Live from Music Row Wednesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. –  host Leahy welcomed the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael to the studio.
During the third hour, Carmichael referred to an article written by venture capitalist Joe Lonsdale in The Wall Street Journal which outlined his decision to leave California and move to Texas. He later in the show joked with host Leahy stating that he made a mistake and that the better choice would have been Nashville.
Leahy: Crom Carmichael, the original all-Star panelist. Crom, I think we’re just having too much fun talking about these public events. And so I think it is likely that Senator Richard Blumenthal from Connecticut is going to call up Mark Zuckerberg and say get those guys off of Facebook! Get those guys off of Google he’ll tell those folks.
Carmichael: Well, this is great. You know, it’s I don’t want to characterize it as fun because I think it’s frightening. Because you had Coons and Blumenthal, you had all these Democrats lined up essentially applauding Big Tech for stifling free speech. So that’s very troubling. But there’s an interesting article here from a guy named Joe Lonsdale in The Wall Street Journal and he wrote a wrote an opinion piece of why he is leaving, California. And the reason this matters is that California is the ultimate Democrat state. The Democrats have controlled the governor’s office for decades.
Leahy: Since George Deukmejian, Jr. in the late 1990s.
Carmichael: And then they have controlled the legislature with supermajorities for at least the last 20 years. And so this guy has written an article in The Wall Street Journal. California, Love It and Leave It.
Leahy: I love that.
Carmichael: He’s leaving. Now he was born there. He built a business there and he built a venture capital firm there and he says but he’s leaving. and he wrote this article and he kind of explained that he has a three-point six billion dollar. Venture billion-dollar Venture Capital firm, so it’s not small. And so this guy wouldn’t be making this move without a lot of thinking. But here’s what he says. He says public safety in California announced with their ill-conceived criminal justice reforms and radical District Attorneys are taking a toll on urban life just saying that his wife now is fearful of walking down the street in broad daylight in San Francisco.
And so electricity. They’ve had 25,000 blackouts. 25,000 last year. 25,000 blackouts because they won’t manage their forests in California. And for some reason and I really don’t understand this. Because if you’re a tree hugger you would think that a tree hugger would at least want the trees to live but they’re getting burned down because they won’t clean out the debris under the trees. This is what creates the forest fires that grow with such intensity.
And so electricity is a problem. Responsiveness. He said if he calls a government person to try to get clarification on some kind of in this case COVID rule he said he couldn’t get anybody to even answer the phone. I guess they’re all at home getting paid but not doing anything. Then on housing, he said the government in California’s restrictive zoning has gotten to be so restrictive that there’s no low-income housing or even medium-income housing.
So the Democrats who control the state say they want to help middle and lower-income people but their housing policies do exactly the opposite. and then he goes on with other items about the broken environmental review process and how the legislature makes it almost impossible for businesses to hire contractors without getting into legal battles about unions in one thing or another.
And this is the Democrat utopia. This is the world that Joe Biden and his Democrat people want to impose on the entire country. And if it weren’t for the good weather, California would be an absolute economic basket case. Many people continue to live there because the weather is so nice. And but also you have tens of thousands of people leaving.
And here’s what’s interesting. If you want to rent if you want to get a furniture company to do a move for you from California to Texas, it’s very expensive. If you want to move from Texas to California that same those movers will do it very cheaply because they don’t want to drive their truck back to California empty. Which is what most of them have to do. (Leahy chuckles) It’s hard to get a load of furniture moving into California.
Leahy: Now my question about this venture capitalist, what is his name?
Carmichael: Joe Lonsdale. He ends it by saying there’s no better place than Texas, which simply means he’s never been to Nashville.
Leahy: I was about to say that.
Carmichael: We can now say that as a matter of fact.
Leahy: So I guess he’s moving to Texas, right?
Carmichael: Yeah. He said I’ve gone to Texas in his final sentences. Our job as entrepreneurs and investors is to build the future. I know of no better place to do so that than Texas. Well, he clearly has not been to Tennessee. (Laughs)
Leahy: Oh, let’s do this. I want Julie. Julie Carr who does our booking. Julie, you’re listening. I know. I’d like you Julie to book this fellow.
Carmichael: I’m sure he’d be a great interview.
Leahy: Mr. Lonsdale. We are going to book you on this program here. In fact, I think I might even I believe even this I might even I think I’ll fly him here to Nashville (Carmichael chuckles) and we will welcome him. Maybe we’ll even hold a party for him like we’re doing for Ben Shapiro and The Daily Wire and we will invite him.
Carmichael: He’s already moved. He’s already moved to Austin.
Leahy: Has he moved?
Carmichael: He’s already moved.
Leahy: So we’ll invite him anyway. But I’m saying he needs to set up an office in that he comes to Nashville.
Carmichael: If he comes to Nashville he’ll just feel bad about his decision.
Leahy: He will. Austin is nice, but Nashville is much better.
Carmichael: Well I have so I go to Austin a good bit. I have two or three boards down there. But I have fun doing this. And I say listen, are there any good music spots here in Austin? I mean, are there any really up-and-coming artists? And then somebody will fall for it. And then they’ll say oh yes. So and so. Blah blah blah. And I’ll say you think they’re ready to move to Nashville yet? (Laughter)
Leahy: This is the kind of guy Joe Lonsdale.
Carmichael: Oh he’s our kind of guy. No question. We’d rather have him move to Nashville.
Leahy: We’d rather have him move to Nashville. If he won’t come here we’ll have him on the show. You and I should go on a mission trip to Austin.
Carmichael: We’re not going to get him to move here. Let’s see if we can get him on the radio for a call. I know he’s a very very busy guy. No question about that. But he took the time to write an article in The Wall Street Journal about why he’s moving so I think he may be willing to talk. We can have a little fun with him about his choice of Austin.
Leahy: He didn’t make the best choice. A better choice would have been Nashville, but that’s all right.
Listen to the third hour here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
