Ali Stuckey (0:01)

Is anointing yourself with oil biblical or is it witchcraft? We will get into this controversy on today's episode of Relatable. But first we are going to take you through a detailed timeline of the political history of California and even the United States that has led to the disaster that we are seeing in the LA wildfires. What specific environmental policy decisions and social policy decisions have been made over the past several decades that have made it so difficult for California to control these fires. We will go through all of those today. And then at the top of the show, we will take you through a little bit of a summary of Pete Hedge Seth's confirmation process so far as he is sitting before the Senate as he is up for the Secretary of Defense position. So we've got all of that on today's episode of Relatable. It's brought to you by friends at life or deathcon. Go to lifeordeathcon.com code ali10. It's a conference on January 23rd in DC life or deathcon.com code ali10. Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Tuesday. Hope everyone is having a wonderful week so far. So we've got a good deal biological segment for you at the end of this episode. We're going to get to all of the California Wildfire stuff, but I first just wanted to give you some kind of breaking news. What's going on right now on Capitol Hill. Pete Hedge Seth right now is going through his Senate confirmation process for Secretary of Defense. You'll remember we've talked about a little bit all of the accusations that have been lodged at him, sexual misconduct, even sexual assault, sexual harassment. So a lot of people think that he's just not going to be able to get through the confirmation process. But others are saying no, he probably has the votes. And I think what he promises to do as Secretary of Defense is going to be really, really positive for the United States. My understanding is that he is a repentant and redeemed man, husband, father, and I hope and and pray that's true. I don't really know him personally, but I think we have no reason not to take him at his word. Actually, in his opening statement today, he does give glory to Christ and I really appreciate that. Here's Sawan.

Sawan (2:46)

And as Jenny and I pray together every morning, all glory, regardless of the outcome, belongs to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. His grace and mercy abounds each day. May his will be done.

Ali Stuckey (3:03)

Okay, so good for him. Good for him. He is going to get a lot of really tough questions he's already fielded several senators. Maisie Hirono, Hawaii, Tim Kane of Virginia both questioned Hedge Seth on the sexual assault allegations against him. Hedge Seth responded to Kane's questioning by saying, senator, I was falsely charged, fully investigated, and completely cleared. So he says some of these accusations just aren't true. Other ones, like, you know, the stories of him cheating on his wives, I don't think he denies that those things were actually true. But again, he says, you know, that was my past. That's not who I am anymore. Senator Kevin Kramer of North Dakota questioned Hedge Seth about the cross tattoo on his chest because there was this ridiculous accusation at one point that this is some kind of Nazi symbol. And he responded by saying, it's a tattoo I have right here, Senator. It's called the Jerusalem Cross. It's a historic Christian symbol. In fact, recently I attended the memorial ceremony of President Jimmy Carter. On the front page of his program was the very same Jerusalem cross. That was a good catch, good inclusion. Obviously, Jimmy Carter is a Democrat, so it's like, what are you going to do, Senator Kramer and all you Democrats? Are you going to call Jimmy Carter a Nazi? Come on. During the remainder of Kramer's questioning, he also said that service members who were discharged from the military for refusing to get the COVID vaccine would be, quote. So during the remainder of Kramer's questioning, Hedgehog said this, that service members who were discharged for not getting the COVID vaccine would be apologized to and reinstituted with pay and rank, because, of course, that's justice. They never should have been discharged in the first place. That is absolute insanity and cruelty. So, again, I think he would do a really good job as Secretary of Defense. It'll be interesting to watch these confirmation hearings over the next few weeks. Obviously, a week from now, we've got the inauguration. We're super pumped about that. There's going to be a lot of celebration. It cannot come soon enough. Let's be praying for President Trump. These next hundred days or after he officially becomes president are absolutely crucial for the policy setting for the next four years. So let's just pray that he has the best, most effective people around him, that the Lord would protect him and all the people around him, keep them safe, that God would give them grace and biblical wisdom and discernment and the courage to do the right thing and that God would show his mercy and a really good and wise and strong presidency. So let's just be praying for that fervently, especially over the next week or so. On Monday, we will have Kevin Roberts, the head of the Heritage foundation on, and he will be talking about the first 100 days of Trump's presidency. Also a little bit about Project 2025. You'll remember how crazy the media was about that. But specifically, what Donald Trump should do is going to do when it comes to encouraging the family, mom, dad, kids, helping make sure that those families are cohesive and are flourishing and safe. What is President Trump going to do to make America the best place to raise babies? So be sure to tune in to that conversation. It will give you a lot of clarity for what to look for as a Christian as Trump's presidency starts. All right, let's get into everything that's going on with these fires. And then my response to the big controversy that was stirred up by me saying that using oils for spiritual uses that are not found in the Bible is witchcraft. We've got all of that today. But let me pause and tell you about our first sponsor, and that is Seven Weeks Coffee. Seven Weeks Coffee is America's Pro Life coffee company. They are awesome. I love them so much. They create clean mold, pesticide free, high quality coffee, but they donate 10 of every sale to Pro Life pregnancy Centers, which is what I love most about them. They have donated over $750,000 to these pro Life pregnancy centers, which has translated into so many resources to pregnant moms in need, which is then translated into baby lives that have been saved. So you can allow your coffee to serve a higher purpose. When you subscribe now, you get a free engraved coffee spoon plus 15 off of every order. So you get that box of coffee to your front door every month. Plus when you use my code Ali, you get an extra 10% off. So use code Ali for up to 25% off your first order that seven weeks coffee.com code Ali. Okay, I want to give y'all a thorough update of what is happening in California with these fires. And not only an update, but also to take us back to look at the timeline of how this disaster occurred. As I said on Instagram, this disaster was not inevitable. There were deliberate policy decisions made that have, if not enabled, exacerbated everything that has gone on and has led to the loss of life and the loss of homes, the loss of wildlife. And so I am going to go through specifically what some of those policy decisions were, when they happened and why they happened. And I hope for many in California that this is a wake up call, not that this is a primarily political conversation. I think no matter who you are across the political spectrum, that your Life matters, that your family matters. And I mourn with those who have lost their valuable treasures and their homes and their memories. There's so much there. I'm not trying to chastise people who politically disagree with me, but just to say that, again, our political decisions, our world views, actually have consequences. And it's really important that we look with specificity at the choices that have been made over the years that have led California to where it is now. But first, let me give a bit of an update. Firefighters are working to contain still three active blazes in the Los Angeles area ahead of a predicted return of winds this week. So you'll remember it was kind of a perfect storm, like, leave policy decisions out of it. It was a bad mixture of things that were occurring even outside of human control. You had the start of the fires and you had the crazy winds. You had the lack of rain. LA hasn't seen rain, really good rain in a really long time. And so that caused the wildfires to spread and cause the damage that they have. A week ago Tuesday morning, a wildfire broke out along Piedra Mirada Drive in Pacific Palisade. So this has all been a week now. By evening, it had grown to 2,900 acres. And then the two other fires also started near Los Angeles. The wildfires have now burned over 40,000 acres, an area bigger than San Francisco. They've killed at least two dozen people. Just devastating loss of life. This is bigger than the Chicago fires that happened decades ago that are infamous for the damage that they caused. A wind warning is in place for parts of the city and county. Wind gusts up to 70mph are expected as of Monday evening. The Palisades fire, the largest fire, the first one that started, was 17% contained. That is. I know that sounds really small. That is better news than we've been hearing. We heard just a few days ago, even after so much effort that it was only zero, that it was actually 0% contained. The Eaton fire, which has killed 16 people, was about 33% contained as of last night. At least 150,000 people have been forced to evacuate. The potential property damage and economic losses in this area could amount to as much as 150, $50 billion. We are looking at years and years of recovery. Monday evening, Mayor Karen Bass, she's back from her trip. She was in Ghana. We don't know why an LA mayor was in Ghana. Like, what business did she have there is not necessary for the constituents that she serves for her to be in Africa for some kind of business or political trip. But she's back, I guess. I think she's back. She issued an executive order, I suppose, locally and not all the way from Africa, to speed up rebuilding efforts after the wildfires. Will that actually be helpful? Productive? I'm not sure. It directs city departments to expedite building permit reviews and creates task forces to speed up debris removal. This followed Governor Newsom executive order issued on Sunday that would cut red tape and regulations, including environmental review requirements, to allow faster rebuilding. There were a lot of memes and justifiably angry responses when Gavin Newsom announced that he was cutting red tape. People were like, who put the red tape in, Gavin? Who put the red tape in? Was it not you? So Democrats are really good at this. Politicians in general are really good at this. But it seems especially progressives who rely on government largesse to keep power. They love to solve problems that they created themselves. And so he's coming in like a hero to solve a problem that he helped create. Here is a map of the fire. So here's what we're looking at right now. These three areas, you can see the varying sizes that we're dealing with. Just devastating. It looks small relatively on the map, but when you think about how densely populated LA is, again, you're talking about a lot of lives affected. So I want to get into the timeline of everything here. I want to get into how this started because you've heard a lot, both on this show and elsewhere about dei, about environmental policy. Maybe you've even heard about Gavin Newsom giving in to tribal demands to save certain kinds of fish that has led to the emptying of the reservoirs. But what is actually true? When did this all happen? Because this is not just recent. It's not like this has been policy that has been put into place just over the past year or the past few months. We are talking, talking about years and years, really about 30 plus years at this point, if not more in some cases, as we will see, of mismanagement largely in service to very arbitrary environmental whims of the radical green activists. So we'll get into that. Let me go ahead and pause and tell you about our second sponsor for the day. So I can do that timeline uninterrupted. It's good ranchers. You guys know how much we love good ranchers in our home. They've got an awesome deal right now for the new year. If you subscribe to any box, there's an alley box, it's got all of like the. I think some of the best stuff that good ranchers has. It's got non pre marinated chicken. You've got ground beef which we probably use the most in our home. You've got bacon, you've got lots of good stuff. There's even a recipe in that box. But you can subscribe to any box and when you do you get $25 off free express shipping and your choice of free meat for a year. That's free ground beef or chicken or salmon that they will add to every box that you get to your front door every month for an entire year. That is huge savings. You are just not going to be able to find that anywhere else. You're certainly not going to find that in the grocery store as we are still feeling the burden of inflation. This is all American meat. Super high quality, Christian conservative, America loving, God loving company. It's a win all around. It has changed our lives for the better over the past few years. Make this the year that you commit to eating healthy, eating more protein and supporting American farms and ranches. Go to goodranchers.com AliCode Ali to claim that deal. Goodranchers.com AllyCode Alley all right, let's get into it. As I said, a lot of this has to do with environmental policy. So before I get into the years that each decision was made, let me give you a little more background to set this up. The California that we know today, this is via California Insider. By, by the way, is only possible because the state moves water around, which makes sense when you think of the location of the state from areas of abundance to areas of need. Two thirds of the state's water falls in the northern part of the state, while most of the population in agriculture are in the South. So since the early 1900, engineers have been developing ways to store and transport water across the state, allowing California to grow into the state with the largest economy, population and agricultural output. And for many, many years, California was the place to be. It was an immaculately, immaculately run state. It was run mostly by Republicans really until I believe it was the 1990s. It was not only clean but it was safe and it was fun and it was beautiful. And it has just deteriorated because of progressive policy over the past several years. Over the last 50 years, environmental focus laws, environmentally focused laws, both federal and state, have deeply impacted how that water, which California relies on for everything is prioritized. California produces one third of the nation's vegetables and over 3,4 of of the fruits and nuts, especially right there in central California. It is also the leading dairy state providing 20 of the country's milk. When I visited Bakersfield and Visalia several years ago. First of all, I've said this before, but some of the nicest people in the world and like I grew up in Texas, have lived in the south. And that part of the country is known for being hospitable and kind. I'm telling you, the people, strangers I met in central California where some of just the randomly nicest people that I've ever met and I learned a lot during that short visit about the output of that part of the state. Not only is it extremely conservative, but as I just read, much of the food that not only the state relies on, but the country relies on actually comes from that part. And the food there is amazing no matter like what restaurant you go to. I went to like a variety there. It was all really good and really fresh. California produces virtually all of the US supply of almonds, pistachios and walnuts. Food production, you might not think of it this way, is also a national security issue because if our country can produce our own food, we are less dependent upon imports from other countries, which can be cut off during conflicts, et cetera. This is also a personal anecdote note from our researcher Debbie. She says, my family has been farming in California for four generations. Since 1929, they have given tours to Department of Defense officials. And when asked what their biggest threat to production is, they respond that the biggest threat to California's food supply and agricultural output is the state's own environmental policy. So all of this is working together and I will explain how with the water supply and how the water supply can be used for wildfires. One example of water policy that is currently being discussed by many, including President Elect Trump, involves this tiny fish called the delta smelt. And I remember the the citizens of Visalia and of Bakersfield telling me about this several years ago when I was there. This is a small endangered fish. In Northern California's Delta region, environmental policies aimed at preserving the smelt habitat have led to water regulations that send excess water to the habitat rather than to storage for the state's large population in agricultural uses. And this has led to to a lot of difficulty for the farmers there. Natural resource economist Dr. Scott Hamilton estimates that the amount of water supplies restricted due to protecting the Delta smelt exceeds 10 million acre feet, which is enough water to supply Los angeles for about 15 to 20 years. That is according to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the cost to replace that water is about $5 billion. So all to Protect that little Delta smell and we'll talk a little bit more about the Delta smell. Is she really that vital? Is she worth protecting that much? And have their efforts really worked? How is this worked out for not only the state of California, but for the country who takes all of the exports from California for our food supply? So let's look at this timeline. The 1960s and early 70s. This saw the beginning of the environmental movement in the U.S. for example, the first Earth Day was on April 22, 1960. 70. I'm pretty sure Earth Day was started by like some weirdo freak. I don't know, Bri, you might have to tell me the specifics. No, I'm pretty sure he like murdered someone and like composted their body. So the environmental, the environmental movement, while I'm sure there are a lot of great people in it, like it's got some really weird roots when you look into it. We don't have time to do all of that today. In 1970, Republican President Nixon signed the National Environmental Policy act, requiring federal agencies to fully determine the environmental effects. Effects of any actions they take known as environmental impact statements. I'm sure that President Nixon thought that he was doing the right and sophisticated thing at the time. Also in 1970, California Governor Ronald Reagan. So these are two California men signed into law the California Environmental Quality act, which also required environmental impact studies before any major construction project. You know, growing up is realizing that my favorite president, Ronald Reagan, he actually signed a lot of policies both on the state and the federal level, or he supported a lot of policies at least on, on the federal level that have laid the foundation for bad things today. When it comes to immigration, when it comes to things like environmental law, this law that Ronald Reagan signed is central to California's regulatory landscape. The law's purpose is to ensure projects will with significant environmental impacts are mitigated or stopped. And that all sounds good until you realize that these regulatory agencies have so much power and are really able to make these kind of like arbitrary decisions that can greatly harm individuals, their businesses, their ability to farm. Bri, did we get something on Earth Day? Yeah, yeah. Ira Einhorn, he was on stage hosting the first Earth Day event. He claims to have co founded it in Philadelphia. And then seven years later, police raided his closet and found his ex girlfriend's composted body after she had broken up with him. So very stable. Okay. Earth Day. Yep. And yet we are still celebrating. It's just like Kwanzaa, I think. I'm pretty sure the guy who founded Kwanzaa was like a murderer too. Like we don't have to do. There's no law saying that we have to have these holidays. Well, I guess there is, but. Well, I don't know. Actually, I'm not really sure the process of declaring these national holidays, but you don't have to declare national holidays that are started by murderers. I just feel like that's a good rule of thumb. Okay. 1980, the last time a big dam was completed in California. This means no significant water storage products have been built in California in over 45 years, despite the state's population increasing roughly 67% from 1980 to 2020. Farmers and conservatives cite increased environmental regulations and bureaucracy as their reason for no new water storage projects being being started being built in the past several decades. Then, if you look at the early 1990s, this period marks a critical shift in California water policy with growing federal intervention and a stronger focus on environmental protections for endange species. So 1993, delta smelt was listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species act and the California endangered Species Act CESA. 1994, the Environmental Protection Agency established federal water quality and flow standards for California's Delta region. The U.S. fish and Wildlife Service also designated the Delta region as the critical habitat for the delta smelt. 1996, the U.S. fish and Wildlife Service adopted a recovery plan to improve habitat conditions for the delta smelt. And then in 1994. And this part doesn't have to do with the delta smell, doesn't have to do with environmental regulations. It is all it's pertinent to the conversation about the water supply in California. 1994, billionaires Stuart and Linda Resnick purchased a controlling stake in the Kern Water bank, which refers to both the facility and one of California's largest underground aquifers. This facility and 32 square mile basin was initially developed with taxpayer money in order to store water for drought years. It was later transferred from state control to private entities, including a significant portion to this billionaire couple, the Resnicks. This was legal under California water law. But despite the legality, this was unusual and controversial given that such water facilities are usually managed publicly and with different regulations, accountability, transparency that is supposed to ideally come with the public control of something like a water supply. The Resinix also owned the wonderful company, which is a major producer of mandarins, pistachios and pomegranates. They have been criticized for using the water resource to not only irrigate their vast agricultural lands, but also for selling water back to the state or to other or to other users, especially during droughts, at a profit. This practice has been seen as turning a public resource into a private profit center. Yeah, I would say that that's problematic myself. The Resnicks have many political allies. Were also a top donor to Gavin Newsom when he was recalled in 2021. So some people are saying they are accusing this couple of hoarding the water and of making it more difficult not only for other farmers to be watering their crops, but also for the state to be able to access as much water as they need. Some people are saying in 2008, US Fish and Wildlife service issued a biological opinion. So this is back into the environmental world or scientific data. That included regulations regarding delta water flows to protect the delta smelt. This created water restrictions that meant water must be sent to the delta to protect fish rather than being used for farms, cities, or storage. 2009, the delta smelt status was changed from threatened to endangered. 2011, then California Governor Jerry Brown issued an executive order which required state agencies to develop consultation policies with Native American tribes. Native American groups who consider the delta their ancestral home. The delta in California filed a petition in 2022 to state regulators and water districts, along with several environmentalist groups, to request updates to the water quality control plan in order to protect salmon. So not specifically the delta smell could have included the delta smell, but salmon, because the salmon was significant to these tribes, apparently tribal members and activists called the failure to regulate water on their behalf. So in service to their interest to protect things like the salmon, quote, unquote, cultural genocide. That is according to the Guardian. All right, so now you've got pressure from environmental activists, those groups. You got pressure from the tribes. You've also got this billionaire couple that owns a good portion of the water supply that the state doesn't have access to without having to pay for it. And so you've got a lot of groups who have a claim over the water, if that is part of of why the water is not as accessible or easily used as it should be. But again, these were all decisions by the state over many years. 2014, California approved Prop 1, which allocated $7.5 billion to build dams and other vital water facilities that would serve as new water storage and help protect California's people in agriculture from the effects of drought. Okay, so it seems like, okay, they're waking up. They realize this is not good. Something bad's going to happen. We're going through a drought. What if we get a wildfire? Maybe they foresee that kind of disaster and they're like, all right, we got to allocate some money. But over 10 years later, over 10 years later, okay, this is just a look into how government so often works, not in well run states like the state of Florida, but in states like California with so much money and so many resources. As of today, over 10 years after Prop 1, no major construction has been completed due to lengthy engineering environmental impact studies, along with slow permitting processes, as even the LE Times admitted. So, remember, go all the way back several decades to Nixon and Reagan, making sure that all of these studies and all of these very complicated permits had to be conducted, had to be given before anything could be built. The proposed dam, so it's still proposed, would have stored as much as 1.5 million acre feet of Sacramento river water and could eventually boost water supply, especially in dry years, for more than 24 million people, mostly in Southern California and 500,000 acres of Central Valley farmland. Okay, so they need that. Construction on a new dam in Northern California is now expected to begin this year, in 2025, 11 years after Prop 1. Also in 2014, when we're looking at forest management on the federal level, Republicans in Congress proposed an amendment to the Healthy Forest Restoration act, which would remove some of the regulatory hurdles and simplify the process for hazardous inflammable trees to be cleared through controlled burns and temper timber harvesting. The bill did not make it past committee, thanks to environmental lobbyists, according to the California Policy Center. Worth noting, the California Policy center points out that overgrown forests also reduce the water supply. Also, the brush that environmentalists don't want to be cleared because they say, oh, it just needs to go through a natural process. That is what exacerbates and spreads the fires more quickly. In 2019, the US Fish and Wildlife Service issued another biological opinion and imposed continued environmental regulations to protect the Delta smell under the Endangered Species Act. This led to the unnecessary restriction of vital waterways. We're going to get back to the Delta smell in just a second. In 2020, then, President Trump signed a memorandum that would allow the federal government to redirect millions of gallons of water to the Central Valley and Southern California rather than be needlessly flushed into the Pacific Ocean. Gosh, the federal government should not have to be involved in that. Not at all. California. The states should be able to run that. Newsom then filed a lawsuit to block Trump's move, arguing this would harm endangered species like the Delta smelt. Newsom succeeded in blocking Trump's order. 2021. This is again a different realm, but it all works together. 321Firefighters from the LA Fire Department filed for an exemption for a rule requiring them to get COVID vaccine. 113 of those were laid off. 2022. In a report for the California Water Blog, UC Davis fish biologist Peter Moyle was critical of the recovery efforts for the delta smelt and has pointed out that even with increased water flows, even with all of these regulations, even with preserving all of the water for the delta smelt that can't be used for watering crops, that can't be used for putting out wildfires, that the delta smelt have still not recovered because other environmental pressures like invasion, invasive species and food have not been adequately addressed. Since 2007, there have been 20 studies analyzing the effectiveness of the water increase to protect the smelt. The majority of the studies found no benefit or the results were inconclusive. Surveyors from the California Fish and wildlife department netted two delta smelt in 2017. So apparently they found two delta smelt in 2017. After all of these efforts, after all of the harm that they've done, they only found two of these fish. So there is actually no proof whatsoever that these regulations, that these programs, that all of these efforts, this blocking of water access has actually helped the survival of the delta smelt at all. And since 2017, they have caught zero delta smelt. So that is at least partly in large part what has happened to the water supply in California. It is largely environmental, but as we articulated, there are other factors playing into this. But none of that was inevitable. None of that was accidental. All of it was the result of a deliberate policy decision. All right, we've got more on that in just a second as we get into the DEI programs that have been put into place over the past past few years that have also impacted California's ability to deal with these fires. But let me pause and tell you about our next sponsor. That is Life or deathcon. So Life or Deathcon is going to be an amazing pro Life conference in D.C. next week ahead of the March for Life. You guys love Seth Gruber. He sat down on this couch and y'all just absolutely loved that conversation as he talked about the history of the U, of the abortion and eugenics movement in the United States and throughout the world, and called Christians to clarity and courage. And that's what this conference is going to be. I am going to be speaking there as well as some other amazing speakers, and we are going to be calling people to clarity and courage. It is going to be a rallying cry for those on the front Lines of the pro life movement. You do not want to miss it. Go ahead, get your ticket. Especially if you're already going to be there for the March for Life. Make sure that you come to life or deathcon. Go to lifeordeathcon.com use promo code ALI10. Get 10 off your ticket. That's life or deathcon.com code ALI10. Okay, 2022, we've got new LA Fire Chief Kristen Crowley who announced a new program to allocate resources to a DEI program that focuses on meeting sexual orientation, racial and gender quotas. Here Sal1.