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Do Two Billionaires Own Most of California's Water? · Conspiracy! The Show

• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Wait, true insurance true A checked up? That is? Wait Adam, Hey, everybody,
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: welcome to Conspiracy the Show. I'm your host, Adam Todd
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Brown joining me his co host this week, Connors. Here
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: your sidekick, Adam Todd Brown Boy. Wait, no, Adam Todd Boy.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: How's it going? Man?
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Going good? I'm excited to see you. Always when one
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: of my Aaron comments gets spun off into its own
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: episode and we're looking into the uh, the Wonderful Company,
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: How wonderful fucking is it? Though? Man, that's the thing.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: Is it wonderful at all? I would argue, maybe not,
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: maybe not. So here's the thing.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna be taken to long hard look in the
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: mirror before I have another fucking bottle of pomegranate juice.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: I'll tell you that right now.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: Are you a pomegranate juice drinker?
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: I always liked that stuff when it was around. If
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: I saw that, like a bottle of palm, whatever the fuck,
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: I would always get it because it was like the
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: most exotic juice to me. I used to steal pomegranates
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: when I was a boy. I tried to make a
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: bow and arrow with a knife on it so I
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: could shoot it over the fence into this pomegranate tree,
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: and it all became way too complicated. We just sort
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: of jumping the fence and stealing pomegranates. But they're delicious.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: It takes forever to eat them, but they're delicious. So
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: like a juice, it takes away all the whole process
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: of stealing one and stripping it and eating it like
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: that is very appealing.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: I believe they also will sell you a cup of
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: pomegranate seeds, because that's the most annoying part of eating
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: a pomegranate is you got to get those seeds out.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: The juice stains very, very messy. Yeah, and it's crazy
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: to me how many things are out there in this world,
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: pomegranates being one of them, like avocados or another where
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: it's like, oh yeah, you enjoy that, wait till you
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: hear what it's doing to the fucking environment, and people
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: like especially avocados, there's like cartel activity around avocados.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: Now, Oh really, is that a mob business? Now?
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: It is?
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: Well, I guess it's pretty much every business is at
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: some level.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: But yeah, that's another thing that I feel like probably
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: happens more than people realize. When I was living in Burbank,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: I was at this restaurant very close to where we record,
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: and I was talking to the owner and he was
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: telling me about how soda is basically like, you know,
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: the people that bring you your fucking boxes of carbonated
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: beverage is just like a total racket that's run by
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: these two ruthless motherfuckers in kind of the entire area,
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: and you like work with them or they will make
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: sure it doesn't go well.
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: For you, damn. So that's why you never see RC
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: out here exactly.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: Fucking RC shit was good.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: It's a good cola.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they still make it. I think you can.
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: Still get like at Bevmo. Some fucking hipster company picked
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: it up, and I don't know. I have fucking I
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: have beverage nerd friends that would know better than I. Unfortunately,
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: so the.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: Reason we're talking about the Wonderful Company and they're billionaire owners.
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: I thought I still thought Kevin O'Leary, mister Wonderful, would
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: be a part of this, but unfortunately not.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it'd be nice to take that fuck face down
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: as part of.
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: This overall synergy.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, the Wonderful Company is in the public's crosshairs
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: right now, because Los Angeles is on fire and there
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: is a claim going around that one of the big
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: reasons LA is burning is because this billionaire couple named
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: the Resnics owns sixty percent of California's water and they
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: ain't sharing. And this is one of those things where, yeah,
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: the Resnics suck, just not quite in the way people
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: are making it out to be. And that's only to
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: say they don't own as much water as people claim.
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: But it's still a ridiculous amount.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And also just the idea of owning water feels
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: so strange to me.
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, like one person owns all the water is literally
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: the plot of the movie tank Girl, which is not
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: the most realistic post apocalyptic movie, but not the least,
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: I guess, as we're seeing now, if ice t starts
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: to turn into a kangaroo and then we're fucked.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: And here's the thing. To say two people own all
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: of California's water, that's very misleading. It's like fifteen people. Okay,
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: it's like fifteen, maybe even twenty, So.
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: It's practical, that's practically democracy there.
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it's all on the up and up, absolutely.
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  Speaker 2: And this is like a these are like a bunch
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: of you know, people have voted on who these people are.
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: These are local community leaders, probably very diverse, right, you know.
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  Speaker 2: They represent the interests of the different parts of California.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, making sure the community gets that water first. Yes,
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: and I don't mean that to when I say that
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: they suck, but just not in the way people are
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: saying they fucking suck. I want to make that clear.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: These two seem like real pieces of shit. Resnik just
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: is an evil sounding name. Well yeah, that's also the
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: last name. And I know you know this, say it
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: with me of the lead singer of the Goo Goo Dolls.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: So I wonder if he's got a hand in fucking
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: up California's water.
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: You know, he'd get a hand and fucking up the
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: Goo Goo Dolls.
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: So let's talk about the Resnics. They are a couple
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: of billionaires. Like we said, they own the Underful Company.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: They don't just make pomegranate juice and pomegranates, they make pistachios.
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: They make wine, everything that takes a munch of water.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it's stuff that takes a bunch of water.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: And that's one of their arguments that they make in
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: Their defense is, yeah, we use a lot of water,
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: but we also produce a lot of food, and you
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: need water to produce food. And the pushback they get is,
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: do you know how expensive your food is? You are
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: making rich people food. You're not making food that the
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: people in this community are sacrificing their water for you.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: You're not making them food. You're making soccer mom's food.
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, truly. And when you drive up and down the
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: Gravevine in California, there are lots of hand painted, handmade
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: signs that look like they were made by someone who
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: was about to die. Let's say they took our water.
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: It kinda filled and I was kind of like, oh,
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: what the fuck kind of crazy shit is this? And
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: it's like, no, they took their water.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that definitely happens. I don't doubt that the Resnics
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: are a party to it, although they claim otherwise. But
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: it's like Lance Armstrong and doping. It's like, yeah, him,
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: but also like the fifteen people behind him too, they
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: were all doping. Also, the Resnics are hoarding a lot
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: of water, but they're not the only fucking farm in
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: Northern California or Central California. There are other corporate farms
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: there owned by people who own a bunch of fucking
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: water who send that water to La and shit. So
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: we can you know, do cool stuff with it to
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: fucking grow food.
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, fucking we could do pop up Instagram installations. Yeah
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: with it all right?
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: Have you not heard of door dash out there in farmland?
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: Sounds pretty if you have DoorDash? Right, what do you
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: guys even eat food from your farm?
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: That's not No one does that? Like you sell that?
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: How does that even work?
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah, it can't. There's no way, there's.
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: No doesn't make any sense. You need a kind of
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: priests to come dry your corn somewhere else and then
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: bring it back to you with butter and pepper on it.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: So there is a twenty twenty two article we'll link to.
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  Speaker 1: It's a profile of the Resnics, and it seems like
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  Speaker 1: this is probably one of the main sources people are
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: citing when they say the Resnics own most of California's water,
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  Speaker 1: because that's sort of what this article is hinting at.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: But I think what is really important about this article
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: is it explains how this happened, and that part is
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: shitty to me, and we are gonna fucking go through
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: it right now. But first, weird, weird side note, Linda
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  Speaker 1: Resnik was an unindicted co conspirator in the Pentagon papers leak,
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: which has to be the last cool thing she did.
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: You're familiar with Pentagon papers, right.
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just what's weird that I don't know? Small world,
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: I guess.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, she uh was dating one of the two people
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: involved in that and let them use the copy machine
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: at the ad agency. She bounded to copy all of
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: those documents, so she wasn't. I mean, that's like a
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: that's minor involvement kind of, but that's also the kind
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: of involvement where you're like sick.
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was my Gutenberg press that Martin Luther wrote
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: his shit on. I didn't even fucking I thought it
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: was just like some she was just writing the note
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: for his neighbor. Yeah.
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: So Stephen and Linda Resnik they got into agriculture in
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: the late eighties. They started with pistachios. If you read
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: this article, she literally says we saved the pistachio industry.
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: Which maybe it wasn't supposed to be an industry. Yeah,
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: maybe it's maybe pistachio making is just not profitable.
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, either that, or maybe it's so destructive to the
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: environment when you do it on a bigger scale, because
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: that's definitely the thing with avocados. Avocados take so much
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  Speaker 1: water to produce, and I mean, the Resnics aren't making avocados,
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: so they're obviously not the only ones out there hoarding water.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: But they branched out into other stuff, almonds, pomegranates, wine,
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: you name it. Obviously need a lot of land to
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: grow all that stuff. And they bought that land in
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: Kern County, California, which is fucking somewhere up there.
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: You know, it's where Fresno is.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that makes sense. There was I think there's a
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: Fresno b article somewhere in the notes.
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: Yep, the Fresno Bee didn't.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: I feel like they just won like a big award recently.
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: Maybe I'm wrong, either that or they got shut down
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: by Trump who so.
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: We can't believe your market still knows how to read award.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: And so, yeah, you need land. You need a whole
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: bunch of fucking water to produce all this food. And
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: what the Resnic's own sixty percent of is something called
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: the Kern Water Bank that is a water storage facility
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: that was started in nineteen eighty eight, and that's where
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: things get shady, especially as it pertains to them. According
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: to that article that we'll link to from a website
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: called a Perfect Union, in nineteen ninety four, there was
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: a secretive meeting between California water officials, water infrastructure contractors,
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: and agricultural landowners who had water rights like the resnics do.
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: And it's claimed that in this meeting, without any input
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: from citizens, there was no vote. A new law was
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: drafted called the Monterey Plus Agreement, and the law it
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: replaced included something called urban preference, which means in times
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: of drought, the state Water Board would give urban areas
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: aka the places where people live access to state water
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: before agricultural interests. In the Monterey Plus Agreement ended that
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: it took been preference at the Kern Water Bank out
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: of the agreement and transferred ownership from the state to
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: a small group of private water contractors. One of them
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: was west Side Mutual, which is a wholly owned subsidiary
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: of Wonderful Foods. The guy who runs that his name's
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: Bill Fillimore. He was also the chairman of the public
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: organization that managed the Kern Water Bank. So the same
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: organization that would have probably decided okay, yeah, let's take
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: this away from the state and sell it to private
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: interests also worked for one of the private interests that
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: this one.
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: So it's totally fair.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's completely normal and reasonable business practice for sure. Yeah,
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: and so yeah, that part is gross.
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: I didn't know there was something called a water bank.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: I mean that's where this actually in terms of the
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: resonics in their impact on the LA fires, that's actually
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: where it gets kind of tricky. These water banks are
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: apparently all over the place, and if you own part
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: of it, you can sell your water to other places,
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: but they claim there are pretty severe restrictions on who
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: you can sell it to.
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: But it's really like a bank for water, Like I
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: can deposit units of water and then sell them to
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: move them around.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, people set up contracts. Apparently LA has a contract
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: with the Colorado River to buy water.
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: What if I get some kind of condensation rig could
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: I literally care collect interest?
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: Probably? But yeah, it is kind of exactly what it
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: sounds like. It's a water bank where if people need water,
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: like in times of drought, they can go to this
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: place and buy water from say, the Residics, and it
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: used to be owned by the state. And that shady
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety four meeting probably the same one where they
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: told all the record executives that they have to start
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: pushing gangs to wrap to fill private prisons. That nineteen
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: ninety four meeting is why the resid we're able to
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: own all this water. That's a very broad overview of
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: the situation. There's a book out there called The dreamt
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: Land d r E a m T. Chasing Water and
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: Dust Across California by a writer named Mark Erics. It
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: is more than five hundred pages, and while I have
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: not read it yet, it seems like it is the
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: definitive account of the water situation in California, which the
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: Resnics are obviously a huge part of.
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: So I'm trying to write a much shorter, kind of
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: a beach read version of that book called what are
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: You going to Do About It?
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: You just make it a special ninety fucking minutes of
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: moving water around jokes, ambitious specialty.
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: What are you going to watch? Instead?
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: So, like I said, I have no doubt the complaints
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: against the Resnics are valid no matter how you spin it.
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: Owning water is but they do have some defenders in
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: some interesting places, the main one being an outlet called
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: sjvwater dot org that is a site that reports on
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: water concerns in the San Joaquin Valley where the Resnick's
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: farms are located. A writer there named Lois Henry addressed
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: these claims about the Resnics owning sixty percent of California's water.
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: First thing she points out is there's conflicting criticism here.
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: The Resnics are all the time accused of selling the
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: San Joaquin Valley's water to LA for a profit. But
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: now what we're arguing is they're refusing to give LA
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: any water. Why wouldn't they just sell LA water in
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: this situation too if that was the case.
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, right, Is there some more evil thing that could
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: be doing?
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly.
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: We're just gonna make steam and but not hook it
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: up to any kind of a generator.
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: We kind of already the claim that they control sixty
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: percent of California's water. They control sixty percent. I think
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: it's actually fifty seven percent at the current water bank,
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: but also water in other areas too. But this article
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: also points out LA gets its water from the Owens
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: Valley via an aqueduct owned through contracts with the California
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: State Water Project or the Colorado River, and the Wonderful
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: Company is not a participant in any of that. So
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: we actually don't get water in La from the resnics,
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: it would seem unless this article is just.
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: No, that's true. My dad actually worked for the Metropolitan
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: Water District and the manmost water comes from the Colorado River.
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: I haven't heard that my whole life.
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: And a Wonderful Company spokesperson claimed the company uses about
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: one percent of California's water. And in that book I
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: just mentioned the dreamt Land by Mark Arax. He says
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: Wonderful's agricultural operation used about four hundred thousand acre feet
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: of water in twenty seventeen. And I don't think I
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: need to explain what acre feet are to anyone.
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: No, I mean that has to be the most convoluted
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: unit of volume I've ever heard.
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: Meanwhile, California's water reservoirs pull they combined twenty three point
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: nine million acre feet according to the Department of Water
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: Resources website, So.
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: That's like sixty times four hundred thousand acre feet.
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, something like that. I think undoable math, abandoned knowledge.
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: Well, it's just twenty forty died by four hundred.
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so yeah, the amount of water they use every year,
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: it's a lot, but it's not the way people are
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: making it seen. This isn't there will be blood where
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: they're just fucking drinking your milkshake. You don't get any water.
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: I like these just well Scrooge mcducking in water is
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: just going swimming. It's kind of yeah.
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: And again they do seem like terrible people, and the
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: complaints about them go beyond just what they're doing with water,
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: But it doesn't change the fact that the claims about
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: them owning sixty percent of California's water, that's that's a
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: bit of a stretch. There's also a CBS article will
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: link to that explains how and why the resnics water
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: is in no way tied to the La Fires. In
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: the case of a severe drought, the state might request
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: water from the current bank, but at present, the reservoirs
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: the city and county rely on in southern California are
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: currently at or above historical averages, according to the California
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: Department of Water Resources, So we don't need their water.
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: Is the thing, at least not in any way related
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: to these fires. Buying water from the resnics wouldn't have
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: solved this problem at all.
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they weren't. There wasn't like a button they could
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: press that would make everything you know.
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: Yet, this is a quote from Felicia Marcus of the
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: California State Water Resources Control Board. What's happening in LA
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: is not because there's not enough water in La in storage.
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: There are no urban water systems that are built out
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: to handle a firestorm like this end quote. And that
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: reminds me a lot of another thing that's going around
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: online a lot, which is people being very mad Karen
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: Bass cut LA Fire Department budgets while giving more money
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: to the LAPD, and facts that fucking sucks, especially in
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: a state that catches on fire as regularly as it does.
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: But I was also watching a press conference during these
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: fires and it was Karen Bass and a bunch of
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: people from the fire department. A reporter asked her about that,
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: and one of the firefighters, he was like one of
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: high ranking I guess, jumped in and was like, look, yes,
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: we obviously want more budget money. We ask for more
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: budget money all the time. Sometimes we get it. Sometimes
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: we don't. That said, there is no amount of budget
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: money that would have stopped what happened. This is just
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: a fire like we've never seen it, moves in ways
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: we've never seen a fire move. It's hitting areas that
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: fires don't normally hit like that, all Ta Dina fires nuts, Yeah,
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: because that's just neighborhoods. And it was just because wind
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: was blowing embers into the fucking community. Otherwise, that's just
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: your standard goddamn mountain fire. It's put out in a
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: day or so.
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: I was like just walking up in those neighborhoods. That's
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: where my break guy is, and it is kind of
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: it's their beautiful neighborhoods because they are kind of like
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: mixed up in with the mountains and the trees and shit,
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: you know, like yeah, and uh yeah, it's it is.
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: It is insane seeing that stuff like get this low
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: into urban California, you know, away from just like weird
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: tree country.
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, like beachfront properties in Malibu are burning down and wildfires.
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: That's insane. So yeah, budget money wasn't going to stop this.
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: More water from the Red Nicks wasn't going to stop this.
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: Connor the only thing that was going to stop this
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: is no more DEI hires within the fire department. I
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: think I agree. And the last thing I want to mention,
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: it's also brought up in this SJV water article. The
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: Resnics aren't even sort of the only people doing this.
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: They're singled out for it, probably because they're the most
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: high profile and they have, you know, they make products
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: that are I don't know if iconic is the right word,
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: but I think when you hear the word palm you're like, oh, yeah,
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: the fucking round bottles of.
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: Palm grant they do they get the weird bottles?
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. And so they're not the only ones, it's
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: just they're the most recognizable ones. This article points out
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: also there's a company in that same area called JG.
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: Boswell Farming Company, and they are a multi billion dollar
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: corporate farming operation headquartered in Pasadena. They own similar amounts
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: of water in San Joaquin Valley, but for whatever reason,
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: they don't get criticized to the same degree on social media.
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: But we'll link to an article where talking about them,
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: not the Resnics. Resident after resident is interviewed and they're like, look,
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: we can't prove it. But you can just look at
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: the water and see it's moving out of the community.
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: Where is it going? Like they're the ones that people
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: in that area actually think is like secretly or covertly
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: sending like selling water to other areas, because.
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: On the streets of Altadena, this is like who they
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: think did it?
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and well, the Altadina thing, what's crazy about that
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: is it's the power company that a lot of people
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: have pinpointed because they were expecting eighty to one hundred
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: mile an hour winds in Alta Dina. So as the
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: power company, you got to do something in those dry
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: ass fire conditions to make sure or power lines don't
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: get blown down and set shit on fire. And they
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: claimed that they shut power lines down at one certain
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: point in the morning that day, and there's a bunch
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: of residents who are like, I still had power, what
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: are you talking about power? And it could possibly be
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: that that started the Altadena fire.
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: That makes sense too, public.
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: Utilities always looking out for us. But yeah, basically, the
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: resnics are a problem. They're just one part of a
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: bigger problem, and they're the easiest to point at, Like,
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: I don't know what this other farming company makes like,
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: it's probably like fucking.
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: They probably never put anything in a cool, weird looking bottle.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah exactly. So yeah, it's I get it. I get
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: why people hate the Resnics the way they do, and
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: I'm also not a fan after reading up on them.
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: But also the thing about them owning sixty percent of
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: the water is that's a little outrageous. What it is
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: they just done sixty percent of some of the water.
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: Idiots dull, I.
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: Like when you do all this shit and it's like
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: they just done thirty seven point five percent of the one.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that's not a problem at all. They also
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: claim the last time they sold water to another community
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: was in like like fifteen years ago as part of
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: a government program. So their claim is they don't actually
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: do what people are accusing them of, but it seems
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: like that other farm up there might be they do
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: want a shit ton of water, and it seems like
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: they're shitty employers too.
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: I'll follow the water man.
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: As they say. So, Yeah, this is going to be
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: a shorter episode because there's not much to this. It's
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: just kind of a misunderstanding. It's people reacting to a headline.
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: I wouldn't be surprised to be seeing more of this
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: shit in the future, you know, like the water banks,
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: and like water is getting to be more and more
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: of a valuable commodity. Like I don't know, go to
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: fucking raging waters still, can you might? It might not
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: be that cheap that we just could go frolic around
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: and take it, let our kids pisson shit in it.
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I see water all the time described
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: as California's most valuable resource, which I don't doubt that.
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: Well, we don't like have that much of it of
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: our own.
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and we're also apparently really bad at retaining it,
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: Like when it rains, we're apparently just not great at
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: that because we were like, who knew it was gonna
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: start raining here eventually, But now it happens all the
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: fucking time. That's how these fires happened. It rained for
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: like it felt like sixty five days in a row
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: last winter, Yeah I did, And then it didn't rain
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: at all, and all that vegetation just dried the fuck
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: out and was ready to be kindling. Hey climate change,
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: love it, fucking love it. Uh. Hey, Connor, thank you
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: for doing the pod. I appreciate it. As always, What
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: do we have to plug before we get out of here.
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: Follow me on Blue Sky at Adam Todd Brown God
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: with one D, trying to get my following up there
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: so I can cancel everything else. Then Blue Sky will
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: be sold to the Nazis and we'll be back to
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: I don't know, writing in newspapers. Connor, what do you
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: got to plug?
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: Uh? You can follow me on everything except Blue Sky
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: economic Spaden. You can listen to the hilarious Mean Boys
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: podcast wherever podcasts are sold, and watch my comedy special
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: jokes about fucking on YouTube. That's jokes about fucking on
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: YouTube dot com.
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think that's it. Let's get the fuck
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: out of here. Connor say goodbye, goodbye, goodbye everybody. We
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: love you.