Benny Johnson EXPOSES California’s Homeless Fraud

Summary

Podcast Summary: Adam Carolla Show

Episode: Benny Johnson EXPOSES California’s Homeless Fraud

Date: February 10, 2026
Host: Adam Carolla
Guest: Benny Johnson (The Benny Show)
Additional Commentators: Rudy Pavich, Dawson

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Overview

In this episode, Adam Carolla welcomes political commentator Benny Johnson for an in-depth and unfiltered discussion on California's homelessness crisis, government incompetence, and the vast fraud allegedly plaguing public services. The conversation explores the psychological toll of urban decay, the mechanics behind the "homeless industrial complex," and the disconnect between political narratives and street-level reality. The episode navigates LA’s visible decline, national trust in institutions, performative politics, and the consequences of misplaced government incentives. The discussion is bracingly candid, mixing dark humor, social critique, and pop-culture observations.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. California’s Homelessness Scandal and Government Failures

[02:28–10:27]

• Benny Johnson: Describes firsthand investigation in the Palisades post-fire, detailing “a betrayal of the American people” by California’s leadership regarding relief, fraud, and urban decay.

  • "I've never seen a betrayal of the American people more like that by our government. Not in my lifetime." — Benny Johnson [03:55]

• Adam Carolla: Criticizes the recurring excuse from politicians of "not lying, just being incompetent," especially regarding the city’s inability to prevent disasters.

  • "If you cannot stop your city from burning to the ground, you cannot govern. You." — Adam Carolla [04:31]

• Discussion of how policies intended to help actually incentivize the perpetuation and growth of the homeless population.

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2. The "Homeless Industrial Complex"

[07:51–13:01]

• Benny Johnson: Argues that LA’s homelessness response is a self-interested, bureaucratic system that attracts people nationally and internationally with significant government funding but little oversight.

  • "$170,000 per homeless person is spent in California to increase the homeless population." — Benny Johnson [09:14]

• "The census counts only the persons, not the citizens, only the bodies, not the citizens in a specific area." — Benny Johnson [09:47]

• Adam Carolla: Draws vivid pictures of the everyday psychological damage inflicted on LA residents by constant exposure to urban neglect and squalor.

  • "It’s intimate and it’s kind of. It feels intrusive because... you’re seeing how people live. It’s like going inside of a guy’s really disgusting trailer… But it’s for everyone to see..." — Adam Carolla [11:05]
  • Wonders about the long-term psychological effects on millions commuting through “damnation alley.”

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3. Policy Choices and Social Demoralization

[13:01–16:39]

• Benny Johnson: Details LAPD being reduced to handing out pamphlets, unable to enforce existing laws due to political directives.

  • "I said, what are you doing here, officer? And they’re like, we’re handing out pamphlets. FML, you know, fuck my life. We’re handing out pamphlets..." — Benny Johnson [13:19]

• Argues that civic leadership has made a conscious choice to protect and incentivize the homeless population at the expense of working families.

• Calls the policy direction “Canadian style suicide pod” policy.

  • "...the city is choosing the homeless. Degeneracy, the filth, the criminality over the mother and the children. They’re actually making a choice for suicide." — Benny Johnson [16:12]

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4. Political Narratives vs. Street Reality

[16:39–19:16]

• Adam Carolla: Rants about politicians (e.g. Karen Bass) blaming homelessness on “income inequality" and crafting a “noble, Disney Oliver Twist version” that fails to acknowledge addiction and mental illness.

  • "The politicians create some sort of noble Disney Oliver Twist sort of version of homelessness. The homelessness that we know… are psychotic junkies, criminals, and illegals. Theirs is the down-on-his-luck, hardworking guy..." — Adam Carolla [17:16]

• Notable Moment: Carolla recalls past interviews with Gavin Newsom similarly denying addiction as a primary factor [16:39–19:16].

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5. Systemic Incentives and Abuse

[20:42–25:27]

• Adam Carolla: Shares personal stories to illustrate how perverse government incentives prevent self-improvement and reward dependency—even among affluent divorcees.

  • "Now are they bad people? Are they criminals? ... Nope. They’re just someone who, if you get married that hundred grand a month you’re getting, tax-free, gone, or 50 or the 32. Who, with that incentive, is ever going to get married again?" — Adam Carolla [22:12]

• Johnson and Carolla agree that current systems penalize productive citizens while rewarding non-contributors.

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6. Broader Cultural Critique: Entertainment, Corporate Wokeness, and Alienation

[28:01–44:27]

• Benny Johnson: Draws parallels between urban governance and corporate backlash (e.g. Bud Light, the NFL halftime show) for “defiling” their core customer bases.

  • "If you were constantly doing programs about how much you hate your audience and your customers… how long would it be until… people stopped buying tickets? That’s what you see all the time in blue cities. They hate the paying… customer." — Benny Johnson [28:01]

• Carolla: Argues that "woke" entertainment is intentionally alienating, prioritizing agitation over enjoyment.

  • "Half of their thing, which is like Bud Light, it’s there to, you know, signal… that they’re woke. Whatever. But a little of it is fuck you." — Adam Carolla [33:41]

• On the NFL: Meritocracy in the actual sport but DEI hires and wokeness in halftime and awards segments [44:27–48:41].

  • "The real attraction, you can’t watch the Oscars anymore because… the meritocracy of the Oscars is over… but it remains with the Super Bowl and the Olympics…" — Adam Carolla [47:56]

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7. Political Gaslighting and Public Trust

[48:51–59:32]

• Discussion of politicians reading passionless teleprompter speeches, intentionally misrepresenting problems (“Tesla robot style politics”).

  • "Watching a speech like that, it’s like, oh, okay, got it. That’s what Trump saved us from… Tesla robot style politics." — Benny Johnson [51:12]

• Johnson and Carolla discuss loss of faith in institutions (FBI, government, media) stemming from repeated lies (JFK, Epstein files, COVID, etc.).

  • "There used to be tons of programming… these were all sort of theatrical, basically commercials for them. And we treated the government… Vietnam kind of blew the lid off everything..." — Adam Carolla [59:57]

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8. Fraud & Waste in California’s Programs

[73:00–94:03]

• Deep dive into California's failed and over-budget high speed rail project, used by politicians like Newsom as a campaign prop rather than a functional service.

  • "He wants to get ahead of this train that's gonna hit him… because he wants to get ahead of this freight train that's filled with a cargo of shit that's about to collide into his campaign." — Adam Carolla [73:56]

• Healthcare & Social Services Fraud:

  • Investigative reports highlight billions in fraud (e.g. Armenian and Russian mob running fake hospices).
  • "In this four block area in Los Angeles, there are 42 hospices. So either there are a lot of people dying here, or you’ve got a fraudulent activity..." — Investigative Reporter [90:24]
  • "If you’re gonna create a system, the system will be exploited." — Adam Carolla [91:36]

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9. Institutional Apathy or Maliciousness

[101:14]

• Carolla: Summarizes the dilemma for leaders caught in fraud and scandal. Paraphrases "Casino": they're either complicit or incompetent, but either way, "you're off the floor."
  • "Are you part of this or are you just sitting and watching it? But either way, you’re off the floor." — Adam Carolla [101:58]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Benny Johnson on LA Decay:
  "It looks like a Bad Bunny concert… There was like a muddy orgy on the back of a truck." [08:20]
• Adam Carolla on Psychology of Blight:
  "What’s it like collectively to the soul of the millions of people live in Los Angeles who just have to drive down damnation alley every day on their way to work. Like, just slowly seeping in, like radon poisoning." [12:43]
• On Meritocracy vs. Wokeness:
  "The two pieces of bread in the meritocracy sandwich are good, but the meat looks like a DEI hire and it tastes weird to us now." — Adam Carolla [44:27]
• On Systemic Incentives:
  "You have to incentivize good behavior. It’s amazing the inversion of what society is." — Benny Johnson [25:04]
• On Corruption Narratives:
  "Turns out they rip people off every bit as the pinky ring guys did and even more so. But they do it a different way…" — Adam Carolla [06:43]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• LA’s government failure and homelessness: [02:28–10:27]
• Homeless industrial complex revelation: [07:51–13:01]
• Systemic abuse and incentives: [20:42–25:27]
• Corporate/cultural critique (Bud Light, NFL, Oscars, etc.): [28:01–44:27]
• Political gaslighting and public trust: [48:51–59:32]
• California’s high-speed rail metaphor and statewide fraud: [73:00–94:03]
• Fraud in healthcare and institutional complicity: [90:24–94:24]
• Summary of leadership failure: [101:14]

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Episode Tone & Takeaways

The episode is trenchant, irreverent, and darkly comedic, built around Adam Carolla and Benny Johnson’s refusal to accept official narratives at face value. The tone is one of withering sarcasm, frustration with institutional failures, and skepticism toward governmental and corporate motives. Key themes are the unintended (but entirely predictable) consequences of public policy, systemic incentives for fraud, and the emotional toll on ordinary citizens. Wry cultural takes—on music, sports, and entertainment—are used as metaphors for broader social decay.

This episode is essential listening for anyone interested in the intersection of urban policy, cultural transformation, and the rise of public distrust.

Transcript

[Adam Carolla]

Well, in this episode, commentator Benny Johnson is going to join me with lots of thoughts about, well, L.A. california and ripping off taxpayers. Also the news with Rudy and we'll do all that right after this. Thanks for tuning in to the Adam Carolla Show. You can watch the full show on YouTube just search Adam Carolla show and hit subscribe. Subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can also get the podcast wherever you like to listen. And for extra content, ad free episodes and more, you can head over to our substack and sign up today. Hey, this is Adam Carolla from the Adam Carolla Show. Well, if you care about predictions, you care about props. And nobody does props like bet online. For years we've been the home of legitimate sports betting with deep markets, sharp odds and player props that reward real insight from start of the game to the final whistle. BetOnline gives you live betting, instant updates and in game predictions that move as the action unfolds. Plus elevate your play with betonline casino and and VIP rewards built for serious players prediction markets. Follow the conversation. Bet online defines it. Bet Online. The game starts here at Pluto tv.

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[Adam Carolla]

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[Dawson]

From Corolla One studios in Glendale, California. This is the Adam Carolla Show. Adam's guest today, political commentator and journal, Benny Johnson and the news with Rudy Bovich. And now, Adam Carolla.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, get it on. Got to get it on. No choice but to get on. Mandate you get it on. Thanks for tuning in. Thanks for telling a friend. Benny Johnson is back on the show. His podcast, the Benny Johnson, sorry, the Benny show, available on YouTube and all the podcast platforms. I see Benny's stuff all over the Internet. I mean just, just getting out there and creating content and putting it out. So God bless you Benny. And I know you've been out to California to try to bust some folks who are ripping off the government, but tell us about it.

[Benny Johnson]

It's so easy because of your state, Adam. So like, thanks.

[Adam Carolla]

I know.

[Benny Johnson]

Thanks for putting these Batman, Villains in charge. It just makes it so unbelievably easy. They are villains. I have never gone through the Palisades before. That is just cripplingly sad.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah.

[Benny Johnson]

And I was like, my soul was hurt as an American. I'd never gone through and walked the rubble before. And I know, of course, you lost tremendously in that. But we have the next part. The next series in our fraud investigation is going to be about Palisades, and we dive deep. We spoke with a ton of the survivors of that fire, the families, the small businesses. We went door to door, we went through the rubble. We spent days out there. And I just. I've never seen a betrayal of the American people more like that by our government. Not in my lifetime.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, it's a weird thing that they try to make this argument, and it's the same one they made during COVID which is, we didn't know anything. We're just imbeciles. And I'm like. But it's not like they go like, it's not like we're lying. We just didn't know anything. We don't know what we're doing, but it's not like we're lying. We never knew anything. So we just said a bunch of stuff, but we don't know anything. And they're sort of like, that's what it's like with the fires. It's like, no, we didn't lie about the reports, and we didn't lie about the aqueducts or the winds or anything. We're just incompetent. We just can't govern. If you really think about it, Fire, it's sort of like when we talk about, how are these kids gonna eat and should the schools feed your kids and then who's gonna feed them during the summers when they're not going to schools and the school, they're feeding your kids. If you cannot feed your kids, you should not be a parent. That is the most basic thing, time immemorial. That is feeding your kids. Go back 10,000 years feeding your kids. If you can't do that, your kids should be taken away. And if you cannot stop your city from burning to the ground, you cannot govern. You. You can talk all you want about systems and welfare and high speed rail and transit systems and street lights. If you cannot stop your city from burning to the ground, then you can't govern. And you can do all the programs you want and all the streetlights you want and all the after school programs you want, but you let your city Burn to the ground. And then your thing is, I'm not lying, I just can't do anything to prevent it from burning to the ground. Which by the way, you can do. You absolutely can prevent your city from burning to the ground.

[Benny Johnson]

Didn't Karen Bass just get exposed for lying in her report about all this? And she like, yeah, she's facing a rough one. Are you gonna endorse Spencer Pratt?

[Adam Carolla]

I will endorse, as I've said many times, one of those plastic owls people put on the roof to scare pigeons away so they don't shit on their shingles. I would endorse that plastic Ow. Because that owl wouldn't do damage, it would just be inert, you know what I mean? It just would sit there. Well, you know. So Benny, here's something you should probably think about. Only because I think you would. I've been vibing on it like I like to approach things from a sort of mechanical standpoint, but also sort of a sociological standpoint, which is corruption and incompetence and corrupt leaders was sort of the dominion of rich white guys politically in the 50s and, and they were making deals for drilling rights with oil companies and throwing indigenous people off the land. And they were sort of comic book characters from 80s like Billie Eilish. They didn't look like Karen Bass. They weren't women of color. So what we decided, we decided that if you get rid of these red haired guys with their pinky rings and their gold nugget watches and replace them with women of color because they're not gonna rip people off. Well, it turns out they rip people off every bit as the pinky ring guys did and even more so. But they do it a different way. They do it under the umbrella of kids. They don't do it for drilling rights, they do it for taking care of the special needs and autistic kids and all that. And they give every business a title like first step forward and all that. And they're hard to spot cause it's a bunch of. They're not central casting and Karen Bass and all the Somalians and all the squad and stuff. That's not what you picture when you picture corrupt politicians.

[Benny Johnson]

Yeah, I mean, I guess, but I mean if you look at the most low IQ decisions that have been made throughout America, you can't help but notice that it is made by these DEI hires who are in charge of these major cities with these trillion dollar budgets. And it's been just a catastrophic nightmare. And I just couldn't believe what I found. Adam Going through California, going through la. I just, I was just in LA and what I found was that the homeless industrial complex which runs la, which is hollowed out in downtown la, which has some of the most gorgeous architecture, some of the most beautiful theaters in the entire country. It looks like the third world. It looks like a Bad Bunny concert is what it looks like. It looks like a Bad Bunny halftime show in downtown la. There are like moldy food carts, there's open prostitution, There was like a muddy orgy on the back of a truck. I think that that's why I shouldn't have been in San Francisco. I should have been in la. I think that's what Mad Bunny was trying to tell us. He was trying to show us the state. There was abt signs everywhere, all of that available in downtown Los Angeles and in the Bad Bunny halftime, so, so really exciting cultural moment here. At least he was accurate. And what we found was that these shelters don't check for U.S. citizenship. And so the state of California is trying to bring as many homeless people as possible. We spoke with a whistleblower, Adam, from Florida, from the homeless services here that says they're bringing in homeless people from around the country. They're begging them to come to California to live for years inside of these homeless shelters, which are really just hotels. They're very nice. You can live there long term. These people are from Russia, they're from Paraguay, they're from all over the world, they're illegals and they're getting federal dollars to do this. And so it's the opposite, of course, of what you'd want. You'd want to solve homelessness by spending money on it, but that's been the opposite. $170,000 per homeless person is spent in California to increase the homeless population. The reason why they want to bring more homeless people in is because of course California is losing a ass ton of electoral votes and they're attempting desperately to try and triage that. And so they're using the homeless industrial complex. They're making your life miserable, they're making your life dangerous for pure, grotesque, raw electoral power. Because the census counts only the persons, not the citizens, only the bodies, not the citizens in a specific area.

[Adam Carolla]

Right?

[Benny Johnson]

So that's what, that's, that's why under your. I mean, I just couldn't, I honestly frankly couldn't believe it. Under every underpass, under every overpass, in every ditch, in every alleyway. I've never seen this many homeless people in my life.

[Adam Carolla]

And thus junk and garbage and blight and graffiti and shopping carts and boxes and just as ugly a landscape and hellscape as you could create. It's one thing when Hollywood tries to do escape from la, but it's another thing when it's organically done. The stuff you see, the kids toys, the food wrappers everywhere, the garbage everywhere, the shopping carts with three wheels, everywhere it is blankets and weird. It's really scuzzy and gross too. It's not just trashy. You know what I mean? It's not like, oh, there's a bunch of aluminum cans on the ground. It's intimate and it's kind of. It feels intrusive because in a weird way, you're driving around and you're seeing how people live. It's like going inside of a guy's really disgusting trailer. But it's for everyone to see the blankets and the syringes and the food cans. And it's just. It's something that is, you know, when you sort of just think about the psychology of I live in Malibu, and the best part about living in Malibu is opening the curtains in the morning and looking at the ocean. And I literally saw a pod of dolphins go by this morning. And when you're drinking your coffee, looking at a pot of dolphins, you've never felt better. Conversely, if you go into a bad neighborhood and you open the curtains and you just look at another apartment building in front of yours, that's worse. But if you see syringes and garbage and homelessness and defecation and stuff, if that's the view you get from inside of your car, driving into work every day, psychologically, what does it do? Let's talk about the toll, because they always go, well, the people who convene with nature and take hikes and go outdoors and go on trails and hike by the ocean, they're psychologically so much stronger than even people. There's taking Prozac or whatever that is. But what's it like collectively to the soul of the millions of people live in Los Angeles who just have to drive down damnation alley every day on their way to work. Like, just slowly seeping in, like radon poisoning.

[Benny Johnson]

Yeah. What does that do? What does that say about the people who run your city? And I think this is a fascinating point because I talked with a couple of cops and got this LAPD hard boiled Ben in the Force, 30 years. Dudes who I came across as they were going to these ramshackle RVs. And this is what they. They'll find. They'll find, or they'll steal an RV and then they'll take the wheels off so it can't be moved. And then they'll just camp in it forever, right? And some of these RVs, I found this alleyway where they'd been here, must have been there for a decade, right? And they just live in there. And the RVs are falling in just to your point. You can see the inside, you can see the filth, you can see like the guy, you know, masturbating, you can see the filthy rags, you can see this, the drugs everywhere. And it's all spilled out onto the street, right? If you took your kid by it, it'd be an X rated movie, right? And these cops are walking up and down the street and I said, what are you doing here, officer? And they're like, we're handing out pamphlets. Fml, you know, fuck my life, we're handing out pamphlets. And I was like, what do you mean? Well, you know, what, what are the pamphlets? The pamphlets say like, you're going to jail because this is illegal. Because it is. No, the pamphlets, like, encourage them to get into one of the state funded, federally funded housing projects and ask them just politely to stop, you know, jerking off like that. That's what the pamphlets say. You know, they're tying the hands of the. I asked the cop, I go, is it illegal? What they're doing is like, yes. I said, could you arrest them today? Given the laws of the city, yes. But the politicians tell us we can't. And so we don't. And the chief of police is elected and he has to work for the mayor, and so we just. We can't, we can't arrest him. Well, bro, I got a parking ticket. I got a parking ticket in like 10 seconds.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh, yeah. Oh, no.

[Benny Johnson]

In downtown LA.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah.

[Benny Johnson]

But like, these guys can camp forever. Like, these guys can live forever on the street. And I guess there's the one point that I'll make. I'm sorry that it's belabored, but the point that I'll make is that it's the, the city's decision. The reason why it's demoralizing is that democracy means that the will of the majority should eventually come to pass. We should eventually get what we want. Might take a while, but we're gonna get the country that we all vote for again and again and again. And the systems break when we vote for the same thing for decades and nothing happens. And just the opposite happens. In fact, that's been what it's been with immigration, foreign policy for a Long time. Trump's came and changed a lot of that and that's why Trump was elected president. But when it comes to homelessness, you know what? No, no citizen, no tax paying citizen, no matter how poor or rich you are, ever wants homeless people around them. No one you could be on ebt, food stamps, welfare, wic. You still don't want homeless people around you. And when a city allows homelessness, they're choosing the homeless over you because they're making a choice. Because the homeless can't coexist with like mothers and children. You know, I have like a bunch of little kids. You have a beautiful family, like you have children. When you have little kids, the mom with the stroller and the baby can't walk by the homeless encampment.

[Adam Carolla]

Right.

[Benny Johnson]

It won't allow like her spirit won't allow her. Right, because she knows it's so dangerous somebody could come out and do something horrible to you. And so the city is choosing the homeless. Degeneracy, the filth, the criminality over the mother and the children. They're actually making a choice for suicide. It is a Canadian style suicide pod, which is what LA is in right now. Well, so the leadership has chosen death, you know, over like the family.

[Adam Carolla]

I, well, they're not into the nuclear family. And I. There was a little known thing I complained about at the time, but there was a tape and I don't know, Dawson, engineer Dawson, if you can find this or not. It's about three years ago and I think I was talking to you about it, but I was listening to it on the radio. Karen Bass addressed the Democratic Caucus of California, one of those groups, and she blamed homelessness on income inequality, which first off, it's patently insane. The greatest clip is Gavin Newsom sitting in here 13 years ago when I was explaining to him that these people were junkies with mental conditions. And he was explaining the real face of homelessness, which was the mother of two who had a full time job and just got divorced and was out on the street. Which is insane. But what I'm saying is the politicians create some sort of noble Disney Oliver Twist sort of version of homelessness. The homelessness that we know and that everyone knows who's been on the street and has seen it are psychotic junkies, criminals and illegals. Theirs is the down on his luck, hardworking guy. After the factory closed, they know some sort of Bruce Springsteen version of this. The mill closed down and the guys, they foreclosed on the farm and now he's out on the street. That is not what you're dealing with. And income inequality has nothing to do with shooting fentanyl and sleeping in a busted up Winnebago. These are crazed junkies. So if you're going to attribute it to this, that's completely false. And I don't know what's wrong with the democratic narrative where I go, these people need to be institutionalized and they're junkies. And then you give me some version of the mother of two who has a full time job and just got divorced. I don't know why you have to change reality so badly. Why does Karen Bass think these people income inequality? Is it because Jay Z and Beyonce have all the money, that these people don't have any money in California, that they took all the money? What are we talking about? And then why are you typifying it as something other than what it is? And I know somehow that's good for your base, but why is lying to your base? Why is that helpful to them?

[Benny Johnson]

I think that it really does come down to raw power. It's very easy. We found a toilet that 26 different homeless people registered to and they tried to fact check us on it. I have the registrar and the Secretary of State backing me up. In California. Yeah. There's 26 people registered to a toilet in Santa Monica. And they backed me up. All the fact checkers came for me. And the Secretary of State, Democrat backs me up and says, yeah, yeah, it's true and it's legal because, boy, man, that would be a great way to rig an election if homeless people could just register anywhere. And they can. It's also a great way to rig a national election if you can pack hundreds of thousands of, if not millions of. This was 2.5 million criminal aliens in California. There's 250,000 homeless people, Adam. That's like seven more congressional seats. That's seven more votes in the electoral College between just illegals and homeless people. So they don't give a shit about your quality of life. They don't care if you can't speak with your neighbor, if your kid gets hit by a car and that person doesn't have insurance. And then you know, and then you're stabbed by a hypodermic needle. Some guy in a tent comes out in a hallucinogenic state. They don't care about you. They don't care about your life. And like the homeless problem to Palisades, it all proves it. It all screams from the top of their lungs that they don't give a damn about the people of California, they will take the City of Angels and turn it to hell for power.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. The problem, as I see when I think about Minneapolis and Somalis and homelessness and the whole system, I want to explain to people, and I'll give you a metaphor, but I think it'll make sense. People are not evil per se, and, and they're not greedy or evil per se, but if you give them an option and you give them the option of free money, they will take advantage of it. And my mom was on welfare most of my life when I was young. And I just said to her, kind of mouth the babes one day, why don't you get a job? You get a job, we can get something nice or get a car or something like that. Why don't you just get a job? She goes, if I get a job, I'll lose my welfare. She said it to me when I was 9. Great message, but she meant it. So we created a system for them not to ever get away from. And so if you say to a poor person, hey, is your kid on the spectrum for autism? They'd go, no. They'd go, well, what if you could get 1,300 bucks a month if your kid was on the spectrum to autism? Then they'd go, all right, I'll get a note from my doctor, and he'll be on the spectrum to autism, and so will my neighbors, and so will everyone else. I know. But here's what I was talking about the other day. I know multiple men who are affluent dudes who got divorced and in the state of California, and I will include myself in this group in the state of California because these guys are so successful in show business oftentimes, but they're just high 1% earner type things. Their ex wives are getting $100,000 a month in spousal support, or $32,000 in spousal, or 50 grand in spousal support. Okay? They have been, and I'll include myself in this group, but these guys have been divorced, many of them, for years. In years, 20 years, 15 years, 10 years. They have all gone on to remarry their wives. Their ex wives will never marry. They will have long term relationships. They will have boyfriends. Many of them have the same boyfriend they got six months after they got divorced 20 years ago. But they'll never marry. And they'll never marry because if they get married, they'll get cut off and they won't do it. Now, are they bad people? Are they criminals? Are they criminal Masterminds. Are they junkies? Are they alcoholics? Nope. They're just someone who, if you get married that hundred grand a month, you're getting tax free gone, or 50 or the 32. Who, with that incentive, is ever going to get married again? Now the sad part is they're women and they got divorced, some of them, at a youngish age. And they would love to be remarried, if anything, just so they could say, I got divorced, I have my second husband now. They're basically living in sin for the rest of their life. They're living with these guys oftentimes like they're married. I mean, they're buying RVs and traveling around the country. Nobody works. They just get tens of thousands of dollars a month, tax free. And none of them have gotten married. And all the guys have gotten married and moved on with their life because they're incentivized not to. So what are they? Are they criminals? No, they're just weak and they have low character. And the state of California has enticed them not to get married.

[Benny Johnson]

Yes, you have to incentivize. And the only way to incentivize is through pain.

[Adam Carolla]

And these aren't Somali refugees. These are just white chicks who, they love their kids, they pay their taxes, they're not criminals in any way, but they will happily take that cash for the rest of their lives because California has incentivized them to do it. And they don't have enough character to walk away from it.

[Benny Johnson]

You have to incentivize good behavior. It's amazing the inversion of what society is. You get penalized for being a parent, you get penalized for paying your taxes, you get penalized for starting a business.

[Adam Carolla]

Right.

[Benny Johnson]

You get penalized for like driving through the hellscape that is la. You get a parking ticket, Right? Well, the homeless junkie can camp on the street for 30 years and do drugs.

[Adam Carolla]

Yes.

[Benny Johnson]

And poop in the street. He doesn't get penalized ever. But I do.

[Adam Carolla]

The thing about Malibu is when you're brought up, all the busted up, broken down Winnebagos, the busted up, broken down Winnebagos used to, they went all along the coast, all along pch, bumper to bumper, one after another. Because people were living on the ocean in Malibu for free. Now everybody else whose house burnt down, it's permits, it's engineering, it's plan check, it's coastal commission. Or you can just pull your RV right up to the edge of the water and flatten the tires and sit there and live literally on a stretch of highway where the lot for single family, small home would be $6 million. But you can live there for free because that's how the cities that punish the taxpayers and reward the criminals are the ones that fall apart the fastest. It's been something that's been going on in Los Angeles for a long time. I semi famously wrote about it in a book. I think it was in 50 years. Wall be Chicks could have been another book. I wrote about it a long time ago because I used to drive to this studio from up around Universal Studios, Hollywood Hills there. And I'd go down Forest Lawn Drive. And on one side of Forest Lawn Drive were all the Hispanics illegals selling flowers, cash under the table, no insurance, no employees, workman's comp or anything, no taxes. And on the other side of Forest Lawn was a motorcycle cop who was handing out tickets to people that were speeding on Forest Lawn Drive. And I would see them pulling over soccer moms all day and I would go, hey, on the other side of the street, there's a bunch of illegal activity going on. And you're handing out tickets to citizens who are going 11 miles an hour faster than the posted speed limit. And the answer is those people have checking accounts and will pay us. Whereas the illegals, we got nowhere to put them. So they left them alone and they turned a blind eye to the illegal activity and instead extorted, essentially extracted money from the legal community and their state. And this is like 20 years ago. And I was like, this is a bad sign. And now it's everywhere, street vendors everywhere.

[Benny Johnson]

How do you, how do you. You have a successful show if you were constantly doing programs about how much you hate your audience and your customers and you do stand up and you do these shows. If you constantly opened your shows about how much you revile and loathe your paying customers, how, how long would it be until you. Until that word got out and people stopped buying tickets? And this is what you see all the time in blue cities. They hate the paying. The paying customer is, is the resident of the city. You have to serve them. The only role of government would be to protect those people. Those are the people that fund everything. They keep you in business, they keep you in power, they keep the city upright and not descendant into madness. That's the only. If there is a purpose for a centralized government, it would be simply the protection and security of its citizenry. And everyone's lost that. It's something about the Elon calls it the woke mind virus. It's in fact, it Infects like Bud Light, right? Where, where you, you take this light beer that is drank at frat parties and by old, like old men with beer bellies sitting in their lawn chairs watching the sunset and the bug zapper, like, and then you, you turn it into, into transgender water for Dylan Mulvaney, right? He, he bathes in a bathtub of it, right? And like, you couldn't conceive on paper. You couldn't conceive of a bigger insult to a Bud Light drinker than to, to turn their favorite drink into transgender bathwater. In the same thing with Cracker Barrel, when you take the cracker off the barrel. And the same thing obviously with so many different corporations, Jaguar and then the NFL, right? It's like what we've seen with the NFL in the halftime show is this, this, this defile, this vandalization, this humiliation ritual for their customers and like dragging them in, like dragging, you know, it's like Middle America, 99% of their customers, fans don't speak Spanish. And you have a Show that is 100% in Spanish. You have a show that no one can sing along to. No one can even see. It's like, I wasn't at the Super Bowl. I don't know if you were. But you can't see the halftime performance at all. So it's like extra added insult onto the people that paid ten grand a ticket. But more importantly, it's like this almost defiling of American culture because the performance was like a globalist performance. And it's the National Football League, it's an American sport. There's no World cup of football. And so I don't know, I mean, I was wondering, you're of course a legend in the entertainment industry. Wondering your take on this.

[Adam Carolla]

Thanks for that title. I do feel that when it comes to the left, they look at their role when it comes to entertainment as sort of two parts. One is to entertain, but first is to agitate. Like they want to sort of agitate. And it shows up in a lot of different ways. But all the award show speeches are always there. But even weird things like septum piercings, you know, like Cynthia Erivo and all the weird aggressive, like it's there to kind of piss you off. It's not there cuz it looks good. You know what I mean? Like, here's what I'm saying. You can go, all right, I'm gonna get a push up bra and wear Spanx and that's to look good. And then there's, I'm gonna get a septum piercing and shave the side of my head. But that's more to agitate. That's not there to. To look good. That's to sort of draw you in. So you think about just the aesthetic of like blue hair, septum piercing, weird face tattoo. What is that really there for? Because we think it's attractive or be more attractive or is it more of a fuck you? So half of their thing, which is like Bud Light, it's there to, you know, signal to their. Not to their base, but to signal that they're woke. Whatever. But a little of it is fuck you. Like, hey, beer swilling, bug zapping watcher on your porch. What would you hate the most? If we advertise this? Yes. And it'd be, let's get the he she douche to sit in a bathtub full of our product. And then fuck you. So a lot of it is put on, not necessarily to go, well, who is the. What would America like the best? I'll tell you what America would like the best. An all star band to cover Tom Petty songs. That's what we would enjoy the best. We would enjoy a band of like, Ringo and his All Stars and all, you know, Ry Cooters playing the guitar. And we have all the best session players in the world, and we just nail eight of his favorite of your favorite fucking songs. That would do it.

[Rudy Pavich]

Sure.

[Adam Carolla]

We'd be done. And it'd just be some like the best eight Tom Petty songs played by the best eight session musicians on the planet. Like essentially the band that they use for the Rock and Roll hall of Fame. Those guys, the Real Salty Wrecking Crew session guys, they just nail the shit out of eight Tom Petty soaps. That's what you'd like the best. Well, you're not gonna get that. What would piss you off the most? This half gay guy singing in Spanish the entire time, buying street tacos and jewelry. All right, that's gonna piss you off the most then. That's what we're going with. And by the way, because the person who's deciding all that stuff, it's like the dumb chick from Bud Light, right?

[Benny Johnson]

JG Actually.

[Adam Carolla]

But yeah, yes, they're there because they. They're there to kind of agitate agitane. I made a new word up, not entertain Agitane. They're there to piss you off through their entertainment. And they do it all the time. Even when they do their stupid land acknowledgments and stuff at the beginning of the. Whatever. That's just to piss you off. It's just to piss off every guy who watches the Buds, who drinks Bud Light and looks at the bug zapper. Why? Well, they're angry at their dad. They're angry at their dad. That's number one. I'm not joking. They hate their dad. You become their dad. Donald Trump is their dad, and Uncle Sam is their dad. That's number one. Number two, they think that being rebellious is kind of a form of entertainment. And this guy, if he goes out there and sings songs, that's fine. But if he puts on a dress and sings the songs, then it's gonna ag you and America. And really what they're doing is to sort of combat whatever was and whatever is. And it's what Trump derangement syndrome is. It's like whatever it is Trump stands for, we're just against. And whatever traditionally America stood for, we're just gonna do the opposite. And they do it through dress, they do it through song, they do it through. They do it through media. You know, the stories they tell. Moonlight or whatever. It's like, what story don't you want to see? Couple of black gay guys getting it on. On the beach. All right, you won the Academy Award because that would piss off the guy watching the bug zapper the most.

[Benny Johnson]

So what's so wrong with the guy watching the bug zapper? Like, that's most dudes across the country, right? It's most like anybody over the age of 50 is sitting there watching the, you know, on his back porch.

[Rudy Pavich]

That's.

[Adam Carolla]

That's how.

[Benny Johnson]

That's how dudes hang out.

[Adam Carolla]

So, like.

[Benny Johnson]

Well, like, that's where I come from. I'm from Iowa.

[Adam Carolla]

Right.

[Benny Johnson]

That's all anyone did. So what's so wrong with that guy? And also, more importantly, Adam, how can the NFL, you know, this. This seems like a bit of a catastrophe. I don't know if you watched their. The halftime show.

[Adam Carolla]

What.

[Rudy Pavich]

What did you.

[Adam Carolla]

What was your.

[Benny Johnson]

What was your.

[Adam Carolla]

I mean, I mainly different taste. I don't speak fluent Spanish. I only speak construction Spanish. I can say limp ladder and clean up and stuff like that. But. So no one I knew and no one I watch it with enjoyed it from a sonic standpoint. The music kind of sucks. He kind of sucks. But it was visually interesting, like a, you know, Scorsese movie and Goodfellas when they're walking through the kitchen with one 15 minute unedited shot. Also, it's weird when they depict their culture as guys who sell tacos on the street. You know, I didn't see Any lawyers or doctors in that scenario? It's just a bunch of guys who sold fence jewelry and horse meat tacos and some whores, you know, so it was kind of stupid that way.

[Benny Johnson]

They had an EBT sign. They put that up. That's how accurate they wanted to be. And there was a mud orgy on the back of a truck.

[Adam Carolla]

So that's cool. Everybody I know just sort of watched it. Sort of like you would watch look at, I don't know, sort of like Yoko Ono, where you just kind of go, I don't know what she's doing. Do you know what she's doing? No, I don't know what she's doing. I'll watch it. It's kind of interesting, but I don't know what's going on. But it's now. So we've completely departed from the halftime musical show to just sort of the halftime artistic installment or something. Right. It's no longer a music show, so, I mean, it's fine. I don't know what the end game is. I mean, I imagine they're just trying to go, here's what I think the NFL is doing. And I think I can circle back to what California is doing, which is all these illegals and homeless and the people are trying to get everyone a driver's license so they can vote and blah, blah, blah, is you. And I go, well, you're kind of pissing off your constituency who pay all the taxes, want law and Order or not? And they go, well, sorry, but we need the votes. So if you said to the Democrats, look, would you prefer no homeless and no illegals? They'd probably go, yes. But would you prefer to lose the next election? Well, the answer would be no. And so then they would go as well. I'll tell you what we'll do. We'll take the homeless and we'll take the illegals if we don't lose congressional seats. And that's the kind of weird deal with the devil they made. And now they have to bend themselves into pretzels talking about how voter ID is Jim Crow 2.0 and all this stuff, which makes them sound like idiots to us, but they have to do it because they painted themselves into that corner. I think if you said to the NFL, look, the NFL probably goes, look, we got all the white people we can handle already we have captured that audience. Now we'd like to go brown, and we'd like to go international. And then somebody said, well, it's gonna piss off the guys watching the bug zappers and drinking the bug and the bud. It's gonna piss off that crew. If you go with all Spanish halftime show, they'd go, I get it. And I'd like to have up with people singers as much as the next guy. But we're going for the national audience, international audience. And they'd go, well, what about the blue eyed guys with the bug zappers? And they'd go, well, they're not going anywhere anyway, so let's just extend it to the international audience. So I think that's what they're doing because they have to know that nobody who was born here who watches their sport is in to whoever they've chosen for their halftime show, which is bad money. They know it. I don't think they care. Just like politicians know homelessness and illegals are not good, but they don't care. They have a bigger picture. Simply safe. Well, if you're like me, then you like staying prepared for anything. And that's what I hate about most security systems. They wait for someone to break in to do something. But simply safe active guard outdoor protection AI and live monitoring agents catch people lurking around your property. And it's super affordable. With monitoring plans Starting at only $1 a day, we know that the government isn't going to protect us. So I suggest you start doing it yourself with Simplisafe. That's why I use SimpliSafe with two eyes, by the way. And that's why they've always been a great sponsor for the show. It's simply safe. Right, Dawson?

[Dawson]

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[Adam Carolla]

We must make a massive demonstration.

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[Adam Carolla]

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[Adam Carolla]

Well, the holidays have come and gone once again. But if you've forgotten to get that special someone in your life, a Gift. Well, Mint Mobile is extending their holiday offer of half off unlimited wireless. So here's the idea. You get it now. You call it an early present for next year. What do you have to lose? Give it a [e-mail] Switch limited time.

[Benny Johnson]

50% off regular price for new customers. Upfront payment required $45 for three months, $90 for six months or $180 for 12 month plan taxes and fees. Extra speeds may slow after 50 gigabytes per month when network is busy. See terms. Do you think that people will. Do you think that people will ever crash out on this? And I know that, like, this is something that I was really excited to.

[Adam Carolla]

Talk to you about.

[Benny Johnson]

You know, Hollywood is having really bad years, you know, bad year after bad year, core bad quarter after bad quarter. The box office this last October was the. The lowest box office in four in October in your lifetime or mine, adjusted for inflation.

[Adam Carolla]

Wow.

[Benny Johnson]

And so things are. Things are becoming catastrophic, I think based on the same principle that they've just completely vandalized and attacked their customer base. They've created slop that nobody wants. And I just don't think, even if it is the NFL, I don't think that it can continue on forever. I think that people will eventually, everything from the new kickoff rule to, you know, this halftime performance, people will eventually, you know, atrophy and there'll be other alternatives and they'll go to that. And I think Hollywood's learning this, of course, the hard way. And we thought they had, you know, I gotta tell you, dude, I am a sprint. I must be like a sweet summer child because I actually thought they were gonna cut out with the woke bullshit. I really did. Until this Grammys rolled around. I thought that they had just like all of their agents were just like, this is terrible for. Who cares? We're not making money, you know, so shut up. We're not making enough money. So stop pissing off everyone. Even if you do believe it. You don't have to scream. You know, about the Tonka tribe, right? You know, you are literally. You are literally swimming on like 1400 of their skeletons of their ancestors, you know, in your. In your 500,000 gallon pool.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah.

[Benny Johnson]

So, you know, shut up, right? About your land acknowledgments. But I was wrong, bro. Adam, I was so wrong. I should have consulted your wisdom. I really did. I had. I thought. I think the last Oscars was relatively woke for, like, was relative. Very muted.

[Adam Carolla]

Right?

[Benny Johnson]

I think everyone got the. Got the lecture to shut up. Our industry is dying and then lo and behold, this Grammys comes around and I'm just, you know, I guess I'm just asking, like, is the NFL? Like, it can't be. It cannot be insulated from these same principles, these same laws of gravity that if you betray and attack your customers enough that they will eventually leave.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, you know, it's interesting because why people love the NFL and, and you have to really think. And sports in general, and you have to really think about it because you go, oh, they like seeing these guys run into each other high speed or they gamble or whatever. But really, sports and, you know, the Olympics and the downhill and the whole thing, it's meritocracy. It's 100% meritocracy. When you watch the. I was watching, like the men's downhill or whatever, and the guy wins by thousandths of a second or whatever, and you don't go, oh, I bet his dad owns the team or something like that. You know, you just go, 100% meritocracy. Right? I mean, it's like you go to the Winter Olympics and you look the luge or the downhill or whatever, and you go, where's the diversity? It's like, there's no good black guys for going downhill fast on skis. They don't have them. So they're all white guys. But believe you me, it's the fastest white guys. And if there was a black guy, it'd be the fastest black guy that there was in that country. You know what I mean? And we love the meritocracy. So you turn on the NFL games and oftentimes in the super bowl and possibly all 11 guys on the defensive side of the ball are black. You know, it's like, you know, Baltimore Ravens or some team. It could be any team. If it wasn't all 11 guys were black. It was 10 or nine. And we're fine. All the white dudes I watched the super bowl with are completely 100% fine with the All Black defensive thing and 70, whatever, because we know it's not rigged, we know it's a meritocracy, and we know there's no DEI hires one direction or another. And by the way, if there's a cornerback and he's Asian or Jewish, we're in because they want to win and they're putting the best players on the field. Once in a blue moon, you'll go, I don't even think that guy's that good. But we know the incentive of the coach is to try to win the game. And it's a meritocracy. And then you see the halftime show and it doesn't look like a meritocracy. Who's this guy? I don't know any of his songs. Do you know any of his songs? Why is this guy playing the halftime of the show? So now we go in the middle of this crazy meritocracy fest, right to the middle part of it. It's like the two pieces of bread and the meritocracy sandwich are good, but the meat looks like a DEI hire and it tastes weird to us now. And that's kind of what we're doing. Right in the middle of the meritocracy fest, there's a little piece of affirmative action that appears to be going on. And that's what kind of bumps us. And they used to. But the real attraction, you can't watch the Oscars anymore because you go, okay, so sinners is the number one. And then the other is one bad thing. Battle after another. Whatever. Is this just political? Is sinners really? I've talked to plenty of people have seen sinners, progressive guys who do this for a living. They're like, you don't have to see it. It's probably a six and a half. Really? Because it set the record for most Oscar nominations of any movie ever. And then we go, that's cuz it's an all black cast, right? Yes, the meritocracy of the Oscars is over and all the award shows, but it remains with the super bowl and it remains with the Olympics and it reigns. But they're chipping away at it and someone needs to say to them, why are you. Put that hammer down. Stop chipping at this. The viewership for the Oscars and the viewership for the Super bowl in 1980 were probably about the same. And now The Oscars gets 7 million and the Super bowl gets 100 million. They got rid of the meritocracy and they got rid of their eyeballs. And I don't know if they know it or not, but that's what happened.

[Benny Johnson]

That's just such a sharp point. You're exactly right. Nobody, nobody knows any of the things that win awards anymore. Nobody ever saw them. Nobody, nobody went and saw any of these movies.

[Adam Carolla]

I know.

[Benny Johnson]

So like, how could you ever go cheer? How could you even cheer for them? Why would you ever watch? And by the way, there's no such thing as a movie star anymore.

[Adam Carolla]

Right?

[Benny Johnson]

Nobody knows who a movie star is. Name me a movie star under the age of 40. No one can name one there are no movie. Movie stars under the age of 40.

[Adam Carolla]

If they are, they're doing Grubhub commercials and stuff, so they're. No, that ain't Clark Gable. We found Karen Bass talking about affordability, creating homelessness in the state. This is from 2024. All right, so she thinks the junkies are living in Winnebagos and shooting up because of affordability. See if we have this clip for you, Benny, which we shall find on our computer. Moment. Now, this isn't the one I was talking about, I don't think, but we'll see if she can figure out why there's so many junkies living on the street now. You know, the most extreme example of affordability is homelessness itself. With over 40,000 unhoused Angelenos and almost half of them sleeping on our streets every night. This is the consequence of decades of rigid thinking that never built a system capable of meeting the scale of the need. But since I became mayor, we began moving with urgency. We broke down silos, we challenged policies that kept people trapped on our streets, and we began building a system with one clear goal, and that's ending homelessness, especially street homelessness. Exactly what I was looking for. But not mission accomplished with her at all. I'm sorry, did they get into affordability at some point, or is this not that clip, like, sitting here again?

[Benny Johnson]

These prompter speeches are so lame. I become so spoiled with Trump, where you just never know what you're gonna get next. It could be one of the funniest lines ever written, or it could be one of the most vicious attacks ever written. Or it could be, like, a hand gesture or an act that, you know, that'll, like, be memed, right, for the next 50,000 years. Like, but then watching a speech like that, it's like, oh, okay, got it.

[Rudy Pavich]

That's.

[Benny Johnson]

That's what Trump saved us from. Just that style of politics. Forget the substance. Forget, like, the policies. Just that. That style of politics. That robot. That Tesla robot style politics. Read the prompter. Don't believe anything, right? I was, like, in Ghana, sipping cocktails while your house burned, Adam. Yeah, like, I don't get. I don't. I don't care about. I don't care about the homeless. Like, don't believe your eyes and ears is totally Orwellian. It's like Winston sitting there. They just want you to be Winston at the end of 1984. They just want you sitting there drinking the bad gin and saying, two plus two equals five. And it's like, clearly not. It's clearly not true. I mean, it's the thing that's pissed me off about the Epstein files. The thing that pissed me off the most about the Epstein files is something that I've broken with the administration on, is that this is, you know, this is like it was clearly a lie that there was nothing there.

[Adam Carolla]

Right there.

[Benny Johnson]

There's obviously there's so much there and we're learning. We were only released half of them and the world's changed. It's the number one Google search trend for the last seven days. Not by a little, by a country mile. The Epstein list, we've learned so much. It's like hard to really enumerate all of it. But there, there has been so much. And Bill and Hillary Clinton are going to testify and they told us that there wasn't anything here. And so like the era of like, trust me, bro, move on. Like that era of like Karen Bass in there lying, that's gone, right? I mean, I did, I did want to, I didn't want to ask you about the Epstein files. I mean, I don't want to change the subject here, but like I, you know, give. Given the fact that there are like plenty of Hollywood people on this and plenty of, you know, comedians and like, what was that op? Like, what, what is your take? What's your read on this?

[Adam Carolla]

My read is there are not too many subjects where I just go, I really couldn't tell you what definitively is going on. I can tell you this. There are Stratas, there's like flu on the airplane and that's Tom Hanks and Whoopi Goldberg or something. And I'm like, as a guy who's caught a few rides on a few airplanes and I've had nothing to do with the politics or the lifestyle of the person who owned the airplane, that's kind of a nothing burger. It's gonna need more. I don't think we're doing ourselves any favors getting really granular about like people who flew on the airplane. Cuz that could be anyone at any time. Been to the island now, that's the group. Like I'd like to thin the herd a little bit. You know, like we go, there's a picture of him at dinner with this guy and that guy. That could be anything at any time. People have pictures with Gaddafi and stuff. There's a picture of this person. I mean, I cannot tell you how many people. After every single show, a line forms that go, can we get a picture? Can we get a. They get a picture later on that Guy could blow up the Pentagon, and then you could show me with the picture of the guy from eight years earlier, and it just wouldn't. You might. If you didn't like me, you could go, well, here's Adam posing with the terrorists, you know, but it wouldn't really get you. It's not gonna get at anything. So I would thin out all of that and get to, like, who's been to the. Who's been to the island? And also, I mean, we don't know everything, but it does have that same feeling like, you know, this is Bill Clinton. And by the way, what we know of Bill Clinton, this feels like something he would enjoy doing. I mean, I don't think anyone really cares about the victims. It's completely politicized. One side will use it against the other. If it's expedient, the other will use it against the other side. There's nobody really looking out for the victims. They're just looking to create victims on the other side of the aisle. And it doesn't seem like anyone has their hands clean here. It doesn't feel like a strictly Republican or Democrat issue. It just feels like everybody's got a little dirt under their Epstein nails. And also, you do wonder about the whole sort of blackmail component of the whole thing, because it did feel like he had. Also, it is curious, where did all the money. How did this guy amass this kind of wealth, from school teacher to investment banker to kajillionaire? Where. Where did all. I would like to know where all the money came from. His wealth.

[Benny Johnson]

I mean, I think you'd have to actually pass a law to get the CIA documents for the answer to that, right? They just have the DOJ documents.

[Adam Carolla]

So, yeah. And I assume it's business as usual. I mean, lots of powerful people protecting themselves and other powerful people and stuff that's been going on for a million years in this country? I think we're under the illusion that things are supposed to be transparent for us now, but I think it's an illusion. I think in the past, there was a lot of, like, well, JFK was assassinated and the CIA and the FBI and Mossad and whatever, but everyone's taking that to their grave. And you're just a guy who does a podcast or works on a construction site or something. You're never going to find any of that information. And now we're living in some space where we're like, I need to know everything that these guys are hiding. And it's like, you're not. We just Got done with COVID We assumed it came from a lab leak. We were told that it came from a pangolin. And then that got forced down our throat. And then everyone I knew in LA bought into the wet market theory. And so they're not stopping this stuff. They're gonna continue doing it. And I guess we just assume we should know, you know what I mean? It's kind of a weird thing. Like, once in a while I'll go on the Internet and I'll go, I'm gonna type in some old guy I went to high school with and see what's up with him. And then I do it and it doesn't come up on the Internet and I go, what the fuck's wrong? What's going on around here? This is bullshit. It'. You don't get everything all the time just because you have a computer and a smartphone and. I don't know, I think our expectations are too high. We just assume the Clintons are gonna admit to everything and go to jail or something. I think it's business as usual. We just have smartphones now.

[Benny Johnson]

I like it. I like having that instinct. It was terrible for the country, actually. An entire generation, sort of like the. It was really the parents of the boomers, Right, who were in charge in 1963 when JFK was shot. You know, the boomers were relatively very young at that age, so it was their parents. It was like that World War II generation that just had that blind trust in the system.

[Adam Carolla]

Yes.

[Benny Johnson]

And like the Wall of Warren Commission told me, and so did Walter Cronkite, so they would never lie to me.

[Adam Carolla]

Right.

[Benny Johnson]

And they were able to get away with that. They were able to kill a president.

[Adam Carolla]

Right.

[Benny Johnson]

They were able to kill his brother. And they were, you know, I just had dinner with rfk, actually. It's, like, remarkable the way he talks through it. It's like, wow, they really did, like, the CIA literally did kill your brother. Yeah, they straight up, like, they did. And he, like, he knows it and he knows all the details of it. Yeah, he's done all the forensics.

[Adam Carolla]

His father.

[Benny Johnson]

His father. Sorry, yeah. RFK's father. Yeah, JFK's brother. And it's like, you know, there was a generation where they could have that kind of control. You know, it happened in la. It happened in LA because of the mob, connected CIA, connected police force in LA that could. That could completely clean up a job like that. And they, you know, and they got away with it mainly because people were, I think, so trusting of institutions.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh, yeah.

[Benny Johnson]

And now we've seen that. We've seen a flip now. People don't trust the. Even if Cash and Bongino are at the FBI, people don't trust the FBI.

[Adam Carolla]

No, they just.

[Benny Johnson]

They don't. This is the first time in American history they were like. Like, people don't trust the FBI, and Americans are prone to, like, law enforcement. They trust law enforcement in general, but these institutions have been ground to nothing. I think maybe just kind of returning to the point about how LA manages itself, these institutions have been ground to absolute powder. And I think that's why you're seeing the atomization of so much in society.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, I mean, also, there used to be tons of programming and movies about the FBI and the Bon Dun that this, like, patriotic music would play. And these are the men of the FBI. And these were all sort of theatrical, basically commercials for them. And we treated the government. I mean, really, in a weird way, Vietnam kind of blew the lid off of everything because we made every movie that was a war movie, was a heroes movie before Vietnam, and then every movie past Vietnam that was a war movie, was guys smoking hash out of a human skull and going and massacring some village or something. Before that was all Audie Murphy stuff, charging the German machine gun nest and stuff like that. So the sort of the Vietnam, I would say the Martin Luther King assassination, the Kennedys and the whole Vietnam thing in a six or seven year period really flipped us in terms of being dubious about the government and these law enforcement entities. But then we were sort of inert with it for a long time. And then Trump came around and then, you know, Hunter Biden laptop, all things Covid, all things Trump, raids on Mar a Lago and all that kind of stuff. And then I think America broke, broke with them again.

[Benny Johnson]

I just, you know, I want the country to continue. I want people to have faith and pride in their nation. And I just don't. You know, you can't keep telling us there's nothing in the Epstein files. Yes, you can't keep telling us you're gonna solve homelessness, give us another 24 billion.

[Adam Carolla]

I agree. I will. I don't know, Dawson. You can find the Gavin Newsom homeless one, which will just make Benny laugh, because this is the guy who thinks he's gonna be president, who was explaining to me the part that was kind of insidious about it is I was sort of telling him, you got a problem with homelessness. About 13 years ago, I said, we got a problem. And then I said, here's what the problem is. And then he said, but what about the real face of homelessness? Which is a weird way to address what I was saying. Cuz I was going, here's what your problem is. The problem is what you saw. You see any moms with their kids on the street wearing, you know, fast food outfits? Or was it just dudes who are junkies? Like, I don't even see no sober. If you really think about it, you have to break it down this way. No sober person lays down on a sidewalk to go to sleep at night if you're sober. If you're sober and the wheels come off the wagon, you on your Buddy's apartment at 4 in the morning, go, hey, man, I got a crash on your sofa, dude, or whatever. But nobody sleeps outside, you know, Like I'm in a warehouse now and I got a guy in from out of town, Rudy. And Rudy slept here last night, but he didn't sleep outside. But he doesn't have a house here, so he slept here on a sofa here. And. But you don't sleep outside unless you're high as a kite. As a matter of fact, you can't sleep outside. I would challenge any person to go outside tonight and just lay down on a sidewalk underneath a freeway overpass sober and try to go to bed. It's not going to work. You cannot sleep. All right, I'll play you this. And this is Gavin Newsom's actual answer to me about the face of homelessness. Well, listen, the thing about homeless people is they're either junkies or they're crazy or they're both. This notion of like the guy's a hard working, God fearing family member who lost his job and now had to take to the streets is total nutter. But what about the picture of real homelessness, which is a poor mom with two kids with a husband who took off and left her, who's sitting there struggling on that minimum wage job and all of a sudden now is out in the streets and sidewalks desperately trying to find some help, get a life back kick, get those kids into childhood.

[Benny Johnson]

Do you think that's what happened at Jewel?

[Adam Carolla]

That was the tough thing?

[Rudy Pavich]

Yeah, that's tough.

[Adam Carolla]

And that's a picture of family homelessness in this country. No, that's a postage stamp. No, the real picture is bigger than the AIDS quilt, and those are crazy junkies. Yeah, but no, see, I will challenge you on this. What you're talking about is chronic homeless, which is the picture we have of homeless, which is a relatively small percentage of folks that are homeless and those folks certainly are struggling with drugs. He doesn't know what he's talking about. And by the way, if you are sleeping on your in laws sofa because you're homeless, that's your business. It's got nothing to do with me walking my kid down the sidewalk. That's just between you and your in laws. If you're couch surfing, that's between you and the guys you went to college with who are letting you crash on the sofa. That's got nothing to do with society or me. I'm talking about people in the fucking street. And he is fighting with me all the way. Talking about a mother of two who has a full time job, but it's minimum wage.

[Benny Johnson]

Okay, so he's definitely going to run.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh, yeah, that's all he does.

[Benny Johnson]

What's going to happen, Adam? I mean, listen, I haven't talked to a lot of people who've interviewed him. You know, I know he's made some rounds, but like, what's going to happen?

[Adam Carolla]

There's going to be a massive backlash because guys like you are going to uncover all the fraud and all the stories about his adulterous affairs are gonna come out. And all the stories about him being in with the Getty oil company and being a rich kid essentially instead of hardscrabble. Grew up on the wrong side of the tracks. You know, he's a silver spoon guy.

[Benny Johnson]

I was just hustling.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, I was just hustling.

[Benny Johnson]

Do you hear that?

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. All that's just gonna come up and bite him in the ass and he ain't gonna play in the Midwest. Benny, let me give you, he's a hustler.

[Benny Johnson]

I was like wonder bread and Mac and cheese, man.

[Adam Carolla]

He pulled the single mom shit on me too. In here, the Benny show, available on YouTube and all podcast platforms as well. Bennyjohnson.com we're going to do the news in a sec. Thanks for joining us, Benny. Keep us posted.

[Benny Johnson]

Godspeed, Adam. Thank you, man. You're the best.

[Adam Carolla]

You are too, buddy. We'll take a quick break. Be back with Rudy and the news right after this. Homes.com Some might say homes.com is the best home shopping site. I would say that it may be homes.com's super comprehensive and transparent agent directory. Or Maybe it's that Holmes.com is the only site that always directly connects you with the listing agent who knows the home the best. Perhaps it's because homes.com has the most in depth neighborhood content of any home shopping site. That's extensively researched to highlight the personality of each neighborhood. Homes.com goes above and beyond to bring home shoppers the in depth info they need to find the right home. Homes.com that's homes.com We've done your homework, O'Reilly.

[Dawson]

Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

O'Reilly Auto Parts, well, they're in the business of keeping your car on the road. They offer friendly, helpful service and all the knowledge you need to keep that car rolling along. And if I can't figure something out in my car, I just call them. They're always my first call. But they've got thousands of parts in stock and can test your battery for free. Need wipers, brake light or quick fix? They'll get you the right part. Everyone who works there is knowledgeable and they're friendly. The professional parts people at O'Reilly are your one stop shop for DIY auto stuff, whether it's in store or online. You always gotta go with O'Reilly. Am I right? Dawson?

[Dawson]

Stop by O'Reilly Auto Parts today or visit them@o'reillyauto.com Adam that's o'reillyauto.com Adam. Welcome back to the Adam Carolla Show. Here are a few upcoming lectures this month at Cal Berkeley that you certainly want to miss. Women's Religious Literature, Gender and Feminism in Renaissance Italy, Trajectory of the Rise of the Strongman Presidency and Gastro Fascism and Empire Food in Italian East Africa from 1935 to 1941. Make sure you miss these important lectures this month at Cal Berkeley. Now back to the Adam Carolla Show.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, good job there, Dawson. As I said, many, because I think maybe the genesis of this is a million years. I looked it up like, you know, Ben Shapiro was coming to talk on the campus of Cal Berkeley and they all had to hit the streets in protest and set the fire alarms off and do all they do. And then I said I'm sure I would be uninterested in most of all the lecture series that Cal Berkeley had to offer if I was just looking at the calendar for their student union. But I just would not attend because I wouldn't be interested. But I wouldn't want to deny the other folks who want to learn about Gastro Whatever in 1800s Vienna, that's their prerogative. And I wouldn't go in there and rip the alarm and ruin the event because that would be super narcissistic and super very un golden rule Y. So why don't you just let the folks go watch the stuff they're interested in and then they'll let you Watch the stuff you're interested in. And then we could have a civil society and get the fuck on with our lives. But you won't do that because you have now labeled the diminutive Jew as dangerous in Ben Shapiro. And now you're thus making yourself a by inserting yourself into a situation that has no danger. But you get to be the hero by pulling the smoke alarm.

[Rudy Pavich]

Yeah. You know the people that go against comedians getting up on stage just because they don't necessarily tell the same jokes that you like. Heaven forbid that they just. People who. Six sold out shows in Minneapolis all got canceled because you didn't like one joke that a comedian told.

[Adam Carolla]

Right. That's what happened. What was the comedian's name?

[Rudy Pavich]

Ben Bankus.

[Adam Carolla]

Did you know him?

[Rudy Pavich]

I don't know him and I don't know anything about him. The one thing that drives me insane about it is you can be a civilian. You don't have to be in comedy. But if somebody's coming to your town, you don't like it, you can make a big stink. Fine. I don't think that person should be canceled. What really chapped my ass about it was Minneapolis St. Paul comedians that were going and saying that this guy should not be allowed to perform. Because somebody wrote the other day, hey, they came for the journalists and then they came for the immigrants. And next they're coming for the comedians. And I said, that's not true. The comedians are coming for the comedians. Yeah, I know, it's sad. It's a sad state that it's in.

[Adam Carolla]

It sucks sad when comedians have to fucking do that. I totally agree.

[Rudy Pavich]

All right, news, do some news. All right. California Governor Gavin Newsom shared that the 463 mile section of the high speed rail Adam Carolla is finally ready for construction.

[Adam Carolla]

It's good after 17 years or 20 years. So I'm here in the Central Valley in Wasco, right near Shafter, and we just made an announcement of our progress here on the high speed rail system. We're now in the process of starting to lay track 119mile, by the way. Hold on a second. So here's what he did. I mean, let's just see if we can summarize. He's been talking about this boondoggle for well over a decade. It's turned to shit. Everyone's now looking at California because we looked at Minnesota and I don't know what the population of Minnesota is, but whatever fraud you guys have in Minnesota, we have that much more fraud just by our population size. Absolutely.

[Rudy Pavich]

We'll get to that in the news in just a second.

[Adam Carolla]

If we're 20 times bigger than Minnesota, I'm assuming we have 20 times more fraud than Minnesota. So that's gonna hit hard. This guy's running a national campaign now, wants to be president, so he's gotta go back and try to clean up some of these messes of his past. And this Train thing is gonna get shoved up his ass every time he goes out on the campaign trail because there's not a train. And it's billions of dollars in the hole, and it's years and years in the making, and we don't have anything. So all of a sudden, the guy who doesn't give a shit about the train, because he hasn't for well over a decade, appears to give a shit about the train because he has to get ahead of this freight train that's filled with a cargo of shit that's about to collide into his campaign.

[Rudy Pavich]

Lay the track down.

[Adam Carolla]

That's right. So that's what he's doing. And he's basically like the shitty, alcoholic stepdad whose son just got cast as one of the cast members in Stranger Things. And then all of a sudden, he's like, hey, Mark, do you need a ride to the park? Why don't we toss the ball around? What do you care? What do you care all of a sudden? You care now? Yes, I care because of this. So he wants to create this now. The problem is he doesn't have anything to show for it, so he has to stand in front of a real train that actually exists that's not moving. Why? Ironically, why do you have to stand in front of a freight train that was built in the 40s to tell us about your bullet train?

[Dawson]

Did you hear the words he said right when we were cutting out there? He said, we are beginning the process to prepare to lay track.

[Adam Carolla]

That's right. That's a lot of pre. I would say almost everybody who doesn't own a train is in that phase of train construction. Right. I'm in that phase right now.

[Benny Johnson]

You are?

[Adam Carolla]

Is Andrew in that phase? He's in that phase. Yeah.

[Dawson]

Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

Wow. Yeah. I'm thinking about pre production on a train.

[Rudy Pavich]

I'm preparing to train for a marathon, but I need to prepare for the training that I will be preparing for.

[Adam Carolla]

The band. Train is actually thinking about preparing for a train. Yeah.

[Rudy Pavich]

In fact, I bet Train has laid more tracks for trains than the actual state of California.

[Adam Carolla]

The band.

[Rudy Pavich]

The band, yes.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, at least tie. So anyway, he wants to get Ahead of this because he wants to get ahead of this train that's gonna hit him, basically. Sorry, go ahead. 119 mile, first phase, fully funded because of the investments we'll make through the Cap and Invest program through 2045. 1700 people every single day, union jobs, by the way, hold on a second. The Democrats have this thing of like, if we can create tons of jobs, jobs. If they were like, look, we've got 1700 union jobs and they're making saddles for horses that nobody needs. It's still a victory for them because you've got 1700 guys doing a job, getting union wages, being employed over something we don't need. Which is the same reverse thinking of AOC getting the Amazon hub shut down in her district, which is, I just saved you guys a bunch of money because we made a bunch of tax incentives with these guys and now, now we're gonna keep that tax money. It's like there is no money. There is no facility, there are no jobs. You're not keeping tax money. You made tax incentives to attract them to build a hub, but then you went back on it. So they're not building the hub and you have nothing. So you have nothing. And then you have people, 1700 people, shovel ready jobs, union jobs, doing a job job of getting people from a part of the state to another part of the state that no one ever travels and is completely unnecessary. And I will tell everyone who's listening, as a person who lives in California and has always lived in California, I will utilize this train as much as anyone listening in Gary or Muncie, Indiana will utilize this train and so will everyone else in California, which is zero. When you go to LAX and you look up now and you see this monorail thing that they're working on going through there, I have a thought in the back of my mind which is maybe one day I could use the monorail because I go to LAX and so do a lot of other Los Angelenos. This Bakersfield, Merced, I don't know the scenario. Dawson travels through that neck of the woods a lot, but he does it in his car. What are you going to do? Park your car and then take an hour and 45 minute train ride and then rent a car? Like what is even. Well, here's the. I go to. I go to pebble beach and go to Laguna Seca every single year and do a car race. You just. Yeah, I drive a car though. Where's the train? Who's commuting?

[Dawson]

The freeway, the 5 Freeway from Bakersfield to just below the Bay Area is two lanes the entire way. If they were, if, if they actually thought that people would be driving this distance, they're going to clog up the freeways. It's two lanes for over 200 miles.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah.

[Dawson]

It's been that way for the past 50, 60, I don't know how many years.

[Rudy Pavich]

There must be like a pot of chemicals.

[Dawson]

First of all, there's no way to get there.

[Rudy Pavich]

Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

First of all.

[Rudy Pavich]

Yeah.

[Dawson]

No one ever goes there. I was telling Rudy before this, this is the very first time in the history of press conferences that Shafter, California was mentioned.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah.

[Rudy Pavich]

Yeah. Well, usually you can go back and try to find where the money is. And sometimes the government is like, we don't have enough money coming into Los Angeles from the middle of the state. So let's figure out a way to get these poor people from Bakersfield into Los Angeles to start spending more cash. That's the only reason I can't can think of why they would build a high speed rail. Why not San Francisco to la? Why, why was that such a. Oh.

[Adam Carolla]

This is only the first leg. Eventually, eventually.

[Rudy Pavich]

He's talking about 2045. That's when they're going to actually start on this high speed train.

[Dawson]

Whoever our new governor is, the first thing they got to do is widen.

[Adam Carolla]

The five and pull the plug on this.

[Dawson]

Won't do it as long as this train is still in someone's dreams.

[Adam Carolla]

Wow. Who's got the Bullet train to nowhere that's going to a place no one wants to go? Shafter. Just talking about trains. They say that Gavin Newsom's one bad mother. Just talk about Shafter.

[Rudy Pavich]

Shut your mouth.

[Adam Carolla]

Just talk about Shafter. I'll get AI to do a Shafter Bullet Train song. Andrew Bullet train Shafter Newsom. Shaft AI Comedy cover.

[Rudy Pavich]

Who is the train that's completely covered in graffiti?

[Adam Carolla]

Shafter. I do want to say something about the Super Bowl. I had a thought. We watched it the other day and I don't know the name. You got to look it up. Dawson. But five field goals, the kicker. Five field goals, the kicker for Seattle kicked and Mann did not even get on the podium at the end. Couldn't even find him. No interviews with him?

[Rudy Pavich]

Not at all. Not a one.

[Dawson]

Jason Myers.

[Adam Carolla]

Jason Myers. All right, so Jason Myers. And you can keep looking, Dawson. But Jason Myers set a record, a Super bowl record 60 years. He set the record five and then he also set it for points overall for the season. I think 206 or four points or something like that. So crazy. He kicked five field goals and set a record in the Super Bowl. And the guy who got the MVP ran. Well, Many, many guys have had good running days in the super bowl historically. Some of them won mvp, others didn't. I don't think he scored a touchdown. When is it, did he score? He didn't know. They got a junk defensive one at the end.

[Rudy Pavich]

Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

And they got a. He didn't score a touchdown.

[Rudy Pavich]

Yeah, I think he had a couple of first downs that sort of kept drives going. Eat up the clock.

[Adam Carolla]

He did a good job. When. Here's. Here's a question. Has there ever been an instance of a running back getting MVP of the super bowl who didn't score a touchdown? I don't think that. I don't think that exists. Yeah, I can't think of that. Number one. But number two, he did a good job. But they do CO MVPs. And the kicker first off was 12 nothing going in a hat. The kicker was responsible for literally all the points until the game was a little out of hand. Yeah, but he set the record. So why not co mvp? Or why not at least let the guy up on the podium up there with everyone else, the coaches and the quarterback and everyone celebrating like I would have got. And then when the quarterback got up there he goes. I gotta thank the offensive line. Defense play the lights out ball. Wide receivers catching and blocking. Coaches do it. How about the guy who kicked you into the victory?

[Rudy Pavich]

He was literally thinking like assistant towel boys before he thanked the kicker.

[Dawson]

Marcus Allen in for the Raiders. Yeah. He won the MVP without scoring a touchdown.

[Adam Carolla]

Wow. Hold, hold on, hold on. Dawson. He had the famous reverse course run that scored a touchdown in the Super Bowl.

[Dawson]

Hold on, hold on. This is. This is AI that's feeding this.

[Adam Carolla]

It says, it says, yes, a running.

[Dawson]

Back has won the MVP award.

[Adam Carolla]

Smarter than the computer you are.

[Dawson]

Absolutely you are. Without scoring a touchdown. The most notable example is Marcus Allen, who won super bowl whatever, MVP while playing for the Raiders.

[Adam Carolla]

The most. One of the most famous runs in super bowl history, besides John Riggins, it says, was when Marcus Allen was doing a sweep and reversed course and one. You guys know what I'm talking about. Yeah. Iconic run. Now, did he not score in that run? He had to score in that run run.

[Dawson]

In the game against the Washington Redskins, Allen rushed for 191 yards, had two receptions for 4 yards, but did not score a touchdown. His impressive rushing performance helped lead his team to victory. That's all this says now.

[Adam Carolla]

Was that well, first off, yeah, that's. That's a good. That's good. But he did the reverse course on the Redskins, I think. Or was it another. Was it the Raiders playing the Eagles?

[Rudy Pavich]

Boys, I'm going to tell you right now, this is. This is where the rubber meets the road and you're about to get your asses handed to you. Because every time he says that doesn't feel right, it always comes back in his favor. Every single time.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, two receptions and 194 yards. It's not bad. And Marcus Allen and the Raiders have played more than one super bowl. And they beat the Eagles one year, I do believe. And then maybe the Redskins. So maybe the famous reverse run was against the Eagles. Although I don't think it was. Just type in famous Marcus Allen run Super bowl and that one will come up. We're also getting the lyrics ready for Shafter.

[Rudy Pavich]

Nice. Speaking of songs and kickers.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh, wait a minute. Can't copyright. I can't violate copyright. Yeah, sorry. What? All right, wait a minute. Yeah, go ahead.

[Rudy Pavich]

Now, I was going to say, speaking of kickers, there is a famous Adam Sandler song called the Lonesome Kicker. And he was in attendance yesterday at the Super Bowl. At some point, wouldn't have just been apropos of him to just grab an acoustic guitar and go sit down next to that Seattle locker room while they're all spraying champagne and just him and Meyers are just sitting out in the hallway just crying into each other's beers.

[Adam Carolla]

I want to put this little hypothetical in everyone's brain. I yell at Rudy all the time. I'm smarter than a computer. You do understand? I beat the computer. The computer has every bit of data on the planet, but it can't out fucking smart me.

[Dawson]

Look, I did not doubt you.

[Adam Carolla]

No.

[Rudy Pavich]

Telling you, man, who is the man whose crystal brain is smarter than AI Chef?

[Adam Carolla]

Damn right. Yeah. All right, that was against. That was against Washington. And he scored a touchdown. Why is that not on YouTube?

[Dawson]

Marcus Allen turns nothing into a 74 yard TD in Super Bowl XVI.

[Adam Carolla]

Right. But why is that not super available? Cause it's all just data. You know what I mean? Like, well, we can watch the play. Yeah, it's iconic. Hand it, give it to him on a sweep. Breaks up, stops, goes the other way. God bless Plunkett. Plunkett runs in front like I think I may block someone. And then like, nah, forget it. And Cliff Branch gets down there. Cause he's got wheels. But anyway, all right, we got it. That. All right. I. So I bring it up again. I do not think there's an MVP running back who did not score a touchdown.

[Dawson]

Well, if the example AI gave was Marcus Allen, yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

Okay, so this guy gets MVP without scoring a touchdown while making a very great contribution to his team. But I would argue five field goals as a record. And by the way, a couple extra points, you got them. They're not chip shots these days. They're not gimmes. I mean, the two extra points of field, the guy's good for 17 points himself. Okay, co MVP, but here is your little. Here's your little thought experiment. What if this kicker was black? People would be fucking outraged right now. We'd be hearing. If this kicker were black and he was not up at the podium at the end with the coach and the quarterback and a couple. And the running back and a couple of players. And let's just say, you tell me what LeBron James would say, right? What he'd be tweeting. What would LeBron James be tweeting if Christian McCaffrey won the MVP as the running back?

[Rudy Pavich]

Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

And the kicker was black?

[Rudy Pavich]

Sure.

[Adam Carolla]

What would he be saying? And what would every asshole on Sports Illustrated be saying? And what would every talking head on cnn? What would they all be saying right now if this guy were black? And by the way, I would argue if he was black, they would have given it to him because they would have went, I don't even. Let's not go there.

[Rudy Pavich]

Yeah, to be fair, if he was black, he'd probably be a skills players on site, maybe a running back, probably a wide out, more than likely.

[Adam Carolla]

But if he was the kicker.

[Rudy Pavich]

If he was the kicker, yes.

[Adam Carolla]

And he was a black kicker and the running back was a white running back, this wouldn't happen. It wouldn't happen. Somebody would look at it in the booth and they'd go, I don't like that. Yeah. I don't like these optics. And by the way, take him and put him up on the fucking podium, you idiot. You can't hear. Have the quarterback with the red beard not thanking the black kicker who kicked. They would call him racist. Yeah. LeBron James would be going fucking nuts right now if this was a black kicker and he set a record and was completely snubbed, not mentioned. And by the way, no sideline interviews with him. No quarterback shout outs, no coach, Nothing. Just snubbed. LeBron James would be going nuts and he'd be going, this is racism. And that's what I'm trying to tell you. It's so easy to read into everything.

[Rudy Pavich]

Yeah. If he was a black kicker, they probably would have given him MVP even if he hadn't kicked a field goal, just to make sure that they were like, he's on the field. He made it as a black kicker. Kicker. You deserve a trophy, my friend.

[Adam Carolla]

Chef. All right, so there you go. All right, what else?

[Rudy Pavich]

We gotta keep moving. All right, here we go. So this has been coming up in the news again. This is a couple years old, but it's been getting shared as of recent. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bipartisan bill to audit the $24 billion that was, quote, unquote, lost on homelessness since 2019, meaning that Newsom blocked the investigation into the missing money. So the reason why this has been going around is because Governor Gavin Newsom now files a civil complaint against Dr. Oz in videos about health care fraud, saying that he has targeted the local Armenian American community in a series of videos about health care fraud.

[Adam Carolla]

Mm. All right, so watch this.

[Investigative Reporter]

You can see these are medical buildings. They've got Cyrillic writing, Russian, Armenian writing. Both sides. There's lots of actual. It seems. I don't know how many patients are getting care, but in this four block area in Los Angeles, there are 42 hospices. So either there are a lot of people dying here, or you've got a fraudulent activity that is so good that everyone wants to get in on it. Yeah, I'm in bed.

[Adam Carolla]

Armos will tend. I think there are Somalis. You know, you got the Somalis over there, we got the Armos over here. They'll engage in some fraudulent behavior every once in a while. It's a cultural thing.

[Rudy Pavich]

Well, sadly, it didn't start until after they came to America. Obviously, they were very good, wholesome people back in their homeland. And then when they got here, things changed.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. So they are our Somalis. That's what you want to know. Yeah. And Garagos would say the same. And he's Arma. Yeah, he'll tell you. Yeah. So is there more tape, by the way, or are we good?

[Rudy Pavich]

Yeah, there was still some more. Yeah. If you wanted to watch a little bit more of this.

[Adam Carolla]

Look, you can't tell people. You'll get paid by creating some daycare thing or hospice thing or kids on the spectrum thing. It's just going. Everything is. Dogs at the airport. Dogs were not allowed at the airport. And if you walked in with a dog, you were asked to leave. And then we said, you can take the dog to the airport and travel with it on the plane. But we're on the Honor system. That dog has to be a service dog. And now we have tons of dogs at the airport because the honor system doesn't work. And by the way, interestingly enough, mostly women exploiting that dog at the airport law. I see many more women than dudes, but I see plenty of dudes. If you're gonna create a system, the system will be exploited. Sure, okay, sorry.

[Investigative Reporter]

I'm in Van Nuys in Los Angeles and, and this boarded up area above my head here is a big hospice center there apparently quite a few hospices around here. 42 within a four block radius. And these guys stole $16 million. Listen carefully. The main guy went to jail for two years stealing $16 million, which is a good trade off for a lot of folks. And if you look at it, it's pretty in the script. There wasn't anyone really in there. They weren't doing any services. They just got an address they could claim was a hospice and then they ran the business claiming people were at home getting services, which they really weren't. What we have learned is there's roughly three and a half billion dollars of fraud taking place here in Los Angeles in hospice and home care. It's run quite a bit of it by the Russian Armenian mafia. You notice the lettering and language behind me is of that dialect. And it also highlights the fact that this is sort of an organized crime mafia deal where you've got folks who are system recruited doctors to write false prescriptions. You know, hundreds of doctors participating. They've got 100,000 patients who they've tricked or paid to give them their beneficiary number so they can perpetuate the fraud. And then the criminals are just running the whole organization and quickly scurrying away when law enforcement does get around to prosecuting them. Unfortunately in California there has not been a lot of attention on these problems. That's going to change the U.S. attorney.

[Adam Carolla]

You can pause it. Yeah. But now see, the thing that's great about Trump is he is punk the Democrats into defending all of this shit.

[Rudy Pavich]

Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

So now he has Tim Walls, your mayor, sorry, your governor and your mayor and our governor and our mayor going to bat for the fraudulent people that are ripping off the taxpayers because he's fucking duped them. And actually they're dumb. So they just do. The walz is a dumb dude.

[Rudy Pavich]

Sure.

[Adam Carolla]

And they're now having to have press conferences defending the people that are ripping off off the taxpayer, which is comical. 10 minutes ago they were defending the narco drug traffickers whose boats were being blown up or Kilmer, Garcia. They had to protect the Maryland dad. They're duping. Trump is duping these people into defending the worst people in our society on 9010 issues who want these fucking people out or these shops closed up. But listen, lest you think, I think anyone in a doctor, whatever, clinical setting won't just do. Remember we just had Covid. And remember, they just told the hospitals, if you tell everyone people died of COVID you'll get 50 grand or whatever it was. And guys that died in motorcycle accidents were getting labeled Covid so the hospital could get. That's all anyone ever does. They're just gonna fucking exploit it. So if you make a system that tells the fucking hospital, write down Covid, and we'll give you 50 grand because you're interested in lying to the American people. Hospitals who are in the business of making money. Well, gladly write that down when the guy's got a piece of rebar sticking out of his side.

[Rudy Pavich]

Sure, I saw something. I never believe what I see on the Internet, especially Facebook, but I saw something about two minutes before the mics got hot, which was apparently Tim Walls had sent out. Like, they send out the mass text messages, hey, this is Mike Lindell. I'm running for governor, whatever it is. Apparently there's one that Tim Walls had sent out. It never came to my phone, and I have Minnesota number, but it was basically his defense fund. Like, hey, we got.

[Adam Carolla]

He's raising money now.

[Rudy Pavich]

He's raising money now. Like, well, isn't that sort of indicative of what is to come? Like, he's kind of already starting to. Much like Gavin Newsom starting the train, just going, hey, man, they see what's coming up in front of them.

[Adam Carolla]

There's also a version of life where you run the shit out of your state. Like, lean and mean and people are happy. I mean, we just got back from Naples, Florida. No garbage, no graffiti, no homeless, clean lawns, Mode, people taking care of business. Go down to the car show. Bunch of clean, nice people and clean, nice cars and clean, nice streets. There's a version of this where you actually just efficiently run your state, and then people go, good. I like that guy. I want to live there.

[Rudy Pavich]

Amazingly efficient and very nice, gracious police officers that don't pull you over at 1:30 in the morning when you go left on a red.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, man, we went left. We blew through a red, and the cops rolled up on us.

[Rudy Pavich]

Hit me with the. Hit me with the flashers behind me. It was like, hey, man. Yeah, because we had a rental car And I, I listen, I got bit by my own snake. Because the first thing I always do when I get a rental car is you gotta turn the lights. Because sometimes they just have the regular headlights. They don't put em on auto. So you gotta put it on, make sure it's on auto. Cause that will get you every single time you get in the car at night and then your tail lights aren't on because the headlights come off. So I didn't put it on auto, but the cop saw us and just like literally hit me with the flasher and just went, hey man, turn your lights on. And we went right back. That's what I love about Naples.

[Adam Carolla]

But that's after you. People should know we drove through a red light.

[Rudy Pavich]

Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

For a cop to do this. We pulled in front of him through a red light and he pulled behind us and flashed.

[Dawson]

Was it an unmarked car? I mean, that's the one thing you have to look out for is where's the car?

[Adam Carolla]

I'll tell you what happened. I'll tell you what happened and I'll be truthful. You look for cops and then you go through the red arrows and the red lights. And I do. All the way up and down pch all day, every day. I just drive through everything because I just look in my rearview mirror. But at night there's headlights in the distance. Okay. And the cop cars on a box truck too. Cops cars there are white. They're just white with a little green on the side. And they're just like Ford Explorers or something. And it's off in the distance. And they're on the main highway and they're kind of moving like 60 miles an hour. And you do have to roll the dice a little bit because there's always going to be headlights in the distance. And then you basically just have to go, I'm going to run this light. What are the chances those headlights I see in the distance are a cop? And the answer is not very good. But. But not impossible.

[Dawson]

CHP is starting to do that now. They just got a bunch of like SUVs.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh yeah, yeah.

[Dawson]

SUVs that have the decal on the side is only visible at a certain angle.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh really? Yeah. Well, you can. Like I said, there's always gonna be headlights. Cause it's a main highway and you just gotta decide, do you want to do this or not?

[Dawson]

No, it's understandable. I've seen the California Highway Patrol ones and those are difficult to spot.

[Rudy Pavich]

Sure.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, at night headlights are headlights. You just can't everyone's driving the same version of something. And the headlights are just the headlights, so you can't even read them. Like you used to be able to kind of read headlights for cops, motorcycle cops and stuff like that. Now they're all in Ford Explorer. So it's like that could be anybody at any time. We rolled the dice and the guy.

[Rudy Pavich]

Was moving, he was on his way somewhere for sure.

[Investigative Reporter]

Right.

[Adam Carolla]

So he flashed us and we turned him on. Yep. Based on reports from January 2026, Minnesota Governor Tim Wallace has been facing scrutiny for fundraising for a personal legal defense fund. Yeah, well, he knows there's some there there now. He'll try to paint it. Look, here's the deal. They'll try to paint it as well. Trump's just going after his enemies. All right? You guys just went after Trump, but he's not in jail cuz he didn't have a case. You know what I mean? Like if there's no case, there's no case. Trump is allowed to go after whoever he wants to go after. But if there's no there there, then there's no case. You're not going anywhere. If he didn't do anything and there's no paper trail and there's no anything, then I do. It's that same thing. It's like he's just walking around Tom Homan and kicking open doors and grabbing citizens and disappearing. Yeah, okay, okay. No, that's not what's happening. And I don't know anyone that's happened to and neither do you, so shut the fuck up. But if you're here illegally or you're part of the Armenian Russian mob, then yeah, maybe you should be looking over your shoulder. So Tim was up to something or up to nothing, which is just turning a blind eye to look again, we get back to stupider lies. Liar. Karen Bass, either you did nothing and just watched your city burn to the ground, which means you're fucking horrible mayor and Tim Walls, maybe you did nothing while billions of dollars of fraud just walked out the front door of your state. All right?

[Dawson]

Either way.

[Adam Carolla]

Do you understand? Either way you're fucking guilty. You understand? And you have a fiduciary duty when you're at that, you know, you are the elected whatever, yes it is on you. And you go, I didn't know about it. Okay, well then you're done. And you're really bad at your job. Either way, you got to go. I mean, it's this. It's this scene with De Niro and Billy Bob Bumpkin, whatever, in casino. He just went up to him and he goes, this slot machine just hit three big hits in like the last hour. Now, either you're in on it or you're fucking too dumb to get involved with this. But either way, you're out, Right? I don't know what it is. Are you part of this or are you just sitting and watching it? But either way, you're off the floor.

[Dawson]

It's just an expansion of the stupider liar argument, right?

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. All right.

[Dawson]

Pay this off really quick, though.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. Oh, now I'll tell you, let's grab it in the next show. What do you. You got something to pay off? We'll tease it. Did you get a ticket for tomorrow's show?

[Rudy Pavich]

No, no ticket.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh, no, no, no. He was pricing that one. All right, Texas coming up. Just go to amcroll.com for all live shows over there. Dallas, Texas Comedy club, hyenas. And let's go to AdamCola.com for all that. Rudy.

[Rudy Pavich]

Yeah. Next week on Thursday, February 19th and Sunday, February 22nd, I'll be headlining House of Comedy in Minneapolis. Go to RudyPavichComedy.com till next time, Adam.

[Adam Carolla]

Carolla for Benny Johnson and Rudy Pavich saying mahalo.

[Dawson]

Leave us a voicemail at 8 at 8-634-1744 and get tickets to see the Ace man and Adam Curl.

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[Adam Carolla]

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[Adam Carolla]

We must make a massive demonstration.

[Pluto TV Announcer]

Iconic hits like School Days and set it off. Plus full seasons of shows like Tyler Perry's Sisters and Power.

[Adam Carolla]

I got you it.

[Pluto TV Announcer]

Star studded, brilliant black entertainment. And it's all free. It's getting good this month and always on Pluto tv. Stream now. Hey, never.