I Do Amazingly Dumb Things

Summary

Armstrong & Getty On Demand: Episode Summary – "I Do Amazingly Dumb Things"

Release Date: January 13, 2025
Host: Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty
Guest: Katie Grimes, Editor-in-Chief of The California Globe

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1. Introduction to Current Events

The episode kicks off with a discussion on recent events impacting public safety and governance.

• Unauthorized Drones Amid Firefighting Efforts

  Joe Getty (01:10) highlights the FBI's release of images showing a Super Scooper aircraft damaged by a drone while combating the Palisades fire. He emphasizes the increasing issue of unauthorized drones interfering with critical firefighting and law enforcement operations.

  "There are so many unauthorized drones in the area that they are impacting law enforcement and firefighters efforts to suppress this fire and actually get it contained."
  — Joe Getty [01:10]

  Katie Grimes (01:44) expresses concern over controlling the drone problem, suggesting that severe penalties and widespread awareness are necessary to deter potential offenders.

  "You just got to make the penalties so high that people won't want to do it and get caught."
  — Katie Grimes [01:44]

2. Exploration of Human Stupidity

The conversation delves into the concept of stupidity as defined by Sipla Carlo Sipola in "The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity."

• Sipola’s Classification of People

  Joe Getty (03:26) explains Sipola’s four categories: Helpless, Bandit, Intelligent, and Stupid. He provides examples, categorizing political figures to illustrate Sipola's definitions.

  "The defining trait of the stupid person is that he gains nothing while obliging the other to take a loss."
  — Joe Getty [03:26]

• Application to Political Figures

  Joe Getty (05:31) controversially labels President Joe Biden as a "perfect specimen of Cipla's idea of stupidity," citing decisions that purportedly caused harm without benefits.

  "Mr. Biden has made decisions and pursued policies that made his supporters, party, country and foreign allies worse off."
  — Joe Getty [05:31]

  Katie Grimes (08:12) questions whether individuals can shift between categories, pondering the flexibility of Sipola's classifications.

  "Do we all move between these different categories? Or we do. We tend to be just one category."
  — Katie Grimes [08:12]

3. California’s Fire Crisis and Governance

A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to discussing the devastating fire crisis in California, critiquing the state’s governance under Governor Gavin Newsom.

• Insurance Crisis in California

  Katie Grimes (20:52) outlines the insurance issues exacerbated by Proposition 103, which caps insurance premiums without addressing rising construction costs. This has led to insurers withdrawing from the market, leaving many Californians uninsured.

  "The insurance crisis in California is devastating... insurers, you know, fleeing the state along with half of California, it seems."
  — Katie Grimes [20:52]

• Water Storage Failings

  Katie Grimes (22:37) criticizes the lack of investment in water infrastructure, despite voter-approved bonds. She notes that increased water runoff due to inadequate storage efforts is wasting resources and affecting environmental balances.

  "The amount of water that flows from our snowpack melt and our rain has increased from 50% of the state's water to about 80%... goes straight out to the Pacific Ocean."
  — Katie Grimes [23:21]

• Political Accountability

  Katie Grimes (24:06) attributes California’s mismanagement to Governor Newsom’s policies, including his stance on abortion, immigration, and infrastructure projects like the high-speed rail. She argues that these priorities have led to neglect in crucial areas such as firefighting resources and water storage.

  "When you sign up to be governor of California, you do sign up for the good bad and the ugly and he's not handling this very well."
  — Katie Grimes [22:25]

  Joe Getty (24:56) further criticizes public employee unions and their influence, suggesting they hinder political change and accountability.

4. Social and Cultural Observations

The hosts and guest touch upon various social issues and cultural trends.

• Impact of Online Interactions

  Joe Getty (35:53) discusses the dangers of social isolation, emphasizing the importance of relationships and community ties for mental health, especially for those over 50.

  "Having a circle of people you, you trust and like and exchange views with... it's incredibly important. Isolation kills."
  — Joe Getty [35:53]

• Tipping Practices in America

  Joe Getty (36:12) and Katie Grimes (36:44) debate the declining trends in tipping, attributing it to rising menu prices and pervasive tipping prompts. They express frustration over mandatory tip percentages and the lack of choice in service-related gratuities.

  "I just don't like it fits in with all the other. Too much telling me to tip."
  — Katie Grimes [36:44]

5. Health and Lifestyle Insights

Brief segments provide listeners with health-related information and lifestyle tips.

• Benefits of Moderate Coffee Consumption

  Joe Getty (33:40) references a meta-study indicating that consuming two to three cups of coffee in the morning is beneficial for heart health, debunking myths that coffee increases heart disease risk.

  "Drinking coffee does not raise the risk of heart disease... significantly better for early coffee drinkers in terms of heart disease and all causes."
  — Joe Getty [33:40]

• Physical Activity and Health Risks

  Joe Getty (32:24) underscores the importance of physical activity, mentioning a University of Iowa study linking inactivity to numerous chronic health conditions.

  "Physical inactivity is linked to increased risk of 19 different chronic health conditions... Just even moderate activity a few times a week is so much better."
  — Joe Getty [32:24]

6. Listener Engagement and Advertisements

The episode maintains engagement with the audience through interactive segments and advertisements relevant to listeners.

• Promotions and Offers

  The hosts promote products and services, such as Ritual's multivitamins and Prize Picks’ fantasy sports app, offering listeners exclusive discounts and incentives.

  "Use the code ARMSTRONG to get $50 instantly after you play your first $5 lineup."
  — Katie Grimes [13:58]

• Health Surveys and Studies

  The hosts encourage listeners to participate in health surveys and stay informed about new studies related to health and wellness.

  "We'll post this @armstrongandgetty.com the simple 30-second exercise survey all it takes to know your health in general."
  — Joe Getty [32:24]

7. Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Wrapping up the episode, the hosts reiterate key points and tease upcoming discussions.

• Final Remarks on Governance and Policy Failures

  Joe Getty (35:53) emphasizes the critical nature of effective governance in handling crises like California’s fires, reinforcing the episode’s central theme of political accountability.

  "It is fair to point fingers at him because so many of his policies have led us to this place."
  — Joe Getty [22:25]

• Upcoming Discussions

  The hosts hint at future topics, including free speech censorship pressures discussed by Mark Zuckerberg and further analysis of California's political landscape.

  "Mark Zuckerberg is finally out explaining how severe the pressure was from the Biden administration to censor free speech..."
  — Joe Getty [31:45]

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Key Takeaways

1. Interference by Unauthorized Drones: Unauthorized drones are significantly hindering firefighting and law enforcement operations during California’s Palisades fire.

2. Human Stupidity and Political Leadership: Applying Sipola’s framework, the hosts critically assess political figures like Joe Biden, categorizing his decisions as harmful without personal or political gain.

3. California’s Governance Failures: A comprehensive critique of Governor Gavin Newsom’s policies reveals substantial mismanagement in areas crucial to disaster response, such as insurance and water infrastructure.

4. Social Isolation and Health: Emphasizing the importance of relationships, the episode underscores how isolation can have severe health repercussions, particularly for older adults.

5. Cultural Trends in Tipping and Coffee Consumption: The hosts explore the decline in tipping practices, attributing it to economic pressures, and discuss the health benefits of moderate coffee consumption.

6. Listener Engagement: Through promotions and interactive segments, the hosts maintain a dynamic connection with their audience, providing both informative content and incentives.

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Notable Quotes:

• "Stupid people are evenly distributed throughout society."
  — Joe Getty [05:31]

• "Having a circle of people you trust and like and exchange views with... it's incredibly important. Isolation kills."
  — Joe Getty [35:53]

• "We're all better off. We're all better off. We're all better off. And we're working together."
  — Gavin Newsom [19:27]

• "Drinking coffee does not raise the risk of heart disease... significantly better for early coffee drinkers in terms of heart disease and all causes."
  — Joe Getty [33:40]

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This episode of Armstrong & Getty On Demand offers a critical examination of current political leadership, particularly focusing on California's handling of natural disasters and associated governance issues. Through insightful discussions and expert commentary, hosts Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty, alongside guest Katie Grimes, provide listeners with a thorough analysis of the intersection between policy failures and real-world consequences.

Transcript

[Jack Armstrong]

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[Joe Getty]

Armstrong and Getty. And now here's Armstrong and Getty. The FBI released these images of the Super Scooper aircraft struck by a drone while battling the Palisades fire Thursday. That hole about 3 by 6 inches in size. There are so many unauthorized drones in the area that they are impacting law enforcement and firefighters efforts to suppress this fire and actually get it contained.

[Katie Grimes]

I don't know how we're going to get a handle on this. It might be like the looting thing we were talking about last week. You just got to make the penalties so high that people won't want to do it and get caught.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, yeah. Put out the word far and wide. These people don't mean any harm, but they could do enormous harm.

[Katie Grimes]

Oh yeah. Heck yeah. Well, if you ground a plane that is, you know, delivering water to the fires, that would be.

[Joe Getty]

That's bad.

[Katie Grimes]

Now I suppose the drone people would say it's the government trying to stop us from seeing what's going on. Perhaps. Which is a decent argument.

[Joe Getty]

Goodness, yeah. That is intriguing. Speaking of which, Mark Zuckerberg increasingly open about the censorship that they endured by the executive branch of the United States government. First Amendment, you say? Pshaw. More on that next hour. Got the fabulous Katie Grimes of California Globe this hour to talk about how awful, awful governance left California and LA in a position that they could not react to what is unquestionably a natural disaster.

[Katie Grimes]

This is not the time for finger pointing, Joe.

[Joe Getty]

Yes it is. It's perfect time.

[Katie Grimes]

Oh, okay.

[Joe Getty]

I'm literally not a firefighter. I'm not involved in rescuing people. So I have all the time in the world and happy to do it. So also to come at some point, whether today or just this week, a lot of the crucial meetings and hearings are about to start for Trump's transition cabinet members, that sort of thing. Pete Hegseth, I think, is going to lead off the parade for Secretary of Defense. And that hearing could be really, really interesting. Some of the facets of that, some of the factors involved.

[Katie Grimes]

Are they gonna, are they gonna have him stand up, take off his shirt during the hearing and go over each tattoo one by one to explain what they mean?

[Joe Getty]

It will come up. Absolutely. Elizabeth Warren's going big on it. And, and, and they've identified the, the main whistleblower who was spreading stories about Pete being a hard drinking womanizer, et cetera. And it's a disgruntled old employee.

[Katie Grimes]

No way.

[Joe Getty]

Anyway, more on that to come this week. So I came across this. I thought it was very, very interesting. Callum Borchers was writing about a book, it's a little known book called the Basic Laws of Human Stupidity by an Italian economic historian who died back in 2000. And he's writing about it and it's so interesting. The chief thing to note about this guy's name is Sipla Carlo Sipola. The chief thing to note about Sipple as conception of stupidity is that it is not synonymous with what smart and illustrious people think is ill advised or foolish. It's far more interesting than that. He insists that stupid people are evenly distributed throughout society. And this is, I've been saying for years, the relationship between intelligence and wisdom is far from tight. You have people who have enormous candle power, who are just fools. They just can't perceive reality and the way human beings function and the results of their grand schemes, even though they're very, very bright. Anyway.

[Katie Grimes]

Well, and then that gets the definition of smart. Since the whole point of life is to navigate life. Well, I would think smart would encompass the wisdom part more than the candle power part.

[Joe Getty]

Sure. From an early age we've all run into the question of street smart versus book smart, for instance, these are all kind of expressions of the same thing, but. So he insists that stupid people are evenly distributed throughout society. For Cipla, there are per capita as many stupid people among Go Kart salesmen and swamp dwelling gator hunters as there are among laurel economists and tenured intellectuals.

[Katie Grimes]

Why did Go Kart salesmen come in for a kicking?

[Joe Getty]

I Would have to ask Callum Porters. I can't imagine that's his sentence I'm borrowing.

[Katie Grimes]

I wouldn't have never Go Cart Salesman. I would have never assumed, were I to go buy a Go kart, that the guy selling it to me was for some reason stupid because he was in that business.

[Joe Getty]

I've never had any opinion whatsoever on Go Kart Salesman other than that they're a great place to go to purchase a go kart. It's an odd example. You're so right. Moving along. So Cipla divides people into four categories. Helpless, bandit, as in like thief, intelligent and stupid. In any normal interaction between two people, he contends, the helpless suffer. The helpless person suffers a loss while the other gains. They're just not. They're not smart enough that they're not. They just. They lose. The other guy wins. Okay? The bandit exacts a benefit while levying a loss on the other. So the bandit and the helpless often get together. The intelligent person gains while enabling the other person to also gain. The defining trait of the stupid person is that he gains nothing while obliging the other to take a loss. To wit, the astounding fact of recent years. Oh, they, they mentioned. One of the blurbs on the book jacket seems to imply that, like, Trump is not smart, because one of the quotes is, I'm like a smart guy. But as Borchers writes, if the publicity of people had read the book at all, they would have realized that's utterly inaccurate. The astounding fact of recent years is that Mr. Trump's chief political opponent, Joe Biden, is a perfect specimen of Cipla's idea of stupidity. For four years, Biden has made decisions and pursued policies that made his supporters, party, country and foreign allies worse off. And in almost every case, he gained nothing and very often suffered commensurate political losses. You could make a cogent argument that Mr. Biden belongs in the category of helpless. So often do his decisions benefit his political adversaries, chiefly Mr. Trump. But those blunders, principal among them his insistence that he was capable of running for reelection, have exacted massive costs on the rest of the country. Here's some examples. So, again, a stupid person is a person who causes other people to suffer and gains nothing from it.

[Katie Grimes]

Well, do we. Do we all move between these different categories? Or we do. We tend to be just one category. You're either one or you're one or the other.

[Joe Getty]

No, I think the first one is right, but it's a question of percentage. I like to think I don't do many things or say many things that gain me nothing and hurt, you know, everybody else. But anyway, here's some examples, just to solidify it in your head. For three years, Biden made it policy to do nothing on the country's southern border apart from revoking Trump's executive orders. What did he do gain from this dereliction?

[Katie Grimes]

Nothing.

[Joe Getty]

The answer is not obvious at all. Mr. Biden overrode his military advisors and insisted on a total and immediate withdrawal from Afghanistan with no clear plan to extract Afghan allies, US citizens, or American military hardware. A loss for the US for sure. But where was the benefit to Mr. Biden or his administration starting in 2021? Jack, you'll love this one. The President repeatedly compared an innocuous post pandemic election reform in Georgia to Jim Crow, maybe the most toxic accus that it's possible to make in American politics. In doing so, he made himself odious to the opposition party and ensured he would pass nothing further from its support. What was in it for him? Maybe momentary, momentary enthusiasm of his base. Mr. Biden openly defied the Supreme Court's ruling on his student debt cancellation plans. The justices tried to block me, but they didn't stop me, Jack. He thus managed to sow resentment among Americans whose debts he did not forgive, encouraged a generation to indulge in foolish borrowing and make himself look like the lawless strong man he accused Trump of being. In each of these instances, and there are many others, Mr. Biden not only created ruin, discord and embarrassment for those who wished him well, he did so without gaining any advantage for himself.

[Katie Grimes]

Biden's giving his final foreign policy speech today, and so that came up on some of the shows over the weekend. And I heard a clip from, I think the national security advisor who is Abe Lincoln.

[Joe Getty]

Sullivan is.

[Katie Grimes]

I get them mixed up, the names. Yeah, I know them when I see them. But anyway, who said history is going to judge this? Well, the. The leaving Afghanistan, it's get. It's getting better by the day. And I thought, wow, I don't think that's accurate, but wow.

[Joe Getty]

Well, I think he's spinning madly. It's not a question of whether we left Afghanistan, it's how and when. Oh, my gosh, the dishonesty is unbelievable. And Borchers gives a couple more examples, but yeah, I think he's right. You know, the commuting of the death sentences, all sorts of things, just. He gained nothing and hurt America. What a dope. He can't be gone soon enough. One week.

[Katie Grimes]

Well, the flip side of stupidity being intelligence or whatever. I'm surprised we haven't gotten better at nailing down terms for that or ways to look at it as opposed to just a blanket statement of somebody. Smart or not.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, I prefer wise or unwise. Honestly, too.

[Katie Grimes]

Smart or not.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. I mean, I've known some people who are quote unquote simple of, you know, education and speech and manner or whatever, but they would not make a misstep. They're very wise.

[Katie Grimes]

Right, right. Yeah, that's a good one.

[Joe Getty]

And that's its own intelligence, isn't it?

[Katie Grimes]

So I do amazingly dumb things. I mean, just shockingly dumb sometimes. Sometimes I sit down and I look at, look at, look at the mirror and I think, how could you possibly have done that or made that decision? It's just, I mean, shocking to me.

[Joe Getty]

What's at the core, do you suppose? Distraction, Hastiness. I mean, you're not a stupid man by anybody's definition.

[Katie Grimes]

But hastiness, that's a good one. Maybe that's it. I don't know. I think it might just be dumb. I might just be dumb.

[Joe Getty]

Hmm. Well, why don't we have folks right. In 415295 KFTC is.

[Katie Grimes]

I often, like, I often, I often tweet things out knowing some of the reactions I'm gonna get and I get hateful, hateful reactions and show them to my kids just to give them an idea of what the world is like. They can't believe some of the things people, I mean, just to show horribly bad things.

[Joe Getty]

Right, right. I was in a discussion with some friends the other day about, I'll keep it vague, but people who like expressed strong opinions over stuff they had no right to about my friends, lives and generally young, semi woke, full of themselves people. And I said, you know, it's mildly annoying, but I just don't worry about it. I've spent 30 plus years having people saying, you suck. You're a bad American, you're bad at your job, you're a bad parent, you're, you should die. So it's like, yeah, there's another one.

[Katie Grimes]

The appropriate finger pointing has begun. On the whole fire debacle in la. It didn't have to be this bad. Who's to blame? We're going to talk to Katie Grimes, great reporter about California politics coming up this hour and get into that, among other things. Stay here.

[Jack Armstrong]

Armstrong and Getty.

[Katie Grimes]

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[Joe Getty]

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[Katie Grimes]

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[Joe Getty]

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[Katie Grimes]

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[Joe Getty]

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[Katie Grimes]

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[Joe Getty]

Last time Washington won a wild card.

[Katie Grimes]

Game won a playoff game was 2005. Here chance to do it with Gonzalez from 37 to send Washington to the final eight. The Washington Commanders off the upright. They do their way to the divisional round.

[Joe Getty]

Unbelievable.

[Katie Grimes]

I have seen it all. Now I even get a divisional D. That's twice in a couple of weeks. The Chiefs did it a couple of weeks ago and that's why they have the best record in the NFL. To home field throughout is hit the upright and the ball bounces through. How does that happen twice in a couple of weeks in important games? It's interesting.

[Joe Getty]

You got to rub that ball up with Vaseline before you kick it.

[Katie Grimes]

This is also dumb. If it were the Washington Redskins, I'd have been pretty excited about that game and them winning. But because they changed their name to Commanders, I got no feeling for it. Which is all completely made up in my head. Imaginary because of your racism? Or I'm just like, I don't know. I don't know.

[Joe Getty]

I have no My daughter's boyfriend's a big commander's fan. Sorry.

[Katie Grimes]

I've converted, I think every NFL team that was supposed to win one, all the favored teams once. There are no upsets first round. Although we got one more game tonight. Rams Lions in Arizona because of the fires. Not Rams, Lions, Rams, Vikings. Sorry about that. So I'll get to why my teenage crush is on my side of the story on looting in a second. But a couple of Just before we get to the politics of it, next segment of what's going on in California, which could have affect a lot of things politically really. Millionaires in the Palisades area are shelling out $2,000 an hour for private firefighters as various neighborhoods are being Abandoned, it says here, by the official firefighting teams. I think that's a prejudiceral term. I mean, they've only got so many resources and they can only go so many places. And I don't know if your $2000 an hour private firefighters will do you any good or not. I have no idea. Probably depends on where you are. The Palisades fire, the biggest fire that's still barely contained and has burnt down most of the buildings, likely caused by fireworks, they think now.

[Joe Getty]

Really?

[Katie Grimes]

Yeah, Some fireworks that went off and then the fire didn't get completely put up from. From New Year's Eve. That's what the New York Post was reporting last night anyway.

[Joe Getty]

So they smoldered for a while, right?

[Katie Grimes]

Yes. And that was the whole story about how these things, about how hard it is to put out a campfire and you got to be certain and drown it in water, then drown it in water again. And they think that's what happened here with fireworks. I have no idea if that's what happened or not, but that was the reporting in the New York Post. The death toll is now at 24. And what a horrible, horrible story. We'll talk about the politics coming up a little bit. So Gavin Newsom, he was very unhappy that people were talking about looting being legal in California. He put out this tweet yesterday. Stop encouraging looting by lying and telling people it's decriminalized. It's not. It's illegal. It always has been. Bad actors will be arrested and prosecuted. Okay, well, if you live in California, you know how bad actors have not been arrested and prosecuted for quite some years now. Justine.

[Joe Getty]

And in fact, those that were were turned loose from the prisons. Gabby.

[Katie Grimes]

My teenage crush, Justine Bateman, who is Michael J. Fox's sister on Family Ties. And when I was like 13 years old, I thought she was the cutest thing and had ever lived. And it just, like started all the chemicals flowing in my brain. She is now a regular tweeter on, on, on X.

[Joe Getty]

She tweeted like her because she was a liberal.

[Katie Grimes]

She is definitely not in real life. She tweeted out. You and Gasconan Bass sent out the invitations long ago to all criminals to come to California and LA and practice their craft. You boasted that you would not prosecute rioters, trespassers, looters, shoplifters, et cetera, and from other states, from other countries. You created a hostile living environment for all of us that anyone thinks they can loot and commit arson in Los Angeles or anywhere in California with impunity is because you made sure they got an invitation. That is certainly true of Gascon and a lot of the not prosecuting crime all across California. You've created a culture where people think they can steal and get away with it. Denying that Gavin is living in a fantasy world, all right?

[Joe Getty]

He knows what he's done.

[Katie Grimes]

Happy that my teenage crush is on the right side of this argument.

[Joe Getty]

That is fabulous on many levels. The fabulous Katie Grimes of the California Globe knows everything there is to know about California politics and what's going on in LA with the fires. Stay with us.

[Jack Armstrong]

Armstrong and Getty, did they fail you?

[Kristen Crowley]

That is our job, and I tell you, that's why I'm here. So let's get us what we need so our firefighters can do their jobs.

[Jack Armstrong]

Did they fail you? Yes.

[Kristen Crowley]

When a firefighter comes up to a hydrant, we expect there's going to be water. We don't control the water supply. Our firefighters are there to protect lives and property and to make sure that we're properly trained and equipped.

[Joe Getty]

Does the buck stop with you?

[Gavin Newsom]

I mean, you're governor of California, will be the mayor of California. We're all in this together. We're all better off. We're all better off. We're all better off. And we're working together to take care of people.

[Joe Getty]

So.

[Katie Grimes]

First clip happened on Friday. It's LA Fire Chief Kristen Crowley. They had to drag the answer out of her, but she finally did offer up yes. They, the City council and the mayor failed us. And then Gavin Newsom asked this morning or last night, does the buck stop with you? Bad answer politically, indeed.

[Joe Getty]

To discuss the politics and the realities of the fire and how they intertwine, Please welcome to the show the editor in chief of the California Globe, Katie Grimes, who's been writing about Kala California politics for ages and ages. Katie, how are you?

[Callum Borchers]

I am well. Thanks for having me, Jack and Joe.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, it's always a pleasure. So I want to use as a springboard your last couple of columns for the Globe. First of all, what you published last week, which touches on a couple of things, if you can give the nickel version for people of the insurance crisis in California. How many people weren't insured or just gotten dropped and why that is because I heard an utterly, utterly misleading description of it from profess Kristen Welker on Meet the Press Sunday. But go ahead, Katie. What's the real situation, insurance wise?

[Callum Borchers]

Well, the insurance crisis in California is devastating and it's hitting people, you know, north state, south state, everywhere. I don't think we have any numbers at the moment of how many people say in Pacific Palisades had their fire insurance canceled, or even homeowners in many cases, with insurance companies, you know, fleeing the state along with half of California, it seems. But it is absolutely devastating because, you know, you think back to the campfire up here in Paradise, California, near Sacramento, and you know, that was unbelievably devastating, but it was also unbelievably costly for insurers. And then the Calder fire a couple years later, and then the.

[Joe Getty]

And we're just. Katie, I'm sorry to interrupt. We're just looking for broad strokes, just a very quick description of what's wrong with insurance in California.

[Callum Borchers]

What's wrong with it is politics purely. And this goes back to Proposition 103, which was put on the ballot to essentially cap the amount of premiums insurance companies could impose on the insured, rather than fixing the problem of why it costs so much to build and rebuild here in California. And so.

[Joe Getty]

Right. And in order them to only look at historical data as opposed to current data for building costs. And the rest of it is utterly unrealistic.

[Callum Borchers]

It is entirely unrealistic. And boy, we're going to see what, what a disaster, a financial disaster this is going to be following the fires.

[Joe Getty]

And then I know you wrote about water as well, and the fact that California has built no water storage in generations, even as the population's doubled. It's just terrible governance.

[Callum Borchers]

Yes, absolutely. Not only have we not built any water storage in years, the voters have passed over $32 billion in water bonds to do just that in 30. And the last one was proposition one in 2014, which would it set aside $2.7 billion so that we could build the Sites Reservoir and the Temperance Flat Reservoir, none of which has been done. And in the meantime, the amount of water that flows from our snowpack melt and our rain has increased from 50% of the state's water to about 80% of the state's water goes straight out to the Pacific Ocean to save some fish that aren't even indigenous.

[Katie Grimes]

Well, how fair is it to lay blame at the foot of either the mayor of Los Angeles, the governor of California, City Council of la, or, you know, government officials in this soon to be biggest disaster in California history?

[Callum Borchers]

Well, I think Gavin Newsom's responses show you exactly how fair it is. He's running as fast as he can from responsibility, and yet this is what he signed up for. When you sign up to be governor of California, you do sign up for the good bad and the ugly and he's not handling this very well. It is fair to point fingers at him because so many of his policies have led us to this place, even policies he supported long before he became governor. Leftism in California has gotten us here.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, I know your recent column, which is terrific. The anti American agendas, California's Democrats catching up. You point out that Southern California is on fire. But here are Newsom's priorities and what he has been focused on. Newsom created the California abortion sanctuary state. He legalized abortion up until birth, authorized a trans sanctuary state, allowing children to receive hormone blockers, chemical castration without parental consent. He exacerbated the homeless crisis, spending tens of billions of dollars to get more bums and junkies. He said he's embraced illegal immigrants, even providing health insurance. He's also on board for the bottomless pit of the high speed rail project. And it reminds me of a conversation we had Friday. Instead of doing the blocking and tackling of governing, they have all these pie in the sky progressive just agendas that they're pursuing instead.

[Katie Grimes]

And you didn't mention the most recent Trump proofing California against the evil dictator is about to go in. Go ahead, Katie.

[Callum Borchers]

Yeah, I devoted an entire article to that one. Yeah. And I think this shows you, I mean it's ridiculous as this list, when we lay it all out together, it does show you he's doing everything but governing. And I assume governing is not always very sexy. It doesn't always get great headlines. And yet he and his PR team could certainly have written good headlines for all the hard work he was doing behind the scenes. But that's not what's happened. He's adopted this absolutely, unbelievably radical, radical agenda of things that Californians and even those who didn't vote for him, they don't want. They want water to be in their fire hydrants. We want decent roads and good schools. And we want to make sure that our Cal fire and the local firefighters have everything they need in terms of, you know, budget and equipment.

[Katie Grimes]

You've been following politics in California for a long time. I was reading Mark Halperin's newsletter today and he said hell hath no fury like a homeless celebrity, a Los Angeles conservative is a liberal actor who blames news and bass and decades of liberal governments governance for their houses burning down. Do you think this is like perhaps a sea change politically for LA or maybe the state?

[Callum Borchers]

It could be. And Mark Halperin's absolutely right. And I think the reason we're getting so much attention focused on California as opposed to say North Carolina right now, which people are still living in tents, is because of Hollywood and the celebrities and people being, you know, they have a platform from which they can speak and they are describing what's going on. And as I said, I think even people who voted for Gavin Newsom are, are really, really pissed off right now and they want answers. They want to know why this happened. And that will lead to some changes in voting, I hope.

[Joe Getty]

Well, and I'm sure Gavinist people would say, look, we can walk and chew gum at the same time, we can pursue these grand progressive schemes and be good governors. But they can't. If the walking is, you know, having a bullet train squander hundreds of billions of dollars that'll never exist. And the chewing gum is making sure that there's enough water storage for 40 million people. No, you can't, you haven't. You've proven it over and over again. And to the rest of the country listening, you're like, well, why doesn't, why don't you vote Democrats out of office? It's because all of the public employee unions are so powerful and the trial lawyers that they all show up, every single one of them and vote Democrat every single time because they're getting their back scratched.

[Callum Borchers]

Yeah, exactly. It's a huge problem we have in California in that and I think this last election showed us there's a lot more independent right of center voters as we saw, who voted for Trump, over 6 million. But yeah, when you fight that with the public employee unions which are just ruthless. Yeah, it seems like shoot too much of a heavy lift.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, the regular folks really just, they can't accumulate enough mass to take it back. Katie Grimes is the editor in chief of The California Globe californiaglobe.com you ought to bookmark it, check it all the time if you're of a conservative bent really in any state in the union or you just like to have your eyes open to the truth. California globe.com Katie, great to talk to you. Thanks.

[Callum Borchers]

Thanks very much.

[Katie Grimes]

So the Brentwood neighborhood, which you probably recognize that name if you follow celebrity news, has the fires bearing down on it with it's going to be a couple of really, really windy days.

[Joe Getty]

That neighborhood where O.J. was framed for a crime.

[Katie Grimes]

That's right. And that neighborhood is also home to former senator Kamala Harris. Maybe you've heard of her. LeBron James, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Harrison Ford, Dr. Dre, among others. And those are some names that can get a lot of attention like Katie just said there people are still living in tents in North Carolina because of the biggest disaster they'd ever had in that part of the country. But not enough celebrities to. To get attention for that.

[Joe Getty]

I actually appreciated 60 Minutes last night. Going heavily at all the thousands or, you know, highlighting the many thousands of working class folks, just regular people in various sections of the greater Los Angeles metro area that are now homeless and hopeless. And all of their baby pictures are gone. They don't know where they're gonna go and what they're gonna do. I mean, obviously baby pictures is one example, but. But it's just heartbreaking the number of.

[Katie Grimes]

People I've seen on TV saying literally the only thing I has of what is have is what you see me wearing. I can't imagine the to do list you have when you're in that situation.

[Joe Getty]

Where do you start?

[Katie Grimes]

Oh my God. Would that be overwhelming?

[Joe Getty]

And as I said before, just to. To put a cap on this, has it been an extremely dry year in Southern California? Yes. Were those incredibly powerful winds freakish and rare? 100%. There are aspects of this fire that are not the fault of governance. On the other hand, there are aspects of it that are. And if this draws people's attention to the utterly incompetent doesn't even describe it. It's incompetent, dishonest, just klepto. Main maniacal governance of California over the last quite a few years. If it draws attention to that. Good. Whether it directly applies to how a particular fire started or not. Karen Bass is an avowed communist. She cut the fire budget, according to her chief, to a damaging level to support drug addicts and illegal immigrants and proudly did so.

[Katie Grimes]

Did you see over the weekend where she was at least hinting that people are criticizing her because she's black?

[Joe Getty]

Oh, yeah. A couple of celebrities are out saying that. Yeah. Go ahead. Hey, put the. Put the final nail in the coffin of your fake accusations of racism. Do it now. That was perfect.

[Katie Grimes]

And the state level, when you start talking about not having enough money for this or that. Come on. You don't get to say that. As long as there's a bullet train project. You gotta end that before you can ever say a word about not having enough money for this or that.

[Joe Getty]

Amen.

[Katie Grimes]

Oh, my God. We got more on the ways there.

[Gavin Newsom]

We're all better off. We're all better off. We're all better off. And we're working together.

[Jack Armstrong]

Armstrong and Getty.

[Katie Grimes]

I read over the weekend in a very interesting book about violence, why duels are a good idea and should be brought back. It's fascinating. I'd never thought about it before. Maybe I'll get to that.

[Joe Getty]

Wow, that's madness folks. I disagree and disapprove.

[Katie Grimes]

I don't think you will. I don't think you will actually.

[Joe Getty]

Well then I will have a on air conversion. Won't that be exciting? All sorts of great stuff to get to, including I want to go big on it's the first freaking Amendment. Mark Zuckerberg is finally out explaining how severe the pressure was from the Biden administration to censor free speech that the government didn't like. If you don't get that that's a problem or why it's a problem, go from me. May your chains sit lightly upon you. Lick the hand that feed you and made posterity forget you were our countryman. Sam Adams.

[Katie Grimes]

Wow.

[Joe Getty]

Roughly. Anyway, so a couple of completely non political notes. I'm not going to belabor the first one because we all know it. Physical inactivity is linked to increased risk of 19 different chronic health conditions according to a University of Iowa study analyzing over 40,000 patient records. The the the couch is is the cigarette pack of the modern world. Just even moderate activity a few times a week is so so so much better. And you know what? We'll post [e-mail] the simple 30 second exercise survey all it takes to know your health in general. Anyway, moving along because we all know that I thought this was interesting. Our legendary and beloved news guy Marshall Phillips used to bring us at least one study about coughing and drinking coffee per week. And the first one would be contradicted by the second one. Then go back and forth. It just never ended. But here's a giant meta study of caffeine and coffee studies. Two to three cups in the morning is like by far the best option, including not drinking coffee at all.

[Katie Grimes]

Really, you're better off drinking a couple, two, three cups than not drinking coffee. Coffee.

[Joe Getty]

That's right. Research so far suggests that drinking coffee does not raise the risk of heart disease seems to lower the risk of some chronic diseases given the effects that caffeine has on our bodies, says the the head scientist. We wanted to see if the time of day when you drink coffee has any impact on heart health. And and they had three different groups, morning drinkers, all day coffee drinkers and non coffee drinkers. And long story short, the results significantly better for early coffee drinkers in terms of heart disease and all causes.

[Katie Grimes]

This may very well be true, but I gotta say most of this sort of stuff I ignore at this point in my life. So many of them have gone back and forth so many times in my adult life. It's shocking. On alcohol and coffee and different diets and all kinds of stuff, different studies. It's amazing.

[Joe Getty]

I'm going to quote somebody now. I'm not saying it's true. I'm not saying I believe it. We were talking about cigar smoking. Myself and a handful of fellows I had lunch with on Saturday and the topic of. And one of the guys is actually getting treated for cancer right now and one has gone through it several times and they were talking about hanging out with a bunch of doctors after a round of golf the other day and they were all smoking cigars and they're all like, yeah, it's genetics. So again, I'm not telling you to go and live your life accordingly. I'm just telling you what was said.

[Katie Grimes]

That's funny.

[Joe Getty]

Speaking of health, if you're over 50, relationships, friendships are as important as virtually everything you can do health wise. According to statistical studies. Having a circle of people you, you trust and like and exchange views with the rest of it, it's incredibly important. Isolation kills.

[Katie Grimes]

Screaming down a road culturally where there's more isolation.

[Joe Getty]

Oh my gosh. Yeah, yeah. Great piece in the Atlantic. It's overly long, of course, because everything is about. What's the title of it? The Antisocial Century.

[Katie Grimes]

Absolutely.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. Here's another one. We're going fast, we're going swiftly here, folks. Take notes if you can, even if you're driving. Americans are tipping less than they have in years. Frustration with rising menu prices and the ubiquitous tipped prompts. Guilt tipping have led to a six year low.

[Katie Grimes]

I don't doubt that. I also, for some reason, I don't like the. You tell me how much. 18%, 20%, 22% is. I don't know why, it's just, it's just a little more looking over your shoulder. I don't know, I just, I don't like it. I don't like it fits in with all the other. Too much telling me to tip. I will tip. I've always tipped. But just quit. Quit with the telling me to tip.

[Joe Getty]

You're right. I don't mind the math because I can, you know, quickly do it instead of doing it in my head, which is probably good for my brain. But it's all the here are your choices.

[Katie Grimes]

Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

Feel to it. Whoa, whoa, whoa. My choice is whatever the hell I want.

[Katie Grimes]

Exactly. Exactly. I'm sitting here determining how good I thought the service was. Just don't tell me my three options, which are all really high, by the way.

[Jack Armstrong]

Armstrong and Gettysburg.