WEBVTT

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This episode is sponsored by StationWise, the

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first staffing software to be truly firefighter

00:00:05.879 --> 00:00:08.679
-proof. Now, you may be wondering why I have

00:00:08.679 --> 00:00:11.519
software as a sponsor when I focus usually on

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physical and mental health of the first responders,

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and I will tell you exactly why. For the first

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time, this is a staffing platform that also is

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able to integrate wellness information through

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core load tracking, exposures and wearables integration

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now of course station wise focuses on staffing

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and allows you to manage staffing choose vacation

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picks put in rules for leave and trades and even

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deploying strike teams But through the latest

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programming and AI automation, they have streamlined

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this process to free up battalion chiefs so they

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can focus on what they're supposed to be doing

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on the operational side and the fire ground.

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Now, StationWise is also able to monitor not

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only how many calls we've responded to in the

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shift, but the duration of the call, therefore

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the rest and recovery in between, thus monitoring

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the sleep deprivation that degrades our health

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and performance. It's accessible not only through

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the computer but also on Apple and Android devices

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meaning that you can access it not only within

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the station itself but outside as well. Now one

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of the most powerful features of StationWise

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in my opinion is the ability to run reports.

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Therefore, for example, be able to see just how

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much money is being used on overtime that could

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actually be front -loaded for proactive staffing,

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as well as setting alarms knowing when you are

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hitting overtime parameters. And another important

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feature is the integration of other programs

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and software for payroll, training, reports,

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etc. Now, StationWise is trusted by numerous

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agencies in California, Texas, and Idaho. And

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if you want to hear the full story from the founder,

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who he himself is a son of a firefighter, listen

00:02:03.439 --> 00:02:08.699
to episode 1163 with Marcus Edwards. And if you

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want to book a demo or learn more, go to stationwise

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.com. This episode is sponsored by Transcend,

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a veteran -owned and operated performance optimization

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company that I introduced recently as a sponsor

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on this show. Well, since then, I have actually

00:02:25.439 --> 00:02:27.719
been using my products and I have had incredible

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success. There was initial blood work that was

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extremely detailed and based on that, they offered

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supplementation. So I began taking DHEA. BPC

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-157 for inflammation based on the fact that

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I've been a stuntman, a martial artist and a

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firefighter my whole life. Lots of aches and

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pains. Dihexa to help cognition after multiple

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punches to the head and shift work and peptides.

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Four months later they did a detailed blood work

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again and I was actually able to taper off two

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of the peptides because my body had responded

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so well to just one of them that it was optimized

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at that point. So I cannot speak highly enough

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of the immense range of supplementation that

00:03:08.139 --> 00:03:10.400
they offer, whether it's male health, female

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health, peptides to boost your own testosterone,

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which I would argue is needed by a lot of the

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fire service, or whether it's exogenous testosterone

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needed, especially after TBIs or advanced age.

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Now, as I mentioned before, the other side of

00:03:24.090 --> 00:03:26.590
this company is an altruistic arm called the

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Transcend Foundation, which is putting veterans

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and first responders through some of their protocols

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free of charge. Now, Transcend are also offering

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you, the audience, 10 % off their protocols.

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And you can find that on jamesgearing .com under

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the Products tab. And if you want to hear more

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about Transcend and their story, listen to episode

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808 with the founder, Ernie Colling. or go to

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transcendcompany .com. Welcome to the Behind

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the Shield podcast. As always, my name is James

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Geering, and this week I have an incredibly important

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episode for you. Doug Orchard is a documentary

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filmmaker and was my guest on episode 576, where

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we talked about The Motivation Factor, the film

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he made on an incredibly progressive PE program

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in California in the 1960s. For many of you listening,

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you are probably recipients or hoping one day

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to be a recipient of some sort of pension. Well,

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in Doug's latest film, he exposes how private

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equity firms are draining money from so many

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pensions in this country. So for anyone who will

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be relying on a pension at the end of their career,

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this is an absolute must listen. Now, before

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we get to this incredibly important and powerful

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conversation, as I say every week, please just

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take a moment. go to whichever app you listen

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to this on subscribe to the show leave feedback

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and leave a rating Every single five -star rating

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truly does elevate this podcast, therefore making

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it easier for others to find. And this is a free

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library of almost 1 ,200 episodes now. So all

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I ask in return is that you help share these

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incredible men and women's stories so I can get

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them to every single person on planet Earth who

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needs to hear them. So with that being said,

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I welcome back onto the show, Doug. Orchard.

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Enjoy. Doug, I want to start by saying welcome

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back to the Behind the Shield podcast today.

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Thank you. So great. Thanks for having me back.

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So we sat down, I was looking out right before

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we hit record, episode 576. So that was three

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years and change ago. So we were just emerging,

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I think, from the pandemic then. One of the things

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I want to hit as a kind of icebreaker before

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we go to the bulk of this conversation today.

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I am constantly referring to your film, The Motivation

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Factor, when we look at the importance of addressing

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the nation's health and bolstering PE programs

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and serving real food in our schools would be

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a massive, massive tool for curbing this upward

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trajectory of obesity and overweight Americans

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at the moment. So before we dive into pensions

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and all things, Talk to me about kind of any

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different perspectives that you've got, having

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studied that, having made an incredible film

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about that as we've emerged now three years post

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-pandemic. Well, I understood when I was making

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that film that the people at the top didn't understand

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the topic, really. I just had a lot. more faith

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that they would be open to learning about it

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and responding when they saw, hey, here's how

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things have been in the last 20 successful civilizations,

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the leaders. Here's what they did. Here's how

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they unified the people. Here's how they achieved

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optimal gain. Here's how they became better than

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everybody else. In the end, our brains don't

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get a pass. You know, our body. You could just

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look at your stomach and say, okay, that's the

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status of my brain. So it's all connected, right?

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And the cost of our healthcare, it's crippling

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everything. I just didn't understand how dark

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it's become that they kind of like it that way.

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They kind of like it this way. There's a lot

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of money in having a sick society. And I was

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really, really dark, but you have to understand

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who's, and this gets into what we're about to

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talk about, not in an impossible, oh, it's a

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gloom doom, but what we have to do in a way that's

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actually in your self -interest to preserve it.

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But yeah, I saw, I've been a little bit discouraged.

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That movie, the trailer and the pieces from that

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film, wow, they've got over a billion views now.

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But no one makes reference to the film. No one

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even knows the film's still out there. It's still

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on my to -do list to figure out how to get the

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population to watch The Motivation Factor, which

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is and will always be the best movie I've ever

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made. What's sad is I've had so many strength

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and conditioning coaches on the show, and I don't

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think a single one of them has heard of the film.

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No, but if you showed them any of that footage,

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they'd go, oh, yeah, I've seen it. Well, I mean,

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since we've talked, since we've talked, David

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Gagan, whatever, you know, Navy SEAL guy, he's

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ripped right from the movie with the graphics

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and everything from the movie. He's put it up

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on his Instagram account. Robert Kennedy Jr.

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used it for his Make America Healthy Again campaign,

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the official one and all of that. So, yeah, everybody's,

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it's everywhere. And I'm happy that people see

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it. I really, I just. people don't understand

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how much work it is to digitize that stuff to

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find it to drag it out we were all over the country

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grabbing that and putting that together we went

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although i was in sacramento california area

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um a lot of that footage came from south carolina

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so we had to go to some boondock place with big

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dogs you know get that and all that so Ron Jones

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went and got that. He deserves the credit for

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that. A ton of alumni gave me this footage. And

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then you got to pay to digitize it and restore

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it and all that. So, you know, it's a little

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bit frustrating when someone lifts something

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and just sticks it out there with the aim to

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sell something, get more likes or whatever it

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is that they're trying to do with it. So it hasn't

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improved. We've only gone the wrong direction

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since then. and continue to do so i think since

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we talked i don't remember if this was in your

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podcast or not but there was a school that was

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still doing it that was trained from from that

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and they're in modesto and since then due to

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the actions of the um what's a supervisor uh

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they've stopped like they don't do it either

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which is crazy since 1969 68 so they were doing

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for 57 years i believe and it just stopped so

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so that that coach left and now in texas and

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trying to get texas to do it so so for people

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listening i don't know what we're talking about

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it's the uh the incredible pe program that was

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uh taken from the russians the russians came

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and took it we took it from greek and rome it

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went it went from europe to us over to russia

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after the fall of iron curtain we saw that they

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were still doing it that they did the whole time

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yeah wasn't this to get jacked it was to actually

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restore your body to that natural state we see

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little bits of that here and there um but um

00:11:35.340 --> 00:11:38.899
yeah but i think the point is with with the footage

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that was put out there had that all been attached

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to check out this documentary, see what this,

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you know, this, this program was in the sixties.

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Let's start making it a thing in the country.

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You'd be like, okay, I, all right. You took parts

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of my film, but you're using it for the movement.

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And that would have been different. I could care

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less. Yeah. If they just make reference to the

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movie and people watched enough of it, really,

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I make movies to actually change things. I'm

00:12:06.580 --> 00:12:10.679
not satisfied anymore with entertainment alone.

00:12:10.899 --> 00:12:15.450
It's I. see a major issue that's not being addressed

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and won't be fixed by our parties. And I make

00:12:19.330 --> 00:12:22.669
nonpartisan movies that actually have the potential

00:12:22.669 --> 00:12:25.730
to move the needle for society and fix things

00:12:25.730 --> 00:12:28.850
that, and usually there's a historical with a

00:12:28.850 --> 00:12:32.289
current, there's a number of factors. It's always

00:12:32.289 --> 00:12:37.889
very comprehensive to look at it. I say I could

00:12:37.889 --> 00:12:40.049
probably get a PhD in it because they typically

00:12:40.049 --> 00:12:45.049
will take me about four years to do. So anyway.

00:12:46.309 --> 00:12:48.450
Yeah, but I think, I mean, just staying on this

00:12:48.450 --> 00:12:51.009
for a second, it is important because when we

00:12:51.009 --> 00:12:54.070
talk about what needs to happen, the motivation

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factor, you know, what was done in, you know,

00:12:56.750 --> 00:12:59.610
in those high schools in California in the 60s.

00:13:00.009 --> 00:13:02.429
is absolutely part of the solution then you take

00:13:02.429 --> 00:13:04.649
in what jamie oliver was doing with school food

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that's another part of the solution you know

00:13:06.889 --> 00:13:09.710
then you look at bolstering local farmers to

00:13:09.710 --> 00:13:12.110
be able to create organic food you know within

00:13:12.110 --> 00:13:14.789
that town within that city now you're starting

00:13:14.789 --> 00:13:17.289
to amass things pedestrianizing downtown utilizing

00:13:17.289 --> 00:13:19.710
more public transport so people are walking more

00:13:19.710 --> 00:13:22.490
these are all actionable solutions and as you

00:13:22.490 --> 00:13:26.629
mentioned you know our jfk was the champion at

00:13:26.629 --> 00:13:29.669
the time of this. Now we've got RFK, who I'm

00:13:29.669 --> 00:13:31.789
sure at his heart was wanting to actually make

00:13:31.789 --> 00:13:33.610
the nation healthier. But the moment, you know,

00:13:33.610 --> 00:13:36.490
obviously that he stepped into this other party,

00:13:36.649 --> 00:13:39.070
he was castrated and that was it because we've

00:13:39.070 --> 00:13:41.509
heard nothing about making the nation healthier.

00:13:41.690 --> 00:13:43.929
So I just want to kind of highlight this because

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I think the motivation factor is absolutely one

00:13:46.590 --> 00:13:49.570
of the actionable tools that anyone listening

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now, especially if you're part of a school system.

00:13:52.360 --> 00:13:55.039
can look at see the success not just of the health

00:13:55.039 --> 00:13:57.440
of the kids but the bullying and the grades and

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all these other areas that were improved as well

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and start asking the question well why are we

00:14:02.179 --> 00:14:07.220
not doing it this way right right well i don't

00:14:07.220 --> 00:14:11.740
think we're gonna fix it until we do it or something

00:14:11.740 --> 00:14:15.820
pretty dang similar it's it's usually it's always

00:14:15.820 --> 00:14:19.480
historically been like that at least the activities

00:14:19.480 --> 00:14:23.330
they did how you got people to do it together,

00:14:23.590 --> 00:14:29.509
the unity that is derived from it, the mental

00:14:29.509 --> 00:14:34.769
health that comes as a consequence of it. You

00:14:34.769 --> 00:14:37.570
know, that school I made reference to that stopped

00:14:37.570 --> 00:14:41.450
it since we talked last had no bullying, eighth

00:14:41.450 --> 00:14:44.110
grade. You know, I interviewed somebody who had

00:14:44.110 --> 00:14:50.019
been living in her car. And she experienced bullying,

00:14:50.220 --> 00:14:52.500
you know, lived in her car with her mom in a

00:14:52.500 --> 00:14:55.019
military school, but didn't in that junior high

00:14:55.019 --> 00:14:58.179
school as a consequence of the program. It was

00:14:58.179 --> 00:15:00.580
all for one, one for all. They were united. And,

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you know, these are things you can't teach in

00:15:03.799 --> 00:15:06.559
the algebra class, but you can out in the field

00:15:06.559 --> 00:15:11.059
together. So it was really great. And I know

00:15:11.059 --> 00:15:15.000
all of us learned some lessons who can do team

00:15:15.000 --> 00:15:18.080
sports, for example. but this is something that

00:15:18.080 --> 00:15:21.840
caught the whole society everybody everyone's

00:15:21.840 --> 00:15:26.159
part of it absolutely well transitioning then

00:15:26.159 --> 00:15:28.500
to another topic that affects almost everybody

00:15:29.690 --> 00:15:33.009
You reached out two, three weeks ago now with

00:15:33.009 --> 00:15:36.389
a whole different kind of area that you've dived

00:15:36.389 --> 00:15:38.669
into. And it certainly directly affects a lot

00:15:38.669 --> 00:15:41.409
of the people listening that are wearing a uniform

00:15:41.409 --> 00:15:45.929
and receiving a city or a county pension. A world

00:15:45.929 --> 00:15:49.289
that I'm completely... Or state. Or state. And

00:15:49.289 --> 00:15:51.909
federal. And federal. If you've got military

00:15:51.909 --> 00:15:57.299
here, too. We have. Yeah, so... I reached out

00:15:57.299 --> 00:15:59.860
to you because, and I'll just share with the

00:15:59.860 --> 00:16:03.059
audience, here was a conversation. I said, James,

00:16:03.100 --> 00:16:04.779
I know why you're pissed off and I know why it's

00:16:04.779 --> 00:16:07.360
not working. I know why the unions aren't listening

00:16:07.360 --> 00:16:09.940
to you, why you can't get changes even though

00:16:09.940 --> 00:16:13.320
the data proves it. I know now why it's happening.

00:16:14.539 --> 00:16:19.740
And so I shared with you what I've learned from

00:16:19.740 --> 00:16:23.529
this movie I've been working on. And so I'm going

00:16:23.529 --> 00:16:25.029
to try to get through it pretty dang quickly,

00:16:25.309 --> 00:16:26.990
even though the film's going to take about an

00:16:26.990 --> 00:16:29.549
hour and a half. Take your time, though. There's

00:16:29.549 --> 00:16:32.710
no rush on this end. Yeah, so I found it accidentally.

00:16:32.750 --> 00:16:35.529
And I just want everyone to understand that the

00:16:35.529 --> 00:16:39.269
biggest pile of money, the biggest pots of money

00:16:39.269 --> 00:16:42.909
we have in every state is that state's public

00:16:42.909 --> 00:16:46.129
pension. The biggest pot of money that we got

00:16:46.129 --> 00:16:49.509
in any county is the county's public pension.

00:16:50.669 --> 00:16:53.110
pile of money that we got in the city is the

00:16:53.110 --> 00:16:55.490
city's public pensions okay so you're seeing

00:16:55.490 --> 00:16:58.409
this trend right so it's this so there's 6 .5

00:16:58.409 --> 00:17:01.429
trillion dollars right now sitting in the combined

00:17:01.429 --> 00:17:05.789
state county and city public pensions of america

00:17:05.789 --> 00:17:09.049
right now should be a lot more but that's what

00:17:09.049 --> 00:17:13.210
it is and um for the past 30 years there's been

00:17:13.210 --> 00:17:16.410
a pilfering of it there's been changes made and

00:17:16.410 --> 00:17:19.609
how those things have been administered and um

00:17:21.170 --> 00:17:27.269
Those changes have done two things. One, there's

00:17:27.269 --> 00:17:36.950
been a stealing of the public pension, and it's

00:17:36.950 --> 00:17:40.089
the result of a cost. It's the cost of secrecy.

00:17:40.529 --> 00:17:44.009
And so the film title that I'm working on is

00:17:44.009 --> 00:17:50.180
Pension Promises Stolen. the cost of secrecy

00:17:50.180 --> 00:17:54.059
and we'll see what it ends up being but um what's

00:17:54.059 --> 00:17:57.660
happened if you're a firefighter and you're in

00:17:57.660 --> 00:18:05.039
the city of detroit and you were part of things

00:18:05.039 --> 00:18:09.740
uh back in let's say 2005 and let's say you retired

00:18:09.740 --> 00:18:15.039
in around 2010 you experienced something and

00:18:15.039 --> 00:18:17.799
i want to walk through this first before i back

00:18:17.799 --> 00:18:20.759
into how this is all happening, why everyone

00:18:20.759 --> 00:18:22.660
should pay attention, and then ultimately how

00:18:22.660 --> 00:18:26.000
all of this is the answer to why your unions

00:18:26.000 --> 00:18:30.160
aren't listening to you anymore. And what you

00:18:30.160 --> 00:18:34.200
need to do to flip that. You're never going to

00:18:34.200 --> 00:18:36.200
get the hours that you need to be at and everything

00:18:36.200 --> 00:18:39.380
else until this changes, okay? All right, awesome.

00:18:40.160 --> 00:18:42.420
We'll see if everyone's up there at the end of

00:18:42.420 --> 00:18:45.359
this so they believe me. This is what's happened.

00:18:46.410 --> 00:18:49.630
So in Denver, excuse me, Detroit, Detroit in

00:18:49.630 --> 00:18:52.490
2010 went bankrupt as a city. Their pension was

00:18:52.490 --> 00:18:55.049
actually in great shape overall, comparative

00:18:55.049 --> 00:18:58.269
to where most pension funds are at today now.

00:18:59.170 --> 00:19:02.410
But the city was pretty messed up. And so the

00:19:02.410 --> 00:19:05.750
city went bankrupt. And what they did is they

00:19:05.750 --> 00:19:10.410
took the city employees and they said, okay.

00:19:11.339 --> 00:19:14.900
We are going to give everybody a 4 .5 % haircut

00:19:14.900 --> 00:19:18.460
from what you were supposed to get. But that's

00:19:18.460 --> 00:19:20.819
not that bad of a haircut. We went bankrupt.

00:19:21.519 --> 00:19:26.319
But we're not going to give you any cost of living

00:19:26.319 --> 00:19:29.440
increase. It was called a COLA, a cost of living

00:19:29.440 --> 00:19:31.859
adjustment. So you're not going to get a COLA.

00:19:32.440 --> 00:19:36.400
So for those who are not part of this world for

00:19:36.400 --> 00:19:38.920
a moment, let me explain what that meant for

00:19:38.920 --> 00:19:43.660
them. it meant that you're going to start at

00:19:43.660 --> 00:19:46.799
some percent. Let's say, let's work with $100

00:19:46.799 --> 00:19:49.559
because I can do that now. You're going to start

00:19:49.559 --> 00:19:52.839
with $100 a month paycheck, okay? Here's your

00:19:52.839 --> 00:19:58.339
$100. But, you know, you get $100 the first,

00:19:58.400 --> 00:20:01.740
what we're going to call it, month, right? The

00:20:01.740 --> 00:20:05.099
next year, though, things went up. Inflation,

00:20:05.220 --> 00:20:09.200
you have typically a 3 % rise in inflation. And

00:20:09.200 --> 00:20:13.019
so there's no cost of living adjustment for that.

00:20:13.119 --> 00:20:19.480
So now you have an in reality $97 to spend that

00:20:19.480 --> 00:20:22.240
month, right? Because it's changed down. A lot

00:20:22.240 --> 00:20:23.460
of people will just think of it differently,

00:20:23.559 --> 00:20:26.900
but I'd like to think of it as it's the haircut

00:20:26.900 --> 00:20:29.019
from you. They're taking that money from you.

00:20:29.039 --> 00:20:31.859
You only have this much now. So fast forward

00:20:31.859 --> 00:20:36.759
a decade, you've lost $30 of the $100. You're

00:20:36.759 --> 00:20:40.470
down to $70. But then you ran into COVID. In

00:20:40.470 --> 00:20:43.509
the last five years, there's an economist, Kotlikoff

00:20:43.509 --> 00:20:47.809
in my film, who explains that we've seen roughly

00:20:47.809 --> 00:20:54.789
everything's gone up 30 % food, the cost of everything

00:20:54.789 --> 00:20:58.410
at 30 % increase. So we'll just take that 30

00:20:58.410 --> 00:21:01.589
% away. That's how we're working this example.

00:21:01.750 --> 00:21:04.750
So instead of $70 five years later to present,

00:21:04.890 --> 00:21:10.440
you're now at what? $40, right? You're at $40.

00:21:10.440 --> 00:21:13.180
Now you started getting paid $100 a month, but

00:21:13.180 --> 00:21:15.200
now you're only getting paid $40 a month. Well,

00:21:15.259 --> 00:21:20.519
how's that going to work, right? And one decade

00:21:20.519 --> 00:21:26.279
more, you know, 3 % every year, right? 3%, it's

00:21:26.279 --> 00:21:31.380
another 30%. So in the year 2030, the people

00:21:31.380 --> 00:21:37.440
that retired in 2010, right? from Detroit without

00:21:37.440 --> 00:21:41.759
colas by 2035, they're living on $10 a month

00:21:41.759 --> 00:21:46.000
when they started at $100 a month. That's their

00:21:46.000 --> 00:21:49.500
actual purchasing power of whatever it is. It

00:21:49.500 --> 00:21:54.160
might still be $100 a month, but that's what

00:21:54.160 --> 00:21:57.920
they'll be getting. But it can only buy $10 worth

00:21:57.920 --> 00:22:00.180
of stuff a month because of what's happened.

00:22:01.200 --> 00:22:04.150
The reason I want to share that is Throughout

00:22:04.150 --> 00:22:08.829
the country, we are seeing the complete elimination

00:22:08.829 --> 00:22:12.869
of colas. Now, a lot of you who are like, some

00:22:12.869 --> 00:22:15.690
of you may not actually know firefighters or

00:22:15.690 --> 00:22:19.269
police officers who experienced this in Detroit.

00:22:19.349 --> 00:22:21.549
You say, hey, not so, Doug. They didn't get that

00:22:21.549 --> 00:22:25.789
4%, 4 .5 % cut. And they started right where

00:22:25.789 --> 00:22:28.329
they're supposed to be. And they got a cola.

00:22:28.769 --> 00:22:31.950
It's just 1 % a year. Okay, so let's take all

00:22:31.950 --> 00:22:35.599
that math. It's like, I'm not going to do it,

00:22:35.640 --> 00:22:39.140
but it's not great, right? 1 % is not 3 % over

00:22:39.140 --> 00:22:41.839
all that time. Then at 30%, it only went 1 %

00:22:41.839 --> 00:22:44.380
a year. So that's right there. You ended up with

00:22:44.380 --> 00:22:48.680
25. You lost 25, right? So you could see it's

00:22:48.680 --> 00:22:53.420
not much better at all. But those firefighters

00:22:53.420 --> 00:22:58.859
and those police officers in Detroit, they're

00:22:58.859 --> 00:23:02.519
part of a system that we're not getting Social

00:23:02.519 --> 00:23:05.849
Security. So the city did not put a dime into

00:23:05.849 --> 00:23:07.450
the Social Security. They were not going to receive

00:23:07.450 --> 00:23:11.829
Social Security. So as a result, they said, oh,

00:23:11.849 --> 00:23:13.450
we got to make it better for them because they

00:23:13.450 --> 00:23:16.609
don't even have Social Security. So maybe they're

00:23:16.609 --> 00:23:20.150
at, what, $18, you know, in 10 years from now.

00:23:20.250 --> 00:23:22.369
Maybe they're getting $18 or $20 out of that

00:23:22.369 --> 00:23:24.809
original $100. And that's it. And not Social

00:23:24.809 --> 00:23:28.250
Security. So I have teachers, for example, in

00:23:28.250 --> 00:23:32.980
the state of Ohio, who 28 years later. They're

00:23:32.980 --> 00:23:35.920
getting 30 cents on the dollar right now. That's

00:23:35.920 --> 00:23:40.059
where they're at right now. We found, the group

00:23:40.059 --> 00:23:43.059
that was part of, they found a teacher that was

00:23:43.059 --> 00:23:46.680
actually living in a chicken coop. They went

00:23:46.680 --> 00:23:48.819
to the address and the person says, she's not

00:23:48.819 --> 00:23:50.859
here, she's in the back. She literally was living

00:23:50.859 --> 00:23:53.339
in a chicken coop. And as crazy as that sounds,

00:23:53.359 --> 00:23:55.680
when you see what that was actually buying and

00:23:55.680 --> 00:23:57.339
her other options, that was all she could have.

00:23:58.160 --> 00:24:00.160
And so she's being really thrash. OK, so how

00:24:00.160 --> 00:24:02.480
did all of this happen? Like, how are we in a

00:24:02.480 --> 00:24:05.559
situation where these public pensions that were

00:24:05.559 --> 00:24:08.420
designed and were sold to be so good that you

00:24:08.420 --> 00:24:11.140
won't even need Social Security? How did this

00:24:11.140 --> 00:24:13.740
get to the point that a city could go bankrupt

00:24:13.740 --> 00:24:16.240
and screw you like that? And by the way, the

00:24:16.240 --> 00:24:20.180
city of Chicago, the city of Chicago in 2000,

00:24:20.619 --> 00:24:24.960
they had this asset value in their total pension

00:24:24.960 --> 00:24:28.569
fund. which today is the same dollar amount it

00:24:28.569 --> 00:24:30.329
may have like two or three hundred thousand million

00:24:30.329 --> 00:24:32.250
more like it's like nothing out of all these

00:24:32.250 --> 00:24:35.369
billions it's the same value but their liabilities

00:24:35.369 --> 00:24:41.150
have gone up six sixty billion dollars they got

00:24:41.150 --> 00:24:43.569
the same money but they got liabilities now 60

00:24:43.569 --> 00:24:46.710
billion more i mean it's impossible they are

00:24:46.710 --> 00:24:50.210
they say they're like 22 funded but someone in

00:24:50.210 --> 00:24:53.140
my film to the analysis said no they're 11 They're

00:24:53.140 --> 00:24:56.039
11 % funded. They're done. And you can't sue

00:24:56.039 --> 00:24:59.579
them. You are not allowed to sue them. You can't

00:24:59.579 --> 00:25:01.980
sue them until they don't make their payment.

00:25:02.640 --> 00:25:04.279
So as long as they're just paying out anything

00:25:04.279 --> 00:25:07.420
and all those politicians who are part of it,

00:25:07.480 --> 00:25:10.099
they're retiring, they're done, and they're just,

00:25:10.180 --> 00:25:14.079
you know, they're out of there, right? It's not

00:25:14.079 --> 00:25:16.380
until someone catches at the very, very end of

00:25:16.380 --> 00:25:20.390
the show that it's just done. It's a crappy system.

00:25:20.549 --> 00:25:22.650
I mean, it's really too bad. And so how did this

00:25:22.650 --> 00:25:25.269
happen? And what does this have to do with your

00:25:25.269 --> 00:25:30.089
unions? And this is where it gets interesting.

00:25:30.289 --> 00:25:34.329
So the reason I started making this film is there's

00:25:34.329 --> 00:25:37.029
an investigation going on right now at CalPERS,

00:25:37.150 --> 00:25:41.250
which is the largest public pension we have in

00:25:41.250 --> 00:25:45.829
America right now. It's $550 billion. And then

00:25:45.829 --> 00:25:49.140
CalSTRS has it. almost the same amount. So together,

00:25:49.440 --> 00:25:52.579
they're about a trillion dollars. To put that

00:25:52.579 --> 00:25:54.960
in perspective, everyone gets pretty amazed with

00:25:54.960 --> 00:25:58.799
Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund that they've

00:25:58.799 --> 00:26:02.180
got. It's not even that amount. It's a little

00:26:02.180 --> 00:26:04.900
less than what just California has in their two

00:26:04.900 --> 00:26:10.740
state public pensions. And so there's two board

00:26:10.740 --> 00:26:16.180
members that went whistleblower. And so they

00:26:16.180 --> 00:26:20.200
reached out. to this investigator. His name is

00:26:20.200 --> 00:26:24.160
Edward Siddell. He wrote two books that happen

00:26:24.160 --> 00:26:27.519
to be right here. One is called Who Stole My

00:26:27.519 --> 00:26:32.259
Pension? He actually wrote this book with Robert

00:26:32.259 --> 00:26:35.660
Kiyosaki, who wrote Rich Man, Poor Man. This

00:26:35.660 --> 00:26:38.980
is actually the only bestseller on pensions ever

00:26:38.980 --> 00:26:41.859
written, because who would ever read a book about

00:26:41.859 --> 00:26:45.200
pensions? And then the other one the guy wrote

00:26:45.200 --> 00:26:49.440
was how to steal a lot of money legally he got

00:26:49.440 --> 00:26:51.619
so frustrated that nobody was listening that

00:26:51.619 --> 00:26:56.440
he just outlined exactly what these public pensions

00:26:56.440 --> 00:27:01.240
are doing how they get into everybody's um what

00:27:01.240 --> 00:27:03.980
the private equity is doing to the public pensions

00:27:03.980 --> 00:27:07.720
and how they're stealing this money legally and

00:27:07.720 --> 00:27:10.200
uh lays it all out uh kind of interesting stuff

00:27:10.200 --> 00:27:13.440
so anyway so these these two former board members

00:27:13.440 --> 00:27:18.220
at calipers have hired Ed Seidel, Edward Seidel,

00:27:18.299 --> 00:27:21.140
to do a forensic audit. Now, he has pioneered

00:27:21.140 --> 00:27:24.640
this space. He won the largest whistleblower

00:27:24.640 --> 00:27:28.200
at the time award from the SEC on something on

00:27:28.200 --> 00:27:30.619
JPMorgan Chase. He got $88 million for that.

00:27:30.799 --> 00:27:32.819
He's got another whistleblower award that he's

00:27:32.819 --> 00:27:36.480
done, investigation, where he earned $20 million

00:27:36.480 --> 00:27:39.720
and another one for $11 million. This guy is

00:27:39.720 --> 00:27:43.450
an animal. He's here in Florida. And he was in

00:27:43.450 --> 00:27:45.690
a film that I did called The Baby Boomer Dilemma,

00:27:45.789 --> 00:27:49.250
which at one point was looking at pensions for

00:27:49.250 --> 00:27:53.210
a little bit of that. So they've hired him. And

00:27:53.210 --> 00:27:57.150
as you can only imagine, this guy is not popular

00:27:57.150 --> 00:28:02.190
at all with all these state public pensions.

00:28:02.410 --> 00:28:05.809
And they immediately, when he's coming on, the

00:28:05.809 --> 00:28:09.349
other states are sending all this data to them.

00:28:09.799 --> 00:28:11.000
Here's your government budget. You have to do

00:28:11.000 --> 00:28:13.059
all this stuff. And then he goes in, waits a

00:28:13.059 --> 00:28:15.619
couple of weeks, and then he does a Freedom of

00:28:15.619 --> 00:28:17.640
Information Act and says, I want all the documents

00:28:17.640 --> 00:28:21.940
that are related to my name. So he's got all

00:28:21.940 --> 00:28:25.339
these. And you can see all this traffic that's

00:28:25.339 --> 00:28:28.299
going from other states that he's done these

00:28:28.299 --> 00:28:31.559
forensic audits on and how they're immediately

00:28:31.559 --> 00:28:33.720
trying to queue in. And then there's specific

00:28:33.720 --> 00:28:36.339
organizations that are these consultants to these

00:28:36.339 --> 00:28:39.740
funds. And it's so dirty. It's crazy what's happening.

00:28:39.900 --> 00:28:42.220
But the first thing I want everyone to understand

00:28:42.220 --> 00:28:47.119
is these are the biggest piles of money that

00:28:47.119 --> 00:28:50.220
we've got in the United States. They're individually

00:28:50.220 --> 00:28:54.660
sit in every state. And they were doing just

00:28:54.660 --> 00:29:00.259
so great in the early 90s, mid 90s. So good that

00:29:00.259 --> 00:29:07.509
a lot of state treasurers, governors. You know,

00:29:07.509 --> 00:29:09.009
attorney generals, everybody started looking

00:29:09.009 --> 00:29:11.589
at these and going, you know, that's a lot of

00:29:11.589 --> 00:29:14.789
money sitting there. Some of these are overfunded.

00:29:14.809 --> 00:29:17.470
They got like too much money in there. And they're

00:29:17.470 --> 00:29:20.750
trying to figure out, well, maybe we could access

00:29:20.750 --> 00:29:23.269
some of these funds, right? So there was some

00:29:23.269 --> 00:29:26.190
pilfering starting to happen there. But private

00:29:26.190 --> 00:29:30.509
equity really was just getting going. Some of

00:29:30.509 --> 00:29:34.130
your, if you're a man and you're married, you

00:29:34.130 --> 00:29:37.960
probably have a wife. who in 1990 if you're that

00:29:37.960 --> 00:29:42.380
old watched a movie with um called uh pretty

00:29:42.380 --> 00:29:45.859
woman my wife recently tried to get me to watch

00:29:45.859 --> 00:29:48.319
that movie which i've somehow been able to avoid

00:29:48.319 --> 00:29:50.920
my whole life i made it through one hour and

00:29:50.920 --> 00:29:54.140
i said i'm sorry i love you but i have to bail

00:29:54.140 --> 00:29:57.220
so i have no idea how the movie ends but i do

00:29:57.220 --> 00:30:00.220
know this it's a 19 it came out in 1990 and it's

00:30:00.220 --> 00:30:04.440
a film about a guy who runs private equity and

00:30:04.440 --> 00:30:07.779
he goes in and buys companies he breaks them

00:30:07.779 --> 00:30:09.779
all apart sells off the parts there's more money

00:30:09.779 --> 00:30:12.980
there and then he goes off leverage buyout so

00:30:12.980 --> 00:30:14.839
we're this is blackstone that they're basically

00:30:14.839 --> 00:30:19.160
remodeling off of right and um and this is what

00:30:19.160 --> 00:30:20.980
they're in this is the business well what happened

00:30:20.980 --> 00:30:24.859
in the 90s private equity wanted access to that

00:30:24.859 --> 00:30:28.059
pension film money and they want to have more

00:30:28.059 --> 00:30:31.119
and more and so what they started doing about

00:30:31.119 --> 00:30:35.660
30 years ago Between 20 to 30 years ago, they

00:30:35.660 --> 00:30:38.440
started to go around to every city and every

00:30:38.440 --> 00:30:42.220
county and every state and said, even though

00:30:42.220 --> 00:30:45.440
public pensions are public and all the money

00:30:45.440 --> 00:30:48.119
in there and all the documents are open to public

00:30:48.119 --> 00:30:55.839
scrutiny, our contracts are trade secrets. And

00:30:55.839 --> 00:30:59.759
so they can't be shared. And so we have funds

00:30:59.759 --> 00:31:03.059
that make so much money, it'll be great for you

00:31:03.059 --> 00:31:08.359
guys to participate. But you have to sign an

00:31:08.359 --> 00:31:11.519
NDA that you will not share or disclose anything

00:31:11.519 --> 00:31:16.420
about this. So much so is that the public doesn't

00:31:16.420 --> 00:31:19.579
even know what the investments of those funds

00:31:19.579 --> 00:31:23.700
are being used for or who else is part of that

00:31:23.700 --> 00:31:27.119
fund. They don't know anything. And so 30 years

00:31:27.119 --> 00:31:29.460
ago, you could learn anything. 20 years ago,

00:31:29.519 --> 00:31:32.099
you could learn some things. And 10 years ago,

00:31:32.180 --> 00:31:35.819
you could see nothing. Nobody can. Even with

00:31:35.819 --> 00:31:38.180
the Freedom of Information Act going in and requesting

00:31:38.180 --> 00:31:41.519
it, you can't. And this part, no one believes

00:31:41.519 --> 00:31:43.660
me, but you'll see in the trailer as I show like

00:31:43.660 --> 00:31:45.839
one person after another who are board members

00:31:45.839 --> 00:31:50.000
on these pension funds. None of them are allowed

00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:53.099
to see the contracts that are signed by the staff.

00:31:53.869 --> 00:31:56.789
to the private equity firms. Now the fiduciaries,

00:31:56.869 --> 00:31:59.789
the board members, they're the boss. They can

00:31:59.789 --> 00:32:04.250
hire fire staff. They choose what they're going

00:32:04.250 --> 00:32:06.390
to be investing in, what percentage. They have

00:32:06.390 --> 00:32:10.170
to sign off on every single thing. Everything.

00:32:11.269 --> 00:32:13.490
But they're not allowed to see anything as it

00:32:13.490 --> 00:32:16.730
relates to those contracts. Nothing. And what's

00:32:16.730 --> 00:32:18.730
in those contracts? Well, you have to see the

00:32:18.730 --> 00:32:22.509
movie, but it's crazy stuff. The fees that they're

00:32:22.509 --> 00:32:26.700
having to pay, are insane. It's just a giant

00:32:26.700 --> 00:32:29.799
pilfering. And so 30 years ago, if you were to

00:32:29.799 --> 00:32:36.519
take all these funds, there's, and you just,

00:32:36.539 --> 00:32:41.839
you just take off one to 2 % of that money a

00:32:41.839 --> 00:32:46.099
year and you let it compound, it equals the original

00:32:46.099 --> 00:32:48.000
value of the fund. So if I start with a hundred

00:32:48.000 --> 00:32:50.720
dollars right now, James, you give me a hundred

00:32:50.720 --> 00:32:52.279
bucks and I'm going to manage your hundred dollars.

00:32:52.759 --> 00:32:55.140
And I take 1 % or 2 % of that, okay, of your

00:32:55.140 --> 00:32:58.420
$100 as a management fee. And I let it compound.

00:32:59.279 --> 00:33:02.539
Every year I'm taking it from you. And 30 years

00:33:02.539 --> 00:33:06.640
from now, that $100 is now in my pocket. I have

00:33:06.640 --> 00:33:09.240
$100 in my pocket that came from that 1 % to

00:33:09.240 --> 00:33:11.920
2 % of your fees, okay? That's just how this

00:33:11.920 --> 00:33:14.819
works. You, on the other hand, your money would

00:33:14.819 --> 00:33:18.200
have grown, but that $100 isn't there anymore,

00:33:18.339 --> 00:33:22.019
right? It's with me. So it's a double of the

00:33:22.019 --> 00:33:25.940
principle. We are in a situation that there's

00:33:25.940 --> 00:33:28.740
every single public pension had plenty of money

00:33:28.740 --> 00:33:32.740
in America to meet every promise ever made. But

00:33:32.740 --> 00:33:36.480
it's all been stolen by excessive fees going

00:33:36.480 --> 00:33:40.059
to private equity and no fiduciary was allowed

00:33:40.059 --> 00:33:43.380
to see it. So that's what's going on. Now, you're

00:33:43.380 --> 00:33:46.259
going to say, well, wait a second. How could

00:33:46.259 --> 00:33:48.279
this happen? You're taking the biggest piles

00:33:48.279 --> 00:33:50.460
of money that we got in America right now, the

00:33:50.460 --> 00:33:53.920
biggest piles of money that the treasurer, the

00:33:53.920 --> 00:33:56.599
state treasurer in South Carolina, who was the

00:33:56.599 --> 00:34:00.359
single board member, was not allowed to see the

00:34:00.359 --> 00:34:02.059
contracts. He would have to just wire money.

00:34:02.240 --> 00:34:04.059
He couldn't even see what it's going to. And

00:34:04.059 --> 00:34:06.599
yeah, I have him in my film. He does exactly

00:34:06.599 --> 00:34:09.340
that. And it's like that in every single state.

00:34:09.519 --> 00:34:14.699
They have no idea. No idea. There's zero fiduciary.

00:34:15.099 --> 00:34:19.420
So how does this happen? Well, to understand

00:34:19.420 --> 00:34:21.880
how it happens, we have to get out of what we're

00:34:21.880 --> 00:34:24.079
even talking about. And we need to go and go

00:34:24.079 --> 00:34:26.420
over to something else private equity was very

00:34:26.420 --> 00:34:30.000
involved in. These guys are smart. Hats off to

00:34:30.000 --> 00:34:32.300
them. They put the work out. They went to every

00:34:32.300 --> 00:34:34.139
city, every state and said, hey, if you want

00:34:34.139 --> 00:34:36.840
to be part of this, then you all have to agree.

00:34:37.119 --> 00:34:40.840
And no one has broken it. There's not one city,

00:34:40.940 --> 00:34:47.340
one county. 500 separate pension funds in florida

00:34:47.340 --> 00:34:51.340
alone not one of them's ever broke think about

00:34:51.340 --> 00:34:54.860
that and it's amazing that's amazing right i

00:34:54.860 --> 00:34:56.980
mean think about how everybody leaks something

00:34:56.980 --> 00:35:02.300
somewhere no leaks no that's really impressive

00:35:02.300 --> 00:35:05.159
like yeah hey america we can do stuff you know

00:35:05.159 --> 00:35:11.400
you have to have get paid a lot um okay so So

00:35:11.400 --> 00:35:14.239
let's get over to what happened. And this gets

00:35:14.239 --> 00:35:16.079
back to a Supreme Court thing that happened in

00:35:16.079 --> 00:35:19.079
2010. Prior to that, we had this thing called

00:35:19.079 --> 00:35:22.579
Citizens United. And what happened is we had

00:35:22.579 --> 00:35:25.619
these political action committees, and they were

00:35:25.619 --> 00:35:28.500
actually known as super PACs. They became super

00:35:28.500 --> 00:35:32.739
PACs because private equity and major corporations

00:35:32.739 --> 00:35:36.760
were putting money into these blind, dark super

00:35:36.760 --> 00:35:42.400
PACs. They could put it wherever they want. You

00:35:42.400 --> 00:35:45.519
and I, if we donate money to a political campaign,

00:35:45.860 --> 00:35:49.619
that's disclosed. That's public record. People

00:35:49.619 --> 00:35:52.820
could see this. But you could, as a corporation,

00:35:53.079 --> 00:35:55.500
put money into a super PAC, and there's a total

00:35:55.500 --> 00:36:00.159
veil of secrecy. And so, you know, that's impossible

00:36:00.159 --> 00:36:04.699
to be upheld. Supreme Court upheld it. So now,

00:36:04.820 --> 00:36:06.320
like, what are you going to do about it? So then

00:36:06.320 --> 00:36:11.599
it went crazy after that, okay? The amount of

00:36:11.599 --> 00:36:14.460
monies that went into these super PACs was huge.

00:36:14.619 --> 00:36:17.960
And it got to the point, and by the way, everyone

00:36:17.960 --> 00:36:20.679
should know that I'm not politically aligned

00:36:20.679 --> 00:36:23.139
with a party. I can't for the films I do. I do

00:36:23.139 --> 00:36:27.280
non -partisan films, right? And we're the same

00:36:27.280 --> 00:36:30.360
there anyway. What's that? I said we're the same,

00:36:30.400 --> 00:36:32.860
standing in the middle. We kind of have to do

00:36:32.860 --> 00:36:37.510
what we do, right? And it's nice. Okay, so. So

00:36:37.510 --> 00:36:39.449
it doesn't matter if you're in Ohio, which is

00:36:39.449 --> 00:36:43.409
a Republican state, or Minnesota, which is a

00:36:43.409 --> 00:36:47.429
Democrat state, or Pennsylvania, which is a purple

00:36:47.429 --> 00:36:50.849
state, right? It doesn't matter. It all works

00:36:50.849 --> 00:36:55.050
the exact same way. Every governor, state treasurer,

00:36:55.530 --> 00:36:58.829
attorney general, all of them have a super PAC.

00:36:59.389 --> 00:37:00.989
They have a super PAC. They have a political

00:37:00.989 --> 00:37:03.969
action committee. They have one. And that's where

00:37:03.969 --> 00:37:06.809
people put money, not just... you and me, but

00:37:06.809 --> 00:37:08.309
that's where the corporations are putting them

00:37:08.309 --> 00:37:10.389
out. That's where the private equity is putting

00:37:10.389 --> 00:37:14.449
their money. So what's really happening is you're

00:37:14.449 --> 00:37:17.909
Blackstone, you're BlackRock. They're two separate

00:37:17.909 --> 00:37:19.630
people. You may not know, but they're both like

00:37:19.630 --> 00:37:23.110
these equally huge funds that have a massive

00:37:23.110 --> 00:37:25.730
power. In fact, the Wall Street Journal today

00:37:25.730 --> 00:37:29.989
said, if you take BlackRock, State Street and

00:37:29.989 --> 00:37:34.130
Vanguard, the money they manage. That's 30 %

00:37:34.130 --> 00:37:38.789
of all stocks in the United States. They own

00:37:38.789 --> 00:37:44.789
30%. That's crazy, right? So anyway, so we're

00:37:44.789 --> 00:37:46.150
talking about a lot of money. So they're taking

00:37:46.150 --> 00:37:50.489
money from a public pension that the staff's

00:37:50.489 --> 00:37:53.289
signing off on. And by the way, the staff's pay

00:37:53.289 --> 00:37:57.030
have roughly doubled over the last three to four

00:37:57.030 --> 00:38:04.559
years. Unless you think about that one. So they

00:38:04.559 --> 00:38:06.920
sign off on these things that the fighting shares

00:38:06.920 --> 00:38:09.559
can't even see at all what it's for. They can't

00:38:09.559 --> 00:38:13.739
see, oh, hey, this. Anyway, I'm not going to

00:38:13.739 --> 00:38:15.000
tell you what the things I've already discovered

00:38:15.000 --> 00:38:20.380
what these are going to. So they take some of

00:38:20.380 --> 00:38:23.539
those excessive fees and they'll drop it in as

00:38:23.539 --> 00:38:26.099
an insurance policy, right, into these super

00:38:26.099 --> 00:38:28.179
PACs for the governor, for the attorney general.

00:38:29.139 --> 00:38:32.599
And then. the governor, attorney general are

00:38:32.599 --> 00:38:34.900
standing guard. And so let's say you're Ohio.

00:38:35.179 --> 00:38:40.900
Let's say that you are a group who have a pitch

00:38:40.900 --> 00:38:45.159
like stirs the teachers in Ohio. They're being

00:38:45.159 --> 00:38:48.059
completely screwed. So they've gone, you know,

00:38:48.079 --> 00:38:51.880
like a decade and a half without getting a COLA

00:38:51.880 --> 00:38:55.719
and they don't get social security. And so they're

00:38:55.719 --> 00:38:59.619
electing people on the board to be. people that

00:38:59.619 --> 00:39:01.980
kind of come in and fix this, you know, and really

00:39:01.980 --> 00:39:05.460
they want transparency. They want to get the

00:39:05.460 --> 00:39:08.179
state to put more money in to fill in this hole

00:39:08.179 --> 00:39:11.719
and stuff like that. So what does the governor

00:39:11.719 --> 00:39:15.420
do? He goes in and pulls back his representatives

00:39:15.420 --> 00:39:17.059
that he placed there who were doing this kind

00:39:17.059 --> 00:39:19.360
of stuff. Oh my gosh, that's one of my appointees

00:39:19.360 --> 00:39:21.920
doing this. Hey, you're out, right? And the guy's

00:39:21.920 --> 00:39:24.340
like, you can't take me out. You can only put

00:39:24.340 --> 00:39:26.280
me in. Remember Trump, like I said, I put in

00:39:26.280 --> 00:39:29.550
Powell as the FDA chair. you're out of there

00:39:29.550 --> 00:39:32.030
like you can't take me out unless it's wrongdoing

00:39:32.030 --> 00:39:34.050
you can't take me out and this guy did the same

00:39:34.050 --> 00:39:38.190
thing so what happens um there's a lawsuit in

00:39:38.190 --> 00:39:40.349
the meantime he's off so that whole year the

00:39:40.349 --> 00:39:42.349
governor gets executive on there's not a majority

00:39:42.349 --> 00:39:44.989
and then the next year he's back on and there's

00:39:44.989 --> 00:39:46.590
this other guy in there now and now they're getting

00:39:46.590 --> 00:39:48.590
a majority now they want to not pay the staff

00:39:48.590 --> 00:39:51.530
their bonuses which is double their pay by the

00:39:51.530 --> 00:39:55.289
way yeah you're making 400 500 000 and you meet

00:39:55.289 --> 00:39:58.039
your bonus you get $500 ,000. And what's your

00:39:58.039 --> 00:40:00.300
bonus off of? Is it off of anything in what the

00:40:00.300 --> 00:40:01.780
stock market is doing? Is there a certain...

00:40:01.780 --> 00:40:07.639
No. The bar set, it has to match your performance.

00:40:09.699 --> 00:40:12.280
That's like, I mean, man, I don't even know how

00:40:12.280 --> 00:40:15.000
to... Could you imagine that, James? A firefighter

00:40:15.000 --> 00:40:17.320
is like, okay, what's the standard? Your performance.

00:40:17.400 --> 00:40:20.440
So first day, you go out, you do a run. That's

00:40:20.440 --> 00:40:23.760
your performance. So a year from now, excessive

00:40:23.760 --> 00:40:26.920
training, you got to... Do what you did the first

00:40:26.920 --> 00:40:31.860
day. So run slow. Right? I mean, that, I'm not

00:40:31.860 --> 00:40:35.440
joking. That is how it is right now across our

00:40:35.440 --> 00:40:37.960
country. Crazy. That's really happening. So they

00:40:37.960 --> 00:40:40.639
always get double their pay. So these guys were

00:40:40.639 --> 00:40:42.440
getting double their pay, but they had lost $5

00:40:42.440 --> 00:40:47.300
billion of $100 billion. They lost $5 billion.

00:40:47.400 --> 00:40:50.579
They lost 5 % that year. And the board said,

00:40:50.840 --> 00:40:54.440
I don't know. I don't know. Call me just. I don't

00:40:54.440 --> 00:40:57.519
know, strange or whatever. I'm thinking you shouldn't

00:40:57.519 --> 00:41:01.099
get a bonus when you lose $5 billion. Like none

00:41:01.099 --> 00:41:02.920
of the teachers are getting a COLA this year.

00:41:03.599 --> 00:41:05.940
We have less money in the fund than we did last

00:41:05.940 --> 00:41:09.920
year because you lost $5 billion. So no bonus

00:41:09.920 --> 00:41:12.800
for you. What happened? The attorney general

00:41:12.800 --> 00:41:15.960
shows up, calls a special meeting, gets the board

00:41:15.960 --> 00:41:18.239
back and says, if you don't give these guys their

00:41:18.239 --> 00:41:21.480
bonus, I'm suing all of you for breach of your

00:41:21.480 --> 00:41:24.380
fiduciary duty. And it wasn't an empty threat

00:41:24.380 --> 00:41:26.539
because he was suing two other people. It costs

00:41:26.539 --> 00:41:30.159
$250 ,000 to defend against that. For a job,

00:41:30.159 --> 00:41:34.340
you get paid nothing as a fiduciary. And you

00:41:34.340 --> 00:41:39.460
can get representation, unless you want to pay

00:41:39.460 --> 00:41:40.920
for it. You can get free representation, but

00:41:40.920 --> 00:41:45.099
it's whatever counsel that attorney general who

00:41:45.099 --> 00:41:48.559
is suing you assigns to your case. Oh, my goodness.

00:41:48.699 --> 00:41:52.320
If this is starting to feel like, huh. That's

00:41:52.320 --> 00:41:54.139
just, okay, that's a Republican. I can go in

00:41:54.139 --> 00:41:56.579
and show you every state what's going on. It's

00:41:56.579 --> 00:41:58.760
all the same, all right? Just trust me on this

00:41:58.760 --> 00:42:06.260
one thing. So now let's get to the unions. The

00:42:06.260 --> 00:42:11.260
unions also, not all of them, some of them are

00:42:11.260 --> 00:42:14.840
really great, really great. There's a union I

00:42:14.840 --> 00:42:17.739
filmed in Rhode Island. They absolutely represent

00:42:17.739 --> 00:42:21.559
their workers. They are just rock solid awesome.

00:42:22.159 --> 00:42:27.179
Those guys hired Ted Sedell, actually hired for

00:42:27.179 --> 00:42:29.679
an investigation. They've been making all kinds

00:42:29.679 --> 00:42:33.820
of great changes happening there. The treasurer

00:42:33.820 --> 00:42:37.780
and the staff had disclosed that they were paying

00:42:37.780 --> 00:42:42.360
$8 million in fees to private equity as a result

00:42:42.360 --> 00:42:45.400
of the investigation. Today, they disclose, okay,

00:42:45.460 --> 00:42:52.389
we pay $188 million in fees. Minnesota, he did

00:42:52.389 --> 00:42:55.610
an investigation there. He did an investigation

00:42:55.610 --> 00:42:57.590
there. This isn't true or whatever else. And

00:42:57.590 --> 00:42:59.710
then they just kind of quietly notated on the

00:42:59.710 --> 00:43:03.710
next report an increase of 400 % in the fees

00:43:03.710 --> 00:43:06.670
that they've been paying. Oh, my God. So it's

00:43:06.670 --> 00:43:09.190
like that, okay? It's like that. And that's not

00:43:09.190 --> 00:43:11.949
even really coming up for the whole thing. It's

00:43:11.949 --> 00:43:15.610
way worse. So these unions, some of the unions

00:43:15.610 --> 00:43:20.219
got greedy. and i want to compare it's a bad

00:43:20.219 --> 00:43:23.639
comparison i want to compare it to our streaming

00:43:23.639 --> 00:43:27.300
services whether it's like amazon prime or whether

00:43:27.300 --> 00:43:29.619
it's like you know all hulu and all these ones

00:43:29.619 --> 00:43:32.320
right there's a lot of things that we were ad

00:43:32.320 --> 00:43:35.960
free i paid money like 14 15 bucks a month and

00:43:35.960 --> 00:43:41.960
i'm ad free and then magic wand all of them right

00:43:41.960 --> 00:43:44.599
almost like the first two months same two months

00:43:44.599 --> 00:43:48.130
decided uh oh we're gonna throw ads back in you

00:43:48.130 --> 00:43:49.909
can be ad free if you pay an additional whatever

00:43:49.909 --> 00:43:53.690
your unions who decided to just take you for

00:43:53.690 --> 00:43:56.849
granted just like amazon's decided netflix which

00:43:56.849 --> 00:43:58.349
i don't even subscribe because it's a bunch of

00:43:58.349 --> 00:44:00.550
coffee lane i don't even like movies i don't

00:44:00.550 --> 00:44:02.989
know why i make it i like to make them exposés

00:44:02.989 --> 00:44:06.010
but i don't like to watch i know i'm really weird

00:44:06.010 --> 00:44:08.590
i decided that my wife's like oh my gosh i'm

00:44:08.590 --> 00:44:18.320
gonna read a book um so so Amazon, and once they

00:44:18.320 --> 00:44:20.679
get fat and happy and get rid of a lot of their

00:44:20.679 --> 00:44:23.719
competitors, they just take their clients for

00:44:23.719 --> 00:44:26.739
granted. And they just want more money. And now

00:44:26.739 --> 00:44:28.159
they're going to bore us with advertisements

00:44:28.159 --> 00:44:33.840
too, right? And so unions are doing this, unfortunately.

00:44:34.300 --> 00:44:40.739
Too many unions have super PACs. All right? They've

00:44:40.739 --> 00:44:43.059
got them too, just like the governor's got them.

00:44:43.610 --> 00:44:46.710
just like the attorney general has them. I want

00:44:46.710 --> 00:44:49.750
you to think about this just for a minute. Imagine

00:44:49.750 --> 00:44:53.889
you decide to run for governor and the governor

00:44:53.889 --> 00:44:56.570
you're running against, whatever your political

00:44:56.570 --> 00:44:58.869
party is, it's the other party, right? You're

00:44:58.869 --> 00:45:00.929
this party, it's the other one. And the other

00:45:00.929 --> 00:45:07.090
one has a super PAC. Or they could put unlimited

00:45:07.090 --> 00:45:11.030
amount of money in this thing, dark money, nothing's

00:45:11.030 --> 00:45:14.940
disclosed, unlimited. And you're going out there

00:45:14.940 --> 00:45:18.599
earning $25 a person, knocking on doors, whatever

00:45:18.599 --> 00:45:23.559
you have to do to collect it. What chances do

00:45:23.559 --> 00:45:30.579
you honestly have to win? And that's the situation.

00:45:30.820 --> 00:45:33.159
You've got to understand that this situation

00:45:33.159 --> 00:45:37.340
is coming 100 % from monies that are in your

00:45:37.340 --> 00:45:41.500
retirement account right now. All the money that's

00:45:41.500 --> 00:45:43.119
screwing everything up, and we're not even talking

00:45:43.119 --> 00:45:45.619
about what they're using the money for. That's

00:45:45.619 --> 00:45:48.119
a whole other conversation, but I do show some

00:45:48.119 --> 00:45:52.079
gross examples. But all that money that's coming

00:45:52.079 --> 00:45:57.139
in is coming in from our public pensions without

00:45:57.139 --> 00:45:59.579
the fiduciaries being able to sign off or see.

00:46:00.360 --> 00:46:03.099
No one's going to say anything, and they control

00:46:03.099 --> 00:46:04.940
the whole thing. Now, if you're feeling uncomfortable

00:46:04.940 --> 00:46:08.719
when you actually think about this, You might

00:46:08.719 --> 00:46:10.420
say, well, wait a second. That doesn't even sound

00:46:10.420 --> 00:46:15.639
like, I mean, it sounds almost hopeless, right?

00:46:16.239 --> 00:46:19.179
You've got to understand, you hold the power

00:46:19.179 --> 00:46:22.679
to turn this whole thing around. The very thing

00:46:22.679 --> 00:46:26.460
you need to do so that your hours go back to

00:46:26.460 --> 00:46:31.480
so you don't get cancer and are repressed unreasonably

00:46:31.480 --> 00:46:34.380
in your job, right? The very thing to do that

00:46:34.380 --> 00:46:37.659
is what you need to do. to save your pension

00:46:37.659 --> 00:46:39.860
because you will not have the retirement you

00:46:39.860 --> 00:46:43.119
think you have absolutely you won't uh you won't

00:46:43.119 --> 00:46:46.559
it um well we'll talk put a pin in that i'll

00:46:46.559 --> 00:46:52.860
tell you that but the the you either have to

00:46:52.860 --> 00:46:57.280
replace your union with another one or you have

00:46:57.280 --> 00:47:00.119
to get back control of your union and demand

00:47:00.119 --> 00:47:03.500
it And you have to have that threat. It has to

00:47:03.500 --> 00:47:07.900
be that unified. And the way to do it isn't for

00:47:07.900 --> 00:47:10.679
your hours. The way to do it is for your money.

00:47:11.480 --> 00:47:16.840
Because if private equity is told, if the public

00:47:16.840 --> 00:47:19.860
pensions have to be transparent like they were

00:47:19.860 --> 00:47:23.260
30 years ago, where all documents are there,

00:47:23.440 --> 00:47:26.260
there's not a private equity firm, as far as

00:47:26.260 --> 00:47:29.260
most of those, that would ever allow their contracts

00:47:29.260 --> 00:47:32.559
to be. held up to public scrutiny. Because what's

00:47:32.559 --> 00:47:36.099
in there? They're agreeing to pay, the staff's

00:47:36.099 --> 00:47:38.880
agreeing to pay the taxes for the private equity.

00:47:39.280 --> 00:47:42.719
They're agreeing that in the event that I am

00:47:42.719 --> 00:47:47.880
engaged in illegal activity, I, because you're

00:47:47.880 --> 00:47:50.760
an entity that has to be transparent, you are

00:47:50.760 --> 00:47:56.000
acknowledging and revoking your right for me

00:47:56.000 --> 00:48:00.809
to disclose that to you. Which means, You just

00:48:00.809 --> 00:48:03.130
signed a document that says, I could go break

00:48:03.130 --> 00:48:06.210
the law with your money and you agree that it's

00:48:06.210 --> 00:48:10.230
fine. Then they agree to indemnify the person,

00:48:10.269 --> 00:48:13.090
like all the craziest crap you'd ever see. Like

00:48:13.090 --> 00:48:15.369
it just, that's all in the chronic contracts.

00:48:15.429 --> 00:48:19.829
And then the fees and the verbiage is so difficult

00:48:19.829 --> 00:48:22.929
to understand. It's so industry specific that

00:48:22.929 --> 00:48:25.610
the average attorney and certainly the average

00:48:25.610 --> 00:48:28.429
staff investor guy. they would never understand

00:48:28.429 --> 00:48:31.030
it most private equity people which by the way

00:48:31.030 --> 00:48:32.849
it's difficult it's easier to get into harvard

00:48:32.849 --> 00:48:35.750
than it is to get a job with blackstone statistically

00:48:35.750 --> 00:48:39.909
um most of those people reading those contracts

00:48:39.909 --> 00:48:42.429
would not understand these are very specific

00:48:42.429 --> 00:48:46.570
industry specific things and uh there are tools

00:48:46.570 --> 00:48:50.550
that and if if your footage here is of your board

00:48:50.550 --> 00:48:53.909
could read those they wouldn't understand them

00:48:54.570 --> 00:48:58.809
And so it's not about them reading it. It's about

00:48:58.809 --> 00:49:01.789
it being publicly available for everyone to read

00:49:01.789 --> 00:49:05.070
so that a Ted Soudal, a real true pension expert

00:49:05.070 --> 00:49:07.309
could go through all of them, inform the public.

00:49:07.329 --> 00:49:09.070
This was a means to get the media involved and

00:49:09.070 --> 00:49:11.170
all that and shout that whole thing out. It would

00:49:11.170 --> 00:49:14.469
be gone. They would not ever get their money

00:49:14.469 --> 00:49:17.429
from public pensions anymore. And if they didn't,

00:49:17.429 --> 00:49:21.829
they're back into a reasonable box. Okay. And

00:49:21.829 --> 00:49:26.139
that would mean. They would need to put and have

00:49:26.139 --> 00:49:29.059
an interest to put quite as much in to block,

00:49:29.119 --> 00:49:31.380
to protect all this stuff to their governor and

00:49:31.380 --> 00:49:34.400
attorney general, super PACs and the unions.

00:49:34.900 --> 00:49:36.820
Because this is why the unions are getting them.

00:49:36.880 --> 00:49:38.539
They're getting the money from them. And the

00:49:38.539 --> 00:49:41.300
big why is because everyone wants access to these

00:49:41.300 --> 00:49:44.340
funds. Why does that? Now, I want you to think

00:49:44.340 --> 00:49:46.440
about, well, wait a second. Okay, so my union

00:49:46.440 --> 00:49:52.260
has a super PAC. Why would a... private equity

00:49:52.260 --> 00:49:56.219
be interested in putting that money into my union

00:49:56.219 --> 00:50:01.300
super PAC? What's the problem with that? What

00:50:01.300 --> 00:50:05.420
the problem with that is, the only people who

00:50:05.420 --> 00:50:08.000
have the power to really fight this and change

00:50:08.000 --> 00:50:12.579
things is your union. They're the ones. And they're

00:50:12.579 --> 00:50:16.320
neutered. Completely neutered now. They're doing

00:50:16.320 --> 00:50:20.070
nothing. Nothing. Not just that. They are blocking

00:50:20.070 --> 00:50:22.670
the investigations. And we've got the documents

00:50:22.670 --> 00:50:25.170
proving it where they were involved in emails

00:50:25.170 --> 00:50:27.449
and everything else, you know, with the governor

00:50:27.449 --> 00:50:28.550
and everyone else. What are we going to do? We've

00:50:28.550 --> 00:50:29.949
got to stop this investigation. We can't have

00:50:29.949 --> 00:50:33.030
it happen. They stop it every time. Now, not

00:50:33.030 --> 00:50:34.849
all of them. I mean, like I said, Rhode Island's

00:50:34.849 --> 00:50:38.590
union actually paid for it. But, you know, unfortunately,

00:50:38.630 --> 00:50:41.590
a lot of these national unions absolutely stop

00:50:41.590 --> 00:50:45.670
it. They stop it. And so you have like the teachers.

00:50:46.840 --> 00:50:50.920
in Minnesota, Democrat teachers, right? Liberal

00:50:50.920 --> 00:50:53.079
Democrat teachers, Minnesota. This one I filmed

00:50:53.079 --> 00:50:56.659
two blocks away from where George Floyd had his

00:50:56.659 --> 00:51:01.579
incidents. That's where she lives. And she's

00:51:01.579 --> 00:51:03.739
great. I mean, I get along with this gal so well.

00:51:03.940 --> 00:51:07.039
And she just, she goes, I don't even know what

00:51:07.039 --> 00:51:09.539
I am anymore politically. I mean, they came out

00:51:09.539 --> 00:51:13.699
with this investigation and when the report was

00:51:13.699 --> 00:51:16.519
ready, Right then it was time to publish it.

00:51:18.340 --> 00:51:26.300
Their governor, what's his name? Mike Waltz is,

00:51:26.500 --> 00:51:29.639
it becomes the vice president candidate with

00:51:29.639 --> 00:51:33.019
Harris for the Democrat ticket to run for president.

00:51:33.360 --> 00:51:35.519
And it's right when this investigation came out.

00:51:35.579 --> 00:51:39.260
And so all these liberal Democrat teachers who

00:51:39.260 --> 00:51:41.619
were getting screwed, I mean, really screwed

00:51:41.619 --> 00:51:44.380
what was happening to them. They're like, I don't

00:51:44.380 --> 00:51:45.920
know if we should release this report. This is

00:51:45.920 --> 00:51:49.800
going to be bad for our party. So they had to

00:51:49.800 --> 00:51:51.679
deal with that. And they had their own mini war

00:51:51.679 --> 00:51:53.599
back and forth. Should we do this? Should we

00:51:53.599 --> 00:51:56.059
not do this? And I was like, oh, man, that is

00:51:56.059 --> 00:51:59.880
brilliant. That really worked out great. I couldn't

00:51:59.880 --> 00:52:03.280
have timed that better. And of course, the guy

00:52:03.280 --> 00:52:06.400
doing it, he actually wasn't a Trump supporter.

00:52:06.599 --> 00:52:10.460
I mean, I shouldn't say that, but Ted Sedell

00:52:10.460 --> 00:52:13.880
is definitely not a MAGA guy, for sure. And he

00:52:13.880 --> 00:52:15.719
didn't want to do anything bad, but it wasn't

00:52:15.719 --> 00:52:17.199
a political thing. He was like, this is information

00:52:17.199 --> 00:52:19.559
that has to come forward. Timing's timing, like

00:52:19.559 --> 00:52:23.679
whatever. And so how much of the media covered

00:52:23.679 --> 00:52:29.159
this report in the state of Minnesota? Nothing.

00:52:29.619 --> 00:52:32.800
Nothing covered it. No one covered it. To this

00:52:32.800 --> 00:52:35.679
day, no one's covered it. There was like some

00:52:35.679 --> 00:52:38.460
small, they don't have much of a footprint, conservative

00:52:38.460 --> 00:52:40.420
people in that state. They got some little small

00:52:40.420 --> 00:52:42.119
independents here, but it wasn't picked up by

00:52:42.119 --> 00:52:44.880
anyone else there. They got some national people

00:52:44.880 --> 00:52:48.219
covered it, but it wasn't that. So we're up against

00:52:48.219 --> 00:52:51.239
a real fight here. This is really, really difficult.

00:52:51.599 --> 00:52:56.219
And so this movie I'm making, what I've done

00:52:56.219 --> 00:52:58.940
is I've interviewed all these whistleblowers

00:52:58.940 --> 00:53:03.280
who have been working on these boards. I'm filming

00:53:03.280 --> 00:53:08.840
state senators, state treasurers, some media

00:53:08.840 --> 00:53:12.579
people. investigative journalists that have been

00:53:12.579 --> 00:53:16.400
kind of muzzled because they're newspapers owned

00:53:16.400 --> 00:53:20.019
also by private equity, right? If you follow

00:53:20.019 --> 00:53:23.880
what's going on, it's difficult. Where am I going

00:53:23.880 --> 00:53:25.519
to release this? I started thinking about that,

00:53:25.559 --> 00:53:28.400
man, man, man, all these platforms, if it goes

00:53:28.400 --> 00:53:30.239
here, they could pull this people, this have,

00:53:30.280 --> 00:53:32.300
they could pull it down. I put it here, they

00:53:32.300 --> 00:53:35.739
could pull it. And I mean, I'm really thinking

00:53:35.739 --> 00:53:37.579
about doing a different kind of release than

00:53:37.579 --> 00:53:40.190
I've ever done because, because of that. It's

00:53:40.190 --> 00:53:42.510
difficult, right? It's really challenging. But

00:53:42.510 --> 00:53:46.610
you're the closest to the source to make a change.

00:53:47.010 --> 00:53:52.250
And you are the most financially and physically

00:53:52.250 --> 00:53:56.809
interested in the problem. Your physical frame

00:53:56.809 --> 00:54:00.650
is destroyed with the hours they're having you

00:54:00.650 --> 00:54:02.690
work. That has to change uniformly across the

00:54:02.690 --> 00:54:08.630
country. It has to. Retirement accounts are being,

00:54:08.769 --> 00:54:12.190
they're lying to you about what's in there. They're

00:54:12.190 --> 00:54:15.329
saying, so let's say you're in, name a state,

00:54:15.489 --> 00:54:18.650
California, you know, we're 80 % funded or whatever,

00:54:18.769 --> 00:54:22.530
70 % funded. Chicago, you're screwed. And they

00:54:22.530 --> 00:54:26.130
could bankrupt on you. But if you're in California,

00:54:26.449 --> 00:54:28.829
they'll say, hey, we're 80 % or 70 % funded.

00:54:29.170 --> 00:54:32.849
That assumes that all this money they're putting

00:54:32.849 --> 00:54:34.869
in private equity, that the stated values are

00:54:34.869 --> 00:54:38.349
accurate. So every year, these public pensions

00:54:38.349 --> 00:54:42.469
are audited. And it's a legitimate audit. It

00:54:42.469 --> 00:54:44.769
really is. I mean, I'm not suggesting anything's

00:54:44.769 --> 00:54:47.949
wrong with the audit when you read the fine print

00:54:47.949 --> 00:54:49.849
or even right on the front page. And what they

00:54:49.849 --> 00:54:54.550
were saying is, we are only looking at what we

00:54:54.550 --> 00:54:57.489
have access to. So they could see, hey, here's

00:54:57.489 --> 00:55:00.710
the S &P 500. You had 30 % of the funds in S

00:55:00.710 --> 00:55:03.230
&P 500. Here's what you say it did. Here's what

00:55:03.230 --> 00:55:06.539
it did. Yeah, this is all accurate. But what

00:55:06.539 --> 00:55:09.179
they can't do is say, oh, you got this 40 % right

00:55:09.179 --> 00:55:13.619
here, and it's in private equity. They're not

00:55:13.619 --> 00:55:16.960
allowed to see the contracts as the auditor.

00:55:17.119 --> 00:55:19.579
They're not allowed to go in and do any kind

00:55:19.579 --> 00:55:23.380
of true audit on those funds that BlackRock has

00:55:23.380 --> 00:55:25.500
and everybody else. I'm just naming as an example

00:55:25.500 --> 00:55:29.159
on whoever it is, Apollo or whatever. They don't

00:55:29.159 --> 00:55:31.480
have the ability to go in and look at that. And

00:55:31.480 --> 00:55:35.130
so there's this thing called marked. to market.

00:55:36.510 --> 00:55:41.429
And that doesn't exist in private equity funds.

00:55:41.550 --> 00:55:47.650
The fund manager gets to say what the value of

00:55:47.650 --> 00:55:51.449
his fund is worth. And everybody has to just

00:55:51.449 --> 00:55:54.010
go with that. So if the market were to suddenly

00:55:54.010 --> 00:55:58.929
drop 15%, everything drops 15%. You know, think

00:55:58.929 --> 00:56:02.380
about 2008. What happened in 2008, right? Huge

00:56:02.380 --> 00:56:06.440
crash. Real estate, huge crash. All assets, huge

00:56:06.440 --> 00:56:12.179
crash. Private equity, same. Okay, that's the

00:56:12.179 --> 00:56:14.320
story. And so when you're sitting there going,

00:56:14.579 --> 00:56:17.519
how come, like this CalPERS whistleblower said,

00:56:17.860 --> 00:56:21.219
we have these old dogs. We have investments that

00:56:21.219 --> 00:56:23.159
we've made in private equity that are on the

00:56:23.159 --> 00:56:25.960
books since the early 1990s, and they're unchanged.

00:56:26.900 --> 00:56:30.239
Clearly, those things didn't do anything. They're

00:56:30.239 --> 00:56:34.099
worthless. But they're not making a change. There's

00:56:34.099 --> 00:56:38.619
an example of this. It's called Panda Power.

00:56:39.019 --> 00:56:45.119
Panda Power was some new energy kind of thing

00:56:45.119 --> 00:56:51.500
out of Texas. And the STRS Ohio Public Pension

00:56:51.500 --> 00:56:59.000
had invested $525 million in this Panda Power

00:56:59.000 --> 00:57:02.769
investment. One of their members went down to

00:57:02.769 --> 00:57:05.929
Houston and read in the Chronicle that that company

00:57:05.929 --> 00:57:09.210
had just gone bankrupt. I mean, it was a stick

00:57:09.210 --> 00:57:13.809
in your fork kind of bankruptcy, right? And so

00:57:13.809 --> 00:57:18.309
they went back and said, well, hey, that can't

00:57:18.309 --> 00:57:23.170
be good, right? So they went in and met with

00:57:23.170 --> 00:57:28.909
the fund manager, the staff at the Ohio. state

00:57:28.909 --> 00:57:34.869
teachers retirement thing and said hey um we're

00:57:34.869 --> 00:57:37.730
looking through all these this investment in

00:57:37.730 --> 00:57:43.150
panda power what's the value of that listed there

00:57:43.150 --> 00:57:46.989
we see it's listed listed as 525 million dollars

00:57:46.989 --> 00:57:50.730
what's the current value of it right now because

00:57:50.730 --> 00:57:54.369
we saw that it went bankrupt and they said well

00:57:54.369 --> 00:57:59.869
it's zero How come it says on here 525 million?

00:58:00.630 --> 00:58:04.769
Well, we talked about it. It would be a negative

00:58:04.769 --> 00:58:06.690
thing if we made a big deal about it, right?

00:58:07.789 --> 00:58:11.550
So they go, don't worry. We've already absorbed

00:58:11.550 --> 00:58:16.829
it. We've absorbed this. And the end result was

00:58:16.829 --> 00:58:22.210
they had the guy, the fund manager who was over

00:58:22.210 --> 00:58:27.579
it at the time, got his bonus. And then was promoted

00:58:27.579 --> 00:58:30.420
to the chief investment officer at that fund.

00:58:33.039 --> 00:58:36.400
So there's a lot of that going on. So anyway,

00:58:36.639 --> 00:58:42.260
you got any questions? This is, I think I called

00:58:42.260 --> 00:58:44.579
you because I was like, I know why this is happening,

00:58:44.699 --> 00:58:47.539
why you're having so much resistance. I get why

00:58:47.539 --> 00:58:50.940
the unions are no longer working for you. They're

00:58:50.940 --> 00:58:53.340
working for their super PAC. They're working

00:58:53.340 --> 00:58:56.400
for someone else now. They're getting. They got

00:58:56.400 --> 00:59:01.519
a lot of money there and it's wrong. But that's

00:59:01.519 --> 00:59:03.980
why. And as bad as it is for your work right

00:59:03.980 --> 00:59:08.159
now, your retirement's even worse unless you

00:59:08.159 --> 00:59:11.460
turn this around. And it all starts back there.

00:59:11.940 --> 00:59:15.219
That's where it starts. Just to clarify, the

00:59:15.219 --> 00:59:18.320
unions in question, not the ones as you highlighted,

00:59:18.599 --> 00:59:20.440
you know, the Rhode Island ones that are actually

00:59:20.440 --> 00:59:22.579
bucking the system and doing what's right for

00:59:22.579 --> 00:59:25.760
their men and women. What is happening behind

00:59:25.760 --> 00:59:30.699
closed doors that is causing this shift from

00:59:30.699 --> 00:59:33.380
fighting for their people to this self -interest

00:59:33.380 --> 00:59:35.320
that I keep seeing all the way through to the

00:59:35.320 --> 00:59:41.099
national level? I imagine it's the private equity

00:59:41.099 --> 00:59:44.019
knocking on the door and seducing them. Because

00:59:44.019 --> 00:59:47.960
that's what it's been when I interviewed State.

00:59:50.139 --> 00:59:52.380
senators treasurers everybody else i kind of

00:59:52.380 --> 00:59:55.179
understand how it happens you know they come

00:59:55.179 --> 00:59:58.239
in and they're they're they're very good i mean

00:59:58.239 --> 00:59:59.679
they're getting the best of the best they got

00:59:59.679 --> 01:00:03.519
the most money and money is very difficult to

01:00:03.519 --> 01:00:07.500
turn down so you know you look a little bit they

01:00:07.500 --> 01:00:09.460
might be helpful for a little bit they do this

01:00:09.460 --> 01:00:15.659
and this but at some point it just ends up There's

01:00:15.659 --> 01:00:19.860
a shift. You will know based on the responsiveness

01:00:19.860 --> 01:00:22.099
to your union whether they have a super PAC or

01:00:22.099 --> 01:00:23.840
not without even looking. Then you're going to

01:00:23.840 --> 01:00:27.420
look and you go, oh, my gosh, there it is. It's

01:00:27.420 --> 01:00:32.980
all right there. It's not. It's what it is. So

01:00:32.980 --> 01:00:36.480
the thing is, they're only powerful because they've

01:00:36.480 --> 01:00:39.719
got your money. They're literally, where's this

01:00:39.719 --> 01:00:44.710
book? They're stealing the money. But they're

01:00:44.710 --> 01:00:47.869
stealing it legally. They've been able to go

01:00:47.869 --> 01:00:52.570
in. Remember, this is different. Okay, I did

01:00:52.570 --> 01:00:56.250
something else interesting, James. I asked ChatGDP,

01:00:56.409 --> 01:00:59.090
which I never do because a search with ChatGDP

01:00:59.090 --> 01:01:01.449
takes 10 times more energy than a Google search.

01:01:03.309 --> 01:01:07.130
And that's another problem, right? But I said...

01:01:07.800 --> 01:01:10.659
How many bankruptcies happen in America? How

01:01:10.659 --> 01:01:13.559
much money is out there? It's like $3 .5 million.

01:01:14.059 --> 01:01:17.000
How many is like 3 ,300? I can't remember. 1

01:01:17.000 --> 01:01:20.260
,700 bank robbers. They collect like $3 .3 million.

01:01:20.480 --> 01:01:24.079
It works out to be $3 ,300 a hit. That's it.

01:01:24.199 --> 01:01:27.440
$3 ,300 for a bank robbery. Bank robberies are

01:01:27.440 --> 01:01:34.590
so yesterday. Never rob a bank. Instead. Get

01:01:34.590 --> 01:01:38.110
a job as a staffer for the investments portion

01:01:38.110 --> 01:01:41.190
of your public pension. That's where you're going

01:01:41.190 --> 01:01:45.389
to make money. You're really good. Either control

01:01:45.389 --> 01:01:48.429
the super PAC money, whoever they are doing that

01:01:48.429 --> 01:01:51.110
for the unions or for the governors or whoever,

01:01:51.289 --> 01:01:55.710
or, you know, become, start, be one of the 4

01:01:55.710 --> 01:01:58.750
,000 plus private equity firms out there. There

01:01:58.750 --> 01:02:02.360
used to be 40 in the 80s. Now there's over 4

01:02:02.360 --> 01:02:05.019
,000. And it's really what's going, if you haven't

01:02:05.019 --> 01:02:08.059
been paying attention, how many public companies

01:02:08.059 --> 01:02:11.760
are going private. The private equity are buying

01:02:11.760 --> 01:02:16.079
them and bringing them private. And all their

01:02:16.079 --> 01:02:19.739
contracts, everything, they redact everything.

01:02:20.659 --> 01:02:24.179
The veil of secrecy that they get away with and

01:02:24.179 --> 01:02:27.800
how they end up, they're so good at going into

01:02:27.800 --> 01:02:29.599
the states and everyone else, like they figured

01:02:29.599 --> 01:02:33.829
it out. They're just really great at it. And

01:02:33.829 --> 01:02:37.230
the people fighting it make zero dollars. I mean,

01:02:37.230 --> 01:02:40.030
they make nothing. Your fiduciaries are making

01:02:40.030 --> 01:02:43.550
nothing to be on that board. And yet if they

01:02:43.550 --> 01:02:47.389
fight it, like in Ohio, the guy's fighting it.

01:02:47.489 --> 01:02:50.269
It's a $250 ,000 fight. With what money? They

01:02:50.269 --> 01:02:52.369
were like a teacher. How's that supposed to happen?

01:02:53.070 --> 01:02:56.309
And so it's a tough thing. And I don't know that

01:02:56.309 --> 01:02:59.019
that's the place to fight. I'm saying. The real

01:02:59.019 --> 01:03:02.280
fight is your representatives. Like, that's it.

01:03:02.280 --> 01:03:04.539
Like, right now, this is where it needs to be.

01:03:04.860 --> 01:03:07.619
I don't see how we can really move forward without

01:03:07.619 --> 01:03:11.000
unions. I think that we have to have unions now

01:03:11.000 --> 01:03:15.599
more than ever because of all this stuff that's

01:03:15.599 --> 01:03:19.400
happening, you know? Back in the 80s, early 80s,

01:03:19.420 --> 01:03:23.880
the average CEO I heard, I haven't fact -checked

01:03:23.880 --> 01:03:25.780
this, but it was a pretty reliable source, I

01:03:25.780 --> 01:03:30.679
think. They were making, the average CEO was

01:03:30.679 --> 01:03:38.179
making five to eight times pay of their average

01:03:38.179 --> 01:03:44.559
employee. Today, the average CEO makes 500 to

01:03:44.559 --> 01:03:48.980
800 times their average employee. And so, you

01:03:48.980 --> 01:03:51.260
know, you look at that and go, okay, I mean,

01:03:51.300 --> 01:03:54.719
I'm freaking out. How's this going to work? You

01:03:54.719 --> 01:03:58.039
know, most of the new gigs, most of the private

01:03:58.039 --> 01:04:00.559
equity, those are not union shops. It's not going

01:04:00.559 --> 01:04:03.159
that route. And it's not great paid. It's not

01:04:03.159 --> 01:04:05.139
a great deal. And everyone's getting cut and

01:04:05.139 --> 01:04:07.440
with AI coming out and everything else. Even

01:04:07.440 --> 01:04:10.500
the Screen Actors Guild. The Screen Actors Guild,

01:04:10.739 --> 01:04:13.800
a couple, three years ago, hired Edward Sedell

01:04:13.800 --> 01:04:16.699
to represent them because of the future AI thing

01:04:16.699 --> 01:04:17.940
and all this crap that was happening. They had

01:04:17.940 --> 01:04:20.099
just cut the health care for all their seniors

01:04:20.099 --> 01:04:28.050
during COVID. right jesus so um uh so so i'm

01:04:28.050 --> 01:04:32.389
not i'm not i actually see the value of these

01:04:32.389 --> 01:04:34.889
unions like i really see the value of you you

01:04:34.889 --> 01:04:37.510
need these unions to accomplish what you need

01:04:37.510 --> 01:04:40.449
by yourselves it's not enough like you have to

01:04:40.449 --> 01:04:44.690
have all of that together but they have to represent

01:04:44.690 --> 01:04:47.989
you they just have to really represent you and

01:04:47.989 --> 01:04:51.050
and and so the fight is on now like that is it

01:04:51.420 --> 01:04:53.340
it is i'm just telling you when you see the film

01:04:53.340 --> 01:04:58.079
you will see um you will not be able to retire

01:04:58.079 --> 01:05:01.639
yeah all those people who retired out of detroit

01:05:01.639 --> 01:05:06.139
in 2010 by now are sitting at walmart handing

01:05:06.139 --> 01:05:09.519
out shopping carts they could not still be able

01:05:09.519 --> 01:05:13.519
to pay a bill not on 10 cents on the dollar 25

01:05:13.519 --> 01:05:16.590
cents on the dollar like there's no way See,

01:05:16.610 --> 01:05:19.130
this is one thing I've said many, many times.

01:05:19.190 --> 01:05:21.989
I am a huge believer in the union philosophy,

01:05:22.349 --> 01:05:26.690
but I am also someone that just looks at actions.

01:05:26.789 --> 01:05:29.730
Like I don't need to be too forensic and things

01:05:29.730 --> 01:05:32.030
like, are you doing what you're doing? Are you

01:05:32.030 --> 01:05:34.429
doing what you said you're going to do? And if,

01:05:34.449 --> 01:05:37.670
for example, you're a fire union and you are

01:05:37.670 --> 01:05:41.280
not even addressing. something as basal as the

01:05:41.280 --> 01:05:44.980
standardized work week, especially if now your

01:05:44.980 --> 01:05:47.980
department where you're from works in this case

01:05:47.980 --> 01:05:51.219
of 2472, and you're not even advocating for the

01:05:51.219 --> 01:05:52.880
rest of the country that are getting murdered.

01:05:53.779 --> 01:05:56.800
I don't need to do anything of it. I can see

01:05:56.800 --> 01:05:59.320
that you're not doing anything. Is this Boston?

01:05:59.420 --> 01:06:01.559
Is this Boston doing this? Yes, it is indeed.

01:06:01.780 --> 01:06:04.179
And there was, again, great, great hope. I'm

01:06:04.179 --> 01:06:06.099
not even a firefighter in the union, and I know

01:06:06.099 --> 01:06:10.079
that. And before that was Fairfax, Virginia,

01:06:10.360 --> 01:06:13.780
who those poor people still work 56. So, again,

01:06:13.960 --> 01:06:18.139
their supposed union god, who became the national

01:06:18.139 --> 01:06:21.380
union guy, who was pilfering, by the way, he

01:06:21.380 --> 01:06:23.849
didn't even fix his own fire department. You

01:06:23.849 --> 01:06:25.269
know what I mean? So this is the thing. It's

01:06:25.269 --> 01:06:27.389
not about the union philosophy. It's the human

01:06:27.389 --> 01:06:29.829
beings that you put in these places. If they

01:06:29.829 --> 01:06:32.449
are not doing the thing, then they are not doing

01:06:32.449 --> 01:06:34.869
the thing. And like you said, if there's a reason

01:06:34.869 --> 01:06:37.329
because their pockets are being lined, the same

01:06:37.329 --> 01:06:39.710
way as I'm rewatching Dope Sick for the third

01:06:39.710 --> 01:06:41.389
time because I'm interviewing the real lawyer

01:06:41.389 --> 01:06:44.610
from that tomorrow. You know, you work for the

01:06:44.610 --> 01:06:46.889
FDA, you approve this drug, and now all of a

01:06:46.889 --> 01:06:49.389
sudden you're working for Purdue Pharma. Again,

01:06:49.570 --> 01:06:52.389
we already know what the fuck is going on. You

01:06:52.389 --> 01:06:54.539
know, that's clear. That's why they got that

01:06:54.539 --> 01:06:56.659
approval in the first place. It's the same deal

01:06:56.659 --> 01:06:58.739
with the staff and private equity. It's, it's

01:06:58.739 --> 01:07:01.579
that, it's that exactly. That is the hope. And

01:07:01.579 --> 01:07:03.900
they get like greased skids. There's, there's

01:07:03.900 --> 01:07:05.940
ways to get money to these people. Yeah, exactly.

01:07:06.179 --> 01:07:08.400
So I care about the men and women that are in

01:07:08.400 --> 01:07:10.800
the trenches that are doing the work. And, you

01:07:10.800 --> 01:07:12.500
know, firstly, we need to get, you know, like

01:07:12.500 --> 01:07:14.940
I said, the work weeks. And because if you tell

01:07:14.940 --> 01:07:16.719
someone, oh, you've got 10 years and then you're

01:07:16.719 --> 01:07:18.159
going to be broke. A lot of these firefighters,

01:07:18.340 --> 01:07:20.099
you know, well, we die within five anyway. So

01:07:20.099 --> 01:07:23.659
it's not even an issue. That's so backwards the

01:07:23.659 --> 01:07:25.900
way we should be thinking. But it's backwards.

01:07:26.059 --> 01:07:29.480
You fix the money piece, then you actually are

01:07:29.480 --> 01:07:32.800
able to get your yins to give you your work piece.

01:07:33.199 --> 01:07:35.300
Exactly. Does that make sense? No, it doesn't.

01:07:35.300 --> 01:07:36.800
Can you see that? That's exactly it. Can you

01:07:36.800 --> 01:07:38.900
see why this has been happening? I was like,

01:07:39.079 --> 01:07:42.059
oh, man. I was just sitting in here editing away,

01:07:42.119 --> 01:07:43.900
and then just all of a sudden I thought, ah,

01:07:43.900 --> 01:07:48.019
James. This will probably tell James. So to underline

01:07:48.019 --> 01:07:50.719
that again, because we have so many men and women

01:07:50.719 --> 01:07:54.159
who not only will, you know, do 25, 30 years,

01:07:54.280 --> 01:07:56.280
but then we have what we call the drop program

01:07:56.280 --> 01:07:58.860
where they'll stay for even more years because

01:07:58.860 --> 01:08:03.059
they'll basically air quotes double dip. Thinking

01:08:03.059 --> 01:08:06.019
that this carrot on the stick is going to be

01:08:06.019 --> 01:08:07.659
the be all and end all, then they move to our

01:08:07.659 --> 01:08:10.079
state and they're going to play golf for decades

01:08:10.079 --> 01:08:13.360
after that. And the reality from the health point

01:08:13.360 --> 01:08:16.060
is more often than not, they're not going to

01:08:16.060 --> 01:08:18.000
have a long and healthy retirement because they

01:08:18.000 --> 01:08:20.159
worked themselves into the ground. But let's

01:08:20.159 --> 01:08:23.779
just underline again, this pension that these

01:08:23.779 --> 01:08:26.819
first responders and these other employees in

01:08:26.819 --> 01:08:31.369
cities and states and counties and federal. That

01:08:31.369 --> 01:08:33.970
one thing that keeps them going, so they're going

01:08:33.970 --> 01:08:36.090
to retire and play with their grandkids for several

01:08:36.090 --> 01:08:39.770
decades. If everything stays as it is, what is

01:08:39.770 --> 01:08:44.050
the reality of those pensions? If everything

01:08:44.050 --> 01:08:47.989
stays what it is, those pensions aren't going

01:08:47.989 --> 01:08:53.329
to grow enough because they're being pilfered.

01:08:53.850 --> 01:08:56.130
So much of the funds are going into private equity,

01:08:56.229 --> 01:08:58.449
which is locked away for an undisclosed, who

01:08:58.449 --> 01:09:03.329
knows how long period of time. And they're not

01:09:03.329 --> 01:09:04.949
getting the returns that they're saying they're

01:09:04.949 --> 01:09:08.670
getting. They're lying. And the other part of

01:09:08.670 --> 01:09:16.930
that is it's impossible to make up for an underfunded

01:09:16.930 --> 01:09:26.770
pension by getting better returns. So you would

01:09:26.770 --> 01:09:30.920
have to, if you go one year. now this is scary

01:09:30.920 --> 01:09:33.520
but if you go one year as a pension and you pay

01:09:33.520 --> 01:09:38.720
out just one percent too much right one percent

01:09:38.720 --> 01:09:41.460
differential between collecting and paying out

01:09:41.460 --> 01:09:46.880
one percent one year it takes seven years of

01:09:46.880 --> 01:09:51.199
over market returns to make up for it it takes

01:09:51.199 --> 01:09:55.159
seven years to make up for it I guarantee you,

01:09:55.199 --> 01:09:58.539
almost everybody that I'm talking to, that last

01:09:58.539 --> 01:10:01.859
five out of eight years, they've done that. It

01:10:01.859 --> 01:10:05.880
would take 40 years. And they're never going

01:10:05.880 --> 01:10:08.119
to get all 40. They'd be lucky if they get five

01:10:08.119 --> 01:10:10.779
of them that they outperform. So it's impossible.

01:10:11.340 --> 01:10:14.140
So there's a legislative requirement that they

01:10:14.140 --> 01:10:17.699
actually place more dollars from the state into

01:10:17.699 --> 01:10:21.539
the public pension fund. Has to happen. Cities

01:10:21.539 --> 01:10:24.619
have to do it. Counties have to do it. States

01:10:24.619 --> 01:10:26.960
have to do it. Federal government has to do it.

01:10:27.760 --> 01:10:30.399
It has to. There's no other way for that to be

01:10:30.399 --> 01:10:33.100
fixed. The other thing is you have to stop the

01:10:33.100 --> 01:10:35.539
leakage. And that's coming from private equity.

01:10:36.220 --> 01:10:43.479
And what's going on is investigations and the

01:10:43.479 --> 01:10:48.979
big stink is being blocked by the unions. So

01:10:48.979 --> 01:10:52.520
the very people. Who the unions are supposed

01:10:52.520 --> 01:10:55.539
to represent, you know, the people, your firefighter,

01:10:55.539 --> 01:10:59.640
right? Or police or whoever's listening. Too

01:10:59.640 --> 01:11:02.319
many of these unions are stopping any discussion

01:11:02.319 --> 01:11:05.220
here, stopping investigations. They say they

01:11:05.220 --> 01:11:08.460
do this and that, but they, you know. And so,

01:11:08.600 --> 01:11:12.279
and because of that, if you're a firefighter,

01:11:12.279 --> 01:11:16.819
for example, and you're like, I got. to get some

01:11:16.819 --> 01:11:19.819
relief my body is being destroyed i've got to

01:11:19.819 --> 01:11:22.100
get one more day off like i just that will change

01:11:22.100 --> 01:11:26.159
everything right um your union's not doing it

01:11:26.159 --> 01:11:29.479
because the union's getting you know greased

01:11:29.479 --> 01:11:32.119
from private equity funds into their super packs

01:11:32.119 --> 01:11:35.739
and so that's why it's happening and the only

01:11:35.739 --> 01:11:39.119
way that this is going to stop and and so they're

01:11:39.119 --> 01:11:41.399
not going to listen to you about your physical

01:11:41.399 --> 01:11:47.260
needs until you fix the money problem So you've

01:11:47.260 --> 01:11:50.479
got to take over that. Take it back. Take the

01:11:50.479 --> 01:11:52.300
union back and say, no, you have to represent

01:11:52.300 --> 01:11:55.979
me, not them anymore. Stop participating in the

01:11:55.979 --> 01:12:00.060
super PACs. Just stop. Don't do politics ever

01:12:00.060 --> 01:12:02.960
again. We're done taking money from private equity.

01:12:03.279 --> 01:12:08.060
Why are you taking money from them? Like you

01:12:08.060 --> 01:12:11.479
can see the behavior. It's so clear. They're

01:12:11.479 --> 01:12:16.350
bought. So the moment they stop. Say no. Now

01:12:16.350 --> 01:12:18.409
they're going to be interested in helping you,

01:12:18.529 --> 01:12:21.069
your retirement. And now they're going to go

01:12:21.069 --> 01:12:23.569
expose all that crap. And then their pressure,

01:12:23.729 --> 01:12:26.069
oh man, everything goes because you're a voting

01:12:26.069 --> 01:12:29.010
bloc and everything else. Now this governor's

01:12:29.010 --> 01:12:33.390
got to decide. But once that pressure gets to

01:12:33.390 --> 01:12:35.369
that point, they're like, okay, we're going to

01:12:35.369 --> 01:12:38.050
go transparent. Once they go transparent, private

01:12:38.050 --> 01:12:40.329
equity's gone and the whole thing's done well.

01:12:41.369 --> 01:12:44.369
Does that make sense? And so then your union's

01:12:44.369 --> 01:12:46.510
able to help you with what you want. You're going

01:12:46.510 --> 01:12:48.649
to have a retirement. They'll be able to put

01:12:48.649 --> 01:12:50.609
the pressure on the state. We'll put the money

01:12:50.609 --> 01:12:53.229
in because, you know, they got to have firefighters.

01:12:53.510 --> 01:12:55.029
They got a police officer. They put the money

01:12:55.029 --> 01:12:57.529
in, fully fund you guys back up. Now they could

01:12:57.529 --> 01:13:02.909
just put the money in basic bonds that are inflation

01:13:02.909 --> 01:13:06.250
protected, that just grows like it should. Nothing

01:13:06.250 --> 01:13:10.029
crazy is going on like it used to be when everything

01:13:10.029 --> 01:13:13.819
was fine in the 90s and early 90s. 50 years leading

01:13:13.819 --> 01:13:16.899
up to the early 90s, everything was fine, right?

01:13:17.039 --> 01:13:21.420
This is a new problem, and it's no mystery why

01:13:21.420 --> 01:13:26.260
it's happening. You see the same behavior in

01:13:26.260 --> 01:13:29.840
so many areas. You talk to a lot of the veterans

01:13:29.840 --> 01:13:33.100
or people that are just kind of well -educated

01:13:33.100 --> 01:13:36.739
in the economy world, and you talk to them about

01:13:36.739 --> 01:13:39.039
war. And, you know, where are the checks and

01:13:39.039 --> 01:13:41.859
balances when there's so many people that pay

01:13:41.859 --> 01:13:46.500
politicians billions of dollars, literally, where

01:13:46.500 --> 01:13:48.399
are the checks and balances to stop sending our

01:13:48.399 --> 01:13:50.760
men and women to war, our children overseas,

01:13:51.000 --> 01:13:52.760
when you are going to profit from it? Where are

01:13:52.760 --> 01:13:55.100
the checks and balances when you make so much

01:13:55.100 --> 01:13:58.020
money from fast food companies and tobacco companies

01:13:58.020 --> 01:14:00.819
and, you know, pharmaceutical companies and health

01:14:00.819 --> 01:14:03.800
insurance companies when people are fat and sick?

01:14:04.350 --> 01:14:06.569
Where is the checks and balance to, you know,

01:14:06.569 --> 01:14:09.109
to stop that? And this is the same human issue

01:14:09.109 --> 01:14:11.810
that we see here. You know, I've had, I'll give

01:14:11.810 --> 01:14:14.489
you a perfect example. The Florida Fire Chiefs

01:14:14.489 --> 01:14:17.250
Association, where I did a presentation, did

01:14:17.250 --> 01:14:22.430
like a Q &A panel on the 2472. After Governor

01:14:22.430 --> 01:14:25.270
DeSantis signed in a bill saying they recommended

01:14:25.270 --> 01:14:27.649
a 42 -hour workweek in the fire service here,

01:14:27.850 --> 01:14:31.189
Danny Alvarez put forward. They actually put

01:14:31.189 --> 01:14:33.550
an email amongst themselves saying that we oppose

01:14:33.550 --> 01:14:35.869
the 42 hour work week. Now, to be clear, these

01:14:35.869 --> 01:14:38.229
are people that go home at five o 'clock every

01:14:38.229 --> 01:14:41.729
night, Monday to Friday, work 40 hours. And they

01:14:41.729 --> 01:14:43.770
are saying that our firefighters don't deserve

01:14:43.770 --> 01:14:47.170
to work less than 56 and basically deal with

01:14:47.170 --> 01:14:49.310
the recruitment crisis that they created that's

01:14:49.310 --> 01:14:52.250
now causing mandatory overtime. So 80 plus hour

01:14:52.250 --> 01:14:55.710
work weeks. So, you know, until you pull that

01:14:55.710 --> 01:14:59.140
out into the spotlight and say. There are zero

01:14:59.140 --> 01:15:01.680
fucking ethics going on here whatsoever. And

01:15:01.680 --> 01:15:03.720
it's not about helping other people. You are

01:15:03.720 --> 01:15:06.500
just helping yourself at the expense of other

01:15:06.500 --> 01:15:10.760
people, whether it's the nation's health or the

01:15:10.760 --> 01:15:14.359
provocation of war constantly, or the health

01:15:14.359 --> 01:15:16.960
and wellbeing of our first responders. Then I

01:15:16.960 --> 01:15:18.960
agree with you a hundred percent. It should be

01:15:18.960 --> 01:15:22.220
literally torches and pitchforks figuring out

01:15:22.220 --> 01:15:25.479
who's been fucking you over. And then find the

01:15:25.479 --> 01:15:27.220
good people because they are. Dixon Phillips,

01:15:27.439 --> 01:15:28.920
Pasco County, I'll give you a perfect example.

01:15:29.079 --> 01:15:31.340
That's the kind of person that you want at the

01:15:31.340 --> 01:15:33.600
head of your union. So there are some phenomenal

01:15:33.600 --> 01:15:36.479
people out there. But if it is rotten, you have

01:15:36.479 --> 01:15:40.279
to clean house. It's as simple as that. So one

01:15:40.279 --> 01:15:43.479
thing I just want to make a point of, you just

01:15:43.479 --> 01:15:48.380
talked about money. You're trying to stop the

01:15:48.380 --> 01:15:54.239
wars, stop the excess of things happening. The

01:15:54.239 --> 01:15:55.699
crap that's happening to health care and everything

01:15:55.699 --> 01:15:58.859
else, right? You mentioned those issues. I just

01:15:58.859 --> 01:16:01.579
want to say, where do you think that money's

01:16:01.579 --> 01:16:05.579
coming from? Same. And the answer is from your

01:16:05.579 --> 01:16:10.239
retirement account at your public pension. That's

01:16:10.239 --> 01:16:13.439
that public, those private equity dollars, that

01:16:13.439 --> 01:16:17.239
power they've got. It's not like it's really

01:16:17.239 --> 01:16:22.680
theirs. They're using your money to do it. It's

01:16:22.680 --> 01:16:24.720
your money. Like, like all you have to do is

01:16:24.720 --> 01:16:28.960
stop them using your money. And almost all of

01:16:28.960 --> 01:16:31.619
the things that we're so frustrated with, with,

01:16:31.619 --> 01:16:34.300
with private equity, buying out everybody's houses,

01:16:34.359 --> 01:16:37.420
buying out all these manufactured homes, the,

01:16:37.520 --> 01:16:41.119
you know, and raising the lot fees. And cause

01:16:41.119 --> 01:16:43.159
they're stuck. I mean, this happened here in

01:16:43.159 --> 01:16:45.220
Florida. There's a guy, there's a guy who, who

01:16:45.220 --> 01:16:47.079
does plumbing on my house. It's only charges

01:16:47.079 --> 01:16:49.720
like 30 bucks an hour. He's older. He's great.

01:16:50.039 --> 01:16:54.039
And lives in a manufactured home. And his lot

01:16:54.039 --> 01:17:00.460
rate went from 200 to 880 in a month. And he's

01:17:00.460 --> 01:17:04.359
like, well, I can't pay that. But to move his

01:17:04.359 --> 01:17:10.060
thing to somewhere else costs 20 grand. So he

01:17:10.060 --> 01:17:11.960
doesn't have that. So what's he going to do?

01:17:12.079 --> 01:17:13.979
Well, he keeps paying it until he can't pay the

01:17:13.979 --> 01:17:17.479
money. BK's out. He's done. And that's going

01:17:17.479 --> 01:17:21.239
on all across America. Retirement centers, the

01:17:21.239 --> 01:17:23.560
kind that have to get a little bit of help, that

01:17:23.560 --> 01:17:28.560
group, they've been bought out by private equity

01:17:28.560 --> 01:17:33.640
as well. And you see a 12 % increase in deaths

01:17:33.640 --> 01:17:36.859
when private equity buys out a retirement center.

01:17:37.340 --> 01:17:39.500
They're buying out all the for -profit hospitals

01:17:39.500 --> 01:17:42.399
right now. They're anticipating a 10 % increase

01:17:42.399 --> 01:17:46.979
in deaths in emergency rooms. So that's what's

01:17:46.979 --> 01:17:48.779
happening. And they're doing it with your...

01:17:49.149 --> 01:17:52.069
retirement money right your money and and and

01:17:52.069 --> 01:17:55.930
most people most of their public pensions they're

01:17:55.930 --> 01:17:58.489
taking some of your paycheck and they're putting

01:17:58.489 --> 01:18:00.390
it into these accounts it's not like the state's

01:18:00.390 --> 01:18:03.069
paying all this stuff you know in most cases

01:18:03.069 --> 01:18:04.930
the people are paying more than the state is

01:18:04.930 --> 01:18:10.930
so that and um yeah all right well that's that's

01:18:10.930 --> 01:18:13.829
in a nutshell man we've we got this hour 12.

01:18:14.069 --> 01:18:16.640
that's exactly The length I'm hoping for this

01:18:16.640 --> 01:18:18.220
movie. So there we go. You watched the whole

01:18:18.220 --> 01:18:21.060
movie. Brilliant. It's funny you say about the

01:18:21.060 --> 01:18:24.140
retirement homes because Rick, who's coming on

01:18:24.140 --> 01:18:26.720
tomorrow, the real lawyer from the Purdue Pharma

01:18:26.720 --> 01:18:31.500
case, he now is spearheading a case exactly what

01:18:31.500 --> 01:18:33.020
you're talking about, the nursing homes. And

01:18:33.020 --> 01:18:37.260
they got a documentary called No Place for Old

01:18:37.260 --> 01:18:41.039
People. No country for old people, kind of spin

01:18:41.039 --> 01:18:43.819
on the other film. But it's blowing that open.

01:18:43.920 --> 01:18:45.899
And a lot of us listening, we know we've been

01:18:45.899 --> 01:18:48.100
in these horrendous nursing homes. And it's not

01:18:48.100 --> 01:18:50.779
that there are evil nurses, you know, looking

01:18:50.779 --> 01:18:53.920
around everywhere. It's usually woeful understaffing,

01:18:53.920 --> 01:18:56.819
you know, poor conditions, you know, just cramming

01:18:56.819 --> 01:18:59.399
these patients in. The isolation they experienced

01:18:59.399 --> 01:19:03.289
during COVID was horrendous. And again, the nefarious

01:19:03.289 --> 01:19:05.569
nature behind it, that these people are literally,

01:19:05.689 --> 01:19:07.689
as they call them, human warehouses. They're

01:19:07.689 --> 01:19:09.789
just shelving these humans and taking the money.

01:19:10.189 --> 01:19:12.829
And so it seems like blowing open this issue,

01:19:12.989 --> 01:19:16.149
there's so many areas that we could improve if

01:19:16.149 --> 01:19:18.310
we take the power away from exactly what you're

01:19:18.310 --> 01:19:20.069
talking. But the reason why there's skin in the

01:19:20.069 --> 01:19:22.310
game in this conversation is it's literally going

01:19:22.310 --> 01:19:25.250
to affect every first responder that believes

01:19:25.250 --> 01:19:27.369
that this golden egg, this nest egg that they're

01:19:27.369 --> 01:19:30.140
building through 20 plus years. they're going

01:19:30.140 --> 01:19:32.500
to be able to live on for another 20, 30 years.

01:19:33.180 --> 01:19:35.260
One part of that conversation I'm not going to

01:19:35.260 --> 01:19:36.859
have tomorrow, but I will tell you what's going

01:19:36.859 --> 01:19:39.920
on, is when that private equity firm got the

01:19:39.920 --> 01:19:43.279
money to buy those, first, they went to your

01:19:43.279 --> 01:19:47.000
public pension staff and sat down and did a presentation

01:19:47.000 --> 01:19:49.600
and said, look, we're going to buy these retirement

01:19:49.600 --> 01:19:51.720
centers and we're going to be able to run them

01:19:51.720 --> 01:19:55.119
differently to extract higher profit margins.

01:19:55.159 --> 01:19:58.960
And it's going to mean 15 % return for your public

01:19:58.960 --> 01:20:04.220
pension. And all they saw was 15%. Ethics is

01:20:04.220 --> 01:20:09.199
gone. Moral consequence is over. Whether you're

01:20:09.199 --> 01:20:11.220
talking about the California public pension funds,

01:20:11.340 --> 01:20:14.220
it doesn't matter the state. Nobody cares. They

01:20:14.220 --> 01:20:16.539
just want this high return. And so I'm just telling

01:20:16.539 --> 01:20:18.260
you, all the bad that's happening is happening

01:20:18.260 --> 01:20:21.279
with our public dollars, with the public pensions.

01:20:21.779 --> 01:20:26.930
And it's pretty interesting. That's the why though.

01:20:27.170 --> 01:20:30.390
This is the why. This is how it's happening and

01:20:30.390 --> 01:20:32.930
how you close it up. And it's really a function

01:20:32.930 --> 01:20:36.930
of taking back control of your unions and say,

01:20:36.970 --> 01:20:40.149
no, no more of that. We're done. It's sad. It's

01:20:40.149 --> 01:20:43.430
very timely as well because two companies that

01:20:43.430 --> 01:20:46.470
I had a great relationship with a few years,

01:20:46.649 --> 01:20:49.449
I've watched that same issue happen to them.

01:20:49.880 --> 01:20:52.420
where they've come in, they've gutted them from

01:20:52.420 --> 01:20:54.960
the inside. And again, they were successful because

01:20:54.960 --> 01:20:56.979
they were doing it right. And they had great

01:20:56.979 --> 01:20:59.840
people and they created great products. And it's

01:20:59.840 --> 01:21:02.020
heartbreaking. I've spoken to so many people

01:21:02.020 --> 01:21:04.939
that they poured their heart and soul into these

01:21:04.939 --> 01:21:07.960
companies. And now they're basically all but

01:21:07.960 --> 01:21:09.520
looking for somewhere else to work in different

01:21:09.520 --> 01:21:13.020
cases. So you're also destroying American industry.

01:21:14.159 --> 01:21:17.960
I mean, we've known this since 1990. It was so

01:21:17.960 --> 01:21:20.140
common that they even put it in Pretty Woman.

01:21:21.140 --> 01:21:23.859
This is how private equity does it, right? It's

01:21:23.859 --> 01:21:27.260
exactly what they do. No one's arguing about

01:21:27.260 --> 01:21:30.039
them not making money. They themselves always

01:21:30.039 --> 01:21:34.100
make money. They do great. The public pensions

01:21:34.100 --> 01:21:36.699
are the third tier. Nobody cares about them.

01:21:36.779 --> 01:21:38.819
They're considered the dumb money. They're not

01:21:38.819 --> 01:21:43.550
necessarily making money. But they need it. They

01:21:43.550 --> 01:21:47.409
need it. And the whole 401k that everyone's getting

01:21:47.409 --> 01:21:49.350
excited about putting money in private, public

01:21:49.350 --> 01:21:52.250
pensions, excuse me, in private equity. Trump's

01:21:52.250 --> 01:21:53.810
been, you know, making a big deal about that.

01:21:54.149 --> 01:21:57.850
Open up 10 % of your 401k to put it there so

01:21:57.850 --> 01:22:00.189
that you can get these high returns, not just

01:22:00.189 --> 01:22:03.229
this, this institutional money, but now the common

01:22:03.229 --> 01:22:06.609
guy could get their big example as well. All

01:22:06.609 --> 01:22:08.770
these pensions like private equity, like public

01:22:08.770 --> 01:22:11.880
pensions, like helpers are doing it. Yeah. They

01:22:11.880 --> 01:22:13.899
are. They're not getting their return. They're

01:22:13.899 --> 01:22:17.079
being lied to. And there's no way you'll ever

01:22:17.079 --> 01:22:18.880
be able to read a contract yourself. You have

01:22:18.880 --> 01:22:21.979
no idea what's going on. So and you're locked

01:22:21.979 --> 01:22:26.420
away for a very, very, very long time. Well,

01:22:26.460 --> 01:22:29.180
very long time. So, yeah, lots and lots of things

01:22:29.180 --> 01:22:31.000
that are interesting. And there's a there's a

01:22:31.000 --> 01:22:33.079
role for private equity and there are good private

01:22:33.079 --> 01:22:35.180
equity plays that actually are interested in

01:22:35.180 --> 01:22:38.159
growing the economy and everything else. But

01:22:38.159 --> 01:22:40.300
then there's the evil stuff. And it's the other

01:22:40.300 --> 01:22:43.279
side. Just like everything, you know, look, this

01:22:43.279 --> 01:22:45.600
is life. This is nature. This is everything.

01:22:46.000 --> 01:22:47.800
You've got a positive and negative on everything,

01:22:47.880 --> 01:22:50.819
right? You just do. And so it's the negative

01:22:50.819 --> 01:22:55.000
side that's taken over like an invasive weed.

01:22:55.119 --> 01:22:59.260
It's just taken over everywhere. And we just

01:22:59.260 --> 01:23:02.039
need to kind of get it back under control, more

01:23:02.039 --> 01:23:04.619
in a box, more contained. Let them get money

01:23:04.619 --> 01:23:07.039
from, you know, just normal money like everyone

01:23:07.039 --> 01:23:09.090
else has to get. and don't just open up all the

01:23:09.090 --> 01:23:12.289
public pensions and um because with that comes

01:23:12.289 --> 01:23:15.470
no more representation by your union no more

01:23:15.470 --> 01:23:17.409
representation by your elected state elected

01:23:17.409 --> 01:23:19.850
officials why would they listen to you and the

01:23:19.850 --> 01:23:22.409
little poultry sums of money that you give them

01:23:22.409 --> 01:23:25.430
when they're going to get three or six zeros

01:23:25.430 --> 01:23:27.970
on the end of it from the private from the you

01:23:27.970 --> 01:23:30.590
know there's just that's just how it works and

01:23:30.590 --> 01:23:34.810
so um it even makes it so that you can't be a

01:23:34.810 --> 01:23:38.659
candidate and run for public office effectively.

01:23:39.060 --> 01:23:41.600
Why doesn't the Senate, why doesn't the Congress

01:23:41.600 --> 01:23:44.380
change this? Because all of them have super PACs.

01:23:44.539 --> 01:23:47.720
There's no way you can get a quorum to do that.

01:23:48.720 --> 01:23:52.880
The only thing we can do is to stop our public

01:23:52.880 --> 01:23:58.399
monies going into them. And that's it. So I'm

01:23:58.399 --> 01:24:02.319
doing the expose and I'm going to probably stay

01:24:02.319 --> 01:24:05.810
in this space and document. All the effort. So

01:24:05.810 --> 01:24:08.350
if you guys start making a major effort in one

01:24:08.350 --> 01:24:10.029
of your states, I want to hear from you. I want

01:24:10.029 --> 01:24:12.710
to come out and film you guys making this effort

01:24:12.710 --> 01:24:15.050
and document for other people to see and model.

01:24:15.390 --> 01:24:17.609
I'm going to have some kind of internal place

01:24:17.609 --> 01:24:21.189
and just show like series and episodes of all

01:24:21.189 --> 01:24:24.989
real, not on YouTube because they'll pull it

01:24:24.989 --> 01:24:27.170
down. I mean, it's just on my own. So I'll figure

01:24:27.170 --> 01:24:28.750
it out. I'm thinking about charging everybody

01:24:28.750 --> 01:24:32.569
a dollar, something like that. So I got a plan.

01:24:33.310 --> 01:24:36.609
A cheap plan for everybody. But I think that's

01:24:36.609 --> 01:24:40.489
the way I'll go. So if you want to find out more

01:24:40.489 --> 01:24:42.369
about this film or find out when it comes out,

01:24:42.430 --> 01:24:46.850
please go to conmovies .com. So it's C -O -N,

01:24:46.909 --> 01:24:52.090
movies, plural, conmovies .com. And the first

01:24:52.090 --> 01:24:54.449
thing listed is a subscribe thing. Just subscribe.

01:24:54.909 --> 01:24:58.729
And then I will send you information as this

01:24:58.729 --> 01:25:02.710
thing comes out. And that'll be like step one

01:25:02.710 --> 01:25:07.130
for a lot of people. I want to get to really

01:25:07.130 --> 01:25:10.630
highlighting the solution. But just before we

01:25:10.630 --> 01:25:13.489
do, you kind of alluded to we don't know what's

01:25:13.489 --> 01:25:15.810
being done with that money. And I can think of

01:25:15.810 --> 01:25:18.390
some current state of affairs where funding certain

01:25:18.390 --> 01:25:22.989
conflicts overseas, I would be disgusted if my

01:25:22.989 --> 01:25:25.569
pension money was being used for that. So talk

01:25:25.569 --> 01:25:29.000
to me a little bit more about that. About what

01:25:29.000 --> 01:25:31.819
it's being used for or where that's going? Either

01:25:31.819 --> 01:25:40.979
or. How? Okay, so you could look up your public

01:25:40.979 --> 01:25:43.640
pension fund and you could see which funds they're

01:25:43.640 --> 01:25:45.779
in. And they have to do an investigation on the

01:25:45.779 --> 01:25:47.659
funds and see where that money's kind of gone.

01:25:48.000 --> 01:25:50.819
But you end up kind of lost at some point, all

01:25:50.819 --> 01:25:54.140
right? There are some things that have come out

01:25:54.140 --> 01:25:56.119
for one reason or another that we do know about.

01:25:56.810 --> 01:26:01.449
I told you about something environmentally that

01:26:01.449 --> 01:26:03.710
was kind of crazy. Should I share that story?

01:26:04.010 --> 01:26:05.970
Yeah, please. Especially for people in this state,

01:26:06.090 --> 01:26:08.989
they're going to be disgusted. I don't know how

01:26:08.989 --> 01:26:14.630
much I want to share about it yet. But all of

01:26:14.630 --> 01:26:16.850
us are familiar with Apple saying we're going

01:26:16.850 --> 01:26:19.930
to be carbon neutral by the year 2030. If you

01:26:19.930 --> 01:26:22.909
saw their big release two years ago, one of their

01:26:22.909 --> 01:26:27.149
iPhone, whatever number it was. it uh it showed

01:26:27.149 --> 01:26:29.829
mother nature some famous actor who i don't remember

01:26:29.829 --> 01:26:32.029
her name but she's coming in act like mother

01:26:32.029 --> 01:26:35.449
nature and apple did their own you know played

01:26:35.449 --> 01:26:37.829
themselves and a bunch of things sitting around

01:26:37.829 --> 01:26:40.010
mother nature and then they were saying but but

01:26:40.010 --> 01:26:43.010
but we're being good we're trying to be we're

01:26:43.010 --> 01:26:44.989
going to be carbon neutral at 2030 and it was

01:26:44.989 --> 01:26:47.029
it was so lame and they were just talking about

01:26:47.029 --> 01:26:48.329
all the things they were doing environmentally

01:26:48.329 --> 01:26:51.869
it was a big you know accolade thing and um and

01:26:51.869 --> 01:26:54.810
i was impressed i was like wow i mean i i gotta

01:26:54.810 --> 01:26:56.890
i'm i'm talking on a mac right here you know

01:26:56.890 --> 01:27:01.210
i got they get a lot of money for me and um and

01:27:01.210 --> 01:27:08.850
so what if that's not true what if none of it's

01:27:08.850 --> 01:27:12.470
true they may not even know it's true um and

01:27:12.470 --> 01:27:16.449
i will i work with people that i'm doing on another

01:27:16.449 --> 01:27:21.029
project who have They're not environmentalists

01:27:21.029 --> 01:27:23.890
because they say environmentalism, the term is

01:27:23.890 --> 01:27:26.470
actually bought out by corporations now. And

01:27:26.470 --> 01:27:29.010
the environmental movement is not environmental

01:27:29.010 --> 01:27:31.449
movement. It's not conservation. It's nothing.

01:27:32.989 --> 01:27:36.670
And I'm actually to the point I'm agreeing with

01:27:36.670 --> 01:27:40.529
them now because of what I've seen. So I decided

01:27:40.529 --> 01:27:45.069
to actually follow the whole life cycle of this

01:27:45.069 --> 01:27:50.489
carbon exchange program. I'm Apple. I've got

01:27:50.489 --> 01:27:53.789
to make keyboards. I've got to make data centers.

01:27:53.869 --> 01:27:56.250
I've got to make all this stuff. And clearly

01:27:56.250 --> 01:28:02.149
this is not saving the economy, right? So how

01:28:02.149 --> 01:28:04.189
do I do this? I'm going to put some money into

01:28:04.189 --> 01:28:06.069
this exchange. In this exchange, there's this

01:28:06.069 --> 01:28:07.949
exchange. Someone runs with it. That's what you

01:28:07.949 --> 01:28:09.569
want to own, these exchanges. You want to own

01:28:09.569 --> 01:28:12.170
the super PAC. Whoever gets to own those, there's

01:28:12.170 --> 01:28:14.289
got to be money there. So the money's going to

01:28:14.289 --> 01:28:16.109
come in. A little bit comes off for the exchange.

01:28:16.829 --> 01:28:19.430
And I think Goron's one of those. And then it

01:28:19.430 --> 01:28:23.390
goes over to a company that's planting trees,

01:28:23.670 --> 01:28:27.130
right? So I went to one of these companies that

01:28:27.130 --> 01:28:30.010
are planting trees. Here's what's interesting.

01:28:30.170 --> 01:28:33.529
First, someone got let me in and I went and filmed

01:28:33.529 --> 01:28:38.550
it. We have pine forests. They go from Florida

01:28:38.550 --> 01:28:42.770
to North Carolina. Most of them, the vast majority

01:28:42.770 --> 01:28:47.439
of them, are actually privately owned. And they

01:28:47.439 --> 01:28:51.840
are GMO pine trees now. They've gone into a full

01:28:51.840 --> 01:28:53.779
forest and they've raised it to the ground. They

01:28:53.779 --> 01:28:56.039
cut it all down. And then they build up little

01:28:56.039 --> 01:28:58.699
mounds like you do when you plant corn. You have

01:28:58.699 --> 01:29:01.619
nice rows that mount it up. They have machines

01:29:01.619 --> 01:29:03.979
to do this. And they may drop these pine trees

01:29:03.979 --> 01:29:06.979
really close together. And they're GMO trees.

01:29:07.060 --> 01:29:09.220
So they don't drop pine cones because they don't

01:29:09.220 --> 01:29:11.380
want to mess with them. They don't want a pine

01:29:11.380 --> 01:29:14.119
tree growing. anywhere but the spot where they're

01:29:14.119 --> 01:29:15.539
going to be able to easily harvest that right

01:29:15.539 --> 01:29:18.119
that's all they're going to do but what else

01:29:18.119 --> 01:29:20.420
don't they want well they don't want a bunch

01:29:20.420 --> 01:29:22.420
of other things grown in a forest that grows

01:29:22.420 --> 01:29:25.420
in a forest that makes up an ecosystem so they

01:29:25.420 --> 01:29:28.920
crop dust they spray and they spray regularly

01:29:28.920 --> 01:29:32.039
so i went in and filmed and from 12 feet down

01:29:32.039 --> 01:29:35.600
it was dead everything's dead the trees are alive

01:29:35.600 --> 01:29:37.600
because they're gmo trees they're not killed

01:29:37.600 --> 01:29:41.840
by the pesticide the herbicide But they spray

01:29:41.840 --> 01:29:43.979
the pesticide, the herbicide, just like they

01:29:43.979 --> 01:29:46.880
do the corn, GMO cornfields. It does it everywhere.

01:29:47.039 --> 01:29:48.960
So where does this runoff go? It goes straight

01:29:48.960 --> 01:29:52.760
into the culverts. It goes right down the rivers.

01:29:52.899 --> 01:29:54.560
It's going right out into the little bays and

01:29:54.560 --> 01:29:57.039
estuaries and everything in Florida. And you've

01:29:57.039 --> 01:29:59.899
probably seen we're having a problem with flesh

01:29:59.899 --> 01:30:02.020
-eating bacteria. That's really on the rise.

01:30:02.100 --> 01:30:04.520
It seems to be kind of correlated to what they've

01:30:04.520 --> 01:30:06.659
been up to. They're killing everything. This

01:30:06.659 --> 01:30:09.100
is also endocrine -disrupting chemicals, so that

01:30:09.100 --> 01:30:12.079
screws up. the whole downline cycle we have seen

01:30:12.079 --> 01:30:16.239
such a cut on bugs and birds and everything else

01:30:16.239 --> 01:30:19.800
worldwide so this is happening that's here what's

01:30:19.800 --> 01:30:22.520
happening up in british columbia british columbia

01:30:22.520 --> 01:30:26.699
canada that's like an environmental place right

01:30:26.699 --> 01:30:29.779
come on this is the tree hugging they're like

01:30:29.779 --> 01:30:32.000
more liberal than california right we're just

01:30:32.000 --> 01:30:37.000
hey we're canadians right okay canada british

01:30:37.000 --> 01:30:43.529
columbia has been Cutting down virgin, over 1

01:30:43.529 --> 01:30:47.789
,000 -year -old forests at a pace for, on average,

01:30:47.850 --> 01:30:51.489
the last five years, one football, three, three

01:30:51.489 --> 01:30:55.869
football fields worth a day for the past five

01:30:55.869 --> 01:31:00.750
years. So you cut down, and in one of these forests,

01:31:00.850 --> 01:31:02.890
I'm working with these natives in this university

01:31:02.890 --> 01:31:05.569
that works with this native tribe. This native

01:31:05.569 --> 01:31:09.000
tribe right now. It is being sued by the British

01:31:09.000 --> 01:31:12.260
government, British Columbia government, for

01:31:12.260 --> 01:31:20.420
blocking their tribal land from this logging

01:31:20.420 --> 01:31:22.880
company to cut down thousand -plus -year -old

01:31:22.880 --> 01:31:26.819
trees, right, that they protected in Millennium.

01:31:27.159 --> 01:31:31.779
It's theirs. And so they're out there arm -in

01:31:31.779 --> 01:31:33.239
-arm, and people are trying to come and join

01:31:33.239 --> 01:31:34.859
them. I always think about flying up there and

01:31:34.859 --> 01:31:37.180
filming this thing. Middle is pension movie.

01:31:37.699 --> 01:31:40.680
And so they had an expert from university come

01:31:40.680 --> 01:31:43.720
sit down in an area and just start cataloging

01:31:43.720 --> 01:31:46.699
the bugs he's finding. And he identified 200

01:31:46.699 --> 01:31:51.439
brand new bugs that's never been identified ever.

01:31:52.579 --> 01:31:55.199
Now, I don't know how many bugs you know. I'm

01:31:55.199 --> 01:31:56.899
from California. I will tell you, if I went to

01:31:56.899 --> 01:31:59.979
interview the average California kid, they would

01:31:59.979 --> 01:32:02.720
be lucky if they could come up with 10 bugs that

01:32:02.720 --> 01:32:05.569
they even know about. you know they got the roly

01:32:05.569 --> 01:32:08.350
-poly the earwig but you know there's a few a

01:32:08.350 --> 01:32:11.789
spider or whatever like 10 max this guy finds

01:32:11.789 --> 01:32:14.310
200 new ones in addition to everything else they

01:32:14.310 --> 01:32:16.189
already know about so what we're talking about

01:32:16.189 --> 01:32:21.909
is this rich insanely diverse ecosystem and if

01:32:21.909 --> 01:32:25.750
you don't understand why that's valuable it um

01:32:25.750 --> 01:32:30.149
for one think about everything it's doing to

01:32:30.149 --> 01:32:34.699
purify our air all of that together And what

01:32:34.699 --> 01:32:36.920
a thousand -year -old tree, the size and everything

01:32:36.920 --> 01:32:40.140
living in it does. And then you cut it down,

01:32:40.199 --> 01:32:44.899
this entire forest, and then you get paid from

01:32:44.899 --> 01:32:48.960
the carbon exchange to put a tree this big in

01:32:48.960 --> 01:32:52.720
the ground, which you plan to cut down in 20

01:32:52.720 --> 01:32:56.439
to 40 years. Same thing over here. You couldn't,

01:32:56.439 --> 01:32:59.979
in theory, accept, if you're Apple, a carbon

01:32:59.979 --> 01:33:02.819
exchange program, right? you couldn't accept

01:33:02.819 --> 01:33:07.899
that if the tree is going to be cut down it's

01:33:07.899 --> 01:33:10.539
like you plant it in and there it is right that's

01:33:10.539 --> 01:33:13.800
a you'd have to never cut it down but everything's

01:33:13.800 --> 01:33:15.960
being cut down everything they're canning they're

01:33:15.960 --> 01:33:17.300
putting in the ground they're going to cut it

01:33:17.300 --> 01:33:22.979
down that's what they do yeah so it's a it's

01:33:22.979 --> 01:33:25.180
a really wicked system i know that's not the

01:33:25.180 --> 01:33:27.000
question you're asking but i had to share that

01:33:27.000 --> 01:33:29.680
and yeah it's all private equity behind that

01:33:29.680 --> 01:33:32.369
of course it is and um It's a good business model.

01:33:33.390 --> 01:33:37.829
And they're destroying everything. And so as

01:33:37.829 --> 01:33:40.829
they do that, that affects our hormones, right?

01:33:40.930 --> 01:33:42.689
What they're spraying it with, endocrine disrupting

01:33:42.689 --> 01:33:44.350
chemicals. So everybody who thinks they have

01:33:44.350 --> 01:33:47.649
to be on TRT, HRT, and all the crap that's happening

01:33:47.649 --> 01:33:51.409
to us, very real stuff happening by everything

01:33:51.409 --> 01:33:55.689
you eat and everything, it's everywhere. So that

01:33:55.689 --> 01:34:00.020
means you're way more likely to get. heart disease

01:34:00.020 --> 01:34:02.960
and name it, right? Because you're not balanced.

01:34:03.760 --> 01:34:06.960
And that means you're going to be part of the

01:34:06.960 --> 01:34:10.720
health system, which just so happens, all these

01:34:10.720 --> 01:34:12.659
for -profit hospitals now are being bought out

01:34:12.659 --> 01:34:15.500
by private equity, right? It's a common theme

01:34:15.500 --> 01:34:18.739
here. You're eventually going to be in a retirement

01:34:18.739 --> 01:34:22.079
home earlier than later. You're not going to

01:34:22.079 --> 01:34:25.840
be able to age in place. And that's going to

01:34:25.840 --> 01:34:29.590
be owned by private equity. Right. So you start

01:34:29.590 --> 01:34:31.810
to see how this is really starts to play out.

01:34:33.010 --> 01:34:35.329
And so, yeah, these chemical companies are owned

01:34:35.329 --> 01:34:38.449
by private equity. It's a full life cycle. We

01:34:38.449 --> 01:34:41.569
go in and I've always saw it happening when I

01:34:41.569 --> 01:34:44.149
do health films and stuff. You see you see the

01:34:44.149 --> 01:34:46.369
life cycle between the chemical company and you

01:34:46.369 --> 01:34:48.210
see the pharmaceutical company and you see the

01:34:48.210 --> 01:34:51.210
hospital, the surgery and the government. You

01:34:51.210 --> 01:34:54.430
see this this beautiful system there. What I

01:34:54.430 --> 01:34:56.789
never really got is where's that money really

01:34:56.789 --> 01:34:59.210
coming from the first place? And now I got the

01:34:59.210 --> 01:35:01.729
piece. Oh, it's where all the money is. It's

01:35:01.729 --> 01:35:05.890
our pension. It's our money. But there is the

01:35:05.890 --> 01:35:07.970
thing that nobody said. I interviewed everyone

01:35:07.970 --> 01:35:10.430
who spent my money. What is the go -to? Like,

01:35:10.430 --> 01:35:12.210
what is it that you want? What do we need to

01:35:12.210 --> 01:35:17.569
do? No one had it. And I'm like, no, this is

01:35:17.569 --> 01:35:20.130
easy. You have to stop them getting your money.

01:35:20.670 --> 01:35:23.550
The moment that stops, it all unwinds everywhere.

01:35:24.270 --> 01:35:26.170
Suddenly you're not going to see as many wars.

01:35:27.270 --> 01:35:29.430
There's not the money there. I'm just telling

01:35:29.430 --> 01:35:32.329
you, it all backs out. It all comes in and it's

01:35:32.329 --> 01:35:35.189
coming from your public pensions. That's the

01:35:35.189 --> 01:35:37.949
big pile of money. So for people listening, let's

01:35:37.949 --> 01:35:39.890
say you've got firefighters in the station that

01:35:39.890 --> 01:35:42.010
you've got, you know, the teacher who's driving

01:35:42.010 --> 01:35:44.729
home, all the people that we're trying to educate

01:35:44.729 --> 01:35:48.270
on this specific topic. What can they do today?

01:35:48.970 --> 01:35:52.710
to start the process of revealing if this is

01:35:52.710 --> 01:35:55.890
even an issue in their city, county, state, and

01:35:55.890 --> 01:35:58.550
then beginning the steps to actually undoing

01:35:58.550 --> 01:36:04.729
the damage? It's an issue. It's an issue. It's

01:36:04.729 --> 01:36:06.510
an issue. If you don't believe it's an issue,

01:36:06.590 --> 01:36:09.569
go look at your websites. There's all this information.

01:36:10.050 --> 01:36:13.909
And then go in and go to your local board. to

01:36:13.909 --> 01:36:16.149
the next pension board meeting and ask to see

01:36:16.149 --> 01:36:18.789
one of the documents and ask and interview any

01:36:18.789 --> 01:36:20.949
of the fiduciaries there and say, have you seen

01:36:20.949 --> 01:36:23.630
any of these documents that they've signed? And

01:36:23.630 --> 01:36:26.430
you'll see real fast, like no one saw it. And

01:36:26.430 --> 01:36:28.890
they'll look at you like, what are you doing

01:36:28.890 --> 01:36:33.029
here? It's a pretty complex thing. I'm hoping

01:36:33.029 --> 01:36:35.229
that you watch the film that I'm going to try

01:36:35.229 --> 01:36:40.109
to release really, really soon. And then there'll

01:36:40.109 --> 01:36:43.619
be a better action plan. for the people you just

01:36:43.619 --> 01:36:46.439
outlined every single one of them have a union

01:36:46.439 --> 01:36:51.779
right and um you need to get control of that

01:36:51.779 --> 01:36:58.260
again if not then you need to do what a lot of

01:36:58.260 --> 01:37:00.399
the people do in my film and they've created

01:37:00.399 --> 01:37:03.199
new facebook groups uh they get the other teachers

01:37:03.199 --> 01:37:05.079
involved with other firefighters whatever they

01:37:05.079 --> 01:37:11.659
are please and um and they start there um And

01:37:11.659 --> 01:37:15.300
then get organized that way. If your union, I

01:37:15.300 --> 01:37:16.819
don't even know what the rules are on this. Do

01:37:16.819 --> 01:37:20.899
you know the rules on this, James? Can all the

01:37:20.899 --> 01:37:24.300
firefighters in an area decide, we do want to

01:37:24.300 --> 01:37:27.319
be unionized, but our union's not serving our

01:37:27.319 --> 01:37:29.680
needs. We're going to just have another union

01:37:29.680 --> 01:37:32.720
sign up with another one to represent us. Is

01:37:32.720 --> 01:37:35.739
that possible? I'm not sure. I mean, you're asking

01:37:35.739 --> 01:37:37.699
a person who's happy to burn something to the

01:37:37.699 --> 01:37:40.819
ground if it needs to be. I would imagine that

01:37:40.819 --> 01:37:43.140
the next click down would just be a complete

01:37:43.140 --> 01:37:46.600
vote of no confidence. If your union is discovered

01:37:46.600 --> 01:37:49.800
to have done this at whatever level, then it's

01:37:49.800 --> 01:37:52.180
a case of just control -alt -delete and getting

01:37:52.180 --> 01:37:54.979
new people in and making sure that they are holding

01:37:54.979 --> 01:37:58.460
the state union, the national union accountable.

01:37:58.899 --> 01:38:00.640
And if that's not happening, then yeah, maybe

01:38:00.640 --> 01:38:02.319
you need to come up with something different.

01:38:02.479 --> 01:38:05.560
But like I said, I'm a huge believer in the union

01:38:05.560 --> 01:38:09.829
philosophy. So I guess every example is going

01:38:09.829 --> 01:38:11.789
to be different, but it's certainly first, are

01:38:11.789 --> 01:38:15.130
the people that are in those positions serving

01:38:15.130 --> 01:38:18.130
you? Is that simple is the first question. Is

01:38:18.130 --> 01:38:19.789
your president? I mean, you know, you think about

01:38:19.789 --> 01:38:21.670
what we've just talked about. None of it has

01:38:21.670 --> 01:38:23.949
been all the Republicans or all the Democrats.

01:38:24.289 --> 01:38:26.470
It's, you know, I was thinking the analogy this

01:38:26.470 --> 01:38:29.329
morning. It's like a pendulum, you know, Democrat,

01:38:29.569 --> 01:38:31.970
Republican, Democrat, Republican. But we forget,

01:38:32.010 --> 01:38:34.260
well, where's the hinge of that pendulum? It's

01:38:34.260 --> 01:38:36.100
exactly what we're talking about. It's the people

01:38:36.100 --> 01:38:39.920
with the money at the top. So if your political

01:38:39.920 --> 01:38:43.979
party, if your union, whoever is the next step

01:38:43.979 --> 01:38:47.260
above you, is not serving you, I would say, well,

01:38:47.279 --> 01:38:50.140
there's your first step. And then if the union

01:38:50.140 --> 01:38:52.579
that you're a part of just seems completely corrupt,

01:38:52.739 --> 01:38:55.079
then maybe. New York has their own union, for

01:38:55.079 --> 01:39:01.380
example. The structure is there. I think it's

01:39:01.380 --> 01:39:03.720
the accountability that we need to do. I think

01:39:03.720 --> 01:39:05.939
that everything can exist within the structure

01:39:05.939 --> 01:39:08.899
they've already created, but it's all the right

01:39:08.899 --> 01:39:11.859
people in those positions. And as you alluded

01:39:11.859 --> 01:39:15.300
to in Rhode Island, I have in Pasco County, go

01:39:15.300 --> 01:39:17.520
look at the unions that are doing it right. How

01:39:17.520 --> 01:39:19.420
did they get the right people? How are they having

01:39:19.420 --> 01:39:21.539
good relationships with their city or their county?

01:39:21.680 --> 01:39:24.140
And then start modeling that, you know, and then

01:39:24.140 --> 01:39:26.819
the rising tide lifts all ships and flushes the

01:39:26.819 --> 01:39:34.800
turds out the toilet. Yeah, yeah, yeah. My objective

01:39:34.800 --> 01:39:37.979
in coming to you is one, just to kind of suddenly

01:39:37.979 --> 01:39:41.439
wake everybody up. Here's what's happening. And

01:39:41.439 --> 01:39:45.840
here's what we have to change and how we have

01:39:45.840 --> 01:39:52.699
to change it. And then my intention is, you know,

01:39:52.760 --> 01:39:57.359
I'm not really... viewing me as anyone's leader

01:39:57.359 --> 01:40:00.979
to make that change. I'm documenting what's happening.

01:40:01.720 --> 01:40:06.000
But I think what I'm planning on doing is not

01:40:06.000 --> 01:40:09.520
leaving this and documenting everybody's successful

01:40:09.520 --> 01:40:12.260
efforts and what they're doing. I'll tell you,

01:40:12.260 --> 01:40:14.819
the group that went the furthest from total corruption

01:40:14.819 --> 01:40:17.960
to the right in the middle of it is Ohio. They

01:40:17.960 --> 01:40:21.279
sued for five years and won in the low court.

01:40:21.710 --> 01:40:24.229
one on appeal, and then one in the state Supreme

01:40:24.229 --> 01:40:27.869
Court, the right to receive the documents. Tencedo.

01:40:28.270 --> 01:40:30.229
Five years. So they paid for it. They got all

01:40:30.229 --> 01:40:34.550
things done. The pension, ultimately, because

01:40:34.550 --> 01:40:38.050
the pension lost, they had to pay all that. But

01:40:38.050 --> 01:40:44.970
30 % of the funds, documents, when they came

01:40:44.970 --> 01:40:49.109
in, were 100 % redacted, even though the Supreme

01:40:49.109 --> 01:40:51.770
Court said they had to give it. It's insane.

01:40:52.149 --> 01:40:58.270
30 % were partially redacted. Partially redacted.

01:40:58.609 --> 01:41:03.430
And then 30%, it's 33, 33, whatever, 33 were

01:41:03.430 --> 01:41:06.909
actually showed what's going on. So Ted Siddell

01:41:06.909 --> 01:41:10.409
has information that no one's been able to have

01:41:10.409 --> 01:41:15.069
to date. But he says, to be truthful, it's all

01:41:15.069 --> 01:41:16.850
the same. It's all the same stuff. They're using

01:41:16.850 --> 01:41:19.029
the same document. They have the same instruments

01:41:19.029 --> 01:41:21.310
in them. You're seeing these things the way it

01:41:21.310 --> 01:41:27.109
works. But I'm just saying, going through legal

01:41:27.109 --> 01:41:29.789
and with as best you can get and winning at the

01:41:29.789 --> 01:41:32.689
state Supreme Court, there's still a third of

01:41:32.689 --> 01:41:36.409
them. It was just every line was black. And a

01:41:36.409 --> 01:41:38.609
third of them, all the good stuff was black.

01:41:39.689 --> 01:41:43.060
Right? And then only a third got actually disclosed.

01:41:43.119 --> 01:41:44.640
I don't care. They're probably like the newer

01:41:44.640 --> 01:41:46.659
small funds and they don't even understand what

01:41:46.659 --> 01:41:48.800
their industry is yet. They're still learning.

01:41:49.319 --> 01:41:54.359
So that's where you're at there. And then I've

01:41:54.359 --> 01:41:58.300
interviewed like state senators, Democrat and

01:41:58.300 --> 01:42:00.279
Republican, state senators. So you're on the

01:42:00.279 --> 01:42:02.520
state Senate. You would think, and you're on

01:42:02.520 --> 01:42:04.279
the board, you would think you're somebody, you're

01:42:04.279 --> 01:42:07.260
in a position to do something. Oh my gosh, they

01:42:07.260 --> 01:42:10.550
are so frustrated. They are so frustrated. The

01:42:10.550 --> 01:42:12.649
attorney general, everyone, they always say to

01:42:12.649 --> 01:42:19.489
be one step ahead. And so I don't honestly see

01:42:19.489 --> 01:42:22.850
anything changing unless you guys succeed with

01:42:22.850 --> 01:42:27.369
your union. That's where we're at. I just don't.

01:42:28.609 --> 01:42:32.390
Because ultimately, it's your money. You're the

01:42:32.390 --> 01:42:38.590
people. It's you guys. And if you have an underfunded

01:42:38.590 --> 01:42:43.060
pension, The only way you're going to get funded

01:42:43.060 --> 01:42:45.819
again is the state has to put in enough money

01:42:45.819 --> 01:42:49.140
so that it's funded. It will never get funded

01:42:49.140 --> 01:42:51.680
because of great returns from private equity.

01:42:51.979 --> 01:42:54.359
And that's the sorry sales pitch that's been

01:42:54.359 --> 01:43:00.159
going on since 2013, 2012 in mass numbers. And

01:43:00.159 --> 01:43:04.420
also like in Ohio, what they did is the teachers

01:43:04.420 --> 01:43:06.699
went from. This is a state that doesn't have

01:43:06.699 --> 01:43:08.960
Social Security. They went from putting in 10

01:43:08.960 --> 01:43:12.300
% of their money each year, each month or whatever,

01:43:12.420 --> 01:43:17.020
to 10%, to 14%. The state kept doing 14%. It's

01:43:17.020 --> 01:43:18.739
a no -income tax state. On average, if you're

01:43:18.739 --> 01:43:21.579
a no -income tax state, the state would put in

01:43:21.579 --> 01:43:24.960
30%. But they've only been putting in 14%. They

01:43:24.960 --> 01:43:26.920
didn't put a dime more in for these poor teachers.

01:43:27.500 --> 01:43:30.680
So the teachers had to go from 10 % to 14%, and

01:43:30.680 --> 01:43:36.380
the teachers lost their cola. which gets us back

01:43:36.380 --> 01:43:38.180
to the very beginning of our talk about someone

01:43:38.180 --> 01:43:41.420
living in a chicken coop. That's not even going

01:43:41.420 --> 01:43:42.699
to be in the movie. It should be. I should go

01:43:42.699 --> 01:43:47.800
find that person. So you can see why I'm kind

01:43:47.800 --> 01:43:50.100
of coming to this. And all the people I've done

01:43:50.100 --> 01:43:52.319
this film with and part of it, like all these

01:43:52.319 --> 01:43:57.439
really smart people, nobody, nobody's doing the

01:43:57.439 --> 01:44:00.300
conversation we're doing, James. Because I'm

01:44:00.300 --> 01:44:02.079
looking at this like, this is the only way this

01:44:02.079 --> 01:44:06.430
is going to change. and you guys lost your union.

01:44:07.529 --> 01:44:11.250
That's what's happened. I mean, it never would

01:44:11.250 --> 01:44:13.350
have happened. If you think about it, the power

01:44:13.350 --> 01:44:15.470
of a union, like no one wants to mess with that,

01:44:15.569 --> 01:44:19.109
right? Yeah, I mean, I mean, come on, you got

01:44:19.109 --> 01:44:20.789
the president of the United States out there

01:44:20.789 --> 01:44:25.930
campaigning, you know, picketing, you know, in

01:44:25.930 --> 01:44:28.399
Detroit, right? I mean, and what was that about,

01:44:28.479 --> 01:44:31.199
by the way? They wanted a 25 % increase because

01:44:31.199 --> 01:44:33.260
they had a 30 % increase. They hadn't had an

01:44:33.260 --> 01:44:36.000
increase forever. But it was really about their

01:44:36.000 --> 01:44:40.100
pension. That's really what that was about. That's

01:44:40.100 --> 01:44:45.520
where the fights are. And they will tell you,

01:44:45.619 --> 01:44:47.279
oh, it's all good here. I know what you've been

01:44:47.279 --> 01:44:52.319
told over here. It's great here. And if you ever

01:44:52.319 --> 01:44:54.399
decide to hire anyone, a group that represents

01:44:54.399 --> 01:44:56.840
you, Ted Sedell, he's a dirt cheap guy. He's

01:44:56.840 --> 01:44:59.800
got so many millions. And he likes to do these

01:44:59.800 --> 01:45:04.020
things for people. So that's the gist of it.

01:45:04.140 --> 01:45:06.760
But I would love to hear from anyone who actually

01:45:06.760 --> 01:45:09.180
decides to fight this, do their thing, wants

01:45:09.180 --> 01:45:12.340
it documented. I want to track that. And I want

01:45:12.340 --> 01:45:16.800
to show everybody to learn how to do this. There

01:45:16.800 --> 01:45:19.520
is no template that where we're at. There was

01:45:19.520 --> 01:45:23.060
no template for how we got here. This is the

01:45:23.060 --> 01:45:25.760
most organized, amazing theft in the history

01:45:25.760 --> 01:45:30.479
of ever. The history of ever, right? And to the

01:45:30.479 --> 01:45:32.800
point that they own so many of the houses, just

01:45:32.800 --> 01:45:35.560
everything. All the businesses. We haven't even

01:45:35.560 --> 01:45:37.199
talked about how they're buying up all the small

01:45:37.199 --> 01:45:40.180
businesses. HVACs, you're calling up an HVAC.

01:45:40.359 --> 01:45:43.760
You know, I got my ACs acting up. These be repaired.

01:45:43.840 --> 01:45:46.000
What's the cost? And everybody seems to be in

01:45:46.000 --> 01:45:48.470
the same price. and they're all owned by private

01:45:48.470 --> 01:45:51.710
equity everyone now so it's that's what's going

01:45:51.710 --> 01:45:53.949
on and so everything we hate about what's going

01:45:53.949 --> 01:45:56.810
on right now again i just want to emphasize it's

01:45:56.810 --> 01:45:59.850
happening with the money that's coming from your

01:45:59.850 --> 01:46:04.069
pension all right well the whole point of this

01:46:04.069 --> 01:46:05.909
show as i've said many times is to get people

01:46:05.909 --> 01:46:08.930
educated and angry and then angry not like you

01:46:08.930 --> 01:46:11.470
know burning down cities and things but only

01:46:11.470 --> 01:46:15.109
when you understand you have The kind of realization

01:46:15.109 --> 01:46:17.090
like, oh, this is something I got to fight for.

01:46:17.250 --> 01:46:19.789
I got to fight to go home to my family when I'm

01:46:19.789 --> 01:46:21.449
supposed to. I got to fight for a healthier work

01:46:21.449 --> 01:46:24.729
week. I got to fight. To be one of the voices

01:46:24.729 --> 01:46:27.470
that stops a war that ends up getting my child

01:46:27.470 --> 01:46:30.649
sent overseas for no reason. These are all things

01:46:30.649 --> 01:46:32.949
that we have to understand as a nation, as a

01:46:32.949 --> 01:46:35.149
planet. And I think this has been incredible.

01:46:35.409 --> 01:46:37.390
I mean, when you called me a few days ago and

01:46:37.390 --> 01:46:39.109
we had this conversation for the first time,

01:46:39.189 --> 01:46:41.289
my mind was blown. And ironically, I don't even

01:46:41.289 --> 01:46:44.590
have a pension. I cashed mine out to do the podcast,

01:46:44.710 --> 01:46:48.189
to be this voice. But I'm advocating for so many

01:46:48.189 --> 01:46:52.069
other people. There are so many solutions to

01:46:52.069 --> 01:46:55.310
so many people's problems if we just are proactive

01:46:55.310 --> 01:46:57.630
with the thing. I've had a conversation with

01:46:57.630 --> 01:47:00.710
several healthcare professionals recently. 20

01:47:00.710 --> 01:47:04.869
% of our GDP is spent on healthcare. Again, which

01:47:04.869 --> 01:47:06.909
I'm sure most goes into private equity, as we

01:47:06.909 --> 01:47:10.210
were just talking about. We don't need more money.

01:47:10.270 --> 01:47:13.489
We need healthier people. We need to change this

01:47:13.489 --> 01:47:16.909
pendulum from completely reactive back to proactive.

01:47:18.449 --> 01:47:20.310
uncovering things exactly like you're talking

01:47:20.310 --> 01:47:22.689
about to protect our pension and then also take

01:47:22.689 --> 01:47:26.010
power away from these predatory actions. I mean,

01:47:26.029 --> 01:47:28.970
it's everything. So I want to thank you so much.

01:47:29.010 --> 01:47:31.369
Just before I let you go, let's just underline

01:47:31.369 --> 01:47:34.149
again where people can find the film and roughly

01:47:34.149 --> 01:47:38.909
when are you looking to release it? Well, I'm

01:47:38.909 --> 01:47:40.750
aiming to have the film done by the end of the

01:47:40.750 --> 01:47:44.229
year. Usually that means the film wouldn't show

01:47:44.229 --> 01:47:48.960
up anywhere for... four to six months if i'm

01:47:48.960 --> 01:47:52.180
able to do a different kind of release it might

01:47:52.180 --> 01:47:54.800
come out right away like it might be out as soon

01:47:54.800 --> 01:48:00.819
as late january early february so um the however

01:48:00.819 --> 01:48:04.939
it happens i will notify anybody who goes to

01:48:04.939 --> 01:48:08.380
conmovies .com and just put your email address

01:48:08.380 --> 01:48:13.010
in there and i Ask anyone who ever had their

01:48:13.010 --> 01:48:15.569
email address. I pretty much never send out emails.

01:48:15.789 --> 01:48:18.489
I will just notify you. Here it is. Here's what's

01:48:18.489 --> 01:48:20.850
going on. And I never share information with

01:48:20.850 --> 01:48:22.930
anybody. You will never get an advertisement.

01:48:23.170 --> 01:48:25.149
Nothing like that. I'm not affiliated with anybody.

01:48:25.489 --> 01:48:27.649
Oh, by the way, I self -funded this whole entire

01:48:27.649 --> 01:48:32.930
movie. My dad draws CalPERS money. And so I use

01:48:32.930 --> 01:48:36.470
proceeds from previous funds to fund this one.

01:48:37.559 --> 01:48:44.680
And so I am really proud of being able to participate

01:48:44.680 --> 01:48:48.260
and do this one. Like, this has been so unifying

01:48:48.260 --> 01:48:52.479
for me because I've been able to work with the

01:48:52.479 --> 01:48:55.600
extremes of both parties as well as the people

01:48:55.600 --> 01:49:00.600
in the middle, like everybody. And on this issue,

01:49:00.800 --> 01:49:07.640
everybody is united. Like, I will tell you, Republicans

01:49:07.640 --> 01:49:12.340
and Democrats who are not receiving, right, this

01:49:12.340 --> 01:49:17.779
crazy, you know, super PAC money, everyone's

01:49:17.779 --> 01:49:21.699
eye to eye on it. And the unions, I saw the value

01:49:21.699 --> 01:49:24.220
of unions. For the first, I say the first time

01:49:24.220 --> 01:49:26.840
in my life, I have never been involved in a union.

01:49:27.739 --> 01:49:31.180
It's not completely true. Actually, back when

01:49:31.180 --> 01:49:33.840
I was 15 years old, 16 years old, I worked for

01:49:33.840 --> 01:49:38.199
Bellar Grocery Store. on florin boulevard um

01:49:38.199 --> 01:49:43.060
in sacramento california and it was a union grocery

01:49:43.060 --> 01:49:45.380
store and i made five dollars and fifty cents

01:49:45.380 --> 01:49:50.920
an hour and um fast forward to 2018 so that was

01:49:50.920 --> 01:49:57.739
1985 okay 2018 we moved to florida from california

01:49:57.739 --> 01:50:01.510
my daughter special needs daughter gets a job

01:50:01.510 --> 01:50:04.829
working for Publix grocery store, bad girl, I

01:50:04.829 --> 01:50:07.750
was a bad boy, like same thing, right? And she

01:50:07.750 --> 01:50:14.449
made $7 and I think $70, $7 .70 an hour. So two

01:50:14.449 --> 01:50:21.090
bucks more from 1985 to 2018. I'll tell you,

01:50:21.130 --> 01:50:26.529
$5 .50 an hour was a good wage in 1985. It was

01:50:26.529 --> 01:50:30.520
good money. I was able to save. I was able to

01:50:30.520 --> 01:50:34.220
save for college. Working at a grocery store,

01:50:34.300 --> 01:50:37.000
that and the paper, I could do it. My daughter

01:50:37.000 --> 01:50:40.020
has to live with me. There's no hope, right?

01:50:40.260 --> 01:50:43.640
I mean, now it's paying like 14 because of monster

01:50:43.640 --> 01:50:49.220
inflation we've had. So I do see the value of

01:50:49.220 --> 01:50:56.300
unions and representing people. And I also feel

01:50:56.300 --> 01:51:01.680
like Whether I or anyone agrees with, because

01:51:01.680 --> 01:51:04.100
there's a lot of pension envy, only 10 % of America

01:51:04.100 --> 01:51:07.359
has pensions, public pensions, right? There's

01:51:07.359 --> 01:51:08.840
a lot of pension envy. A lot of people are sitting

01:51:08.840 --> 01:51:10.479
there, I don't have any retirement saved. Why

01:51:10.479 --> 01:51:14.159
should we, my tax dollars go and bail those people

01:51:14.159 --> 01:51:15.939
out, right? There's all of that talk going on,

01:51:15.960 --> 01:51:19.199
right? Well, I'll tell you, I'll tell people

01:51:19.199 --> 01:51:22.939
why in the film. Because we wrote a contract

01:51:22.939 --> 01:51:26.000
stating here's what you get and you get an inflation

01:51:26.000 --> 01:51:29.600
protected pension for life. That's why you took

01:51:29.600 --> 01:51:31.500
the job. That was a big part of why you took

01:51:31.500 --> 01:51:34.399
the job. You got paid less now or more later.

01:51:34.640 --> 01:51:37.939
Always we're going to take care of you. And since

01:51:37.939 --> 01:51:41.659
the Magna Carta to present day, what we write

01:51:41.659 --> 01:51:46.670
down matters. And suddenly. Our states are saying,

01:51:46.850 --> 01:51:50.890
actually, those are weaker contracts. We're able

01:51:50.890 --> 01:51:53.829
to finagle and get out of that. I'm like, what

01:51:53.829 --> 01:51:56.789
does that even mean? That's the essence of who

01:51:56.789 --> 01:52:04.090
we are. So it's immoral to take someone who schooled

01:52:04.090 --> 01:52:09.010
our kids or ourselves and let them live in a

01:52:09.010 --> 01:52:13.579
chicken coop. That's immoral. I don't know. that

01:52:13.579 --> 01:52:15.100
means we go back to the bible we go to the bible

01:52:15.100 --> 01:52:18.060
micah and said woe to them who join house to

01:52:18.060 --> 01:52:21.960
house uh isaiah it's isaiah chapter one wait

01:52:21.960 --> 01:52:25.800
i won't join house to house you know whatever

01:52:25.800 --> 01:52:28.859
until there's no more inheritance right and you

01:52:28.859 --> 01:52:30.899
rob the widows you have the orphans i mean this

01:52:30.899 --> 01:52:33.520
is exactly what we are doing right now in america

01:52:33.520 --> 01:52:36.399
to the level we've never seen it before used

01:52:36.399 --> 01:52:38.500
to be just here's some land go take care of it

01:52:38.500 --> 01:52:40.800
whatever of course we're taking away from my

01:52:40.800 --> 01:52:43.100
other line of my ancestry the native side but

01:52:43.100 --> 01:52:46.880
but anyway there it was right so it's immoral

01:52:46.880 --> 01:52:54.420
and um and so we need unions we need them we

01:52:54.420 --> 01:52:56.380
don't need what's happening right now with too

01:52:56.380 --> 01:52:59.020
many of them we need real representation for

01:52:59.020 --> 01:53:02.060
people and we're going to the age of ai and all

01:53:02.060 --> 01:53:04.899
that crap that's happening and all these companies

01:53:04.899 --> 01:53:07.640
are like like everybody's going to need to end

01:53:07.640 --> 01:53:10.670
up joining up with one We need way more union

01:53:10.670 --> 01:53:13.630
representation. This is kind of needed, unfortunately.

01:53:13.869 --> 01:53:16.270
It's needed. For those who don't like it, it's

01:53:16.270 --> 01:53:18.869
needed. And for the states that don't want to

01:53:18.869 --> 01:53:22.850
help their people out, we have to. So that means

01:53:22.850 --> 01:53:24.789
all the citizens are going to have to pony up.

01:53:24.850 --> 01:53:27.810
We're just going to have to do it. It's going

01:53:27.810 --> 01:53:36.359
to be painful. But who are we? You are stealing

01:53:36.359 --> 01:53:38.920
from someone. You literally stole their life.

01:53:39.039 --> 01:53:42.819
You stole 40 years of their life that they worked

01:53:42.819 --> 01:53:44.140
saying, I'm going to get paid this and then you

01:53:44.140 --> 01:53:47.199
don't give it to them. Like what? That's just,

01:53:47.239 --> 01:53:53.560
it's theft. So pension promises stolen. The cost

01:53:53.560 --> 01:53:56.420
of secrecy. That's the working title for the

01:53:56.420 --> 01:53:59.819
film. So go to conmovies .com. Give me your email.

01:54:00.920 --> 01:54:02.840
And whenever it's out, you'll suddenly get an

01:54:02.840 --> 01:54:06.619
email from me. And there probably won't be another

01:54:06.619 --> 01:54:10.420
one. Well, Doug, I want to thank you. Firstly,

01:54:10.520 --> 01:54:12.560
I'm excited to see the film. I think it's so

01:54:12.560 --> 01:54:15.220
needed. By the way, it's not even on the timeline

01:54:15.220 --> 01:54:18.670
right now. It's just like, it's nothing. It's

01:54:18.670 --> 01:54:20.489
just recording. I've just gone through the footage

01:54:20.489 --> 01:54:22.770
the first time. So yeah, I'm excited to see it

01:54:22.770 --> 01:54:24.890
too. It'll be great. It will. But I mean, just,

01:54:24.970 --> 01:54:26.689
I mean, the way you told the story, like I said,

01:54:26.729 --> 01:54:28.869
going back to the motivation factor, that's such

01:54:28.869 --> 01:54:31.409
a powerful medium. And I love the fact that documentaries

01:54:31.409 --> 01:54:34.810
are really, you know, successful now because

01:54:34.810 --> 01:54:36.989
they're so educational as long as you obviously

01:54:36.989 --> 01:54:38.689
you're not watching one with the complete bias.

01:54:39.520 --> 01:54:41.600
Um, so yeah, I think it's, it's really going

01:54:41.600 --> 01:54:43.359
to open a lot of people's minds and then, you

01:54:43.359 --> 01:54:44.920
know, obviously when this level, then maybe we

01:54:44.920 --> 01:54:46.899
can look even higher up, but you know, the last

01:54:46.899 --> 01:54:48.899
few presidents and you know, what happens when

01:54:48.899 --> 01:54:50.880
people lie in their pockets and you know, the

01:54:50.880 --> 01:54:53.460
country pays for that too. So, you know, just,

01:54:53.560 --> 01:54:56.119
just pulling the curtain back on all these issues

01:54:56.119 --> 01:54:58.840
I think is so important to empower us Americans,

01:54:58.979 --> 01:55:00.739
you know, the, we, the people, I think it was

01:55:00.739 --> 01:55:04.359
written somewhere. So with that being said, I

01:55:04.359 --> 01:55:06.600
want to thank you so much for being so generous

01:55:06.600 --> 01:55:09.319
with your time again and coming back onto the

01:55:09.319 --> 01:55:11.380
Behind the Shield podcast. All right. Thanks

01:55:11.380 --> 01:55:11.739
so much.