January 16, 2025 • 30 mins
Gary and Shannon are out and Mark Thompson and Marla Tellez fill in. Mark and Marla speak with a resident in Altadena who lost their home in the Eaton Fire and discuss why California doesn’t invest in a ‘Super Scooper’ aircraft for fight wildfires.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Gary and Shannon and you're listening to KFI
AM six forty, the Gary and Shannon Show on demand
on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
A lot going on.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
We're continuing to update that to Middle East Deal, which
now looks as though it might be voted upon by
the Israel kinesset. I guess tomorrow after a pause in things,
but we'll talk about that.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
We'll go back.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Around the Hecklers who went after Anthony Blincoln today.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Yeah, the state procressor.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
How do you get into a state department briefing to
you know, to heckle and usually that's only open to
credentialed reporters.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
It's a weird thing.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Yeah, that's the question I have.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
But back to the fires and a compelling story.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Yeah, so you, thank goodness no new growth on the
eating fire, but we know the damage that it has
left behind. And we hear about, you know, this person
lost a home, this person lost a home, and then
we're hearing this family lost four homes, a son and kids,
and so on and so forth. And that's one of
these cases. With Steven Sippio, he's a live flong Altadena
(01:01):
resident and his parents have been there for fifty three years.
They lost their home and the home where Steven's kids
were living with their mother. They lost their home, and
Stephen really was their hero in that he got everyone evacuated,
so everyone lived to tell That's the most important piece
(01:21):
to this. But such an emotional story. Stephen Sipio is
on the line right now. Steven. Good to have you.
Speaker 4 (01:28):
Hey, Marlin, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
I did my best to summarize your ordeal that transpired
last week. Why don't you tell the people what you
just went through?
Speaker 4 (01:39):
Yeah, I mean, as you as you describe it, you
did a great job. But it's like people tell me
a little bit about grief and that it's going to
come in waves, and I can't hear you describe that,
you know what I mean without getting emotional, because that
is exactly what happened. Yeah, so we're just, you know,
we're moving forward. I was fortunate enough to get my
(02:03):
parents out and get my children and their mom out
after there was a delay there till about two thirty
in the morning when the smoke was completely covering the house,
and then we rushed out, got them to safety, got
to bed about four am. Woke up about seven. I
couldn't sleep and then I just had to drive to Altadena.
(02:23):
I drove up and I just saw Mayhem. Like I've
showed you guys videos, It's just everything is on fire.
You can't see the sky, the smoke. It looks like midnight,
but it's you know, nine o'clock in the morning. It's
just it was just nothing. And you know.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
I'm just the devastation. The devastation was complete and no.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
And Mark, I want you to know this because I
forgot to include this in his introduction as that Stephen
is a filmmaker and so he documented everything with the
evacuation and the aftermath. It's an incredible video.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Wow, Well I've got a season with that, and when
it's posted online and when you put it all together,
I mean, obviously they are different priorities now, but I
want to take you back to this because I don't
know the story and I find it compelling.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
So what was going on?
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Take me into the moments when you first decided to evacuate.
What will you talk about the smoke, et cetera. I'm
curious about Yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
I was. I was visiting my children at the mom's
house in Alta, Dina on Raymond and Wapello and my
son comes.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
To me and said, I'm sorry.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Guys comes to me.
Speaker 4 (03:35):
He says, he says, Dad, the sky is red. And
I'm like, yeah, right, and then so I go to
the window and I'm like, oh, shoot, it is red.
And then his mom is like, yeah, there's a fire.
And then we've had fires in Altadena before, so she
casually brushes it off. And then I do my part,
what what are in my instincts? And I drive up
(03:57):
to the highest point in Altadena to see what I
can see get to buy a park, Farnsworth Park where
I trained my kids at on Lake Street, and I
just see a bunch of sheriff officers and fire vehicles,
but no fire engines. And then I talked to one
of the sheriffs and he said, yeah, just you got
to just try and get down the hill. This is
before it even came close to us. And then I
(04:18):
went down and I went to tell my parents, and
my dad was getting in bed, and ironically, when I
was pulling up, his eighty five year old neighbor was,
you know, making his way over to their house to
tell them that they're going to evacuate because they're hearing
it's pretty serious. So I said, I got this, mister hillstock,
I go inside and get my parents up, get them together,
(04:39):
and get them down to Pasadena to a hotel. And
then I rushed back up to tell the mother of
my kids and that we need to leave. And then
she doesn't want to, like she's not taking it that
serious because we kind of had seen this before. And
then so I kind of get a little agitated, and
she just like was like, get out. So and when
(05:02):
that's the drama within the drama.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Right, because a lot of people don't want to leave,
She's not the only one. And you literally sat in
your car and on guard in front of the house.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
Yes, yeah, And I was on the opposite side of
the street because that's how I could see the fire
on the actual mountain. And then I just watched it
like I went to sleep and and a car would
go by and I would I would wake up and
be like an hour later and fast forward to I
watched the fire crawl across the hill until it was
directly in front of us, and I have footage of
this and everything. And then after I saw the fire,
(05:38):
the fire went away, and then the smoke stream had
overtaken our street, so I couldn't see the fire, but
I knew it was burning, and I just knew it
was time. And they were coincidentally coming out the house
when I was getting out of the car to like
I was going to break that door down if I
had to, and because I didn't know if they were
sleeping or whatever. And and then I got them down
(06:00):
the hill, and then that's what I you know, you
say around four in Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
That's an extraordinary story. It really is.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
I mean, the notion that you would park out front
knowing that the threat was so imminent.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
Yeah, wow, it was never I was there was never
and I couldn't set an alarm for like when I
wanted to wake up. It was just like, it was
never a moment in my life that I was going
to allow them to be there and me to be
somewhere else. How old are your kids? I had My
daughter's fourteen and my son is eight.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (06:33):
And my son's school burned down. It was like a
couple of blocks of North Alma out to his school
burned down.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Where are the kids now? Where is everybody now?
Speaker 4 (06:41):
So they're with their mom. We're going from Airbnb to Airbnb, which.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Is a reality for so many people.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
You did have insurance, right, Stephen, Yes, yes, my parents
had insurance and they're dealing with that whole situation. But
it's kind of it's kind of weird, like when people
ask me how can they and what go fund me?
You know, it's kind of like three families. It's like,
you know, my children and their mom. It's like me
and my children, we both do for them equally, and
(07:10):
then it's my parents.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Sure generation and that so much of that community is
filled with this sort of story, I mean, with as
you say, generational connections. Uh, Stephens, thank you God. I
find it. It's such a compelling story. And it's not over.
I mean, are you going to stay in Altadena? Do
you think when you build back?
Speaker 4 (07:31):
Yeah, there's no chance. I mean if you had a
chance to, like, you know, be in this community and
see these people and just know that how diverse it
was and how calm. Like I've been I'm well traveled,
so I've been like to the New York and I've
been to the small towns in the South, and like
I've seen it all. And I lived in Badnor's, Louisiana
for two years and like I've come back home to Altadena,
(07:53):
Like there's no felt so good, you know, no place.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Like home, No place like home.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
Listen, I'm going to reach out to you separately because
I want to get you on my show on YouTube
and show some of your footage and hear more about
your story. And I'll look forward to talking to you
more and following your progress even in building back in Altadena.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Is that cool? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (08:13):
Thank you guys so much for just signing a little
light on our town.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Wow, Steven Sippio, thank you for joining us at KOFI. Wow,
what day story. You know, these charities that are emerging
associated with the fires and trying to support so many
who are displaced.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
There's so many charities, and there's a whole lot of
scammers out there.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
I guess that's what I'm trying to figure out, because
today at the press conference, they had said that the
Firefighter Relief Fund hadn't yet been set up, and.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
They actually made this point yesterday they said, look, we're
hearing from so many of you who want to donate
to Ellie County Fire or even of course LAFD, all
the agencies to help support our look firefighters and Maroney
the chief of La County Fire said yesterday, we just
(09:07):
haven't organized that yet, so we don't have a direct fund.
So maybe you've given money, but it's not necessarily linked
to us officially. He made the point today, but he
did say that there's a little bit of progress in that.
Speaker 5 (09:22):
Yesterday, the Los Angeles County Fire Department made good progress
towards partnering with a reputable five OHO one C three
that we'll be able to accept cash checks and electronic
donations for the Los Angeles County Fire Department. I ask
interested donors to be patient as we finalize our donation process,
(09:47):
and I thank you for wanting to support our brave
Los Angeles County Fire Department firefighters.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
So keyword reputable.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
Yeah, but they're are already a long list of charities,
and I'm just does that mean that they are not reputable?
Speaker 5 (10:05):
Right?
Speaker 3 (10:06):
Not necessarily exactly, yes, So it's very hard to distinguish.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
So you end up I think gravitating toward U. Two things.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
I would say, One, charities that you know, I mean
things that you have confidence on to say, salage and
army argument across exactly. I mean Jimmy Kimmel, I think
posted I want to say it was the it's the
World Kitchen Charity essocially, Yeah, done so, so you know
that that's you know, that's a solid charity. But beyond that,
(10:35):
there are lists of their animal charities, and there are
many other charities to support first responders and and and
their families. And you question, and I'm leaving out the
myriad of go fund me offerings. I mean, there are
stories after story after story of go fund me a
(10:56):
posts that will tell you a tale and you'll just
want to empty your pockets to try to help these people.
And I don't know, I guess GoFundMe do they vet
these stories or you can pretty much tell whatever story
you want.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Yeah, I mean that's a great question. The vetting process
at GoFundMe the other thing to think about. And Supervisor
Barger was on this, you need to get a follow
up on it. But when you make a GoFundMe donation,
it comes with a price. You have to pay a fee. Sure,
So Supervisor Barger was trying to make a five hundred
(11:31):
dollars donation to a friend impacted by the fires, and
the fee for her five hundred dollars donation was ninety
five dollars, and so she reached out to the head
of gofund me to say, hey, can we waive these
fees for right now? Sure, I mean, there are thousands
(11:52):
of go Fundme pages anyway, but now tack on the
devastation that we're seeing here in southern California, and we
shouldn't have to be paying all of these fees just
trying to help somebody else.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
Well, I understand that you've got to pay a fee
to a platform. I mean I understand or that when
I say you've got to, I mean that these platforms
generally designate some part of your donation that goes to
the fee of maintaining the platform. The platforms are valuable
and it's helpful if you can support them, but as
you say, sometimes the fees are just ridiculously high.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Yeah, astronomical. So in this case, she's not saying to
waive the fees forever, but can we at least decrease
them during this time of crisis.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
And so all of this coexists with the opportunism that
comes with these moments of crisis that happens in hurricanes,
and it's happened now in these fires. So I'm really
interested to see when these firefighter relief funds get powered up,
and as you say, with a reputable organization, the La
County Fire Chief is making that point and so we
(12:54):
can actually support those men and women who we are.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
So grateful to.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
I do to talk about the super Scooper aircraft, you know, Marlo,
we want to cover why we don't buy them, you know,
we lease them on ninety days cycles, and we'll get
into that next as we continue. It's interesting because as
we fight these fires, and they have to be fought
specifically from the air, the questions as to what kind
(13:21):
of aircraft you get, whether you lease, whether you buy
these become super relevant and we'll get into some of
that next.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Yeah, we're also going to talk about the other sad
element to all these fires, and that is missing pets.
So many pets have gone missing because of the fires.
But we have a great organization who's doing wonderful things
to reunite pets and owners.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
And now there's one number you can call a clearing
house for those owners who are trying to find their
pets or describe where the pet is lost. So all
of that is still to come. We're just kind of
we're fillers. Well, there's that because you're rap we're wrapping.
There's no question that's true. We're just wrapping up a
(14:03):
lot of fire stuff, loose ends on fire, and these
are loose ends that will continue. There are questions about
First of all, there's stuff that's happening now which we
continue to update, and I'll give you just one example
of that. There are now centralized numbers for those who
are missing animals and if you've found a stray animal.
(14:26):
Now the city has a central number. This is La City.
That number is two one three two seven zero eighty
one fifty five. Again two one three, two seven, zero
eighty one fifty five, So that's a sort of centralized number.
And there's also a number for Altadena for the eaten
(14:47):
fire orphaned animals. Should you find one, should you be
missing one six two six five, seven, seven thirty seven
fifty two six two six. I have seven, seven, thirty
seven fifty two. So those numbers, and we'll give them
to you again before the end of the show.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
But yeah, yeah, And in addition to that, coming up
in the next hour, we have joining us somebody from
a service called Love Lost. They've been around before the
fires started This is a Petco organization. We're familiar with Petco,
but they reunite pets, lost pets and owners and how
(15:26):
they do it is really very cool. It's high tech
and they've had seventy five thousand reunions already and they've
already had several and that's in its history in four years,
but they've already had several. As it relates to the
fire zone. So the executive director of that service will
(15:47):
be joining us in the next hour.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
So many emotional stories related to animals. When you see
them reunited, it's like, oh, it's instant.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Choking, I know.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
And then the little ones that have you know, suffered
burns and they're.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
There's some brutal, brutal realities that have followed everything.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Listen.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
The question that is often asked is how come we
don't have super scoopers?
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Why do we lease them? Why don't we in California
own them?
Speaker 3 (16:18):
And the answers are interesting because superscoopers are obviously capable
of picking up these immense quantities of water fifteen hundred
gallons of water from large bodies of water like the ocean,
and we're right alongside. And the minute they got involved
in everything that we've been dealing with. It was something
(16:41):
that changed the entire landscape immediately, but.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Not for long though, because they were seen in the
first day of the firefight. We have two on loan
from Canada, and then the winds were just too treacherous
that they had to land. And then and they did
go up again, one of them got shot by a
drone or got hit struck by a drone and damaged
(17:07):
the wing.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
So but again, when they're up though, they are total
game changer. It's just yeah, then they're grounded based on
conditions generally, So what tends to happen in California is
that we favor helicopter involvement. Helicopters are good for tactical
stuff from what I understand. In other words, they can
(17:28):
put out fires in very sort of pinpoint ways. Plus
the buckets can pick up water from a lot of
different places. They don't need to the scoopers need to
go over a larger body of water. They have to
keep moving, if you will, you were describing this yesterday,
I think it was yesterday, and the days run together.
But the helicopters, their buckets can just even pick up
(17:50):
water out of a pool, so they are able to
quickly respond, but obviously don't drop as much water as
you can get from a super school.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Yeah, and we can also access places that are harder
to reach, more so than the Super Scooper. So that's
why the California's State Fire Marshal says helicopters do just
find for US plus and the feet they have for
all of California. They have a diverse arsenal firefighting tools,
including twenty three air tankers that do carry up to
(18:21):
twelve hundred gallons of water mixed with fire retardant. So
there are we do have tools in our tool box
that do carry and even exceed the Super Scoopers sixteen
hundred gallons or fifteen hundred gallons. But still the question remains,
why not just have our own? Why do we have
to do this ninety day increment? And I was pretty
(18:42):
struck to read that there are only one hundred and
sixty Super Scoopers in the entire world.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Yeah, it's an extraordinary thing.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
They're used in Europe and I think they're built in Canada,
and their distribution to the world is such that it
is sort of covering you wide areas of the world.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
With a very small number of these.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Things, and there are there's been basically one model. They
haven't really changed the model. It's worked, and so why
try to fix what's not broken. And there's not a
lot of alternatives to Super Scoopers, so much so that
tech startups are trying to race right now to build bigger,
(19:21):
more powerful fire fighting drones, but most are still under development.
So the Super Scooper it is a premiere aircraft for
these special missions, but it doesn't seem that the US
has any plans to buy their own. It's an interesting
question given that we used to have wildfire season, and
(19:45):
essentially it's wildfire season at least nine months out of
the year here.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
And by the way, the fires that we're playing out
here in southern California and in California generally, it's being
played out across the world.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Look at Australia, look at Europe.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
I mean, these are fires that are burning hotter, longer,
and over much bigger areas than ever before in modern history.
So these Superscoopers are in demand. And as you say,
tech startups are trying to build bigger and more powerful
firefighting drones typically is what they're looking at.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
But that will take take a very very long time.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
So with all this demand around the world, again, California
leases these in ninety day cycles and that's worked for us.
We'll have to see moving forward whether we want to
invest in the technologies associated with having super scoopers ready
to go all the time. As you say, it's a
(20:40):
year round thing, but as it sits now, it's more
cost effective for California just to lease them.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
I don't know the price tag though for the ninety days.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
I don't see anything on the price tag, and in
all of the different materials that I'm looking at, I
don't see anything on but we're actually paying I mean,
that's a knowable thing. But you know there's a lot
made of the environmental side of this there, meaning you know,
when you scoop up salt water and you have this
high salinity water that's being dropped on vegetation, it can
(21:17):
damage the vegetation below. Much is made of that. I
don't know if that really holds water, if you'll part
of the expression, because I mean, if you look at
hurricanes and you look at the East Coast, they can
be inundated in any of these areas by floods. As
a result of hurricanes, and yet vegetation grows back.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
Sure, and I guess it's the lesser of two evils. Perhaps.
We interviewed a global security expert for retired not former Marla,
retired marine intelligence officer, who talked about that and talked
about the fact that the salt water it erodes. So
if it's not just on the land, if it's on
your car and all of that, If on your home,
(21:57):
that can do damage as well. And the mixture that
most of our aircraft use is a fire retardant mixed
with water, and that is reportedly supposed to be environmentally friendly,
and it allows the vegetation to grow back quicker than
salt water, if you will. So you know, who knows.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
I'm going to find out though during this break how
much we pay in California for because I don't know
why we don't have that information.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
We have all this information about super scoopers.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
But in any case, we're on a lease program every
ninety days, and frankly, the super scoopers seem appropriately used
and appropriate in number, you know, just to put a
button on that question of the super scoopers.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
How much they cost?
Speaker 3 (22:36):
Yeah, So the information is a little tough to come by,
so you can find quotes on it from twenty sixteen,
and those quotes are around thirty five million. I saw
thirty seven million for a super Scooper. But again that's
in twenty sixteen, and you're paying again, these figures are
(22:57):
now but almost a decade old. Five and a half
million just for a handful of the autumn months to
have them up. Five and a half million bucks.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
And that's for the ninety day lease exactly.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
And then the county also pays eleven hundred dollars an
hour to operate them. Now, again, these figures are from
twenty sixteen. I couldn't find anything more contemporary than that.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
Well, you'd think that they have done the math that
it's more cost effective to loan them for three months. Yeah,
but again times change. And this is to your point,
almost ten years ago. And now wildfire season, as it
has been for a long time, is basically year round.
So is it worth it for us to buy a
forty million dollar aircraft to have at our disposal any time?
Speaker 2 (23:41):
Yeah? And by the way, you need more than one,
I mean.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Yeah, the all right eighty million.
Speaker 3 (23:45):
Yeah exactly. So I mean, fortunately there's just nothing but
money to spend. So yeah, plenty of money to go around.
Updating the Israel Hamas ceasefire. There was a delayed cabinet
vote on this ceasefire in Gaza. President or Prime Minister,
I guess he is. Netan Yahoo in Israel was saying
(24:08):
that Hamas has renegged on parts of the agreement. And
so this is a very fragile agreement and it's really
played out as such because now it looked to be
in doubt. I think they now agree they are going
to vote on it tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
So it's been especially just pushed back a day exactly,
and specifically Net and Yahoo was saying that Hamas was
seeking to dictate which Palestinian prisoners should be released in
exchange for Israeli hostages, and that was hit. That was
Hamas reneging. According to a net Yahoo.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
Apparently Hamas is sort of wanting their top dogs released,
and net and Yahoo is saying, you don't get to
dictate the terms of you know, who was released. On
some level, that's a major reducto on what was going on.
But that's the kind of thing that's informing the problem.
So Anthony Blincoln was at a press conference during which
(25:07):
he was heckled really by a couple of activists, and
it sounded like this, Finally, I just wanted to shore
this morning.
Speaker 6 (25:15):
Get your hands off me, Get your hands off me,
Get your hands off me, answer a damn question.
Speaker 4 (25:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
So obviously when he's saying get your hands off me,
he had asked a question. He kept shouting it and
it was being ignored.
Speaker 6 (25:27):
Get your hands off me, Get your hands off me,
Get your hands off me, answer.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
A damn question. I look forward to answering questions.
Speaker 6 (25:34):
And you know, not a real snipletar weapons everybody from
the icy Jake. I was sitting here quietly, and now
I'm being manhandled by two or three people. You're in
pontificate about a free press. You pontificate about a free press.
You're hurting me.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
You're hurting me.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
You are hurting me.
Speaker 6 (25:53):
I've been asking questions after being total Please Matt Miller
that he will not answer my questions.
Speaker 3 (25:57):
That's how I ad please, sir, respectively, respect the process.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
We'll have an opportunity to take questions in two minutes.
Speaker 6 (26:03):
What's at the point of the Hey, the May thirty
first statements have blocked the ICJ orders.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
He blocked the ICJ orders. Please sir, respect the process.
Speaker 6 (26:14):
Thank you, respect the process. Respective process.
Speaker 7 (26:16):
Everybody, everybody from the from EMS internationals, from the ICY
day saying that is well doing tenn aside an extermination
and you're telling me to respect the process.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Criminal. Why aren't you with the hey?
Speaker 5 (26:31):
Why aren't you with the hey?
Speaker 1 (26:33):
Why aren't you with that?
Speaker 3 (26:35):
So there is uh, you know, these questions that surround us,
I think have to do with credential press. I would
think a state department pressure has only credential press people.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
But these people work credentials.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Right, yeah, and you know their identity.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
We know Max Blumenthal who is one of them.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
He's an activist and uh, the other is a Jordanian journalist.
I believe Max is an American And.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
And ultimately when you're hearing his voice get quieter and
quieter as he's shouting, he's escorted out.
Speaker 3 (27:06):
So yes, it's it would seem one of those situations
where there was a briefing going on and he's shouting
questions during the briefing, so you know, he's not waiting
for the Q and A period, right.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
And Blaken's saying, you can ask all the questions you
want I don't know if he's necessarily saying that, but
you can ask a question once I'm done briefing.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
Yeah, exactly, now to be fair. And when I say
to be fair, I mean just when you know, in
the fullness of the whole thing.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
Obviously, this is a viral moment. We just played it.
Speaker 3 (27:38):
It's being carried by a lot of other news organizations probably,
And so to the extent that activists like Max and
others when I say Max, like I know him. I've
never met him, Max Blumenthal, but the I just know
who he is. But that these people could be successful
in making their points. I mean in a way he
(27:58):
was successful.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Right on dred percent. If it bleeds, it leads, right.
So this is the moment in the blanken pressor and
the briefing today that is now going to be the headline.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
Yeah, at least one of them. Look, there's a lot
involved in this agreement. It's not just releasing prisoner's prisoner exchange.
There's a ceasefire involved, there is land involved.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
It's a two phase agreement which could take.
Speaker 3 (28:26):
Months exactly exactly, and so there are many opportunities during
this entire process for things to fall apart. So this
fragile agreement. It's huge that it's happened. But the idea
somehow that you know, it's a lead pipe singe to continue.
I think it is not necessarily the case.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
But Blinkeln said, it's not exactly surprising that in a
process and a negotiation that has been this challenging and
this fraught, you may get a loose end or tying
up that loose end as we speak, So he's referring
to it as just that a loose end.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
Yeah, I mean it may be a loose end, but
there it's a pretty heavy duty loose end.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
So but in other words, he's downplaying it.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
Yeah, would do better, which is what a diplomat should do.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
You know that you'd expect that from the Secretary of State.
The net and yahoo government and cabinet does vote on
the agreement, though, that perhaps is the thing to focus on.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
That will happen tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
Let's say it's expected to happen tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
Yeah, that might be a more appropriate way to frame it.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
The new pick for Trump's energy chief is talking about
the wildfires. We'll get to that next also in the
next hour. As we were saying, seventy five thousand reunion
stories in the four years from this one organization that
reunites animals and pets with their owners. It's extraordinary. And
(29:55):
we get into the second Trump era coming up. It
all begins the inauguration on Monday. All of that still
to come. Gary and Shannon Show, Mark and Marl is
sitting in on KFI AM six forty live everywhere on
the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 5 (30:11):
You've been listening to the Gary and Shannon Show, you
can always hear us live on KFI AM six forty
nine am to one pm every Monday through Friday, and
anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
This is Gary and Shannon and you're listening to KFI
AM six forty, the Gary and Shannon Show on demand
on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
A lot going on.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
We're continuing to update that to Middle East Deal, which
now looks as though it might be voted upon by
the Israel kinesset. I guess tomorrow after a pause in things,
but we'll talk about that.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
We'll go back.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Around the Hecklers who went after Anthony Blincoln today.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Yeah, the state procressor.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
How do you get into a state department briefing to
you know, to heckle and usually that's only open to
credentialed reporters.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
It's a weird thing.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Yeah, that's the question I have.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
But back to the fires and a compelling story.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Yeah, so you, thank goodness no new growth on the
eating fire, but we know the damage that it has
left behind. And we hear about, you know, this person
lost a home, this person lost a home, and then
we're hearing this family lost four homes, a son and kids,
and so on and so forth. And that's one of
these cases. With Steven Sippio, he's a live flong Altadena
(01:01):
resident and his parents have been there for fifty three years.
They lost their home and the home where Steven's kids
were living with their mother. They lost their home, and
Stephen really was their hero in that he got everyone evacuated,
so everyone lived to tell That's the most important piece
(01:21):
to this. But such an emotional story. Stephen Sipio is
on the line right now. Steven. Good to have you.
Speaker 4 (01:28):
Hey, Marlin, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
I did my best to summarize your ordeal that transpired
last week. Why don't you tell the people what you
just went through?
Speaker 4 (01:39):
Yeah, I mean, as you as you describe it, you
did a great job. But it's like people tell me
a little bit about grief and that it's going to
come in waves, and I can't hear you describe that,
you know what I mean without getting emotional, because that
is exactly what happened. Yeah, so we're just, you know,
we're moving forward. I was fortunate enough to get my
(02:03):
parents out and get my children and their mom out
after there was a delay there till about two thirty
in the morning when the smoke was completely covering the house,
and then we rushed out, got them to safety, got
to bed about four am. Woke up about seven. I
couldn't sleep and then I just had to drive to Altadena.
(02:23):
I drove up and I just saw Mayhem. Like I've
showed you guys videos, It's just everything is on fire.
You can't see the sky, the smoke. It looks like midnight,
but it's you know, nine o'clock in the morning. It's
just it was just nothing. And you know.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
I'm just the devastation. The devastation was complete and no.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
And Mark, I want you to know this because I
forgot to include this in his introduction as that Stephen
is a filmmaker and so he documented everything with the
evacuation and the aftermath. It's an incredible video.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Wow, Well I've got a season with that, and when
it's posted online and when you put it all together,
I mean, obviously they are different priorities now, but I
want to take you back to this because I don't
know the story and I find it compelling.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
So what was going on?
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Take me into the moments when you first decided to evacuate.
What will you talk about the smoke, et cetera. I'm
curious about Yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
I was. I was visiting my children at the mom's
house in Alta, Dina on Raymond and Wapello and my
son comes.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
To me and said, I'm sorry.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Guys comes to me.
Speaker 4 (03:35):
He says, he says, Dad, the sky is red. And
I'm like, yeah, right, and then so I go to
the window and I'm like, oh, shoot, it is red.
And then his mom is like, yeah, there's a fire.
And then we've had fires in Altadena before, so she
casually brushes it off. And then I do my part,
what what are in my instincts? And I drive up
(03:57):
to the highest point in Altadena to see what I
can see get to buy a park, Farnsworth Park where
I trained my kids at on Lake Street, and I
just see a bunch of sheriff officers and fire vehicles,
but no fire engines. And then I talked to one
of the sheriffs and he said, yeah, just you got
to just try and get down the hill. This is
before it even came close to us. And then I
(04:18):
went down and I went to tell my parents, and
my dad was getting in bed, and ironically, when I
was pulling up, his eighty five year old neighbor was,
you know, making his way over to their house to
tell them that they're going to evacuate because they're hearing
it's pretty serious. So I said, I got this, mister hillstock,
I go inside and get my parents up, get them together,
(04:39):
and get them down to Pasadena to a hotel. And
then I rushed back up to tell the mother of
my kids and that we need to leave. And then
she doesn't want to, like she's not taking it that
serious because we kind of had seen this before. And
then so I kind of get a little agitated, and
she just like was like, get out. So and when
(05:02):
that's the drama within the drama.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Right, because a lot of people don't want to leave,
She's not the only one. And you literally sat in
your car and on guard in front of the house.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
Yes, yeah, And I was on the opposite side of
the street because that's how I could see the fire
on the actual mountain. And then I just watched it
like I went to sleep and and a car would
go by and I would I would wake up and
be like an hour later and fast forward to I
watched the fire crawl across the hill until it was
directly in front of us, and I have footage of
this and everything. And then after I saw the fire,
(05:38):
the fire went away, and then the smoke stream had
overtaken our street, so I couldn't see the fire, but
I knew it was burning, and I just knew it
was time. And they were coincidentally coming out the house
when I was getting out of the car to like
I was going to break that door down if I
had to, and because I didn't know if they were
sleeping or whatever. And and then I got them down
(06:00):
the hill, and then that's what I you know, you
say around four in Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
That's an extraordinary story. It really is.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
I mean, the notion that you would park out front
knowing that the threat was so imminent.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
Yeah, wow, it was never I was there was never
and I couldn't set an alarm for like when I
wanted to wake up. It was just like, it was
never a moment in my life that I was going
to allow them to be there and me to be
somewhere else. How old are your kids? I had My
daughter's fourteen and my son is eight.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (06:33):
And my son's school burned down. It was like a
couple of blocks of North Alma out to his school
burned down.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Where are the kids now? Where is everybody now?
Speaker 4 (06:41):
So they're with their mom. We're going from Airbnb to Airbnb, which.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Is a reality for so many people.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
You did have insurance, right, Stephen, Yes, yes, my parents
had insurance and they're dealing with that whole situation. But
it's kind of it's kind of weird, like when people
ask me how can they and what go fund me?
You know, it's kind of like three families. It's like,
you know, my children and their mom. It's like me
and my children, we both do for them equally, and
(07:10):
then it's my parents.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Sure generation and that so much of that community is
filled with this sort of story, I mean, with as
you say, generational connections. Uh, Stephens, thank you God. I
find it. It's such a compelling story. And it's not over.
I mean, are you going to stay in Altadena? Do
you think when you build back?
Speaker 4 (07:31):
Yeah, there's no chance. I mean if you had a
chance to, like, you know, be in this community and
see these people and just know that how diverse it
was and how calm. Like I've been I'm well traveled,
so I've been like to the New York and I've
been to the small towns in the South, and like
I've seen it all. And I lived in Badnor's, Louisiana
for two years and like I've come back home to Altadena,
(07:53):
Like there's no felt so good, you know, no place.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Like home, No place like home.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
Listen, I'm going to reach out to you separately because
I want to get you on my show on YouTube
and show some of your footage and hear more about
your story. And I'll look forward to talking to you
more and following your progress even in building back in Altadena.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Is that cool? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (08:13):
Thank you guys so much for just signing a little
light on our town.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Wow, Steven Sippio, thank you for joining us at KOFI. Wow,
what day story. You know, these charities that are emerging
associated with the fires and trying to support so many
who are displaced.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
There's so many charities, and there's a whole lot of
scammers out there.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
I guess that's what I'm trying to figure out, because
today at the press conference, they had said that the
Firefighter Relief Fund hadn't yet been set up, and.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
They actually made this point yesterday they said, look, we're
hearing from so many of you who want to donate
to Ellie County Fire or even of course LAFD, all
the agencies to help support our look firefighters and Maroney
the chief of La County Fire said yesterday, we just
(09:07):
haven't organized that yet, so we don't have a direct fund.
So maybe you've given money, but it's not necessarily linked
to us officially. He made the point today, but he
did say that there's a little bit of progress in that.
Speaker 5 (09:22):
Yesterday, the Los Angeles County Fire Department made good progress
towards partnering with a reputable five OHO one C three
that we'll be able to accept cash checks and electronic
donations for the Los Angeles County Fire Department. I ask
interested donors to be patient as we finalize our donation process,
(09:47):
and I thank you for wanting to support our brave
Los Angeles County Fire Department firefighters.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
So keyword reputable.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
Yeah, but they're are already a long list of charities,
and I'm just does that mean that they are not reputable?
Speaker 5 (10:05):
Right?
Speaker 3 (10:06):
Not necessarily exactly, yes, So it's very hard to distinguish.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
So you end up I think gravitating toward U. Two things.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
I would say, One, charities that you know, I mean
things that you have confidence on to say, salage and
army argument across exactly. I mean Jimmy Kimmel, I think
posted I want to say it was the it's the
World Kitchen Charity essocially, Yeah, done so, so you know
that that's you know, that's a solid charity. But beyond that,
(10:35):
there are lists of their animal charities, and there are
many other charities to support first responders and and and
their families. And you question, and I'm leaving out the
myriad of go fund me offerings. I mean, there are
stories after story after story of go fund me a
(10:56):
posts that will tell you a tale and you'll just
want to empty your pockets to try to help these people.
And I don't know, I guess GoFundMe do they vet
these stories or you can pretty much tell whatever story
you want.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Yeah, I mean that's a great question. The vetting process
at GoFundMe the other thing to think about. And Supervisor
Barger was on this, you need to get a follow
up on it. But when you make a GoFundMe donation,
it comes with a price. You have to pay a fee. Sure,
So Supervisor Barger was trying to make a five hundred
(11:31):
dollars donation to a friend impacted by the fires, and
the fee for her five hundred dollars donation was ninety
five dollars, and so she reached out to the head
of gofund me to say, hey, can we waive these
fees for right now? Sure, I mean, there are thousands
(11:52):
of go Fundme pages anyway, but now tack on the
devastation that we're seeing here in southern California, and we
shouldn't have to be paying all of these fees just
trying to help somebody else.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
Well, I understand that you've got to pay a fee
to a platform. I mean I understand or that when
I say you've got to, I mean that these platforms
generally designate some part of your donation that goes to
the fee of maintaining the platform. The platforms are valuable
and it's helpful if you can support them, but as
you say, sometimes the fees are just ridiculously high.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Yeah, astronomical. So in this case, she's not saying to
waive the fees forever, but can we at least decrease
them during this time of crisis.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
And so all of this coexists with the opportunism that
comes with these moments of crisis that happens in hurricanes,
and it's happened now in these fires. So I'm really
interested to see when these firefighter relief funds get powered up,
and as you say, with a reputable organization, the La
County Fire Chief is making that point and so we
(12:54):
can actually support those men and women who we are.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
So grateful to.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
I do to talk about the super Scooper aircraft, you know, Marlo,
we want to cover why we don't buy them, you know,
we lease them on ninety days cycles, and we'll get
into that next as we continue. It's interesting because as
we fight these fires, and they have to be fought
specifically from the air, the questions as to what kind
(13:21):
of aircraft you get, whether you lease, whether you buy
these become super relevant and we'll get into some of
that next.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Yeah, we're also going to talk about the other sad
element to all these fires, and that is missing pets.
So many pets have gone missing because of the fires.
But we have a great organization who's doing wonderful things
to reunite pets and owners.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
And now there's one number you can call a clearing
house for those owners who are trying to find their
pets or describe where the pet is lost. So all
of that is still to come. We're just kind of
we're fillers. Well, there's that because you're rap we're wrapping.
There's no question that's true. We're just wrapping up a
(14:03):
lot of fire stuff, loose ends on fire, and these
are loose ends that will continue. There are questions about
First of all, there's stuff that's happening now which we
continue to update, and I'll give you just one example
of that. There are now centralized numbers for those who
are missing animals and if you've found a stray animal.
(14:26):
Now the city has a central number. This is La City.
That number is two one three two seven zero eighty
one fifty five. Again two one three, two seven, zero
eighty one fifty five, So that's a sort of centralized number.
And there's also a number for Altadena for the eaten
(14:47):
fire orphaned animals. Should you find one, should you be
missing one six two six five, seven, seven thirty seven
fifty two six two six. I have seven, seven, thirty
seven fifty two. So those numbers, and we'll give them
to you again before the end of the show.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
But yeah, yeah, And in addition to that, coming up
in the next hour, we have joining us somebody from
a service called Love Lost. They've been around before the
fires started This is a Petco organization. We're familiar with Petco,
but they reunite pets, lost pets and owners and how
(15:26):
they do it is really very cool. It's high tech
and they've had seventy five thousand reunions already and they've
already had several and that's in its history in four years,
but they've already had several. As it relates to the
fire zone. So the executive director of that service will
(15:47):
be joining us in the next hour.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
So many emotional stories related to animals. When you see
them reunited, it's like, oh, it's instant.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Choking, I know.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
And then the little ones that have you know, suffered
burns and they're.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
There's some brutal, brutal realities that have followed everything.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Listen.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
The question that is often asked is how come we
don't have super scoopers?
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Why do we lease them? Why don't we in California
own them?
Speaker 3 (16:18):
And the answers are interesting because superscoopers are obviously capable
of picking up these immense quantities of water fifteen hundred
gallons of water from large bodies of water like the ocean,
and we're right alongside. And the minute they got involved
in everything that we've been dealing with. It was something
(16:41):
that changed the entire landscape immediately, but.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Not for long though, because they were seen in the
first day of the firefight. We have two on loan
from Canada, and then the winds were just too treacherous
that they had to land. And then and they did
go up again, one of them got shot by a
drone or got hit struck by a drone and damaged
(17:07):
the wing.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
So but again, when they're up though, they are total
game changer. It's just yeah, then they're grounded based on
conditions generally, So what tends to happen in California is
that we favor helicopter involvement. Helicopters are good for tactical
stuff from what I understand. In other words, they can
(17:28):
put out fires in very sort of pinpoint ways. Plus
the buckets can pick up water from a lot of
different places. They don't need to the scoopers need to
go over a larger body of water. They have to
keep moving, if you will, you were describing this yesterday,
I think it was yesterday, and the days run together.
But the helicopters, their buckets can just even pick up
(17:50):
water out of a pool, so they are able to
quickly respond, but obviously don't drop as much water as
you can get from a super school.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Yeah, and we can also access places that are harder
to reach, more so than the Super Scooper. So that's
why the California's State Fire Marshal says helicopters do just
find for US plus and the feet they have for
all of California. They have a diverse arsenal firefighting tools,
including twenty three air tankers that do carry up to
(18:21):
twelve hundred gallons of water mixed with fire retardant. So
there are we do have tools in our tool box
that do carry and even exceed the Super Scoopers sixteen
hundred gallons or fifteen hundred gallons. But still the question remains,
why not just have our own? Why do we have
to do this ninety day increment? And I was pretty
(18:42):
struck to read that there are only one hundred and
sixty Super Scoopers in the entire world.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Yeah, it's an extraordinary thing.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
They're used in Europe and I think they're built in Canada,
and their distribution to the world is such that it
is sort of covering you wide areas of the world.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
With a very small number of these.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Things, and there are there's been basically one model. They
haven't really changed the model. It's worked, and so why
try to fix what's not broken. And there's not a
lot of alternatives to Super Scoopers, so much so that
tech startups are trying to race right now to build bigger,
(19:21):
more powerful fire fighting drones, but most are still under development.
So the Super Scooper it is a premiere aircraft for
these special missions, but it doesn't seem that the US
has any plans to buy their own. It's an interesting
question given that we used to have wildfire season, and
(19:45):
essentially it's wildfire season at least nine months out of
the year here.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
And by the way, the fires that we're playing out
here in southern California and in California generally, it's being
played out across the world.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Look at Australia, look at Europe.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
I mean, these are fires that are burning hotter, longer,
and over much bigger areas than ever before in modern history.
So these Superscoopers are in demand. And as you say,
tech startups are trying to build bigger and more powerful
firefighting drones typically is what they're looking at.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
But that will take take a very very long time.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
So with all this demand around the world, again, California
leases these in ninety day cycles and that's worked for us.
We'll have to see moving forward whether we want to
invest in the technologies associated with having super scoopers ready
to go all the time. As you say, it's a
(20:40):
year round thing, but as it sits now, it's more
cost effective for California just to lease them.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
I don't know the price tag though for the ninety days.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
I don't see anything on the price tag, and in
all of the different materials that I'm looking at, I
don't see anything on but we're actually paying I mean,
that's a knowable thing. But you know there's a lot
made of the environmental side of this there, meaning you know,
when you scoop up salt water and you have this
high salinity water that's being dropped on vegetation, it can
(21:17):
damage the vegetation below. Much is made of that. I
don't know if that really holds water, if you'll part
of the expression, because I mean, if you look at
hurricanes and you look at the East Coast, they can
be inundated in any of these areas by floods. As
a result of hurricanes, and yet vegetation grows back.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
Sure, and I guess it's the lesser of two evils. Perhaps.
We interviewed a global security expert for retired not former Marla,
retired marine intelligence officer, who talked about that and talked
about the fact that the salt water it erodes. So
if it's not just on the land, if it's on
your car and all of that, If on your home,
(21:57):
that can do damage as well. And the mixture that
most of our aircraft use is a fire retardant mixed
with water, and that is reportedly supposed to be environmentally friendly,
and it allows the vegetation to grow back quicker than
salt water, if you will. So you know, who knows.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
I'm going to find out though during this break how
much we pay in California for because I don't know
why we don't have that information.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
We have all this information about super scoopers.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
But in any case, we're on a lease program every
ninety days, and frankly, the super scoopers seem appropriately used
and appropriate in number, you know, just to put a
button on that question of the super scoopers.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
How much they cost?
Speaker 3 (22:36):
Yeah, So the information is a little tough to come by,
so you can find quotes on it from twenty sixteen,
and those quotes are around thirty five million. I saw
thirty seven million for a super Scooper. But again that's
in twenty sixteen, and you're paying again, these figures are
(22:57):
now but almost a decade old. Five and a half
million just for a handful of the autumn months to
have them up. Five and a half million bucks.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
And that's for the ninety day lease exactly.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
And then the county also pays eleven hundred dollars an
hour to operate them. Now, again, these figures are from
twenty sixteen. I couldn't find anything more contemporary than that.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
Well, you'd think that they have done the math that
it's more cost effective to loan them for three months. Yeah,
but again times change. And this is to your point,
almost ten years ago. And now wildfire season, as it
has been for a long time, is basically year round.
So is it worth it for us to buy a
forty million dollar aircraft to have at our disposal any time?
Speaker 2 (23:41):
Yeah? And by the way, you need more than one,
I mean.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Yeah, the all right eighty million.
Speaker 3 (23:45):
Yeah exactly. So I mean, fortunately there's just nothing but
money to spend. So yeah, plenty of money to go around.
Updating the Israel Hamas ceasefire. There was a delayed cabinet
vote on this ceasefire in Gaza. President or Prime Minister,
I guess he is. Netan Yahoo in Israel was saying
(24:08):
that Hamas has renegged on parts of the agreement. And
so this is a very fragile agreement and it's really
played out as such because now it looked to be
in doubt. I think they now agree they are going
to vote on it tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
So it's been especially just pushed back a day exactly,
and specifically Net and Yahoo was saying that Hamas was
seeking to dictate which Palestinian prisoners should be released in
exchange for Israeli hostages, and that was hit. That was
Hamas reneging. According to a net Yahoo.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
Apparently Hamas is sort of wanting their top dogs released,
and net and Yahoo is saying, you don't get to
dictate the terms of you know, who was released. On
some level, that's a major reducto on what was going on.
But that's the kind of thing that's informing the problem.
So Anthony Blincoln was at a press conference during which
(25:07):
he was heckled really by a couple of activists, and
it sounded like this, Finally, I just wanted to shore
this morning.
Speaker 6 (25:15):
Get your hands off me, Get your hands off me,
Get your hands off me, answer a damn question.
Speaker 4 (25:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
So obviously when he's saying get your hands off me,
he had asked a question. He kept shouting it and
it was being ignored.
Speaker 6 (25:27):
Get your hands off me, Get your hands off me,
Get your hands off me, answer.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
A damn question. I look forward to answering questions.
Speaker 6 (25:34):
And you know, not a real snipletar weapons everybody from
the icy Jake. I was sitting here quietly, and now
I'm being manhandled by two or three people. You're in
pontificate about a free press. You pontificate about a free press.
You're hurting me.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
You're hurting me.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
You are hurting me.
Speaker 6 (25:53):
I've been asking questions after being total Please Matt Miller
that he will not answer my questions.
Speaker 3 (25:57):
That's how I ad please, sir, respectively, respect the process.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
We'll have an opportunity to take questions in two minutes.
Speaker 6 (26:03):
What's at the point of the Hey, the May thirty
first statements have blocked the ICJ orders.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
He blocked the ICJ orders. Please sir, respect the process.
Speaker 6 (26:14):
Thank you, respect the process. Respective process.
Speaker 7 (26:16):
Everybody, everybody from the from EMS internationals, from the ICY
day saying that is well doing tenn aside an extermination
and you're telling me to respect the process.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Criminal. Why aren't you with the hey?
Speaker 5 (26:31):
Why aren't you with the hey?
Speaker 1 (26:33):
Why aren't you with that?
Speaker 3 (26:35):
So there is uh, you know, these questions that surround us,
I think have to do with credential press. I would
think a state department pressure has only credential press people.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
But these people work credentials.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Right, yeah, and you know their identity.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
We know Max Blumenthal who is one of them.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
He's an activist and uh, the other is a Jordanian journalist.
I believe Max is an American And.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
And ultimately when you're hearing his voice get quieter and
quieter as he's shouting, he's escorted out.
Speaker 3 (27:06):
So yes, it's it would seem one of those situations
where there was a briefing going on and he's shouting
questions during the briefing, so you know, he's not waiting
for the Q and A period, right.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
And Blaken's saying, you can ask all the questions you
want I don't know if he's necessarily saying that, but
you can ask a question once I'm done briefing.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
Yeah, exactly, now to be fair. And when I say
to be fair, I mean just when you know, in
the fullness of the whole thing.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
Obviously, this is a viral moment. We just played it.
Speaker 3 (27:38):
It's being carried by a lot of other news organizations probably,
And so to the extent that activists like Max and
others when I say Max, like I know him. I've
never met him, Max Blumenthal, but the I just know
who he is. But that these people could be successful
in making their points. I mean in a way he
(27:58):
was successful.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Right on dred percent. If it bleeds, it leads, right.
So this is the moment in the blanken pressor and
the briefing today that is now going to be the headline.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
Yeah, at least one of them. Look, there's a lot
involved in this agreement. It's not just releasing prisoner's prisoner exchange.
There's a ceasefire involved, there is land involved.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
It's a two phase agreement which could take.
Speaker 3 (28:26):
Months exactly exactly, and so there are many opportunities during
this entire process for things to fall apart. So this
fragile agreement. It's huge that it's happened. But the idea
somehow that you know, it's a lead pipe singe to continue.
I think it is not necessarily the case.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
But Blinkeln said, it's not exactly surprising that in a
process and a negotiation that has been this challenging and
this fraught, you may get a loose end or tying
up that loose end as we speak, So he's referring
to it as just that a loose end.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
Yeah, I mean it may be a loose end, but
there it's a pretty heavy duty loose end.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
So but in other words, he's downplaying it.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
Yeah, would do better, which is what a diplomat should do.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
You know that you'd expect that from the Secretary of State.
The net and yahoo government and cabinet does vote on
the agreement, though, that perhaps is the thing to focus on.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
That will happen tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
Let's say it's expected to happen tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
Yeah, that might be a more appropriate way to frame it.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
The new pick for Trump's energy chief is talking about
the wildfires. We'll get to that next also in the
next hour. As we were saying, seventy five thousand reunion
stories in the four years from this one organization that
reunites animals and pets with their owners. It's extraordinary. And
(29:55):
we get into the second Trump era coming up. It
all begins the inauguration on Monday. All of that still
to come. Gary and Shannon Show, Mark and Marl is
sitting in on KFI AM six forty live everywhere on
the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 5 (30:11):
You've been listening to the Gary and Shannon Show, you
can always hear us live on KFI AM six forty
nine am to one pm every Monday through Friday, and
anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
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