Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning, back on Dragon. Are we taking any bets
on whether Biden falls asleep at Jimmy Carter's funeral today?
Only eleven more days? Biden is such an embarrassment to
our nation and absolutely the worst president ever.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
As someone who lived through the Carter years, I have
to agree with you. I thought Jimmy Carter was, you know,
God rest his soul, obviously an incredibly decent human being,
but an absolute incompetent president. And many people have tried
to say that, you know, circumstances beyond his control. That's
(00:40):
I never buy that argument, because the president has unlimited
resources to deal with any crisis that comes across the
resolute desk in the Oval Office. And while a president's personality,
(01:02):
uh their intellect, everything goes into their decision making process,
they can improve that, and they can, and they can.
They can fortify against their weaknesses by using staff and
resources that most CEOs don't have available to them. So yes,
(01:24):
but I do believe that Biden is the worst president
in my lifetime and perhaps in the history of the nation.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Both of you are just straight up wrong. Nancy Pelosi
has said that Biden deserves to be on Mount Rushmore. Oh,
can't be the worst president of all time and be
on Mount Rushmore.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
You know what, that's why you're the producer, and I'm
just a stupid talent. I forgot about that, and so
just erase that from the tape and we just won't.
We won't put that in for the CBA Awards. We'll
just you know, we'll just move on. We'll not not
worry about that. So I got I started getting phone
calls and text messages actually during the show yesterday, but
(02:03):
then it kind of blew up yesterday afternoon, so I've
got a sport code in here. I got to do
a bunch of TV interviews and stuff. So it forced
me to really start focusing on the Los Angeles fires
and all the subtexts that are going on with them.
(02:24):
And that's one of the things that I want to
do this morning. I don't necessarily want to talk about
the fires themselves, because you can turn on a cable
channel and you can see the visuals and you can
hear about people suffering and evacuations, and you can see
the visuals and everything else. But there are a lot
(02:45):
of subtexts that have to do with this country's misplaced priorities.
With our focus on things over which we really have
no control and the unaccountability of elected officials, that is
(03:05):
just mind boggling to me. Now, before I get into that,
I well, let me say this. One of the things
that bugs me is, you know the and you'll hear
it later in the program, Gavin Newsom, because Donald Trump,
(03:29):
President Trump came out and said something yesterday which I'll
play for you later about you know, there was this
so called either a memo or some sort of It
wasn't it wasn't a presidential executive order, but some document
that Gavin Newsom claims does not exist, in which Trump
(03:51):
was trying to get them to start waving, or he
was actually waiving some regulations with regard to the endangered
species in order to get more water out of northern
California in Southern California and Gavin Newsom, they all got
into a tip for tat, and Newsom made a statement
(04:13):
that it's so typical of Donald Trump to politicize this
disaster while it's unfolding. And when I heard Newsom say that,
my jaw dropped, because if anybody knows about disasters being
politicized while you're in the middle of the disaster. That
(04:36):
would be me. Every disaster is politicized. Every disaster involves
at least the following one governor, two US senators, at
least one congressman, at least one mayor, at least one
(04:57):
city councilman, at least one county commiss And then you
have the unelected to people like a city manager or
a fire chief, or then you've got you know, the
under Secretary of Homeland Security. You have all of these
unelected officials, and all of that is, all of that
(05:18):
business is conducted knowing that it's done in a political sphere.
So for Gavin Newsom to come out and accuse Donald
Trump of politicizing it, look in the mirror, Governor. Now,
I know you weren't governor during Katrina, but nonetheless, we
have a history of politicizing disasters. Now, sometimes I think
(05:44):
that politicization is spot on. Sometimes I think it's wrong,
and sometimes I think the cabal gets it absolutely wrong.
Other times they're absolutely correct. But that's just kind of
a baseline where my head is that today. Well, let's
go back to Alexis comment about Biden being the worst
(06:08):
president ever. So Biden's out in California and he is,
and I will tell you this, there are there are
conflicting reports about his trip interfering with flights, you know
flight you know, the the tanker flights, helicopters, rescue operations,
(06:35):
whatever going on. If he was anywhere near these fires
within one hundred mile radius, now I'll say a fifty
mile radius, he indeed interfered with flight operations because the
Secret Service and cooperation with the FAA put eight puts
(06:58):
in temporary flight restricts so that Air Force one and
Marine one can land and move about. I know that
for a fact, because Bush was adamant with me as
we were going along the Gulf coast that he not
fly anywhere so as not to interrupt any of the
(07:19):
operations that were ongoing. And I looked at him and
I wanted to say, but I didn't. I wanted to
say to him, sir, you understand that no matter where
you go, there will be flight restrictions. So before we
before we took off, I I called Ralph Basham, the
director of the Secret Service at the time, and said,
(07:41):
you know, here's here's here's where he's going. I mean,
Ralph obviously had gotten briefed anew but I said, here,
here's where we're going, Here's what I have going on
in those areas. Is there any way that we can,
you know, take Marine one and use this path and
let him see what he needs to see without interrupting
(08:02):
flight operations either above or blow us and without any reservations.
Ralph answer was no, it's not, Michael, It's just not
going to happen. Okay. I just wanted to know. I
need to let my people know. So it just happens,
and I think rightfully so, which is why presidents should
(08:22):
not go to a disaster while it is ongoing. The
White House was always really good with me about asking
when would be an appropriate time for us to calm
down to wherever it is, and I would sit with
the staff and we would look at the whole operational
(08:44):
schematic of everything that's going on and figure out when
and if there might be a place that Potus could
come down so that he could make the appearance and
show the nation that you know, he cares and he's
the consoler and even do all of that, and we
would work around. There would be times when the White
House would be adamant, we want to come down now,
(09:06):
you know, because there's there's so much news coverage. We
want to come down now. You see it. It's political.
It is political, So I say that to swerve into this.
So this is from Fox News. Biden's being briefed on
the California wildfires, just letting it well and I want
(09:55):
you to hear this, and he returns to his right.
Speaker 4 (10:12):
So the president has been briefed, listening to see if
we can pick up any questions there.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
You're not going to hear anything. So in the middle
of this almost catastrophic disaster taking place, it's a horrendous disaster.
After or during the briefing, Biden announces that he's become
a great grandfather, and Gavin K. Newsome kind of looks
(10:40):
at him and kind of just kind of does this
awkward clapping. And then when they realize, when the reporters,
when the cabal realizes that, well that's the end of
the briefing. Then they start just jamming in with questions
and he doesn't answer a single question, not one single question.
(11:00):
So here is a situation where the commander in chief
flies into the middle that this was the briefing took
place in Santa Monica, So it's in the heart it's
in the heart of this disaster. And during the briefing,
at the close of the briefing, which is generally two
there's two levels to the briefing. There's a briefing that
(11:22):
takes place outside the view of the public and the press,
and then you come out and you do a public briefing. Nonetheless,
it's still a briefing, and the president should be paying
attention to the briefing, even though it's generally what he's
already heard in the green room. And you come out,
(11:42):
and what does he do? He announced he's become a
great grandfather. Now, I gotta tell you, when I became
a grandfather, I was proud. I was damn proud. But
how wholly inappropriate while people have lost everything that he
concludes briefing by announcing he's become a great grandfather.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Does is he yet to acknowledge the one grandchild?
Speaker 2 (12:11):
And he's not, And they've never acknowledged the other grand
She's just curious. Yeah, they haven't done that. Okay, they
have They have not done that.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
And if you need to see this for yourself, feel
free to go to Michael Says go here dot com.
Those videos are up there.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
When I when I first as I'm digging around getting
stuff ready for today, and for not necessarily show prep,
but for these stupid interviews. I'm just bumfuzzled by this.
It shows a complete lack of an understanding of your surroundings.
(12:46):
You you don't read the room, You don't you don't
understand or comprehend. I think in his case, it's the
word comprehension is better. He does not comprehend his role,
he doesn't comprehend the situation, he doesn't comprehend the severity
of what's going on. And instead, what he has on
(13:10):
his mind is that he wants everybody to know that
he's now a great grandfather. Well, there's a time and
a place to say that you can be swelling with
pride while you're being told about how people have lost
everything they have and that this situation is going to
(13:33):
be even worse because of some insurance things I'm going
to tell you about in a minute. But there's just
there's one subtext of this disaster. A commander in chief
that is wholly out of touch with what's going on,
an unable, unwilling, incapable, whatever verb you want to use
(13:58):
of answering reporters questions about the breathing and the fire.
Then if you think that's bad, there's the mayor of
Los Angeles, Karen Bass, who went on the chronology is
(14:22):
she issues a state of emergency several days ago because
you know, weather forecast shows that this is likely to happen.
There was no pre deployment of assets. But she declares
a state of emergency, and she flies off to Ghana
(14:45):
for the inauguration of some Yahoo that's now the president
of Ghana. Don't cheat, don't google it. I don't know
it is. I bet you can't name it either. But
then she can and she lands at Lax. And when
she lands at Lax, she's confronted by a reporter from
(15:07):
Sky News. And the reporter from Sky News wants to know, so,
what what do you think about this? So you know
all of this has taken place, what what do you
have to say about it? And she's standing in When
I first saw the video, I'm trying to figure out
where's this woman's It looks like she's on the jet bridge,
(15:29):
and it turns out that she indeed is on the
jet bridge. You know where when you first get off
the plane and you're you know, you step off the
plane and step onder the jet bridge and you make
a right and you walk up the bridge into the
terminal into the concourse. Well, if you look straight ahead
(15:49):
when you first step off the plane, you'll see this
door with these metal stairs that go down, which is
where the flight crews and the ramp agent, the ramp
people and everybody access the aircraft. And I've used those
doors in the past when I've been boarded early because
(16:10):
of a security detail, or and I've exited that particular
place while i'm you know, because there's a there's a
car waiting for me down there. So there's nothing unusual
about her doing it, except that she just stands there.
She just stands there, as if she has no clue
(16:33):
that anybody's even talking to her. She stands there is
as if you know, I can't hear anything about what's
going on. She just stands there because she just doesn't.
I don't know how to describe it, but imagine this
(16:56):
one before I play it. You've stepped off, You've got
on a little, you know, bomber jacket of some sort
of little or windbreaker, you know, office of the mayor
City of Los Angeles, and she's looking at the door.
Then she's looking up the jetway. She's trying to figure
out which way to go. She can't figure out which
(17:16):
way to go because none of her staff or any
of her detail is with staff is with her, but
none of her detail staff doesn't nowhere to take her.
They're just waiting for the security detail to tell her too.
And a reporter which I assume must have been on
the same plane, starts to ask questions, and she looks
(17:42):
down at the ground, at the floor of the jetway
and refuses to answer a single question. Now, the subtext
of this is she's been caught with her pants back
and a reporter is actually exercising some journalism. That journalism.
Speaker 5 (18:00):
Next, I think we need to tell people that Carter
was not the humanitarian that the media made him out
to be. I think you'll agree. Larry O'Connor has pointed
out that Carter basically became anti Israel for one reason
(18:22):
to get his precious that being the Nobel Peace Prize.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Yeah, but I agree. But then you look at the
other aspect of you know, the habitat for humanity stuff,
and you know, it's it's a mixed bag. It's a
mixed bag. But I do agree with you about the
doing anything he can to get that Nobel Peace Prize.
So back to Karen Bass, there is a chance, a
(18:54):
slight chance. By the way, yes, I do know the
relationship between Gavin Newsom and Nancy Pelosi. There used to
be a website I don't remember the name of. There
used to be a website that showed all of the
relationships between politicians around the country. It looked like, you know,
a It looked like one of these maps that you
(19:16):
see where it's like shows pipelines all across the country,
just everybody interconnected. It's really it's really kind of disgusting.
So Karen Bass, the mayor of Los Angeles, declares an emergency,
leaves the country, goes to Ghana for the inauguration of
the Ghana President. I have no clue it is, and
nor do I care, And then lands back in la
(19:38):
yesterday and is confronted by a Sky News reporter.
Speaker 6 (19:40):
Do you owe citizens and apology for being absent while
their homes were burning? Do you regret coming the fire
department budget by millions of dollars?
Speaker 5 (19:49):
Not in there?
Speaker 6 (19:51):
Have you nothing to say today that? Have you absolutely
nothing to say to the citizens today. Mosque says that
you're utterly incompetent. Are you considering your position, Madam Mayor?
Have you absolutely nothing to say to the citizens today?
You're dealing with this disaster. There's no apology for them.
(20:22):
Do you think you should have been visiting Ghana while
this was unfolding back home? Adam Mayor, let me ask
(20:55):
you just again, have you anything to say to the
citizens today as you returned?
Speaker 1 (21:04):
Seconds?
Speaker 6 (21:06):
Madam Yor just a few words for the citizens today
as you return to deal with a catastrophe.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Ben, what's at the door into the restricted area? Watch
down the steps, get to the claw and drives.
Speaker 4 (21:18):
Away, David, As you say, she wasn't very keen to
answer any of your questions there. And fire chiefs are
also admitting that they just don't have enough personnel to
take out the fires.
Speaker 6 (21:33):
Yeah, they're fighting all sorts of challenges. They're talking about
a water shortage, there are reports of fire hydrant failures.
They've been on able to use firefighting aircraft for much
of the day due to the smoke that is billowing
ominously from the hills where the wildfires are raging. And
I suppose despite that political storm, this is of course,
Adam's heart a human story because we now eighty thousand
(21:56):
people evacuated, tens of thousands of others are on down
by to be evacuated. Two lives have been lost in
the Eaton fire, which is what's causing the consequence behind us.
The city's iconic landscape almost trod it completely by the smoke,
and they're really just taking it one step at a time,
hoping at some stage the wind's going to change direction
(22:18):
or to die.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Do that's enough, Sky News. I'm not sure there was
ever appropriate time for the mayor of Los Angeles to
go to Ghana. This certainly wasn't. This week, her former challenger,
the real Jerik Crusoe, spoke to Fox LA about the
(22:40):
city's mismanagement scale the disaster and said this, we've got
a mayor that's out of the country and we've got
a city that's burning. You know, the National Fire Center
puts out statistics, and one of the things that is
going to be claimed is that wildfires are getting greater
(23:05):
and stronger and there are more and more of them. Well,
that's just simply belied by the stats. The number of
acres burned each year going back to nineteen thirty nineteen thirty,
approximately fifty million acres were burned. The nineteen twenty six
(23:25):
to nineteen thirty five average was forty one and a
half million acres per year. Forty one and a half
million acres per year between nineteen twenty six nineteen thirty five,
and then the the number of acres starts to drop
precipitously to a low in the early nineteen sixties of
(23:50):
less than five million acres, and it continues to drop
even more so. And then between nineteen seventy three and
nineteen eighty two, the average acres burned in wildfires in
this country is three point four million per year. Between
nineteen seventy three in nineteen eighty two, just about a decade,
(24:11):
and it stayed pretty much that way, and it just
bounces up and down. But then you get to say
two thousand and nine, and in two thousand and nine,
that kind of bouncy graft starts to bump up a
little bit, and the twenty fourteen to twenty twenty three
(24:32):
average bumped from that earlier average of three point four
million acres per year to slightly over seven million acres
per year. Now, what happened in the early two thousands. Well,
that's when Al Gore and the hockey stick. You know,
al Gore's no longer the vice president, and that's when
(24:54):
Al Gore takes on the whole climate change mantra. And
what do we do. We decided it's time to stop
cleaning for us. It's time to start, you know, focusing
on the Indangered Species Act. It's time to stop doing
all the things that we can do that kept that
average down below an average of three million acres per year,
(25:16):
and it bounces back up to seven million acres per year.
So that's where we are today. The mayor knows this.
The mayor and the governor both know. The mayor herself
cut seventeen million dollars plus seventeen million plus dollars from
(25:41):
the Los Angeles County Fire Department. There were firefighters that
were left in their stations in their firehouses because there
was not enough equipment for them to operate. Where'd that
money go? DEI programs, homelessness programs, all sorts of climate
(26:07):
change programs. Nothing to prepare the country's what second largest
city that has a history of these wildfires, nothing at
all to prepare the city for that. Now if you dragon,
we have that video up on Okay, so we got
(26:28):
that video up on the website too, Michael says, go
here dot com. I want you to watch it because
I think it's safe to assume that Mayor Bass did
not expect to member the media to ambush her when
she landed. And my guess is where it left to
the American media. She may well have made it from
the commercial plane to her car unscathed. Nobody would have
(26:49):
said a word.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
You can see for yourself, but she looks a lot
worse than deer in a headlights.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
It's much. It's a lot. I can't I want to
believe that it's shame, that it's shame on her face.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
Kind of felt like that when you have a parent
scolding a child and a child just doesn't know what
to do, so they're just kind.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Of right and they don't want to make the fact
she will not even make eye contact with the reporter
fascinates me because she knows she's been had. But fortunately,
you know, Sky News sent reporter David Blevins to meet
Madame Mayer upon her landing at lax So, rather than
(27:32):
exiting with the normies on her flight and walking through
the main airport. She used the jetway door that would
allow her to exit directly onto the tarmac, And the
problem was was there was a delay at the door,
so a ramp agent has to come over and swipe
his card and let her out. That entire process took
(27:53):
over two minutes, and they gave the reporter the perfect
opportunity to pepper the mayor with some really pertinent, pointed,
yet pertinent questions, all while she just silently stares ahead
and down at the ground, appearing as though she is
trying to will the doors open with her mind. The questions,
(28:15):
do you owe citizens' apology for being absent while their
homes are burning? Do you regret cutting the fire department
budget by millions of dollars? Have you nothing to say today?
Have you absolutely nothing to say to the citizens today?
And this or this question? In statement, Elon Musk says
that you were utterly incompetent. Are you considering are you
(28:37):
considering your position? Of course she's not. That never crosses
their minds. It never crosses their minds whatsoever, Madam Mayor,
Have you absolutely nothing to say to the citizens today
who are dealing with this disaster? No apology? For them.
Do you think you should have been visiting Goana while
this was unfolding back home, Madam Mayor, let me ask
(28:57):
you just again, have you anything to say to the
citizens today as you return, Madam Mayor, just a few
words for the citizens today as you returned to deal
with a catastrophe. She didn't respond to one question. She
didn't have one response. She should have known, which is
why she went through the back door. But she should
(29:17):
have known the press would be there waiting. She had
plenty of time. I don't know where. I don't know
where her connection was, but let's say her connection was
in as dulls or O'Hare. She had plenty of time
with her staff sitting in first class, I'm quite certain
to sit down and at least come up with some
sort of statement as she got off the plane. These
(29:38):
people are utterly, utterly incompetent. Hey, I think I know
why Madam Mayor was so out of it.
Speaker 5 (29:48):
I think she might have partaken a little bit in
that Ghana Ganja and she might have still had her
head in the clouds.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
What a train wreck.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
I think she's given Biden to run further money.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Have a good morning text message is six two eight eight. Mike,
Come on, man, I'm sure the mayor was speechless just
like me after hearing Biden became a great grandfather. That
has to be the biggest thing he's done in the
last six months. Uh zero two three eight, Michael. A
person with this one is so spot on. Michael, A
(30:22):
person with any amount of IQ and common sense would
have immediately looked at the reporter in the eyes and said, yes,
it was very unfortunate that I was out of the country,
but I came right back and now we're going to
get this under control. That would have diffused the entire thing. Oh,
there would still been you know, sniping and snarky comments
(30:46):
and everything, but you know, to say, yes, I regret
being out of the country completely diffuses it. But I'm here,
kind of like al Haig, I'm here now and in
control and we're going to get things done or Michael,
nothing to say. They're just obviously mostly peaceful fires. I
(31:08):
didn't hear this this morning. Maybe this before I headed in.
I heard a good comment on Fox News this morning.
Brian kill Me said this that these people run for
these offices and act like it's just an honorary position,
not an actual job that requires oh actual work. Yes,
(31:34):
the two minute video that's now gone viral, which you
can find on our website too. She does, to me
seem to be stunned. Stunned. Yet we know that California knew,
La knew that this was coming, They got early warning
(31:57):
about it, and yet did nothing.
Speaker 5 (32:01):
Huh.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
Sounds like a city down on the Gulf of Mexico,
I'm sorry, the Gulf of America that was surrounded that
is below sea level, surrounded by levees, and has known
for decades, if not centuries, that those levees had not
been properly maintained, and that if they were ever breached that, oh,
(32:26):
that basin would just fill up with water. Oh what
was that? What was that town? Something happened recently? There
was like a oh, there was an attack in Bourbon Street. Yeah,
it's that town. What's the name of that town?
Speaker 3 (32:40):
Nolans knowledge knowledge one word.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
Nolins, nolins, two syllables with one word nollins n A
W l I n s nolins. So evidence now exists
that the mayor had ample warnings about the potential extreme weather.
All these different agencies have been forecasting strong Santa Anna
whins warning about a potential fire risk in the LA
(33:03):
region's days before she left town. Remember that's important. This
is before she left town. And of course people point
to the wind fueled fire event on Tuesday, the exact
day that the fires began. So let's go back to
last Thursday, January second, the National Weather Service explicitly warned
(33:25):
LA about extreme fire conditions over the next seven to
ten days. That day, Jonathan O'Brien, a meteorologist with Forest Service,
spoke to officials and posted openly about the incoming threat.
O'Brien noted that weather models for southern California showed a
strong extreme Santa Anna win starting Tuesday one seven. The
(33:48):
next day, on Friday, January third, a guy by the
name of Schoenfield, A woman, Rose Schoenfield, she's a meteorologist
with the National Weather Service in the Los Angeles office
in OX, gave a briefing that warned that the lack
of rain this winter season. I want to dress lack
of rain too well, let me just do it right
(34:08):
now before I continue. Eleven months ago, Los Angeles had
Remember we keep hearing about those bomb cyclones h LA.
The whole southern California area had record rainfall, record rainfall.
Where's that water?
Speaker 3 (34:29):
Where is it?
Speaker 2 (34:30):
Oh, that's right. Gavin Newsom has torn down more dams
than any other governor in the history of this country,
but I think more than any other person in the
history of this country. So rather than you know, maintaining
dams or building new reservoirs, that record rainfall just rolled
(34:52):
off into the Pacific, and yet they're out of water today.
Good morning, back on Dragon. Are we taking any bets
on whether Biden falls asleep at Jimmy Carter's funeral today?
Only eleven more days? Biden is such an embarrassment to
our nation and absolutely the worst president ever.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
As someone who lived through the Carter years, I have
to agree with you. I thought Jimmy Carter was, you know,
God rest his soul, obviously an incredibly decent human being,
but an absolute incompetent president. And many people have tried
to say that, you know, circumstances beyond his control. That's
(00:40):
I never buy that argument, because the president has unlimited
resources to deal with any crisis that comes across the
resolute desk in the Oval Office. And while a president's personality,
(01:02):
uh their intellect, everything goes into their decision making process,
they can improve that, and they can, and they can.
They can fortify against their weaknesses by using staff and
resources that most CEOs don't have available to them. So yes,
(01:24):
but I do believe that Biden is the worst president
in my lifetime and perhaps in the history of the nation.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Both of you are just straight up wrong. Nancy Pelosi
has said that Biden deserves to be on Mount Rushmore. Oh,
can't be the worst president of all time and be
on Mount Rushmore.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
You know what, that's why you're the producer, and I'm
just a stupid talent. I forgot about that, and so
just erase that from the tape and we just won't.
We won't put that in for the CBA Awards. We'll
just you know, we'll just move on. We'll not not
worry about that. So I got I started getting phone
calls and text messages actually during the show yesterday, but
(02:03):
then it kind of blew up yesterday afternoon, so I've
got a sport code in here. I got to do
a bunch of TV interviews and stuff. So it forced
me to really start focusing on the Los Angeles fires
and all the subtexts that are going on with them.
(02:24):
And that's one of the things that I want to
do this morning. I don't necessarily want to talk about
the fires themselves, because you can turn on a cable
channel and you can see the visuals and you can
hear about people suffering and evacuations, and you can see
the visuals and everything else. But there are a lot
(02:45):
of subtexts that have to do with this country's misplaced priorities.
With our focus on things over which we really have
no control and the unaccountability of elected officials, that is
(03:05):
just mind boggling to me. Now, before I get into that,
I well, let me say this. One of the things
that bugs me is, you know the and you'll hear
it later in the program, Gavin Newsom, because Donald Trump,
(03:29):
President Trump came out and said something yesterday which I'll
play for you later about you know, there was this
so called either a memo or some sort of It
wasn't it wasn't a presidential executive order, but some document
that Gavin Newsom claims does not exist, in which Trump
(03:51):
was trying to get them to start waving, or he
was actually waiving some regulations with regard to the endangered
species in order to get more water out of northern
California in Southern California and Gavin Newsom, they all got
into a tip for tat, and Newsom made a statement
(04:13):
that it's so typical of Donald Trump to politicize this
disaster while it's unfolding. And when I heard Newsom say that,
my jaw dropped, because if anybody knows about disasters being
politicized while you're in the middle of the disaster. That
(04:36):
would be me. Every disaster is politicized. Every disaster involves
at least the following one governor, two US senators, at
least one congressman, at least one mayor, at least one
(04:57):
city councilman, at least one county commiss And then you
have the unelected to people like a city manager or
a fire chief, or then you've got you know, the
under Secretary of Homeland Security. You have all of these
unelected officials, and all of that is, all of that
(05:18):
business is conducted knowing that it's done in a political sphere.
So for Gavin Newsom to come out and accuse Donald
Trump of politicizing it, look in the mirror, Governor. Now,
I know you weren't governor during Katrina, but nonetheless, we
have a history of politicizing disasters. Now, sometimes I think
(05:44):
that politicization is spot on. Sometimes I think it's wrong,
and sometimes I think the cabal gets it absolutely wrong.
Other times they're absolutely correct. But that's just kind of
a baseline where my head is that today. Well, let's
go back to Alexis comment about Biden being the worst
(06:08):
president ever. So Biden's out in California and he is,
and I will tell you this, there are there are
conflicting reports about his trip interfering with flights, you know
flight you know, the the tanker flights, helicopters, rescue operations,
(06:35):
whatever going on. If he was anywhere near these fires
within one hundred mile radius, now I'll say a fifty
mile radius, he indeed interfered with flight operations because the
Secret Service and cooperation with the FAA put eight puts
(06:58):
in temporary flight restricts so that Air Force one and
Marine one can land and move about. I know that
for a fact, because Bush was adamant with me as
we were going along the Gulf coast that he not
fly anywhere so as not to interrupt any of the
(07:19):
operations that were ongoing. And I looked at him and
I wanted to say, but I didn't. I wanted to
say to him, sir, you understand that no matter where
you go, there will be flight restrictions. So before we
before we took off, I I called Ralph Basham, the
director of the Secret Service at the time, and said,
(07:41):
you know, here's here's here's where he's going. I mean,
Ralph obviously had gotten briefed anew but I said, here,
here's where we're going, Here's what I have going on
in those areas. Is there any way that we can,
you know, take Marine one and use this path and
let him see what he needs to see without interrupting
(08:02):
flight operations either above or blow us and without any reservations.
Ralph answer was no, it's not, Michael, It's just not
going to happen. Okay. I just wanted to know. I
need to let my people know. So it just happens,
and I think rightfully so, which is why presidents should
(08:22):
not go to a disaster while it is ongoing. The
White House was always really good with me about asking
when would be an appropriate time for us to calm
down to wherever it is, and I would sit with
the staff and we would look at the whole operational
(08:44):
schematic of everything that's going on and figure out when
and if there might be a place that Potus could
come down so that he could make the appearance and
show the nation that you know, he cares and he's
the consoler and even do all of that, and we
would work around. There would be times when the White
House would be adamant, we want to come down now,
(09:06):
you know, because there's there's so much news coverage. We
want to come down now. You see it. It's political.
It is political, So I say that to swerve into this.
So this is from Fox News. Biden's being briefed on
the California wildfires, just letting it well and I want
(09:55):
you to hear this, and he returns to his right.
Speaker 4 (10:12):
So the president has been briefed, listening to see if
we can pick up any questions there.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
You're not going to hear anything. So in the middle
of this almost catastrophic disaster taking place, it's a horrendous disaster.
After or during the briefing, Biden announces that he's become
a great grandfather, and Gavin K. Newsome kind of looks
(10:40):
at him and kind of just kind of does this
awkward clapping. And then when they realize, when the reporters,
when the cabal realizes that, well that's the end of
the briefing. Then they start just jamming in with questions
and he doesn't answer a single question, not one single question.
(11:00):
So here is a situation where the commander in chief
flies into the middle that this was the briefing took
place in Santa Monica, So it's in the heart it's
in the heart of this disaster. And during the briefing,
at the close of the briefing, which is generally two
there's two levels to the briefing. There's a briefing that
(11:22):
takes place outside the view of the public and the press,
and then you come out and you do a public briefing. Nonetheless,
it's still a briefing, and the president should be paying
attention to the briefing, even though it's generally what he's
already heard in the green room. And you come out,
(11:42):
and what does he do? He announced he's become a
great grandfather. Now, I gotta tell you, when I became
a grandfather, I was proud. I was damn proud. But
how wholly inappropriate while people have lost everything that he
concludes briefing by announcing he's become a great grandfather.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Does is he yet to acknowledge the one grandchild?
Speaker 2 (12:11):
And he's not, And they've never acknowledged the other grand
She's just curious. Yeah, they haven't done that. Okay, they
have They have not done that.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
And if you need to see this for yourself, feel
free to go to Michael Says go here dot com.
Those videos are up there.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
When I when I first as I'm digging around getting
stuff ready for today, and for not necessarily show prep,
but for these stupid interviews. I'm just bumfuzzled by this.
It shows a complete lack of an understanding of your surroundings.
(12:46):
You you don't read the room, You don't you don't
understand or comprehend. I think in his case, it's the
word comprehension is better. He does not comprehend his role,
he doesn't comprehend the situation, he doesn't comprehend the severity
of what's going on. And instead, what he has on
(13:10):
his mind is that he wants everybody to know that
he's now a great grandfather. Well, there's a time and
a place to say that you can be swelling with
pride while you're being told about how people have lost
everything they have and that this situation is going to
(13:33):
be even worse because of some insurance things I'm going
to tell you about in a minute. But there's just
there's one subtext of this disaster. A commander in chief
that is wholly out of touch with what's going on,
an unable, unwilling, incapable, whatever verb you want to use
(13:58):
of answering reporters questions about the breathing and the fire.
Then if you think that's bad, there's the mayor of
Los Angeles, Karen Bass, who went on the chronology is
(14:22):
she issues a state of emergency several days ago because
you know, weather forecast shows that this is likely to happen.
There was no pre deployment of assets. But she declares
a state of emergency, and she flies off to Ghana
(14:45):
for the inauguration of some Yahoo that's now the president
of Ghana. Don't cheat, don't google it. I don't know
it is. I bet you can't name it either. But
then she can and she lands at Lax. And when
she lands at Lax, she's confronted by a reporter from
(15:07):
Sky News. And the reporter from Sky News wants to know, so,
what what do you think about this? So you know
all of this has taken place, what what do you
have to say about it? And she's standing in When
I first saw the video, I'm trying to figure out
where's this woman's It looks like she's on the jet bridge,
(15:29):
and it turns out that she indeed is on the
jet bridge. You know where when you first get off
the plane and you're you know, you step off the
plane and step onder the jet bridge and you make
a right and you walk up the bridge into the
terminal into the concourse. Well, if you look straight ahead
(15:49):
when you first step off the plane, you'll see this
door with these metal stairs that go down, which is
where the flight crews and the ramp agent, the ramp
people and everybody access the aircraft. And I've used those
doors in the past when I've been boarded early because
(16:10):
of a security detail, or and I've exited that particular
place while i'm you know, because there's a there's a
car waiting for me down there. So there's nothing unusual
about her doing it, except that she just stands there.
She just stands there, as if she has no clue
(16:33):
that anybody's even talking to her. She stands there is
as if you know, I can't hear anything about what's
going on. She just stands there because she just doesn't.
I don't know how to describe it, but imagine this
(16:56):
one before I play it. You've stepped off, You've got
on a little, you know, bomber jacket of some sort
of little or windbreaker, you know, office of the mayor
City of Los Angeles, and she's looking at the door.
Then she's looking up the jetway. She's trying to figure
out which way to go. She can't figure out which
(17:16):
way to go because none of her staff or any
of her detail is with staff is with her, but
none of her detail staff doesn't nowhere to take her.
They're just waiting for the security detail to tell her too.
And a reporter which I assume must have been on
the same plane, starts to ask questions, and she looks
(17:42):
down at the ground, at the floor of the jetway
and refuses to answer a single question. Now, the subtext
of this is she's been caught with her pants back
and a reporter is actually exercising some journalism. That journalism.
Speaker 5 (18:00):
Next, I think we need to tell people that Carter
was not the humanitarian that the media made him out
to be. I think you'll agree. Larry O'Connor has pointed
out that Carter basically became anti Israel for one reason
(18:22):
to get his precious that being the Nobel Peace Prize.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Yeah, but I agree. But then you look at the
other aspect of you know, the habitat for humanity stuff,
and you know, it's it's a mixed bag. It's a
mixed bag. But I do agree with you about the
doing anything he can to get that Nobel Peace Prize.
So back to Karen Bass, there is a chance, a
(18:54):
slight chance. By the way, yes, I do know the
relationship between Gavin Newsom and Nancy Pelosi. There used to
be a website I don't remember the name of. There
used to be a website that showed all of the
relationships between politicians around the country. It looked like, you know,
a It looked like one of these maps that you
(19:16):
see where it's like shows pipelines all across the country,
just everybody interconnected. It's really it's really kind of disgusting.
So Karen Bass, the mayor of Los Angeles, declares an emergency,
leaves the country, goes to Ghana for the inauguration of
the Ghana President. I have no clue it is, and
nor do I care, And then lands back in la
(19:38):
yesterday and is confronted by a Sky News reporter.
Speaker 6 (19:40):
Do you owe citizens and apology for being absent while
their homes were burning? Do you regret coming the fire
department budget by millions of dollars?
Speaker 5 (19:49):
Not in there?
Speaker 6 (19:51):
Have you nothing to say today that? Have you absolutely
nothing to say to the citizens today. Mosque says that
you're utterly incompetent. Are you considering your position, Madam Mayor?
Have you absolutely nothing to say to the citizens today?
You're dealing with this disaster. There's no apology for them.
(20:22):
Do you think you should have been visiting Ghana while
this was unfolding back home? Adam Mayor, let me ask
(20:55):
you just again, have you anything to say to the
citizens today as you returned?
Speaker 1 (21:04):
Seconds?
Speaker 6 (21:06):
Madam Yor just a few words for the citizens today
as you return to deal with a catastrophe.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Ben, what's at the door into the restricted area? Watch
down the steps, get to the claw and drives.
Speaker 4 (21:18):
Away, David, As you say, she wasn't very keen to
answer any of your questions there. And fire chiefs are
also admitting that they just don't have enough personnel to
take out the fires.
Speaker 6 (21:33):
Yeah, they're fighting all sorts of challenges. They're talking about
a water shortage, there are reports of fire hydrant failures.
They've been on able to use firefighting aircraft for much
of the day due to the smoke that is billowing
ominously from the hills where the wildfires are raging. And
I suppose despite that political storm, this is of course,
Adam's heart a human story because we now eighty thousand
(21:56):
people evacuated, tens of thousands of others are on down
by to be evacuated. Two lives have been lost in
the Eaton fire, which is what's causing the consequence behind us.
The city's iconic landscape almost trod it completely by the smoke,
and they're really just taking it one step at a time,
hoping at some stage the wind's going to change direction
(22:18):
or to die.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Do that's enough, Sky News. I'm not sure there was
ever appropriate time for the mayor of Los Angeles to
go to Ghana. This certainly wasn't. This week, her former challenger,
the real Jerik Crusoe, spoke to Fox LA about the
(22:40):
city's mismanagement scale the disaster and said this, we've got
a mayor that's out of the country and we've got
a city that's burning. You know, the National Fire Center
puts out statistics, and one of the things that is
going to be claimed is that wildfires are getting greater
(23:05):
and stronger and there are more and more of them. Well,
that's just simply belied by the stats. The number of
acres burned each year going back to nineteen thirty nineteen thirty,
approximately fifty million acres were burned. The nineteen twenty six
(23:25):
to nineteen thirty five average was forty one and a
half million acres per year. Forty one and a half
million acres per year between nineteen twenty six nineteen thirty five,
and then the the number of acres starts to drop
precipitously to a low in the early nineteen sixties of
(23:50):
less than five million acres, and it continues to drop
even more so. And then between nineteen seventy three and
nineteen eighty two, the average acres burned in wildfires in
this country is three point four million per year. Between
nineteen seventy three in nineteen eighty two, just about a decade,
(24:11):
and it stayed pretty much that way, and it just
bounces up and down. But then you get to say
two thousand and nine, and in two thousand and nine,
that kind of bouncy graft starts to bump up a
little bit, and the twenty fourteen to twenty twenty three
(24:32):
average bumped from that earlier average of three point four
million acres per year to slightly over seven million acres
per year. Now, what happened in the early two thousands. Well,
that's when Al Gore and the hockey stick. You know,
al Gore's no longer the vice president, and that's when
(24:54):
Al Gore takes on the whole climate change mantra. And
what do we do. We decided it's time to stop
cleaning for us. It's time to start, you know, focusing
on the Indangered Species Act. It's time to stop doing
all the things that we can do that kept that
average down below an average of three million acres per year,
(25:16):
and it bounces back up to seven million acres per year.
So that's where we are today. The mayor knows this.
The mayor and the governor both know. The mayor herself
cut seventeen million dollars plus seventeen million plus dollars from
(25:41):
the Los Angeles County Fire Department. There were firefighters that
were left in their stations in their firehouses because there
was not enough equipment for them to operate. Where'd that
money go? DEI programs, homelessness programs, all sorts of climate
(26:07):
change programs. Nothing to prepare the country's what second largest
city that has a history of these wildfires, nothing at
all to prepare the city for that. Now if you dragon,
we have that video up on Okay, so we got
(26:28):
that video up on the website too, Michael says, go
here dot com. I want you to watch it because
I think it's safe to assume that Mayor Bass did
not expect to member the media to ambush her when
she landed. And my guess is where it left to
the American media. She may well have made it from
the commercial plane to her car unscathed. Nobody would have
(26:49):
said a word.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
You can see for yourself, but she looks a lot
worse than deer in a headlights.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
It's much. It's a lot. I can't I want to
believe that it's shame, that it's shame on her face.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
Kind of felt like that when you have a parent
scolding a child and a child just doesn't know what
to do, so they're just kind.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Of right and they don't want to make the fact
she will not even make eye contact with the reporter
fascinates me because she knows she's been had. But fortunately,
you know, Sky News sent reporter David Blevins to meet
Madame Mayer upon her landing at lax So, rather than
(27:32):
exiting with the normies on her flight and walking through
the main airport. She used the jetway door that would
allow her to exit directly onto the tarmac, And the
problem was was there was a delay at the door,
so a ramp agent has to come over and swipe
his card and let her out. That entire process took
(27:53):
over two minutes, and they gave the reporter the perfect
opportunity to pepper the mayor with some really pertinent, pointed,
yet pertinent questions, all while she just silently stares ahead
and down at the ground, appearing as though she is
trying to will the doors open with her mind. The questions,
(28:15):
do you owe citizens' apology for being absent while their
homes are burning? Do you regret cutting the fire department
budget by millions of dollars? Have you nothing to say today?
Have you absolutely nothing to say to the citizens today?
And this or this question? In statement, Elon Musk says
that you were utterly incompetent. Are you considering are you
(28:37):
considering your position? Of course she's not. That never crosses
their minds. It never crosses their minds whatsoever, Madam Mayor,
Have you absolutely nothing to say to the citizens today
who are dealing with this disaster? No apology? For them.
Do you think you should have been visiting Goana while
this was unfolding back home, Madam Mayor, let me ask
(28:57):
you just again, have you anything to say to the
citizens today as you return, Madam Mayor, just a few
words for the citizens today as you returned to deal
with a catastrophe. She didn't respond to one question. She
didn't have one response. She should have known, which is
why she went through the back door. But she should
(29:17):
have known the press would be there waiting. She had
plenty of time. I don't know where. I don't know
where her connection was, but let's say her connection was
in as dulls or O'Hare. She had plenty of time
with her staff sitting in first class, I'm quite certain
to sit down and at least come up with some
sort of statement as she got off the plane. These
(29:38):
people are utterly, utterly incompetent. Hey, I think I know
why Madam Mayor was so out of it.
Speaker 5 (29:48):
I think she might have partaken a little bit in
that Ghana Ganja and she might have still had her
head in the clouds.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
What a train wreck.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
I think she's given Biden to run further money.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Have a good morning text message is six two eight eight. Mike,
Come on, man, I'm sure the mayor was speechless just
like me after hearing Biden became a great grandfather. That
has to be the biggest thing he's done in the
last six months. Uh zero two three eight, Michael. A
person with this one is so spot on. Michael, A
(30:22):
person with any amount of IQ and common sense would
have immediately looked at the reporter in the eyes and said, yes,
it was very unfortunate that I was out of the country,
but I came right back and now we're going to
get this under control. That would have diffused the entire thing. Oh,
there would still been you know, sniping and snarky comments
(30:46):
and everything, but you know, to say, yes, I regret
being out of the country completely diffuses it. But I'm here,
kind of like al Haig, I'm here now and in
control and we're going to get things done or Michael,
nothing to say. They're just obviously mostly peaceful fires. I
(31:08):
didn't hear this this morning. Maybe this before I headed in.
I heard a good comment on Fox News this morning.
Brian kill Me said this that these people run for
these offices and act like it's just an honorary position,
not an actual job that requires oh actual work. Yes,
(31:34):
the two minute video that's now gone viral, which you
can find on our website too. She does, to me
seem to be stunned. Stunned. Yet we know that California knew,
La knew that this was coming, They got early warning
(31:57):
about it, and yet did nothing.
Speaker 5 (32:01):
Huh.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
Sounds like a city down on the Gulf of Mexico,
I'm sorry, the Gulf of America that was surrounded that
is below sea level, surrounded by levees, and has known
for decades, if not centuries, that those levees had not
been properly maintained, and that if they were ever breached that, oh,
(32:26):
that basin would just fill up with water. Oh what
was that? What was that town? Something happened recently? There
was like a oh, there was an attack in Bourbon Street. Yeah,
it's that town. What's the name of that town?
Speaker 3 (32:40):
Nolans knowledge knowledge one word.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
Nolins, nolins, two syllables with one word nollins n A
W l I n s nolins. So evidence now exists
that the mayor had ample warnings about the potential extreme weather.
All these different agencies have been forecasting strong Santa Anna
whins warning about a potential fire risk in the LA
(33:03):
region's days before she left town. Remember that's important. This
is before she left town. And of course people point
to the wind fueled fire event on Tuesday, the exact
day that the fires began. So let's go back to
last Thursday, January second, the National Weather Service explicitly warned
(33:25):
LA about extreme fire conditions over the next seven to
ten days. That day, Jonathan O'Brien, a meteorologist with Forest Service,
spoke to officials and posted openly about the incoming threat.
O'Brien noted that weather models for southern California showed a
strong extreme Santa Anna win starting Tuesday one seven. The
(33:48):
next day, on Friday, January third, a guy by the
name of Schoenfield, A woman, Rose Schoenfield, she's a meteorologist
with the National Weather Service in the Los Angeles office
in OX, gave a briefing that warned that the lack
of rain this winter season. I want to dress lack
of rain too well, let me just do it right
(34:08):
now before I continue. Eleven months ago, Los Angeles had
Remember we keep hearing about those bomb cyclones h LA.
The whole southern California area had record rainfall, record rainfall.
Where's that water?
Speaker 3 (34:29):
Where is it?
Speaker 2 (34:30):
Oh, that's right. Gavin Newsom has torn down more dams
than any other governor in the history of this country,
but I think more than any other person in the
history of this country. So rather than you know, maintaining
dams or building new reservoirs, that record rainfall just rolled
(34:52):
off into the Pacific, and yet they're out of water today.
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