With Texas, Mississippi, and even Connecticut lifting their COVID restrictions, what is the over/under on California fully reopening? There's a lot of factors that go into it.
HR1 which passed the House this week is a wish list of what Democrats would like in elections to guarantee they always have the advantage. It is their effort to codify everything that went wrong in the 2020 election, and strip state legislatures of their Constitutional power.
Newsom has awarded millions and millions of dollars for no bid contracts, however we don't know the link of those getting those contracts and the lobbying efforts for those contracts. For example, Blue Shield donates to Newsom, and then spends $480,000 on lobbying, then gets a $15 million contract for vaccine distribution.
Show Links
- 37 Things to Know About HR 1
- As Newsom Pushes To Extend Emergency Spending Authority During Pandemic, Lobbyist Influence Remains Opaque
- https://www.capradio.org/163124
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If you're a California, conservative a Libertarian, a
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moderate Democrat. Believe in common sense, or just
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the same person. This is the political podcast
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for you. It's the California underground
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podcast. What's going on everybody?
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Thanks for tuning in to another episode of California
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underground. My host.
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Phil couple things to talk about today.
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Big HR one bill that has passed in the house.
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Representatives are going to go over.
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A lot of that. We're also going to talk about
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Gavin Newsom and its continued use of lobbying or working with
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no-bid contracts from his lobbying buddies.
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But first, let's get started with our out of the gate
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monologue. This past week.
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We saw not one, not two, but actually, three states, move
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forward and lift all covid restrictions on their states.
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Texas, ever the beacon of personal Liberty and freedom
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went first and in a surprise move removed all restrictions on
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businesses and lifted. Its mass mandate Mississippi was
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close behind and lifted all their restrictions and mass
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mandate as well. In a shocking move Connecticut
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will also be moving to remove all capacity restrictions in the
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next couple weeks. Mine's you.
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Connecticut, is a Democrat controlled state.
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So this is really a surprise move.
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Now, these three states join other states like, South Dakota
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and Florida, which have been Everything.
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Basically, as normal, as if covid doesn't exist, South
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Dakota never shut down. Never required anyone to wear
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masks. As Governor gnome said in her
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speech to see pack. She believed the government's
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role was to inform the people and let them make their own
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decisions. Governor.
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DeSantis has become a bit of a conservative rock star and
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openly defying the calls from the White House, in the media,
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to listen to the signs and keep all the restrictions in place.
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This is a good news of states are starting to make their own
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decisions and move forward with reopening their states.
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On their own timelines, not ones dictated by the biting
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Administration. It's certainly a way in for
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federalism and stays right. Well, it's good.
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News for those States, here in California.
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We're still struggling with Governor seems ever-changing
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dictates, and color-coded chart of confusion on when, and how to
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open. If this reopening craze begins
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to gain momentum. How long until California follow
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suit. It's easiest to California.
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Probably be the last holdout your some governs estate with a
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super majority of registered Democrat.
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Mostly all dutifully, follow the orders and musings of dr.
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Fauci. Why would Newsome have any
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incentive to open the state? When his state is full of
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supporters? Who believe in staying locked
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down, until there's absolutely no more cases of covid.
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Well, a couple things could certainly play into a reopening
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timeline for California. If we were to play Vegas.
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Oddsmaker, there are certain markers on determining the
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over-under when California will likely push for full reopening.
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The most crucial Factor has to be the recall at this point.
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Geysers are saying they're closing in, on two million
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signatures with ten days. Still to go, the more signatures
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gathered gives the organizers, a cushion to ensure that our new
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secretary of state, Shirley Weber, can't play any games with
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the signatures to whittle it down below the required amount
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as of right now. The governor should be worried
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but it's not overly preoccupied with the recall.
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However, this all changes if the recall certified and set for a
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special election. If the recall goes to the ballot
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in there is an election, expect things to change dramatically
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for governors. In a recent poll conducted by
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the Faulkner campaign, its stated 47 percent of Voters
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would vote to recall Newsom as opposed to 43 percent who said
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they would not more concern for Newsom.
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Is that the poll showed twenty six percent of registered
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Democrats, would vote to recall him that is very concerning for
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a governor who runs a dark blue state.
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It shows that his base is fracturing and he can't rely on
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Democrats to buoy him past. The recall question.
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I would not be surprised if that number continues to grow as time
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goes on in California remains. Restrict lockdown.
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Now, whether you want to admit it, not the looming recall has
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had an impact on how he governs out of nowhere.
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He did away with the stay-at-home orders, even though
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we didn't meet his self-imposed guidelines for rescinding it.
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No explanation was given but many could read between the
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margins and see as the recall gained steam.
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He started to back off. Some of these lockdowns.
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Even now more and more counties are hurtling towards lower
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tiers, but the recall isn't the only thing that will affect
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California being fully reopened. Imagine if States Like New York
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and New Jersey who are geographically close and right
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next to Connecticut. What if they removed all
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restrictions, if New York were to fully reopen and lift, all
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restrictions, how much pressure does I put on California to
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follow suit, how about our neighbors to the north and
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Oregon? And Washington Newsroom can
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write off, Texas and Mississippi, like he did by
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calling them Reckless, but they are red States, but will he call
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New York Reckless as well? If dark blue states, start
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accelerating the reopening. What reason will Newsome give to
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remain closed. The last factor is something
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new. Some himself likes to tout
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regularly and that is our rapidly declining numbers.
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I have set before near some cannot both.
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Take credit for the falling numbers and then turn around
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lecture people on why they need to remain locked down his own
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number show. Kobe is on its way out, maybe
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not forever but to a point where it's no longer an epidemic and
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with spring and summer coming up in more people, getting
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vaccinated covid-19 has will In you to plummet even further,
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will he take a Victory lap and say he Squatch the virus?
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And if he does, do the people of his State get to enjoy that
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Victory. If we were all in this together,
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we should be enjoying the spoils of victory over this virus as
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well. Finally, The X Factor in all
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this of course, is dr. Fauci.
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What if dr. Fauci were to come out in a
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couple months and say, hey, we've reached a point where we
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see enough, people are vaccinated and positive cases
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are at such a level that we are no longer concerned with this.
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This only Increases the pressure.
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Since sthe himself said, it's okay to return to normal and
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Newsome to full and puts the pressure on your some to fully
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reopen. Now.
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There are a lot of factors that will go into how fast California
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fully reopens. But in my humble opinion, they
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are all against Newsome at the moment.
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My prediction and the over under one willfully.
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Reopen about one month after the recall election is certified in
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scheduled. So, in good news for the rest of
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the country and Not good news for California's because like I
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just say, we're obviously not looking to being fully reopen
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any time soon or some seems to be doubling down.
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But he does like to make sure that heat out to the fact that
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covid is on the decline. He likes to tweet about how
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we're 40 percent. They stand down 57 percent that
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and now we're down to two point three percent positivity rate
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throughout the entire state, but at the same time he doesn't want
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to really let people go back to doing what they're doing.
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He wants to hold on as long as possible which in kind of a
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legal argument. Science.
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It's not really an emergency anymore.
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If the numbers are at such a drastic low that there's really
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no reason for him to have emergency Powers as he's granted
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to himself. And this is one thing that he's
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going to have to figure out going forward.
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If there is a recall is, is he going to play it up that he
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could squash the virus? Or is he going to be a victim of
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the fact that he squashed the virus, regardless of the fact
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that he caused enormous amounts of business closures?
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And Occasionally stagnate or stagnation for kids that they
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lost year about a year of their schooling and put them away
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behind. Is he going to have to look at
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sort of the wreckage around him and argue?
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Well, it was totally worth it. That's something he's going to
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have to really argue with and struggle with, if there's a
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recall election, and keep in mind, if there is a recall
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election. It's going to be months away.
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So if a recall is certified, you know, it's like the ringing of
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the bell and a boxing match. Expect mostly.
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Need a poor and that will be negative campaigning against
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Newsome. Expect Newsome to try and fix
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his image as fast as possible. Because he's, he'll be fighting
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for his political life at that point.
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So movie I want to talk about this one bill that just came out
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and it's HR 1. If you don't know about it to
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800 page Bill and it basically is trying to codify.
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Excuse me. It's trying to codify a lot of
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the things that Democrats like at this point.
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Is it any surprise that Democrats are going to try and
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move forward with this as fast as possible?
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Because it seemed all this stuff worked in 2020.
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So why not see if they can just really Solidify, an advantage
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going forward by creating what this is called a for the people
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act, and it was passed this past Wednesday, by the house.
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It still has to go to the Senate.
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So we'll see if it's filibustered.
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And if it's filibuster, they're going to need 60 votes which
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would mean 10? Republicans would have to come
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over to break the filibuster and I highly doubt that will
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actually happen because any Republican with sense, I mean,
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even Mitt Romney at this point. Has to look at this bill and say
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this. Is a bad bill.
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This really goes ahead and just solidifies the Democrats
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advantages and way of voting. It doesn't bring in it.
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Doesn't codify anything about voter ID.
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In fact, it takes away a lot of it and we're going to go over
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some of these points. There's 37 of them in this
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bright bar article. I don't want to go through every
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single one because I would take forever, but I do want to go
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through a couple of them just to point out how bad this really
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becomes. First one that they talk about
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the federal control over Congressional elections.
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It declares a congress finds it as broad authority to regulate
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the time place manner of congressional elections under
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the elections, Clause of the Constitution that primary
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Authority. And this is something to think
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about throughout all of this is that all of this really primary
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Authority goes to state, but it allows Congress to really alter
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some of those regulations. And basically, it gives them the
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power to override how States run their election.
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So for Sample, Georgia, just passed an Omnibus Bill that gets
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rid of the no excuse absentee. You need a vote.
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You need some sort of ID to get absentee, and a whole slew of
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other things that George is trying to do to remedy what
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happened in 2020. Basically that Federal control
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over and Congressional elections would take away that power.
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And if the Democrats are in charge, they can go and say,
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well, we don't care if these Republican state legislators are
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enacting laws to shore up their elections democrat-controlled,
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Congress can Go in and override them.
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It also declares that the photo ID is burdensome.
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And the voter registration procedure is purges of
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ineligible voters. Restrictions on mail-in voting
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rules against violence, phony other measures and states and
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municipalities have taken to guarantee.
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The Integrity elections are in fact restrictions on the right
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to vote. It also suggests.
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Of course, these forms of racial discrimination systemic racism
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because when all else fails just say something, it's racist.
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Automatic and online, voter registration.
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So this is Something we're used to here in California.
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The bill requires every state to make sure all eligible citizens
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are registered to vote in elections for federal office and
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less individuals opt out. So basically what this is is
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motor-voter mean is it automatic and online mean that they as
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soon as you're a person in the system, they try to register you
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you're allowed to change your personal information at polling
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places. So if on the day of you show up,
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hey, you can change your address and other information.
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And just right there at the polling place.
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You can also, if you are not a citizen and you vote.
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Well, there's no penalty for that.
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So that's not. So if there's no penalty and I
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guess there's more an incentive to vote same-day voter
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registration, meaning you can show up and register to vote.
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So, I mean that, that's scary because it would mean that
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anybody can just, if they're running low on numbers.
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Looks like they need to pump it up.
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They can just register a bunch of people and get them to vote
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right that day. This provision also includes a
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clause that requires same-day voter registration to be
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implemented in time for the upcoming elections in 2022.
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When it looks like the Republicans will take the house.
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How how advantageous you won't be able to get rid of in
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eligible, voter rolls. You can register to vote if
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you're under the age of 18, as long as you're over the age of
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16, you can't vote yet. Yeah, but you can start to vote
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or you can not start to vote, but you can register to vote.
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So that way they can get more people, more young people going,
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and you can keep going through this and going through this, and
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it just seems like it is an absolute Christmas.
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Santa wish list of what Democrats and how they view.
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They basically codifying, the stuff that they love to do to
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get away with stealing elections.
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Always mandating early. Voting.
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There's always been early voting so that's not really a big deal.
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But mandatory early voting. Nationwide vote by mail, meaning
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that the entire country will have to do mail-in voting
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because I went over so well in 2020, and you don't need a photo
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ID to do that. You can do ballot harvesting you
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allow 10 days for balance to be accepted after election day.
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So, you know, if you're persons behind, you still got ten days
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and you can get more ballots after election day.
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So, what's the point of having election day?
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If you can still get your ballot in 10 days?
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Days after election day. Let's see what else I got campus
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vote coordinators at colleges and universities ha.
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Look at that. Who votes for Democrats
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overwhelmingly in a certain majority in a certain age group.
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I would be College age. Kids overwhelmingly vote for
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Democrats. They're be they be gutting
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folder ID. Requirements by allowing
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would-be voters in person or mail to submit a sworn written
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statement signed by the individual under penalty of
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perjury. They're allowed to catch Ray.
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Go balance. Just like voters, to present
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photo. You can make, let's see,
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mandatory curbside voting. So you don't have to even get
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out of your car. Now.
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It's like a drive-through. It's just like driving through
00:14:16
McDonald's. You can just drop off your boat.
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Let's see statehood for DC. Okay, so you knew they were
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going to try and slip that in sooner or later.
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I don't know how well that's going to go over in.
00:14:30
This one is really really scary. The federal control of
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congressional district Maps, through independent
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commission's, notwithstanding evidence.
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At independent, redistricting commissions are actually run by
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democrats for their own partisan Advantage.
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The bill makes it mandatory for states to redraw their
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congressional districts, through such commission's, not, through
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state legislatures. Commission's, are required to
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show, racial ethnic economic, and gender diversity, as well as
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Geographic, diversity. This one scared me, probably the
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most why this is a big deal is because we just had a census and
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incense this year's state legislators get Redraw the
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districts. And a lot of times there is
00:15:10
gerrymandering gerrymandering is illegal.
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You can't do that, but it doesn't mean that you still
00:15:17
can't create a district, the way you want it to give yourself an
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advantage, especially in the represent House of
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Representatives. And this is obviously a ploy to
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take away the power from the state legislators, because there
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are now more state legislatures that control our that are
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controlled by Republicans. Me and Republicans would be
00:15:37
drawing up a lot of these districts for the next 10 years
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for the House of Representatives, giving the
00:15:43
Democrats, a huge disadvantage. Because now all of a sudden, you
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have these Republican districts that are drawn up by Republicans
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and it would put them at a disadvantage for the house.
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So obviously, they decided. Well, we're going to take that
00:15:57
power away from the states and we're going to give it to this
00:16:01
independent commission. Now, it sounds nice.
00:16:03
It sounds fantastic. This independent commission, but
00:16:06
we're all following ourselves to believe that it's truly going to
00:16:09
be independent. It's supposedly supposed to be
00:16:12
filled with bureaucrats academics and other private
00:16:16
citizens. Now who gets to say who gets to
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be on those independent commissions.
00:16:22
Probably the people in power. And if it's this case and it's
00:16:25
the Democrats, they're going to put their people in power and
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who thinks that academics are actually going to be nonpartisan
00:16:31
when they actually get the power to redraw these districts.
00:16:34
It do you think that's really going to be a bipartisan effort
00:16:39
if it's filled with government bureaucrats and academics.
00:16:42
It's probably not going it. It's going to be filled with
00:16:44
people who want to redraw the map to favor their political
00:16:47
party. I mean that's just common sense.
00:16:50
It's not going to be it's not going to be fair.
00:16:55
It's going to be skewed. One side.
00:16:57
The Democrats will continually get an advantage.
00:16:59
They're basically trying to get rid of the state legislatures
00:17:02
power to run their elections at all, which was the argument mind
00:17:08
you? This was the argument for a lot
00:17:09
of these States changing their laws, right before the 2012.
00:17:12
Presidential election was well, we're States and we get to do
00:17:14
what we want. We can change the election, how
00:17:16
we want? Or we can change our own
00:17:18
elections. Roll them how we want now that
00:17:21
they have Joe Biden and they have a democratically controlled
00:17:24
Congress. Now, they want to make it so
00:17:26
that the federal government controls how all these State
00:17:30
elections are done before State legislatures and all that was
00:17:33
fine. But now they don't want state
00:17:35
legislators to have control. So this one scares me the most
00:17:38
because it's just a blatant blatant attempt at grabbing as
00:17:43
much power and the fact that they throw in that, you also
00:17:46
have to show racial ethnic economic and gender diversity.
00:17:48
Ersity. Well, that's just straight out
00:17:51
of the democratic Playbook. Let's see, more commissions more
00:17:57
taxpayer money, new reporting requirements for companies to
00:18:00
build identifies limited, liabilities as potential
00:18:02
conduits, or foreign donations to domestic, super Pacs and
00:18:05
suggests Congress require llc's to identify their owners.
00:18:10
It's a new disclosures for corporations.
00:18:14
Who are interested? This is from Chuck, Chuckie
00:18:16
Schumer, who aim to restrict corporate participation
00:18:18
elections. This requires corporations to
00:18:22
certify, political activities are free from foreign
00:18:25
interference, including showing those involved in political
00:18:27
group. So basically if your corporation
00:18:30
can be under the watchful eye of the federal government, and they
00:18:35
can look into who you're donating to oversight of online,
00:18:39
political a advertising great. So you can't advertise online
00:18:43
anymore. Or if you're conservative, it's
00:18:44
most likely. They're going to ban you because
00:18:46
they don't believe with you today.
00:18:52
It will Deport. Honest is actually surprising to
00:18:54
deportation for aliens who violate election laws attacking
00:18:58
citizens, united in free speech for corporations to build to
00:19:01
Claire, Supreme, Court's decision, citizens united to be
00:19:03
erroneous, adding the Supreme Court's misinterpretation of the
00:19:07
Constitution to empower money to interest at the expense of the
00:19:10
American people and elections. As seriously eroded over a
00:19:12
hundred years of congressional action to promote fairness and
00:19:15
protect the elections from the toxic influence of money.
00:19:18
It recommends, the Constitution should be amended so that Grasan
00:19:21
States May regulate and set limits on the raising and
00:19:24
spending money. Okay.
00:19:25
Well then do that in Amendment. Don't try and shove this through
00:19:28
in a partisan bill. That's if your issue, is that
00:19:31
the constitution should be amended will then make an
00:19:35
amendment and go for an amendment, but don't try and
00:19:37
shove it through this way. Gift cards are reimbursements
00:19:40
for political donations under a pilot program, called my voice,
00:19:43
the bill creates a federally funded voucher program that
00:19:45
gives individuals $25 to donate to the candidates of their
00:19:48
choice. It also provides for federal
00:19:51
match. Six hundred percent the amount
00:19:52
cans for federal office, receive, and smile dire
00:19:54
donation. So your taxpayer money could be
00:19:57
going to fund certain political candidates.
00:20:01
It allows politicians to help use to use campaign funds for
00:20:04
personal use under a provision called The Help America run act.
00:20:08
The bill, legalizes. When a previously be considered
00:20:10
a violation of federal law, allows candidates for federal
00:20:12
office to use campaign donations for personal expenses.
00:20:16
Changing the composition of the FEC to become partisan.
00:20:19
The bill reduces the membership of the federal election
00:20:22
committees from 5625 members. Only two members can be
00:20:25
associated with a particular party.
00:20:27
Mean the fifth member is theoretically independent
00:20:30
though, nominated by President associated with a party.
00:20:34
So basically, you could only have two from each party.
00:20:38
So four of them, two Republicans and two Democrats, however,
00:20:42
whoever the the president and charges will Actually be a point
00:20:47
in the fifth person. So in this case, Joe Biden, cat
00:20:49
pic change in conflict of interest rules to Bar Donald
00:20:53
Trump for running though. Trump is not mentioned the bill.
00:20:56
Titans rules around conflicts of interest for the president and
00:20:59
vice-president though, make it hard for Trump to run again,
00:21:01
requires a president or vice president to vest all financial
00:21:04
interest. They could pose as a conflict of
00:21:06
interest for them, their families, or anyone with whom
00:21:08
they are negotiating, or who is seeking employment in their
00:21:10
Administration. And then finally changing the
00:21:13
FEC rules to require Trump or other presidential candidates.
00:21:17
Remember? This is all stuff to stop
00:21:18
people, like Donald Trump. Remember running not later than
00:21:21
the date. That is 15 days after the date
00:21:23
of which an individual becomes a covered candidate.
00:21:26
The individual shall submit to the Federal Election Commission,
00:21:28
a copy of the individuals income tax returns for the 10 most
00:21:31
recent taxable years, for which a return has been filed with the
00:21:34
Internal Revenue Service. Those are things that they're
00:21:38
anti-trump but Could come back and bite, a lot of these
00:21:42
politicians in the ass. I mean, I'd love to see if Nancy
00:21:46
Pelosi has to start disclosing her financial records and her
00:21:48
tax records. That would be fantastic.
00:21:51
But this is one of those scary, scary, scary bills that if it
00:21:55
does pass, and it does get signed into law.
00:21:58
You basically can kiss, one of the pillars of American
00:22:02
Republican of the American Republic.
00:22:04
Goodbye in the sense that It takes the entire wish list of
00:22:09
what Democrats want to do with elections.
00:22:12
That is mail-in voting. No ID, no penalties.
00:22:15
If you are not a citizen for voting registering, a large
00:22:18
number tax dollars to go, register a large number of young
00:22:22
people in the sense of 16 to 18 year old people get them all
00:22:27
ready to go when they turn 18 to get a campus turnout project so
00:22:32
you can get more people who are on campus has to go vote.
00:22:35
It gives Statehood to DC which would then give them two more
00:22:41
Senators, which is what we all know.
00:22:43
Same thing with Puerto Rico while they want to make Puerto
00:22:46
Rico State. It's not because all of a sudden
00:22:49
they believe Puerto Rico needs representation needs to be a
00:22:51
state. It's because they know that more
00:22:54
likely and not to get two Democratic senators out of
00:22:57
Puerto Rico. If it was a state, likewise are
00:22:59
going to get Port, two Democratic senators out of DC.
00:23:01
If it becomes a state, the independent commission is
00:23:04
probably one of the scariest things.
00:23:06
Cuz these are things and it's like the Democrats have
00:23:11
basically said we were upset that we lost fair and square
00:23:16
mind, you fair and square. They lost these state
00:23:18
legislators because the Republicans picked up and gained
00:23:21
more state legislators across the country there.
00:23:25
Now, Angry, that it's a census year and they fail to gain a lot
00:23:28
of state legislatures. So now they're trying to take
00:23:30
that power away from them and change the rules.
00:23:34
And there's, of course, a lot of people on the left who will say?
00:23:36
Oh well, why not have academics and bureaucrats redistricting?
00:23:40
Why should it be state legislators that are partisan?
00:23:43
Because an independent commission?
00:23:44
If you believe it's truly an independent commission, I have a
00:23:47
bridge to sell you. There.
00:23:50
There is no way. They are not going to be
00:23:52
partisan and especially when you put academics on a commission.
00:23:55
Do you really think they're going to be partisan?
00:23:58
Absolutely not. There's not a deluge of
00:24:01
conservative or Republican. Who Would One have the ability
00:24:05
even be put on a commission like this?
00:24:08
Instead, they would fill it up with academics that they love
00:24:11
from. Oh, I don't know.
00:24:12
Let's say Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Berkeley.
00:24:15
All those those schools that they love so much and that they
00:24:19
were filled with those academics and they get to redraw the lines
00:24:22
unelected people, that's not how the Constitution was set up.
00:24:26
The Constitution was not set up so that unelected bureaucrats
00:24:31
and academics can drop the district's for who Who and what
00:24:34
kind of representation we have the Constitution and this is
00:24:37
something I've been harping on the past.
00:24:38
Couple weeks is they've been trying to take more and more
00:24:42
power away from state legislatures in a concerted
00:24:46
effort, to make only one government and that is the
00:24:49
federal government to make it all one, government state
00:24:53
legislatures. Will essentially have no power.
00:24:55
And we've talked about this on my lives.
00:24:57
I've sure I've mentioned this once before, about the 17th
00:25:00
Amendment. Why Justice Scalia, the Great
00:25:03
Lakes? Justice Scalia said that that
00:25:06
was one of the starts of the downfall of the American
00:25:09
Republic was when the 17th Amendment passed thus, taking
00:25:12
more representation of voice, a bigger voice for the state,
00:25:15
legislators out of the federal government, but this is just a
00:25:19
blatant. Again.
00:25:20
This is just a blatant blatant partisan attack on State
00:25:24
legislatures and their constitutional Authority.
00:25:26
I would not be surprised that if this does actually pass, I hope
00:25:30
it does not. I hope it's Dead on Arrival in
00:25:32
the Senate and that they Don't work with, and I hope that maybe
00:25:35
even some of the moderate Democrats, like a cinema, or
00:25:39
Mansion turn around. Go.
00:25:41
We're not even voting for this, and they're won't even come down
00:25:44
to a 50-50 tie. It has to get past the
00:25:48
filibuster, filibuster. First of all, hopefully, someone
00:25:50
does filibuster this bill into the into into the, the
00:25:54
wastebasket of congressional bills, but I wouldn't be
00:25:59
surprised if there is a supreme court lawsuit for this.
00:26:03
Now, the Supreme Court has not been necessarily doing its job
00:26:09
as of late. It just kicked out, a couple
00:26:11
Sanctuary City lawsuits it obviously, did it did, an
00:26:15
about-face on the election lawsuit, saying, once that
00:26:18
there's no standing before the election and now they say it's
00:26:22
moot after the election. Then the Supreme Court really
00:26:27
hasn't been doing its job. It seems like there's really a
00:26:29
smaller and smaller number of people who really want to work
00:26:32
to preserve this Republic. And that's just this Thomas
00:26:35
Justice Alito and sometimes Justice Gorsuch have been kind
00:26:38
of always on the same three people.
00:26:41
Amy Coney Barrett kind of a letdown just as Cavanaugh kind
00:26:44
of a letdown guys, you know, really, really kind of a letdown
00:26:47
especially when you call yourselves members of the
00:26:49
Federalist Society. But anyway, this is a horrible,
00:26:53
horrible, horrible. Horrible.
00:26:54
I don't How many times does a? This is absolutely horrible.
00:26:57
Bill, it is so absolutely unbelievably partisan for the
00:27:01
Democrats to literally just go in and enact everything that
00:27:07
helps them. There is not one thing in this
00:27:09
bill that helps Republicans and they are, of course, going to
00:27:13
put it under the banner of, for the people and to increase voter
00:27:17
registration increase access to voting.
00:27:19
When in reality. It is an enormous payout and is
00:27:21
an or Esparza build more power in the federal government.
00:27:25
Which right now is controlled by democrats and Democrats seem to
00:27:28
do this a lot. They don't really think in long
00:27:30
terms that somebody might that the tables might turn and that
00:27:34
they might be on the receiving end of those.
00:27:35
But either way, this is absolutely a horrible Bill and
00:27:39
you look through and go. This is just an wishlist.
00:27:41
This is just what they want. They want Universal mail-in
00:27:44
voting. They want early voting.
00:27:45
They want 10 days after to keep getting ballots, because that
00:27:49
worked very well in the 2020 election.
00:27:51
This is scary. They are there.
00:27:53
Codifying the 2020. And what they did to get away
00:27:56
with it. And this is stuff that if this
00:27:59
does pass and become law, election Integrity is basically
00:28:02
dead and the United States of America because there are so
00:28:06
many levers that they will have control over that there.
00:28:09
There's no reason to even really worry about voting and elections
00:28:13
anymore. Now, within States, obviously,
00:28:15
you can vote for people and say they have no control over State
00:28:18
elections, but still, it does change the fact that if there's
00:28:22
an independent commission that determines, who's going to be
00:28:24
there. The House of Representatives for
00:28:26
the next 10 years or what districts are going to be
00:28:29
running for the next 10 years. That's a big problem because
00:28:32
it's going to be partisan as going to be true drawn to help
00:28:35
the Democrats male. Give Democrats an advantage in
00:28:38
the house for the next 10 years. And if it passes, it'll mean in
00:28:42
perpetuity. You wouldn't even be able to get
00:28:44
Republicans enough Republicans in the house to come back in and
00:28:48
get rid of this bill. So, it is a scary built.
00:28:50
I hope it dies. As soon as it gets to the
00:28:54
Senate. Hope it never comes back.
00:28:58
There are a lot of hopefully there are some cooler heads who
00:29:01
will prevail. There was one Democrat who voted
00:29:06
for for voted with the Republicans.
00:29:08
It went down party lines and it was narrow.
00:29:10
It went, it was 10. It was only attend, vote margin.
00:29:13
And there was one Democrat who did actually vote with the
00:29:19
Republicans. Let me see if I can pull that up
00:29:22
for you. I just want to see his
00:29:23
reasoning. Okay, here we It Go lone.
00:29:25
Democrat explaining this was in the epoch times alone, Democrats
00:29:29
explain why he sided with Republicans against HR 1 every
00:29:33
Democrat but one voted late March 3rd for HR 1.
00:29:36
They were joined by representative Bennie Thompson,
00:29:39
a Democrat from Mississippi, he explained my constituents.
00:29:42
Opposed the redistricting portion of the bill, as well as
00:29:44
the section on public financing. I always listened in boat, in
00:29:47
the interest of my constituents, it's very Noble of him.
00:29:53
That's basically all he says, He talks about the independent
00:29:57
legislation or the independent commission Americans, love
00:30:02
election season, they love the endless political ads.
00:30:06
Acts having their phones blow up by political calls and texts
00:30:08
having their email inbox has littered.
00:30:10
My phone keeps ringing off the hook from my constituents.
00:30:12
Just pleading for Congress to use their dollars to fund more
00:30:14
campaign. As this is, a fantasy world that
00:30:16
government bureaucrats and career politicians who want a
00:30:18
federal takeover, our elections living.
00:30:21
So, as represent of Carlos Jimenez of Florida, they want to
00:30:24
take Americans. And give it to the campaigns and
00:30:26
a 6 to 1 ratio effectively forcing your support political
00:30:29
campaigns. You don't support which I guess
00:30:32
is a violation of your first amendment rights.
00:30:34
I mean, it's forcing you to fund political parties and associate
00:30:38
with political parties that you don't necessarily agree with as
00:30:41
a former voting rights attorney. I've seen firsthand the
00:30:44
devastation on the faces of Americans when they were denied,
00:30:46
their ability to make their voice heard in our election,
00:30:48
because they miss an arbitrary deadline or showed up to their
00:30:51
pulled polling place. It's heartbreak and not who we
00:30:53
are as a nation representative Colin.
00:30:56
I'll rid of Democrat from Texas on today's vote.
00:31:00
We as a Congress, have the opportunity to affirmatively
00:31:02
expand access to voting. This bill would do so by
00:31:05
allowing for automatic and same-day registration and I'm
00:31:07
well, blah blah blah, make our elections more secure and will
00:31:11
ensure Americans and only Americans take part in them yet.
00:31:14
Okay, there are so many loopholes to participate.
00:31:19
If you are not an American in this whole thing, again.
00:31:22
It's a wish list and it should make everybody.
00:31:25
Turning you should be contacting.
00:31:28
Well at this point you can't really contact your house
00:31:30
Representatives. You should be contacting your
00:31:32
Senators. If you're lucky enough to live
00:31:34
in a Republican state and say, do not vote for this because it
00:31:38
is an absolute disaster of a bill, next hour call on talk
00:31:43
about is talking about Newsome again with his lobbying efforts
00:31:48
and we've talked about his lobbying efforts here in the
00:31:50
fact that people who are close to Gavin.
00:31:52
Newsom seem to always, always be at the front of the line when it
00:31:58
comes to getting awarded big lucrative State contracts.
00:32:00
And we talked about that with Plum Healthcare, though.
00:32:03
If you remember way back, when I talk about Plum, Healthcare at
00:32:06
the beginning, of all of this Plum, Healthcare is someone who
00:32:10
had close connections with the lobbyists who used to work for
00:32:14
Gavin Newsom. And they are put at the front of
00:32:16
the line and they were supposed to be taking over, and this was
00:32:20
before the whole Governor Cuomo thing happened.
00:32:22
They were supposed to be first. Line to get covid patients,
00:32:28
being put back into nursing homes.
00:32:29
So, this was way back in the day, but it was an example of
00:32:33
how you can always follow the money with Gavin.
00:32:36
Newsom. He's definitely a politician
00:32:38
that if you follow the money, you can see why he makes a lot
00:32:43
of the decisions he does. And this article is from, as
00:32:48
this, California p, c AP is that cap.
00:32:52
Radio is I supposed to be California.
00:32:53
Something Public Radio. You funny if this is actually
00:32:57
this public radio and actual article from public radio and
00:33:03
interesting. Anyway, we'll talk let's dive
00:33:09
into the article on the outside of the covid-19.
00:33:13
Pandemic. Lobbyists, Mark Weidman
00:33:15
wiedemann reached out to Governor.
00:33:17
Gavin Newsom is Chief of Staff with an offer.
00:33:19
Wait a minute client, manufacturer byd, you wanted to
00:33:22
donate fifty thousand mass and thousands of bottles of hand.
00:33:24
Sanitizer the state accepted within weeks, the state acting
00:33:28
no bid nine hundred and ninety million dollar deal with byd for
00:33:32
n95 and surgical masks which was later extended by Additional 306
00:33:36
million dollars over a billion dollars, of course, newsom's
00:33:40
office denies any wrongdoing, the interaction sheds, a sliver
00:33:44
of light into the shadowy world of lobbying and for no-bid
00:33:47
contracts. During the state's pandemic
00:33:48
response, while obvious have to disclose efforts to influence
00:33:51
influence policy legislation. They are not required to
00:33:54
disclose lobbying activities when vying for lucrative
00:33:56
contracts government. Ethics experts say that's an
00:33:59
area, that demands greater transparency in order for
00:34:02
California's understand how their government Awards
00:34:04
contracts. And Opportunities.
00:34:05
Especially as Newsom pushes to extend his emergency spending
00:34:08
Authority for another year. The nonpartisan Legislative
00:34:11
analyst's Office warns under the extension, there would be no
00:34:14
reasonable checks and balances on the governor's, covid-19
00:34:17
spending Authority. So the why it group lobbies for
00:34:21
three companies byd, Blue Shield of California, and Bloom Energy.
00:34:24
Hmm, didn't Blue Shield just get a big contract to be the one
00:34:29
person who helped get Who helped distribute the vaccines
00:34:33
introduced stain, they receive no-bid contracts ties, the
00:34:38
pandemic, the contracts range from 2 million to over a
00:34:40
billion. These companies found these
00:34:44
companies want executive contributed three hundred
00:34:46
Seventy-Six thousand two new Senators ballot measure
00:34:48
committee since men 2019 wiedeman.
00:34:51
Also represent specific six and investment firm that Lobby
00:34:55
Newsome to reopen a decommissioned Hospital during
00:34:57
the pandemic. The company, its Executives
00:34:59
contributed $44 to the government governor in the fall
00:35:03
weeks before the state gave the hospital.
00:35:05
Final approval to reopen the four companies paid weidman's
00:35:09
firm. It combined 1.2.
00:35:12
Million dollars in 2019 and 2020, but the full scope remains
00:35:19
opaque protecting the public from the spread of coronavirus
00:35:24
is the upmost importance to the administration newsom's press.
00:35:27
Secretary wrote in an email, contracts related to covid-19
00:35:30
are based on protecting the health of our residents and our
00:35:32
posted online for the public to review the State website listing
00:35:36
covid-19, contracts can be found.
00:35:38
If you click on this link, I'll include a link to this article
00:35:41
in the show. Announced Lopez, didn't address
00:35:44
a follow-up question about whether lobbying efforts for
00:35:46
these contracts should be publicly disclosed.
00:35:49
And, of course, they Stonewall them, they Stonewall them and
00:35:51
they Stonewall So the issue is and this is what the article is
00:35:57
getting to is that you don't have to disclose your lobbying
00:36:00
efforts. So in these a lot of these
00:36:02
no-bid contracts, a lot of these companies can bid but they don't
00:36:05
have to disclose their lobbying mean that you could bid or you
00:36:11
can discover or excuse me, you can donate to the campaign you
00:36:16
can donate to politicians, but when you get these no-bid
00:36:20
contracts, it doesn't really have to Go through the rigorous
00:36:23
disclosure of saying who was lobbying on your behalf.
00:36:29
There is obviously emails, we've talked about these emails with
00:36:32
byd. I mean, these lobbies make a lot
00:36:36
of money. I'm just looking at right now.
00:36:39
I mean, they byd paid Weidman group, $395 for lobbying
00:36:43
services and 2019 and 2020. Bob Stern, a former general
00:36:48
counsel to the California fair, political practices commission
00:36:50
said, the donation, doesn't raise any alarms or him.
00:36:52
He had that one could argue. Weidman is simply a shrewd
00:36:55
lobbyist playing by established rules the game.
00:36:57
That's not even an appearance problem.
00:36:58
He said this is how business is done in Sacramento.
00:37:01
That's a big problem. And I think there should
00:37:04
obviously be legislation. Someone pushing for reform of
00:37:06
this. It's going on going on to the
00:37:10
tip Blue Shield paid Weidman group $480 for lobbying
00:37:14
Services as well. In 2019, 2020, the white meat
00:37:18
group played no role in the decision by the state to award
00:37:21
the vaccine distribution contract Blue Shield.
00:37:24
Sure now is the $480 paid to the wiedeman group for lobbying
00:37:29
had nothing to do with the fact that Blue Shield is now handling
00:37:32
the distribution and it was an open contract, byd and Blue
00:37:36
Shield were weidman's groups. Top paying clients in 2019 and
00:37:39
2020. I think goes on to talk about
00:37:41
someone else. Newsom wants to expand and
00:37:44
extend his emergency spending Authority for another year.
00:37:47
According to his latest budget, proposal.
00:37:48
The emergency Authority is set to expire and doun June.
00:37:51
The pandemic is expected to last at least through the year, but
00:37:55
the nonpartisan Legislative analyst's Office says the
00:37:57
proposal raises various concerns is recommended the legislature
00:38:00
push for more oversight. The administration won't have
00:38:03
access to nearly unlimited funding in the budget year.
00:38:06
We'll have a memo requirements to notify legislature.
00:38:09
When funds are accessed in no requiring to report on how funds
00:38:12
are actually. On the state's covid-19 response
00:38:14
State lawmakers, including Democrats, a previous
00:38:18
experience, Lee expressed frustration about being
00:38:20
sidelined. During the pandemic response to
00:38:23
ensure earn a professor of political Communications at
00:38:26
University of California, Berkeley and University of
00:38:28
Southern California says, it's worth giving you some the
00:38:30
benefit of the doubt that these paint and contracts and
00:38:32
opportunities awarded a legitimately, and with the best
00:38:35
interest of Californians, big change for that.
00:38:38
Good faith from voters. He adds the administration
00:38:40
should be more forthright about Oh, the pandemic.
00:38:43
Contracts are awarded. There's no need right now to
00:38:46
show up with torches and pitchforks on the capitol lawn.
00:38:49
But Newsom owes it to the voters to provide the information so
00:38:52
they can see for themselves. Everything you did was on the
00:38:54
up-and-up. There are shortcuts that were
00:38:57
taken to try, not to harm anyone, but try to maximize the
00:39:01
benefit of people need tested blah, blah blah, but he argues
00:39:03
these shortcuts such a circuit bank by bidding.
00:39:06
Come with obligations. Transparency, is certainly an
00:39:09
ethical approach to making difficult decisions.
00:39:13
Now it's one thing to say. Oh, well the governor in
00:39:16
situations like this an emergency situation absolutely
00:39:18
needs the emergency power to make decisions quickly and there
00:39:24
are times when a governor needs to jump in and harness all the
00:39:27
abilities of the his government and do what he needs to do.
00:39:31
In this case with Gavin. Newsom.
00:39:34
It's a case of where there is smoke.
00:39:36
There is fire and it seems, there are too many of these
00:39:40
connections where the In group is paid and then the wider and
00:39:46
group then goes and lobbies. And then those companies that
00:39:49
were lobbied or paid for by like byd or Blue Shield, all of a
00:39:54
sudden, get these very very lucrative contracts.
00:39:56
Byd made a killing by making a billion dollars from the state
00:40:00
in our taxpayer money and Blue Shield made what three hundred
00:40:04
million dollars around there for the vaccine distribution, but it
00:40:09
is worth up to 15 million. Sorry.
00:40:11
I want to make sure the company is contributed.
00:40:13
He but the company contributed to $300 to Newsome's ballot
00:40:17
measure committee, since mid 2019, and they also pay this
00:40:21
widening group, almost half a million dollars.
00:40:25
That's, that's the sort of stuff that if you want to show that,
00:40:29
if there's nothing to hide, then there's nothing to hide.
00:40:32
And you can obviously, say look, we did everything on the
00:40:35
up-and-up. Here's the transparency.
00:40:36
Here's why we did it. Here's why we went with them.
00:40:39
Here's what they said was the best reason, but if it looks
00:40:43
like, And maybe there is an issue.
00:40:45
Maybe there is a deeper issue with the fact that this is how
00:40:48
sacramental works. And if this is really how
00:40:50
Sacramento works, that is an enormous problem that needs to
00:40:53
be rectified. And I think coming out of this,
00:40:56
it wouldn't be a bad idea if there was a way to get
00:41:00
bipartisan support for some sort of legislation that.
00:41:02
If this ever happens again, these no-bid contracts.
00:41:05
There has to be some oversight. There has to be oversight on
00:41:08
who's lobbying who and how they're getting their offers.
00:41:13
Or getting awarded these contracts and the government
00:41:15
because in reality, it is our tax dollars.
00:41:18
This is our money. This is what we're giving to the
00:41:22
state and believe me the state takes a good amount of our money
00:41:25
and for them to just callously say, well, we're just going to
00:41:28
give it here. Just give it to these companies
00:41:29
or this company. We know this lobbying group.
00:41:32
And we work with this lobbying group, there needs to be more
00:41:35
transparency as to where they're spending this money, and I can
00:41:38
understand why Democrats are starting to get frustrated up in
00:41:40
Sacramento, because they're left out in the Old with this and if
00:41:45
Newsom gives himself another year of emergency Powers.
00:41:49
It means that he can do this for a whole nother year and
00:41:52
basically, leave dollars legislature on a site.
00:41:54
Now, there hasn't really been a lot of pushback but it'd be
00:41:57
worth noting if there's going to be a lot of Democrats Who come
00:41:59
out of the Woodworks and say, hey we want to end your
00:42:02
emergency Powers which they could, they take the legislature
00:42:05
can come out and pass a resolution and and Gavin Newsom
00:42:10
emergency Powers anytime they want, but they so far.
00:42:13
I haven't really done anything because why not?
00:42:15
They're all in his party and they don't want to rock the
00:42:18
boat. But with the way, Gavin Newsom
00:42:20
is going. If he gets recalled or there's a
00:42:22
recall election and it looks like his political fortunes are
00:42:25
dipping. I wouldn't be surprised to see a
00:42:27
lot of Democrats who are going to go out of their way to me,
00:42:30
remove his emergency Powers. It Democrats can turn on each
00:42:35
other pretty quickly, and we're seeing that with Andrew Cuomo in
00:42:38
New York, but this is definitely an issue of transparency.
00:42:43
Say, I'll post the article, so you can read the whole thing,
00:42:47
follow the money, when it comes to Sacramento, and whatever
00:42:49
Gavin Newsom is doing. You can always follow the money
00:42:52
as to who paid them the most money.
00:42:54
Who donated the most money to this initiative, or to, his
00:42:57
wreak, his re-election, campaign, or whatever.
00:42:59
And what lobbying group is working with them because Gavin
00:43:03
Newsom is no stranger to lobbying groups.
00:43:04
And he's no stranger to getting asking for one of the combi has
00:43:09
two contributions. So with that, I'm going to end
00:43:13
for today. I want to get through those two,
00:43:15
big things, hr1. Read more about it.
00:43:18
There's a lot out there. You can definitely read more
00:43:20
about how terrifying this bill is and how scary this bill is.
00:43:24
Hopefully, it doesn't pass. Keep an eye on this one.
00:43:26
I'll be keeping a close eye on this one as well.
00:43:29
We'll be keeping an eye on the recall as that's coming up in
00:43:32
the next couple weeks and follow me on Instagram, California.
00:43:35
Undergrad at California underground.
00:43:37
You can email me, California on the ground.
00:43:39
I proton mail.com I end, you can follow my life, coughing
00:43:44
California politics, every night, every Wednesday at 9 a.m.
00:43:47
On Instagram. And until next time, I'll see
00:43:51
you on the next one. Thank you for listening to
00:44:17
another episode of California underground.
00:44:19
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