Mystic Madness, Pot Potpourri, and Put on the Red Lines - Episode 26

The guys go around the horn on the topics of the week, including the rumble over redistricting, THC legal developments, and the hearings on the tragic July 2025 floods.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Man, you know, uh just like Timex, you take a lickin' and keep on ticking. Um, but it's been How long you been sitting on that one? Nothing. That's a very that's a very classic marketing motto.

SPEAKER_03 0:15

Well I know, but how long have you been sitting on it?

SPEAKER_01 0:17

It just came to me when you asked me how I'm doing. Okay. These things they move fast, the synapses, they fire on me. They do. Speed of light over here.

SPEAKER_03 0:31

It's Brad Johnson, Jonathan Richie here for another episode of the Texas Bullpen Podcast. We've survived another week. It was a busy week, and uh we got a lot to talk about. Um we're gonna talk the can't mystic hearings and developments there. We'll talk uh some late-breaking stuff as we sit here on Friday uh early afternoon with THC and hemp rules and lawsuits therein. Uh redistricting, of course. The Supreme Court finally handed down their long-awaited opinion in the Louisiana redistricting case. We'll talk a couple polls on the U.S. Senate runoff or U.S. Senate race, and then Abbott made a big statement, an interesting one, I thought, on property taxes. And then if we can get to it, we'll close on an interesting uh healthcare affordability hearing that you watch. So a lot to get to, but it was a busy week. Richie, how you doing?

SPEAKER_01 1:23

Man, you know, uh just like Timex, you take a licking and keep on ticking. Um but it's been How long you been sitting on that one? Nothing. That's a very that's a very classic marketing motto.

SPEAKER_03 1:38

Well I know, but how long have you been sitting on it? It just came to me when you asked me how I'm doing. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

These things they move fast. The synapses, they fire on me. They do. Speed of light over here. Uh we were uh let's see, it's Friday. It feels like morning, but it is indeed after noontime. And uh man, you know, we've been living we've been living kind of fast. Fast and somewhat loose? Yeah. I think we're both super tired, but we've got our coffee and we're so happy to be here.

SPEAKER_03 2:08

Maybe the the uh the coffee will kick in by minute five of this podcast. But you know, the b the biggest news of this week, of course, was about Camp Mystic, the two hearings that occurred in the general investigating committees, uh both in the House and the Senate. I don't think technically it's a joint committee. No, but they're a meeting together. They were meeting together, convening, uh dealing with a report together. And I think it was Monday and Tuesday, the the two hearings happened. Very emotional, really overwhelming. Um I was in there for the first day, um, which was when the investigators, uh Michael Massingale and Casey Garrett, laid out and presented their initial report. And as the testimony went on, I'm sure they'll refine uh the committees will refine the report, issue a final one, but largely it will be what was unveiled at the Monday hearing. I was in there. Um, you know, there were uh f members, parents of of the group of um Heavens 27, the the 27 kids who died at Camp Mystic. Um many of them were there. The Eastland showed up on Tuesday for testimony, that got very contentious and even more emotional than the uh the first day was. But as I was sitting in there uh and the investigators were laying out their report, you know, once we got to uh burn in the back of my head once we once bubble cabin was mentioned, which is where the largest amount of girls died, um just audible um groaning and and and sadness, and it was just pouring out in that.

SPEAKER_01 4:06

You could hear the weeping from the parents in the room over the audio. You know, I was I was listening and uh I mean I just un unimaginable levels of grief. And uh, you know, of course, there's uh ongoing litigation about uh what happened as well, you know, questions over the camp's negligence and uh compliance with law, which was a huge part of what the investigators were going through. What were uh kind of, I guess, the biggest takeaways from the investigation in your mind?

SPEAKER_03 4:41

Aaron Ross Powell, So the pretext for this is that, of course, the tragedy happened on July 4, 2025. The community there is still recovering. But since then we've seen legislation passed by the House and Senate, signed by the governor on camp reforms. Uh there are various aspects of that. One of the biggest points of contention among those is the requirement, the broadband requirement, um, that I believe it's you get internet coverage or service coverage across your entire property, not just have points on the campus where uh you can access that. And for some camps that they have said that that is prohibitively expensive. Um but really it all goes back to Camp Mystic, of course, because that is where, as far as these camps go, the lion's share of deaths occurred. And um, you know, something that wasn't really brought up much, I think it was mentioned once or twice in these hearings, was that you know, it wasn't just people at Camp Mystic who passed away. There was people at the public uh campgrounds that were washed away, I think upwards of 90. Unimaginable amount of death in this. And um it was mentioned that this was uh the largest um mass casualty event in Texas history for children since the 1900 Galveston hurricane.

SPEAKER_01 6:14

Out of national disaster, natural.

SPEAKER_03 6:16

Yes. Um and so uh that was that was setting up for this, and then we've also seen um Camp Mystic apply for a uh summer 2026 operational license. They had I think over 800 kids apply to attend this summer, and then DSHS sent them a letter notifying them of 22 deficiencies, and that was talked about repeatedly. Um I don't know all the details of those deficiencies, but um that's a huge number. And even just on its face, it's shocking. Um it's shocking that the they would apply for an operational license with those. Now, there were more back and forth about that when the Eastlands testified. But the pretext of these hearings is that there is a an application to reopen this summer. We've seen Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick multiple times uh call on them to on the state to withdraw or to deny the application and or the Eastlands to withdraw it. And so as the hearing went on, as the findings were were reported, and then as the testimony from the various sides happened, um we came kept coming back to that. And uh you know, when the investigators were laying out their their argument, they were I wouldn't say pulling punches from the Eastlands, but they were not they went out of their way to uh state that these people are going through massive grief as well and trauma, and uh by all accounts they were good-hearted people, are good-hearted people. But that doesn't that doesn't remove the f the fact that twenty-seven kids died on their watch.

SPEAKER_01 8:18

And so um after the first hearing And I mean just to go into what the investigators were uh uh laying out, you know, they they laid out that uh, you know, they were not in compliance with having a evacuation um plan, which right, there are inspectors that go out that had approved Mystic for for years and years and years, despite the fact that they didn't have what was legally required in a posted evacuation plan.

SPEAKER_03 8:54

They didn't have a basically said that the the evacuation plan was in Dick Eastlin's head. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:00

And the instructions were shelter in place, but there wasn't you have to have an actual evacuation plan, not just an emergency response plan. And they laid all that out. Um and you know uh she went through basically almost a minute-by-minute breakdown of a reconstruction of the events of that night. Yeah. Um, which was obviously, you know, heart-wrenching, but it it really I think gave people a understanding much more of you know exactly what happened as far as we're able to know. Uh at times, you know, she was even struggling to speak because of the you know, just tragedy of it all. Uh you know, I think one of the things that we weren't necessarily aware of, we known that Dick Eastland uh, you know, passed away from the flood as well, but she walked through how you know he was at Bubble Cabin uh, you know, trying to evacuate the girls too late, and that car gets swept away downstream, and and that's where you know they were found later.

SPEAKER_03 10:08

Um Well, they found they found Dick Eastlin and three girls in the Tahoe, and they showed a picture of it. I'm sure if you go watch the video, you can see it. It that thing had to have been moving pretty fast downstream.

SPEAKER_01 10:21

Yeah, it was destroyed.

SPEAKER_03 10:22

It was it it looked like a high velocity vehicle crash, like two two cars going on against each other, uh, but it hit a tree, and so they found four deceased in the car, and then the rest of the girls from Bubble Cabin that he had managed to get into the vehicle were swept away in the tide, and nobody survived that. Um another fact that was brought up, uh I should also mention that these two investigators are the same ones who did the Uvaldi investigation with the uh the special committee from back in 2022. So they've they're very experienced in this, they've done this before, and they've had a previous relationship with uh the legislator in these types of settings. Um there was a uh it was mentioned that one one of the kind of, I would say, shocking revelations, and I heard some rumblings about this beforehand uh, you know, a couple weeks ago, but nothing really so concrete as what how it was stated here. There were uh a couple girls washed down river who survived. And they were um picked up by a family who lives on the on the river and kept safely, but the allegation made by the parents of those surviving girls is that the Eastlands did not do anything to recoup them. You know, they're still there in their custody as the atten campers of of their facility. And in the hearing it was alleged that they did not, they did nothing. There was a lot of criticism aimed at specifically Mary Elizabeth Eastland, who was in charge of overseeing the campers, um not just operations of the camp, but campers themselves. Um that was a pretty shocking detail. Uh in their testimony on day two, the Eastlands said that they apologized, first of all, um, pretty profusely to the families and everyone involved who who lost people that day. They also said that they were willing to take a step back from the camp if need be. And there was Senator Charles Perry, um, state rep Drew Darby, I think were the two most pointed towards them in their questioning. Morgan Meyer as well. Um Charles Perry said flat out, y'all should basically you'll Camp Mystic should not reopen this year, and y'all, the Eastlands, should not get to keep Camp Mystic. It should be passed on to somebody else. And um it was he was very forthright about that. Um the the Eastlands uh eventually said that they would be willing to step back from this. Uh still up in the air on in terms of ownership of the camp, but fast forward a couple days after these hearings and Camp Mystic announced it withdrew its application for summer 2026. And uh they they did so saying that um in an official statement, they're doing it out of respect for the uh the lives lost and the families that are grieving. Um but that was not met well by some of the um the parents of dead kids. And specifically uh CeC Stewart put out a statement and her husband, I think Will's his name.

SPEAKER_01 14:06

Um those are the parents of the one camper who's not been recovered.

SPEAKER_03 14:12

Yes. And they said um this is clearly not about the having the respect for the families. This was their statement in as much. And it closed saying we maintain that uh there were heroes at Camp Mystic, but none of them are named Eastland. So there is uh a lot of um a lot of uh enmity towards them right now. And you know, I can understand.

SPEAKER_01 14:50

Um I think another one of the interesting things that the investigators brought out is because they didn't spend the entirety just talking about you know what happened at Camp Mystic, but they also talked about how there was a lack of organized uh emergency response at the county level. There wasn't any central command. There was a lot of uh lack of information, which led to misinformation to fill that void. There was a lot of nobody knew who was making decisions, and so there were a lot of decisions that were made too late. Um there were you know emergency uh response professionals in the area that were told not to deploy. Um and there's a lot of talk about the Cajun Navy, right? Yeah. Um and so they went somewhere else to to to do it. And so there was a lot beyond even just what happened at that camp that was going wrong um in relation to these floods, which again are over once in a century, I I don't think there's ever been a flood that dramatic on the record there.

SPEAKER_03 15:59

Well, it it it rose twelve, I think the stat was twelve inches in three hours. And if you watch the radar map, I remember this from back when this first happened, you see the storm front, a green massive blob sitting over the Kerr County area for a while. And then it actually moves on and halfway evaporates. I mean, it's dumped a lot of its moisture on the area, but then it like circles back around and repopulates and continues dumping. So this the river rose so fast, and you know, there's a lot of talk about a wall of water, it was that because you've got these natural funnels of of the hill country in the peaks and valleys. Um and Camp Mystic happened to be at the epicenter of that, of that wall of water and where it eventually ended up. Um the one of the most shocking things I heard from the investigators was that there were prank calls, but also blackmail being levied at parents because you mentioned the uncoordinated informational response. There was no coordination, and so you had parents who didn't know anything, who hadn't been told anything, putting their cell phones out there in social media posts in the hopes of a hail marry to find their child. And the absolute depravity of random people to call them, blackmail them about information of their missing children, or just prank call them. I can't I can't imagine what kind of evil has to be in somebody's heart to do that. But the other fact is that it's still happening. Casey Garrett said that one of the parents had had one of these calls as late as two weeks ago. It's still going on. And on top of all the massive regular grief about this event, there's that being added onto it. I just couldn't believe that. That was one of the most shocking things I heard in that hearing. Um in as the so as the timeline went out on this, they talked about how uh the I think it was around 2, 2 a.m. or so, the Eastlands who were monitoring the the the weather situation um made the decision to move waterfront equipment, canoes, whatnot, because they knew it was uh gonna get bad enough that it it would get to where those are. Um they waited to hear more on the on evacuating cabins, uh, because they didn't know at the time how fast it was rising. And one thing they mentioned was that the gauges up river that would tell them that weren't working. The gauges, they were having to rely on gauges past them downriver to know what to do, which of course creates a delay of action. Um but then there was a point where clearly they're needing to get kids out of cabins, and they were. Um they started getting multiple cabins into the wreck hall. Um but because of the lack of communication, they couldn't send out that order all at once.

SPEAKER_01 19:56

It was by, you know, word of mouth and um Well, and you know, there were three uh you know, Richard Eastlin, one of his sons, and then the night watchmen who were driving their trucks down to the cabins ad hoc to get them out as they're gonna be.

SPEAKER_03 20:11

So that takes time, right? Yeah. And especially as the water is the water situation's getting worse and worse, you know, the the time the amount of time you had five minutes ago to get people, the time frame you have to get people out shrinks exponentially as the minutes go on because of how much water is is being dumped on this area. And eventually they're they're at a point where um bubble cabin, I think, is the only one that hasn't been uh been reached communication-wise. Twins cabins one and two uh had problems, and some girls passed away, some girls survived, and I think those were where um Glenn Yankee, the security guard, saved a lot of kids' lives there. Um but there was a point where Bubble was the only one that hadn't been reached yet. Dick Eastlin goes out there and he has a he he radios his son and says, I'm stuck, I have these girls, I need help. And his son Edward says, I can't reach you. And he was in a cabin with other girls as well that they weren't able to get out, but he s was stayed with them and then you know that was said during the hearing that the girls in bubble cabin, when it was early enough, when the water hadn't risen enough yet, they were twenty feet from safety.

unknown 21:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:43

But their instructions were to shelter in place until told otherwise. Um one of the other very unfortunate circumstances here that was kind of just random was uh random based on cabins, was cabins that had Vaulted ceilings, girls more often than not survived from that.

SPEAKER_01 22:05

If they were stuck in the cabin. If they were stuck in the cabin. Ones with flat ceilings and the water got so high that you know it was up to the roof. And you know, one of those young girls, you know, passed away because she wasn't able to get out. There was no air, but there was another cabin where it vaulted, so you know, they had that additional uh headroom. Um and what's I mean even crazy talking about just how much the water was climbing, even in that rec hall, it was a two-story building, and that water got all the way up to like the banister where the rest of the girls were there, you know. And so it's just unimaginable type of conditions.

SPEAKER_03 22:43

Yeah. And it was, I think the um it is being called a thousand-year flood, I think. Um but there are very clearly certain points where different decisions made, everyone survives.

SPEAKER_01 22:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:59

And so that's that's the reality of it. Um and now we have this uh fallout and both the personal fallout, but also what does the state do? How does DSHS handle this? There's a basically what's being talked about is that um most camps, whether they're fully in compliance or not with these laws, are gonna be allowed to reopen because of the approval process, the appeal process of these the basically the it was talked about with Camp Mystic of um if they have a current license, because it's still standing from last year, and they're applying for the next year's license, well there is a you there is a procedure where you're allowed if if your license for this year is denied, you're allowed to appeal, which basically extends out past the appeal period extends out past camp season. And so functionally, if if Mystic had not withdrawn and they wanted to fight this, they could have uh if they had gotten denied, which it was looking like they were going to, they could have appealed it and still had camp under their 2025 license. So that exists for all the camps. Yeah. Um but it became very clear, I think I during the second day's hearing, other than a few members, it after the the Eastland testimony, there was actually a lot of uh sympathy and empathy for them. And then after the parents testified, the entire committee turned. And they were all very much against the idea of Camp Mystic operating this year, and some of them very much against the Eastlands owning Camp Mystic at all.

SPEAKER_01 24:57

So we should note that one of the lawmakers who is not on the committee is the actual representative of Kerr County, Wes Ferdell, who's had very strong words to say about this whole process.

SPEAKER_03 25:13

He is he has said um first of all, he's called the particularly the broadband aspect of the the camp reform laws, um he's called it onerous and says it needs to be changed. He actually put out a letter calling on uh with eleven other members calling on Abbott to call a special session to alter these laws now versus waiting to do that next year. He has also defended the Eastlands, um and he has said, inasmuch that i i it's how can you prepare for a thousand-year flood like this? And I think the statement to us, he accused uh his colleagues of Monday morning quarterbacking. Um there's he and Drew Darby have fought constantly over this. Um and it'll be uh interesting to see how he handles next year in the legislature on this issue. Um, because clearly he's very uh passionate about it, as are other members on the opposite side of this opinion. So um just a horrible, horrible week. And it's not this issue's not going away. We're gonna have this debate down the road. We'll see how the lawsuits turn out, what happens there.

SPEAKER_01 26:39

Um but it was just brutal all the way around for everybody involved. Uh, and certainly a uh difficult start to the week in the hearings. Um 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. But what else has happened this week?

SPEAKER_03 27:30

Uh, let's talk THC Hemp.

SPEAKER_01 27:32

Uh, new developments this morning. Two new rulings came out. One from the Supreme Court, uh, and then one out of a uh district, state district uh court here in Austin. Two separate cases, but the Supreme Court uh overruled a temporary injunction that had been entered by a district court and then upheld by the appellate court over uh some of the new regulations that were put in place over uh TH uh Delta VII THC content. Um and then, you know, they didn't necessarily go so far as to say like the case is still ongoing. You know, it's just going back to the district court and they overturn the injunction, so now Texas can enforce those uh uh prohibitions that were part of that older rule. Um, and all of this is, you know, a response. Texas has been trying to regulate uh kind of the new uh THC hemp market that uh came because they changed the classification or the definition rather of hemp versus marijuana on something that has you know 0.3% dry weight total THC content. And that uh, you know, the weed industry is arguing made a bunch of products legal. And there hasn't been a law written to kind of close that quote unquote loophole. But what they've started to do is Texas state agencies have started to regulate it shut through various different uh means and manners, uh starting with things that were more like the uh psychoactive ingredients and stuff like that. And that's what this new lawsuit about out of the uh Travis County District Court, which got an injunction placed on it. So the new rules were uh redefining, I guess, that total limit, um, and then also instituting very high regulatory uh fines in order to get uh you know licenses to operate and distribute and manufacture in Texas. And so that ruling today put an injunction, statewide injunction, on um the new rules and also on the new fees. I'm sure that's going to get appealed. And it was obviously made without the benefit of this new ruling from Scotex this morning. So whatever uh appellate court gets that will obviously be looking at that new ruling when applying their judicial wisdom to the case. But uh it's certainly, I think, probably not moving in the direction overall that the uh weed industry would like on it. But uh those cases are puttering along as they as they always will.

SPEAKER_03 30:46

Well, uh, you know, of course we had the massive fight over this policy-wise in the legislature last year, and uh the House and Senate spoke. They passed a total ban. Um what was that?

SPEAKER_01 30:59

The bottom of my coffee is very um Griny, grindy. Uh uh No, it's just a it's a little acidic for me.

SPEAKER_03 31:08

Uh okay. Looked like you were about to vomit on me. No, no, yeah. Um so they had this fight, the House and Senate passed a total ban, and then governor vetoed it. And we've been in this weird middle ground ever since of regulatory rules, uh federal action on this that has kind of changed the dynamic. Um this is a this is this is you know one of these issues that is going to continue popping up as we get closer to the legislative session. And you know, we we broke on on I forget what day it was, Monday or Tuesday. Uh the pot industry, or at least one vendor who is a teacup vendor, uh started a a pack.

SPEAKER_01 32:04

Just got approved, like very recently got approved, like in the past few months, a conditional license for the teacup program.

SPEAKER_03 32:12

Yes. And which is the capacity use program. It's relieve, is that the it's like television? Something like that. Um but they must have came out with it when they were ally. So they yeah, right. Well they this pack popped up right after the primary called Texas Strategic Reform Pack. And I looked up the treasure.

SPEAKER_01 32:34

How do you feel on it on a on a scale of one to ten? How would you rate that pack name?

SPEAKER_03 32:39

Uh as for for their purposes, I think it it does it it accomplishes what they're looking for.

SPEAKER_01 32:46

I mean we're talking about Brad Johnson, noted Pack connoisseur. Yeah. You have strong opinions about Packers. I do.

SPEAKER_03 32:55

I wish it would just be called the Pot Pack. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:57

That would have a good ring to it. Yeah. Pot pack.

SPEAKER_03 33:00

But I saw this and I was like, ooh, I think I know what this is, but I have nothing to prove it yet. Um the the treasurer on it, named Chloe Grossman. Former treasurer. Former treasurer. They just changed it in the recent filing. Um she I looked at her LinkedIn and she had hemp professional stuff in it. So I was just waiting for a subsequent filing to come out, and it did. And the reason it came out is because they changed the treasurer name, and so that triggers an automatic uh an automatic finance report. So this was filed, and it showed over a $300,000 donation from this true leave company that turns out to be a teacup vendor, or at least a conditionally approved one.

SPEAKER_01 33:48

Yeah, they just got it a few months back.

SPEAKER_03 33:50

So um clearly, you know, we it's a continuing theme. These industry groups that are either burgeoning or totally new to this state, or at least new new to the state in terms of political problems they have at the legislature, are looking more and more at political operations.

SPEAKER_01 34:11

Sorry, I'm logging into our website, our beautifully designed website, so I can look at this.

SPEAKER_03 34:19

Um But they they realize that they need to in order to affect policy, they need to act politically. And so um we'll see if there are more vendors that put money into this. $300,000 is a a good good amount to start with, but it's not like it's not gonna change the game lobby-wise on this. Um so I guess we'll see where it goes from there. And you know, as as I talked about with the Calchi Pack, it the Calchi Pack doesn't seem like they're going to have an actual political machine, they're just gonna hand out donations. I think my hunch is the opposite's true with this because of the way it's named. It's not named uh, you know, Texas Hemp Coalition or whatever. It's a a pack that sounds good and sounds kind of generic enough to put on a mailpiece and send out marketing that way.

SPEAKER_01 35:14

So and that makes sense because you know they have a physical presence places, so you've got to have a little bit more ground game, I would think.

SPEAKER_03 35:25

Yeah. Uh anything else you want to touch on, this one.

unknown 35:30

No.

SPEAKER_03 35:31

Okay. I'd say the you know, other than Camp Mystic, the biggest news this week came from the U.S. Supreme Court. Oh, yes. And it was on the topic of redistricting. The Louisiana VGA.

SPEAKER_01 35:42

Something that we have been waiting for for a long time. I mean, every time they're like, oh my gosh, yeah, we're gonna put out a ruling or you know because it will affect Texas.

SPEAKER_03 35:50

Yeah. Um we talked about that, we'll talk about it more. But it's affect the whole country. Yeah, the world even. The world. Oh wow, I don't know about that. But maybe. I mean indirectly. Three steps down the road, perhaps. Um, but the ruling in Louisiana v. Calais came out. Uh we now have an audience, Cassie. Our esteemed editor Cassie just came in. Um trying to be quiet and you just put her on blast like that. Uh Richie, you want to touch on the the ruling itself at all?

SPEAKER_01 36:25

Uh yeah, I mean, it was what we were kind of largely expecting. Uh Leto didn't necessarily nuke the entirety of the VRA. Section two of the VRA. Which is one of the few things kind of left standing still, as it's been you know, picked over legally like a vulture with roadkill. Um but it does open the door for a lot of additional redistricting in Republican-held states in the South. Uh, specifically, you know, we already have Louisiana, the governor there putting a pause on the primaries in order to call the legislature back in on the congressional primaries. On the congressional primary.

SPEAKER_03 37:09

Everything else is going on as as planned. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_01 37:11

But the one where the you know skin is in the game on this, uh, to redraw Louisiana to get rid of their diagonal districts.

SPEAKER_03 37:21

And okay, so the background of this case, the in in 2021, they redrew the maps. Uh they were found to have uh found to have taken away to viol have violated the VRA by taking away a black majority district and from the previous decade. So they're ordered by a court to fix it. They go in, they fix it, they add this district to comply with it that connects Shreveport to Baton Rouge, and it's a weird-looking district. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_01 37:55

Yeah, because you know, in in some of these states, the only way to do a minority district is to get very creative with it. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_03 38:03

And to connect to sometimes pretty distant uh city centers, and that's what happened. Um and of course, on the political side, it created a second democratic seat, whereas probably wouldn't have been a democratic seat otherwise. So this gets sued. Um they go all the way up to uh the Supreme Court, and the court rules that this was an impermissible, impermissible racial gerrymander, unconstitutional racial gerrymander. And there's a lot of nuances to this, but basically what a lot of Republicans had hoped Alito in the conservative majority on the court would do is just strike down uh the rest of Section 2 relating to majority-minority districts, kind of like what it did in Petaway on majority-minority coalition districts. That didn't happen. It was left in place, but severely reduced uh and narrowed. Um there are a lot of theories all over the place about this. Some on the Republican side think this was actually a better ruling for them because than than striking down the entirety of Section 2. Because under this, you can ba as a Republican, you can challenge a map on the basis that it was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander, whereas under a Section 2 less system, everything's political. It's all Rucho v common cause. Everything is partisan gerrymandering and it's non-justicial.

SPEAKER_01 39:42

You know, it's a big question, like, you know, during the hearings uh over Texas's um both new maps and then their old new maps, the 21 maps, um, the big thing is, you know, the accusation is you're redistricting based on race. And of course, Texas is like, no, it's all politics. But then, you know, the inverse, right? If if you're ordered to redistrict based on race, you know, like Louisiana was and some of these other places, well then it's a catch 22, right?

SPEAKER_03 40:14

Like catch 22 with Texas. So the biggest uh the biggest case against the Texas map was when uh all of these uh the authors are citing racial statistics racial makeup statistics on these new districts because they have to in order to comply with the VRA.

SPEAKER_01 40:35

But you also can't consider race. But you can't consider to comply with the VRA.

SPEAKER_03 40:40

So it's it like you said, it is a catch-22 stuck between a rock and a hard place. Um but uh just Salito Schrdinger's Schrodinger's gerrymandering.

SPEAKER_01 40:51

Yes, right.

SPEAKER_03 40:53

Um Just Salito wrote, this basically sums up his opinion on this, that um the best way to not discriminate on the basis of race is to not discriminate on the basis of race. I know, right? Um Clarence Thomas, he wrote a concurring opinion along with Neil Gorsuch.

SPEAKER_01 41:16

With a most legendary, as per my last email line in there. Did you see that where he's like as I explained, you know, 30 years ago in this dissent.

SPEAKER_03 41:26

Well, his argument is that the VRA was never written to deal with districting. It was about protecting one man, one vote, and so the extent in his argument that that applies to drawing districts is ensuring that districts are comparable and even in population, and that's it. As far as drawing drawing lines anywhere, it it his argument is it doesn't apply. That is not what the majority of the court ruled. Um and then you have the three liberal justices that dissented. Uh Elena Kagan wrote the dissent, and she argued that yeah, sure, section two of the VRA still stands, but oh in name only. And she called it a dead letter after this ruling. She said that um it's it might as well be gone.

SPEAKER_01 42:20

What would that be like a lino law name only?

SPEAKER_03 42:24

Yes. I saw your the wheels are spinning in your head coming up with that. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:30

Um That's why I'm no good at poker. Right. You know, not that I ever play.

SPEAKER_03 42:35

No. No. Never. No, that's illegal. No. Uh so what does this mean beyond the courtroom? This opens the door.

SPEAKER_01 42:46

I like how you asked yourself a question.

SPEAKER_03 42:49

You weren't gonna answer it.

SPEAKER_01 42:51

So I mean, you know, we were just having a conversation. So what does this mean beyond the courtroom?

SPEAKER_03 42:56

Oh, thank you, Richie. I appreciate it. Uh this mean this opens the door for a lot more mid-decade redistricting, particularly across the south.

SPEAKER_01 43:05

Our synchronized uh leg swamp.

SPEAKER_03 43:08

Or too close.

SPEAKER_01 43:08

It's I know. Sorry. Get out of your space.

SPEAKER_03 43:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:13

So what does this mean?

SPEAKER_03 43:14

We're gonna thank you. Are you gonna interrupt me again? Yeah, might be. Okay. Uh there is likely to be Well, you just spit it out already.

SPEAKER_01 43:25

Come on.

SPEAKER_03 43:25

Geez, man. Come on.

SPEAKER_01 43:27

Let's get to it.

SPEAKER_03 43:28

There's going to be another round of mid-decade redistricting across the South. Not all states will participate. We saw Florida already jumped into it. Louisiana, of course, you mentioned, is going to do it. Uh but Georgia said they're not doing that right now, at least not for this cycle. Probably will happen for the next cycle. And then you bring up Texas, and it's too late to alter the maps again here for this election. Primary's already happened. But it is very likely that. There will be redistricting next year to redraw not just the congressional map, but the state legislative maps, the SBOE map.

SPEAKER_01 44:08

And this is something that has been kind of floated around in backrooms for a little while of just you know, maybe we we go a little bit further on this whole map drawing thing.

SPEAKER_03 44:18

Yeah. And they were all waiting for Calais to be ruled on for that purpose. Um the best chance Democrats have of avoiding another round of redistricting is to perform very well. Is to win. Is to win elections this year in November and cut into the House the GOP House majority. To such an extent. Um and make it untenable politically for Republicans to do this in the House with too low of a lot of people.

SPEAKER_01 44:51

And of course, what's super interesting is, you know, everything goes through political cycles, and what's really fun is to go back and look at some of the last maps that Democrats drew in Texas before it flipped red. I mean, man. That 1992 map is a skill. It's an art. It's an art form.

SPEAKER_03 45:08

Democrats were very good at this.

SPEAKER_01 45:09

And they were very good at it.

SPEAKER_03 45:10

And then Republicans finally caught up to them.

SPEAKER_01 45:12

Yeah, and it's it's funny because like, you know, you look at some of these, like the Florida map that DeSantis proposed. Like you look at it and it looks very like block, block, block, block. Okay. And then you look at like the the 92 Texas maps, and it's like, man, that is miraculous.

SPEAKER_03 45:37

Uh the state. Um there's been a lot of talk about dummymanders over these maps. And it's certainly And specifically a dummy mander, how would you define that? A dummymander is a map that is drawn to the point to pick up seats, to the point where so many uh incumbents, existing incumbents or existing safe Republican or Democratic seats, become purple, and then you lose them as the party that drew the maps. There's a lot of talk about this Texas map being that, uh particularly from Democratic circles, uh, because Democrats are primed to have a really good cycle. It can't be called a dummy mander yet, I don't think. And I don't think it will end up being one, because Republicans didn't just draw this map with an eye towards this cycle. They drew it with an eye towards the next cycle and beyond. And as the the state of play has looked across the country, Democrats and most of their big states had already maximized or near maximized their ability to increase their hold on the congressional delegation. Because of the VRA, that had actually, in a lot of these southern states, it actually kept Republicans from doing the same. So there is more room to gain for Republicans if we're talking uh who wins the U.S. House in 26 and then 28. Yeah. It is a because of this, there's a higher likelihood that regardless of what happens this year, in 28, Republicans will be advantaged by this ruling, and that's why they were welcoming it so much. Um but I guess we'll see. And Democrats can help themselves a lot by performing well this cycle.

SPEAKER_01 47:31

It's a big uh it's a big year for guys who like maps.

SPEAKER_03 47:35

And Dora the Explorer. She's a big map gal.

SPEAKER_01 47:38

Is she now?

SPEAKER_03 47:39

Yes. So I hear. So I remember from my childhood, you know.

SPEAKER_01 47:42

Yeah, were you a big Dora guy?

SPEAKER_03 47:44

Love Dora. Yep. Interesting. Her in boots. It was a must-see programming when I was five years old. Um okay, I think that's enough about redistricting habits. My cartoon habits? Yeah. We've heard I was gonna say redistricting, but I guess you could describe some of the map drawing as cartoon habits because of how outlandish they are.

SPEAKER_01 48:07

Um Should we draw some maps? Would that be fun?

SPEAKER_03 48:11

I have drawn maps, but it is pretty fun. It's hard too. It's a lot harder than you think.

SPEAKER_01 48:16

Oh, I I I 100% believe it's difficult.

SPEAKER_03 48:20

Last thing I'll plug on this is I wrote fourth reading, uh the title was the numbschool. Thank you. The five numb schools you meet in redistricting hell. And it was very cathartic to write. I can feel that coming off the uh coming off the page. I had seen these just asinine takes on from both sides of the aisle on this stuff. They're dumb people on both sides of the aisle. Yes. And it was fun to put them all in one spot and just air my grievances, basically. Good. Do you feel better now? I do. So check that out if you want some cheap entertainment.

SPEAKER_01 48:53

And in order to check it out and to get it delivered to your inbox, you have to subscribe to Texas Bullpen. Uh you can go to TexasBullpin.com forward slash subscribe. Subscribe today. Uh for one martini a month, you can get daily breakdowns on everything happening in Texas politics direct to your inbox, including two weekly columns and a Saturday newsletter as well, ranking the top five spiciest things that happen in Texas politics. And that'll be in your inbox as this is published this morning. This morning, Saturday morning. Uh so again, one martini a day or one steak dinner for a whole year of it. Uh so it's a great deal. Um and it's a great time. It's a great one. We like to think so. We like to think so.

SPEAKER_03 49:43

Richie, there were a couple U.S. Senate polls that came out this week. There were. What what did you take away from these when you were looking at them? Well, the first one And then first they were they were both one was Texas Public Opinion Research, which is uh Luke Warford's outfit. Uh Luke is a a Democratic operative in the state. And the second one was the um uh Texas Policics Project, the guys at UT, Jim Henson. Um they both came out and showed November matchups between Talo Rico and then the two prospective Republicans. Both generally had Taller Rico in the lead over Cornyn and Paxton. Any any more insight into those that you that stuck out to you?

SPEAKER_01 50:28

Yeah, I mean I think you really grabbed the the top line there. That is the top line.

SPEAKER_03 50:32

The uh but you know, the ballot test is almost never the most interesting part of these things.

SPEAKER_01 50:37

Well, what was interesting is while they had Talarico up, when it came to generic ballots and just the overall favorability of Republicans versus Democrats, Republicans were still well up on Democrats. I think in the was it the UT poll, uh, you know, I think it was plus eight Republican favorability, and Democrats was minus six or something like that, which is a pretty big spread for like the generics. And then also, too, if you go down ballot, it still had Abbott up over Una Hosa, it still had the rest of them up. It was just the Senate one where uh regardless if it was Paxton or Corny, yeah, didn't matter. Um Yeah, I mean it was it was very interesting to look at.

SPEAKER_03 51:26

Uh it votes well for Republicans down ballot right now. It does. Regardless of who the nominee is at the top, and regardless of what happens there.

SPEAKER_01 51:34

And you know, Texas got rid of straight ticket voting. You know, you can't just pull a lever. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 51:39

Um and I've heard mixed reactions on from from insiders on how they think that's gonna affect things. Some think it's gonna be massively impactful, uh, basically against Democrats, because this the the same dynamic is just not there that it was for Beto. Others think it's not gonna do much at all, that the enthusiasm is still gonna drive success down ballot, and you know, I guess we'll find out. But um the other thing that stuck out to me on these two results was um Tal Rico's numbers he's pulling. Yes, he's in the lead. There's also 20% undecided. Yeah, and he is floating around, he's he's either, depending on which result you're looking at, either well below the high water mark, which was Beto Rocket, what, 48, 49 percent-ish. Uh and he's I think his highest percent he pulled in was forty-six in these ballot tests. And that's still not up to the high water mark.

SPEAKER_01 52:42

Yeah. Um what was also interesting too is you know, he had net favorability, but there was still like a substantial percentage of respondents on these polls who did not know who Talarico was. And of course, he's got a lot of money to change that and a lot of time in which to change it.

SPEAKER_03 53:00

And as we've mentioned before in the podcast, he is outraising. Uh he's bringing in loads more money than Beto did at this point in the cycle last time. But on the flip side of this, Republicans are not being caught flat footed. So which one ends up weighing more, we'll see. There's gonna be a lot of tactics, a lot of stratic campaign strategy, and it will matter. But um this is overarching. The dynamics are there for a 2018 type cycle. But look down in the the details, and there's substantial differences. Um, so I guess we'll see.

SPEAKER_01 53:38

I guess what we'll have to do is wait and find out.

SPEAKER_03 53:43

There's only one way to get there, and it is letting time pass.

SPEAKER_01 53:46

Day by day, second by second.

SPEAKER_03 53:49

Uh anything else you want to touch on there?

SPEAKER_01 53:51

No, I think I've touched enough.

SPEAKER_03 53:53

Yes. You and your grubby little raccoon hands. Uh okay. They're What is your spirit animal, Brad? I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 54:01

What do you think? I don't know. Well, that's why I'm asking you. Like, far be it from me, too.

SPEAKER_03 54:06

I don't know. I think this is a question Cassie would would have an answer for, but Cassie, what is Brad's spirit animal? Well, she'll get back to us. She'll think about it.

SPEAKER_01 54:17

I want you guys to comment or text us or let us know or email us. Maybe facts even. Facts, yes. Whatever you think Brad's spirit. Carrier Pigeon. Carrier Pigeon. That'd be cool.

SPEAKER_03 54:27

Yeah. Um There was a a notable statement by Governor Greg Abbott this week that we should touch on.

SPEAKER_01 54:35

For whatever reason, I really thought you were gonna like you saying carrier pigeon had like triggered some fun fact about it. No. And I was like really excited for that.

SPEAKER_03 54:43

Well, aren't carrier pigeons extinct? I'm pretty sure they went extinct during the war.

SPEAKER_01 54:49

No, no.

SPEAKER_03 54:50

No, no, they're still around. That was a that was a tidbit I heard in school constantly.

SPEAKER_01 54:57

So I guess I was just no way every single like homing pigeon was killed. Thank you for that fact check.

SPEAKER_03 55:05

Wow.

unknown 55:07

Passenger pigeon did go except.

SPEAKER_03 55:09

Passenger pigeon, that's what I'm thinking of. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 55:12

Passenger. Well, there you have it.

SPEAKER_03 55:14

There's your there's your fun tidbit of the day from Texas Bullpen. Um another fun tidbit, cancel your summer plans next year, Richie.

SPEAKER_01 55:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 55:25

Because Governor Greg Abbott is going to war on this property tax stuff. Tax fight. He was uh giving a speech to TCCRI, their their gathering this week in Austin, and he said that um he will not he and the legislature will not be leaving town next year until they pass property tax reform. And he has a very comprehensive, I think it's a list of five points that uh he wants done, one of which is a 3% appraisal cap, not just on homesteads, but across the board on all property, which will be a major sticking point. And I would be flabbergasted if that makes it in the final, whatever the final product is. Flabbergasted, yeah. Yeah. Um there's gonna be quite the brouhahaha over that next year. Um but he is issuing a warning, and he this is kind of a reiteration of things he said in the past. He has said uh I, Greg Abbott, will go on a crusade like I did over school choice about property taxes.

SPEAKER_01 56:30

And specifically his plan.

SPEAKER_03 56:32

His plan, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 56:33

Because Lieutenant Governor has a different plan.

SPEAKER_03 56:36

Yes. His is the the uh double nickel plan, which includes lowering the uh senior and disabled or the senior homestead exemption. Aaron Ross Powell 65 to 55. Yes. And all this is is about shifting money around. Where do we place the more acute burden of paying these taxes? Abbott also wants added restrictions on local government taxing entities. Um he wants to eliminate the school district tax for homesteads. And according to the number he said here at this event was eleven that will cost $11.2 billion to pay both M and O and INS on homesteads. Which is a pretty penny. Pretty penny. And I think the state has what thirty billion dollars roughly in the uh the state savings account. Well $11.2 billion would take out a huge chunk of that. That would be a a large expenditure uh just on this for something that you then have to pay for two years from now, from then, uh to keep it going without preventing or to prevent tax bills from rising commensurately. So I this is a huge math problem, and I'm very curious to see any specific details on how they plan to pay for this. Uh but that's where the that's the rub on this, you know. As with every property tax fight, which is why it's so difficult to make any massive reform. You know, I'm hearing a lot of uh support for uh a sales tax swap. Well, my first session in 2019, there was a proposed half cent sales tax swap, and it went down in a blaze of fury. And I don't see how that has changed enough. The dynamics on that have changed enough to make that viable. And not just that viable, but in order to accomplish this level of tax relief, you would have to go higher than that. Massive six cents, something like that. Well, the the state the the uh the the the statistics cited by Dan Patrick and and others is I think in order to do that you'd have to raise the sales tax to twenty-six percent. Uh certainly above twenty percent. Voters are not gonna support that.

SPEAKER_01 59:02

For every dollar, you've got to do that. But voters want their you got to spend a quarter to spend a dollar.

SPEAKER_03 59:06

Right. And there's only so much you can cut. Um certainly there are places to cut, and I think we'll see a push for that with the Texas Regulatory Efficiency Office, which I hear is gonna come out with some some interesting findings soon. Um but the uh there's no way you can cut your way out of this.

SPEAKER_01 59:29

Yeah, the cuts are drops in the bucket compared to how much you'd have to spend on that.

SPEAKER_03 59:36

Yeah. So it's a delicate balance that they're having to find here. And I don't envy those having to reform this.

SPEAKER_01 59:42

But what percentage of tax was like the Stamp Act? It was like 0.003 or something like that.

SPEAKER_03 59:49

Are you predicting a uh a Tea Party type movement?

SPEAKER_01 59:52

Aaron Ross Powell Man, all I know is that since we started this business, we've s learned more than we wanted to know about taxes and sales tax.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:01

And you know, as lowly small business owners, this is something near and dear to our heart.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:08

Aaron Ross Powell It is caused, I was saying this earlier, it is caused the the uh youthful libertarian in me that I had you know, buried six feet under the ground. It's it's reviving. It's it's zombie-like now.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:22

I know. I mean like I think we just call each other about taxes. Like goodness, every time if we this would be a fun game to play. We just have a one dollar, we pass it back and forth and see how many times we can pass it back and forth to each other before the government takes it off. Because every time it changes hands. Yeah. Oh you know, the little little toll.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:48

Yeah, and now we just we have a subscriber who lives in France, and apparently now we gotta pay taxes on that to France. What the hell? What is this sh we ought to go over there and teach them a lesson. Yeah. We America hasn't hasn't fought a war against France yet, so first time for everything. Let's go. All right. Our little militia here. Yeah. Um there's probably more guns owned between us than the entirety of France. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:21

I really feel like there was a time when we not like fought against France, France, but like we definitely opposed France. I mean, when we were c colonies with uh under Great Britain, yes, but you can think about like Napoleon III when he came back into Mexico in the 1800s and stuff, and like we must have squat shots there, you know.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:43

It was mainly the Brits and the Spaniards that we had clashes with. But anyway, we won't really have a lot of people. I will find a way.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:50

I will find a way to make sure that we fought with France.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:00

That you said was actually pretty interesting.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:01

It went it went on this morning as well. Okay. So uh yeah, Select Committee on Healthcare Affordability. It's you know, we talk about those polls. One of the things those polls always show is that affordability is a major concern for people, and within that, healthcare affordability is a major concern uh for people because you know rates keep going up, things like that. A lot of people defer their coverage. And you know, I am not a medically minded individual. My kind of healthcare philosophy is prayer and fasting. But it was really, really interesting hearing, it was all invited testimony from healthcare experts, professionals, people who have these different uh uh there was a Yale professor that came down and gave very interesting testimony as well about where are the biggest cost drivers and factors. Uh Chairman Frank, I think, did a uh good job for laying out um some of the things that the legislature will be looking at on how to start getting in there and messing with it. And of course, there are a lot of uh uh limitations on what all the state can do versus you know the federal level of regulation and things of that nature. But the big things that all the experts kind of pointed to for rising costs are consolidation, where you have these big hospital systems and uh providers and uh different insurance companies buying up not just competitors, but buying uh vertical consolidation as well, to where one company not only owns, you know, the the drug manufacturer, the drug seller, they own all the middlemen too, and they own, you know, the hospitals and you know what that makes me think of deregulation of the power grid in Texas, because for decades there was that vertical. You would find a way to make this about energy.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:04

Yes, of course I would. Uh but it it it is very similar where you know costs rise when you don't um when everything's owned by the same entity because there's little competition. That at least that was the philosophy behind the deregulation of the power grid, and it worked, and it's still working. You know, various other reasons that are adding costs. Um but uh it worked for a long time, and Texas had a significantly lower utility rates because they they eliminated the vertical integration. Yeah. So maybe that's a route here.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:37

Yeah, I think that's something that they're definitely probably thinking about because they talked a lot about consolidation, a lot about how the incentive structure is against independence. So, like, I mean, there are programs in which that if you are an independent physician running your own uh clinic, like you have to pay higher costs for the same exact things that as soon as you sell uh into or you know get bought out by a bigger company, immediately all your costs go down for no other reason than just the fact that you are not an independent operator. Uh they also just talked about how the complexity of the system um drives up costs. There was a uh a doctor there who said, you know, 80 to 90 percent of my day is spent jumping through hoops, you know. And then uh particularly when you throw in uh Medicaid compliance. Well, that's what he was talking about. I mean, that even to order a MRI or something, you know, he was going through how many clicks he has to do and immediately sounded like me crashing out over pop ups. You know, like no, I do not want the AI.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:50

No, I do not want to a big reason why a lot of doctors have increasingly gone with the direct care model where they're not taking Medicaid. And it's not just that, but Just just flat out not taking Medicaid.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:02

Yesterday's panels were all talking about kind of uh the cost drivers today. Uh the first panel I was only able to listen to before we had to to hop on this, uh, was talking about the insurance side of things, which is another huge uh driver. And you know, they brought up, you know, again, there's very difficult market to enter into, uh, you know, to even call it like a free market is a little bit scoffable, they would say, uh, because there are only, you know, two main ones. There was a third one that got approved recently, and that was like the first one that got approved in decades. And so it's just, yeah, it was very interesting to me. I thought uh it's something that we're gonna be watching, and uh there's gonna be a lot of movement on that specific uh subject, I think, this cycle as well. You know, it's just one of those things. Um but yeah, something we're gonna be watching. I thought it I thought they were very good. I was, you know, texting with some healthcare professionals and advocates, and they were uh very over the moon about how the uh hearings went.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:11

So well, something to follow, and you know, there's a lot of these very heady, weighty issues that the legislature is gonna have to tackle next year, and we'll be right there along for the ride.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:21

Well, you know, everybody always there's all the the big, flashy, you know, cultural stuff, the stuff that you put into uh, you know, your election materials, stuff that goes up on the airwaves. At least for the primaries, yeah. Yeah, and the primaries, and then and then there's the nuts and bolts. Yeah. Uh that are very fascinating, very major, big issues that impact everybody's day-to-day lives. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:47

Um this session next year is gonna be a very nuts and bolts heavy session. Um, I think, based on how the the election's looking, yeah. It's kind of gonna dynamics gonna be similar to 2019, where there's a refocus on you know, kitchen table bread and butter issues as they described them back then. But also because the legislature's already done so much on a lot of these cultural war issues that what's left to deal with are, you know, affordability, property taxes, uh uh data centers, you know. Um that's kind of taken on a bit of a culture culture war flavor, but it's not really that kind of issue. It is just a hotbed of a a debate. Um but there's a a ton of these issues that the legislature is gonna have to really home in on and find a way to address in five months.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:41

Unless we be in special sessions, which is a good thing. It takes a it takes a lot.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:47

It takes a lot of work to get to a level to where you even understand what the problems are. Yeah. You know, so it's kind of like being back in school.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:56

Um Hey, the the one thing I've learned doing this job is it's nothing if not constant learning, which is fun. And I enjoy learning in this job far more than I ever did in school. Yeah. It's a lot more fun.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:09

So well, good for you. Thank you. I'm glad to see that level of personal growth happening. Hey. We're all very proud of you, Brad. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:16

Nobody else I'd rather do that with than with you. Oh Richie. Yeah. Oh and Cassie, of course. Especially Cassie.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:24

Off camera, what about me?

SPEAKER_03 1:09:26

She doesn't drive me nuts as much as Richie does.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:28

But that's part of my charm.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:29

Yes. You know. Well, with that, I think that concludes this episode of the Texas Bullpen Podcast. Give us a like and review if you liked it.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:37

If you liked it.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:38

And uh, if not, go on your merry way. Adios. But uh we'll be back next week to discuss whatever the heck happens in the next seven days.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:47

And it should be a fun week. There's a chance that I might be uh on the road the whole week doing some doing some scouting around, there we go. Doing some travel, and you know, that always brings fun stories. Yes. I love coming back from the road with stories to tell you guys, like a like a dog dropping a possum off on your front door.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:08

That's that's an illustration.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:12

Yeah. Yeah. You okay. All right, well, you guys have a good weekend. Uh it's the Kentucky Derby when this airs. So, you know, don't bet on it. Well, I bet but I bet Calci has maybe prediction market. Yes. Prediction market it. Yeah. Yeah. You know, that's one of those things that kind of drives me up a wall. We have all these new things, but they're just not as like sexy or cool as the old things, right? Like gambling. Whoo. Fun. Cool. Vegas, kind of sexy. Prediction market. I'm gonna trade futures contracts. It just doesn't have the motion that the old stuff has. And that's but we can do that, but you know, it let's just make it cool, right? Like, you know, the new big boom is is AI and and and data centers. It's just not as cool as like getting a big drill and drilling into the earth until like you know black liquid gold comes out. Like that's got some motion to it, you know. I'm gonna stand around and watch computers get hot. Not as cool. It maybe it could be made cool. I don't know. We just haven't seen it yet. There you have a closing rant from Richie.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:24

Sorry. Return to tradition.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:26

Yeah, return to tradition.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:27

Gamble.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:29

But don't do that, because that's illegal. Because we will citizens arrest you potentially. If I see you with our many guns we have. Yeah, if I see we're gonna invade France with. Yeah, exactly. If I see you gamble this weekend, I'm going to tackle you and arrest you and lock you up.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:42

Well. I guess we'll see how that goes.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:45

I guess we'll see.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:45

All right. Catch you next week, y'all.