Retrospect
Retrospect
The California Wildfires Crisis | Retrospect Ep.172
In this week’s episode we discussed the recent wildfires that have swept across California. We explore the causes, impact, and ongoing efforts to combat the devastation. From insurance companies to governmental incompetence, we discuss the broader implications of the effects of the fires. Tune in for an insightful look at this ongoing crisis and its long-term effects on the state and beyond.
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Ian
Welcome to the retrospect podcast, a show where people come together from different walks of life and discuss a topic from the generations perspective. My name is Ian, and as always, I'm joined by Stoney,
Stoney
hello
Ian
and Jason
Jason
hello everyone.
Stoney
How's it going?
Well, it's hot in California. It's hot in California, and I heard it's also like snowing and frigid on the east coast. So we're, yeah, I think it's from, I saw some long range forecast models, and looks like it's going to be getting a lot colder, really. Yeah,
Jason
I know for our area, I think there's we might be, we might be getting down to the 20s. Really, they've
Stoney
had some videos of Lake Michigan icing over and big ice chunks just floating all up the waves and everything, really, yep. And another ice age. Oh, yeah. Global warming is here to stay. And we got another ice age coming. Yeah, I
Jason
think, I think that's so we've, we've turned some of this stuff so political now, and, of course, and you know, you know, you had people saying that the oceans are going to cover everything by, you know, 50 years from, you know, just crazy talk. They've been
Stoney
saying that for a long time, and none of their predictions have come true. Crazy Talk, none of them true. The only thing that has come true is they've gotten richer.
Jason
They've gotten richer, yep. Well, I'm right now. Just kind of a re personal note, I'm getting ready to run the Louisiana marathon. There you go, coming up at the end of this week, at the time of this recording. You know, everybody we record on Monday, so it'll be this coming Sunday.
Stoney
So by the time you hear this, you'll already be passed out, exactly
Jason
done my deal. Well, I'm doing the half. I'm not doing the full. The full will be in Little Rock for me, and I'm still trying to see how my body's gonna hold up. That's supposed
Stoney
to be a little bit cooler weather. How does that react to your running? Or does your running react? Well,
Jason
it's can be just bad. Depends on how cold it is. For me, I don't like cold, cold weather, right? Running to me, ideal around to me, starting would be about 52 degrees. That to me, would be perfect. Okay? Because it's not too cold, it's not hot, and it's just the right amount of of, you know, right there in that sweet spot. But trying to find
Stoney
Sunday looks like it's the highest 54 and the lowest 30 with a 0% chance that Sunday
Jason
night or Sunday morning. I'm trying to because, because I know there's a front moving through, I'm just trying to figure out when the
Stoney
front moves through Saturday so, and that's a 68 to 43 so I don't know is the 43 Sunday morning, or that may
Jason
be 43 Sunday morning, which would be tolerable. But it means it's gonna stay it's gonna be getting colder during the day.
Stoney
Monday or Tuesday will be in the mid 20s, yeah, so I thought
Ian
that's crazy.
Jason
It's cold. That's chilly, yeah, yeah. Well, as I said, he can stay cold as long as I can stay inside. Of course, it can be cold all at once. As long as I can be inside, then I'm fine, but I've got to go run in that then, yeah, the 40s can be a little chilly. Now, I know a couple friends of mine, they that to me. They love that 40s.
Stoney
Mm, hmm. I love the 40s. I'd rather be 40 than really,
Jason
oh yeah. But so yeah, so I'll be doing well. You got to
Stoney
look at it like this. You can always layer up. You can always add another piece of clothes if it gets colder, but you can only take off so many if it gets hotter before it really gets embarrassing or arrest worthy.
Jason
Yeah. Well, that's why, to me, I don't like it too hot. I don't like it too cold. I like it somewhere in the middle, Goldilocks, unfortunately, unfortunately. I cannot, I cannot get that happy medium that
Stoney
well. In the Stoney house, we live within a two degree window, all right, with hottie Doctor Miranda, where she's comfortable, okay, she's either too cold, one degree, two degrees too hot. Got it so there is a two degree window. Is it 72 to 74 No, 70 to 72 okay, that's close. Okay, all right,
Jason
right. Now I think I my my heater was on at my house. I had it set for 70 right? That's about where I like it.
Ian
I like to usually, I I usually sit it a lot colder when I'm sleeping, so I'll probably set it to like 68
Jason
Well, the medical journals, I don't need to heat it on during the night. No,
Stoney
yeah, they say 64 to 68 is the optimum temperature to get your best night's sleep. 64 to 68 Yeah.
Ian
The only time I'll turn the heater on, like, because this house is kind of is lifted. It does get quite cold, like, especially, yeah, Florida, yeah, no insulation. So I'll, I'll set it to, like, 6566 whatever, like, because, like, sometimes it can't, like, in here, it can get pretty cold during the night, especially when it gets those, like, really, really cold nights. But I don't do that all the time. Yeah,
Jason
I bundle up at night. Oh, yeah, I can't when it gets hot. I can't sleep at night. I've got to have it cold, yeah? But during the day, when I get up, I want it to kind of knock the chill out of the air. Yeah, nice. So, but yeah. So it's been a this past week was good.
Stoney
And Miranda has, like, 15 layers, okay, on her side, yes, I have three, right? She has 15. Got it. And it's all night, ON OFF, ON OFF, more off, more on, more off, more on. There you go.
Ian
A little dance threatened
Stoney
to get her one of those little cooler heaters that sit at the foot of the bed and come up through the sheet, and it's between the sheet and the mattress, all right? And you set it at a temperature and it blows whatever temperature that is through the sheets, really? Yeah, I need to get her that's interesting.
Jason
Well, yeah, y'all had a good, good way. Yeah, I just sent y'all last
Ian
recording. I just recently watched Nosferatu, and I can't imagine anybody wants to bring their kids to go watch that, but I would definitely recommend do not bring your kids to go watch that movie. It's a bit traumatizing. It is like a, it is like a classical horror film, right? They even have, like, the kind of they don't, they don't reveal Nosferatu right at the beginning. Of course, he's all, he's all in mystery and hidden. And then whenever you get that reveal it, you're like, oh God. And it's really cool. I thought it was a really wonderful movie. It was beautifully shot. The acting in it. The main actress is Johnny Depp's daughter. I believe she did a phenomenal job. It was, it was, it's all I could ask for from, like a, like, a really cool, great horror movie,
Jason
what did they go in and talk about, where does Nosferatu come from? A
Ian
little bit they have, like, an old like, I think at some point in time, they kind of talk about, like the the curse of what he is and how to kind of take care of him and that, or how to get rid of him in that regard. But I don't think I want to, at least not that I remember as long I only watched it once. So there may be some more nuanced things I can pick out after like a second or third viewing. So, but I would definitely recommend, if you, if you want, like, a gothic style, like 1800s horror, psychological body horror, kind of, right, kind of crazy, like, I would definitely recommend it. It was so good. Have
Jason
you ever? Did you ever watch Penny Dreadful when it came out on Showtime? I It was a series. I just
Ian
had a friend who recommended that I should watch
Jason
any dreadful what's her name? Ever green, Eva, green, or whatever name is that actress from? I think she's from, if she's from England or somewhere. I love her. I think she's beautiful, and I think she does a great job in those roles, yeah, but she's in it. But, you know, that's all the Classic Monsters, you know, there's, there's, you know, Frankenstein, there's the wolf man, and there's
Ian
speaking of the same, the same entertainment company, focus, focus entertainment, or whatever that made Nosferatu, I think is making a wolf man? Oh, they're making them looks, it looks nasty, yeah.
Jason
Well, look, they talk about body horror when it comes to werewolf. I mean, I've always been partial to the werewolf, and when it comes to the monsters like the werewolf, you know, you've all talked about the werewolf versus the vampire and all that stuff. But yeah, I've enjoyed that, like the howling, you know, or the American Werewolf in London. Yeah, was some of the classics that I remember. But yeah, good stuff, some of those shows. But
Stoney
yeah, they don't make them anymore, like they used to, like the movie fire starter.
Jason
Oh yeah, that was a Stephen King. Yes, Stephen King. Stephen, Stephen King made a lot of movies. A lot of it's some of these movies have come out are remakes from Stephen King's books. Yeah, yeah. And it's amazing some of the things that he's written, a matter of fact, I think, was the, was it with the movie with Tom Hanks, the prison movie, where the Green Mile, The Green Mile, I believe that was Stephen King really double check that. I believe that was Stephen King wrote that. Or, yeah, I think it was Stephen King,
Ian
yeah. Story by Stephen King, yeah.
Jason
So I thought, I mean, so he's, he's a great writer. I mean, he can really come up with all kind of stuff, like, you know, like the dark tower and, yeah, a lot of those kind of movies, but right stuff that
Stoney
was really trying to segue into our subject for today. Oh, apparently, some fire starters in California, the fires in California, okay, well, and the incompetence of the Liberal Party over there, and what Do you think is going on over there?
Jason
I think you've got, you've got a state government in in cahoots with local governments over there that don't seem to understand how nature works. The fact of the matter is, there has always been wildfires right in California and even in other places. The problem is, is now people are living there where these fires, you should be able to just rage and do their thing, and they, you know, clear out all the dead, underbrush, re fertilize the ground. And what does nature do? It regrows new. You know, new. See,
Stoney
that's part of the problem. Last year, there were 13,909 fires started by homeless individuals. There has been zero forest management. Last year, exactly, the mayor cut the fire department funding in the city by $17 million firefighters were fired for not getting vaccinated. They launched a dei Bureau instead of focusing on training, no water because California didn't fill the reservoirs because they were funneling the water back to the ocean to save a small fish. They gave firefighting equipment to the Ukraine in 2022 and big insurance companies have left California due to over regulation and poor fire prevention management. Yeah, wow, not everything is conspiracy. Some things are just factual, yeah, and called liberal incompetence, yeah.
Jason
I just, I'm saying, I think it's a, I'm reading right now, a really good article from the hill, just kind of really goes back in 2020, I the Trump White House introduced a water conservation measure, measure it was designed to balance environmental concerns with critical water needs for California's farms and communities. At that time, Governor Newsom's administration filed a lawsuit to block the implementation of this particular measure, citing protection of a tiny fish called the Delta smelt. And so unfortunately, as a result of that, nothing has been done, and we are living with a disaster. And now, look, I don't want to get into another state's business too much, because I mean the politics of that state is what it is, and the people there for whatever reason, continue to vote for people that are stupid that want to implement these kind of policies. Well, I think for the first time, I think those very same people are now waking up to the realization that maybe what we're doing is not the ideal way of managing fires in this state, because there has been a number of celebrities, oh yeah, those of homes have been completely lost. And as Stoney mentioned, with the insurance crisis deepening in that state, you know, State Farm pulled out, yeah, if you recall state basically, State Farm wanted to raise rates, right? California said no. Not only did California say no, then they said, Well, you gonna have to insure all these other people. So what does State Farm do? Okay? They basically said, You know what, if you're not going to allow us to raise rates and you're making us expand our liability portfolio, because that's exactly what was happening, we're just going to leave the state. And so for for a lot of people in California, they also have a insurer of last resort in that state. It's very similar to what we have here in our state, but it only covers about $3 million in damages, which is nothing for California residents. Well,
Stoney
I want to touch on two things at that point. One, if we remember, Donald Trump was mocked for sounding the alarm in California Water, Fire crisis during his interview with Joe Rogan. Do you remember that he went on about a seven minute rant about the issue, blasting Newsome for not doing anything to fix the problem? He specifically discussed the California Delta smelt controversy, that where the rainwater was being wasted directed into the Pacific Ocean. I mean, you're just pissing your water away at that point. So he was right again about this, and it's a right now. They're estimating this to be about $150 billion loss so far. That's that's up till today, not counting it's still burning right? And then sleepy Joe Biden, from the Biden crime family, comes out and says, We're behind California 100% and the government is going to 100% fix this and resolve this issue. No. California needs to get the same $750 loan that the North Carolina people, yeah, there's, I don't give a rat's ass. If they have a $50 million mansion that burned down, you get $750 just like the people in North Carolina got. And by the way, that's not a gift. That was a loan from the US government that has to be paid back, and the people in California need to get that too. No more, not a dime more. If I'm not mistaken,
Ian
I think some insurance companies have also hopped out of Louisiana for some similar reasons.
Jason
I think you
Stoney
the flooding and hurricane. I
Jason
don't know what the issue is. And this is where I think that you know when it comes to insurance, and that's a whole new that's a whole nother episode. We can talk about insurance and what communities are allowing to be built in certain areas, not thinking of kind of the collateral effects of allowing that. And I know people gonna get all upset about that. Well, you know, I live where I choose to live, and on and on and on, right? Well, that's fine. Well, then build your home with your own money. The same thing can be said. You can get a loan, if somebody will loan you with money, with no with no insurance, or you can get somebody else then, then do it. But unfortunately, it's like we have here. We've allowed people to build in the flood plying.
Ian
Oh, yeah, I was gonna say there's some people that live on, like, on the shore front properties in Florida. It's like, those are wonderful, beautiful properties. But like, you're also
Stoney
like, but here's the problem, that is, they and I wish I'd have known we were going in this direction. I would have brought it. There was a study done okay of the continental United States right where nothing has happened, no ice storms, no blizzards, no hurricanes, no earthquakes, no flooding, nothing. And there's about a six square mile area right in the middle of the country that was in right below Tornado Alley, but now, since they are moving Tornado Alley down into Louisiana, yeah, that's no longer there. So I'm sorry, no matter where you are in America, you stand a chance of something happening. Of course, hurricane, tornado, Blizzard, snow, flood, earthquake, something. There's no place you can go and be safe Well, and that's part of the problem. When you decide you want to be an insurance company. That's the risk you take.
Jason
Well, the well, that's I'm saying, if that's the case. And look, I'm no, no fan of the insurance industry. But I mean, the reality is, and every bit, every business that operates operates with, you know, a board of directors, and they have to report dividends and stockholders and and they're going to be looking at how much money is this company making. Should I invest in this company? And as long as insurance is a private entity? Yeah, then it's always going to be, at the end of the day, how much money am I making? What's the point? Why do I Why am I in this bit? If I can't make money and I can't mitigate my risk, then why am I in this business?
Stoney
Right? But you know what, with all of the things going on, they can still make $40 billion in profit last year. Okay, so they're still making money, still losing everything, and they're making $40 billion
Jason
they're making 40 billion because they deny a lot of claims. Now,
Stoney
what you also have to understand is, is that's not 40 billion profit last year. The way that works is, that's how much more profit than they made the year before. Right? Okay, so they still made, so let's just say, in 2022 they made $22 billion in profit. Okay, so what that is, is, how much more did they make than that? So technically, they made $66 billion in profit. But we're not going to report the early amount, because that's what we made, but it's still on top of that. That's so it's bullshit,
Jason
is what it is. I didn't realize this with I learned about how insurance agents, how they make their money, yeah, and part of their income, or whether it comes in the form of a bonus or something. But in essence, all their policy holders that are under that particular agent if, if there's no major claims, is there no things like then they get a big they get a check. What they don't like is when people have to have a new roof put on their house, or whatever the case may be, because, unfortunately, that affects how much they're going to probably get, or if they're not going to get anything at all that year, which I didn't realize that whichever
Stoney
how many, how many times have you heard people some Miranda and I've said it, oh, well, we're not going to report that to the insurance company. Exactly they're going to do is try it or raise our rates or deny it and raise our rates. Yep, so people are still paying for the insurance. Oh, and then paying for stuff out of pocket insurance.
Jason
Look, it's a scam. It's a scam. I will say this because the whole premise is based upon nothing happening, right? And look, at the end of the day, if something does happen, your house burns to the ground or gets wiped out in a tornado or whatever the case may be, you want to be able to have someone come in and give you a check right
Ian
to read, there's people right now online that are saying, I'm not sure what insurance companies are saying this, but apparently there are some insurance companies saying, we don't have any more money to give everyone like, everyone's everyone's like, so we pay you all these, all this money every month, and now you don't have any money. Well,
Jason
this stuff that's happening in California, I'm telling you, that's going to affect us here, where we live, yeah, because it's a giant pool of money. Yeah, because insurance companies go to Lords of London to get their reinsurance. Yeah, and depending on how those rates work, you know, factor into a lot of this decision of whether a company chooses to write policies in a given area or not. That's why they pulled out of California, because basically, California said we're not going to allow you to raise rates, and you're going to have to ensure everybody well, okay, there are consequences to that. There just is. And State Farm, as a private company, said, You know what we're done, we're out of here, even though I'm sure it's probably very lucrative to write policies in that state, oh yeah, but they pulled out, and I think others have also, but just FYI, just to kind of discover the scope of the tragedy over there. It's it's been a terrible ordeal. The pictures I've seen, oh yeah, are absolutely just, it looks like a scene of the Book of Eli, if anybody remembers that movie, but it looks like an apocalypse out there, but just a few celebrities that I saw that had their homes burned to the ground. Billy Crystal, we all know him. 45 years of memories gone for him. Mel Gibson, I watched his interview with Joe Rogan. Matter of fact, while he was doing the interview, his house burned to the ground. Oh, my God. Anthony Hopkins, $6 million state destroyed. That's wild. Miles. Teller, 9.5 million. Dream Home bought in 220. In 2023 gone Paris, Hilton's Malibu mansion obliterated. And guess what? These people, as much as we like to kind of cash aid on them, yeah. Guess what? They're also now are not going to be able to get insurance. Yep. Do. To be able to cover this. So now it's affect us from saying it's now affecting these very same people, and not all those people that I mentioned are people that I would say would voted for Gavin Newsom or for the policies that are in play. I can probably tell you one or two on that list are probably in the opposite direction of their politics, yeah, but the reality is, it's a California's FAIR Plan, which is their insurer of lives resort. It only covers 3 million in losses. And you know, as well as I do, it doesn't take much in the state of California for a house to be valued at $3 million 100% I mean, it's a two bedroom, two bedroom houses. Is a $3 million home, right, let alone with some of those other houses, yeah, cost. So, yeah, it's a, it's, it's a terrible situation out there, and unfortunately, we've got, you know, Gavin Newsom promised, He promised that he would treat 500,000 of acres for us annually. You know what he's done? Zero. He said the state has only man managed a fraction of that. Meanwhile, beings of dolls have been funneled into funneled into green energy projects and symbolic gestures that do nothing to address the immediate and growing threat of wildfires. So this is what I'm saying. What politics have gotten so awry. Everything is now identity politics. We've lost just common sense approach to managing every day to day problems that we all face, depending on what area you live in the United States, because it's all different. Here in Louisiana, we deal with different things than they do in California, but they're just as destructive, yeah,
Stoney
but destruction is a great word, because this area, they want to talk about making Hollywood a smart city, right? They want to talk about making these areas smart cities. And I want to touch on in a minute. I have a map for y'all to look at here. But what's one of the first things you do? And the state of California has done it in making a smart city or Smart Energy what's the first thing you do? What's the first thing you want to change in a house?
Jason
You want to tend to make it more energy efficient?
Stoney
Just what's the first thing you're going to do? To have control over people? Remember, they did it the thermostat, the thermostat and the meter, right? Right. Okay. So what is in these smart lithium batteries? Okay. So what happens to a lithium battery when it gets hot? When you get a lithium battery up to 200 degrees, it can go from 201 to 6000 degrees in milliseconds. So now you're getting this heat right beside these homes, through the brush and the homes, and then all of a sudden, the thermostat and the power meter decide to go to 6000 degrees. Now what's happening to your home? So welcome to Green Energy yet once again. So now, what do we have to do? Cut down all the trees and shrubs around houses so we can have smart meters? I don't think so.
Ian
I think that it's also this is interesting because I hate to say this, but I think it's very true, is it? I'm not saying that they don't, they don't understand the importance of wildfires, because I believe that that probably, Los Angeles probably does understand the importance of it. But It's situations like this that hit people really close to home, and that then try to make change. You can try to make change before then. But whenever there's no, whenever there's no real, immediate threat, and things are it's the same thing with people who, like, have medication they need to take regularly for a condition, and they're like, Well, I started feeling better, so I stopped taking it right. But now your conditions back. It's the same sort I think. I don't, I don't again, I could be wrong and I'm and I'm totally willing to be wrong, but I feel like you get comfortable enough you have people in power that are like, we manage it enough. We can divert the money these other projects and these other things and all these things that are kind of like, fluffy, you know, nonsense. But then whenever, like, real catastrophe strikes and there's no real infrastructure in place, then it's like, Well, where were you at? Well, what now it's like, I think now, I think now change will happen. And it's unfortunate that it had to happen at the cost of so many
Stoney
Well, you got it kind of right, in a way, that these people have lived a sheltered life, and they can have these wonderful little pet projects. And they can say how wonderful this liberal state is. Look what we have. We're doing the green thing. Well, all of this has bit them on the face now, because all of the money, it's kind of, it's kind of like when Katrina happened, yeah, and the levees broke, yeah, very everybody wanted to beat up on the Republicans. Well, first off, New Orleans has never had a Republican mayor. And second off, where did the $35 million a year from the federal government go for levy management? Well, obviously it wasn't being spent on the levies. It's so competency. It's pure liberal incompetence, funneling money. And that's not my point. Somebody said, Well, why is Joe Biden saying all this money needs to go to California now? Because his Ukraine funding is fixing to stop, yep, so he's sending all of this money saying, okay, okay, Newsom, look, I'm gonna give you billions of dollars. You just need to make sure you know 200 million of that. Slide back to my Biden crime family, because that's all this is. This is another money laundering game for the Liberals to push around money they spent, what how many, 16 to $32 billion for energy and these charging stations for electric vehicles, and they've put in 20 stations across the country, yeah, where did the other $32 billion go?
Jason
It's just, yeah, that's what I'm saying. It's, look, we've, we can go, you know, people
Stoney
want to complain about Trump coming in and saying, you know, Department of government efficiency. That's
Jason
what I'm saying. There is no not. You know, we've talked about the problems of government efficiency. You know, you know, when Why do? Why doesn't it work the way it's intended to work? And the problem is, is because people, the people that are that are managing this stuff in, the ideologues that are in there are not. They don't live in the real world. They just don't. They live in a in a fantasy world that if somehow I do this, somehow all these other things are just not going to happen. There's no There's no consensus that's that's unfortunate this issue, there's no consensus of what we need to do as a country. You know, I look at the Netherlands and the amount of money and the amount of kind of national push to build dykes and reclaim land from the sea, what sort of kind of ever and I think of why can't that be replicated in New Orleans with flood protection? You think about that, the problem is, our country has got we're so big, yeah, and there's so many different groups of people with their own subset of issues. No one wants to look at things in a collective sense and say, Yes, we need to tackle this. And once again, I'll go back. We need to put America first. And that kind of taps into this deal of constantly funneling all these billions of dollars to these other countries when we can't even we got bridges to be built, interstates to be repaired, all these things that are critical infrastructure projects that just seem that it's like pulling teeth. Did
Stoney
you see right to get things done right before Christmas? The State Department confirmed that it sends $80 million in cash to Afghanistan, which is under, under Taliban control, every 10 to 14 days. It's just Okay, wow, jeez, yes, every 10 to 14 days that was confirmed by the State Department. Meanwhile, 1 million US adults go bankrupt for medical bills. 47 million Americans experience food insecurity. Attending an in State University is about $24,000 a year, and 222 point 4 million households are spending well over 30% of their income on rent or housing. Okay, do the math 80 million in cash every 10 to 14 days. That's $160 million a month or more times 12 to the Taliban. That's just one instance. That's just something they came for and actually admitted to. What are they not admitting to? Right? I mean, can.
Jason
That's what I'm saying. Why can't this money go to help Americans? And that's the problem, and I think part of that is Trump tapped into some of this growing resentment and anger at the inability of our own leaders in this country to actually look out for this country and the people that elected you to do what you need to do, and sit worrying about all these other things and keeping them the military industrial complex funded way over within Look, we all remember the stories of the, you know, $10,000 gold toilets. Remember that in the 80s? Oh, yeah. You know, this is what I'm saying. This is the government waste that we talk about. But, you know, we we talk about government waste the federal level. We didn't come out what's going on at the state level and local level of government. This problem is not a federal problem only. It's a government problem in general. There's a lack of consensus among us to push our elected leaders to deliver on the things that are most important, just seeing can't seem to do it.
Stoney
They're not our elected leaders. They are our elected representatives? Well, they are not our leaders. They never have been. They never will be. They are our representatives, and they are not representing us right now at all, and haven't been for decades. I feel bad
Jason
for I feel terrible for these residents of California, because there are probably a lot of good people that pay. I mean, you've heard it, they pay some of the very highest where was the where was the in the country? But
Stoney
see, that's their problem. They choose to live there. Where was this uproar when North Carolina was flooding and washing away? Where was this uproar? Oh, look, it's our stars. They won't be able to go make movies for us and entertain us and feed our delusions about what life is supposed to be like. I don't care. Why weren't they doing this in the North Carolina people? Why don't they take care of the people?
Ian
Because they're not that much money there. It's all like, like, he said, it's a big money pile. That's all it is. Hollywood is a money pile. It's like, everyone's like, Oh, I gotta get my stuff together. Now, I went
Jason
to the, I went to the the fire.california.gov website. I think this is their fire and forestry governmental website, and they have a the current emergency incidents. I'm reading here. They had 20,967 total emergency responses. They had 124 separate wildfires. 40,588 acres burned so far, according this 19 fatalities. I saw some AP story. It's even higher than that. And over 12,300 structures destroyed. So this is a magnitude of, you know, I don't want to say everything is, is, is, you know, apocalyptic, because the fact of the matter, I'll say this in another couple years, there'll be another disaster, right, just like this, or something else. But
Stoney
when you're watching this apocalyptic, right? May not be the best word, but for me, it's stupidly okay. The liberal agenda in California is so stupid that other states have sent fire trucks to help with the fires, or who are sitting there and can't move because they don't meet the environmental regulations of the state, so they aren't letting the people with equipment and the knowledge to come help. They're making them drive hundreds of miles to another county to get this like and then telling them, Oh, and before you leave, you have to go get it retested and wait what? Let them come in and help fight the fires. What do you care if they're here for a couple of months, right? And they don't meet your regulations. To me, this is beyond that's
Ian
the thing is that you put the regulations in place and now everyone's forced to follow it. So now it's like, you know?
Jason
Well, I mean, I remember, there was a story that came out at Oregon, sent like, 60 fire trucks down there to help mitigate these fires. The initial story was they were held up because of emission issues. I saw pictures
Stoney
of them sitting there. Now
Jason
I did see a correction to that statement. Now whether that's true or. Not, but I saw some sort of another somebody said, Well, it's not because of emissions. It's, it's, it's, it's vehicle inspections. What's to me, I'm sitting there going, what's the you're in a state of emergency? You're, you're having another state submitting, sending you fire trucks. What do you think their fire trucks are different than your fire trucks. I mean our trucks a truck. I mean they're here to help. You think we
Stoney
have a hurricane in Louisiana, and they send power companies to come help us. You think we give them rats? Exactly what? That's my point. Put them up in a hotel, feed them and let them go
Jason
to work. How Would anybody hold these vehicles. But that just shows you how how ludicrous that state is when it comes to this stuff. That's what I'm saying. They don't live in reality. No, if truly, that state was facing truly an apocalyptic issue, I mean, the whole state is going to fall apart because you you just can't life doesn't work that well. It just does not work that way. You got to respond to a situation at that moment. You got to do what you got to do to to maximize safety and to minimize the loss of life and property.
Stoney
And then sleepy Joe wants to fly into Los Angeles so they clear the airways, so the planes that were dumping the water couldn't fly for how many hours, really,
Jason
really? I mean, it is,
Stoney
I mean, this is beyond ridiculous. Once
Jason
again, you know, as I said, it's they've approved where some of these houses are being built in the middle of, you know, these that state's a dry state, and they get those high winds of Santa Ana winds coming in there. I mean that. I mean, I can't even imagine just on a day having 1560, mile an hour winds blowing. That's just, you know, that's just the wind, and that's like, but that's
Stoney
also thinking about it, if it was just an accident, but they, they found and arrested a number of arsonists. And I'd like to go ahead and bring this map up to both of y'all. This is a map of where the fires are, and it's also a map of the new high speed rail system. Jason, take a look at that and tell me what you think. Does anything look remotely interesting to those two pictures?
Jason
So the top that what the top is the fire is the fire is the Fire Map of showing where all the fires break off. And now I'm looking at a map below, and this is says California High Speed Rail potential phasing, and it basically tracks in the same exact area. Can
Stoney
you send that to Ian and let him grab that as well? It's exactly the same.
Ian
There's like, a suspicious like around the coast, like it kind of well being around it, which is interesting.
Jason
This was kind of brought up during the Hawaii, of course, yeah.
Stoney
Well, they've been wanting to make Hollywood a smart 15 minute city, and La possibly falling at some of it, falling into suit, yeah. And that goes all the way to Las Vegas. And you see, that's another thing that causes me some grief and causes me some extreme stress. California wants to waste their water to save a little bitty fish, but they don't have a problem draining loss, loss crap. Nevada's water the Hoover Dam to pay for their electricity. So Las Vegas may not have any water in the near future to drink or do anything with, but California can piss away their water to save a little bitty fish, really,
Ian
because they got money, really, I
Stoney
tell you what. How about we shut off the Hoover Dam, build back Lake Mead and let California figure it out. See, I believe once you make a decision, you should be responsible for that, and if they've made that decision, that's part of their responsibility. If you don't like it, elect different people. If
Jason
you pull up a map, Ian, if you pull up a map of California. And I found this pretty interesting, just for whatever reason. It made me think of a program I watched, you know, our ancient history about, you know, what, what kind of things look like 1000s of years ago. Yeah. But really, that whole center part of California. It kind of looks like somewhat of a depression in the middle that used to be a giant ocean. That
Stoney
was Yeah. It was a giant lake. It was a lake, but it was also completely Yeah,
Jason
it drained it drained out. But, I mean, that was once a giant inland, Inland Sea for all into. It was just a big, giant lake. What it was that's
Ian
where all these, wow, look at all that. There's so many like they've looks like civilization has moved in there. Well,
Stoney
that's where you go. You you put everything in the valley, so to speak, because that's where all the nutrients and everything is green, and there's
Ian
water, Fresno, Modesto, Stockton, Sacramento. It's all inside that Big Valley, like you're talking about. Is that what you mean? Yeah,
Jason
I mean, I mean, you just, you can kind of see the indent. I mean, literally, it's in the middle of the entire state of California. But I was watching some ancient, you know, archeology, you know, the, not archeological, geologic, of just how the United States has changed. The land mass has changed over millions of years, and that used to be a large body of water, which I found interesting. And it just, it's, it's, it's just interesting to see that a state that is come has a water issue that at one time had this giant, oh yeah, giant inland, inland lake that, you know, looks like the well like, looks like one of the great lakes up north that often wonder if that, if that lake was still there, how the state of California would have evolved.
Stoney
But Did y'all see what one of the arsonists was arrested with? One of the arsonists in this in this fire situation, had five cell phones and a United Nations prepaid debit card. Yes. What's going on there? I just,
Jason
I mean, I don't, I don't know what's going I mean, I just, where, where are these people coming from? You know what? What is going on here? I mean, it's just something. Is just a foot, yeah, I mean, I feel it. I don't, I don't know. I mean, I mean, there's you can probably sit here and Google conspiracy theories on California wall and probably come up with a whole bunch of things. I don't necessarily discount them out the bat. I mean, you got to take all things with a grain of salt, right? Sometimes the truth is somewhere lies in the middle. Sometimes the conspiracy is right, sometimes conspiracy is wrong.
Stoney
Right now, the conspiracy theorists are up 32 to nothing. Yeah, well, they're
Jason
doing pretty good right now, or at least if it's not exactly what they say, it's kind of in the ballpark of what they're originally predicting so but I'm reading here over these, these wind forecasts are talking about severe fire conditions will last through Wednesday, with wind gusts in the mountains reaching 65 miles an hour. Cool all 65 miles an hour. 65 mile winds, that's just a normal day. That's like, you walking out there today. It's just, it's a pretty day outside where we're at, where we're recording, yeah, imagine if the winds were blowing 60
Ian
that's like Hurricane level stuff.
Jason
It's not quite hurricane, but it's pretty good. 65 is the
Stoney
first hurricane. 7474
Jason
it's 74 and higher. Hurricane four, but yeah, that's a strong tropical storm wind. Yeah. And to have base continuous winds at 65 miles an hour, that's man. It's a you can
Stoney
storm weather, right?
Jason
You can imagine, you can imagine what that does to fire. I mean, oh yeah. I mean, how that just ignites these fires and jumps them the way they jump, because they blow those embers, yep, into other areas, and just lights up, and they just nothing to stop them. I mean, it's just, uh, man, and everything's so dry over there. Everything is very dry because it just doesn't rain. Yep, it just doesn't rain over there. And but you know, you know, I feel sorry for all the Palisades and all that. I mean, it's just, I mean they got it rough, but I mean they, they as a state, they have got to, they have got to figure out a way of actually implementing common sense, practical measures to help themselves. I just to me, it's just how this I personally think with a lot of these celebrities being affected, I think you might go see some pressure, because now the people who basically funnel all these goofy candidates,
Stoney
well, there has been a huge exodus of people from California in the last couple of years due to the taxes and some of the policies and so much so that California has passed a law that says if you leave. You still have to pay state taxes for another 10 years. Yeah, right, maybe. And, well, they're, they're, they're feeling the crunch and something like this. I don't know what's, what's that going to do for them? I mean, people are already ready to leave now, and, you know, everybody says, Oh, if Trump is elected President, I'm leaving the country. Well, your state's burning. Where are you going to go? So those same people are going to be moving elsewhere and then try to change our states into the same mentality that they have over there, which I'm I'm not far at all, so, but it's delusional. Use that word. These people work. We pay them to sing a song. We pay them to entertain us in a movie or a show or something. We don't pay them to tell us or push their political or religious or lack of political or lack of religious agendas on us. That's not what we pay them for. Do your job, entertain us and then shut the hell.
Jason
Well, exactly. Well, that's because it goes hand in hand with what government was originally meant to be, how was supposed to function, what the goal was, of why was implemented the way it was. Unfortunately, it's turned into some something else altogether, and, and for some, some of these governments are captured by people that really don't have a clue. They just don't, they don't know how to manage real world issues, and, or they're so afraid of actually doing something that might offend somebody or some group or some line of thinking that they they were, they just clam up and they don't say anything. And then, of course, these kind of disasters happen, and here we are. I
Stoney
found this quote the other day, and I think this is a good time, because you're talking about that a country run by banks will always be in debt. Health care run by a big pharma will never cure disease. A state run by war will never know peace. A nation run by the media will never know the truth. Think about that one for a minute.
Jason
Well, you saw also that the fire chief got released by the mayor, yeah,
Stoney
and it's the mayor's fault that did it. It was the mayor making the promise. But let's blame somebody else. I
Jason
think she went off and went on a little trip. She declared a state of desire emergency, and went somewhere else. But, yeah, I think she the fire chief, was complaining about the budget cuts that their department has sustained. I think I remember figure 40 million Well,
Stoney
17 million last year, but over the last couple of years, it adds up to over $40 million so
Jason
and of course, I guess she committed the unpardonable sin of basically making her look bad. Look bad, the mayor. Look bad. And so the mayor said, you know, can't have you around, even though you are seeing something truthful. But I'm just going to pretend I've done a great job. But of course, because more
Stoney
of the delusion I was just talking about a few minutes ago. Yeah, yeah.
Jason
We are in a this is a pickle, so it'd be very interesting. I mean, I know with the election of Trump, and I saw her, if you all remember, in the news, there were a few governors saying they're going to trump proof their states, or whatever the case may be, and, and I'm sitting here going, what exactly do you not want Trump to do? That
Stoney
is he doesn't want them to deport their bought and paid for votes in the next four years. That's about right? Well, you know, and sleepy Joe Biden comes in and he's Pat trying to have a law passed right now to make it really hard to to drill oil in the Gulf of Mexico. Did you see that? No, I did not. They've passed. They're trying to pass a law that says they're trying to make it really hard on Trump to push oil out and make the price of gasoline come down. So they're they're passing a law that says you can't drill oil in the Gulf of Mexico. You know what Trump's response was? What's that? I'll name it the Gulf of America. Then
Ian
I didn't hear that.
Stoney
So that's his response. He sees what they're trying to do. And it's ridiculous, right? But you can see all these people asking for pardons from sleepy
Jason
Joe. So never thought I would see our country that we would have people actively working against its own interest. Is on. Unbelievable. Why would you not want to be energy independent and be an exporter of
Stoney
energy? Thank you. Yep, thank you. Why do you want
Jason
to be depending on another country for stuff? And you can apply that to all sort of things? I really have to wonder, what is the motivating factor of everything that we need from a national security standpoint, we are at the behest of basically a country, China, that is they is our enemy. For all intents and purposes, the Chinese Communist Party is not a friend of America. We are. We are business partners with him, but we're not friends with them, right? And I, you know, really go back blame Richard Nixon for opening up China to to the world and and then all of a sudden, when he opened up China, he basically called these companies, said, Oh, look at all this cheap labor now we can use. And that began the slow migration of manufacturing out of this country. A lot of people attribute that during the Reagan years, I believe, starting with Nixon. Yes, it started with Nixon. And unfortunately, it was probably something that, of course, hindsight is 2020, yeah. And we know, you know, we know the fruits of what's happened with that, but it's done nothing for this country. It has basically made us a consumer country and not a producing country. And you want to be a producing country, you don't want to be just a spending country. Chip
Stoney
Foose, one of the greatest custom car makers, and I may have said this on the show before, but it's a really prophetic saying he says the the real tragedy, tragedy of our school systems today and social life today, is that we're not teaching our kids to build anything. We're teaching them to buy something.
Jason
Yeah, I know about
Stoney
that. Yeah. I have said it before. I apologize, no, and I think
Jason
it needs to be said every day. It needs to be said every day that that we have, there's something fundamentally changed with us, right? And it has done nothing, but I think hurt us, because, to me, it's raw people of a lot of self worth, and you kind of caught some of this, and I remember some of the comments, and y'all will probably remember when the COVID outbreak broke, broke out, yeah, and people were being sent home, and The economy was shut down. And I remember people saying, I feel kind of useless. I thought my job was really important, and it wasn't what it came down to the who were the people that were at was first responders. Were people that were critical to keeping your society going, those were the people working.
Stoney
Oh, yeah.
Jason
And I think it exposed an underbelly in this country. There are a lot of people doing jobs that really don't mean anything in the grand scheme of things. It really isn't right. They really these jobs or basically feel good type things that see worse. Yeah, they just, they don't, I mean, I mean, let's just be honest about it. It just, they just, they're not. They're not that important, right? And they only exist because our country has reached a level of success that we can, in essence, have a layer of feel good and waste, right? That's what it does. That's what you're, you're, you're, it's sort of like people who buy art, you know, right?
Same thing. It's like, okay, I pay $50,000 for this painting. Really, I wouldn't pay $2 for it, right? But, you know, that's just, you know, when people have large amounts of excess, that's what happens. Yeah, we do these things. So I don't know. I think it's, it's a very complex issue in many ways, and I believe we need to. I. Yeah, we've got to get back to some basic and I hate to see the word common sense, but it's the only word I can think of. You know whether you want to say practical, something that works, but we've got to get back to doing some things that actually make the everyday life of the American citizen, better. 100%
Stoney
agreed, right? 100% agree. It's ridiculous. Well, and I'm sure there'll be more on the fire situation as things come out. We're learning more from our last week's episode, and I'm sure some more will come out on that, but I'm sure some more will come out on this fire and let us know what you think.
Ian
Like, yeah, like Jason said earlier, like, I think there are probably some good people out there that are, like, honestly, losing erotic everything. And I do feel, I feel very sad that, you know, I I have been around many a hurricane, and of course, have felt the effects of, you know, friends and family and even myself losing certain stuff. And so I can only imagine for families and people out there that are going through this is unfortunate, and it hurts even more that it's, you know, it feels like incompetence on a higher level, and that's really sad. Um, one thing that's also happening, if I'm not mistaken, I think next Monday, whenever this episode drops, it will actually be the inauguration. So that's kind of interesting and kind of, uh, kind of fun to hear next Monday, right? Yeah, next Monday. So whenever you're whenever you're hearing this episode, it is Inauguration Day, which is, remember,
Stoney
please do not fly on Monday. Leave the spots on the planes for all the Liberals that said they're gonna leave the country when Donald Trump is president, let them go. Please, please don't fly on that day so they can have all the space on the planes. I was
Ian
and I was saying that just in case anything crazy happens, just know we're recording this the week before. So, but, but anyways, I, as you guys, know there are many ways where you can get in touch with this, and you can comment, like and subscribe, and all the different platforms that you enjoy, like we've said before, in the past, you have the website,
Stoney
retrospectpod.com retrospect podcast.com, podcast.com
Ian
or you can email us at get defended together@gmail.com, as well, and until next week, thank you so much for listening. Bye, bye. Goodbye,
Jason
everyone. God bless.
Stoney
Hey. You live most of your life inside of your head. Make sure it's a nice place to be. you're the best, peace.