From Aid to Abuse: Corruption in Los Angeles Homeless Services

[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 into another episode of the California Underground Podcast. I am your host, Phil, and as always with me, my trusted co-host, the best, the fastest researcher in the West. Camille, how are you doing? Good, thank you. How are you? I'm doing all right for this Sunday. Sun is finally shining again here in Southern California. I know it's a big deal. We talk about the weather and the rain that happens here because it is absolutely so rare, but it is nice to see sunshine.

[00:00:54] Yeah, there's sun and it's not hot. It's a nice day. It feels like spring. I was able to buy a dozen eggs this morning, so I will be selling them for a dollar a piece if anybody would like some. $2 a piece. $2. Okay. $2 a piece. That's how much people. I found one dozen at Trader Joe's.

[00:01:20] We're back into the Soviet style of shopping where you're only allowed one dozen eggs, Soviet slash Cuba, whatever you want to call it. The rationing has begun. You cannot buy eggs. And people are wondering why is Trump not waved a magic wand and made eggs come down?

[00:01:41] All of a sudden, people on the left care about the price of groceries, but you know, for four years they told us we were imagining that the price of groceries were going up and that this inflation was transitory. But now, three weeks later, they're all like, why is the price of eggs come down? It's like, that is such a lame talking point. Anyway.

[00:02:01] Well, I mean, I don't know that killing the chickens was political, but it kind of feels like it is because chickens do, they get diseases. There is a bird flu and sometimes there's no cure for the bird flu, but they like just go in and they're like quarantine, kill, prevent from the bird flu spreading. And so they killed a bunch of birds that weren't even sick to ensure that other birds didn't get sick.

[00:02:29] And so again, when you kill millions of chickens, sorry, I'm very passionate about the chicken issue. Well, yeah, we were talking about chickens before we have Tom because it's, it's like people don't seem to get that like chickens, you kill millions and millions of chickens and then they don't magically come back online like a month later.

[00:02:49] Like you were telling me, I didn't even know this, like how long it takes for a chicken to go from a chick to full grown producing eggs. How long does that take? About six months, if not more. Yeah. Every so often, because people are going to give me pushback for saying that now every so often someone's going to be like, well, I had a five month old, got laid eggs. Okay, great. That does happen sometimes.

[00:03:12] I have 15 chicks, well, they're chickens now that I got last May, they may six was their hatch date. And they only just started laying eggs were down in February. What, what's today? 16th, 16th, right? They only just started laying within the last couple of weeks. Not all of them are laying yet. And so what is that? Eight months. Anyway. Yeah. So, yeah.

[00:03:42] Okay. So that takes that long for them to start laying eggs. So now you have to picture we've killed millions of chickens. They're not laying eggs. They also can't produce new, new chickens yet. So, you know, they have to have fertile eggs and which they can get a bunch of fertile eggs and put them in incubators, but that's still going to take three weeks to hatching from time of fertilization to hatching is three weeks. And then you've got an additional six ish months, if not more before they're laying eggs again.

[00:04:10] And so these things do take time. Yeah. And people wonder why the price of eggs is not magically gone down because you can't magically create chickens. So totally not the point of our, of our podcast today, but we've talked about this before because I believe there was an issue last year or in 2023 with eggs where, uh, there was a, like a bunch of commercial fires with, uh, chickens, egg laying chickens.

[00:04:37] And, um, and so it was like, okay, the price skyrocket again when California proposition was a proposition 12 in 2018, where they, they passed a law that, um, pertaining to certain farm animals and their products sold within the state of California. There was a law that like basically a, a chicken has to have enough space to stand up, turn around, like stretch its wings, whatever, sit back down, um, for them to sell the eggs in California.

[00:05:07] And not all commercial egg farms have that kind of space, nor did they invest in that kind of space, which then the eggs in California, we have even less that are allowed to be sold here. And so, yeah. Yeah. They have to all be quote unquote cage free or something like they have a certain amount of area to roam. Yeah. It's just a certain amount of like space for them to stand up and turn around in or something like that. I don't know about cage free, but again, not the point. And we've talked about this before.

[00:05:35] And I think we've got stuff posted on our Instagram accounts regarding this, but it was kind of a funny topic because Phil did secure a dozen eggs and I, my chickens are not fully laying yet. And again, as I mentioned, only some just started laying and I'm still waiting for the older ladies to pick up from the winter season. So I have about three dozen chickens and I'm only getting two to three eggs a day. It's very sad. I was surprised Jerry Joe's was only selling them for four or 49 a dozen. That's actually a really good price for a really good price.

[00:06:05] Yes. Considering you go to other places like 10, 12, you go to like Ralph's, that's like 10 or $12. But anyway, not the point of tonight's episode to talk about eggs and the price of eggs. You know, I'm going to have to sell them for like 12 a dozen because mine are like organic, non-gamo, no soy, no corn, no real. I'm like all like with my feed and my chickens are pampered and I love my girls. Okay. Anyway, we have a lot to talk about. Anyway, we do have a lot to talk about and we got sidetracked on chickens and eggs, which are very important, but that's not really the point of tonight's episode.

[00:06:34] So before we get started, make sure you like, share, subscribe, all that stuff. If you're tuning in on YouTube, make sure you comment. That also helps. All right. We're going to get started off with the first. Is it cringe or is it cringe because it just makes you realize how bad government is? We're going to show this video of Karen Bass very proudly explaining her new one-stop shop. You still looked like you were going to say something.

[00:07:03] No, I didn't watch this because sometimes I really want to be like shocked or, you know, and so I don't always watch the cringe moments. So I didn't know it was her. So I was like, oh. It's Karen Bass. I have no idea what we're about to see. I'm excited. It's very, yeah, she's very proud of what she's done with Los Angeles. So here we go. She posted this on her X account a couple days ago.

[00:07:30] I am in front of the city's one-stop rebuilding center for all of those Palisadians that lost their homes in the tragic fires. We want you to stay. We want to rebuild as fast as possible and in a safe manner. So the one-stop rebuilding center, you can come and meet the 12 different city agencies who are all involved in the permitting and the planning process. So I invite you all to come.

[00:07:59] Begin the rebuilding process now. Bring your plans. Bring your questions to the city's one-stop rebuilding center in West L.A. So, okay. First off, if you didn't catch it, she said you can come see the 12 city agencies that are required to get the permits you need to rebuild your home. That is what stuck out to me.

[00:08:29] No one sees the problem that there are 12 different agencies that need to give you a permit to rebuild, which then begs the question, okay, you've streamlined everything into this one location. Why are they not already streamlined into this one location? Like, why? So that would, like, city halls work? Yeah, it's almost like, what were they doing before?

[00:08:57] Somebody on Instagram sent me a DM because they work in a permitting. I don't know what the business is. It's like permit expediting. Like, they help you get your permit pretty quickly. And she was explaining to me about the logistics of, like, the permits and the agencies in Los Angeles about how there's four at that location. And it used to be, well, you went to these four. And then you had to, like, go downtown and go to another four.

[00:09:25] And, like, they were all split up in different areas. So you had to travel all over in L.A. And imagine getting 12 different permits or 12 different city agencies, like, you know, and they're all not in the right same place. So it's going to be a long day, if not multiple days. It's going to be a couple weeks. Have you been to L.A.? Yeah, I have been to L.A. Even if it's two streets down, like, it's, yeah.

[00:09:49] And then, of course, just dealing with any city permits, you're not going to walk in and walk out right away. You're going to walk in. You're likely going to be sent from window to window to window after you've waited in line for hours. It's one agency is going to be an all-day process. Right. She's very proud of this. She's very proud of the fact that we've streamlined all 12 of these agencies to help you rebuild into this one location.

[00:10:17] That's just to get your permit to, like, start rebuilding. That's not, okay. I have never built a home. But my previous home, we did do an addition. It was, like, I lived in your standard kind of track home that when you walk in, the living room has, like, the two-story ceilings. And we added on a bedroom in that, like, above the living room. And a bunch of my neighbors had already done that in the same floor plan.

[00:10:47] And we used the same company that they used. And so for the company, they were already like, oh, we, you know, already dealt with your HOA, all that. And it was actually, okay, so it was an extremely quick build. Like, people were like, whoa, like, you just, like, built a room in, like, a week. But it was the inspection process from there where we would have to wait for, like, they would do a certain amount of work. And it was like, okay, they did that really fast.

[00:11:13] But then an inspector from the city had to come in, obviously, and approve things and sign off on things before we could continue with other things. And so there were days where we were waiting for that inspector to come out. And then days after for the approval where we couldn't do a single thing. No, like, no painting, no building, no literally nothing can be done in those five, six, seven days while you wait for an inspector.

[00:11:41] And that was one room, one room. And again, like, and I'm not complaining about our, you know, first world problems we were adding on a room. But it was amazing to see, like, okay, that, like, went so quickly. And we thought, oh, my gosh, we're going to have this room in a week. We're going to paint it. We're going to, like, it was, we were doing a bedroom addition. And so we were going to have, like, our girls were going to be separated and have their own bedrooms.

[00:12:05] And it was like, nope, can't literally nothing until the inspectors wait a few days to come out, wait a few days for them to be like, all's good and file with the city. So can you imagine now a whole house? And, and we weren't even adding electricity or gas lines or even AC or anything like that. Nothing. It was just like putting in like a subfloor and some, what do you call it? The drywall.

[00:12:34] Yeah, I can't even imagine, especially in LA where the permits are, the regulations and permits in LA are probably like nightmarish compared to like Orange County or something. But it's, you know, it's one of those things where she thinks it's a big deal that they streamline and they think they did something.

[00:12:53] But they don't really grasp that you sound, you're not making your argument look any better because you've, you're, you don't see the problem that there's so many agencies that they have to be streamlined into one location. Like, why wasn't this done years ago? And that's really the bottom line here. But also, how many homes were lost? I thought it was like 7,000.

[00:13:20] So how many people can this, this one-stop shop facility even handle at a time? Right. And like, is it, are they equipped to handle everything there? Because I have a feeling city government is not well equipped to be remote from their office. Like, I guess, and it didn't, she really just said like, you can talk to these agencies. It didn't sound like you could get everything done at these agencies.

[00:13:47] So she just said like, and if you see the video, if you're, you're listening on audio and you don't, you didn't see the video, it's just like a bunch of tables with people sitting at the tables with laptops. So it's not like, I don't think there's a lot of people getting stuff done necessarily. And she kind of slyly was like, well, you can come and talk to these agencies and I'm sure you're going to get down there and they're going to be like, well, here's what you have to do. You have to go to this place and get this form. So you're back at square one anyway.

[00:14:17] Like it doesn't seem like they're going to get anything done. You can just go to talk to them and get everything done in one day. At least talk to people. So like, it looked like from the video for those who didn't see the video, it looked like it was just like a check-in at a convention center kind of thing. Like get your badge and here's your, you know, here's the schedule of events. And that's, that's what it looked like to me. Like just this very temporary setup. But yeah, it is.

[00:14:44] Like you said, it's amazing that this wasn't in place years ago because unfortunately we do have these massive fires in California every so often. And, and there should be some better coordination for when these events happen, how we handle them after. Right. Well, for all you Los Angelinos, I'm glad you get to go talk to people. It looks like a job fair. That's what it looks like to me. Yeah. That's a good way to put it. It looks like you're going to drop off a resume and talk to.

[00:15:13] And I tried to figure out too, is this Los Angeles County or just city of Los Angeles? Do you know? I think it's just the city. Okay. Um, but LA DWP was there. So maybe you can drop off a resume and make, you know, $800,000 being a load manager or something. Maybe it is a job fair though. Maybe it is a job fair. I don't know. Um, all right. Speaking of another big city in California that, uh, is going, I guess it's kind of shocking to say this.

[00:15:42] Moving more towards the middle is San Francisco. And we've talked about this before about how San Francisco, we've been seeing trends of what is happening in San Francisco. I know a lot of people who are probably listening going like, there's no way you think San Francisco is getting more moderate. And I'm like, look, look, okay. If you're full on like, you know, social justice, socialism, with democratic socialism, stuff like that.

[00:16:09] Moving more towards the middle of like an old school Democrat is a big improvement for San Francisco. Um, this article was from the LA times. Ironically, it's from the LA times, not from any San Francisco. Is the LA times going more middle? What's like. Well, LA times has the owner who didn't endorse Kamala, right? That was the guy who was any, he, he came out during the wildfires and was like, we need to work on electing competent.

[00:16:38] Well, and then he also made some sort of statement about clearly we've missed the mark with where our, our reader base is at. And like, kind of like, he didn't say we're going public in our right wing by any means. It was just sort of like, maybe we've been more left than, than our readers actually are. We need to, you know, our audience is much higher than our thoughts. Maybe take a long look in the mirror.

[00:17:08] So, uh, so the article from LA times about San Francisco goes to say, these are soul searching days for Democrats, a time of reckoning and self-criticism as they comprehend why they lost Congress and the white house and struggle to find their way back from political purgatory. 2022 voters cast out three uber progressive members of the school board who seemed more intent on symbolic gestures, such as renaming public schools to erase the likes of Abraham Lincoln and power beer. And then student achievement.

[00:17:38] A few months later, the district attorney, Chessa Bodine was recalled in response to his perceived bleeding heart approach to public safety, continuing to pace voters in November elected a political newcomer and relative moderate Daniel Laurie as mayor and punctuate the sentiment by gifting him a more simpatico board of supervisors as San Francisco's Baroque city hall. Uh, let's see. In the same van, the city's democratic party, not exactly a pro mega choir has moved closer to the middle quote.

[00:18:08] Quote, one of the issues with the democratic party right now is that so much of the party politics, especially at the local level has been largely performative and not really relevant to the everyday lives of working people. So the local party chair, Nancy tongue. And I think we're seeing the backlash now nationally. Uh, she goes on to say, I think government should work for people. And at the local level, there's some really basic things that should not be controversial, right?

[00:18:36] Every community deserves good public schools. They deserve safe streets, clean sidewalks, government that works. That's not overly bureaucratic. That's not putting giant social special interests ahead of everyday people. Wow. I know groundbreaking. Seriously. Wait, you. No, that's an extremely logical thought. Yeah.

[00:18:58] I mean, that's actually a really mature thought to be like, hey, maybe we should be focusing on stuff that really matters in local elections. Um, just like our shirt, local elections matter, which you can get on California underground dot live shop. Um, subtle plug there. Uh, and you know, it's a lot of this performative stuff doesn't really jive with a lot of people in San Francisco. I think you've seen a huge backlash. Yeah.

[00:19:26] And it is a, for her to recognize this, it's, it's definitely a sign that Democrats are not necessarily some Democrats in California and San Francisco, especially. Are not necessarily just going to blindly keep doing what they're doing. Um, I feel like LA has a little bit farther to go. Well, LA did just elect, um, Nathan Hoffman, who was a former Republican as DA.

[00:19:50] So, you know, there's some hope there, but San Francisco has definitely slowly made some moves that we've talked about that you look at and you go like that's San Francisco. Really? Like they just passed a city measure, which requires drug testing for welfare recipients, which we've talked about. It's, it's, it's like a thing for like 20 something years.

[00:20:17] That's been like a Republican talking boy, like Rush Limbaugh, Republican talking point for decades of like, well, we should be drug testing people who get welfare. And it got approved. When I was a teenager, that was like a talking point of Republicans. Right. And it, it passed in San Francisco and not by a little bit, it passed by like over 10 points. So it was not a close squeaker. Like people in San Francisco were like, yeah, you should get drug testing. You're like, is this San Francisco? I'm not really sure what's going on here.

[00:20:46] There's a really big problem there. You know, the saying, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. I'm not of the belief that every Democrat is like an extreme leftist. But, you know, unfortunately with mainstream media, that is, it is what we hear. We hear the, the extreme leftist and they're in the extreme rights. And that's like where the mainstream media attacks the right is, you know, they're, they kind of put us all in together with the extremists who are saying outlandish things.

[00:21:16] And we're like, that's not us. That's not what we believe. It's not how we feel. That's not what we think. That's not what we do. None of our actions, you know, but the media portrays us. And so therefore it's like, oh, you're Republican. You obviously believe X, Y, and Z. No, I don't. And I know we tend to not deliberately do that where we like, not all Democrats are the Scott Wieners of the world, you know?

[00:21:39] And even, and I think we talked about this on here too, where California Democrats are definitely a different breed than Democrats in another state. And people often, you know, will tell us, well, you should talk about this that's going on in this state or this going on nationally. And we're like, well, we live in California and we stick to California politics because that's what really matters to us. But it is often like our Democrats truly are a different beast than what we're dealing with, even in other blue states.

[00:22:07] But of course, red states where it's like, they are, they do tend to be more middle of the road and actually want to work with Republicans who are, they're very closely aligned, just slightly to the left or to the right of center, you know? And here in California, it's just like, we do have the super majority in our legislature and the super majority is mostly the Scott Wieners. And so, so yeah, go back to the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

[00:22:34] We are, we, we tend to think like, oh, these liberals, none of them have any common sense, but, but a lot of them actually do. And apparently in San Francisco, enough of them were like, wait a second, we've gone way too far. What's happening here? Let's reign it back in. And this is an example of that. Yeah. And I, I, I'm sure you struggle with these comments as well, where people are like, it still doesn't matter. There's still Democrats, just whatever.

[00:23:02] And it's like, okay, you got to find the silver lining here, which is San Francisco, which has been the bastion of uber progressive politics is moving more towards the middle. No, they're not MAGA. They're not red. They're not all of a sudden electing Republicans left, right, and center. It's not like that's not happening.

[00:23:22] But when you look at the fact that like San Francisco liberal politics has been sort of the ground zero of a lot of uber progressive policies and where they've come from, if the party as a whole in San Francisco is going, eh, I think we've gone a little too far. Maybe we need to come back. And they're moving back towards the middle.

[00:23:46] All of a sudden, those crazy uber progressive ideas that we like to make fun of and poke fun at or they're actually disastrous and we warn you about, those slow down. So it's kind of like, okay, the people who were pushing these crazy policies are no longer in vogue. They're not popular. The party's moving more towards the middle, which I think allows for Republicans in California and the legislature to start reaching across the aisle to a lot more of these moderate Democrats.

[00:24:15] And we've had assembly members on and senators who've said behind closed doors, there are moderate Democrats who come to us and are like, you know, I really I support what you guys are doing. Can't vote with you, though, because the party is so far left. Like, though, they'll primary me with someone more like farther left and progressive than I am. But if the party itself move you from committees, they make sure you don't get reelected and what do you know?

[00:24:42] But, yeah, I was going to say that as as the Democrats, not the Democrats, but the extreme liberals, the far left do start to come towards the center. That is where we get to see now Republicans and Democrats are actually going to reach across the aisle and work together, which is what we need, because we're not all ever going to believe the same things. There's always going to be Democrats and Republicans and independents and whatever. Like we're and we're not all going to see eye to eye.

[00:25:08] But it does feel like in California, there's just never even compromise. Nobody nobody budges. And right. And now we're seeing budging. We need this. Yeah, budging is good. But, you know, I see this as a, you know, I see this as a complete win where San Francisco is moving more middle and more moderate. They've elected a moderate Democrat who is a business capitalist.

[00:25:37] You know, he's the heir of the Levi Strauss fortune. That's all good. They've thrown out their incredibly liberal, progressive district attorney. They've instituted city measures that sound like Republican ideas, but are being packaged as like pro public safety. So it is. It's very interesting to see how San Francisco of all places, if they're moving more towards the middle, it does have a ripple effect on the rest of the state.

[00:26:06] And I think you are seeing like we've swung too far to the left for even people who are Democrats. I think there's a lot of Democrats in California. And this, you know, San Francisco Democratic chair, Nancy Tung, puts it pretty well. She says, look, people care about the actual kitchen table politics that happened here in the city. Like your local government should work. Yeah. Bottom line. Like this is actually from the article.

[00:26:32] She goes on to cite a resolution that a local party passed some years ago opposing the use of child labor in Africa's chocolate trade. A terrible thing. Yes. But why she wondered were Democrats in San Francisco devoting time to the matter? Quote, it makes people think you're out of touch. Why is there something about child labor in another country and not something about how we're treating children here?

[00:26:59] So that's that kind of sounds like America first policy. That that does sound a little bit like America first. Why are we worried about what's happening to children in Africa when there's children here in San Francisco that need help? And not that we can't care about that. Two things can be true at once. But yes, why is the party in general people in general focused on that?

[00:27:26] And it's like, hey, hey, let's let's fix what's going on here at home. You know, we're treating children badly here. We've got a lot of children in foster care and we're also failing them in schools. And they're the roads that they take to get to the schools are terrible. Oh, and also crime and safety.

[00:27:47] We had talked about in the last episode how Latino Republican legislators and Latino values and Latino voters are moving more towards the right. We saw a huge shift in Hispanic voters here in California, here in South Bay and San Diego. The largest shift to the right was of Hispanic voters. Another block of voters that is might be propelling San Francisco's move towards the middle is the Asian American voter.

[00:28:16] Someone who follows on Instagram is actually is a good friend of mine as well from law school. And he told me that he has an office in Chinatown or next to Chinatown. And they had a huge Trump rally in Chinatown. And I had never heard of this. I was like, holy crap, there was a Trump rally in Chinatown. It was loud and it was boisterous. But there's a video explaining like.

[00:28:42] Why Asian Americans are pushing California maybe a little bit more towards the right. So let's take a look at that. In other news tonight, Lunar New Year festivities are underway in San Francisco. They've got huge crowds that are coming to San Francisco's Chinatown to celebrate. Well, along with the new year comes a host of new faces in the political world and a change in attitude from one demographic in the city.

[00:29:11] John Ramos has the story. San Francisco politicians have always just assumed that people were going to vote Democratic. But that may be changing. And if it is, it's starting right here in Chinatown. I come out, I walk around in San Francisco Chinatown every day. Winky Toy has lived in San Francisco's Chinatown for 45 years. And she was happy to see so many people visiting her neighborhood.

[00:29:42] But she was also happy to see so many of her neighbors coming out to vote in the November presidential election. They're in the 80s, 90s, year old, old lady, old man. They all came out to vote. Because the way it is happening in America is going downhill. For example, with the crime rate going up. Winky is a proud supporter of Donald Trump.

[00:30:10] And it looks like she has a lot of company in the Asian community. The city's Republican Party is reporting a huge swell in registrations of people from Asian countries since the pandemic. That's quite a turnaround from 2020 when Trump was being blamed for inciting Asian hate crimes against Chinese elders. America has become less hospitable to immigrants and refugees. Right now, you know, Asians being told to go back to China, the Wuhan virus or the Chinese virus.

[00:30:39] But that was then. This is now. What I see is that regular citizens like I, we are all fed up with the corruption here in San Francisco and also in California. We are all fed up. I'm not surprised that they're doing that. And all my friends have changed this year. So I'm not surprised. Nancy Yu Law owns a couple of businesses, including this gift shop.

[00:31:05] She stuck it out during the pandemic when the streets were deserted. Now the people are starting to come back. But she's happy to see a new mayor who she hopes will put an emphasis on safety and prosperity. Sometimes we're not raising our voice, but we always have that value in our plan. I don't really care which party, Democrat or Republican, as long as they know what we need and they serve what is needed, then I'm happy to vote for them. And if that's not enough of a warning, there's this.

[00:31:34] On Wednesday, the San Francisco Democratic Central Committee got a letter from the Rose Pack Asian Democratic Club, a prominent political organization, saying the party was failing to meet the needs of the Asian community. It said, quote, given this growing divide, we've made the difficult decision not to recharter with the San Francisco Democratic Party. In fact, it will now be known as the Rose Pack Asian American Club, removing the word Democratic from its name.

[00:32:01] So I can see there's a tremendous, you know, attitude change. People are willing to come out to change. We weren't able to reach anyone from the Democratic Party for comment today. But as progressives, they like to think of themselves as the party of change. But this is one change they may not have seen coming. Wow. That was pretty, pretty incredible.

[00:32:31] If you saw the letter, if you were watching on video, it was addressed to Nancy Tong, who we were just talking about. And the fact that Asian Americans are fed up or they want change or they're pushing for Democrats to actually care about the stuff that they care about, like public safety. It's it is. These are the silver linings, I think, that you and I look at in terms of the tea leaves of what's changing in California. I know people love to say, like, California's never changing.

[00:33:01] It's a deep blue state, blah, blah, blah, blah. This is one of those tea leaves. You just kind of got to go. This is this is good. This is good, because if Asian Americans in San Francisco, in the heart of San Francisco, are now registering at a larger clip to the Republican Party and one of the largest political activist groups have now did like, I guess, what would you call it? Unlinked themselves from the Democratic Party in San Francisco. These are huge changes.

[00:33:28] And it does open up the opportunity for other voices to be heard. And it does also give you hope that that there is possibility for change in California, that it's not like the guy said at the beginning. Oh, they they just assume everyone's going to vote Democrat. And maybe I think we're at we might be at that point. I actually have a good feeling we're at that point where I think they've taken that for granted a little too long.

[00:33:57] I think Democrats have assumed everyone will just vote for them in California. But I think that assumption is is now false. And they've run their luck on this. Like I there are people who are just like fed up and they just go corruption, public safety. We're going to talk about corruption a little bit. So this gives me hope. What are your thoughts? Yeah, I agree with you.

[00:34:24] And, you know, we do often talk about we're only one election away from from whatever it can go this or that way. And it's the same for like, you know, we feel like as Republicans who were definitely fighting the supermajority in California, we often feel like this is if this election doesn't go our way, then there's just no hope.

[00:34:46] But I think maybe now the shift is the Democrats might be actually starting to feel the pain of that of suddenly like, wait, we're starting to see like we may have won that election, but a little less than like the margin was less than last time. And so on and so forth. And really what I got from that video is I just want to go to San Francisco and hang out with Winky Toy. How adorable is she? She looks like a lot of fun. She looks like loving life. And and I love it.

[00:35:16] And I like I watch that and I'm like, I just want to go be good. I just want to go hang out with her. Yeah, she just had a smile on the whole time was enjoying the Lunar Festival. And she's like, I supported Donald Trump. And she's like, not afraid to say in the middle of Chinatown in San Francisco. I was thinking like she stuck it out. Like she she's there and she's obviously opposed to the direction of the politics there. But she's like, I'm still here. And now she's like, and my friends are now coming out to vote for Donald Trump and gay for her.

[00:35:46] Yeah, it is. It's so cute. Yeah. Good signs. I think it's all good signs around. I really, you know, I think I brought up before my grandfather lived in San Francisco. I used to visit San Francisco a lot when I went to college up in Northern California. Love the city. There's so much history. It's such a beautiful city. I mean, there's so many compliments. It's such a unique city. It's beautiful. It's historic. I mean, there's just so much to love about San Francisco.

[00:36:17] And it makes me happy that they may be turning the corner. I think they've hit rock bottom, but I think they're turning the corner. They might be headed in the right direction again. So hopefully they are. And you can go visit San Francisco again and enjoy it. Because I know a lot of people I talk to are like, I don't even go to San Francisco anymore. It's too dangerous. It's not clean. It's not safe. It's not worth going to San Francisco. I just drove through there September with my girls. I did a road trip.

[00:36:47] And now, again, it was like a drive through. We stopped a couple times. We were not there long at all. And I know that that's not a good way to judge the city. But we, of course, drove over the bridge. And then what is that base there? I think they now rented out. Oh, gosh. In San Francisco? In San Francisco. It's the one, the Presidio. Yes. Right near the bridge.

[00:37:14] And there's like the woods behind it where people, and it's beautiful. It really is beautiful. And then we did drive through. That's where my grandfather worked. Oh, okay. We drove through some areas that were obviously shady. I'm just kind of like, we need to get out of here. A man went walking across the street dressed in this very feminine outfit, skirt. And my girls just died laughing. And they were like, that was the best part of the whole thing. Yeah.

[00:37:44] He was owning it. I mean, he was just like walking across the crosswalk. And like, he was on the catwalk. And they were like, this, this is amazing. San Francisco. They definitely have characters. You know, whatever. That's where you want to go and do your thing. One of my favorite places to go eat is in San Francisco. It's an old place called Swan's Oyster Depot. I think it's on Polk Street. Basically, they go down to the harbor.

[00:38:14] They pick up a whole bunch of fresh seafood every morning at 3 a.m. Bring it back up. It's like a lunch counter style place. There's no tables. They've been there, I think, 100 years. Since like 19, early 1900s. They bring all the seafood back. And when they're out, they're out. And then they just close the door. And it's awesome. It's super fresh. But anyway, that's just one of my favorite memories of San Francisco. Not really the point of what we're talking about.

[00:38:43] But if you're ever in San Francisco, go check out Swan's Oyster Depot. If you love seafood, go check it out. But 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 your firearm.

[00:39:10] It is literally just this finger combination on the top. You push it in, boom. Hear that nice little click. And it is wide open for you for your firearm. 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.

[00:39:39] So now listeners of this show can enjoy 10% off their order at Stopbox if they go to stopbox.com forward slash California underground. They'll get that discount, support the show. You can support Stopbox. And this is proudly made in the good old US of A. So go to stopbox.com forward slash California underground for your discount. And let's get back to the show. Well, Winky was talking about corruption. This next story is actually really interesting.

[00:40:07] And it's sort of the main headline that we want to talk about was LA's homeless services chief signed two plus million dollars in contracts with her husband's employer. So this news broke this week in LA Mac. And obviously, with everything that's going on with the wildfires and the amount of money that's being spent. And then last week, we also talked about the recovery czar was supposed to make $500,000

[00:40:36] for three months. LA not looking so well. Like just throw money like it grows on trees. They just love like just spending your money, your hard earned money. Well, the LA recovery chief supposedly was being paid by nonprofits. They won't tell you what nonprofits they were probably because they don't want people looking into where they get their money from. But this is a perfect example of why just because you're a nonprofit doesn't mean it isn't taxpayer money.

[00:41:03] So this is from the LA mag says the chief executive LA's primary homeless services agency signed multiple contracts worth $2.1 million with the nonprofit that employs her husband, despite previously stating she was quote, completely recused from such dealings. As LAist reports, Valicia Adams column who saw who leads the Los Angeles homeless services

[00:41:30] authority LA HSA signed a $2.1 million contract and two additional amendments with upward bound house where her husband, Edward Kellum serves as a director of operations and compliance. The documents show Adams Kellum's signature directly above the name of her husband's employer on three separate agreements. These include a May 2024 contract allocating nearly $2.1 million in federal funds to upward

[00:41:57] bound house for rent payments and housing assistance, plus two March, 2024 amendments to existing contracts totaling 2.24 million for youth housing services. LAHSA spokesperson, Paul Rubenstein characterized the signatures as a inadvertent oversight stating Adams Kellum quote, mistakenly signed the documents after staff sent her them to her instead of

[00:42:24] the agency's top program officer who typically handle such matters when the CEO has a conflict. The findings arrive amid growing scrutiny of LHSA, which manages over $700 million annually in homeless service contracts. LA County supervisor, Lindsay Horvath called for the county to withdraw its funding. After a November audit revealed oversight failures, the board of supervisors approved exploring direct county management of the spending.

[00:42:54] An oversight. It was just an oversight. An oversight. No big deal. Okay. Yeah. I do believe that that could have happened. I do. They're dealing with a lot of money. They're dealing with a lot of nonprofits. It could have been sent to her as an oversight, but she did not sign it as an oversight. I do not believe that for one second. You don't look at a document and go, Oh wait, no, this isn't, this is my husband.

[00:43:23] My husband actually works for them. This isn't for me. We need to know that didn't happen. I 100% do not believe that she signed these accidentally three times. Once, once I'm going to give her 10% error margin. 90%. Like 90%.

[00:43:46] I don't believe that she, she did that, uh, accidentally, but two and three times, 100% not an oversight. 110% not an oversight. Yes. They could have mistakenly been sent to her. I believe that. I do believe that, but no, she did not sign these three times.

[00:44:11] Um, this is kind of confusing, or at least it was to me until I like started looking into it. So just in case, and so I don't, I don't mean to like be condescending. I'm not trying to say that at all, but in case you guys didn't kind of follow what happened here, this, uh, Valicia Adams. Callum. She works for, what is the name of this agency? She's the director of Los Angeles homeless services. And her position, she was appointed by Gavin Newsom, I believe in 2023.

[00:44:41] So it's not an elected position. She was appointed by governor Gavin Newsom. Um, she deals with obviously a lot of federal money, probably a lot of local money as well. City County that then goes to what she does is, um, allocates this money to different nonprofits and agencies within LA County that serve the homelessness community. And, um, I started looking at some of the contracts last night.

[00:45:10] I, that's a, that's like a roll, a rabbit hole that I need to, you know, go down further another episode, another time. Cause there was some really interesting stuff in there, but I haven't had time to really look into it. But, um, as far as this goes, so she has to, uh, like a lot of these contracts come to her and she approves them and signs them. And you, these are a public, you can look them up. I don't have the website in front of me, but if you search this, you know, contracts, LA

[00:45:38] homeless community, whatever this agency is, you can find them yourself and start looking at them. And so, um, obviously when it comes to giving contracts, signing contracts that possibly employ, you know, her family members and her BFFs, that could be a conflict of interest. And so she should never have signed these. And again, she didn't accidentally sign these. I know who my husband, I know the name of his business.

[00:46:06] You would know if you were like, you're a lawyer. Let's say that all of a sudden you guys have a contract, a suit with, you would, you would know if your wife's company that she works for is all of a sudden, like you guys are maybe representing them and it's like, you'd be like, honey, we're what's going on with your company. We have this lawsuit that just came in, you know, like you would know this is not. No. Yeah. No.

[00:46:36] Um, sorry. That just kind of made me mad. It's not an oversight. No. And the reason I'm sharing the screen right now is because these are the, the actual signatures. So people who are watching on video can see this, this is her signature up here. Dr. By Lysia Adams Kellum. Um, she's signing these. And if you look right down below, it's in bold for upward bound house. She did this one, two, three times.

[00:47:03] And it's very clearly stated right there. It's not like they said, Oh, Hey boss, can you sign this real quick? Somebody's busy. It's like, no, here's the contract you need to sign. And you look down and you see like literally three inches below where your name is and where you're signing. It says your husband's nonprofit. So to do it three times, you're right. It's, it's not an oversight. It's an oversight that she got caught doing it. Um, and before we hopped on, this was actually interesting.

[00:47:32] I think this goes deeper and probably requires more research on our behalf. And maybe like you said, another episode, this is actually been going on for some while, a while. So the LA is, uh, which is an online magazine. They had a whole article about L H L A H S a transparency. And I didn't know this, but so this was 2024, two years prior, this agency finally acknowledged

[00:47:59] that they were going to start filing these form seven hundreds or these potential conflicts of interest forms. So before that, they had not thought that they had to let people know they had a conflict of interest with who they're, who they're science. So this to me blew my mind because this is like a bigger potential scandal of $700 million budget. And it wasn't until two years ago that they had to start disclosing their own personal financial

[00:48:29] interests. And they're also reluctant to make people retroactively do it. But like this agency, some people have filed, but LAist has kind of reached out to him and said like, well, is everyone going to file? Like we should know, like if anybody has a potential conflict of interest and they're like, well, we don't think we should retroactively make people do this. Like, you know, it's more like moving forward.

[00:48:55] Like we'll do this, but like, we're not going to make people go back into it. It's like, why not? Like if you have nothing to hide, just make people file. They're supposed to file. So I think there's probably a, a bigger scandal here of all this money in terms of the homeless industrial complex and what's going on in LA. Anyway, it's just, it's mind blowing.

[00:49:20] And on top of everything else that's going on with the wildfires and, you know, streamlining those 12 agencies, LA is doing, doing pretty well in terms of what's going on with all their money. This was from LA council member, Monica Rodriguez. Um, she has called on the city, which sends about $300 million a year to LA H. So this was two years ago. Um, it is really disappointing that what continues to be shown is a lack of transparency for

[00:49:48] conflicts, for performance of contracts, for data. I don't understand what it's going to take for LA H S a to get the message that they're a public agency that requires transparency and accountability to the taxpayers and to the governmental agencies that fund them. Um, So now you've got city council people who are after you because you're not being very transparent with where this money is going.

[00:50:13] If you're advocating for tax dollars to go anywhere and you're signing and, or you're signing the contracts of where they go, you should definitely be filing transparency form, 700 forms of any possible conflict of interest, you know, like, Oh, Hey, if we send this money here, but that also, okay. I'll finish that thought. If we're sending this money here and it benefits my spouse. Okay.

[00:50:40] That's probably a conflict of interest, but also that goes back to something that we talk about often that we really could do a full several episodes on, but is the government funding of these nonprofits. There. I hate that they're nonprofit or not for profit. When you look at the directors and CEO salaries and it's like, really, really, those are six and seven figure salaries, tax dollars, you know, government funded to supposedly serve the homelessness.

[00:51:09] And yet they're really just serving five, 10 people on the board of these massive inflated salaries. And, and, you know, we like joke here often, look, that's going to be our next job. We're in the wrong sector. We need to go into, you know, like I'm going to go be a director of a nonprofit because clearly this is, this is the way to go to make money. And, and that is sad that, and, and I think any job, any, any job should be paid. Absolutely. Yes.

[00:51:39] And if, and if you're, you know, directing a nonprofit and you are genuinely helping people, you you're working, you deserve a paycheck for that. But when you are working allegedly for the homelessness and you are bringing in more money than you're actually putting out to help the people, there's something wrong there. And that's where it, that that's worrisome.

[00:52:03] And, and if, if you're doing that and people are donating to you, that's one thing, but if you're doing that with a government funded dollars, then it, I mean, I put up a silly, but a post on Instagram yesterday that I said, California. Let me just read it to you. Sorry. Cause I, it had to do this.

[00:52:29] I think I was like reading this when I decided to put this up government funding to end homelessness in California is just one giant Ponzi scheme. Prove me wrong. I've tried to prove you wrong because I think it is a giant Ponzi scheme. It's, you know, I think people are starting to wake up to the fact that why would anybody in these positions ever want to solve homelessness? They, they are making money hand over fist from tax dollars and federal.

[00:52:57] And what's crazy is, is these are some of this is federal funds. So like if I wouldn't screw around with federal funds right now with Trump in office, because he's probably itching to send Pam Bondi or somebody out here to be like, excuse me, what are you doing with our federal funds for the homelessness? Yeah. Um, like it's like, it's one thing if you're going to screw over your city, but you don't get to do this to the nation. Yeah.

[00:53:25] And, um, I don't, I wouldn't touch those federal dollars and start handing out contracts to your husband. Um, there was this other person. So this isn't like just her. I had, I was reading this Chris freed. Well, she was a consultant to LA itch. It's so hard to say LA HSA before being hired as the agency's chief executive strategist. On November 1st. So she was a consultant for homeless agencies.

[00:53:54] And then she said, she was going to continue consulting for clients in the homeless services industries while in her role at LA HSA. Adding that her commitment to them will remain unwavering and steadfast. Is she probably. Is she what publicly paid? Is this a. Yeah. This is. Well, if she's being paid by LA HSA, uh, it actually says her part-time executive position.

[00:54:25] You ready for this? Part-time executive position at LA HSA would pay up to $322,000 and 587 for a maximum of 29 hours per week. Okay. This LA HSA really like, we're going to have to do a whole thing on this because something I sent you last night and I don't know that you even had time to look at it.

[00:54:49] And this is again, where I don't want to misspeak because there was something that was, it was a contract on this website that they have, they call it safe maps. And, um, safe, like freeway something. So people that are living in their cars or homeless, they're living in their cars. So they're having to sleep in their, their cars overnight. And obviously that can be a dangerous situation for them as well, especially in Los Angeles where crime is higher than some other areas.

[00:55:18] I'm a little bit confused on this because when I clicked on some of it, the numbers, there was like two different numbers, but one, one that I clicked on $85,000 a month recent. This is recent, like from 23 to 24. So what they're doing is that there's, there's people that are sleeping in their cars. And so they're trying to like 50 parking spots, um, get, I guess, security for them as well as get some of them into a hotel overnight and that, and that's fair. And that's fine. Yes.

[00:55:46] They, you know, they deserve to be protected. They have a right to, uh, not, you know, get murdered while they're in their car sleeping overnight. Um, get a family into a hotel room for the night. That's yes. I believe in that, but the funds for the month, it was like 80,000. Let's say some of them ranged from 75,000. Some of them ranged to 85,000. So I'm just going to throw out 80,000 for 50 parking spots.

[00:56:13] But then you click on the contract for the month and it's the breakdown of where the money goes. And 79,000 went to salaries. Okay. 50 parking spots. So up to 50 families for one month of their safety, $80,000 contract. 79,000 went to salaries. In one month.

[00:56:43] In one month. So how much went to actually helping homeless people? And eventually not a lot. So that's, that's a rabbit hole. I have to really go down and break down and figure out. And I want to, I only just discovered that last night. So I haven't had time. And again, I don't want to misspeak on that, but just, I'm sharing this because you're adding that this is kind of like a thing that's been going on with them.

[00:57:11] And it's just, yeah. Where are these federal, federal funds? Where are they really going? They're not solving homelessness. They're not ending homelessness. They're not curing homelessness. They're helping a few people here and there a little bit. Yes. And yes, that matters. But how millions of dollars are not.

[00:57:36] Millions of dollars should really be helping a lot of homeless people as well as like solving the homelessness issue. It should, like there should be paperwork. There should be a paper trail. Like we were able to get this family permanent housing and, and now, you know, they're two, two or four are employed and they're able to pay rent or pitch in for the rent or whatever. And we're covering half. Well, we've got a payment plan and a, you know, a bigger plan down the road.

[00:58:06] And that's not the case at all, at all. Nothing. Nothing. Just to kind of put a bow on it. Transparent California says the CEO of LA, LA H, I'll get the hang of it. LA HSA was 330,000. According to LA mag, it says her contract and her salary is 430,000, which is 42% more than the LA's mayor.

[00:58:33] So, and she's handing out contracts to her husband's nonprofits. Pretty sweet gig. If you can get into the homeless industry because people are making buco bucks over there. All right. Final story before we wrap up for the day. I wanted to talk about this because I got in a little bit of a back and forth on X with Gavin Newsom's rapid response, man. Brad Richardson. I think that's his name, Brad Richardson or something. I don't know.

[00:59:02] Anyway, he, Ashley Zavala tweeted something about how Gavin Newsom is now saying he's going to veto AB 15, which would basically say that California is not going to cooperate with ICE when it comes to violent criminals who are also of a legal status, a legal immigrant status. He said he would veto that.

[00:59:26] And I made the comment that this is quite the change in tune from Gavin Newsom because he was not saying this two months ago when December, when he was talking about. Like the same for his state. Yeah. It was, it was not brought up two months ago. It was not something that he was carving out and saying like, yeah, we're going to work with them on X, Y, and Z. He was very strong and adamant about we're going to put $25 million towards enforcement

[00:59:54] and defending against the enforcement of the Trump administration. And all of a sudden, just last week, he went and had an hour and a half long meeting with President Trump is supposed to be half an hour and it went an hour and a half. And all of a sudden he comes back and he's singing in a little bit of a different tune, like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on. We didn't say we were going to protect everybody who is an illegal immigrant. We just said we're going to protect those who have a legal status and we're going to help them. But, you know, violent criminals. Yeah.

[01:00:21] We'll let the, we'll, we'll let ice like go and do what they need to do. Like, we're not going to stop them doing that. Like that's we're, we're fine with that. And I had pointed that out on X basically being like, this is a change in tune from him. And he tried to go back and say, well, you know, this isn't his, his position hasn't changed since 2008. I'm like, that wasn't my point 2008, like talking about two months ago. And then it was November.

[01:00:47] And then it was, you know, his proclamation was in November and then he changed in December. My point was Gavin Newsom had not pointed this out that he was going to work with ice to get rid of violent criminals who were have a legal status until he went to a meeting with president Trump. That was my point. Right. He had, he hadn't said it. Conversations happened that he was like, okay. Yeah.

[01:01:16] Trump said something back off on some things. Yeah. Deals will be made behind closed doors. You know, you sit with the president for an hour and a half and then you come back, you're singing a little different tune of like, well, we're going to work with ice. All of a sudden you look like you're kind of waffling a little bit and flip flopping on, on how, how much are you Trump proof in California? Cause clearly you're not Trump proof in it as much as you claim you're going to be Trump proof in it. Okay. So what this was AB 15.

[01:01:47] Yeah. We have a video that basically sums this all up rather than me read another article. So I haven't watched this whole video. So we're going to be seeing this for the first time together for the French. I didn't watch it either. I honestly didn't even click on this article. So we'll be learning for the first time right on the fly. So here we go. Well, I cannot stress enough.

[01:02:13] It is extremely rare for the governor to weigh in on a bill before it reaches his desk. But as it pertains to this legislation, calling on the state prison system, not to cooperate with ICE, the governor did weigh in, hoping to send a strong message. He will veto it. So the California prison system cooperate with ICE and federal immigration enforcement. That is the very issue. Assembly Bill 15 tried to get out when it was originally authored in December.

[01:02:39] In most cases, it would have prevented the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, or CDCR, from cooperating with ICE in several ways. Chief among them, it would have barred the state prison system from keeping someone in custody when ICE requests the CDCR to do just that. The bill would have also prevented the state prison system from providing ICE with the prisoner's release date and from transferring prisoners directly to ICE custody. But in a rare move, before the bill even had its first committee hearing, Governor Newsom's

[01:03:08] office announced he will veto AB 15 or a bill like it if it reaches his desk. The governor's office directing us to this message the governor wrote when he vetoed a similar bill last year. Newsom writing then, quote, I believe current law strikes the right balance on limiting interaction to support community trust and cooperation between law enforcement and local communities. For this reason, I cannot sign this bill. I think the governor is doing the right thing in this instance, and I disagree with him on a regular basis.

[01:03:37] That's the reaction from Republican Assemblymember Joe Patterson. He believes the state should cooperate with ICE. Poll after poll shows that people are concerned about crime. Why would we possibly not work with our federal partners on immigration enforcement for criminals? We're talking about criminals, not a person who's here hardworking. We're talking about people who are in prison. The governor's office notes since Newsom took office in 2019, the state prison system has

[01:04:03] notified and coordinated with ICE to transfer 10,588 prisoners into their custody. Prisoners, the governor's office says, included murderers, rapists, and violent offenders. They should be deported, and our state should be working with the federal government to get them back out of this country so they continue to victimize people in this state. As for the future of AB15, its main author, Carson Democratic Assemblymember Mike Gibson,

[01:04:29] said in a statement that he, in his words, introduced AB15 with the intention of addressing an important issue. But the former want to say Gibson is amending the bill to focus on an entirely different issue, cold cases and resources for violent crime victims. Patterson says he was happy to hear the original bill has been changed. Of course, Democrats changed the bill because the governor said what every Californian thinks, which is this is an extremist policy.

[01:04:55] And to be clear, even with Newsom's announcement, California is still what many describe as a sanctuary state, which in most cases prevents local law enforcement from cooperating with ICE. Reporting at the state capitol, covering local news that matters, say Tom Wallace, Fox 40 News. Okay. So there you go. All right. Yeah, it's I like how that one Democrat from Carson was like, I thought I was drafting something

[01:05:24] that was addressing an important issue. What important issue is that Assemblymember? Not out to our friend of the show, Assemblyman Joe Patterson. Give us a call, Joe. We need to have you back on the show. I don't know what important it is. He's like, I was tackling an important issue. And it's like, what important issue? Protecting violent criminals who have a legal status.

[01:05:50] It's it is interesting that it's again, we've always said Gavin Newsom, if nothing else. Is a skilled politician and he is very good at reading the room and knowing what's popular and what's not popular. And he's also knowing these are little tracks that he has to leave if he wants to run for president in 2028. That he will say he can say, look, I, I didn't support protecting the violent criminals who had a legal status. I let the federal government handle that.

[01:06:20] You know, I think that's why he's talking about so many word salads is that it's he can say a lot without saying anything at all. And then when you want to accuse him of saying something, he'll be like, well, that's not what I said. Right. It's all. Well, that's not what I meant. You didn't you read into it differently. I mean, that's why politicians are always kind of vague. So, yeah, it's it's a classic move by Newsom. I wanted to bring this up because I picked this up and I was like, he did change his tune.

[01:06:49] It does seem like he changes tune from how tough he was talking two months ago. Yeah. To Brad Richardson, I'm sorry that that's your job is you have to go on social media and react to people hating on Gavin Newsom. Sounds like a rough job to constantly be doing that. But yeah, just another Gavin Newsom move that he won't be protecting violent criminals who also have a legal status. He'll let ICE do what they need to do to get him out of the country.

[01:07:17] So any final thoughts on that? No further thoughts. No further thoughts. No further comment. Not for now. All right. Before we log off, make sure you like, share, subscribe, review all that stuff that helps with the algorithm comment. Make sure you hit the notification bell, too. If you're listening on any of the audio, I think you can hit the notification bell for audio and YouTube, especially so you get notified whenever we post new content. We've been posting a lot more content, which is cool.

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