November 14, 2025 • 23 mins
Legal and political analyst Katie Zacharia joins Buck to break down California’s affordability crisis, Palisades recovery failures, and why state leadership is losing trust. They also hit Newsom, Epstein distractions, and the rise of social-credit-style tech.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:11):
You're listening to the Buck Sexton Show podcast, make sure
you subscribe to the podcast on the iHeartRadio app or
wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
What's California going to look like without Nancy Pelosi running
things for them over in Congress? We're going to talk
about that, and also Gavin Newsim is he going to
be the nominee? Uncle Bill Bill O'Reilly says that Clay
and I are crazy. Our guest here might have a
different take. We will talk to her about it. She
is a Californian and she is somebody who understands what's
(00:42):
going on in that part of the world quite well.
Katie Zachariah is with us right now. She's a legal
and political analyst. Let me start her this. Pelosi I
feel like said more than she as we know she's
gonna be retiring. I think she said more than she
meant to here though, when she's telling everybody, hey, climate
change is an affordability issue and it's why people are
(01:04):
all coming to America.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Also, some of us on the immigration issue had traveled
to the Northern Triangle a few years ago, and what
we found there is one of the reasons people were
migrating to the United States is what has been mentioned,
and that is they had a drought that people couldn't farm,
so they didn't have a job and they didn't have
the food that farming would produce. Hence they were coming
(01:28):
to the United States. So this is again as Ares
the congress woman mentioned a migration issue, which is an
economics show. So this is again economic. As Congresswan Caster said,
it is not only a moral issue, but it is
an affordability issue.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
As what do you make of that, Well, California is
the best experiment on this. We just taught Gavin Newsom
tout his effective policies of California and by effective quote effective,
he said, California is running sixty seven percent on green energy.
What does that mean for the California resident? So from
(02:09):
twenty nineteen to twenty twenty three, the price of electricity
surged fifty percent for residential electricity alone, So we are
paying the highest electricity costs in the United States. And
so we can say that actually it's not an affordability issue.
Green energy defers the cost to the consumer and rises
(02:32):
the cost and increases the cost, not decreases.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
It's amazing to me that the answer that we're getting
from the Democrats about how to how to work with
the affordability issue in any way touches on the climate stuff,
because that's just they're just lighting money on fire with
this and then I guess causing more co two in
the process. But they're actually making everything all the climate
(02:57):
legislation that California does everything. Wait, don't you guys not
have plastic bags in the grocery stores, right? Isn't that
a thing?
Speaker 4 (03:04):
Yeah, it's you're hard pressed to find a county that
has a plastic bag, and you have to pay for
all of your bags and usually paper and the handles break,
it's out, and.
Speaker 5 (03:12):
Then plastic straws go across the board.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
It's all ridiculous because I just think that when you
talk about climate, California as a piece of land might
be the most and it pains me to say this
as a fluidian, but might be the most blessed place
in the entire United States of America in terms of climate,
access to different kinds of micro climates, but also the
(03:38):
agricultural farm, all this great stuff. The coastline's absolutely beautiful,
and yet the mismanagement, whether it's on water use, forest,
fire stuff we'll talk about the Palisades in a second.
Cost of energy. It's a disaster, and yet they think
that they're going to do well with affordability. How does
that make any sense?
Speaker 4 (03:56):
Well, And to your point, in addition to all of
the other amazing geographical things that we have in California,
we also have a lot of oil right off of
the coast, up to thirty billion barrels of recoverable oil
that we are not using. Instead, we're importing our oil
from countries like Brazil and other nations. I think up
to seventy five percent of California oil is imported. Why
(04:19):
are we not drilling our own oil? This is a
national security issue. And look, these Democrats have run this
state into the ground. They've taken golden opportunity quite frankly,
and wasted it.
Speaker 5 (04:31):
They've burned it.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
And Nancy Pelosi retiring, I don't know if we get
someone worse like Scott Wiener who tries to take her seat,
California just keeps.
Speaker 5 (04:40):
You know, it's a race to the bottom with our politicians.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
What is the future of the Palisades You mentioned burning
in the fires right, What is going to happen there?
Because Gavin newsom I see is now making the rounds
talking about how the slow rebuilding is what a shock,
not his fault.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
In my state included, which is one of the most
blessed and cursed states. As it relates to climate, we're
on the tip of the sphere of climate change, simultaneous
droughts and simultaneous floods. The hots are getting a lot hotter,
the dry is drier. You saw one of the most
devastating wildfires in American history in the middle of winter
(05:22):
in Los Angeles in January, one hundred mile hour winds
attached to fire. And as we rebuild, the number one
concerned people have how do I get my home insured?
And how do you get a developer to develop a
home that can't get a mortgage which requires home insurance.
(05:43):
So from across the spectrum from financial risk to the
issue of cost of living which is universal to global competitiveness,
this is a no brainer.
Speaker 5 (05:54):
Nothing's ever his fault.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
I think there's only been about one hundred and sixty
seven one hundred and eighty two permits issued. And this
is an actual residential website that tracks the permits issued
versus the mayoral website which says so many more have
been issued. There is a large discrepancy on reality and
what they want to purport as reality, the left and
(06:16):
mayor baths. So the Palisades is such a devastating situation.
It's this confluence of factors where you have homes that
homes where insurance commissioner and insurance insurance companies dropped these
homes prior to the fires.
Speaker 5 (06:33):
So a lot of these elderly people.
Speaker 4 (06:34):
Had not renewed insurance, had not moved to the California
Fair Plan, so they're left without a lot of remedies
to rebuild their home. They're older homeowners, many have left
sold their land at pennies pennies on the dollar to
big developers. Look, the situation is they're going to bleed
this out and then they're going to move in low
income housing.
Speaker 5 (06:54):
This is been their plan all along.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
They stopped it because people still have people's wounds are
still fresh, and they were angry. But as time goes
on and people need money and their insurance does not
no longer covers temporary housing for them, they're going to
start selling these lots again to major developers and or
the state for low income housing. It's a tragedy. If
(07:16):
you just ran on the palisades alone and the negligence,
he should never even have a chance at becoming president
or even being the presidential nominee for the Democrats.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
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say baby sponsored by Preborn. All right, Katie, Now let's
talk about the aftermath of the shutdown. I have seen
(08:32):
some pretty underhanded and yet obvious maneuvers from Democrats over
the years. In fact, I've seen endless numbers of them,
but I've seen plenty of them. But to all the
anti Trump media and some Democrats in a committee to
suddenly have oh there's more, there's Epstein stories. We have
to talk about how many times are we going to
(08:54):
have to go through this. There's nothing, there's no there there.
If there was that, there would have been out there
a long time ago. We all know it. But like
it does, I guess this works right because people It
works in so far as people now have to say, well,
what was in the what was in these emails? And
they don't think about the just put the country through
a shutdown for what?
Speaker 5 (09:13):
Well?
Speaker 4 (09:13):
The Democrats again, this goes to the bottom line. The
Democrats don't have a policy. Their policy is Trump arrangements,
Trump derangement syndrome, tts. We know this, and now they've
splintered off into this incredibly communist slash socialist whatever word
you want to use, Mom Donnie as a communist.
Speaker 5 (09:30):
He is not a socialist. But you have then the
Bernie Sanders and the AOC. They are totally.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
Free falling into the very far left radical faction of
their party. So they're going to try to distract the
American people on Epstein. Oh never mind, we just you know,
costs and the American people one point five trillion dollars
in keeping the government shut down for no reason. Now
we're just going to say, look at Epstein, look, just
(09:57):
be done with this. Whether Speaker Johnson brings it out
to the surface and fun sits on it until twenty six,
I don't care what happens.
Speaker 5 (10:05):
I just wanted to go away.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
The President's right, it's a massive distraction, and it is
a red hering from what all of the effective policies.
Speaker 5 (10:12):
That he's bringing forth.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
But people love this conspiratorial nature and they think they
think that exposing it brings some kind of justice, which
I think more it's going to expose the Democrats than
it is the Republicans.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
What is going to be the rallying cry of those
who think that Gavin Newsom, by the way, will be
the opposition to Donald Trump. Like, what what do the
people who think that? Do Californians all think that it
will be Gavenusom? Would you say? Is that a widespread
belief among Democrats in your state. I'm always curious about
(10:46):
how this is going to line out because by next
year's election, we're going to be talking about the presidential election. Right,
this is going to come upon us pretty quickly.
Speaker 4 (10:54):
Right, So I don't hear I don't sense a strong
taste in my state for Gavin Newsom as a presidential candidate. Yes,
you look at Prop fifty and you and the Democrats
want to use the success of Prop fifty really back.
This is a numbers issue. We have a math issue
in California. We don't have a lot, we don't have
enough registered Republicans. They were not motivated. If every single
(11:16):
Republican that voted for Donald Trump voted no on Prop fifty,
it would have been wiped out. But the Republicans were
not motivated on this election for some reason. But the
Democrats want to say that this is a smack to
Donald Trump, and it shows that Gavin Newsom is affected effective.
Gavin Newsom did that to kiss the Barack Obama ring,
(11:37):
and we saw Barack Obama come out and support him.
And he's kind of trying to navigate, you know, with
his clever hands, the entire system of how to gain
favor in the Democrat Party.
Speaker 5 (11:48):
But his own state, really, the.
Speaker 4 (11:52):
Los Angeles County alone, of which I'm affiliated, have such
a strong distaste based on his ineffectiveness, based on all
of the problems he's created. So looking forward, looking at
the seven Swing States, particularly those swing states that he
has to garner all of their love and support, I
don't think he wins. I don't think there is a
taste that is palatable for Gavin Newsom just in the
(12:14):
Swing States alone.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Back I would certainly hope that that's the case, but
sometimes I have my worries. Our sponsor is Hillsdale College.
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Hillsdale College courses for free. Now I have to ask
you about something. Are you do you ever use open table?
Speaker 4 (13:34):
A very limited but yes when I need a reservation
and a pinch.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
So there is a New York Post story that is
talking about how open table We all think of it
as like, oh, it's a convenient way to get It's
one of these apps. There's a few of them, but
it's a convenient way to get a restaurant reservation set up. Somewhere.
But what we're finding, what they're reporting on now New
York Posts supported on this yesterday, is that when you
(13:59):
whatever you do at Open Table, they keep tabs on
things including are you a repeat cancelation person? Do you
cancel day of? Do you try to make multiple reservations
at restaurants the same night and then change it up
at the last minute? Like all these things. Now, generally,
I you know, I don't like the surveillance state stuff,
(14:21):
but I gotta say I kind of think this is
fair game. Like I think if people are going to
cancel on restaurants over and over again because they're blocking
out other people, they're hurting the restaurant. I think restaurants
should be allowed to know this. What say you, miss Zachariyah.
Speaker 5 (14:35):
It's a great point.
Speaker 4 (14:36):
I was a waitress through college and relied heavily on
especially those Friday nights Saturday night tables.
Speaker 5 (14:44):
To be booked and filled.
Speaker 4 (14:45):
So if Open table is taking this information again, I'm
with you a little bit. Having lived in China, I'm
also ultra sensitive to the surveillance state nature. The social
credit score that they grade people on as to you know,
their performance in society and whether they have access to restaurants.
So if this is some kind of grading situation where
(15:08):
they're sending the restaurant score on the person reliable not reliable,
I think that gets a little bit big brotherish, though,
I think it should just be if it's in The
truth is if they just use the information to inform
themselves on whether or not this person's likely to show up, Okay, fine?
Is that how what we've seen buck in the in
(15:29):
the past, how what we've seen people use information for?
Speaker 5 (15:32):
Probably not.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
I think it probably has a slippery slope tendency to
become detrimental to people who are going to restaurants and
you know, maybe they had a series of repeat cancelations
for some unknown reason and then they tend to be
reliable if that information's used against them.
Speaker 5 (15:49):
I don't know if that's fair.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
So I guess I don't really give you a good answer.
Is it both and if it's used, well fine, if not,
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
There's a lot of I know you're an attorney. I
feel like you're waiting for me to tell you whether
you're going to be prosecuting or defending on this one.
Because you covered a lot of a lot of the
various sides of the issue. I just I think that generally, well,
one thing I hate is when they call you for
they call you multiple times. It's any all these text
messages like are you actually going to show up for
(16:17):
your reservation? I want them to be able to look
at the app and say, I always show up. Okay,
I'm the show up guy. I'm like a ninety nine
percent if I say I'm gonna be there, I'm gonna
be there. And I feel like that should be something
that people are allowed to make decisions based off of, right,
especially when here in my I mean, I'm sure it's
the same thing out in an LA area in Miami.
There are some restaurants where you've got to set your
(16:38):
alarm thirty days before, or you can just be cool
and know somebody when you when you know, you tell
me you know those people. I don't, so I have
to like actually just be one of the peasants that's
waiting for the time for the reservation to open. I
can't just call like Alfons or whatever and get in.
Speaker 4 (16:52):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
But nonetheless, I think that the open table situation is
indicative of how we're not gonna you said you live
in China. Social credit score in China is a big deal.
We don't have that here, but we have Uber ratings,
we have open table ratings. Essentially, now more and more
people are being judged because of tech, because it's possible
now with technology by the other side of the transaction,
(17:15):
it's not the consumer is being judged as well. That's
a new thing that.
Speaker 5 (17:19):
Yes, it goes to that dating app.
Speaker 4 (17:22):
I'm hard pressed on the name of it that came
up where guys were rating women and then it got
exposed or women were rating guys on the if they
were paying for their dates, and this whole thing kind
of exploded in everyone's faces. Look, you can't take that
kind of information and think bucket's not going to be
used against you. As you just said, it will be
(17:42):
used against the consumer, whether it's deserved or not. What
if you're missing a flight or your flight's delayed you
have to cancel and you get punished for this type
of stuff, Like what kind of exceptions are there?
Speaker 5 (17:53):
You always have to go into that. But I guess
what I look at is like.
Speaker 4 (17:57):
What Ronald Reagano is used to say, and it's applied
to government power.
Speaker 5 (18:00):
But I also think it's applied.
Speaker 4 (18:01):
To information, the more power you're you're never going to
have a bureaucracy defund itself or make itself smaller. Government
will never choose on its own to make itself smaller.
And I think when you have that kind of information
and you allow it to be a regulating body, it's
going to be a lot harder to retract than to
allow it, you know, then to prevent it from growing,
(18:22):
I guess is the overarching concern.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
What were you doing in China?
Speaker 5 (18:28):
Well, I was the outside council for the World Bank.
Speaker 4 (18:31):
In the IFC, in the international division of Jolan law firm,
which eventually became kind of the international component for a
Shepherd Mull And at the time, Buck, I gotta be honest,
I was just so happy to be an American getting
a job and a Chinese law firm. And I only
spoke a teeny bit of Mandarin at the time I
(18:51):
got this job. I didn't really need it because it
was all international. However, and looking back, and the truth
is is a lot of this was the beginning stages
of the Belton Roads initiative, and it was a lot
of equity investments into energy companies outside of China, so
it was an interesting time, but it's also something that
I would never change. I also volunteered at these really
(19:12):
amazing migrant communities on the you know, in the outer
rungs of Beijing, like fifth sixth Ring Road is what
they say, And I think that gave me such a
real tangible experience of what's happening in China, both on
the inner city and the outside kind of migrant community.
Speaker 5 (19:30):
It was incredible when it was.
Speaker 4 (19:33):
This was from twenty eleven to the twenty thirteen kind
of beginning and ends almost three years. So this was
also a paramount time, a very instrumental time. You had
the handover from hu Jintao to shijin Ping and in
a complete change of regulation under hu Jintao Tshijinping.
Speaker 5 (19:51):
Really just from that they the.
Speaker 4 (19:53):
Micromanaging of every decision you made started happening undergen Ping,
from if you were driving a motorized scooter to now
having to go electric. I mean they really dialed in
everything under shegen Ping, and that was only in what
like late twenty thirteen.
Speaker 5 (20:08):
So it's exploded.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
How's your Mandarin now?
Speaker 5 (20:14):
Well, it's I said, I only speak a little, and
I don't speak that.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Well, fair enough, fair enough, I'm gonna I'm gonna let
you close us out here in a minute with parenting advice,
because you've got four and I've only got one, and
I'm new to the game with the six month old.
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All right, your best bits of four kids. Congratulations. By
(21:26):
the way, I'm one of four, as is my wife,
and four is four is a robust number. It's a
good number we're hoping to get to. I think three
is what we're trying to get to. Well, you know,
we'll see.
Speaker 4 (21:35):
First part of advice, have four. The fourth is amazing.
All four of my kids are incredible. I'm so glad
we had a fourth. I didn't feel complete at three.
The situation of four kids is an amazing thing. I
think everyone should have four kids. All of my kids
are uniquely different. And my parenting advice from number one
(21:58):
to number four is my fourth has such a fun
sense of humor.
Speaker 5 (22:03):
He's lighthearted. He has to go with the flow a lot.
And my firstborn, you.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
Know, is so micromanaged growing up, so from the teeny
little choices he made. And to see the difference of
parenting so as you have one and two, to kind
of keep a perspective of how much how much you
can actually control in their life.
Speaker 5 (22:23):
Natural consequences matter.
Speaker 4 (22:24):
They're important for kids to understand, I think for me,
allowing my kids kids, especially as I became less able
to micromanage each little choice, allowing them to experience even
a slight natural consequence like the stove is hot, when
you tell them and you warn them and then they
do it anyway, not in a sense of for them
(22:46):
to gain understanding that actually my parents do have knowledge
and it's good and when I don't listen, it ends
up not being very good for me. And it really
took me a long time buck to release this idea
that I could control all of the things in their
life and to allow them to kind of be who
they were and make choices and giving them constant, you know,
(23:07):
parenting feedback, but also allowing them to be themselves and
to see four unique humans from the same parents be
completely different little people. It's just such a beautiful thing.
And again I'm going to say it one more time.
Four is a great number.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
We'll see, We're gonna try it. Put in the effort,
all right. Thank you so much, Katie Zachariah. Great to
see you. Appreciate you making the time for us.
Speaker 5 (23:32):
Thank you back
You're listening to the Buck Sexton Show podcast, make sure
you subscribe to the podcast on the iHeartRadio app or
wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
What's California going to look like without Nancy Pelosi running
things for them over in Congress? We're going to talk
about that, and also Gavin Newsim is he going to
be the nominee? Uncle Bill Bill O'Reilly says that Clay
and I are crazy. Our guest here might have a
different take. We will talk to her about it. She
is a Californian and she is somebody who understands what's
(00:42):
going on in that part of the world quite well.
Katie Zachariah is with us right now. She's a legal
and political analyst. Let me start her this. Pelosi I
feel like said more than she as we know she's
gonna be retiring. I think she said more than she
meant to here though, when she's telling everybody, hey, climate
change is an affordability issue and it's why people are
(01:04):
all coming to America.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Also, some of us on the immigration issue had traveled
to the Northern Triangle a few years ago, and what
we found there is one of the reasons people were
migrating to the United States is what has been mentioned,
and that is they had a drought that people couldn't farm,
so they didn't have a job and they didn't have
the food that farming would produce. Hence they were coming
(01:28):
to the United States. So this is again as Ares
the congress woman mentioned a migration issue, which is an
economics show. So this is again economic. As Congresswan Caster said,
it is not only a moral issue, but it is
an affordability issue.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
As what do you make of that, Well, California is
the best experiment on this. We just taught Gavin Newsom
tout his effective policies of California and by effective quote effective,
he said, California is running sixty seven percent on green energy.
What does that mean for the California resident? So from
(02:09):
twenty nineteen to twenty twenty three, the price of electricity
surged fifty percent for residential electricity alone, So we are
paying the highest electricity costs in the United States. And
so we can say that actually it's not an affordability issue.
Green energy defers the cost to the consumer and rises
(02:32):
the cost and increases the cost, not decreases.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
It's amazing to me that the answer that we're getting
from the Democrats about how to how to work with
the affordability issue in any way touches on the climate stuff,
because that's just they're just lighting money on fire with
this and then I guess causing more co two in
the process. But they're actually making everything all the climate
(02:57):
legislation that California does everything. Wait, don't you guys not
have plastic bags in the grocery stores, right? Isn't that
a thing?
Speaker 4 (03:04):
Yeah, it's you're hard pressed to find a county that
has a plastic bag, and you have to pay for
all of your bags and usually paper and the handles break,
it's out, and.
Speaker 5 (03:12):
Then plastic straws go across the board.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
It's all ridiculous because I just think that when you
talk about climate, California as a piece of land might
be the most and it pains me to say this
as a fluidian, but might be the most blessed place
in the entire United States of America in terms of climate,
access to different kinds of micro climates, but also the
(03:38):
agricultural farm, all this great stuff. The coastline's absolutely beautiful,
and yet the mismanagement, whether it's on water use, forest,
fire stuff we'll talk about the Palisades in a second.
Cost of energy. It's a disaster, and yet they think
that they're going to do well with affordability. How does
that make any sense?
Speaker 4 (03:56):
Well, And to your point, in addition to all of
the other amazing geographical things that we have in California,
we also have a lot of oil right off of
the coast, up to thirty billion barrels of recoverable oil
that we are not using. Instead, we're importing our oil
from countries like Brazil and other nations. I think up
to seventy five percent of California oil is imported. Why
(04:19):
are we not drilling our own oil? This is a
national security issue. And look, these Democrats have run this
state into the ground. They've taken golden opportunity quite frankly,
and wasted it.
Speaker 5 (04:31):
They've burned it.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
And Nancy Pelosi retiring, I don't know if we get
someone worse like Scott Wiener who tries to take her seat,
California just keeps.
Speaker 5 (04:40):
You know, it's a race to the bottom with our politicians.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
What is the future of the Palisades You mentioned burning
in the fires right, What is going to happen there?
Because Gavin newsom I see is now making the rounds
talking about how the slow rebuilding is what a shock,
not his fault.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
In my state included, which is one of the most
blessed and cursed states. As it relates to climate, we're
on the tip of the sphere of climate change, simultaneous
droughts and simultaneous floods. The hots are getting a lot hotter,
the dry is drier. You saw one of the most
devastating wildfires in American history in the middle of winter
(05:22):
in Los Angeles in January, one hundred mile hour winds
attached to fire. And as we rebuild, the number one
concerned people have how do I get my home insured?
And how do you get a developer to develop a
home that can't get a mortgage which requires home insurance.
(05:43):
So from across the spectrum from financial risk to the
issue of cost of living which is universal to global competitiveness,
this is a no brainer.
Speaker 5 (05:54):
Nothing's ever his fault.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
I think there's only been about one hundred and sixty
seven one hundred and eighty two permits issued. And this
is an actual residential website that tracks the permits issued
versus the mayoral website which says so many more have
been issued. There is a large discrepancy on reality and
what they want to purport as reality, the left and
(06:16):
mayor baths. So the Palisades is such a devastating situation.
It's this confluence of factors where you have homes that
homes where insurance commissioner and insurance insurance companies dropped these
homes prior to the fires.
Speaker 5 (06:33):
So a lot of these elderly people.
Speaker 4 (06:34):
Had not renewed insurance, had not moved to the California
Fair Plan, so they're left without a lot of remedies
to rebuild their home. They're older homeowners, many have left
sold their land at pennies pennies on the dollar to
big developers. Look, the situation is they're going to bleed
this out and then they're going to move in low
income housing.
Speaker 5 (06:54):
This is been their plan all along.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
They stopped it because people still have people's wounds are
still fresh, and they were angry. But as time goes
on and people need money and their insurance does not
no longer covers temporary housing for them, they're going to
start selling these lots again to major developers and or
the state for low income housing. It's a tragedy. If
(07:16):
you just ran on the palisades alone and the negligence,
he should never even have a chance at becoming president
or even being the presidential nominee for the Democrats.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
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say baby sponsored by Preborn. All right, Katie, Now let's
talk about the aftermath of the shutdown. I have seen
(08:32):
some pretty underhanded and yet obvious maneuvers from Democrats over
the years. In fact, I've seen endless numbers of them,
but I've seen plenty of them. But to all the
anti Trump media and some Democrats in a committee to
suddenly have oh there's more, there's Epstein stories. We have
to talk about how many times are we going to
(08:54):
have to go through this. There's nothing, there's no there there.
If there was that, there would have been out there
a long time ago. We all know it. But like
it does, I guess this works right because people It
works in so far as people now have to say, well,
what was in the what was in these emails? And
they don't think about the just put the country through
a shutdown for what?
Speaker 5 (09:13):
Well?
Speaker 4 (09:13):
The Democrats again, this goes to the bottom line. The
Democrats don't have a policy. Their policy is Trump arrangements,
Trump derangement syndrome, tts. We know this, and now they've
splintered off into this incredibly communist slash socialist whatever word
you want to use, Mom Donnie as a communist.
Speaker 5 (09:30):
He is not a socialist. But you have then the
Bernie Sanders and the AOC. They are totally.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
Free falling into the very far left radical faction of
their party. So they're going to try to distract the
American people on Epstein. Oh never mind, we just you know,
costs and the American people one point five trillion dollars
in keeping the government shut down for no reason. Now
we're just going to say, look at Epstein, look, just
(09:57):
be done with this. Whether Speaker Johnson brings it out
to the surface and fun sits on it until twenty six,
I don't care what happens.
Speaker 5 (10:05):
I just wanted to go away.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
The President's right, it's a massive distraction, and it is
a red hering from what all of the effective policies.
Speaker 5 (10:12):
That he's bringing forth.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
But people love this conspiratorial nature and they think they
think that exposing it brings some kind of justice, which
I think more it's going to expose the Democrats than
it is the Republicans.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
What is going to be the rallying cry of those
who think that Gavin Newsom, by the way, will be
the opposition to Donald Trump. Like, what what do the
people who think that? Do Californians all think that it
will be Gavenusom? Would you say? Is that a widespread
belief among Democrats in your state. I'm always curious about
(10:46):
how this is going to line out because by next
year's election, we're going to be talking about the presidential election. Right,
this is going to come upon us pretty quickly.
Speaker 4 (10:54):
Right, So I don't hear I don't sense a strong
taste in my state for Gavin Newsom as a presidential candidate. Yes,
you look at Prop fifty and you and the Democrats
want to use the success of Prop fifty really back.
This is a numbers issue. We have a math issue
in California. We don't have a lot, we don't have
enough registered Republicans. They were not motivated. If every single
(11:16):
Republican that voted for Donald Trump voted no on Prop fifty,
it would have been wiped out. But the Republicans were
not motivated on this election for some reason. But the
Democrats want to say that this is a smack to
Donald Trump, and it shows that Gavin Newsom is affected effective.
Gavin Newsom did that to kiss the Barack Obama ring,
(11:37):
and we saw Barack Obama come out and support him.
And he's kind of trying to navigate, you know, with
his clever hands, the entire system of how to gain
favor in the Democrat Party.
Speaker 5 (11:48):
But his own state, really, the.
Speaker 4 (11:52):
Los Angeles County alone, of which I'm affiliated, have such
a strong distaste based on his ineffectiveness, based on all
of the problems he's created. So looking forward, looking at
the seven Swing States, particularly those swing states that he
has to garner all of their love and support, I
don't think he wins. I don't think there is a
taste that is palatable for Gavin Newsom just in the
(12:14):
Swing States alone.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Back I would certainly hope that that's the case, but
sometimes I have my worries. Our sponsor is Hillsdale College.
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Hillsdale College courses for free. Now I have to ask
you about something. Are you do you ever use open table?
Speaker 4 (13:34):
A very limited but yes when I need a reservation
and a pinch.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
So there is a New York Post story that is
talking about how open table We all think of it
as like, oh, it's a convenient way to get It's
one of these apps. There's a few of them, but
it's a convenient way to get a restaurant reservation set up. Somewhere.
But what we're finding, what they're reporting on now New
York Posts supported on this yesterday, is that when you
(13:59):
whatever you do at Open Table, they keep tabs on
things including are you a repeat cancelation person? Do you
cancel day of? Do you try to make multiple reservations
at restaurants the same night and then change it up
at the last minute? Like all these things. Now, generally,
I you know, I don't like the surveillance state stuff,
(14:21):
but I gotta say I kind of think this is
fair game. Like I think if people are going to
cancel on restaurants over and over again because they're blocking
out other people, they're hurting the restaurant. I think restaurants
should be allowed to know this. What say you, miss Zachariyah.
Speaker 5 (14:35):
It's a great point.
Speaker 4 (14:36):
I was a waitress through college and relied heavily on
especially those Friday nights Saturday night tables.
Speaker 5 (14:44):
To be booked and filled.
Speaker 4 (14:45):
So if Open table is taking this information again, I'm
with you a little bit. Having lived in China, I'm
also ultra sensitive to the surveillance state nature. The social
credit score that they grade people on as to you know,
their performance in society and whether they have access to restaurants.
So if this is some kind of grading situation where
(15:08):
they're sending the restaurant score on the person reliable not reliable,
I think that gets a little bit big brotherish, though,
I think it should just be if it's in The
truth is if they just use the information to inform
themselves on whether or not this person's likely to show up, Okay, fine?
Is that how what we've seen buck in the in
(15:29):
the past, how what we've seen people use information for?
Speaker 5 (15:32):
Probably not.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
I think it probably has a slippery slope tendency to
become detrimental to people who are going to restaurants and
you know, maybe they had a series of repeat cancelations
for some unknown reason and then they tend to be
reliable if that information's used against them.
Speaker 5 (15:49):
I don't know if that's fair.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
So I guess I don't really give you a good answer.
Is it both and if it's used, well fine, if not,
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
There's a lot of I know you're an attorney. I
feel like you're waiting for me to tell you whether
you're going to be prosecuting or defending on this one.
Because you covered a lot of a lot of the
various sides of the issue. I just I think that generally, well,
one thing I hate is when they call you for
they call you multiple times. It's any all these text
messages like are you actually going to show up for
(16:17):
your reservation? I want them to be able to look
at the app and say, I always show up. Okay,
I'm the show up guy. I'm like a ninety nine
percent if I say I'm gonna be there, I'm gonna
be there. And I feel like that should be something
that people are allowed to make decisions based off of, right,
especially when here in my I mean, I'm sure it's
the same thing out in an LA area in Miami.
There are some restaurants where you've got to set your
(16:38):
alarm thirty days before, or you can just be cool
and know somebody when you when you know, you tell
me you know those people. I don't, so I have
to like actually just be one of the peasants that's
waiting for the time for the reservation to open. I
can't just call like Alfons or whatever and get in.
Speaker 4 (16:52):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
But nonetheless, I think that the open table situation is
indicative of how we're not gonna you said you live
in China. Social credit score in China is a big deal.
We don't have that here, but we have Uber ratings,
we have open table ratings. Essentially, now more and more
people are being judged because of tech, because it's possible
now with technology by the other side of the transaction,
(17:15):
it's not the consumer is being judged as well. That's
a new thing that.
Speaker 5 (17:19):
Yes, it goes to that dating app.
Speaker 4 (17:22):
I'm hard pressed on the name of it that came
up where guys were rating women and then it got
exposed or women were rating guys on the if they
were paying for their dates, and this whole thing kind
of exploded in everyone's faces. Look, you can't take that
kind of information and think bucket's not going to be
used against you. As you just said, it will be
(17:42):
used against the consumer, whether it's deserved or not. What
if you're missing a flight or your flight's delayed you
have to cancel and you get punished for this type
of stuff, Like what kind of exceptions are there?
Speaker 5 (17:53):
You always have to go into that. But I guess
what I look at is like.
Speaker 4 (17:57):
What Ronald Reagano is used to say, and it's applied
to government power.
Speaker 5 (18:00):
But I also think it's applied.
Speaker 4 (18:01):
To information, the more power you're you're never going to
have a bureaucracy defund itself or make itself smaller. Government
will never choose on its own to make itself smaller.
And I think when you have that kind of information
and you allow it to be a regulating body, it's
going to be a lot harder to retract than to
allow it, you know, then to prevent it from growing,
(18:22):
I guess is the overarching concern.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
What were you doing in China?
Speaker 5 (18:28):
Well, I was the outside council for the World Bank.
Speaker 4 (18:31):
In the IFC, in the international division of Jolan law firm,
which eventually became kind of the international component for a
Shepherd Mull And at the time, Buck, I gotta be honest,
I was just so happy to be an American getting
a job and a Chinese law firm. And I only
spoke a teeny bit of Mandarin at the time I
(18:51):
got this job. I didn't really need it because it
was all international. However, and looking back, and the truth
is is a lot of this was the beginning stages
of the Belton Roads initiative, and it was a lot
of equity investments into energy companies outside of China, so
it was an interesting time, but it's also something that
I would never change. I also volunteered at these really
(19:12):
amazing migrant communities on the you know, in the outer
rungs of Beijing, like fifth sixth Ring Road is what
they say, And I think that gave me such a
real tangible experience of what's happening in China, both on
the inner city and the outside kind of migrant community.
Speaker 5 (19:30):
It was incredible when it was.
Speaker 4 (19:33):
This was from twenty eleven to the twenty thirteen kind
of beginning and ends almost three years. So this was
also a paramount time, a very instrumental time. You had
the handover from hu Jintao to shijin Ping and in
a complete change of regulation under hu Jintao Tshijinping.
Speaker 5 (19:51):
Really just from that they the.
Speaker 4 (19:53):
Micromanaging of every decision you made started happening undergen Ping,
from if you were driving a motorized scooter to now
having to go electric. I mean they really dialed in
everything under shegen Ping, and that was only in what
like late twenty thirteen.
Speaker 5 (20:08):
So it's exploded.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
How's your Mandarin now?
Speaker 5 (20:14):
Well, it's I said, I only speak a little, and
I don't speak that.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Well, fair enough, fair enough, I'm gonna I'm gonna let
you close us out here in a minute with parenting advice,
because you've got four and I've only got one, and
I'm new to the game with the six month old.
So we'll get into this in a second. But our
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All right, your best bits of four kids. Congratulations. By
(21:26):
the way, I'm one of four, as is my wife,
and four is four is a robust number. It's a
good number we're hoping to get to. I think three
is what we're trying to get to. Well, you know,
we'll see.
Speaker 4 (21:35):
First part of advice, have four. The fourth is amazing.
All four of my kids are incredible. I'm so glad
we had a fourth. I didn't feel complete at three.
The situation of four kids is an amazing thing. I
think everyone should have four kids. All of my kids
are uniquely different. And my parenting advice from number one
(21:58):
to number four is my fourth has such a fun
sense of humor.
Speaker 5 (22:03):
He's lighthearted. He has to go with the flow a lot.
And my firstborn, you.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
Know, is so micromanaged growing up, so from the teeny
little choices he made. And to see the difference of
parenting so as you have one and two, to kind
of keep a perspective of how much how much you
can actually control in their life.
Speaker 5 (22:23):
Natural consequences matter.
Speaker 4 (22:24):
They're important for kids to understand, I think for me,
allowing my kids kids, especially as I became less able
to micromanage each little choice, allowing them to experience even
a slight natural consequence like the stove is hot, when
you tell them and you warn them and then they
do it anyway, not in a sense of for them
(22:46):
to gain understanding that actually my parents do have knowledge
and it's good and when I don't listen, it ends
up not being very good for me. And it really
took me a long time buck to release this idea
that I could control all of the things in their
life and to allow them to kind of be who
they were and make choices and giving them constant, you know,
(23:07):
parenting feedback, but also allowing them to be themselves and
to see four unique humans from the same parents be
completely different little people. It's just such a beautiful thing.
And again I'm going to say it one more time.
Four is a great number.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
We'll see, We're gonna try it. Put in the effort,
all right. Thank you so much, Katie Zachariah. Great to
see you. Appreciate you making the time for us.
Speaker 5 (23:32):
Thank you back
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