Speaker A
Hey besties, if you were given $15 billion, what could you build? The next PayPal, perhaps the next SpaceX, the next Google, or would you build a high-speed rail?
Nick Shirley exposes massive government fraud and waste in California's high-speed rail project, revealing its failure and huge cost overruns.
Key Takeaways
- California's high-speed rail is a massive government failure with no tangible results after nearly two decades.
- Cost overruns and delays have made the project economically and practically unfeasible.
- Lack of transparency and poor planning have exacerbated waste and inefficiency.
- The project serves as a cautionary tale of government mismanagement and political fantasy.
- Independent investigators like Nick Shirley play a crucial role in exposing corruption despite personal risks.
What the video covers
- California's high-speed rail project has spent $15 billion over 18 years without connecting any cities.
- Initial cost estimates of $33 billion have ballooned to $236 billion, making it one of the most expensive infrastructure projects globally.
- The project currently consists mostly of unused concrete and rebar, often called a 'modern-day Stonehenge'.
- Significant delays and change orders have caused contractors to be paid millions despite no progress.
- California has not purchased any trains, indicating skepticism about the project's completion.
- The rail line has been abandoned between San Francisco and Los Angeles, now focusing only on Merced to Bakersfield.
- Construction continues despite houses being built on planned rail alignments, increasing future costs.
- Government communication and transparency about the project are sparse and ineffective.
- The project is widely viewed as a political fantasy with no realistic chance of completion in the near future.
- Nick Shirley also discusses his fight against government fraud and media challenges in exposing corruption.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction to California High-Speed Rail and $15 Billion Spent
- 02:10Current Status and Cost Overruns of the Project
- 04:25Economic Analysis and Ridership Subsidies
- 06:01Land Development and Construction Challenges
- 07:34Route Abandonment and Impact on Farmland
- 09:10Political and Governmental Admission of Project Impossibility
- 12:25Legal Battles and Media Challenges Faced by Nick Shirley
- 14:30Broader Implications of Government Corruption and Fraud
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
This is the California high-speed rail that goes to absolutely nowhere. And I mean absolutely nowhere, I mean literally nowhere.
Speaker A
This is all California has to show for $15 billion in 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,
Speaker A
they're estimated it's going to cost a hundred to $200 billion. 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
Speaker 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
Speaker A
the California high-speed rail. What's the truth about the high-speed rail here inside of California? Uh, well, we call it California high-speed rail, but all we have is concrete and rebar and about $15 billion spent. It currently is right now
Speaker A
the most expensive infrastructure project happening in the world today. The original estimates for California high-speed rail was $33 billion.
Speaker A
It then jumped to $126 billion and now the newest estimate is $236 billion. 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
Speaker A
interstate project of the 1950s. Number two is the International Space Station and now it is California high-speed rail.
Speaker A
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.
Speaker A
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, uh, known to man and often referred to here in the Central Valley as a modern-day Stonehenge.
Speaker A
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?
Speaker A
Governor Cuomo 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, okay, the facts seem overwhelming that
Speaker A
this project is not going to materialize in our lifetime and now this is a result of over $15 billion.
Speaker A
Who's taken the $15 billion? And where's the $15 billion gone if this is all that they have to show for? One-third of the entire cost of California high-speed rail has gone to this part called change order delays, uh,
Speaker A
because they didn't know where the infrastructure was and or how to build this actual train. 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
Speaker A
just settled here in California very recently in February, uh, 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.
Speaker A
What are some 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
Speaker A
trains, my opinion, because they know that there will never be a train on these tracks.
Speaker A
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
Speaker A
next 150 years. Now, with the new estimate that California high-speed rail is going to be $236 billion, uh, we could subsidize one-way tickets between San Francisco and LA for the next 300 years. So, to me, it would make
Speaker A
more sense for all of us to just buy the flights from San Francisco to LA than it would be to build a train or whatever this is and spend more money doing that.
Speaker A
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. The high-speed rail to nowhere.
Speaker A
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
Speaker A
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
Speaker A
then saw some train tracks where the hub of the high-speed rail is supposed to be.
Speaker A
Hello. Hey. How you guys doing? Is this the high-speed rail though? Uh no. So you can't be out. This is high.
Speaker A
Not the high-speed rail. Where's the going to be the hub for the high-speed rail?
Speaker A
I'm not sure. You don't know where the hub is going to be for the high-speed rail?
Speaker A
No. All right. 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
Speaker A
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
Speaker A
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
Speaker A
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.
Speaker A
Meanwhile, a construction site is right here where they're building houses on where that high-speed rail is supposed to go. Uh we don't really know. Typically government buys all of the alignment up front. That way you don't have cost of
Speaker A
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. The communication is pretty sparse, so we're left mostly in the dark.
Speaker A
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?
Speaker A
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
Speaker A
same areas. And how many more cases of this do you think are inside of this alignment for the high-speed rail?
Speaker A
I don't think this is atypical. I think this has happened quite a bit up and down the valley.
Speaker A
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
Speaker A
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
Speaker A
have it? We're going to go speak with the 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?
Speaker A
Ranches that have been contiguous for hundreds of years will now be split. And that requires you now hav
Speaker A
irrigation, power supplies, and even just and operationally it's just going to make it everything real inconvenient.
Speaker A
When California brought about the plan for the highspeed 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?
Speaker A
You know, all the voters had a ch had a chance to vote and it passed. Um but it was a very vague on the ballot. No one knew where it was going to go. To me, they're putting in all the wrong spots.
Speaker A
Um, it was to serve two different populations in the north, the state and the south. And they're where they're deciding to put it is it's going to impact an area that didn't need the highspeed rail to begin with.
Speaker A
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 uh almost hundred billion dollars more, if not $200 billion. What could farmers of California do if they
Speaker A
had hundred 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
Speaker A
it's just it's it's sad cuz we're worried about a train that's going to serve a small sector of the population.
Speaker A
And what really needs to be done is something that's going to be good for all of us in the state.
Speaker A
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.
Speaker A
Yes. And there'll probably be no one on the train. Now, we came here to Sacramento to go speak with the people at the California Highspeed Rail Authority office. It is 4:09 right now, and we just went inside and nobody's
Speaker A
here. Hallelujah. Really? Said they're open. They close at 5:00 p.m. 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
Speaker A
California Highspeed Rail Authority. We're going to go talk to him and see why he approved that. Senator Cortezi, how are you doing? Good. My name is Nick Shirley. We're doing a a little investigation on the highspeed rail. We
Speaker A
just want to ask what made you want to secure $1 billion for the next 20 years for the highspeed rail.
Speaker A
I believe it's a good uh 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?
Speaker A
It is happening. Have you been there? Yeah, I actually have. All right. Well, then you know it's happening.
Speaker A
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.
Speaker A
And do you think in 20 years the highspeed rail will be done as promised is going to be done in 2020? It might be, might not.
Speaker A
Gavin Newsome 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.
Speaker A
And do you believe as a chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, do you believe the highspeed rail authority has been sufficiently accountable for the increase and delays that have taken place with the highspeed rail?
Speaker A
Well, we're trying to hold them accountable. And what can you give to people to make them believe that the highspeed rail is actually going to be built and finished in our lifetime or in your lifetime?
Speaker A
It's not my commitment. My commitment is it's the greatest economic development project in the country and uh 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
Speaker A
it's a shame that uh you know certain people in the country aren't taking taking that seriously. So, uh, that's how we get things done is when the federal government, the state government work together. Build dams, build bridges, build highways, build highspeed
Speaker A
rail. That's what needs to happen. And you do believe that we'll see the uh finish of the highspeed rail in our lifetime.
Speaker A
There's 21 construction projects going on right now with thousands of workers. So, you'll see it get done.
Speaker A
Besties, don't be like the highspeed rail. Please welcome Mick Shirley. [ __ ] yeah. [ __ ] yeah. What's up, bro?
Speaker A
Hey man. Saxs, this is your guy. Get in there. Wow. Uh 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
Speaker A
investigations and you know your videos where you actually show up at these places that are stealing taxpayer money.
Speaker A
I could you just I mean I I'm still like 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
Speaker A
court system, but could you just explain that? Yes. 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
Speaker A
immigrants or immigrants. And that includes nonprofits and healthcare facilities. So, uh actually today, this just happened literally today. I filmed all these daycarees in San Diego and when I exposed it, Newsome came after me. But today, they found 12 individuals
Speaker A
who were all immigrants and they charged them of $10 million of fraud. That happened today.
Speaker A
California did. California, that 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
Speaker A
created that after I exposed the fraud. Wait, wait, wait. Okay, let me First of all, what is an was it immigration support services like what is that?
Speaker A
Yeah, it means legal services, healthc care facilities, um quite literally anything where your tax dollars go to provide the services for illegal immigrants or immigrants here in San from the state of California. So the state of California is funding
Speaker A
these businesses basically. Yes. To provide services to illegals. Yeah. It can be medical. It can even be NOS's, nonprofits that received grants from the government. For instance, the people who sponsored this bill is called Chura. They've received $80 million and
Speaker A
they do the advocacy work for illegal immigrants here inside the United States. Wait, they got $80 million. Sorry, million or billion. 80 million million nonprofit.
Speaker A
Nonprofit. And then it sounds like they're the law is written that any service to immigrants Yeah. you can't go do this work because they're trying to protect the community.
Speaker A
So, wait, but how do they stop you? So, let's say you so you go to one of these NOS's or businesses that's received this funding. You record it. Um, and now they're saying you can't upload it.
Speaker A
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
Speaker A
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.
Speaker A
Sorry, doesn't that violate your constitutional rights? Yeah, first amendment rights. And so do you sue the state of California?
Speaker A
Yeah, I'm suing the state of California right now to undo that bill. Yes. Obstensively, by the way, Saxs, this was all under the pretext of our favorite term, safety, because what Nick Shirley was doing in knocking on a door and
Speaker A
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.
Speaker A
And they literally called this the Nick Shirley law. So I think this is the most amazing uh 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 [ __ ]
Speaker A
ass, Nick. Don't stop. Um 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
Speaker A
the money, find the conlaw people, and then take the case? Is that what it is?
Speaker A
Or do they actually legitimately think there's legal standing? Like, what does your team tell you about that law that's trying to stop you?
Speaker A
Yeah. I don't think they thought Nick Shirley would hear about this bill cuz they called it AB2624.
Speaker A
And unless an assemblyman dubbed it the Stop Nick Shirley Act, I probably wouldn't have heard about it. So California, they've pretty much passed all these laws. Like it's it's called comeie for you. Call me Foria for a reason. Like to forget a bill passed in
Speaker A
California in the in the legislators. There's 40 senators. 30 of them are Democrats. 10 of them are Republicans.
Speaker A
It 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.
Speaker A
Let's be clear, Gavin Newsome signed this. Yeah. And who is the impetus of this bill?
Speaker A
Like is there a way that people are teasing out the the funding cycle and the people that were behind this thing or no?
Speaker A
Well, Chura, they're the co-sponsor but who received $80 million. The person who created this bill is the wife of the attorney general. Her name is Mia Bont.
Speaker A
So, meanwhile, the attorney general is 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.
Speaker A
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 uh when I was 15 years old I started making YouTube videos vlogs and
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pranks as I got older I got more interested to see what was 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
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about co you might be demonetized so you couldn't make any money and so then I ended up taking like a 2-year break on a mission trip for our church and went to uh Santiago Chile I started learning about um all these people that were
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fleeing Venezuela they were going to Chile and they were telling me about how people are going to the United States so then 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
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home, I went to the southern border and I started interviewing people in Spanish saying like, "How'd you guys come over here? Like, what's going on?" And I thought it was like super sad that the all these people were coming over
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fleeing the country. And then I get this lady's WhatsApp who was from Ecuador. She said she had no money at the border.
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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 2 and a half years, I've been making a video every single week about
Speaker A
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.
Speaker A
And uh I was I only knew about that fraud because I had been making a video every single week from across the world.
Speaker A
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
Speaker A
like a I said made a joke. I'm I'm like a congressman for the entire United States who actually listens to the people.
Speaker A
But I don't work for anybody. Well, and what I really appreciate about what you're doing is Man on the Street is a really challenging uh art form and journalistic uh format. It's incredibly brave for you to go out there, put
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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. Uh, and I think it's important that we're
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clear about this because people make allegations, oh, you're a plant. Somebody's funding you. You're funded by the people through your X.com account.
Speaker A
You make tens of thousands of dollars a month, I think, maybe hundreds of thousands a year just to sustain yourself.
Speaker A
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 $300 a day. I was like, I'm going to be balling. That'sund that's a $100,000 a
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year. And then uh I started making more and more money. I post this Minnesota fraud video. My mom literally films it.
Speaker A
That's my favorite thing. People like Nick's a Fed. I'm like, would a Fed have his mom filming his YouTube videos when he's 24 years old?
Speaker A
Not a fed thing to do. Yeah. Not a Fed thing to do. I think they could find somebody better if they if that was the case. But um I was just 100% working uh for myself to show people what was actually happening and
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I've created a lot of change. The the audience reaction is a little polarized, right? There are obviously people like us who are like, you know, stealing is wrong.
Speaker A
Um then there's obviously fraudsters who can be angry at you, very angry. Um but then there are passive viewers that actually really dislike what you're doing.
Speaker A
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 a fraudster who opens up a
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layering center, I'm like, you might need to rethink something. I can tell you what this is.
Speaker A
People say you're racist. I can tell you what's happening here, Shimoth. Having been a journalist and come up with these people.
Speaker A
Oh, here we go. No, no, it's actually super important. Jason lectures Nick. It's not a lecture. It's an insight. Um, and you're lucky to hear it. Uh, so sit back. uh what you represent to them is a threat because they came up and they
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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 a side. You haven't.
Speaker A
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 facteing here. Wasn't thorough enough here." Yeah. Okay, fine. on the margins, you're learning on the job. And I've had
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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
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[ __ ] shame them and then they get arrested and you're forcing the AGs in this country to face it. And it's just you. It's just you and your pure desire and energy to do it. And that's what
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journalists hate about you because they could do it too. And they should be ashamed that they don't. This was the job of 60 Minutes and Front Line and they forgot how to do their job. And you're picking up the mantle of what
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Front Line and 60 Minutes used to be. I agree. Give me some. [ __ ] yeah.
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I die. 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.
Speaker A
And so that's one thing I have seen is there actually has been change like they just found the 12 people today uh the leers in Minnesota most most of them fled the country I believe but they got the head.
Speaker A
Oh is that right? So give us the kota actually about the the daycarees in Minnesota.
Speaker A
Yes. So the daycarees in Minnesota they the was the craziest thing because I was just sitting in my room. I just posted that video. I had no idea it was going to be like the biggest video ever. It
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got 4 billion views in 7 days. Uh which was pretty insane. Uh so I post that video and then there starts to be like riots in protest. People start dying to cover for the L the leers. Uh the the politicians were like
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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 street to cover up for the fraud. Well, it didn't really work cuz Tim Waltz dropped out of
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re-election. In Minnesota, they the head person of the Laring centers who had received $4 million, 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
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lessers. She got caught. She got busted. Um then the biggest autism bust of all time took place there as well. So like I've been very productive.
Speaker A
So wait, so did she get prosecuted? Yes. And she plead guilty. She plead guilty.
Speaker A
Yeah. Oh wow. And what's the sentence? Uh, I don't know yet. Okay. Maybe it hasn't happened yet or Yeah.
Speaker A
Did you Did you see Bill Gurley's presentation? I watched a bit of it. It's kind of hard to hear back.
Speaker A
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
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kind of politicized point. What's your view? Have you met with journalists and talked with them? Have 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
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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, like good
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for you." Investigating the investigator. Yeah. That's that 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
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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 I'm going to
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right after we get on here, I'm going to subscribe and I'm going to 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
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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 to criminals and the mob has always wanted.
Speaker A
No, I'll take it. What was that? What was it? You were the son that Jason has always wanted.
Speaker A
No, no. I mean, I have three great daughters, but I 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
Speaker A
Bill Gurley pointed it out so well in his talk, which was there are still great investigative journalists out there. There just not enough of them.
Speaker A
And I I think it's fantastic that there's a new generation doing this and that you're doing is Yeah, this is what So there have been a few others that have emerged since you came out. Minnesota piece was such a big
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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?
Speaker A
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.
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For instance, I post that video about the fraud in on YouTube. It does well.
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It gets a few million views on X. It got 140 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
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be done. Like the government, I caught them kind of backhanded um on that. So, they had to go step in. But I do think a lot of individuals like I do hope I am motivating a lot of kids, especially my
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generation, to be less of a complainer and be more of a doer. So I and I think journalism people think of it as just like showing what's going on. Well, you can actually have massive create massive change inside of the
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country in the areas that you live in. Uh 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
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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 uh because you became I think pretty famous from the Minnesota video,
Speaker A
but you had other stuff before where it wasn't about chasing down corruption like you went into the FAS and Brazil, right? Which was incredibly scary and you've done a lot of this stuff. Are you still doing those sorts of things or
Speaker A
is everything now about government corruption? I would love to continue to do those videos and I will do more these past 8 months. Uh every morning I'm waking up to something new about fraud and corruption. So I've kind of just like
Speaker A
been spearheading that. But uh I would like to get more into that stuff. Like I I like I I almost got kidnapped in the Brazilian fabllas. I met up with this the head of Commando Vermelo inside this in inside this FLLA in Rio de Janeiro.
Speaker A
And literally like there's only a few things that could have happened with me and him and this broken down shackle in the top of the FLLA got also nearly taken hostage in Cuba. Two car a two star communist general came down to try
Speaker A
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's just kind of taken over my life recently though.
Speaker A
What are the other big pockets of fraud that you are scratching at that you think exist? The big honeypotss that you're going to go chase down and uncover.
Speaker A
I like welfare fraud here inside the United States is just absolutely welfare insane. Like all of it. Uh can you explain that?
Speaker A
For instance, like food stamps. Uh there's a there's a strip club in Portland, Oregon where you can use your SNAP card.
Speaker A
uh like the government especially underneath Biden uh they literally let open like the floodgates to fraud. I mean Tim Waltz was celebrating and using the daycarees in his debates against JD Vance right?
Speaker A
Uh so all these social benefit programs have literally been looted whether it be SNAP whether it be daycarees whether it be adult daycarees like literally you name it hospices like all these things that have received government money are
Speaker A
just full of fraud. And so now you're just trying to pull the thread and uncover as much of it as possible.
Speaker A
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 and like what's going to stop a fraudster from me knocking on his
Speaker A
door and then he him realizing that his time's 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
Speaker A
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
Speaker A
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
Speaker A
and then but there's a last point where your incentive is I must do something that will get views as well.
Speaker A
Yeah. Like that's how all this stuff happens. Well, you know, here I'm going to that's part of 60 Minutes as an example does undercover reporting and always has and they would if a subject would not come on 60
Speaker A
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 going to do it. So, I think you're well within your right to do that. I think as
Speaker A
you professionalize your operation, um, 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 $5 subscription, but you should also ask
Speaker A
people to be charter supporters, you know, at a $500 level, $1,000 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
Speaker A
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 going to
Speaker A
take off. If you have those three or four people, um, we're all going to save more money. A 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
Speaker A
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, you know,
Speaker A
the protection of living in these United States. It is really sinister to steal from the country. It really is. And and just I'm I'm really upset that you are faced with security issues and and a lack of support and this criticism on
Speaker A
the ticky tacky things. Do not stop doing what you're doing. Thank you very much. And like if we can stop fraud, we can literally save the country. Like that's something people don't understand. What what's crazy is it's not just fraud. I think the
Speaker A
California highspeed 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
Speaker A
ticket. None of it makes sense. Literally, it's like lit none of it makes sense. And the guy got paid half a billion for nonwork.
Speaker A
It's a billionaire in Italy who got paid that money. I tricked him. How much did he get paid?
Speaker A
Half a billion. So the Say half a billion. Did you watch the video? Yeah. So after I saw that video, so Nick Nick sent me that video and then I traced down who got paid that half billion and the ultimate owner is a
Speaker A
billionaire in Italy. I didn't know that. And um the whole story when you when you kind of dig into this so this isn't fraud. It's legal.
Speaker A
Mhm. It's a legal system. It's a legal It's a legal system and and I think it falls under that idea of waste or some sort of corruption, but I think it is as re the fraud stuff anyone can get behind. But
Speaker A
this is the stuff unethical and logical. There's 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
Speaker A
think on behalf of a lot of people I really appreciate the mission you're on.
Speaker A
You're an incredible person. We thank you for the work. Thank you guys so much. Thanks for being No problem. I appreciate it.
Speaker A
[ __ ] yeah. Thanks, brother. Appreciate it. Thank you. Great job. Thanks, Jason. Appreciate it.
Topics:California high-speed railgovernment fraudinfrastructure failurecost overrunsNick Shirleypublic corruptiontransportation projectmedia investigationgovernment wasteCalifornia politics
