 Have me one day morning. I'm Jay Fidel. This is Think Tech. We're talking about community matters this morning with Rick Blanchiardi. He's running for mayor and he's here with us. Thank you for joining us, Rick. Jay, always good to be with you. Always a challenge to be with you. Well, you're a business candidate. That makes you very interesting, certainly in the business community or anybody who cares about business. And I want to ask you, why in the world are you running? I mean, you're not happy with your life. Will this make you happier? Will this make you sad? I mean, a lot of people think you're crazy to run for office, Rick. Why? Well, it really wasn't the pursuit of happiness. It was really more the pursuit of love for this place that I've lived here since 1965. And candidly speaking, you know, through the lens I had as a general manager for Whiteness now, but really, even my other work that I've done in the community, I looked at the issues. And again, I made my decision right before Christmas, obviously pre-COVID. But I was looking at the issues that were facing us as a community with respect to homelessness, rail, neighborhood crime, infrastructure, elder care, all those classic talking points, you know, of what a mayor and really being the CEO of the city would be about and really felt that we had those crises, but we also had a leadership crisis. You've been running news for a long time with Whiteness now. I was there in the first hour. It came to me on December 18, 2008, after a broken economy and said, you know, the ownerships were brought to their knees and wanted to know if I would agree to be the guy to lead that and build it. And I did because it wasn't out of economic greed. It was out of survival, survival for our community and what we could create. So we took the notion that we would build a 21st century multimedia company for Hawaii. That was the week before Christmas. By April, we were pretty much all clear with the FCC and DOJ. And then we had to go through some other things because of more notices and a few other things. August, we announced officially and then October, we moved in. So 26, 2009. Community service. And so your local connections thing where you get up there and tell them your views about this and that and various issues and those are personal views and you're always passionate. I must say, I told you this before, I really appreciate that. Thank you. Well, you know, wasn't totally me as an individual per se. We work, I work with my editorial team in the newsroom as well because there are so many things that go on in Honolulu. And we only did two different topics a week. And so we would have discussed what would be the most relevant, what we felt we need to say. I used to love the parts where I would give shout outs, but most of the time we were taught to talk about something that really didn't want our anchors to be doing from the anchor desk. But as a news organization, knowing what we knew, we really felt we need to put that spotlight. It was special to see the, you know, the manager yourself come around with opinions and fomented people thinking. You know, that's the idea to get them to think. And I think you've done that. But let me ask you this, you know, your qualifications do not include politics. You've been a business guy, you've been a sports guy, you've been a manager par excellence and all that for decades and decades and generations, but not politics. Now, we have a president in office who ran on the platform that he had no experience in politics. And I don't know if you agree with me, but that I don't think that worked out. So, you know, maybe he should have had some experience in politics. How do you answer that concern? Well, I don't, you know, I don't want to talk about the president of the United States and certainly don't want to draw any comparisons to me and Donald Trump in that regard. But I look, I'm not new to politics in a sense of somebody who's been running broadcast operations, you know, every cycle we would get involved with politicians, hosting debates, certainly throughout the course of the year and veryably dealing with them on issues and other related matters. So it's not like I was oblivious to that whole realm, but I looked at the mayor's job as I think most people should look at the mayor's job, nonpartisan, the fact that the incumbent was terming out and so I wouldn't have to sit there and try to run against somebody and spend my time bashing them as we've all seen far too many times. I mean, the whole rhetoric out of Washington is, for me, is very distasteful. So the job was going to be open. And really, and everybody, I talked to a number of mayors, this is running a city. This is a day-to-day operational thing. The phone rings on everything. You know, I know that there's a legislature to deal with. There's certainly gonna be a really kind of a remake of a city council with five new people. I didn't look at this as a political job. I looked at this as a leadership job and that I have been my whole career. Well, you know, the thing about cities, and I think people sometimes forget, is that the city constitutionally, you know, it's fire, police, infrastructure, water, that kind of thing, that's what it's about. It's not necessarily, for example, about economy, although the city of Honolulu has had economic consultants and advisers and offices from time to time. I'm not sure that they ever really did all that much and now it becomes an issue. I wanna discuss some of those basic functions. One of the basic functions is, of course, the, you know, prosecution of crimes, because the prosecutor is under the city. I know people fully understand it's under the city. And I'm thinking of, you know, things that you may have seen or been involved in that have helped you understand, you know, what it is and how the prosecutor's office works and how public safety works. So, you know, for example, you had an experience and you can comment on it. This is some 35 years ago, it was a subject of an article in the Civil Beat, July 2nd, and it was about this straw buyer kind of thing that was going on in Honolulu at the time. You wanna comment at all on that? Because, you know, it was a piece that was not particularly complimentary. On the other hand, you know, I was practicing law at that time and I understand it. But why don't you tell me your view of it? Well, it was 37 years ago, it was in 1983. I was in my mid-30s now. You know, Jay, well, I've kept pretty tight on this because I was so surprised by it. So before I say anything else, let me just say throughout my entire career, I've been vetted deeply in the roles and jobs that I've had, not the least of which was two bank boards and one of them was Central Pacific Bank, you know, locally, and actually both banks and both institutions were locally. But even in the work that I've done, when you hold the responsibility for a broadcast license and I've done that at the general manager level in Hawaii, but also in San Francisco, Seattle, when president of national companies and all the major markets with major owners, you're vetted very deeply. This has never, ever come up in my background checks that was put out of the way. So very simply put, at the time, was a guy named Sam Daly, who was a very prominent real estate developer. He was a retired Air Force Colonel, very, very credible, paternalistic, if you will. He brought a bank president to town from Kansas City named Bill the Master. And this could be chronicled, but you can't even Google it, but it was part of the awful research that they did. And the long and the short of it is these guys convinced me and a couple of my other colleagues, science and professory notes for a development on the windward side. And we naively did that. As it turned out, this thing was a scam. I ended up being a plaintiff. Against this bank which was then closed by the FDIC. I had a financial liability with the FDIC because we signed a promissory note for which they were unforgiving, which is what forced me at that time into a very painful chapter seven bad part of my life, my wife and young kids at the time. But then I also became the key witness in the trial in Kansas City, put those guys in jail. So I was more than exonerated. I was never involved. It's just that article came out and made it look like my lack of integrity or for that matter that I was trying to defraud somebody when in fact, we were the ones defrauded. And I just shared more with you on this program that had to anybody else. I've been very private about it because clearly this was designed to try to hurt me and embarrass me and might be new to politics, not relevant in my life. My body of work here in this town in Hawaii speaks to that. Okay, so I was naive at the time, 37 years ago, and I went on to rebuild my life. All those guys went to jail. Appreciate that. Thank you for sharing on that point, Rick. It's important. So taking that, taking that together with the whole affair in Kealoha and Keith Conashiro, you know, the trouble in HPD, the trouble in the prosecutor's office and taking that together with the the miski affair that came out about murder for hire and the mob here in Honolulu doing murder for hire, very scary business. All of a sudden, you know, the whole prosecutor race takes on a new element. And you do have, you know, at least the observation of what's going on, you do have some contact with the way the courts work. And I'd like to know your thoughts about those things in the new administration, with a new prosecutor, whoever that may be, you know, which is part of the city. I think you do bring a certain amount of experience on those things. And I'd like to hear your thoughts about it. Well, you know, there's a lot that's been said of late about safety. The word safety has come up so much in our day-to-day vernacular as it relates to the impact of COVID-19. But you know, don't forget that our police department has a lot to do at our individual safety and who we are as a community. They just want to protect and serve. So, you know, historically, if you want to do the quick look back, K.L.O.S. scandal was incredible. And, you know, Hawaii News now led the charge on that. I'm not here to, you know, but we were on that story months before anybody else would touch that. So, I had a chance to obviously think about that a lot because we had conversations in that process about we had better be correct, if you will. And it turned out that we were and so on. And I actually, since you alluded to my doing editorials, had asked Keith Connoisseur on more than one occasion as a matter of integrity and as a matter of what was good for our community to step down. Obviously, that fell on deaf ears. Not that anything I had to say, but I took that position. I think community safety, especially in too much of those times like we're going through right now, or even a murderful hire scandal, like you just said, it happens. That is very unsettling. I think we're really at a crossroads. We've never been. I've lived here since 1965, where fear and uncertainty, and honestly, maybe in some cases where trust needs to be restored are a place we've never seen it before. Now, that said, I'm very proud to have gotten the showbo endorsement. I am also very confident in Susan Ballet. I mean, I've spent time with her and other top ranking officials, as well as with the guys in the field, the lieutenants and sergeants and whatever, went along a couple of police ride-alongs. I was very grateful to get the showbo endorsement. I look forward to a new prosecutor. I think we've been compromised to take nothing away from anybody else right now, but having that combined on the heels of the investigation about police chief. We do restore that kind of confidence and trust. It's an important part of the psyche of people who live in a community. I can tell you, Jay, year after year, doing market research on why people looked at news or what they were interested in, whatever. First and foremost, then we saved. Am I safe? Was a real big driver for why people read news, watch news, try to learn about it. Yeah, and especially now, you know, because there is a relationship or correlation between COVID and being locked up and having to spend all your time at home with an increase in domestic violence and violence on the street. And we're gonna see that. We're gonna see that more and more the longer the COVID goes on. There's been a lot lately just been written about. In fact, I just read an article last week about people locally filing for bankruptcies in the state of mind that brings people to in the frustration. It was already, pre this, you know, we already had a lot of stressors. I mean, you stop and think about 50% of our people worked paycheck to paycheck. That number is gonna even go up more so. But, you know, people having to work multiple jobs and the fact that life is no fun. You asked me, opened up about the pursuit of happiness. I used to sit there and wonder about people working 16 hour days trying to sleep and keep a family in between the remaining hours. And that was not just a few people. That's 50% of our people. So, you know, a lot of stress there. Now those very same people are gonna be brought to stresses that you've never imagined before. It's only human nature that the tensions will build and how that manifests itself. We don't know, but it's gonna be really tough. Let me give you one quick example. One of the highlights, one of the statistics and all the statistics that are coming out that has really gotten my attention. I spent the last 18 years as a proud member of the Hawaii Food Bank Board. In the month of May, the food bank, well, let me put it this way. Every year, historically, pretty much because of our capacity, we gave up between 800,000 and one million pounds of food a month. A month. That's a lot of food tied to capacity and it fed 285,000 people a year. That's 12 million pounds of food. Very needed for people that were working to keep a roof over the head. Couldn't quite make ends meet. And that's not Jay counted 50 times. That's non-redundant, okay? So that says we must show up in our homeless camps. That's just how fragile. This isn't just the Hawaii Food Bank. There's a lot of other services as well, but just that. So they gave up that and that was pretty all out effort, if you will. In the month of May, they gave out four million pounds of food. And the month of July, they gave out two million pounds of food because they didn't have any more to give out. Right. Well, that's really an important point that this may not be sustainable. We may not have the food. We don't have the supply lines. Even our inter-island transportation is jeopardized lately. Honolulu may find itself, hungry right across the board. We may. The mayor is gonna be right in the middle of that. You know, maybe not necessarily agreeing with the state or the governor, not necessarily agreeing with the president on reopening and pausing, reopening and pausing, or what to do about the number of cases or deaths. And I mean, I would say you'll have to agree with me that COVID is the most important news story of our lives right now. Absolutely. And the question is how do you see going into that? What is the special sauce you're gonna bring to the mayor? The mayor's office to deal with it. All of the various ramifications. You know, this is unprecedented. And so I don't want to, I don't have a crystal ball. Let me give this perspective right now, because right now, if you break it down, yes, I'm a candidate for mayor, but I'm really a retired business guy, trying to become mayor and don't even have anymore the intel I used to have when I was in the inside running Hawaii News Now. You know? And so, you know, the other part of that, Jay, is I've never been in front of a job five and a half months before. And that's where we are right now, approximately get to January. But just by coincidence, if you will, we announced five months ago, in February at the old stadium park. And I stop and think about what's happened in that last five months. I mean, a month later, we're shut down in watching this unfold and painstaking away and almost in disbelief. But knowing at least for the interim, we've had some subsidies through the CARES Act and our local banks did a great job of getting PPP money. They overreached it to their credit, got two and a half billion dollars. But a lot of those monies and resources are gonna be coming to an end. And so it is hard to predict what five and a half months from now is going to look like. That said, I have been on some interesting calls, even with the military, we've gone through a lot of pandemic training and different things. We're gonna have to enlist, incorporate and do things we've never done before. We are vulnerable. We are all vulnerable. In the beginning, when I was talking about elder care before COVID and talking about societies, a judge by the way, they treat their most vulnerable and talking about Akapuna and wanting to expand some of the programs. It's all shifted now. It's all shifted to us being a vulnerable people. So I'm gonna watch closely what gets done. Clearly, we're gonna need more federal money. Clearly, I don't wanna be presumptuous about a field of some tough competitors here, but we get elected. Irrespective of how difficult Washington may or may not be, but working with our people in Washington and anybody else, we're gonna have to go and get it. I think we have a special case, given our isolation, our vulnerability out here and all the other things. I candidly, I was encouraged yesterday to hear Josh Green on the news in Dr. Moskovich talk about the fact that looks like getting our testing numbers up some. That we've gotta get to a certain threshold of being able to do that. We're still away from that. So there's a lot of things here that we've never been before that have really dire consequences. We will be in a fight to survive. There's no question. And I'm concerned about basic needs of food. I am concerned about whether or not we can get federal monies in the short term to provide subsidies to keep people from being a victim. Because if you really understand that cycle of the people who they pay rent to, and they've gotta pay to somebody else, it's only so far that goes, right? So the subsidies, I would tell you, we'll probably have to get into some housing. I said this the other day, Jay. At a time like this, and what I'm learning about politics, there's a tendency for politicians to wanna talk about long-term plans. I think all that goes out the window right now on what's gonna happen three or four years from now. I mean, I'm really practical, common sense grounded in, and I'm trying to learn as much as I can about crises management. I've always been a turnaround guy and what you need to do. But at the same time, I'm bystander, watching what's gonna happen. And I certainly will get some indications as we get past the primary, hopefully, and whatever, and we'll have ample time. But this is, we've not been here before. Look, they announced the September closing. I can tell you, I was talking to hoteliers the week before in Waikiki, and they were praying to God that wasn't gonna happen. And as soon as they announced it, and they actually were gonna say indefinitely, but they chose to say September, the Holocaust says we're closed for a year. Either way, you're gonna hear from what I learned, and I'm not gonna need properties. Are you gonna hear a number of properties come out right now and say they're not gonna open up till January? And so what is gonna transpire is people who are on furloughs or temporary layoffs who still had benefits and cash subsidies are not gonna be permanently laid off. And that's gonna impact their healthcare and the ramifications of that because if they go to Medicaid, how that plays out, or for some that they, look, the University of Hawaii, before we had this last 60-day extension was predicting a couple of months ago, Kaobuanam, that Hawaii would lose 25 to 35,000 people and 21 because of no work. I remember that. You know, we've never seen an excess like that. We've never even talked that way. Literally, we've not been growing either. We're the only city in the top 100 that's had a negative population growth over the last four years, and we've been losing really good people. Well, you know, the big problem right now, and I really like your view on this, is this whole balancing act between public health and stopping those cases. I remember the exact number, but even in the morning paper, I think it was somewhere close to 25 or 28 cases, and it's creeping up on us. So the question is what, public health versus reopening. And when we speak of reopening, we're really speaking of large part of the hotels. And you mean local five and all that. And how do you balance that as the mayor? Well, I think fundamental from a balancing standpoint, good public health and a stable economy need to go hand in hand. They're not mutually exclusive concepts, right? But what's happened here is we are out of balance for good public health. And I understand, look, I've spoken before, I've spoken before the local five, I've met with Eric Gill, you know, I went down to the state capitol when they were protesting and had a private conversation with them afterwards for quite some time. I understand the concern of the hotel workers who want to feel safe because we're talking about right now, our cases are going up. I think we need to better discipline ourselves with masks and social distancing and washing our hands. If I've watched one expert after another, and I've watched all kinds of things and read everything, that seems to be what everybody is urging people to do at the very least, we can have better control. We don't have any tourists right now in our cases are going up. We're pretty lax. I don't know how to estimate the population, but I bet it's probably close to the national number, which is about 30% of the people are refusing to do that. I mean, so we're seeing cases go up, which is going to spook everybody, but make those mistakes about it. We can't keep our borders closed forever. That's not sustainable. We can't. And even then, when they do start to come back, they're not going to come back in big numbers, okay? And let me give you a perspective on that for what it's for. Well, it was a report of a couple of hundred people being arrested over the weekend. And I'm saying to myself, that's got to hit the national news. So you come as a tourist, you get arrested, you think you're going to come again. That's got to be a discouragement of potential tourists now. Well, I think Hawaii still enjoys global cashier unlike any other place on the earth that I could think of. I mean, from the standpoint of, you say Hawaii and it's magical. And I've always thought that way. I mean, look at me and you, look at who we are. Look at the shirts we're wearing and look at where we live. You know, I mean, this is a special place, right? So I don't think that necessarily goes away. And in the short term, you know, that might make some people feel like, well, it's even safer because they're paying attention to people who violate because look in the world, in the global theater right now our incidents of cases and debts is considered minuscule. You know, so I think anybody hearing about that. Look, it's not attractive to come here and get arrested. Don't get me wrong. I don't know if it's necessarily going to be debt figure to turn. It could actually be a turn on for some people that, you know, please come here and do what you're asked to do. And that's the point I wanted to make about local five and the hotel workers is because they saw the same thing happen in Las Vegas once they opened up. Tourists show up and all of a sudden they get in the casinos and they're taking their mask off and whatever, you know, they're not, and that's a big concern. Can we get the tourists to at least on the properties and a few other places that they were in restaurants at least at the time that they sit down and get their food? Will they adhere to that? You know, because we don't want to expose our local workers to anything that's dangerous. And that's what we're trying to balance out right now. Now, what about industries other than tourism? You know, there's a lot of people out there, a lot of people saying this is a time to reimagine our economy. We've been talking about diversification since John Burns, I'm not kidding. And now maybe it's, you know, necessity is the mother of invention. We really haven't done anything about diversifying really nothing. So is that something that is on your list of priorities? Well, look, that's a great political buzzword. I mean, everybody wants to talk about, you're absolutely right. I went back and researched. I read actually the, going back to Governor Burns over the last 50 years, I mean, that's always been we're going to diversify our economy. I read a whole thing when 2000, what they projected. Here we are 20 years later and very little of that has happened. So, you know, the reality is we took the drug. You know, we took the money from tourism. 2019 was really the manifestation of that. 17.8 billion dollars, two billions in tax revenue and not really a whole lot of investment, other things, if you will. Doesn't seem feasible, Jay, right now to talk about diversifying our economy in the midst of what you and I just got done within five minutes ago of talking about survival and being real. One of the things I do like about Hawaii, it's a very entrepreneurial place. And I think we do have to stay open to entrepreneurial ideas. I definitely think that there are things that we can do to help with construction, create jobs and construction and certainly the energy sector and the ag sector. But I don't want to kid anybody about it. I've moved my thinking since the September pushback to much more of a short-term crises kind of a thing and to see what we can do versus something that would be three or four years from now. Three or four years from now may not exist in the life of many, many people. So I want to be real about that. I think it's going to be a crunch for the city though. You know, the TIT is still being blocked by the state. You're not getting it. Yeah. Clearly, you know, whether it's time for an increase in real property taxes, that would be very hard on people. They won't like that at all. And of course, you have that inevitable, inexorable cost of rail. And I wonder what your thought is on fiscal policy in order to have the city, you know, strong enough to pay its bills and hold on to its people and continue its initiatives. Well, look, let's be candid with each other. There's going to be less money. Okay. There was a budget put forth that Caldwell didn't even sign that we will inherit, I say we, going in in January to then begin to work with. Okay. Halfway through a fiscal year. And I think probably before we leave with Blake and I, we'll be looking at, you know, what we're going to do in the next year, but the first task at hand will be that budget and where we are, what's reality. So I've been very clear, especially in the context of paying for the rail or the completion of the rail that would not raise property taxes. You just made a very good point about the timing of that, you know? Now I've heard every argument there was, well, the property taxes are really not all that high per se, but the multiplier effect against the highest prices for homes and condos in the country is another thing. But this is a very expensive place to live, if you will. So I think the first order of business is going to be, you know, on fiscal accountability, is to really take a deep dive and ask the question why, which is what we've always done in every turnaround on every dollar spent, what we can do without, where there's waste and whatever else we can possibly do. And it's going to have to come in the context of the fact that you're absolutely right. It's not just in the short term for remainder of 2020 it'll be the beginning of 2021, but it's going to be multiple years before we even get back any kind of reasonable amount of money in GT and TAT. It's just the numbers are not going to be there. I've seen the projections. There'll be a great challenge, but as I said in the beginning, you know, there's a big place for a businessman who has been through issues about raising money, spending money. Let me tell you what, this is about, Jay, that nobody talks about. This is about leadership and making tough decisions. Nobody yet to date has even asked me a question about leadership. What does that mean? What does that look like? You know, it's all about this ethereal thing or this thing or whatever. I'm not suggesting you're not doing that this morning. No, no, no. What about leadership? Which has a lot to do with the personal thing. Help me out on this, Rick. What about leadership? Yeah, well, I think, okay, Jay, I mean, look, I mean, it starts first and foremost that I've noticed in running for politics is, you know, running for an office that I listened carefully. And I'm not saying this is a dagger in my competitors, but it's pretty much who they are. It's about them. It's a lot of I, I, I, and I understand that. Anything I've ever been involved with and from a leadership standpoint is understanding I don't get to jump down by myself. And it's about being able to surround yourself and build a good team. Been pretty good in the people picking business. I think there's some extraordinary people in Hawaii. I know there are who would want to come under these circumstances and fight for the future of the city, young and old. Plus, I think there's some pretty good people that are already working there. I don't want to say everybody's got to go. You know, some of that comes from the personal dynamics. I'll tell you from a coaching standpoint, okay? A great story I love, all right? Just let me digress for one second. I haven't done this for anybody, but I'm going to tell you. Okay, so Don Shuler who recently passed away at the age of 90 goes into Hall of Fame, NFL Football Hall of Fame in Canton. And he asked Bump Phillips, Wade Phillips' father, great football coach, Hall of Fame himself to introduce him. And I'm not going to do it in Texas draw. Anymore that would try to tell you a story and pigeon with his Boston accent. But he said about Shuler, the best thing I've ever heard about coaching. He simply said the thing about Don was he could take his team and come and beat you on. And then he could turn around and take you on, take your team and beat his. I've always loved that. You know, that's what coaching and leadership is about and knowing what you do, the kind of decision making that goes on, how you facilitate that, how you flatten the organization, how you empower people, how you process things. There's a lot to that. And I bring a lot of years of experience in doing that. And that's really understanding, it's around yourself with the smartest thinkers, smartest doers, and more importantly, people who will embrace the spirit of accountability because that's what people are going to be looking for as we look to turn the direction of our city around under really tough circumstances. That's okay, we only have a minute left. I'm going to ask you my last question. Oh, I thought they told me this was a two hour interview. Well, I think we put a lot into it, maybe two hours' worth. I'm just kidding, Jay, really? Okay, go ahead. You know, there's a lot of people running, people who've been around for a while, people who have a certain amount of name recognition in political circles, one way or the other, may I say. And you know, here you are in a field of, I don't know, what is it, there's a lot of people. Why should we vote for you, Rick Blangieri? Well, I'm doing this out of love of place for all the right reasons. I bring a background of, I've been the guy in my whole career, Jay, that was hired to replace the person they fired and then fix it. That's been, and I've had a lot of success. I've had success here in Hawaii. I love this place, Hawaii has given me much of a return. It's loved me back and away. You know, I could never imagine this is where my life's work has been, my family, my kids were born here. I feel blessed each and every day I'm here. So I want to go with this job, but all the experience I have, understanding of what it takes from the standpoint of the leadership dynamic. I am not building, I've made it really clear. I'm not a politician. I'm not building a political career. My decision-making will not be compromised in that way. So I'm here to do the right thing, to serve. I'll just leave you with one little anecdote. Years ago, I'm a big believer in servant leadership. When you say the term, certainly a lot of people get lost in that. This is about working in service of others, which is why we even picked our campaign thing. It wasn't a political thing to say, it's about you. I've always put others first, studying with my family and my stakeholders and employees. But years ago, I was reading an article, an excerpt about servant leadership, and it was written by George Bernard Shaw, the great Irish playwright in 1903. It was an excerpt from a play called Man and Superman. And in that paragraph, he talks about the hotter I work, the more I live, the more I love. And then he says, very simply, because I want to be thoroughly used up when I die. I find myself now in this moment in time, facing the biggest leadership challenge. It won't be that for anybody, the biggest leadership challenge of a lifetime. And I want to go at it with everything I have, because I love this place, I owe it to this place. And that's why you should vote for me. All right, Rick Blanchiarty, a confluence of events, a confluence of leadership. Thank you so much, Rick, for joining us here on Think Tank. Jay, thank you, sir. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.