February 25, 2025 • 35 mins
The John Kobylt Show Hour 2 (02/25) - United Firefights of LA City President Freddy Escobar comes on the show to talk about why he disagrees with Mayor Karen Bass and her decision to fire Kristin Crowley as the LAFD Chief. More on the aftermath of Kristin Crowley being fired as LAFD Chief. A British woman has an extreme ketchup phobia.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Can't. I am six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
You're listening to the John Cobel podcast on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
How are you? Thank you for going.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
We're on from one to four every day, then after
four o'clock John Cobet Show on demand on the iHeart
app and you could listen to what you missed. It's
the same as the radio show, it's the podcast version.
We're going to get right into this. We had Freddy
Escobar on some months back. He is the United Firefighters
of Los Angeles City chief president of that union, and
(00:33):
Freddy is going to come on because United Firefighters of
LA City is strongly opposing Kristin Crowley's firing by Karen Bass.
And let's get Freddy Escobar on. Freddy, thank you for
coming on again.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Hey John, thank you for having us. And I look
forward to this discussion. And we're just going to be
factual on all the questions. There are beings.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
OK, all right, Well, give me an overview of what
you and I guess this entire organization United Firefighters. What
do you believe about Kristin Crowley? Is she being treated
unfairly by Karen Bass?
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Well, we're outraged disappointed on her removal as our fire chief.
I have thirty five years on the LAF team and
the first time in my career we had a fire
chief speak up and represent the boots on the ground
about what's actually happening at city Hall regarding funding a
(01:41):
fire department that is understaffed and under budgeted for twenty
twenty five period. We support Chief Crowley and as we
are very disappointed on her removal, think about it, Labor
is supporting a fire chief that usually doesn't happen.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Why is it that? Karen Bass? And now we have
another character that went public today. The acting mayor at
the time was Marquise Harris Stauson, and he's the city
council president and he was acting mayor as the fire
was breaking out because Bass was in Africa, and he's
backing Bass. He's backing the firing as well. When you
(02:19):
have the mayor and the city council president backing, agreeing
on the firing, and not commenting at all about the
massive underfunding, what does that say about the government in
Los Angeles?
Speaker 3 (02:35):
Well, I could tell you what we've been saying, and
we've been saying it, and we have the receipts. We
are woefully understeffed, an underbudgeted fire department, And we said
it before this incident broke out in Pacific policies, we
need additional resources, we need additional staffing. And to answer
(02:56):
your question, what it says is I have no idea.
I don't have an answer for it other than what
we've been saying to all the Angelinos, it's time to
prioritize the LAFD.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
You guys get much less money than they spend on homelessness.
You know, all the all the crazy people out there,
and the homeless start more than half the fires in
La City. And that that that by itself makes me nuts.
How is it you short changed the firefighters? You spend
(03:35):
a billion, three hundred million on the homeless, and the
homeless are starting the firefighters are starting the fires. I
mean over fifty percent of the fires are started by
the homeless. I don't understand what's going on here. It
seems to be a crazy set of priorities.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Well that is that is a frustration of the members
that I represent and myself just on homelessness. But no,
just on homelessness. I want everybody to to think about
these numbers. In a calendar year, the LAFD runs on
sixty six thousand calls on just homelessness. That's one hundred
and eighty calls a day just on homelessness calls. That's
(04:15):
not including the additional calls that we receive. And we
have lesser members, less fire stations today than we had
in nineteen sixty nine, and we're running four to five
times the call loads. Just not sustainable what the men
and women of the LAFD are doing.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
And it's over fourteen thousand fires a year are set
by the homeless.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
That is correct.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
That's a staggering number. That's hard.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
I don't most people don't know this, but fourteen thousand
times your men and women are called to put out
a fire started by a street vagrant.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
That's so crazy.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
Yeah, And not only does it start at a rubbish level,
it goes into people's homes, it goes in to commercial buildings,
it starts wildland fires. I mean, we have a homeless crisis.
From where the city of Los Angeles is spending one
point four billion dollars on a homeworks column. That's only
(05:20):
things to get worse. But we don't have enough money
to fund a fire department correctly. It's ridiculous. We're outraged.
We finally had a fire chief that was standing up
for us and speaking off the same page. We're together,
locked arms, and she's removed.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
According to there's some kind of national Fire Council that
says you're supposed to have two firefighters for every thousand
residents in a city, and LA has zero point nine firefighters.
It seems like the fire department is half funded.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
That is correct. We have a very comprehensive study that
shows that we need sixty two additional new fire stations,
one hundred more firefighters, engines, trucks, and we need it
sooner than later. We cannot sustain what we're doing in
the city of Los Angeles. We need help out there,
(06:22):
and we need people to start speaking up and telling
the truth.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Why.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
Fortunately the fire chief told the truth, right, and this
is what happens. Tell the truth, you're going to be removed.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Why do you think Bass and the rest of them
never want to fund the fire department? Like you know,
where I grew up, the fire fighters and the police
were held on an exalted level. Everybody was always fully funded.
Whatever the fire and the police chiefs needed, they got.
What is it about Los Angeles unlike any other city,
(06:57):
because I've seen the firefighter race in other cities. We
are way way behind most major cities in this country.
What is it out here?
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Well, it could be the wrong priorities. And they also
have had fire chiefs that have said, hey, I'll make
it happen. We could do more with less, and Chief
Crowley spoke up. We were in locked arms on the budget.
We're in locked ms moving forward. Now she's removed. So
she's removed, and the optics of this looks like they're
(07:28):
putting a potential puppet in place to do what the
mayor wants, and that is not We're not going to
stand for that. We're going to speak up. We're going
to continue to tell the truth, and we're going to
see if this interim fire chief is going to stand
up for the men and women in the field in
the LAFD.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
What do you think Karen Bass saying that she didn't
get warnings on the extreme fire danger that was coming.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
She said she wasn't aware of the warning. When you
heard that, what did you think?
Speaker 3 (08:02):
That's ridiculous. I mean, if you're in Los Angeles and
if you're in California across the Nation, they were talking
about this upcoming wins, Perkin like wins that are being predicted.
I mean, it's simply ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Do you think she's telling the truth that she really
wasn't aware of it for those two days.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
I don't know. I'm not gonna judge her character. I'll
let Joe Public do that. But let's ask around. Everybody
knew that these wins were coming.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
So why do you think she fired Crowley?
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Because Crowley told the truth on the severe underfunding and
she went public with it right away in the early
days of the fire.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
I mean, just to put it in one word, skategoat
not making any sense to me. All the reasonings, and
that's what is our frustration, outrage, all the reasoning that
they point out to. They're not doing the one thousand
members for relief, the unwillingness to do it after action report.
(09:09):
I want you to think about that largest fire in
Los Angeles City, and we're not going to do an
after action report. That's that's ludicrous.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
What do you mean we're not They're not going to
do one.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
They're doing one.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
That's best said Bess said Crowley wouldn't do an after
action report and you're saying that's not true.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
That is not true. So the reasons that she has
given all the Angelinos why she was removed are inaccurate.
They're absurd. It's ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
That's what Monica Roe Reguez said yesterday, the council woman.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
Well, it's frustrating, you know, I'm frustrated because we had
a general manager speak up and tell the truth. The
men and women in the LAFD supported her for saying
that we knew what was that risk. She came out
out against you know what the norm is. But the
men and women in my thirty five years never heard
(10:06):
of fire chief speak out and stand up for the troops.
So she's being removed for telling the truth. I want
everybody to really wrap their minds around that. What's the
message we're sending out. Tell the truth. They're gonna be
removed La County. They had more houses that were destroyed,
they had higher fatality, and we're all these losses are terrible,
(10:29):
But you don't see anybody asking their fire chief to
step down. Are they gonna blame the fire Are they
gonna blame us for the water? Are they gonna blame
us for the lack of maintenance on the hydrants. You
don't see them attacking. Uh fionis this is ridiculous?
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Can you can you hang on for Can you hang
on for another segment?
Speaker 3 (10:54):
Yes, sir?
Speaker 2 (10:54):
All right, good, because I want to cover all those
issues that you just brought up. We have the head
of United Firefighters of Los Angeles. I want to get
their name right. President Freddy Escobar is on with us,
and we're going to talk more with him coming up next.
Speaker 4 (11:13):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
We continue with Freddy Escobar. He's the president of the
United Firefighters of Los Angeles City and they are angry
and outraged over the firing of LA Fire Chief Kristin Crowley.
Let's get Freddy Escobar on again. Let's let's let's talk
about what the firefighters had to deal with the day
(11:40):
of the fire and beyond the reservoir being empty. I
constantly read apologists for Bass and Jenise Camionias from the
DWP claim, well, that wouldn't have made a difference, And
I'm thinking one hundred and seventeen million gallons you're in
the business, would that have made a difference?
Speaker 3 (12:00):
Well, I mean absolutely, more is better, right, additional water,
We had hydrants that were working properly. I mean the
wind condition was a massive factor, but with the amount
of fires, more water, the better it is. I was
actually down at the command post the first night. I
saw that Engine sixty nine was trying to extinguish a
(12:23):
fire and the water was just coming back at them.
I mean, these were conditions that I have never experienced.
I'm not a big brust guy, and I've spoken to
all the not all of them, but I've spoken to
the men and women who have had that experience, and
all of them have said it's nothing they've ever experienced.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
What about pre deployment, I mean the Los Angeles Times
had that big article quoting former deputy chiefs or assistant
chiefs that there should have she should have kept over
a thousand firefighters onto an extra shift, and she had
forty engines, and they should have been dispersed in in
the hillsides from Pacific Palisades out east and then on
(13:04):
the other side of the mountain from Woodland Hills out
to Studio City, and that there should have been engines
driving around, crews driving around and if they saw a
wisp of smoke quickly, putting out any kind of a fire.
Is there a legitimacy in that criticism because I know
a lot of people the Palisades and they think that
people should have been there that morning.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
Yeah, I mean, and let's see they're getting the source
of information the Pringle is getting is from two disgruntled employees.
Let's start with that, and it's easy to Monday night quarterback. Right.
One of the things that isn't being discussed is our budget.
We were doing a cut before this fire started, a
(13:49):
white paper to cut an additional seventeen million dollars and
the fire chief, Right, the fire chief made a decision
not to staff certain things. But there was pre deployment
in certain areas, so it's difficult. She did the best
she could with the limited resources she had.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
But right, right, But they're what they're saying is she
had a thousand firefighters, she had forty engines, and everyone
was sent home and the engines stayed in the garage.
What if she had sent them out that morning, would
that have been the right thing to do?
Speaker 3 (14:28):
Well, what's wrong about that claim is we don't have
a thousand spots to put these firefighters. Our budget was cut.
We have one hundred engines trucked ambulances in our maintenance
yard to get repaired, and we don't have the mechanics
to fit them because the budget was cut. When we
(14:49):
did do a recall, we had more men and women
at the fire station waiting to be to get receive
an assignment, and we had nowhere to put them. So
it's ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
It just seems like the whole government here in LA
is completely mismanaged. Empty reservoir hydrants don't work, not a
fire trucks, like a hundred of them are broken, no
mechanics to fix them if firefighters available, but you don't
have trucks to put them on. I mean, it just
(15:27):
seems like nothing's working. The fire department's half funded, Homeless
people are starting hundreds of fires, fourteen thousand fires a year.
I've never seen a city in such chaos in my life,
and I've lived in New York and Chicago.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
I have never seen this.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
Well, that's the way we feel, right, and that's what
we see. And I believe if because and I believe
all this is going to come out on the after
action report, it's a third ball, it's a third party
unbiased report that hopefully addresses all of those issues. It's frustrating.
(16:05):
We've been doing more with less and we need to
either prioritize LAFD or say, hey, this is the department
we're gonna have.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
So there is an after action report on the fire response.
So Bass is not telling the truth when she fired
Crowley because Crowley's not producing one.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Well, I could tell you every reason that is given
for her removal is inaccurate. Period. That's why we're frustrated.
That's why we're outraged now, I believe because we're in
locked arms with the fire chief, with then fire Chief
Crowley on saying enough is enough. We're asking this for
(16:49):
our budget. I'm gonna lead this. We're gonna be with you. Chief.
Thank you very much for speaking up. That's why I
believe she was removed and she's being used a scapegoat
at all.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Right, thank you for coming on, and I hope we
can talk again soon because I think the story is
going to go on for a long time.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
Well, thank you, And as the story goes on, and
if you want to hear the truth, he'd be more
than willing to come and speak to you very much.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
All right, Freddie Askabar United Firefighters of Los Angeles City.
He is the president of that group, and you heard him.
He and the union strongly opposing the firing Kristin Crowley.
And they don't think Karon Bass is telling the truth.
You know, the number of people who think Bass is
not telling the truth on a number of issues keeps
(17:38):
piling up. I'll go through a quick rundown of that
when we come back. And there is a podcast out
now that was from November where Kristin Crowley went public
saying how terribly underfunded the fire department is and really,
when you look at it, it seems really seems insane.
(17:59):
I mean, the LA Fire Department is underfunded by an
insane amount of money.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Why is this?
Speaker 2 (18:05):
And all the money is poured into homeless services and
they're the ones who start fourteen thousand fires. I know
I keep saying this, but seriously, this cake go on.
This is lunacy is this is a psychotic.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Way to run a city. We come back more on that.
Speaker 4 (18:24):
You're listening to John Cobels on demand from KFI AM.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Six forty moistline is eight seven seven moist eighty six
eight seven seven moist eighty six also use the talkback
feature on the iHeartRadio app. What I've been noticing is
most a lot of the public figures involved in this
fire controversy do not believe Karen Bass is telling the truth,
or they're accusing her of lying, or you know, they're
(18:51):
using polite language to accuse her of lying. I mean,
just today, Steve Soberoff was quoted recorded speaking at home
Harvard Westlake at an alumni meeting where he felt he
was lied to when he was told that he was
going to get five hundred thousand dollars for ninety days
of work, and then she Bass came and wanted the
(19:13):
money back, and sober offf thinks he was lied to.
Now he's tried to soften those comments since, but that's
what he said when he didn't know he was being recorded.
So I'll take that as the truth. And then also
it turns out that the nonprofits, these organizations that we
(19:37):
were told was going to supply the five hundred thousand
dollars to sober Off, they wanted to pull out. They
objected to the money going to him. They weren't told
that that was going to be the destination of the funding.
I guess bast asked him to contribute money for the fire,
(19:57):
and they didn't know what was going to sober Off
that he was going to they get a half million
dollars for ninety days work, and that's why she had
to go to sober Off and say we can't do this.
So she wasn't straight with these philanthropic organizations.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
She wasn't straight with sober Off. He says, she lied.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
And now you have Monica Rodriguez yesterday saying that Bass
is misrepresenting the facts when it comes to Crowley being
fired because Crowley doesn't have enough time to put together
an after action report. They just finished cleaning up all
the damage from the floods last week. She says, Bass
is misrepresenting the facts. Well, that's a very polite political
(20:42):
word for lying. And now you had just Freddie Escobar
on intimating the same thing that, hey, there is an
independent after action report coming. So to say you're firing
her for a firing Crowley for a lack of an
after action report is just false. And there seems to
(21:04):
be a lot of this swirling around Karen Bass. She's
I think the biggest whopper of all. She's claiming she
didn't know she wasn't aware of any fire warnings? Would
it actually absolutely saturated Los Angeles media? People around the
country knew it was coming. So she doesn't seem to
be honest here. People think she's lying. People think she's mischaracterizing,
(21:31):
misrepresenting things, not being forthcoming about all the details.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
Is anybody going to demand an accounting of all this?
Speaker 2 (21:41):
That's too many people here. The only one sticking up
for publicly is this acting mayor Marquise Harris Dawson, who
was supposedly running things when Bass was in Africa, and
he's trying to break out Crowley too for not calling him.
(22:02):
What is with Harris Dawson in Bass? She didn't call me?
Was Harris Dawson not following the news either? If I'm
the mayor, If you're the mayor, what would you do
you see extreme fire warnings? Of course you're gonna call
the fire chief immediately as soon as you hear extreme
(22:23):
fire warnings on Thursday? The second you call the fire chief, right,
I would. I don't think you need any special knowledge
or education. You don't have to be a genius to
do that. It's like, Wow, this sounds really dangerous. I'm
gonna call fire chief, see what we have planned? Does
she need any you know, special emergency powers from me
(22:46):
to Harris Dawson said, I was acting mayor at the time,
and I was not getting a flow of information from
the chief during that time period. Frankly, I did not
talk to her until I showed up to a press
conference at four o'clock that afternoon of the fire.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
Well why don't you call her?
Speaker 2 (23:02):
Why didn't Marquise Harris Dawson call Crowley since Bass was
in Africa, shouldn't he.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Have done it?
Speaker 2 (23:11):
And now he's trying to distract too, saying, well, we
have to fire Crowley, this, that, and the other thing. Look,
I've been clearer. I don't think Crowley made all the
right decisions that day. But Bass and Harris Dawson, this
is classic scapegoating right in front of our eyes here,
and neither one wants to take any responsibility for their
(23:33):
lack of action or their mistakes. Harris Dawson said, while
firefighters are out fighting fires, facing fires, you're in the
comfort of your office doing an interview with a news
outlet that you know to be antagonistic towards the mayor
and several of the council.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
I don't know who he's talking about there.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
I thought that demonstration of poor judgment was enough to
warrant separation. This is over Crowley giving interviews during the
fire saying the city failed the department. I guess that
would be Fox eleven. Fox eleven is considered hostile to
the mayor and the city council. Why because they report
the truth. There's a pattern here. If you report truth,
(24:14):
you're part of the hostile media. If you tell the
truth as fire chief, then you have to be separated.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
What's with all the euphemism is out of him?
Speaker 2 (24:25):
And why is Harris Dawson in Bass complaining that Crowley
didn't call them? Why don't you call Crowley? And why
hasn't anybody in the media asked them that? Well, why
didn't you make a call? You had the power as
acting there. What is this going on? These people are
shameful cowards, absolutely shameful cowards, and they think nobody's gonna notice. Well,
(24:46):
I guess maybe a lot of people don't notice because
there's only a handful of outlets reporting on all this stuff.
But there is seems to be a lot of dishonesty.
I mean, even in the Alex Michaelson interview, just the
way she's answering the questions to be Frank, I wasn't
aware of the warnings. Now Crowley's been saying this not
(25:13):
just during the fire. I mean they got you know,
Harris Dawson has his panties all tied up because it
was during the fire.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Well, listen to this. They don't have the audio on
this yet, but.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
Back in November, Kristin Crowley went on a podcast hosted
by a Metro whistleblower named Jane Osborne, former chief safety
officer at Metro. She was fired after speaking out by
what she uncovered at La Metro. Ah, so she played
(25:48):
the role of Kristin Crowley last year telling the truth
about La Metro, probably over the lack of safety, and
Osborne got fired and she had Kristin Crowley on to
tell the true about bass. Osborne said in interviewing Crowley,
(26:12):
based on my conversations with her, she was sounding the
alarms the entire time that she was the chief, that
she didn't have the resources she needed, that she was underfunded,
and that she was understaffed. So I don't see how
the firing is justified. In the podcast, Crowley said, when
it comes to my position as chief of advocating and
(26:32):
fighting for the safety and well being of a firefighters,
that's my job to stand up and say the fire
department can no longer operate this way.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
We're understaffed. This is an exact quote.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
We're understaffed, under resourced, underfunded, and our Los Angeles City
Fire Department is literally at a crossroads. So the Maverick
move for me is to stand up and say our
fire department can no longer do this. She said this
in November, and this underfunding has been going on forever.
We just had Freddy Escobar on the president of the
(27:02):
United Firefighters of LA.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
He says, we have fewer.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Stations than we did in nineteen sixty nine, fewer fire
stations than nineteen sixty nine, and they have five times
as many calls.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
The vagrants produced.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
Sixty six thousand calls a year, one hundred and eighty
a day, and they start fourteen thousand fires. And that's
where the money's going. Boy, do we need a Doge
investigation here?
Speaker 1 (27:30):
Huh?
Speaker 2 (27:33):
That's incredibly corrupt, inept, and incompetent. You're spending a billion,
four hundred thousand dollars on the homeless, and they they
create sixty six thousand fire and paramedic calls a year
and fourteen thousand fires. Wow, and all that money. We
(28:01):
spend a billion four every year and we just get
more homeless, more mental patients, more more drug addicts, more fires,
more emergency calls. And I'm telling you we have half
the firefighters that's recommended by these national fire organizations.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
We have half. So they have been funded and that's
what that's.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
What everybody agrees to. We just had Freddy Escobar and says, no,
that's true. They're funded a fifty percent rank. Who out
there wants your city only funding fifty percent of the
minimum fire department requirements. What I'm talking about is minimum,
(28:47):
and we're fifty percent below that now. And we pour
over a billion dollars to all these lunatics out there
who spend all day calling in emergencies and starting fires
us with the fun of it. It's we're truly in
crazy land. And then you have all these people covering
(29:09):
up for Karen Bass. She's in Ghana trying to get
a consulate arrangement here in La for Ghana. What are
you doing? Oh I wasn't. Frankly, I wasn't aware of
the fire warnings check to go to Ghana. We needed
a consulate. This is crazy, absolutely crazy. She should none
of these people should get away with this. I mean,
(29:30):
this is this is this like murder. I mean we
we had what eleven people die in that fire. Twelve
people died in that fire.
Speaker 4 (29:37):
You're listening to John Cobbels on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
When we come back, we're going to talk to State
Senator Susette Martinez Valderis. She's from the Lancaster Santa Clarita District,
Republican and the Republicans in Sacramentar are calling out Newsom
because even though Prop thirty six passed, they these Republicans
(30:06):
are saying that Newsom is not following through with the
funding in order to rehabilitate the drug addicts. Like the
drug addicts are gonna get arrested now and they have
the option to get some kind of drug treatment, but
(30:26):
that has to be funded. That's another thing they ultimately
never fund. They never fund the drug treatment. They passed
Prop forty seven ten years ago and said, well, you know,
we're gonna use the money that we're saving for drug treatment,
and it didn't happen.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
Same thing here.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
It's like they don't fund the fire department, they don't
fund the drug treatment, they don't fund psychiatric facilities for
all the crazy people in the street. I'm telling you
you need dojen Elon musk, Sorry, you need Trump musk
and doze here.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
I think that's evident.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Can you imagine the amount of corruption and waste and
theft going on. We'll get to that after three o'clock.
I got something funny, though I only had. I've been
in here, and I'd bring this to you because of
all your strange phobias. Okay, have you ever heard of
morteuse sequis phobia?
Speaker 1 (31:22):
I have not. It is a crippling fear of ketchup. No,
I don't fear ketchup.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
New York posted a story on a woman from Great Britain.
Her name's Lee Woodman, and she has panic attacks every
time she's near ketchup.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
Why does she think it's blood?
Speaker 2 (31:46):
She's had to steer clear of it as long as
she could remember, and everybody makes fun of her. She
feels like she's having a panic attack, so she's banned
ketchup from her house. She avoids looking at it, and
she throws out any cookware that's been infected with ketchup.
If she thinks ketchup is touched, I guess any of
(32:07):
her pots or pans or dishes it's out.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
That is weird.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
She's thirty two years old. I can't even look at
a bottle of ketchup or have it anywhere near me.
And I guess it's common enough. I mean, it's I've
never heard of it, but it's got an official medical
phrase to describe it, more to sequisophobia.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
But I don't understand it, she.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
Posted on social media. The video has got almost a
million views. I'm fully aware of how dramatic it sounds.
I've always been embarrassed by it. If someone were to
hold me at gunpoint, I would freeze in panic. And
that's exactly how I'd feel if someone shoved ketchup in
my face.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
So what happens is she has a burger or something,
or a hot dog, and there happens to be some
ketchup on it.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
She acts the way you do when there's an earthquake.
She runs around without her clothes, screaming. If it's put
in my face, I'll freeze the smell and texture is
really bad. If someone waved it in my face, I
would be sick. The smell that makes me feel so sick.
(33:13):
My worst fear is it being all over my dishwasher,
because then I would never be able to use that
or any of my plates or cutlery.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
Again.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
Wow, She says, it's not about it reminding her of blood,
and she's upset because people see it as a joke
and find it funny.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
I mean, I look, it's odd.
Speaker 3 (33:38):
You should empathize, right, I mean people think I'm odd.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
So well, that's right, that's right. Who are you to
tell her that's crazy? Huh right, exactly.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
Look at the mirror there, all right, we come back,
uh State Senator. She's at Martinez Valderas, and it looks
like Gavin Newsom and the Democrats and the legislature have
decided to say, screw the voters, we don't care that
Prop thirty six was passed. They are not going to
(34:11):
spend any money on, for example, treating the drug addicts.
That Prop thirty six has created this mechanism that you
arrested drug addicts, you either go to prison or you
go for treatment, which is the way it used to
be well. Newsom and the legislator leaders don't want to
fund the treatment or the mental health issues that are needed.
(34:37):
That's coming up next, Debor Mark. Yeah, I got to
find like some kind of odd ball fear you have
that I can really and I'll never share with you,
whether just bring a hamburger, I'm afraid.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
Of Burger's, Eric, I just don't eat.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
Them, that remark Live the CAFI twenty for our newsroom. Hey,
you've been listening to The John Cobalt Show podcast. You
can always hear the show live onf IAM six forty
from one to four pm every Monday through Friday, and
of course, anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app
Can't. I am six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
You're listening to the John Cobel podcast on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
How are you? Thank you for going.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
We're on from one to four every day, then after
four o'clock John Cobet Show on demand on the iHeart
app and you could listen to what you missed. It's
the same as the radio show, it's the podcast version.
We're going to get right into this. We had Freddy
Escobar on some months back. He is the United Firefighters
of Los Angeles City chief president of that union, and
(00:33):
Freddy is going to come on because United Firefighters of
LA City is strongly opposing Kristin Crowley's firing by Karen Bass.
And let's get Freddy Escobar on. Freddy, thank you for
coming on again.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Hey John, thank you for having us. And I look
forward to this discussion. And we're just going to be
factual on all the questions. There are beings.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
OK, all right, Well, give me an overview of what
you and I guess this entire organization United Firefighters. What
do you believe about Kristin Crowley? Is she being treated
unfairly by Karen Bass?
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Well, we're outraged disappointed on her removal as our fire chief.
I have thirty five years on the LAF team and
the first time in my career we had a fire
chief speak up and represent the boots on the ground
about what's actually happening at city Hall regarding funding a
(01:41):
fire department that is understaffed and under budgeted for twenty
twenty five period. We support Chief Crowley and as we
are very disappointed on her removal, think about it, Labor
is supporting a fire chief that usually doesn't happen.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Why is it that? Karen Bass? And now we have
another character that went public today. The acting mayor at
the time was Marquise Harris Stauson, and he's the city
council president and he was acting mayor as the fire
was breaking out because Bass was in Africa, and he's
backing Bass. He's backing the firing as well. When you
(02:19):
have the mayor and the city council president backing, agreeing
on the firing, and not commenting at all about the
massive underfunding, what does that say about the government in
Los Angeles?
Speaker 3 (02:35):
Well, I could tell you what we've been saying, and
we've been saying it, and we have the receipts. We
are woefully understeffed, an underbudgeted fire department, And we said
it before this incident broke out in Pacific policies, we
need additional resources, we need additional staffing. And to answer
(02:56):
your question, what it says is I have no idea.
I don't have an answer for it other than what
we've been saying to all the Angelinos, it's time to
prioritize the LAFD.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
You guys get much less money than they spend on homelessness.
You know, all the all the crazy people out there,
and the homeless start more than half the fires in
La City. And that that that by itself makes me nuts.
How is it you short changed the firefighters? You spend
(03:35):
a billion, three hundred million on the homeless, and the
homeless are starting the firefighters are starting the fires. I
mean over fifty percent of the fires are started by
the homeless. I don't understand what's going on here. It
seems to be a crazy set of priorities.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Well that is that is a frustration of the members
that I represent and myself just on homelessness. But no,
just on homelessness. I want everybody to to think about
these numbers. In a calendar year, the LAFD runs on
sixty six thousand calls on just homelessness. That's one hundred
and eighty calls a day just on homelessness calls. That's
(04:15):
not including the additional calls that we receive. And we
have lesser members, less fire stations today than we had
in nineteen sixty nine, and we're running four to five
times the call loads. Just not sustainable what the men
and women of the LAFD are doing.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
And it's over fourteen thousand fires a year are set
by the homeless.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
That is correct.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
That's a staggering number. That's hard.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
I don't most people don't know this, but fourteen thousand
times your men and women are called to put out
a fire started by a street vagrant.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
That's so crazy.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
Yeah, And not only does it start at a rubbish level,
it goes into people's homes, it goes in to commercial buildings,
it starts wildland fires. I mean, we have a homeless crisis.
From where the city of Los Angeles is spending one
point four billion dollars on a homeworks column. That's only
(05:20):
things to get worse. But we don't have enough money
to fund a fire department correctly. It's ridiculous. We're outraged.
We finally had a fire chief that was standing up
for us and speaking off the same page. We're together,
locked arms, and she's removed.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
According to there's some kind of national Fire Council that
says you're supposed to have two firefighters for every thousand
residents in a city, and LA has zero point nine firefighters.
It seems like the fire department is half funded.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
That is correct. We have a very comprehensive study that
shows that we need sixty two additional new fire stations,
one hundred more firefighters, engines, trucks, and we need it
sooner than later. We cannot sustain what we're doing in
the city of Los Angeles. We need help out there,
(06:22):
and we need people to start speaking up and telling
the truth.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Why.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
Fortunately the fire chief told the truth, right, and this
is what happens. Tell the truth, you're going to be removed.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Why do you think Bass and the rest of them
never want to fund the fire department? Like you know,
where I grew up, the fire fighters and the police
were held on an exalted level. Everybody was always fully funded.
Whatever the fire and the police chiefs needed, they got.
What is it about Los Angeles unlike any other city,
(06:57):
because I've seen the firefighter race in other cities. We
are way way behind most major cities in this country.
What is it out here?
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Well, it could be the wrong priorities. And they also
have had fire chiefs that have said, hey, I'll make
it happen. We could do more with less, and Chief
Crowley spoke up. We were in locked arms on the budget.
We're in locked ms moving forward. Now she's removed. So
she's removed, and the optics of this looks like they're
(07:28):
putting a potential puppet in place to do what the
mayor wants, and that is not We're not going to
stand for that. We're going to speak up. We're going
to continue to tell the truth, and we're going to
see if this interim fire chief is going to stand
up for the men and women in the field in
the LAFD.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
What do you think Karen Bass saying that she didn't
get warnings on the extreme fire danger that was coming.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
She said she wasn't aware of the warning. When you
heard that, what did you think?
Speaker 3 (08:02):
That's ridiculous. I mean, if you're in Los Angeles and
if you're in California across the Nation, they were talking
about this upcoming wins, Perkin like wins that are being predicted.
I mean, it's simply ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Do you think she's telling the truth that she really
wasn't aware of it for those two days.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
I don't know. I'm not gonna judge her character. I'll
let Joe Public do that. But let's ask around. Everybody
knew that these wins were coming.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
So why do you think she fired Crowley?
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Because Crowley told the truth on the severe underfunding and
she went public with it right away in the early
days of the fire.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
I mean, just to put it in one word, skategoat
not making any sense to me. All the reasonings, and
that's what is our frustration, outrage, all the reasoning that
they point out to. They're not doing the one thousand
members for relief, the unwillingness to do it after action report.
(09:09):
I want you to think about that largest fire in
Los Angeles City, and we're not going to do an
after action report. That's that's ludicrous.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
What do you mean we're not They're not going to
do one.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
They're doing one.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
That's best said Bess said Crowley wouldn't do an after
action report and you're saying that's not true.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
That is not true. So the reasons that she has
given all the Angelinos why she was removed are inaccurate.
They're absurd. It's ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
That's what Monica Roe Reguez said yesterday, the council woman.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
Well, it's frustrating, you know, I'm frustrated because we had
a general manager speak up and tell the truth. The
men and women in the LAFD supported her for saying
that we knew what was that risk. She came out
out against you know what the norm is. But the
men and women in my thirty five years never heard
(10:06):
of fire chief speak out and stand up for the troops.
So she's being removed for telling the truth. I want
everybody to really wrap their minds around that. What's the
message we're sending out. Tell the truth. They're gonna be
removed La County. They had more houses that were destroyed,
they had higher fatality, and we're all these losses are terrible,
(10:29):
But you don't see anybody asking their fire chief to
step down. Are they gonna blame the fire Are they
gonna blame us for the water? Are they gonna blame
us for the lack of maintenance on the hydrants. You
don't see them attacking. Uh fionis this is ridiculous?
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Can you can you hang on for Can you hang
on for another segment?
Speaker 3 (10:54):
Yes, sir?
Speaker 2 (10:54):
All right, good, because I want to cover all those
issues that you just brought up. We have the head
of United Firefighters of Los Angeles. I want to get
their name right. President Freddy Escobar is on with us,
and we're going to talk more with him coming up next.
Speaker 4 (11:13):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
We continue with Freddy Escobar. He's the president of the
United Firefighters of Los Angeles City and they are angry
and outraged over the firing of LA Fire Chief Kristin Crowley.
Let's get Freddy Escobar on again. Let's let's let's talk
about what the firefighters had to deal with the day
(11:40):
of the fire and beyond the reservoir being empty. I
constantly read apologists for Bass and Jenise Camionias from the
DWP claim, well, that wouldn't have made a difference, And
I'm thinking one hundred and seventeen million gallons you're in
the business, would that have made a difference?
Speaker 3 (12:00):
Well, I mean absolutely, more is better, right, additional water,
We had hydrants that were working properly. I mean the
wind condition was a massive factor, but with the amount
of fires, more water, the better it is. I was
actually down at the command post the first night. I
saw that Engine sixty nine was trying to extinguish a
(12:23):
fire and the water was just coming back at them.
I mean, these were conditions that I have never experienced.
I'm not a big brust guy, and I've spoken to
all the not all of them, but I've spoken to
the men and women who have had that experience, and
all of them have said it's nothing they've ever experienced.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
What about pre deployment, I mean the Los Angeles Times
had that big article quoting former deputy chiefs or assistant
chiefs that there should have she should have kept over
a thousand firefighters onto an extra shift, and she had
forty engines, and they should have been dispersed in in
the hillsides from Pacific Palisades out east and then on
(13:04):
the other side of the mountain from Woodland Hills out
to Studio City, and that there should have been engines
driving around, crews driving around and if they saw a
wisp of smoke quickly, putting out any kind of a fire.
Is there a legitimacy in that criticism because I know
a lot of people the Palisades and they think that
people should have been there that morning.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
Yeah, I mean, and let's see they're getting the source
of information the Pringle is getting is from two disgruntled employees.
Let's start with that, and it's easy to Monday night quarterback. Right.
One of the things that isn't being discussed is our budget.
We were doing a cut before this fire started, a
(13:49):
white paper to cut an additional seventeen million dollars and
the fire chief, Right, the fire chief made a decision
not to staff certain things. But there was pre deployment
in certain areas, so it's difficult. She did the best
she could with the limited resources she had.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
But right, right, But they're what they're saying is she
had a thousand firefighters, she had forty engines, and everyone
was sent home and the engines stayed in the garage.
What if she had sent them out that morning, would
that have been the right thing to do?
Speaker 3 (14:28):
Well, what's wrong about that claim is we don't have
a thousand spots to put these firefighters. Our budget was cut.
We have one hundred engines trucked ambulances in our maintenance
yard to get repaired, and we don't have the mechanics
to fit them because the budget was cut. When we
(14:49):
did do a recall, we had more men and women
at the fire station waiting to be to get receive
an assignment, and we had nowhere to put them. So
it's ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
It just seems like the whole government here in LA
is completely mismanaged. Empty reservoir hydrants don't work, not a
fire trucks, like a hundred of them are broken, no
mechanics to fix them if firefighters available, but you don't
have trucks to put them on. I mean, it just
(15:27):
seems like nothing's working. The fire department's half funded, Homeless
people are starting hundreds of fires, fourteen thousand fires a year.
I've never seen a city in such chaos in my life,
and I've lived in New York and Chicago.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
I have never seen this.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
Well, that's the way we feel, right, and that's what
we see. And I believe if because and I believe
all this is going to come out on the after
action report, it's a third ball, it's a third party
unbiased report that hopefully addresses all of those issues. It's frustrating.
(16:05):
We've been doing more with less and we need to
either prioritize LAFD or say, hey, this is the department
we're gonna have.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
So there is an after action report on the fire response.
So Bass is not telling the truth when she fired
Crowley because Crowley's not producing one.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Well, I could tell you every reason that is given
for her removal is inaccurate. Period. That's why we're frustrated.
That's why we're outraged now, I believe because we're in
locked arms with the fire chief, with then fire Chief
Crowley on saying enough is enough. We're asking this for
(16:49):
our budget. I'm gonna lead this. We're gonna be with you. Chief.
Thank you very much for speaking up. That's why I
believe she was removed and she's being used a scapegoat
at all.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Right, thank you for coming on, and I hope we
can talk again soon because I think the story is
going to go on for a long time.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
Well, thank you, And as the story goes on, and
if you want to hear the truth, he'd be more
than willing to come and speak to you very much.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
All right, Freddie Askabar United Firefighters of Los Angeles City.
He is the president of that group, and you heard him.
He and the union strongly opposing the firing Kristin Crowley.
And they don't think Karon Bass is telling the truth.
You know, the number of people who think Bass is
not telling the truth on a number of issues keeps
(17:38):
piling up. I'll go through a quick rundown of that
when we come back. And there is a podcast out
now that was from November where Kristin Crowley went public
saying how terribly underfunded the fire department is and really,
when you look at it, it seems really seems insane.
(17:59):
I mean, the LA Fire Department is underfunded by an
insane amount of money.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Why is this?
Speaker 2 (18:05):
And all the money is poured into homeless services and
they're the ones who start fourteen thousand fires. I know
I keep saying this, but seriously, this cake go on.
This is lunacy is this is a psychotic.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Way to run a city. We come back more on that.
Speaker 4 (18:24):
You're listening to John Cobels on demand from KFI AM.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Six forty moistline is eight seven seven moist eighty six
eight seven seven moist eighty six also use the talkback
feature on the iHeartRadio app. What I've been noticing is
most a lot of the public figures involved in this
fire controversy do not believe Karen Bass is telling the truth,
or they're accusing her of lying, or you know, they're
(18:51):
using polite language to accuse her of lying. I mean,
just today, Steve Soberoff was quoted recorded speaking at home
Harvard Westlake at an alumni meeting where he felt he
was lied to when he was told that he was
going to get five hundred thousand dollars for ninety days
of work, and then she Bass came and wanted the
(19:13):
money back, and sober offf thinks he was lied to.
Now he's tried to soften those comments since, but that's
what he said when he didn't know he was being recorded.
So I'll take that as the truth. And then also
it turns out that the nonprofits, these organizations that we
(19:37):
were told was going to supply the five hundred thousand
dollars to sober Off, they wanted to pull out. They
objected to the money going to him. They weren't told
that that was going to be the destination of the funding.
I guess bast asked him to contribute money for the fire,
(19:57):
and they didn't know what was going to sober Off
that he was going to they get a half million
dollars for ninety days work, and that's why she had
to go to sober Off and say we can't do this.
So she wasn't straight with these philanthropic organizations.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
She wasn't straight with sober Off. He says, she lied.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
And now you have Monica Rodriguez yesterday saying that Bass
is misrepresenting the facts when it comes to Crowley being
fired because Crowley doesn't have enough time to put together
an after action report. They just finished cleaning up all
the damage from the floods last week. She says, Bass
is misrepresenting the facts. Well, that's a very polite political
(20:42):
word for lying. And now you had just Freddie Escobar
on intimating the same thing that, hey, there is an
independent after action report coming. So to say you're firing
her for a firing Crowley for a lack of an
after action report is just false. And there seems to
(21:04):
be a lot of this swirling around Karen Bass. She's
I think the biggest whopper of all. She's claiming she
didn't know she wasn't aware of any fire warnings? Would
it actually absolutely saturated Los Angeles media? People around the
country knew it was coming. So she doesn't seem to
be honest here. People think she's lying. People think she's mischaracterizing,
(21:31):
misrepresenting things, not being forthcoming about all the details.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
Is anybody going to demand an accounting of all this?
Speaker 2 (21:41):
That's too many people here. The only one sticking up
for publicly is this acting mayor Marquise Harris Dawson, who
was supposedly running things when Bass was in Africa, and
he's trying to break out Crowley too for not calling him.
(22:02):
What is with Harris Dawson in Bass? She didn't call me?
Was Harris Dawson not following the news either? If I'm
the mayor, If you're the mayor, what would you do
you see extreme fire warnings? Of course you're gonna call
the fire chief immediately as soon as you hear extreme
(22:23):
fire warnings on Thursday? The second you call the fire chief, right,
I would. I don't think you need any special knowledge
or education. You don't have to be a genius to
do that. It's like, Wow, this sounds really dangerous. I'm
gonna call fire chief, see what we have planned? Does
she need any you know, special emergency powers from me
(22:46):
to Harris Dawson said, I was acting mayor at the time,
and I was not getting a flow of information from
the chief during that time period. Frankly, I did not
talk to her until I showed up to a press
conference at four o'clock that afternoon of the fire.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
Well why don't you call her?
Speaker 2 (23:02):
Why didn't Marquise Harris Dawson call Crowley since Bass was
in Africa, shouldn't he.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Have done it?
Speaker 2 (23:11):
And now he's trying to distract too, saying, well, we
have to fire Crowley, this, that, and the other thing. Look,
I've been clearer. I don't think Crowley made all the
right decisions that day. But Bass and Harris Dawson, this
is classic scapegoating right in front of our eyes here,
and neither one wants to take any responsibility for their
(23:33):
lack of action or their mistakes. Harris Dawson said, while
firefighters are out fighting fires, facing fires, you're in the
comfort of your office doing an interview with a news
outlet that you know to be antagonistic towards the mayor
and several of the council.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
I don't know who he's talking about there.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
I thought that demonstration of poor judgment was enough to
warrant separation. This is over Crowley giving interviews during the
fire saying the city failed the department. I guess that
would be Fox eleven. Fox eleven is considered hostile to
the mayor and the city council. Why because they report
the truth. There's a pattern here. If you report truth,
(24:14):
you're part of the hostile media. If you tell the
truth as fire chief, then you have to be separated.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
What's with all the euphemism is out of him?
Speaker 2 (24:25):
And why is Harris Dawson in Bass complaining that Crowley
didn't call them? Why don't you call Crowley? And why
hasn't anybody in the media asked them that? Well, why
didn't you make a call? You had the power as
acting there. What is this going on? These people are
shameful cowards, absolutely shameful cowards, and they think nobody's gonna notice. Well,
(24:46):
I guess maybe a lot of people don't notice because
there's only a handful of outlets reporting on all this stuff.
But there is seems to be a lot of dishonesty.
I mean, even in the Alex Michaelson interview, just the
way she's answering the questions to be Frank, I wasn't
aware of the warnings. Now Crowley's been saying this not
(25:13):
just during the fire. I mean they got you know,
Harris Dawson has his panties all tied up because it
was during the fire.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Well, listen to this. They don't have the audio on
this yet, but.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
Back in November, Kristin Crowley went on a podcast hosted
by a Metro whistleblower named Jane Osborne, former chief safety
officer at Metro. She was fired after speaking out by
what she uncovered at La Metro. Ah, so she played
(25:48):
the role of Kristin Crowley last year telling the truth
about La Metro, probably over the lack of safety, and
Osborne got fired and she had Kristin Crowley on to
tell the true about bass. Osborne said in interviewing Crowley,
(26:12):
based on my conversations with her, she was sounding the
alarms the entire time that she was the chief, that
she didn't have the resources she needed, that she was underfunded,
and that she was understaffed. So I don't see how
the firing is justified. In the podcast, Crowley said, when
it comes to my position as chief of advocating and
(26:32):
fighting for the safety and well being of a firefighters,
that's my job to stand up and say the fire
department can no longer operate this way.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
We're understaffed. This is an exact quote.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
We're understaffed, under resourced, underfunded, and our Los Angeles City
Fire Department is literally at a crossroads. So the Maverick
move for me is to stand up and say our
fire department can no longer do this. She said this
in November, and this underfunding has been going on forever.
We just had Freddy Escobar on the president of the
(27:02):
United Firefighters of LA.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
He says, we have fewer.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Stations than we did in nineteen sixty nine, fewer fire
stations than nineteen sixty nine, and they have five times
as many calls.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
The vagrants produced.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
Sixty six thousand calls a year, one hundred and eighty
a day, and they start fourteen thousand fires. And that's
where the money's going. Boy, do we need a Doge
investigation here?
Speaker 1 (27:30):
Huh?
Speaker 2 (27:33):
That's incredibly corrupt, inept, and incompetent. You're spending a billion,
four hundred thousand dollars on the homeless, and they they
create sixty six thousand fire and paramedic calls a year
and fourteen thousand fires. Wow, and all that money. We
(28:01):
spend a billion four every year and we just get
more homeless, more mental patients, more more drug addicts, more fires,
more emergency calls. And I'm telling you we have half
the firefighters that's recommended by these national fire organizations.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
We have half. So they have been funded and that's
what that's.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
What everybody agrees to. We just had Freddy Escobar and says, no,
that's true. They're funded a fifty percent rank. Who out
there wants your city only funding fifty percent of the
minimum fire department requirements. What I'm talking about is minimum,
(28:47):
and we're fifty percent below that now. And we pour
over a billion dollars to all these lunatics out there
who spend all day calling in emergencies and starting fires
us with the fun of it. It's we're truly in
crazy land. And then you have all these people covering
(29:09):
up for Karen Bass. She's in Ghana trying to get
a consulate arrangement here in La for Ghana. What are
you doing? Oh I wasn't. Frankly, I wasn't aware of
the fire warnings check to go to Ghana. We needed
a consulate. This is crazy, absolutely crazy. She should none
of these people should get away with this. I mean,
(29:30):
this is this is this like murder. I mean we
we had what eleven people die in that fire. Twelve
people died in that fire.
Speaker 4 (29:37):
You're listening to John Cobbels on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
When we come back, we're going to talk to State
Senator Susette Martinez Valderis. She's from the Lancaster Santa Clarita District,
Republican and the Republicans in Sacramentar are calling out Newsom
because even though Prop thirty six passed, they these Republicans
(30:06):
are saying that Newsom is not following through with the
funding in order to rehabilitate the drug addicts. Like the
drug addicts are gonna get arrested now and they have
the option to get some kind of drug treatment, but
(30:26):
that has to be funded. That's another thing they ultimately
never fund. They never fund the drug treatment. They passed
Prop forty seven ten years ago and said, well, you know,
we're gonna use the money that we're saving for drug treatment,
and it didn't happen.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
Same thing here.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
It's like they don't fund the fire department, they don't
fund the drug treatment, they don't fund psychiatric facilities for
all the crazy people in the street. I'm telling you
you need dojen Elon musk, Sorry, you need Trump musk
and doze here.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
I think that's evident.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Can you imagine the amount of corruption and waste and
theft going on. We'll get to that after three o'clock.
I got something funny, though I only had. I've been
in here, and I'd bring this to you because of
all your strange phobias. Okay, have you ever heard of
morteuse sequis phobia?
Speaker 1 (31:22):
I have not. It is a crippling fear of ketchup. No,
I don't fear ketchup.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
New York posted a story on a woman from Great Britain.
Her name's Lee Woodman, and she has panic attacks every
time she's near ketchup.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
Why does she think it's blood?
Speaker 2 (31:46):
She's had to steer clear of it as long as
she could remember, and everybody makes fun of her. She
feels like she's having a panic attack, so she's banned
ketchup from her house. She avoids looking at it, and
she throws out any cookware that's been infected with ketchup.
If she thinks ketchup is touched, I guess any of
(32:07):
her pots or pans or dishes it's out.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
That is weird.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
She's thirty two years old. I can't even look at
a bottle of ketchup or have it anywhere near me.
And I guess it's common enough. I mean, it's I've
never heard of it, but it's got an official medical
phrase to describe it, more to sequisophobia.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
But I don't understand it, she.
Speaker 2 (32:31):
Posted on social media. The video has got almost a
million views. I'm fully aware of how dramatic it sounds.
I've always been embarrassed by it. If someone were to
hold me at gunpoint, I would freeze in panic. And
that's exactly how I'd feel if someone shoved ketchup in
my face.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
So what happens is she has a burger or something,
or a hot dog, and there happens to be some
ketchup on it.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
She acts the way you do when there's an earthquake.
She runs around without her clothes, screaming. If it's put
in my face, I'll freeze the smell and texture is
really bad. If someone waved it in my face, I
would be sick. The smell that makes me feel so sick.
(33:13):
My worst fear is it being all over my dishwasher,
because then I would never be able to use that
or any of my plates or cutlery.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
Again.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
Wow, She says, it's not about it reminding her of blood,
and she's upset because people see it as a joke
and find it funny.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
I mean, I look, it's odd.
Speaker 3 (33:38):
You should empathize, right, I mean people think I'm odd.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
So well, that's right, that's right. Who are you to
tell her that's crazy? Huh right, exactly.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
Look at the mirror there, all right, we come back,
uh State Senator. She's at Martinez Valderas, and it looks
like Gavin Newsom and the Democrats and the legislature have
decided to say, screw the voters, we don't care that
Prop thirty six was passed. They are not going to
(34:11):
spend any money on, for example, treating the drug addicts.
That Prop thirty six has created this mechanism that you
arrested drug addicts, you either go to prison or you
go for treatment, which is the way it used to
be well. Newsom and the legislator leaders don't want to
fund the treatment or the mental health issues that are needed.
(34:37):
That's coming up next, Debor Mark. Yeah, I got to
find like some kind of odd ball fear you have
that I can really and I'll never share with you,
whether just bring a hamburger, I'm afraid.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
Of Burger's, Eric, I just don't eat.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
Them, that remark Live the CAFI twenty for our newsroom. Hey,
you've been listening to The John Cobalt Show podcast. You
can always hear the show live onf IAM 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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