December 8, 2025 • 38 mins
The John Kobylt Show Hour 3 (12/08) - Justin Emsoff from Altadena comes the show to talk about the recovery process after the January fire and what a headache the rebuilding process has been. Why do we keep having to ask "WHY?!" about so many different stories? An image of Newsom crossing his legs has gone viral. Hotel workers want minimum wage raised for the Olympics in LA.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Can't. I am six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
You're listening to the John Cobel podcast on the iHeartRadio app.
We're on every day one until four o'clock. And today
I keep forgetting. You got to remind me so I
don't walk out at four. I'm on all the way
to four fifteen. Well, four thirteen, four thirteen, so a
whole extra segment because of the Charger game and the coverage,
(00:26):
so it starts at an odd time. They had this
fifteen thirteen minute gap. Gotten wait in want to come
in all the way? You know, he lives two blocks away.
He's not going to come in and do eight minutes,
So all right, I'll be here until four thirteen before
we get to the guest. I just want to mention again.
There's two documentaries I watched over the weekend about the fires,
(00:48):
Big Rock Burning. This focused on Malibu, the Big Rock Community,
directed by David Goldbloom, and you can go to vimeo
dot com and watch it, and you should, and it
will cost you a few dollars, but the money is
going to the Boys and Girls Club of Malibu's disaster
(01:09):
recovery services. And then there's another one you can get
on YouTube and that's twenty three minutes and it's Paradise Abandoned.
It's by Palisades Robert Resident Rob Monts. They're both powerful documentaries.
I'll talk about them later this week. Watch both and
(01:29):
you'll see there's something. There's something that's been going on
here because there was really no preparation, no response that
was of any use, and from a blizzard of lies
from newsome baths, three separate fire chiefs, and everybody else
in public life. Why, which is the question that keeps
(01:51):
coming up in these two documentaries.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Why. I don't know why, but we're going to figure
it out.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
And I'm going to talk with Justin Emsoff because you
had the Altadena fire and known officially as the Eaton fire,
this is the one started by so Cal Edison. But
you have the same problem as you had a lack
of preparation, a lack of response.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
You had nineteen people died.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
They couldn't even send out emergency warnings effectively over the
cell phone system, and the Ala County Fire Department, the
Sheriff's Department, the board of Supervisors, according to Justin Emsoft,
are dodging responsibility. He's a longtime listener of the show
his wife's family home for thirty five years, all their
(02:37):
possessions were lost, and he's pretty fed.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Up with all this nonsense. Let's get let's get Justin
msoft On.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Justin, how are you doing good? John? Thanks for thanks
for having me and thanks for keeping the spotlight on this.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Yeah, well, tell tell everybody how you feel. I mean,
what is your view of what's been going on here
and you're reaction to it?
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Yeah, I mean, so the crux of it is really
that we're a year on from the fire, and recovery
still just feels so far away. You know, like you said,
the fire itself, you know, whoever started it, the entity
responsible is ultimately the one responsible for the devastation of
that night. But in my mind, the recovery is firmly
the responsibility of the county that we pay so much
(03:24):
taxes to, and I've done so for my entire life.
I've lived in Los Angeles my entire life, and it
seems like they're just insistent on either pointing fingers at
each other, the Fire Department to sheriff, the Office of
Emergency Management, either pointing the finger at each other or
pitching this quote perfect storm idea and to me that
(03:45):
the perfect storm narrative is so dangerous because, like you mentioned,
nineteen people died, and if you're going to use that
as an excuse that it was just unavoidable perfect storm.
We did the best we could, YadA YadA YadA, more
people could die next time, And that's my biggest fear.
And that's why it's just, you know, we need furm
answers on transparently what happened that night, what were the failures?
(04:07):
I would love to be wrong. I would love for
it to you know, every piece of data comes in
and says, you know, sheriff did wonderfully, fire department did wonderfully.
Nothing could have gotten better. But the fact is we
have one report that is so general you cannot derive
those conclusions. And I think people in Altadena deserve access
to the raw data to confirm for themselves. It's a
(04:30):
response with sufficient and if not, what is going to happen?
To make sure that it is next time, and then
you know, we can get onto the actual recovery, the
rebuilding process, which is also a nightmare. But in terms
of the immediate kind of aftermath, that's those are my thoughts.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Yeah, there's three components to it.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
You're right, and it was tremendous lack of preparation because
this didn't catch anyone by surprise. This was at least
a well, it's a week's worth of warnings they had.
They had warnings going all the way back to December
thirty first, because I've looked all this up. You just
look at the Twitter feed of the National Weather Service,
(05:06):
and the warnings intensified in the five days beforehand, and
then the response.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Happened every year, Yeah, this is a multi day This
happens multiple times every year. They have a name.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Yeah, they're historical. I mean everybody in the country has
heard of the sant anaw Wins. They've written books about it.
So the the original preparation was just awful, not existing really.
And then I've read, you know, La time stories about
how confused all the officials were the fire department and
(05:43):
the Sheriff's department, and there was a lack of communication,
a lack of coordination, and I don't know, I mean,
they did have officials all in the same room together
from these various agencies, and how could you have confusion
You're standing next to one another.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Yeah, you should be next to each other, and at
least if you read the one report, which again is
very generic and doesn't have as much detail as we
would need, but if you read that, they were aware
that the fire had spread west of Altadena, I mean
west of Lake Avenue, that it was entering western Altadena,
and at least according to the official report, I think
that was around midnight, and still warnings didn't go out
(06:22):
until three thirty am. I got mine at three something,
and yeah, like you said that, if that's that should
be a critical flaw that we're now looking into. Instead
of saying, well, so and so didn't tell me, he
should have told me. That's the whole point of having
this centralized command. That's that's what I thought you guys
had been working on the last fifty years. If it wasn't,
(06:43):
then just tell us you're not going to show up
and then tell us we're on our own.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Well, they put out so many public service announcements. Do
they ever did they have any meetings? I keep asking
this about the Karen Bass situation with the with the
fire chief. Once the warnings came out from the weather show,
So did they sit down and have a big roundtable
discussion A zoom meeting to make sure that everything was
(07:08):
covered properly in advanced Did they you know, deploy the
fire engines?
Speaker 1 (07:13):
They should have.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
The engine should have been deployed for a week there,
But they don't talk about it. Nobody submits to any interviews,
any questioning, and they have these whitewashed, bland reports that
tell you nothing, and.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Then we're all supposed to like nod along and walk away.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
That's exactly right, And I think said more they really
want this to disappear by saying it's a perfect storm.
You know it won't happen again. We're learning all these
lessons until they can concretely point to stuff that says
here's how we're going to do better next time. I mean,
I'm I don't see how anybody should be confident in
southern California, you know, if you live in the foothills.
(07:52):
But even if you don't, they clearly do not have
a plan and they're not working on a plane. If
they do again, should be really easy. Like you said,
don't have a press conference, don't have a publicity shoot,
come out, meetless residents and demonstrate here's how we're going
to do better, Here's how we're not going to fail again.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
All right? Can you stay on another segment?
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Yeah, because what I want to cover next is the
issue that is gripping everybody immediately. I was just in
the pali Stades on Saturday night because Rick Caruso had
the Christmas tree lighting, and it's it's the rebuilding, and
it's the lack of permits, and it's the lack of response,
you know, from the county and the city. We'll talk
(08:36):
about it. Justin Amsoft, one of our listeners who was
the home was burned out by the Altadena fire. We'll
talk more coming up.
Speaker 4 (08:45):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
You could follow us at John Cobelt Radio on social
media at John Cobelt Radio.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Tonight at nine thirty, I'm going to be on CNN
Alex Michaelson. The story is tonight at nine thirty will
beyond the panel with him, so you tune in and
watch that. Let's continue now with one of our listeners,
Justin Emsoff. Family home, his wife's family home for thirty
(09:20):
five years, burned to the ground during the Eaton fire
and Altadena. All the possessions were lost and everybody there
is furious and angry at the lack of preparation, the
lack of response, the inadequate response, and then after the fire,
we've got the rebuilding and from what I understand is
(09:41):
the county is extremely slow with permits.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Is that true.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Yeah, We've had a few neighbors who have gone through
the permitting process, and I mean it's kind of it's
new for everybody, but it's definitely not the same expedi
in process that they describe at the onset of the
rebuilding process. So it still takes I mean, I'm looking
at the county the actual counties data right now, and
(10:10):
there's only nine hundred and thirty four permits, and it
says that the average days the permit issuance is ninety days.
You know, they said originally that it would be weeks,
and now it's already ninety days, and there's at least
fifteen hundred and the backlog of permits that have been
received for application. So it's just not moving at the
pace that you would expect or hope for people that
(10:32):
are really trying to just rebuild their lives, right, they're
not trying to make money off those they're just trying
to get back into their houses. And that's assuming you
can even get a hold of somebody, right, I mean,
all these agencies that were you know, flatting, all these
fast tracked ways to get help, it's really not. You
still wait on hold for hours to try to talk
to a person, and then there's no one to talk
(10:53):
to the wrong thing.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
That is inexcusable.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
I hear that with the City is Well that you
call and you could end up talking over the course
of time, you know, like the half dozen different people,
and they tell you half a dozen different things.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
Yeah, I had I had to get a replacement something
or other for the for part of the SBA loan,
and they sent me to three different things. First I
needed a voter registration card. Then I needed my Social
Security card, which already had. And then they said, maybe
you're your child's students' records from school, and I said,
I don't have kids, So what does that mean? I
(11:31):
get I can't apply it. And there's all these There's
just always another path that you were supposed to have
taken that you just don't know of until someone tells
you they told you the wrong info.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Have you asked anybody why, why is it this constant
merry go round.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
Because you're talking to and I'm sure you know you're
talking to literally the lowest level person on the other side.
It's just that there's no At least at the beginning,
they had the Center's kind of where every department was,
and you could go talk to multiple people. You could
kind of escalate things there. But now you're just on
phone tree and you're you're talking to one person. Send
(12:10):
you to another person. You have to repeat the same story.
I mean for the last I mean it's it's been
better recently, but for the first six months after John,
I'm telling you, I was on the phone from two
pm to six pm every night trying to talk to insurance,
talk to the county, talk to the assess or everybody,
and and the only com the only thing that actually
(12:32):
did right was USPS. I'll give them credit. They're the
only the only institution that has.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
Come through us wood. What is that?
Speaker 3 (12:40):
The Postal Service?
Speaker 2 (12:43):
I haven't heard that in a long time. All right, well,
you have a vote for the postal Service. You're in
a you're in a bad league. If the Postal Service
is is the best responder? Hi?
Speaker 3 (12:56):
Exactly?
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Wow, Yeah, how does this. How do you? How do
you live with this every day?
Speaker 2 (13:03):
I mean, this has got to be all consuming from
the moment you wake up, if you even sleep well
at all, to the last thing you think at night.
And there's just an endless calls you have to make,
and people you have to talk to, inform as you
have to fill out, and and and you know, people
not responding, getting getting refused, getting getting denied. I mean,
(13:25):
what is that like emotionally to deal with for you
and your wife?
Speaker 3 (13:30):
Yeah, it's draining. I mean if we didn't have each other,
I think we'd be in a much worse spot. But
it's like you said, it's draining. And you have your
regular life. You have to keep up with, right, you
have work, you have family commitments. I mean else I have.
I have some good friends. But I would say most
people have kind of moved on from the fires, which
is why I think it's great that you're keeping it in
the spotlight. I think most people have assumed, hey, a
(13:52):
year has passed, everything's probably fine. They got their insurance,
which we barely got any insurance. Uh, they got there,
you know, seven hundred and fifty dollars FEMA credit and
things must be back in ready order, and it's just
so far from the truth. So yeah, it's exhausting. And
every single week and every single month there's some new thing,
(14:13):
you know, as we've gotten closer to rebuilding that we're realizing,
you know, just that there's always something new. It's not
it's just never easy.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Now, and see the total failure of government there, you know,
the response, the preparation, and now the aftermath, the total failure.
It's like if I'm if I ever end up in
a conversation with anybody telling me how wonderful government is,
I'm I'm I might get I might get like physically violent.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
I I'm this this is a disaster.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
And it's been going on a year, and it's at
every level of government and and there's no intelligence, there's
no compassion, there is no response. It's just it's like
it's strike like trying to talk to ghosts.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
Yeah. And you and you know, you're on social media,
you watch the news and it's the same fire chief sheriff,
Catherine Barger, board of supervisors. They're all just there patting
themselves on the back. I know, a fane outrage here
and there, but really they're all just taking photo ops
and and pretending like things are back to normal when
(15:19):
it's it's just not even closed.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
It's galling. And they know the thing is they know
they know that things are terrible. They don't care.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Yeah, and they never tell the truth, and that that
that is so infuriating.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Just tell the truth. They're not that stupid. They know
this thing's a disaster.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
They know every aspect of their response to this government
was a complete disaster, and so they'll just pretend it
never happened.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
Yeah, And I think most residents in Altadena, like they
as angry as we are. We just we do actually
just want to move on. We're not looking for escapegoat.
We're not looking to, you know, have everybody lose their jobs.
We need to know that it's take it seriously that
things will be different next time. And like you said,
they're hoping that people forget to the point that it's
(16:06):
what they're no longer accountable or answible.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
To that that's what they want. Justin imsoft. Thanks for
coming on.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
Yeah, thanks, John, I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Former resident of Beltadena. The fire destroyed his wife's house,
his wife's family's house that they everybody was living in
for thirty five years. All right, more coming up.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
You're listening to John Cobel's on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
We are on from one until four o'clock every day
and then after four o'clock John Cobel Show on Demand
on the iHeart app.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
Today we go to four thirteen, four thirteen.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
The show has been extended one day only because the
Chargers are playing, and Chargers pregame coverage starts at about
four point fifteen, and we'll end the program at four thirteen.
And Tim is I don't know where he is, but
watching the game, probably probably watching, probably betting on the game.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Probably is where he is.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Let's say, moistline is eight seven seven moist eighty six,
eight seven seven moist eighty six. For this Friday talkback
feature on the iHeart app, you can call in and
leave your angry, outraged message or whatever is on your mind.
You know, we keep asking the same question for different stories,
is like why why why? We had a guy on, Oh,
(17:27):
it's just last hour. He's actually quit his job. He
came here from Ecuador. He hasn't been here that long,
what a year? Juan Nualla's is a name and he's
so disgusted by all the trash in.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
The streets that he's quit his job.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
He's raising money online and he spends all his days
with a group of volunteers picking up the garbage that
Karen Bats.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Allows to pile up all over the city.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Why cause the sanitation department gets the big run around
he just had Justin.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
I'msoft on Justin's.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Family home destroyed in the fire, trying to get building
permits and get some massive run around, over and over
and over again. And here are the politicians who run
La County badly, Jennis Han, Holly Mitchell, Hilda Salise, Lindsey
horv F Catherine Barger. I mentioned their names a little
(18:23):
while ago. Why is everything so bad? I told you
about the criminals when Michael Monks was in here earlier
in the show. We got twenty four county workers who
stole hundreds of thousands of dollars in pandemic money, COVID
unemployment money. There was another new eleven announced yesterday or
(18:49):
this morning by Nathan Hackman. Four from here nurses. One
of them was at Hawkman's office. Why why didn't they
put controls on so it can't be so easily stolen?
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Why can't you have more people working the permit hotlines.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Why don't you have clear instructions to help out the
people who want to rebuild their homes. Why aren't they
picking up the garbage in Los Angeles? And then I
saw this post online from Memet Oz and he's in
charge of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, doctor
(19:28):
Oz from TV and he posted this, and I'll just
truncate it. You've probably heard the news by now. Minnesota
fraudsters stole over one billion dollars from medicaid and you
deserve an explanation. Our staff at CMS told me they've
never seen anything like this in Medicaid and everyone from
(19:51):
Governor Tim Waltz on down needs to be investigated because
they've been asleep at the wheel.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
And he goes through.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Lot of the detail that you've probably heard of in
the last week, and he says, this chest isn't fraud,
it's political patronage and public of events. Somali scammers got
rich off programs that Waltz was supposed to be managing.
Minnesota politicians get elected with Somali votes and keep the
(20:21):
money flowing. When Minnesota told the Center for Medicaid and
Medicaid Services last year about the problem. They assured us
that they'd handle it by summer. It was obvious they
couldn't or wouldn't, so we stepped in and shut down
the worst of the programs housing And now they're putting
(20:42):
everyone on an audit. They're freezing enrollment in a few
of the most abused programs. So now the state has
to provide the Center for Medicare and Medicaid with weekly
updates on how the state is stopping the fraud. Freeze
enrollment of all high risk providers for six months, confirm
all providers are legitimate or remove them, and on and
(21:04):
on and on, and i'm i'm, I'm I'm looking at
this and it's like, why why do they have to net?
Why wasn't this always the policy. They don't care. They
don't care if you die in a fire. I keep
telling you this. They don't care if you rebuild your
house or not. They don't care if the money gets stolen,
(21:27):
they don't care if the garbage piles up.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
I don't know why.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
They're capable of fooling so many people over and over
and over again, with the wonders of government and charge
you really high taxes. And then I got a story
about San Francisco. I'm gonna have to do it tomorrow.
But San Francisco has seen an enormous share of their
budget go to nonprofits. It's double what it was a
(21:54):
few years ago.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
Double. Well, how does it double.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
It's because the money's getting stolen this nonprofit system, from
the federal government on down, whether it's Minnesota money for
the pandemic, housing money here in Los Angeles. This nonprofit
cesspool is destroying the government from the inside out.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
It's rotting it out.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
We are getting no services from this, We are getting
just big tax bills. It's the people who work in government.
I'm sorry, a lot of them are really disgusting. They're
disgusting thieves and crooks. There are narcissistic sociopaths who don't
give a wit if anybody lives or dies. They don't
care about how filthy the city is, or how dangerous
(22:42):
the city is, how crazy everything is. Didn't used to
be that way. Just a few years ago. Something changed
in the psyche and the psyche of the country, but
especially people in government, especially you know well, I mean
those I have supervisors. I mentioned you never see any
of them speaking out about the fire and about the terrible,
(23:08):
the terrible uh preparation, the terrible execution in battling the fire,
the terrible rebuilding process. Nothing from Karen Bassard the city
council either. They just don't speak anymore, and nobody asks
them any questions, nobody pushes them. It's it's it's bizarrely
fascinating and lights are blinking like crazy here. I'm gonna
(23:33):
end up with an epileptic fit. I don't know what's
going on, or did they not pay the electric bill?
Or you want me to turn the Christmas tree off? No,
it's not the tree, it's the overhead lights. I think
something is Yeah, the overhead lights. Oh, I'll turn them
up in the break. Oh yeah, it's it's weird.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
You know what, when we come back, I got two things,
all right. So we talked before at New York Times
and expose on Joe Biden's immigration policies, how the administration
really had their heads up their rear ends and they
were warned before Biden even was sworn in that their
policies were going to be a disaster, and they destroyed
(24:18):
their own administration over letting illegal aliens in It's a
fascinating story. Biden is still out there and he was
allowed to speak publicly over the weekend at the LGBTQ
plus Victory Institute. We have a short clip to play
because you could see how his sinility hasn't intensified. And also,
(24:41):
I don't even know how I'm going to explain this,
but Newsom's all the the eleven year olds who work
for Newsom's communication office put out another photo of Newsom
a in a they it's an AI doctored photo and
(25:02):
he's got his legs in some kind of obscene position.
It is gonna be really hard to explain, but I'm
gonna do it because it looks extremely stupid and I
can't figure out what the point of this was. But
he's sitting in a chair with his legs spread open,
his rear end and his mad parts like thrust forward,
and his hands are clasped together as if he's praying,
(25:26):
but they're in between his legs which are bent over
the top of his hands. And this is what his
press office puts out. I'll give you the background of
this when we come back.
Speaker 4 (25:38):
You're listening to John Kobels on demand.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
From KFI A six forty after Michael Krozer's newscast, We're
gonna come back for one more segment, a bonus segment,
because schedule is different today. We've got a Chargers football
game coming on and the pregame starts at four point fifteen.
So Michael do the news. I'll give you a few
more minutes and then we'll go into Chargers land here
(26:04):
all right, now, this first one is easy to explain.
This is Joe Biden. He is still allowed out of
the house. He was speaking at the LGBTQ plus Victory Institute.
I don't know what that is, but he was all
indignant and indignant about Trump and what's going on in
(26:25):
the world. Uh, listen to this and you can try
to decode it.
Speaker 5 (26:29):
We just have to get out as long as we
keep the faith, summon hope, and get back up and
remember who in the hell we are.
Speaker 6 (26:36):
We're the United States of Americato.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
That's where we are for the US, and there's.
Speaker 6 (26:42):
Nothing I mean, We're the United States of Americato.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
The United States of America. Got it.
Speaker 6 (26:52):
We're the United States of Americato.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
Ameer, got it? Okay? The United States of America got it.
He knows. He started with a little too at the beginning.
I know, And that's so weird and creepy.
Speaker 5 (27:04):
We just have to get out to keep the faith
someone hope, and get back up and remember who in
the hell we are. We're the United States of America.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
He couldn't make it to America. That's how bad his
brain has turned to much. It's like I now, either
he was about to curse right, Eric and I have
been talking about whether he was going to say United
States of America and then drop a GD yeah, or
he was saying United States, it's America.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Comma got it? Yeah? Could be either one. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
But he never got there and never corrected himself either. No,
just kept going. God. Now. This other thing is hard
to explain because it's radio. But Gavin Newsom was on stage.
There was an event that The New York Times was
sponsoring called deal Book, and they were interviewing all kinds
(27:59):
of prominent people. That's the one where Holly Berry came
out and trashed Newsom for vetoing and menopause bill And
eventually Newsom got interviewed by an LA Times journalist and
he was sitting in a white chair, and during the
(28:20):
interview he had his legs crossed severely, and you know,
the idiots on the internet, they start sending the photo
around social media saying that this was a testicle crusher
pose because his legs are really pointed. You know, he's
crossed his legs and they're pointed sharply in opposing directions. Well,
(28:44):
I don't understand this, but the press office decided to
have to respond, so I got on X. Well, they
were making fun of his masculinity, and so they posted
a photo again. This is newsom staff and he's got
he's sitting in a chair, but instead of his legs
(29:05):
coming over the seat, he's got his legs up in
the air, his shoes pressed together, his rear end and
testicles are thrust out.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
And in between.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
His rear end and his shoes which are at face level.
I know this sounds ridiculous, but I don't know how
to explain this. And he's got his hands clasped as
if he's praying, so it's a yoga like position. It
looks just abstupid, just ridiculous. And this is what the
(29:45):
children in his press office sent out.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
And it's not funny. It's supposed to be some.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
Response to all the jokes about his testicle cri watching
cross legged posture. It does he know what's going on?
You gotta you gotta look at it. Go go go
find it. We got Michael Krazer with the news and
then we'll be back live in the KFI twenty four
(30:16):
hour newsroom.
Speaker 4 (30:17):
You're listening to John Cobels on demand from KFI Am sixty.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
Tim is, well, he's not in today because they only
wanted him to be on the air for about eight minutes,
and he said, no.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
I'm gonna stay home. I'm not coming in for eight minutes.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
I mean, he lives two miles down the road, So
all right, I'll sit here for eight minutes. But you
have the Chargers coming on at four point fifteen because
it's Monday night football.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
Yeah, they played the Eagles.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
It's a huge game, Chargers and Eagles at four fifteen,
and you know, the pregame starts and then and then
the game and it's always here on KFI. So in
the meantime, you got me for a few more minutes, and.
Speaker 5 (31:06):
You know.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
The twenty twenty eight Olympics has led the city Council
to want to raise the minimum wage for la hotel
and airport workers to thirty dollars an hour. Thirty dollars
an hour, and the hotels and the airport workers, well,
the people who run the hotels, the companies are saying,
(31:28):
we can't afford this now, this mandatory minimum wage, and
these are very high minimum wages that we have. You know,
the restaurant industry responded to the twenty dollars mandatory minimum
wage by firing about nineteen thousand workers in this state.
A couple of years ago, Newsom and the Democratic legislature said, hey,
(31:51):
we're gonna have a minimum wage twenty bucks an hour,
and the companies who run the fast food chains go, no,
we can't afford that. Actually, you know, most of the
fast food restaurants are owned locally franchise owners who are
middle class people, and they can't pay people twenty dollars
(32:12):
an hour. So what's happened now is twenty thousand people
got fired in the state. And you do your orders
at kiosks, you know, you just got a big screen
and you just press the panels on the screen and somebody,
maybe somebody carries out the order. Eventually, that's going to
(32:33):
be a robot or maybe you're going to have to
go in the kitchen and pick it up yourself. But
it totally failed. And all this stuff is pushed by unions.
The unions bribe the politicians. The politicians say, sure, here
you get the twenty dollars an hour minimum wage, but
if you've lost twenty thousand jobs, I don't understand the
point of this. It's baffling to me. And that's what's
(32:59):
going to happen here at these hotels and with these
airport workers.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
Eventually they're all going to get fired. Now.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
The LA City Council President Marquise Harris Dawson has tried
to delay the price the wage increase until twenty thirty,
phase it in over a long period of time. And
this has caused a controversy, and it may be because
(33:27):
the business owners filed the paperwork to put a ballot
measure together to repeal the city's business tax. Yeah, if
you have a business in the city, you got to pay.
They're not a state business city business tax. And if
it got repealed, that would take away seven hundred and
(33:48):
forty million dollars a year from the City of Los Angeles,
from the general fund, which is what they used to
pay the police officers and the firefighters, or what's.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
Left of them.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
And this referendum has been approved for signatures. Several airlines
as well as the American Hotel and Logic Association is
supporting this. And this is the business community's way of
trying to block this thirty dollars an hour minimum wage. Now,
thirty dollars an hour sounds like a very very high
(34:25):
minimum wage. I don't know if you can call that
a minimum wage when you're getting to thirty dollars an hour.
But you know, I never understand about these workers and
they don't want to strike for this stuff, or you know,
they they have their their unions bribe the city council
to pass these sort of things. It's like, why don't
you just go get a better job in a different industry.
(34:47):
Why are you mandating the government mandating us to use
our to I don't get it. There's only so much
people are going to pay for a cheeseburger at a
fast food restaurant. There's only so much money people are
going to pay for a hotel room. There's only so
much money people are going to pay in taxes. Eventually,
you hit a wall and you'll get a response. And
(35:10):
the response in business is, you know what, We're gonna
have to close down because we can't make a profit,
or we're going to fire you and replace you with
a robot, or replace you with a screen. Or my
favorite is, and this is going on in New York City.
You go to a fast food joint and you get
a screen and it has a human in the little
(35:33):
video picture in front of you. But that person's in
the Philippines. Seriously, seems like everybody in the Philippines has
a job. There was a hotel that did that, remember
with the front desk workers.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
Yeah, that's right, that's right.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
But I saw the video of the lady taking the
order at some fast food joint in New York City,
and you know then it's you know, you swipe your
credit card, it spits out a receipt and then you
wait for a human in the kitchen to carry it out.
And that guy's days are number two. There's no reason
you can't have a little mini robot come out with
(36:09):
the well, like those Coco those Coco carts that go
around Santa Monica. Have you ever seen them? You don't
need people for this before which means all these people
are just going to be out of work. There's not
going to be minimum wage jobs to get, so this
is a suicide mission.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
I don't understand why the unions push this, because eventually.
Speaker 2 (36:30):
You have twenty thousand people in the restaurant industry now
who aren't working, so they're not paying dues anymore. I
don't get the economics of it. I get the bribery
aspect of it. Anyway, the thirty dollars minimum wage is
(36:51):
on hold, or it's going to be phased in into
the future because the business industry is saying, you know,
we'll put this on the ballot and get this business
tax repealed. And when they get the money, they obviously
didn't spend it on the fire department. They're not spending
(37:13):
it on the police. We're probably two thousand police short
of what we need in LA. We only have half
a fire department. As we all know. It's astonishing how
the money just evaporates and disappears, and they fight like
hell to hold on the money because all these people
are corrupt to their bones. This is all corruption, and
(37:35):
this is all theft, and I don't know when finally,
I guess most people don't even know what's going on.
It's just busy scrolling, all right. We got the Chargers
and the Eagles coming up. Pregame show and then the
game in about an hour, and Conway will be back tomorrow.
I'll be back tomorrow one o'clock. Michael Kerzner has the
(37:57):
news live in the KFI twenty four hour News Center. Hey,
you've been listening to the John Cobalt Show podcast. You
can always hear the show live on KFI AM six
forty from one to four pm every Monday through Friday,
and of course, anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app
Can't. I am six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
You're listening to the John Cobel podcast on the iHeartRadio app.
We're on every day one until four o'clock. And today
I keep forgetting. You got to remind me so I
don't walk out at four. I'm on all the way
to four fifteen. Well, four thirteen, four thirteen, so a
whole extra segment because of the Charger game and the coverage,
(00:26):
so it starts at an odd time. They had this
fifteen thirteen minute gap. Gotten wait in want to come
in all the way? You know, he lives two blocks away.
He's not going to come in and do eight minutes,
So all right, I'll be here until four thirteen before
we get to the guest. I just want to mention again.
There's two documentaries I watched over the weekend about the fires,
(00:48):
Big Rock Burning. This focused on Malibu, the Big Rock Community,
directed by David Goldbloom, and you can go to vimeo
dot com and watch it, and you should, and it
will cost you a few dollars, but the money is
going to the Boys and Girls Club of Malibu's disaster
(01:09):
recovery services. And then there's another one you can get
on YouTube and that's twenty three minutes and it's Paradise Abandoned.
It's by Palisades Robert Resident Rob Monts. They're both powerful documentaries.
I'll talk about them later this week. Watch both and
(01:29):
you'll see there's something. There's something that's been going on
here because there was really no preparation, no response that
was of any use, and from a blizzard of lies
from newsome baths, three separate fire chiefs, and everybody else
in public life. Why, which is the question that keeps
(01:51):
coming up in these two documentaries.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Why. I don't know why, but we're going to figure
it out.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
And I'm going to talk with Justin Emsoff because you
had the Altadena fire and known officially as the Eaton fire,
this is the one started by so Cal Edison. But
you have the same problem as you had a lack
of preparation, a lack of response.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
You had nineteen people died.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
They couldn't even send out emergency warnings effectively over the
cell phone system, and the Ala County Fire Department, the
Sheriff's Department, the board of Supervisors, according to Justin Emsoft,
are dodging responsibility. He's a longtime listener of the show
his wife's family home for thirty five years, all their
(02:37):
possessions were lost, and he's pretty fed.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Up with all this nonsense. Let's get let's get Justin
msoft On.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Justin, how are you doing good? John? Thanks for thanks
for having me and thanks for keeping the spotlight on this.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Yeah, well, tell tell everybody how you feel. I mean,
what is your view of what's been going on here
and you're reaction to it?
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Yeah, I mean, so the crux of it is really
that we're a year on from the fire, and recovery
still just feels so far away. You know, like you said,
the fire itself, you know, whoever started it, the entity
responsible is ultimately the one responsible for the devastation of
that night. But in my mind, the recovery is firmly
the responsibility of the county that we pay so much
(03:24):
taxes to, and I've done so for my entire life.
I've lived in Los Angeles my entire life, and it
seems like they're just insistent on either pointing fingers at
each other, the Fire Department to sheriff, the Office of
Emergency Management, either pointing the finger at each other or
pitching this quote perfect storm idea and to me that
(03:45):
the perfect storm narrative is so dangerous because, like you mentioned,
nineteen people died, and if you're going to use that
as an excuse that it was just unavoidable perfect storm.
We did the best we could, YadA YadA YadA, more
people could die next time, And that's my biggest fear.
And that's why it's just, you know, we need furm
answers on transparently what happened that night, what were the failures?
(04:07):
I would love to be wrong. I would love for
it to you know, every piece of data comes in
and says, you know, sheriff did wonderfully, fire department did wonderfully.
Nothing could have gotten better. But the fact is we
have one report that is so general you cannot derive
those conclusions. And I think people in Altadena deserve access
to the raw data to confirm for themselves. It's a
(04:30):
response with sufficient and if not, what is going to happen?
To make sure that it is next time, and then
you know, we can get onto the actual recovery, the
rebuilding process, which is also a nightmare. But in terms
of the immediate kind of aftermath, that's those are my thoughts.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Yeah, there's three components to it.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
You're right, and it was tremendous lack of preparation because
this didn't catch anyone by surprise. This was at least
a well, it's a week's worth of warnings they had.
They had warnings going all the way back to December
thirty first, because I've looked all this up. You just
look at the Twitter feed of the National Weather Service,
(05:06):
and the warnings intensified in the five days beforehand, and
then the response.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Happened every year, Yeah, this is a multi day This
happens multiple times every year. They have a name.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Yeah, they're historical. I mean everybody in the country has
heard of the sant anaw Wins. They've written books about it.
So the the original preparation was just awful, not existing really.
And then I've read, you know, La time stories about
how confused all the officials were the fire department and
(05:43):
the Sheriff's department, and there was a lack of communication,
a lack of coordination, and I don't know, I mean,
they did have officials all in the same room together
from these various agencies, and how could you have confusion
You're standing next to one another.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Yeah, you should be next to each other, and at
least if you read the one report, which again is
very generic and doesn't have as much detail as we
would need, but if you read that, they were aware
that the fire had spread west of Altadena, I mean
west of Lake Avenue, that it was entering western Altadena,
and at least according to the official report, I think
that was around midnight, and still warnings didn't go out
(06:22):
until three thirty am. I got mine at three something,
and yeah, like you said that, if that's that should
be a critical flaw that we're now looking into. Instead
of saying, well, so and so didn't tell me, he
should have told me. That's the whole point of having
this centralized command. That's that's what I thought you guys
had been working on the last fifty years. If it wasn't,
(06:43):
then just tell us you're not going to show up
and then tell us we're on our own.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Well, they put out so many public service announcements. Do
they ever did they have any meetings? I keep asking
this about the Karen Bass situation with the with the
fire chief. Once the warnings came out from the weather show,
So did they sit down and have a big roundtable
discussion A zoom meeting to make sure that everything was
(07:08):
covered properly in advanced Did they you know, deploy the
fire engines?
Speaker 1 (07:13):
They should have.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
The engine should have been deployed for a week there,
But they don't talk about it. Nobody submits to any interviews,
any questioning, and they have these whitewashed, bland reports that
tell you nothing, and.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Then we're all supposed to like nod along and walk away.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
That's exactly right, And I think said more they really
want this to disappear by saying it's a perfect storm.
You know it won't happen again. We're learning all these
lessons until they can concretely point to stuff that says
here's how we're going to do better next time. I mean,
I'm I don't see how anybody should be confident in
southern California, you know, if you live in the foothills.
(07:52):
But even if you don't, they clearly do not have
a plan and they're not working on a plane. If
they do again, should be really easy. Like you said,
don't have a press conference, don't have a publicity shoot,
come out, meetless residents and demonstrate here's how we're going
to do better, Here's how we're not going to fail again.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
All right? Can you stay on another segment?
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Yeah, because what I want to cover next is the
issue that is gripping everybody immediately. I was just in
the pali Stades on Saturday night because Rick Caruso had
the Christmas tree lighting, and it's it's the rebuilding, and
it's the lack of permits, and it's the lack of response,
you know, from the county and the city. We'll talk
(08:36):
about it. Justin Amsoft, one of our listeners who was
the home was burned out by the Altadena fire. We'll
talk more coming up.
Speaker 4 (08:45):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
You could follow us at John Cobelt Radio on social
media at John Cobelt Radio.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Tonight at nine thirty, I'm going to be on CNN
Alex Michaelson. The story is tonight at nine thirty will
beyond the panel with him, so you tune in and
watch that. Let's continue now with one of our listeners,
Justin Emsoff. Family home, his wife's family home for thirty
(09:20):
five years, burned to the ground during the Eaton fire
and Altadena. All the possessions were lost and everybody there
is furious and angry at the lack of preparation, the
lack of response, the inadequate response, and then after the fire,
we've got the rebuilding and from what I understand is
(09:41):
the county is extremely slow with permits.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Is that true.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Yeah, We've had a few neighbors who have gone through
the permitting process, and I mean it's kind of it's
new for everybody, but it's definitely not the same expedi
in process that they describe at the onset of the
rebuilding process. So it still takes I mean, I'm looking
at the county the actual counties data right now, and
(10:10):
there's only nine hundred and thirty four permits, and it
says that the average days the permit issuance is ninety days.
You know, they said originally that it would be weeks,
and now it's already ninety days, and there's at least
fifteen hundred and the backlog of permits that have been
received for application. So it's just not moving at the
pace that you would expect or hope for people that
(10:32):
are really trying to just rebuild their lives, right, they're
not trying to make money off those they're just trying
to get back into their houses. And that's assuming you
can even get a hold of somebody, right, I mean,
all these agencies that were you know, flatting, all these
fast tracked ways to get help, it's really not. You
still wait on hold for hours to try to talk
to a person, and then there's no one to talk
(10:53):
to the wrong thing.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
That is inexcusable.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
I hear that with the City is Well that you
call and you could end up talking over the course
of time, you know, like the half dozen different people,
and they tell you half a dozen different things.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
Yeah, I had I had to get a replacement something
or other for the for part of the SBA loan,
and they sent me to three different things. First I
needed a voter registration card. Then I needed my Social
Security card, which already had. And then they said, maybe
you're your child's students' records from school, and I said,
I don't have kids, So what does that mean? I
(11:31):
get I can't apply it. And there's all these There's
just always another path that you were supposed to have
taken that you just don't know of until someone tells
you they told you the wrong info.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Have you asked anybody why, why is it this constant
merry go round.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
Because you're talking to and I'm sure you know you're
talking to literally the lowest level person on the other side.
It's just that there's no At least at the beginning,
they had the Center's kind of where every department was,
and you could go talk to multiple people. You could
kind of escalate things there. But now you're just on
phone tree and you're you're talking to one person. Send
(12:10):
you to another person. You have to repeat the same story.
I mean for the last I mean it's it's been
better recently, but for the first six months after John,
I'm telling you, I was on the phone from two
pm to six pm every night trying to talk to insurance,
talk to the county, talk to the assess or everybody,
and and the only com the only thing that actually
(12:32):
did right was USPS. I'll give them credit. They're the
only the only institution that has.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
Come through us wood. What is that?
Speaker 3 (12:40):
The Postal Service?
Speaker 2 (12:43):
I haven't heard that in a long time. All right, well,
you have a vote for the postal Service. You're in
a you're in a bad league. If the Postal Service
is is the best responder? Hi?
Speaker 3 (12:56):
Exactly?
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Wow, Yeah, how does this. How do you? How do
you live with this every day?
Speaker 2 (13:03):
I mean, this has got to be all consuming from
the moment you wake up, if you even sleep well
at all, to the last thing you think at night.
And there's just an endless calls you have to make,
and people you have to talk to, inform as you
have to fill out, and and and you know, people
not responding, getting getting refused, getting getting denied. I mean,
(13:25):
what is that like emotionally to deal with for you
and your wife?
Speaker 3 (13:30):
Yeah, it's draining. I mean if we didn't have each other,
I think we'd be in a much worse spot. But
it's like you said, it's draining. And you have your
regular life. You have to keep up with, right, you
have work, you have family commitments. I mean else I have.
I have some good friends. But I would say most
people have kind of moved on from the fires, which
is why I think it's great that you're keeping it in
the spotlight. I think most people have assumed, hey, a
(13:52):
year has passed, everything's probably fine. They got their insurance,
which we barely got any insurance. Uh, they got there,
you know, seven hundred and fifty dollars FEMA credit and
things must be back in ready order, and it's just
so far from the truth. So yeah, it's exhausting. And
every single week and every single month there's some new thing,
(14:13):
you know, as we've gotten closer to rebuilding that we're realizing,
you know, just that there's always something new. It's not
it's just never easy.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Now, and see the total failure of government there, you know,
the response, the preparation, and now the aftermath, the total failure.
It's like if I'm if I ever end up in
a conversation with anybody telling me how wonderful government is,
I'm I'm I might get I might get like physically violent.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
I I'm this this is a disaster.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
And it's been going on a year, and it's at
every level of government and and there's no intelligence, there's
no compassion, there is no response. It's just it's like
it's strike like trying to talk to ghosts.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
Yeah. And you and you know, you're on social media,
you watch the news and it's the same fire chief sheriff,
Catherine Barger, board of supervisors. They're all just there patting
themselves on the back. I know, a fane outrage here
and there, but really they're all just taking photo ops
and and pretending like things are back to normal when
(15:19):
it's it's just not even closed.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
It's galling. And they know the thing is they know
they know that things are terrible. They don't care.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Yeah, and they never tell the truth, and that that
that is so infuriating.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Just tell the truth. They're not that stupid. They know
this thing's a disaster.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
They know every aspect of their response to this government
was a complete disaster, and so they'll just pretend it
never happened.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
Yeah, And I think most residents in Altadena, like they
as angry as we are. We just we do actually
just want to move on. We're not looking for escapegoat.
We're not looking to, you know, have everybody lose their jobs.
We need to know that it's take it seriously that
things will be different next time. And like you said,
they're hoping that people forget to the point that it's
(16:06):
what they're no longer accountable or answible.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
To that that's what they want. Justin imsoft. Thanks for
coming on.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
Yeah, thanks, John, I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Former resident of Beltadena. The fire destroyed his wife's house,
his wife's family's house that they everybody was living in
for thirty five years. All right, more coming up.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
You're listening to John Cobel's on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
We are on from one until four o'clock every day
and then after four o'clock John Cobel Show on Demand
on the iHeart app.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
Today we go to four thirteen, four thirteen.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
The show has been extended one day only because the
Chargers are playing, and Chargers pregame coverage starts at about
four point fifteen, and we'll end the program at four thirteen.
And Tim is I don't know where he is, but
watching the game, probably probably watching, probably betting on the game.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Probably is where he is.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Let's say, moistline is eight seven seven moist eighty six,
eight seven seven moist eighty six. For this Friday talkback
feature on the iHeart app, you can call in and
leave your angry, outraged message or whatever is on your mind.
You know, we keep asking the same question for different stories,
is like why why why? We had a guy on, Oh,
(17:27):
it's just last hour. He's actually quit his job. He
came here from Ecuador. He hasn't been here that long,
what a year? Juan Nualla's is a name and he's
so disgusted by all the trash in.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
The streets that he's quit his job.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
He's raising money online and he spends all his days
with a group of volunteers picking up the garbage that
Karen Bats.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Allows to pile up all over the city.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Why cause the sanitation department gets the big run around
he just had Justin.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
I'msoft on Justin's.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Family home destroyed in the fire, trying to get building
permits and get some massive run around, over and over
and over again. And here are the politicians who run
La County badly, Jennis Han, Holly Mitchell, Hilda Salise, Lindsey
horv F Catherine Barger. I mentioned their names a little
(18:23):
while ago. Why is everything so bad? I told you
about the criminals when Michael Monks was in here earlier
in the show. We got twenty four county workers who
stole hundreds of thousands of dollars in pandemic money, COVID
unemployment money. There was another new eleven announced yesterday or
(18:49):
this morning by Nathan Hackman. Four from here nurses. One
of them was at Hawkman's office. Why why didn't they
put controls on so it can't be so easily stolen?
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Why can't you have more people working the permit hotlines.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Why don't you have clear instructions to help out the
people who want to rebuild their homes. Why aren't they
picking up the garbage in Los Angeles? And then I
saw this post online from Memet Oz and he's in
charge of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, doctor
(19:28):
Oz from TV and he posted this, and I'll just
truncate it. You've probably heard the news by now. Minnesota
fraudsters stole over one billion dollars from medicaid and you
deserve an explanation. Our staff at CMS told me they've
never seen anything like this in Medicaid and everyone from
(19:51):
Governor Tim Waltz on down needs to be investigated because
they've been asleep at the wheel.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
And he goes through.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Lot of the detail that you've probably heard of in
the last week, and he says, this chest isn't fraud,
it's political patronage and public of events. Somali scammers got
rich off programs that Waltz was supposed to be managing.
Minnesota politicians get elected with Somali votes and keep the
(20:21):
money flowing. When Minnesota told the Center for Medicaid and
Medicaid Services last year about the problem. They assured us
that they'd handle it by summer. It was obvious they
couldn't or wouldn't, so we stepped in and shut down
the worst of the programs housing And now they're putting
(20:42):
everyone on an audit. They're freezing enrollment in a few
of the most abused programs. So now the state has
to provide the Center for Medicare and Medicaid with weekly
updates on how the state is stopping the fraud. Freeze
enrollment of all high risk providers for six months, confirm
all providers are legitimate or remove them, and on and
(21:04):
on and on, and i'm i'm, I'm I'm looking at
this and it's like, why why do they have to net?
Why wasn't this always the policy. They don't care. They
don't care if you die in a fire. I keep
telling you this. They don't care if you rebuild your
house or not. They don't care if the money gets stolen,
(21:27):
they don't care if the garbage piles up.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
I don't know why.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
They're capable of fooling so many people over and over
and over again, with the wonders of government and charge
you really high taxes. And then I got a story
about San Francisco. I'm gonna have to do it tomorrow.
But San Francisco has seen an enormous share of their
budget go to nonprofits. It's double what it was a
(21:54):
few years ago.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
Double. Well, how does it double.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
It's because the money's getting stolen this nonprofit system, from
the federal government on down, whether it's Minnesota money for
the pandemic, housing money here in Los Angeles. This nonprofit
cesspool is destroying the government from the inside out.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
It's rotting it out.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
We are getting no services from this, We are getting
just big tax bills. It's the people who work in government.
I'm sorry, a lot of them are really disgusting. They're
disgusting thieves and crooks. There are narcissistic sociopaths who don't
give a wit if anybody lives or dies. They don't
care about how filthy the city is, or how dangerous
(22:42):
the city is, how crazy everything is. Didn't used to
be that way. Just a few years ago. Something changed
in the psyche and the psyche of the country, but
especially people in government, especially you know well, I mean
those I have supervisors. I mentioned you never see any
of them speaking out about the fire and about the terrible,
(23:08):
the terrible uh preparation, the terrible execution in battling the fire,
the terrible rebuilding process. Nothing from Karen Bassard the city
council either. They just don't speak anymore, and nobody asks
them any questions, nobody pushes them. It's it's it's bizarrely
fascinating and lights are blinking like crazy here. I'm gonna
(23:33):
end up with an epileptic fit. I don't know what's
going on, or did they not pay the electric bill?
Or you want me to turn the Christmas tree off? No,
it's not the tree, it's the overhead lights. I think
something is Yeah, the overhead lights. Oh, I'll turn them
up in the break. Oh yeah, it's it's weird.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
You know what, when we come back, I got two things,
all right. So we talked before at New York Times
and expose on Joe Biden's immigration policies, how the administration
really had their heads up their rear ends and they
were warned before Biden even was sworn in that their
policies were going to be a disaster, and they destroyed
(24:18):
their own administration over letting illegal aliens in It's a
fascinating story. Biden is still out there and he was
allowed to speak publicly over the weekend at the LGBTQ
plus Victory Institute. We have a short clip to play
because you could see how his sinility hasn't intensified. And also,
(24:41):
I don't even know how I'm going to explain this,
but Newsom's all the the eleven year olds who work
for Newsom's communication office put out another photo of Newsom
a in a they it's an AI doctored photo and
(25:02):
he's got his legs in some kind of obscene position.
It is gonna be really hard to explain, but I'm
gonna do it because it looks extremely stupid and I
can't figure out what the point of this was. But
he's sitting in a chair with his legs spread open,
his rear end and his mad parts like thrust forward,
and his hands are clasped together as if he's praying,
(25:26):
but they're in between his legs which are bent over
the top of his hands. And this is what his
press office puts out. I'll give you the background of
this when we come back.
Speaker 4 (25:38):
You're listening to John Kobels on demand.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
From KFI A six forty after Michael Krozer's newscast, We're
gonna come back for one more segment, a bonus segment,
because schedule is different today. We've got a Chargers football
game coming on and the pregame starts at four point fifteen.
So Michael do the news. I'll give you a few
more minutes and then we'll go into Chargers land here
(26:04):
all right, now, this first one is easy to explain.
This is Joe Biden. He is still allowed out of
the house. He was speaking at the LGBTQ plus Victory Institute.
I don't know what that is, but he was all
indignant and indignant about Trump and what's going on in
(26:25):
the world. Uh, listen to this and you can try
to decode it.
Speaker 5 (26:29):
We just have to get out as long as we
keep the faith, summon hope, and get back up and
remember who in the hell we are.
Speaker 6 (26:36):
We're the United States of Americato.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
That's where we are for the US, and there's.
Speaker 6 (26:42):
Nothing I mean, We're the United States of Americato.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
The United States of America. Got it.
Speaker 6 (26:52):
We're the United States of Americato.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
Ameer, got it? Okay? The United States of America got it.
He knows. He started with a little too at the beginning.
I know, And that's so weird and creepy.
Speaker 5 (27:04):
We just have to get out to keep the faith
someone hope, and get back up and remember who in
the hell we are. We're the United States of America.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
He couldn't make it to America. That's how bad his
brain has turned to much. It's like I now, either
he was about to curse right, Eric and I have
been talking about whether he was going to say United
States of America and then drop a GD yeah, or
he was saying United States, it's America.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Comma got it? Yeah? Could be either one. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
But he never got there and never corrected himself either. No,
just kept going. God. Now. This other thing is hard
to explain because it's radio. But Gavin Newsom was on stage.
There was an event that The New York Times was
sponsoring called deal Book, and they were interviewing all kinds
(27:59):
of prominent people. That's the one where Holly Berry came
out and trashed Newsom for vetoing and menopause bill And
eventually Newsom got interviewed by an LA Times journalist and
he was sitting in a white chair, and during the
(28:20):
interview he had his legs crossed severely, and you know,
the idiots on the internet, they start sending the photo
around social media saying that this was a testicle crusher
pose because his legs are really pointed. You know, he's
crossed his legs and they're pointed sharply in opposing directions. Well,
(28:44):
I don't understand this, but the press office decided to
have to respond, so I got on X. Well, they
were making fun of his masculinity, and so they posted
a photo again. This is newsom staff and he's got
he's sitting in a chair, but instead of his legs
(29:05):
coming over the seat, he's got his legs up in
the air, his shoes pressed together, his rear end and
testicles are thrust out.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
And in between.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
His rear end and his shoes which are at face level.
I know this sounds ridiculous, but I don't know how
to explain this. And he's got his hands clasped as
if he's praying, so it's a yoga like position. It
looks just abstupid, just ridiculous. And this is what the
(29:45):
children in his press office sent out.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
And it's not funny. It's supposed to be some.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
Response to all the jokes about his testicle cri watching
cross legged posture. It does he know what's going on?
You gotta you gotta look at it. Go go go
find it. We got Michael Krazer with the news and
then we'll be back live in the KFI twenty four
(30:16):
hour newsroom.
Speaker 4 (30:17):
You're listening to John Cobels on demand from KFI Am sixty.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
Tim is, well, he's not in today because they only
wanted him to be on the air for about eight minutes,
and he said, no.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
I'm gonna stay home. I'm not coming in for eight minutes.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
I mean, he lives two miles down the road, So
all right, I'll sit here for eight minutes. But you
have the Chargers coming on at four point fifteen because
it's Monday night football.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
Yeah, they played the Eagles.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
It's a huge game, Chargers and Eagles at four fifteen,
and you know, the pregame starts and then and then
the game and it's always here on KFI. So in
the meantime, you got me for a few more minutes, and.
Speaker 5 (31:06):
You know.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
The twenty twenty eight Olympics has led the city Council
to want to raise the minimum wage for la hotel
and airport workers to thirty dollars an hour. Thirty dollars
an hour, and the hotels and the airport workers, well,
the people who run the hotels, the companies are saying,
(31:28):
we can't afford this now, this mandatory minimum wage, and
these are very high minimum wages that we have. You know,
the restaurant industry responded to the twenty dollars mandatory minimum
wage by firing about nineteen thousand workers in this state.
A couple of years ago, Newsom and the Democratic legislature said, hey,
(31:51):
we're gonna have a minimum wage twenty bucks an hour,
and the companies who run the fast food chains go, no,
we can't afford that. Actually, you know, most of the
fast food restaurants are owned locally franchise owners who are
middle class people, and they can't pay people twenty dollars
(32:12):
an hour. So what's happened now is twenty thousand people
got fired in the state. And you do your orders
at kiosks, you know, you just got a big screen
and you just press the panels on the screen and somebody,
maybe somebody carries out the order. Eventually, that's going to
(32:33):
be a robot or maybe you're going to have to
go in the kitchen and pick it up yourself. But
it totally failed. And all this stuff is pushed by unions.
The unions bribe the politicians. The politicians say, sure, here
you get the twenty dollars an hour minimum wage, but
if you've lost twenty thousand jobs, I don't understand the
point of this. It's baffling to me. And that's what's
(32:59):
going to happen here at these hotels and with these
airport workers.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
Eventually they're all going to get fired. Now.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
The LA City Council President Marquise Harris Dawson has tried
to delay the price the wage increase until twenty thirty,
phase it in over a long period of time. And
this has caused a controversy, and it may be because
(33:27):
the business owners filed the paperwork to put a ballot
measure together to repeal the city's business tax. Yeah, if
you have a business in the city, you got to pay.
They're not a state business city business tax. And if
it got repealed, that would take away seven hundred and
(33:48):
forty million dollars a year from the City of Los Angeles,
from the general fund, which is what they used to
pay the police officers and the firefighters, or what's.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
Left of them.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
And this referendum has been approved for signatures. Several airlines
as well as the American Hotel and Logic Association is
supporting this. And this is the business community's way of
trying to block this thirty dollars an hour minimum wage. Now,
thirty dollars an hour sounds like a very very high
(34:25):
minimum wage. I don't know if you can call that
a minimum wage when you're getting to thirty dollars an hour.
But you know, I never understand about these workers and
they don't want to strike for this stuff, or you know,
they they have their their unions bribe the city council
to pass these sort of things. It's like, why don't
you just go get a better job in a different industry.
(34:47):
Why are you mandating the government mandating us to use
our to I don't get it. There's only so much
people are going to pay for a cheeseburger at a
fast food restaurant. There's only so much money people are
going to pay for a hotel room. There's only so
much money people are going to pay in taxes. Eventually,
you hit a wall and you'll get a response. And
(35:10):
the response in business is, you know what, We're gonna
have to close down because we can't make a profit,
or we're going to fire you and replace you with
a robot, or replace you with a screen. Or my
favorite is, and this is going on in New York City.
You go to a fast food joint and you get
a screen and it has a human in the little
(35:33):
video picture in front of you. But that person's in
the Philippines. Seriously, seems like everybody in the Philippines has
a job. There was a hotel that did that, remember
with the front desk workers.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
Yeah, that's right, that's right.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
But I saw the video of the lady taking the
order at some fast food joint in New York City,
and you know then it's you know, you swipe your
credit card, it spits out a receipt and then you
wait for a human in the kitchen to carry it out.
And that guy's days are number two. There's no reason
you can't have a little mini robot come out with
(36:09):
the well, like those Coco those Coco carts that go
around Santa Monica. Have you ever seen them? You don't
need people for this before which means all these people
are just going to be out of work. There's not
going to be minimum wage jobs to get, so this
is a suicide mission.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
I don't understand why the unions push this, because eventually.
Speaker 2 (36:30):
You have twenty thousand people in the restaurant industry now
who aren't working, so they're not paying dues anymore. I
don't get the economics of it. I get the bribery
aspect of it. Anyway, the thirty dollars minimum wage is
(36:51):
on hold, or it's going to be phased in into
the future because the business industry is saying, you know,
we'll put this on the ballot and get this business
tax repealed. And when they get the money, they obviously
didn't spend it on the fire department. They're not spending
(37:13):
it on the police. We're probably two thousand police short
of what we need in LA. We only have half
a fire department. As we all know. It's astonishing how
the money just evaporates and disappears, and they fight like
hell to hold on the money because all these people
are corrupt to their bones. This is all corruption, and
(37:35):
this is all theft, and I don't know when finally,
I guess most people don't even know what's going on.
It's just busy scrolling, all right. We got the Chargers
and the Eagles coming up. Pregame show and then the
game in about an hour, and Conway will be back tomorrow.
I'll be back tomorrow one o'clock. Michael Kerzner has the
(37:57):
news live in the KFI twenty four hour News Center. Hey,
you've been listening to the John Cobalt Show podcast. You
can always hear the show live on KFI AM six
forty from one to four pm every Monday through Friday,
and of course, anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app
The John Kobylt Show News
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John Kobylt
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