Latest / The Bill Handel Show / Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez | Disneyland Annual Pass Holders
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: You're listening to KFI AM 640, The Bill Handel Show
- 0:04Speaker 1: On Demand on the iHeartRadio app.
- 0:08Speaker 2: Neil Saavedra and the Morning Crew here on The Handel Show.
- 0:11Speaker 2: He will be back next week. He's out with his bride,
- 0:13Speaker 2: his new bride. They're in Africa on a safari. And nothing,
- 0:22Speaker 2: nothing more bizarre than seeing an incredibly pale Jewish man
- 0:29Speaker 2: dancing with a bunch of Africans in native garb. It
- 0:32Speaker 2: was almost upsetting. Something about it didn't sit well with me,
- 0:37Speaker 2: but you can see that on his Instagram if you wish,
- 0:40Speaker 2: and he will be back to regale us with those
- 0:42Speaker 2: stories soon. Speaking of being regaled with stories, when I
- 0:46Speaker 2: want to get the temperature of what's going on in
- 0:48Speaker 2: Los Angeles, and I want it to be almost painfully
- 0:54Speaker 2: delivered in the most honest way possible, I call on
- 0:59Speaker 2: my friend, Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez of the 7th District. Welcome
- 1:04Speaker 2: back to the show.
- 1:04Speaker 3: It's so good to see you.
- 1:05Speaker 2: Nice to see you as well. It's been a while
- 1:07Speaker 2: since we've had social time together. Life gets in the way.
- 1:11Speaker 2: I'm constantly amazed. You know, you're a normal person. You
- 1:18Speaker 2: live in the area. You use the same services we
- 1:21Speaker 2: all do and all those things. And on top of that,
- 1:26Speaker 2: us being close, I know... you know, a lot more
- 1:29Speaker 2: about your personal life and, and trials and struggles as well.
- 1:32Speaker 2: And I always think you still got to get up
- 1:35Speaker 2: and do the right thing for everybody else, which could
- 1:39Speaker 2: be helpful on one hand of just sucking it up,
- 1:42Speaker 2: but also really difficult. I appreciate what you do in
- 1:46Speaker 2: the seventh district. And I wish that you were the
- 1:48Speaker 2: queen of the world. It would make things easier. I
- 1:53Speaker 2: don't know where common sense has gone, but Let's talk
- 1:56Speaker 2: about the lack of common sense, even with your partners
- 2:01Speaker 2: there in City Hall. There is some desire to lessen
- 2:06Speaker 2: the amount of time that you folks get together to
- 2:08Speaker 2: make decisions for this great city of ours. What say you, Monica?
- 2:15Speaker 3: Yeah, so there are a number of charter amendments that...
- 2:19Speaker 3: You know, from the inception, I called so much of
- 2:22Speaker 3: the charter reform a ruse of reform because there were
- 2:25Speaker 3: a lot of self-serving agendas that were baked into it.
- 2:31Speaker 3: Charter Amendment EE is one where two of my colleagues,
- 2:36Speaker 3: and primarily Nithya Raman, was advocating because she wanted to,
- 2:40Speaker 3: she was, quote, desperate to spend more time.
- 2:43Speaker 2: With her children.
- 2:44Speaker 3: And You know, we're not supposed to change a charter
- 2:48Speaker 3: to make your personal life more convenient.
- 2:51Speaker 2: This is about showing up to do the work of
- 2:53Speaker 2: the people. We all want to be with our children more.
- 2:55Speaker 3: I mean, hotel workers, you know, hospital workers, grocery store workers.
- 3:03Speaker 3: Of course, everyone does. So I cannot, in good conscience,
- 3:08Speaker 3: justify those. You know, we are the highest paid city
- 3:12Speaker 3: council in the country. And to suggest that we would
- 3:15Speaker 3: be reducing our schedule to perhaps one day a week,
- 3:19Speaker 3: I don't see how that makes it more effective and
- 3:22Speaker 3: more accessible to the people.
- 3:23Speaker 2: How's it set up now? So what's the standard?
- 3:26Speaker 3: The standard is the charter mandates that we meet three
- 3:29Speaker 3: times a week for council meetings. We also have committee meetings.
- 3:33Speaker 3: And the committee meetings, again, you don't want to create
- 3:37Speaker 3: a circumstance where there is so much power and influence
- 3:41Speaker 3: in the committee meetings. In fact, you know, ask Jose
- 3:43Speaker 3: Huizar how that worked out. He's in federal prison right
- 3:47Speaker 3: now when he had the powerful plum committee chair.
- 3:52Speaker 2: It's really.
- 3:53Speaker 3: not a good circumstance to allow so much power to
- 3:57Speaker 3: be concentrated in these committees. And that's what council eliminating,
- 4:01Speaker 3: or it says that we would meet at least quote weekly,
- 4:04Speaker 3: but it also is, uh, wrapped around all these other,
- 4:08Speaker 3: or it's embedded rather in all of these other suggested reforms.
- 4:12Speaker 3: They're not really reforms. They're very nonspecific. It talks about
- 4:15Speaker 3: increased in inspector general roles for oversight of LAPD and fire,
- 4:20Speaker 3: but it doesn't say specifically. What are they unable to
- 4:23Speaker 3: do now that this would provide? So it just sounds good,
- 4:27Speaker 3: but embedded in the midst of it is this proposal.
- 4:31Speaker 3: And that's really the objective that was intended for that.
- 4:35Speaker 2: I've said this many times. There's a massive difference between
- 4:39Speaker 2: good sound reasonings and reasons that sound good. And there
- 4:43Speaker 2: seems to be a lot of the latter in politics.
- 4:46Speaker 2: And I even see Newsom doing it and stuff like that.
- 4:49Speaker 2: And of course- all the way up to the top.
- 4:52Speaker 2: But why the lack of substance? I mean, to what
- 4:57Speaker 2: end for we the people would we say, gosh, it's
- 5:00Speaker 2: good that you guys don't get together?
- 5:03Speaker 3: I don't understand, again, I, you know, the comments that
- 5:06Speaker 3: were made, there was another comment that was made about,
- 5:08Speaker 3: you know, I'm desperate, you know, I have to vacuum.
- 5:11Speaker 2: And do dishes.
- 5:12Speaker 3: It was like, what the hell does that have to
- 5:15Speaker 3: do with, you know, how we show up and do
- 5:17Speaker 3: the work of the people? In fact, so often our
- 5:20Speaker 3: conversations are truncated because we can't meet, we have other
- 5:24Speaker 3: meetings that we have to get to. And so conversations
- 5:28Speaker 3: are really stunted, for example, on homelessness. So And we
- 5:33Speaker 3: should be engaging in very lengthy and thoughtful dialogue. In fact,
- 5:37Speaker 3: it's welcomed. I actually don't mind sometimes when meetings go
- 5:41Speaker 3: long because we're engrossed in very deep conversations, but that
- 5:44Speaker 3: should happen in public. And the idea that we would
- 5:48Speaker 3: reduce council meetings to once a week would actually really
- 5:50Speaker 3: stunt and hinder our ability to have the checks and balances,
- 5:55Speaker 3: which is what the city council is supposed to provide.
- 5:58Speaker 3: Right now, it's scary. I am a firm believer of
- 6:02Speaker 3: the role, just as in Congress's role is to be
- 6:04Speaker 3: a check on the presidency.
- 6:06Speaker 2: Sure.
- 6:06Speaker 3: The council is supposed to be a check on the
- 6:09Speaker 3: mayor and any other citywide office. And if you reduce that,
- 6:13Speaker 3: you're basically giving your power away. And, you know, the
- 6:19Speaker 3: people didn't elect me in my district to surrender their voice.
- 6:23Speaker 1: Twice.
- 6:25Speaker 2: Right. When we come back, the best... Of the best
- 6:29Speaker 2: and the worst of the worst in what's going on
- 6:31Speaker 2: in Los Angeles. What you think is being done right.
- 6:33Speaker 2: What do you think is being done wrong and how
- 6:35Speaker 2: to move forward from that. And then some thoughts on
- 6:38Speaker 2: the current mayoral race, which sadly does not have your
- 6:43Speaker 2: face on it. But who am I? I just push
- 6:46Speaker 2: you and push you and push you to do it.
- 6:48Speaker 2: But apparently you're still working in your district. I'm helping
- 6:52Speaker 2: the people in the 7th. Cleaning up homelessness.
- 6:55Speaker 1: Yes.
- 6:56Speaker 2: All those things. We would like that here too. Talking with, uh,
- 6:59Speaker 2: councilwoman Monica Rodriguez from the seventh district. I always love
- 7:04Speaker 2: having her on the show. She has become a dear
- 7:07Speaker 2: friend of mine. Uh, to be completely honest, we met over, uh,
- 7:11Speaker 2: through a chef friend of ours and over our love
- 7:13Speaker 2: of food and watching her grow in her position there
- 7:18Speaker 2: and the defense of restaurants and small businesses in Los
- 7:21Speaker 2: Angeles brought us together. We had a lot in common and, um,
- 7:27Speaker 2: I understand her and it's not about agreeing on everything
- 7:30Speaker 2: because I don't trust, I don't have anybody around me
- 7:33Speaker 2: that I think agrees on everything. It's about loving your
- 7:37Speaker 2: passion for the city, your upbringing here, your place in
- 7:42Speaker 2: Los Angeles and your passion for doing things reasonably. Yeah,
- 7:49Speaker 2: I got a lot of feedback, positive and negative yesterday
- 7:53Speaker 2: about my interview with the current mayor. Kieran Bass. And
- 7:58Speaker 2: it was a smooch fest, as close as you're ever
- 8:00Speaker 2: going to get with me. And I was honest about it.
- 8:03Speaker 2: I actually had my producer wiping my nose in between
- 8:06Speaker 2: the conversation because that's how much I believe we need
- 8:12Speaker 2: to have Bass back in, even though I've been very
- 8:15Speaker 2: critical of her because Nithya Raman is not an option
- 8:18Speaker 2: to me. Now, you've said on this show you are
- 8:22Speaker 2: backing Bass, as well as, strangely enough, every Democratic Socialist
- 8:29Speaker 2: On the council. Yes. So I think even though Nithya
- 8:33Speaker 2: is a DSA.
- 8:34Speaker 3: Right. And, you know, and she and Nithya has suggested that, oh, everybody,
- 8:41Speaker 3: you know, everyone always endorses the mayor.
- 8:43Speaker 2: Well, that's just not true.
- 8:45Speaker 3: You know, not everyone endorses the mayor. In fact, when
- 8:49Speaker 3: Karen Bass first ran like you, I just stayed out
- 8:52Speaker 3: of the race. I didn't endorse anybody because I, you know,
- 8:56Speaker 3: was like, well, we'll let the voters decide. The truth is,
- 9:00Speaker 3: the voters will still decide. I still believe that looking
- 9:05Speaker 3: at the Breath of support that, or not just support,
- 9:11Speaker 3: but the experience that Karen Bass has. And, you know,
- 9:15Speaker 3: I'm equally someone who has been critical.
- 9:17Speaker 2: Oh, yes.
- 9:18Speaker 3: Not shy about it. Critical of every, you know, again,
- 9:20Speaker 3: I called balls and strikes. I'm not here to- You're
- 9:23Speaker 3: not bashing the person. You're saying that- When I disagree
- 9:26Speaker 3: with a policy and, you know, I'm very outspoken about it. And,
- 9:31Speaker 3: but I will say- I can't ignore the real successes
- 9:35Speaker 3: that Karen Bass has led on the council. When I
- 9:37Speaker 3: look at, you know, veterans homelessness for me is a
- 9:40Speaker 3: very deep passion. My dad is a veteran and I
- 9:42Speaker 3: did a lot of work for deported veterans on the
- 9:45Speaker 3: city council. It was her work because of her relationships
- 9:49Speaker 3: in Congress that she helped facilitate changes in the policies
- 9:52Speaker 3: that actually allowed us to house veterans in a way
- 9:55Speaker 3: that had never been done before because policies were obstructing
- 9:59Speaker 3: it based on their benefits. She took the ambitious goal
- 10:04Speaker 3: of addressing an issue that you and I both know
- 10:07Speaker 3: had languished and frankly allowed to blow up long before
- 10:11Speaker 3: she got into office. And what really frustrates me is
- 10:16Speaker 3: when I look at the current situation of what's happening
- 10:18Speaker 3: with Lhasa and what Raman's comments have been, Raman was
- 10:24Speaker 3: the one as the policy lead, as chair, who has
- 10:27Speaker 3: obstructed any reforms. She never once said anything. I was
- 10:30Speaker 3: introducing all of these reforms to centralize homelessness, to make
- 10:33Speaker 3: it auditable by the controller. Nithya Raman never once advanced
- 10:37Speaker 3: any of those policy reforms. In fact, she obstructed it.
- 10:40Speaker 3: She would schedule these items in committee and she would
- 10:43Speaker 3: just sit on it and allowed it to fail to
- 10:46Speaker 3: a point where now the federal government is now going
- 10:48Speaker 3: to take money from it. The county is now positioning
- 10:51Speaker 3: to try and take it over. And frankly, if the
- 10:53Speaker 3: county was doing a bang up job, they have the
- 10:55Speaker 3: Department of Mental Health and the Department of Public Health
- 10:59Speaker 3: who are supposed to service the needs of individuals suffering
- 11:02Speaker 3: with mental illness and substance use disorder. And let me
- 11:05Speaker 3: ask you, Neil, have you walked... Have you seen the
- 11:08Speaker 3: streets of Los Angeles? Are they doing their job?
- 11:11Speaker 2: I haven't seen the streets of Los Angeles because they're
- 11:14Speaker 2: covered in humanity and feces.
- 11:16Speaker 3: But you see individuals that are struggling with these issues.
- 11:19Speaker 3: And if the county was doing a great job, these
- 11:21Speaker 3: individuals would be getting service by them.
- 11:23Speaker 2: And that's not happening.
- 11:25Speaker 3: No.
- 11:25Speaker 2: And that's if we have those. I would get if
- 11:28Speaker 2: we didn't have those departments. And it's like that's step one.
- 11:31Speaker 3: And that's the county Department of Mental Health. Karen Bass
- 11:33Speaker 3: has nothing to do with this. The city has no
- 11:36Speaker 3: resources for that. The taxpayers have paid the county to
- 11:39Speaker 3: do this and the county isn't delivering that service. In fact,
- 11:42Speaker 3: we leveraged a lawsuit that we had to pursue the
- 11:46Speaker 3: county to securing 3,000 mental health beds. The county still
- 11:49Speaker 3: has yet to provide where those beds are so that
- 11:52Speaker 3: we can actually move people into them. So just to
- 11:55Speaker 3: be clear, there are some other organizational issues from other
- 12:01Speaker 3: levels of government that have failed to provide the services
- 12:04Speaker 3: that the city is just not equipped to do. But
- 12:06Speaker 3: we are in a situation right now with the elimination
- 12:11Speaker 3: of Lhasa, with not having stood up anything because Rahman
- 12:15Speaker 3: sat on it and obstructed the creation of any centralized system.
- 12:20Speaker 3: She forced the failure. And so as I've called her
- 12:23Speaker 3: out before, she's the arsonist trying to show up as
- 12:24Speaker 3: the firefighter. We have a number of issues that we
- 12:28Speaker 3: are confronted with. And sadly, I just don't believe that
- 12:32Speaker 3: she's best equipped to address it.
- 12:34Speaker 2: What's the best thing happening in Los Angeles right now?
- 12:39Speaker 3: Well, I'm actually very happy about some work that I'm
- 12:43Speaker 3: doing in my own district that is now being expanded
- 12:46Speaker 3: across the city. I created a youth sidewalk repair program
- 12:49Speaker 3: to address our broken infrastructure, and that's now been expanded
- 12:53Speaker 3: under Mayor Bass to now address infrastructure across the city.
- 12:57Speaker 3: where young people are getting jobs and job training as
- 13:00Speaker 3: a result. And we're fixing that and it's cost effective.
- 13:02Speaker 3: I'm also doing a program that we're going to break
- 13:04Speaker 3: ground on in a couple of weeks with, uh, Launa laborers,
- 13:07Speaker 3: local 300 to also, uh, compliment that work so that
- 13:11Speaker 3: we can expand sidewalk repair. Like at basically we're using
- 13:17Speaker 3: their apprentices that are need to get those hours, uh,
- 13:21Speaker 3: And we're paying for the, yeah. So we're going to
- 13:23Speaker 3: be accelerating.
- 13:24Speaker 2: People get some working and stuff gets done.
- 13:28Speaker 3: Correct.
- 13:28Speaker 2: Can you adopt the East Central Los Angeles, maybe a
- 13:34Speaker 2: little bit to be part of the seventh? Well, I've
- 13:37Speaker 2: got a pretty bad sidewalk. You know what?
- 13:39Speaker 3: And so I'm, I've used my district as an incubator
- 13:42Speaker 3: for how we can model these things and now take
- 13:44Speaker 3: them citywide. My RV to home program, we've housed over
- 13:48Speaker 3: 400 people. disposed of over 200 RVs in my district.
- 13:52Speaker 3: It's made a very significant and it's cost-effective difference. And
- 13:58Speaker 3: that's all now being expanded citywide as well. Again, I'm
- 14:02Speaker 3: not here to get into the noise of people introduce
- 14:05Speaker 3: motions and then never see them all the way through.
- 14:07Speaker 3: I'm here to test and find ways of making something
- 14:11Speaker 3: work and then expanding it citywide. And I will say
- 14:14Speaker 3: I'm thankful to Mayor Bass for helping to recognize, for
- 14:19Speaker 3: recognizing that what I've developed is actually working and we're
- 14:23Speaker 3: actually now expanding that citywide.
- 14:25Speaker 2: There's a date on your calendar for 2030. I want
- 14:29Speaker 2: you to put something in there, but we'll talk about
- 14:31Speaker 2: that off the air. Okay. Good to see you. I
- 14:34Speaker 2: want to remind people that your yearly Dia de los Muertos.
- 14:38Speaker 3: Yes. And so it's a little later this year. It's
- 14:41Speaker 3: on November 7th. We're doing it in partnership with the
- 14:44Speaker 3: Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the and the cemetery at
- 14:48Speaker 3: the San Fernando Cemetery.
- 14:50Speaker 2: And it's really spectacular. It's beautiful. It's fun. I've been
- 14:53Speaker 2: multiple times since Max was two. Yeah.
- 14:57Speaker 3: So we've got Los Cafeteras that are going to be performing.
- 15:01Speaker 3: They're coming off of a Dia de los Muertos kind
- 15:04Speaker 3: of tour. We're working on getting other banda and mariachi
- 15:09Speaker 3: and folklorico. But Thousands have come out and it's really spectacular.
- 15:13Speaker 2: Great food and music and art. It's beautiful. And it's
- 15:17Speaker 2: really lovely. And where can they find out more information?
- 15:20Speaker 3: So visit our Instagram, emrodcd7. And we've got information, of course,
- 15:27Speaker 3: on my website, monicarrodriguez.org. And we hope to see you there.
- 15:31Speaker 2: Nice to see you, my friend. Good to see you.
- 15:33Speaker 2: To those of you who started following me on Instagram,
- 15:37Speaker 2: thank you. Thank you. For those of you who are
- 15:38Speaker 2: interested in joining me there, you can find me at
- 15:42Speaker 2: Fork Reporter at Fork Reporter on Instagram. It's food stuff,
- 15:46Speaker 2: mostly some, you know, life stuff. And then if you
- 15:50Speaker 2: like art or making or design or if you're a designer, crafter, photographer,
- 15:56Speaker 2: anything like that, then you can join at Fork Reporter.
- 16:03Speaker 2: And my other one, which is all my kind of personal,
- 16:07Speaker 2: more personal and building and art stuff at Savco Industries.
- 16:12Speaker 2: And that's S-A-V-C-O. Industries, S-A-A-V-C-O Industries. Some of the Halloween
- 16:21Speaker 2: stuff that I've been building. You can watch the progression
- 16:25Speaker 2: of my full-size R2-D2 build and also fun, silly stuff
- 16:29Speaker 2: like that that I do outside of the studio here.
- 16:35Speaker 2: All right, Disneyland. Amy King and I are both big
- 16:38Speaker 2: Disney fans. She's a proper Disney adult, though. I'm not because...
- 16:44Speaker 2: I do have a kid, so I take the kid.
- 16:48Speaker 3: The kid.
- 16:49Speaker 2: The kid, yeah. That's what you call him.
- 16:51Speaker 4: Every once in a while, I take a kid.
- 16:54Speaker 2: Will doesn't count as a kid. That's true. But the
- 16:58Speaker 2: truth of the matter is, we got our passes long
- 17:02Speaker 2: before Max was born. I actually got our first passes
- 17:06Speaker 2: for Valentine's Day gift to my wife. And it's a blast.
- 17:10Speaker 2: We've loved it ever since. So that's obviously well over
- 17:13Speaker 2: a decade now. But man, this information coming out from
- 17:21Speaker 2: the former Disney CEO, Bob Chapek, in his new book,
- 17:27Speaker 2: he kind of craps all over everything, right? And he
- 17:32Speaker 2: says that the Disneyland annual pass holders paid relatively little
- 17:36Speaker 2: for unfettered access to the Anaheim theme park and stood
- 17:41Speaker 2: in the way of maximizing profits.
- 17:43Speaker 4: Yeah, we knew that Chap, he didn't like the pass program.
- 17:48Speaker 2: Yeah, it's really, you know, we're the problem, the 1.1
- 17:52Speaker 2: million pass holders.
- 17:55Speaker 4: Well, if you break it down, if you think about it,
- 17:57Speaker 4: if pass holders go all the time and a ticket
- 17:59Speaker 4: costs anywhere from $ 150 to $ 250 and you pay, even
- 18:01Speaker 4: if you buy the top tier pass, you've paid $ 1, 800
- 18:04Speaker 4: and And if you go 10 times, it's paid for.
- 18:11Speaker 4: But most pass holders go like 20, 30, 40 times.
- 18:15Speaker 4: So they're not paying that admission price every time.
- 18:19Speaker 2: You know, I'm sure it makes sense, but that's also what.
- 18:22Speaker 4: I disagree with his thinking, but I think that's probably
- 18:25Speaker 4: what he was thinking.
- 18:25Speaker 2: Yeah, because it's over a billion dollars, right, at that point? Yes.
- 18:29Speaker 2: That you're making with those $ 1. 1 billion?
- 18:30Speaker 1: Yes.
- 18:34Speaker 2: No, $ 1. 1 billion brings the billions, yes. So I got
- 18:37Speaker 2: that tied up. So the pressure for the passholder not
- 18:40Speaker 2: to change the status quo was enormous. And also, I'm
- 18:47Speaker 2: not in this category, but they say that a lot
- 18:49Speaker 2: of passholders bring their lunch or bring food and don't
- 18:53Speaker 2: buy a lot of the stuff, I guess, which is
- 18:58Speaker 2: not true.
- 18:59Speaker 4: It is true of some householders.
- 19:01Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely. They're there all the time doing that stuff.
- 19:04Speaker 2: But I spend a butt ton because of Star Wars
- 19:08Speaker 2: stuff alone. You know, it's just the limited edition Star
- 19:12Speaker 2: Wars stuff or things that come and go. I'm up
- 19:14Speaker 2: in that all the time.
- 19:16Speaker 1: Oh, yeah.
- 19:16Speaker 4: Or you walk by one of the stores and go, oh,
- 19:18Speaker 4: I haven't seen that before.
- 19:19Speaker 2: I must have it. So the whole thing was passes
- 19:23Speaker 2: back in the 80s, 1983, as a matter of fact,
- 19:25Speaker 2: was a way to backfill the park, right? When attendance
- 19:27Speaker 2: was lower during off season. Three decades later, Disneyland's burst
- 19:33Speaker 2: in at the seams. Too many visitors by the time
- 19:36Speaker 2: Chapek took over Disneyland in 2015. But I don't know.
- 19:42Speaker 2: I would forget more about Disneyland if I didn't have
- 19:46Speaker 2: the pass. And I didn't for a little while. I
- 19:48Speaker 2: took a year or so off because I don't get
- 19:50Speaker 2: to go– schedule-wise, I don't get to go the same
- 19:53Speaker 2: as my wife and my son can. So I took
- 19:57Speaker 2: it off for a little bit, back on it, and
- 19:59Speaker 2: it just gives me a point of peace. And like
- 20:01Speaker 2: you said, all I've got to go is the equivalent
- 20:04Speaker 2: of once a month– are just a tiny bit shy
- 20:09Speaker 2: of that to make it pay for itself. Plus, you
- 20:13Speaker 2: get a discount on all the merchandise and things like that, too.
- 20:18Speaker 2: So there are other perks to it. But I thought
- 20:20Speaker 2: that was, I'm like, what? You know how much we
- 20:22Speaker 2: pay for those stupid things now? And they're going to
- 20:24Speaker 2: tell us that that's a problem that's getting in the
- 20:26Speaker 2: way of things. Jeannie Buss and her siblings are in
- 20:31Speaker 2: court of sorts. They filed a formal opposition to her
- 20:35Speaker 2: attempt to block the sale of the Lakers. Now, she's
- 20:38Speaker 2: got five siblings, and this is not a joke. Jimmy, Johnny, Janie, Joey,
- 20:44Speaker 2: and Jesse Buss. So, technically, all of them is Jeannie, Jimmy, Johnny, Janie, Joey,
- 20:54Speaker 2: and Jesse. Jeez Louise. So she was trying– she being
- 21:03Speaker 2: Jeannie Buss, rather, attempts to block the sale yesterday, calling the–
- 21:11Speaker 2: they're going back and forth. And the other siblings are
- 21:14Speaker 2: saying they're legally and factually baseless. The discussion really is
- 21:19Speaker 2: about some of the siblings, the other siblings, want to
- 21:24Speaker 2: get rid of it. They want to sell their shares,
- 21:27Speaker 2: and rightly so. I mean, you're looking at a $ 10
- 21:33Speaker 2: billion valuation that they could make some money, right? About
- 21:38Speaker 2: $ 2. 2 billion for the Buss siblings. And that's a lot
- 21:44Speaker 2: of money. I get it. But it made me think.
- 21:48Speaker 2: I come from a large family as well. I come
- 21:50Speaker 2: from a family of seven. I'm 57 years old. I'm
- 21:55Speaker 2: second to last in that. And we're going through things now.
- 21:59Speaker 2: I'm not going to go into detail because I'm a
- 22:02Speaker 2: public person, but the vast majority of them are not.
- 22:07Speaker 2: But I've noticed things. We're dealing with my mom as
- 22:10Speaker 2: she gets older at 88. And I came to the
- 22:15Speaker 2: conclusion about tribalism and the strange things we go through
- 22:21Speaker 2: as we get older. when we are part of our
- 22:25Speaker 2: initial family growing up, you're under one roof, you go
- 22:28Speaker 2: to the same church, you do all, you know, the
- 22:30Speaker 2: holidays are all celebrated the same. Everything like that takes
- 22:35Speaker 2: place on the same level. You are in the same tribe.
- 22:39Speaker 2: But eventually you get old enough to move out of
- 22:41Speaker 2: your parents' house and you build your own tribe. And
- 22:43Speaker 2: it could be a tribe of one. It doesn't mean
- 22:45Speaker 2: you have to get married or anything like that, or
- 22:47Speaker 2: even have a significant It just means once you get
- 22:50Speaker 2: out on your own, you do things the way you
- 22:54Speaker 2: think they should be done. And then you end up
- 22:56Speaker 2: building your own tribe with its own logos, vibe, slogan, ethos, morals, structure,
- 23:07Speaker 2: and belief system. And as I... You know, I go
- 23:13Speaker 2: through the unpleasantness sometimes with my family. There's some of
- 23:18Speaker 2: us that our tribes are similar and there's some that
- 23:21Speaker 2: are of our tribes that are very different. And I
- 23:23Speaker 2: don't just mean politics or religion, but the way they
- 23:27Speaker 2: see things. And obviously there's going to be, you know,
- 23:31Speaker 2: differences throughout. That it got me thinking that you cannot go,
- 23:35Speaker 2: you can't shove all of those new cultures and tribes
- 23:41Speaker 2: back into the original tribal house. It's not the same.
- 23:47Speaker 2: The way people work is different. And I have said
- 23:50Speaker 2: this in the past. Of course, there is racism, genuine
- 23:55Speaker 2: KKK style racism. But I think the vast majority is
- 24:01Speaker 2: tribal and culturalism. And I think that what ends up
- 24:06Speaker 2: happening is the discomfort and the fear that goes on
- 24:09Speaker 2: with politics is based on our legitimate belief that the
- 24:14Speaker 2: very structure of America can be taken away by things
- 24:22Speaker 2: like socialism, communism, and the like. And that's absolutely true.
- 24:27Speaker 2: It could. You could destroy the very structure and the
- 24:31Speaker 2: belief system of the United States that was the core
- 24:34Speaker 2: focus and foundation that was created by our forefathers. But
- 24:39Speaker 2: some people will say, well, that's the problem because it
- 24:42Speaker 2: was done by forefathers instead of forefathers and foremothers and
- 24:46Speaker 2: all of those things. But it could damage that very structure.
- 24:50Speaker 2: But the vast majority of things that could be called
- 24:53Speaker 2: racism or whatever comes to the culture and our desire
- 24:59Speaker 2: to build tribes in our image. Now, I have a
- 25:04Speaker 2: new tribe of a wife and a son, and we
- 25:07Speaker 2: run our house differently than the way I grew up.
- 25:11Speaker 2: And it's probably the same for my wife as well.
- 25:13Speaker 2: Those are the new tribes. Trying to go backwards becomes
- 25:16Speaker 2: a problem. That's why even families like Jeannie Buss and
- 25:21Speaker 2: her siblings, Jimmy, Johnny, Janie, Joey, Jesse, you can't put
- 25:26Speaker 2: them back in the same box. There are some like
- 25:29Speaker 2: Jeannie that may have the focus of her parents and saying, no,
- 25:33Speaker 2: I was to be the governor. I was supposed to
- 25:35Speaker 2: stay on for the rest of my life on with
- 25:38Speaker 2: the Lakers. And there's those look at it and go,
- 25:40Speaker 2: it's worth a ton of money. Let's sell it. It's
- 25:43Speaker 2: going to make us comfortable. And it's not that either
- 25:45Speaker 2: are wrong per se, unless there's some notion of the
- 25:51Speaker 2: original holders, their parents saying, this is how we want
- 25:53Speaker 2: it to be forever and ever and ever and ever
- 25:55Speaker 2: and ever and ever and ever.
- 25:56Speaker 4: Amen.
- 25:56Speaker 1: Amen.
- 25:58Speaker 2: But it's sad to see that this tribalism ends up
- 26:02Speaker 2: separating the family. And it will always happen because the
- 26:07Speaker 2: tribes are different. Never, ever think that you can do
- 26:10Speaker 2: things as a family again in the same way, in
- 26:12Speaker 2: the same sense, because the tribes have been reformed. And
- 26:16Speaker 2: they're going to go through this out in the public
- 26:18Speaker 2: and see how it goes down. I think probably they'll
- 26:23Speaker 2: end up having to sell it, is my guess. And
- 26:25Speaker 2: the siblings will get what they want. It's a shame
- 26:28Speaker 2: if there is, you know, for the heart to be
- 26:31Speaker 2: left out of the equation on the sentimentality. But we'll
- 26:37Speaker 2: see which way that goes. But if you're having problems
- 26:40Speaker 2: with your family, your nuclear, your first family, just know
- 26:45Speaker 2: that it's both sides can be wrong. Both sides can
- 26:50Speaker 2: be right in some things. But the reality is you
- 26:53Speaker 2: just can't put the tribe back in the home. The
- 26:57Speaker 2: new tribes have been made. It doesn't reverse well at all.
- 27:00Speaker 2: It's a bad idea. Neil Saavedra and the Morning Crew,
- 27:04Speaker 2: thanks for hanging out. Stick around for Gary and Shannon.
- 27:07Speaker 2: I'll see you tomorrow for Foodie Friday, starting at 6
- 27:10Speaker 2: o'clock after Amy King and Will and the gang for
- 27:14Speaker 2: Wake Up Call. This is Neil Saavedra and the Morning Crew, KFI,
- 27:18Speaker 2: heard everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
- 27:21Speaker 1: You've been listening to The Bill Handel Show. Catch my
- 27:23Speaker 1: show Monday through Friday, 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. and
- 27:26Speaker 1: anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.