Speaker 1: Well, the city council might only give you sixty seconds
Speaker 1: to where your grievance is.
Speaker 2: Oh hi, i'd like to start go to the first
Speaker 2: caller on the phone.
Speaker 1: Well, if you're lucky, now we're giving you a both
Speaker 1: sixty minutes. It's a KABC News Blitz with Randy Wang
Speaker 1: and our long recap of the day's top local stories
Speaker 1: flung your drive home, and unlike the City Council, we're
Speaker 1: the perfect vehicle to actually get your voice heard. The
Speaker 1: KABC News Blitz with Randy Wang starts.
Speaker 2: No, No, It is the News Blitz with Randy Wang
Speaker 2: on Talk Radio seven ninety KABC. This is your daily
Speaker 2: rundown of everything you need to know that's going on
Speaker 2: in the state of California, Southern California, the Bay Area, Sacramento,
Speaker 2: San Diego, and the Central Valley. I currate a list
Speaker 2: every single day of all the stories that I found
Speaker 2: that you may find interesting from all of our local
Speaker 2: news stations up and down the Golden State. Check it
Speaker 2: out at Randy Waygradio dot substack dot com, and make
Speaker 2: sure you check out our YouTube channel where we have
Speaker 2: recordings of this show. The Live John Phillips Show, Best
Speaker 2: Segments from that, and of course the Accountability Podcast. Our
Speaker 2: brand new episode drops tomorrow at three pm with a
Speaker 2: interview with Steve Hilton. Check all that out at Johnny
Speaker 2: don't Like dot com or Randywangradio dot com. You can
Speaker 2: also email me at Randy Wang Radio at gmail dot
Speaker 2: com and give us a call at eight hundred two
Speaker 2: two two five two two two. It is very fitting
Speaker 2: that on the day where La County Fire announces what
Speaker 2: we already knew that so Cal Edison was definitely to
Speaker 2: blame for the Eaton fire, that we have this story
Speaker 2: from CBSLA So yes, and I'm sure we'll get a
Speaker 2: lot more coverage of this tomorrow. We have found out
Speaker 2: that the La County five Department finally finally has finished
Speaker 2: their investigation of the Eating Fire to find out what well,
Speaker 2: something that we knew for a very long time that
Speaker 2: so Cal Edison started the Eating Fire with their faulty equipment,
Speaker 2: specifically their zombie tower that they should have torn down
Speaker 2: fifty years ago that activated even though they were supposed
Speaker 2: to turn off all the power. So we'll get a
Speaker 2: lot more information on what the La County Fire Department
Speaker 2: has found out and what the implications are Meanwhile, Sacramento
Speaker 2: is back. Sacramento is got thirty days to author and
Speaker 2: pass legislation that then goes on to Gavin Newsom's desk
Speaker 2: for his final legislative session. And there's a lot of
Speaker 2: lobbyists for our private energy monopolies, whether that be so
Speaker 2: cal Medicine, Pacific Gas and Electric, or San Diego Gas
Speaker 2: and Electric, who want the California legislature to author new
Speaker 2: bills that would I'm going to try to say this
Speaker 2: without laughing, limit their liability from lawsuits when they start fires.
Speaker 2: Couldn't do it. I could not say it with a
Speaker 2: straight face. They actually have created their own phony Bologny
Speaker 2: group that's like Protect Wildfire Survivors Now, which is a
Speaker 2: fake advocacy group for Well, we really shouldn't go after
Speaker 2: the utility companies. And look, I want to make something
Speaker 2: very clear right off the bat, because I got a
Speaker 2: very strongly worded DM someone slid into my DMS that
Speaker 2: I believe was someone that worked for Pacific Gas and
Speaker 2: Electric depfor I went on one of my many, many,
Speaker 2: many rants against these companies. I'm sure there are people
Speaker 2: with integrity working on the lines, working, you know, on
Speaker 2: the regular jobs. The people that help power this state.
Speaker 2: When I criticize PG and E, when I criticize so
Speaker 2: Cal Edison, San Diego Gas and Electric, I'm not talking
Speaker 2: about the linemen. I'm not talking about the guys that
Speaker 2: dig the trenches. I'm not talking about the electricians. I'm
Speaker 2: talking about management and specifically how much money these monopolies
Speaker 2: spend on lobbying to our Boughton paid for California Legislature,
Speaker 2: our bought and paid for governor, and are bought and
Speaker 2: paid for California Public Utilities Commission. Not criticizing the actual
Speaker 2: people that do those jobs, because guess what, the lineman
Speaker 2: isn't the one that gets to make the decision that
Speaker 2: we don't get ri to the derelict zombie tower in
Speaker 2: Eaton Canyon. It's the lineman that doesn't get to make
Speaker 2: the decision that, oh, this hook is incredibly old and
Speaker 2: rusty on this tower in Paradise and could start a
Speaker 2: massive fire. No, none of that, But I for one
Speaker 2: have had enough of these companies lobbying to get their
Speaker 2: way when they are solely responsible for so much destruction
Speaker 2: in the state of California, to the point where when
Speaker 2: Pgenie got bailed out one of the things we had
Speaker 2: to do was get a wildfire fund going because we
Speaker 2: knew that these companies were going to continue burning down
Speaker 2: the state over and over and over again. It is
Speaker 2: a mess. I can't believe they're actually creating a phony
Speaker 2: Bologne group because what they're are worried about getting sued.
Speaker 2: This is, by the way, the same organization so Cal Edison,
Speaker 2: that has been trying to make settlements with people even
Speaker 2: before they were officially the cause of the fire at
Speaker 2: Eton Canyon, saying that hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, we'll
Speaker 2: write you a low ball settlement if you promise not
Speaker 2: to sue, because that lawsuit is going to take years
Speaker 2: and years and years, because we're going to fight it
Speaker 2: with every fiber of our being. And look, obviously, the
Speaker 2: goal of these private companies is to make as much
Speaker 2: money for their shareholders as possible. Why Pacific Gas and
Speaker 2: Electric literally asked for a rate increase to do nothing
Speaker 2: but reward their shareholders. And one of the things that
Speaker 2: very angry linemen sent to me and the DMS is true.
Speaker 2: You know, you could invest in these companies, and you
Speaker 2: could definitely make the argument that it makes sense to
Speaker 2: invest in these companies because the state is going to
Speaker 2: make sure that they never lose, because the state doesn't
Speaker 2: want to own the liability that these monopolies have by
Speaker 2: and believe you me, there are plenty of instances where
Speaker 2: municipally owned utilities are just as big of a mess,
Speaker 2: LADWP being prime suspect number one, But there are are
Speaker 2: municipalities where this works a lot better. And I don't
Speaker 2: like the fact that we have these monopolies that do
Speaker 2: not have our best interests. Let me give you for instance.
Speaker 2: You know, there's been a lot of talk about solar
Speaker 2: panels over the last few weeks because of the devastating
Speaker 2: destructive fire and boil heights, and I think it's strange
Speaker 2: that the mayor, the county, nobody wants to talk about
Speaker 2: how dangerous these high concentration solar panel farms are. And
Speaker 2: I think there needs to be a distinction between solar
Speaker 2: panel farms and rooftop solar. Having a couple of these
Speaker 2: on your roof is very different from having thousands of
Speaker 2: them on a warehouse. I'm a big advocate of rooftop solar,
Speaker 2: and for a very long time, so was the State
Speaker 2: of California. The State of California was a leader in
Speaker 2: pushing people to get the right kind of incentives to
Speaker 2: get solar panels on their roof. By the way, we
Speaker 2: can have a whole other discussion as to why it
Speaker 2: still cost you twenty thousand dollars to get these things
Speaker 2: on your roof when the cost of the materials has
Speaker 2: gone so far down that in certain places like Utah
Speaker 2: or even Germany, you can buy a solar panel that
Speaker 2: plugs into your wall that will cost you about eight
Speaker 2: hundred bucks. But that's another story for another day. The
Speaker 2: state of California encourage this technology. It was supposed to,
Speaker 2: you know, greenify our grid, make us less dependent on
Speaker 2: things like coal and natural gas and of course foreign
Speaker 2: oil what have you. And we had signed contracts that
Speaker 2: not only were you going to not have to pay
Speaker 2: a lot bill because now you're generating your own electricity,
Speaker 2: but you're actually going to get paid for the excess
Speaker 2: electricity that you put into the grid. And you know
Speaker 2: who didn't like that, so cal Edison, Pacific Gas and Electric,
Speaker 2: and San Diego Gas and Electric. These multi billion dollar
Speaker 2: corporations claim that they're losing so much money over rooftop
Speaker 2: solar that they, through their lobbied bribed members of the
Speaker 2: California Legislature. Gavin Newsom and the CPUC decided to slash
Speaker 2: those incentives, decided to slash what people were getting paid
Speaker 2: back for the electricity they were generating. And guess what,
Speaker 2: the solar industry has not recovered in the state of California.
Speaker 2: You know who's producing more wind and solar than California
Speaker 2: right now, Texas, And that is because we are utterly
Speaker 2: beholden to these incredibly corrupt companies. Not saying that the
Speaker 2: linemen are corrupt, I'm saying that the management is corrupt,
Speaker 2: and I mean corrupt in the simplest way. They use
Speaker 2: their money and their influence to pay politicians, whether it's
Speaker 2: through the legal means of lobbying or who knows what else,
Speaker 2: to get their way, and they don't give a crap
Speaker 2: about you. So I am not surprised at all. Then,
Speaker 2: on the day we find out that obviously so Cal
Speaker 2: Edison was responsible for the Eaton fire, that they are
Speaker 2: currently lobbying in Sacramento to get new laws passed that
Speaker 2: would limit how much they can get sued for when
Speaker 2: their old decrepit equipment burns down the state. Now, let's
Speaker 2: move on to San Diego, where there is a little
Speaker 2: fight in Pacific Beach over an ADU apartment complex project.
Speaker 2: Now you might be asking, what does that even mean
Speaker 2: ADU apartment complex. So San Diego is a very interesting place.
Speaker 2: They have tried to say yes and like an improv
Speaker 2: student at the groundlings to every single idea that could
Speaker 2: increase more housing. And you know what, there's something to that.
Speaker 2: You know, if you truly believe that we're in a
Speaker 2: housing crisis and we just need to build more and
Speaker 2: that will lower the cost for everybody, then we got
Speaker 2: to say yes to every possible way to build more,
Speaker 2: including San Diego's density bonus law, where you, as a developer,
Speaker 2: can build an ADU, an accessory dwelling unit, a granny
Speaker 2: flat in your backyard. But in San Diego, it's more
Speaker 2: than just like a nice little shack with some air conditioning.
Speaker 2: You can build it two stories, three stories, four stories,
Speaker 2: depending on how big your property is. You could put
Speaker 2: an entire apartment building in the backyard of a home
Speaker 2: that was designated single family. And this is because we
Speaker 2: encourage more density even in single family neighborhoods that definitely
Speaker 2: don't want it. And if you're the person that owns
Speaker 2: a single family home and now you have seven story
Speaker 2: buildings looking down on you sunbathing. Well, that's a little awkward.
Speaker 2: And I do feel for the ymbie crowd. I understand
Speaker 2: the urge to want to build, build, build, build build,
Speaker 2: but can we stop with the it's still an adu. No,
Speaker 2: this is an apartment building now, So I understand that
Speaker 2: aspect of the fight. But on the other end, the
Speaker 2: people that are opposing this, I have an issue with
Speaker 2: them too because they're like, oh, well, this developer is
Speaker 2: not a good steward because they haven't cleared the weeds
Speaker 2: on this property. And sometimes and this is a very California,
Speaker 2: this's a very old generation California thing. There is so
Speaker 2: much opposition to building anything that it's why you have
Speaker 2: law makers that go for these things like density bonus laws.
Speaker 2: Because we have enabled anyone anywhere, whether you're in a
Speaker 2: neighborhood that's affected or not, to sue to stop a
Speaker 2: development over the California Environmental Quality Act. And until we
Speaker 2: get rid of a private right of action that's in
Speaker 2: the California Environmental Quality Act, we will not be able
Speaker 2: to build in an effective rate because anybody anywhere can
Speaker 2: shut any project down for any reason, and that is
Speaker 2: not a way to build your way out of this crisis.
Speaker 2: That being said, and again, I know sometimes I sound
Speaker 2: like I'm all over the place on an issue. It's
Speaker 2: because there really is no right answer. San Diego has
Speaker 2: said yes and to everything. More apartment buildings, more houses,
Speaker 2: more townhouses, more ADUs, more ADU apartment buildings. They have
Speaker 2: built more new housing in the state of California than
Speaker 2: the rest of the state by a whole lot. But
Speaker 2: that being said, none of the new housing that's being
Speaker 2: built is still cost effect. I'm trying not to use
Speaker 2: the word affordable because the word affordable is a loaded
Speaker 2: word now because affordable means subsidized. But I mean, actually,
Speaker 2: like the cost of the rents go down, the cost
Speaker 2: of the mortgages go down. Todd Gloria does a victory
Speaker 2: lap talking about all the new housing he's built in
Speaker 2: San Diego as he cuts the ribbon on a brand
Speaker 2: new apartment building in San Diego with one bedroom's going
Speaker 2: for four thousand dollars. That's San Francisco price is right there.
Speaker 2: So it is just an interesting question to think about,
Speaker 2: at what point do you build enough where things actually
Speaker 2: go down in price. And if you're a homeowner who
Speaker 2: has equity, at what point do you build enough that
Speaker 2: your equity start It's going down right now everywhere that
Speaker 2: has not happened. Is there a point where that will happen?
Speaker 2: Or are we just building more that still most people
Speaker 2: cannot afford, most young people cannot afford. So it's just
Speaker 2: something to think about. I don't I could change the
Speaker 2: name of this show too. I don't have the answers
Speaker 2: with Randy Wang, but I like to pose the questions
Speaker 2: as people talk about California's housing crisis. Building adu's probably
Speaker 2: a really good idea. I love what San Jose is
Speaker 2: doing where not only can you build the ADU, but
Speaker 2: you can because not everyone in California wants to be
Speaker 2: a landlord. I got a great story in the news
Speaker 2: Blix about a squatterfight at a ranch in Alcoholne. But
Speaker 2: what if you could, I don't know, partition off your property,
Speaker 2: sell off part of it, so the ADU now is
Speaker 2: its own property and you don't have anything to do
Speaker 2: with it anymore. Kind of like that and the pro
Speaker 2: Yimbi pro ADU crowd people. Here's the biggest gripe where
Speaker 2: the NIMBI people have a point. Building all these things
Speaker 2: on the assumption that they're just going to use transit
Speaker 2: and they don't need a car and they don't need
Speaker 2: parking is foolish because even if you can use transit
Speaker 2: for seventy five percent of your trips, if you're in
Speaker 2: a place where transit actually makes sense, which is not
Speaker 2: Los Angeles, you're still going to need a car for
Speaker 2: that other twenty five percent. So where's the car going
Speaker 2: to be. So you want to make everybody happy, put
Speaker 2: in parking with the ADUs, which, by the way, this
Speaker 2: specific story the developer did. They were not going to
Speaker 2: have enough parking for every unit they were going to build,
Speaker 2: and they said, all right, neighbors, we hear you. We're
Speaker 2: going to put enough parking spaces for every one of
Speaker 2: these units. And the neighbors still are blocking it and
Speaker 2: still are suing. There are no heroes in this story
Speaker 2: on this side, not on this side, but ultimately, the
Speaker 2: private right of action needs to go or we're never
Speaker 2: getting anywhere with this. It's the News Blitz with Randy
Speaker 2: Wang on KABC. It's the News Blitz with Randy Wang
Speaker 2: on Talk Radio seven to ninety KABC. If you'd like
Speaker 2: to comment on anything you've heard today, you can always
Speaker 2: email me at Randy Wang Radio at gmail dot com
Speaker 2: or give us a call at eight hundred two two
Speaker 2: two five two two two. Let's go to Vincent in
Speaker 2: Santa Anna. Vincent, Hello, Hello there.
Speaker 3: Thank you always for your show. It's always informative and
Speaker 3: it always rows people up, which is great. I just
Speaker 3: wanted to talk about the utilities and the insurance companies
Speaker 3: for that matter. Obviously, it's it's not as if we
Speaker 3: have an option not to have insurance or utilities, and
Speaker 3: so it's ridiculous to think that they can get away
Speaker 3: with treating it as a regular business when it's a must.
Speaker 3: It's basically it's kind of almost a commodity anymore. And
Speaker 3: there's I know in California it's probably never gonna happen,
Speaker 3: at least with Newsom, but there really should be some
Speaker 3: somehow a cap on salaries for executives. And guess what
Speaker 3: if you don't like it, If you don't like it
Speaker 3: in two three million a year because you think you
Speaker 3: want to make ten, hey, the private sector's out there
Speaker 3: for those who do that, but they're somehow hopefully if
Speaker 3: Hilton gets in, we've got to revisit this whole concept
Speaker 3: of how we get how people in the state pay
Speaker 3: for their electricity and everything else.
Speaker 2: Oh, I think you're totally right. We need to have
Speaker 2: a complete reworking, especially because the technology has changed. The
Speaker 2: way we do transmission has change. You can have micro
Speaker 2: grids in neighborhoods. We have got to get off of
Speaker 2: these private energy monopolies that are just going to bleed
Speaker 2: us dry. Thank you so much for the call, Vincent,
Speaker 2: appreciate it. Hey, if you want to check out what
Speaker 2: this show looks like on video, I post every single
Speaker 2: episode at Randy radio dot com. Coming up next, one
Speaker 2: of the best reporters in Los Angeles has some big news.
Speaker 2: Daniel Gus will be here with of course his website,
Speaker 2: Daniel Gus dot substack dot com. It's the News Blitz
Speaker 2: with Randy Wang on KABC. It's the News Blitz with
Speaker 2: Randy Wang on KABC. This is your daily rundown of
Speaker 2: everything you need to know that's going on in the
Speaker 2: state of California, Southern California, the Bay Area, Sacramento, San Diego,
Speaker 2: and the Central Valley. Check out my new list I
Speaker 2: put one up every single day at Randywangradio dot substack
Speaker 2: dot com. And every single time I say randywangradio dot
Speaker 2: substack dot com, the first thing I think about in
Speaker 2: my head is Danielgus dot substack dot com. Daniel Gus,
Speaker 2: writer of the Gus Report, someone who is deeper into
Speaker 2: the city under belly of lacitypolitics than anybody I know,
Speaker 2: joins Us and Daniel Gus, you have got some big
Speaker 2: news about Mark Ridley Thomas. Well, it's good news, by
Speaker 2: the way.
Speaker 4: Thank you for having me on today, Randy. I'd say
Speaker 4: I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little
Speaker 4: intimidated by the video stream, but I hopefully got that
Speaker 4: right today, So thank you for having me on. Yes,
Speaker 4: Mark Ridley Thomas, the career Los Angeles politician who was
Speaker 4: a county supervisor and of this and almost an LA
Speaker 4: City Council member but didn't get quite sworn in, was
Speaker 4: convicted a year or two ago of bribery and all
Speaker 4: sorts of corrupt things that we know that local politicians do.
Speaker 4: And today we had the big news that his appeal
Speaker 4: to the Ninth Circuit of the federal court system was
Speaker 4: unanimously rejected and I want to point out that one
Speaker 4: of the federal appeals judges his first name is Johnny.
Speaker 4: We think that's a good sign. And it's not looking
Speaker 4: good for mister Ridley Thomas because he's basically been putting
Speaker 4: off the inevitable, which is a jail cell, a federal
Speaker 4: jail cell, for basically ever since he was convicted, and
Speaker 4: he's kind of teasing or his lawyers are teasing that, well,
Speaker 4: we're gonna have it reviewed by the entire twenty nine
Speaker 4: appeal panel. And that's not gonna fly because he would
Speaker 4: have to get fifteen of the twenty nine appeals judges
Speaker 4: to agree to hear a full appeal. That's not gonna happen.
Speaker 4: That happens in one percent of the cases. So our
Speaker 4: prosecutors at the federal level bill a salee and all
Speaker 4: those folks. They may not get everybody, but they got
Speaker 4: a big one this time in Mark Ridley Thomas.
Speaker 2: Well, and we got to refresh people because it's been
Speaker 2: so long, because it takes so long to actually go
Speaker 2: from conviction to the jail cell with the appeals process,
Speaker 2: with these politicsitions, whether you're talking about Jose Huizar or
Speaker 2: Mark Ridley Thomas, let's give a quick little refresher on
Speaker 2: what exactly they got him on, because it was one
Speaker 2: of the most ridiculous, brazen things we have ever seen,
Speaker 2: including trying to use USC as an intermediary to transfer
Speaker 2: money from his campaign to his no good son.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, yeah, that's what I'm thinking of. You know,
Speaker 4: he has By the way, Mark Wordthley Thomas has two sons,
Speaker 4: twin sons, Sebastian Ridley Thomas, who is at the core
Speaker 4: of this criminal case, and Sinclair Ridley Thomas, who very
Speaker 4: few people hear of.
Speaker 2: By the way.
Speaker 4: They turn thirty nine years of age next week. And
Speaker 4: Sebastian was elected to the California Assembly a few years ago,
Speaker 4: a proud graduate of Morehouse College, by the way, and
Speaker 4: he succeeded La County Supervisor Holly Mitchell. It's so incestuous,
Speaker 4: what's going on, Randy? And I guess he had to
Speaker 4: resign because he was behaving inappropriately in the California Assembly
Speaker 4: and he resigned and Papa Ridley Thomas Mark needed to
Speaker 4: find something gainful for his son to do, get into
Speaker 4: grad school and get hired by a nonprofit And somehow
Speaker 4: they're all they're all connected to USC, and there was
Speaker 4: a dean at this Social College of Social Work there
Speaker 4: named Marilyn Flynn who's now eighty seven years old, and
Speaker 4: I guess the Fed's put enough pressure on her that
Speaker 4: she eventually flipped. So Ridley Thomas needed to find something
Speaker 4: good for his son to do. Used money that was
Speaker 4: kind of so sort of in his coffers but not
Speaker 4: really his own money, but is his own money, and
Speaker 4: he found a way with this dean Maryland Flynn to
Speaker 4: donate around one hundred thousand dollars to this program at USC.
Speaker 4: And it's called a thing of value, like it's bribery
Speaker 4: is established when you are basically getting a quid pro quo,
Speaker 4: something of value, something for something that is basically what
Speaker 4: quid pro quo means. And eventually, uh, this DN at
Speaker 4: USC needed a government contract, and of course Margaredley Thomas
Speaker 4: was one fifth of the La County Supervisors and and gee,
Speaker 4: that didn't work, and eventually somebody tipped off somebody the
Speaker 4: really smart prosecutors behind the scenes pieced it together and
Speaker 4: it all collapsed like a house of cards eventually, just
Speaker 4: like it did for Jose Weezar, who's cooling is jets
Speaker 4: for at least another decade in federal in the federal penitentiary,
Speaker 4: like it did for Mitchell Englander and Richard Alatori and
Speaker 4: all of these other folks. So so it's a papa
Speaker 4: helping son and somehow how USC is involved in all
Speaker 4: of this stuff. And there you go, we finally got
Speaker 4: a big fish, long overdue.
Speaker 2: Now. Another thing that's an interesting wrinkle in all this,
Speaker 2: and another thing that people forget, is that same USC
Speaker 2: School of Social Work was the same school that gave
Speaker 2: Karen Bass this honorary degree in social work. Karen Bass
Speaker 2: a longtime advocate and friend of Mark Ridley Thomas. But
Speaker 2: she likes to make sure you forget about that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, she wants you to forget about that now. But
Speaker 4: how did Karen Bass get her graduate degree while a
Speaker 4: sitting politician? And she has not been indicted on anything.
Speaker 4: But you know, I'm not so sure. I'm not so
Speaker 4: sure that investigators are done with Karen Bass. Maybe I'm
Speaker 4: just dreaming for a reset for the city of Los
Speaker 4: Angeles with the mayoral election. But Karen Bass was not
Speaker 4: charged with any and a lot of people, including myself,
Speaker 4: wonder why. And they're wondering how. By the way, can
Speaker 4: I also point out something that in every government position
Speaker 4: I've seen Mark Ridley Thomas head. He always, as as
Speaker 4: a lot of people know, he has his deep, condescending voice,
Speaker 4: and he used to say to government critics, especially those
Speaker 4: of us who are a little more on the vocal side,
Speaker 4: he would look at us and say, quoting the wrapper
Speaker 4: of ice cube, I think it is gosh. I hope
Speaker 4: it's ice cube. He would say, you better check yourself
Speaker 4: before you wreck yourself. And ultimately, in the ultimate irony,
Speaker 4: he's the one who wrecked himself.
Speaker 2: All of his own doing well. And Mark Ridley Thomas,
Speaker 2: I mean, this was the most brazen thing that we
Speaker 2: had ever seen. This was so on anyone who looks
Speaker 2: at this case could see there was corruption. But he
Speaker 2: had done so many things over the years in his
Speaker 2: very long political career that were just straight up if
Speaker 2: they weren't corrupt, they were unethical. How about is what
Speaker 2: eight hundred thousand dollars remodel of his office at the
Speaker 2: LA County Border Supervisors?
Speaker 4: Right? And wasn't there also something I could be wrong, Randy,
Speaker 4: But wasn't there also something about getting a nice chunk
Speaker 4: of money to redo his office at home? There was
Speaker 4: something about that, and we were racist because of course
Speaker 4: you should spend eight hundred thousand dollars on your office
Speaker 4: and what in the world were renovations of eight hundred
Speaker 4: grand doing for an office renovation when houses in Los
Speaker 4: Angeles probably cost two three hundred thousand dollars. So it
Speaker 4: was always something with marqud Lee Thomas, just like it's
Speaker 4: always something with Karen Bass and Current Price and all
Speaker 4: of the others. It's just one thing after another. And
Speaker 4: I don't think he's the last of them. And I'm
Speaker 4: not just talking about Current Price either.
Speaker 2: Well, that trial's finally about to happen, right.
Speaker 4: Right, right, Well, I think Current Price he dumped twelve
Speaker 4: hundred pages a couple of months ago on the La
Speaker 4: County District Attorney's office. They have a really good prosecute
Speaker 4: the prosecuted there by the name of Casey Higgins. One
Speaker 4: of these guys who's just grinding through it and whatever
Speaker 4: Current Price is spending. And he's been on the public dole,
Speaker 4: he's been under indictment for the vast majority of his
Speaker 4: time on La City Council, and he's spending all sorts
Speaker 4: of money and he's in his mid seventies. Now I'm like,
Speaker 4: what are these people hanging on for? They have these
Speaker 4: incredible pensions, all of these things that were in illegal
Speaker 4: that made them so wealthy.
Speaker 2: How much money do you need?
Speaker 4: And they're literally Ridley Thomas current price and anybody else,
Speaker 4: who's next, whoever's next in mine? I have my suspicions
Speaker 4: of who these are people who could literally die in
Speaker 4: prison over money that they probably will never need in
Speaker 4: their lives.
Speaker 2: Now, when we talk about the legacy of these politicians,
Speaker 2: I think Mark Ridley Thomas is a perfect case study
Speaker 2: and why we need a moratorium on naming any monuments
Speaker 2: after any living politicians until it's been about, I don't know,
Speaker 2: thirty or forty years after they've passed away, and we're
Speaker 2: sure there's nothing that's gonna come out. Because how many
Speaker 2: bridges and parks and plaques are dedicated to Mark Ridley
Speaker 2: Thomas all throughout the city of Los Angeles.
Speaker 4: The city and the county, and Herb Wesson and Paul
Speaker 4: Creclorian and Paul Carretz. It's needed. It is nothing more
Speaker 4: than them lifting their political leg on public properties. Say
Speaker 4: Paul Grekorian was here, you know who cares? Who gives
Speaker 4: enough about that other than if your last name is Crekorian.
Speaker 4: It's so self aggrandizing, it's fitting. I actually think we
Speaker 4: need a program. Anybody who wants to run for office,
Speaker 4: you automatically have my endorsement if you propose and pass
Speaker 4: a legislation that says we not only have a moratorium,
Speaker 4: but we take down all of the signs and all
Speaker 4: of the tributes.
Speaker 2: We're speaking with Daniel Gus from the Gus Report. The
Speaker 2: website is Daniel Gus dot substack dot com and you
Speaker 2: can get him on AX at the Gus Report. Let's
Speaker 2: talk about for a second the President of the La
Speaker 2: City Council, Marquis Harris Dawson, who I'm such a glutton.
Speaker 2: I can't believe I do this to myself. I see that.
Speaker 2: Marquis Harris Dawson sits down for a Sunday morning interview
Speaker 2: on the Spectrum News channel to talk about one of
Speaker 2: his shining accomplishments, banning pretextual stops from LAPD, and cites
Speaker 2: one of the reasons that he was so passionate about
Speaker 2: this is because a few months ago he was pulled
Speaker 2: over by LAPD even though he had special tags on
Speaker 2: his car showing that he was a government employee and
Speaker 2: a government vehicle he was pulled over, and how injustice
Speaker 2: this is. But Daniel Gus he never said in the
Speaker 2: interview why he got pulled over?
Speaker 4: Right, And if anybody forgets, a couple of years before
Speaker 4: this incident, he was also supposedly pulled over by the
Speaker 4: LAPD But once I picked up the phone or actually
Speaker 4: sent emails and asked his staff what happened here, it's well,
Speaker 4: it wasn't quite this, and it wasn't quite that, and
Speaker 4: for some reason, for some reason, they plant these little
Speaker 4: seeds of doubt, as if you need any more doubt
Speaker 4: in the guy who runs the most corrupt city council
Speaker 4: in the country. And with the exception of talk radio,
Speaker 4: there's very few people in the mainstream local news media
Speaker 4: who will actually question this stuff. You and John Phillips
Speaker 4: and I do that. And yeah, come on, Marquise, why
Speaker 4: wouldn't you give the specifics about it, just like he
Speaker 4: wouldn't give the specifics about it a couple of years
Speaker 4: ago when the same thing supposedly happened and I came
Speaker 4: calling for answers.
Speaker 2: It's not saying it's one thing of you getting pulled
Speaker 2: over and you did completely nothing wrong, but we had
Speaker 2: laped officers say off the record that I can't remember.
Speaker 2: It was either an illegal U turn in a school
Speaker 2: zone or speeding in a school zone, and those are
Speaker 2: legitimate reasons to get pulled over, no matter what color
Speaker 2: of your skin.
Speaker 4: Is, unless your name is Mark Queis Harris Dawson apparently,
Speaker 4: and you're trying a power play. And this is a
Speaker 4: guy who has very very thin skin, you know, just
Speaker 4: like this little censorship game that's going to cost the
Speaker 4: City of Fortune in First Amendment lawsuits very soon. If
Speaker 4: I imagine, he likes to praise the F word, the
Speaker 4: T word, and the N word in rap lyrics and
Speaker 4: at the Super Bowl halftime show, but when it comes
Speaker 4: to city council, he's outraged. He's outraged by the same words,
Speaker 4: except if you know who delivers them. There. So he's
Speaker 4: very thin skinned, and so he must think that he
Speaker 4: is allowed to make these traffic viole and anybody who
Speaker 4: has tips on this stuff, please please reach out to
Speaker 4: John Randy or to me give us something that credible
Speaker 4: that we can investigate, and we're going to look at
Speaker 4: it with with very clear, with very clear lenses.
Speaker 2: We're speaking with Daniel Guss at the GUS Report. Before
Speaker 2: you go. We got to talk about this because we're
Speaker 2: three months away from the LA Mayor's race. You know,
Speaker 2: people are tesked with an impossible decision between Karen Bess
Speaker 2: and Nythia Rahmen. One of the issues that I think
Speaker 2: people like you and me are is very important to
Speaker 2: us is animal welfare. Whether we're talking about the shelters
Speaker 2: or the crisis that we see every single day with
Speaker 2: the violence against animals on skid Row. Karen Bess has
Speaker 2: been a complete disaster on this issue. Joey Tuccio, a
Speaker 2: friend of ours, has been really shining a light on
Speaker 2: this subject every single day. I don't know if you
Speaker 2: saw the video he put out this morning where kennetha,
Speaker 2: who has endorsed Nythia Rahmen, brings Nythia over to Joey's
Speaker 2: house to talk about the situation in skid Row. And
Speaker 2: according to Joey, one of the things that she said,
Speaker 2: Nathia Rahman, who is chair of the Housing and Homelessness Committee,
Speaker 2: I was not aware of what was going on on
Speaker 2: skid Row.
Speaker 4: That's bull. I'm a Nithia constituent and she's been involved
Speaker 4: with homelessness ever since she got to city council. That
Speaker 4: is an out and out lie. But Karen vass Is
Speaker 4: told the same blatant lies. So it's do you want
Speaker 4: the liwar who's the communist or the liwar who's the socialist.
Speaker 4: And by the way, Kenneth Mahea called me when he
Speaker 4: was running for city controller and promised this and promise that.
Speaker 4: And I don't trust him either. He's done a better
Speaker 4: job than his predecessor. He's done a better job than
Speaker 4: the person he was running against. But no, none of
Speaker 4: these people are telling the truth. They tell a lie
Speaker 4: to get to where they want to go, and then
Speaker 4: they will not they will never follow up, and they'll
Speaker 4: never tell you the truth. I guarantee for hand. Joey Tuccio,
Speaker 4: who to me is arguably the greatest person in the
Speaker 4: city of Los Angeles. God bless this guy. Please look
Speaker 4: at his Instagram page and donate to things where he
Speaker 4: directly oversees the rescues. This guy is gold. He's absolutely
Speaker 4: the greatest Angelina in my opinion on this subject and
Speaker 4: many others. So, no, Nithia is lying, and no she's
Speaker 4: not going to get any Spencer Pratt votes not one,
Speaker 4: not mine, not yours, if you happen to have voted
Speaker 4: for him. And my only prayer here is that who
Speaker 4: would be easiest to recall or indict? Who is going
Speaker 4: to be the easiest when they're elected mayor? Is going
Speaker 4: to be the easiest to recall or indict? I don't
Speaker 4: speak for all Spencer Pratt voters or independents, but I
Speaker 4: speak for a whole lot of them. I think you
Speaker 4: would probably agree with that. Who is going to be
Speaker 4: easiest to recall or indict once they're mayor? I think
Speaker 4: that's going to be Karen Bess And we'll see, We'll see.
Speaker 4: But Joeytuccio is telling you the truth. Everybody else is lying.
Speaker 4: You could take my word that you can believe Joey
Speaker 4: every single word that Joeytuccio is saying.
Speaker 2: That is a fascinating way to look at this mayor's race.
Speaker 2: Which one of these, if they become mayor, will get
Speaker 2: indicted or could get recalled. Daniel Gus, writer of the
Speaker 2: Gus Report. Check it out every single day for the
Speaker 2: best inside information on what's going on at Lacity Hall.
Speaker 2: Daniel Gus dot substack dot com and get him on
Speaker 2: x at the Gus Report. Daniel Gus, thank you so
Speaker 2: much for joining us today.
Speaker 4: Thank you for the invite. I'll listen listening to the
Speaker 4: show tomorrow.
Speaker 2: If you haven't checked out our live feed of the
Speaker 2: John Phillips Show, We're having so much fun. It's available
Speaker 2: every single day noon to three live Johnny Don't Like
Speaker 2: dot Com. You can also watch all the video stuff
Speaker 2: on demand. We have video segments of this show on demand.
Speaker 2: I'll be posting the interview with Daniel Gus later, and
Speaker 2: I post all the interviews that are really great that
Speaker 2: we've been doing on Johnny Show too, including a guest
Speaker 2: that I found out about. Because of this audience, we
Speaker 2: started getting emails like six months ago, Hey have you
Speaker 2: guys ever talked to Ramen? I'm like, who's Ramen? So
Speaker 2: I started looking up his channel, Ramen Real Talk. He
Speaker 2: is a really cool guy, does great videos and he
Speaker 2: was a guest on our two o'clock hour. That video,
Speaker 2: if you missed it, is going live on the channel
Speaker 2: at six pm. So if you did not get to
Speaker 2: see it, you can watch it by going to Johnny
Speaker 2: Don't Like dot Com. In about forty five seconds, that's
Speaker 2: Johnny Don't Like dot com and tomorrow at three pm
Speaker 2: will be the world premiere of John and I's podcast
Speaker 2: with Steve Hilton, candidate for governor. We got him forty
Speaker 2: minutes on video. We highly recommend you check that out
Speaker 2: tomorrow at three pm. I'll see you tomorrow at five
Speaker 2: for another episode of the News Blitz with Randy Wang.
Speaker 2: Send me an email if you got any questions Randy
Speaker 2: Wang Radio at gmail dot com and check out the
Speaker 2: channel Johnny don't like dot com Randy Wang Radio dot com.
Speaker 2: See uh