Speaker 1: From Iran to the separate country of Washington States, causing
rich people or even well off people to flee. It's volatile,
and Zach Abraham's going to help us understand both of this.
We'll talk about this with the help of God Almighty.
Speaker 2: The Todd Herman Show is one hundred percent disapproved by
big pharma technocrarats in tyrone s everywhere from the high
mountains of Free America. Here's the Emerald City exime Todd Herman.
Speaker 1: Today is the day the Lord has made, and these
are the times to which God has decided we shall live.
Joining me now is my friend and brother, Zach Abraham,
chief investment officer Bulwark Capital Management in the firmly captured
separate country of Washington State. Zach, I see you're on
your phone. Was that you are talking to a real
estate agent because the income tax done past?
Speaker 3: Do you want to know what I was literally doing?
You were looking at the house I sent you, Yes,
I was.
Speaker 4: I'm in the process of texting that to my wife
and my uncle and cousin that currently live in Idaho.
Speaker 3: So That's what I'm doing right now for real, and
now I'm eating sen Yes, that just happens.
Speaker 1: Does see, that's I only take six percent as an
agent referral guy. So it's you know.
Speaker 3: I was going to do eight.
Speaker 1: Man, Oh yeah, but I take six. No, it's a
discount break. I'm taking six from the seller too, So
I guess it's twelve.
Speaker 4: But that's all you're You're not Bob Ferguson. You're not
going through the first ten. I'll take three or four.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 1: So, your country of Washington has in its constitution the
following that income taxes must be equally leveled against all citizens.
And they've passed something that's called the Millionaire's Tax. And
this is a nine point nine percent tax. Married couples
share a single one million dollar exemption. So if combined
incomes are more than a million, you're getting tax, by
the way, in the separate country of Seattle, five hundred
thousand per couple. That's solid upper middle class, i'd say,
in the separate country of Washington State. And this is
wildly unconstitutional and it's past and are you going to
keep your word? Are you going to adjust economically and geographically?
Speaker 4: Oh oh yes, yeah yeah. Hey, whether you like look,
whether you like me or not. You usually I usually
I'm pretty usually I.
Speaker 3: Honor my word.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know you honor your word.
Speaker 4: Uh yeah, I and and and like I told you,
this is not.
Speaker 3: I hate it.
Speaker 4: I hate it when they frame this in a framework
of afford.
Speaker 3: Uh, you can't.
Speaker 4: At first, it's none of your business what I do
with my money, first of all. And when I sit
there and listen to an intellectual just another example of
an an intellectual lightweight up there using the term you
you get your first milli for free?
Speaker 3: Did you hear that quote?
Speaker 4: Yeah, for free, million milli and milli for free for free?
Tell me you know nothing about making a business and
actually creating value, because it's been anything but free.
Speaker 3: I can assure you no, no, sweetheart.
Speaker 4: This is what we call earning something and being blessed
with something too.
Speaker 3: That's the other thing. Right, for the grace of God,
there go.
Speaker 4: Why but just that you don't get to tell me
what I get to keep. And if you try to,
me and my money are gone. And this is its
coercion at the point of a gun, and it's completely illegal.
And then the other part of it is, yes, it
is in direct violation of the constitutional law. My friends
around the country aren't getting this and they go, well, yeah,
you're Supreme courtal shoot it down. They go, boys, you're
not familiar. No, you're not familiar with one party rule.
For this long, they will rubber stamp anything these people
put through. They don't care. This isn't about what's right,
This isn't about the law other thing. This is why
you want to talk about dog whistles. Every time we
hear the term that the constitution, whichever one it is,
is a living breathing document, immediately slam on the brakes
and stop them, because if it's a living breathing document,
it doesn't mean anything right. So no, it's the rule
and you are in direct violation of it. It's not
even close. It's not even debatable. As a matter of fact,
nobody has spent any time. And I think this is
extraordinarily telling and it should be worried. Do you know
how much time this state has spent debating whether this
is legal? Oh?
Speaker 1: Zero, they're not debating it. The IRS has already come
along and said your capital gains tax is income tax.
That's illegal. And they've not spent any time debating this
because they don't care. It can't be debated because the
constitution is clear, so why would they possibly debate it?
Speaker 3: Yeah, did you see Howard Schultz last night? Just said
I'm just.
Speaker 1: Going to bring this up. So this is how Schultz
is the founder of Starbucks. Sy is he back to
being CEO because he came back in operated for a while.
Is he back on just the board?
Speaker 4: I don't know if he gave Yeah, I can't remember.
I think he gave it back up. I think he
gave it back up.
Speaker 1: But he stepped in when things got super off track
and and he had to come and rescue the company.
This is still where both of his wealth resides. So
he has decided to keep his foundation. Zach, I love
this move. I'm going to keep my charitable foundation. My
wife and I are going to keep our foundation in
the separate country, Washington State. But we're moving our residents
and he's moving to Florida. So Howard Schultz is moving
to live under the horrible reign of the very very
violent Tan Hitler. He's not the Orange Hitler, but the
Tan Hitler Ron DeSantis. And he wrote this long note
about how they've tried to make things better. But he
also said he's watched Seattle change. He's watched the state change.
If Schultz is gone, I don't know what his net
worth is, but it's it's not a little bit. He's
probably somewhere around five billion. I should have checked that.
That's a lot of money. Five to ten gone gone.
Speaker 3: Yep, yep.
Speaker 4: There's rumors that somebody there there's a look, you're gonna
see an exodus.
Speaker 3: The bottom line.
Speaker 4: Is this, This tax makes Washington citizens the most highly
taxed people in the country, even more so than California.
Here's the problem. We don't have eighty degree whether year round.
This ain't California, right, Okay, if you've seen the exit,
like I mean, just look in the front like again,
I do not. I'm not making the front of the
Seattle Times or the News Tribune because I'm leaving. But
just look at the job providers and the money that's
already said we're walking out of the It's just it's crazy.
But you want living here long enough. What you realize
is the only way you can stomach it is if
you're rich.
Speaker 3: Enough to where this stuff doesn't matter, or those.
Speaker 1: Are the or you're poor enough that you benefit from
of free drugs and the ability to go sign up
for an Airbnb for a week and then say I
live here now.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And then first I want.
Speaker 1: To be clear, I want to be clearing this. Please
understand what I just said. This is not for you, Zach.
I know you get this, and this separate country of
Washington State. I've confirmed with sheriff Sheriff Keith Swank from
Pierce County, who your state's trying to remove from office.
Literally legit, je Zach. If if you go stay in
an Airbnb for a day in the separate county of
Washington State and go, man, it's nice here. I'm not leaving,
it can take two years to get you out. So
you're talking about the ultra rich or desperately poor people
who have one hundred and fifty nine bucks left on
a credit card that they can use to rent a
billion dollar house for a day and they don't have
to leave. That's who benefits.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, no, And that's where you're sitting there looking
at it. And that's why I said it is this
Is this legal? No? Absolutely not. Nobody would evend argue
it was. It is immoral.
Speaker 4: Then there's the other issue, which is what is this
money going to be used for? Bob Ferguson will sit
there and tell you this is going to finance kids
K through twelve, getting all of them, okay, free breakfast
and lunch. Now, let me stop right there and just say,
first of all, why do all K through twelve kids
need lunch and breakfast?
Speaker 3: I think a government expense.
Speaker 4: Not only that, but how many people don't even want
their kids eating what the state is going to provide
from K through twelve? So you sit there and immediately,
in my opinion, this is one of those like what
god sadult refers to as is suicidal empathy.
Speaker 3: You get those people locked up.
Speaker 4: Oh we're getting all the kids free fit never mind
probably seventy percent of them aren't even to take advantage
of it. But this is the trojan horse that allows
them to pass an income tax.
Speaker 3: That's all it is.
Speaker 4: Right, Dress it up in a suicidal empathic dress up right,
get it through and then like look at Ferguson, I
mean you want to convince me he stays up late
at night worried about what kids have to eat for breakfast?
Speaker 1: Come on, oh, come on now, because you're my friend
and you're my brother, and you've done you, we would
be nowhere as a podcast ratio shows without you. I'm
going to give you the opportunity in a second to
have me have Alex a race. Everything you just said
about the income tax, and I'm gonna tell you why
because you may not have heard of this. Okay, I'm
going to share with this with you in just a second.
He as, I'm sitting down to record this at Saint
Patrick's Day and this is a holiday that's well, it's
not politically correct and it angers a lot of people
because we're not supposed to support the Irish race right
to the degree that you believe in races. I don't
countries of origin. Absolutely, We've got Irish blood running through
my veins. My friend Tim kruk Shank, founder and CEO
of Bone Frog Coffee, has put together a fantastic Saint
Patrick's Day and slightly afterward approach to this. There's the
Irish True Blends. Comes with the Celtic Cross on it
God Country Team. Of course, this celebrates the idea of
sacrifice becoming first responders, cops firefighters that Irish people have
been well known for in our country. Bonefrog Coffee dot
com slash todd. It also comes with a limited selection
of patches for hats and bags. One of them celebrates
Seal Team six. It's a civilian version of this till
we'll describe it for you. So if you ever get asked, hey,
why do you rate wearing a Seal Team six patch,
you can say it's a Seal Team patch for a
Seal Team six gold. Here's why I wear it.
Speaker 3: It is a.
Speaker 1: Civilian version of it. Not trying to do this sole
involve thing.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 1: If you're VET, all the better, just patch to add
to your collection. Also, some great shirts all season, by
the way, for Irish Pride, not necessarily just for Saint
Patrick's Day. Go to Bonefrog Coffee dot com slash todd
use promo code todd to get ten percent off your
first purchase fifteen percent off subscription coffee. So here's why
I was going to give you an opportunity to retract
everything you just said or have me erase it ready.
This comes from Minorthwest dot com. Top Washington Democrats. Last
minut bill would strip corporations of legal existence for opposing
the income tax. Unions are exempted.
Speaker 3: What does that mean?
Speaker 1: It means that they could cancel your incorporation in Washington State. Sorry,
you're not an LLC or a or in corporate or
in nadiam or you're an individual. That's the bi.
Speaker 3: What what would that enable I don't understand what that
enables them to do.
Speaker 1: Though, Well, if you're not a corporate, because.
Speaker 3: An LLC is, because an LLC is a pass threadity.
Speaker 4: Anyway, whatever you make it as an LLC counts as
what you make as an individual.
Speaker 1: But now your liability is gone. Now you've got it's
now on you. There's no corporate shield.
Speaker 3: The income tax yep.
Speaker 1: If you as a company speak out against it, they're
going to take away your corporation's legal existence. It does
not legally exist. That's where you live?
Speaker 3: Are they for? Everybody's gonna leave? They're just for that.
This is nuts that. I don't know what what leverage
do they think they have? I just this is crazy.
Speaker 1: Amazon just sold another something like six buildings. Jeff Bezos
sold his balls, A part of me, the globes, the orbits,
incent they're gone. You've had Facebook move outs, You've had
Google move outs. Microsoft doesn't have a footprint in Seattle anymore,
and now they've moved to Redmond. But now it's Washington State.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so I'm gonna call I'm gonna I'm gonna get
in touch with our attorneys today and just tell them
I got to reincorporate the business somewhere else because I'm
not gonna quit stand.
Speaker 3: I'm not gonna quit talking about it.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So I got to start moving this right away.
That this is unbelievable. The one thing that I like
about that is that seems like something that the federal
government can actually step in and interfere with.
Speaker 3: Well, the Supreme Court.
Speaker 4: Might maybe, but now I don't think the Supreme Court
is gonna say anything about the cab games and the
sales tax because they shouldn't. Right, if a state legislature
wants to slip their own throat, the Supreme Court shouldn't
stop them. But if you're gonna sit there and say
you're gonna take away in corporation because people speak out, again,
that is a direct assault on free speech period, like
the one with that, you know, I mean, that is
absolutely an assault on free speech.
Speaker 1: Well, but keep in mind you have an investigation. There's
eight investigations against Sheriff Keith Swank in your Peers County
for things he said, and they want him removed as
sheriff for things he said like a man is not
a woman and in your separate country. They also have
a hate speech bill where you can law where you
can report someone for hate speech and it will be investigated.
And they're trying to attach findes to that so community
activists can go they can find you. Now this is
the plan. Well, look this The reason I talk about
this is not because I forget we don't live there anymore,
or that the show's not national and international. Guys, if
you're outside of Washington, go and herman. This is the
second time you talked about Washing this week. I'll tell
you why. Because it's the laboratory for every form of
evil like this, and it's coming to where you live.
They're going to make attempts like this. We need to
talk about something else in way of malfeasans and government.
And this doesn't make me happy because I want to
believe that President Trump is going to get it right.
I'm deeply frustrated with him. I've developed a level of
Trump fatigue right now, nowhere near as much fatigue as
I have with Johnny Thune. Watching this cat pretend they
can't pass the Save Act that Eric Trump and Donald
Trump Junior invested twenty five million in a drone company
called Power Us. The Pentagon is now warworth Iran. The
Pentagon needs drones. Power sells drones to the Pentagon, and
the President wisely banned the DoD from using drones made
in China. That's why they could not do that, because
China is a geopolitical opponent and one day will be
enemies of ours. But I'm really sorry. I hate to
say this because people can say it runs a file
of free commerce. Can we all agree that the President's families,
his nuclear family, has no business purchasing this much stock
in a company a couple of weeks before the President's
announces that we are going to go go bomb Iran
using drones.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I you know, we talk about leverage and you talk
about moral authority, and I look at what existential threats
this country is facing. And it is shocking and it
is distasteful to me that guys that are in such
a position two to mitigate this right, to stop it,
to push back, are worried about ROI rather than us
a right. And at the end of the day, you
can color it however you want to right the question,
I would say is, guys, does this investment weaken or
strengthen your moral authority in this matter? It weakens it?
What are you doing? One quick litmus test? Does this
weaken or strengthen your moral authority? Because we need all
of it in the current environment, right, we need all
of it. We can't afford you at seventy percent? What
on earth are you doing?
Speaker 3: Right? And it's it's a big letdown. And I'll tell
you what.
Speaker 4: Not on the side of morality, but in terms of
thinking things through. You know, I haven't wanted to be
and I am not saying this in a way to
look at me. Oh we're getting but we've been dead
right about how everything's playing out in Iran for the
same reasons. I can't figure out whether Trump is he
getting bad advice from people around him.
Speaker 3: I don't.
Speaker 4: I don't understand how they're making decisions right now, that's
a perfect let's start here.
Speaker 1: Let's start with this topic and then let's expand into
the Iran discussion. Okay, so what do we know biblically?
How would how might God view the president's letting his
sons purchase this amount of twenty five million dollars ownership
in a drone company weeks before we start using drones
to attack Iran? Is if God views does he view
that as Donald Trump and R Crump's money? No, it's his?
Speaker 4: No, yeah, yeah, so and even more so because of
what The other thing that we know about God is
that when he puts responsibility under you and you accept
that responsibility, you're now playing by a different set of rules.
That's part and parcel, meaning what's good for the goose
is no longer what's.
Speaker 3: Good for the gander. The goose is held to higher
standard period. End of story.
Speaker 1: Right to whom man, I'm looking much as expected.
Speaker 3: And I'm sitting there going, you guys are doing stuff
I can't get away with.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And as a as a fiduciary who runs an
investment fund, you in fact could not get away with
purchasing twenty five million dollars in a drone company two
weeks before that drone company went public, or even having
you could be suspect if you had me do it.
I'm a client. If you called me and said, hey, Todd,
purchase twenty five million in this like you know, because Zach,
I've got that twenty five million sitt around him and
trying to bug you in what I'm going to do
with this. It's sitting over here right just behind me.
Speaker 4: I if I was the friend of Eric or Donald
Trump in my position, I probably would not be allowed
to invest in this, really, probably.
Speaker 3: Because then that would put me that would give me.
Speaker 4: Access to inside information that isn't known and it's connected
to somebody that is connected to the government.
Speaker 3: Probably not.
Speaker 4: I doubt I shouldn't. I'm ninety percent sure that that
would not get through compliance. I wouldn't be able to invest.
Speaker 1: Okay, So we know God views this as his money
that he has given the Trumps the opportunity to steward.
I would think that God would look at something like
this and go, that's not honest weights and measures. We're
told to use honest weights and measures. Right, There's a
reason there's the whole Baker's Dozen things. They give people
thirteen slices of bread instead of twelve. Our roles pardoning,
So God can't. I don't think God can sponsor this,
And that moves us into this discussion that if you
wanted to talk about Iran and this position in Iran.
I have a lot of people who've come to me
and said we are as Christians, we are biblically obligated
to bomb Iran. And I have trouble with that because
I do not believe that the Israel, the nation state,
is a godly state. I know that the government of
Iran is not godly. But then again, what did we
just talk about with our president and his sons were
the godly ones here? And you think when you said
you predicted what was going to go on in Iran correctly,
that God gave you that insight? What did you mean
by that?
Speaker 4: What I meant is that there is a game of
obfuscation going on right now that is incredibly intentional, and
it's meant it's being meant to mislead everybody. Now, there's
a part of it where you have to do that,
and I've pushed back against other people where I'm like, guys,
you're conducting a war. I don't expect Pete Haig Seth
and Donald Trump to come out and tell us all
the details of what's going on. You're right, there's that part.
But here here is what is evident. And I have
talked to I have talked to people in the know
about this. I have talked to people that are plugged
in extraordinarily high up in the military. And I do
not say this half cocked, but the characterization of this war.
First of all, I agree with you and anybody that
has spent any time studying Zionism. And when I say Zionism,
it's not a it's not a buzzword, it's not an
anti My last name is Abraham, for crying out loud.
I grew up celebrating Jewish holidays, so the least anti
Semitic person in the world. But the beginning of Zionism
was basically agnostic. It wasn't there wasn't religious links to it.
It was all about and you understand why the Jews
were tired of getting chased out barely by the skin
of their teeth from every European country they ever lived in.
Speaker 3: Right, they were tired of running.
Speaker 1: That's that horrible thing about the Holocaust, And.
Speaker 4: That was right, right, yeah, yeah, And so and then
that movement started, that Zionist movement into into what is
nowaday you know, Palestine and Israel, that started just after
World War One, right nineteen eighteen, And that's that's when
you first started it. And then obviously it started really
accelerated after World War Two in nineteen forty eight and all.
Speaker 3: The stuff we know. But Zionism was agnostic.
Speaker 4: So when you have a when you have a government
built on agnosticism, that's not the people of Israel, that's
not God's chosen to be. These are two different These
are two different entities. Right, Like God never said, hey,
you need to do whatever the elected official of an
agnostic government regime is that currently happens to be in
charge of the land that we call Israel. Some of
the Bible said, right, the Bible said to honor and
protect my chosen people. Okay, that does not mean that
we have to stand up behind and rubber stamp every
single thing that the Prime Minister of Israel does. So
do I think that one of the things that is
benefit America morally is our defense of Israel at times? Absolutely,
and I think that we should defend them as the
only functioning democracy in that part of the world. But
defending Israel doesn't necessarily mean conducting an offensive war against
somebody else. Now, I don't even need to litigate that
because as a guy with the last name Abraham who
grew up celebrating Jewish holidays, the regime they're taking out
in Iran is horrific. They're horrific, They're horrible, right, they're
evil people. But here's the issue that we're in right now.
And I don't hear anybody, barely anybody categorizing this war correctly.
Everybody's talking about military.
Speaker 3: We can do this, we can do that. Of course
we can. We can do anything we want to militarily.
Speaker 4: As it relates Iran, That's not the question, nor has
it ever been the question. The only leverage point the
Iranians have is the strait of hor moves. And I
have said from the beginning and I'll continue to say it,
they can and will keep it closed. They just saw
Trump backpedal over the weekend when oil hit one thirty.
If you're the Iranian regime and Trump's floating ideas of
stopping this war, are you gonna stop because he stops
dropping bombs.
Speaker 3: I'm not.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna look at him and say, we will not
open the straight until you guarantee us you're not coming
in again. We want reparations, we want you to pay
for everything you've blown up, and we want the removal
of sanctions. And we ain't opened the straight until.
Speaker 3: We get it.
Speaker 1: And if they don't open the Straight, then the president
has two choices. It's then boots on the ground to
go in with our soldiers, putting the're blood on the
line again, and then it is a war for oil, yep, right,
or you.
Speaker 4: Risk ships, or you risk ships, which results in the
exact same thing. Right, they sink a destroyer, We're putting
boots on the ground, right, Like, that's that's just the
way it goes. So here's the deal. The other thing
we can control the straight. Guys, it's been shut for
eleven days, you know, no, twelve days. Now, that's two
hundred and forty million barrels that have been taken offline.
Speaker 3: Okay, that is massive.
Speaker 4: The world release, the biggest spr release in his history
is four hundred million barrels. That's not even half of
what's yeah, yeah, that's not even half of what has
been taken offline so far. The other thing nobody's talking about,
the world needs a hundred million barrels of oil a
day to operate. Okay, not only has this stacked up
and you've got two hundred and forty million off line.
Speaker 3: No, excuse me, it's way more worse than that. No,
it's twenty million a day that's been offline. Okay.
Speaker 4: The other thing is because of the backing up on supplies,
You've got five million barrels of production shut in already.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 4: So the world isn't even making enough oil for what
we need now, all right.
Speaker 3: So the price of oil you see right now.
Speaker 4: Is completely artificial. They're sitting on the price of oil.
It shouldn't be controversial. They said they were gonna address
it in the future's markets. They are sitting on the
price of oil right now. You can only do this
so long, and I will pose the question to you,
and I don't have an answer for this, okay, But
you are Iran.
Speaker 3: You have way less to lose than you did two
weeks ago. Right, Yep, We're gonna bomb you to smither.
Rings you already have. We're gonna take out your control,
the people the top you already have. Okay. If your Iran,
why are you relenting again? Over the weekend? Trump just
backed off over one thirty.
Speaker 4: If I'm Iran, I look at him and I go,
don't even pick up the phone until the oil is.
Speaker 3: At one fifty. Why would you? Why would you?
Speaker 4: You're negotiating against yourself you know that time is on
your side, you know, Mma Todd, They've got a sin a.
Speaker 3: Rear naked choke and people go, God, SAYNTI American?
Speaker 4: No, it's not. That's American to admit the reality of
the situation we're currently in.
Speaker 1: So we would either have to go in from your
analysis and I'll be interested to hear what Tim says.
You know you are you and our mutual friends as
Tim Crookshank, a former Navy c who's done three deployments there,
my friend Michael Rourke, special Forces operative who also did
a bunch of deployments there. They're looking at this from
a perspective of servicemen who lost buddies and brothers there,
and some of the things they're saying Zach is well,
you know what, finally we're able to go win. Finally,
if you're right, you know what. And as brothers, we
never got to go do what we could do a
we're always hamstring by Washington d C. Attorneys. Finally we
get to go take out the ship Muslims, who are
horrible people. They were the ones who who went and
abused women, et cetera, and cut off heads. We're finally
getting to do that, so they're looking at that perspective
that I hear you saying as a Christian man who
doesn't want this war, be as a guy who grew
up in going to Jewish holidays. Last name Abraham, Zacha Abraham.
After all, I hear your analysis being our choice is
to go do the thing we always say we could do. Hey,
guess what, guys, We're gonna turn your country into glass.
We're gonna move in a bunch of Americans, American oil
companies are taken in. None of you are gonna exist anymore.
We're gonna take it over and then slowly give it
back to the Iranian people. Or President Trump saying okay,
I will start backing off when we get to a
buck fifty per gallon.
Speaker 3: Well yeah.
Speaker 4: And the reason the reason I'm saying this and I
agree with, like, I'm not saying that we shouldn't do this.
What I'm saying is Trump's reaction to one thirty scared me, okay,
And it scared me for this reason. If you're going
to do this, you have to know oil's going to
one fifty two hundred.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 3: So when he.
Speaker 4: Freaked out at one thirty, I sat there and I went,
wait a second. Your stop loss on this thing is
one thirty. Who told you we could get out of
here at one thirty? They're gonna shut the Straight of
Horror moves if they can keep it shut three to
four weeks.
Speaker 3: You're looking at two hundred plus oil. It just is
what it is.
Speaker 4: So I'm not saying I don't disagree with him. I'm
just looking at Trump going, you're not making any sense here.
This shouldn't be bothering you at all. You had to
know you were going to one fifty to two hundred.
Speaker 1: Well he bluffed and came out and said, well, gas
prices go up, they go up, but then they went up,
and so we had this retreat. So let me ask
you something. Then you have the fund manager hat at Bulwark.
You wear at all times the mantle of ambassador for
the Lord Jesus. We both try to I don't know
that I don't succeed in doing that all the time. Same, okay,
So you manage my money most of my money. Can
we as Christian men, steward our money as godly people
and make money for our portfolios because of this war?
Speaker 3: So for me, that answer is very very simple.
Speaker 4: God has put me in the place and made me
the fiduciary of the people's money to use every bit
of talent, resource, thought, everything that he's given me to
do the best I can from my clients and protect
them financially. So my average client right now is exposed
to twenty five percent crude, and that's through different producers,
different things like that. That is me protecting them. I'm
not looking at as a way. I hope those crude
and I mean this honestly. I hope those crude investments
are our worst performing stocks in the portfolio this year.
I do, But it is my job to protect those
clients from all things financial, and that's where I leave
my geopolitical assessment hat on the side, right, I'm not
going to invest in things that are immoral. Owning oil
to protect my clients from increasing costs of living is
not immoral.
Speaker 3: That's responsible. So for me, it's very easy.
Speaker 4: Do I understand if other people have a moral compunction
if they're managing their own money, Sure, I just I
don't see it that way. Just because men are going
to do what men do. People are going to make
decisions that are going to have impacts. My job is
to protect my clients financially from those impacts and hopefully
to benefit them.
Speaker 1: So then for me, So Donald Trump and Junior or
Donald Trump junior, Eric Trump might come to you and say, oh, okay,
oh I see, okay, it's okay for you to invest
your client's money and crude and that's a godly thing,
but it's not okay for us to buy drone stock.
Speaker 3: Well, did you invest the country's money into dronestock or
right right right? And soose that preferred stock.
Speaker 4: If the US people own that preferred stock, then I
don't have any problem with it.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And secondly, I don't think any of us were
doubting that the US was posturing for war, but I
don't think we knew it was going to start in
two weeks, and I don't think we need it to
be at this level.
Speaker 3: And the contingency I just the choke point.
Speaker 4: And I hear people talking about like military capability, and
you're like, guys, was there was never a question about
could we There's never there's never been a quest us
in my mind about could we open the strait? The
question is at what cost? And I've never thought Trump
was willing to risk boots on the ground. And that's
quite honestly why I didn't think we'd go into this
Iran thing, because Iran is not an offensive threat. Iran,
like my head of research says, Iran is good at
being a porcupine, right. I didn't think we'd run up
there with our jaws open and take a big bite.
Speaker 3: And that's what we've done. Now we've got a mouthful
of quills. Where do we go from here? I don't know.
Speaker 4: This is a really nasty, sticky situation. And here's what
I'll promise you. I will be shocked if Iran opens
the strait without serious concessions or US putting troops on
the ground.
Speaker 3: I don't see another way around it.
Speaker 1: Solid point, solid point. And I will continue this discussion
with Zach Abraham, Chief Investmental Capital Management, And I do
want to expand this into this this other discussion, Zach,
and it has to do with what AI just did
to Amazon on I mean, Amazon's leaving Seattle. Howard Schultz
is leaving Seattle. But man, this note that went out
to Amazon Prime developers, this that you've been warning about
this for about a year. I'm hoping that sometime in
the next thirty days, I get to have the people
on from renew to talk about a research piece they've
done to show that they're able to use stem cells
and their treatments with stem cells to reverse type two diabetes.
Part of me type one diabetes Type two is reversible
through exergy, energy, exercise, CrossFit does this and good diet,
et cetera. That's reversible type one diabetes that you're born with.
They've been doing a study. It's in peer review, and
Steve has promised to come on the show and talk
about the results.
Speaker 3: Here.
Speaker 1: This is why I bet on these guys for my
anti aging protocol that I'm going down for, because they're
always investing in clean tech. Steve puts this stuff in
his bodies. They do. I send friends down there, and
my friend Mark is going down at the end of
this month to get the use of his hand and
back through through the stem cells. He's also looking at
the anti aging protocol I'm going to do so. I'm
not against being technical in medicine as long as it's
actually real healthcare. If you're curious about the anti aging
protocol and what it can do for you, just put
in a phone call or better go to the website.
Just should renew r e n ue dot Healthcare and say, hey,
Tom talks about this anti aging protocol, what can you
tell me about it. Understand this, it's not cheap. I mean,
it's like a male clinic level investigation of your body
and you come home with things that you can do
at home, and they take care of a bunch of
stuff while you're down there. But then again, aging poorly
is very expensive. So go to renew r e n
ue dot Healthcare. Zach and Note went out to Amazon
developers and if I read this correctly, it's about ninety
to ninety two percent of developers are gone. They trained
their replacement, and the replacement is AI. The management said,
this is one hundred percent part of our AI first development.
My understanding is there are fourteen humans left in the
technical world at Amazon Prime Video. They're responsible for running
the whole thing. This looks to me like an Amazon
dot com that at one point employed maybe one hundred
and twenty thousand people or more. Sounds right right, And
a lot of those people are in warehouses right now
that this looks to me like a corporate office that
used to be up on the heel and then went
to downtown you might have had fifteen hundred people in
that corporate office, a lot of them doing dev I
would say, this looks more like a two hundred person
corporate office. In a couple of years, where are you
at with it?
Speaker 3: I think it's going to be less than that, I
meaning really less than two or three. Well, yeah, because
you look at what so.
Speaker 4: Washington just made itself probably one of the least desire no,
probably the least desirable state in the entire country to
open a business.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because it's not just the issues you've got to
deal with.
Speaker 4: Is the business leader the highest tax, but you're what third, fourth,
fifth in the state in terms of cost of life too,
and you get seven months of rain. Like meaning, if
you think about it, what reason does Amazon have to
keep a presence in Seattle in the first place? They
don't ye, Right, it's harder to get talent there. You
got to pay them more because of the cost of living.
You got to deal with an in you know, they
got to trip over you know, drug needles and human
excrement and homeless people on the way, and like what
what's the point?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 4: Like look at Starbucks, Like Starbucks have been such a
stalwart they're out of there. You've taken away any reason
to stay. I'm looking at that law they just passed
in connection with the income tax. That law is going
to expediate my my exit of the state. I just
as a business person. And that's what these people don't understand.
They look at it through their world of what you
can afford and what you should and and and it's
you're taking away my ability to run my business the
way I see fit. And you and I have talked
about this as well. There's another dynamic here that guys
like me, small family owned businesses. You just raised my
effective tax rate to fifty percent. Wow, at fifty percent,
I don't own the business. I get all the liability.
You share none of it, and we split profit. That's
not me owning a business.
Speaker 3: That's you. You.
Speaker 4: You've got something better than ownership. I don't know what
it is, but you can put me out of business
anytime you want. You don't have to share in the
expenses or the risks, but you get half the profit.
Speaker 1: It's the ultimate passive income.
Speaker 3: It's a moral that's absurd. Yeah, and so I'm not
going to do it.
Speaker 4: And so even people that aren't worried about the financial implications.
You just finally get to a point where you go,
why am I here?
Speaker 3: Right? You don't want me here. They despise my values,
They despise what I what I hold important? Right, They
clearly don't care. Here's the other thing.
Speaker 4: You want to look at them and go, how much
of that tax money actually filters through? Do you know
how many philanthropists you're push push out of this?
Speaker 3: Gentlemen? I mean, I've thrown money around to the homeless
issue and help different causes.
Speaker 4: And then look you not only are you losing, this
is gonna gut them.
Speaker 3: This is nuts.
Speaker 4: And the good news is is I think you've got
a really high chance.
Speaker 3: This is so bad.
Speaker 4: I don't think it's going to take long to see
the really negative impacts. You know the other thing they
just put they they put together a two hundred million
dollar marketing campaign to provide bonuses in marketing to get
people to sign up to be cops. They have not
had a single net new cop hired via that program. Incredible,
And so you can't hire cops. Why would you would
you want to be a cop.
Speaker 3: In the state? I mean, are you kidding me? No?
And that's nuts.
Speaker 1: So the perfect setup is this. They create this tax,
they tell people, we're considering a bill to cancel the
legal existence of your business if you complain. That's coming
on the heels of the capital gains tax, the contemplay
of the unrealized capital gains tax, all these things coming
at the same time. Then at the same moment, AI
just took ninety two percent of Prime video jobs. And
is there any reason anymore for for for Amazon to
employ accountants and Washington?
Speaker 3: No, not in Washington. Why would you right?
Speaker 1: Because AI can do this all and this provides them
the opportunity to say, why do we even need a
corporate office. It's gonna be an incredible thing to behold
and watch. And my advice to the people in Washington State,
I said this when when when the leftists really took
over Seattle and you had that lady back there I
used to call the Bogwan tree Swant. Was that what
I called her Bogwe tri Sawant seam Sewant, the Bogue
tri Sawant because she was dealing what the Bogwan did
in in Oregon and in bringing homeless people into their
district to campaign for her and agitate for her bog Swan,
I said, give them everything. Give it to them immediately,
do not push back. They want a fifty percent income
tax and saddle residence. Do it. They want to control
the scheduling of employees and businesses that the employees get
to decide.
Speaker 3: Do it.
Speaker 1: Give it to them. Fail fast, right, Let this all happen.
So to the people in Washington State who are making
noise about leading, do it. You care about your former
home state, do it? Do not wait leave, Make them
see this and then watch them try to backpedal out
of it. Now, just keep in mind Zaron Mundani when
he came out with his new tax package and his
free bus rides and his free lunch and free everything. Remember,
he has a bill in New York that he believes
he can tax an entity that leaves for the next
two years. That it's not just an exit tax, but
your income wherever you're at for the next two years
is partially his because you built your company in New York.
He's trying to get that passed.
Speaker 3: Zach.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and that's the stuff that I I'm not I
might regret this, but that is the stuff that I'm
not too worried about because I don't think there's no
way the Supreme Court.
Speaker 3: Doesn't shoot that down.
Speaker 1: Find out I consider.
Speaker 4: And the reason I say that is now you're getting
into interstate commerce clauses.
Speaker 3: You're like that, that is a no go.
Speaker 4: I'm looking at mom Donnie encouraging him to do it,
just because I'm like, buddy, you're gonna step on the
supremacy clause, the interstate commerce clause. I'm going to enjoy
watching you get run over so your wife can post
more celebratory videos on Instagram about celebrating Jewish women getting murdered.
Speaker 3: So there we go.
Speaker 1: Let me know if you want me to drive out
today or tomorrow to go take a look at your
new home. And just six percent on your side, six
percent on the seller side, I do play. I take
I called DIBs on the UH on the secondary cabin
on the hill. Just I get to stay there just
every once in a while something like that.
Speaker 3: Hey man, we just like I said, as long as
we can make room for the chopper. I got a
gasser up before I head over there. But it's got
to have a place to land. Chopper, man, I gotta
be able to put the toy somewhere there.
Speaker 1: It is Zach Abraham. Know more about him at Know
youurriskpodcast dot com. This is the Todd Hermitshaw. Please go,
be well, be strong, be kind, and please make every
effort to walk in the light of Christ.