May 6, 2026 • 28 mins
Assemblywoman Alexandra Macedo joins John Kobylt to break down why Sacramento Democrats voted to hide the failures of California’s high-speed rail project. Plus, Steve Hilton says his CAL DOGE team is investigating Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights over allegations tied to campaign activity and Xavier Becerra — and LAPD arrests a man accused of terrorizing Reseda neighbors.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Can't. I am six forty. You're listening to the John
Cobel podcast on the iHeartRadio app and we've had quite
a show today, a lot of stuff. I'll run through
the highlights in case you're just joining us, and then
you'll have a good reason to go to the podcast
coming up after six o'clock. All right, another big story
of the day of the week. Alexandra Messino's coming on.
(00:24):
We've had her on a number of times. She's a
Republican assembly woman from the Central Valley and an astonishing
vote the Senate. The Assembly Democrats have an Assembly bill
the number sixteen oh eight, and the purpose of the
bill is to make all the high speed rail financials secret,
(00:48):
so that we can't see anything. We can't see the
audits and the overspending and all the records of the
financial incompetence and waste. Doesn't seem right, does it? I
mean that's really crazy.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Land.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Well, let's talk to Alexandra Messido because shockingly, it seems
like most every Democrat voted for this thing. How are you, Alexandra.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
I'm great, John, It's good to be back.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Yeah, But she always come back with such bad news.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
I know one of these days. It's going to be
for good news. I'm sure of it, I hope.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
So what explain this bill. I'm sure virtually everybody listening
has never heard of it. So explain it so that
a normal person could understand what's going on.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
So let me start with the good parts of the bill,
because there are some parts of the bill that would
be helpful for more transparency in the project. And I
liked it so much that I made my own bill
using in the same language. So the Office of the
Inspector General, their job is to do these third party
audits of the project, and I'm so grateful for these
(01:55):
reports because in their reports was finally somebody being a
truth teller of the realities of this project. He calls
out when things aren't complete, he calls out when there's
issues with the plans and the financials. These reports are gold.
We appreciate these reports. However, the Inspector General actually does
not have any legislative authority to do these update reports
(02:20):
that he does. He's only required to do one report
a year, so he wanted to put that in law
that he should do these regular reports updating. Great, we're
on the right track until you reach the end of
the bill that I'm just going to read it to
you because the author is accusing those of us that
are being critics of the bill of not reading the
(02:41):
bill or understanding what the bill does. So I'll let
you and your listeners decide when I read this portion
what this sounds like to you. The Inspector General may
hold a report or person of a report confidential for
the period of time described in an above paragraph if
the Inspector General determines that's the report or a portion
of the report would describe or otherwise reveal weaknesses, including
(03:07):
those involving information security, physical security, fraud detection controls pending litigation,
that would pose a substantial and articulable risk to the
project or to state operations if publicly disclosed. What does
that sound like to you? So that sounds like if
we messed up, we can hide it all from you.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
That's right, because if they tell the public how bad
the fraud is, the public may want this project stopped.
So we're not going to tell you how bad the
fraud in the waste is.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
And that's exactly what she's not willing to admit. The
author of this bill, So great, we have these wonderful
reports that I consume I read. That's where I get
a lot of my tidbits about what's going on with
the high speed rail. But here are the only people
that we'll get to see those reports if they are
deemed quote unquote confidential. It is the chair, the executive
(04:00):
director in board chair of the High Speed Rail Authority,
the chairs of the Assembly Committee on Transportation and the
Senate Committee on Transportation that are both Democrats that do
not represent the area that this project goes through, or
the governor. So all Democrats can see this confidential information,
and myself, who represents a large portion of the project,
(04:22):
may never know if I have a physical security risk
or an informational security risk, or something else crazy going
on in my district. And I was actually informed by
the author of this bill and a committee hearing that
I actually don't have any power, So why would I
need to know any of this information about this project?
Speaker 1 (04:38):
All right? Who is there? Who is the author of
the bill?
Speaker 3 (04:42):
The author of the bill is Lourie Wilson, who happens
to be the same author of the study quote unquote
for the mileage tax.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Well that I mean, I'm laughing, and I shouldn't laugh,
but this is so outrageous, This is so absurd, hard
to believe. There's part of my mind that just won't
accept that this is real.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
I have to remind myself I do not live in
the Twilight Zone constantly. I just can't imagine how. I'm
from the Central Valley. We know what a failure this
project is. We do not want this project, and it's
so insane to me, how tone deaf this bill is
amidst all the claims of fraud, waste, and abuse going
on nationally, but particularly here in California, and then you
(05:26):
have a project that has been scrutinized over and over
and over again for being a complete failure, for not
having transparency, for maybe some fraud going on, and everything else,
and then you slap secrecy on top of it. I
just want to put this into perspective for you, John,
This is the third most expensive project in history, number
one being the entire Interstate system for the United States,
(05:49):
Number two being the International Space Station, only to be
followed by number three, which is the California High Speed Rail.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
Yes, and I drive on the Interstate system every day,
so I know that was built, and I remember seeing
the International Space Station on television and that's still up there,
and that they're still sitting astronauts there. So I know
those two projects were real. This is imaginary. There is
the high speed rail. It doesn't exist. If you were
going to take kids on a class trip, let's go
(06:18):
see the high speed rail, you'd take them to an
empty desert.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
Well, that class that you would take would probably be
collecting Social Security by the time they'd have anything to see.
And even then it's going to be from a And
that's the other fun fact. This business plan that just
came out on the high speed rail is in violation
of the state law and they had to postpone the
vote until June first because the business plan was deemed incomplete.
(06:44):
It also in the business plan has the high speed
rail track going to just one way track, violation of
state law. It also has been moving the station that
was supposed to be in Merced four miles out of downtown,
which is also in violation of state law. And let's
add put some context here. High speed Rail has spent
(07:04):
seventeen billion dollars so far, not a foot of track
has been laid, but we have spent six billion dollars
in cost overruns and change orders six billion. And then
in the latest look at the financials, if we're looking
at the full Los Angeles to San Francisco line that
originally was sold to the voters in two thousand and eight,
(07:26):
that it was going to be done in twenty twenty
for a price tag of about thirty billion, now is
going to be two hundred and thirty one billion by
today's numbers too, that we're hunting for inflation, are borrowing
money two hundred and thirty one billion dollars?
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Can I stop you right there? Can you stay another segment?
Speaker 3 (07:48):
Absolutely?
Speaker 1 (07:49):
I want to pick up on that. Yeah, you heard it,
and this is true. It was in the Senate Transportation
Committee hearing. And two hundred and thirty one billion dollars
what this thing is costing? All right, more with Alexander Messido,
the assembly woman. Coming up next.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
You're listening to John Cobels on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Continue with Alexandra Messito, the assembly woman, Republican, and she
has publicized this week that the Democrats in the Assembly
passed a bill to basically turn all the financial information
involving high speed rail into a big secret. If it's negative.
(08:32):
They don't have to release the information because that could
imperil the whole project. The public will turn against it
even further. Although I don't know what more the public
needs to know about this. And when we left off,
you were talking about how this project bloomed from thirty
SOMEI billion dollars and that was supposed to take it
from Sacramento to San Diego. I remember, now LA to
(08:55):
San Francisco is two hundred and thirty one billion dollars.
I want to play you this clip. Newsom was on
with Bill Maher on Friday night and mar was trying
to convince him to drop the high speed rail project.
Listen to this clip.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
I mean the train, Gavin, that you got. You got
to get rid of the train. The train. I say
this as a friend. You got to let that train go.
Let the train go. It's up to two hundred and
thirty one billion.
Speaker 5 (09:21):
Say it's not we're doing We're doing one hundred nineteen
million dollars segment. We got it back on track. It
goes back three administrations and inherited a mess. We put
it back on track. All the environmental work is behind us.
We're actually laying the track all the legal litigation, all
the land issues are all behind us. We're actually making
this project work.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
All right. The first thing Mars said was two hundred
and thirty one billion, and that came from the Senate
Transportation Committee. That's in the documents. It's a real thing.
And Newsom just says, no, it's not. And then he
goes on with all this all this fic shit about
how it's back on track and we're ready to go.
(09:59):
What do you say that all.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Apart I see the modern day stone hinge, that is
concrete structures to the Central Valley. That's what I see.
There is no track being laid. We have been teased
about this track being laid for forever, actually, all the
way back in February, he had a press conference down
in Kern County standing in front of freight track saying
this is what's coming to the valley. No, it's not. Meanwhile,
(10:23):
we have water in secure areas. We were trucking in
water because they didn't have clean drinking water. And you
didn't see him showing up for that. But he'll show
up for a press conference for a failed project for
the Central Valley. It's absolute insanity. He also is not
being truthful. The only thing he was truthful about in
that entire spield he just gave is that he inherited
a mess of the project. This project has been a
mess from the beginning. That's why so many people walked
(10:45):
away from the project when it was in the planning phases,
because people saw that this was not possible, and they
were very smart to do so. Just recently, there was
a settlement of five hundred and thirty seven million dollars
paid due to con tractual issues and change orders and
things like that to one company. Five hundred and thirty
seven million dollars. That this was all talked about in
(11:08):
closed session closed session. It wasn't until we had representatives
from the high speed Rail Authority in front of me,
but I said, hey, you actually violated a state law
that says any of these kinds of contracts over one
hundred million dollars you have to have a public hearing
about it. And they go, well, we'll talk to our
legal and we'll get back to you. Thankfully, the chair
(11:29):
of the TRANSFAI Committee, who is Lori Wilson, who is
the author of this bill that actually Miss Mesito is
not requesting that you do this. It is a requirement
through state law that you do this. They then have
this fluffy, kind of pseudo public hearing about it that
really wasn't a public hearing in my opinion, And multiple
pras have been denied showing us what the contents of
that half a bill more than half a billion dollars
(11:51):
settlement was. They won't tell us what it says. And
in the bill I'm going to go back to, it
says that they could hide pinned litigation. It wasn't until
we forced this into the media that people even knew
about it. And then the high speed rail CEO who's
making over half a million dollars a year to look
(12:11):
over this failed project that when he was asked to
do media interviews about the business plan, he told the
media he would only do the interviews if they promised
not to ask any questions of relating to his arrest
earlier this year, and he hid from the media. I mean,
it's written for television and it's so insane, and so
(12:34):
I just sit there and I'm like, there's no way
people can actually believe that this is still a good idea.
But on that same transportation hearing that I told you about,
that the rail authority was in front of us. I literally,
as does anybody in this room actually believe this project
will ever happen from La to San Francisco, And they
laughed at me and emphatically said, yes they do. It's
(12:54):
so so wild to me. I just like to put
this into perspective those of you that are listening to
this while you're driving in your car. California is looking
at imposing a mileage tax on every mile you drive
because our roads are falling apart, and they're saying that
we have declining gas tax revenues in order to repair
(13:14):
the roads, so you're not gonna have But then we're
absolutely moving gas tax revenues all over the place. You're
paying for shade structures and bike lanes, and I think
some of it went to some rail project up in
northern California. It's absolute insanity. So they're looking at ways
that they can increase the taxes on you. Meanwhile, they're
building a sailed project that could balloon to actually I
(13:38):
think it'll be closer to three hundred billion by the
time you factor in inflation and everything else. But they
simply just have to stop the insanity. The best way
to get out of a hole is to stop digging.
That's number one, you know what, Gavin us and those are.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
All the people who laughed and said yes they believe
in the project. Still are they all in on the grist?
Are they all make big money off of this? And
that would explain everything.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
Well, I can tell you none of them live in
the valley and have to look or look at the
giant stone, hinge concrete structures that I have, and when
they tell me that this is such a great project,
but none of them live here, none of them represent here.
That's a problem. So now it's time for the people
of the Central Valley to make their voices heard. But
it's time for all Californians to make their voices heard.
(14:24):
And this is there's a chance to kill this bill,
this bill sixteen oh eight. That you can call your
senator because this is now in the Senate, and let
them know how you feel about your tax dollars and
how they're being spent being hidden from you on failed projects,
paying out billions of dollars in change orders, paying out
billions in settlement. That is all with your money. This
(14:45):
is not monopoly money. You are not an ATM. The
craziness has to stop.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
Alexandra. I wish all the assembly people and state senators
were like you, thank you for coming on.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
John God bless Alexander Messito when we come back. I've
been telling you for months about Churla. Churla is this
illegal alien rights organization that got tens of millions of
tax dollars from Gavin Newsom and now Steve Hilton with
his he's running for governor and he's got an organization
(15:20):
called cal Doze. He's finding all the waste and fraud
in the California government. He says that California taxpayers are
are are paying Churla a lot of money, and Churla,
in turn is using it to fund I legal immigrants
to campaign for Javier Bessara. We'll tell you about it
(15:43):
we come back.
Speaker 4 (15:44):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
You know what's on the podcast. We've had a lot
of great stuff. First hour, we went through last night's
CNN debate in the governor's race. Four o'clock we had
Roger baileyon because the Palisades read residents got clearance from
the Court of appeals lawsuits going forward against the city
and the state. Both had tried to block it. Both
failed again. Wi ELSI had Adam Miller on in the
(16:10):
four o'clock hour. He's running for mayor Los Angeles. Really
smart guy, very successful. And then this hour we had
Alexandra Basido on. She spilled the beans on how the
Assembly Democrats are trying to keep all the high speed
rail financial shenanigans a secret. So it was we've really
really jammed today with a lot of good stuff. So
(16:32):
listen to the podcast after six here on the John
Cobelt Show. All right, here's something else big. I have
been telling you about Churla for many years. Churla is
this Hispanic organization that takes tens of millions of dollars.
I think forty three million dollars was the last payment
from Newsom to Churla. And what they do with the
(16:55):
money is well they pay. They helped ignite the riots
in June against Ice and they have this rapid response
system and Karen Bass was giving out the phone number
so more want to be rioters would show up. And
this is organized by Churla. We paid for that riot.
(17:15):
Most rioters and protesters are either paid for or their
mental patience, and Churli seems to have an inexhaustible supply
of both. He's Steve Hilton, and he's the leading candidate
for governor. He has cal Do's going. He's got a
team of investigators analyzing budget data, has found that Churla,
(17:41):
he says, has been paying for legal immigrants to engage
in campaign activity for Javier Bassera. I'm going to play
a clip that he posted today because Churla has endorsed Besera.
Listened to Steve Hilton here.
Speaker 6 (17:57):
So this is our latest investigation from cald and it's
the latest corruption scandal involving Javier Bessera, and it's all
connected to this organization, Sheurler. We are standing outside the
Churler offices in Santa Ana in Orange County. This organization
(18:18):
is almost entirely funded by you, the California taxpayer. Nearly
all of the money to fund Curla comes from taxpayers,
and we will lay out the details of that in
a moment. Sheurler has endorsed Javier Basera for governor of California.
They did that in April in their statement of endorsement.
(18:42):
Curler a taxpayer funded organization said that it will be
working to do everything it can to elect Javier Bessera governor.
In other reports that we have found at Caldoche, we
have looked in detail at how Curler conducts these political activities.
(19:04):
Listed on their document is the statement that Churler uses
illegal immigrants to carry out political activity. In other words,
to be very clear, California taxpayers are funding an organization
(19:24):
that uses illegal immigrants to campaign for Javia Persera. This
is not just unacceptable and unethical and outrageous a theft
of taxpayer money for political purposes. It is illegal, as
my colleagues here will lay out in a moment.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
We must be clear.
Speaker 6 (19:49):
Javia Pisera cannot continue to accept support from a taxpayer
funded organization employing illegal immigrants a campaign for him. He
must stop this now.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
That is Steve Hilton. This is how bad it is,
This is how corrupt it is. And they get they
got forty three million dollars appropriated by Governor Newsom and
the Democratic legislature, and we spend thirty five billion on
illegal aliens, including thirteen billion on illegal alien healthcare. Well,
(20:30):
Charlotte wants that to keep going, so of course they
want Bessarah because Sarah is the closest thing to Newsom
among all those candidates running. Newsom. I'm sorry, Sarah will
not give an inch and criticize Newsom on any policies
(20:52):
at all in any way. In fact, he gave Newsom
an a when asked to grade at a previous debate.
So he's going to continue all this, and Charlotte wants
to make sure that happens. There are legal aliens getting
(21:15):
our tax money to campaign for Besarah. There are legal
aliens I'm certain that are voting in large numbers through
ballot harvesting. This is why they fight voter id so viciously,
a concept which most of the states in this country use,
which makes common sense. Right. We show our ideas for
(21:42):
dozens of reasons in our life, but not for voting.
Because in California there is a massive racket going on,
and our tax money funds the racket funds a racket
to keep illegal aliens here. Churlop provides lawyers so the
(22:04):
illegal aliens could fight deportations. They provide this campaign money
for Bessarah. This is dirty, disgusting stuff. This is why
you're working. This is what you go to work for.
To fund this nonsense. By the way, Sarah I mentioned
(22:24):
this before. He is California's version of Joe Biden. He
is this dud that has bounced around in various positions.
Everybody in Washington, d c. Thought he was a loser
when he was in Biden's cabinet, including Biden.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
Tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
I'm going to play a couple of clips that was
was on CNN. A couple of CNN commentators, one of
them worked in the Biden administration, one of the Obama administration.
They had nothing good to say about Bessara, and one
of them said that Biden everybody was open that he
wanted to fire Besara because he was so bad, and
instead they just put him on the sidelines. They ked
(23:03):
them out of anything that he consequential work. When Joe
Biden thinks you're incompetent, what does that tell you? So
of course he's the top Democrat running. Of course he is.
Of course, if Hilton is correct, he's getting money, our
tax money run through Churla hire legal aliens to do
(23:27):
campaign work. We got more coming up. I got a
couple more stories I got to get to. Everything's been
squeezed out today because so much is going on. That'll
be next. I'll tell you about him. You'll be familiar
right away.
Speaker 4 (23:40):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI A
six forty.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
Here's a follow up. Remember yesterday the naked man who
was terrorizing people in a neighborhood in Resida for years,
and the neighbors said they called between one hundred and
fifty and two hundred times the police who did nothing.
(24:08):
Karen Bass's office, she did nothing. Nitthia Rahmin's office, it's
her district, of course, she did nothing. He would lean
out the window, screaming and waving his penis around in
the air, yelling all hours of the day and night,
starting fires in his house, renting out sheds to other
(24:29):
homeless crazies. Well, you know what got him finally was
the TV station's running reports on Channel five and Channel four.
And here's Katla's report on what finally, after two hundred
calls happened. Cut one. If you could play that well
(24:50):
reced it.
Speaker 7 (24:51):
We're a man who neighbors say has been terrorizing their
community for years has been taken into custody. LABD officers
arrested man after they say.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
He threatened to kill his neighbor.
Speaker 7 (25:02):
It all happened just after six o'clock tonight in front
of his home on Garden Grove Avenue, or near Sataquoi
and Lidley, and we first brought you this story on Saturday.
What residents shared video of the man was often naked,
yelling from his bedroom window, exposing himself in front of
children and threatening others. They say they have called nine
(25:22):
one one dozens of times over the.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
Years, leans out of his window, naked, screaming, showing off
his genitals, screaming some more, starting fires in his house,
renting his sheds out to lunatics. They called not once,
not twice, but a hundred and fifty times. One estimate
(25:50):
from the neighbors was two hundred times. Nothing was done. Nothing.
Never heard of this in my life in any civilization.
This is an ordinary middle class neighborhood. There's trailed children there.
Do you imagine having a crazy naked guy screaming all
night and showing his private parts off to your kids.
(26:13):
You call the police in any other town, in any
other year, in any other city, in a you know,
for the last millenniums, the police would come and take
the guy away, put him in a mental institution here
in Los Angeles. Nathy Rom and Karen Vass and the
LAPD let him scream on and scream on and keep
(26:34):
waving his organ in the air.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
Naked.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
Now, the other story I wanted to get to looks
like at the one ten down in San Peedro, they
finally opened up some of the northbound lanes, they open
up the southbound lanes. This is a homeless encampment that
was built underneath the one ten Freeway in a utility tunnel,
and the crazy, the insane people there started a fire
(27:05):
and it took hours and hours and hours to put out,
and then they were worried that maybe the one ten
was going to collapse. Well, they finally got access inside
after the fire was put out, and they found all
kinds of debris, mattresses, clothing, cardboard. It was like an
(27:27):
apartment complex inside there. So all these dirty, crazy, drug
addicted lunatic animals and I'm sure they howl at the
moon in the middle of the night. They were living
there and eventually started a fire nearly brought down the
one ten Freeway. And you know what, Matthew Sedorf did
(27:50):
great stories on this for Fox eleven. They looked a
little bit down the road, a little bit farther down
the one tent, they found another tunnel filled with the
same thing, almeless people stuffed in there with all their
debris and mattresses and garbage. This is not human civilization anymore.
(28:13):
Karen vass is Los Angeles. Tim McCosker is the is
the councilman down there? What does he do all day?
All right, we've got a lot on the podcast. I
told you about it. You go listen. We'll be back tomorrow.
Conway is next. Michael Krozer has the news live in
the KFI twenty four hour newsroom. Hey, you've been listening
(28:36):
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. You're listening to the John
Cobel podcast on the iHeartRadio app and we've had quite
a show today, a lot of stuff. I'll run through
the highlights in case you're just joining us, and then
you'll have a good reason to go to the podcast
coming up after six o'clock. All right, another big story
of the day of the week. Alexandra Messino's coming on.
(00:24):
We've had her on a number of times. She's a
Republican assembly woman from the Central Valley and an astonishing
vote the Senate. The Assembly Democrats have an Assembly bill
the number sixteen oh eight, and the purpose of the
bill is to make all the high speed rail financials secret,
(00:48):
so that we can't see anything. We can't see the
audits and the overspending and all the records of the
financial incompetence and waste. Doesn't seem right, does it? I
mean that's really crazy.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Land.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Well, let's talk to Alexandra Messido because shockingly, it seems
like most every Democrat voted for this thing. How are you, Alexandra.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
I'm great, John, It's good to be back.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Yeah, But she always come back with such bad news.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
I know one of these days. It's going to be
for good news. I'm sure of it, I hope.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
So what explain this bill. I'm sure virtually everybody listening
has never heard of it. So explain it so that
a normal person could understand what's going on.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
So let me start with the good parts of the bill,
because there are some parts of the bill that would
be helpful for more transparency in the project. And I
liked it so much that I made my own bill
using in the same language. So the Office of the
Inspector General, their job is to do these third party
audits of the project, and I'm so grateful for these
(01:55):
reports because in their reports was finally somebody being a
truth teller of the realities of this project. He calls
out when things aren't complete, he calls out when there's
issues with the plans and the financials. These reports are gold.
We appreciate these reports. However, the Inspector General actually does
not have any legislative authority to do these update reports
(02:20):
that he does. He's only required to do one report
a year, so he wanted to put that in law
that he should do these regular reports updating. Great, we're
on the right track until you reach the end of
the bill that I'm just going to read it to
you because the author is accusing those of us that
are being critics of the bill of not reading the
(02:41):
bill or understanding what the bill does. So I'll let
you and your listeners decide when I read this portion
what this sounds like to you. The Inspector General may
hold a report or person of a report confidential for
the period of time described in an above paragraph if
the Inspector General determines that's the report or a portion
of the report would describe or otherwise reveal weaknesses, including
(03:07):
those involving information security, physical security, fraud detection controls pending litigation,
that would pose a substantial and articulable risk to the
project or to state operations if publicly disclosed. What does
that sound like to you? So that sounds like if
we messed up, we can hide it all from you.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
That's right, because if they tell the public how bad
the fraud is, the public may want this project stopped.
So we're not going to tell you how bad the
fraud in the waste is.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
And that's exactly what she's not willing to admit. The
author of this bill, So great, we have these wonderful
reports that I consume I read. That's where I get
a lot of my tidbits about what's going on with
the high speed rail. But here are the only people
that we'll get to see those reports if they are
deemed quote unquote confidential. It is the chair, the executive
(04:00):
director in board chair of the High Speed Rail Authority,
the chairs of the Assembly Committee on Transportation and the
Senate Committee on Transportation that are both Democrats that do
not represent the area that this project goes through, or
the governor. So all Democrats can see this confidential information,
and myself, who represents a large portion of the project,
(04:22):
may never know if I have a physical security risk
or an informational security risk, or something else crazy going
on in my district. And I was actually informed by
the author of this bill and a committee hearing that
I actually don't have any power, So why would I
need to know any of this information about this project?
Speaker 1 (04:38):
All right? Who is there? Who is the author of
the bill?
Speaker 3 (04:42):
The author of the bill is Lourie Wilson, who happens
to be the same author of the study quote unquote
for the mileage tax.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Well that I mean, I'm laughing, and I shouldn't laugh,
but this is so outrageous, This is so absurd, hard
to believe. There's part of my mind that just won't
accept that this is real.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
I have to remind myself I do not live in
the Twilight Zone constantly. I just can't imagine how. I'm
from the Central Valley. We know what a failure this
project is. We do not want this project, and it's
so insane to me, how tone deaf this bill is
amidst all the claims of fraud, waste, and abuse going
on nationally, but particularly here in California, and then you
(05:26):
have a project that has been scrutinized over and over
and over again for being a complete failure, for not
having transparency, for maybe some fraud going on, and everything else,
and then you slap secrecy on top of it. I
just want to put this into perspective for you, John,
This is the third most expensive project in history, number
one being the entire Interstate system for the United States,
(05:49):
Number two being the International Space Station, only to be
followed by number three, which is the California High Speed Rail.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
Yes, and I drive on the Interstate system every day,
so I know that was built, and I remember seeing
the International Space Station on television and that's still up there,
and that they're still sitting astronauts there. So I know
those two projects were real. This is imaginary. There is
the high speed rail. It doesn't exist. If you were
going to take kids on a class trip, let's go
(06:18):
see the high speed rail, you'd take them to an
empty desert.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
Well, that class that you would take would probably be
collecting Social Security by the time they'd have anything to see.
And even then it's going to be from a And
that's the other fun fact. This business plan that just
came out on the high speed rail is in violation
of the state law and they had to postpone the
vote until June first because the business plan was deemed incomplete.
(06:44):
It also in the business plan has the high speed
rail track going to just one way track, violation of
state law. It also has been moving the station that
was supposed to be in Merced four miles out of downtown,
which is also in violation of state law. And let's
add put some context here. High speed Rail has spent
(07:04):
seventeen billion dollars so far, not a foot of track
has been laid, but we have spent six billion dollars
in cost overruns and change orders six billion. And then
in the latest look at the financials, if we're looking
at the full Los Angeles to San Francisco line that
originally was sold to the voters in two thousand and eight,
(07:26):
that it was going to be done in twenty twenty
for a price tag of about thirty billion, now is
going to be two hundred and thirty one billion by
today's numbers too, that we're hunting for inflation, are borrowing
money two hundred and thirty one billion dollars?
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Can I stop you right there? Can you stay another segment?
Speaker 3 (07:48):
Absolutely?
Speaker 1 (07:49):
I want to pick up on that. Yeah, you heard it,
and this is true. It was in the Senate Transportation
Committee hearing. And two hundred and thirty one billion dollars
what this thing is costing? All right, more with Alexander Messido,
the assembly woman. Coming up next.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
You're listening to John Cobels on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Continue with Alexandra Messito, the assembly woman, Republican, and she
has publicized this week that the Democrats in the Assembly
passed a bill to basically turn all the financial information
involving high speed rail into a big secret. If it's negative.
(08:32):
They don't have to release the information because that could
imperil the whole project. The public will turn against it
even further. Although I don't know what more the public
needs to know about this. And when we left off,
you were talking about how this project bloomed from thirty
SOMEI billion dollars and that was supposed to take it
from Sacramento to San Diego. I remember, now LA to
(08:55):
San Francisco is two hundred and thirty one billion dollars.
I want to play you this clip. Newsom was on
with Bill Maher on Friday night and mar was trying
to convince him to drop the high speed rail project.
Listen to this clip.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
I mean the train, Gavin, that you got. You got
to get rid of the train. The train. I say
this as a friend. You got to let that train go.
Let the train go. It's up to two hundred and
thirty one billion.
Speaker 5 (09:21):
Say it's not we're doing We're doing one hundred nineteen
million dollars segment. We got it back on track. It
goes back three administrations and inherited a mess. We put
it back on track. All the environmental work is behind us.
We're actually laying the track all the legal litigation, all
the land issues are all behind us. We're actually making
this project work.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
All right. The first thing Mars said was two hundred
and thirty one billion, and that came from the Senate
Transportation Committee. That's in the documents. It's a real thing.
And Newsom just says, no, it's not. And then he
goes on with all this all this fic shit about
how it's back on track and we're ready to go.
(09:59):
What do you say that all.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Apart I see the modern day stone hinge, that is
concrete structures to the Central Valley. That's what I see.
There is no track being laid. We have been teased
about this track being laid for forever, actually, all the
way back in February, he had a press conference down
in Kern County standing in front of freight track saying
this is what's coming to the valley. No, it's not. Meanwhile,
(10:23):
we have water in secure areas. We were trucking in
water because they didn't have clean drinking water. And you
didn't see him showing up for that. But he'll show
up for a press conference for a failed project for
the Central Valley. It's absolute insanity. He also is not
being truthful. The only thing he was truthful about in
that entire spield he just gave is that he inherited
a mess of the project. This project has been a
mess from the beginning. That's why so many people walked
(10:45):
away from the project when it was in the planning phases,
because people saw that this was not possible, and they
were very smart to do so. Just recently, there was
a settlement of five hundred and thirty seven million dollars
paid due to con tractual issues and change orders and
things like that to one company. Five hundred and thirty
seven million dollars. That this was all talked about in
(11:08):
closed session closed session. It wasn't until we had representatives
from the high speed Rail Authority in front of me,
but I said, hey, you actually violated a state law
that says any of these kinds of contracts over one
hundred million dollars you have to have a public hearing
about it. And they go, well, we'll talk to our
legal and we'll get back to you. Thankfully, the chair
(11:29):
of the TRANSFAI Committee, who is Lori Wilson, who is
the author of this bill that actually Miss Mesito is
not requesting that you do this. It is a requirement
through state law that you do this. They then have
this fluffy, kind of pseudo public hearing about it that
really wasn't a public hearing in my opinion, And multiple
pras have been denied showing us what the contents of
that half a bill more than half a billion dollars
(11:51):
settlement was. They won't tell us what it says. And
in the bill I'm going to go back to, it
says that they could hide pinned litigation. It wasn't until
we forced this into the media that people even knew
about it. And then the high speed rail CEO who's
making over half a million dollars a year to look
(12:11):
over this failed project that when he was asked to
do media interviews about the business plan, he told the
media he would only do the interviews if they promised
not to ask any questions of relating to his arrest
earlier this year, and he hid from the media. I mean,
it's written for television and it's so insane, and so
(12:34):
I just sit there and I'm like, there's no way
people can actually believe that this is still a good idea.
But on that same transportation hearing that I told you about,
that the rail authority was in front of us. I literally,
as does anybody in this room actually believe this project
will ever happen from La to San Francisco, And they
laughed at me and emphatically said, yes they do. It's
(12:54):
so so wild to me. I just like to put
this into perspective those of you that are listening to
this while you're driving in your car. California is looking
at imposing a mileage tax on every mile you drive
because our roads are falling apart, and they're saying that
we have declining gas tax revenues in order to repair
(13:14):
the roads, so you're not gonna have But then we're
absolutely moving gas tax revenues all over the place. You're
paying for shade structures and bike lanes, and I think
some of it went to some rail project up in
northern California. It's absolute insanity. So they're looking at ways
that they can increase the taxes on you. Meanwhile, they're
building a sailed project that could balloon to actually I
(13:38):
think it'll be closer to three hundred billion by the
time you factor in inflation and everything else. But they
simply just have to stop the insanity. The best way
to get out of a hole is to stop digging.
That's number one, you know what, Gavin us and those are.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
All the people who laughed and said yes they believe
in the project. Still are they all in on the grist?
Are they all make big money off of this? And
that would explain everything.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
Well, I can tell you none of them live in
the valley and have to look or look at the
giant stone, hinge concrete structures that I have, and when
they tell me that this is such a great project,
but none of them live here, none of them represent here.
That's a problem. So now it's time for the people
of the Central Valley to make their voices heard. But
it's time for all Californians to make their voices heard.
(14:24):
And this is there's a chance to kill this bill,
this bill sixteen oh eight. That you can call your
senator because this is now in the Senate, and let
them know how you feel about your tax dollars and
how they're being spent being hidden from you on failed projects,
paying out billions of dollars in change orders, paying out
billions in settlement. That is all with your money. This
(14:45):
is not monopoly money. You are not an ATM. The
craziness has to stop.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
Alexandra. I wish all the assembly people and state senators
were like you, thank you for coming on.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
John God bless Alexander Messito when we come back. I've
been telling you for months about Churla. Churla is this
illegal alien rights organization that got tens of millions of
tax dollars from Gavin Newsom and now Steve Hilton with
his he's running for governor and he's got an organization
(15:20):
called cal Doze. He's finding all the waste and fraud
in the California government. He says that California taxpayers are
are are paying Churla a lot of money, and Churla,
in turn is using it to fund I legal immigrants
to campaign for Javier Bessara. We'll tell you about it
(15:43):
we come back.
Speaker 4 (15:44):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
You know what's on the podcast. We've had a lot
of great stuff. First hour, we went through last night's
CNN debate in the governor's race. Four o'clock we had
Roger baileyon because the Palisades read residents got clearance from
the Court of appeals lawsuits going forward against the city
and the state. Both had tried to block it. Both
failed again. Wi ELSI had Adam Miller on in the
(16:10):
four o'clock hour. He's running for mayor Los Angeles. Really
smart guy, very successful. And then this hour we had
Alexandra Basido on. She spilled the beans on how the
Assembly Democrats are trying to keep all the high speed
rail financial shenanigans a secret. So it was we've really
really jammed today with a lot of good stuff. So
(16:32):
listen to the podcast after six here on the John
Cobelt Show. All right, here's something else big. I have
been telling you about Churla for many years. Churla is
this Hispanic organization that takes tens of millions of dollars.
I think forty three million dollars was the last payment
from Newsom to Churla. And what they do with the
(16:55):
money is well they pay. They helped ignite the riots
in June against Ice and they have this rapid response
system and Karen Bass was giving out the phone number
so more want to be rioters would show up. And
this is organized by Churla. We paid for that riot.
(17:15):
Most rioters and protesters are either paid for or their
mental patience, and Churli seems to have an inexhaustible supply
of both. He's Steve Hilton, and he's the leading candidate
for governor. He has cal Do's going. He's got a
team of investigators analyzing budget data, has found that Churla,
(17:41):
he says, has been paying for legal immigrants to engage
in campaign activity for Javier Bassera. I'm going to play
a clip that he posted today because Churla has endorsed Besera.
Listened to Steve Hilton here.
Speaker 6 (17:57):
So this is our latest investigation from cald and it's
the latest corruption scandal involving Javier Bessera, and it's all
connected to this organization, Sheurler. We are standing outside the
Churler offices in Santa Ana in Orange County. This organization
(18:18):
is almost entirely funded by you, the California taxpayer. Nearly
all of the money to fund Curla comes from taxpayers,
and we will lay out the details of that in
a moment. Sheurler has endorsed Javier Basera for governor of California.
They did that in April in their statement of endorsement.
(18:42):
Curler a taxpayer funded organization said that it will be
working to do everything it can to elect Javier Bessera governor.
In other reports that we have found at Caldoche, we
have looked in detail at how Curler conducts these political activities.
(19:04):
Listed on their document is the statement that Churler uses
illegal immigrants to carry out political activity. In other words,
to be very clear, California taxpayers are funding an organization
(19:24):
that uses illegal immigrants to campaign for Javia Persera. This
is not just unacceptable and unethical and outrageous a theft
of taxpayer money for political purposes. It is illegal, as
my colleagues here will lay out in a moment.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
We must be clear.
Speaker 6 (19:49):
Javia Pisera cannot continue to accept support from a taxpayer
funded organization employing illegal immigrants a campaign for him. He
must stop this now.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
That is Steve Hilton. This is how bad it is,
This is how corrupt it is. And they get they
got forty three million dollars appropriated by Governor Newsom and
the Democratic legislature, and we spend thirty five billion on
illegal aliens, including thirteen billion on illegal alien healthcare. Well,
(20:30):
Charlotte wants that to keep going, so of course they
want Bessarah because Sarah is the closest thing to Newsom
among all those candidates running. Newsom. I'm sorry, Sarah will
not give an inch and criticize Newsom on any policies
(20:52):
at all in any way. In fact, he gave Newsom
an a when asked to grade at a previous debate.
So he's going to continue all this, and Charlotte wants
to make sure that happens. There are legal aliens getting
(21:15):
our tax money to campaign for Besarah. There are legal
aliens I'm certain that are voting in large numbers through
ballot harvesting. This is why they fight voter id so viciously,
a concept which most of the states in this country use,
which makes common sense. Right. We show our ideas for
(21:42):
dozens of reasons in our life, but not for voting.
Because in California there is a massive racket going on,
and our tax money funds the racket funds a racket
to keep illegal aliens here. Churlop provides lawyers so the
(22:04):
illegal aliens could fight deportations. They provide this campaign money
for Bessarah. This is dirty, disgusting stuff. This is why
you're working. This is what you go to work for.
To fund this nonsense. By the way, Sarah I mentioned
(22:24):
this before. He is California's version of Joe Biden. He
is this dud that has bounced around in various positions.
Everybody in Washington, d c. Thought he was a loser
when he was in Biden's cabinet, including Biden.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
Tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
I'm going to play a couple of clips that was
was on CNN. A couple of CNN commentators, one of
them worked in the Biden administration, one of the Obama administration.
They had nothing good to say about Bessara, and one
of them said that Biden everybody was open that he
wanted to fire Besara because he was so bad, and
instead they just put him on the sidelines. They ked
(23:03):
them out of anything that he consequential work. When Joe
Biden thinks you're incompetent, what does that tell you? So
of course he's the top Democrat running. Of course he is.
Of course, if Hilton is correct, he's getting money, our
tax money run through Churla hire legal aliens to do
(23:27):
campaign work. We got more coming up. I got a
couple more stories I got to get to. Everything's been
squeezed out today because so much is going on. That'll
be next. I'll tell you about him. You'll be familiar
right away.
Speaker 4 (23:40):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI A
six forty.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
Here's a follow up. Remember yesterday the naked man who
was terrorizing people in a neighborhood in Resida for years,
and the neighbors said they called between one hundred and
fifty and two hundred times the police who did nothing.
(24:08):
Karen Bass's office, she did nothing. Nitthia Rahmin's office, it's
her district, of course, she did nothing. He would lean
out the window, screaming and waving his penis around in
the air, yelling all hours of the day and night,
starting fires in his house, renting out sheds to other
(24:29):
homeless crazies. Well, you know what got him finally was
the TV station's running reports on Channel five and Channel four.
And here's Katla's report on what finally, after two hundred
calls happened. Cut one. If you could play that well
(24:50):
reced it.
Speaker 7 (24:51):
We're a man who neighbors say has been terrorizing their
community for years has been taken into custody. LABD officers
arrested man after they say.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
He threatened to kill his neighbor.
Speaker 7 (25:02):
It all happened just after six o'clock tonight in front
of his home on Garden Grove Avenue, or near Sataquoi
and Lidley, and we first brought you this story on Saturday.
What residents shared video of the man was often naked,
yelling from his bedroom window, exposing himself in front of
children and threatening others. They say they have called nine
(25:22):
one one dozens of times over the.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
Years, leans out of his window, naked, screaming, showing off
his genitals, screaming some more, starting fires in his house,
renting his sheds out to lunatics. They called not once,
not twice, but a hundred and fifty times. One estimate
(25:50):
from the neighbors was two hundred times. Nothing was done. Nothing.
Never heard of this in my life in any civilization.
This is an ordinary middle class neighborhood. There's trailed children there.
Do you imagine having a crazy naked guy screaming all
night and showing his private parts off to your kids.
(26:13):
You call the police in any other town, in any
other year, in any other city, in a you know,
for the last millenniums, the police would come and take
the guy away, put him in a mental institution here
in Los Angeles. Nathy Rom and Karen Vass and the
LAPD let him scream on and scream on and keep
(26:34):
waving his organ in the air.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
Naked.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
Now, the other story I wanted to get to looks
like at the one ten down in San Peedro, they
finally opened up some of the northbound lanes, they open
up the southbound lanes. This is a homeless encampment that
was built underneath the one ten Freeway in a utility tunnel,
and the crazy, the insane people there started a fire
(27:05):
and it took hours and hours and hours to put out,
and then they were worried that maybe the one ten
was going to collapse. Well, they finally got access inside
after the fire was put out, and they found all
kinds of debris, mattresses, clothing, cardboard. It was like an
(27:27):
apartment complex inside there. So all these dirty, crazy, drug
addicted lunatic animals and I'm sure they howl at the
moon in the middle of the night. They were living
there and eventually started a fire nearly brought down the
one ten Freeway. And you know what, Matthew Sedorf did
(27:50):
great stories on this for Fox eleven. They looked a
little bit down the road, a little bit farther down
the one tent, they found another tunnel filled with the
same thing, almeless people stuffed in there with all their
debris and mattresses and garbage. This is not human civilization anymore.
(28:13):
Karen vass is Los Angeles. Tim McCosker is the is
the councilman down there? What does he do all day?
All right, we've got a lot on the podcast. I
told you about it. You go listen. We'll be back tomorrow.
Conway is next. Michael Krozer has the news live in
the KFI twenty four hour newsroom. Hey, you've been listening
(28:36):
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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