Stop Eating Fake Meat And Stop Raising Taxes

Houston doesn’t get to hide behind national headlines when the bills come due locally. We dig into a brewing fight at City Hall after Controller Chris Hollins warns Houston could be staring at a $174 million general fund deficit for fiscal year 2026, while Mayor John Whitmire says the warning is overstated and insists the city can balance the budget without raising property taxes. I walk through what each side is claiming, why overtime and reserve drawdowns matter, and why “just raise taxes” has become the lazy default in too many cities.

From there, we zoom out to the elections and policies that shape Texas life fast. District C heads to a runoff, and I make the case that so-called small elections are where power is quietly won or lost. We also hit the latest on gambling legalization, where Governor Greg Abbott signals casinos are not happening next session, and I challenge the popular argument that tax revenue makes a risky policy worth it.

We also bring in Justin White from Senior Health Services for Medicare Monday to explain looming Medicare Advantage reimbursement changes and what that could mean for premiums, copays, deductibles, and those extra benefits people rely on. Then we close with two consumer-focused stories: Impossible Foods losing a major trademark verdict to a smaller business, and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton investigating solar companies over deceptive savings claims and confusing contracts. 

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Listen every day to our strong conservative programs on Patriot Talk 920 AM.  Tune-in on your radio in Houston to KYST 920 AM or download our app by visiting 920app.com or search for "Patriot Talk 920" from your app store!

Transcript

Faith, Holidays, And Culture

SPEAKER_09 0:04

From deep in the heart of Texas, it's Houston's God loving patriot and the voice of reason. This is the Lone Star Conservative Michael Wilson.

Houston Budget Deficit Showdown

Whitmire’s No Tax Increase Case

SPEAKER_12 0:31

Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. I'm your host, Michael Wilson, and you're listening to the Lone Star Conservative brought to you by Texellent AC Service. And first of all, I guess I can say can I say Happy Easter? I know it's technically over. That was yesterday. But Jesus is alive. So you know what? Happy Resurrection Sunday, even though it was yesterday, one of my favorite holidays. Because of course, you know, we got to remember that almost everything we celebrate, I've said this before, there's a conversation about culture. Everything we celebrate, I say almost, because I just don't like to put myself in a little, you know, corner, but everything we celebrate kind of indicates what we believe, right? That's pretty obvious. Celebrations used to be, and I know that the left has tried to concoct this world where the everything's just neutral and secular, and nothing really has any meaning. Like the celebrations don't really mean anything. They've done this to, or they try to do this to our holidays. Uh they've certainly done it to their own. And you have to remember that it used to be that a a celebration, uh, a party, a holiday, right, whatever these were, they were extremely religious in nature most of the time. Uh, or at least there was certain import to them that connected it to back to the religion. Uh this is why you can see all the way back, you know, you have Passover. If you look at a lot of the celebrations here in South America, or at least in in Central America, back before you had, you know, the people that came in, the Spanish that came in. If you look back there, a lot of the quote-unquote celebrations uh were just festivals to certain gods, right? And that's been true through the Roman Empire, through the Greeks. You've seen that all over the world. That holidays are very interconnected to the culture and the religion of the country uh in which you're celebrating, which is why the left has done their darndest. And it's not always just the left. Sometimes the right can do this too if it's not, you know, ardently Christian uh in nature. This is we we'll call it Christless conservatism, when you have people that are supposedly conservative, supposedly super republican, and then you find out they're not Christian, uh, or you find out they're agnostic, they're atheist, or they subscribe to Hinduism, or or they subscribe to Islam, right? Whatever it is, they'll call themselves conservatives, Republicans, uh, but they don't believe in Christ. And the result of that, of course, is that all of these holidays that we have, ones that are, of course, paramount to the nature and the culture of this great country, uh, get watered down. Right. This is why uh when it comes to Christmas time, they've tried to commercialize and secularize the holiday so egregiously. It all becomes about uh did you get this gift on sale? You made sure that you showed them all the Santa movies, right? And it's like those things aren't always bad inherently. I don't mind having gifts and a Christmas tree and you know, talking about Santa Claus and watching, you know, snowman movie. I don't mind any of that. But when that becomes the focal point of the celebration, and you forget, hey, this celebration actually is is connected to something. We're actually partying together for a reason. We're coming together to celebrate the birth of our Lord. Same on Easter, when you see all the Easter egg hunts and the bunnies, it's not those things are inherently problems. I don't I don't have an issue if your church did an Easter egg hunt or if you celebrate the Easter bunny, right? I don't have an issue with those things being part and parcel uh with the celebrations. If the celebration itself is very clearly to celebrate the risen Savior. And the problem is that our culture has tried to, and they again they've done this to basically every holiday. They have tried to demean holidays to merely secular notions of those holidays. I don't want to get too into it because of course Easter's over. I'm not supposed to, you know, go on a tangent about Easter since it's now Monday. All right, Jesus is alive and he's gonna be alive. He's he's he's on the throne forever and ever. We know that. Uh he's interceding for each and every one of us. Uh and if he's not interceding for you, uh, you might want to think about that and um text into the show sometime. We'll talk about it. In the meantime, what I want to jump over and talk about is actually some stuff going on here locally. Because it turns out uh that there is a bit of a a disagreement in our local government. And I say all the time on the show, but unfortunately, a lot of people don't keep up with a lot of these stories, uh with a lot of what's going on. That's why the show is here, primarily, uh, is to make sure people are aware of what's going on in our local areas. I know that it's very easy to see the national headlines. Uh almost everybody these days knows the national news, even at least on the right. And the left you still have a lot of uneducated people that don't care. That's why they vote the way they vote. But you have a lot of people on the right who are pretty politically informed. I'll talk to your run-of-the-mill conservative. He knows b as much as I do about national politics a lot of the time. Right? We'll be we'll be able to have a full conversation about what's going on politically uh in America. But so many people just don't know what's happening in the state of Texas, or they just don't know what's happening in the greater Houston area. You know, and they've they've lived here their whole lives and they could not tell you what the city council is doing. They could not tell you what's going on at Commissioner's Court. Uh they might have heard about the Lena Hidalgo debacle at the rodeo, because, of course, that made national headlines. Uh, but that's about it. They don't know what happens in response, they don't know all the resulting effects. They don't know any of that because they don't keep up. I think that's really bad, especially because, as I've highlighted before, the reason why I think the show is actually so important is because what happens in our local government largely affects our day-to-day lives more than what happens at the federal level. Of course, we need to hold our federal government accountable. Of course, we need to caution and guard ourselves against federal tyranny. The founders understood that. Of course, we need to make sure that anything we're involved in politically at the federal level is worth our time, money, and our lives. But at the same time, our day-to-day lives are mostly impacted. Your day-to-day outings from taxes to policies on roadways to to city ordinances, all of those things are largely determined by your local government. Right? What's going on right now with Epic City, for example, up in Plano, a lot of the policies surrounding their ability to have a Muslim enclave is largely handled by commissioners, is largely handled by zoning rules in those specific areas. And so I think it's very crucial that we're all paying attention to what's happening locally. And right now, apparently there is this dispute between the controller's office and between the mayor's office. Because there's a massive disagreement over Houston's budget and a potential budget deficit, uh, where you have the mayor saying that the deficit warning is basically not real uh and that Houston is going to balance the budget without raising taxes. How they're going to do that, I'm still not sure. It's still not blatantly obvious to me, uh, though there's certain claims. Uh but the controller, of course, is warning that, well, no, no, no, there's a looming massive deficit, specifically a deficit potentially of$174 million, where the Houston mayor, John Whitmire, comes out and says, no, no, no, we can balance that. It's it's totally manageable. We'll balance it without raising taxes. Let's talk about it a little bit. Uh so Chris Hollins, he's the controller for the city of Houston, has been warning that there is a$174 million general fund deficit for this year, 2026, calling the uh, you know, saying these things are massive problems. This is where the money's going, this is how it's being spent, and we're gonna have this big deficit. And of course, the Houston mayor comes back and says, no, no, no, that's overstated. And actually, Houston can close that entire gap without raising taxes. Now, of course, uh Hollins is arguing, again, that's the the controller for the city of Houston, saying that the city's current budget was presented as balanced while relying heavily on reserve funds and projections that didn't ultimately materialize. He's also pointed, of course, to soaring police and fire over time as a major driver of the deficit, saying that those costs were not properly allocated, that we didn't have a plan for those costs. So the statement, Whitmeyer said his administration has a solid plan to balance the budget without raising taxes, citing this efficiency study from Ernst Young as a roadmap for cost savings. He said, based on the Ernst and Young efficiency study, my administration is implementing efficiencies and eliminating waste, fraud, and duplication, which will significantly reduce the shortfall. He then also criticized the controller's absence from a recent city finance meeting. He said, The controller missed this week's finance meeting where we began outlining the administration's approach. Whitmeyer appointed it to pass disagreements over taxes, saying that Holland's previously claimed the city would need to raise property taxes. And as we're all well aware, for all of his faults, this is why I largely get behind John Whitmeyer on a lot of things. Despite the fact that he's very clearly a Democrat, right? We all know that. That's all very clear based on his his positions on a especially a lot of social affairs. Uh, from an economic perspective, at least from a perspective as the city's mayor, I would argue he's done a pretty phenomenal job in that role, specifically. Especially when you compare, now that you ever compare yourself to other people, always only compare yourself to you, get better than you used to be. Well, by any metric, uh whether we say compared to how the city of Houston used to operate, compared to how other major cities operate, John Whitmeyer is far and away, I think, the best large city mayor in the country compared to all of our potential neighbors. You compare it to New York City, LA, San Francisco, Chicago, right? You compare it to all the other major cities, and you look at Mayor Whitmeyer's administration and the goals we've set out and the way that we run the city, and I think it's been ultimately a much better job. Nevertheless, he said last year the controller said we would have to raise property taxes. He was wrong then, and he's wrong now. We will balance the budget without raising taxes, and I look forward to working with him to fix that issue. Now, Hollins released the following statement. He said, My role is to be the taxpayer's watchdog. My office monitors the city's finances, analyzes the numbers, and puts clear, actionable information in front of the mayor and city council so they can make informed decisions. We are providing the information, but it is sadly not being acted upon. And the result is what we are experiencing today. We are now facing a$174 million general fund deficit for fiscal year 2026, the largest single-year drawdown of reserves in Houston's history. This didn't happen overnight. It happened one decision at a time. Time and time again, we have warned the mayor about the obvious consequences of his poor financial decisions, and we have highlighted the need for a real financial plan for Houston. The mayor continues to ignore these warnings, leaving Houston taxpayers on the hook. Now we know uh that our leaders here in the city have been grappling with budget pressures tied to rising costs, uh, again, including overtime spending in our public safety departments. Uh the 2026 budget process is expected to continue in the coming months as the administration and the council are going to refine projections, identify savings, et cetera, et cetera, so on and so forth. One thing that I cannot stand about a lot of local leadership, and this happens, by the way, this is not Houston specific. It happens in rural communities, all across the state of Texas, and all across the country, by the way. Again, this is not something that only deal we oh, we just are the worst. We're the only No, everywhere you look, they are talking about raising taxes more and more and more to cover what they will argue as rising costs and necessities. We're pitched this line all the time, which is where a lot of my respect for our mayor comes from. Because when you look at the city of Houston, it would be very easy to say, well, we're a growing city with growing demands, and if we're gonna meet those, of course taxes are gonna have to go up. There's no other way to look at it. That would be an easy out for any politician because I think you have relative plausible deniability, right? If Mayor Whitmeyer wanted to keep his resume looking good and still manage to be a good mayor, it would be very easy to just agree with the controller and say, you know what? Yeah, the controller agrees with me, city council agrees with me, we gotta raise taxes. I don't want to do that. It's not my prerogative. I that's not something that I would like to do. But all the information we have that's been presented shows that that's the best case outcome. And so we got to do it. And it wouldn't even really look that bad on him because at the end of the day, he could just basically, if he wants to, shift the blame over and say, look, our controller's the one that's largely in in tap with our finances, with our financial departments. He's the one that's analyzing all of our documents, seeing where all of our spending is at. And if he's saying this is here, uh I guess we're gonna have to raise taxes. And it would be an easy way for the city of Houston to have more income, to be less stressed out about finding cost savings, because the controller's backing you up. That is an easy out for any politician that wants to raise taxes, which most politicians do. Of course, they want more money to play with, to pass more of their goals, more of their agendas. And we know Mayor Whitmeyer has a lot of goals and agendas from stuff going on with NRG uh to the homelessness crisis. Mayor Whitmeyer has a lot of goals that he wants to meet. And it would be very easy to say, you know what, if we're gonna meet those goals, we're gonna have to raise taxes. And yet, to I think a lot of people's shock, Mayor Whitmeyer, even now is still fighting against that and saying, you know what? No, my job is not to raise taxes indiscriminately. My job is not for us to deal with the budget deficit by saying, well, I guess the people need to give us more money and more power. The response actually is for us to negotiate, us to debate, and us to find ways that we can actually make sure to balance this without turning back to the taxpayer again. That used to be, by the way, how government was expected to operate. That that didn't used to be some out there shocking thing to come from local governments or from state governments or from the federal government. That used to be an understood thing that the goal was to make sure that the balance the budget was balanced, was to make sure that taxes weren't being levied against the people that were unnecessary, was to make sure that only the base level needs were covered. And if anything was past that, it was only if you had extra funding, right? That used to be understood. And now it's somewhat shocking when we see someone willing to come out and say, you know, we shouldn't raise taxes. And so, of course, compared to everybody else, that makes us say, what a good mayor, right? But that used to just be the expected course of action. That used to not be so surprising. That used to not be so out there and and shocking, and now it is. Uh but since that's the case, I can say I'm quite proud of how the mayoral administration here in Houston is handling this issue. Of course, that's going to require debate. It's going to require a a very heavy amount of fighting and negotiating to get that budget balanced. It's not going to be easy. If you have a possible$174 million shortage, right, if you're, if you're out that much money, that's a lot of money to just cut off the books and find a way to get rid of. I understand that. Uh, but the fact that he's even fighting for it, especially as hard as he is, given that it's not politically savvy, given that it's easy to do the other. I think we all owe a round of applause and say, hey, you know what? Thank you. Right? Somebody should be fighting for the Texas taxpayer. Someone should be saying, you know what? Actually, people are already dealing with massive issues due to inflation and affordable housing and everything else. I don't think that the government should be the ones now making them fork out more money than they already are. We need somebody to do that. And as I've said before, whether that's a Democrat or Republican, I'm gonna give kudos to that person because that's the role of government is to do hard things that are not fun and are not always popular in order to do what's right for your constituents, to be a good representative of what the people actually desire. And so we'll see how this conversation continues going. Of course, they're gonna be debating this over the coming months to find out where that money actually is going, how we can balance the budget at least more effectively. Even getting it down to 50 million, 25 million, et cetera, et cetera, would be a massive shift and a very good thing. Uh but you know, you have this massive dispute now where the controller is not budging, saying that's not gonna happen, and the mayor is saying, yeah, well, we're not raising taxes. So we'll see how that kind of ends up actually meeting where the fork in the road is, what we see happening in the future. We'll keep everyone up to date on that. With that being said, when we get back from the break, we're gonna quickly mention uh that Houston City Council, District C, uh, we all know they had their special election uh on, I believe it was Saturday, and apparently uh the results have now come out, and it looks like it looks like there may be another runoff that we need to be aware of. We'll talk about it when we get back from the break. As always, if you would like to text into the show, let us know your thoughts on any of the stuff that we're talking about, or something that we're not, right? I've said this before, I'll say it again. If you want to text in and say, hey, here's this story I found or that I read, could you let us know your thoughts on what's going on here? Feel free to do that. The number, as always, is 713-779-5978. That is 713-779-KYST. You are listening to the Lone Star Conservative. I'm your host, Michael Wilson. Don't go anywhere because I will be right back after the break.

SPEAKER_15 17:50

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SPEAKER_06 21:39

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Abbott Shuts Down Gambling Talk

SPEAKER_12 22:09

Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. I'm your host, Michael Wilson, and you're listening to the Lone Star Conservative brought to you by Textellent AC Service. So Houston voters are going to have to return to the polls for the runoff election to fill the vacant City Council District C seat after no candidate earned a majority in this seven-person special election this past Saturday. Unofficial results show Joe Panzarella and Nick Heliar leading the field with a combined total of more than 50% of the vote. Now, because no candidate received more than 50%, the race will be decided in a runoff on a date that has not yet been announced. The winner will serve out the remainder of former Councilmember Abby Kamen's term, which runs to the beginning of 2028. Of course, Kamen left the district C seat to run for Harris County attorney. And so it's a mess. I just want to keep you guys updated because I know we talked with Charles Blaine this past maybe it was the Friday before, that we had a special election coming up to fill that seat. Uh, but I don't know if people expected it to go to a runoff. I think even Charles said a couple weeks ago that it probably would end up going to a runoff just based on the polling data we had, which isn't always accurate. We all know that the polling data can lie. I think sometimes the polling data is intentionally twisted in order to produce different results to disenfranchise certain people from voting, to say, hey, here's what we already know. Um I think that's done intentionally, but without any of that, it is now going to a runoff election. We don't have a date for it, so I can't keep you guys updated on it yet. When that date drops, if I see it, which I probably will, I'll let you guys know for all of our Houston listeners uh to make sure that you are involved because again, it's very important that we participate in even what we consider to be these smaller elections. In many cases, this may be the only thing on the ballot when you go to vote in this particular runoff. Right? If they schedule it for a certain date, that that's the only thing you have to show up for. Republicans, unfortunately, are notorious for not showing up for smaller non-November elections, especially one that's that's basically done specifically to fill one seat. Uh it is very, very, very common that Republicans just won't show up. They I guess they don't view it as worth their time. You know, it's uh the whole running joke that, well, the reason why is because Republicans actually have jobs. We actually work for a living, we're not on welfare. And so, you know, we don't actually have the opportunity to just spend our days voting like the left could. But it's very important that we show up for these sorts of elections because, again, while Republicans are notorious for not showing up, Democrats really don't show up all that strongly either. Compared to Republicans, sure they do. Uh, but in terms to in terms of comparing that to, you know, a normal, larger election like a primary or like a general election, you know, it's very obvious that we have we have the opportunity, if we were all to band together, to easily go win these sorts of seats. So we'll keep you guys posted on when we expect that to happen. With that being said, let's go ahead and jump over uh because there's some stuff going on. We've talked before about gambling and the legalization of gambling here in the in the state of Texas. Uh and now you have Governor Greg Abbott coming out again and making it very clear that the answer is no. Uh Governor Greg Abbott said he does not expect Texas to legalize gambling in the next legislative session, already signaling a continued roadblock for casino interests that have spent millions upon millions of dollars trying to influence state elections, with the intent, of course, to legalize casino gambling. Now, Abbott made the remarks during a press conference focused on his property tax plan, held after Gowsa County Commissioner's Court joined the Lone Star State Property Tax Reform Council in support of that proposal. He was asked at that event about gambling, as well as a so-called fuzzy animal or fuzzy bear exception in Texas law, uh, a colloquial term for a narrow provision allowing certain amusement machines to award low-value non-cash prizes, which some game room operators have cited to justify machines critics safe function as illegal gambling devices. Right. And by the way, we've had that problem even in so far. I I mean we had a conversation, I think it was Hitchcock that we had a conversation about, maybe it was Santify Adapter. I forget the city. Don't cite me on that. Uh, but it was just a few weeks ago, a few months ago, and you had the mayor involved in this stuff where they were operating these uh these eight-liners, uh, where you had what is arguably illegal gambling going on, but they try to use uh that provision where they're saying, well, it's it's part of the exception. This is basically a claw machine, right? Uh by all intents and purposes, that's what it functions as. These are non-cash prizes awarded in such low amounts, and then they'll like people will do a variety of things, right? Say it's it's essentially like a claw machine, but instead of you grabbing stuff, it's say it's like a slot machine. And if it lands right, you win the prize. And it's like a stuffed animal. And they'll give you, if you want to return that stuffed animal, they'll give you like five bucks for it. And so you're spinning, right? You're playing a slot machine to win five dollars. So it it definitely walks the line on illegal versus legal gambling. Nevertheless, uh he he said, I don't know how that works, and I'm not sure about fuzzy bears and things like that. We'll look into it. All I can tell you is what the law says, and that is gambling is unconstitutional in the state of Texas. And I don't see that changing in the next session. Now, of course, that comes as casino interests, including, we know, groups tied to the Las Vegas Sands Corporation and the Texas Defense Pack, have poured millions of dollars into recent primary elections uh over the course of the past few cycles. Those efforts have basically failed for all intents and purposes, considering a success would be some sort of legalization process, and they've not gotten any of that. Uh, the governor's posture marks a firmer stance against casino expansion following earlier comments back in 2023, so a few years ago, suggesting that he could be opened to limited resort style gambling. Meanwhile, you also have Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, uh a long-opposed member of you know non non-friendliness, we'll say, to casino gambling interests. Uh he's come out and he's said that the casino legislation would never see the light of day in the Senate so long as he had any level of authority there, which uh it's a good thing, right? Um Dan Patrick and I don't agree on everything. We have our disagreements. Uh we have things that I think that he's said and that he's done that are not in the interest of conservatives. But there are other places where, again, despite those disagreements, we can look at and say, hey, this is a good thing. Uh most of us, I've heard some on the right that have been fans of the idea of legalized casino gambling in the state of Texas. Mainly the argument, the only argument I've really heard in favor of it from the right has merely been a tax-based conversation, right? Where they say, oh, well, yeah, we don't we don't like the culture of casino gambling, but but it would provide a significant tax benefit to the state. And so for that reason, it's kind of the same people on the right that have actually argued for the legalization of marijuana, like full legalization, because, well, if we tax marijuana specifically at a much higher sales tax rate, and they can do that, then it would be ultimately beneficial. And my response to that has always been twofold. First, money is not the ends, it is the means. And when you start treating the production of money as an end to itself, this happens in companies as well, by the way, when you start doing that, uh the end result, inevitably, is basically greed at any cost. Right? There are the the the the because you think about it, you can use this argument for anything. If I start saying, hey, I think that murder is bad and it's wrong. But if you allow people to commit murder and then they just have to pay a million dollars to get away with it, well, think about how many people would be down for that. There are a lot of wealthy people who would love to take out their opponents, and in a million dollars per hit, we would be generating a massive tax revenue. We would all look at that and say that is legitimately insane. And yet they do this all the time with other things where they say, well, we don't like gambling per se. We think it's a bad idea culturally for the state of Texas, but it would produce a significant tax advantage for us. Well, that's not an end. Right? That's not an end goal. It shouldn't be an end goal. And when you use that as a justification for promoting evil policy and policy that will arguably ruin the state, I I don't I don't see the argument there. That's the only real argument that there is. Nevertheless, uh, that has been a massive fight. Because of course, Texas has kept casino gambling illegal. We have many neighbors who allow casino gambling. If you guys have been to Louisiana, you know, you look out at a lot of the states around us, it's legal. And then I I tell people, yeah, look at the culture of the places where it's legal. Take a look at Las Vegas, right? Take a look at a lot of these places in Louisiana. Do you want to look like that? Because you're going to.

unknown 31:00

Right?

TSU Commencement Controversy Teased

SPEAKER_12 31:01

Whether or not we could argue as to the inherent morality of gambling itself. Right? Because as I said before, I don't actually have an issue with you going and playing poker with your friends. I I actually have no problem with that. There are there are many Christians who would say, no, that's wrong, et cetera, et cetera. And we could have a theological disagreement on that. I don't actually have an issue with that at all. I don't think the morality surrounding gambling itself is really the issue. The issue is, again, the end result of the policies that we're promoting. When you look at casino gambling specifically, uh, the data could not be more clear on what you ultimately get as a result of that legalization. The end result is, of course, things like drug trafficking, prostitution, uh, among among other financial things, money laundering, et cetera, et cetera, so on and so forth, happens all the time. Uh it's it's it's just par for the course when you look at places that have legalized casino gambling. And I actually don't want that in my state. Not because I think that poker or roulette is inherently sinful or evil, or that no one should ever be allowed to do it. If you want to, Louisiana, especially from us here in Houston, not that far of a drive, by the way, if you really want to go. But making it legal here in our state is a recipe to transform the culture of this state, uh, into a transformation that I personally think is completely not only irrelevant in the sense that there's just no reason to do it, but it's completely backwards for what I think Texas stands for. I look at places like Louisiana and Las Vegas, you look at Nevada, and they have cultures, right? And their cultures are I mean, you look at New Orleans as a good example of this, their cultures are totally fine with the debauchery and the the voodoo and everything else, totally fine with them. But when you look at Texas, and we all understand this, as Texans, this is why we have such pride in our state, we all understand that we have a very specific culture that is actually good, that is true, that is beautiful. Uh, we have a lot to preserve here that we've been handed by heritage by those who fought for this state. And I truly think that we'd be throwing a lot of that away if we were to approach this and say, you know what, but for the tax benefit, we'll do it is a terrible argument. So hopefully we continue to see that ring true. Hopefully they continue to get denied what they desire here in the state of Texas. Maybe they'll continue to waste millions of dollars on something that hopefully will never get passed, uh, not as long as we have any level of powers, the grassroots. With that being said, we can get back on the reg, we're gonna jump over and talk about TSU. Uh, TSU has now reversed their original commencement decision. Apparently they're gonna hold uh one big ceremony for commencement for all of the students of Texas Southern University. And a lot of the students were not fans of that decision, given that it resulted, unfortunately, in a lot of these students not being able to invite their families. We'll talk more about the kind of the details of that, how that conversation went, and a good example of how people use the rights that God has given them to speak the truth uh and to approach leadership and how that actually can have success. We'll talk more about the details of that when we return. As always, if you'd like to text into the show, the number is 713-779-5978. That is 713-779-KYST. I'm your host, Michael Wilson. You are listening to the Lone Star Conservative, and I'll be right back to talking about TSU in the next segment.

SPEAKER_07 34:24

Hi, this is Harold Gunn, inviting you to join Bill Olson and me for Texas' longest running and most awarded outdoor show. Brought to you by Built Ford Tough Trucks, it's Texas Outdoor News. Join us Saturday mornings at six on Patriot Talk 920.

SPEAKER_18 34:39

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SPEAKER_03 35:10

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SPEAKER_20 35:41

The Medicare Minute with Justin White is brought to you by Senior Health Services.

SPEAKER_11 35:45

If you are of Medicare AIDS or getting close or you have a loved one that is, be careful with those unsolicited phone calls that I know you know about. We get told about them all the time. What you need to know is that many of those phone calls are not even legal. They're coming from offshore call centers. Sometimes they're calling regardless of whether you're on the do not call list. Isn't that nice of them, by the way? It's really sweet of them to just do that because they are thinking that they can't get caught. Bottom line is when you get on there and you talk to them, they're already kind of operating sidelong of what should be done. And sometimes people end up in plans that they did not intend to enroll in. And so what do you do? Call somebody local. If you got a local agent, my gosh, call them and get in front of them. And if you don't have a good agent, think of an organization like Senior Health Services where you can sit down, talk about what you're looking for, and get the help that you need. You don't need to be talking to phone operators from other countries that you don't know who they are, where they are, or what in the world they're doing.

SPEAKER_20 36:47

Medicare choices are easier with a professional in your corner. Senior Health Services is not associated with the government, so you know you can trust them. Visit Senior Health Services.com today to connect with a trusted agent for a free consultation.

SPEAKER_04 37:10

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SPEAKER_09 37:41

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SPEAKER_06 37:56

Patriot Talk 920 is your Houston base camp for the America First Movement. I'm Todd Starns and join me weekdays at 11 on Patriot Talk 920 and online at PatriotTalk920.com.

SPEAKER_12 38:41

So if I don't get to this story this segment, it's going to have to wait. And I probably won't because I want to have a conversation about something that happened on our social media pages. Now, you guys might not be aware there was a big, big event happening in Manville, a massive concert, free t-shirts, free dinner at a big church down there. And they had, of course, this big, huge drone performance, uh, showcased the nativity, some of the miracles that Jesus performed in in drones. I mean, from my understanding, it was it was ginormous. I think they broke some record for North America for largest drone show ever produced. It was uh for my it was incredible. And of course, you can't do something like that without getting pushback from people. Because, as we're well aware, and we discussed this on the show many a time, as we're all well aware, when you take a look at anything we do for the glory of God, anything great, anything grandiorous, right? Any of those things, what happens? Oh, of course, people show up in droves to say, well, no, that's actually bad. Here's why your God is not true, here's our God instead, right? You have a lot of pushback from Muslims, from Hindus, uh, from leftists and liberals, atheists, agnostics, and the and it keeps going on, right? Name the religion. They're there. They're in your comments, they're debating you. So so so on social media, the Patriot 920 a.m. social media account on Facebook posted and said, What a blessing to experience Jesus, Jesus, Jesus in person and this Easter Sunday. Thousands of people showed up to praise our risen Lord and witness record-breaking 10,000 drones that honored Jesus Christ. God bless people and organizations like this who are standing up for our faith. And so we have this comment. And it says, just to make sure you are aware of the fact that the image of Jesus on a horse with a sword in hand you used to proclaim is resurrected is actually the much older image of the Khalki Avatar of Vishnu that is yet to manifest. Just to make that clear, uh, you guys can't see the picture, but they posted this picture of this, I mean, terribly ugly God. I I mean, I just can't even I don't know. You if you get a design, because unlike Christianity, right, where we have, you know, uh the hypostatic union, he became fully man, so right, he was actually a person. Uh unlike that, they get to draw whatever the image they want to depict their God. You'd think you'd I I'm not trying to bully Hindus here, but they deserve it. If you could come up with any picture imaginable to represent your God, I feel like there are just an infinite number of ways to do that, to make your God look powerful and cool. And they picked this like fat lady. I mean, it's just Buddha did the same thing with the dude. They just picked these fat people, like just totally ugly, just disgusting looking as they're as probably because it's actually, you know, demonic. Uh, as it turns out, so of course they're gonna be ugly. But this person further posted, they said, how interesting the image of Jesus on a horse with a sword in hand, showing him as resurrected in the Easter Texas drone extravaganza looks exactly like the Kalki Avatar of Vishnu, his promised and last avatar that is yet to manifest, and which is described in scriptures that are much older than the Christian ones. I wonder how they came up with that. Right, because you know what? They got us. The Hindus, they got us, guys. As it turns out, if you have any photos of anyone on a horse with a sword, uh, it must be painting back to the Hindu nations. Obvious. I mean, we have unforced photos of plenty of our kings throughout Western history uh who were on horseback with swords leading charges into battle. All of those are actually just telltale to the Hindu god Vishnu, as it turns out. None of those are real pictures. None of them are obviously representative of what we believe. No, no, no. They all hearken back to the Hindu god, obviously. I mean, it really is insanity, the claims these people make. But this is what I'm talking about. Why is this even something that we're having to grapple with? We've said it a million times, but it rings true every single time. Why are these people even here? Right? They they disagree so fundamentally with Christianity. And by extension, then they disagree so fundamentally with what is considered American, what is considered good and great and beautiful here in this country. They hate what we stand for. They're they're so much so that when we put on a massive Christian drone show in honor of a of our risen Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they have to turn it around and say, Well, actually, that's representative of our God over in India. No, it's not. I promise you, I've never seen your Vishnu picture before. Right? I I've never seen this one. I've seen the woman with like the elephant with like 30 arms. I've never seen your ugly, fat Vishnu woman on a horse with a sword. Sure, maybe it's old. I I don't really care. The point is, you're wrong. I'm right. The Lord Jesus Christ is the only God that is living and interceding on our behalf. All the other gods have died, gone away, they don't do anything. Jesus Christ is the only God. Period. I can end the sentence there, but I'll continue. Jesus Christ is the only God that is living. That is provable, that is active. He is the true King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And you can all whine and moan and complain about it as much as you'd like. You can try to say that your God's older, or your God's better, your God did this, or your God did that. But it all just reminds me of the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal. If you guys remember that story, it's a it's a beautiful story, by the way, uh, where they have like this sort of competition of the gods. And Elijah shows up representing, of course, the the King of Kings. Here's that's up showing the God of the Bible. And so you have uh these other prophets of foreign gods who say, No, our gods real. He's like, All right, then let's prove it. Let's let's get uh the gods to light this this offering on this altar on fire. And they pray and they groan and they whine and they cry and they sob and they beg Baal to come down and to light this thing on fire. It's not working. And so, of course, Elijah starts mocking them. He says, Hey, maybe your God's sleeping. Maybe your God is is you know, using maybe he's you know taking a dump. Maybe he's using the bathroom. I don't know. What is he doing? He's not here. Eventually they cut themselves, some of them even, I believe, even killed themselves. And Elijah comes back and he says, Well, it's my turn now. And of course, if you've read the story, you know, he says, Throw water on it. Throw more water on it. Make sure that water is dripping all over the altar and all on the ground. And then he prays. And God not only lights the burnt offering, he not only lights the offering on fire, but the altar catches fire, and all the water on the ground catches fire. And so I don't need your, well, here's a picture of my demon god on a horse. I literally don't care. Your God is a demon, my God is a god, okay? My God is the God, the one true God, and that's that's an end of the conversation. If you want to go worship freaking Vishnu, feel free to hop back over on a train to India. I you're more than welcome to do it there. Not welcome here. With that being said, when we get back from the break, we're of course going to cover the weather for today, the rest of this week, what we see coming out. Of course, you guys are well aware it's a little cooler this morning. How long is that gonna last? What are the morning temperatures gonna look like? All those questions will be answered in the next segment. So stick around. You're listening to the Lone Star Conservative. Text it at 713-779-5978. That is 713-779-KYST. I'm your host, Michael Wilson. I'll be right back to wrap up the first hour of the show with the weather after this break. So stick around, and we'll cover it soon.

SPEAKER_15 46:28

Houston, this is Tom Gresham, inviting all gun owners to join me live every Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m. for gun talk. Call in with your questions or range reports, and let's tackle everything Second Amendment. Here on Houston's Leader for Gun Owners, Patriot Talk 920.

SPEAKER_19 46:44

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SPEAKER_03 47:14

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SPEAKER_00 47:45

My doctor won't take my plan anymore.

SPEAKER_14 47:48

Why is my Medicare supplement so expensive?

SPEAKER_00 47:51

My prescription drug plan sucks.

SPEAKER_13 47:54

When you need some help with Medicare, go to Senior Health Services.com.

SPEAKER_11 48:02

In all seriousness, we know you're frustrated, but if you'll call 281-894-7540, we'll help you with your Medicare and we'll do it for free. Plus, we're not with the government and we are fully licensed to help.

SPEAKER_04 48:16

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SPEAKER_12 48:45

Hey y'all, this is the Lone Star Conservative Michael Wilson, and I want to tell you about my friends at Telgee Roofing. What might seem like a simple water leak in your house could be a sign of roof damage. Our friends at Telgee Roofing help homeowners uncover those problems before they get worse. Their experts provide free roof inspections, and if they find a problem, they will help you with your insurance claim as well. Don't wait for the next storm. Call Telgee Roofing today at 281-290-0606 for your free, no obligation inspection.

SPEAKER_05 49:14

Here's Jim Dotton, host of Texas Home Improvement and owner of Dew West Foundation Repair.

SPEAKER_01 49:20

It's no secret, this year has brought us a lot of rain. And that means your foundation is about as good as it's gonna get. So if you're still noticing cracks in your walls and doors that are sticking, call us today so we can help correct the problem before it gets out of hand and more expensive. Call the best. Call Dew West Foundation Repair, 713-473-7156 online at du-west.com.

SPEAKER_08 49:44

Hi, this is Harold Guy. And this is Bill Olson. Texas Outdoor News is the longest-running, most awarded outdoor radio show in the state for a lot of good reasons.

SPEAKER_07 49:53

We bring you the latest news and information about hunting and fishing across our great state and beyond. And our guests are who's who from industry, government, and the field. Texas Outdoor News is brought to you by Ford Trucks and your best in Texas Ford dealers. The state's number one outdoor radio show, Texas Outdoor News. Saturday mornings at 6th on Patriot Talk, 920.

SPEAKER_12 50:34

Do not forget, in the next segment, if you stick around, which you should, in the next segment, we're gonna have Justin White from Senior Health Services here for Medicare Monday. We're gonna go over all the questions that you guys have regarding Medicare, a lot of the changes, shifts, and things that you need to be aware of. Uh, of course, if you're approaching 65 or have already passed that line, what you need to know and how to get in touch with them. With that being said, let's go ahead and hop into the weather before we wrap up this hour. So temperatures are gonna trend slightly below normal through the middle of the week, uh, offering a a very brief break from recent warmth along the Gulf Coast. Highs are gonna remain on the cooler side for this time of year, with most neighborhoods only reaching into the mid-70s through tomorrow. Uh morning conditions are gonna stay relatively comfortable with lower humidity and lows generally in the low to mid-50s. The cooler temperatures are not gonna be dramatic, but noticeable, especially after March was Houston's third warmest on record. Overall, it's a quieter and more comfortable start to this week, uh, before more typical, you know, weather is returning. Uh temperatures are gonna begin to climb at by midweek by Thursday and Friday. Highs returned to the low eighties across m across much of the Houston area, while dew points rise into the sixties, which may again means, you know, higher temperatures as well as higher humidity. That may also, though, help fuel potential rain chances. Now, a large score a large scale weather system is expected to move into the region, increasing the likelihood of showers and thunderstorms by this Thursday, with the best chances arriving Friday for rain. Now, while it's too early to pin down, of course, exact timing or coverage, they are saying there may be more activity. Rain, as we're all well aware, is sorely needed across Southeast Texas as the extent of extreme drought has nearly doubled since the end of March, increasing from about 30% to more than 50%. For now, the forecast splits into cooler and comfortable conditions early in the week, followed by warmer, more humid, and increasingly unsettled pattern heading into the weekend. Regardless, that'll do it for the weather report for the day. Like I said, when we get back from the break, we're gonna have Justin White from Senior Health Services on for Medicare Monday. You won't want to miss that segment, so stick around. You're listening to the Lone Star Conservative. Text in at 713-779-5978. That's 713-779-KYST I Gross, Michael Wills. I'll be back with Justin White at the top of the next hour.

SPEAKER_09 52:48

From deep in the heart of Texas, it's Houston's God-loving patriot, the voice of reason. This is the Lone Star Conservative, Michael Wilson.

SPEAKER_16 53:00

I'm a bandit. Let's all get a bandit. We can sit down right here.

SPEAKER_12 53:16

Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. I'm your host, Michael Wilson, and you're listening to the Lone Star Conservative brought to you by Textellent AC Service on the air, as always on Monday. Very good, very exciting guest coming on for Medicare Monday. That is Justin White from Senior Health Services talking all about major updates that are going to shake up the Medicare industry. Welcome to the show, Justin. Hey, everyone. Good morning. Thank you so much, Michael. Always great to be here. Always great to have you here. And we're going to kick it off, actually jumping right into this, uh, because we talked a couple weeks ago about some of these reimbursement changes. Um, can you, first of all, can we go ahead and hear a background on what these actually are? I think that'll be a good start to kind of understand what the numbers mean.

SPEAKER_10 53:54

Yeah, oh, absolutely. Well, what what they are, first off, you know, Medicare Advantage and a lot of the prescription drug plans are funded largely by the government and out of the general tax fund, in addition to some payroll taxes and things like that. And every single year, you know, to keep up with the rising cost of inflation and general inflation and all these rising cost of healthcare, et cetera, um, they come in and they project how much they're gonna increase the budget for everybody for the coming year. And so, as a matter of fact, when we're in the fall, uh with our busy time in about November, the carriers are already working on the plan designs for the next year. So last November, the carriers were actually working on the plans that they used in January of 27. And so in uh in January or so they come in and say, okay, here's what the reimbursement increase is going to be for plan year 2027, and they estimated it was gonna be 0.09% or slightly less than one-tenth of one percent, which in first wave through the industry because yeah, because all the carriers were expecting somewhere between five and six percent, which was similar to what they got for this plan year. And so when they heard that, I mean, and it was not a total number, thank goodness, but when they heard that, they've flown into a little bit of a little bit of a panic, and so there's been sauces making and all that stuff going on behind the scenes, and we're expecting to hear in the early part of this month, maybe even this week, as to what that number is actually going to be so that they so the carriers understand what kind of money they have to play with uh for next year as they're determining what the benefits are gonna look like.

SPEAKER_12 55:43

Right, and I think it's fair to say that 0.09% is a radically insane number uh given the current issues we have with Medicare right now. Um and again, the split between that and five to six percent is such a wide margin that there's they're not even close in terms of how you're gonna design those plans. I think people are kind of hoping that maybe it'll at least fall closer to the middle, three to four percent. Uh, but either way, that's that's just an insane shift from what was expected.

SPEAKER_10 56:09

Yeah. Well, I spoke with an executive with a major insurance carrier last week, and uh to your point, that's exactly what he said. He estimated that we think it's gonna come in somewhere around three to four percent, which would be a heck of a lot better than 0.09. But I spoke earlier in the year with another uh insurance executive, and that guy said, Look, if we need six and they give us three, that's still way short of where we actually need to be to maintain the plans where they are. So I'm getting very similar but mixed messages from you know from all of them. They all they all kind of differ in their estimates of severity in terms of where these things are gonna leave us, regardless, you know, depending on where they end up.

SPEAKER_12 56:58

Right. And of course, that'll also dramatically shift what those benefits look like. Uh, because obviously the difference between 0.09% and 6% is such a uh, like I mentioned, such a wide margin that the way they're gonna offer things for the next year is going to shift very dramatically. What do some of those shifts, what could some of those shifts look like with what kind of where we're hoping for things or expecting things to fall?

SPEAKER_10 57:21

Well, when you talk, and again, I I talk with the sources, so uh so uh your listeners are as always are getting the inside scoop on this. So what they do is they go into plan structure, and so the the the places where they can cut, um, and it doesn't necessarily some of them are are cuts, they'll go into benefits and say, Well, we can't afford this anymore, we're not doing that anymore, but otherwise the cuts will look like increased co-pay. They'll look like increased co-insurance in more dramatic cases. They might put a premium on something on a plan entirely that wasn't there, so a premium that was zero before, they may come in and say, Well, it's gonna be ten dollars a month, and it's not all that dramatic, you know, from zero to ten, but when you're used to paying nothing, and all of a sudden you've got money coming out of your social security or being billed to your checking account, it feels a lot different, and that's that's some of the ways they can do that raising the maximum out of pockets, putting a deductible on certain things, putting a paywall uh in front of certain benefits, and those are all the things that are that are on the table and absolutely being discussed at this moment.

SPEAKER_12 58:32

Right, and of course, I think that could also look like I know that some of these plans, you know, they have extra benefits, things that come alongside them on top of healthcare. I think a lot of the conversation is going to also center around hey, do we need to scale back some of those sorts of things?

SPEAKER_10 58:44

Totally. I mean, you uh for people on Medicare Advantage, I mean, you can think over-the-counter, you can think dental, um, you can think some of these other, you know, some of the grocery cards and things that are being advertised quite a bit and whatnot, all of those things become fair game. Uh, and and you know, the give back plans, the ones that forgive part of your Part B premium, all that stuff becomes fair game. And and yeah, it's it could be, you know, the level of shots that'll set in, and hopefully it hopefully it'll be fairly minor. But if that is a that point zero nine is anywhere close to being what the estimate is and what they do, then those benefits could be uh not pleasant.

SPEAKER_12 59:24

Yeah, absolutely. With that being said, Justin, as always, we appreciate you coming on. Guys, if you want to check them out, because of course, as I mentioned every every Monday on this show, we can't possibly answer everyone's questions. We can't answer every question that someone could have, and every case is in one way or another different, uh, which means you should call uh for a by the way, a free consultation. They don't charge you a dime at 281-894-7540. Justin, as always, I appreciate you coming on for keeping us informed. And Lord willing, here in the soon future, near future, we'll be able to talk about what the numbers are solidified as, so we can have a real conversation about what it's going to look like.

SPEAKER_10 59:56

Absolutely. We'll try to keep your listeners abreast of this and absolutely on top of these things as the news hits. And uh, we always have a positive mindset, but we just got to stay ready and and raring to go so we know exactly what we're gonna do and how to react. So thanks again for having me on, Michael. Appreciate it. Absolutely, Lord Willing.

TSU Students Win More Tickets

SPEAKER_12 1:00:14

We'll talk to you again next Monday. You got it, Lord willing. Take care. Thank you. With that being said, again, if you guys want to talk about it, senior health services.com or you can call for that free consultation at 281-894-7540. Uh, again, as I highlighted, there are certainly going to be questions that you have that are not going to get answered here on Medicare Monday. Right? We do our very best to keep listeners as informed and as updated as possible when it comes to the Medicare industry, you know, but there are just so many different things going on all at once. As you can probably tell by the fact that every Monday we have very different conversations about myths, concerns, changes, shifts, difference in plans, supplemental advantage plans. We have all these different conversations. And the reality is there's just no way uh that we could possibly have everyone know everything at any given moment. And so if you have any questions at all, uh we've had many different listener success stories working with senior health services. We love working with them. They do an absolutely phenomenal job. Uh, we love that they're local. You can have face-to-face meetings if you so desire. Um, and we know the way they operate, right? We've we you've heard their ads plan our station, right? No, no unsolicited calls, none of this garbage. They're there for you guys. And they're there to answer questions. And furthermore, they're there if you have questions and you're like, hey, I just I don't know how to solve this issue. I don't know what to do. They can negotiate on your behalf. They can work through these things with you to get you the best plan tailored to your specific needs. Because again, everybody is in a different scenario. The particular things that you need in relation to healthcare insurance is going to be different than what your neighbor needs, than what your friend needs, than what your brother needs. It's all going to differ very dramatically from case to case. So, whatever your questions you have, give them a call again. That's 281-894-7540. With that being said, we're going to go ahead and jump over to TSU, uh, Texas Southern, not Texas State, Texas Southern University, because I think this is a good example. We talk all the time about how on the left protesters seem to kind of get things backwards in the sense that originally, I know this is gonna be a uh kind of a shock, protests were supposed to be designed to actually enforce some level of change. They actually expected something to come of it. It wasn't just for the sake of being out there and doing dumb chance. It used to be for a specific uh purpose. And it seems like, at least on the left, in recent months and in recent years, protests have only been designed uh really to I I don't want to say make the protesters look bad, uh, but they're they're not designed to achieve anything. Right. When you look at the climate protesters, this is one of the best examples you can see of this. When you see the climate protesters that are on the roads, you're kind of wondering, hey, what are you hoping to get out of this? And of course they'll say, Well, we want people to stop driving so much. We want to reduce carbon emissions. But when you look at the actual practical effects of what they've done, right, it's so blatantly obvious that it's not achieving anything. Have you ever met anybody on the right or the left that as a result of protesters blocking the roadways have said, you know what, they're right. I'm not going to drive to work today. Because I've never heard that from anybody. Even on the left. I've never heard anyone say, you know what? Those protesters got out there and they really showed me, right? They really taught me a lesson. I know now that I I should not be driving. I need to reduce my carbon emissions. You know what? Because those people were on the road, I've decided I'm gonna drive a Tesla. I'm gonna use green energy. I I've never heard that happen. It's had very low success. And so it's kind of refreshing to see protests and demonstrations and conversations that actually have an explicit goal and a way to achieve that goal. So I want to highlight this for a moment so that maybe even on the left, some people can learn from this. So apparently the university made a decision uh to hold uh so commencement is sort of like graduation. Uh it's a big ceremony where people are presented with their degrees and where they're able to receive that. Their parents can watch, they have a keynote speaker, all those things that many of us have experienced, right? That's that's the the entire goal of a commencement ceremony. Now, a lot of bigger universities will hold multiple, right? In fact, if you have a school that has a school of business, school of agriculture, school of education, school of fine, right? You have all these different schools of law. When you have all these differing sort of avenues for education, what you'll often find is that the schools will hold their their own smaller commencement ceremonies, graduation ceremonies for each school. And then they might have a get big get together where they do one big keynote speaker, but they'll keep all those separate so that they have the room for every graduate to invite you know, as many people as they'd like to invite, to invite their friends and family to come to their graduation, their commencement ceremony. Well, TSU. And of course, I think it was all done uh with the intent to be good. They said, well, based on the funding and the enrollment declines, this, that, and the other, uh, we're gonna hold one big ceremony. But the result of that that a lot of students saw was they used to be offered, uh, just as a side note, they used to be offered 10 tickets to commencement. Ten people could show up at in addition to them. Right. So if you're married, you have both your parents, uh, maybe some of your in-laws, and a couple of friends showing up, you had plenty of tickets to get almost everyone that you wanted to show up to show up. And they changed that this year, and it was going to go down to four tickets, which means say you're married, that means that your wife, your mom, your dad can show up and you have one more ticket. Means you're allowed to invite one friend or one in law. I th that which by the way, I think is absolutely crazy. I I just don't think I think that's wild, especially. Because we still believe largely that commencer ceremonies are worth celebrating, graduations worth celebrating from college. And so I think there was a wild shift. And students apparently felt the same way. Uh, students marched to the university president's office demanding that their concerns about the tickets be addressed. They said they're they're not concerned if they're willing to limit your graduation. And so the leaders of that movement, the student leaders, said that the biggest issue was a steady decrease in the number of tickets allotted to students over time. Uh Caleb Thomas, a junior at TSU, so not graduating, but will be soon, said, I believe we all believe that's an unacceptable number. We have large amounts of families, large amounts of friends who want us to succeed and share that support. Students also raised concerns on the university's plan to move from two ceremonies to one, saying that because of that and the reduction of tickets, because it was a a a larger amount of people attending in the same room, that that just would not be beneficial. Instead of holding multiple ceremonies for the large number of graduates. And so in an earlier statement, the university said Texas Southern University is aware of requests regarding the current anna commencement ceremony format. Today, students exercised their first amendment right to free speech, and we appreciate that their views were expressed respectively and constructively. The statement also confirmed that President J. W. Crawford III met with student leaders and planned to continue discussions. Quote The university will enter will reconvene with student leaders to continue discussions and identify a path forward that supports the spring graduating class of 2026. Now, uh a day later, in an updated statement, the university announced a shift in their plans. TSU says it is now moving forward with two commencement ceremonies scheduled for May 8th at 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. The university says students will receive additional tickets to better accommodate their families. In part, the university said, quote, Texas Southern University administrators and student leadership has been in continued dialogue to identify collaborative solutions to create the best possible experience for the spring graduating class. The university and student leadership are committed to working collaboratively to make this experience inclusive and accessible. And so they said that more details, including logistics and speakers, are going to be announced in the coming days. But the real story of this is not that they split the ceremonies. It's it the real, I think, root of this whole story, the reason I kind of wanted to get into it is to highlight that actually, as it turns out, you have the ability to have an impact on how things are done. I know that with social media and and and all these other things that many people get disenfranchised. And you know, we kind of group all protests as one generic thing. If you're protesting, you're crazy, right? That that that's largely come because the left has been the main protesters. You see things like the no cr the no kings rallies uh all over the country. You see this over and over, climate protesters, obviously we address that, but you see it over and over again, where people are literally they look crazy and they're protesting for things again, the no kings rally. What's your intent here? Do you think that you're gonna go out and you're gonna protest and now Trump's gonna be impeached as if the left wouldn't do that or hasn't done that if they could? Do you think that you're gonna reach any sort of real solution there with your protest? Or are you just protesting for the sake of it? Because that's the difference. And so I want to highlight for everybody on the show, everybody on the right, that there are actually good ways to protest. That there are things that are worth protesting. Right? Sometimes they're smaller things, sometimes they're bigger things. Sometimes protest can look like a single person willing to show up to a school board meeting, even if it means take a look at Bonnie Wallace getting kicked out of a school board meeting because you're reading a book from a school library that that gets you kicked out for breaking rules of decorum in the meeting. Sometimes that's a protest. Sometimes that's what protest needs to look like. But I want to highlight that protests can be successful, they can be done correctly, they can be done with a specific intent to achieve an actionable goal. And if that's being done, it's not always a bad thing to protest. There are times and places where it's beneficial. We know a lot of our founders were fans of protests, right? Uh you can you can address the the issues of the Boston Tea Party if you'd like, but again, we see real fruits of some of the actions that people have taken in regards to protesting what they viewed as tyranny. And I think it's fair for us to say that that can be done. It can be done correctly, and it can be done with actionable intent to achieve real goals. It doesn't have to mean that you look crazy, like some people who go out and protest. With that being said, when we return from the break, we're gonna jump over. We're finding out that the company, Impossible Foods, uh, now owes a Texas business three and uh$3.25 million for trademark infringement. We'll talk all about the details of that and impossible foods in general. When we get back from the break, as always, if you would like to text in, the number is 713-779-5978. That is 713-779-KYST. You're listening to the Lone Star Conservative. I'm your host, Michael Wills, and I'll be right back after the break.

SPEAKER_15 1:10:56

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SPEAKER_06 1:14:44

Patriot Talk 920 is your Houston base stamp for the America First Movement. I'm Todd Starns and join me weekdays at 11 on Patriot Talk 920 and online at PatriotTalk920.com.

SPEAKER_12 1:15:23

We got a text in it says, Why do I hear about the large Easter Jesus drone show in Manville after it's over and never heard it mentioned before it happens? That's my bad. There were billboards up uh I think south of the city. Um I I did not realize how big of an event it was either until after it had already passed. Uh I made some intent to go this weekend and and timing and things, people getting sick. It unfortunately just did not work out for me to get out there, uh, even though I wanted to. I I was actually planning to go Saturday, and uh then we had some sickness around the house, and so things just did not work out the way I intended. But nevertheless, I heard from everybody heard from it was great. I'm sure they'll do more events like this, and I, as the host that you guys listen to, will do a better job of keeping everyone informed of these sorts of events. I'll take the blame for that one. I should have talked about it on the air. I just didn't. It didn't, you know, click for whatever reason, it did not click to me to highlight that event. Again, part of that is just due to the fact I did not realize how large scale of an event it was. Uh apparently it was much larger than I originally expected it to be. Uh tons of people, uh, you know, free food, free shirts, concert, drone show, apparently a whole big thing for like a week. And I was just, I was radically uninformed uh as to what was going on down there. But I'll do my best. If they do something like that again outside the city, I will make sure I'm highlighting it just so people are aware of what's going on. I think it's a good thing people are involved in the community. Uh, you know, we can have our theological disagreements with mega churches, but I will say, kind of reminds me, I don't know if you guys know, this is gonna be kind of niche theology. Uh one of my favorite all-time pastors, his name was R. C. Sproul. And there's a story. This is once someone passes, things kind of get put into legend that you don't know exactly how true each specific story is. Uh, but there is a legend kind of story. Maybe it's a myth. I choose to believe it's true. I choose to believe that it's true. Uh, but R. C. Sproul, when he was younger, was asked about Billy Graham. And if you guys don't know, there were some theological differences between Billy Graham and R. C. Sproul. R.C. Sproul was, of course, Reformed. I believe he was Reformed Presbyterian. And so they had their differences on certain things, uh, certain aspects of salvation and sanctification, all these sorts of things. There were there were differences, right? As we all have as Christians and as believers. In fact, there's I've always said, if there's anyone you agree with other than Christ, 100% of the time, you might need to think through why that is, because usually two people are not going to agree on literally everything. That's that it just doesn't happen. Nevertheless, as the story goes, R.C. Spro was asked, Well, you have these major theological disagreements. Do you think you're going to see Billy Graham in heaven? Because obviously you disagree on certain things. Is that salvation ending, right? Are the disagreements big enough uh that that you know you're not gonna see him in heaven? And R.C. Spro replied, No, I don't think I'm gonna see him in heaven. And kind of the room goes silent. Everyone's like, What you actually think the differences are big enough that he won't get to go to heaven because he disagrees with you? And he pauses for a moment and then he goes, And that's largely because I think that RC or I largely think R.C. Sproul says that that's largely because I think that Billy Graham is going to be closer, much closer to the throne than I will be. That Billy Graham has led so many people to Christ, that God has used him in such an instrumental way that despite all of our disagreements, Billy Graham is a very strong believer who has done great for the kingdom of God. And that's a good reminder to us, I have major theological differences with many mega churches, and and that's not even getting into the prosperity gospel because that's that's you can't even consider that a mega church. If your church is preaching that love Jesus and you'll get rich, find a new church. That's not a church, okay? That's not even like we have theological disagreement. That's not even a believer, okay. That's that's different. That's like legitimate heresy. I'm not talking about that. But if you have differences on particular aspects of eschatology or salvation-oriented athletes, like whatever it is, we can still admit that God uses people that may be wrong, or maybe we're wrong, right? Let's have a little humility. God uses people who are imperfect and who do get things wrong for greatness. He calls on people who are weak to do great things. And so when you look at some of these mega churches that are putting on these big events, I think it's worth saying, Yeah, I disagree with them on this, that, and the other. And I'll I'll talk about it. I'm not gonna be shy and say, well, because they're doing good things, I won't acknowledge the differences. I'm not willing to come out and to speak the truth. I'm not gonna call them out for what they're getting wrong. No, of course I'm going to. But I'm also gonna say, hey, they're doing great things for the kingdom of God. If you're willing to spend, because again, this is a free event. Right? They they they weren't charging for tickets at all. It wasn't even just like it was very cheap at five or ten dollars, still would not have recouped the amount they were spending on the food alone. Uh, not to mention the cost of the drones and the drone show, the cost of the people that were coming to perform in the concert, the volunteers that were showing up the t-shirts they gave out. I mean, each t-shirt alone to print cost at least five to ten dollars. So if you were giving five dollar tickets, you maybe recoup the t-shirts. And then you have dinner, drone show, concert. Uh obviously, there was just no way, but they did it entirely free. And so I think it's worth stating, right, that had a big impact. People that probably would never go to church, would never be interested in hearing the gospel, heard, hey, there's free food, a concert and a drone show, who showed up and through the drone show were presented the gospel uh to f to far and wide, from my understanding. And so uh big kudos to them. I'm very proud of the work that they're doing. I hope to see more events like that. And I'll also do my very best to make sure that our listeners here on Patriot Talk 928 that listen in to the morning show are kept updated on those events and are able to make it out. I would love for you guys to be able to make it out to those. With that being said, I'm a little bit uh in a catch 22 because we're not we don't usually go to the break so early. Uh, but if I don't go to the break now, then I'm I'm gonna have to cut to the break in the middle of our impossible food story. And I I hate leaving you guys on cliffhangers. I just hate I like teasing the next story. I don't like leaving a a segment, mid-story, and be like, and we'll talk about the rest of this after the break. And then it's like that whole sigh you get when we TV shows do this all the time. Nobody can stand it. When TV shows release one episode at a time and they do this massive cliffhanger, and they're like, tune in next week or next month for the next episode, and everyone's angry at them. I don't want that to be me. I hate that so much. I don't want to be that person. So here's what we'll do we're gonna go to the break just a couple minutes early, and that'll give us more time to cover uh this lawsuit, the trademark infringement, impossible foods in general, all of that when we get back. If you would like to text into the show, we're getting close to the end. The number is 713-779-5978. That is 713-779-KYST. You're listening to the Lone Star Conservative. I'm your host, Michael Wilson. Don't go anywhere.

SPEAKER_07 1:22:17

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SPEAKER_06 1:25:50

Patriot Talk 920 is your Houston base camp for the America First Movement. I'm Todd Starns and join me weekdays at 11 on Patriot Talk 920 and online at PatriotTalk920.com.

SPEAKER_12 1:26:41

The multi-billion dollar plant-based meat substitute giant has become notorious for targeting its competition with lengthy lawsuits. Runyon's win could signal an end to that practice. Now, for some background, Runyon's business has been operating under the Impossible name since 2010, three years, by the way, before Impossible Foods was founded. By March of 2012, Impossible LLC had obtained its first federal impossible formative trademark registration with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, giving it priority rights to use Impossible as a part of its marks to prevent confusingly similar uses by other companies in the marketplace. Now in 2013, a company that was at the time called Maraxi Inc., which reportedly made artisanal cheeses from nuts, was looking to rebrand with the mission, quote, to invent and provide great tasting plant-derived foods to replace animal-based foods worldwide. The leading name choice, of course, for this rebrand into just general change, was Impossible Foods. Before the decision was final, Moraxi's general counsel reportedly commissioned a comprehensive trademark search in October of 2013. Now the report listed Impossible LLC's trademarks and websites, but did not prevent Moraxi from rebranding to Impossible Foods. In April of 2020, so years Seven years later, Impossible Foods applied for an impossible formative trademark to provide information about recipes, ingredients, and cooking information. Now, Impossible LLC, which had long been offering recipes, ingredients, and cooking information already under the Impossible Trademark sent a letter to Impossible Foods in November of 2020, seeking to clarify the intent of the trademark application and a mutual agreement regarding a defined coexistence to avoid consumer confusion. Ultimately, Impossible LLC filed a trademark opposition before the patent office granted Impossible Foods extra time to respond. Days before discovery was due, Impossible Foods filed a federal lawsuit in California arguing it had superior rights to the trademark. The suit was thrown out in 2021 based on jurisdiction, but was reinstated in 2023, just three years ago. Now last week, an eight-person jury in uh the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Jose Division, returned a verdict awarding Runyon's Impossible LLC a total of$3.25 million in damages from Impossible Foods. The jury determined that Impossible Foods failed to prove that Impossible LLC committed fraud with the patent office, which I suppose was their claim at the time. The jury also determined that Impossible LLC proved by clear and convincing evidence that Impossible Foods acted with oppression, fraud, or malice and infringing on its unregistered trademark impossible under California law. They said uh compensable compensatory actual damage was assessed at one and a half million dollars. Punitive damages, which were awarded at the court's discretion when a party's behavior is found especially harmful, were assessed in an additional$1.75 million, of course, that landing the total at the$3.25 million number we discussed earlier. Raining said, we're grateful to the court and the jury for the time they've invested to help us get to this just result. The jury's verdict sends a clear message that trademarks are not just pieces of paper, and a brand is more than just the name of a company. They stand for something, they matter, and they can't be willfully trampled. I'm looking forward to getting back to growing my company and inspiring people to do something impossible. And so, of course, trademark infringement verdicts are notoriously difficult to deal with in general, especially to secure, making this particular victory a very significant shift in the way things usually go. Especially when you compare company sizes, right? Impossible Foods has a massive budget for impressive lawyers, a massive budget to basically trample any of their competition that's somewhat smaller than them in many cases. And so usually you'll find uh that these big companies win every single time. And even if they don't win, they reach a settlement beforehand where they're willing to just pay the company a million bucks and say, hey, just get out of our hair, drop the trademark, and we'll all move on with our day. We're going to you know best you in court anyways. It's in your best interest to just move on. Nevertheless, the ruling could in general signal an end to Impossible Food's practice of attempting to litigate its competition into submission. The company has been accused of burying small businesses under legal fees in David versus Goliath fights. Now, a spokesman for Impossible Food reached out. Uh, they responded, they said, While we respectfully disagree with the jury's verdict, we remain confident in our position as a business and brand, and we're evaluating all available options for moving forward. Our focus is on continuing to build the Impossible Foods brand as the best plant-based protein company and giving consumers the clarity they deserve in the marketplace. Runyon also documented the the entirety of the lengthy litigation with Impossible Foods over on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, highlighting his refusal to give up the fight. He also launched a website that's Impossible Lawsuit.com. If you want to like see an overview of the case, kind of how things played out, you can just go check it out, impossible lawsuit.com. The reason I bring all this up is to say a couple things. First of all, can I can I just kick it off with something entirely irrelevant to the lawsuit itself? Uh the thing that I want to kick it off with is just to tell everyone do not eat the plant-based food. It's like the do not eat the bugs. Listen, I understand. I get that they're getting, actually, from my understanding, they're getting pretty good at this stuff. Impossible foods is apparently, I know it used to just be like bean burgers. It used to just be, you know, that that, oh man, they make disgusting, mushy versions of stuff. Uh, but from my understanding, from people that have tasted this stuff, I'm not on the list. You're not gonna see me doing that. I I just it's just something about it rubs me the wrong way. You know, if I'm gonna eat a burger, I want a cow to have been slaughtered for me. That's what I desire. But there have been people who've tasted it, taste tested it and who've walked away saying, hey, you know, I I don't notice. I think it's good. I think it's tasty. My cautionary tale to you all, don't eat it. There's just you just get no benefit out of it. There's there's nothing you get out of an impossible burger or nut-based cheese that you can't just get from eating cheese. That you I oh, I'm lactose intolerant. Okay, first of all, stop being lactose. Second of all, probably that's because of all the stuff that they add in, enrichment processes, all the the over-pasteurization that they do. There's so many things contributing to that that we don't have possible time to go over, especially not on a local political radio show. Uh, but my biggest warning is just don't eat. Don't eat the mushy burgers, okay? Don't don't eat the nut cheese, okay? Don't don't eat the gross, cloned, genetically modified fake meat. It's there's just just hear the term fake meat. If that's not in Are you even a Texan if the phrase fake meat isn't enough for you just to move? We're like the kings of brisket, right? We're like the we're like the masters of of the meat universe. If there was like a competition, hey, who deals with meat the best? I think Texas is is inarguably at the top of the list by any metric. We're the meat guys. We do not need California mushy-wushy coming in and telling us to eat fake lab-grown meat. It's disgusting. I've and that's not a new position from me. I did a podcast, I think it was like three years ago now. I did a podcast episode on something related to impossible foods. Uh, we're not about genetically cloning some animal to produce meat without killing an animal. And I said at the time, please, everyone who's listening, don't eat it. Don't, don't do that to yourself. There's just no, there's no benefit. And the drawbacks are massive. The bigger thing in this case, though, is just in general, this dichotomy between big and small businesses, where you can you consistently see, this happens in a variety of ways, you consistently see big companies running the show by nature of having money. This is why I've long been someone that says like the amount of money that we spend and that companies spend on lobbying is incredibly dangerous, right? Because they essentially manipulate politics into serving their interests, right? We literally talked earlier in the show about the legalization of casino gambling that has consistently had an an itch to get into the state of Texas and how they're willing to spend millions to tens of millions of dollars to do so. That's part of the problem. You have these massive corporations that don't care about you, right? Because small businesses often do. You'll find that when you find a small business or a big business that kind of operates the same way a small business does, they actually have a level of institutional desire to deliver something positive to the customer. Right? They actually have a desire to see real benefit, then produce something good for people. The big companies could not care less. Their entire thing is profit. That's it. That's why they come in, they rebrand, and then they bully small companies into being basically subservient to them. That's why they're able to lobby the way they do. We have essentially turned a lot of companies into uh basically oligarchies where you have rich people, big companies, the elites, and this is not some sort of Marxist class warfare thing that I'm highlighting. This is a legitimate issue, where you have big companies uh that will come in and they'll lobby and they'll campaign and they'll give all this money and then they get their way, and then they have expensive lawyers, so they get into lawsuits and they'll just beat down small companies that are probably actually in the right uh in these sort of David versus Goliath scenarios. And that's why this is such a big win, because that rarely ever happens. Most of the time the big companies just win, or they never have to go to court because the small companies get buried in legal fees they can't afford. And the end result is some sort of settlement outside of court where they're just basically forced by nature of income to give up. And that's not what happened here. We saw a massive change away from that happening uh to such an extent that now there's actually an opportunity for small companies to say, you know what, look at this ruling, this is evidence. We aren't gonna get bested just because you're richer than us. We're not gonna get bested just because you're bigger than us. That's a ridiculous way for this country to run. It's it in fact, it's actually quite opposite of how this country was designed to run. That people who were small, local, and and and sort of actually cared about the people they were serving were actually usually in the right. And so hopefully this kind of signals maybe a change not just to impossible foods, but maybe to the judicial landscape in general, uh, where big companies are not just gonna win by nature of being big, and where they don't just bully their smaller competitors into basic subservience for whatever their purposes are. With that being said, when we get back from the break to wrap up the show, we're gonna jump over because talking about another investigation. Apparently, solar companies are now being investigated by the state over claims of deceptive savings and contracts. The Attorney General is coming out and saying that companies may have violated Texas consumer protection law. Talk all about it when we get back from the break. If you would like to text in, this is your final opportunity to do so. The number is 713-779-5978. That is 713-779-KYST. I'm your host, Michael Wilson. You're listening to the Lone Star Conservative. And Lord willing, I'll return after this break to wrap up the morning show. So stick around, don't go anywhere, and we'll talk about it soon.

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Final Takeaways And Sign Off

SPEAKER_12 1:42:15

Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. I'm your host, Michael Wilson, and you're listening to the Lone Star Conservative brought to you by Texellent AC Service. So basically, what's happened here is that the Texas Attorney General's office is launching an investigation into several solar companies operating in Texas, including Sunrun, focusing on whether customers were misled about cost, savings, and contracts. Attorney General Ken Paxton says his office has received more than a hundred formal complaints, along with thousands more online, tied to companies selling residential solar panel systems. At the center of the investigation are potential violations of the Deceptive Trade Practices Consumer Protection Act. According to the Attorney General's office, investigators are examining whether companies' misrepresentations regarding savings for consumers on their energy bills, the efficacy of their solar panel systems, equipment implementations, as well as the company's terms and policies. Specifically, the companies are Freedom Forever, Sunrun, Lone Star Solar Services, and Cam Solar Inc. He said thousands of Texans have been targeted, and it's imperative that these companies are held responsible for any lies or deceptive marketing. I mean, we've had cases here at Houston. We had a homeowner named Frances Holt who signed a contract with Sunrun after a door-to-door sales pitch promised lower energy bills and protection from outages. Instead, she says she ended up facing confusion, installation issues, and a shocking demand for more than$134,000 tied to her agreement, which she was unaware of. She said that she felt pressured into signing a contract she didn't fully understand and was never given a printed copy of the more than 40-page agreement. Sunrun, after that report came out, issued a statement where they said, Oh, we're very sorry, and they agreed to remove the solar panels at no cost, which by the way, you don't really do that just for like the goodwill of a good review. The reason that you often do that is not just bad press, though that I understand bad press, whatever. The reason you do that is maybe because you weren't in the right. Maybe something went awry in that particular case. Apparently, organizations like AARP Texas have warned that confusion around solar contracts and aggressive sales tactics have surged in recent years. State data shows companies tied to residential solar issues increased dramatically between 2018 and 2023. Now, the Attorney General's investigation obviously does not automatically mean wrongdoing has been proven, but it does signal increased scrutiny of an industry that thus far has been rapidly expanding with very little oversight. And so any company, by the way, any industry that has this sort of, you know, sales pitch that goes this sort of direction will be taken advantage of. We're all well aware of that. And as we were talking about in the last segment, I think it's very crucial that as a state and as a locality, that we are very cautious with the way that we allow people to operate, right? It's not anti-capitalist or anti-free market to say that we need certain policies in place to protect consumers. Those things are not mutually exclusive. You're not a socialist communist because you want to see companies held accountable for doing bad things. That'll do for the show today. I want to thank everyone for tuning in, being a part of the show here on, I guess it's Easter Monday, right? Uh here the day after Easter, uh, the start of a new week here in the month of April. Thanks everyone for tuning in. You've been listening to the Lone Star Conservative. Lord willing, I will be back bright and early tomorrow at 6 a.m. In the meantime, uh, the weather's not gonna be cool forever. So get outside, enjoy the beautiful weather today, and Godspeed.