Why are people drinking less alcohol?

This podcast edition of Kenny Webster's Pursuit of Happiness features journalist Michael Quinn Sullivan, comedian Tim Mathis, and firefighter union president Marty Lancton. ( @KennethRWebster )

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Jigana government sucks. Suit of Happiness. Radio is dux Liberty
and Freedom will make you smile of a suit of
happiness us on your radiotele Justice jeeseburgers a libity rise at.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
According to recent medical research, the human brain starts to
decline around age sixty.

Speaker 3 (00:31):
No, not because of biology.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
I think it's because that's when people first start watching
the CBS.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
Hi, I'm Kenny Webster. Thanks for turning on the radio
this afternoon.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
We'll do our weekend review coming up in the next
segment with Michael quinn Sullivan of Texas scorecard dot Com.

Speaker 3 (00:45):
Tim mathis the stand up comedian. We'll be here.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
We're gonna go to Hollywood and Marty Langton if you
missed him on our morning show today. He's running for
county judge. He's the firefighter union president. We're going to
talk to him, so hang out for that. But before
we get to any of it, I am looking at
a report today at the Washington Examiner about something we
all know and love or like to buy.

Speaker 4 (01:07):
The world a home and Bulne.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
If you had school children at home in the spring
of twenty twenty, you likely had to think about what
sort of liquids you consumed throughout the day. Maybe you
were stuck at home with a job or housework or
some kind of pseudo homeschooling to do, and it may
have occurred to you that you could hit your liquor cabine,
at your wine rack, your beer fridge as early as
you wanted and maybe keep at it all day. And

(01:40):
if you did, I got to imagine that proved to
be a little bit disastrous. Just as likely you started
the coffee at dawn and you never stopped by one pm,
you had the jitters at one am. You were regretting
all your decisions. The great need was something interesting to
drink that was neither an upper nor a downer. Something besides,
it's plain water that could satisfy your urge without chemically

(02:03):
altering you. That's when we learned about soda stream. Y'all
know what, So this is not a commercial. By the way,
Soda Streams sales ballooned out of control.

Speaker 3 (02:12):
Do you guys get what that is.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
It's a product that enabled you to carbonate your own
water and add whatever flavor you wanted, from strawberry syrup
to mint leaves. A lot of people became Lacroix devotees.
In those days, Brewers started selling hot water basically ipa
without the ale. You know, it didn't get you drunk,
But for a slice of the population, this desire to
drink without caffeine or alcohol was nothing new. There's a group,

(02:38):
maybe you've heard of them, called the Church at Jesus
Christ of Latter day Saints. They prohibit both chemicals, and
so the LDS folks have plenty of experience coming up
with some interesting beverages.

Speaker 3 (02:49):
There's this thing called Swig.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
It's a chain of drive through soda pedlers and it
opened back in twenty ten help make famous the idea
of dirty soda. It would take a root beer and
add some cream, or take a sprite and add some
fruity syrup.

Speaker 3 (03:02):
The Secret Lives of.

Speaker 2 (03:03):
Mormon Wives is this reality show you might have heard of,
and they help spread the gospel of dirty soda. Well,
now the soda companies are finally getting in on it,
from Pepsi Coo to Taco Bell, dirty soda is taking over.
According to a new CNBC headline, where is it? I
don't know, that's what they claim. I was curious how
it worked, so I was reading up on it. There's

(03:24):
something called dirty dew. It's mountain dew and cream soda
in a can. Mug now has a roopi or float
in a can wild cherry and cream pepsi. That's already
on the shelves. Maybe you've seen it before. Of course,
if you took up Lacroix in twenty twenty to avoid
the sugar, the sugary incaffeinated stuff might miss the purpose.
But still the trend is clear. People want to drink

(03:45):
something interesting that won't make them pass out or keep
them awake for hours, and for whatever it's worth, there
is profit to make and finding some creative answers. I'm
sure you'd probably agree with that. So now we have
this new trend, dirty soda, and it's all over the
and you're probably wondering, why would I open up the
show with it. Well, let's start with this for two reasons.
Number one, it's Friday, right it is. It's Friday, and

(04:09):
I'm getting a little exhausted with politics for the week,
even though we're going to talk about him over the
next hour or two. And number two, I like soda water.
I just like it. I drink it all the time.
When my friends come over and I offer them water.
They're always confused when I give them a can of
some sparkling water instead of just flat water.

Speaker 3 (04:26):
I don't know what it is.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
I used to have a friend who described it as
being sort of like methadone for pop drinkers. To those
of you that didn't grow up in the Midwest in
the eighties, pop it's probably what you refer to as
coke or cola or soda. And I don't know. I
don't like all the sugar. I don't like all the caffeine.
I get that in the morning with the coffee, not
the sugar, but the caffeine part, and then throughout the

(04:48):
day I drink this other stuff. I have no idea
if it's healthy for you. I have no idea if
it's bad or not. But I do know this. In
a news cycle filled with information about war and depravity, poverty, rape,
P Diddy and his sex victims, and all this other
stuff that's disturbing and weird, I find it interesting that
for just one brief, fleeting moment on a Friday, Americans

(05:09):
are suddenly concerned about drinking virgin soda pop.

Speaker 3 (05:13):
What an odd time to be alive. Stick around we
can review coming up.

Speaker 5 (05:19):
The government listenlive listen now due proceive of Happiness Radio.
It's kind of Webster Junior producer Kenny Okay.

Speaker 2 (05:40):
So McDonald's is bringing back the Monopoly game for the
first time in over a decade.

Speaker 3 (05:46):
And that's not the only game available there.

Speaker 2 (05:48):
Did you know every time at McDonald's customer orders a
quarter pounder.

Speaker 3 (05:52):
They're playing food poisoning Roulette.

Speaker 2 (05:54):
It's true. Hi, welcome back, everybody. I am coming up
in a little bit stand up comedian Tim Math. This
is going to be here. So we're going to go
to Hollywood and check out all the weird stuff going
on there.

Speaker 3 (06:04):
Speaking of comedy.

Speaker 2 (06:05):
Sunday, Chad Prather, myself and Jesse Payton, Eric Knoles, the
Walton and Johnson crew. We are doing live stand up comedy.
It's Operation Comedy Therapy twenty twenty five. It's all going
down at the Bad Astronaut Brewing Company. If you want
to go, Tickets are very limited. The VIP seats are
all gone. All we have left is some general admission seats.

(06:25):
Not that there's anything wrong with that. It's a cheap ticket.
It's a lot of fun. One hundred percent of your
ticket purchase goes towards a wheelchair for a disabled veteran.
Get your tickets right now Wheelchairs for Warriors dot org.
That is, it's practically sold out. We're just going to
say it's sold out, even though we still made a
few more tickets available for those who want to go.
I'll that being said. We are in Texas and it

(06:46):
is Friday, and it's always a good time to take
a look at some of the news from around the state.
Two interesting news stories caught my eye today. Out of you,
the University of Texas Austin. Sometimes we confuse that as
being the most liberal, publicly funded state university in the
state of Texas. I don't think it is. I think
that honor goes to what is it, North Texas University

(07:06):
up there in the Dallas area.

Speaker 3 (07:07):
Now, U T.

Speaker 2 (07:08):
Austin has their problems. In fact, U T. Austin College
of Education Dean is about to be stepping down. I'd
like to find out why. Apparently he oversaw some of
the series of woke endeavors happening at the university.

Speaker 3 (07:19):
There.

Speaker 2 (07:20):
Also interesting, UT Austin has been invited to join a
major Trump administration initiative, the Compact for Academic Excellence and
Higher Education contains a number of reform initiatives. I am
aware of none of them, so I invited my friend
Michael Quinn Sulivan on the show today to explain it
to us. Michael, does this have something to do with
Linda McMahon or is it totally unrelated?

Speaker 6 (07:43):
You know, I'm not sure what Roleland of the Command
has in it, but the Trump administration is working diligently
to brain in the out of control leftists that have
come to permeate higher and we've all been conditioned to
kind of go along with the idea that higher ed

(08:03):
equals far left in doctrination, and it doesn't actually have
to be that money. In fact, you look at you know,
many of our great conservative, great patriots were people who
were in higher ed, who were higher ED folks. Right,
It's only been in the last twenty thirty years that
we have allowed the left to take a monopoly stake

(08:26):
in higher education. And the Trump administration saying, look, university
colleges and universities, particularly those that are receiving receiving tax.

Speaker 7 (08:35):
Money, have got to get back in line with American
values and principles.

Speaker 6 (08:41):
And most notably. And then and you know this will
shock people. That's are shocking. I know that what I'm
about to say and deterrimitation is radical and crazy. That
maybe people should be admitted to university because they have
the test scores to it, That that admissions to university
should be color blind, that admissions to universities should be

(09:03):
about ensuring people are educated. I mean, it's radical stuff, right,
And what is probably even more radical than all of
that is that the University of Texas at Austin not
only was invited to participate, but UT Austin is going
to participate in implementing these kinds of forward facing, uh

(09:27):
student serving, taxpayer respecting reforms that have again are treated
like they are, you know, anathetical.

Speaker 7 (09:35):
To know the history of the.

Speaker 6 (09:37):
Universe, when in fact it's kind of how we would
expect them to operate. So it's significant that U T Austin,
which has kind of the left wing everyone assumes it's
the left wing university.

Speaker 7 (09:50):
In fact, the case can be made.

Speaker 6 (09:51):
Look, I'm an Aggie, I'm a proud fighting less proud
today than ever, but I may still fairly proud fight
Texas Aggie, and ut A case can be made that
in terms of practical governance of the institution, UT Austin
is to the right of Texas A.

Speaker 3 (10:08):
And m okay.

Speaker 2 (10:09):
So there is a professor that just got hired at
Harvard University named what was it, a lahore Magistine or something.
This was on Fox News last night teaching queer theory
and whatever.

Speaker 3 (10:22):
I mean Harvard.

Speaker 2 (10:23):
We've all heard about the arguments with Trump over whether
or not we should fund an Ivy League university. I
think Trump's one hundred percent right on that. But these
are public universities we're talking about in Texas, where you
could still major in things that don't get you a job.

Speaker 3 (10:36):
I mean, no offense.

Speaker 2 (10:38):
You know, a black history enthusiast, but I think African
American history is probably not going to get you a job.

Speaker 3 (10:43):
I don't know if.

Speaker 2 (10:44):
Texas universities have queer theory anymore. I hope they don't,
But that's not going to get you a job.

Speaker 4 (10:49):
Now.

Speaker 2 (10:49):
Ever, since twenty ten, when the Healthcare what do they
call it, Healthcare and Education Reconciliation Act went into play,
effectively the federal government took over student loans, private loans,
and banks. They still exist for students, but not very
often and I'm just curious, and I'm I'm sure you'd agree, Michael.
As a taxpayer funding this institution, why should I pay

(11:10):
for somebody's college degree if they're studying something that won't
get them a job. Why when do we put an
end to that?

Speaker 6 (11:18):
Well, look, it is in so many ways even worse
than just that. It's you know, it certainly represents an
immoral expenditure of my tax money.

Speaker 7 (11:28):
Right, my tax dollars are being used.

Speaker 6 (11:31):
But in some ways, even worse than that, kinning is
that when my tax dollars and your tax dollars are
used to subsidize that, what that does is is it
lowers the natural thought of getting a worthless degree. So
a worthless degree is very expensive, right, because in the
real world, no one would pay the full frate to

(11:53):
get a worthless degree. And so when we do these
subsization programs, suddenly these worthless degrees that would be very
expensive now become very cheap. So now we are incentivizing
people who would never in the real world be able
to get a loan to pay for this worthless degree.

Speaker 7 (12:14):
Now they can go and get a loan.

Speaker 6 (12:15):
Now they have massive debt for an education that has
no economic value to it. So in many cases you
are taking these young men, young women, and because of
all these federal loans subsidy programs that were more than
happy to loan yet three percent interest worthless college degrees,

(12:36):
you now have people who are who are literally shackled,
dare even say enslaved to the federal government for these
federal loans that they take out for these worthless degrees.
It's immoral, kiddy, we're doing what we've been doing with
higher education.

Speaker 7 (12:53):
It's it's it's immoral.

Speaker 6 (12:55):
You know, you can probably make a case about why
we need federal loans subsidies for people who are going
to be doctors, people who are going to be you know,
you know, loans for guys who are guys and gals
who are going to go get their plumbing license.

Speaker 7 (13:10):
A whole lot of cases you can make like that.

Speaker 6 (13:12):
But but it should be because it's going to serve
an actual need in our economy, in our republic. And
right now we've got so many of these degrees filling
the course catalogs of Texas A and M that ut
at North Texas that are junk degrees that are there
only because of these federal student loans.

Speaker 2 (13:32):
All right, while we're talking about education, A couple of
things I want to throw out there. A Houston ISD
teacher's assistant has been removed after a four year old
sexual assault allegation. Not a lot to say about that.
That's just disgusting. And I noticed you're one of the
only people reporting on it today. You know, I'm glad
you are. I think people need to be aware of that.
That story is at Texas squarecard dot com. Also something

(13:53):
that popped out to me on your main page here,
the FEDS just arrested a South Lake substitute teacher for
facilitating a wealthy man's sex dungeon. Jennifer Powers is charged
with trafficking women for violent sex with her then boss,
Howard Rubin in New York before she moved to Texas
and taught in Carrol I s D Michael, what the what?

Speaker 7 (14:16):
Yeah?

Speaker 6 (14:17):
Look you when you when you When I was presented
the story, my first reaction was, Oh, that can't be true.
Oh that's solly. Oh no, it's very true. It is
horrifyingly true. This guy is like a poor man's uh
EPs team. She is like the you know, like the
the Walmart version of Gazelle whatever her name is, Max

(14:41):
the Madam for Yeah, yeah, Giselle Maxwell. You know, it
is horrifying talking about trafficking a currently unknown full number
of women being trafficked for this guy sex dungeon in
New York. You know, this guy paid big money for

(15:02):
this woman and her husband to have a have a
have a million dollar tone in South Lake, in one
of the tony suburbs of the Metroplex. And you have
to kind of supplement her, uh, her alleged always gotta
use that word, her alleged on the farious dealings. I
also worked as a substitute teacher, where this is not

(15:25):
like some you know Rando's No, no, she has a state license.

Speaker 7 (15:29):
She is. She just had her license renewed in August.

Speaker 6 (15:35):
So this is a she's more than just you know
Rando on the street who occasionally takes attendance. No, no, no,
she's a state certified teacher. To their credit, Caroliaste says,
not no more. She is not involved with us anymore. So,
you know, good on them for that.

Speaker 2 (15:53):
Wow, that isn't amazing. That is just absolutely it's it's
like something kind of a movie. What a crazy story. Okay, well,
one more for you before we leave. Michael, I'd love
to get your take on this, and as always, you
could find most of the stories we discuss on this
show with Michael at his website, Texas scorecard dot com.
I think probably the most important conservative news website covering
Texas politics. That's just my humble opinion. And of course

(16:15):
Michael created. Michael is always a breadth of fresh are.
He gives a lot of great wisdom and insight into
where the conservative movement's been and where it's moving in
the Lone Star state. And Michael here in the Houston area.
I don't know if you know Marty Langton. He is
a firefighter firefighter union president and right now he's running
for county judge. As you know, Lena Hidalgo, the little

(16:35):
child socialist, is not up for reelection. I think next
year it comes down to a nice Parker as the
Democrat nominee taking on Marty Langton as the Republican nominee.
Now an East Parker, the former the hero of transgender bathrooms,
the hero ordinance. You may recall that that's kind of
what she's famous for, being a lesbian, also very important lesbian.

Speaker 3 (16:55):
Obviously, we don't want to dismiss that. That's very important.

Speaker 2 (16:57):
But Marty Langton is a firefighter union present for Harris County,
and I gotta think ten years ago before Donald Trump,
the most popular candidate for an important Republican position in
the state of Texas would not be a government union leader.
I like Marty, and I'm not saying that to dismiss
the guy or trasham. I'm probably gonna vote for him.
I think so far he's done a great job with

(17:18):
his campaign. I'm curious what your thoughts are on that.

Speaker 6 (17:23):
Yeah, look at you know, I think certainly the correct
knee jerk reaction is, you know, oh no, you don't
want someone involved with the union moving into higher office.
There is, though, where you have to check on that, is,
you know, the kind of first responder unions are generally
not as bad. In some cases are actually pretty good

(17:46):
than what we what we typically think of of government
employee unions, where the government play unions making sure that
the pedophile teacher gets to keep their job in full
pay despite.

Speaker 7 (17:56):
Doing horrible things to young children.

Speaker 6 (17:58):
You know, typically the firefighter unions and the police unions
don't do that stuff. They tend to be pretty good
about policing the bad behavior within their own ranks. And
so I think that's where, you know, where we always
need to make sure that you know, you know, the
knee jerk reaction might be a good one, but we
need to ask one or two more questions before we

(18:19):
fully follow through on that knee jerk. I think that
when you look, particularly at the big cities where they've
been doing the defund the police, attack the first responders,
undermine the first responders, the the woke left wing push
and some of our big city city councils, very often
the folks standing up for common sense, very often, the

(18:39):
folks standing up for good government.

Speaker 7 (18:43):
Are these police and fire unions.

Speaker 6 (18:47):
And again that might not have been the case fifteen,
twenty years ago, but certainly when you look today, and
I don't know much about this fellow or even the
Houston Firefire's Union, by can say that in most cities
around the state, and indeed around the country, the voices
of reason when it comes to some of these local,
crazy local government schemes have been the police and free

(19:07):
not not always, but in most cases he's been those police.

Speaker 7 (19:10):
And fire union guys.

Speaker 6 (19:11):
So I think that's where I think conservatives need to
make sure that we aren't reacting to old narratives from
twenty years ago, but that we look at things.

Speaker 7 (19:21):
In light of the real world today.

Speaker 6 (19:23):
And particularly when a guy like this, you know, make
sure you're asking a few more questions than just what
was his job titled?

Speaker 2 (19:31):
My brother Michael quinn Sullivan one of the most dangerous
people in conservative media. Dangerous if you're a bad politician,
he will destroy your career. Follow him on social media.
You can find Michael quinn Sullivan on x You can
get a subscription at his website free of charge at
Texas scorecard dot com, and you should.

Speaker 4 (19:48):
I'm not a fan of the government doing anything.

Speaker 3 (19:52):
This is the Pursuit of Happiness Radio on kprc Am
nine fifty.

Speaker 2 (20:01):
Puff Daddy in court today getting his sentence. P did
He says he's teaching a self help course to fellow
inmates in prison. It's called the Power of Positive Freaking.

Speaker 6 (20:14):
Is this a spoiled, pampered, narcissistic Hollywood bratt or what.

Speaker 4 (20:26):
All right?

Speaker 2 (20:26):
Normally, when we do these reports, we tell you about
what's going on in Hollywood. Today, we're telling you about
what's going on in Saudi Arabia. And here's why Saudi
Arabia this weekend is home to the Read Comedy Festival.
That's the big city in Saudi Arabia. All these famous
comedians just went there, Dave Chappelle, Bill Burr, they all
flew over. They got paid millions of dollars Kevin Hart

(20:47):
to go do twenty thirty minutes on stage. Tim Dillon,
the Texas based comedian, was banned from the festival after
he joked on his podcast that they were going to
pay him with money they got from slavery, which I
don't think is a joke.

Speaker 3 (21:00):
Actually, he's probably pretty accurate.

Speaker 2 (21:02):
It is a little odd all these different left wing
left left Bilburgh a great example of a left wing
politician comedian excuse me telling you how terrible the politicians
are in America, but he's happy to go perform for
the politicians in Saudi Arabia or a bunch of corrupt,
evil jackasses. Here with his take on it. My good
buddy Tim, mathis Tim, what are your thoughts on this?

Speaker 4 (21:24):
It's such a cell phone It's almost comical, no pun intended.
Pete Davidson, who's only claim to fame really is that
his dad died on nine to eleven, and that he
d taught chicks because it's not the fact that he's funny,
because he's not funny.

Speaker 7 (21:44):
He's not and he.

Speaker 4 (21:47):
Is somehow in Saudi Arabia. And keep in mind that
all of these guys who pretend to be like super
edgy and and you know, oh, they're mad about the
whole Jimmy Kimmelton, they're being censored. They were told what
to say. You couldn't make fun of the royals, you
couldn't make fun of certain things, this logion, you couldn't

(22:09):
talk about, You couldn't talk about Islam. So all of
these you know, free free speech warriors. Shane Gillis famously
declined it so good for him.

Speaker 2 (22:21):
But before we just real quickly, I want to explain
the Pete Davidson thing. Pete Davidson's dad was a firefighter
who died on nine to eleven. Now, for those that
don't know, we all blamed the Taliban for nine to eleven.
In reality, it was actually the Saudi government that funded it.
Very powerful members of the Saudi government, and everybody on
that plane that flew into the Twin Towers was a
Saudi national. I mean I could test that we blame

(22:43):
the wrong people for that. Pete Davidson's father died because
of them. Now he's over there telling them jokes. That's
I mean, you're right, Tim, that's pretty messed up.

Speaker 4 (22:52):
Yeah, that is. I mean, and I get that some
of these guys, the highest end guys, were paid allegedly
between like one point two one point three. I doubt
Pete Davidson is one of the higher end guys. I
assume that would be like the Chappelle level of payout.
But how much is it to go entertain people? I mean,

(23:15):
I guarantee that some of the people in that crowd,
at least the higher ups, I mean, they probably helped
cover up some stuff. They definitely had something to do
with nine to eleven. So it's like, how like, that's
that's almost more than selling your soul. I don't know
what that is, but that is an insane amount of

(23:35):
hypocrisy and boot licking that I've never even thought that
I would have to fathom.

Speaker 3 (23:43):
Yeah, it is a really bizarre thing.

Speaker 2 (23:45):
Right, and Bill Burr famously once insulted Beyonce for performing
for Momar Gadaffi years ago. Right, he's a famous rant
back in twenty ten, he went it's kind of one
of the things that made him famous was he went
after Beyonce whether it did a really good joke about
what a sellout she was and what a heck she was.
And now all these years later, Bill Burr is doing
the equivalent of that in Saudi Arabia.

Speaker 4 (24:06):
What's the difference, Tim, There is no difference, except for
I don't think that Momark Gadhafi had the public interviews
that I've been seeing from some of these comics that
are just glowingly praising the Saudi Arabian experience and all

(24:30):
that stuff. Bill Burr, if you haven't heard his little
blurb about it, it's it's propaganda, and it's crazy that
they could be bought this easily and that they're essentially
just participating in a propaganda exercise for the Saudi government.
It's I honestly don't know what to say.

Speaker 3 (24:53):
Yeah, and a.

Speaker 2 (24:54):
Lot of comedians performing here, Kevin hard to do any
of these people recover from this? To people even remember
Whitney Cummings, Pete Davidson. Tim Dillon made the joke that
he said, all the comedians that are making fun of
him for doing it are just mad they didn't get invited,
and then he got uninvited. You got to admit there's,
you know, a little sliver of irony there.

Speaker 4 (25:14):
Yeah, there's a rumor that he might have done it
on purpose once he realized that it would be such
a bad look if he went over there. Some of
these guys I don't expect anything else from, you know,
the guys that are just in it for the money,
that's one thing. But but yeah, folks like Bill Burr,
Whitney Cummings, Pete Davidson especially, I'm I'm befuddled by how

(25:37):
somebody could do that. Even David Cross called him out,
which I appreciated, you know, David Cross really funny. Probably
most famous is to Bias on arrested Development said that
he was disgusted by this many talented people doing something
that's abhorrent. So, yeah, it's it's surprising for some of them.

(26:00):
For some of them, I'm not really all that surprise.

Speaker 2 (26:02):
Sebastian Maniscalco, very popular with American conservatives, also performing there
not as popular with the American Conservatives. Louis c K.
I guess Louis c K kind of owns the fact
that the he's a degenerate. He'd probably be the one
guy on the list where this isn't gonna hurt his
reputation at all.

Speaker 3 (26:17):
Is it.

Speaker 2 (26:19):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (26:19):
Yeah, I mean yeah, it's.

Speaker 8 (26:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (26:23):
He's just glad to get work, to be honest with you.
But now it's uh, it's a it's a shame that
this many people have have have have really so publicly
sold sold out and and betrayed a lot of the
ethos and spirit of stand up comedy. Where I'm not
saying that I'm not one of those guys. All you

(26:44):
got to punch down and stuff like that, but to
to cowtow to a an actual religious uh fasci fascio
religious regime and to create propagance to videos for it
is really confusing to me. But you know, they didn't

(27:06):
offer me a million dollars, so I can say, you know,
from that aspect, but I'd like to think if they did,
I'd turn it down, especially if, like most of these
guys are already super wealthy. That's what David Cross said,
What are you doing it for? Another boat? Another house?
You know, it's crazy, Kim.

Speaker 3 (27:24):
We're going to miss you this weekend.

Speaker 2 (27:25):
We wouldn't have Operation Comedy therapy if it wasn't for you,
and we're doing one on Sunday. You were one of
the original comedians to support the event Wheelchairs for Warriors
dot Org, a noble cause. I mean, not ironically or coincidentally,
but a lot of the disabled military veterans who were
raising money for to help supply with a wheelchair. We're
probably injured by terrorists funded by the Saudi government, weren't they.

Speaker 4 (27:49):
Yeah, And that's I mean, that's that's the blowback, that's
the collateral damage that that people don't see. So I'm
glad that's still going and I wish I could be there,
but we're out here in Albuquerque. I'm actually a host
in for Brian Kallen all weekend, so I'll be doing
that and hope to talk to you again.

Speaker 3 (28:09):
My brother man.

Speaker 2 (28:10):
Follow Tim Mathis on social media. You'll be glad you
did at Tim Mathis Comedy on x and Instagram.

Speaker 3 (28:16):
Quick Break.

Speaker 2 (28:17):
We'll be back with Marty Langton, the Firefighter Union president
right after this.

Speaker 4 (28:21):
This is Binney Sanus and you are listening to the
Pursuit of Happiness Radio.

Speaker 9 (28:25):
Now give me all of your money, because that's the
only thing that's fair coming.

Speaker 3 (28:29):
Up on the show.

Speaker 2 (28:30):
There are very few people who grew up to be
adults that were former child pop icons who are as
messed up as the Nirvana nevermind baby, Oh God, I'll
tell you the story in a little bit.

Speaker 3 (28:45):
Let's oh you're gonna make me wait.

Speaker 2 (28:47):
But first, if y'all don't mind indulging us for just
a moment in some local political issues, hopefully in mind
yesterday when we indulged in some local political issues, it
was around the same time today we were talking about
Lena hadaug all right, So for those that don't know,
we exist in the biggest county in Texas. That's where
our flagship is, which means we are living under the

(29:09):
authority of the most powerful Texas Democrat elected official.

Speaker 3 (29:13):
Yes, he's big and powerful, alright.

Speaker 2 (29:15):
And if you're to believe the rumors about her, she's
a pill popping junkie who takes off months at a
time to go to rehab facilities. I don't know if
any of that's true, but that's what they say.

Speaker 9 (29:23):
Yeah, we don't hang out with her or nothing, but
she did take off a lot of time to go
to a mental health clinic. She's not going to be
in charge of the county much longer because she's not
running again and the people running against her seem to
be much more qualified so when she was running.

Speaker 2 (29:40):
So if I had to place a bet, I would
bet that next year in the county judge race, which
is a very important even if you're not from Houston.
That's an important race to anyone in Texas because the crime,
the economics, whatever happens in Houston affects the rest of
the state. We got the Spillova, and if I had
to guess, I'll bet that the county judge race down

(30:00):
to a niece. Parker, the former mayor of Houston, Texas,
on the Democrat side and notable transgender bathroom advocate, will
be facing off against Marty Langdon, a first responder and
the leader of the Houston Firefighters union in town.

Speaker 9 (30:16):
That we haven't even had a primary yet, so we
don't know who's gonna win in the Republican side, but
Marty Langton seems to be quite popular. We discussed him
briefly yesterday and some of the other people that will
be his opponent in the primary, but nothing has been said,
and I respect all of them, especially Eliza Dutt that

(30:37):
stepped up way before anybody else and said we got
to get Leena out of there.

Speaker 2 (30:41):
I just want to make it clear. I don't respect
all of them. I respect almost nobody.

Speaker 3 (30:45):
Hold true.

Speaker 2 (30:46):
I old nothing sacred, not even that rock of Ice
yesterday that the Pope blessed. No respect, no respect Ronnie Dangerfield.
But all that being said, Marty langdon I like him.
I'm probably going to vote for him. I mean I will.
I've already made that clear. I think he's the best candidate.
I think he's the right guy for the job. And Marty,
we reached out to him, and apparently Marty Langton firefighter
union leader on the line right now, Marty, people have

(31:08):
been attacking you.

Speaker 3 (31:09):
Why have they attacked Marty? What's been going on?

Speaker 5 (31:12):
Dude?

Speaker 7 (31:13):
Hey, good morning, Steve, Good morning, Kenny.

Speaker 8 (31:14):
Well listen, I think in the world of politics, anytime
somebody is launching redicitialous lies and attacks, that usually means
you're winning. So we focus on what we're doing and
getting the message out to Harris County residence, and we
are extremely excited about the coalition that we have formed.

Speaker 9 (31:31):
I would imagine one of the attacks, or maybe just
the things that people are looking at is that you
are a fireman representing the fireman's union, and so that
naturally puts you at odds with the police department.

Speaker 3 (31:45):
Is that right?

Speaker 8 (31:47):
Yes, I mean that's pretty ridiculous claim. First responders are
out in the streets protecting those every day, the citizens
that we swore an oath to protect. And I'm so
proud that all of the launch horsement has endorsed and
supported me because they know what it's going to take
to address the crime. They know what it's going to
take to stand up for the bright men and women

(32:09):
that go out there every day. Listen, I've taken on
one corrupt administration and I'm about to take over the
County Commissioner's Court and focus on getting results for the
people of Harris County and cleaning up the crime and
making it a safe place for our kids.

Speaker 3 (32:23):
Other than you, billy.

Speaker 2 (32:24):
Yet, I think everybody else here is registered to vote
in Harris County.

Speaker 9 (32:28):
You're not registered to vote here. I can go ahead
and get registered. No you can't, you can't, Yeah, right, yeah,
you can't.

Speaker 6 (32:35):
Wait.

Speaker 3 (32:35):
No, that's right, because I wouldn't register as a Democrat.

Speaker 2 (32:38):
But most people in Houston are concerned as particularly our
licenares are concerned about crime, public safety, property tax, Marty,
those are your Those are the most important policies for
your platform.

Speaker 8 (32:49):
Right, those are the number one priorities for my administration,
and that's what we're going to deliver on crime and
public safety. There's nobody that disagrees that crime public safety
is the essential role of government. And if you are
not focusing on reducing crime and making people in their
family safe, then nothing else is going to matter. And

(33:10):
that is the highest priority I have, and that is
exactly what we're going to focus on. It's exactly why
the police and law enforcement have all stood shoulder to
shoulder and have supported and endorsed me. That is what
we're going to do for Harris County.

Speaker 3 (33:23):
And I can't wait to get to work.

Speaker 9 (33:24):
So you've got to endorsement a police, fire department, all
the first responders, even though the last mayor before it
is one kept pitting fire department and police department against
each other.

Speaker 3 (33:35):
Look like y'all are able to all work out fine.

Speaker 8 (33:38):
Well, you know, when we're on the streets together every day,
all the rhetoric that people spew and when it comes
to politics is the reason that people get so tired
of listening to politicians. It's time for a real candidate
with real leadership to take over Harris County. When we're
on the streets protecting the citizens, saving lives, we always
stand shoulder to shoulder with our brothers and sisters and

(34:00):
blue And when you have all the first responders, everybody
that's wharknoes to protect citizens, they're all supporting me. That
shows strength and what it is that we're doing as
a campaign. But we have to get to a place
where there's trust back in county government.

Speaker 3 (34:15):
Because I don't know.

Speaker 8 (34:16):
If you all paid attention, but I do tell people
all the time, I'm gonna apologize in advance. I'm going
to make the Commissioner's Court not as much fun to
watch because it's a pretty much a national embarrassment at
this point.

Speaker 3 (34:27):
Exactly you.

Speaker 9 (34:28):
It has been entertaining when we get that little cry
baby girl up there who's supposed to be in charge
of everything, and she starts whining and crying and people
are mean to her.

Speaker 3 (34:37):
That's a good point.

Speaker 2 (34:38):
There is only one reason why people in Georgia or
Arkansas know who Lena Hidalgo is, and it's not because
she's an amazing leader. It's because there's so many bizarre
sound bites and video clips of her. But with all that,
on that note, I gotta tell you one thing I
don't like about Lena besides everything, is her advocacy to
raise taxes.

Speaker 3 (34:56):
She's doing that all the time.

Speaker 2 (34:57):
Demands to eliminators, signific only cut property taxes and corporate
welfare ban unapproved tax hikes have overwhelmingly been something that
local conservative voters are calling for. Moderates, even left wing
voters are asking for this. What can the county judge
do about property tax relief?

Speaker 8 (35:16):
Well, they can do the opposite of what's being done
currently by the county judge. They can take a look
at what the budget is, cut out the waste, fraud abuse,
cut out the things that are not necessary, that have
no role within county government, and focus on the core
issues of what county government is. And let's talk about
something different. Let's talk about actually lowering taxes. And I

(35:37):
have seen what happens when people focus on taxpayer dollars
make them transparent. And we took on a city administration
of a nearly seven billion dollar budget and we exposed
what was happening in the city of Houston, and I
can tell you there is money in the county, it
is where we direct it to and what the priorities

(35:57):
we have, not only as conservatives, but as taxpayers of Houston.
Everybody agrees you should be going to pay for issues
and social issues and virtue signaling.

Speaker 3 (36:08):
This is about real results, real leadership.

Speaker 8 (36:11):
And having common sense back at the county judge seat.

Speaker 9 (36:14):
Is there a place people can go to find out
more about the Marty Langston campaign and the things you're
staying for.

Speaker 8 (36:21):
Yes, sir, it's Langton l A N C T O
N for Harris County dot com. That's the website and
you can go on there and get information about me
and you can sign up.

Speaker 3 (36:32):
We'd love to have you.

Speaker 8 (36:33):
We're all across Harris County, but you know that's nothing new.
This is what we do every day, is what I've
done for a decade with the firefighters, serving the community.
I am not a career politician. I am somebody with
a career that has chosen to run and to lead
this county and we're going to get it done with
your support. So thank you all very much for having
me on And.

Speaker 3 (36:52):
Can I throw in one or two more questions. I
have to the last word.

Speaker 2 (36:56):
I'm here all day, you go. I don't want to
do to accuse us of these all being softball questions.
I like Mayor whit Meyer even though he's a Democrat.
I like Marty Langton, even though he's a union government
union president.

Speaker 3 (37:08):
I like him.

Speaker 2 (37:08):
I think he's good at his job. With all that
being said, something I've noticed, Marty is something that like
left wing voters are real touchy about in this town
is the issue with the bike lanes. I hear them
talk about this, like they're like, why aren't there more
bike lanes? Why aren't no one's using the bike lanes?
So I'll always point that out. I'm like, well, we
tried this experiment for the last several years. We built

(37:29):
bike lanes. There's nobody riding in them. Now the latest
on this is that some of these bike lanes have
just mysteriously disappeared. Whoa, And like they're like, well, that
costs millions of dollars to remove the bike lanes. And
I almost kind of think the lefties have a point
with that. One is like, all right, I didn't want
the bike lane put in, but then taking it out
costs money.

Speaker 9 (37:47):
Where you might have saved lives too. Well, that's a
good point enough to get in that lane. What is
your take on the bike.

Speaker 8 (37:53):
Lane thing, Marty, Well, I'll tell you what the take
on it is is that being on the streets and
having relationshois with the community into familiar with the issues
of the bike lanes. What they did under the previous
administration in the City of Houston was develop and design
these things absolutely horribly to where you couldn't get fire
trucks in emergency apparatus down these streets. Life safety is

(38:14):
the number one priority and when people are more focused
on trying to show a base, look, I did something,
but you didn't do it the right way. Who does
that serve? It doesn't serve people wanting to ride bikes.
It doesn't serve the people that are out there protecting
the community. And if we can't get to you during
an emergency, that is more important than anything else.

Speaker 2 (38:34):
I will tell you I have listened to people on
my gym argue about the bike lanes for hours, so
they're not even listening to each other.

Speaker 3 (38:41):
They just talk over each other.

Speaker 2 (38:43):
What Marty just said is the only good explanation I
have heard for a while Martylangton dot org is the
website I'm going to vote for him.

Speaker 3 (38:50):
I think you guys should too. We're listening to Walton
and Johnson Radio Network.