes
to keep you alive in one way or another, to
keep you happy, to keep you from cutting us off,
to keep you from guilting us, to keep you out
(12:57):
of trouble. We all keep pitching in to get you
through this moment, and we're leaving living a whole life
of this moment, and this moments are a pattern that
cannot continue. People like that have to be allowed to fail,
because if they're not, they create a new pattern that
(13:19):
they grow to subsist on, like a barnacle and a
feed off of you. And it's not to their advantage either,
It's not in their interest to do this. So I
would like to hear from you. Listen carefully before you go.
I would like to hear from you if you are
a person who you hear me talking and you go, wow,
(13:40):
that was me. I was rock bottom. I was lazy,
I was addicted, I was on snap, I was on welfare.
I want to hear from you if you were a
person who was sucking up welfare benefits, and you made
a major life change, and you look back on that
(14:02):
now and you can't believe that person was you. But
you are so much happier now that you are responsible
for your own life. You may not make as money,
as much money as you like, but you make your money.
You know, growing up, we took such pride that we
(14:25):
didn't we didn't take government cheese. We didn't We didn't
need things or accept things from the government, but could have.
And that was a point of great pride to my dad.
And I think about that often. How many people don't
have any pride because when you make that compromise, you
(14:51):
know what, screw it. I don't care what people say
about me. I'm just going to live off the government.
I'm going to live off my neighbors. I'm going to
be the person who just lives off my neighbors that
everyone resents I don't provide for myself or my children.
When you make that decision, there is a certain there's
(15:12):
a certain party that dies. So if that is you,
or you have a brother or sister who is completely
scamming the system seven one three nine nine nine one thousand,
seven one three nine nine, nine one thousand, Chris was
on already go.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
Ahead, sweetheart, Michael, I'm calling. I'll go to there. I
just retired, seventy seven years old. I worked all my
life and I got to the store. These bit set
women that has covered all over the bodies, that have
(15:48):
the nails down, real party that sit on the phone
and then go on the register and buy with goush's
nothing but jump on the cart and with foots And
this is nothing but a big old scamp.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Chris Lean and I just want to give you a
big hug seven one thousand, I guarantee you. Chris was
a good word. And Michael Gurus tea issuers the part
of your life. Remember the EBT card, all the drama
(16:32):
behind that. This is how we waste our time in
this country, My goodness, These are the issues we waste
our time on. Not curing cancer, not space travel, not
great art or science, commerce or transportation. Oh no, no,
(16:59):
feeding the life of stock. It's like a pasture full
of useless, grazing animals. Maybe we can keep them from
stabbing us, shooting us, stealing our cars, raping the women. If,
dear God, we have to defend ourselves they've got lawyers
(17:21):
on standby. I heard Ben Crump moved into Houston. Did
you know this? Apparently Ben Crump is living in Houston
on the north side. Then they're the victims. So we
got George Floyd. George Floyd who goes down in history
as a victim. Now that, my goodness, it really makes
(17:41):
you wonder what have you been told about history that
turns out is not so accurate. That a bad person
was made into a hero and a good person was
made into a devil. It really makes you wonder, doesn't it.
Gym you're up, Go ahead.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
Yeah. I used sown to use car lock, and I
sold to a lot of these EBT recipients. And I'll
tell you what. They would come in. They would buy
a car. They'd have a car full of little kids
with sitting in a dirty diaper, throwing trash in my driveway.
(18:27):
Their kids would would age out, turn eighteen, and they
come in and say, oh, I can't make my payments
because my kids done growed up and I don't get
my money. They sit around and they breathe and get
free money from the state from you and me, and
(18:51):
you know it gets old. I told one I wish
I could sit around and get money from the state
for doing nothing all day and uh man, she chimped out,
like nobody's business.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Well, the thing about it is as disgusting as we
find that behavior, it's actually not very fulfilling. It is
surprising to people that the EBT cardholder, food snap Section
eight welfare recipient, constant victim person, that that person is
(19:26):
not more grateful and happy, because to most people they think, well,
this is what life. This is like being retired but
not having to work to get there. But it's actually
not that at all. If you don't have to work
to earn something, you don't enjoy that thing. Let me
(19:47):
tell you. I grew up across from a woman we
called granny. She wasn't my granny, she was Craig mcave's granny.
And she would call over to my mom and say,
y'all come over, I got some extra and then we'd
walk across the street and it was really something to do.
There's nothing to do out in the country. And you'd
(20:07):
walk over and there was her squash and there was
her tomatoes that had come in real good that year,
and you know, take some of this. Loretta and my
mom said no, no, no, these are beautifully and she'd
really just done it to humor her and sit and
have a cup of coff and then we'd go back home,
but she would insist on sending us with tomatoes and
squashing the different things she had raised right in her
(20:29):
front yard. There was Granny out there digging in the
dirt in the Texas heat and grow in the most
incredible garden. My grandmother and grandfather they had, which was
Papau and Nanny. They had some land to the side.
It was all flooded land, so they'd gotten it pretty cheap,
(20:51):
and they'd moved their trailer up there next to my
great grandmother, who I called Grandmother, and my great grandfather
who I called Papo Bob, and they had some land
that wasn't used for anything else, and so they had
planted it all. And I can remember they would be
so proud of the corn on the cob. Lurmona. If
you've never raised, if you've never eaten country raised corn
(21:12):
on the cob, you better hope you didn't get jolly
green giant before that, because when you've eaten grocery store
corn on the cob and then you come home with
some stuff that's been eaten half eaten by the squirrels.
And half of them are purple, and some of them
are brown, and some of them are yellow. And they're
not full and fluffy and hormone and jacketed and full
of cancer. They don't taste good. They're just they're kind
(21:37):
of just little bitty tiny kernels and it's not even
a full you know. I like to get on there.
I like to get the machine going, the rollers going right,
get it on both ends. We had those two little
yellow corns that the two little yellow whatever they had
the corn embroidered on there or whatever, and then they
got the two prongs. You stick it in both ends
(21:57):
and you go to town poof and get another one. Yeah, well,
you can't do that with homegrown. You can't do that
because there's not enough. The homegrown is not it's not
that way. You just you kind of pick around at it.
But they were so proud of it because they had
grown it. When people don't have to earn money, then
(22:21):
whatever they have they're not proud of. It's the power
to earn, the accomplishment of earning. It's never the thing itself.
It's never the thing itself. It's saving up for that
watch or that shotgun, or for a lady a purse.
It's the waiting, it's the earning. It's the accomplishment, it's
(22:44):
the pomp and circumstance. It's never the item itself. So
there is this false idea that these people are happy
because they don't have to work. But they're not happy.
Look at them. They're not happy. They're in a constant
state of emotional squalor. And you could put them in
a palace, it wouldn't matter. They have no meaning to
(23:05):
their lives. There's no structure and no meaning. They do
nothing that gives them any sense of accomplishment. And we
need that we thrive on that. Steve you' old Michael
Berry show, go ahead.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
Hey, good morning, sir. Hey, So I grew up pretty
well off. When I was younger. My dad was a
pain contractor and actually painted John Wayne's Long Beach home,
and so we started off really well. And as I
grew up, my dad got sick and slowly deteriorated over
thirty years, and so we got put into the system.
(23:42):
Like I've been on welfare. I can tell you what
government tastes like. It tastes like trash and bad feelings.
But as I got older, I started working in her
little family on my own had three little kids, and
I had to take them to this clinic that we
called the Dogtown. Family was so disrespected over the course
(24:02):
of nine hours of waiting that I said to myself,
never again. And so I went out there and I
worked every hour, every job I could get, so that
I could my family wouldn't be disrespected like that in
the future. And I think today's society just has a
broken wants to you, nobody wants to and they're okay
(24:25):
with the disrespect, and they don't want more. They're they're
they're comfortable in the setting the government is providing for them.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Yes, comfortable might not be the perfectly accurate word, but
it'll do for now because they are accepting of it.
How about that they have they're resigned to it. What
(24:58):
do you do now?
Speaker 4 (25:01):
I'm in sales.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
I work for a wheelchair MANUA or company that provides wheelchairs.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Hold on a second, hold on, it's good story. Thank
you for sharing. Hold on, God, I forgot how good
that line is. No, we're not the Jetsons where the
old chevroletsons. But ain't we got love. This is the
kind of thing you've seen in Mauriceville, sitting in your
(25:30):
trailer with shag carpet, watching the TV because it's not
very wide, single white right across, eating a TV dinner
and may I say, happy as all get out. The
funny thing is people think that country folk and poor
folk were working are so miserable. They're not. People think, well,
(25:53):
if I couldn't go on a fancy vacation, if I
couldn't do this, and if I lived there, and if
I was eating a TV and dringing a six pack
of beer, I mean, I can't imagine how miserable I'd be.
But they're not miserable. That's just it. There are people
who are happy who are living like that. It's just
(26:13):
you can't imagine being happy living like that. But if
they are happy, isn't that good? I mean, don't we
We don't want everyone to aspire to be a billionaire.
I have a really sad society. You want people to
aspire to live up to their own talents and skill
(26:36):
sets and goals and accomplishments, and to enjoy that and
to keep striving. It's a delicate balance. But no, that's
not an across the board a hell of a song, ramon, good,
good on you all right, Steve? So what are you
doing now, sir?
Speaker 3 (26:53):
I actually work in healthcare, work in healthcare for most
of my life, but currently I tell wheelchairs to skilled
nursing facilities.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
And who who do you work for? What kind of
company is this?
Speaker 3 (27:08):
The company I work for is called Total Care out
of Tyler, Texas.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
And where are you based?
Speaker 3 (27:16):
I'm out there in Tombull. I'm headed for Beaumont though today.
So we're all over the place.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
And so are Do they give you a company car?
Speaker 3 (27:26):
Yes, sir?
Speaker 1 (27:27):
What is it?
Speaker 3 (27:29):
It's a little Nissan Kicks. It's a little roller skate.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
I'm not making fun of it. I'm just curious what
it is. Hey, listen, it beats car.
Speaker 4 (27:37):
I ain't gonna lie.
Speaker 3 (27:38):
Kind of nice for a little car.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Does it have Total Care on the side of it?
Speaker 3 (27:43):
Yes, sir, it's all over all over the car.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
And and then so they give you that, and what
do you do? You go out and call on nurses.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
Yeah, we go out to nursing homes and call on
rehab staff and do wheelchair vouts for their patients.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Okay, so it so you don't you don't fit the
wheelchair or deliver the wheelchair for the patient. They're doing
ten wheelchairs at a time, presumably, No, it's.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
It's more rehab specific. It's it's a custom made to each individual.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
So they're going home for rehab and y'all deliver a
wheelchair to them.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
Yeah, mostly the long term patients that are staying at
the facility.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
And is that paid for it? Y'all build medicare or
how does that work?
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Sort of, there's some applied income involved and there is
uh pass our patients that are involved in that kind
of thing. But yeah, basically it comes down to the
state stay funded.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
So do they own the wheelchair at the end of
the day.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
Yes, sir. So. Basically applied income is basically your social
Security that comes in on the half or on your
behalf to the facility, and it's basically used as like
a copay. But you can use that funding for other
things such as wheelchairs, hearing aids, gents, all of that
kind of stuff.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
Steve, I want you to make as much money as
you possibly can. Don't think I don't. But it does
not seem efficient for me that we are selling a
wheelchair when in many cases, that is a temporary thing.
Are you saying these people going to be in a
wheelchair for the rest of their lives?
Speaker 3 (29:25):
Yes, sir, in many cases, so you can only get
one every five years. And these are not cheap wheelchairs, sir,
these I mean a wheelchair today you're write age two
hundred and fifty dollars. Specials aren't what I'm doing. I'm
doing custom chairs. They're anywhere from five thousand to twenty
five thousand to be fair.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
God. And are these motorized?
Speaker 3 (29:49):
Usually when you get into the fifteen twenty thousand dollar range, yeah,
they're going to be powerchairs.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Oh wow? And then what happens when that person dies?
What is there like a re cycle unit of of
these wheelchairs?
Speaker 3 (30:04):
Well, if the chairs paid off, it belongs to the family.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
No.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
Is there some sort of pick apart that somebody could
I mean, is there someplace you can you can sell
these on a discount or just pawn shop?
Speaker 3 (30:17):
You can. Most of the time, though the facilities will
donate them back to people who don't have the same
funding as as some of the other residents.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
Interesting, who makes this wheelchair?
Speaker 3 (30:31):
There's many manufacturers, most of which were up in Canada.
That since these tarriffs had come in, have come back
to the United States, but many of the companies are
out of Canada. There there's several of those, but again
they've kind of come home to give me one brand.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
I just want to know one brand so I can
drop it into conversation.
Speaker 3 (30:51):
Let's say Broda Seating, for instance, Broda Seating, they're at
a kitchener Ontario, Okay, but the companies here in the US.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
Okay, all right, all right? So what is your territory?
You go obviously to Beaumont.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
I go as far east as Beaumont, as far west
as Columbus, and then all the way out past Huntsville,
and so it's just kind of everywhere.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
Are you span?
Speaker 3 (31:25):
I'm sorry?
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Are you Hispanic?
Speaker 3 (31:28):
I did not hear you, sir, I'm sorry?
Speaker 1 (31:29):
Are you Hispanic? No, sir, where did you grow up?
Speaker 3 (31:35):
Well? Forgive me, I am a California refugee. Thanks, Dike avenuwsom.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
Okay, how did you end up here?
Speaker 3 (31:43):
Well, sir? My dad long story. I'll try and make
a brief. My dad was an orphan. I ended up
in the Navy during World War Two. When he got
done with the Navy, ended up in California, raised us
up there, and then he was actually originally out of
(32:05):
the Dallas area Fort Worth. So after visiting here a
few times, I decided to move down here permanently with
my family.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
And what was the turning point for you to get
off of government benefits, get a job and get to work.
What was that moment?
Speaker 3 (32:24):
Well, sir, honestly, I was in my early twenties. I
had a young family, and like John Wayne taught me
to blow bubbles in his pool, I saw his house.
I wanted that. I didn't want to be disrespected by
the system. I didn't want people looking down at me
when my mom had to take me to the store
and pay with food stamps. I didn't want that for
(32:46):
my family.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
Yeah, yeah, well, good call, Steve. Thank you for sharing
your story. Brother. That's just very kind, very enlightening. Actually,
it's interesting to get a window into people's life.
Speaker 3 (33:01):
M
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