Speaker 1: Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio, the George
Speaker 1: Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong, Joe, Ketty arm Strong and
Speaker 1: Katty and He Armstrong and Jetty.
Speaker 2: We've been doing live running commentary on the Carter funeral
Speaker 2: throughout the show today, with to me, the standout thing
Speaker 2: being the way Trump and Barack Obama were yucking up
Speaker 2: in the pool in the pew, waiting for the thing
Speaker 2: to start, laughing, talking, looking really interested in what each
Speaker 2: other had to say.
Speaker 1: I would freaking be fascinated to know what they were
Speaker 1: talking about. Oh yeah, yeah, Well, what do you honestly guess?
Speaker 1: Something mundane? You think it's mundane? Okay? Well, or or
Speaker 1: mundane for a president, stuff about the motor caid or
Speaker 1: or I don't know, I don't know. You don't think
Speaker 1: of any significance though, No, unless they were discussing boys
Speaker 1: Biden and idiot when's he supposed to get here? I
Speaker 1: don't know, because they both really dislike him.
Speaker 2: It could be like I could see any two presidents
Speaker 2: complaining about press, the media or something I know, and
Speaker 2: it's something the.
Speaker 1: Way they blah blah blah or something like that. I
Speaker 1: don't know. You think mundane. They talked for a long time.
Speaker 2: One thing we do in this country now, And I'm
Speaker 2: a big Garth Brooks fan, so I don't mind is
Speaker 2: he is our national treasure musical act for inaugurations, funerals
Speaker 2: and that sort of thing when they when they happen
Speaker 2: at the level of the entire country. And he and
Speaker 2: his wife Christian.
Speaker 1: James Taylor retire from that gigger on.
Speaker 2: Garth and Trisha Yearwood singing a little bit of a
Speaker 2: stupid song. Although I loved it as I still like
Speaker 2: it musically, the words are dumb.
Speaker 1: From John Lennon, here's a little bit of it. You
Speaker 1: miss it. I'm a team I'm not. And so I
Speaker 1: was watching this John as it was happening live.
Speaker 2: Joe Biden his eyes closed and was nodding along to
Speaker 2: the lyrics, honest to God. Over his shoulder. You could
Speaker 2: see w looking at By. W was looking at Biden,
Speaker 2: was kind.
Speaker 1: Of a squint on his face, like what are you doing, dude,
Speaker 1: or are you falling asleep?
Speaker 2: Or or he was thinking this song is dumb. The
Speaker 2: whole imagine there's no country. Thing is great if you're
Speaker 2: a sophomore girl, but kind of dumb for world leaders
Speaker 2: of the most powerful country in the world.
Speaker 1: Thank God.
Speaker 2: How about the imagine no religion too in the biggest
Speaker 2: church in Washington, d C. After fifty different pledges to Jesus,
Speaker 2: Right is that?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I know, I don't get it. It's so dopey.
Speaker 1: And again I'm a Beatles fan shown Lennon Fenn. It's
Speaker 1: a beautiful melody. Its fantastic. It's just and the world
Speaker 1: needs soft headed, dreamy poets. We just don't want them
Speaker 1: in charge of foreign policy, particularly the religion thing.
Speaker 2: I hadn't thought of that until I saw so many
Speaker 2: on one of your big Twitter people point that out.
Speaker 2: There was just a long speech imploring Jesus to do something, and.
Speaker 1: Then they sang the song. Right, it's weird.
Speaker 2: I guess we all ignore the lyrics and kind of
Speaker 2: just go with a well, it's you know, wishing for
Speaker 2: a better, safer, more peaceful time, which I'm in favor of.
Speaker 1: That's sweet.
Speaker 2: It's just the remedy in the song is stupid. Also,
Speaker 2: on the subject of all the prayers, and I heard
Speaker 2: some of them when I went and got coffee.
Speaker 1: I mean, there, it's in a big church.
Speaker 2: Jimmy Carter was very religious he might be our most
Speaker 2: religious president ever.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you read any of his books,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure how you measure that exactly. But he
Speaker 1: was a very religious man.
Speaker 2: Yes, outwardly believe in christian I don't know who would
Speaker 2: top him. Maybe Joe Biden, but so lots of prayers,
Speaker 2: specifically talking about Jesus our Savior.
Speaker 1: How many of those presidents are into that? Do you think?
Speaker 1: Do you guess? Sincerely? Yeah, Biden is, Carter was w
Speaker 1: definitely is yeah, huh. Clinton just good for getting elected
Speaker 1: in the South or real. I don't know. He's very old.
Speaker 1: Often people start to consider their relationship with God more
Speaker 1: acutely at his age. I don't know. Remember he went
Speaker 1: to the.
Speaker 2: Prayer breakfast during the Monica Lewinsky thing asking for forgiveness
Speaker 2: that real or completely politically contrived.
Speaker 1: Obama worships himself. So Obama claims to be a Christian,
Speaker 1: yes or no? On his authenticity? This is inappropriate? Yep,
Speaker 1: this is completely absolutely okay? Uh No, I don't. I
Speaker 1: don't think he's a sincere believer in the divinity of
Speaker 1: Jesus of Nazareth. He might be at this point in
Speaker 1: his life, I doubt it, but I don't think there's
Speaker 1: a chance he was when he was younger, young socialist,
Speaker 1: super lefty, progressive running around No way, no, no, I don't.
Speaker 1: Why are we even discussing this, just thinking.
Speaker 2: I think it's interesting that we do the charade in
Speaker 2: other countries, and I don't. I don't want to become
Speaker 2: more secular or less religious myself, but it's okay in
Speaker 2: a lot of countries to be No, I don't. I
Speaker 2: don't believe in God at all. I don't think it's ridiculous.
Speaker 2: I think it's a bunch of made up mids fairy tales,
Speaker 2: as our friend Tim Sanderfer would say. And you can
Speaker 2: still be, you know, run for office, but you can't
Speaker 2: in the United States. You gotta at least pretend.
Speaker 1: Yeah, if you can pause, just for a second, checking
Speaker 1: with the control room, m hm, still one, okay, checking
Speaker 1: on the number of deceased presidents in the cathedral. Let's
Speaker 1: face it, Biden's a little touch and go right now,
Speaker 1: come on.
Speaker 2: Wow, okay, and they're they're leaving now. Joe Biden is
Speaker 2: the oldest of the five current former presidents. He looks
Speaker 2: the oldest, he sounds the oldest. Tea is the far
Speaker 2: and he's walking out with Hunter right behind him. Hunter
Speaker 2: looks like a former crack addict, because his mouth is
Speaker 2: all mushed up and his jaws crooking, like a guy
Speaker 2: who did too much math.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's got the meth mouth for sure. Speaking of
Speaker 1: unpopular world leaders, I know a handful of Canadians who
Speaker 1: despise Justin Trudeau, who's on his way out the door.
Speaker 1: And I'd been aware that he was a progressive and
Speaker 1: spouted a lot of the same nonsense our progressives do.
Speaker 1: I hadn't remembered or had never heard. Oh he's he's
Speaker 1: got eighty one. Eighty one percent of Canadians approved of
Speaker 1: his resignation. Eighty one percent. Wow, I don't know which
Speaker 1: should Was it that high for Nixon? Gosh? I don't know,
Speaker 1: you know, it's probably close, But yeah, that's Nixonian unpopular unpopularity.
Speaker 1: He told The New York Times after being elected in
Speaker 1: twenty fifteen, there is no core identity, no mainstream in Canada,
Speaker 1: claiming that Canada was the first post national state, meaning
Speaker 1: and he doubled down on this, It's all about identity.
Speaker 1: You can't claim to be Canadian as a particular culture
Speaker 1: or set of beliefs. How dare we say we have
Speaker 1: a culture, so you're either a you're you're a.
Speaker 2: Black woman or a gay something or whatever, those are
Speaker 2: your identities, but not Canadian.
Speaker 1: Right exactly. And and and he was in embarrassed or
Speaker 1: condemning of even saying we have a culture and it's
Speaker 1: cool and we're gonna defend it.
Speaker 2: That is the that's interesting you bring that up or
Speaker 2: that he said that. That's the core Western civilization debate
Speaker 2: that's going on right now. It's never spelled out that. Uh, clearly,
Speaker 2: I don't think. But that's the whole thing. Do you
Speaker 2: buy that or not?
Speaker 1: And as the crowd that buys that gonna win or not?
Speaker 1: H the idea that the United States of America has
Speaker 1: a culture or Western civilization in general, that's the best
Speaker 1: for all of its flaws, of course, but great and
Speaker 1: worth defending. Is a hill I will die on, then
Speaker 1: rise from the dead and haunt you, and then die
Speaker 1: on again as often as possible. And the fact that
Speaker 1: our schools and colleges are teaching against it. If I
Speaker 1: could figure out how to be more militant and effectively
Speaker 1: militant against that, will do it immediately.
Speaker 2: I had completely forgotten the Trudeau blackface thing.
Speaker 1: Remember what that emerged? He had apologize far because he
Speaker 1: dressed in black he was a Michael Jackson fan. What
Speaker 1: was his story? He had some excuse like he was
Speaker 1: a big Jackson fan. I think I don't remember was
Speaker 1: one of those. You know what strikes me though, is
Speaker 1: that our favorite Justin Trudeau clip is an absolutely perfect
Speaker 1: description and indictment of his whole modus operanda. You have that, Michael,
Speaker 1: I have to grab it. Okay, Yeah, no worries. It
Speaker 1: is everything Trudeau is. Is this floundering pretty boy effort
Speaker 1: to be some sort of post national, post modern identity politics. Jesus,
Speaker 1: it's disgusting.
Speaker 2: LGDP lgt LBG LGBTQ two plush.
Speaker 1: He was not able to capably ride the monster of
Speaker 1: the alphabet super ridiculousness he and IS people had created.
Speaker 2: Okay, I dug it up. I looked at the picture
Speaker 2: of him in black face. The story broke with the
Speaker 2: publication by Time magazine of a photo from two thousand
Speaker 2: and one a year book at a Vancouver private high school.
Speaker 2: He went to some fancy pants because his dad was
Speaker 2: Prime Minister. Right, The school staged an Arabian Nights themed gala,
Speaker 2: and he dressed as a Laddin and black face and
Speaker 2: a turban. I don't know what made him decide he
Speaker 2: needed to be blackface to be Aladdin. I would feel
Speaker 2: like I could go to a as a Laddin with
Speaker 2: a turbanon, not be blackfaceman. I also don't think it's
Speaker 2: a crime against humanity to put on black makeup.
Speaker 1: I hate Justin Trudeau and everything he stands for, but
Speaker 1: anything you do in high school, short of murder plays
Speaker 1: here in high school. Stop it. Checking with the booth again.
Speaker 2: Total number of deceased presidents in the cathedral still one.
Speaker 1: Okay, holding it one, We're holding it one. We've gotten
Speaker 1: more on the way State.
Speaker 3: Sarah was on with her eight year old Lease last night.
Speaker 3: She came out, I'm sorry, just you know, one day
Speaker 3: you're swimming at the pool and the next day it's
Speaker 3: all gone. But she came out with her little Eddie
Speaker 3: piggybank for us to rebuild our house.
Speaker 2: That's the actor James Wood talking about his house burning down.
Speaker 2: As a lot of people's homes burnt down. It's kind
Speaker 2: of interesting watching on social.
Speaker 1: Media and just hearing on various shows. The conversation about that.
Speaker 2: You know, there's a lot of dislike for California on
Speaker 2: the right side of politics, and certainly a lot of
Speaker 2: dislike for celebrities. And then you confine California celebrities with
Speaker 2: some wealth, and you got a whole bunch of the
Speaker 2: kind of people you don't like. I feel like, if
Speaker 2: you take any joy in their home burning down, that
Speaker 2: makes you a not very good person.
Speaker 1: Well, and I ran into somebody like that. I will
Speaker 1: forgive it because I have much to be forgiven for.
Speaker 1: But yeah, not only are a lot of the people
Speaker 1: who've suffered terribly and are suffering m regular working class people.
Speaker 1: I mean hundreds of homes of people who are just
Speaker 1: getting by along with the wealthy people. What people forget
Speaker 1: about California is that there are vast swathes of solid
Speaker 1: Conservatism in California, including in the Blue counties. We're just outnumbered,
Speaker 1: is the problem. So yeah, the idea of the good
Speaker 1: I'm glad their house is burnt down. Good lord.
Speaker 2: Although it is true that if you have money, it's
Speaker 2: still a tragedy. You lost all your family, pictures and
Speaker 2: everything in the home you loved, and the memories of
Speaker 2: that's where your kid learn to walk and all that
Speaker 2: sort of stuff.
Speaker 1: But it's a lot easier to recover with money than
Speaker 1: without money.
Speaker 2: Hell yeah, you lost your house in the idea of
Speaker 2: going to a hotel is just how the hell am
Speaker 2: I gonna do that? My credit card is already maxed out.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's just a different world of stress, sure,
Speaker 2: no doubt. Anyway, here's a little of a man on
Speaker 2: the street with some people. They are talking to God.
Speaker 2: I'm looking up at Fox right now. We am a
Speaker 2: loogenous who we've had on this show many many times.
Speaker 1: It's just it looks like gossip behind him is what
Speaker 1: it looks like in a really nice neighborhood. Anyway, here's
Speaker 1: a little more. I'm surprised all of us got out
Speaker 1: of there, to tell the truth. We did take all
Speaker 1: of our family pictures and a few valuable paintings out
Speaker 1: last night, so you know, all the stuff that's heres replaceable.
Speaker 1: People are not so very lucky, so happy. The family
Speaker 1: is the most important thing.
Speaker 2: If the word to describe what we're seeing here tonight
Speaker 2: is just apocalyptics. Right behind us in these mountains, that
Speaker 2: is where the Palisades fire is burning.
Speaker 1: That is Pacific Palisades. We're talking about eleven thousand plus
Speaker 1: acres that have burned right now.
Speaker 2: Eleven thousand just from that ache or that fire, or
Speaker 2: was that all of them combined. Man, that's a lot,
Speaker 2: that's a big area. Yeah, you know, I can't be
Speaker 2: the only person who thought this. Watching some of the
Speaker 2: news last night, some of it's getting kind of exploitive.
Speaker 2: You know, how excited the news guys are to find
Speaker 2: the best flaming home and to quick do the live shot. Well,
Speaker 2: the flames are good and high, and I don't know,
Speaker 2: it is so dramatic and amazing to see.
Speaker 1: I just I know the news business, and I know newspeople,
Speaker 1: and I can tell by the way they set up
Speaker 1: shots what they're trying to do. And I just well,
Speaker 1: we didn't we didn't get on that point. We didn't
Speaker 1: get to this. We are in what's called Palisades Village
Speaker 1: right here. This is the town center. Sort I need
Speaker 1: to hear anymore of that. That's David Muir of ABC News.
Speaker 2: He's standing there and he's got his yellow true raincoat
Speaker 2: weather whatever you wear. When you're a newsman and you're
Speaker 2: on the ground in a tragedy. For some reason, you
Speaker 2: have to act like you're one of the firefighters. And
Speaker 2: then he turns and you see that he's got these
Speaker 2: clothespins on his jacket to sync it up so that
Speaker 2: his buff, buff body still shows through his raincoat.
Speaker 1: It's very important that he so it's couldn't form fitting
Speaker 1: in men.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you wouldn't want to just kind of draped hanging
Speaker 2: on you and you look like every other shlub.
Speaker 1: You still need to look buff, so kind of to
Speaker 1: your point, I guess what a weasel. I'll never forgive
Speaker 1: him for the debate that he quote unquote moderated David
Speaker 1: muir Ough a talking weasel.
Speaker 2: It's a weird thing of human nature. I am. This
Speaker 2: has more effect on me than a lot of these
Speaker 2: have had.
Speaker 1: One.
Speaker 2: We know someone who probably lost their house in that
Speaker 2: Palisades fire, And I know the streets they're talking about
Speaker 2: in Pasadena and Altadena. I've walked them and been to
Speaker 2: those businesses have burned down, and just I don't know
Speaker 2: why that would make it more impactful to me. And
Speaker 2: I should be able to, you know, prescribe my emotions
Speaker 2: onto towns I haven't been to when they catch on fire.
Speaker 2: But I don't know if that's human nature or not.
Speaker 1: I can Yes, it is. It absolutely is. I can
Speaker 1: explain it to you with the help of C. S.
Speaker 1: Lewis coming up in a moment. Okay, thank you for that.
Speaker 1: Leave it or not? Yes, he will be our guest.
Speaker 1: Really well, I should have been, We should have led
Speaker 1: with that. Luckily he wrote many of his thoughts down
Speaker 1: for us and will be sharing those. Among other things.
Speaker 2: There are now one hundred and eighty thousand people in
Speaker 2: the LA area under evacuation orders. The hotels have to
Speaker 2: be full. I wonder how far you have to drive
Speaker 2: out of LA before you can find a hotel that's
Speaker 2: got a room.
Speaker 1: To the border and probably the Sacramento I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't know. The nationwide homeowner's insurance crisis is going
Speaker 1: to be one of the big stories of twenty twenty five, guaranteed.
Speaker 1: I mean the well, the fires hit the houses, the
Speaker 1: poop has hit the fan nationwide, it's gonna be one
Speaker 1: of the great stories. Where it goes, I don't know,
Speaker 1: but there's gonna be a huge change in the homeowner's
Speaker 1: insurance industry.
Speaker 2: We're gonna hear more about that prop that got that
Speaker 2: the law they passed in California, so insurance companies couldn't
Speaker 2: stick it to you and gouge you when they were
Speaker 2: raising their rates because inflation has caused it more to
Speaker 2: be more expensive to fix the house, so they dumped
Speaker 2: people they had no choice.
Speaker 1: Armstrong and Getty.
Speaker 2: Mark Zuckerberg just said, anybody who quits Facebook over lack
Speaker 2: of fact checking.
Speaker 1: Is virtue signaling. It's interesting. Yeah, I kind of appreciate
Speaker 1: them taking that attitude. I would you know, counter mark
Speaker 1: that you know, you and everybody on your side of
Speaker 1: the aisle, or at least the way the side of
Speaker 1: the aisle you seem to be on, has been indoctrinating
Speaker 1: people for years now, including on Facebook, to think that
Speaker 1: A fact checking whatever the hell that means, is necessary,
Speaker 1: and B that the fact checkers are actually checking facts
Speaker 1: so you can't sell a live for years then kick
Speaker 1: people would they believe it?
Speaker 2: I also think maybe it might be some of the
Speaker 2: crowd that and I know plenty of people like this
Speaker 2: on the right. They don't want to ever hear a
Speaker 2: story that disagrees with their viewpoint. It just they find
Speaker 2: it too annoying or hurtful or I don't.
Speaker 1: Know what, but yeah, yeah, I think part of it's
Speaker 1: just if you're living in a political world where everybody's
Speaker 1: always attacking, it's very difficult to be charitable and listen generously.
Speaker 1: As they say, it's a fistfight.
Speaker 2: My son wears the same size closes me. So he's
Speaker 2: constantly borrowing my clothes, or I'm lending in my clothes
Speaker 2: and I've got to stop because he never gives them back.
Speaker 2: And I'm beltless today. My pants are falling down.
Speaker 1: Dad.
Speaker 2: I need a dress, black dress belt. I don't have
Speaker 2: a black dress belt for the Christmas thing. And all right,
Speaker 2: here's one. Of course it's gone. Who knows where it is.
Speaker 1: It's probably some friend to his house on the floor,
Speaker 1: under the bed with some old socks, never to be
Speaker 1: seen against. Yeah, so the insurance crisis. In a minute
Speaker 1: or two, I thought i'd hit this sent along by
Speaker 1: alert listener and in Santa Cruz, I think this is
Speaker 1: absolutely terrific and it's funny that it would come along today.
Speaker 1: In answer to Jack's philosophical question last segment about well,
Speaker 1: you've spent a great deal of time in Pasadena, Altadena,
Speaker 1: and so it burning down is somehow much more impactful
Speaker 1: than hearing about say, Greenwich, Connecticut, Burton.
Speaker 2: That bothers me much more than the Hawaii story. Even
Speaker 2: though I fully understood how awful it is and people
Speaker 2: were dying and there they lost all their stuff, I
Speaker 2: hadn't actually stood there and been in that business.
Speaker 1: Yeah, by that house. The question is almost the answer.
Speaker 1: It's undeniable that we're all that way. If we know
Speaker 1: a neighborhood, we've seen the buildings, we've been in the buildings,
Speaker 1: it's much more impactful and funny coincidence. And since this
Speaker 1: along from C. S. Lewis, and this is caption C. S.
Speaker 1: Lewis on the Internet before the Internet existed, it is
Speaker 1: one of the e of rapid diffusion of news that
Speaker 1: the sorrows of all the world come to us every morning.
Speaker 1: I think each village was meant to feel pity for
Speaker 1: its own sick and poor, whom it can help. And
Speaker 1: I doubt if it is the duty of any private
Speaker 1: person to fix his mind on ills which he cannot
Speaker 1: help good one. This may even become an escape from
Speaker 1: the works of charity we really can do to those
Speaker 1: we know. A great many people do now seem to
Speaker 1: think that the mere state of being worried is in
Speaker 1: itself meritorious. I don't think it is. Oh yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: we could stop every sentence he probably should hashtag activism
Speaker 1: is what he's talking about there, Yeah, exactly, he says,
Speaker 1: we must, if it so happens, give our lives for others.
Speaker 1: But even while we're doing it, I think we're meant
Speaker 1: to enjoy our Lord and in him, our friends, our food,
Speaker 1: our sleep, your jokes, the bird's song in the frosty Sunrise.
Speaker 2: Boy, that is some really interesting stuff. As usual, there
Speaker 2: are very few things written by C. S. Lewis that
Speaker 2: aren't freaking fantastic and thought provoking. But yeah, okay, and
Speaker 2: plus it gets me off the hook. But you're not
Speaker 2: built to worry about that village so far away you
Speaker 2: have nothing to do with and can't help, right.
Speaker 1: And this gets back to my unified theory of modern
Speaker 1: men and why we're all so screwed up. We just
Speaker 1: we have way too much input all the time, and
Speaker 1: most of our experience is not direct personal experience. It's
Speaker 1: electronic once removed floodwaters flowing at us all the time,
Speaker 1: and this is undeniable. It's reflected in you know, church attendance,
Speaker 1: which is tangentially related depends on what you believe, whether
Speaker 1: it's tangential or not anyway giving to charity as taxes
Speaker 1: rise and government services rise. But a great many people
Speaker 1: now seem to think that the mere state of being
Speaker 1: worried or acting worried or posting worried on Twitter is
Speaker 1: itself meritorious. Yes, an escape from doing actual works of
Speaker 1: charity for people we can help.
Speaker 2: Sure, that's the hashtag activism thing that I think with
Speaker 2: a lot of us caught on to at the beginning.
Speaker 2: It's either on purpose or by accident. It's a release
Speaker 2: valve of your caring and now you feel enough like
Speaker 2: you've done something.
Speaker 1: That you're not actually going to do anything. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: think a release valve is the perfect metaphor because it
Speaker 1: releases the steam, if you will, that would have driven
Speaker 1: the engine of you actually helping somebody. You posted this,
Speaker 1: you tweeted about this.
Speaker 2: Or more importantly, probably for our current political time, is
Speaker 2: get involved on a level where you would go around
Speaker 2: and get a petition started or names gathered to have
Speaker 2: some legislation passed to whatever. Yeah, yeah, hashtag how much
Speaker 2: you care about.
Speaker 1: It and that's good enough? Yeah, Yeah, it's funny. I
Speaker 1: am conscious of the fact that we raise awareness and
Speaker 1: make arguments for a living, although we do, you know,
Speaker 1: raise significant funds for some absolute fabulous charities with your help,
Speaker 1: and we thank you for that. But I realized the
Speaker 1: irony of this little screen. But I'll tell you up
Speaker 1: they're not been true or spoken. Then if you want
Speaker 1: to change the world, start in your town. Yeah, Greta,
Speaker 1: you've stone in my dreams. I'll give it a rest.
Speaker 2: Yeah, maybe I need to. I'm pointing at someone else
Speaker 2: and I got four fingers pointing back at me.
Speaker 1: Not unless your fist is really malformed. Really, that's that'd
Speaker 1: be very odd, even if you wanted to.
Speaker 2: It's easy to complain about the schools, just like in general.
Speaker 2: Are you going to school board meetings?
Speaker 1: I'm not.
Speaker 2: Are you paying attention to who's up for election for
Speaker 2: your school board every? Is it year or two years?
Speaker 1: I don't even know these things or not? Or do
Speaker 1: you just complain to people about it? Right? Right? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Are you doing the work? And I'm asking me, not
Speaker 1: you my friends asking Miselle.
Speaker 2: Joe's got his malformed hand pointing four fingers back at him.
Speaker 1: Oh no, I don't so. As I mentioned earlier, we
Speaker 1: are heading toward a nationwide homeowner's insurance crisis. It's not
Speaker 1: just the wildfires, but the wildfires are a big part
Speaker 1: of it, certainly in California, and insurance markets tend to
Speaker 1: be state to state, which is a legislative question that
Speaker 1: we won't be getting into. But between the hurricanes and
Speaker 1: storms in the East, and the thunderstorms in the central
Speaker 1: and southeast and everything else that happens across the country,
Speaker 1: and the incredibly high cost of building now and rebuilding
Speaker 1: that's inflation bidnomics really has as much to do with
Speaker 1: anything as any natural disaster or climate change or anything else.
Speaker 1: But we are really looking at a national reckoning. But
Speaker 1: it's going to start in California, the state that accounted
Speaker 1: for eight of the ten costliest US wildfires through last
Speaker 1: year adjusted for inflation in history, and this one could
Speaker 1: be it'll certainly be in one of the top five,
Speaker 1: the one in LA right now. According to two people
Speaker 1: who know this sort of thing, and if you're familiar
Speaker 1: with this, California passed a law number of years ago.
Speaker 1: I can't remember what year. It's in front of me
Speaker 1: somewhere that essentially made it impossible for insurance companies to
Speaker 1: raise their rates based on current and projected costs. They
Speaker 1: had to go with historical costs and ignore the fact
Speaker 1: that's saying, excuse me, Governor k Newsom Joe Getty of
Speaker 1: All State. Here it costs seventy five percent more to
Speaker 1: rebuild a house than it did four years ago. I
Speaker 1: don't care. Here it comes low rates for consumers, artificial
Speaker 1: government control of the free market.
Speaker 2: And so how can I do that? In private life?
Speaker 2: I need a new roof. I don't want to pay
Speaker 2: the current price for what a roof costs.
Speaker 1: I want to play the historic cost of getting a
Speaker 1: new roof from like ten years ago. Boy, what a
Speaker 1: great point, great illustration. But even before the wildfires were sparked,
Speaker 1: millions of homeowners in the Golden State, millions, especially those
Speaker 1: in the most fire prone areas including La, faced double
Speaker 1: digit insurance rate increases, non renewals, or just nobody would
Speaker 1: write them coverage. In fact, leading insurers, including State Farm
Speaker 1: in All State, have stopped selling new home insurance home
Speaker 1: insurance policies in the state, and indeed, at least one
Speaker 1: of those companies dropped people in the very area that
Speaker 1: got burnt or as burning as we speak. In the
Speaker 1: last few weeks.
Speaker 2: Now, we got this text, and I don't quite understand this.
Speaker 2: Maybe you can answer it.
Speaker 1: We got this text.
Speaker 2: I'm in the spray foam roofing business flat residential in
Speaker 2: the Bay Area. Insurance companies have been using Google Earth
Speaker 2: and AI to look at standing water marks on these
Speaker 2: roofs and canceling policies based on this alone if the
Speaker 2: owners don't fix or replace their roofs with no inspections
Speaker 2: from the insurance company at all for the last two years,
Speaker 2: and I had the similar sort of thing happen also
Speaker 2: with getting our homeowners insurance drop. Why don't they even
Speaker 2: need an excuse or why do they pretend they need
Speaker 2: an excuse?
Speaker 1: Do they need an excuse? I think it was just
Speaker 1: And look, I'm not like here to say and therefore
Speaker 1: insurance companies are paragons of goodness and we should love them. No,
Speaker 1: because they have their own practices that I'm critical of. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what they're trying to do is they're trying to limit
Speaker 1: risk as fast as they can because of the artificially
Speaker 1: low rates, the price fixing by the government, and so
Speaker 1: they've essentially said to their people, all right, use AI,
Speaker 1: use satellite photos. Anybody who seems to have any sort
Speaker 1: of roof problem, they're more likely to make a claim
Speaker 1: get rid of them. We've just got a cutter cost
Speaker 1: I and so it's fast and dirty and sloppy.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, I'm on both sides of this argument, probably with
Speaker 2: not enough information to be right on either side of
Speaker 2: the argument.
Speaker 1: But it does my whole life. My life experience is.
Speaker 2: It never has been a good idea for me to
Speaker 2: make an insurance claim, either home insurance or car insurance.
Speaker 2: It always ends up being a net negative, like they
Speaker 2: charge enough more to get back however much I got,
Speaker 2: or more going forward. So it's just never been into
Speaker 2: my benefit or just dump you, yeah, or or dump
Speaker 2: you if they have to dump you. And I had
Speaker 2: the one story which I've told on the air before,
Speaker 2: where we had mold on our house, which in California
Speaker 2: is a really really big deal.
Speaker 1: We had mold in our house.
Speaker 2: They work with a guy who comes there and deals
Speaker 2: with your mold. And he said, no, no, I'd make two claims,
Speaker 2: is what I recommend. You'd want to make a claim
Speaker 2: for the kitchen and the launder room, two claims. I
Speaker 2: make the two claims. Then the insurance company drops me
Speaker 2: because I made too many claims and he was working
Speaker 2: with the insurance company.
Speaker 1: Like what right, Yeah, yeah, Well that's the whole question
Speaker 1: of regulation. There is reasonable regulation that probably is necessary
Speaker 1: to make sure the insurance market is not predatory or
Speaker 1: fraudulent or whatever. I'm fine with that. But when you
Speaker 1: get into price fixing, as Gavin News and folks like
Speaker 1: that are wont to do artificial minimum wages anybody rent control,
Speaker 1: et cetera, then you distort markets and it screws the consumer.
Speaker 2: So it's the only time, like insurance really works for
Speaker 2: auto or your home is like if you got a total,
Speaker 2: that's the only time, like your car's gone, that's when
Speaker 2: it it's worth it. All the others all are things
Speaker 2: it's never to my benefit to make a claim.
Speaker 1: It reminds me of a lot of stuff We've discussed
Speaker 1: with Craig the healthcare Guru, that health insurance up until
Speaker 1: very recently, was for although the history of health insurance
Speaker 1: isn't that long. Total anyway, is for if something crazy happens,
Speaker 1: If something serious and devastating happens, you don't have health insurance.
Speaker 1: If you sprain your ankle and you have to go
Speaker 1: to the doctor and have them say hey, it's not broken,
Speaker 1: here's an expandage or whatever. That's not what it was
Speaker 1: designed to be. Now we have HMOs or insurance that
Speaker 1: we expect to cover anything with with load deductibles, but
Speaker 1: you know, high costs and they pay for everything, and
Speaker 1: those markets get distorted and the middlemen make all the money.
Speaker 1: It's the same thing homeowner's insurance, at least theoretically, and
Speaker 1: you know your your results may vary. Ought not to be.
Speaker 1: A bird flies through my window and I call my
Speaker 1: insurance company. No, that's out of pocket. It's just for
Speaker 1: a f your house burns down.
Speaker 2: You lawyers need to use a gentle touch when you're
Speaker 2: milking the cow. I'll tell you that we will finish
Speaker 2: strong next.
Speaker 1: Strong. You miss it. I'm a teamer. I'm not shout's
Speaker 1: Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood singing imagine at Jimmy Carter's
Speaker 1: funeral today and it's got a fair amount of attention,
Speaker 1: although in social media terms out knowing if for any
Speaker 1: real people are first of all, Garth, you're you reach
Speaker 1: you pass that point of dyeing your hair.
Speaker 2: There is a point you can do it for a
Speaker 2: while where your face matches the hair color and you
Speaker 2: just look younger.
Speaker 1: It works. You are at the wait a second, what's
Speaker 1: going on here? Stage? And somebody should tell you.
Speaker 2: So I'm telling you now, Garth as a biggest fan,
Speaker 2: I couldn't be a bigger Garth Brooks fan. I would
Speaker 2: be just as big a Garth Brooks fan if you're
Speaker 2: a gray headed Garth Brooks as if you're a dark,
Speaker 2: practically black haired, bearded Garth Brooks.
Speaker 1: All right, so.
Speaker 2: They sang imagine, I assume you all know that song
Speaker 2: that John Lennon tude and everything like that, which I
Speaker 2: loved when I was young, just thought it was amazing
Speaker 2: because I was young and stupid.
Speaker 1: The lyrics are stupid anyway, this.
Speaker 2: Text imagine no religion at the funeral of a man
Speaker 2: who his belief in Christ was the most important thing
Speaker 2: in his life.
Speaker 1: It's a hideous song, but it's singularly inappropriate here, I
Speaker 1: would agree.
Speaker 2: Did he choose it? Did his family choosing? Have they
Speaker 2: not listened to the words. Jimmy Carter was an evangelical Christian.
Speaker 1: That was his life. He wrote endless books about it.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you know that much about it.
Speaker 1: He got up every day. He prayed hours a day
Speaker 1: to try to check his books. Did end back to you?
Speaker 1: He did the endless writing of books. Okay, maybe.
Speaker 2: He prayed hours every day to try to spread the
Speaker 2: good news around the world. And you just sang a
Speaker 2: song saying it'd be better off if that didn't exist.
Speaker 2: That's a bad idea.
Speaker 1: That's weird, isn't it. Yeah, Jimmy had really good taste
Speaker 1: in music in general. Buddy's with the Allman Brothers band, and.
Speaker 2: I mean, like if you got up at my funeral
Speaker 2: in saying and kids are an entire waste of time,
Speaker 2: don't have kids.
Speaker 1: It's a stupid thing to do. What This doesn't make sense.
Speaker 1: It's an odd choice of thoughts. Who wants final thoughts?
Speaker 1: Go have some final thoughts. Hooray man, that's an old
Speaker 1: timy one. There. Here's your host for final thoughts, Joe Getty. Hey,
Speaker 1: let's get a final thought from everybody on the crew
Speaker 1: to wrap up today. There he is our technical director,
Speaker 1: pressing the buttons. Michelangelo Michael final thought. You know, I
Speaker 1: watched CNN. I saw Steve Guttenberg out there helping the police,
Speaker 1: the fire department, which is pretty cool. So he was
Speaker 1: in those police Academy movies, so he did police work.
Speaker 1: Now he's doing fireworks. Pretty cool, sol Katie Green or
Speaker 1: steamed Newswoman As a final thought, Katie, I was labeling
Speaker 1: the podcast earlier, and I wrote Joe Biden's eulogy and
Speaker 1: realized I needed to change it because I could be misleading. Right,
Speaker 1: so some people are calling it a dress rehearsal for
Speaker 1: Joe Biden. Oh boy, Jack, I hope that's not your
Speaker 1: final thoughts you have one.
Speaker 2: My final thought is a little bit of regret, as
Speaker 2: I feel like we've broken new broadcasting ground in a
Speaker 2: genre called harshly criticizing other people's funerals. No, not the
Speaker 2: sort of venue normally here anyway.
Speaker 1: I guess my final thought is policy matters, Leadership matters.
Speaker 1: I feel like big, nasty, ugly birds are coming home
Speaker 1: to roost all over the world, Canada, the United States, Europe.
Speaker 1: A lot of these utopian policies that fit in very
Speaker 1: well with John Lennon's ditties are yielding horrible results.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're going to get to the actual policy discussions
Speaker 2: on homeowners insurance, immigration, you know, medical care, all kinds
Speaker 2: of different things.
Speaker 1: Good. I'm strong and getting wrapping about other grueling four
Speaker 1: hour workday.
Speaker 2: We will see you tomorrow with more news of the day.
Speaker 2: God bless America. I'm strong and getta.
Speaker 1: This is a message for the people of America. Is
Speaker 1: anyone else humping them outdown? I think it's nuts. I
Speaker 1: got nothing for you on that.
Speaker 3: Oh really, But we're gonna f around and find out
Speaker 3: character character character.
Speaker 1: That was quite something. When it comes on for you
Speaker 1: to go, you have to go. Here are you more?
Speaker 3: I know?
Speaker 1: Armstrong and Getty