Speaker 1: Shining a spotlight on the insane asylum that is modern-day California.
Speaker 2: It's the John Phillips Show.
Speaker 3: And a very happy Wednesday to you at 12.06 in
Speaker 3: the West.
Speaker 2: It's the John Phillips Show. Mr. Randy Wiggs in Culver City.
Speaker 4: Johnny, we are broadcasting live in Southern California on 790k
Speaker 4: ABC and in the Bay Area on 810k SFO, but
Speaker 4: now we also broadcast live on video worldwide at johnnydontlike.com.
Speaker 4: That's Johnny with a Y, johnnydontlike.com. Takes you right to
Speaker 4: our YouTube channel. While you're there, hit subscribe so all
Speaker 4: of our content goes to your homepage. Hit the bell
Speaker 4: if you want to get notified when we go live.
Speaker 4: Hit the like button if you want to... Have YouTube
Speaker 4: send us to new people. It's happening every single day.
Speaker 4: And play around in the chat room. We have a
Speaker 4: very important question for you today in our scientific poll
Speaker 4: on the John Phillips Show. How will Spencer Pratt voters
Speaker 4: vote in November? Currently, with 86% of the vote, leave
Speaker 4: it blank.
Speaker 2: And that's exactly what I would do.
Speaker 4: Karen Bass has 12% and Nithya has 2%. Please vote
Speaker 4: in the poll. The poll is open this hour only.
Speaker 4: And then next hour we'll do a poll about John's haircut.
Speaker 4: So yesterday we had Barbara.
Speaker 3: Stone, the political scientist on, and we talked about probably
Speaker 3: the most asked question that I get, which is what
Speaker 3: are Spencer Pratt voters supposed to do in the November elections?
Speaker 3: Because we won't have the option to vote for Spencer.
Speaker 3: We did in the primary. We won't in the general.
Speaker 3: We will have three options on the November ballot, or
Speaker 3: at least those of you who live in L.A.
Speaker 2: Will.
Speaker 3: You can vote for the incumbent mayor, Karen Bass, who
Speaker 3: burned the town down and bankrupted us, spending money on
Speaker 3: the bums and put more people on the streets.
Speaker 2: She's done a great job. It's not a namsy-pamsy thing.
Speaker 3: You can vote for Nithya Raman, who is a socialist
Speaker 3: who believes the government should own the means of production
Speaker 3: and wants to make all of the problems worse. Or
Speaker 3: you can leave it blank. Those are your three options. Now,
Speaker 3: one question I get all the time is can you
Speaker 3: write Spencer Pratt's name in on the ballot And the
Speaker 3: answer to that question is no. Under the LA City
Speaker 3: Election Code, write-in candidates are not allowed in general municipal elections.
Speaker 3: Only the two candidates who advance from the primary can
Speaker 3: appear on the ballot. Write-in votes for Spencer Pratt or
Speaker 3: anyone else won't be counted. So you can write something
Speaker 3: in that is the equivalent of leaving it blank.
Speaker 4: I'm putting it right there on the screen. You cannot
Speaker 4: write in Spencer Pratt as much as people want to.
Speaker 4: You cannot do it.
Speaker 2: And here is the truth of the matter.
Speaker 3: The truth of the matter is that the Democratic voters
Speaker 3: in L.A. are split between Bass and Rahman. Nobody is
Speaker 3: running away with it. If somebody was running away with it,
Speaker 3: that person would be the winner because there are so
Speaker 3: many more Democrats than Republicans or independents in Los Angeles.
Speaker 3: But if it's split, that means the people that will
Speaker 3: decide who wins are the people who are not Democrats
Speaker 3: because the Democrats split their vote, which means that the
Speaker 3: Pratt voters, many of whom are in the San Fernando Valley,
Speaker 3: are going to be the ones who decide who will
Speaker 3: be L.A. 's next mayor. And it's not just me
Speaker 3: who is saying that. So are Democrats.
Speaker 2: Listen to this. And I read this to Barbara Stone yesterday.
Speaker 2: I'm going to read it again.
Speaker 3: Michael Trujillo, who's a longtime L.A.-based Democratic strategist, said on Twitter, quote,
Speaker 3: in a nonpartisan race for mayor of L.A., the third-place
Speaker 3: candidate typically has leverage. In 2005, the third place candidate
Speaker 3: pushed Villaraigosa to office. In 2013, the third place candidate
Speaker 3: endorsed Garcetti to victory.
Speaker 2: Same story over and over in this city.
Speaker 3: So folks will generally look at tea leaves on whatever
Speaker 3: former candidate Spencer Pratt says. He went on to say
Speaker 3: to his fellow Democrats, quote, you may not like it,
Speaker 3: But the reality is, reality star Spencer Pratt and his
Speaker 3: base vote in the San Fernando Valley is key to
Speaker 3: whoever becomes mayor this year. This is a nonpartisan race,
Speaker 3: not a Democratic primary. So the Democratic strategists, the Democratic consultants,
Speaker 3: are trying to figure out just exactly which candidate Spencer
Speaker 3: Pratt is going to get behind. Now, Randy, in preparation
Speaker 3: for this show, You put out a tweet telling the
Speaker 3: world that this was going to be the topic, and
Speaker 3: we got an interesting response.
Speaker 4: So every morning as I'm prepping for the show, I
Speaker 4: put together a little AI graphic with my friend Google Gemini,
Speaker 4: and I use it to promote what we're going to
Speaker 4: be talking about. So I put out why Spencer Pratt's
Speaker 4: voters now control L.A. 's future on today's John Phillips Show,
Speaker 4: live at noon at johnnydontlike.com, at johnnydontlike, and special guest
Speaker 4: Royal Oaks at 2 p.m., with a great graphic of
Speaker 4: the specter of Spencer Pratt looming over Los Angeles as
Speaker 4: John and I are scratching our heads looking at a ballot.
Speaker 2: It's pretty fun.
Speaker 4: Spencer Pratt himself quote tweeted it and reposted it, which
Speaker 4: I did not expect. Spencer Pratt gave us a direct
Speaker 4: response to the question. My voters quote control LA's future
Speaker 4: between what?
Speaker 2: Dumb and dumber. He's right.
Speaker 4: Stepping in solid human feces versus diarrhea. Crack pipes on
Speaker 4: the playground versus meth pipes.
Speaker 2: And you know what?
Speaker 4: As someone who has to vote in this November election,
Speaker 4: he's exactly right.
Speaker 2: Oh, he's 100% right.
Speaker 3: He could be the kingmaker in this election, but why
Speaker 3: would he? You know that old saying, Randy, you only
Speaker 3: need a cosigner when your credit is bad.
Speaker 2: Oh, I know. I don't know that one anymore, but
Speaker 2: I used to know that one.
Speaker 3: Why should he lend his name to either one of
Speaker 3: these god-awful candidates?
Speaker 2: There's no reason to.
Speaker 4: We're looking at two disastrous answers for the city of
Speaker 4: Los Angeles. No matter which one of them wins, why
Speaker 4: would Spencer want to put his name on either of them?
Speaker 5: No.
Speaker 2: Here is the way I look at it.
Speaker 3: And thank God, again, I don't live within the city limits,
Speaker 3: so I'm not going to have to look at this
Speaker 3: on my ballot.
Speaker 2: You will, I won't.
Speaker 4: Well, and the only thing that I can do is
Speaker 4: I have decided I'm going to vote with my feet.
Speaker 4: As soon as it is possible to do so, I
Speaker 4: will be getting out of the city of Los Angeles.
Speaker 4: Maybe the county, too, but definitely the city. Because if
Speaker 4: these are the choices that they give me, they don't
Speaker 4: deserve my tax dollars anymore. And I see how much
Speaker 4: of those I give. Here's the way I would approach it.
Speaker 4: Under no circumstances... No circumstances. There's nothing you could say
Speaker 4: to make me vote for a DSA person. It's just
Speaker 4: not going to happen.
Speaker 3: Because unlike them, I believe in capitalism, private property rights,
Speaker 3: public safety, for-profit grocery stores.
Speaker 2: I need all my brands.
Speaker 3: If you put the city of Los Angeles in charge
Speaker 3: of stalking the grocery store, good luck getting anything you're
Speaker 3: interested in eating. So that puts me at odds with
Speaker 3: everything that they believe in. So Rahman is a no-go.
Speaker 3: There's no way I'd ever vote for her. So that
Speaker 3: means I would have two options.
Speaker 2: Two.
Speaker 3: Vote for Karen Bass, who has burned the city down.
Speaker 3: She has spent more than any mayor in the history
Speaker 3: of the city on homelessness, and there are more bums
Speaker 3: living on the streets than ever before. She has made
Speaker 3: traffic worse. She has not repaved any miles of road
Speaker 3: in the last, what, year?
Speaker 4: She hasn't repaved any miles of road since the brilliant
Speaker 4: people in Los Angeles passed Measure HLA, which says if
Speaker 4: you repave a road, you've got to put in a
Speaker 4: road diet, and the city can't afford it.
Speaker 3: She has the cops back off whenever there's any rioting
Speaker 3: going on so nobody gets arrested.
Speaker 2: She won't cooperate with ICE.
Speaker 3: Whenever her back is up against the wall, she picks
Speaker 3: a fight with Trump instead of doing her job. She
Speaker 3: is beyond awful. And I would also add this. She
Speaker 3: has been endorsed by so many of the DSA members
Speaker 3: on the council. If she gets elected... she's going to
Speaker 3: owe them big time.
Speaker 4: She already has owed them a whole lot. You know
Speaker 4: how Eunice Hernandez endorsed Karen Bass for reelection? Guess what
Speaker 4: Eunice's got for it? She got a whole bunch of
Speaker 4: crooked nonprofits to run around MacArthur Park passing out meth pipes.
Speaker 2: And as an incumbent that's on.
Speaker 3: The ropes, for these people, these DSA candidates, to get
Speaker 3: behind her instead of a fellow DSA candidate, she's going
Speaker 3: to owe them more than what she would owe them
Speaker 3: under normal circumstances. So even though Karen is not technically DSA,
Speaker 3: she's going to be owned by DSA. So she might
Speaker 3: as well be part of that group. And that group
Speaker 3: is already flexing their strength. As soon as Hugo Soto
Speaker 3: Martinez beat his primary challenge outright, what does he do?
Speaker 3: Ban enforcement on homeless encampments in his district. That policy's
Speaker 3: going citywide, kids. And if Karen Bass were interested in
Speaker 3: getting Spencer Pratt voters, wouldn't she offer something to him?
Speaker 3: Wouldn't she offer something to Roxanne Hogue? who's the chairman
Speaker 3: of the Republican Party, wouldn't she say, okay, I know
Speaker 3: we disagree on a lot, and I know that you're
Speaker 3: really not happy with my performance, but here's what I
Speaker 3: will give to you. This is what I will give
Speaker 3: to you in exchange for your support. She hasn't even
Speaker 3: called them, which means she's offering nothing.
Speaker 2: And typically.
Speaker 3: by the way, when this sort of thing happens, these
Speaker 3: candidates are willing to wheel and deal. Willie Brown famously
Speaker 3: did that in San Francisco when he ran for mayor.
Speaker 2: And you know what?
Speaker 3: When he was elected mayor, the Republican votes in San
Speaker 3: Francisco helped put him over the top, and he kept
Speaker 3: his word.
Speaker 2: And then Gavin Newsom did the same thing when he
Speaker 2: ran for mayor.
Speaker 3: In And he went back on his word almost immediately.
Speaker 3: Gavin is not trustworthy.
Speaker 4: Nope.
Speaker 3: Karen Bass hasn't even made the phone call, but I
Speaker 3: wouldn't trust her either. I don't like the cut of
Speaker 3: her jib. I don't think she'd be an honest person.
Speaker 3: I think she would promise the world if she felt
Speaker 3: desperate enough. But then if reelected, she would owe the
Speaker 3: DSA more than she would owe the Pratt voters. So
Speaker 3: why would she feel the need to follow through with it?
Speaker 3: I don't see that happening.
Speaker 2: Do you?
Speaker 4: I don't think either of them thinks they need this
Speaker 4: voting bloc to win because they're right now trying to
Speaker 4: out-DSA each other.
Speaker 2: But the math is the math.
Speaker 3: The votes that are up for grabs are the Pratt votes.
Speaker 3: And I guess some of the other candidates that didn't
Speaker 3: do well But the biggest block of votes that are
Speaker 3: available in November are the Pratt voters. That should be
Speaker 3: enough to put you over the top if you get
Speaker 3: the Pratt voters behind you.
Speaker 4: But why would, as your column so eloquently puts out,
Speaker 4: the Pratt voters get behind either of them?
Speaker 3: And that's my point. That is exactly my point. Here's
Speaker 3: how I end it in the column. That means, given
Speaker 3: the fact that ramen is not an option, my options
Speaker 3: are to either vote for a failed mayor whose bumbling
Speaker 3: leadership destroyed a city I love, or leave the ballot blank.
Speaker 2: This November, L.A.
Speaker 3: Voters are faced with the old life jacket ethical dilemma,
Speaker 3: which goes like this. The ship just sank. There are
Speaker 3: more passengers in the water than life jackets. One of
Speaker 3: the people in the water is Karen Bass. Do you
Speaker 3: throw her a life jacket? Or do you turn around
Speaker 3: and go to Ghana because the fire chief never told
Speaker 3: you the surf would be high?
Speaker 6: If you're feeling down, if you're feeling blue, let's get
Speaker 6: help for you.
Speaker 3: And let me tell you, if I were in that position,
Speaker 3: I would let that woman drown.
Speaker 2: Hypothetically speaking. Hypothetically speaking.
Speaker 3: Hypothetically, I might put my foot right on top of
Speaker 3: her and push her under the water.
Speaker 2: Hypothetically. We want to make sure we're clear on that.
Speaker 2: Because let me tell you.
Speaker 3: Neither one of them deserves to win. Neither one of them.
Speaker 3: But Karen Bass deserves to lose. You cannot burn the
Speaker 3: town down and get reelected. You just can't. There has
Speaker 3: to be consequences for that.
Speaker 2: There just does.
Speaker 3: She burned down the Pacific Palisades and then doctored the
Speaker 3: report to blame other people, which means she learned nothing
Speaker 3: from what happened and she's willing to let it happen again.
Speaker 2: Why would you ever trust her?
Speaker 4: How could you reward anything that she's done over the
Speaker 4: last four years? She's been an abject failure on every aspect,
Speaker 4: including the one.
Speaker 2: That she ran on, homelessness.
Speaker 3: So given the fact that The DSA is a no-go
Speaker 3: for me. Me leaving the ballot blank hurts Karen Bass.
Speaker 2: That's what it does. It's like a half a vote
Speaker 2: for ramen. Noodle brain.
Speaker 4: She gets called that a lot at city council meetings
Speaker 4: by the public commenters.
Speaker 2: Just add water.
Speaker 3: So here's our question to you at 800-222-5222, 1-800-222-5222. What
Speaker 3: are you planning on doing if you live in the
Speaker 3: city of Los Angeles or you, hypothetically speaking, are facing
Speaker 3: the question that will face the city of L.A.
Speaker 2: Voters?
Speaker 3: What would you do on the November ballot? You have
Speaker 3: three options. You can vote for Bass. You can vote
Speaker 3: for Rahman. or you can leave it blank. I would
Speaker 3: leave it blank. What say you?
Speaker 2: At 800-222-5222.
Speaker 7: 1-800-222-5222.
Speaker 3: If you'd like to email the show, you can do
Speaker 3: so at johnnydontlikeshow at gmail.com. That's johnnydontlikeshow at gmail.com. And
Speaker 3: if you'd like to watch us perform the show live
Speaker 3: and hit the like button and comment on the program, Randy,
Speaker 3: that's easy to do.
Speaker 4: The website is johnnydontlike.com. You can watch the show, play
Speaker 4: around in the chat room, and participate in our very
Speaker 4: scientific poll at johnnydontlike.com. Currently, the poll is, how will
Speaker 4: Spencer Pratt voters vote in November? 87% will leave it blank, 9%
Speaker 4: would vote for Bass, and 4%.
Speaker 2: Would vote for Ramen. That's what I'd do.
Speaker 4: The polling is open until 1 o'clock, so get online
Speaker 4: at johnnydontlike.com. Vote and play around in the chat room.
Speaker 4: We're here until 3 o'clock. And at 3 o'clock.
Speaker 3: The newest edition of the Accountability Podcast drops.
Speaker 2: Oh, and it's a good one. Accountability, accountability, accountability.
Speaker 4: Johnny and I are joined by our friend Jennifer Van
Speaker 4: Laar talking the crooked tire deal, Gavin's crooked real estate deal.
Speaker 2: And the war on journalists.
Speaker 4: It premieres at 3 o'clock right after we sign off
Speaker 4: the air at johnnydontlike.com.
Speaker 3: And Randy, we're going to be on the road to
Speaker 3: the San Fernando Valley soon.
Speaker 4: A week from Friday, we're going to be at Pineapple Hill.
Speaker 4: And if you heard our interview with Angela Marsden yesterday,
Speaker 4: you know why you all need to come down and
Speaker 4: support Pineapple Hill, support us, and of course, support our
Speaker 4: friends at the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. We'll be there
Speaker 4: with Susan Shelley talking Prop 43. You can even pick
Speaker 4: up a yard sign. The Pineapple Hill Saloon and Grill
Speaker 4: next Friday from noon to three. We'll see you there
Speaker 4: live and we'll have it on video. Our first live
Speaker 4: remote on video.
Speaker 2: How fun.
Speaker 4: You can see Johnny's haircut in person. Okay, that was mean.
Speaker 4: The chat is going all over it.
Speaker 3: I know.
Speaker 4: I thought the chat would be nothing about bashing bass
Speaker 4: and ramen, and every single message in the chat is
Speaker 4: about your haircut.
Speaker 3: Well, if you want to watch us, you can go
Speaker 3: to johnnydontlike.com and click that like button.
Speaker 4: Should I feel offended that I got a haircut last
Speaker 4: week and no one even notices?
Speaker 3: All right, let's go to the phones and begin with
Speaker 3: Stephanie in Encino. Stephanie, hello.
Speaker 8: Hi.
Speaker 7: Can I talk while I'm listening to the radio?
Speaker 2: Well, turn the radio off and you can talk to
Speaker 2: us on the phone.
Speaker 9: Oh, okay. Got it.
Speaker 2: And then's the breaks.
Speaker 9: Okay.
Speaker 7: Are you there?
Speaker 2: Yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 8: Okay, well.
Speaker 7: What I would do is tell all my friends, do
Speaker 7: not vote for any of them. Don't mark any of
Speaker 7: those people. And write in Spencer Pratt. And then if
Speaker 7: that doesn't work, in three months, whoever... of those people
Speaker 7: if one of them or the other gets elected I
Speaker 7: would request a recall and that can be done after
Speaker 7: the person has been in office for three months.
Speaker 3: Okay thank you for the call let's go to Sean
Speaker 3: in Venice Sean hello.
Speaker 9: Hey, guys.
Speaker 10: Love the show. So I listened to an interview with
Speaker 10: Tracy Park recently, and unfortunately, if you have to choose,
Speaker 10: she picks Bass. Being the devil you know, she's worked
Speaker 10: with her on the West Side with Cleaning Up Venice.
Speaker 10: So I'm kind of leaning towards that just based on
Speaker 10: my support for Tracy Park. If people don't vote, which
Speaker 10: is what my initial response was, well, I'm just not
Speaker 10: going to vote. Then I predict it'll be a landslide
Speaker 10: for ramen because of all the vote harvesting from Skid Row.
Speaker 10: So I urge people, even though it sucks, dumb and dumber,
Speaker 10: I guess we pick dumb, which would be best.
Speaker 2: Well, I want to.
Speaker 3: Point out, too, there's a difference between not voting and
Speaker 3: leaving it blank on this particular race. You can show
Speaker 3: up and vote and vote on the propositions and vote
Speaker 3: for the other races while leaving.
Speaker 2: This one blank.
Speaker 10: Yeah, no, I'm voting on all that. I just meant
Speaker 10: for the race. The other thing that concerns me, living
Speaker 10: in Venice, is that damn monster on the median just
Speaker 10: won't die. We've killed it three times, and it keeps
Speaker 10: coming back, and Rahman will... bring that back because she's
Speaker 10: like Mike Bonin. So if you like Mike Bonin on
Speaker 10: the West side, you got Nithya Raman running the city.
Speaker 10: It's a disaster. And, um, uh, like you said, it's,
Speaker 10: it's a lesser of two evils. You're, if you don't participate, uh,
Speaker 10: you're probably going to get Raman and Raman's worse than bass. And, uh,
Speaker 10: I'm with you guys. How can you reward failure? I'm
Speaker 10: sick of it. But, uh, this is what happened.
Speaker 2: All right. Thank you for the call, sir. Let's go
Speaker 2: to Rocco in Santa Clarita. Rocco, hello.
Speaker 8: Hi, Johnny.
Speaker 9: Thanks for having me on.
Speaker 5: Long time I haven't called. I'm looking forward to seeing
Speaker 5: you guys down at Pineapple Hill next week. And I
Speaker 5: wanted to say I live in Santa Clarita, so, of course,
Speaker 5: I don't vote in this election, in that election. But
Speaker 5: I could not vote for either one. Bass is a
Speaker 5: tried and true communist who studied under Castro. And Nithya
Speaker 5: Raman is a complete insane communist. So, I mean, I
Speaker 5: wouldn't vote for either. They're both idiots. I don't know
Speaker 5: what's going to go on. L.A. will get what it deserves,
Speaker 5: I guess.
Speaker 9: And I feel sorry for it. But what can you do?
Speaker 3: What's so odd to me is that neither one of
Speaker 3: them are even trying to get the Pratt voters. This
Speaker 3: is the block of the electorate that is going to
Speaker 3: decide who wins and who loses, and they are so
Speaker 3: in their own silos, they're so in their own bubbles,
Speaker 3: that they're not even reaching out to the people who
Speaker 3: hold the keys.
Speaker 2: To the kingdom, which means neither one of them deserve
Speaker 2: your vote.
Speaker 5: Well, I don't think the Pratt voters mostly, I like
Speaker 5: to believe, are bright enough not to believe the lies
Speaker 5: from these people if they try to court them.
Speaker 9: They're just going to lie. They're going to lie and
Speaker 9: go back on them.
Speaker 5: That's what these people do. That's what they do. That's
Speaker 5: their modus operandi, if you will.
Speaker 2: Thank you for the call. Let's go to Kent, a
Speaker 2: listening odd line in Garland, Texas. Kent, hello.
Speaker 9: Yeah, hi.
Speaker 11: I've got a different suggestion for you. I think that
Speaker 11: Spencer should endorse Rahman and all the Republicans should vote
Speaker 11: for her for two reasons. First of all, it'll give
Speaker 11: Californians a good lesson in what it's actually like to
Speaker 11: have a socialist in charge. And second of all, if
Speaker 11: Bass gets reelected, she'll think she has a mandate and
Speaker 11: she'll be even worse than she is now.
Speaker 3: All right, thank you for the call, sir. Let's go
Speaker 3: to Dino in San Francisco.
Speaker 2: Dino, hello.
Speaker 9: I think this is a great opportunity to create somewhat
Speaker 9: of a science project. I would petition that all Pratt voters, conservatives, Republicans,
Speaker 9: do not write in anybody. Let's get a real count
Speaker 9: for how many DSA voters and how many Democrat voters
Speaker 9: there are in L.A., and if they are cheating in
Speaker 9: either way by fighting each other, the less amount of
Speaker 9: people that have contributed, we could find out. In other words,
Speaker 9: if people are using other people's names that didn't vote.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you can always tell what the fall off is
Speaker 3: on a ballot in a particular race. And sometimes it's
Speaker 3: really dramatic. Now, the farther down on the ballot you go,
Speaker 3: the more fall off you're going to have. So the
Speaker 3: most number of votes are usually going to be cast
Speaker 3: for the top of the ticket race. If it's president,
Speaker 3: it'll be in that race. If it's governor, it'll be
Speaker 3: in that race. And by the time you get down
Speaker 3: to state assembly or city council or water board or whatever,
Speaker 3: there's a big fall off, but usually you don't have
Speaker 3: a humongous fall off to this, whatever's on the ballot next.
Speaker 3: And this is a pretty top race, pretty close race,
Speaker 3: a race that's certainly being paid attention to by a
Speaker 3: lot of different people. A lot of money is going
Speaker 3: to be spent on this race. So you would assume
Speaker 3: that there'd be huge amounts of interest in it. If
Speaker 3: the fall off is huge, Yeah, you're right. That may
Speaker 3: send a message. Thank you for the call, sir. Let's
Speaker 3: go to Martin.
Speaker 2: Martin, hello.
Speaker 9: How are you doing?
Speaker 3: Good.
Speaker 9: Can you hear me? Yes, sir. Yeah, I was just wondering,
Speaker 9: you know, the government is created for the people, by
Speaker 9: the people, and by the people, for the people, I
Speaker 9: don't know what to say, but why can't people just,
Speaker 9: why do they have to accept who the candidates are?
Speaker 9: Why can't they just block out the names and write
Speaker 9: in Spencer Platt? Why can't everybody do that?
Speaker 10: I don't understand.
Speaker 2: Not allowed, according to the city charter.
Speaker 4: Let me point to the sign, pointing to the sign
Speaker 4: right now. You cannot write in Spencer Pratt. We have
Speaker 4: had to say this over and over and over again.
Speaker 4: There are three people on hold right now who want
Speaker 4: to say write in Pratt.
Speaker 3: You can't do it. I don't even think there's an option.
Speaker 3: There's not even space on the ballot to write it in.
Speaker 4: You know, this is a scientific experiment on how closely
Speaker 4: people actually listen to the radio.
Speaker 2: Let's go to Kimberly in Venice. Kimberly, hello.
Speaker 12: Hi, John. I'm not voting for either one of them
Speaker 12: because the best way for me to put it is, okay,
Speaker 12: let's say Hitler was running and Castro was running.
Speaker 7: Who would you vote for?
Speaker 9: Neither one, of course.
Speaker 7: Same thing to me.
Speaker 9: Yep.
Speaker 2: That's the way I see it, too. Thank you for
Speaker 2: the call. Let's go to Mary in the San Fernando Valley. Mary, hello.
Speaker 6: Hey, John, how are you?
Speaker 2: Good.
Speaker 6: I'm going to hold my nose and vote for Bass.
Speaker 6: I've been active in the city for over 50 years,
Speaker 6: and I've got to tell you, if Rahman gets in there,
Speaker 6: we are in big, big, big trouble. I was real
Speaker 6: active in the secession movement, and I've reached out to
Speaker 6: a lot of people, you know, like two years ago
Speaker 6: and told them, if we don't do something here in
Speaker 6: the Valley, we're going to be worse than L.A. And
Speaker 6: it's like most of them have either retired or moved away,
Speaker 6: and they don't want to be active anymore. And it's bad, John.
Speaker 12: It's really bad.
Speaker 6: So, I mean, yeah, I agree it's the worst of
Speaker 6: two evils, but I'm telling you, if Rahman gets in.
Speaker 6: You're going to see what Hugo Soto Martinez just now
Speaker 6: did citywide, number one. Number two, we've got the DSA
Speaker 6: trying to create these social sex facilities to let the
Speaker 6: homeless go in and relieve themselves. It's going to be
Speaker 6: awful with ramen. It's going to be awful with ramen,
Speaker 6: but it's just one of those things.
Speaker 7: I mean, it's, you know.
Speaker 6: I don't know what to tell you guys. I agree,
Speaker 6: you know, it's like the worst of two evils, but
Speaker 6: we can't get ramen in there.
Speaker 2: All right, thank you for the call.
Speaker 3: 800-222-5222 is the telephone number, 1-800-222-5222. For those of you
Speaker 3: who live in L.A., you'll have three options for mayor.
Speaker 3: You can vote for Bass, vote for Ramen, or leave
Speaker 3: it blank.
Speaker 2: What do you do?
Speaker 3: If you'd like to weigh in on the topic, which
Speaker 3: is what would you do if you vote in the
Speaker 3: city of Los Angeles for mayor?
Speaker 2: Karen Bass, Nithya Raman, or leave it blank.
Speaker 3: If you want to watch us online, perform the show live,
Speaker 3: you can do so at johnnydontlike.com, and make sure to
Speaker 3: click that like button when you're there. It helps push
Speaker 3: the show far and wide.
Speaker 4: I wonder if we've Pavlovian-ly trained people while they're watching
Speaker 4: the show to put our thumbs up the same way
Speaker 4: that we do it.
Speaker 2: Hmm. All right, let's go to Stuart in Seal Beach. Stuart, hello.
Speaker 1: Yes, thank you, John and Randy, for taking my call.
Speaker 1: I want to make three points. First of all, Karen
Speaker 1: Bass is term limited to one term. That's as much
Speaker 1: damage as she can do. Nithya Raman. would be an
Speaker 1: incumbent if she won in 2030 and have another four years.
Speaker 1: She can inflict a lot of damage in eight years. Two,
Speaker 1: Tracy Park is supporting Karen Bask as she may have
Speaker 1: an opportunity when the city declines under Bask to come
Speaker 1: in in 2030 and be a logical individual that could
Speaker 1: actually help the city. Three, Karen Bass is going to
Speaker 1: be 73 years old. Nithya Raman is 45 years old.
Speaker 1: So as an actuary, I would think that she might
Speaker 1: have a lot less life than Nithya Raman. So Nithya Raman,
Speaker 1: if she gets into L.A., could go even further, whether
Speaker 1: it be senator or governor. Karen Bass, it's the end
Speaker 1: of the road here. And finally, the policy of putting kids,
Speaker 1: homeless people in front of schools, not banning encampments like that.
Speaker 1: could lead to incredible loss of attendance at the L.A.
Speaker 1: City Schools. They're already in serious financial trouble. To do
Speaker 1: that under Nithya Raman would lead us to a big
Speaker 1: problem with the finances of the L.A. City Schools if
Speaker 1: they're not already in a bad enough situation. So for
Speaker 1: that reason, I would hold my nose, vote for the F,
Speaker 1: which is Karen Bass, instead of the F-, which is
Speaker 1: Nithya Raman.
Speaker 3: Well, your arguments are pretty well thought through. You make
Speaker 3: a compelling case. I want to go back to the
Speaker 3: first point that you made, because I picked up on
Speaker 3: something when we had her on the program, either it
Speaker 3: was late last week or earlier this week, I don't remember.
Speaker 3: But Tracy Park was on the program and talking about
Speaker 3: the debate that took place between Bass and Rahman. And
Speaker 3: I thought to myself, knowing that she's the sanest voice
Speaker 3: on that city council.
Speaker 2: And knowing.
Speaker 3: that in a year when the DSA is gaining massive
Speaker 3: amounts of popularity within the Democratic Party, she crushed her
Speaker 3: opponent and won outright in the primary. She sounded a
Speaker 3: lot like someone who was planning on running citywide at
Speaker 3: some point in the future. Not this cycle, obviously. She
Speaker 3: ran for re-election. But I got the distinct impression that
Speaker 3: she is thinking beyond her district in the city of
Speaker 3: Los Angeles. And it's interesting to me that you saw that, too.
Speaker 1: Yes, I did. And I think she would have unlimited
Speaker 1: funds after whether bats or ramen damages city. I think
Speaker 1: finally people might say, you know, we should have voted
Speaker 1: for Rick Caruso. We blew it again. We need to
Speaker 1: put Tracy Park, the only sane individual that would run
Speaker 1: for mayor and put her into office, because frankly, this
Speaker 1: is a incredibly destructive campaign. group of people. But unfortunately,
Speaker 1: Rahman is even more destructive. Unfortunately, Bass is the devil
Speaker 1: we know. Rahman is a devil that could be far
Speaker 1: worse than the devil we know.
Speaker 2: All right. Thank you for the call. I appreciate it.
Speaker 3: Randy, did you get that impression too when Tracy Park
Speaker 3: stopped by?
Speaker 4: Oh, very much so, especially how much money was spent
Speaker 4: in that race and how she won handily. The problem
Speaker 4: is that The West Side is a lot further along
Speaker 4: in the timeline than the rest of the city of
Speaker 4: Los Angeles because the West Side was exposed to the
Speaker 4: DSA before anybody. People like to say that Nithya was
Speaker 4: the first DSA city council person.
Speaker 2: No, she wasn't. Mike Bonin was.
Speaker 4: And after two terms of destructive Mike Bonin, they finally
Speaker 4: realized their mistake. The rest of the city still has
Speaker 4: to go through a lot of DSA nonsense before they
Speaker 4: come to that conclusion. So while I think she would
Speaker 4: do very well on the West Side, the rest of
Speaker 4: the city is full of a bunch of morons.
Speaker 3: What was weird about Mike Bonin, though, was when he
Speaker 3: ran the first time, he did not run as DSA.
Speaker 3: He ran as a normal person. He worked for Bill Rosendahl.
Speaker 3: who was the councilman prior to Bonin being elected, who
Speaker 3: was a normal person. And then Bonin got in and
Speaker 3: Rosendahl died and Bonin went crazy.
Speaker 2: Yes, he did. Let's go to Ray in Livermore. Ray, hello.
Speaker 8: Hey guys, great show. I'm obviously Northern California, not voting
Speaker 8: in this, but I know someone who worked close in
Speaker 8: elections and vote counting and they told me years ago,
Speaker 8: never leave any blank spaces on your ballot because unscrupulous
Speaker 8: people can come along and mark spaces that you left blank.
Speaker 8: So if you want to vacate both of those, mark
Speaker 8: both Bass and Rahman, and then your vote will be
Speaker 8: nullified because it's marked incorrectly. So don't leave it blank.
Speaker 8: Mark them both, else an unscrupulous person may come along
Speaker 8: and mess that up. And I have a question. If
Speaker 8: Johnny doesn't like, why am I supposed to like? Help
Speaker 8: me out on that, guys.
Speaker 3: Okay, that's a question we get very often, too. So
Speaker 3: a song I used to use is with the theme
Speaker 3: song to this program, which we can't play because we
Speaker 3: no longer have the music rights, is from a band
Speaker 3: called The Eels, which is a local band in Los Angeles.
Speaker 3: They're from Silver Lake. And they have a song called
Speaker 3: Soul Jacker. And one of the lines in the song
Speaker 3: is Johnny Don't Like. Well, when you have a very
Speaker 3: common first name and a very common last name, you
Speaker 3: can't get at John Phillips on Twitter. You can't get
Speaker 3: at John Phillips on YouTube. You can't buy your own name.
Speaker 3: So you have to come up with something else. And
Speaker 3: since we were going to use the song as the
Speaker 3: theme to the show anyway, we decided to just turn
Speaker 3: it into the social media handles.
Speaker 8: Well, you guys do a great job. Thanks. John and Randy,
Speaker 8: for all the great work you do exposing the fraud
Speaker 8: in this state.
Speaker 1: I appreciate it.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 3: Thank you for the call, sir. We appreciate the kind words.
Speaker 3: Let's go to John in Long Beach.
Speaker 2: John, hello.
Speaker 9: Gentlemen, good afternoon.
Speaker 10: Great show.
Speaker 9: I'm just glad I live in Long Beach.
Speaker 2: Yeah, rub it in, Johnny. Rub it in.
Speaker 9: Rex Richardson.
Speaker 5: He and Karen Bass went to the same school, MU,
Speaker 5: Moronic University.
Speaker 2: All right. Thank you for the call. Let's go to
Speaker 2: Mary in Venice. Mary, welcome.
Speaker 12: Well, I'm totally disappointed I can't write in Pratt, so
Speaker 12: I think I will take the other caller's suggestion and
Speaker 12: mark both Bass and Rahman. cancel it out. But regarding
Speaker 12: Tracy Park, she's a very smart and capable woman. And
Speaker 12: if she is behind Bass, it's because she knows Bass
Speaker 12: is going to win and is the lesser of two evils.
Speaker 12: So if somebody were to mark one or the other,
Speaker 12: I would do what Tracy's doing and mark Bass. Furthermore,
Speaker 12: hopefully Tracy will run for mayor in the future. She
Speaker 12: is the only capable woman you know, halfway normal politician
Speaker 12: out there. And I've seen her perform regarding the Palisades fire,
Speaker 12: regarding the zombie invasion in Venice, and many other issues.
Speaker 12: And unlike any other person who's, you know, been running
Speaker 12: in Venice, her office is responsive. Every time you call,
Speaker 12: every time you email, they address your issue, which is shocking.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 3: We're going to have to leave it there. Thank you
Speaker 3: so much for the call. We appreciate it. We've got
Speaker 3: two more hours coming up on The John Phillips Show.
Speaker 3: The Fix California hour is next. If you want to
Speaker 3: watch us live, go to johnnydontlike.com and click that like button.
Speaker 2: It really helps us. Don't you go anywhere.