November 19, 2024 • 33 mins
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
It's that time time, time, time, luck and load. So
Michael Verie Show is on the air.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
The wonderful piece by Martin Gury. Then I'm going to
read tonight about.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
The expectations of Trump and how he won his coalition,
and it's really really interesting. There's a paragraph I'll read
to you because I'm gonna read the entire article online tonight,
but I want to get back to what's going Don't
let me forget before this.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Hour is up. Fromont to do that.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
So Amy Davis deserves a lot of credit at KPRC TV.
Here was her story back in October. A month later,
the Houston Housing Authority CEO resigned. Of course, he still
gets paid six months. Do you get six months severance?
I know people that don't get six months severance when
they're laid off and they did nothing wrong. This guy's
(01:13):
basically caught red handed, and they go, oh, I know
we're not allowed to fire you because you're black, but
this could get bad. You know some really bad stuff here.
Millions and millions of dollars have been stolen, and you
hired all your buddies who you claim not to know
from Chicago, and now all these poor people in public housing,
(01:37):
you were supposed to replace their air conditioning unit and
you didn't do it. I mean some of these cases
the air conditioning unit was falling out of the window
or it got pushed into the They didn't even know
how to put a window air conditioning unit, and they
got a contract to do hundreds, if not thousands of them.
(01:59):
I mean, it's you, it's galling. There's no end, there's
no limit to what they're willing to do. They're unashamed.
They'll just steal it in broad daylight and then claim
you're racist for catching them. But here here was KPRC
TV's Amy Davis. She deserves a lot of credit for
(02:21):
breaking this story October of this year.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
Larry Grisby has lived here at Cuney Homes for eight years.
It's the city's oldest public housing development, opened in nineteen
forty three. But Larry, like other people who live in
this third world neighborhood, was looking forward to some promised
upgrades from the Houston Housing Authority.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
It poutly have been two benches.
Speaker 5 (02:42):
Hem pould have been a bench hemp and a bench
right there, and it pould have been a table right there.
Speaker 4 (02:48):
But all that's here are these concrete pads with screws
attached to nothing. KPRC to obtain these renderings of what
the landscape improvement project connecting Cuney Homes to the Columbia
Town Trail was supposed to look like. The estimated cost
six hundred forty three thousand, five hundred dollars, the Houston
Housing Authority actually paid contractors more than seven hundred and
(03:10):
sixty six thousand dollars. That's one hundred and twenty three
thousand bucks over budget. And this is what the people
at Quney Holmes got. They were supposed to come back
and add more.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Yeah, they supposed to come back and put the table
and the other bent.
Speaker 6 (03:23):
What happened?
Speaker 7 (03:24):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
I just hand I didn't I don't know.
Speaker 4 (03:28):
They never came back.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
They never said nothing.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
In our search for Grisbee's benches and this chess table
and your money, we knocked on doors searching for the
contractors paid for this work. Lamntre Woods owns Elite Project Managers.
He registered the company with the state on January ninth,
and signed this contract with the Houston Housing Authority just
(03:53):
two months later, on March fourth. The registered address for
his business took us to this humble apartment complex. We
left the business card, but he never called us back.
Our next stop was to the Houston Housing Authority to
find the other man who signed this deal. Houston Housing
Authority CEO David northerns, can you tell us how you
(04:13):
know Lamentre Woods and how he was chosen?
Speaker 1 (04:21):
He's one of the contractors there. I don't know him personally.
Speaker 4 (04:24):
You don't know him personally. And did you know that
his business was just formed two months before he got
that contract.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
No, we were only here to discuss fifty million dollars grand.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
If you have any questions on more than every to
take him and then we can respond.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Today we're doing questions.
Speaker 4 (04:37):
You have my cell phone number, and I have plenty
more questions. I just think, I mean, can you can
you at all address those? You're the director. Northern did
agree to meet with me off camera days later, but
he had few answers. He said he didn't know this
project was incomplete. These contracts we've obtained show all work
was to conclude on or before April first. AJJ has
(05:00):
paid Elite all of the money under its contract and
then some back at Cuney Holmes Grisbee is still missing
the chess table, solar lights, and benches. Documents show Elite
project managers asked for another extension until May seventh, and
an extra seventeen five hundred dollars to order the items.
(05:20):
That was five months ago. We finally got in touch
with the Lamnentree Woods by phone this week. He says
he's been in touch with someone at the housing authority
every week, but he wouldn't say who it is he's
speaking to. He also wouldn't say why the chess table,
the benches, and the correct lighting haven't been installed here
months after we paid for them.
Speaker 7 (05:41):
I tell CARE a lot of people, they say your money,
somebody ran off with the money.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
I tell Care a load.
Speaker 8 (05:46):
And to hear that, you know, thousands of dollars have
been spent for work that wasn't done, some that was
done shoddily, is again very disturbing.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
At Large, City Councilman Julian Ramirez says taxpayers deserve.
Speaker 8 (05:59):
Answers' questions about why certain vendors were hired to do
project management and hired to do work that was either
done shoddily or not completed, yet the money was paid out.
A lot of important questions raised.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
We did reach out to the chairman of the Houston
Housing Authority Board this week. He told me the board
has called a special meeting for Wednesday where they'll go
into executive session to discuss personnel matters and the performance
of the President and CEO, David Northern.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Meanwhile, Box twenty six with a story that yet another
Houston defense attorney has been arrested for smuggling drugs into
the Harris County jail. This is the third attorney in
recent months that has been arrested for smuggling drugs through
the jail.
Speaker 9 (06:47):
Defense attorney Hunter Simmons improbable class court for his own case.
The thirty nine year old lawyer, along with forty year
old t Niche Butler and twenty two year old Joshua Piper,
are facing smuggling charges, accused of bringing drugs to a
Harris County inmate.
Speaker 10 (07:01):
Legal documents or some type of documents go into the
jail that were lace or gifted in some type of
control of substance and that occurred.
Speaker 9 (07:14):
Court document state the investigation dates back to March twenty
twenty four, with recorded jail calls between an inmate, Joseph
Dunn and Butler about payments and a plan to get
Attorney Simmons to deliver the narcotics laced paper. Investigators say
jail cameras show Simmons visiting that same inmate delivering a
stack of papers to them in a visitation booth.
Speaker 11 (07:34):
It just makes no sense to me that someone who
would take the time, the effort, to energy, and the
great amount of cost it takes to get through law
school and become a lawyer would throw it all away
for something this stupid.
Speaker 9 (07:48):
Simmons is now the third attorney in the last year
to be arrested for smuggling charges, Ronald Lewis last November
and Jason Johnson in August. Sheriff had Gonzalez announced his
department's commitment to crack down on this problem. Legal expert
Chris Tritico says, this makes it tougher for lawyers to
communicate with their clients.
Speaker 11 (08:06):
You make it harder for all of us who are
doing it right to go down and meet with clients
who unfortunately can't get out of jail, can't bond out. Now,
we can't make it even harder for us to get
our job done because you were too stupid to follow
the law.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
But yeah, sure, keep voting on RAIS. It's working out
real well. The SpaceX Starship Flight six will be at
around four o'clock this afternoon. There is a window within
which they can do this and it is weather related.
You can watch it on X which is Twitter. Go
to the space X account space x on Twitter or
(08:45):
x starting in around four and you can see it
all today.
Speaker 7 (08:50):
The government made money off of it.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
We didn't get nothing the hard time to Michael Berry show,
it's a damn shame.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
It's a damn shame.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
It's a damn shame.
Speaker 4 (08:59):
All rise and I never seen the setting. Love you
won't hear me why it's not just a far plea.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
You love a good story.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Sometimes look up the story of Penny in the Quarters,
which is who this song is. It's it's worth your time.
It's been it's been documented. This was a This was
a take of an album that was never released, and
it was in a stack of a bend full of pressings,
(09:36):
as happens in the music business, and somebody, I forget
who it was was, was looking through material as often happens,
and they're putting things on, going how's this sound, how's
this sound?
Speaker 1 (09:48):
How's this sound?
Speaker 3 (09:50):
And they come across this and they love it, and
at that time, it's say forty years old. I think
this is around twenty twenty, but I could be wrong
on the timing.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
We discovered it a couple of years ago.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
So they try to track down Penny in the Quarters,
and nobody knows who that is. There's no other details,
so it takes say two years to find them. And
when they find Penny in the Quarters, Penny has just
died a couple months ago. And this song would end
up being released and it would be used on a
(10:29):
TV commercial, some money would be made. Penny never made
a penny off.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Of the music business.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
And little did she know she had a hit on
her hands, but she would die not knowing that.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Crazy.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Speaking of which, I was watching a documentary on the
song locomotion. You know who wrote that.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Very good?
Speaker 3 (10:53):
Carol King? Yep, Carol King and her husband Jerry I
remember his name, So they were mostly songwriters for a while.
She was say twenty one, twenty two years old, her
husband was about the same. Two little babies at home,
a two year old and a newborn, and they hire
(11:14):
this woman named Eva. I forget her last name. Young
black lady nineteen years old. They're living in New York.
She comes in, she's living with them, she's sleeping with
the babies, with the babies in one bedroom, and then
they're in the other and they write this song Locomotion,
(11:34):
and Carol King sang it, and they're trying to make
a they're trying to pitch it to get somebody to
cover it, and Eva is cleaning the house, vacuuming or whatever,
taking care of the baby, and when the song keeps
coming on, she keeps dancing to it because it has
a you know, it's a dance song, and they can't
(11:57):
get anybody to cover its. A woman I think is Sharp.
I forget DD's last name, but she was a pretty
serious singer at the time. They can't get anybody serious
to pick up the song, so Eva sings it and
they release it under the name Little Eva and it
becomes a huge hit, huge, and Little Eva and Carol
(12:21):
King get crossways, and she claims she was paid fifty
dollars for this whole thing and that she never made
another dime. I don't know. Fox twenty six is Randy Wallace.
If you didn't think things were bad in Houston, Harris
County before nineteen year old who pleaded guilty to stealing
(12:42):
catalytic converters allowed to remain on probation, even though he's
picked up three new felony charges while on probation, including
no big deal possession of a machine gun. Harris Democrat
Judge Chris Morton is who you have to thank for
(13:03):
this one.
Speaker 12 (13:04):
For a two year period, Houston led the state, if
not the nation, and catalytic converter thefts after Harros County
Shriffs Dewtie Darren amnde Res was gunned down trying to
stop catalytic converter thieves. His widow testified before lawmakers.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
So my Hausin gave up his life for me, and
that's just for me.
Speaker 12 (13:24):
For the community, The governor and others vowed offenders would
be met with prison time.
Speaker 5 (13:30):
Very rarely have I seen anyone actually go to prison
for being convicted of catalytic converter theft.
Speaker 12 (13:36):
Take nineteen year old Deontae Norman. He made headlines last
January as part of the catalytic theft ring that was
caught in the act at this North.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Side cor lot.
Speaker 5 (13:46):
There was over forty thousand dollars worth of catalytic converters
that were taken from cars in the car dealership.
Speaker 12 (13:53):
Last July, Norman pled guilty and got probation.
Speaker 5 (13:56):
While on probation, he gets charged three months later with
two more felonies.
Speaker 12 (14:03):
Norman is arrested and charged again for possessing a machine gun.
Instead of having his probation revoked, Norman is free from
jail on bonds totaling sixty five thousand dollars. Last year,
we told you about career of habitual offender Robert James Williams.
Speaker 5 (14:19):
He had fourteen felony convictions. Now he's charged with theft
of a catalytic converter and he got out on a
pr bot.
Speaker 12 (14:25):
One of williams bond conditions he couldn't have a chainsaw,
which is used to steal catalytic converters. Like Deontay Norman,
Williams got zero prison time. He was sentenced to probations.
Speaker 5 (14:38):
These guys should actually be doing time in prison, especially
Williams with fourteen prior felony convictions.
Speaker 12 (14:46):
Now, even though Deontay Norman has the financial needs to
post a sixty five thousand dollars bond, we the taxpayers
are paying for his attorney. His next scheduled court appearance
is December nineteenth.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
Another Randy Wallace report, at least five inmates released early
from prison due to medical issues are now wanted fugitives
the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. They won't give us
any information on them until you file a Freedom of
Information Act request. There's no reason you should you should
(15:23):
have that information.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
I've never seen anything like this before.
Speaker 12 (15:27):
Every decade, the State Sunset Advisory Commission audits different state agencies.
A deep dive into the Texas Department of Criminal Justice
brought a strange dilemma to light.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
It involves prison.
Speaker 12 (15:40):
Inmates who are released early due to terminal illnesses.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
You got to be kidding me.
Speaker 5 (15:46):
How do you go from getting released when you're supposedly
on death door to now we don't even know where
you are?
Speaker 12 (15:53):
The Sunset Commission found as of the third quarter and
fiscal year twenty twenty four, five medically recommended intensive supervision
releases had absconded, which means TDCJ cannot locate the releases
because they have left their approved residents. Conversely, inmates have
died from their conditions shortly after they have been denied
(16:15):
MRIs and others have been approved for MRIs only to
die before release.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
What are their offenses? What are you doing to find them?
Speaker 3 (16:24):
You know?
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Should the public be notified?
Speaker 12 (16:26):
TDCJ won't give us any info about the wanted inmates,
including their names. During a sunset commissioneering in Austin, State
Representative Lacey Hall pressed TDCJ Chairman Brian Collier for more info.
Speaker 4 (16:39):
How many in total offenders released on medical parole do
we not know, like the location for and have absconded.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
I can get you numbers and I can go back
roughly ten years.
Speaker 12 (16:51):
This is the first time TDCJ has lost track of
an inmate claiming to be gravely ill. In nineteen ninety eight,
Stephen J. Als It was granted a special medical parole,
but his disease was bogus. He ended up going back
to prison after trying to fake his own death. TDCJ
told us we needed to file an open records request
(17:13):
to get the names and mug shots of the now
wanted inmates.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
They're making a mockery of us. And by the way,
this isn't Houston Harris County anymore. Your governor could do
something about this. If every single elected official was a
victim of the criminals who they are continually releasing and
(17:41):
covering for they'd changed their tune, but they're not. The
victims are mainly the people who live around them, who
were related to them, who can't afford to leave, who
can't afford to get away, guy but doesn't care.
Speaker 7 (18:11):
I had a fine box, Michael Berry, I remember now.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
So she would dance to it, and Carol Keene told her,
you got to create a dance to go with it,
specific dance, and so that's where she's mentioning that. And
then they picture a mashed potato song because mashed potato
was big at that time.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
And then there was another dance.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Song, and she felt like she was getting type cast
into dance songs. Bitch, you're the maid, sing what they
give you. It's always amazing to me how people will say, yeah,
I should have made more money. You know, I had
(19:08):
three number one hits, and you know I should have
made more money. When they discovered you you were living
in a culvert Okay, I'm not sure how much more
you should have made if somebody had said to you
at that point, you're gonna make X and you're gonna
get to be on the biggest stage in America. You
wouldn't have said, naw, I'll stay here in this covert
(19:32):
till y'all get this right. I'm going to read the
entirety of this piece tonight, but I wanted to just
share something with you I read that I thought was
pretty good. It's by a fellow named Martin Jury, and
it's in the Free Press Today, which is edited by
Barry Weiss. It's a new publication that came out she
(19:53):
left The New York Times during COVID. It's an attempt
to get a more balanced journalistic organ It's entitled Our
Countercultural Revolution. Trump has become the definitive avatar of the
revolt of the public, of the public, not republic, the
revolt of the public. Will he be enough to justify Americans'
(20:15):
hunger for change? And four pages in I came across
this paragraph. I wanted to share it with you. Podcaster
Joe Rogan emerged during the campaign as a sort of
emissary from a forgotten demographic, restless males who found the
(20:35):
culture's obsession with racial and sexual minutia incomprehensible. Rogan is
nothing like a preacher. He's just a dude. With a
microphone at the opposite end of the complexity scale from
the giant digital platforms, and almost this is the line.
(20:57):
An almost transcendental normality is his superpower. His method relies
on duration. The podcast go on for hours, much too
long for scripted answers. Under Rogan's gentle prodding, the self
(21:18):
protective phrases are pushed aside, and an actual human being
is revealed. Trump, who chatted with Rogan for three hours,
seemed surprisingly self aware, recalling with awe his first arrival
at the White House and labeling his own meandering style
(21:40):
of speaking quote the weave. The podcast placed this humanized
version of the usually blustering former president before an audience
of tens of millions. Meantime, Kamala Harris, reportedly following the
directives of her ormy averse staffers, refused to go on
(22:03):
the show. Many in that audience belong to Rogan's tribe
of normy males, an arcane community. I won't attempt to
describe other than to note that it involves a rugged
competitive spirit, whether in sports or online gaming, a lot
of cussing, and a contempt for fakery, somehow balanced by
(22:24):
admiration for a good bser. The Normies believe they embody
the ideals and character that built America. Hollywood evidently disagrees.
In films and television, their kind is invariably portrayed as
fools or brutes. Progressives seem to hold them responsible for
(22:47):
every crime in our history. In other words, contemporary culture
is at war with these men, who would prefer to
be left alone then fight back. Trump represented the temptation
to revolt. Trump's physical courage, demonstrated after being nicked by
an assassin's bullet, strongly appealed to the values of the group.
(23:11):
The bond between Trump and rogan I, suspect, gave millions
of Normies, including those who considered themselves democrats are apolitical,
permission to join the MAGA movement. In the a event,
Trump received fifty five percent of the mail vote, while
younger men aged eighteen to twenty nine swung in his
(23:33):
direction by nearly thirty percent compared to twenty twenty. Popularity
among men helped peel off typically Democrat minority voters. Trump
increased his share of Latino males to fifty five percent
and of Black males to twenty one percent, to everyone's surprise.
The normies turned out to be a multi racial tribe.
(23:58):
I'm going to read the entire piece. I think it's wonderful,
but it speaks about things in a slightly more high brow,
if pretentious manner than they are usually spoken about, because
the Normies, as he jokingly refers to them, are criticized
or dismissed offhandedly by the C and n's and the
(24:23):
MSNBC's under Rachel Maddows and the Anderson Coopers. And I'll
tell you what's happening. I sense it, I feel it.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
I see it.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
Real men, normal men who make up the vast majority
of men in this country. Straight guy trying to make
a living, uh, trying to figure it all out, trying
to mate with someone, maybe have a family, maybe have
(24:57):
a career, deal with all the emotions and the anxieties
and the expectation. The average guy is trying to figure
it all out, and all they see portrayed are feminized men's,
stupid men. And I think after a while it gets
to be too much.
Speaker 5 (25:19):
What flavor monk and chocolate them, Michael Berry, I'm a
chocolate freaking.
Speaker 13 (25:25):
Out Good afternoon, and welcome to the planet. Term I'm
your hosts is Shirley Q liquor.
Speaker 6 (25:41):
I would like to ask everybody to move forward and
take their seat. Y'all can sit on the floor over here, ladies.
Wearing depends that the acces sit on the benches, because
I'm the one had to come in here and backum
after y'all. Though, this is my first day of working
up in here, so y'all will excuse me if I'm
not familiar with all the correct terms. Okay, what a
wonderful universe we live? And look how many at stars
(26:04):
it is up yonder? Cut the light off in here?
Shi could cut the damn light. I'm trying to do
my speech on cut of the stars. Okay, where I
wull Okay, if you will focus your eyes up yonder,
look and see at the moon?
Speaker 1 (26:19):
Do it being full moon? How many say yeah?
Speaker 6 (26:22):
How many say no?
Speaker 13 (26:24):
Okay?
Speaker 6 (26:24):
Ladies Germans, at this time we exit those of you
who is very prone to vomit, King, we ask that
you leave, Please leave this picture. Have been knowed to
make some lady sake if their stomach and nose, King,
and I do not care for I am not putting
up with it. And if you do it, you're gonna
mop it up. Yourself now that have been warned. I
(26:46):
asked that you sit back and joined the movement. I
saw it already this morning. It's in this voma. Go ahead,
smoke me a cigarette. Thank you, and enjoying your trip
to the planter.
Speaker 3 (26:56):
See Burt Arby Wrights. When we were kids, we went
to Burger King and we loved it. My grandmother would
take us. She always got a quote mustard whopper. Y'all
want to stop for a mustard whopper and a shake.
Can't do it now. They make slop burgers super messy,
(27:17):
and it's not good for the price. It's water burger
for me. We were talking earlier about these. The model
now for the fast food restaurants is to do a
much smaller footprint on the same sized lot, so they're
still tying up the same amount of real estate. But
(27:39):
what they're doing is they don't want you to come inside.
Russell Obara told me that for Chick fil A, eighty
percent of their volume is drive through. For some of
these it's now almost one hundred percent, if not altogether
one hundred percent, because they don't want you. That don't
(28:01):
want you coming in. There's a place called shortstop that
you see them around town fast food place and that's
all drive through. They look they're built kind of like
a checker's maybe the same folks. Uh, it's kind of
a ghetto. Uh, kind of a ghetto fast food, but
it's it is a it's some kind of some kind
(28:22):
of franchise or you know there there's there's multiple loan.
But if you think about it, Sonic, which is a
complicated model when when you consider how different Sonic was
is Sonic didn't have an interior area, but they did
have to have the people that bring you the food, right,
(28:46):
and the idea would be that you would cover those
people on tips. Right, So that adds a whole because
if if nobody shows up but your kitchen, you post
to you post to tip them. Although the problem is
the problem is I think you can only tip them
(29:08):
in cash. Who carries cash? Yeah, you cannot put it
on your bill. So anyway, James with Southern Plumbing says
they do He's all, they are not all, but they
do a lot of He said, we tear down existing
taco bells and we rebuild them in seventy five days
(29:29):
or less. And I said, and what's the difference is
there no inside, only a drive through. What else, he says,
The restaurant gets all new equipment and all updates, that
includes all new utilities, a concrete parking lot, all in
less than seventy five days. You know, when you think
about it's why old apartment complexes don't get torn down,
(29:53):
even though the land is more valuable, because you've got
the down. If you're sitting on that out set, you've
got rent coming in every month, and you're gonna tear
it down and build a nicer one. Let's say, what
is that a year between when you tear it down,
So you lose all of that plus the construction costs
(30:15):
when you factor in, and the pro form or what
it's gonna take you to make money. That's why it's
gonna be years before you make money, even with a
new product and all that. It makes a big, big difference.
I don't know where the other one was. I also
think it says a lot about our culture and where
(30:36):
we're headed that fewer and fewer places want you to
come inside. They don't want you to come inside, they
don't want you They just want you to go to
the drive through. And I believe that is because of
(30:59):
the social contract breakdown. If a crazy person walks into
a restaurant, nobody feels comfortable kicking him out. I was
visiting Uncle Jerry about a year or so ago, and
(31:20):
I said, let me go get us a bucket of
chicken at one of my favorite, probably my favorite fast
food fried chicken in this area, and that is Poilo
Competito and it is a Guatemalan fast food restaurant. Don't
knock it till you try it. It's over on bel
Air and it is phenomenal. I mean, it is so
good and apparently it's just legendary in Guatemala. The reason
(31:45):
I knew about it is when I was on city council,
we had a city health inspector who the Guatemalan family
who owns the company wanted to open a Houston location.
So they funded him and they put him in that
Poilo Competito on on bel Air, and they got him
all good, and going about a year into it, they
were like, all right, that's good, and they thumped him.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
Out, bounced him.
Speaker 3 (32:09):
So now he lost his City of Houston job and
he lost the place anyway. So I'm in there and
this crazy homeless dude comes in, big black dude, I
mean hair out to hear, stunk like ass and crazy
and screaming and hollering and smelly and filthy, and he's
(32:29):
coming here. I want something, and i want something to
drag round and I'm just standing to the side watching
how this thing is going to play out, and he
will know. They ask him that the girls that speak
that work there don't speak English, so they're kind of
trying to shoot him out. Well, he's not about to
be shoot huh huh. So they're they're at there talking
(32:50):
to each other in Spanish. Should we call the cops?
You know, they're not gonna call the cops. So this
training working in the back as a fry cook comes out,
and it was the craziest thing because they're he's in
the back and he's going, I'm not coming out. I'm
not gonna come out. No boy, no boy, Pelago.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
They're like, no, no, you have to do it.
Speaker 3 (33:10):
You have to do it because you're really a boy.
And so he comes around outside and he goes all
man on him. He's got makeup and everything. He's like,
you get out of here, you get out of here
right now. Well, that set homeless crazy dude off. He
starts cackling.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
True story.
Speaker 3 (33:27):
But the training dude's credit, he got him to go
out like he was ready to whoop his ass. You
think I'm kidding. I mean, you can't make this up.
It's a true story. It's a true story. But you
go into a restaurant now and people act so foolish.
There's certain demographics of people that act so foolish. I
think this restaurant's along. It's why the Walgreens are closing.
(33:48):
Just screw it, just do a drive through.
It's that time time, time, time, luck and load. So
Michael Verie Show is on the air.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
The wonderful piece by Martin Gury. Then I'm going to
read tonight about.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
The expectations of Trump and how he won his coalition,
and it's really really interesting. There's a paragraph I'll read
to you because I'm gonna read the entire article online tonight,
but I want to get back to what's going Don't
let me forget before this.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Hour is up. Fromont to do that.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
So Amy Davis deserves a lot of credit at KPRC TV.
Here was her story back in October. A month later,
the Houston Housing Authority CEO resigned. Of course, he still
gets paid six months. Do you get six months severance?
I know people that don't get six months severance when
they're laid off and they did nothing wrong. This guy's
(01:13):
basically caught red handed, and they go, oh, I know
we're not allowed to fire you because you're black, but
this could get bad. You know some really bad stuff here.
Millions and millions of dollars have been stolen, and you
hired all your buddies who you claim not to know
from Chicago, and now all these poor people in public housing,
(01:37):
you were supposed to replace their air conditioning unit and
you didn't do it. I mean some of these cases
the air conditioning unit was falling out of the window
or it got pushed into the They didn't even know
how to put a window air conditioning unit, and they
got a contract to do hundreds, if not thousands of them.
(01:59):
I mean, it's you, it's galling. There's no end, there's
no limit to what they're willing to do. They're unashamed.
They'll just steal it in broad daylight and then claim
you're racist for catching them. But here here was KPRC
TV's Amy Davis. She deserves a lot of credit for
(02:21):
breaking this story October of this year.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
Larry Grisby has lived here at Cuney Homes for eight years.
It's the city's oldest public housing development, opened in nineteen
forty three. But Larry, like other people who live in
this third world neighborhood, was looking forward to some promised
upgrades from the Houston Housing Authority.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
It poutly have been two benches.
Speaker 5 (02:42):
Hem pould have been a bench hemp and a bench
right there, and it pould have been a table right there.
Speaker 4 (02:48):
But all that's here are these concrete pads with screws
attached to nothing. KPRC to obtain these renderings of what
the landscape improvement project connecting Cuney Homes to the Columbia
Town Trail was supposed to look like. The estimated cost
six hundred forty three thousand, five hundred dollars, the Houston
Housing Authority actually paid contractors more than seven hundred and
(03:10):
sixty six thousand dollars. That's one hundred and twenty three
thousand bucks over budget. And this is what the people
at Quney Holmes got. They were supposed to come back
and add more.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Yeah, they supposed to come back and put the table
and the other bent.
Speaker 6 (03:23):
What happened?
Speaker 7 (03:24):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
I just hand I didn't I don't know.
Speaker 4 (03:28):
They never came back.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
They never said nothing.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
In our search for Grisbee's benches and this chess table
and your money, we knocked on doors searching for the
contractors paid for this work. Lamntre Woods owns Elite Project Managers.
He registered the company with the state on January ninth,
and signed this contract with the Houston Housing Authority just
(03:53):
two months later, on March fourth. The registered address for
his business took us to this humble apartment complex. We
left the business card, but he never called us back.
Our next stop was to the Houston Housing Authority to
find the other man who signed this deal. Houston Housing
Authority CEO David northerns, can you tell us how you
(04:13):
know Lamentre Woods and how he was chosen?
Speaker 1 (04:21):
He's one of the contractors there. I don't know him personally.
Speaker 4 (04:24):
You don't know him personally. And did you know that
his business was just formed two months before he got
that contract.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
No, we were only here to discuss fifty million dollars grand.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
If you have any questions on more than every to
take him and then we can respond.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Today we're doing questions.
Speaker 4 (04:37):
You have my cell phone number, and I have plenty
more questions. I just think, I mean, can you can
you at all address those? You're the director. Northern did
agree to meet with me off camera days later, but
he had few answers. He said he didn't know this
project was incomplete. These contracts we've obtained show all work
was to conclude on or before April first. AJJ has
(05:00):
paid Elite all of the money under its contract and
then some back at Cuney Holmes Grisbee is still missing
the chess table, solar lights, and benches. Documents show Elite
project managers asked for another extension until May seventh, and
an extra seventeen five hundred dollars to order the items.
(05:20):
That was five months ago. We finally got in touch
with the Lamnentree Woods by phone this week. He says
he's been in touch with someone at the housing authority
every week, but he wouldn't say who it is he's
speaking to. He also wouldn't say why the chess table,
the benches, and the correct lighting haven't been installed here
months after we paid for them.
Speaker 7 (05:41):
I tell CARE a lot of people, they say your money,
somebody ran off with the money.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
I tell Care a load.
Speaker 8 (05:46):
And to hear that, you know, thousands of dollars have
been spent for work that wasn't done, some that was
done shoddily, is again very disturbing.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
At Large, City Councilman Julian Ramirez says taxpayers deserve.
Speaker 8 (05:59):
Answers' questions about why certain vendors were hired to do
project management and hired to do work that was either
done shoddily or not completed, yet the money was paid out.
A lot of important questions raised.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
We did reach out to the chairman of the Houston
Housing Authority Board this week. He told me the board
has called a special meeting for Wednesday where they'll go
into executive session to discuss personnel matters and the performance
of the President and CEO, David Northern.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Meanwhile, Box twenty six with a story that yet another
Houston defense attorney has been arrested for smuggling drugs into
the Harris County jail. This is the third attorney in
recent months that has been arrested for smuggling drugs through
the jail.
Speaker 9 (06:47):
Defense attorney Hunter Simmons improbable class court for his own case.
The thirty nine year old lawyer, along with forty year
old t Niche Butler and twenty two year old Joshua Piper,
are facing smuggling charges, accused of bringing drugs to a
Harris County inmate.
Speaker 10 (07:01):
Legal documents or some type of documents go into the
jail that were lace or gifted in some type of
control of substance and that occurred.
Speaker 9 (07:14):
Court document state the investigation dates back to March twenty
twenty four, with recorded jail calls between an inmate, Joseph
Dunn and Butler about payments and a plan to get
Attorney Simmons to deliver the narcotics laced paper. Investigators say
jail cameras show Simmons visiting that same inmate delivering a
stack of papers to them in a visitation booth.
Speaker 11 (07:34):
It just makes no sense to me that someone who
would take the time, the effort, to energy, and the
great amount of cost it takes to get through law
school and become a lawyer would throw it all away
for something this stupid.
Speaker 9 (07:48):
Simmons is now the third attorney in the last year
to be arrested for smuggling charges, Ronald Lewis last November
and Jason Johnson in August. Sheriff had Gonzalez announced his
department's commitment to crack down on this problem. Legal expert
Chris Tritico says, this makes it tougher for lawyers to
communicate with their clients.
Speaker 11 (08:06):
You make it harder for all of us who are
doing it right to go down and meet with clients
who unfortunately can't get out of jail, can't bond out. Now,
we can't make it even harder for us to get
our job done because you were too stupid to follow
the law.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
But yeah, sure, keep voting on RAIS. It's working out
real well. The SpaceX Starship Flight six will be at
around four o'clock this afternoon. There is a window within
which they can do this and it is weather related.
You can watch it on X which is Twitter. Go
to the space X account space x on Twitter or
(08:45):
x starting in around four and you can see it
all today.
Speaker 7 (08:50):
The government made money off of it.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
We didn't get nothing the hard time to Michael Berry show,
it's a damn shame.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
It's a damn shame.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
It's a damn shame.
Speaker 4 (08:59):
All rise and I never seen the setting. Love you
won't hear me why it's not just a far plea.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
You love a good story.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Sometimes look up the story of Penny in the Quarters,
which is who this song is. It's it's worth your time.
It's been it's been documented. This was a This was
a take of an album that was never released, and
it was in a stack of a bend full of pressings,
(09:36):
as happens in the music business, and somebody, I forget
who it was was, was looking through material as often happens,
and they're putting things on, going how's this sound, how's
this sound?
Speaker 1 (09:48):
How's this sound?
Speaker 3 (09:50):
And they come across this and they love it, and
at that time, it's say forty years old. I think
this is around twenty twenty, but I could be wrong
on the timing.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
We discovered it a couple of years ago.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
So they try to track down Penny in the Quarters,
and nobody knows who that is. There's no other details,
so it takes say two years to find them. And
when they find Penny in the Quarters, Penny has just
died a couple months ago. And this song would end
up being released and it would be used on a
(10:29):
TV commercial, some money would be made. Penny never made
a penny off.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Of the music business.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
And little did she know she had a hit on
her hands, but she would die not knowing that.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Crazy.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Speaking of which, I was watching a documentary on the
song locomotion. You know who wrote that.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Very good?
Speaker 3 (10:53):
Carol King? Yep, Carol King and her husband Jerry I
remember his name, So they were mostly songwriters for a while.
She was say twenty one, twenty two years old, her
husband was about the same. Two little babies at home,
a two year old and a newborn, and they hire
(11:14):
this woman named Eva. I forget her last name. Young
black lady nineteen years old. They're living in New York.
She comes in, she's living with them, she's sleeping with
the babies, with the babies in one bedroom, and then
they're in the other and they write this song Locomotion,
(11:34):
and Carol King sang it, and they're trying to make
a they're trying to pitch it to get somebody to
cover it, and Eva is cleaning the house, vacuuming or whatever,
taking care of the baby, and when the song keeps
coming on, she keeps dancing to it because it has
a you know, it's a dance song, and they can't
(11:57):
get anybody to cover its. A woman I think is Sharp.
I forget DD's last name, but she was a pretty
serious singer at the time. They can't get anybody serious
to pick up the song, so Eva sings it and
they release it under the name Little Eva and it
becomes a huge hit, huge, and Little Eva and Carol
(12:21):
King get crossways, and she claims she was paid fifty
dollars for this whole thing and that she never made
another dime. I don't know. Fox twenty six is Randy Wallace.
If you didn't think things were bad in Houston, Harris
County before nineteen year old who pleaded guilty to stealing
(12:42):
catalytic converters allowed to remain on probation, even though he's
picked up three new felony charges while on probation, including
no big deal possession of a machine gun. Harris Democrat
Judge Chris Morton is who you have to thank for
(13:03):
this one.
Speaker 12 (13:04):
For a two year period, Houston led the state, if
not the nation, and catalytic converter thefts after Harros County
Shriffs Dewtie Darren amnde Res was gunned down trying to
stop catalytic converter thieves. His widow testified before lawmakers.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
So my Hausin gave up his life for me, and
that's just for me.
Speaker 12 (13:24):
For the community, The governor and others vowed offenders would
be met with prison time.
Speaker 5 (13:30):
Very rarely have I seen anyone actually go to prison
for being convicted of catalytic converter theft.
Speaker 12 (13:36):
Take nineteen year old Deontae Norman. He made headlines last
January as part of the catalytic theft ring that was
caught in the act at this North.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Side cor lot.
Speaker 5 (13:46):
There was over forty thousand dollars worth of catalytic converters
that were taken from cars in the car dealership.
Speaker 12 (13:53):
Last July, Norman pled guilty and got probation.
Speaker 5 (13:56):
While on probation, he gets charged three months later with
two more felonies.
Speaker 12 (14:03):
Norman is arrested and charged again for possessing a machine gun.
Instead of having his probation revoked, Norman is free from
jail on bonds totaling sixty five thousand dollars. Last year,
we told you about career of habitual offender Robert James Williams.
Speaker 5 (14:19):
He had fourteen felony convictions. Now he's charged with theft
of a catalytic converter and he got out on a
pr bot.
Speaker 12 (14:25):
One of williams bond conditions he couldn't have a chainsaw,
which is used to steal catalytic converters. Like Deontay Norman,
Williams got zero prison time. He was sentenced to probations.
Speaker 5 (14:38):
These guys should actually be doing time in prison, especially
Williams with fourteen prior felony convictions.
Speaker 12 (14:46):
Now, even though Deontay Norman has the financial needs to
post a sixty five thousand dollars bond, we the taxpayers
are paying for his attorney. His next scheduled court appearance
is December nineteenth.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
Another Randy Wallace report, at least five inmates released early
from prison due to medical issues are now wanted fugitives
the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. They won't give us
any information on them until you file a Freedom of
Information Act request. There's no reason you should you should
(15:23):
have that information.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
I've never seen anything like this before.
Speaker 12 (15:27):
Every decade, the State Sunset Advisory Commission audits different state agencies.
A deep dive into the Texas Department of Criminal Justice
brought a strange dilemma to light.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
It involves prison.
Speaker 12 (15:40):
Inmates who are released early due to terminal illnesses.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
You got to be kidding me.
Speaker 5 (15:46):
How do you go from getting released when you're supposedly
on death door to now we don't even know where
you are?
Speaker 12 (15:53):
The Sunset Commission found as of the third quarter and
fiscal year twenty twenty four, five medically recommended intensive supervision
releases had absconded, which means TDCJ cannot locate the releases
because they have left their approved residents. Conversely, inmates have
died from their conditions shortly after they have been denied
(16:15):
MRIs and others have been approved for MRIs only to
die before release.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
What are their offenses? What are you doing to find them?
Speaker 3 (16:24):
You know?
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Should the public be notified?
Speaker 12 (16:26):
TDCJ won't give us any info about the wanted inmates,
including their names. During a sunset commissioneering in Austin, State
Representative Lacey Hall pressed TDCJ Chairman Brian Collier for more info.
Speaker 4 (16:39):
How many in total offenders released on medical parole do
we not know, like the location for and have absconded.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
I can get you numbers and I can go back
roughly ten years.
Speaker 12 (16:51):
This is the first time TDCJ has lost track of
an inmate claiming to be gravely ill. In nineteen ninety eight,
Stephen J. Als It was granted a special medical parole,
but his disease was bogus. He ended up going back
to prison after trying to fake his own death. TDCJ
told us we needed to file an open records request
(17:13):
to get the names and mug shots of the now
wanted inmates.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
They're making a mockery of us. And by the way,
this isn't Houston Harris County anymore. Your governor could do
something about this. If every single elected official was a
victim of the criminals who they are continually releasing and
(17:41):
covering for they'd changed their tune, but they're not. The
victims are mainly the people who live around them, who
were related to them, who can't afford to leave, who
can't afford to get away, guy but doesn't care.
Speaker 7 (18:11):
I had a fine box, Michael Berry, I remember now.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
So she would dance to it, and Carol Keene told her,
you got to create a dance to go with it,
specific dance, and so that's where she's mentioning that. And
then they picture a mashed potato song because mashed potato
was big at that time.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
And then there was another dance.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Song, and she felt like she was getting type cast
into dance songs. Bitch, you're the maid, sing what they
give you. It's always amazing to me how people will say, yeah,
I should have made more money. You know, I had
(19:08):
three number one hits, and you know I should have
made more money. When they discovered you you were living
in a culvert Okay, I'm not sure how much more
you should have made if somebody had said to you
at that point, you're gonna make X and you're gonna
get to be on the biggest stage in America. You
wouldn't have said, naw, I'll stay here in this covert
(19:32):
till y'all get this right. I'm going to read the
entirety of this piece tonight, but I wanted to just
share something with you I read that I thought was
pretty good. It's by a fellow named Martin Jury, and
it's in the Free Press Today, which is edited by
Barry Weiss. It's a new publication that came out she
(19:53):
left The New York Times during COVID. It's an attempt
to get a more balanced journalistic organ It's entitled Our
Countercultural Revolution. Trump has become the definitive avatar of the
revolt of the public, of the public, not republic, the
revolt of the public. Will he be enough to justify Americans'
(20:15):
hunger for change? And four pages in I came across
this paragraph. I wanted to share it with you. Podcaster
Joe Rogan emerged during the campaign as a sort of
emissary from a forgotten demographic, restless males who found the
(20:35):
culture's obsession with racial and sexual minutia incomprehensible. Rogan is
nothing like a preacher. He's just a dude. With a
microphone at the opposite end of the complexity scale from
the giant digital platforms, and almost this is the line.
(20:57):
An almost transcendental normality is his superpower. His method relies
on duration. The podcast go on for hours, much too
long for scripted answers. Under Rogan's gentle prodding, the self
(21:18):
protective phrases are pushed aside, and an actual human being
is revealed. Trump, who chatted with Rogan for three hours,
seemed surprisingly self aware, recalling with awe his first arrival
at the White House and labeling his own meandering style
(21:40):
of speaking quote the weave. The podcast placed this humanized
version of the usually blustering former president before an audience
of tens of millions. Meantime, Kamala Harris, reportedly following the
directives of her ormy averse staffers, refused to go on
(22:03):
the show. Many in that audience belong to Rogan's tribe
of normy males, an arcane community. I won't attempt to
describe other than to note that it involves a rugged
competitive spirit, whether in sports or online gaming, a lot
of cussing, and a contempt for fakery, somehow balanced by
(22:24):
admiration for a good bser. The Normies believe they embody
the ideals and character that built America. Hollywood evidently disagrees.
In films and television, their kind is invariably portrayed as
fools or brutes. Progressives seem to hold them responsible for
(22:47):
every crime in our history. In other words, contemporary culture
is at war with these men, who would prefer to
be left alone then fight back. Trump represented the temptation
to revolt. Trump's physical courage, demonstrated after being nicked by
an assassin's bullet, strongly appealed to the values of the group.
(23:11):
The bond between Trump and rogan I, suspect, gave millions
of Normies, including those who considered themselves democrats are apolitical,
permission to join the MAGA movement. In the a event,
Trump received fifty five percent of the mail vote, while
younger men aged eighteen to twenty nine swung in his
(23:33):
direction by nearly thirty percent compared to twenty twenty. Popularity
among men helped peel off typically Democrat minority voters. Trump
increased his share of Latino males to fifty five percent
and of Black males to twenty one percent, to everyone's surprise.
The normies turned out to be a multi racial tribe.
(23:58):
I'm going to read the entire piece. I think it's wonderful,
but it speaks about things in a slightly more high brow,
if pretentious manner than they are usually spoken about, because
the Normies, as he jokingly refers to them, are criticized
or dismissed offhandedly by the C and n's and the
(24:23):
MSNBC's under Rachel Maddows and the Anderson Coopers. And I'll
tell you what's happening. I sense it, I feel it.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
I see it.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
Real men, normal men who make up the vast majority
of men in this country. Straight guy trying to make
a living, uh, trying to figure it all out, trying
to mate with someone, maybe have a family, maybe have
(24:57):
a career, deal with all the emotions and the anxieties
and the expectation. The average guy is trying to figure
it all out, and all they see portrayed are feminized men's,
stupid men. And I think after a while it gets
to be too much.
Speaker 5 (25:19):
What flavor monk and chocolate them, Michael Berry, I'm a
chocolate freaking.
Speaker 13 (25:25):
Out Good afternoon, and welcome to the planet. Term I'm
your hosts is Shirley Q liquor.
Speaker 6 (25:41):
I would like to ask everybody to move forward and
take their seat. Y'all can sit on the floor over here, ladies.
Wearing depends that the acces sit on the benches, because
I'm the one had to come in here and backum
after y'all. Though, this is my first day of working
up in here, so y'all will excuse me if I'm
not familiar with all the correct terms. Okay, what a
wonderful universe we live? And look how many at stars
(26:04):
it is up yonder? Cut the light off in here?
Shi could cut the damn light. I'm trying to do
my speech on cut of the stars. Okay, where I
wull Okay, if you will focus your eyes up yonder,
look and see at the moon?
Speaker 1 (26:19):
Do it being full moon? How many say yeah?
Speaker 6 (26:22):
How many say no?
Speaker 13 (26:24):
Okay?
Speaker 6 (26:24):
Ladies Germans, at this time we exit those of you
who is very prone to vomit, King, we ask that
you leave, Please leave this picture. Have been knowed to
make some lady sake if their stomach and nose, King,
and I do not care for I am not putting
up with it. And if you do it, you're gonna
mop it up. Yourself now that have been warned. I
(26:46):
asked that you sit back and joined the movement. I
saw it already this morning. It's in this voma. Go ahead,
smoke me a cigarette. Thank you, and enjoying your trip
to the planter.
Speaker 3 (26:56):
See Burt Arby Wrights. When we were kids, we went
to Burger King and we loved it. My grandmother would
take us. She always got a quote mustard whopper. Y'all
want to stop for a mustard whopper and a shake.
Can't do it now. They make slop burgers super messy,
(27:17):
and it's not good for the price. It's water burger
for me. We were talking earlier about these. The model
now for the fast food restaurants is to do a
much smaller footprint on the same sized lot, so they're
still tying up the same amount of real estate. But
(27:39):
what they're doing is they don't want you to come inside.
Russell Obara told me that for Chick fil A, eighty
percent of their volume is drive through. For some of
these it's now almost one hundred percent, if not altogether
one hundred percent, because they don't want you. That don't
(28:01):
want you coming in. There's a place called shortstop that
you see them around town fast food place and that's
all drive through. They look they're built kind of like
a checker's maybe the same folks. Uh, it's kind of
a ghetto. Uh, kind of a ghetto fast food, but
it's it is a it's some kind of some kind
(28:22):
of franchise or you know there there's there's multiple loan.
But if you think about it, Sonic, which is a
complicated model when when you consider how different Sonic was
is Sonic didn't have an interior area, but they did
have to have the people that bring you the food, right,
(28:46):
and the idea would be that you would cover those
people on tips. Right, So that adds a whole because
if if nobody shows up but your kitchen, you post
to you post to tip them. Although the problem is
the problem is I think you can only tip them
(29:08):
in cash. Who carries cash? Yeah, you cannot put it
on your bill. So anyway, James with Southern Plumbing says
they do He's all, they are not all, but they
do a lot of He said, we tear down existing
taco bells and we rebuild them in seventy five days
(29:29):
or less. And I said, and what's the difference is
there no inside, only a drive through. What else, he says,
The restaurant gets all new equipment and all updates, that
includes all new utilities, a concrete parking lot, all in
less than seventy five days. You know, when you think
about it's why old apartment complexes don't get torn down,
(29:53):
even though the land is more valuable, because you've got
the down. If you're sitting on that out set, you've
got rent coming in every month, and you're gonna tear
it down and build a nicer one. Let's say, what
is that a year between when you tear it down,
So you lose all of that plus the construction costs
(30:15):
when you factor in, and the pro form or what
it's gonna take you to make money. That's why it's
gonna be years before you make money, even with a
new product and all that. It makes a big, big difference.
I don't know where the other one was. I also
think it says a lot about our culture and where
(30:36):
we're headed that fewer and fewer places want you to
come inside. They don't want you to come inside, they
don't want you They just want you to go to
the drive through. And I believe that is because of
(30:59):
the social contract breakdown. If a crazy person walks into
a restaurant, nobody feels comfortable kicking him out. I was
visiting Uncle Jerry about a year or so ago, and
(31:20):
I said, let me go get us a bucket of
chicken at one of my favorite, probably my favorite fast
food fried chicken in this area, and that is Poilo
Competito and it is a Guatemalan fast food restaurant. Don't
knock it till you try it. It's over on bel
Air and it is phenomenal. I mean, it is so
good and apparently it's just legendary in Guatemala. The reason
(31:45):
I knew about it is when I was on city council,
we had a city health inspector who the Guatemalan family
who owns the company wanted to open a Houston location.
So they funded him and they put him in that
Poilo Competito on on bel Air, and they got him
all good, and going about a year into it, they
were like, all right, that's good, and they thumped him.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
Out, bounced him.
Speaker 3 (32:09):
So now he lost his City of Houston job and
he lost the place anyway. So I'm in there and
this crazy homeless dude comes in, big black dude, I
mean hair out to hear, stunk like ass and crazy
and screaming and hollering and smelly and filthy, and he's
(32:29):
coming here. I want something, and i want something to
drag round and I'm just standing to the side watching
how this thing is going to play out, and he
will know. They ask him that the girls that speak
that work there don't speak English, so they're kind of
trying to shoot him out. Well, he's not about to
be shoot huh huh. So they're they're at there talking
(32:50):
to each other in Spanish. Should we call the cops?
You know, they're not gonna call the cops. So this
training working in the back as a fry cook comes out,
and it was the craziest thing because they're he's in
the back and he's going, I'm not coming out. I'm
not gonna come out. No boy, no boy, Pelago.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
They're like, no, no, you have to do it.
Speaker 3 (33:10):
You have to do it because you're really a boy.
And so he comes around outside and he goes all
man on him. He's got makeup and everything. He's like,
you get out of here, you get out of here
right now. Well, that set homeless crazy dude off. He
starts cackling.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
True story.
Speaker 3 (33:27):
But the training dude's credit, he got him to go
out like he was ready to whoop his ass. You
think I'm kidding. I mean, you can't make this up.
It's a true story. It's a true story. But you
go into a restaurant now and people act so foolish.
There's certain demographics of people that act so foolish. I
think this restaurant's along. It's why the Walgreens are closing.
(33:48):
Just screw it, just do a drive through.
Popular Podcasts
United States of Kennedy
United States of Kennedy is a podcast about our cultural fascination with the Kennedy dynasty. Every week, hosts Lyra Smith and George Civeris go into one aspect of the Kennedy story.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com