S1 Ep794: A sad day for Washington (3.30.26)

0:00I'm Brandy Cruz coming up today on Undivided Washington Governor Bob Ferguson signs the income tax into law, but can it be overturned in a legal challenge? Plus, despite the sad state of Seattle's economy, the socialist mayor seems to be pushing ahead with new taxes on businesses. And how no-kings protesters could be spending their time more productively. That and much more coming up today on Undivided. Remember, you can support our show for just $5 a month. Bye signing up at undividedpod.com. That's undivided, pod.com. Click on the banner that says support the show. Hello, hello and welcome to Undivided. Thank you for being here. Thank you so much for your commitment to giving common sense to come back. I'm Brandy Cruz. We had been pointing out that Governor Bob Ferguson in Washington state hadn't signed the income tax on millionaires in

1:02to law yet. And we talked about all the reasons that might be, but I think ultimately he was delaying it because by delaying signing the income tax in to law, he also delays the ability to collect signatures for an initiative, which when you think about it is about the shadiest thing you can do as a governor who claims that he cares about democracy. It's like, we care about democracy, but we'll pass an unconstitutional income tax that the voters of Washington state have opposed almost a dozen times and told us they don't want. And then we'll delay their ability to be able to gather enough signatures to put it on the ballot. That is anti-democratic. And so I don't want to hear anything from Bob Ferguson about how Donald Trump is a threat to democracy, but here's the moment this morning that he signed the bill into law and celebrated with all his friends. Yeah, you'll see all the likely paid for taxpayer fund signs they have calling it a win for kids, a win for tax fairness, a win for businesses. It's just absolute and that's the those are the

2:03lies that they're going to spread moving forward is that by passing an unconstitutional tax on millionaires, which is like 16,000 households in Washington that have the opportunity and the means to be able to flee that they're going to help kids in education that they're going to help families that they're going to help businesses. Keep in mind, there is nothing written into the income tax on millionaires that guarantees any of that. There's only like a 5% set aside to help pay for public defenders. The rest is what they're promising. Oh, we'll do this with that money. And who got only knows the money's going into the general fund. Lord only knows what kind of dumb stuff they're going to pay. They're going to they're going to use that money to spend on. It's absolutely insane. So here's a little bit of governor Ferguson. Of course, how does he have to sell it? You got to sell it with lies. It's for the kids. It's for families. It's for all these things. And then in case that doesn't work, you've got to sell it as being something that's going

3:04to help fight against Donald Trump. Washington families whose income is in the bottom 20% pay a whopping 13.8% of their total income in state and local taxes. While the wealthiest pay a far smaller percentage of their income. That's not fair and that's not right. It's also fair to say that this disparity was made much worse by President Trump's massive tax cuts for the wealthy, paid for, by the way, with cuts to necessities like health care and food assistance that have tremendous harm to the people of Washington state. Yeah, it's about Trump. All Trump's done this. No, you guys spent yourself into a massive deficit and you're just throwing anything at the wall. How can we get money? How can we get money? It's predated Donald Trump has nothing to do with Donald Trump. And also, as we pointed out, the income tax on millionaires is just going to turn into an income tax on everyone. It's what they've always wanted. That's why there's been so many legal challenges over the years and so many votes over the years that voters have rejected on the income tax because Democrats really, really want one. They haven't changed that. They haven't

4:05changed that decades-old desire. They want an income tax on everybody. That is what this lays the groundwork for. And I frankly, I will not feel bad for a single person who celebrates the millionaires tax and then winds in a few years when it becomes an income tax on them because we've told you like a million times and other people have warned you that that's where this is heading as well. And so he continues to frame it as a fight against Trump. The Washington DC is taking us backwards. The good news is here in Washington state. We're moving forward, everybody. We're moving forward. It's not progressive at all. You just signed the state's death warrant. It's the death knell of our state's economy. We're not going to be moving forward. If you call that progress, I want nothing to do with the version of progress that you're pushing in the state of Washington. Senator Jamie Peterson, the Senate Majority Leader of the Democrat in charge of the Senate, talks about how progressive they're being. This is a historic day for our state. I'm proud to be here today to celebrate

5:09the most substantial progressive tax reform in our state's history. Yeah, okay. Gotcha. So that happened today. Again, you know, we got word over the weekend that they were going to sign that thing into law. But now the fight begins. So now that it is officially law, the income tax is officially law. A few things can happen. There can be an effort underway. And I know there will be to gather signatures for an initiative to put it on the ballot in November. And remember, a referendum would be much easier. A referendum would be much cheaper to just say, hey, we want to do a referendum on that law. You just passed. But what do they do? Are they called an emergency? They call it a necessity. And so they, another anti-democratic move, undermine the ability of voters as enshrined in the state constitution to be able to basically have a check in balance on the laws that are passed by the people who are supposed to represent them. So you have the initiative route, which will happen. But then immediately today this morning, the citizen action defense fund put this out. They said that they have teamed up with former attorney

6:11general Rob McKenna to immediately file legal challenges because you can't file the legal legal challenge until the bill is actually law. So now that it's law, it says the citizen action defense fund announced today that it is preparing to file a lawsuit to challenge the constitutionality of the income tax that Governor Bob Ferguson is signing into law today. Following the release of a legal memorandum during the legislative session authored by former attorney general Rob McKenna, outlining the measure's constitutional defects. Catef has retained McKenna to lead the anticipated litigation effort. The organization expects to file sued within the next few days. And McKenna is the right man for the job. I think he also brings really a non even though he was a Republican, ran for governor as a Republican, I think he lends a lot of credibility to this and a lot of cross party trust in what he's doing. I think he has an immense amount of credibility. We had him on Sunday's or subscribers a few weeks ago to talk about the clear as Catef points out constitutional defects of the law. Let's start with the fact that this 1933 decision was followed by a series of

7:16other state Supreme Court decisions that have made it very clear that when the constitution says that property is everything tangible and intangible sub-genreship, that includes income. It was written and passed by the voters in 1930 to reach all forms of intangible property including income, including stocks and bonds and money. And this is not a matter of one Supreme Court opinion. It's a matter of just reading the language and the constitution. You'll notice those legislators always avoid doing that. They always avoid the question, how do you think income is not property? Are you telling your voters, your constituents, the taxpayers that they don't have a property right to their income? They never ever address that question, do they? Yeah, well actually, they have addressed that question once. Here's how Senator Jamie Peterson explained their argument that your income is not your property. Once it has become income, this is not, if you think about, I've been trying to think of good analogies to this, we sometimes have people who come into the

8:22United States, right? But they're not considered to have been in the United States because of the legal mechanism by which they got here, right? So there's a question about whether you're lawfully present. It's just an immigration idea. This is maybe make sense only to lawyers. I would like to see the attorney who's going to fight against Rob McKenna in court making that argument, please God. Yeah, it's kind of like people in the country illegally and that's how your income isn't really your property. I mean, choose your fighter. Is it Rob McKenna or is it that guy? I would think Rob McKenna, 10 times out of 10, although the challenge that they have before them is immense. There's a reason why Democrats did this now in the form that they're doing it. They 100% believe after the State Supreme Court ruled that the Capitol gains tax wasn't an income tax, it was an excise tax, which is the first state in the nation to come to that conclusion. We're all on our own in considering Capitol gains, an excise tax instead of an income tax, Democrats believe

9:27that the State Supreme Court will be stacked in their favor, that it doesn't matter how good and how sound the constitutional arguments that someone like Rob McKenna brings to them, that I guarantee Democrats, it's why like three or four of them on the State Supreme Court, they aren't running for their seats again. I guarantee Democrats behind the scenes have been counting votes and deciding whether now is the time to push this through again. And so in a sense, I mean, Rob McKenna is the guy for the job. He's absolutely the right person for the job. But I do wonder whether there's any strength of legal argument that can be made that can overcome the left wing bias of the State's high court. I really worry and I really wonder. I mean, if they ruled Capitol gains and excise tax, I don't see how they're not going to overturn 100 years of legal precedent and the will of voters to do this as well. And so that's why the initiative effort then becomes so important, so it's going to be a two-pronged approach. And I've heard a lot of hand-ranging over, should you wait to do an initiative until 2027, because this is a midterm cycle. There's going to be

10:32a lot of anti-Trump animus when it comes to, you know, voters in a state like Washington in November, is it good to have anti-Trump animus at a very, very motivated Democratic base voting in November when they're going to be pushed with this is a tax on the rich, this attacks on the rich, this attacks on the rich. I don't know. I think that's a legitimate concern, but I think you have to do it immediately. I just think you have to do it immediately. And this is where we need every single one of you. This isn't just a fight that we can say, oh, Rob McKenna and Catef have it. Oh, let's go Washington. You know, they're doing the initiative. I'll sign that and then I can back away and not do anything. Absolutely not. We need every single one of you to be messengers for the truth. And we need to make sure that people know what this is and what it is going to become. And when I say we need every one of you to be messengers for the truth, here's what that looks like. You're on social media, you know, all the time like we are. I'm sure. So you're seeing comments, whether it's friends, family, on other news sites and pages or whatever it is. And people are saying, oh, this

11:34is an income tax on millionaires. This is just on millionaires. This is just on millionaires. You need to be in those comments, pushing back. You need to be in those comments, setting the records straight. And when they say, oh, this is going to help kids and do all of these things, you need to be in the comments saying, there's nothing in the actual bill. Link the bill for them. Read it yourself. There's nothing in the actual bill that guarantees that. This goes into the general fund. So it's not enough for us, for other people who oppose the income tax to be using our platforms. Every single one of you, personal basis, in comments, friends, family, news organizations that don't cover it fairly, you need to swarm the comments with the truth. Because now we're in the fight of our lives for the state we love. And we already see what the exit is. I said on social media this morning, I've never seen someone so smart, do something so stupid. And I mean, Governor Ferguson. And yes, he is smart, cunning, you know, politically savvy. And this is something a stupid person does. If I were setting out to destroy a state, I would take all the steps that Democrats in Washington state have taken

12:38for the better part of 10 years. That's what I would do. And then my peace day resistance would be an unconstitutional income tax directed at wealth to really just send the rest of the wealth and the innovators and the job creators out of the state to Florida, and Tennessee, and Texas. If I wanted to destroy the state, I would do exactly this. And that's why I say I've never seen somebody so smart, do something so stupid. And it can only mean that he believes it's politically advantageous for him to do this. Because he knows it's done. The man knows what it's going to do to business. He knows what it's going to do to the state's economy. But he believes he's so secure in his position. If he can keep his base happy by, you know, whatever their little bubble they're living in is where they think for some reason this is going to be a good thing. I don't know who's convinced them of that. And so this is what he's done. He's done. So we have, what is it? March. We got eight months to save the state. We got eight months to save the state. Because if voters are willing to keep this, then Democrats will feel like they have a mandate

13:45and they have carte blanche to make it an income tax on everyone. So the fight begins in earnest today. Meanwhile, nobody's learning any lessons here. Before I dog on Seattle specifically, I will say Seattle had been getting better. Seattle had been on a positive trajectory under former Mayor Bruce Herald. And he was all talk less action, but saying the right things in a city where few people are willing to acknowledge that like, yeah, we have a crime crisis. We have a drug crisis. Police are good. Businesses are good. Sometimes at least saying that and acknowledging that is a good thing. And Bruce Herald was at least willing to do that. So when I say we were on a positive trajectory, downtown was looking a little bit better. The tourism numbers were rebounding a little bit. And then Pam, the dumbass is elect a socialist. And I'm sorry if I sound mad today. I know the show's called undivided, but electing a socialist who had almost no life or job experience is something a dumbass does. And so the socialist gets into office. And what did she say right after

14:47she was elected? She said, I'm going to pass new taxes on business. We will need to pursue new progressive revenue in order to fund our priorities and make sure that we're delivering services to the people of Seattle. And again, new progressive revenue. Whenever they say that, that means tax the rich, tax the businesses. Tax the rich, tax the businesses. So she says that and she can't paint on that. And she said that right after she won, I'm going to do this, okay? But then it's like, okay, you get into office and maybe it's a different reality. Maybe she was, you know, finally meeting with stakeholders and deciding, gosh, given the millionaires tax at the state level, given all the capital flight, given all the businesses, leaving Seattle, given the fact that the vacancy rate is above 30 percent in the offices down there. And the property values of retail and business spaces are plummeting. Maybe those campaign promises I made aren't such a good idea. And when she spoke to the Downtown Seattle Association for their state of downtown event a month or so ago, she seemed

15:49to be coming around to the reality that passing more taxes on businesses would make Seattle less advantageous place to be. I very much appreciate that it is not ideal for our tax environment, for businesses to be wildly out of step with neighboring jurisdictions. And I can clap for that. You can clap for that. So she's in a room full of business leaders, the state of downtown, downtown Seattle Association, it's a coalition of business leaders. After she campaigned on raising taxes on businesses and the wealthy, she'd reiterated after she won the election. And then like so many politicians, you get in a room and you speak to the room. You're like, oh, I want this room to like me. I want the people in this room to like me. So she tells all the business people, yeah, I get it that if we do this, then Seattle won't be on an even playing field to other places and businesses can easily move. And in the people in the room clap and I'm thinking to myself,

16:51don't clap. Don't clap until she proves that she understands. Don't clap because she stands in front of you and suggests that oh, maybe, oh, listen, no, you clap for her and you applaud her when she does the right thing. You don't just sit there like, oh, good for you socialist who hates businesses and wealth, but they clapped and guess what? She's right back to her old tricks. She had a town hall event over the weekend. This is from Center Square's coverage of it. Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson is considering new taxes on large businesses and wealthy individuals. She said, quote, my team's very hard at work looking for progressive revenue options, taxing the rich, taxing big businesses in a way that will be viable and practical. There's no viable or practical way to do that right now, not in this climate. They're already in an unprecedented situation given everything that's happened at the state level. You already in the city of Seattle have a tax that singles out big business

17:56and it's your jump start tax and just using Starbucks as an example of this, the Starbucks leaving for Tennessee, we talked about the reasons why it was more advantageous for them to be in Tennessee than it was in Washington state. One of the reasons is in Tennessee, you bring a high-paying job there. They give you a $4,000 tax credit per high-paying job. In Seattle, you have the nerve to give someone a high-paying job, the tax you for it. So you get taxed for and punished for it in Seattle and in Tennessee, you get rewarded for it. Oh my gosh, what a shock that Starbucks would open an HQ in Tennessee. And so when she says at this town hall, again, because now she's in front of a different crowd, a month ago, she was in front of the business community, oh, I want to seem like I'm reasonable and I don't want to be booed in a room. This is what political cowards do. If you really believe in what you're selling, you stand up in front of a crowd, you say it, even if that crowd is going to boo you. No, well, I understand this. No, you don't. And then you go

18:59to town hall, Seattle with all the loony liberals who have time after they're no kings, March. And you tell them, yeah, we're going to tax big businesses in the wealthy. You guys, I need you to bookmark this. March 30th, our episode. In two years, Seattle will be a graveyard. In two years, the vacancy rate in downtown Seattle will be at 60% for business spaces. Amazon will have moved more jobs out of the city. More businesses will have left. And it'll already be so bad that Democrats and Olympia are forced to re-evaluate the millionaires tax. And how are they going to re-evaluate it? They're not just going to repeal it. What they're going to say is, oh, those 16,000 households we were depending on for the income tax on millionaires, half of them have left. So now you know what we're going to do. We're just going to tax all of you. You guys, that is the plan. This isn't like right wing political commentator trying to fear monger. That is the plan. It has always been the plan.

20:03They've been carrying it out in stages for 10 to 15 years. They want things to be so bad and so desolate and desperate that they have no choice but to pass an income tax on everyone. So I'm not going to feel bad for people who are calling me a liar now and who in two to three years are going to be whining that now they have a tax on their income. So just mark it and I'll play it back for you in a couple years. But unless we win the legal challenge or we get the initiative on the ballot and we're able to successfully convince people this isn't just about taxing the rich, that is the trajectory that we're heading down. And even if we weren't, even if Bob Ferguson had come out and vetoed this income tax today, let me just make this point. The damage was done because you've already made a point as political leadership in a state that job creators and innovators and wealth aren't welcome here. And so they're not going to sit around and see what you're going to do to them next. They're

21:04just going to leave. They're going to leave. They're going to follow Jeff Bezos and Howard Sholtz to sunny Miami. They're going to follow Starbucks to Tennessee. And so digging us out of the whole that we're in is going to be a multi-decade job, even if we defeat the income tax on the ballot or legally speaking. It will be a multi-decade job to get us back to even where we were six years ago. I mean, I would say things were like, you know, not great in 2019 in Seattle. But the fun and all that stuff hadn't started in earnest. There were still people around who cared about job creators and businesses in the tech environment. So six years of damage will take 60 years to undo. You're going to stay in fight. I mean, I'm going to stay in fight. But it's like you also have to understand what you're up against. Sorry to sound depressing. All right, coming up next, we'll talk about the No Kings protests. First, we've got one day left in March. Well, today and then tomorrow. So two days left to take advantage of Valentine roofing's March promo or if you get a new

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23:08and Governor Bob Ferguson, who I think attended some events a little further north. And it's like they post these things. What does this even mean? What does this even mean? Nick Brown says, no hate, no war, no kings, no hate. Have you read one of these things? It's about the most hateful group of people you can imagine. I mean, last time I was at one, they were openly calling to assassinate members of Trump's cabinet. I can't tell you how many signs I saw that show Donald Trump being decapitated or killed. So it's like, when you say no hate, you are the most hateful group of people right now on the planet. And no kings, there are no kings. I agree with you on that. No kings. And you know what? As of this summer, that'll be 250 years without a king. And then here's Bob Ferguson. And I responded to him. I just said, what does this mean? He said, great to join the No Kings protests and shoreline and Edmonds today. It's inspiring to see so many people standing up for our democracy. Okay, put a pin in that for a second. As long as I am governor, Washington state will never bend the knee to Donald Trump. Look, what do what do you

24:12mean by that? He hasn't responded. What do you mean by that? In fact, I put that in my question to him, got more likes than his original post because a lot of people want to know, what do you mean? You'll never bend the knee to Donald Trump. But I think more so that line about it's inspiring to see so many people peacefully stand up for our democracy. Two issues with that. Democracy is how Donald Trump won. I don't know if you remember this because I mean, he was only a year and a half ago. He won an election fair and square by a lot. Popular vote, electoral vote, every single swing state. So how are you standing up for democracy by shrieking about the results of an election? That makes no sense. And then when he talks about peacefully, yeah, a lot of people were peaceful. But there was a lot of people who were not peaceful and both in words and action. I mean, there is some violent rhetoric that happens at these no-king marches. But then down in Portland, in San Indian Portland, per the usual outside the ice facility there,

25:16worse than it had been over the summer even, with people climbing walls trying to break down barriers, hucking stuff at ice agents, losing their ever loving minds. There was this interesting moment, though, and it tells you everything you know about these people. You see this is the gate outside the ice facility. You see them tear it open and then celebrate. Guess what they didn't do, though. They didn't go inside. It doesn't tell you everything you need to know about this group of people. They won't, you see, you'll be in the entrance. But usually if you're like, you know, trying to storm the gates and you've spent 20 minutes trying to pry gates open, isn't it usually to get on the other side of the gate? Am I crazy? Like, isn't that what happened with the storming of the embassy in Toronto those years ago? It's like, they tore it down and then they went inside, and they held people hostage. So it's like, you're acting like tough guys. Oh, we're going to get inside and then you open the gate and you're like, we're good out here because they're so scared

26:17of what Trump's DHS might do to them and arresting them. And you know, who only knows why? Because at that point, I would almost argue deadly force might be warranted at that point because what are they trying to do? Breach the gates. But that happened in two places where they were tearing down gates, but then they just stayed outside. I'm sort of like, you guys really are low tea. It's kind of delicious. I thought Scott Jennings made a good point about, and this is true, really wherever you saw the No Kings protests over the weekend about really what it says about this movement on the left. These No Kings rallies actually look pretty representative to me of the Democratic Coalition. I saw people flying the hammer and sickle in New York City. I saw Hezbollah flags. I saw Hamas flags. I saw Palestinian flags. I saw trans signs. I see weirdo liberal boomers out there. This is pretty representative of the Democratic Coalition. And that's who funds it as well, by the way. And so I think, I think, I think, I think if America looks at this and says, what are the two parties stand for? They got it at the No Kings. No, I think if you are

27:18Americans, they're out there. You're out there. The public. You like hammer and sickle? You like hammer and sickle flag? That's not what that No Kings did for. They had a bunch of that in that. Because of somewhere. Yeah, I mean, they're everywhere. And that's what thing is like, okay, well then denounce it. There's communist flags. There's flags like, you know, pro-Iran, pro-the-regime. It's like, wait a second. You're protesting against a king in America, but you're like sad for the Ayatollah? That makes no sense. And none of it does. But I post a video on social media from my couch over the weekend with some thoughts on this that went pretty viral. And I think there's a reason because a lot of people feel this way. So I'll just sort of reiterate what I said in this post. I will also reiterate that it really pisses me off when the videos on my couch where I have no makeup on look like straight trash do much better than the other videos where I look beautiful and put together, but I digress. You know, as someone who didn't like Trump for a very long time, mostly because of sort of what I saw as his personal shortcomings and his personality and all

28:20of those things, it really blows my mind that this is the place that the Democratic Party is choosing to put its energy. And that they really have learned no lessons from the last decade, no lessons whatsoever. I mean, when Donald Trump won in 2016, and do you remember just the shock in the tears on the faces of the people who were gathered at the Hillary Clinton event, who totally expected her to win because the media and everyone was saying that Donald Trump had a 1% chance of winning and just the shock and horror. I mean, I'll remember that like yesterday. I was covering it for TV news and I was at the Republican Party watch party returns for the Washington State Republican Party and everyone in the room was shocked because they believed the pollsters, they believed all this and they couldn't, you know, so they were celebrating and I remember them laughing at the Democratic Party at the Hillary Clinton headquarters where they're just crying and Hillary Clinton didn't even come out. That could have been a turning point for the Democratic Party and at that time, I supported, I voted for Hillary Clinton. So just keep that in

29:24mind. That could have been a turning point to say, how did we lose to Donald Trump? How did this happen? And how do we look in the mirror and fix our party? If we really think he was that horrible awful of a candidate and a human being, he still beat us. So how do we fix that? No, they couldn't do that. They they obsessed for the next four years on trying to get him out of office, not trying to figure out how he got into office in the first place, but trying to get him out of office by any means necessary, law fair, all of it, vilifying using the media, vilification, all of these things. Never once did they were they introspective. And then Biden came in and Biden won in 2020. And I don't know if they just thought, well, that fixes everything. So Donald Trump, this person who they tried to impeach twice, who they convicted of criminal charges, who'd been vilified by the media nonstop, who they like, you know, all these personal shortcomings, then he wins again in 2024. This guy who they said was a threat to the existence of

30:30our nation, wins again. Again, they had a chance to say, gosh, guys, what's it's got to be us, right? Because now he's one twice. So maybe it's not him. Maybe it's us. This guy who we think is horrible, who does have all this baggage, two impeachments, January six, criminal charges, convicted felon, all of this stuff. And he's still one. So, but rather than after the 2024 election, the Democratic Party do a little huddle and say, all right, guys, hear me out. Maybe we took things too far. Maybe we took radical gender ideology too far. You know, calling people big it's if they won't call dudes a chick and let dudes be girls in sports. Maybe that's too much. The poll show people don't like it. Or you know what? Maybe millions of people pouring into our country, unvedited across the southern border. Maybe we took that too far. Maybe we just real some of that back in. And then something like this will never happen again. And then in the

31:302028 election, we'll win. They didn't do any of that. Instead, perpetual victim mentality. It's not us. It's him. It's not us. It's the stupid, racist, bigoted Trump supporters. 80, what 83 million Americans? All of us are the problem. Democrats are not the problem at all. They want no introspection. They're not going to solve anything. They're still trying to force boys into girls sports, calling us bigots if we oppose it. They're trying to, they're vilifying ice. Won't even be a little realistic and give Trump credit for the border and say, hey, maybe we should buy into this border security thing a little bit. None of it. And they really think there's going to be a different result in 2028 if they keep it up. And I do think they'll do well in the midterms because that just historically is what happens. Party at a power does better. The war in Iran, the gas prices, I think will help them out a little bit unless there's some sort of drastic change. And then they're going to be like, see all of our no kings protests worked. Donald

32:31Trump lost, it is party lost the midterms. But they're still going to do nothing to fix the real reasons why Donald Trump won in 2016 and 20, won in 2020. Because it's easier to be a whiny victim than it ever is to look in the mirror and try to fix yourself. And so Democrats are just asking for it. They are not the party of regular people anymore. And I'm not saying Republicans are necessarily, you know, I don't like either party very much. But the sort of woke nonsense that you saw on display at these no kings protests over the weekend and that the Democratic Party continues to push deeply unpopular policies. That they're not the party of normalcy. They're not the party, it is common sense versus insanity, normal versus abnormal, normal versus strange. And they just

33:33continue to want to be the weird fringe strange party and they won't learn anything. They're incapable of learning anything. All right, we'll get to our segment. The Seattle Times is trash coming up next. First, if you are a small to midsize landlord in the state of Washington, consider becoming a member of the rental housing association of Washington. It's about $260 a year to be a member. And there's a lot of things that you can get out of that membership. They have events on housing all across the state. They can help you on an individualized basis. If you have a couple rental units and you're having a difficult time navigating the complex world of constantly changing rules and regulations at the local county and state level. And then your membership dues also help pay for their lobbying efforts down in Olympia to try to make sure that they stop some of the bad housing policy before it becomes law. So rhaw.org rhaw.org. It is Washington's trusted resource empowering housing providers. And with that, let's get to our segment that we don't do often enough, which we really should. The Seattle Times is trash. Straight garbage. Zero self-awareness.

34:44There is an entity on earth besides the Democratic Party that has less self-awareness than the Seattle Times. So Danny Westney, who's a columnist with the Seattle Times, he wrote, I mean, it's like an SNL skit. He wrote this headline over the weekend, fall out from bad government in Washington. There won't be any. And in it, he basically talks about how horrible Democrats are from a leadership perspective and says, but there's no consequences for them in a deep blue state like Washington. He says it's a generational failure of Democrats who run everything around here that they have gotten away from government needing to work. For starters, when government fails, it helps the small government argument. It's also just bad for your own constituents. There's not an obvious immediate way out of this spiral other than to appeal to Democrats to reform themselves. So they're basically saying, you know, because Republicans can't win anything around here. And Democrats just fail at so many things in government. But he says, well, that's just the way it is. And then of course, makes it about Donald Trump.

35:46Says the political reality, though, is they don't need to. Not with one Donald Trump lurching around breaking things and threatening the Democratic order. Voters are far more keyed up on that understandably than they are the boring, but important expenditure of local taxpayer dollars. So in here, he's saying, oh, voters are understandably more upset about Donald Trump than they are about the politicians in their own backyard ruining everything. So coming from anyone else, I would say, yeah, that's a valid argument. It is true. Democrats can do virtually nothing in everything. They can ruin everything or they could just do nothing. Collect a paycheck. And they'd still get elected in Washington state because voters here are so spun up on Orange Bandbat. So the premise of the article is absolutely true. But what the Seattle Times and Danny West need ignores is his own newspapers culpability and all of that. And that his own newspaper and he personally has contributed to an environment where Democrats can get away with

36:48doing a horrible job and still get elected. For instance, he points out this fraud issue that's been happening in King County specifically. He says a decade ago, when King County First asked voters for $392 million in property taxes for the best starts for kids program, the only group opposing it called itself smart choices. King County, it turns out some of the groups started taking the money, but not doing the work. Somewhere obvious scams would one county employee called a blatant misuse of funds, but with little oversight, the county kept right on paying out the money and fired one employee who called attention to possible fraud. So he's talking about this real scandal that's plagued King County with money that and this isn't just exclusive to this program. But a lot of this happened in 2020 and 2021 with racial justice programs with like take millions of dollars and we're never going to have any oversight or accountability for any of the money. And so he points out the problems with that program and then he says this, the person most responsible for King County's grant making boom in the period at issue 2019 to 2025 was the

37:52King County executive back then, Dow Constantine. He was also the force behind the ad hoc style of the best starts for kids in steering grants to higher risk untested community groups. He moved on to become the CEO of Sound Transit. So he points out that Dow Constantine, who presided over this failure that led to all this fraud, that he was the guy and he also failed up and he got this really lucrative job as the CEO of Sound Transit, where he is shockingly already failing. But again, I must point out the whole premise of this article is about how Democrats can do a crappy job and get away with it. And the Seattle Times in this article saying Dow Constantine was able to do a crappy job and get away with it doesn't point out that they repeatedly endorsed Dow Constantine for office. They endorsed him in 2021 when he was running for his third term. They recommended Dow Constantine

38:53for King County executive and they did that in 2021 despite the fact that when they endorsed him in 2017 for that same job, they said at the time he wasn't really doing a good job. They endorsed him in 2017 but said Dow Constantine is the only choice for King County executive but that doesn't mean he doesn't have room for improvement and they go on to explain all these ways that he's not doing a good job but they were still endorsing him for his second term. And then even though he didn't do a good job in his second term, they still endorsed him in 2021 for a third term. Was it a third and then the fourth? I think it was his fourth. I think 21 21 was his fourth term or is that his third term? One of those two. He was in office for a long time and the Seattle Times endorsed him every step of the way. Despite the fact he was doing a horrible job and then Danny Weston with the Times wants to be like, gee, Democrats can really get away with doing a horrible job with very little repercussions. Yeah, because of people like you and people like your newspaper.

39:54Who else have you guys endorsed? Bob Ferguson over and over and over for AG for governor and then you're now in the same pages of your editorial paper criticizing all the policies. You criticized him last year for fast and largest tax increase in state history. Then you criticized him this year for passing an unconstitutional income tax and you throw your hands up and be like, gosh, how is this happening? How is this happening? Yeah, you just have to look around your own newsroom to figure out how in part this is happening because the media plays a huge role in one political party having complete control of our state and never being held accountable for anything, even when they do things that are clearly wrong or incompetent. Now, I did Seattle Times is trash. So I have to give Seattle Times a little credit on one thing. So ever since the war in Iran started and gas prices started to go up, which is a reality. Local news stations have been acting like that is the only reason why our gas prices in Washington state are 40 percent higher than the rest of the nation as if we have like a direct pipeline from Iran. And I've been criticizing,

40:59I mean, Cuomo, King, all these things saying, oh, gas prices start through the roof in Washington because of the war in Iran. And the Seattle Times is the same thing except they finally came to their senses over the weekend and published this. Why Washington gas prices are so high? It's more than just the Iran war. No shoot. Of course it is. And I retweeted it. I said, was that so hard? And in it, they get into all the dirty details. They said, prior to the conflict, pump prices in Washington were already more expensive than in any other state except why in California. And they said, why? Well, gas prices are a reflection of the cost of crude oil, transportation and refining costs, state and federal taxes, and Washington's climate laws. They even acknowledge something that Democrats and the Seattle Times long refuse to acknowledge that the Climate Commitment Act, which is our cap and trade system, has contributed to the high gas prices here. I mean, it only took them like four years, but here's the Seattle Times finally acknowledging why gas prices are like what, almost six dollars a gallon in Washington state right

42:01now? Absolutely insane. So the Seattle Times is trash. However, I'm glad they finally came around to report the truth on what's happening with gas prices. And yes, part of that truth is Iran, because we're intellectually honest. So we will acknowledge all the factors contributing to high gas prices, not just the factors that fit a political narrative. All right, speaking of political narratives, the battle over the TSA continues. And also, you could become a millionaire. I am giving you a surefire way on the show today to become a millionaire in a matter of a couple years, okay? So you're going to want to hear this. First, our friend West Jones, if you're thinking about fleeing the state of Washington over the income tax or really any of the other many, many reasons to do so, reach out to our friend West Jones at sellwithwest.com, sellwithwest.com. Our West and his team have a fantastic marketing strategy to make sure that your listing stands out and you get more feed in the dorm or offers on the table. Our friend Preston, who's an undivided

43:01viewer and listener, used West to sell his home. And he said the service he got was just phenomenal. He works out of East King County, so he deals with multi-million dollar homes. My house is not anywhere near what he sells, but he made it feel like I was one of his biggest clients. I had some really stupid questions I feel like and chat GPT can answer them. So I feel like I was a more unreached out to every sometimes and she had a lot of grace with her answers. So just him, the way he puts it, ease, way he treats you like the most important client and just so his whole staff out there. I love to hear that. I love that our average heads are treating you guys well and he was able to sell his house for over list price. It's one thing to be nice and helpful. It's another thing to deliver results at West did both. So go from sellwithwest to sold with West, go to sellwithwest.com. You can peruse some of his recent listings that have sold and what he's been able to achieve for other clients and then you can ask him for a free market analysis if you're thinking about selling your home and he'll just sort of give you a lay of the land in your specific neighborhood, how long you might expect your house to sell, where to price it, all of those

44:05things. So sellwithwest.com. It really just is a better way to sell your home. All right, TSA agents are getting paid kind of sort of a little bit. So President Trump came out and he directed his new Secretary of Homeland Security, Mark Wayne Mullin to immediately pay our TSA agents in order to address this emergency situation and to quickly stop the Democrat chaos at the airports. So basically tried to find a workaround to say this is an emergency and just direct a DHS, just find a way to pay them. So does it really work like that? Kind of, I guess. So Fox News reported, Brook Taylor, who's a reporter with Fox News. She went out, spoke to a few TSA agents in Houston. She said, both tell me they received a paycheck this morning, but it was only half of what they were owed. She went on to say one of the TSA agents came from Oklahoma and was sent here to help because of staffing shortages. The other TSA agent works here and today is her first day back. The general consensus is that agents are still very frustrated. They're glad to be receiving payback, back pay.

45:08But they're still behind on bills and worry about future paychecks. So it sounds like they got some money today, which is great. Wasn't everything that they were owed certainly isn't all their back pay. And then Bill Mulusion with Fox says, Caroline Levitt says President Trump wants Congress to end their two-week recess and come back to DC to end the DHS shutdown. A shame that any of them would have left, frankly, Democrats and Republicans. A shame that any of them would have left. And not only do we have the TSA disaster, it continues to be a disaster. I traveled over the weekend. I went to Vegas for just one day in the sun because the rain was depressing me so much. I had to go sit by a pool. But in the airport was just fine, Las Vegas. But I still saw some video from other airports where it is completely unacceptable, completely unacceptable for Congress to be on a recess while their actions are contributing to that. And I had read that some airlines were shutting down their preferential kind of members of Congress can get through the airport lines faster

46:10in certain airports. And apparently some airlines were shutting that down, which they should. But there were still videos of members of Congress, again, Republican and Democrat bypassing those long S TSA lines that all the American peons had to sit and stand in. Can you imagine being in a three-hour long TSA line with your children and or just by yourself and watching a member of Congress get escorted past the line to their little two-week vacation? It's insane. It's absolutely insane. And then so Trump says, hey, let's try to get them some money, which is a good thing. If he has a way to do that, absolutely do it. But then this Democratic member of Congress was on face the nation, upset that Trump had found a workaround to pay TSA agents. What did Democrats get out of this standoff? Yeah, well, Margaret, the standoff is not done yet, right? The president is illegally paying apparently TSA agents. We're up to your minds. First of all, play that on

47:15repeat. You're really going to be mad. You've been saying, oh my gosh, we have to give them, we have to start food banks at airports and look at Republicans are doing to them and they're going weeks without pay and all this stuff. And then you're mad because you say, well, Trump's illegally paying him. Please sue over that. Please like try to block Trump from finding a way to on an emergency basis, pay TSA agents because that would just go over swimmingly. But really, I mean, the whole thing is insane. Not and I know the TSA is getting a lot of attention because it impacts everyday Americans in a really profound way. But I mean, how many lone wolf attacks did we have after Iran? And those are going to continue to happen. We have the World Cup coming up. The Department of Homeland Security plays a huge role in security for the World Cup. We have games in Seattle. And so you're literally risking lives, risking national security because it's a midterm election and you want to have some leverage and so chaos, so President Trump's party loses.

48:18It is bad as government can get. And it's why I just refuse to be a member of a political party because they will both play games with American lives and livelihoods, both of them will. Right now, I absolutely blame this on Democrats, but let's not pretend that Republicans haven't done it as well. All right. I told you guys, I have a surefire way for you to become millionaires in the next couple years. And even us, maybe we can become millionaires because contrary to popular opinion, I'm not a millionaire, not yet anyway. But the lefties really think that I'm breaking in like a hundred million year and have sold my soul to do this podcast. So the federal government and Treasury Secretary Scott Besson, there's always been sort of a whistleblower type program with the federal government. But now they're going to give whistleblowers who detect and find evidence of fraud up to 30% of the money recovered in finds when they put people in prison and take people to court. Think about that for a second. I mean, Nick Shirley is going to be rich

49:22if he's able to do this. So this is what Scott Besson said. President Trump has been clear that Americans have a right to know that their tax dollars are not being diverted to fund acts of global terror or to fund luxury cars for fraudsters. At Treasury, we follow the money. We did it with the mafia. We have done it with cartels. We're doing it with the Somali fraudsters. We're going to offer whistleblower payments to anyone who wants to tell us the who, what, when, where, and how this fraud and money laundering has occurred. And I mean, they've got fraud that's been undercovered by independent journalists in California, both daycare fraud, but also the fraud happening with the votes. Obviously, this would have to have some sort of nexus to a federal program in order for you to get this sort of payout. But think about that. I mean, we had independent journalists on this show in Washington state who uncovered clear evidence of fraud within daycare programs here to the tune of tens of millions of dollars. So if they're going to give you 30% of that, not only is this going to be a tremendous incentive for more citizens and independent journalists to look into this fraud,

50:25because it's either, and you might think, well, that's a lot of money for the government if you're trying to recover stolen funds, right? It's a lot of money for the government to give to the to the whistleblower. But without the whistleblower, you'd get nothing back. So I think 30% is very reasonable. But like you uncover a 10 million dollar fraud, you might get three million bucks from the federal government. So not only is it going to, I think, incentivize people to look into these things. But the people who are within the fraud circles themselves, like let's say you're not the one actively committing the fraud, but you got to aunt that you don't even like very much who's running like a fraudulent daycare out of the house. Turn around. You don't mean people are going to do that. Oh my gosh, 100%. If I had some sort of family friend or something and I knew they were running a fraudulent daycare, and I knew I could make a cool million dollars by turning them into the federal government like that. I mean, they were already like fraud adjacent. They got no, they don't care. So I think this is going to be absolutely fantastic. So it says, um, must result in order

51:30for you to get the money in must result in enforcement action by the Treasury or Department of Justice that results in monetary penalties exceeding a million dollars. So it would have to be a fraud that added up to more than a million dollars. So the reward amount will be not less than 10% of what has been collected of the monetary sanctions and not more than 30%. So I think a couple things have to happen. Like I said, it has to have a federal maxes, but then they have to get the money back. So let's say you've got a Somali fraudster and they defrauded the government of 20 million dollars. But then they went and like sent it overseas and you can't find the money. Until they can get the money back, then you're not going to get a payout from the federal government. But to me, like literally Nick Shirley is going to be a millionaire overnight. We got to get on some of this. Get that quick cash from the government in a settlement. I love that. All right, Rob Schneider thinks America needs to bring back the draft or do compulsory military service, similar to Israel. I think it's two years, isn't it? That Israeli youth have to spend in some sort of military service. So Rob Schneider says, ask not what you can do for your country,

52:36but what you can do for you, John F. Kennedy. We must once again recommit ourselves to one nation under God, indivisible. Therefore, we must restore the military draft for our nation's young people. Each and every American at 18 years of age must serve two years of military service. That's not really a draft. I think he's that's more of compulsory service. They could also choose to serve part of that time overseas or in a country and a volunteer capacity. Being a citizen of the United States gives us unparalleled freedoms and opportunities that are the envy of the world. However, these freedoms that we cherish do not come without a cost. So I asked you guys in our daily subscriber show poll on Patreon, Locals, and X. Do you agree with that? Do you believe that there should be a brief US military service two years that is compulsory for Americans after high school, or you could call it after college or whatever makes sense? Now, Rob Schneider is saying it could also be time spent, you know, and I like the idea of sending them to a third world country to go feed the poor and see people who really have it bad. So you don't whine and complain after Ivy League education that life is so hard for you. So Nicole, yes or no? I like the idea. And I

53:41saw a lot of people criticizing him for not having been in the military himself and suggesting this. However, I think times have changed because I think back when he was a child, people were more appreciative. People had seen a couple wars and had this, you know, patriotism already installed. I mean, there was, of course, you know, the hippies and whatever. But for the most part, it was a different time. And right now, we are seeing this extreme lack of patriotism. Yeah, they didn't have the victim mentality. No. I mean, they didn't even really know what that was. Right. And if you don't understand what it's like in other countries, I see that, I mean, the No Kings protests are exactly like a great example. Exactly what he's talking about. You think that we live under a king. We are nowhere close to a king or any other kind of government, you know, government set up. Yeah. Like, do you have to either any other celebrating Iran and Cuba? Right. Oh, my God. I'm going to go save Cuba. Yeah, the victim mentality is off the charts. And I would be, I would be supportive of either military or some sort of approved volunteerism in the United States or overseas. I don't think it necessarily has

54:46to be overseas. But I think overseas in some third world country would be beneficial. Very evenly among our subscribers, 48% say yes, 52% say no. Deborah says no, costs are too high with little reward. I do like the idea of public service options of some sort for ownership to your community, reward for service on some capacity that could be like, help you pay educational benefits. Yeah, like in America, hey, you have to have, you know, two years of volunteerism or something like that. I wish there'd be more of that at a, you know, at a high school level or in college like required to graduate. Yeah. Let's see. E said mandatory four years if we had it antifa would not exist. Yeah. Oh, Rick said it worked for me. I was drafted and wound up staying in for 25 years. Jim says it works for Israel. And I think that's why you have Israelis who are so loyal to their country and so proud of their country. Alex says not forced, but it should be highly encouraged, especially if you don't know what to do after high school. Well, and they try to

55:48encourage it in some ways like offer you to pay for your college or to pay you back for your college. There are some incentives that you can get. I mean, my best friend Johnny, he enrolled after in the military after college and got his college paid for, which I thought was really nice. Vicki says public service for those not interested or able to do the military and I would support it, bookworm. Yes, my only thought is the kids who need it most would be the ones who would come up with some way out of it. Medical reasons or mental health or something. I think I've got to throw it back in the European countries that still do. Or they, or he could just move via. They just lowered the fee for renouncing your U.S. citizenship. So that might not be at back. So you can have Nick Shirley. I mean, it's a Mormons go on missions, right? He's been on a mission, came back and appreciated this country a little bit more. I think that's a, you know, it's a value that we don't install in kids anymore. Well, I mean, there really are very few places you can go in the world that will not make you appreciate the United States of America. I mean, there are a lot of beautiful places. Don't get me wrong. There are a lot of great countries. But I think you stay for any length of time and you start to understand the relative autonomy

56:52that you have and the freedom that you have in America. Yes, we are the greatest nation. Okay, we'll get to her comments from the livestream coming up next first. So speaking of increasing costs for businesses in Washington state and all these new taxes that they're facing, you know, one of the inescapable costs of running a business as I know well is insurance. You have to have insurance for a variety of reasons. I mean, we need all sorts of insurance here at the Undivided podcast, weird insurance, like in case anybody wants to sue us, things like that that you just wouldn't think of. But thankfully, I have my friends at First Mark Insurance to help me out and navigate that world that was brand new to me as a first time business owner. And our friend Dave Taylor, you know, who's the CEO of First Mark, look, they're a Washington business too. So they understand how important it is to try to help you keep costs down. We're seeing the impact of just increased cost on businesses like their increased cost for their, you know, their workers comp, the LNI stuff, all the stuff they have to go through to maintain their business. Yeah. And then insurance, it just is one of those items that's

57:52increasing right along with it, the property values, you know, and rates for property insurance are going up. So yeah, so it's tough on business owners for sure. Yeah. And so he gets it. He's one of you and he wants to help you navigate it. So firstmarkinsurance.com, firstmarkinsurance.com, take the first mark challenge today. They work for you, not the insurance companies. So they always have your best interest in mine. All right, some comments from the live stream. Nicole, you want to join us for comments on Bob signing the income tax bill. Moon goddess says, can't tax millionaires that aren't here. True. Millionaires aren't going to be here in a year or so. So who's going to be left here to tax non millionaires, AKA the rest of us. So fatigued. I know I'm fatigued too. And I can't really, I can't really be fatigued, but it is depressing. It is depressing. Let's see here, Papa Woody, Brandy, start calling Bob Prince John, taxes, taxes, taxes. He really has done an astonishingly bad job, even worse than I expected. And even worse than I expected. In a very short about a time, even worse than I expected. Crafty grandma, crispy, how can it be tax reform when they

58:56didn't repeal any of the other taxes? They're just piling on more taxes. How is that reform? It's not reform. And, you know, they have in their separate thing that they're going to reduce the B&O tax for certain businesses, which I feel compelled to say that I will pay less taxes as a business. I think it's under, if you make under two and a half million or something. I don't know if that's net or what that is, but there's a lot of businesses who basically won't have B&O taxes once all this goes into effect. But even I recognize that I would rather pay the taxes that I currently have to pay than watch what is going to happen under the income tax on millionaires and understand that it is a path to an income tax on everyone. And I certainly don't want to be paying an income tax. Sergeant Buck, if income is not property, how can the state tax me on something I don't possess? Yeah, you can just say, I don't know where it is. Well, like this. Yeah. Jamie Peterson. Well, you know, it kind of comes this way. And it's up and diagonal. Crazy. On the socialist

59:57mayor of Seattle wanting to raise taxes even more. Haynes says there are three kinds of people, those who see those who see what they are shown and those who do not see. So which one is she? That's a Da Vinci quote. Those who see those who see what they are shown and those who do not see. I would say a lot of people are those who see what they're shown. Right. Right. I also think if you listen to her speak and some of her responses after this, I know she won't do interviews or anything, but she kind of, I mean, she has come around. She sees the reality, like with the cameras and watching the cameras, like she had said, like she would get rid of them completely. And now she's like, whoa, maybe you won't get rid of them completely, but we'll only use them when there's a threat or whatever. So she's been told the reality of situations and changed her position, but she still has to cater to those that she needs her to real life. Yeah. But how long is that last? Because those lefties are already starting to revolt against her. I saw it something one holding up a sign about her. So once they start to get aggressive, is she willing to stand her ground?

1:01:01I mean, she's still crazy, right? Far lefty, but you're right. There's a couple things like she swept a couple homeless in cabinets, which she was very anti-sweet. But the lefties so far haven't started to vilify her or get aggressive with her. And so I wonder what happens when they do. Let's see. T.C. D. Nolton, DeSantis, has said that Florida has been so successful because he looks at what the West Coast states do. And then he does the opposite. Smart, smart. That's very smart. Let's see. Greg says, Brandy, I give it 12 to 18 months. Seattle can't be fixed. It's too far gone. The state is next to go. Well, we're going to try anyway. On the, sorry, and they're sorry, I have like a frog in my throat today. I don't know why. It's probably because I was in Vegas over the weekend. And I stayed at the Bellagio and the stupid smoking. Oh, yeah. Like every casino should be no smoking. And the Bellagio still lets people smoke. And I think that's all, that's why. It's just like the stupid smoking. I don't get it anymore. On the No Kings protest, old subs, sailor. And yes, I did play Blackjack, but I kind of broke even. I never allow myself to lose too

1:02:05much. Look at it as an entertainment fee, gamble for like four hours, mostly break even, and have a lot of fun in the process. Old subs, sailor, wait for Mayday. It will make No Kings look like a holiday stroll. We should quit calling them Democrats and call them what they really are. Socialists and Communists. Yeah, the annual Mayday march for workers and immigrant rights ought to really be something this year. And so, yeah, we'll see. I know. It wasn't much last year. Oh, yeah. It really ebbs and flows, depending on what the political environment is. Chuck Keller, $5 super chat, getting my daily unbelievable sponsorship on the record early today. I want my boop. Late night, Uttina, for crying out loud, they were flying the flag of the Soviet Union. Yeah, these people need to read a book. They need to read a history book. Why? I was running errands on Saturday and saw a couple of elderlies standing outside the senior housing in Mill Creek and holding a No Kings side. I don't know why these elderlies are sucked into this stupidity. That really is a lot of it. It's tough to watch. It is shocking, though, because I mean, they must be

1:03:05the hippies of their generation or something because they can't be the people that live through great depressions or watch their parents deal with the great depression or something. I don't I can't be these people that know what it's like to be a war. I don't get it. I mean, you know, it could be I do think is a lot of like the anti-Vietnam animus, but those people who protest during that are pretty old by now, right? So I mean, I mean, I'm not saying that they're not capable of protesting. They're so loud. They're a Joan or what's her name? You know, famously. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I know it. Oh, Lee, Cal. Can I think of her name? It's on the tip of my time. You'll figure it out. Yeah. On West Need admitting Democrats have failed, Matt M, only place you can fail upwards in government. No, I don't think so. I think there's a lot of places across America where you can fail upwards in government. It's sort of a thing. On the feds launching reward for whistleblowers. Weisscastle says, so just report every agency in Washington

1:04:05state because you know, at least some of them are stealing federal funds. Oh, 100%. Yeah, I wonder about our HUD investigation because like there was a tie with HUD into the reparations program that we investigated. So maybe we... Jane Fonda. Jane Fonda. Yes, yes. But yes, I know it's just about that recovery, right? Because they they can acknowledge it. They have to go through and recover. So that's the part that it will be it'll be interesting to see who they do go after and recover from. Yeah. Because that's going to be the next surely issue is all this money's gone and he's saying this is where it's going. But are they going to go and get it? Can you get it back? They just like get it stopped maybe and then it doesn't go any further in these individual cases. Or I don't know. Like in Washington state, we lost like what half a billion to COVID fraud to the Nigerian scammers. Never have that. Well, they got some out. They got a couple hundred million back. But I don't know if that would have counted in a scenario like this. Eric points out Germany has a mandatory minimum of two years for Ben over the age of 18. I like that. That's easy. Two years, make a man out of you, send you back home. It's kind of crazy how they do it in like

1:05:09our friend Ari. His son is over there in the... Which Ari? Ari Hoffman. Oh, yeah, yeah. But he said it's like by lottery the position that you get or the role that you get and you land on. It's very interesting. It seems like a draft scenario where you're choosing a role. But that's a real thing. It is real. I mean, it's always at risk. So it's a little bit different than being compulsory in other places that aren't constantly at risk of war or military action. So that's kind of a scary thing. All right. We'll get to our closing sanity check coming up next. We'll go visit another socialist in America. First, our friend is at Abraham. So gosh, just in a couple days. So it's this Thursday, right? Zach's having... Is this Thursday, April 2nd? Zach's having his webinar on April... Is April Fools Day the first or the second? First. The first. Okay. This is not an April Fools show. This Thursday, Zach's having his... Cutting through the market noise live webinar at 3.30 pm. Totally free to sign up. You can sign up right now. Know your riskpodcast.com.

1:06:11He's going to be talking about AI crypto tech. The impact those things can have on your retirement portfolio, but also he's going to be really heavy on what's happening in Iran with oil prices and just global uncertainty. So if you're just kind of concerned about that in your retirement portfolio, especially if you're getting very close to retirement, it's just a good webinar to sit in. It's virtual. You don't even have to participate. You can just listen, but you can also ask questions if you want. So they'll talk about that. The real fundamentals of value investing, plus a full reveal of how bull work is focused on risk management. Always looking for opportunities to lower risk, lower cause to give your retirement as much upside as possible. So join Zach's Cutting through the market noise webinar. April 2nd at 3.30 pm Pacific. Register at KnowYourRistPodcast.com. And then he's been on vacation, but he'll be back this week for a new edition of Swamp Watch. We have a lot to talk about, obviously. So KnowYourRistPodcast.com. And with that, let's get to our closing sanity check. Free free free free free free free free is the socialist way. Of course, none of it is free. Zohran Mamdani, a New York City, announced a free childcare pilot program for city workers.

1:07:17It is a site that we are building for the few New Yorkers who can be louder than an active site, which is New York's cutest. Finding affordable childcare has long been one of the greatest obstacles they faced. And we never want city workers to have to choose between a job that they love and raising their kids in the family in the city that they call home. You could tell he didn't have to wear the hat because the guy next to him doesn't have hat on. So he's just always wearing it for the photo op, but also $10 million renovation to this space. It'll provide childcare for approximately 40 kids of city workers. You're telling me, nowhere in Manhattan, was there a space you didn't have to spend $10 million retrofitting in order to do this free childcare, which is just going to be government subsidized childcare. I think he did all of that just to have the photo op with the hat on. Nobody looks good in the hard hat, by the way. Nobody looks good in the hard hat. Random story makes your head look too big, you know? Right. My grandpa actually built gates how to drive a bulldozer. That was a thing. And this picture he has with them, Bill Gates is wearing the hard hat on the side of his head.

1:08:20Kind of like you would wear like a side cap or something. Oh, you're going to have to find the best picture. Well, I should find it. Rich guy didn't know how to wear a hard hat. Nobody looks good in the hard hat. Not even Mumbani. That has been our closing Saturday check. That has been today's episode of Undivided. Thank you for being here. Thank you so much for your commitment to give in common sense a comeback. We do appreciate every single one of you. As I always say, we have a tiny bit more appreciation for our paid subscribers who make the show possible. So if you'd like to sign up, go to UndividedPod.com. Undivided, P-O-D.com. Click on the banner that says support the show.