Welcome to Access to Trader, the number one community for those who are committed to taking control of their trading in order to achieve success, profitability, and longevity. Thank you for joining us. Here's Dan Shapiro to help you find your edge, master your process, and own your future. Hey guys, good morning everybody. Welcome to another edition of the AccessToTrader.com weekend update show. If you are brand new to the channel, welcome aboard. Thank you very much for spending some time with us. Like, subscribe, share with your friends in the continuous movement of technical analysis and unbiased approach to looking at the markets. Before we even get started about last week, I want to be the first one or very one of the first people it's early in the morning. So hopefully I'll be one of the first to wish all the fantastic moms, the great moms, the moms who are the pillars of the homes, the matriarchs of the homes that hold it down. They're the glue that everything that we love and treasure and respect and run through walls from a very happy and healthy Mother's Day. Every single day should be cherished and appreciated. But this is officially your day. So happy Mother's Day.  Hope you have a wonderful, wonderful day. So God bless there. So let's talk about the tape. A lot of stuff, right? You had a lot of readings last week. Well, it feels like we always have a lot of readings last week. Both the CPI and PPI showed a slowdown, at least a slowdown in inflation, rates coming down a little bit especially from the previous year. CPI finally cracked the 5% area. We're down to 4.9% earth shattering. A lot of earnings continue to filter through. Concerns continue to be surrounded. The banks and the failure of banks and their ability to say solvent. And now, if that wasn't all, now we've been two weeks talking about the debt seal. Now before everybody goes crazy about the debt ceiling, years ago when I first heard about the debt ceiling, the way they were making it sound that the whole credit market, right? The whole credit market was going to freeze. Everything was going to be horrible and the world was going to end. So far in the 24 years that I've been trading, the debt ceiling has been rising every single time we come to this kind of fork in the road. And at the end of the day, it gets solved. So the idea that we're talking about this for 24 years, but they always raise the debt ceiling, so far they haven't done it. Is it possible they finally don't do it, the government shuts down and you won't be able to buy stamps? Maybe, right? Oh, what was me? How is our life going to change? Are you not going to get mail? Okay, right? Honestly, what's the big deal? And I know it's a big deal out there. I'm being sarcastic. But the point is, again, guys, don't overthink or don't dwell. This has been a conversation that's been going on for 24 years. So far, the government hasn't closed down for more than a week, so it's really not that big of a deal. But with all this stuff going on, and by the way, we're in the till last kind of inning, last couple of innings and earnings. With all this, you have a lot of volatility, right? All lot of volatility throughout the day. There's definitely stocks that are breaking out and looking great. There's definitely an argument that five stocks are keeping giving up the market. But at the end of the day, we are still at highs. We're still at 2023 highs. Nearly 0.4% rise in the NASDAQ this week. The Dow is now 1%, and the SPX fell about 0.3%. So the scoreboard really doesn't tell you, and really doesn't show you the aggressive nature of the intraday moves. But it's been like that now for a very, very long time. And if you are an active trader, especially in intraday cycles, you kind of know what we've been seeing now for weeks now. We've been seeing weakness at the open for about two, three hours. And then all of a sudden, there's like a rocket ship that's ignited, and next thing you know, we're just absolutely exploding green at some point in the day. And when you see that type of volatility, and then in the midst of that out of nowhere, even if the market is rising, then they pull the cues down a dollar and a half just because, right? Just because it's like 1.37 in the afternoon. It really is a volatile aggressive market. And when you're trading such an aggressive market, you have to approach it in that matter until, you know, until kind of the dynamics of this market change. Usually in a normal organic market, you probably have three, four hours in the morning to capture a trend, make sure your research confirms from the night before. This is a market that, yes, absolutely all that is true, but you have to take your money a little bit faster than normal. Because if you don't take your money, the reversals are just, just exaggerate to the point that it becomes scary. And we've seen so many stocks look like about the fall off the cliff, breaking down technically. And the next thing you know, if you don't take your money, they reverse course and close green in a day and buys versa. We've seen stocks, you know, showing a lot of strength earnings, this that the other thing you look an hour later, you know, they're down three, four percent. So it's a violent market. It's a proactive market. You have to kind of know what kind of sentiment you have and what kind of market structure you have going into the next day, because it's not just as simple as a setup, right? There's a lot of really good setups and that setup could be really, really strong. But at the end of the day, when you turn around, you say, Well, wait a minute, I don't understand the stock was so is going in my direction. How could it be against me now? Again, that's the whole point. Welcome to this market. And this is kind of where where you have to adjust or die. You can just sit there and complain, you know, once twice will trick you the third time. How many times can you punch in the face without actually moving?  Use that break even once the stock goes into your direction and you take cashflow. And this is something we've been harping on for years in the webinar.  It's kind of the more money you have, the, you know, the higher probability you're going to finally get to that aha moment before you expire the smaller account. Unfortunately, you don't have that luxury. So when you're in the phase of building, building, building, especially in a market like this, keep taking your money, right? Keep taking your money, 50 cents a dollar, right? Take some money. Obviously, keep a runner, use break even as you stop. But that's it. That is your max pain. And the point is, if you are continuously doing so, you know, it's very, very tough to kind of break those, you know, break those good habits. If you don't, right, if you kind of let's see, we'll see what the market has to do in store later, you're probably going to be upside down a lot of your positions because that type of market is not there right now. This is the type of market that's so aggressive that again, like I said, if you don't take your money, they're going to take it right back. So indexes again, I apologize, I'm getting all these, I'm getting all these defenders that are supposedly helping to protect my computer.  But then let this be my worst problem in the world. So going into this week, again, I'm looking at exactly the same type of market. Okay, you have to definitely be prepared on both sides of the market. There's a lot of stocks. And you we've been talking about them that are breaking out in technology, right? Amazon had a really, really strong breakout this week, really strong above this 106 level, cracked the 111 level, got above the one, well, didn't get above. This is the last one left, this 114 level. And now it's kind of consolidating. Google had a really, really strong week. Again, we've been talking about the option flow, both Google and Amazon all week before they started breaking out. You know, Google had a monster, monster breakout from this whole range going back to February the 7th. I mean, this is a monster, monster move. You have stocks that are breaking down as well. You have names that had crappy earnings that are just sitting there and starting to wait for the next leg down. I mean, look at TULO, right? And these are names I definitely like going into this week. But look at a chart on TULO, right? The longer it goes sideways, once it finally confirms the bottom range, it's going to implode. Look at Qualcomm, right? Again, here's a perfect, another perfect example. Stock broke down, right? It broke down on Friday and kind of came right back up. Again, I still think the stock goes lower. But these are the setups that look really, really good. Let me just give you guys a couple of names, kind of from both sides that I do think could be pretty, pretty good going into this week. Let me look at my notes here. Yeah, look at Airbnb. Congratulations for all you guys who caught Airbnb. And another perfect example of stocks breaking down. Look at Airbnb, took down this whole channel going back to February and just got absolutely taken apart on Friday. So you're going to have value on both sides of the market. The key is be prepared, right? Be prepared. This is not a trending market that could give you the luxury of a five, seven day move. This market sometimes will give you a 30, 40 cent trend, a 30, 40 minute trend, and then reverse just out of nowhere. Just look at Apple for a perfect example, right? Apple had this magnificent, magnificent run. And it's kind of unfortunate that the stock is a week and a half, two weeks into consolidation hasn't broken up yet. And now you can clearly see the top of the channel here where the stock needs to confirm. And now you have to bottom the range here again, be prepared for both sides of the market. You know, look at a name and I'll give you give you some upside names as well. Look at IMGN, right? Look at IMGN. Look how good this consolidation is. This is a consolidation of literally a week. It's still going sideways eventually. If this thing starts taking out the top of the channel, you're going to get a massive move. Look at a name like HLIT, right? HLIT had this really, really aggressive move up, right? Now it's consolidating. As they say it, it's flagging, right? It's flagging. Eventually, these things get above this flag, get above this upper Bollinger band, and this thing's going to scream as well. Look at a name like LegalZoom, by the way, right? Same thing. You have a lot of stocks that gap up. I think it's called a floating island. Is that what it's called? I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong. Anyway, the point is it's gapping up. It's going sideways. And eventually, this thing's going to look to test the top of the range. So if you are trading both sides of the market and you put yourself in a situation that you say to yourself, hey, I know the market's crazy right now. I have to take my cash flow a little bit faster. That is going to be the narrative until it shows me that a range could extend or a trend could extend for more than 30 minutes, right? If that's the case, I have to continuously take money off the table and use Breakey as my stop because that is what the market is giving us. One name that is very, very interesting, right? So let's talk about Tesla for a second. So if somebody just looks at the chart, you're not going to really get a lot of sense of what's going on. You're staring around and saying, ah, the stock has been in a dead down trend. And it has been. If you look at the weekly chart of Tesla ever since it put in its high of 313 in September, it's just been a mess. So nobody's going to really look at the chart right now and say, this looks great. But a couple of that couple of things happened. A couple of things happened this week that were very, very important. Number one, stock first got above this 166 level and started going higher. Elon Musk then tweeted out that he hired a new CEO of Twitter. Obviously, that is a big deal because now his attention could be focused back on Tesla. So Tesla had a phenomenal, phenomenal run. If you look at Thursday going into Friday's session, so here is the news, right? We talked about the 7013 pivot. It was huge stock gaps up the next day goes to 77 and a half. And then there comes a rumor, right? Comes a rumor that now Tesla, Tesla, he's going to step down. So obviously, as you can imagine, the stock starts tanking. So then Elon Musk, somebody tweeted at him and they're like, hey, by the way, please tell me you're not stepping down as Tesla CEO. So he responded to them as well. I stepped down from Twitter so I can concentrate on Tesla. Usually a PR like that, right? Not a PR, but at least a statement like that directly from the horse's mouth would have the stock exploding back up, right? Because if the rumor was he stepping down is going lower. If he refutes the rumor and now the stock should be going high and it never did so. And if you look at the 60 minute view, right? If you look at the 60 minute view after he responded that, hey, I'm not, you know, I'm not, you know, I'm still the CEO and the stock didn't spike back. That's a big, big sign. I want to watch the bottom of the range here, guys. Okay. You know, this is where the stock broke out. So if the bottom of the range, and you can see it's going, it's going to, right now it's made a 14th. This bottom range started on May the 9th. So I want to watch this bottom range. The stock cannot rally back after everybody has some time to kind of digest the information that, hey, he's not stepping down from Tesla and the stock can't rally. I definitely want to watch this bottom channel because if it starts confirming the bottom channel, guys, look at the 60 minute view. I mean, look at the view here, right? Look at the view going all the way here, right? Sorry about that. Right over here, right? If it starts taking down this bottom channel, okay? This is below from 5.5. If it starts taking down this bottom channel here, there's a lot of room down. So if there is no price action that is defended based on refuting this rumor of him stepping down, and if it does, if it can't rally and starts cracking that bottom channel, I think we are set up for a very, very big premium potential. Again, we don't know if it's going to confirm. But as I said a couple of minutes ago, and I've been saying for years and years and years, don't we have to be prepared on both sides of the market? So that's how I'm kind of going into this week. I'm definitely prepared on both sides of the market. I'm watching for anything with aggressive option flow in the direction that I'm watching. That's set up deep. My formula is deep out of the money, short-term expiration with a technical green signal, or red signal, depending if you're looking to short the stock. And I think this is the type of week that if we could finally kind of omit the volatility, right, and just concentrate on the organic flow technically, I think we could go back to resuming really good natural trends. So once again, guys, I want to wish all the moms a very happy and healthy Mother's Day. Hope everybody is living their lives, living their best lives, with a smile on their face, and the best health possible. Guys, God bless. Happy Sunday. And for all you guys who are coming aboard next week, I look forward to working with you. See you in the webinar. Take care.


TLO what's poppin? We are on twitch. We are live By the time you see this we won't be so just leave a like comment subscribe turning a post notification bells Let's continue to grow the family from Chicago to the UK Don't forget if you do want to go see watch any of the previous lives or this current one that you missed Go to twitch.com and enter the info right here you see it Right into my little cursor We also got patreon we post five days a week at anything that we don't post to youtube we post on Patreon anything that we thought that could make it to youtube it turns out can't Goes on patreon and anything that we watch on twitch that doesn't go on youtube also Patreon I got a lot of content. That's I don't know when it became that but There's a lot of stuff on there man. Good stuff too Uh, don't forget we got um Merchers will We got merch as well, man. Oh Yeah, I gotta mention that batters episode two if you're looking for batters UK they're on patreon too. We got season one. We got episode one and episode two You get it. This is pin game rap battle, man This is ren dmc verse renia renia It's 2003 somebody tell me I should react to another one This is the most popular video the second most popular video on that page Got it. Might should be good, right? Pen game season four make some noise everyone All right, welcome back to pen game rap battles make some noise people Man the vibran is nice. We're warming up if you haven't make sure you check out the previous battles We've been dropping them From week to week. Yeah, have they have they started 2024 season yet? Because like low-key I would be interested in watching these like Like in chronicle chronological order, you know what I'm saying for 2024 21st Who's in the tournament who ain't But again, I look shots our sponsors rude boy, but everybody waved up back to get into another boat battle. Everybody ready? Yeah Well, I see the one look at the um The the product of this is good. Like it's 4k Like it's clear the mics is clear Like I feel like the american versions like uh with arsenal and all of them They don't seem as good like like clear. It's super clear.  I can't why didn't it pop up? I don't know why it didn't pop up in there This tells man Red, what do you want to do ladies first ladies first? He's ladies man What come on man? You hear the battle or you hear the rest? No no cat Can we turn me up?     It don't even feel right They got to go acapella All right, run me All right, all right All right, all right, concentrate focus quiet All right, let it work people All right, it's been a minute man. Let's go Let's go. Are you ready? Yes. Yeah, i think they run it. Ah, yo, she's laying Uh, yo, she's paying Uh, have you got some friends for me? I'll just All right Yo, listen, i'm cashing a girl. This is gonna end bad for me.   What would be the issue? Unless she wouldn't take care of her kids because the kids might get good genetics You look kind of good the kid by you.  They eating d right now. It wasn't it wasn't that cold It was funny, but they eating they're they're all on their knees This is crazy yo W audience if they came with him Is it deep i'm cashing a girl this is gonna end bad for me.     I got three long rounds of the not raps. So what can I hold you on whatsapp? She giving me a number. Oh, it's cool.   I get it's a just it's like a couple things that's throwing it off and be like if they just went acapella So we could just hear straight bars And and not trying to catch the beat the cadence of the beat miss that Who am I giving round one definitely um ren dmc ren dmc still one round too It was better than hers by far Okay Oh god, bro. It's all right. That's just round one, man All right. That's just round one. You don't mind relax man. Calm down Nothing ain't happen yet. Killies. Come on. Okay. Let me look it. Let me not compare it Let me not compare it. Let me just Let me just lock in on whatever they got going on and I don't want to even compare it. All right. That's just round one I don't I make sometimes if you're enjoying yourself people I shot side str elite rentals. Yeah, they're sponsoring this round. Yeah, if you mentioned pen game you get 10% off links links in the bio all that Links in the bio all that stuff I we got a fire on our hands, man His mom's name susan Okay Let's say now don't get me wrong if they was the when I come to the uk if they got this going on and it's near I'll be there Said his mom's name susan All right, let's focus Okay, see that's what i'm talking about with the beat you can lose that beat real Do you see how i've done the last guy's mom now it's your turn Press mute. Let me see if it sounds better on mute.  This might be the end of yours Oh my god Y'all remember when kevin hart used to be chocolate drop with chocolate dropper and he used to drop freestyles This what it sounds like She just equals to kevin hart chocolate drop freestyles, man These guys will never be the same again on a scale of one to ten. I ain't even on the same scale as them for fuck's sake No, you're not okay. This guy goes planting plantain.   Say I bet this guy goes planting plantain.   I'ma say it anyway This guy looks look him. He can't even keep a straight face. Why are you here? This was a mistake scum's already put you in your plate Pre-prediction man, she's gonna lose again. It's gonna be too old That was hot and then look at the cringe handshake She didn't even really want to shake bro hand because she knew the product that she just released was trash Why do you want to shake my hand? Why are you green like me? That was hard Yeah, yeah All right Yo, yo, yo, all right round two. That was hard Yeah, look at bro. Ren DMC talking about that was hard. Come on, bro. That was hard Them type of flows is right for you.   That was good. He got that was good Because I was because in my mind I was like Alicia Keys. Excuse me And then he flipped it a britston version stealing weaves and I was like Ah, she showed do she showed do look like that version.  All right, let him go. Pleasish. It's all right. All right, DJ, jack it All right, be quiet. All right, let it work. Oh, she's two and a half. Let it work. Let it work. Let it work Yo That could riches looking nice on you I might try waifing you Could you look like Alicia Keys a britston version stealing weave trying to disband but secretly She knows she really want to be with me But you act like jack from top where like, why do you do that?  Your name is oi You give heads to everyone your rap name should have been heady one when a man then bust on your drill You'll be like a bit of a sticky one stone He's massacre and hurt This his second round is great Okay I spoke to so the second round from this dude is pretty entertaining You're definitely hitting there with one-liners at this point.  There's not enough teeth right here and it's bothering me All right, now ready your demon Y'all bet All right y'all bet Get back up there It was good. All right, you got it. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go, buddy Her feelings is hurt. Look this the I'm hurt face When you sitting there, you ever got roasted at school when you just sitting there like this That's that All in the call All in the call That's that's that They gotta let him go. It's right. It's not his food. It's not his food. It's not his food It's not the crowd did it. Hey, hey quiet. Hey quiet quiet. Can I go please? Is that everybody come on? Look, that's his All right, that's his second read on this and work. Please. Please. DJ run it back. Are you are letting work? Yo Sarah man, then what? Yo, they could literally let the music just play and him not say nothing for the rest of this round He's already won by a landslide It's done Look, she getting ready to go. She know what's up.  That's gonna start the engine Hope you left the heat on so it's running Yo All right Look, she looks like Alicia Keys a Brixton version stealing weave trying to dismantle secretly She knows she really want to leave with me But you act like jack from top where like why does she do that?  We are all in the christmas spirit got me catching one. Ho ho ho So let me end her with a christmas lyric. I was in the yard singing jingle bells. She was in the yard trying to jingle boos I was in the yard having christmas dinner. She was in a yard having six man in her. You had more man than prinley What about your picnic? He's still having nightmares, but he saw Santa coming down in his mom's chimney She's a hoe. We all know she's always giving head Had her son 16 years old because she can't close her legs Round two done.   Look at she got hand on hip. She's looking like Really? It's not even that hot. Yes, it is. It was much better than did you hear yourself? Continue She's looking at her corner like All right, everybody calm down Oh, they're trying to fight everybody calm down Yeah, all right. Look shots out our sponsors root boy and screly rentals What's that? yo Oh, what a sticky one still Look final final round, man Let's get into this man. Renee. It's on you who won the second round I don't even think we have to even like debate on it. Renee, please. Yo Oh, yeah, make sure you can hear me, please Oh I really tried I tried I Feel like I'm being mean But like at the same time when she was at home writing this stuff This what I'd be talking about having guests man around you people to be like, oh, yeah, that's hard. That's hard She was writing this and saying it out loud and somebody by her was like, yes Yes, that's it. Yeah. No y'all sent her on a dead dummy mission This ain't even look at bro with the braids right here. He's trying his hardest not to laugh I get it though. This is trash My son ever ends up like him Coming again I can't just show these pics how to rap. I had two bars left and I stopped You can't show nobody how to rap, you don't He's gonna go three and uh He can literally just give her this round. Just like as a she still look good though Buzz That is bold statement, ma'am To say bars after you All right, further final round man. Ren, it's on you, man. Yeah. Yeah, Renne. Yes Live still Friends man because he had a yard to stop Mom stays burning there that rounds with 30 scare This level of negativity is crazy. Wait, go back start over The job he bro had a clipboard He was ready to read something off All right, further final round man. Ren, it's on you, man. Yeah. Yeah, Renne. Yes Live still Friends man because he had a yard to stop mom stays burning there that rounds with 30 scare He might be taking a little far though Because he putting first last name out Mom's like at a certain point. We're names it like all right, bro. You doing a lot Like I don't feel bad for her at all. She came to this bad of a but like You putting the government out address. Well, did he say address? It's all right. It's all right. It's all right. We're not gonna do it Ain't no way I wouldn't have did it though. I'm already prepared to do this. So let's do it. It's all right No, we're not gonna Don't feel bad. We're here for this All right, come on. My name gets random Let's go. Let's go. Let's go ish It was getting too negative and she couldn't take that She already down too old. You ain't got her.  I'm just speaking truth Sweat my lungs dropped when I saw that mug shot Okay She was going through rough patch. That's all yo final round end of the road What did we learn?  Why does she have to be an og nicky? Now man, I'm gonna get a mad.  I'm battling her dad Hey Richard Renea's father. This is your baby, right? Stop telling her to rap against men like this because this isn't ladylike Still here looking like a tarp rod. I know it's a crazy side But if you never left, maybe you could have raised her right. All right Let me keep spitting on benefits that your daughter is living on. So what does she do? She's taking a flight to the bag and shitting on letting some next man because that's what they say They be doing to the girls in Dubai when they invite them That's crazy Because she ain't even a smart jessie so she ended up in the room with them R. Kelly's home time Darling you gotta go darling Is that the Fredo clip He's a darling you gotta go darling. Look she's eating pasta. What do you think this is that that was funny All right, you're gonna have to pay for that Hey, hey, invest me invest me now if it's broke. I want my money It was me I'm not playing. I ain't playing. I don't know why I'm acting. I'm joking Yo, yo All right, the energy in there is too much All right, everyone. I make some nice friend to him seems for now. Yeah Huh, I don't know this is not All right He's okay. I saw that in the comments or something. Yeah. All right. Listen, you know She's tight. She's tight Don't be mad at anybody here. You came with them bars. You had an opportunity. Let me know. Let me know who you think won Yeah, I listen the tournament Let me know who won. It was clear ren dmc for the president bro on this it was clear And ren dmc only got better throughout the entire match Which is crazy And she got worse. That's why that's a mad team. It get me till i leave a like comment subscribe turn your post in the


Okay, we're back for live. It's the one o'clock block on a given and very wet Tuesday here in Honolulu on Think Tech, and this is Community Matters, and we're talking about a book from the desk of the Attorney General, a memoir by David M. Louis, and David joins us today. Hi, David. How are you doing, Jay? Nice to have you. They have me here. I have some, you know, preliminary thoughts I want to express to you, and that is, to me, looking at this book, it goes on the same bookshelf as Mitchner's Hawaii, in terms of educating people about the state. Mitchner's Hawaii, Hawaii Pono, Land and Power, and it might be one more, but this is the bookshelf that documents the history of the state inside, tells you about the essence of the state, and this book is right up there with the others. That's my reaction. What's your reaction? Thank you so much, Jay. That's so very nice of you to say such kind things about me. I was just trying to give people a behind the curtain look at what the heck goes on in government. For most people, they think it's a black box. They have no clue how it is.  There's a bunch of people. They've got agreements and commitments and processes, and that's how it works. Yeah, but you said that the rules and politics, they're kind of vague. Some people say there are no rules. Exactly. Sometimes there are no rules. That's true. Yeah. It's a great learning experience to look through this book. I'll tell you why.  This is beyond the newspaper. This is, you know, a drill down from the newspaper. If you want to look back, if you're inclined to do that and deal on the same issues and events that happened that you knew a little something about from reading the newspaper, this book will show you what really happened, which is an amazing revelation, actually, because it teaches you things you never imagined at the time. Well, thank you, Jay.  It's, I was really privileged to have the seat at the table, quite frankly. And I'm really grateful to Governor Abercrombie for picking me and then for bringing me into the inner circle, which was really quite nice, quite a leap of faith by him and an eye-opening education for me. Yeah, you gave up a very thriving practice. You gave up a practice with a lot of prestige in your, you know, in your background, your CV. And, you know, I guess I wonder this question. So you gave up that practice to join the Abercrombie administration, which, you know, depends on how you see it, regrettably only lasted four years. You were only there. You couldn't have been there for more than four years. Query, would we be having this conversation if it was eight years? Would you have written this book if it was eight years? Would you have taken a second four years? I would have taken a second four years, actually. I initially committed to four years with the governor because I didn't know what I was getting myself into. Once I got into it, I enjoyed it immensely. It certainly does not have the money associated with private practice, but the psychic rewards, the ability to have a seat at the table, the ability to be inside and to participate in helping to make history and helping to steer the ship of state is unparalleled. And I enjoyed every minute of it. I really, I said in the book, it was the best job I ever had. And quite frankly, I mean it really was the best job. So I would have done for eight years if Governor Abercrombie had been able to get re-elected. Unfortunately, you know, events conspired against him and conspired against me. You know, eight years being away from practice is longer than four. And I wonder, anybody who goes from a thriving law practice, the kind of, you know, the kind of legal experience you were having to go into government, you know, and shroud yourself in government, takes the risk of losing momentum, yeah? And you'll lose a certain amount of momentum in four years, but you'll lose more of that in eight years. And I wonder if you had some prepidation about going into it. And I wonder if you ever thought, gee whiz, am I losing touch because I'm in government rather than in my practice? Yeah, you know, absolutely. I was trepidatious about it and very concerned about it. And so it was a big decision. I would say that coming out, I got a lot of help from a lot of friends, a lot of strangers too. And I was able to reestablish my practice and, you know, do very fine. So I'm doing fine. Had I been able to stay for eight years, I might have chosen a different path. It was all very, very heady, all very, very satisfying. And quite frankly, you know, that's one of the messages I have. People should engage. People should participate. People should do public service. I found that my stint in public service was extremely rewarding. And so I would encourage others to do it. And they can go in and then they can come out and still participate in private practice. It's not easy. The transition, yeah. Transitions are always tough, but it was very, very rewarding. Well, you know, you couldn't have picked a more active four years. And, you know, when I'm thinking about, you know, your book and having this discussion with you, I could not resist thinking about the Truman Show, if you remember that movie with Jim Carrey. It's like, let's see, how will we challenge David today? It's almost somebody's up there trying to figure out how to make you jump around. And indeed, you had so many issues going on, so many, you know, political issues and environmental issues and historical issues. I mean, how did you deal with that? You must have said, does this happen to everybody? It can't happen to everybody. Somebody's up there making it happen to me. Well, you know, the interesting thing about that job, and I thought it was a big job going in, but I had really no idea. Being the top lawyer for the state with all the myriad of issues that the state has is immense. It's for a lawyer, it's like being in a candy store and not knowing which one to eat. You can eat the chocolate, you can eat the caramels, you're going to eat the pop darts, what are you going to eat? And so there's all kinds of things. The only really saving grace about the whole thing was the smart people at the Department of the Attorney General, the staff, the career people who had been there and had been toiling away, and let me take all the credit while they did all the work. And they were terrific. So I had a lot of help. I had to read a lot. I had to study a lot. I had to learn a lot. But, you know, I mean, if you follow current events, you have some background in these things. And so you find out what the issues are, find out what the legal pressure points are, and then you find out what the political actors want to do and then try and help them and help yourself and try and establish good legal policy and good decisions. So it's a constant balancing act, but it was really a tremendous experience. Well, before you went into that job, you had a, what do I say, a medium-sized firm that you were a founder of that firm.  And nobody will argue that the Department of the Office of the Attorney General is the biggest law firm in the state by far. And so part of the job while you're there has to be to manage all the human resources, to manage a firm this size. Who gets to do what? Who gets to research what? How do you check and verify and, you know, and build teamwork that will give you the best answer? This sounds pretty complicated, even in a, well, in a small firm, in a large firm, but in a super large firm like the Attorney General's Office, that sounds pretty challenging all by itself. Well, true. I had experience because I had managed my firm for 20 years. And I had done it even before then when I was at a, and another large firm, Case and Lynch, back in the day I'd been on the management committees.  And I had the support of terrific supervisors who could manage troops and manage people to do the research. I dealt with, I think about a third of the attorneys because it was a very broad kind of a thing. There were constant new issues. But I would, the great thing about the Attorney General's Office is it's the result that matters. It's not the economics. In private practice, you're always worried about what are the economics? Who's going to pay for all these bodies? Who's going to, who's going to front, pay the freight? And we were more concerned at the AG's office about what's the right result? What do we need? Who are the people we need to get into the room and let's get them in the room and try and figure out what's going on and what is the recommended course of action? And so that was, that was a terrific luxury in some ways. Now you can't go crazy, obviously. You guys still be reasonable about your judicious use of resources. But, but we were able to really focus on what are the key metrics? What are the key things that have to be done? You know, and provide fidelity to the Constitution, both of the United States and of Hawaii, and then the law and, and then figure out, well, what is the right thing to do? Yeah, right. And I, you had plenty of material in the book about that. You know, how do you pick the right course? Sometimes I'm sure you did not agree with the governor. You did not agree with some of your department heads, or for that matter, the lawyers, you were supervising. And you had to find a way to apply your moral imprimatur, your sense of the rule of law on top of all of this. And sometimes it isn't easy. It isn't, it isn't, it isn't easy, is it? No.  And there's a line I quoted in the, in the book from Dick Francis, where he says, I forget the name of the book, but, but the saying was thought before action, if there's time. And I love that because, you know, sometimes there's no time. And, and sometimes there's plenty of time. And, and sometimes it's close and it's a balancing act.  That's it, make your move. But you have to have a strong stomach sometimes, because all those pressures, all the time pressures, the people pressures, human resource pressures, the political pressures, and put a lot of pressure on you at it, you know what it needs, it needs a litigator, David, just like you, am I right? I think having a litigation background really, really helped. It, you know, litigation teaches you to work with teams to, you know, mold teams and put them together, and then to put on a production for a particular goal. And, and, you know, there is a great training, great training for me. I'm not saying non litigators can't do it. They can't. But, but the litigation background certainly helped. Well, your book, your book gives us kind of like the whole enchilada. We get to see the big things, the little things, we get to connect up with the news as we remember it from that particular four year period of time. You were covering so many things, you know, it was like a roller coaster, at least just looking at the book. Here's the cover of the book. Let me see that one more time. That's the cover of the book. It's really nice looking, by the way, David. Thank you. So with all of that material, all of those issues and events that you were experiencing on a day to day basis, I would guess it was like seven times 24 times 365. You have, you must have some favorite cases. And I wonder if you could tell us your very favorite case in terms of challenge, in terms of process, in terms of outcome. Well, you know, I'd have to say that the signature thing that we did that was same sex marriage. Same sex marriage has a long, long history. And because of the confluence of events nationally, it finally came to the fore. The fact that the Hawaii state legislature had overturned and overruled the Hawaii Supreme Court in 1993, decision of Bear versus Luan, where the Hawaii Supreme Court said, hey, same sex marriage is a matter of equal protection. But the country wasn't ready for it. And the country became ready for it in 2013 with the US Supreme Court ruling. And then Governor Abercrombie said, okay, let's pass same sex marriage. And he called the special session, which is the absolute right call. There is no way you could get a giant cultural complex issue through the legislature in regular session. And so we did that. I testified at the legislature. It was very moving to me. It was an issue of social justice, of equality, of opportunity. And it was tremendous. And a lot of people came together. I mean, there were a lot of opposition people who also were fervent. But I felt that it was the right thing to do. And then after we pushed it through the legislature and got it signed, Governor Abercrombie had a big signing ceremony. And he read this letter where this person wrote and said, thank you so much. We were invisible before and now people see us. It was quite moving. And then we were able to do court cases about it too because there was a court challenge to the law. And I went down and argued that in front of the judge and got the motion to dismiss that case. And it eventually went up to the Hawaii Supreme Court and they affirmed that the law was appropriate and constitutional. So that was a big issue, giant issue, and very personally satisfying to be a part of it. I can't take credit for the whole thing. There were so many people who worked on that. So many people at the AGs, the legislature, all kinds of political people. But to be a part of it and to sit at the table and to help steer it was very, very satisfying. Yeah, it was a piece of history, not only in Hawaii, but around the world. It was the shot hurt around the world, wasn't it? Yeah, no. And they just passed it in Chile, I think. I just saw the feed yesterday about some of these places are recognizing same-sex marriage and it's appropriate.  People should be able to love who they want to spend their lives with the people that they love. And so, you know, I'm fine with that and I wanted to enable that. You know, there's been some press about how in the pipeline there are cases headed toward the United States Supreme Court that challenged the whole thing, a reversal along the lines of the reversal they seek in Roe v. Wade. And that could happen. With this Supreme Court, that could happen. What are your thoughts about that? Well, this Supreme Court is very conservative and it certainly looks like they're going to overturn Roe v. Wade. I don't think they're going to overturn same-sex marriage. I don't think that they're going to do that. That would be a bridge too far for even the conservatives, I think, on this. But you never know. I can't predict that. The thing about constitutional law is that these justices are making it up. Okay. There's no precedent and they feel free to disregard precedent. And so, in many ways, you know, Justice Sotomayor said it, they're political actors. And so, they have to temper their political activism with not moving too quickly and with trying to respect prior precedent. But there are really very few checks on them to do that. So, it's difficult. Yeah. There was an article in The Times on Sunday calling what they had done gaslighting the country in terms of the, you know, the questions and their responses in the Supreme Court hearing on Roe v. Wade. We'll see what we'll see. So, let me ask you on the other flip side of that question. Here you have four years of high action, may I call it. What was your least favorite case or issue? You want me to kiss and tell. I don't do it in the book and in general I don't. But, you know, dealing with some actors who wanted different results than what I felt was right or was, you know, those were challenging times. And some of them were more aggressive than others. But, you know, I had the law on my side in terms of what my authority was. I had statutory power. I had constitutional power. I had precedent. And so I would tell them, you know, like, this is the way it is. I understand you don't like it. I understand you may not like it a lot. And you're going to express it to me. But I'm going to do it the way I think the law and the constitution requires. I love that. That's got, you know, I mean, really this book should be read nationwide. I'm telling you right now. So, you know, what's interesting is that you came at this from a career of practicing law and now it's something completely different. And you had to, you know, go to the occasion of looking carefully at government, at politics, at public opinion, mores, and the state of Hawaii with its special culture. And of course, the rule of law is always an issue. And the role of the attorney generals, there's so many things to, you know, be fresh impressions for you, fresh lessons. And I just wonder if you could capsize for us. And you did cover it in the book. What you learned, what you learned about government, about Hawaii, about politics, and about your own interaction with those things in those four years. It's like having a very heavy college course or maybe a graduate degree. Yeah. You know, that as I mentioned at the beginning, a lot of people have no idea what government does. It's a black box to them. It's a mystery. It's, you know, a closed kind of a thing to them. And the fact of the matter is, is that government is, it's a huge important institution. And it's too important to be left to others. Everybody needs to engage. I'm certainly glad I engaged. I'm certainly glad I participated. And what I learned was, is that, you know, you can make your voice heard, even the smallest, most insignificant person by voting, they can make their voice heard. But, but beyond that, you have advocates who step up, you have public policy advocates, who step up and try and make their voices heard and look for good government and things like that.  That's democracy as we know it. And the important thing from my perspective is, is people need to engage. That's what I learned, is that it's important to engage. You know, I came out and some things happened. And now I'm in a position where it's like, I actually know what to do and how to fix certain things, or how to at least tee them up for possible others to make good decisions, to, to right wrongs, or to fix things and make life a little bit better for everybody else. So I think that's the one thing I took away was, it's not unknowable. It's, it's, it's a process of people like anything else. And you just have to get in there and engage and make your voice heard, so that you can both represent yourself and you can make your views known. And you can hopefully help move us all forward to a better tomorrow. That's what I'm looking at. Well, it's, you know, if that was true in the, in the period you served, and, you know, when you got out to do a retrospective look at it, it's certainly much more true today. You know, the only, some people say the only way to say about democracy is to engage with it, just as you say. There was an article a few days ago in The Atlantic, a really, it's a famous, it will be a famous article, just the way your book will be a famous book, by Barton Gelman, who is one of the principals in, in The Atlantic. And it's, it's actually reduced to audio. It's an hour and a half of audio. And the proposition there is, there are some serious problems in this country. And there's nobody right now who stands up as someone who is going to be able to solve them. You don't see the solutions that are persuasive coming up. But the one thing, and he discusses various options, and it's worth listening to him. The one thing that seems to come up more than anything else is the citizens have got to take a stand on the rule of law. They have to engage. They have to speak out. You know, this is one of the reasons, David, you know, that think tech exists.  So what do you think about that? What do you think about saving the country? What do you think about Barton Gelman's concern and his potential solutions? Yeah, you know, I totally agree. I, I, the, the, the thing is, is, and I find myself in the trap many times. I'm tired.  I don't want to listen to contrary views that I think are totally misguided that ignore science, that ignore logic that are, that are there for petty concerns. And yet my view on the thing is, is we need to engage. We need to treat other people with respect. We need to hear them out. And we need to try and work together. And there's plenty of people doing this on NPR and, and talking about this in the Atlantic. We need to stay away from our closed bubbles, our echo chambers, where we only listen to the others to what makes sense to us. And, and we won't countenance another point of view. And we won't recognize that other people have other points of view.  Because if that happens, and we all retreat, and we can't engage, and we can't talk, then we're not going to be able to have a shared future. And if, if we can't have a shared future, then we're going to devolve into warfare and, and sniping and violence and all of those other bad things. And, and so I think it's absolutely necessary that people have to be able to engage and find a way to talk to other people without being, I guess, overly aggressive, without turning people off, without, you know, demonizing the other people.   And those nasty things, you know, and, and you'd run into a burning building to save people regardless of race. But, but I can't square that with what you just said, all those nasty things you just said about Mexican Americans, you know, how, how is that? So that rather than attacking him, she was trying to, you know, point out to him, challenge him, you got a challenge, you have to challenge. But by challenging in a sort of a, a softer manner, I think it's a, it's a potentially much more fruitful. Yeah, as you said, the book of feeling to his better angels. Yeah. Yeah. Right. No, that's the thing. I mean, it's, it's really tough. And, and, and I, I do believe, I mean, we have a lot of polarization in this country, not, not it. We have some in Hawaii, but it's nothing like the polarization that exists on the mainland.  You've had the experience of an attorney general and done well at it. Would you ever consider running for office, David? This is David Louie, David M. Louie, I'm asking. Oh, I think I'm past that as far as my career goes.  And you have to be a special person to do that. It's, it's a tough job. It's a, it's a tough undertaking. And that has not been my either forte or bent to love doing that. So probably no, I wouldn't, I wouldn't run, but I, I continue to support people who are running and I hope that they get elected. Yeah, right. That's the important thing is a whole generation out there that needs to engage actively in politics. Well, I want to talk about one of the possible career you could enter into. And that's the career of author. Let me say to start that the book, which is available on Amazon, I checked the book is, is really well written.  But that's not this book. You, you have boiled your rhetoric, your prose down to very understandable succinct statements with relatively short sentences. And it's very easy to read. It's not covered in legal. Did you consciously do that? I mean, did you have to think about it? You know, when you write a, when you write up, when you speak to a jury, for example, you have to talk their language. When you speak to a judge or an appellate court, that's a different language. And I wonder what voice you were looking for when you wrote the book. Well, you know, I had a lot of help. One, my daughter, Jenna, and my brother, Steven, helped me edit it down. And really were merciless in their criticism and their red penmanship. But, you know, writing a book is both easier and harder than you anticipate. It's easier to do it these days, because there's lots of resources available and a lot of stuff out there. But it's still harder than you, and then I anticipated, because you can put it down on paper. But then you have to be merciless in your editing. You really, you can't fall in love with your own words. And you just got to get to the point. I really was trying to get to the point and make it a fast read and make it a lighter read, even though there were some pretty dense subjects, some pretty dense legalese that formed the background of the decisions we were making. And so it was it was a trick to try and figure out how to present that so that it could be understandable and give people the background about that without overburdening them. And so that was that was the hard part. And quite frankly, it took a lot of editing and a lot of criticism that that I took the heart.  Well, but better criticism before than after, you know what I mean? So how did you deal with the issue of the sacred cows? You know, some of these things, what did you call it, kiss and tell?  How did you deal with that? How did you resolve that in terms of your own approach? Well, my own approach was, you know, I like to see the positive in people. And the publisher told me, you know, if you're not going to kiss and tell, it doesn't sell as well. But the fact of the matter is, is I, you know, I'm not, it's never been my intention to try and hold people up to, to just criticize them or talk, think about them. That's not my nature. And really, the point was, is just to let people know, here's what happened. Here's how I deal with these things. And, and sometimes I name people, sometimes I didn't name people. I didn't think it was necessary to name people who, who I was being critical of all the time. Some of them I did.  If, you know, because it's a book of history. And, you know, I suppose you have to be very careful. I mean, even before everybody, your family, whatnot, your editor gets in on you, to state it correctly, maybe do some research, make sure that your recollection's right. And of course, to write it up so, I mean, and lawyers do this all the time, to write it up so that your language accurately reflects and expresses what you want to say. And I had the feeling that this book was just like that. You thought it through, and you would, you were very determined to make every word an accurate statement of what you were saying. And that, that goes a long way. It's a credibility thing for the reader. Well, thank you, Jay. That's very nice of you to say that. I had a lot of help. Because it's not always easy getting your thoughts down on paper. And then, you know, I talked it through with a number of people and advisors who, you know, helped me form the thoughts and, you know, what are you really trying to say here? What's your real opinion? What are you really thinking about? Don't edge up to it. Let's just come right out and say it. Okay, well, let's examine that. All right, David, I asked you to pick a couple of paragraphs so we can actually have a sort of case study of that, you know, revealed. So why don't you read a paragraph or two and tell us what you were trying to say and what you did say and give us an example of your prose, if you don't mind. Okay, well, let me read two passages from a chapter called Get a Dog. And the first paragraph is, let me read it. I have always thought of politics and government as a sumo wrestling match. Because of the large Japanese-American population in Hawaii and the large numbers of Japanese tourists who come to Hawaii, sumo wrestling used to be regularly on TV in the 1970s. Sumo is a contest of very large, half-naked men pushing and shoving each other to force the other out of the ring. To establish dominance, power and authority. Politics and government are similar. Many naked and sometimes full, there are many half-naked and sometimes fully naked, vested interests and people playing in the arena, pushing and shoving each other, vying for money, power and influence. Government decisions, legislation and regulations often directly affect the lives and fortunes of many people. The stakes are high. And then at the end of that... What a perfect paragraph. Let me say I did not hear anywhere too far or here too far or therefore or anything like that in that paragraph. And then the second paragraph is as follows. Because the stakes are high and money, power and prestige are on the line, the world of politics and government can be a rough and tumble environment. Under these circumstances, it is no surprise that people would try to get their way by doing and saying things that might be considered questionable or over the line. When politicians are trying to avoid blame or obtain a result, sometimes they do not care if they act in a manner that would not be countenanced by people of goodwill or among friends. That is simply the political world. As President Harry S. Truman famously said, if you want a friend in Washington, get a dog. As I went forward, I realized that a number of my experiences were really just politics as usual.  You have to get a PhD for serving for four years in Hawaii. David, that is nicely written. I take it it was a good experience and a good outcome and a good book. It will go on the bookshelves along with some very famous Hawaii historical reads. But query, what is your next book about? That is a great question, Jay. I am not sure I have another book in me.  I will tell you this. It is not an easy process writing a memoir. You have to stick to it. I did it. I thought it was done. I sent it out to friends and my family. They came back and said, we do not think this is ready for prime time, David. I went, oh, that is disheartening. I said, that is fair enough. That is true. I went back and put it down for a few months because I was tired. Then I went back and spent several more months editing and slashing and burning and just cutting it down as much as I could to make it a faster, better, more informative read. That is the way it came out, David. Let me say that we know that a lot of information passes these days in our 21st century, passed by social media, not necessarily by meeting face to face, but by social media and a certain amount of the newspaper. Newspapers have changed and we are doing a show soon enough about the decline of regional and local newspapers and how that affects our democracy. And you look at the TV stations and they repeat themselves a lot, but query are they drilling down the way they should? And what you find clearly is that if you want to know what really happened, you have to read a book. And books are more important than they were 10 or 20 years ago to the general population who wants to know what really happened. And this book is right there. This book tells us what really happened. So to me, writing a book like this, David, is a public service all in its own. Thank you very much for doing it. Oh, thank you, Jay. And that's why I think think tech is so important that you provide thoughtful commentary, thoughtful analysis for people who want to listen to just people thinking about things and analyzing things as opposed to just reporting a horse race or just reporting some facts, which sometimes this is all that passes on the news. And that's unfortunate. But you think tech is doing a great job about that. And it's been a real privilege to serve on your board. Thank you, David and Louis. And a man who has allowed us to enter the Attorney General's office with him to sit at his side, to sit at his shoulder and experience what he experienced. It's a great tribute to a public official, and it's a great benefit to the public. Thank you so much, David. Thank you, Jay. Thank you very much. Aloha. Aloha.