How will the war in Iran affect things in China and the rest of the world?

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And a very happy Monday to you at 1207 in the West, each the John Phillips show.

Mr. Randy Wings in Culver City.

John, over the weekend at the last minute, Oakland unified a void in a strike with their teachers union,

authorizing all kinds of pay raises.

Money.

Get that money.

And then immediately announcing a whole bunch of layoffs.

And I want you to be all the way pissed off.

Wait a minute, you're saying something in Oakland's a complete mess.

I am saying that.

Absolutely, absolutely.

How do you feel about that, Changi?

That's right.

I like that.

That was amazing.

We'll have more details on that later on in the program.

But first over the weekend, the United States and Israel launched a major military attack on Iran.

Operation epic fury.

The strikes hit many targets, including Iran's nuclear sites, missile bases, Navy and top leaders.

The most shocking part of the attack is that Iran's supreme leader, the Ayatollah Khomeini,

was killed in one of the attacks along with dozens of other high ranking officials.

Apparently, they were all meeting over breakfast.

And that's when the missile started flying.

Talk about a Grand Slam breakfast.

Iran fought back quickly.

It fired missiles and drones at Israel and US military bases in nearby countries like Iraq, Kuwait,

Bahrain, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

Some missiles hit Israeli cities killing at least 10 people there.

Explosions were reported in several places and air defenses shot down many incoming weapons.

The US lost at least three soldiers fighting in this attack.

Hundreds of people have died overall in Iran from the strikes as well.

President Trump said the operation is ongoing and could last weeks.

He warned Iran not to have nuclear weapons and said the US will keep going until that threat is gone.

This has caused big worries about a wider war in the Middle East, higher oil prices, canceled flights,

protests around the world, including celebrations right here on the streets in Los Angeles,

where Persian Americans took to the streets with American flags, with Israeli flags,

with Iran flags and celebrated the death of a dictator, the death of Khomeini.

It also has bigger implications beyond just the United States and the Middle East.

China, of course, is a very close ally along with Russia to Iran.

And they are dependent on Iran's oil to keep their countries going.

Now with Iran in turmoil, that is obviously in flux.

Joining us to talk about all of this is an expert on China and the author of Plan Red,

China's project to destroy America, as well as the coming collapse of China

and the great US-China tech war.

You can get them online at GordonCheng.com and follow him on ex at Gordon G. Chang.

Gordon Chang, welcome.

Thank you so much, John.

What do you make of what happened over the weekend in Iran?

There are many storylines, but one of them is that China is not a superpower.

China talks big beforehand, but when it comes to it, it is not able to stop a determined America.

And we saw the same pattern in the beginning of January, when the United States extracted

Nicholas Maduro and his wife.

China again talked big, but didn't, and he'd do anything.

The other thing is that President Trump is basically using Xi Jinping's strategy

against the United States.

Trump is using it against China.

Xi Jinping is a Maoist.

He believes in the Maoist tactics of encircling the cities from the countryside.

Now that's what Xi Jinping has been doing to the US.

In other words, getting allies and friends around the world to make the world

a lot more difficult for the US.

Well, Trump has been doing the same thing to China, and we see this in Venezuela, Cuba,

Iran, and other places, and it's been extraordinarily successful for our President.

Bravo to him.

I read somewhere that another ally of Iran, Russia, was one of the first phone calls

that happened after the bombing started.

The Iranians called the Russians and asked for help.

And the Russians said, we're sorry this is happening to you best of luck, click.

And that was essentially all they got from the Russians.

If you are another country right now and you're looking at the globe,

and you say to yourself, I can be on the side of the United States and Europe,

or I can be on the side of Russia and China,

and you see how they treated a friend when they were in need in Venezuela,

how they treated a friend and need in Iran.

It's real easy to decide who's got your back and who doesn't.

Absolutely.

And it's the United States, which is, I believe, the world's sole superpower.

We are the only country in the world that can determine our own fate.

And John, that's not to say that the United States will always prevail.

But when we fail, it's because we have chosen to fail.

China is extraordinarily dependent on the United States.

Russia right now is helpless.

It's fighting a battle in Ukraine, which it's holding on.

But it's there, and it's not able to make the games that everybody thought it would.

So you're dealing with two very large states,

authoritarian Russia and totalitarian China,

and they're not that powerful.

They look a lot smaller than they did at the beginning of this year.

Do you believe that prior to this weekend in Iran and prior to Venezuela,

the Russian and Chinese intelligence agencies

believed that we had the capabilities of doing things like this?

Or do you think they were caught completely flat-footed?

I believe that they knew that the United States could do this.

The question is whether the Chinese thought whether we would or not.

Now, Chinese propaganda before February 28th, the first day of the tax on Iran,

was saying that the United States wouldn't dare to do this.

And I wasn't sure whether they actually believed it

or whether they were just trying to create a narrative.

But in any event, now Chinese propagandists are really getting walled inside China

because they were propagating that line, and everybody knows it was false.

They were saying, after the first half hour,

Iran would beat the crap out of the United States and Israel.

Well, that did not happen.

No, it didn't.

And of course, the looming threat in that part of the world

is what China will do with Taiwan.

We'll China eventually invade Taiwan,

which could toss the global economy into complete chaos.

And I would say, from my point of view,

after this weekend and after Venezuela,

they're less likely to invade Taiwan than they were, let's say, last year.

Yes, and that's for a number of reasons.

One of them is that the Chinese military at the top is in disarray

because of all of Xi Jinping's purges.

Right now, on the Communist Party Central Military Commission,

which controls the military,

there's only two of seven members.

And neither of those two, Xi Jinping,

who's not a military officer and a political commissar,

none of them have operational experience,

and they're not war fighters.

And that means that the Chinese military right now is not capable.

That's not to say China won't stumble into a war.

It could easily stumble into a war,

but it is not capable of launching a war on a hard target,

such as the main island of Taiwan.

They just don't have the capability at this moment.

What is China's backup plan if Venezuela,

and I should say cheap Venezuela and Iranian oil

is not available to them the way it used to be?

Really good question.

China has a strategic petroleum reserve,

900 million barrels or something like that,

plus also China's going to buy more oil from Russia.

So that's the backup plan,

but it's going to be difficult for China

because the oil that they will buy

will not be as cheap as the Venezuelan oil and the Iranian oil.

Venezuela and Iran supplied something like 17, 18 percent

last year of China's seaborne oil.

And it was at very heavily discounted rates.

China is not going to get cheap oil anymore.

What do you think China's other allies,

specifically those in the Western hemisphere

or thinking today like Cuba, for example,

one of the outliers in our part of the world

that is buddies with China.

Right now when they look to their south

and they see what happened in Venezuela

and they look around the globe

and they see what happened in Iran,

I would be very nervous right now

if I was the Cuban Communist government.

And you would be desperate

because with a cutoff of Venezuela and oil,

there is a severe shortage of energy in Cuba.

But we don't have to speculate

about what China's friends in Latin America think

because for instance, Gustavo Petro,

the anti-American pro-China president of Colombia

has now become very pro-American pro-Trump.

And that occurred right after the January 3 raid

on Venezuela.

So some have been lot and famously said,

when people see two horses,

they always go for the strong horse.

And that was your point earlier in your comments.

And we're seeing that now across the world.

A lot of people I think feared

that this morning the international trade markets

would take a torpedo the way that Tehran did.

And that didn't happen.

The markets are not hemorrhaging

and it's not in freefall the way a lot of people

were suspecting that it would.

Do you think that this gave investors

more confidence in global stability

after the strike happened?

I wish I could answer that question.

I think that we clearly see what happened today

and the worst did not happen.

I think things will sort of write themselves

for a number of reasons.

And part of them is that China

is not that important to the world.

And we're seeing how we could actually is.

And that contributes to a sense of confidence.

But there are other reasons why.

I think the global markets will be able to stabilize

because in general,

they're far more stable than we give them credit for.

And I think they'll love this.

But that remains to be seen

because the question is,

are we going to see a wider war?

And we can very well see one

because we now have when people are not paying attention

to this, but Pakistan has accelerated

and intensified its war on the Afghan Taliban.

And we could see other conflicts breaking out again.

And so this is the point

where we just have to be very careful

is what happens around the rest of the world.

Could you see the opposite taking place too

where let's say Putin says to himself,

okay, I know I'm sleeping in a safe house at night.

And I know that my Russian military exists

to protect me and the Russian people.

But if they can do this in two countries

that were regarded as being two countries

that invest heavily in their military

and certainly weren't a weak sister

who was right for the pickings,

then I could be next.

Maybe it's time to wind down the war in Ukraine

and see if we can come to a resolution

and get out while the getting's good.

Yeah, I don't see Putin winding down the war

in Ukraine for a number of reasons.

But I do see your larger point, which is absolutely correct.

And that is we will see peace breaking out around the world.

And that's because people are going to look at American power,

the way the President Trump wielded it.

And this is going to be a very good way.

You know, in history,

we have seen when the bad actors they get together

and their effective world gets worse.

But also we have seen peace break out

when the democratic states have been able to exert

their will.

And I believe we're going to go through,

if not in the next few weeks,

when there could be turmoil in the markets.

But I think in the intermediate term,

we are going to see a peaceful world, a prosperous world.

And we're going to see a much better place

because President Trump is dealing with all the messes

that his predecessors have left him.

Trump gets a lot of credit,

whether he's successful or not.

He gets a lot of credit for tackling issues

that his predecessors just kicked down the road

and made worse because, as dangerous gathered,

they didn't do anything.

Trump is doing something.

Let's talk about another outlier,

and that would be North Korea.

If you're sitting in South Korea today,

I think you're sitting a little more confident

than you used to said,

knowing that the Americans have the power

to do something like this.

If a bad actor gets out of line.

Yeah, that's a great question.

The South Korean government,

which basically has a view very different

from the South Korean people.

South Korean government is probaging pro-North Korea,

deeply into U.S.

That doesn't represent the South Korean people

who have become increasingly pro-U.S. over the years.

But we've got a real problem in South Korea.

So, E.J. Moon, the president of South Korea,

he is probably looking at this May

at how successful the U.S. is

because he really loves China.

He really loves North Korea.

And the people that surround him in his government

are basically communist.

So, this is a very serious situation for us.

And it's possible that South Korea could become

the world's next Venezuela.

But we have to watch this very, very closely.

We've seen domestic political ramifications

to large-scale international events happen before.

Where, let's say, when the Democratic Party

and Harry Truman helped create the state of Israel,

Jewish voters have been very, very loyal to the Democratic Party

for decades ever that happened.

We know that the Vietnamese community in the United States

extremely anti-communist.

They certainly warmed up to people like Ronald Reagan

and the elected Bob Dornin to represent them in Congress,

a fierce anti-communist.

When I saw the images,

not just here in Los Angeles,

but around the country and around the globe,

of Persian people,

Iranian people taking to the streets

with the American flag,

with the Israeli flag, with the Iranian flag,

you saw the tears of joy streaming down their faces,

knowing that the Ayatollah is gone

and that the people of Iran have an opportunity

to take their country back.

Do you think, within that community,

and here in California, it's a large community,

you could see that same level of swing

that we've seen before, with other groups,

when a large-scale event like this

resonates so much within that population?

Oh, absolutely.

I think that we're going to have the Iranian community

and the US vote Republican for a long time.

But I also think other communities will as well,

because I do believe that President Trump's foreign policies

will be successful.

And I think people will see that he has the right idea

about what's going on in the world.

And I do believe that that will affect voting patterns

in other ethnic groups.

Last question before you go.

The President just gave his State of the Union address

last week.

I think there were two lines in that speech regarding Iran.

He didn't spend a lot of time on it.

If he knew he was going to bomb Iran before he gave that speech,

he certainly didn't show his hand to cards.

How would you grade President Trump on how well

he kept this close to his vest?

Certainly the Pentagon kept the secret.

And this is, I think, that they learned

from the signal incident earlier.

So we now have a Pentagon,

and we have a White House that are not leaking.

And this is really unusual,

because, you know, regardless of the President,

reporters have been able to get the best of prior administrations.

So they've learned their lesson, and that's really important.

Gordon Chang, expert on China and author of Plan Red,

China's project to destroy America,

as well as the coming collapse of China

and the great U.S.-China tech war.

You can get them at GordonChang.com, Amazon.com,

and follow Gordon on Exit Gordon G. Chang.

Gordon, thanks so much for joining us today.

Well, thank you so much, John.

I really appreciate it.

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And Randy, if you end up in Fresno next weekend,

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Because we do a special version of the Fix California Hour

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Hey, Randy, what do you say we make a couple of listeners?

Very happy.

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Of late Oakland Unified School District

has seen more drama than the real housewives

have filled in the blank.

And Randy, they're kicking it into high gear.

Well, we have seen a lot going on with Oakland Unified,

including them finally getting out of receivership,

which they've been in for, I believe, 20 years

to only immediately be under the threat of receivership once again

because this school district, like many school districts

in the California area, are broke.

They are having a massive decline in enrollment

at the same time that all of the unions want more money.

Well, a strike was imminent, but a deal was made

so there will be no strike in Oakland,

but that being said, in order to pay for the raises,

layoffs are happening immediately,

which has their teachers union.

And I want you to be all the way pissed off.

Some of these schools have to have math departments.

You would think so, but math can be a little fuzzy

when the answer is, oh, just ask the state for more money.

Well, Gavin's not going to be there in the long term,

and you don't know who's going to replace him quite yet.

For more on the situation going on at OUSD,

here is KPIX in the Bay.

Well, there will be no teacher strike in Oakland

and no school disruption.

Teachers and the Oakland Unified School District,

they reach a deal after marathon negotiations.

So that's the good news.

But while that crisis has been averted,

the school district now has to deal with a $100 million budget gap

and it has just approved eliminating more than 400 positions.

Dalin.

Gotta pay for those raises somehow.

And when push comes to shove,

the teachers union looks out for the teachers

and the classified personnel and the administrators

and everyone else can watch their own backs.

Well, and this was going to happen no matter what.

They were going to give the teachers union what they want.

We know what happens.

So going through the motions of a strike,

there was just no point to it.

You're just going to do exactly what San Francisco Unified did

after a week of striking,

give them into their demands

and immediately announce your broke

and have to go for layoffs.

It's a kabuki theater of sorts.

Dalin has more on this potential impact.

A big relief that a strike has been averted,

but there's also a sense of sadness.

The district will have to lay off hundreds of teachers

to pay for the raises and balance the budget.

Oh, they're going straight after the teachers

not even the classified staff.

That usually isn't what happens.

Castlemont High here is one of the schools expected to get

hit hard by the layoffs.

He's one of the best teachers here.

I couldn't imagine a different teacher in that classroom teacher,

so it will really suck if he lived.

Castlemont High students worry about how layoffs will affect

their school and education.

It sucks because you know, there's a lot of good teachers here.

Sophomore, Yuri McCladi says the underserved Castlemont High

in East Oakland needs more resources, not less.

Oh, it's going to be getting a lot less.

There are fewer students than there used to be.

And this district for years and years and years

has kicked the can down the road.

When they have been told,

you have to be closing schools and merging schools.

Nobody likes that,

but if you have a declining enrollment

that's not going to turn around anytime soon,

if you're serving 30% fewer students,

that means you need 30% fewer schools.

That mentality never works.

Not less.

These past couple of years,

the resource has gone a lot worse,

so I'm praying it gets better.

Test scores and district data show Castlemont

is one of the lowest performing schools in Oakland.

And based on it.

Yeah, let's keep throwing money at that one.

Oh, yeah, because that'll solve the problem.

And based on its attendance record,

district officials believe the school

could see some of the worst layoffs.

The school board voted this week.

Because none of the kids who are enrolled

even show up to that school.

Well, during COVID, they were told they didn't have to.

Yep, this is all lingering effects from that.

Part of the decline in enrollment

for the public schools is people leaving the state.

And part of it is parents not trusting the state

anymore with the public schools because the lockdowns.

Well, they also, yeah,

they devalued their own product.

That's when they showed their hand.

And they said,

you know what, it's really not that important.

You could teach yourself just as well on the computer.

You don't need us.

Let us stay at home and be in our pajamas

and work from our dens.

Well, once you tell them that, guess what?

The motivation to come back

isn't going to be there for a lot of people.

The school board voted this week to lay off 421 educators

for the upcoming school year.

Another 144 positions will have their hours reduced.

I was pink slipped a few years ago.

And it was like,

and I'd been in the district for a while when it happened.

So I was not expecting it.

It's very hard.

I mean, you don't know, should I look for another job?

Should I stay?

It's very unsettling.

Jennifer Brohart is the president of the school board

and a longtime Oakland teacher.

She says they have no choice.

They must cut $100 million to balance the budget.

Otherwise, the district could go bankrupt

and return to state to receiver ship.

The need for districts.

They've been at a receivership for six months.

And they're already going back.

Welcome back.

Otherwise, the district could go bankrupt

and return to state to receiver ship.

The need for districts and unions to come together

and get more money from the state.

I think it's also an issue of state funding.

The state is spending more money on schools

than they've ever spent before.

So how is it that every district is broke?

Well, and this is also where you would think,

okay, the school board and the teachers unions,

they aren't on the same page.

But in reality, they are.

Because both of them want Gavin to give them a blank check.

That's what both of them want.

Because if Gavin gives them the blank check,

they can continue to behave like this in perpetuity.

If Gavin doesn't give them the blank check,

that's when the district would be forced to cut even further.

And then you really want to see that relationship

between the teachers and the district go south.

Just wait till that happens.

And unions to come together and get more money from the state.

I think it's also an issue of state funding.

Because of Prop 98, the state brought in more money this year

than expected.

And that money has to go because of Prop 98 to the schools.

The schools are getting even more money.

But where does any of that money actually go?

And there's no such thing as an unlimited supply of money.

It's a zero sum game here.

Because they can't get their house in order.

They can't balance their own budget.

What they want to do is they want to take resources out of Fullerton

and they want to take it out at Anaheim

and they want to take it out of the San Fernando Valley

and they want to take it out of the Central Valley

and they want to send it to Oakland because Oakland refuses

to reform itself.

Both the teachers union and the districts say they're glad

they reached a tentative agreement on Friday morning

to prevent a strike.

Educators say the new deal would give senior teachers

a 13% pay raise over two years

while younger educators would see an 11% increase.

Kind of a community win for trying to create the stability

that we know that our students really deserve.

The union president is disappointed

with the upcoming layoffs.

Well, where did you think the money was going to come from

for the raises?

And by the way, I don't mean to cut anyone down

for asking for a raise.

All of us believe that our work is important.

But if you have fewer customers

and the customers that you do have

are scoring awful on the test.

So you're not being successful in any sort of metric

that we can measure.

Why isn't that you deserve a raise,

especially when you're broke?

Because it's expensive to live in Oakland.

I see.

They're not based on...

You never hear anyone saying that these raises

are based on performance.

No, because you can't make that argument.

The union president is disappointed

with the upcoming layoffs, calling them unnecessary.

We have over 400 educators that

leave the district every year,

so it actually just doesn't make sense mathematically.

Back at Castlemont, students wonder

what will happen to some of their favorite teachers?

It's tough for us in the future,

and it hurts.

You know, it really hurts to see teachers

that have been here for years and months,

you know, it really hurts to see them get cut.

You already believe they'll overcome

doing more with less.

You know, I've had a couple people say to my face,

you know, this school is trash,

but it's not...

It's a great school.

Teachers will vote in the next couple of weeks

on whether they'll accept the new deal.

Around the same time, the district will send out

those layoffs notices by March 15th.

So, there's the latest from KPIX's Dalin.

The teacher's strike has been avoided in Oakland,

but in order to pay for the raises,

lots of layoffs, including layoffs of teachers,

but in order to pay for the raises,

the teachers will vote in the next couple of weeks

on whether they'll accept the new deal.

Around the same time, the district will send out

those layoffs of teachers are happening.

Well, if you're in Oakland,

and you want to be hanging with Mr. Cooper,

you better get TV land.

I'm Adam Devine,

Chief Fundraiser for Children's Miracle Network.

We'll fund it up.

It'd better be fun!

Have you ever wondered how our network actually works?

Well, wondered no more.

With the support of partnering businesses

and individual donors,

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Visit us online at cmm.org.

800-222-5222 is a telephone number,

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If you'd like to email the show,

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and Randy Earmon under the mailbag.

John writes in at JohnnyDon'tLikeShow at gmail.com.

Gas prices up,

school districts broke,

fire departments and capable of doing their job.

I have just opened Devine,

and I am bleeding out.

Let's go to Craig in Los Gatos. Craig, hello.

Hey, John.

I'm an ex-teacher,

and we were always short of money.

And the new business that works with GEOABC

and KGEOABC,

we were playing special

part of the DELICIO system today,

and we're not working on GEOABC in the Bay Area,

and we were doing an especially

special report on ghost

students. These were kids they found

that were enrolled in community colleges

that were taking much money.

And they didn't exist.

They went into the colleges,

they talked to some lecturers,

how many of the numbers have been, you know,

their pin numbers have been, you know, stolen.

And even the GAO said how much money is going out.

This is all money that would have been

in the general fund.

And we as teachers wouldn't have to be scrambling

quite as much, but it's called fraud.

And every time I contact my representative,

they will not discuss it.

They won't return emails when you mention

the ghost students or the SNAP numbers.

It is just amazing how they don't want to deal

with the real problem.

You are 100% correct in everything that you just said.

And I do not understand for the life of me

why the unions aren't more offended

at all of the ways fraud and abuse that's going on

in the state.

Because if the money was spent properly,

then guess what?

We would end up with a lot more than what we use right now.

And that money could go to things like public safety.

It could go to things like fixing our infrastructure.

It could go to the schools.

It could go to upgrade our technology.

So we get ripped off less often than we normally do.

But it just doesn't seem like there's an appetite

to do that.

Whenever someone brings it up, they go,

oh, well, you're targeting the Armenian community.

That's racist.

And it's like, no, we don't want anyone

ripping off taxpayers in California

because that money ultimately comes out our pockets.

I know.

It's just maddening, though, that the representatives

won't even return emails about accountability.

And this is all of our Democratic Senate

that we have, Anna Simbly actually, here in California.

And you can't get through to them.

They won't admit anything except let's get rid of Jarvis

and take some more money from the property owners.

Well, part of the reason is because so much of that fraud

is going to politically connected nonprofits.

And those people are the peers of the members of the assembly

and the members of the Senate.

When these people turn out, a lot of them go into that world

and a lot of them come from that world

before they go into elected office.

So if you actually did get rid of the waste fraud and abuse,

you would also derail the gravy drink.

You're right.

Thanks, John.

At least they know about it.

It was KGO channel seven that was able to actually report

this fraud, you know, so you can't make any of this stuff up.

This story.

Oh, and we did the story here, Craig.

The ghost students thing is rampant.

It was like one third of all applicants

to community colleges where fake AI chatbots.

Oh, no, oh, no, oh, thanks for dealing with it, John.

I think, thank you for the call.

I appreciate it.

Let's go to Cardi and Lancaster.

Cardi, hello.

Hey, fellas, how you doing?

Good.

So, you know, the president of the Oakland Teachers Association,

oh, how great it is, you know, we're getting this,

we're getting the strike averted and all this

and we're getting monies and all this.

Hey, John and Renny, why don't they worry about

teaching the kids arithmetic, reading, writing,

comprehension, maybe some real history

and bringing back industrial arts

if you want these kids to be successful.

Not every kid, your young man wants a twirl of baton

by two cents.

All right, thank you for the call, sir.

Let's go to Dan and Linwood and hello.

Hi, and that guy hit it on the money, too.

This is not a revenue problem.

It is a spending problem.

And I hope if you get one of these public employee clowns

or politicians on, that you ask them,

why does every single school district in California

empty its budget at the end of the year?

They spend it on, I just went to an auction this weekend.

They spend on anything you can think of to empty it

so they can ask for more than next year and cry, bro,

it doesn't matter if they have five million

or 50 million in their budget, they do it.

If they're going to spend the money,

at least give it to the teachers,

but this goes for hard goods like PA equipment,

audio, computers, restaurant stuff for the cafeteria

and I just went there, it was brand new stuff

that just gets cycled through, they spend it like crazy.

Stop voting for school bonds, folks, they waste it.

I've got 35 years in this business

dealing with the school districts.

It's amazing how every time there's a bond

that's on the ballot or they wanted the state lottery

or whatever it is that they want in that moment,

they say, this is what will save public education.

This is what will give California students

the greatest advantage of any student in the country

and then the public passes it

and then they act like yesterday doesn't exist

and they move on to the next one

and they just rinse and repeat.

It's the same thing that they said the last time.

The payment is 10 times the amount of the bond,

that's what's even worse.

Who would buy something with a credit card

and take 10 times the amount back?

That's what these school bonds

and all these public utility bonds, all this other stuff.

It is, look it up, it's almost 10 times,

sometimes 11 times the amount of the bond,

so a hundred million dollar bond,

one billion dollar pay-off.

And we can't keep spending like this, which is insane.

Thank you for the call, sir.

I appreciate it and you're right.

Let's go to Eric and Vaccoville, Eric, hello.

Hello, yeah, I retired two years ago,

40-year employee, yeah, with your last caller,

the waste, the maintenance,

and we would just throw perfectly good

building material away.

Only to reorder it, stays afterwards.

And you know, I was a union member for 40 years.

And I believe it's just everybody's in on it,

the vicious circle.

You know, it's just sad.

I know that there's going to be cuts

because when our God is ahead of us,

our financial, when he comes down and talks to us

and says, oh, we're looking pretty good.

Well, that's just telling you that there's going to be cuts,

layoffs.

So I don't believe anything, anybody says at the top

and it's sad for us, the taxpayer.

I just hope, you know, nobody,

no administrator is listening to this call

because I have family that work for the district.

So anyway, have a good day.

All right, thank you for the call, sir.

I appreciate it.

And I think a lot of our problems,

whether it comes to public safety, infrastructure,

the schools would be solved if we got rid

of the waste fraud and abuse and we spent the money,

the way the taxpayers assume the money is being spent

and not given to the politically connected non-for-profits,

which are certainly having a heyday in California right now.

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