California’s Post Recall Future Part 2

Today is the Election deadline for California’s Recall. In this episode we dive into wildfire prevention measures and the voter fraud propaganda that is already being spread.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The last few months in San Francisco have been honestly
better than you expected. Still hot and dry, but now
that you're in fall, the heat has become manageable. In
the Bay Area, at least, staying with your brother has
been actually really nice. The first few showers felt like luxury.
Recently he's had less of a good time. He found

(00:20):
out he was getting laid off right before the school
year started. He told me. Over fifteen thousand other teachers
have been fired as a part of the governor's new
reform schools program. The teacher's union is fighting it, but
your brother isn't too optimistic of regarding the outcome. He's
been looking for new work, and meanwhile, you've gotten a
shitty retail job to help with bills while you decide

(00:41):
on what hospitals you want to apply to. You don't
really miss your old MS job in Redwood Valley. When
you finally do get back into medical care, you really
prefer something in a hospital or clinic setting as opposed
to the extra stress inherent in emergency services. The one
chance you have had to use your medical skills it's
moving was during the fires last September and October. Back

(01:04):
up north, they got really bad and hundreds of thousands
of people evacuated down south. Some old activist friends of
yours from college made their own fire relief slash mutual aid,
set up to give out clothes and food and to
help people displaced by the fires. You haven't talked much
with your old college buddies in the past few years,
but upon hearing of the relief effort, you happily offered

(01:27):
up your skills to help with minor medical issues in
a small medic tent they set up. It was the
first time you've helped with anything related to protests organizing
since he moved up to Redwood Valley ten years ago.
It was oddly refreshing. Politics hasn't been a major part
of your life since college. But speaking of politics, mid
terms are finally this month. The past year has felt

(01:48):
like it stretched on forever. Your brother and his union
buddies have been doing canvassing for a few progressive city
council candidates that might actually get a shot at getting in.
You haven't had time to adjust to San Francisco's local
political scene, and honestly, you're not sure if you really
care to. You have been keeping half an eye on
the big state electoral races, though, which feels kind of weird.

(02:11):
You know, there's no way the Republican government will get
re elected, not here in California. One thing that has
gotten you worried is the weekly anti election fraud rallies
that have been happening in l A ever since October.
The governor, surrounded by state troopers, has made it down
himself a few times to drop up support from his
fan base, and after the rallies, roving gangs of far

(02:33):
right extremists have gone around randomly attacking homeless encampments. You
heard that just last week after a Sunday rally, three
people had to be rushed to the emergency room. It's
now just a week before election day. You're on the
bus home from your job at the vintage clothing store
when you receive a message on signal from one of
your old college mutual aid buddies you met up with

(02:53):
again during the fire relief effort. The message reads, hey,
are you free on election Day? You hadn't really thought
about the day itself, You respond, maybe nothing really planned yet.
Your friend replies with a fat wall of text, My
affinity group and I are heading down to l A
on Tuesday. There's a big stop, the Steel type rally happening,

(03:16):
and where it is. Lots of Proud Boys are going
to show up. Comrades and l A have put out
some calls for support, So my crew is going to
go down and probably bring some medical stuff. If you
want to come, we got an extra seat in the van.
The thought of driving down to Los Angeles to deal
with Proud Boys doesn't excite you, especially on an already
stressful day. You think about it for a few minutes.

(03:40):
Images of the people maimed during and after the recent
rallies floods your mind. Your buddies no more about organizing
and protests than you do, but you have more medical training.
You decide you'll do it. You reply, I'll come with
and pack some extra iFACTS and tourniquets. Among the issues

(04:04):
of Republican recall, challengers have raised to attack Newsom force
mismanagement has leomed large among the recent complaints. This type
of thing hearkens back to Trump's old habit of blaming
the governor and not raking enough leaves for California's fiery plight.
On a larger scale, this can be seen as part
of an effort to push all the blame of wildfires

(04:25):
off of oil gas and our transformation of the climate
and onto a simple lack of fire prevention measures. This narrative,
of course, makes the fossil fuel industry more happy. The
thing is, all of these things are contributing factors for
California's wildfire problem. Climate changed caused hotter temperatures and droughts
makes fires easier to catch and spread, and inadequate force management,

(04:49):
plus above ground power lines do the same. Just because
there are bad faith attacks on Newsom doesn't mean there
aren't actual failures he's made as governor, especially in relation
to the forests. An investigation from CAP Radio and California
MPR published last June found out Newsom had grossly misrepresented

(05:10):
and fled out lied about his promises of new wildfire
prevention efforts. Elements of the piece were of course used
by Larry Elder and the Right to push for support
of the recall, but the article itself is a very
fine piece of journalism. Back when Newsom first took office
in January, one of the first things he did was
signed on the executive order overhauling how California handles wildfire

(05:33):
prevention and forest management. The measures included removal of hazardous
dead trees, vegetation clearing, creation of fuel breaks and community
defensible spaces, and creation of ingress and egress corridors. In
January twenty a year after Newsom's initial announcement, the Governor's
office claimed in a press release that under the Executive

(05:54):
Orders Priority Projects, nine acres got treated with these fire
prevention measures, But according to data attained by CAP Radio
and MPR, the actual number of acres treated by these
priority projects was only eleven thousand, three hundred and ninety nine,
just thirteen percent of the number Newsom boasted about, quoting

(06:14):
the piece by CAP Radio. Quote data shows cow Fire's
fuel reduction output dropped by half and twenty twenty two,
levels below Governor Jerry Browne's final year in office. At
the same time, Newsom slashed roughly one hundred and fifty
million dollars from Cowfire's wildfire prevention budget. In twenty twenty,
four point three million acres burned, the most in California's

(06:37):
recorded history. That was more than double the previous record
set in twenty eighteen, when the camp fire destroyed the
town of Paradise. Ultimately killing eighty five people. A decade ago,
cow Fire was treating a poultry seventeen thousand acres annually.
That number has steadily climbed, though Newsom misrepresented the number
of acres treated in his priority projects. The overall amount

(06:59):
of wild fire mitigation work carried out by CalFire spiked
in his first year of office to sixty four thousand acres,
but in fuel reduction totals plummeted to less than thirty
two acres, a roughly fifty drop unquote. Multiple factors contributed
to twenty twenties subpar fire prevention and reduction efforts in

(07:21):
the year with the large number of akers treated in
recent history, the state budget allotted for three hundred and
fifty five million dollars for wildfire prevention and resource management,
but after the COVID nineteen pandemic hit California in early
Newsom cut the budget down to two hundred and three million.

(07:42):
On top of the budget cuts, the fires themselves made
prevention work more challenging. Twenties wildfire season started out early,
which resulted in less time to do prescribed burns and
thinnings because the same teams that are tasked with prevention
and fuel reduction often also service firefighters once the fires. Account.
As of MAE, cal Fire has treated over twenty three

(08:05):
acres throughout the year. This puts California on a trajectory
better than last year's total, but not as high as
the sixty thousand plus acres treated in Newsom has been
trying to make up for his missteps and gross exaggerations.
Quoting the Cap Radio report again quote, Newsom is trying
to play catch up with the state enjoying an unexpected surplus.

(08:28):
Newsome proposed two billion in spending on wildfires and emergency preparedness,
with one point two billion going towards wildfire resiliency in
the upcoming budget. Experts say the increase in prevention spending
could help the state get closer to a less dangerous
wildfire season over time, but they also expressed concern over

(08:50):
whether the state will sustain that commitment for years to come. Unquote.
Revelations about Newsom's and cow fires lies in lackluster force
man innagement were quickly jumped on by Larry Elder and
other Republican challengers as an easy way to attack Newsom
and to move the conversation about wildfires away from climate change.

(09:10):
Elder has said he has quot unquote no idea why
more prevention and reduction measures aren't being done, and when
he becomes governor, he'll be quote implementing these common sensical
kinds of plans so that we can reduce the severity
of these fires unquote. Elder has given no concrete plans
on what measures he'll be shooting to implement, or any

(09:31):
indication on how much money will be directed to prevent
or fight fires on the noted budgets. Elder has said
that the more recent spending on wind and solar power
has left quote less money for removing trees and putting
power lines underground, the kind of things that would make
these fires less intense unquote, and he promises to drastically
cut spending on renewables while also investing more in oil

(09:55):
and gas. To be clear, Newsom's upcoming budget contains billions
for both prevention, slash fuel reduction and renewable energy such
as wind and solar. Whoever ends up governing California is

(10:18):
not only in charge of local politics like a governors
in other states. What happens in California affects people across
the country. And even globally, whether that's wildfire smoke traveling
across continents or changes to supply chains and industry rippling
across the world. California is, after all, the world's fifth
largest economy. There are also political ramifications that could affect

(10:42):
the States as a whole if Elder gets in office.
The Senate is currently a fifty fifty split between Republicans
and Democrats, with Vice President Kamala Harris getting the tie
breaking vote. One of California senators is eighty eight year
old Diane Feinstein, the oldest act of editor. If she
dies in office or has to step down due to

(11:03):
medical reasons before her term is over, the governor of
California gets to appoint her replacement. If Elder appoints a Republican,
then the Senate will be back under geop control and
give it his connections to the far right media sphere.
The list of potentials that Elder could appoint is frightening.
This is by no means inevitable even if Elder gets

(11:25):
into office. If he does, Finstein does have the brief
opportunity to step down and put a replacement in before
the new governor has sworn into office, However, Feinstein has
said she has no plans of doing so. Reports of
her declining health have become only more common in recent years,
but like many politicians and judges, she's not keen on

(11:46):
stepping aside, even to possibly help prevent a disastrous outcome.
Changes in the Senate are not required for horrible outcomes.
In the wake of an even brief Elder governorship, his
anti vax sentiments and planned to open up the state
and remove basically all COVID restrictions will result in hospitals
being pushed to max capacity. Elder has said he has

(12:07):
plans to appoint education officials similar to former Secretary Betsy Divas,
and judicial appointees like conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
Elder has stated his intention of declaring states of emergency
and using executive orders to push through otherwise unpopular legislation.
He has discussed plans to declare an education emergency in

(12:29):
order to fire upwards of twenty one quote unquote bad teachers.
Elder blames teacher unions for quote protecting bad teachers, and
in a recent interview stated, quote someone told me that
between five percent and seven percent of public school teachers
need to be fired. An emergency declaration would give the
power to get rid of bad teachers faster than the

(12:50):
system allows. Once you did that automatically, education would improve
overnight unquote. Now, Elder is not specified who had eased
him on teacher terminations or how he plans to weed
out the so called bad teachers out of the three
thousand in the school system. He's also touted plans to
declare a homeless emergency, but his solutions have nothing to

(13:13):
do with actually helping homeless people. His homeless emergency declaration
would allow him to suspend the California Environmental Quality Act,
the longer requiring environmental review of building projects. Elders stated
goal is to unleash developers and contractors without environmental regulation,
which he claims to quote trice developers and contractors like

(13:36):
criminals unquote, and allows building projects to get suspended indefinitely,
ultimately raising the cost of housing in his opinion. One
of the more frightening aspects of Larry Elder is his
close ties to many far right propagandists. He's done work
for Praker You, Epic Times, and has been a guest
on Fox News at least two hundred and twenty times

(13:58):
in the past five years. In the last episode, we
discussed his friendship with Dennis Prager. Also, Dave Reuben just
recently campaigned for Elder at a recent rally, and a
month and a half ago, Elder was on Candice Owen's
show discussing how the descendants of slave owners deserve reparations
for having their property i e. Black people stolen from

(14:18):
them when the slaves were freed. Those are his words,
not mine. What's probably most concerning is Elder's connection to
Stephen Miller. In fact, we wouldn't have Stephen Miller if
it were not for Larry Elder. Back in the late nineties,
a conservative student from Santa Monica High School would call
into Larry Elder's show to rant about his school's liberal culture. Reportedly,

(14:43):
the student would go around demanding staff and fellow students
regularly recite the Pledge of Allegiance. He railed against condom
giveaways and called Spanish language announcements quote a crutch preventing
Spanish speakers from standing on their own unquote. Young Californians
calling into Elder's show and agreeing with him wasn't very common,

(15:04):
and Elder ate it up he loved talking with the
students so much that he let the kid on basically
any time he wanted a platform to rant and rave.
You know where this is going. That student was Stephen Miller.
According to Miller, he appeared on Elder's show sixty nine
times throughout his time in high school and university, and
calls Elder quote the one true guide I've always had unquote.

(15:30):
Miller's appearances on Elder's radio show made him a recognizable
figure in the larger conservative media world, helping him connect
with Steve Bannon and eventually President Trump. By extension, Elder
was Stephen Miller's on ramp to the White House. In
an email to Miller in twenty sixteen, Elder told him quote,

(15:50):
I hope to live to see the day when you
become president. When media has brought up his friendship with
Stephen Miller, Elder tries very quickly to change the subject

(16:10):
when pushed on the topic. In a recent interview, Elder
shot back with quote, why would you bring up Stephen Miller?
I'm just wondering what the agenda here is. What's the point?
Am I somehow what a Nazi? A fascist? Unquote? I
think that says enough. The reason we haven't discussed the
other candidates in the recall election is because at this point,

(16:32):
if Newsom is recalled, it's absolutely certain that Elder will
be the one to succeed him. He has a twenty
point lead ahead other challengers, but that lead is still
only a tiny fraction of the total electorate, which demonstrates
the part of the problem in California's recall process. There
are other Republican challengers with concerning pasts and beliefs, lots

(16:53):
of anti mask, anti trans, anti vax, total disbelief, and
climate change people spouting q and originated conspiracy claims advocating
the lie that the presidential election was stolen. And there's
even a Democrat challenger that plans to use the National
Guard to round up all homeless people and put them
in concentration camps. But Elder himself shares a lot of

(17:15):
those views and uses the fact that he's black as
a shield for criticism against his racist and nationalist policies
and ideas. We haven't even mentioned that last month Elder's
ex fiance came out and said that Elder was extremely
abusive and had threatened her with a loaded gun in
early August polls were showing pretty much neck and neck

(17:36):
for the first question on the ballot, yes or no
on the recall itself. A Serve A USA pull from
that time even had respondents vote no on the recall
and fifty one percent vote yes to remove Newsom. Throughout
August and September, results started to flip the other direction
as ads against the recall hit the airwaves and internet.

(17:57):
The latest Survey USA poll has fifty four percent voting
no and the RICO and voting yes. Other polls hover
around the same ten to fifteen point lead for Newsome
staying in office. Now, with pools not going the way
Elder in the GOP would like, we're starting to see
a new, yet familiar narrative being prepared on on my

(18:21):
on my website elect elder dot com. We have voter
Integrity project, we have lawyers all set up, are ready
to go to foul lawsuits in a timely fashion. The
reason the lawsuits did not did not work in the election.
We know what happened there is because the lawsuits were
filed too late and many of them were dismissed. One
procedural around cors don't like to overturn an election. So
when did you hear of anything suspicious. We've heard a

(18:43):
lot of things that have been suspicious so far. Go
to elect golda dot com. We're gonna sick our lawyers
on them, foul lawsuits right away. They're gonna cheat. We
know that, and I'll tell you why. So many people
are angry about the crime, about the homelessness, about the
way he shut down this state, About the fact that
one third of all small businesses, many of them are
owned by black and brown and Asian American people that
they care about, but the declining following the schools, but

(19:05):
the fact that people are leaving rolling BrownHouse, black of water.
So many people are angry. The number of people that
are gonna vote to recall this man is gonna be
so overwhelming. So then even when they cheat, they're still
gonna lose. That's Larry Elder saying that if he doesn't win,
that means the election must have been stolen. Fox News
has been promoting the same idea the past month. All

(19:29):
of it is in the vein of the Stop the
Steel movement postidential election, culminating with the attempted insurrection on
January six. Here's Elder again on Fox News in early September.
But you're right, I am concerned about voter fraud and
that's why I'm asking people to go to elect elder
dot com. That's my website. We have a voter integrity

(19:50):
project set up with a bunch of lawyers ready to
foul lawsuits if anybody sees anything suspicious. Big election fraud
conspiracy proponent and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich was one
of the first people to chime in to stoke disinformation
about the recall election. And I think this may well
be the most rigged stay wide election we've seen probably

(20:13):
at least a half century. And I think people should
look carefully of this because it's pretty good evidence that
if Newsom is in a straight, honest count, he probably
has a good chance of losing. But if they can
stuff every ballot box in California and they can cheat
in every way possible, and of course this type of
propaganda has made it onto the most watched cable news

(20:34):
show on air, Tucker Carlson. California does not get the
credit it deserves for the corruption that's endemic there. It's
a one party state and they act like it, and
you've got to have concerns about whether this recall election
will be free and fair. Are you concerned, Well, of
course I'm concerned, Tucker. I'm involved in election integrity efforts
throughout the United States, and I'm also member of the

(20:54):
Republican National Committee. So we have a team of lawyers
that is ready to deploy throughout the state here and
we are monitoring things every single day. Just a couple
of hours ago, I filed a lawsuit to intervene in
a challenge to the constitutionality of the recall statute because frankly,
I don't trust the Secretary of State or the Attorney General,
who are both appointed by the governor, to defend him

(21:15):
in this regard, and so we are going to be
jumping on every potential opportunity to do that and fight
back against the Democrats. Of course, they are playing fast
and loose. We've seen some very alarming scenes of three
ballots bundled together in the car of a person with
a gun and some drugs, and so we are definitely
looking into all of these issues. But Tucker, ultimately it's
going to come down to how much do people want

(21:36):
to change in California. And I can tell you even
living in my latte, sipping avocado toast, eating you know,
Lululemon wearing neighborhood in San Francisco. People are fed up
with the crime, the drugs, the homelessness, the intermittent electricity,
and everything else that is wrong with California. So people
want to change here. It's just not working. And this
really is a test of whether our system works. I mean,

(21:59):
can people get better leadership? That's kind of the question.
Will there be election observers on the scene so the
rest of us can know this was fair? Well. The
problem in California is that the voting doesn't just take
place on election day like it would in a normal place.
It takes It's taking place now on a rolling basis
through mail in voting. It's a hundred percent mail in

(22:21):
ballots this time around, and it is going to take
place for thirty days after the election if it's close,
because they have thirty days to count the vote. That's
sixty days of voting, and of course a lot of
shenanigans can occur and ballots can disappear. So we are
going to be observing it very closely and demanding accountability
and filing lawsuits wherever we need to to hold the
Democrats accountable because we cannot trust them. Yeah, I hope.

(22:43):
So people want to believe the system works, that it's
real that they have powered their vote matters. So I
appreciate what you're doing, Harmydale. Thank you. A lot of
what's said in that last clip is either extremely misrepresented
or just flat outlines. Those three ballots found in a car,
we're actually part of a larger mail theft thing not
related to the election at all. Voters have received new ballots,

(23:07):
and for this election, just like the last one, Californians
have the option to vote in person, to mail in ballots,
or deliver them in a dropbox. The deadline to drop off,
mail or place your vote is September. Counting cannot start
till the fourteenth either, and like every election, there will
be observers throughout the entire counting process. Obviously, this isn't

(23:30):
the first time conservative media has hyped up election fraud,
the last presidential election being the biggest instance to date.
But what is concerning here is that they're setting up
a template to use for all future elections whenever Republicans lose.
Here's a Fox clip from September seven. The only thing
that will save Gavin Newsom is voter fraud. So as

(23:53):
they say, stay woke, pay attention to the voter fraud
going on in California because it's going to have big
consequences not only for that state but for upcoming elections.
It's safe to assume that Stop the Steel Esque strategies
will be used almost every time a Republican loses in
an election going forward. We've seen exactly what this type
of rhetoric and propaganda leads to, and it ends in blood.

(24:16):
There were multiple attacks on state capitals during the Stop
the Steel rallies prior to January six. In some places
like Salem, Oregon, they succeeded in getting inside the capital.
Even if Newsom gets to stay in office, there will
still be many problems, election conspiracies, and the possibility of violence,
like January six, just being one. We haven't wanted to

(24:40):
righteously defend Newsom here. He's a politician and inept in
many ways. He deserves plenty of criticism, especially on the
issues of climate change. But the criticism levied at Newsom
from the likes of Elder in the GOP are based
on bigotry, nationalism, and climate denial. Newsom should be our
punching bag, not theirs.