Nick Shirley: Exposing Government Fraud, Suing California & Taking on the Media

Key Takeaway

Turn frustration about public waste into evidence-based follow-through. Pick one local program or project, read its budget and milestones, compare its promised outcome with what exists today, and document discrepancies using primary sources, photos, and direct questions to officials. Before publishing or sharing conclusions, separate verified facts from opinion and keep tracking the story after the first response. Persistent, specific scrutiny is more useful than generalized outrage.

Episode Overview

Nick Shirley discusses his investigations into alleged government fraud and waste, beginning with California’s high-speed rail project and later describing reporting on publicly funded service providers. The All-In hosts explore independent journalism, the incentives behind media coverage, the legal challenge to a California law Shirley says restricts his filming, and the operational risks of confronting subjects in person.

Full Transcript

Transcript of Nick Shirley: Exposing Government Fraud, Suing California & Taking on the Media from All-In Podcast. Auto-generated from episode audio; may contain minor errors.

Hey besties, if you were given 15 billion dollars, what could you build? The next PayPal, perhaps the next SpaceX, the next Google, or would you build a high speed rail? This is the California high speed rail that goes to absolutely nowhere, and when I mean absolutely nowhere, I mean literally nowhere. This is all California has to show for 15 billion dollars and 18 years of work. In 2008, they said they were going to connect Los Angeles to San Francisco. To this date, they have connected literally nothing.

And now to finish this project, they're estimating that it's going to cost 100 to 200 billion dollars. And funny enough, in 2008, China also created their own high speed rail, and they've connected the whole entire country of China, over 30,000 miles, here in California, they haven't connected a single town. We're going to be breaking down this entire thing from start to finish to show you guys what is actually happening with the California high speed rail. Let's get into it. Now let's go talk to somebody who knows a lot about the California high speed rail.

What's the truth about the high speed rail here inside of California? Well we call it California high speed rail, but all we have is concrete and rebar, and about 15 billion dollars spent. It currently is, right now, the most expensive infrastructure project happening in the world today. The original estimates for California high speed rail was 33 billion dollars, it then jumped to 126 billion dollars, and now the newest estimate is 236 billion dollars. This project is on track for one thing, and that is to be the third most expensive infrastructure project in the history of the world.

Number one is the interstate project of the 1950s, number two is the international space station, and now it is California high speed rail. The difference between those three projects is you can drive on I-5 or you can go on I-80 and drive across the entire country, you can go to outer space, we will never ride California high speed rail. So it goes from there, all the way to right here, this is where it ends. It is probably the most expensive piece of concrete known to man, and often referred to here in the Central Valley as a modern day Stonehenge.

How come they continue to say that they're going to continue to build the high speed rail when there's actually proof that it is quite literally impossible? Governor Newsom, in a video himself from 2016 I believe, actually admitted to all of us in a private video that he doesn't believe that this project will ever be done in our lifetime. He said that. The facts seem overwhelming that this project is not going to materialize in our lifetime. And now this is a result of over $15 billion. Who's taken the $15 billion and where's the $15 billion gone if this is all that they have to show for it?

One third of the entire cost of California high speed rail has gone to this part called change order delays. Because they didn't know where the infrastructure was and or how to build this actual train, the contractors that got awarded a parcel to work on are owed $170,000 a day, $5 million a month for every single day they can't work. We just settled here in California very recently in February, the largest settlement in a delay settlement for over half a billion dollars. Because a contractor couldn't work on the actual project, they were owed a half a billion dollars.

This is one of the biggest examples of waste, fraud, and just complete incompetence by the government when you see this high speed rail. California was supposed to buy the actual trains and the trains that would be considered high speed rail. The state didn't buy the trains, my opinion, because they know that there will never be a train on these tracks. So California has not even bought the trains yet? No. If we would just buy one-way tickets at current ridership between San Francisco and LA, which is the goal of California high speed rail, we could subsidize free tickets one-way for the next 150 years.

Now with the new estimate that California high speed rail is going to be $236 billion, we could subsidize one-way tickets between San Francisco and LA for the next 300 years. So to me, it would make more sense for all of us to just buy the flights from San Francisco to LA than it would be to build the train, or whatever this is, and spend more money doing that. I mean, it doesn't make any sense mathematically. Now we're on top of the high speed rail and there's not any rail that has been placed.

It's actually just a bunch of cement. High speed rail to nowhere. That's what they should call it, actually. And despite the California high speed rail appearing to be impossible to finish, California has allocated $1 billion a year to finish the project, while they actually need anywhere from $100 to $200 billion to finish it. And the high speed rail even becomes more interesting, and you realize how impossible it is the further along the alignment you go. And later we'll be confronting the center who's over the oversight committee for the transportation inside of California.

We then saw some train tracks where the hub of the high speed rail is supposed to be. Hello. Hey. How are you guys doing? Is this the high speed rail though? Uh, no. So you can't be out here. This is the high speed rail. No, the high speed rail. Where's that going to be the hub for the high speed rail? I'm not sure. You don't know where the hub's going to be for the high speed rail? No. No? Alright. And despite these guys saying this is not the hub for the high speed rail, which it really is, we then went down the alignment and this is what we found.

So this location right here was actually bought in 2006 for developers to develop this land and then they set forth the plan to actually go through with the high speed rail in 2008. In order for the high speed rail to actually happen, they're going to have to go through and buy each and every single one of these houses that is currently being built. Keep in mind right now they're building the high speed rail while these people are building houses on the alignment. Let's go talk to a city manager right now.

And how is it possible right now that here in California you have a government who is spending billions upon billions of dollars for this high speed rail, meanwhile a construction site is right here where they're building houses on where that high speed rail is supposed to go? We don't really know. Typically government buys all of the alignment up front. That way you don't have cost of buying it once it's developed. Like this will bring it up 10 or 11 times what bare land value would be.

So we don't really know. Communication's pretty sparse so we're left mostly in the dark. Do you think that this high speed rail has just been some sort of fantasy for the people inside of Sacramento and the politicians of California? Look it's, you've got a project that duplicates Amtrak's current service route. I will tell you from a ground perspective, we don't understand why they're sticking two rail lines next to each other that are going to serve the same areas. And how many more cases of this do you think are inside of this alignment for the high speed rail?

I don't think this is atypical. I think this has happened quite a bit up and down the valley. California actually abandoned the route from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Now they're focusing from Merced to Bakersfield and so the high speed rail will actually not even be servicing people from Los Angeles to San Francisco. The high speed rail bridge ends over there. It continues over here onto this road but as you'll see it then has to go through a bunch of farmland just like this. Now they have the road right here for the high speed rail but in other locations do they have it?

We're going to speak with a farmer right now. Now we're in the middle of an orchard right now. How will the farmers be affected from the high speed rail? Ranches that have been contiguous for hundreds of years will now be split and that requires you now having to travel to both sides. Your infrastructure has to be pulled from one side to the other whether it be irrigation, power supplies and even just operationally it's just going to make everything real inconvenient. When California brought about the plan for the high speed rail did you guys vote on it or did you guys have any say so with it or do you even think it's going to happen?

You know all the voters had a chance to vote and it passed but it was very vague on the ballot. No one knew where it was going to go. To me they're putting it in all the wrong spots. It was to serve two different populations in the north, the state and the south and where they're deciding to put it is it's going to impact an area that didn't need the high speed rail to begin with. They're allocating millions and billions of dollars to this each and every single year and now they're saying they're going to need almost $100 billion more if not $200 billion.

What could farmers of California do if they had $100 billion invested into them? Oh man, it could revolutionize the state. I mean agriculture has been the backbone of this state since its founding and we're not investing in water infrastructure, we're not investing in energy infrastructure and it's just it's sad because we're worried about a train that's going to serve a small sector of the population and what really needs to be done is something that's going to be good for all of us in the state. So pretty soon we could see a high speed rail come right through here where all these almonds are at and people are going to be suffering because of it.

Yes, and there'll probably be no one on the train. Now we came here to Sacramento to go speak with the people of the California High Speed Rail Authority office. It is 4.09 right now and we just went inside and nobody's here. How are we doing? Really? They said they're open. They closed at 5pm, however they are not here but we are going to go speak with a senator who just approved and passed a bill that's going to give $1 billion for the next 20 years to the California High Speed Rail Authority.

We're going to go talk to him and see why he approved that. Senator Cortese, how are you doing? Good, my name is Nick Shirley. We're doing a little investigation on the high speed rail and we just want to ask what made you want to secure $1 billion for the next 20 years for the high speed rail? I believe it's a good long term commitment that we need to make. And do you think that's actually ever going to happen here inside the state of California? It is happening.

Have you been there? Yeah, I actually have. Well then you know it's happening. And there's actually not a single piece of rail or track that's been laid? They're getting ready to do that right now. And do you think in 20 years the high speed rail will be done? It's promised it's going to be done in 2020. Might be. Might not. And Gavin Newsom even said in a private video, like, it's not even possible, essentially. I have a lot of transportation projects I've worked on for 20 years that are just finally getting started and they're all worth it.

And do you believe, as the chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, do you believe the high speed rail authority has been sufficiently accountable for the increase and delays that have taken place with the high speed rail? Well, we're trying to hold them accountable. And what can you give to people to make them believe that the high speed rail is actually going to be built and finished in our lifetime, or in your lifetime? It's not my commitment. My commitment is it's the greatest economic development project in the country and people should be embracing that all the way to the federal government.

There's no other economic development project that even comes close to that in this country and it's a shame that, you know, certain people in the country aren't taking that seriously. So that's how we get things done is when the federal government and the state government work together, build dams, build bridges, build highways, build high speed rail. That's what needs to happen. And you do believe that we'll see the finish of the high speed rail in our lifetime? There's 21 construction projects going on right now with thousands of workers.

So you'll see it get done. Besties, don't be like the high speed rail. Please welcome Nick Shirley. Fuck yeah, fuck yeah. What's up, bro? Hey, man. Saks, this is your guy. Get in there. Wow. Maybe a good place to start, actually, is that California was so afraid of what you're doing exposing their fraud that they actually passed a law to stop you from doing your investigations and your videos where you actually show up at these places that are stealing taxpayer money. I mean, I'm still shocked that they could get away with that.

I know you're fighting it in court, and I fully expect it'll be unconstitutional in like 20 years, whenever it makes its way through the court system. But could you just explain that? Yeah. So I exposed California for all the fraud that they've enabled here inside the state. And they use what's called immigration support service providers. And it quite literally means anybody who provides services to illegal immigrants or immigrants, and that includes nonprofits and health care facilities. So actually today, this just happened literally today, I filmed all these daycares in San Diego.

And when I exposed it, Newsom came after me. But today, they found 12 individuals who are all immigrants, and they charged them of $10 million of fraud. That happened today. California did. California. The DOJ did. So underneath this new bill, this new law that they created, if these immigration support service providers were to give me a piece of paper saying, hey, you can't upload that video, I can't upload that video. And they only created that after I exposed the fraud. Wait, wait, wait. First of all, what is an immigration support services?

What is that? Yeah, it means legal services, health care facilities, quite literally anything where your tax dollars go to provide the services for illegal immigrants or immigrants here inside the state of California. From the state of California. Yes. So you want these businesses, basically, to provide services to illegals. Yes. It can be Medi-Cal. It can even be NGOs, non-profits that receive grants from the government. For instance, the people who sponsored this bill, it's called CHRLA, they've received $80 million, and they do the advocacy work for illegal immigrants here inside the United States.

Wait, they got $80 million, sorry, million or billion, $80 million, non-profit. And then it sounds like the law is written that any service to immigrants, you can't go do this work because they're trying to protect the community. So wait, but how do they stop you? So let's say you go to one of these NGOs or businesses that's received this funding, you record it, and now they're saying you can't upload it? Yeah, so if they simply were enrolled in this service, then they give me a piece of paper saying, hey, you can't upload that video, a demand letter, I can't upload the video.

And if I do, I'll get a $4,000 fine, and then I'll have to go to court, and I'll have to pay for their legal fees if they win. So $4,000 is just the minimum, if they have 10 employees in there who all are part of the service. But Nick, sorry, doesn't that violate your constitutional rights? Yeah, First Amendment rights. And so do you sue the state of California? Yeah, I'm suing the state of California right now. To undo that bill yes Ostensibly by the way sacks this was all under the pretext of our favorite term Safety because what Nick Shirley was doing in knocking on a door and saying is this business open or closed was making people feel unsafe And if you use that word Unsafe well, then everybody has to rally around it, and they literally called this the Nick Shirley law, so I think This is the most amazing Badge for you And it's an award the fact that they're creating laws to try to stop you from doing basic journalism Means you're kicking fucking ass Nick.

Thank you don't stop These First Amendment cases though have been incredibly well litigated So do they just pass this knowing that it will probably get overturned at the federal level And then it's up to you to raise the money find the con law people and then take the case Is that what it is or do they actually legitimately think there's legal standing like what is your team? Tell you about that law that's trying to stop you yeah, well I don't think they thought Nick surely would hear about this bill because they called it a b 26 24 and Unless an assemblyman dubbed it to stop Nick sure like I probably would have heard about it So California they've pretty much passed all these laws like it's calm It's called call me for you for a reason like to forget a bill passed in California in the in Legislate with the legislators there's a 40 senators 30 of them are Democrats 10 of our Republicans needs 21 votes to pass So it's quite literally nearly almost impossible for a Republican to pass anything here inside the state of, California And it was a clear Gavin Newsom signed this yeah and who is the impetus of this bill like is there a way that people are teasing out the The funding cycle and the people that were behind this thing or no Well churla, they're the co-sponsor, but who received 80 million dollars The person who created this bill is the wife of the Attorney General her name is Mia Bonta So meanwhile the Attorney General supposed to prosecute the fraud Well his wife's creating laws to make it harder for fraud to be prosecuted and to go after and be exposed How did you start let's take a step back Nick for the folks that don't necessarily know the origin story?

How did you stumble into this because? Yeah, it's a when I was 15 years old. I started making YouTube videos vlogs and pranks as I got older I got more interested to see what's actually happening in the world, but at that time around 2020 You couldn't make videos with the word Trump in the title or if you talked about politics or talked about kovat You might be demonetized so you couldn't make any money And so then I ended up taking a two-year break when on a mission trip for our church and went to a Santiago, Chile I started learning about All these people that are fleeing Venezuela They were going to Chile and they were telling me about how people are going to the United States So then when I got back to the United States My mom was also keeping up to date with that and then when I got to the back home I went to the southern border and I started interviewing people in Spanish saying like hey How'd you guys come over here?

like what's going on and I thought it was like super sad that they all these people were coming over seeing the country and then I get this lady's whatsapp Who was from Ecuador? She said she had no money at the border and the next day she texted me saying she was in New York City And I was like, that's super strange. And so for the past two and a half years I've been making a video every single week about something that's happening here inside the United States and Like I went from 20,000 subscribers Nobody knowing me to now having I created one of the most viewed videos ever in internet history exposing the fraudsters in Minnesota and I was I only knew about that fraud because I had been making a video every single week from Across the world what happens like whistleblowers reach out to you and say hey Nick go over here go over there Yes So like I rely heavily upon the people in in these states to let me know what's going on Like I'm pretty much like I said made a joke I'm like a congressman for the entire United States who actually listens to the people But I don't work for anybody What I really appreciate about what you're doing is man on the street is a really challenging art form in journalistic Format, it's incredibly brave for you to go out there put yourself at risk and you have just to be clear So people can appreciate this you have no formal journalistic training You have learned everything on your own and you have funded it And I think it's important that we're clear about this because people who make allegations.

Oh, you're a plant Somebody's funding you you're funded by the people through your x.com account you make tens of thousands of dollars a month I think maybe hundreds of thousands a year just to sustain yourself Yeah for me to like when I my whole goal was to make $300 a day in 2023 I thought I could like do everything with dollars a day. I was like, I'm gonna be ballin That's a hundred. That's $100,000 a year. And then I started making more and more money. I post this Minnesota fraud video My mom literally films it.

That's my favorite thing. He'll be like Nick's a fed I'm like what a fed have his mom filming his YouTube videos when he's 24 years not a fed thing to do Yeah, not a bad thing to do I think they could find somebody better if they that was the case, but I was just 100% Working for myself to show people what was actually happening and I've created a lot of change The audience reaction is a little polarized right? There are obviously people like us. We're like You know stealing is wrong.

Mm-hmm. Then there's obviously fraudsters who can be angry at you very angry But then there are passive viewers that actually really dislike what you're doing. Yeah, I don't understand How do you unpack that like why why is that reaction happening? Ultimately? I know what I'm ultimately I know what I'm doing is right and for you to be defending a fraudster who opens up a larynx Center I'm like you might need to rethink something. I can tell you what this is. People say you're right. No. Yeah, I can tell you What's happening here?

Having been a journalist and come up with these power. Here we go No, no, it's actually super important. Jason lectures Nick. It's not a lecture. It's an insight and you're lucky to hear it So sit back What you represent to them is a threat because they came up and they wanted to do what you're doing They were idealistic these journalists and they wanted to be brave enough to uncover These things and they've become captured and politicized and they have picked aside you haven't That's why they that's why they criticize you and the criticism they have of you is oh He didn't he wasn't fact-checking here wasn't thorough enough here.

Yeah, okay fine on the margins You're learning on the job and I've had conversations with you privately about little nuances of things that you need to tighten up none of that is Important what's important is that you find fraud you find actual real fraud and you put the people on camera and you? fucking shame them and then they get arrested and you're forcing the AG's in this country to face it and it's just you and your pure desire and energy to do it And that's what journalists hate about you because they could do it, too And they should be ashamed that they don't are the this was the job of 60 minutes and frontline And they forgot how to do their job and you're picking up the mantle of what frontline in 60 minutes used to be I agree Give me some fuck.

Yeah Are The AG's taking up the cases well I mean I'll go expose it and if they want to do something about it I put all the information in the videos and so that's one thing I have seen is there actually has been Changed like they just found the 12 people today the leers in Minnesota most most of them fled the country I believe but they got the head was that right so give us the coda actually about the the daycares in, Minnesota Yes, the daycares, Minnesota.

They the that was the craziest thing because I was just sitting in my room I just post that video. I had no idea. It was gonna be like the biggest video ever it got four billion views in seven days Which was incredible pretty insane? So I post that video and then there starts to be like riots and protests people start dying to cover for the leery the leers The politicians were like incentivizing people to go out and riot because they knew like the ice was there But they could distract everyone by getting people out to the streets to cover up for the fraud well, it didn't really work because Tim waltz dropped out of re-election, but in Minnesota they The head person of the leering centers who had received four million dollars She tried to go to London on a one-way ticket, and then she got caught for daycare fraud And so she was the head like the head honcho of the leers she got caught she got busted Then the biggest autism bust of all time took place there as well So like I've been very productive so wait so does she get prosecuted yes, and she pled guilty Yeah, oh wow and what's the sentence I?

Don't know yet. Okay. Maybe it hasn't happened yet, or yeah Did you see Bill Gurley's presentation? I watched a bit of it. It's kind of hard to hear back Yeah, so I mean there's a point He was making which is that journalists seem to have become selective in the stories that they're chasing and the investigations that they're doing and There seems to be a reason. That's this kind of politicized point. What's your view? have you met with journalists and talked with them if any of them reached out and Do you have a sense on what what what goes on what motivates them to say things do things one way or not the other way No one from the mainstream has reached out to me to say like hey How are you doing this instead they like investigate me, and they'll write hit pieces on me.

I'm like okay good for you investigating the investigator Yeah, yeah that shows you exactly how threatened they are by you, and I think Where where you are going to be just having known you for one year and watching the improvements in the crispness You are going to be so dangerous when you have a modest amount of resources And I think what we really need to do is commit to making sure you have more funding and so I'm gonna Right after we get on here I'm gonna subscribe and I'm gonna put in you know whatever a couple thousand dollars a month to support you And I think everybody here should You're doing great work.

You need to have some researchers on the team You need to have some backup and you need to have security because what you're doing is truly a threat Criminals and the mob if you're the very concerned about you always want to What was that you were the son that Jason has always won? Oh, no, I mean I have three great daughters But I'm just you're what I got in when I got into journalism what you're doing is why I got into it Which was the role of journalism, and I think Bill Gurley pointed it out so well in his talk Which was there are still great investigative journalists out there Just not enough of them And I think it's fantastic that there's a new generation doing this and that you're doing is your independent region So there have been a few others that have emerged since you came out Minnesota piece with such a big maybe inspiration But it was also a beacon to a lot of people like oh we can go do this like you did Are you seeing more of this do you think that they're being successful, and what do you think's changing?

Yeah I think a lot of people are taking it up and they're seeing like with X like if it wasn't for Elon and X like None of this would have been possible For instance I post that video about the fraud in on YouTube It does well gets a few million views on X got a hundred forty million views and the most important people in the world see It and they're able to see like oh, we're not doing our job Let's go do what needs to be done like the government I caught them kind of backhanded on that so they had to go step in but I do think a lot of individuals I do hope I am motivating a lot of kids especially my generation to be less of a complainer and be more of a doer So I and I think journalism you'll think of it.

It's just like showing what's going on. Well. You can actually have massive Create massive change inside of the country in the areas that you live in That's something that I've seen with my journalism I'm like I'm not just playing like the defense like I'm actually going out showing people what's going on And I'm not just leaving the story after it's done like I'm continuing to follow through because if it's real corruption like it needs to Be taken down right and what other people don't realize Because you became a big part of the story is that there's a lot of people that are like I don't realize because you became I think pretty famous from the Minnesota video But you had other stuff before where it wasn't about chasing down corruption like you went into the favelas and Brazil, right?

Which was incredibly scary? Yeah, and you've done a lot of this stuff Are you still doing those sorts of things or is everything now about government corruption? I would love to continue to do those videos, and I will do more these past eight months every morning I'm waking up to something new about fraud and corruption so I've kind of like been spearheading that but I would like to get more into that stuff like I Almost got kidnapped in the Brazilian favelas I met up with this the head of command over Merlo inside this and inside this favela and in Rio de Janeiro and literally Like there's only a few things that could have happened With me and him in this broken-down shack on the top of the favela got Also nearly taken hostage in Cuba two cars a two-star communist general came down To try and figure out why I was in Cuba and why I was leaving early So like that stuff's still super important I the fraud stuff just kind of taken over my life recently though What are the other big pockets of fraud that you are?

Scratching at that you think exists the big honey pots that you're gonna go chase down and uncover Like welfare fraud here inside the United States is just absolutely welfare fraud insane like all of it Can you explain that for instance like food stamps? there's a There's a strip club in Portland, Oregon where you can use your snap card Like the government especially underneath Biden. They literally let open like the floodgates to fraud. I mean Tim waltz was Celebrating and using daycares in his debates against JD Vance, right?

So all these social benefit programs have literally been looted whether it be snap whether it be daycares Whether it be adult daycares like literally you name the hostesses like all these things that have received garment money are just full of fraud And so now you're just trying to pull the thread and uncover as much of it as possible yeah, and it's hard now cuz like I have to have security like people literally want to kill me and so I have to be super strategic like what's gonna stops a Fraudster from me knocking on his door and then he him realizing that his times up and him just shooting me So the video doesn't get posted like that's like stuff I think about when I go to bed like how do I go out and make these videos a bit differently?

Well, are there different ways that you can get the information you need to tell the story without actually having to confront the person in Real time. Yeah, people want to see the person get confronted So, I mean, but this is what's so interesting because What you're talking about is like at the end of the day, you're still fighting the attention mechanism that you live under, you know, like your incentive is to tell the truth and Then but there's a last point where your incentive is I must do something that will get views as well Yeah, like that's how all this stuff happen.

Well, you know here I'm gonna that's part of 60 minutes as an example does undercover reporting and it always has and They would if a subject would not come on 60 minutes They would go to their home and wait for them outside their office and home to confront them and ask those questions They would tell them they're gonna do it. So I think you're well within your right to do that I think as you professionalize your operation and it's incredibly brave what you're doing I think you have to ask for a bit more support from the audience and I you know right now you can do a five Dollar subscription, but you should also ask people to be charter supporters You know at a five hundred dollar level thousand dollar level like substack might allow you to do and I think you should be very aggressive in asking for more support because the government We heard from Vice President J.D.

Vance, 10, 20% of our tax dollars are being wasted. If we support you to do this work, get a researcher, get an extra video editor, you just need about three or four people around you to support you, and this is really gonna take off. If you have those three or four people, we're all gonna save more money, and we need to, as a country, to get behind you and say, people who are stealing from the government, that is, they should carry double the sentence, because you're stealing from the actual society, right?

And I don't care what country, it doesn't matter what state it is, immigrant or American, and they've been here, you're stealing from the actual country that is giving you the protection of living in these United States. It is really sinister to steal from the country. It really is, and just, I'm really upset that you are faced with security issues and a lack of support, and this criticism on the ticky-tacky things, do not stop doing what you're doing. Thank you very much, and if we can stop fraud, we can literally save the country.

I think that's something people don't understand. What's crazy is it's not just fraud. I think the California High-Speed Rail Project, anyone can look at that objectively and say, that is the most insane thing on Earth. Why are we doing this? $240 billion to go from Fresno to Modesto at three times the price of an airplane ticket, none of it makes sense. Literally, none of it makes sense, and the guy got paid half a billion dollars for non-work. It's a billionaire in Italy who got paid that money.

I traced down. Wait, how much did he get paid? Half a billion. So the. Did you say half a billion? Did you watch the video? Yeah. So after I saw that video, so Nick sent me that video, and then I traced down who got paid that half billion, and the ultimate owner is a billionaire in Italy. I didn't know that. Yeah, that's insane. The whole story, when you kind of dig into this, so this isn't fraud, it's legal. It's a legal system. It's leakage, it's organized leakage.

It's a legal system, and I think it falls under that idea of waste or some sort of corruption, but I think it is as, the fraud stuff, anyone can get behind, but this is the stuff. Well, it's unethical and illogical. There's complacency, there's corruption, there's unaccountability, and these are the things that just trickled into this massive waterfall that we're drowning in right now, and I think it's really important what you're doing, and I think on behalf of a lot of people, I really appreciate the mission you're on.

You're an incredible person. We thank you for the work. Thank you guys so much. Thanks for being supportive. Yeah, no problem. Fuck yeah. Appreciate it. Thank you, bro. Yeah, of course. Great job. Thanks, Jason.