California’s Ballot Harvesting Machine... | DefNoodles | DSH #1974

Summary

Digital Social Hour | Episode #1974 California’s Ballot Harvesting Machine… | Guest: Def Noodles (Dennis) Published: May 20, 2026

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Episode Overview

Host Sean Kelly welcomes Def Noodles (Dennis), congressional candidate and social commentator, for a raw, in-depth conversation about the state of California politics. The discussion centers on insider perspectives about ballot harvesting, corruption, party infighting, housing crises, and the broad disillusionment with California’s political and economic direction. The episode offers a whistleblower lens on electioneering, entrenched party power structures, and the vanishing viability of “the little guy” in California.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Ballot Harvesting & Voter Fraud in California

• Massive Operations: Dennis alleges Laura Friedman (Democratic incumbent) spends $200,000–$250,000 on teams that collect and process ballots, often harvesting them from apartment buildings and unused ballots ([00:00], [11:10]).
  • "My opponent, she has a massive ballot harvesting operation, spends close to $250,000. That's just a team that goes out and collects ballots." — Dennis ([00:00])
• Lax Oversight: Ballots for deceased voters and those who’ve moved are still being mailed, with no substantial validation or clean-up of voter rolls.
  • "I've had several people come up to me and say, in this last election I had five ballots get delivered to my home. And one of those people I looked up, she's been dead for 15 years." ([09:19])
• Signature Verification Loopholes: Describes alleged on-site, rubber-stamped signature checks leading to easy ballot acceptance for harvested votes ([11:10]).

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2. Republican Party Infighting & Internal Schisms

• LA GOP Dynamics: Dennis faces opposition not only from Democrats but also from within the LA and California GOP, where liberal-leaning “Blue Dog” Democrats now control significant parts of the party.
  • "A lot of Blue Dog Democrats moved over from the Democrat Party where they don't have a home because the DSA is just eating the party from within. So they're in the GOP now..." ([03:28])
• Conservative Marginalization: Socially conservative voices are pushed out in favor of more socially liberal, libertarian Republicans ([03:28]–[05:16]).
• Spoiling Races over Cooperation: The party prefers to plant spoiler candidates to maintain control rather than spread resources efficiently ([05:16]).

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3. Policies Causing Social Fractures

• Parental Rights Erosion: Dennis highlights bills that allow children to be socially and legally transitioned at school, in some cases without parental consent, or with guardianship switched by signing paperwork—sparking backlash over loss of parental rights ([06:13]–[07:27]).
  • "Parental rights are being completely repealed and stripped back because Democrats are more interested in this, in pushing their ideology than actually creating a livable place." ([07:27])
• Housing/Affordability Crisis: Explains that taxes, regulatory requirements, and rent/eviction moratoriums are driving “the little guy” out and making survival for small businesses and landlords nearly impossible ([19:26]–[29:01]).
  • "There’s no room for the little guy anymore... and you see this happening in housing as well." ([26:05])

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4. Corruption & NGO Backchannels

• “Homelessness Grift”: Billions allocated to tackle homelessness end up with NGOs, which in turn support political campaigns—allegedly creating a self-perpetuating corrupt loop existing for decades ([42:30]–[44:20]).
  • "They create the policy. The policy creates the environment for the NGOs... and then that money gets fed back to the politician so they can run their campaigns and stay in power." ([44:20])
• Case Studies in Grift: Specific examples include the use of state and local contracts for personal enrichment by politicians’ families or friends ([45:27]–[46:46]).
  • Newsom’s wife's NGO contracts and the Shangri La Industries scandal are cited as emblematic of rampant, often unchecked corruption.

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5. California’s Economic Downfall & Demographic Exodus

• California “Burning Through Reserves”: State on the verge of insolvency, propped up by federal dollars. Loss of taxable middle-class population due to poor climate for small business and extreme regulatory/tax pressures ([00:00], [47:49]).
  • "Within the next year and a half to two years, the state will not have money to sustain itself." ([00:00])
• Displacement by Corporate Power: Increasing hurdles make it impossible for individuals and small business owners to compete—liquor licenses, rent, permits becoming the exclusive domain of corporations ([24:04]–[26:05]).
  • "It's a form of corporate fascism that they're installing because they have this super majority." ([27:29])

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6. Candid Thoughts on State Leadership

• Gavin Newsom’s Elite Pedigree: Traces Newsom’s origins back to California’s deepest power networks and labels him out of touch with ordinary residents ([33:33]–[34:58]).
• Dysfunctional Accountability: State Supreme Court, city mayors, and local boards characterized as non-responsive, focused on self-dealing over public service ([47:49]).

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7. Generational Divide & Party Realignment

• America First Movement: Dennis discusses pressure to disavow figures like Nick Fuentes, and how a new generation wants the Republican Party to prioritize America over foreign interests ([53:55]–[58:31]).
  • "If you are... talking about Israel so much, maybe you're Israel first and you shouldn't be involved in politics." ([57:34])
• Internal Party Debates: Older, socially liberal party members are at odds with younger, socially conservative newcomers—especially on topics like foreign wars and U.S.-Israel relations.

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8. Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On California Corruption:
  "Louisiana is in another stratosphere, I would say. That's why I say Africa. I mean, it's third world level corruption that you see. I grew up in Brazil. That's, it's just as bad, if not worse as Brazil." — Dennis ([46:49])

• On Demoralization and Voting:
  "If you're a Republican in California, you have to go out to vote... This is the only way we're gonna turn things around." ([16:30])

• On Newsom’s Background:
  "His aunt by marriage is Nancy Pelosi... He’s part of an ultra wealthy elite... he didn't really come from humble beginnings." ([34:58])

• On Debate Practices:
  "They fact checked me on everything... I would just appreciate if there were equal fact checking." ([49:23])

• On NGOs and homelessness funds:
  "Newsom has raised $317 million in one year alone... through one of those funnels, Democrats have basically created an environment where… money gets fed back to the politicians." ([43:54], [44:20])

• On America First:
  "America first still means America First. It's just people get... Zionism is being used as a cudgel to split Christians within the party and get them to argue." ([56:20])

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Important Timestamps

• 00:00–02:52: Introduction, ballot harvesting, and California’s fiscal crisis
• 03:28–06:13: Republican Party infighting and marginalization of conservatives
• 06:13–09:19: Social policy—parental rights, child transitioning, party dominance
• 11:10–13:14: Mechanics and allegations of ballot harvesting
• 19:26–26:05: Affordability, taxes, and the death of small business
• 29:34–32:43: Effects of AI, rezoning, housing density, and urban decline
• 42:30–46:49: Corruption in homelessness funds; NGO grift and high-profile scandals
• 47:49–49:20: State insolvency, need for federal oversight, and debate culture
• 53:55–58:31: Generational divides in the GOP, America First, and Israel policy

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Tone & Language

• Unfiltered, direct, at times irreverent—reflecting the raw tone both Sean Kelly and Dennis use to discuss politics and corruption.
• Candid criticisms, supported by anecdotal and personal experience, mixed with policy critique and populist language.
• Frequent references to specific incidents, insider gossip, and the speakers’ own frustrations and aspirations for California.

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Episode Conclusion & Where to Find Dennis

Dennis closes by encouraging listeners to visit DennisForChange.com to support or volunteer for his campaign. Socials: @DefNoodles and @Dennis4Change.

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If you’re frustrated with the state of California politics, entrenched party elites, the state’s erosion of affordability and accountability, and are curious about the inside story of electioneering and party power on the ground—this is an essential listen.

Transcript

[A]

My opponent, she has a massive ballot harvesting operation, spends close to $250,000. That's just a team that goes out and collects ballots. California is running a deficit, a huge deficit. The state's insolvent. It's on the verge. It's actually burning through the reserves. Within the next year and a half to two years, the state will not have money to sustain itself. There is no accountability in the state. The state Supreme Court just kind of like waves it off because it's all run by Democrats, so they're just all protecting each other. Israel is running our government by proxy. That's what I've been seeing. I think Trump's compromised.

[B]

Okay, guys, got Dennis on the show today out here in Vegas, suited up. Looking good, man.

[A]

How you doing? Sean? Good to see you.

[B]

Good to see you. How you been since Amfest? I haven't seen you in a few months.

[A]

Been great.

[B]

Been busy.

[A]

Yeah, busy. I'm campaigning for Congress. I'm running for Congress in Adam Schiff's old district. That's Glendale, Burbank, Pasadena. In Hollywood. It's been a learning experience and also a bit of a challenge. So I'm encountering a lot of things I didn't anticipate.

[B]

Yeah, let's dive into some of those. What's been the biggest hurdle?

[A]

I guess I would say the GOP itself has been an interesting hurdle. Not the national gop, just lagop. And to some extent, the cagop. For those of you who don't know, that's the Los Angeles Republican Party and the California Republican Party.

[B]

Yeah, a lot of infighting there. What's going on?

[A]

Yeah, it's. It's very strange. It. I got a sense that they may want to do something or run somebody against me a few months ago, and they literally just launched the person, like, a week ago.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

And the guy is basically like a suit. He's a walking suit. Doesn't stand for anything. Super astroturfed. And his first speech was he called me an anti Semite and then said I was a racist and a sexist. And he didn't want to debate me because of that.

[B]

Huh. Well, he's got the money behind him, so that's gonna be tough either way.

[A]

Oh, he doesn't have the money behind him. No, they're not funny. No, no, no. So the funny thing about the. So there's a lot of things that happen with the Republican Party in Los angeles. Specifically. About 90% of the money that goes on on the national level comes out of LA county and la county also has, the law is the largest Republican county or place in the country. It's bigger than, I think, 14 states. There are more registered Republican Republicans in LA county than in 14 states. That said, a lot of those donors, there's a lot of distrust with just how the LAGOP is run. So a lot of them don't invest in races before the primary and a lot of them don't even put money on the local level, period.

[B]

So you have a good chance of a fair chance at least.

[A]

Yeah. So the money he has is like his own money that he loaned himself and he's hoping that he can raise enough to make it back. And I have on. I have a pretty good assumption that he's probably not going to raise that back. So I'm actually, honestly, I'm kind of sad for the guy because part of the reason why they're having him run is because they're trying to control the party. Right. It's about maintaining the delegates and the ability to control the direction of the party.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Once I make it past the primary, I'll be an ex officio, which means I'm basically an honorary delegate in the county and the state level. And then I get up to five delegates that I can choose. So I'll start having considerable influence in the party. And the LAGOP itself has been moving further left than even the national level. So that's part of what they're trying to do. A lot of Blue Dog Democrats moved over from the Democrat Party where they don't have a home because the DSA is just eating the party from within. So they're in the GOP now in Los Angeles and they're trying to move the party to a socially liberal stance. Right. So there are a lot of people in the LAGOP that don't align with the typical Republican platform. Right. People who are pro choice, people who are pro gay marriage. They're very socially liberal and they're just fiscally conservatives. They're basically libertarians. Right. So it's, and it creates a schism within the party because there are, there are actual Republicans in the party, but they're being pushed out. Right. Because you know, if you're socially conservative, that they don't want you influencing the party. And that's, that's the situation that I find myself in. Yeah, the establishment is very liberal and I'm more socially conservative. And because they see that, they're trying to derail my campaign and to be fair, they don't just do it to me, they do it to other people as well. There are two other people that are being targeted, and there are people that are being targeted because of who supports them. Right. So there's somebody running that's about to announce that they're gonna run for Assembly District 44. And because of the person who's backing them because he's a social conservative, they're already looking to run somebody against this woman.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Wow, that's black. Yeah. Yeah. And it's ironic because the California Republican Party and the Los Angeles Republican Party, considering the amount of Republicans that are in California and in Los Angeles, it's a relatively small party. Right. We don't have enough candidates for every seat available. But it's funny that they would rather spoil a race. Right. Than actually fill out all the available seats because there are. They. There are enough candidates where we could just spread them out and still have seats that are just Democrats running. Right. Uncontested. But they would rather spoil the race than do that because they want to keep control of this small party. And honestly, it's just, you know, for anybody at home who may not know this, the Democrats have had a super majority pretty much for the last 60 years. They've had the governorship for the last 12 years.

[B]

Arnold was the last one on the right.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. But even Arnold, the state Senate and the Assembly. The State assembly, they were both super majority Democrats. So he couldn't get any Republican policy through. He had to really concede to the Democrats a lot. So because of that, that's how you get the sort of policy that we've been getting in California, where one of the most insane bills that you will ever see across the country as far as transitioning children, where a child can be socially transitioned at school without the consent or a parent even knowing that their child is being transitioned.

[B]

Crazy.

[A]

Yeah. And the bill, one of these bills actually passed last year, it goes as far as a child, I think, up to the fifth degree of separation. I don't even think they have to be bloodlined just like a fifth degree of separation. Somebody could come in, take that person, that child from school, and be declared a legal guardian. Right. The person fills out a paperwork, they're all of a sudden a legal guardian, and they can change the child's name. So it's.

[B]

They can legally change the name of the child.

[A]

Yeah. And that's to protect the child from abuse. So parental rights are being completely repealed and stripped back because Democrats are more interested in this, in pushing their ideology than actually creating a livable place. Right. And you Know, that's become a part of the Republican platform, parental rights, because it wasn't even an issue. You go back 10 years ago, people weren't thinking like, oh yeah, let's transition a child. There wasn't much of a talking point. It was, you know, Obergefell was just passing and then all of a sudden, five years later, you have children being transitioned.

[B]

That wasn't even a thought as a parent.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Years ago.

[A]

Yeah. And the thought of the state having ownership of your child where they can, you know, that's pretty much what it is. Where they can transition your child without your knowledge and then take your child away from you. So that's what happens when you have a super majority for as long as the Democrats have had without their ideas don't get challenged. Right. So you go really far off the rails.

[B]

Yeah. You could also vote with no ID in Cali.

[A]

Yep. Yeah. That is a huge issue. Voter fraud in California is absurd. It is. I don't even know the word beyond. I mean, it really is something disgusting, I think, is the word. Really. Because. So for anybody who's not familiar with how this works. Right. In California, we have one of the broadest and longest mail in ballot system in the country. I think the mail in ballots sometimes are mailed out maybe two months. You know, you have way too much time. The polls open a month ahead. Right. And all under the excuse of like, okay, we want more people to participate. But the reality is they created a system where they mail out all these ballots. They don't clean out the voter rolls. So you have. There are a lot of reports of people who are deceased, who no longer live in their address, having ballots sent to them. I know personally of cases because I volunteer registering voters. And I've had several people come up to me and say, in this last election I had five ballots get delivered to my home. And one of those people I looked up, she's been dead for 15 years, you know, so let's be real.

[C]

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[A]

Right? A lot of these candidates, and I have to use the word allegedly just because legal reasons, but for example, my opponent Laura Friedman, who's the incumbent Democrat in the seat, she has a massive ballot harvesting operation, spends according to her FEC filings, close to 200 to $250,000. That's just a team that goes out and collects ballots, right? And door to door, they go door to door. Or one thing that they do is they go to apartment buildings. And what happens, you have more people at apartment buildings, right? But what a lot of people don't realize, a lot of these left behind ballots are left at building. So what they do is they talk to the building manager, they say, hey, here's a $5 Starbucks gift card. Let me go in and collect all these ballots that are left behind that nobody's claimed. And, and we're gonna take care of it, right? And you would imagine that they would return these ballots. Now here's a part where I have to say allegedly again, because the reports that I've read is that what they do is they have their team fill it out. And because certain counties and certain parts of the state, and specifically in LA county, they've reduced the burden of proof of the signature. What happens is allegedly these get filled out by her team and turned in and the registrar has this policy where it's, it's approved on site. There's a specific legal terminology for it, but basically they just, you know, okay, signed, great, verified on site, right? And allegedly again, this is something that somebody in the party told me that they Saw. So there's a specific city council member in Burbank who is very friendly with Laura Friedman. His name's Constantine Anthony and he's part of the dsa. He is a self declared Leninist and He, after the 24 elections, said that he was able to get her 11,000 votes in this manner.

[B]

Wow. How is that not a conflict?

[A]

It's, you know, it is a conflict, but they help each other. You know, she was endorsed by the DSA because of him. He helped her get the endorsement. She's kind of running away from that endorsement now because she wants to present herself as more moderate. Right. That kind of stuff played well up until like 20, 22, 24. And now people are moving more, especially Democrats are trying to present themselves as more moderate because they're just not gonna get anywhere being that radical and they even know it. But you know, these people are behind closed doors, they're self admitted communists. Right. So yeah, this is how they've been kind of cheating. Right. And it is cheating. I have to put it in quotes again because I don't want to get sued. But Nick Shirley has been exposing how a lot of these, you know, you'll have one place and you'll have 20 registered voters in that place. I've heard that sororities are also a place where, you know, certain sororities, you'll have 100 registered voters, but 180 votes collected from that sorority. So there's a lot of questions about who is actually voting in California. Are they actually legal citizens and are they even alive? Right. Yeah. In this last election, this special election for Prop 50, there was a lawsuit to clear out two and a half million names out of the voter roll. Right. Because these were people that were deceased, weren't eligible voters. Yeah. And the, the city and the state hit back, said, oh, you guys can't do that. It's racist, homophobic. You know, when they start saying that kind of stuff, there's something shady. Right. So they ended up clearing that out. But there's still a huge issue because it's, there's still so many people. I mean, just this last election, there was a case of a guy who had just moved into a new place and he received three ballots, one for himself, one for his wife and one for this person, again, a deceased person who hadn't lived in the place for many years. Right. There's an infamous case of a woman who registered her dog. Right. Yeah. And a lot of people like to say, oh, well, she was a Republican. No, she was trying to Prove a point of just how corrupt the system is and how easy it is for fraud to happen and for these fraudulent votes to be cast. Even a golden retriever can vote in the California election.

[B]

Crazy.

[A]

That's how stupid it is. Yeah.

[B]

You basically got to win by a landslide if you want to win like Trump did in 24.

[A]

Yeah, it's, it's, it's a bit of a. It has to be too big to rig. Republicans have to go out, which is honestly, it's one of the hardest things to get Republican turnout in California because a lot of them are just demoralized. A lot of them have just given up. They think, why even vote? Right. 40% of the state is Republican, but only. Yeah, 40% of California. Yeah. So 40% of California is Republican. But the issue is that we only have two congressional seats. Right. Especially after the redistricting, it's going to be two congressional seats that it's going to be whittled down to. I think right now we actually have five or six out of 52.

[B]

Damn, that's.

[A]

But yeah, it's still nothing. But it's going to go down to two because of the redistricting. Yeah.

[B]

Geez.

[A]

So it definitely is an issue. It's what demoralizes Republicans. So if you're a Republican in California, you have to go out to vote, you have to get your friends to vote. This is the only way we're gonna turn things around. And from door knocking, I see that a lot of no party preference people are also conservatives, they're also Republicans, and a lot of Democrats want something new. If you're a Democrat at home, if you're a Democrat in California, in LA county and you see the problems, you just have to vote differently. And you don't even have to vote Republican. Vote for an independent, vote for. Just don't vote Democrat for one election and see what changes. Right. Because our state's just falling apart. It really is. And it's really interesting to see, just driving. I drove over here five and a half hours and the difference is like immediate from California to Nevada. It's. The roads are better, it's cleaner, you know.

[B]

Yeah. I was just in LA last week. Yeah, it was miserable.

[A]

It's miserable. Yeah.

[B]

No offense.

[A]

No, don't worry about it. You know, that's part of the reason why I'm running, because I want to, I want to change my city for the better because I know what it can be like.

[B]

I couldn't even walk around.

[A]

Oh, yeah, it's disgusting.

[B]

No, like I didn't feel safe.

[A]

Yeah, well, I like to joke around. You know, you go to different parts of California, it's still pretty good. Like Santa Clarita still very good. It's an hour out of Los Angeles and I joke around whenever I go out there. I say it's good to be visiting over from Africa, you know, because that's what it feels like. Our streets are filled, filled with holes or poorly paved. And the mayor was even talking about this, that they can't keep up with the paving.

[B]

Karen said that.

[A]

Karen Bass, Yeah, she had a whole photo op where she's like covering up holes. And yeah, she was saying, oh, yeah, we're having to cover up 10,000 potholes every two months. Why isn't every other city struggling with this? Why is it just la?

[B]

You guys have the high state tax. That doesn't make sense.

[A]

Sense, yeah, not just state tax. We, we pay tax, we have some of the highest sales taxes we have. We have a 90 cent fee on gas. The, the state is triple dipping on the gas tax as well. Yeah. So there's. So on the gas there is a 90 cent flat fee, then there's the federal tax, there's a state tax, then there's a sales tax.

[B]

Holy shit.

[A]

That's why our price is like five something. The rest of the country's gonna be higher. It used to be. Yeah. At one point during the pandemic, there were, there were gas stations, there were seven.

[B]

Yeah, I remember that.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I also paid a mental health tip in la.

[A]

Really?

[B]

One of the restaurants.

[A]

That's crazy. Yeah, that is crazy.

[C]

Tips.

[B]

Yeah. That's some la.

[A]

That's so wild. I mean, I, I, I think the tip culture has just got a bit too far. When you're too far, when you're tipping somebody for like literally just, you know, you're tipping your vending machine. It's like I get asked every time

[B]

I check out now somewhere.

[A]

Yeah, yeah.

[B]

Like, what the fuck, bro?

[A]

It's gone a bit too far.

[B]

Way too far.

[A]

That on top of taxes, you know, people in LA are feeling it. I from door knocking. A Burbank especially. And in Glendale, I see a lot of people aren't able to retire in California anymore. The whole state is just unaffordable. People retire and they have to move out because they just can't live there. I mean, how are you supposed to support yourself on a $1,200 Social Security check when your house, your property taxes are like $30,000 a year and they keep going up and then you have Just the cost of everything is more expensive in California because our energy prices are through the roof. Right. You have places like in Glendale where the energy prices went up. I think they doubled in the last, in the last three years. Pretty sure. People that told me like it went from 220 to like 450 in a matter of just a few years.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

So. And they're looking at another 15% increase over the next year. Yeah. And that specifically is because of environmental policies.

[B]

Yeah. And speaking of environment, the fires wrecked a lot of people too.

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[B]

Let's go. Oh yeah, people are about to retire and then that wrecked them.

[A]

Yeah. And people who just are maybe in the process of paying off their homes or have paid them off. And the issue now is you pay all these taxes and you don't get the service. Right. The fire department isn't there, the water isn't available. The mayor isn't even in town. The mayor is out in Ghana just chilling, taking photos.

[B]

Weird timing.

[A]

Weird timing. Especially that there are tapes that show that she knew the Santa Ana winds were going to be the strongest in a generation. Right. And this lady's out in Ghana. She'll go. It's a great opportunity. Joe Biden sent me out there. Okay, stay home. You wanted this job. Why are you out in Ghana? But, yeah, I mean, most of the homes have not been built. I mean, I think less than about 1% of the homes have actually been rebuilt. A lot of them are still waiting for the permitting to clear. Trump actually facilitated a lot of the on the federal side, but on the state and county side, those permits are still held up. When you look at Malibu, that whole beachfront part of Malibu is completely gone and will likely never come back. And I think it was Grant Cardone did an expose on this that in order to rebuild the. The foundation of those homes, because of the new regulations, it would be, I think, about $6 million. Just a foundation alone.

[B]

Geez. That's more than the house.

[A]

More than the house itself. Yeah. So that's why a lot of those homes are getting sold to Chinese investors and people who live abroad and don't even live in America. Right. If. If it's somebody who is in America buying it, it's usually like blackrock. Right. So I like to say this a lot because it's the truth. California is no longer about the little guy. It's very much a corporatized culture in terms of business, in terms of homeownership, the little guy is being run out of the state and the county and the state are very much conspiring to amplify that. And I use that word, I don't use that word, you know, recklessly. It does often feel like it's. There's a conspiracy to just run the little guy out to kill the American dream and just install this weird form of socialism where everything is just centralized. Right. And I say this out of personal experience. This is one of the reasons why I decided to run too. I own. I own two podcast studios and a 50c comedy club in Hollywood. It's a small little comedy club. And at one point I was looking to expand my business and get a liquor license because most of the money in comedy, you don't make it from ticket sales, you make it from selling the liquor. Yeah. So to get a liquor license in Los Angeles, it's $250,000. So.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

And it takes about two years. And so I'm. So, you know, I go through, I start the process because I'm like, okay, if it's something that I can pay over the course of two years, maybe I can manage it. Right. So I go and I meet with this little bureaucrat in downtown la. And the guy's going through all this stuff and he's on his laptop and he starts laughing. And I ask him, like, what's going on? And he tells me I'm the first small business owner that he's met with in a decade that he's been doing this. So that's kind of strange, right? You would imagine. Restaurants, bars, it's mostly small businesses, A small guy that owns it. It's not like these big corporate chains. So he told me, I asked him, who, who do you usually meet with. He said, well, typically lawyers are presenting investors. And that told me something. That told me that, yeah, the little guy is being shut out. So I started asking him more questions about it. So, you know, in order to be able to own a bar or restaurant in L. A, you have to have the location secured. So you're already paying rent. And depending on where your location is, you're paying like two to four thousand dollars a month.

[B]

least.

[A]

At least. Sometimes even more, right? Many times much more. So in order to get a food license, it takes about six months to get that and tens of thousands of dollars and several inspections that you have to pay for yourself. So that means that just for the food license, you have to have your address, your llc, everything set up. You're paying taxes, you're paying your rent, you know, you're paying all this stuff, and you're not even open and able to serve for six months. So you're in the hole. And outside of just the thousands of dollars for the license, the food license, you're in the hole for tens of thousands of dollars more on the rent now to get a liquor license, because it's two years, it's the same process. So if you want a bar and a restaurant, you'll spend minimum two to two and a half years paying rent and paying all these fees and going through all these inspections before you're able to actually start making a dollar.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

So most people are looking at close to half a million dollars or more in order to just get into the business. So, yeah, there's no room for the little guy anymore. Right. And you see this happening in housing as well. There are a lot of home providers, a lot of people, small guys, you know, mom and pops, who own property, and they're being run out because of overregulation, because of things like rent control, rent freezes. I was just mentioning the city of Burbank. The city of Burbank likes to issue a rent freeze for literally anything. You know, somebody is walking down the street, they hit their knee on a light post. Rent freeze, eviction freeze.

[B]

That's great.

[A]

They do it all the time. They just tried. They tried a few months ago to mirror what LA county did, which was an eviction freeze because of ice. It didn't pass in Burbank. It passed through the LA Board of Supervisors. But they did it because they said it was. It was racialized targeting and that people were scared to leave to go to work. Right. This, this whole trend started back during COVID and every few months they do another eviction moratorium. Right. And that puts, that puts real estate owners, that puts people who are renting out property, that puts them, they have to now foot the bill.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Right. Now you have somebody in there for who knows how long and, and it's already hard to get somebody out in LA County. Yeah.

[B]

Good luck.

[A]

Yeah. I mean it'll take you. I've heard of cases where it can take people up to two years to get somebody out squatting. Right. Just because. Exactly. Because in LA and in California you have squatter rights, whatever that is. Right. You have the tenants union that goes out and advocates for these folks. So you know, the small business guy, the small business owner, the moms and pops are being run out so that, you know, blackrock, all these huge corporate businesses can come in and they deal directly with the city and they pay whatever the city asks them to pay because they have a boatload of money and the city is just becoming, you know, corporatized. It's funny because it's, when you think about it, it's the exact accusation that Democrats make about Republicans. It's a form of corporate fascism that they're installing because they have this super majority, they have total control of the state, you know, and they also basically run most of the state commercially as well. So it's crazy. And to see the state just fall apart and be in disarray in this manner. I think, you know, most people, that's why they leave, that's why they're just throwing their hands up in the air. And you get two and a half million people leaving the state, that's middle class people just leaving the state. Going to Tennessee, north and South Carolina, coming to Nevada as well, Texas, all these states are, you know, getting a lot of Californians moving out, LA county, half a million people over the last five years left.

[B]

Yeah, I was one of them.

[A]

You were there too?

[B]

Yeah, I couldn't, couldn't handle it.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

During the pandemic. Awful time over there. Yeah.

[A]

Well, I'm sorry to hear that we lost you.

[B]

Well, I still go back for business. Look, LA is great for business. Yeah.

[A]

There's still a lot of people there. But I do think that a lot of people have left too. I mean, I think it's easier to do business in other places, especially considering how with the Internet and all this stuff you have good infrastructure everywhere. You don't have to be in LA anymore. And LA is looking at becoming the next Detroit relatively quickly.

[B]

It's on that way.

[A]

Yeah. The movie business is on its Way out. And I talk to people all the time, I talk to storyboard artists. I talked to this guy who's the head of special effects for Warner Brothers and he told me like those two jobs specifically about 90% of them are going to be eliminated because of AI over the next few years. Wow. So there's going to be massive displacement and LA is already struggling. Imagine most of the city about, I think there's 700,000 people in LA that are actively employed currently. A lot of the jobs have been cut down already. But this just currently 700,000 people. Imagine all of those, 90% of them lose their jobs.

[B]

That would destroy the economy.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, we're already losing, you know, all this tax revenue. That's why they're changing so. Something that most people who aren't in L A probably don't know about. But there's a lot of rezoning happening right now. There's a lot of single family home areas that are being rezoned to be high density housing areas and they're doing that specifically so they can maintain this tax base that they're losing so they can keep them in LA county. Because people are leaving, going to other places, they're going out. California is huge. So they're going to other parts of California, they're going to other states and they're trying to just concentrate all these people back in LA so they can maintain that because the middle class is going away now they're focusing on just bringing in all these folks who are lower income. So that's why they need more housing so they can have more lower income people and replace all the middle class taxes that they lost. So, you know, Louisiana is about to look like a slum, for lack of a better word. It really is. You see places like Glendale, you see places like Burbank, they're specifically being targeted, you know, being changed from being single family home neighborhoods to becoming this high density seven story housing. And there, and you know, the, the, the folks that they're planning on having, because you know, the buildings there. So there's a specific aspect of this legislation that if one of these seven story buildings is within half a mile of a bus stop, it doesn't have to have a garage. So imagine that a seven story building, let's say they're 10 units per floor, that's 70 units. So say there are two people living there in each one. I mean you, you have, how are you going to park? Where do you park? You don't exactly. If just one floor has, has cars that that whole single family home street, it's going to be impossible to park.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

It's an issue that we have in Hollywood right now and it's being passed over to other parts of the city. And I think part of the reasoning is, well, most of these people can't even afford cars anyway. And we want to deincentivize these people from having cars because we want to turn all these cities into smart cities where you're, you're like just within a half mile, you have everything you need, you don't have to go that far and we can fully control you. Right. So that's scary. Yeah.

[B]

Yeah, I know. Newsom's trying to do that for the Olympics, right?

[A]

Yeah, Yeah, I haven't heard about that one. Specifically the.

[B]

Yeah, there's conspiracies, I guess, where he let the fires go in order to rebuild for the Olympics and have a smart city or whatever.

[A]

Yeah. So, you know, he, he actually injected, I think it was, I think it was $100 million into the Palisades because they weren't able to build quickly enough and a lot of people were just leaving. So they injected about $100 million to build affordable housing in the Palisades. The Palisades were one of the most beautiful wealth, iconic, wealthy, affluent. Yeah. So now you're starting to see that they're what they're trying to do. Right? It's very evident.

[B]

Yeah. How is he affording all these rich, like million dollar houses for himself on a governor salary?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

The fuck is that?

[A]

Exactly. It's crazy. He is, he. His story is very strange, you know.

[B]

Yeah, it's a weird one.

[A]

He. So his story goes all the way back to Jerry Brown Sr. Jerry Brown Sr. Was a governor in California and he actually appointed Newsom's grandfather to a high court in California. And then from there his father, Newsom's father, also a lawyer, became the manager of the Getty Trust. The Gettys. One of the richest families in the world. Right.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

And then at some point his parents got divorced. Right. And then that's where you get his story because he likes to talk about, oh, I grew up on ramen, on this or Stouffer's lasagna. So, you know, he had your typical like divorced parents story. So his mom wasn't as wealthy, his dad had all the money, and his dad apparently didn't, you know, really take care of his mom. So that's kind of that dynamic there. But he grew up very wealthy. That's why you see him looking like one of those prep school guys.

[B]

You know, he doesn't talk about that stuff.

[A]

He doesn't talk about it. That's why you see the photos. But he likes to act like, you know, he's all humble and stuff, but. Yeah. So Newsom grew up very wealthy, very embedded in this political elite within California. His aunt by marriage is Nancy Pelosi. Right.

[B]

That's crazy.

[A]

Yeah. So I didn't know that. You start kind of seeing how he is fitting himself politically. Right. One of the first investors in his first business were the Gettys. Right. His wine business. He got money from the richest family in the world. Right. They backed them politically as well. So that's how he made his ascent. You know, he didn't come out of nowhere. He didn't really come from humble beginnings. He's part of an ultra wealthy elite. He's extremely well connected and at the right point, he use those connections to get ahead. So it's kind of strange that he's now trying to appeal to this. You know, I grew up poor.

[B]

Oh.

[A]

I have an IQ of 960. You know, I can't even read a speech. And by the way, I wrote a book. You know, how does that make sense? You can't read, but you wrote a book?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I don't know. Strange. The guy's very strange.

[B]

That was the weirdest interview I've ever seen with that. I don't know who that host is, but him talking about black people, that was just so cringe.

[A]

Yeah, I know, right? He's kind of playing into the stereotype too. He's like, he's telling the. And I think it was pbd. Somebody in the PBD podcast, Vince, I think he did a good parody of it where he's like, he's talking to a black guy and he's like, oh yeah, I'm dumb like you. I got an IQ of like 300. The guy's like, I went to Yale, you know, I got a 1200 on the SATs. Yeah. So it's kind of strange, you know, people forget that Democrats are the party of racism. And I don't say that lightly. I mean, they fought on the side of the Confederacy during the Civil War. They filibustered and were against the Civil Rights act, which they now say, oh, greatest thing ever. They were against it. Robert Byrd did, I think it was eight or nine hour filibuster on the Senate floor. Robert Byrd, by the way, former KKK member, was in office up until 2010. People like to say, yeah, Republicans are Racist. They're the kkk, all this. The last party to have a living member of the KKK in office were the Democrats up until 2010. And people forget that they founded the KKK. They were doing all that stuff. It's just crazy. Forget about it. The Republican Party was actually created to fight slavery. It was to abolish slavery. You know, so that, you know, Lincoln was the first president that was elected under the Republican Party. You know, it's interesting how that narrative shifted. Now, people like to say, oh, the Dixiecrats moved over after the Civil Rights act to the Republican side. Actually, they didn't. They stayed. There were only two Dixiecrats that moved over. Everybody else stayed. Robert Byrd stayed. All the other guys stayed. But, yeah, I mean, one thing I do have to hand to the Democrats. They're very good at establishing a narrative. They will lie to you sociopathically, to your face, with a smile, and act like, you know, everything's fine. Oh, no, no. You didn't see that just happen right there? No, no, no, no, no.

[B]

Obama was the best at that.

[A]

The best. Kamala Harris. Gavin Newsom, too. There's. There's a clip. We were talking about the fires in Newsom. There's a clip of Newsom during the fires. This woman is, like, in tears. I think it's a Sky News clip. She's in tears because her. Her child's school just burned down, and she's being interviewed, and out of the corner of her eye, she sees Gavin Newsom, and he's, like, standing by a black suv just, like, looking around, like, you know, kind of distracted. And she's like, governor. She, like, runs to him, and he is, like. He kind of sees her. He grabs his phone, and he, like, puts it to his ear, and she's like, governor, Governor, you need to do something. My whole neighborhood is burning down. He's like, I'm sorry, I'm on the phone with the President. And she's like, please, can I talk to him? Can I say something to the president? And he's like, well, I'm about to dial. I'm about to give him a call right now. Like, literally just caught in a lie right there in that moment. It's one of the most absurd clips. I do hope that it comes back during the election, you know, the primaries, because it really exposed just how little he cares about the public. He's there with this woman who's in. In the middle of a suffering, like, literally lost everything in her life. And instead of saying, you know what? That's awful, what just happened to you? I wish I had done better or anything. Any sort of accountability. Doesn't even have to take accountability. Just relate to her. He can't. He's inhuman. It's like I said, it's kind of sociopathic. Obviously, I don't want to pathologize him, but that's the impression I get. That's why I look at him. I see the joker, you know?

[B]

Yeah, I've heard that before.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah. None of this is new to me. People have said this. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he is. He might win.

[A]

I don't think so.

[B]

You don't think he won the Democratic nominee?

[A]

No, I think he's going to crash and burn like Kamala.

[B]

Really?

[A]

Yeah. Because there are other candidates. For example, there's the governor of Maryland. He has a relatively good reputation still. He has some skeletons in his closet. Right. Some lies, some things he's been exposed for. But there are people that have better reputations that are. That don't have such a huge track record of failure.

[B]

But can they debate as well as him?

[A]

I don't think Newsom's a good debater. I think he's just. He's charismatic and he is handsome. You know, and I say this in a non gay way. Okay. He looks good. Like, a lot of people. Like the way he looks.

[B]

He looks maxing.

[A]

Yeah, he's looks maxing all the time. Yeah. But I think he's gonna crash and burn like Kamala, because he's got too many skeletons. Too many people have seen what he's done. And so far, he's only been challenged by the Republicans. You only see President Trump and other Republicans challenging him. He hasn't been challenged by his own party.

[B]

That's true. It feels like people are scared to challenge him in his party.

[A]

Well, the primaries haven't really started.

[B]

No. I mean, in general, though, I feel like no one really challenges him ever.

[A]

Well, you know, somebody will step up when the opportunity comes.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Tulsi Gabbard took down Kamala, so I anticipate that somebody else will go in there and challenge him on some things.

[B]

Kamala might run again, too, so we'll see.

[A]

Please. It's gonna be so funny. That's gonna be so funny. Are you kidding me?

[B]

And she'll have to debate this time. She'll have to go through the primaries.

[A]

Oh, yeah. It's gonna be a disaster. Yeah, it's gonna be awesome.

[B]

Be comedy, which is what politics has turned into.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah. It's turned into a reality show.

[B]

100%.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah, you can't look away. It's like a train wreck all the time. And that's why I think so many people, you see so many people wanting to get involved. You see, Spencer Pratt is running for mayor.

[B]

Well, too.

[A]

He's doing pretty well. Yeah. Yeah. We, we won't really know until things really pick up. There's like polling and all this other stuff, but I, I mean, I hope he wins. You know, he has no executive experience, but just, just so that we can have kind of like a Trump effect where somebody just goes in there and kind of blows up the system. Yeah, we kind of need that with la. We need somebody who's just gonna go up there and expose all the corruption.

[B]

Something new.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. I mean, there's so much corruption. There was just the, the head of the LA school board was caught with tens of millions of dollars paying. I think he was paying himself tens of millions of dollars. I don't remember specifically how that was working out.

[B]

Don't surprise me.

[A]

Yeah, it's ridiculous.

[B]

There's more administrators than teachers now, which logically makes no sense.

[A]

No sense at all.

[B]

Like there should be way more teachers than administrators.

[A]

Yep. Yeah. But that's, that's the whole thing. You know, they built this bureaucratic class.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And there's a specific benefit that politicians get from having this bureaucratic class. Right. And there's another example of how this operates with the homelessness grift in la. And I'm sure this comes up a lot. Yeah, it's $25 billion over five years is a number that comes up. I'm sure it's more at this point because that $25 billion figure is from 2023 if I remember correctly. So I'm sure it's way more than that. I mean, I've been at board of supervisor meetings in LA where they cleared out $100 million for motel conversions. So in one one instance. And they've done it multiple times. Wow. So. And that's just at the county level. Right. So with the state, though, there's a specific thing that a lot of people don't know about. And I have to shout out Herb Morgan because he's the first person who brought this to my attention. He's running for state controller. He's a Republican, a very astute guy in finance. He built a hedge fund, billion dollar hedge fund, genius guy. He's running for state controller. If you're looking for somebody to vote in California, vote for him for controller. So he pointed out to me that there's A funnel. There's a back funnel of NGOs that they can donate money to. They can funnel money to candidates or politicians. Right. And through one of those funnels, Newsom has raised $317 million in one year alone. I think it was in 2024.

[B]

Holy crap.

[A]

So, you know, they've. He's basically created. Democrats have basically created an environment where they create the policy. The policy creates the environment for the NGOs to proliferate, and then from there, they get fed the money back. Right. Because it's state money that goes to the NGOs to fix the problem, and then that money gets fed back to the politician so they can run their campaigns and reelect themselves and stay in power.

[B]

That's insane.

[A]

The most egregious example of this involves Newsom's wife's own NGOs and production company. Right? So she. So there was a specific bill that was about. I think it was like, trans education or LGBT education in schools. And the bill passed, and the, The, The. The NGO that got the contract to develop the program, his wife sits on the board, and they got $5 million to develop the program. And then that NGO developed the program and then hired his wife's production company to produce the content that then went to schools, and then the NGO got paid to distribute it to schools. So in that funnel alone, it was about 10 to 12 million dollars that went into people who are associated directly with Newsom, one of those being his wife. Right. And I think she gets paid by one of those, I think the. Either the NGO or the production company. Like, salary. Yeah. Like quarter million dollars a year, you know, to just sit on the board and, you know, who knows how often she shows up. Right.

[C]

I've seen.

[B]

I know you mentioned the hotel refurbished. I've seen some crazy bills where, like, they'll charge a hundred grand to redo a floor to the contractor.

[A]

Oh, yeah, yeah. And that's when they actually do it. Right. There's a specific case. There's Shangri La Industries. This was one of the most infamous cases. So this guy got $115 million to do motel conversions and. And didn't do any of it. In fact, he just rented out mansions. He flew on private jets with his influencer girlfriend, went around the country just, you know, wow. On the taxpayer dime. He ended up getting arrested. Thank God. Bill assailly surprised him. Yeah, he's one of the few people who has been arrested so far. But Bill Assailee, the attorney that was appointed by Trump, he was a former State assembly member, Republican. Good guy. He's doing a good job. So he's the one who got this guy arrested from Shangri La Industries. And there are many other cases like that. That's just a drop in the bucket. I mean, there's so many more cases. There's even speculation that the mayor of LA is involved with Lhasa. Right. With corruption with Lhasa. Right. And that being contracts. So there was. The head of Lhasa in LA was giving out contracts to her husband's NGO contracts and, you know, a couple million dollars every contract. Right.

[B]

So yeah, there's a lot of corruption with government contracts.

[A]

So much corruption. So you know that we're just starting to peel back the layers. If people think Minnesota was bad, Louisiana is in another stratosphere, I would say. That's why I say Africa. I mean, it's, it's third world level corruption that you see. I grew up in Brazil. That's, it's just as bad, if not worse as Brazil. So. And it's really sad to see because, you know, we pay so much in taxes. We pay the most. The most, yeah. New York more than New York. Yeah, yeah. So. And that's what pisses a lot of people off because they, and a lot of Californians are very charitable, they're very generous. They tell me when I'm door knocking, they say, I don't mind paying that much in taxes if they were actually improving my quality of life. But I don't see the money going into the streets. I don't see it helping the schools. I'm more worried about transitioning my, my kid than actually educating them. Yeah, right. So, you know, it's, for lack of a better word, it's just retarded.

[B]

Yeah. I hope you got in there, man, make some changes.

[A]

Yeah, well, I often say that I want to, I want to get in there because from the federal level, I can see if any federal money has been spent on any of this corruption. Right. California depends. California is running a deficit, a huge deficit. The state's insolvent. It's on the verge. It's actually burning through the reserves. Within the next year and a half to two years, the state will not have money to sustain itself. So it needs about $36 billion a year that it's getting back from the federal government in order to stay solvent. Right. And that money, there are so many different things that I can look at how that money is being spent and I can just do every sort of investigation and into every corruption scandal and hold those People accountable, really bully them. Because people in California are sick. There's no accountability in the state. The state Supreme Court just kind of like waves it off because it's all run by Democrats. So they're just all protecting each other. So, you know, we need to be at the federal level holding these people accountable because they're unwilling to do it for themselves.

[B]

Right.

[A]

You know, yeah.

[B]

Talk about the deep state. Geez.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, pretty much.

[B]

You've done some big debates that lately. Let's close off with those.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I saw you debate Isaiah Martin, who's been on the show.

[A]

Oh, yeah.

[B]

How did that go?

[A]

So it was interesting because I did two separate debates with them. The first one was on immigration. I think I debated him for close to eight minutes. They only showed like four and a half minutes of it. So they cut it down a lot. The second debate was close to half an hour. They showed about like 15, 14 minutes of it. They edited pretty much half of what I debated with them.

[B]

That's weird because when I moderate debates, I don't edit out anything.

[A]

Oh, they edited a lot. And not only that, they made some very specific choices even as far as the fact checking goes, because they fact checked me on everything. And that became like. And look, I don't mind being fact checked. I'm not complaining. I would just appreciate if there were equal fact checking. Right. And if the fact checking that they were using on me didn't serve as a rebuttal for him. Right. They were like literally giving him assists with the fact checks.

[B]

Were they doing it live or in the post?

[A]

No, they did it in post. Yeah. So one of the fact checks that comes up a lot. It's one of the first facts that I brought up. It's the 70% of the people being deported are criminals and either caught in the act or charged. Right. And that's according to dhs. And that became a dispute. He was like, well, no, actually it's not 70%. And I asked him, well, where'd you get that number? He said DHS. He cited that wrong. It was actually a UCLA Berkeley study that said 43% of the people being deported by ICE were convicted criminals or charged. What they. What UCLA and Berkeley left out, the reason why they got the 43. What they left out is the remainder are people who committed crimes back home. So they took that share out. Right. So that's what he was citing. Still criminals, but they just have some sort of conviction or something back home. And you know, to me, I don't think that really that's not a good distinction to make. Just get them out of here. If they're criminals back home, they shouldn't be here. You know, they wouldn't qualify for a visa anyway. That's why they're here illegally. So that was one of the things they never actually addressed, that he cited it incorrectly, and they never actually addressed a distinction in that piece of data. And then there were several other moments where he barely actually ever brought any sort of facts. He actually tried to debate, you know, he redirected. Like when I was debating him about Democrats hate America, that was the premise that I brought in, right? I brought up Ilhan Omar, a bunch of Democrats who enriched themselves in office, and he brought up Trump. So he would redirect instead of actually addressing what I had claimed. Instead of defending the behavior, he would redirect. And in some instances, I wish I'd said certain things because I didn't mention that he spent $600 million on lawsuits, on lawfare. But his first term, his net worth actually went down right in the crypto, you know, scam or whatever you want to call it. He actually didn't have a direct connection with the people running it. They just used his name. Right? There is no evidence. That's why I asked him. I'm like, who was involved? How much money to make? He can't answer any of those questions because it's not even related to him. So it's just a talking point. And this is something that Jubilee cut out. They kind of left. They put in at the end, like a sentence fragment of what I said in my exit interview. But, you know, I can tell that he's passionate about this, but he's. He's just going about it in a very toxic way because he's doing the equivalent of just grabbing headlines and just presenting that. Right. He's not actually, like, talking it through. He's not presenting facts. He's not backing up any arguments. He's just like, ok, you said this. Oh, here's something. Oh, look, Trump's bad. Right? Which isn't a way to debate. Funny enough, it's what my opponent, Laura Friedman, is doing. She's running on Trump bad. Yeah, right.

[B]

Well, she knows if you debated you with facts, she would lose.

[A]

She would 100% lose, because she's been responsible for the bill that strips parental rights so that they can transition your child at school. She's been responsible for the bill that is rezoning all of Glendale and Burbank. People hate her in the district. She was riding in the Coattails of Adam Schiff. So that's why they can't debate these things because their record sucks. Right. They're just bad. They're ideologues. They don't care about the people that they're there to serve. Her town halls are on zoom and hyper controlled. You see half a dozen people who are able to ask a question in a district with 790,000 registered voters. It's crazy.

[B]

Even ask her questions.

[A]

You can't even ask her questions? No. And they're, they're pre screened questions in the zoom. So. And she does one every like four months.

[B]

That's awful.

[A]

How is that representation?

[B]

Yeah, that's why we need guys like you, Jake. Shout out to James Fishback to fish back.

[A]

He's doing great.

[B]

I can't wait for his debate. Byron finally agreed. I guess he did, yeah.

[A]

Oh, I didn't know that. That's a little bit of breaking news for me.

[B]

But that's the pressure of social media. When you build this following, people have to keep cave in.

[A]

Eventually they do. Yeah. Well, I do want to mention something, something similar to Fishback and I have it right here that I relate. I'm very much America first. Right. And this has actually been a crux in a lot of. There's so there's a generational divide in the Republican Party right now. There are the boomers who have been around for a while. Some of them as far back as Reagan, Right. Worked in Reagan's campaign. And there's a whole group of young men and Latino men who moved over or have been conservative but now are getting engaged. Right. And the party doesn't know what to do with it because like I said, they're very, they're blue dog Democrats in California. They are very socially liberal. And there's like this whole group of young men and Latinos that are getting involved and are very socially conservative. So there's like a split right. And you can't even mention Nick Fuentes. I get called the other day, there was an endorsement meeting. I got several calls. You have to disavow Nick Fuentes. You have to do it publicly. Disavow him. I'm like, he's not in my campaign. Sure. I watch him. I agree with many of his criticisms of our relationship with Israel. I don't want America involved in foreign wars and funding foreign governments. I want to take care of America first. And it's a reasonable thing that a lot of people in my district relate to. Right. There's a lot of skepticism around America's relationship with Israel, we don't want. The sense that I get is that Israel is running our government by proxy. That's what I've been seeing. I think Trump's compromised.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

I really do. And it's unfortunate because I voted for him. I was excited to see him come in and he did a great job at the beginning. But now you've seen Netanyahu every other month. He just gave him the keys to the White House.

[B]

I didn't know that. That's crazy.

[A]

It was a week ago.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

How crazy is that?

[B]

How many people get that?

[A]

Yeah, he's been there five months. We're about to go to war with Iran because this guy, they're pushing it. We have no reason to be as involved as we are in the Middle East.

[B]

I think if we go to war with Iran, he's going to lose probably 10, 20% of his voter base.

[A]

Oh, yeah, he ran on being anti war and he's just been getting us in a conflict. You know, especially being in la, we see the social decay, we see what's happening and we don't want to be sending our money abroad. And look, by the way, it's not just about Israel. I don't want my money to go to Argentina. Those $40 billion, I don't want that to go to Argentina. I don't want my money to go to Ukraine. I want to take care of Americans. I want to be here in America. So, you know when you have that sort of thing, like yesterday I was at a CRA meeting and one of these guys who's been involved in the party for many years, he said, I noticed you have America first on your website. You know, it means something different nowadays. It was like, no, it doesn't. America first still means America First. It's just people get. So what's really happening is Zionism is being used as a cudgel to split Christians within the party and get them to argue. That's what's happening. So, you know, there are different opinions on America's relationship with Israel and what it should be. They're obviously Christian Zionists. They're still very much a part of the Republican Party. And there are people like myself who I just don't think we should be involved in it with Israel. Right. And I think it should be the kind of thing where you're either America first and if you're talking about Israel so much, maybe you're Israel first and you shouldn't be involved in politics. If you are right. It was even strange because even in this nomination meeting, somebody did a prayer and at the end of the prayer, this person says, God bless America and Israel. And I'm like, what? How? How, dude?

[B]

And that was in la.

[A]

That was in la.

[B]

Oh my gosh.

[A]

Yeah. And I'm like, we're all here. We're part of our party infrastructure. We're running for office in America to represent Americans. Why are we talking about Israel? Yeah, right.

[B]

That's wild to me.

[A]

It blew my mind. It really did. And it really showed me how. There's a lot to do within the Republican Party to move it to a place where these neocons, these people who are putting outside interests ahead of American interests, we have to. These people, they're well intentioned people, they just have their heart in the wrong place. They're seeing it wrong. I understand that they want to improve their community, but thinking that you have to put Israel ahead of Americans, I will never agree with that 100%. Yeah.

[B]

Dennis, it's been an honor having you, man.

[A]

Thank you, Sean.

[B]

Where could people support you?

[A]

Well, you can go to my website. It's DennisForChange.com you can donate there, you can join and volunteer there. You can also follow me. Def Noodles D E F Noodles. That's my main social media. That's where I'm usually posting. I my other, my candidate social media is also Dennis for Dennis 4 change D E N N I S F O R C H A N G E so yeah, that's where you can find all my stuff.

[B]

We'll link it below. Thanks for coming, man.

[A]

Thank you, Sean. Appreciate you.

[B]

See you guys.

[C]

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[B]

or got any value at all, please

[C]

share this episode with a friend.

[B]

It helps us grow the channel, it helps us grow the podcast, and it

[C]

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[B]

Thank you so much.