Los Angeles Ravaged by DEI Firestorm

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Well, these images coming out of Southern California. Wow. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Todd Stearns Radio Show. Happy to have you with us. Hello to all of our great listeners across the country.

And I will say this. There's a lot happening around the Los Angeles area. We've got a lot of listeners in that area, and we certainly, our thoughts and our prayers are with the good people there.

Some of the things that I am seeing are just truly remarkable, And some of the reports we're hearing are really just infuriating, because right now we are watching a DEI apocalypse unfold before our very eyes. And it really is the perfect storm here. It is a terrible tragedy and one that more than likely, as we are beginning to glean more information, could have all been prevented had the people of California made the right decision at the ballot box. And elections have consequences. At this moment, I'm actually looking at video right now of homeowners that are siphoning off water from their swimming pools, hoping that will be enough to save their homes from destruction.

And it's just not going to happen. Look, I loved living in California. I worked there. I was the bureau chief at the state capitol during Schwarzenegger's term in office. Lived in Sacramento.

And the best thing about Sacramento was it wasn't an earthquake. We weren't on a fault line.

So there was never an earthquake when I was in California and in Sacramento, which was great.

So you get all the great benefits of being in California, but you don't have to worry about the shaking and the rocking and the rolling. But now they're having to deal with something called a firenado. Have you ever heard of such a thing? This is insanity.

So I was watching my good buddy Matt Finn. He's at Fox, and he's based there in Los Angeles. And he described it as if he was covering a hurricane, except it's a hurricane with fire. And the meteorologists were warning people to be on the lookout for these firenadoes that were spinning off of these blazes. We're talking about winds upwards of 80 miles an hour, 100 miles an hour.

So there's a lot to go through here, folks, but there is a lesson for all of us of what's happening in California right now, because all of this is happening because of failed Democrat policies. And by the way, the mayor, Karen Bass, well, she needs to be answering to a lot of this, but she's not even in Los Angeles, and we'll get to more of that in just a moment. But I want you to listen to Rick Caruso. and he was explaining what's happening here.

Now, Rick is a longtime businessman in the Los Angeles area, ran for mayor and lost. And the reason he lost is because he was not a diversity guy. And the city of Los Angeles is paying for it right now. Cut number three, please. But their hands have been tied, and they can't fight a fire without water and the resources that are needed.

Everybody knew these winds were coming. The other question has to be, you know, were all the things in place to try to, you know, again, mitigate the damage here? But the real issue to me is twofold. We've had decades to go remove the brush in these hills that spread so quickly. And the second is, you've got to have water.

And my understanding is the reservoir was not refilled in time and in a timely manner to keep the hydrants going.

So that's a failure, whether on DWP's part or another city agency. But this is basic stuff. This isn't high science here. It's all about leadership and management that we're seeing a failure of. And all of these residents are paying the ultimate price for that.

That was going to be my next question, is why isn't there water in the fire hydrants? That doesn't make any sense. You're right. That's a good question. And I think you should start asking, why don't you call the mayor who's out of the country and ask her?

And get an answer from her.

Well, now we know. And by the way, the mayor, all right, we'll get to that. I'm telling you, stuff is breaking at a rapid pace here. We're doing our very best to bring it all to you. and to put all the puzzle pieces together because what's happening in Los Angeles right now, if you have a diversity hire at City Hall running your city, then it's going to happen to you.

And I'll get to you folks in Memphis. You guys are bracing for seven, eight inches of snowfall, and you've got a diversity hire in your mayor's office. And the same thing is going to happen. The wind blows in Memphis, and all the lights go out. And it's because of failed leadership policies.

We're more interested in meeting diversity, equity, and inclusion goals than we are hiring people who can actually do the job.

So it turns out that the mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, is in Ghana. She's attending the inauguration of the new president of Ghana. Why she's there instead of City Hall has a lot of people enraged right now because they knew this storm was coming. The forecasters were warning people. We were talking about it a few days ago just in the newsroom that you had these Santa Ana winds.

They were going to be historic, life-threatening, the whole nine yards. They were telling you, you've got to get ready for this. But the city did nothing. Cut number five. If you're wondering where is L.A.

Mayor Karen Bass, she's been in Ghana.

So she's apparently on her way back. That's why we have not seen her off the scene. We saw Governor Newsom at the scene earlier. We know that President Biden happens to be in town, but we have not seen him on camera with all of this.

So the mayor's AWOL, and by the way, the firefighters are now telling us there's no water. The reservoirs were not filled, so they have no water. The fire hydrants are empty right now. It's a complete debacle, so they've got nothing to fight this fire with. People are literally having to run for their lives into the ocean.

Do you understand the power of this fire? A lot of the structures you see burning, and I've been to that area many times. I've eaten at many of the restaurants that are no longer there. They burn down. People were literally having to rush into the Pacific Ocean last night to save their lives.

One of the most heartbreaking things, there were hundreds of people at a senior convalescent center. And maybe you saw these videos. They've got all the people outside and they've got they're in wheelchairs. They're waiting on ambulances completely. The city was completely unprepared for what happened and what it continues to happen.

But by golly, they've got a lesbian fire chief. And that's the most important thing, ladies and gentlemen. It doesn't matter if they don't have the equipment. It doesn't matter if they have the manpower. They've got a lesbian running things.

For the first time in the history of the fire department in Los Angeles, they've got a lesbian in charge. And not only that, a female lesbian. And I know with all the genders and whatnot, you've got to qualify that. But it's actual, and honest to goodness, female, lesbian.

So they had two firsts, the first woman and the first lesbian fire chief. And what was the goal of the first female lesbian fire chief in Los Angeles? Cut number one. I'm super inspired. She took time out of her already busy schedule to tell us about her vision for the department's future, one that includes a three-year strategic plan to increase diversity.

People ask me, well, what number are you looking for? I'm not looking for a number. It's never enough. Out of 3,300 city firefighters, only 115 are women right now. She's already looking at ways to change that.

She's quick to point out that doing so has a greater purpose, attracting the best and brightest for the job. They feel included, they feel valued, and they feel part of a cohesive team. The chief also checks another box when it comes to inclusivity and diversity at this department. She's a proud member of the LGBTQ community. That just kind of opens the door of people that thought, wow, I didn't even know that that was an opportunity for me.

There you go. You thought I was making this up. No, I'm telling you, this was the major focus here in Los Angeles. It was not to hire the best and the brightest and the most capable. It was to hire people based on their sex and their gender affiliations, what they identify as.

That was the most important thing. Adam Carolla, the comedian, he dropped a bombshell at a hearing a couple of years ago. I just think this is fascinating. And it turns out this has been going on for a very long time. And Adam Carolla actually explained it at what was going on in Los Angeles at this court or at this congressional hearing.

Cut number 10. Geez, I want to talk about my white privilege so badly. I graduated North Hollywood high with a 1.7 GPA. I could not find a job. I walked to a fire station in North Hollywood.

I was 19. I was living in the garage of my family home. My mom was on welfare and food stamps. And I said, can I get a job as a fireman? And they said, no, because you're not black, Hispanic or a woman.

We'll see in about seven years. And I went to a construction site and dug ditches and picked up garbage for the next seven years. I got a letter in the mail sent to my father's house saying, your time has come to do the written exam for the L.A. Fire Department. I took it and I was standing in line and I had a young woman of color standing behind me in line.

And I said, just out of curiosity, when did you sign up to become a fireman? Because I did it or a person seven years ago. And she said, Wednesday. That is an example of my white privilege.

So it's a real thing here, folks. And now comes word, just a kick in the pants here.

Now comes word that most of the people whose homes burned, and we're looking at hundreds, if not thousands, of homes and businesses that are gone, just gone. State Farm, one of the biggest insurance companies in California, months ago canceled the homeowners' policies of most of the people living in Pacific Palisades.

Now, anybody find that ironic that the same people there in Maui, their insurance got canceled before the big fires there? And it's interesting, in western North Carolina, guess what? A lot of the insurance companies here are not covering any of the damage because the people living in the mountains did not have flood insurance. They had homeowners insurance, they had a policy, but they didn't have flood insurance, and so they're not covering it. Are you guys paying attention to what's happening here?

It is the perfect storm.

Now, no doubt, a lot of the people that live in this area, and there are thousands and thousands of them, and they're Hollywood celebrities, Our good friend James Woods, he's been on the show before. His home among those that was impacted. But there were also a lot of middle class folks that live in that area. And a lot of small business owners, they lost everything.

So State Farm canceled 72,000 homeowners policies in 2024 because of the risk of wildfires. And what State Farm is doing is they're saying, hey, look, you guys aren't taking care of managing the forest. And as a result of that, this is just a powder keg waiting to explode. That's what's going on here.

Now, just moments ago, President Trump weighing in on all of this, and President Trump is laying the blame directly at the feet of Gavin Newsom. Here's what he wrote on True Social here, folks. Governor Gavin Newsom refused to sign the water restoration declaration put before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water from excess rain and snow from the north to flow daily into many parts of California, including the areas that are currently burning in a virtual apocalyptic way. He wanted to protect an essentially worthless fish called a smelt by giving it less water. It didn't work.

But he didn't care about the people of California.

Now the ultimate price is being paid. I will demand that this incompetent governor allow beautiful, clean, fresh water to flow into California. He is the blame for this. On top of all, no water for fire hydrants and no firefighting planes. They don't have enough water for the firefighting planes.

A true disaster. This message just coming from President Trump. Ladies and gentlemen, diversity comes with a price tag. and the people of California right now, they are paying for it. We've got to take a quick break here.

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Now we are getting word from LAFD that they are so strapped for resources that they're looking for firefighters to call in to this hotline to help in this firefight. That number is on your screen. It is 213-576-8962.

So again, LAFD saying we need all firefighters on deck.

So if you are watching us right now and you think that you are a firefighter and you are able to help, please give this a call, 213-576-8962. I have to say, in all the years I've been covering these fires, I've never seen a call out like that before. No, I was just thinking the same thing. I don't remember us ever doing that, putting a phone number for firefighters to respond to, which gives you a sense of the severity of this issue. It is all hands on deck, as right now they're just trying to save lives, and we just have to hope and pray that no one died in this inferno.

But it was mass chaos and still is right now. And now you're looking at thousands and possibly tens of thousands of people who may not have anywhere to sleep. Their homes are gone.

Now, what I find fascinating about this fire department report, they talked about how they're running out of equipment, they don't have a lot of supplies. And one of the reasons why is that the Los Angeles Fire Department actually gave $22 million worth of gear and equipment to Ukraine. Again, ladies and gentlemen, this is what happens when you put Americans last. By the way, Karen Bass, her budget, she eliminated $17 million from the fire department's budget for this year. More than $17 million.

And why is that? Because the main emphasis of all of her agencies and all of her departments is not public safety. It's advancing this radical DEI agenda. That's what it's all about. Cut number seven.

The discrepancies are stark, even just on paper. The LAFD this year hired its first ever female chief, and it says so far this year, 8% of its applicants have been women. That might sound like a small number, but it's actually twice the percentage of female firefighters currently in the department. Every day, the LAFD is called upon to respond to crises, and today it is taking a step to resolve one of its own. The department's first ever diversity, equity and inclusion bureau will launch in January, one year since its first ever female fire chief, Kristen Crowley, was appointed.

So by creating this new bureau, our diversity, equity and inclusion bureau, now we actually have the staff to do the work when it comes to doing a deep dive in regard to how we do business, how we take care of one another in the fire stations and in our work environment. The plan is to do so by adding training and enforcing accountability. Calls for accountability have echoed for years. In 2021, women's advocacy groups, including one representing female firefighters, pushed for changes at the highest level, saying a system within the department exposes them to abuse, bullying and a culture of intimidation and retaliation.

Well, there you go, folks. Again, it's all about DEI. And until the people of Los Angeles wake up and realize that the people they're electing are putting their lives in danger, this is going to get worse. it's only going to get worse and now president trump is weighing in this is a major issue a major issue for the entire nation dei hires ladies and gentlemen all right 901-260-5926 is our telephone number that's 901-260-5926 this is the todd stern show The story of MyPillow is a testament to faith and transformation. Mike Lindell, once battling addiction, found a new path when he embraced faith and began following Jesus.

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And it wasn't just a matter of going up there and covering the fires. As a reporter, you were required to go through, it was a mandatory training course on what to do if you were out there covering a wildfire, and then all of a sudden you find yourself surrounded by the fire, the blaze. And one of the things we had to do as part of our gear, our reporter gear, we had these basic blankets, and they were fire-retarded, and it looked like a big jiffy pop thing. You remember the popcorn in the grocery store, and it's got the tinfoil, and you put it on the stove, and it pops up?

Well, that's what it sort of looked like. And if you found yourself in the middle of covering the fire, and the fire is about to consume you, you were supposed to jump inside this thing, lay down flat on the earth, and pray to the good Lord that you didn't become a jiffy pop. I mean, it's insane. But when you see it up close and personal, these are not like brush fires in the Midwest. These are monster firestorms that we're dealing with here.

And the fact that the Democrats who have controlled Los Angeles and controlled California for decades, they turned a blind eye to all of the preparation. They ought to run every single one of these people out of office, every single one of them. There ought to be recall petitions filed as soon as people can get electricity again. 901-260-5926 is our telephone number. That's 901-260-5926.

I want you to listen to Rick Caruso, again, an incredible business owner. The guy is a huge developer in Southern California, and he should have been the mayor, but he was the wrong skin color. You just got to put that out there because it's the reality. And it shouldn't be about skin color. It ought to be about whether or not somebody can be a leader, somebody can get the job done.

But they don't believe in that kind of stuff in a lot of our big cities. Here is Mr. Caruso, cut number four. Most concerning to me is our first responders and our firefighters who are trying to battle this. There's no water in the Palisades.

There's no water coming out of the fire hydrants. This is an absolute mismanagement by the city. It's not the firefighters' fault, but it's by the city. And I'm going to be very honest. We've got a mayor that's out of the country, and we've got a city that's burning, and there's no resources to put out fires.

So if you look at your pictures, you don't see the firefighters there because there's nothing they can do. And it looks like we're in a third world country here. And we've got a lot of tough questions that we need to ask the mayor and the city council and our representatives and the county representatives. Why didn't you work to mitigate this? What was your brush mitigation program?

I heard you earlier talking about it's been dry because it hasn't been rain. And that's not the biggest problem here. The brush up in these hills that are controlled by the city and the county, I would bet you that if they haven't been handled, mitigated, pruned, removed for probably 30 or 40 years, this was a disaster waiting to happen. And what's predictable is preventable. and who's paying the price of all of these people in their homes and their businesses tonight.

Now, we'll rebuild. But the majority of this community is going to have a tough time rebuilding their lives. And again, if you don't have water, you can't put out fires. And I'm going to spend a lot of time in the coming days and weeks and months asking some really tough questions. And I hope all of you and the press do the same and start holding our officials accountable to run this city in a way that keeps people safe.

You are listening to Rick Caruso, of course, businessman and developer. And this is a live look from near his property in the Palisades Village. Your property at this point has been saved. And I certainly understand that your heart is first and foremost with the small businesses and the homeowners who have lost their homes. Have you been actively in touch with LAFD?

Have you been out there? I don't suspect you have, given that it's such a dangerous area. But bottom line question is, have you talked to LAFD about the firefight and potential protection to your property? We've been in communications with them on an ongoing basis all day long. And our senior team has been in touch with LA Fire.

I think LA Fire is going above and beyond trying to manage this fire. I have nothing but praise to say for the fire department of L.A. and the county. But their hands have been tied. And they can't tie the fire without water and the resources that are needed.

Everybody knew these winds were coming. The other question has to be, you know, were all the things in place to try to, you know, again, mitigate the damage here? But the real issue to me is twofold. we've had decades to go remove the brush in these hills that spread so quickly. And the second is you've got to have water.

And my understanding is the reservoir was not refilled in time and in a timely manner to keep the hydrants going.

So that's a failure whether on DWP's part or another city agency. But this is basic stuff. This isn't high science here. it's all about leadership and management that we're seeing a failure of and all of these residents are paying the ultimate price for that that isn't that was going to be my next question is why aren't why isn't there water in the fire hydrants that doesn't make any sense you're right that's a good question and i think you should start asking why don't you call the mayor who's out of the country and ask her and get an answer from her. Wow.

It is a damning statement of what happened here, multiple failures of the government there in Southern California. And I will say this, and here's a lesson for the rest of us. You can't rely on your local government. You just simply can't do that. And, you know, we talk a lot about being prepared on this program, not going full-blown prepper style, but you do need to be prepared to take care of yourself and your family for an extended amount of time in the event of some sort of a big emergency You people in Dallas and Memphis Little Rock Arkansas you guys are about to get blasted with a massive snowstorm That is something very unusual And I will promise you this.

People are going to get stranded. The roads won't be cleared. Power is going to go out because there's no preparation. And the reason why is that we're more focused on meeting some sort of a diversity quota than we are actually hiring people who can actually do the jobs. And I suspect there are people out there in our listening audience who have actually been victims of all of this.

You were up for a job that you were very well qualified for, and you were turned away, just like Adam Carolla, because you were not of the right skin color or sexual orientation. And that's an unfortunate thing, because in America, we ought to be living this idea that you should be judged by the content of your character, not the color of your skin, for crying out loud. I believe somebody very famous delivered a sermon about that. But here we are, and our thoughts and our prayers, again, are with the people of Southern California. I can't even begin to comprehend.

There's nothing left. I mean, at least with a tornado, you might be able to get a scrap of this or that. There's nothing. It's just all ashes. Unbelievable.

You know the worst part? This is not the worst part of it. Steve Guttenberg, one of the great actors of our time, was trying to do his part to help people. And just an incredible actor going all the way back to, of course, Police Academy comes to mind, Cocoon. one of the great actors of our time.

And the reporter interviewing had no idea who Steve Guttenberg was. How do you not know who Steve Guttenberg? Come on, for crying out loud.

So, look, we're going to take a quick break here, regroup. We've got a lot happening on Capitol Hill. President Trump is going to be meeting with members of Congress today, the Republican conference. We're going to be talking about that. Also, coming up a little bit later, Congressman Kevin Kiley is going to weigh in on what's happening in California.

He represents the 3rd Congressional District down there. By the way, our telephone number, 901-260-5926. That's 901-260-5926. This is the Todd Stern Show. Hi, everyone.

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And welcome back to the Todd Starnes Radio Show. You know, there was an interesting, someone sent me this yesterday and said, Todd, can you verify this? Is this true? This map I have seen. It is a post-World War II map of the world.

And in this map, going all the way back to 1942, the map shows the United States controls not only Greenland, but also controls all of Canada and Mexico and Central America. and the person was asking who came up with this in the government well i i did a little bit of research on this and uh wanted to share it's a fascinating map uh again this map was published in 1942 this would have been um just before just before the attack on pearl harbor And the map shows, again, the United States controlling most of North America, including Mexico and Central America, as well as Greenland. The map is not an official government map. It was actually created by a gentleman in Philadelphia by the name of Maurice Gomberg. He happened to be a Russian immigrant, a Russian Jewish immigrant, and he created the map as a personal project.

But many people have used the map to highlight the New World Order conspiracy. They're like, you know, the one-world government folks believe this is evidence of a one-world government. But that's really not, that wasn't the point of it at the time. The point of the map was to imagine what a post-World War II world would actually look like. And that's why he put it together there.

So anyway, the way, and it's fascinating in our current conversation with Greenland and whether or not the United States should absorb Greenland and Mexico, the Panama Canal, and Canada itself. And I'm curious to hear your thoughts on this, because President Trump suggested that, if necessary, we might possibly take these territories by force. meaning that there would be some sort of an armed conflict. I think Greenland would go in peace. There aren't many of them there, but Central America, that is a blank show down there, and then Mexico.

Would you support the United States taking control of Mexico? What about Canada? Or should we just be happy with what we've got? I will say this. out of all of those, there are only two that I believe are strategically necessary for us, one of them being the Panama Canal and the other being Greenland.

Both of those serve as defense mechanisms for this country. And if China were to shut down the Panama Canal zone, we would be in a world of hurt.

So anyway, we're taking your calls on this, 901-260-5926. How much of North America should the United States control? 901-260-5926 is our telephone number. Senator John Fetterman was asked about this. He's still a Democrat, but barely.

He's now talking about maybe joining the Republicans. Here's what he had to say about Greenland, cut 12. There's a lot of talk about Greenland, for example. And I know there's a lot of freakouts. And, of course, I would never support taking it by force.

But I do think it's a responsible conversation if they were open to acquiring it, whether just buying it outright. I mean, if anyone thinks that's bonkers, it's like, well, remember the Louisiana Purchase? I think Alaska was a pretty great deal, too, $50 million. I think it was referred to as Seward's Folly. And now that was Alaska now.

So, I mean, open to having all kinds of conversations as well. And now, I don't think it's not helpful to freak out. But some things might work out, some may not. But that's part of ongoing dialogue. But he hasn't even taken office in two weeks.

And we really need to pace ourselves if we're going to freak out over every last tweet or every last conversation or press conference. That's a good one, John. I like it. I like it. Yeah, but I mean, it's like, you know, we are here to work together.

Yeah. And some things you can agree or disagree. Wow. John Fetterman. How about that?

The poor guy had a stroke. He was a far leftist loon, had a stroke, recovered, and now it sounds like he's an America first guy. How about that? So good for you, Senator Fetterman out of Pennsylvania. Yeah.

The the senator also weighing in on the Lake and Riley Act. And we had we had Congressman Tim Burchett on the show yesterday. He is so enraged over this that so many Democrats refuse to stand up for the American people. Senator Fetterman was wondering about what's going to happen. And he was asked about what's going to happen in the Senate when they vote on it, which could happen either this week or next.

Here's what Fetterman had to say. And I'd like to remind everybody that we have hundreds and hundreds of thousands of migrants here illegally that have convicted of crimes. And I don't know why. Who wants to defend to allow them to remain in our nation after that? And now, if you're here illegally and you're committing crimes and those things, I don't know why anybody thinks that it's controversial that they all need to go.

Do you think that this was one of, if not the biggest issue for this election?

Well, I think if we can't, you know, there's 47 of us in the Senate. And if we can't pull up with seven votes, if we can't get at least seven out of 47, if we can't, then that's the reason why we lost. That's one of why we lost. It's true. It really is.

We'll talk more about that a little bit later on. I want to give you an update on what's happening out in California. There are now five wildfires raging across Los Angeles. There had only been two.

Now there are five. We know of now at least two people are dead. More than 1,000 structures have been destroyed. No water and hydrants. And the fire is 0% contained.

Now, this is not good. They are describing conditions in the mountains above Pacific Palisades as a third-world country.

Meanwhile, the mayor of Los Angeles is having a good old time in Africa Unbelievable We'll keep an eye on that We're going to be getting a live report from a reporter Boots on the ground later in the show Also coming up, Dave Brandt Our good friend at Liberty University Senior VP of Business Relations Dave's got a lot happening as school gets back underway at Liberty One of the most important universities in our great nation All right, we're going to take a quick break here, folks. Get you caught up on the top of the hour news. Our telephone number, 901-260-5926. Again, that number, 901-260-5926. This is the Tom Stern Show.

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I love this American ride. Well, hello, America. Welcome to the Todd Starr's radio program.

So very happy to have you with us today. A lot going on around the country. President Trump up on Capitol Hill today, and we're going to check in on the president in just a little while. But right now, we need to talk about what's happening, and it's really almost apocalyptic in nature. Elon Musk just moments ago shared video of someone driving through what used to be the Pacific Palisades, and honest to goodness, folks, that video looked like Hiroshima after we dropped the bomb on him.

just absolutely horrifying devastation.

Well, I want to go right away to our Patriot Mobile Newsmaker line and bring in a good friend of this program, Joe Messina, great national radio host and also in Santa Clarita, the home of the Todd Stearns Show. We're great to have them as an affiliate. Joe, good to have you with us today. And what can you tell us about what's happening in your neck of the woods?

Well, you're right when you say it's almost apocalyptic. You know, you can look out there. Last night, you know, when it was pretty dark, obviously, in some of these areas where there's not a lot of homes, not a lot of lights, you can see that there's little fires breaking out everywhere. Todd, we actually truly had wind gusts 80 to 100 miles an hour.

So, you know, like with a hurricane where it's sustained, these weren't sustained. We'd get down to 40, 50 miles an hour in a sustained wind, and then bang, all of a sudden, it was up at 80 to 100 miles an hour.

So these embers were being blown all over the place. And, you know, bless God, the area that I live in, there's a lot of concrete-type roofs.

So the roofs aren't catching fire in that light. But in the old areas, that's not the case. And when these embers hit, they go up in a heartbeat.

So it's just amazing. And firefighters, there's 1,400 firefighters on the ground trying to get this done here in L.A. County. They just started doing airlifts or, you know, water drops and whatever that compound they used to retard the fire. And because the winds were just too much, too strong, too hard.

So they just started going airborne. We've lost it. In L.A. County, we've lost two lives. We've had thousands of acres of, you know, land just be burned up.

And you're right. it's heartbreaking to see some of these homes go up so quickly. And, Joe, again, we've got to talk about the politics of it right now, when it's happening and when it's fresh in everybody's minds. But is it fair to say that the Democrats have failed the people of Los Angeles and Southern California? Oh, yeah, in so many ways.

I think some of the things, if you really think it through, where are they putting the money? You know, one of the things that Karen Bass, when she took money away from the firefighters, you know, what did she put it towards? Homeless. Homeless. They haven't built a darn home for these people to live in.

They're putting the money into hotels and other places that you or I probably couldn't even afford in some cases. And that's important.

Well, let's explain why that's important, though, Joe, because we understand the homeless are setting these. In many of these cases, the homeless have been setting these fires. We don't know who set this one, but there's actually video out there of people even yesterday around Los Angeles, these homeless folks setting fire to things. Yeah, and they're setting fires, I mean, again, to stay warm.

However, when you have wind blowing like they're blowing, it's just craziness. They've got barrels set up. And, Todd, here's another funny thing. The county of Los Angeles over the last two or three weeks has banned burning wood, okay? If I get caught burning wood in my little, you know, wood thing in the backyard to stay warm and sit there with my wife and enjoy the night, I could get a citation for doing that.

And yet you can watch police cars drive by these guys that have fires in these little barrels, you know, to stay warm, and that seems to be okay. And, again, when you take that money away from the firefighters and you don't give them any alternative means to fight this, this is what you're going to see. This is what's going to happen. Joe Messina is with our radio affiliate in Santa Clarita, California, KHTS. Joe, any word on the mayor?

We understand she's, what, in Ghana? You're talking about Cara Bass? Yeah. Is that there? Yeah, she is a real piece of work.

She just brought in a new police chief, and I know the guy. I know him really well. And basically what she said to him was, here's the deal.

So if you cooperate with the administration, the Trump administration, you're not going to get this job.

Okay, that simple. She's not interested in dealing with the immigration issue. She's not really, really not interested in dealing with the homeless issue. And she has been problematic for this state since she became a politician.

So I don't see anything changing under her. I hope Trump is true to what he's saying or what they're saying about arresting even elected officials if they don't cooperate and follow the law. Joe, I was just astounded moments ago during the break. I was watching a press conference, and the L.A. Fire Department, very straightforward.

They said, we don't have the resources to fight this thing. We were not prepared to fight multiple fires like this.

Sort of a jaw-dropping thing to say, but when you look at the fire chief and the reason she was hired and the fact that they've been focused on, what, diversity? That's been the big issue for the fire department. Yeah. I mean, Todd, not to be funny about it, but look at her. Do you really see her toting around a fully functioning fire hose?

At any event, she's not very large, and I just can't imagine her doing that. And some of the people in and around her that I've spoken with, she's just not qualified for the job. That's really what it boils down to.

So this DEI stuff has to be flushed and flushed fast before it ends up hurting even more people. As far as them not having the resources, L.A. County, Ventura County, the counties that are around L.A. will work with them. L.A.

County has a great firefighting team. The feds also have their teams moving into place now to help out as well.

So there will be enough staff and people here. But when you have the kind of wins that you have and the limit to the airplane, we have the super scoopers. They're trying to drop water. I mean, they're trying to drop this stuff and drop water at the same time. With wind gusts, they're really against the tough task.

You need to pray for these people. It's heartbreaking, and it's our understanding. I think we had heard reports from a number of the homeowners that their policies, their insurance policies, got canceled over the past couple of months. Are you hearing that as well? Oh, no, it's a fact.

There's a couple things that they're doing. First of all, I won't mention the name of the insurance company, But if you even miss a payment by accident, okay, maybe you change banks, change credit cards, whatever it was, bang, you're canceled. There's no renewing of the policy.

Some policies have doubled.

Some policies have gone up two and a half times their normal rate, and they won't even write policies in certain areas.

So, yes, you're exactly right that some of these have been canceled.

Now, the state of California has a program where you can buy insurance for your home for fires and this kind of stuff through the state. It's about three times your normal premium, though.

So it's just tough all the way around. It's a tough state to live in. Again, Joe Messina joining us on our Patriot Mobile Newsmaker line. Joe, one final question for you. And this was a head-scratcher for a lot of folks.

They're saying that you guys ran out of water. There was no water in the reservoirs. What's that all about? What reservoirs, Todd? We've been paying to have the infrastructure.

I mean, we've been taxed to have the infrastructure fixed since I think it's the late 70s. And we have virtually built no new reservoirs.

Now, they're working on one now in Northern California. But we need it down here in Southern California. We need to capture this water and have this water here with us. And, yeah, they're having a struggle getting water to these fire departments, these people to be able to use it there at the seams. And, yeah, it's true.

So this state, if you want to see what America would look like under Governor Newsom, this is it. This is what you can see. Lack of fire, lack of police, lack of water, lack of resources for humans to live and live properly. Joe, wow.

Well, we're glad you're safe, and we certainly pray for our great listeners out there in Santa Clarita and all over Southern California. What a terrible, terrible thing. But again, elections have consequences, do they not, Joe? Right. Yep, that's right.

Todd, God bless for what you're doing and getting a message out there and making sure that people see what's happening here for real and pray for the people in Southern California. All right. Joe Messina, ladies and gentlemen, on our Patriot Mobile Newsmaker line. We appreciate Joe and all of our great listeners out there across Southern California. We have so many of you guys, and we're thinking about all of y'all.

All right. Here's what we're going to do. We're going to take a quick break. We're going right to our phone lines. The telephone number, 901-260-5926.

That's 901-260-5926. This is the Todd Stern Show. I don't really like working. I'm going to need a priority parking space. I only work remotely.

How are your safe spaces? Can I bring my dog to work? Will your company protect me against microaggressions? You're triggering me. Is this interview almost over?

You don't run a daycare. You run a business.

So why use high-priced recruitment agencies who charge you up to 40% of an employee's first year salary?

So they're focused on getting you the costly talent, not the best fit. Which means you get more of this. What's your policy on paying employees to attend protests? I demand eight weeks of vacation. I need at least 12 weeks of paid vacation.

I'm going to need a lot of mental health days. Do you have a game room? My pronouns are Z's and Z's. Isn't it time you hired grown-ups? Call redballoon.org and skip those high-priced recruitment agencies.

Call 833-880-0600 for a free consultation. That's 833-880-0600 for a free consultation. Redballoon.org. All right, welcome back to the Todd Stearns Radio Show.

So as promised, let's go to the phone lines. 901-260-5926. Charles in Statesville, North Carolina, wants to weigh in on the land grab. All right, Charles, do we invoke the new Monroe Doctrine? Todd, I'm going to say yes and no.

Steve Bannon called it Manifest Destiny 2.0. That's right, he did. I never thought this would be a topic of discussion when I voted for Donald Trump. But along that thought, I think clearly Greenland and the Panama Canal are in our strategic interest. If you look at Greenland, where they are geographically, if we had access to that, you can monitor all kinds of naval activity from Russia, China, just anywhere.

And it just gives you a lot more options. The Panama Canal, you know, we paid for the canal. We built it. A lot of Americans died there. It's a very strategic canal waterway that's in the vital national interest of the United States.

We cannot allow that to be taken over by China. And if we had to take that over by force, I would say yes. It also might help us control some of the illegal immigration coming into the country. but as far as Mexico and Canada tied I'm going to say taking them over I'm going to say no I don't support that and here's why you know Canada's 45 million people and Mexico's 137 million people if you take over those countries how many states do you divide them up into you're going to have what 50 more senators coming into the United States and you're going to have hundreds of more congressmen and let's not forget most of the people in canada and mexico a lot of their leftists and i don't want them here i think we might be buying one gigantic welfare state uh mexico you'd be buying a narco state so i just don't think as tempting as it may sound i just don't think that would be a good idea i think our best chance to take mexico was in 1848 at the end of the mexican-american war and we didn't do it so i just think we need to focus on having better relations with both of those two countries. Hey, Charles, I want to bring someone else into the conversation.

This is David, who is actually calling from Vancouver and who has an interesting perspective as a Canadian. David, welcome to the show. Hello to you. Yes, indeed. I am a real, true Canadian.

You can probably tell from the way that I talk, slightly different than you guys. but I wanted to share with you the fact that I believe there's sort of a misconception about how people feel about America and Canada. I mean, we essentially are America, you know, and in a real way, culturally, we watch all the same sports and television, and so you take out the economic side of things, and it would be such an easy thing culturally for people, And I think people are so sick and tired of the way things are happening. I think it would be a pretty good partnership, Todd. And I think we could bring a little something to the table as well.

Yeah? Is that safe to say? I mean, you got hockey and you got the Canadian bacon. I like that on my Egg McMuffin. Yeah, I mean, look, I'm curious.

You know, what would the Canadian – are you folks, everybody talking about this? I mean, are they open to the idea of becoming a part of the United States? Absolutely. I mean, people I know, I mean, they're talking about it definitely. But again, when you say we're talking about it, we're just watching the same media as you.

So we're just seeing it anyways. I mean, we're all sharing and all of that stuff anyhow. And I want to say one thing that could help you with as well. I would have a good piece of advice winter weather wise, because we have a little bit of experience in that. And for you specifically, Todd, do not eat the yellow snow.

Yeah, I've heard the yellow snow. I've heard that, David. I've heard all about the yellow snow. Thank you.

Well, Charles, you've got David here, who's Canadian. And David, Charles' concern is that there are far too many leftists up there in the Great North. Yeah, I mean, there are. I'd actually like to drink urine. That's my concern.

We're done with David. And thank you, David, for that. But, Charles, to your point, I think David just proved the fact that he is, in fact, a far leftist loon. Yeah, I mean, you know, Canada, we have a lot in common culturally, linguistically, and everything else. But they are a separate political state.

They have their own customs, and they don't have the appreciation for the Constitution that you and I have. They don't allow free speech in Canada. They have free health care. There's gun restrictions. It's there much more.

Those the Canadians are much more dependent on their government and are willing to submit the government than you and I are. And I'm just afraid if we absorb people like that again, how many more states do you want to divide them up in two given senators, congressmen? And I just think it would create a mess. I think we need to have a good partnership with Canada. But if I were Canadian, I would not want to give up my country to become part of the United States.

but mexico definitely not mexico todd i mean we have nothing in common with them culturally with our history with our institutions uh politically i just think that would be a disaster don't you if we did something like that well i would yeah i i share those concerns i it would almost to me like be uh just go ahead and make haiti you know the 52nd state you know no no no we don want that So strategically maybe it makes sense I don't know. But I think culturally, completely different cultures, I think you're going to end up with hundreds of years of fierce fighting if we did something like that. I don't think Mexico would go peacefully anyway. and I'm not quite sure what they would add to what we do as Americans. Yeah, and I think you'd just be inviting tribalism, identity politics, just more racial and cultural conflict.

And I just don't think they would assimilate into the United States. And like I said, Todd, when President Trump threw that out there, it sounds better than it actually is. But the Panama Canal, I can definitely see that, and Greenland as well. We have to buy that. That'd be the best land acquisition since Alaska.

All right, Charles, got to run. Appreciate the call. What say you, ladies and gentlemen, do you take all of them? Do you take Greenland, Panama Canal? Do you take Mexico?

Do you take Canada? Or do you just pick and choose? What say you? 901-260-5926 is our number. That's 901-260-5926.

Again, this is a country that elected Trudeau as their prime minister. I got a big problem with that. A big problem with it. 901-260-5926. Again, you heard Joe Messina just moments ago on our Patriot Mobile Newsmaker line.

What a great opportunity for you to make a switch to America's only Christian conservative cell phone company, Patriot Mobile. Go to their website. They have a special page just for our listeners, patriotmobile.com slash Todd. That's patriotmobile.com slash Todd. They have all sorts of incredible, incredible discounts.

If you are a veteran or a first responder, they're going to give you an even better discount. You're going to love them. Best part of it all, they're conservative, they're Christian, and they have a great cell phone product. Patriotmobile.com slash Todd. Hang tight, everybody.

We'll be right back. I don't really like working. I'm going to need a priority parking space. I only work remotely. How are your safe spaces?

Can I bring my dog to work? Will your company protect me against microaggressions? You're triggering me. Is this interview almost over? You don't run a daycare.

You run a business.

So why use high-priced recruitment agencies who charge you up to 40% of an employee's first-year salary So they're focused on getting you the costly talent, not the best fit, which means you get more of this. What's your policy on paying employees to attend protests? I demand eight weeks of vacation. I need at least 12 weeks of paid vacation. I'm going to need a lot of mental health days.

Do you have a game room? My pronouns are Z's and Z's. Isn't it time you hired grownups? Call redballoon.org and skip those high-priced recruitment agencies. Call 833-880-0600 for a free consultation.

That's 833-880-0600 for a free consultation. RedBalloon.org. All right, welcome back to the Todd Sterns Radio Show. And, of course, we are following the breaking news out of Los Angeles, where the fires continue to rage, and it is just utter devastation there.

So just a tragic, tragic situation. In the meantime, south of the border, Mexico's president, that would be President Scheinbaum, is having a mental break. She is now suggesting that Mexico may retake most of the United States, calling it Mexican America. That doesn't have a good ring to it, right? Let's go to the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker line.

Say hello to our good friend Dave Bratt, Senior Vice President of Business Relations at Liberty University, the greatest university in America. Dave, hope you're doing well. Hey, doing great. Thanks, Todd. All right, so I want to get your take here on this land grab, among other things, where there are so many stories to talk about.

President Trump just exploding liberal minds with his, what is it, Monroe Doctrine 2.0. Yes.

So is it a good idea, out of all those countries, we've got Greenland, Canada, Mexico, Panama Canal Zone, what do we take, what do we leave behind? Yeah, well, you never know. I mean, he's a creative, you know, communications expert. And so, you know, trying to guess what he's doing, who knows. But, you know, the Panama thing, that theory is kind of that way down there.

he's sending uh signals to south america he's probably the greenland he's probably sending signals to china there's probably stuff we don't know about there canada he might just be trolling them and other i mean we're just all speculating uh but he you know i i think he wants to leave behind a pretty huge legacy and so that's uh that looks fairly significant to me i would say so i I mean, going back to the great Louisiana Purchase, I mean, that really... Right, that's how you make the history books. That's it. It's Trumplandia. I don't know, what are we going to call it?

Magadonia. Yeah, no, it's stunning. And then I've heard other folks comment, you know, the air probably went out of Ukrainian lungs when they saw this because they know the cash is probably not flowing there. Trump has identified key strategic areas for the U.S. interest.

And the Ukraine is like we all love the Ukrainian people. That's not what it's about. But our CIA and the war monitors, I think their days are highly limited now. They didn't make the cut here. You know, there's a lot of work that has to be done, and the president's agenda is massive.

Tim Burchett, Congressman Burchett, over in East Tennessee, was on our show yesterday. He says that Trump really doesn't have four years to accomplish this. He's got to get it done in at least the first year. Do you find that to be the case, or do you think this president's going to be able to get a lot done through the entire four years? Birchett is great in the first place.

So his intuition is probably right that, you know, we'll achieve things in years three and four and tried to left-proof. The left has Trump-proofed the economy right now. They've been printing money, doing short-term loans, messing up the border still, adding troops to go to war.

So they're Trump-proofing the economy.

So year three or four, we'll be able to lay some foundation there so the left can't end a good legacy. But he's probably right. The first year, and that's why this one-budget versus two-budget reconciliations, right? We, conservatives in the base, want to see significant movement on the border and on the things that the America First folks voted for. The tax cuts for the rich part, that'll take a long time and get complex.

And so the Speaker of the House is in a little tension with the Senate. The Speaker wants one bill because they don't have any votes to spare. But if you do the border, I mean, my word, that's what the whole election was about. The House has just got to get its mojo back and have confidence that if you do the right thing, this country is going to back you. And, you know, we always force our guys to do the bidding of the rich in the House and the Senate.

But we'll never use that same power of the speakership to put pressure on the squishes to do what the America First crowd wants, which is, you know, end all the wars. quit funding Ukraine, not the people, but the war effort, and sealing that border, and then quit printing money and start trying to cut the spending. That's what we want to see. And so I think it's crucial that we do that in the first reconciliation package, and that that's done in about the first two or three months, not years. If we end up having to add tax cuts, we're going to be into May, June, July, before that budget's ready, if it's ready.

And you all remember, Paul Ryan, we promised seven years we'd repeal Obamacare, and we didn't even come close to keeping our word on that. But the tax cuts for the rich certainly made it through. Dave Brant from Liberty University on our Patriot Mobile Newsmaker line. Dave, this just coming in, President Biden announcing yet another $500 million to fund the war in Ukraine. All of this as California is on fire.

Dave, it's just beyond me. And at some point you think, okay, this is just bad optics. I think this is intentional. They're cleaning out the bank accounts. Yeah, well, that's absolutely right.

And the even more mind-numbing part is that we only won the election 51 to 49. I mean, who's the 49% who want to go to war more against Russia who's already won? Everybody knows Zelensky's days are done. They're not numbered. They're done.

He's lost. They've lost. Our CIA and State Department put the Ukrainian people in a terrible hellhole. And we ought to be apologizing. And I did.

I was over there. Kiev read them up a few weeks ago. And I apologized. And they said, we want to be used because we don't have a choice. We're getting attacked.

And they're getting attacked because we shoved them into NATO and kept poking the Russian bear. When anybody with a brain who's followed this thing for 20 years knows Russia said that's an absolute red line. And our CIA was involved in doing a coup d'etat over there in 2014, turning over the presidency, while they're saying we're pro-democracy. And so, yeah, spending more money on that, I mean, it's just clearly, you know, this is a donor-fed defense. Defense establishment being funded by promises that Biden made them.

And obviously we don't know what those promises are. But we're finding out at the end of the term where all the promises are, just follow the money. That's just terrible. You know, we've been following the developments out of Los Angeles, and it's going from bad to worse out there. But the reality of it is a lot of this could have been prevented had they just not elected Democrats.

And you hate to get down to the brass tacks, but that's pretty much the brass tacks of it. Yeah, well, the competency, right, the left, the liberals used to be, right, if you go back to FDR, right, I obviously totally disagree with that agenda, but he had true technocrats, intelligent people running things back then that they took over the world under FDR. But now all of that apparatus in each state and bureaucratic state has decayed over decades and decades and decades, And now you're left with it's just a money trough of people who have been hired in government jobs, and then they vote for the blue machine, and no one knows what they're doing. And you just gave a couple examples. We could spend the whole day going over the terrible health care in this country.

Everybody I know is sick, and the sicknesses are now lasting not three or four days, but they're lasting a month.

Something is going very wrong, and RFK Jr. I think is going to get to the bottom of some of those health concerns. But, yeah, we're just blowing cash all over with no results on fires to California or green energy. Our energy grid is a problem. Europe, everybody ought to be studying the European news as well, right, because England, Germany, France right now, they're all leading indicators of what's going to happen to us in a decade, and they're all falling apart in shorthand.

All right, Dave Brandt on our Patriot Mobile Newsmaker line. And, Dave, I know you guys are gearing up for a pretty busy semester there at Liberty. Looks like it's going to be a great semester. Yeah, I know the students are starting to come back. I was just over to the cafeteria for lunch, and a lot of the athletes are back.

We're just pumped to train more champions for Christ. That is what brought the Judeo-Christian West all the success we have, the human rights, the capitalism, the markets, everything. And we need to get back to the first principles. And, of course, God is the first principle. Amen to that.

Folks, go check out Liberty University, liberty.edu. Again, Dave Brandt, always good hearing from you, my friend. You too, brother. Thanks, Todd. All right.

There you go, folks. Going to take a quick break. When we come back, we will be going right to our phone lines here, 901-260-5926. is our number. That's 901-260-5926.

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President of the United States said, yes, what else do you need? Emergency proclamation is being drafted as we speak. and I just want to thank the president because that's something I don't take for granted and something we should not take for granted at this moment in American history so thank you President Biden as well Alright, that's Governor Gavin Newsom just moments ago President Trump placing all of the blame squarely at the feet of the governor here and rightfully so Newsom's in charge you got the mayor of los angeles and she's hobnobbing around africa while people are suffering in los angeles what a terrible thing all right let's go to the phone lines 901-260-5926 our good friend jerry in milwaukee hi jerry what's going on hey todd it's it's just amazing the things coming out of donald trump's mouth donald trump when asked Would he rule out the use of military forces to invade Greenland? And he said, no, he wouldn't rule it out.

So potentially American lives, some American soldiers would die to invade the territory of a fellow NATO member, an ally, causing havoc among NATO, havoc among our allies. For what? I mean, China wants this. Russia wants this. It gives them ground justification of their potential invasion of Taiwan and the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.

This serves no purpose. I mean, even Utah, this is just Trump's massive eagle. I mean, this serves no purpose at all. This has nothing to do with national security. We already have a military base there.

I mean, we could defend Greenland if it really was potentially threatened. We don't have to invade it. I mean, it's ridiculous.

Well, here's why Trump wants it. And this is, you know, scholars on both sides of the aisle agree that Greenland is very important. And it's important for both economic purposes and defense purposes. And with the sea ice, you've got new shipping routes through the Arctic that are opening up.

So, and we do have a, we've got, I think it's our northernmost U.S. military base. I think so, too.

So Trump said, you know, so I get Greenland, and I get the Panama Canal. We never should have given it away in the first place. But with Greenland, I just don't think Denmark, I just don't think that they're going to want to go to war with us. They ought to just take the cash. You know, why do people in Greenland want to be part of the United States?

I think it's pretty clearly from what I've read they do not want.

So this is for economic reasons. Essentially, it's like we want to take their stuff, and we want to use the military, and Trump wants to use the military to take their stuff. Because you can defend Greenland against any potential naval threat from China or Russia, which is unlikely, but the U.S. Navy would overwhelm any potential naval threat.

So it's just about basically taking the stuff of Greenland, because Trump wants to take the stuff of Greenland. There's not much there.

Well, then why does he want it? Because we need it. It's for the sea routes. It's for the routes through the Arctic ice.

So, again, it's the Northern Sea Route.

Okay, and we couldn't safeguard the sea routes without invading Greenland. You say the U.S. Navy cannot safeguard the sea routes around Greenland from any potential threats. Of course we can't. U.S.

Navy is by far the greatest Navy in the world, in the history of the world. There's no threat to it. We don't need to invade Greenland, a sovereign NATO country's territory. It's absurd.

So I take it you're a no then. Yes, I'm going to help. By the way, now we can make it fair. We could, like, instead of sending, we could put the Navy, we could put them in Viking ships, give them all the hats with the horns and the furs, and we could make it, you know, at least they could have a fighting chance. Oh, yeah.

Wasn't there someone at the 9th, January 6th, four years ago, who was in, like, a Viking ship? Oh, that's right. Wow. Oh, he could be on the lead ship. I forgot about him.

I called him Shamu. No, that's not it. It's the shaman. It's the shaman. The shaman.

Shamu is the fish. The destroyer. I forgot about that guy.

Well done, Jerry.

Well done. All right. Good hearing from you, my friend. Jerry says, no, we do not need to take over any other countries. And I wouldn't mind Greenland.

I mean, there's not much there. They've got, what, 60,000 people?

So it's not going to, you know, it would be like, I don't know, taking over Statesville, North Carolina, if you guys weren't in, you know, already in the country.

So, all right, 901-260-5926 is our number. That's 901-260-5926. Coming up in the next hour, by the way, we're going to be going live to a reporter, boots on the ground in Los Angeles, covering the wildfires. Also, Congressman Kevin Kiley is fighting back. He represents an area in and around San Diego, and he has had it with Governor Gavin Newsom.

So we'll be talking to Congressman Kiley coming up a little bit later on. I've got to get this story out for you. It was on our pile yesterday and didn't quite make it. Cal State University East Bay. They have a brand-new woke language guide, and they're warning staffers not to use non-inclusive terms.

So you can't say civilized, native, or illegal alien anymore. And they say it's part of an evolving guide of phrases and information. For example, you have to avoid using medical diagnostic terms or gender identity disorders. You can't say homosexuality or transsexual. Those are no-no words.

You can't say that. Also, you're not allowed to use words to describe people from other countries, like third world countries, a big no, no. Primitive is a no, no. And Oriental. You can't say Oriental.

Oh, and you have to use the positive and affirming term undocumented. You can't call people illegal anymore. This over at Cal State East Bank. Can you still call them morons? Is that still permissible?

All right. Hang tight, everybody. Got to take a quick break. We'll be right back. Live from the Liberty University studio in Memphis, Tennessee, it's America's conservative blowtorch.

That's us. That's right. I love this American ride. Todd Starks. Oh, yeah.

It's just beyond description. It really does look like somebody opened up the gates of hell and unleashed a firestorm on this beautiful area of California, a place that I have vacationed. I've had dinners down there. It's all gone. It is absolutely just all gone, and the fires continue to rage.

Hello, everybody. Welcome to Hour 3 of The Big Show. I'm Todd Stearns, and we thank you for joining us as we focus a lot of our attention on what's happening in California. And already, President Trump weighing in and saying that this could have been prevented had measures been taken. And we seem to be hearing that from a lot of people there across the area.

The mayor of Los Angeles is in Ghana attending the inauguration of the president of Ghana. She is not in Los Angeles. There is a lot of concern about whether or not the firefighters have the resources they need to protect further homes from burning. I want to go right away to the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker line and bring into the conversation Congressman Kevin Kiley represents California's third congressional district. And, Congressman, this must be heartbreaking to see your fellow Californians suffering like this.

Absolutely. I mean, the scenes we're seeing are just surreal, absolutely beyond belief. I actually lived in that area or nearby in L.A. for a number of years. And, you know, these are familiar to communities.

And seeing, you know, them just reduced to nothing, just unfathomable loss of property. We've already heard there's been some loss of life. And, you know, the conditions are not making it easy to get this under control.

So, you know, keeping everyone there, certainly in our prayers and trying to do everything possible we can to get as many resources as possible to that region very, very quickly. Congressman, so many people are concerned about the lack of preparation, I think is the word that so many people are using. The fire hydrants were there was no water in the fire hydrants. There just weren't enough personnel there. Are you hearing those similar concerns?

Yes.

I mean, it's truly mind-boggling, some of what we're witnessing here. And frankly, there's going to be a lot of questions that we ask once, you know, this crisis is brought under control. At the moment, I think that every single hand needs to be on deck, and 100% of our focus needs to be on stopping further devastation and getting the fire under control. But in time, we're going to have to ask precisely those questions. How is it possible that we have fire hydrants that we can't get water out of?

How is it possible that that we let this happen, that we didn't that we have the massive budget that we do in California, that the fire risk has been ever present for many, many years? And yet we don't have adequate personnel, especially at a time when the risk to the state is really concentrated in that region with the Santa Ana winds. Other parts of the state that are prone to fire risk are wetter right now and there isn't as much risk.

So, you know, and then, of course, we have reports that we know that they stopped doing prescribed burns earlier this year. And the water policy has been mismanaged in a lot of ways.

So, yes, those are all going to be questions that we absolutely have to answer. But right now, the focus needs to be on stopping this fire from causing any more loss of property and loss of life. Are you hearing are they getting the resources they need to be able to do that? We're hearing that, you know, at least another fire, I think now up to five possible fires burning out there. That's right.

Well, I mean, we're hearing reports from the front lines that they are undermanned and under resourced. And so I know that there's a statewide and indeed nationwide effort going on right now to get California help. I saw even Governor DeStantis in Florida is sending help our way.

So, you know, we are mobilizing more and more resources. But honestly, in these critical early hours of this fire, it does appear that not enough resources and personnel were on hand. You know, to that point, the L.A. Fire Chief, according to radio traffic, and we're working to effort this audio, but according to the radio traffic, the L.A. Fire Chief said there were just not nearly enough firefighters.

This coming after the mayor cut over $17 million from the fire department's budget this year. you're right. There are just so many questions that Californians are going to have to demand answers here. And one other thing, before we move on, because there are so many other things we want to talk to you about here, Congressman, we are also hearing reports that thousands of people in this area, their insurance was pulled, was canceled over the past couple of months. Are you hearing that as well?

Is that happening in California? Oh, yeah, absolutely. I mean, this has been a growing crisis for many years now. My district, which encompasses about 450 miles along the Nevada border, there are whole areas where everyone has basically lost their insurance. And, you know, at best, you're forced to go to what's called the California Fair Plan, which is like the insurer of last resort.

And you might pay five or six times as much as you did before. And so I've seen some early estimates of their exposure here. And it's just, you know, I'm not sure how it's even going to be sustainable.

So, yes, California has had this fire insurance crisis, which is principally a product of these devastating wildfires that we've had, but also is a product of some pretty bad policy choices that have been made along the way. Congressman, you introduced a bill to prohibit federal funds from being used by Gavin Newsom's high-speed rail project. We understand. Is it $80 billion over budget? That's a very generous estimate.

I mean, you know, at least that. Wow. At this point, even the rail authority itself says that there's $100 billion funding gaps, funding shortfall. And by the way, it was supposed to be, you know, actually moving people around the state by this point. But 15 years after the initiative for it was approved, we don't have a single passenger.

There's been five CEOs of the High Speed Rail Authority. There have been zero passengers by this point in time. And yet Biden has given the train seven billion dollars somewhere in that neighborhood. And they're asking for even more right now. And, you know, that's a waste of federal taxpayer dollars.

But it also sort of keeps the project on the life support so that Californians are forced to pay more and more every year as well.

So yeah I put out a bill that said enough is enough It time to pull the plug on this thing It time to stop throwing good money after bad And it time by the way to take those resources our share of the federal transportation resources and actually use it on our roads, which are in terrible shape as well. Unbelievable. And, again, you talk about we've got the Doge Committee coming online here very soon, and it's this kind of stuff where you just have to step back and it's like, What in the world are people thinking here?

Well, that's right. And this disaster has just been growing and growing and growing every single year. I've been calling for this thing to be brought to an end for a long time. But with Doge, I think that we have a real chance of making it happen because, you know, you're talking about the Department of Government Efficiency. Is there a single example of a more inefficient government project than the California high speed rail, which is estimated to cost 120, 130, at least billions of dollars, which is, according to the New York Times estimates, not on track to be finished even this century.

Whereas meanwhile, you have, for example, in Morocco, one of the operators in the early stages of high-speed rail in California, they got up and left. They said, forget it. This is never going to work. There's too much political incompetence here.

So they said, we're going to go someplace that's more politically functional. They go to Morocco, and they actually brought a high-speed train online in Morocco in 2018.

So it's not like these things are impossible to build. It's just that California's political leadership is so utterly inept that they've turned this thing into the biggest boondoggle maybe in U.S. history. Unbelievable. Well, Congressman, we're glad you're all over it and so glad you are in Congress.

The good people of California are so grateful, I have to imagine. We're going to be talking to you later on this evening on my Newsmax TV show. And we've got wall-to-wall coverage of what's happening in California coming up at 5 o'clock Eastern tonight, ladies and gentlemen.

So you're going to want to watch that. Congressman, I know you're a busy man, and we'll let you get back to it. And we just certainly hope that you guys know we're praying for you out there. Thank you so much, Todd. Very much appreciate it.

All right. There you go, folks. Congressman Kevin Kiley from California. And, again, he will be joining us also. We're going to be talking to some reporters, boots on the ground.

at the fire. Senator Marshall Blackburn will also be with us tonight on Newsmax starting at five o'clock Eastern. All right, folks, we're going to take a quick break going to the phone lines 901-260-5926 is our number. That's 901-260-5926. This is the Todd Stern Show.

All right, let's go to the phone lines. Dyersburg, Tennessee. Shane is listening to us on WTJS today. Hi, Shane. What's on your mind?

Good afternoon, Todd. Thank you for taking my call. I just wanted to comment about your last segment about making Canada Trump's idea to make Canada the 51st state. I think he's got the right idea. He's just looking north when he should be looking south.

I mean, in my opinion, all the money we spend on the southern border, the fentanyl, the amount of drugs and sex trafficking coming across the border, Mexico could be our 51st state, and Panama Canal could be the cherry on top. I don't understand. We could clear the cartel out of there. Our military could do it in minutes. But I just like to examine that avenue and the pros and cons, because we spend a lot of money on the southern border and on drug trafficking and on drug awareness and drug prevention.

I mean, this could be all a win-win if we look at it that way.

So you think to root out the bigger problem of stopping illegal immigration is to take over Mexico, eliminate the border wall, move the border wall down to somewhere in Central America where maybe you're going to have a better shot at that much smaller border and stopping the illegals? That's correct, because then you're only policing your shores. Interesting. It's an interesting thought. Mexico is not in charge of – Mexican government is not in charge of Mexico.

The cartel is in charge. The cartels are, yeah, absolutely.

So the question is, would we be able to go in as a military? Basically, we would have to wage a ground and air war in Mexico to root out the cartels because they are basically small militaries. We're doing it anyway on our southern border. Let's say we're not doing it because the previous administration is allowing it. I mean, we're spending all kinds of assets down there, stopping tunnels, stopping border crossings, not having, you know, enough, you know, manpower to stop the illegals and the drugs coming across.

I believe the cartel got word that we're going to Mexico's a 51st state that they have no choice but to leave or fight. And I would say they would leave. Shane, it's a good thought. And we'll open it up to the audience here. I like how you thought this through.

and to your point, it's more beneficial to us, and it's more advantageous to us to shut down the illegals, all the trafficking and the drugs, and that's why we should take Mexico. It would be a lot of work. Would we be able to succeed? That's the question. Shane, thank you for the call, 901-260-5926.

Shane says it's Mexico, not Canada, that we ought to be taking over, annexing.

Well, this just is from California. Folks, these people are morons, flat-out morons. Governor Newsom has finally just now ordered the mobilization of the California National Guard. You got half the freaking city that's been burning since yesterday, and they're just now getting around to calling in the National Guard. Do you see what's going on here?

And I want to throw out a thought. and Alex Jones was talking about this, and I think it's a pretty interesting thought. Is it possible that the powers that be are allowing these sort of catastrophic events to happen to destabilize the country? You've got Maui. You've got what happened in North Carolina and East Tennessee, now California.

By the way, it was the Iranians who said a few days ago to be watching for something very upsetting and eye-opening, something that had never happened before in America. That's what the Iranians were saying just a few days ago. And it might be worth repeating that we really don't know how this fire started. There is some speculation it started in somebody's backyard. Perhaps the legal may have started the fire.

They've been prone to do that. But it does make you wonder. Iran said to expect something that would be eye-opening and jaw-dropping in America. And all I can tell you is that what's happening in Southern California right now is eye-opening and jaw-dropping.

some new intel uh this is coming from uh the official fire department training manuals and their budget the los angeles fire department spent over a million taxpayer dollars on dei and dei recruitments keep in mind they cut 17 million dollars from the budget 17 million dollars from the budget that's where we are right now the also the la fire department passed a racial equity plan to end systemic institutional and structural racism and dylan you and i are staring at each other i i i i got lost in my train of thought and i thought did we take a break did we miss a break we're still here okay good thank you It's still in the air. Whoops.

Sorry about that, Affiliates. Oh, wow. It's only Wednesday. You know what it is? I was up late last night into the wee hours of the morning watching and observing what was happening in Southern California.

And so many good church friends down there in that part of the country. Just, again, beautiful, beautiful area. And it's just so tragic. And now we've apparently got a major snowstorm that's about to slam into Memphis. and I'm telling you, we're nowhere near ready.

Nowhere near ready. And it's going to be bad. They're saying, what, up to seven inches of snow. We can barely handle an inch of snow. And all you know what breaks loose.

We already have power outages and we haven't had a single snowflake. But that's because, just like Southern California, diversity, equity, and inclusion rules today here in Memphis, Tennessee, another major American city. Same thing's happening in New York City, by the way, in Chicago. DEI takes precedent over competence.

Now, the question is very simple, ladies and gentlemen. How do we fix that? How do we fix that? Because we've got to fix it.

So how do we fix it? Is there a quick fix? But I'm telling you right now that not only have they hired a bunch of DEI people for the Los Angeles Fire Department, they still don't have enough people to fight this fire. that is a frightening concept. All right, 901-260-5926, our telephone number, that's 901-260-5926.

Coming up next, we're going to take you right to the fires. We're going to be talking with a reporter, a correspondent, boots on the ground in Southern California. And I just have to say, well done, Fox News. The coverage last night and the live coverage going into the wee hours of the morning was just unbelievable. and that crowd over there they deserve a um a thumbs up well done excuse me all right we got to take a quick break here 901-260-5926 this is the todd stern show wildfires in california i've got friends that work in this industry and they refuse to go into california because of the regulations and expenses in trying to do things in california so they're digging their own graves down there all right well that's one of our great listeners from washington state and we certainly appreciate you phoning in uh by the way folks you can do that if you download our free app you can do that at toddsterns.com that's toddsterns.com and you'll be able to download the app again tonight five o'clock eastern on newsmax so you're going to hear from senator marshall blackburn also congressman kevin And Kylie is going to be joining us as well to give us the very latest on the wildfires in Los Angeles.

I will say this, and again, you're going to be hearing a lot about the politics of this. President Trump, President-elect Trump just a little while ago weighing in on this, placing all the blame at the feet of Governor Gavin Newsom. Governor Newsom holding a press conference just moments ago with President Biden, who was out there for a totally unrelated event. And we'll bring you some of what the president had to say in just a moment. Right now, I want to go to the newsmaker line.

CBS News correspondent Elise Preston is based in Los Angeles. Elise, good to have you with us today. Where are you and what's happening around you? Hi, Todd. Thanks so much for having us.

We are in Malibu, right on the Pacific Coast Highway, and it is an incredible sight to see, right, because this is such an iconic stretch here in California. And on one side, we're seeing the ocean, but then on the other side, it's just complete devastation. If you go further down the Pacific Coast Highway, on both sides, homes have been destroyed, just burned to the ground, homes and businesses. In this area in particular, from this one fire, more than 1,000 structures have burned. Keep in mind, California, Southern California, this immediate L.A.

area, now has four wildfires burning.

So it's just a lot of devastation right now. The winds are what is making this so terrible. We're seeing winds at 100-mile-per-hour gusts. a gust.

So they are moving these flames very quickly. We were walking down the roadway and one of the homes that the fire, it appeared to be out. There were just a little few embers remaining. A gust of wind kicked in and it turned that ember into a billowing flame within a matter of seconds. And so that's what firefighters are battling.

And it is near impossible to get this fire under control in these conditions. They've had to ground air support.

So it's really hard. It's a long fight ahead of them. And this wind is expected to last around for the next several hours.

So we're not sure where we're going to be as these fires continue. Elise, I'm wondering about the water, the fire hydrants. There have been reports from firefighters that they did not have enough water, enough resources there. Is that still a problem or have they been able to get that worked out? You know, I think there are so many moving parts right now.

In some areas, we have seen those reports, but it does look like firefighters are just using every resource they can. Fire officials have said, though, that they don't have enough resources really at the moment. They are in critical supply, and you have firefighters from several states who have come in. They're also trying to help fight these slaves. Again, if you can describe the region, people, you know, they think in the heartland Malibu, you know, it's rich and famous.

And, yeah, there are a lot of celebrity homes there, but there are also a lot of middle-class homes and small businesses as well in that area. Yeah, and for what you're saying with Malibu, you also have a lot of businesses that have burned to the ground.

So there are people who are, you know, without work today. Right here on this Pacific Coast Highway, when you're driving down, you'll see people who have, they've fled their homes, but then they can't really go anywhere. There's nowhere, I mean, there are shelters, there are evacuation centers set up, but for whatever reason, some people have not gone there.

So you've seen people along this stretch who are just kind of sitting in their cars on the roadway. We've seen people cry. We've seen people pray in their vehicles. We've seen people abandon their vehicles.

So there's a lot going on right now. And again, it's a lot of moving parts. This happened so quickly. the wind started kicking up yesterday and then as the day continued excuse me this ash really gotten to me today as the day continued you're really realizing what is expected or what could come and so we're starting to see that devastation but things are moving so quickly still. We have some colleagues that live in the LA area and they're not near the fire, but they say it smells like a fireplace, you know, outside of their home.

You live in the Los Angeles area. Are you experiencing that as well? Yeah, and I'm sure you can hear me coughing. It is really taking the wind out of you as well. We have been out here, we have on masks, but even then, the smoke is very overwhelming.

And again, we're not even, we're close, right? The smoke is billowing. The air quality has definitely gotten pretty bad here. But just imagine those firefighters who are in the mix, like dealing in these conditions. My heart also goes out to them because this is really difficult.

But, yes, it smells like a fireplace. That is a perfect description. Wow. And this just in from the Los Angeles Times reporting that a fire has broken out in Brentwood near the site of the original Palisades Inferno.

So let's just hope and pray that the firefighters are able to take care of that. But, again, we had understood earlier on today zero percent containment, which we're not surprised by but just horrifying and again you know at least Preston when you're looking at Malibu so many people have been there they've eaten at those wonderful restaurants and now to imagine it's just all gone. Yeah just it's devastating when you're driving down that Pacific Coast Highway and you see on both sides right we've covered so many wildfires and you can see how sometimes the fire skips over one house and there's one that's still standing and it may be a fire on one side of the street but not the other but if you're driving down the pacific coast highway for a stretch you just see homes and businesses burn to the ground on both sides wow well we certainly appreciate um all of the great reporting there at least you and your team be safe out there thank you so much todd all right uh cbs news correspondent elise preston She is based in Los Angeles. They're reporting in Malibu, and it is only going to get worse, and that's the tragedy here.

So a lot of moving parts. We will keep you updated, and you'll be able to hear our reports, and we're going to be taking you there visually tonight on Newsmax TV. All right, we're going to take a quick break, folks. 901-260-5926 is our number. That's 901-260-5926.

This is the Todd Stern Show. Wow, President Trump is on the war path, ladies and gentlemen. I want to share the last two truth social notes the president posted. He says, all caps, no water in the fire hydrants, no money in FEMA. This is what Joe Biden is leaving me.

Thanks, Joe.

Now, I told you that Joe Biden was at the press conference, and he was with Governor Gavin Newsom. And Newsom is up there, and he's making some political jams at Trump without name-calling. And then he asks Joe Biden if he's got something he would like to say. And the President of the United States, in the middle of what we now know to be the worst fire in American history, said, I'm a great-grandpa today. I'm a great-granddaddy.

You can't make this up. You cannot make this stuff up. Anyway, Trump says, as of this moment, Gavin Newsom and his Los Angeles crew have contained exactly 0% of the fire. It is burning at levels that even surpassed last night. This is not government.

I can't wait until January the 20th. Ben Dieter, I'm not sure we're going to have a country left. We'll have smoldering ruins on January 20th. Who gave birth to the grandchild? Do we know?

Is this Hunter? I don't know. I'm sorry. Baby mama, I don't know. I mean, I know that we should be focusing on the fires, but I just want to know who's carrying on the lineage of this man and this corrupt family.

Can we go back to that? We don't know. He just dropped that in the middle of a presser. We know not where the... I don't think we want to know.

I don't want to go biblical on us, but it is... When you look at what's happening out there, and we just had this incredible report from Elyse Preston from CBS News, and she's out there, she's coughing and hacking, and she's right there in the thick of it, and there is zero containment. And this has been going on. And here's the scary thing, is if you look at some of this footage from Southern California, it looks like something from Chernobyl. I mean, it is gone.

Those homes are destroyed. And for this president to come out there, I'm shocked he didn't bring up Beau Biden, if I'm being honest, Todd. He always does seem to bring up his son when there is grief in this country. But that's a shame. It's an absolute shame.

And then to send $500 million today to Ukraine, while California, one of the states, the largest state, I mean, if you look at the government size in the union, is just a disgrace. And they just now called up the National Guard. Just now called up the National Guard. This is inexcusable, indefensible. Heads on a roll.

Or they should all be voted out of office. I mean, you have to look at where this is happening. The people of Los Angeles, they want this. They want incompetence. And we see it here in Memphis.

As long as you're the right skin color and political party, you get elected. I mean, and these are the same people, though, Todd. There was a report from MSNBC last week that Kamala Harris is expected to maybe run for governor. I bet they are. No, of California.

I bet they put her right in office after the current governor, Gavin Newsom, departs. I want to play some audio from Rick Caruso.

Now, let me set the stage. He ran for mayor against Karen Bass. Caruso, the reason he didn't get elected, he's a white guy. He's a billionaire. He's a developer.

He developed a lot of that area that's burning right now. And he was on the phone late last night just reaming out City Hall. Let's play cut number nine.

Well, what is most concerning to me is our first responders and our firefighters who are trying to battle this. There's no water in the Palisades. There's no water coming out of the fire hydrant. this is an absolute mismanagement by the city. Not the firefighters' fault, but it's by the city.

And I'm going to be very honest. We've got a mayor that's out of the country, and we've got a city that's burning, and there's no resources to put out fires.

So if you look at your pictures, you don't see the firefighters there because there's nothing they can do. And it looks like we're in a third-world country here. And we've got a lot of tough questions that we need to ask the mayor and the city council and our representatives and the county representatives. Why didn't you work to mitigate this? What was your brush mitigation program?

I heard you earlier talking about it's been dry because it hasn't been rain. That's not the biggest problem here. The brush up in these hills that are controlled by the city and the county, I would bet you that if they haven't been handled, mitigated, pruned, removed for probably 30 or 40 years, this was a disaster waiting to happen. And what's predictable is preventable. And who's paying the price are all of these people in their homes and their businesses tonight.

Now, we'll rebuild, but the majority of this community is going to have a tough time rebuilding their lives. And the mayor's in Ghana. She's a disgrace. And it was interesting listening to your interview with Joe Messina at the top of the second hour. He was saying they're homeless camps that they've spent money on.

and they have spent more dollars, taxpayer dollars, in the Golden State on homeless encampments than they have on their fire department. That's how bad. That's right. And they've literally taken money away from the $17 million. She wanted to take away $23 million from the fire department budget and giving millions of those dollars to the homeless, who are responsible for setting a lot of these fires.

There has to be a reckoning here. You know, this cannot we cannot allow these things to continue to happen. I wonder how this politics for Gavin Newsom, because, you know, he's getting ready to run or at least announce he's going to run for president. They're already starting, I'm sure, the exploratory committees and stuff. I mean, he's going to have to answer for this.

What did he say? He wants to California, the entire United States of America will all be dead. We'll all be on fire. Please. No, it's terrible.

We just got out of your phone buzzed. We just got an alert. We are now under a winter storm warning here in Memphis, Tennessee. We don't do cold well here in the South. I'm just going to, you know, that's why I like to live here.

Have you got your bread and milk? No, I mean. Todd, you've got to get to Kroger. It's the Holy Trinity, bread, milk, TP. Oh, toilet paper.

You got to have some toilet paper. I was at the grocery store yesterday. There was not an empty parking spot available. I walked in, the cashier said, I've never seen anything like it. mass panic at grocery stores all over the Memphis area.

I wonder, and I can tell you that we haven't gotten a kickback, but I'm wondering if the bread companies and the milk companies and the folks who make Sherman, do they give kickbacks to the TV weather guys? It's a great question, but here's the thing. We're actually going to get six inches of snow. Do you know how much snow that is, Todd? Six inches.

You lived in New York. That's nothing for a New Yorker. But in Memphis, they'll shut down the entire city. We've already lost half the power in this city almost. That's slight exaggeration.

But today, half the power grid is down because we got cold weather. We haven't even gotten the snow yet. That's expected on Thursday. Again, we've got diversity hires running our city. What do you expect?

So hold on.

Now they're saying up to seven inches of snow. This is not good. We may need to ask for some guidance on tomorrow's show on how to survive a snowstorm in the deep south. I've got snowshoes. I'm going to snowshoe my way into the station.

Someone said Jack Daniels. That also is a nice way to get through a storm. Yeah, we've done it before. What happens is Todd gets a sleeping bag. He comes into the station.

He sleeps on the couch downstairs in his office, and he's on air regardless of whether there's 10 feet of snow or six. We will be doing a national show regardless of whether or not there's 10 feet of snow outside. That's just the way we operate around here. hopefully the muggings will you know the thugs don't like to get up in the cold weather so that could be a good thing for us i think that too and to tie it back to the california story i was reading a report of the looters are about ready to begin because you've got it's already started yeah you've got two two issues going on fire meets thugs in los angeles of which there are many many thugs thuglings and thuglets and the looting is just about ready to go from bad to worse.

So that's another problem they're going to have to deal with. I remember the Rodney King riots, and many of you will remember this, when the thugs targeted Koreatown. And Ben, there's great video, I think they did a full documentary on this, where the store owners, the Koreans in Koreatown actually took out their own guns and there's video of them opening fire on looters as they were trying to, you know, rob their stores. and you would have row after row of businesses. And on the rooftops, you would have all these Koreans with their lawfully acquired weapons defending them.

The problem is Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, they don't have those guns. They don't. No, they have nothing to protect themselves from. They have private security forces, and they've already fled to San Diego. All right, folks, it's been a weird day, and we will continue to follow this national news story.

It's our nation's second largest city, and it is burning down right now because of DEI policies. All right, get out there. Be good, America. Be safe.