00:00:00.000Hello, everybody. I hope everybody has had a great week this week. I know that we are
00:00:14.880now kind of into summer, even though it's not officially summer until June. I can tell
00:00:19.500you in Texas, it's already summer. It's been a hot one, and I think it's going to be a
00:00:24.320hot summer. That's the way it is. Now, maybe El Nino will bring us some rain that we always
00:00:28.920seem to need. And I hope wherever you are that you're beginning to enjoy your summer. Your kids
00:00:34.260are hopefully out of school by now and your graduations are over. Congratulations to all of
00:00:40.140you that graduated or had kids that graduated or grandkids. Those are always kind of interesting
00:00:45.280and fun times. I can remember all of those for our kids and they all have a special memory in
00:00:50.580our heart. In fact, I'll tell you this little story that when I guess Lisa and I always knew
00:00:55.700that Allie was going to be someone that used her voice in whatever career she decided upon.
00:01:02.440But I think that we knew for sure that she was going to be speaking to groups of people
00:01:09.200when she graduated from college. Her college, Furman University, did not, the valedictorian
00:01:17.640didn't automatically speak. They actually had a speaking contest that the students participated
00:01:24.220in and helped judge. And then the faculty, some faculty group made the final decision. And Allie
00:01:29.660was chosen as the graduation speaker, which we were certainly proud of. And I remember her
00:01:36.060speaking that night in the football stadium at Furman. And I could just tell there was a point
00:01:44.100in her speech. In fact, I should have brought the picture with me, I have a really good picture of
00:01:48.000it, that it's almost like it's going off in her head, like, yep, this is what I'm meant to do.
00:01:54.300And so that's a special time for our family.
00:01:57.320I know you've had a bunch of special times as well.
00:01:59.860A lot to talk about today, and we'll try to get through it in as clear and concise as we can.
00:02:04.960But it's a lot of really interesting information that I hope when I'm doing these,
00:02:09.440my sessions obviously are different than Allie's.
00:02:11.560My sessions are really to try to take things and to put them in as layman terms as possible.
00:02:17.480Some of them are very easy to understand.
00:02:19.440Some are more complex, and some of them I may not do that great of a job at.
00:02:22.680And if I don't, please let me know that. But I do think that they're important.
00:02:26.980What we're trying to do here, what I'm trying to do is to help you and all of us, you know, become better engaged citizens.
00:02:36.240And I know that you have a lot going on within your family and your job and the other stuff that you do.
00:02:41.640But it's also important that we participate in our citizenry.
00:02:46.740And that has to do with paying attention to those that govern us.
00:02:50.800has to do with paying attention to culture and having influence on as many of those areas as we
00:02:56.840can through the means that are appropriate that we do as Christians. So that's kind of my goal
00:03:04.360here. And also to answer your questions, you always have great questions. We'll have some
00:03:08.580great questions on this episode, and I'll try to do my best to answer those. But you can always
00:03:13.320also email me, ron at ronsimmons.com, and I'm happy to answer your questions. If you've emailed
00:03:18.440me and I haven't gotten back to you, please resend it so it gets back to the top of my inbox.
00:03:23.160Sometimes they get down at the bottom of the inbox and I forget about them. So please do that.
00:03:27.360One of the things that's been going on in the last several days is the mayoral race in Los Angeles.
00:03:34.700And the current mayor there, Karen Bass, and she had two main contenders, Stephen Pratt and
00:03:43.800Neetha Raymond. And the actual election day was a week or two ago, but it takes California
00:03:53.260seven, eight days to count votes, which is really crazy. The latest in what they are calling the
00:04:01.920final says that Neetha Ramon has overtaken Spencer Pratt in the race for second place in the mayor
00:04:10.960race so that she'll be in the runoff along with Karen Bass. Now, it's really interesting that
00:04:17.000this happened because on election night, because Pratt was so far ahead of her and about eight or
00:04:24.200nine points ahead of her, which is a lot in an election, Nathia Ramon broke down in tears1.00
00:04:31.140addressing her supporters because she was in third place and wouldn't be in the runoff. Here's what1.00
00:04:36.700She said on election night, I hope you know that everything, every person in this room is fighting for in this campaign has been about building a city that's worthy of you and every child in the city.
00:04:51.820so she realized that uh you know overcoming a uh a deficit like that would be almost impossible
00:05:09.000as a matter of fact i'll tell you a personal story you know the last political race that i ran
00:05:14.320my district had kind of turned purple and it was a it was a race when beto o'rourke if you remember
00:05:21.760Beto. He ran for Senate against Ted Cruz. Ted Cruz was the sitting senator, who still is. And
00:05:29.900Beto generated a lot of excitement among young voters and Democrat voters and what we call
00:05:36.200general election voters, voters that didn't vote in the primary but vote in the general election.
00:05:40.740And on election night, we thought we were in good shape. In fact, the polling that we had done
00:05:44.780just before when the election process started, we were up seven or eight points. On election night,
00:05:50.740The polls close at seven o'clock. And if you got those of you that have read my book, I'll know this story already. And I go into much more detail in the book. But on election night at seven o'clock, the Republican Party chair of our county will call all of the candidates that are Republican and see where you are in the early vote count.
00:06:12.880and that those were the ones that voted before actual election day and early voting.
00:06:19.540And I was down 200 votes after early voting.
00:06:23.860Well, the way math works and just statistics work,
00:06:28.400I knew right then that I was likely to lose that race,
00:06:32.120even though election day voting hadn't been counted
00:06:34.540and a lot of the mail ballots had not been counted.
00:06:37.540But I knew pretty well for sure that I would lose right then.
00:06:41.640And sure enough, I did not overcome that deficit during that, during once they counted election day voting and mail ballots, because it's just very hard. Usually the percentages don't change very much at all between what happened in early voting and what happens on election day and in mail ballots.
00:07:00.900So it's very uncommon. And that's why Ms. Ramon basically conceded that she wasn't going to be in the runoff.
00:07:10.480However, when all these mail-in ballots came in and the way California does it, they allow you to send in your mail ballot.
00:07:20.000And as long as it's postmarked on Election Day, they will count it.
00:07:23.880And it takes up to seven, eight days to get all the votes counted.
00:07:26.960Now, why most other states can count them the same day? I have no idea. It just doesn't make any sense.
00:07:33.220In fact, you know, people are pushing back on this as to what really happened, because Spencer Pratt was the only Republican or was the leading Republican in the race.
00:07:42.680In fact, Stephen Krakauer, and I think we have a screen of this, wrote on X, it's not just Pratt fading in these drops.
00:07:50.220It's Ramon beating Karen Bass by eight points that really makes it look, makes it feel very election integrity-ish, meaning not much integrity at all.
00:08:02.440And President Trump responded on his true social, said there's there's big cheating by the Democrats in the California votes are all tied up, may not be for weeks under investigation by the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles.
00:08:18.220Why the vote counting delay? Which is a very good question.
00:08:22.720And then finally, which is the one I want to spend a little time on, Elon Musk retweeted a post from NotTheBee, meaning NotBabylonBee, noting the statistical impossibilities.
00:08:35.060When statistical impossible things happen, we should not be expected as a society to accept them.
00:08:40.760Evidence of fraud isn't limited to video surveillance.
00:08:44.400Statistical impossibilities are hard evidence of fraud.
00:08:47.800Now, let me explain this to you. It may just may take a couple of minutes to get it. You may have to re-listen to this part of it a couple of times. So at the end, on election night, when the polls closed, when they closed, which essentially they counted all the early votes and maybe some election day votes as well.
00:09:05.680So Karen Bass had 35 percent. Spencer Pratt had 30 percent. Ramon had 23 percent.
00:09:15.800And all of the other candidates, there were seven or eight other candidates, totaled 12 percent.
00:09:19.920So 35, 30, 23 and 12. Now, once they finish the counting.
00:09:26.440OK, now, remember, the people that are counting the votes and the people that are watching the vote count,
00:09:32.700they know these numbers 35 30 23 12 that's why uh ramon conceded that first night the final vote
00:09:42.460count this is really interesting uh 34 for karen bass 26 for spencer pratt 29 for ramon and 11
00:09:54.280percent for all the others. So Karen Bass's vote count went down by one percent. Spencer Pratt's
00:10:02.220went down by four percentage points, and Ramones went up by six percentage points. Now, what would
00:10:11.780have to happen in order for that to be true, all right, that means that Karen Bass, while she did
00:10:19.540Even though her percentage came down, she did get some of the mail-in ballot votes, but not at the same percentage she got them before, which is unlikely, honestly.
00:10:29.700Spencer Pratt, not only did he not go up, he went down, and again, he got some votes from mail-in.
00:10:39.920However, they he got very, very few votes from mail in ballots, which, again, based on the performance and early voting would say that even if he didn't get that continued 30 percent, he got in early voting, he probably would have gotten 20 percent or maybe 25 percent.
00:10:57.100OK, so it doesn't make sense. Here's the kicker. In order for Ms. Ramon to go from 23 percent to 29 percent, she would have had to have gotten 47 percent of all the votes that came in after early voting.
00:11:16.520That is statistically impossible. Someone, in my opinion, and someone that gets 23% of the votes in early voting is not going to get 47% of the rest of the votes. I am telling you, from what my grandmother would say, there is a fly in the buttermilk. Something is not right there. I hope they can get to the bottom of it.
00:11:36.660It seems like that they saw what votes they needed to get and that's where they got.
00:11:43.720And I hope that's not the case. If she got 47 percent of the votes in mail in ballot, then we all need to go figure out how she did it, assuming she did it in the correct way and use that in the future in any campaigns that we're interested in.
00:11:58.100One of the challenges in California is something called ballot harvesting. What ballot harvesting means, and in most states it's illegal, but what ballot harvesting means is that I can go as an individual, I can go pick up a vote. I can go pick up people's ballots.
00:12:16.920I can go around the neighborhood and pick them up and then turn them in myself.
00:12:21.140Most ones, most places say you can't go around and harvest, get ballots and pick them up and then turn them in.
00:12:28.380Now, in theory, the person's already filled out the ballot, sealed the envelope and everything, and you're just the transporter.
00:12:35.860But that just opens things up for potential fraud. All right.
00:12:40.060It just makes the opportunity so great. And that's why most states don't allow that.
00:12:45.640We do not allow that in Texas. So it's not just family members, but anyone can pick up ballots and there's no limit on how many they can pick up.
00:12:55.160So who knows? And in California, everybody's mailed a mail-in ballot.
00:13:01.440Even if you're going to go vote in person, you get a mail-in ballot by the mail.
00:13:04.980So what if somebody gets that ballot and fills it out, forges somebody else's name on it or however they do that?
00:13:10.780I mean, it's just, it's just a problem. And then when you're voting in person, no photo ID is required for most voters. In fact, Gavin Newsom in 2024 signed a law that prohibit checking ID when voting. Now, is that the craziest thing you've heard? You got to check ID. I guarantee you to get into some of his events, they have to check your ID.
00:13:31.100To get to the airport, to go through the airport security line, you have to have ID, but not in voting, our most basic fundamental responsibility, the thing that really keeps our democracy and our republic going.
00:13:43.800You don't have to show voter ID. Just absolutely, absolutely crazy. And so we hope that the U.S. Attorney's Office in L.A. will be looking into this.
00:13:55.760It just seems like something is not right in that scenario.
00:14:48.400They absolutely have the right to do that,
00:14:50.720even though these were state or city elections.
00:14:53.900When you are violating the Constitution or you're violating federal election laws, even if you do it within a state election or a local election, then absolutely.
00:16:56.800But this Graham Plattner scandals that he is having are incredible.
00:17:01.040He is a Marine Corps veteran, and we believe he'll be the nominee.
00:17:05.660I think the voting's going on this week.
00:17:07.880He's running against Susan Collins, as we said.
00:17:10.420But the allegations about his past conduct have ranged from his Nazi tattoo, which we'll show you in a minute, to his affairs with women and abusive behavior.
00:17:21.460And Plattner Plattner showed as a tattoo of the Nazi Totenkopf emblem on his chest, which is a skull and crossbone design used by Nazi SS units.
00:17:33.920See that right there? I mean, that's those of you that are watching on video.
00:18:07.320sought to the times basically reported that they they saw texts of hers um including a text in
00:18:14.240august i believe august 3rd of last year this would be before october of last year in which
00:18:18.800she basically said that you had a quote nazi tattoo and she joked about how she's going to
00:18:22.940go volunteer for collins now again this is a text that got sent so like we can place the time right
00:18:27.960this is in august how does she know it's a nazi tattoo in august of last year and you don't know
00:18:32.980it's not Nazi task to in August of last year. Well, she certainly didn't send that text to me.
00:18:39.380So whoever she sent it to and was talking to, that's I can't say why, but I will say that
00:18:46.500I certainly didn't know. And and the text messages she's sending to friends who
00:18:52.140may have recognized that that's they didn't tell me that. So.
00:18:56.340this guy is just not a truth teller i mean that's that's all there is to it he's not a truth teller
00:19:03.460now the democrats have rallied behind him a lot of the ones in uh in senate have rallied behind
00:19:09.160him and just you know don't care about this type of stuff although any mistake that a republican
00:19:14.660makes they want to shout to high heaven and they have the media helping them do it i appreciate
00:19:18.720chris hayes asking that question he's part of msnbc which i'm definitely not a fan of but i
00:19:24.180appreciate him asking that question. And it's not only the Nazi tattoo, he also has some sexting
00:19:31.260scandals. In fact, his wife, Amy Gertner, discovered sexually explicit text messages
00:19:38.020that he sent to as many as a dozen women on his phone. In fact, she flagged the issue for
00:19:43.440a Senate campaign last year as a potential liability. So his, okay, now stay with me on
00:19:49.440his wife found him on his phone and told the Senate campaign, hey, you need to be aware of
00:19:54.400this. This is probably going to come out. But his wife also issued a statement saying they had a
00:19:58.940great marriage. Now, I believe in reconciliation and I believe they, you know, people can be
00:20:04.500reconciled. People make mistakes. But how can you say you had a great marriage if you found these
00:20:11.300on his phone? He obviously wasn't going to say anything about it. And then you had to flag them.
00:20:16.280His ex-girlfriends, though, actually talk a little bit more about his attitude and how he has treated women.
00:20:24.520In fact, a New York Times piece, again, usually not our friend, but glad they printed this, documented the testimony of several ex-girlfriends who described him as demeaning, emotionally volatile, heavy drinking, unfaithful, in at least one case, physically rough or intimidating during arguments in his 20s and 30s.
00:20:46.900Lindsay Fiefeld, who Plattner dated from 2013 to 2015, said Plattner was cavalierly contemptuous of women's emotions.
00:20:56.040He regularly grabbed her by the shoulders while drinking and in one incident twisted her arm and shoved her into a bedroom and told her to stay in there until she calmed down.
00:21:06.340After the piece was published, however, Fiefeld posted on Exit the New York Times actually was trying to do damage control for Plattner.
00:21:15.320And I don't know if that's true or not.
00:21:42.200The journalist I trusted who convinced me to share the story I never wanted to tell methodically delayed and twisted this into a gift to the Plattner campaign.
00:21:52.900Wow, that's a pretty strong accusation, but it wouldn't put it past the New York Times to do that.
00:21:57.780We know they're a far left organization.
00:21:59.880We know that they don't like anything any Republican or conservative does.
00:23:21.040So he's basically saying this never gets old to see one of our soldiers being shot four times.
00:23:26.960That's very disappointing. That in itself would disqualify him for any vote that I would ever take where he was on the ballot.
00:23:36.340Also, Plattner evidently asked why black people don't tip.1.00
00:23:40.200And he said there are times in this world when for the good tolerance of humanity, you need to kill an MF and smeared rural white Americans as dumb and racist.1.00
00:23:47.780So this guy is basically a offended everybody. And we'll see what happens in Maine. But man, what a mess this is in Maine. And hopefully this will mean that when it comes out, a lot of Maine voters are independent voters. They're not really aligned with one party.1.00
00:24:06.820Hopefully they would see Susan Collins as a better pick than Graham Plattner.
00:24:10.480And again, if you know anybody in Maine, I've got a few friends up there.
00:24:13.440We need to be in touch with them and make sure that they vote correctly in November.
00:24:18.060One of the questions that comes up about all this is what about the midterms?
00:24:22.960What happens? What do you think is going to happen in the midterms?
00:24:25.100Well, it's interesting that you say it's kind of an unusual scenario.
00:24:31.460I, I, the redistricting so far has helped the Republicans, no question about it.
00:24:37.860So the, the, the hill to climb for Democrats is a little harder in the house.
00:25:29.720You know, general elections are about policy as opposed to people. Primaries are more about people. Which candidate do you prefer? Right. And but general elections, because for the most part, and we're going to talk in just a second about when it doesn't happen.
00:25:46.180But for the most part, Republicans are going to vote.
00:25:49.720All Republicans are going to vote the same way.
00:25:51.900All Democrats are going to vote the same way.
00:25:54.240So no matter how towards the middle a Democrat might campaign, they're going to vote pretty far left.
00:26:03.260OK. And so the policies of the Republican Party fit my values and my family's values more than the Democrat Party does at this time in our history.
00:26:12.840Probably hasn't always been that way, but that's the way it is today.
00:26:16.180So you want to think about policy in the general election, and you want to think about person in the primary, all right?
00:26:26.860And those of us that have a general election coming up where maybe the candidate of our party has some personal flaws,
00:26:36.800I want to think more about what the policies are that his party supports, and therefore I know he'll support,
00:26:44.000as opposed to the person, and I hope that you'll remember that.
00:26:49.360Now, since we're on the election thing, let's talk just for a minute about the Save America Act.
00:26:55.260The Save America Act has again stalled in Congress, and there were four Senate Republicans,
00:27:02.740and we're going to put their pictures up, that joined with Democrats to block a voter ID integrity bill
00:27:08.900We were trying to get in with the $70 billion immigration enforcement funding package that went through reconciliation, therefore only took 50 votes if we got it in the bill.
00:27:20.120It was Susan Collins, who we just talked about.
00:27:30.900She seems to vote a lot against Republican ideas, effectively conservative Republican ideas.
00:27:38.900And then Mitch McConnell, he voted against it probably because of his feud with President Trump. I don't know any other reason. I can't imagine that Kentucky voters would be against this, but he voted against it. You know, he's going out. He's not running again, so he doesn't have anything to lose, I guess.
00:27:56.400And then finally, Tom Tillis of North Carolina, which again, he's going out and I can't imagine North Carolina voters.
00:28:03.980I know they have voter ID in North Carolina, so I can't imagine why he would be against it.
00:28:07.940But he was. So four Republicans joined that.
00:28:11.340Lindsey Graham's amendment needed 60 votes in the Senate to be approved.
00:28:16.060And he basically was putting the SAVE Act inside this reconciliation bill.
00:28:21.720But it failed to get the required number only receiving 50 votes.
00:28:25.620Now, even if those four senators would have joined, not likely that, you know, we would have gotten anybody else on our side, but it's very disappointing.
00:28:34.680Very disappointing. I think one Democrat senator did vote with us, and I believe that was Fetterman, but I'm not sure about that.
00:28:41.980You can double check that yourself. But again, it just shows the challenges that we have.
00:28:49.360I mean, but, you know, the funny thing is what it simply does is it requires people registering to vote in federal election to provide that they have proof of citizenship, that they're eligible to vote and that only legally allowed citizens are eligible to vote in federal elections.
00:29:05.240That's all that we are asking for and that there be a voter ID.
00:30:03.220I agree, Josh. I mean, I just can't imagine that. I was on the election committee one of the sessions when I was in the House, and we had voter ID laws.
00:30:14.500They had gone through the court. The court upheld them, and we put in strict ballot harvesting laws, things like that.
00:30:20.900So I have no idea. In fact, Texas U.S. Congressman Chip Roy posted on X, and I think we have a screenshot of this, is that Senate Republicans prefer to hide behind a fake 60 vote threshold rather than maintain a true filibuster rule and yet still consider the bill.
00:30:38.260So here we are. So what he's saying, if you're going to have a filibuster, make them stand up there and talk.
00:30:43.100Don't just say, I plan to filibuster this.
00:31:12.860So we'll see how it works. But at minimum, they ought to do the talking filibuster. It's just senseless that we're not doing that. But I would encourage you to continue to get in touch with your senators. Get in touch with your U.S. senators, especially if you live in a blue state.
00:31:29.380Get in touch with them about voting in favor of voter ID and make them explain to you why they're against voter ID.
00:31:38.040Most every state allows you to, even if you don't have a driver's license, you can get an ID that the state will provide and generally will pay for it for free of cost.
00:31:46.880You can get an ID that proves who you are and proves that you're a citizen eligible to vote.
00:31:51.660If you are, if you're not, then you don't you don't deserve to vote.
00:31:55.280So I just can't imagine why that we can't get that done.
00:31:59.640Now, one of the things that we've gotten a lot of questions about and a lot of concern about and it's legitimate concern are data centers and data centers are these huge.
00:32:10.560I'm sure you've heard of these huge warehouses. I mean, they are multiple football fields long.
00:32:15.600And inside of them are all these computer servers that are collecting and storing and computing all the data that you and I put up.
00:32:26.560Like, for example, if you order anything off of Amazon, for example, which most people do in the country now, and you can go in there and you look at your order history.
00:32:36.680Well, that order history that's in there is stored somewhere in a data center.
00:32:41.500All right. And that data center, which is kind of sort of like the cloud when you hear about the cloud.
00:32:46.780OK, that data center stores the data and then it retrieves it for you so that you can know what you've ordered and or in the past and maybe what you want to reorder, something like that.
00:32:57.280So it's something that we all use every day, but but it is just something that has created a lot of concern.
00:33:04.460In fact, one of the questions we got from Julie is what are data centers and why are some people up in arms?
00:33:09.640Well, we just explained to you about what they are, but the reason they're up in arms is because that they, in order for data centers to run, just like your own computer, you have to plug it in.
00:33:22.680It requires a lot of electrical power, and it also requires these huge computers, as you know, can run.
00:33:30.860They have a motor inside of them, so they can get hot, and that's why your computer, your laptop, like I'm using right now,
00:33:37.720has a little fan inside the computer that keeps it cooled down. Well, they have to have that type
00:33:42.760of scenario in these big warehouses, and they'll use water as chillers, okay? They use chillers,
00:33:49.860which are these huge air-conditioning units, to keep it cool inside those data centers,
00:33:54.840and that requires a use of water. And that's why people are concerned is the amount of electricity
00:33:59.760that they're using, that it's going to have a negative effect on the electrical grid and the
00:34:04.580water. In fact, there have been some claims of water contamination. But that's controversial a
00:34:13.500bit, but we'll see. Then the reason that, another question by Maggie is what's up with data centers
00:34:20.240being built and why the rush? Well, they're being built because we're using computers more and more
00:34:26.600every day. And a lot of that is what's happening with artificial intelligence, or as you and I
00:34:32.100know it, AI. What happens is, and this is a generalized, some of you that are computer
00:34:37.920people will probably laugh at me and feel free to email me and correct me or post it on YouTube or
00:34:45.140some other place where you can comment on it and help me understand better. But the way I understand
00:34:49.500it is that what AI does and how it learns to think, all right? In fact, today, when I gave
00:34:58.000you the percentage numbers that Rahman had to have in order to get to the percentage she got to
00:35:04.880of the mail ballot voting. I actually just put that question in AI and it calculated for me and
00:35:10.960it gave me the formula. So what happens is, is that there's all this data. Every time we're on
00:35:17.300the computer, this data is being collected. All right. And about our own preferences,
00:35:22.220things like that. And they use that data to then analyze to come up with answers or to answer your
00:35:30.960Google inquiry or your AI inquiry, or again, your shopping, whatever it is you want to buy and what
00:35:36.600have you. So that is all this data, and it's more and more and more. And then they're using it.
00:35:43.060Computing power is also required to help them to quickly, in a few seconds, go through essentially
00:35:50.520the entire internet to come up with the answer to the question. And that is just a huge amount
00:35:56.440of computing that has to happen. Was it dots and zeros or dashes and zeros is really what's
00:36:04.080behind all the code. And they convert all those into what is logical things that you and I would
00:36:10.240understand. And we're going to continue to need these data centers unless there is a breakthrough
00:36:15.900in computing that allows them not to be needed anymore.
00:36:20.000Most communities are raising concerns, again, as I said, about energy, water, environmental,
00:36:25.740and they are really huge facilities, but they were also used before AI, but AI has just
00:36:34.820It's a much, much heavier demand, and you and I use it every week.
00:36:39.180We use AI, whether you use AI, whether you know it or not.
00:36:41.980When you ask a question of your computer or when you're looking for something, it's using AI to help find that answer as quickly as possible for you.
00:36:50.720Right now, there are 3000 data centers and there's 1500 that are already in development across the country.
00:36:59.140That's a lot. If you think about that, that's, you know, you know, 50 states.
00:37:04.680that's, what is that, 60 per state, something like that, and now another 45, so it's up to like 70
00:37:12.460per state, even more than probably 80 per state. So that's a lot, you know, that's a lot, and some
00:37:18.800big states like Texas probably have more than others. In fact, I think Texas and Virginia have
00:37:23.000the most of the data centers. However, they do have a huge electrical need, and you know, there's
00:37:28.600been strains on our electrical grid. In fact, there's even protests going on about these. I
00:37:35.580think we have a screenshot of one of the protests. And these are just everyday people. I mean,
00:37:40.420these could be paid protesters, but probably not. They want to know what's going on here,
00:37:46.500what is happening. And it's a legitimate concern. By 2027, one single rack, this was according to
00:37:56.780Goldman Sachs, one single rack of the most advanced AI computers or servers could require
00:38:05.020enough electricity to run about 500 typical American homes. So you think about that. There's
00:38:10.700a lot of small towns in the United States that don't have 500 homes in them. And one big AI0.80
00:38:18.940server could require the same amount of electricity for computing power in order for it to be able to
00:38:25.980operate properly. Now, interestingly enough, even though you and I use AI every day, and we actually
00:38:32.700depend on it and need it, and we, you know, we depend on our computers, is that seven out of
00:38:38.50010 Americans, so 70% of Americans are against the construction of AI data centers in their local
00:38:45.220area. This is something when I was in the legislature that came up all the time, it's called
00:38:49.280the NIMBY concept. And what NIMBY means is not in my backyard. In other words, I know we need
00:38:55.780prisons, but I don't want you to build one in my backyard. Or I know we need dog parks,
00:39:03.040but don't build it where all the dogs are barking in my window. In this case, hey,
00:39:07.340I know we probably need data centers, but just don't build it in my backyard. And
00:39:12.000ladies and gentlemen, I get what you're saying. And again, I wouldn't want one right next to me
00:39:19.060either. But we do have to understand that in order to have the benefits of what these data
00:39:27.060centers bring to us, then we have to be able to maybe sacrifice some things. We don't need to
00:39:35.140sacrifice our environment or not being able to have enough electricity, but we need to be able
00:39:39.760to understand they're going to have to be somewhere. Now, ideally, they can be in places
00:40:13.940Certainly, it takes them to build the data centers.
00:40:16.040There's a lot of construction jobs that go on, and those are all good.
00:40:21.360However, what is happening in some of these states, and my state's been a part of it too,
00:40:26.300is that they give them incentives, huge incentives to come and build the data center here.
00:40:33.600Because if my state doesn't give them an incentive, the next state over will.
00:40:37.880And when incentives, they're meaning that's like tax abatements,
00:40:41.280I mean, they don't have to pay tax for a certain period of time, or they may even give them some type of grant, or maybe they give them a lower electricity cost, something like that.
00:40:50.740So it's a real problem, and it's a controversy.
00:40:54.520This is where you can contact your local city council and let them know your concerns about it.
00:43:47.420Now, this is another related question by Sarah, who says, should we sell home and rent to pay off all debt, 3% interest on current mortgage?
00:43:57.800I would say no, that I wouldn't do that. Now, obviously, I don't know your specific financial situation.
00:44:03.580If you're in a situation where you can't pay your debt, your other debt, and it's just piling up and piling up,
00:44:09.560then that might be another, you know, another opportunity or another option to sell the home.
00:44:16.960But if you can avoid that at 3% interest and you don't plan on moving anyway, you're going to stay in that home, then I don't think I would do that.
00:44:24.900I look for other ways to do that, if at all you possibly could.
00:44:28.920If you needed to take a second mortgage out on the home at a little bit higher rate, then that might be an option as well and pay off all that debt.
00:44:37.700And then you could take a second mortgage and might still even be able to deduct that interest as well.
00:44:42.120So I just don't know that I would do that right now.
00:44:44.580But I need to know a little bit more about your situation.
00:44:47.440If you want to email me on that, feel free to do that.
00:44:51.340Next to the Bible, what's the best finance book?
00:44:54.500Well, I like Dave Ramsey's Money Makeover, I think, as a basic finance book,
00:44:59.560and especially for a lot of young couples, even older couples.
00:45:02.280No matter how old you are, some people, no matter how old they are,
00:45:05.740haven't figured out how to manage their money yet
00:45:07.560or really haven't been taught the principles, I would do that.
00:45:10.460Another way that I help people think about finance, another book is called Rich Dad, Poor Dad, done by Robert Kiyosaki.
00:45:17.600Now, I don't necessarily agree with everything he says out there in all of his books, but this is a good fundamental book on the way you think about creating assets and how you think about finances and what have you.
00:45:32.120How do I how do I encourage this generation of parents to help their kids?
00:45:36.580You know, I got some good advice, and I'm thinking more about adult children right now financially.
00:45:44.240I got some good advice one time, and one of my mentors, I was talking about, my kids were entering the phase where they were getting ready to be married and buying homes and things like that, their kids starting to school.
00:45:57.640And, you know, our oldest son, we were only 21 years old when Justin was born, so we were very young.
00:46:04.480So he, you know, he he's only 21 years younger than I am. So I'm 65. And so he's 44. OK. And so he's, you know, if if if if we wait till Lisa and I pass away and, you know, who knows when that will be, then he's going to be pretty far up there before he would get any inheritance at all.
00:46:29.360And his kids may already be out of college, who knows?
00:46:32.340And so what this gentleman told me, he says, look, you need to help your kids when they
00:46:36.440need it the most, if you can afford to do it, and that they're good stewards.
00:46:57.920And that's what we try to do to help them during the times that they need it.
00:47:01.840Now, they need to be good stewards of their money before that you would be willing to do that.
00:47:06.380Because if they're going to take the money and just use it to go on a vacation or do something frivolous with it, then I wouldn't do that.
00:47:13.180If you want to help the grandkids, but you don't really trust the kids, then, you know, you could give directly to the school if they're in a private school or put a 529 plan in place for their college tuition and what have you.