January 10, 2025 • 33 mins
In this episode, Tudor discusses the devastating wildfires in California with investigative journalist Jennifer Van Laar. They explore the immediate impact on communities, personal accounts of loss, and the failures of government leadership in responding to the crisis. The conversation delves into the role of environmental policies, the risks posed by homelessness, and the long-term effects on families and communities. The Tudor Dixon Podcast is part of the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Podcast Network. For more visit TudorDixonPodcast.com
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Tutor Dixon Podcast. Today, we are going
to be covering the wildfires in California. We're obviously all
watching this devastated. Our prayers go out to all of
the families who have evacuated. We know so many people
have lost everything. They have evacuated their homes, some of
them don't know whether or not their home is there.
(00:22):
Some of them have lost their community, their schools. It's
been actually completely shocking as we've seen just cameras going
down the lake or the beach, the shore right there
and seeing that there are no houses, there's no structures,
everything is just rubble. I mean, it's really been a
It's just such a blow to the entire country. And
(00:43):
so we wanted to get into not only what is
happening on the ground there, but what led up to this,
How did this happen? Was this preventable? What is the future?
So we are talking today to Jennifer Van Lahar. She's
the managing editor and an investigative journalist at Red State,
and we're so glad that we have you here because
(01:05):
you're also based out there. You're in Ventura, California, a
Ventura County. Tell us what is it like to be
out there on the ground right now.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
It's crazy.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
So I live in Seabe Valley, which is where the
Reagan Library is, and about three quarters of our city
has had no power for the last two days.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
I've been fortunate and I do.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Have power, but you know that means the traffic lights
are out, people are finding the few restaurants that are
open to eat because at this point a lot of
the food that would have been in their even their freezers,
is not usable and so it and we're not even.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
In the midst of it.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
But I did take my oldest son was out visiting
for Christmas with his family and had to fly out
of lax yesterday. So driving into LA and as all
this smoke was covering downtown LA and it was just
almost apocalyptic then. But then seeing I can't even get
down to the areas that have been heavily impact and
seeing all of that is just it's a lot to
(02:03):
take in emotionally when that's your home, and when that's
scenes that you would see every day for.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Your whole life. I've lived here my whole life.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Just a few months back, I was out there and
we were driving along the coast there in Malibu, and
one of the people that was with me sent me
a tweet that came out earlier today. He's like, this
is all gone. It's gone. I mean it is shocking
to think of all these iconic buildings and the museums
(02:32):
and just the community, I mean communities lost lost.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
I have a lifelong friend that lives in that area,
the main area of Palisades, and another friend just through Twitter.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Both of them lost their homes.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
My friend has lived in her home for twenty years,
raised her three sons there. The high school that where
she was the PTA president burned down, and just I
asked them both, how did I can't even comprehend what
it's like to just within a matter of your entire city.
Imagine your whole neighborhood just gone and there's only ashes.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
And I think people are confusing this because they're like, oh,
these are rich people, they can just rebuild. When you
have a home, your value is in the fact that
you have a home. There is a home sitting there.
If there is no home, the value is suddenly just
the land and you're wanting to rebuild, so you don't
have You're not getting the value of your home because
(03:28):
it's not there anymore. You have lost so much. I mean,
I think we're all sitting by the phone waiting for
people to tell us if they're okay, if they lost
to me. I literally just got a message from my
sister saying one of her best girlfriends out there in
LA just found out their entire neighborhood's gone and their
school is gone. She's little kids. They I mean, imagine
(03:50):
what is it like to tell your little kids the
place that you every day's gone?
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Right?
Speaker 3 (03:54):
And even I was just talking with another friend in
this business who had spoke and a Joel Pollock who's
at Breitbart and his home, thank god stay is still standing.
But he said that his and one other home are
the only ones left in their neighborhood. And they imagine
taking your kids back where everyone else's house is burned
down around you. And they've made a big issue today
(04:16):
about the toxic smoke and about the toxic to touch
things when you go back into these areas. So, even
if your house stood, we be able to even move
back in, will you have to throw out everything that
you own and make such a good call to the studs,
you know, how do you live in that is if
it's going to be environmentally bad for your lungs and
for your.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Body, I mean, we wouldn't. That's something I never thought about.
Think about all the chemicals you have in your house
that you don't set on fire every day. I mean,
think about when the buildings came down in nine to eleven,
all of the cancers and everything from just the not
just the explosion, but the air that people were breathing after.
Why would this be really that much different. It has
(04:57):
to be a somewhat similar situation. Right, you have to
question how safe for you to even go outside? And
we're not hearing anything from the government on that. I
have heard nothing valuable from Gavin Newsom. Now, I mean
President Biden goes out and says, but the good news
is I'm a great grandfather. What an insult to the
American people, and certainly what an insult to the people
(05:19):
of California.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
Right, And a lot of the DEM leaders are taking
their playbook. At first, La Mayor Karen Bass didn't say
anything when she was questioned by reporters when she returned
from Ghana.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
But then Thursday was vacation.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
No, it was to celebrate the first female vice president
of Ghana, but.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
She knew before she went that there was a danger
of this happening.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Yeah, this was being forecast as of last Saturday Sunday
and assets were being positioned. I would want to be
in a command center if I were in her position
that entire time, watching out for something to happen and
making sure we divert all resources to it.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
But she didn't. And then Lindsay Horvath.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Who's one of the LA County Board of Supervisors people
who covers West Hollywood and some of the areas where
that sunset fire was on Thursday or Wednesday, she was
in a press conference Thursday morning talking all about herself
and about how they were under evacuation warning, which is
not when you have to go, you go when it's
in order, and no one cares what she was thinking
(06:22):
about if she had an evacuation warning. We want to
know about what you're going to do to hold people accountable,
to make sure that there's water in fire hydrants in
the future, and that we can prevent these things right away.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
And I'm just going to say that I know that
you're saying, well, this was an official visit, but the
Mayor of La does not have to go to Ghana
to see that. In my opinion, that was a perk
and a vacation was and she was bailing on her people,
certainly in the moment when she understood that there was
a major threat. But she would have understood it better
(06:56):
than anybody else because she knows that the water was cut.
She knows that this could be catastrophic, and she bailed.
I mean, that's twisted.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
It's completely twisted.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
She was probably looking at it as a way to
come back and have a picture and a photo op
and with all of her values on inclusivity and equity
and all of that jump.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
These are political animals. They are not leaders. That's what
and this is what I think people across the country
are saying, Okay, wait a minute, when you start electing
these folks that are telling you, oh, we're going to
be kind to immigrants and we're going to take care
of this community and that community, and it has nothing
to do with the community that they should be leading
(07:40):
every single day. Those people don't know. It's they're just
about politics. They don't know how to lead. It's not
even to me. It's the people who have been manipulated
that need to open their eyes and say, these are
not true leaders. They are not here to make sure
that we have good roads, to make sure that our
(08:02):
communities are safe, to make sure that the water is
there when you need it. I mean, how asinine is
that now we find out that he's been moving the water. Gosh,
this is so devastating. This guy should be held criminally
liable for this. Gavanism should be investigated.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
He should absolutely be investigated on a lot of fronts, but.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Especially with this.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
And you know, a true leader and what you said
about these people being political animals instead of leaders, this
is totally correct because when questioned about the water, Gavin
Newsom says, oh, well, you know that's the local people's
problem to figure out how they get the water to
the fire. Okay, well didn't If something was going great,
wouldn't he be standing right there taking credit? Yes, he
(08:47):
would be doing that. So he's not a leader in
any way. And I think these people overwhelmingly they voted
for Bass and for Newsom and for Biden within that neighborhood.
But there are a lot of good Conservas just there
and a lot of people who are just apathetic.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
They're not apathetic anymore, I'll tell you that much.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
And even if they're Hollywood types, still in Hollywood, you
still have to have a bottom line. You still have
to make money, right, So if you're one of these
Hollywood types, you want things to go right, and when
they don't, heads roll.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
So now last night I'm seeing it's going toward the
studios there, it's going toward Hollywood Boulevard, and it's like, well,
once you lose your place of business, once you lose
your community, once you lose all of your restaurants and
your shopping centers and your grocery store, do you then
stand up and say, Okay, the feel good politics doesn't
(09:40):
actually make the state go round? And I think that
there have been some I get that. I get that
they've been so they've had the heart strings tugged and
they feel like they're activists and they can speak out.
But I've seen some people who have stood up and
been like, you know what, whoops, we made a mistake.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Right.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
So I can't remember her first name, but David Foster,
who's a legendary musical producer, his daughter was all over
Twitter or ex on Wednesday night just saying what the
heck is happening and had a whole list of grievances
about how this has been handled and why is it
that we can't get water, but yet we're you know,
(10:18):
we're trying to protecting the environment, But then is it
this a million times worse for the environment?
Speaker 2 (10:23):
What's happening right now? Because of that?
Speaker 3 (10:25):
And so a lot of these people who have been
Democrat cheerleaders, because of all those feel good policies, are
going to want to head on a platter, and those
heads are going to be Gavin Newsom and Karen.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
I've got more coming up with Red States investigative journalist
Jennifer Van Lah, but first let me tell you more
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(11:41):
one word again, it's support IFCJ dot org. Stay tuned.
I'll be back with more right after this. I think
it's time to start looking at these things because I
think anybody believes that they can go in and just
run a government without having any foresight or common sense thinking,
(12:05):
and you have to judge them by this. I mean,
look at you, look at this situation. We had a
situation in Michigan just a few years ago where they
wanted to protect a muscle and there was a dam built.
The owner of the dam kept saying to the Attorney General,
We've got to lower the water level so that we
can repair the dam. If you lower the water level,
(12:27):
the muscles will all die. These are endangered muscles. We
can't lower the water level. Well, guess what, the dam broke.
The water's gone. The muscles are dead. The entire community
I mean houses were moved blocks from where they were
and they destroyed. You know, they were ripped apart. I mean,
water is very destructive as well. This entire community totally
destroyed because of these crazy like I'm sorry, but can
(12:52):
you move the muscles? Can you save the muscles some
other way? Or are is it just do certain creatures
just run their course and you've got to make sure
you've protected the human race. I mean, at a certain
point you have to make that executive decision. And if
you don't have the right people in office to make
those executive decisions and game plan things out, I mean
(13:13):
there's a very obviously hindsight is twenty twenty, but you
can look at this and say, in the case that
this dam is not repaired, what actually does happen to
all the water? What if it does break? I mean, look,
we had the similar situation with the Flint water crisis.
We're gonna save money, We're gonna move the water, all
of a sudden we have lad in all the water.
At what point do you hold the people accountable? Because
(13:36):
if I'm a business and I make a part that
goes out in the field and the machinery breaks and
kills someone, I'm not accountable.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Exactly, you know.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
And in the case of that dam, there's probably environmentalists
who wanted the dam gone because they don't ever want
to have They just want the three flowing rivers. So
maybe that was their their motive in making sure that
that those damn repairs didn't take place. In California, in
twenty fourteen, voters overwhelmingly passed Prop one, which was a
water storage project.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Not one new dam has been built.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
In fact, Gavenusman's made a big deal out of destroying
some existing dams because of the same thing. We need
the habitat so that things can strim up so we
swim upstream. Sorry, can't talk in the midst of all
of this, but okay, fine, do that, but build some
other water storage. If you're not going to have a dam,
have the big holding tank somewhere somewhere where you're pumping
out water. As when we get the snow pack and
(14:30):
it starts melting, in the spring where you're diverting it
to a place where it can be stored for when
we need it, which is during these fires. And another
thing with LA that kind of contributed to this. Normally,
December and January are two of our wettest months in
the year. We haven't had measurable rainfall in southern California
since July. So normally our fire season ends in November
(14:50):
December because we start getting rain and then it's not
the conditions aren't conducing, but when we haven't had measurable
rain in six months and then you get eighty mile
an hour and in my hometown the humidity level was
one percent yesterday morning. When you get dry conditions like that,
even if you're dropping retardant and water, some of it
(15:10):
are a good deal of it is evaporating before it
gets to where it needs to go.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
And again, where's the investigation, because where was the leadership saying, man,
these two months, we haven't had the water that we need.
We need to make sure that we have the reservoir
backup so that we have the water prepared in case
this season that comes every year is devastating. These are
not mysteries. This is not just oh, this happened out
of nowhere. And then we have an interesting I just
(15:37):
saw Liz MacDonald was posting that now we are seeing
the EV vehicles blowing up, that they're getting hot, and
those fires you can't put out. So it's interesting because
this is another crazy mandate from the left. I mean
it has hurt in Michigan significantly because they've moved their
factories out of Michigan. Gave them it gave them taxpayer
(15:59):
mind from Michigan to then take their factories and move
them out to where. And everybody's like, oh, no, that's
being used in Michigan. I remember when everybody was talking
about money being fungible. Guess what, our taxpayer dollars have
helped the automotive industry leave our state. But look we
see now, look a few months ago, we saw this
happening in cal or in Florida when the hurricane came
(16:22):
all of a sudden, we find out that when saltwater
gets into these batteries, they blow up. Now they're blowing
up in California. How safe are these vehicles?
Speaker 3 (16:31):
Well, and there were a lot of evs abandoned in
the Palisades because there's a lot of evs in that
area because those are people that are very big on
electric cars, so that is adding to that environmental destruction
there and with the water knowing that we have this
coming and we know that in that exact neighborhood on
the exact street where this started. And I'm looking into
(16:51):
this more, but it's taking some time to get the records.
That there was a fire on New Year's Day, so
just a few days ago, that they believe was set
by people doing fireworks. There's been numerous what we call
hobo fires in that area because it's a nicer area
for the hoboes to camp for the homeless people unhoused,
because you get the sea breeze and it doesn't get
(17:11):
as hot as the other areas, but it also gets
colder at night, so then they start fires to keep warm.
We believe that's how the Franklin fire down by Pepperdine
University started just what three weeks ago? I believe it
was maybe a month. So why weren't water trucks positioned
out in the palisades out in those areas where we
know that there's homeless encampments and people routinely start fires
(17:35):
knowing that these tanks could go dry. So they said
they had three million gallons of water and three different
storage tanks around the palisades that all ran dry by
about ten pm on the first night of the fires,
which is understandable because it's a massive fire. And then
the lady from LADWP says, well, then we worked hard
to get water tanks out there.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Well why weren't the water tanks there?
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Well, let's go a little bit further. You're there's home
homeless encampments out there. So I think it was actually
LA that had a few years ago had a three
hundred million dollar budget for eliminating homelessness. It was doubled
to six hundred million dollars. You know what doesn't happen
when you get six hundred million dollars to solve the problem,
(18:19):
You never solve the problem, right because no one wants
to give up the six hundred million dollars. And so
now you have a massive homelessness problem. You know, I mean,
think about this, This is why you have government people.
This is not like, this is not a situation of
hindsight is twenty twenty. Because you know you have encampments
out there, you know it's been dry. You know they're
(18:40):
starting fires. This is where your government protects you. They
go in and round these folks up. They say, you
can't be here. I'm sorry, we have safety issues. We're
talking about the most expensive wildfire fire situation we have
ever had in the state of California. They're already estimating
it at over fifty billion dollars in damage. How much
(19:00):
will it costs to rebuild because of irresponsible leadership? Again,
not hindsight is twenty twenty. You knew they were making
they were having fires there, Gavin Knwsome knew they were
having fires there.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
What they do is they classify it as a vegetation fire.
Because a lot of us all watch these apps that
tell us when the fires start, they classify it as
a vegetation fire. We all know because we drive around
and we see where the encampments are. We all go, oh, no,
that's a legendary area where there's homeless people. And if
we knew these winds were coming, and we know that
a lot of these people are camping on state park
(19:32):
land or adjacent to it, why did we not send
out the Sheriff's Department or LAPD to clear out these
environmentally sensitive areas to use the left phrasing. You know
it's coming, you know they're there, you know there's and
you probably saw this because you said you drove up PCH.
You probably saw all of the motor homes along the road.
(19:53):
And those people have propane takes where they grill, they
have other things that catch fire and cause ex I
wouldn't be surprised if those paid played a significant role
in the destruction up and down PCH. So why do
we not just get everyone out of there and say, look,
this is a fire hazard, this is a public safety hazard,
this is an environmental hazard.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
You have to go.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
I mean, we're watching these houses have been just leveled
to the ground, and you can see the gas pipes
down the row, all of them still lit. How has
no one turned the gas off? Where are the adults
in the room? And that's what I mean, it's now.
It can never be forgotten. It cannot be that this
(20:37):
is Hawaii. And that's my fear. No one talks about
Hawaii anymore, No one talks about East Palestine like these
tragedies happen and the rest of the country moves on. No,
We've got to say, how did this happen? Every single
day for the rest of the year. Someone should put
out an article every day about just that. How did
we end up having pro paying open propane on the
(21:00):
beach right, How did we end up having nobody turning
the gas off? How did we end up with this
massive dollar figure, this massive amount of money, And we're
not going to hold everybody accountable, No, every day they
should have to see what they did right.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
And that you bring up a good point about Hawaii
because a significant number of these people just in the
last two months lost their homeowner's insurance and so have
no insurance to rebuild. Because Gavin Newsom would not let
the companies charge a higher rate which they needed to
charge because of the risk. Because Gavin Newsom's fire departments,
(21:38):
cal Fire and all of the city and state and
local fire departments has not been doing mitigation, They haven't
been doing brush clearing, they haven't been cutting out fire
brakes because of the environmentalists and because of the budget cuts.
Karen Bass cut twenty million dollars, and the word is
that she wanted to cut even more and the chief
told her, we don't have anything else to cut, and
(21:58):
she said.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Find it.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
So why was all of this happening instead of doing
what we know is going to protect and we know
the Indians were here before us and they manage these forests.
They did control burns, they did brush clearing. It's a
known science and we're not able to do it because
of some weird feel good policies.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Well, gosh, you said the word science. You know how
much they like science on that side of the aisle.
They make up their own.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Stace, love it, but they don't follow actual science.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
Right they exactly. Well, okay, so you just said something
about the insurance and him not allowing them to increase
their rates. So this is what happens again when you
have a political animal. I caused the problem. I make
it so these companies can't afford this, and then I
go in and regulate the company and say you can't
do this, thinking that this is all power, that power
(22:52):
is unlimited, and that when you are in the position
of governor, you can do anything and the consequences will
not come back to hurt you. Well, now, just months
after this decision, which was so irresponsible because he caused
the rates to go up, he has cost the everybody
their livelihood, their life, They're all of their most valuable possessions.
(23:14):
I mean, they're sentimental possessions. That's the crazy thing about it.
These are things people will never get back because of
a selfish political animal.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
And there's a good number of residents in the Palisades. Yes,
they're celebrities there, but there's also if you drove through
some of the neighborhoods, what looked like pretty modest homes,
and there are people who moved out there at the
time when Ronald and Nancy Reagan lived there in the
sixties and own their home outright, and that's what they
worked all their life for and now it's burned down and.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
They have no insurance.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
Yeah, and that's definitely see a Maui situation.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
That's what I keep and that's the fear somebody's going
to come in and just immediately buy up all their property.
And that's what they're saying. Don't talk to adjusters, don't
talk to anybody, right now, give it some time so
that we can actually see what's going on. Because you've
got all these vultures that come in and they're like,
there's nothing you can do. You have a terrible situation.
You've got no value, you've got no home, you have
(24:12):
a mortgage. I mean that's the problem, right, If you
have a mortgage, the mortgage company's not letting you out
of this right right.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
And then that the rental housing.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
One of my friends who lost his home was saying
that by the half hour, rental prices for rental homes
are just skyrocketing all over eling. And if we thought
we had a housing crisis before, now after not just
that fire, the fire in Pasadena, Alta, Dina, those are hundreds.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
Or thousands of homes lost too.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
Where are these people going to live while all this
is still taking place? I have a feeling that we're
going to lose some of them to other states. That
maybe the only thing keeping them here was that they
had this paid off home, or was that they maybe
they had a good interest rate on their mortgage and
so they didn't want to go somewhere else right now.
But after you lose it, then and it's like what's
keeping you here? So I'm such a great the people
(25:03):
I would never be good people.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
Yeah, I would never have thought about that. But yeah,
once you lose everything, I mean, you know when you
have that those historical rates, whether it's an interest rate
or you've already paid off your home or whatever it is,
you had a value there that you've completely lost. Most
people cannot afford to live in California. That's the crazy reality, right.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
And some of the people, some of my friends who
did lose homes, their jobs require them to be in
this area, so they're not going to leave unless maybe
they can work remote. But it's going to be just
a big disaster with so many ramifications that we don't
even know yet. But the main thing is hopefully that
this will be the change not just for California, but
(25:49):
for the country of how bad these progressive policies are.
Like you said, they're in Michigan too. It's not just
limited to California.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
And just like with ABY.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
Five, I'm not sure you're familiar with that, it was
an anti independent contracting law here in California, and who
put out of work was a lot of the creatives,
and it was during COVID, Well we got a lot
of that repealed. Because when you tick off the creatives,
you have a big problem because they have the platform,
they have the talent to get the information out there
(26:19):
to people. So now that you've got Hollywood, it's just
severely impacted by this, how many documentaries are we going
to see about Gavin Newsom's incompetence.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
They're going to need a sacrificial lamb.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
And I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up being
some kind of investigation into Gavin Newsom's narcissism and how
all of this played into it.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
I have a feeling it's coming.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
Let's take a quick commercial break. We'll continue next on
the Tutor Dixon Podcast. You know, I was thinking about
what you just said about we don't know the ramifications
of this man. You go back to COVID and we
saw so many ramifications of reathing being shut down and
kids being out of school, and I think, my kids,
(27:04):
you know, I've got sixth grade, eighth grade, tenth grade,
and they all went through school in COVID. So all
of these, all these schools that are burned down, most
of these kids have already missed school once they've already
had one major tragedy. And you don't realize how much
that affects your kids until you hear. One day, my
daughter was sitting with her cousin and she goes, well,
(27:26):
remember that was during what did she say? It was
like during lockdown? Or something, and I'm like, man, they
actually have a quarantine that was during quarantine, so we
cann't go anywhere. I was like, they actually have like
a season of their life that is quarantine where they
just remember being locked in. Yes.
Speaker 3 (27:44):
Yeah, two years in this area that these kids already lost, yes,
because of how crazy La was with it. And now
they'll at least lose the rest of this school year
with their friends. I mean, who knows how they're going
to be able to get back in touch. And for kids,
that's their community, that's where they go for for their
their feeling of belonging, their consistency. Obviously their family too,
(28:07):
but you know, you go to school, you have your teacher,
you have your friends. That routine brings you normalcy. Now
they do not have that.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
No.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
I remember when my kids, you know, it was like
they came home and they said it'll be fifteen days
and I said, no, it won't. Pack when you they
said tomorrow's our last day, I said, pack up your
entire locker. You're never going back. And they were like, oh,
that's crazy. And it was so shocking because you at
that age, you know, my kids were like first and
(28:35):
third and fifth grade, and and at those ages, your
teacher is like a family member. They're part of your life.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
You know.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
It's a critical and they're just ripped away. And I
think about these poor kids a second time. What will happen?
They have no school and when will the school be rebuilt?
How could you possibly rebuild a community that fast.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
And the way that California's laws are, it would take
a long time.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
One of our Assemblymen, Bill A.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
Saley, has asked for a special session to deal with this,
and hopefully one of the things would be just bypassing
all of the normal regulations to be able to get
these things built. Obviously we want them built with to
be able to withstand earthquakes and fires, that kind of thing.
But let's not have delays because we're impacting what lizard
or what were might be impacted by this building or
(29:25):
Healthnates community has been there in some fashion over one
hundred years, but at least sixty or seventy years where
it's been pretty much as built up as it is now.
And one woman said they hadn't even been evacuated for
fire since the seventies in that area, so it's not
like this was a new building up in the wilderness
that shouldn't have been there. This was an established community
(29:47):
that still had no protection.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
I think that we have to get past malicious environmentalism,
and I think I realized how it started. And it's
not that I'm totally insensitive to endangered species, but when
it becomes malicious environmentalism and you can't see it, you've
become so indoctrinated in we care more about these smell
(30:12):
than we care about the kids getting to school. Where
is the voice of reason in California? And we've been
saying this for so long, So to your point, maybe
this is a turning point. My gosh, I wish this
is not how we would see a turning point. And
I see everybody saying, you know, maybe this is the
silver lining, and I guess that we have to look
for something that maybe California begins to return to what
(30:37):
the rest of the country has been, which is limited government,
making sure that people can achieve on their own and
that you have the basics protection, that you're safe in
your own community, and whether that is safe from criminals
or safe from fire. This is the moment when we say, okay,
we got to turn things around.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
Well, and I would say get back to what, not
just what the rest of the country was, get back
to what California was when it started. California was where
the dreamers and adventurers went during the Gold Rush and
after World War Two. Both my grandfather grandfathers, one was
from Michigan, one from Indiana. They came out and married
California girls and started businesses and became successful. And that's
(31:18):
what California has been. A place where you have limited government,
a place where you had the freedom to dream and
achieve and and innovate and be an entrepreneur. I mean,
we have SpaceX, we have Disneyland, we have Silicon Valley,
we have all of that stuff. And not to mention
the ranchers that always respected the land and the farmers
that came out here. We feed a good portion of
(31:40):
the world from California. Let's get back to that and
then you'll see huge success and of California can lead
the way in that. Then that could be a good
way that California can lead this world instead of the
crazy ways we've been leading the world over the last
few decades.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
Absolutely, the ranchers and the farmers who are the original
and the true environmentalists and we could learn a lot
from them. And you just reminded me like when I
was a kid and you're learning about the gold Rush
and pioneers and all these people that just took that
risk to go out to California. That was to me,
that was what America was. I was like, that's we are.
(32:15):
We're adventurers like I want to be that person. And
California was bigger than life. And California is still bigger
than life. I mean, California. Is this the land of opportunity,
right and the land of imagination and the land of
movies and the land of Silicon Valley, as you said,
And we have to bring that back and we have
(32:36):
to embrace it. And I just I do hope that
it goes back to what you were saying, and I
hope that we can all continue to support California. That's
why I appreciate you coming on today. But also that's
why I think it's so important we keep talking about this.
I know that you probably will as a writer yourself. Yeah,
but I appreciate you being here.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
Thank you for having me on.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
Absolutely, So I just want everybody to know, Jennifer van
lah Are, Now where can people find your work.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
At RedState RedState dot com and then I do post
some of it as threads on x SO at gen
van Laar.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
Awesome. Thank you so much, Thank you, and thank you
all for listening to the Tutor Dixon podcast for this
episode and others. Go to the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts and join us next time.
Have a blessed day.
Welcome to the Tutor Dixon Podcast. Today, we are going
to be covering the wildfires in California. We're obviously all
watching this devastated. Our prayers go out to all of
the families who have evacuated. We know so many people
have lost everything. They have evacuated their homes, some of
them don't know whether or not their home is there.
(00:22):
Some of them have lost their community, their schools. It's
been actually completely shocking as we've seen just cameras going
down the lake or the beach, the shore right there
and seeing that there are no houses, there's no structures,
everything is just rubble. I mean, it's really been a
It's just such a blow to the entire country. And
(00:43):
so we wanted to get into not only what is
happening on the ground there, but what led up to this,
How did this happen? Was this preventable? What is the future?
So we are talking today to Jennifer Van Lahar. She's
the managing editor and an investigative journalist at Red State,
and we're so glad that we have you here because
(01:05):
you're also based out there. You're in Ventura, California, a
Ventura County. Tell us what is it like to be
out there on the ground right now.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
It's crazy.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
So I live in Seabe Valley, which is where the
Reagan Library is, and about three quarters of our city
has had no power for the last two days.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
I've been fortunate and I do.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Have power, but you know that means the traffic lights
are out, people are finding the few restaurants that are
open to eat because at this point a lot of
the food that would have been in their even their freezers,
is not usable and so it and we're not even.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
In the midst of it.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
But I did take my oldest son was out visiting
for Christmas with his family and had to fly out
of lax yesterday. So driving into LA and as all
this smoke was covering downtown LA and it was just
almost apocalyptic then. But then seeing I can't even get
down to the areas that have been heavily impact and
seeing all of that is just it's a lot to
(02:03):
take in emotionally when that's your home, and when that's
scenes that you would see every day for.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Your whole life. I've lived here my whole life.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Just a few months back, I was out there and
we were driving along the coast there in Malibu, and
one of the people that was with me sent me
a tweet that came out earlier today. He's like, this
is all gone. It's gone. I mean it is shocking
to think of all these iconic buildings and the museums
(02:32):
and just the community, I mean communities lost lost.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
I have a lifelong friend that lives in that area,
the main area of Palisades, and another friend just through Twitter.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Both of them lost their homes.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
My friend has lived in her home for twenty years,
raised her three sons there. The high school that where
she was the PTA president burned down, and just I
asked them both, how did I can't even comprehend what
it's like to just within a matter of your entire city.
Imagine your whole neighborhood just gone and there's only ashes.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
And I think people are confusing this because they're like, oh,
these are rich people, they can just rebuild. When you
have a home, your value is in the fact that
you have a home. There is a home sitting there.
If there is no home, the value is suddenly just
the land and you're wanting to rebuild, so you don't
have You're not getting the value of your home because
(03:28):
it's not there anymore. You have lost so much. I mean,
I think we're all sitting by the phone waiting for
people to tell us if they're okay, if they lost
to me. I literally just got a message from my
sister saying one of her best girlfriends out there in
LA just found out their entire neighborhood's gone and their
school is gone. She's little kids. They I mean, imagine
(03:50):
what is it like to tell your little kids the
place that you every day's gone?
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Right?
Speaker 3 (03:54):
And even I was just talking with another friend in
this business who had spoke and a Joel Pollock who's
at Breitbart and his home, thank god stay is still standing.
But he said that his and one other home are
the only ones left in their neighborhood. And they imagine
taking your kids back where everyone else's house is burned
down around you. And they've made a big issue today
(04:16):
about the toxic smoke and about the toxic to touch
things when you go back into these areas. So, even
if your house stood, we be able to even move
back in, will you have to throw out everything that
you own and make such a good call to the studs,
you know, how do you live in that is if
it's going to be environmentally bad for your lungs and
for your.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Body, I mean, we wouldn't. That's something I never thought about.
Think about all the chemicals you have in your house
that you don't set on fire every day. I mean,
think about when the buildings came down in nine to eleven,
all of the cancers and everything from just the not
just the explosion, but the air that people were breathing after.
Why would this be really that much different. It has
(04:57):
to be a somewhat similar situation. Right, you have to
question how safe for you to even go outside? And
we're not hearing anything from the government on that. I
have heard nothing valuable from Gavin Newsom. Now, I mean
President Biden goes out and says, but the good news
is I'm a great grandfather. What an insult to the
American people, and certainly what an insult to the people
(05:19):
of California.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
Right, And a lot of the DEM leaders are taking
their playbook. At first, La Mayor Karen Bass didn't say
anything when she was questioned by reporters when she returned
from Ghana.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
But then Thursday was vacation.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
No, it was to celebrate the first female vice president
of Ghana, but.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
She knew before she went that there was a danger
of this happening.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Yeah, this was being forecast as of last Saturday Sunday
and assets were being positioned. I would want to be
in a command center if I were in her position
that entire time, watching out for something to happen and
making sure we divert all resources to it.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
But she didn't. And then Lindsay Horvath.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Who's one of the LA County Board of Supervisors people
who covers West Hollywood and some of the areas where
that sunset fire was on Thursday or Wednesday, she was
in a press conference Thursday morning talking all about herself
and about how they were under evacuation warning, which is
not when you have to go, you go when it's
in order, and no one cares what she was thinking
(06:22):
about if she had an evacuation warning. We want to
know about what you're going to do to hold people accountable,
to make sure that there's water in fire hydrants in
the future, and that we can prevent these things right away.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
And I'm just going to say that I know that
you're saying, well, this was an official visit, but the
Mayor of La does not have to go to Ghana
to see that. In my opinion, that was a perk
and a vacation was and she was bailing on her people,
certainly in the moment when she understood that there was
a major threat. But she would have understood it better
(06:56):
than anybody else because she knows that the water was cut.
She knows that this could be catastrophic, and she bailed.
I mean, that's twisted.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
It's completely twisted.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
She was probably looking at it as a way to
come back and have a picture and a photo op
and with all of her values on inclusivity and equity
and all of that jump.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
These are political animals. They are not leaders. That's what
and this is what I think people across the country
are saying, Okay, wait a minute, when you start electing
these folks that are telling you, oh, we're going to
be kind to immigrants and we're going to take care
of this community and that community, and it has nothing
to do with the community that they should be leading
(07:40):
every single day. Those people don't know. It's they're just
about politics. They don't know how to lead. It's not
even to me. It's the people who have been manipulated
that need to open their eyes and say, these are
not true leaders. They are not here to make sure
that we have good roads, to make sure that our
(08:02):
communities are safe, to make sure that the water is
there when you need it. I mean, how asinine is
that now we find out that he's been moving the water. Gosh,
this is so devastating. This guy should be held criminally
liable for this. Gavanism should be investigated.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
He should absolutely be investigated on a lot of fronts, but.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Especially with this.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
And you know, a true leader and what you said
about these people being political animals instead of leaders, this
is totally correct because when questioned about the water, Gavin
Newsom says, oh, well, you know that's the local people's
problem to figure out how they get the water to
the fire. Okay, well didn't If something was going great,
wouldn't he be standing right there taking credit? Yes, he
(08:47):
would be doing that. So he's not a leader in
any way. And I think these people overwhelmingly they voted
for Bass and for Newsom and for Biden within that neighborhood.
But there are a lot of good Conservas just there
and a lot of people who are just apathetic.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
They're not apathetic anymore, I'll tell you that much.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
And even if they're Hollywood types, still in Hollywood, you
still have to have a bottom line. You still have
to make money, right, So if you're one of these
Hollywood types, you want things to go right, and when
they don't, heads roll.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
So now last night I'm seeing it's going toward the
studios there, it's going toward Hollywood Boulevard, and it's like, well,
once you lose your place of business, once you lose
your community, once you lose all of your restaurants and
your shopping centers and your grocery store, do you then
stand up and say, Okay, the feel good politics doesn't
(09:40):
actually make the state go round? And I think that
there have been some I get that. I get that
they've been so they've had the heart strings tugged and
they feel like they're activists and they can speak out.
But I've seen some people who have stood up and
been like, you know what, whoops, we made a mistake.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Right.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
So I can't remember her first name, but David Foster,
who's a legendary musical producer, his daughter was all over
Twitter or ex on Wednesday night just saying what the
heck is happening and had a whole list of grievances
about how this has been handled and why is it
that we can't get water, but yet we're you know,
(10:18):
we're trying to protecting the environment, But then is it
this a million times worse for the environment?
Speaker 2 (10:23):
What's happening right now? Because of that?
Speaker 3 (10:25):
And so a lot of these people who have been
Democrat cheerleaders, because of all those feel good policies, are
going to want to head on a platter, and those
heads are going to be Gavin Newsom and Karen.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
I've got more coming up with Red States investigative journalist
Jennifer Van Lah, but first let me tell you more
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one word again, it's support IFCJ dot org. Stay tuned.
I'll be back with more right after this. I think
it's time to start looking at these things because I
think anybody believes that they can go in and just
run a government without having any foresight or common sense thinking,
(12:05):
and you have to judge them by this. I mean,
look at you, look at this situation. We had a
situation in Michigan just a few years ago where they
wanted to protect a muscle and there was a dam built.
The owner of the dam kept saying to the Attorney General,
We've got to lower the water level so that we
can repair the dam. If you lower the water level,
(12:27):
the muscles will all die. These are endangered muscles. We
can't lower the water level. Well, guess what, the dam broke.
The water's gone. The muscles are dead. The entire community
I mean houses were moved blocks from where they were
and they destroyed. You know, they were ripped apart. I mean,
water is very destructive as well. This entire community totally
destroyed because of these crazy like I'm sorry, but can
(12:52):
you move the muscles? Can you save the muscles some
other way? Or are is it just do certain creatures
just run their course and you've got to make sure
you've protected the human race. I mean, at a certain
point you have to make that executive decision. And if
you don't have the right people in office to make
those executive decisions and game plan things out, I mean
(13:13):
there's a very obviously hindsight is twenty twenty, but you
can look at this and say, in the case that
this dam is not repaired, what actually does happen to
all the water? What if it does break? I mean, look,
we had the similar situation with the Flint water crisis.
We're gonna save money, We're gonna move the water, all
of a sudden we have lad in all the water.
At what point do you hold the people accountable? Because
(13:36):
if I'm a business and I make a part that
goes out in the field and the machinery breaks and
kills someone, I'm not accountable.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Exactly, you know.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
And in the case of that dam, there's probably environmentalists
who wanted the dam gone because they don't ever want
to have They just want the three flowing rivers. So
maybe that was their their motive in making sure that
that those damn repairs didn't take place. In California, in
twenty fourteen, voters overwhelmingly passed Prop one, which was a
water storage project.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Not one new dam has been built.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
In fact, Gavenusman's made a big deal out of destroying
some existing dams because of the same thing. We need
the habitat so that things can strim up so we
swim upstream. Sorry, can't talk in the midst of all
of this, but okay, fine, do that, but build some
other water storage. If you're not going to have a dam,
have the big holding tank somewhere somewhere where you're pumping
out water. As when we get the snow pack and
(14:30):
it starts melting, in the spring where you're diverting it
to a place where it can be stored for when
we need it, which is during these fires. And another
thing with LA that kind of contributed to this. Normally,
December and January are two of our wettest months in
the year. We haven't had measurable rainfall in southern California
since July. So normally our fire season ends in November
(14:50):
December because we start getting rain and then it's not
the conditions aren't conducing, but when we haven't had measurable
rain in six months and then you get eighty mile
an hour and in my hometown the humidity level was
one percent yesterday morning. When you get dry conditions like that,
even if you're dropping retardant and water, some of it
(15:10):
are a good deal of it is evaporating before it
gets to where it needs to go.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
And again, where's the investigation, because where was the leadership saying, man,
these two months, we haven't had the water that we need.
We need to make sure that we have the reservoir
backup so that we have the water prepared in case
this season that comes every year is devastating. These are
not mysteries. This is not just oh, this happened out
of nowhere. And then we have an interesting I just
(15:37):
saw Liz MacDonald was posting that now we are seeing
the EV vehicles blowing up, that they're getting hot, and
those fires you can't put out. So it's interesting because
this is another crazy mandate from the left. I mean
it has hurt in Michigan significantly because they've moved their
factories out of Michigan. Gave them it gave them taxpayer
(15:59):
mind from Michigan to then take their factories and move
them out to where. And everybody's like, oh, no, that's
being used in Michigan. I remember when everybody was talking
about money being fungible. Guess what, our taxpayer dollars have
helped the automotive industry leave our state. But look we
see now, look a few months ago, we saw this
happening in cal or in Florida when the hurricane came
(16:22):
all of a sudden, we find out that when saltwater
gets into these batteries, they blow up. Now they're blowing
up in California. How safe are these vehicles?
Speaker 3 (16:31):
Well, and there were a lot of evs abandoned in
the Palisades because there's a lot of evs in that
area because those are people that are very big on
electric cars, so that is adding to that environmental destruction
there and with the water knowing that we have this
coming and we know that in that exact neighborhood on
the exact street where this started. And I'm looking into
(16:51):
this more, but it's taking some time to get the records.
That there was a fire on New Year's Day, so
just a few days ago, that they believe was set
by people doing fireworks. There's been numerous what we call
hobo fires in that area because it's a nicer area
for the hoboes to camp for the homeless people unhoused,
because you get the sea breeze and it doesn't get
(17:11):
as hot as the other areas, but it also gets
colder at night, so then they start fires to keep warm.
We believe that's how the Franklin fire down by Pepperdine
University started just what three weeks ago? I believe it
was maybe a month. So why weren't water trucks positioned
out in the palisades out in those areas where we
know that there's homeless encampments and people routinely start fires
(17:35):
knowing that these tanks could go dry. So they said
they had three million gallons of water and three different
storage tanks around the palisades that all ran dry by
about ten pm on the first night of the fires,
which is understandable because it's a massive fire. And then
the lady from LADWP says, well, then we worked hard
to get water tanks out there.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Well why weren't the water tanks there?
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Well, let's go a little bit further. You're there's home
homeless encampments out there. So I think it was actually
LA that had a few years ago had a three
hundred million dollar budget for eliminating homelessness. It was doubled
to six hundred million dollars. You know what doesn't happen
when you get six hundred million dollars to solve the problem,
(18:19):
You never solve the problem, right because no one wants
to give up the six hundred million dollars. And so
now you have a massive homelessness problem. You know, I mean,
think about this, This is why you have government people.
This is not like, this is not a situation of
hindsight is twenty twenty. Because you know you have encampments
out there, you know it's been dry. You know they're
(18:40):
starting fires. This is where your government protects you. They
go in and round these folks up. They say, you
can't be here. I'm sorry, we have safety issues. We're
talking about the most expensive wildfire fire situation we have
ever had in the state of California. They're already estimating
it at over fifty billion dollars in damage. How much
(19:00):
will it costs to rebuild because of irresponsible leadership? Again,
not hindsight is twenty twenty. You knew they were making
they were having fires there, Gavin Knwsome knew they were
having fires there.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
What they do is they classify it as a vegetation fire.
Because a lot of us all watch these apps that
tell us when the fires start, they classify it as
a vegetation fire. We all know because we drive around
and we see where the encampments are. We all go, oh, no,
that's a legendary area where there's homeless people. And if
we knew these winds were coming, and we know that
a lot of these people are camping on state park
(19:32):
land or adjacent to it, why did we not send
out the Sheriff's Department or LAPD to clear out these
environmentally sensitive areas to use the left phrasing. You know
it's coming, you know they're there, you know there's and
you probably saw this because you said you drove up PCH.
You probably saw all of the motor homes along the road.
(19:53):
And those people have propane takes where they grill, they
have other things that catch fire and cause ex I
wouldn't be surprised if those paid played a significant role
in the destruction up and down PCH. So why do
we not just get everyone out of there and say, look,
this is a fire hazard, this is a public safety hazard,
this is an environmental hazard.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
You have to go.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
I mean, we're watching these houses have been just leveled
to the ground, and you can see the gas pipes
down the row, all of them still lit. How has
no one turned the gas off? Where are the adults
in the room? And that's what I mean, it's now.
It can never be forgotten. It cannot be that this
(20:37):
is Hawaii. And that's my fear. No one talks about
Hawaii anymore, No one talks about East Palestine like these
tragedies happen and the rest of the country moves on. No,
We've got to say, how did this happen? Every single
day for the rest of the year. Someone should put
out an article every day about just that. How did
we end up having pro paying open propane on the
(21:00):
beach right, How did we end up having nobody turning
the gas off? How did we end up with this
massive dollar figure, this massive amount of money, And we're
not going to hold everybody accountable, No, every day they
should have to see what they did right.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
And that you bring up a good point about Hawaii
because a significant number of these people just in the
last two months lost their homeowner's insurance and so have
no insurance to rebuild. Because Gavin Newsom would not let
the companies charge a higher rate which they needed to
charge because of the risk. Because Gavin Newsom's fire departments,
(21:38):
cal Fire and all of the city and state and
local fire departments has not been doing mitigation, They haven't
been doing brush clearing, they haven't been cutting out fire
brakes because of the environmentalists and because of the budget cuts.
Karen Bass cut twenty million dollars, and the word is
that she wanted to cut even more and the chief
told her, we don't have anything else to cut, and
(21:58):
she said.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Find it.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
So why was all of this happening instead of doing
what we know is going to protect and we know
the Indians were here before us and they manage these forests.
They did control burns, they did brush clearing. It's a
known science and we're not able to do it because
of some weird feel good policies.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Well, gosh, you said the word science. You know how
much they like science on that side of the aisle.
They make up their own.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Stace, love it, but they don't follow actual science.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
Right they exactly. Well, okay, so you just said something
about the insurance and him not allowing them to increase
their rates. So this is what happens again when you
have a political animal. I caused the problem. I make
it so these companies can't afford this, and then I
go in and regulate the company and say you can't
do this, thinking that this is all power, that power
(22:52):
is unlimited, and that when you are in the position
of governor, you can do anything and the consequences will
not come back to hurt you. Well, now, just months
after this decision, which was so irresponsible because he caused
the rates to go up, he has cost the everybody
their livelihood, their life, They're all of their most valuable possessions.
(23:14):
I mean, they're sentimental possessions. That's the crazy thing about it.
These are things people will never get back because of
a selfish political animal.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
And there's a good number of residents in the Palisades. Yes,
they're celebrities there, but there's also if you drove through
some of the neighborhoods, what looked like pretty modest homes,
and there are people who moved out there at the
time when Ronald and Nancy Reagan lived there in the
sixties and own their home outright, and that's what they
worked all their life for and now it's burned down and.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
They have no insurance.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
Yeah, and that's definitely see a Maui situation.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
That's what I keep and that's the fear somebody's going
to come in and just immediately buy up all their property.
And that's what they're saying. Don't talk to adjusters, don't
talk to anybody, right now, give it some time so
that we can actually see what's going on. Because you've
got all these vultures that come in and they're like,
there's nothing you can do. You have a terrible situation.
You've got no value, you've got no home, you have
(24:12):
a mortgage. I mean that's the problem, right, If you
have a mortgage, the mortgage company's not letting you out
of this right right.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
And then that the rental housing.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
One of my friends who lost his home was saying
that by the half hour, rental prices for rental homes
are just skyrocketing all over eling. And if we thought
we had a housing crisis before, now after not just
that fire, the fire in Pasadena, Alta, Dina, those are hundreds.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
Or thousands of homes lost too.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
Where are these people going to live while all this
is still taking place? I have a feeling that we're
going to lose some of them to other states. That
maybe the only thing keeping them here was that they
had this paid off home, or was that they maybe
they had a good interest rate on their mortgage and
so they didn't want to go somewhere else right now.
But after you lose it, then and it's like what's
keeping you here? So I'm such a great the people
(25:03):
I would never be good people.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
Yeah, I would never have thought about that. But yeah,
once you lose everything, I mean, you know when you
have that those historical rates, whether it's an interest rate
or you've already paid off your home or whatever it is,
you had a value there that you've completely lost. Most
people cannot afford to live in California. That's the crazy reality, right.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
And some of the people, some of my friends who
did lose homes, their jobs require them to be in
this area, so they're not going to leave unless maybe
they can work remote. But it's going to be just
a big disaster with so many ramifications that we don't
even know yet. But the main thing is hopefully that
this will be the change not just for California, but
(25:49):
for the country of how bad these progressive policies are.
Like you said, they're in Michigan too. It's not just
limited to California.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
And just like with ABY.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
Five, I'm not sure you're familiar with that, it was
an anti independent contracting law here in California, and who
put out of work was a lot of the creatives,
and it was during COVID, Well we got a lot
of that repealed. Because when you tick off the creatives,
you have a big problem because they have the platform,
they have the talent to get the information out there
(26:19):
to people. So now that you've got Hollywood, it's just
severely impacted by this, how many documentaries are we going
to see about Gavin Newsom's incompetence.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
They're going to need a sacrificial lamb.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
And I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up being
some kind of investigation into Gavin Newsom's narcissism and how
all of this played into it.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
I have a feeling it's coming.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
Let's take a quick commercial break. We'll continue next on
the Tutor Dixon Podcast. You know, I was thinking about
what you just said about we don't know the ramifications
of this man. You go back to COVID and we
saw so many ramifications of reathing being shut down and
kids being out of school, and I think, my kids,
(27:04):
you know, I've got sixth grade, eighth grade, tenth grade,
and they all went through school in COVID. So all
of these, all these schools that are burned down, most
of these kids have already missed school once they've already
had one major tragedy. And you don't realize how much
that affects your kids until you hear. One day, my
daughter was sitting with her cousin and she goes, well,
(27:26):
remember that was during what did she say? It was
like during lockdown? Or something, and I'm like, man, they
actually have a quarantine that was during quarantine, so we
cann't go anywhere. I was like, they actually have like
a season of their life that is quarantine where they
just remember being locked in. Yes.
Speaker 3 (27:44):
Yeah, two years in this area that these kids already lost, yes,
because of how crazy La was with it. And now
they'll at least lose the rest of this school year
with their friends. I mean, who knows how they're going
to be able to get back in touch. And for kids,
that's their community, that's where they go for for their
their feeling of belonging, their consistency. Obviously their family too,
(28:07):
but you know, you go to school, you have your teacher,
you have your friends. That routine brings you normalcy. Now
they do not have that.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
No.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
I remember when my kids, you know, it was like
they came home and they said it'll be fifteen days
and I said, no, it won't. Pack when you they
said tomorrow's our last day, I said, pack up your
entire locker. You're never going back. And they were like, oh,
that's crazy. And it was so shocking because you at
that age, you know, my kids were like first and
(28:35):
third and fifth grade, and and at those ages, your
teacher is like a family member. They're part of your life.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
You know.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
It's a critical and they're just ripped away. And I
think about these poor kids a second time. What will happen?
They have no school and when will the school be rebuilt?
How could you possibly rebuild a community that fast.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
And the way that California's laws are, it would take
a long time.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
One of our Assemblymen, Bill A.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
Saley, has asked for a special session to deal with this,
and hopefully one of the things would be just bypassing
all of the normal regulations to be able to get
these things built. Obviously we want them built with to
be able to withstand earthquakes and fires, that kind of thing.
But let's not have delays because we're impacting what lizard
or what were might be impacted by this building or
(29:25):
Healthnates community has been there in some fashion over one
hundred years, but at least sixty or seventy years where
it's been pretty much as built up as it is now.
And one woman said they hadn't even been evacuated for
fire since the seventies in that area, so it's not
like this was a new building up in the wilderness
that shouldn't have been there. This was an established community
(29:47):
that still had no protection.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
I think that we have to get past malicious environmentalism,
and I think I realized how it started. And it's
not that I'm totally insensitive to endangered species, but when
it becomes malicious environmentalism and you can't see it, you've
become so indoctrinated in we care more about these smell
(30:12):
than we care about the kids getting to school. Where
is the voice of reason in California? And we've been
saying this for so long, So to your point, maybe
this is a turning point. My gosh, I wish this
is not how we would see a turning point. And
I see everybody saying, you know, maybe this is the
silver lining, and I guess that we have to look
for something that maybe California begins to return to what
(30:37):
the rest of the country has been, which is limited government,
making sure that people can achieve on their own and
that you have the basics protection, that you're safe in
your own community, and whether that is safe from criminals
or safe from fire. This is the moment when we say, okay,
we got to turn things around.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
Well, and I would say get back to what, not
just what the rest of the country was, get back
to what California was when it started. California was where
the dreamers and adventurers went during the Gold Rush and
after World War Two. Both my grandfather grandfathers, one was
from Michigan, one from Indiana. They came out and married
California girls and started businesses and became successful. And that's
(31:18):
what California has been. A place where you have limited government,
a place where you had the freedom to dream and
achieve and and innovate and be an entrepreneur. I mean,
we have SpaceX, we have Disneyland, we have Silicon Valley,
we have all of that stuff. And not to mention
the ranchers that always respected the land and the farmers
that came out here. We feed a good portion of
(31:40):
the world from California. Let's get back to that and
then you'll see huge success and of California can lead
the way in that. Then that could be a good
way that California can lead this world instead of the
crazy ways we've been leading the world over the last
few decades.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
Absolutely, the ranchers and the farmers who are the original
and the true environmentalists and we could learn a lot
from them. And you just reminded me like when I
was a kid and you're learning about the gold Rush
and pioneers and all these people that just took that
risk to go out to California. That was to me,
that was what America was. I was like, that's we are.
(32:15):
We're adventurers like I want to be that person. And
California was bigger than life. And California is still bigger
than life. I mean, California. Is this the land of opportunity,
right and the land of imagination and the land of
movies and the land of Silicon Valley, as you said,
And we have to bring that back and we have
(32:36):
to embrace it. And I just I do hope that
it goes back to what you were saying, and I
hope that we can all continue to support California. That's
why I appreciate you coming on today. But also that's
why I think it's so important we keep talking about this.
I know that you probably will as a writer yourself. Yeah,
but I appreciate you being here.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
Thank you for having me on.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
Absolutely, So I just want everybody to know, Jennifer van
lah Are, Now where can people find your work.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
At RedState RedState dot com and then I do post
some of it as threads on x SO at gen
van Laar.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
Awesome. Thank you so much, Thank you, and thank you
all for listening to the Tutor Dixon podcast for this
episode and others. Go to the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts and join us next time.
Have a blessed day.
Host
Tudor Dixon
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