The Rod and Greg Show: Brett Tolman on Trump Sentencing; Avoidable Mistakes in Los Angeles

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, this week, you know, we've got the tragedy in
California and that story is simply not going to weigh.
They're bracing for higher wins, isn't it again this weekend?
I think the Santa Ana whims or wins are supposed
to be again up again. We've got Gavin Newsom going
to the president going.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Top of mind issue misinformation. Mister President, We've got to
shut it down.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
You're telling you are telling the truth about what's really
going on down there.

Speaker 3 (00:24):
We'll get into that.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
Donald Trump, he actually got to say something today in
his sentencing, and we'll let you hear a portion of
what the President elect had to say. A lot of
other things going on as well. So we've got a
jam packed show and great to be with you today.
You know, I think you're right. I think particularly this week,
we want ladies, gentlemen. We put this show together. We
want it to be what's going on right now. This

(00:46):
isn't a summary.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
It has to be if I need to see it
in the fish wraps, I need to see it somewhere
to break it down and then tell you the truth. Well,
I don't know that any of our production shows isled
what we have what our show ends up being because
of the breaking news this week, And yeah, I mean
I so anyway, I just think that it's this is

(01:08):
another one of those days. There's a lot to talk about.
I was so fired up this morning about the about
the sentencing, uh huh. But by the time we start
the show, I'm I'm firing up about knew someome crying
to Biden about misinformation. But then Zuckerberg telling Rogan he
was told to take the truth off of his off
of Facebook.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
Matter of fact, got angry phone calls from officials with
the Biden administration saying stop this.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
It sounds like more than Biden being a bit of
a swear bear, the whole administration is full of swear bears,
swearing and yelling at them.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
Well, we always like to start off the Friday show
with a Friday favorite story, and this is my You know,
I've seen this in the past, Greg, but I would
just like to be there one day and see this happen.
Are you ready for this? Yes, this is the time
of year that iguana's in Florida start falling out of
the trees.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
I've heard this, but then I forgot this. This whole
phenomenon even existing. Yeah, well, do tell.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
The story is that when the temperatures get cold, the
temperatures drop, which they are due to happen in Florida,
over the next couple of days, the cold blooded creatures
get so lethargic that they become stunned. Their bodies are
too cold to continue functioning. They lose their grip on
tree trunks and branches they hide in, and they start

(02:24):
dropping them out of trees.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
Yeah, that reminds me of I spent some time in Australia. Yes,
you did a couple of years, and and you know
those Koala bears. You look at them and they look
they are very docile creatures, and you think, oh, they
just must be lazier, like a sloth or something. No,
they they because they got these vicious claws. No, they're
high as a kite. Those koala bears. They eat those
eucalyptuses and it gives them a high. And so when

(02:50):
you see that that koala bear just giving you that,
you know the Chinese look on their eyes, you know,
just looking at you and no, no, they're they're high.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
Well what would happen to you if you were Let's
say we're out on a golf course. You're like under
retreat and all of a sudden, an iguana falls.

Speaker 2 (03:03):
I am a master at finding trees on golf course. Well,
that's likelihood. I'm under a tree is high.

Speaker 1 (03:09):
I think I didn't realize they're this big. The iguanas
don't end up splattered on the highway. They eventually grow
up to be five feet long and weigh as much
as twenty five pounds.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
Well, first, it's scared the daylights on. I mean, then
I would think we have dragons's we're in a you know,
we're in a TV show or something. And now I'd
scare me. I would I wouldn't be going on.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
All right, let's talk about the fires in California. Greg,
You keep on looking at this video and they just
continue to burn and burn, destroying more property, calling on,
you know, evacuations. What is up with Los Angeles County
and Los Angeles City Three times in the last twenty
four hours they've sent out alerts for people to evacuate. Yeah,
and they're false and they made the system, the machinery,

(03:52):
the computers, whatever, made huge mistakes and officials have to
come back on say no, no, no, false alarm folks
go back to your homes.

Speaker 3 (03:59):
You're fine.

Speaker 2 (04:00):
I know that sounds crazy, but we have video. We
have video. I don't know that we'll play it, but
I'm listening. They're holding a press conference in their public
It turns out that they not only can they not
stop a fire or keep water and a fire hydrant,
they actually can't communicate as as as a government entity state,
you know, county, city and tell you let people know.
The guy actually says in his press conference, we have

(04:20):
to we have to figure out why these communications are
going out with any without any human being sending it.
We don't know why this is happening. Oh, well that's
you know. Usually you'd like to hear, hey we've got
a problem. Here's how we've solved it. They're just letting
you know you can't trust what you're hearing out. That's
like that's their takeaways, like, we don't know why this
is happening. Well that's the that's their that's their press conference.

Speaker 1 (04:42):
Well, another note they said today is what if there
are people out there who don't have cell phones or
a computer, how do they get the alerts?

Speaker 2 (04:50):
And there might be a few because you got four
hundred and fifty thousand people without power in that area.
One hundred and thirty thousand additional people have been told
to evacuate. I'm imagining if you're evacuating, it's worse than
not having power. You don't have a house because you've
just left it because you're fleeing. Okay, and take the
four hundred and fifty thousand people that have homes that
aren't burning down but no power to it. Yeah, So

(05:12):
how do you charge your phone once it goes dead?

Speaker 3 (05:14):
You can?

Speaker 2 (05:15):
So how are they gonna get online? How are they
gonna do anything?

Speaker 4 (05:17):
All?

Speaker 5 (05:17):
Right?

Speaker 1 (05:18):
Do you have that audio from like Gavin Newsom in
his meeting with the president today. I mean, it's unbelievable.
Here the President today meeting with Newsom. A little bit
later on, will play the audio. I don't know if
you've heard this, says of yet, of this woman, this
mom who confronted Newsom yesterday in California, really getting after him.
We'll play that and get your reaction to the to that.

(05:38):
But today Newsom was on the phone realistically, yesterday he
was faking it, but today he was on a conference
call or something.

Speaker 2 (05:45):
Whizoome Orge, Yeah, the zooming? Some mean, let me just
give you a description. I'm the photo. The image I
can see when I play this video is the Oval Office.
You have President Biden sitting behind his desk in the
Oval Office. It looks like the back of the head
looks like it's Kamala somebody's president. I don't know who
the other person is, but you have a big screen
TV with three faces on it, and one is Governor Newsome.

(06:06):
And this is top of mind for the Governor of
California as he's communicating with the President of the type
of help they need out there in California. Let's have
a listen, I ask you.

Speaker 6 (06:17):
We've got to deal with this misinformation. There were hurricane
force wins of miss and disinformation lives. People want to
divide this country and we're gonna have to address that
as well. And it breaks my heart as people are
suffering and struggling that we're up against those hurricane force
forces as well. And that's just a point of personal

(06:39):
privilege that I share that with you because it infects
real people that are out there, people I meet every
single day, people the mayor has been meeting with and
they're having conversations that are not the typical conversations you'd
have at this time, and you wonder where this stuff
comes from.

Speaker 7 (06:55):
And it's very damaging as well, but we're here to
get the job done.

Speaker 2 (07:00):
So he's so full of belong You've got ten people
who have tragically and horribly died that they know so far,
you have ten thousand structures that are now ash. They
don't exist anymore, four hundred and fifty thousand people, as
they said, without power, one hundred and thirty thousand people
with evacuation orders, alert systems setting out false notifications and
top of mind for Governor Newsom, disinformation misinformation. At the

(07:24):
same time, you have Zuckerberg telling Rogan on his podcast today,
we were told by the Biden administration to take down
truthful posts of people and things that were memes and
parody and they wanted them down. So that's your misinformation
disinformation perspective. Anything they don't like, anything that makes them
look bad. You know why Gaviam Newsom cares more about

(07:45):
the disinformation is that how it makes him look forget
about the people that are suffering right now. He doesn't
want those discussions going on. So that's it. There's an irony.

Speaker 1 (07:55):
I want to take issue with what he's says, nobody
out there, Greg is trying to divide this nation right now.
We all feel sorry for the people in California. We
all want to help them and do whatever we can
by providing information or what he calls misinformation, We're trying
to let the people know what is really going on
in southern California. That's right, mismanagement when it comes to
fire suppression, fire prevention, water distribution, and you've got these

(08:18):
poor firefighters, they're about I think there are fifteen thousand
in the LA in the LA Fire Department, you know,
who're out there trying to save people's homes, trying to
save people's lives. We're just trying to point out look it.
You've got a governor who's incompetent. This should have been managed.
You've got a mayor who's incompetent. That's why we're politicizing this.
We're just pointing out fact.

Speaker 2 (08:39):
And I had I had a discussion with someone this
earlier today and he asked me if I felt that
I was participating in or if it was appropriate to
really go into the reasons or ask why this happened.
What kind of mismanagement's going on? With your forestry and
and your water, if it's appropriate to be doing this
right now. And I said, well, let me just give

(08:59):
you an example. In the state of Utah, when we
have one of these massive wildfires that destroys millions of acres.
We don't wait for sixty days thirty days to explain
what the frustration is. In the moment. You have a governor,
you'll have county commissioners, you'll have you will people, let's
say the federal government, and their mismanagement of this puts
us in danger, puts us at a disadvantage. And they're

(09:21):
not politicizing anything. They're telling you the truth. And the
public they're most tuned in when you are in these event.
People want to understand what they're seeing. The media doesn't
play this when if there's a if there's a governor,
DeSantis pointed out in Florida, if there's something going on there, boy,
they want to talk all about it. For some reason.
We're all not supposed to have any opinion or understanding
of why or what's going on in southern California right now. Sorry,

(09:45):
this is the window. Because I believe that the kind
of criticism that the mayor is receiving right now, Mayor
Bass and the criticism Governor Newsom's going is receiving should
at least get them to step up and do better
than they've done so far. They should.

Speaker 1 (09:58):
They've failed miserably. So all right, we're gonna talk a
lot about this today. A little bit later on, we'll
talk about the president elect sentence seing today what a
farce this whole thing has turned out to be. We'll
talk about that. Your phone calls a lot to get
to today. Great to have you along for the ride
on a Friday afternoon as you head into the weekend.
If you want to be a part of the program.
Eight eighty eight five seven eight zero one zero triple

(10:20):
eight five seven eight zero one zero more coming up
on the Rod and Greg Show. If you're a football fan,
this is like football what Nirvana this weekend?

Speaker 2 (10:29):
No, not for me. Well that's because it Steelers are
going to plan to beat myself. I'm so stressed about
this game tomorrow. Don't watch it. So what I do
is I have this TJ. Watt linebacker Jersey I always were,
but I this this poor mate. He's like NFL play
Defensive Player of the Year. All that he's got set
tied the record for sacks in a single season. He's
never won a playoff game, that's true. So I'm going

(10:50):
with my old school linebacker jersey for tomorrow because I
want to. I want to wear the jersey of a
linebacker that's won a playoff game, or a few of them,
or a couple of them, or something that nice.

Speaker 8 (10:59):
Nice.

Speaker 2 (10:59):
Not t TJ's got to win one. So I'm just
I'm just all nerves and I have to watch. I
shouldn't because again stresses me out.

Speaker 3 (11:07):
But you'll make it. You'll make it, all right.

Speaker 2 (11:10):
You've got a big one, right Yeah, I'm wearing your
long worn right.

Speaker 3 (11:14):
Now, big one tonight.

Speaker 1 (11:15):
All right, Let's get back to the top story of
the week, and that's the fires in southern California. Uh,
we played for you before the break, Gavin Newsom crying
to the President. Too much misinformation out there. Let me
tell you what, folks, are we going to learn any
lessons from this? They're hard right now? But will we
weren't learns? Joining us on our Newsmaker line right now

(11:36):
as Dwayne Patterson. Dwayne is a columnist at Hot Air,
also producer The Hugh Hewitt Joe Hugh does a great job. Dwayne,
how are you welcome to the Rod and Greg Show.

Speaker 9 (11:45):
Hey, great to make your quaintance.

Speaker 6 (11:47):
Rod.

Speaker 9 (11:47):
I don't think we've ever met, but and I don't
think i've met Greg before, but I think we may
have been swimming in the same pond over the years
when you were in the same when you were in
the same or when you're in the State House. Didn't
you do some work with the American Legislative Exchange Council. Sure,
we're part of their See, Lisa Nelson and Jonathan Williams

(12:09):
are really good friends of ours. We've done a ton
of work with them over the years. So I think
we've got a lot of uh, we've got a lot
of colleagues that are probably in sane.

Speaker 2 (12:17):
I know that pond. Those are good people. Yeah, those
are good Those are those are patriots. Yeah, Dwayne, you
wrote it. Yeah, you wrote a terrific article this week
in Hot Air looking at what's going on with these
fires and talking about the painful lessons right now and
will we learn anything? This has been going on now
since Tuesday. Where are your thoughts? Where are you on
this right now?

Speaker 3 (12:37):
Dwayne?

Speaker 9 (12:38):
Well, even just since the call them and thanks for
mentioning you, but just sins to call them. And up
to the present moment, Uh, it's like this squid games
out here for the Democratic Party. Everybody is now running
for the proverbial hills, point fingers at each other.

Speaker 8 (12:56):
You.

Speaker 9 (12:57):
On Thursday afternoon, there was a blast put out by
our governor Gavin Newsom saying that it's misinformation. The water
levels were just fine. The whole hydrant thing is a
non issue. And yet this morning he's now calling for
a Blue Ribbon panel to investigate what happened with the
fire hiders and why didn't have enough water. All of

(13:19):
a sudden he wants to get to the bottom of it,
and his state Department of Water and Power, so Sacramento,
the state level is now issuing, well, the levels at
all of our reservoirs up and down the state were
at normal levels. We're perfectly fine. It ain't us. And
then you go down to the seven hundred and fifty

(13:40):
thousand dollars a year City LA Department of Water of
Power person, her name is Janice Canoniez. She is now saying, well,
it's not our fault because the one reservoir that the
state manages was taken off line that would have this

(14:01):
particular region of southern California because the cover for it
had to tear in it, so they had to drain it,
and it was drained for the last three months. Even
though everybody knew that there was a high fire season
and a very high wind warning that was coming. Nobody thought, well,
let's go ahead and put water back in this scene.

(14:21):
They left it dry. It had one hundred set as
a capacity of one hundred and seventeen million gallons of water.

Speaker 3 (14:28):
Wow.

Speaker 9 (14:29):
Officials are saying that if it was filled, it would
have increased water pressure in the line quote for a
period of time end quote. Now they're saying, see, it
wouldn't have made that much of a difference long term,
but you think it might have helped people that got
burned out Tuesday night?

Speaker 3 (14:46):
Oh probably, yeah, probably so yeah.

Speaker 2 (14:49):
So you know, we're all being accused because we're talking
about this, and we're talking about the lack of leadership
or mismanagement of water of a fire department, of a
city of forestry, things like that. But this is what
I have to laugh at. You had we played for
our listener as a clip of Governor Gavin Newsom complaining
to President Biden and asking for misinformation and disinformation to

(15:11):
be taken out of the public square because it's just terrible.
What amounts to is anything that's criticizing him or his state,
and we are just politicizing this somehow. But so here's
what I love. He says that says everything's fine. But
then to your point, then says, well, we need to
have an independent investigation, Duane. How independent are the state

(15:35):
officials that would be conducting any of this? The state
water and firefighting officials if they work for gavind are
they really independent or are they just going to say
what he's saying right now but perform some investigation air
quote to do it? I mean, is there any thing
you're going to learn from that independent investigation?

Speaker 9 (15:53):
They are about as independent as a Venezuelan election board.

Speaker 2 (15:57):
That's right. I like that. I want to use that
actually because I think that's one hundred percent right.

Speaker 9 (16:03):
Yeah, So I so misinformation. Here, here's the thing about
Gavin Newsom's misinformation. Here is a little factoid for you.
On nine to twenty two September twenty second, so three
months ago, uh, he issued an executive order out of
Sacramento that called for a forty percent cut to cawfire

(16:25):
forty percent operational budget CalFire. He vetoed a cawfire retention
bill going into fire season, saying that we don't have
the budget to afford the seasonal fireworkers just as California
is going into fire season. He basically said, no, we're
not going to do that. We have no money and

(16:47):
laid them off and so we don't have enough. We
don't have enough personnel. And now he's looking around saying, hmm,
I wonder why this is the case. He doesn't want
to he doesn't want.

Speaker 8 (16:58):
To deal with that.

Speaker 9 (16:59):
Cars the mayor of Los Angeles, we learned that she
had already cut past ten, already cut the budget for
LA Fire by almost seventeen million dollars. What we learned
today this morning is that a day before the fire
broke out, her office demanded an additional forty nine million

(17:21):
dollar cut wow for the next year's budget from LA Fire.

Speaker 10 (17:24):
Wow.

Speaker 9 (17:25):
And they wonder why the thing burned down? So while
while Gavin Newsom is now trying to point fingers at
Karen Bass, and Karen Bass, god knows where she is
her fire chief, the LA Fire chief. Her name is
Kristin Crowley, the first female lesbianfight fire chief in LA.

(17:46):
She gave a press conference this morning to local Fox
eleven here, saying the city failed her. The budget cuts hurt,
we didn't have enough water. So now she's pointing fingers
at everybody. It's a free for all here.

Speaker 1 (18:00):
Politically, boy, assure do that sound like a Dwayne, great insight.
Really appreciate your information on this, man. Hang in there
and I know we'll be checking back, checking back in
with you, Dwayne. Thanks and have a safe weekend.

Speaker 3 (18:12):
Thank you, you got it. Thanks guys, all right.

Speaker 1 (18:14):
Dwayne Patterson, he is a producer for The Hugh Hewitt Show,
also writes for Hot Air, had a great column about
lessons painful at times. Hopefully we'll learn something out of this.

Speaker 3 (18:24):
I wouldn't count so.

Speaker 2 (18:26):
This is I was gonna say. And I just think, really,
these leftists, these social engineers, they have consumed themselves in
what we've called luxury beliefs and luxury issues, just things
that while the rest of America has been confronting kitchen
table issues, well, these luxury issues and luxury beliefs about
environmental issue, all the things that they've talked about it's

(18:48):
all gone. They've got kitchen table issues. Now they're confronting one.
I wondered, Rod, I really do is this a big
moment where they go, Wow, all the things I thought
I cared about really don't mean squat when my house
is gone, and we didn't actually do what a government
should do, and that is protected the public and be
good stewards of the areas they're supposed to be. I

(19:08):
think I think there can be a change. I'm optimistic
that this could. This is like a laboratory test of
the failure of the left.

Speaker 1 (19:15):
You'd be an optimist. I'll be a pessimist. I don't
think anything's going to change, unfortunately, whatever. Teddy Downer, all right,
more coming up on the Rod and Gregg Show. Well,
joining us now on our newsmaker line to talk more
about what's going on in southern California. Jonathan Lesser. He
as president of the Continental Economics and senior fellow there
National Center for Energy Analytics. As well, he's written about

(19:35):
an avoidable tragedy. We're talking about the fires in southern California. Jonathan,
thank you for joining us. You'll read all kinds of headlines,
including yours, was this an avoidable tragedy?

Speaker 11 (19:46):
Well, I think what's going on is you've got a
besides the obvious, some of the obvious incompetence that's going on,
for example, not having water any water in the Pacific
Palisades Reservoir. You've got decades of forest mismanagement that has
allowed all this undergrowth, dead dead trees to just fester,

(20:10):
and of course you get serious wildfires. Then they're much
worse than having controlled burns, which they don't do anymore there.
So you know, again it's to me, it's an avoidable tragedy, tragedy.
None of this had to happen. It is a very
fire fire prone area, as everyone knows. That's the climate,

(20:31):
the California has Mediterranean climate, and they could have it
seems like they could have done something more to prepare
and get themselves prepared, like, for example, checking to see
are the hydrants working, is there water in the reservoir
to fight hydrants. They knew about the the severe sant

(20:53):
Ana winds. That wasn't a surprise, it was forecasts, So
you know, I think there's just a lot of errors
that happened, and it's costing a lot of people everything
they owned and unfortunately a lot of lives.

Speaker 2 (21:08):
So, you know, Governor Knewsom is getting a lot of
a lot of criticism, well deserved. There's such a body
of evidence that shows that this mismanagement and really so
much has gone wrong. And people have been talking about
a catastrophic event like this for quite some time as
we look in hindsight. But today the irony. You have
a you have a Joe Rogan episode where Mark Zuckerbergerberg

(21:28):
comes on and basically says that during the Biden administration
they would get called and and with tirades and yelling
and demanding that they take things down that were actually
true and pressuring them. Well, at the same time that
that's happening, and we're finding that out on you know,
social media platforms. I see this discussion that the governor's

(21:48):
having with President Biden today where he said to the
President Biden, our big problem right now is misinformation. We
have in misinformation. There's so much misinformation about this, about this, uh,
these fires, that we have to shut this down. That's
this front of mind issue, not what you just described,
not the things have been going on for some time.
So what do you say you and I are the

(22:09):
purveyors of misinformation. Apparently we're talking about something that is
fundamentally untrue. The this is wind and these are sparks,
and that is all the story is supposed to be about.
What do you say to that, that we're somehow pushing
false information?

Speaker 11 (22:23):
Well, I guess the easy response of the truth hurts. Yes,
you know, it's just you know, everyone's blaming climate change.
It's just nonsense. It's not climate change. There's nothing new
about Santa Ana winds that are very strong, There's nothing
new about the dry climate. What is new is decades

(22:43):
of fire suppression and refusal because of environmentalists to be
able to clear all that fuel that builds up from
creating catastrophic qualifiers. So you know, if that's just information,
well okay, so be it. But it's just it happens

(23:03):
to be the truth.

Speaker 1 (23:05):
Jonathan, What, as you point out in your article, the
entire focus of California for quite some time now, and
I'm not sure how far you want to go back
with this, but the entire focus has.

Speaker 3 (23:15):
Been on green energy.

Speaker 1 (23:16):
You know, you know, EV's talking about emptying out reservoirs
like you mentioned now with Palisades, is the tide ever
going to turn on this in California, Like, yes, let's
have reasonable expectations, but we have simply gone too far.

Speaker 11 (23:33):
Well, I think Rod that eventually, yes, the tide will
turn because reality has a funny way of intruding on fantasies,
and reality always wins in the end. We're seeing this,
you know. You look at what's going on in Europe.
Great Britain just avoided by the skin of its teeth
massive blackouts because of a lack of electricity. They had

(23:56):
just barely enough thanks so you know, wind was not
providing much and solar was providing absolutely nothing. You know,
I think California is going to find out the same
way the hard way. Rates are going way way up.
You know, people in some in some high demand hours

(24:17):
in the summer, they're paying over a dollar a killowa
hour for electricy now, you know. So it used to
be the issue was, you know, sit there and freeze
in the dark. Now it's sit there and sweat in
the dark.

Speaker 2 (24:33):
You know, I don't I don't like engaging in class warfare.
Never liked it when I was younger, trying to pit
people's income and station and life against one another. It
is very hard however, to not notice that the high
rent districts of southern California are being particularly impacted by this.
The rich people, the very wealthy that well to do

(24:55):
the very dark blue having a lot of luxury issues
and a lot of luxury uh, you know, positions to take.
They have a lot of kitchen table issues like an
everyday American. I would say, right now, is that empathy
that we're seeing. Are we going to see maybe a
shift from some of these very liberal We care about
DEI maybe more than water in our fire hydrants. We

(25:16):
care about things that it turns out you probably should
have paid a little bit more attention to in terms
of the role of government. Is there going to be
a c shift in a state like California where the
luxury issue crowd has some kitchen table issues they've got
to confront.

Speaker 11 (25:31):
Now, Well, you know that the old saying that a
conservative is a liberal mugged by reality, that may be
the case here. You know, I feel bad for all
these people, no matter how far left they are. I
know there was some some you know, there was a
professor at the University of Missouri who was gloating about

(25:52):
James Wood, the actor, losing his home because she called
it karma. You know, that kind of thing has no place.
And maybe it looks like some of the some of
those liberals in and that have been effected, lost their
homes or whatever, they're getting mad to seeing the incompetence.

(26:14):
So you know, does it mean they'll start voting for
more competent people. I certainly hope so. But you know,
people can be very stubborn in their beliefs and they
can forget pretty quickly.

Speaker 3 (26:27):
Yeah, yeah, Jonathan.

Speaker 1 (26:28):
Final question before I heard today there was a story
shared today about Suzanne Summers, the former actress who is deceased,
own her husband and they lost their home years ago
right along Malibu along the ocean there, and in trying
to rebuild it, they spent seven years getting permission to
be able to simply do that. Jonathan, I mean, that

(26:49):
is absolutely ludicrous. Seven years to be given permission to
build a home on your own property.

Speaker 11 (26:56):
Well, I read that it takes seven years to get
to get a permit to do a controlled burn, so
I'm not surprised. I mean, again, this is that points
out one of the problems, and that because it's so
hard to develop an expensive to develop new new homes,

(27:16):
people move farther out where they're more exposed to wildfire risk,
you know. So it's really a land use problem as well.
And if they made it easier to build homes in
cities and urban areas, fewer people would have to move
into these areas where there's great wildfire risk. And you know,

(27:39):
unfortunately California is just going to keep seeing this and
we'll just have to see what actually caused this wildfire,
whether it's arson, fireworks, you know, electric lines coming down,
who knows.

Speaker 1 (27:55):
Jonathan Lesser joining us on our news maker line. As
a matter of fact, there was no rest made last
night and someone who was trying to start a fire
there in the southern California area.

Speaker 3 (28:03):
It's just absolutely crazy right now.

Speaker 1 (28:05):
All right, more coming up on the Rod and Greg
Show in Utah's Talk Radio one oh five nine kan Arrest.

Speaker 2 (28:10):
Check us out on our X page. I guess the
Rotten Greg Show.

Speaker 1 (28:14):
Yeah, and just go to X and search Rotten Greg
Show and you'll.

Speaker 3 (28:18):
Find it there.

Speaker 2 (28:20):
So and I like it. It's a new wrinkle to
the show. But we get some good comments from from listeners.

Speaker 1 (28:25):
We do the audience, you know, speaking of uh, you know,
today next Friday, we're going to be on the road.
They're going to let us out of the building. Really yeah, wow,
we get we get like a police escort.

Speaker 3 (28:37):
I think not to.

Speaker 1 (28:39):
Protect, not to protect us, but to protect people were.

Speaker 2 (28:42):
I want to roll and three black suburbans okay, and
we're in the flash Yeah, and just have one front.

Speaker 3 (28:48):
Well, you get in one and I'll get him.

Speaker 2 (28:49):
Yeah, we'll get in those. And we have hinted windows
and just three suburbans just cruising everywhere in a line
and a direct line everywhere we go.

Speaker 1 (28:56):
Well, I don't know if that will happen next week,
we'll tell the that's how well, we have a new leader.
You know, we have a new leader, Madam President, Adam President. Now, yeah,
we sure do.

Speaker 2 (29:07):
Yeah, yeah. I love when we actually go on people
stop buying. Say hi, So it's.

Speaker 3 (29:12):
Fine, you're great listeners.

Speaker 2 (29:13):
Say hi people.

Speaker 1 (29:14):
And we have some really really good good listeners who
really enjoy the show. And that's why we do this
each and every day, trying to provide you with all
the misinformation we can.

Speaker 2 (29:23):
Yeah, that's what Gavin Newsom, Governor Newsom is accusing us,
and anyone that has anything bad to say about his
incredible leadership of California right now, or the incredible leadership
of Governor Karen Bass. If you have a different opinion
than that, disinformation, misinformation. Where's the Ministry of Truth when
you need it? Huh yeah, that's what.

Speaker 1 (29:43):
What weren't you saying earlier that he is now going
to appoint a Blue ribbon commission to investigate what has happened.

Speaker 2 (29:50):
Yeah, so this independent commission turns out to be his employees.
It's amazing. He you know, he's the governor. They work
directly for him, and they are going to be the
independent investigation, which I'm thinking is going to say it
was wind and sparks that were the cause of it
all nod water, not the dead wood in the forest

(30:10):
that you never cleaned out, not the control burns, not
the empty resumeir.

Speaker 3 (30:14):
Not budget cuts, not the budget.

Speaker 4 (30:16):
None of it.

Speaker 2 (30:16):
It's it's wind.

Speaker 1 (30:18):
Donald Trump finally got a chance to uh hee kids,
mind today it is sentencing. We'll let you hear what
the president you like had to say. Hopefully we'll be
talking with Brett Tolman as well, and your phone calls. Okay,
coming up on the Rotten Greg Show. Big day for
Donald Trump today, he finally got to say something in
court today.

Speaker 8 (30:37):
Greg.

Speaker 2 (30:38):
The whole thing is a disgrace, but at least the
guy's not you know, this gag order that he's had
the labor under which is the whole thing stinks to
high Heaven. I wake up in the morning, I see
that this sentencing is going forward. I'm watching it happen,
and the first thing that comes to mind is, we
got to get the smartest guy I know in Utah
that knows what they're talking about. Uh, and you know

(30:59):
we I know he likes to go on Fox News
and they always want him on the show. But this
is this is the Roden Gregg Show. I don't know
if you know, but don't go Hollywood on.

Speaker 1 (31:06):
Us because he does sometimes. But he's also very loyal
to us. He'll show up if he can't. When we're
talking about Brett Tolman, former US Attorney for the State
of Utah Executive Director, I want you to know, Brett,
and I know you have a connection here. I am
wearing my burnt orange T shirt or sweatshirt today that
says hook him.

Speaker 5 (31:25):
There we go.

Speaker 1 (31:25):
Big game tonight, brother, Big game tonight. Yeah, it's a
big one, big one. What do you make of what? Yeah, yeah,
it is. That's a good team in Ohio.

Speaker 2 (31:35):
Yeah, us the same way.

Speaker 3 (31:38):
It's gonna be tough, all right, Brett.

Speaker 10 (31:41):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (31:41):
Donald Trump finally got his sentence today and had a
chance to speak.

Speaker 3 (31:46):
What do you make of all of this? Brett?

Speaker 12 (31:49):
Well, when I watched the sentencing, I was looking at
Alvin Bragg when I'm very curious to see what his
position was going to be in the sentencing, and.

Speaker 5 (32:03):
My jaw hit the ground. I've never.

Speaker 12 (32:07):
Rod and Greg, I've never seen a prosecutor ever, ever,
in thirty years in the criminal justice system who had
either a high profile case or expended a lot of
effort and money and time and years to pursue it,
and and at you know, sacrificing other cases that he

(32:27):
should be bringing in the interest of this, and then
walk into court after getting a conviction and ask for
no punishment. It was at that moment that I realized
Alvin Bragg knows he Usually a prosecutor starts to believe,
you know, that they're brilliant, that their case is perfect,

(32:49):
that the defendant is worse than they ever could have imagined.
The longer you get into a case, so they actually
seek more punishment in a traditional case, the longer it
takes them to get to a conviction and sentencing. Here,
I've never seen anything like that, and that was that
moment I realized he never believed this case is legitimate.

Speaker 5 (33:08):
He never did personally.

Speaker 2 (33:09):
Now now you've seen a lot. I mean, people might
know you as a TV star because that's what you
are on Fox News. You're a legal scholar and sage
to all, but you were you were a you were
appointed by the President of the United States to be
Utah's US attorney, and so you've you your legal experience
and your experience in the courtroom from so many different perspectives,

(33:30):
not just as you just attorney, but you're you're also
an attorney in private sector. Now, so it's you don't
say that lightly that you've not seen that before, because
you you've seen a lot of this type of thing.
I have to ask you, because I am done with
this law fair. I think that this judge Mershawn uh,
you know, insisting on having a sentencing that that is
really nothing. You're not sending him to anything, but wanting

(33:53):
to do it anyway.

Speaker 4 (33:54):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (33:54):
I think he contributed to I believe he's one of
the biggest reasons why, uh, Donald Trump was elected again
because the American people this never passed the smell test.
So my question is, with all you've seen and seeing
the force that this is, are we done with law
fair with the left or even the right? Are we
done with this game? Or or is this just more
to come than we just create a new precedent.

Speaker 5 (34:18):
Yeah, great points.

Speaker 12 (34:19):
I would say the level of hypocrisy that got exposed
in this case, and it ranges from things like, remember
the left they lectured us and said, we can't call
people felons. They're they're they're impacted persons, justice impacted.

Speaker 5 (34:36):
That's the phrase you have to use.

Speaker 12 (34:38):
But now all of a sudden they sought it and
they relished calling him a felon.

Speaker 5 (34:43):
I think the world saw that hypocrisy.

Speaker 12 (34:47):
The country saw that hypocrisy and said this is this
is what happens to a lot of us. And they
saw Donald Trump for the first time in sort of
this real, this real person contact. And many people that
reached out to me on the left, friends of mine,
prosecutors in the Department of Justice, or former officials, former judges,

(35:09):
said they couldn't believe they were thinking about voting for
Donald Trump, but they really this was a you know,
an eye opening experience to see that the left was
willing to use the power of the criminal justice system
to actually try to pound a guy from five different
cases and five different angles in five different jurisdictions to

(35:32):
prevent him from winning election.

Speaker 1 (35:35):
Bright you mentioned you still have some associates who work
in the Department of Justice. How big of a job
does Pam BONDI have to do when it comes to
trying to clean that place up and get it going
the way it should be and serving the American people
and not serving politicians.

Speaker 12 (35:51):
Pam's going to be awesome, and I'm serving on a
couple of teams transitioned teams to try to make sure
that she's successful. Partment of Justice is fascinating. It is
the bureaucracy of it believes they're the fourth.

Speaker 5 (36:07):
Branch of the government.

Speaker 12 (36:09):
That's how much power, unchecked power that they've had. There's
right now, individuals in the Department of Justice and in
other law enforcement agencies, the fbion, others who are appointed
positions who are scrambling to try to transition into career
positions so that they can be embedded into the layers

(36:30):
of bureaucracy when the administration takes over.

Speaker 5 (36:33):
That's the level of sort of you.

Speaker 12 (36:36):
Know warfare, political warfare that is going on right now
to try to make sure now the difference this time
as opposed to twenty sixteen. We know what is happening,
and we've been preparing for this, and there's a lot
of people, an army of people that are they want
to restore the Department of Justice, and it's many agencies

(36:59):
to confidence and to you know, equal application of the law.
And so I think she's going to do it. I
think it's going to be very difficult. In that phrase,
I chose specifically political warfare because that's what's happening in Washington,
d C.

Speaker 5 (37:15):
Right now, is surrounding the Department of Justice.

Speaker 2 (37:17):
So I think you're saying that them trying to get
career jobs so that they aren't politically point or subject
to being fired. You don't think they'll be able to
get away with that. You think that they're are you
are you just talking about the reform generally.

Speaker 12 (37:33):
Yeah, they're trying to do that so that they can
be there and then they can cause rek havoc.

Speaker 2 (37:38):
But are they going to get away with that administration.

Speaker 12 (37:40):
I don't think they will. I don't think they will.
And here's the other thing. Pam Bonnie is not afraid
of Washington, d C. She doesn't have to make a
name for herself, she doesn't have to build a different
career afterwards and try to get to a different position.
She's taking this job in many ways like Washington took
the presidency reluctantly, but doing it because she's called to serve.

(38:05):
And that is the way many of those that are
going into the cabinet right now are. And you take
John Ratcliffe in the CIA, Cash Fattel and the FBI,
you take Pam Bondi, and I could go on and on.
Those are all individuals that I have worked with and
been around for decades. They are serious about doing the

(38:29):
right thing. All the rhetoric the left is talking about them,
you know, going after their political enemies, all of that. No,
they want none of that. They want to restore the
founding father's vision of what this country is and they
want to preserve the rule of law in this country period.

Speaker 1 (38:50):
And that's all we can hope for is make sure
we get there. Brett, as always, I know you're a
busy guy. Greg, and I understand that and appreciate you
joining us. And all I can say is hook them.
All I can say is, look, Brett, all.

Speaker 3 (39:04):
Right, you're the best. Brett.

Speaker 2 (39:05):
You keep up the good work there too. You keep
you keep representing us out here in Utah in that
in that transition team. Thanks for what you do, all right.

Speaker 1 (39:13):
Brett Tolman, former US Attorney for Utah, also the big
star on Fox. You're right, he told us earlier today,
I have a hit on Fox sometimes, but I'll try
and make it on the show. And he made room
for us something.

Speaker 2 (39:25):
Yeah. Well, hey, he's got to keep he's got to
keep himself ground. We help keep him grounded, right, keep it,
you know, we'll remind him who he is.

Speaker 10 (39:33):
All right.

Speaker 1 (39:34):
When we come back, I want you to hear the
confrontation between this mother in southern California who went right
after gruesome newsom and how we responded to it. And
we'll get your reaction to that coming up right here
on the Rod and Gregg Show in Utah's talk Radio
one O five nine K and R F.

Speaker 2 (39:51):
If this judgement Shawn who insisted on you know, sentencing
Trump and it's and it has no point whatsoever other
than to try and embarrass the the you know, the
president and soon to be a forty seventh president. If
he wants to run around in his cocktail parties and
all the liberals in Manhattan or wherever he whatever, whatever
circles he runs in to say I made Trump a felon,

(40:13):
they better point out in that same little cocktail party,
he also helped him get elected because they did this
law fair is a farce. And it really did wake
up of the American people that the left they are
no friend of yours. They will do this to you
just as easily or easier than they did it to
what was then the former president. They went after him

(40:34):
shamelessly and without without apology, and so he deserves, you
know that they I hate that it's happened to the president.
I hate that he got sentenced like this, But at
the end of the day, it does show the country
where where things sit.

Speaker 1 (40:49):
It was weird at the end today during the proceedings,
his last message to Donald Trump, godspeed.

Speaker 2 (40:54):
Yeah, it's kind of weird. Thanks thanks for nothing. It's
almost it's almost just a just to insult it on
the way, all.

Speaker 1 (41:02):
Right, As we mentioned earlier, and we played this audio
SoundBite with Gavin Newsom in a meeting today, a conference
call video conference call with president complaining about misinformation and
whining that you know he's been overrun by misinformation about
the winds and the.

Speaker 3 (41:17):
Fires and the water and you name it right.

Speaker 1 (41:20):
Well, a lot of people are being critical of those
who are raising questions about what's going on. Well, last night,
the President elect had a meeting up mar Al Logo
with governors from around the country, including our own governor,
Spencer Cox. Aronda Sentence, the governor of Florida, who is
no wallflower, by the way, was asked by a reporter
about the if this it's criticism, if it is appropriate

(41:43):
list what he had to say.

Speaker 3 (41:45):
President elect or a president.

Speaker 13 (41:48):
To be criticis appropriate for people in your industry to
try to create division and to try to create narratives
anytime these things happen. Now you're not as interested in
doing that because Newsom is a d If Newsom was
a Republican, you guys would go try that. You would
have it nailed to the wall for what they're doing
over there. And I know that we just assume in Florida,

(42:09):
anytime something happens, it's going to be politicized by the media.
So you guys sitting in judgment of Donald Trump, I mean,
excuse me, I think your track record of politicizing these
things is very very bad.

Speaker 1 (42:21):
Now, standing next to run To Santas that news conference
yes today was none other than Spencer Cox, the governor
of Utah. Did you notice how uncomfortable he looked standing
next to Desentus when Dessantans shows no fear in going
after the media. Do you think Spencer Cox would ever
do anything like that, Well.

Speaker 2 (42:41):
It would be definitely be off brand. Yeah, I do
think you should if you have a chance to look
at that clip and watch it, not just listen to it,
you will see Utah's governor just just to the left
of Governor DeSantis, and he does, to me look visibly uncomfortable,
incredibly uncomfortable, a little sheepish. It seems like I think

(43:02):
he's like, I think I'm in this this shot, and
what am I doing. I think he is not thrilled
in that moment.

Speaker 1 (43:10):
Well, over the past few days, we're playing sound bites
with President elect Trump during the campaign, with Joe Rogan
talking about California. We've had other sound bites people talking
about California months ago. I want to let you listen
to this conversation that Joe Rogan had with a firefighter
in California. This was back in July of last year. Yes,

(43:30):
listen to the warning that this firefighter gave to Joe Rogan.

Speaker 14 (43:34):
I talked to a fireman once. This is one of
the reasons of freaking me out, and he was telling me.
He goes, Dude, one day, he goes, it's just going
to be the right wind and fire is going to
start in the right place, and it's going to burn
through La all the way to the ocean, and it's
not a thing we can do about it. I go, really,
he goes, yeah, we're just we just get lucky. He goes,
we get lucky with the wind. He goes, but if

(43:54):
the wind hits the wrong way, it's just going to
burn straight through LA and there's not going to be
a thing we could do about it. Because he's are
so big, dude, when they're talking about like thousands of
acres that are burning simultaneously with like forty mile an
hour winds, and the winds just blowing embers through the air,
and those embers are landing on roofs, and those houses
are going up and they're landing on bushes, and those

(44:15):
bushes are going up, and everything's dry. And once it happens,
it happens in a way where it's so spread out
that there's nothing they can do.

Speaker 3 (44:23):
That was July of last year. Greg. Did he just
describe what's going on right now.

Speaker 2 (44:27):
To a tea other than he was describing forty mile
an hour winds when the winds are eighty to ninety
miles an hour. But I will tell you this. If
you listen to that, you might think, well, that's just nature,
that's like a hurricane coming. No, it is not. What
that firefighter was saying is we don't have the resources.
They have not given us the water resources. We don't
manage the water. We don't manage the dead forests and

(44:49):
the dead trees and the dead shrubs into the floor
of the floorest to get it off so that you
don't have burnable they don't have controlled burns. And so
he was saying, yeah, because none of this is going on,
because we're not. It's going to go right through this
uh this la to the ocean. And sure enough, so
it's that's July of twenty four. So we're talking what
six seven months ago, We're not talking you know, eight

(45:11):
years ago, ten years ago they said this. No, we're
talking recently, when, by the way, they knew it. Everyone
wants to get mad at State Farm. State Farm is
an insurance company. It's not a I know, I'm gonna
have to replace your house because it's gonna burn. It's
just a matter of time company. Okay, it's not a
it's not a when it happens company. It's an if
something happens. And so if the insurance companies are getting

(45:32):
out and saying we're tapping out, we're getting out of here,
you pay attention. Those actual areas are smart. They're doing
that because they know that there's disaster right just coming.

Speaker 3 (45:43):
It's just coming right there.

Speaker 10 (45:44):
Now.

Speaker 1 (45:44):
The story I want to get to and get your
reaction to. And this's got a lot of attention today.
Gavin Newsom coming face to face with a very angry
mother in California yesterday. She approached she saw his black
limo or his black SUV parks. So she decided to
approach the governor and ask him what intarnations is going on?

Speaker 3 (46:04):
Listen, Roman, I live here.

Speaker 10 (46:06):
Governor that was my daughter's school.

Speaker 5 (46:09):
Governor, please tell.

Speaker 15 (46:10):
Me what are you going to do.

Speaker 16 (46:11):
I'm not gonna hurt of my product.

Speaker 7 (46:12):
I'm literally talking to the President right now to specifically
answer the question of what we can do for you
and your daughter?

Speaker 8 (46:19):
Can I hear it?

Speaker 9 (46:20):
Can I hear your call?

Speaker 2 (46:21):
Because I don't believe it.

Speaker 7 (46:24):
I'm sorry. There's literally I've tried five times. That's why
I'm walking around to make them.

Speaker 2 (46:29):
Is the President not taking a call.

Speaker 3 (46:31):
Because it's not going through? So I have to get
self service.

Speaker 9 (46:33):
Let's get it, let's get it.

Speaker 15 (46:35):
I want to be here when you call the President.

Speaker 17 (46:36):
I appreciate I'm doing that right now, and it's to
immediately get reimbursements, individual assistance and to help you O devastated.

Speaker 8 (46:44):
Phra.

Speaker 17 (46:44):
I'm so sorry, especially for your daughter.

Speaker 3 (46:47):
I have four kids losing the.

Speaker 4 (46:49):
School who went to school there.

Speaker 9 (46:52):
They lost their homes, they lost.

Speaker 10 (46:53):
Two homes because they were living in one and building another.

Speaker 15 (46:57):
Ken, Please tell me, tell me what are you going
to do with the President.

Speaker 10 (47:00):
Right now, We're.

Speaker 17 (47:00):
Getting we're getting the resources to help rebuild. We're getting
water in the hydrants. That's all. Literally.

Speaker 2 (47:08):
Is it going to be different next time?

Speaker 5 (47:10):
It has to be, has to be.

Speaker 3 (47:11):
Of course, what are you going to do?

Speaker 18 (47:14):
Fill the hydrants?

Speaker 9 (47:14):
I would fill them up personally.

Speaker 10 (47:16):
You know that.

Speaker 3 (47:17):
I literally I would fill up the hydrance myself.

Speaker 9 (47:21):
But would you do that?

Speaker 5 (47:22):
I would do whatever I can, But you're not.

Speaker 15 (47:24):
I see the Do you know there's water drifting over there?
Governor there's water coming out there?

Speaker 2 (47:29):
You can use it.

Speaker 3 (47:30):
I appreciate it.

Speaker 17 (47:31):
I'm going to make the call to address everything I
can right now, including making sure.

Speaker 19 (47:36):
People make sure you can can I have an opportunity
to at least tell people you're doing what you're saying
you're doing.

Speaker 3 (47:42):
He is such a liar.

Speaker 2 (47:45):
I'm literally talking to the president right now.

Speaker 3 (47:48):
No, he wasn't put it on speaker.

Speaker 2 (47:50):
I can't get him. Why I don't have cell service?
Well I don't have cell service. Doesn't sound like I'm
literally talking to the president right now. Those are those
sentences aren't compatible. They're not They're actually the opposite of
each other. Now, the question is Greg, was this a setup?
I mean, I mean, could somebody in his staff had
set this up to make him look kind and that

(48:11):
he does care some people. Now there are some people
out there knowing Newsom gruesome. Newsom never being real with
the American with California residence. Did his staff set this up?
Or do you really think this is a mom who's concerned?
And have you ever faced a confrontational I guess you're
an elected official where someone just comes right after you.
Because she went right after him. Nobody stepped in her

(48:33):
way to get in front of her. If what do
you make her?

Speaker 3 (48:36):
All?

Speaker 2 (48:36):
My promise? So if some staffers thought that was they
were they were scripting that, it didn't make Governor Newsom
look good at all. I mean he gets caught lying.

Speaker 3 (48:44):
He sure did.

Speaker 2 (48:46):
He says, I'm literally talking to the present. He says,
I'm literally talking to the president right now. Put it
on speaker. I can't reach them. Okay. So if that's
a if that's a script or they thought that was
somehow going to make the governor look good, it doesn't.
It makes him look like he is that the truth
is not the important to him. He can say something
that doesn't have any bearing to the truth whatsoever. The

(49:07):
other part is she is a strange verb. She's a
strange combination of being. She's upset, she's blown. She can
tell she's just so stressed. About and understandably so, but
weirdly polite, not yelling. Really, I want to be able
to tell people that you care. I just raw emotion

(49:28):
of that woman. I don't. I don't feel stage say that.
I don't. All right, I think that's a real interaction.
And I look. I think that she comes across as
upset as she should be, and he comes across as
disingenuous as he is.

Speaker 1 (49:42):
All right, Well, when we come back, I want to
get your reaction to what she did. Was she right
in doing so? Sure she was in my opinion. It
is a free country. Was it staged or what? We'll
get your reaction to it. Coming up on The Rod
and Greg Show eight eight eight five seven eight zero
one zero triple eight five seven eight zero one zero for.

Speaker 2 (49:59):
The show The Greatest Listening, on Smartest Listening Audience and
all the Land. What say you? We're talking about a
number of things. We're talking about the debacle, the catastrophe,
the horror and the sadness of Los Angeles and how
it's burning to the ground. We're talking about also a
very you can tell flustered woman that confronts the governor
wanting he says he's on the phone with the president.

(50:21):
She wants to put it on speakerphone. He says, well,
I'm trying to reach him own self. Service. Was that
Was that whole scene meant to draw sympathy for the governor?
Was it staged or was that a real moment? And
if you have an opinion, we'd love to hear from you.
But let's go to the callers. Now, let's go to
Leroy and Layton. Leroy, thank you for holding. Welcome to
the Rod and Greg Show.

Speaker 10 (50:43):
Thank you. How are you guys doing.

Speaker 3 (50:44):
We're doing well, Thanksley Roy.

Speaker 2 (50:47):
Good good.

Speaker 20 (50:48):
Hey.

Speaker 10 (50:48):
I'm a firefighter here in Utah. I've been listening to
this playout in California over the last couple of days
and what Sean and Buck and Clay and you guys
have had to say about it, And you know, I
really feel for the people in California. But I think
a couple of things need to be clarified, And one
in particular was that statement of firefighter made you guys

(51:08):
about how they're never going to stop this thing. H
even with functioning hydrants, they weren't going to stop this thing. Yes, well,
just such extreme fire. The problem started long before, you know,
two days ago when whatever touched it off started it,
and it's bad management of the forestry. You know, you

(51:30):
can look at all those regulations and everything, but I'm
afraid this kettle was said a long time ago.

Speaker 1 (51:35):
Yeah, it's unfortunately. Let me ask the leroy being a firefighter,
how difficult is it a fight a fire like this
where scattered, it's sporadic, it's all over the place, there's
plenty of fuel there. I mean, how difficult of a
task is that for firefighters?

Speaker 10 (51:50):
Well, it's it's super difficult, just even on a regular deployment,
never mind having to deal with the Santa Monica wins.
I mean, that's just unbelievable that they'll carry fire brands
and sparks, you know, a mile away and drop them.
I mean, how do you set up containment lines and
fight against something that you have no idea where it's
going to go or show up, And the last thing

(52:10):
you want to have happen is for you to get
caught in between two starts, especially with all protection.

Speaker 3 (52:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (52:16):
So, Lero, you bring up a good point, and I've
heard versions of this, but I never hear the dots connected,
and I think you're connecting them. So when you talk
about the bad management, even the controlled burns that could
take fuel that and get rid of it so that
it's not going to spread as fast or maybe as
hot water. The reservoirs that we've seen that should have

(52:37):
been filled, that could have maybe at least given them
time or more additional hours. In neighborhoods, the misman I
see it as a mismanagement of their water, mismanagement of
their forest, the lack of funding to the police, to
the fire department in its emergency services. Can you share
with us, just from your expertise, if you had those

(52:59):
things better, does it still just just does it still?
Does the fire still destroy Los Angeles with ninety mile
an hour winds even if you had better management of
your forest and better management of your water.

Speaker 10 (53:11):
Well, let's put it this way. One of the active
positions in any fire department is out of the prevention officer,
the fire marshals, and the inspectors actively fight fire by
preventing it from starting in the first place. And certainly
I've had a lot of my friends that have gone
down there and fought fire come back here and tell
me that there are places where the dead fall is

(53:33):
ten feet deep. Yeah, And ridiculous. You're not going to
stop that. And there are plenty of projects that you
can look at across the nation where they have gone
in and thin the forest floors out, and they do
control burns that just creep along the bottom and they
don't get up into the crown and take off. So
it can be done. It's just wasn't done correctly in California.

Speaker 3 (53:55):
Yeah, certainly not the case. LeRoi. Thank you for weigne in.

Speaker 8 (54:00):
Jeez.

Speaker 1 (54:00):
Yeah, gave some insight into this. All right, back to
the phones, Let's go to Jim and Salt Lake City.
He wants to join the Rodin Greg show tonight. Hi Jim,
how are you hey?

Speaker 4 (54:10):
Rod Greg number one? That guy's insight was tremendous. And yeah,
it's just just an observation that we've heard talked about
for years of how these wackos want to save this
beetle or this bug at the cost of now you
know what ten or fifteen I forgot what the count

(54:30):
stuff too. The tragedy of this is horrible, sad, very sad.
On that note, and and probably directly you're indirectly now
sected what hundreds of thousands of people. Directly you're indirectly.
Oh yes, notwithstanding the human loss. Now the grief caused
by property loss and then sentimental property. It's crazy. On
the other hand, your queer question was about this wacko call. Guys,

(54:54):
this is Hollywood, Greg, I mean r second, though you
bought into the story, Greg, Greg figured it out real quickly.
Let me give you this. But here's how the here's that.
Let's break it down. The human element. The governor is
showing that he's so grief stricken he's willing to misspeak. Well,

(55:16):
I'm talking to him right now. What he means is
he intends to be talking. But here here's this is
very subtle, but it's coy. He's shifting the blane to
the federal government who just can't be reached in this
time of trial. Now, this girl has got two gigs
going on. He's got this polite bs and I'll be
polite there with my language, uh for, because he is

(55:38):
the governor. He's a narcissist idiot.

Speaker 21 (55:41):
And then at the same time.

Speaker 4 (55:42):
She's in she's incensed. Oh, she's incensed. I'll help you
put the water in.

Speaker 8 (55:48):
Let's take it.

Speaker 4 (55:49):
Oh my god.

Speaker 2 (55:55):
So we get the substance, we get to sizzle and
we get to the steak with both of those two.
Let's go to Renee and Draper. Renee, thank you for
holding Welcome to the Rodden Greg Show. What say you
this Friday evening?

Speaker 16 (56:07):
Hi? Hello, guys. Hey, I get to speak from the
woman's side, and I would say that she handled it
nicer than I would have. Definitely was lying right out
the date. I would have called him on it right then.
But but I believe that woman a concerned, good woman,

(56:29):
and I think that actually she was on I think
it was either the Glenn Beckshew, but I think it
was the five. The five They interviewed her today, and
that woman is very concerned and she is a good woman,
and I do believe that that.

Speaker 1 (56:46):
Was the That was real, all right, That wasn't staged.
All right, Renee, thank you, wasn't staged?

Speaker 3 (56:52):
Okay?

Speaker 2 (56:54):
All look as a proof of I want to where
are we at world break?

Speaker 3 (56:59):
And then we'll come with more calls.

Speaker 2 (57:00):
Okay, because I have an observation, mate, But I'll wait
till we come back from that.

Speaker 1 (57:03):
All right, all right, all right, more coming up more
your phone calls here on the Rod and Greg Show
and Utah's Talk Radio one oh five nine can arrest.

Speaker 2 (57:09):
And you've got you because you're a Texas longhornon fan.
We got this game on right now. I'd love if
the listener knows how if they can describe me what
a pass interference is. I would love to know because
I've seen these guys are getting their mits on every
receiver every time the ball's in the air. Anyway, seriously, though,
let's go back to the callers and take your calls.
We're talking about two things. We're talking about the fire
generally but in Los Angeles, But we're also talking about

(57:31):
this moment where this woman that confronts the governor and
they have an exchange. Is that Hollywood? Is that stage
or was that a real moment we want to hear
from you. Let's go to Zane and Ogden. Zane, Zaane,
thank you for holding. Welcome to the Rod and Gregg Show.

Speaker 20 (57:47):
Thanks for having me. I really think that that's just
the best way of talking to an elected official. I mean,
she's not disrespectful, she's asking onest question. She just wants answers.
Inn is a public servant as a recovering public servant?
I mean, isn't that how you would want somebody to
talk to you is respectfully, not yelling at you, not

(58:09):
screaming in your face, just asking for an honest question.

Speaker 2 (58:11):
Absolutely, say it's good. It's a good Uh, it's a
good observation. Because had she started out screaming and yelling
that they it would never have gotten as far as
it did. Yeah, he answered her questions to the point
where when she said put him on speakerphone, he had
to say, uh, I have reception and so but it
was because that conversation can continue, could continue, and I
think the tone was one hundred percent the reason.

Speaker 1 (58:31):
Why were you ever confronted like that in your many campaigns?

Speaker 2 (58:36):
Yeah, I get some people that were angry or confrontation
on all your things, a little bit in town hall
meetings or different things. Oh, if I went to a
UEA conference and spoke all those teachers, I had to
yell at me, and I finally would listen. I tried
so hard to be respectful because I'm a speaker of
the House and I want to you know, it's a
it's a job, and it's there's a responsibility there. But
finally I remember saying when one year, you know, I've

(58:58):
been making teachers mad. My whole life start when I
was sick. So you know, this is water off a
duck's back for me, So get it off your chest
if you have to.

Speaker 1 (59:05):
All right, let's go to Robert in Sandy tonight here
on the rod in greg Shore. Robert, how are you?
Thank you very much for joining us.

Speaker 8 (59:13):
I'm fine, thank you.

Speaker 15 (59:14):
I'm from Colorado Springs and I was there in twenty
twelve when we had fires sweep down into town and
a whole bunch of the whole west side got burned down.
A couple of people died too. And we have the
same situation here. There's a lot of interface between.

Speaker 9 (59:30):
Holmes and Forest Bike.

Speaker 15 (59:32):
In Olympus Cove up in Draper, and I think that's
part of the problem in California, here in Utah, in Colorado, Albuquerque,
New Mexico goes right up against the mountains, and when
you have houses right up against forest, you're asking for this.

Speaker 1 (59:47):
I think, yeah, I would agree with you, Robert. It's
a difficult situation, that is for sure, and got to
be careful of. We've got to be aware of it.

Speaker 2 (59:56):
So one thing he mentions, Draper, I live in Draper.
If you have if one of those fires in the summer,
takes out that hillside. In the spring, the mud slides
and the runoff because you don't have that vegetation absorbing
the water and the rain or anything like that, it
causes real damage to those homes along the bench.

Speaker 1 (01:00:15):
Two things are going to happen, I think, Greg, wait
till the rains arrive and those mudslides in California.

Speaker 2 (01:00:21):
Yeah, that's that's an issue.

Speaker 1 (01:00:23):
And this is an opportunity you and I were talking
about this earlier for Governor Newsom and his green developers
to remake that entire Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:00:32):
They're going to take a single family home lot, they're
going to make it into apartments.

Speaker 3 (01:00:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:00:35):
And the reason why the owner of that lot won't
be that once home is going not going to be
upset is because if you can put three times the
people on that same lot, you get three times the
dollar amount for the value of that land. So we'll
make a lot of money on it. I don't know
if that'll be good enough for them, but they're going
to transform those neighborhoods into something that is not what
you saw before the fires, and not in a good

(01:00:55):
way in my opinion.

Speaker 1 (01:00:55):
No, it won't all right still to come hour number
three of the Rod and Greg Show on this Thank
Rod Greg is Friday. When we come back, we'll talk
with a reporter who's been digging in to what happened
to the water supply there in southern California. That's been
one of the big, big issues. We'll talk about that
also coming up a little bit later on our listen
Back Friday segments. So we invite you to stay with

(01:01:16):
us right here on the Roding Greg Show, and by
the way, by the way, starting on Monday, we're going
to be giving some money away.

Speaker 9 (01:01:23):
Nice.

Speaker 3 (01:01:24):
Yeah, good, I'll give you a thing. You're rich.

Speaker 2 (01:01:26):
I'm so rich, not me personally nice.

Speaker 1 (01:01:29):
These are great listeners out there. We'll give some money away.

Speaker 2 (01:01:32):
Good.

Speaker 3 (01:01:32):
We'll take that, all right.

Speaker 1 (01:01:34):
More coming up it is our number three of the
Rod and Greg Show right here on Utah's Talk Radio
one oh five nine anrs.

Speaker 3 (01:01:48):
All right, we've got another busy hour coming your way.

Speaker 5 (01:01:50):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:01:51):
One of the big issues of this horrible story this
week about the fires burning there in southern California has
been the water issue. Why are the fire hydrants right dry?
Where is all the water that they need to extinguish
these blazes?

Speaker 15 (01:02:04):
Now?

Speaker 1 (01:02:04):
We'll talk about that here in a minute. Also, Donald Trump,
we talked about this earlier, has already said he already
has one hundred executive orders in place ready to sign
the day he is inaugurated. Love it, Yeah, and one
of them deals with electric vehicles. We'll talk about that
a little bit later on our listen Back Friday segments,
we'll talk about what Utah lawmakers are up to when

(01:02:25):
it comes to southern border legislation and DI getting a
lot of attention. But a new study out shows the
damage that DEI policies going to.

Speaker 3 (01:02:36):
Happen on the workplace. Damaging. Yeah, fight surprise.

Speaker 1 (01:02:39):
But let's start off talking about the water situation there
in California, LA. Firefighters face down the most destructive blaze
in the city's history. Then they ran out of water.
And it's a sad story, Greg. I mean, you know,
these firefighters want to help people save their homes, their lives,
and they haven't got any equipment to be able to

(01:02:59):
do so.

Speaker 2 (01:03:00):
And I'm not buying all the arguments that it's so
bad that they just went through all their massive storage
of water that they had ready to go and that
they just ran out because the fire was too big,
there's too much out there's too strong of a story
and evidence out there to say that their reservoirs were empty.
They were not prepared for this in any way. And
it's not like this has been some secret that nobody

(01:03:21):
knew about. This has been talked about openly for a
long time.

Speaker 1 (01:03:23):
Yeah, well, what's behind the story of this corruption and
mismanagement and when it comes to la running out of water?
Joining us on our Newsmaker line right now is Jared Downing.
Jared is a reporter at the New York Post. He's
been looking into this. Jared, thanks for joining us tonight.
What did you find, Jared?

Speaker 18 (01:03:37):
So, this is one of those situations where it's kind
of like an illness that you know you have the illness,
but you only know it because of the symptoms, but
you don't really know what the underlying cause is. So
we know that a lot of stuff went wrong when
these fires broke out. We know that there wasn't enough
water when there should have been enough water, and nobody
knows exactly why right now. So what happened was these

(01:04:04):
three at the time fires broke out. Now there's a
lot more they're starting to be contained, but when when
things got really bad, firefighters just sort of ran out
of water in the fire hydrants. Fire hydrants suddenly lost
water pressure and they, you know, firefighters couldn't properly contain
the blazes. And that seems to not have been what

(01:04:29):
should have happened. So when that was happening, a former
commissioner of the Water and Fire Department of Los Angeles,
a guy named Rick Caruso, came out and said that
there should have been fail safe and you know in place,
there should have been protocols backup water reserves. It just
never should have happened. And so I started looking into this,

(01:04:49):
and you know, found a whole history of mismanagement and
corruption in the Water and Power Department of the City
of Los Angeles and a lot of excuse me. Basically,
the problem seems to have two parts, ones with a
fire department and ones with a water department. When it
comes to the fire department, Mayor Karen Bass of LA

(01:05:14):
had cut funding to the fire department by almost eighteen
million dollars and that wasn't good. But at the same time,
the department, the bureau of the Fire Department, the Fire
Prevention Bureau, which was responsible for taking measures to permit
this sort of thing happening. Has a long history of corruption,

(01:05:37):
of mismanagement, of not doing proper inspections, of falsifying inspections.
And then on the other side of the equation, you've
got the water department, and that has its own set
of scandals. Two out of the last three general managers
of the water department have resigned in disgrace. One of
them was caught taking bribes and got jail time. One

(01:05:58):
of them just sort of bungled forty million dollars in
public funds and was you know, I guess asked to resign.
And then the previous water commissioner was fired after less
than a year on the job. So again, no one's
quite sure exactly what happened this week with the fires,

(01:06:21):
but there's just a lot of stuff that went wrong,
and then a lot of history of recent problems with
both of these departments.

Speaker 2 (01:06:29):
So, Jared, I have a question. So there is just
such and you point this out in your article, but
there is such a body of evidence of mismanagement of inaction.
You've got any you've you've pointed out that the Los
Angeles cut seventeen point six million dollars from the Los
Angeles Fire Department. I've actually looked at the memo that
that warned that their ability for ems and for catastrophic

(01:06:49):
fires would be absolutely undercut by these by their their
funding cuts. You have reservoirs that were never built but
funded or passed by ballot ten years ago. You've got
but you have all of that, and you have people
that have been warning about this for some time. But
then Karen baskets up and she says, just so you know,
none of those cuts had anything to do with our

(01:07:11):
ability to respond to this fire. It's high winds, it's
circumstances beyond our control. I guess my question is, with
all that we know, all the mismanagement forestry, water, fire Department,
the city, but what they're just not ah answer that
it's not their fault. Will the people of California, or
will the people generally of southern California, Will they understand

(01:07:36):
that they've been led astray? Is there going to be
a consequence for what we're seeing politically in California, for
the wreck that is this situation?

Speaker 4 (01:07:45):
Oh?

Speaker 18 (01:07:46):
Yeah, absolutely, I mean this is this is really really bad,
like these fires. You know, I don't mean to be
cynical here, but in terms of, you know, Karen Bass's
political image, this could not have come at.

Speaker 3 (01:07:56):
A worse time.

Speaker 18 (01:07:57):
Los Angeles experience is experiencing president and crime wave. You know,
you have.

Speaker 3 (01:08:04):
The people of Los Angeles, the voters of Los Angeles.

Speaker 18 (01:08:07):
Are pushing back against a lot of you know, soft
on crime policies, a lot of other progressive policies that
haven't seemed to work. She's been under a lot of pressure,
her district attorney has been under a lot of pressure,
and they've just been, you know, on the back foot politically,
and then this happens, and suddenly it comes out that
she defunded the fire department right before the worst fire

(01:08:30):
event in the city's history. Now, I should say that
that that there is something to the argument that the
seventeen point six million dollars that were cut from the
fire department that might not have been the like catastrophic,
Like she didn't gut the fire department.

Speaker 4 (01:08:48):
Right that said, I.

Speaker 18 (01:08:50):
Think it sort of punctuates several years of mismanagement and
in action that they really should have taken to prevent this.
Because you couldn't have predicted what happened this week.

Speaker 3 (01:09:05):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, but yeah.

Speaker 18 (01:09:08):
In twenty twenty one, Like yeah, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
I'm just going to say, like in twenty one, he
had another fire in the Palisades that was also really,
really bad, and at the time, officials an experts warned
that it could happen and they really need to get
a handle on this, and they didn't, and then it
happened again.

Speaker 2 (01:09:23):
So this corruption does that contribute to? They seem so
flat footed. I actually I get your point. I actually
agree too that what do you do about ninety millli
an hour wins? People were predicting catastrophic consequences at forty
mili an hour wins. So I get some of these
things that are beyond a city's control. But in terms
of preparation, when you see a former a candidate for mayor,

(01:09:45):
Rick Caruso, who's able to actually save his own property
having been president of the water board and talk about
the mismanagement that's gone on from his front row seat,
and then you talk about this corruption, there has to
be a way to draw a line from the lack
of leadership the even worse corruption going on, and then
what we're seeing happening to these communities. So there has

(01:10:06):
to be. It can't They can't all be the wind's fault,
as I guess I'm asking, it can't be just the
wind in the ambers by themselves that bade.

Speaker 11 (01:10:13):
This, right.

Speaker 18 (01:10:14):
I guess what happens is when you have you know,
when the water Department, the Water and Powered Department of
Los Angeles and the Fire Department have both been mired
and scandal for years, and critically the fire department has
like the scandals with the Fire Department have been with
the Fire Prevention Bureau, the arm of the Fire department
that is responsible for preventing, you know, clearing brush, preventing

(01:10:40):
these things like this happening, right. And I understand that
they've been struggling with that and trying solutions and you know,
firing problematic officials and blah blah blah blah. But at
some point, you know, you're, you're, you're you're just sort
of biding your time until something happens in it all
flows up. And that's what we're seeing it happen this week,

(01:11:02):
is that you know, their their luck ran out.

Speaker 1 (01:11:05):
Jared Downing with The New York Post talking about corruption
and mismanagement when it comes to water in Los Angeles,
all right, more coming up on the Rod and Greg
Show and Utah's Talk rid he one oh five nine
can arrests. I mean, a what a crazy football weekend.

Speaker 2 (01:11:19):
I'm dreading tomorrow's Steelers. I am dreading it. It's just
it's a stick to beat myself with right now. It
really is, I really do it. I can't not watch either.
I'll be watching every second of it.

Speaker 1 (01:11:29):
But I'm just dreading it watching TV watching eight Steelers
game with Greg Hughes as a treat because you can't
you can't interrupt him and he goes crazy on every
play because I've seen him do it.

Speaker 2 (01:11:40):
I mover, I die, don't stay still, Yeah, I move,
And it's just it's just, it's just, it's just it's
been tough. It's been it's been a rough ride these
last five weeks, four weeks, whatever. It's been like an eternity.

Speaker 3 (01:11:50):
Be a cowboy fan.

Speaker 1 (01:11:51):
All right, let's continue with the show right now. Donald
Trump says he has one hundred executive orders ready to
sign the day he takes office. He's got a lot
of work to do, Greg, but one of them is
the issue of electric vehicles.

Speaker 2 (01:12:06):
One of many, and the ones these are really important.
We got to get out of this insanity that we've
been stuck in and mired in for four years, at
least the last four years, So that's really good news.

Speaker 1 (01:12:16):
Well, joining us on our newsmaker line right now is
Kenny Stein. Ken is the vice president of policy at
the Institute for Energy Research. Ken, thanks for joining us
this evening on the Rod and Greg Show. Let me
ask you, how confident are you that when President Trump
is inaugurated and start signing some of these executive orders,
that electric vehicle orders will be among the ones that

(01:12:38):
he signs.

Speaker 8 (01:12:39):
Oh, I think that he's definitely going to go after.
There's several regulations of working together create an effective electric
vehicle mandate, and President Trump and folks in his administration
have made very clear that they are going to be
targeting that for replacement basically. Now, how fast it happens,
that's an open question because several of these regulations have

(01:13:01):
to go through there's a notice of comment period, and
you have to create a new replacement regulation. So it
could be you know, a year or two before all
of those regulations get fixed and replace. But there's certainly
some things that can happen that can happen quickly. There's
other things that Congress might have to do, such as
the tax credits for electric vehicles. That's something Congress created,

(01:13:22):
so Congress would have to reveal that. But there's definitely
there's definitely change a foot. Let's put it that way.

Speaker 2 (01:13:28):
Let me ask you this. Sadly, Los Angeles and southern California,
and California is a state. They're just conducting a workshop
on how not to run a state, how not to
be a leader in any capacity. But they have some
crazy state mandates related to electric vehicles. I don't know
if it's twenty thirty or twenty thirty five, where they're
simply not allowed to sell anything but electric vehicles that
are new. Does a federal government have any hand in that?

(01:13:52):
I mean, how do you deal with California, I guess
is my question.

Speaker 8 (01:13:56):
Well, California is actually a huge problem in this whole
vehicle space because and he said, they have sought to
ban internal combustion Indian vehicles, but in order to do that,
they have to get a waiver from the federal government
to approve that. And the Biden administration just granted, in
its waning days here has just granted that waiver that

(01:14:17):
allows them to do that. But here's the thing that's
so pernicious is that the federal government, the EPA, could
not ban internal congestion vehicles, that is that they don't
have the power to do that, but they do this
through the back door where California doesn't ban that. All
automakers feel like they have to comply with because there's
such a big market and some states follow their regulations,

(01:14:38):
So the federal government lets California do it even though
they couldn't do it themselves. So that's actually that's a
huge component of what I called an effective electric vehicle mandate,
is that is sort of having California being out here
on the wing going crazy doing things that the federal
government isn't even legally allowed to do. So it is
a huge problem. And that's this California waiver issue is

(01:15:02):
actually one of the major things that the Trump administration
of the future Trump administration has already talked about addressing it,
taking back some of these waivers and not forcing the
rest of the country to comply with whatever crazy environmental
regulations California wants to make up.

Speaker 2 (01:15:18):
Can you tell me that it doesn't need Congress and
Trump can just say, kings X, psych we were just kidding.
You have no California. You can't do it. Can it
be that fast? Just say yes please?

Speaker 8 (01:15:29):
Well, he can certainly say that there's going to be
litigation determining you know what, what happens after that, But
the waiver itself, yes, he can absolutely can institute rulemaking
pretty much on day weren't withdrawing that waiver. Again, it's
going to be a couple of years before there's before
the courts sorted out. There's actually current there's current litigation

(01:15:51):
already that has been working its way up to the
Supreme Court challenging previous instances of the waivers being granted
to California. So, frankly, the count I would argue that
the California being able to make up its own rules
that no other stands allowed to that's frankly unconstitutional, and
the Supreme Court may eventually come down on that point.

(01:16:14):
But you certainly can be in the process of provoking
those waivers pretty much day one.

Speaker 1 (01:16:20):
Kenny, let me ask you this, with these fires burning
in southern California, have you heard any horror stories coming out?
I mean, I've been in parts of California where basically
all you see are ev so you know, you feel
bad if you're driving a regular vehicle. Have you heard
any horror stories coming out of California yet where people
can't find charging stations, there's no power at the charging stations.

(01:16:41):
Have you heard anything coming out of California?

Speaker 8 (01:16:44):
So I haven't heard that yet, but I would expect
those kinds of stories to suddenly pop up, because if
you recall it, I forget. It was last year the
year before when they were having fire issues and they
were having electricity supply issues. An edict went out around
the state, can not charge your electric vehicles because of
wildfire risk. But of course, if there's a wildfire coming,

(01:17:06):
you need to get out, and if you can't charge
your electric vehicle, how do you escape the fire. So
that's actually one of the great benefits of sort of
the redundancy of having an electrical system but also having
a liquid fuel system based on oil, so that your
transportation isn't dependent on power that can get knocked out
by a fire or an earthquake or a hurricane or

(01:17:28):
what have you. You still have that backup. You can
have fuel in the tank to get out.

Speaker 2 (01:17:33):
So if you were the California is worried about particulates
in the air, how about no wildfires and just let
people have their automobiles with gas in it. I think
they just erased any environmental goal they had here in
the last week. Is do you think that in a
serious way, will that ever become part of the conversation
that these environmental goals actually have the opposite effect. And

(01:17:55):
it's not just the evs that don't work in extreme
temperatures or if they can on fire, if the power
goes out and you can't have a you're not supposed
to use them, but you're supposed to evacuate. But just
if you look at just even the management of the
state of California, it just seems to be, as I said,
an example of what not to do. So as they
keep arguing for their environmental stewardship for having evs, does

(01:18:19):
these does this catastrophe latest one in southern California? Does
this really kind of put this to bed that that
you know, these might be good intentions, but they're really
just a waste of everybody's resources and probably something that's
bad that we're going to end up living through.

Speaker 8 (01:18:35):
Well, it's it's absolutely true that a number of of
the regulations and moves that are pushed by environmental groups
actually end up being ultimately are actually harmful. And in
this specific case, the what they should have been doing
for years now in California has more prescribed burns.

Speaker 10 (01:18:52):
And more clearing of brush.

Speaker 8 (01:18:54):
In order to reduce the fuel load that was available
when when the fire comes. But environmental groups like the
Fire Club aggressively sue to stop any sort of clearing
of underbrusher. They basically don't want you know, these these
park areas and these nature reserves all through the Hollywood
Hills and everything. They don't want them touched at all.

(01:19:15):
But of course that just means that there the fuel
builds up until finally you get a catastrophic fire like this.
It's basically there's this idea that you can't manage land,
you must let it lie fallow. But that's that that
is actually dangerous to humans ultimately, because you get you
get these massive fires like this, and and then in

(01:19:35):
southern California there are going to be fires. In the
geological record, this has been as far back as we go,
hundreds of thousands of years. There's fires regularly in these
dry desert climates, so you can't stop fires from happening.
You have to prepare for them. But part of the
environmental ideology is and it doesn't allow preparation for these
entirely predictable events.

Speaker 1 (01:19:56):
On our Newsbaker Line Kenny Stein, vice president of Public
Paul at the Institute for Energy Research. So I came
about electric vehicle mandates. Got to do away with them, Greg,
I mean, if people want to buy an EV, fine,
but don't force us to.

Speaker 2 (01:20:09):
It's exactly right. I mean when those cars, I think
they're just really elaborate golf carts, and I think golf
carts are great. So if people want them and they
are dependable, let the market drive those decisions, not Biden
and these leftist democrats. No, thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:20:23):
All right, coming up on our Listen Back Friday segments,
we'll talk about immigration and a new study out on
DEI and the impact it has on the workplace. That's
all coming up on The Rotten Greg Show and Utah's
Talk Radio one oh five nine KNRS. A little bit
more than a week away now from heading to the
Utah Capitol and to begin the twenty twenty five session.

(01:20:43):
I know you're deeply immerged in this. Already a lot
going on there. Greg, They're going to talk about funding
for higher education. That's going to be interesting to watch.
You had to comment, I have a.

Speaker 2 (01:20:52):
Smirk on my face because and you can't see this,
ladies and gentlemen, but I'm laughing because you know this
DEI and having guys in the women's being a dorm mother,
ra whatever. I think there's this is where the legislature
has us these institutions I hire learning, They're full attention,
and I think there's going to be some incredible discussions

(01:21:12):
they're going to go on about some of these decisions
that have been made as of late.

Speaker 4 (01:21:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:21:16):
Well, another key issue, not only for President Trump and
his incoming administration is the southern border and there are
a lot of bills up there, and they announced a
series of bills this week members of the Utah House,
and we had a chance as part of our Listen
Back Friday segment. Now we want to let you listen
an interview we did with state Representative Carrie Anne Lissenby
talking about the proposed solutions to the southern border and

(01:21:39):
what's going on there. And as we began our conversation,
I asked Carrie Inn. First of all, how important are
the immigration issues for lawmakers when they meet coming up
on January twenty First, we have seen.

Speaker 21 (01:21:51):
And Rod, that's a great question. I've been working on
this issue for over a year now, and likewise, many
members in our body have been as well. So our
members of our communities are seeing huge impacts with the
South of the border crisis, the number of people who
have come here and the costs, the impacts to schools,

(01:22:15):
the impact to our criminal justice system in especially in
Salt Lake County where we have the vast majority of
individuals residing who are here illegally, and so it has
been a huge issue that I've heard from constituencies and
many of our members have as well over the last year.

Speaker 2 (01:22:36):
Representative, it makes all the sense in the world that
you would be that you would be spearheading this year
the majority whip. I was a majority whip. This is
the place, this is the leadership spot to to really
rally the body. You're spotting the things that there are
issues out there. I've worked with the sheriffs before. I
know that you've always been a strong voice on public
safety and fighting lawlessness. We've said a long time that

(01:22:59):
this is a law. What happened at the border under
the bid administration, what you're seeing today, it's going to
get worse before it ever gets better. Maybe you could
share with our listeners what are some of the examples
of things you're seeing because of that non border security
and what's been happening by way of drug cartails everything else.
What are we seeing in Utah that you feel pretty
adamant has to be addressed right now, not later.

Speaker 21 (01:23:21):
Right well, and you heard Jeff Anderson, Commissioner Anderson of
the Department of Public Safety speak about the drug cartels
and the drug trafficking that's happening in Utah, and he
mentioned tangentially, but I'll just say specifically because this case
was one in Utah where an individual was dealing drugs.

(01:23:43):
He was pulled over and stopped with thousands of sentinel pills.
He had already been deported five times back across the
border and come back to continue to harass and threaten
our communities. So we've been working with ICE and working

(01:24:04):
with our federal partners also to share us our local
law enforcement, our mayors, our county mayors, and county commissions.
This has been a process and the Governor's office throughout
the year in trying to really put our finger on
the cost to Utah, and it is extensive. We don't
even know. We haven't until five six months ago. We

(01:24:29):
don't even have numbers for exactly how many people are here,
and even those numbers I think are grossly underestimated.

Speaker 1 (01:24:37):
Representative one of the bills that was talked about that
got my attention was the bill I think it was
with Representative Wilcox on drivers and unlicensed drivers that we
have in the state right now. We're here illegally driving
without a license whatsoever, and the number of accidents that
are taking place involving those people. I thought he mentioned
this figure may be much higher than I had heard,

(01:24:58):
But like fifty percent of the vehicle accidents in West
Valley City are involving people without a driver's license. I mean,
that's an amazing number, it.

Speaker 21 (01:25:08):
Is, and that's correct, and we're seeing it across jurisdictions.
I've checked in even with my constituencies, my police chiefs
up in my area, and they're seeing similar trends. The
number of traffic stops, even of unlicensed drivers who are
driving on our streets who can't read our signage. In fact,
I talked with one law enforcement officer who was doing

(01:25:29):
a he was parolling a school crosswalks stop and he
stopped ten people that day. Seven of them did not
speak English and could not read the signage and had
no idea that they were speeding through a school crossing.

Speaker 3 (01:25:47):
Wow, that's frightening.

Speaker 2 (01:25:49):
So give us. You know, nothing's always the way it
seems before you get into the session. Once the session starts,
things always tend to have a you know, a mind
of itself in terms of stakeholders, constituents contacting lawmakers. So
you've got to reserve that process to take place. But
what do you predict by way of accomplishments in this

(01:26:11):
session in regards to illegal immigration and lawlessness and some
of the impacts that we're feeling here in Utah. What
do you think what are we going to get from
the session.

Speaker 21 (01:26:22):
Well, I think A big thing that I'm working on
that is related directly, and it's another one of the
dominoes that follows as we start to work on this
is jail capacity. And that's an important one because Salt
Lake County the jail bond failed, but they had overcrowding
releases at almost a third of their total incarcerations last year.

(01:26:44):
It's clearly a problem that crime on the streets is
a huge issue in the largest, most populated county in
our state, and so we definitely want to tackle that,
and this package of bills is trying to get up
that as well, but making sure that we increased capacity
that we can hold these people accountable and keep dangerous
individuals off of the streets.

Speaker 1 (01:27:06):
Representative lizenby the fact that Donald Trump, as he becomes president,
has said immigration and illegal immigration is one of his
top priorities, if not the top priority. Apparently he has
a package of bills ready to move forwards soon as
he takes over on January twentieth. The fact that he
is making this a national issue, does it also help
people here in the state keep this front and center

(01:27:27):
to their attention and allowing you to get the things
done that you want to do in the legislature.

Speaker 21 (01:27:33):
Yeah, that's a great question. I do think it does
help us. I do think too that it's responsive to
what's been going on for a long time in the
minds of the American people. When you look at the
polling nationally and in the state of Utah, the vast
majority of Republicans and Democrats support responding to this illegal
immigration through criminal penalties type response. And so it's really

(01:27:58):
important that we're addressing these issues because they're being seen
by all of the people. You know, sometimes we are
a little bit disconnected from our constituencies and maybe don't
understand what's happening on the streets. This is something we
have heard, like I said, for over a year, that
our people are seeing it, and I think Trump is
responding to that as well at the national level, and

(01:28:20):
the polling certainly bears that out.

Speaker 1 (01:28:22):
On our lists. Back Friday Segment, Representative Carrie and listen.
I like Harry and I think he's great. He's a
hard working lawmaker.

Speaker 2 (01:28:28):
I can tell you if folks, she does tackle the
hard and heavy issues. She's not looking at the at
the political pageantry. She's taken on the tough stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:28:36):
Going to be interesting. Just see what they do on immigration.
More coming up right here on the Rod and Greg
Show and Utah's Talk Radio one oh five nine, can
arrests you.

Speaker 3 (01:28:45):
Stay up all night? And Why She's Nutty shows.

Speaker 2 (01:28:48):
It's a Friday. I think I think your brain already
started the weekend.

Speaker 3 (01:28:52):
You know, I'm watching that Texas game right now.

Speaker 2 (01:28:54):
I know, with your shirt on, look at your burnt.

Speaker 9 (01:28:57):
Orange rod, and I like to party.

Speaker 1 (01:29:01):
Yeah, i'd see I'm getting ready to party this week.

Speaker 3 (01:29:03):
You think it would be one of the issues.

Speaker 1 (01:29:05):
You know, A big story earlier this week was the
announcement by Zuckerberg on Meta and what they're going to do,
and you know they get ready to fact checkers. He
also announced today they're eliminating all their DEI policies at Meta.

Speaker 2 (01:29:18):
Good about time, About time and with the common sense crowd,
yeah please.

Speaker 1 (01:29:23):
Well, as part of our Listen Back Friday segments, there
was a new study out that was released this week
about the impact that DEI is having on universities, institutions,
places of work all around the country. We had a
chance to talk with Valerie Richardson, she is a reporter
at the Washington Times, about that and about what this
study says about DEI in the workplace.

Speaker 19 (01:29:44):
Yes, this is a very interesting study that came out
of the Network Contagion Research Institute, which is a group
that examines ideologically motivated pronouncements on social media and they
work with universities including Rutgers and Princeton, and they did
a they didn't study, and they asked people to read essays,
one of which was drawn from DEI materials and the

(01:30:05):
other which was on us corn production. And then they
tested them afterward on a number of statements, and they
found out that the people who had been reading about
DEI were apparently much more hostile and forward in a
number of groups. They apparently they apparently were more much
more likely to agree that certain instances were motivated by bias.

(01:30:31):
They were they were more likely to include that people
of color were being discriminated against. And they also said
that they were also more willing to punish the people
that they saw as you know, being guilty of these
things like being punitive, saying that they should be fired
or investigated. So the network group could concluded that, you know,

(01:30:54):
not only did DEI not you know, sort of help
them promote racial understanding, it actually worked with oppositely, it
made them more aggressive and hostile toward people.

Speaker 4 (01:31:03):
You know, I love it.

Speaker 2 (01:31:04):
I love the way your article starts and it just says,
it's just actually just a conclusion that you find from
the study and you've just shared it, but accusing people
of being racists and oppressors may not be a recipe
for interpersonal harmony.

Speaker 3 (01:31:17):
Who knew?

Speaker 2 (01:31:18):
Okay, so my question, my question is, and I've had
this discussion with a lot of people for a very
long time. I've grown up with friends of different race,
color creeds. I find it incredibly condescending and really inappropriate
to tell someone if you want to understand people that
aren't like you, go read a book. I mean, it
sounds like you're going to, you know, go look at

(01:31:40):
an aquarium and look at the fish that swim around
so you can understand. How about get some new friends?
How about how about expand your your your your circle
of friends to include people who don't look exactly like you.
If you're worried about this, I mean, am I wrong?
I haven't done a study. Princeton doesn't listen, you know,
Harvard doesn't listen to what I say. But don't you
think the interpersonal harmony comes from the different people you

(01:32:01):
know and meet in different circumstances, and not books you
read or essays to tell you how bad you are
or how oppressed you are.

Speaker 19 (01:32:09):
You know, I think you make a really good point,
because you know, let's face it, DEI is all about
basically telling people that you know, white people in particular,
that they're racist and that they have to they have to,
you know, dribble over all these hurdles to prove that
they're not racist. But the assumption is you're racist, and
you've got to, you know, take these steps if you're
going to be considered a non racist. And yeah, and

(01:32:31):
I think a lot of people feel like, you know,
you're judging me before you've even met me. How do
you know what I'm like? And yeah, it's uh, you know,
it could be argued that that strategy is, you know,
basically a way of sort of pushing racial hostility. Because
racial hostility, let's face it itself. I mean a lot
of books have been sold pushing the DEI theories.

Speaker 1 (01:32:52):
Well, and Valerie, I mean, we've spent what I think
you point out in your article eight billion dollars on
diversity programs in this country. Imagine the number is much
higher than that. But is this the first study out
there that has really delved into the impact this is having.
I'm not aware of any other study like this, Valerie,
are you?

Speaker 19 (01:33:11):
I think it's groundbreaking. I haven't seen anything that has
done what they've tried to do. They were saying that
they oftentimes people look at these studies and they sort
of they sort of look at it from the opposite direction.
But what they've done is said, you know, look, let's
put you through the you know, the quote training and
see what reaction it has on you. And they they
were really surprised at what they found, and they said,
you know, we obviously need to do more studies to

(01:33:32):
see exactly what's happening in the workplace with people who
undergo DEI training, because the fear is that it's a
creating hoscility and because of the whole punitive nature of
the reaction from the people in the study. The concern
is also that people are getting fired, demoted, I mean,
who knows, not hired because of you know dee I've
used because people are sort of automatically judging them based

(01:33:54):
on their appearance and not not their characteristics, their character
than any of those So and they are following up
that this this particular group is going to follow up
on this. What was also interesting about the study is
that they apparently, according to the studies authors, they spoke
with both The New York Times and Bloomberg before they
released the study, and uh, they said the reporters were

(01:34:16):
interested in writing about it, but once the conclusions came
out that they didn't. They probably have not run studies
on those. So yeah, you know, they're not going to
say we know, we're not going to conclude their bias
or anything. People, you know, reporters and publications don't you know,
run every story. But certainly this, like the conclusions from
the study, would you know, move in the opposite direction

(01:34:36):
of sort of the you know, the woke thinking of
you know, a lot of a lot of publications and
media establishments. So so yeah, you can you can draw
your own conclusions from that.

Speaker 2 (01:34:47):
So let me ask you as you've read the study,
And this is actually an honest question because maybe there
is a consistency to this, but is DEI the efforts
to educate diversity equity inclusion? Is it consistent with the
saying that we've learned over in our history books and
everything else of judging people by the content of their
character and not the color of their skin? Is there
are they or can these sentiments not live in the

(01:35:09):
same universe? Does DEI? Is there any consistency with DEI
and judging people by the content of their character, not
the color of their skin.

Speaker 19 (01:35:17):
You know, I think I think they actually work at
cross purposes because DEI assumes from the get go that
based on you know, who you are, how you were born,
you know, what you look like, that you know, if
you're white, you're automatically a racist. And the only way
you can sort of overcome that is to undergo apparently
rigorous DEI training, and even then there's no guarantee. You're

(01:35:39):
sort of guilty until proven innocent. On the other side,
you know, the sentiments you expressed that were especially Martin
Luther King are you know everybody is you know, innocent
until proven guilty. You know, people should be judged on
how they act and the way they behave before you
just automatically assume that they're not a good person or
their inferior in some way. So I do think they

(01:35:59):
work cross purposes, and I think that that that's probably
one reason why you know, DEI, I mean, even despite
it's an eight billion dollars a year industry, and we
have seen recently that the Biden administration has spent a
billion dollars to promote DEI programs through the Education Department,
through the Justice Department, over four years, they spend one
hundred million dollars and these are in the form of

(01:36:20):
grants to basically the schools to try to promote DEI thinking.
And yet I think a lot of Americans recoil from
it because their automatic assumption is, no, I judge you
by the content of your character. I judge you by
you know, what you say and do, and not what
you look like. And it's it's Dee is trying to
sort of, you know, push back against that, and I

(01:36:41):
think I don't think a lot of Americans buy it
because that's almost ingrained in who we are.

Speaker 1 (01:36:45):
As part of our list back Fighting segment or interview
with Washington Times reporter Value Richardson about DEI in the workplace, right,
a lot of yeah, yeah, ready for a lot of football.

Speaker 2 (01:36:56):
Well yeah, I am, I am.

Speaker 1 (01:36:58):
But you know, I don't want to talk to you
this weekend because if the Steelers lose, you'll just.

Speaker 2 (01:37:01):
Be well, you know, I only get your texts. You
only text me when I'm losing. I don't actually I
don't actually hear atta boy. I only get to because
you're so much fun.

Speaker 3 (01:37:11):
You're so much.

Speaker 2 (01:37:12):
Stinks, You're so much so it's like I don't need
that at that moment.

Speaker 9 (01:37:15):
I don't need you, and you are one pathetic loser.

Speaker 3 (01:37:21):
It's a loser, all right.

Speaker 1 (01:37:22):
That does done for us tonight, as we say each
and every night here on the rodden Gregg Show, head up,
shoulders back, mate, God bless you and your family. Have
a great, great weekend everybody. We'll be back on Monday,
even even if Hughes is just depressed.

Speaker 3 (01:37:36):
Well, we'll be back. I'll be back, yeah, we hope.
So see you Monday

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