January 13, 2025 • 27 mins
In this episode, Christopher Markowski dives into the California wildfires, exploring the root causes and policy failures that exacerbated the disaster. He discusses historical wildfire data, land management practices, and the role of political and corporate negligence in worsening the crisis. From environmental policies to misallocated resources, this podcast uncovers the systemic issues contributing to California's ongoing challenges. Markowski also touches on global parallels, including lessons from Japan's innovative fire prevention methods and other disaster-prone regions. www.watchdogonwallstreet.com
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Watchdog on Wall Street podcast explaining the news coming
out of the complex worlds of finance, economics, and politics
and the impact it we'll have on everyday Americans. Author,
investment banker, consumer advocate, analyst, and trader Chris Markowski.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Fix the problem or fix the blame.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
That's a line from the movie Rising Sun Sean Connery,
was delivered by him in that movie he talked about
at the time, it was the nineteen eighties and when
Michael Crichton wrote that novel, the Japanese were killing it
as far as business was concerned, and he said that,
(00:42):
you know, that's what they do. Part of Japanese cultures
fixed the problem rather than fix the blame. And again
it was a movie, and there's a lot wrong with
that state. But anyway, let's take that and put that aside.
Let's bring this up and we'll talk about this in
terms of the California fires, because we have been inundated
with sound bites and half troops and you know, information
(01:05):
here there and everywhere, social media posts and again this
you cannot watch what's going on, and just they'd be
completely heartbroken by what has taken place. Again, I by
no stretching the imagination have never had to deal with
(01:26):
anything like that. You can't put yourself in one's position
when you lose everything and that quickly, and you watch
the videos of it. Again, the easy thing to do,
the easy thing to do, and quite frankly, it's it's
something that it's part of okay, fixing the problem is
(01:46):
you have to, you know, again, pull a problem up
or you know, if you're like pulling weeds, you can't
just pull the weed up by the top.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
You got to pull it up by its roots.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
But we're going to do is we're going to break
down various different areas of what's taking place with the
media and the bs that's come coming out, the environmental
issues that are California, and quite frankly, the reality that
is California. Now, I said this this past we kind
of talked about it last week on the podcast.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
First and foremost, what happened in.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
California is not, by definition, a black Swan event.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
It's not.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
These things happen all the time. This is actually a
great piece by Tom McClintock today and it's fascinating. With
Juan Cabrillo dropped anchor in what is now Los Angeles
is San Pedro Bay. In the autumn of fifteen forty
(02:47):
two he named it the Bay of Smokes. Annual wildfires
that obviously I've got and it's coming again today, the
Santa Ane of winds. These are nothing new to southern California.
I've talked about this here on the program. It is
(03:08):
nature's way of cleaning house in dry climates. It is
nature gardening. Talked about the sequoiatry last week on the program.
Nature doesn't it's just gonna it's gonna do with what
it does.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
It doesn't matter. They don't care about your home value.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
Nature doesn't care about any of those things. Throughout the
twentieth century. Again, and it has human beings advance. It's
a it's a constant battle against the forces of nature,
the realities of nature. And again we've talked about this
(03:55):
in the past when we've discussed earthquakes and wealthy areas
versus poor areas. Again, there's a lot that goes into this.
But anyway, here in the United States, we had various
different land management agencies to do some of this, supposedly
some of this gardening that needs to be done before
(04:18):
Mother Nature does it. We removed excess timber, creating resilient
fire resistant force, thriving mountain economies, and a lucrative source
of public revenue. We leased public lands to sheep and
cattle ranchers. A stock kept brush from building up. We
established competent infrastructure to stop fires from getting out of control.
(04:38):
We cut fire brakes into the soil to contain flames.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
It's amazing.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Prior to eighteen hundred, California lost on average.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
This is an amazing fact.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
And this goes back to many conversations we've had on
this program in the past. We're discussing cl climate change
and when fires in this country used to roll the
globe just burned out of control before there were any
firefighters to put it out. How much carbon was released
into the environment then. Anyway, California lost on average around
(05:14):
four point five million acres.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
To fire every year.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
By the end of the twentieth century, that average dropped
to around two hundred and fifty thousand acres. What happened
twenty twenty twenty twenty, California suffered a single year loss
of four point three million acres to wild fires. Between
twenty nineteen and twenty twenty three, an average of more
(05:44):
than one point five million acres burned each year.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
What happened?
Speaker 3 (05:52):
What happened those A kid's climate change? No, it's not
freaking climate change. It's not climate change. I'm going to
go through a list here in what was done? Los
(06:13):
Angeles Department of Water and Power in twenty nineteen sought
to widen a fire access road and replace old wooden
utility poles in the Topiyanga Canyon abutting the Palisades, would
steal ones to make the power lines fire and win resistant.
In the process, Cruiser removed then estimate one hundred and
eighty two the various Coca cola, brountins, milkfec plants, and
(06:37):
endangered species. The utility halted the project as state officials
investigated the plant destruction. More than a year later, the
California Coastal Commission issued a ceased in dissorder find the
utility two million dollars in required mitigation for the project's
impact on species. This involved replacing non native vegetation with
(07:01):
plants native to the state. Again again this the only
way to boost the numbers is to let the land
burn I again to get this plant back anyway. Misallocation
of resources again, cutting the budget by seventeen million, which
(07:24):
she says reduced overtime compensation and reduced wildfire preparation three
hundred and fifty million this year and fighter fighter pensions
and benefits. Most of that would have been better spent
on fire prevention, which made up only five percent of
the department's budget. Only five percent of their budget is
fire prevention. Go on Smelt. Delta smelt here restrict the
(07:51):
amount of water that flows from the states north to
the south, led to billions of gallons of water being
flushed out to the Pacific Ocean each year, along with
chronic water shortages, high unemployment, over pump wells, and environmental
degradation in the state's Central Valley. I think it's a
little bit more than the Delta smelt, quite frankly, and
(08:12):
we'll get into that a little bit. There are powers
that be. There are wealthy families here in this country
that control various different commodities. In the past, we've discussed
in the state of Florida, the fan Jewel Brothers, which
control Big Sugar. Again kind of a kind of a
you know, let's go back in time here. Bill Clinton
(08:35):
was on the phone with one of the Fan Jewel
Brothers when you know the Lenwinsky was taking place, by
the way, the other Fanjewel Brothers, the Republican one's Democrat
ones Republican.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
They donate the both.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Parties basically keeping tariffs high on any sugar imports here
into the United States, protecting their business in South Florida.
But we'll get into the you know, the water situation
as well as I get off the beat and track,
you know what, Let's do it.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Now. I can go on and on and on about
all of.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
The the policies in California that had made this problem worse.
There is a family and the informations getting up. Everybody's
known this for some time. Tycoons, if you will, that
(09:24):
own water. Stuart and Linda Resnik they are agricultural tycoons.
Their farms there, they're cash crops in California are almonds
and pistachios. They also have citus groves as well, pomegranates also.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Now do a deep dive if you want to see.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
Where these were almonds and pomegranates and pistachios come from.
They're not native to the United States. It's kind of fascinating.
They're native to areas of the world that particularly you know,
areas in the Middle East, Iran also that yeah, we
(10:11):
don't do a lot of business with, We don't do
a lot of business with. And now again I'm going
to be thinking a couple steps down the line. If
you don't think that sanctions on certain countries are put
in a place to benefit certain businesses and business interests
here in the United States, you're crazy, because they are.
(10:31):
But anyway, these are multi multi billionaires and again big
time donors to environmental causes, democrat causes. They they own
more water than the entire city of Los Angeles, more
(10:53):
water than the entire city of Again, this is a
deal that they struck way back when they have one
hundred and eighty five thousand acres of land and a
steak and what is called the Kern Water Bank. It's
a twenty thousand acre reservoir of water surplus in the
San Joaquin Valley. Now, when they own that and the
(11:14):
state of California needs more water, they sell it back
to California. Now, if you are the resnics here, do
you want to see that water coming down from up
north and flowing down to the south where they don't
like not able to sell their water anymore to the
(11:34):
state of.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Course time.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
Last week on the program I told we mentioned Chinatown
with Jack Nicholson Hey down Away. Fantastic Film at South
Park did a similar episode a couple of years ago.
It was hilarious. It was called the Streaming Wars and
they actually tied in the stuff that was happening on
TV what was going on in California.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
It's a racket, racket.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
Yeah, they've donated close to two billion dollars to these
left wing costs. It's spents cost of doing business. Smart smart, Well,
the same reason why the Saudis and the Russians spend
a fortune donating to all sorts of Greta Thunberg climate
chain stuff, trying to convince us here in the United
(12:28):
States not to develop our own energy resources, so we
have to keep going to them. This is from a
far left wing publication, Mother Jones. Twenty sixty investigation by
Mother Jones found that the resnex agricultural businesses consume more
(12:51):
water in some years than was used by the residents
of Los Angeles and the entire San Francisco Bay Area combined.
Now I'm still trying to figure that out. Because again
the crops that they are growing, crops that they are growing,
(13:15):
they're not They're from the Middle East or from their
very dry regions. It wouldn't seem to me that we
need that much water outside of maybe their citrus growths. Again,
are they pumping water out into the Pacific Ocean Viking.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
China Town? I don't know.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
Probably, probably, But but again there's there's way too much
money at stake. Again, We've watched these very rich, powerful families,
well connected families over the past several years, and again
these people don't care about the country at large. I
(13:53):
can go back to the financial crisis, financial crisis and
one of the two the biggest villions out there was
was named Herb and Marion Sandler Golden West Financial Corporations,
ring a Bell World savings bank. They they took this
(14:16):
savings and loan company of theirs.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
And what they did again, they were touted in.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
The media, oh CEOs of the year. The reality of
the situation. Again this you know, when they sold they
sold their Golden West to what COVID, and that was
the reason why what Covia went under. Okay, I want
forced for COVID to buy it. I don't think. But anyway,
they had this this more this is this type of
(14:47):
people there, Okay, they there was this thing was called
the pick a pay mortgage. It allowed borrowers to pay
less than the interest that was do on their loan
each month, and they would tack that onto the principle.
(15:13):
Do you understand how messed up that is? And some
of these mortgages as well, you couldn't pay them back early.
You couldn't even get out from underneath them. They had
like teaser rates and there was all sorts of penalties
for prepayment, did you I mean? And people's I want
to force it. I get it again. And I'm a
(15:35):
personal responsibility guy as well. But again, capitalism is not
taking advance in my opinion, is not trying to take
advantage of people. And that's exactly who these people were.
And again they were major players in the fall of
finance crisis. In fact, I've cited before, there was a
(15:56):
Saturday Night Live skit probably one of the most honest
Saturday Night Live skits of all time during the financial crisis,
which they were featured in it, and under the cry
on underneath their name during.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
The skit was people people who should be shot the
next day.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
The next day, the left wing of STOPA went after
Saturnite Live, made them edit that skit never to be
seen from again. They cut all of that out. They
actually went after George Soros in that skit as well.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
It was phenomenal.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
But anyway, fixing, fixing the problem, fixing the blame.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
What should we do.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
In this case, In this as in many cases right now,
I think we have to we have to acknowledge the
fact that fixing the problem is going to involve it's
it's it's not a simple fix because you're dealing with
(17:00):
an ideology. You're dealing with a belief systems cult like
that that people have in that area, in that area
where you know it's again that's you know, that's all
they know, that's all they know is Democrats are the
greatest things ever.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
Again, I've had this conversation a couple of times over
the course of this weekend. You know, it's you know,
the politics of California're going to change after all of
the incompetence. I don't know, I don't, I don't. I
think people again, once you're it's difficult to get people
out of a cult.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
It really is. It's very very.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Difficult, especially if that you know, cult is putting money
on the table and being a member of that cult
is putting money on the table. Like again, it helps
if you're in Hollywood, There's no.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
Doubt about it.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
We'll talk about you know, the people that are in
charge and you know the need to fix the blame
and people are talking about negligence and such a you know,
grab this this is you know from again, this is
from AI. Here the elements of the tort of negligence.
The tortive negligence involves a failure to exercise the care
(18:20):
that a reasonably prudent person would exercise in similar circumstances,
leading to harm. The elements of negligence in most legal
jurisdictions include the duty of care. The defendant must owe
a duty of care to the plaintiff. This means there
must be a legal obligation for the defendant to act
or refrain from acting in a way that could foreseeably
(18:40):
harm others.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Breach of duty.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
De must have breached this duty by not acting as
a reasonable person would under the same circumstances. This involves
evaluating where the defendant's actions are inactions fall below the
standard of care expected causation. There must be a direct
link between the breach of duty and the injury or
damage suffered by the plaintiff. Cause in fact, actual cause
(19:03):
with the harm have occurred, but for the defendants' actions,
often tested by the butt four test, proximate cause, the
harm must be reasonably foreseeable results of the defendant's negligence.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Now again, cause, in fact, these fires are going to happen.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
They again, even all the and I believe this to
be the case. All the mitigation efforts in the entire
world were followed, and they were done the right way.
There was still been a fire, it just wouldn't have
been as bad. And again to get into damages when
it comes into this tort of negligence, my concern is
(19:45):
this a concern?
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Is this okay?
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Part of fixing the problem in this case is fixing
the blame is you have to you have to replace,
you have to replace the people that allowed this mess
to happen. I believe that most definitely to be the case. Again,
(20:10):
there's been talk now and you know a Republicans want
to attach strings money going to California for eight Listen,
would we.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Have allowed Bernie made off.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
Bernie made off to say, oh, you know what, I
had this Ponzi scheme for years, you know, keep me
in charge of the Ponzi scheme and I'll fix it,
allowing the same people to, you know, the cause that
were major part of the problem that in many cases here,
according to de tortive negligence, are could be liable for
(20:46):
this problem if they weren't elected officials. Elected officials are
never held to any account where they're supposed to be
held account at the ballot box. But again that hasn't
worked in California. And again, you know, what do we
do as a society.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
What do we do? What do we do as taxpayers?
Speaker 3 (21:07):
What do we do as taxpayers when you know, policies
of certain states are negligent and forces the rest of
the body politic around the country to have to pay
for these things. Again, I don't know, I know, but
(21:28):
that's where we're at.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
I mean, we can go back.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
You can take a look at the destruction the devastation
took place in North Carolina, Spain as well with the floods.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Why well, environmental wackos.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
Listen again, I mentioned it begins podcasts Man has been
battling against the elements in nature since we were thrown
out of the garden kids.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Okay, that has been a fact of life.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
If you are going to live in these areas, you
have to be able to take you know, mitigate the problem.
And one way, I actually watched a video today again
I've been deep diving in a lot of the stuff.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
These are These are.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
Communities, communities in Japan. Oh yeah, to go see this
is so cool. There are communities in Japan that there
are certain areas where they're prone to fire, but they
have this, you know, these thatch roofs they actually have.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
It's so bloody cool. It's like fire.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
Like cannons come out from underneath the ground and can
spray the entire area in cases of fire to protect it.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Black cool. Again, if you want to live in certain places,
you got to protect yourself a get this. It's it's
not just fires.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
You know. There's certain areas of the world where an
earthquake will occur. Remember the earthquake, whether it be in Haiti,
whether and whether it be in one in Turkey, one
in Iran where the construction there is different than it
(23:23):
is in other areas. Oh jeez, Okay, we're in an
area that's prone to hurricanes. We better design our buildings
a certain way. It's like, oh, we got better technology now.
I live in the state of Florida prone to hurricanes.
You know the technology is available today, won't you. I
can have glass one hundred and fifty mile hour impact
(23:46):
glass for crinel Well, you know, did all these things
to help me.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
There's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
But you can't overpopulate an area that is prone to
fires without taking the necessary steps, or eventually this bad
stuff is going.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
To happen.
Speaker 3 (24:05):
Was this a natural Sure is a natural disaster that
was made much worse by negligence, much much worse. And again,
you know, talk a little bit quickly will end here
on again the left wing media, they've taken to text
(24:28):
right now in order to change the narrative. Jensaki, who again,
you know God for me? I mean, she makes my
skin crawl again, she makes my skin crawl to watch
(24:50):
these people go on TV and just why to try
to blame again in essence, blame the situation in California
on Trump and Elon.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
I'm not kidding, I'm not kidding.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
You see how evil these people are to the core
Elon Musk was their hero making electric cars not too
long ago anyway. And the other one is this again,
the smart people the.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
Atlantic, the Atlantic. Yes, sorry, yes, very very intelligent writers.
We got a very very smart.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
People, basically basically putting out again, can't make this up
a piece saying that, well, we know that there was
a fire, but at least at least everybody in California
had good intentions.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
Like I think most of the people know that.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
The line about you know, the road to hell being
paved with good intention, I mean they actually did an
article about this. Oh, but everybody had great intentions. What again,
whether it be Washington, d C. Whether it be a
state capital, they're cathedrals, cathedrals of unintended consequences. Again, I
(26:16):
pray for all of the people out there. I don't
care what side of the aisle you are on. So
awful is truly truly awful, beautiful, beautiful place. Again, what
you know, one of the things we can hope for
is obviously relief for the people there in more ways
than one, and that you know, God willingly you know
(26:39):
when disasters happen, bad things happen, hopefully hopefully a lesson
a lesson can be learned and maybe maybe things will
be better again. You know, maybe I'm you know, glasses
half full type of guy right in this period of time.
But again it's something most certainly we should all hope for.
(27:02):
Watchdog on Wall Street dot com
The Watchdog on Wall Street podcast explaining the news coming
out of the complex worlds of finance, economics, and politics
and the impact it we'll have on everyday Americans. Author,
investment banker, consumer advocate, analyst, and trader Chris Markowski.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Fix the problem or fix the blame.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
That's a line from the movie Rising Sun Sean Connery,
was delivered by him in that movie he talked about
at the time, it was the nineteen eighties and when
Michael Crichton wrote that novel, the Japanese were killing it
as far as business was concerned, and he said that,
(00:42):
you know, that's what they do. Part of Japanese cultures
fixed the problem rather than fix the blame. And again
it was a movie, and there's a lot wrong with
that state. But anyway, let's take that and put that aside.
Let's bring this up and we'll talk about this in
terms of the California fires, because we have been inundated
with sound bites and half troops and you know, information
(01:05):
here there and everywhere, social media posts and again this
you cannot watch what's going on, and just they'd be
completely heartbroken by what has taken place. Again, I by
no stretching the imagination have never had to deal with
(01:26):
anything like that. You can't put yourself in one's position
when you lose everything and that quickly, and you watch
the videos of it. Again, the easy thing to do,
the easy thing to do, and quite frankly, it's it's
something that it's part of okay, fixing the problem is
(01:46):
you have to, you know, again, pull a problem up
or you know, if you're like pulling weeds, you can't
just pull the weed up by the top.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
You got to pull it up by its roots.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
But we're going to do is we're going to break
down various different areas of what's taking place with the
media and the bs that's come coming out, the environmental
issues that are California, and quite frankly, the reality that
is California. Now, I said this this past we kind
of talked about it last week on the podcast.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
First and foremost, what happened in.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
California is not, by definition, a black Swan event.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
It's not.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
These things happen all the time. This is actually a
great piece by Tom McClintock today and it's fascinating. With
Juan Cabrillo dropped anchor in what is now Los Angeles
is San Pedro Bay. In the autumn of fifteen forty
(02:47):
two he named it the Bay of Smokes. Annual wildfires
that obviously I've got and it's coming again today, the
Santa Ane of winds. These are nothing new to southern California.
I've talked about this here on the program. It is
(03:08):
nature's way of cleaning house in dry climates. It is
nature gardening. Talked about the sequoiatry last week on the program.
Nature doesn't it's just gonna it's gonna do with what
it does.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
It doesn't matter. They don't care about your home value.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
Nature doesn't care about any of those things. Throughout the
twentieth century. Again, and it has human beings advance. It's
a it's a constant battle against the forces of nature,
the realities of nature. And again we've talked about this
(03:55):
in the past when we've discussed earthquakes and wealthy areas
versus poor areas. Again, there's a lot that goes into this.
But anyway, here in the United States, we had various
different land management agencies to do some of this, supposedly
some of this gardening that needs to be done before
(04:18):
Mother Nature does it. We removed excess timber, creating resilient
fire resistant force, thriving mountain economies, and a lucrative source
of public revenue. We leased public lands to sheep and
cattle ranchers. A stock kept brush from building up. We
established competent infrastructure to stop fires from getting out of control.
(04:38):
We cut fire brakes into the soil to contain flames.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
It's amazing.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Prior to eighteen hundred, California lost on average.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
This is an amazing fact.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
And this goes back to many conversations we've had on
this program in the past. We're discussing cl climate change
and when fires in this country used to roll the
globe just burned out of control before there were any
firefighters to put it out. How much carbon was released
into the environment then. Anyway, California lost on average around
(05:14):
four point five million acres.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
To fire every year.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
By the end of the twentieth century, that average dropped
to around two hundred and fifty thousand acres. What happened
twenty twenty twenty twenty, California suffered a single year loss
of four point three million acres to wild fires. Between
twenty nineteen and twenty twenty three, an average of more
(05:44):
than one point five million acres burned each year.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
What happened?
Speaker 3 (05:52):
What happened those A kid's climate change? No, it's not
freaking climate change. It's not climate change. I'm going to
go through a list here in what was done? Los
(06:13):
Angeles Department of Water and Power in twenty nineteen sought
to widen a fire access road and replace old wooden
utility poles in the Topiyanga Canyon abutting the Palisades, would
steal ones to make the power lines fire and win resistant.
In the process, Cruiser removed then estimate one hundred and
eighty two the various Coca cola, brountins, milkfec plants, and
(06:37):
endangered species. The utility halted the project as state officials
investigated the plant destruction. More than a year later, the
California Coastal Commission issued a ceased in dissorder find the
utility two million dollars in required mitigation for the project's
impact on species. This involved replacing non native vegetation with
(07:01):
plants native to the state. Again again this the only
way to boost the numbers is to let the land
burn I again to get this plant back anyway. Misallocation
of resources again, cutting the budget by seventeen million, which
(07:24):
she says reduced overtime compensation and reduced wildfire preparation three
hundred and fifty million this year and fighter fighter pensions
and benefits. Most of that would have been better spent
on fire prevention, which made up only five percent of
the department's budget. Only five percent of their budget is
fire prevention. Go on Smelt. Delta smelt here restrict the
(07:51):
amount of water that flows from the states north to
the south, led to billions of gallons of water being
flushed out to the Pacific Ocean each year, along with
chronic water shortages, high unemployment, over pump wells, and environmental
degradation in the state's Central Valley. I think it's a
little bit more than the Delta smelt, quite frankly, and
(08:12):
we'll get into that a little bit. There are powers
that be. There are wealthy families here in this country
that control various different commodities. In the past, we've discussed
in the state of Florida, the fan Jewel Brothers, which
control Big Sugar. Again kind of a kind of a
you know, let's go back in time here. Bill Clinton
(08:35):
was on the phone with one of the Fan Jewel
Brothers when you know the Lenwinsky was taking place, by
the way, the other Fanjewel Brothers, the Republican one's Democrat
ones Republican.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
They donate the both.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Parties basically keeping tariffs high on any sugar imports here
into the United States, protecting their business in South Florida.
But we'll get into the you know, the water situation
as well as I get off the beat and track,
you know what, Let's do it.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Now. I can go on and on and on about
all of.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
The the policies in California that had made this problem worse.
There is a family and the informations getting up. Everybody's
known this for some time. Tycoons, if you will, that
(09:24):
own water. Stuart and Linda Resnik they are agricultural tycoons.
Their farms there, they're cash crops in California are almonds
and pistachios. They also have citus groves as well, pomegranates also.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Now do a deep dive if you want to see.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
Where these were almonds and pomegranates and pistachios come from.
They're not native to the United States. It's kind of fascinating.
They're native to areas of the world that particularly you know,
areas in the Middle East, Iran also that yeah, we
(10:11):
don't do a lot of business with, We don't do
a lot of business with. And now again I'm going
to be thinking a couple steps down the line. If
you don't think that sanctions on certain countries are put
in a place to benefit certain businesses and business interests
here in the United States, you're crazy, because they are.
(10:31):
But anyway, these are multi multi billionaires and again big
time donors to environmental causes, democrat causes. They they own
more water than the entire city of Los Angeles, more
(10:53):
water than the entire city of Again, this is a
deal that they struck way back when they have one
hundred and eighty five thousand acres of land and a
steak and what is called the Kern Water Bank. It's
a twenty thousand acre reservoir of water surplus in the
San Joaquin Valley. Now, when they own that and the
(11:14):
state of California needs more water, they sell it back
to California. Now, if you are the resnics here, do
you want to see that water coming down from up
north and flowing down to the south where they don't
like not able to sell their water anymore to the
(11:34):
state of.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Course time.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
Last week on the program I told we mentioned Chinatown
with Jack Nicholson Hey down Away. Fantastic Film at South
Park did a similar episode a couple of years ago.
It was hilarious. It was called the Streaming Wars and
they actually tied in the stuff that was happening on
TV what was going on in California.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
It's a racket, racket.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
Yeah, they've donated close to two billion dollars to these
left wing costs. It's spents cost of doing business. Smart smart, Well,
the same reason why the Saudis and the Russians spend
a fortune donating to all sorts of Greta Thunberg climate
chain stuff, trying to convince us here in the United
(12:28):
States not to develop our own energy resources, so we
have to keep going to them. This is from a
far left wing publication, Mother Jones. Twenty sixty investigation by
Mother Jones found that the resnex agricultural businesses consume more
(12:51):
water in some years than was used by the residents
of Los Angeles and the entire San Francisco Bay Area combined.
Now I'm still trying to figure that out. Because again
the crops that they are growing, crops that they are growing,
(13:15):
they're not They're from the Middle East or from their
very dry regions. It wouldn't seem to me that we
need that much water outside of maybe their citrus growths. Again,
are they pumping water out into the Pacific Ocean Viking.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
China Town? I don't know.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
Probably, probably, But but again there's there's way too much
money at stake. Again, We've watched these very rich, powerful families,
well connected families over the past several years, and again
these people don't care about the country at large. I
(13:53):
can go back to the financial crisis, financial crisis and
one of the two the biggest villions out there was
was named Herb and Marion Sandler Golden West Financial Corporations,
ring a Bell World savings bank. They they took this
(14:16):
savings and loan company of theirs.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
And what they did again, they were touted in.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
The media, oh CEOs of the year. The reality of
the situation. Again this you know, when they sold they
sold their Golden West to what COVID, and that was
the reason why what Covia went under. Okay, I want
forced for COVID to buy it. I don't think. But anyway,
they had this this more this is this type of
(14:47):
people there, Okay, they there was this thing was called
the pick a pay mortgage. It allowed borrowers to pay
less than the interest that was do on their loan
each month, and they would tack that onto the principle.
(15:13):
Do you understand how messed up that is? And some
of these mortgages as well, you couldn't pay them back early.
You couldn't even get out from underneath them. They had
like teaser rates and there was all sorts of penalties
for prepayment, did you I mean? And people's I want
to force it. I get it again. And I'm a
(15:35):
personal responsibility guy as well. But again, capitalism is not
taking advance in my opinion, is not trying to take
advantage of people. And that's exactly who these people were.
And again they were major players in the fall of
finance crisis. In fact, I've cited before, there was a
(15:56):
Saturday Night Live skit probably one of the most honest
Saturday Night Live skits of all time during the financial crisis,
which they were featured in it, and under the cry
on underneath their name during.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
The skit was people people who should be shot the
next day.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
The next day, the left wing of STOPA went after
Saturnite Live, made them edit that skit never to be
seen from again. They cut all of that out. They
actually went after George Soros in that skit as well.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
It was phenomenal.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
But anyway, fixing, fixing the problem, fixing the blame.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
What should we do.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
In this case, In this as in many cases right now,
I think we have to we have to acknowledge the
fact that fixing the problem is going to involve it's
it's it's not a simple fix because you're dealing with
(17:00):
an ideology. You're dealing with a belief systems cult like
that that people have in that area, in that area
where you know it's again that's you know, that's all
they know, that's all they know is Democrats are the
greatest things ever.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
Again, I've had this conversation a couple of times over
the course of this weekend. You know, it's you know,
the politics of California're going to change after all of
the incompetence. I don't know, I don't, I don't. I
think people again, once you're it's difficult to get people
out of a cult.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
It really is. It's very very.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Difficult, especially if that you know, cult is putting money
on the table and being a member of that cult
is putting money on the table. Like again, it helps
if you're in Hollywood, There's no.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
Doubt about it.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
We'll talk about you know, the people that are in
charge and you know the need to fix the blame
and people are talking about negligence and such a you know,
grab this this is you know from again, this is
from AI. Here the elements of the tort of negligence.
The tortive negligence involves a failure to exercise the care
(18:20):
that a reasonably prudent person would exercise in similar circumstances,
leading to harm. The elements of negligence in most legal
jurisdictions include the duty of care. The defendant must owe
a duty of care to the plaintiff. This means there
must be a legal obligation for the defendant to act
or refrain from acting in a way that could foreseeably
(18:40):
harm others.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Breach of duty.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
De must have breached this duty by not acting as
a reasonable person would under the same circumstances. This involves
evaluating where the defendant's actions are inactions fall below the
standard of care expected causation. There must be a direct
link between the breach of duty and the injury or
damage suffered by the plaintiff. Cause in fact, actual cause
(19:03):
with the harm have occurred, but for the defendants' actions,
often tested by the butt four test, proximate cause, the
harm must be reasonably foreseeable results of the defendant's negligence.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Now again, cause, in fact, these fires are going to happen.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
They again, even all the and I believe this to
be the case. All the mitigation efforts in the entire
world were followed, and they were done the right way.
There was still been a fire, it just wouldn't have
been as bad. And again to get into damages when
it comes into this tort of negligence, my concern is
(19:45):
this a concern?
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Is this okay?
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Part of fixing the problem in this case is fixing
the blame is you have to you have to replace,
you have to replace the people that allowed this mess
to happen. I believe that most definitely to be the case. Again,
(20:10):
there's been talk now and you know a Republicans want
to attach strings money going to California for eight Listen,
would we.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Have allowed Bernie made off.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
Bernie made off to say, oh, you know what, I
had this Ponzi scheme for years, you know, keep me
in charge of the Ponzi scheme and I'll fix it,
allowing the same people to, you know, the cause that
were major part of the problem that in many cases here,
according to de tortive negligence, are could be liable for
(20:46):
this problem if they weren't elected officials. Elected officials are
never held to any account where they're supposed to be
held account at the ballot box. But again that hasn't
worked in California. And again, you know, what do we
do as a society.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
What do we do? What do we do as taxpayers?
Speaker 3 (21:07):
What do we do as taxpayers when you know, policies
of certain states are negligent and forces the rest of
the body politic around the country to have to pay
for these things. Again, I don't know, I know, but
(21:28):
that's where we're at.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
I mean, we can go back.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
You can take a look at the destruction the devastation
took place in North Carolina, Spain as well with the floods.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Why well, environmental wackos.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
Listen again, I mentioned it begins podcasts Man has been
battling against the elements in nature since we were thrown
out of the garden kids.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Okay, that has been a fact of life.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
If you are going to live in these areas, you
have to be able to take you know, mitigate the problem.
And one way, I actually watched a video today again
I've been deep diving in a lot of the stuff.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
These are These are.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
Communities, communities in Japan. Oh yeah, to go see this
is so cool. There are communities in Japan that there
are certain areas where they're prone to fire, but they
have this, you know, these thatch roofs they actually have.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
It's so bloody cool. It's like fire.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
Like cannons come out from underneath the ground and can
spray the entire area in cases of fire to protect it.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Black cool. Again, if you want to live in certain places,
you got to protect yourself a get this. It's it's
not just fires.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
You know. There's certain areas of the world where an
earthquake will occur. Remember the earthquake, whether it be in Haiti,
whether and whether it be in one in Turkey, one
in Iran where the construction there is different than it
(23:23):
is in other areas. Oh jeez, Okay, we're in an
area that's prone to hurricanes. We better design our buildings
a certain way. It's like, oh, we got better technology now.
I live in the state of Florida prone to hurricanes.
You know the technology is available today, won't you. I
can have glass one hundred and fifty mile hour impact
(23:46):
glass for crinel Well, you know, did all these things
to help me.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
There's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
But you can't overpopulate an area that is prone to
fires without taking the necessary steps, or eventually this bad
stuff is going.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
To happen.
Speaker 3 (24:05):
Was this a natural Sure is a natural disaster that
was made much worse by negligence, much much worse. And again,
you know, talk a little bit quickly will end here
on again the left wing media, they've taken to text
(24:28):
right now in order to change the narrative. Jensaki, who again,
you know God for me? I mean, she makes my
skin crawl again, she makes my skin crawl to watch
(24:50):
these people go on TV and just why to try
to blame again in essence, blame the situation in California
on Trump and Elon.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
I'm not kidding, I'm not kidding.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
You see how evil these people are to the core
Elon Musk was their hero making electric cars not too
long ago anyway. And the other one is this again,
the smart people the.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
Atlantic, the Atlantic. Yes, sorry, yes, very very intelligent writers.
We got a very very smart.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
People, basically basically putting out again, can't make this up
a piece saying that, well, we know that there was
a fire, but at least at least everybody in California
had good intentions.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
Like I think most of the people know that.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
The line about you know, the road to hell being
paved with good intention, I mean they actually did an
article about this. Oh, but everybody had great intentions. What again,
whether it be Washington, d C. Whether it be a
state capital, they're cathedrals, cathedrals of unintended consequences. Again, I
(26:16):
pray for all of the people out there. I don't
care what side of the aisle you are on. So
awful is truly truly awful, beautiful, beautiful place. Again, what
you know, one of the things we can hope for
is obviously relief for the people there in more ways
than one, and that you know, God willingly you know
(26:39):
when disasters happen, bad things happen, hopefully hopefully a lesson
a lesson can be learned and maybe maybe things will
be better again. You know, maybe I'm you know, glasses
half full type of guy right in this period of time.
But again it's something most certainly we should all hope for.
(27:02):
Watchdog on Wall Street dot com
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