Karen Bass Fires LAFD Fire Chief

[00:00:06] If you're a California conservative, a libertarian, a moderate Democrat, believe in common sense, or just the sane person, this is the political podcast for you. It's the California Underground Podcast.

[00:00:26] Welcome to the California Underground Podcast. Welcome to our 300th episode, 300 episodes in the book. I can't believe it's already been 300 episodes. Took only seven years to get here. I'm your host, Phil. This is the most trusted podcast, all things California politics. And as always with me, my trusty co-host, the best, the fastest researcher in the West, Camille. How are you? Welcome to the 300th episode.

[00:00:54] 300. I feel like I'm an official podcaster now. I've been with you for about 120 episodes. That's more than a lot of podcasters who ever start, I would say. You know, most people start a podcast and they don't get even close to 100. So well done on your part for doing that. I just have to show up. I mean, you put in the work for the five years before I came here, so.

[00:01:20] And Camille was just like, this is starting to pick up. I'm going to hop on. I'm going to be close. It's like I went on that gravy train. Just hit, what did they say? Hitched your, your wagon to that star. Anyway, welcome everyone. Thanks for everyone who tuned in over 300 episodes. It's always incredible when we get to a milestone like this and we hit like one of those hundred episodes.

[00:01:42] Um, it's, you know, you look back and go, wow, 300 episodes. I've been doing this for how long, how many episodes, how many hours we've been covering California politics. And we're, we're still going strong. Believe me, we're not slowing down in 2025. We have no plans to slow down. I feel like we're actually producing more content. If you've been following us, you'd see there's more content, more YouTube stuff, more chapters, more shorts.

[00:02:07] We're just doing more stuff. Um, it's, it's really, this is a big year. I think we're going to push really hard. And, and I think in my humble opinion, I think this might be a year that, you know, the podcast, I feel like it's, it's picking up steam. And I think this might be a good year for the podcast. I'm looking forward to it. It's going to be pretty exciting by the end of the year. Yeah. Excited. I'm having fun. I feel like too, like in addition to now I'm an official podcaster, I feel like I'm also a content creator.

[00:02:34] It's kind of like, kind of weird just doing these videos. I'm like, this is, this is new, not just here, but you know, we've been trying to have more bringing you guys news with the shorts and the reels and stuff on all, all over social media. And so now it's like, we're trying to like hop on breaking stories. And so it's like, okay, we got to get on and talk about this. And today I was asked to have like a video when I was like, Oh, I have to go make a video.

[00:03:01] It's, it's that content creator life. It's, you just gotta be ready to go at the drop of a hat. But yeah, it's, I look forward to the next hundred episodes, the next maybe 300 episodes, who knows where this goes anyway. So we got a couple of things to cover tonight. We're going to talk a little bit about Karen Bass. She fired Kristen Crowley. That was breaking news as of Friday.

[00:03:24] Gavin Newsom says that the people of America have audit fatigue and don't really think they need to have an audit of the high speed rail. And then we're going to finish with listener questions. So this is something I kind of posted on Instagram last week about taking questions. A lot of people, it was kind of weird. I was split almost 50, 50 people were like a whole episode on Q and a, and some people were like at it, like at the end of your episode.

[00:03:52] So here we are, we're going to try it. And, uh, you know, we always do take questions during chat. So if you're in the chat, make sure you load up some questions for us. We're going to be addressing them at the end of the episode. We're going to be taking them live on air.

[00:04:06] There's some that we've already gotten on Instagram. Um, so without further ado, let's get into our cringe moment of the week. And guess what? The OG of cringe has returned. Uh, we are very excited. She's, she's back from wherever she was, wherever she was vacationing. She had a rough 2024. Uh, Kamala Harris is back. She was in California. She was in the Palisades, uh, surveying the damage.

[00:04:37] Not sure why she felt she needed to survey the damage. She has no official capacity anymore. Um, I would imagine maybe cause she's her name's being thrown out there for governor. She hasn't said she's thought about running for governor. Um, but here's our cringe moment of the week. Of course we have to do the stinger as always. You think you just fell out of a coconut tree? We, we missed you. We missed you, Kamala. It's good to have you back. Um, all right, let's see. And here it is.

[00:05:04] What goes through your mind when you see this, you're here. You're now seeing it up close. It's not only seeing it, Alex, you can smell it. You can feel it, right? So it's seeing it with our eyes and many people have seen it. You all are covering it. Um, you can smell it, right? Um, you can smell it. The, the, the, the, the, the smoke that was here. You can feel the, the toxicity, frankly, of the environment.

[00:05:33] Um, you can feel the energy of all of the folks who are still here on the ground. I've watched that so many times and I still laugh. I, every time she, uh, she left off. She picked up right where she left off. Didn't she? Um, spreading the joy, spreading the joy.

[00:05:57] Uh, you can feel the energy. You can feel the toxicity. I mean, she's just like, I don't know what she's trying. You can smell the smoke and the fire and the air. And we're here in California and it's here. There's a fire.

[00:06:22] It's like, was she not prepared to meet press? I, this is just, I think who Kamala Harris is. I think she just is really bad at my questions. Or let me exactly. No, that is, that is who she is. That is exactly it. Um, I believe if she doesn't have questions beforehand with prepared answers, she doesn't know how to respond off the cuff.

[00:06:45] There's, I, I truly believe she's not a bright person. Sorry. I'm, I, I don't, I don't think that she's a, a very intelligent person. Um, I don't, I don't think she's necessarily creative. She, she's not good at, uh, off the cuff questions.

[00:07:13] Mm-hmm. Prepared. That's, that's how she responds. So exactly what you said, this is just who she is.

[00:07:41] I just think there are politicians who are great at the political world word salad and make it sound like they know what they're talking about. Gavin Newsom, I think is probably a good example. He's very good at word salad and, and kind of emphasizing stuff. And, you know, if you're not really paying attention to what he's saying, you're like, it sounds like he knows what he's talking about.

[00:08:02] Absolutely. And it sounds like a coherent thought. I just don't think she's ever had that skill in her political career to off the cuff, just kind of like fumble her way through or make this word salad. And that's why she always gets caught in these like bad clips of her just saying stuff. And like, she's trying to think of something. Like, she's trying to think of something. I mean, she's trying to think of something. Like, you know, you feel the energy and it smells like smoke and it's toxic and like,

[00:08:32] I mean, couldn't she have just been like, this is so surreal. You know, you hear about the fires, you know, they happened. And then you come here and you see it. And, and, and you realize just how real this, this is for all these people and how devastating it really is. But her, you can smell it. You can smell this. Yes, you can smell smoke. That's what happens after things burn down.

[00:08:57] It smells like someone blew out birthday candles out here. I think walking by, they're like, Oh, that's just me with the birthday cake. Someone I'm just walking by with someone just had a birthday over here. I, I honestly think like she might be the candidate who gets California, the closest to a Republican governor we've had in a long time, honestly. And I know a lot of people are like, you know, it's California. They'll vote for her.

[00:09:27] I'm like, I don't know. She's just that, that kind of like, she's just that off putting that people are like, I don't really want to vote for her. She's not exciting. But she did win California in the presidential election and she did make it all the way to vice president, but someone actually regarded the Q and a, someone actually asked about that. So we'll get more in depth into that. Yeah. Well, yeah, we'll, we'll get to that. Someone asked a good question.

[00:09:55] And that's one of our questions that was preloaded. So let's get through these stories and we can get to those questions. Next story. We have another video for you. This is regarding Kristen Crowley, who was fired by mayor Karen Bass on Friday. And I do want to just pat myself on the back and say a week before I had said that there was a rumor or that a hot tip came in that she would be gone by last week. And sure enough, she was gone by last week.

[00:10:24] Karen Bass throwing her under the bus, basically saying that she didn't do her duty right. She didn't perform and she didn't file reports or what she came up with all sorts of excuses. But let's watch the video and then we can comment. LA Mayor Karen Bass is feeling pressure tonight from both inside and outside City Hall to reinstate fired LA Fire Chief Kristen Crowley. KTLA's Jennifer McGraw has more on the growing controversy over the chief's firing.

[00:10:53] I just met with Chief Crowley and removed her as fire chief. It's concerning and disappointing. Fierce backlash against LA's Mayor Karen Bass after removing Fire Chief Kristen Crowley. I do believe it's a shame that she's taking the blame with something that was not within 100% of her control. Bass saying the chief didn't take appropriate actions the day of the fires for not deploying 1,000 firefighters that could have been on the line. And adding that the chief should have communicated with her.

[00:11:20] The communications about the very dangerous weather was ubiquitous. It was on every news channel. While some council members stood in support with Mayor Bass as she announced the firing, other council members including Tracy Park and Monica Rodriguez weren't even consulted and are stunned by the reasoning. It is not within the responsibility of the fire chief to make those communications. That's the emergency management department. That is how our city is structured.

[00:11:47] The demotion coming just weeks after Crowley spoke out against the mayor saying Bass knew that in the event of a horrific firestorm, the city would not be equipped with the manpower and engines, adding that they needed more than 60 new fire stations and the department's budget was cut by 17 million. It's just a shame because this has been this way for years. And I don't know how they expect us to keep going, kind of just limping along when we again need more firefighters when we're so understaffed.

[00:12:16] The group Los Angeles Women in the Fire Services is speaking out, among several other groups fighting for their chief. For all the hard work she's been doing, and it did not make sense due to all the facts that are out there. While Crowley's removal was effective immediately, her fate is in limbo. Council can vote 10 to 5 to reinstate her as chief. And it doesn't end there. If the chief can plead her case, she can take legal action against the city.

[00:12:42] Nima Romani saying, for starters, a lawsuit alleging demotion based on gender and... She could also say that she's been demoted for unlawful reasons in violation of public policy. She claimed that she didn't have sufficient budget and that she was just raising safety concerns. Jennifer McGraw, KTLA 5 News. I just realized that attorney at the end is like all over TikTok.

[00:13:08] He's one of those like social media attorneys who does videos of like, if you get in a car accident, what do you do? Here's what happens. So it's not over. It's not over by a long shot with Kristen Crowley. She's not going away. I was not shocked that Karen Bass fired her. I was expecting it. I'm surprised it took this long, to be completely honest. Especially when Kristen Crowley came out like right after the fires and basically point blank.

[00:13:36] They were like, did you, did the city fail you? And she was like, yes. Like at the end of the, she was like, yeah, they did fail us. And they like let us down and they, we didn't have what we needed. We were not prepared. We were understaffed or under budget. And I thought she was going to get fired that day. I thought like, I think she had a meeting with mayor Karen Bass that day. She kept her job. There's a lot of rumors. She was going to get fired. It seems like it's the city council's not super happy with this.

[00:14:06] Um, I don't, I think this was a bad political move on the part of Karen Bass to do this and try and throw Kristen Crowley under the bus because it's backfiring in so many ways. And it's just not going to go away simply. Imagine if she gets reinstated. Like imagine if the city council is like, now we're going to reinstate her. And then she goes back to being fire chief. And now Karen Bass has to work with the fire chief. She, she just fired over the wild. Like it's, it's just wild what's going on up in there, up there in LA.

[00:14:37] Yes, I know. And there's so many, you know, we only know so much of the story. There's so many missing holes. I'm sure a lot will come out. I'm sure a lot won't come out. But, um, I don't know when Karen Bass planned, like when she knew that she was going to Ghana. I don't know like when that happened, but I would assume that as the mayor, which is, you know, in a sense, the boss of the city, I would assume that she would be checking in. Like I'm leaving in X amount of days.

[00:15:05] What, you know, what do we need to wrap up before I go? How, you know, how can I support X department? What check in with me? Let's make sure we're all, you know, communicating. And then, cause, cause as we know, she claims she didn't know that it was going to be, there was going to be this fire, but then she tweeted about the winds the day before. Then there was that phone call that came out, allegedly happened a few days before she was leaving where she was basically trying to get people to cover her tracks if anything should go wrong.

[00:15:35] And, um, and, and we also do know that the fire chief did say we didn't have the resources. Like how is that her fault? And, and maybe part of it is her fault. Maybe there's things that she should have known, but I don't think that all of it is her fault. And real quick, because I sent all this to you a few days ago, um, I started, I found like LA contracts and bids and stuff.

[00:15:58] And what I discovered about the reservoir, the Santa Inez reservoir, which is the one right next to the Palisades that we know was empty. We know it was emptied in February, 2024. And it was because the cover on it, uh, had damage and needed to be repaired. So they emptied it in February, or at least for sometime February, 2024, or prior to that. However, they didn't start the bid process to get the cover repaired until July of 2024.

[00:16:26] And then they awarded the contract or started the contract in November of 2024. And then the work was completed December 30th, 2017. Why did it take 10 months from emptying the reservoir to get the cover repaired? And then I understand that this is a massive reservoir and it takes a lot of time to fill up with water, but it should have at least been halfway full by the time the fire started. Mm-hmm.

[00:16:53] But I have a blame on, on Kristen Crowley. That's what I'm saying. No, that's, that's not all to put everything at the feet of Kristen Crowley is, I mean, it just exposes the fact that she is doing this because she's using as her, as a political scapegoat. Um, and, uh, obviously it's a wildfire fires rage through LA. Who's the one person that you can use as a scapegoat is the fire chief.

[00:17:21] Um, and you know, it, that's a question for someone like what's her name Jasmine or, or quinoa, quinoa, the CEO of LADWP. Oh yeah. I don't know how to pronounce her name. I apologize. Good pronouncing names. It could be also because she did stand up for herself and say what she was thinking. And she was honest about the budget cuts and the fire staffing and, and, and that she lacked all the resources. It could be that she was calling out mayor Karen Bass, right?

[00:17:50] You know, a couple of days after the fires, the fires were still raging and she was still calling out mayor Karen Bass. Um, it could be that as well. It could be a whole host of things, but it is a bad political move on her part. And I think it just shows Karen Bass is really getting desperate up there. Um, and just the more and more stuff that comes out, uh, about how poorly LA city is just being run. Um, I'm surprised.

[00:18:19] I don't know if anyone in the chat can answer if this has happened or not, but if there's an official recall of Karen Bass started and if there hasn't been like, why hasn't there been an official recall? That would be somebody. I know people have been telling us about Gavin Newsom. There's a recall of Gavin Newsom starting from saving California, which I want to look into because the last group that started a recall of Gavin Newsom took a million dollars and didn't do anything with it.

[00:18:44] Um, so be careful with those recall groups that love to raise a ton of money. Um, especially maybe ones that are started by Carl DeMaio. Watch out for those as well. Just saying it, putting that out there. Um, but I think if there's anybody that should be facing a serious, serious recall, it's gotta be Karen Bass. She's, she's done everything wrong. She's pointing the finger at everybody. Um, they were part of cutting the budget.

[00:19:10] Uh, I just recorded a video that's going to be going up in the next couple of days about a bunch of fire personnel showed up at a LA fire commission meeting 21 days before the fire started. Basically saying, if you vote this budget through, we are not going to have enough people and enough staff to fight any fire. Like it's going to be catastrophic. And then sure enough, they got tested with the worst fire that LA could ever have predicted.

[00:19:39] Um, it's just, you know, one thing after another with Karen Bass and the fact that there is no recall of her yet. If there, if I'm wrong, someone can let me know, but if there hasn't been a huge effort to start a recall and get her out, then I don't know what, what else you can do for LA. If that hasn't happened already, what are your thoughts? Okay. So unrelated to the fires, isn't she anti gun? Like she doesn't believe people should own guns. Who Karen Bass?

[00:20:10] Uh, probably. I mean, just based on her politics. Gun control. But then when she was being reelected, her guns were stolen out of her safe. And I just feel like that was reason alone to have not reelected her. Like, yes, that sounds probably dumb and petty, but how can you scream about gun control? And then your own guns are allegedly stolen out of your own safe. Okay.

[00:20:39] That. And then remember, she was for defund the police. And then didn't she bring or ask for the, like the national guard or something to come in because things had gotten so out of hand. And so she tried to, you know, defund the police, lower their budget. Then all of a sudden she needed to bring them back. There's so many things with her where she, she just makes really bad decisions. And I understand like, there's going to be trial and error, of course.

[00:21:10] And these are big issues in LA is a giant city, but yeah, she, they told her, like you just said, they told her the, this is going to be catastrophic. If you make these decisions, if you cut these budgets, if you don't do X, Y, and Z. And sure enough, here we are. And it's devastating. I mean, I laughed at the Kamala video, but I don't want to downplay the absolute devastation that these people have gone through. It's horrific. I sympathize with that. I have compassion for that.

[00:21:38] That's separate from me making fun of Kamala Harris. But, um, but I don't, I'm not saying that Karen Bass caused these fires. I'm not saying that they wouldn't have happened and been horrific, but if there had actually been more resources, it would have been less devastation. It could have been stopped within a day or two, hopefully. Another story that came out, just another black mark and just how crazy this is.

[00:22:04] So if you remember a couple episodes back, we talked about this guy who was appointed as the recovery czar and he was supposed to make $500,000 for three months. Well, he went public. Yeah, he went public recently. I think it was either today or yesterday and said he was disappointed that he lost his salary because he was promised $500,000 for three months and then they had to take it away. So he's not entirely happy with what's going on Karen Bass.

[00:22:33] I mean, I'm not happy that they were going to pay him $500,000 to do what he was doing for three months. I mean, that would have been $2 million for the entire year. But they're always screaming about what's the word when they're raising the cost during devastation, the price gouging. They're always screaming about that. But that's exactly what that job is. It's a price gouge. That's exactly what that guy did. He price gouged right when they needed him most.

[00:23:02] He was like, yeah, I'll do this for $500,000 for three months. It's like, whoa, I'm in the wrong business. Obviously, I have to get in the governmental disaster business. There was a question in the chat, not like one of our questions that we're going to address, but someone wanted this is on topic. Someone asked, wasn't Rodriguez also the one who was voting for cutting budget of LAFD? So, yeah, I'm looking at the votes right now. She was part of that budget vote, that overall budget vote that did cut all that money.

[00:23:29] So she's now screaming from the rooftops about protecting Kristen Crowley and how she was unfairly let go. But she also did vote for this budget that did cut a bunch of money from the resources. When they need these budget cuts, because we've talked endlessly about their salaries. Why are we not cutting salaries? Again, people need to make a living wage.

[00:23:58] I'm all for that. But we know that they have ridiculously price gouged salaries. And so every time that there's like a need for a budget cut, why are we not looking at salaries first? Because no one wants to vote to cut their own salary. Well, of course. No one's going to raise their hand and be like, you know what? I don't need to get paid $400,000 here. It's going to really just be one of the first things. Like city council meetings, their salary should just be displayed in front of their name. Really? That's not a bad idea.

[00:24:28] They should just display their actual salary. Which is funny because I don't think city council makes as much as like other people that we've looked into have made like $800,000. Right. Which is a lot of money for a public official. It's a lot of money for anybody. Yeah. What? $800,000 a year? All right. Any other thoughts on Karen Bass and the fallout of Kristen Crowley before we move on to?

[00:24:54] I just agree with you that of anybody right now in California being recalled, being let go, Karen Bass should definitely be. That should be the number one recall happening. Yeah. And I will say this. If LA does not recall her after all of this, I actually, I think LA might be worse off than San Francisco. I will say that. It might be.

[00:25:17] And I'll, as of right now today, February 25th on 2025, I could say if LA does not recall Karen Bass over what happened, they are in way worse condition than San Francisco. And people thought San Francisco was like unsavable, but at least San Francisco has attempted to correct course and moderate. And we had an episode just on that. Who was it? Winky was one of our favorite people from that video.

[00:25:44] Winky was running around Chinatown talking about voting for Donald Trump. So adorable. Well, yes. And now the mayor just ordered that all city workers have to come back for at least four days a week. At minimum, they can only work from home one day a week. So now he's forcing everybody to come back. So we'll see. I just think LA is a mess right now. Maybe this is the catastrophic event that kind of awakens LA to kind of change their direction. Maybe they move on from this.

[00:26:14] I think that. But every time I think someone hits rock bottom or some city hits rock bottom or this is going to do it, they surprise me and just re-vote for the same people. Yeah, they just vote for the same person, just different, you know, same type of politician, just different name. So, all right. Gavin Newsom, one to always be in the news. He's not a fan of the idea. Gavin Newsom. Every time I hear his name, I have to go into it.

[00:26:43] He's got to do his little, not the Trump dance, but he's always doing his little dance with his hands. If you don't know, last week, several Republicans showed up. Kevin Kiley was there. The Secretary of Transportation was there. They all went to Union Station. Vince Fong was there as well. And they had a press conference about the idea of auditing where all the federal money went for the high-speed rail.

[00:27:10] Because as we know, as of right now, I think the estimates are anywhere between $14 to $16 billion have been spent on the California high-speed rail. Not one operational piece of track has been laid down yet. It's just all in the planning phase and research phase, which to me sounds like a ton of money laundering that they're researching and doing this so much. How much? I sent you something that was specifically a contract on research for the high-speed rail. How much was that?

[00:27:40] Do you remember? I don't remember. You sent me the breakdown for January. And I was looking and I was like, damn, that's a lot of money for people to just be doing evaluations of stuff. And there were like 15 people doing evaluations. You're like, why are so many people doing evaluations on this stuff? But yeah, so they had this press conference. They want an audit of the high-speed rail. Where did the federal money go? They want to see where the receipts are.

[00:28:08] And in response, Gavin Newsom was not going to take this laying down. So he released this video. As it relates to the issues of audits, I mean, you know, I was commenting when I was with President Trump. We talked about the high-speed rail and there was some discussion well before the public presentation on high-speed rail last week around audits. I think we've been audited 100 times there. Happy to see another audit. At a certain point, you have audit fatigue.

[00:28:36] I think at the end of the day, people want outcomes and they want results for their money spent. Audits for audit's sake, service no one, just service as headlines. What people want is problems solved and they want to see it. They want to believe it. They don't want to hear it. And they don't want to hear excuses and rhetoric. But the problem is, Gavin, problems haven't been solved. Like, we've spent all this money and nothing's been solved.

[00:29:03] Like, we're looking at a high-speed rail that was promised to go from L.A. to San Francisco. That was the whole thing. You can get to L.A. to San Francisco in under two hours. Which, actually, it's quicker to fly. But who cares? That's not the point. Problems haven't been solved. They delay it. They've moved it. Now it's Bakersfield to Merced. And there hasn't been any track laid down. And $16 billion has gone down the toilet.

[00:29:29] It doesn't sound like any problems have been solved on that front. Like, we don't know where the money went. We don't know why we keep asking for more money. I know Joe Biden came in and gave more money to the high-speed rail. So, yeah. You know what? No problems have been solved. Ergo, vis-a-vis, you get another audit. What do you think? Should we audit them again, the high-speed rail? Well, I would like an audit that actually produces results.

[00:29:58] So, they do monthly audit meetings. And they're on YouTube. And they're so boring. I try to watch. But they do them monthly and have been since 2018. And some have gotten canceled. So, there's been about 70 since 2018 audits. But they audit and then don't do anything with the results is what I'm seeing. Hmm.

[00:30:26] So, that's where the problem is. Yeah. We need an audit that then from there, we actually produce results from it. Like, okay, here's where the problem is. Now we need to work. Or here's this problem here, here, here, and there. Um, there's, I, so I requested a few days ago. Um, I went and requested the, like, public records. I was like, I would like all communications on this and all contracts current and finished.

[00:30:55] Going back to 2007. And they responded to me that that would be over 100,000 records. And I was like, cool. I want them all. And they were like, no. But here's some links. And then they're like, and you can narrow down, you know, what you want. Which, okay, that does make sense. Because however they could send me just like 100,000. I'll be like, hey, make photocopies. I'll come up there. I'll look at them. But, um, so they did send me some links, which is why I started going down this path. And, um, and I'm going to have to kind of go down this path and then request

[00:31:25] specifics, you know, data based off of what I find. But, um, like, okay, there's change orders. So something that started out as X amount of dollars, they do a change order on it because of a certain design. And it's literally a $7 million change order. And this is why, this is why this is happening because this, there's been like 34 change orders in the last month and several of them are millions of dollars.

[00:31:52] And they're just, they're acting like this just grows on triggers or it's monopoly money or whatever. And they're just like, sure, no problem. Change order approved, change order approved. Let's do this. Let's do that. And, um, again, there's so much that I just, I haven't gone down, but I'm just looking at numbers. I, my eyes glaze over. I'm like, I don't even want to do this math. This is so much in one month, like the last month. And, um, and then you and I started looking up, you know, how much they're paying.

[00:32:22] Uh, I forget his description that this, the director, I think is making like 600 K a year right now for, for what? 600 K for no results. It was Brian P Kelly is the CEO of the high speed rail, which I didn't know there was a CEO. I think he was the director. Yeah. But either way, he's the head of it. He's making like over $500,000 a year. It's like, for what? Like what's going on? Yeah. I don't even know.

[00:32:51] Why wouldn't, why aren't we hearing from this guy? Who is this guy? Who is this guy? Like if you're the head of the high speed rail, the most public, I mean, I guess the most public or biggest public transportation project in the country, I would say this and it's ambitious, the high speed rail. Um, you don't you think you'd know who's running it? Like, don't you think you'd have an idea of who's in charge of it?

[00:33:17] So people can start asking questions like where the hell's all the money and like, why has nothing been done? Right. Um, and he's been the director for, I think three or four years. And so you would think like, okay, maybe they were having issues with the prior director and I don't know. I don't, I don't know if the prior director was fired, retired, or if they just do a changeover. I have no idea how any of that works. I just know Brian P. Kelly has been the director for like three or four years. And so you would think, okay, new director, maybe we're actually going to see results.

[00:33:46] Same as the old director. What's going on everybody? I want to take a quick minute and talk about today's sponsor for our show. Stopbox. If you're not familiar with Stopbox, it is a firearm retention device. No electronics, no biometrics, nothing like that, that can get in the way. If there's an oncoming threat and you need quick and easy access to your firearm, it is literally just this finger combination on the top. You push it in, boom, hear that nice little click. And it is wide open for you, for your firearm.

[00:34:15] It can fit compact, subcompact, even full-size pistols, which is nice. They have added this new magazine, extra magazine holder. Also very nice. My wife and I both have our own Stopbox because we both know that when there's an oncoming threat in seconds count, you don't want to be fumbling around with electronics or keys or biometrics or anything like that. So now listeners of this show can enjoy 10% off their order at Stopbox.

[00:34:40] If they go to stopbox.com forward slash California underground, they'll get that discount, support the show. You can support Stopbox. And this is proudly made in the good old US of A. So go to stopbox.com forward slash California underground for your discount. And let's get back to the show. I will, I was thinking about this the other day because, you know, AI is taking over everywhere, right? AI is now you can AI everything.

[00:35:09] You know, you look on Facebook and it's just, you know, Grok is now free. Elon has made that free through X. You can go to Grok. I will admit I've been guilty of it. Like if I'm trying to get put in the right direction, I'll, I'll put a question into Grok and get an answer. Just to kind of get an overview of like, you know, if it's a topic, I'm not really quite sure, like where to even start. I'll, I'll look at it. We used it for this past episode, or I used it for this past episode about Point Reyes and all these different groups and how much money they got.

[00:35:37] Cause otherwise you have to like go grab documents from all over and that could take hours. Grok takes 30 seconds. There is a big difference. What's that? It's in four light bulbs. Yeah. Uh, yeah, that's right. How many light bulbs did you burn up? Just asking one question. Um, I, there is a difference now that the government and people like Gavin Newsom,

[00:36:06] I think probably, I don't know if the, either they don't realize it cause they're not smart enough to realize it or they're shaking in their boots about the fact that like AI is here. I can put in a document into AI that is 10,000 pages long. AI will read it and give me a summary in probably 15 minutes, 15 to 20 minutes. You know, 10,000 pages is a lot to read even for AI, but it does give you a summary and you

[00:36:32] can put into AI and say, Hey, find all these entries. Tell me how much the amount is, what dates, and it will find it for you. It's scary. Um, I mean, yeah, it's fun, but it's, you know, we're kind of ranging on that. Like, I don't know if you've seen any of the viral videos of like the robots that are getting a little too lifelike kind of freaks me out a little bit. Um, but I think with Doge going on and what the, what the programmers there with Doge are

[00:37:01] doing and the code and how much that they are probably running through these records so fast that I don't think they ever expected people to honestly be able to do this. I think they assumed we're going to create such a arcane cumbersome system with all these records. Like, you know, you asked for them. You said, I want to give me these a hundred thousand records. And they're like, no, that's too many, but you could put those a hundred thousand records into AI and then they could, you know, you can come back maybe a day later and AI will

[00:37:30] spit out a whole summary for you. Um, I don't think they were expecting that. And now AI can go through a lot of these public documents and they can't go back now and be like, well, no, all these documents can't be public. We can't show you this stuff because I would violate that whole idea of transparency. AI could change. We could all technically be like our own doges. And I think people need to realize that like, we're all, I get so many comments now on Instagram

[00:37:58] and, you know, live on the pocket and people say like, we need doge. We need doge. We need doge. We have doge. Like we're all doge. Like we can be doge. We can ask for these documents. We can ask for these records. You can put in a public records request. You can get them to turn over this stuff. There may be a little conjoling at first. And even if it's a lot, like you can put stuff into AI, you can ask AI questions. Like we all have access to it. Now we could all be like our own little doges and share information and independent media

[00:38:26] podcasts, stuff like that. We can report on this. So to me, it's like AI is a bureaucrat's worst nightmare because it will find what you've been trying to hide. It can find that, that needle in the haystack, that expense that you thought no one was going to notice, but all of a sudden $2 million to this group that you didn't think anyone was going to notice. Whoops. Now we found it because of AI. So we're entering an interesting world right now.

[00:38:55] And I think they, if they're smart enough, they might be shivering in their boots going, we can't stop this AI. That may be why a lot of politicians are racing to regulate AI as fast as possible. They don't want us to have AI because if the people have AI and we have access to unlimited knowledge and information, all of a sudden their, their shell game and their, you know, smoke and mirrors doesn't work as well anymore. So that's my thoughts. That's great.

[00:39:24] I've actually never used rock. That's I'll have to try. That's sounds fun. It is fun. Um, I've done like silly things. I've to like create images for the podcast. I've done deep research for it as well. And it is pretty good. And most AI will give you like footnotes of where they found it from. So you can go and like actually look it up. So like, Oh, where'd you get this information from? You like click on the footnote. I'll take you to the webpage and you can go read it for yourself.

[00:39:51] So if you have any questions, go to Grok and ask it. Um, actually I did ask Grok a question the other day regarding the high speed rail. Cause I was just curious. I was like, everyone always likes to say, well, you know, Japan has a very comprehensive high speed rail and it is, uh, it's the best in the world. And we should be looking at that. And I was like, okay, how much did it cost to build Japan's high speed rail?

[00:40:16] And I think they said it was something like 637 billion yen back in the day, which was like the sixties or something, which equated to by today's standards, $11 billion. So even by today's standards, $11 billion bought, you know, built them a high speed rail. We are at 16 billion. I'm just going to say 16 billion. Cause it's probably closer to that number. We're at 16 billion.

[00:40:45] We have not one mile of track. We have nothing laid out. So Japan was able to get done in $11 billion. What we can't get even started for 16 billion. Just for context. I actually wouldn't be opposed to the high speed rail. If they actually did something with it and within budget, or at least very close to budget. I believe they started the high speed rail. Agency, whatever you call it back in like 1996. 1996.

[00:41:16] And then it was in the early two thousands that they changed the name to the California high speed rail authority. And it's like 1996 was so long ago. Even though to me, it was like 10 years ago. It was 30 years ago. And nothing, nothing. And, and I looked at the map with the proposed map that they have. And I'm like, this would be so convenient.

[00:41:39] And I realized the train isn't a high speed rail, but I loved the train system in Europe. Um, I had so much fun on it. I mean, I, the first time I went to London, of course there was, you know, the subways underground. It was like 15. And then I used it again in 2022. And then when my husband and I took the kids last year, we were there a year ago. We've thoroughly enjoyed the trains. And I'm like this, I would enjoy this.

[00:42:06] I would, even though you said it's faster to take an airplane, I would genuinely enjoy a high speed train up to North. Like I would be like, you know what? I'm going to, I'm going to do that for a day overnight, whatever. I would have fun with it, but nothing. They have given us nothing. You have given us nothing to even look forward. That high speed rail that is being privately built from Los Angeles to Vegas will be done. I bet it'll be done before they lay one mile of track for the high speed rail. I'm sure.

[00:42:35] I always, always outperform. Private will always outperform. Um, I had posted something yesterday on Instagram. I love fun little history facts. That's a, that's a little quirk about me. Um, and I saw an interesting video about the red cars in LA and how there were a series of red cars all over LA that were like really well done and well organized. And like, you didn't have to, you didn't need a car.

[00:43:01] Like you could get anywhere in LA, even to orange County with these red cars. And I was like, wow. Okay. Actually, the, the, the video goes on the talk about how Roger rabbit was all about this whole thing with the red cars in LA and the cars and the freeways and stuff like that. But anyway, I'm fine with that. I'm fine with it. I like I, if it works and it's affordable and we can do it insufficient, let's do it. But let's not drop $16 billion into nothing for no track at all for no progress.

[00:43:32] So. Okay. So I saw you post that video and I didn't watch the video. Do you know why that went away? Um, yeah. So what happened was a lot of, uh, they framed it as a lot of people who own oil companies and stocks and cars and stuff like that. As the automobile got more popular, bought up the red cars and then just took them out of commission. So. Okay. And then they started building the freeway and then the automobile and then here we are.

[00:44:00] So, um, but there are still some remnants of the red car. They said there's one track that still follows the same track. And then the angel flight, which goes up and down that hill. I've never taken it. Um, that's part of the red car. But anyway, it was pretty interesting to see. There used to be a whole system. I'm not against trains. Cause her, her dad was LAPD. So they would go spend a lot of time there. And I feel like she's like, talk about that.

[00:44:26] My mom, like met her briefly and you guys didn't talk that much, but she actually loves history and she knows a ton about it. She'd be fascinated by that story. So I love history. I'm a, I'm a history buff. Um, always my favorite topic and history and politics were my two favorite in school. So here we are. Um, all right. Finally, time for some Q and a, so if you're in the chat and you want to ask a question, fire away. Uh, this is the first time.

[00:44:56] Well, we've done this before we've done Q and a session, but this is the first time we're really kind of like promoting like listener mailbag. So we got a couple of questions. We, I would start real fast. We do always appreciate your questions, whether it's live or you submit them to us. We're, we're always willing to take your questions. And if we can figure it out, talk about it, we will. Yeah. And, and yeah, it's, it seems special here, but like whenever we're doing the live show,

[00:45:26] like we always love questions. If people have questions or comments, I'm always looking at the chat. That's if you see my eyeballs darting around, it's me looking at like three different chats to check everybody's chat. So, um, but we just carved out a specific time for anyone to ask anything off the top of their head about California politics. So first question, uh, Kamala Harris versus Chad Bianco, realistic odds of winning California governor's seat.

[00:45:54] Um, do you want to go first or? You go first. Um, it will be an interesting race. I will say that if it's Chad Bianco versus Kamala, I think we talked about this. I think he's the one person who could really, um, he has no filter and that's a good thing. He's very honest and he, he doesn't filter himself. He's not a politician. He's been in law enforcement. Um, it'll make for a very interesting race.

[00:46:22] I think she's a weakened candidate because of how lackluster she did in the presidential race. I don't think she inspires as much hope as people think. I think when she, she didn't do well when they were propping her up for two months and like the national media was basically propping her up and rolling out the red carpet for her and doing everything they could to help. It will be completely different here in California when she has to run like an entire race, not

[00:46:51] like, not like, Oh, here's your choice. Here's your presidential candidate for two months. You better like her. Like she's going to have to run a full governor's race. And if you thought that one clip we had at the beginning of the episode was bad, there will be like a hundred by the time her race is over. Now, does it mean she won't win? Um, I would say she probably still has the edge to win. Um, Chad Bianco might perform the best of any Republican candidate in a long time in that

[00:47:21] case and down ballot, you might see a lot more offices. And, and politicians go red and a lot of political seats go red with Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket. So, um, that's my answer is that, uh, I think she'll still win. I think it will be the closest election we've seen in a long time. Um, and again, it's all that progress to purple every election cycle. If we can just inch a little bit farther and farther. So what do you think?

[00:47:51] Yeah. So as you mentioned, if that video that we had at the intro is kind of her segue into her California comeback, uh, it's off to a complete disaster. Uh, I'm always questioning, will California elect a Republican governor? That, that is kind of the big question, but as we've seen slowly, but surely every election cycle, well, not every, but recently the election cycles, we're seeing a little bit more turn to the right, a little bit more red.

[00:48:21] And, um, Brian Dolly, who was the governor, the Republican governor pick of 2022, he received the highest percentage of votes for Republican governor, uh, in a really, really long time. And so if that shows how the tides are turning, then certainly if Chad Bianco is the, the top choice for Republicans, um, we definitely have a shot there.

[00:48:48] As I mentioned, uh, California did vote for her for vice president, but I feel like even then, I think it was people voted out of like, they hate Trump. They didn't vote because they loved Kamala. There was sure there was a few, there's always going to be the few, but I think it was the majority were like, I hate Trump. Therefore I'm voting for Kamala. But when it comes to California, is it going to be an, I hate Bianco. Now Bianco is very pro Trump and people have brought that up to me when I've shared, you

[00:49:18] know, we had him on here before and I shared the video on Instagram and stuff. And I did get responses of no, not him. He's too, he's pro Trump. He's too Trump, but we'll see. We'll see how that factors because we've actually talked about before in previous election cycles where we were like, no, with being pro Trump is, it's not the way to go in California because it's just such a different beast. It's not going to work the same as it will in other places.

[00:49:42] But now Trump, you know, came out the big winner and all of a sudden being pro Trump is, uh, is a pro, you know, it's a positive. And so we'll see if him being such, and he, he has common sense. He does. Uh, he, like you said, he has no filter. He's very common sense. We talked about the fact that he understands he's seen firsthand what needs to be reformed in California. He has a lot of understanding of that.

[00:50:09] Does Koala Harris really have an understanding of anything at all? And I'm not picking on her for being a Democrat. I'm picking on her because like I said, she just doesn't come across as bright. She doesn't come across as knowing anything. And, and I don't, I don't know why they, why Alex Mickelson was interviewing her for that. I understand that. Yes, she was the vice president, but I didn't understand politically where, like, who was she in that moment of the fires?

[00:50:38] Because I don't know what relation did she have to all this, you know? And so that was kind of confusing. So that did seem like that was her trying to kind of segue back into California politics. And if that was her trying to segue back into California politics, that was not a good look. No. Uh, yeah, I think she isn't officially nominated. Um, yeah, she hasn't put her hat in the ring yet. So we don't know what she, I think it's just because she's an influential person and there's

[00:51:07] a big, and she's, uh, the Emerson poll came out. This showed her as the overwhelming favorite. Although I looked at the numbers and only like 469 people who voted in this poll. So it's not like a huge bowl. It's not like they pulled like thousands of people and they were like, Oh, Kamala is the pick. It was like 469 people. Um, so yeah, uh, it will be an interesting rate. I think it'll probably get a ton of attention if it's Kamala Harris versus Chad Bianco. And I think that's good.

[00:51:36] If we get a ton of attention here in California and it's Chad Bianco versus Kamala Harris, because of that fact that he is so honest and no filter, he will bring a lot of attention to what's going on here on the ground in California. And it might just, you know, horrify the rest of the country, um, to what is actually happening here. I know people know kind of what's going on here, but I don't think they know the depth of like what's going on here. Yeah. All right.

[00:52:02] You know, you have all real quick on this at the announcement party, you recorded his whole speech, which wasn't that long. Everything he said was common sense. I didn't hear anything extreme from him. It was just like, these are the big, these are, you know, he's a, he's a big, uh, you know, kitchen table, politics guy, public safety economy that works, stuff like that.

[00:52:27] Um, someone just did post in the chat, uh, Angela asked any idea of the selection of a new California GOP chair. Um, the only person I know who's really running is Corinne Rankin. Um, and I've asked around to Republican colleagues and they all seem to be in favor of her taking over. So those people are in favor of her. Mike morale is also running. Um, I know some people who prefer him, but the majority are for Corinne who's the vice president

[00:52:57] currently. Yeah. So I think she's the front runner right now. When do they elect this upcoming convention is when they convention. Like a week and a half, two weeks. Ah, okay. I think it's the 14th to the 16th of next month. So very soon. Um, nothing, you know, I've not going to be there. We're not going to be there this time. Um, we just, we can't be at every single convention. It's a lot, especially when they're so far away. It feels like they're never in Southern California. But anyway, I've said a lot about Jessica Milan Patterson in the past.

[00:53:27] I, she might be the nicest person in the world. I've heard she's really nice and sweet and all that stuff. My biggest critique is she always, always, always was obsessed with Congress. And it just seemed like she forgot that Sacramento existed and that like local, like she was always talking about like, we need to turn this state around. So vote for so-and-so for Congress. And it's like, that doesn't help. Congress doesn't help change what's going on here in California. I'm sorry. It doesn't.

[00:53:53] And people who tell you that, that they're going to do that in Congress, it's just always rubs me the wrong way. Um, all right, next question. Cause we've got a bunch of questions we want to get to. Uh, where can a typical person find the actual receipts for claims from left or right? Hmm. Um, you mean like fact checking them? Um, I found a good app that is really kind of fun. Grok is, it's not Grok.

[00:54:23] I'm not going to be that guy who's up. Go to Grok. We are not sponsored by Grok. Um, is the ground news. If you go to ground news, they're actually pretty good about like telling you the story and then giving you like different, um, sides of it. So like you can look at the same story from different places. So that's a good place to, to, to start.

[00:54:50] Um, usually claims about like numbers and stuff like that is a little harder cause you have to do like your own research. Unless there's good fact checkers who can go in and find it. Um, I'm trying to think of like anybody who does that a lot. I mean, we, we do our best that we can to kind of fact check a lot of stuff, but there is a lot of stuff that's out there. Um, yeah, ground news, but in terms of like claims right or left, I mean, most of the time

[00:55:20] it, it just takes like a quick Google search or I don't say Google, but like duck, duck go. And just kind of like, you know, if you're interested in and you're like, huh, this kind of doesn't really make sense to me. And it raises your alarm bells. Then look into it, you know, like you may not find the answer right away. Um, it may take a little bit longer than 30 seconds, putting it into grok.

[00:55:45] Um, but you know, research it and find the answer. If it's that important to you, if it's, if something is stands out to you and you're like, this doesn't make sense to me, look into it. So, um, you, you be your own researcher to find that stuff. Um, any thoughts on that? Yeah. I see like, if you're looking for a specific story or person, you, you know, search for

[00:56:10] news articles about that and, uh, read several so that you can separate facts from opinion and then you can kind of form your own opinion. If it's a person definitely search their social media, Twitter, usually X, whatever we're calling it these days. Um, you know, keyword searches on that to kind of like, did they say this? They could always go back and say, Oh, I didn't mean that, but you can kind of fact check

[00:56:36] that, uh, if it's California related and they're a politician and you're trying to figure out if something actually happened, FPPC, you can look up their transparency portal to see if there's been complaints. Are they closed? What came about that? Um, like you said, just kind of research them often. Like if it's a name, I will often put in that name with the word lawsuit next to it to, to kind of see, Oh, have they been sued? What was, I don't know.

[00:57:06] Cause these people, I swear when they're, they're grifters or they're frauds or whatever, they always have a lawsuit. They just always do. And I mean, being sued does not make you guilty, but, but we, you know, you can look through these lawsuits and kind of be like, what, what happened there? But I, yeah, definitely just trying to look up articles. Um, if you're trying to find salaries, we often reference, um, transparent California so

[00:57:33] that you can, you know, if they're again, this is California related, but as far as receipts go, definitely they try to bury stuff. All sides, all sides do that. So you just, you do have to dig deep and keep just doing different keyword searches on whatever your topic or person is. Um, you know, you can X name, um, like I said, lawsuit is one, um,

[00:58:03] as easy as like putting in like the name of an organization, put in, like I was researching for this past episode center for biological diversity scandal and then seeing what comes up. And sometimes it does controversy. Yes. Those are good controversy. Usually if there's something out there, you'll, you'll find the news story. Even if it's not like a big news story, you can might find a blogger who talks about it. Um, and that's where I found something about the center for biological diversity.

[00:58:30] So, uh, it's, if you enjoy that and it's like, kind of like share all the combs, you're kind of like going out there and finding it. Um, it can be fun, but it can be fun. It can be a lot of work. There's a lot of cross work. You'll have 600 tabs open. And then before you know, you look at your tabs and you're like, well, I don't even know where I left that. And you're like, I don't care anymore. It's so cathartic when you close all of them and it's all clean now. It's like, Oh, start all over. Um, all right.

[00:58:58] Somebody asked, can we get California surface, you know, positive news about California, et cetera. I don't know what California surface is, but someone asked about positive news about California. Um, I thought this was kind of positive. Uh, Palm Springs has been seeing a surge in people visiting and tourism has been booming out in Palm Springs.

[00:59:22] And so much so I think it's a $1.5 billion renovation to upgrade the airport. So Palm Springs is on the rebound right now. Uh, which, you know, I went to Palm Springs for the first time last year and last year or two years ago. I think it was last year. It was two years ago. I can't remember. It was, yo, my gosh, it already is two years ago. I only remember because we were at convention and you could only be there like one day. Right.

[00:59:51] It was when Trump came out. It was when Trump came to convention. Um, yeah, it was literally, we, we went out the next day. Uh, and I made fun of you because we were like, Oh, we're going to convention. Yes. We're going to do it. And then, and then he like booked the whole thing. And I was like, Hey, cool. You're not going to convention. And I made fun of you. Yeah. I, I, my calendar got booked up. Um, but yeah, I like Palm Springs. It's, it's great that it's, it's reviving and people are coming.

[01:00:20] And even after COVID, it looks like it's, this is something like it went from 4 million to 5 million over 5 million tourists, like over just a year, like an increase of a million. So yeah. Palm Springs is fun. It's cool. And they're, they're leaning into the whole like retro thing, which I think Palm Springs just has to lean into like the whole like forties that, yeah, that glam sixties rat pack kind of feel just lean into it. That's what people go to Palm Springs for. Um, yeah.

[01:00:50] No, literally like a few years ago when we went, we all had our different agendas. We went with the whole family, but one of the things that I wanted to do was just drive around and photograph houses because there's such like so many interesting, different architecture types and it's fascinating. And they have their like bright colored doors and bright colored homes. And yeah. Um, how to hold board of supervisors to regulate street vendors. It's getting out of control. We need a balance.

[01:01:21] Um, well, I mean the best way to hold any supervisors accountable, go to public meetings. Like, you know, it's those, there's also, you can submit a lot of supervisors. You can submit public comments. Um, that could be something you could do. Like if you want to start a campaign and submit public comments, I know down here in San Diego, it's different for every board of supervisors. They all have different bylaws of how they run things.

[01:01:48] Um, I know down here, if you like submit public comments, they have to read the public comments. So they, they can't get off the hook of just being like, Oh, there's a whole stash of 500 public comments and we, we're just going to ignore them. Um, so you can show up. That's usually very effective when you show up and call them out to their face. Uh, comments like public comments. If you get a whole campaign of like a hundred to 200 people to say like, this is enough. We need this because politicians do listen.

[01:02:15] If there is a pain point in your community, I know a lot of people probably be like, well, politicians don't really care about you, but they do care about holding onto their seat. They do care about holding onto power. So if there's a pain point that they look at and go, Oh, this may be politically bad for me. Um, and enough people raise hell about it. You'll be surprised how fast they change their tune. So if they look at something like, Whoa, we, we miscalculate this. We thought it would be popular.

[01:02:45] And now it's not popular. Um, you'll, you'll be surprised. So just public pressure, just show up at the meetings, public comment. That's, uh, you know, that's, that's one way you can hold them accountable. So it might also be a city council thing. Could be specific to your city. They may not have the proper permits to operate. Right. And as much as, you know, I'm like not for more government regulation, if they require

[01:03:10] a business license or permit to operate in that area and they don't have it, that could be something that you could start going to your city council about and complaining. And, you know, the government loves nothing more than to make a dime off of other businesses. And if they find out that someone doesn't have their proper permits and they didn't pay their, their fair price, then, you know, the government's going to go in to make sure that they get their fair share. So. Yeah.

[01:03:36] Government doesn't like to be, uh, gypped out of their, their license fee. Um, but you know what? You gotta love those, the, the, the entrepreneurs who are making the danger dogs outside the Padres games. So if you've never had a street danger dog, you really haven't lived. Um, especially not in Southern California. If you don't know what a danger dog is, I'll tell you some other time. Uh, all right. Someone in the chat asked about towing of wrong park cars in LA and writing tickets.

[01:04:05] It's just more important than removing abandoned cars from the streets of Palisades, but use of dough. This is kind of a confusing question. Use of dozer, dozers just to smash them aside and keep them on the streets. Um, I guess is the question like, what's more important? I'm not really quite sure what that question is. Is it? Yeah. There's parking tickets. Are they ticketing cars in LA that are parked in the Palisades? Cause they're not supposed to be there or are they just pushing them out of the way

[01:04:34] with bulldozers. Maybe they're talking about, remember when the fires actually happened and they were bringing in, they couldn't bring in a lot of trucks because of abandoned cars. Oh, maybe that's what we're referring to. So we saw where there was actual, some equipment that came in and just had to, they couldn't even worry about like the cars. They just kind of had to push their way through. Maybe that's, I don't know. Maybe, um, an emergency situation.

[01:05:00] If there's not someone in the car, then sorry, the cars, the fires, the priority of the emergency situations. But I don't know if that's what they're referencing. Yeah. I'm not, I'm not sure. Um, anyway, uh, if you have a, you know, if you're in the chat and you want to rephrase that question, be happy to try and answer it. Um, all right. This question came in just before the show and this is a question for both of us. Um, I did not share this one with you, so you're gonna have to answer it on the fly.

[01:05:31] Um, you didn't know you didn't get to cheat and think about before. Uh, all right. The question is, you know, cause it's our 300th episode who has been your favorite guest on the podcast. And the question is to both of us. So we don't have to say the same person. It can just be whoever yours or mine is. So now I have to have a Cabal Harris moment.

[01:05:57] Where you try and fumble through an answer of like, well, you know, I've had so many guests on that I could just, I could feel the different energies of the different people. I've had a lot of favorite guests. Um, yeah, it's tough to narrow it down to cause there's different guests for different purposes. Like there's guests who come on and I, I can honestly just sit there and I, I almost want

[01:06:27] to just turn off my mic and be like, you just, you talk cause you're so brilliant. And I know nothing about this topic. So you talk. Um, I think there's something like a Lance Christensen who is really, really smart. And like, when you want to talk about education, he's the guy to talk to about education, especially here in California. Um, he's a great guest. Um, you know, it's funny, like inside baseball is like the best guests are those that we don't have to prod to talk. Like they're just great.

[01:06:56] They're great people to talk to. And they just talk. Um, cause I've had some guests, I'm not going to name names. I've had some guests on who you have them on and then they like, don't answer your questions or they have like short answers. And then it's really painful to like have them on the show. Cause anyway, uh, I mean, Chad Bianco was a great, great guest. He was very, um, authentic.

[01:07:19] A lot of the people from the legislature we've had, um, you know, one for me that was like, I, I had known nothing about her. And then like, after she came on, I was like, can she come on like every month and just give us an update from Sacramento was Diane Dixon. She was like, Diane Dixon was great. Like she was an amazing guest and like, oh, she was full of like just life and passion. And like, she was just like telling us like it is.

[01:07:49] And she was talking about everything and she had no holds barred. And she's telling you everything that happens in Sacramento. Um, so she was great. Joe Patterson, another great one. Josh Hoover has been on the show a couple of times. Now I'm just listing everybody. So it's hard to say who like the favorite is. It's hard to pick one favorite. It's it's, it really is hard to pick one favorite. Cause we've had a lot of great people on. So. Yeah, I agree. I have, um, I don't even know if these are my favorite, but standout moments for me.

[01:08:18] When I first joined the podcast, I had the goal of getting Rebecca Friedrichs on here, who she has been sounding the alarm on the California teachers union and even had a whole lawsuit, uh, that made headway on a lot of things. And so when I first joined, I was like, I am going to get her on. And I tried and tried and tried to contact her. And it was actually because we had Jessica Tapia on, who was the teacher that was fired for refusing to use beta pronouns. Um, then she connected me with Rebecca after the fact.

[01:08:48] And so getting her on, because I had been like my number one goal guest when I first joined and finally getting to have Rebecca Friedrichs on, it was a big deal for me. So it was like goal met. Bill Assaylee, he's one of my favorite legislators. And, um, I, I go after these people. I'm pretty aggressive. I, um, I'm probably annoying because I will continuously contact them and call them and email them. And I'm like, I want to get them scheduled. I want to get them scheduled. And they're busy of course.

[01:09:16] And their staff doesn't always get back to us. And so Bill Assaylee was someone that I, um, I finally like was just walking down the hallway at the 2023 fall convention with Trump there. And I saw him and he was talking to someone else and I just interrupted him. And I'm like, you're a Bill Assaylee. He's like, yes, I am. And I'm like, I have been trying to get you on the show forever and handed him my card. And I think we booked him within like a week or two. So, and, um, and like I said, he's one of my favorite legislators and he had a whole lot to say. I loved what he had to say.

[01:09:45] I really appreciate what he does. Diane Dixon. Um, I knew that I liked her, but she surprised me. Like you said, she just came out like, cause like you said, sometimes we get a guest on and we ask them a question. They give us like forward answers. And we're like, where do we go from here? And we're just like trying to draw out. And then the show we're like, okay, well, you know, good luck. See you later. But her, talk to her forever.

[01:10:14] And she, she truly, she's running again. I hope she, I'm sure she will get reelected, but, um, yeah, she's amazing. Little fireball. And then, uh, Joe Patterson, we're trying to get him back on Joe. If you're out there, we'll, we'll get them on again. They're all, you know, in, they're currently in session. And so it's kind of hard right now, but, um, I feel like, uh, the dollies, both dollies we had on ones. Yes.

[01:10:41] And, um, with Joe, don't you feel like you could just go like sit and eat with him at a restaurant and he would just be fun. And like, you could just, oh yeah. Yeah. A lot of these guests we've had, I feel like if you sat down and had a beer with them, they'd be great people to just sit and chat with or a cocktail or whatever. Right. Um, yeah, it's hard to pick just one favorite guest. Um, you know, we have repeat guests who has made those, uh, uncle Tom videos. Yeah.

[01:11:09] Um, James Gallagher, James loves, loves the show. Um, he's been on, he was, you know, when we went to our, I think it was our first live podcast we did at a convention. That was the Trump convention that we did. Um, you know, he kept walking by watching us set up and he's like, you guys ready yet? You guys ready yet? And then like the minute we were ready, he was like, all right, I'm on. And he's like, he was excited to be on.

[01:11:33] Like, that was fun for us because we had, you know, gone after him to try to get him on the show. And then once we did, and there, the first time we had him on, there was technical issues and we'd like had to reschedule. We finally got him on the show and we had such a great conversation that we were literally in the room with Trump. Um, and he came over to us cause we were media. So we're like in the back and he was like, you guys, you guys are going to set up. And then he kept coming to the booth as we're setting up. And like, he, he was wanting to talk to us.

[01:12:02] And I felt like that was like, we pursued him for so long and now he's pursuing us. It was, that was a big moment for me at least. It's fun. It's, it's, it's, it's really great to meet all these people. Um, cause then we meet them like out at convention and we see him out in like person. And, um, we actually, well, I had second time, but for you first time, we actually met Bill Saley at the chat Bianco announcement party last week. It was the first time I met in person. So it's weird. You meet these people like online for the podcast and then you meet them in person.

[01:12:32] It's always great to meet them in person as well. Um, so yeah, I, I didn't answer that question at all. Who's my favorite guest? Everybody. Um, you know, for a different reason, you know, go, we have like repeat guests, like people who come on every once in a while, like Zach will be coming on once in a while. Um, Natalie is another one who's come on to talk about like culture and stuff like that. So we have, we have, we've been very lucky to have a lot of guests and, you know, looking

[01:12:59] back on 300 episodes, gosh, I can't remember like the first guest I ever had. Cause it was just me talking into a microphone. Um, so it was probably like on Instagram live or something. And then I was like, nah, we're going to start doing this on the podcast, not on Instagram live, which I think Instagram lives basically dead at this point. Anyway, no one really pays attention to it. Um, probably cause people don't want to sit there and watch something live on their phone like this close anymore. So, um, your Instagram live.

[01:13:27] So yeah, back in the day, coffee in California politics was very popular. People love that during the COVID years. Um, but yeah, once we start getting guests, it's, it's been exciting to see like who's been coming on, who wants to come on. Like Grant Cardone came on. And he reached out to us. He reached out to us. So that was cool too. Um, but anyway, in that same vein, we do, we are always looking out for new guests. We're always asking people. We have some guests that I've been talking to as well.

[01:13:55] Um, that we are going to line up for the rest of the year. Uh, this has been fun. I just want to say from the bottom of my heart, thank you to everybody who is new, who's just discovered this show at 300 episodes and anybody who's been here for more than, you know, all these episodes, a hundred episodes, 50 episodes, anybody who's joined up or found this podcast. We're, I feel like we're, like I said, we're just getting really like into our stride and

[01:14:19] how we want to present news and updates about California politics and what's going on. So, you know, keep it tuned to us. I, I, we, you know, we've been told plenty of times that we're the most trusted podcast when it comes to news on California politics. They say, we trust you more than anybody. So I get plenty of people asking me, like, can you, can you tell me like, what's really, you know, going on and I'm like, okay, I'll give you my, my point of view, but. Figure it out.

[01:14:48] So we'll figure it out, but thank you to everybody for tuning in and putting your trust in us. So, um, any final thoughts? Uh, well, same. Thank you everyone. We wouldn't be a podcast if we didn't have listeners or maybe we would hope that we would, you know, and, um, and so I always joke, like, I never know when I'm going to get fired. Thank you for putting up with me for 120 something episodes. We'll see if you put up with me for 120 more. I don't know.

[01:15:19] And with that, uh, everyone say goodbye. This is Camille's last episode. She's being fired live on air. Fire me now. Like you're getting fired live on air right now. Nope. Uh, we got plenty of more work to do. So I'm not going anywhere. Um, yeah, here's to another 300. So, um, with that, I guess we'll wrap up the show. Cause we're a little bit over at one hour and 14. Uh, make sure you subscribe, like, share, review, all that stuff helps with the algorithm.

[01:15:47] Um, and the best way you can support this show is send it to somebody to help it keep growing and get more people to tune in for the next 300 episodes. And with that, we will see you on the next one. Later. Thank you for listening to another episode of California underground.

[01:16:13] If you like what you heard, remember to subscribe, like, and review it and follow California underground on social media for updates as to when new episodes are available.