Episode Transcript
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(00:05):
Hey, everyone. How you doing and welcome to
another episode of the John Reilly project,
it's
Wednesday, 07/10/2024.
This is episode number 337
of this podcast. So thanks for joining me.
You know, this is a podcast all about
life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We'd
like to cover a lot of news topics
both locally here and, the San Diego County
(00:28):
community as well as some national
topics as well. You know, it's funny because
in my last podcast episode.
You there's so much going on nationally. And
I generally try to focus more on local,
but I'll tell you what? I put some
national stories out there,
lots of response. Yeah on my Youtube channel.
So I just goes to show you. That's
what people are thinking about. That's what they're
(00:50):
worrying about or a lot of national issues,
love cover and local politics here in San
Diego and in my hometown of Pow, And
I'm gonna do that today as well. But
just gives you a kind of a sense
of proportion and what the audience is. And,
you know, when you get real niche nietzsche
and focus on just a really, really, really
narrow target,
sometimes your audiences are too big. So nice
(01:12):
to kind of blend in some of the
national as well as some of the local.
So anyway anyways are we gonna cover today?
We're gonna talk about the irrational of politics.
And oh my god, there's just so much
nonsense in the media right now. From candidates
from
talking heads, even from people on social media,
and it doesn't matter if they're Republicans or
(01:32):
Democrats
or progressive or conservatives,
just a lot of nonsense, a lot of
your rationality. We'll talk a little bit about
that.
I wanna talk also about home ownership levels
in poor states versus rich states.
And how that kinda is playing out locally
here in our community in San Diego and
(01:54):
kinda to break down some myth there. Right?
Some of the numbers were really interesting. So
we'll talk about that.
And then we're to talk about local stuff
here in Pow. And and I wanna there
discuss here in our hometown. I've been talking
about the lifetime fitness
facility that's gonna be going in we're potentially
going in in North Pow at the farm
in Pow.
(02:15):
And that's getting a lot of resistance from
local groups, local
community leaders, the City council is gonna be
entertaining a proposal for that, probably gonna go
on the ballot, but the Green Valley Civic
Association did a survey of their members and
made a recommendation to the Pow City Council.
I wanna break that down for you.
(02:36):
We also have Pow Unified in the news
again, again, our former
superintendent who has been to disgraced has now
been double disgraced, and we'll talk about Pow
unified. I know a lot of people have
their hair on fire about all the things
going on in our local school district.
And then we're gonna open it up. We've
got our community forum where I respond to
(02:56):
social media comments. And, of course, I always
welcome your thoughts and comments. So if you
have a
a take, You have a question. You wanna
get your, you know, speaker your piece. Just
type it in the live chat on Facebook
x or on Youtube.
And we'll get you involved.
And then just 2 more pieces of business
before we start. If you have any questions
(03:17):
or comments about this pod cash you wanna
be a guest you wanna recommend a guest.
Maybe you wanna support what we're doing financially,
make voluntary donation or just wanna get on
our email list go to my website john
reilly project dot com, and you can also
shop at happiness 76
dot com, which is a e commerce store
that I've created that has a lot of
(03:38):
content consistent with what we talk about here
in the podcast. Shirts, hats,
coffee mugs, puzzles, coasters, all kinds of things.
That we've created that we think are reflective
of the topics we discuss on the podcast.
That's happiness happiness
76 dot com.
Okay.
Now, I wanna talk here. Let's kick this
(03:58):
off. We're gonna talk about a national
issue,
but really, it... It's it at this sort
of thing happens at the national level at
the regional state level and even at the
local level. And it's what we're seeing this
flood of
irrational. I mean, have you been seeing this
talking to your friends and family? You get
on social media. You interact with people, and
(04:19):
there's just a lot of nonsense. That's being
written out there. A lot of almost sort
of a ab application of reality. People
not really focused on what's real, what's not
people stuck
in a lot of, I guess, how should
we say this in political silos, and and
they just don't communicate effectively. And that's part
of what I try to break down in
(04:41):
this podcast is dealing with facts, You know,
I'm not a Republican. I'm not a Democrat.
I'm independent.
And I wanna
be able to break down some of these
mist because everyone seems to be in the
red camp or the blue camp these days.
But it is an election year. There's a
lot of propaganda going on,
candidates, their supporters. I mean, jesus everything to
(05:01):
do with the whole Trump Biden
election is just bananas.
Our local
elections are starting to per.
You know, I think as we get closer
to Labor Day, we're gonna see a lot
more in there and even in our statewide
elections. So this is, like the dawn before
the calm before the storm or the or
the the darkest before the dawn as as
(05:22):
it were. And so
what's going on? You get the news media
is comp implicit in this, The... They're repeating
a lot of talking points that come from
each of these parties.
Kinda makes you question them as well,
and the tribalism is just so thick. You
know? It's... If you're on team red, you
automatically like everything the team red likes and
(05:43):
dislike everything the team blue likes.
And vice versa the tribalism. It's like Red
sox and yankee fans are
you know, pod and dodgers fans, You know,
just fighting amongst each other,
but so difficult to get people to have
an objective opinion. Or an objective of assessment
of what's going on. I mean, I often
(06:03):
think to myself, whatever happened to
this idea of thinking for yourself. You know,
whatever happened to our friends on the left,
used to always say question authority, and now
you see our friends on the left falling
in line with authority.
Again, it's just... It's nuts. What's going on
out there. So I wanna bring up just
a few
examples of this, and some of these are
(06:24):
just
very obvious. I mean, the first 1 is
is Joe Biden and is mental decline.
And,
you know, we saw that in hit the
debate performance a few weeks ago. We've seen
that in a few cases even after the
debate.
Biden is going around saying, oh, just 1
bad night. It's not a big deal.
But this has been evident for
(06:46):
not just months. It's been evident for years.
I mean, this was a question
even in the election of 20 20, but
even shortly after,
but president Joe Biden was elected. We have
seen his mental decline. We have seen him
look like a deer in the headlights. We
have seen him stumble and bum,
fall down, get tongue tied,
(07:06):
lose his train of thought.
This has been going on for a while,
and yet the demi Crap seem to be
in complete denial of this. You know, they
they tell us on 1 hand that Trump
is a threat to democracy.
Trump is a huge
problem in America, we must defeat Trump. And
yet they're rolling out a dude, Joe Biden,
(07:26):
who was, like, 80 was 81 years old.
And is not fully there.
And you're thinking, well, how are we supposed
to take the Democrats seriously on this when
they have a candidate
that frankly didn't even get challenged in the
primary. This is from the Democrats that say
the democracy is under assault while at the
same time,
(07:47):
just shutting down democratic primaries in some states
having no democratic primary debates, Dean Phillips, Mary
Williamson
There were other people that would have jumped
in and challenged, but they didn't even have
the debate. In some cases, they don't even
have
opposing candidates in the... On the ballot.
Because of the way the system is rigged.
And so they've been cloak
(08:08):
Joe Biden mental
capabilities really, for quite a while. He's been
carefully managed.
And if we're questioning whether or not Joe
Biden is good enough to be a candidate
in 20 24
how in the heck can he be a
president for the next 4 plus years?
So it's like this
irrational of of tried to denying the truth
(08:30):
about what's going on with Joe Biden,
you know, while at the same time telling
us how important it is to vote form.
It's just insane. Right You know, I was
I was thinking about what what did all
this remind me. I was you remember recon?
You know, She was that
lady that would go in and help people
clean up their mess and and get rid
(08:50):
of the, all the stuff people are hoarding,
and she would often say,
it's okay to let go
of some of the clothes and things that
you have. I think it's okay to let
go of Joe Biden. We we can thank
Joe Biden for accomplishing the most important thing
that he had to accomplish in 20 20.
Which was defeating Donald Trump.
(09:11):
But
he's he's he's done his piece. He said
he was gonna be a transition candidate to
a younger generation. So we should be, like,
Marie con. We should say thank you and
and say,
now it's time for the next generation. It's
time for the next thing, and we're gonna
move Joe Biden out the door. That's what
(09:32):
it should be right now. If we're thinking
rationally. But the Democrats aren't and they're plunging
into this Democratic national convention with this guy,
joe Biden who I question if he has
the ability to put all this together and
to run our nation. In many ways, he
just seems like a puppet, a figure head
that there are people
(09:52):
behind the scenes that are calling the shots
because it's clear that he's not capable of
it. But it's not just Joe Biden. And
there's irrational around Donald Trump
That mean, the the people are rallying for
Donald Trump saying, you know, this guy is
is a leader. He's good for America.
This is, you know, God's choice Donald Trump,
but this is a guy with 34 felon.
(10:14):
He's got more trials coming up. He's already
been found guilty in a court of law
of raping e eugene Carroll and has to
pay restitution for that. This is a guy
that is...
Also utter nonsense at his rallies, talking about
hannibal le. And and and just just talking
about batteries and boats and sharks and weird
(10:37):
ass shit in his
in his
rallies.
And boy the fans that the tribalism is
just thick. They support everything this guy says,
and it doesn't matter if there are contradiction.
It doesn't matter.
If he's had affairs. I mean, they they
they love him for saying we're gonna deport
all the immigrants, but then they ignore the
(10:59):
fact, the 2 of his wives were immigrants,
you know? And they ignore the fact that
you know, there's all these other contradiction with
the guy. It's it's just insane. You know,
people saying 1 thing, but then believing another
when it comes to Trump.
You know, there's even people that are saying,
like, on the Republican side, oh, Joe, you
(11:21):
know, Donald Trump doesn't wanna be a dictator.
I'm thinking, what are you talking about? He
said so. He goes, well, I don't wanna
be a dictator. Well, maybe except on day
1. I'll be a dictator.
And people say, well, no. He's kidding. It's
just a joke and he doesn't really mean
it.
But we all know the presidents have a
tremendous amount of. Power to sign executive orders
(11:43):
to essentially
decree or or pro claim brand new law,
without even having to go through congress.
So if a president
can unilaterally make decisions to change the rules
to increase tariffs to build border walls to
do all kinds of other things. If a
president can do that just by signing an
(12:04):
executive order, then what does that make them?
A king, a dictator. Well, yeah. And so
we know Trump is gonna wanna do that.
He said he's gonna do it. And frankly,
he did do that when he was elected
after his... You know, when he was ina
in 20 17.
Joe Biden did the same thing. So did
Barack Obama, all the presidents do that. Can
(12:24):
he hear him in the... In the debates.
On day 1, I will do this, I
will do that because they wanna sign executive
orders.
While they'll tell you, oh, no, he's not
gonna be a dictator. The Republicans will say
that. Meanwhile, the Democrats will say, oh, we
believe in democracy, democracy is under a... We
need to protect democracy
and yet they want the president to have
(12:46):
executive powers so that they don't have to
go through Congress and go through the democratic
process and the and the separation of power
that our founding fathers have built for America.
So
huge,
huge irrational. I mean, even take this mass
deportation idea from Trump and the and the
conservatives or I should say the Mag crowd
because they're not really conservative.
(13:08):
How in hell are you gonna deport all
these people?
Well, the first question is is how are
you gonna
identify the people that need to be deported?
Okay? For regardless of how you're gonna round
them up and ship them out. How do
you figure out who's here illegally?
I mean, we're gonna have to have, like,
really aggressive
(13:29):
policies where the police and other authorities are
gonna be checking people, you know, to see
if you've got a green card to see
if you've got a birth certificate.
Mean, it's gonna be like,
I mean, the people say that Trump's like
Hitler, but it's gonna be like, you know,
Germans, Nazis, you know, show me your papers.
I mean, how else are they gonna ever
(13:49):
be able to figure out who is here
illegally?
And then on top of it, how can
you
demand people?
To present their
documentation. When we have a fourth amendment that
says people should not be subject to,
subject to
unreasonable searches
that people should be safe in their persons.
(14:12):
I mean, in in order to do this,
you would have have to violate the fourth
amendment
to go around
demanding
paperwork and
documentation approve who you are.
Have And then even imagine if they figure
it out a way to identify everyone that
needs to be deported, How and the hell
are you gonna do it? He says he
wants to round people up and put them
(14:32):
in camps
and then eventually send them out of the
country.
In a nation that's built on freedom on
liberty
how in the hell is this consistent? It
makes no sense? I mean, even here in
my hometown of Pow, California, which a suburb
here of San Diego,
I'll drive down the street here on Sundays
and all the Trump supporters of there are
(14:54):
on the, quote, 4 corners of freedom. That's
what they call it. Where all the Trump
supporters that have waving their American flags showing
their signs and they're saying, you know,
freedom,
liberty. That's what Donald Trump is for. And
then a few signs over, someone else is
holding up a sign that says deport all
the illegal.
(15:14):
It's... You look at it, You see the
contradiction straight in front of you and yet
this irrational
continues
and it continues.
You know,
even here in my hometown of Pow, I
also... So, you know, I I get in
trouble sometimes on social media,
interacting with some of our locals.
(15:35):
And I'm just asking questions. So trying to
understand why people believe what they believe.
1 of the things that's going around right
now in our town is
should
voters have the ability or the right
to make land use
decisions
that could
affect or determine or control how other people
(15:57):
use their property.
And
you'll see people
say so blatantly. They'll say, hey, did that
project affect others? Did it
cause others to be inconvenience or to for
in any sort of way, well, then that
it needs to go to a ballot.
But then when you call them out on
it, that they they are demanding votes for
(16:19):
just about every construct project. They, no. No
No. Not all of them. Just some of
them.
It's just
again,
irrational. People talking at of 2 sides of
their mouth.
Turn how about... Here's another 1. I mean,
the project 20 25 1 is amazing.
I have seen
so much information about that. I'm gonna probably
go through that and break it down. In
(16:39):
a future podcast,
because there are some things in project 20
25 that are just horrific.
And some things that I kinda like
but 1 of the things you're hearing people
are saying is, oh, if project 20 25
passes, the republicans are gonna get rid of
social security. And you're thinking,
there's no way this is ever gonna happen.
This is the sort of thing that they've
(17:00):
been saying for years that they're gonna they're
gonna kill social security. And what other the
republicans end up doing. They keep expanding it
and growing it. Republicans even grew Medicare.
So it's a lot of this
denial
of reality,
I mean, that's what I see. I mean,
that you see people that are in denial
(17:21):
about the fiscal crisis of social security. Because,
you know, in about 10 years, there's not
gonna be enough money. To fulfill all the
promises made.
Because the the payouts of Social security have
been
exceeding the tax revenue
for some time now. And when we get
to about 20 33,
the trust fund is gonna be empty.
(17:41):
There are some people that are in denial
that that's ever gonna happen.
But at the same time, there's other people
that are in denial about, you know, whether
the Republicans are gonna kill social security. So
again, nonsense.
I mean, even with electric vehicles, you know,
we drive an E, and we love Evs.
And people saying such just insane nonsense, like,
(18:03):
you know, all Evs consume fossil fuel.
And I guess it's not true at all.
Not at all. I mean, frank, our our
2 evs are powered by,
by solar, you know, from our
you know, from our the solar panels on
our garage.
And frankly,
most you know, some people will say that,
oh, yeah, Evs are powered by coal, but
(18:25):
really, you
Here in California,
there's almost 0 coal that is in our
grid.
Our grid is mostly powered by natural gas,
which is a fossil fuel, but 1 of
the, you know, the less impactful of them
all, but also wind and solar and other
energy sources,
fossil So just myths your irrational, just it's
(18:46):
constant.
How about the ones
Remember, like, back in the day, the Republicans
sick... They're actually saying it now, we believe
in small government.
We believe in cutting spending.
That's another load to Bs s 2. They
never do. They always expand their spending. They
always expand not just the spending, but the
debt.
(19:07):
Some people say, oh, the Republicans wanna get
the government out of your personal wife. And
go, that's not true at all. You know,
we see
Republicans that wanna tell women what they can
and cannot do with their bodies.
We're seeing government saying that they wanna round
up people in ship them out of America.
And yet, we're supposed to believe that they
wanna get government out of your personal life.
(19:29):
We we hear cases like, you know, republicans
are conservative.
You remember, remember back when Bill Clinton was
president, and you know, he had the monica
Le Affair and, you know, the Republicans, the
only thing wanted to do was bring back
dignity into the White House.
And that's why they wanted a George W
bush because they didn't wanna have, you know,
some hound dogs, some sc roll that's, you
(19:51):
know, having affairs and and other kinds of
things on the side.
And now they're backing Donald Trump. I mean,
these are evangelical
that are backing Donald Trump, a liar a
con man.
These people are in denial of reality as
well.
Or how have you ever heard the other
comments? Oh, yeah. President Clinton, You know, he
(20:12):
he reduced the national debt.
That's false too.
National debt went up every year under President
Clinton. Every single year.
You know, some people will say,
oh, yeah. The the Democrats, you know, they're
they're fiscal responsible.
No.
And if you look at the Nash all
debt for the United States of America, about
(20:34):
half of it occurred when a Republican is
in the White House and about half of
it occurred when a democrat was in the
White House.
And a good portion of that time, the
opposing party was controlling at least 1 or
both of the chambers of Congress.
Neither parties fiscal responsible even though they tell
you that.
You hear cases or where people refer to
(20:55):
the Democrats is liberal.
Democrats are not liberal.
Because what does liberal mean? Liberal means that
you stand for individual rights.
You stand for free markets, free enterprise.
Liberal means, yeah, that you support democracy.
But you also
support each individual's right to their own life.
(21:18):
I... According to that definition, I'm a liberal.
But Democrats are not liberals. Republicans aren't conservatives.
Yet, they call themselves out all the time.
And it just goes on and on and
on. None of these things are... What do
you think? Do you have any good examples
of this where, you... You know, maybe it's
on your team side or the other team
side where you seen this irrational?
(21:39):
Of people
that are believing in nonsense
or will say 1 thing and then right
next door to it, there's some
contradiction that they that that, these people are
blind to. You know, if so, tell me
what you think in in the show notes
or tell me what you think in the
live chat, just type it in a Facebook
x
or on Twitter.
Okay.
(22:01):
I wanna move on. I we're gonna talk
about homeowners ownership levels
in poor states versus rich states, And I'm
gonna have a Pow news roundup. We're gonna
talk about some new updates with lifetime fitness.
Talk a little bit about Pow Unified School
district and we have our community forum.
I do invite you to go to happiness
76 dot com.
Happiness 76
(22:22):
is
our, e commerce site,
we have t shirts and mugs and all
kinds of great things celebrating our ina rights
of life liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Where So, you know, and we've even got
some some gear there for electric vehicle owners
and for people to live here in my
hometown at Pow. So if you wanna get...
Some cool swag, you know, to show off
(22:42):
what you believe if you believe in liberty
or you believe in happiness or you believe
in in just supporting your hometown. Go to
happiness 76 dot com. We really appreciate your
support.
Okay.
Let's move on, and we're now gonna talk
about housing.
And
this
was a study that I saw that came
(23:03):
out first in a Cnn article.
And this was really interesting to me, and
that's that's why I wanna share it with
you.
Okay. So
there's something weird going on with my my
camera view on 1 of those screens. Did
you notice that? There's like
a split screen that's going on there. I
(23:24):
don't know. Maybe it's just happening on my
side. I'm not sure. But anyways, here's a
story, and it... It's on it was on
Cnn, and it says,
These states have some of the poorest Americans
and
the highest homeowners ownership rates.
That's an attention grabbing headline. Right? Because
housing right now where we live in California
(23:45):
is so expensive.
And how is it that there's more people
buying houses in poor states and enriched states.
Well,
this this particular person was a realtor?
In in West Virginia and said you can
get a house with 90 acres for under
for under 500000
dollars
which is probably a lot for West Virginia,
(24:06):
but it's just fascinating to me that we
see this. I mean, here's the chart, and
I'm gonna bring this up if you can
see this on your screen.
And
it says,
the along the y axis is their average
income, and along the x axis is the
percent of homeowners ownership.
And if you look on the far right
hand side
(24:27):
near the bottom is West Virginia,
and they have a very low
income, but a very high homeowners ownership level,
And then if you look in the upper
left, you see New York and California
that have very high income levels,
but very low.
A relatively low homeowners ownership rates.
(24:48):
Now, what do you think of this? Is
this counterintuitive
to you? Because I think a lot of
people thought that, oh, well,
If you move to California
and you get a high paying job, it's
gonna be a lot easier to buy a
house out there because you're gonna make more
money.
Some people think that,
You know? And they think that in some
of the poorest states, people are gonna be
(25:08):
so poor that they won't even be able
to afford a place to live in. But
in fact, the opposite is true.
Housing
in
high income states in so called rich states
like California, Nevada, excuse me, like California and
New York
is very, very expensive.
And why? Why is this the case?
(25:31):
Well,
demographics,
competition for homes and
strict zoning regulations, all play a role in
the cost of real estate, and I'm reading
this right up from the article. So according
to the Federal reserve data, West Virginia,
average
personal income of 52500
per capita
is the second lowest in the United States.
(25:52):
However,
Despite its relatively low personal income levels, it
has the highest
homeowners ship rate of all 50 states
at 77
percent. According to the Us census data.
Mississippi, the only state with a lower average
personal income in than West Virginia has the
third highest homeowners ownership rate in the country.
(26:14):
Now, this to me is interesting because we've
often talked about homelessness
in San Diego, California across the United States
and what's the cause of homelessness?
Some say it's drugs, it's alcohol. It's financial
problems. I mean, there's a bunch of theories.
Everyone's kinda got their opinion,
But if you really look at the data,
(26:35):
the real reason that there's homelessness in in
California
in such to such a high degree.
Is because housing is so expensive.
You know,
even if you wanna blame
drugs and alcohol and mental health in California
has the cause for
homelessness,
(26:56):
which I agree, those are factors, but they're
not the primary.
Well, do you think people in West Virginia
or Mississippi or some other poor states,
don't have.
Don't... I mean, do you think people... Do
you think there's no homelessness or drug addiction
in those other states.
(27:16):
Of course, there is. There's mental to health
crises in West Virginia in Alabama in Mississippi.
The same is true with
drug addiction and alcoholism, but there's not a
big homelessness problem.
Because housing is lot less expensive.
And I think we lose sight of that
here in California.
(27:38):
You know, we immediately want, you know, to
blame someone else for the price of housing,
or we wanna elect new leaders in our
local city governments.
Or we wanna blame rich greedy people or
corporations or rich people with their vacation homes
for the reason.
Why?
Or housing prices are so high.
(27:58):
But ultimately,
ultimately, it's oftentimes the policies in these high
income states that create.
I mean, that's 1 of the things I
comment a lot about in my hometown of
Pow
about how
regulations and zoning laws.
That have prevented development from occurring are the
reasons why
(28:19):
that we have a surging
home prices in our community.
There's a few other comments from this,
article that I thought was good.
According to Mike Simon, the founder of the
real estate analytics firm Atlas research, he said,
I would have expected that the more wealthy
places
but more likely it it's people can afford
(28:41):
a home.
It turns out the opposite is true.
Now this is part of their theory to
explain this. They said big cities
attract people who are in transition or the
growth stage of their lives. They're more interested
in renting.
Or they may be more transient.
That's certainly true.
(29:02):
Many of these cities such as New York
and San Francisco also attract buyers from across
the United States and internationally bidding up the
price of homes.
Okay. So you've got a lot more people
moving into these big cities,
you've got people that maybe aren't necessarily ready
to buy yet because they're young professionals just
getting their the career started or kinda getting
(29:22):
their adult life started.
Those play a role. They're inner people, you
know, we we see a lot of people
that are foreign that are purchasing property, even
people in the United States moving around buying
property.
But this article goes on to say, there's
another reason the big city skew the data.
According to Lori Goodman, the founder of the
housing policy center at the Urban Institute. She
(29:44):
said,
large cities and their surrounding suburbs also have
strict Zoning laws that dictate how land may
be used.
Zoning makes land much more expensive
because you're restricting the use of it.
She added that land is very scarce in
in large cities, driving up the cost of
(30:05):
buying a home even further.
A growing number of local and state governments
led by both Democrats and Republicans have begun
to rethink zoning laws in response to the
nationwide housing shortage. Some local governments say you
even begun losing laws to convert vacated office
space into affordable housing.
Now tell me what you think of that.
(30:26):
Now,
when I talk to some of our friends
on the left, you know, some of our
more progressive friends, particularly here in my hometown
of Pow, California.
And we talk about housing and why is
housing expensive and what should we do to
to to make housing more expensive. We'll hear
from our friends on the left. Oh, we
need more affordable housing We needed to be
subsidized. You know? The those those big corporations
(30:49):
when they build 20 homes, they should make
2 of them for affordable housing.
Or and have another 2 or 3 of
them for seniors or for veterans.
Or we need to have low income loans
or we need to provide a, first time
home buyer,
help on a down payment,
or we need some other program,
(31:10):
to help
overcome the fact that the prices are high.
But it doesn't seem to register with a
lot of our friends on the left.
That really, we should be addressing not the
symptom, but the cause. And the cause is
is that
demand is far exceeding supply.
That's why we have a housing crisis, and
(31:31):
that's why in California,
in San Diego, in particular, where there is
very little land left to build on,
housing is much more expensive.
And you get to the point where not
only is how's... How not only is there
a very little dirt to build on in
San Diego County.
That dirt that is available, you know, to
(31:52):
potentially build on a lot of it is
is zoned for open space
is zoned
to be ineligible to build anything there.
Or there are other cases
where
housing
multi dwelling units, apartment buildings are limited in
in San Diego. We already said there's not
(32:13):
enough
dirt. There's not enough space to build horizontally,
but they set limits on it vertically in
so that apartment buildings can only be 3
or 4 stories high.
And we especially see this with the California
Coastal commission,
that prevents a lot of high rise condos
along the beach.
(32:33):
They don't wanna disrupt or destroy people's view,
but doing that is a zoning regulation that
limits the supply
and in turn causes prices to go up,
So it's funny in a way that the
people
that are most concerned about homelessness, most concerned
about housing una affordability.
(32:54):
Are actually the ones that are often
pushing policies that drive up those prices.
Now, of course, you know, do you wanna
move to West Virginia or Mississippi. You know,
people in California
probably
are pretty happy in California. That's why they're
here. There... I know there's a there's a
certain percentage of the population that's leaving, but
California is still getting immigrants and there's still
(33:16):
population growth.
But, yeah. I mean, obviously, you know, home
prices are gonna be lower
in poor states,
therefore, owner occupancy rates are gonna be higher.
And
you're not gonna have the case of people
that maybe lost a job are down on
their luck, and then suddenly, don't have enough
(33:38):
money to pay the rent.
Because the rent is always gonna be a
lot more affordable
in some of those poor states.
Which by the way, have very little regulation.
I mean, what... 1 crazy example is Houston,
Texas.
And my son lives in Houston. And
he's been there for a little over a
(33:58):
year, and we went out there and visited
him, and and it's a really interesting city.
Very different than a lot of other parts
of Texas. Very international, very cosmopolitan
a thriving economy, a great place to be
if you're a health worker,
because of all the research and hospitals they
have it in in Houston.
But Houston usually gets a slammed
because they have very little zoning,
(34:21):
that the whole city is just a big
sp.
And that's true. I mean, there's there is
a great deal of that. And then in
some cases, that does create problems for traffic.
But you know what Else is is true
in Houston.
The cost of living is dramatically lower there
than in many other parts of America.
I mean, a lot lower than California.
(34:41):
Because they're able to build more, and they're
able to provide more supply. So
now, again, I'm not saying Texas is 1
of the poor states. But, you know, it's
it's not as wealthy as California.
But at the same time, it's interesting that
are almost counterintuitive,
but that homeowners ownership levels
are higher in poor states,
where by the way, they don't have as
(35:02):
many restrictions on land use or on construction.
Now,
governments are getting creative
in their attempts to create new housing in
other ways. In September, New York's City mayor
Eric Adams announced an effort to eliminate mandates
that that eliminate mandates that parking spaces being
included in with new construction,
(35:23):
freeing up the building
of, of more homes.
We see this in San Diego as well,
You know, because there are regulations are safer
every unit... Or every bedroom you need x
number of parking spaces.
And
you need a lot of land for all
those cars,
But if people are living in downtown or
(35:43):
if they're living in another high density area
where there's a lot of walk ability
or they happen to be living near transit.
There's no reason why you can't build
more high density housing
without parking requirements. You know,
rather than having
1 parking space per unit or 2 parking
spaces per unit. Maybe you only have a
(36:04):
half a parking space per unit or even
less than that.
For some people that makes a lot of
sense
because they're gonna find a place that's more
affordable in an area where they wanna live,
and they don't need a car because they
don't have 1 or they choose not to
use 1.
But we don't... We have problems here in
California
where people are upset about parking,
(36:26):
And they want more parking and more parking
and then they wonder why housing is so
darn expensive. We haven't even to see this
here in my hometown of Pow.
Unbelievable stuff. So tell me what your thoughts
are there.
I think
the...
We we have a serious housing crisis, and
in my opinion,
it's entirely caused.
Well not entirely, but a significant portion. I'd
(36:48):
say over half the problem.
Is related to
zoning laws or other regulations that make construction
either illegal
or massively difficult and expensive.
I mean, we see that in in single
family home neighborhoods where people are saying don't
put in Ad u's. I don't want you
put in, like a 4 unit apartment building
(37:10):
in your backyard.
I mean, what are your thoughts on that?
When we have these kinds of rules put
in place by N
that prevent development that give voters the right
to stop development that give voters the right
to declare large swath of land as open
space.
What they're doing is making housing more expensive
(37:32):
for everybody else.
And by the way, if you already happen
to own a home, you see your home
value go up,
And oftentimes it's existing homeowners, so are the
ones that are demanding no more growth.
Unbelievable.
Unbelievable. So,
let's move on.
And so I've got a ton here to
(37:53):
go and We wanna get into and
I wanna talk a little bit about some
some of the news here in my hometown
at Pow.
So let's get into some of that, but
before we do,
I just wanna chat briefly
about
another podcast I do.
IIC
host a podcast with Lee Hacks Hamilton every
Monday and Thursday
(38:15):
at 3... Excuse me at 01:00 Pacific time.
And we live stream right here from the
John Reilly project Podcast studios, saw
talk sports. So if you love sports, if
you like talking about the dodgers, the pad,
the giants, the angels, the yankee, the red
sox, If you wanna talk about the Nfl,
the Nba,
Nhl, international soccer,
(38:36):
where we cover it all. So,
look up Lee Hacks Hamilton.
Wherever you get your podcasts. You can also
look up Lee hacks saw Hamilton on Youtube.
We got a ton of content out there,
and we livestream stream every Monday and Thursday.
So be sure to check that out. I'm
I'm kind of like Lee's wing man. I'm
like his Ed Mc man. And, you know,
he Lee hacks saw Hamilton, of course, the
(38:58):
legendary,
sports talk radio pioneer here in San Diego.
Also the former play by play man of
the San Diego chargers,
the Seattle Sea,
Usc Trojan football, Arizona State Sun football and
many other,
professional and college teams throughout America. What a
great guy. So please join us there. And
again, if you wanna learn more about my
(39:19):
podcast, you like to be a guest. You
wanna recommend a guest,
get on our mailing list. Maybe even you
might wanna donate couple of bucks just to
support what we're doing. Go to my website,
john reilly project dot com, and I've got
some detail there.
Alright.
Now let's switch it up now. Okay. We
kinda covered some
national issues. We talked a little bit about
the irrational of politics and Trump and Biden.
(39:41):
Talk a little bit about homeowners ownership, you
know, in various states. Now let's 0 in
locally, because I know that I have a
lot of listeners and viewers that want me
to cover Pow content, which is my hometown
of Pow. And I wanna talk here about
the Green Valley Civic
Association,
and
first of all, let's just kinda
set the table on who all these entities
(40:02):
are. So we have 3 3 people in
the mix or 3 organizations in the mix
here.
1 is the city of Pow, 2 is
the Green Valley Civic Association.
And the third is lifetime fitness.
So
this... The Green Valley Civic Association is... Kind
of like a...
(40:23):
Excuse me. It's not really a homeowners association,
Although there is some similarity, but it's it
it's a
profit group
that attempts to represent the interests
of the people that live in the northern
portion of Pow, California.
9 02:06 4.
And
and and Green Valley is
(40:43):
1... It is another name for North North
Pow. So it this this organization, the Green
Valley Civic Association. I think it's been
in existence for probably 60 years, you know?
And
and and they've have,
historically, had a great deal of influence on
our city council. In fact, a lot of
the our former mayors and are...
(41:05):
Former city council members before they went to
district voting. A lot of them lived in
Green Valley. A lot of them lived in
North Pow.
And generally speaking, that's where a lot of
the, you know, the higher
income families live and where the higher home
value houses are as well.
And they came out with a press release
(41:25):
talking about the lifetime fitness facility, which is
gonna go in, or which is being proposed
to go in into the farm in Pow,
which is a new housing development that has
replaced the Stone ridge country club,
And remember that was voted on by the
people because originally when it was a country
club when it was a golf course, and
they had swimming pools and tennis clubs and
that sort of thing there.
(41:47):
Back then, that land was zoned to be
off limits for housing. Like I said previously,
it was zoned to be open space recreational.
It took a vote of the people
to to transition that to a housing
a area that is zoned for single family
home. So for
residential housing.
(42:07):
And it took them too prize to do
it. Well, they finally pass it in 20
20. And as part of that plan, they
were gonna have a very modest
fitness club there. You know, like 3000 square
feet, nothing super big, but, you know, kinda
modest in a little commercial district in the
center of the farm in Pow.
But now they wanna change the plan. A
plan that had previously been
(42:30):
previously been approved by the voters that was
locked in that there could be no changes.
And so now this proposal will put in
a lifetime fitness facility, that is
dramatically bigger than the 1 that was proposed.
By,
you know, order of magnitude of, like, 30.
(42:51):
Now the people at the want... The owner
of the land Kevin Mc america, lifetime fitness,
they wanna revise the plan to put in
this large facility. And it's probably gonna need
to go to evo vote, But the first
thing it has to do is go before
the City council here in Pow.
And the city council is gonna weigh in
on the project and determine, and Will this
go to the vote? Will they just approve
it or will they just say no to
(43:11):
everything?
Now I predict it's probably gonna go to
a vote? But the Green Valley Civic
Association who, by the way, historically has had
huge influence on the Powell City Council.
They came out with their own press release,
opposing
lifetime fitness. And I wanna read you portions
of this because I found this to be
very, very interesting.
(43:31):
The Green Valley Civic Association opposes
the proposed 30500
square foot lifetime fitness facility at the farm
development in Pow.
As a community leader for over 60 years,
we believe this proposal does not align with
the community's long term vision and needs.
We have urged Pow City council not to
(43:52):
approve modifications to the farm specific plan, which
currently allows for a 2953
square foot fitness club.
It they go on to say, you know,
that it's
they say it's a significant 10 times the
size increase. That may be true of just
the building.
But when you look at a lot of
(44:13):
the amenities and the outdoor
pickle ball courts and tennis courts and swimming
pools and yoga classes outdoors. This is a
lot more in size. I think it can
be as much as I think around 90000
square feet.
According to the Green Valley Civic Association, they
said,
The size of the lifetime club raises serious
(44:36):
concerns,
particularly regarding traffic safety.
A critical issue is that good eve drive
of a 25 mile pair street which serve
as the main access point to this commercial
development.
The additional traffic generated by such a large
facility would pose a danger to residents,
especially children
playing in their yards at the neighborhood park
(44:56):
on Good.
Okay? So
this does this surprise you, First of all.
It doesn't surprise me because
the historically,
the Green Valley Civic Association has represented the
interests of North Powell,
and the interest of North Pow have generally
been to keep Pow,
(45:18):
the city in the country to preserve their
lots in Pow, in the northern portion where
people have are living on half an acre,
1 acre, 2 acre... Maybe more that have
ranch style homes
and where there is
very little commercial space. There's and
there are
almost no multi family dwelling apartment buildings or
(45:40):
condominium.
And they... The... Historically, there's been resistance to
that here in. And that's why they passed
prop F f in the late 19 eighties.
To
prevent
the city council from changing zoning to make
Pow
something different than the city in the country,
(46:03):
which interesting prop F didn't apply to the
whole city. It only really apply to
mostly North Powell, Green Valley area, and some
selective portions of South Pow.
Of course, the City council,
approved a lot of the housing we're seeing
on Pow Road in other parts of of
of Pow.
But the the Green Valley Civic Association is
(46:24):
saying we don't want
lifetime fitness here. And they did a survey
and the results of the survey are incredible.
It their press release says
Moreover,
our recent survey completed by over 440
local residents revealed that nearly 80 percent are
opposed to lifetime proposal.
With 72 percent preferring the original of the
(46:46):
originally approved 3000 square foot fitness club.
Only 37 percent of respondents expressed any interest
in seeing any other proposals for the site.
These numbers clearly indicate that the majority of
the community does not support lifetime fitness plan
and values
maintaining the integrity
of the specific plan.
(47:06):
Okay. So for all of the the N
in town and you know who you are,
I won't name names.
You must be overjoyed hearing this.
That the Green Valley Civic
Association not only wants to deny
lifetime,
but they're advocating for what you advocate in
South Pow.
(47:26):
Pretty interesting.
But in a lot of ways this sort
of
confirms what I kind of expected.
Now, I kinda I expected
that in the 20 17 vote here in
Pow, I figured for sure was gonna lose
because Michael Sc licensure people didn't like them.
What he did in s... In the Es
country clubs spreading manure to try to upset
(47:47):
the parents or the accept the residence.
They didn't like his tactics.
And his program was denied by the voters
in 20 17.
20 20 rolls around, Kevin Mc america becomes
the new spokesman, a person that a lot
of people in Pow know and like and
trust,
and he came forward with a plan,
and it passed,
(48:09):
but it was promised
that it wouldn't change.
Meanwhile, all this activity, all this additional development
going on all over, our hometown of Pow.
People are angry. People are upset. People wanna
still have some form of control over other
people,
People still wanna have some ability to tell
other people know you can't build that,
(48:32):
and here we are. So this
you know, I'm I'm a supporter
of lifetime fitness going in at the farm,
primarily because I support property rights. I think
that,
these zoning regulations are the reason we we
have a housing crisis.
People... If you own your land, you should
(48:53):
be able to build on it. You It's
your life,
you should be able to choose. It's your
body. You should be able to choose, it's
your land,
you should be able to choose. As long
as you're not,
violating the rights of other people.
But I think we're seeing here now that
the lifetime fitness people,
They're already getting resistance from people in South
(49:15):
Highway. And now this is significant 80 percent,
almost 80 percent.
Of the people that responded to the Green
Valley Civic
Association survey said, no. We don't wanna see
a change here.
This indicates to me that now lifetime fitness
is gonna have a huge challenge on their
hands. They're gonna have to really sell this.
(49:36):
And share all of the amenities to the
public
to get them the vote on it, when
their club primarily caters to the very wealthy
It's a high end club with with spas
and massage and yoga, and all kinds of
specialized classes
with
membership fees
roughly
(49:57):
around 300 a month
depending on how they're gonna price it, but
that was kind of the ballpark. It's not
like a
you know, 10 dollar a month choose fitness
or 24 7 fitness,
subscription plan. It's a lot more expensive.
You Do you think this is... Do you
think this is gonna pass if it went
to a vote?
I question that. I... It seems like the
(50:18):
vibe and Pow would be a no.
But now the issue is will it go
to... What will a city council do? And
we're gonna find that out on the sixteenth
of July. And today is the tenth. So
In 9 days, the Pow City council
is going to
vote on this issue. They're... And they're specifically
gonna vote
on
(50:39):
on the proposal, is the proposal acceptable?
Is does the proposal meet all of their
criteria has been given the due diligence to
review everything?
I'm sure the city council is probably gonna
ask lifetime, you know, change this, move this
modify that because They usually do that on
these projects.
Then the question is is, are they going
to put it to a vote?
(51:01):
My my hunch is, yes. I don't think
they're gonna rubber stamp it and approve it.
Mean, if they did,
all hell would break loose. You know, because
the voters voted on this plan not to
change it. Now, my opinion, I don't think
voters should be able to control the people's
property.
Just I think voter shouldn't be able to
control a woman's body.
But at the same time, I think they're
(51:22):
gonna probably
put it out to a vote.
And we're gonna find out on July sixteenth.
I'm gonna go to that City council meeting.
Well, I'm just kinda curious. I'll be a
fly on the wall in the back. I
wanna see how this all shakes out. Because
you know there's gonna be a lot of
people there
mostly against it speaking to the city council.
So that's gonna be on July sixteenth
(51:43):
in the evening, I don't know the exact
time.
I'll be able to look it up, but
you should look it up as well if
you find this to be a particularly hot
issue. But can you believe that the Green
Valley Civic
Association
is saying no. We don't want the lifetime
fitness facility here. It's too big. There's gonna
be too much traffic and our children are
gonna be at risk,
(52:04):
playing in the park. There gonna be too
many cars.
And this is a big problem.
By the way, do you really think that's
the reason
that Green Valley Civic Association is object to
it?
The safety of the children?
It's usually... I mean, of course, that's 1
of the issues, but is that the number
1?
Probably not. I mean, the number 1 is
(52:25):
is they just wanna keep a big commercial
facility out of North Pow.
And it's for some other people, their primary
reason for opposing lifetime fitness
is they just wanna stick it to the
man. They're tired of all the construction in
Pow.
But they're gonna use
traffic studies, and they're gonna use, you know,
(52:48):
children in the park,
and some of these kind of emotional hearts
strings
to pull on to get it to make
it
a heated
emotional issue. To try to to to generate
more people pushing this on the nova. So
tell me what you think of this. And
if you're on... If you're watching the live
stream Tell me in the live chat. You
(53:08):
can just type it on Facebook or Youtube,
what you think I'll get you involved in
the conversation.
Since we're talking about Pow. Look, you see
down there on the on my Ky on
the screen, there's pow store dot com. I
I created a little store,
a a lot of Pow Swag, you know,
Pow t shirts, Pow,
(53:29):
coasters,
and and Pow puzzles of lake... Pow in
of old Pow park.
If you wanna check any of that out,
go to pow store dot com.
When you do, you'll realize it takes you
to a sub page of my happiness 76
dot com paid
website. But check it out. And and we
give you not... We're giving out 20 percent
discounts there. Just use the promo code Pow
(53:51):
20. To get involved.
1 other public service announcement that I'm gonna
make here, and this is
for our friends in Pow that are watching
and listening.
Our, Pow historical society is actually looking for
amateur actors.
(54:12):
So there is a call for amateur actors
needed, Pow historical and memorial society will produce
a play called
a Hearty Pow legend at their 6
anniversary celebration on 09/14/2024
at Old Pow Park.
So if you're interested in being an actor
in that play, because they have a number
(54:32):
of spots they need to fill.
To join the team, audition will be held
on July fifteenth, You know, today is the
tenth. So on July fifteenth, the in Pow
at Old Pow Park at Temp Hall,
located at 14114
Midland Road starting at 05:30PM.
If you're interested in auditioning or have any
questions,
email
(54:53):
vanessa
jane
ad devon at gmail dot com. Let me
spell that for you. It's VANESAJANEADEVEN
at g dot com.
Vanessa
jane ad devon at g dot com.
(55:17):
Contact her for questions. If you wanna get
involved,
they'll probably ask you for a heads shot,
maybe some acting experience that you have, But
this is a great time to do something
fun in the community here in our hometown
at Pow. So go check that out, the
Pow historical society, vanessa jane advent at g
mail dot com. If you wanna be an
actor in this play.
Okay. Last topic on the table before we
(55:39):
get to our community forum,
is I wanna talk briefly
about Pow Unified School district.
And oh my god, they're in the news
again. The Pow Unified school district.
And
where are my notes for that?
Did I not bring them? No. Here they
are. Here they are.
Okay. We've talk quite a bit about Pow
(55:59):
unified and
the billion dollar bond and and everything else
is the disgrace John Collins, the former superintendent
And then recently, our
superintendent was dismissed was fired by the board.
Mary Kim phelps.
And you may have heard about the whole
softball
controversy where the girls at the... At the
softball banquet didn't clap loud enough, and there
(56:21):
was
a lot of problems. A lot of bullying,
a lot of, you know,
teenagers being teenagers,
and our superintendent was out there defending her
daughter,
but doing it as superintendent, and frankly,
violating a lot of the ethics of what
is expected of a public official, particularly a
super superintendent of a school district. And as
(56:43):
a result, You know, she was investigated. She
was fired. But now a new story has
come forward
that a retired Pow unified employee says in
a new lawsuit,
that the fired
superintendent harassed her. So now we're getting more
people coming forward saying that Mary and Kim
phelps was harassing.
This person. So the plaintiff, her name is
Amanda Marshall.
(57:04):
She's suing Mary and Kim Phelps and the
school district,
saying that phelps harassed her for years
with yelling,
intimidation, and manipulation and that the district didn't
protect her.
Okay.
And and and then the article, this is
an article, by the way, and it's san
diego tribune, and and it's... You go to
(57:25):
palm news dot com. And it's there as
well. The article goes on to kind of
explain the whole
softball
clapping controversy.
But then it it goes on to tell
more about this this woman. Her name is
Amanda Marshall,
and
she she was commenting about the softball
(57:45):
situation, and she said,
I can totally believe that Mary Kim phelps
did this. Marshall said an interview referring to
the softball players accusations
This is what she does to people. You
know, apparently, she was be rating this employee,
threatening her you know, demanding on when, you
know, when asking when she's gonna retire, trying
to move around. The lawsuit says Phelps also
(58:07):
harass Marshall by, for example,
taking away her access to Phelps work schedule
or work office and calendar, which made it
harder for Marshall to do her job
The lawsuit also alleges phelps discriminated against Marshall
based on her age and race.
Okay. According to the lawsuit, phelps frequently asked
Marshal now 62 when when when she would
(58:28):
retire and told Marshall, quote, if I were
your age, I would retire.
The lawsuit alleges that phelps made a derogatory
comment about blonde blue eyed women in front
of Marshall. Who is white and blonde,
which
she said suggested
discriminatory attempt,
intent by phelps.
(58:49):
Okay. Well, Mary Kim phelps is gone. Okay?
And I don't think she's coming back. She's
suing to try to get her job back.
But this was documented in the San diego
Union Tribune. And this just sort of seems
to confirm
what we have heard
about the behavior of our former super superintendent.
I mean, do you think of this?
Now,
(59:09):
it it is interesting. I mean, obviously, we
see cases of workplace harassment that occur in
the private sector as well as here in
this case, in the public sector.
And
you, I think we've all had a boss
suck Haven't we haven't we all had a
boss that was rude and inc considerate it.
You know, maybe we get on your case.
Maybe yell at you a little bit, You
(59:30):
know, when you screwed up or were you
needed to kinda be, you know, quote motivated.
That happens. I'm not ex excuse it. But
that happens a lot.
But what's interesting is is that how we
unified
is 100 percent in on the whole woke
culture. So you know, diversity, equity, inclusion, all
(59:50):
of that, they're big fans of it. They
they promoted amongst the students.
And yet we're seeing
at the highest levels of the school district,
not pushing for inclusion, but exclusion.
When are you going to retire? You know,
not appreciating the diversity, but slamming it. You
know, in this case,
(01:00:10):
making cracks about white blonde women.
This is from people that think that,
you know, we need to have equity. You
know, we we need to get rid of
racism
and yet we find people that or pushing
a race based
message
that frankly is at odds with what
diversity equity inclusion is all about.
(01:00:32):
This was crazy to me. And I don't
know what's gonna happen here. I mean, I
I think they're gonna... They're... They have super
superintendent that's temporary now. I think they advanced
1 of the associate super superintendents.
They're having a job search. I saw
Michelle Connor radcliffe had announced that they're working
with an outside firm.
That's gonna help bring candidates forward. That's kind
(01:00:53):
of their process.
But there has been so much nonsense at
How we unify going back, like, 10 to
20 years. I mean, we had the billion
dollar bond. We had the disgraced John Collins
that was stealing money
from the school district that was
unethical had violated a lot of his
(01:01:13):
terms and conditions of his contract. We've seen
corruption with the relationship with, lawyers and with
bond refinance.
We've seen all kinds of stuff here.
And when American kin phelps was first brought
in,
I had hope
that she was gonna maybe change the culture.
(01:01:35):
But what happened?
First of all, she was only approved by
a 3 to 2 vote.
If I recall,
Michelle O'connor Rat and Tj j zane
and 1 more person, maybe Dash Patel.
Approved her, but
Charlie sellers and Kimberly Beatty dis said no.
(01:01:55):
She got in only on a 3 or
2 vote, which is surprising.
But that should have been so maybe some
red flags right there and sure enough here
we are. So how we unified seems to
always get into the news,
but often for the wrong reasons.
So tell me when you think about How
we unified, what's going on, You know, it's
summertime now. School start, you know, probably about
(01:02:17):
a month, maybe 5 weeks from now.
Kids will be heading back. So tell me
what you think about how we unified school
district.
Our families and our community always have something
to say.
Alright.
Okay. So we're at an hour. Right now,
I'm gonna go a little longer. I'm gonna
I'm gonna just comment on some of our
social media comments in our San diego community
(01:02:37):
form, but there's still an open opportunity for
you. So if you wanna get involved in
the discussion. If you have a question or
comment,
if you gotta come out and say, Riley,
you're you're... You don't know what the hell
you're talking about. Or maybe you wanna say,
hey, way to go, man, I like what
you're saying or you have a question or
a comment
Just type it in the live chat on
Facebook on Youtube or on exit. Will appear
(01:02:58):
on my screen we'll get you involved.
Okay. Let's go to our community forum, and
here I respond to social media comments,
and let's go to our first 1 here,
and this is from
Mike Pow
on You youtube. This is from Mike Divine.
You might know who Mike devin divine is.
He's a hardcore Trump. He's a
(01:03:18):
How And he's been here a long time.
I think he lives in Ramona, but he
still has a business here in Pow.
Mike always has something to say about local
politics, national politics. He's an interesting follow.
On Tiktok. He's always out and about here
in Pow doing videos and offering his commentary.
And this was about the idea of presidential
immunity, and whether or not
(01:03:39):
Trump should have partial immunity. I remember, the
Supreme Court granted.
The president regardless of who it is that
they have immunity. They they can't be held
liable for their actions when they're acting in
their roles president.
Which means that we are no longer equal
under the law.
And we'll,
that's been that way for a long time
actually, but it's the supreme Court affirmed it.
(01:04:02):
Which was surprising,
especially from some of the Supreme Court justices
that insisted what during their
nomination hearings
that nobody was above law.
Well, Mike comes out and says, does not
each
individual have immunity when it comes to speech
That's what the constitution had says.
(01:04:23):
And they do.
We do have a freedom of speech in
the United States.
Which means that the government cannot ab bridge
speech. Government cannot police speech.
But we do know that it actually does
occur.
Either directly or indirectly.
I mean, we saw a lot of government
officials that were cracking down on
(01:04:46):
disinformation,
that was on social media. We're seeing government
officials, you know, attempt to bully
or have a direct line into a lot
social media companies
and telling them, take this 1 down, take
that 1 down. That's
disinformation.
We have
president Trump, who
(01:05:06):
frankly, he ran for office in 20 16
saying he was gonna shut down
part of the Internet
and make it legal to sue the press,
which were both violations of the first amendment
by the way.
But does each individual have immunity on free
speech? That's the way it's supposed to work,
but the the difference here though is is
(01:05:27):
that we all
are supposed to be guaranteed the rights that
are outlined in the bill of rights.
Freedom of speech isn't just for
Americans, it isn't just for white people. It
isn't just, you know, for rich people,
it's for everybody. Every 1 of us. And
that's the beauty of what rights are all
(01:05:47):
about. They give us the freedom to act
in our lives,
you know, to say things to do things
to to move to to be able to
have liberty to make our own choices.
Freedom of speech in my opinion is the
most important
of all of the rights that are outlined
in the bill of rights.
But the issue at hand here is is
(01:06:08):
that should someone have more or less rights
than someone else? I say no.
And so while I agree, Mike, that
individuals do have immunity when it comes to
speech or they're supposed to have immunity.
The difference here is is that's supposed to
apply to everybody. It doesn't give exceptions to
the president of the United States.
(01:06:29):
Okay. Let's go on to our next comment
And you... Again, if you wanna get involved,
just type your comment or question in Facebook
Extra Youtube.
Let's go here to Star wars games
66.
And this was the the
podcast episode segment that I did about,
you know, Trump and tariffs and people are
saying, well you know, it's just a sales
tax. What's the big deal? You know, tariffs
(01:06:51):
sound good to me. You're not taxing my
income. That way, Only have to spend money
on taxes when I buy things.
So Star Wars game says,
It's actually a good idea because it lowers
income tax,
people keep all of their income, and since
they don't have as much purchasing power
it actually taxes people more fairly based on
(01:07:12):
how much they consume.
No longer does it punish people for becoming
intrinsically successful.
Okay. Now,
there are 2 issues that are being con
here.
The the whole idea of a consumption tax
and tariffs.
They're similar, but they're not the same.
(01:07:35):
It it... Let's just assume for the fact
that there was a consumption tax, a national
sales tax if you were. And, you know,
what do you pay for for sales tax
here. In our community, I think it's... Is
at 8 and 3 quarters percent, I think
that's what it is. You know, in some
cities in California, the sales tax is over
10 percent.
Which is insane.
(01:07:56):
But let's pretend that there was a national
consumption tax of 10 percent.
Now, would that be better or worse than
in income tax? I I think there's some
good arguments on both sides of that.
You know, some people will say consumption tax
harms the poor,
and, you know, the fair tax, which maybe
you've heard of the fair tax is a
consumption tax.
But
(01:08:17):
it provides certain protections for the poor because
you're only taxed above the poverty level of
spending.
But at any rate,
Our tariffs just like another sales tax. I
say no. Because
tariffs are politically
motivated
policies
that impact certain industries and certain
(01:08:37):
corporations
at the expense of others.
Like, for example, Joe Biden has a 100
percent tariff on Chinese electric vehicles.
Which to me is idiotic. For a Democrat
that says they wanna fight climate change.
China is now making very affordable Evs
(01:08:57):
and he wants to block them.
Why?
Obviously, to protect big auto to protect Detroit
protect all the union workers in the Ua
that are his support base or part of
it.
But tariffs,
in this case,
are... Are specific to those particular vehicles.
(01:09:18):
If you buy a different kind of a
vehicle, you buy a domestic car, it's not
tariff.
So you have this politically motivated
case of picking winners and losers.
In my opinion, that's immoral. That is just
wrong.
Now, is a consumption tax fair than an
income tax?
Generally speaking, I would say yes, because you
(01:09:39):
have a little more control over that.
Of over your consumption.
You know, does a consumption tax hit the
poor harder than the rich?
Yeah. It does because the the poor have
less disposable income.
You know, there... There's all kinds of arguments
for a flat income tax and what's the
best way to do that? But
(01:09:59):
our tariffs just a sales sex. I don't
think so. I I think there a much
a much more politically motivated tool
to reward some people at the expense of
others.
Okay. Let's go to another comment here in
our community forum, and this is from an
anonymous user.
And it was... My comment about our presidential
(01:10:20):
race, which I think is just bananas,
Trump and biden 2 terrible choices.
For very different reasons. And in some cases
for the same reason. And I think that's
what an anonymous user is saying. He goes
on to, quote,
to end the divisions and let government get
on with governing, they should both emit they're
too old for the job before it gets
ugly.
(01:10:40):
I agree.
Completely agree.
What's your take on this?
Now,
if you're a rational
objective person, and you've been... And you saw
Joe Biden in the debate.
It's clear that he does not have
the same mental
acuity,
(01:11:01):
his the same reasoning skills, the same ability
to
kind of form thoughts and express them
because he's older.
And age hits people differently.
There are some democrats that insists that Joe
Biden is a sharpest guy in the room
when they're in closed door meetings.
That Joe Biden is is full of energy
(01:11:22):
and we... You should have seen him at
this rally Or you should have seen him
here. That that debate performance does not match
the Joe Biden that I see.
Well, I my my thing is that I
think they they blocked a lot of the
debates in the democratic primary.
In order to hide the decline of Biden.
And if you are a rational
(01:11:44):
democrat, it should be obvious and more people
are coming forward, Church Clooney came forward just
today
that said it's time for buying to step
down and replace them with someone new because
they know of the risk of Trump.
And the fact that his decline biden decline
just gives people a reason to not vote
for Biden, not to necessarily vote for Trump,
but maybe just not to show up.
(01:12:06):
On election day.
But look at Trump,
well, while Trump certainly has a lot more
energy and
appears to be more sort of quote, with
it during his
rallies.
That dude is spewing nonsense out of the
side of his mouth all the time as
well.
I mean, he's making comments about boats and
(01:12:28):
batteries and sharks and hannibal le and all
this craziest ass stuff in his
in his rallies.
And we've heard all kinds of other cases
where he's flu and ga
said nonsense things, you know, Cove. Remember that
1.
There's a lot of other examples of of
(01:12:49):
president Trump showing his age as well.
Struggling to drink water, needing to have his
handheld to walk down a stage,
so many different things. Both of these guys
are too old in my opinion. I remember
when Democrats thought Reagan was too old. Not
just when he ran for reelection in 19
84. They thought he was too old in
19 80.
(01:13:10):
President Reagan was in his sixties then. And
now they're supporting a candidate that is in
far worse condition than president Reagan in 19
80. In Joe Biden.
There's... That is showing far more signs of
decline and actually defending Joe Biden on this
case.
Some of my friends on the left on
the left are living in denial.
(01:13:34):
I agree with you anonymous Caesar, they're both
too old.
In my opinion, there is a huge huge
opportunity for the Democrats
to nominate
someone else
to pick someone that is young and youthful
and vibrant that... Because that's usually what democratic,
candidates used to be. John Kennedy,
(01:13:54):
Barack obama, Bill Clinton, you know, AAA new
generational leader.
How about finding someone there that is a
Democrat that's appealing to independent? Isn't like a
hardcore lefty, more of a centrist
democrat. There's a great opportunity there to bring
someone in like that.
That could really
change the course not not just of America,
(01:14:17):
but give people some reason to believe and
support these guys.
So tell me what you think of that.
Oh, we got, hey. We got Mike Divine
on the live stream. Let's get a couple
of Mike Divine comments in here because he's
always got something to say.
He says, hey. Hi, John Reilly.
What hell was that avatar picture of you?
It looks like you're, like, in an outdoor
(01:14:37):
shower
by a a public beach
Okay. Mike says, maybe Putin can help hillary
refine our emails.
And
Mike device says, I won't use my and
experience against Yeah, that's Ronald Reagan and the
Walter Mon quote, which is 1 of the
great ones of all time.
But, yeah. In my opinion, both these guys
are too old, and, an anonymous caesar I
(01:14:58):
agree with you. Okay. 1 more comment.
Before we wrap up this episode,
and this is from Rob Morgan, also commenting
on this, notion of sales taxes and and
actually, this no... Excuse me. This one's about
the Chevron case.
But the Supreme Court
essentially saying the Chevron case is not constitutional,
(01:15:19):
and it's now creating this
opportunity for the executive branch to get rid
of a lot of these federal agencies. And
Rob said,
Chevron only works when corruption is the exception
and not the norm.
I'm a scientist,
the government no longer can do science. It's
a joke.
Compare Boeing and Nasa to Spacex.
(01:15:42):
Fda lives in Pfizer back pocket. A jury
is a bunch of uneducated super
fools,
quote, or parenthesis, thanks to the terrible education
system.
But you can't buy off every juror in
America.
Okay. I think this is dead on. So
Right now, we both know there's a tremendous
(01:16:04):
amount of corruption,
not just in the campaign finance that goes
to fund all of these
presidents and senators and congressman and governors.
All these wealthy influencers trying to to fund
their campaigns to get in c with these
government officials, so they got some influence on
the laws and the rules that are being
built in America.
(01:16:26):
This has only gotten worse. As the regulatory
state has grown.
I mean, back before Chevron, you know, that
was 19 84. If you go back, like
the 19 seventies,
some of the agencies were created then, the
Department of Education, the Epa.
And you may say what you will about
those organizations, but That was the beginning of
(01:16:46):
the regulatory state. Now we have an endless
list of alphabet
agencies. The executive branch has gotten bigger and
bigger and bigger.
And because they've had more and more power,
more and more control, the ability to write
regulations by just una account bureau or so
called experts,
(01:17:07):
Now the executive branch become so much more
politicized
and corrupted.
So Rob Morgan's right here. He goes on
to say, I'm a scientist, the government can
no longer do science.
The government shouldn't do science period.
Full stop.
Because when government
(01:17:28):
is involved that with science, then the science
becomes politicized. And we saw that with Covid
and we saw that with the vaccines, and
we've seen this in countless other examples.
In my opinion,
we need a separation of church and state.
We also need a separation of of
religion and state.
(01:17:48):
Excuse to be church state that risk religion
state. We need We also need a separation
of science and state,
education, and state,
health care and state,
and the economy
ends to the state.
Because
look at what's going on in in our
(01:18:09):
in our world right now, the economy is
hot charged
highly politicized, highly regulated.
Health care,
tremendously regulated. We get really high prices.
As part of the reason why housing is
expensive because of the regulatory
actions, the zoning actions, housing has become politicized
other parts of our
(01:18:29):
community of our economy event politicized.
And in this case, science has been politicized.
The government shouldn't do science.
At all. Scientists should do science,
research should be done by researchers, and those
should be privately funded.
Now, should the government use experts
to
(01:18:51):
help them
interpret the law? I think or maybe make
some of the law, I think there is
a case for that. But right now, those
agencies have become so of a size that
the regulatory code isn't just to protect the
children isn't just a make for clean air
and clean water, like a lot of people
think regulations do.
Now regulations have gotten to the point where
they set up systems the rig the market
(01:19:13):
to make it harder for competitors to come
into the market.
I mean, consider,
you know, right now,
president Biden is doing victory lapse. You know,
it's saying how he helped
allow the negotiation of prescription drugs in Medicare
part d.
And
because for 20 years,
(01:19:33):
they were not allowed to negotiate with big
pharma.
For all the prescription drugs in Medicare, which
sounds crazy. Right? But that's an example of
a regulation that was put in.
That who does that serve? In this case,
it serves Big pharma like Pfizer just like
he's saying,
just like Pfizer?
(01:19:54):
The Fda is in their back pocket. A
hundred percent agree with them.
So... And and and he goes on to
say a terrible education system.
You know, it used to be that California
had the best schools now we're near the
bottom.
Despite spending probably more than any other state.
(01:20:14):
We used to have
the higher test scores, Sat scores here in
California, and now they've been mostly flat
for decades,
despite the fact
that there's a lot more spending. And at
the same time, there's resistance to competition
to the public school system
in the form of private schools, charter schools,
school vouchers, etcetera,
(01:20:36):
tremendous resistance from the
education establishment
trying to block competition.
So when you see what's going on,
with government officials at the federal state and
even at the local level.
The policies they're being put forward are there
to protect certain special interests at the expense
(01:20:57):
of others. It's the exact opposite of equality
under the law
or treating people
equally
and
supporting everyone's ina right to their own life,
liberty and pursued happiness.
So I... This 1 I thought it was
great. I mean there's been a lot of
people that are saying, oh, this is terrible.
The Supreme court is
(01:21:18):
by getting rid of Chevron. Now you're gonna
have
politicians that aren't even scientists making the rules.
You know, because we gotta to know how
many particulate of carbon in the atmosphere and
how many particulate is too high or too
low and and we need to science this
thing out.
But these
(01:21:39):
so called experts, these bureau in these federal
agencies are not ivory tower,
unbiased
scientists
that are true to their mission.
If they're a government agency, they're appointed or
hired by political figures with political agendas
(01:22:00):
and
a lot of prioritization of how the rules
are created
is what happens in in each of these
state capitals in our federal capital and even
our local city halls.
So tell me what you think of that.
Okay. So
we've got
a few more here comments in a in
our,
live stream. I wanna get everybody involved. Let's
(01:22:23):
turn this portion of the screen
off.
Okay. So I'm having a little trouble here.
Okay. Let's go here and we'll go to,
Mike Dev divine.
Oh, no.
For some reason,
my
comments are not showing. But I'm gonna read
them to you.
(01:22:43):
Mike devin device says, I voted for Bill
Clinton because he was youthful compared to the
old bush.
That's funny. That's 19 92. Right? So you
didn't vote for the old perot or the
old bush you voted for the Leon young
Clinton. A lot of people did, and they
lapse what they liked about Bill Clinton.
And now my livestream stream is Gone to
put.
(01:23:05):
Well, I am still recording the audio, so
I'm gonna still keep going.
But I don't know. My my whole stream
yard, live stream software just went down.
So now I've lost the screens. I've lost
some of the chat I saw Yuri Ball
and Matthew Bran were in there, but we
have now crashed. So I'm gonna have to
wrap this bad boy up.
This is the John Reilly project. This is
(01:23:26):
up so number 337.
I need to investigate a technical problem with
my system. I'll be back at you next
week on Wednesday. Have a great day, friends,
and
make it make it a great day for
you out there, We'll see you.
If you enjoyed today go, do me a
favor.
Subscribe and then share it with a friend.
(01:23:46):
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(01:24:08):
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