January 28, 2025 • 30 mins
The John Kobylt Show Hour 1 (01/28) - Mayor Karen Bass did a walkthrough in Pacific Palisades yesterday with Steve Soboroff. Pacific Palisades residents are finally allowed to go back to their homes. Alex Stone comes on the show to talk about California investigating a possible electrical line issue that might have caused the Eaton Fire in Altadena. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the FAA was flying drones over New Jersey last month but was very vague.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Can't. I am six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
You're listening to the John Coblt podcast on the iHeartRadio app.
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Speaker 1 (00:21):
You can run it all day.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
And so thank you for coming and listening on the
schedule today about half an hour going to Alex Stone
from ABC News focus on the Altadena fire, the eaton
fire because now there's videos that show that flash on
the so Cal Edison lines in high winds.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
But it's funny.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
So Cal Edison is pretending like there is no video
with flashes emanating from the lines. They keep saying they
haven't seen any evidence, but the video has the evidence.
They're incredible, and faults were registered as well. Yesterday they
were trying to blame a homeless encampment, which I'm all
(01:08):
for blaming homeless encampments, but it has to be true
that camp was nine hundred yards away from the wire
where the fire started, or from the tower where the
fire started. So we'll talk to Alex about that. And
also we're going to talk two thirty two Congressman Vince Vaughn,
formerly in the legislature in Sacramento, recently won an election
(01:30):
and now he's representing Bakersfield in Congress, and he is
going to talk about Trump's wildfire relief plan here for California.
It's pretty obvious that Bass and Newsom are going to
rely heavily on Trump to bail them out of the
mess that they created. Yesterday, Karen Bass did a half
(01:56):
hour walk. This is one of these showmanship things with
Steve sober Off. Sober Off has been a developer and
a city official at various times in the past, a
background similar to Caruso, you know, developed developed properties and
also it has been on I believe the Police Commission
(02:17):
and other other bodies and acts as I think he
was at top aid to Dick reared him in the
nineteen nineties, back when Los Angeles ran properly. So they
have They did this walk and talk thing for half
an hour. They hadn't been seen, they hadn't talked well.
Was the first time they took questions together since he
(02:39):
was announced. It was announced that he was going to
lead the recovery plan, and that was ten days. So
ten days you didn't have these two get taken questions together.
And it's pretty clear that she's going to try to
hide behind him because she has no experience in this.
You know, he's got some experience in government, working working
(03:01):
at the executive level with reared and a lot of
experience developing things and experience on those commissions.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
But she's got none of this.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
And so she doesn't have the vocabulary, she doesn't have
the references, the experience. She can't relate because this is
not what she did all her life. Which she did
all the life. Is she sat at meetings, you know,
task forces and blue ribbon panels and committee hearings and
just everybody bloviate's nonsense. But when you're talking about a
(03:32):
gigantic reclamation project, the likes of which I don't think
America has ever seen, at least not from a fire.
I guess the closest might have been Katrina and New Orleans,
you got to have a guy who has, you know,
a fair amount of experience in these fields, because she
certainly and you know what, it's pretty clear that nobody
(03:53):
really has faith in her there was because within this
story they started talking to some well residents and the
reporter came across someone named star Peroti it's a woman,
and Jeff Fair, and they found Bass. Whatever Bass was
(04:14):
trying to say to try to assure people that everything's
going to be okay, these two flatly, flatly did not
find it credible. They just she's She's not credible. After
this horrific response, one of the worst responses ever to
a major disaster, John isn't.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
There also some confusion on the whole debris removal because
President Trump and Bass got into it right last week
over you know, Bass was saying, you know, we need
to keep you safe, and we need to do this,
and we need to do that. And then Trump said, look,
let people go home and if they want to just
scoop up their stuff into you know, big trash bins
or whatever, let.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
Them do it.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
And and you know, they were going back and forth
on that, and Bass said, okay, well they can, but
they can't because they need to hire some They can
opt in to have the Army Corps of Engineers do it,
or they can hire their own person, but their own
person or company has to be permitted so there's a
whole process I have to go through.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
She she was she was lying because she was intimidated
by Trump and kept saying, Oh, no, they can go,
they can go, Yeah, yeah they can.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Well, well they can't.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Go because the government doesn't allow any random guy with
a with a dump truck to show up and claim
he does toxic waste removal. So yeah, there is there
is a permitting process there. There, There always is for
this stuff.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
There.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
You you can't hang up a picture frame in Los
Angeles without getting a permit from some kakamm agency. I
have a friend who's been uh, who's spent like several
years trying to redo his garage, and it's it's hard
to explain, but he just wanted to use the garage
(05:55):
for something else other than a garage. And this created
this whole conundrum, this big circle jerk really with with
with city hall inspectors over what to call the thing
and whether it should be permitted or not. And there
was just just them but delays and arguments, and it
was I couldn't follow it. That's why I can't explain
it now. I still he told it to me twice.
(06:16):
I have no idea what the problem was about. But
these people, they just fled out. I don't believe anything,
Karen Bass says, because Star Parati said, uh, I guess
this is a couple. When they saw flames begin to
lap at their Palisades house, they have a ring camera.
(06:37):
Parati says, she called nine one one, and the dispatcher replied,
we don't have the resources. Everyone is out. We don't
have the resources. Everyone is out, and then refused to
take a report. Now she's at the the flames are
right at the edge of her property, so no report,
(07:03):
no one to call. What does that mean? You're not
getting any help? And Parati said, no firefighters ever came.
So she and her husband and their daughter staring at
their ring camera while they were evacuated, and they were
hoping to see a fire truck pass by the house
(07:25):
and then almost as aside. The La Times talks about
her voting history, how she was torn between Bass and
Caruso in twenty twenty two. Ultimately went for Caruso, but
she always tried to support female candidates of color like Bass,
and I stared at it. That stopped me and I thought, well,
(07:49):
you could see how important a mayor is, especially when
a disaster like this happens, not only having the proper response,
but then the proper recovery leadership. And you're looking at
whether you know about her, You're looking at her lady
parts and her skin tone, her color. What I looked
(08:14):
at this and I just wanted to scream as everybody insane.
You're looking to see what gender she is, and you're
looking to see what color she is instead of stopping
and thinking this through, what do you need? An executive?
And again Caruso's standing right next to her right, and
(08:36):
it's like, well, that guy's run big organizations and employs
lots of people and deals with complex problems. You look
at Karen Bass and it's like, well, she's a certain
color and she's a girl.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
It's no wonder we're in the state we're in now.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
If she's a certain color and she's a girl and
she also has Caruso's executive background, now you got something here.
You want to give her the edge because she has
the color you're looking for or the gender you're looking for.
But really, his experience, his resume blows hers away.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
A thousand times over. How is it even close? But
what do I know? She won by ten points.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Because we have a bizarre population in California that does
vote based on your sexual parts and your skin color
and nothing else matters, apparently, you know, until the big
fire comes. But to Star Paroti's credit, now she believed, well,
(09:48):
she did vote for Crusoe and says Bass did not
organize the city to face the fire, and Paroti's home
was incinerated along with Now this is this is sad.
They had musical treasures that she and her husband had
collected over thirty years their composers. They had had two Grammys,
(10:10):
and they had a nineteen twenty eight Steinway piano that
Parati said she was told it was used on an
MGM sound stage to record the music for the Wizard
of Oz. So that's extremely sad, very valuable, very nostalgic
and sentimental. Our homes, our communities, our lives are important.
(10:34):
You don't choose a person to protect your home, to
protect your everything that you're worth, based on their color
and their gender parts. I mean, I mean that that's
just asking for it. You do that enough and you're
(10:54):
going to get this instead of going somebody with a
long record of experience and accomplishments and certain talents and abilities.
I can't believe, after all these years, you have to
say this out loud and it sounds radical.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
How to take a break.
Speaker 5 (11:10):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from kf I
am six forty.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Continue going through responses that the La Times found. Now
that they're opening up the palisades, people are visiting the
rubble of their homes. Karen Bass and Steve Soberoff did
basically a photo op. They walked around for half an
hour taking questions. Of course, you know the most important
(11:39):
questions about the botched response. I still haven't seen happen yet.
I mean, she ought to be forced. She ought to
be tied down and forced to explain the hell.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
Has she been doing?
Speaker 2 (11:56):
When she when when she got those those extreme fire
warm announcements, why did she decide to board a plane
to Ghana? I mean she really ought to be I
mean investigated and forced to testify under oath to give
the answer. And you know what, She's got to be
questioned the way a prosecutor would and nail her down.
(12:19):
It's like, so, miss Bass, you thought it was more
urgent to attend the President of Ghana's inauguration than protect
a city of four million people from potential one hundred
mile an hour winds. With a proper fire response, it
has to be worded and delivered in a very blunt,
(12:42):
direct manner. It's like, so, what were your priorities here?
Extreme fire warning one hundred mile an hour wins? You
know what that does in the San Ana season, and
you thought it was more important to go to where
to do what? Boy, I'd give a couple of my
body parts to hear anybody question her publicly about that reporter,
(13:05):
a citizen, just some jerk on the street, maybe maybe
a prosecuting attorney. So anyway, the Times went to talk
to people and to see who they voted for. That
(13:26):
away was fascinated because me, I think you look at
somebody's intelligence, somebody's experience, their their their their list of achievements,
like their ability to execute. Now they may have a
set of solutions that you disagree with, and you might
vote for the other guy, the other woman, the other party, right,
(13:48):
but at least you want to know that if they
do get in power, that they'll be able to execute
the basics such as have the intelligence to pass on
the aff a trip when you have extreme fire warnings
to send a squadron of fire trucks and firefighters to
all the high risk cities, high risk neighborhoods in the city.
(14:15):
So I told you they were talking to Star Parati
and Jeff Fair. They are a couple who suffered some
terrible losses, lost their entire home. And Parati, who did
vote for Caruso, said I feel like she's done a
very incompetent job.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Karen Bass probably has a good heart.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
But if you know Los Angeles and you know there's
going to be a Santa Ana wind event, why would
you go out of the country. That felt bad, felt
like abandonment was abandonment, didn't care. Parati's frustration, says The Times,
was shared by Christopher and Magda Murphy, independent voters who
(14:56):
lost their house in the Palisades as well. Whore really
disappointed she was on a junket to Ghana. Were disappointed
they didn't take precautions with the fire trucks to disperse
them around the city like they did in twenty eleven
during an earlier threat.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Ah, so they have a memory.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
That we had a big Santa Ana win and the
trucks were dispersed around the city. Boy, that would have
been that would have been via Gosa. They could have
been more aggressive, said Christopher Murphy. He voted for Crusoe Magna.
Murphy says she should resign. She admitted voting for bass.
(15:34):
Why did she leave? Why didn't they stop the fire
when it was a small one. It's like a parent
leaving your kids abandoned being in danger.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
Ah.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Yeah, that's a little bit of faulty thinking there, not
as faulty as voting for people based on their genitals
and skin color. But the idea that these people are
our parents and have the same care that most of
our parents would have for us. No, they don't. And
this childlike belief that political leaders care about you is
(16:08):
astonishing to me. I have read that most of the time.
For example, in a presidential race, the key question that
will give you an indication who would win is the
question does he understand people like you?
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Does he relate to people like you?
Speaker 2 (16:32):
And the candidate that gets the higher rating on that
question tends to win because people vote for people vote
for candidates who Yeah, you know, he understands me, He's
going to be working for me.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
No they don't, No, they don't. They work for.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Themselves to achieve whatever they want in their career, to
climb the political ladder, to give themselves some kind of legacy.
Maybe some of that coincides with policies that work for
people like you, but that's not their intention. I guess
we were all brainwashed as children by all the idiot
(17:15):
teachers who taught us civics.
Speaker 5 (17:17):
More coming up, you're listening to John cobelts on demand
from KFI A six forty.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
We are on every day from one until four and
then after four o'clock.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
John Cobelt's show.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
On demand on the iHeart app and at John Cobelt Radio.
Is how you can follow us on social media at
John Cobelt Radio.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
All right, Next up the Altadena fire.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
The eaton Fire Alex Stone from ABC News because videos
have surfaced that show sparking flashes on so Cal Edison
lines while the winds were blowing hard the night of
the fire, and then the fire starting just below those
(17:59):
wires bottom of a tower. Let's talk to Alex because
so Cal Edison keeps trying to say that there's no
evidence yet that they had anything to do with the fire.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Alex, how are you hey? They're John.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Yeah, they say that they haven't seen anything that shows
it was their equipment, but officially that the cause of
Eaton fire has not been determined. But there are a
bunch of lawsuits against Southern California Edison based on videos
and witnesses who say that they saw it begin under
a so Cal Edison tower in Eden Canyon. And now
there is this new video that's being presented by attorneys
(18:36):
for one of the wildfire victims, and they say it
shows arcing on those power lines at six to eleven
PM on January seventh, then there is immediately a tiny
glow of fire below the power lines, and then at
six eighteen a bigger fire under that tower, and then
it really takes off from there.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
So this is an.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Attorney for that victim. They presented the video in court,
they are releasing it now and the attorneys saying.
Speaker 6 (19:01):
We see what is unequivocally arking at the very origin
of this fire. We know that their equipment was involved
in this, and now it's just a matter of determining
why did this happen.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
So there was a court hearing yesterday. The judge said
none of so Cal Edison's equipment in the fire zone.
They cannot alter it. They cannot destroy it because that
is potential evidence in there. And the attorneys claim that
so cal Edison was going to hide evidence showing their
responsibility for the fire.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
That's a claim that they're making.
Speaker 6 (19:27):
And see had plants to unilaterally potentially destroy evidence in
this case, but the court's order.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Puts a stop to that.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Now, we all know living in California that a lot
of the big wildfires over the years that they've linked
back to the power lines in high winds, I think Lehina,
Santa Rosa, Paradise, and at least in Santa Rosa and Paradise.
It took a very long time for PG and E
to take responsibility Pacific Gas Electric in those and to
determine that they were a fold for those ryl cou
(19:59):
lives in the area. She backs up what the video
appears to show.
Speaker 7 (20:04):
Up at that time that when we saw it, it
was just at the base of the tower, and within
minutes it had spread.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
So now so cal Edison John, they are saying, first
of all, they're saying that they have found there is
a homeless encampment kind of near that tower, insinuating that
maybe that was responsible for it. Somebody in that homeless encampment.
The attorneys are saying, no, that that there's no indication
of that. It is not where the initial fire is.
I read it was three hundred yards away, Yeah, and
(20:33):
they don't see any indication that there was any burning there.
The attorneys are arguing that that is a distraction from
so Cal Edison trying to say, well, look over here,
maybe it was this. Kathleen Dunleavy was so Cal Edison says,
they are looking at this video that they after they
got it from the New York Times, they gave it
to fire investigators who had not seen it. It's from
an ARCO in Altadena, and you know they're looking at
(20:55):
the gas pumps, but it's in the up in the
corner of it. And that now sokel Edison they're looking
at the video.
Speaker 7 (21:01):
Atheneo requires careful analysis and it's premature for anyone to
be speculating on what the video footage means before it
goes to investigators.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
And so she says the company has seen and she
told me yesterday that the company has seen no faults
on the line in that area of the fire area
and Eaton Canyon, that they don't see anything indicating that
they had a problem.
Speaker 4 (21:24):
We did not find any faults onlines.
Speaker 5 (21:27):
What we did is a.
Speaker 7 (21:28):
Deeper dive and we found some distant lines that did
have some faults, but they don't serve the canyon.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
So the faults that they did see on those distant lines,
according to a filing with the state, they were about
five miles away, and they say the fault five miles
away kept everything within parameters in the fire area. But
they say that they see nothing in the fire area
that they would have come back to them. But these
attorneys are saying, look, it's on the video that maybe
that fault five miles away sent a surge of electricity
(21:57):
down the line and it sparked in the fire and
you had the ar king there. So cal Edison's saying no,
but we know those lines were not de energized. Others
were in the area. Because Edison is saying that these
are our lines that should have been able to stand
higher winds and not have had a problem like some
of the ones that they did de energize. So they
(22:18):
left these energized during the fire, and they did have
power going through them. So we'll see where this goes.
This is part of one lawsuit of many. But this
new video now showing what may have been the beginning
of the eat and fire. Did they say that the
winds weren't strong enough to justify shutting down the shutting
(22:38):
down the air? Yeah, these lines, because they were saying
that you know, all the different lines, these were high
tension power lines, that all the different lines have different
wind capability, and that they claimed that these were well
within the rules to stay energized in those winds on
Tuesday night, and that others that weren't that they de
energized those and there were public safety power shut offs
(23:00):
and people lost their power in those areas, but that
these were bigger lines that did they claim we were.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Good in that win.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
All right, very good, Alex, thank you, you got it.
Thanks John Alex Stone from KFI News. See modern life
means nobody tells the truth in public when people screw
up to admit it means now you're on the block
in a lawsuit, you're gonna be held liable. You're going
(23:28):
to be held up for public scorn and ridicule, which
you should be. Which is why Karen Bass is not
addressing all the costs on the stakes she made, and
so cal Edison doesn't want to publicly admit it's going
to cost the company probably billions of dollars. I think
it's gonna cost them anyway. I mean, if this is
definitive video that they fire started here with those lines sparking,
(23:54):
and if they didn't de energize the lines, and it
doesn't matter if it meets the standards or not. What
matters whether in that moment, whatever the wind was, it
was enough to cause the arking. Maybe the lines touched,
which avoids the main question is why aren't all the
transmission lines after all these years been put underground? What
(24:16):
are we dealing with this for ae hundred years now?
Dig a hole, lay them underground. Stop yacking about the cost.
The cost of these fires is far, far, far more
than the cost of laying down the transmission lines. The
answers are known. That's what's frustrating here. The answers to
(24:37):
a lot of this stuff are known. The money exists,
and they just don't care. You can't make Karen Bass care.
You can't make the so cal Edison executives care. They
don't more coming up.
Speaker 5 (24:56):
You're listening to John Cobbels on demand from Kifi.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Do you remember the drones.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Boy, that seems so long ago, the drones especially that
were swirling over New Jersey. Was that December? Yes, that
was before Christmas. Yes, I'm looking at a picture here.
December fifth was one of the Knights. Well, the White
House Press secretary. There's a new one named Caroline Levitt.
(25:25):
Have you seen her?
Speaker 4 (25:26):
Yeah? Do you know how old she is?
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Twelve?
Speaker 4 (25:29):
She looks twelve.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
She does look twelve. She sounds twelve. Yeah, I think
she's twenty seven.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
Yep. Yeah, youngest Press secretary ever and she sounds it too.
Speaker 4 (25:39):
Yeah. And she's a pretty blonde.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
They were young, pretty blondeeah. Yeah, Well it's good to
be the president.
Speaker 4 (25:49):
Yeah. I would imagine.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
Any fat, ugly trolls show up to apply for a
White House job.
Speaker 4 (25:54):
Not under the Trump administration.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Oh no, there were a few under the Biden administration.
But anyway, Caroline Levitt, she does speak clearly, and she
announced that all the I mean they're not denying the
drones existed, but she said they were flown by the
FAA for research purposes and various other reasons. And then,
(26:16):
as the whole incident became popularized, hobbyists and private individuals
they all joined in and started sending up their drones,
so that made the skies even more crowded. Now, what
she didn't explain was why'd they do this? What kind
of research?
Speaker 3 (26:36):
And why did it take this long for us to
finally know the truth.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Yeah, I mean it's almost February.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
It took almost two months for them to tell us
that it was FAA research. Now the way the Biden
administration reacted and even Trump it and and they reiterated
today that these were not enemy drones that were swarming us.
And you got that feeling because the reaction was so muted.
(27:04):
And this is not really an explanation. And also it
could be a cover story. I'm not assuming anybody tells
us the truth that's true, and it may still be
some kind of classified military experiment that they were doing.
I mean, you could see if you wanted to invade
somebody or disorient their population or panic people, that you
would do a test run, send in dozens or hundreds
(27:28):
of drones in formation and have them start swirling around
and then see what happened, see how the human species reacts.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
But doesn't it make you feel better that it's part
of the FAA was it was something that they were
perhaps involved with, because I think people were so freaked
out because nobody was telling us what was going on.
People were thinking, oh, is this a different country. Are
they spying what's going on?
Speaker 1 (27:50):
You know China?
Speaker 4 (27:51):
Right?
Speaker 2 (27:52):
Yeah, because they had that balloon exactly from a couple
of years ago.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
So we were all freaking out, well not all, but
a lot of people, especially New Jersey, we're freaking out
probably for nothing.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
Well when you see dozens of them all at once.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
But this, I mean, just why didn't anybody explain it
just like she did today?
Speaker 1 (28:10):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
See, that's that's the Biden administration. They did a lot
of things that made no sense. And if this is true,
if this isn't just a covera sing, so I'm completely
cynical and skeptical of anybody who gets a government paycheck,
and really almost anybody in public life, whether it's whether
it's like corporate to spokespeople, they're the worst. You know,
(28:33):
celebrities and anybody who is comfortable around a microphone has
been trained how to lie and confuse people, how to
mislead people.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
And I mean they had.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
They have a map breaking up the number of sightings
these go back all the way to November thirteenth, before Thanksgiving,
there was one county Hundredon County in western Jersey, one
hundred and eighty sightings, another one hundred and sixty five
at Somerset County, which is near Trump's big golf course,
which is why they thought, you know, this could be
(29:10):
a some foreign spy operation. Eighty nine in Monmouth County,
forty three in Morris County. Many counties did not have.
It seemed like it was targeted clusters in certain parts
of the state and why New Jersey. But they didn't
say specifically what research was being performed, although often the
(29:33):
sightings were near military bases. They didn't say what the
what the phrase other reasons might mean. And so this
is supposed to I guess that's the only answer we're
ever going to get. All right, coming up next hour
in at two thirty, we're gonna have Vince Fongan, he
(29:56):
used to be a state senator now Republican congressman, and
and he met with Trump when they visited the wildfire victims,
and he's going to explain what Trump's relief plan is
going to look like for the residents here in southern
California who suffered from the fires. That's coming up, along
(30:19):
with many other things. Debora Mark is live in the
KFI twenty four hour News Center. Hey, you've been listening
to the John Covelt Show podcast. You can always hear
the show live on KFI Am six forty from one
to four pm every Monday through Friday, and of course,
anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
Can't. I am six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
You're listening to the John Coblt podcast on the iHeartRadio app.
We are on the radio every day between one and
four o'clock in the afternoon, and then after four o'clock.
If you miss stuff John Coblt Show on demand. It's
the podcast runs forever and so you could hear every
single minute, even even if you miss the original show.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
You can run it all day.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
And so thank you for coming and listening on the
schedule today about half an hour going to Alex Stone
from ABC News focus on the Altadena fire, the eaton
fire because now there's videos that show that flash on
the so Cal Edison lines in high winds.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
But it's funny.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
So Cal Edison is pretending like there is no video
with flashes emanating from the lines. They keep saying they
haven't seen any evidence, but the video has the evidence.
They're incredible, and faults were registered as well. Yesterday they
were trying to blame a homeless encampment, which I'm all
(01:08):
for blaming homeless encampments, but it has to be true
that camp was nine hundred yards away from the wire
where the fire started, or from the tower where the
fire started. So we'll talk to Alex about that. And
also we're going to talk two thirty two Congressman Vince Vaughn,
formerly in the legislature in Sacramento, recently won an election
(01:30):
and now he's representing Bakersfield in Congress, and he is
going to talk about Trump's wildfire relief plan here for California.
It's pretty obvious that Bass and Newsom are going to
rely heavily on Trump to bail them out of the
mess that they created. Yesterday, Karen Bass did a half
(01:56):
hour walk. This is one of these showmanship things with
Steve sober Off. Sober Off has been a developer and
a city official at various times in the past, a
background similar to Caruso, you know, developed developed properties and
also it has been on I believe the Police Commission
(02:17):
and other other bodies and acts as I think he
was at top aid to Dick reared him in the
nineteen nineties, back when Los Angeles ran properly. So they
have They did this walk and talk thing for half
an hour. They hadn't been seen, they hadn't talked well.
Was the first time they took questions together since he
(02:39):
was announced. It was announced that he was going to
lead the recovery plan, and that was ten days. So
ten days you didn't have these two get taken questions together.
And it's pretty clear that she's going to try to
hide behind him because she has no experience in this.
You know, he's got some experience in government, working working
(03:01):
at the executive level with reared and a lot of
experience developing things and experience on those commissions.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
But she's got none of this.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
And so she doesn't have the vocabulary, she doesn't have
the references, the experience. She can't relate because this is
not what she did all her life. Which she did
all the life. Is she sat at meetings, you know,
task forces and blue ribbon panels and committee hearings and
just everybody bloviate's nonsense. But when you're talking about a
(03:32):
gigantic reclamation project, the likes of which I don't think
America has ever seen, at least not from a fire.
I guess the closest might have been Katrina and New Orleans,
you got to have a guy who has, you know,
a fair amount of experience in these fields, because she
certainly and you know what, it's pretty clear that nobody
(03:53):
really has faith in her there was because within this
story they started talking to some well residents and the
reporter came across someone named star Peroti it's a woman,
and Jeff Fair, and they found Bass. Whatever Bass was
(04:14):
trying to say to try to assure people that everything's
going to be okay, these two flatly, flatly did not
find it credible. They just she's She's not credible. After
this horrific response, one of the worst responses ever to
a major disaster, John isn't.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
There also some confusion on the whole debris removal because
President Trump and Bass got into it right last week
over you know, Bass was saying, you know, we need
to keep you safe, and we need to do this,
and we need to do that. And then Trump said, look,
let people go home and if they want to just
scoop up their stuff into you know, big trash bins
or whatever, let.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
Them do it.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
And and you know, they were going back and forth
on that, and Bass said, okay, well they can, but
they can't because they need to hire some They can
opt in to have the Army Corps of Engineers do it,
or they can hire their own person, but their own
person or company has to be permitted so there's a
whole process I have to go through.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
She she was she was lying because she was intimidated
by Trump and kept saying, Oh, no, they can go,
they can go, Yeah, yeah they can.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Well, well they can't.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Go because the government doesn't allow any random guy with
a with a dump truck to show up and claim
he does toxic waste removal. So yeah, there is there
is a permitting process there. There, There always is for
this stuff.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
There.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
You you can't hang up a picture frame in Los
Angeles without getting a permit from some kakamm agency. I
have a friend who's been uh, who's spent like several
years trying to redo his garage, and it's it's hard
to explain, but he just wanted to use the garage
(05:55):
for something else other than a garage. And this created
this whole conundrum, this big circle jerk really with with
with city hall inspectors over what to call the thing
and whether it should be permitted or not. And there
was just just them but delays and arguments, and it
was I couldn't follow it. That's why I can't explain
it now. I still he told it to me twice.
(06:16):
I have no idea what the problem was about. But
these people, they just fled out. I don't believe anything,
Karen Bass says, because Star Parati said, uh, I guess
this is a couple. When they saw flames begin to
lap at their Palisades house, they have a ring camera.
(06:37):
Parati says, she called nine one one, and the dispatcher replied,
we don't have the resources. Everyone is out. We don't
have the resources. Everyone is out, and then refused to
take a report. Now she's at the the flames are
right at the edge of her property, so no report,
(07:03):
no one to call. What does that mean? You're not
getting any help? And Parati said, no firefighters ever came.
So she and her husband and their daughter staring at
their ring camera while they were evacuated, and they were
hoping to see a fire truck pass by the house
(07:25):
and then almost as aside. The La Times talks about
her voting history, how she was torn between Bass and
Caruso in twenty twenty two. Ultimately went for Caruso, but
she always tried to support female candidates of color like Bass,
and I stared at it. That stopped me and I thought, well,
(07:49):
you could see how important a mayor is, especially when
a disaster like this happens, not only having the proper response,
but then the proper recovery leadership. And you're looking at
whether you know about her, You're looking at her lady
parts and her skin tone, her color. What I looked
(08:14):
at this and I just wanted to scream as everybody insane.
You're looking to see what gender she is, and you're
looking to see what color she is instead of stopping
and thinking this through, what do you need? An executive?
And again Caruso's standing right next to her right, and
(08:36):
it's like, well, that guy's run big organizations and employs
lots of people and deals with complex problems. You look
at Karen Bass and it's like, well, she's a certain
color and she's a girl.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
It's no wonder we're in the state we're in now.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
If she's a certain color and she's a girl and
she also has Caruso's executive background, now you got something here.
You want to give her the edge because she has
the color you're looking for or the gender you're looking for.
But really, his experience, his resume blows hers away.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
A thousand times over. How is it even close? But
what do I know? She won by ten points.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Because we have a bizarre population in California that does
vote based on your sexual parts and your skin color
and nothing else matters, apparently, you know, until the big
fire comes. But to Star Paroti's credit, now she believed, well,
(09:48):
she did vote for Crusoe and says Bass did not
organize the city to face the fire, and Paroti's home
was incinerated along with Now this is this is sad.
They had musical treasures that she and her husband had
collected over thirty years their composers. They had had two Grammys,
(10:10):
and they had a nineteen twenty eight Steinway piano that
Parati said she was told it was used on an
MGM sound stage to record the music for the Wizard
of Oz. So that's extremely sad, very valuable, very nostalgic
and sentimental. Our homes, our communities, our lives are important.
(10:34):
You don't choose a person to protect your home, to
protect your everything that you're worth, based on their color
and their gender parts. I mean, I mean that that's
just asking for it. You do that enough and you're
(10:54):
going to get this instead of going somebody with a
long record of experience and accomplishments and certain talents and abilities.
I can't believe, after all these years, you have to
say this out loud and it sounds radical.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
How to take a break.
Speaker 5 (11:10):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from kf I
am six forty.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Continue going through responses that the La Times found. Now
that they're opening up the palisades, people are visiting the
rubble of their homes. Karen Bass and Steve Soberoff did
basically a photo op. They walked around for half an
hour taking questions. Of course, you know the most important
(11:39):
questions about the botched response. I still haven't seen happen yet.
I mean, she ought to be forced. She ought to
be tied down and forced to explain the hell.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
Has she been doing?
Speaker 2 (11:56):
When she when when she got those those extreme fire
warm announcements, why did she decide to board a plane
to Ghana? I mean she really ought to be I
mean investigated and forced to testify under oath to give
the answer. And you know what, She's got to be
questioned the way a prosecutor would and nail her down.
(12:19):
It's like, so, miss Bass, you thought it was more
urgent to attend the President of Ghana's inauguration than protect
a city of four million people from potential one hundred
mile an hour winds. With a proper fire response, it
has to be worded and delivered in a very blunt,
(12:42):
direct manner. It's like, so, what were your priorities here?
Extreme fire warning one hundred mile an hour wins? You
know what that does in the San Ana season, and
you thought it was more important to go to where
to do what? Boy, I'd give a couple of my
body parts to hear anybody question her publicly about that reporter,
(13:05):
a citizen, just some jerk on the street, maybe maybe
a prosecuting attorney. So anyway, the Times went to talk
to people and to see who they voted for. That
(13:26):
away was fascinated because me, I think you look at
somebody's intelligence, somebody's experience, their their their their list of achievements,
like their ability to execute. Now they may have a
set of solutions that you disagree with, and you might
vote for the other guy, the other woman, the other party, right,
(13:48):
but at least you want to know that if they
do get in power, that they'll be able to execute
the basics such as have the intelligence to pass on
the aff a trip when you have extreme fire warnings
to send a squadron of fire trucks and firefighters to
all the high risk cities, high risk neighborhoods in the city.
(14:15):
So I told you they were talking to Star Parati
and Jeff Fair. They are a couple who suffered some
terrible losses, lost their entire home. And Parati, who did
vote for Caruso, said I feel like she's done a
very incompetent job.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Karen Bass probably has a good heart.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
But if you know Los Angeles and you know there's
going to be a Santa Ana wind event, why would
you go out of the country. That felt bad, felt
like abandonment was abandonment, didn't care. Parati's frustration, says The Times,
was shared by Christopher and Magda Murphy, independent voters who
(14:56):
lost their house in the Palisades as well. Whore really
disappointed she was on a junket to Ghana. Were disappointed
they didn't take precautions with the fire trucks to disperse
them around the city like they did in twenty eleven
during an earlier threat.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Ah, so they have a memory.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
That we had a big Santa Ana win and the
trucks were dispersed around the city. Boy, that would have
been that would have been via Gosa. They could have
been more aggressive, said Christopher Murphy. He voted for Crusoe Magna.
Murphy says she should resign. She admitted voting for bass.
(15:34):
Why did she leave? Why didn't they stop the fire
when it was a small one. It's like a parent
leaving your kids abandoned being in danger.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
Ah.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Yeah, that's a little bit of faulty thinking there, not
as faulty as voting for people based on their genitals
and skin color. But the idea that these people are
our parents and have the same care that most of
our parents would have for us. No, they don't. And
this childlike belief that political leaders care about you is
(16:08):
astonishing to me. I have read that most of the time.
For example, in a presidential race, the key question that
will give you an indication who would win is the
question does he understand people like you?
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Does he relate to people like you?
Speaker 2 (16:32):
And the candidate that gets the higher rating on that
question tends to win because people vote for people vote
for candidates who Yeah, you know, he understands me, He's
going to be working for me.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
No they don't, No, they don't. They work for.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Themselves to achieve whatever they want in their career, to
climb the political ladder, to give themselves some kind of legacy.
Maybe some of that coincides with policies that work for
people like you, but that's not their intention. I guess
we were all brainwashed as children by all the idiot
(17:15):
teachers who taught us civics.
Speaker 5 (17:17):
More coming up, you're listening to John cobelts on demand
from KFI A six forty.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
We are on every day from one until four and
then after four o'clock.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
John Cobelt's show.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
On demand on the iHeart app and at John Cobelt Radio.
Is how you can follow us on social media at
John Cobelt Radio.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
All right, Next up the Altadena fire.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
The eaton Fire Alex Stone from ABC News because videos
have surfaced that show sparking flashes on so Cal Edison
lines while the winds were blowing hard the night of
the fire, and then the fire starting just below those
(17:59):
wires bottom of a tower. Let's talk to Alex because
so Cal Edison keeps trying to say that there's no
evidence yet that they had anything to do with the fire.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Alex, how are you hey? They're John.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Yeah, they say that they haven't seen anything that shows
it was their equipment, but officially that the cause of
Eaton fire has not been determined. But there are a
bunch of lawsuits against Southern California Edison based on videos
and witnesses who say that they saw it begin under
a so Cal Edison tower in Eden Canyon. And now
there is this new video that's being presented by attorneys
(18:36):
for one of the wildfire victims, and they say it
shows arcing on those power lines at six to eleven
PM on January seventh, then there is immediately a tiny
glow of fire below the power lines, and then at
six eighteen a bigger fire under that tower, and then
it really takes off from there.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
So this is an.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Attorney for that victim. They presented the video in court,
they are releasing it now and the attorneys saying.
Speaker 6 (19:01):
We see what is unequivocally arking at the very origin
of this fire. We know that their equipment was involved
in this, and now it's just a matter of determining
why did this happen.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
So there was a court hearing yesterday. The judge said
none of so Cal Edison's equipment in the fire zone.
They cannot alter it. They cannot destroy it because that
is potential evidence in there. And the attorneys claim that
so cal Edison was going to hide evidence showing their
responsibility for the fire.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
That's a claim that they're making.
Speaker 6 (19:27):
And see had plants to unilaterally potentially destroy evidence in
this case, but the court's order.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Puts a stop to that.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Now, we all know living in California that a lot
of the big wildfires over the years that they've linked
back to the power lines in high winds, I think Lehina,
Santa Rosa, Paradise, and at least in Santa Rosa and Paradise.
It took a very long time for PG and E
to take responsibility Pacific Gas Electric in those and to
determine that they were a fold for those ryl cou
(19:59):
lives in the area. She backs up what the video
appears to show.
Speaker 7 (20:04):
Up at that time that when we saw it, it
was just at the base of the tower, and within
minutes it had spread.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
So now so cal Edison John, they are saying, first
of all, they're saying that they have found there is
a homeless encampment kind of near that tower, insinuating that
maybe that was responsible for it. Somebody in that homeless encampment.
The attorneys are saying, no, that that there's no indication
of that. It is not where the initial fire is.
I read it was three hundred yards away, Yeah, and
(20:33):
they don't see any indication that there was any burning there.
The attorneys are arguing that that is a distraction from
so Cal Edison trying to say, well, look over here,
maybe it was this. Kathleen Dunleavy was so Cal Edison says,
they are looking at this video that they after they
got it from the New York Times, they gave it
to fire investigators who had not seen it. It's from
an ARCO in Altadena, and you know they're looking at
(20:55):
the gas pumps, but it's in the up in the
corner of it. And that now sokel Edison they're looking
at the video.
Speaker 7 (21:01):
Atheneo requires careful analysis and it's premature for anyone to
be speculating on what the video footage means before it
goes to investigators.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
And so she says the company has seen and she
told me yesterday that the company has seen no faults
on the line in that area of the fire area
and Eaton Canyon, that they don't see anything indicating that
they had a problem.
Speaker 4 (21:24):
We did not find any faults onlines.
Speaker 5 (21:27):
What we did is a.
Speaker 7 (21:28):
Deeper dive and we found some distant lines that did
have some faults, but they don't serve the canyon.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
So the faults that they did see on those distant lines,
according to a filing with the state, they were about
five miles away, and they say the fault five miles
away kept everything within parameters in the fire area. But
they say that they see nothing in the fire area
that they would have come back to them. But these
attorneys are saying, look, it's on the video that maybe
that fault five miles away sent a surge of electricity
(21:57):
down the line and it sparked in the fire and
you had the ar king there. So cal Edison's saying no,
but we know those lines were not de energized. Others
were in the area. Because Edison is saying that these
are our lines that should have been able to stand
higher winds and not have had a problem like some
of the ones that they did de energize. So they
(22:18):
left these energized during the fire, and they did have
power going through them. So we'll see where this goes.
This is part of one lawsuit of many. But this
new video now showing what may have been the beginning
of the eat and fire. Did they say that the
winds weren't strong enough to justify shutting down the shutting
(22:38):
down the air? Yeah, these lines, because they were saying
that you know, all the different lines, these were high
tension power lines, that all the different lines have different
wind capability, and that they claimed that these were well
within the rules to stay energized in those winds on
Tuesday night, and that others that weren't that they de
energized those and there were public safety power shut offs
(23:00):
and people lost their power in those areas, but that
these were bigger lines that did they claim we were.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Good in that win.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
All right, very good, Alex, thank you, you got it.
Thanks John Alex Stone from KFI News. See modern life
means nobody tells the truth in public when people screw
up to admit it means now you're on the block
in a lawsuit, you're gonna be held liable. You're going
(23:28):
to be held up for public scorn and ridicule, which
you should be. Which is why Karen Bass is not
addressing all the costs on the stakes she made, and
so cal Edison doesn't want to publicly admit it's going
to cost the company probably billions of dollars. I think
it's gonna cost them anyway. I mean, if this is
definitive video that they fire started here with those lines sparking,
(23:54):
and if they didn't de energize the lines, and it
doesn't matter if it meets the standards or not. What
matters whether in that moment, whatever the wind was, it
was enough to cause the arking. Maybe the lines touched,
which avoids the main question is why aren't all the
transmission lines after all these years been put underground? What
(24:16):
are we dealing with this for ae hundred years now?
Dig a hole, lay them underground. Stop yacking about the cost.
The cost of these fires is far, far, far more
than the cost of laying down the transmission lines. The
answers are known. That's what's frustrating here. The answers to
(24:37):
a lot of this stuff are known. The money exists,
and they just don't care. You can't make Karen Bass care.
You can't make the so cal Edison executives care. They
don't more coming up.
Speaker 5 (24:56):
You're listening to John Cobbels on demand from Kifi.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Do you remember the drones.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Boy, that seems so long ago, the drones especially that
were swirling over New Jersey. Was that December? Yes, that
was before Christmas. Yes, I'm looking at a picture here.
December fifth was one of the Knights. Well, the White
House Press secretary. There's a new one named Caroline Levitt.
(25:25):
Have you seen her?
Speaker 4 (25:26):
Yeah? Do you know how old she is?
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Twelve?
Speaker 4 (25:29):
She looks twelve.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
She does look twelve. She sounds twelve. Yeah, I think
she's twenty seven.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
Yep. Yeah, youngest Press secretary ever and she sounds it too.
Speaker 4 (25:39):
Yeah. And she's a pretty blonde.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
They were young, pretty blondeeah. Yeah, Well it's good to
be the president.
Speaker 4 (25:49):
Yeah. I would imagine.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
Any fat, ugly trolls show up to apply for a
White House job.
Speaker 4 (25:54):
Not under the Trump administration.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Oh no, there were a few under the Biden administration.
But anyway, Caroline Levitt, she does speak clearly, and she
announced that all the I mean they're not denying the
drones existed, but she said they were flown by the
FAA for research purposes and various other reasons. And then,
(26:16):
as the whole incident became popularized, hobbyists and private individuals
they all joined in and started sending up their drones,
so that made the skies even more crowded. Now, what
she didn't explain was why'd they do this? What kind
of research?
Speaker 3 (26:36):
And why did it take this long for us to
finally know the truth.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Yeah, I mean it's almost February.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
It took almost two months for them to tell us
that it was FAA research. Now the way the Biden
administration reacted and even Trump it and and they reiterated
today that these were not enemy drones that were swarming us.
And you got that feeling because the reaction was so muted.
(27:04):
And this is not really an explanation. And also it
could be a cover story. I'm not assuming anybody tells
us the truth that's true, and it may still be
some kind of classified military experiment that they were doing.
I mean, you could see if you wanted to invade
somebody or disorient their population or panic people, that you
would do a test run, send in dozens or hundreds
(27:28):
of drones in formation and have them start swirling around
and then see what happened, see how the human species reacts.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
But doesn't it make you feel better that it's part
of the FAA was it was something that they were
perhaps involved with, because I think people were so freaked
out because nobody was telling us what was going on.
People were thinking, oh, is this a different country. Are
they spying what's going on?
Speaker 1 (27:50):
You know China?
Speaker 4 (27:51):
Right?
Speaker 2 (27:52):
Yeah, because they had that balloon exactly from a couple
of years ago.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
So we were all freaking out, well not all, but
a lot of people, especially New Jersey, we're freaking out
probably for nothing.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
Well when you see dozens of them all at once.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
But this, I mean, just why didn't anybody explain it
just like she did today?
Speaker 1 (28:10):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
See, that's that's the Biden administration. They did a lot
of things that made no sense. And if this is true,
if this isn't just a covera sing, so I'm completely
cynical and skeptical of anybody who gets a government paycheck,
and really almost anybody in public life, whether it's whether
it's like corporate to spokespeople, they're the worst. You know,
(28:33):
celebrities and anybody who is comfortable around a microphone has
been trained how to lie and confuse people, how to
mislead people.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
And I mean they had.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
They have a map breaking up the number of sightings
these go back all the way to November thirteenth, before Thanksgiving,
there was one county Hundredon County in western Jersey, one
hundred and eighty sightings, another one hundred and sixty five
at Somerset County, which is near Trump's big golf course,
which is why they thought, you know, this could be
(29:10):
a some foreign spy operation. Eighty nine in Monmouth County,
forty three in Morris County. Many counties did not have.
It seemed like it was targeted clusters in certain parts
of the state and why New Jersey. But they didn't
say specifically what research was being performed, although often the
(29:33):
sightings were near military bases. They didn't say what the
what the phrase other reasons might mean. And so this
is supposed to I guess that's the only answer we're
ever going to get. All right, coming up next hour
in at two thirty, we're gonna have Vince Fongan, he
(29:56):
used to be a state senator now Republican congressman, and
and he met with Trump when they visited the wildfire victims,
and he's going to explain what Trump's relief plan is
going to look like for the residents here in southern
California who suffered from the fires. That's coming up, along
(30:19):
with many other things. Debora Mark is live in the
KFI twenty four hour News Center. Hey, you've been listening
to the John Covelt 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.
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John Kobylt
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Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
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If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.