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00:00:01
Speaker 1: Speaking up in all caps.
00:00:05
Speaker 2: For those that don, the red caps. It's the John Phillips Show.
00:00:13
Speaker 3: And a very happy Tuesday to you at 12.06 in the West.
00:00:16
Speaker 2: It's the John Phillips Show. Mr. Randy Wang's in Culver City.
00:00:20
Speaker 1: Johnny, we're broadcasting live on the radio, 790 KABC in Southern California, 810 KSFO in the Bay Area, and we're broadcasting live on video where you can watch us react to the news of the day and tell us what you really think in our chat room at johnnydontlike.com. That's Johnny with a Y, johnnydontlike.com.
00:00:41
Speaker 3: Well, it looks like the bloom is already coming off the rose for one Javier Baccaria.
00:00:47
Speaker 1: The Becerra era has begun, and already people are realizing that there's nothing there.
00:00:54
Speaker 4: Scrub it.
00:00:55
Speaker 1: Because as soon as you put Javier Becerra's power hour idea under a microscope, you realize that it's nothing. The other leaders in the legislature know that it's nothing, which is why even dumber one and dumber two, Revis and Limon, won't commit to it because this is his big policy proposal and it's not going to help anybody.
00:01:23
Speaker 3: Randy, the power hour is what you would call a gimmick. It's like when Red Lobster decided to do all-you-can-eat shrimp. And look how that worked.
00:01:32
Speaker 2: Out for him. The thing that's very.
00:01:36
Speaker 1: depressing in the state of California is that Becerra barely campaigned. When he opened his mouth, he would say stupid things like power hour. And if you look at the way the results are tracking right now, Becerra did so well in this blue wave election that Kern County voted for Becerra over Hilton. Fresno County voted for Becerra over Hilton. Counties that have not voted for a Democrat in decades.
00:02:10
Speaker 3: I think this election was just one of those things where Becerra and Hilton, what they did or didn't do almost didn't matter. The results were going to be what the results were going to be.
00:02:25
Speaker 1: Let's find out what exactly is the problem with Javier Becerra's power hour. Here is ABC 7 in the Bay.
00:02:35
Speaker 5: California Governor-elect Javier Becerra says affordability will be his number one priority once he takes office in January. And with that comes addressing high utility costs for Californians across the state.
00:02:47
Speaker 6: ABC7 Eyewitness News political reporter Monica Madden followed up with Becerra about a proposal from his campaign that he called the Power Hour.
00:02:56
Speaker 4: Monica.
00:02:56
Speaker 7: Yeah, this summer candidate Javier Becerra put together a proposal offering free power for certain working families during off-peak hours.
00:03:04
Speaker 2: Oh, wait. That's not for everybody? I thought it was supposed to be for everyone.
00:03:09
Speaker 8: No.
00:03:11
Speaker 1: So it really is going to help nobody. Because guess what? If you're at a certain income threshold, you already get subsidized electric bills.
00:03:21
Speaker 3: How do you even find out if you're one of the chosen ones?
00:03:25
Speaker 1: Well, I guess plug in your car at one o'clock and see if they send you a bill.
00:03:31
Speaker 7: Energy is cheapest, but now as governor-elect, Becerra told reporters he's not committing to anything just yet.
00:03:38
Speaker 4: Use your electricity during those two hours, and you won't pay a dime.
00:03:46
Speaker 2: And he's cutting bait on that already?
00:03:49
Speaker 4: Scrub it.
00:03:51
Speaker 1: I know people think that things couldn't possibly get worse in the state of California.
00:03:56
Speaker 2: They're going to get real worse real fast.
00:04:01
Speaker 1: You're going to be just clamoring for those good old Gavin days.
00:04:09
Speaker 7: In August, candidate Javier Becerra pitched offering free electricity mid-afternoon for some Californians.
00:04:15
Speaker 1: You know, when the majority of Californians are at work.
00:04:19
Speaker 3: Okay, so he's essentially offering free power to whoever is a deadbeat sitting around watching daytime television.
00:04:27
Speaker 2: Yes.
00:04:29
Speaker 1: Your Jerry Springer TV will be power-free.
00:04:33
Speaker 4: Today, we produce so much solar that oftentimes in the afternoon, we can't make use of all of it. And so it essentially goes to waste.
00:04:43
Speaker 7: After meeting with the Senate pro tem and Assembly Speaker Thursday, I asked Becerra if that's still the plan. Are all three of you aligned on the utility power hour proposal you floated during the campaign?
00:04:53
Speaker 4: I'm interested to hear what they say on power hour.
00:05:00
Speaker 1: I got to imagine, and it's a low bar, but even that meeting of the minds between Becerra, Rivas, and Limon, Rivas and Limon could realize, okay, this guy's the dumbest of all of us.
00:05:14
Speaker 3: Okay, I'm actually looking at this, and I'm seeing things that make me optimistic. And by that, I mean, I don't think he's going to be able to get anything done. He looks like a deer caught in the headlights. He clearly hadn't reached out to them before to find out where they were on his power hour idea. Once the primary was over and he was on the ballot with a Republican, he knew he was going to be the next governor. So wouldn't you start working on these things ahead of time to at least know where the legislative leaders stand on it?
00:05:52
Speaker 2: That's not how Bassetta operates. Not only did he not.
00:05:56
Speaker 3: do it, but it looks like it never even occurred to him to pick up the phone.
00:06:01
Speaker 1: It was Javier Becerra's own colleagues in the White House that claimed whenever he had a presentation about the Department of Health and Human Services, it was like the kid doing the book report that never read the book.
00:06:20
Speaker 2: And I've been one of those kids. I know what that's like.
00:06:25
Speaker 7: Two legislative leaders stopped
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short of endorsing the idea.
00:06:28
Speaker 5: I think that there's an appetite to consider to explore in advance both short-term and long-term exploration about energy sustainability.
00:06:36
Speaker 9: Could there be some alignment on this idea of a power hour?
00:06:39
Speaker 4: Possibly. But, you know, specific to this proposal, I don't know enough about it.
00:06:44
Speaker 1: Here's the other thing that I think even somebody as dim-witted as Revis knows. This is going to be a very different relationship with the governor's office than Gavin. Don't forget, it was the assembly and the state Senate that gave Gavin all the power during COVID and he never really gave it back. The assembly and the state Senate have been supine as a term that Gavin loves to use to him for almost all of the eight years. I think Revis and Limon realize they can do whatever they want because Becerra is not going to veto a damn thing.
00:07:18
Speaker 2: Well, you're 100% correct.
00:07:20
Speaker 3: And not only did Gavin take all the power, they had extremely limited access to him. It wasn't like he was walking the halls of the Capitol and you could have a Starbucks with him or have lunch with him and run your ideas by him or pick his brain on something. He was a celebrity, and they were mere mortals. And he acted like that, and for whatever reason.
00:07:47
Speaker 2: They.
00:07:47
Speaker 3: Decided to accept their subservience to him. Well, now that Becerra is the governor and now that Becerra is the one that's in charge, I think you're right, Randy. I think they're going to let him know that they're the ones in charge. And if he wants something, he's going to have to go to them and get their approval and their blessings.
00:08:08
Speaker 1: As crazy as the laws that are passed every single year in the state of California, Gavin did veto like a hundred of them every single year. Things that would blow the budget, things that would make it even worse, things that were just a little out of control.
00:08:22
Speaker 2: Do you think Becerra is going to do any of that? No, no.
00:08:25
Speaker 3: But it's like, if you're, I don't know, you're on a television show and there's one actor on the television show that is really famous and is the one that is the draw. that actor is going to be treated very differently than everyone else on the show. It was like that with Married with Children, for example. Ed O'Neill was the big guy. And if you were one of the actors who played the neighbor or whatever, you don't have the same pull with the network that Ed O'Neill has. Well, Gavin Newsom was the star, and the rest of them were just happy to be there.
00:09:04
Speaker 2: And that dynamic is over.
00:09:07
Speaker 3: And I think Javier Becerra is expected to be treated the same way that Gavin was treated, and he has no clue what's coming.
00:09:16
Speaker 1: So Javier Becerra is Marcy Darcy in this analogy?
00:09:20
Speaker 3: Yes.
00:09:21
Speaker 2: Ha ha ha ha ha ha.
00:09:23
Speaker 7: Details Becerra hasn't outlined yet.
00:09:25
Speaker 9: The price we actually pay is paying for a lot of other things other than the low cost of producing electricity during those hours.
00:09:32
Speaker 1: I mean, if you're up in the Northern California, you have to pay for PG & E' s ads telling you how great PG & E is. That's built into the price of the rates that you pay.
00:09:45
Speaker 7: Say the idea could help some customers, but wouldn't make a major dent in energy bills.
00:09:50
Speaker 9: It's such a small step. It would only affect some customers. It would only be relevant for a couple hours a day. And it just wouldn't change bills for much.
00:10:02
Speaker 1: No.
00:10:03
Speaker 2: And if you work during the day, it means nothing for you.
00:10:05
Speaker 1: I know the show's from noon to 3, but I'm going to have to drive home at 12.01 so I can get to my house at 1 o'clock so I can charge my car because that's when Becerra said it's free. And then I'll come back at 2.30. But you can do the rest of the show by yourself, right, Johnny?
00:10:22
Speaker 4: Oh, sure.
00:10:25
Speaker 2: Teach you how to run the software.
00:10:26
Speaker 7: Bornstein says the biggest drivers of higher electricity bills are wildfire-related costs and other state policies that would take years to address.
00:10:35
Speaker 9: Unfortunately, there is no quick fix.
00:10:37
Speaker 1: It's almost like, and this is going to be something you're going to hear a lot of us say in the next year, he hasn't thought this through.
00:10:49
Speaker 8: Scrub it to the short run other than shifting some of these costs onto other revenue sources and the most likely one is the state budget paid primarily through income taxes.
00:11:01
Speaker 10: For now becerra isn't putting or what they'll do is if they're going to give the power hour to people under a certain income threshold you know how the energy utility monopolies are going to make up that money They're going to charge everyone else more.
00:11:16
Speaker 1: That's already what they do with all these subsidized plans, and this is just an expansion of that.
00:11:21
Speaker 3: There is no such thing as a free lunch. At some point, someone has to pay for everything. When you give free energy to one population of people, some other population has to pay for it.
00:11:37
Speaker 2: That's how it works.
00:11:39
Speaker 7: Price tag on the proposal, telling reporters broadly that he will not make commitments until he reviews the state's budget. And the energy expert we spoke with guessed that the power hour would save customers about $ 200 annually.
00:11:53
Speaker 1: That's it? Not $ 200 a month?
00:11:59
Speaker 2: $ 200 a year?
00:12:01
Speaker 3: And then be unbelievably disruptive to your life.
00:12:05
Speaker 7: Saying the larger question is how lawmakers can address the mounting wildfire-related costs that are really driving up some of the energy prices that people are seeing every month.
00:12:13
Speaker 1: All right, Monica.
00:12:16
Speaker 5: Thank you so much. I know you had a big conversation with him yesterday, so we'll see more to come.
00:12:20
Speaker 6: What promises he delivers on.
00:12:23
Speaker 7: That's the phrase of the week, more to come.
00:12:25
Speaker 8: Okay.
00:12:26
Speaker 2: I don't think there's much more. No. No, there's nothing there. And I'm talking about what's between his ears.
00:12:33
Speaker 1: Javier Becerra's Power Hour. Catchy name, no actual policy behind it. If it was enacted, it would help very, very, very few people for very, very, very little amounts of money.
00:12:48
Speaker 3: Okay, I'm going to make a prediction right now, and I want everyone to remember this because I am going to be correct. Here is what's going to happen. All the energy right now within the Democratic Party, particularly in California, is on the left. You look at the pickups that the DSA made where they won the L.A. mayor's race. They won the insurance commissioner's race. They took out incumbent Congressman Jimmy Gomez, Becerra's old congressional seat. You look at people who aren't formerly with the DSA but are ideologically there. That's who beat David Valadao in the Central Valley. That's who won Eric Swalwell's congressional seat. That's where the energy is right now. And that's where the ideas are right now in the Democratic Party. The traditional Democrats do nothing but, I hate Trump, I hate Trump, I hate Trump. Okay, fine, the election's over. Now you have the power, now you have to govern. What are you going to do with it? The DSA has all kinds of ideas as to how the state should be run. And their ideas are extremely radical and would be a massive departure from what we're used to. So, for example, they believe in abolishing private insurance. They want the state of California to sell you your fire insurance. And ultimately they want the state of California to sell you your homeowner's insurance and your auto insurance.
00:14:29
Speaker 1: We actually already have that. I found that out today. We have it for certain low income people. There is a state run auto insurance plan.
00:14:38
Speaker 3: Well, they want all of us in it. And that would require a vote by the legislature. The insurance commissioner's office cannot do that on their own because you need a new state agency. or to expand one, I guess, that already exists. You'd need money to hire people. You would need money to run it. That would require taxes to go up dramatically because, again, there's no free lunch. You would need a governor who would have to put in the work with the legislature to get this through and to get this implemented. You think for 10 seconds that Becerra is going to do that?
00:15:19
Speaker 2: No chance. No chance.
00:15:23
Speaker 3: They are all worked up over wealth inequality in the state. And to the extent that they were opposed to the billionaire tax confiscation initiative, they were upset at who was going to get the spoils. They were upset that it was all going to one union and not being spread out. They're going to expect him to put some massive wealth confiscation tax on the ballot and to make sure that it passes.
00:15:54
Speaker 2: And then he's got two choices. He can do it and he can.
00:15:58
Speaker 3: Kill the state budget, which is going to be his problem because constitutionally states can't go bankrupt. They have to balance their books. Or he can say no to them and then they turn on him immediately. They don't believe in prisons. Gavin Newsom closed a bunch of prisons. They're going to expect that he is going to continue to close more prisons. Well, okay, then the number of people living on the streets is going to get worse. The number of people who are stealing from retail establishments is going to get worse. The number of cars that get stolen is going to get worse.
00:16:36
Speaker 2: Go down the list.
00:16:39
Speaker 3: You can tell that this is going to be a disaster because The DSA is not going to accept, oh, let's study this. That's what Gavin always did whenever he knew what they wanted was a poison pill, like with reparations. Well, let's study it and let's see what the commission says it would be like should.
00:17:00
Speaker 2: We do it.
00:17:01
Speaker 3: And then they give him information essentially saying you can't do it. Well, let's study it some more. And it worked for Gavin. That's not going to work for Becerra. This crowd now has whatever is beyond a supermajority in the legislature. They have all the statewide constitutional offices, and they want action. It's like that Elvis Presley song, a little less conversation, a little more action. And Becerra is between a rock and a hard place in addition to the fact that he's extremely dim-witted and doesn't have the skills to get it done if he wanted to, which means... The mustard's coming off the hot dog. The wheels are coming off. There's only one way that this movie can end, and that is with the public turning on him almost immediately. And he's not a savvy politician. There are people that can do unpopular things that are savvy enough to survive.
00:18:07
Speaker 2: They're wily.
00:18:09
Speaker 3: He is not a wily, savvy politician. He's a dummy who was the last man standing because everyone else in that race got obliterated.
00:18:20
Speaker 2: Swalwell. Padilla. Harris.
00:18:28
Speaker 3: All of them were supposed to be governor. And then they didn't for one reason or another.
00:18:33
Speaker 2: Don't forget Katie. Get out of my shop. So this is where we are.
00:18:39
Speaker 3: And. Javier Becerra should enjoy it right now while he's still riding high because I don't think it's going to last long. If you want to email the show, you can do so at johnnydontlikeshow at gmail.com. That's johnnydontlikeshow at gmail.com. And if you want to watch us perform the show live, go to johnnydontlike.com, participate in the chat, and click that like button. And most importantly,
Randy, hit the subscribe button too.
00:19:10
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00:19:30
Speaker 2: That's johnnydontlike.com.
00:19:34
Speaker 3: And that's also where you can find the Accountability Podcast.
00:19:38
Speaker 1: We do a tribute every single week to the most useless word of the English language.
00:19:44
Speaker 2: Accountability, accountability, accountability.
00:19:46
Speaker 1: And we have a brand new episode dropping tomorrow at 3 p.m.
00:19:50
Speaker 2: 3 p.m. right here at johnnydontlike.com.
00:19:54
Speaker 3: Well, Randy, there's a new political odd couple that's all over cable TV. We know for the past few months, there's been a regular guest on with Alex Michelson on CNN. And it's been former Orange County Congresswoman Katie Porter.
00:20:15
Speaker 6: Sorry for the noise. I'm cutting carrots.
00:20:18
Speaker 1: Well, Alex Michaels has been trying to find the perfect foil for Porter because he likes to do these roundtable discussions where he has one person on the left here and one person on the right here. And, well, he may have found... Katie Porter's television soulmate.
00:20:37
Speaker 2: Why do you have to watch porn in the living room?
00:20:40
Speaker 1: Because last night, for the full three hours, Alex Michelson sat down with Katie Porter and Steve Hilton.
00:20:49
Speaker 2: Oh, my.
00:20:52
Speaker 1: Let me share this to the screen, and let me put this up on the screen. Now, I haven't written a lower third for this, so I think we're going to call this.
00:21:02
Speaker 2: You can smell it right here. Right here.
00:21:08
Speaker 1: And then I will put the name of this segment right here. And then we'll be good to go. Just so we give Alex his credit. There we go, everybody. This was a discussion about a whole bunch of things, including the midterm results, what's going on in Mississippi right now, what's going on with the house elections. But at one point they started talking about the fact that the billionaire tax did not pass. And that led Alex to ask a question of these two former gubernatorial candidates about their competitor, the guy that won scrub it, that guy scrubbed Let's hear what Katie and Steve had to say on CNN with Alex Michelson.
00:21:56
Speaker 11: So you guys are both digging into policy, and I got to give you both credit during your campaigns for governor. You love talking about policy, put out a lot of policy, talked about potential solutions. Whether you agree with them or disagree, there was meat on the bones of those.
00:22:11
Speaker 1: And what we found out is the average California voter does not care.
00:22:16
Speaker 4: No, I don't know enough to give you any good information, but good luck finding someone who does.
00:22:21
Speaker 1: And it's not even a Democrat or Republican thing because you look at Katie Porter, regardless, what do you think about her personality on the Democrat side? She was the only one coming out with actual policies and she came in fifth.
00:22:36
Speaker 2: Well, Don't forget this.
00:22:38
Speaker 3: Eric Swalwell had fewer ideas than Javier Becerra. All he cared about was hating on Donald Trump and he was a figure out of Washington. At one point he ran for president and had to drop out because he had 1%. He was doing better than all of them. And if it weren't for the sex scandal, he'd be the governor today.
00:23:01
Speaker 1: What a different timeline we would be if that happened. All right, let's see what Katie has to say.
00:23:07
Speaker 11: Javier Becerra, who won, was not known for that and admits to it.
00:23:15
Speaker 2: That has to drive her crazy.
00:23:19
Speaker 1: I think when it comes to the scale of the people she hated the most in the gubernatorial campaign, I'd say for a long time it was probably Tom Steyer and his money.
00:23:30
Speaker 2: I'm Tom Steyer, and I'm about to ride the D.
00:23:32
Speaker 1: But it has to make her blood boil. That she stood on a stage with Becerra so many times, she knows there's nothing upstairs, and he got the job.
00:23:43
Speaker 4: Scrub it.
00:23:45
Speaker 11: And very interestingly, was just pressed by reporters to try to give, commit to policy specifics. And this is what he said to them just a few days ago after winning as governor-elect.
00:23:59
Speaker 4: But guys, don't play this game about asking me to commit. because I didn't get elected doing that. A lot of other folks make these wild promises, and they're not the governor-elect. I ran on my record.
00:24:13
Speaker 1: This is the other thing that's going to be different about the Becerra era. We're not even pretending that he cares about the press. He already hates them, and he hasn't even had the job yet.
00:24:25
Speaker 3: And that's another thing where when Arnold Schwarzenegger was governor, a lot of different jobs had Sacramento bureaus. radio stations, television stations, newspapers, and that really doesn't exist today. What you have is you have a couple of different reporters in Sacramento, like Julie Watts, like Ashley Zavala, who are the ones who are asking all of the questions. And that's essentially it. And what Becerra is going to do is try to shut those two out. and just not answer their questions. Because they're the only ones who are left who are asking relevant questions to the elected leaders in California.
00:25:16
Speaker 9: What goes through your mind when you hear that?
00:25:20
Speaker 12: You can be mean in a way that I can't, because I've just lost him. I'm not going to.
00:25:26
Speaker 6: I'll take this one for the team, Steve. Look, my reaction to that is as a Californian, because I'm a little more distant from the race. As a Californian, I have
questions. Like, I need a commitment that my children are going to be able to afford to live here.
00:25:43
Speaker 2: Not in the Becerra era.
00:25:46
Speaker 3: No, this is why I said in the last segment, the wheels are coming off. She is a left-wing liberal Democrat, and she's already losing it with this guy.
00:25:59
Speaker 1: Part of me wants to just change our entire show plan for the rest of the day and just leave the screen freeze-framed on this. How do you feel about that? Oh, Katie, it's a rough day. I'm glad we have you here.
00:26:16
Speaker 6: I need a commitment that health care costs are going down. I need a commitment that you're going to continue to invest in the science and research that has powered California's economy. Nobody is asking him to promise every little aspect in detail. And I do think Gavin made very big promises.
00:26:37
Speaker 2: You mean like three million houses?
00:26:39
Speaker 3: And wasn't homelessness supposed to be over when he was mayor of San Francisco?
00:26:44
Speaker 1: And single-payer health care. We're 0 for 3. And reparations?
00:26:48
Speaker 2: 0 for 4.
00:26:51
Speaker 6: I don't think that you have to do that. But I do think we are less than two months from Governor-elect Becerra leaving the state, and the time is coming pretty quickly where he's going to have to write his budget. And one of the things that policy people and politicians love to say is, you know, it's trite at this point, is, Budgets are statements of values.
00:27:14
Speaker 2: But there's some truth to that.
00:27:15
Speaker 6: What is your priority going to be? And as a Californian, I want to know that I'm going to be able to thrive here and that my kids are going to be able to thrive here, that your kids are going to be able to thrive here.
00:27:26
Speaker 3: Well, here's the answer. The answer is he hates Trump and that's all you need to know.
00:27:33
Speaker 12: A question, but I just want to jump in here because you actually had Javier Becerra right here and you asked him what he wanted to change from what's been going on, given that it's clear that a majority of Californians want to see change, which is what we, in different ways, we put forward proposals for change. He couldn't give you an answer. And all he got to is, we'll do things better. We'll manage things better.
00:27:56
Speaker 2: But he won.
00:27:57
Speaker 9: Why do you think he won?
00:27:58
Speaker 6: I think....
00:28:03
Speaker 2: Poor Steve has had to have a rough week.
00:28:08
Speaker 12: I think he won because of what we mentioned earlier, not a good year for Republicans. That's one reason. Secondly, because this state has a very well-run and financed Democrat machine, the government unions, activists, nonprofits, the whole network there that helps at election time. However, set against that, I would say we made some real progress in this election. I think if you look at the data, look at your CNN's exit poll. Very interesting numbers there. 23% of the electorate in California identifies as DSA, Democratic Socialists. Of that group, Becerra won 98%.
00:28:44
Speaker 1: If that's true, California's cooked, kids. Republican ain't winning in this state ever again.
00:28:51
Speaker 3: No, this is why I think the threat to Becerra is not a Republican candidate, but a DSA candidate four years from now. He is, in so many ways, the statewide version of Karen Bass.
00:29:04
Speaker 8: Yep.
00:29:05
Speaker 12: To two against me. Of the remaining 77%, Democrats, Independents and Republicans, it was 55-45. Half the gap that we've seen in the last 20 years. All the time we had Democrats saying, I'm a lifelong Democrat and I'm voting for you. I think we made progress by laying out a positive practical plan focused on the people who really need help. Working class Californians, this is where you and I agree on tax policy actually.
00:29:34
Speaker 1: I mean, I wish that were the case, but I mean, Kern County went for Becerra.
00:29:42
Speaker 3: No, this was a tsunami of epic proportions and there's just no other way to sugarcoat it.
00:29:51
Speaker 11: We got to go, but we're going to get more with both of you in our next hour.
00:29:54
Speaker 1: He's going to, there is 30 minutes of back and forth between Steve Hilton and Katie Porter. So if you are into that sort of thing, that's what YouTube's for. You can watch as much of it as you want, but I think we'll probably move on.
00:30:16
Speaker 3: If you want to watch us perform the show live, go to Johnny don't like.com and click that like button and definitely subscribe.
00:30:24
Speaker 1: A lot of people in the chat want to know when we're going to interview Katie Porter.
00:30:28
Speaker 8: Please.
00:30:30
Speaker 2: Well, if you want to see her, you don't have to come here. You can go to CNN. She's on every other night.
00:30:35
Speaker 1: Maybe that should be our prize if we get to 25,000 subscribers. If we get to 25,000 subscribers, we will have a video of Katie Porter dumping a bucket of potatoes on John's head.
00:30:47
Speaker 6: Get out of my shop.
00:30:49
Speaker 2: Uh-oh. Will they be lumpy?
00:30:58
Speaker 3: Here with an update on disgraced former Oakland Mayor Sheng Tao, Mr.
00:31:02
Speaker 2: Randy Wang.
00:31:04
Speaker 1: It's time for another episode of Dumb Mafia, everybody. Let me turn on the Dumb Mafia lower third here. Because the cross-examination of key witness Mario Juarez continues in the corruption trial of Sheng Tao, her no-good boyfriend Andre Jones, David Dong, and Andy Hung Dong.
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Speaker 13: Absolutely.
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Speaker 6: Absolutely.
00:31:28
Speaker 1: Let's see the developments that happened yesterday. Here is a report from NBC in the Bay because for some reason, ABC seven hasn't posted Dan noises rap yet.
00:31:39
Speaker 13: A thumbs up from Mario Juarez after a day of being grilled on the stand. Attorneys accused Juarez of padding expense reimbursements from Tao's co-defendants, David and Andy
Duong, and stealing from his former business associates. wanted to hurt the family's recycling company, California Waste Solutions. Juarez denied it. Then came a text message to a business associate the defense showed was sent just two days before Juarez met with the FBI in 2024.
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Speaker 1: Johnny, I don't know if they're going to say it in the rap, so will you say it?
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Speaker 3: I need to F the dongs. And by that, I don't think it was in regard to his sexual nature. I think what he's saying is, I need to get.
00:32:34
Speaker 2: Back at them. That's right. I like that. That was amazing.
00:32:38
Speaker 1: And if you look at the timeline, it would make sense that he would feel that he needs to F the Dongs because this would have been after the Dongs had him mugged in front of the California Waste Solutions. and Andy Dong stole his watch, and after the Dongs put out a hit on Mario Juarez, handed a gun to a man named Hermolindo Ramos Ramos, and a shootout occurred outside of a van in Oakland.
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Speaker 2: Allegedly. I mean, there were bullets. Those you can't allege.
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Speaker 13: Saying he needed to expletive the Duong.
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Speaker 2: I think you said it better. Ha ha ha ha ha ha.
00:33:26
Speaker 13: The defense also challenged Wars' claim that the defendants launched a scheme to get Tao elected because she was losing ground in the 2022 mayoral race. They cited a poll showing Tao was actually tied with opponent Lauren Taylor around that time. They also accused Juarez of designing negative campaign mailers and falsifying this state expenditure report. Juarez admitted to falsifying the documents and only partially paying the printer $ 31, 000. Prosecutors allege Juarez, the Duong's Tao, and her partner Andre Jones conspired to trade campaign support for political favors and city business.
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Speaker 2: Although.
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Speaker 1: The business never really transpired, so maybe Shangy was the real scammer here. Well, an original sin for all of them was stiffing the printer because, as you correctly pointed out on yesterday's program, once they stiffed the printer, the printer then went to the Ethics Commission, who then went to the feds. If you're going to run some elaborate bribery conspiracy, pay your vendors. If you take one thing away from this show... It should probably not be that.
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Speaker 13: Defense says there was no scheme and Juarez acted alone. Juarez maintained he helped coordinate and carry out the alleged bribery plan. He agreed to plead guilty to a conspiracy charge and testify for the government in hopes of a lighter sentence. The judge again warned defense attorneys to stop drawing out their questioning and arguing with Juarez. She cautioned them if they don't pick up the pace, she will. Cross-examination continues. Tomorrow in Oakland, Valina Jones, NBC Bay Area News.
00:35:07
Speaker 1: They said this trial was going to last for six weeks. There is no way this thing, at the pace that they're going, where they have to have four different lawyers cross-examine Mario Juarez, their whole goal here is to get to the holidays where they can imagine the jury is so checked out they won't be paying attention anymore of the mountains and mountains and mountains and mountains of evidence that they have against Shangi and the Dongs.
00:35:33
Speaker 3: In trial today, Shang's attorney also asked for a mistrial because when Mario Juarez was testifying and they would ask him questions, he kept saying in response to those questions, why don't you ask Shang? Well, you have a constitutional right not to incriminate yourself, so you're not supposed to say that in front of the jury. The jury's not supposed to hold it against you if you do not testify against and your own trial. But because he kept saying that over and over and over again, Shang's attorney asked the judge to declare a mistrial. The judge said no to that, but apparently let Mario Juarez have it for repeatedly saying something he knows he wasn't supposed to say in front of the jury.
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Speaker 1: Outside of the FBI agents, there are no heroes in this story. Mario Juarez is as big of a scumbag as the Dongs, as is Andre Jones. I wouldn't call Shangy a scumbag. I think she's a patsy. But nobody looks good in this thing. And all of these people were in cahoots to rob the city blind.
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Speaker 3: What I think she's going to have to hope for is some kind of technicality that allows her to walk. Because the amount of evidence that they have against her is just humongous. And I don't think that there's anyone who looks at the evidence and goes, no, I don't think she was crooked. I don't think she was corrupt. I think this is a conspiracy out to get her. She's going to go down. If this goes to the jury, she's going to get convicted. I don't see a scenario where 12 people decide to acquit her when not only do they have a But a lot of the evidence is people in their own words because Andy Hung Dong taped everything. So it's not like you have to read a transcript of what someone allegedly said something. According to someone who was in the room, this is what was said.
00:37:41
Speaker 2: You can hear it yourself.