The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - December 17, 2021

Episode Date: December 17, 2021

This week on The Texan’s “Weekly Roundup,” the team discusses the field of candidates running for lieutenant governor, the attorney general opening up an investigation into certain pharmaceutical companies regarding puberty blockers, a certain “Rick Perry” running for governor, a new redistricting lawsuit, a fatal car chase resulting from a human smuggling attempt, Congress opting to raise the debt ceiling, a Texas city facing a lawsuit from one of its citizens over a parking lot, Harris County exploring the use of COVID-19 federal funds to help women receive abortions, conflict in the National Guard over vaccine requirements, a drug bust near the Hidalgo International Bridge, and our list of the top Texas Christmas gifts to give friends and family this year.

Happy Friday and Merry Christmas! Senior Editor Mackenzie Taylor here bringing you this week's News Roundup with our wonderful team of reporters. This week, the team discusses the field of candidates running for Lieutenant Governor, the Attorney General opening up an investigation into certain pharmaceutical companies regarding puberty blockers, a certain Rick Perry running for Governor, a new redistricting lawsuit, a fatal car chase resulting from a human smuggling attempt, Congress opting to raise the debt ceiling, redistricting lawsuit, a fatal car chase resulting from a human smuggling attempt, Congress opting to raise the debt ceiling, a Texas city facing a lawsuit from one of its citizens over a parking lot, Harris County exploring the use of COVID-19 federal funds to help women receive abortions, conflict in the National Guard over vaccine requirements, a drug bust near the

Hidalgo International Bridge, and our list of the top Texas Christmas gifts to give friends and family this year. Thanks for listening. Have a wonderful weekend. We are so glad you joined us. Howdy, folks. Mackenzie Taylor here with Brad Johnson, Daniel Friend, Hayden Sparks, and Isaiah Mitchell in the presence of both a mini Christmas tree. Merry Christmas, everyone. And the Narnia series, which we will get into later and have a lively discussion over. We've already had it over Slack. We've already had it in our offices. But a lot of people in this office have a lot to say.

And by those people, I mean me. So that's why we're going to do it this week. Okay. Whatever you say. I appreciate the support,adley in the spirit of christmas in the spirit of christmas and i do think daniel were you arguing oh my gosh that's so true um were you arguing that the lion lodging the order was a christmas book yes a christmas movie yeah i think that should be a a i get so bored and tired of the normal

christmas movies i think that should be added should be added to the the canon the canon of christmas are you telling me you don't like watching a christmas prince every year or christmas prince one two three four five six seven i can't believe you know those movies exist brad oh my gosh i don't even know what does anybody else at this table know the prince of christ Prince? Is this like a Hallmark thing? Yeah, I didn't think so. A Netflix Hallmark? Legitimately one of the worst movies ever.

It is awful and it's fantastic. It's so awful. I'm not surprised you say that. That is incredible to watch. Daniel, I would pay good money to have you watch it just to watch you grimace. In the Christmas spirit, of course. Daniel looks so concerned. I don't know what to say. Well, on that note, before we get into all of that, let's go ahead and jump into our content for this week. Hayden, let's talk about the Lieutenant Governor's race. Who is running

for Lieutenant Governor? Well, we have the incumbent, Dan Patrick, who has been in the office for a number of years now. Many people will remember in 2014, he unseated Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst, who was also defeated when he ran for U.S. Senate in 2012. Ted Cruz won in the runoff that year. Dan Patrick has positioned himself as a bulwark of conservative legislation in austin and he is also a skilled fundraiser so he has a pretty hefty campaign chest heading into the 2022 primary which is about 10 weeks away now and the general election which will of course be in 11 months he is facing some challengers, but this year he's been very vocal on conservative issues, hot button items that are controversial,

but that conservatives like to hear about things like protecting the Star-Spangled Banner. When the sports teams announced that they would stop playing it before games. He introduced a bill to cut off state funding for many teams that did not do that. And then he also was part of the coalition that worked on reforming the power grid after winter storm Uri. He also was a supporter of the heartbeat bill and a vocal supporter of the election integrity law. And he has not backed away from feuding with Speaker Phelan and Governor Abbott when he believes they are not doing what he thinks a conservative lawmaker or conservative leader should do. So Dan Patrick is seeking to be the conservative candidate, the conservative statewide elected official. And so he has a lot of support, a lot of name

recognition here in the state of Texas. Anyone challenging him has an uphill battle, but anything can happen in politics. So that anyone going up against Dan Patrick, though, does have a tough opponent. Certainly. And I will say we've paid much more attention to both the governor's race and the attorney general's race. And I'd say for good reason that candidates in those races are a little bit more formidable in some ways, at least right now in terms of fundraising and prominence, name ID, etc. But it'll be very interesting, especially on the on the Democrat side to see what happens there. And just to go over some of the candidates running against him, we have Tracy Bradford, she's a conservative activist and and a former president of Texas Eagle

Forum. Andrew Sorrells, he's a business owner from Keller, and he's running on a conservative platform. And then Daniel Miller, he's the president of the Texas Nationalist Movement. His mantra is he's hoping for a statewide referendum on voting to secede from the union. And of course, the Texas nationalist movement is very much in favor of that passing. And then there's a more of an obscure candidate, Zach Vance. He filed to run for the lieutenant governor out this past week. And Mike Collier, who ran against Dan Patrick in 2018, is also running again. Then just recently, Carla Braley, who is the vice chair of the Texas Democratic Party, announced her candidacy. And then Michelle Beckley, who has

kind of been on a merry-go-round when it comes to races that she's hoping to win in. She originally was going to run for Congress, and then she pondered aloud about running in Denton County for Denton County Judge or Denton County Commissioner's Court. But after the redistricting process, she was drawn out of her house district and the congressional district she wanted. So she instead of seeking statewide office as lieutenant governor, she announced in October. But Matthew Dowd is probably one of the more interesting candidacies, brief candidacies in this race. Four more candidacies. Right.

Very, very much so. And tell us why he dropped out of the race. Well, and just to correct myself earlier, I said Andrew Sorrells. His name is actually Aaron Sorrells. So just to correct that, one of the Republican candidates. But Matthew Dowd was a talking head for ABC News, and he was also a former Republican strategist during the Bush era. But he wrote an op-ed in 2018, essentially making the case that white Christian men should step aside and provide more opportunities for racial minorities and women. I'm still not quite sure how that works, if the idea is that the only way for racial minorities and for women to succeed is for Christian white men to succeed less. That seems to be a possible interpretation of the point that

he was making. But he dropped out for that reason. And he contended that when he entered the race, it wasn't a diverse field because it was just Mike Collier. And of course, since he announced Beckley, a female candidate announced and then Braley, a black candidate announced or was rumored to be considering she announced after he dropped, pardon me. But there was some kickback from the Dallas mayor, Eric Johnson, who said he was disturbed by this logic because it seemed to be a suggestion from Johnson's point of view that Democratic primary voters were incapable of nominating racial minorities and women if there was a white male candidate on the ballot. And then Johnson indicated that if it is true that that is the case, then the

800-pound gorilla in the room is racism in the Democratic Party was the exact phrase that Johnson used. So an interesting dust-up over Dowd's entering and exiting the race with some questionable logic. Yeah, certainly. So let's talk bigger picture. What might have to happen for Dan Patrick to be unseated? Well, as I mentioned before, if Collier gets nominated by the Democrats, that'd be a rematch between Dan Patrick and Mike Collier. Collier is a businessman, but he's running on a very much of a liberal platform. He supports abortion rights, supports action on climate change, and he supports legalizing marijuana issues like that. He came within 400,000 votes of unseating Dan Patrick in 2018. But it's also important to remember that that was a midterm election when Trump was in the White House and midterm elections

tend to favor the party that's not in the White House. So 2022 is going to be a midterm when Biden is in the White House. So that could be different. But that's the same year that while Governor Abbott defeated Lupi Valdez pretty handily in that year, Beto O'Rourke gave Ted Cruz a run for his money. And Ted Cruz and Dan Patrick really came close to losing their seats. Uh, so a rematch would be interesting between Patrick and Collier. Um, and Patrick is again, going to put to the test, uh, the strategy of running, um, on staunchly conservative positions on, on controversial topics. So 2022 will be interesting. And, and, you know, as, as politics bears out, a lot of these candidates are obscure, but Ted Cruz was an obscure candidate at

one point. When he first started out against Dewhurst, he was pulling it. He joked at one time that when he first started against Dewhurst, he was pulling at 1% and polls where the margin of error was 3%. So he could have feasibly been a negative 2%. So you never know with these races and we'll know in 2022. Certainly. Hayden, thank you for that. Isaiah, we're going to come to you. The attorney general recently announced that he would open up an investigation into certain pharmaceutical companies regarding puberty blockers, something that's been in the news for months now. What's going on? Give us the rundown. So Paxton sent out a press release on Monday of this week,

Monday evening, notifying the public that out a press release on a Monday of this week, Monday evening, notifying the public that his office has begun investigating a couple of pharmaceutical companies, Endo Pharmaceuticals and AbbVie, for allegedly advertising and promoting puberty blockers to treat gender dysphoria. And for those of you who don't know, puberty blockers are hormonal treatment that are used off-label to create hormonal changes in the body and, you know, create a puberty blockade to prevent children from developing according to their regular hormones under, you know, if they have gender dysphoria. So, he's investigating these two companies, Endo and AbbVie. neither are based in Texas. They operate globally with bases of

operation outside of Texas. And he says that he is investigating them under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, essentially alleging that because the uses of these drugs for gender dysphoria are off-label, in other words, the drugs are officially meant for different conditions, like precocious puberty, for example, or prostate cancer. Then by promoting them for gender dysphoria treatment, they are violating the Deceptive Trade Practices Act. Got it. Now, did either of these companies respond to the announcement? AbbVie did not get back to me. Endo did and said that they essentially deny the allegation they said that the company has not promoted any of the medications that paxton named

outside of their indications on the label and they do not promote medications for off-label uses that being said they said that they intend to fully cooperate with the investigation and and again abv just hasn't responded yet in public as far as I know. Got it. Now give us the broader context. Remind us what's happening with Paxton and puberty blockers right now. So we've talked before a lot about how their efforts to ban puberty blockers for the use of gender modification, these attempts, there's attempts in the Texas legislature to ban these drugs for that use. And all of these attempts kind of fizzled out when none of them got a vote on the House floor. So afterward, Abbott did his thing and asked Abbott, excuse me, Abbott asked DFPS to treat actual genital surgeries for the purposes of gender modification as abused, and the DFPS agreed, but they have so far declined to broaden their interpretation of child abuse to also include puberty blockers made for the

same purpose until Paxton resolves an opinion request made by another Texas lawmaker. And issuing opinions in response to elected officials sent by official requests, that's one of Paxton's duties as Attorney General. And so when he gets one of Paxton's duties as attorney general. And so when he gets one of these requests, in this case, it was from state rep Matt Krause, he's got 180 days to digest it and come up with an opinion on the legality, in this case, of puberty blockers and whether or not existing child abuse law would also cover them as abuse when performed on children. So, Paxton still has not released that opinion, but we can see here, as in this case of this investigation, that he's taking

certain actions along the same lines to signal that, in a personal sense, albeit not an official sense yet, he has opposed to the use of these drugs for gender transition. Certainly. Well, thank you, Isaiah, for covering that for us. We'll keep an eye on that issue. Brad, we're going to come to you. Speaking of primaries and campaigns, let's talk about another big name entry into the Republican governor's primary this week, right before the filing deadline passed.

Who was it? Well, it was none other than Rick Perry. Rick Perry? Yes, yes. That Rick Perry? No. Which Rick Perry? No, not that Rick Perry.

A different Rick Perry. Which Rick Perry? Of Parker County. Oh, okay. So not that Rick Perry. No, but he does carry with him a lot of name ID of the other Rick Perry. Of the other Rick Perry. Where's that Rick Perry from compared to this Rick Perry?

That's a good question. No, I don't know. I mean, how do you know they're not both from Parker County? That's a great question. That's fair. So this Rick Perry, who kind of set off a firestorm in Texas politics on Monday, right before the filing deadline closed. He's an IT engineer from Parker County. He's a GOP precinct chair there, or he was until very recently.

And kind of just a Republican activist who happens to share the name of the former governor who is still incredibly popular in this state. And so this Rick Perry, we'll call him the other Rick Perry, filed for governor on Monday. And he sent a letter to the Parker County GOP chair withdrawing his name from the precinct chair election that he had filed for on November 30th. And also resigning from his current position as that precinct chair. And so, you know, that's a lot of coverage and a lot of people just wondering, first of all, is this the former governor? Then they found out it's not pretty quickly. And then just who the heck is this guy? And so, he is less than a week into his

gubernatorial campaign and is already becoming the feature of a new cycle. Yeah. Well, let's talk about this real fast, because from the perspective of somebody running in the primary, which would by definition mean that they are opposed to Governor Abbott, having another candidate in the race with that kind of name ID is beneficial, right, to try and split the vote. That's a big reason why somebody with this kind of name might enter. Yeah, certainly beneficial for the challengers. Would obviously not be beneficial for the incumbents, especially considering how popular the former governor still is. Yeah.

And obviously how big of a name he is. And so it could have massive effects on the race. Potentially, right? Depending on how it's battled. Yeah. It certainly would have. I think it's a safe bet to say that he'll have a far greater effect than any other random person that has filed for governor. You know, I mean, there's not just Don Huffines and Alan West and Chad Pratt that are running against Abbott.

There's a bunch of GOP challengers that are much less notable. And Rick Perry, because of his name, has jumped up into the, at least closer to the top tier of candidates just because of sharing a name with the former governor. Certainly. Okay. Well, let's talk about his ballot eligibility. It was challenged this week. What are the details of that? So, attorney Eric Opiella, he's a GOP activist, former, he ran for agriculture commissioner against Sid Miller in 2014. He's kind of in and about the Texas GOP insider stuff. And so, he filed a challenge with the Republican Party of Texas on behalf of a client, he didn't say who the client was, that this Rick Perry's resignation letter that I had mentioned, that he, it was not valid because it wasn't properly

notarized and he threatened a lawsuit. Now, the letter Perry sent to the Parker County GOP chair, he sent the day before he filed for governor, so on December 12th, and if OPLA's allegations were true, this would put Perry on the ballot for two positions, which is not allowed under state law. And so if that happens, the first filing is the one that is accepted and preserved. And then every subsequent one after that is invalidated. And so that would have invalidated the gubernatorial filing. it on Wednesday. And so it was pretty quick turnaround. Um, they rolled against it pointing to another section of code that supersedes what Opiela cited that does not require, um, acknowledgement, which Opiela in his letter and it's challenged alleged meant, um, uh, notarization from an official notary. And so they also cited an 1986 case in which the El Paso Appeals Court

ruled a very similar situation and basically said, no, chapter 172, it's very in the weeds in statute, but chapter 172 overrules chapter 145. And so OPLA was pointing to 145 and then the RPpt pointed to 172 saying no this uh over supersedes it and that didn't have an acknowledgement or notary requirement there and

so they ruled that the filing is is um fine it's um within keeping of the of the rules and so he remains on the ballot. And unless something crazy changes, in fact, probably if he decides to pull his name off the ballot, then he'll remain on the ballot. And so one of the things that I thought was interesting, Rinaldi, Matt Rinaldi, our PT chair, he was the one that issued the letter.

He also questioned OPL's standing for potential litigation. Obviously, he hasn't come to that, probably won't come to that. but the threat was made. And he asked who OPL's client was. When I spoke to OPL on the phone, he said that he had a client that he filed this on behalf of and didn't name him. But in terms of standing to file a lawsuit, you have to have been, uh, harmed, um, by, uh, the action that you're alleging was taken and the person who allegedly made the action. And so, uh, the only people who could be theoretically harmed, at least at first glance, um, are the other gubernatorial candidates who stand to lose votes if this other rick perry is pulling votes from them uh ineligibly so um all in all this really not going to come of much because of

what the rpt ruled and um you know according to code it seemed pretty straightforward that it was the correct call and so um yeah rick perry remains on the ballot got it yeah so moving forward this just means that we're going to have another person with a Rick Perry remains on the ballot. Got it. Yeah. So moving forward, this just means that we're going to have another person with a very notable name on the ballot. What else could this potentially mean? Well, we mentioned that, you know, could siphon off votes from the other challengers or Abbott. That's something obviously everything is working towards the election and how many votes each candidate gets. And so that's the end game there. But it could also throw off polling. If you're polling a Rick Perry in the governor's race, that is going to skew the numbers substantially

from what you would with just Allen West, Don Huffines, Chad Prather, and Greg Abbott. So that could cause changes or decisions to be made that wouldn't otherwise have been by these campaigns because of the internal polling. So I just kind of throw a wrench into a lot of things and, you know, which is probably why Rick Perry decided to do this. And so we'll see how it all pans out. But it's something that will be very interesting to see how it plays out and the effect that Rick Perry has on this race. Certainly. It's fun to say Rick Perry entered the race for governor.

It's fun to say. Well, thank you for covering that, Bradley. Daniel, we're going to come to you. More redistricting lawsuits. Surprise, surprise. But talk to us about any rulings on the redistricting lawsuits that we've seen so far. So there's been a lot of redistricting lawsuits that have been filed. I have not yet seen any court orders or rulings that have had any significant impact on redistricting itself.

However, we did see another redistricting lawsuit filed this week from Representative Trey Martinez Fisher. He's a state lawmaker from San Antonio, Bexar County. And he was filing a lawsuit in federal court alleging that the 35th Congressional District, which lives up to its name because it stretches along 35 between San Antonio and Austin in some very small little slivers at some points. But he was alleging that that district in specific is unlawful. Got it. So what makes this lawsuit different from the other ones? Besides the fact that it's focused in on that particular district, which the other lawsuits really don't touch on that district, there's other specific districts that they do argue about, they do hone in on,

but the 35th congressional district is not one that has traditionally been, uh, really focused on. It's a, it's a solid blue seat. It was a solid blue seat. It still is. Um, but it hasn't gotten a lot of attention in the lawsuits. So that's really the big difference between, uh, this lawsuit and the other ones. Now, uh, the other interesting thing about this lawsuit is that of course it follows the same arguments of the other lawsuits that this is a violation of the voting rights act of 1965 right that it is a intentional racial gerrymander that it's lowering latino opportunity to to choose a candidate of their choosing. But it also alleges that it does shift away the weight and influence of Bexar County to Travis County.

So it's kind of this Bexar-Austin-San Antonio fight that is interesting. Now, looking at the actual numbers and statistics behind this, I don't know how well this argument is going to hold up in court. Of course, there's different metrics that people who file lawsuits point to when they're talking about these things. And so they can paint the numbers in different ways. But if you look at the numbers just as how the state legislative council has presented the data, you have the Hispanic population, the total Hispanic population in this district under the old map as of 2020 was 60.2%, whereas under the new map, it dropped down to 55.1%. So that is a 5% decline, but Latinos are still in the high majority

population there. Also, if you look at a different number that the state provides, the Hispanic voting age population, the HVAP data, it says it also decreased from 56.5% to 51.3%. So again, about a 5% drop, but still over 50%. Now also, in regards to the shift from, uh, the Bexar County to Travis County, uh, in the past, Bexar County has been, you know, a larger percentage of the population of this district, uh, compared to Travis County. So San Antonio has been more of a, a bit of an anchor, which is interesting because the lawmaker who's represented this district has been Austin based, uh, for the past past how many ever years. And now Representative Lloyd-Daga is running in the new Austin district.

So there is an opportunity for a new congressman from San Antonio, but the top contenders in this race are actually from Austin again. So that's kind of an interesting dynamic there. But back to the numbers. So previously under the old map, the Travis County population was 263,000 and the Bexar County population was 344,000. So not quite 100,000 difference above in Bexar County. Under the new plan, that has basically been balanced out so travis county is still a little bit lower at uh three three hundred and one thousand compared to three hundred and four thousand in bear county so it's about even now with bear county on paper a little bit larger than travis county uh so it's not just like this drastic shift of taking votes completely away from san antonio as the lawsuit would seem to paint it. Now the lawsuit doesn't actually go into those numbers.

Interestingly, they don't mention that. So we'll see what happens with this. It is another lawsuit. We're still waiting for something a little bit more substantial, but that's the news. But that's the news. That's we should start a new podcast and it should be called,

but that's the news. And it's just really boring. It's just like, well, we have to tell you about it. It's our job. It's not going to go anywhere, but that's our job. Well, Daniel, thank you for that. We appreciate it. Let's keep on your topics here and pivot to the federal level here.

Congress voted to raise the debt ceiling again this week. Shocker. But walk us through what happened there. Yes. Long story short, Democrats in both chambers approved a measure to increase the debt limit, which is the total ceiling that the U.S. Treasury can borrow by $2.5 trillion. Now we're already in debt. I think the total is above $28 trillion right now.

And so this would allow the Treasury to issue more bonds and borrow more money so that they can buy $2.5 trillion to pay off previous bonds that they have or other government expenses that they've already committed to. The proponents of this measure, the central argument to this is that if they didn't raise the debt ceiling, then the government wouldn't be able to pay what it owes and therefore would default. And that could cause a lot of economic problems. And so that's the argument of why Democrats and even a lot of Republicans actually wanted this. Now, Republicans wanted to keep their hands clean, so to speak, because Democrats are continuing to spin. They're pushing the Build Back Better plan that Biden has, as well as the infrastructure bill that had already passed. And then they also did another COVID relief package earlier this year. So Republicans want to, you know, push themselves away from those spending priorities and say, you know, the Democrats are the ones that are increasing our debt,

you know, overlooking the past $6 dollars that was spent over the past two years. Right. Yes, certainly. But that's kind of the gist of what happened. Got it. Now talk to us about the positions of Texas Republicans in specific. So, of course, the Texas Democrats all in the House all voted for this. In fact, all Democrats in the House voted for this measure, even one Republican, Representative Adam Kinzinger from Illinois. Now, on paper, all the Republicans, both in the House and the Senate, technically voted against raising the

debt ceiling on the specific vote that happened this week. However, in practice, there is one Republican, Senator John Cornyn, who helped make this happen. Just to give you an overview of how the Senate works, if you're not familiar. So in the upper chamber of the U.S. Congress, you have 100 members. And in order for legislation to pass, a bill is brought to the floor and it's debated. Now, in order to end the debate, which is referred to as the filbluster, there's also a cloture motion is used to end the debate on this bill. And that allows them to actually then go to a vote on the bill. In order to actually get to the vote on the bill, they have to have 60 votes in order to do that in most circumstances. So whenever there's some tight negotiations, as there is right now,

because you have 50 Democrats in the Senate and 50 Republicans in the Senate with the one tiebreaker of Vice President Kamala Harris. So when you have a situation like that, there can be a lot of gridlock and a lot of back and forth negotiations, lots of stuff just stalling out. And that's kind of what we've seen here as Republicans really wanted, they didn't want to raise the debt ceiling, but they also did because they agree with Democrats that we would default and that could be bad. So Republican leadership worked out a plan so that they would essentially allow Democrats to vote on the debt ceiling, this one instance, without having to have that cloture motion to do it. So they passed a bill that said you only need 50 votes to actually raise the debt ceiling in this instance.

And so in order to do that, they still needed the 60 votes, though. And Senator John Cornyn, one of the senior Republicans in the leadership under Mitch McConnell, voted for this bill. He voted to allow that bill to be voted on. Very complicated, but that's kind of what happened. And he also has been silent about the debt ceiling. I haven't seen any statements or press releases from him on that. But that is the one Republican who did kind of help make this happen. Have Texas Republicans supported these kinds of measures in the past?

Yes. So in 2019, which was the last time the debt ceiling was really brought up before this year, there was some negotiations between lawmakers in Congress and the Trump administration about the debt ceiling and the overall budget as well. And they reached an agreement to essentially just suspend the debt ceiling and the overall budget as well. And they reached an agreement to essentially just suspend the debt ceiling. So they're just like, we're going to pretend like we don't have one. You can, the treasury can borrow however much they need to pay their bills. And so in that vote, there were several Republicans, both in the Senate and the House who voted for it.

In the Senate, Cordon voted for it. In the Senate, Corden voted for it. Cruz voted against it. In the House, you had four members who are still in the House right now. Representatives Brian Babin, Kevin Brady, John Carter, and Kay Granger all voted for it. Oh, and Michael McCaul, also five. And then you also have some former representatives who voted for it as well. Mike Conaway, Will Hurd, and Mac McCall, also five. And then you also have some former representatives who voted for it as well. Mike Conaway, Will Hurd, and Mac Thornberry. So those are the Republicans then in 2019 who voted for that. There's a lot more freshmen, too, that we have that weren't there at that time. Got it.

Well, Daniel, thank you for covering that for us. Bradley, let's from federal back to very, very local. Now, we talk about the kind of beats you have here at the texan and you know a lot of them could be uh electricity or energy related they could be sewage related and now you've kind of your beats have molded into more of a parking um beat specifically after your uh weirdly incessant uh i don't even know how to describe it it's an obsession that you have with parking garages um so i just want to say real quick this story just follows in that vein so let's talk about it the city of the city of pasadena is facing a lawsuit

from one of its citizens over a parking lot. Tell us about this issue. You know, Mac, it is respectable how incessant you are about hitting me over the head with this parking garage thing. So I'll give you that one. Thank you. Wow. Yeah. So a mechanic in the city of Pasadena named Azael Sep sepulveda he has filed a lawsuit against the city over their requirement that he build a 23 space parking lot adjacent to his new mechanic storefront

city code requires that auto shops have 10 parking spaces per thousand feet square feet uh it's notably the most strict um i think it's the most strict of any Texas city, and it's definitely more strict than any of the top five most populated Texas cities. And Sepulveda says it would cost him $40,000 to build the parking lot that he would need to comply with this city code. He said the city itself, the cities in general across the country have ordinances like this. And it is generally, the purpose of them is to prevent the clutter of on-street parking, to make things more organized. But as these things go with city code,

building code in general, but especially these more transportation-related ones, it's very cumbersome and it's very inflexible. And so not a lot of room for exceptions to the rule where they should be. It just makes it difficult. He already purchased this storefront for a lot of money, dumped his entire nest egg investment into it. Now he has to pay $40,000 more in order to open his shop because the city is preventing him from operating.

And so, like I said, he bought this storefront earlier this year. I think it was in roughly July. He was renting a place for about $1,200 a month. And since this issue has kind of festered, he has continued having to rent from the on the new place. And so he's effectively getting double billed on something that, um, he really shouldn't be, uh, if things were ideal, um, in his world. And so, um, additionally, the previous owners that he bought this storefront from, they were grandfathered in, uh, meaning they had purchased the property and were operating before the code, whatever this code was passed into law. And so they did not have to build a parking lot next door, but he is being held to this. And like I said, he cannot operate his business from under an order from the city unless he builds 23 more parking spots.

And so, but he has said that he doesn't need them. He operates on appointment only basis. And so maybe a handful of cars in at once. He charges a fee for people to store their car there overnight. So he encourages them to come and pick it up immediately as soon as it's ready. And just generally said that he hasn't't hasn't needed it in month before um the previous month before filing this lawsuit he calculated out his current place and he never had more than four cars at his uh at

his lot uh as business at the rental place and the new place has more more in-house storage and so generally he is he's uh filing his lawsuit alleging that this is an overly burdensome regulation and should be struck down now he filed the suit with the help of the institute for justice correct so tell us about tell us about them ij is a non-profit that provides pro bono legal services to especially they focus especially on occupational type issues you probably have heard of the houston woman who was jailed for operating a hair braiding service without obtaining a barbering license they were involved in that litigation they're involved in a lot of you know occupational licensing stuff and and just things or attacking regulations that

they deem are hurting, especially poorer people and preventing them from making a living. That's why they chose this, for instance. And one of the lawyers said in a statement, all Texans, including Azalea, should be able to start their own business without jumping through hoops that serve no purpose. The minimum parking ordinance isn't just harmful to small business owners. It also violates the Texas Constitution. We'll see where the court case goes.

IJF, based on my somewhat limited knowledge of their litigation, they have a pretty good track record. They pick and choose these issues, not just for the instance itself, but also the likelihood that they'll be able to win and knock down this, whatever the regulation is that they're targeting. So we'll see where that goes. Got it. Bradley, thank you so much. Hayden, we're going to come back to you. Talk to us about a car chase in Hidaldle county and the details surrounding that well this was reported over the weekend a unfortunately two women lost their lives in mission a mother and a daughter who were driving and were at the end of a car chase that involved an 18 year old accused human smuggler he was evading or attempting to evade border agents and Texas Department of Public Safety troopers. And he t-boned them at an intersection causing their

deaths. This individual was taken into custody on Saturday. And I didn't have this information when we published the story, but thankfully they've got it all up on the court records website now. But I see he is charged with two counts of murder, one count of evading arrest or detention causing death. He's also charged with six counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and six counts of smuggling of persons causing serious bodily injury or death. So he's facing a slew of very serious charges. That's 18-year-old Esteban Cantu Jr. And this was part of a smuggling attempt that is alleged six individuals were smuggled into Texas. He was, of course, being pursued by border agents who reported 19,400 enforcement encounters with single adult illegal aliens in the Rio Grande Valley sector in October. And then there were almost 19,000 encounters with family units and 6,968

unaccompanied children were taken into custody in October as well. And we're still waiting on the report for November. But that just gives you a little bit of the big picture of human smuggling and illegal immigration in the Rio Grande Valley sector. And it's very important to tell these tragic stories because people's lives are being lost at the border and on both sides of the conflict and policies directly impact those lives and what people are willing to do to get into the country. So, very important to tell these stories. Hayden, thank you so much for covering that for us. Daniel, we're going to come to you and talk about a story written by our very own Holly Hansen down here in Harris County. But a few weeks ago, the commissioner's court in Harris County approved a resolution from their county

judge, Lena Hidalgo, in a party line vote to direct the county analyst office to investigate ways to mitigate the heartbeat laws negative effects which was passed earlier this year now this office provided some ideas but what were those ideas yes the office actually sent out a memo to the commissioner's court outlining their ideas and it was brought up in the county commissioner's court meeting this week and holly hansen was covering that to follow that and let you know what happened. You can read her article for a little bit more in-depth details about it. But the 30,000-foot view of this is that the ideas were, one, to circumvent the state law

that prohibits governmental entities in the state from providing funds to support abortion by actually using these COVID federal relief funds in order to do that. Another thing that the memo suggested is that there's no restriction on using local and federal taxpayer dollars to provide ancillary services, such as transportation to abortion clinics, as well as lodging and child care. Now, this is actually something that the city of Austin has tried doing. It is currently facing some litigation about this. So the courts are kind of in battle over this right now. But that is something that the Harris County Commissioner's Court might be considering to do.

This was just a memo, so it's not an actual official action yet. But it is the steps that are taken before an action will be. So they're moving towards that direction. We'll see what the court decides to do if they take action on this or not. Now, Democrats in Harris County are the ones pushing this. How have Republicans responded? So the Republicans have, to no surprise, not responded that favorably to this. Commissioner Tom Ramsey said, I think you need to understand why people would be concerned

using COVID money, money that was meant to be spent to – money that was – excuse me, I can't quote very well. He said, people are concerned about using COVID money, money that was meant to be spent to save lives being used to take lives. And Commissioner Cagle, the other Republican on the court, had a similar opposition to this. He's saying that it is a transmittal, referring to the memo, but it is a travesty that we are here in Harris County trying to circumvent state law. We all know the report comes first, but the action comes later. I can't vote against a transmittal, but I would if I could. So those are just some quotes from the Republicans in Harris County who are pushing back against this potential measure that the county might take. Certainly. Well, thank you for covering that for us. And in lieu of Holly, we appreciate that. Brad, we're going to come to you on another piece written by one of our

incredible writers for throughout the state. Kim Roberts talked to us about the situation over Texas's National Guard and its vaccine mandate that's coming to a head right now so the reason it's coming to a head is because deadlines are coming up and so um as you said the texas national guard and a vaccine mandate there is there was a requirement ordered by the sec def that all sec def the secretary defense that all uh military personnel including national Guardsmen, get vaccinated with the COVID vaccine. And so they basically allowed the individual entities to decide on their individual entities, meaning, you know, the Air Force, the Army or the Air National Guard and the army national guard to set their own deadlines and policies for exemptions and so we've seen this this long developing i wrote a piece you know two months ago or so on this it was happening back then although now we're you know we're

coming up against the deadlines as i said and so the air national guard members must be vaccinated per policy by the air national guard by uh december 31st uh the army national guard the deadline is pushed back substantially further to june 30th but these national guardsmen they risk losing drill pay if they do not get vaccinated uh some were even risking termination from their positions. You know, this is also happening with like Border Patrol, things like that. So it's kind of a mess. And one reason that it's such a mess is we have these dual allegiances, you know, the federal government and the state government both have oversight of these National Guard units because basically nominally they're state entities. The governor, for example, can call them up whenever he wants, but they're paid for at least in part.

And they are technically military members paid for by the federal government, especially in certain circumstances, such as drill weekends. Those are financed by the federal government, um, officer trainings. And so the federal government, uh, when these things come up there, they have more power to say, yes, you must follow this rule. And so, um, we see, you know, a lot of guardsmen getting either canned or they're resigning, or they will soon have to do that. And so it's all starting to come to a head. The state's response, we've seen Governor Abbott, he issued an executive order back a couple months ago prohibiting public vaccine mandates. Now that eventually turned into private vaccine mandates, a prohibition on them. And that is its own issue that we've talked about with businesses and whatnot.

But this would, you would think, apply to the National Guard because it is a public entity. And so not much has been done on that other than issuing the executive order. And obviously the organizations, the Texas military department, and these National Guard outfits have taken steps to comply with the federal order, which is a vaccine mandate. And so it's kind of been the state government has kind of been playing chicken with the federal government. And we saw something develop on Thursday. Governor Abbott actually wrote a letter to SecDef saying the Texas National Guard will not abide the federal vaccine mandate order.

And so we'll see where it goes. He's threatened to lawsuit any legal action that the state can take. They'll take, he says. And so we'll see if that comes of anything. But, yeah, that's pretty much it and um i i don't know where this is going to go there's obviously one deadline's coming up and the other one is kind of pushed back further so we'll see how much attrition comes in each national guard outfit especially they're both being used on the border so added add that to the mix too.

So this is a very complicated issue and nobody really knows how it's going to turn out. Yeah, very, very complicated. Bradley, thank you for that. And Kim, thank you for your reporting on the issue. Hayden, we're going to come to you on another story relating to the border, but what were some of the interesting details

about a drug bust near the Hidalgo International Bridge that came out this week? I don't know how I ended up being the one around here who writes about drugs. That just sort of happened. Hey, it's better than parking garages. It is much better than parking garages. Much more interesting, in fact. What happens when some drugs are found in a parking garage? Wow, I think we'll make them arm wrestle.

You stole the words right out of my mouth oh wow that's perfect brad any objection speak now or forever hold your peace this is hate speech hate speech upon hate speech flag on the play targeting on all of you oh my gosh ridiculous i i okay all right well that was a football joke. Back to the Dalgona International Bridge. Okay, Brad, that was actually pretty funny. Yes, and he takes full advantage of my lack of sports ball knowledge. There were two drug busts, actually. One happened on the 10th of this month, which was a Friday, or last Friday.

And then one happened on Sunday. They were both involved. Suspects that were as young as 20 years old, or they were both 20 years old. So it's always interesting to see someone who is not even old enough to drink being accused of a multimillion dollar drug trafficking schemes. Uh, but the, in the first case, it was a 20 year old female suspect. She attempted to get into Texas with a white Chrysler minivan, and she was flagged for additional security checks and non-intrusive imaging equipment, helped border guards detect 21 packages that had allegedly 191 pounds of meth in them.

And then the second incident involved a gold Chevrolet sedan, a male suspect, age 20, and then canine units and NII helped with that as well. 27 pounds of alleged meth found in 22 different packages. So of course, those two people have been arrested and Homeland Security Investigations, which is a division of ICE, is taking care of that investigation. But in the press statement announcing this, Carlos Rodriguez, the port director for the Hidalgo, Pharr, and Zalduas Port of Entry commented that smugglers take advantage of the holidays.

And so that's a common dynamic with drug smuggling. But we also did get the, DPS did get back with us on the latest figures for Operation Lone Star, which is of of course, the enforcement effort by the state against illegal immigration. And these don't include drug stats, but of course, the drug traffickers would be included in criminal charges. Operation Lone Star has resulted in 8,900 criminal arrests, including 2,165 for criminal trespassing, more than 7,000 felony charges, and then 82,200 what they call migrant apprehensions and referrals have been referred to

CBP for additional processing. So thanks to Erica Miller, she's the press secretary over at DPS, and she got us those figures. And that's Governor Abbott's Operation Lone Star, which was launched in March as a state response to illegal immigration. Certainly. Well, Hayden, thanks for following that for us. We appreciate you being so on the drug beat. You do a great job. Well, you know, someone says, hey, how's it going? I'm like, oh, I'm doing fine.

Just writing about drugs. Just writing about drugs. What are you going to do? What are you going i'm like oh i'm doing fine just writing about drugs what are you gonna do what are you gonna do you didn't hear that what'd you say i said it's pretty dope if you ask me oh lord that joke has been made multiple times since we put this piece out i just feel like people should know yeah that is that is important information daniel's smile tells it all um well wonderful hayden thank you dan Daniel and Isaiah, let's go to something a little more merry. Let's talk about Texas Christmas gifts. Y'all wrote an awesome piece this week that was so fun to read, specifically listing some items that folks can purchase ahead of Christmas that are Texas-themed, mating Texas, all sorts

of different options. But walk us through these gifts that we have listed on our site. When this was suggested, the first thing that came to my mind was the Hank the Cowdog books. They're written by a Panhandle native, John R. Erickson, and he wrote the first one in 1983. He's still writing them. He wrote his 76th one this year. I know Matthew McConaughey narrated the voice of Hank the Cowdog on some podcast podcast and just millions and millions of people love Hank the Cowdog, including me and it's a big part of my childhood. So if you've got, it's their children's books.

So if you've got a young reader, um, I don't know, maybe you're an early parent reading to your kids, whatever, like that's a great choice. Classic books. Um,

anyway, so that's, that's, that was number one of the list. I learned to read with Hank the Catdog too. That's awesome. Wait really? Yeah. That's cool man. That is so cool. I love that.

Okay what's next? Well if we're still going in this format you could get some if you know somebody with a record player or turntable you could get some vinyl for Texas artists. The other day me and my brother were looking up, this is unrelated to this article,

we were just looking up all of the famous musical artists from Texas and we've produced quite a few. I think that the earliest one to really be recorded and get famous has got to be Scott Joplin. He's from Texarkana. I suggested on the article, Chris Christopherson, he wrote, he composed his debut album when he was a helicopter pilot in the gulf and um steve rayvon recorded soul to soul in

dallas albert collins and lightning hopkins are both from east texas albert collins from leona but um they were cousins actually anyway i could talk about this forever i love it that's a great gift idea though like some of their james a James Avery Jewelry. They're from Kerrville and they're family run. They specialize in Christian themes, but they have a broad catalog of other products. I can't remember who suggested Bowie Knives. It was me or Daniel. That's just inherently a very Texas gift because they're invented by Jim Bowie's brother and he made them famous with the sandbar fight and the elbow and everything. I did find a company called the Texan Knives Company in Porter, north of Houston, that makes some of these.

I talked to the owner of the company. It's kind of rare if you're going to just order a knife to be able to talk to the guy that's making it who's also selling it. He makes some with Damascus steel. They're pretty affordable as those go, but that's just one company company i don't own one of those um that's awesome yeah very very cool daniel what do you got justin boots too oh yeah i forgot i forgot that i did that one there are boots on here justin boots they're like the ford f-150 of boots i feel like no christmas list like texas christmas list gift guide kind of thing would be complete without some cowboy boots yeah the other thing on here are cowboy hats we also have that

on here um there's a factory up in garland uh that is called hatco they actually make the stetson and resist all hats um so two well-known brands if're into big, if you're big on cowboy hats, those are two to go with. Um, they reportedly turn out 3000 hats per day. So it's just like pretty, pretty intense operation. They got there. Uh, there's also some other hat manufacturers up in Garland, I think as well. I think there's three in total.

Um, but you can go check those out. Another one that is a classic, especially if you are like me and you'll be traveling, uh, on the highways right before Christmas and you need to pick up something last minute, you can always stop for gas and a clean bathroom and a plethora of snacks and, uh, made in Texas stuff. You're sure to find something to gift someone at Bucky's. I love it. Now, there are, I guess, some people who shall not be named that are not a big fan of Buc-ee's.

Now, I don't know. I think it's pretty cool. But anyways. But we digress out of the kindness of our hearts. Yeah. Yeah, certainly. Is there somebody at this table who's not a big fan of Buc-ee's? No, no.

It was just a contract writer. Oh, yeah. That's right. Oh, my gosh. So blatantly awful. Actually, a contract writer, too. Now, if you're not in the mood for cowboy hats or boots or Buc-ee's, and you want to go with something a little bit more fun and intense

you can always go with a mossberg shotgun you know i think holly and kim might pick up one of those each after hearing the slander on this podcast just sort of you know strictly some defense i will not stand for holly or kim slander so just wanted to throw that out there it is slander yeah buckies is great i that's it i'm on board with that but hail holly and kim i will not stand for the slander continue mossberg shotguns so uh mossberg shotguns they're actually headquartered in connecticut so it's not a texas-based business now the the interesting thing is it's based they're headquartered in connecticut but of course they don't make their guns there. They make their guns in Eagle Pass, which is in Texas along the border.

That's where I think 90% of their guns are made, including most of their shotguns, which they're well known for their Mossberg 500. And they also have some other rifles. They even have a handgun as well. So if you're looking for a gun, Mossberg is one option there. Another good, fun, tasty option is Lamb's Candies. That is based here in central Texas. It was originally in Austin. They're well known for their Texas Chewy Pecan Praline, which they got the pecans from the pecan trees that actually grow

along the Colorado River, and they still use Texas-grown pecans for their candies today. So if you're looking for that, it's good. They also have a lot of Texas-themed boxes of candy and chocolates that you can order. So that is a good

tasty option. And then, last but not least, of course, if you're looking for reliable news, you can always gift a subscription to the Texan. What? Such a great idea. I hear the Texan also has a really cool March.

Yes. Like if you want a hat that says come and take it or Texas forever. Yeah. Yeah. Totally. Or, or a mug that says big news stops here. We're burying the Sam Houston t-shirt. That's the coolest thing. I think it's the coolest. Yeah. Yeah. Totally. Or a mug that says big new stops here. We're burying the Sam Houston t-shirt.

That's the coolest thing. I think it's the coolest too. Yeah. Yeah. It's really cool. Well, gentlemen, thank you so much for providing that list to our readers. And I loved reading it. So I appreciate it.

Now let's get down to business to defeat the Huns. No, I'm just kidding. Thank you, Zay, for that pity laugh. Narnia. Now, earlier this week, I came to my attention that many of the writers here at this table hayden do not wipe your hand across the room with that kind of sass young man but i came to my attention that many of the writers at this table do not have experience reading the narnia books now for once brad did not uh require reprimanding from me which was wonderful everything right honestly i kind of it was nice to have that break it it exhausts me well it was

it was nice not to be your whipping boy for the first time there you go i'm glad to hear that have you read that book no well i don't know what you're talking about i should castigate you for that okay well let's talk about narnia but many of the boys at this table have not read all of the series or any even any now daniel's read some but as someone who has actually published on cs lewis i was severely disappointed that he had not read the series in its entirety daniel what do you have to say for yourself narnia is great i'm i discounting that how would you know? because I've read some of them I've read some of them like some of one or a few of the books?

a few of the books well that's a good chunk I've read over half now they're just geared more towards children and growing up my parents didn't

we never really read them um i think my brother did we actually we do have some it just fantasy never really interested me that much so i was never into narnia or lord of the rings or harry potter and you and to your credit you're reading the hobbit right now yes i'm reading the hobbit yes and And I'm also a bigger fan of C.S. Lewis's Ransom Trilogy, which is not geared toward children so much. As much. But see, Narnia, now, of course, they are children's books, but they're, I mean, it's C.S. Lewis still, right? So it's not something you're going to read as an adult and be bored by in any way, shape, or form. It's written beautifully.

But I understand they're classified as children's written beautifully but i understand they are they're classified as children's books yes and they are accessible to children but and he intentionally wrote them for children 100 um now of course he has some fantastic themes that are not you know just this is for everyone like he's he's not saying fairy tales are not for adults yes he definitely believes that they are for everyone totally Totally. But still, I'm not the target audience. Interesting. I totally am still the target audience, 100%. Isaiah, what about you?

What do you have to say for yourself? I'm interested in reading them because I know he is prominent. I've just always, it's like the clock is always ticking in my head. Time is running out for me to finish reading all all the greats you know and he's just not quite in that category i think he as in c.s lewis yeah clive stables lewis is not are you going to die soon i just mean like literally that he's he's not really considered part of like the great canon no let's go back to you saying time is running out yeah i'm just saying

like you've only got so much time in your life the fact that you don't consider clive staples lewis as part of the great canon really hurts i understand what you mean in like a broader academic sense but in terms of just literature at large i just don't understand that i mean like i haven't i haven't read him yet and so I'm depending on other people's evaluations of them, you know. And Christian authors that have very Christian books have, they have a way of not finding their way into the canon for one reason or another. And there's debates of whether or not that's their fault or the sense of the general feeling in academia.

I don't know. Because I don't know anything about that because I haven't read the Chronicles in Honor yet. Anything by C.S. Lewis. I know that my mom has great taste, really highly recommended Paralandra and the science fiction trilogy. And I still haven't gotten around to those yet. Same deal. Anyway,

it doesn't quite seem like the kind of thing that I would just be really geared up to read, but I still want to, I want to have that under my belt cause he's just prominent, you know? Yeah, for sure. Have you,

wait, so did you say, did I hear you correctly in saying you've not read Danny C.S. Lewis? Nope. I mean, I've read a little bit of, um,

what's that famous one that he was originally like a radio. Near Christianity. Yeah, that's it. Yeah. I've read a chapter or two of that. Um, and I found it clear,

but that's, I mean like clear communication and fiction are two different things so very interesting daniel do you have anything to say about that broader c.s lewis take i feel like you kept on looking at me like expecting to have like this adverse reaction to it no i didn't expect you have an adverse reaction i expected you to have something to say like more more defending t.s lewis now t.s lewis is i think if you're looking at christian authors especially modern christian authors he is uh definitely in the in the top tier of people to read um now as far as the whole corpus of

written work he he hasn't stood the test of time right. Right. I totally agree with that. Which, I mean, that's just the basic. But I still think that he's definitely worth reading. Now, I don't think that necessarily Chronicles of Narnia is the first thing to read. If you've never read anything of C.S. Lewis, I would say go read Out of the Silent Planet or The Abolition of Man or Mere Christianity. The Abolition of man is a fascinating book it is it's a little bit more um dense yeah uh mere christianity which is a lot more accessible but yeah but it's interesting it's very interesting well hayden what do you have to say about all of

this uh crazy nonsense that your co-workers are spewing no it's not crazy nonsense. I think y'all have made a good point and are a good case, especially because when we had this conversation on Tuesday, we were casually sitting around the horseshoe in the writer's room and it came up that some of us had not read C.S. Lewis and Mackenzie is on her phone

literally ordering the whole series for us not read C.S. Lewis and Mackenzie is on her phone literally ordering the whole series for us to read in the office. So we really need to change our website now from the Texan to the Texan and C.S. Lewis library because it's sitting on the table right now. She really did order it. It's true. And it's here. And so for you all to check out for us to check out. Yeah, I should make a little like a library slip where you know you put on your name and the date you check it out and the date it's due back by i should make a little library slip that'd be fun that would be fun could we have more than two weeks though i do have more books in my in my office too i could just you know lend all of them to you if you guys want the ap style library charge outrageous fines if we turn it in late

in chick-fil-a nuggets oh okay so i have to buy you chick-fil-a if i bring it back late yes okay i hope that's all okay i hope that's okay i'm i'm going over to chick-fil-a a lot so it won't even be that inconvenient well that's awesome well folks the line the witch in wardrobe is a christmas movie to watch daniel i totally agree it should be added to the canon um Brad do you agree with that having read the book yeah I liked it I have one issue one what's your issue my one issue okay I would just like to say Brad gets a smile on his face when he says he has an issue because he knows it's fun for him my biggest takeaway that's being hyperbolic but a big

takeaway from uh Lion the Witch and the and wardrobe when i read it was how disgusting turkish delight sounds totally agree and that has that has never left me i even looked it up one day and it doesn't look terrible but the way it's described in there just sounds disgusting it's the opposite for me it's it's described in a way that makes me want to eat it in the book and then i look up what it is i'm like that is disgusting i never would eat that i always thought of it as like a mini jelly donut or something it kind of is without the donut it's like a little jelly powdered sugar treat oh okay yeah that doesn't why does that sound disgusting well google it oh yeah if you google it i just

think i just think how it looks is kind of gross gross that's just my personal opinion it's a powdered ball of wax exactly it doesn't look that i mean i had some one time when i was like 10 i thought this isn't good at all oh you had some yeah long ago in a galaxy far away i don't remember how it tasted got it well. Well, there you go. Okay, folks. Any final thoughts on the C.S. Lewis? Well, I do retract my statement. If that is the case,

that it's a tiny ball of wax that does sound gross. Yeah, it's not technically wax, but yeah, that's kind of what it lends itself to. Any final thoughts, gentlemen? Speak now, forever. Not a one.

Not a one. Wonderful. Well, folks, Merry Christmas. Thank you for joining us, and we will catch you for an abbreviated podcast next week. Merry Chrysler. Thank you all so much for listening. If you've been enjoying our podcast, it would be awesome if you would review us on iTunes. And if there's a guest you'd love to hear on our show, give us a shout on Twitter.

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