Bolshevik Bernie Touches Down in La-La Land

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

[00:00:27] What's going on, everybody? Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the California Underground Podcast, the most trusted podcast for all things California politics. 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 tonight? I'm good. Thanks. How are you? Well, today is tax day. Just a reminder. Post office is closed. So if you didn't get mail that checkout, I don't know what to tell you. It's a little late for mailing that checkout.

[00:00:55] But today is tax day. I know a lot of you, I always, I don't, I'm not gonna take credit for this, but someone had said that they should have election day, a day after tax day.

[00:01:07] And we should, you'd see how fast politics would change in America. If everybody had to pay taxes and then turn around and be like, oh, I'm gonna go vote the next day. It's gonna be like, there's gonna be a real retribution at the, uh, at the ballot box. Um, real quick as a reminder to everybody about tax day, just a, just a gentle reminder about California's scheme and how bad it is here.

[00:01:32] Uh, the tax foundation for 2025, the state tax competitive index ranks, California and number 48. Overall, uh, California's tax system ranks 48 overall. California combines high tax rates with an uncompetitive tax structure, yielding one of the worst rankings on the index.

[00:01:50] Uh, the state's top marginal individual income rate of 13.3% is compounded by a 1.1% newly uncapped payroll tax, bringing the all in top rate to 14.4%. Additionally, non-residents must file income taxes, even if they work one single day in the state. California is one of the only four states to still impose an alternative minimum tax.

[00:02:15] California is the only state to deny all net operating loss carry for carry forwards. The state's NOL provisions have been suspended on multiple occasions and are not currently in effect. Basically the only saving grace is we have prop 13 for property taxes. Um, so if people don't know what a net operating loss carry forward is, that's basically like, if you're a new business and you have losses for that year, you can carry it over into the future years.

[00:02:43] So you can lessen your tax burden and it makes it a little easier to start your business. So one reason why California doesn't, isn't really friendly to starting businesses, but just a nice little reminder on April 15th on tax day, how bad it is here in California. Not to read your evening, not to start off on a bummer. I know, but it's just a gentle reminder that taxation is theft. And, uh, yeah, you know, they take way too much money from us anyway.

[00:03:10] Uh, the other states that are bottom overall behind California are New York and New Jersey. Oh, so my old state of Hawaii for some reason, cause I feel like it's always like the only exception of, you know, hire this, hire that is Hawaii. Like don't they have higher gas and higher electricity rates than us or something like that? I don't know. That's probably due to the fact that they're an Island. I don't know if that's the tax. No, I'm sure it does, but just, I just expect it because that's what it's always like.

[00:03:40] California is at the bottom with the exception of Hawaii. So I was just talking to you to say. The number one best state. Can I guess the number one best state? Yeah. Florida. Uh, Florida's four. Okay. Uh, Wyoming is number one. Oh. So if you're looking for the best tax state, what are the top five? Do you have the top five there? I do. Wyoming, South Dakota, Alaska, Florida, and Montana.

[00:04:10] So I would have guessed on there. South Dakota makes sense. I always said to my wife, if we ever had to get out of California, for some reason, I want to go to Montana. And that's even more reason. And just for comparison, neighboring states, Arizona is 15. Nevada is 17. And Oregon is 30. So even Oregon is still way better than California. Fun fact. All right. All right.

[00:04:37] So that's not the point of tonight's episode, but, uh, our first topic, which is really sort of a slash cringe moment of the week and topic. We're going to discuss a little bit before we get into our second topic, uh, tonight. So the topics for tonight, we're gonna be talking about is Bernie touchdown in Los Angeles. He is doing this tour to fight the oligarchy. Talk about that real briefly. And the second topic we're going to talk about is our good friend, Carl DeMaio is up to his normal shenanigans,

[00:05:07] uh, pulling the strings behind the San Diego GOP more drama. So we're going to get into that as well. We're going to have all this show. We should just invite him. Maybe, you know, that whole, like, come defend yourself, Carl. We'll listen. Come, come onto the podcast. I mean, I'm laughing, but for real, like I welcome the opposition because we talk about it. We do our research, but it's like, Hey, you know what? Come on. Defend yourself. Like we'll be, we'll be nice. Yeah. You can find me.

[00:05:37] Um, just unblock me on Twitter. So, uh, all right. So this first, uh, moment, we actually got almost like a double whammy. So the first moment is on the AOC tour or the Bernie and AOC tour. Uh, this is from Indy, Indiana, Nampa, Indiana. So this is in LA, but this is sort of a good cringe moment. So we're going to take a quick look at this just to give you an idea of how the tour is going and how the stinger first. No. Okay.

[00:06:07] Oh, the stinger. Yeah, absolutely. Of course we can get the stinger. Let's see. Which one should we pick today? We might have to update some of the stingers and add people like AOC into it because this is pretty cringe. So this is AOC trying out her new accent in Indiana on the fight. The oligarchy tour.

[00:06:37] Donald Trump is a criminal who was found guilty of 34. Our felony counts a fraud. I'm manipulating the stock market too. When he talks about rapists and criminals, he should look in the mirror.

[00:07:12] Okay. So that's, uh, AOC code switching into God knows what accent that is. I don't, I don't even know what, there was like three different things going on there. Okay. I have to ask you. Uh-huh. I think I know the answer to this. Do you ever watch the real Housewives of Beverly Hills, like with your wife? No. Okay. Only New Jersey. Okay. I see. I feel like we had that conversation and you said something about how much you hate Tom Girardi, the lawyer or something. Oh.

[00:07:41] You were like, no problem. That's a whole different reason because he's made all of us other lawyers go through hell after everything he did. Yeah. Right. So that's, yes. And, um, cause there's a, there's a woman on there, Deri Kemsley, who has this accent that nobody knows where it came from, but it came from everywhere apparently. And I feel like that's like AOC just stood up and just did this. Like, I'm like, where she's picking up access on her tour.

[00:08:11] That was a mishmash of accents. Cause it was like, and then like the wrong emphasis on the wrong, the wrong cadence. It was like, and you can't too. You're like, where was that going? It was so, it was so bizarre. Um, I, yeah, I don't know what, but according to them, that's called code switching. It's not pandering. It's not racist. If you talk to people in their native accent, that's called code switching.

[00:08:40] That's okay. So AOC is allowed to code switch, even though she's a girl from Westchester, New York, a very affluent area of New York. She's not from the boogie down Bronx as much as she likes to say. Uh, but yeah, that's her accent out on tour. So, but the point of this whole tour is Bernie and AOC are out there and it's called the fight

[00:09:04] the oligarchy tour because Donald Trump and his minions are the, uh, oligarchy as they like to say. Um, but this is not a new phenomenon for Bernie. He's been talking about, uh, the oligarchy for a long time. So let's take a quick look at how long good old Bernie has been talking about the oligarchy.

[00:09:27] This great country of ours is moving very rapidly in the direction of oligarchy. The United States of America today is increasingly becoming an oligarchy. More and more moving toward an oligarchy. We are moving in the direction of oligarchy. We will move even more rapidly in the direction of an oligarchy.

[00:09:51] This great country is evolving into an oligarchic society. It is called oligarchy and that is the system we are rapidly moving toward. This is a budget that moves our country rapidly into the direction of oligarchy. A handful of billionaires are moving this entire planet toward an oligarchic society.

[00:10:19] Start off with the bad news, which is pretty bad. And that is that under Donald Trump, this country is hurtling rapidly toward oligarchy. Told an oligarchy. So it's been a long time. Uh, well, all the way back in the nineties, I guess there wasn't an oligarchy. Even when Bill Clinton was in power, there was an oligarchy through George Bush. There was an oligarchy even during Barack Obama. There was an oligarchy.

[00:10:47] Um, so you can, you can at least say he's consistent, right? Like at least he, you can say, he's been talking about this for a long time. He said talking about it longer than Gavin Newsom has been fixing homelessness. Yeah. And that's a long time. Gavin's been out there picking up garbage on the side of the road. Uh, yeah. So he's been talking about oligarchy for a long time. Just a quick note about the definition of oligarchy, as he likes to say.

[00:11:13] Uh, there was according to the Merriam Webster, a government in which a small group exercises control, especially for corrupt and selfish purposes. Uh, it's interesting that Bernie Sanders, who has been in the Senate for probably most of my lifetime, if not in Congress, cause I think he was representative first and then a Senator after being mayor of, what was it? Burlington, Burlington, Vermont. Yeah.

[00:11:42] Somewhere up in Vermont. And, um, yeah, he's been in power for a very, very long time. Now it feels like there's only a select few people who get to be senators for that long. And my point is it feels like there is an aristocracy in America. We have an aristocracy, aristocracy, aristocratic, crass, aristocratic. I can't say that word. I'm not even going to try.

[00:12:09] Aristocratic, aristocratic class that lords over us. I mean, you have Chuck Schumer, who's been there forever. You have Bernie Sanders, who has been there forever. Nancy Pelosi has been there forever. Mitch McConnell finally stepped down after how many years? Uh, Harry Reed basically was there forever. Robert Byrd died in office.

[00:12:33] Uh, it was a Dianne Feinstein died in office and then they anointed whoever was going to take over her seat. So when you talk about like, there's a government of the few for selfish and corrupt purposes, uh, maybe Bernie should look inward and not outward because it seems like him and his fellow Senate colleagues should relinquish some of that power that they keep holding onto forever and ever and ever. Not to mention, yes, the guy has three houses. Yes.

[00:12:59] He's part of the, you know, top 10% with his, I think over a million dollar net worth. Um, I heard between two and 3 million. Which isn't a lot. Yeah. I was going to say in California, if you were like, if you're not worth two or 3 million, I don't know how you're here. You know? Yeah. Um, so you know, he's, he's done very well to make sure he doesn't fit in that upper, upper echelon of wealth, like Nancy Pelosi or Chuck Schumer.

[00:13:26] Uh, you notice throughout time that Bernie Sanders has dropped the millionaires. Part of his, of his stick. He used to be the whole, like it's the millionaires into billionaires. And now it's just the billionaires top 1%. Um, so he's dropped that. And I always thought it was interesting when people call him out for how much money he's made. His first response is, well, if you want, you can sell a book and then you can too make money.

[00:13:56] And it's like, oh, now we're a fan of capitalism. Right. Exactly. Like I am so not against him making money. That's that's it. Especially because he did sell books. So he did something outside of government to make some money and there, there's nothing wrong with that. And, and yay for him. But it, it is really bizarre how they're so anti the money until suddenly they have it. And then they're like, oh wait, this is a good thing.

[00:14:24] And he, I actually watched, um, you know, cause I've heard he owns like three homes. And so I was trying to find out if there was truth to that or if he owned more homes or what. And I, there was a brief interview from, I want to say like September of last year or something like that. And someone's asking him about it and he's just like, yeah, I, I do. I have a, my nice home that we bought years ago. And then, um, you know, I was renting in DC all the time and finally bought there.

[00:14:52] And then I have like many people in Vermont. I have a lake home on Lake, uh, Lake Champaign and like, okay, that cool. I don't have extra homes, but I wouldn't mind having a lake home if we could afford it. I would have, you know, if I, if I could afford these extra homes, I would, I wouldn't have a problem with that. Like, especially like I have a large extended family and then my kids are growing up. Like, wouldn't it be nice to have a lake home where we all came to, you know, once my kids

[00:15:21] are out of the house, like 100%, nothing against that. But he acted so like, what's the big deal? Doesn't everyone have that? No, we don't. Can I come visit your home for free? Share the wealth? Yeah, share the wealth. Oh, you know, fans of socialism here and sharing the wealth. I would like to partake in a lakeside home. Well, I can't. I, and there's another thing where he made the comment about, well, you could make a

[00:15:50] bulk and sell it and make lots of money. It's like, well, why didn't you give that book away for free? Right. And then there's that, especially the capitalism one. Why would you sell a book? That's such important information. Yeah. Wouldn't you want everybody to have it? Like, wouldn't it be a great idea to just give it away for free and maybe ask for a donation, be like, sure, give me a donation or like tip me or something. But why would you charge for a book? Well, right. Yeah. Like charge the fee.

[00:16:18] Cause obviously to print this book costs money, but then, you know, or ask people like, Hey, I want to get it in all the libraries so everyone can have it. Do you mind, you know, donating X amount of dollars and every, every $5, whatever. I don't know how much it costs to actually print a book, but you know, every $10 contribution gets this book into the libraries and this is such an important book. Let's do this. Let's make sure everyone has access to it.

[00:16:46] So here's a little article about, um, their rally here in Los Angeles. So everyone was all excited. Cause they garnered, they brought in 36,000. I say brought in, maybe they were brought in, maybe they were bust in and put there for a reason. Um, 36,000 LA, you know, it's yeah. That's a lot of people, but in like Los Angeles, I feel like that's not really that impressive

[00:17:14] because it's a deep blue city. Like if he had garnered 30,000 in like, I don't know, like Houston, Texas or something or like Tennessee or something. And I'd be like, Oh, okay. That's something if he's bringing that many people out. Uh, also side note, he was wearing an LA Dodger hat. Uh, just one of the owners is worth $6 billion. And that's part of a billionaire group that owns the Dodgers. So I thought we were canceling the Dodgers cause they just visited Trump.

[00:17:44] Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Why is he wearing an LA Dodger hat? They just visited Trump. So you're not allowed to do that. Um, probably someone just handed him an LA hat on his way up and he was like, he was like, Oh, free stuff. Excellent. Um, all right. Bernie Sanders drew a rapturous crowd in his return to California on Saturday, but for the progressive moving, he inspired the biggest state that centers one in 2020 today looks more like the wilderness than the promised land efforts by progressives in California to

[00:18:12] enact single payer healthcare and other sweeping policy priorities have fizzled prominent Democrats from governor Gavin Newsom to an ambitious crop of big city mayors have tacked to the center. And on Tuesday in Oakland, the progressive icon Barbara Lee is confronting an unexpectedly tight election for mayor against a more moderate Democrat. Um, this is something, I don't know if I brought this up on the show and this is sort of a warning to California Republicans here in the state. You have to be careful.

[00:18:42] This might be the smallest window of opportunity you have to really stake your flag in the middle, like the moderate common sense middle here in California before Democrats do. And you don't have that big of a window because we've been talking about it. There's plenty of mayors who are moving towards the middle. Daniel Lurie is one up in San Francisco has moved more towards the middle. Uh, the San Jose mayor, we've been talking about him.

[00:19:12] We probably want to do a whole show on him regarding how he's moved to the middle and actually called out Gavin Newsom and some of the more progressives in California. Uh, so there's been a lot of Democrats like big key figure Democrat, even Newsom to a certain point is moving towards the middle and anticipation of 2028 by talking to Republicans and people on the right and agreeing with them on some stuff.

[00:19:38] So just a word of caution about Democrats are rushing to the center. So you got to beat them to the center. And that's a word of caution to Republicans. Any thoughts on that? Uh, no, I agree with you, but no additional thoughts on that right now. Okay. Uh, the sprawling crowd in Los Angeles on Saturday, Sanders put the number at 36,000, which he boasted was the largest he had ever drawn, delivered a potent display of the Vermont senators enduring popularity.

[00:20:07] But as he arrived here this weekend to the site of arguably his biggest political triumph five years ago, it also laid bare to the movement's limitations in the nation's blue bastion of California. The influence of progressivism during the Trump era has waned. Progressive priorities are being challenged, not just by conservatives, by centrists who cast the left as contributing to problems around homelessness and crime. And Democrats in California now find themselves merely trying to hold onto gains. They have made amid major threats to federal funding from president Donald Trump, an escalation

[00:20:37] of deportations and aggressive rhetoric on crime, scanning the throngs of supporters who packed the Los Angeles Grand Park and spilled onto the steps of city hall, uh, fighting oligarchy tour with representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Why did you just say it in your new accent? Yeah. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, uh, Neil Sana Sanapa, a senior organizer with the work and families

[00:21:04] party urge Sanders to help to translate the outpouring of sport into more durable progressive movement in the state, uh, comes to the democratic party convention, be our guest at the progressive caucus. So, okay, let's keep going. Ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba. There's somebody else that I wanted to bring up. One of our good friends. Where is she? Oh, yes. I usually highlight this. I'm sorry, guys. Uh, for those who are tuning in, uh, Lorena Gonzalez, our good friend, uh, also blocked me on Twitter.

[00:21:34] So two mentions of people who blocked me on Twitter and one episode starting to become a trend. Lorena Gonzalez, who leads the California labor Federation said progressives absolutely squandered the momentum from the early years of Sanders rise quote. We had a super majority. There was so much we could have done. And so often it felt like I was fighting over my own colleagues, over trying to move forward and economically progressive agenda. Said Gonzalez, who was in the assembly at the height of Sanders inspired activism.

[00:22:04] Um, do, do, do, do, do. I think it's basically it. Let me go on to talk about public safety and crime. Um, stuff like that. And oh, Katie Porter, the former, Oh, geez. Just a great who's who of people in California that you, you just recoil at the thought of them being in power. Uh, Katie Porter, the former Orange County representative is perhaps the most Sanders adjacent when they're talking about who's running for governor next year with her close

[00:22:34] alliance with Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and her consistent message rejecting corporate influence in politics. But in her campaign launch video, Porter also pitched herself as a pragmatic consensus builder who supports quote, working with businesses and protecting workers starkly different from Sanders, more adversarial tone. Um, so even as Bernie Sanders comes to California, progressivism is currently on the wane.

[00:23:03] Uh, it's kind of receding away. It's like a wave. It's the tide is going out now for Uber progressivism and, uh, you know, billion dollar budgets will do that for you. If your city's a billion dollars in the red, you really can't be as progressive as you think. Um, any thoughts about that article and Bernie being in Los Angeles? Yeah, I have a question. Okay. What do you think is really going on here? Okay. Okay.

[00:23:29] Cause we've already established that, uh, Bernie has been fighting for what? 30 something years, at least against the oligarchy. I can't, I can't say that, that deep post accent that you do so well. Um, what, what is, what is the end goal here? Like I'm, you can gather a bunch of people to be like down with Elon Musk, down with Trump, um, but that's not like, okay.

[00:23:58] So they all get together and they hold up their hands and they get mad and that's fine. What are they trying to accomplish here? Uh, well, I will tell you because I just tweeted on this the other day. This is, I mean, this is my theory. Right. I mean, it is like you called them personally and found the exact answer, but yeah, I, I didn't, I wasn't able to get ahold of Bernie old Bernie and say, Hey Bernie, you know, what are you, what are you doing here? Come on. Tell me, tell me the truth. What are you doing here? Okay.

[00:24:28] Um, my theory is Kamala lost Kamala and Joe specifically lost a huge part of the progressive wing of the Democrats in 2024. Uh, I think they didn't do enough to reach out to them. The whole Israel issue didn't help them as well. I honestly think Bernie and AOC are doing this to shore up that wing of the democratic party ahead of 2026 and 2028.

[00:24:58] Now there's going to be speculation. There's no way they run Bernie Sanders. No, he's hard to old. Yeah. He's like already 85 years old or something. Um, and God bless him for doing this tour for, and I, yeah. And I want to say, cause I don't, I don't like when people like discount older people, like, well, they're old and therefore what they say has, you know, has no meaning, no value. Like, it's not like that.

[00:25:22] It's just, he would be, it'd be three years away. Yeah. Like that's just, we don't, we're not, we're not, we're not doing that. No. People make fun of how old Trump is. And it's like, well, Bernie's almost, I think he's 85. How old is he? He is 85. Yes. I checked. He would be 90. I, you, you might be the first president who actually reached 90 and that's too old.

[00:25:48] Um, but yeah, my theory is that they are doing this just to shore up the progressives, get them engaged, get them back into the fold. Uh, like that one guy said, Hey, come to the democratic convention and we'll get you involved. Like, this is all just like, Hey, we got to get these people out again. If we're going to have a chance in the midterms, cause the midterms are right around the corner because you know, it's 2025. They're already next year. Uh, people are already lining up. People have already announced there's people we know who have announced for congressional runs.

[00:26:18] So it's, it's right there. And I think they're doing it because they, they're good little soldiers for the party. They don't, it doesn't really matter to them. They're using the fight, the oligarchy thing, which resonates because it's Trump and Elon and all that. Um, but in the, in the end, he's not going to run for president and she's not going to run for president. And if they ran the two of them together, I don't know.

[00:26:46] I don't, people keep saying like AOC should run for president or she's going to run for president. I feel like I've heard this before. Is she finally old enough to run for president? What do you have to be 35 to run for president? To be 35. Isn't she closer to your age? Maybe. I'm going to check that. Um, she's younger than me, but, uh, I think she finally reached the age to run. I just don't see her running.

[00:27:12] I think she's like the left's darling since Kamala's not. I think if she's going to run, she's going to run for Chuck Schumer's 35. Oh, she's right on the button. So, uh, she can run in 2028, but I think she's going to run for Chuck Schumer's Senate seat. And she's going to join that, you know, nice aristocracy up there in the Senate and she'll be there forever.

[00:27:39] She may run a couple of times while she's in Senate just to keep filling her coffers. But, you know, AOC will be lecturing us from DC and from these tours with her. $30,000 purses and handbags and bad accents. And, uh, you know, tell us how we have to fight the oligarchy and we have to pay more in taxes or the wealthy have to pay more in taxes. So, yeah, I don't think this is, I think that's all this is. And I don't think, I think people are playing into this.

[00:28:08] Like it's a presidential exploratory tour. That's why they're doing it. I'd be interested to see who's really funding this. Like these are big crowds and like big, big events. Like, so who's funding this? It's not Bernie Sanders himself. Um, you know, I mean, he didn't give his book away for free. I doubt he's doing these tours and footing the bill for all this stuff for free. Someone's probably paying for it. Yeah. He's got campaigns.

[00:28:37] I'm sure both of them campaign funds can fund these things. Sure. Yeah. He could can't use campaign funds. I mean, when is he up for reelection again? Six years. Lord knows. Um, but yeah, that's all I think. I think it's interesting that he came to California and progressivism that was really popular with Bernie Sanders is kind of receding. It's kind of going away. Uh, we'll see if it continues that route in 2026. Maybe they flip more seats. Maybe we get more seats in the legislature.

[00:29:07] Uh, hopefully we get more seats in the legislature and stuff like that. We continue to break away at the super majority. Uh, but other than that, I think this is just a scheme by the Democrats to get that wing of the party back into the fold. Yeah. Or maybe he wants to sell another book. I don't know. Maybe he's, does he have another book coming out about how to fight the oligarchy? I can't believe he hasn't written that one yet. You should have a book called how to fight the oligarchy.

[00:29:37] I think, you know what? Let's just do it. You and I, we're going to write this book and we're just going to put everything that we can of his into Grok and have them write it for us. And then we'll make the money off of it. Grok write us a book called fight the oligarchy inspired by Bernie Sanders. Yeah. And we'll have a book and Grok will book. Nobody's still this idea. You heard it here first. Don't take that from us. We need to make money because we need second homes too. Yeah. We need second and third homes too.

[00:30:06] So, you know, there's only one way to fight the oligarchy. It's from one of your three houses. The other thing that's always funny about Bernie Sanders is his list of what is a human right gets longer and longer. Like at the LA rally, he made a thing about like, you know, education is a human right. Education is a human right. Jobs are human right. Healthcare is a human right. Cookies and milk at the end of the night are human right. Like these are all human rights.

[00:30:32] And like anything that requires the labor of somebody else cannot be a human right. True. Because otherwise it's slavery. And I think it's a human right to not have the government in my life. So I would. Yeah. I understand. I mean, I get why his message is so popular.

[00:31:00] I don't think his message is popular because it has any merit or any grounding in reality. It's because it's free stuff and people love free stuff. So if somebody comes along and is like, I'm going to give you school for free. I'm going to give you this for free. I'm going to give you healthcare for free. Like, of course, people are going to be like, sure. Where do I sign up? I love that. I don't want to pay for any of this stuff. But that does come at a cost.

[00:31:30] Someone has to pay for it. And someone does. I mean, look at what happened here in California. Perfect example. Newsom wanted to give away Medi-Cal for everybody, even undocumented citizens. And it's now broke. So virtue signal meet reality. And that's what happens. You can promise all the free stuff in the world. But at the end of the day, someone's got to foot the bill and reality kicks in.

[00:31:55] And I have yet to hear how Bernie thinks he's going to pay for any of this stuff outside of, you know, taxing the billionaires. Tax the billionaires. I like free stuff. Specifically money. Just throwing that out there. I as well like free stuff. That's why, you know, I always enjoy the free samples at Costco. Everybody loves free samples at Costco. Whether you really want to eat it or not, you're like, sure, I'll never buy this, but it's free. I'll try it.

[00:32:24] Speaking of which, completely off topic. Went to Costco this weekend. Had a huge carnivore haul to start my new diet. A lot of meat. A lot of meat and eggs. So you're starting at Monday? I know that's, again, the point of tonight's podcast. Well, yeah, that's not the point of tonight's episode, but it might be a good palate cleanser for our next topic. Well, I decided what better time than the present. I'm just going to start doing it.

[00:32:53] Why put a date on it? Just start eating as is and just go for it. So, you know, today. I just thought you had specific rules during Lent. Yeah, so Friday we got a bunch of fish. So it's going to be a lot of fish. Eggs are fine on Friday. So you can eat a lot of eggs on Friday. But, you know, figures, there's ways around it.

[00:33:20] But, yeah, lots of meat, lots of steak, lots of hamburger patties. Yeah, so while we're not a health podcast, if you're in the chat, tell us, have you ever done like carnivore or animal-based diet? And give us all your tricks if you have. Tell us whether it worked or not. What your results were. Okay. Next topic. We were going to talk about this bill about students living in their cars. I think we'll talk about that another time just to give you an update.

[00:33:50] There's a bill that they introduced to allow students at schools to live in their cars. So progress here in California. We're now making it legal to live in your car for broken students. 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.

[00:34:16] 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. It is literally just this finger combination on the top. 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.

[00:34:40] My wife and I both have our own Stopbox because we both know that when there's an oncoming threat in seconds count, you don't want to be fumbling around with electronics or keys or biometrics or anything like that. So now listeners of this show can enjoy 10% off their order at Stopbox if they go to stopbox.com forward slash California underground. They'll get that discount. Support the show. You can support Stopbox. And this is proudly made in the good old U.S. of A.

[00:35:07] So go to stopbox.com forward slash California underground for your discount. And let's get back to the show. Next story. I have to take a deep breath because there's a lot of information that I really have to set up. I'm going to take a deep breath for you. Everybody buckle in. Collectively, let's all just breathe in, breathe out. Let me take one more sip of water because this is going to be a lot of information. All right.

[00:35:38] Carl DeMaio, our old friend, Carl DeMaio, is up to his old shenanigans again in San Diego. I know. You're as shocked as I am. Surprise, surprise. Surprise, surprise. Surprise, surprise. Where's that clip? So as we all know, Carl DeMaio was elected to the assembly last year, unfortunately. And if you've watched any of our prior episodes, we've done two prior episodes about Carl DeMaio.

[00:36:08] Yeah, like two were dedicated to him 100%. Yeah, we've done some of our like literally it's just Carl DeMaio because we felt like we needed to talk about just Carl DeMaio. You want to get more of a backstory, you can go check that out. For those of you who don't know who are not in San Diego County, Carl DeMaio has been involved in politics here in the Republican Party for a long time. He was city council. I'm sorry Sanders was born.

[00:36:35] I don't think he's been that long, but you know, not since the dawn of time. That's how long Bernie Sanders has been alive. But he's been around for a long time. He was city council. That was his one electoral win more than 10, 15 years ago. He was on city council. He was known as sort of like a brash, outspoken guy.

[00:37:00] He only served, I think, one term and then he lost his election and then he just started a series of running for a bunch of different things. And he kept losing all those other things. So he kept running for Congress. He kept losing. He lost to Daryl Issa. Long story short. But he was always involved in politics and he's always been involved in the San Diego GOP. And he was a radio host for Kogo, Kogo Radio, which is a small channel down here.

[00:37:30] So he's always been involved. There's his Reform California, which is a big pack. And we're going to get into that, what Reform California did. In fact, if you want to learn more about that, there's an episode. You can go way back and listen to us talk all about Reform California. Where we found that he was. Was that the one where we discovered his email was saying that it's from Reform California, but then you clicked on donate and it went to his assembly seat? So, yeah. There's two episodes.

[00:38:00] The first one we did, I believe, was April of 2023. Then we did a follow-up episode last year. And last year was when all of a sudden there was a little bait and switch with his email, which was supposed to be the pack email. And suddenly the pack email, the little tiny print at the bottom. And I forget the date we did this. But then it said, donations go to Carl DeMaule for central committee.

[00:38:26] But then central committee quickly turned into an assembly run because the GOP was like, we have no one to... This was his excuse. The GOP was like, who are we going to run for assembly? And yet they had already endorsed Andrew Hayes for that seat. Anyway, that's a big time story. There's so much more to that, but... It's a very red seat. So basically it was whatever Republican was going to win that primary.

[00:38:55] We'll get to that. That's important in this story. So now, just for everyone's sake, I got into some arts and crafts. And let me see if I can pull this up. So that... How do I do this? You've been doing it for a while. You should know. I should have practiced this before. Okay. Here we go. So I made a visual aid for everybody because this gets...

[00:39:25] Oh boy. A little... It's a little confusing. Okay. I'm not prepared for this. And I might make fun of you. All right. So here's our chart. Okay. All right. Here's Carl DeMaule up here. He's the big boss, right? He runs... We all know he runs everything here in San Diego. We're just going to fast forward. He's taken over the San Diego GOP.

[00:39:54] He has basically turned it into his own organization. It's not really an organization to help Republicans win in California or at least in San Diego. So I'm going to get to that in a little bit about why it really hasn't... Why we haven't seen any results of Carl doing good work in San Diego. So Carl is at the top. And I put down here, he has lackey number one, Paula Witzel, and then lackey number two, Christy Bruce Lane, who I had a nice encounter with.

[00:40:24] Camille ran the other way. So thank you for that, Camille. That was very nice. I didn't run. She sprinted the other way. I turned around and I was like... I didn't go anywhere. I just wasn't... You know those like Bugs Bunny cartoons where they run so fast? It's just the like puff of smoke in there. That was... Can we all talk about this? That really was such a surreal moment. We were at the GOP convention in Sacramento in spring 2023.

[00:40:52] We were there as our pack. Like we had a table. Cal Republican. We had paid to have our flyer in every bag, which was like 1,200 bags or something like that. Christy Bruce Lane came up to the table and approached you specifically and was like, I love everything on this pack. I agree with this. We should get coffee. You're in San Diego. Let's talk. She walks away. And I look at him.

[00:41:19] I look at Phil and I'm like, okay, clearly she did not recognize you because I know she doesn't like you. And then before I could finish my sentence, Christy Bruce Lane comes marching back with the angry woman walk and the finger... finger pointing you in Phil's face. You're California underground. And you're like, yes, yes, I am. Why don't you like me? You don't like me. How come? And he's like, well... And he gives his reasons.

[00:41:50] And she's like, oh, we were actually at this point literally about to pack up. Like the day was ending and we had started cleaning up. And so I did start to like kind of like step aside because I'm like, this is not my fight. I had nothing to do with all this that went down. I wasn't even on the podcast at the time. And I had like, again, I'm not involved in San Diego politics. Like this just didn't involve me. And I'm like, you know, I feel like you were my lawyer.

[00:42:18] Like I don't need to defend you and you're a man. You can handle this. So I'm like, I'm just going to keep cleaning up. It's going to pretend I don't see what's happening. And then she turns around and marches away and goes straight to Carl DeMaio. And they both turn and they're like obviously talking about us, you know, looking over and talking. Oh, yeah. It was like she went over to Carl DeMaio and like I'm going to do an impersonating. So she's talking.

[00:42:51] And then, yeah, they were both giving me the stink eye. So Carl has yet to ever say one word to me except for block me on Twitter. But anyway. Then we got blocked right now. That's when we decided to do that first episode. Because we had talked about doing an episode and we're like, is it worth it? Do we care? Do we want to? Do we not want to rock the boat? And then we'll let go. Oh, it's on. So. Well, they started it. Yeah. We'll just say they started it because we were like, nah, it's not worth it. And then we're like, nah, screw you. You got in our face and tried to intimidate us.

[00:43:22] You know, now you've pissed me off. Okay. Christy Booselain here. Lackey number two. We got lackey number two. Joseph Linares, smaller lackey. We'll get to him in a little bit. So Paula Witzel has been the chair of the San Diego County GOP for God knows how long. It seems like ever since I've gotten involved, she's been the chair of the San Diego GOP. This past summer.

[00:43:48] She tried to pull a fast one at the behest of Carl DeMaio. So you had mentioned Andrew Hayes was the endorsed candidate. So the bylaws state that once you endorse a candidate, you're supposed to stick with that candidate all the way through. Like, okay, we've said we're endorsing Andrew Hayes. We're moving forward. Now. Okay. Real quick. Did the SDGOP endorse him? I know that the state party did. Yes.

[00:44:18] Yes. The county did. So he was endorsed by the county and the state. Yes. He was in doubt. Yeah. He was endorsed by the county. So he was already endorsed by the county. Carl jumps into the race after Andrew for some odd reason. Well, I mean, the reason is he figured I can push Andrew out and be in assembly next year. So now they come up to a central committee meeting around, you know, several months ago back in the summer.

[00:44:46] Paula tries to pull a fast one and at the behest. And, you know, this is all conjecture. I'm saying this is conjecture at the behest of Carl, who is trying to get them to switch the endorsement, which is not part of the bylaws. So she tried to argue, no, no, no, no, we only endorsed Andrew for the primary.

[00:45:11] This is a new vote for Carl in the general, which is not what the bylaws say at all. She tried to pull a fast one. She got embarrassed because the county went with Andrew Hayes anyway, stuck with the endorsement.

[00:45:26] And she and she inevitably resigned because of this whole snafu of like it was so blatantly obvious that she was doing this because she was doing this to help Carl. Like Carl had said, you have to get the county to endorse me and I don't care how you do it. You're going to make it happen. So she tried to pull a fast one. She wasn't smooth enough to do so. And she resigned.

[00:45:56] Okay. So that's in the same way. Is that why she resigned? Because of like kind of like a shame? Like, yeah, it was sort of like, you know, we all saw what you're doing. There's enough pressure internally that like it's, you know, you got to step aside. Whatever these shenanigans are, you got to step down. So she stepped down. Okay. And I have a dumb question. Sorry. Go ahead. When the county GOP endorses a candidate, does the state automatically endorse them as well? Like, was that reciprocal?

[00:46:26] I don't know. That's a good question. I figure if your county endorsed, the state would probably back that up for uniformity. So I don't know. But then. Interesting question. Sometimes they do crossover in counties like we have, who is it? Is it Lori Davies? Who's both Orange County and San Diego County. And we have two separate central committees. So I don't know how that would work anyway.

[00:46:54] Like if, if Orange County didn't endorse her, but San Diego did kind of thing. Like, I don't know. I wonder how the state party deals with that. Sorry. I clearly, I don't go to central committee meetings like I should. No. And I don't either because this is one. Well, if I were you, I wouldn't. I think mine has a little, little bit of it. Clearly, you know, persona non grata at these meetings. I'm not very big fan of me.

[00:47:22] Um, so anyway, Corey Gustaf, I can never say isn't Gustafson takes over. Fast forward. They are now going to hold an election for executive chair again. And this time Paula's back up for executive chair. Okay. So at the meeting, which was. Excuse my language. I'm going to have to put an explicit warning on this.

[00:47:51] It was sort of a shit show. Uh, Carl came in with a bunch of supporters that were non like central committee members. They were not supposed to be there. He basically crashes the party, shouts down all of Corey supporters and then gets Paula reelected, which I don't think was supposed to happen. I think it was supposed to happen in more orderly fashion. Basically, he caused chaos. This was December. Okay. I'm so sorry.

[00:48:21] I just trying to keep a timeline here. It's a lot. Yeah. I probably should have drawn a timeline as well, but I didn't have as much time. I was just able to get this nice visual together with at least showing people who I'm talking about. Um, all right. So Paula gets reelected as chair. So now you got lackey. Number one's back in power. Christy Bruce Lane is also back in power. She's on the executive committee, Joseph Linares.

[00:48:49] And you wonder why does smaller lackey here? Why? Who cares about this? Joseph Linares guy. Well, the vote to put Paula back into place. I mean, double check before I get this wrong. I don't, you know, with stuff like this, you want to make sure you get this absolutely correct. Uh, so he was the 2019 central committee decision to back a DeMaio move to amend the party's bylaws. Basically the way a party chair vacancy is filled.

[00:49:20] Okay. So this is how this all sort of came about. He was a deciding, critical, pivotal vote. 2019. Very close. Okay. Records came out that he doesn't live in San Diego.

[00:49:42] And by the bylaws, if someone vacates their seat on the committee, because they move out of county or they move out of county, it automatically vacates their seat. So during the time of this vote, he shouldn't have been voting on this stuff. Wait, you said 2019? 2219. Okay. The vote was 20 to 90. So there was a one vote. I was here in 2019.

[00:50:10] And I'm like, that guy was like 12. Not really, but close enough. He'd be right. No, because he's 22 now. And so I'm like, 2019, this is the math. All right. Yeah. So records came out. This is from the times of San Diego. Let me pull this up. All right. So I'm going to switch over to something else.

[00:50:39] This is from the times of San Diego. People should read this article. Like this actually really laid it out. It was very well done. And it made sense to me. Like, you know, I'm not down there, but I was reading. I was like, okay, I'm following. And there's a follow-up article of what happens after this. So Joseph Linares, a 22-year-old employee of Assemblyman Carl DeMiles Reform California. Again, seeing the connection here. He works for Reform California. And then he votes in favor of what Carl wants.

[00:51:09] He was elected in March 2024 to the county GOP Central Committee. He was sworn in on December 10th. Let's see. Blah, blah, blah. Quote, if Linares was not eligible to be seated at the December organizing meeting, it puts a cloud on the entire series event, leading to Paula's return as chair in the entire future of the Republican Party, including the status of the bylaws, a GOP insider told based on the promise of anonymity. Witzel wrote back.

[00:51:39] That's lackey number one. Quote, it would be a violation of the bylaws to attempt to resolve this issue in the full Central Committee. Moreover, because the issue is fraught with legal peril, it would be reckless and irresponsible to attempt to do so. End quote. She said Linares was duly elected by the public, but local GOP bylaws say, quote, any regular member who changes legal residence from the supervisor district in which elected shall be considered to have resigned.

[00:52:06] So this all came about because personal information came out that includes Linares received 90 days in custody and two years probation in June 2024, reckless driving and vandalism with a road rage vandalism being a felony, according to the county district attorney's office. And this was in Riverside. Um, so this is another thing. So I guess every year they like update all the voter rolls. It's like automatic or something.

[00:52:35] And then it put him in Riverside. Uh, the GOP insider said a Central Committee member visited his Camino Del Feliz address in University City and found it unoccupied. So this is his San Diego address with a realtor lockbox on the door. The unit going for $3,485 a month is currently available for rent. So keep that in mind. The apartment that he said he lives at, nobody lived there. Lockbox landlords like nobody lives here. No one's been paying this stuff.

[00:53:07] So questions. Do I need to take a minute to kind of process what we're doing here or what's going on? Um, I just need to know how this 22 year old kid who keeps getting himself in legal trouble, uh, can afford 30, 3,400 something apartment. I know that's really not the point here, but that did stand out to me. I suppose if you have a few friends renting it with you, but I was just like, wait, what? But then again, he's not living there.

[00:53:38] Well, yeah, he's, yeah, he's claiming an apartment. Oh, that sounds familiar. Didn't Carl DeMaio claim he lived somewhere that he was renting or said he was renting. Right. But he didn't actually live there for his assembly seat. Seems to be quite the little trend going on here with Carl. He probably told him. And I think we're probably going to get to this. So I might be jumping ahead, but it seems like anybody who works for Reform California somehow is on the central committee also works for his transparency, transparency foundation,

[00:54:07] as well as a capital media, which is a private company. So we don't really know what's going on there, but we've dug into that a little bit before on the previous DeMaio episodes. And I, I just think that that's all suspicious. I'm like convinced that those three things are a money laundering business. Oh, that's my opinion. That's my opinion as well. That's an opinion. I don't have proof of that. That's my opinion. Just put that out there. That is my opinion.

[00:54:37] From what I know, that is my opinion. That's my opinion. Yeah. If you, we, you can go back and look at that. Like there's a whole incestuous relationship between capital media, Reform California, San Diego GOP. They're all staffed and filled with basically Carl DeMaio acolytes. And yeah, there's a PAC, there's a private company, and there's a, an entrepreneur, a nonprofit. And then, and then the political GOP.

[00:55:04] Like it's, it's like they covered all the bases and it's really weird. Yeah. If you look at, I think it's transparency, their project or something like it's the same CEO. It's, it's all, it's all very, it's all very strange. It's all. Yeah. Is this, did this come up? I want to play this real quick. Um, so this was the reporter called capital media, this private company and got this voicemail.

[00:55:31] The person at extension one zero zero one is unavailable. Sorry, but the user's mailbox can't accept more messages. The person at. Okay. Um, for a big, uh, media company that supposedly has Sembra as a featured client, I think someone would want to pick up the phone and get a message. Weird. Weird.

[00:56:00] So the story doesn't end there, right? Joseph Linares, this whole issue. Now it had to be dealt with internally. As to, well, was his vote legit or not? Or should he be like, it was the whole, like, was he legitimately on central committee when this was cast? How do you think the Carl DeMaio controlled San Diego GOP central committee or executive

[00:56:30] committee, I should say, handled this? Do tell. I just wrote a note. Okay. Well, shocker, uh, GOP leaders decide DeMaio staffer 22 can stay on party central committee. So. Okay. No shock there. I just wrote this note because it just occurred to me. My opinion, the apartment that I said that that's to me was just unusual that this expensive

[00:56:59] apartment that's 22 year old kid could afford. I, I bet Carl DeMaio paid for it to get him a San Diego address and, and onto the GOP committee. Again, my opinion, but I would not be surprised if that came out or didn't come out because everything with them is so hush hush, but. Yeah. Makes sense.

[00:57:26] Because we know Carl's done it for himself, established residency by renting a, you know, a place elsewhere to say, look, this is where he lives. And he probably, you know, paid for a few months. And probably I say that again, my opinion, your opinion, my opinion. Remember we, yeah, we have to preface everything. This is just our opinion.

[00:57:50] Um, so as I was saying, uh, obviously the executive committee took no action. Um, he's fine. He can stay on. Doesn't matter if we found out that he lived in Riverside. Uh, this was the most laughable thing. Uh, they said, Witzel argued, lackey number one, argued in the note that Linares, whose name is never mentioned, had one domicile in San Diego, but may have had more than one residence.

[00:58:19] Oh, must be nice for a 22 year old kid. I mean, is he on the Bernie Sanders plan? He's competing in Bernie Sanders. Did he write a book that, so he can afford two residences? Interesting. He said that seaside home. We say seaside because California, you know, San Diego would be the ocean, not the, not a lake. The, she goes on and say the challenger seemed not to have considered this notion.

[00:58:48] Um, so that must've, I'm trying to imagine that powwow of them getting together and trying to figure out, okay, how are we going to explain this? We got our hand caught in the cookie jar. They go, I got it. A 22 year old kid has two residences. Totally normal. Who's going to argue that? Who's going to, who's going to talk about that? Like, who's going to find that fishy?

[00:59:16] Um, one source said, quote, it seems the current party leadership would rather hide behind closed doors and coward a threats from Carl DeMaio rather than stand on principle and follow concrete evidence where it leads. Uh, so this was in a closed session of the executive committee, meaning that it was behind closed doors. No one can talk about it or no one say anything. And, um, yeah.

[00:59:42] So going back, Oh, whistle lack, lacking number one had more to say. She said, calling this matter quote, an exasperating experience. I am particularly pleased that this matter has concluded. It is an understatement to say that it has been distracting to the committee and has diverted members attention and energy away from the demanding task of rebuilding the party's presence in San Diego County. No. Okay. Yeah.

[01:00:12] Because you're, you're doing a fantastic job of that. Paula Witzel, you are, um, you've been lording over one of the greatest resurgences and renaissance of Republican party politics here in San Diego County. I mean, just outstanding. Uh, do you want to go down some of the numbers? I wrote this out. I got to talk about this because a lot of people will, whenever I bring this up about Carl

[01:00:36] DeMaio, um, they will always say to me, you know, Phil, why are you attacking people like Carl DeMaio? He's working and fighting. He's on our side. He's a freedom fighter. Why are you attacking a guy like that? Well, there's plenty of reasons why I'm attacking. Did you reach out to Carl? He lives in your same County. Did you reach out to him? He lives in your County. You should reach out to him and get a comment. Well, we already invited him on the show. He's welcome to come on anytime he wants.

[01:01:03] Um, and probably yell at us for about an hour. It's fine. That's fine. Come on. And you can yell at us and we'll just sit here and take it and listen to you yell and scream and whatever. Um, but everyone who says Carl DeMaio is doing a fantastic job. He's fighting for us, Phil. Why, why the friendly fire against someone like Carl DeMaio? And people will say he's done so much good for the County and he's done so much good for the Republican party.

[01:01:32] And I say, nay, he has not done anything good for the San Diego County Republicans. Reform California really came onto the scene around 2017. So I think it was like 2017, 2016 when they switched from reform San Diego to reform California. So that was more of a statewide pack. Now, just to give you context in 2017, get in the way back machine, 2017 in San Diego County,

[01:02:02] in 2017, San Diego had a Republican mayor, Kevin Faulkner. There were four Republicans on San Diego city council, Lori Zapp, Chris Kate, Mark Kersey, and Scott Sherman. The board of supervisors was a majority Republican. According to the records, San Diego GOP had $264,786 in cash on hand in 2017. This is according to Cal access.

[01:02:33] Meanwhile, reform in that time span, 2016 finished with $26,000 in the bank and had a banner year in 2017. So think of it about it this way. You have the rise of reform California is starting in 2017. And then see if the parallel, if there is a parallel of success of the San Diego GOP with reform California's ascendancy. They had 405,000 by the end of 2017.

[01:03:01] That's a hell of a fundraising year for a pack like that. Yeah. I mean, I don't expect a pack to do wonderful things its first year, unless it started by like somebody famous, but I've, I've looked at this before too. And yes, like he did in the second year, like things really started coming together and taking off for reform. Now here's the update. 2017 reform California picks up steam, gets more popular. They call it a, you know, groundbreaking or whatever.

[01:03:30] They defeated 300 tax ballots. I can't even think of 300 tax tax ballots. I mean, California loves its tax ballots. I don't think 300 they could have even defeated since 2017. All right. Today in San Diego County, we have a leftist mayor in Todd Gloria, who is now obsessed with bike lanes. The entire city council is Democrat. There's not one Republican on city council. There was one serious candidate to run for San Diego mayor.

[01:03:59] And that was Scott Sherman since Faulkner. Since then, there hasn't been any Republican challengers to try and retake the mayor, uh, mayor's office here in San Diego. And this is probably the worst part. The San Diego County GOP as of right now has $36,000 in the bank.

[01:04:22] Let me say that again, a county party, the Republican County party, you know, the Republicans, they believe in prosperity and economic prosperity and making money. There's $36,000 in the bank. So Paula Witzel has lorded over much of this at the behest of Carl DeMaio to the absolute detriment of the party.

[01:04:48] So to put it plainly and to put it bluntly, to kind of put a whole cherry on top. Since the rise of reform California and influence of Carl DeMaio, he has absolutely destroyed Republican politics here in San Diego County. I am not afraid to say that it has gotten worse and worse and worse. He has pushed people away.

[01:05:13] He is handpicked who he wants to serve him because it's not about serving the Republican party as a whole. He doesn't help people win. If that was the truth, he would help lacking number two, Christy Bruce Lane. She'd already be in the assembly by now, but she's run how many races and keeps losing. I think she's running. Now she's running for Senate state Senate. Yeah. She's the new Carrie Lake. She's just running for everything and keeps losing. If she's, if he's so good at helping people away and he can't even get like his number

[01:05:40] two in command or lacking number two into office, the whole party is decimated. It is an absolute embarrassment. There's they've completely ceded all ground and all competition to the Democrats here in San Diego County. What was a purple County is now a blue County.

[01:06:04] So in my mind, Carl DeMaio has absolutely destroyed San Diego Republican politics. Um, so for those people who say he's done good things, he has not. Yeah. I want people to, when they say he's done good things, I don't want you to go off of a post where he says, I'm going to, or I just filed, or we're doing this. Like, can you please go find the actual finish of that?

[01:06:33] I want to see the completion of what did he do? Not what did he say he's trying to do? What, not what he's saying he will do or wants to do. Go, go find these, all these initiatives that he's always fundraising off of and, and, and tell me where they went. Tell me what he's done. That's what I genuinely want to know for everyone who says, Oh, but he does such a good job and he's fighting for us. Okay. What's where's the good job.

[01:07:02] Um, so this is an email that I got this morning from reform California. And this is, again, this is where people probably are getting this idea of like, he's fighting for us. He really cares about us. This is from Carl DeMaio and reform California. It says it's finally happening. Governor Gavin Newsom and California Democrat politicians are facing a number of federal, civil and criminal investigations for their failures and corruption.

[01:07:32] Here's what's happening. How you can help us tee up more issues for the right authorities to investigate. First thing, contribute securely, support the fight to Doge, California. I will bet bottom. I will bet my bottom dollar. Any money you donate to this will not go to Doge, California. Is there a, is there a fine print? Is there a fine print of like, where is it going? Like where it's going?

[01:08:00] Like this is going to, is it for assembly 2026? Let's see. Help reform Doge state government. Let's see. Does it say anything? Click on. Oh, here we go here. I'm going to pull this up because it's just. I apologize about the noise a moment ago. I thought I heard a coyote and I texted my kids to go check. And so they slammed doors. Oh, you got to make sure the chickens are safe, especially with the chickens are like secure, but.

[01:08:30] All right. To answer your question. Here's the donation page. Help reform California. Doge state government, California state representative Carl DeMaio reform California. Our team may have to bring Doge to state government and they need your help to investigate and expose wasteful spending and corruption. Through a team of outside auditors and investigators to my who, who, where are these outside auditors investigators? I haven't seen any.

[01:08:58] So chip in any contribution to bring Doge investigations to California. If you go ad paid for Carl DeMaio by state assembly. Okay. So, but, but where is it going? If you donate, I know the ad was paid for by him, but what is it going to, if you don't your contribution? Will benefit Carl DeMaio for state assembly. 2026. I told you. So. Maybe you already knew. Told you.

[01:09:28] Um, okay. I know I was like rolling my eyes when you were reading this, like help Doge California and all that. And we're not opposed to that. Um, but it's also, this is another thing that people don't realize about Carl DeMaio is that he's always jumping on somebody else's train. Mm-hmm. Doge California. Let's like do this audit or whatever. Like that's not, it's not like he, Carl DeMaio did not come up with it.

[01:09:58] Let's Doge California. And, and of course now it's just like basically reelect Carl DeMaio. So. Yeah. So that. That money is not going to help Doge California. It's helping to reelect Carl DeMaio. Exactly. This is 2026. Campaign. Yeah.

[01:10:19] I made the comment before we hopped on that Carl DeMaio for as much people say he's like a conservative warrior and stuff like that. It is my opinion. Again, I'm validating. We've seen church at this point. This is my opinion. My opinion. I'm allowed to say my opinion. Let me get that. I'm allowed to give my opinion on a public figure.

[01:10:45] It is my opinion that if Carl DeMaio had a way to increase his wealth and power by 10 times and he had to switch to become a Democrat, he would do it in a heartbeat. He does not care about these making a change. He doesn't. He just doesn't. And it's so evident because of the devastation we've seen with the San Diego GOP and how he's absolutely gutted that organization to be his own little puppet ring.

[01:11:16] He would he would sell out the Republicans. In a heartbeat, if he could make more money in power as a Democrat. Bottom line. So and I believe his husband is a Democrat, isn't he? I think he switched. Oh, he finally switched. There is weird stuff going on there. But since his husband's not a public figure, I'll refrain from talking about that. Yeah, we won't. Yeah. That way it just came out that he was. But yeah, that's my final thought.

[01:11:46] I think, you know, he's up to his old shenanigans. I don't know. I don't know how far people have to keep getting pushed until people say, like, this is enough. It's it's pretty remarkable that he has such an iron grip on the San Diego GOP. This could be a competitive county. This could be a very competitive county. But it has been absolutely decimated by Carl DeMaio and his lackeys and his puppets. So that's the drama of Carl DeMaio.

[01:12:14] Felt like we had to update everybody. That's my final thoughts. I don't know. Do you have any other final thoughts? We've kind of ran over a little bit, but there was a lot to cover. I don't. You know, I'm not there. And I know you guys, you and you guys being a lot of our mutual friends are actually going to the meetings and, you know, you know people involved. So for me, it's more like I have to kind of dissect the news that I read, but I don't have additional comments because I, I don't know the situation firsthand.

[01:12:43] Aren't you lucky you're in Orange County where you don't have this kind of drama? We have our own. I'm sure. I'm sure Orange County has our own, but. But we've got our committee chair is Will O'Neill, the former Newport Beach mayor. And I do feel like that was very much a step in the right direction. So, yeah, that's good news for us. That is a really good step in the right direction. All right. With that, that's our show for tonight.

[01:13:13] Make sure you like, share, subscribe, review. All that stuff helps with the algorithm. Best way you can support the show that is 100% free is share it with somebody, you know, that maybe somebody in San Diego who thinks that Carl. Yeah, especially share it with someone in San Diego who thinks Carl DeMaio walks on water. And with that, we'll see you on the next one. Later.

[01:13:53] 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.