Episode 248 - Convo with Jim Desmond

[00:00:00] If you're a California conservative, a libertarian, a moderate Democrat, believe in common sense

[00:00:11] or just the same person, this is the political podcast for you.

[00:00:15] It's the California Underground Podcast.

[00:00:27] What's going on everybody? You can walk through unimpeded into San Diego County. I visited a site about 60 miles east of the city of San Diego along the border called Hamul. That's spelled with a J for those who know how to spell that one. But Hamul at California. And there's a hole in the fence right there.

[00:01:40] I went out New Year's Day with my media person and I went there and we saw an encampment. we've got probably about six to nine hundred street drop-offs a day and the street drop-off is the Border Patrol has these big white buses I don't know they probably hold 60 or 80 people per bus and they are being dropped off at a transit station in South San Diego County and they're just being dropped

[00:03:02] off you know right next to the parking lot of where them off at the airport. So now San Diego Airport has become our new migrant center. Yeah, two things you brought up. I think it's important for people to realize that this is not just a Latin American issue and we had done sort of a breakdown of the debate last week

[00:04:22] I think we did an episode and a reporter from Telemundo asked and kind of conflated the issue of

[00:05:27] inflate Latino voters and illegal immigration as if like it's one in the same. And I think you brought up a good point that it's not, we shouldn't be focusing so much on that.

[00:05:32] No, Phil, you're breaking up, man.

[00:05:34] Oh, I'm sorry. Am I losing?

[00:05:36] Yeah, I'm here, but Phil keeps breaking up. We're not getting much of what he's saying.

[00:05:44] Can you hear me now? bus that we could only assume is a charity or nonprofit is coming and picking them up and then taking them actually to another transit center where they get on a shuttle bus that takes them to the airport. So it's it's kind of sporadic there I think there all over the place but unfortunately they're spending a day or two at our airport and sleeping in the airport because they can't always get a flight out right away and so that's you know we're a tourist city and that's what people see that's our doormat you

[00:08:21] know to people arriving in San Diego and seeing the homeless And I was never in favor of this because I thought, well, this is an immigration issue. We're using local tax dollars, which we should be using on our own homeless issues or streets, roads, infrastructure, things like that. And so luckily my colleagues finally gave up also after $6 million. And so now we are just having these street drop-offs

[00:09:40] that seem to have no end here in San Diego County.

[00:09:44] Phil sent me an article about that.

[00:09:45] So I'm sure he wants to get into that for a minute,

[00:09:47] but I'm not done, Phil. Okay, am I back? Can you guys hear me? Okay, yeah so far fingers crossed what was the article you were referring to I sent you a bunch of articles Let me tell you which one I think it was the one where they voted four to one and he was the one lone vote about The federal dollars that are supposed to be reimbursed. But of course, that's not gonna happen right away

[00:11:04] well, and what it was was the

[00:11:07] my colleagues brought forth a I lost where I was going. Okay, yeah, they wanted to have another migrant drop-off center, but beg and plead from the federal government to fund this thing. And I just thought, I don't want to be complicit in this failed broken system. And if the federal government isn't going to fund New York or Chicago, they're not going

[00:12:21] to fund San Diego County with any of these dollars.

[00:12:24] And I just think that the whole system is broken, that people can just walk across the

[00:12:27] border unimpeded freely, illegally, and then just ask for asylum? Why would you go through that process? And I think that's what really needs to be

[00:13:40] fixed. Passage from the Congress, he doesn't need a piece of paper from them

[00:13:44] saying, you know, with a note saying that's a perfect point. Setting up a long-term migrant facility just kind of says, well, this is it. This is how it's going to be. This is what we're dealing with now. When in reality, it's kind of like you have to go back to the... It's like a

[00:15:03] sickness and this is a symptom. You have to cure the Republicans or the Democrats, it's like right now the Democrats are in charge of the border with Biden there, but he's just letting people come in without any sort of proper vetting into the country, coming in ahead of the line. What's unfortunate, I agree with you on your

[00:16:21] vote about the federal dollars, is that, being wielded by President Trump. I mean, he knows he should have remembered. He revoked all those executive orders. I doubt he actually remembers that far back, but he revoked all those executive orders

[00:17:41] that Trump had in place to help slow sort of the flow of migrants across the southern

[00:17:46] border.

[00:17:47] Now he's pretending like, oh'll talk amongst ourselves. Rhode Island. It's neither a road nor an island discuss. That's an old SNL joke if people remember that. Well, we only have a couple seconds but I think we're taking a week off. Possibly we might be doing election results. But on a different day. So we'll update listeners

[00:19:02] next week. And as far as I know, I'm still on NBC for next week. So yeah, anyway,

[00:20:01] rather than just San Diego County. How do you think Americans and Californians

[00:20:04] are viewing this issue at the border right now

[00:20:07] with what's going on in light of the country

[00:20:10] and the economy and inflation, all that stuff?

[00:20:13] I think this is focus number one right now

[00:20:15] because this is being felt throughout the country,

[00:20:19] the immigration issue.

[00:20:22] You hear about mayors wanting to shut down schools

[00:20:25] or parks or things like that to allow immigrants to stay. In the air for just for Americans and daily life to nowadays You don't have to answer this if this is What I call it in inside baseball, I don't want to put you at you know on on that risk of your job

[00:21:44] I'm gonna try I'm gonna try my best you can just you can just say to Clint to comment But it's taken our eye off the ball of a lot of things. Homelessness has been our number one issue for a long time. Well, now, unfortunately, it's just kind of in the back behind the migrant issue that we're having right now. And a lot of the focus tends to be on the airport now,

[00:23:01] because there are pictures of people sleeping in the airport.

[00:23:04] Somebody's been there for the last five days. going to happen to you guys. That will completely screw over San Diego County. San Diego. Yeah, beating the drum for his new tax for Prop 1. And he says, well, the county's, you're going to get it back. You're going to get it back. But anything we get back from Sacramento has strings attached and makes it... And that really has caused

[00:24:22] the amount of homelessness that we have, don't know why my internet is so... No, Phil's in San Diego. I don't want to give you the exact location. Oh, that's okay. No. Well, you're not using government Wi-Fi, are you? Because I find it... No.

[00:25:40] That doesn't always work.

[00:25:41] No.

[00:25:42] No, I pay plenty enough to Spectrum to use this Wi-Fi.

[00:25:45] Oh.

[00:25:46] I don't know. because we have to pay for it. And with the state already in the red by so much, by tens of billions of dollars, $70 billion at this point, it eventually becomes a tax. So I guess, all right, I'll get this question out as fast as possible.

[00:27:02] Prop one, is it just addressing,

[00:27:07] is it throwing money tax. So yes, it's going to have to be paid back and it's going to have to be paid back by the taxpayers. So to say it's not a tax is bad enough. And then secondly, what I've been arguing is Sacramento really caused this homeless situation in the first place.

[00:28:20] It was a kind of a...

[00:28:25] They thought bad intentions, bad things happen even with good intentions. And that's what's really coming down here. They're saying, okay, you need to pay more taxes so we can fix all of this. That's not the problem. The problem is the policies. So if they get more money and they get more money and they haven't changed any policies, this is just throwing good money after bad because we've already spent billions of dollars

[00:29:41] with the failed policies and not gotten anywhere.

[00:29:44] Matter of fact, we've gotten worse

[00:29:45] over the last couple of years.

[00:30:44] billions of dollars to build these shelters and these beds and have something tangible to point at and have a nice press conference and go, look at this.

[00:30:48] Isn't this wonderful?

[00:30:49] This is nice.

[00:30:52] Big housing complex with beds and all that stuff.

[00:30:56] And look what we did.

[00:30:57] This is what we did with Prop 1 is we built these beds in these shelters and all of that.

[00:31:02] And I think that they're just neglect live you know in apartments right next to a transit stop and and you know give up the single

[00:32:23] family home and give up your car that's kind of seems to be the push and so likely to get a decent paying job right away. And they can't even afford affordable housing. We need to have some type of, and I've been pushing for this in North County, some type of transitional housing or housing group housing or dorm type housing or something like that to where we can get the people who are cleaned up and we have them in a clean and sober environment.

[00:33:44] Because what's happening now is people, even if And then regarding the homeless people, like there's no denying we have a homeless issue and a lot of it does come down to addiction and mental health. But a lot of it going back to affordable housing, I've been reading more and more almost daily where they're doing these studies and they're finding that people,

[00:35:01] they aren't dealing with mental health issues or addictions. They simply were priced out of their housing. all people's belongings are getting stolen and stuff. So they feel safer actually finding some corner in an alley to sleep in versus going into these homes. And so- You're right. And that's one of the issues about housing first is that this housing first model, which is the only model the state of California and the County of San Diego will let you use, is, you know, it sounds good on the surface

[00:36:21] of let's get people into housing

[00:36:23] and then work on their issues.

[00:36:25] Well, if they, you they're on a fixed income, they can't afford this. And then, so the county, we do have programs where we can help in certain situations, pay your rent or help with utility bills to keep you in your house, or keep you housed. So we do have some programs for that, but you're right. And unfortunately right now,

[00:37:40] so we are building a lot more senior affordable housing.

[00:37:44] That seems to be housing that neighbors will accept, in everybody. One comment, first off, now that I'm back and I have access to speaking to you guys, it seems like this immigration and homelessness are both sort of the same issue where we're putting Band-Aid on an axe wound where we're not addressing the real issues and politicians are happy to kind of throw money at it and hope that that works

[00:39:04] and it just goes away.

[00:39:06] That seems to be the theme tonight. many fronts there. One thing I've noticed is the way government deals and fixes things is either, or they do both, is grow government bigger and charge more money for it and charge taxes. But I do think, and I'm hoping that the rest of the country is having the same

[00:40:20] wake up call that we at the border communities have had and had to deal with. I forget which crazy laws here in California. And so I thought it was ironic when the mayor of New York said, hey, wait a minute, I had all these, you know, my cops beat up in Times Square and what do you mean we can't deport these people? And that's, you know, so I am, you know, it's kind of bittersweet that it's happening elsewhere

[00:41:40] but hopefully we're gonna rise up and I with $10,000 on it in New York City. You just scratch your head and you say, people who are here can't afford groceries and housing and electricity and internet and all that stuff. And then you're giving out $10,000 debit cards. I think at a certain point, you're going to get a big swath of voters who may have thought

[00:43:02] one way or just voted and pulled the lever for the Democratic Party.

[00:43:07] They may go in in November and just go, you know what? is going to allow migrants dollars for them to buy their first homes. Whereas, that money should be first and foremost to US citizens, but now they're just as equal. And also in California, migrants get the same resident status when they're going to universities

[00:44:21] and things like that here in California, just like somebody, unlike somebody from out of

[00:44:26] state. No, no, no, we're all talking gloom and doom. We need some interaction here that's, uh, you've been carrying the show all night because of my technical difficulties. Um, final thought, and I want to thank you for sticking it out. I know you've been dealing with some sinuses and stuff. So, uh, I know you could talk about this stuff all night, but I also don't want you to lose your voice altogether. Um,

[00:45:43] a little off topic.

[00:46:43] employees not deserve a higher wage. I think we all know why.

[00:46:44] And apparently, what my new sources say

[00:46:50] was primarily to the big donation that they get.

[00:46:53] Right, but if you were a Panera Bread employee

[00:46:56] and you knew that everyone else was getting this big employee,

[00:46:58] would you not leave and go elsewhere?

[00:47:00] Yeah, bail.

[00:47:03] But I don't know.

[00:47:05] I'm an old guy, but I remember the days may help a few, the industry is reacting to it and automating things. So it's really counterproductive what they're doing as far as trying to get people more money for their particular jobs. But it's just more... I think it's kind of good in a way that they're using automation.

[00:48:22] But I'm kind of a nerd.

[00:48:24] But it's detrimental, I we got to let technology fix some of these problems that we have and the automation and

[00:49:43] things like that.

[00:49:44] But I do...

[00:49:45] I wouldn't mind...

[00:49:46] I like bakery.

[00:49:47] So if there's baked goods, it wasn't them or PG&E or SoCal Edison,

[00:51:02] all across the state of California, utility If it's going to be this utility, you pay for your based on your income, water, what is that next?

[00:52:20] Or other forms of energy, the gas year. So there's been a good amount of backlash on that fixed rate fee, but it's just, it's socialism and needs to be stopped.

[00:53:40] Where I'm at, we have social medicine.

[00:53:42] Sorry Phil.

[00:53:43] Yeah.

[00:53:44] No, no, I was just gonna say that going, well, my electric bill is going up to cover this. Yeah, you're paying it essentially. So anyway, I know you want to wrap it up. I feel like we could just do a whole episode of what's going on, what the boots on the ground and why things are going the certain way because they probably just shrugged. Most people just have their daily lives. They want to get kids or they got family, they got other issues, they don't want to be dealing with these things or paying that close of attention. So I'm really glad you're putting this out

[00:56:22] there and helping to educate Californians as to everybody, make sure you like, share, subscribe, review, uh, all that stuff and the best way to support this show that's absolutely free is share it.

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