California AG Rob Bonta "Investigates" His Own Donor

[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.

[00:00:26] What's going on, everybody? Thanks for tuning into 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 you doing on this Sunday? I'm good. It's a beautiful day. I know, I always mention the weather, but it feels like it's like constantly changing here. It's a beautiful day. My girls actually went for a long walk to go get lunch. And although it's cold in my house, so we're in a sweater.

[00:00:56] It actually feels like spring or it feels like Southern California here. Yes, February 2nd. We made it through January. We did it, fam. We did it. We made it through January. We did announce that we had a special guest coming on today. However, that has been postponed. So we'll keep you updated on that. But so we're doing another episode on other things that we were interested in.

[00:01:20] Mm hmm. Yeah, it's a good thing. We have a whole bunch of stuff in the pipeline because it was a is a quick pivot to be like, okay, we're going to talk about this stuff instead. So anyway, we still are doing doubling up on the episodes. We're still doubling up and getting more content out. The reels are doing really great. So, you know, if you're watching on YouTube, let's make sure you subscribe, like and share all that stuff that helps us before we get started today.

[00:01:46] We got a lot to cover today. So even though we're pivoting from a special guest, we still had a ton of stuff to cover. Rob Bonta obviously investigating people who donated to him. So he's investigating his own campaign donors, which seems sketchy. Will AI bring nuclear energy back to California? California also wants to try and secede from the US. And we're going to fact check Congresswoman Sarah Jacobs about border policies.

[00:02:14] So we got a lot to talk to talk about tonight. So but this came up a couple hours ago and I thought this was hilarious. This would be good for our cringe moment of the week. So I did want to do that because this was this was extremely cringe. So everyone needs to hand over heart for this one. Yeah, this one is this. Well, you'll see. You'll see. It's pretty bad. But we got to play a little stinger.

[00:02:44] So you think you just fell out of a coconut tree? And spoiler alert, it's not Kamala Harris. She is not the new DNC chair. So right now they're going through DNC chair elections. Obviously, we love Kamala Harris in 2024. Yeah, she's she's she's out. I don't know. She's she's not here anymore. She's figuring out what her next political move is. Hopefully not running for governor of California. But fingers crossed.

[00:03:12] So but they're trying to figure out who the new DNC chair is because they got shellacked so bad that they're trying to figure out and pivot. Long story short, I don't think they learned anything about their loss in 2024. And they continue to go with a lot of the DEI and woke and misogynist and racist stuff. Keep going with that DNC. But one of the candidates, instead of speaking, her qualifications had an interesting way of introducing herself.

[00:03:40] So we're going to watch that now and react. So brace yourselves. Wait for it. It's coming. Don't worry. It's coming. For those listening on audio, we did not forget you.

[00:04:11] Hold on. We shall. We shall overcome. We shall.

[00:04:29] Oh, it was Dr.

[00:05:13] King Tessa Hathaway. She's writing for DNC chair. That was actually the second time she sang. I was trying to find the original video. And I there was another time she sang. They introduced her and she just started singing. That's, I guess, her thing. And she's singing. Um, I give her credit for trying to stand out a little bit from the other candidates. But, um, if you're going to sing acapella, maybe try to stay on key and not fall out of key or out of tune.

[00:05:42] That was no Carrie Underwood for sure. No, I was. I was going to say that, you know, Carrie Underwood kid launch into, you know, America the beautiful or God bless America and nail it because she's a professional. Not a problem. But if you're going to do the whole acapella thing, you probably should practice. Uh, but that's basically the candidates who are running. I heard David Hogg, the Mr. Anti-Gun, is now the vice chair of the DNC because they want to inject some of that incredible youth into the DNC.

[00:06:11] So he's now the vice chair of the DNC. Okay. Good luck with that. Um, so things are going well over at the Democratic National Committee. I want to break that video down a little bit. She's a very well-educated woman who holds multiple degrees. Mm-hmm. What, what is, what is she overcoming? What? And I read she's like a third generation in education.

[00:06:37] And so I feel like the generation before her and before that were, they weren't overcoming anything. So she is, and then, okay, like you said, props to her for trying something different, trying to stand out. That's fine. But what is the Democratic Party trying to overcome? I don't know.

[00:07:00] It is 2025, but we're pretending like, like the Democrat Party is made up of oppressed people. And, and she's black. So I believe that she's trying to say that black people are oppressed still. Maybe I'm totally wrong on that. But I'm, I'm sitting there going, this woman has so many degrees. Like she has a doctor in education. What, what, nothing stopped her. What is she overcoming?

[00:07:27] She exceeded, she excelled, she did. Like, if anything, she should be like, hey, we can do this. I did this. You can do this. Not, we shall overcome. I'm baffled. Uh, yeah. It's funny how, you know, the whole political realignment of the Democrats and the Republicans recently is that a lot more working class have come over to the Republicans.

[00:07:51] And now Democrats have become more of the party of the elites, like the academic elites, celebrity elites, the athletic, you know, athletes. Everybody who's elite is part of the Democratic Party. So to your point about the idea of we shall overcome, it's like, okay, but your party basically is the party of those who are the elites. The point is that the Democratic Party has become the party of millionaires, billionaires, celebrities, athletes.

[00:08:21] Basically the upper echelon of society. You have people like Selena Gomez, which has been my favorite meme of this week. Absolutely. Absolutely. It gets better and better with everyone that I see of her crying, not knowing what to do. And it's like, girl, you're worth a billion dollars. Like you could figure out what to do to help migrants if you really cared. And I think that's part of the joke of why people think it's so funny. But anyway, that's, uh, that's, they're still going with it.

[00:08:50] They haven't really kind of learned their lesson and DNC already in the new year electing. I don't even know who came out of the DNC chair elections. I don't think it matters. There was one video of them asking a question about, do you think Kamala lost because of racism and misogyny? Raise your hand. And everyone raised their hand. He's like, great. We're all, you all passed the first question. It's like, oh, okay. Ouch. Okay.

[00:09:15] So, but speaking of, uh, Democrats who are out of touch, um, I was inspired to add this section to today's episode because last night my wife and I enjoyed a beautiful evening at the San Diego symphony. And if you don't know the name of the San Diego symphony is the, uh, Irwin and Joan Jacobs music center. Why is that really important?

[00:09:39] Because Irwin and Joan Jacobs, they are the grandparents of Sarah Jacobs, who is our congresswoman, one of our congresswomen down here in San Diego. Uh, Irwin Jacobs also is a co-founder of Qualcomm. One of the big businesses down here in San Diego, a multi-billion dollar company that made them billionaires. She put out a video going over Trump's border policies and why they were wrong and what was wrong about them.

[00:10:08] And I watched it and said, we have to fact check this because this is just so bad on so many levels. So, um, I'm going to pull up that video and as it kind of goes along, we're going to stop and, um, and, uh, where is the video now? Now I don't have the video. Sweet. So is Sarah, is she a Nepo baby? As you're trying to find this video? Um, is she a Nepo baby?

[00:10:35] I mean, I don't know what else she's done in her life, but it does make sense why they want her in Congress. Um, we're going to get into that. Why the, why it's beneficial to the Jacobs family in Qualcomm to have her in Congress. Wait until there's a video and gets up. Um, so I don't, I can't imagine what else she has done. She's been in Congress now since 2021, I think is when she first got in. So, um, all right, here we go.

[00:11:04] This is Sarah Jacobs explaining what she thinks is wrong with Trump's border policies. So let's dive in. I'm Congresswoman Sarah Jacobs, and I'm proud to represent the border community at San Diego. Let's clear up some common misconceptions. One, seeking asylum is legal under both domestic and international law. Now. Okay. First off, right off the bat, uh, she's not wrong. Seeking asylum is legal under domestic and international law.

[00:11:33] However, if you go over and you look at USA.gov slash asylum, who qualifies to get asylum in the United States? You have to be able to demonstrate that you are persecuted or have a fear of persecution in your home country due to race, religion, nationality, social group, or political opinion.

[00:12:00] Those are the categories wanting a better life or economic hardship are not reasons to seek asylum. So yes, it is legal. It is not legal for everything though. So, um, I guess she's claiming that everybody who comes across the border has a fair claim or a just claim for asylum. But, um, we'll get into that in a little bit, whether or not that's actually true regarding the remain in Mexico policy.

[00:12:29] But, um, any thoughts on that before we keep going? No, keep going. Okay. Now, what does that mean? It means that you have a legal right to come to a country that you feel is safe. And if you are fleeing political persecution, if you are afraid for your life, you can seek asylum. This law was actually put in place because when Jews were fleeing the Holocaust, countries wouldn't take them in. And that's where this international right to asylum came from.

[00:12:57] Two, asylum seekers are... Okay. So again, uh, again, asylum is legal. I don't know if every person who is coming and claiming asylum is on the level of Jews who are fleeing Germany, of that sort of persecution, that is quite the bold statement to make. Um, I'm just going to say that.

[00:13:24] Uh, but again, I'm not disputing that it is a legal process. What we're going to talk about is whether or not that process is being abused. Okay. Um, seekers are different than refugees who get processed in third countries and are different than people who are coming here and trying to just get a job or help in our economy. Asylum seeking is fleeing political persecution. Now that we've cleared that up, let's talk about what's actually happening at the border

[00:13:53] and what Donald Trump's executive orders would actually do. First, he's getting rid of the CBP One app. This is a tool that CBP Customs and Border Protection used to create a more orderly process for people who are coming to this country to seek asylum. It allowed people to make appointments so they didn't just have to show up, but they knew when to show up and CBP knew that they would have the resources to process these people. So instead of this more orderly process, Donald Trump is getting rid of it

[00:14:21] and that will create a less orderly process, the opposite of what we need. Second, the remain in Mexico policy. Okay. So CBP One app, as I understood it, allowed them to make appointments to seek asylum or apply for asylum as migrants. Which you have to get into the United States. And basically it kind of organized all the people who wanted to come and get into the United States. And that was the problem was this assumption of like,

[00:14:51] you will get into the United States. And once you get here, you can claim asylum and get your papers and then just go about your way, which leads into the second point, which is going to bring up about remain in Mexico. We saw before when the remain in Mexico policy was instated, when you make people wait in Mexico, they are often more susceptible to the cartels. And it actually makes the situation a lot worse. Three, sending our troops to the Southern border. Okay.

[00:15:20] Remain in Mexico is a policy that was enacted to say, look, if you want to come here and seek asylum, again, going back to this whole asylum idea of you, you're here because you say you have a valid claim for asylum. That's why you want to come to America. And that's why you basically want to get in to America's through this asylum claim. The idea of remain in Mexico was you don't get to come to America

[00:15:48] and then say you're seeking asylum, and then you get a court date, how many years in advance to determine whether or not you have a valid claim. The idea is, okay, you're saying you deserve asylum. Here's your paper. Here's when you can come back, but you can't come into the U S right now because we can't determine whether you have a valid claim for asylum or not. Because before it was the other way around. It was basically as long as you get to America and claim asylum,

[00:16:18] they're basically give you some papers and say, okay, come back in three years. And then most of them never come back. So this is from the federal list. And I thought this was interesting because this was a reporter who went down to the border on the Texas side and like Juarez. And he was talking to migrants down there around 2019 about remain in Mexico. And he interviewed a couple people. So one of the people he interviewed was this lady named Veronica. And she said,

[00:16:48] she decided to journey over the American border with her 14 year old daughter and nine year old son, because she quote heard on the news that mothers and fathers who had kids were crossing into the United States. End quote. Such news of swift release is why migrants come. Quote. So I was told the people from immigration control were going to find us and take care of us. And they were going to take our information and just let me go into the United States. Veronica said.

[00:17:15] Veronica was willing on that good news to lay down several thousand dollars for smugglers to guide her family through the southern part of Mexico and then over the Rio Grande. But she slammed into the new American policy. This was back in 2019 with remain in Mexico. Border patrol escorted her and her kids back over the bridge to Juarez with paperwork showing she could come back for an initial immigration court hearing in two months. She knew it would be years before she could get a final judge's ruling. Suddenly, American asylum held no interest to Veronica.

[00:17:44] She wasn't getting to stay inside the United States to work. The point of the whole effort. Veronica told me she planned to toss the court papers in the trash and return to Honduras with the kids. Quote. If I knew before the things were going to be like this, I would have never left the country, she said. The reporter asked her and followed up and said, didn't you have to flee Honduras with your children or die? She replied. Not at all. She answered a puzzle expression forming on her face.

[00:18:14] I just want to go home and find a job in Honduras. Another person. Apologies for this name. Gayishani Reyes. A 22-year-old Honduran woman is in the same shelter. When I met Reyes, she was upset over her remain in Mexico deportation two days earlier because her hearing date was five months hence. She said she reached her decision ahead for the Texas border after seeing half her town's families get in on false asylum claims. Quote.

[00:18:42] Thousands left my town. The schools were empty. No kids. No parents. Everybody was saying I can cross with kids. I really thought I would make it in because so many people crossed and got a better life. She goes on to say, I didn't expect this. I think these papers are a joke. They played with our sentiments and all they did was gave us these papers. When I came here and saw this, I realized they just want to run us off. And then the reporter followed up again and said, I asked her, wasn't Honduras supposed to be a government killing machine

[00:19:12] and rape trap forcing young women like her to flee for their lives and honor? She said she didn't see home like that at all. The only other place you want to live was the United States because of all the financial opportunities there, she said. And then a final one at a different shelter across town. Jose Luis Funes told me he and most of the 700 migrants at the shelter with him were going home instead of waiting on waiting out U.S. asylum claims that didn't get them into America.

[00:19:40] Their decision was based on the correct knowledge that the U.S. immigration judges almost never grant Honduran's asylum. Uh, quote, I'm not going to get asylum. He said a long way ahead of him in Mexico. So I'm going back. Um, so again, that's, I mean, that's a lot of people who say, well, that's just three people. Okay. But their argument is that everybody coming to the border is seeking asylum for some sort of better life. Do all, I mean, again,

[00:20:09] we've talked about how there's people who want to seek a better life. Perfectly fine. There is a process to go through for a better life here in the United States. Finding this asylum loophole is not one of them. You can't come here and just say, well, I want to get a job or I want better financial opportunities. That is not one of the ways you can get asylum. So to rebut what Sarah Jacobs is saying, basically she's saying, well, everybody who comes here seeking asylum, we have to let them in because they're seeking asylum.

[00:20:38] Well, you just saw from that, that not everybody's seeking asylum. And there's probably a good amount of people who are just seeking it because they want financial opportunities. And most of them, even all of them even admitted that they weren't even scared in Honduras, that there's nothing that they were fearing in Honduras. They weren't fearing for their lives. They weren't running from political persecution or violence or anything like that. So that's where I think she kind of drops the ball on that one

[00:21:06] about remaining in Mexico because it makes it more chaotic. It makes it, I would say, less chaotic because instead of letting people in with the promise they'll show up years from now, you say, okay, when we get to your time, if you really think you need asylum here, you can show up and make your case. But until then, you're not just going to get free entry into the United States. And then when we need you to come show up for your court hearing,

[00:21:35] we have no idea where you are. Any thoughts? No, you explained it quite well, thank you. Okay. Southern border. San Diego is a proud military community and I serve on the House Armed Services Committee. So I spend a lot of time thinking about how and where we need to be using the U.S. military. There are lots and lots of threats all around the world. We do not need to be diverting our military's resources and focus from those threats

[00:22:04] to do the work of the Department of Homeland Security on our border. That is not the military's job. And lastly, designate... Well, yeah, she thinks a lot about where military should go on the Armed Services Committee. She also thinks a lot about where the Department of Defense should spend their money. In Qualcomm as a technology company, if you go to usaspending.gov, let's see if I can find it. I had this all pulled up.

[00:22:34] Since she's been in office, one of the biggest contracts ever handed out during her time was for Qualcomm Intelligence Solutions just for $15 million. This was a defensive contract handed out by the Department of Defense. Behind that, there was a $7 million contract, which was handed out during her tenure, a $3.4 million contract,

[00:23:03] another $2 million contract, another $1.6 million contract, $1.2 million contract, and the list goes on and on and on. Wow. So I'm sure she does think a lot about where the military should be, and I'm sure she thinks a lot about where the military can spend more money, which would mean her grandparents' business. So I'd love to... I didn't get a chance to look at her voting record on this specifically, but I would venture to say

[00:23:32] any bill that probably appropriated these contracts, I bet Sarah Jacobs voted yes on all of them. I'm sure. Which would be very informative information for I think her constituency to know that she is voting for the enrichment of her own family, which makes sense why they spent so much money to get her into Congress so she can be on the... I mean, look, coincidences, don't happen. They don't get their granddaughter into Congress, and then she ends up on the Armed Services Committee, and then all of a sudden,

[00:24:01] the Department of Defense is handing out contracts to Qualcomm like they're candy. So I think she does think a lot about where the military should be and where they should be spending their money. Also, where are those other places, Sarah Jacobs? I want to know where you think those other places that we need to be sending our military is outside of protecting our own borders? I mean, is there any other place that is way more important right now and going on in history right now

[00:24:31] that is more important than protecting our own borders? I'd love to hear a response on that because I can't fathom anyplace else we need to be sending our military other than protect our own country. Correct. And this is pure speculation. I wouldn't be surprised if she's getting a kickback from helping make those contracts happen. I mean, my dad was a business, and if I ever got him business,

[00:25:00] same with my sisters, if we brought him business, he would give us a fee, like a finder's fee, you know, on a big fare. And so I just, I wouldn't be surprised if somehow they're like, okay, you got us X amount of dollars, we'll float you personally. You know, your Christmas gift may be a little bigger this year. Right. And I think it's enough of a laundering that the government contract gets handed out

[00:25:29] by Department of Defense. It goes to her grandparents' business. The business then sets up something to put it somewhere in some sort of trust or something. So then she gets it. So it doesn't seem like she's getting a direct kickback, but they're smart enough to probably stash a good amount of that money away for her. So if she ever does leave Congress, she has a nice little nest egg waiting for it. Right. Which in the private sector, I mean, I completely, again, like I just mentioned, a finder's fee.

[00:25:58] I see how that's totally fair. But this is coming, if this is, I mean, again, we're speculating that this is what is happening. But if it is, this is coming from, like, it's the public. The public's involved here and therefore we have a right to know. So let's keep going. Designating the cartels as a foreign terrorist organization. There's a few problems with this. The first is that it will make it much harder

[00:26:27] for nonprofit groups who often are the ones helping immigrants and asylum seekers. It will make it harder for them to do their jobs because they will fear that by doing that, they'll be at risk of legal liability. The same thing that we've seen nonprofits have issues with when we designate organizations around the world as foreign terrorist organizations. But the second and more important, this is a military-first approach to a problem that is inherently not a military problem. People are fleeing their countries

[00:26:56] because of bad governance, of corruption, lack of safety. And we've seen when we try and take a military-first approach to these kinds of issues like we did in Iraq and Afghanistan, we can sometimes make the problem worse. And the last thing we need is an Afghanistan on our southern border. Now that I've told you why everything Donald Trump is trying to do is actually going to make things worse, you may be asking yourself what will make things better. In order to have a more orderly approach at our border, we need more legal pathways, not less.

[00:27:25] Because legal pathways allow an orderly process and a process to be able to vet every person who is coming through that legal pathway. I've also been told that making it harder to seek asylum, making the threshold higher, actually wouldn't help border patrol at all. It would just mean they have to spend more time with each asylum seeker taking them away from the parts of their job we need them to be doing, like securing the border. So we need more case officers. We need more people who can more quickly

[00:27:55] adjudicate these asylum cases. And lastly, we need to focus on the root causes and the reasons that people are fleeing their countries and migrating to the United States. And that means more assistance to some of these countries and that means really focusing on governance and corruption issues. Donald Trump does not understand the border and what he's doing is actually going to make the situation more chaotic. I, a representative of a border community, will keep pushing back on this chaos and keep working towards a common sense

[00:28:24] solution where we can have an order. So, did she just say the government involvement in Afghanistan was a mess but we need government involvement in these countries? Did I hear that correctly? Yes. Okay. Yeah, we need more government involvement in this mess but less in Afghanistan. understand. And also, it's not even specific to the countries, it's just saying

[00:28:54] she just flat out said our government involvement in other countries caused more of a mess, waiting more government involvement in other countries to clean up their messes. Like, what? And also, this is something I've been saying on the interwebs to people about migration and illegal immigration during the debate. it is, yes, it's still a law on the books and we've brought this up. I would love a better life as well. I would like to be

[00:29:23] a million dollars richer. However, I can't go rob a bank and say I want a better life so therefore give me a million dollars. That's not how it works. There's laws on the books. There's 6.4 million dollar home for sale right now kind of near me that I really, really want. I think you should steal it because you want a better life. I want, it would, it would provide a better family functional space for my family. You want a better life so therefore you can steal it. I want it.

[00:29:52] There are laws on the books and we can debate whether the immigration system in America is all screwed up and there's tons of red tape and it is hard to become a citizen here but that is then a question for your representatives to fix is as question someone in Congress, Sarah Jacobs can propose a bill. She doesn't have to be sitting here doing TikTok videos. She can propose a bill where she says I'm going to fix the immigration crisis because I'm on the border and therefore I have ideas on how we're going to fix this and overhaul immigration.

[00:30:22] Maybe work with President Trump to say I want to work with you to fix immigration. Instead, she chose to film a TikTok video. but her whole well, we need more legal pathways rather than just allow everyone in through asylum kind of contradicts the fact that she was fine with letting everyone come in under asylum. She's fine with letting everybody come in because the law is unjust but she also admits that we need more legal pathways

[00:30:52] which is she admitting that the pathways they're taking are not legal to get into the country. Also, designating the cartels as terrorist organizations she thinks it's not that's a wrong approach with the military to deem them as a terrorist organization. I think if you asked a lot of people in those countries whether or not the military should be taking on the cartel they might be agreeing with you. I'm not sure how you take on

[00:31:22] the cartels in any other matter. I know that there's a new slogan that the Mexican president is saying hugs not bullets or hugs not shooting when it comes to cartels. See how that works. Let's go hug your local cartel member that maybe that'll stop the cartel violence. But also she brings up the idea of NGOs. It makes it harder for NGOs to work with these cartels or work in these countries which has been a cause of concern. I looked this up last night. This is actually just published the other day

[00:31:52] on New York Post. Our brand new Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem. She has stopped all taxpayer money from funding illegal migrants from coming over. This is based on the fact that there are 15 UN agencies and 230 NGOs. they were proposing to get another $1.4 billion and $1.2 billion in 2026. And that's in addition to more than $6 billion from 2020 to 2024

[00:32:21] that these NGOs and UN organizations were getting to help fund mass migration into the United States. So I guess she's mad that those NGOs can't continue to get money anymore or taxpayer money. Sounds like it. We know how those work anyway. It's the board that actually gets most of the money. You know, their board members, their presidents

[00:32:51] rake in million dollar annual salaries while they allegedly are helping these problems. There was one that I was reading and I saw oh, I can't find it now. It was like Refuge was the name of the NGO refuge.org or something and the CEO makes like $500,000 a year and her whole thing is helping migrants. That's how I can get my $6.4 million dream home.

[00:33:21] Go be the CEO of a non-profit. Go be the CEO of a homeless non-profit here in California. That seems to work pretty well. Or work for the LA Water and Power District. Or the LA Department of Water and Power. They do pretty well as well. Sarah Jacobs records a TikTok. Thinks she owns Donald Trump and the Board of Policies. Gets a lot of it wrong. Misconstrues a lot of the policies. But not surprising. She wants to defend the military going other places. Keep those contracts rolling.

[00:33:51] Keep those fat government contracts rolling to Qualcomm. What's the military going into not Afghanistan but going into other countries to solve their problems? But not South America. Don't go into those countries. Okay. So just to be clear. I will say I appreciate though that she didn't do the whole cringe like angry woman yelling and like saying a bunch of like which was probably a smart approach because people are more likely to listen to her because she sits there and sounds like

[00:34:21] she's like saying factual information and so people are like oh wow okay good points good points but I appreciate that she actually acted in a very professional manner versus AOC doing the now Selena Gomez like crying breakdown yeah it's um yeah I'll give her that that she's actually trying to put out what she thinks are informative but she's trying to boil down what is a complicated issue into you know a

[00:34:51] four minute video on TikTok it's not that easy so props to her for the way she presented it not props to her for the information that she what's going on everybody I want to take a quick minute and talk about today's sponsor for our show Stopbox if you're not familiar with Stopbox it is a firearm retention device no electronics no biometrics nothing like that that can get in the way if there's an oncoming threat and you need quick and easy access to

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[00:36:19] maybe running for ag again maybe running for governor who knows uh we've talked about this before he's filed for ag but there has definitely been talk about him running for governor so while he hasn't filed for that it it looks like at least maybe people want him to but there's definitely talk out there yes there's chatter there is chatter which is why i won't drop it because i keep hearing people talk about even this article that i brought up from the sfs.com uh talks about him

[00:36:48] running for governor so if you remember back uh we were talking about a couple weeks ago about the oakland mayor shang tao who was now facing 95 years in federal prison she got in trouble because she was for a lack of a better term intertwined with this duang family who was incredibly corrupt we then also looked into who else the duang family donated to and that

[00:37:17] included rob bonta now rob bonta has other questionable donations from people considering he's supposed to be the uh pillar of justice and transparency and truth here in california as attorney general there are some different contributions that have definitely raised some eyebrows this one most recently came out in the san francisco chronicle but this is being reported by the sfs state attorney general

[00:37:46] rob bonta took 16 000 contribution from a southern california casino in his first month on the job the problem his office was investigating that casino for money laundering at the time and then the charges have since disappeared the casino in question is the bicycle casino in la county's bell gardens which is actually more of a card room than a casino the california bureau of gambling control a department that operates under bonta's jurisdiction

[00:38:15] was investigating the casino for a very conspicuous 100 million dollar in cash transactions from an unnamed chinese national in a seven month period in 2016 the irs and department of home and security were also investigating the 16 200 donation from the card room came one month into bonta's tenure in office after he was appointed by gavin newsom in 2021 the bonta faced re-election to the position in 2022 and was therefore already seeking campaign

[00:38:45] donations so while he was appointed he was also running because i think he was taking over for alex padilla who was appointed to take over i'm gonna say i not diane finds it was it barbara boxer's seat i think it was barbara yeah i think so yeah and so it was like us either he was appointed for the duration or it was a special election i forget which but so yeah he was

[00:39:13] basically took over that office and like had to then run for it quite like right off the bat because it was it was coming up for re-election pretty quickly yeah um there's been a lot of it feels like a lot of people who are making into the higher offices of california just keep getting appointed rather than actually earning it outright um alex padilla definitely being one of them wasn't kamala harris didn't she get appointed to i'm trying to remember did she get

[00:39:43] appointed to senate or did she run for senate oh i forget i thought she got appointed to senate because i feel like she got appointed but she definitely ran for attorney general she ran for attorney general yes and she won that fair and square anyone in the chat you feel free to fact check us correct us let us know i feel like she was appointed to be senator after now that doesn't make any sense because somebody else stepped down

[00:40:11] oh alex padilla was appointed to take over for kamala harris because kamala harris became bp in 2021 okay that makes sense and then i think kamala harris took over for barbara boxer if that i think that's the right timeline so um but yeah i think if you want to fact check us i think it was two appointments in a row for the same senate seat

[00:40:40] anyway uh going on to back to the article the casino is no stranger to law enforcement troubles its original financier sam gilbert was indicted on money laundering charges in 1987 and the federal government seized 30 percent of the casino in 1990 when investigators learned that florida drug smugglers had financed that percentage of the place and the feds raided the place again for money laundering in 2017 but bonta is starting to have some other issues with campaign contributions politico points out that he

[00:41:08] took 72 500 contribution from southern california edison just days before dropping charges against that company for their possible culpability in the 2018 wolseley fire and of course bonta took 150 000 in contributions from andy and david duong who are currently under indictment for allegedly bribing shang dao and her boyfriend bontus camp has since returned those contributions now i'll give

[00:41:36] him a pass and say once you were appointed and this donation slipped in maybe you give him a pass and say eh he did accept the money he did keep it right he did keep it he's probably not looking at that he's got a treasure maybe he the treasure comes to him with we got these donations and and it's possible that he's like no that's dirty money you know that that could happen or it's also possible

[00:42:04] that no one's really it's just a donation they're not really looking out into maybe you know it happens but but when it keeps happening with multiple yeah multiple corrupt dirty money it's it's questionable yeah fool me once shame on me famous shame on you fool me twice shame on me um the first time maybe it was a lot going on he was just appointed attorney general maybe he didn't

[00:42:34] even know they were investigating it just happened his office was doing it he hadn't figured it out and they donated right away maybe there is no connection but taking money from the duang's 150 000 which he then returned because he knew was dirty money um so then another company as well it just it keeps happening to be too coincidental or accidental at this point for rob bonta so especially if you're supposed to be the attorney general who's the top law enforcement

[00:43:03] agent in our state and somehow you keep getting donations from dirty corporations and dirty organizations so i don't know it seems very odd and i think maybe that's why he's mulling the whole officially running for governor and did i not say though what we talked about this family the duang family which is not what this episode is about but a few weeks ago when we when we talked about the mayor of oakland and her accepting these briberies and i texted you when i

[00:43:33] started going into it i was like hey there's a bigger story here we need to start looking at who this duang family has donated to and like surf and then i didn't even know about this article which then you now we're discussing it and i'm like there's something there yeah i feel like we need to create like a a chart of like the duangs in the middle and then like connecting i have space i'll get a big old whiteboard behind me you'd be like katie porter and just do a big whiteboard yeah

[00:44:00] just one massive guest on cnn with your big whiteboard and maybe you'll get to run for senate so that's rob bonta just do the whiteboard but so that's the story with rob bonta it's interesting this is just starting to come out like this isn't an old story that we stumbled upon that we're like oh this is an interesting story we want to bring this up because we were doing research

[00:44:28] like this just came out like a couple days ago like the 28th of last month and it's now the second of february so it is less than a week old this story this is in san francisco chronicle broke this story so if they're breaking that story then maybe they're looking into the duang family oh okay so now the bicycle that it was that was the name of the card room slash casino right it's called the bicycle

[00:44:56] yeah and they have since closed down correct they were bought out i believe now under new ownership it's now called the park west bicycle casino it was purchased by a casino group called park west casinos which has six casinos statewide the sale of the new company may have played a role in why the charges were dropped so maybe but i think there's there's just a lot of coincidences in this too many coincidences for the attorney general

[00:45:26] to keep taking dirty money from these organizations all right next story we want to talk about is nuclear power now you know about us you know about our calipublican platform that we have worked hard on you can go to it calipublicancaucus.org we are big proponents of nuclear energy and so much so that we have a shirt on our site which you can go by on californiaunderground.live i'm rocking it right now

[00:45:55] it says stop brownouts support nuclear because nuclear power is the cleanest most efficient zero carbon energy source that we have i think it's been demonized i think we can bring it back and make it work for california because we need electricity but i think their hand might be forced because artificial intelligence is now bringing nuclear power back from the dead including california this is from cal matters and i didn't know this

[00:46:24] we were talking about this before we hopped on i guess artificial intelligence takes a lot of energy i assume it has something to do with the servers um why because it probably takes so much more memory and i may be just completely butchering what is but it's like this i feel like my husband will know this answer but yeah i feel like we need an expert opinion on this like yeah not that but he's an expert but he is

[00:46:53] like i mean he's computer he knows computers more than us he does he's forever according to the article it says every time you ask something in chat gpt it's like running a light bulb for 20 minutes that's crazy i honestly had no idea i never would have thought about that i you know i thought well it probably uses a little bit more power but the fact that it uses that much power it's like running a big light bulb for 20 minutes just to ask one question about

[00:47:22] you know how do i bake my souffle or something so every time you use grok on x just think of all the energy you're wasting um okay so the article goes on to say artificial intelligence is so wasteful that its rapid spread can endanger california's goal of eliminating all carbon emissions by 2045 even as ai companies may be flooding the state treasury with tax revenue the conundrum has legislators considering what was once unthinkable

[00:47:49] bringing back nuclear power as a driver of innovation and economic growth sort of like it was the 1960s all over again some lawmakers are pushing for exemptions to the state's 49 year old moratorium on the construction of new nuclear power plants they're also mulling a possible future for the once left for dead diablo canyon on the central coast the state's last operational plant whose operator pg and e says is prepared for the possibility of the plant staying open longer

[00:48:18] i'm gonna skip ahead because this is a long article but if you want to go check it out you can go to cal matters and go check it out the reason that this is happening so big tech is jumping in on this uh tech companies have signaled that they'd like to boost those numbers of reactors right now says there's uh let's see there's 900 oh they wanted a thousand nuclear reactors this was president richard nixon he called for a thousand nuclear reactors in the united states by the year 2000 and we've missed by 900

[00:48:48] uh there's only there's only 990 commercial reactors today so tech companies have signaled they want to boost those numbers and they've already taken steps outside of california to harness nuclear power citing the need to add quote carbon free electricity and capacity in the grids where we operate microsoft signaled the deal in late september to eventually get one of the reactors at three mile island in southeastern pennsylvania a site of a partial meltdown 1979 back up and running

[00:49:17] so even microsoft is buying into the three mile island to make that better or bring that back in mid-october amazon google separately announced agreements with energy companies one of which kairos power is based in california that are in the business of designing small modular reactors quote the grid needs new electricity sources to support ai technologies that are powering major scientific advances improving services for business and customers and driving national competitiveness and economic growth

[00:49:44] meta also announced in early december that it was seeking proposals from nuclear energy developers who could help in the pursuit of ai innovation and sustainability objectives um so this was interesting to me this idea of small modular reactors because i guess that's like companies can buy and invest in small modular reactors for themselves to power themselves because they're such big like tech companies with their servers yeah like how how small is small uh i don't actually have

[00:50:13] i was like is it like a tesla charging station and i could stick one in my garage that'd be pretty sweet but i think it you know not to get all wonky and macroeconomic-y but this is where we get to see the free market really start to improve our lives through innovation

[00:50:37] because ai is this new technology is very exciting a lot of people are using it everybody uses it now i mean like every search engine siri now uses it like everybody uses ai now um but there's a need for electricity so now there's companies that have to figure out how do we fill that need and this is where they go wait a second nuclear is pretty powerful we could use that as the traditional method

[00:51:06] but now they're starting to come up and innovate in small modular reactors which i think then gets to a point where maybe to your point like it's not necessarily we can laugh at it now but who's to say in 20 years we haven't figured out how to create nuclear energy to power small neighborhoods you know and like they get small enough and safe enough where it does power a small neighborhood

[00:51:32] and we're not worried on these behemoths but that's like the free market may see a need for energy and they go well nuclear is pretty powerful and these tech companies invest in it and try it out and then they go okay this is working really well i guess maybe people will like citizens would want this as well so um again this is part of my whole idea that california thrives economically in spite of our policies

[00:52:02] and this this could be a boom for us economically ai and nuclear power if they just kind of lifted this moratorium on nuclear power i mean in general i think we need nuclear power but um they're trying to figure it out and they're doing it in spite of california's policies and regulations and moratoriums so um let's see what is it diablo cania it goes on i say diablo cania is one complicated piece of the nuclear puzzle

[00:52:31] then there's the separate conundrum of whether to roll back all or some of the state's nuclear energy moratorium as it stands republican lawmakers are the political faction that has pushed to change the moratorium last year uh diane dixon one of the co-sponsor of assembly bill 2092 which would have asked the california public utilities commission to conduct a feasibility studies about the possible benefits and effects of a small modular reactors by beginning of 2027

[00:52:58] the bill never got a vote on the assembly floor so there you go okay republicans leading the charge yeah republicans leading the charge to never getting their bills heard right if only we had some tough guy like carl de mayo on the floor to force it through oh boy that that's a different episode we saved that that article for a different episode um our favorite legislator scott weiner also jumped in

[00:53:26] he said a gradual increased openness among democrats to nuclear uh should certainly be part of the conversation so if he's on board maybe something does go to all the scott weiner it all you know all roads lead to scott weiner like he has this really out there crazy ideas and he says things and we're like scott just stop stop stop but he's starting to like there's a lot he's starting to see the light on

[00:53:53] on what when it comes to these like common sense solutions that shouldn't be a partisan issue he's like this should be a conversation which i want to kind of say thank you to him because i feel like he is possibly the most outspoken most powerful democrat in the legislation right now you know and like i don't know he's definitely the most extreme so when he wants to open the conversation to these ideas that

[00:54:22] republicans are for which again these issues a lot of them should not be partisan issues so i really appreciate when he's like even though he'll end up probably getting credit for it or call tomorrow get credit for it but i appreciate that he's like hey there should be a conversation here let's open the door to this right well i think he does a good job supporting some of these

[00:54:46] common sense things and then like sandwiching all that around insane policies like suing oil companies like we talked about yeah um so it's kind of like he can highlight that he supported x y and z which to most people sounds pretty reasonable and then it's also like well we also want to sue the oil companies because we think they're big bad meanies okay yeah i i feel like probably the democrats maybe even

[00:55:12] scott will end up authoring a bill similar to the one that diane dixon just co-authored that they'll just you know that they never it never even made it to a reading they were like never even heard it i feel like he'll probably co-author one yeah that will then get read and then something will pass and then they'll get credit for it but whatever yeah um i mean if in the end it means nuclear energy

[00:55:37] and we all have power and we don't have to worry about brownouts during the summers cool um any way we can get nuclear energy back big fan of it so um it's just funny how it took ai in the free market to kind of make that happen in california um all right final story of the day california secessionists you ready for this california can we sing about this can we be like california

[00:56:06] we shall overcome um no there's no song for us wanting to secede or i don't want to secede from the united states but there's somebody who's introduced a bill and guess what it has passed the threshold to be voted on isn't that exciting well i should say it has passed the threshold scratch that correction it has passed the threshold to collect signatures it has not gotten on the ballot

[00:56:36] yet we have a long way to go before california secedes from the union okay but i want it so let's say we get the signatures right that we get it on the ballot there's no like constitutional right necessarily it's not written in the constitution that we can do this however the constitution also can't like force if california decides that we're doing this like the constitution also gives free

[00:57:04] will they can't like we're not bound to it but then to change the constitution isn't there like additional steps here like california can vote to do this we could collect the signatures we can get it on the ballot we can vote yes we can you know but then when it comes down to it isn't there something that then congress has to step in and do or were you going to get to all that and i'm jumping ahead

[00:57:28] uh no i i was going to get that so uh thank you for laying out those questions uh yeah it's not going to be as simple as we put it on the ballot as a proposition people vote for it and then all of a sudden next day where it's like brexit like we're we're out and we're done and it's going to be cal exit and we're our own country uh what happens is and this is according to an article first post.com

[00:57:54] um which i thought they did a good job of laying this out that basically they have to set up a commission which would then study whether it's viable or not for us to be in an independent country so basically it's a vote of no confidence in the united states saying like we have no confidence in being part of the united states and therefore it's our will to be an independent country then there's going to be a commission which we'll have to look at whether we can be our own country

[00:58:22] for a couple years uh analysts estimate that the bid would cost california 10 million dollars in terms of election expenditures and the formation of a commission it would take two million dollars annually to run the commission okay so that's going to cost a lot of money uh and this is for the people who say like we're going to ask we're going to ask like for federal aid for it because we don't have

[00:58:46] it yeah but can we get federal aid to study whether we should you but can you float us some money before we do yeah can you know can we borrow a couple million dollars like we're trying to study whether we should like secede can you borrow like lend us um this is the same people who said that doing recalls are a waste of money but this is fine because legally to answer your question there is no way for

[00:59:11] california to secede from the u.s basically and not only the u.s constitution the california state constitution says that it is an inseparable part of the united states of america and the u.s constitution is supreme law of the land which means the state cannot supersede it and this is from a constitutional expert david carillo director of the california constitution center at uc berkeley law school

[00:59:36] he said even if this ballot measure passes there's virtually no way it can result in california leaving the union so to answer your question you want to talk about a ton of wasted money on a ballot measure that will go inevitably nowhere and not do anything um and basically this is all prompted because they hate donald trump and people are mad at donald trump being president correct so if this does get to the

[01:00:03] point where they actually get this on the ballot and they waste all this money putting it on the ballot and then it actually gets through and then we have to spend all this money i don't ever want to hear people complain about recalls ever again because this is a colossal waste of money that was never going to result in anything they wanted so people should just know this this can't happen it won't legally happen it's a waste of money and um it shouldn't happen so it's just the temper tantrum

[01:00:33] but from those who hate donald trump what are your thoughts maybe have a tetra temper tantrum for 100 years they'll get like some little like america will give california bakersfield to be like you can all go live in bakersfield it's like it's like you know like how they did with israel it was like you get this portion this is where like like i just feel like like okay california you go there you figure it out

[01:00:58] but the rest the rest is california part of the united states right the rest of you who are going to whine about donald trump here's an area where you can go be your own quote unquote independent country won't ask us for help we're not defending you or not like you gotta figure you have to enter treaties you have to trade with us you have to deal with tariffs you have to do all that stuff sorry um so yeah and then you'll have to pay like because it'll be like inland you'll have to pay to go to the ports

[01:01:27] there'll be like a special time yeah they'll be like i don't like these taxes and regulations this is too much oh interesting interesting you bring that up oh okay um so yeah moral of the story for california to secede not gonna happen there's no legal way to do it it's gonna be a colossal waste of money so let's try and put a pin in that already before it gets too bad um now let's sing we shall

[01:01:57] overcome uh we are not taking this seriously uh what theme song was that for i'm sorry i apologize to everybody who just had to be singing we are not a singing podcast we're not a singing podcast still better than whatever her name was dr uh now i can't remember our kinsana hathway yes wait it's the last name all right so that's our

[01:02:24] show for today we covered a whole bunch of ground uh like i said we do hopefully our our big guest is gonna be rescheduled till next week i think so we'll keep you updated on that we'll let you know just just you know stay in touch on the interwebs um we'll let you know when that's gonna happen tuesday show live show um as always at 6 p.m and uh just keep tuning in to youtube where we're putting

[01:02:49] out a ton of content and videos and make sure you do all the things subscribe like share review helps us with the algorithm um any final thoughts before we sign off well yeah you check it because your shirt which is on our website right yeah support our website california underground dot live california underground dot live yeah stop brown out support nuclear that's the name of the shirt so

[01:03:14] and i think you can get in shirts sweaters all that sort of stuff so yeah go check it out things and we shall overcome we'll probably be adding that not really our new shirt we shall overcome um all right with that said uh we already told you to make sure you like share subscribe review all that stuff best thing you can do to support the show outside of buying incredible merch like this is just share

[01:03:40] it with someone else it's 100 free so with that we'll 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 you