Scott Adams and his co-hosts dissect Jimmy Lai's imprisonment in Hong Kong, contrasting it with California's alleged fraud involving over $1 billion in federal healthcare funds for illegal immigrants. They scrutinize Trump's China delegation, noting NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang's absence, while debating the legal viability of prosecuting Dr. Anthony Fauci despite a potential pardon. The episode concludes by linking these geopolitical tensions to Chinese infiltration via the Thousand Talents Program and promoting the documentary "The Hong Kongers," suggesting that democratic backsliding and systemic corruption are converging threats to Western stability. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: CohereLabs/cohere-transcribe-03-2026, WAV2VEC2_ASR_BASE_960H, sat-12l-sm, script v26.04.01, and large-v3-turbo
Time
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Tesla Self-Driving Updates00:11:14
We're alive.
We're alive.
We are alive.
Good morning, everybody.
Owen's here.
Marcella's here.
I'm here.
And I know you guys had time to come in because we had the pre show going.
So I'm only going to wait a few more seconds for the rest of the people to file in.
And we are going to sip tastic.
I have a couple of clips for us.
Owen and Marcella have stories for us.
And that's it.
Let's sip.
Ready, guys?
Well, you know, if you want to enjoy coffee with Scott Ems, you need to also enjoy the simultaneous sip, and you don't need much to enjoy it.
No, you don't.
All you need is a cup or a mug or a glass, a tank or chalice or stein, a canteen jug or flask, a vessel of any kind.
Fill it with your favorite liquid.
I like coffee.
And join me now for the unparalleled pleasure, the dopamine hit of the day, the thing that makes everything better.
The simultaneous sip.
Go!
Breathtaking.
I know you feel the same.
Yeah, that's my new thing to play the same clip twice.
Do you like that feature?
Sorry, guys.
Sorry, not sorry.
We don't mind seeing the same clip of Scott twice.
That is for sure.
So, you guys.
I've got some clips.
You know, I like to get mine out of the way, but I'm not going to like go racing through them.
But I must start with an animal clip.
You guys, I've seen this clip before.
Okay.
This also stalls you guys for the other people to come on in.
So we're just waiting.
Oh, and I like how we have double of everything.
Okay.
So, you guys, there's this animal called the maned wolf, not manged, maned.
This thing is so freaking big.
Just tell me if you wouldn't like have a heart attack if this thing came walking by you.
Oh, oh, how cute!
My god, oh, I saw this.
The monks, yeah, the monks feed him.
This is in Brazil, and he is does not pose any threat to humans.
I'm like, oh my god, I would die if this thing walked by me, but he's beautiful.
All right, how many people want one for their house?
I do.
You're saying this is a wolf?
Yeah, it's called the maned wolf.
Looks more like a fox.
Right?
It's got the little foxy feet.
But he has that wolf body, like that tall, lanky, wolfy head.
I love that.
We can call it a jackal.
Yeah, that's true.
A jackal?
I feel like we need music playing in the background sometimes.
Like just of our show.
Yeah, like just like some kind of like ambient music.
I don't know.
Very nice.
Lovely.
Okay, so.
Now that that's happening, now this is what I'm calling for me.
Maybe I want to see if you guys feel the same way.
I feel like this is like our cringy video of the day.
And it's featuring President Trump and Cheryl Atkinson.
They had a sit down interview.
She's amazing, you guys, Cheryl.
If you don't follow her on X, start immediately.
But so remember when Elon came in and we were like, you know, Fort Knox and the gold and this and that.
And then a lot of us here were like, you know, did they find it?
Did they find it?
I just want to play this and then chat about it after, but oh, it's cringy for me.
Okay, here we go.
What happened to the audit of Fort Knox?
Which one are you talking about?
There was, I think, when you first got into office, you and Elon Musk talked about auditing the gold.
Well, we wanted to go and knock on the door, Fort Knox, very thick door, and to see whether or not we have any gold in there.
Because we take a look at it, it's a very interesting question.
We played with that.
I wonder if they left the gold in Fort Knox because they steal a lot.
No need to really do that, though?
Well, I don't know.
I think it's, I do want to go to Fort Knox sometime.
I want to see if the gold is there, which I'm sure it will be.
Hello?
Knock, knock, Fort Knox.
Owen, come on.
Isn't that bizarre?
Excuse me.
It is, yeah.
I mean, I think it was kind of a mystery as to how he made a big deal out of saying, we're going to Fort Knox, we're doing this audit, we're going to actually see the gold there.
And then all of a sudden it just got aborted.
And I'm kind of wondering if, I was wondering at the time, did somebody tell him, sir, you don't want to do this because it would cause a lot of problems?
Was there ever gold there?
Is there gold there?
Is the gold gone?
Where'd the gold go?
Marcel?
I've seen stories that other countries, at least a couple of them, I think, have pulled their gold out of Fort Knox.
And so I'm wondering if they're also thinking maybe I don't want to leave my gold there and I'm not sure what's happening over there.
Do you think it went to like William Devane and all of his gold commercials that that's where they were taking it from?
I don't know.
Good question.
Liberty Gold?
I am just kidding.
Liberty Gold.
I don't even know who you are.
I just hear your name.
Um, Marcella, I mean, like, weren't we all like waiting to see this?
Well, that's interesting that he was, you know, President Trump is usually, you know, able to answer questions very well.
And this question, he did not answer very well.
So, at least to, in my opinion, and to me, it makes it even more suspicious now.
It was suspicious before when they didn't actually follow through, but now with his answer, it's like, hmm.
Yeah, now I want to.
I really want to know.
And like, I think Geraldo should go there with his camera and watch them knock on the door at Fort Knox.
I'm picturing like this whole big vault out in the middle of the desert, just like with a big wheel for a doorknob.
Anyway, I didn't like that.
I felt like it was cringy.
I don't know about you guys, but now I want to know even more.
Thank you.
Oh, Marcella, this clip is for you.
So, you know, we always would tell you guys how when we went to California and Marcella was.
So kind to drive us everywhere in her self driving car.
What do you call it?
Full self driving.
So, my now, my friend Mindy, who you've all heard about, she's like, My next car, I'm going to get a Tesla or, you know, something similar so it can drive me everywhere.
And Mindy, we all strongly suggest you get the Tesla, not a different brand, because we support Elon.
All right.
So, look at this grandma.
She goes for her first full self driving.
Experiment, and this is what it looks like.
And this is what freaked me out, Marcella, is because we were, you know, in your car during the day and at night.
But at night, there's like no dash lights, there's like no dashboard happening.
It's really strange, like, there's nothing in front of you.
But here's the cutest grandma.
This is amazing.
She's like, Do I touch the wheel?
It's amazing how it drives the sound.
Now, also, let's just say, God forbid, there was an incident.
She cannot reach the gas pedal or the steering wheel, but that's okay.
That makes me nervous.
Marcella, what mode did you have yours in?
Mad Max.
Mad Max.
If grandma was in Mad Max, she'd be like, oh my God.
She's probably in standard mode.
But it's very safe.
People think I'm always driving.
And at a stop, Sign, they like go go, and I'm like, my car doesn't go just because you say so.
And it's pretty amazing.
So now, Marcella, is it true that if you're, which look, it's going faster?
Yeah, she's kind of scared.
She's kind of scared.
She's like, Oh, I'm gonna hold the door.
So, isn't it true or is it true if you have a Tesla, like you don't always need the new Tesla because it's the software that updates, right?
Yeah, like that.
Particular one is the new Model Y, and that one at night they have a light all over the car that you can change the color so you like that.
The old one that I have doesn't have that, so it's completely dark, right?
Yeah, so that's the good thing about it is that once you buy a Tesla, even if you have an older Tesla, they once you buy it, you have to buy FSD, so you do have to buy it separately from the car to you know, while you're When you buy it, or you can pay a monthly fee.
I think it's like $100 a month.
But don't quote me on that.
But basically, it gives you the updates for free, sort of like you only have to buy it once.
You don't have to keep on paying anything, which is great.
So, an older car will have the new updates as well.
Well, but I think they do give updates, but I think I have seen stories that say that older models don't.
They aren't capable of the actual full self driving, like unsupervised full self driving.
So I think there is a cutoff there where some of the newer models have the full, the real full self driving, but some of the older ones are kind of not quite as capable.
So I think there is a difference, but, you know, I'm sure to some extent what you're saying is true that there are some, you know, that there are software updates and a lot of the capabilities could be upgraded after you buy it.
So, you know, it'll keep getting better as you go.
But again, I think there is some.
I don't know what the cutoff is or when they changed over to new hardware, but I think it's based on the AI chip capabilities or whatever it is that some of them are more capable than others.
Yeah, so Lang was saying here different number of cameras on old Teslas prohibit it.
So obviously it needs like many, many cameras.
So anyway, if you bought a Tesla in the last couple of years with full self driving, you should be set and fine for updates.
The older ones, you probably can't just add it.
But if you bought one now moving forward, you're good to go.
And if the software improves, it's just a matter of like an update on your computer, right, Marcella?
Medicaid Fraud Concerns00:14:56
Yeah.
Download the update.
So, pretty interesting.
So, everyone make sure Mindy gets the message that it must be a Tesla and not like a Toyota or something.
I like Mindy now.
I really like Mindy now.
If only if she gets the Tesla.
Maybe.
Yes.
See, Mindy, friendships are riding on it.
So, I just thought that was interesting.
I like seeing her, you know, like an older woman, like a grandma in there.
So sweet.
All right.
So we're going to get on with the newsy news.
And Marcella has been out on assignment and she knows.
Like, she's like, I was like, All right, Marcella, we had like a newsroom meeting last night.
I had the cap on, like with the pen in my ear and like the pad and the paper cigar.
And I was like, Your beat is California.
You got California.
We want to know about the governor, the mayor.
We want to know about California.
Making me want to move states.
So, Marcella is definitely covering for us.
Oh my God, the fraud, like this crazy fraud.
Not that the fraud is so shocking, but.
Are we going to get paid back?
Let's play a little clip and then, Marcella, I want to get paid back.
I know you do.
I want to get paid back for all the fraud we've ever had.
Okay, let's hope that this is the right clip, you guys.
You know how it goes.
Here we go.
The Trump administration says the state owes the federal government more than a billion dollars for health care given to illegal immigrants.
William Ligeoness has a story from LA.
Hi, William.
Well, Dana, there are two stories here, right?
One is how rising costs have forced blue states to roll back health care.
For those without legal status.
The other is the White House crackdown on eligibility.
If states can't confirm those getting care are U.S. citizens, they have to pay the feds back.
We are auditing aggressively and we don't like what we see.
In March, the Trump administration began auditing states that provide illegal immigrants with routine health care paid for by American taxpayers.
Their findings seven states and the District of Columbia owe nearly $1.4 billion.
For using federal, not state money for immigrant care.
Topping the list, California, followed by New York and Illinois.
Oh, Illinois.
Listen, it was almost three of us represented, but New Jersey, good for you.
You're probably fourth.
So, Marcella, what the heck is happening?
I mean, I hope they have money to pay for it.
There's budget issues in California.
So, basically, what it means is that CMS is really cracking.
Down on them using Medicaid funds to pay for non emergency for illegal immigrants.
So they have a program where federal funds can be used only for emergency services for non citizens, but they were using it for regular, allegedly, they were using it for regular services.
So one of the things that came out is that.
Like he said, CMS preliminary audit identified California as the largest offender, but Illinois, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, DC, with over 1 billion in question.
Total across states was.
So California was the 1 billion, but across states, it's about 1.3 billion.
Wow, California.
I know.
Jeez.
Yeah, it's quite a lot of fraud.
I think we can like.
You know, maybe balance the budget with the crackdown.
With the payback.
Yeah.
So, not after you pay back the government billion dollars.
Well, the crackdown is also for future items.
CMS and HHS have increased oversight, which does not allow further, you know, craziness.
Yeah.
But if the federal government was paying for it, then they're not going to pay for it anymore.
So, that would be budget neutral.
And then you got to find that billion dollars to pay back the federal government that you already paid out to people.
So, Seems like you've got a bigger budget hole to deal with.
So the billion has to go back into the tax coffer, so to speak, right?
Yeah.
So, oh boy.
Oh boy.
I think this is great because it'll limit the fraud.
You know, people are going to be afraid.
Well, I like how they want to try to worry about the future fraud that they know is coming too.
So, this is why I voted for Trump.
Mm hmm.
Finally.
Oh, and what do you want to say anything more about that?
That's pretty brutal.
I mean, I think it's ridiculous.
It seems like California is by and far the worst offender.
Um, You know, certainly Illinois is number three on the list.
I'm not defending them at all, but it's not nearly the magnitude of what we're seeing in California.
So I think it's pretty incredible with the level of fraud and the amounts in places like Minnesota, but it seems like California may be the worst in the country for fraud based on all the stories we're seeing.
Do you think this fraud being brought to light stemmed from Nick Shirley?
I think he definitely played a role in it.
I know after he was done in Minnesota, he headed out to California and then they.
Found all these hospice centers and things that were going on.
I think you could argue that the Medicaid to illegal immigrants, you know, I guess you could call it fraud.
I don't know that it was necessarily fraud because it wasn't necessarily like it was a totally fake service in all cases.
I mean, maybe it was in some cases that people were just faking it and submitting Medicaid claims that never were given to anybody.
That would be fraud.
But I think some of it might just be that California decided we're just going to give everybody eligibility when that's not really allowed by the law.
And so, you know, it's breaking the law, but I don't know if I would necessarily call it fraud.
But I think it does seem like even the hospice fraud and all the other kinds of fraud seem to be much bigger in California than anywhere else.
Yeah.
So you have Dr. Oz, Dr. Mehmet Oz, and JD Vance.
I guess they're all like, so Dr. Oz is working on the Medicaid fraud, Vance is working on fraud in general.
So, all right.
I mean, I like that because.
The only people working on fraud before were the fraudsters.
So, this is a good turnabout.
Just to clarify, this particular $1 billion that California would owe to the federal government is not fraud.
It's just they didn't follow the rules.
But it wouldn't be fraud, like Owen said.
But the other thing is that they started this preliminary audit, CMS started it in the middle, late 2025, before the Nick Shirley stuff.
It was an ongoing thing.
It's just, I think it was always ongoing.
Even under Biden, it's just nobody cracked down.
Yeah.
I'm just like, yeah.
I like, you know, I want to say so many things, but it doesn't matter.
It's just my personal emotions again.
So, well, this is good.
I mean, I think one thing will lead to another, to another.
It will have a snowball effect.
And, you know, exposing it is good.
All right.
So, Owen, I want to toss over to you for one of your news stories that you're covering for us today.
Sure.
So there's a story about an angry mom that defeated a data center.
This was in Wisconsin.
And apparently, she was an activist, had done some organizing before relating to environmental things and multiple sclerosis and things like that.
But she learned about this data center proposal that was 12 miles away from where she was living and didn't like that idea and decided to try and fight it.
She started some kind of Facebook group to inform people about it.
And it got like, 2,000 members within the first two days.
And as of now, it's like 3,700 people.
And she got a bunch of publicity, and then the facility got shut down.
The place, I think it's a development firm, Cloverleaf, withdrew its plans, said they had a lack of support from local officials.
So it seems like this woman made a big difference and got rid of the AI data center that was planned for Wisconsin.
You know, it makes a difference.
The pushback's uncomfortable for these people.
And I know we have one scheduled to go in in Marlboro, New Jersey.
So if anyone lives over there, I know they're making a big stink about it.
Join in on the stink because, look, this woman, you know, because she just wouldn't give up, they gave up.
So make a stink if you need to.
Go ahead, Owen.
Sorry, I cut you off.
No, I mean, and I think for people who might be interested in this or fighting it, I think a lot of it has to do with power costs in terms of the energy costs of these data centers that it might be borne out by the taxpayers or by the people using, you know, utility payers, where it can certainly jack up the energy prices.
And also, you know, I, There is a water concern in terms of how much water it's using.
So, depending on how much water supply you have in your area, that may be an issue as well.
I think it's maybe less of an issue for people like me near Chicago because we've got this big lake right next to us of fresh water.
But in many parts of the country, it's much more scarce and might be a bigger issue to say if they're using a bunch of the water, that means they're taking it away from someone else.
So, you know, I'm not necessarily anti data center, but I, you know, totally understand why someone might not want one in their backyard and might not want to pay for it.
Let's talk about that, Owen, because I see people in the chat saying, like, you know, why do you want to kill our future and whatever?
You have to understand, you guys, they're building these data centers basically on the edges of neighborhoods.
The noise, the light pollution, the noise pollution, and like Owen said, like draining of resources, like the one place they wanted to put it, you know, cuts off like a natural water flow, you know, like a stream that delivers water and well water and this and that.
Like, it's really a.
A disruption.
It's not like you're just putting in a building.
You're like creating like this small city in one building, is the way I'm seeing it, and all of the pollution.
So now these people live there.
They're like, oh my God, they can't even go out in their backyard.
So now there goes their real estate, right?
They can't even sell and get out.
They're not going to make any money.
So they either live with it, they lose their money in their real estate.
So it's a big disruptor.
There's got to be a better way, a better place, a better design.
I mean, people are creative.
So You know, if anyone's out there and they're like, wait, I want to come up with a better design.
But, Owen, you know, don't you think that's the gist of what's happening?
It's like where they're building them and then all the infrastructure problems they're causing.
Yeah.
I mean, you know, the Trump administration has at least tried to get some agreement with these different data center providers or with the hyperscalers, the AI companies, that they should provide their own power and not, you know, just take it from the people around and make everything more expensive.
I'm not sure if that's always happening.
So that's one question.
I do think it makes sense that.
Whoever is building or using the data center should be the ones bearing the brunt of the cost and not putting it on the people that live there.
But I think, you know, there are all sorts of technological developments coming.
I post stories on a regular basis.
I think I posted at least one today about some new technology.
I think it was some kind of copper tubing or something for heat exchange that would potentially reduce the energy cost by like 98% or something.
So there are potential developments that might make it much less of an issue from an energy perspective.
And I personally don't.
Put as much stock in the water issue just because people treat water when they talk about it like that, like it's a one time resource, like as if the water goes away.
It's like, no, the water is recycled and it goes back into the environment.
And, but I do understand that, you know, if they're taking millions of gallons of clean water out of the treated water, then that is a limited resource.
And you need to take that into account to say you can't just allocate a whole bunch of it to a new data center and not have any impact.
On what was happening before.
And again, in many areas of the country, they are having droughts, they're having problems with water supply.
And so it's a much bigger issue.
And so you may need to just pick the right places to say, where is there plenty of water, like Chicago, where you can say there's a big lake, we can just pump more of it.
And it's not such a big deal and it's not going to raise the price a lot.
But I do think all of these things should be taken into account.
And I think we should certainly be prioritizing whatever technological developments we can to make it energy efficient and to make it not impact people.
And to your point, if there is noise or light pollution or other things, then those should be taken into account.
Account as well.
Yeah.
Where you don't want to impact someone's lifestyle or joy of life just by putting this big data center right next to where they live.
And their real estate value too.
That just sucks.
It's like, you know, so many people are impacted by one of these buildings.
And I'm not saying they're not important, but, you know, I feel like I always want to propose to our New Jersey politicians, whoever, that you can't, you have to stop tearing down forests and all this stuff to put new plazas in, of all things, or new condos.
I feel like you should have to take.
A dilapidated place that has like one store open and the whole plaza, you have to take that place, knock it all down, rebuild, do something like that.
So, do that like with a data center, like somewhere that's already commercial property.
You know, even if you have to make like two smaller ones instead of one giant one, then do that.
But it's the way they're infringing just kind of stinks.
You know what, you guys, because like we complain about, you know, half the people complain about pollution, the environment, whatever.
And then other people are like, you know, We want to go back to the old days like me and be more nostalgic.
But yes, like the world keeps moving forward.
But, you know, we can't just pollute everything because time's marching on.
You know, I think we just have to take a beat.
And I just think that there's really, really, really, really smart people who could come up with a better way to do these data centers before they all get plopped in in places and then they'll never be taken out.
Data Center Power Struggles00:03:47
I don't know.
I think we are going a little too fast.
Personally, Marcella, do you want to say anything about this?
Well, I want more data centers.
I want data centers everywhere.
But I think Wisconsin, that lady, I wonder who was behind her.
A lot of these data center issues that you're talking about, I feel like China would benefit from us not building as many data centers.
But, you know, there are issues.
I give you that.
There's noise issues.
There is, not all of them have the noise issue, but there are some that do.
They're just businesses trying to do business in different places.
Every, you know, it's local, you know, they get to decide whether they want it there or not.
But one of the things that they need is power and nuclear should be an option, you know.
That hasn't been open to them, you know.
I maybe Owen has more information on that, but that it probably would be the solution to this water issue or, you know, how to power them.
Yeah.
I mean, again, I'm all for technological solutions wherever we can get that and reduce the.
The energy impact, reduce the water impact, other things.
I think many of those things are possible.
And again, I'm not against data centers.
I'm not like fighting for, you know, stopping all new data centers.
Same.
Partly I'm just reporting the news.
This is not just an isolated case.
Like this is happening all over the country where people are fighting back against these data centers.
And I think it's something like 40% of them have been either delayed or canceled.
So this is a huge trend that people are fighting back against these things.
So even if you're pro data center, you should at least be aware that there's a lot of pushback being generated against these things.
And there are a lot of people that are fighting back and saying, I don't want it in my neighborhood, I don't want it in my state, you know, or I don't want it at all.
But it is a big impact, and it may be a factor in terms of even how much we can scale AI and how competitive we can be compared to other countries, because I doubt we have these same issues in China.
China just decides what they want to do and they build a whole bunch of stuff, and nobody gets the right to push back the way they can in the United States.
Okay.
Well, I'm looking at the comments are completely all mixed, which they should be, because everybody has different interests and different information.
And we all live in different parts of the country.
And I see some people have water issues.
Kev said, put them in all the public schools that need to be shut down.
I love it.
I love it.
There's areas in the United States that have no one in it and has water.
So I don't know why they're trying to put it in certain areas where there's people or whatever.
Yeah.
And they don't put them in Alcatraz.
And there's not many people, right, Owen, in a data center.
Like there's not like employees.
Two people in each one, or something.
Yeah, I mean, that may be one of the arguments about why they want it to be in a particular area.
They want it to be near people so they can find people to work there.
But I think I saw a metric recently that there was something somewhere around $50 million of spending to generate one job in a data center.
You know, it's so it's a limited number of jobs.
And now, again, that doesn't mean there's only one person in the data center, but it does mean it's not like this massive army of people.
It's not like a factory where you have, you know, assembly lines full of people doing things.
It's basically a pretty low.
Touch from a human perspective, you set it up once and then it runs for a whole long time, and you need a few people to swap out whatever breaks, but otherwise, it pretty much operates 247 on its own.
And so, it's a relatively small impact from a jobs perspective relative to the amount of investment that you're making.
Okay, well, this is like a perfect little segue for me.
Plea for Hong Kong Freedom00:11:47
So, I'm doing a news story.
No, so I, a lot of you that have known me for a while know that I was speaking of China, that this is like a very important issue to me.
And I don't know how many people here know who Jimmy Lai is.
You spell the last name L A I, Jimmy Lai.
So I asked Chester to help me write up the things I want you to understand about him.
And then I want to play a clip, okay?
So this is Jimmy Lai.
He was born in mainland China in 1947 and fled to Hong Kong as a stowaway at age 12, escaping poverty and political turmoil during the Mao era.
He worked in factories, built a successful clothing business with the Giordano retail chain, and later founded Apple Daily, which is a newspaper, in 1995.
The newspaper became widely known for investigative reporting and for criticizing corruption, abuses of power, and the growing influence of Beijing over Hong Kong while advocating for free speech and democratic freedoms.
So, what you need to know too, so if you don't understand, I mean, I did not know all of this before I.
I was invited to a private screening of the documentary about Jimmy Lai a couple of years ago.
And I met some of his family and people who, you know, he was their mentor and people that are in the documentary.
But what, all right, so he says, as China, all right, so as China's government increased its control over Hong Kong, many residents believe Beijing was violating the original handover agreement.
I want to, I just want to tell you guys, let me just see if I have this here.
Okay, so this is what I want you to know, because this is what I did not know at first, okay?
So Hong Kong was controlled by Great Britain.
For more than 150 years after the British took it from China during the Opium Wars.
In 1997, Britain handed Hong Kong back to China under an agreement called One Country, Two Systems, which promised Hong Kong could keep its own courts, free press, open economy, and civil liberties for 50 years until 2047.
The agreement was intended to preserve Hong Kong's freedoms while still making it part of China.
So, Hong Kong went from like this, like old world, you know, just kind of very, very poor area into like almost like a Dubai.
So they got these freedoms.
They turned into like a Dubai.
I mean, I have family and friends.
It was on my bucket list to travel there.
Gorgeous, like, whole metropolitan amazingness.
So then the last part as China's government increased its control over Hong Kong, many residents believed Beijing was violating the original handover agreement.
Tensions escalated.
And in 2019, over a proposed extradition law that would have allowed Hong Kong residents to be sent to mainland China for trial, millions protested, viewing the law as a threat to Hong Kong's judicial independence and civil liberties.
So, you know, China just started like creeping back in, and these people were living like in a freedom, like almost like America.
Like they had whatever Britain had, they had, they had like, you know, free speech to an extent.
I mean, they did.
And civil liberties and all that stuff.
And so when Jimmy Lai started this paper in 95, he was just, he's telling the truth about everything, criticizing China if he had to, whatever it was.
So then China starts creeping back into Hong Kong.
And now they're saying, like, well, maybe we're going to take you from Hong Kong now and bring you to China and put you in our courts and see what we think about you.
So I remember this during the pandemic that these uprisings started in Hong Kong and there were protests in the street and they were, You know, very brave, very, very brave to be in Hong Kong and say, like, F you to China, you know, we want to, you know, we're supposed to be here at least till 2047.
That was the agreement.
So, anyway, so Jimmy Lai openly supported the protest movement.
And after China imposed the national security law in 2020, Apple Daily, his newspaper, was forced to shut down and Lai was arrested multiple times.
And he remains in prison today under the security law.
But it's so much worse.
I mean, You guys, I'm definitely going to ask you to please help me amplify this message because President Trump is going to China.
He promised before he got elected, so many people said to him, Please, you have to get Jimmy Lai out of prison.
He's old now, he has diabetes.
Not only that, they've had him in solitary confinement for five years, like solitary confinement for five years.
He has a family.
He has a wife.
And if you ever cared about freedom or like somebody that you see that cares the most about democracy and freedom, he is the poster man of this, what he risks.
So I want to play you a little clip.
This clip is from his documentary.
It's just kind of edited together.
And let's talk about him on the other side.
I was one of the few guys who was very controversial, who was very outspoken.
Living in the truth is an effective tool against totalitarian power.
Speaking truth to power is something that powerful dictatorships are terrified by.
And I think Jimmy understood that.
That's why he started the paper.
That's why he kept it.
That's why he made it into essentially a part of the movement.
Everybody was so taken out, so scared, that they went into self-censorship.
To avoid offending the communists.
So many businessmen keep quiet because they have investments in China.
So Hong Kong people always have a soft spot for a guy willing to speak out, as Jimmy does.
It's almost certain that they could be in jail.
When he was arrested, he was shackled and perp walked through his own offices.
Anything I have is this place.
This place is freedom.
I own freedom my life.
This man is so amazing, you guys.
I remember when I was invited to this documentary, I called Scott.
I'm like, okay, I'm going to see this thing with these people.
I'm like really excited.
And then we talked about, he didn't know about Jimmy Lai at that point.
And then after, I was just like, we have to do whatever we can.
And it's just, it's amazing because if you go on to X or Google and you start to look him up, you will, a lot of people are really rooting for him.
There's a lot of very big voices.
They asked President Trump about Jimmy Lai, I think, again yesterday in the Oval.
And, you know, he said, I'll, you know, I'm going to look into it.
Yeah, you know, he's a great guy.
I'll look into it.
I'll look into it.
But I just don't feel like it's urgent enough.
This man literally did nothing but stand up to communism and stand for truth and freedom.
So I will also, maybe Sandy in the chat, you can help me.
But there's an amazing documentary.
It's free, it's on YouTube.
It's called The Hong Kongers.
And it's the story about what's going on with China and Jimmy Lai.
And if you want to watch a great documentary, it's free and just click play on it.
And, you know, it's really fascinating.
So please help me amplify this message about Jimmy Lai.
There are other journalists and reporters that were also imprisoned, but they wanted to really make an example out of him.
So please help me help Jimmy Lai.
And let's get a message to President Trump while he's negotiating for things.
Get this man out of prison.
It's disgusting at this point.
All right.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
I was one of the refusals.
Okay.
So that was that.
Now I'm going to move back over.
I don't know if you guys want to say anything about him or just go on to the next story.
Either way is fine.
Just President Trump release, make Chi release Jimmy Lai.
You know, that's what we want.
We want him to be released.
Yeah.
And also possibly to leave that Hong Kong area.
I don't know.
Because that's the thing is, once he's released, are things going to change for him?
I don't know.
Yeah, he has a wife and kids.
And, you know, like you just saw Bill McGern on there from Wall Street Journal.
Is he Wall Street Journal or the Post?
I forget.
But anyway, I'm friends with him on X and a couple other people that were in his documentary.
And we're just like rooting and praying and whatever.
But when you see this documentary, and I think some of you will watch it, I hope you're going to just be so outraged that this injustice is happening.
So, please, thank you.
This is like a personal plea from me to you.
Owen, anything about this?
I mean, I support what you're saying.
And I don't know if I have much to add.
I think I hope he is released.
And I think it's a big injustice.
And I'm hoping that the Hong Kong people can maintain their sovereignty as best they can.
I think it's a tough situation given how big China is and how much influence they have.
And I'm not necessarily optimistic about that front, but I can certainly hope that things will get better for them.
Yeah.
And you know what?
Great Britain, like, get it together.
You know, like, what are you doing?
All right.
So let's move on.
Marcella, let's come to you with your next news update.
Thanks, you guys.
News update.
Well, like we were saying, Trump is going to visit China.
He said about Jimmy Lai, he's going to race it to the Chinese leadership.
But not only that, he's leaving today for the summit to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping.
And sorry if I mispronounced that.
Anybody in the chat?
No, you're good.
Reuters reports that Elon, Tim Cook, and Boeing CEO Kelly Ertberg are joining President Trump's 16 CEO delegation to China for trade talks.
And the visit will highlight U.S. companies.
The elephant in the room, or the lack thereof, is that NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang is notably absent and uninvited.
The White House says that the reason is because it's going to center its CEO talk or business talk with agriculture and aviation.
But Tim Cook is there, and so is Elon.
So who knows?
Yeah, Elon's there too, huh?
I don't know why Huang, maybe Owen knows more about why he was not invited.
I don't know.
I mean, I know they've had controversy around the exports of the NVIDIA chips, so there may be some.
Reason why they didn't want to do it.
Flawed Age Verification Trends00:02:13
I know there's been back and forth on that.
It seemed like the way it played out was originally there were restrictions on NVIDIA chips being sold to China, and then that was relaxed.
But then China just turned around and said, We're not buying them.
So it seemed like they were going their own direction and developing their own chips.
And so it seemed like it was going in a weird, weird direction.
So maybe there just isn't as much opportunity there on the NVIDIA side.
But I think certainly it does seem like the technology front.
Is front and center as one of the issues, given that Elon and Tim Cook are invited.
So I would imagine that's going to be a big part of the agenda.
Yeah.
And Elon does a lot of business with China.
So it's good for him to show up, I suppose.
I don't know good for who, but it's good.
All right.
So we're looking forward to see what happens with that visit to Qi.
Okay.
Owen, what do you have for us?
So, apparently, there are kids that are bypassing online age verification checks with fake mustaches.
This is a trend that a lot of governments around the world are cracking down on age verification.
I think it's bigger in the UK than it is here.
I think it became law with their Online Safety Act in 2023 over in the UK.
But it is happening here, too.
I think Louisiana passed something that's more specific to online content, like our adult content, meaning like porn sites and things like that.
But I think, you know, this is a trend.
But apparently the kids are onto it and they're just using like eyeliner pencils from their parents to draw on a mustache.
And it's fooling a lot of the online age verification.
Oh my God.
They could just do one of those.
They're also using like video game characters and other things to try and fake out these things.
But it seems like they're outsmarting the AI left and right with some of these things.
So I just find it kind of funny.
That's hysterical.
Yeah.
So, I mean, you know, there's obviously different perspectives on whether or not we should have this kind of policy or whether or not it.
It can work.
I think, you know, in the United States, certainly there's a lot of pushback around it just to say, you know, we shouldn't have restrictions.
Kids Faking Online Identity00:03:14
I mean, that, again, can go both ways.
I think most people would say we don't want kids seeing offensive adult content.
But given the nature of age verification, what that really means is you have to identify who you are to all these websites.
And so it basically de anonymizes the internet, which is a huge issue in itself.
So, You know, that I think is gets a lot of pushback, especially in the United States.
And, you know, there's a lot of things on both sides of that.
But it seems like the kids are kind of outsmarting them with all these things in terms of just being able to find ways to get the online systems to think that they're older than they are.
And so it's not really as effective as they were hoping it would be at this point.
That's amazing.
So, can you two indulge me with another story?
Look at me jumping all in on the news today.
The LA mayor.
I don't know if you want to talk about the LA mayor race, the California gubernatorial race, or Katie's mayor.
Let's do governor and mayor just kind of like.
Quick little updates on that so we know for Cal.
This is California, guys.
Yeah, of course, it's California.
Um, um, LA mayor, um, race it looks good for Spencer Pratt now, he's 28% implied probability of winning, and this is just in Poly Market.
However, on Poly Market, Karen Vass is 50% to 53% probability of winning on the June 2nd primary.
Um, the last polls I tried to find any polls they're current, they were from March.
And it had Karen Bass at 53 and Spencer Pratt at 31.
Very similar to what Polymarket is saying.
In regards to the California Governor Toro race, we have better news.
Well, it's not so good news in the Polymarket predictive prediction markets, but in regards to the poll, a poll just came out having Hilton, Steve Hilton, the Republican, at 22%, Becerra, the Democrat, at 20%, Steyer, Democrat at 14%, and Bianco, the other Republican, at 13%.
Newsweek highlighted in regards to the governor race, they highlighted that Becerra seems to be the favorite right now at 49% on Poly Market and Kalshi, while Steyer is behind.
But Steve Hilton, in regards to the primaries, is also.
I didn't understand this.
So, in regards to the regular race, Becerra was above Steve Hilton.
But in regards to the June 2nd primary, Steve Hilton had an 83% chance to advance.
So, that's very good.
So, I'm happy that Steve Hilton is leading.
He's doing great.
He's doing great.
We need to see him more, you know, in California.
Maybe it's.
Steve Hilton Primary Lead00:11:09
Maybe he shouldn't be.
I mean, it's working.
Whatever he's doing, keep doing it.
And then Arcadia, California.
I think some of you know about the story.
The mayor of Arcadia, California, where I kind of lived in that area for a long time, she was, she pled guilty.
Her name's Eileen Wong.
And she pled to being an illegal agent for the People's Republic of China.
This is after, I mean, it took a while because this was disclosed yesterday, but her fiance had been found guilty.
No, I'm sorry.
He had, he faces, he already had been serving four years.
It doesn't, the story didn't say whether he, his, her fiance was, I would just say he had pled guilty or was found guilty, but that was back in 2024, 2025.
So, the FBI was already on her about what had occurred.
So, one of the things that was being, that came out is that China would tell her, sort of tell her what propaganda to put on the daily newspaper for Acadia.
Like any kind of bad press on China, they would not put it.
They would put good press about China.
And that's one of the things that she was paid for.
She was actually released on bond for $25,000.
So she's out on bond right now.
And she faces 10 years in prison, federal prison.
Good.
Good.
And she should.
And California has a Chinese spy problem.
Diane.
And the UK, too, I hear.
There's an issue with the ambassador of China.
In the UK.
So strange.
It's so strange, isn't it?
I mean, who would have thought that China would be infiltrating with spies?
Odd.
Yeah.
What was her?
Dianne Feinstein, R.I.P.?
And Walwell, who I hear might be getting 40 years in jail if, you know, blah, blah, blah, Marcella.
I know allegedly opinion law court trials, but I was like, what?
40 years.
I saw 40 years somewhere for some of the stuff he's done.
I'm like, I'm not shedding a tear for him.
But anyway, Owen, do you have a spy?
We don't know.
Are you a spy?
I don't think so.
We met Owen.
He would always say, no shade to the Chinese people, but Owen might be Chinese.
I'm just saying.
Go ahead.
As far as I know, I have no Chinese in my background.
I've been to China one time.
So I guess he can count that against me.
Oh, yeah.
Nobody goes to China, Owen.
Okay.
One time.
Just to get your orders.
Yeah.
But it does seem like it's a big problem.
It seems like it's been infiltrating our government all over the place.
And I think, again, California seems to be the worst.
So, congratulations, Marcella.
You've done it, Marcella.
You know, it does seem like California seems a lot friendlier towards China than most other states and has a lot of things going on there that they shouldn't.
And I think it's a big problem in our universities.
I think we have a lot of people spying on us through all the graduate research and things that are going on with the, I think they call it the Thousand Talents Program.
But it's essentially a way of just scooping up all of our research and getting it back to the Chinese government.
So I think we should put a stop to all of it.
I agree.
Stephen Lang, you've been to China over 40 times.
And yes, as Steve Cortez pointed out on this show and his documentary about all of the students from China booting out the American students' chances of getting into even their state colleges, it's just, I don't know.
I don't know why we, I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
Let's see what happens after this visit.
I just don't know.
Oh my gosh.
All right.
Owen, give us a tidbit, would you?
Would you?
Keir Starmer is in a lot of trouble.
Apparently, he's been under a lot of pressure for a variety of reasons.
I think partly it's the whole mass immigration issue and just a lot of activists and marches and things going on against what he's been doing there, letting all these foreigners in.
But then more recently, there was the whole Epstein thing where he had appointed somebody that was a Friend of Epstein and got in a lot of trouble for that.
So it seems like, and then more recently than that, they had an election and the Labor Party just lost massively at the ballot box.
So they lost a bunch of positions.
And I think at this point, they're thinking he's about to quit.
But he came out and gave some speech about this specter of far right extremists and things trying to treat it as like this big threat and it's dangerous.
And let's see, he said, We're not just facing dangerous times, but dangerous opponents, very dangerous opponents.
So he's trying to save himself by calling out the far right as if that's the problem.
So, but again, there's speculation that he might be resigning sometime soon.
And I can't think, I think it can't come sooner.
I agree.
Isn't that negative for that country and for us?
So, I agree, and good, and good riddance, I hope.
So, to Marcella and Owen, I'm just throwing this out there because somebody mentioned it in the chat.
And yes, you guys, so the clock ran out for Fauci, right?
For the statute of limitations for him to be charged for all of his wrongdoings.
And I'm not going to say allegedly because it's true.
So, I don't know.
What does happen now?
Did either of you happen to read any of that?
I mean, I saw that now people are going to be having whistleblowers coming out and talking about things from behind the scenes.
Great.
That's really courageous now that the time ran out.
But what do we think is going to happen next with everything we know now about the vaccines and COVID and the lying?
Stella just took a header right onto me.
Well, I mean, you hope something happens.
But I feel like, you know, Rand Paul is all by himself.
Like, hopefully something does happen.
And so this doesn't occur again.
But can you prosecute him under that statute?
No.
But you can make him come to testify again.
And maybe he can lie again, allegedly.
Well, somebody was saying, and I've seen this also, that you actually, I forgot, you can be prosecuted for murder.
So, if there are murder charges, that's a workaround.
And I would say that that happened.
But yeah, I mean, you still have that pardon issue, but then you have the auto pen capacity issues.
So then you'd have to bring Biden and the Democrats down from there to show that he had no capacity, which I don't know if President Trump is ready to do.
I mean, I did post a story today or yesterday about how the DOJ is still considering starting a criminal investigation against Fauci.
There's, of course, potential for state offenses that are not covered by the federal pardon.
So it may be something that could be done at the state level.
And I think there is, from a statute of limitations standpoint, he could still be charged for lying to Congress in 2024 because there he said he didn't use his personal email for NIH business, which was a lie.
So there's still some potential that he could be prosecuted, but I'm not really hopeful.
And I think the pardon thing might be one of the factors that.
You know, I mean, I do think we probably should test it and see if we can get it done, but it could be something that some people don't want to test because they don't want to necessarily open the door to saying, you know, now we have legitimacy tests for pardons.
Or on the other side, they could say we don't want, you know, to potentially open the door for all sorts of other pardons to be questioned in the future.
So I unfortunately don't think it's going to happen, but I would certainly like to see it happen.
Yeah, I know.
It's, it's, um, I'm curious just because I did hear, like, now that that ran out, there'll be whistleblowers, let's say.
But I'm like, you should have blew your whistle a long time ago, people.
Interesting timing if they come out now.
Yeah, of course.
Well, I mean, he can still be prosecuted in a state, you know, depending on the state.
Civilly?
They can change, no, criminally.
Oh, criminally?
I mean, I remember New York changing statute of limitations for certain SA stuff for Trump, just so that they could prosecute him.
Or tried to.
Or, no, I guess it was civilly.
But I know somebody mentioned Florida.
Sorry, I'm laughing because somebody posted a picture of Owen as Chinese.
Florida, Governor DeSantis did say that he was looking into prosecution for Fauci, but it has not been done.
This is before the new attorney general in Florida was appointed.
So maybe they are still looking into it.
I don't know.
What comment did you guys want me to see?
I see you telling me to look at it, but I don't know which one it is.
Let's see.
Didn't DeSantis have a legal case against Fauci in Florida?
According to Grok, he does not.
Okay.
I never heard that.
Dang.
Marianne said, dang.
He's a criminal, at least in criminal wise.
Okay.
All right, you guys.
So, yes, Andy, right on time.
I think we're good, unless either one of you want to.
Add anything to anything about anything, feel free to do it now.
Yeah, just check out the Hong Kongers by with regards to Jimmy Lai and then post on X or wherever you post Blue Sky.
I know a lot of you do post things about Jimmy Lai and see the, you know, we can make a change just like that Wisconsin lady made a change.
Yeah, I mean, he's going over there and you guys, when you watch the Hong Kongers, On YouTube for free.
Final Goodbyes and Calls00:02:20
Even repost the movie into your feeds and tag people that you know.
It's such a well done documentary, and he's such an incredible man.
And it breaks my heart every day when I think about him and his faith and his religion.
And he's drawing, he's just drawing religious pictures all day in solitary, never goes outside, nothing.
They don't like that.
They don't like religion.
Well, he's just like drawing like Mary and the crucifix, just anything to you know, that's all he has is paper and pens, and that's and little pencils, and that's it.
Um, oh boy, Owen, it's getting deep in there for you in the chat with the pictures.
Oh, I was in China for less than 24 hours, and yep, but now look at you come DI, DI Netflix.
I love you guys.
Okay, you guys are the best.
We thank you so much, as always, for.
Being here, start saying your goodbyes, you guys.
And I think I'll be on again tonight and potentially with a friend who I think I could best describe as like an AI attorney.
Marcella, if you're around, pop on with us.
So that'll be on Scott's Locals later.
And thanks to everybody who came last night for the locals.
You guys are the best.
So we will be back tomorrow morning, bright and early for some.
And we thank Scott and Shelly for allowing this show to go on.
And let's just go get it all.
Let's like, you know, do things keeping in mind Jimmy Lai and all of your goals and everything else.
And let's just be so useful today that like we can't even stand ourselves.
Okay.
And it's always a what time tonight, Goldie?
I don't know.
Maybe like six or seven Eastern time.
Okay, you guys, let's have a final sip to Scott and we'll see you in the morning.