August 12, 2025 • 47 mins
Today on Kenny Webster's Pursuit of Happiness: Colonel Rob Maness and Houston Firefighter Union Leader Marty Lancton. ( @KennethRWebster )
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Jigana government sucks. Suit of happiness Radio is deluxe.
Liberty and Freedom will make you smile of a suit
of habbinesss on your radio. Toyle, just as cheeseburgers a
liberty fries at fo.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
There's a new app that lets strangers pay to come
to your wedding and cover the cost. You can tell
who they are, probably because they look excited to be
at a wedding. Hi, everybody, I'm Kenny Webster. Coming up
in just a little bit. Colonel Rob Minus is going
to be stopping by. He is a man who understands
Donald Trump's peace through Strength strategy for foreign military occupation
(00:43):
and ending wars around the world. And this Friday, Trump
is supposed to be meeting in Alaska with Vladimir Putin
to negotiate an end to the Russian War. Any chance
that's actually gonna happen, Rob Manus will let us know
about it. Stick around. Also stopping by. If you're from
Harris County or anywhere out thease, Texas, you're gonna want
to hear my in studio interview with the Firefighter Union
(01:05):
President of Harris County, Marty Langton, Marty Lancton is running
for county judge. He wants to replace Lena Hidalgo. He
is running as a Republican. For some of you older Republicans,
that probably blows your mind. There's a union leader for
government workers running as a Republican.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Once again we remind you, this is not your Grandpa's
Republican party. This is Donald Trump's Republican party. Some times
are different. Now, before we get to any of that,
maybe I just point something out. I noticed something interesting
happened recently, and I know I'm not the only person
to notice this. You notice what everyone's not talking about
so far this week for the first time in a while. No,
(01:42):
not Sidney Sweeney's blue jeans, Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein.
No one's talking about Jeffrey Epstein anymore. Couldn't help, but
notice it's Tuesday. Hadn't really been a news story in
over a week. No, No, that the Epstein thing did
not go well for Trump, and some members of liberal
media are now trying to keep it alive. It's fascinating.
(02:03):
For years, all we wanted was for CNN and The
New York Times and Axios and The Hill to talk
about Jeffrey Epstein. They wouldn't do it, and then as
soon as they thought it might make Donald Trump look bad,
suddenly it's all they want to talk about, which is
odd because it happened at a moment when CNN and
The New York Times and axios. I've suddenly become kind
(02:24):
of irrelevant, haven't they. Matt Vespa townhall dot Com recently
pointed out how the Jeffrey Epstein files aren't going to
be released anytime soon, not next week, not this month,
not next year.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
I wouldn't bet on it.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Judges won't release the grand jury testimony from the vaults
of the Justice Department. Republicans only want credible evidence released.
Democrats want everything released so they can weaponize the knowingly
false files and drum up another Russian collusion hoax and
get the media blitz that they're so desperate for. But
what we got instead of all that is a bunch
(02:58):
of nothing burger story about how Donald Trump and the
dead New York City hedge fund leader slash human trafficker,
two rich guys hung out with other wealthy, powerful people
and appeared as though they didn't like each other. Oh,
let's not forget that Trump and Epstein were photographed together
at a wedding, at a wedding with a thousand other guests.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Oh, they got him right.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Trump being in the files was never the story, nor
is it shocking, But the media ran with it.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
They debased themselves.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Even turncoat Michael Cohen is defending Donald Trump, saying Trump
never went to the infamous and Epstein Island. Sorr, are
we shocked that everyone's moved on with their lives.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
I'm not to be honest. How long can you focus
on a news story that isn't a news story? Remember
Michael Cohen, Here's Michael.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
I don't believe that Donald Trump was on Epstein's island.
Why he said it more than five six times? And
he says it very openly. Now, Donald Trump's as many
things openly. I was gonna say different. He doesn't always
fit with the truth. That's true, But I know Trump
and I know that he's saying it for a purpose.
Now is he in the file? Absolutely? Why he's in
(04:10):
the black book. He took free flights with Epstein down
to Palm Beach. If he turns around and says that
he was never on the island, rest a short, He's
going to use that as the basis for why this
whole thing again is a witch hunt against him. He'll
take the grain of salt and he'll make it into
the entire into the entire you know rights.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Right, you get it.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
CNN's Harry Enton noted that Google surgers or Epstein have
dropped eighty nine percent from three weeks ago. Donald Trump's
approval rating pretty consistent. Less than one percent of people
think this is a top issue. Remember the folks who
said this could cost Republicans the midterms doesn't look like
it anymore. Dabbling with amnesty nonsense, absolutely could. The process
(05:01):
to release what's credible continues, but no doubt Democrats will
try to release all the files when the recess ends.
Trump gave his attorney general the green light to release
the files that could be corroborated. It's an end of
term project. That's what Pam Bondi said from the get go.
For the time being, I don't think the Epstein news
is going to be going anywhere or affecting anyone anytime
(05:23):
between now and the midterms. Of course, that's subject to change,
like a lot of things, and if it does, we'll
talk about it.
Speaker 5 (05:30):
You've got Kenny Webster's Pursuit of Happiness on KPRC nine
point fifty.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Whenever I hear old Soviet music, it always reminds me
of going on a blind day with a Russian pilate's instructor.
That's more of a personal thing, though it has nothing
to do with the news. Today, there is a lot
of news involving Russia. Apparently Trump and Putin are going
to meet together on Friday in Alaska, and that makes
sense because, as Sarah Palin once pointed out, Russia and
(05:58):
Alaska are quite close to each other geographically. And if
your only familiarity with Sarah Palin was from watching a
sketch on Saturday Night Live, you might believe that she
can see Russia from her front yard. That's not really true. Though,
for whatever it's worth, this is one of those problems
that sometimes I wonder if we shouldn't get involved in,
(06:19):
but we are involved. We've spent a lot of money
in Ukraine, and I thought it was kind of funny
that so far, at this particular moment, Zelensky isn't even
invited to the negotiation. It's gonna be Trump and Putin,
which is great. You know, maybe Zolensky should be there,
but what do we need the European Union for.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
They're not invited. I think it's fantastic.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
This is anecdotal, but one of the things I've noticed
about Russians and Ukrainians, both of them, is that when
I meet them here in America, they're never real excited
about Zolensky. I mean, don't get me wrong, I've never
met anybody who likes Putin. But if you read the
New York Times, if you read the USA Today op eds,
(07:00):
they often talk about Zelensky as if he's like the
you know, Winston Churchill or something. It's a ridiculous, right,
It's just not true. Generally, more often than not, Ukrainian
Americans and Russian at expats look at Zelensky like a
guy that's making things worse. Now, to put that into perspective,
(07:20):
for you, to a lot of people in Ukraine, they
will look at Russia and think there are actually some
historical ties. Proponents argue that regions like Crimea and Eastern
Ukraine don biss have historical connections to Russia. For a
long time, Ukraine was part of the Russian Empire, was
also part of the Soviet Union. Similarly, if you're in
(07:41):
eastern Ukraine, if you're in Crimea, a lot of the
people walking around speak Russian. Did you know that a
lot of Americans don't understand that. If they had an
election today in Ukraine, which they won't because they got
rid of all the elections for the last several years here,
if they had an election today, it's pretty safe to
say Zelensky would probably not win. In Back in twenty fourteen,
(08:02):
there was a coup in Ukraine. They overthrew the Ukrainian
government and put a new leader in playing. Some people
argue that's because of the American CIA getting a little
too involved in Ukrainian politics. Russia claims they have a
responsibility to protect ethnic Russians and people who speak Russian
in Ukraine from discrimination or violence. Now, I don't know
(08:24):
if that's our problem so much, but it does actually
lend itself to the theory that maybe a lot of
Ukrainians are a lot more pro Russian than you think.
At any rate, I don't know what's going to happen
in this peace negotiation. Earlier today I was listening to
ABC News and they made the point that there might
need to be some kind of land trade, like part
of Russia will become Ukraine and part of Ukraine will
(08:45):
become Russia. I don't know if I even believe that,
but kind of like a lot of other things happening overseas,
I feel like our resources have already been flushed down
the toilet on this controversy. I'm sure at the very least,
whether you disagree with me or not, you would agree
that the Russian War needs to end. I know a
lot of people think that. One person is Colonel Rob Manus.
(09:06):
He's a resident of the state of Louisiana, longtime military veteran,
helps recruit, a longtime member of our career military man,
and somebody that has helped recruit a lot of people
to help get the numbers up in Trump's military. You know,
for the first time in a long time, there's no
shortage on recruitment numbers. Nobody wanted to join the military
when Joe Biden was in charge, but a lot has
(09:27):
changed since Trump took over.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
Joining us right now, one of the most patriotic people
I've ever met, Colonel Rob Manis I think sure your
time this afternoon, sir, Hey.
Speaker 6 (09:36):
Kittie, thanks for having me on. Man it's good to
talk to you again.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
I know my rant about Russia was a little long
in the tooth there, but I just wanted to set
this up and make sure a lot of people understood
what was it play there is Did I say anything
you disagree with for the record, it's okay to disagree.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Rob.
Speaker 6 (09:51):
Actually in this case, no, not really. You know, my
position has always been, just like Barack Obama's position, is
that unfortunately where the eastern border of Ukraine is with
Russia really isn't in the Biden national interests of the
United States. Now, there have been a whole series of
bad decisions by the United States and NATO that have
led us to where now it's in our interest to
(10:14):
see an endto this war as successfully as possible for
our credibility's sake, which is a Biden national interest, because
we want to re establish things like peace through strength
so that we're not constantly fighting in these endless war policies.
And that's what Donald Trump was elected on was to
in the endless war policies, get refocused on peace through strength,
(10:36):
get focused on our real adversary that's an existential threat
to the United States, which is the Communist Chinese party
that runs and operates the People's Republic of China. They
really are an existential threat. The Russians not so much
as you could see. They couldn't even take all of
Ukraine or even to Kiev and hold it. And now
(10:59):
they're in an old Soviet style artillery armor infantry grind
everything to gravel and then move a few meters forward
every day. I think they're gaining about six to twelve
square meters a day where there's active fighting going on.
Until yesterday, and this gets to the meeting between President
(11:20):
Trump and Putin. Yesterday, the main logistics hub of pop
Ross for Ukraine's armed forces had a lot of activity
in The Russians have actually gained about twelve kilometers north
of ground, just east of there, and it looks like
they're trying to encircle Pabraoska and a couple other small
(11:40):
logistics hubs around it. That would really damage the ability
of the Ukraine armed forces to do much more operationally
as far as getting any kind of victory goes. So
it looks like the Russians are establishing their positions to
achieve their military objectives, which is to take the four
areas in the don bat and keep Crimea, which is
(12:01):
primarily Russian ethnics and Russian speaking people. And that's why
I'm not surprised Putin is coming to this meeting. But
really the only reason that this meeting's happening is because
President Trump was reelected and he set the conditions.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
You understand.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
I think you explained that perfectly, and you clearly understand
the culture over there. For the better part of a century,
back when China was considered to be somewhat irrelevant compared
to today, Russia was the dominating communist global party.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
They were the nation.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
They were the ones that were fueling Cuba. They were
the ones that were helping out all these other little
communist countries Vietnam, for example.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
Today things are obviously different.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
The Soviet Union is supposed to have dissolved, but has
the mentality changed. Some American liberals will tell you that
Russia is now a Christian nationalist country. Other people would
say they still have a communist mentality.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
What do you think.
Speaker 6 (12:54):
I don't think so much. They have a communist ideological
mentality anymore. But you have to remember Vladimir put what
is he He's a retired KGB colonel I always send
people to look at the interview that Tucker Carlson did
with him, and a couple of things stand out. One
as I'm right, he's still a retired KGB colonel, which
(13:14):
means he's a KGB colonel through it through, just like
I'm a retired Air Force colonel. I see three things
through that lens. He thinks that way, and he makes
decisions that way, and when he sneaks in that interview,
it's very obvious he's very rules based oriented from a
policy perspective and from a bureaucracy perspective, and he's making
decisions in both of those lenses. And that's why you
(13:38):
see him and his arm forces comfortable with falling back
and doing this grind out old Soviet style of fight
like they did around Stalingrad and defeated the Nazis in
World War Two. It's the same type of activity, and
they're slowly moving forward to get the rest of the
territory that they really wanted, which is these Russian speaking
(13:59):
areas and that on best in the Crimea Peninsula. So
he's set in those conditions. They'll probably be ready to
go by this Friday when the meeting is and Fortunately
President Trump is in place now and he has the
political will, the strategic acumen, and the business sense to
(14:19):
set the conditions to get Putin to realize, hey, it's
time to move forward on this. And you know what
else is going on, Kenny, is from our perspective, and
I mentioned China, we want to do everything we can
to get this settled and to get Russia out of
the embrace that it's jumped into with the Chinese Communist
(14:40):
Party and the North Koreans and separate that out of
it and move it back towards towards our positions and
our way of life. So we want them to be
successful economically, we want the people to be processed in Russia,
and we want their government to move as far away
from totalitarian them as possible. Is there a long way
(15:02):
to go? Yeah, I mean, but they do have an
operating Duma legislature and in theory they have an elected government.
But one day Putin will be gone. And if we
don't have the conditions set for the opportunity to turn
Russia into a country that's not still talking about the
(15:24):
communist ideology and operating a lot that way, then we
will not have done ourselves. A good service. So I
think that's the way the President's going is he's going
to try to offer some economic consentatives especially and some
incentives to assure them that NATO's not going to invade
Russia through Ukraine.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
I'm glad you brought up North Korea because there's a
report today in the BBC News about how North Koreans
are being sent to Russia to work like slaves. In
the report, they claim it's fifty thousand North Koreans. Now
we'd already heard that North Korean mercenaries they're fighting on
the front lines in the Russian Ukraine War. I find
that to be fascinating. I mean, obviously it's not good news,
(16:06):
but it's very interesting. And this other report, this is
more North Korean sent to Russia to work in what
they call slave like conditions and huge labor factories, warehouses,
that sort of thing. I guess this question is two part.
Number one, do you believe the report? Do you think
it's accurate? Do you think they're exaggerating? Do you think
they're under exaggerating? And then number two, what do you
(16:28):
think this How will this affect the war? What does
this mean going forward? It's always interesting how people sometimes
ignore the fact that problems on one side of the
world vastly seem to affect problems on the other side
of the world. This seems like one example to me
if true.
Speaker 6 (16:43):
Yeah, I'm not sure about the accuracy of the report
about North Korean's being used as slave labor in the
Russian factories because they have plenty of manpower, But the
North Korean mercenary story is accurate. I've seen direct on
the ground reporting that shows those mercenaries in the Curse
area which they were recruited by Russia. And that's an
(17:07):
interesting thing about Russia today versus Russia as the Soviet Union.
You know, back in the Soviet Union days, they would
just conscript the manpower force people in kind of like
what you see the Ukrainian recruiters doing, kidnapping people off
the streets and those kinds of things. But now the
Russian army uses mercenaries, both Russian ethnic mercenaries from their
(17:32):
part of the world. But also this is the first
time seeing North Koreans recruited as mercenaries, and they needed
to help in the Curse area because most of their
armed forces that are in ready mode. In other words,
operationally deployed are already down in the southeast portion of
the country on the front lines trying to gain that
ground that I'm talking about that Russia wants to have
(17:54):
in hand before this meeting on Friday. So that's an
interesting twist to to today from the way things used
to be in the old communism days. So it's kind
of interesting. I don't know about the accuracy of the
factory worker.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
Story then, yeah, who knows, right, I mean, it could
be true.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
I don't know either, all right, bottom line mean, Colonel
Rob MAINEZ, tell me what you think. Here. We've got
Putin and Trump meeting together on Friday and Alaska, and
we've had so many meetings the two of the guys.
They claim to have a lot of respect for each other.
Putin claims to respect Trump, vice versa. But so far
they have these meetings and then immediately Russia goes back
to launching rockets at Ukraine. Do you think anything happens
(18:34):
to this meeting on Friday or is this more of
the same.
Speaker 6 (18:38):
Well, I think the president has set the right expectations.
I mean, he hasn't really raised the expectations like he
normally would in his business negotiations or trade negotiations and
those kind of things. He set them because he's had
a series of phone calls with Putin where he does
exactly that. He talks good on the phone and then
goes right back to shooting. But unless unless they agree
(18:59):
to a ceaspar, I don't expect the Russian armed forces
to stop their operations as long as they haven't met
their military objectives. I think it all depends on whether
Putin and the Russian government feel like they've met enough
of their military objectives to come to the table. But
the indicator is that Putin agreed to the meeting. And
(19:20):
I've always said that the only person that's going to
be able to get a peace deal done between Ukraine
and Russia is going to be Donald Trump and a
face to face meeting with Ladimir Putin sitting down across
the table with him. And that's what's happened. And that's
a step forward based on where we were at in
November of twenty twenty four. I mean, think about it.
I mean Putin hadn't even talked to Joe Biden at
(19:42):
all in several years, and Biden refused to meet with him.
So we've got these conditions set now, and it looks
like that's going to go forward now. You know, the
Europeans and the Ukrainian leadership is making noises that they're
not going to give up land and those kind of things.
But the reality is the reality is that there is
(20:04):
no amount of manpower that the Ukraine in armed forces
are ever going to be able to get their hands
on to where they could push the Russians physically out
of those Russian ethnic speaking areas which have in the
meantime had elections and voted for independence and then voted
to allow themselves to be annexed by the Russian Federation.
(20:26):
So there's a lot of things going on from a
legal perspective that have to be looked at too. But
I think President Trump's got some things in mind to
sweeten the pot for Putin and see what you'll do.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
My brother, Colonel robminis robminus dot com is the website
follow him on AXI is a fantastic resource for information
about all things foreign policy, Donald Trump's military efforts over cees,
and the peace through Strength strategy.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
What a wild idea this is.
Speaker 5 (20:56):
Kenny Webster's pursuit of happiness.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
Dig It turn that music down.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
AOL is getting rid of their dial up Internet service.
At least that's what it says on this facts I
just received. I'm very excited about that. That is great news.
This news brought to you by the year two thousand
and three. Marty Langdon do you remember dial up Internet?
Speaker 3 (21:17):
I do. It's a it still exists.
Speaker 7 (21:21):
I did because when you tried to call somebody and
they were on the Internet, it either kick you off
or have a busy signal. And for those that don't
know what a busy signal is, it's when you only
had a rotary phone at your house and you were
on it and then you couldn't get through.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
Marty, I'm an elder millennial. I am forty. I am
forty three years old age. I am right, we are
about the same age. I can remember being a teenager
in the nineties and somebody in my social circle was
doing something on the Internet they shouldn't have been doing,
downloading pirated software a new Napster Napster MP three's that
(21:57):
came a little later, I think, and then some sister
would pick up the phone LimeWire. Yeah, what an embarrassing
reason to get a computer virus. I was illegally downloading
Metallica's Black album.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
And what a time to be alive. Marty Langdon in
studio right now.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
If you're just turning on your radio, it's a weird
way to have a conversation with the I guess at
the time being the most popular Republican primary candidate for
Harris County judge, which I'm talking about you at the
gym the other day with some I lift weights.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
I don't know if you know that I left you.
Thank you. People that left love to tell you that
they left.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
I left, And I fly a plane, and I'm vegan,
and I do CrossFit and none of that's true. Actually,
And one of my buddies who I lift weights with
is an older Republican.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
I'm not going to say he's an old guy, but
you know he's older than us. He's older than you.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
He remembers the old Republican Party where a union leader
for government employees would probably not be a Republican primary
candidate for anything. And yet right now for County John Jean,
Harris County, the biggest county in taxis one of the
most important political positions in any municipal government in the state.
You're the guy that a lot of people want to
(23:08):
be the candidate that blew his mind. But it's hard
for people to understand this is not your Grandpa's Republican Party.
It's changed quite a bit, hasn't it.
Speaker 7 (23:16):
Well, Listen, I mean I've grew up here Houston, born
and raised in family of five, and I can tell
you this. What people want is somebody that gets things done,
stands up for the people that they represent, doesn't stand
for corruption, and understands the role that you are in
and that you were elected for needs to be focused
on the issues that matter most to Harris County residents. Listen,
(23:38):
we're in a I've had very honest dialogues with you
over the years. We are in the state of Texas.
It is a at will state. Just like car dealers associations,
just like doctors associations, just like business associations. It's the
same thing for firefighter's associations. And so all that means
is that you have a voice to stand up. And
(23:59):
I would argue in the city of Houston, what we
dealt with for nine years was a lot of things
that were not happening correctly. The firefighters weren't getting taken
care of and oh, by the way, we had a
mayor at the time who was spending money on things
that the taxpayers do not expect to be spent on
when you're not taking care of public safety. So we
(24:20):
stand up and we fight for what's right, and I'm
going to continue to do that.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
I don't know what you're talking about.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
You don't think we should spend more money for musicians
at the airport, Marty?
Speaker 3 (24:30):
Have you you know?
Speaker 7 (24:31):
Have you ever been there. I've never seen an actual musicians.
I've seen the stand but I remember the time when
they're telling us, the taxpayers that are paying a lot
of taxes, the number one priority of government is public safety.
And if you don't have somebody that's taking care of
the people, what are we spending money music at the airport?
Harmony of the sea?
Speaker 3 (24:48):
What is it? Harmony? This harmony of the city here whatever.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
People that aren't from Houston won't understand what we're talking.
We're live streaming, but in addition to being on the
radio right now, we're also live streaming online and we
have a pretty big reach around the Gulf Coast. We're
on our warning shows on a lot of Brock and
talk stations, around the South.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
So some people.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
That are not from Harris County are very familiar with
Lena Hidalgo and Sylvester Turner and Shila Jackson Lee and
to some extent, you and I I mean friends' allies.
Whatever you and I are, they're the reason why I
know you. For those that haven't listened to this, you know,
don't remember Marty being on the show. Several years ago,
after Hurricane Harvey, we had the strangest thing happened in
(25:24):
our city where our Democrat mayor went after a lot
of the first responders, particularly firefighters, because he didn't want
to have to pay them. I remember famously, you guys
we had to vote, and you guys were more popular
than him. Now, they were two different votes. One was
to decide if we'd keep Sylvester Turner as the mayor.
The other was to decide if firefighters would get a
(25:44):
menial pay raise for the first time. And when I
think was over a decade, over a decade, and Sylvester
Turner said he would rather fire the people that were
the heroes of Hurricane Harvey and continue to have a
poet laureate for Houston City and continue to pump money
into mu musicians at the airport.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
What is it harmony of the sky or the armony
of this guy? Still there's a piano there. Listen.
Speaker 7 (26:06):
That's all great and wonderful, but at the end of
the day, I don't there's no rational explanation. And that's
kind of the problem that has been going on here
in this region. People just don't have honest conversations. They
want to focus on issues that have nothing to do
with the core tenants of what government is supposed to be.
And listen, I tell everybody you talk about grassroots, nobody's
(26:26):
more grassroots than what I do, what we do as firefighters,
because what we want to do is get in the
community and educate them about what's really going on with
their tax money and if it's not being spent the
way that it should be, then you need to change that.
And we took on a mayor who decided that he
would much rather have harmony of the skies than to
take care of the brave men and women in the
(26:47):
Houston Fire Department. That is what motivates me every day.
It's to take care of the people that we're supposed
to and do it well. Don't make excuses. But the
core tenet of government is to make sure you have
public safety, infrastructure, flood medication, disaster response, disaster recovery. And
when you don't focus on that, you spend your money
on things that have nothing to do with the Rola government.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
Nothing to do with the Rola government. I'm glad you
brought all that up.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
For those that are not actively following news in Harris County.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
What is the biggest community in Texas? Obviously a lot
has happened recently.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
Lena Hidalgo is I'm gonna put her up on the
screen here, Lena Hidalgo literally clutching her pearls in the
screenshot here. Is just very unpopular right now with the
Democrat Party, to the point where even a nice Parker,
our former Houston mayor, is now challenging or has said,
I think she is a legitimate candidate for Democrat Party
judge County judge next year. I heard and so Dalgo
(27:45):
got censured last week for disruptive behavior during a meeting,
including interrupting commissioners using children to push a failed penny tax.
She dragged a bunch of children out in front of
the penny tax they call it was a lot of
money I don't know why they call it a penny tax.
You know, it's like calling it the Affordable Care Act
or the Patriot Act. These are all very The Inflation
(28:05):
Reduction Act, Yeah, it's a lie writ and anyway, so
she gets censured by members of her own party. She
drags children out into the middle of Commissioner's court, does
her best impersonation of Sesame Street's the count on one
vote for raising taxes. Nobody else wanted this, and I
think part of the reason why is I don't think
she's going to be one of your opponents next year
(28:25):
if you get the nomination. I don't think she wants
to be county judge anymore. The rumor is that she
wants to run for Congress. I don't know why. Even
her own party she's unpopular. I have been told by
a very reliable source. Now I don't know if this
is true that Sylvia Garcia is sick. The same person
that told me this told me Sheila Jackson Lee was
sick and Sylvester Turner was sick, and now they claim
(28:46):
I don't know. It's not as if this person's a
medical doctor at any of these people, but somebody with
inside information in the Democrat Party thinks Sylvia Garcia doesn't
run again, al Greene probably will, I don't know why.
And they think Lena had Algo is going to run
for Congress. It's weird though, because here in our area
I kind of think Gene wu is the more popular Democrat.
Speaker 7 (29:05):
Right Well, you know, I mean, that's a lot to
digest at once, but I mean, listen, what people are
going to do or what they're not going to do.
That just means that somebody's not focused on the issues
of Harris County. And what I can tell you is
everybody I've spoken to, they're ready to have a county
that works for them, to be common crisis and to
have a leader. We don't use children as props, we
(29:29):
don't politicize public safety. What we need to do is
focus on the issue in the core tenant of what
Harris County and the Commission's Court is supposed to be about.
And you can't fix problems if you don't have collaboration
and cooperation. And that's where maintaining and developing relationship matters,
because at the end of the day, in order to
make somebody's life better, you actually have to work with
(29:49):
people and you don't spend your time trying to prove
a point. That's no place for somebody that's trying to
lead this county. Obviously, what we saw last week, I mean,
I always shocked. That is not something that I think
I've ever seen. And I've been in politics for quite
a while. But when you're using kids and you're doing
these things, it means that you're not focused on the
(30:09):
issues that Harris County residents expect. And that is what
we have to get back to, and that's what we
will get back to. And I don't know that anybody
has a rational explanation for that.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
Okay, State Senator Mays Middleton tells me, because of a
policy he helped pass, it'll be a lot easier to
remove Lena Handalgo from office. I have friends like Alex Mieler,
for example, who think that for political strategy purposes, it
might be better to just leave her there. You know,
we're halfway through the year already. Primary season is going
to be right after that. I don't know, what do
(30:40):
you think. Is it worth the effort to remove her
from office? Or should we just let the Democrats sit
and marinate in the problem they created?
Speaker 7 (30:45):
Well, I think you saw what Commissioner Ramsey has put out,
and I think it kind of captures you know. I
think if you even read the opinion of the Houston Chronicle,
I mean the you know, you just needed one word
from Commissioner Ramsey.
Speaker 6 (30:57):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (30:58):
I think that it's true.
Speaker 7 (30:59):
Yeah, what they've done is send a clear message. And
I think what you're seeing from all sides is that
that is not what we are supposed to be doing
as leaders, and that's not how we're supposed to be acting.
And I think that's pretty historic and it sends a message.
But you know, the focus for what we're dealing with
is to address the people that we're supposed to be
taken care of, is to protect the protect the taxpayer,
(31:22):
focus on the issues that Harris County Commissioner's Court is
supposed to be dealing with, and the more distractions that
we continue to have, the less focus we are on
leading this county and fixing those problems we have.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
Obviously, we're live on the radio right now, but we
have a few hundred people watching us, streaming on social
media right now. If you are listening to us on
the radio, you are about to hear a short pause
for a commercial break. If you are watching us streaming online,
we're not going anywhere where.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
Give us seconds while where you start the new segment.
Stand around.
Speaker 5 (31:55):
You're listening to Kenny Webster's Pursuit of Happiness. Please, if
you're offended by anything you heard to get a piece
of paper, write down a detailed description of what bothered you,
and facts it to one eight eight eight. Nobody gives
a fu.
Speaker 3 (32:10):
Oh this is interesting.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
An Indiana man like a man in Indiana just set
a Guinness record by growing a thirty foot sunflower. The
record was World Statist Farmer. I gotta think bless is hard. Hi, everybody,
I'm Kenny Webster. We are back from break that must suck.
You know, living in Indiana, you know what I mean.
Marty Langton in studio, you know it's not all serious.
You know this is We do have fun. This isn't ktrh.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
We tell jokes, We try it. I don't even know
where you pull these things from. This is pretty I
write every morning.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
I get up and I write one liners for us
to tell on the radio, and then Steve tells me
which ones I can and can't use during the show,
and then and the ones that I can't use. I
either use at a stand up comedy show or here
with you, the very serious Firefighter.
Speaker 3 (32:54):
Union President Marty Langton. Marty, I just look at it.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
Some of the problems we're dealing with in Houston, in
Harris County right now.
Speaker 3 (33:01):
And you're Catholic.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
I'm Catholic, and I don't claim to be a boy scout,
and I don't think you do either. But I was
kind of surprised to hear Lena Hidalgo. Let me see
if I could find the SoundBite here. This I did
not expect from Lena Hidalgo. This is from back when
Pope Francis died and we got Pope Leo, and Lena
Hidalgo said, and as I.
Speaker 7 (33:20):
Said, I'm emotional because of the Pope, so apologize.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
Think you she's emotional because of the Pope. Every time
I hear that SoundBite, I laugh out loud.
Speaker 3 (33:28):
Marty. I've never seen her at Catholic church before. Have
you seen her?
Speaker 7 (33:32):
I have not seen her at my church, but I
will tell you this. I mean, listen, my whole family
is Catholic. My my younger brother is a priest. And
I think one of the things that is most telling
is there's a time for us to be focused on
you know, our lives are are issues going on, and
there's times to be focused on doing the job of
(33:54):
what you're elected to do. And when you are sitting
at the seat of Harris County judge, your focus has
got to be on what you were doing in front
of you, solving problems, creating coalition's collaboration, and fixing the
problems owned by the way. Hey lobout lower taxes. I mean,
I know that that's probably something that seems very odd
to some people, but instead of raising them, let's focus
(34:16):
on what we need to public safety being first, infrastructure, flooding.
But you know, if you're talking about other things, you're
not focused on the issues that are what you're supposed
to be doing as Harris County judge.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
But even the Democrats agree with that.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
Even they none of them would support her on this
last week when they had a vote to raise taxes
so she could spend it on I don't know Sesame
Street in Iraq or whatever it was, but Miena Haddalgo
her problem is she gets too involved in national politics,
do you know what I mean? She actually blamed Donald
Trump for Joscelyn Nungary. I don't know how many people
remember when this happened.
Speaker 7 (34:47):
It hurts even more that they're being used as pawns
in this fight over immigration that doesn't even exist because
Biden and McConnell agree.
Speaker 3 (34:57):
It's just that Trump won't let them move it far.
Speaker 8 (35:00):
All due respect, Judge, you said this issue shouldn't be politicized.
But by pointing the finger at former President Trump and
Republicans in Congress, aren't you politicizing it?
Speaker 3 (35:13):
I think I've answered that. I think I answered the questions.
So BOYD does she hate Greg Grugo and she does know?
Speaker 7 (35:20):
You know, Listen, simple questions that people ask I think
are legitimate, And I think one thing I've told people
all the time is, you know, just have an honest dialogue.
But one of the biggest issues is that when you're
talking about here in this region, what I hear and
see local leaders some do that that are not being
effective in doing what they're elected to do is always
project about issues that have nothing to do with your job.
(35:42):
The job of Harris County Judge is to effectively manage
the county disaster recovery, emergency management, flooding mitigation, infrastructure, and hey,
by the way, something that you know. I will talk
a whole lot about his jobs. You got to have goods,
guild jobs, You've got port expansion, You've got a lot
of things going on that is and should be the
(36:05):
number one focus. You have to have a leader that
is common crisis, that's not projecting every time something comes
up that is an issue that nobody in the Commissioner's
Court has power over. We've got to get people together,
work towards solutions, and actually fix problems. But the more
we talk about things that we don't have control over,
(36:26):
all that does is try to virtue signal to whatever
side you're trying to curry favor from. I don't really know,
but if safety is important in Harris County, then you
need to focus on that in Harris County and get
the resources necessary. Stop talking about other things that don't
matter in Harris County that don't affect your job, and
(36:47):
do your job well.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
I always like John Whittmeyer as our mayor in Houston.
From the guy it was him and Shila Jackson Lee.
We didn't have a choice and I ran into him
recently at a baseball game. Did you see that picture
of us. I did, dude, John Whitmyer. I didn't agree
with anything he did when he was a state senator.
The guy is at a baseball game, just walking around,
no security, watching the astros. It's like Mayor Whitmeyer. He's like, Kenny,
(37:11):
what's up. We start talking. I take a photo with him.
I posted online. I forgot about it by the end
of the weekend. That photo appears on some like Progressive
Socialists for Texas group. They're like, Mayor Whitmeyer takes photo
with local Nazi. Do you know how weird that is?
Speaker 6 (37:26):
For me?
Speaker 3 (37:27):
Marty.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
I was recently at a Wu Tang clan concert. I
don't I mean, if I'm going to be involved in
any clan, it's going to be the Wu Tang. I
didn't know what to think of that, And just like that,
suddenly I became one of Whitmyer's biggest supporters. There's now
a recall effort to get rid of him, because all
he did was what Democrat mayors normally do, except actually
go out and enforce the law and arrest criminals.
Speaker 3 (37:48):
How is that controversial?
Speaker 7 (37:50):
You know that's the problem, and I've said it clearly
over the years. Really nothing to do with this race.
I've said it in general, people are so focused on
making every single thing an issue instead of focused on
working with him. I can tell you the relationships I
formed are from all walks of life everywhere. If the
focus and mission is to solve a problem, you have
(38:11):
to be accessible to the people. And if you're accessible
to the people, like Mayor John Whitmyer is, in fact,
I always tell he probably won't like what I'm telling
this story. But you know, unlike the Kurt Harris County
judge that I think has a pretty high bill for security.
Speaker 3 (38:25):
Yeah, we have to talk about that.
Speaker 7 (38:27):
Mayor Whitmyer tries to duck his security because he has
always been a person of the people and he likes
to be out there. He likes to talk to him,
he likes to talk to you directly, and he's probably,
I would argue, one of the most accessible mayors we
have had in history, because that's just who he is.
Even if you disagree with him, and you're free to
have policy disagreements. I don't agree with a whole lot
(38:49):
of policy decisions people make, but at the end of
the day, you have to find a way to work together.
You have to solve problems, and I mean he's Whitmyer
is not exactly the person and that tries to be polished.
He's more interested in substance than he is about trying
to convince you that he's right. If you can't fix
a problem with the people you represent, you're not doing
your job. And that's the only focus that I have.
(39:10):
That's the focus that he has. And imagine what you
can do when you're working together and you're not actually
fighting with the city all the time, you're not fighting
with a county. You can pick up the phone and
you can work together and collaborate.
Speaker 2 (39:21):
All right, Well with Myron Hidalgo have not gotten along well.
Unfortunately a lot of public disputes about their relationship. They
have friction, some mental health comments with Meyer. Speculated the
Houston Chronicle in December of twenty twenty four, Hidalgo might
not run for reelection in twenty twenty six due to
or mental health struggles lack of formal meeting.
Speaker 3 (39:41):
I believe he said that her fiance looked like a
dork or a nerd, or a geek or something. He's
I think I heard He's not.
Speaker 2 (39:47):
Wrong about I actually thought that was hilarious, but whatever,
who cares. He's real The woman spent nine hundred thousand
dollars on personal security in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 3 (39:57):
What did she need. Let's just say it's a million.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
There's a we need to spend a million dollars to
keep Lena safe from who who's gonna hurt her?
Speaker 7 (40:05):
You know, I think it's for some that seems to be,
you know, a hide behind kind of security. Our previous
mayor always used to have a pretty heavy security detail,
and I think you juxtapose that with with Whitmyer being
at a at a baseball game and him walking up saying, hey,
you know, let's talk or take a photo. All all
(40:25):
I know is that when you are an official that
is in a position of power that's supposed to be
taking care of the issues of the city of the county,
number one, you need to be accessible. But number two,
if there's an active threat, nobody wants anybody to get hurt.
But I don't see a world where John Whitmyer is
walking around looking over his shoulder and he's worried. So
(40:49):
I don't understand why somebody would spend that much money
on a security detail.
Speaker 3 (40:54):
It doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 7 (40:55):
But again we go back to rational leadership and having
a calm voice in the room that under stands, you know,
does the average taxpayer think if that's okay?
Speaker 3 (41:03):
Yeah? And they don't.
Speaker 2 (41:04):
I always in politics, I always think when I'm trying
to weigh somebody, when I'm trying to, you know, size
somebody up and figure out what I think about them.
Who are their enemies with Meyer's enemies are not conservative Republicans.
His enemies appear to be like far left, Marxist, open border,
empty the jail, taxpayer funded a gender affirming care for kids.
(41:28):
This is the stuff they're advocating for. If that's your enemy,
then wit Myer's probably my friend. I mean, that's how
I felt.
Speaker 7 (41:34):
But all the issues, whether it's you know, it doesn't
matter what side of the islet is on. My question
that I always put out is that the role of
the Houston mayor to do any of the things that
we're talking about, and it could be on you know,
the other side too. His job is to run the
city and to fix the problems public safety and the infrastructure.
(41:54):
There's a reason why you keep hearing the stuff over
and over again because if it was fixed and it
was done appropriately, he wouldn't need to talk about it.
But when Witmeyer came in and I told him beforehand,
I said, you know, it's a mess, and I've studied it.
I dealt with the corruption. I tackled it head on.
I wasn't afraid I got attacked for it. I mean
they even tried to fire me. And I told him,
(42:15):
I said, if you're doing the right thing, people come
out of the woodworks to try to make sure that
the wrong thing or the bad thing always stays the same.
And I'm not about that. I'm about actually addressing problems
and fixing them.
Speaker 2 (42:28):
All Right, we have I feel like we've just spent
two segments doing the warm up interview here. But you
answered a lot of questions I would ask you already.
Let's ask the most there's three most important questions. First
of all, let's address this. You haven't officially announced your
candidacy for Harris County Republican primary candidate yet, but I
think most people know you're going to run.
Speaker 3 (42:46):
So where are you on that.
Speaker 7 (42:49):
Well, you know, as with everything, some people like to
get out ahead of things, and you know, I think
at my camp we've confirmed that we're running, but our
campaign hasn't officially launched. It'll be launched next week and
we'll have information going to be sending out to everybody.
And and the support that we have in the encouragement
has been truly amazing. But that's built upon a long
time of developing relationships and finding solutions to problems.
Speaker 3 (43:13):
And if I can take on, you know.
Speaker 7 (43:16):
An administration in the City of Houston that treated the
firefighters the way they did and they tried every trick
in the book, my focus is on doing the same
thing for Harris Kenny residents.
Speaker 2 (43:24):
I think the thing that some people will be concerned
about and I don't see this as an issue.
Speaker 3 (43:28):
I just want to bring it up because I want
to hear how you respond to it.
Speaker 2 (43:31):
Several years ago, you famously had a public feud with
Turner and the police union. Just to be clear, your
pro cop I mean your pro keep the criminals in.
Speaker 3 (43:39):
Jail or one hundred percent.
Speaker 7 (43:40):
And I can tell you this, having this goes back
to what we talked about. Having a policy difference in
a discussion is way different than having an issue with anybody.
The Harris County Sheriff's organization. I'm very close with always
support support Houston police officers in the HPOU. There is
(44:00):
not a time that has gone by over the course
of nine years where we have ever and would never
stand with our brothers and sisters in blue. We absolutely
know what they deal with because we're on the streets
with them every single day. We have a great relationship,
and you know, I'm excited to get the things done.
But you know, Harris County sheriffs have been neglected, much
like the Houston firefighters were neglected, and their leadership are
(44:24):
people that I am very close with, and we're going
to make sure that the police and Harris County are
taken care of and to make sure that it's not
just lip service.
Speaker 3 (44:33):
I love it. I think that's a perfect answer.
Speaker 2 (44:35):
All right, let's get a little controversial before you walk
out of here. This is probably gonna upset some people.
Where's your favorite barbecue place? About to get you canceled?
Are about to give me? You just pull one out
of nowhere inside, let's do this in the loop, out
of the loop, outside of the city.
Speaker 3 (44:52):
What do you like?
Speaker 2 (44:54):
I mean, in no specific order, where are you getting barbecue?
You're you're in uptown right now? Someone says, let's get brisket.
Where do you in uptown?
Speaker 7 (45:03):
If I'm in the Rice Village area, Good Company Barbecue
has been there forever.
Speaker 3 (45:07):
Leo guy. Yeah, Papa's Barbecue. I always go there downtown. Oh,
Papa's Barbecue.
Speaker 2 (45:14):
Yes, I got nothing against him, but that's like the
Bill Miller Barbecue.
Speaker 7 (45:18):
If no you go, we've gone there. There's one right
downtown that we always go to. You've got Truth Barbecue
that's over off Washington that I love. I mean Revee Barbecue.
Actually one of our firefighters, Houston firefighters, actually started I
think Revely And if I've gotten the name wrong, I'm sorry,
I'm gonna tell you in advance. But but there's a
number of places, I mean, they're popping up. That's what
(45:39):
makes Houston Harris County great. We have a lot of
people that have roots here, that believe in this this county,
in the city that we live in. And listen, I'll
eat anything except phennaise and mustard.
Speaker 2 (45:51):
Except for mayonnaise, except for a ketchup on a hot dog.
Speaker 3 (45:55):
I hope all right.
Speaker 2 (45:56):
Rogueles it's technically pronounced Raygules Barbecue. If you've been there
over on oh, oh, it's outstanding, right tex mex Where
are you going?
Speaker 3 (46:03):
Oh?
Speaker 7 (46:03):
Good company, Tucky really very loyal to LEVI listen, I
grew up my son and I we call it to
Basco Breakfast. We every weekend. Since I was a kid,
I would go there and everybody there just I remember
flicking the pennies in the fountains when I was a kid,
and that's what my son did as he was growing up.
(46:24):
But I mean, there's listen, I'll take anything.
Speaker 3 (46:27):
In Houston.
Speaker 7 (46:27):
We Harris County, Houston. We got the best text mechs ever.
But now you're really going to get me canceled.
Speaker 2 (46:32):
It is one of the top five food cities in America,
and it's certainly the best one in Texas.
Speaker 3 (46:36):
Marty.
Speaker 2 (46:37):
When you announced, I can't imagine Steve and I are
not going to endorse you. It seems like you're the guy,
and a lot of first responders in the city are
cheering for you. I know a lot of the Republicans
in the city are cheering for you. The Republican Party's
changed a lot in five to ten years. I don't
think I could have been a Republican ten years ago,
or before Trump, or before this current era.
Speaker 3 (46:56):
That we're in.
Speaker 2 (46:56):
So you running as a GOP candidate, you have our support.
If people want to learn more about the campaign that
hasn't been announced yet, where do they go.
Speaker 7 (47:04):
Well, we'll be announcing it, but we'll send out that information.
But langdon forharriscunting dot com and we'll be pushing out
a whole bunch of informational list of endorsements and we
really look forward to working with the community and finding
the voices. So we look forward to hearing from you
and let's get this done.
Speaker 3 (47:19):
I love it. Hey to the rest of you. We'll
be back bright and early tomorrow morning for more of
what you bought a radio for. I have a great day.
Speaker 5 (47:30):
You are listening to the Pursuit of Happiness Radio.
Speaker 2 (47:35):
Tell the government to kiss you're ass when you listen
to this show.
The Jigana government sucks. Suit of happiness Radio is deluxe.
Liberty and Freedom will make you smile of a suit
of habbinesss on your radio. Toyle, just as cheeseburgers a
liberty fries at fo.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
There's a new app that lets strangers pay to come
to your wedding and cover the cost. You can tell
who they are, probably because they look excited to be
at a wedding. Hi, everybody, I'm Kenny Webster. Coming up
in just a little bit. Colonel Rob Minus is going
to be stopping by. He is a man who understands
Donald Trump's peace through Strength strategy for foreign military occupation
(00:43):
and ending wars around the world. And this Friday, Trump
is supposed to be meeting in Alaska with Vladimir Putin
to negotiate an end to the Russian War. Any chance
that's actually gonna happen, Rob Manus will let us know
about it. Stick around. Also stopping by. If you're from
Harris County or anywhere out thease, Texas, you're gonna want
to hear my in studio interview with the Firefighter Union
(01:05):
President of Harris County, Marty Langton, Marty Lancton is running
for county judge. He wants to replace Lena Hidalgo. He
is running as a Republican. For some of you older Republicans,
that probably blows your mind. There's a union leader for
government workers running as a Republican.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Once again we remind you, this is not your Grandpa's
Republican party. This is Donald Trump's Republican party. Some times
are different. Now, before we get to any of that,
maybe I just point something out. I noticed something interesting
happened recently, and I know I'm not the only person
to notice this. You notice what everyone's not talking about
so far this week for the first time in a while. No,
(01:42):
not Sidney Sweeney's blue jeans, Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein.
No one's talking about Jeffrey Epstein anymore. Couldn't help, but
notice it's Tuesday. Hadn't really been a news story in
over a week. No, No, that the Epstein thing did
not go well for Trump, and some members of liberal
media are now trying to keep it alive. It's fascinating.
(02:03):
For years, all we wanted was for CNN and The
New York Times and Axios and The Hill to talk
about Jeffrey Epstein. They wouldn't do it, and then as
soon as they thought it might make Donald Trump look bad,
suddenly it's all they want to talk about, which is
odd because it happened at a moment when CNN and
The New York Times and axios. I've suddenly become kind
(02:24):
of irrelevant, haven't they. Matt Vespa townhall dot Com recently
pointed out how the Jeffrey Epstein files aren't going to
be released anytime soon, not next week, not this month,
not next year.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
I wouldn't bet on it.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Judges won't release the grand jury testimony from the vaults
of the Justice Department. Republicans only want credible evidence released.
Democrats want everything released so they can weaponize the knowingly
false files and drum up another Russian collusion hoax and
get the media blitz that they're so desperate for. But
what we got instead of all that is a bunch
(02:58):
of nothing burger story about how Donald Trump and the
dead New York City hedge fund leader slash human trafficker,
two rich guys hung out with other wealthy, powerful people
and appeared as though they didn't like each other. Oh,
let's not forget that Trump and Epstein were photographed together
at a wedding, at a wedding with a thousand other guests.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Oh, they got him right.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Trump being in the files was never the story, nor
is it shocking, But the media ran with it.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
They debased themselves.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Even turncoat Michael Cohen is defending Donald Trump, saying Trump
never went to the infamous and Epstein Island. Sorr, are
we shocked that everyone's moved on with their lives.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
I'm not to be honest. How long can you focus
on a news story that isn't a news story? Remember
Michael Cohen, Here's Michael.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
I don't believe that Donald Trump was on Epstein's island.
Why he said it more than five six times? And
he says it very openly. Now, Donald Trump's as many
things openly. I was gonna say different. He doesn't always
fit with the truth. That's true, But I know Trump
and I know that he's saying it for a purpose.
Now is he in the file? Absolutely? Why he's in
(04:10):
the black book. He took free flights with Epstein down
to Palm Beach. If he turns around and says that
he was never on the island, rest a short, He's
going to use that as the basis for why this
whole thing again is a witch hunt against him. He'll
take the grain of salt and he'll make it into
the entire into the entire you know rights.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Right, you get it.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
CNN's Harry Enton noted that Google surgers or Epstein have
dropped eighty nine percent from three weeks ago. Donald Trump's
approval rating pretty consistent. Less than one percent of people
think this is a top issue. Remember the folks who
said this could cost Republicans the midterms doesn't look like
it anymore. Dabbling with amnesty nonsense, absolutely could. The process
(05:01):
to release what's credible continues, but no doubt Democrats will
try to release all the files when the recess ends.
Trump gave his attorney general the green light to release
the files that could be corroborated. It's an end of
term project. That's what Pam Bondi said from the get go.
For the time being, I don't think the Epstein news
is going to be going anywhere or affecting anyone anytime
(05:23):
between now and the midterms. Of course, that's subject to change,
like a lot of things, and if it does, we'll
talk about it.
Speaker 5 (05:30):
You've got Kenny Webster's Pursuit of Happiness on KPRC nine
point fifty.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Whenever I hear old Soviet music, it always reminds me
of going on a blind day with a Russian pilate's instructor.
That's more of a personal thing, though it has nothing
to do with the news. Today, there is a lot
of news involving Russia. Apparently Trump and Putin are going
to meet together on Friday in Alaska, and that makes
sense because, as Sarah Palin once pointed out, Russia and
(05:58):
Alaska are quite close to each other geographically. And if
your only familiarity with Sarah Palin was from watching a
sketch on Saturday Night Live, you might believe that she
can see Russia from her front yard. That's not really true. Though,
for whatever it's worth, this is one of those problems
that sometimes I wonder if we shouldn't get involved in,
(06:19):
but we are involved. We've spent a lot of money
in Ukraine, and I thought it was kind of funny
that so far, at this particular moment, Zelensky isn't even
invited to the negotiation. It's gonna be Trump and Putin,
which is great. You know, maybe Zolensky should be there,
but what do we need the European Union for.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
They're not invited. I think it's fantastic.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
This is anecdotal, but one of the things I've noticed
about Russians and Ukrainians, both of them, is that when
I meet them here in America, they're never real excited
about Zolensky. I mean, don't get me wrong, I've never
met anybody who likes Putin. But if you read the
New York Times, if you read the USA Today op eds,
(07:00):
they often talk about Zelensky as if he's like the
you know, Winston Churchill or something. It's a ridiculous, right,
It's just not true. Generally, more often than not, Ukrainian
Americans and Russian at expats look at Zelensky like a
guy that's making things worse. Now, to put that into perspective,
(07:20):
for you, to a lot of people in Ukraine, they
will look at Russia and think there are actually some
historical ties. Proponents argue that regions like Crimea and Eastern
Ukraine don biss have historical connections to Russia. For a
long time, Ukraine was part of the Russian Empire, was
also part of the Soviet Union. Similarly, if you're in
(07:41):
eastern Ukraine, if you're in Crimea, a lot of the
people walking around speak Russian. Did you know that a
lot of Americans don't understand that. If they had an
election today in Ukraine, which they won't because they got
rid of all the elections for the last several years here,
if they had an election today, it's pretty safe to
say Zelensky would probably not win. In Back in twenty fourteen,
(08:02):
there was a coup in Ukraine. They overthrew the Ukrainian
government and put a new leader in playing. Some people
argue that's because of the American CIA getting a little
too involved in Ukrainian politics. Russia claims they have a
responsibility to protect ethnic Russians and people who speak Russian
in Ukraine from discrimination or violence. Now, I don't know
(08:24):
if that's our problem so much, but it does actually
lend itself to the theory that maybe a lot of
Ukrainians are a lot more pro Russian than you think.
At any rate, I don't know what's going to happen
in this peace negotiation. Earlier today I was listening to
ABC News and they made the point that there might
need to be some kind of land trade, like part
of Russia will become Ukraine and part of Ukraine will
(08:45):
become Russia. I don't know if I even believe that,
but kind of like a lot of other things happening overseas,
I feel like our resources have already been flushed down
the toilet on this controversy. I'm sure at the very least,
whether you disagree with me or not, you would agree
that the Russian War needs to end. I know a
lot of people think that. One person is Colonel Rob Manus.
(09:06):
He's a resident of the state of Louisiana, longtime military veteran,
helps recruit, a longtime member of our career military man,
and somebody that has helped recruit a lot of people
to help get the numbers up in Trump's military. You know,
for the first time in a long time, there's no
shortage on recruitment numbers. Nobody wanted to join the military
when Joe Biden was in charge, but a lot has
(09:27):
changed since Trump took over.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
Joining us right now, one of the most patriotic people
I've ever met, Colonel Rob Manis I think sure your
time this afternoon, sir, Hey.
Speaker 6 (09:36):
Kittie, thanks for having me on. Man it's good to
talk to you again.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
I know my rant about Russia was a little long
in the tooth there, but I just wanted to set
this up and make sure a lot of people understood
what was it play there is Did I say anything
you disagree with for the record, it's okay to disagree.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Rob.
Speaker 6 (09:51):
Actually in this case, no, not really. You know, my
position has always been, just like Barack Obama's position, is
that unfortunately where the eastern border of Ukraine is with
Russia really isn't in the Biden national interests of the
United States. Now, there have been a whole series of
bad decisions by the United States and NATO that have
led us to where now it's in our interest to
(10:14):
see an endto this war as successfully as possible for
our credibility's sake, which is a Biden national interest, because
we want to re establish things like peace through strength
so that we're not constantly fighting in these endless war policies.
And that's what Donald Trump was elected on was to
in the endless war policies, get refocused on peace through strength,
(10:36):
get focused on our real adversary that's an existential threat
to the United States, which is the Communist Chinese party
that runs and operates the People's Republic of China. They
really are an existential threat. The Russians not so much
as you could see. They couldn't even take all of
Ukraine or even to Kiev and hold it. And now
(10:59):
they're in an old Soviet style artillery armor infantry grind
everything to gravel and then move a few meters forward
every day. I think they're gaining about six to twelve
square meters a day where there's active fighting going on.
Until yesterday, and this gets to the meeting between President
(11:20):
Trump and Putin. Yesterday, the main logistics hub of pop
Ross for Ukraine's armed forces had a lot of activity
in The Russians have actually gained about twelve kilometers north
of ground, just east of there, and it looks like
they're trying to encircle Pabraoska and a couple other small
(11:40):
logistics hubs around it. That would really damage the ability
of the Ukraine armed forces to do much more operationally
as far as getting any kind of victory goes. So
it looks like the Russians are establishing their positions to
achieve their military objectives, which is to take the four
areas in the don bat and keep Crimea, which is
(12:01):
primarily Russian ethnics and Russian speaking people. And that's why
I'm not surprised Putin is coming to this meeting. But
really the only reason that this meeting's happening is because
President Trump was reelected and he set the conditions.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
You understand.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
I think you explained that perfectly, and you clearly understand
the culture over there. For the better part of a century,
back when China was considered to be somewhat irrelevant compared
to today, Russia was the dominating communist global party.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
They were the nation.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
They were the ones that were fueling Cuba. They were
the ones that were helping out all these other little
communist countries Vietnam, for example.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
Today things are obviously different.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
The Soviet Union is supposed to have dissolved, but has
the mentality changed. Some American liberals will tell you that
Russia is now a Christian nationalist country. Other people would
say they still have a communist mentality.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
What do you think.
Speaker 6 (12:54):
I don't think so much. They have a communist ideological
mentality anymore. But you have to remember Vladimir put what
is he He's a retired KGB colonel I always send
people to look at the interview that Tucker Carlson did
with him, and a couple of things stand out. One
as I'm right, he's still a retired KGB colonel, which
(13:14):
means he's a KGB colonel through it through, just like
I'm a retired Air Force colonel. I see three things
through that lens. He thinks that way, and he makes
decisions that way, and when he sneaks in that interview,
it's very obvious he's very rules based oriented from a
policy perspective and from a bureaucracy perspective, and he's making
decisions in both of those lenses. And that's why you
(13:38):
see him and his arm forces comfortable with falling back
and doing this grind out old Soviet style of fight
like they did around Stalingrad and defeated the Nazis in
World War Two. It's the same type of activity, and
they're slowly moving forward to get the rest of the
territory that they really wanted, which is these Russian speaking
(13:59):
areas and that on best in the Crimea Peninsula. So
he's set in those conditions. They'll probably be ready to
go by this Friday when the meeting is and Fortunately
President Trump is in place now and he has the
political will, the strategic acumen, and the business sense to
(14:19):
set the conditions to get Putin to realize, hey, it's
time to move forward on this. And you know what
else is going on, Kenny, is from our perspective, and
I mentioned China, we want to do everything we can
to get this settled and to get Russia out of
the embrace that it's jumped into with the Chinese Communist
(14:40):
Party and the North Koreans and separate that out of
it and move it back towards towards our positions and
our way of life. So we want them to be
successful economically, we want the people to be processed in Russia,
and we want their government to move as far away
from totalitarian them as possible. Is there a long way
(15:02):
to go? Yeah, I mean, but they do have an
operating Duma legislature and in theory they have an elected government.
But one day Putin will be gone. And if we
don't have the conditions set for the opportunity to turn
Russia into a country that's not still talking about the
(15:24):
communist ideology and operating a lot that way, then we
will not have done ourselves. A good service. So I
think that's the way the President's going is he's going
to try to offer some economic consentatives especially and some
incentives to assure them that NATO's not going to invade
Russia through Ukraine.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
I'm glad you brought up North Korea because there's a
report today in the BBC News about how North Koreans
are being sent to Russia to work like slaves. In
the report, they claim it's fifty thousand North Koreans. Now
we'd already heard that North Korean mercenaries they're fighting on
the front lines in the Russian Ukraine War. I find
that to be fascinating. I mean, obviously it's not good news,
(16:06):
but it's very interesting. And this other report, this is
more North Korean sent to Russia to work in what
they call slave like conditions and huge labor factories, warehouses,
that sort of thing. I guess this question is two part.
Number one, do you believe the report? Do you think
it's accurate? Do you think they're exaggerating? Do you think
they're under exaggerating? And then number two, what do you
(16:28):
think this How will this affect the war? What does
this mean going forward? It's always interesting how people sometimes
ignore the fact that problems on one side of the
world vastly seem to affect problems on the other side
of the world. This seems like one example to me
if true.
Speaker 6 (16:43):
Yeah, I'm not sure about the accuracy of the report
about North Korean's being used as slave labor in the
Russian factories because they have plenty of manpower, But the
North Korean mercenary story is accurate. I've seen direct on
the ground reporting that shows those mercenaries in the Curse
area which they were recruited by Russia. And that's an
(17:07):
interesting thing about Russia today versus Russia as the Soviet Union.
You know, back in the Soviet Union days, they would
just conscript the manpower force people in kind of like
what you see the Ukrainian recruiters doing, kidnapping people off
the streets and those kinds of things. But now the
Russian army uses mercenaries, both Russian ethnic mercenaries from their
(17:32):
part of the world. But also this is the first
time seeing North Koreans recruited as mercenaries, and they needed
to help in the Curse area because most of their
armed forces that are in ready mode. In other words,
operationally deployed are already down in the southeast portion of
the country on the front lines trying to gain that
ground that I'm talking about that Russia wants to have
(17:54):
in hand before this meeting on Friday. So that's an
interesting twist to to today from the way things used
to be in the old communism days. So it's kind
of interesting. I don't know about the accuracy of the
factory worker.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
Story then, yeah, who knows, right, I mean, it could
be true.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
I don't know either, all right, bottom line mean, Colonel
Rob MAINEZ, tell me what you think. Here. We've got
Putin and Trump meeting together on Friday and Alaska, and
we've had so many meetings the two of the guys.
They claim to have a lot of respect for each other.
Putin claims to respect Trump, vice versa. But so far
they have these meetings and then immediately Russia goes back
to launching rockets at Ukraine. Do you think anything happens
(18:34):
to this meeting on Friday or is this more of
the same.
Speaker 6 (18:38):
Well, I think the president has set the right expectations.
I mean, he hasn't really raised the expectations like he
normally would in his business negotiations or trade negotiations and
those kind of things. He set them because he's had
a series of phone calls with Putin where he does
exactly that. He talks good on the phone and then
goes right back to shooting. But unless unless they agree
(18:59):
to a ceaspar, I don't expect the Russian armed forces
to stop their operations as long as they haven't met
their military objectives. I think it all depends on whether
Putin and the Russian government feel like they've met enough
of their military objectives to come to the table. But
the indicator is that Putin agreed to the meeting. And
(19:20):
I've always said that the only person that's going to
be able to get a peace deal done between Ukraine
and Russia is going to be Donald Trump and a
face to face meeting with Ladimir Putin sitting down across
the table with him. And that's what's happened. And that's
a step forward based on where we were at in
November of twenty twenty four. I mean, think about it.
I mean Putin hadn't even talked to Joe Biden at
(19:42):
all in several years, and Biden refused to meet with him.
So we've got these conditions set now, and it looks
like that's going to go forward now. You know, the
Europeans and the Ukrainian leadership is making noises that they're
not going to give up land and those kind of things.
But the reality is the reality is that there is
(20:04):
no amount of manpower that the Ukraine in armed forces
are ever going to be able to get their hands
on to where they could push the Russians physically out
of those Russian ethnic speaking areas which have in the
meantime had elections and voted for independence and then voted
to allow themselves to be annexed by the Russian Federation.
(20:26):
So there's a lot of things going on from a
legal perspective that have to be looked at too. But
I think President Trump's got some things in mind to
sweeten the pot for Putin and see what you'll do.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
My brother, Colonel robminis robminus dot com is the website
follow him on AXI is a fantastic resource for information
about all things foreign policy, Donald Trump's military efforts over cees,
and the peace through Strength strategy.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
What a wild idea this is.
Speaker 5 (20:56):
Kenny Webster's pursuit of happiness.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
Dig It turn that music down.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
AOL is getting rid of their dial up Internet service.
At least that's what it says on this facts I
just received. I'm very excited about that. That is great news.
This news brought to you by the year two thousand
and three. Marty Langdon do you remember dial up Internet?
Speaker 3 (21:17):
I do. It's a it still exists.
Speaker 7 (21:21):
I did because when you tried to call somebody and
they were on the Internet, it either kick you off
or have a busy signal. And for those that don't
know what a busy signal is, it's when you only
had a rotary phone at your house and you were
on it and then you couldn't get through.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
Marty, I'm an elder millennial. I am forty. I am
forty three years old age. I am right, we are
about the same age. I can remember being a teenager
in the nineties and somebody in my social circle was
doing something on the Internet they shouldn't have been doing,
downloading pirated software a new Napster Napster MP three's that
(21:57):
came a little later, I think, and then some sister
would pick up the phone LimeWire. Yeah, what an embarrassing
reason to get a computer virus. I was illegally downloading
Metallica's Black album.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
And what a time to be alive. Marty Langdon in
studio right now.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
If you're just turning on your radio, it's a weird
way to have a conversation with the I guess at
the time being the most popular Republican primary candidate for
Harris County judge, which I'm talking about you at the
gym the other day with some I lift weights.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
I don't know if you know that I left you.
Thank you. People that left love to tell you that
they left.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
I left, And I fly a plane, and I'm vegan,
and I do CrossFit and none of that's true. Actually,
And one of my buddies who I lift weights with
is an older Republican.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
I'm not going to say he's an old guy, but
you know he's older than us. He's older than you.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
He remembers the old Republican Party where a union leader
for government employees would probably not be a Republican primary
candidate for anything. And yet right now for County John Jean,
Harris County, the biggest county in taxis one of the
most important political positions in any municipal government in the state.
You're the guy that a lot of people want to
(23:08):
be the candidate that blew his mind. But it's hard
for people to understand this is not your Grandpa's Republican Party.
It's changed quite a bit, hasn't it.
Speaker 7 (23:16):
Well, Listen, I mean I've grew up here Houston, born
and raised in family of five, and I can tell
you this. What people want is somebody that gets things done,
stands up for the people that they represent, doesn't stand
for corruption, and understands the role that you are in
and that you were elected for needs to be focused
on the issues that matter most to Harris County residents. Listen,
(23:38):
we're in a I've had very honest dialogues with you
over the years. We are in the state of Texas.
It is a at will state. Just like car dealers associations,
just like doctors associations, just like business associations. It's the
same thing for firefighter's associations. And so all that means
is that you have a voice to stand up. And
(23:59):
I would argue in the city of Houston, what we
dealt with for nine years was a lot of things
that were not happening correctly. The firefighters weren't getting taken
care of and oh, by the way, we had a
mayor at the time who was spending money on things
that the taxpayers do not expect to be spent on
when you're not taking care of public safety. So we
(24:20):
stand up and we fight for what's right, and I'm
going to continue to do that.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
I don't know what you're talking about.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
You don't think we should spend more money for musicians
at the airport, Marty?
Speaker 3 (24:30):
Have you you know?
Speaker 7 (24:31):
Have you ever been there. I've never seen an actual musicians.
I've seen the stand but I remember the time when
they're telling us, the taxpayers that are paying a lot
of taxes, the number one priority of government is public safety.
And if you don't have somebody that's taking care of
the people, what are we spending money music at the airport?
Harmony of the sea?
Speaker 3 (24:48):
What is it? Harmony? This harmony of the city here whatever.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
People that aren't from Houston won't understand what we're talking.
We're live streaming, but in addition to being on the
radio right now, we're also live streaming online and we
have a pretty big reach around the Gulf Coast. We're
on our warning shows on a lot of Brock and
talk stations, around the South.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
So some people.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
That are not from Harris County are very familiar with
Lena Hidalgo and Sylvester Turner and Shila Jackson Lee and
to some extent, you and I I mean friends' allies.
Whatever you and I are, they're the reason why I
know you. For those that haven't listened to this, you know,
don't remember Marty being on the show. Several years ago,
after Hurricane Harvey, we had the strangest thing happened in
(25:24):
our city where our Democrat mayor went after a lot
of the first responders, particularly firefighters, because he didn't want
to have to pay them. I remember famously, you guys
we had to vote, and you guys were more popular
than him. Now, they were two different votes. One was
to decide if we'd keep Sylvester Turner as the mayor.
The other was to decide if firefighters would get a
(25:44):
menial pay raise for the first time. And when I
think was over a decade, over a decade, and Sylvester
Turner said he would rather fire the people that were
the heroes of Hurricane Harvey and continue to have a
poet laureate for Houston City and continue to pump money
into mu musicians at the airport.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
What is it harmony of the sky or the armony
of this guy? Still there's a piano there. Listen.
Speaker 7 (26:06):
That's all great and wonderful, but at the end of
the day, I don't there's no rational explanation. And that's
kind of the problem that has been going on here
in this region. People just don't have honest conversations. They
want to focus on issues that have nothing to do
with the core tenants of what government is supposed to be.
And listen, I tell everybody you talk about grassroots, nobody's
(26:26):
more grassroots than what I do, what we do as firefighters,
because what we want to do is get in the
community and educate them about what's really going on with
their tax money and if it's not being spent the
way that it should be, then you need to change that.
And we took on a mayor who decided that he
would much rather have harmony of the skies than to
take care of the brave men and women in the
(26:47):
Houston Fire Department. That is what motivates me every day.
It's to take care of the people that we're supposed
to and do it well. Don't make excuses. But the
core tenet of government is to make sure you have
public safety, infrastructure, flood medication, disaster response, disaster recovery. And
when you don't focus on that, you spend your money
on things that have nothing to do with the Rola government.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
Nothing to do with the Rola government. I'm glad you
brought all that up.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
For those that are not actively following news in Harris County.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
What is the biggest community in Texas? Obviously a lot
has happened recently.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
Lena Hidalgo is I'm gonna put her up on the
screen here, Lena Hidalgo literally clutching her pearls in the
screenshot here. Is just very unpopular right now with the
Democrat Party, to the point where even a nice Parker,
our former Houston mayor, is now challenging or has said,
I think she is a legitimate candidate for Democrat Party
judge County judge next year. I heard and so Dalgo
(27:45):
got censured last week for disruptive behavior during a meeting,
including interrupting commissioners using children to push a failed penny tax.
She dragged a bunch of children out in front of
the penny tax they call it was a lot of
money I don't know why they call it a penny tax.
You know, it's like calling it the Affordable Care Act
or the Patriot Act. These are all very The Inflation
(28:05):
Reduction Act, Yeah, it's a lie writ and anyway, so
she gets censured by members of her own party. She
drags children out into the middle of Commissioner's court, does
her best impersonation of Sesame Street's the count on one
vote for raising taxes. Nobody else wanted this, and I
think part of the reason why is I don't think
she's going to be one of your opponents next year
(28:25):
if you get the nomination. I don't think she wants
to be county judge anymore. The rumor is that she
wants to run for Congress. I don't know why. Even
her own party she's unpopular. I have been told by
a very reliable source. Now I don't know if this
is true that Sylvia Garcia is sick. The same person
that told me this told me Sheila Jackson Lee was
sick and Sylvester Turner was sick, and now they claim
(28:46):
I don't know. It's not as if this person's a
medical doctor at any of these people, but somebody with
inside information in the Democrat Party thinks Sylvia Garcia doesn't
run again, al Greene probably will, I don't know why.
And they think Lena had Algo is going to run
for Congress. It's weird though, because here in our area
I kind of think Gene wu is the more popular Democrat.
Speaker 7 (29:05):
Right Well, you know, I mean, that's a lot to
digest at once, but I mean, listen, what people are
going to do or what they're not going to do.
That just means that somebody's not focused on the issues
of Harris County. And what I can tell you is
everybody I've spoken to, they're ready to have a county
that works for them, to be common crisis and to
have a leader. We don't use children as props, we
(29:29):
don't politicize public safety. What we need to do is
focus on the issue in the core tenant of what
Harris County and the Commission's Court is supposed to be about.
And you can't fix problems if you don't have collaboration
and cooperation. And that's where maintaining and developing relationship matters,
because at the end of the day, in order to
make somebody's life better, you actually have to work with
(29:49):
people and you don't spend your time trying to prove
a point. That's no place for somebody that's trying to
lead this county. Obviously, what we saw last week, I mean,
I always shocked. That is not something that I think
I've ever seen. And I've been in politics for quite
a while. But when you're using kids and you're doing
these things, it means that you're not focused on the
(30:09):
issues that Harris County residents expect. And that is what
we have to get back to, and that's what we
will get back to. And I don't know that anybody
has a rational explanation for that.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
Okay, State Senator Mays Middleton tells me, because of a
policy he helped pass, it'll be a lot easier to
remove Lena Handalgo from office. I have friends like Alex Mieler,
for example, who think that for political strategy purposes, it
might be better to just leave her there. You know,
we're halfway through the year already. Primary season is going
to be right after that. I don't know, what do
(30:40):
you think. Is it worth the effort to remove her
from office? Or should we just let the Democrats sit
and marinate in the problem they created?
Speaker 7 (30:45):
Well, I think you saw what Commissioner Ramsey has put out,
and I think it kind of captures you know. I
think if you even read the opinion of the Houston Chronicle,
I mean the you know, you just needed one word
from Commissioner Ramsey.
Speaker 6 (30:57):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (30:58):
I think that it's true.
Speaker 7 (30:59):
Yeah, what they've done is send a clear message. And
I think what you're seeing from all sides is that
that is not what we are supposed to be doing
as leaders, and that's not how we're supposed to be acting.
And I think that's pretty historic and it sends a message.
But you know, the focus for what we're dealing with
is to address the people that we're supposed to be
taken care of, is to protect the protect the taxpayer,
(31:22):
focus on the issues that Harris County Commissioner's Court is
supposed to be dealing with, and the more distractions that
we continue to have, the less focus we are on
leading this county and fixing those problems we have.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
Obviously, we're live on the radio right now, but we
have a few hundred people watching us, streaming on social
media right now. If you are listening to us on
the radio, you are about to hear a short pause
for a commercial break. If you are watching us streaming online,
we're not going anywhere where.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
Give us seconds while where you start the new segment.
Stand around.
Speaker 5 (31:55):
You're listening to Kenny Webster's Pursuit of Happiness. Please, if
you're offended by anything you heard to get a piece
of paper, write down a detailed description of what bothered you,
and facts it to one eight eight eight. Nobody gives
a fu.
Speaker 3 (32:10):
Oh this is interesting.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
An Indiana man like a man in Indiana just set
a Guinness record by growing a thirty foot sunflower. The
record was World Statist Farmer. I gotta think bless is hard. Hi, everybody,
I'm Kenny Webster. We are back from break that must suck.
You know, living in Indiana, you know what I mean.
Marty Langton in studio, you know it's not all serious.
You know this is We do have fun. This isn't ktrh.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
We tell jokes, We try it. I don't even know
where you pull these things from. This is pretty I
write every morning.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
I get up and I write one liners for us
to tell on the radio, and then Steve tells me
which ones I can and can't use during the show,
and then and the ones that I can't use. I
either use at a stand up comedy show or here
with you, the very serious Firefighter.
Speaker 3 (32:54):
Union President Marty Langton. Marty, I just look at it.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
Some of the problems we're dealing with in Houston, in
Harris County right now.
Speaker 3 (33:01):
And you're Catholic.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
I'm Catholic, and I don't claim to be a boy scout,
and I don't think you do either. But I was
kind of surprised to hear Lena Hidalgo. Let me see
if I could find the SoundBite here. This I did
not expect from Lena Hidalgo. This is from back when
Pope Francis died and we got Pope Leo, and Lena
Hidalgo said, and as I.
Speaker 7 (33:20):
Said, I'm emotional because of the Pope, so apologize.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
Think you she's emotional because of the Pope. Every time
I hear that SoundBite, I laugh out loud.
Speaker 3 (33:28):
Marty. I've never seen her at Catholic church before. Have
you seen her?
Speaker 7 (33:32):
I have not seen her at my church, but I
will tell you this. I mean, listen, my whole family
is Catholic. My my younger brother is a priest. And
I think one of the things that is most telling
is there's a time for us to be focused on
you know, our lives are are issues going on, and
there's times to be focused on doing the job of
(33:54):
what you're elected to do. And when you are sitting
at the seat of Harris County judge, your focus has
got to be on what you were doing in front
of you, solving problems, creating coalition's collaboration, and fixing the
problems owned by the way. Hey lobout lower taxes. I mean,
I know that that's probably something that seems very odd
to some people, but instead of raising them, let's focus
(34:16):
on what we need to public safety being first, infrastructure, flooding.
But you know, if you're talking about other things, you're
not focused on the issues that are what you're supposed
to be doing as Harris County judge.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
But even the Democrats agree with that.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
Even they none of them would support her on this
last week when they had a vote to raise taxes
so she could spend it on I don't know Sesame
Street in Iraq or whatever it was, but Miena Haddalgo
her problem is she gets too involved in national politics,
do you know what I mean? She actually blamed Donald
Trump for Joscelyn Nungary. I don't know how many people
remember when this happened.
Speaker 7 (34:47):
It hurts even more that they're being used as pawns
in this fight over immigration that doesn't even exist because
Biden and McConnell agree.
Speaker 3 (34:57):
It's just that Trump won't let them move it far.
Speaker 8 (35:00):
All due respect, Judge, you said this issue shouldn't be politicized.
But by pointing the finger at former President Trump and
Republicans in Congress, aren't you politicizing it?
Speaker 3 (35:13):
I think I've answered that. I think I answered the questions.
So BOYD does she hate Greg Grugo and she does know?
Speaker 7 (35:20):
You know, Listen, simple questions that people ask I think
are legitimate, And I think one thing I've told people
all the time is, you know, just have an honest dialogue.
But one of the biggest issues is that when you're
talking about here in this region, what I hear and
see local leaders some do that that are not being
effective in doing what they're elected to do is always
project about issues that have nothing to do with your job.
(35:42):
The job of Harris County Judge is to effectively manage
the county disaster recovery, emergency management, flooding mitigation, infrastructure, and hey,
by the way, something that you know. I will talk
a whole lot about his jobs. You got to have goods,
guild jobs, You've got port expansion, You've got a lot
of things going on that is and should be the
(36:05):
number one focus. You have to have a leader that
is common crisis, that's not projecting every time something comes
up that is an issue that nobody in the Commissioner's
Court has power over. We've got to get people together,
work towards solutions, and actually fix problems. But the more
we talk about things that we don't have control over,
(36:26):
all that does is try to virtue signal to whatever
side you're trying to curry favor from. I don't really know,
but if safety is important in Harris County, then you
need to focus on that in Harris County and get
the resources necessary. Stop talking about other things that don't
matter in Harris County that don't affect your job, and
(36:47):
do your job well.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
I always like John Whittmeyer as our mayor in Houston.
From the guy it was him and Shila Jackson Lee.
We didn't have a choice and I ran into him
recently at a baseball game. Did you see that picture
of us. I did, dude, John Whitmyer. I didn't agree
with anything he did when he was a state senator.
The guy is at a baseball game, just walking around,
no security, watching the astros. It's like Mayor Whitmeyer. He's like, Kenny,
(37:11):
what's up. We start talking. I take a photo with him.
I posted online. I forgot about it by the end
of the weekend. That photo appears on some like Progressive
Socialists for Texas group. They're like, Mayor Whitmeyer takes photo
with local Nazi. Do you know how weird that is?
Speaker 6 (37:26):
For me?
Speaker 3 (37:27):
Marty.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
I was recently at a Wu Tang clan concert. I
don't I mean, if I'm going to be involved in
any clan, it's going to be the Wu Tang. I
didn't know what to think of that, And just like that,
suddenly I became one of Whitmyer's biggest supporters. There's now
a recall effort to get rid of him, because all
he did was what Democrat mayors normally do, except actually
go out and enforce the law and arrest criminals.
Speaker 3 (37:48):
How is that controversial?
Speaker 7 (37:50):
You know that's the problem, and I've said it clearly
over the years. Really nothing to do with this race.
I've said it in general, people are so focused on
making every single thing an issue instead of focused on
working with him. I can tell you the relationships I
formed are from all walks of life everywhere. If the
focus and mission is to solve a problem, you have
(38:11):
to be accessible to the people. And if you're accessible
to the people, like Mayor John Whitmyer is, in fact,
I always tell he probably won't like what I'm telling
this story. But you know, unlike the Kurt Harris County
judge that I think has a pretty high bill for security.
Speaker 3 (38:25):
Yeah, we have to talk about that.
Speaker 7 (38:27):
Mayor Whitmyer tries to duck his security because he has
always been a person of the people and he likes
to be out there. He likes to talk to him,
he likes to talk to you directly, and he's probably,
I would argue, one of the most accessible mayors we
have had in history, because that's just who he is.
Even if you disagree with him, and you're free to
have policy disagreements. I don't agree with a whole lot
(38:49):
of policy decisions people make, but at the end of
the day, you have to find a way to work together.
You have to solve problems, and I mean he's Whitmyer
is not exactly the person and that tries to be polished.
He's more interested in substance than he is about trying
to convince you that he's right. If you can't fix
a problem with the people you represent, you're not doing
your job. And that's the only focus that I have.
(39:10):
That's the focus that he has. And imagine what you
can do when you're working together and you're not actually
fighting with the city all the time, you're not fighting
with a county. You can pick up the phone and
you can work together and collaborate.
Speaker 2 (39:21):
All right, Well with Myron Hidalgo have not gotten along well.
Unfortunately a lot of public disputes about their relationship. They
have friction, some mental health comments with Meyer. Speculated the
Houston Chronicle in December of twenty twenty four, Hidalgo might
not run for reelection in twenty twenty six due to
or mental health struggles lack of formal meeting.
Speaker 3 (39:41):
I believe he said that her fiance looked like a
dork or a nerd, or a geek or something. He's
I think I heard He's not.
Speaker 2 (39:47):
Wrong about I actually thought that was hilarious, but whatever,
who cares. He's real The woman spent nine hundred thousand
dollars on personal security in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 3 (39:57):
What did she need. Let's just say it's a million.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
There's a we need to spend a million dollars to
keep Lena safe from who who's gonna hurt her?
Speaker 7 (40:05):
You know, I think it's for some that seems to be,
you know, a hide behind kind of security. Our previous
mayor always used to have a pretty heavy security detail,
and I think you juxtapose that with with Whitmyer being
at a at a baseball game and him walking up saying, hey,
you know, let's talk or take a photo. All all
(40:25):
I know is that when you are an official that
is in a position of power that's supposed to be
taking care of the issues of the city of the county,
number one, you need to be accessible. But number two,
if there's an active threat, nobody wants anybody to get hurt.
But I don't see a world where John Whitmyer is
walking around looking over his shoulder and he's worried. So
(40:49):
I don't understand why somebody would spend that much money
on a security detail.
Speaker 3 (40:54):
It doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 7 (40:55):
But again we go back to rational leadership and having
a calm voice in the room that under stands, you know,
does the average taxpayer think if that's okay?
Speaker 3 (41:03):
Yeah? And they don't.
Speaker 2 (41:04):
I always in politics, I always think when I'm trying
to weigh somebody, when I'm trying to, you know, size
somebody up and figure out what I think about them.
Who are their enemies with Meyer's enemies are not conservative Republicans.
His enemies appear to be like far left, Marxist, open border,
empty the jail, taxpayer funded a gender affirming care for kids.
(41:28):
This is the stuff they're advocating for. If that's your enemy,
then wit Myer's probably my friend. I mean, that's how
I felt.
Speaker 7 (41:34):
But all the issues, whether it's you know, it doesn't
matter what side of the islet is on. My question
that I always put out is that the role of
the Houston mayor to do any of the things that
we're talking about, and it could be on you know,
the other side too. His job is to run the
city and to fix the problems public safety and the infrastructure.
(41:54):
There's a reason why you keep hearing the stuff over
and over again because if it was fixed and it
was done appropriately, he wouldn't need to talk about it.
But when Witmeyer came in and I told him beforehand,
I said, you know, it's a mess, and I've studied it.
I dealt with the corruption. I tackled it head on.
I wasn't afraid I got attacked for it. I mean
they even tried to fire me. And I told him,
(42:15):
I said, if you're doing the right thing, people come
out of the woodworks to try to make sure that
the wrong thing or the bad thing always stays the same.
And I'm not about that. I'm about actually addressing problems
and fixing them.
Speaker 2 (42:28):
All Right, we have I feel like we've just spent
two segments doing the warm up interview here. But you
answered a lot of questions I would ask you already.
Let's ask the most there's three most important questions. First
of all, let's address this. You haven't officially announced your
candidacy for Harris County Republican primary candidate yet, but I
think most people know you're going to run.
Speaker 3 (42:46):
So where are you on that.
Speaker 7 (42:49):
Well, you know, as with everything, some people like to
get out ahead of things, and you know, I think
at my camp we've confirmed that we're running, but our
campaign hasn't officially launched. It'll be launched next week and
we'll have information going to be sending out to everybody.
And and the support that we have in the encouragement
has been truly amazing. But that's built upon a long
time of developing relationships and finding solutions to problems.
Speaker 3 (43:13):
And if I can take on, you know.
Speaker 7 (43:16):
An administration in the City of Houston that treated the
firefighters the way they did and they tried every trick
in the book, my focus is on doing the same
thing for Harris Kenny residents.
Speaker 2 (43:24):
I think the thing that some people will be concerned
about and I don't see this as an issue.
Speaker 3 (43:28):
I just want to bring it up because I want
to hear how you respond to it.
Speaker 2 (43:31):
Several years ago, you famously had a public feud with
Turner and the police union. Just to be clear, your
pro cop I mean your pro keep the criminals in.
Speaker 3 (43:39):
Jail or one hundred percent.
Speaker 7 (43:40):
And I can tell you this, having this goes back
to what we talked about. Having a policy difference in
a discussion is way different than having an issue with anybody.
The Harris County Sheriff's organization. I'm very close with always
support support Houston police officers in the HPOU. There is
(44:00):
not a time that has gone by over the course
of nine years where we have ever and would never
stand with our brothers and sisters in blue. We absolutely
know what they deal with because we're on the streets
with them every single day. We have a great relationship,
and you know, I'm excited to get the things done.
But you know, Harris County sheriffs have been neglected, much
like the Houston firefighters were neglected, and their leadership are
(44:24):
people that I am very close with, and we're going
to make sure that the police and Harris County are
taken care of and to make sure that it's not
just lip service.
Speaker 3 (44:33):
I love it. I think that's a perfect answer.
Speaker 2 (44:35):
All right, let's get a little controversial before you walk
out of here. This is probably gonna upset some people.
Where's your favorite barbecue place? About to get you canceled?
Are about to give me? You just pull one out
of nowhere inside, let's do this in the loop, out
of the loop, outside of the city.
Speaker 3 (44:52):
What do you like?
Speaker 2 (44:54):
I mean, in no specific order, where are you getting barbecue?
You're you're in uptown right now? Someone says, let's get brisket.
Where do you in uptown?
Speaker 7 (45:03):
If I'm in the Rice Village area, Good Company Barbecue
has been there forever.
Speaker 3 (45:07):
Leo guy. Yeah, Papa's Barbecue. I always go there downtown. Oh,
Papa's Barbecue.
Speaker 2 (45:14):
Yes, I got nothing against him, but that's like the
Bill Miller Barbecue.
Speaker 7 (45:18):
If no you go, we've gone there. There's one right
downtown that we always go to. You've got Truth Barbecue
that's over off Washington that I love. I mean Revee Barbecue.
Actually one of our firefighters, Houston firefighters, actually started I
think Revely And if I've gotten the name wrong, I'm sorry,
I'm gonna tell you in advance. But but there's a
number of places, I mean, they're popping up. That's what
(45:39):
makes Houston Harris County great. We have a lot of
people that have roots here, that believe in this this county,
in the city that we live in. And listen, I'll
eat anything except phennaise and mustard.
Speaker 2 (45:51):
Except for mayonnaise, except for a ketchup on a hot dog.
Speaker 3 (45:55):
I hope all right.
Speaker 2 (45:56):
Rogueles it's technically pronounced Raygules Barbecue. If you've been there
over on oh, oh, it's outstanding, right tex mex Where
are you going?
Speaker 3 (46:03):
Oh?
Speaker 7 (46:03):
Good company, Tucky really very loyal to LEVI listen, I
grew up my son and I we call it to
Basco Breakfast. We every weekend. Since I was a kid,
I would go there and everybody there just I remember
flicking the pennies in the fountains when I was a kid,
and that's what my son did as he was growing up.
(46:24):
But I mean, there's listen, I'll take anything.
Speaker 3 (46:27):
In Houston.
Speaker 7 (46:27):
We Harris County, Houston. We got the best text mechs ever.
But now you're really going to get me canceled.
Speaker 2 (46:32):
It is one of the top five food cities in America,
and it's certainly the best one in Texas.
Speaker 3 (46:36):
Marty.
Speaker 2 (46:37):
When you announced, I can't imagine Steve and I are
not going to endorse you. It seems like you're the guy,
and a lot of first responders in the city are
cheering for you. I know a lot of the Republicans
in the city are cheering for you. The Republican Party's
changed a lot in five to ten years. I don't
think I could have been a Republican ten years ago,
or before Trump, or before this current era.
Speaker 3 (46:56):
That we're in.
Speaker 2 (46:56):
So you running as a GOP candidate, you have our support.
If people want to learn more about the campaign that
hasn't been announced yet, where do they go.
Speaker 7 (47:04):
Well, we'll be announcing it, but we'll send out that information.
But langdon forharriscunting dot com and we'll be pushing out
a whole bunch of informational list of endorsements and we
really look forward to working with the community and finding
the voices. So we look forward to hearing from you
and let's get this done.
Speaker 3 (47:19):
I love it. Hey to the rest of you. We'll
be back bright and early tomorrow morning for more of
what you bought a radio for. I have a great day.
Speaker 5 (47:30):
You are listening to the Pursuit of Happiness Radio.
Speaker 2 (47:35):
Tell the government to kiss you're ass when you listen
to this show.
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