WEBVTT - LAX People Mover Issues (10/27) 0:00:00.710 --> 0:00:04.280 KFI AM 640. You're listening to the John Kobelt Podcast 0:00:04.330 --> 0:00:14.690 on the iHeartRadio app. KFI AM 640. More stimulating talk radio. 0:00:14.800 --> 0:00:18.170 John Kobelt Show. How are you? It's good that you're here. 0:00:18.650 --> 0:00:21.650 We're on until six. After six, we'll have the podcast. 0:00:21.690 --> 0:00:25.239 John Kobelt Show on demand. And we're live on YouTube 0:00:25.300 --> 0:00:27.860 and live on X. Let's get right to it. We're 0:00:27.880 --> 0:00:32.339 going to talk with Susan Shelley. She wears two hats. 0:00:32.640 --> 0:00:34.460 She probably has a lot more than two hats, but 0:00:35.280 --> 0:00:38.010 for our purposes, she's with the Southern California News Group 0:00:38.090 --> 0:00:41.290 as a columnist. Think Orange County Register, LA Daily News, 0:00:41.950 --> 0:00:47.150 and similar papers here in Southern California. She also works 0:00:47.190 --> 0:00:50.540 with the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. And we're going to 0:00:50.580 --> 0:00:57.170 talk about the proposition of 43 that the Howard Jarvis 0:00:57.190 --> 0:00:59.950 people are pushing that they got on the ballot, which 0:01:00.200 --> 0:01:03.540 closes a big loophole with Prop 13. But before we 0:01:03.580 --> 0:01:07.720 get to that, she has been writing about the Skylink 0:01:08.319 --> 0:01:11.740 LAX people mover for quite some time. And last hour, 0:01:11.780 --> 0:01:15.679 we told you about the four explosions recently on the 0:01:15.700 --> 0:01:18.940 people mover as they continue to test. Susan, how are you? 0:01:19.700 --> 0:01:21.620 I'm good. Thanks for having me. Great to be with you. 0:01:22.410 --> 0:01:25.009 You have been way ahead of the game on this 0:01:25.130 --> 0:01:30.360 PeopleMover fiasco, which is smelling very similar to the high-speed 0:01:30.400 --> 0:01:37.100 rail fiasco. They're three, four years late. They're double the budget. 0:01:37.420 --> 0:01:40.730 It was supposed to be $ 2 billion or $ 1. 9 billion. 0:01:40.770 --> 0:01:43.450 Now it's up to $ 3 billion, $ 4 billion. And now 0:01:43.470 --> 0:01:47.690 we've got these explosions. which they didn't admit to up front. 0:01:47.970 --> 0:01:50.310 Somehow this video leaked out and Fox 11 got a 0:01:50.350 --> 0:01:52.210 hold of it. What's going on here? 0:01:53.450 --> 0:01:56.960 Well, we're having fireballs where we're supposed to have tram transportation. 0:01:56.980 --> 0:01:59.620 So that's not good. You know, it's like come to 0:01:59.660 --> 0:02:02.280 the Olympics and blow up at the airport. We don't 0:02:02.300 --> 0:02:07.240 even need terrorists. We're self-exploding. This is just fabulous. So, 0:02:07.380 --> 0:02:10.350 you know, this all comes from the ridiculous idea that 0:02:10.389 --> 0:02:12.790 Los Angeles, it's not enough that we're going to have 0:02:12.830 --> 0:02:15.030 the Olympics. It's not enough that we're going to build 0:02:15.330 --> 0:02:18.370 a tram. We have to have a show for the 0:02:18.410 --> 0:02:22.590 world of how green energy is so viable. And that's 0:02:22.740 --> 0:02:27.100 how they get into this. They put these ridiculous requirements. 0:02:27.680 --> 0:02:30.720 on these projects has to run with solar energy, has 0:02:30.760 --> 0:02:34.360 to be sustainable, has to be biodegradable. It has to 0:02:34.400 --> 0:02:39.040 have certain kinds of workforce requirements because we want to 0:02:39.080 --> 0:02:41.880 show that people coming out of prison are productive workers 0:02:42.220 --> 0:02:45.520 on our transportation systems. All of these requirements are part 0:02:45.540 --> 0:02:48.680 of the contract. And when it doesn't go well, they 0:02:48.720 --> 0:02:51.900 try to blame the contractor. The contractor's not having it. 0:02:51.960 --> 0:02:54.540 They have filed a lawsuit against the city. This is 0:02:54.590 --> 0:02:55.430 going to be very ugly. 0:02:56.650 --> 0:02:59.830 What you wrote about this over the course of the 0:02:59.870 --> 0:03:03.130 last year is that they're bragging that the train cars 0:03:03.240 --> 0:03:07.340 can be recycled. I didn't know that was a thing, 0:03:07.380 --> 0:03:08.320 and why would I care? 0:03:10.080 --> 0:03:11.860 I didn't know they were planning to throw it out 0:03:11.960 --> 0:03:13.920 so soon, but that may have been really a smart 0:03:13.940 --> 0:03:15.560 plan since it's blowing up. 0:03:17.060 --> 0:03:19.810 They might just recycle all the debris after the next 0:03:19.930 --> 0:03:22.950 one explodes. That looks really dangerous. I mean, Fox 11 0:03:22.950 --> 0:03:25.770 talked to an expert and said, well, basically said this 0:03:25.830 --> 0:03:28.639 is really bad. I hadn't seen anything like this. 0:03:29.980 --> 0:03:32.040 Well, do you remember when they first started running the 0:03:32.100 --> 0:03:34.590 trains and everybody said, well, why can't the passengers just 0:03:34.620 --> 0:03:36.710 get on the trains? Because they're at a deadline with 0:03:36.730 --> 0:03:41.470 the bondholders for all the borrowed money where they missed it, actually. 0:03:41.510 --> 0:03:44.990 The long stop date, it's called, was October 8th. And 0:03:45.050 --> 0:03:47.470 so they're kind of in technical default, although I think 0:03:47.510 --> 0:03:50.980 they've negotiated an extension. And that means that the bondholders 0:03:51.320 --> 0:03:54.540 can demand all the money back. And there's another long 0:03:54.600 --> 0:03:57.940 stop date where the city can change contractors. But, of course, 0:03:57.980 --> 0:03:59.600 that's not going to happen because who could do this? 0:04:00.250 --> 0:04:03.170 So they're all just negotiating and threatening each other. 0:04:03.830 --> 0:04:07.230 It's only two and a quarter miles. It's not that 0:04:07.710 --> 0:04:10.450 big a deal. And every other airport, major airport I've 0:04:10.470 --> 0:04:11.470 been to has one of these. 0:04:12.410 --> 0:04:15.850 Yeah, Disneyland built one in the 60s, I think it was. 0:04:15.880 --> 0:04:20.040 This is not really revolutionary technology, but they're just insisting 0:04:20.120 --> 0:04:23.160 on meeting all these crazy green energy targets and doing 0:04:23.180 --> 0:04:25.839 things this particular way, which is just not working. 0:04:26.040 --> 0:04:27.560 So it is the green energy nonsense. 0:04:28.390 --> 0:04:30.670 Yes, it absolutely is. It has to have– it's powered 0:04:30.710 --> 0:04:34.969 by regenerative braking, which I think means that as it brakes, 0:04:35.250 --> 0:04:39.090 it's generating electricity, which I don't know, might that cause 0:04:39.170 --> 0:04:41.150 a fire? That just doesn't sound very smart. 0:04:42.070 --> 0:04:44.029 Well, I think it does. Four of them. 0:04:44.070 --> 0:04:48.210 Batteries blow up and the whole thing is just probably 0:04:48.300 --> 0:04:49.460 not well thought out. 0:04:49.860 --> 0:04:52.680 The fees are going to go way up if you 0:04:52.820 --> 0:04:56.270 take a taxi or an Uber or a Lyft. It's 0:04:56.370 --> 0:05:01.270 going to be $ 24 to be dropped off and picked up. 0:05:02.010 --> 0:05:07.390 And at San Diego and San Francisco, it costs $ 4. 50 0:05:06.070 --> 0:05:08.210 to $ 6. That's right. 0:05:08.270 --> 0:05:10.030 And the reason they're doing that is they want to 0:05:10.089 --> 0:05:13.630 force people to use this people mover. So the charges 0:05:14.070 --> 0:05:17.020 are stark, I believe. Exactly. They're trying to price everybody out. 0:05:17.080 --> 0:05:23.410 It's obedience through poverty. Oh, that is sick. You know 0:05:23.450 --> 0:05:25.560 what's really bad is they're doing the same thing now 0:05:25.620 --> 0:05:28.419 with the buses for the Olympics. They're insisting on all 0:05:28.480 --> 0:05:31.580 electric buses and no cars. And now we have to 0:05:31.620 --> 0:05:35.640 have federal or state money to build charging infrastructure for 0:05:35.680 --> 0:05:38.640 the buses that we don't have. The L.A. Times just 0:05:38.660 --> 0:05:41.920 did a report. on how the subsidy of electric bus 0:05:41.980 --> 0:05:45.310 program for a billion dollars is riddled with fraud. The 0:05:45.350 --> 0:05:49.050 buses aren't running. It's a mess. They insist on having 0:05:49.089 --> 0:05:52.010 the whole Olympics, the World Cup, everything has to be 0:05:52.050 --> 0:05:55.930 a showplace for green energy, and it's instead a showplace 0:05:55.970 --> 0:05:57.330 for total incompetence. 0:05:57.670 --> 0:06:01.830 Why can't just we have gas-powered buses, gas-powered cars? 0:06:03.630 --> 0:06:04.669 That's the way I would do it. 0:06:04.710 --> 0:06:08.450 Yeah, just the same thing with the trains. I mean, 0:06:08.470 --> 0:06:10.739 I don't care if they run on coal. They run. 0:06:11.660 --> 0:06:15.240 Why can't we just have shuttle buses, really well-designed luxury 0:06:15.279 --> 0:06:18.300 shuttle buses that make everyone feel comfortable with some help 0:06:18.320 --> 0:06:19.440 to get your luggage on and off? 0:06:19.480 --> 0:06:20.060 We could do that. 0:06:20.279 --> 0:06:25.400 No, we have to have regenerative braking and dismantleable, recyclable 0:06:25.440 --> 0:06:25.960 train cars. 0:06:26.120 --> 0:06:30.600 So they're doing these experiments. The experiments are literally backfiring, 0:06:30.839 --> 0:06:31.860 blowing up. Yes. 0:06:32.400 --> 0:06:32.659 Yes. 0:06:33.660 --> 0:06:36.779 Just so they could tell the world that we've got clean, 0:06:36.839 --> 0:06:41.820 green energy, and then they charge us an exorbitant amount 0:06:41.850 --> 0:06:43.190 if you just want to take a taxi? 0:06:43.210 --> 0:06:45.630 Oh, come on. It's going to be $ 35 for a 0:06:45.670 --> 0:06:48.950 turkey sandwich at the airport because all the concessionaires have 0:06:48.990 --> 0:06:52.169 to pay these high fees because the fees that the 0:06:52.210 --> 0:06:57.190 concessionaires pay are going to the LAWA, the, what is 0:06:57.250 --> 0:07:00.489 it called, LA World Airports, and then they are paying 0:07:00.529 --> 0:07:04.479 the contractor every month to build this people mover. So 0:07:04.500 --> 0:07:06.400 this is why you go for coffee and a turkey 0:07:06.440 --> 0:07:09.280 sandwich and you're not getting change back from your hundreds. 0:07:09.640 --> 0:07:13.270 Somebody posted the prices at the Burbank airport, which had 0:07:13.290 --> 0:07:16.690 just got a big renovation. And yeah, yeah. There's a 0:07:16.850 --> 0:07:19.410 whole set of burgers. They all cost between 25 and 0:07:19.410 --> 0:07:24.330 $ 30 and the breakfast costs $ 25. 0:07:24.960 --> 0:07:27.380 I think it's a combination of a labor contract and 0:07:27.400 --> 0:07:30.980 these fees to be remodeling and building things. They pass 0:07:31.000 --> 0:07:32.720 that all on to the travelers. 0:07:34.140 --> 0:07:39.870 Everything– and the whole purpose– you were talking about the 0:07:40.190 --> 0:07:44.900 green energy costs. Actually, the whole purpose of this is 0:07:44.980 --> 0:07:47.780 not even to build a Skylink train. It is to 0:07:47.840 --> 0:07:51.260 enrich everyone who's connected to this process. They have access 0:07:51.280 --> 0:07:53.620 to billions of dollars in funding, so they're all going 0:07:53.640 --> 0:07:55.310 to run off with the cash. 0:07:56.350 --> 0:07:58.390 That's the way it looks. And, you know, the only 0:07:58.410 --> 0:08:00.510 thing you can say about it really is that it 0:08:00.550 --> 0:08:02.890 has the distinction of being worse than the bullet train. 0:08:05.610 --> 0:08:08.570 Seriously, what are the Olympics going to be like? I mean, 0:08:08.590 --> 0:08:11.550 I have zero confidence in everybody in charge right now. 0:08:12.110 --> 0:08:15.250 We're talking about closing lanes on the freeway and making 0:08:15.300 --> 0:08:17.720 them available only to people who are associated with the 0:08:17.800 --> 0:08:22.040 Olympics and VIPs. That's not going to go over very well. Oh, man. 0:08:23.800 --> 0:08:26.540 Boy, this is going to be bad. All right. Can 0:08:26.560 --> 0:08:28.500 you hang on? I want to talk about Prop 43. 0:08:28.500 --> 0:08:28.750 Sure. 0:08:30.050 --> 0:08:33.829 Because this is really important. You listen to this. I 0:08:33.870 --> 0:08:36.130 talked about this with John Fleischman on the live stream 0:08:36.170 --> 0:08:39.459 we did last week with all the proposition recommendations. I 0:08:39.520 --> 0:08:41.720 wanted to take a few minutes to highlight this with 0:08:41.780 --> 0:08:45.620 Susan Shelley. Prop 43, it closes a big hole in 0:08:45.660 --> 0:08:49.460 Prop 13, and we'll explain coming up. This will save 0:08:49.480 --> 0:08:53.220 you some good money. You're listening to John Kobelt on 0:08:53.280 --> 0:08:58.820 demand from KFI AM640. All right, we continue now with 0:08:59.260 --> 0:09:04.280 Susan Shelley. We were talking about the disaster of the Skylink, 0:09:04.980 --> 0:09:10.030 four explosions. That's the new people mover at LAX. that 0:09:10.290 --> 0:09:15.920 we've blown $ 3. 5 billion on. Electrical arcing, excuse me. They 0:09:15.940 --> 0:09:19.160 look like big explosions. Now, second thing we're going to 0:09:19.200 --> 0:09:24.220 discuss with her is Prop 43. And this is because 0:09:24.360 --> 0:09:27.970 Susan not only is a columnist, she works with the 0:09:28.000 --> 0:09:32.050 Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, and they put on the ballot 0:09:32.250 --> 0:09:36.400 the Local Taxpayer Protection Act to save Prop 13. and 0:09:36.420 --> 0:09:40.820 it restores Prop 13's two-thirds vote requirement to pass local 0:09:41.040 --> 0:09:46.570 special taxes. We said vote yes on Prop 43. If 0:09:46.610 --> 0:09:48.510 you look on the voter guide, the voter guide's on 0:09:48.550 --> 0:09:51.450 all our social media sites, and we also did a 0:09:51.590 --> 0:09:54.610 live stream with John Fleischman about it. Let's get Susan 0:09:54.690 --> 0:09:54.990 on here. 0:09:57.590 --> 0:09:58.550 Well, great to be with you. 0:09:59.010 --> 0:10:05.560 Again, so tell the people listening what happened that the 0:10:05.580 --> 0:10:08.860 Howard Jarvis Association felt compelled to put this on the ballot. 0:10:10.460 --> 0:10:13.319 Well, as you said, local special taxes have needed a 0:10:13.360 --> 0:10:16.030 two-thirds vote of the people, not of the Board of 0:10:16.090 --> 0:10:18.730 Supervisors or whatever, but a two-thirds vote of the people 0:10:19.170 --> 0:10:23.109 ever since Prop 13 in 1978. And then in 1996, 0:10:23.110 --> 0:10:25.630 the voters said it again. We want a two-thirds vote 0:10:25.910 --> 0:10:28.559 for special taxes. And that's when the money is for 0:10:28.580 --> 0:10:32.340 a particular purpose and it's legally enforceable, so it's locked. 0:10:32.920 --> 0:10:35.120 It's locked for that purpose. It can't be moved by 0:10:35.140 --> 0:10:38.429 your elected officials, even in a budget emergency. It can 0:10:38.530 --> 0:10:42.550 only go for that purpose. Those taxes need a two-thirds vote. Well, 0:10:42.590 --> 0:10:46.990 in 2017, the California Supreme Court invented a loophole. They 0:10:47.030 --> 0:10:50.530 didn't exactly decide this, but it was in ambiguous language 0:10:50.630 --> 0:10:53.480 in a comment that maybe if the tax increase was 0:10:53.520 --> 0:10:57.040 put on the ballot by the citizens themselves— instead of 0:10:57.059 --> 0:11:02.000 the government, through the signature collecting initiative process, maybe the 0:11:02.040 --> 0:11:05.880 Constitution doesn't apply. Well, the next year this was tested 0:11:05.940 --> 0:11:08.720 by two county supervisors in San Francisco, and they said, well, 0:11:08.740 --> 0:11:11.220 this tax will require a two-thirds vote if we do 0:11:11.240 --> 0:11:13.160 this at our desks. But if we go to the 0:11:13.220 --> 0:11:16.329 sidewalk and collect signatures, the same tax only needs a 0:11:16.370 --> 0:11:19.850 simple majority if we're reading this right. So that's exactly 0:11:19.890 --> 0:11:22.229 what happened. It passed with 50.8%. We sued. We lost. 0:11:26.059 --> 0:11:28.960 We lost at the appellate level. And this has never 0:11:29.020 --> 0:11:31.520 been taken back by the Supreme Court. So they've never 0:11:31.740 --> 0:11:35.060 actually accepted any of these appellate court decisions for review. 0:11:35.600 --> 0:11:40.189 It's just standing as this collection of ambiguous decisions. And 0:11:40.230 --> 0:11:41.520 we've just had enough of it. 0:11:41.809 --> 0:11:43.570 An ambiguous comment? 0:11:44.470 --> 0:11:45.530 An ambiguous comment. 0:11:45.630 --> 0:11:48.870 Not even part of an official decision? Like that part 0:11:48.890 --> 0:11:50.070 of the body of the decision? 0:11:50.890 --> 0:11:53.750 Exactly. It was a case about when an election would 0:11:53.790 --> 0:11:57.950 be scheduled. And it was California Cannabis Coalition versus City 0:11:57.990 --> 0:12:02.170 of Upland. And it said, well, maybe a citizen's initiative 0:12:02.190 --> 0:12:06.410 is different than a measure that's put on the ballot 0:12:06.450 --> 0:12:09.559 by the city council or the county board of supervisors. 0:12:09.900 --> 0:12:14.559 And that maybe decision, that maybe comment was interpreted to 0:12:14.640 --> 0:12:20.480 allow citizen initiative tax increases totally co-opted. by special interests 0:12:20.580 --> 0:12:23.620 and the government to raise taxes. So now you have 0:12:23.679 --> 0:12:25.570 all of these things where unions are putting them on 0:12:25.590 --> 0:12:29.429 the ballot and nonprofit housing or whatever they want your 0:12:29.470 --> 0:12:32.690 money for, they're putting them on the ballot. And it's 0:12:32.790 --> 0:12:36.190 all special interests and government working behind the scenes. And 0:12:36.210 --> 0:12:39.310 it's making it possible to raise sales taxes with fewer votes. 0:12:39.530 --> 0:12:42.890 So we're closing the loophole. Prop 43 closes the loophole, 0:12:43.290 --> 0:12:44.630 makes it harder to raise taxes. 0:12:44.910 --> 0:12:47.150 Yeah. I mean, the whole thing is rigged in the 0:12:47.190 --> 0:12:47.670 back rooms. 0:12:47.710 --> 0:12:49.439 Yes. Exactly. 0:12:49.480 --> 0:12:52.790 Yeah, the government works with the unions to have the 0:12:52.890 --> 0:12:56.150 unions do the dirty work of gathering the signatures. And 0:12:56.190 --> 0:13:00.059 then we're told, oh, this is an organic movement from 0:13:00.080 --> 0:13:03.640 the public, from the taxpayers. No, it's not. It's the 0:13:03.700 --> 0:13:04.619 same characters. 0:13:05.600 --> 0:13:08.460 Remember the sales tax increase for homelessness two years ago 0:13:08.500 --> 0:13:09.280 in L.A. County? 0:13:09.420 --> 0:13:09.719 Yes. 0:13:09.920 --> 0:13:13.920 Well, Mayor Bass bragged to the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association 0:13:13.960 --> 0:13:16.040 that she helped to write that. Now, how is that 0:13:16.100 --> 0:13:18.680 a citizen's initiative? No. 0:13:19.620 --> 0:13:21.500 A loophole was set up. I love how the whole 0:13:22.440 --> 0:13:24.900 court system is in on it, too. I'm finding this 0:13:25.000 --> 0:13:30.229 repeatedly is that all the judges, they're on the side 0:13:30.530 --> 0:13:34.590 of the government and the unions and all the entrenched powers. 0:13:36.160 --> 0:13:38.969 Exactly. And it only goes in one direction. There was 0:13:39.030 --> 0:13:42.690 a citizens initiative in San Diego in 2012 to try 0:13:42.730 --> 0:13:45.410 and get a grip on pension costs. And the Supreme 0:13:45.450 --> 0:13:48.170 Court was perfectly happy to strike that down. Where was 0:13:48.210 --> 0:13:51.840 the sacred citizens initiative then? They didn't care because that 0:13:51.860 --> 0:13:56.700 went against the government employees. They've only invoked this when 0:13:56.780 --> 0:13:57.860 it's raising taxes. 0:13:58.360 --> 0:14:03.469 Well, out of the 14 propositions, we here have only 0:14:03.590 --> 0:14:07.109 recommended five yeses. And this is one of them. Yes, 0:14:07.330 --> 0:14:12.610 on Prop 43. And this will save you money restoring 0:14:12.650 --> 0:14:17.370 a two-thirds requirement to pass local special taxes because the 0:14:17.410 --> 0:14:20.340 judges blew a hole in Prop 13. Susan, good work. 0:14:20.460 --> 0:14:21.460 Thank you for doing all this. 0:14:22.340 --> 0:14:23.580 Thank you, John. Great to be with you. 0:14:23.600 --> 0:14:26.680 All right. Susan Shelley from the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association 0:14:26.860 --> 0:14:30.760 and columnist for the Southern California News Group. And more 0:14:30.800 --> 0:14:35.710 to come. You're listening to John Kobelt on demand from 0:14:35.750 --> 0:14:36.930 KFI AM 640. 0:14:36.930 --> 0:14:47.290 KFI AM 640 live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. 0:14:48.030 --> 0:14:54.930 John Kobelt's show. Moistline is 877-MOIST-86 for Friday. 877-MOIST-86. Use 0:14:54.970 --> 0:14:58.710 the talkback feature on the iHeartRadio app. We are live 0:14:58.770 --> 0:15:03.180 on X and live on YouTube. One of the things 0:15:03.900 --> 0:15:09.730 that keeps me perpetually upset every day if I go, oh, 0:15:09.970 --> 0:15:14.050 I don't know, to a deli or to an In-N-Out 0:15:15.710 --> 0:15:20.990 or any kind of a restaurant is the plastic straw ban. 0:15:22.750 --> 0:15:26.250 Especially when we went through the era of paper straws, 0:15:27.870 --> 0:15:33.140 which really, if you'll pardon the expression, suck. They got 0:15:33.220 --> 0:15:37.170 soggy and they collapsed easily and they tasted weird. Now 0:15:37.210 --> 0:15:41.450 they have some new, I don't know what it's made of, 0:15:41.810 --> 0:15:46.500 but it looks and feels and bends like plastic. It's 0:15:46.520 --> 0:15:50.630 supposed to be biodegradable. There's probably other poisons in it. 0:15:51.600 --> 0:15:53.760 I don't know how you make something that acts exactly 0:15:53.800 --> 0:15:56.510 like plastic, but it's not plastic without it being a problem. 0:15:59.860 --> 0:16:02.720 You remember years ago how they started, the plastic straw man? 0:16:05.250 --> 0:16:08.870 One stupid kid. He's an adult now, so I can 0:16:08.910 --> 0:16:18.230 call him stupid. Posted a picture of a turtle with 0:16:18.270 --> 0:16:22.530 a straw up its nose. And honest to God, half 0:16:22.570 --> 0:16:25.530 the world went into a panic, at least the progressive half. 0:16:25.350 --> 0:16:25.729 Of the world. 0:16:26.800 --> 0:16:30.950 Oh my god, look at the suffering! Look at the tragedy! 0:16:32.490 --> 0:16:36.670 Never since then has a turtle been reported being found 0:16:36.700 --> 0:16:39.660 with a straw up its nose. For all I know, 0:16:39.680 --> 0:16:43.020 it was a staged photo, a faked photo, this was pre-AI. 0:16:44.970 --> 0:16:48.609 But boy, he had a website, I think, and this 0:16:48.670 --> 0:16:55.180 went crazy. And suddenly, all the progressive testicle-less wieners, especially 0:16:55.280 --> 0:16:59.900 in San Francisco, started passing legislation to ban plastic straws. Oh, 0:16:59.940 --> 0:17:02.800 they went crazy in Santa Monica. I got into arguments 0:17:02.840 --> 0:17:06.450 with clerks in Santa Monica because the replacement were paper straws. 0:17:06.490 --> 0:17:10.050 And I kept saying to the clerk, but this doesn't work. Well, 0:17:10.090 --> 0:17:13.860 that's the law now. Yeah, but it doesn't work. Well, 0:17:14.000 --> 0:17:17.619 I'm sorry, sir. That's the law. I love people who 0:17:17.660 --> 0:17:21.700 go along with stupid laws. And they know it's idiotic, 0:17:21.760 --> 0:17:25.869 but that's the law. I don't want to get in trouble. 0:17:25.890 --> 0:17:28.369 Imagine having a job where if you hand out a 0:17:28.410 --> 0:17:32.030 plastic straw, you're going to be in trouble. Imagine that life. 0:17:34.230 --> 0:17:38.750 So we ended up with plastic paper straws and then these, 0:17:38.950 --> 0:17:40.409 I don't know. I don't know what they're made of now. 0:17:41.640 --> 0:17:46.540 Some of them simulate plastic. Oh, plastic bags, too. Horrific. 0:17:47.540 --> 0:17:51.320 Paper bags are constantly shredding at the grocery store. Now 0:17:51.359 --> 0:17:57.080 they have these new bags if you put vegetables or 0:17:57.119 --> 0:18:02.070 lettuce in them. And compost bags. And those are hideous. 0:18:02.350 --> 0:18:06.370 You can't open them. You can't get any food inside 0:18:06.410 --> 0:18:10.270 them because they're too thin and flimsy and irritating, and 0:18:10.310 --> 0:18:13.590 they tear easily. And I've complained just for the hell 0:18:13.630 --> 0:18:15.250 of it. I do this to amuse myself to about 0:18:15.250 --> 0:18:18.709 11 different employees at one of the grocery stores, and 0:18:18.850 --> 0:18:21.620 every one of them said, oh, it's Newsome. Oh, yeah, 0:18:21.650 --> 0:18:25.600 those are terrible. Everybody hates them. That's what the law is. 0:18:28.080 --> 0:18:32.640 And I call the people who push this nonsense people 0:18:32.680 --> 0:18:35.429 for a perfect world. And I ran across a guy 0:18:35.450 --> 0:18:39.360 named John R. Puri who writes for the National Review, 0:18:40.040 --> 0:18:45.139 and he apparently shares my feeling because he wrote, the 0:18:45.160 --> 0:18:49.859 headline is, Paper Straws and the Fallible Logic of Perfectibility. 0:18:51.400 --> 0:18:53.700 And he wrote, this just was published today, there's a 0:18:53.740 --> 0:18:58.210 progressive impulse shared by many who are not formal progressives 0:19:00.010 --> 0:19:04.139 that You can bring all forces into proper balance and 0:19:04.180 --> 0:19:09.389 achieve perfection. It rests on the assumption that the laws 0:19:09.450 --> 0:19:12.310 of nature allow for utopia if we only have the 0:19:12.390 --> 0:19:16.770 will and mind to attain it. And he uses as 0:19:16.830 --> 0:19:24.139 an example the plastic straw. Plastic straws account for 0.025% 0:19:24.140 --> 0:19:28.740 of all plastic waste that gets into the oceans. That's 0:19:28.740 --> 0:19:35.340 1 40th of 1 percentage point. Now, I never threw 0:19:35.359 --> 0:19:39.419 a plastic straw into the ocean. Plastic straws get into 0:19:39.460 --> 0:19:45.129 the ocean because of the primitive barbarians who lay in 0:19:45.150 --> 0:19:48.710 the sun at the beaches and don't have the intelligence 0:19:48.730 --> 0:19:50.800 or the energy to get up. and put their plastic 0:19:50.840 --> 0:19:55.040 straw in a trash can. I also found out that 70% 0:19:55.040 --> 0:19:57.500 of all the plastic trash in the ocean comes from 0:19:57.520 --> 0:20:03.770 the Chinese, comes from plastic shipping nets, comes from the 0:20:04.070 --> 0:20:09.110 Chinese rivers flushing into the ocean, eventually the Pacific. that 0:20:09.350 --> 0:20:13.690 American plastics have very little to do with most of 0:20:13.730 --> 0:20:20.239 the ocean pollution, and American plastic straws, virtually nothing. But 0:20:20.260 --> 0:20:24.060 that doesn't stop the hysteria. See, the hysteria doesn't work 0:20:24.160 --> 0:20:28.100 on logic or facts or anything like that. And Puri's 0:20:28.180 --> 0:20:30.510 point is, is there's, oh, look at this, a new 0:20:30.570 --> 0:20:36.830 government report from South Korea. that evaluated the environmental harm 0:20:36.890 --> 0:20:41.629 of both plastic and paper straws across their entire life cycle, 0:20:42.950 --> 0:20:47.350 from production to disposal. And what did they find? You 0:20:47.369 --> 0:20:51.649 ready for this? Paper straws are worse for the environment 0:20:51.810 --> 0:20:56.850 than plastic straws in 10 out of 16 categories. Compared 0:20:56.890 --> 0:21:02.369 to plastic straws, paper straws have over six times the 0:21:02.450 --> 0:21:07.229 carcinogenic impact The potential cancer risk from a product. How 0:21:07.250 --> 0:21:09.530 about that? I'd like to stick that to that clerk 0:21:09.570 --> 0:21:13.050 in Santa Monica. She's forcing a paper straw on me 0:21:13.090 --> 0:21:17.780 with six times the risk of cancer. Paper straws have 0:21:18.000 --> 0:21:24.260 double the acidification impact. That is the potential to increase 0:21:24.340 --> 0:21:30.550 environmental acidity and harm ecosystems. Now, these fancy straws made 0:21:30.590 --> 0:21:37.170 of biodegradable plastic or bio-based polystyrene also perform worse than 0:21:37.290 --> 0:21:41.610 old-fashioned plastic straws. Plastic straws, according to this study, have 0:21:41.869 --> 0:21:46.840 the lowest impact of all types on climate change, human toxicity, 0:21:47.119 --> 0:21:52.879 particulate matter, and acidification. So the hysteria that that stupid 0:21:53.000 --> 0:21:57.940 kid started with his stupid tortoise photo... and it led 0:21:57.980 --> 0:22:01.859 to all this panic and all this legislation and more 0:22:02.500 --> 0:22:11.430 government oppression, is based on a phony premise. The plastic 0:22:11.450 --> 0:22:14.070 straws do not harm the environment as much as the 0:22:14.109 --> 0:22:18.010 paper straws do. In fact, the paper straws are six 0:22:18.050 --> 0:22:22.710 times the cancer risk. And he goes on to say 0:22:22.730 --> 0:22:29.530 that The smallest pro-environment measure may in effect hurt the 0:22:29.570 --> 0:22:32.619 environment in many regards. Like people like to get all 0:22:32.660 --> 0:22:37.020 excited about windmills and electric vehicles. This is clean energy. Well, 0:22:37.080 --> 0:22:41.900 he points out they require filthy mining operations and climate-friendly 0:22:41.940 --> 0:22:50.410 cars can release more air pollution. But the people for 0:22:50.450 --> 0:22:56.730 a perfect world, they run on emotion and hysteria. and 0:22:56.770 --> 0:22:59.090 they want to be cool and they want to be trendy. 0:23:00.670 --> 0:23:04.780 And next thing you know, there's more legislation. Which is 0:23:04.880 --> 0:23:10.600 why this state is considered, and I talked about this yesterday, 0:23:10.700 --> 0:23:14.500 one of the most unfree states in the union. And 0:23:14.540 --> 0:23:17.679 Gavin Newsom is one of the worst governors in the 0:23:17.720 --> 0:23:23.050 country when it comes to freedom. He ranked 48th. Because 0:23:24.250 --> 0:23:26.250 Everything in this state. And, you know, I love when 0:23:26.270 --> 0:23:28.850 I go visit my sons. They've all moved to other states. 0:23:30.730 --> 0:23:33.070 And when I go visit them, first thing I notice 0:23:33.950 --> 0:23:36.810 is all the irritating things we have in California that 0:23:36.850 --> 0:23:39.909 are gone. Yes, you can get a plastic straw. And 0:23:40.119 --> 0:23:42.080 remember for a while you had to ask permission for 0:23:42.119 --> 0:23:45.780 the plastic straw? Like they would hide them. The waitress 0:23:45.800 --> 0:23:48.580 wouldn't bring them. She'd have them in the pocket of 0:23:48.619 --> 0:23:50.320 her apron, but she couldn't give it to you unless 0:23:50.340 --> 0:23:53.670 you asked. You had to ask nicely. No, they just 0:23:53.710 --> 0:23:55.709 hand them to you in these other states. Same thing 0:23:55.750 --> 0:23:57.750 with plastic bags. You can go to the grocery store 0:23:57.770 --> 0:24:00.369 and you could buy a whole pile of groceries and 0:24:00.390 --> 0:24:03.250 there's a plastic bag and they work the best because 0:24:03.270 --> 0:24:06.410 they stretch, they can hold a lot of stuff and 0:24:06.510 --> 0:24:08.850 the bottom doesn't fall out and the handles don't come off. 0:24:09.970 --> 0:24:12.580 Most of the time, the grocery store in my neighborhood, 0:24:12.910 --> 0:24:15.600 the handles tear off and the bottom falls out over 0:24:15.840 --> 0:24:18.580 and over and over again. And I end up with 0:24:18.619 --> 0:24:21.820 a pile of groceries on the ground in front of 0:24:21.840 --> 0:24:25.470 my front door. All piled up on the porch. Again 0:24:25.510 --> 0:24:31.660 and again. And everything gets dented and squished. Because Gavin Newsom. 0:24:32.600 --> 0:24:35.060 I think of him so many times a day. And 0:24:35.119 --> 0:24:38.480 I'm counting the days now until his ass is out 0:24:38.500 --> 0:24:43.910 of California. And he runs for his stupid presidential campaign. 0:24:44.290 --> 0:24:45.930 Which will fail miserably. 0:24:46.590 --> 0:24:46.810 Ouch! 0:24:47.710 --> 0:24:51.370 Because nobody likes him here. And nobody's going to like 0:24:51.410 --> 0:24:55.810 him in the rest of the country. And I wish 0:24:55.890 --> 0:24:58.649 I had the money to hire somebody to annoy Gavin 0:24:58.670 --> 0:25:02.320