WEBVTT - Commerce & Health:  We Can Do Both.  Jim Desmond talks to Armstrong & Getty

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<v Speaker 1>The armstrong and getting We will get to the woman

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<v Speaker 1>who's looking for advice about our boyfriend that gets in

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<v Speaker 1>a fight every time they go to the waffle house

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<v Speaker 1>in about ten minutes or so. Oh boy, it's a

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<v Speaker 1>good story. Jim Desmond is a supervisor for the San

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<v Speaker 1>Diego County Border Supervisors for District five. He's a guy

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<v Speaker 1>with quite an interesting resumes, served as a mayor and

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<v Speaker 1>a city council member, a regional transportation committee guy. He's

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<v Speaker 1>a U. S. Navy veteran, an electrical engineer from San

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<v Speaker 1>Diego State University, and he thinks the state of cal

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<v Speaker 1>Unicornia needs to set more realized sticks standards for counties

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<v Speaker 1>to open up and get people back to work and

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<v Speaker 1>feeding themselves. Jim Desmond joins us. Now, Jim, how are you, sir? Hey,

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<v Speaker 1>Jonak and Joe great, Thanks for having me. Oh it's

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<v Speaker 1>our pleasure. So listen. As a guy in pretty good

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<v Speaker 1>touch with the business community, I assume you, like us,

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<v Speaker 1>believe smart people can open up their businesses in smart

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<v Speaker 1>ways and start feeding themselves again. Well perhaps lutely. I

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<v Speaker 1>mean it's it's become a choice in California of open

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<v Speaker 1>for businesses or playing it safe and quite frankly, we

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<v Speaker 1>can do both. I mean, we've already proven it with

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<v Speaker 1>the essential businesses being open and getting people to grocery

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<v Speaker 1>stores in the big box stores, and and our numbers

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<v Speaker 1>went down, the trends went down, you know, the curve

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<v Speaker 1>was flattened while we had essential businesses open. And so

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<v Speaker 1>we want to be able to continue those same guidelines

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<v Speaker 1>that those essential businesses are following and allow some of

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<v Speaker 1>the non essential businesses that same opportunity so they can

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<v Speaker 1>start to eat their families and and give pay chance

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<v Speaker 1>to people. We've got over twenty five percent unemployment in

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<v Speaker 1>San Diego County. It's it's crazy that we're just you know,

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<v Speaker 1>and then the governor puts in unattainable goals, that's going

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<v Speaker 1>to stagnate. To see even further. So, we're talking about

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<v Speaker 1>a restaurant in Colorado earlier that opened up over the

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<v Speaker 1>weekend UH for Mother's Day and got a lot of

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<v Speaker 1>national attention, and there people were lined up around the

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<v Speaker 1>block to go eat and everything like that, and people

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<v Speaker 1>were cheering and it was a happy story. And then

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<v Speaker 1>they got hit with the giant fine yesterday UH for

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<v Speaker 1>disobeying the orders. Had their license yanked to So what

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<v Speaker 1>would the current situation be if somebody tried to open

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<v Speaker 1>in your area right now? Well, right now, what we're

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<v Speaker 1>looking at is in a couple of different counties, Uba

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<v Speaker 1>in Sutter County in northern California. You know, they had

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<v Speaker 1>they tried to do the same thing to start opening

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<v Speaker 1>up businesses, and then the governor the copy of his

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<v Speaker 1>letter he sent to them, the Governor's office said hey,

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<v Speaker 1>if you know we're gonna start pulling your ABC licenses,

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<v Speaker 1>we can start pulling your cosmetology licenses if you have

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<v Speaker 1>a search, you know, we will no longer you know,

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<v Speaker 1>support you or give you money for that effort. So

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<v Speaker 1>basically he's holding the taxpayers dollars hostages hostage along with

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<v Speaker 1>the licensed professional licenses and things like that that the

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<v Speaker 1>state grants. So he's already done that and put that

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<v Speaker 1>threat out to ubas, Uba and Sutter Counties here in California.

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<v Speaker 1>But what he did was, you know, we we you know,

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<v Speaker 1>get too deep into it. But he not only moved

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<v Speaker 1>the goal close and he tore him down. He you know,

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<v Speaker 1>he said, we can't have any COVID related deaths in

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<v Speaker 1>San Diego County or any County for for for fourteen

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<v Speaker 1>consecutive days before we can move any forward, not a

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<v Speaker 1>single one COVID read two weeks step and we have.

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<v Speaker 1>We've had a hundred and seventy five COVID related deaths

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<v Speaker 1>in San Diego County. Six of those were purely COVID deaths. Well,

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<v Speaker 1>and correct me if I'm wrong. San Diego County as

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<v Speaker 1>a population of over three million people. So the idea

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<v Speaker 1>there can't be one COVID related death for two weeks,

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<v Speaker 1>that's insane. That is one side of the argument, utterly

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<v Speaker 1>pushing over the other one, which is we can't have

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<v Speaker 1>an economic collapse. That's just shocking. Well, and and that's unfortunately.

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<v Speaker 1>We we can do both. We can be safe and

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<v Speaker 1>we can be open. It's ridiculous that we can move

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<v Speaker 1>thousands of people through grocery stores in a day, but

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<v Speaker 1>we can't put fifty people through a car dealership in

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<v Speaker 1>a day, or you know a hundred people you know

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<v Speaker 1>in through you know furniture store. You know those places

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<v Speaker 1>are closed and shutdown and they're just laying off, laying

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<v Speaker 1>off people. And we keep hearing about more every day,

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<v Speaker 1>more and more businesses that are just shuttering. When they're saying,

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<v Speaker 1>we can't aim we we can't, we can't sustain this. Well,

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<v Speaker 1>just a brief thought, it strikes me, it's right. It

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<v Speaker 1>strikes me that you're saying, listen, listen, we can do

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<v Speaker 1>it and be safe. But what the governor of cal

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<v Speaker 1>Unicornia is demanding is that you do it and be

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<v Speaker 1>perfectly safe, almost literally perfectly safe. If you can't have

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<v Speaker 1>a single death over the course of two weeks, when

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<v Speaker 1>you have tens of thousands of people filing for unemployment

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<v Speaker 1>just in your district. Well, and we've unfortunately had six

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<v Speaker 1>pure solely coronavirus death six out of three point three

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<v Speaker 1>million people. I mean, we're what number are we trying

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<v Speaker 1>to get to with with with those odds, I mean

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<v Speaker 1>it's it's uh, it's incredible. I mean, we want to

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<v Speaker 1>be safe and we can do it, but unfortunately it

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<v Speaker 1>seems more about control than about you know, giving the

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<v Speaker 1>economy going again and and keeping people safe. I don't

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<v Speaker 1>know what it's about. I don't know if they're reading

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<v Speaker 1>the polls and thinking this is a winning issue or

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<v Speaker 1>I I don't get it now. I mean, if you

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<v Speaker 1>started from today, if things weren't closed down, uh, and

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<v Speaker 1>we weren't talking about opening things up. We were talking

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<v Speaker 1>about whether we should shut things down. With the number

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<v Speaker 1>of deads we've had. You wouldn't shut everything down. There's

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<v Speaker 1>no way you'd win that argument. Well, we've had we've

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<v Speaker 1>had six deads. We better shut down everything that exists

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<v Speaker 1>except for restaurants. Nobody would buy that argument. No, And

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<v Speaker 1>we still have to protect, you know, our seniors and

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<v Speaker 1>senior film. Of course, we absolutely have to protect. So

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<v Speaker 1>I'm not advocating for do seeing any of the health

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<v Speaker 1>personal health requirements, keep them all in place, but let's

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<v Speaker 1>put our businesses open under those same guidelines of the

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<v Speaker 1>essential ones in them. In so in case we did

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<v Speaker 1>a certain you know, we won't be so far out

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<v Speaker 1>on the limb. But it it just makes common sense

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<v Speaker 1>to a lot of people, is that, you know, we

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<v Speaker 1>can do both together. We can do it. We could

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<v Speaker 1>be safe and we could be open. Amen to that,

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<v Speaker 1>And there are a lot of people saying the same thing.

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<v Speaker 1>But your voice is absolutely welcome. Jim Desmond, supervisor for

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<v Speaker 1>the San Diego County Border Soups District five. Hey, Jim,

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<v Speaker 1>it's good to talk. Let's stay in touch. Hey, thank

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<v Speaker 1>you very much. Appreciate the time you got a good job.

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<v Speaker 1>Not if that made sense. What I let's try to say,

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<v Speaker 1>it's like, um, sometimes you do that, like with stocks,

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<v Speaker 1>like would you you have the stock today? It doesn't

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<v Speaker 1>matter if you've had it for years? Would you buy

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<v Speaker 1>it today? Is it a good idea to have it? Right? Um?

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<v Speaker 1>What happened in the past doesn't matter. Would it be

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<v Speaker 1>a good idea to shut down everything today based on

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<v Speaker 1>the number of debts? No, I don't think most people

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<v Speaker 1>would go along with that. Right. You could counter argue

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<v Speaker 1>that part of the reason the number has been so

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<v Speaker 1>low is that we have been shut down. But even

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<v Speaker 1>if that is true, we need to push it. We

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<v Speaker 1>need to push how open we are and see what happens.

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<v Speaker 1>The idea that we're gonna go for perfect safety at

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<v Speaker 1>any cost is that of the safety obsessives. And I

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<v Speaker 1>would say Unicornians who don't understand how businesses work, don't

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<v Speaker 1>understand how economies work, and don't understand that the capacity

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<v Speaker 1>for government to just pay for everybody's life is limited.

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<v Speaker 1>The one side has has had percent of the discussion. Well,

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<v Speaker 1>I I and he said, I don't know what's driving

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<v Speaker 1>of its power. I don't know what it is. I

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<v Speaker 1>don't know if it's power. I think I generally just

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<v Speaker 1>assume politicians are looking at polls and they whatever is

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<v Speaker 1>going to get them elected. And you know, the most

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<v Speaker 1>recent polls, pretty overwhelmingly people are in favor of staying

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<v Speaker 1>locked down rather than opening up. Yeah, way too way

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<v Speaker 1>over reaction, in my opinion. I think that will be

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<v Speaker 1>the history of this going forward years from now. We

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<v Speaker 1>way overreacted, and not at maybe not at the beginning,

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<v Speaker 1>but certainly after we got into it and realized where

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<v Speaker 1>we were. Yeah, we were. We had a certain momentum

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<v Speaker 1>toward safety, and anybody advocating turning it around was accused

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<v Speaker 1>of being callous toward the deaths of our old folks

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<v Speaker 1>or or whomever, the rare thirty two year old mother

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<v Speaker 1>of three and trying to get through everybody's heads. No,

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<v Speaker 1>we're not going to go back to the way it

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<v Speaker 1>was in December. We're gonna be wearing masks and washing

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<v Speaker 1>our hands like crazy, and opening doors with our shoulders

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<v Speaker 1>and not standing very close to anybody and all these

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<v Speaker 1>things that we just do on our own because we're

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<v Speaker 1>worried about the virus. Yeah, well, I think There's a

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<v Speaker 1>difference between a representative representing and leading, and I think

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<v Speaker 1>we need more leadership. We need more people saying listen.

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<v Speaker 1>I know a lot of y'all are scared, but those

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<v Speaker 1>are the sheeple, honestly, or the vulnerable, and we will

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<v Speaker 1>do everything we can to protect the vulnerable. But those

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<v Speaker 1>who think the only question is safety cannot be in charge.

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<v Speaker 1>They don't have a realistic, adult enough point of view

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<v Speaker 1>to be put in charge of what we do. It's

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<v Speaker 1>time for them to step aside. A strong and getty