Latest / World Ablaze with George Fontes / Iran Ceasefire, Pam Bondi Fired, and California High Speed Rail Failure

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Iran Ceasefire, Pam Bondi Fired, and California High Speed Rail Failure · World Ablaze with George Fontes

• 0:00
  Welcome back, World of Blazers, to episode 123, recorded this Thursday, the 9th of April,
• 0:11
  2026.
• 0:13
  I promised you twice a week.
• 0:16
  I know.
• 0:16
  I know I'm late.
• 0:17
  This is the only one of the week thus far, as far as this recording on Thursday, the 9th
• 0:24
  of April, 2026.
• 0:25
  I had a technological snafu.
• 0:27
  I tried some new stuff.
• 0:29
  Google locked out my account.
• 0:30
  Couldn't get to research.
• 0:32
  I got frustrated.
• 0:33
  I said, hell with it.
• 0:34
  I'll delay it.
• 0:36
  Good thing I did because a lot happened.
• 0:38
  So this is what's going to happen in this episode.
• 0:40
  This is what we're discussing.
• 0:41
  I'm going to discuss the Iran ceasefire.
• 0:44
  It's supposed to be a two-week ceasefire, I believe.
• 0:48
  That's happening, kind of happening, not happening.
• 0:50
  Was going to happen until Israel started bombing Lebanon.
• 0:53
  Lebanon was included, but wasn't included, apparently, according to Israel and the USA.
• 0:58
  so bombs away again
• 1:01
  and then it was pending negotiations
• 1:03
  that were happening
• 1:04
  the 10th of April
• 1:06
  being Friday
• 1:07
  the next day after this particular recording
• 1:08
  so Friday, April 10th, 2026
• 1:11
  but now it's been moved to
• 1:13
  April the 11th, Saturday
• 1:15
  so Saturday, the 11th of April, 2026
• 1:17
  I mean, we can't keep up
• 1:19
  with what's going on here
• 1:20
  but we're still going to discuss
• 1:22
  that issue the best that I can
• 1:25
  because listen
• 1:26
  this situation, this conflict's updating like literally every 15 freaking minutes. I mean,
• 1:31
  I just look at my news feeds that I have, all my news aggregators, even social media, it's like
• 1:36
  message, message, message, message, like something new's happening. Someone bombed somebody,
• 1:40
  another death, another disagreement, another 10, 20 point, 15, 30, 50 point plan. Like I can't even
• 1:47
  keep up. And on top of that, Trump runs his mouth, which, you know, anyway, we'll get into that.
• 1:54
  Okay. Also, we're going to discuss Pam Bondi. She was fired. People kind of discussed it,
• 2:01
  but it all got glossed over because of what's going on with the Iran conflict.
• 2:04
  I'm just going to give my opinion on that. We're going to talk about it a little bit,
• 2:07
  give my thoughts about it. And I'm going to circle back to an old topic,
• 2:11
  something that I've discussed many times on this microphone.
• 2:16
  I've been doing this podcast three years and I've discussed this. I've discussed this before
• 2:20
  I started my podcast. I discussed this when I was a guest host or co-host on my brother's show for a
• 2:25
  while. And then my brother and I discussed it when we had Random Thoughts with Manuel and George going.
• 2:31
  And I mean, he's discussed it on his show. And we're talking about California. We're talking
• 2:38
  about Gavin Newsom. We're talking about the high-speed rail, which never seems to be completed.
• 2:45
  this is something that's been going on since 2008
• 2:47
  Gavin didn't initiate it
• 2:50
  I believe this all started under
• 2:52
  the tutelage of good old
• 2:53
  Jerry Brown
• 2:54
  but hey you know what we're going to touch on that
• 2:58
  because even though independents like me
• 3:00
  little old guys like me and my brother
• 3:02
  Manuel Fonz even though we've been talking about
• 3:04
  this for years like
• 3:05
  literally years even before
• 3:08
  I had the podcast my brother Long has been doing it for like
• 3:10
  10 11 years whatever
• 3:11
  regardless we've been talking about for a long time
• 3:13
  60 Minutes does
• 3:15
  a story and suddenly it's like,
• 3:17
  groundbreaking, they're calling it out.
• 3:19
  Well, I hate to tell you, we were ahead of 60 minutes,
• 3:21
  like by a mile,
• 3:23
  probably more like a few hundred miles.
• 3:25
  But regardless, I'm glad they did it
• 3:27
  because it brings national attention
• 3:29
  back to the mishandling
• 3:32
  and the manipulation
• 3:33
  of funds to get the project going.
• 3:36
  The lying to
• 3:38
  the taxpayers of California.
• 3:41
  The realization that, hey, this really can't happen,
• 3:44
  but we're going to try it anyway,
• 3:44
  just to look good, even though they knew behind the scenes that they really couldn't pull it off.
• 3:49
  So kudos to 60 Minutes for getting the attention because you guys are nationally recognized,
• 3:54
  highly recognized worldwide, so I'll give you that.
• 3:56
  But make no mistake, it's been discussed before by little old me.
• 4:01
  So we're going to address that.
• 4:04
  We're going to touch on that.
• 4:05
  But first, firstly, I want to thank some listeners.
• 4:10
  No one specifically, for example.
• 4:12
  Actually, you know what?
• 4:13
  I'm going to bring attention to one person.
• 4:14
  I don't know his actual name, but if you are on X, if you're on X, and this is a guy that
• 4:24
  literally doesn't agree with me all the time.
• 4:29
  He's literally made it clear that he doesn't agree with me all the time and that he listens
• 4:37
  to me just to hear an alternative perspective.
• 4:40
  But regardless, I appreciate that he will push back.
• 4:46
  He doesn't just basically go along with the program as far as whatever the hell is dribbling out of my mouth or dribbling out of my mouth.
• 4:53
  Did I say that correctly?
• 4:54
  Dribbling, dribbling.
• 4:55
  Anyway, if you're not following AVScanNZ, please do.
• 5:04
  that handle is
• 5:06
  at
• 5:07
  NZ underscore
• 5:09
  Trav
• 5:10
  follow that guy
• 5:12
  very informative
• 5:13
  very smart individual
• 5:14
  loves to put me in my place
• 5:16
  I appreciate you
• 5:18
  thank you very much man
• 5:19
  for supporting
• 5:20
  I just thought I'd give you a shout out
• 5:22
  it's not a dig whatsoever
• 5:23
  but hey everybody
• 5:24
  if you're listening
• 5:26
  please go ahead and give him a follow on X
• 5:27
  great account
• 5:28
  very smart guy
• 5:29
  gives you a lot of information
• 5:31
  and with that being said
• 5:33
  I'm also going to give a shout out to Iceland is back on the board in terms of our downloads.
• 5:38
  In fact, I've seen an uptick.
• 5:39
  So thank you very much.
• 5:40
  Iceland.
• 5:40
  Iceland has been increasing.
• 5:43
  So apparently we're growing in listenership there.
• 5:46
  And out of nowhere, I don't know how this happened, but Vietnam, Vietnam has become our number
• 5:52
  two country in terms of downloads all of a sudden.
• 5:54
  I mean, the USA always leads, but Vietnam out of nowhere.
• 5:58
  Thank you.
• 5:59
  Maybe you appreciate what I'm saying, or you just think I'm an idiot who doesn't know what
• 6:02
  he's talking about and just making fun of me. Whatever the case is, I appreciate the support.
• 6:06
  So thank you very much, Vietnam. And also Israel. Yes, they're paying me $7,000 to post. Oh,
• 6:12
  that was a joke. That was a joke. Anybody who knows, if you're on social media,
• 6:15
  you understand where that's coming from. But in all seriousness, a lot more listeners out of Israel
• 6:21
  consistently. So that's actually kind of new for me. I didn't really have anything out of Israel,
• 6:26
  anybody listening to me, but recently there has been an uptick. So I appreciate you out in Israel.
• 6:31
  and everybody else as well.
• 6:34
  I mean, look, if it wasn't for you,
• 6:36
  I wouldn't be doing the show.
• 6:37
  I wouldn't keep it going.
• 6:38
  I wouldn't have sponsors.
• 6:40
  And before we move on to the important stuff, really,
• 6:44
  which is talking about Iran and Pam Bondi
• 6:47
  and Gavin Newsom's mishandling of
• 6:50
  whatever the hell's going with the high-speed rail,
• 6:52
  we do have sponsors.
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  So until we finalize that, I can't say who it is,
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  but I'll just say it involves coffee.
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  So hopefully we can move that forward.
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  But regardless, go to worldofblazepodcast.com.
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• 10:09
  Okay.
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  With that being said, thank you.
• 10:12
  Let's move on.
• 10:13
  So, Iran, ceasefire
• 10:16
  What do we know?
• 10:17
  What do we know?
• 10:18
  Well, what we do know is
• 10:20
  Trump made a statement
• 10:21
  He made a tweet
• 10:22
  A truth
• 10:24
  A post
• 10:25
  Claiming that
• 10:26
  An entire civilization will die
• 10:29
  And never come back
• 10:31
  Threatening Iran
• 10:32
  People lost their shit around the world
• 10:35
  Around the world
• 10:36
  So, Iran tried to be tough about it
• 10:40
  and they went straight to social media.
• 10:43
  Look, I got to be honest,
• 10:44
  Iran's getting really good at trolling the world here.
• 10:46
  They sent a lot of posts in retaliation
• 10:48
  to what Trump said,
• 10:50
  a lot of AI videos, etc.
• 10:53
  But in the end,
• 10:54
  Iran called for a ceasefire.
• 10:56
  Iran agreed to call for a ceasefire.
• 10:58
  They're like, hey, you know what?
• 10:59
  Maybe we got to cool this off a bit.
• 11:01
  Let's regroup.
• 11:02
  Let's figure this out.
• 11:03
  So it's supposed to be a 14-day ceasefire.
• 11:06
  Okay?
• 11:07
  So let's kind of go through
• 11:09
  let's go through the steps of what's going on here.
• 11:13
  We'll go ahead and queue up my little presentation.
• 11:16
  Get a little fancy today, guys.
• 11:18
  All right.
• 11:18
  So the 2026 ceasefire, ceasefire, ceasefire.
• 11:24
  Excuse that.
• 11:24
  Look, honestly, this is me getting back to doing more solo episodes.
• 11:28
  I'm going to fumble here and there, but bear with me.
• 11:31
  Okay.
• 11:31
  So the 2026 ceasefire, anatomy of a fragile pause.
• 11:35
  So we're going to deconstruct this 14-day truce between the United States, Israel, and Iran.
• 11:42
  So what's the trigger?
• 11:44
  The trigger is Trump's statement.
• 11:46
  A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back.
• 11:51
  Tuesday will be power plant day and bridge day.
• 11:57
  President Donald Trump.
• 11:59
  That was his 48-hour ultimatum.
• 12:01
  And of course, this was Tuesday of this week or the week of this recording.
• 12:05
  Okay.
• 12:05
  So those just for me,
• 12:07
  I don't know when you're going to hear this,
• 12:09
  but,
• 12:09
  but given at the time of this recording right now,
• 12:11
  that you're listening to,
• 12:12
  that was only a few days ago.
• 12:13
  Everybody on a Tuesday was on edge.
• 12:16
  They're like,
• 12:17
  what in the fuck is going to happen?
• 12:19
  What does Trump mean?
• 12:22
  What's he going to,
• 12:22
  is he really going to wipe Iran off the map?
• 12:25
  Like literally just destroy them to the brink of non-existence,
• 12:29
  meaning the entire civilization of Iran,
• 12:33
  like all the people.
• 12:35
  Well, there are those who say no.
• 12:41
  I mean, if anybody knows Trump, we know that he speaks in hyperbole.
• 12:45
  My friend Kirby would call it Trump-perbole.
• 12:50
  But many people also take him literally which I think is kind of an issue but maybe it isn In this case was this a negotiation tactic Well it kind of worked because here the intervention So Trump sets the 8 p deadline for destruction of Iranian infrastructure
• 13:06
  which we're going to get to
• 13:07
  because everybody says that's a war crime.
• 13:09
  Last minute back channel intervention
• 13:11
  by Pakistani PM Sharif and General Munir.
• 13:16
  I think I said that right.
• 13:17
  Munir, Munir.
• 13:19
  Apologies, meant no offense.
• 13:20
  And of course, there's the ceasefire
• 13:22
  secured 90 minutes before military escalation,
• 13:25
  and that escalation being Israel's bombing of Lebanon.
• 13:30
  Of course, why not?
• 13:32
  Why not, Israel?
• 13:33
  Why not?
• 13:34
  So here's the deal here.
• 13:39
  Part of that back-channeling wasn't just Pakistan.
• 13:44
  It was also China.
• 13:45
  China also reached out.
• 13:47
  There's reports saying China quietly reached out
• 13:49
  and kind of pressured Tehran to go,
• 13:50
  look. You need to kind of like take this opportunity to chill the fuck out. Like, seriously. And so
• 13:57
  that's what's going on here. The reality check in this whole diplomatic chasm is this. So US had a
• 14:05
  15 point plan. Iran has the 10 point plan. You can see those right here. And honestly, here, guys,
• 14:10
  if you are not watching my video of this on YouTube, do yourself a favor, go to YouTube,
• 14:17
  find my channel, World of Blaze,
• 14:19
  with George Fonce. My handle is
• 14:22
  at Fonce of Blaze. Just go there and you'll see the
• 14:23
  video version. I also
• 14:25
  upload those to Spotify.
• 14:28
  As you know, Spotify also allows you to do
• 14:30
  video. But if you're not
• 14:32
  watching or can't, whatever
• 14:34
  the case is, I'm going to do my best to explain what's happening here.
• 14:36
  So the reality check, the diplomatic
• 14:37
  chasm. So the U.S. had a 15-point plan.
• 14:40
  So Iran
• 14:41
  countered with their 10-point plan.
• 14:43
  Now, we're not going to go through the whole thing. We're going to go to the points of contention
• 14:46
  here. And there's
• 14:48
  really about four major points of contention.
• 14:49
  We got the maritime control, which
• 14:52
  from the US perspective, they want immediate
• 14:54
  safe reopening of the
• 14:56
  Strait of Hormuz. But Iran
• 14:58
  counters and saying, well, no, no,
• 15:00
  no, there's going to be continued Iranian military
• 15:02
  control of the strait.
• 15:04
  And they have a right to collect
• 15:05
  a $2 million
• 15:07
  toll per ship,
• 15:09
  which recently, by the way,
• 15:12
  recently has been restructured
• 15:14
  a bit.
• 15:14
  I don't have it on the slide here,
• 15:17
  but recently Iran said,
• 15:18
  well, we have our right to pick and choose
• 15:21
  who pays a toll since we will control it.
• 15:24
  And with that being said,
• 15:25
  they also said that the toll could start
• 15:28
  at $1 per barrel of oil,
• 15:32
  but it's not just limited to the toll of oil.
• 15:34
  It all depends on what goods and services
• 15:37
  are entering in and out of the Strait of Hormones,
• 15:39
  meaning that toll could vary
• 15:42
  depending on the goods and services
• 15:43
  coming in or out.
• 15:45
  And this is at Iran's discretion.
• 15:46
  So they said, what you need to do is you're going to email us ahead of time before you
• 15:52
  get here.
• 15:52
  You got to tell us what cargo it is, and we're going to determine which department or fund
• 15:58
  collectors are going to determine the charges.
• 16:01
  Aside from that, they want it all paid in cryptocurrency now.
• 16:06
  So there's the update on that.
• 16:09
  All right, let's go to the second point of contention.
• 16:12
  Nuclear posturing, right?
• 16:14
  Well, we all know that the U.S. doesn't want Iran to ever have the ability to make a nuclear weapon.
• 16:20
  In fact, I mean, let's just be honest.
• 16:22
  Most of the world doesn't want Iran to have a nuclear weapon.
• 16:24
  Actually, I don't think anyone in the world does.
• 16:27
  Even though under the breath, they were going, oh, poor Iran.
• 16:29
  They have a right to...
• 16:30
  No, listen.
• 16:31
  First off, this isn't about Iran.
• 16:34
  It's about the Islamic regime.
• 16:36
  Let's just make that distinction.
• 16:38
  It's not about the Iranian people.
• 16:39
  It's about the Islamic regime.
• 16:41
  having a nuclear weapon.
• 16:43
  It's about the IRGC
• 16:44
  being able to have
• 16:45
  a nuclear weapon.
• 16:46
  And here's the problem
• 16:47
  with this nuclear weapon issue here
• 16:50
  that nobody seems to understand.
• 16:51
  If Iran gets it,
• 16:53
  and let's say they're just
• 16:54
  going to use it to posture
• 16:55
  and to hold people at bay,
• 16:56
  because, I mean,
• 16:57
  we could argue that
• 16:59
  having nuclear weapons
• 16:59
  keeps people at peace
• 17:02
  because who's going to dare
• 17:02
  to fire one off?
• 17:04
  I mean, the fallout,
• 17:05
  the destruction of humanity,
• 17:07
  I mean, can literally lead
• 17:08
  to the entire destruction
• 17:09
  of the world,
• 17:11
  as at least we know it.
• 17:12
  I mean, I think the cockroaches and rats,
• 17:14
  I think they'll be fine.
• 17:16
  But humanity is going to be in real trouble.
• 17:19
  So why don't we want Iran to have this nuclear weapon?
• 17:22
  Well, let's say maybe we can trust Iran with it
• 17:27
  because we know that they're just going to use it as leverage.
• 17:29
  To a degree.
• 17:31
  They may not ever fire it.
• 17:33
  I mean, because Kim Jong-un has them.
• 17:34
  He's not firing them.
• 17:36
  He's another crazy bastard.
• 17:37
  But what about the proxies?
• 17:40
  What if they put pressure on the Iranian regime, the Islamic regime or IRGC or do some kind of back-end, back-channel deal to get to somebody to go, hey, I'll slide you a little cash here back if you give me this nuclear armament.
• 17:54
  We've got to consider that as well.
• 17:56
  So Iran, obviously, the explicit use and acceptance of uranium enrichment program is part of their 10-point plan.
• 18:03
  They want the world, specifically the U.S., to allow them to enrich the uranium as they please.
• 18:13
  And if you don't know, uranium is what is used.
• 18:16
  After it reaches about 60% or more, it becomes, well, at the state in which they can use it as an explosive nuclear device.
• 18:25
  You can enrich uranium up to, I think, 40.
• 18:28
  I may be wrong on that, but somewhere up to there, in which it's considered to be...
• 18:33
  safe and used for power, like power plants, whatever.
• 18:36
  So you get it up to 60 or more.
• 18:39
  Now we're at military grade missile use area.
• 18:46
  And that's what we don't want for Iran.
• 18:47
  But Iran wants to be able to do that.
• 18:49
  Okay.
• 18:50
  So going back to the U.S. on their 15 point plan here.
• 18:53
  So this was the third point of contention.
• 18:55
  There was the sanctions and assets.
• 18:57
  so the u.s was wanting conditional relief based on verified concessions meaning the u.s is going to
• 19:06
  say if you meet these demands then we're going to go ahead and release some of the sanctions lift
• 19:12
  some of the sanctions you know make sure you have some of your assets back but iran says they want
• 19:17
  a full removal of all sanctions regardless release of all frozen assets pretty much meaning like money
• 19:24
  and they want payment
• 19:27
  from the US for all damages in the war
• 19:30
  so all buildings, infrastructure
• 19:31
  whatever it is that has been damaged, destroyed
• 19:33
  they want the US to pay for it
• 19:35
  and here's the fourth
• 19:38
  point of contention here
• 19:39
  the regional scope
• 19:41
  so the US wants to
• 19:44
  stabilize
• 19:44
  they want a
• 19:47
  broader Middle East
• 19:49
  conflict
• 19:50
  to be stabilized
• 19:54
  that's not much to ask, right?
• 19:57
  So they want to be able to still have a presence,
• 20:00
  the U.S. does,
• 20:01
  so that they can make sure that the U.S. stays stable and peaceful,
• 20:04
  just as we have been doing.
• 20:06
  Although there's a good argument to be made
• 20:08
  as to whether or not it has stayed peaceful,
• 20:11
  which I'm not sure the Middle East has seen any peace.
• 20:15
  I don't know when there ever was peace, to be honest.
• 20:19
  But Iran wants total U.S. troop withdrawal.
• 20:23
  They want all troops out of the area.
• 20:25
  They want an immediate cessation of the war in Lebanon as well.
• 20:31
  And this also extends to, as far as Iran has said,
• 20:36
  the removal of U.S. bases in the area,
• 20:39
  especially out of the Gulf states.
• 20:41
  So it'd be like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, et cetera.
• 20:44
  No more U.S. bases.
• 20:46
  No more U.S. military presence, basically.
• 20:49
  So that's what they want.
• 20:49
  So that one, the others, you know, they're definitely points of contention and disagreement,
• 20:55
  but I think there's a negotiating area there.
• 20:57
  But we all know that the US is not going to remove their presence from the Middle East.
• 21:01
  That's just not going to fucking happen.
• 21:03
  So good luck with that one.
• 21:05
  Okay, so here's what happens in the mediation.
• 21:09
  So here it is.
• 21:10
  This is where they're going to go ahead.
• 21:12
  So if you look at the circle in the middle, there it is.
• 21:14
  The Islamabad Accord is what they're calling it.
• 21:17
  And so negotiations will happen in Pakistan.
• 21:21
  Now, there's two countries that have to take credit for this.
• 21:25
  Firstly, Pakistan.
• 21:27
  So Pakistan, Prime Minister Sharif and General Manir,
• 21:32
  central conduit balancing Saudi defense pact with 1,000 kilometer Iranian border.
• 21:38
  Okay?
• 21:38
  So they want to go ahead and negotiate this.
• 21:41
  They want to go ahead and base it off balancing the Saudi defense pact
• 21:47
  and making sure the Iranian border,
• 21:49
  everything is just nice, peaceful.
• 21:53
  Let's come to an agreement.
• 21:54
  But regardless, Pakistan wants to help be the mediator.
• 21:58
  They want to be the people in the middle saying,
• 21:59
  okay, US, what do you want?
• 22:01
  Iran, what do you want?
• 22:02
  Let's come to an agreement that makes sense.
• 22:05
  So Pakistan wants to mediate this.
• 22:07
  United States is going to be on one side
• 22:11
  and they're going to send J.D. Vance and his envoy,
• 22:14
  which includes Steve Whitcoff,
• 22:15
  to go ahead and negotiate this with Iran.
• 22:18
  So their foreign minister, Abbas Arakshi,
• 22:21
  I'm horrible at pronouncing that,
• 22:23
  but he's going to convey the maximalist 10-point counterproposal,
• 22:27
  which some of those items we went over
• 22:28
  that we know the U.S. will just never agree to.
• 22:30
  So I don't know what agreement we're going to come to
• 22:34
  between the U.S.'s 15-point plan and Iran's 10-point plan.
• 22:40
  Who knows?
• 22:41
  But quietly, quietly behind the scenes,
• 22:44
  it has been said and reported that
• 22:46
  the major player here that
• 22:48
  forced Tehran's hand
• 22:50
  to come to the table has actually been China.
• 22:53
  It reports that China
• 22:54
  actually said, hey,
• 22:56
  knock this shit off, come to the table.
• 22:59
  Why is that?
• 23:00
  Well,
• 23:02
  China needs allies too.
• 23:05
  What people don't realize is Iran's
• 23:06
  major allies in terms of superpowers are
• 23:08
  Russia,
• 23:10
  China, I believe North Korea
• 23:12
  is in the mix there, but
• 23:14
  They don't really have the pull that Russia and China is,
• 23:18
  although they're very formidable.
• 23:19
  I mean, we're not going to dismiss Kim Jong-un's madness.
• 23:23
  So China gets oil from Iran.
• 23:25
  They get it at a very, very, very, like very discounted rate.
• 23:29
  Is it the only place China can get oil from?
• 23:31
  No, they can get it from Russia.
• 23:33
  They can't get it from Venezuela anymore.
• 23:36
  Nope, can't get it from that area whatsoever.
• 23:38
  Nope, can't get it from the Caribbean.
• 23:40
  The U.S. stopped that.
• 23:42
  But they can't get it from Russia.
• 23:43
  So does this cut China out completely?
• 23:45
  No.
• 23:46
  Does it hurt them?
• 23:47
  Yeah, it definitely hurts them.
• 23:49
  It definitely puts them in a spot for a bit.
• 23:52
  I'm sure they will realign with some allies somewhere,
• 23:54
  or they'll end up, honestly,
• 23:56
  even if they can get the oil somewhere else,
• 23:57
  they're going to have to pay through the nose for it.
• 24:00
  I don't think any other country is going to drop their pants
• 24:03
  just to help China out at this point.
• 24:05
  I mean, they're going to take advantage of the situation.
• 24:06
  Most countries would.
• 24:08
  Like, oh, you want our oil?
• 24:09
  Well, here's your price.
• 24:11
  Where Iran was pretty much,
• 24:12
  I wouldn't say giving it away, but they were basically, well, giving it away.
• 24:16
  And the other thing here is the removal of China's ability to continue to buy oil, for example, hurts Iran as well.
• 24:24
  Because right now, China buys 90%.
• 24:28
  That's 9-0, folks.
• 24:30
  90% of all of Iran's oil.
• 24:36
  Also in this, with Iran controlling the Strait of Hormuz,
• 24:40
  even if they go back to selling oil and letting everybody else purchase oil from the other Gulf
• 24:45
  nations, the price may come down on the oil itself. But now you're looking at a minimum
• 24:49
  $2 million toll per ship or vessel. So this is going to definitely drastically affect the markets.
• 24:58
  Is this the first time this has happened? No. Iran has done this before. I'm not sure that they did
• 25:03
  the toll thing with the ships or the tankers, but they have controlled and shut down the strait
• 25:09
  before, but this time it seems to be having a bigger impact than it ever did.
• 25:17
  Now, here's what's going on here with the ceasefire.
• 25:21
  So there's a disagreement in what was included, and this is what led to the ceasefire pretty
• 25:28
  much ending about as abruptly as Iran said, hey, let's have one.
• 25:33
  So the official ceasefire
• 25:36
  According to Pakistan PM
• 25:39
  Shabazz Sharif
• 25:41
  It was agreed to an immediate ceasefire
• 25:44
  Everywhere
• 25:45
  Including Lebanon
• 25:47
  And elsewhere
• 25:48
  Which was effective immediately
• 25:50
  Only problem is
• 25:51
  Well, the loophole is
• 25:53
  Israel supports the suspension
• 25:56
  Of the strikes against Iran But they don seem to think It includes Lebanon All right so and this is where I a little foggy folks
• 26:06
  and be honest with you.
• 26:07
  As far as I was concerned or knew,
• 26:09
  I thought the ceasefire agreement
• 26:10
  was between Iran and the US.
• 26:15
  Now, maybe part of this agreement
• 26:17
  was that Israel gets left alone,
• 26:20
  and in turn, maybe Iran was like,
• 26:22
  well, maybe you leave Lebanon and Rome
• 26:23
  because, you know,
• 26:24
  we need our terrorist proxies Hezbollah to continue to operate.
• 26:28
  So Israel took it upon themselves to say,
• 26:31
  nah, I don't believe that that was the case.
• 26:35
  So what happened?
• 26:36
  Well, the real-time military updates that are still going on is
• 26:40
  Operation Eternal Darkness was initiated by Benjamin Netanyahu.
• 26:45
  100 Israeli airstrikes executed in 10 minutes
• 26:49
  across Beirut and Southern Lebanon.
• 26:52
  and there were at least 254 casualties reported,
• 26:57
  but it's more than that now,
• 26:59
  which I'm going to get into here.
• 27:01
  So,
• 27:02
  the global choke point here
• 27:05
  and the point of contention of this entire,
• 27:08
  this entire debacle here,
• 27:10
  this entire war,
• 27:12
  that is not a war, but is,
• 27:14
  but we know it is,
• 27:14
  but even though they don't say it is,
• 27:15
  but it's a war,
• 27:17
  is really the control of the Strait of Hormuz.
• 27:19
  there okay so check this out there are 20 million barrels a day that are trapped that aren't moving
• 27:29
  in and out that's 20 of the global seaborne oil trade 84 of the crude bound for asia
• 27:36
  it's only about 21 to 25 miles wide folks so it it's it's definitely choke point that is not hard
• 27:45
  for Iran to control, which they are controlling.
• 27:48
  And as I said earlier, the new toll,
• 27:51
  the potential of $2 million fee per transiting vessel
• 27:55
  really adds to the cost of this oil,
• 28:00
  which really isn't going to be consistent
• 28:04
  because Iran, again, they said it depends on the cargo.
• 28:07
  They're saying it could start at a dollar a barrel of oil.
• 28:10
  So if that fee can't, I mean, it could go beyond $2 million a vessel.
• 28:19
  It could go beyond.
• 28:21
  And the other thing that people aren't talking about that's hurting us all is as long as Iran controls this,
• 28:27
  most vessels, regardless of whether they have permission or not, won't even bother to go through the strait
• 28:33
  because insurance companies like Lloyd's of London
• 28:37
  raised the rates and or just said,
• 28:40
  we can't insure you.
• 28:43
  Something happens, you're screwed, this is on you.
• 28:45
  Well, these are very expensive tankers.
• 28:48
  We have lives, bodies actually operating these tankers.
• 28:53
  And so without the insurance behind to cover any losses,
• 28:57
  most of these companies are going,
• 28:59
  well, we're not even going to mess with it.
• 29:01
  like we'll just be financially collapsed.
• 29:03
  They may be able to absorb that $2 million fee.
• 29:06
  It's just going to be attached to the price of the oil or so their transport
• 29:09
  fees just going to have to grow up, right?
• 29:11
  Just goes up, but not being insured.
• 29:14
  If anything happens as a company, well, that's definitely going to kill you.
• 29:19
  It's going to kill you financially.
• 29:20
  It probably just would put you out of business.
• 29:23
  And thus far, we cannot trust Iran to keep the word to that point.
• 29:29
  It doesn't seem we can trust Israel to keep their word either.
• 29:32
  That wasn't a dig at Israel.
• 29:33
  It's just going back to them breaking the ceasefire by attacking Lebanon,
• 29:38
  which they claim ceasefire agreement didn't include,
• 29:41
  but Iran says it did.
• 29:42
  The U.S. says it kind of did, but not really.
• 29:45
  I don't recall that.
• 29:46
  Getting back to that mess.
• 29:49
  So what's next, right?
• 29:54
  Well, let's go back to the Israel strikes on Lebanon
• 29:57
  because we got to understand what happened here.
• 30:00
  And was it just 254 people that were killed?
• 30:05
  I believe the toll is higher.
• 30:07
  Let's go ahead and go over to that window here.
• 30:11
  So on ground news here, pull this up.
• 30:14
  Israel strikes Lebanon, kills 250.
• 30:16
  Netanyahu excludes, excludes, excludes country from truce.
• 30:23
  So on Wednesday
• 30:26
  Of this week of this recording by the way
• 30:28
  The Israeli Defense Forces
• 30:30
  Carried out its largest coordinated strike
• 30:32
  Of the war
• 30:33
  Hitting over 100 Hezbollah
• 30:36
  Targets across Lebanon
• 30:38
  Within 10 minutes
• 30:39
  I mean that's a lot
• 30:40
  Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
• 30:43
  Excuse me for that
• 30:44
  So Benjamin Netanyahu
• 30:47
  Confirmed operations would continue
• 30:49
  Stating the US-Iran ceasefire
• 30:51
  Excludes Lebanon
• 30:53
  brokered by Pakistan,
• 30:55
  U.S. President Donald Trump
• 30:57
  announced a two-week ceasefire
• 30:58
  with Iran on Tuesday,
• 31:01
  which was just a few days
• 31:02
  before this recording,
• 31:03
  while Pakistani Prime Minister
• 31:04
  Shabazz Sharif claimed
• 31:07
  the truce applied everywhere,
• 31:09
  including Lebanon.
• 31:10
  Now, this is what's not clear.
• 31:11
  This isn't clear
• 31:12
  if this was actually said
• 31:13
  or if they're saying this
• 31:15
  after the fact,
• 31:16
  after Israel struck Lebanon.
• 31:19
  That's what's not clear.
• 31:20
  I mean, there is no definitive
• 31:21
  proof anywhere that
• 31:22
  this ceasefire agreement included Iran and Lebanon
• 31:26
  because it was never said from the outset.
• 31:28
  I can't find it anywhere in the media where it said
• 31:30
  this ceasefire includes Iran, its allies,
• 31:33
  which includes Lebanon.
• 31:35
  Nowhere.
• 31:36
  This all comes out after Israel attacks Lebanon.
• 31:42
  According to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health,
• 31:44
  over 1,530 people have been killed.
• 31:49
  4,812 were wounded since early March
• 31:54
  with more than 1 million displaced.
• 31:58
  Strikes hit dense commercial and residential areas
• 32:00
  prompting widespread humanitarian concern.
• 32:04
  Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam
• 32:07
  accused Israel of utter disregard for international law
• 32:12
  while world leaders, including the European Council
• 32:15
  issued a joint statement calling for a lasting truce
• 32:18
  that includes Lebanon.
• 32:21
  And again, it sounds like
• 32:23
  they're using the Lebanon thing
• 32:25
  after the fact.
• 32:27
  It's almost like they didn't think about it.
• 32:28
  Maybe they're like,
• 32:29
  I don't think Israel's going to do anything, right?
• 32:31
  We brokered peace with USA.
• 32:32
  They're the bigger, more powerful country.
• 32:36
  Israel's the ally.
• 32:37
  They're going to listen.
• 32:37
  Maybe there's not going to be anything happening.
• 32:40
  I think that when they had this
• 32:42
  ceasefire proposal or agreement
• 32:44
  that Iran forgot to explicitly include Lebanon.
• 32:52
  And I think that this is all happening after fact.
• 32:54
  But regardless, regardless,
• 32:57
  why is Lebanon being bombed?
• 33:01
  I'm not quite sure.
• 33:02
  I pulled up a summary here,
• 33:06
  a little AI summary.
• 33:08
  And I'm going to read through it,
• 33:09
  but I'm still kind of fuzzy on it.
• 33:12
  But let's read this here.
• 33:13
  So as of April, 2026, Israel is conducting heavy airstrikes and a ground offensive in Lebanon, targeting Hezbollah.
• 33:22
  In a conflict that has caused over 1,700 deaths and displaced more than a million people, Israel continues these strikes to weaken Hezbollah's military capabilities and create a secure zone for northern Israel residents.
• 33:36
  So intentionally separating this fight from the ongoing U.S.-Iran ceasefire.
• 33:41
  So the claim, the assessment is that this is a conflict, but separate from that between Iran and the U.S. and or Israel.
• 33:53
  Like this is a completely separate conflict.
• 33:56
  This is not included.
• 33:59
  It's a different deal.
• 34:00
  But that kind of raises the question as to like, well, with this major conflict going on with Iran, the big dog in the area, right?
• 34:07
  with all the rockets and missiles,
• 34:10
  the proxies, the terrorist groups,
• 34:11
  the money, etc.,
• 34:12
  why would you even attempt
• 34:15
  to start another war within a war
• 34:18
  with another country?
• 34:19
  That makes no fucking sense.
• 34:21
  And so, as much as people know
• 34:23
  that I don't hate Israelis and Jews,
• 34:26
  I have nothing wrong with Jewish people
• 34:27
  or people from Israel.
• 34:30
  There are many times
• 34:31
  where I had to question the Israeli government,
• 34:34
  in this case, Netanyahu.
• 34:36
  Look, I know Israel has their reasons.
• 34:37
  for what they do.
• 34:39
  And if we're being very honest,
• 34:41
  we know Israel is, for the most part,
• 34:44
  attacked constantly.
• 34:48
  Constantly.
• 34:49
  Ever since their inception.
• 34:52
  Ever since they were put together as a nation.
• 34:54
  Right from the outset, they were attacked.
• 34:57
  And they've been defending themselves ever since.
• 35:00
  But people do disagree with
• 35:03
  how viciously they retaliate.
• 35:06
  and again you can have your views on that
• 35:09
  I have mine I'm not going to get into it right
• 35:11
  here but the bottom line is
• 35:13
  this shit's been going on for a long time
• 35:15
  Israel versus the world it seems
• 35:17
  or at least the entire Middle East
• 35:18
  for the most part
• 35:20
  well it seems that way
• 35:23
  anyway so
• 35:25
  in Israel
• 35:26
  in Israel's claim here
• 35:29
  this is a separate
• 35:30
  conflict separate deal has nothing to do
• 35:33
  with the
• 35:34
  ceasefire agreement.
• 35:37
  And look, we're targeting Hezbollah, they say.
• 35:39
  But the only problem with that
• 35:41
  is there's plenty of videos out there.
• 35:43
  I mean, where you see, they're not targeting
• 35:45
  Hezbollah so much.
• 35:47
  They're targeting areas where they believe Hezbollah
• 35:49
  is and are dug in,
• 35:51
  but they're literally destroying
• 35:53
  entire residential
• 35:55
  areas, entire parts of cities.
• 35:58
  The civilian
• 35:59
  casualties here are huge.
• 36:02
  And so this
• 36:03
  is what triggered Iran to
• 36:05
  say, fuck it, no ceasefire.
• 36:08
  This is what
• 36:09
  triggered the whole world to go, what are you
• 36:11
  doing, Israel? Like,
• 36:13
  the U.S. is trying to get something done here.
• 36:15
  They're trying to broker some kind of agreement to get
• 36:17
  back to peace.
• 36:19
  And Israel decides,
• 36:21
  well, I mean, you didn't
• 36:23
  say Lebanon, right? I mean,
• 36:25
  those guys are kind of like open season, right?
• 36:27
  We're still hunting, right? We're still
• 36:29
  hunting. I mean, I got tags
• 36:31
  here for deer. I'm going after it.
• 36:33
  So that's what's going on.
• 36:36
  That is the snafu in all of this.
• 36:39
  So you combine that with the control of the Strait of Hormuz by Iran,
• 36:46
  which is globally impacting everybody's wallet,
• 36:51
  like really screwing everything up financially, economically,
• 36:54
  even though the U.S. really doesn't get,
• 36:58
  I mean, we don't even get oil from the Middle East anymore.
• 37:01
  I mean, we have our agreement with Venezuela now.
• 37:03
  We get stuff from Canada in terms of oil and crude.
• 37:06
  We get it from Mexico.
• 37:08
  Hell, we overproduce in our own country.
• 37:11
  I say our because I'm American in the USA.
• 37:14
  So it doesn't affect us so much,
• 37:16
  but it kind of does
• 37:16
  because everything's tied to the petrol dollar.
• 37:20
  And the total value of oil in the global market,
• 37:23
  if that goes up,
• 37:24
  well, it does go up for the USA too,
• 37:25
  regardless of if we buy from the Middle East or not.
• 37:30
  So a lot of people are now...
• 37:33
  questioning, like, what are we doing here, Trump?
• 37:35
  Because the reality is these things were going to happen.
• 37:39
  We knew that if we tacked around,
• 37:41
  and for those out there who said that Trump didn't know
• 37:45
  he was too stupid to understand the situation,
• 37:47
  look, there are people way smarter than you and I
• 37:51
  who are very well trained in intelligence gathering,
• 37:57
  analyzing and assessing situations,
• 37:59
  who study the history of the area,
• 38:00
  who absolutely know,
• 38:04
  who absolutely know that this was going to come up.
• 38:08
  But I think Trump thought that he would overwhelm Iran
• 38:12
  with so much firepower that they would just cave.
• 38:15
  And I think that the cracks are showing here.
• 38:18
  I think Trump thought that they would back down
• 38:23
  and he wouldn't have to commit to the next step in all of this,
• 38:28
  which is, to be quite honest,
• 38:30
  don't want to say it while I actually have said it before,
• 38:33
  is going all the way, wiping out the Islamic regime.
• 38:39
  Trump wants to do that,
• 38:41
  but he doesn't want to take the steps necessary to do that.
• 38:45
  What Trump would rather see,
• 38:48
  being a president who believes in peace, as he says,
• 38:51
  and doesn't really like wars and conflicts,
• 38:54
  as he said in the past,
• 38:55
  is he would like a change in the regime now a total regime change Well the Iranian people want that In fact we all thought that the major reason that this was happening
• 39:08
  was to liberate the Iranian people.
• 39:11
  Trump has said many times, he said, we will support you.
• 39:14
  Well, we do.
• 39:15
  We do.
• 39:16
  The USA does.
• 39:17
  At least we think we do.
• 39:20
  But it seems that Trump doesn't have the stomach to do what he has to do
• 39:24
  to make sure that they are liberated.
• 39:27
  First off, let's get back to the situation.
• 39:30
  People can't do it.
• 39:32
  They don't have the weapons.
• 39:33
  They can't organize.
• 39:35
  You see videos of Iranians standing arm in arm,
• 39:38
  using themselves as human shields to protect their infrastructure,
• 39:41
  but we all know that is fake.
• 39:43
  We know that is fake.
• 39:45
  There's no internet out there, for one.
• 39:47
  So how is all this being communicated?
• 39:49
  Well, the IRGC is knocking on doors and calling people and saying,
• 39:51
  hey, you're coming out here and you're doing this.
• 39:53
  oh and many people remember that about
• 39:56
  I mean we don't even know the real number
• 39:58
  40,000 50,000 civilians
• 40:00
  who dared to protest against the Islamic regime in Iran
• 40:04
  were killed
• 40:05
  I mean just about two months ago
• 40:09
  a month ago where it was
• 40:10
  I mean really feels like it was yesterday
• 40:12
  because practically was
• 40:14
  what do you think they're going to do
• 40:17
  yeah they're going to go out there and go arm in arm
• 40:19
  and wave the Iranian flags etc
• 40:21
  and preserve their life.
• 40:24
  Right?
• 40:25
  They're going to cover their own ass.
• 40:28
  So,
• 40:28
  the regime needs to go.
• 40:32
  How are we going to get there?
• 40:34
  Hmm.
• 40:36
  That is the question.
• 40:37
  That is the question.
• 40:38
  The negotiations coming up this Saturday
• 40:40
  on the 11th of April,
• 40:42
  2026
• 40:42
  is going to be interesting
• 40:44
  because neither side seems like
• 40:45
  they want to give in.
• 40:48
  Number one,
• 40:49
  Iran can't have a nuclear weapon.
• 40:50
  Number one issue is they cannot have one.
• 40:53
  They cannot have the right to enrich uranium to whatever fucking levels they want.
• 40:58
  It's just not going to happen.
• 40:58
  Why?
• 40:59
  Because the Islamic regime is fucking crazy, period.
• 41:02
  Number one fucking state sponsor of terrorism.
• 41:06
  And look, guys, I'm sorry.
• 41:08
  I know I'm cursing a little more than normal in this particular episode, but I mean, this
• 41:14
  whole thing's fucked up.
• 41:15
  Just be honest.
• 41:15
  we have soldiers there
• 41:18
  that don't know what's happening
• 41:21
  we have marines, we have army, we have navy
• 41:23
  I mean they're there to protect
• 41:25
  the US but why are they there?
• 41:27
  what's going on? well we're trying to take out a fanatical
• 41:29
  theocratic regime
• 41:31
  that has full authority and power
• 41:33
  over the region by the way
• 41:34
  not just over Iran
• 41:35
  all of their neighbors are scared of Iran
• 41:38
  all the neighbors, all the Gulf states
• 41:40
  they all are
• 41:42
  all of them
• 41:43
  period
• 41:46
  because they're crazy
• 41:47
  they really are
• 41:48
  so how do we get
• 41:52
  back to normal how do we
• 41:54
  get this to
• 41:55
  come
• 41:57
  to peace
• 41:59
  and for how long because
• 42:01
  even if Iran agrees
• 42:04
  and the US is like
• 42:06
  fuck it yeah you know you're a crazy regime
• 42:08
  you chant death to
• 42:10
  the west since 1947
• 42:11
  seems like you have a death to the West gathering
• 42:15
  every Friday in their nation.
• 42:17
  Death to America is your actual foreign policy,
• 42:20
  which was actually said by Khomeini himself,
• 42:25
  you know, the one that just got killed.
• 42:28
  Literally, death to America isn't just a slogan.
• 42:31
  It's a policy.
• 42:32
  He said that.
• 42:32
  He fucking said that.
• 42:33
  It's a policy.
• 42:37
  But if they can come to an agreement
• 42:39
  and the Trump administration goes,
• 42:42
  we don't like you,
• 42:44
  but we'll leave you alone
• 42:47
  if you leave us alone,
• 42:49
  if you leave our neighbors alone.
• 42:51
  If this happens,
• 42:52
  because look,
• 42:53
  the UAE is a neighbor
• 42:55
  and until all of this shit broke out,
• 42:59
  no real conflicts, right?
• 43:01
  Kuwait, no conflicts.
• 43:02
  Bahrain, no conflicts.
• 43:05
  They're all just kind of living.
• 43:07
  but what Iran has never done
• 43:10
  and can't do is stop attacking Israel
• 43:12
  either directly or indirectly
• 43:13
  and in turn
• 43:15
  Israel can't help themselves when there is an opportunity
• 43:18
  presented either
• 43:19
  and again we can make the case that Israel is just
• 43:22
  constantly defending themselves but there have been
• 43:24
  instances where they're like alright
• 43:25
  I think they cooled down for about a month or two
• 43:27
  let's attack and that has
• 43:30
  happened so
• 43:31
  the wild card and all this
• 43:34
  I think
• 43:36
  Iran is in self-preservation mode right now.
• 43:40
  I think they realize that they,
• 43:42
  I mean, let's just be honest,
• 43:44
  give them credit.
• 43:44
  They have lasted.
• 43:45
  They're tough.
• 43:46
  We cannot take that away from them.
• 43:48
  They're pretty tough regime.
• 43:51
  The Iranian people themselves
• 43:52
  are very tough, intelligent people.
• 43:56
  But the wild card here
• 43:59
  in this agreement is Israel.
• 44:02
  will they be able to hold back?
• 44:06
  Will they be able to agree to the terms?
• 44:13
  That's what we've got to watch out for.
• 44:15
  And the other thing is this.
• 44:19
  How can the world, I've said this before in my last podcast,
• 44:22
  how can the world accept such an evil, fanatical, authoritarian,
• 44:26
  theocratical regime that has a history of killing their own citizens
• 44:35
  just for questioning the regimes, opposing the way of life
• 44:38
  that's being imposed on them.
• 44:42
  I mean, publicly hanging Olympians, their Olympic wrestler,
• 44:48
  publicly by the neck with fucking cranes.
• 44:51
  You know, I mean, treating women like literal dogs or pets, whipping and beating them in public for things they didn't even do.
• 45:02
  Are we going to be able, the Western nations, just like keep turning a blind eye?
• 45:08
  Yeah, you know why?
• 45:10
  Money, oil.
• 45:12
  For some reason, the comfort of lower gas at the pump and the ability to get the crude oil that is needed supersedes people's human rights and allows you to turn a blind eye to evil.
• 45:27
  That is the reality.
• 45:30
  So, with that being said, it's going to be interesting what happens here at this negotiation.
• 45:38
  It's going to be very interesting.
• 45:40
  but let's be honest
• 45:43
  even if they come to an agreement
• 45:45
  is the peace
• 45:47
  going to last
• 45:48
  no
• 45:50
  why well because
• 45:53
  Iran indirectly
• 45:54
  one of their proxies is going to lose
• 45:57
  their shit
• 45:58
  or Netanyahu is just going to make up some
• 46:01
  bullshit and go oh look opportune let's just go
• 46:03
  bomb these guys because
• 46:05
  they're looking at us funny
• 46:06
  hmm
• 46:10
  Well, with that being said, look, I brought you up to speed as far as where we're at so far.
• 46:14
  So let's hold off in making any more assumptions until after this Saturday, the 11th of April, coming up.
• 46:24
  Let's see what happens when J.D. Vance and Steve Witkoff and, I mean, when the negotiation team goes to talk to Iran and let's see what happens here.
• 46:33
  Hopefully, something good will come out of this.
• 46:36
  hopefully there will be peace
• 46:39
  brokered but I think that
• 46:40
  even if there are agreements
• 46:43
  made to whatever conditions
• 46:45
  Trump doesn't
• 46:47
  walk away from this clean
• 46:48
  because
• 46:50
  it's going to look like a compromise and a failure
• 46:53
  regardless
• 46:53
  it's going to look like
• 46:56
  an unnecessary action
• 46:59
  a big why did we even fucking go there
• 47:01
  in the first place if we're just back
• 47:03
  to square one
• 47:04
  Now, if we come out of this,
• 47:06
  if Trump comes out of this
• 47:07
  after these negotiations,
• 47:09
  then we actually have peace.
• 47:10
  Like Israel says,
• 47:11
  fuck it.
• 47:13
  We're going to hold our shit.
• 47:15
  We're going to stop fucking
• 47:15
  blowing people up.
• 47:17
  Hezbollah goes,
• 47:18
  we're going to stop
• 47:18
  blowing people up.
• 47:19
  The Houthis are like,
• 47:20
  ah, we're not going to do anything.
• 47:21
  Like Iran brings their
• 47:23
  fucking dogs to heel.
• 47:25
  And Trump just goes to BB
• 47:27
  and goes, look,
• 47:28
  stop fucking around
• 47:28
  or you're going to find out.
• 47:30
  If all these things
• 47:31
  actually happen,
• 47:32
  then Trump comes out good
• 47:35
  because
• 47:36
  he decided to act
• 47:39
  and the outcome was actual peace
• 47:41
  and something that the entire region needs
• 47:45
  an agreement that the whole world needs
• 47:46
  to the benefit of
• 47:48
  everybody
• 47:50
  not just one party
• 47:51
  so then in that case
• 47:53
  Trump comes out looking good
• 47:55
  but again
• 47:56
  everything hinges on what happens with the negotiations
• 47:59
  and to be quite honest
• 48:00
  hate to see it, but I don't have a lot of faith
• 48:04
  in Netanyahu
• 48:06
  keeping us cool.
• 48:08
  I really don't. But I hope he does.
• 48:10
  I hope he sees the light. I hope he does.
• 48:14
  Alright.
• 48:16
  With that being said, let's move on
• 48:18
  to the next
• 48:20
  topic of discussion.
• 48:23
  Pam Bondi fired.
• 48:24
  Pam Bondi fired. Let's talk about
• 48:26
  Pam Bondi here.
• 48:28
  Donald Trump fires
• 48:30
  Pam Bondi.
• 48:33
  Pam Bondi here
• 48:34
  was fired as
• 48:36
  United States Attorney General on April
• 48:38
  2nd, 2026
• 48:40
  after serving 14 months
• 48:42
  in the position. While President Trump
• 48:44
  publicly described the move as a
• 48:46
  transition to a much needed
• 48:48
  and important new job in the private
• 48:50
  sector, multiple reports
• 48:52
  indicate her ouster was
• 48:54
  driven by significant dissatisfaction
• 48:56
  within the White House.
• 48:58
  Here's the primary factors that led
• 49:00
  her firing. They include handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files.
• 49:07
  Body face intense by parts and criticism for her management of investigative files related to the
• 49:13
  convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Everybody remembers when she said she had thousands of files
• 49:18
  on her desk, right? Like she has all the papers, like 10,000, whatever it was. So here's a
• 49:24
  contradictory statement. Early in her tenure, she told reporters the Epstein client list was sitting
• 49:29
  on her desk for review.
• 49:30
  However, the Justice Department
• 49:31
  later issued a memo
• 49:32
  stating no such client list existed,
• 49:35
  which drew backlash
• 49:36
  from both the media
• 49:37
  and Trump's own base.
• 49:39
  Transparency issues,
• 49:41
  despite the passage
• 49:42
  of the Epstein Files Transparency Act,
• 49:44
  the DOJ reportedly released
• 49:46
  less than 2%
• 49:47
  of the total investigative data,
• 49:51
  with millions of pages remaining
• 49:53
  unreleased or heavily redacted.
• 49:56
  There was also
• 49:57
  So the congressional subpoena, her botched handling of the files led to the House Oversight Committee to issue a subpoena for her testimony, which became a growing political liability for the administration.
• 50:11
  So with that being said, there is also the failure to prosecute political enemies in air quotes there.
• 50:20
  sources indicate that president trump was deeply frustrated by
• 50:24
  pam bondi's inability to successfully secure indictments against his perceived political
• 50:33
  adversaries that that one's up for debate but regardless plausible um dismissed cases for
• 50:42
  example federal prosecutors under bondi did indict former fbi director james comey and new york
• 50:47
  Attorney General Letitia James, but both cases were dismissed by judges because a prosecutor
• 50:52
  overseeing them had been unlawfully appointed. There were unsuccessful probes. So efforts to
• 50:59
  investigate figures like Senator Adam Schiff, Representative Eric Swalwell, and Federal Reserve
• 51:06
  Chair Jerome Powell resulted in no charges or quashed subpoenas. And then there was the grand
• 51:13
  jury rejection. In several instances, grand juries rebuffed efforts to bring criminal charges against
• 51:19
  lawmakers, further enraging the president. There's also allegations of tipping off Eric Swalwell.
• 51:28
  Now, this one I never knew all the details of. So when I put this report together with the help
• 51:33
  of the good old AI, one of the new tools I'm using here, this shed a little more light on things for
• 51:38
  me.
• 51:39
  And let's just be honest, the world moves fast, a lot going on, a lot of conflict geopolitically.
• 51:43
  So this one slipped under my radar.
• 51:46
  So here we go.
• 51:47
  The allegations of tipping off Eric Swalwell.
• 51:50
  Insiders also pointed to a specific point of contention involving California representative
• 51:55
  Eric Swalwell.
• 51:56
  Trump reportedly believed that Bondi, who maintained a friendly relationship with Swalwell, had
• 52:02
  tipped him off regarding an FBI effort to publicize decades-old files
• 52:06
  related to a suspected Chinese spy.
• 52:09
  If everybody remembers, it was the whole fang-fang debacle.
• 52:13
  It was allegedly, allegedly, allegedly Swalwell was involved with a Chinese spy.
• 52:20
  She was there using him to get secrets, which isn't so much a secret.
• 52:23
  I mean, she is a Chinese spy.
• 52:25
  But anyway, the White House was reportedly displeased
• 52:28
  that she intervened in this matter due to personal friendship.
• 52:32
  And also, let's move on to poor performance as a communicator.
• 52:37
  Trump reportedly, Trump himself reportedly,
• 52:39
  viewed Bondi as a weak television surrogate,
• 52:42
  a role he had expected her to excel at given her background.
• 52:47
  Poor optics.
• 52:48
  So she was described as looking flustered and weak
• 52:50
  during contentious public hearings.
• 52:53
  And there were many times where she did look like
• 52:55
  she was being back in the corner and she was getting very upset,
• 52:59
  like not holding her cool.
• 53:00
  So I can see what Trump is saying about that.
• 53:04
  I guess Trump wants someone who's strong,
• 53:06
  pretty much like a rock, immovable.
• 53:10
  They're going to say what they say,
• 53:12
  and that's just what it is.
• 53:13
  Kind of like J.D. Vance.
• 53:14
  He's pretty good at representing himself on the camera,
• 53:16
  to be quite honest.
• 53:17
  Someone like that, right?
• 53:18
  Or even a Tom Homan,
• 53:19
  if we're talking about people that are involved
• 53:21
  in any kind of law enforcement,
• 53:23
  judiciary, whatever.
• 53:25
  Tom Homan, right?
• 53:28
  The rock right there.
• 53:28
  That guy, forget about it.
• 53:30
  Good luck.
• 53:31
  So I guess Bondi wasn't living up to the expectations
• 53:34
  of how she represented herself to the public
• 53:36
  and how she acted under questioning.
• 53:39
  There was also some comments that she made.
• 53:43
  So there was the stock market comments.
• 53:45
  So during a House Judiciary Committee hearing in February 2026,
• 53:49
  when asked about Epstein's accomplices,
• 53:53
  Bondi pivoted to discussing stock market gains.
• 53:55
  Now, this one was definitely a weird one.
• 53:57
  watch that questioning,
• 54:00
  not understanding how she can pivot
• 54:02
  from answering about Epstein's accomplices
• 54:06
  or his associates to,
• 54:08
  hey, you know, look, great question,
• 54:10
  but the stock market's amazing.
• 54:12
  Why aren't we talking about the stock market?
• 54:13
  Look at, everyone's making money.
• 54:15
  401ks are up.
• 54:16
  Why are we talking Epstein?
• 54:18
  Hmm.
• 54:20
  Okay, another point here.
• 54:22
  This will be our fifth point here.
• 54:23
  The DOJ upheaval and loss of integrity.
• 54:26
  While Bondi was an ultra-loyalist who purged nearly 16,000 career employees to install Trump allies, the resulting chaos within the Justice Department may have contributed to her downfall.
• 54:37
  There was institutional damage.
• 54:40
  Former DOJ officials allege she took a sledgehammer to the department's workforce and independence, leading to a massive exodus of experienced career lawyers.
• 54:50
  There was also contempt of court.
• 54:52
  Under her leadership, government lawyers were repeatedly held in contempt by judges for defying court orders and misrepresenting facts, causing the DOJ to lose its traditional presumption of regularity with the courts.
• 55:10
  Now, I'm not sure how much I'm going to stretch this particular section out about Pam Bondi because this is the way I see it.
• 55:22
  And for everybody who is a diehard Trumpster, you may not agree with what I'm going to say,
• 55:27
  but Bondi, from what I saw, she looked like she was being very careful.
• 55:35
  And what I mean by that, she was careful about what she said, how she represented herself.
• 55:39
  And I think for the most part, she was literally only ever doing whatever Donald Trump seemed
• 55:45
  to be asking of her.
• 55:47
  She didn't seem like she ever wanted to cross the line to offend him or put him on the spot
• 55:52
  or challenge whatever it is he wanted done.
• 55:55
  Her job was to actually, well, just administer justice and do her job.
• 56:01
  But we can't argue that it didn't seem as if Donald Trump,
• 56:08
  well, had her on a leash, playing her like a marionette,
• 56:15
  trolling and pulling the strings, right?
• 56:18
  And so can I blame Bondi for her lack of performance,
• 56:22
  how she was represented, what she took on, didn't take on,
• 56:25
  what she pursued, decided not to pursue.
• 56:26
  No, I don't.
• 56:28
  I think she was doing exactly what Trump wanted her to do,
• 56:31
  which was create distraction.
• 56:35
  To, I mean, look over here, you know, the whole sleight of hand trick.
• 56:40
  Because it was interesting how we bounced in and out of the Epstein case
• 56:43
  so fluidly, especially when being pressed to other conflicts
• 56:49
  or areas of interest.
• 56:50
  I think she did the best she could.
• 56:53
  I think Trump knew he had to get her out of the position
• 56:56
  because people were starting to see right through it.
• 56:59
  And I got to say that Bondi was nothing more than a direct reflection
• 57:03
  of Donald Trump himself, meaning she was basically being Trump.
• 57:09
  She was doing what Trump asked, doing what Trump wanted.
• 57:13
  And I think this is a reflection on Trump more than it is on Pam Bondi.
• 57:17
  So I think Pam Bondi deserves a lot more credit.
• 57:21
  I think Trump threw her to the wolves,
• 57:22
  or maybe he has taken care of her.
• 57:24
  I don't know.
• 57:24
  Maybe he set her up very comfortably
• 57:26
  in a private position somehow with his influence.
• 57:29
  But either way, it really looks to everyone else
• 57:31
  that he hung her out to drive.
• 57:33
  Something that he seems to have been doing
• 57:35
  a lot lately within his administration,
• 57:38
  which is leading a lot of people to question,
• 57:41
  where in the hell is Trump going with this train?
• 57:46
  Well, regardless, we're going to see how everything plays out
• 57:48
  because Trump has a few more years here.
• 57:51
  And in the end, we're going to see if everything that's going down
• 57:54
  is a good thing in 2028 for the Republican Party.
• 57:58
  Is it going to be good for J.D. Vance, the de facto next in line?
• 58:02
  Will it be Marco Rubio who steps up?
• 58:05
  Will it be another dark horse within the Republican Party
• 58:07
  that comes out of nowhere?
• 58:08
  I have no idea.
• 58:09
  Nobody does.
• 58:10
  Anybody who says they do, they're bullshitting you.
• 58:13
  They don't know.
• 58:13
  We don't know.
• 58:14
  the way things are going, there is no way for us to tell where this Trump train is actually headed
• 58:19
  and how it's going to get out the other end of the tunnel. So hats off to Pam Bondi.
• 58:27
  We can argue whether or not she was the right pick from the outset, but she was definitely,
• 58:31
  definitely the Trump cheerleader that Trump wanted and needed at the time.
• 58:36
  And I hope that she does well moving forward. Okay, so here we are.
• 58:44
  at the California High Speed Rail Project.
• 58:48
  We're going to discuss this.
• 58:49
  We're going to discuss the 18-year journey.
• 58:52
  The first proposal in 2008 to 2026,
• 58:58
  where we have not seen a completion of anything.
• 59:02
  There's a few concrete blocks, pillars.
• 59:05
  They're finally laying track.
• 59:07
  This is a project that was promised to connect
• 59:09
  Los Angeles to San Francisco.
• 59:12
  the idea being that you can live anywhere and you can get on a train that may take you about
• 59:18
  two hours to get all the way from one end to the other being it's a high-speed rail and this opened
• 59:24
  the door to people who could take a job maybe anywhere you could live in san francisco work in
• 59:29
  la you could live in the central valley let's say modesto merced or bakersfield and take
• 59:34
  a higher paying job in either la or san francisco not having to sit and for example commuting from
• 59:40
  Modesto to the Bay Area in California, that would usually run you anywhere from two to three,
• 59:46
  three and a half hours commute in traffic that is in the morning. And then when you get off work
• 59:51
  driving home, so easily spending about six to eight hours a day out of your life, just driving
• 59:56
  back and forth to work. So this was a good thing. In 2008, the proposal made a lot of sense,
• 1:00:04
  but it's been a $93 billion cost climb or gap.
• 1:00:11
  Well, how is that?
• 1:00:12
  Here's a little graphic I got.
• 1:00:14
  So as you can see here in 2008,
• 1:00:17
  the original proposal was $33 billion.
• 1:00:20
  The estimate was $33 billion to pull this off.
• 1:00:23
  I voted on it.
• 1:00:25
  The voters approved Proposition 1A
• 1:00:28
  based on the initial statewide cost estimate.
• 1:00:31
  By 2020, that estimate or the cost rose to $80.3 billion.
• 1:00:38
  And here we are in 2026.
• 1:00:41
  And the reality at this point is the whole thing is now cost the California taxpayers $126.2 billion.
• 1:00:52
  The current estimate for phase one now exceeds the original price tag of 282% of the $33 billion originally estimated for the entire project.
• 1:01:08
  financial challenges and drivers.
• 1:01:12
  So strategic or,
• 1:01:13
  um,
• 1:01:14
  sorry,
• 1:01:14
  a staggering $90 billion funding gap,
• 1:01:16
  right?
• 1:01:18
  Uh,
• 1:01:18
  federal support drops below 10% already expended 14.8 billion.
• 1:01:25
  And the primary drivers are being reported as inflation and labor.
• 1:01:32
  Now,
• 1:01:33
  the reality is that some of it inflation.
• 1:01:37
  Sure.
• 1:01:38
  Um, labor, I can see that.
• 1:01:41
  Why union jobs, all these construction projects, these major projects anyway, and by state
• 1:01:47
  mandate are either driven by having to be a union shop or, um, union workers or have
• 1:01:55
  to be standard, uh, California wages for the areas in which they're working in.
• 1:02:02
  So if it's deemed that an electrician in area 2A zone whatever, let's just, for example, that's how they do it.
• 1:02:10
  They zone it out, all these areas.
• 1:02:13
  So they'll say, like, if you're doing work in San Jose, that falls under zone 1.9.
• 1:02:18
  I'm just using that as an example.
• 1:02:19
  It falls under zone 1B-YZ, whatever.
• 1:02:23
  And if you're working in this area, then the prevailing wage is $75 an hour.
• 1:02:27
  So that means anybody, whether they're union or not, has to be paid $75 an hour on the job site.
• 1:02:33
  So when the estate projects happen, that's how this usually goes.
• 1:02:37
  So I can see where the labor cost comes in.
• 1:02:39
  But the question still remains, how do we get from $33 billion to delay after delay 18 years later to a cost of $126.2 billion?
• 1:02:52
  Well, we're going to go through that journey.
• 1:02:54
  I've got a summary here that I put together
• 1:02:58
  and we're going to go through it.
• 1:03:01
  This may be lengthy.
• 1:03:02
  It may not be,
• 1:03:03
  but let's go ahead and start from the beginning.
• 1:03:05
  So here's the executive summary.
• 1:03:07
  California high-speed rail project
• 1:03:08
  envisioned as a 21st century multimodal network
• 1:03:12
  connecting the state's major metropolitan hubs
• 1:03:14
  has transitioned from an ambitious statewide plan
• 1:03:18
  to a focused regional implementation
• 1:03:20
  facing significant fiscal challenges originally authorized by voters via Proposition 1A in 2008 with a billion bond and an estimated billion total cost the project projected expenditures have escalated to approximately billion as of this year of 2026
• 1:03:43
  So the critical takeaways include strategic realignment.
• 1:03:47
  Well, following a 2019 pivot, the project currently prioritizes a 171-mile segment in the Central Valley,
• 1:03:56
  connecting Bakersfield to Merced, with the initial 800-mile San Francisco to Los Angeles vision facing a $90 billion funding gap.
• 1:04:04
  So as of now, as of now, they're authorizing and only moving forward to complete the trek of laying the track from Bakersfield to Merced.
• 1:04:19
  Where the fuck are the opportunities there?
• 1:04:21
  Why would you have a high-speed rail connecting Bakersfield and Merced?
• 1:04:25
  For those who don't know the Central Valley area, not a lot of high-paying jobs or opportunities between or even in the specific cities of Bakersfield and Merced.
• 1:04:37
  Let's just be honest.
• 1:04:38
  Merced does have the university, which is highly praised.
• 1:04:42
  I do work there myself providing services.
• 1:04:46
  It's a great university.
• 1:04:47
  All put together, very pretty.
• 1:04:48
  They bought a lot of land.
• 1:04:50
  They have created a lot of jobs, but a lot of jobs within specific areas.
• 1:04:55
  outside of that, what else you got?
• 1:04:58
  Maybe medical.
• 1:04:59
  I don't know.
• 1:04:59
  Bakersfield, what do you have?
• 1:05:02
  I don't know.
• 1:05:03
  They have a university there as well or college.
• 1:05:07
  Yeah, I'm not sure the opportunities in Bakersfield either.
• 1:05:10
  I mean, I'm sure they're there,
• 1:05:11
  but nothing that's going to compel anybody to get on a train
• 1:05:14
  and go between or to and fro Bakersfield and Merced.
• 1:05:17
  I'm telling you that right now.
• 1:05:19
  So this right here is a big loss.
• 1:05:21
  This makes no sense.
• 1:05:23
  What made sense was connecting all the way from Los Angeles to San Francisco.
• 1:05:26
  But for us to get there, we're missing $90 billion to be able to complete that.
• 1:05:32
  Hmm.
• 1:05:33
  Interesting.
• 1:05:33
  So let's continue because how we get from $33 billion to $126 billion and 18 whole years
• 1:05:43
  of nothing but delays and excuses.
• 1:05:46
  Well, the infrastructure progress.
• 1:05:49
  Let's discuss that.
• 1:05:50
  By 2025, the project reached a track-laying phase, completing only 22 miles, by the way, people, 22 miles of civil structures in the southernmost stretch of the initial operating line, the regional integration.
• 1:06:02
  Well, the Transbay Transit Center in San Francisco and Deridian Station in San Jose remain central to the long-term vision, intended to serve as primary multimodal hubs, though current scaling has led to concerns regarding their immediate utility.
• 1:06:20
  And of course, there's always some kind of politics, leadership crisis, etc.
• 1:06:25
  So the analysis suggests the project's difficulties stem from a void of political leadership across multiple administrations rather than technical or purely financial limitations.
• 1:06:37
  To be honest, now that I'm reading that statement back, I'm going to say, sure, we have a leadership crisis in California.
• 1:06:46
  It's Gavin Newsom himself.
• 1:06:48
  but if we can blame all of this on politics
• 1:06:53
  no
• 1:06:54
  they dropped the ball in many places
• 1:06:57
  there was the constant
• 1:06:59
  consultant fees that were needed
• 1:07:01
  the constant
• 1:07:03
  environmental hurdles
• 1:07:05
  like constant every time anything
• 1:07:07
  was done there was an environmental hurdle
• 1:07:09
  we're disturbing this one particular
• 1:07:12
  blade of grass that decided to pop up here
• 1:07:14
  after 25 years and we can't
• 1:07:15
  mess that up
• 1:07:16
  oh, this field mouse is now going to have to run
• 1:07:19
  six more feet around,
• 1:07:22
  which is a detriment to his natural habitat
• 1:07:25
  and his migration or hunting standards
• 1:07:29
  or grazing patterns, whatever.
• 1:07:31
  So we're going to have to halt that.
• 1:07:33
  We're going to have to do another 60 to 90-day study,
• 1:07:35
  which can extend into another year, etc., blah, blah, blah.
• 1:07:39
  And this is very common in California.
• 1:07:40
  It really is.
• 1:07:41
  But moving on.
• 1:07:42
  So legislative and strategic foundation.
• 1:07:45
  So Proposition 1A in 2008, approved by 52.6% of voters, the Safe, Reliable, High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Act established the legal and financial framework for the system.
• 1:07:59
  Mandates.
• 1:08:00
  Trains must sustain speeds of at least 200 miles per hour and connect San Francisco to Los Angeles in two hours.
• 1:08:06
  Like I said, well, two hours and 40 minutes, it says here.
• 1:08:09
  But still, significant.
• 1:08:11
  Two hours and 40 minutes to get from San Francisco to LA?
• 1:08:14
  I mean, come on, right?
• 1:08:16
  And then the funding that was authorized,
• 1:08:17
  it was $9.95 billion, okay, in bonds.
• 1:08:21
  So $9 billion for the main system
• 1:08:23
  and then another $950 million
• 1:08:25
  for connecting commuter rail systems.
• 1:08:28
  The requirements, at least 90% of the bond funds,
• 1:08:30
  must be spent on construction,
• 1:08:33
  with 10% going to pre-construction
• 1:08:35
  and requires a dollar-for-dollar match
• 1:08:37
  from other public or private sources.
• 1:08:41
  San Francisco-Silicon Valley
• 1:08:43
  Corridor Investment Strategy in 2009,
• 1:08:46
  the Transbay Joint Powers Authority,
• 1:08:48
  or the TJPA, and partner agencies
• 1:08:51
  developed a two-phase strategy
• 1:08:53
  to prepare the Peninsula Corridor
• 1:08:55
  for high-speed rail.
• 1:08:57
  Phase one focuses on projects
• 1:08:58
  ready for construction in 2016,
• 1:09:01
  including the electrification
• 1:09:02
  of the Caltrain Corridor,
• 1:09:04
  the construction of the train box
• 1:09:06
  at the Transbay Transit Center,
• 1:09:09
  or TTC, I'm sorry,
• 1:09:10
  Transbay Transit Center.
• 1:09:11
  Let me take a sip of water here.
• 1:09:13
  I'm drying my mouth out.
• 1:09:17
  Oh, man.
• 1:09:18
  All right, moving on.
• 1:09:20
  Okay, so construction of the train box at the Transbay Transit Center,
• 1:09:24
  or the TTC, and safety upgrades like grade separations.
• 1:09:28
  And then there was the phase two, which was the long-term infrastructure upgrades,
• 1:09:33
  tunnels, bridges, additional tracks to accommodate mixed traffic capacity
• 1:09:36
  for both high-speed rail and Cal train.
• 1:09:39
  Now, what I want to get to is the finances here.
• 1:09:43
  And I got a video that resurfaced of Gavin Newsom as lieutenant governor from 2014,
• 1:09:50
  basically saying that they bamboozled the public and everybody else
• 1:09:56
  because they knew that this wasn't financially feasible
• 1:09:59
  and that there wasn't really a way to get this completed.
• 1:10:03
  And that was back in 2014 when he actually fucking admitted it.
• 1:10:07
  I mean, there's a video of it, him.
• 1:10:09
  And yes, it's been verified.
• 1:10:10
  It's not AI, like it's real.
• 1:10:11
  We'll play that here in a second.
• 1:10:13
  So let's go over the phase one project details
• 1:10:15
  and economic impacts with video to follow.
• 1:10:18
  The 2009 investment strategy identified 3.4 billion
• 1:10:22
  in near-term projects, seeking 1.9 billion
• 1:10:25
  in Federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act,
• 1:10:29
  or also known as the ARRA funds
• 1:10:33
  to leverage local and state commitments.
• 1:10:37
  So start with the Transbay Transit Center or that train box, right?
• 1:10:41
  In 2009, the cost was estimated at $1.59 billion.
• 1:10:47
  It was sold as creating 47,400 jobs.
• 1:10:51
  And the status or objective would be constructing the underground level
• 1:10:56
  concurrently with above ground terminal.
• 1:11:01
  Okay.
• 1:11:02
  Corridor electrification.
• 1:11:04
  So that was going to cost $785 million.
• 1:11:06
  And of course, going back to making sure you guys understand, these are 2009 estimates or estimated costs.
• 1:11:14
  That project there would have created estimated 23,550 jobs.
• 1:11:20
  So that would replace diesel with electric locomotives, reduces travel time by 13%.
• 1:11:26
  Pretty significant.
• 1:11:28
  And then there was the San Bruno grade separation here in California.
• 1:11:31
  So that would have cost $275 million.
• 1:11:34
  Again, 2009 numbers here.
• 1:11:36
  would have created an estimated 8,250 jobs,
• 1:11:39
  and that was going to elevate the tracks at three crossings
• 1:11:43
  to improve safety and circulation.
• 1:11:46
  There was going to be a positive train control, or PTC,
• 1:11:49
  which would have been estimated to cost $231 million,
• 1:11:53
  6,930 jobs estimated,
• 1:11:57
  federally mandated safety system to prevent collisions and overspeeding.
• 1:12:01
  there was the SJ or San Jose
• 1:12:04
  Derridden station improvements.
• 1:12:07
  So there's $150 million in costs.
• 1:12:09
  According to 2009 estimates,
• 1:12:10
  $4,500, I'm sorry,
• 1:12:12
  4,500 jobs, not dollars,
• 1:12:15
  4,500 jobs
• 1:12:16
  created or estimated to be created.
• 1:12:19
  There's design, construct,
• 1:12:21
  a new multimodal hub for the HSR,
• 1:12:23
  Caltrain,
• 1:12:25
  or Caltrain and BART.
• 1:12:26
  So that was basically going to create
• 1:12:29
  a new hub for connecting
• 1:12:31
  all those together. Then there was
• 1:12:33
  the TTC platform extension
• 1:12:35
  205,000,6150
• 1:12:37
  jobs estimated extend
• 1:12:39
  platforms to 1,312
• 1:12:41
  feet to accommodate 400 meter
• 1:12:43
  HSR trains and
• 1:12:45
  there was the fourth King Station San Francisco
• 1:12:47
  $100 million estimate
• 1:12:49
  in cost as of 2009
• 1:12:50
  3,000 jobs created upgrade existing
• 1:12:53
  facilities as an overflow station for
• 1:12:55
  high capacity HSR demand
• 1:12:57
  so
• 1:12:57
  that
• 1:13:00
  was estimated cost for those particular projects in 2009.
• 1:13:06
  I want to address something, though.
• 1:13:08
  And I'm sorry.
• 1:13:09
  I know there's a lot of numbers.
• 1:13:10
  So if you're still with me, I congratulate you.
• 1:13:12
  That was pretty wordy.
• 1:13:15
  The estimated jobs thing is always bugging me
• 1:13:18
  because they say jobs created,
• 1:13:20
  but are they creating jobs
• 1:13:22
  or are these just going to be filled by people
• 1:13:24
  who are already, I mean, let's just be honest,
• 1:13:27
  always getting the contracts anyway.
• 1:13:28
  They already have the people.
• 1:13:30
  So are they creating new jobs for people in the area?
• 1:13:33
  Or are they just creating jobs for the companies
• 1:13:36
  who always seem to keep getting these projects anyway?
• 1:13:39
  And that's another topic of discussion that we can have later on.
• 1:13:41
  But I don't think it was really creating any new jobs
• 1:13:45
  for Californians themselves.
• 1:13:48
  Maybe those who already held those positions at those construction companies
• 1:13:51
  or for the construction companies who bring their people in from out of state,
• 1:13:54
  which is also something that happens.
• 1:13:56
  but anyway all this money all the numbers going on here that you're seeing on the screen
• 1:14:02
  for those watching i want to go to a video i want to go to a video um because we're going to get to
• 1:14:11
  the fiscal realities the project i think we're going to skip the technical and operational
• 1:14:16
  integration here i'm going to get the fiscal realities before we talk about that
• 1:14:20
  let's watch Gavin Newsom tell everybody what he thought of the project,
• 1:14:28
  how they handled it, how they sold it to the public,
• 1:14:32
  admitted in this video in 2014.
• 1:14:37
  Here we go.
• 1:14:38
  I was out there promoting a $33 billion project.
• 1:14:41
  I was out there promoting ridership that was 55% higher than current projected ridership.
• 1:14:45
  I was there promoting a third of the money coming from the private sector,
• 1:14:48
  25 to 33 from the federal government I was out there promoting the fact that this would generate revenue and not cost taxpayers a subsidy I was out there promoting it And none of those things now are taking shape
• 1:15:00
  It's a 68 plus billion dollar project they just announced two months ago, went up another billion
• 1:15:06
  just for this new 130 mile per space. It started with 33 billion. It went to 96. We value engineered
• 1:15:14
  it. So it's no longer quote unquote high speed rail. It's higher speed rail. We wildly overstated
• 1:15:19
  the ridership projections.
• 1:15:21
  We manipulated some of the revenue projections.
• 1:15:24
  There's only one true high-speed rail system
• 1:15:26
  in the world that generates real profit.
• 1:15:28
  I thought there were two.
• 1:15:29
  It wasn't there.
• 1:15:31
  Yes, you heard that.
• 1:15:33
  They manipulated the revenue projections,
• 1:15:37
  meaning they knew that this thing
• 1:15:40
  wasn't going to make any money
• 1:15:41
  and was going to be a continuous drain
• 1:15:42
  on the taxpayers.
• 1:15:43
  You also heard them say that
• 1:15:45
  they had to value engineer the project,
• 1:15:47
  So now it's no longer a 200-mile-per-hour, whatever, high-speed rail.
• 1:15:51
  It's going to be a higher-speed rail.
• 1:15:54
  So meaning even if it did go from L.A. to San Francisco,
• 1:15:59
  it's no longer going to take two hours and 40 minutes.
• 1:16:01
  It may take four hours.
• 1:16:03
  I don't know.
• 1:16:05
  Let's continue the video.
• 1:16:08
  And I remember when the president of France was here a few months ago,
• 1:16:13
  I complimented him on being one of the two, and he laughed.
• 1:16:16
  and his ministers laughed.
• 1:16:18
  I said, what do you mean?
• 1:16:18
  They said, well, don't believe what you read
• 1:16:20
  about us generating profits on our high-speed rail.
• 1:16:24
  The only one is Osaka that generates,
• 1:16:27
  and that's a different kind of concentration,
• 1:16:29
  urban concentration.
• 1:16:31
  So this is going to be a subsidy.
• 1:16:33
  The bonds, you double the cost of the bonds
• 1:16:35
  is the actual cost to the taxpayers of repaying them.
• 1:16:38
  I mean, it's a burden, politically speaking, candidly.
• 1:16:40
  I was there with Schwarzenegger and Tony Blair on the screen.
• 1:16:43
  I'll never forget it.
• 1:16:44
  Governor Pataki from New York State, all celebrating cap and trade. Not one person
• 1:16:50
  from the advance. I was talking about money going to Ice Bureau. I was talking about energy
• 1:16:54
  efficiency programs. We were talking about retrofitting buildings. I was vocally concerned
• 1:16:59
  with my legislative colleagues up there about taking the cap and trade money. When you set
• 1:17:03
  out a five-year capital plan, as the governor did, the burden actually read, which showed $56.7
• 1:17:10
  million of capital expenditures, 25.6 going just for the high-speed rail, getting close to half
• 1:17:18
  that money, not for the deferred maintenance needs, not for local transit projects up and down the
• 1:17:22
  state, not for real jobs that are desperately needed. Analysis would conclude that there's
• 1:17:32
  no private sector money and there's no capacity for this to be built.
• 1:17:37
  But that said, if that were the process, you would kill the project.
• 1:17:42
  Of course, as you break with the tribe, there's consequences.
• 1:17:46
  I doubt very much, even the most optimistic assessments of the next decade, the facts
• 1:17:52
  seem overwhelming that this project is not going to materialize in our lifetime.
• 1:17:58
  Okay, so you just heard him towards the end of the video admit that
• 1:18:02
  This wasn't really going to create any new jobs.
• 1:18:04
  There wasn't going to be any revenue going back into the state.
• 1:18:08
  This was going to be a burden on the taxpayers.
• 1:18:11
  It's all admitted.
• 1:18:12
  They knew this.
• 1:18:13
  He even admitted that given the circumstances, you would kill a project, right?
• 1:18:17
  But even here in 2014, they continue to push it forward.
• 1:18:22
  Now, he becomes governor later, and he's still going forward with the project.
• 1:18:30
  So here's the current status of the fiscal realities between 2019 and 2026.
• 1:18:38
  So the video you just saw and heard of him talking about all this was 2014.
• 1:18:42
  Let's get down to 2019 here.
• 1:18:45
  Okay.
• 1:18:45
  So now, you know, we're very much under the watch and tutelage of Gavin Newsom and his administration.
• 1:18:53
  So the fiscal realities and project evolution between 2019 and 2026,
• 1:18:58
  the cost escalation and funding gaps.
• 1:19:00
  The project has faced severe criticism
• 1:19:03
  regarding bait-and-switch tactics
• 1:19:05
  due to soaring costs and shifting goals,
• 1:19:07
  just as you heard in the video of Gavin stating so in 2014.
• 1:19:16
  The cost growth estimates rose from $33 billion in 2008,
• 1:19:20
  which we already discussed,
• 1:19:21
  to $45 billion around 2006 and 2009,
• 1:19:24
  then to $80.3 in 2020,
• 1:19:27
  and then they reached a total of $126 billion as of this day or the year of 2026.
• 1:19:34
  So what were the funding shortfalls?
• 1:19:36
  Well, as of 2026, the project faced $90 billion funding gap.
• 1:19:40
  So that's what they needed to connect from Frisco to LA or San Francisco to Los Angeles.
• 1:19:45
  It's not going to happen.
• 1:19:46
  They don't got it.
• 1:19:47
  They don't know where they're going to get it.
• 1:19:49
  They can't squeeze it blood out of a stone, so to speak.
• 1:19:51
  It's not going to happen.
• 1:19:54
  Federal friction.
• 1:19:55
  So during the Trump administration, of course, they always blame Trump for everything in California, even though Newsom, you've been in charge.
• 1:20:02
  But anyway, during the Trump administration, 929 million, so nearly almost a billion dollars in federal grants were canceled, though these were later restored by the Biden-Harris administration in 2021.
• 1:20:16
  Okay.
• 1:20:16
  But in 2019, there was a scaling decision.
• 1:20:19
  This is where he said they basically move forward and like deciding,
• 1:20:26
  are we going to have to, can we afford, should we connect LA to Frisco
• 1:20:31
  or just cut our losses and just finish this track here in the Valley,
• 1:20:34
  which from Bakersfield to Merced makes no sense, but hey,
• 1:20:37
  they can say they did it.
• 1:20:39
  So the 2019 scaling decision.
• 1:20:41
  In his 2019 state of address or state of the address, sorry,
• 1:20:46
  for California, Governor Gavin Newsom announced
• 1:20:48
  a truncation
• 1:20:50
  of the immediate project scope.
• 1:20:52
  So, the focus area,
• 1:20:54
  priority shifted to completing
• 1:20:56
  a 171-mile link between
• 1:20:58
  Merced and Bakersfield
• 1:21:00
  in the Central Valley, which, again,
• 1:21:02
  is a waste of money. Like, this isn't needed.
• 1:21:06
  Postponements.
• 1:21:07
  So, expensive segments,
• 1:21:08
  such as tunnels under the Pacheco
• 1:21:10
  Pass, well, that's going to be
• 1:21:12
  some work. If you guys don't
• 1:21:14
  know and you're not in California, that Pacheco
• 1:21:17
  Pass stretch is very mountainous.
• 1:21:18
  You have a major reservoir,
• 1:21:21
  the San Luis Reservoir, right over there
• 1:21:23
  off to the side. Huge body
• 1:21:25
  of water. This would have been
• 1:21:26
  interesting right here.
• 1:21:29
  So tunnels under Pacheco
• 1:21:31
  Pass and the Tehachapi Mountains
• 1:21:32
  were indefinitely delayed. Well, yeah, I can see why.
• 1:21:35
  I mean, did we not think
• 1:21:37
  how much that would cost?
• 1:21:38
  And there was a critique of
• 1:21:40
  orphan infrastructure.
• 1:21:42
  So critics argue this scaling
• 1:21:44
  leaves the $2.2 billion Transbay Transit Center
• 1:21:49
  and the $188 million Anaheim Regional Intermodal Transportation Center
• 1:21:53
  as overbuilt bus stations.
• 1:21:57
  Really nothing more but bus stations
• 1:21:58
  without their intended rail connections.
• 1:22:01
  Valid criticism, right?
• 1:22:03
  And so here's the current status.
• 1:22:06
  Current status, 25 through 26 here,
• 1:22:09
  the years of 2025 to 2026.
• 1:22:12
  So by early 2025,
• 1:22:12
  state officials marked the transition into a track-laying phase.
• 1:22:16
  Wow, after 18 years, we're in a track-laying phase.
• 1:22:19
  After 18 years, since 2008 to 2026 or 2025,
• 1:22:24
  they're now going to start laying track,
• 1:22:26
  which I still haven't seen.
• 1:22:28
  The construction package,
• 1:22:31
  a 22-mile stretch south of Kern-Tolari County,
• 1:22:35
  is substantially complete.
• 1:22:37
  Okay?
• 1:22:38
  I don't recall that, but maybe.
• 1:22:40
  Including 11 structures.
• 1:22:43
  viaducts, and overpasses.
• 1:22:44
  Okay.
• 1:22:44
  So the railhead development ground
• 1:22:46
  was broken on a railhead near Bakersfield
• 1:22:49
  to receive materials
• 1:22:51
  and stage upcoming track construction.
• 1:22:54
  Yay.
• 1:22:55
  Jobs.
• 1:22:56
  Again, here they go with the jobs created.
• 1:22:59
  Over 14,500 jobs have been created
• 1:23:01
  since the project's inception
• 1:23:02
  with 3,200 attributed to CP4 alone,
• 1:23:06
  which is the construction package.
• 1:23:09
  Which goes to the construction companies
• 1:23:11
  who already have the employees
• 1:23:12
  who keep getting these big state and federal projects anyway.
• 1:23:15
  So yeah, you didn't create any new jobs.
• 1:23:17
  And then the regional connectivity.
• 1:23:19
  Current strategy aims to integrate
• 1:23:21
  the California high-speed rail authorities' work
• 1:23:23
  with other projects.
• 1:23:25
  Partnerships coordinate with Brightline West,
• 1:23:28
  Las Vegas to Southern California.
• 1:23:31
  Okay, that's interesting.
• 1:23:32
  And the High Desert Corridor
• 1:23:33
  to create an interoperable Southwest regional network.
• 1:23:37
  So it seems like this is going from high-speed rail
• 1:23:40
  rail to a vast train system that can interconnect with other trains?
• 1:23:50
  Maybe I'm not understanding, but it seems like it's no longer going to be necessarily a high-speed rail.
• 1:23:55
  Maybe it will be. I don't know.
• 1:23:57
  So here's the timeline.
• 1:23:58
  Passenger service for the initial operation for operating segments is currently projected to begin between 2030 and 2033.
• 1:24:05
  What the fuck, man?
• 1:24:06
  This thing was initiated in 2008.
• 1:24:08
  We're not going to even see the stretch from Bakersfield to Merced until 2033.
• 1:24:16
  Look, this whole thing, just stop.
• 1:24:24
  We don't need this.
• 1:24:25
  Just cut your losses.
• 1:24:26
  Just admit this isn't working.
• 1:24:28
  It's costing money.
• 1:24:29
  It's not really creating jobs, to be quite honest.
• 1:24:31
  If we're being awesome ourselves, it's not.
• 1:24:33
  It's just not.
• 1:24:34
  It's not.
• 1:24:34
  and you think that a completing track
• 1:24:38
  between Bakersfield and Merced
• 1:24:39
  is a fucking win?
• 1:24:41
  No, it's a fucking loss, dude.
• 1:24:42
  It's a miserable stretch.
• 1:24:43
  There's nothing there worth a shit.
• 1:24:46
  What?
• 1:24:46
  Stop in Fresno?
• 1:24:47
  Ooh, okay.
• 1:24:48
  Bakersfield?
• 1:24:49
  Yay.
• 1:24:51
  What else?
• 1:24:52
  Merced?
• 1:24:52
  Tulare?
• 1:24:53
  Hanford?
• 1:24:54
  What?
• 1:24:54
  What?
• 1:24:56
  Oh, yeah.
• 1:24:56
  Those are the fucking lands of opportunity, right?
• 1:25:00
  No, no.
• 1:25:01
  The valley is where you pass through
• 1:25:03
  to get to the destinations like
• 1:25:05
  Los Angeles,
• 1:25:07
  Anaheim, you know, all the cities
• 1:25:09
  going into LA. And then once you get past
• 1:25:11
  the valley, and then you get
• 1:25:13
  into the Bay Area where the other opportunities are
• 1:25:15
  going into Frisco. Yeah, that's
• 1:25:16
  like Central Valley
• 1:25:19
  is a stopgap, man.
• 1:25:21
  Yeah, it's not the destination.
• 1:25:24
  It's where people are getting
• 1:25:25
  on the train to go to and fro. They're not
• 1:25:27
  coming here
• 1:25:31
  for the opportunities, man. So
• 1:25:33
  this whole thing's a loss.
• 1:25:35
  And yeah,
• 1:25:35
  it didn't start with Newsom,
• 1:25:36
  but Newsom,
• 1:25:36
  you've been in charge.
• 1:25:37
  You've been in charge this whole time.
• 1:25:39
  Your administration has been in charge.
• 1:25:40
  And 60 Minutes didn't expose on this.
• 1:25:42
  They like,
• 1:25:43
  his own administration
• 1:25:44
  admitting to fuck-ups.
• 1:25:47
  They even talk about
• 1:25:48
  the environmental hurdles.
• 1:25:51
  In fact,
• 1:25:52
  let's just go there.
• 1:25:54
  So,
• 1:25:54
  here's some of the environmental hurdles,
• 1:25:56
  okay?
• 1:25:57
  One,
• 1:25:58
  extensive regulatory
• 1:25:59
  and permitting requirements,
• 1:26:00
  okay?
• 1:26:00
  There's two,
• 1:26:01
  protection of threatened
• 1:26:02
  endangered species. There's three habitat and rescue impacts for community and aesthetic hurdles.
• 1:26:09
  So yes, even aesthetic girls and five legal hurdles and litigations.
• 1:26:16
  The thing about that is you know you have everything from environmental to literal farmers with farmland fighting the project which is very interesting because usually in a California highway project for example if they deem it a benefit to the community they will
• 1:26:31
  literally tell the owners of the land like, hey, we're taking this.
• 1:26:35
  Now, they'll negotiate with them.
• 1:26:36
  They won't just try to take it and impose eminent domain.
• 1:26:40
  They won't negotiate.
• 1:26:41
  They'll give them, you know, fair market value.
• 1:26:43
  In some cases, from what I know and heard,
• 1:26:45
  some of these guys make up very well.
• 1:26:47
  They get higher the market value
• 1:26:48
  depending on how important the project is
• 1:26:50
  or how long they want to drag it out.
• 1:26:52
  But when push cubs sub,
• 1:26:54
  California's just going to take the damn land
• 1:26:55
  whether you agree or not.
• 1:26:56
  So take the money, run, let it happen.
• 1:26:58
  When it came to this high-speed rail project, though,
• 1:27:02
  for some reason, that's not happening necessarily.
• 1:27:06
  So that's been very interesting.
• 1:27:08
  and then there's the
• 1:27:12
  the expenditures of the money
• 1:27:14
  in terms of like consultancies
• 1:27:16
  so if we're looking at this report here
• 1:27:20
  as of December 2025
• 1:27:21
  the California High-Speed Rail Authority
• 1:27:23
  has spent a total of
• 1:27:24
  I'm sorry
• 1:27:25
  $14.823 billion on the project
• 1:27:29
  because the authority
• 1:27:31
  has historically operated
• 1:27:33
  with a very small internet staff
• 1:27:35
  oh I'm sorry
• 1:27:35
  internal staff
• 1:27:36
  man I am fumbling like crazy
• 1:27:37
  Let me start that over.
• 1:27:40
  All right.
• 1:27:40
  So as of December 2025, California High Speed Rail Authority has spent a total of $14.823 billion on the project because the authority has historically operated with a very small internal staff.
• 1:27:55
  It has relied on private contractors and consultants for the bulk of the project work, meaning a significant portion of these expenditures consist of consulting and contract service fees.
• 1:28:07
  while the sources do not provide a single updated consulting fee,
• 1:28:12
  which is very, very, very suspect.
• 1:28:14
  They never itemize and really go,
• 1:28:18
  here's how much went to this consultant,
• 1:28:20
  here's who went to this one.
• 1:28:22
  It's just kind of like, here's the total number.
• 1:28:25
  So anyway, there's no light item for the entire $14.8 billion.
• 1:28:32
  $14.8 billion spent
• 1:28:36
  on mostly consulting fees.
• 1:28:40
  And there's no line item breakdown
• 1:28:42
  to who, where it went to.
• 1:28:45
  And this is why many Californians feel
• 1:28:48
  like this has been nothing but a giant
• 1:28:49
  money laundering operation.
• 1:28:51
  Like people are just getting their pockets filled.
• 1:28:54
  Like, hey, you know, I'm greasing my buddy's pockets.
• 1:28:56
  He's going to give me this kickback.
• 1:28:58
  Like you can't trace anything
• 1:28:59
  because it's not itemized.
• 1:29:00
  You just know the total number going in and out.
• 1:29:02
  And you're just saying, hey,
• 1:29:03
  this went to consultants.
• 1:29:05
  Okay.
• 1:29:06
  And so there's also, as I just said, the allegations of the mishandling of money by the Trump administration, sorry, the Trump, by Gavin Newsom's administration.
• 1:29:22
  I do not know why I said Trump.
• 1:29:24
  Was that a slip?
• 1:29:27
  But anyway, there's been the mishandling of money, the allegations of the mishandling of money by Gavin's administration.
• 1:29:33
  So Newsom himself in charge, his administration, and look, anybody living in California can see, has seen, that things don't always add up.
• 1:29:43
  I mean, if we're talking about Karen Bass, mayor of Los Angeles, she was in hot water for many things.
• 1:29:47
  She has ties to Gavin.
• 1:29:48
  She has ties to Ms.
• 1:29:49
  I mean, they're all like patting each other on the back and helping each other out.
• 1:29:53
  And, you know, we have the great water debacle here that Gavin Newsom claims like, well, it didn't start under me, but, well, you've been in charge for quite some time, man.
• 1:30:03
  And you knew everything evolved with the whole Delta smelt debacle.
• 1:30:06
  I don't want to bring that up again, but listen,
• 1:30:08
  a lot of what's happened with the transfer of water
• 1:30:11
  to get down to Southern California,
• 1:30:13
  areas without water have been held out
• 1:30:15
  or held up by this, another environmental thing here.
• 1:30:19
  The fish, the smelt, the Delta smelt, very important.
• 1:30:23
  Held up for years.
• 1:30:25
  And so there's a lot of things like this in California
• 1:30:27
  that waste taxpayer money
• 1:30:30
  that when you go to audit these things,
• 1:30:33
  you can't because they're not itemized.
• 1:30:35
  They're just kind of lumped up
• 1:30:36
  into one giant expense.
• 1:30:38
  Kind of like the homeless debacle,
• 1:30:42
  the homeless program debacle, right?
• 1:30:43
  All that money,
• 1:30:44
  I think it was $24 billion.
• 1:30:47
  Yeah, $24 billion or so
• 1:30:49
  that nobody can account for.
• 1:30:50
  Nobody knows where it went,
• 1:30:51
  what happened to it.
• 1:30:54
  I mean, we got some tiny homes
• 1:30:55
  sitting in Frisco
• 1:30:57
  that never were deployed.
• 1:30:58
  some in LA I think
• 1:31:01
  but like where's the fucking money
• 1:31:04
  Gavin like you are
• 1:31:06
  responsible and
• 1:31:07
  when it comes to the high speed rail trying to blame
• 1:31:10
  everything on politics
• 1:31:11
  and the fact that oh well
• 1:31:16
  fiscal funding kind of got pulled
• 1:31:17
  no no no no this whole thing this whole thing
• 1:31:20
  was mismatched in the beginning
• 1:31:21
  you sold the people a bill of goods
• 1:31:24
  okay now I
• 1:31:25
  understand this started before you were even
• 1:31:28
  lieutenant governor. This was in 2008. You were mayor of San Francisco.
• 1:31:31
  And what's funny is back in 2008, Gavin even was, he was opposed.
• 1:31:36
  He was opposed to this, but when he became lieutenant governor,
• 1:31:39
  he was very much for it. But you sold everybody a bill of goods.
• 1:31:43
  You literally, in the video from 2014, we got you saying you manipulated
• 1:31:50
  the numbers. You lied to the public. You guys estimated 33 billion.
• 1:31:56
  and you all knew it wasn't possible.
• 1:31:59
  You all knew it wasn't profitable.
• 1:32:00
  You knew it was going to be a taxpayer burden.
• 1:32:03
  You knew that it was going to take a long time to complete.
• 1:32:06
  In fact, it's been 18 years.
• 1:32:10
  So at what point does California get a break, man?
• 1:32:14
  Like, when do we get a break?
• 1:32:16
  Do we get that money back?
• 1:32:18
  Can we hold the state responsible?
• 1:32:20
  Is there any accountability whatsoever?
• 1:32:21
  Well, that's a big fuck no.
• 1:32:23
  You know what we get?
• 1:32:24
  we get wages for jobs being stagnant.
• 1:32:28
  We get higher costs of living.
• 1:32:30
  We get housing so outrageous that the average working person,
• 1:32:34
  a blue collar person can't afford to buy their own home anymore.
• 1:32:39
  We got large companies coming in and buying up real estate so that they can
• 1:32:43
  just rent it to everybody.
• 1:32:44
  And they're renting it at whatever market value they perceive to be,
• 1:32:48
  you know,
• 1:32:49
  good for their pockets.
• 1:32:51
  I mean,
• 1:32:51
  California is, it's hard, man.
• 1:32:54
  It's hard to live out here.
• 1:32:56
  I mean, I know that New York is also extremely expensive.
• 1:32:58
  So, you know, it's not just us and California,
• 1:33:01
  but the state's been mismanaged, mishandled.
• 1:33:04
  There's been billions and billions and billions and billions of dollars
• 1:33:08
  pilfered from the taxpayers that have gone to projects
• 1:33:12
  that never seem to come to fruition.
• 1:33:14
  From the homeless issue to the high-speed rail.
• 1:33:18
  like we have no recourse.
• 1:33:22
  We just take it in the proverbial ass
• 1:33:25
  because there's nothing else we can do.
• 1:33:31
  And if jobs run out and you can't find one,
• 1:33:34
  for example,
• 1:33:35
  you're told you're lazy and not applying yourself.
• 1:33:37
  You're told that,
• 1:33:38
  well,
• 1:33:39
  maybe you should have got that degree.
• 1:33:41
  Well,
• 1:33:41
  how about you make cost of living fucking reasonable?
• 1:33:44
  How about you stop taking so much money from everybody at the fucking pump?
• 1:33:48
  That's another issue, right?
• 1:33:50
  Everybody doesn't even realize that California gas is so expensive
• 1:33:53
  because of all the fees, the environmental fees, taxes, etc.
• 1:33:57
  that California fucking tax onto it.
• 1:34:00
  The other day, I went to go fill up $6.50 a gallon for regular.
• 1:34:04
  I mean, why is it costing me about $85 or $90
• 1:34:08
  to fill up my Transit Connect van that I use
• 1:34:11
  to drive back and forth with my tools and shit?
• 1:34:12
  Like, seriously, not the big one, not the big Transit van.
• 1:34:15
  It's a work van, but it's the smaller one.
• 1:34:17
  You know, you guys seen them around.
• 1:34:20
  $85 for that fucking thing?
• 1:34:22
  Really?
• 1:34:24
  It's only getting worse.
• 1:34:26
  Diesel's out of control.
• 1:34:28
  And, oh, I know, they're going to attribute the gas thing to the Iranian conflict.
• 1:34:32
  But, I mean, let's just be honest.
• 1:34:34
  We've already had some of the highest gas prices in the entire nation.
• 1:34:40
  So, I mean, not really much of a surprise there.
• 1:34:44
  I mean, we're used to getting fucked over when it comes to gas,
• 1:34:46
  especially when summer comes around because,
• 1:34:48
  oh, wait, everyone's traveling.
• 1:34:49
  Let's raise it up because it's more in demand.
• 1:34:52
  And California themselves does that.
• 1:34:55
  Not the oil markets.
• 1:34:58
  No, California does that.
• 1:35:01
  So back to the high-speed rail.
• 1:35:05
  Cut your losses, man.
• 1:35:08
  Get out of this bullshit, Gavin.
• 1:35:09
  We deserve better.
• 1:35:11
  Like, it's not even worth finishing fucking Bakersfield to Merced.
• 1:35:13
  like it's not going to make a fucking difference there's no opportunities between those two cities
• 1:35:19
  and that stretch of land not really nothing that's going to make anyone get on a train and
• 1:35:24
  fucking you know say oh look i can take this job in fresno now look at the opportunity there like
• 1:35:28
  you're not going to really find too much more in fresno versus modesto to be quite honest
• 1:35:33
  and if you're in modesto i mean you might as well just drive a little further up and get the next
• 1:35:39
  job. I mean, I don't know.
• 1:35:41
  All I know is Gavin
• 1:35:43
  Newsom,
• 1:35:44
  you're fucked up. You've been
• 1:35:47
  fucking the state of California
• 1:35:49
  for years. We all can't wait
• 1:35:51
  for you to move on. And you and your administration
• 1:35:53
  have no answer for anything.
• 1:35:55
  And it seems that the public can't
• 1:35:57
  hold you accountable.
• 1:35:59
  And what's sad is we all
• 1:36:01
  know you're going to be running for president.
• 1:36:02
  And probably more than likely will be the Democrat
• 1:36:05
  nominee.
• 1:36:07
  Democratic nominee, anyway.
• 1:36:09
  which is even worse.
• 1:36:10
  And I hope that Americans don't get fooled
• 1:36:12
  into putting your ass in office
• 1:36:15
  because damn,
• 1:36:17
  you think it's crazy under Trump.
• 1:36:19
  This motherfucker's going to literally
• 1:36:21
  financially destroy the country.
• 1:36:24
  Just look at California.
• 1:36:27
  Gavin cares about nothing but himself.
• 1:36:30
  Period.
• 1:36:31
  And Gavin,
• 1:36:32
  it's a high-speed rail thing.
• 1:36:34
  Can't blame anybody else, man.
• 1:36:36
  It's been too long.
• 1:36:37
  This is all you.
• 1:36:38
  Period.
• 1:36:39
  all right with that being said i'm going to end this particular show remember everybody like
• 1:36:46
  subscribe turn on notifications share the show follow me on social media my handle is at font
• 1:36:52
  blaze i am on x instagram sub stack find my youtube channel to see all the videos or if you prefer you
• 1:36:59
  can also watch on spotify if you have a subscription there and as always have a great day and listen
• 1:37:06
  always go beyond the headlines.
• 1:37:09
  All right?
• 1:37:09
  Stop living on the surface of information.
• 1:37:12
  Go beyond the headlines.
• 1:37:15
  Devils hide behind redemption.
• 1:37:18
  Honesty is a one-way gate to hell.
• 1:37:36
  Bye.