Latest / World Ablaze with George Fontes / 57 - CALIFORNIA - Water, Fires, and Gavin Newsom

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57 - CALIFORNIA - Water, Fires, and Gavin Newsom · World Ablaze with George Fontes

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Welcome back, World of Blaze listeners, to episode 57.
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Today, well, today, I had a lot of topics ready to go, but I think I'm going to focus
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on fire.
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the fires in Southern California, specifically because there's a lot of misinformation floating
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out there in the ether, a lot of larger social media accounts pushing, well, rhetoric that just
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isn't quite truthful. And everyone's pointing fingers. Everyone, of course, wants to politicize
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the event. It's the Democrats' fault. It's the Republicans' fault. Trump's fault for not
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supporting California. Mayor Karen Bass's fault for not really managing the situation in LA.
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And then, of course, it's Governor Newsom's fault. Everybody's to blame here. Doesn't matter what
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side of the aisle you're on. They're all to blame. But let's dive into some facts because
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everybody assumes that California is out of water, that we don't have any water. Now, technically,
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California is in a drought. You got to understand that California is made up of many micro climates.
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It's not just one climate that blankets the entire state. Everybody thinks California is
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enjoyable, moderate temperature, full of sunshine and surfboards. We're all out there barbecuing and
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grilling on the beach each and every day, tossing back coronas, enjoying the waves, and hey, it's
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always sunny. But that's not the truth. The fact of the matter is, we have areas that are extremely
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cold. We have areas that get insane amounts of snowfall. We have areas that have so much fog,
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and it's so thick, you can barely see past your windshield, if you can barely see past your hand
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at all. And of course, yes, we do have warm weather, which is nice. But we also have insanely
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hot weather. We're talking 110 degrees, 115 degrees. You see, you can't just call California
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always sunny, always temperate,
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always enjoyable in terms of the weather.
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We get all the seasons out here.
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We really do.
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And yes, by definition, California is in a drought.
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California is a large landmass.
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And historically, sure, we've had less rain,
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but then there's times we have more rain.
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Now, that's neither here or there right now, because the reality is man has created ways to store and collect water via reservoirs and tanks and other ways that we use, especially here in California, to make sure that we have water.
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Now, the bigger question and what starts this blame game is the management of that water.
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the amount of water we store, and again, how we handle the water flows in California.
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Let's go over some data that will dispel the belief, demystify everybody in terms of whether
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or not California has water. First off, let's talk about precipitation. Let's talk about
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precipitation statistics.
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So if we're just looking at precipitation
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in certain areas, for example,
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area of focus right now,
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that's all over the news because it's,
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you know, Southern California is literally
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getting burned away by fire.
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So let's talk about
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the Colorado River area,
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which is all the way down there below,
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kind of below
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or next to Los Angeles, San Diego,
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right there by the border of
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Mexico, by the Sonora Desert,
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all that. So if we're looking at the Colorado River area, the water year to date is 0.02 inches.
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So yeah, not a lot of water out there. In fact, it's only 1% of average. Okay. 1% of average.
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So the max it's ever been in that area is almost seven inches. The average is one 1.8. So the
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The average of 1.8 and the minimum has been 0.02.
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That being right now reported as of January 13th, 2025.
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Now, I'm getting this information from the California Water Watch.
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It's cww.water.ca.gov.
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And I'm going to have a lot more of these stats from different organizations.
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I'll leave these in the show notes for you.
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But yes, we're below average right now.
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Right now, as of now, in that particular area, we're below average.
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Now, let's go into the South Coast.
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The south coast is pretty much that stretch of LA all the way down to Tijuana.
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So it takes up San Diego down into Tijuana.
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So that's what they would call region number nine, which is the south coast.
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And water year to date is 0.31 inches.
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Okay, so it's only 5% of average.
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So yes, again, Southern California is experiencing less than average rainfalls.
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historical record in that area
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is 25
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inches
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the average is 6.56
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and right now
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we're at the lowest it's ever been
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which is .31
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again
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yes, Southern California
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is
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receiving less rainfall than average
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South
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LaHontan
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I can't pronounce that correctly so I apologize
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but this is like the region where the Mojave Desert is and all that.
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And just want you to take notes.
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So region 8 and 10, 10 I read earlier,
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and region 8 are both considered desert areas.
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So water year to date is 0.81 inches, 31% of average.
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The max it's ever had was over 8.5 inches.
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The average is 2.61, and the minimum is 0.15,
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which is as of year to date, we're above that minimum.
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We're definitely not the average though.
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And we're only 31% of its average.
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But a lot of water, a lot of water that gets pumped down to Southern California
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actually comes from areas north of California.
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And if we want to look at that information, Sacramento River area.
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Now the Sacramento area has been a topic of contention
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when it comes to water stores and flows because of the whole Delta smelt fiasco,
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the one that Governor Gavin Newsom denies he knows anything about,
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the one that he says Trump is lying about.
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But as we get deeper into this podcast, this particular episode you're listening today,
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you're going to find out a little bit more truth about that matter.
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Now, right now in that Sacramento River area, a lot of water has accumulated.
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In fact, year to date, they have accumulated over 19 inches of water, and they are at 124% of average.
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If we go into the North Coast area, which is up past Sacramento above San Francisco, they have received 34.19 inches and are 139% above average.
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so the idea that all of California is out of water is not true
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now are we perfectly fine in all regions?
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no, but there's enough water in terms of precipitation to go around
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is it enough to make every single part of our land lush and green?
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no, absolutely not
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and remember, California is full of microclimates
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in fact, when we talk about Southern California
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That area, Los Angeles, to be quite honest, years ago, years ago before man came and decided
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they want to settle there and plant more plants and buildings and put in water infrastructure
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to keep everything nice and green and lush, was all desert.
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It was desert.
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But man decided to geoengineer it and turn it into something else.
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Same thing that was going on in Las Vegas, for example.
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Las Vegas, Nevada, desert.
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If you go to Las Vegas now, you can't even tell it was a desert outside of the heat.
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But as soon as man backs away and stops maintaining Las Vegas, for example, it will return right back to the desert it was.
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So I want you to keep that in mind.
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There are areas where people live, mass populated areas that were considered uninhabitable, but man thought differently and developed these areas so that they were habitable.
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Again, using Las Vegas as an example, and of course, Los Angeles.
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So technically, that area historically has always been a desert.
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But man has decided that it will not accept its fate in living in a desert.
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So it takes care, it takes maintenance, it takes water stores, water infrastructure,
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it takes plants, greenery, everything to make it habitable.
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Let's move on to the drought situation because as I said, technically, yes,
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California is still in a drought.
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Now, according to drought.gov, there are 21.7 million California residents in areas of drought,
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and that has gone up by over 15% recently.
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But another interesting fact is we've had the wettest November on record.
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In fact, the 18th wettest November since 1895.
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And that means that this particular November, we had over 4.24 inches total precipitation.
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Total.
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We're talking about California.
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Total.
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Averaging it out.
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That's 1.71 inches up from average or normal.
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We've also had the wettest January through November on record since 1895, being the 28th since 1895,
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with a total precipitation of 22.53 inches.
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And that is up 3.75 inches from the average.
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So looking at this, you can say,
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well, California isn't really in a drought.
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We've received enough water, but that is an average.
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And it doesn't mean that every single area
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has enough water to cover its needs.
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Again, it's a big landmass.
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So you got to keep in mind,
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Some areas want to be deserts.
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Some don't.
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Hence why we have reservoirs and why we pump water from one area to another.
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A lot of people don't even know this.
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Up in Yosemite, in fact, Hetch Hetchy, that area, that reservoir was primarily built to
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store water and pump it to San Francisco.
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That's right.
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All the way up from Yosemite to San Francisco.
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Now, if you don't live in California, I'll just tell you that is a long way away from
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each other.
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And yet, that's what happens in California.
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You would think all that water up there is enough to feed the entire Central Valley,
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like San Joaquin Valley, Stanislaus County.
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That whole area would get that water, but no, it's pumped to San Francisco.
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So there's a lot of strange contractual agreements between different cities, counties, etc.,
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on who gets what water stores and whatnot.
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And it's all designed to make sure everyone has enough, and it's based on population.
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But if we want to talk about the reservoirs in general, let's talk about them.
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You see, most of the reservoirs, while they not be at full capacity, are all above historical
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average, most of them.
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This data I got from Water Resources, and it's CDEC, it's the California Data Exchange
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Center, California Department of Water Resources.
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That's cdec.water.ca.gov.
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according to the data that was reported January 12th of this year, 2025.
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Now, some of these are, I'm going to read you, are northern,
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and then we'll get down to kind of the middle of California
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and to the southern California area.
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But for example, a lot of people heard of Shasta.
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So the reservoir over there is 126% above its average.
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Now, it's not full, but it's way above its historical average.
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Oroville is also 129% above its historical average.
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New Bollard's Bar, 126 above average.
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Now, Folsom is below average.
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It 88 of But then we go down to Comanche and we at 122 above Trinity 126 above and you starting to see the picture here We above average on most every reservoir that we have
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in California. Now let's talk about Southern California. So now we start to get into basically
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my area where we're talking about Sonoma, San Luis, we've got New Malone's, Don Pedro.
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All of them are at or above historical average. Now Southern California, look at Kachuma or
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Cachima, however you say that, 138% above average. Casitas, 124% above average.
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Castaic, or Castic, 98%. You have Diamond Valley, 135% above average. Pine Flat, 127% above average.
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Millerton is below and is at 81% of historical average.
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But overall, I think you're starting to see the picture here in your mind, right?
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Overall, most all reservoirs are at or above average.
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So do we have enough water?
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Well, if you're looking at just precipitation, maybe not.
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But if you're looking at total California water stores in terms of reservoirs, well, maybe California does have enough.
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So with that information, you're probably asking yourself, well, if there's all this water stored, then why did we run out of water during the fires?
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Why did we run out of water in the Palisades Fire?
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What happened?
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Why did the hydrants go dry?
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Well, that also has to do with water stores, but not necessarily reservoirs.
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We're talking about water storage.
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Tanks.
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There are currently three tanks there that will help supply water up into the hills.
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That is about 1 million gallons per tank or 3 million gallons total.
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Now, we can argue that that is not enough water store.
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And there is also an argument that the pumps weren't keeping up with the demand.
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Let me play this clip of the CEO here, Janice Quinonez.
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Quinonez.
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I'm sorry.
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You know what?
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I flub that all the time.
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But Janice Quinonez?
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Anyway, you get the idea.
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She is the CEO of the LA Department of Water.
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Now, here's the thing, though.
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LA Department of Water, she's the CEO,
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and she gets paid $750,000 a year.
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With that kind of money, you think that this person would be extremely competent,
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know exactly what's going on.
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And I'm not going to get into that argument.
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Many people have called her a DEI hire,
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but the reality is she did come from PG&E or Pacific Gas and Electric,
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in which she was kind of forced out.
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I'm not really sure of the whole story,
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but she had to resign due to the mishandling of what happened with PG and years back with all the
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fires because of the unmaintained electrical lines and everything else. Then we had the gas pipes
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that leaked and exploded. I don't know if anybody remembered that. So with all of that, she left,
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resigned, whatever the case is. And now she's in place as the CEO of the LA Department of Water and
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Power. And somehow it seems like she got an upgrade or a reward because now she's getting paid $730
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$150,000 a year.
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I don't understand it, but whatever.
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Now, here's her explaining what happened as it relates to the pumps running out of water.
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Here's this clip.
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We ran out of water in the first tank about 4.45 p.m. yesterday.
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We ran out of water in the second tank about 8.30 p.m. and the third tank about 3 a.m. this morning.
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those tanks help with the pressure on the fire hydrants and the hills of palisades and because
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we were pushing so much water in our trunk line and so much water was being used before it can't
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get to the tanks we were not able to fill the tanks fast enough so the consumption of water
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was faster than we can provide water in a trunk line so i want to make sure that you understand
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there's water on the trunk line it just cannot get up the hill because we cannot fill the tanks
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fast enough. Okay, so that explanation, that explanation is the correct explanation. I guarantee
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you that she doesn't even really know that. Someone wrote that for her. I can guarantee you that.
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But regardless, regardless, it is the correct explanation. The problem lies in why were the
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pumps inadequate. Why did we only have three water tanks to feed the hills in an area that is known
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to catch fire? It's that area up there, that Santa Ana area, Palisades, all of that area
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naturally catches fire. And they have fires every single year in that area. Now, this is the worst
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of them. I mean, it's pretty much decimated most of all of LA, wiped out the Palisades.
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It's jumped over, destroyed Malibu, all the coastal homes. I mean, this is a legit,
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real disaster in California, a real disaster. The world may not recognize it because America
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is rich and strong and all that, but the truth is it's a disaster.
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So with all that being said, you're in a known area that has problems with fire.
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And here we are facing one of the greatest fires in history.
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And your infrastructure is not ready to support the needs of those that want to manage, maintain, and put these fires out.
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And the big question is why?
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Who made the call?
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Why hasn't this been done?
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Again, a lot of finger pointing.
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Newsom blames Trump.
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Trump blames Newsom.
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Newsom blames the local government down in Southern California or government agencies.
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Nobody wants to take responsibility.
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So let's fast forward here because this has been a known problem.
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And in fact, let's go back about 11 years or so.
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In 2014, there was a proposition that was passed.
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Proposition one.
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Water Storage Investment Program.
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That's right.
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There was a water storage investment program.
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And it was funded with public funds.
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It was for the benefit of the public for storing water.
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Now, this proposition had dedicated $2.7 billion,
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not million, billion with a B,
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for investments in water storage projects.
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I'm getting this information from the Water Commission
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or the California Water Commission.
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So this comes straight from the bureaucracy's mouth, straight from the government website, cwc.ca.gov.
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And while it is a government website, we all know there's a lot of bureaucracy within the government.
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So let me read this.
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Proposition 1 of 2014 dedicated $2.7 billion for investments in water storage projects.
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The California Water Commission is administering the Water Storage Investment Program, or WSIP, to fund the public benefits associated with these projects.
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In July of 2018, the commission made maximum conditional eligibility determinations, which is the amount of Proposition 1 funding available to a given project for eight projects that collectively would boost California's water storage capacity by, get this, 2.77 million acre feet, not gallons.
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We're talking about acreage, 2.77 million acreage feet that is used to store water.
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It goes on to read, the projects range from expanding existing reservoirs, so making them bigger, okay, to boosting groundwater storage, to building 21st century surface storage facilities.
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Because many of them are, well, they're in need.
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They're in need of being updated.
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Since July of 2018, one project withdrew from the WSIP,
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and the commission adjusted the remaining project's MCEDs.
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Now, that particular project, I'm trying to narrow down which one it was.
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I'm trying to see if that was connected to the whole Delta smelt fiasco.
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I'm having a hard time doing that right now,
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but regardless, there were multiple projects that were approved and are moving forward.
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But the problem here is none of them have been completed.
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None of them.
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So here's a graph they have.
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In 2023, construction began in Kern Farm,
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and construction has began in 2024 on the Harvest Water Project.
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But in 2025, they barely awarded the funding for Los Vaqueros,
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and they're barely going to begin the construction in 2026.
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They are barely going to award or approve to award funding
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for Willow Springs in 2026.
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Also, sites, and they will start construction on those two in 2027.
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Same thing goes for the Chino Basin.
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They're also projected that in 2027,
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the Harvest Water Project will be operational.
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In 2027, that's also, again, when they start construction,
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the Chino Basin.
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So in 2028 is when they start Pacheco.
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Now Pacheco is a big one because Pacheco is going to be one of the largest projects that
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will actually feed down to Southern California.
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The Pacheco one is based in the Central Valley of California.
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Now everything though will not become operational until 2028 or later.
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And that's a big problem.
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See, the fires have already happened.
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the money has been awarded and approved in 2014.
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And most of these projects aren't even going to start construction
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until 2027.
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One of them will be 2026,
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but the majority of them starting around 2027.
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The fires have already happened.
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And part of this project is, again,
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expanding reservoirs,
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building 21st century water stores, et cetera.
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Now, those water stores would have been important.
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It would have been important in Southern California, especially right there where the
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fires were, the Palisade fires, because with only three tanks and pump systems,
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it's not enough to feed the demands of a major fire, or in this case, a huge fire that is
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unprecedented. See, they could have used three more tanks, so that would have been six million
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gallons ready and available. Now, beyond that, let's talk about the water that gets
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to Southern California?
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Because Southern California, again, it's a drier area,
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less precipitation than the far north, northern area of California,
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up in the mountains.
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There's a lot of snowfall, et cetera.
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But how do we get the water to Southern California?
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I'm going to also tell you about another project that is part of this.
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There is a reservoir in Sacramento.
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Now, this is that reservoir or that area where I was talking about
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that was tied to that Delta smelt fiasco.
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Now, according to CalMatters,
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which is an organization that monitors
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pretty much various projects,
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government, et cetera, in California,
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according to them, they have a report and article
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that they wrote about this.
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This came out in February of 2023.
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Headline, this reservoir in Sacramento River
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has been planned for decades.
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So this was reported in 2023.
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And at that time, they've already been waiting for this project to be done.
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Decades.
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It's been planned for decades.
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And the question is, what's taking so long?
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In summary, the site reservoir is a $4.4 billion, again, not million, billion with a B, $4.4 billion project to add dams and store more water.
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That'll be sent south, south as in Southern California, but it's still years away from
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completion.
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I'm going to read that one more time.
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It is still years away from completion.
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The final environmental report, up, there it is.
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I knew that was going to be somewhere.
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Environmental report Let me keep reading The final environmental report is expected this year which was 2023 by the way That when this report came out So before construction of two large dams and other structures can begin
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So they were still going through environmental studies and whatnot back then in 2023.
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Aside from environmental reports, other things that have been holding this project up are acquisition of water rights, permitting, and of course, as I stated earlier,
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the environmental review.
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You're going to keep hearing environmental review, right?
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Because in California, environmental reviews
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really hold up projects for years and years and years
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and also add additional costs to projects.
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So even though this has been scheduled for 2024,
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it's likely will be delayed another year.
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So here we are, 2025, still delayed.
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And it says that they're expected for it to be completed
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by 2030 or 2031.
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So this whole thing started back in 2018 with the $2.7 billion that were allotted and put away, set aside, to be spent specifically on water stores in California.
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Yet we have nothing but delays in bureaucracy that hold it up.
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And everything is delayed because of, well, the bureaucracy.
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And various departments.
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To be more specific, environmental departments.
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It's saying that this reservoir, though,
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it would store as much as 1.5 million acre-feet
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of Sacramento River water
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and could eventually boost water supplies,
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especially in dry years,
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which we're in in California.
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Specifically, we're in a dry year in Southern California.
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For more than 24 million people.
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And it states here, mostly in Southern California,
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just like I just said.
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500,000 acres of Central Valley farmland would also be supplied.
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And it's saying the reservoir will now cost $4.4 billion.
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And it says Prop 1 will cover up to $875 million of this funding.
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So, again, we have a large project that they've been talking about doing for years.
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It's been planning for decades.
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2018 money is put aside, given to California for building additional stores.
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And it gets tied up due to environmental reporting,
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which we're still waiting on, studies, water rights, etc.
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So again, who's to blame?
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Is Trump to blame?
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Is Gavin Newsom to blame?
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Is Karen Bass to blame?
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Who's to blame?
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Who's to blame?
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Karen Bass has nothing to do with any of this,
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so I'm going to get her out of the way.
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But as we know, with anybody in leadership,
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all the blame falls on your shoulders,
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and I'm pointing at you, Mr. Newsom, Gavin Newsom, yes, you,
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because if anything, if you're looking out for your state,
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listen, a large amount of your constituents are in Southern California.
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It is a largely populated area of California.
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Do you not think you might be paying attention to this project
29:07
and where it's at?
29:09
Hmm.
29:10
Now, as far as drinking water is concerned, there's another project.
29:15
This isn't so much about water stores,
29:17
But just to point out how much more money has been going into the water situation in general in California.
29:25
Because in November of 2024, there was another $26.2 million for pure water recycling projects.
29:34
So basically just making water drinkable.
29:38
So yes, everybody realizes there's a water concern, a water issue.
29:42
And it's not so much that water available in California isn't necessarily there.
29:46
We have the ways, we have the means, we have the abilities to expand on the storage capacities.
29:53
We have the ability to put the infrastructure in place to make sure that all areas get the water.
29:58
But even though all the money has been put aside for these projects, nothing's happening.
30:04
Nothing's happening.
30:07
Gavin Newsom goes on to defend himself against Trump.
30:12
Now, Trump says, and I'm reading this from one of his posts, he said, Governor Gavin Newsom,
30:21
not Newsom, but Newsom, refused to sign the water restoration declaration put before him
30:27
that would have allowed millions of gallons of water from excess rain and snow melt from
30:31
the north to flow daily into many parts of California, including the areas that are currently
30:37
burning in a virtual apocalyptic way.
30:40
he wanted to protect an essentially worthless fish called a smelt by giving it less water.
30:46
It didn't work. And he's right. No matter what they did to try to preserve the smelt,
30:53
their numbers kept declining and continue to decline. And the whole situation with the smelt
30:58
goes back for many years. It's not just what's happening now or recently, by the way.
31:03
Anyway, I'm going to stop there. And I'm going to say that, keep in mind, he's talking about
31:09
water flowing from the north.
31:11
And he's more specifically
31:12
addressing or referring
31:15
to the project that I just talked to you about.
31:17
The large reservoir
31:19
that has been
31:21
planned and proposed in Sacramento.
31:23
So that's what Trump's referring
31:25
to. I have a clip
31:27
of Gavin Newsom getting all
31:29
hot and bothered about all of this.
31:32
And
31:32
here's his response.
31:34
To the president-elect, I don't know what
31:37
he's referring to when he talks about the Delta smelt and reservoirs. The reservoirs are completely
31:41
full of the state reservoirs here in Southern California. That mis and disinformation, I don't
31:46
think, advantages or aids any of us. Responding to Donald Trump's insults, we would spend another
31:52
month. I'm very familiar with them. Every elected official that he disagrees with, very familiar
31:58
with them. We do know, though, from reporting here locally that that one reservoir that serves the
32:02
Palisades was not full. And that's exactly what triggered my desire to get the investigation
32:06
to understand what was happening with that local reservoir.
32:09
That was not a state system reservoir,
32:11
which the president-elect was referring to as it relates to the Delta
32:14
and somehow connecting the Delta smelt to this.
32:17
All right, so Gavin Newsom is obviously lying.
32:21
He's lying.
32:23
He's acting like he has no idea what's going on with the Delta smelt.
32:27
No, no idea.
32:28
He doesn't know what reservoir he's referring to in the north.
32:31
I just read the report from the government websites,
32:35
all the reporting and data.
32:36
I just exposed Gavin Newsom's lies by just doing a little bit of research,
32:41
just a little digging, a little Googling, a little, you know, this, that, whatever.
32:45
He's a liar.
32:46
He's trying to say he has no idea.
32:48
And he's trying to say all the Southern California reservoirs are full,
32:50
then they don't need water from anyone.
32:52
We know that's bullshit because I just read that data.
32:55
Okay.
32:57
They're not full.
32:58
Many of them are at historical average.
33:02
Many of them are below.
33:03
One of them is absolutely below, but they're not.
33:06
full. They're not at capacity. They may be hitting averages. And yes, Southern California,
33:13
the precipitation level has been nil, almost zero. And yes, you are in need of water.
33:20
I used to live up by that reservoir that I referred to earlier on, the one in Pacheco,
33:27
San Luis Reservoir, to be specific. And I went to that reservoir, took a tour,
33:33
talked to the workers there and everybody.
33:35
And this was, I mean, this was years ago.
33:37
And everybody there said that most of that water you see here
33:41
doesn't even feed the area.
33:43
It gets pumped down to Southern California.
33:46
And it is a large, massive store.
33:50
You take a road, Highway 152, which snakes through that
33:54
on its way over into Gilroy.
33:56
It would be the way that you would get down into,
33:59
for anybody in California who knows.
34:00
it's your way to get from Los Banos, for example, into Gilroy and Morgan Hill.
34:05
And then you just get the 101 and keep driving down and get into San Jose and all that.
34:10
So anyone in California that knows that area, you know exactly what I'm talking about.
34:14
As you're driving, that reservoir is on your side and in your view for,
34:20
I would say, a good three quarters of your drive through those mountains.
34:25
It is already very large, and there's money put aside to make it even bigger, to increase its capacity.
34:33
So yeah, Southern California needs water from the north.
34:36
It absolutely does.
34:38
It can't survive without it.
34:39
Gavin Newsom denying that there's any project proposed or anything in place to be built to supply water to Southern California is absurd.
34:47
He's a liar.
34:48
He's always been a liar.
34:50
He's a politician.
34:51
He can care less about the people of Southern California because if he did, he would be taking responsibility or at least referencing these projects and saying, hey, you know what?
35:00
We have all this in place.
35:03
We've approved for all of these projects to be completed.
35:09
They're in the queue.
35:11
And just admit, the issue is none of it was done quick enough.
35:16
A lot of them are planned to be finished by 2030 or later.
35:20
And unfortunately, we are in the situation we are in now because we are just not prepared to handle the situation that fell upon us.
35:28
That is what happened.
35:30
So Gavin Newsom wants to deny anything about the smell, whatever.
35:34
Okay, cool.
35:35
Not a problem.
35:37
Here's a CBS News article about, you know, came out last year, February 15th.
35:42
It says, no more Delta smell.
35:44
The Delta Tunnel Project threatens their extinction for good.
35:48
so yeah the delta smelt have been a thing it's been a public thing it's been something that's
35:55
been reported on in california for decades right here san joaquin county a project to move water
36:02
from sacramento region down to again southern california hold on so cbs news reported on this
36:10
gavin newsom denies it who's right who's wrong here let me keep reading this is a very complex
36:18
issue. Californians are in need of water all over the state, but with a project like the Delta
36:22
Tunnel, environmentalists say, there's that environmental word again. Sorry to interrupt,
36:27
but let me keep reading. The environmentalists say that 50 species of fish in the Delta are at risk
36:32
as well as the wildlife and people who depend on the fish. It says for the six year in a row,
36:39
the DWR has found no Delta smelt. So for six years going, they've been monitoring this situation
36:45
and they haven't found any Delta smelt.
36:47
It's a small endangered fish that's only found,
36:50
again, only found in the San Francisco estuary.
36:54
The future of the Delta smelt population looks grim
36:56
considering the Delta Tunnels Project's invasive construction.
37:00
Okay, so tell me again, Mr. Newsom,
37:03
how Trump was lying and wrong
37:05
and doesn't know what he's talking about
37:07
because right here, according to this report by CBS News,
37:10
local CBS, by the way, CBS 13 out here in California,
37:12
looks like the project was held up or is being held up over concerns of this small fish that you deny there's any involvement with,
37:20
that you deny is holding anything up.
37:23
Well, maybe you didn't know.
37:25
Maybe you are an incompetent idiot like everybody thinks, Gavin Newsom.
37:28
Maybe you are.
37:28
Or maybe you didn't know because this report came out in 2024.
37:32
I know you're busy.
37:33
You're touring around trying to make sure that everybody knows that you might be a candidate to become president,
37:37
which given the situation of California for the last,
37:42
or at least your time in office to be exact,
37:44
it's been a disaster.
37:45
It's been a disaster.
37:46
But let me go to this,
37:48
to this other report here from farm progress.
37:51
So the farmers have always been very,
37:52
very conscious of the water situation here in California because they need it
37:57
for their farms.
38:00
Here's here's,
38:01
this is great.
38:02
It's great avenues.
38:04
He denies anything,
38:05
right?
38:05
I don't know anything about this Delta.
38:06
I don't know.
38:06
I know nothing about this Sacramento project that Trump is talking about.
38:10
All right.
38:11
Here's a report from 2007.
38:16
2007.
38:18
Delta smelt shuts down major water supply.
38:21
Hold on.
38:21
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
38:21
Wait a minute.
38:22
Gavin.
38:24
Baby Gavin.
38:25
Listen.
38:26
Listen.
38:27
Hold on here.
38:29
I thought you just said you knew nothing about it.
38:31
You don't know what Trump's talking about.
38:32
Referring to some small fish, blah, blah, blah.
38:34
Delta smelt.
38:35
There's no Sacramento project.
38:36
I don't know what he's talking about.
38:39
They've been talking about this Delta smelt
38:41
as far as back as 2007.
38:43
2007!
38:44
It's been holding up water systems.
38:47
It's been holding up water projects.
38:51
Gavin, take some fucking responsibility.
38:55
So if we're going to start pointing fingers,
38:58
Gavin wants to point fingers at Trump Trump point fingers at Gavin Gavin wants to blame Mayor Karen Bass and the local bureaucracies and government agencies down there in Southern California
39:11
But,
39:12
hey man, ultimately you are
39:14
responsible. You're very aware of all these
39:16
projects because all of this needs
39:18
your final approval. Don't tell me you
39:20
don't know what's going on.
39:22
So yeah, our water
39:24
systems in California, water
39:26
stores have been mishandled
39:27
at least back as far as 2007.
39:33
They've been proposing this project in Sacramento
39:35
to help feed the needs of Southern California
39:38
as far back as 2007, if not even earlier.
39:43
I'm just going back as far as I found it to be recorded.
39:47
I mean, I could dive deeper in this,
39:49
but I think everybody is starting to see the picture here.
39:51
Get the whole picture.
39:52
Get the point.
39:54
Gavin Newsom is an incompetent liar
39:57
who's just trying to save his ass, period.
40:00
That's what's going on here.
40:02
That is the reality.
40:03
That's what's happening.
40:05
But hey, to put further insult to injury here,
40:09
beyond the water,
40:10
let's talk about the LA Fire Department.
40:14
Let's talk about something that happens very often.
40:18
And I can tell you this from personal experience
40:20
because I've sat in many board meetings
40:22
for cities and counties.
40:24
And I'm going to tell you right now
40:25
that when it comes to funding,
40:27
fire departments always get the bad end of the stick.
40:33
Fire departments are always on the chopping block.
40:36
Specifically, their employees,
40:38
the labor side is always deemed to be expensive.
40:41
And many times, you know,
40:43
there are smaller cities that decide,
40:44
hey, we don't need a fire department.
40:46
We're going to make the county take control of everything
40:49
and provide.
40:50
And the county's now on the hook for it.
40:52
I have no idea why this is a thing in California,
40:54
why nobody thinks that funding and supplying the needs of your fire department is important.
41:02
But the fire department outside of putting on fires are always usually your first responders.
41:06
They're there before the ambulances get there.
41:08
Now, I talked about some of this with my brother on our show,
41:11
Random Thoughts with Manuel and George.
41:13
Check that out.
41:15
I think you're going to find it insightful and also hilarious as we, you know,
41:18
we tend to let loose on that particular podcast.
41:21
But I want to point something out when it comes to the funding and what has been going on.
41:29
Remember the rumor, remember the story about the $17.5 million that the LA fire chief was saying,
41:36
hey, you know, LA County, LA wanted to take that and strip that from us.
41:42
And everybody was saying, oh, you're lying.
41:45
That was never the case.
41:46
That wasn't true.
41:47
Well, you're right.
41:47
It's not true.
41:48
It's actually projected to be much higher.
41:50
I'm going to go over some numbers with you.
41:51
Now, I'm going to give a shout out, little hat tip over to an ex-account here for this
41:58
information.
41:59
It's Teets Sanchez, T-E-E-T-Z Sanchez.
42:04
Handle is at Bengal or Everson, all one word.
42:09
That's Bengal, B-E-N-G-A-L, number four, Everson.
42:14
He provided some information when he was responding to someone who was claiming, actually, he
42:19
was responding to Gavin Newsom himself.
42:21
This is funny.
42:21
I want to read this post.
42:23
So Gavin says, I am calling for an independent investigation
42:27
into the loss of water pressure to local fire hydrants
42:30
and the reported unavailability of water supplies
42:33
from the Santa Ynez Reservoir.
42:35
Well, I just went over a lot of reasons as why that
42:37
you didn't have enough water, Gavin.
42:40
But T-Tier responds, and I love it.
42:44
He's got pictures and clippings from, you know, here,
42:48
let me just blow this up and read this to you.
42:49
So here's a department update from January 26th of this year, 2025.
42:56
Now, everyone said the $17.5 million that everyone was talking about that was being cut from the fire department was an absolute lie.
43:02
And you're right.
43:03
Maybe it was a flub, a lie.
43:04
I don't know.
43:05
because according to this,
43:06
Operations Valley Bureau,
43:08
which includes the LA Fire Department,
43:12
okay, and the Fire Chief,
43:15
Board of Fire Commission, the COA,
43:16
and the UFLAC, or LA County,
43:21
they're proposing a budgetary cut,
43:25
whether you're 2024, 2025,
43:28
of $48.8 million.
43:30
They want to reduce the budget to fire protection, fire response, the fire department in L.A. County, by $48.8 million.
43:45
And it says that the only way to provide a cost savings would be to close as many as 16 fire stations.
43:52
Huh.
43:53
It says that the LA Fire Department superintendent will be added to all LA Fire Department brush assignments to coordinate LA County hand crews.
44:02
So they're going to take all these resources and then add more onto the superintendents or the LA Fire Department's superintendents' shoulders.
44:14
Huh.
44:15
Now, they're claiming that resources, while those stations would be closed, will be reallocated, but it does not ever say that they will continue to bolster or replenish those resources at the same levels after they've gone through what was given to the 16 fire stations that they're proposing to close.
44:33
Now, let's keep going over this situation and this proposal, because here's where that $17.5 million came from.
44:41
and outside of closing fire stations,
44:44
it was specifically aimed at cutting staff
44:49
as it always is.
44:52
Believe me, I've sat in so many meetings,
44:55
so many city, county meetings
44:57
that I have firsthand knowledge
45:01
that this fuckery goes on.
45:03
They're always trying to cut the budget
45:05
of the fire department.
45:06
They're always trying to justify
45:08
why they even need to pay for one.
45:09
It's ridiculous.
45:10
It's ludicrous.
45:11
It makes no sense.
45:11
So the $17.5 million that was going on or that was floating around the internet and on social media that everybody says was a hoax, no, it was not.
45:21
It was $17.5 million that was part of this $48 million reduction.
45:26
The reason the $17.5 million was narrowed or focused in on was because it really attacked the amount of staff.
45:36
Okay, so let me go over some of these numbers.
45:38
the adopted budget of 2324 budget changes and the budget for 25 uh 2425 they're trying to propose
45:47
so salaries general salaries they want to reduce it by about four million dollars
45:53
they also want to reduce overtime by two million overtime by variable staffing i don't know if
46:00
that's like overflow people you need to fight fires in addition to or um night crews but anyway
46:07
They want to reduce that by almost $6 million.
46:10
And they want to reduce expenses.
46:12
We're talking about contractual services.
46:15
They want to reduce by $4 million.
46:17
They want to reduce uniforms, guys, uniforms, by almost $1.5 million.
46:24
They want to get rid of administrative costs by only $250,000, though.
46:27
Hey, fuck the firemen.
46:29
Fuck the firefighters.
46:31
Let's gouge them the most.
46:33
But office staff, we only need to do a slight reduction.
46:37
Operating supplies.
46:38
They want to reduce operating supplies by almost $13 million.
46:44
Okay?
46:45
$13 million.
46:49
Those operating supplies are things that the firefighters need.
46:53
Things they need to fight the fires.
46:59
So when you add all this up,
47:01
now there's an offset in sworn bonuses.
47:04
So they do want to increase bonuses by a little.
47:05
and they want to increase some overtime here as well.
47:09
Looks like some other staffing.
47:12
So they want to increase that by,
47:14
looks like 25 million,
47:16
almost 26 million.
47:17
So some things are kind of offset here,
47:19
but overall,
47:21
they want to cut over $17,500,000
47:26
from the fire department
47:28
for the 24-25 budget year.
47:35
So more is being revealed.
47:39
Who's responsible in the end?
47:41
Is it Trump's fault, Gavin?
47:43
Because he called you out?
47:45
Because he said you're more concerned with the small fish?
47:48
You denied it, but I just proved you wrong.
47:51
You said you didn't know anything about that northern water that Trump was referring to,
47:55
but then I proved you wrong again.
47:57
Gavin, you can't do this.
47:59
Gavin, baby, as I said, this is public information.
48:03
I found it.
48:04
And if I found it, I'm going to tell you right now, there are way more capable journalists that can dig even deeper and make you look like an even, I don't know how, but an even more incompetent idiot.
48:15
This, in the end, falls on your shoulders, Gavin.
48:20
The mismanagement of our forests, the mismanagement of our water supplies and water stores,
48:27
the constant delay of products being completed due to environmental factors
48:34
all adds up to failure.
48:38
And Gavin, you are ultimately the one to blame.
48:42
Just admit you're wrong.
48:44
Just admit that you're wrong.
48:46
I mean, you have no other play at this point.
48:49
So in conclusion, because I've been going a while,
48:52
and I know this is pretty data-packed and it's just a lot of numbers and whatnot,
48:56
I want everybody to understand.
48:58
Yes, California has water.
49:00
Does it have water in every single little area?
49:04
No.
49:04
But overall, we have enough water to spread around and share the wealth with others.
49:09
California can take care of its own.
49:11
And I didn't even talk about the 2 billion gallons of water that are pumped out of reservoirs almost every day because of overflow.
49:19
I didn't even tell you about that.
49:21
but that's another ridiculous amount of water
49:25
that's being pumped out.
49:27
So again, if we didn't have enough water,
49:32
then why are we pumping water out of our reservoirs
49:36
in the ocean to make way for snow melt and overflow?
49:40
Why are we trying to expand our reservoir stores
49:45
to hold more of this water
49:47
so we don't have to pump it up?
49:48
And more importantly, while I've already proven that we do have enough water stores and that there's money put aside to increase those capacities and build new ones, ultimately, the failure that happened in the water supply to the hydrants came down to the fact that these projects, all this money, this $2.7 billion that was allotted for these projects to happen, haven't happened yet.
50:15
Most of them are not even going to be completed, as I said, until 2030, 2050.
50:20
There was not enough tanks.
50:22
There's only 3 million gallons worth of storage capacity that did not keep up with the demand
50:28
to put the Palisade fires out, period.
50:31
They need to double that capacity at least.
50:33
And they need to improve on the pump systems to get up the hill.
50:38
This comes down to a mismanagement problem.
50:42
and I don't know who's exactly to blame, but Gavin, you're in charge of California.
50:49
You can talk about investigations all you want, but man, you know what? You got to get off your
50:53
ass, get in there and hold people accountable. I don't care if they're your buddies. I don't care
50:58
if they're Democrats or Republicans. It doesn't fucking matter, man. At this point, you got to
51:03
hold people accountable. If you got people making $750,000 a year, that CEO, for example,
51:09
for the LA Department of Water and Power,
51:14
if she's making $750,000 a year,
51:16
if you got Karen Bass out there,
51:17
the mayor of LA,
51:19
making over $300,000,
51:21
if these people are very highly paid,
51:24
you have every right to hold them accountable
51:26
and you need to hold them accountable.
51:28
You want to show everybody you're a good governor?
51:31
Stop being a pussy.
51:32
Take care of everybody.
51:34
Get down to the bottom of the situation
51:36
and make sure that you hold them accountable.
51:38
And you have to ask the question, what is holding up these projects?
51:42
Because everything that has been holding these projects up has contributed to the detriment
51:48
of everybody's safety in that area of Southern California.
51:54
It's a direct threat.
51:58
The water needs to flow, Gavin.
52:00
Listen, California needs to cut the bullshit, stop water.
52:04
worrying about little things that in the long run don't really matter
52:08
because when it came to that Delta smelt,
52:10
they're primarily found up in the San Francisco area.
52:15
So what do we argue?
52:17
It's like we're shooting ourselves in the foot out here in California.
52:20
And yes, ultimately, Gavin, it does fall on your shoulders.
52:23
No matter what you say, in the end, this is your fault.
52:30
Well, thanks for listening.
52:32
remember to like, subscribe
52:35
and share the show, that's all I ask
52:37
and have a great day
53:02
Shh.