Texas Bullpen Podcast
Listen to the weekly Texas Bullpen podcast to stay up to date on all things Texas politics with hosts Brad Johnson, Jonathan Richie, and Cassi Schredder, along with special guests.
Texas Bullpen Podcast
Cold as ICE, Robotic Illusions, and Money (Sort of) Talks - Episode 25
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The guys review the ICEy kerfuffle in Texas' biggest cities, Michael Dell's big gift to UT, congressional leadership PACs showing the money, and more.
Despite what it may seem like, if I hated you, I would not start a media company.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, if you hated me and if I hated you, I wouldn't be so mean. Yeah, this is how very well adjusted males bond. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Morning, everybody. Welcome to another episode of the Texas Bullpen Podcast. And it is your host, Brad Johnson. You're back. I'm making my triumphant return. Yeah, alive. After being uh back in you know what the nickname for Cincinnati is? No, I don't know. Pork Opolis. Pork Opolis? Other than the Queen City. It's Queen City, Porkopolis. It used to be the biggest hub for uh uh pork production. Huh. Way back in the olden days when the steamboat was was king. Uh because you know, Ohio River and whatnot. But I'm back. Well, the more you know. Yes. I'm back. Glad to be back. Welcome back from Piggy Land. AMP. You know, in in college, um uh my uh my buddy and I made a uh campus publication, and our logo was a flying pig. Really? And it was called Cincinnati Republic. Uh but flying pig is a big symbol there in Cincinnati. I feel like this is the first time you're telling me this. Yeah. I didn't know. Well, we'll get off the Cincinnati talk. I I do recommend it. It's a great town. It's where I went to college. Went back to see uh a friend of mine from college get married. It was a grand old time, but you guys had a good time. Yeah, it sounded like a great time with Cassie.
SPEAKER_02I although, you know, before we get too far in, I I do have something I I legally have to read because you know we apparently were a little too harsh on you while you were gone during the podcast. And it led to some nasty rumors about you. So uh my my lawyers advise me to uh to read this. So I hope you enjoy it. Dear Brad, I, Jonathan Allen Richie, being of sound mind and pure heart, that's what they say, do herewith renounce Satan and all his works, and also the mean jokes I made last week about you at your expense. It was all Cassie's fault for leading me down that path, but nevertheless, I humbly plead for your mercy.
SPEAKER_01So it's granted.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um now that we're done with that. Because we are actually friends. We are. We've gotten some uh some feedback, people thinking that we're not actually friends. I tried to throw that at Landon choosed me away. Despite what it may seem like, if I hated you, I would not start a media company.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, if you hated me and if I hated you, I wouldn't be so mean. That's how dude friendships work. Yeah, this is how very well-adjusted males bond is just beating each other up rhetorically.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And uh it's a lot of people. We've never actually physically fought yet. We no, we haven't. I'm sure that's coming, and maybe it gets taken. Yeah. We we like to call this uh liken this podcast to us sitting at the bar hashing it out, things out over drinks. And that is exactly what happens at the bar. Insults get thrown about, but we don't mean them. Yeah, we don't mean them. As much as I do hate your stupid face. Which, granted, you know, granted. Um a face for radio. Yeah. That's why we're doing a podcast, right? Halfway into the radio thing. Um So this week we're gonna talk uh the ICE stuff. Uh various cities are dealing with uh grappling with state policy on uh cooperation with ice. We'll talk more Calci updates, more data center updates, the Dell UT AI hospital that you wrote about, which was interesting. We'll talk the congressional leadership buys that made quite a big splash on Thursday, and then a bit in the uh party strife that we kind of interparty strife that we saw.
SPEAKER_02Another good week to start off with for news. Yeah, the um I guess let's start with the ICE updates. It's been an ongoing, several week-long narrative right now as these cities across Texas are trying to uh walk a tightrope through a minefield, it seems like, on this policy of ICE cooperation. Um, and uh we started to see the first kind of round of of cities more or less uh come in line with what Abbott, the governor, um would like them to do potentially. Uh we haven't the governor has still held his call cards close to his chest on whether or not some of the changes that Houston and Dallas have done will be sufficient or not. But the biggest one in this is obviously Houston. They had their uh a two-day-long special city council meeting where on Tuesday they met and heard from dozens and dozens and dozens of uh citizens on their opinions on this, and then they started to hash it out, and then they reconvened on Wednesday and actually voted to amend the policy, uh, the ordinance rather, uh, removing some of the language that uh uh was out of alignment with the contract that they signed with the governor's public safety office for these state grants. Um and then Abbott was like, well, we'll see how this gets applied in the actual police general order. So that's what they're looking at is do the written orders of the police in any way, per their analysis, interfere or contradict the contract where they said that they would uh basically work with DHS and ISO however their policy is. So uh policy towards deportation, is that what we're talking about? Yeah, and immigration enforcement stuff. Yeah. Um and they were, you know, Houston had the most, and it was kind of the biggest one because they actually had a policy, uh an ordinance that was passed by the city council, and then you know, there was we talked about it last week, and we've been talking about it since it really happened, so we don't have to kind of go through the timeline. But that was the biggest profile one. It was also the most public safety grants, uh well over uh a hundred million. I mean it's the biggest city. Yes, right. So it makes sense. Um Dallas came in next for about eighty-four, I think, million dollars of public safety grants. And yesterday they uh issued a letter, the city manager did send a letter back to Abbott saying that they have revised their general orders for the police, hopefully to be in alignment with the governor's uh decision on that. Uh again, the governor has not approved or disapproved of these new changes yet. They're still reviewing them, they told us. But uh Dallas, you know, has made the effort there. And they had not passed in city council a specific ordinance like Houston did. So there wasn't as much political opportunity for like organized resistance to revising it or anything. It was just an order given by the police. And like Dallas, the Dallas mayor, obviously, Eric Johnson, used to be a Democrat. He's a Republican now. He's very much made public safety a big feature of his administration. Um, and he uh in a statement to me yesterday, you know, very much touted like Dallas is working very closely with ICE and federal uh law enforcement on immigration enforcement. And I think they're they've like one of the top cities in the country for apprehensions and things of that nature. So like uh it's just not as big of a deal in Dallas as it was in Houston for all those different reasons.
SPEAKER_01Um what was the remind me, what was the original vote to pass the ordinance in Houston?
SPEAKER_02I think it was like 14 to 5 or something like that. And then it basically flipped. Yeah, it basically flipped. Amended it, right?
SPEAKER_01Didn't get rid of it.
SPEAKER_02They uh out of it. Or it was like 13 and 5 or something like that, and then it was like 15 and 4 to amend it. So I mean it was basically inversed. Yeah. Um what was the amendment they made? Uh so basically it took away some of the express language basically saying that these ICE administrative warrants are not sufficient to detain somebody unless there is additional belief of like a crime or something of that nature. So like uh in that you couldn't hold somebody for longer than it would be reasonable for whatever reason that you like or initially like you know, if you pulled somebody over for running a red light or something, and they had an ICE uh administrative warrant, um, you know, you could you would pass that information along, but you couldn't hold that person for longer than what it would have been reasonable for I think for like actually doing the uh traffic violation or something like that. Um so they got rid of the language that was basically undermining the authority of the administrative warrants. Um and but they haven't, to my knowledge, uh circulated new general orders to the police. So like, yes, there's some of this ordinance language, but the big question is how is that going to be actually applied in the police department? Um which hasn't been uh to my knowledge as of the time of this recording uh happened yet. So maybe it will happen later today, Friday evening or something like that, before we go into the weekend. But uh and then the third big city that this has been happening to, Austin, they only put a pin in that one.
SPEAKER_01Uh I want want to ask you about the political dynamic, the difference in the political dynamic that Whitmeyer is facing in Houston and Johnson's facing in Dallas, that is a big reason why they're handling this differently. Yeah. Now maybe they all end up in the same spot, but this has gone very differently for both of those mayors.
SPEAKER_02Yes, it it absolutely has. And I think, you know, to the point that I made earlier, one of the big differences is that Houston actually passed an ordinance while Dallas did not. It was just internal police orders that they're having to revise. There's not a vote, they didn't have to overturn a vote, they didn't have to amend it via a vote or anything like that. And then that vote on the ordinance really triggered a firestorm of diffic political difficulties for Whitmeyer because it led to a spat with the police union, which has been a very strong ally of Whitmeyer, um, which then, you know, reversed. And so there was just a lot of smoke happening there. And that's really what I think brought the attention to this stuff. Because like Austin had passed an ordinance a couple of weeks ago, like a month or two ago, maybe at this point, um, but there was no action from the governor on that until Houston's whole explosion over this, and then he and then it was like, okay, let's send a letter now to Austin and then also to Dallas. And so I think a lot of it too is that uh Houston has been there's a much, I think, more organized presence in Houston that's very concerned about the uh way that the ICE uh uh operations are going there, and it's been something that uh Whitmeyer's been pressed on repeatedly, like even when I went down there for the state of the city a while back, like that was one of the questions that he was asked in the, you know, the the gaggle afterwards and things of that nature, and it's been something because of his connections uh and close kind of association with the law enforcement uh uh supporters in Houston that I think has been kind of people have been hitting on uh as like almost a wedge issue. And so it was kind of ripe for this type of controversy. Uh and then once he made that vote, because Whitmeyer voted for the amendment, I mean for the ordinance initially, which set off the whole firestorm, and then basically immediately was like, oh, well, that's not what I thought it was doing, and we need to go with the governor, anyways, on this. Um and so it just opened him up to a lot more uh uh easier political attacks, while, you know, Dallas, again, they didn't have that type of visibility. Uh and I don't think their general orders were as uh offensive to the mayor, I mean to the governor as Houston's ordinance was.
SPEAKER_01I think you're missing one point here though. Correct me if I'm wrong. But Whitmeyer is up for re-election next year, right? Or is it maybe if it's not next year, it's soon. And Johnson is not. Yeah, Johnson is not running.
SPEAKER_02And Whitmeyer is definitely wanting to run again. So yeah, yeah, people are using this as a wedge issue against him in preparation for that.
SPEAKER_01And we're in the midst of this cycle that is very bad for not just Republicans, but anyone deemed to be, especially in a city like that, deemed to be playing footsie with Republicans on this issue. And so Whitmeyer's having to f navigate this fault line and uh um find a middle ground that appeases two camps that are so diametrically opposed. You just stole the words right out of my mouth. Yeah. Um and that's where you end up with him trying to um appease both sides enough where he can find some common ground without pissing off the governor and losing all the money. Yeah. Right.
SPEAKER_02Which is why probably he voted for the ordinance in the first place, right? Like let's give them something here. Uh, but then I don't think anybody was really expecting the governor to come in, you know, from the top rope with, okay, well, we're gonna pool all your funding because of this clause that you all agreed to in these public safety grants. Um and then of course Houston also got sued by Paxton um for violating SB4, the Anti-Sanctuary Cities Act. So like they they really got hit with the barcon over this uh and kind of been made an example of, and you saw this in city council meetings in uh across the state, even people who haven't uh adopted or been, you know, targeted by the governor's office or the AG's office on this yet. Uh mentioned it with Cassie last week about you know how El Paso is trying to navigate it and things of that nature. And Austin's, you know, still trying to figure out what they're going to do as well. They had uh private consultation with their lawyer at the most recent um city council meeting and stuff. So it's a lot of different equities that they're trying to balance with. You know, there's tightrope that they're trying to walk in between satisfying their constituents, um, doing probably what they think is right, and not triggering some of these legal quagmires that they're gonna get drawn into. Um so it'll be interesting uh to see whether or not the Houston's amended ordinance is sufficient to satisfy the governor, and whether or not Dallas's new um policies are good enough because it will send a signal now to like the other cities of like, okay, we can work with them to avoid this, or if it's just like a total losing proposition. And at that point, I think you're gonna see you know much more litigation on it. Because none of the cities have sued Abbott yet. Um, I would put money on Austin being the one to try that. Uh but I think they'd rather everybody would rather just get it settled so they can move on from it. And also, like Whitmeyer raised this point, and I'd mentioned on the podcast, like, yeah, you might win at a district court level, but it's highly unlikely you're gonna have success at at Scotex.
SPEAKER_01So and I just looked it up. Um Whitmeyer's current term ends in the beginning of 2028. So the election for the next term will happen next year. And so that is what he is uh at least in the early stages of planning for in trying to tow these fault lines that uh that so often pop up.
SPEAKER_02Subscribe at texaspoolpin.com.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Richie had a good one this week. We'll talk about that here in a bit. But first, let's talk about uh let's touch on a couple topics we've discussed fairly frequently in this podcast, but there were a couple updates. Uh first one, let's talk about Calci, these prediction markets. We we've discussed until we're blue in the face how big of an issue this is going to be in the special the legislative session next year. Um it's this legal gray area, um, although Calci would argue it's not a gray area at all, it's pretty clear. But basically, we have some success in court with that. They have, yes. But you're basically trading stocks on uh contracts on outcomes, essentially. And whereas if you're doing a regular sports bet with uh FanDuel, you're you're um legally making a wager. This is while for all intents and purposes, it is the same thing, it is functionally different, legally speaking, which is how they're able to operate in states like Texas that don't allow gambling. And so uh we've seen the Lieutenant Governor in the interim charges say they're gonna take a good long look at this. I'm already, I've heard, I don't know what it looks like yet, but I know of multiple members in the legislature that are uh working up bills to address this. Uh so we'll see where that goes. Um it'll be interesting to see once we have a a hearing on that. But the update that happened this week that we broke at Texas Bullpen of the Monday Daily Bowl is that Calci is uh they are they created a PAC, a state pack. And it's a real funky name. It's like CalShi T X L L C something something. It's it it's not a it's not one of the uh fifty shades of conservatism uh that we talk about uh with all these other packs that we've been chasing down constantly. And but this tells me two things. First, they recognize what's coming and realize they need to play on the political stage. Yeah. And not just hire a bunch of lobbyists, they need to put money into campaigns um and and build uh goodwill that way, if it's salvageable at all. We'll see. The other thing though, because of the name of the pack, it tells me they're just going to be doing contributions to uh campaigns. Rather than we talked about the sports better and how they created this uh what was it? Um Texas I think Texas Conservative Fund, something like that. And they're actually doing independent expenditures along with uh contributions. We see, you know, Texas Sands, they have their IE group, the Texas Defense Pack that runs ads and whatnot and sends mail pieces. That's a more sophisticated type of political operation. It does not seem like uh this CalCHI pack is going to be doing that. No. Maybe they create one down the road in a couple weeks and we see that drive.
SPEAKER_02Are there uh betting options available yet for which way Calchi is going to be? Which kind of political machine they make. Yeah. Uh should we just start a Texas bullpen like book making prediction market?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, prediction market. Uh if we're bookies, we're that's really running afoul of the law. But if we make it a prediction market, we're prediction bookies.
SPEAKER_02You know, it's different. It's totally different. We're betting on outcomes. Yeah, yeah. Not betting.
SPEAKER_01We're buying We're buying contracts on outcomes, not betting on outcomes.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. It's kind of wild. Like, I mean uh in Cauchi is not the only one, you know, obviously there's polymarket, but everybody's trying to get into this as well. Like, I mean, even uh Robin Hood and stuff has started doing prediction markets and and things of that nature, and it's all just in your normal app as well. Yep.
SPEAKER_01Uh and it's you know I mean functionally it's very little different there's very little difference between that and just trading stocks, which is part of the argument Calci makes. Yeah. Um but it's part of why I don't trade stocks, it's gambling. You should take that argument to court. Um yeah, right. But this is of course separate from whatever you believe about whether gambling should be legal or not, and we're gonna see that lobby fight happen again. Um, you know, to Sands is not going away. They want casino gambling. Uh I just mentioned the sports betters that have their political presence with millions of dollars in the bank there. They're not going away, they're ramping up their footprint, and now you have Calci. So it's this like three headed monster of of gambling, you know, let's just call it what it is, um, that is uh either preserving its presence or building a presence here. And then gets the question of okay, where do we draw the line? If we're not gonna legalize it entirely, which odds are probably not, certainly not with Lieutenant Governor still in office. Is this a fairness problem with Calchi being allowed to operate and these other entities not being allowed to operate? This is a very fair argument to make about that. Does it matter? I mean, there's a c plenty of questions to have in this debate.
SPEAKER_02And then how long before, you know, you see you saw up in DC, of course, Polymarket like has a bar now. Yeah. Where you can go. Yeah. You know, who would have thought? Let's take a sports bar and make it even more like repulsive to women. Yeah. But like how long is it before you just get a a a predictions casino. Yeah. Right? Why why can't you just do that? You know? I mean, that's basically like the Kentucky Derby. Yeah, exactly. You're betting on a horse to win, or not. Would you stand you you still can bet on horse racing in Texas, paramutual betting. You can also bet on Greyhound racing at Texas. Yeah, Texas Racing Commission, right? Very select places.
SPEAKER_01Well, and then you get the pitfalls that come with this stuff that we saw announced this week, another story about CalCHI. Yeah, yeah. I mean, this was this was Calchi catching improprieties. Um three, they announced, I think it was Tuesday or Wednesday, announced they had uh punished three users who were candidates for public office, who bet on themselves or their race in some form or fashion. They didn't go into a ton of details on exactly what the bets were. One of them was in Texas. Zeke Enriquez, the candidate for the 21st Congressional District, he finished with like 1.2%. So he's a non-entity as a candidate itself. But it in their initial announcement, they didn't name anybody, so immediately the speculation just goes off. But uh if you ferret through their documents, you can see the notices that they post, and it named Zeke Enriquez. And so they had fined him like almost 800 bucks. They suspended him from Calchi for five years, and Calchi put this out as an example of them policing their own ranks, which they did. Um, you know, the other one was uh the I think the more egregious example was the guy in Virginia who was I think running for Secretary of State or something, and he bet they actually did disclose a detail on this, he bet on the outcome of himself being a candidate for office. Oh. And then he jumped in the race. Now, he came out with a statement later and said, uh, I did this on purpose to show the flaws. Is that is that legit or not? I don't know, but but and but he was he was running with it and he was like, I got more earned media doing this than anyone could have ever hoped for, which is true. Fair enough. Sure, here we are talking about it.
SPEAKER_02I mean, and and this has been a huge kind of uncomfortable thing to wrestle with on this because you see all these big you know accounts up in DC that are betting on geopolitical stuff that you know they probably it's like insider trading, but like, you know, we got that soldier that got arrested by the DOJ for betting on the whether would be removed from the and he was on the raid apparently.
SPEAKER_01He just got arrested.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. Have they released the indictment on that? I don't I haven't seen it. I'll be interested to see what charges that is, uh and just how they argue that. Um but yeah, it's just it's such a it's such a quagmire, and like it is zero difference from betting. But it's totally we're totally against not betting.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. You know? Um I I can see why lawmakers are are pissed off about this, and I would I bet that the I bet, huh? I bet that the uh the rest you do it. The walls are closing, man. Um that the other gambling uh apparatuses are pissed too because they're like, what the hell? This is Yeah. They're allowed to do this, and we're treated as you know, pariahs in a lot of corners of the state. Um for the sand for Sans, you know, they spent ten million dollars, if not more, in the time they've been operating over the last few cycles. And then this thing just slides in as a uh I forget the exact agency that regulates it, but it's it's a a contract seller, and like that's we're just not supposed we're just supposed to um uh act like this is something that it's not. Uh so I it's it looks like a duck. Yes. It sounds like a duck. You probably ought to tax it. Tax it like a duck. I wonder what the the tax revenues would be of these Calchi trades. Maybe we could get rid of probably. Imagine how many football stadiums we can fund with that. Yeah, right. Every single every single high school football stadium in Texas has like sponsored by Calchi with a ticker. Um Yeah, can we buy futures on on like high school football? Yeah. Some Friday night lights. Buy futures on uh uh how many highlights the local running back adds to his Huddle account after uh after a game. There's plenty of the world is our oyster. There's plenty of opportunities here. Oysters. So um as far as I saw, oysters. As far as I saw, Zeke Enriquez did not address this. I doubt he will. He took the uh the punish $700, the eight hundred dollar fine and the band. He took the the punishment. Um but this is something that it's not gonna go away. Yeah. This isn't intrinsic in the system. So that was uh that was interesting. That's gonna be something to follow, of course, going into next session.
SPEAKER_02And um But they're not the only industry under the firing line that is starting to mobilize politically, isn't that right? Yes.
SPEAKER_01Isn't that right, Mr. Johnson? Yes, good segue, thank you. The um finger guns handing. The uh uh the data center fight, of course. We've talked about it pretty much every episode over the last month and a half, two months. We saw we're not gonna go into a ton of details, but we did see two developments happen, both basically the same. New groups, pro data center groups, are starting their paid advertising campaigns. I saw it, so we we broke the news on the first one on Monday, along with the Calchi Pack, and then that night when I'm watching baseball on MLB TV, I start seeing the ad pop up. And I got hit with that about half a dozen times in the span of one game, and then later nights I saw it too. So they're putting some you know, it's digital, but they're putting some significant money behind it. We'll see if they pop it up on TV. Um, and it was just the the general the gist of it. This was the data center coalition group. Um Data Center Coalition is uh a basic coalition of data center companies. Yes, it includes, thank you for that, includes big ones like I think Amazon's in it, uh Meta. Uh it's just the it's the big industry, it's like the Texoga, but for the data industry. Whereas there's other oil and gas industry lobby groups uh based on the size of your company and whatnot. But this, from my understanding, is like the Texoga of that. So they have plenty of money to spend. The the messaging was pretty standard about um data centers help with uh supporting national security, uh jobs, all hospitals, all kinds of stuff. Um and I it's just pretty standard. And I think this is a fact this shows that they recognize the political problem they have on their hands, and they have for a bit, but um this was mentioned at the state affairs hearing on on Thursday. Two members, I think it was John McQueeny and Drew Darby, stressed to the data center coalition guy there testifying y'all need to do a better job of outreach to communities. And their counter to that has been well, yes, they agree, but most of them have been doing that. And there have been some examples. I think there was one written up in the in Texas Monthly the other day where they did do a lot of groundwork beforehand and they managed to prevent a lot of the headaches that others other places have seen uh get dredged up. But then you have the handful of bad actors or medium actors who uh just cannonball into a rural community and say, we're building this. Yeah. Tough luck, right? So the the lawmakers were stressing that. And um, this is an example of them responding to that. Um the other one, though, I thought the messaging was more interesting, more specific to um, we'll play it right now.
SPEAKER_00Did you know golf courses use more water each year than data centers? And many new data centers now use zero water for cooling. What do they pour into our state? They bring billions in tax revenue and thousands of high-paying rural jobs. That means lower property taxes and more funding for teachers and first responders. Restricting data centers won't save a drop of water, but it will cost Texas jobs and opportunity.
SPEAKER_01So you first right off the bat, you heard them say, guess what? Data centers use less water than golf courses. Yeah, of course, golf course is really cool. You can't have fun at a data center. Yeah. If you have the courage, probably. Yeah, maybe. You can't shoot triple digits and hit on the cart girl at a data center. Whoa, whoa, whoa, Brad. That's too far. That's beyond the level. Um I've certainly never seen you do that on the golf course. I've never shot triple digits. Um so it a couple different avenues of of messaging there. The second group that that you just heard, I think it probably said it in the ad at the tail end was Texans for Economic Liberty. That's a C4. So we won't know who the donors are for that, uh, who the money is behind that. Um, like we do know who is behind the first one. But this this issue a year ago, I don't think anybody saw this issue coming in the form that it has. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Because it's really become one of the biggest hot button issues in Texas politics, uh, because there was just a number of counties that just kind of got steamrolled and strong armed and told to pound sand on it. Um and there have been other counties that, you know, to your point, you can't just say data centers always do X, Y, and Z because it's all very different operators and construction and things of that nature. Um, and we're definitely going to see a lot of bills filed this next session on it. I was on a uh a press call with um a number of House Democrats. They were talking about water issues and infrastructure more generally, but one of the things that was brought up is like, okay, what type of legislative things are you going to do to address some of y'all's concerns about the water? Something that Aaron Zweiner threw out was banning certain types of designs for data centers. Uh because they have different methods of cooling themselves off. Uh, because you know, all the robots get a get kind of hot, I guess. Um they heat up. Um and you that's the last thing you want is you know sweaty robots. Yeah. Um nobody wins in that scenario. Nobody wins. Sounds terrible. Uh and so, you know, one of the ways that they do that is through an evaporative cooling process where you know they run water through it, but it's open to the air and it evaporates and it uses water. So you have to constantly be putting in water. And it and some of these, you know, I was on a call with uh uh one of AM's climatologists uh earlier this week as well, and you know, it's like that uses more water than some small cities and things of that nature. Like it's a lot of water it takes. Um, but there are other types of designs that have been developed, including like a closed loop system where it's not evaporating into the air, you know, it it goes through a system that tries to reuse the water, um, which you know, la I think it reduces water consumption by about 70% on some models. But then there's also like air-cooled things that don't use water at all. Now, the offset there on those is that it uses more energy because you have to pay to, you know, the electric refrigeration and things of that nature. And there are other types of coolants as well that can be used. Uh, and so the idea was like, well, why don't we just ban certain types of construction and development on that and force them to use more uh water conserving ones and things of that nature, which I I had not heard anybody throw that out quite so blatantly. But um, you know, another thing they threw is like, how do we make sure that the counties and communities have the ability to veto or stop development if they don't want it? And that's gonna be one, if they try to do that, that's gonna, you know, r lead to some big old fights because you got other people like Senator Paul Bett in court who's like demanding the AG's office investigate counties that are trying to issue moratoriums on data center development for at least a year so that more kind of studies and things can be done about the impact on the environment and and things of that nature. So it it's something that uh has really become one of the more fascinating policy issues that's developing.
SPEAKER_01Another thing on the on the Zwiener side of things, and she is from Driftwood, uh I believe that's her hometown. Um, that part of Hayes County area. Um they're struggling for water, which is why this is so big for her and so important. Uh, you know, we're the data center stuff, of course, is big everywhere. Uh, but for uh parts of the states, take up in the panhandle where water is scarce, it becomes an even bigger issue. Yeah. Um, and that is where you're gonna see bigger fault lines uh when it comes to deciding what they're gonna do on this. And you know, the other thing that we should mention on this is state leaders, at least the ones making decisions, uh most likely to make decisions on this. They're not an anti-data center. They want these things to come. Greg Abbott's office is very much in favor of this stuff coming. Aaron Ross Powell, Jr. And there's a lot of national push from the Trump administration on this as well. Trevor Burrus, Jr. Yes, because well they see the economic benefits of this. And then I think we mentioned this the other episode or two ago. Cities, localities want these to come because they uh see this as an opportunity to make up revenue deficit that they've found themselves in, either through them spending a lot of money or the state putting more and more restrictions on their ability to tax, or both, this compounding effect, they see this as kind of like a skeleton key to f at least temporarily fix their budgeting problems. And so that's another reason why it's attractive. So uh other than some uh you know hardcore NIMBY's the opposition to these um, you know, I should say statewide NIMBY's, the opposition to these is really just I don't want they're fine to come here, I just don't want it next to my in my community, taking water from my community. Um and then that's on the data centers to figure out how they go about navigating those terms and uh alleviating those concerns. So but first you gotta as as an industry for them, you gotta not get your teeth kicked in in the legislature, which is why they're building this, they're putting this messaging out to combat the the kind of grassroots uproar that they've seen come against them. So a lot more to come on that for sure.
SPEAKER_02Hi everyone, we'd like to thank the sponsor of today's podcast, the Lowy Law Firm. For over 20 years, Adam Lowy has helped injured Texans recover and heal. From car accidents to dog bites, Adam Lowy is there to help and gets results. Go to LowyLawfirm.com to find out more and get a free consultation. Adam, of course, is very well known on Twitter for his commentary and observations on Texas politics, so be sure to give him a follow as well. Thanks to our sponsor, the Lowy Law Firm.
SPEAKER_01Uh okay, Richie, let's talk the Dell announcements. And you were there. It was at UT. Um lot of money coming UT's way.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it was up at their uh kind of North Austin. JJ Pickle campus, right? The Pickle, the Pickle Research Institute, which was disappoint or research campus, I think it's called. Uh not a lot of research into pickles there. Um I was disappointed to see.
SPEAKER_01Especially because I was real hungry. You know, we need some truth in advertising.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, right, right. Um but yeah, it was a massive announcement. Um hundreds of people there. Uh obviously Greg Abbott was there, uh, UT leadership was there, and then Michael and Susan Dell were there. And uh the kind of top line was that the a new 750 million investment into UT to redevelop and build out the research campus that will be uh renamed after the Dells, but then also a what's what was called an AI native medical center. Um and this all this you know investment also marked over a billion dollars in lifetime giving from the Dells to UT, which is they'd already given a quarter uh billion, right? Yeah. Yeah, they've already given like bucus of cash to UT. This took them over the one billion dollar mark, which I believe is the first time in history that's happened at UT.
SPEAKER_01Um and there was a lot of just uh there are any uh billionaires that want to throw three quarters of a billion dollars at Texas Bullpen, let us know.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, we're here. We'll do anything. Um but yeah, no, it was very interesting, and it was a lot of you know just celebrating the Dell's legacy because obviously, you know, Michael Dell went, attended UT for I think two semesters, founds uh Dell Technologies out of the dorm room, which at the end of it they actually renamed that dorm uh uh house, the Dell House after him, which uh I think was not the Delta House, the Dell House. The Dell House. Um which was kind of you know it seemed like very much touched uh touched him. I don't think he knew that beforehand. It was kind of thrown on there. Um and yeah, so it raised a lot of questions for me. And there was a little press gaggle afterwards where we got to ask them, okay, what does that actually look like, an AI native medical center? Um because like AI is just like what does that what does that mean in relative terms? Yeah, and and what they explained is that you know, this is going to be we're developing this hospital with a view towards uh incorporating AI at the very kind of foundational architecture of it, is how they phrased it. So basically, you know, it's it's not trying to retrofit AI into existing hospital structures. How that looks and how it will work, I think, is something that they're still determining. Um the scheduled open data is in 2030, so you know it's gonna be several years of development, and you know, where AI is today won't be where AI is, you know, four years down the road. Um so there weren't a lot of specifics about that particular kind of working uh nature, but what the the dean of the UT um medical school, who's kind of, I think, spearheading the project, um, explained is that the hospital itself, the physical building, will be a member of the care team um with various sensors spelled correctly. That's how you know we don't use AI in our writing, is because we misspell things sometimes. I got a couple emails about that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, you know.
SPEAKER_01You you will be flogged later for that.
SPEAKER_02Yes, exactly. Um had a had a number of retorts that I, in my wisdom, decided not to say on recording. But yeah, so uh the idea of the hospital being a member of the care team, and then she went on to say, you know, robots and human doctors will be working hand in hand, side by side. And there's been a lot of development in the AI Incorporation and healthcare. You know, I went I went home that night and was, you know, real quirked up over all this and whipped out. You quirked up? Yeah, me, yeah, say it ain't so. It never happens. Um whipped out my edition of Texas Monthly, and one of the first things there was a sponsor article from UTMB highlighting the use of AI in its kind of image analysis uh radiology uh stuff at the Galveston location, and you know, that's kind of the main use. Usage of AI tools in hospitals today is in radiology image uh analysis and things of that nature. There's probably about 900 AI or uh machine learning tools that have been improved by the FDA, and something like 90% of them are in radiology. Um and then there are some new ones as well, including like they've approved, I think, the first one last year of an AI tool for drug development and things of that nature. So it's starting to expand. A lot of them are also in the note-taking and scribe uh stuff, which has led to a number of lawsuits, including investigations in Texas, because you know, one of the big issues and concerns with AI is the rate of hallucination, which is the technical term for it when AI just starts inventing things. It's a wild term for Wild term. Let me tell you, you want to go back to uh a snapshot of a quirked up Ritchie. When I first learned of that term, um, was when I don't think anybody wants to go see a snapshot of a quirked up Ritchie. No, it's a horrifying, terrifying thing. AI could not replace me. Um There's something about human hallucinations that just really kind of ring true to the soul. As soon as robots start hallucinating, it's it's questionable, you know. Like you what would an AI robot doctor look like on iBegain, is the question we're all asking here.
SPEAKER_01I think Rick Perry knows the answer to that. I don't know. That'd be interesting.
SPEAKER_02I should I should try IBegain with Rick Perry and a robot doctor. Sounds like the start of a bad joke. Um or a really good joke. Or a great time, I don't know. Um but yeah, so like there is this Dallas-based scribal AI tool that was being sold to major hospitals in the DFW area, but they didn't disclose they marketed it as like highly accurate, but the rate of critical and severe hallucinations was quite a bit higher than what their marketing materials were saying. And it's just like, goodness gracious, like uh what's the downstream effect of that? And we've seen there was a class action lawsuit filed outside of Texas over uh insurance companies using AI for claim analysis, and it was rejecting a whole lot of claims, uh leading people the lawsuit uh accuses to people dying because of lack of care. Um, which at that point, you know, if you have a robot making this decision on whether or not somebody gets care, obviously that's in paying out claims, but uh uh it creates a a log jam in the in the system there uh with you know potentially life and death ramifications. And then who's responsible for that? Uh and so we'll see there's some other ones. Uh also what's very interesting is Texas is becoming the battleground for fights within the AI healthcare industry um over intellectual property and patent issues, which of course you know the Marshall court system is like one of the best places. That's where all the patent lawsuits get filed. Oh, in Marshall, Texas. Yeah, Marshall, East Texas. East Texas. Let's go. Um which is very interesting in and of itself, but it's a very specialized docket out there for that. And so, like just earlier this month, two AI companies uh are duking it out in court over claims of intellectual property. I think they're actually based in California, but they're filing it here in Texas uh because of Marshall's kind of specialized uh system. So it it's just very interesting. And I mean, I've talked to healthcare professionals, uh, it's becoming ubiquitous in it. And um, you know, insurance companies might be using AI to deny claims, but now providers are using AI to write the letters, pushing back on the denials and things like that. So now you have worrying AIs, and at the center of it is somebody trying to get uh health care. So it's very interesting. It's a little bit of a behemoth. The uh House interim charges has a specific directive on the on, I think, the public health committee to look at this, and so they're gonna be meeting here in the coming months and discussing and hearing testimony on how is AI being incorporated into healthcare. Um but it's something that until I started looking into, I didn't realize how pervasive it really is at a lot of the levels. Uh because you know, you obviously have your FDA approved tools, but you also just have people using whatever AI model they can get their hands on, open AI, GROK, whatever else, um, just like it is in every other field as well. Um and so it'll be interesting. I'm sure there will be some additional data centers built up there too, as a part of the as part of the campus.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and those those two issues are tied together.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, hand in hand. Yep. Um robot and machine. I titled the piece Doctor Robot. We'll see you now.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it was a good piece, and I've mentioned Fault Line multiple times today, but check it out if this issue interests you. You know, I'm just a boy. It was good. It was very good, well-written piece. Um although people are asking where the drinking section of uh Fault Line went and uh it's disappeared. Yeah. Uh and by people I mean me.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. It's because I I'm not having new drinks. I'm not drinking in new places. Okay. Uh might be waking up in new places sometimes, but not drinking. There's been no new developments. Like that's you know, when I get down to that and I haven't eaten someplace new this week, I'm like, oh no, what am I gonna put for that? Or if I haven't finished my book from last week, it really feels like I'm back in school. Like there's a report card. Not that like anybody cares what I'm reading this week or or or I mean people's people like it like it. People like it. Maybe we should start a book club. You can start the prediction markets, and I'll start the Texas Bullpen book club. Okay. And then we can take future contracts out of what the next book will be, and we'll make like pennies. Literally pennies on the Don.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Um anything else about No, that's probably about it. UT thing. Okay. Yeah. Um another one I want to touch on is the the leadership packs, federal leadership packs done announce their uh massive TV ad buys for the fall. Uh Congressional Leadership Fund is the Republican uh leadership pack, and then House Majority PAC is the Democratic one. Collectively, they announced $425 million in ad reservations across the country. Um uh a good chunk of that is in Texas, and that's what we'll of course what we'll talk about most. Um, I think it is it is notable to say that it is customary for them to announce these uh these ad buys without having the money, all of the money in their account yet, for example. Um I think the the Republican announcement, which was what, 150 million, I believe. No, maybe it was 170, regardless, whatever it was, um the the cash on hand for CLF was about half. Uh the most recent cash on hand was about half of what this ad buy was. So it's it's customary for them to do that. Now, with House Majority Pack, we saw about I think tw they have a quarter of the amount that they're claiming to be buying on uh to be reserving for ad space. So they have a lot of the they're they're hedging their bets on raising a ton of money, which they could. They very well could, uh, especially the way the cycle's uh developing so far. But uh they got a long way to go to pay for this massive ad buy. That said, in uh in Texas, both camps are focusing heavily on South Texas. Not surprising, that's where pretty much all the battleground seeds are. You've got um CDs uh 15, which is Monica De La Cruz v. Bobby Polito, you have CD 23, which is Brandon Herrera and Katie Padilla Stout. Uh you have CD 28, which is um uh Henry Quayar, Democrat against Tano Tiarina, the Republican, over in 34. You have Eric Flores against Vicente Gonzalez, and the last one, 35, which is uh kind of a uh well, we don't know the Republican nominee yet, and honestly, I I don't recall who won the Democratic uh nomination there, and that might be in a runoff as well. So TBD in that in that seat, but that's the one that's the currently Greg Cassar seat that was moved outside Bear County as a projected pickup for Republicans in this redraw. And by the way, I should mention what happened in Virginia this week. The uh voters in Virginia approved by a narrow margin. They approved a uh the I think it's four seat pickup map for them, projected, of course. We'll see if they win all four of them. But it goes from uh I forget the the current breakdown, but it goes to a 10 to 1 um advantage for Democrats uh projected in in the map. And so it goes from lopsided to even more lopsided. Um and that was as a response to Texas redrawing its map, and of course we should mention Texas did it as a tacit response to New York doing it in 24. But once you open that can of worms, it's like it's like the Israel-Palestine conflict. Like nobody knows who threw the first stone uh ultimately, and um it's just you know, redistricting fights all the way down.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And I mean it's it's always interesting to look at when people start getting really upset about certain political practices that have gone on. They just didn't know it was happening.
SPEAKER_01Literally the beginning of the country.
SPEAKER_02Well, we see this all the time in Texas at like the county level and stuff. I mean, you know, up in Dallas County, the commissioner's court redrew the lines to uh, you know, take out uh one of the Republicans on the court, you know, and this that's far from the only time that's happened. Yep.
SPEAKER_01Um, you know, Tarrant County did it to take out one of the Democrats on the court.
SPEAKER_02Um I think Harris did. Harris did, yep. Um and uh you know it's just kind of how it goes. Yeah. It's only politics.
SPEAKER_01Well, I've got on that subject, I've got something cooking for fourth reading next week. So uh the idea is very sound. We'll see if I can land the plane on it. But uh stay tuned for that.
SPEAKER_02But of course, in Virginia, going back to that, a judge has now halted it, and so it is on track up through its state court system. I think their Supreme Court is going to be hearing arguments next week on it.
SPEAKER_01Um the the arguments on it were interesting. I don't know them all super well, but one of them centers on the uh the original special session call for this did not include redistricting and was added later. I don't know the legality of it. Like if that's if that were Texas, there'd be no issue there. You like the governor can add an item on the special session whenever. Um so we'll see if there's a technicality there that Republicans can get the maps and validated. Probably is not gonna happen. It probably isn't. Um now you have a s situation. I know enough to to call it. Okay. Um now you have a situation where California's map went through, um, Texas's of course went through, but that's as we talked about is dicey. Like there's I don't see any way Republicans gain all five seats. And I Republicans who drew the map don't see any way they gained five seats. There's a chance they gain two, maybe even one, depending on how things go.
SPEAKER_02If they gain three, I think people would be ecstatic. If they gain two, they'll bring a sigh of relief. If they gain one, they'll probably still be breathing a sigh of relief.
SPEAKER_01And the funny thing is, if you if they gain three, both sides will cheer, will uh declare victory. Because Republicans will say, Oh yeah, in a horrible election year, we still managed to gain three seats. Uh and Democrats will be like, You've drew this map to gain five. Yeah. So we stopped you from that. Um but TBD on all that stuff. Uh but uh back to the the ad buys. Uh Democrats reserved, at least they announced they reserved 22-ish million dollars across South Texas. Um a lot of it is in the Harlingen market. And the reason for that, media market, the reason for that is it kind of touches, kind of it does touch, I think, all three of the districts 15, 28, and 34 in the Rio Grande Valley. Um and so there remains to be seen how much they're putting into each. Uh you know, either for Vicente Gonzalez or for Bobby Polito or for Henry Cuayar, whatever it is. Um we'll see how how they divvy that up once we get to that point. If the whole if the money materializes, um, although I have a hard time believing that if the money doesn't materialize, that's an area of the st country that they'll sacrifice, I doubt it. Uh they've got two members to protect in that area, and uh one really good pickup opportunity in Polito against De La Cruz. Then you look up in uh one of the the other the minor ones that stuck out to me was um uh in the Laredo market, which only encompasses Webb County and I think Zapata, um the Democrats tripled, I believe. No, doubled, doubled the amount of money they put in in 2022 to defend Quayar's seat. Uh so clearly they uh see a need to put more pop more resources into that one. Um they also uh booked uh money in uh San Antonio, which of course touches both 23, the uh Tony Gonzalez seat and the new 35. Uh Republicans, their their first announced buy in that area was like 13.9, so 14 million dollars. So they've they're still you know behind the eight ball compared to the Democrats on that announced number. Um but there was a bunch of back and forth and uh chess puffing over whether the numbers are are real or fake, or James Blair and CJ Warn Warnkey, I think his last name, Republican and Democrat respectively, were feuding on Twitter over this. Um Warnkey called Blair Cayou, the the car child's cartoon character. Um it's a callback. Yeah, right. Um but this is all just uh posturing at this point. And until we see the money actually booking on these TV stations and then running those ads, we're not gonna get a full picture on what these two entities believe are the real battleground seats and of course dynamics change and who knows what becomes an actual competitive race versus not three, four months from now. So um I got a full breakdown in Daily Bowl on those, and uh it's uh it'll be interesting to follow money.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yeah. And if you're not subscribed to Texas Bullpin, you're missing out on these breakdowns throughout the week. I mean, uh I felt like this morning's Friday morning's newsletter was a really good one, just jam-packed of tidbits and information and scoops and ball knowing that you're you're really not getting anywhere else in the same type of package that you can get uh with us. I mean, five, ten minutes every day in the morning gets you everything you need to know about Texas politics so that you can uh uh browbeat all of your inferiors with your superior knowledge of what's going on.
SPEAKER_01And you know, in today's newsletter, I'm not gonna go into all the details because it's just way too much uh with the time we have left. But there was a really interesting debate over this thing called 4CP that deals with the power grid and allotting transmission costs. Um, I've heard it pop up multiple times in hearings and it just keeps keeps popping up. Uh discussion that's continuing to be had.
SPEAKER_02And well, and the the transmission issue is something that, you know, people think power grid, it's all about generation, but if you can't move that power from one place to the other, uh you have all this power that just can't be used and accessed. And so, you know, the transmission issue, the battery issue, the big uh lines that are going out, uh what's that seven? Seven sixty five TV, I think, yeah. Um which have had a lot of opposition from places that don't want that type of infrastructure because it you know that just takes up a lot of space, requires eminent domain and environmental concerns, there's property right concerns, uh, but you also kind of just have to have certain levels of of infrastructure if you're not generating the power where it needs to be.
SPEAKER_01And so the data centers are one aspect of that, uh needing that the that large amount of power shipped throughout the state. But you know, the massive electrification of the Permian Basin is another big reason. Um oil oil drillers are turned into electricity to power their operations versus using natural gas. And um there are obviously various reasons for that. Most specifically, it's more efficient, at least in their mind right now, as things are set up, right? Otherwise, they wouldn't be doing it. Uh, but that requires these um these larger uh transmission lines. Otherwise, you get bottlenecking, and that causes problems for the overall health of the grid, let alone the price points that people pay as ratepayers, if electricity is stuck in West Texas and can't get to South Texas or Central Texas or East Texas or DFW. You know, it uh everything affects everything in the power grid.
SPEAKER_02And it's an incredibly complicated such a that maybe that might be the the most uh concise encapsulation of political questions ever. Everything affects everything. It does. Because it does. You know, you can't pull on some thread and not expect something thousand miles away to un unravel. Like it is just all tied together, and you can't solve one question without impacting another issue that you might not even think is connected.
SPEAKER_01It's it's the political equivalent of Newton's third law of motion. Everything's pulling up the reaction.
SPEAKER_02We've got electricity, we've got uh oil and gas, we have nuclear. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So if you if you are a glutton for punishment, check out Daily Bowl on from Friday and read the second breakdown on the 4CP. It is actually very interesting, and it does affect how much you pay as a ratepayer down the road uh on your utility bills. So it does have a very real world impact. Um last topic before we go, Richie, can you touch on uh this internal strife that some of these state parties that these two state parties have had recently, and I'll jump in and play off.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. People are people are upset and fighting amongst themselves. I'm shocked. Back to you. No, I mean, uh kind of the big development at the early part of this week um was that uh a kind of letter was sent out amongst Democrats going after their current Democratic Party chair, uh Kendall Scudder, um, and you know, accusing him of mismanaging the party. There were some allegations of uh insensitivity to race questions and things of that nature. Uh it was maybe a couple dozen people that signed that letter, and not all of them put their names on it. It was like, you know, former staffer, com staffer, things of that nature. Um and you know, obviously that led to a reaction of people who supported him, and at that point he had not announced that he was going to run for chair. It was pretty clear he was going. It was obviously clear, like um, and so a lot of people came to his defense. There was another letter written in support of him that I think got several hundred signatures, uh things of that nature. A lot of people pointed to, you know, how he's handled the financial elements of the Democratic Party, I think getting it out of debt and stuff like that, and obviously recruiting uh candidates for I think every single seat uh from the you know House level upwards, which was the first time that had been done for the Democrats in in a little while, making sure that no Republicans were running unimposed, which obviously drains, you know, forces the Republicans to spend in those races where they might not have otherwise spent money and tightening resources. So there was a lot of you know debate and discussion over that, and then obviously he filed. Brad, if you want to stop that, that'd be great. Um and then, you know, there's always uh infighting on the Republican Party as well. You had Alan West uh resign up in the Dallas County GOP. And then you also just, you know, a lot of people are announcing their run for the Republican uh party chair, um, and convention is coming. Coming up where all that will be sorted and settled, and there is a lot of Bruhaha, as it were? Yes, a lot of kerfuffle. I prefer kerfuffle Bruhaha, because Bruhaha is French and kerfuffle is more English.
SPEAKER_01You're play replaying our feud from three episodes.
SPEAKER_02Well, you brought it up. Okay. You brought it up, Brad. What am I supposed to do? Sorry, I didn't mean to lose my temper. Do I need to reread my statement? Sorry, I didn't mean to get quirked like that. It's my been my word of the day.
SPEAKER_01It's alright, it's because your thumbs don't bend.
SPEAKER_02I can't believe you would throw such an allegation like that live on air. Um I mean it's it is true. My thumbs It's not just an allegation. My thumbs don't think that's scandalous. Yeah, that's uh yeah, but you rob me of getting to tell people that fun fact whenever I get to meet them at events, you know. Uh it's been my one.
SPEAKER_01You won't relish doing that anyway.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, right. I mean, if there's one thing I like doing is telling stories over and over again. Um yeah, you know, there's a lot of there's a lot of infighting at Texas Bullpen, too, you know, people would say. I've heard that there's a letter circulating uh with terrible accusations against you. You getting signatures with that? I never said that. I'm not saying I Yeah, we're gonna unionize. Reunionize and I two against one.
SPEAKER_01Um yeah, the this tyranny of the majority. The Republican feud focused on the release or lack thereof of um delegate lists delegate lists because the candidates running against George want to call delegates and campaign against him. This was a rule put in last convention for chiefly the reason was that delegates got sick and tired of candidates calling them. So they put this in. They have since, I think, revoked it in a special meeting. Man.
SPEAKER_02Man, you're really falling off here.
SPEAKER_01Dying over here. Um but it got resolved. But really, this is just uh juvenile jockeying that's going on between these. Thank you. Thank you. That's a really nice alliteration. The um Oh, you're crying, you're crying right now. I just loved your statement, Apollo. Wow. No. Um the uh the comparison that popped in my mind when I saw both these episodes happen. You ever been to a minor league hockey game? No. You should. It's great. I'd like to.
SPEAKER_02Are you asking me? You want to go on a date? Whoa.
SPEAKER_01We're not enemies, but we're not we're not that. Okay. Um the it wouldn't work going to the the Texas Stars because they're too high level to get to this point, but the minor league hockey team that I went to in in college, they were all washed up old guys or young guys who didn't really have a shot at making the majors. And so what did they do the whole time? Fight. They fought. Hell yeah. They just punched the heck out of each other. And it was great, especially on Dollar Beer Night.
SPEAKER_02Can you can you skate? Is that what it's called? Skating? Yeah, yeah, I can skate.
SPEAKER_01I can't. I am a dang Yankee, as you're fond of saying. That is true. That's kind of a rite of passage.
SPEAKER_02But if you if you if we ever go skating, it I look like a draft that was just born. Huh.
SPEAKER_01Like it's very Maybe that's the next Texas Bullpen happy hour is we could do that. Skating at the ice rink. Can you drink at an ice rink? I'm sure you can. Yeah. Watching you look like a fool.
SPEAKER_02Oh man, let me tell you, if I ever lose a bet, that's that's what we should do. Okay.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Well, I think that's all we got today.
SPEAKER_02That's all, folks.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Subscribe at Texasbullpen.com. Catch all the newsletters next week. Yeah. We appreciate you listening each and every Saturday morning or whenever it is that we're going to be able to do that. We always appreciate the feedback, um, especially if it's good.
SPEAKER_02Especially if it's good. But we'll take the you know, we've been told time and time again, you know, how how witty and charming and enjoyable this is. You know, it feels like we're just friends uh coming into your your living room or car on your drive wherever you listen to podcasts, and uh, you know, those things warm the cockles of our hearts.
SPEAKER_01Um especially because in reality we hate each other.
SPEAKER_02Yes. Yeah, yeah, obviously. Deep seated. Yeah, deep.
SPEAKER_01We put on a good face, but really we despise each other. Really?
SPEAKER_02You think we've you think I put on a good face? It's one of the nicest things you've ever said. Oh my god. All righty, guys. Well, y'all have a good weekend, and we will catch y'all next week.