May 21, 2025 • 40 mins
This podcast edition of Kenny Webster's Pursuit of Happiness features journalist Michael Quinn Sullivan and lawmaker Steve Toth. ( @KennethRWebster )
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Giganic government sucks. Suit of happing is radio is d us.
Liberty and freedom will make you smiles of a suit
of habing and us on your radio to ol, just
as cheeseburger is a libery rise at food.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
According to a new report. You know how much you
love a new report. According to a new report, only
one fourth of sunscreens are safe and effective. Apparently RFK
Junior has been using the other three fourths. Imagine that. Hi,
I'm Kenny Webster. Welcome to the show. It is a
Wednesday afternoon, It's hump day. It's good for you. It's
National weight staff Day, so tip your waiters. The big
(00:46):
beautiful bill, which I do not think is beautiful but
certainly think is big, is being proposed right now. One
of the things they're talking about is getting rid of
taxes for tips. I support that. I love all the
tax cuts in that bill. I don't love about that bill,
and I'm sure a lot of you would probably agree with.
This is all the spending. Isn't it interesting? The same
(01:07):
week that we got our national credit rating downgraded by
the Moody Financial Institute, and we're all sitting here celebrating
Elon Musk and doge. We find out we're gonna keep
spending an absurd amount of money because the Republicans are
charged now, so it's okay when they do it. Anyway.
We'll get to that later. We will, no, we will.
Another thing we're gonna be talking about coming up in
(01:29):
just a little bit is everything going on in Texas
the state capitol. Steve Toath will be joining us. He's
a lawmaker from the Conroe area. I like Steve. I
think he's one of the only good guys in Austin, Texas.
Michael Quinn Sullivan's going to be here from Texas scorecard
dot Com. There's a lot happening, so hang out for
that before we get to any of that. Breitbart dot
Com today reporting I'm the latest from Walmart and Target
(01:52):
and how they're dealing with the tariffs. Unlike Walmart and Target,
home Depot actually pledged not to raise prices because of TS.
Imagine that big box retailers like Walmart and the groomers
at Target say tariffs will force them to raise prices.
But Home Depot pulled a very brilliant move yesterday by
promising no such thing will happen at their business. The
(02:13):
Home Home Depot chief financial officer is a gentleman named
Richard McPhail, and he was interviewed by The Wall Street Journal,
and he told the company they have been pushing to
shift production out of China. It's also working with suppliers
to keep prices steady despite the tariffs. Imagine that now.
A lot of you may remember those tariffs got put
on hold, at least for now. So what is the
(02:35):
hold up? Why raise prices? Here's the best part. Suppliers
say Walmart Home Depot and other retailers have been pushing
them to make prices, price concessions or shift production out
of China. And some Home Depot suppliers have already moved
their sourcing outside of China. So that's great, he said.
He told the Wall Street Journal, we anticipate twelve months
from now, no single country outside the United States will
(02:57):
represent more than ten percent of our purchase. You know,
with the fake media, the Democrats and the establishment Republicans
and the uniparty and the never trumpers, all assuming we
live in a binary world where tariffs could only mean
everyone raises their prices. Trump understood we live in a
dynamic world driven by free enterprise, where competition will force
(03:22):
these retailers to continue to compete against one another, which
means they would have to find ways to keep their
cost down, because that's how the free market works. And
what's one way to keep your cost down avoid tariffs
by ceasing business you're doing in a Chinese communist slave state.
We've talked about this a lot, the tariff nonsense when
(03:43):
it first began. Trump is unplugging and plugging the economy
back in for a reboot. It's not necessarily how I
would do it, but we've got to be objective here.
Trump isn't interested in a trade war. Trump doesn't even
want tariffs, which is why he gave the rest of
the world total control over our time. Paraph rates, you
want zero tariffs, all you gotta do is have zero
(04:04):
tariffs with us. You don't want tariffs being charged to
get stuff to your country, don't charge him to come here,
vice versa. What Trump wants is a sea change that
will benefit the American working in middle class. That was
the point of electing. Either consumer products are made in
America or American companies can actively compete with foreign products.
(04:25):
Now that the tariff situation is no longer rigged, against us.
Things are changing. The playing field is finally leveling. Who
wins in a free market? Turns out, the answer simple,
the company that offers the best product at the best price.
All the pressure and market success revolves around that. You
know who gets that a businessman, Donald Trump. So he's
(04:45):
using that pressure to force American companies to change the
way they do business. Walmart and Target aren't exactly getting it.
They say, we're going to raise our prices. Home Depot
is seizing on the public relations opening to announce we're
not Who wins in that scenario Home Depot? Who else wins?
The American worker? Guess who the last person that wins?
(05:06):
You kim O Sabi, And of course it's obvious who loses.
Walmart loses, Target loses, the line, Medium loses, the Democrat
establishment loses, Hollywood loses, Academia loses, and most importantly, slave
laborers and China the Communist Party. I don't feel that
(05:28):
bad for him.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
If I were you, I'd stay put, Kenny. You'll be
right back with more of what you came for.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Far jokes, guys, I can't believe it's come again. It's
been a year since mister T's birthday. Mister T turns
seventy three today. Where has the time gone? He's been
getting birthday wishes from tons of celebrities, including Tom Selleck,
(05:56):
although that may have just been a pitch for a
reverse mortgage. Nobody knows any way. We're back from break.
I'm Kenny Webster. Happy birthday mister T, and happy unemployed.
I don't know what Tom Selick's doing. I hope he's okay.
Probably a TV commercial, I will tell you this. I
am very curious at what's going on in Austin right now.
Last week, last Thursday, it's been about six days now
since the deadline for bills needed to pass committee. So
(06:20):
what happens next, what's going on over there? And how
is Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows doing. People have been
very critical of him, and rightfully so. He wasn't necessarily
supposed to be the House Speaker, not according to the
Republican Party's own rules. But for some reason, the uniparty
in Austin always wins. It's very similar to Washington, DC.
(06:40):
Doesn't matter what letters behind your name, if you team
up with a bunch of lobbyists and corrupt politicians, you
could do whatever you want. I wonder I was wondering
how Texas House Speaker was doing. Some bills have passed
this session that many of us are very excited about.
Of course, it can always be better. Here with his
latest take on how this legislative session is wrapping up.
(07:01):
I know there's still a little more time to go.
One of the most dangerous men in Texas political news media,
but actually a pretty darn nice guy, Michael quinn Sullivan
of texascorecard dot Com, is here. How you been my brother?
Speaker 4 (07:14):
Hey, I've been great. Wonderful to hear your voice middle
of the week rather than the end of the week.
Pretty cool to get to visit with you on a Wednesday.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Yeah, Michael, what okay? Give us a letter grade on
Dustin Burrows right now? How's he doing? What do you
what is your honest take on this? You're generally pretty
pretty objective on calling balls and strikes. What do you
really think of this guy?
Speaker 4 (07:35):
Yes? I mean, you know, let's remember there's still a
couple of weeks left, still lots of opportunities for these
guys to really screw up.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
There.
Speaker 4 (07:43):
You know that they have so many opportunities to screw up.
You know, you know when when you think about kind
of looking at the lay of the land right now,
it's a bit like asking your kid in the first
six weeks of the semester, how's it going, you know,
because they can have a solid A and then still
(08:04):
fail the class. They can have a solid F and
still past the class. Right, So there's you know, lots
of there's still you know, unlike though your kids' grades,
there's still a lot of opportunities for things to go sideways.
In this legislative session. You know, Dustin Burroughs started very badly.
He started by conspiring the dimmogrants. He got more votes
(08:25):
for Speaker from Democrats than he did from Republicans. That's bad,
and the GOP dominated state, you know that, that's really bad.
I think probably though because of that, you have seen
Speaker Burroughs presiding over a chamber that has nonetheless produced
so far, and there's still lots of things them to
(08:47):
screw up so far, though they've produced more wins than
I can count for conservatives over the past you know,
ten years, so that's a really low bar.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
You're talking about.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
Joe Strauss, the you know, basically democrat, the guy who
who attacked Donald Trump before it was cool to attack
Donald Trump, you know, I mean he was just a
anti Republican Republican followed by Dennis Bonnen, who you know,
wanted to put me in jail and you know hate
you know, it is like a retribution tour before even began,
(09:18):
Dade feeling, you know, drunk Dad. So it's a really
low bar to say that he's presided over a more
conservative wins than those guys. And it's really a testament
to the fact that you've got twenty four new, very
conservative freshman lawmakers who came in and changed by by
(09:38):
simply by existing, they changed the math of how the
Unit Party has to approach a legislative session. And so
the one beneficiary of that is Dustin Burrows, Speaker of
the House. And I think that, you know, a challenge
that conservatives have is, you know, we we always we
complain about people who play the victim card all the time,
(10:01):
but yet no one plays the victim card in politics
more than conservatives do. Where all everything's horrible, the sky
is falling, and that becomes ultimately very unattractive. You know,
Donald Trump has this unique ability to say he wants
a B and C done and then two weeks later, one, two,
and three are done complete opposite of what he said
(10:22):
he wanted, but he still finds a way to declare victory.
That's why people like Donald Trump. Donald Trump always finds
a way to declare victory right.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
And on the thing.
Speaker 4 (10:31):
And too many conservative activists, you know, they say they
want a, B and C, they get A and B,
and then they claim, oh, all hope is lost, We've
lost everything. Well, you know, we have to be better
at declaring our wins, and we have to be better
at claiming the victory, I think than a lot of
conservatives have been kind of trained to be.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
That is a very good analysis of it. Look, you
know you're on the right. You're a conservative, your news outlet,
your organization was basically birthed in the aftermath of the
tea part movement and of course the Maga movement, and
so you're a person that gets associated with these people
all the time, but you're willing to call them out
when they're bad. I've read a study recently. I know
this isn't necessarily a news story today, but i'd love
(11:11):
your thoughts on this. It was analysis of a study
someone did. They said, what radicalizes people, What radicalizes liberals,
what radicalizes conservatives are very interesting, they said. The thing
that radicalizes liberals is guilt. Guilt radicalizes them that somehow
somebody's life is a little too good, a little too comfortable,
and because they're white, they feel bad about it, or
(11:31):
because they're heterosexual, or and that so that radicalizes people.
It's weird. Being happy and comfortable makes people become political extremists.
And then the reverse end of that is what radicalizes conservatives.
And it was exactly what you'd think. People that used
to have it good, people that used to be comfortable,
people who used to be happy, but now because of
a decaying society that's radicalized them. That seems a lot
(11:53):
more reasonable to me than the other thing. But I
don't know, I just wonder what your thoughts are on that.
Speaker 4 (11:58):
Yeah, you know, it is just very stranging, where in
many cases it's not necessarily that they the use have
a good now they don't. It's even led to believe
they no longer have it good. You know. Look, during
during the break, you and I were just now talking
about how, you know, we live in a world today Kenny,
where I can sitting you know, in my in my
bunny rabbit slippers and you know my old concert t shirt.
(12:21):
Can order it, can can place an order and have
someone show up thirty minutes later with a bag.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Of dog food.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
We live in this wildly convenient time, you know. We
live in this time of just unimaginable luxury, right, We
live in a time when you know, my kids have
never had to go to a grocery store without bananas
being there. We have bananas year round, I mean, just
(12:50):
on and on.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
We don't even care if we don't even care about.
Speaker 4 (12:53):
It, and we don't care, you know, but people of
those all the things are worse than I've ever been.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
You know.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
Look, it's the guy who stands on his front wall.
I'm shaking his you know, his fists at the sky,
you know, because he doesn't like the shape of the clouds.
I think sometimes we let ourselves get convinced that things
are bad and horrible, and in many cases, look it's
the left doing it to us, where they want us
to get so discouraged that we go away, that we
get so discouraged that we just slink off. And too
(13:18):
many of our friends can he they fall into that
and they go, oh, well, yeah, it's so horrible, I
might as well not be involved.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
You know.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
The surest way to the surest way to ensure that
Conservatives don't win elections in the future is to convince
conservatives today that it doesn't matter if they vote or not,
so they may as well just not vote. It's easier
not to participate. That is how the left wins. The
left winds when they convince us that things are so
bad and they're never getting better, and no matter what
(13:45):
you do, you're always going to lose. That's how they
win is by convincing us not to play.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
If it just turning on your radio, I'm talking to
Michael quiff Sullivan, creator at texas scorecard dot com, one
of the most thorough investigators, journalists, reporters, activists on our side.
I think, Michael, jive time for another segment with us.
I wanted to ask you about the foreign land band loophole,
the self deporting illegal immigrants, that of course this news
with the lottery Commission. Can you hang with us for
(14:11):
a few more ohuld love to love to Michael Quinnsullivan
texascorecard dot com. Check the website follow him during commercial
break unless you're driving, then keep your hands at a
ten and two.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
You're listening to Kenny Webster's Pursuit of Happiness where everyone
is welcome, even scum sucking, maggot swallowing socialist bastards you
used to refer to as mom.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
It was a weird liner. It feels weird every time
I play it. The CEO of Bath and Bodyworks has resigned.
Turns out she couldn't hold a scented candle to the
previous CEO. I'm not proud of that. But you're paying attention,
aren't you. You are Hi, Welcome back from break Kids.
Isn't it odd? How in the state of Texas we
decided a long time ago casinos are not okay. The
(14:55):
gray area of legality for these poker rooms. All of
that's wrong. It's immoral. They don't want cas he knows,
but it's okay if the State of Texas wants to
sell lottery tickets, well not Shockingly, whenever there's a monopoly,
corruption tends to occur, and there has been many examples
recently in the Texas state lottery system of corruption. We've
detailed many of them on the show. If you're not aware,
(15:15):
we're not going to go out and rehash every news
story we've talked about. But it's a good reminder. There's
a podcast to this radio show available anywhere podcasts are available.
I know that sounds vague, but it's true. Wherever you
want to get a Myheartradio, Spotify, Apple, We're all over
the place. This podcast is downloaded a lot for this
radio show, and we also have a smartphone app. The
Walton Johnson smartphone app features both the morning show and
(15:37):
the afternoon show, Kenny Webster's Pursuit of Happiness, So if
you ever miss a minute of the news, you could
check that out. Many of those segments feature my friend
Michael Quinnsullivan of texascorecard dot com. He's on hold with
us right now and I was just looking at a
story on his website. The Texas House State Affairs Committee
has taken a major step towards shrinking the state's gambling landscape.
(15:58):
They passed to Senate Bill ten to four vote Senate
Bill thirty seventy. The legislature, which cleared the Texas State unanimously,
is going to abolish what wants to abolish, the Texas
Lottery Commission and implement some sweeping changes to the operation
of the lottery itself, including a ban on so called couriers. Michael, there,
it probably is a need for this. Can you explain why? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (16:20):
So, you know, long story short, there's so much in
going to and many people are just becoming aware of it.
So if this all sounds like you've never heard before,
it might actually be true that you've never heard it before,
because this is very new stuff that's been coming out
about the Lottery Commission acting outside the law, some very
corrupt deals, money laundering, foreign agents being allowed to launder
(16:44):
money through the Texas Lottery. And we're not talking little dollars.
We're talking tens of millions of dollars being funneled through
by foreign syndicates, including folks in China, a laundering currency
through through the state of Texes, through the lottery, all
through the Lottery Commission. You know that little game you
(17:06):
go in and you buy your numbers or you you
buy the scranch off tickets. They've been using that as
a way through with these so called courier services to
launder tens of millions of dollars.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (17:18):
And and a lot of is because when when Anne Richards,
our our last Democrat governor, and the Democrat controlled legislator
pushed the lottery, claiming it would be to educate children.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
You know, they they did.
Speaker 4 (17:31):
A very sloppy job of writing the legislation. They they
they wrote the legislation the benefit some friends who would
print the tickets and you know, that kind of thing.
But what's happened since is the Lottery Commission has taken
that very sloppily written original uh lottery law and they've
turned it into this money laundering operation. So the Texas Senate,
(17:54):
I'm now becoming aware of all of these scandals that
had been going on for a while, all coming to
head over in part because of our reporting, reporting the
Houston Chronicle. They have have now decided to the Lottery
Commission and move the games of Texas, you know, the
ball drawings and the scratch off tickets over to another
(18:18):
state agency with very new strict rules around it, to
see if maybe this stops the corruption and stops the cronyism.
What they're probably going to find is if you take
the corruption awakening, you're probably not going to be making
as much money as people claim the lottery has been making.
You know, the lottery has sold his way to fund
public education. In fact, even with all the corruption, with
(18:41):
all of the the you know, the foreign money laundering
going through the Texas, the lottery pays for less than
three calendar days of public education. It's a drop in
the bucket that we're getting out of this very corrupt
agency of state government.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
So it's clear that these courier services we're probably doing something.
What's even stranger to me is that the Texas state
government officials appear to have been helping them do it.
Is anyone getting arrested here, what's the latest on that?
Speaker 4 (19:10):
So there are multiple investigations have now been launched. Some
folks might have noticed back in January dan Patrick went
to one of these operations. They wouldn't let him in
the door. They wouldn't let him come in. Here's the
Lieutenant Governor of Texas wanting to see these vendors for
the state of Texas. They wouldn't let him come in.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
As you did a little video.
Speaker 4 (19:31):
About that, Greg Abbott ordered the Texas Rangers to do
an investigation. Dan Patrick then asked the Texas Rangers to
do an expanded investigation. The Attorney General is doing an investigation,
You've got the FBI doing an investigator, a federal investigation,
a lot of investigations going on. The former executive director
(19:52):
of the WATTER who oversaw a lot of this real corruption,
has disappeared. No one has seen him. Dan Patrick created
a missing Afound poster recently that he's been pushing around
that they have questions for this fella, and so far
he's not been making himself available to the Texas Rangers
(20:13):
or to the Lieutenant governor or the Senate. So there
are real issues out there. This is not kind of
the moral angst over gambling. This is the legal angst
over hey, as Texas been laundering money for terrorists and communists.
The answer appears to be yes, and we need to
figure out who is responsible and how do we stop it.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Boy, isn't it amazing since the pandemic, how many examples
there have been in both the state and federal government
of giving money that should have been ours to terrorists
and communists. It's almost a bit depressing. Speaking of terrorists
and communists, Apparently there's been an amendment added to a
bill that would allow foreign nationals from countries like China
I ran in Russia to buy land in Texas as
(20:55):
long as they're here on a valid visa. Wasn't the
whole point of trying to prevent Chinese communist spies from
buying up the land around our military basis that they
could already have a visa and that that was a
national security risk. It feels like this loophole just makes
it easier for them.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
Yeah, so you know, this loophole was put in place
by a Republican named Matt Shaheen up in Plano, who
argued that, oh, we need to just limit this only
to legal intwer as you point out every single one
of these purchases where you have the CCP sympathizers, CCP members,
(21:33):
generals in the in the Red Army, when you have
these guys buying up land next to military installations, of
them all have visas, they were all let in legally.
They're all here legally, and so they're the ones who
you need to address. Matt Shaheen's legislation would let them
keep buying, or his amendment would let let them keep buying. Now,
(21:55):
what's funny, then, is Matt Shaheen when when it kind
of when everyone kind of realized what he had done,
when everyone realized that he had just weakened this bill,
and it's going and it's going to be a fairly
potent political issue against a number of Democrats and Republicans.
Matt Shaheen took advantage of this weird little practice in
(22:18):
the Texas House where after a vote is cast, lawmakers
can come in and they can say, oh, I was
shown voting yes, I meant to vote no. I voted
no because of this, or I voted yes because of that,
and you're going to explain themselves, and it's it's completely
used for politics. So Matt Shaheen, on his own amendment,
went in very quietly and inserted a journal statement that
(22:39):
he hoped no one would notice until he was in
the middle of a campaign. He inserted the journal statement
saying that, yes, he was shown as voting in favor
of his own amendment, but he actually intended to vote
against it just the I mean. He takes the award
for the most brazen action of any politician in the
Texas Legislature. And on twenty five, congratulations Matt Shaheen. You're
(23:02):
a scumball, all right, correct me if I'm wrong.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
But Plano, that's was supposed to be the location of
the East Plano is the Islamic center, epic city they
called it is. I haven't been to Plano. I don't
go there a lot. Is that kind of like the
dear Bornistan of Texas? Like what am I not understanding
about Plano? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (23:19):
So so Plano does have a fairly active Muslim population there.
But but yeah, I mean that's the this is where
uh you know that that's where that group is. And
I think Matt Saheen's going to be answering a lot
more questions probably in his next election about you know,
why he was trying to limit this this very important
(23:41):
legation priority for the Republican Party party for a lot
of national security advocates, and and the two things aren't
exactly related, obviously, those are kind of two very different things.
But it does make you want to ask a lot
more questions of him. And I think that he was
hoping he could forestall some of those questions playing this
little sneaky game with the Health Journal, and instead he
(24:03):
got his you know, caught with his hand in the
cookie jar. As it were, all.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Right, look, this is just a hypothetical. It's just speculation
predicting the future. Who knows, you know, places like Plano
obviously dearborn Michigan, but who could forget Minneapolis, where we
have mass imported people from Islamic Sharia loving countries, people
that do not share our values. I mean, other than
the fact that maybe they're religious conservatives. I've always wondered
(24:31):
if sometime in the not too distant future, and I
don't know if this is whatever happened, if some of
these very conservative religious Muslims would start voting against the
Democrats who brought them here, especially in places like Minnesota,
could it ever be possible that Muslim extremists could be
the ones that would eventually flip the state of Minnesota
(24:51):
from blue to red. I mean, they say even Reagan
couldn't win, that that was the only state he did.
Is that crazy to think that that could happen someday?
Speaker 4 (25:00):
I never like to say this to my host, but
I think it might be a little crazy, only because
these folks are less committed, uh to a to a
conservative view of the world than they are to destroying
the United States and and the Unfortunately, and it is
very sad to say the Democratic Party was not always
this way. The Democrat Us have people like Tip O'Neil,
(25:20):
and the Democratic parties have all these no strong patriots
in the Democratic Party, And today the office holders of
the Democratic Democratic Party tend to be men and women
who despise our country. They tend to be men and
women who for the first ones out shaking their fists demanding,
you know, down with the government, down with uh. You
(25:41):
know the United States. You think of think of Jing
Wu there in uh there in Houston, member the Texas Legislature,
he and his wife bemoaning when Donald Trump closed the
Chinese embassy that was really a spy shop. Everyone in
quoting it in China nowlegments that it was a spy shop,
and which they were there, descending it till the bitter
(26:02):
end and beyond, which is why many people website to
refer to Gene Wu as the CCP's man in Austin.
So he is, you know, So that's who the Democratic
Party is. So I think that when you look at
the that at some of these folks who come here
wanting to destroy America, they're they're not interested in policy,
(26:25):
they're not interested in politic welcomes with their interested in
destroying America.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
Oh it's so true. I mean, we were there. I'll
never forget Maya got the first interview with people at
the Chinese consulate when Donald Trump closed it because they
were stealing COVID research data from the Texas Medical Center.
And the first question she asked was how does it feel?
How does it feel to know Republicans don't want you here?
These are communists. They don't care about feelings. But you
(26:49):
know who does? You know who does care about feelings?
The good people at Texas scorecard dot com. They care.
That's why they exist. It is one of my favorite
news websites. I check it every morning when I'm getting
up and doing research for our morning show and afternoon show.
You know what you ought to do, Michael, You guys
should have like an email list. People could sign up
at texascorecard dot com. Don't charge them anything, just give
(27:10):
them quick, simple information so they could get the BS
free news about what's actually happening in and around the state.
Speaker 4 (27:17):
Hey, Kenny, you ask for it, I'll get it done.
Most squat our website. We will get it up immediately
this afternoon, and folks can sign up there. We will
make it happen because Kenny ask for it.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
I love that. Like an easy button in the corner
that says to subscribe at texascorecard dot com.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
Coming up more Kenny Webster's Pursuit of Happiness, A safe
space for those who love liberty and try not to
take themselves too seriously.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Even if your name is Karen, we like Karen, Karensweet.
We'll be right back. The people at Starbucks are y
all Starbucks star co holders. Starbucks says their sales are
down mostly because they're losing customers to the Starbucks next door.
I gotta amage there's a place in Houston, Texas where
there's a Starbucks across the street from a Starbucks with
(28:06):
a bookstore next door that has a Starbucks inside of it. Now,
I ask you, is this a dying country? I don't
know what does that say about our societ. I have
no idea what it says. I don't drink Starbucks. I
don't have an issue with it. You know, it's just
not my favorite coffee shop. I wonder is there anywhere
in Texas with more Starbucks than Austin. Probably not. People
and oh, they just love it. Of they love their
(28:28):
gender neutral coffee shop. They love a barista with a
septum piercing and blue hair who uses they them pronouns.
They just love it. But Austin is also besides being
a place where weird looking people make you coffee, It's
a place where we pass laws or don't, depending on
what's going on at any given moment. This week, the
Texas House gave initial approval to a package of bail
(28:50):
reform legislation long champion by Governor Abbott, and it's supposed
to move key portions of his public safety agenda one
step closer to the governor's bail The term gail bail
reforms changed a lot over the last five years. Five
years ago it referred to letting all the criminals out
of jail, and now it refers to once that became
the norm. Now it refers to keeping all the criminals
(29:13):
in jail. At the center of this whole thing is
Senate Bill nine, which passed the House one twenty two
to twenty. Here right now with his take on it. One,
I think one of the only honest guys in Austin, Texas,
Steve Touth, the state representative from the Conro area just
north of the Houston. I know a lot of you
guys voted for him. Steve, what do you think about this?
Does this do enough? Is this going to improve things?
(29:34):
Do we can we stop having a revolving door in
every jail in the state.
Speaker 5 (29:39):
So that's the big question, Kenny. But what I think
you have to ask yourself is what is to keep
these sorows driven idiots judges? What's gonna? What's gonna? You know,
how do we make them follow it? I mean, that's
really what it comes down to. These guys are a
law under themselves. There. These are people to believe in
(30:00):
law fairs. They'll use and abuse the law is it
meets and suits them. And that's the problem right now.
It's like, how do we make these judges follow it? Okay,
we changed law. Okay, we changed the constitution of the
State of Texas. But are they going to follow it?
And that remains to be seen?
Speaker 2 (30:16):
Okay, So are there no punishments if judges don't follow
these new rules? I mean, what happens to them?
Speaker 5 (30:21):
We don't throw judges in jail. We don't throw judges
in jail.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
We don't.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
We don't.
Speaker 5 (30:25):
They're not in the criminal code, and they there ought
to be something about There's ought to be something in
the criminal code for for for you know, officers of
the court that that just simply choose not to follow
the law.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
Yeah, I mean it's a it's a good question. I
it's it blows my mind. Why is it that judges
seem to be able to behave however they want with
no consequences, but we don't offer that same freedom to
everybody else. Uh, It'll be interesting to see where this goes.
I don't know what.
Speaker 5 (30:56):
You can go into a court. You can go into
a court and and a judge can hold you in
contempt and throw your ass excuse me, can throw you
in jail if you don't do the right thing, say
the right thing, behave the right way. But what about
a judge. What about a judge that doesn't behave the
right way, doesn't do the right thing? They're never held
accountable ever, they are never held accountable.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
Yeah, I think it's a good question. A question. Another
question I want to ask you about today, Dusted Burrows. Obviously,
Texas House Speaker. You didn't vote for him. No conservative
in the state House voted for our current House speaker.
But some people have pointed out how he's on the
verge of presiding over a house advancing more conservative priorities
than any in a decade. And I don't know if
(31:38):
it's necessarily because of him, but it's happening. Education reform,
bail reform, defunding the lottery, getting smut out of libraries.
I know you didn't want this guy. I've never been
a fan of Burrows. But is it as bad as
you thought? Give him a letter grade so far? What
do you think of how he's doing?
Speaker 5 (31:56):
B minus?
Speaker 2 (31:57):
Did you say B or D?
Speaker 5 (32:01):
I'm gonna actually C minus? Okay, so it's it's I
guess that's a passing grade. Sure, but I'm having a
hard time. You know, I get what Michael Quinnsullivan, a
scorecard said, calling to this most conservative legislative session that
he can remember. I just, I just I can't. I
(32:21):
can't go there. I can't get there. In the eighty
seventh session, we we banned critical race theory. We banned
girls in boys sports. We we banned abortion through the
trigger band. We also banned our We also did the
Heartbeat Bill. We banned critical race theory in our classrooms.
(32:43):
We made we introduced constitutional carry. We did more in
in one one five month session than than Florida did
in two years. And that that legislative session, we failed
to do one thing, and that us to protect children
that were being transitioned in our schools and from chemical
(33:07):
and surgical general mutilation. And we failed to do it,
and that's why that session got panned. Well, this session,
you know, we're aware of the fact that, Okay, we
went and banned all that stuff last session. But the
reality is that, Kenny, it is still going on in
Texas through social transitioning right bill, House Bill twenty two
(33:28):
to fifty eight got referred to the State Affairs Committee
and they just killed it. They bottled it up there,
and you know, this crap is still going on in Texas.
I'm just having a hard time between that happening and
not real meaningful property tax reform and relief. Calling this
a great session.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
Yeah, to your point, Michael quinn, Sullivan was still pretty
critical of Burroughs. He just said that there were some
good bills. I don't think he's a big fan of
Burrows either. We just had him call in a little
bit ago. Okay, let's talk about this for a minute.
Property tax relief something passed, but it doesn't seem like
it actually does anything. So this will give Republicans the
ability to brag about some property tax relief, but we're
(34:08):
not really getting any, are we.
Speaker 4 (34:11):
No.
Speaker 5 (34:11):
I mean, dude, last session we gave eighteen billion dollars
in property tax reform relief, eighteen billion dollars, and this
year they're claiming fifty one billion.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
Well, no, you're not.
Speaker 5 (34:25):
You're you're you're adding a ball of property tax relief
we've given over the past six sessions. But there's not
fifty one billion dollars in new property tax relief. And
the danger that these guys, these state reps run into
is it's you're over promising, you're under delivering. You know,
last session was eighteen billion dollars. Well, hey man, I
(34:46):
saw my property taxes go up to two thousand dollars
this year. Yes, eighteen billion dollars in property tax relief.
But Counterpinnite School District passed a two billion dollar bond,
The Montgomery County is going to pass up a half
billion dollar rode bond. And then Montgomery County went and
raised their spending by nine percent. Well, all that equates
(35:08):
into property text increases. And don't look at the rate.
Your rate doesn't mean anything. You have to look at
the effective rate, which is it's the rate times times
your increase on the appraisal value of your home, and
so everyone's property taxes are still going up. It's a
(35:28):
big scam. It's a total scam. And it's like they
think that we're not going to follow this and we're
not going to pay attention to it. We are, all right.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
One other thing that Michael quinn Sullivan commented on earlier
that I'd love to get your take on is Senate
Bill seventeen. For those that don't know, we have been
talking for a while about getting rid of the ability
for foreigners to buy land surrounding military bases. I mean
not just any.
Speaker 5 (35:54):
Foreigner series, people foreign anbers series.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
Right, people from Iran, people from China, people from countries
that were actively involved in skirmantlet Russia. And so along
comes State Representative Matt Shaheen of Plano, Texas, home of
epic City East Plano Islamic Center. For those that don't
know what that is, he added an amendment to this
that is supposed to allow people to still buy the
(36:17):
land as long as they have a visa. No illegal immigrants,
but if you have a visa, it's my understanding. People
from China, I, Ran and Russia get visas all the time.
If we add this amendment, what good does it do
to prevent foreign spies from buying land surrounding our military basis?
Feels like it. It feels like it makes it easier
for them.
Speaker 5 (36:36):
So the bill is kind of weak coming over from
the Senate because it had a ninety nine year land lease,
which I don't know if you know anything about a
dirt lease, but if you think about a kenny, if
you can buy property and build a building on it
and own it for sixty or seventy years, how is
that any different than getting a dirt lease for one
hundred years and being able to build a building on it.
(36:57):
It's going to last sixty or seventy years, right, There's
no dam there's no difference. And so that's how the
bill came over from the Senate. I couldn't take the
lease off completely because it would have altered the bill
substantially and ruined would have killed the bill, and so
I put an amendment on it to take it from
ninety nine years down to one year, which then it
became the best bill in the country. And then Shahen
(37:18):
goes and puts this amendment on it that basically allows
anybody here that's a foreign adversary that has it, has
a valid visa, allows them to buy property. And you're like,
what the heck did you? He just ruin the whole
bill right, And then this is the funniest thing. He
realizes how crappy his amendment was, and so he then
(37:38):
goes and writes to the House journal I was found
found voting yes for this amendment when I'm meant to
vote no.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
Ha, what dude, Come on, Matt, shaheen, shame, shame, shame.
What happened to Plano? This is another thing I asked
someone else about earlier, but I'd love your is Plano
the deer born? Is that the Minnesota of Justice, tex I.
Speaker 5 (37:58):
Mean, man, I think it's the Muslims have kind of targeted.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
Wow, how about that? No no bikinis, no, no course cutters, no.
Uh no, man, uh huh, I'm not doubt I am
not down with that. We may need to uh, I
may need to hit the streets of Plano at the
microphone and see if I can interview some of the
Sharia loving local residents there. Hey, before we get out
of here. Uh. Congressional district too, currently occupied by a
(38:25):
guy named Dan Crenshaw. Now, Steve, I look, I know
you're busy with those Texas legislative session. You're looking out
for the people in your district. You're busy at work
right now in Austin. I've had a lot of people
ask me if you are going to primary Dan Crenshaw,
and I gotta tell you, I've looked at the other
candidates right now, and I don't think any of them
(38:45):
could beat them. None of them have the resources. I
think a lot of them are just running against Dan
Crenshaw to get more Twitter follows. Any thoughts on this?
Speaker 5 (38:54):
Yeah, and we're Kenny, We're gonna have We're gonna have
something to announce in July. July first, wow. And we'll
have four more further word on what we're going to
be doing in July first. So we're pretty excited about
the future of Texas and so Bett and I are
looking forward maybe to possibly the opportunity to serve Texas
(39:14):
in Washington.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
How about that. But Steve, if you unseat Dan Crenshaw,
who will use insider information to make stock trades.
Speaker 5 (39:25):
What will I do with my stock portfolio that I
don't have if I can't follow Nancy Pelosi and Dan
Crenshaw and how they trade in the market man with
their inside information. That's not inside information.
Speaker 2 (39:36):
It's a good question. It is. What a time to
be alive. Steve Tooth. I appreciate your time this afternoon, brother,
fighting the good fight for us over there and on.
There's not a lot of politicians I like. I do
like Steve. I think stay representative. Steve Toath has done
us right. Hey, to the rest of you, I love
you all. Don't forget Thursday night we're doing stand up
comedy in Jackson, Mississippi. Friday night, two shows in Mandeville.
(39:56):
The early shows sold out. Still late show tickets you
can get them. And of course Saturday night we will
be in Metaorie. You can get tickets to all that
stuff if you go to my ex account Kenneth Robert
Kenny Webster on X you'll find a link there right
at the top of the page. I love you all.
I'll be back Bran early tomorrow morning for more of
what you bought a radio for.
Speaker 6 (40:19):
You are listening to the Pursuit of Happy this radio.
Tell the government to kiss your ass when you listen
to this show.
Giganic government sucks. Suit of happing is radio is d us.
Liberty and freedom will make you smiles of a suit
of habing and us on your radio to ol, just
as cheeseburger is a libery rise at food.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
According to a new report. You know how much you
love a new report. According to a new report, only
one fourth of sunscreens are safe and effective. Apparently RFK
Junior has been using the other three fourths. Imagine that. Hi,
I'm Kenny Webster. Welcome to the show. It is a
Wednesday afternoon, It's hump day. It's good for you. It's
National weight staff Day, so tip your waiters. The big
(00:46):
beautiful bill, which I do not think is beautiful but
certainly think is big, is being proposed right now. One
of the things they're talking about is getting rid of
taxes for tips. I support that. I love all the
tax cuts in that bill. I don't love about that bill,
and I'm sure a lot of you would probably agree with.
This is all the spending. Isn't it interesting? The same
(01:07):
week that we got our national credit rating downgraded by
the Moody Financial Institute, and we're all sitting here celebrating
Elon Musk and doge. We find out we're gonna keep
spending an absurd amount of money because the Republicans are
charged now, so it's okay when they do it. Anyway.
We'll get to that later. We will, no, we will.
Another thing we're gonna be talking about coming up in
(01:29):
just a little bit is everything going on in Texas
the state capitol. Steve Toath will be joining us. He's
a lawmaker from the Conroe area. I like Steve. I
think he's one of the only good guys in Austin, Texas.
Michael Quinn Sullivan's going to be here from Texas scorecard
dot Com. There's a lot happening, so hang out for
that before we get to any of that. Breitbart dot
Com today reporting I'm the latest from Walmart and Target
(01:52):
and how they're dealing with the tariffs. Unlike Walmart and Target,
home Depot actually pledged not to raise prices because of TS.
Imagine that big box retailers like Walmart and the groomers
at Target say tariffs will force them to raise prices.
But Home Depot pulled a very brilliant move yesterday by
promising no such thing will happen at their business. The
(02:13):
Home Home Depot chief financial officer is a gentleman named
Richard McPhail, and he was interviewed by The Wall Street Journal,
and he told the company they have been pushing to
shift production out of China. It's also working with suppliers
to keep prices steady despite the tariffs. Imagine that now.
A lot of you may remember those tariffs got put
on hold, at least for now. So what is the
(02:35):
hold up? Why raise prices? Here's the best part. Suppliers
say Walmart Home Depot and other retailers have been pushing
them to make prices, price concessions or shift production out
of China. And some Home Depot suppliers have already moved
their sourcing outside of China. So that's great, he said.
He told the Wall Street Journal, we anticipate twelve months
from now, no single country outside the United States will
(02:57):
represent more than ten percent of our purchase. You know,
with the fake media, the Democrats and the establishment Republicans
and the uniparty and the never trumpers, all assuming we
live in a binary world where tariffs could only mean
everyone raises their prices. Trump understood we live in a
dynamic world driven by free enterprise, where competition will force
(03:22):
these retailers to continue to compete against one another, which
means they would have to find ways to keep their
cost down, because that's how the free market works. And
what's one way to keep your cost down avoid tariffs
by ceasing business you're doing in a Chinese communist slave state.
We've talked about this a lot, the tariff nonsense when
(03:43):
it first began. Trump is unplugging and plugging the economy
back in for a reboot. It's not necessarily how I
would do it, but we've got to be objective here.
Trump isn't interested in a trade war. Trump doesn't even
want tariffs, which is why he gave the rest of
the world total control over our time. Paraph rates, you
want zero tariffs, all you gotta do is have zero
(04:04):
tariffs with us. You don't want tariffs being charged to
get stuff to your country, don't charge him to come here,
vice versa. What Trump wants is a sea change that
will benefit the American working in middle class. That was
the point of electing. Either consumer products are made in
America or American companies can actively compete with foreign products.
(04:25):
Now that the tariff situation is no longer rigged, against us.
Things are changing. The playing field is finally leveling. Who
wins in a free market? Turns out, the answer simple,
the company that offers the best product at the best price.
All the pressure and market success revolves around that. You
know who gets that a businessman, Donald Trump. So he's
(04:45):
using that pressure to force American companies to change the
way they do business. Walmart and Target aren't exactly getting it.
They say, we're going to raise our prices. Home Depot
is seizing on the public relations opening to announce we're
not Who wins in that scenario Home Depot? Who else wins?
The American worker? Guess who the last person that wins?
(05:06):
You kim O Sabi, And of course it's obvious who loses.
Walmart loses, Target loses, the line, Medium loses, the Democrat
establishment loses, Hollywood loses, Academia loses, and most importantly, slave
laborers and China the Communist Party. I don't feel that
(05:28):
bad for him.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
If I were you, I'd stay put, Kenny. You'll be
right back with more of what you came for.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Far jokes, guys, I can't believe it's come again. It's
been a year since mister T's birthday. Mister T turns
seventy three today. Where has the time gone? He's been
getting birthday wishes from tons of celebrities, including Tom Selleck,
(05:56):
although that may have just been a pitch for a
reverse mortgage. Nobody knows any way. We're back from break.
I'm Kenny Webster. Happy birthday mister T, and happy unemployed.
I don't know what Tom Selick's doing. I hope he's okay.
Probably a TV commercial, I will tell you this. I
am very curious at what's going on in Austin right now.
Last week, last Thursday, it's been about six days now
since the deadline for bills needed to pass committee. So
(06:20):
what happens next, what's going on over there? And how
is Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows doing. People have been
very critical of him, and rightfully so. He wasn't necessarily
supposed to be the House Speaker, not according to the
Republican Party's own rules. But for some reason, the uniparty
in Austin always wins. It's very similar to Washington, DC.
(06:40):
Doesn't matter what letters behind your name, if you team
up with a bunch of lobbyists and corrupt politicians, you
could do whatever you want. I wonder I was wondering
how Texas House Speaker was doing. Some bills have passed
this session that many of us are very excited about.
Of course, it can always be better. Here with his
latest take on how this legislative session is wrapping up.
(07:01):
I know there's still a little more time to go.
One of the most dangerous men in Texas political news media,
but actually a pretty darn nice guy, Michael quinn Sullivan
of texascorecard dot Com, is here. How you been my brother?
Speaker 4 (07:14):
Hey, I've been great. Wonderful to hear your voice middle
of the week rather than the end of the week.
Pretty cool to get to visit with you on a Wednesday.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Yeah, Michael, what okay? Give us a letter grade on
Dustin Burrows right now? How's he doing? What do you
what is your honest take on this? You're generally pretty
pretty objective on calling balls and strikes. What do you
really think of this guy?
Speaker 4 (07:35):
Yes? I mean, you know, let's remember there's still a
couple of weeks left, still lots of opportunities for these
guys to really screw up.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
There.
Speaker 4 (07:43):
You know that they have so many opportunities to screw up.
You know, you know when when you think about kind
of looking at the lay of the land right now,
it's a bit like asking your kid in the first
six weeks of the semester, how's it going, you know,
because they can have a solid A and then still
(08:04):
fail the class. They can have a solid F and
still past the class. Right, So there's you know, lots
of there's still you know, unlike though your kids' grades,
there's still a lot of opportunities for things to go sideways.
In this legislative session. You know, Dustin Burroughs started very badly.
He started by conspiring the dimmogrants. He got more votes
(08:25):
for Speaker from Democrats than he did from Republicans. That's bad,
and the GOP dominated state, you know that, that's really bad.
I think probably though because of that, you have seen
Speaker Burroughs presiding over a chamber that has nonetheless produced
so far, and there's still lots of things them to
(08:47):
screw up so far, though they've produced more wins than
I can count for conservatives over the past you know,
ten years, so that's a really low bar.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
You're talking about.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
Joe Strauss, the you know, basically democrat, the guy who
who attacked Donald Trump before it was cool to attack
Donald Trump, you know, I mean he was just a
anti Republican Republican followed by Dennis Bonnen, who you know,
wanted to put me in jail and you know hate
you know, it is like a retribution tour before even began,
(09:18):
Dade feeling, you know, drunk Dad. So it's a really
low bar to say that he's presided over a more
conservative wins than those guys. And it's really a testament
to the fact that you've got twenty four new, very
conservative freshman lawmakers who came in and changed by by
(09:38):
simply by existing, they changed the math of how the
Unit Party has to approach a legislative session. And so
the one beneficiary of that is Dustin Burrows, Speaker of
the House. And I think that, you know, a challenge
that conservatives have is, you know, we we always we
complain about people who play the victim card all the time,
(10:01):
but yet no one plays the victim card in politics
more than conservatives do. Where all everything's horrible, the sky
is falling, and that becomes ultimately very unattractive. You know,
Donald Trump has this unique ability to say he wants
a B and C done and then two weeks later, one, two,
and three are done complete opposite of what he said
(10:22):
he wanted, but he still finds a way to declare victory.
That's why people like Donald Trump. Donald Trump always finds
a way to declare victory right.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
And on the thing.
Speaker 4 (10:31):
And too many conservative activists, you know, they say they
want a, B and C, they get A and B,
and then they claim, oh, all hope is lost, We've
lost everything. Well, you know, we have to be better
at declaring our wins, and we have to be better
at claiming the victory, I think than a lot of
conservatives have been kind of trained to be.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
That is a very good analysis of it. Look, you
know you're on the right. You're a conservative, your news outlet,
your organization was basically birthed in the aftermath of the
tea part movement and of course the Maga movement, and
so you're a person that gets associated with these people
all the time, but you're willing to call them out
when they're bad. I've read a study recently. I know
this isn't necessarily a news story today, but i'd love
(11:11):
your thoughts on this. It was analysis of a study
someone did. They said, what radicalizes people, What radicalizes liberals,
what radicalizes conservatives are very interesting, they said. The thing
that radicalizes liberals is guilt. Guilt radicalizes them that somehow
somebody's life is a little too good, a little too comfortable,
and because they're white, they feel bad about it, or
(11:31):
because they're heterosexual, or and that so that radicalizes people.
It's weird. Being happy and comfortable makes people become political extremists.
And then the reverse end of that is what radicalizes conservatives.
And it was exactly what you'd think. People that used
to have it good, people that used to be comfortable,
people who used to be happy, but now because of
a decaying society that's radicalized them. That seems a lot
(11:53):
more reasonable to me than the other thing. But I
don't know, I just wonder what your thoughts are on that.
Speaker 4 (11:58):
Yeah, you know, it is just very stranging, where in
many cases it's not necessarily that they the use have
a good now they don't. It's even led to believe
they no longer have it good. You know. Look, during
during the break, you and I were just now talking
about how, you know, we live in a world today Kenny,
where I can sitting you know, in my in my
bunny rabbit slippers and you know my old concert t shirt.
(12:21):
Can order it, can can place an order and have
someone show up thirty minutes later with a bag.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Of dog food.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
We live in this wildly convenient time, you know. We
live in this time of just unimaginable luxury, right, We
live in a time when you know, my kids have
never had to go to a grocery store without bananas
being there. We have bananas year round, I mean, just
(12:50):
on and on.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
We don't even care if we don't even care about.
Speaker 4 (12:53):
It, and we don't care, you know, but people of
those all the things are worse than I've ever been.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
You know.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
Look, it's the guy who stands on his front wall.
I'm shaking his you know, his fists at the sky,
you know, because he doesn't like the shape of the clouds.
I think sometimes we let ourselves get convinced that things
are bad and horrible, and in many cases, look it's
the left doing it to us, where they want us
to get so discouraged that we go away, that we
get so discouraged that we just slink off. And too
(13:18):
many of our friends can he they fall into that
and they go, oh, well, yeah, it's so horrible, I
might as well not be involved.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
You know.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
The surest way to the surest way to ensure that
Conservatives don't win elections in the future is to convince
conservatives today that it doesn't matter if they vote or not,
so they may as well just not vote. It's easier
not to participate. That is how the left wins. The
left winds when they convince us that things are so
bad and they're never getting better, and no matter what
(13:45):
you do, you're always going to lose. That's how they
win is by convincing us not to play.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
If it just turning on your radio, I'm talking to
Michael quiff Sullivan, creator at texas scorecard dot com, one
of the most thorough investigators, journalists, reporters, activists on our side.
I think, Michael, jive time for another segment with us.
I wanted to ask you about the foreign land band loophole,
the self deporting illegal immigrants, that of course this news
with the lottery Commission. Can you hang with us for
(14:11):
a few more ohuld love to love to Michael Quinnsullivan
texascorecard dot com. Check the website follow him during commercial
break unless you're driving, then keep your hands at a
ten and two.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
You're listening to Kenny Webster's Pursuit of Happiness where everyone
is welcome, even scum sucking, maggot swallowing socialist bastards you
used to refer to as mom.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
It was a weird liner. It feels weird every time
I play it. The CEO of Bath and Bodyworks has resigned.
Turns out she couldn't hold a scented candle to the
previous CEO. I'm not proud of that. But you're paying attention,
aren't you. You are Hi, Welcome back from break Kids.
Isn't it odd? How in the state of Texas we
decided a long time ago casinos are not okay. The
(14:55):
gray area of legality for these poker rooms. All of
that's wrong. It's immoral. They don't want cas he knows,
but it's okay if the State of Texas wants to
sell lottery tickets, well not Shockingly, whenever there's a monopoly,
corruption tends to occur, and there has been many examples
recently in the Texas state lottery system of corruption. We've
detailed many of them on the show. If you're not aware,
(15:15):
we're not going to go out and rehash every news
story we've talked about. But it's a good reminder. There's
a podcast to this radio show available anywhere podcasts are available.
I know that sounds vague, but it's true. Wherever you
want to get a Myheartradio, Spotify, Apple, We're all over
the place. This podcast is downloaded a lot for this
radio show, and we also have a smartphone app. The
Walton Johnson smartphone app features both the morning show and
(15:37):
the afternoon show, Kenny Webster's Pursuit of Happiness, So if
you ever miss a minute of the news, you could
check that out. Many of those segments feature my friend
Michael Quinnsullivan of texascorecard dot com. He's on hold with
us right now and I was just looking at a
story on his website. The Texas House State Affairs Committee
has taken a major step towards shrinking the state's gambling landscape.
(15:58):
They passed to Senate Bill ten to four vote Senate
Bill thirty seventy. The legislature, which cleared the Texas State unanimously,
is going to abolish what wants to abolish, the Texas
Lottery Commission and implement some sweeping changes to the operation
of the lottery itself, including a ban on so called couriers. Michael, there,
it probably is a need for this. Can you explain why? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (16:20):
So, you know, long story short, there's so much in
going to and many people are just becoming aware of it.
So if this all sounds like you've never heard before,
it might actually be true that you've never heard it before,
because this is very new stuff that's been coming out
about the Lottery Commission acting outside the law, some very
corrupt deals, money laundering, foreign agents being allowed to launder
(16:44):
money through the Texas Lottery. And we're not talking little dollars.
We're talking tens of millions of dollars being funneled through
by foreign syndicates, including folks in China, a laundering currency
through through the state of Texes, through the lottery, all
through the Lottery Commission. You know that little game you
(17:06):
go in and you buy your numbers or you you
buy the scranch off tickets. They've been using that as
a way through with these so called courier services to
launder tens of millions of dollars.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (17:18):
And and a lot of is because when when Anne Richards,
our our last Democrat governor, and the Democrat controlled legislator
pushed the lottery, claiming it would be to educate children.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
You know, they they did.
Speaker 4 (17:31):
A very sloppy job of writing the legislation. They they
they wrote the legislation the benefit some friends who would
print the tickets and you know, that kind of thing.
But what's happened since is the Lottery Commission has taken
that very sloppily written original uh lottery law and they've
turned it into this money laundering operation. So the Texas Senate,
(17:54):
I'm now becoming aware of all of these scandals that
had been going on for a while, all coming to
head over in part because of our reporting, reporting the
Houston Chronicle. They have have now decided to the Lottery
Commission and move the games of Texas, you know, the
ball drawings and the scratch off tickets over to another
(18:18):
state agency with very new strict rules around it, to
see if maybe this stops the corruption and stops the cronyism.
What they're probably going to find is if you take
the corruption awakening, you're probably not going to be making
as much money as people claim the lottery has been making.
You know, the lottery has sold his way to fund
public education. In fact, even with all the corruption, with
(18:41):
all of the the you know, the foreign money laundering
going through the Texas, the lottery pays for less than
three calendar days of public education. It's a drop in
the bucket that we're getting out of this very corrupt
agency of state government.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
So it's clear that these courier services we're probably doing something.
What's even stranger to me is that the Texas state
government officials appear to have been helping them do it.
Is anyone getting arrested here, what's the latest on that?
Speaker 4 (19:10):
So there are multiple investigations have now been launched. Some
folks might have noticed back in January dan Patrick went
to one of these operations. They wouldn't let him in
the door. They wouldn't let him come in. Here's the
Lieutenant Governor of Texas wanting to see these vendors for
the state of Texas. They wouldn't let him come in.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
As you did a little video.
Speaker 4 (19:31):
About that, Greg Abbott ordered the Texas Rangers to do
an investigation. Dan Patrick then asked the Texas Rangers to
do an expanded investigation. The Attorney General is doing an investigation,
You've got the FBI doing an investigator, a federal investigation,
a lot of investigations going on. The former executive director
(19:52):
of the WATTER who oversaw a lot of this real corruption,
has disappeared. No one has seen him. Dan Patrick created
a missing Afound poster recently that he's been pushing around
that they have questions for this fella, and so far
he's not been making himself available to the Texas Rangers
(20:13):
or to the Lieutenant governor or the Senate. So there
are real issues out there. This is not kind of
the moral angst over gambling. This is the legal angst
over hey, as Texas been laundering money for terrorists and communists.
The answer appears to be yes, and we need to
figure out who is responsible and how do we stop it.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Boy, isn't it amazing since the pandemic, how many examples
there have been in both the state and federal government
of giving money that should have been ours to terrorists
and communists. It's almost a bit depressing. Speaking of terrorists
and communists, Apparently there's been an amendment added to a
bill that would allow foreign nationals from countries like China
I ran in Russia to buy land in Texas as
(20:55):
long as they're here on a valid visa. Wasn't the
whole point of trying to prevent Chinese communist spies from
buying up the land around our military basis that they
could already have a visa and that that was a
national security risk. It feels like this loophole just makes
it easier for them.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
Yeah, so you know, this loophole was put in place
by a Republican named Matt Shaheen up in Plano, who
argued that, oh, we need to just limit this only
to legal intwer as you point out every single one
of these purchases where you have the CCP sympathizers, CCP members,
(21:33):
generals in the in the Red Army, when you have
these guys buying up land next to military installations, of
them all have visas, they were all let in legally.
They're all here legally, and so they're the ones who
you need to address. Matt Shaheen's legislation would let them
keep buying, or his amendment would let let them keep buying. Now,
(21:55):
what's funny, then, is Matt Shaheen when when it kind
of when everyone kind of realized what he had done,
when everyone realized that he had just weakened this bill,
and it's going and it's going to be a fairly
potent political issue against a number of Democrats and Republicans.
Matt Shaheen took advantage of this weird little practice in
(22:18):
the Texas House where after a vote is cast, lawmakers
can come in and they can say, oh, I was
shown voting yes, I meant to vote no. I voted
no because of this, or I voted yes because of that,
and you're going to explain themselves, and it's it's completely
used for politics. So Matt Shaheen, on his own amendment,
went in very quietly and inserted a journal statement that
(22:39):
he hoped no one would notice until he was in
the middle of a campaign. He inserted the journal statement
saying that, yes, he was shown as voting in favor
of his own amendment, but he actually intended to vote
against it just the I mean. He takes the award
for the most brazen action of any politician in the
Texas Legislature. And on twenty five, congratulations Matt Shaheen. You're
(23:02):
a scumball, all right, correct me if I'm wrong.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
But Plano, that's was supposed to be the location of
the East Plano is the Islamic center, epic city they
called it is. I haven't been to Plano. I don't
go there a lot. Is that kind of like the
dear Bornistan of Texas? Like what am I not understanding
about Plano? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (23:19):
So so Plano does have a fairly active Muslim population there.
But but yeah, I mean that's the this is where
uh you know that that's where that group is. And
I think Matt Saheen's going to be answering a lot
more questions probably in his next election about you know,
why he was trying to limit this this very important
(23:41):
legation priority for the Republican Party party for a lot
of national security advocates, and and the two things aren't
exactly related, obviously, those are kind of two very different things.
But it does make you want to ask a lot
more questions of him. And I think that he was
hoping he could forestall some of those questions playing this
little sneaky game with the Health Journal, and instead he
(24:03):
got his you know, caught with his hand in the
cookie jar. As it were, all.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Right, look, this is just a hypothetical. It's just speculation
predicting the future. Who knows, you know, places like Plano
obviously dearborn Michigan, but who could forget Minneapolis, where we
have mass imported people from Islamic Sharia loving countries, people
that do not share our values. I mean, other than
the fact that maybe they're religious conservatives. I've always wondered
(24:31):
if sometime in the not too distant future, and I
don't know if this is whatever happened, if some of
these very conservative religious Muslims would start voting against the
Democrats who brought them here, especially in places like Minnesota,
could it ever be possible that Muslim extremists could be
the ones that would eventually flip the state of Minnesota
(24:51):
from blue to red. I mean, they say even Reagan
couldn't win, that that was the only state he did.
Is that crazy to think that that could happen someday?
Speaker 4 (25:00):
I never like to say this to my host, but
I think it might be a little crazy, only because
these folks are less committed, uh to a to a
conservative view of the world than they are to destroying
the United States and and the Unfortunately, and it is
very sad to say the Democratic Party was not always
this way. The Democrat Us have people like Tip O'Neil,
(25:20):
and the Democratic parties have all these no strong patriots
in the Democratic Party, And today the office holders of
the Democratic Democratic Party tend to be men and women
who despise our country. They tend to be men and
women who for the first ones out shaking their fists demanding,
you know, down with the government, down with uh. You
(25:41):
know the United States. You think of think of Jing
Wu there in uh there in Houston, member the Texas Legislature,
he and his wife bemoaning when Donald Trump closed the
Chinese embassy that was really a spy shop. Everyone in
quoting it in China nowlegments that it was a spy shop,
and which they were there, descending it till the bitter
(26:02):
end and beyond, which is why many people website to
refer to Gene Wu as the CCP's man in Austin.
So he is, you know, So that's who the Democratic
Party is. So I think that when you look at
the that at some of these folks who come here
wanting to destroy America, they're they're not interested in policy,
(26:25):
they're not interested in politic welcomes with their interested in
destroying America.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
Oh it's so true. I mean, we were there. I'll
never forget Maya got the first interview with people at
the Chinese consulate when Donald Trump closed it because they
were stealing COVID research data from the Texas Medical Center.
And the first question she asked was how does it feel?
How does it feel to know Republicans don't want you here?
These are communists. They don't care about feelings. But you
(26:49):
know who does? You know who does care about feelings?
The good people at Texas scorecard dot com. They care.
That's why they exist. It is one of my favorite
news websites. I check it every morning when I'm getting
up and doing research for our morning show and afternoon show.
You know what you ought to do, Michael, You guys
should have like an email list. People could sign up
at texascorecard dot com. Don't charge them anything, just give
(27:10):
them quick, simple information so they could get the BS
free news about what's actually happening in and around the state.
Speaker 4 (27:17):
Hey, Kenny, you ask for it, I'll get it done.
Most squat our website. We will get it up immediately
this afternoon, and folks can sign up there. We will
make it happen because Kenny ask for it.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
I love that. Like an easy button in the corner
that says to subscribe at texascorecard dot com.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
Coming up more Kenny Webster's Pursuit of Happiness, A safe
space for those who love liberty and try not to
take themselves too seriously.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Even if your name is Karen, we like Karen, Karensweet.
We'll be right back. The people at Starbucks are y
all Starbucks star co holders. Starbucks says their sales are
down mostly because they're losing customers to the Starbucks next door.
I gotta amage there's a place in Houston, Texas where
there's a Starbucks across the street from a Starbucks with
(28:06):
a bookstore next door that has a Starbucks inside of it. Now,
I ask you, is this a dying country? I don't
know what does that say about our societ. I have
no idea what it says. I don't drink Starbucks. I
don't have an issue with it. You know, it's just
not my favorite coffee shop. I wonder is there anywhere
in Texas with more Starbucks than Austin. Probably not. People
and oh, they just love it. Of they love their
(28:28):
gender neutral coffee shop. They love a barista with a
septum piercing and blue hair who uses they them pronouns.
They just love it. But Austin is also besides being
a place where weird looking people make you coffee, It's
a place where we pass laws or don't, depending on
what's going on at any given moment. This week, the
Texas House gave initial approval to a package of bail
(28:50):
reform legislation long champion by Governor Abbott, and it's supposed
to move key portions of his public safety agenda one
step closer to the governor's bail The term gail bail
reforms changed a lot over the last five years. Five
years ago it referred to letting all the criminals out
of jail, and now it refers to once that became
the norm. Now it refers to keeping all the criminals
(29:13):
in jail. At the center of this whole thing is
Senate Bill nine, which passed the House one twenty two
to twenty. Here right now with his take on it. One,
I think one of the only honest guys in Austin, Texas,
Steve Touth, the state representative from the Conro area just
north of the Houston. I know a lot of you
guys voted for him. Steve, what do you think about this?
Does this do enough? Is this going to improve things?
(29:34):
Do we can we stop having a revolving door in
every jail in the state.
Speaker 5 (29:39):
So that's the big question, Kenny. But what I think
you have to ask yourself is what is to keep
these sorows driven idiots judges? What's gonna? What's gonna? You know,
how do we make them follow it? I mean, that's
really what it comes down to. These guys are a
law under themselves. There. These are people to believe in
(30:00):
law fairs. They'll use and abuse the law is it
meets and suits them. And that's the problem right now.
It's like, how do we make these judges follow it? Okay,
we changed law. Okay, we changed the constitution of the
State of Texas. But are they going to follow it?
And that remains to be seen?
Speaker 2 (30:16):
Okay, So are there no punishments if judges don't follow
these new rules? I mean, what happens to them?
Speaker 5 (30:21):
We don't throw judges in jail. We don't throw judges
in jail.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
We don't.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
We don't.
Speaker 5 (30:25):
They're not in the criminal code, and they there ought
to be something about There's ought to be something in
the criminal code for for for you know, officers of
the court that that just simply choose not to follow
the law.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
Yeah, I mean it's a it's a good question. I
it's it blows my mind. Why is it that judges
seem to be able to behave however they want with
no consequences, but we don't offer that same freedom to
everybody else. Uh, It'll be interesting to see where this goes.
I don't know what.
Speaker 5 (30:56):
You can go into a court. You can go into
a court and and a judge can hold you in
contempt and throw your ass excuse me, can throw you
in jail if you don't do the right thing, say
the right thing, behave the right way. But what about
a judge. What about a judge that doesn't behave the
right way, doesn't do the right thing? They're never held
accountable ever, they are never held accountable.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
Yeah, I think it's a good question. A question. Another
question I want to ask you about today, Dusted Burrows. Obviously,
Texas House Speaker. You didn't vote for him. No conservative
in the state House voted for our current House speaker.
But some people have pointed out how he's on the
verge of presiding over a house advancing more conservative priorities
than any in a decade. And I don't know if
(31:38):
it's necessarily because of him, but it's happening. Education reform,
bail reform, defunding the lottery, getting smut out of libraries.
I know you didn't want this guy. I've never been
a fan of Burrows. But is it as bad as
you thought? Give him a letter grade so far? What
do you think of how he's doing?
Speaker 5 (31:56):
B minus?
Speaker 2 (31:57):
Did you say B or D?
Speaker 5 (32:01):
I'm gonna actually C minus? Okay, so it's it's I
guess that's a passing grade. Sure, but I'm having a
hard time. You know, I get what Michael Quinnsullivan, a
scorecard said, calling to this most conservative legislative session that
he can remember. I just, I just I can't. I
(32:21):
can't go there. I can't get there. In the eighty
seventh session, we we banned critical race theory. We banned
girls in boys sports. We we banned abortion through the
trigger band. We also banned our We also did the
Heartbeat Bill. We banned critical race theory in our classrooms.
(32:43):
We made we introduced constitutional carry. We did more in
in one one five month session than than Florida did
in two years. And that that legislative session, we failed
to do one thing, and that us to protect children
that were being transitioned in our schools and from chemical
(33:07):
and surgical general mutilation. And we failed to do it,
and that's why that session got panned. Well, this session,
you know, we're aware of the fact that, Okay, we
went and banned all that stuff last session. But the
reality is that, Kenny, it is still going on in
Texas through social transitioning right bill, House Bill twenty two
(33:28):
to fifty eight got referred to the State Affairs Committee
and they just killed it. They bottled it up there,
and you know, this crap is still going on in Texas.
I'm just having a hard time between that happening and
not real meaningful property tax reform and relief. Calling this
a great session.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
Yeah, to your point, Michael quinn, Sullivan was still pretty
critical of Burroughs. He just said that there were some
good bills. I don't think he's a big fan of
Burrows either. We just had him call in a little
bit ago. Okay, let's talk about this for a minute.
Property tax relief something passed, but it doesn't seem like
it actually does anything. So this will give Republicans the
ability to brag about some property tax relief, but we're
(34:08):
not really getting any, are we.
Speaker 4 (34:11):
No.
Speaker 5 (34:11):
I mean, dude, last session we gave eighteen billion dollars
in property tax reform relief, eighteen billion dollars, and this
year they're claiming fifty one billion.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
Well, no, you're not.
Speaker 5 (34:25):
You're you're you're adding a ball of property tax relief
we've given over the past six sessions. But there's not
fifty one billion dollars in new property tax relief. And
the danger that these guys, these state reps run into
is it's you're over promising, you're under delivering. You know,
last session was eighteen billion dollars. Well, hey man, I
(34:46):
saw my property taxes go up to two thousand dollars
this year. Yes, eighteen billion dollars in property tax relief.
But Counterpinnite School District passed a two billion dollar bond,
The Montgomery County is going to pass up a half
billion dollar rode bond. And then Montgomery County went and
raised their spending by nine percent. Well, all that equates
(35:08):
into property text increases. And don't look at the rate.
Your rate doesn't mean anything. You have to look at
the effective rate, which is it's the rate times times
your increase on the appraisal value of your home, and
so everyone's property taxes are still going up. It's a
(35:28):
big scam. It's a total scam. And it's like they
think that we're not going to follow this and we're
not going to pay attention to it. We are, all right.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
One other thing that Michael quinn Sullivan commented on earlier
that I'd love to get your take on is Senate
Bill seventeen. For those that don't know, we have been
talking for a while about getting rid of the ability
for foreigners to buy land surrounding military bases. I mean
not just any.
Speaker 5 (35:54):
Foreigner series, people foreign anbers series.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
Right, people from Iran, people from China, people from countries
that were actively involved in skirmantlet Russia. And so along
comes State Representative Matt Shaheen of Plano, Texas, home of
epic City East Plano Islamic Center. For those that don't
know what that is, he added an amendment to this
that is supposed to allow people to still buy the
(36:17):
land as long as they have a visa. No illegal immigrants,
but if you have a visa, it's my understanding. People
from China, I, Ran and Russia get visas all the time.
If we add this amendment, what good does it do
to prevent foreign spies from buying land surrounding our military basis?
Feels like it. It feels like it makes it easier
for them.
Speaker 5 (36:36):
So the bill is kind of weak coming over from
the Senate because it had a ninety nine year land lease,
which I don't know if you know anything about a
dirt lease, but if you think about a kenny, if
you can buy property and build a building on it
and own it for sixty or seventy years, how is
that any different than getting a dirt lease for one
hundred years and being able to build a building on it.
(36:57):
It's going to last sixty or seventy years, right, There's
no dam there's no difference. And so that's how the
bill came over from the Senate. I couldn't take the
lease off completely because it would have altered the bill
substantially and ruined would have killed the bill, and so
I put an amendment on it to take it from
ninety nine years down to one year, which then it
became the best bill in the country. And then Shahen
(37:18):
goes and puts this amendment on it that basically allows
anybody here that's a foreign adversary that has it, has
a valid visa, allows them to buy property. And you're like,
what the heck did you? He just ruin the whole
bill right, And then this is the funniest thing. He
realizes how crappy his amendment was, and so he then
(37:38):
goes and writes to the House journal I was found
found voting yes for this amendment when I'm meant to
vote no.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
Ha, what dude, Come on, Matt, shaheen, shame, shame, shame.
What happened to Plano? This is another thing I asked
someone else about earlier, but I'd love your is Plano
the deer born? Is that the Minnesota of Justice, tex I.
Speaker 5 (37:58):
Mean, man, I think it's the Muslims have kind of targeted.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
Wow, how about that? No no bikinis, no, no course cutters, no.
Uh no, man, uh huh, I'm not doubt I am
not down with that. We may need to uh, I
may need to hit the streets of Plano at the
microphone and see if I can interview some of the
Sharia loving local residents there. Hey, before we get out
of here. Uh. Congressional district too, currently occupied by a
(38:25):
guy named Dan Crenshaw. Now, Steve, I look, I know
you're busy with those Texas legislative session. You're looking out
for the people in your district. You're busy at work
right now in Austin. I've had a lot of people
ask me if you are going to primary Dan Crenshaw,
and I gotta tell you, I've looked at the other
candidates right now, and I don't think any of them
(38:45):
could beat them. None of them have the resources. I
think a lot of them are just running against Dan
Crenshaw to get more Twitter follows. Any thoughts on this?
Speaker 5 (38:54):
Yeah, and we're Kenny, We're gonna have We're gonna have
something to announce in July. July first, wow. And we'll
have four more further word on what we're going to
be doing in July first. So we're pretty excited about
the future of Texas and so Bett and I are
looking forward maybe to possibly the opportunity to serve Texas
(39:14):
in Washington.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
How about that. But Steve, if you unseat Dan Crenshaw,
who will use insider information to make stock trades.
Speaker 5 (39:25):
What will I do with my stock portfolio that I
don't have if I can't follow Nancy Pelosi and Dan
Crenshaw and how they trade in the market man with
their inside information. That's not inside information.
Speaker 2 (39:36):
It's a good question. It is. What a time to
be alive. Steve Tooth. I appreciate your time this afternoon, brother,
fighting the good fight for us over there and on.
There's not a lot of politicians I like. I do
like Steve. I think stay representative. Steve Toath has done
us right. Hey, to the rest of you, I love
you all. Don't forget Thursday night we're doing stand up
comedy in Jackson, Mississippi. Friday night, two shows in Mandeville.
(39:56):
The early shows sold out. Still late show tickets you
can get them. And of course Saturday night we will
be in Metaorie. You can get tickets to all that
stuff if you go to my ex account Kenneth Robert
Kenny Webster on X you'll find a link there right
at the top of the page. I love you all.
I'll be back Bran early tomorrow morning for more of
what you bought a radio for.
Speaker 6 (40:19):
You are listening to the Pursuit of Happy this radio.
Tell the government to kiss your ass when you listen
to this show.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.