Border Troops & Newsom's Insulin Disaster

[00:00:06] If you're a California conservative, a libertarian, a moderate Democrat, believe in common sense, or just the sane person, this is the political podcast for you. It's the California Underground Podcast.

[00:00:27] What's going on, everybody? Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the California Underground Podcast. I am your host, Phil. And as always with me, my trusty co-host, the best, the fastest researcher in the West, Camille. How are we doing today, Camille? I'm good. It's cold. It is cold. It's cold. I saw something I have not seen in a long time down here in San Diego, and it's called rain. It's called rain. Describe this rain that you speak of. It's like a shower for the outside.

[00:00:57] Oh, okay. Yeah. I've also had that. Now I know. It was interesting because all of a sudden I was getting ready this morning and just heard, I know, I'm going to go to the beach. I'm going to go, something outside and go, what is that noise? It had been so long since I heard. I looked at it and, oh my gosh, it's rain. It's actually raining outside. And it rained for like, it rained hard for like a good 10 minutes and then it stopped. But it's better than nothing. We had it all night, actually. A pretty good. All night.

[00:01:26] A pretty good pour all night long. Yeah. And I'm so grateful for the rain right now because we had, I don't even know how many days we were out of fires. And I think you guys even still have the border fire going on. Uh, Los Angeles fires finally. I don't know that they're 100% out, but they at least, oh my gosh, daily, there was new fires popping up literally all over. I mean, all over Southern California, but poor LA.

[00:01:52] It was just like, oh my gosh, their resources were already everywhere and depleted and everyone's exhausted. And those, you know, major fires and then it was constant ones popping up in between all that. But now, okay, so the rain is great relief. It's wonderful. But how mudslides are a possibility. So it's sort of like, okay, this rain, thank you, Jesus. But also like how much more can the people of Los Angeles endure?

[00:02:21] So, yeah, that's always the first thought of Californians is we're grateful for the rain. And then we're like, oh no, mudslides. Um, so, but it was down here at least didn't rain that much that I think there wasn't, I haven't heard anything yet. But anyway, uh, we're not talking about the weather tonight. That was not the point of tonight's episode. But we're not a believer.

[00:02:46] Welcome to California weather underground where we discuss California weather up and down the state. Now tonight's episode is jam packed with a whole bunch of stuff. We're going to be talking about a lot of action that's happening on the border of immigration, specifically here in California, regarding troops that are being sent down to our border with Mexico. So sheriffs, uh, who are may or may not enforce a lot of what's going on or cooperate with ice.

[00:03:13] Uh, also a contract regarding, um, insulin that Gavin Newsom entered in two years ago. We're going to check in to see how it's going. Spoiler alert. It's not going great. And then, uh, one of, uh, Camille's old pals. We're going to talk about her as well to finish out the episode. Uh, but before we get started, I like to make sure I remind everybody to subscribe, like, share, review, all that stuff. Slam the like button, slam that subscribe button helps with the algorithm helps people find us. Okay.

[00:03:43] First thing, our cringe moment, um, kind of leads us into the overall theme of today's show. Have you heard about the ice agents versus teachers trend on tick tock? I have a little bit. Okay. I haven't gone on that, but I've, I, I, I know a little bit, just a little bit, you know, a little bit. Okay. So for, for those who don't know, this is sort of, I guess falls in our cringe moment of the week.

[00:04:13] Um, I saw, I don't know. I saw the trend because someone was mocking the trend, which I always appreciate when I'm on that side of tick tock where someone's mocking what's going on. I'm like, are ice agents really thinking they're going to take on or teachers really thinking they're going to take on ice agents. And lo and behold, if you search it on tick tock, there are a bunch of people who are self-proclaimed badasses who are going to fight ice agents who are public school teachers and they're going to take them on.

[00:04:40] Um, well let's, uh, let's take a look at some of the videos because I think they're pretty funny and, uh, I want to discuss them after. So we'll, let me pull one of these up. Can you see that? Yes, I can. Okay. No idea where they are. I don't recall their names. I have no idea what country they're from. Can't recall the last time I saw them.

[00:05:09] I have no information about that. I'm not aware of any of that. I don't recall. I have no idea. I don't know anything about that. I don't recognize that name. This is where we're at in public education. If you work in a field that is closely intertwined with vulnerable populations, like the ill, children, the poor, you need to now more than ever refresh your memory on your rights, your students' rights, your patients' rights in terms of immigration. Because now ice can raid these, what used to be safe spaces where people could come to get medical care or come to get education.

[00:05:39] And now those spaces are being invaded. So your best friend is, I don't know. I'm not aware of that. I can't recall. Do not say anything to these motherfuckers. Let me just say this and make it very clear. If you are a teacher and you voted for that fucking orange, you don't deserve to teach the students that are in your classroom. You don't deserve to step foot in any educational facility ever. I will die on the hill that teaching is social work.

[00:06:02] If you can't see and make connections with how you vote and the experiences that your students are going to have to endure, you don't deserve to be a teacher.

[00:06:39] Genuinely. I was like complaining to you. You know, it's ridiculous and shallow. But I was like, I am having a bad hair day and bad makeup. And I was just going on like, I'm like, it's ridiculous and shallow. I know that, but I'm having issues, but I couldn't help but notice she's very pretty. And her hair was actually very pretty. But, but yes, she has that look. I know what, I know what you're saying.

[00:07:00] Yeah, she has the, the, the look of like someone who would think that their job as a public school teacher is to go farther than just being a teacher. And somehow. Now he needs to make a statement everywhere she goes. Right. So that's, that's someone who is bored. This is the trend that's happening right now. Um, they're all playing this sound. So, um, this is.

[00:07:31] So they're all starting to act tough. Like as if ice agents are coming in, they're going to stop them. Also the new trend that's going on with this is this whole cute winter boots thing, which I had to. This is the research that I want to let people know that we do on your behalf by going down the tick tock rabbit hole. So you don't have to, uh, the, the trend is they're called cute winter boots to combat ice. So that's the code of, we need these cute winter boots to combat ice.

[00:08:00] Meaning they're going to go out and buy firearms to take care of ice, which I guess now all of a sudden they're pro second amendment. Also attacking federal officers or law enforcement officers is okay. But when it was done on January 6th, you know, you're traitors and you should be thrown away forever. But when you're public school teachers and you want to attack ice agents completely fine. That's completely justified. That's not treason or insurrectionist.

[00:08:28] Um, it's hard to figure out where the line is. If you're confused, I'm really confused as well as exactly where this is, where this goes. So, yes, that is right. The cute winter boots thing is like the underground army, if you will, like against the government. And, um, but I, what does confuse me is so we know that there has been an upward trend of school shootings, which is horrific and awful. And I, I don't condone that whatsoever. I mean, it, it's horrible. Like, and then that's not the point of the podcast.

[00:08:58] So I don't really need to go down that road. But so people have, as these, um, as these shootings have occurred more and more often, there's a lot of people in the government, outside of the government, parents, whatever that have said, oh, maybe school teachers need to carry. And a lot of school teachers were like, no, I don't, I don't want to carry. And, and I think they have good reasons. There's plenty of like, okay, they're not necessarily trained. They don't want to own guns. They don't want to shoot guns. And that's their right.

[00:09:26] But also a lot of these school shootings happen, um, because it's usually a prior student and like as a person in general, but as a teacher, it's suddenly your former student burst into your room. Like you don't want to shoot that person. I get that. So they were all about like, and then what if, what if a kid gets the gun? What if like all these things of there's so many reasons why these guns shouldn't be in schools.

[00:09:53] And, and I see both sides and I'm not here to argue either side. And that's again, not the point of the podcast, but it is weird how quickly we pivot. Right. And suddenly the narrative shift, you know? Yeah. It's always when it benefits my side, I'm completely fine with it. And, but when it's your side, I'm going to completely use it against you. But that's tribalism.

[00:10:20] That's, we've talked about on this show that political tribalism has been a problem. It continues to be a real problem in the United States where people are blinded by like their own tribalistic. This is my team. I'm red team versus blue team. And they can't see past like what their team says. So, you know, it's like people have stopped figuring out how to logically think about things.

[00:10:43] And instead they're more blinded by hatred for the other side, which obviously Donald Trump exasperates that on one side. And it, they see it as heroic when they were also chastising him for pardoning J sixers who were, I guess, doing the same thing, which is attacking. It's just a massive like logic and hypocrisy.

[00:11:09] Um, but anyway, as a palate cleanser, uh, this is the video I saw. So this is actually, so as a palate cleanser for people of everyone making fun of these brave teachers who are going to fight back against ice agents, apologies, people listening on audio. So you can't really see what the video is saying.

[00:11:34] So it's, it's, if you're not watching on video, it's me watching all these tough teachers and healthcare workers getting their clothes folded while they're in them by the ice agents. They were going to obstruct. So that's the new trend. That's like the counter trend is making fun of the fact that like, you think you're tough. Wait until ice agents get ahold of you. And, um, these are trained law enforcement officers. So good luck with that. So that's our cringe moment for the week.

[00:12:02] Um, but it does lead us into our first topic, which is what's going on at the border regarding immigration. Did you have any other final thoughts on ice agents versus teachers, public school teachers? We can move to the next topic. Uh, okay. So on the same vein here in California, specifically down here in San Diego, since we border Mexico, uh, there have been a bunch of troops sent from bases here in San Diego.

[00:12:29] Since we have a lot of Marines down here, they did send a bunch of actual us federal troops, not national guard. This is not like Gavin Newsom saying I've increased national guard by 50% by going from four people to six people. Uh, this is legit. Like they sent a bunch of Marines down at the order of, uh, Donald Trump. And there's a video from it. What's the number? Uh, it says 1500 troops of the border. I don't know if it's our border specifically.

[00:12:58] Uh, there's a thousand soldiers, 500 Marines who were previously stationed. Okay. I mean, that's where I thought somehow they were all for the San Diego border, but okay. So that would have been a lot, you know, 1500 might've been. I mean, there's a lot of miles of border as we've discussed before. So, all right. So this is a video from NBC seven. Um, good friends over NBC seven. Thank you.

[00:13:23] ...are continuing to take shape meantime, after declaring a national emergency on day one, his administration is sending 1,500 troops to the southern border. And we now know hundreds of those troops are already stationed near San Diego. From the border in San Ysidro, NBC seven Shelby Bremer has more on what it will look like in the coming days. This is an area where many migrants have arrived to seek asylum and several aid organizations have set up to help them as they wait to be picked up.

[00:13:51] As the military prepares to send more troops to the border, the people who are here every day say there's just so much uncertainty about what's ahead. Save for the wind. It's a pretty quiet day at the U.S. Mexico border in San Ysidro. The concept of an invasion is inconsistent with what we see. Adriana Hasso assists the migrants who arrive here seeking asylum.

[00:14:16] In the coming days, her work may evolve as President Donald Trump sends 1,500 more active duty service members to the southern border. We certainly hope that they, um, that the military has a clear delineation of no contact with, uh, migrants, uh, or with people, um, because they're not trained. Five hundred of those are Marines who were on standby for wildfires in Southern California.

[00:14:44] The Department of Defense will also run deportation flights for more than 5,000 people already detained in San Diego and El Paso. What Trump is doing is taking a military first approach to a problem that is at the end of the day, not a military problem. Congresswoman Sarah Jacobs says this effort diverts military resources from national security challenges around the world.

[00:15:06] We need to be addressing the root causes of why people are coming and needing to seek asylum in the U.S., like addressing governance and corruption and rule of law and violence. The national emergency. I want to stop and take a comment on what Congresswoman Sarah Jacobs just said there about how this is not the proper use of the military is to defend the border or patrol the border. She said we need to use it for other. She hopes that they're not diverting military away from other uses.

[00:15:36] I'm trying to imagine Sarah Jacobs. She didn't give us any examples of what would be those other uses that we need the military for besides defending our own border. And then she goes on to say this really isn't an issue of national security. Okay, so is defending your border not part of national security? Because I think that might be one of the most basic forms of national security is defending your border. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[00:16:04] I just find it funny that she thinks this isn't national security and this is not what we should be using the military for. But she didn't give an example like what else we should be using the military for. Hopefully not fighting wars over in you know other countries, which I wouldn't be surprised. She is the granddaughter of Qualcomm. Qualcomm might make technology for weapons or defense manufacturers. So I wouldn't be surprised about that. But regardless, I she didn't say what we should be using the military for outside of defending our border.

[00:16:33] So I thought that was pretty interesting for her to say that. What do you think? I noticed that as well. And then there was the prior comment. I'm not sure she was the one who made it, but they were supposed to be on standby for the fires. And now anybody in the comments can correct me if I'm wrong, because I really don't know how this works between the firefighters. And and I have heard of like I had a brother in law who was in the Air Force, but his job in the Air Force was firefighting. So I understand that we use forces for those kinds of things.

[00:17:02] But as we've had these fires raging on, we're talking about how the firefighters are understaffed. And it's like, well, how come we don't have more firefighters? Why do we have the Marines standing by for the fires when I thought the Marines were supposed to be protecting us? Isn't that why every, you know, every Memorial Day, Veterans Day, we're like grateful for these who have served to make our country free. How do people think that works?

[00:17:28] They they protect us, they defend us, whether that's at the border or overseas. And you and I are both, you know, we're like, let's stay out of wars. But how about we protect our borders here and have our, you know, our our military here? So, yes, I agree with you. And I did catch that. If if she doesn't remember the position that Pete Hegseth was just called.

[00:17:57] He was confirmed by a narrow margin to in the past couple of days. His position is called secretary of defense, not secretary of war and military uses for other things. It's secretary of defense, meaning we should be using the military for our own defense. I'm sure you can get down in the mud about the arguments of all these people aren't, you know, they're not threats or anything like that. Or do we really need to use military force for people who are coming here?

[00:18:24] Well, considering we have an enormous fentanyl problem, considering that cartels move a ton of drugs and people and human trafficking across the border. Yeah, there is. There is an argument about national security when people tens of thousands of thousands of thousands of people dying from fentanyl every single year. I would think that's national security. Maybe we should kind of take a take a closer look at what is and who is getting fentanyl across the border.

[00:18:54] So I again, we were just talking about tribalism with public school teachers and ICE agents. This is sort of the same thing where Sarah Jacobs just knows this is the company line of I have to tow for the Democratic Party of this is not really we don't we shouldn't be using the military to defend our borders like this is inhumane like this is a humanitarian crisis. And the other thing she said that I that I almost, you know, jumped out and paused right away.

[00:19:20] She goes, we have to address the root causes of why people are coming here. Forgive me. We're 40 trillion dollars in debt. Why do we have to address the root causes? Don't the root causes come from those other countries? Yes, like in in Honduras or Colombia or like any of these places like El Salvador.

[00:19:44] Why why is it our job to tackle their root causes and a whole other country when we have so many problems here? That's not that's also not our responsibility either. And that's sort of her. Her worldview is we have to go and drop a ton of money or I don't know what her solution is, but again, we have so many problems here for her to say, oh, we need to go tackle the root causes in those countries.

[00:20:12] No, like that's not our problem. Why now could we work with the governments? Sure, but it's not our fight to fight and go into those other countries and tackle those root causes. We have a lot going on here. Yes. And we need to protect here. And I think that people don't understand that that's what we mean by America first.

[00:20:31] We're not saying we don't care about anything else, but it's just like we have a lot of issues here and and we're literally like you can you know if you are having like issues in your family. Yes, there's other you have to you still have to go to work. You have to whatever but like you kind of like need to like settle down and settle your issues in your own family.

[00:20:55] And you know figure those things out like I I'm a mom and if there's things going on in my house, I shouldn't be like if like if I have an out of control child. I like I don't mean for a day. I mean like I have a whole behavioral issue that I'm dealing with this as a parent like a brother child whatever like my job isn't to go out and fix someone else's kid like no I need to stay home and like work on what's going on here.

[00:21:18] What are our issues here and and it doesn't mean that other people don't matter, but how did it become our responsibility and something that like she didn't say these words, but she said it like she made it sound like the military and yes, they're absolutely trained for combat and everything, but she made it sound like they're just going to go down there and start like blowing people up or something. And I felt like that was so judgmental because we've all seen the you know, in war in in combat.

[00:21:48] There's terrible terrible things but we've all seen the photos of the military literally carrying out the women and the children and the animals and even at the border as they're coming there. They're like, okay, you're not supposed to be here, but you're here and we're not going to like let you drown. You know, there's the boats that overturn and they're out there rescue them and like they're there are people with compassion to it.

[00:22:09] I didn't like the way that she made it sound like now they're at the border like they're going to start all this stuff like no don't why why would you make it like that's all they do because that's not all they do. They're human too. So I didn't know. Yeah, kind of looks at military members in a narrow light of like they're all just trained killers and like their job is to go down to the border and start shooting at people coming up to the border.

[00:22:35] In reality, like we like the video just said they were just standing by to help with wildfires. I guess based on Sarah Jacobs logic, they were going to shoot the wildfires or bomb the wildfires into like submission. But no, like that a lot of military are trained for a multitude of things. And oftentimes they end up just being support for the people on the ground like Border Patrol who handle this. They're just extra set of hands.

[00:23:05] They're just extra manpower. They're just there to help. Like they're not there to like she says like military like she thinks they're just rolling up tanks and like blowing away like people walking up to the border. It is you're right. You're absolutely right. It is insulting to demean military members to the point of thinking they're just trained killers. We're going to stand there and shoot at them. They're there to lend support to the Border Patrol who is, you know, overwhelmed. They've been overwhelmed these past four years. So they're also trained medics.

[00:23:34] You know, there's like all kinds of things that they can do to to actually help you. Right. So there's a couple seconds left. So let's just finish it up right now. We'll move on. Agency comes as border crossings have fallen. Just ninety six thousand in December. Customs and Border Protection says compared to more than three hundred thousand that same month. One year before. Hasso says she and the migrants say. Well, OK, I know we just paused.

[00:24:05] I'm going to take a wild stab in the dark without really knowing the numbers. They said that. So in December, the border crossings were down to ninety six thousand just in that month, which still seems like a lot of people down from three hundred thousand a year before. I am going to take a stab in the dark that that is one hundred percent.

[00:24:28] The Trump effect of once Trump got elected and they were one month from him being inaugurated, people are not trying to cross the border anymore. As opposed to the by administration. Yes, that's where and I and I don't know that for a fact either. But that was when I read that or heard that I I thought, you know, because he was elected. It was kind of like people knew like, OK, we can't we're not just going to be able to just walk across. We're right. We're apparently going to get our heads blown off by military. No, it's a sick joke.

[00:24:58] Sarah Jacobs. That's just going to be like like duck hunt for. Yeah, if you're listening to Sarah Jacobs, then that that is what would I would certainly stay away from the border if if that's what you know, that's what I was listening to. So, yes, as finish it up. They've seen this week are now feeling an added layer of anxiety.

[00:25:19] They wanted to hear from us if they were going to be OK, if they were still on time or is it too late. Those troops are expected to be in place today or tomorrow. And the military is already flying helicopters to support CBP with additional aerial resources available in the days ahead. In San Ysidro, Shelby Bremer, NBC7. All right. So there was a couple more seconds. That's OK.

[00:25:49] Didn't need to watch the rest of that anyway. Like she said, in the end, it was they're bringing more helicopters. They're bringing more support for CBP. I don't think it's out of the realm of, you know, normalcy to think that the military should be supporting our border. But here we are. I know that they're all going California. I think in Arizona they've gone down like Texas. I know they've definitely gone down in Texas.

[00:26:18] So it's a loud and clear message to people that the border is closed under Donald Trump. He's declared a national emergency. The border is closed. So moving on to our next topic. Speaking of immigration. So those who are already here, as opposed to those who are crossing the border. California has 58 counties. Each county has its own sheriff.

[00:26:43] And each sheriff has a different way of handling what is the sanctuary law that has been passed in California. So we're going to discuss right as Cal matters. Trump wants to deport immigrants accused of crimes. California sheriffs could make that easy. California sheriffs once again find themselves navigating a difficult political calculus on immigration as President Donald Trump begins his second term. They can enforce a state sanctuary law that some of them personally oppose.

[00:27:12] Or they can roll out the welcome mat to federal immigration enforcement authorities whom Trump has promised will carry out the largest deportation program in American history. Some California sheriffs have pledged not to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement authorities based on their own policies or laws passed by their counties and will forbid immigration agents from using county personnel, property, or databases without a federal warrant. Quote, several state leaders would prefer we do not have any communication with ICE.

[00:27:42] However, that is not what the laws say, said Fresno County Sheriff John Zanoni. Quote, ICE may access jail bookings through our public website and fingerprint information put into the national database to identify any incarcerated persons of interest to them. And one sheriff, Chad Bianco of Riverside County, said he would work around California law if he could to ensure more people are deported.

[00:28:07] It goes on to say California sheriffs could play an influential role in determining whether someone gets arrested and deported because they manage the state's local jail system where people suspected of committing crimes are held. While awaiting trial, a bill named after a slain Georgia nursing student that is expected to pass Congress could enhance sheriff's sway over immigration enforcement by prioritizing deportations of undocumented migrants arrested on suspicion of burglary and shoplifting regardless of whether they're convicted.

[00:28:36] One consistent theme, every sheriff who responded to Cal matters that immigration enforcement isn't their job. But some of them went further, pledging not to honor immigration holds, while others said they will either prevent nor hinder immigration enforcement agents from doing their jobs. One of them, Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreau. Boudreau? You said Tulare, right? But now the name isn't. Now I got the sheriff's name wrong.

[00:29:02] So he doesn't agree with California sanctuary law and said any governor who supports it should be removed from office. But Boudreau said he wants to distinguish between targeted enforcement of felonious people, which he supports, and massive immigration raids. Quote, now if they come into the area saying, hey, we're just going to scoop up as many people as we can that are here illegally. We're not going to do that because we have a community to serve, Boudreau said. If you can separate the difference between that, you should be able to see what I mean.

[00:29:30] Uh, Bianco, the Riverside County Sheriff and one of Trump's most outspoken allies in California took office in 2019. Now, Bianco said he's ready to work around state law to step up immigration enforcement. I will do everything in my power to make sure I keep the residents of Riverside County safe, Bianco said to KTTV in November.

[00:29:49] Quote, if that involves working somehow around California sanctuary law with ICE so we can deport these people victimizing us and our residents, you can be 100% sure that I'm going to do that. So smattering of different people across the state. Chad Bianco, no surprise that he is absolutely going to work with ICE the best he can. John Zanoni, another one that wants to work with federal immigration.

[00:30:16] Um, this other one, Mike Boudreau to Larry County. Uh, he wants to work with them in a limited capacity. So it is interesting to have several of these sheriffs who are going to go against Gavin Newsom in Sacramento. Um, this is sort of that localism argument of sheriffs are bound by the voters in the constitution that they, uh, pledge that they're going to uphold.

[00:30:43] And I guess that's their, their take is like, look, I'm bound to uphold the constitution. I'm an elected official. This is what they hired me or voted for me to do. And so this is what I'm going to do. And it's going to be interesting to see how, and we know we saw it during COVID. We're going to see how Gavin Newsom and the Democrats in Sacramento are going to retaliate against sheriffs who work with ICE.

[00:31:08] Um, it's kind of like, uh, Sheriff Villanueva in LA with the whole COVID thing. Like he was not going to comply with it. And look what happened. He got railroaded out of his job based on that. So, um, any thoughts about sheriffs who might work with Trump and sheriffs who won't work with Trump? Um, I have no thoughts. I have, I have thoughts, but you covered it. So. Oh, okay. Um, yeah, that's basically, I mean, we'll see. This is a developing story.

[00:31:36] I imagine, you know, one thing I'd be interested to see is does this move people around California? Um, in terms of what's like, okay. So San Diego County, the county supervisors did vote to turn San Diego County into a super sanctuary state, which. They're not just sanctuary. They are super. They are a super duper sanctuary, uh, County.

[00:32:05] Uh, I don't know what that means to make it even more. I mean, did you ever play Mario Brothers and then like super Mario Brothers? Is it like when you get the mushroom and you get a little bit bigger? Is that what it is? Like the graphics were better. You know, I don't know. Uh, but regardless, they, they are now a super sanctuary County, even though Kelly Martinez, the sheriff here said, look, we're not going to listen to that. We're going to abide by like what the law is and what the federal law is.

[00:32:32] So San Diego County is not going to listen to whatever, uh, sanctuary status that they have put into place. So, but like places like LA, I'd be interested to see if people start moving around to different counties based on the status of those counties or those cities. Uh, I know that people, a lot of, a lot of people always make the argument that like, well, California becomes like a, a beacon light for a lot of people to come here because there's a lot of welfare. There's sanctuary status.

[00:33:00] Um, is that going to happen locally where now people are moving in the state based on the sanctuary status and big based on the sheriffs? I don't, I guess. I mean, can anyone afford to move right now though? And I, I don't say that as a joke, unless we move to another state, we can't afford to move. We're locked in at a low interest rate. We got our house like 10 years ago.

[00:33:27] We're, you know, we're staying, so you're, you're hunkering down as is everybody else who got that low interest rate during COVID. Nobody's moving. So everyone's holding onto their low interest rates in their houses. So this is a developing story and we'll keep an eye on that as well, but it'll be interesting to see how it moves around and retaliation will be the biggest thing that I'm interested to see.

[00:33:51] Cause we know Gavin Newsom does not like to be, um, disobeyed or he doesn't like to be disobeyed as one term. He doesn't like contradicted. Gavin Newsom does not like to be contradicted. He's like, I will not be mocked. I will not be mocked. I am Supreme rule of California. When you are not allowed to, and you will not mock me. Because his dinner at French laundry is way more important than you going to visit your grandmother in the hospital. He will not be made a fool. Never.

[00:34:21] That's one thing. Our esteemed governor always promises he will never be made a fool. Uh, but I think this contract with insulin is something that has made him kind of look foolish. And now, if you don't know, this is our next story we're going to be covering. So Gavin Newsom promised that he was going to work with a company to bring down the cost of insulin here in California. Um, this is an article from Newsweek.

[00:34:48] California Governor Gavin Newsom's bold plan to produce cheap generic insulin for Californians by 2024 could be delayed for years. Um, surprise. Well, we're reading this in 2025 and nothing has happened. So it's already been delayed. Civica, the nonprofit drug manufacturer contracted to produce insulin for California has not even begun two of the lengthy processes required to get the drug onto shelves.

[00:35:14] Neither clinical trials nor an application for a federal approval from the FDA are underway. It's highly unlikely the state manufacturer insulin will be available until 2027 or later. Uh, Newsom said the insulin would be delivered by 2024. Fail. Pending fed FDA approval when he announced that the state would begin selling it for $30 a vial during his 2023 state of the state tour.

[00:35:40] In 2020, Newsom signed a law that would allow California manufacturers on insulin as part of an effort to bring down its costs. The governor announced in 2023 that CalRX, an initiative to produce generic drugs under the state's own label, had secured a 10-year, $50 million deal with Civica to make $30 insulin available to residents who need it. Newsom also set aside $50 million for the construction of a drug manufacturing facility in California.

[00:36:08] And, uh, what was, this was just a couple of days ago, uh, in January 15, 2025. So, as you can see, not going well for old Gavin Newsom. He made this pledge years ago and he has completely missed it and doesn't even look like it's going to be close. And you had really brought this up to me this week. You kind of pointed out what's going on and how far behind he is. So, um, I imagine you have more thoughts on this because you were doing the research.

[00:36:37] Yeah, I, I, so I want to just be very clear that I am not opposed to this. Um, medication, especially for type one diabetics, insulin is life saving. They cannot live without it. And it is so expensive. I, I guess it's about $300 per like little bottle or something. I am 100% not opposed to this idea because it's quite literally life saving. And if people can't afford it, like, what are they supposed to do?

[00:37:07] And I, and I am also not bad mouthing Civica, um, which is a nonprofit that was started in 2018 to make, uh, to lower the cost of medications. And I know that a bunch of, uh, big health companies had jumped on board with them. And, um, and this is not a bad thing, but what happened was in 2022, they announced that they were, they were still raising money.

[00:37:33] Civica announced they were still raising money to be able to, um, manufacture insulin for like $30 a vial. And then they were, um, they were still finishing up their, their facility, like their lab, their manufacturing place in, I think Virginia, don't quote me on that, but it doesn't matter. Um, not California. And yes, commercial buildings are hugely expensive.

[00:37:56] I imagine all the labs and equipments, like we know that that's a lot of what goes into medical fees is that they're this, the equipment is so, so expensive. And so as a nonprofit, they're raising money for all these things. And then of course there's going to be staff and it, and it's going to be, you know, to create, not that I've ever worked in this, but we all know a little bit about this, let's create these medications. There's hardcore labs involved.

[00:38:20] So I am not at all putting any of that down that like there's, and I don't even know that $50 million is in California is, is going to be enough depending on where they put this facility. I actually, so I've been a stay-at-home mom for nearly 20 years. And, um, my last job before I became a stay-at-home mom was in commercial real estate. Um, so commercial real estate is very expensive. And if you like have money to invest in real estate, commercial real estate is the way to go.

[00:38:48] Um, I'm in Orange County. It's crazy. The rents, the costs of buildings that, you know, it's crazy expensive, add all this equipment to it. So they have to raise money. And I respect that. Absolutely. But their facility at the time, it in 2023, I believe was not quite finished and they had started it a few years prior. And yes, these buildings take time to build. And then of course, all the equipment adding on.

[00:39:16] So this, just the building alone is a few years. Then now you have to make sure that you're hiring the right people, bringing in the right people to now create, which hopefully Civica is, they're close to creating it in their, their, whatever, wherever state facility. So that they can just like, as soon as we have a facility here in California, pick that up. Like they're ready to go. Like we've got this down, we know what to do. And now we're going to start manufacturing here in California. So all that's great.

[00:39:44] But as far as I know, we don't have a building yet in California. No, it sounds like there's nothing has been done. No building has even started. Started, bought, whatever. And so we're still a few years away in that regard. And now maybe Civica, wherever they're producing elsewhere, will be able to get that to, you know, all over the United States and to California.

[00:40:14] Again, I'm not opposed to this, but it's just, again, an overpromise under deliver from Newsom. It's the usual, this is what we're going to do. And here's the timeline. And it just sounds like this isn't even going to start in California. We're already in 2025. It just feels like 2028. And yet we have this $100 million contract.

[00:40:38] And it's just, I think there's a need to really sit down with the logistics of this before he promised. Yeah, and I've read plenty of articles that they underestimated how much this was going to cost. And they underestimated how much this was going, how long this was going to take.

[00:40:59] Most people who are familiar with the pharmaceutical companies and pharmaceutical process with FDA have come out and said, like, four years is not fast enough. Especially you don't have a building built. You don't have an application even started yet. Like this article said, they haven't even started actually an application for it to get FDA approval, which could be years in the making.

[00:41:24] From that same Newsweek article, James Bruno, who is a longtime chemical and pharmaceutical consultant for drug manufacturers, told CalMatters, you could be anywhere from 12 months to two or three years before you get your actual approval. And that's if nothing goes wrong. David Gao, executive vice president of the Association for Accessible Medicine said, quote, I would make a general statement that it's probably going to be somewhere between two and four years.

[00:41:52] And then Scott Wiener, our favorite legislator up in Sacramento, heavy sarcasm, said, quote, this is a missed opportunity that will force them to wait months or years for relief from skyrocketing costs of medical care when they could have had it immediately. Absolutely. So it is like it's typical Newsome. I feel like he's all what are they? What's the old saying? He's all hat, no cattle.

[00:42:22] Like it's it's is that an old person? Is that one of those old sayings that you always make fun of? Well, to modernize it, he's all talk, no action. Yeah. As I guess I heard that 25, that's how we speak. Yeah. I sound like I just came off the prayer or something. It's all hat, no cattle. Like rolled up in your wagon. And yeah, I'm sitting here wearing my cowboy boots or something just because I'm wearing a flannel. I felt like I needed to use a hat and cattle reference. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:42:53] It's just a long line of like Newsome's inability or unwillingness to actually follow through on a lot of things that he said he's going to do. And well, it's he just I don't even know if it's lack of following through so much as it's just, again, over promising under delivering. Like he wanted to have this great state of the state speech of here's what we're doing in the California way and we're going to do this. And like, great, if we can do it.

[00:43:21] You know, I'm going to totally going to get some details wrong here and I'm not trying to lie. It's just it's been a while before I was actually on here co-hosting with you. You had me on as a guest co-host back in 2022. Cynthia was on the episode. And I believe what happened was Scott Wiener had introduced a bill to do exactly this, to lower the cost of insulin and manufacture in California. And we talked about it.

[00:43:49] And I don't I don't know that it had even passed. I don't know if it ever passed, but we were just talking about this. This bill had definitely been authored. And. And again, this was 2022. 2022. And then in that same episode, we were talking about water, because I think that's when we started in California, that nonstop rain that we had for almost two years. And we were like, no one's capturing this. And, you know, and so we had a whole conversation about the state's water.

[00:44:16] And then I made a joke at one point about, well, you know, we have no water, but we're going to manufacture insulin here. And I kind of sarcastically threw out how much water does it take to create insulin? And then I later looked it up and I and again, I don't even have these numbers on me. And this has been nearly three years since that episode. But I looked it up and it actually takes a ton of water. And so I laughed because I'm like, California, we never have water.

[00:44:43] We don't we don't, you know, capture it. We know this. So when we get it, it's just gone. We dump it into the ocean when we have it. We all the things. And and so there's actually an issue there with even if we get our facility set up, if we're not managing our water, we're not going to have the water to produce the insulin.

[00:45:07] And I apologize that I don't have the information in front of me because I should have brought that all so that I could tell you exactly what I'm talking about. But just go search it. How much water does it actually take to create insulin? Yeah. Well, if they're going to listen to Trump on the whole water thing, maybe they'll have more water than, you know.

[00:45:29] So now I'm thinking this might be a fun episode to do is to kind of go through and list every single thing that Newsom promised and then just never followed through on. Like, I feel like there's got to be at least a half a dozen. I can think of homelessness is one of them. This is another one of them. I feel like there's so many things we can go off of regarding. What's going on?

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[00:46:22] It can fit compact, subcompact, even full-size pistols, which is nice. They have added this new magazine, extra magazine holder. Also very nice. My wife and I both have our own Stopbox because we both know that when there's an oncoming threat in seconds count, you don't want to be fumbling around with electronics or keys or biometrics or anything like that. So now listeners of this show can enjoy 10% off their order at Stopbox if they go to stopbox.com forward slash California underground.

[00:46:51] They'll get that discount, support the show. You can support Stopbox. And this is proudly made in the good old U.S. of A. So go to stopbox.com forward slash California underground for your discount and let's get back to the show. We'll have to go through and look at all the promises he's made and do like a checkup. That would be a fun episode to do like a checkup of all the things Newsom's promised but never even put into motion.

[00:47:18] Like he does this good job of like getting the soundbite and showing him showing up at a press conference and saying these things. And then like you follow up a couple years later and nothing's happening. You're like, wait a second. Weren't you supposed to do this years ago? And it's like, oh, oh, I'm no, no. We're working on it. Don't worry about it. Just because we're four years behind schedule doesn't mean anything bad about it. I think COVID like COVID changed. I had all that in place. But then COVID, we had to pivot.

[00:47:46] And that's just that's going to be the conclusion. Right. That will be as you know, we had to we had two years of we had to save lives for COVID. And it's like, yeah, well, you made a lot of promises since 2022. So, you know, we're three years past that. I think you've you failed to fill up, you know, fulfill any of those promises. So the one thing that you correct me if I'm wrong about this. So Civica asked for $125 million in funding.

[00:48:15] Like they're trying to raise that amount of money. And then a year later is when Gavin Newsom signed this law, giving them like 50 million for the research and then 50 million to build the construction site. Is that correct? That sounds correct. I'm pulling up notes. I'm not like I wasn't like you figured out while I text my friends. I know I have an article here. Let me see if I can quickly pull it up and kind of like this article was when was this article?

[00:48:44] It was this the article that kind of referenced a timeline was about a particular company that was giving them they they pledged like 5 million. And then so it listed other companies. When was this? Just expedited it over by 2024. Oh, OK. So I haven't even heard an update because this article says that their facility that they were building, not not the California one, was supposed to be functioning up and operating by 2024. And I don't think it is yet.

[00:49:12] And again, I'm not slamming Civica for this. These things take time. And there's permits. And there's, you know, as we discussed. But yes, I believe it was. 2022 that they were like, we're trying to the total return to raise is 125 million. And then it was like a year later. Like, I want to say March 2022. And then his state of the state in March of 23 is when he said, I've signed this contract. Got it. Which I remember we were texting about.

[00:49:41] I was like, that's fishy that this nonprofit came out of nowhere. I was like, hey, we want 100 million dollars. And do some all of a sudden. I was like, hey, here's 50 million dollars. They were established in 2018. But what I did find to you that I pointed out to you in this article is that this one company pledged 5 million. Which is, okay, that's a lot of money, but it's a drop in the bucket of 125 million. And then, yes, that was 2022.

[00:50:06] Because I texted you and said the board members of Civica were there. They paid their board members. The total for 2022 was 5.2 million dollars, which was like five million dollars that was pledged. Conveniently covered the cost of their board member salaries. Conveniently. Conveniently. Well, we'll just have to keep an eye on it. It is.

[00:50:34] We're not saying anything suspicious or fishy has gone on, but the timeline definitely piqued my interest that, yes, they started in 2018. A year later, they pivoted to the insulin, even though they'd never manufactured insulin before. And then all of a sudden, bing, bang, boom, there's 50 million dollars from California. Yeah, it's a little effort.

[00:50:59] And there are things that I sent you that were shady about maybe timelines and salaries and stuff. But I feel like we kind of need to keep an eye on that before we really dive into that. Because I don't want to misspeak and defame them for something that didn't work. Yeah. You know, we don't need to get a legal letter from Civica about alluding to anything.

[00:51:27] But we'll keep an eye on it because it is a little fishy and nothing's happening with that contract. And I think the longer it drags on, there'll definitely be questions. We'll have questions. That's for sure. I'm sure. I think citizens should have questions as to like, you know, we gave up 50 million dollars of our tax dollars to you. And you haven't done anything. And these poor people who need insulin and were hoping that you would do something have now done nothing.

[00:51:53] So it might be part of that episode where we just go through Gavin Newsom's all hat, no cattle promises. So speaking of shady dealings, one of your favorite politicians, a local politician in Orange County. This is from the voice. You have to get prepared. I feel like you're like you're actually getting prepared. Voice of the OC.

[00:52:21] Wait, can I actually go back a little bit? Can I? Sure. Go right ahead. If you want to preface this whole segment, go right ahead. Okay. I need to remember exactly what we're going back to. 2021. We're going back there. You know, Congress, they have to run every two years. They're reelected every two years. Back in 2021 was, we were redrawing district lines.

[00:52:50] And so people that were running for Congress didn't actually have their official, like they filed to run and they threw out kind of like maybe what their current district is, but they weren't sure where the boundary lines were going to change. And I fault no one for this. I think that's standard when they do this. So Michelle Steele was in office at the time. I forget exactly. I want to say the 45th district.

[00:53:17] So she was the congressional 45, which is Orange County. And I don't remember exactly what cities, but I want to say this was like Westminster, Huntington Beach, Fountain Valley, maybe parts of Santa Ana at the time. Again, don't quote me because I'm, but that general area. Amy Fan West is a woman from Vietnam. She will tell you her family fled Vietnam.

[00:53:46] And when she was a young girl, came over here and started a new life. And she decided to run for Congress. And she lives in Westminster. And she was, she decided to run for that area, whatever that district was going to be unclear. And she filed for the 45th district. And there is a group called Lexit, which is the Latinos exiting the Democrat party.

[00:54:11] And I have friends in Lexit and they were endorsing candidates through interviews. And they, someone in the organization asked me if I wouldn't mind doing kind of like a pre-qualification of Amy Fan West and, and talk to her a little bit. So Amy and I had a phone call and I asked her specifically, you're running for the 45th district. What happens if Michelle still ends up like, that's what the district, she decides to run in again.

[00:54:39] And, you know, Michelle still being the incumbent has a better chance of being elected. Therefore lessons, obviously Amy Fan West chance of being elected. She'd be competing against, you know, running against Michelle still. And she said, well, that would not be good. I said, well, why would that not be good? And she's like, she's not the right person for this district. And I don't remember her reasons or if she even had reasons or if they were good reasons, but they were not the right people or she was not the right person to represent them.

[00:55:05] And then she mentioned that they, uh, her district was a Vietnamese speaking district and she's Vietnamese. And so this is why she's going to, um, run in this district and Michelle still should not. So then they redraw the lines, like the end of December, 2021, this all comes out. And, um, she's like, she puts up a tweet December 27th, 2021. And I have a screenshot somewhere. I should have sent it to you so that you could show it.

[00:55:34] But she says, paraphrasing the lines have been drawn. Um, my district is whatever percent of a high percent chance, 40 something percent Vietnamese speaking who better to represent them than me. And, uh, and she's, and she had a few reasons a week, a week and a half later, Michelle still says she's running for the 45th.

[00:55:56] And Amy Phan West quickly refiles for the 47th district, which, um, that's where Katie Porter won. So I, I confronted her about this. I said, you said that you were not going to switch districts. You told me this on the phone. You told, and she blocked me, um, on Twitter. So then March, 2022, there's an event in Orange County.

[00:56:24] And I went to the event because, um, Jorge Ventura was actually supposed to be speaking, although he got stuck in Northern California and didn't make it. And I didn't even know that till I arrived at this event in Orange County. And they were giving, um, a few minutes to a lot of local, um, politicians who were running for the city council in the area. This event was in Santa Ana. This is Orange County. Um, so there was some city council members or running for city council.

[00:56:54] And there was also Scott Paul who was running for the 47th. These Republicans, Brian Burley, friend of ours running for the 47th district, uh, Errol Weber running for the 47th district and Amy Phan West. So as I do, I was filming each person. Like, I think I went live and filmed each person. Um, and, um, and Amy, even after the fact walked up to me and she was like, did you catch my little, like, whatever? I think she threw a snide remark at Scott Paul. And I, and I laughed and I, and I said, yeah, I caught that.

[00:57:23] And I'm like, actually, I got it on video. And she said, oh, good. Send it to me. Well, as the night carries on, I have, I start hearing whispers. This is not a big event. This is like a hundred people. But I start hearing whispers of people being like, she's saying Brian Burley lied. Like she's going around the room saying Brian Burley got up on stage and lied. And like, she's saying he claimed he had some rating with some company that organization that he did not have.

[00:57:52] And he, and he's like, Amy, that's not what I said. And, um, I, I pulled her aside with Brian and I'm like, Amy, you're going around the room and you're, you're lying about what he said. I have it on video. Like, I'll show you what he said. And that he did not say what you were claiming. He said, and she, so I started filming. Like, I, I'm just recording this interaction with her and Brian Burley. This is a public event. She's running for public office. I had been recording everything. She knew I was recording.

[00:58:20] She asked me to send her prior recording, all the things. So she's, she keeps like denying it and she's deflecting and everything. And then she pushes Brian away and she's like, Camille, you and I need to talk about. And she brings up some really random thing that had happened months prior. And I'm like, I don't care about that. That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about you walking around the room, telling people not to vote for him because he lied. And I'm like, you're the one lying. And, um, and she keeps deflecting and deflecting. Also looks down and realizes I'm filming.

[00:58:50] And she's like, are you filming me? And he said, yes, I am. This is a public event. You're running for public office. I've been filming everything. And, um, she's like, that's just great. And she runs from me. Other people in the room catch this and start filming. So this is all on film. I have a reel about it. She literally runs from me and I'm holding up my phone, just like shouting at her. I'm like on December 27th, you tweeted this. Then a few days later, you blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, can you tell me this on the phone? She goes to the event coordinators. And she's like, she's crazy. She's crazy.

[00:59:19] She needs to get kicked out, remove her from this event. Funny enough, the event was hosted by a couple who I did not know at the time, but they were fans of me because of exposure I had done prior on a different candidate. And so I met them that night, but they were like, we love your work. And then the coordinators were like, can you send us all this? Because we, she's asking us to endorse her. And like, we need to, we need to go over all this information.

[00:59:46] So she did not win for the congressional seat, but I just feel like all that background was really important because this is who she is. And it's funny because there's a video of her saying, I want the people to hold me accountable. And I clipped that video with my video of me literally chasing her. Like, this is what happens when the people hold her accountable. She runs. She's not going to be held accountable. So here we are today. We're in 2025. Oh, she was elected.

[01:00:16] She ran for city council in Westminster and she was elected. So carry on. There we are. There we are. So Amy fan West, who, like you had just said, Westminster city council woman, and she was charged with attempting to bribe parking officer. And this was just a couple of days ago. This story came out on the voice of OC. I'm sorry. I said the voice of the OC. It's not the OC.

[01:00:45] This isn't a TV show. Westminster city council woman, Amy fan West is being charged with a misdemeanor for attempting to bribe parking enforcement officers to stop her husband's car from getting towed. According to a news release from the county's top prosecutor on Thursday morning, fan West denied the charges in an interview with voice of OC saying it was the first she'd heard about it. According to orange County district attorney prosecutors to parking control officers were

[01:01:13] sent to check on an abandoned Jeep connected to a car rental business. Fan West was operating in April of 2023. One of the 20 calls for service to the location about unregistered or abandoned vehicles, according to officials, a quote from the prosecutors quote fan West is accused of identifying herself and telling the parking control officers not to tow the vehicle and she would move it herself.

[01:01:40] She is also accused of telling the parking control officers how much she loves the Westminster police department and that she is close friends with the Westminster police chief and that she is in the process of getting raises for police department personnel. District attorney Todd Spitzer pledged to ensure she was held accountable in a statement on Thursday, quote, holding elective office does not entitle anyone to a separate set of rules

[01:02:10] and any attempt to engage in corruption, bribery, or any other crime under the shroud of elective office will be thoroughly investigated and any and all crimes that have been committed will be prosecuted by my office to the fullest extent of the law and quote. So, uh, miss Amy hold me accountable fan West, uh, said, hold me accountable. Well, she's about to be held accountable in a court of law for trying to bribe parking control

[01:02:39] officers for letting her cargo or husband's car. Um, the quote to me is just crazy that she openly runs out to these parking control officers and says, Oh, I love, I love the police department. And, uh, by the way, I'm, uh, I'm about to get you some raises wink, wink. I'm about to get all you guys raises wink, wink. So please don't tow this car.

[01:03:04] Uh, that to me, when, when you sent me the articles reading, I was like, that is really bad. It's pretty wild. Yeah. I mean, she might, I mean, she'll probably spin it and say like, Oh, I wasn't trying to bribe them, but I don't know when you go, when you're an elected official and you go to officers of the law who are about to do something and you go, Whoa, hold on. I really like you guys. I'm about to get you some raises kind of sounds like a bribe to me. Yeah.

[01:03:33] Um, she probably has taken them cookies too. I love you guys. Here's some starbies. Um, I don't know. That might be, I just, uh, you might have to send me the video. Cause that might be one of our new sound clips, like the whole falling out of a coconut tree thing and, uh, the whole hold me accountable. I just want people to hold me accountable. And whenever we do a story, I, I sent you a few PDFs. Do you have those?

[01:03:59] Cause this is not the only issue she's currently dealing with within the city council. Uh, it says you did. I don't know where you sent them to me. Um, I probably texted them to you, uh, but it was the rundown anyway. The rundown. I believe in the, I just hate to misspeak, but, um, okay. So last year and I cannot, I can never pronounce this word.

[01:04:28] The city council, Westminster city council voted to censure her. And I found it. Did you find it? Yep. Okay. Then you, you go ahead so that I don't say anything inaccurate. Uh, okay. The Westminster city council. This is from what public? Oh, the OC register. Um, right. You sent it to me as a PDF because it's behind a paywall and I can't get to it. But I paid for it.

[01:04:57] I have, I pay for mine. We have one, one proud subscriber of the OC register on this program. Uh, the Westminster city council majority of this week, censured council member, Amy fan of West for quote, unacceptable conduct. The council voted on this. This was August 15th, 2024. Okay. Not, not terribly long, you know, not super long ago. Okay.

[01:05:25] Uh, council vote three, two in favor of a censure with fan West and council member Nam Kwan Nguyen opposed quote. You can censure me. That's fine. Bring it on. I welcome it. Fan West said to her colleagues before the vote. Talk of making a formal declaration of disapproval first arose during the council's June 12th meeting when council member Kimberly Ho supported by council member Carlos Monzo submitted the request for the council to adopt a resolution of censure against fan West.

[01:05:54] The resolution outlining 20 alleged misdeeds ranging from fan West texting while on the dais to berating members of the public. It was later expanded to add nine more allegations, including wasting taxpayer money and trespassing in a construction zone. This is not the first time a fractured council has called for censure in Westminster. Multiple censure votes have been taken in the last couple of years. Um, what else does it go say? Council member Nguyen second by him made a motion for the entire resolution of censure

[01:06:24] to be read quote. Why don't you put it in the public record so the public can know what you're censuring me for said fan West during the heated debate quote, because it's going to be really ridiculous. So please read out what you're censuring me for so the people can look at this and everyone can laugh. Okay. Quote. We have been doing this for a while and today we have a lot of items we need to discuss. We need to move on. That was the mayor, Chi Charlie Nguyen. Uh, let's see. That's about it for that. So yeah.

[01:06:54] Censured for 20, 22 alleged misconducts on city council. Um, and then there was this one that you also sent over. This was from December 11th. So a little over a month ago, five weeks ago, uh, Westminster sues two of its own council members for disrupting city meetings. The city of Westminster is suing two of its council members for disrupting meetings and impairing government business.

[01:07:24] The city's lawsuit argues their behavior constitutes a misdemeanor. The city is seeking a court order, including a temporary restraining order that would legally require council members, Amy fan West and Nam Kwan Nguyen to stop speaking at council meetings. Quote, when they are not recognized by the mayor as having the floor, uh, Westminster city attorney, Christian Bettenhausen. Could they, boy, there are a lot of tough names, last names in this city council in this city.

[01:07:52] So the council meeting in October that the city might try to seek fines for fan West and Nguyen if they violate a court order, if a judge agrees to one in the future. Um, a kid is in a complaint filed or orange County superior court on November 27th. Attorneys for the city of Westminster alleged that fan West and Nguyen have persistently interrupted city council meetings by repeatedly cutting off their colleagues out of turn and sometimes engaging in rude or offensive speech. And okay. Okay.

[01:08:23] And then they go on to talk about the center. So now she's being sued. So she's been censured for 22 misconducts and now she's being sued and she might have a temporary restraining order against her as a city council member. Um, so that's fun. Uh, she's doing a swell job over there in the city council. Now imagine if she had gotten into Congress, why are we bringing this all up? I don't know exactly what you're saying.

[01:08:49] Like besides my own personal, my own personal chasing her down. Right. People are probably like, why do we care about the city council woman who ran for Congress and didn't make it? Um, well, because like we like to say, we are an equal opportunity political commentator. We like to call out like bad behavior on both sides, whether it's Republican or Democrat. Um, she is running for vice chair of the California GOP. So that is a very powerful position.

[01:09:18] If you're a Republican or your GOP member, it's, it's a powerful position to be vice chair of the entire party, the statewide party, one of the biggest Republican parties in the entire country. Um, so that's why we're bringing it up because she's running for this. And I think we both agreed people need to know about like, we've done this before. This is sort of how like Camille and I connected in the beginning was exposing a lot of these politicians and what they've done before, while they were running for stuff.

[01:09:48] And I, this bad behavior and bribing and facing criminal charges now facing a lawsuit being censured. Like people who are listening, if you were involved in the California GOP or you're a Republican in California have to ask yourself, is this the type of person that you're going to want to be the vice chair of your GOP? Heck no. And I'm a delegate. So I know who I won't be voting for.

[01:10:14] In addition to this though, we always preach local elections matter and they matter twofold because they, it does, you know, have an effect on your, your actual local life. Like as we know, back in 2020, you had your, uh, you know, Nathan Fletcher, Sandy, you County supervisor who was, did I say that right?

[01:10:40] So like, like yelling at people to not stand still on the beach and, uh, like utter insanity. And he, he had, whether he was right or not, like he was in an authoritarian position to kind of tell you what to do in your livelihood. But these people go on to, they start a city council and then they, depending on how your city runs, they may run for mayor. Your, your city council may actually vote for its own mayor.

[01:11:08] But sometimes like I know you city council, your, your mayor is actually an elected position. My city council there, it's elected by the city council, but, um, then they go on to run for board, County board supervisors, or again, Congress assembly. They end up in our legislator. They end up on our school boards. Like they, they go for these, you know, they start at city council and they go for these higher positions.

[01:11:37] And this is why local elections matter. And, um, and I think, I think that her stepping, like after she did not win Congress running for a local city council, I think I, I respect that. I respect that. And any person who's like, okay, maybe that was, I wasn't ready for that office or it just didn't work out, but I, I do want to serve in some capacity. And so I'm going to go local, very small and run for city council. I, I, that's great, but we've now seen who she is.

[01:12:04] She should not be reelected and she certainly shouldn't go on to higher positions. My opinion. Yeah. Yeah. And, and this is, you know, now the third time we're going to bring up the idea of political tribalism, um, just because she has an R next to her name, uh, does not allow you, you shouldn't forgive her and kind of brush stuff like this aside.

[01:12:30] And we've always been preaching like, you can't just, you can't just be rah, rah for one team or the other. And, and we definitely get our fair share of pushback and hate and DMS and comments of like, whenever we call out Republicans or we call out something that like, doesn't make sense or stupid. Um, we got a lot of people who are like this, this infighting doesn't help. Why do you, why do you do this? Why do you care about infighting and like taking down people? Well, because I want the best of the best.

[01:12:58] If you're on my team, I don't want bad representatives on my team. And if you're a bad representative who is being charged with bribery and being censured 22 times because you're just a bad actor, or now you're being sued for your job on city council, which is unbelievable to me to believe you can be sued as a city council member. I don't know how you, you do your job and there's a temporary restraining order against you as a city council member.

[01:13:22] Um, but I think that's, that's like us saying like the, and to Camille's point, these are the people who end up starting small and then they get bigger and then it makes the rest of the party or your team look bad because they get into bigger positions. They get a bigger platform and then they look worse. Like you want the best of the best. And sometimes you have to kind of weed them out right now.

[01:13:47] Um, while they're at smaller positions before they move on to like the vice chair of the California GOP, or they move on to Sacramento or they move on to like something much bigger, like a County supervisor. And then they, they continue to make, you know, bad policy, bad decisions, bad press. Um, I mean, I don't, I don't know why it's so hard for people to find like, to agree with this idea of like, don't you want the best of the best on your team?

[01:14:14] Why is it such a horrible thing to call out bad actors or bad political actors on your team? Um, so that's always been our stance. And this is one blaring case of like where we're calling out someone being like, no, you're, you're definitely not a good actor as a politician. Um, and we don't think you should be vice chair of the California GOP. So, yeah. Um, those are my thoughts and I'm sure we'll get people who, uh, disagree with us, but Hey,

[01:14:44] you won't be the first person who disagreed with us because we called out people and said, this is infighting or whatever excuse people use. I don't know. Um, all right. Any other final thoughts on Amy fan West or anything we talked about today? We've, we've talked a lot today. Not Twitter. Sorry. My Instagram page is public. So you don't like, I'm not saying go follow me, but you can find the real on there. Although it's way back. It's 2022, but it's literally a clip of her saying, you know, I want the people to hold

[01:15:14] me accountable. I want checks and balances. And then her running from me as I'm like holding my phone saying, why, why did you lie? Why did you? Well, she's being held accountable for a lot of things. It seems like she's getting hers. So yeah, be careful what you wish for about being held accountable. So, all right. With that said, uh, make sure you like, share, subscribe, review. If you really enjoy this. Um, what else was I going to say?

[01:15:42] Uh, make sure you follow us on for audio. Make sure you follow us on Spotify, Apple, Google, all those places. You can find us on podcasts, especially with YouTube. Make sure you do all the things that help with the algorithm. Um, and the best way that you can support this show that is 100% free is share it with somebody else. Share it with somebody who might be a delegate voting for vice chair in California GOP, or maybe someone who's in Westminster. But I believe if you're in Westminster, you probably already know all this news anyway.

[01:16:09] So with, yeah, with that, we will see you on the next one later. Thank you for listening to another episode of California Underground. If you like what you heard, remember to subscribe, like, and review it and follow California Underground on social media for updates as to when new episodes are available.