Good afternoon everyone. My team continues to respond to the latest flooding event and I appreciate those who work through the night to keep people safe from our switched water teams, the V-trans crews, local responders and more. The good news is waters have been receding across the state. We'll now begin the process of assessing damage while we're cleaning up and the cleanup part is critical. We'll need to take a look at the stormwater infrastructure like culverts and catch basins to get them cleared out as soon as possible because, as we all know, all too well or a recent experience, this can happen again. So removing silt and vegetative debris will be key over the next coming days and weeks. So if we do get more intense rain, it has a place to go. Cleaning homes and businesses surrounded by water once again has been heartbreaking. I feel for those who are just getting back on their feet after this summer's flooding and are now dealing with water in their homes and businesses again. I can't imagine the toll that has on anyone. But Vermonters are resilient and tough and have stepped up time and time again and will need you to help your neighbors once again. I'm calling on anyone who is able to reach out to those who might need a hand and help your communities. This storm also highlights the importance of the work we began after this summer's flooding. We simply cannot rebuild the same way in the exact same places as we have. Because as we've said, events like this will become more frequent, which is why the resiliency and mitigation work will be so important. Our team will continue to reach out to gather information, offer help, and plan the next steps. For municipalities who need immediate assistance, please reach out to the State Emergency Operations Center so we can coordinate and expedite any needed response. With that, I'll turn it over to Commissioner Morrison for a situational update. Thank you, Governor. Good afternoon. Thank you for being here. As the Governor mentioned, in most parts of the state, floodwaters are receding. But Vermonters need to remain vigilant. Some rivers are still at flood stage and most have extremely strong currents. Everyone is encouraged to stay clear of floodwaters. Thankfully, the state has received no reports of deaths or injuries resulting directly from the flood. We want to keep it that way. Please respect all road closures and never drive or walk through a flooded area. Should you be considering recreating in a river or stream in the cold of December, wait. Currants are not that it was a good idea in the first place, but wait because the currents are still too strong and debris and other pollutants are running downriver. Yesterday and overnight, our Swiftwater teams made a total of 12 rescues. I reported to you yesterday that three people were rescued from a home in Jamaica and there were nine separate rescues from vehicles caught in floodwaters. Our teams also assisted with some voluntary evacuations from residences that were threatened by but not inundated by water. Two Swiftwater rescue teams remain staged, one in Colchester and one in Waterbury. We expect that these teams will demobilize this afternoon. The Emergency Operations Center is still activated. If towns find that they need additional assistance, they can contact the EOC through their Emergency Management Director. We've begun the process of assessing damage to determine if the state qualifies for public infrastructure repair assistance. The team at the Emergency Operations Center will work with towns to collect and assess data in the coming days. Those returning to their flooded homes should be mindful of potential hazards. Turn off the power to your home if you can do so safely and have the system inspected by a licensed electrician. Ensure that your food is not spoiled and that your water is safe to drink. I'd like to ask you to visit the Vermont Department of Health website, healthvermont.gov forward slash flood for more health and safety information. Related to shelters, there's one warming center in the state currently and it is at the Cavendish Baptist Church on Main Street in Cavendish. All other shelters have closed as residents who used them have returned to their homes or made other arrangements. The Vermont Emergency Management website and social media channels will list other shelters or warming centers should they come online and anyone needing housing assistance should call 2-1-1. We are working closely with 2-1-1 to capture damage to residences and businesses as a result of yesterday's flooding. I want to take a moment here to be very clear about how we are using 2-1-1 in the wake of this emergency. First, if you have a life safety emergency, please call 9-1-1. And if you have immediate needs for food or shelter, please call or text 2-1-1. If you do not need immediate assistance but your home or business was damaged as a result of this flood, please go online to vermont2-1-1.org to report your damages when your situation is stable. Please use the online form to report damage. Only if you do not have access to the internet, you can make your damage report by calling 2-1-1 and speaking to an operator. The damage reports will be used to aggregate and quantify the damages to residences and businesses to determine if we may be eligible for any federal assistance in the wake of this event. At this time, we do not know if any communities or the state as a whole will qualify for federal assistance, but we want to make sure that we accurately tally up the damages. If you are already making repairs to your home or business, please take pictures, document the damages, save all receipts associated with the work you are doing to remediate the damages, and then report to 2-1-1. With that, I will turn things over to Secretary Curley from the Agency of Commerce and Community Development. Thank you, Commissioner Morrison. Good morning, everyone. Good afternoon. I'm sorry. The Agency of Commerce and Community Development has been doing outreach this morning to our regional partners to try to determine the impact of the flooding, both to our downtown and within the business community. We're hearing that in many places like in LaMoyle County and in Montpelier, basements are once again flooded, but the damage has not risen to the level seen during the July event. That said, in areas like Waterbury, the Okimo Valley, and the Mad River Valley, the impacts of the high water mark of yesterday's flooding appear to be great. We know businesses that were impacted in July are again faced with cleaning up from yet another flooding event. And this time doing it while temperatures drop and more winter weather-like temperatures return. ACCD, through our Department of Housing and Community Development, has also gotten word that impacts to mobile home parks are not necessarily as severe as the July storms. We're still gathering reports and awaiting some responses. But from what we've heard so far, there are some damage to culverts and roads and bridges within the parks, but we have not had reports of significant damages to the homes themselves as of yet. Right now, the very best thing that Vermonters and business owners can do is to clean up what you can and those who can volunteer their time, please do so in support of your local community. Much like the flooding in July, it is best to document everything you can. As Commissioner Morrison said, take pictures, make notes of any and all damage you encounter as you clean up. It will be important to have this documentation for your insurance company or in the event that the state receives a federal disaster declaration. All of us standing here today realize how devastating another flooding event is to what we are already vulnerable in our communities and businesses who suffered so greatly just a few months ago. ACCD will remain in contact with our regional partners and the business community to assess what recovery needs exist and we will provide what support we can in the days ahead, working in conjunction with Vermont Emergency Management. And with that, I will turn it over to Secretary Pushe of the Agency of Education. Thank you, Secretary Curley. Good afternoon, everyone. I'd like to start by just noting yesterday's activities very briefly. So beginning around 8 a.m., the Agency of Education's operations team started working very closely with our schools and ensuring that they had safe plans for students. I'd like to commend and really call out our schools, our school leaders. I think it's a real testament to what a great education system we have. 120 total schools were closed early yesterday, so you could think of it as a mass early dismissal. I'm quite convinced that our superintendents and our principals did not anticipate when they showed up for a regular Monday that they would then almost literally have to turn around and send kids home. And they all did it and got kids home safely, got them fed and got them really to their communities and homes before the roads were flooded and I just really wanna commend them for that work. So today, what we know is that six districts, and that's Harwood Union, Lemoyle North, Mount Mansfield, White River Valley, Orange Southwest and Orleans Southwest were closed in full, are closed in full today, and that's a total of 54 schools. Many other schools reported a delayed opening today, and that's because they wanted time to assess conditions this morning. The closures were largely due to needing to find alternative busing routes, given road conditions as affected by the rain event. To our knowledge, no one is anticipating closures beyond today, which is great news. So far, Moretown School has reported damage to its heating system and some classrooms, Moretown Elementary School, to be more specific. Their K through six students are going to Harwood Middle School and High School, the remainder of this week, and we're working on a plan for their pre-K students and hopefully we'll have that finalized by the end of the day today as well. And Moretown Elementary is planning to reopen that school by January 2nd, so hopefully students will be right back into their regular type of education experience when they return back from winter break. One school in Bethel has lost its softball field, and my understanding is this is a repeat, unfortunately, so they lost it as well in July, fixed it up, and now it's lost again, so that's disappointing. AOE, our ops team is working with schools and districts like Moretown to ensure that they're following any requisite steps, as Commissioner Morrison said, should there be a FEMA declaration, we're just not sure about that right now. Thanks. Good afternoon, Julie Moore, Agency of Natural Resources, and I'm going to provide updates on dam safety, water and wastewater concerns, waste management, river corridors, and a little bit of information about landslides. So starting first with the Winooski Flood Control Dams, members of ANR's dam safety team monitored these dams literally throughout the night and are continuing their efforts today. As of noon, I can report that Wrightsville is 22 feet below the auxiliary spillway, and the rate of reservoir rise at this point has started to slow. Waterbury reservoir, the rate of rise has also started to slow, and we are still eight feet below the action level for that facility. Our current plan is to keep the gates closed on that dam for several days until high water levels recede in the Winooski River. And the Eastbury Reservoir Facility is 15 feet below the auxiliary spillway, which is lower than what I had reported last night, and we are pleased to see that decline. The dams do all continue to perform admirably under this second really significant test this year. In terms of other dams in Vermont, our dam safety program is communicating with emergency managers for municipalities and contacting owners of high and significant hazard dams to request that they take a look and ascertain and report any damage. Our engineers are doing in-person visits to several dams today, including Curtis Pond and Callas and the Gale Meadows Project in London Dairy. This is a dam that had significant damage during July and was actively being rebuilt as of last week. Also, we've had no reported issues with any of the hydroelectric dams from Green Mountain Power or Morrisville Water and Light. In terms of drinking water, the team is actively reaching out to public water supplies in areas with reported flood damage, but generally no issues have been reported. And as of 11 a.m. this morning, there were no state mandated do not drink or boil water notices or local advisories in place. We do have technical staff working with the towns of Woodstock, Fairfax and Richmond, all of which experienced very high flows into their drinking water systems to ascertain potential problem or damage. We've received reports from 15 wastewater plants across the state that experienced flood-related concerns, including overflows of partially or untreated wastewater at pump stations out of manholes and at combined sewer overflows, all of which have resolved with receding floodwaters and without permanent damage or disruption of service. Two facilities in Waterbury and Richmond are still experiencing high flows, likely attributable to the high flows in the Winooski River. And specifically Richmond is reporting the river continues to back up into their plant. We've also spoken with the operators at the Johnson Wastewater Facility, which was so heavily affected during July. There is flooding in and around the plant. However, the data that was collected this morning indicate that their effluent quality is unaffected. Our geology team has received a few reports of landslides, primarily along road corridors, and I expect Secretary Flynn may speak about those in more detail, but indicated rain on snow events tend to cause greater runoff and reduced infiltration, which means there is less concern about landslides on the partially frozen soils that exist currently. Our waste management division continues to monitor, and as of 11 a.m. this morning, there have been no flood-related spills reported, but encourage any homeowners that have had water in basement that may have come in contact with fuel oil to call the Hazmat hotline at 1-800-641-5005 for technical assistance about how to proceed with that potentially hazardous condition. And then finally, according to our rivers program, they're still very early in their assessments and have reached out to local liaisons as well as conducting field visits to help craft a better picture, but generally this event was less destructive from a river erosion standpoint than the floods we saw in July. That said, there are engineers on the ground working with the towns of Chester, Ludlow, Wardsboro, Brattleboro, Springfield, Stratford, Jamaica, Randolph, as well as several communities in the Mad River Valley and the Greater Mount Piliar Area to address river-related concerns and damage that's been reported to town-owned culverts. We're going to continue these on-the-ground assessments over the next several days and also have technical experts who stand ready to assist municipalities should additional concerns arise. And with that, I will turn it over to Secretary Flynn. Thank you, Secretary Moor. Good afternoon. When we reported to you yesterday at five o'clock, we reported there were 15 full closures of Vermont State roads, not counting local. By nine o'clock, that number had risen to 40 full state road closures. I'm pleased to report now that number is down to seven roads, still remain fully closed. They are US 7 and Milton at the dam. Vermont 116 in South Burlington, the city is doing a project on a troubled drainage issue there now. Vermont 12 in Berlin from Riverton to Montpelier. US 302 from Berrytown to Orange. Vermont 109 from Cambridge to Waterville. Vermont 15 at the Wrongway Bridge in Cambridge. And Route 14 at the junction of Route 15 in Hardwick. The three partial closures at this hour are Vermont 106 in Weathersfield at the junction of 131. I mentioned yesterday, Vermont 108 at Spruce Peak Lodge in Stowe. That is a project being undertaken by the ski resort in by Stowe. We are keeping in touch with them. It's my understanding they are attempting to have two-way traffic restored for skiing this weekend while a permanent fix is planned after that at some point that they will announce. And the third partial closure at this hour is Route 14 in South Randolph. I'm pleased to also report there is no significant rail damage. You recall what you saw, especially like in Ludlow after the July event. All the repairs withstood this storm event. Amtrak is back on schedule and departed both Burlington and St. Albans this morning. Cape Air has restored service to Rutland. The LaMoyle Valley Rail Trail, as you might recall, heavily damaged in July. And we've been pushing to try to repair the final segment with the possibility of having it ready for snowmobile season. There were four major sites remaining. And while they did have some slight damage, with an abundance of caution, I will say we are still tracking for some potential good news in the month of January regarding that. There'll be more coming at a later date. There are no bridge issues on the state network other than the bridge on Route 7 Milton, which is a result of the outflow from the dam. V-Trans is assisting the town of Fairfax today with some geotechnical service. And the only slope failure that is problematic for us at this point, I reported yesterday, is Route 2 in St. Johnsbury. It's still closed. We had a slope failure in Wardsboro, Springfield, excuse me, and I believe Chester.  And that concludes my comments and I'll turn it back over to the governor. Thank you very much, Secretary Flynn. We'll now open up to questions. Governor, obviously just going through this in July, I know it's still early, but from what you've seen, whether it's numbers and information, I guess, what are the odds or what's your best bet on? Do you think the damages will reach that threshold for a federal disaster declaration again? It's very difficult to tell at this point. It will be close if it does, but we'll just have to wait and see what the damages are, what they report, and then we'll go from there. There's still a lot of standing water out there. It's going to be in the 20s tonight, I think. Is there a concern or a message about black ice or road conditions tonight? I will let Secretary Flynn answer that, but obviously in those areas that were closed, they're still with water still on the ground, so to speak, and the road's still wet. It could be slippery, but I would imagine if the water is cleared that they will de-ice that and put some salt on. Secretary Flynn. V-Trans has been out through the night monitoring our roads and is out again today. We'll continue to do that. Of the roads that I have reported that have opened since yesterday, some of them still have water right up to the white line, so they have to continue to be watched, and clearly we'll be taking de-icing measures where we think it's necessary, but it's a great opportunity to just remind Vermonters that black ice can fool you, you can't see it, you don't know you're on it until it's too late. So whether it says the result of this event or any other time that you're traveling on the highway, especially around that freezing temperature, the sun has been out during the day and its temperatures drop in the evening, it's just great to remind ourselves that you can be caught unprepared and taken by surprise. So black ice is a real threat year round, well year round throughout the winter months, so we'll leave it there, thank you. Governor, when you talk about federal declaration, what are you looking at? Are you talking about what happened back in July with FEMA or something that's more limited than that? It would be, you know, this would be another event at this point in time, so there'd be a separate declaration for this. If we met the threshold, so that's what we're looking for at this point, just to assess the damages and see if it meets that level of declaration. Here it comes. Yeah, that's accurate. So for the July event, we actually got two declarations. We got the first one for the, I believe, it was the 10th through the 21st and then the second one was for the 3rd to the 5th. So each one hit certain milestones, so it starts up a declaration at the federal level and that works through reimbursements at the town level. So with this one, we have to see if we hit those thresholds, so we're actively going out to towns now to collect that data. And Governor, after the July flight, you set up the program with the Agency of Commerce and Community Development to help businesses because they didn't have assistance from FEMA. Are you contemplating reviving that program? We're expanding it? Difficult to tell at this point, we'll have to see what the damages are and then the legislature will be back in sessions. We'll be able to deal with them directly on this issue. Do you anticipate that lawmakers will be asked to provide some financial assistance to both residents who had a cap of what? Was it $43,000 from FEMA in businesses which got their grants from the state? Do you see a role for the legislature to play, to help people? There's always a role for the legislature to play. I would caution everyone, this is going to be a very, very lean year in terms of our own budget. There isn't any surplus left and there isn't any federal funding coming our way that would help offset this at this point in time. So we'll do whatever we can to help but at this point in time, I just want to level set and caution everyone not to assume that we'll be able to accommodate their financial loss. Your opening remarks, you stress that we can't continue to rebuild in the same place in the same way. Certainly like in Montpelier, Barrie, they've been trying to lift up utilities above the flood plain, make it a little more resilient but not everybody's been able to do that. I'm thinking there's many homeowners in Barrie. Some of them took on floodwaters in their basement and had some of their utilities wrecked this time around. What options do people have, especially this is the second flood in five months? Yeah, well again, Barrie in particular, as you know, we have a plan, we put forward approach to the city council about this. We're still working our way through that in hopes of getting some sort of federal help for that project and we'll see what happens there. Obviously we'll be in contact with our federal delegation and they'll be working hand-in-hand with us to seek any opportunities to get reimbursement, mitigation, money and so forth. So we'll confer with director Farnam, our flood recovery disaster officer and he'll be probably at our press conference tomorrow or be available at that point. So there may be other opportunities that I'm not aware of. There's always buckets of money opening up and we'll do whatever we can to help. What progress, I guess, have you seen in Congress, I know the House is on break right now, the Senate's dealing with immigration I suppose, but have you seen any movement or the needle moving on that request at all this year? I have not seen any, I think they have their hands full. I was just taking care of day-to-day business and the good news is in some respects, there is funding available through FEMA or that is available to them and needs to be distributed in a different way so it would take some sort of a notwithstanding congressional act to distribute that money. But the good news is that it's been appropriated in that supplemental a few months ago. Was there any point last night where as you assessed the damage that was going on, two big floods in five months, where you just scratched your head and said, what the heck is going on here? I don't think it's anything that we didn't expect in some respects. I've been saying all along, climate change is real. We're going to see more of these intense storms. The temperature fluctuates. With all the snow that we have on the ground over the last few weeks, I mean, think about all the Mondays we've had with this wet, heavy snow a few degrees one way or the other would have changed that into a rainstorm and more flooding at that point. So I don't know as we expected it to get as warm as it did. I don't know as we expected it to get as much water, rainwater as we did. But I don't think anyone should be surprised about this. Kind of going off of that after the July floods, it was kind of talked about what they're just looking for housing or flood plains, how often maybe 10-year storms, 50-year floods, 100-years, does this qualify the storm under any of those amount of year floods? I don't think we can use the traditional methods of 100-year storms. We've proven with Irene and then the July flooding and then just five months later, another storm. So I don't even know how to qualify them at this point. If you have a little bit of insight into the decision to roll back the FEMA trailers. We will be taking that up tomorrow. We'll have General Roy there in tomorrow to explain what happened. It was a bit of a surprise to me. But it's not all bad news. I want to level set this. There could be some opportunity there as well. But we'll go over that tomorrow. Are you surprised though? Word was out Friday afternoon that FEMA was going to stop that project in my period. I don't think you knew about it until Monday. I did not. How is that possible? Well, I mean, I do know. They were talking about reassessing because they pulled a lot of different levers, right? And I think General Roy will explain this better than I can tomorrow, but they wanted to help us in any way possible. So they pulled every lever they could possibly think of, whether it was the mobile units coming in, whether it was available units they could rent, whether it was housing that they could retrofit, anything all the above. And they pulled the lever to make sure they could house people. And when it came, push came to shove, all of a sudden they figured out we have it somewhat covered already. So again, he'll explain that better than I can tomorrow. And hopefully it makes some sense of it. They have a signed agreement with the city. Yeah, well, the signed agreement is still in place. It's a signed agreement. The city will benefit from it. But again, I'll let General Roy talk about it tomorrow. If we focus on the phones, we'll come back to the room to start with Keith, the Rutland Herald. No questions at this time. Thank you. Thank you, Keith. Ed Barber, Newport Daily Express. All right, we'll go to Emma Cahn, VT Digger. Hi, can you hear me okay? We can. Governor, you said yesterday that you were a bit surprised by the extent of the flooding. And it sounds like, you know, superintendents and education officials were also surprised, I think, since 120 schools home closed. I just wondered, was there information that you weren't getting about the extent of this, what this one was going to look like? And is there more that the state could have done to prepare, given that it seemed to take a lot of folks by surprise? Yeah, I'm not sure that we could have done anything more to prepare. We'll learn something from this storm. I think there was a bit more rain than we thought there was going to be. The temperature was elevated more. The snow melt was intensified as a result and it just kept coming. And so, coupled that with, you know, the elevated temperature in the back roads that we have and the buses that have to travel on them and the roads breaking up like it was spring, we had mud conditions. So we were dealing with a lot of different things at the same time, which impacted the decisions of the schools, which I think made the appropriate decisions because we didn't know what to expect next. And again, the elevated levels of the streams, the Winooski and Lemoyle and the Otter Creek and so forth just across the state. It seemed like it was much broader geographically than maybe the storm in July, but not as intense and not we didn't suffer the damage, but much broader. And we saw up in the Northeast Kingdom and Caledonia and Linden and so forth impacts there, some up in Franklin County down in the traditional areas of July and Wyndham and Windsor and Washington County and Addison County as well. So it touched maybe touched more people, but it wasn't again, as intense. Okay, thank you. I'm also wondering if you might be able to tell me if there are any processes that were put in place following the July storms that benefited the state or municipalities this time, given that it was so soon after the July floods? I can talk and there's probably many instances and maybe the team has other ideas, but the one area that I thought we did took steps on early was the stormwater collection systems, the catch basins and stormwater piping and debris removal in the culverts and streams and bridges and so forth. We focused on that intensely, reached out to municipalities asked them if they needed assistance with vac trucks and so forth, which some of them did. So we got the upper hand on that. I believe had we not taken that action, the damage would have been much more severe because the stormwater would have had no place to go. And as we saw last night in some of the areas, whether it be Waterbury or Barrie or Montpellier or Richmond or wherever, the water in those towns and villages proceeded quite quickly once it stopped raining. And that was, I think, attributed to the stormwater systems of being able to relieve the flooding, which wasn't maybe the case in some of that in July. Anybody else have anything on the hand? This is Eric. Hold on just a second. I'm gonna have the last question. I was just gonna talk a little bit about the community response to like some of the businesses and residents. So knowing the storms were coming for some of the folks who had built back since July and were able to move like HVAC systems up, and others that were not able to do it yet, local community efforts deployed. And there was a lot of activity during the day yesterday where volunteers were helping folks move, whether it was businesses moving inventory up or moving equipment up or homeowners helping get things out of their basements. So obviously, they still have to clean up the mud or the mess in basements, but it's a lot easier than when there's a lot of stuff in those basements that can't, that become soggy or very expensive equipment that can't be replaced. So I think that those were some lessons learned from July where people saw the rain coming, kept coming and just really got out and helped each other. Again, this was both in businesses and residential is hearing stories all day long of this happening. So that was one other area that was sort of like an organic effort. And I might just add around dams and dam safety. So there are hundreds of dams in Vermont, the vast majority of which are owned by private landowners. And we went to great lengths in the weeks immediately following the July floods to establish current contact information with every one of them and are able now to go back to that network that we've built, push out requests for information and also make offers of technical assistance if folks are observing damages or defects that they believe warrant some sort of inspection. And so I think that that is a significant improvement and one that ultimately will be codifying as we move into a rulemaking process around high hazard and significant hazard dams. I just want to make sure we got everything for Emma and then we'll go to Ann. Yes, Emma, thank you very much. Thanks, can you hear me? We can. Just to follow up on that rulemaking process, I know that lawmakers have various bills aimed at mitigating future flood damage and streamlining the emergency response and things like that. And I'm just wondering what you think the legislature can do to make this type of situation easier as in the future. And also if you have anything that you're thinking of that you'd like to see maybe in your budget for flood response or mitigation. Yeah, we're still putting our budget together, obviously. And as I said before, it's going to be a fairly lean year, but we're looking at buyouts as well. Anything we can do in that regard and making sure that when people are more building, that we're doing it in the proper way to mitigate any future damage due to flooding. In response to your question, one of the things that we will be advancing to the governor's office for consideration in this budget is to bring the urban search and rescue team into a proper existence and acknowledged as a unit of state government by bringing it into a general fund stream. We have been cobbling that team together, which as you can see from July and from yesterday's events, it is an absolutely crucial piece of keeping Vermonter safe in these disasters. We've been cobbling it together for years with a variety of different federal grant streams and also borrowing some funds from the hazmat team where the areas overlap, et cetera. And it's really, I think it just really highlights the fact that we need to put that team on firm footing so that in future times when times are lean or other people in government perhaps don't remember the value of the team, that it is part of state government and our ability to respond to Vermonters, particularly our most vulnerable, because we know that people in the flood prone areas sometimes have fewer resources and ability to remove themselves from a dangerous situation. So that is something that we will be advancing to the governor's office. And Sherwood, love your support, boss. One of the other things that we're looking to push forward is the flood of resilient communities fund. It's been funded in a couple of different ways over a couple of different years, but trying to formalize that in a process and put that into statute. It's a fund that can fill the gaps that FEMA doesn't fill. FEMA is very specific on its mitigation projects and some things do not fit very nicely in that square peg and around hole. So we are backstopping with this FRCF and we've been using that money very quickly and very diligently, but we would like to potentially keep that process going. That is my cabinet knows very well this is going to be a very lean year. So any new initiatives will have to be offset with something that we're going to do without. All right. Tom Davis, compass for mine. Thank you, Jason. Governor and your team, how difficult or easy was it for you to obtain information from the various EOC representatives from the municipalities around the state? Eric? So the emergency operations center talking about building off the summer, we had relationships and we've had relationships over the last several years with the local EMDs. Each town has a EMD in statute, so they are appointed or they are elected in their local municipality, whichever way they decide, but that official then has direct connections to the emergency operations center, as well as VM during blue sky events when they need training or they need resources, they can reach out to us. So we've built those relationships over several years and we call on those during these events and those EMDs stand up and give us a lot of resources both ways. We ask them a lot of questions. They ask us a lot of questions. They give us size in years on the ground and they will be the ones helping us decide whether or not we hit those thresholds and then we will work with them on resource needs. So we have a great relationship with the local EMDs. Do you get 100% participation by then? We don't get 100% participation because not every town activates their local emergency operations center, but we do have the EMDs participate in regional emergency management committees. Then those emergency management committees participate in other state-level activities. So those EMDs do participate, but like everything else, they're volunteers. So they don't have the resources they need to do the job full-time. So we are looking to see what we can do in that capacity, but it is like everything else, it's a short resource, but they are doing well with what they have. Okay, thank you very much. No other questions? Back to the room. Governor, you several times now in several of these press conferences, we've talked about the need for buyouts for restoration of flood plains. Are there any specific areas, geographically, that flooded in July that also flooded this time around like some of these like a real problem area that you'd like to see? I think it doesn't take long to find some of those areas that are prone to flooding. And I would say throughout in this area, through Washington County, all the way from Barrie into Richmond into Essex down through on the Winooski, the Lamoille through Hardwick and Morseville and then into Johnson, Cambridge problematic, but also in the Otter Creek and some of the tributaries down through Windsor and Wyndham as well. So there is a common theme here and it's in those low lying areas with substantial volumes of water in those streams. What about dredging, lots of people ask me, why are we not dredging? Why did we stop dredging? Because we used to do that. You know, dredging and Secretary Moore can answer this probably more elegantly, but with my background in construction, it's just not that easy to do. I mean, when you think about it, just the work itself, take away whether it's ecologically suitable. Just dredging, how do you get the material out? Where do you put it? Where do you dump it? What do you do? And do you get a machine down in and go right up through the river? What about bedrock? I mean, there's all kinds of things that are problematic in terms of trying to dredge the streams to get any kind of volume, increase volume. If you get down two or three feet, that's not going to be enough. Going wider with a stepped approach, a tiered approach, much easier to do. Still, you know, difficult in some respects, but much easier than dredging out a stream. When you're dealing with water, trying to dredge anything in the water, you're just fighting the water and the different types of materials and so forth. Just not as easy as it seems. Our river engineers are out assessing needs for localized dredging projects, generally around bridge abutments and culverts, places where material's been deposited and could actually present a real risk in the next flood. In general, as the governor described though, we can't dig ourselves out of flooding. We just can't kind of create that capacity. And the other piece is oftentimes, if dredging is done in one area, it really just pushes the problem further upstream or downstream. You create a place where maybe the water is able to slow a little bit, but remains in the channel and it'll burst out at the other end in kind of a fire hose effect. And so being thoughtful in trying to look for places to reconnect those flood plains is a far preferable solution than dredging. Thank you all very much. Thank you. Thank you.


I think that the Florida statute itself is unconstitutional, giving that kind of power to the party. The party itself is a political committee. It's not a government agency, but it's playing a quasi-governmental function here. And it has no right to block democracy this way. It has a responsibility to the public good. And we all know that we're living at a time when our democracy itself is in crisis. We all know that the threats to democracy of them that are represented by people such as Donald Trump. But the irony here, of course, is that the Democratic Party claims to be trying to protect democracy, but the way of doing it is to suppress democracy. You just watched a clip from a joint town hall between two of Biden's 2024 presidential primary opponents, Marianne Williamson and Cenk Uger. Now, Marianne Williamson was speaking about the Florida Democratic Party's decision to unilaterally cancel the 2024 primary before a single vote has been cast.  In fact, we all should be. Politico reports Florida appears poised to hold no presidential primary election for Democrats this cycle after the state party submitted only President Joe Biden's name as a candidate up for nomination. Now, as journalist Ryan Grimm adds, here's the moment where the Florida Democratic Party nominated Biden. I'm told by a party member that it was not explained to people that by nominating him, that also would keep other candidates off the ballot. Even enthusiastic supporters of Biden would not have purposefully canceled the primary. So whether or not this is a case of corruption or incompetence or perhaps both, that remains to be seen. But I don't really care. I don't care why they did this. They have to undo it. You don't get to unilaterally give Biden the state's pledge delegates before voters even have the chance to make their voices heard. That decision remains solely with voters. And you might be thinking, well, I mean, what does it even matter because Biden's going to win the primary there anyway? So why even bother holding a primary? Now, let me just say this. If he's going to win, then certainly you have no reason to go out of your way to rig the primary against his opponents.  The process matters. Giving voters the ability to make their voices heard matters. Even authoritarian regimes hold elections. For example, Kim Jong-un supposedly won his last election in North Korea with 99% of the vote. Now, just in case there's any question, no, he didn't actually get 99% of the vote. The election is obviously rigged. So the question is, why even bother going through the process if he and everyone else already knows the outcome? And it's because cultivating legitimacy matters. Demonstrating to citizens that there is a process in place that is followed and that there are rules in place that are followed is how you build legitimacy for the state. It's how you get people to buy into the political process and believe that things matter. Any political scientist will tell you the importance of legitimacy. But Democrats in Florida apparently can't even grasp a simple concept that literal totalitarian leaders are able to grasp. But this isn't North Korea and that's not a very good comparison because elections here matter, or at least they're supposed to, but apparently Florida Democrats didn't get the memo. Now, Dean Phillips, another Biden primary opponent, was also pissed off and rightfully so. Politico continues, the move to leave Representative Dean Phillips off the primary ballot left the Minnesota Democrat enraged on Thursday. In a statement first provided to Politico, Phillips, who has launched a long shot primary bid against Biden, accused Florida Democratic Party officials of rigging the primary. He threatened a lawsuit and a convention fight if he didn't win ballot access in the state. Quote, Americans would expect the absence of democracy in Tehran, not Tallahassee, said Phillips. The intentional disenfranchisement of voters runs counter to everything for which our Democratic Party and country stand. Our mission as Democrats is to defeat authoritarianism, not become them. In his statement, Phillips called the handling of the process by the Florida Democrats a blatant act of electoral corruption and demanded Biden condemn and immediately address it. The Biden campaign did not provide a comment for this story. Nikki Fried, the chair of the Florida Democratic Party, contended the party followed its standard process that was outlined on its website. Quote, we are dismayed by Dean Phillips conspiratorial and inappropriate comments comparing the state of Florida to the Iranian regime as part of his knee-jerk reaction to long established procedures, Fried said. Quote, this is unbecoming of someone running for higher office. I'm sorry, but that comment is outrageous. Absolutely outrageous and false. And I shouldn't have to say this, but he's not being conspiratorial if you literally did the thing that he said you did. Now, I am no fan of Dean Phillips. I think that that's probably obvious to anyone who knows my policy positions, but he's right on the principle and I support what he's saying here. Everything he's saying is correct. This is not okay.    They're also hypocrites as well. Cenk Uger pointed this out on Twitter saying Democrats, democracy is on the line. Also Democrats were canceling elections in the primary translation. We had to destroy democracy in order to save it and he's exactly right. How can you correctly call out the threat that Trump poses to our democracy only to then cancel a primary yourselves? It's outrageous to me, but I do want to get to more from that town hall between Williamson and Uger because they're going to describe their action plan because they're not just going to take this lying down and I'm glad that that's the case, but here's what they say. It's wrong and it's also undercutting of the most basic rights. If we cannot, if we cannot assume that the people of the United States have fair and equal access to knowing even who their candidates are, then we don't have fair and equal access to the vote. And this is why this is a transgression of the 14th Amendment and this is what we will be claiming in court if we have to. Both Dean, all of us, Dean and Cenk and myself are going to take all legal action that we can and that we feel is necessary. We're going to communicate to the public and we appreciate, I know all three of us appreciate that you are here. You can't let these so-called little transgressions pass. We have to hold a line right here. This is not just about the fact that it's 200 Soma delegates, it's not just the fact that it's drama going on within the Democratic Party. This is the chipping away of our democracy. And as Cenk pointed out with an irony that the party called the Democratic Party, the party that claims to be the champion of democracy has basically decided that Joe Biden will be the candidate. Now, this is authoritarianism, just as Cenk said. When I was a child, we were told that in the Soviet Union people could vote, but they were told who their options were. And that's exactly what's happening here. And you have over 70% of Democratic voters who have made it clear time and time again that they want to hear other options. In this case, other options exist. And at this point, the Democratic Party, the state of Florida itself, have no right to manipulate the circumstances so in such a way that people are denied access to who their candidates are and to hear from us and to know that we're about. Unfortunately, this is part of a larger concerted effort that the Democratic Party has been taking. This has to do with media suppression. It has to do with invisibilization, erasure. But it stops right here. Or at least it will not go unchallenged right here by myself. And I think I hear the same kind of conviction in Cenk's voice. We certainly have heard it from Dean as well. And I'm with him 100%. And all of us will do what we feel we have to do. And I think that we're the ones who are standing up for democracy in this case, not the Democratic Party. Well said. And look, this is not the first time that Democrats have attacked democracy. In 2016, DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz was literally forced to resign in shame after she was caught red handed sabotaging Bernie Sanders. And she was the person who was supposed to make sure that the process was fair. It was her job to remain neutral. That was the obligation of the DNC Charter that she refused to follow, hence why she was forced to resign. So this is not a new phenomenon. But it's not acceptable. And Democratic Party voters should never accept this. Now, one last thing that I want to say is that when you look at hypothetical matchups between Biden and Trump, aggregate polling data currently shows that Biden is losing to Trump. I repeat, Biden would lose to Donald Trump if the election were held today.  Voters should have the option to nominate someone else who has a better chance of beating Trump in 2024. Now, odds are that even if the primary was perfectly fair, Biden would still likely coast through the primary again due to that incumbency advantage. But Democrats do not have the right to take away our ability to choose a candidate that we believe is better positioned to defeat Trump in 2024. And the fact that they think that they do speaks to their hubris. And it's part of the reason why we got Trump in the first place in 2016.  And they're doing it again when the stakes couldn't be higher. So this is something that is obviously not acceptable. And it cannot stand. And despite my disagreements with Uighur, Phillips and Williamson as well, I absolutely support their effort to stop this. And you should too. Everybody who cares about democracy should be consistent.  And I hope that any liberals who see this will follow suit and also condemn the Democratic Party in Florida here, because what they did is completely egregious.


He claims that his elderly Asian parents have been scammed out of millions and is now trying to warn others. Yeah, this is going viral right now. Eric Zhang, a 29-year-old entrepreneur is seeking donations to help his elderly parents home after they have fallen victim to an online investment scam. This is very controversial. Andrew, some people really believe a story. Some people don't, but I'll tell you this, Andrew. This is without a doubt. Scamming is at an all-time high in 2023 and you need to have a conversation with your older immigrant parents about it. Whether they're immigrants or not, but especially if they're immigrants because they might not know. Exactly, exactly. So we're going to delve into this case, but we're also really just going to talk about how to talk to your parents about scamming. Please hit that like button. Check out other episodes of the Hot Pop Boys. But you know what's not a scam? Smala Sauce is not a scam. It is coming straight to your doorstep. If you order it, guys, it's very delicious. It goes well on everything. Check it out, smalasauce.com. Andrew, we can speak on this specifically. What's up with the scamming in the Chinese community right now? Like WhatsApp, Line, WeChat, text message, hello, old friend. And it's like a very pretty 33-year-old realtor that, like, you don't know who this is, an NPC, an AI bot. Yeah, I'd like to meet up for the coffee on a Wednesday and maybe we can talk about investments. It's really interesting. Well, I get a lot of text messages actually to my WhatsApp and to my iMessage of, like, it has perfect grammar. I don't know the number and it says, like, hello, Jesse, old friend. Uh, can you set up this meeting or, like, oh my gosh, like, hi. Just, like, some kind of just, like, random message and, like, dude, they're just coming out of nowhere and I'm just basically what I'm saying is, like, I've never fallen for the scam. But I know some older people who have fallen for some scams on the internet. Even, like, a pop-up watch subscription or something like that, right? Dude, I mean, honestly, and it's not just, like, old people, like, we did know a guy in college who this was, like, years ago, but he got scammed by, from the emails. Right, right. From the Nigerian Prince emails. I mean, people have been scamming since the 1970s, right, for, you know, selling vacuums, door-to-door and this and that. But it just seems like the scamming is at an all-time high in 2023. So anyways, the point of this video, the actual point of this video is, like, you got to have a conversation with your immigrant parents about scamming and you got to ask them, just ask them a simple question. Hey, mom, dad, even if you don't live by him, text him. Be like, hey, mom, dad, have you been approached about any fantastic investment opportunities from random people? Right. Please do not do them. Talk to me if anybody tries to talk to you about cryptocurrency, especially a guy named Zhang that you've never met before, even though he's asking for advice on how to make it in America. Right. Anyway, guys, make sure you like, subscribe, turn on your notifications. Let's get into the comments section, Andrew. Somebody said, some A-hole scam my grandparents out of their whole entire retirement pension and nothing was done about it.  It happens, right? And it happens, especially because these scammers, Andrew, I don't know if they're overseas. If they're here, if it's a bot farm or some hybrid use of, like, what? I don't know if they're using AI tools, but they are targeting older people because they seem like they have a higher rate of getting them, right? Yeah, yeah. I mean, I don't know exactly the stats, but I will say this, man, with the rise of technology, there's a lot more ways to make money and make a positive impact, but there are also way more ways to get scammed. And they, trust me, these scammers, they know how to use the internet better than your parents do. Better than you do, okay? Yeah. They are setting things up. They're making fake websites and all this stuff. So it can totally happen. Yo, just send a text to your older parents right now and just ask them, hey, has anybody tried to scam you? Have you got any weird things? Just contact me. Send me screenshots. Let them send them a website of how to even send a screenshot if they don't know how to send a screenshot. Somebody said, oh, damn, well, I got scammed for a pair of Jays on eBay. Can somebody help me out with the 350? Right. So basically people are showing a lack of sympathy, right? Well, there's a lot of people in the comments section and I would say a significant amount who are reading the story with, like, and the story has some details, but not a lot of details.  Obviously, listen, if this is true, Eric's family has been scammed out of a lot of money and it is, it hurt them. Obviously, big time, you know, which is horrible. But also, like, it is, it's true that anybody can have their own opinion about this. Do you think people are GoFundMe out? You know what I mean? There's some, like, fatigue because there's a lot of GoFundMes for a lot of things and it does seem like, hey, by the way, guys, it's a horrible situation. But I'm just saying, compared to somebody getting killed randomly, it doesn't really compare. Yeah, it's tough because this one is kind of like, you still had to get tricked yourself. It's like, it's kind of like saying, hey, help my family out because we got tricked. Listen, man, if it compels you by all means, do your due diligence. Feel free to donate, man. I'm not making a judgment either way because we don't know. Somebody said, yellow on yellow cringe. Man, I can't believe this is so sad that this happens a lot more in the immigrant Asian community than you think. Yes, it does. It does. And it's not just Chinese scam and other Chinese. We're talking about, like, any specific subset of Asian to another subset, right? Because especially the older generation, they're more likely to give the trust to somebody from the same tribe, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And there's so many ways to build trust. And basically, you've got to just be wary of people that you don't know. Right, right, right. Other people are saying, I don't know if I really want to help out somebody who already had millions to begin with, even though they lost millions. Like we said, man, everybody's in a different situation. Obviously, it's not as easy as some of the other cases that I've seen to empathize with. Listen, there's a lot of details that I would like to know about. I'd like to know what the fake cryptocurrency exchange was that scammed them. I'd like to know, like, how they were able to get back into his bank account and pull out more money. Or, I mean, there's a lot of things that you're just like, yo, I need to know more and that's actually going to help me. Because I think if they release more details, then it's actually going to help more people. Like, what were the chats like? Like, what was the message like that opened up? Say, like, so that we could send it around to our parents and be like, hey, mom, watch out for this message. Right, right, right. Somebody said high returns usually mean high risk. Extrapolate this to scams and fraud where the investor is expecting unrealistic returns on investment. But this is the appeal, right?   I'm talking you up. Hey, Amos, can you tell me what your assimilation process to the US journey was like? You did such a good job. Oh, well, and then you're like flattered, right? Because nobody's asked you that question before. Right, right, no. And honestly, that is like, that's a good way to open up if you're trying to trick somebody because you gain their trust and you build them up and you make them feel good about themselves. And yeah, I mean, let's say you hurt, like, let's just say this Amos, the older father, he had heard of a lot of people making money off cryptocurrency, which there were a lot of people who did make money, but a lot of people also lost money off cryptocurrency. More people lost money. Yeah, and a lot of people got rug pulled on and like pretty much got tricked in a different way. And alt coins and ish coins and all these coins and stuff like that. So I can see the desire, man. What I'm trying to do is I'm trying to empathize with the desire to make human money there. And you're just like, well, all right, I'll give it a shot. You know, right? And it seems like this opportunity is falling into your lap because they're contacting you guys. Listen, 99.99999% of the time it is a scam. Somebody said, listen, guys, it's easy to roast his parents for messing up their entire life savings. But listen, we all need to better prepare for the changes to our mind and body once we hit the 70s, 80s and 90s. And somebody was like, yeah, my mom is 82. And I just do not trust her to invest in anything at this point. It is true though, right? It's difficult.  Right, right, right. But probably not. But just that's just how it works out. You can be. Somebody said children really need to get involved into their older parents' finances. But this also means that the children have a self-responsibility to up their own personal financial education because how are they going to watch out for their parents if they don't have a high IQ in the finance world? And there's a lot of good websites, right? A lot of good YouTubers. Yeah, there's a lot of great podcasts, a lot of great YouTubers that will give you safe financial advice. Not tell you how to get rich easily, guys. Right. Take him, Graham Stephens. Those guys are slow growth guys that like to mitigate risk. Rameed Sethi.   Listen, guys, use Reddit, use Quora. Don't just use it for funny memes. Subscribe on Instagram or whatever social platform that you prefer to spend a lot of your usage rate on. Subscribe to like some good, well reputable financial education channels. You know what I mean? Like, don't just follow fun stuff.  All right. Just index funds, guys. That's the easiest, safest way. Ultimately, Andrew, what are your takeaways? Because this situation, it got a lot of people worried, right? Because this is almost somebody's worst nightmare come true from these pig butchering scams, from these WeChat scams, WhatsApp scams, etc. So I'm going to tell you this, whether or not you personally buy into this story, whether you are not, whether or not you're going to donate to the GoFundMe, this is just a lesson here. Scamming does happen and they are reaching everybody. And it's at an all-time high in 2023. They're going after you. Guys, I just pulled up a statistic. Federal Trade Commission data shows that consumers reportedly lost $8.8 billion to fraud in 2022. Okay? And there's probably a lot more money than that that people didn't report. So just ask your parents, have they been approached by any great investments? Are they trying to get in cryptocurrency when they don't know about it? Do not let them. Do not try and don't scam your own parents. Oh my God. It's a little bit like a jumpy defender that is like playing really hard but has no idea how to play basketball and you're playing against somebody with really good handles. The chances are if you reach for it and you try to get the steal, you're going to get shook eight to nine, ten times in a row and have your ankles broken. But in this case Andrew, it ends up being your financial life savings ankles. Honestly, if your parents are saying that they're going to invest in anything but like an index fund or actually like have like the house property or these things that are like established that you know that they understand. Like don't let your parents invest in anything you know they don't understand. Just because like they have a PhD in computer science or applied physics or applied mathematics, that doesn't make them like a Warren Buffett or a Charlie Munger. That's like a whole different lane of you know intelligence and knowledge. It's not transferable over and I think that that is a common misconception. Exactly. Your parents can be educated and academically educated. Your parents could have worked an engineering job for 30 years. Crunch the most complex algorithms in their brain. And they can still get scammed in the most ridiculous, stupidest, easiest way. It's a lot of scamming. Let's be honest, Andrew. It's emotional. It's emotional. So have that conversation with your parents, guys. That's all I can say. That's the main message I have from all this. I messaged my parents right after I saw this article. Whether you believe this specific story or not, I was like whoa. Just text them. Just text them and just say, hey mom and dad. Have you been approached with any fantastic investments lately? Please. By the way, this is a message out to YouTube if anybody from YouTube is watching. You guys got to do an even better job, you know, vetting the comments section. I'm not saying you guys haven't been improving over the last couple years, but you know, just the spamming and the scamming is out of control. Let us know of some of the ones that you have heard of in the comment section below. Let us know any stories of anybody, you know, relatives, aunties, extended, good or bad so people can learn from them. And until next time, we're the Hop Hop Boys. We out. Peace.


So my thinking, whenever somebody comes up to me and says, oh, we've got this big data, we love big data, we have a big data company, I always fall asleep. I'm a venture capitalist. They only have a little bit of time to try to convince me as to what it is that they're on about. And too much time is spent, I think, in the abstract world. I enjoyed John Elder's talk when he talked about how, just spilling out in a real physical way, in a way people could visualize, taking a bowl of candies and scattering them across the floor helps people understand how data is sometimes useless. And so how do you actually make all the stuff that you guys are working on day to day and week to week and month to month, year to year on using this incredible power of data in a productive way? My point is just tell me about the applications because I wanna know how it's saving people's lives. I wanna know how it's improving my quality of life. I wanna know how it's improving my capability to interact and communicate with people. An example of a big data application is a company Karma that I'm a co-founder of. And it's taking advantage of the fact that all of these cars that are traveling down every road, every highway are going the same direction in many cases. All the riders in those cars are going the same direction, but all those seats are being wasted. How can we take that data, that live data and use that to use collaborative consumption to eliminate the waste and eliminate the environmental impacts of the wastefulness of the carbon generation of all these empty cars? So we don't have a problem as Google, Google is on right now about creating driverless cars, but the real problem that we have in society is all the riderless cars where there's just one driver in it. And even if the computer is driving the car, it doesn't make a difference if there's only one person seated in the car in terms of the impact that it's gonna have for society. It's about collaborating the consumption, which I do think driverless cars and ownerless cars, some of the things that Karma is doing have an impact on. So crowdsourcing the public transit network, the transport network, making that data available to other users and making it optional, or a good option, I should say, for people to be able to use the wasted capacity that's traveling by them, like a stream down the road, they can just hop on one of those boats and hop off where they need to go.


Mike Pompeo, former U.S. Secretary of State under the Trump administration, has been summoned by a Spanish court to testify on the plot to kidnap WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. The summons were issued on June 3, by Judge Santiago Pérez of the Origencia Nacional, a national court of Spain. The summons is part of the ongoing case against security firm UC Global for illegally spying on Assange allegedly at the behest of the U.S. while he was seeking asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. The surveillance operation on Assange was undertaken since at least mid-2017, according to testimonies from UC Global whistleblowers and its director David Morales. Discussions were allegedly held at the highest levels of the U.S. government to rendition and assassinate Assange as well. The illegal spying on Assange was first reported by WikiLeaks in April 2019. This was later confirmed when the Origencia Nacional carried out a secret investigation prompted by a complaint by Assange himself. Former U.S. counterintelligence official William Iwanina has also been served assignments. He had previously confessed to having accessed video footage and audio recording of Assange from inside the embassy. Fombo has been called to testify on the claims that the U.S. intelligence discussed rendition and assassination of Assange as revealed in a report published by Yahoo News in 2021. The report showed that the Central Intelligence Agency had discussed plans to silence Assange. The assassination plot was in retaliation to the publication of the Waltz 7 files by WikiLeaks in March 2017. The release of the files exposed dozens of CIS sophisticated hacking tools and malware that could compromise or hack into a wide range of operating systems. What does Spain have to do with Mike Pompeo and Julian Assange? The judge, Santiago Pedrat, is investigating the allegation that UC Global, a commercial company directed by the Spanish David Morales and based in Spain, so Spain has jurisdiction. This company supposedly facilitated espionage against Assange as the company was in charge of the security of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London where Assange was in exile for over seven years. The Spanish judge of the National High Court, by asking the U.S. authorities to interrogate Pompeo and Evanina, has agreed to the request made by Assange lawyers in Spain, where they propose to take their statements after Evanina confessed that the U.S. intelligence had access to the cameras of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, to recordings of conversations, to the visitors' devices and travel documents, having even planned the assassination or kidnapping of Assange. They claimed that their testimony is necessary for the investigation of this case, and all this because it has been accredited that they had that direct knowledge and they had publicly confessed it. Both Morales, who is in probation with precautionary measures and UC Global, are being investigated for crimes against privacy and the secrecy of lawyer-client communications, corruption and money laundering. So what is going to happen now? This process is causing a lot of noise. Many activists and journalists have their focus on Spain, because of the importance of Assange case for press freedom, as well as sending a message to the untouchable United States. But let's remember, Spain is a country where anything can happen. We still have medieval crimes, such as insulting the crown, and we have to look to other countries to seek justice here, like the case of the former king's corruption or Franco's regime crimes. Also, Spain has made very controversial sentences, like the ones of the rapper Pablo Hacel in prison for more than one year now for writing songs, or where Judge Balthazar Garzón was disqualified under false accusations during his investigations into political corruption. We hope that in this case, Spain will find justice for Assange and be an example against the imperialist impunity of the USA. Pompeo served as the CIA's director during the time before he was appointed as the secretary of state in the Trump presidency. Pompeo allegedly pitched plans for a rendition in the UK, while the president's office at the time asked for options and sketches to assassinate Assange. Responding to the claims made in the report, both Trump and Pompeo denied the allegations raised. However, Pompeo did admit on record that pieces of it are true, without clarifying which parts precisely. Assange's supporters and his family after the publication of the news report have raised grave concerns over the looming extradition. His wife Stella Assange repeatedly pointed out that the UK would be handing Assange over to the same establishment that plotted to assassinate him. Assange is currently being held at the High Security Belmarsh prison and is fighting a judicial battle against his extradition to the US in the UK. Despite these concerns, the UK High Court in London overturned a lower court ruling against the US extradition request in December 2021. The Supreme Court has also denied Assange's appeal, effectively paving the way for his extradition. Currently, Assange is awaiting a final decision on his extradition from the UK home office. Home Secretary Preeti Patel of the Conservative Party government led by Boris Johnson has to make the decision over the extradition order issued by the courts.


Hi everyone, Joe for jaspyscasebrakes.com. We did it. We filled jaspys 18 box high-end finals basketball mixer random team break featuring some hit parade one-on-one mosaic in case absolute court Kings Pretty nice stuff all cards ship big Thanks to all the people who bought spots straight up and congrats again to the people who won spots in the mosaic and the status breaks And all 30 basketball teams are in Let's roll it. Let's randomize names and teams six and a six 12 times one two six seven eight eleven and 12th and final time We got Sean M down to Sean Oh six and a six 12 times for the teams one two three ten eleven and 12th and final time after 12. We got the Miami Heat down to the Pelicans Now feel free to make some trades if you'd like But think about all the the high-end stuff there that cuts across a lot of different years and products Especially that hit parade so just trade at your own risk Sean M with the heat Sean Oh with the trailblazers Corey with the Bulls Ryan with the Warriors Sean Oh with the Mavs Tim with the Knicks Brad with the Raptors last-bought mojo star next to your name Tim With the Suns and the Wizards Jesse with the Hornets Steven with the pistons Daria with the Grizzlies Paul with the magic Michael P with the Bucks Sean Oh with the Kings Mac with the Hawks Steven with the Nuggets Daniel cats with the Timberwolves Michael P with the Jazz Andy with the Thunder Tim with the Cavs Jose with the Clippers Daniel with the Rockets Neil with my Lakers Andrew with the Celtics Aaron S with the San Antonio Spurs Sean M with the Pacers Daniel with the Nets Sean M with the Sixer Sean Oh With the Nolans Pelicans Alphabetized by column B. We're gonna Pause the video right here We're gonna pause the video when we come back. We're gonna see if there's any trades Then we'll have the break stick around BRB Alright, welcome back everybody. There was a little bit of trade chatter, but in the end no deals were done here on Tuesday the 13th Thanks, everybody for making this mixer happen should be a good one. All right, so We're gonna do one and one and the hit parade last I guess we'll save the 2020 2021 stuff All right, let's start. Let's go back in time to 2016 17. This is the one of the earliest versions of mosaic The AL wins again MLB all-star game on the background Some of these cards do get stuck together over the years Nice Brandon Ingram rookie These aren't numbered but all-card chip in this mixer Nice Brandon Ingram for the Lakers Neil There's a Jalen Brown nice Celtics Andrew, you don't like this mosaic Jilo? Yeah, this is It's definitely gotten some design improvements over the years But this was yeah, this is one of the first versions of that They called it prison mosaic So it's lost the prison logo on there, too. I didn't see Chris Brown the red carpet He was wearing an all-red suit. So you just blend into the carpet and we've got a Jalen Brown a Jalen Brown rookie autograph. There you go Andrew Haskell Siakum Toronto Brad with the Raptors Ben Simmons and LeBron James Cleveland edition of LeBron James going to Tim And this is he's gonna have an interesting off-season Ben Simmons, let's see if he works on that shot because if he does See his card values skyrocketing back up again all right, let's Move on just a few years forward to 2019 2020 In case there's a graded card in here, too. Let's look at this first. All right behind Kevin Love is a Rudy Gay Relic 143 out of 199 spurs Aaron with the spurs Got Zach Levine piece of his Jersey 194 out of 199 Cory with the Bulls behind Kevin Love is Nick Van Exel Eight out of 49 It's pretty cool Neil with the Lakers. All right, let's see what we got in The graded card we got a 810 on the grade and it's PJ Washington So the grade was a little bit nicer there two-color jersey and autograph You got a low numbered card though six out of ten Almost PJ Washington throwing these cards around that goes to Jesse and the Charlotte Hornets. All right, and speaking of the Hornets we're gonna start getting into 2020-2021 stuff good luck RJ Hampton the admiral Jaden McDaniels Tyrese Maxie Collin Sexton Jalen Brown Siakam Behind Kobe White is rookie expression relic Xavier Tillman Memphis. That's gonna be It's gonna be for Dario. It should be the autograph and it's holding court autograph Robert Ory Nice clutch Robert Ory Lakers edition going to needle who won that spot in a status filler break redemption on the bottom And he gets on that redemption for bragging rights. There's Hakeem Alajuan Maestro's Donovan Mitchell Devin Vassal Isaac Acoro Nikola Jokic Katie And we got a out of 49 Donovan Mitchell for Michael and the jazz It did did I not up maybe I forgot to up Not to upload it. I think I forgot to upload it I'll upload it after we uh After this this mixer. Sorry about that We got Art Nouveau Tyrese Halliburton. Yeah, there it is Vlad grero jr. I grow junior Sean oh with the Kings Donovan Mitchell right there Hollywood guessing Trey young Ryan guessing Killian Hayes and It's Jaden McDaniels fresh paint autograph for the Vikings Minnesota Timberwolves Yeah, Timberwolves Daniel Katz with the T wolves. All right couple boxes of absolute Good luck. That's what we got here. Got precious a Chua rookie card BAM out of bio 10 out of 25 established threads Some nice color popping in that window It'll be for Sean M and the Miami Heat Peyton Pritchard Nice some pieces of his jersey a couple pieces of the basketball 179 out of 199 Andrew with the Celtics And then we got a Yanis back here to 99 That's what I mean. That's a base card on the bottom there. It is our numbered card to 139 Malachi Flynn That's for Toronto. That's going to be for Brad We've got Bradley Beal Jordan and Wara And then a couple hits here. We got use of Nurkitsh tools of the trade dual relic That's going to be for Portland. That's going to go to Sean Sean oh with Portland And down here is Isaiah Stewart rookie Otto 47 out of 49 I feel like he had a pretty solid rookie campaigns got some upside Stephen P with the pistons Absolute box here some thick cards in here. All right. There's Chris Middleton to 99 We'll see them in action tomorrow. Here. Lewis jr There's Devin Booker right there too. There's uh the admiral David Robinson established threads Uh for Aaron and the Spurs behind Devin Booker is Is a Grant Riller 3 out of 10 Jesse with the Charlotte Hornets That drew holiday to 99 Chris Middleton and drew holiday So we'll see him in action tomorrow Got Aaron Naismith And behind Cassius Stanley is oh a four out of five Basketball relic Tyrese Halliburton I'm not sure if that's going to fit into might need a slider box there Maybe a 180 top loader Actually, yeah, it's perfect in a 180 top loader That's pretty awesome out of fives and under get the train whistle Who's got the Kings Sean? Oh Won that spot in a status basketball break got randomized the Kings And gets the all aboard the big hit express That's really cool And then back here is Peyton Pritchard tools of the trade another train whistle four out of five Got a bit of the Celtics logo there with some some thread All right, that is awesome Andrew with the Boston Celtics Andrew All aboard Nice all right, um I guess we'll do the well. Yeah, we'll do Panini one and one first And then we'll dive into all of those graded rookie cards there So this is uh 2019 2020 Panini one and one basketball We've got oh So there's a redemption here and he guesses on that for bragging rights Grizzlies Jamarant nice three out of 25 rookie Jamarant Dario with the Memphis Grizzlies We'll just use that card right there. All right Hollywood guessing Trey Michael Jordan is exclusive to upper deck Gilo so you wouldn't see him in Panini stuff rookie jersey autographs purple N A Z noz read Noz read autograph. I think is a timber wolf Yeah, T wolves With another redemption sign your cards timber wolves and that will be for For Daniel Katz Yeah, they do have to encase redemptions Gilo. Otherwise You'd be able to weigh the boxes and you know, which one the redemptions were Now this should be a good way to finish it um These are all prism cards All right, they're all graded They're all rookies. I can share your hit with hit parade right first one out of the gate Is Donovan Mitchell nice 2017 18 prism basketball Rookie Donovan Mitchell and nine five. We've got centering edges corner surface nine fives all around That'll be for Michael P and the Utah Jazz All right, good start next one This one's a PSA PSA 10 It's lamello ball 2020 panini prism draft picks green prism and a 10 already Wow nice one for jesse and the charlotte hornets and that was uh Those draft picks cards will go by the checklist most of these should have a checklist attached to it Oh, there's a bonus in here. There's two. Wow. So the first one Is tyler hero PSA 10 Sean maddock with the miami heat It's pretty solid and Your bonus Is Cam reddish nice rookie silver PSA nine So the tyler hero goes to Sean M in the heat And uh mike with the hawks We'll get the cam reddish Next up is kevin porter jr PSA 10 Cleveland, this is for you Tim with the calves Who do I like in the finals? She goes asking I feel like the sun still have still have the edge But it wasn't an encouraging sign for the bucks in the last game Next Is calden johnson PSA 10 Aaron with the spurs The next box You can see a good player there. How's the grade? Oh, it's a 10 PSA 10 jaw marant base prism Jaw marant PSA 10 dario with the memphis grizzlies Congrats Next box Another one here Who do you like in the finals? She low PSA 10 treyum Nice That's mac With the hawks A few more to go Here in this 18 box high end Finals mixer. Thanks everyone for joining Rallying around all of the uh The fillers and all that too. I appreciate that. Oh another one with the bonus. This has to I don't think it's a mistake I think it's intentional that they put two in there All right first one Hey the more graded cards the merrier PSA 10 cj mccollom from old 2013 prism basketball It's a good grade Gem in 10 cj mccollom going to portland Sean oh with the trailblazers And your extra hit It looks like a pulsar. It's amherty simons another one for portland So portland box for shan.  Yeah, that sun's team is just Just well balanced. They're healthy, you know, and it's just been more consistent throughout the playoffs From game to game Speaking of the suns there's deandre eight PSA 10. It's a great time to get this phoenix That's going to be tim with the suns He's the former number one overall pick what a great break last one last one goes this way PSA 10 Kobe white Chicago bulls cori with the bulls Nice one. He certainly has some upside there and there you have it What a great break that was jaspy's 18 box high end finals basketball mixer No randomizers no points or anything like that. Awesome. Hey, thank you everybody for making this happen. I really appreciate it I'm joe. I'll see you next time for the next break. Bye. Bye


What's up guys, welcome back. If you've clicked on this video, it means you have decided that you want to get yourself a credit over the refund. An excellent, excellent choice. You want to know why you made the right choice? Let me tell you. But first, on this channel, my name is Shiraz. Here on Thumbs Up Run, where we talk about buying tickets, selling tickets, and making sure that you have all the fun with your tickets. Best way to have fun with those tickets is by hitting that little subscribe button below and the little bell icon to make sure that you never miss out another content ever again. With that being said, I'm going to tell you the five reasons why picking the credit over the refund is the way to go. Let's begin. First one, you like free stuff. You like to be told that you are able to get some free things, extra value, extra stuff, extra anything, free, free, free, everybody loves free stuff. It's amazing. And the credits, they're all about that free stuff. So they're going to give you credit, and not only that, they're going to give you a bonus credit. They're not just going to give you 5%. Sometimes it's going to be 10%. Sometimes it's going to give you 15%. Sometimes it'll even give you 50%. 50% free money. Yes, please. Now you can take all that free money, go ahead and apply it towards another purchase. You could be to upgrade to that same event in the future and get yourself a nice better seat. Or take that credit and actually apply it to two or more events and make sure you have twice the amount of fun than you would have had with just the one time. Free stuff? Can't go wrong. Number two, you've already committed to your entertainment budget. Yes, you've already bought the ticket in the past. You find out the event has been postponed. You don't know what's going on. You've been given a choice to take a refund or a credit. What do you undo? You take the credit because one, you've already allocated the money towards that entertainment budget and two, you don't want to go through the hassle. Once you've already allocated the funds and you've got that cash back, then that money might get used for less entertaining things. Could go towards bills. Could go towards groceries. Could go towards, you know, other stuff. But we want our entertainment budget to go towards entertainment. So if we leave the money with the credit, we can go ahead and use that credit in the future, have a lot of fun, make sure we don't have to think about it ever again. Again, it's already been allocated. So why would we unallocate our fun money? No, no, no. Our fun money stays in the fun money budget. We don't move that out. And also, the money's already been spent. So it's like it's having free money that you have to spend twice. You've already spent it once on the event. You find out it's been postponed, fined, blah, blah, blah. A couple months down the road, you find out you're going to be able to use your credit and you can now buy another event. It's like buy something twice. It's like using the same money two times. It's twice the fun. You got to take the credit. You got to sing the baby. Number three, it's all about scheduling. With scheduling, you might have had a problem with the potential event date that was going to take place in the future. Only now you find out the event has actually been postponed. And definitely we have no idea when it's going to take place. It means that you now have the opportunity to go ahead, plan your day, your week, your month, your year around the newly scheduled date once it is announced. This is fantastic. You can go ahead and make sure you actually are committed to going to that event in the future. There are no more problems. You can go ahead and say, okay, I am committing to this date. Nothing will stop me now. Fantastic. Also, having the credit on hand means you don't need to, again, spend any of that money because you've already spent it. So that credit, it'll help you with that scheduling, can go ahead, apply it directly and immediately towards that future purchase. This is what I think. I think it's definitely the right choice. So having the ability to schedule things in advance, fantastic, definitely makes me want to take the credit. Number four, buyer's remorse. I might have heard this one before, but let's discuss. Shall we? Buyer's remorse, you bought tickets to that event. You were really excited to go. I mean, you were really excited to go. Unfortunately, that event has not been postponed. It's no longer taking place. It's no longer happening. Nothing you can do about it. It's so sad. I really, really wanted to go to an event, insert event here. You wanted to go see the sends take on, you know, the Buffalo Sabres. I mean, yeah, I'm sure you had a great time. Fantastic. Wonderful. But now that I have this credit, unfortunately, that Buffalo Game is no longer working with me anymore. And now I have the ability to pick the event I want to go see. So I can go watch them play, you know, someone more exciting. Paying control is always the best being in charge of things. Fantastic. Again, you are able to get out of things. If you pick the credit means you have the ability to go ahead, pick the event you want to go to. If you take the cash means everybody gets their money back. They can go ahead, spend on whatever they want. But now you can commit your friends to attending things with you that you want to see. And number five, you're not boring. If you are boring, you'll go ahead, you'll take the cash back. You'll have it in your pocket. You'll use it for this thing and that thing and all the other things. All the boring stuff. You've already allocated the fund money to the fund bucket. Therefore, why would you try and be unfun and boring by taking money out of the fund bucket? You've already committed. Just leave the money as a credit. It'll be awesome. It'll be great. You'll be able to spend it immediately once the new event dates have been set and you know what you're going to spend it on. It's going to be fantastic. Keep the credit there. It means that it will remind you that you are a fun person and that you're going to have all the fun in the future. That's the five main reasons why you want to pick the credit over the refund. If you have any doubts though, you can go ahead and click over here and watch a video on why picking the credit is the wrong idea and the refund is the best choice. With all that being said, thank you for watching it. See you guys next time.