Can Texas rum help spread world peace?

This podcast edition of Kenny Webster's Pursuit of Happiness features journalist Michael Quinn Sullivan and Derek Bingham of Higgins Boat Rum Company. ( @KennethRWebster )

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Jack gannon government sucks. Pursuit of Happiness radio is deluxe.
Liberty and freedom will make you smile. Of a suit
of happinesss on your radio toil just as Cheezburgers living
it fries.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
All right, it is Friday, Friday. It is Michael Quinn
Sullivan is in the house. We are looking at all
of the many, many, many scandals happing around the Texas
political zeitgeist. This afternoon, John Cornyn versus Ken Paxton, a
lawmaker meanwhile in the Dallas Fort Worth area, accused of
doing some nefarious things with a woman who works for

(00:40):
a living. And then after we're done talking about that,
we're gonna have a little bit of fun. My buddy
Derek Bingham is stopping by from the Higgins Boat Rum Company.
It's Friday. It's Pursuit of Happiness radio. Folks, stick around.
We got a lot going on.

Speaker 3 (00:52):
Pursuit of Happiness radio coming now.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
Chius pek.

Speaker 4 (00:56):
This is Kenny Webster's Pursuit of Happiness on PRC nine
point fifty Houston.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
Krispy Kreme and CrOx unveiled a shoe collaboration. It's great
news for all six Krispy Kreme customers. Who can see
their feet. I love that. If some of you are
wondering why I'm playing this music, would you believe that
guitar is it's Rick daring Er? Did you know that?
I never knew that rock and roll hoo Chiku is
the thing he's most famous for. But we were talking
about him on the morning show today because he actually

(01:25):
sang and recorded the song for hul Cogan in his
wrestling theme. I am a real American. It was such
an interesting odd week. Chuck Mangione, Ozzy Osbourne, hul Cogan,
Theodore Huxtable all passed away this week, leaving some to
wonder if they knew something about Jeffrey Epstein. But I'll
leave that alone. We have problems of our own here

(01:45):
in the state of Texas. A lot happening this week.
I feel like as wild of a week as this
has been, it's always nice to go back and reflect
on some of the news stories, big news stories, and
some of the underreported stuff. With a guy I often
say is probably the smartest guy in Texas political media.
He's also one of the most dangerous. He has destroyed
quite a few careers in his time, and this week

(02:07):
Michael Quinn Sullivan. I'm taking a good long look at
the feud between Ken Paxton, our attorney general, and incumbent
candidate Senator John Cornyn. This is we are not even
technically in primary season yet, and this is one of
those things that's getting a ton of attention, particularly because
Cornyn is out raising Paxton by millions of dollars. He's

(02:28):
not the incumbent, He's up by twenty points despite having
a divorce going on. And then yesterday the Cornyn campaign
came out and they tried to report some fake news
on Ken Paxton, didn't they Yeah, And you know, look.

Speaker 3 (02:42):
You always have to whenever it's always primary season, but
it's particularly particularly primary season when you got two candidates
who say they're running. So now you have to make
sure that every single word they say you filter through
that will lens of Oh yeah, he wants to keep
his job. Oh yeah, he wants that job. You know,
you always gotta gotta have a little have your guard

(03:04):
up with some of the stuff.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
And so it is.

Speaker 3 (03:07):
It is disgusting, shocking, infuriating. I'm sure there's some other
ings I could go in there. When you see people
who should who should theoretically know better, by that, I
mean political reporters you would think should should know better,
except that they are blinded by their left wing partisan
biases and they absolutely despise Ken Paxton. They should have

(03:31):
done better when clearly someone from Team Cornyn went to
them breathlessly and said, oh, look, Ken Paxson has broken
the law and he's doing these illegal, uh illegal things
with property ownership. You'd think that some one of those
cats would have been smart enough to say, well, jolly

(03:52):
Cornyn campaign, if he's doing something illegal, have you taken
it to a judge, Have you got a prosecutor? No,
you're coming to a reporter who's never owned a home
and doesn't live in Texas. Congratulations, you're being played. And
that's precisely what happened. But you know, the media is
so the left wing media, the establishment media, the crony media,

(04:13):
so anti packed and ran with it and now have
beg on their face.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
Yeah, and Paxston's even suggested there's going to be legal retaliation.
Do you think that's true?

Speaker 3 (04:22):
Uh?

Speaker 5 (04:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (04:23):
So, you know, at at issue is something that is
that is against the law, and that is the claiming
a homestead exemption on more than one property, claiming that
a property is your primary more than one property is
your primary property. You know, if you if you went
to third grade, you know that you there can only
be one primary.

Speaker 2 (04:41):
You know, you don't have two primaries. You got one primary.

Speaker 3 (04:45):
And so I think that, mister, that there are legal
consequences to that. So you're accusing someone of a crime
which is different than you know, Kenny Webster saying Michael
Sullivan is a poopy head. That that that that means
you have either a good or a bad opinion. But
a normal person knows that someone doesn't actually have a

(05:05):
poopy head. They may they may seem like it, but
they're not actually not actually right. In this case, you've
got corny and I'm assuming you've got the media repeating
what someone in the corn and camp told them to say,
saying that Ki Packxon was committing a crime. Right, and
so for for that standard, the media should ask more questions.
The fact that they didn't it doesn't mean that kN

(05:25):
Packson probably does have a legal leg to stand on,
and he does happen to be a fairly good lawyer,
or so we've all been led to believe given his record.
Uh yeah, okay, if nothing else, his his threat to
sue should make some of these like below, which owns
to the Dallas Morning News, and some of these other

(05:46):
media outlets say, gosh, you know you had, you know,
big national media paid Trump millions of dollars for uh
for for actually a lesser of sense what could can
get out of us? And I think that some of
the guys, and you see the now Roll rushing to
put out quick, big public correction, something they rarely do.

(06:09):
They never put out public corrections. It's always buried on
the back page, you know, behind the recipe section or
something of their of their crummy prep edition that nobody reads.
So I think that there is a recognition that kN
Paxon does have a legal leg to stand on, and
they should be worried. They should all be worried that
kN Paxson's going to sue them. He's going to make
a lot of money off of them. And then Donald
Trump is done.

Speaker 2 (06:29):
And there's something else happening here that you just pointed
out that is also kind of problematic, politicians feeding news
stories to the media. Clearly the media is in bed
with the establishment. I mean there's a you know, Cornyn
is out trying to attack Paxton. He's out trying to
attack Wesley Haunt, who's not even a candidate in this race,

(06:49):
posting things on social media today about how Wesley Hunts
one of the most unpopular people in Washington, d C.
But meanwhile, back here in Texas, Cornyn can't even give
a speech as it his own state parties convention without
getting booed. I think I'd rather be unpopular in Washington
than unpopular in my own home state if I was
a politician.

Speaker 3 (07:09):
Yeah, popular in Washington is not what you want. You
want your people to be unpopular in Washington, DC. That
means they're being effective, they're working against the swamp. I
think you look, I've been a journalist now for all
my adult life, or nearly all of my adult life,
newspaper porter, magazine writer now in Texas coorecard and I

(07:30):
can tell you without any without any shame, there are
a great many stories that I have written over the
years because one politician called me to tell me about
their opponent. Now, what I tried to do, but I
think I've done a fairly good job, is than fact
checking what they tell me. And sir, and I know
this will probably I know this will probably shock you, Kenney.
But there have been many times when they've lied to me,

(07:53):
they have not told me the truth. And but but
that's on me to make sure that I don't repeat
the lie or right, I repeat the lie on the
context of hey, this is a lie that they're spreading.

Speaker 2 (08:04):
And I think that's.

Speaker 3 (08:04):
Where these cats, with this Paxton story that the Cornyn
team very clearly planted out there, that's where these where
these so called journalists failed. They didn't they didn't do
their due diligence. They took the slop fed to them
and they pretended like it was a steak dinner, and

(08:26):
in doing so, they misrepresented the truth. They misrepresented facts,
which in my head is the gravest sin sin that
you can commit if you if you hold yourself out
to a journalist, our job should be to put the
facts in context. Now, you can have whatever stupid opinion
you want about those facts. That's fine having. Having bad
opinions is what literally our nation was built upon. You

(08:48):
are allowed to have bad opinions. What you're not allowed
to do is treat those opinions like their facts. All right.

Speaker 2 (08:55):
I have noticed there's more than one anti Paxton Texas
Republic who has been accused of I want to be
careful how I'm saying this. Michael has been accused of
having a salacious relationship with a working woman over the
last week or two. One of them was Matt mccoeac,
one of the top staffers for John Cornyn and his

(09:16):
Venmo account. The other is this state representative. I don't
think a lot of our listeners in Houston would even
know who he is. South Lake Republican State Representative Giovanni Capriglione,
another anti Paxton pro impeachment guy, has now been accused
of having a suspicious relationship with a woman who works
for a living. I'll just leave it at that. And
isn't it kind of interesting how the same they're They're

(09:38):
all trying to make a point about Ken Paxton and
his divorce, but it feels like what his critics are
doing seems infinitely worse.

Speaker 1 (09:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (09:47):
Look, I think this is the hubris of politics at play.
Every one of these guys are convinced that they they're
the exception, They're the most moral, they're the most discreet there,
you know, the most whatever, when in fact they are
is the most stupid in in in the many of
these cases. Uh, this hubris, that that envelops many in

(10:09):
politics where they think that they will be allowed to
get away with the grievous thing that they're accusing other
people of doing. Now, this is this is why you
guys like you, guys like me exists is to help
shine the light on these on on on on this hubris,
shine this light on these people because if they're if
they are double dealing with the facts, they're probably double

(10:30):
dealing with other things too. And it's critical for us
to understand who we are giving the fearsome power of
government too, you know. And then then look, the fact
is that the number of these folks have continued to
get reelected and other things. That's and that's on us.
We need to do a better job of picking men
and women of character. You're looking kin faction caught having

(10:52):
an adulterous affair. He admitted to it, you know, he was.
He his wife continuing the process of working through that.
That's you know that that is what it is. The
fact he admitted to it is you know, there's an
honor to that. There's an honor to a dishonorable situation.
On other hand, you've got some of these characters. They
refused him of anything wrong. They think they're entitled to

(11:14):
that lifestyle too, whatever it may be. And that's where
I think it's where we have to be asking a
lot better questions.

Speaker 2 (11:20):
Yeah, I mean, even if the mortgage thing was an issue,
it's like, all right, I'm a lot more concerned about
John Cornyn passing gun control bills. And I gotta think
half of our listeners are divorced. I mean, that's what
the raw statistics say. So probably that's not an issue
to most primary voters right now, which would explain why
Paxton's up by twenty points. But with all that being said,
here's another one of those anti Paxton. Texas Republicans. State

(11:43):
Representative Jared Patterson voted to impeach Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Now he's facing criticism as he's out attempting to recruit
primary challengers to go after conservatives. What's the deal with
this guy, Michael.

Speaker 3 (11:57):
Yeah, this is kind of that rank hippocrasy that I think,
you know, annoys people. More people get more annoyed by
the hypocrisy than they do often by the actual positions
or actions taken by politicians. Just the hypocrisy that tends
to annoy folks. That's kind of the thread through a
lot of this today that we've talked about so far

(12:18):
is kind of that sense of hypocrisy. And with Jared Patterson.
Just a year ago, one year ago, Jared Patterson was
called successfully led the censure against four of his conservative
Republican colleagues. They're from the Republican Caucus, censuring them for
having merely endorsed conservative challengers to liberal incumbents. The Texas

(12:43):
Gpey Caucus does not allow that. It's the incumbent protection rule.
You shall not speak ill, you shall not endorse against
an incumbent. These four guys did, and Jared Patterson led
the charge and going after them, calling them all sorts
of bad, horrible parliamentary things. Is right now today it's
been or yesterday, it's been revealed that he's out actually

(13:05):
not just endorsing, he's recruiting challengers to the conservatives, And
a number of folks are correctly pointing out the hypocrisy
there that Jared Patterson, on the one hand, doesn't want
conservatives endorsing against liberals, but he is just fine recruiting
people who he hopes will be less conservative than incumbents

(13:27):
in his own party.

Speaker 2 (13:28):
Michael quinn Sullivan on the line right now. Michael, we
went a little along on this segment, but I didn't
have time to ask you everything I wanted to ask about.
Can you hang out and do one more quick segment
with us? Oh, I'd love to Michael Quinnsullivan Texas scorecard
dot com. If you aren't not already subscribed to their
email list, you are missing out on some of the
wildest things happening around the state. Quick break, We'll be
right back.

Speaker 4 (13:47):
Kenny has always thought the best things in life are free,
free plus tax. Of course, Kenny Webster's pursuit of happiness.

Speaker 2 (14:00):
Surprized about this. This Japanese toy company released fake pistols
capable of firing real ammunition. So we know where Alec
Baldwin's gonna film his next movie. I think we can
already answer that question right now. Don't do it, Japan,
Do not let Alec Baldwin come to your country. It's
a terrible idea. Another terrible idea today would be really

(14:22):
doing a deep dive into some of the details involving
the very gross things happening around the Texas political scene.
We're gonna have to be careful how we dance around
this one. In the last segment, we talked about the
lawmaker in the Dallas Fort Worth area who was very
did some very unwholesome things with a purportedly was accused

(14:42):
of doing some unwholesome things with a a woman who
works for a living. I can't think of a classier
way to explain it than that. Meanwhile, here in the Houston,
Texas area, a very similar problem. The Department of Homeland
Security is reporting investigators believe a case involving an illegal
alien kidnapping a a sex worker or a sex trafficking
victim may have actually involved her being tortured for as

(15:06):
many as five days. A Chinese masseuse in the Houston
area was caught on video getting kidnapped by Jose Armando
Carcamo Perdomo, unlawfully present in the US from Honduras. Turns
out this guy was not supposed to be in the country.
He was captured and released and let go. The Biden administration,
according to a report at texascorecard dot com, actually allowed

(15:29):
him to stay in the country. They removed proceedings to
terminate him from the to deport him from the odd
to think that here we have an illegal immigrant that's
accused of preying on other illegal immigrants. It's really strange
when you hear people on the left talk about how
deporting these people it's bad for them, it's bad to

(15:50):
deport them. It's like, Okay, in this case, one of
these guys was a rapist, the others a sex trafficking victim.
If neither of them were in the country, I gotta
think her life would have been better and he'd be
in his home country sitting in a jail cell. Here
is some more details and thoughts on the story, Mister
Michael quinn Sullivan of Texas scorecard dot com. Is this
story as bad as it sounds? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (16:11):
I think it's it is as bad as it sounds,
but it's probably worse, particularly in the sense that you
just kind of alluded to here there there at the end.
This was an easily provincable horror, all right, if the
if the Biden administration had done its job, the guy

(16:32):
was caught, he was caught by the border patrol. He
was captured, he was caught, he was in custody. They
could have it returned him.

Speaker 2 (16:41):
It was a known fact.

Speaker 3 (16:43):
This is a bad dude with the criminal record where
he came from, easy enough to say, we're shoving it
back across the line. You can be Mexico's problem, you
can be Honduras's problem, you can be Antarctica's problem. We
don't care, but you're not going to be our problem.
They could have done that, but in instead the Biden administration,
Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Alejandro Miyorcus, they chose to let

(17:08):
this villain, this animal, remain in our country. And because
they did so, this woman who also if they'd been
doing their job, she would not have been trafficked into
the United States, she would not have been brought here
and forced to do do horrible things, which is bad enough, right,
but by the way, because she was here and he

(17:29):
was here, she now became his victim. I mean, Joe Biden,
there's a there's a horrible place reserved, uh for the
for for the co for the co conspirators of this,
of this crime. And and in my head, that makes
everything worse. It makes it all worse because this could
have been easily prevented simply by the federal government doing

(17:52):
its job. But the conscious decision made.

Speaker 2 (17:54):
Not to right.

Speaker 3 (17:55):
But but but believe, hats off there there is some
person out there who heard a woman screaming and thought,
and you know, none of this is happening in a
nice neighborhood, Kenny. This is not happening in your building.
You know, yeah, this is not happening in your neighborhood.
This isn't happening within a stone's throw where you. This
isn't is an unpleasant neighborhood where this is taking place.

(18:19):
And but someone heard the screaming, so I need to
call the place. And thank god they did. Yeah, they
know that that that simple act of calling nine to
one one, And the hats off to those folks for
doing that.

Speaker 2 (18:31):
See, Houston is such a big place. It's like Los Angeles.
It's just this massing, sprawling, massive, sprawling urban metropolis. It
keeps going on and on and on and on, and
you don't realize how much is happening out there. You know,
a lot of our listeners live in the conservative parts
of town. They have a you know, a district G
or district Day. There's a Republican repro conservative representatives. We

(18:52):
don't realize there are places in the city where it
looks like a third world country, and we don't go
there every day, and we don't see that. When I
watch this, it did not look like they were in
America to me, Michael, I mean, it just it looks
like they were in another world. No, they were probably
fifteen or twenty minutes from here.

Speaker 3 (19:09):
Yeah, And I think this is you know, this is
where each one of us have to own our culpability,
where we have to make sure and ask ourselves. You
know that the fact that I'm avoiding driving through that area,
maybe that should tell me that we need, you know,
we need to think what we're doing in our community.
When you think about who we're allowing to get to

(19:29):
hold office and what we're allowing them to do a
lot a lot of again, a lot of culpability here.
I think we all need to do a lot better
job of policing our neighborage. And look after all my
condemnation of Joe Biden, Alejandro Marcus and the rest. You know,
if we're waiting on some president, some senator, some you know,

(19:53):
ice agent to save the day, you might be waiting
a long time. This is where each one of us
have to make sure that we're being the good neighbor.
We're being the good Samaritan. We need to make sure
that we're doing our job and looking at these neighborhoods,
these horrible situations, and trying to figure out what can
we do, what can we our neighbors do to alleviate

(20:13):
this horrific suffering that our politicians have allowed to fester,
like you say, fifteen minutes away in places that look
like they might as well be, you know, in some
third world country.

Speaker 2 (20:27):
I was looking at news out of Maine today and
I know this isn't a Texas political news story, but
in a sense, it certainly affects us because we're Texas
is ground zero for the immigration crisis, and Maine has
a Democrat lawmaker, Mana Abdi. She's one of these Somali refugees.
You see a lot of these people in Minneapolis. You
see a lot of these people from Islamic countries in

(20:48):
dear Bornistan right outside of Michigan. Apparently they're also in Maine,
and she was doing an interview recently.

Speaker 6 (20:55):
So coming into the States, everything from the snow to
you know, the housing, the homes that we were all
of a sudden occupying everything was a shock. Honestly, every
day was something new, and I'm like, a right, I.

Speaker 2 (21:10):
Won't make it. Listen to the whole clip, but basically
she goes on to say coming to America from Somalia
was terrible. It was horrible for a person of color
to live. Here is a bad place to live. These
are people from foreign countries who came to our country
and now they want to change the laws and the system.
And look, America has always been a melting pot. But
why is it that we have to embrace people from
countries that hate us? And somehow there's enough of these

(21:32):
refugees here that they get they actually have representation for
their communities and places like Washington, DC or state government.
Is denaturalization? I mean, is that too much to ask?
I feel like we're at a point here where you know,
this isn't about xenophobia, It's about anti Americanism. We've allowed
people to become part of our system who hate the
country and want to turn it into a country that

(21:55):
they fled from. Yet weirdly, they were refugees from that
country because it was so terrible there. I feel like
I'm taking crazy pills. Michael.

Speaker 3 (22:04):
Yeah, Look, I mean when when you live in a
crazy time. Every pill is a crazy pill. And I
think that as you, this should make us ask as
the kind of fundamental question of well, were they really
refugees at this point? When when when someone comes here
and they start and they and they begin their time
here by trying to make here the place that they

(22:25):
allegedly fled, it makes me think they weren't fleeing. It
makes me think that they were invading. It makes me
think they are attacking. It is is there's certainly something
admirable about the person who comes to the United States
from another place and wants to make America better. But

(22:45):
you don't make America better by turning us into the horror,
horrible place that you left. The two things are in conflict.
So I think to the extent that when when, when
we see these folks, these were maybe we do need
to start asking, maybe we should start deporting more than
just illegal aliens, deporting the people are coming here to

(23:06):
be things. But let's remember, let's not disabuse ourselves of
the reality that unfortunately, a great many of these very
bad people coming here want to do very bad things,
are being enabled by folks who grew up here, Folks
who were from here. I say this often, I know it,
and it was a lot of my Texas friends. You know,
I'm a sixth generation Texan, but Beto Rourke might be

(23:29):
the US Senator from Texas today if only native born
Texans had voted in the twenty eighteen election. Thank goodness,
we had refugees from California, refugees from Illinois, refugees from
other parts of the country who came here knowing what
they fled, and we're not going to allow Beta or

(23:50):
Rourke to win because of them.

Speaker 2 (23:53):
We didn't have.

Speaker 3 (23:54):
Better or work as our US Center from Texas.

Speaker 2 (23:57):
So you know, there's the good and the bad.

Speaker 3 (23:59):
But I think that it's the understanding that there are
a great many of our native born people who've taken
for granted that what we have here is special and unique.

Speaker 2 (24:06):
Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up. It always blew
my mind that more than half of Beto O'Rourke voters
were born in Texas, and more than half of Ted
Cruz voters, or or more than half of the people
that came to Texas from other states, voted for Ted Cruz.
I want to be careful how I explained that, Hey,
before we run out of time. We only have a
minute or two left here. Quick question for you. I
love this. Speaking of illegal immigration, Trump just awarded one

(24:28):
point two six billion dollars for a five thousand bed
migrant detention facility near Texas's Fort Bliss that would be
out near El Paso. I'm sure CNN will report that
as Democrats creating more jobs, because they're the reasons why
those z illegal immigrants are here. But in the meantime,
you guys have another report today about restoring the Alamo.

(24:49):
And you know, I know that's a little controversial in
and of itself, but what's the ins and outs there?
Anything good happening?

Speaker 3 (24:56):
Yes, some really good stuff happening there. I think that
this kind of goes to the dip prince a commissioner
can make. In this case, the land Commissioner. The Texas
Land Commission oversees the Alamo. Don Buckingham is the is
the current Land Commissioner, and she's made an emphasis of
this Alamo restoration project, focusing on celebrating the Alamo for

(25:17):
the thing that we all know it for, which is
its role in the eighteen thirty six push for independence
in Texas. And so you have this restoration project going
to look needed restoration. The roof needs to be replaced,
the walls are crumbling in places, and some people had
for a decade under George P. Bush, the former Land Commissioner,

(25:38):
tried to take advantage of the these needed things so
that they could retell the Alamo where they could make
the War of Independents horrible, or they could celebrate the
you know, Santa Anna and his tyranny, all these kind
of weird things they wanted to do to des Alveu,
Texas through the restoration. Don buckingham Is said no to

(26:00):
all of that, and it's making the Alamo someplace that
we call be proud of. There's gonna be a big
project starting next year where they're going to be building
this giant enclosure over the entire Alamo structure because they
have to replace the roof on the old church and
so there's going to be some really So if you
want to see the Alamo without without a barn over

(26:21):
it essentially you better go now. On the other hand,
if you kind of want to see what the Alamo
looks like with a with the barn over, you're going
to have with that opportunity starting next year, but all
but all of it being done to make sure that
the Alamo continues as a as what it has been
now for almost two hundred years, a symbol of liberty

(26:43):
of individuals willing to give their life for something bigger
than themselves, and the Alamo is a great place to
have that reflection, great place to go to visit. This
would be great that we've got a land commissioner wants
to make sure it survives for another another couple of centuries.

Speaker 2 (27:00):
Michael quint Sullivan, I would agree with you. I think
it is a symbol of liberty and freedom. And apparently
they're professors at the University of Texas who disagree, they
think it's a symbol of slavery. But whatever, they're not here,
they're not part of this radio show. Folks. I'm a
big fan of Michael quinn Sullivan and Texas Scorecard for
a reason. This guy, not only I've said many times
that he's one of the most dangerous people in Texas

(27:20):
political media, probably the most dangerous. Not only did he
create Texas Scorecard, not only has he taken down some
of the worst politicians in the state, Michael created a movement.
Now there are other people out there doing similar stuff
to what Texas Scorecard did, but make no mistake, they
were there first. They've been around for quite a while.
The work that MQS has done in this state has
you know, Andrew Breibart once said, we're stronger in large

(27:43):
numbers alone. It's nice to be the star, but man,
when you've got other people as part of a movement,
more voices is better. And Michael Quinn Sullivan is certainly
somebody that I give credit to for creating a political
movement of conservative media around the Lone Star State. You
should go to texascorecard dot com today, subscribe to his email,
and follow him on X. We'll be right back. One
of our guests coming up, Derek Bingham is here from

(28:04):
Higgins Rum. We're about to go live on social media.

Speaker 4 (28:07):
Uncle Well, America, the land of taxation that was founded
to avoid taxation. Kenny Webster's pursuit of happiness.

Speaker 2 (28:27):
All right, So there's a new study that shows pedestrians
now walk faster unless you're waiting for work and they're
right in front of you, then they probably walk slower. Hi, everybody,
I'm Kenny Webster. Thanks for connecting. This is a special
Friday edition of Kenny Webster's Pursuit of Happiness. We have
guests in studio today in studio right now is my
good buddy Derek Bingham is here from Higgins Rum. Can

(28:49):
you hold up one of the bottles for us please?
That is very cool. You need to be higher there
we go, Hi, They can't see it in front of
the camera. Higher, great, that's perfect. What the heck is
Higgins Rum? Derek? What is it here? Get this mic
and on your.

Speaker 7 (29:00):
Face, Ry So, Higgins Boat Rum is a rum that
we've created that it's exceptionally good. And the brand was
a tribute to my grandfathers and great uncles service in
World War Two and their generation and what they did.
And then it was also the perfect vehicle pun intended
to raise money to support current veterans.

Speaker 2 (29:21):
And that's kind of the whole point, right, you came
up with this great rum brand. It's a tribute to
what was a legendary New Orleans business, Higgins what was
it called Higgins Industries, And they built the boats that
I think are often credited with winning World War Two,
or at least beating the Nazis at Normandy. Right.

Speaker 5 (29:39):
Yes, according to Eisenhower, according.

Speaker 2 (29:41):
To Eyes and hour and what did he know? Yeah,
you might have known a little bit about it. And
so we're going to make some drinks real quick here
in the studio today. And also in the studio is
Callum one of our producers. And you'll notice, we don't
know why, but this mic, this camera that he's on
is very blurry. So we're going to call that the
buzzed cam. Callum? Are you here talking to that micro?

Speaker 3 (30:00):
Hello?

Speaker 8 (30:00):
How are we doing?

Speaker 2 (30:01):
We're doing good? Calum. You're not often on the radio, no,
but you and you're one of the you're the program
director in one of our producers. And do you eat?
Have you even had alcohol before? You're from Scotland, that's
pretty much a Scotland's like a it's like a Muslim country.
You guys don't drink, drink very strict draws. All right, Derek,
let's get started. What are we doing today? Let's going
on here.

Speaker 7 (30:21):
First, we're gonna make a very simple but amazingly tasty
cocktail when you use great ingredients like Higgins boat, rum,
the lime, dackery.

Speaker 2 (30:28):
Okay, right, So the first thing we're.

Speaker 7 (30:31):
Gonna do is we're gonna use our Higgins Boat silver rum.
Forgive me, I'm not familiar with my current set up
by memory, okay, and we're gonna do It's very simple.
You can memorize these ratios. So we're gonna do two
ounces of the silver rum.

Speaker 2 (30:45):
Okay, two ounces of silver rum.

Speaker 5 (30:46):
Actually, might as well make this a double so I
can yeah, we can drink.

Speaker 2 (30:50):
We can all glug glug.

Speaker 5 (30:51):
All right, So we're gonna do four ounces because we're
doubling it.

Speaker 2 (30:55):
It's a lot of rum, it is.

Speaker 7 (30:57):
It's not even the forward cocktail. All right, We're gonna
do three quarters ounce of fresh lime juice. I squeezed
these right before I came. Okay, as should you when
you're making a good cocktail obviously, all right, so three quarters,
but we're gonna double that because we're making a double,
all right, And.

Speaker 2 (31:15):
Then people people think of rum. Rum is kind of
like the new bourbon, right, I mean, this is what
people are making old fashions with it. You can make
surprisingly a lot of cocktails you'd normally think to make
with other, you know, alcohol, you could still make with
rum if you just know how to mix it right, right, yes, well.

Speaker 5 (31:32):
Especially like our uh our reserve. Rum is a very
bourbon like rum. It's dry.

Speaker 7 (31:36):
We don't add any molasses back into it. It's a
very good analog for bourbon cocktails and whiskey cocktails. So I,
of course, on the spot, I did screw up because
we're using granulated sugar like the original recipe calls for. Normally,
you would dissolve that into your lime juice first before
adding your rum, so that way the sugar really breaks down.
Of course I didn't do that this time, So learn

(31:57):
from my mistake. Okay, all right, and so put some
ice in here.

Speaker 2 (32:05):
He's putting ice in. He's mixing it up. You can
hear it. He's got bro you are legit. Check this out.

Speaker 5 (32:11):
Just we're gonna shake it till it gets so cold
it doesn't feel good in your hand.

Speaker 2 (32:15):
No, is that important the temper that's got to be
uncomfortably cold.

Speaker 5 (32:19):
I mean it's it's better when it's cold.

Speaker 7 (32:20):
And what really makes it extra good, or at least
that's what the fancy bartenders tell me.

Speaker 5 (32:24):
With mustaches, is that.

Speaker 2 (32:26):
You callum, you've got a mustache. It's a beard, right,
it's a beard. Yeah. A beard is just a mustache
with some extra the big mustache, yeah right, exactly is
the kind of glass you use for this important beer.
Guys will always tell you there's like six different kinds
of beer glasses, and I just drink beer out of
one glass. But I've noticed you've chosen very specific kinds
of glasses to make this cocktail.

Speaker 7 (32:47):
So I'm not that fancy of a person. But when
you're trying to sell rum to people, you got to
act a little fancier.

Speaker 2 (32:53):
You got to act like you're like you stick your
pinky in the air, and so, oh, thank you.

Speaker 5 (32:58):
This cocktail is served a chilled coupe glass.

Speaker 2 (33:01):
All right, cool, check that out. It's He's right, it's
very icy cold, and I am I'm excited about this.
Check this out. So this it looks like a margarita,
but it's not a mark. In fact, it looks like
one of those Texas teenies without the ice. But that's
not what it is. No, No, it was good. All right,
tell us all the ingredients one more time.

Speaker 7 (33:20):
So so if you're making a single serving, it's two
ounces of silver rum, three quarter ounces of fresh lime juice,
and two teaspoons of granulated sugar. Normally you would dissolve
that sugar into your lime juice first.

Speaker 5 (33:32):
I did not.

Speaker 7 (33:33):
But if you can also use a simple syrup and
it's half an ounce of simple serve instead of the
two teaspoons of granulated.

Speaker 2 (33:39):
Sugar, I like that. I don't like when cocktails are
too sweet. And when you started talking about sugar, I
was worried it was going to be So it's not.

Speaker 6 (33:46):
No.

Speaker 7 (33:46):
They call this the trinity in rum culture because even
like in the seventeen hundreds, people were mixing lime, juice,
sugar and rum, and the pirates was just add a
little water to it so they could, you know.

Speaker 2 (33:56):
So it feels like there's this new movement of rum drinkers.
They're Bourbon had a moment, beer had a moment, and
tequila had a moment. I feel like now he's like,
we're getting into rum season. Basically, is that would you
say that's accurate? Or is that is rum still kind
of its own subculture.

Speaker 7 (34:12):
Well, it's market shares definitely smaller than tequila and bourbon
and vodka, but it is, especially premium RUMs are starting
to grow in popularity. And it's just but it's always
been popular. It used to be one of the most
popular beverages, especially during prohibition. Is because we were having
it bringing it in from Cuba in the dead of
the night, and it got really popular, and that's when

(34:35):
the lime Dakri really accelerated in popularity.

Speaker 2 (34:38):
I don't trust vodka drinkers. I find them to be boring.
The whole point of vodka is that it's not supposed
to taste like anything, but it does. It tastes like vodka,
and vodka doesn't taste great to me. I think that
rum is a better taste to it. I just find
it to be more interesting. And as you've just proven,
there's more you can do with.

Speaker 7 (34:54):
It, right, and so our silver rum is pot still
and so it has a lot more flavor in it
versus one using continuous column desolation. So compared to a
continuous column rum, it is like it's almost vodka like
compared to ours. So ours a lot of people even
say our silver rum has a little bit of an
agave note to it, so kind of like a really
good silver tequila.

Speaker 2 (35:15):
Love that all right. I'm a very big fan of this.
This is very good to me, Carl. In the comment section,
we have people asking questions, Calum, you're from Scotland, yep.
Is there a scene over there for REALM? What do
the Scottish people.

Speaker 5 (35:25):
Drink anything alcoholic?

Speaker 7 (35:27):
Is that right?

Speaker 1 (35:27):
Anything?

Speaker 2 (35:28):
So this would be fine?

Speaker 8 (35:29):
Oh yeah, this is is perfect, it's balanced, it's light,
it's I could see myself sitting by the pool.

Speaker 2 (35:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (35:35):
And on Scotland here.

Speaker 2 (35:36):
No here, yeah, obviously because in Scotland it's cold too
close to Rosie O'Donnell probably, and Ellen, people must be
mad about that, Ellen, Derek. If someone's asking what's the
drink called, give us one more time? The cliff notes
what's it called? And what's in it?

Speaker 5 (35:48):
The dakery and I.

Speaker 7 (35:50):
Just usually call it a lime diacriy because since then
people have made dacries with a lot of other things
in it too. Hymmingway is a really cool one to
look up. That's kind of a play on that, and
you know, named after the manliest man ever obviously, and
so it'll be a good one to check out.

Speaker 2 (36:05):
I find it tastes more like a margarita to me,
but you call it a dakri it's margerita esque esque. Yeah,
it's a margarita adjacent right, I like that. Actually, So
you're running this business now, and Higgins Rum is just
starting to take off. People in Texas are getting into it. Obviously,
it's a patriotic brand. You give a lot of the
money that you earned to military charities. I love that.

(36:26):
But starting a business is not as easy as people think.
It's not like you just show up and make alcohol.
In fact, with alcohol, there's a lot of weird rules
and restrictions. What's been the most challenging part of this
that you didn't expect?

Speaker 7 (36:37):
So, yeah, this is our first foray into into the
spirits world. But luckily we had some family members who
were in the industry who helped kind of guide us
along at first. The compliance is one of the biggest things,
just the hurdles of having to get approvals and licenses
and all these other things, and it takes a while,
and whatever time they tell you it's going to take,
it's going to take way longer than that.

Speaker 2 (36:56):
I've heard. Compliance is also a great way to avoid
getting shot by a cop. Just do what they say
and then you won't get shot by the fine that
has nothing to do with what you do. Though I
haven't got shot by one yet, I haven't been shot
by a copy either. I have been. I have interacted
with police before. I will say that, and I feel
like if I gave them one of these drinks, they
would have been nicer to me. Do you a big
difference between the gold and the silver, Obviously besides the color,

(37:18):
it's all about flavor, but also about what you mix
with it, right.

Speaker 7 (37:21):
Yes, So our gold are our reserve rum, as we
call it, is our silver aged like you would a
bourbon and then a lot of aged RUMs will often
have some molasses added back into them. That's what darkens them,
makes them sweeter. Okay, we wanted ours to be have
a bourbon like profile, especially we're in Texas. This is
a bourbon drinker state, it really is. But we wanted

(37:43):
to give the bourbon hound types something else to add
into their rotation, some new flavor profile for them to
experience that's a slightly sweeter than a bourbon our. Rum
is not a sweet rum.

Speaker 2 (37:55):
Callum, you are a young millennial and I am a
wise older millennial. I'm an elder millennial. You're a younger millennial.
What are the kids your age? Drake? It is rum
a thing right now?

Speaker 8 (38:05):
You know what cocktails are definitely in? Yeah, cocktails are in,
so I mean rum's in.

Speaker 2 (38:09):
Yeah, you know. And we could tell by the buzzed
cam that it's having its effected. I'm I'm almost done
to those you are watching us on social media wondering
why Callum's camera is so blurry. We actually don't know
the answer, but we just figured we're drinking alcohol. We'd
go with it. It's a good look for us. It fits. Yeah,
he's almost Can you believe Scottish people drink that fast?

Speaker 5 (38:30):
I mean I've heard that. Yeah, what I've heard.

Speaker 2 (38:33):
He doesn't. The owner of Higgins boat Rum company doesn't
want to besmirch the good people of Scotland. I'm gonna
just I'm gonna just say it. I'm nervous about you
Scottish people. I think you fight too much. You guys
are and weird looking women. I'm just gonna say it, big,
big Ginger, It's not fair, Derek. Derek Bingham didn't ask
for this, Derek, you have come up with an awesome brand.

(38:53):
How do people find this stuff?

Speaker 7 (38:54):
So we're Higgins boat Rum on most social media's and
also Higgins boat Rum dot com. If you message on there,
I'm the person who's gonna see it. I'm the person
who's gonna respond. We've got a list of we currently
have ten retailers across Southeast Texas. We're adding more constantly
as I get the time in between doing stuff like
this to go talk to retailers. And you can also

(39:17):
up to forty five states United States will allow us
for you to order on our website. It will ship
to your door. You got to be twenty one to
sign for it. And right now through the end of August,
if you spend at least fifty dollars on our website,
you get ten bucks automatically applied to the card off.
You spend one hundred, you get twenty off.

Speaker 2 (39:36):
And also it's a cool looking bottle like if you
if you're patriotic, if you're into World War two history,
there's gonna look cool up on your shop. Should we
do another drink? Should we make another one before we
get out?

Speaker 8 (39:45):
Oh?

Speaker 5 (39:45):
Yeah, how we do?

Speaker 2 (39:46):
I've noticed you brought a couple more mixers with What
are we at all?

Speaker 9 (39:49):
Right?

Speaker 2 (39:49):
What else is going on?

Speaker 5 (39:50):
We're gonna break out the pride of Puerto Rico.

Speaker 2 (39:52):
Coco Lopez, Coco Lopez nice?

Speaker 8 (39:54):
What is Coco Lopez?

Speaker 3 (39:55):
So?

Speaker 7 (39:55):
What is the prime ingredient that makes a pina colada?
A pina colada? I mean next to pine juice. Oh yeah,
and then uh break out some orange.

Speaker 2 (40:03):
Juice and cocoa. It's a can of coconut milk. Yes,
and that's a pretty and they sell it at h GB. Yep,
they sell it at Walmart.

Speaker 3 (40:13):
I like that.

Speaker 5 (40:14):
And so we are going to make what I'm not
allowed to call a painkiller.

Speaker 2 (40:19):
Okay, it's not a painkiller? And why is that? Who
owns the rights to the name painkiller?

Speaker 5 (40:23):
There's another rum company who had the forward thinking thought.

Speaker 2 (40:27):
Is it a big company that praise on smaller companies
and they stifle ideas and innovation exactly, And that's one
of the reasons to support a great band like Higgins
Boat Company, a big Higgins's Boat rum company, because you
guys don't do that.

Speaker 5 (40:39):
Yeah, I'm not. I haven't seen anybody season assist letter yet.

Speaker 2 (40:42):
No, exactly, and probably never will. Probably unless somebody came
up with a thing that vividly looked like a World
War two themed rum. All right, Yeah, so far that
hasn't happened.

Speaker 5 (40:51):
Somebody wants to make a P fifty one rum, I'll
allow it.

Speaker 2 (40:54):
We have listeners right now who are from New Orleans
whose grandfather's actually worked for Higgins Industries, and uh, you
know they this is probably fascinating to them that you're
doing this.

Speaker 5 (41:04):
I'm already getting emails from them.

Speaker 2 (41:05):
Very cool, all right, what's going on here?

Speaker 5 (41:07):
All right?

Speaker 7 (41:07):
So we're gonna make something that I can't call it
pain killer. Yeah, it's not a trick to remember for
it if you're trying to memorize some of these drink recipes. Uh,
we got three ounces of pineapple juice in this, okay,
and like sure fresh is gonna be the best, but
this dole stuff's not bad, and so we're gonna do
so we're gonna double this.

Speaker 5 (41:26):
So we're gonna do.

Speaker 2 (41:28):
One, two three. There goes the pineapple. You can hear
you can hear the flavor. I can actually hear the flavor.
And these are really expensive headphones. That's why I'm looking.
You probably can't hear it like I can't, and.

Speaker 5 (41:42):
I can smell it.

Speaker 2 (41:43):
Yeah, okay.

Speaker 7 (41:44):
And then to really like, in a lot of rum drinks,
you can use multiple RUMs. So we're gonna use our
an ounce of our reserve.

Speaker 2 (41:51):
And there's a reason to use more than one rum.
You so you're using the gold.

Speaker 5 (41:54):
Rum, right, So we're getting a little bit of that
barrel flavor to it.

Speaker 7 (41:57):
Okay, but then we're gonna the silver's got just a
little more sweetness and a little more.

Speaker 5 (42:01):
Flavor to it, so okay.

Speaker 7 (42:03):
So the ratio for making one cocktail three ounces of pineapple,
and then you got one ounce of everything else. So
one ounce of a dark rum, one ounce of a
silver rum, but we're doubling it nice, and then one
ounce of cocoa Lopez and one ounce of orange juice.

Speaker 2 (42:17):
Very cool. There are hundreds of people watching you do
this right now, and I'm just reading the comments. People
think it looks easy. It's not hard.

Speaker 7 (42:24):
Yeah, there's some complicated drinks out there that take expensive ingredients.
I wanted to show y'all ones the stuff that you
probably can easily and cheaply get most of the stuff.
But like, we're gonna keep on our social media and
stuff adding. Uh, we're gonna add like drink recipes on
the regular.

Speaker 2 (42:42):
I love cocktails, but I don't like when they're too sweet.
The last one was not too sweet.

Speaker 5 (42:46):
This is gonna be sweeter.

Speaker 2 (42:47):
But I have a female listener in the comments section
named Taylor asking if you can make a sweet cocktail.
I guess that's what you're doing now.

Speaker 5 (42:54):
This one's sweet.

Speaker 2 (42:55):
Yes, okay, peanut colaud it's pretty sweet too, yeah.

Speaker 7 (42:58):
Yes, And pinada has been a favorite lately. Like so
since we started this business and got our first bits
of samples bottled, we've been I travel with my mobile
bar and we are making cocktails for everybody on the
Pina colada and this painkiller have been.

Speaker 2 (43:14):
Not a painkiller, not a pancue. Yeah, you're welcome. I
got you that will be stricken from the record and
I apparently if you drink pina coladas. It's very popular
with the kind of people who try to cheat with
their on their spouse but then accidentally end up hooking
up with their spouse on an online dating website or
a newspaper advertisement. I'm told that's a thing. Did you

(43:37):
know that count? I didn't.

Speaker 8 (43:38):
I will stay away.

Speaker 2 (43:38):
There's even a song about it. I'm told, oh, he
just got, he just got My terrible joke. Now I
feel bad for making the joke. I'm not proud of that, Ladies.

Speaker 7 (43:47):
My eight year old was listening to that song the
other day and he actually listened close enough to be like, Hey,
what's going on here?

Speaker 5 (43:53):
And so it was awkward all.

Speaker 2 (43:54):
Right if you just turn it on your radio. We're
hanging out with Derek Bingham right now from the Higgins
Boat Rum Company, and he he's making us drinks. Calum
is here.

Speaker 8 (44:02):
This is delicious.

Speaker 2 (44:03):
A right, so this is a peanut colata. I like, no,
it's not. It's not a pain colin.

Speaker 7 (44:08):
Coladas, just pineapple juice and tocol bits. We're adding some
orange juice in this one.

Speaker 8 (44:12):
Smells good.

Speaker 2 (44:14):
Oh yeah, it is, all right, Calum, describe the flavor
to us on the buzz cam. Calum's on the buzzed
cam right now, that's why it looks blurry.

Speaker 8 (44:21):
Are We're getting some coconut, some orange juice, some sweetness
from the rum.

Speaker 2 (44:30):
It's great.

Speaker 8 (44:30):
It's a it's a well balanced dring.

Speaker 2 (44:32):
It is really nice. It is sweeter than what I'm
used to, but I'll admit I love it. It's not
too sweet for me. This is great now, you know
these are these are stupid questions. But what about stuff
like hangovers? Do some alcohols cause more of a hangover
than others? Or is that anecdotal?

Speaker 6 (44:45):
No?

Speaker 5 (44:46):
So, especially.

Speaker 7 (44:49):
So almost all alcohol it has like other compounds that
are formed in distillation that are staying there right, Well,
we partner with Persado Spirits, sure, and they have their
craft process. That is this technology that they've figured out
that just you can run a low grade spirit through
it and it come out quite a bit better. Yeah,

(45:12):
you run something good through it. It really just allows
the flavors you want to come through to come through
and gets rid of the stuff that you don't want.
And it's way more effective than multiple times of distillation
or filtration for vodka.

Speaker 5 (45:25):
And then it also is going to make you feel
a lot.

Speaker 7 (45:28):
Better the next day compared to an alcohol that has
not been run through their process.

Speaker 2 (45:32):
I love how you explain that to me. And then
also so if someone wanted to do this, someone wanted
to just sip on it, Like I don't always do cocktails.
I like a sipping, just a good craft booze. I mean,
in this case of rum, I'm just going to take
a sip of that. Hmm. That does smell good.

Speaker 7 (45:49):
And this is Yeah, our reserve is a sq It's
good in some cocktails. It's great to add into a
lot of like tiaki drinks and stuff.

Speaker 2 (45:55):
It's really smooth. Yes, this is it's not as bitter
as I would expect. Goes down the palete real smooth
and that's all about just cleaner ingredients. That's the secret that.

Speaker 5 (46:05):
It's the way.

Speaker 8 (46:06):
It's very smooth.

Speaker 5 (46:07):
The ingredients is how we make it. It's the process
and tell we.

Speaker 2 (46:10):
Agent it's My understanding is in Ireland or Scotland, who
is it that hates the Brits.

Speaker 8 (46:14):
It's the Irish both, Yeah, I think equally with the Welsh.

Speaker 2 (46:18):
Because you lived in Scotland. If we gave this to
the king and had him pass it out to the people,
to your people in Scotland, would we finally be able
to get some peace in the British Empire? I think so.

Speaker 8 (46:29):
I think would be good.

Speaker 2 (46:30):
That would be the second time. That would be the
second time the Higgins boat Moniker helped spread peace through Europe.

Speaker 5 (46:37):
Derek, that would be exciting, Free Monocta would be forgiven.

Speaker 2 (46:39):
What's your favorite part of World War two history? Besides
obviously killing the Nazis and ending the war?

Speaker 7 (46:44):
Ah Man, I just think the war effort as a
whole is just like this awesome thing when you see
how like like since we started this, people have gotten
like my grandma built airplanes out of a Ford factory,
you know, just the that everybody got on board. You
had kids collecting scrat metal and stuff to donate because
they were a part of the effort, you know, of
the war, and it's like it was this joint effort

(47:06):
of multiple countries.

Speaker 5 (47:08):
Everybody participated and you know we won.

Speaker 2 (47:11):
Yeah, and obviously it's American's favorite war. Americans love World
War two. Blitzkreigbob was the greatest Ramone song, There's no
question about that. And now another fantastic pop culture iconic
tribute here Higgins boat Rum one more time. Tell people
how to get it.

Speaker 7 (47:28):
So, Yeah, you can go to Higgins boat Rum dot
com and you'll see our retailers. There were spread out
across Southeast Texas. We're gonna keep the one in the gaps.
You can send a you can contact me on there.
I'll respond to you if you want to share a
photo of a relative who was a part of the
war effort, whether a soldier or a sailor or a
nurse or built Higgins boats and send as little info.

(47:50):
We'd love to share that on our social media. And
then you can also order bottles there to your door.

Speaker 2 (47:54):
I love that story. I'm Kenny Webster. We love you all.
Thank you so much for watching us. We'll be back
bright and early Monday morning for more of what you
bought a radio for. I want to thank my buddy
Callum and of course Derek from Higgins Boat Rum Company.
Have a great weekend.

Speaker 9 (48:06):
Everybody you are listening to the Pursuit of Happiness Radio.
Tell the government to kiss your ass when you listen
to this show.