Palisades Fire Report | Taking Greenland

(January 07, 2025)

Palisades fire report was went to Mayor’s office for ‘refinements.’ Where did FireAid’s $100MIL for L.A. wildfire relief go? Taking Greenland could be the end of NATO. What is a ‘starter home’? Did America stop building them?

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty Frement Fire Firemen. KFI AM six forty Bill
handled here on Aday, Wednesday, January seventh, One year ago today,
the Palisades and the Altadena fire fire exploded, killing what

(00:25):
nineteen and twelve thirty something people and over sixteen thousand
homes and businesses. Those structures were burnt or destroyed. And
it's it's tough. It was tough. It's made international news,
and I think it's the worst fire disaster in terms
of people that we've ever had in the United States,
certainly terms of property damage. Okay, so there's all kinds

(00:48):
of controversies involved here. First of all, how did the
fire start? Was it PG and E that started the fire?
Was it a power line that came down during high
winds and ignited brush underneath the power The polls are
actually towers in this case, and were was the fire
Department LA Fire Department that were there enough fire fighters

(01:15):
that were sent where they sent early enough? What happened
with Karen Bass? If you remember Karen Bass ran on
one of her campaign promises is I'm gonna I'm the
Los Angeles mayor. I will not leave Los Angeles. I
will stay here. Well, she was in Africa attending something

(01:35):
in Ghana some kind I think it was an inauguration
of the president or something along those lines. Anyway, there's
all kinds of controversy. So what happened after the fires, Well,
the fire chief was fired and then Fire Chief Ronnie
Villanueva was asked to produce a report and it was

(02:03):
a working draft of the fire after Action Report, and
it was sent to Mayor Karen Bass's office. Here is
our working draft. We don't have a final but we
have one that seems to take everything into account. And
Fire commissioned President Janethia Hudley Hayes was interviewed by the

(02:25):
La Times that broke all kinds of stories on this,
and she says that in a conversation, Villanova said that
the Mayor's office had asked for refinements in that fire report,
didn't say what they were. Well, yesterday the fire Chief,
Haiming Moore responded to the findings of that time's investigation

(02:48):
and acknowledge. Yeah, that report was edited, edited to soften
criticism of LA Fire the department leadership. You can tell
him at home and my dogs are going crazy? Was
that broadcast? By the way, did you hear the dogs? Oh? Yeah, okay, good, okay.
So with that, here's a little bit of background. Hudley

(03:11):
Hayes was appointed by Bass in June of twenty twenty
three to serve on a five member commission that provides
civilian oversight of the fire department. She said that in
her long career in various civic positions, she had learned
that the word refinement could mean troubling changes and is

(03:34):
another way of describing hiding, hiding facts, hiding figures, hiding policy. Now,
yesterday her remarks were the first public statements that she said, Well,
she understood all of that to be that the Mayor's
office possible intent was to influence the report, which was

(03:59):
supposed to lay out what went wrong in fighting the fire,
and it looks like a lot went wrong. However, I'm
also going to point something out, and I said this.
For example, there was a large reservoir up at the
top of the Palisades and I don't know, two million
gallons of water or whatever, and it was empty. It
was empty because there were repairs being made. And my

(04:21):
point was that this fire had one hundred miles per
hour win and there's nothing they could do, absolutely nothing.
And we're talking about early early stages of the fire
because by the time firefires did arrive, what if they
arrived ten minutes sooner or a half an hour sooner,
because they have fought this fire, you know, we're not
going to know. So Hayes then said after reviewing early

(04:43):
draft and the final document released by the Fire Department,
she was satisfied that material findings were not altered, that
feeling minor stuff, that the only thing that was changed
is that the fire Department just wanted to confirm the
accuracy of items like how the weather was, how fast

(05:08):
the winds were going. On the department's budget, how much
was spent, how many firefighters were available, and the issue
as to deployment, that's a different issue because now you're
talking tactics, how many There was a report that we
were going to see fire season coming and this particular
risk of fire, I mean it was there for days

(05:30):
and before the fire started, the weather reports were saying
this is the weather that could actually affect and was
described as life threatening. And Bass was still in Ghana
and didn't fly out of there until the fire started.

(05:51):
So there's a problem. So the LA Times obtained analyze
seven drafts and said, boy, there were some changes the
deployment decisions before the fire, the wind warnings that became
increasingly dire, They became more and more dire, and in

(06:13):
one instance, the Fire Department officials removed language saying the
decision to not fully staff up and pre deploy all
available crews ahead of the fire did not align. I
love this wording that the decision not to staff up
and pre deploy the crews where the fires were or

(06:34):
should or could start did not align with the department's
policy and procedures during red flag days, and instead, the
number of engine companies rolled out ahead of the fire
went above and beyond the standard LA Fire Department pre
deployment matrix. Now I have a question, okay, and that
is okay. Let's say they did deploy in the Palisades appropriately,

(06:59):
right to where no one could complain. What if the
fire started someplace else? What if there was another part
of the city. You should have sent those fire trucks
and those assets to that place instead of this place.
Now you knew there was a risk. Here's the other argument.
There were power poles here power lines power towers, that

(07:23):
the lines could break off, the towers go ahead and
hit the ground and spark, and if there was vegetation
underneath the towers, that could ignite. And that looks like
what is what happened? Which is why now when there
are warnings of high winds and extreme temperatures, the power

(07:44):
companies will simply shut down power to various parts of
the city and there's no fire and all of a sudden,
you're out of power. Let me tell you how people
at play are upset about that one. So the controversy
now is not only as to the specifics, as to

(08:04):
the pre deployment plans, as to the fact that not
all fire battalions and stations and equipment were assigned and
were held back, but also as to the very report.
This is why people don't trust government. Just along these lines. Okay,
I've said this many, many times, and that is the

(08:25):
administration is not really happy with democratic governments, the county
city states. And I think the biggest fight, the most
contentious fight, is between the administration and California. I mean,
they're just not real fans. So the House Judiciary Committee,

(08:48):
run by a Republican all the committees are run by
Republicans because they control the House, led by Representative Kevin Kylie,
and the committee chair is Jim Jordan oh Man. He's
a piece of work. Well, it became in August when
Kylie sent a letter to fire Aid saying, we want

(09:08):
a detailed breakdown of all the nonprofits that receive money
from fire Aid. We're talking, we're talking a one hundred
million dollars well fire Aid, which then sends money out
because these organizations that are funded by the Feds, they
send money out because the FEDS pay for virtually everything.

(09:29):
Fire Aid immediately released a document detailing its fundraising and
grant dispersals. This is an LA time story. And they
investigated the groups who had applied for the grants and
were quickly given money and given money in their areas
of expertise. And this is right in line with fire

(09:51):
Aid's mission statements. And an outside review by an outside
law firm confirmed the same thing, and the new Republican
led committee the report is skeptical of the nonprofit's work
done under the auspices of fire Aid. Why is that?
Why are they skeptical about this? Because the one hundred

(10:15):
million dollars that was given. The House Committee is saying
this thing is rife with wokeness and distribution to organizations
that are antithetical to the values of the United States. Okay,
the committee, out of the hundreds of nonprofits, found six
organizations that allocated grant fire aid grants towards labor salaries

(10:41):
other related costs, arguing that instead of the money going
to victims, it went to pay salaries to attorneys for example,
that we're supposed to do pro bono work. And this
report that was issued by the committee, which cited Fox
News Breitbart New York Post host said that friar Aid

(11:04):
prioritized and awarded grants to illegal aliens, people who didn't
deserve it. LGBTQ rights groups. For example, five hundred thousand
dollars was used by the California Charter Schools Association, Neighborhood
Legal Services of La County, LA Regional Food Bank, LA

(11:27):
Disaster Relief Navigator, Community Clinic Association. It goes on and
on and on, and examples they say were suspicious. One
of them is paying salaries to attorneys providing free legal
aid and discrimination. You're giving money to groups that help

(11:47):
illegal aliens and therefore you're not giving money to Americans
who deserve it. Therefore, we're looking at the report and
what are they going to do. Are they going to
shut it down? Well, they haven't yet. I mean, the
adminsis is shut down plenty of stuff. We're gonna talk
to Jim Keiney about one of these stories. And the
report says that instead of helping fire victims, donations made

(12:10):
to fire Aid. This is donations as well as federal
money help defund causes and projects completely unrelated to fire recovery.
For example, voter participation for Native Americans Illegal Aliens. Podcast
shows fungus planting and is that true? It could be

(12:30):
peripherally true. And if it's part of and let's say
it's true, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.
Fungus planting. And if that is a small, tiny percentage
of what an organization is doing, do you concentrate on
the fungus planning part and say the rest of it
is also woke and discriminatory. And this is simply I think,

(12:57):
not just an attempt, I mean, actually causes so much dissension.
Bottom line is any federal money that comes into California
is going to be suspect. The way we spend it.
We just take federal money and spend it on woke
LGBTQ communities, illegal aliens. We don't spend federal money the

(13:21):
way we should spend federal money. FEMA funds where FEMA
is working hard. Certainly not in Democrat state because it's
all fraud. The cities that have been overrun by crime
and the invasion of these criminals where the federal authorities

(13:41):
have to come in are only Democrat states. There is
no fraud in Republican states. There is no crime in
Republican cities. I mean, it's gotten pretty nuts, it really has,
all right, I want to talk about this thing with Greenland.
I mean, this has just gotten completely nuts. And the

(14:01):
President has said that Greenland should belong to us. We
need Greenland because of the vast resources that it has.
We don't necessarily need them because of their vast military might.
But the President said that he doesn't put he is

(14:22):
not ignoring the possibility of going in there militarily to
take Greenland, which I think is going to be a
hell of a fight between the United States military and
fifty six thousand people that's the population of Greenland. The
problem is Greenland is a member of NATO, and now
that gets really problematic. And now we're talking about this

(14:46):
president who is certainly turning the United States around and
going in a different direction. He is on the verge
of changing how the world works, certainly the Western world.
So the President was talking about Venezuela, starting with the
attacks on those drug boats. He had said, yeah, I

(15:10):
may put boots on the ground in Venezuela. That's one
of the things I might do. And as a matter
of fact, boots were on the ground. At least an
attack was made and Maduro of course was abducted. He
was captured. According to him, he was kidnapped, and all
of a sudden, the President talking about Greenland, that has

(15:34):
some credibility. Certainly, the Danes are sweating bullets on this
one because here's why the President has said, we need
those resources. I'm not arguing with that. And he has
talked about annexing Greenland, just outright saying it is now,
it now belongs to the United States. Stephen Miller, who

(15:55):
is a senior policy advisor to the president, has said
straight out it's ours. What is it? You know? Why
is Denmark in fact control of Greenland. What made Denmark
the owner of the owner of Greenland. Well, Greenland is
a quasi autonomous government, it says, island that sits out

(16:19):
in the middle of the Atlantic. And as far as
the argument that Denmark has in fact an ownership, if
you will, much like we own Puerto Rico, that's sort
of along the same lines. It said, let me tell
you when Greenland became part of Denmark one year before

(16:43):
we created the United States of America. Denmark in fact
annexed Greenland in seventeen seventy five. So there's a little
bit of history there. Now Here is the political fallout.
This is what makes this so crazy. All of a sudden,
the president saying we need Greenland, We're going to take Greenland,

(17:07):
We're going to own Greenland, has credibility. At first they thought,
you know, everybody said, oh, come on, he's just talking.
He's just talking. And because there's a lot of puffery
with President Trump, he does that. That's part of his
negotiating styles. He asks for the moon and negotiates. He
didn't do that with Maduro, and a lot of people

(17:28):
are frightened that he's not going to do that with Greenland.
Is he really going to invade Greenland. Do you put
it past him after the Maduro situation, Because if you
look at the quote need of Greenland to the security
of the United States far more important than Venezuela because

(17:49):
of the rare earths and the resources that it has.
And here's the problem. Greenland is one of the most
one of the closest allies we have to the United States.
They've always been on the United States side. They were
founding member of NATO, much like the United States was.
There were bases on in Greenland. Greenland is always negotiated

(18:13):
with the US whatever it needed. They were at one
point thirty bases, thirty US bases in Greenland. The government,
our government, the military shut down twenty nine of them.
Actually there were thirty one shut down thirty of them,
so there's one base left. But it's the decision that

(18:34):
the US military made Greenland is. Fine, you put more
bases on, Fine, you need the rare earths, Fine, we'll
talk about that. There's no problem. We're not gonna argue.
You know what's fair, what isn't fair. I mean, let's
sit down. Well the President is saying, no, we're not
going to sit down. We own it. We want it,
it's all ours. And what if Denmark says no. What

(18:56):
it's saying to right now? Now? What is there going
to be an invasion, a military invasion of Greenland which
would take thirty minutes to take over Greenland because the
army has to stop to pee and that's going to
hold up military forces. That's it. Yeah, I think it's possible.

(19:17):
I think a lot of people do think it's possible.
The authorities in Greenland thinks as possible. The NATO countries
think it's possible. Now Here is a real problem with
two issues here I want to share with you. Number one.
One of the arguments is we are going to buy Greenland. Now,
how do you buy a country or a territory? Actually,

(19:39):
we've done it twice. We bought Alaska from Russia under
it was the Secretary of State Seward under Lincoln's administration,
and we spent seven point two million dollars, biggest bargain
you could ever imagine buying Alaska. Also France that controlled

(20:00):
the middle part of the United States, England, the eastern
part France, sort of the middle. The United States bought
that in eighteen oh three. The Louisiana purchase spent fifteen
million dollars and bought that entire section, doubled its size
of the territory of the US. So we've done it before.

(20:22):
The problem is the people that sold it were fine
selling it. There was negotiation. Denmark is saying, no chance,
We're not going to sell Denmark to We're not going
to sell Greenland to you, and the United States the
President says, well, we need it, we want it, and
where do you go from here? And then the NATO issue.

(20:44):
Denmark is a founding member of NATO. Under Article five
of NATO, an attack on one country is an attack
on all countries in NATO. I think there's twenty eight
countries now in NATO, which means that you're not going
to see Putin attacking a NATO country. And the reason

(21:04):
that the other countries in that area are not jumping
in with boots on the ground is Ukraine is not
a member of NATO and that gives them an excuse
not to go in and have it at war with Russia.
Russia attacks a NATO country, tries to invade a NATO country,
there's war, at least according to the Charter of NATO.

(21:24):
They didn't anticipate one NATO country attacking another NATO country.
What the hell do you do with that? I'll tell
you what happens. NATO disintegrates. That's it. NATO just disintegrates,
It disappears. NATO created after World War Two to fight

(21:47):
the Russians in case they invaded. Is it still there?
Do you need to fight Russians? Look what's happening in Ukraine.
Look what happened in Crimea. Yeah, it's a real fear.
So I don't know what's going to happen with Greenland.
The only thing I believe is that the president if

(22:11):
Denmark will not sell it, If Denmark doesn't agree to
every single demand of the United States, could there be
an invasion? Can you imagine? Can you imagine invading a
NATO country? But then, prior to the abduction of Duro,

(22:31):
could you imagine the United States with special forces abducting Maduro,
who deserve to be abducted, By the way, I have
no problem what the president did. The only problem that exists,
I believe is what the hell happens now? Right? We
are governing, governing Venezuela. How okay, how so the president

(22:52):
is gone, but everything else is in place. We're really
good at going to war. We're not really good at
what happens after the war. Now, this is a great
story out of the Washington Post, and it talks about
a starter home. Now, the concept of starter home is

(23:14):
antiquated and cute because they really don't exist. They're perceived
as being on the smaller side, pretty small in our world,
in need of renovation or both. And what buyers do
is they go on expecting to stay a few years,
building equity and then trading up for something bigger and better.

(23:36):
And I did that by my first home in my twenties.
It was a starter home and then I built up
and up and up. Today it doesn't happen. Why because
starter homes here in southern California are a million dollars,
certainly the ones in Burbank. Over I look over through
the studio window and I see homes in Burbank and

(23:57):
they are eight nine hundred square feet eleven hundred square feet,
three bedrooms, two baths or maybe a bath, and a
half a million dollars. So how do people afford them?
Or they don't? And the problem is builders aren't building
them because there ain't enough money in it builders. And
this is not only because of the profit margin for them,

(24:19):
but also because of what the buyers want. Are building
bigger and bigger homes, four or more bedrooms. That was
half of the construction in twenty twenty two, more rooms,
more upgrades, being well, more costs. On top of that,
you have layers of local regulations, and it's same regulation

(24:42):
to build a four thousand square foot home than it
is to build a twelve hundred square foot home. It's
still the same regulation. So why wouldn't you build? Why
if you're a builder, buy a more expensive home, and
so between zoning requirements, the cost of building, the fact

(25:03):
that we want much bigger homes, well, the problem is
is that it's reached the point where we can't afford
it anymore. As a matter of fact, financially not even
viable to build what we perceived as a starter home,
which is considered about a thousand square foot home, and

(25:24):
you could buy that for While I bought my first house,
it was seventy two thousand dollars, but that was a
whole lot of years ago. That was in the nineteen thirties,
my parents in the nineteen fifties. Now this was a
long time ago, but we came to the United States
in nineteen fifty six and bought our first home, or
they bought their first home in nineteen I think fifty nine,

(25:46):
twenty six thousand dollars. I'll never forget that held onto
the house for four years building equity, and they sold
it for twenty six thousand, five hundred dollars. Now, let's
go back five years. Anybody who bought a home five
years ago, what do you think it's worth? Now it's

(26:07):
a different world, and it's gotten to the point where
even prospective buyers with great jobs that pay six that
get six figures income can't afford a house. If you
look at what is it. I remember the figure if
you buy a million dollar house, which is pretty close

(26:28):
to the median here in Orange County, in La County,
particularly in a decent area, a middle class area or above.
You put so it's a million dollars, You put twenty
percent down, and that's two hundred thousand dollars after taxes.
In money, I mean, you're writing a check for two
hundred thousand dollars if you're putting a normal down payment.

(26:50):
Now you have to in order to qualify for that mortgage.
If you follow the rules of mortgage payments and ownership
the family. You have to earn about one hundred and
eighty thousand dollars a year to qualify for a million

(27:11):
dollar home with a twenty percent down payment. Of course,
there are other programs out there where you pay ten
percent down, and the VA if you're a veteran, you
can pay what five percent down. But the point is
we can't afford homes anymore, and the concept of starter homes,
and that's for those of you that are looking to

(27:33):
buy a house. Let's say you're starting a career, you're
in your twenties, for example, or you're in your thirties
and you're still living at home because you can't afford
to pay for an apartment. The thought of being able
to afford a home, of course, at this point is very,
very difficult until we change everything and the concept of
starter homes. You don't even know what a starter home is.

(27:56):
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