00:00:00
Speaker 1: And we continue at two oh five in the afternoon on the John Phillips Show, Mister Randy Weggs in Culver City.
00:00:06
Speaker 2: Well, John, doctor Drew predicted it ten years ago. We have a typhus outbreak in Los Angeles County.
00:00:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I knew we'd get there eventually.
00:00:17
Speaker 2: And the fact that we have a typhus outbreak shows you that all the nonsense that Karen Bass says about the humbless numbers going down are a bunch of bs.
00:00:29
Speaker 1: What's next tuberculosis or the plague? Uh?
00:00:33
Speaker 3: And uh you know uh.
00:00:34
Speaker 2: Barbara farrears on it though, don't you worry?
00:00:38
Speaker 1: Oh yeah? In the white lab coat next side eight hundred two two two five two two two is the telephone number one eight hundred two two two five two two two. It is our pleasure to welcome our next guest to the program. He is author of the book They're Not Listening How the Elites Created the National Populist Revolution. Hey, and he's the host of a numbers Game with Ryan Gurdusky. You could download wherever you download your favorite podcasts, and you can follow him on x at Ryan Gurdusky, Ryan Gurdusky, Welcome, Thanks John, How are you. I'm good, Thanks so much for stopping by on this.
00:01:16
Speaker 4: Friday, of course, Happy good Friday.
00:01:18
Speaker 1: What's going on so earlier in the week. I guess it would be was it last week? I don't know. I'm really confused. President Trump addressed the country about what's going on in Iran and assured the country that it would be a very short time before we were done with Iran, and that would be a situation that is a box that's checked, a situation complete, and we could move on to other problems. It seems like he's starting to feel the heat of people getting restless about things like gas prices and global instability and markets, those sorts of things that are related to our action that was taken in Iran. What do you make of what's going on right now over there and politically speaking, how it's impacting what's going on here.
00:02:11
Speaker 4: Well, I mean, the messaging doesn't seem very clear. Remember back in the summer, we were supposed to have gotten rid of all of Iran's nuclear missiles. Then we were going to do this because they actually, you know, continued in negotiations, negotias had failed, and they were moving forward on more nuclear weapons as well. As mid, mid and long range ballistic missiles. And then they apparently they had no defenses, but one of our planes crashed. Today, Susie Wilds allegedly is telling people to stop telling the President that it's going so well the administrate. Everything's going swimmingly. And you know, he seems to be one of you know, one of my friends who worked for the president back in the first term and knows him well, said when he gets mad at everybody, it's just not a safe place to be. And he seems to be in this place place in the space where he's not very mad at everybody. You know, he just fired Pam Bondi, he had fired Christy nom obviously, like a week or so earlier, he had fired or the fat of the army was fired. And now he apparently told Caroline Levitt that she's doing a terrible job and is responsible for his tanking poll numbers, and his poll numbers are worse today than they were after January sixth. It's it's actually at the worst moment of his political career, is this moment, And I don't I think for a lot of people told the president that this is going to do as well as Venezuela did, and it's a complete disaster. I mean, there's no other way to say this. Yes, Iran's leadership has been executed. Okay. At the same time, there's massy to destabilization to the markets and the entire global energy. You know, almost our allies in Europe are running low on fuel. We are tapping our petroleum reserves, and gas prices are sky high. And even if you drive a tesla you see the price of oil every three blocks in this country, you know that it's rising. Price is one of the big indicators. I mean, it's going as badly I think right now as it could possibly go, but it's still early.
00:04:16
Speaker 1: Well, the last election, it was eggs. Everyone was talking about the price of eggs and how expensive those were and how it hurt people. Because the way I see it, maybe you see it differently. I don't know. When people talk about the economy, the economy is one thing. That's the stock market, that's the unemployment rate, that's indicators that talk about what's going on broadly. But then there's a different issue called the cost of living. And I think right now the economy itself is fine, but the cost of living is something that people are having a tough time with and when you talk about pocketbook issues, the cost of living is something that politically can kill you.
00:04:57
Speaker 4: Well, Hiring is very low. Hiring has been low, and there is double digit unemployment among recent college graduates. So that's not great, including college graduates with computer science degrees. It's not terrible. The economy, we shouldn't overstate it, but it's not the strongest it should be. And and the employment numbers are the lower numbers of new hiring is a big learning and certainly scambal it have caused a lot of people to have questions over you know, maybe a lack of investment, because there there's a little bit of instability, but it's not really showing in the in the true metrics of the marrow of the of the overall economy. So maybe that's probably possibly true, right however, and yet still for recent college grads it's very tough, which is why I think partially you're seeing the numbers so poorly. Among blue collar jobs. We are at a net deficit of one hundred and fifty thousand manufacturing warehouse jobs in the last year since the president took over, so blue collar workers, especially Latino blue collar workers are definitely feeling the pinch right now. And on top of that, a lot of people, rightly or wrongly, I don't think this is a fault of the president's, but rightly or wrongly, a lot of people expected prices to go down, not just for the inflation to go down, which did happen and the President was successful at that, but for actual deflationary period of prices to go down. And people are angry because they want their twenty nineteen economy back. I mean, that's ultimate. What people want is they want the econ of twenty nineteen and they're not getting it. And I think that that's why a large portion of the population is just so frustrated with politics right now.
00:06:46
Speaker 1: Well, and there's something going on here in California, and I don't know if it's going on in other states in state local races, but we have a race for governor here. Govin Newsom is turned out. We're going to decide who we want to replace him. And the leading candidates on the Democratic side of the aisle, and really all of them except for Via Ragosa and Matt Mayhan, are only talking about Donald Trump, and they're only talking about federal issues. They're not talking about the bullet train, they're not talking about our insurance crisis. They're not talking about homelessness or crime, or the budget being upside down or any of that. They're only talking about Donald Trump. They are fixated on federal issues, and they believe that voters just don't care about state and local issues right now. The only thing that Democratic voters, in particular, because that's who you're talking about when you're talking about the California electorate, the only thing they care about right now is Trump, Trump, Trump.
00:07:44
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's right. I mean, the reason they're all doing it is because that's the truth. They don't Democratic voters, I mean, to a large degree, even in a way that Republicans aren't under Under Obama, Democratic voters have lost their minds right now, Like there's something fundamentally broken with them. And it's a longer psychological thing where they were told forever that this was just a fever dream that would eventually go away. The walls were endlessly closing in, and he was really an incompetent boob who who was not actually good, just immensely lucky at politics, And it turns out he's actually possibly the most you know, incredible politician in living memory, if not the most, he's in the top five. Right, So they they they're it's I always say the same thing. It's like when imagine two thousand years ago a rabbi walking down the street seeing Jesus Christ come alive and saying, wait, this is confronting all my deepest, inmost beliefs. So they're having they're having an existential crisis, and they're the only thing that motivates them to wake up to move in the morning is the hatred of Donald Trump. That's that's that's why they're doing it. And it's happened, by the way, in Virginia right now, that's the entire referendum over getting new districts. It's all about the hatred of Donald Trump. That's what That's what a lot of places are experiencing. And how much you can you know, how can you how can you fight Trump? Which actually makes twenty twenty very interesting. What do you do when you take away their identity as far as what are they? I mean, what is the Democrats about Trump? Trump has done more and as an as much to identify and to create an identity for Democrats as he has for.
00:09:20
Speaker 1: Republicans, Well, this is going to be the death of local government in blue states if you are, let's say, on the water board and you run on the platform with hating Donald Trump, or you're on the school board or the city council or the state legislature, whatever, when your job has nothing to do with the president or the federal government or federal policy, and that's what you spend your time on, and that's what you think about, and that's what you care about, and you could care less about the subjects that you actually have some degree of influence over. I don't know how you make the trains run on time.
00:09:59
Speaker 4: I really don't, no offense, the California has not been known to make the trains were on time for a very long time. Now the trains aren't even being built right now. So uh yeah, it is of concern. And that's why I mean, my my former governor Kathy Opal, you know, she's still the governor of New York State. She said, she said, it's up to the compassion of wealthy people to move back to our state so that way they could pay the high taxes, Like we need you to move back. You all can't leave Like this is enough's enough, you know, I'm sure Florida is nice, but time to come home. And because the state's going to fall into into a into a pit, I mean, New York City in the next couple of weeks is likely to degrade to their credit rating based upon expectations.
00:10:47
Speaker 1: So how how do you govern?
00:10:48
Speaker 4: I mean, how how do you when when everything is monopoly money and you're all living in fairyland and a big part of your identity is just hating, uh, the big orange man in the sky. What is your were in the White House? What is your what is what is the purpose of the local government? I don't know. And the problem is, the scariest thing is after you know, Karen Bass has completely burned half of Los Angeles to the ground her, the alternative is, you know, is likely far worse. You know, you could always I'll say it when my when my, when Jeb Bush is running for president. My brother was a big supporter, and he always said, we could do a lot worse than Jeb Bush, and probably will, And that was that is my mentality. And now for most quote unquote centric Democrats running for office, who seemed like they're farther progressives.
00:11:37
Speaker 1: You know, It's funny. If you go back to the seventies, there were books written, I think Dick Morris wrote one and others about big cities just becoming ungovernable, where the crime was just out of control. The unions were calling all the shots, they were dirty, there were problems that they thought just couldn't be fixed. And then we found out with people like Rudy Giuliani and Dick Reardon and strong mayors in big cities, Oh yeah, we could fix these cities. It's just you need the right personality in the job. And I think we're headed to a place. You mentioned New York, you mentioned Virginia. I'm talking about California because that's where we are here. But we're headed to a place where I think those conversations are going to happen about big blue states. Can you govern these places anymore? Because I feel like the electorate in California it's like a dog that wants to run into traffic, and those remaining Republicans who are here, we're trying to keep the dog from running into traffic, and all the dog wants to do is ban the leash, and that's what we're left with.
00:12:43
Speaker 4: Yeah, and here's The problem is that one. I mean back in the seventies, there wasn't I mean, it wasn't as prevalent air conditioning and quality of living in Red States. So the idea of moving to Georgia was not something you particularly want to do unless you were incredibly wealthy to live on a golf course. That's not the situation in twenty twenty five and twenty twenty six anymore. You can it's perfectly fine. You can take your job with you. You can move everything on the internet.
00:13:10
Speaker 1: Do you.
00:13:10
Speaker 4: Wall Street can go out and move to Dallas or move to Miami or Palm Beach, doesn't matter nothing. Look at Hollywood. I mean, whoever thought that Hollywood move out of California? But it has. I mean the Hollywood and Los Angeles is Detroit with the Hill. I mean, more or less. That's what we're looking at when it comes to some of these big places. And unless they unless the electric either does it themselves, which I don't think is likely, or I think the most likely case, the most likely sing they are for these states is that they go bankrupt. And what happens is when they go bank when they're unfunded, liability as far exceed any kind of hope for tax dollars is they'll demand a federal bailout. And you better hope that are Republicans in the in the White House when that happens, otherwise it's going to be complete may. But if I mean, I think, I think before California or New York, it's going to happen to Illinois first. Illinois is truly up the up the river without a paddle.
00:14:08
Speaker 2: And a half.
00:14:10
Speaker 1: How long do you think they have before it really hits the fan?
00:14:14
Speaker 4: Uh? I mean, it's it's it's been circling the drain for some time. I remember when I was a beat reporter. This is in twenty seventeen. I remember a story of a man winning the lottery in the state lottery, going up to work, cursing out his boss, saying, I'm done. You know, I'm free now at one whatever. It was a few million dollars, and he went to go collect his winnings and the state lottery board said that he didn't have the money to cover it and he has to wait for a few years. I mean, that's what you know. You're in bad shape. That's pretty bad.
00:14:48
Speaker 1: I'll tell you. I know. You spend a lot of time on your podcast and in your your amazing newsletter talking about population patterns where people are moving to They're moving out as blue states, they're moving to red states. You you spend a lot of time analyzing that. But I'll tell you here in California, there's also been a lot of movement within the state where you've seen people leaving areas like Los Angeles County, Alameda County, San Francisco County. They're going to Orange County, they're going to the Central Valley, they're going to the Inland Empire. But I was just reading something earlier this week that even within Los Angeles County, you've seen population shifts where people are moving out of city centers. They're moving away from let's say downtown LA or mid Wiltshire, Hollywood, areas that are around all the fun stuff, and they're moving to areas that are essentially in fire zones. They're moving to the base of the San Gabriel Mountains, they're moving out to the San Fernando Valley. They're moving to places that are more remote, even though they're still within Los Angeles County. But the population, the number of people living in fire zones in California is worse today that it was a couple of years ago when they're trying to incentivize us not to move into those areas, but to move into areas where they have transportation corridors and those sorts of things. But people feel safer dealing with the fires than they do dealing with the big city governments.
00:16:18
Speaker 4: Well, I mean, because what are you more likely to get a response from a fire or a drunken homeless man screaming at you on your day to day life. I mean, even if they didn't attack you, just the quality of life is as much higher, and the chances of you having a fire that burns your house down versus just a random homeless person who screams at you is much lower. I mean, truth be told. I mean, yes, where the how catastrophic it be is pretty terrible, but your overall day to day quality of life is much higher, and they can't. The problem is is that a lot of these places California, New York, you know, Portland, Seattle, have become Chicago, have become hubs for or they called the sponge effect. That's what it's actual term. It's called the sponge effects and basically is When populations are decreasing across areas, populations with like enticing populations will will still increase. So like for example, Tokyo is still increasing despite the population Japan polling. And the reason that that and what does what has happened politically in the United States is that we have the sponge effects for politics. So if you will have forty five genders and you have blue hair, and you want to stream about Donald Trump all day, you're very inclined to go move to Brooklyn or part of you know, Silver Lake, California, or or Los Angeles, whatever, there's there's a neighborhood for you there. So that population that elected religion Redigiliani and other red state mayor red city red city mayors of blue cities back in the nineties, that fundamentally saved an ultimate That population has shifted and who was replaced that population is like the woman from Ohio who you know, always dreamed of being with you know, comrades and reliving out the seventies. Like that's the genuine issue with how to save these cities is we're we're we are We're grouping the most radical human beings on the planet all together in the same exact place, and they are they have the ability to elect you know, who wants to govern.
00:18:22
Speaker 1: Them, and it's very difficult for people to admit that they were wrong and change how they vote. People typically just don't do that.
00:18:31
Speaker 4: Yeah, and as also how many people even vote in local government, it's very small. And now at the same time, you are having very active, you know, minority populations that are very that their whole identity is politics. You know, the the the people who you know, they they think about hating Donald Trump, or or how many genders there are, or transing their children morning union night. Politics is everything to them. They don't have it. They don't now not thinking about what's on QBC or you know, who's what the priest of church is saying, it's all politics all the time. So that's that also makes things more problematic because the Latino cleaning lady who has two children and is trying to make ends me, politics is not her everything. And even though she may be more likely to say, you know, this isn't working out, I have to go vote a different way. It's is she going to go vote at all? Maybe maybe not. But the woman who's you know, got forty five cats and he thinks Lea Duvan is a personal hero. Let me tell you all she's going.
00:19:29
Speaker 1: To do is go vote. Ryan Gardusky, author of the book They're Not Listening How the Elites Created the National Populist Revolution. You can also catch his podcast A Numbers Game with Ryan Gardusky wherever it is that you enjoy your podcasts, and you can follow him on x at Ryan Gardusky. Ryan, thanks so much for stopping by, and have a very happy Easter you too. Eight hundred two two two five two two two is the telephone number. What eight hundred two two two five two to two two. If you'd like to email the show, you can do so at Johnny Don't Like show at gmail dot com. That's Johnny Don't Like Show at gmail dot com. And Randy with the end of the show about twenty five minutes away. If you want to continue listening to us after we sign off, that's easy to do.
00:20:15
Speaker 2: We're at our fifteen of the fifteen hours a week we do for you, and you want more you're so greedy, Well we're happy to fulfill that request because you can download the podcast to this show, which means if there's any of those fifteen hours you missed. You can listen to them there. Search for the John Phillips Show wherever you get your podcasts. You want to subscribe on the Apple Podcasts app or iHeartRadio, Spotify, anywhere you go, search for the John Phillips Show, hit subscribe and download all of the episodes. You want to make sure you subscribe to that feed. I'm not going to tell you why, but someday it's going to be really important. You can also do a Google on the YouTube, or get the free KABC app, the free k SFO app, or that KMJ now app because we do a little best of there and KMJ and Fresno on Saturdays at noon. There are so many different ways to listen to this show wherever you are, thanks to streaming and a higher quality sound than the radio, and you could download all the podcasts and listen to them whenever you want. As you mentioned earlier in the show, Randy, there is a Typhus outbreak in Los Angeles County. Typhus which is a flea borne disease that comes from rats, and the rats come from homeless encampments. It's something that in this very time slot doctor Drew Pinsky warned was going to happen if we just let the homeless encampments fester. And here we are as Karen bass is trying to say that homelessness is down, as La County is trying to say homelessness is down. The La County Department of Public Health, which is run by Barbara Ferrer, I have no idea, says that we are seeing the most amount of typhus that we have ever seen in the history of Los Angeles.
00:22:05
Speaker 1: The evidence is like crystal clear on that seems about right.
00:22:10
Speaker 2: For more on the typhus outbreak, here is Fox eleven in Los Angeles.
00:22:17
Speaker 5: Typhus cases are climbing in La County health official.
00:22:20
Speaker 2: Phil can't even believe it.
00:22:23
Speaker 1: I'm sure Phil's just as surprised as US.
00:22:26
Speaker 5: Health officials say the illness spreads who are infected fleas and can turn serious POXS eleven and Susan Harris soon as says what you need to watch.
00:22:35
Speaker 2: For avoid the homeless encampments.
00:22:40
Speaker 1: What do you do if a homeless encampment pops up right next to your house?
00:22:44
Speaker 6: Move rats, apossums and free roaming cats. They get the blame for a rising number of typhus cases.
00:22:53
Speaker 3: No, whenever there is increased nesting spaces for these animals. Whenever human behavior changes so that there's more contact with these animals than the risk will increase.
00:23:05
Speaker 2: That is the La County Department of Public Health very very very kid gloves way to say there's more rats because of all the homeless encampments and that's where the typhus came from.
00:23:15
Speaker 1: Why didn't they put Barbara Ferrera out there?
00:23:17
Speaker 2: She loves the cameras, you know that, like there's some new thing where they don't put her in front of the camera. Ever. She hasn't done a press conference, she doesn't do zoom seminars. You barely see her at the La County Board of Supervisors meetings. They know that the public do not like her, and they know that if they put her on the TV, we're going to play the sound and remind everyone that the not doctor makes six hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year.
00:23:47
Speaker 7: And you know.
00:23:49
Speaker 1: There's got to be a whole story behind that.
00:23:52
Speaker 7: Yeah.
00:23:53
Speaker 6: So far in La County there have been two hundred and twenty reported cases of fleaborne typhus and it's only April. Two hundred and twenty was the total number of cases for twenty twenty five.
00:24:03
Speaker 2: Okay, so this thing is exploding.
00:24:08
Speaker 1: Now. They made us wear the mask in Los Angeles County, long after just about every other jurisdiction was back to normal. I wonder what they're going to do about this one.
00:24:21
Speaker 6: Two hundred and twenty was the total number of cases for twenty twenty five. What is fleaborn typhus? Typhus is a bacteria transmitted by fleas. The advice is to give flea medication to pets and take measures to keep the feral animals away.
00:24:36
Speaker 2: What about the feral people? That's the problem, a.
00:24:40
Speaker 3: Wide contact with free roaming animals. So to make sure that there is no food that we're living outside. Make sure that the vegetation around our homes is streaming.
00:24:49
Speaker 2: What if it's piles of garbage and piles of discarded food that the rats are eating because we allow garbage to pile up on the street. How about the palletts and pallets and pallets of fruit that are dumped every single day in the produce district.
00:25:05
Speaker 1: That the government won't allow us to do anything about.
00:25:08
Speaker 3: Be sure that the vegetation around our homes is trimmed. Ea, sure there is no trash where rats can come and nest.
00:25:15
Speaker 2: Oh that's an interesting one. The La County Department of Public Health saying that we shouldn't have piles of trash.
00:25:23
Speaker 1: Okay, then clear out all of the encampments.
00:25:26
Speaker 3: I have a hard time understanding. Logic, Oh, we know, baby, am sure there is no trash where rats can come and nest.
00:25:35
Speaker 6: Doctor Halai wouldn't be specific about the hot zones for typhus.
00:25:39
Speaker 2: We know where they are. But of course the La County Department of Public Health isn't going to just straight up say this is because of the homeless.
00:25:48
Speaker 1: Nope, so they have to be real nebulous.
00:25:51
Speaker 6: I have a hard time understanding doctor Halai wouldn't be specific about the hot zones for typhus.
00:25:58
Speaker 8: It puts us on high a look.
00:26:00
Speaker 6: Salesforce Mission knows conditions like these can put the homeless at risk. Rowan van Sleeve relies on the Public Health Department to alert him if there's typhus here. Even without a warning, the LA Mission takes steps to keep the disease away, so.
00:26:13
Speaker 8: We're not able to remove the pets. Rather, we take a different approach. We engage with veterinarians to come on site and provide pet care for the animals, making sure we can maintaine hygiene and health.
00:26:26
Speaker 6: How do you know if you contracted typhus? Unfortunately, the symptoms are flu.
00:26:30
Speaker 3: Like, which is why prevention is so important.
00:26:33
Speaker 2: Ray, prevention would be great, but that means we'd have to get rid of all the encampments.
00:26:40
Speaker 1: And they don't want to do that because it's a social justice thing, which is why.
00:26:44
Speaker 3: Prevention is so important.
00:26:45
Speaker 5: Ray.
00:26:46
Speaker 3: But yes, those are very non specific. They can progress to severe diseases. It's very important that if you have those symptoms, if you have risk factors, go to your doctor.
00:26:57
Speaker 6: And because of those vague symptoms, typhus fever is often misdiagnosed. That's why the advice is to tell your doctor about the possibility.
00:27:05
Speaker 2: So there you go. Typhus is exploding in Los Angeles County as Karen Bess, running for reelection, is trying to say that homelessness is way down under her watch. It's not a namsey pamsy thing.
00:27:18
Speaker 1: And I love the fact that the follow of the science crowd is bending over backwards to not tell us that this is a homeless problem. Next side, well, Randy, we also have an update speaking of the homeless, on the homeless who were living in the river.
00:27:34
Speaker 2: Matthew Seedorf has been breaking story after story after story, whether it was the woman living in the sewer drain in that tragic story, the people living outside of the post office of MacArthur Park, or earlier this week when he went to the La River near Griffith Park and showed people living in tents and doing drugs, and at the time, Nythia Rahman puts out a comment because this is her diss the same Nythia Rahman that's running for mayor, saying well, these are really hard to reach areas for us to help these people. Well, one of the people that was in Matthew Sedorf's report three days ago was found dead from an overdose. Who could see that coming for mar Here's Fox eleven and Matthew Seedor.
00:28:21
Speaker 5: Follow up to a story you saw first on Fox eleven, A deadly turn along the La River.
00:28:25
Speaker 2: Just days after our first.
00:28:26
Speaker 5: Report, a homeless person is found lifeless, possibly from an overdose. Fox eleven's Matthew Seedorf back near Griffith Park tonight with the latest.
00:28:36
Speaker 7: An urgent investigation and a homeless encampment along the La River. A man found dead in his ten near Griffith Park Thursday morning, just three days after our first report here highlighting drug and safety concerns.
00:28:49
Speaker 2: So you can't even say, oh, we didn't know there was anybody there. It was on the TV. The city, including the city council woman who's running for mayor, doesn't act with any kind of urgency and now someone's dead.
00:29:01
Speaker 1: No, their position is the compassionate take is to let them die.
00:29:06
Speaker 7: Just three days after our first report here highlighting drug and safety concerns.
00:29:11
Speaker 9: I felt sick to his stomach.
00:29:13
Speaker 7: I feel angry, an advocate says. The man known as Venezuela was in his thirties, that was his name.
00:29:20
Speaker 1: I wonder if he's been following the news down there.
00:29:23
Speaker 7: An advocate says. The man known as Venezuela was in his thirties, seen here just days ago, meeting with outreach teams.
00:29:30
Speaker 2: I think, let me guess he turned down the help.
00:29:34
Speaker 1: I wonder if Babs gave him any drug paraphernalia.
00:29:37
Speaker 2: Oh probably, Oh you don't want us to treat your addiction? Okay? Would you like some meth pipes and needles?
00:29:43
Speaker 4: No?
00:29:44
Speaker 9: Thank you, Captain drugs and in a very dangerous position, he had no guidance, he had no roof over his head, he had no staff, no one looking out after him.
00:29:57
Speaker 7: The same conditions still here, needles drug here Finilia, with people living in tents and storm drains.
00:30:03
Speaker 4: How long have you been.
00:30:04
Speaker 3: Out here on the river?
00:30:06
Speaker 1: About thirty years for men.
00:30:08
Speaker 2: That guy's been on the river for ten years.
00:30:12
Speaker 1: That's a long time to be on the river.
00:30:15
Speaker 7: For Mannie, this is a long you know.
00:30:16
Speaker 2: I used to ride my bike on this path. It's the it's the weirdest bike path. It's the La River bike path. So you're in between the freeway and the pit that they call a river. And I had to stop riding my bike because my tires kept popping because the pavement was covered in broken glass.
00:30:35
Speaker 1: Wasn't there a skit on S and L about the guy who lived in a van down by the river?
00:30:40
Speaker 2: Yes there was. Matt Foley was his name.
00:30:43
Speaker 7: For Minnie, this is a long time home. They're not looking to leave. I mean, would you want help and resources and to get out of this?
00:30:51
Speaker 3: But I would let somebody ask to be.
00:30:52
Speaker 7: On the river across Ellie.
00:30:54
Speaker 2: I would love to get a better place, but it has to be on the river. I want riverfront property. Wow, even our homeless are boogie. You know, you just need to sometimes go to a place like New Bromfels, Texas, where they have the CoML River, which is an incredible tourist destination where people can get condos that are right there on the water, they can tube, they can drink. And then you look at what happens at the La River, which, by the way, we spent millions of dollars to revitalize and it still is a dump.
00:31:30
Speaker 1: Want to go kayaking?
00:31:31
Speaker 7: Across La County? More than six homeless people die every day. This man the latest victim.
00:31:37
Speaker 2: And by the way, if you're ever wondering why when it rains you see on the news channels like Fox eleven the LAFD with their swift water rescue helicopters, it's because people live in the river.
00:31:52
Speaker 7: Earlier this week, we asked councilwoman and mayorial candidate Nathia Rahman about conditions here. She said the area is difficult to clear with steep slopes and hard to reach coverts.
00:32:05
Speaker 2: You know, it's easy for them to pitch a tent up there, but it's hard for our outreach people to get in there.
00:32:10
Speaker 1: We'd like to help them, but it's really hard.
00:32:13
Speaker 2: The terrain was just too steep. It's unbelievable that she thinks she can run for mayor and.
00:32:20
Speaker 7: Hard to reach coverts.
00:32:23
Speaker 4: Tide.
00:32:24
Speaker 7: She calls this death a devastating loss, adding no one deserves to die on our streets. We have the funding, we need the political will.
00:32:32
Speaker 2: You're in charge of this district now.
00:32:37
Speaker 1: Whatever they fail to act and something bad happens, they always pretend like they have no power and they're just writing letters to the editor to the La Times.
00:32:48
Speaker 2: The City of LA's charter is structured in a way that we have a weak mayor and a strong city council. Each one of the fifteen members of the city Council are a de facto many mayor of their discs. If she wanted that encampment cleaned up, she could have had it cleaned up, and she knew it was there because Matthew Sedorf did the story and asked for her comment on it three days ago.
00:33:13
Speaker 7: To get it out the door, to connect people to the services and housing that can save lives. Hours after his death, some walk away with items he left behind.
00:33:24
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, isn't that a pretty picture. When the homeless person in the tent overdoses. The other homeless in the encampment steal all his belongings.
00:33:32
Speaker 1: Classy hours after.
00:33:34
Speaker 7: His death, some walk away with items he left behind, a stark reminder of how quickly life out here can turn deadly.
00:33:41
Speaker 9: Living in the bushes on the side of the La River is not a productive life, nor is it continuing to do drugs while you've been housed in housing first places, people continue to do drugs and die in those.
00:33:55
Speaker 2: All of this stems from when we decided that we were going to allow people to just do the drugs, and that was Prop. Forty seven. That's when we emptied out the prisons. We stopped putting people in prison for doing things like heroin and meth and what eventually became fentanyl. And now that's why we have seven to eight people a day, Yeah, seven to eight people every week dying on our streets.
00:34:22
Speaker 1: And just think about the combination of decriminalizing drugs at the same time that you're giving them all of the paraphernalia and you're saying that that's what the science says you should do.
00:34:32
Speaker 7: Another homeless person died along the same stretch of river roughly three weeks ago. Some are wondering if it could be connected, possibly to the same drugs reporting at Griffith Park Matthew sied or Fox eleven News.
00:34:44
Speaker 2: There you go, Nithia for mayor everybody.
00:34:47
Speaker 1: Here were the Gavin Newsom update. Mister Randy Wang.
00:34:50
Speaker 2: I just saw this on the This is Gavin Newsome Instagram account that I follow for work reasons. This is Gavin Newsom. The Gavin Newsom podcast was nominated for a Webby Award, And if you want to vote for This is Gavin Newsom as the best Video podcast Host, you can go to the Webby Awards and you can vote. Or if you don't think Gavin Newsom is the best video podcast host, you can vote for any of the other candidates.
00:35:25
Speaker 1: He is so pathetic.
00:35:31
Speaker 2: Who's he gonna think when he if he wins this thing?
00:35:37
Speaker 1: Well? Who is his first guest? Charlie Kirk, Yes, it was. I don't know.
00:35:47
Speaker 2: I'm trying to see if I could figure out who he's up against. All right, Gavin is up against Katie kurrk Kiky Palmer, Amy Poehler. H Amy Poehler is gonna win. Monica Lewinsky. Wait, Monica Lewinsky has a podcast. Actually, now that I'm looking on this category, Gavin's not on here.
00:36:13
Speaker 1: Wait he nominated himself without actually being nominated by the voters.
00:36:20
Speaker 2: So according to his post, he's nominated for best host in Podcasts, and I just look through all the candidates. I don't see him on here.
00:36:34
Speaker 1: Well, if he's up against Monica Lewinsky, maybe the category is best oral History.
00:36:42
Speaker 2: Ooh, in best new podcast, you can vote for on par with Maury Povich? Did I send you that clip of him it? He hosts it with his wife?
00:36:53
Speaker 1: Wait, how can Maury Polvich host a podcast? How could you send kids to I don't know military school over a podcast?
00:37:06
Speaker 2: It's not the thing too. No, he doesn't do that. He asks his wife Connie Chung about banging old celebrities in the fifties.
00:37:16
Speaker 1: There's an audience for that.
00:37:18
Speaker 2: Apparently there's an audience for everything. But I still am having a hard time finding. Oh, maybe it's her best video podcast host? Is it here?
00:37:29
Speaker 1: Nope?
00:37:30
Speaker 2: No, Gavin. No, I do not know where Gavin is actually nominated. And it's very possible that Gavin is not nominated, but said he's nominated. Maybe he's running a write in campaign podcast. Maybe it's best video podcast host. Let's see. Okay, the candidates for best Video Podcast Host Don Lemon or Gavin Newsom.
00:37:56
Speaker 1: It's only two of them.
00:37:58
Speaker 2: Well, there's a few others that I have ever heard of before.
00:38:02
Speaker 1: How come Lewinsky isn't in that category.
00:38:05
Speaker 2: He's up against in the Test Kitchen or Take Your Shoes Off with Rick Glassman. There are way too many podcasts.
00:38:15
Speaker 1: All right, that's it for us this week. We'll be back on Monday at noon for another edition of The John Phillips Show.
Speaker 1: And we continue at two oh five in the afternoon on the John Phillips Show, Mister Randy Weggs in Culver City.
00:00:06
Speaker 2: Well, John, doctor Drew predicted it ten years ago. We have a typhus outbreak in Los Angeles County.
00:00:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I knew we'd get there eventually.
00:00:17
Speaker 2: And the fact that we have a typhus outbreak shows you that all the nonsense that Karen Bass says about the humbless numbers going down are a bunch of bs.
00:00:29
Speaker 1: What's next tuberculosis or the plague? Uh?
00:00:33
Speaker 3: And uh you know uh.
00:00:34
Speaker 2: Barbara farrears on it though, don't you worry?
00:00:38
Speaker 1: Oh yeah? In the white lab coat next side eight hundred two two two five two two two is the telephone number one eight hundred two two two five two two two. It is our pleasure to welcome our next guest to the program. He is author of the book They're Not Listening How the Elites Created the National Populist Revolution. Hey, and he's the host of a numbers Game with Ryan Gurdusky. You could download wherever you download your favorite podcasts, and you can follow him on x at Ryan Gurdusky, Ryan Gurdusky, Welcome, Thanks John, How are you. I'm good, Thanks so much for stopping by on this.
00:01:16
Speaker 4: Friday, of course, Happy good Friday.
00:01:18
Speaker 1: What's going on so earlier in the week. I guess it would be was it last week? I don't know. I'm really confused. President Trump addressed the country about what's going on in Iran and assured the country that it would be a very short time before we were done with Iran, and that would be a situation that is a box that's checked, a situation complete, and we could move on to other problems. It seems like he's starting to feel the heat of people getting restless about things like gas prices and global instability and markets, those sorts of things that are related to our action that was taken in Iran. What do you make of what's going on right now over there and politically speaking, how it's impacting what's going on here.
00:02:11
Speaker 4: Well, I mean, the messaging doesn't seem very clear. Remember back in the summer, we were supposed to have gotten rid of all of Iran's nuclear missiles. Then we were going to do this because they actually, you know, continued in negotiations, negotias had failed, and they were moving forward on more nuclear weapons as well. As mid, mid and long range ballistic missiles. And then they apparently they had no defenses, but one of our planes crashed. Today, Susie Wilds allegedly is telling people to stop telling the President that it's going so well the administrate. Everything's going swimmingly. And you know, he seems to be one of you know, one of my friends who worked for the president back in the first term and knows him well, said when he gets mad at everybody, it's just not a safe place to be. And he seems to be in this place place in the space where he's not very mad at everybody. You know, he just fired Pam Bondi, he had fired Christy nom obviously, like a week or so earlier, he had fired or the fat of the army was fired. And now he apparently told Caroline Levitt that she's doing a terrible job and is responsible for his tanking poll numbers, and his poll numbers are worse today than they were after January sixth. It's it's actually at the worst moment of his political career, is this moment, And I don't I think for a lot of people told the president that this is going to do as well as Venezuela did, and it's a complete disaster. I mean, there's no other way to say this. Yes, Iran's leadership has been executed. Okay. At the same time, there's massy to destabilization to the markets and the entire global energy. You know, almost our allies in Europe are running low on fuel. We are tapping our petroleum reserves, and gas prices are sky high. And even if you drive a tesla you see the price of oil every three blocks in this country, you know that it's rising. Price is one of the big indicators. I mean, it's going as badly I think right now as it could possibly go, but it's still early.
00:04:16
Speaker 1: Well, the last election, it was eggs. Everyone was talking about the price of eggs and how expensive those were and how it hurt people. Because the way I see it, maybe you see it differently. I don't know. When people talk about the economy, the economy is one thing. That's the stock market, that's the unemployment rate, that's indicators that talk about what's going on broadly. But then there's a different issue called the cost of living. And I think right now the economy itself is fine, but the cost of living is something that people are having a tough time with and when you talk about pocketbook issues, the cost of living is something that politically can kill you.
00:04:57
Speaker 4: Well, Hiring is very low. Hiring has been low, and there is double digit unemployment among recent college graduates. So that's not great, including college graduates with computer science degrees. It's not terrible. The economy, we shouldn't overstate it, but it's not the strongest it should be. And and the employment numbers are the lower numbers of new hiring is a big learning and certainly scambal it have caused a lot of people to have questions over you know, maybe a lack of investment, because there there's a little bit of instability, but it's not really showing in the in the true metrics of the marrow of the of the overall economy. So maybe that's probably possibly true, right however, and yet still for recent college grads it's very tough, which is why I think partially you're seeing the numbers so poorly. Among blue collar jobs. We are at a net deficit of one hundred and fifty thousand manufacturing warehouse jobs in the last year since the president took over, so blue collar workers, especially Latino blue collar workers are definitely feeling the pinch right now. And on top of that, a lot of people, rightly or wrongly, I don't think this is a fault of the president's, but rightly or wrongly, a lot of people expected prices to go down, not just for the inflation to go down, which did happen and the President was successful at that, but for actual deflationary period of prices to go down. And people are angry because they want their twenty nineteen economy back. I mean, that's ultimate. What people want is they want the econ of twenty nineteen and they're not getting it. And I think that that's why a large portion of the population is just so frustrated with politics right now.
00:06:46
Speaker 1: Well, and there's something going on here in California, and I don't know if it's going on in other states in state local races, but we have a race for governor here. Govin Newsom is turned out. We're going to decide who we want to replace him. And the leading candidates on the Democratic side of the aisle, and really all of them except for Via Ragosa and Matt Mayhan, are only talking about Donald Trump, and they're only talking about federal issues. They're not talking about the bullet train, they're not talking about our insurance crisis. They're not talking about homelessness or crime, or the budget being upside down or any of that. They're only talking about Donald Trump. They are fixated on federal issues, and they believe that voters just don't care about state and local issues right now. The only thing that Democratic voters, in particular, because that's who you're talking about when you're talking about the California electorate, the only thing they care about right now is Trump, Trump, Trump.
00:07:44
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's right. I mean, the reason they're all doing it is because that's the truth. They don't Democratic voters, I mean, to a large degree, even in a way that Republicans aren't under Under Obama, Democratic voters have lost their minds right now, Like there's something fundamentally broken with them. And it's a longer psychological thing where they were told forever that this was just a fever dream that would eventually go away. The walls were endlessly closing in, and he was really an incompetent boob who who was not actually good, just immensely lucky at politics, And it turns out he's actually possibly the most you know, incredible politician in living memory, if not the most, he's in the top five. Right, So they they they're it's I always say the same thing. It's like when imagine two thousand years ago a rabbi walking down the street seeing Jesus Christ come alive and saying, wait, this is confronting all my deepest, inmost beliefs. So they're having they're having an existential crisis, and they're the only thing that motivates them to wake up to move in the morning is the hatred of Donald Trump. That's that's that's why they're doing it. And it's happened, by the way, in Virginia right now, that's the entire referendum over getting new districts. It's all about the hatred of Donald Trump. That's what That's what a lot of places are experiencing. And how much you can you know, how can you how can you fight Trump? Which actually makes twenty twenty very interesting. What do you do when you take away their identity as far as what are they? I mean, what is the Democrats about Trump? Trump has done more and as an as much to identify and to create an identity for Democrats as he has for.
00:09:20
Speaker 1: Republicans, Well, this is going to be the death of local government in blue states if you are, let's say, on the water board and you run on the platform with hating Donald Trump, or you're on the school board or the city council or the state legislature, whatever, when your job has nothing to do with the president or the federal government or federal policy, and that's what you spend your time on, and that's what you think about, and that's what you care about, and you could care less about the subjects that you actually have some degree of influence over. I don't know how you make the trains run on time.
00:09:59
Speaker 4: I really don't, no offense, the California has not been known to make the trains were on time for a very long time. Now the trains aren't even being built right now. So uh yeah, it is of concern. And that's why I mean, my my former governor Kathy Opal, you know, she's still the governor of New York State. She said, she said, it's up to the compassion of wealthy people to move back to our state so that way they could pay the high taxes, Like we need you to move back. You all can't leave Like this is enough's enough, you know, I'm sure Florida is nice, but time to come home. And because the state's going to fall into into a into a pit, I mean, New York City in the next couple of weeks is likely to degrade to their credit rating based upon expectations.
00:10:47
Speaker 1: So how how do you govern?
00:10:48
Speaker 4: I mean, how how do you when when everything is monopoly money and you're all living in fairyland and a big part of your identity is just hating, uh, the big orange man in the sky. What is your were in the White House? What is your what is what is the purpose of the local government? I don't know. And the problem is, the scariest thing is after you know, Karen Bass has completely burned half of Los Angeles to the ground her, the alternative is, you know, is likely far worse. You know, you could always I'll say it when my when my, when Jeb Bush is running for president. My brother was a big supporter, and he always said, we could do a lot worse than Jeb Bush, and probably will, And that was that is my mentality. And now for most quote unquote centric Democrats running for office, who seemed like they're farther progressives.
00:11:37
Speaker 1: You know, It's funny. If you go back to the seventies, there were books written, I think Dick Morris wrote one and others about big cities just becoming ungovernable, where the crime was just out of control. The unions were calling all the shots, they were dirty, there were problems that they thought just couldn't be fixed. And then we found out with people like Rudy Giuliani and Dick Reardon and strong mayors in big cities, Oh yeah, we could fix these cities. It's just you need the right personality in the job. And I think we're headed to a place. You mentioned New York, you mentioned Virginia. I'm talking about California because that's where we are here. But we're headed to a place where I think those conversations are going to happen about big blue states. Can you govern these places anymore? Because I feel like the electorate in California it's like a dog that wants to run into traffic, and those remaining Republicans who are here, we're trying to keep the dog from running into traffic, and all the dog wants to do is ban the leash, and that's what we're left with.
00:12:43
Speaker 4: Yeah, and here's The problem is that one. I mean back in the seventies, there wasn't I mean, it wasn't as prevalent air conditioning and quality of living in Red States. So the idea of moving to Georgia was not something you particularly want to do unless you were incredibly wealthy to live on a golf course. That's not the situation in twenty twenty five and twenty twenty six anymore. You can it's perfectly fine. You can take your job with you. You can move everything on the internet.
00:13:10
Speaker 1: Do you.
00:13:10
Speaker 4: Wall Street can go out and move to Dallas or move to Miami or Palm Beach, doesn't matter nothing. Look at Hollywood. I mean, whoever thought that Hollywood move out of California? But it has. I mean the Hollywood and Los Angeles is Detroit with the Hill. I mean, more or less. That's what we're looking at when it comes to some of these big places. And unless they unless the electric either does it themselves, which I don't think is likely, or I think the most likely case, the most likely sing they are for these states is that they go bankrupt. And what happens is when they go bank when they're unfunded, liability as far exceed any kind of hope for tax dollars is they'll demand a federal bailout. And you better hope that are Republicans in the in the White House when that happens, otherwise it's going to be complete may. But if I mean, I think, I think before California or New York, it's going to happen to Illinois first. Illinois is truly up the up the river without a paddle.
00:14:08
Speaker 2: And a half.
00:14:10
Speaker 1: How long do you think they have before it really hits the fan?
00:14:14
Speaker 4: Uh? I mean, it's it's it's been circling the drain for some time. I remember when I was a beat reporter. This is in twenty seventeen. I remember a story of a man winning the lottery in the state lottery, going up to work, cursing out his boss, saying, I'm done. You know, I'm free now at one whatever. It was a few million dollars, and he went to go collect his winnings and the state lottery board said that he didn't have the money to cover it and he has to wait for a few years. I mean, that's what you know. You're in bad shape. That's pretty bad.
00:14:48
Speaker 1: I'll tell you. I know. You spend a lot of time on your podcast and in your your amazing newsletter talking about population patterns where people are moving to They're moving out as blue states, they're moving to red states. You you spend a lot of time analyzing that. But I'll tell you here in California, there's also been a lot of movement within the state where you've seen people leaving areas like Los Angeles County, Alameda County, San Francisco County. They're going to Orange County, they're going to the Central Valley, they're going to the Inland Empire. But I was just reading something earlier this week that even within Los Angeles County, you've seen population shifts where people are moving out of city centers. They're moving away from let's say downtown LA or mid Wiltshire, Hollywood, areas that are around all the fun stuff, and they're moving to areas that are essentially in fire zones. They're moving to the base of the San Gabriel Mountains, they're moving out to the San Fernando Valley. They're moving to places that are more remote, even though they're still within Los Angeles County. But the population, the number of people living in fire zones in California is worse today that it was a couple of years ago when they're trying to incentivize us not to move into those areas, but to move into areas where they have transportation corridors and those sorts of things. But people feel safer dealing with the fires than they do dealing with the big city governments.
00:16:18
Speaker 4: Well, I mean, because what are you more likely to get a response from a fire or a drunken homeless man screaming at you on your day to day life. I mean, even if they didn't attack you, just the quality of life is as much higher, and the chances of you having a fire that burns your house down versus just a random homeless person who screams at you is much lower. I mean, truth be told. I mean, yes, where the how catastrophic it be is pretty terrible, but your overall day to day quality of life is much higher, and they can't. The problem is is that a lot of these places California, New York, you know, Portland, Seattle, have become Chicago, have become hubs for or they called the sponge effect. That's what it's actual term. It's called the sponge effects and basically is When populations are decreasing across areas, populations with like enticing populations will will still increase. So like for example, Tokyo is still increasing despite the population Japan polling. And the reason that that and what does what has happened politically in the United States is that we have the sponge effects for politics. So if you will have forty five genders and you have blue hair, and you want to stream about Donald Trump all day, you're very inclined to go move to Brooklyn or part of you know, Silver Lake, California, or or Los Angeles, whatever, there's there's a neighborhood for you there. So that population that elected religion Redigiliani and other red state mayor red city red city mayors of blue cities back in the nineties, that fundamentally saved an ultimate That population has shifted and who was replaced that population is like the woman from Ohio who you know, always dreamed of being with you know, comrades and reliving out the seventies. Like that's the genuine issue with how to save these cities is we're we're we are We're grouping the most radical human beings on the planet all together in the same exact place, and they are they have the ability to elect you know, who wants to govern.
00:18:22
Speaker 1: Them, and it's very difficult for people to admit that they were wrong and change how they vote. People typically just don't do that.
00:18:31
Speaker 4: Yeah, and as also how many people even vote in local government, it's very small. And now at the same time, you are having very active, you know, minority populations that are very that their whole identity is politics. You know, the the the people who you know, they they think about hating Donald Trump, or or how many genders there are, or transing their children morning union night. Politics is everything to them. They don't have it. They don't now not thinking about what's on QBC or you know, who's what the priest of church is saying, it's all politics all the time. So that's that also makes things more problematic because the Latino cleaning lady who has two children and is trying to make ends me, politics is not her everything. And even though she may be more likely to say, you know, this isn't working out, I have to go vote a different way. It's is she going to go vote at all? Maybe maybe not. But the woman who's you know, got forty five cats and he thinks Lea Duvan is a personal hero. Let me tell you all she's going.
00:19:29
Speaker 1: To do is go vote. Ryan Gardusky, author of the book They're Not Listening How the Elites Created the National Populist Revolution. You can also catch his podcast A Numbers Game with Ryan Gardusky wherever it is that you enjoy your podcasts, and you can follow him on x at Ryan Gardusky. Ryan, thanks so much for stopping by, and have a very happy Easter you too. Eight hundred two two two five two two two is the telephone number. What eight hundred two two two five two to two two. If you'd like to email the show, you can do so at Johnny Don't Like show at gmail dot com. That's Johnny Don't Like Show at gmail dot com. And Randy with the end of the show about twenty five minutes away. If you want to continue listening to us after we sign off, that's easy to do.
00:20:15
Speaker 2: We're at our fifteen of the fifteen hours a week we do for you, and you want more you're so greedy, Well we're happy to fulfill that request because you can download the podcast to this show, which means if there's any of those fifteen hours you missed. You can listen to them there. Search for the John Phillips Show wherever you get your podcasts. You want to subscribe on the Apple Podcasts app or iHeartRadio, Spotify, anywhere you go, search for the John Phillips Show, hit subscribe and download all of the episodes. You want to make sure you subscribe to that feed. I'm not going to tell you why, but someday it's going to be really important. You can also do a Google on the YouTube, or get the free KABC app, the free k SFO app, or that KMJ now app because we do a little best of there and KMJ and Fresno on Saturdays at noon. There are so many different ways to listen to this show wherever you are, thanks to streaming and a higher quality sound than the radio, and you could download all the podcasts and listen to them whenever you want. As you mentioned earlier in the show, Randy, there is a Typhus outbreak in Los Angeles County. Typhus which is a flea borne disease that comes from rats, and the rats come from homeless encampments. It's something that in this very time slot doctor Drew Pinsky warned was going to happen if we just let the homeless encampments fester. And here we are as Karen bass is trying to say that homelessness is down, as La County is trying to say homelessness is down. The La County Department of Public Health, which is run by Barbara Ferrer, I have no idea, says that we are seeing the most amount of typhus that we have ever seen in the history of Los Angeles.
00:22:05
Speaker 1: The evidence is like crystal clear on that seems about right.
00:22:10
Speaker 2: For more on the typhus outbreak, here is Fox eleven in Los Angeles.
00:22:17
Speaker 5: Typhus cases are climbing in La County health official.
00:22:20
Speaker 2: Phil can't even believe it.
00:22:23
Speaker 1: I'm sure Phil's just as surprised as US.
00:22:26
Speaker 5: Health officials say the illness spreads who are infected fleas and can turn serious POXS eleven and Susan Harris soon as says what you need to watch.
00:22:35
Speaker 2: For avoid the homeless encampments.
00:22:40
Speaker 1: What do you do if a homeless encampment pops up right next to your house?
00:22:44
Speaker 6: Move rats, apossums and free roaming cats. They get the blame for a rising number of typhus cases.
00:22:53
Speaker 3: No, whenever there is increased nesting spaces for these animals. Whenever human behavior changes so that there's more contact with these animals than the risk will increase.
00:23:05
Speaker 2: That is the La County Department of Public Health very very very kid gloves way to say there's more rats because of all the homeless encampments and that's where the typhus came from.
00:23:15
Speaker 1: Why didn't they put Barbara Ferrera out there?
00:23:17
Speaker 2: She loves the cameras, you know that, like there's some new thing where they don't put her in front of the camera. Ever. She hasn't done a press conference, she doesn't do zoom seminars. You barely see her at the La County Board of Supervisors meetings. They know that the public do not like her, and they know that if they put her on the TV, we're going to play the sound and remind everyone that the not doctor makes six hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year.
00:23:47
Speaker 7: And you know.
00:23:49
Speaker 1: There's got to be a whole story behind that.
00:23:52
Speaker 7: Yeah.
00:23:53
Speaker 6: So far in La County there have been two hundred and twenty reported cases of fleaborne typhus and it's only April. Two hundred and twenty was the total number of cases for twenty twenty five.
00:24:03
Speaker 2: Okay, so this thing is exploding.
00:24:08
Speaker 1: Now. They made us wear the mask in Los Angeles County, long after just about every other jurisdiction was back to normal. I wonder what they're going to do about this one.
00:24:21
Speaker 6: Two hundred and twenty was the total number of cases for twenty twenty five. What is fleaborn typhus? Typhus is a bacteria transmitted by fleas. The advice is to give flea medication to pets and take measures to keep the feral animals away.
00:24:36
Speaker 2: What about the feral people? That's the problem, a.
00:24:40
Speaker 3: Wide contact with free roaming animals. So to make sure that there is no food that we're living outside. Make sure that the vegetation around our homes is streaming.
00:24:49
Speaker 2: What if it's piles of garbage and piles of discarded food that the rats are eating because we allow garbage to pile up on the street. How about the palletts and pallets and pallets of fruit that are dumped every single day in the produce district.
00:25:05
Speaker 1: That the government won't allow us to do anything about.
00:25:08
Speaker 3: Be sure that the vegetation around our homes is trimmed. Ea, sure there is no trash where rats can come and nest.
00:25:15
Speaker 2: Oh that's an interesting one. The La County Department of Public Health saying that we shouldn't have piles of trash.
00:25:23
Speaker 1: Okay, then clear out all of the encampments.
00:25:26
Speaker 3: I have a hard time understanding. Logic, Oh, we know, baby, am sure there is no trash where rats can come and nest.
00:25:35
Speaker 6: Doctor Halai wouldn't be specific about the hot zones for typhus.
00:25:39
Speaker 2: We know where they are. But of course the La County Department of Public Health isn't going to just straight up say this is because of the homeless.
00:25:48
Speaker 1: Nope, so they have to be real nebulous.
00:25:51
Speaker 6: I have a hard time understanding doctor Halai wouldn't be specific about the hot zones for typhus.
00:25:58
Speaker 8: It puts us on high a look.
00:26:00
Speaker 6: Salesforce Mission knows conditions like these can put the homeless at risk. Rowan van Sleeve relies on the Public Health Department to alert him if there's typhus here. Even without a warning, the LA Mission takes steps to keep the disease away, so.
00:26:13
Speaker 8: We're not able to remove the pets. Rather, we take a different approach. We engage with veterinarians to come on site and provide pet care for the animals, making sure we can maintaine hygiene and health.
00:26:26
Speaker 6: How do you know if you contracted typhus? Unfortunately, the symptoms are flu.
00:26:30
Speaker 3: Like, which is why prevention is so important.
00:26:33
Speaker 2: Ray, prevention would be great, but that means we'd have to get rid of all the encampments.
00:26:40
Speaker 1: And they don't want to do that because it's a social justice thing, which is why.
00:26:44
Speaker 3: Prevention is so important.
00:26:45
Speaker 5: Ray.
00:26:46
Speaker 3: But yes, those are very non specific. They can progress to severe diseases. It's very important that if you have those symptoms, if you have risk factors, go to your doctor.
00:26:57
Speaker 6: And because of those vague symptoms, typhus fever is often misdiagnosed. That's why the advice is to tell your doctor about the possibility.
00:27:05
Speaker 2: So there you go. Typhus is exploding in Los Angeles County as Karen Bess, running for reelection, is trying to say that homelessness is way down under her watch. It's not a namsey pamsy thing.
00:27:18
Speaker 1: And I love the fact that the follow of the science crowd is bending over backwards to not tell us that this is a homeless problem. Next side, well, Randy, we also have an update speaking of the homeless, on the homeless who were living in the river.
00:27:34
Speaker 2: Matthew Seedorf has been breaking story after story after story, whether it was the woman living in the sewer drain in that tragic story, the people living outside of the post office of MacArthur Park, or earlier this week when he went to the La River near Griffith Park and showed people living in tents and doing drugs, and at the time, Nythia Rahman puts out a comment because this is her diss the same Nythia Rahman that's running for mayor, saying well, these are really hard to reach areas for us to help these people. Well, one of the people that was in Matthew Sedorf's report three days ago was found dead from an overdose. Who could see that coming for mar Here's Fox eleven and Matthew Seedor.
00:28:21
Speaker 5: Follow up to a story you saw first on Fox eleven, A deadly turn along the La River.
00:28:25
Speaker 2: Just days after our first.
00:28:26
Speaker 5: Report, a homeless person is found lifeless, possibly from an overdose. Fox eleven's Matthew Seedorf back near Griffith Park tonight with the latest.
00:28:36
Speaker 7: An urgent investigation and a homeless encampment along the La River. A man found dead in his ten near Griffith Park Thursday morning, just three days after our first report here highlighting drug and safety concerns.
00:28:49
Speaker 2: So you can't even say, oh, we didn't know there was anybody there. It was on the TV. The city, including the city council woman who's running for mayor, doesn't act with any kind of urgency and now someone's dead.
00:29:01
Speaker 1: No, their position is the compassionate take is to let them die.
00:29:06
Speaker 7: Just three days after our first report here highlighting drug and safety concerns.
00:29:11
Speaker 9: I felt sick to his stomach.
00:29:13
Speaker 7: I feel angry, an advocate says. The man known as Venezuela was in his thirties, that was his name.
00:29:20
Speaker 1: I wonder if he's been following the news down there.
00:29:23
Speaker 7: An advocate says. The man known as Venezuela was in his thirties, seen here just days ago, meeting with outreach teams.
00:29:30
Speaker 2: I think, let me guess he turned down the help.
00:29:34
Speaker 1: I wonder if Babs gave him any drug paraphernalia.
00:29:37
Speaker 2: Oh probably, Oh you don't want us to treat your addiction? Okay? Would you like some meth pipes and needles?
00:29:43
Speaker 4: No?
00:29:44
Speaker 9: Thank you, Captain drugs and in a very dangerous position, he had no guidance, he had no roof over his head, he had no staff, no one looking out after him.
00:29:57
Speaker 7: The same conditions still here, needles drug here Finilia, with people living in tents and storm drains.
00:30:03
Speaker 4: How long have you been.
00:30:04
Speaker 3: Out here on the river?
00:30:06
Speaker 1: About thirty years for men.
00:30:08
Speaker 2: That guy's been on the river for ten years.
00:30:12
Speaker 1: That's a long time to be on the river.
00:30:15
Speaker 7: For Mannie, this is a long you know.
00:30:16
Speaker 2: I used to ride my bike on this path. It's the it's the weirdest bike path. It's the La River bike path. So you're in between the freeway and the pit that they call a river. And I had to stop riding my bike because my tires kept popping because the pavement was covered in broken glass.
00:30:35
Speaker 1: Wasn't there a skit on S and L about the guy who lived in a van down by the river?
00:30:40
Speaker 2: Yes there was. Matt Foley was his name.
00:30:43
Speaker 7: For Minnie, this is a long time home. They're not looking to leave. I mean, would you want help and resources and to get out of this?
00:30:51
Speaker 3: But I would let somebody ask to be.
00:30:52
Speaker 7: On the river across Ellie.
00:30:54
Speaker 2: I would love to get a better place, but it has to be on the river. I want riverfront property. Wow, even our homeless are boogie. You know, you just need to sometimes go to a place like New Bromfels, Texas, where they have the CoML River, which is an incredible tourist destination where people can get condos that are right there on the water, they can tube, they can drink. And then you look at what happens at the La River, which, by the way, we spent millions of dollars to revitalize and it still is a dump.
00:31:30
Speaker 1: Want to go kayaking?
00:31:31
Speaker 7: Across La County? More than six homeless people die every day. This man the latest victim.
00:31:37
Speaker 2: And by the way, if you're ever wondering why when it rains you see on the news channels like Fox eleven the LAFD with their swift water rescue helicopters, it's because people live in the river.
00:31:52
Speaker 7: Earlier this week, we asked councilwoman and mayorial candidate Nathia Rahman about conditions here. She said the area is difficult to clear with steep slopes and hard to reach coverts.
00:32:05
Speaker 2: You know, it's easy for them to pitch a tent up there, but it's hard for our outreach people to get in there.
00:32:10
Speaker 1: We'd like to help them, but it's really hard.
00:32:13
Speaker 2: The terrain was just too steep. It's unbelievable that she thinks she can run for mayor and.
00:32:20
Speaker 7: Hard to reach coverts.
00:32:23
Speaker 4: Tide.
00:32:24
Speaker 7: She calls this death a devastating loss, adding no one deserves to die on our streets. We have the funding, we need the political will.
00:32:32
Speaker 2: You're in charge of this district now.
00:32:37
Speaker 1: Whatever they fail to act and something bad happens, they always pretend like they have no power and they're just writing letters to the editor to the La Times.
00:32:48
Speaker 2: The City of LA's charter is structured in a way that we have a weak mayor and a strong city council. Each one of the fifteen members of the city Council are a de facto many mayor of their discs. If she wanted that encampment cleaned up, she could have had it cleaned up, and she knew it was there because Matthew Sedorf did the story and asked for her comment on it three days ago.
00:33:13
Speaker 7: To get it out the door, to connect people to the services and housing that can save lives. Hours after his death, some walk away with items he left behind.
00:33:24
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, isn't that a pretty picture. When the homeless person in the tent overdoses. The other homeless in the encampment steal all his belongings.
00:33:32
Speaker 1: Classy hours after.
00:33:34
Speaker 7: His death, some walk away with items he left behind, a stark reminder of how quickly life out here can turn deadly.
00:33:41
Speaker 9: Living in the bushes on the side of the La River is not a productive life, nor is it continuing to do drugs while you've been housed in housing first places, people continue to do drugs and die in those.
00:33:55
Speaker 2: All of this stems from when we decided that we were going to allow people to just do the drugs, and that was Prop. Forty seven. That's when we emptied out the prisons. We stopped putting people in prison for doing things like heroin and meth and what eventually became fentanyl. And now that's why we have seven to eight people a day, Yeah, seven to eight people every week dying on our streets.
00:34:22
Speaker 1: And just think about the combination of decriminalizing drugs at the same time that you're giving them all of the paraphernalia and you're saying that that's what the science says you should do.
00:34:32
Speaker 7: Another homeless person died along the same stretch of river roughly three weeks ago. Some are wondering if it could be connected, possibly to the same drugs reporting at Griffith Park Matthew sied or Fox eleven News.
00:34:44
Speaker 2: There you go, Nithia for mayor everybody.
00:34:47
Speaker 1: Here were the Gavin Newsom update. Mister Randy Wang.
00:34:50
Speaker 2: I just saw this on the This is Gavin Newsome Instagram account that I follow for work reasons. This is Gavin Newsom. The Gavin Newsom podcast was nominated for a Webby Award, And if you want to vote for This is Gavin Newsom as the best Video podcast Host, you can go to the Webby Awards and you can vote. Or if you don't think Gavin Newsom is the best video podcast host, you can vote for any of the other candidates.
00:35:25
Speaker 1: He is so pathetic.
00:35:31
Speaker 2: Who's he gonna think when he if he wins this thing?
00:35:37
Speaker 1: Well? Who is his first guest? Charlie Kirk, Yes, it was. I don't know.
00:35:47
Speaker 2: I'm trying to see if I could figure out who he's up against. All right, Gavin is up against Katie kurrk Kiky Palmer, Amy Poehler. H Amy Poehler is gonna win. Monica Lewinsky. Wait, Monica Lewinsky has a podcast. Actually, now that I'm looking on this category, Gavin's not on here.
00:36:13
Speaker 1: Wait he nominated himself without actually being nominated by the voters.
00:36:20
Speaker 2: So according to his post, he's nominated for best host in Podcasts, and I just look through all the candidates. I don't see him on here.
00:36:34
Speaker 1: Well, if he's up against Monica Lewinsky, maybe the category is best oral History.
00:36:42
Speaker 2: Ooh, in best new podcast, you can vote for on par with Maury Povich? Did I send you that clip of him it? He hosts it with his wife?
00:36:53
Speaker 1: Wait, how can Maury Polvich host a podcast? How could you send kids to I don't know military school over a podcast?
00:37:06
Speaker 2: It's not the thing too. No, he doesn't do that. He asks his wife Connie Chung about banging old celebrities in the fifties.
00:37:16
Speaker 1: There's an audience for that.
00:37:18
Speaker 2: Apparently there's an audience for everything. But I still am having a hard time finding. Oh, maybe it's her best video podcast host? Is it here?
00:37:29
Speaker 1: Nope?
00:37:30
Speaker 2: No, Gavin. No, I do not know where Gavin is actually nominated. And it's very possible that Gavin is not nominated, but said he's nominated. Maybe he's running a write in campaign podcast. Maybe it's best video podcast host. Let's see. Okay, the candidates for best Video Podcast Host Don Lemon or Gavin Newsom.
00:37:56
Speaker 1: It's only two of them.
00:37:58
Speaker 2: Well, there's a few others that I have ever heard of before.
00:38:02
Speaker 1: How come Lewinsky isn't in that category.
00:38:05
Speaker 2: He's up against in the Test Kitchen or Take Your Shoes Off with Rick Glassman. There are way too many podcasts.
00:38:15
Speaker 1: All right, that's it for us this week. We'll be back on Monday at noon for another edition of The John Phillips Show.
