Pro-Palestine Protest Update., Metro Public Emergency & CA’s Middle Class - podcast episode cover

Pro-Palestine Protest Update., Metro Public Emergency & CA’s Middle Class

Apr 30, 202434 min
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Episode description

ICYMI: Hour One of ‘Later, with Mo’Kelly’ Presents – A look at the latest updates regarding the ‘Pro-Palestine’ protest taking place at UCLA, USC and on college campuses across the country…PLUS – Thoughts on LA Metro declaring a public emergency in response to the escalating attacks taking place on busses and trains AND how much you need to earn to be considered “middle class” in California - on KFI AM 640…Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app

Transcript

It's good to be back. It's Later with mo Kelly k IF I am six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. I'm back from Sacramento. Got some pictures and video up of this hop keto seminar I was at. You can check it out at mister mo Kelly on Instagram at Later with mo Kelly on Instagram and Facebook. But now that I'm back, I'm back in the

real world. Unfortunately, for about forty eight hours, I didn't have to think about this protest or that demonstration, or this political machination or that so called trouble. Didn't have to worry about any of that. Didn't even think about it. I got away from the real world. But now I'm back, and I'm reminded I'm pretty damn smart. Here's what I mean. Remember when I told you, I said, I'm going to watch what happens the next day. I wanted to see whether there would be protests at UCLA.

Now there are. I name checked UC Irvine. I said, I want to see if its gonna happen at UEE Irvine in schools like cal State LA. Now there are. Because it was escalating along a certain trajectory path where schools were watching other schools. They were probably communicating via social media, and you see what's done at one school is now being done at another school.

Where you have these encampments, you have these protests. One thing I did not see, and I did not foresee, unfortunately, the escalation to the point of physical skirmishes, the vandalism on UCLA and USC's campuses. I'm not

parsing blame. I don't know who was responsible for it, but I do know that I did say before, you have to be very careful who you allow as part of your protests and into your protests, who speaks on behalf of your protests, and who are some of the loudest voices, because unfortunately, any act of violence, any act of vandalism, will have a larger role in the perception of the seriousness or the importance of your protests than other

acts. But now here we are, here's my next prediction. There're gonna be some very very unhappy protesting students. Here's why you've crossed the rubicon, as they say, is the point of no return. You saw what happened in Columbia earlier today. The Columbia University issued at ultimatum saying you had to remove the encampments by two pm Eastern today or they would start suspending and even expelling students. Well, Columbia has held out, but they are passing out

slips indication they've begun the process. I'm a back up with any protest, anyone. I don't care what it is, I don't care whether I agree with it or not. I always say I always say. That goes back to Colin Kaepernick, Black Lives Matter, Occupy Wall Street, all that with any protests, if you are okay with the possible consequences and ramifications of your protest. If you're okay with that, then by all means proceed because you

have to protest knowing that there's a distinct possibility that you won't win. Just because you protest doesn't mean you'll get your way. Just because you protest, does it mean that you'll get all that you're asking for, not even some of what you're asking for. You know what, you might not get any of what you're asking for, and you might get arrested, and you might

get suspended, and you might get expelled. So discretion requires that you consider all the consequences before you start protesting, But now you crossed the rubicon. Now you're at that point of no return. Now students are getting suspended, students are getting arrested, probably expelled on the other side of this, And I've yet to hear any situation on any campus where anyone has gotten any of their demands met. Is that gonna change tomorrow? Probably not. Is that

gonna change a week from now, Probably not. So Are you committed for the next year or so? Are mommy and Daddy gonna still keep you in school after you've been suspended and ft off your tuition or your scholarship? Are you willing to suffer all the consequences? Do you believe that deeply in this cause I'm not saying that you don't. I'm saying you need to ask yourself

whether you actually are. It's all funny games and until people start going to jail, it's all fun and games until mommy finds out you got kicked out of school. Because these are real consequences. Up until now, universities by and large have been tolerant of them. USC made a mistake, they made the wrong choice, and they further escalated it, and it blew out a proportion and they lost control of it relatively early on the other universities. It's

a case by case based as far as what they're trying to do. But now the longer you stay, the more intransigent in transigent you get, the higher the stakes and the greater the consequences. And also and also you may lose public support because people are reading headlines about vandalism, they're reading headlines about clashes and skirmishes with police. They're going to you're going to lose control of how it's being portrayed in the media. Why Because there isn't any central messaging

point. And I talk about this all the time. You don't have someone talking competently with a uniform message. You go to a different campus, you get a different answer. Divest from this. We want that, we want to make sure that you don't do this, and you don't do that. I know some of the basic things that you're asking for, but I don't know if the person on the street who doesn't follow this story very closely knows it and can recite it, and then it can empathize and also join you

in this. This is not about free speech, and I keep hearing that, and it can't be further from the truth. If you should end up arrested or detained, it's not for your speech. It's for the fact that you're on a private campus and you don't have a constitutional right to set up a tent and just remain forever on that campus. And you know this because there's a certain day that you have to be out of the dorms every single

semester. It's no different. You are a guest at the school. You are there by invitation, you accept that invitation, and then you have a code of conduct as a student that you signed. I had to sign it. You had to sign it. Hell, even Mark Roner had to sign it. I don't know if he actually abided by it, but he had to sign it. I signed nothing. You can prove nothing. But the point is we all knew that there were limitations. There are parameters, There

were boundaries to our conduct. We didn't get to go to the food hall, the dining hall whenever we wanted. They served lunch and dinner at certain times, breakfast too, brunch, whatever. You had to be in class at a certain time. You had to be in class. He had to do perform so well on exams to get a certain grade. There are expectations that you have to beat every step of the way. There's a day that you can check in to your dorm, and there's a day that you have

to be out of your dorm. For the winter break, a spring semester to pitt on the campus, and definitely for summer. You do not have a right to camp your ass out on the front lawn of UCLA in front of Royce Hall. You're going to lose this. The question is are you willing to sacrifice and still win. There's an old saying, I'll probably mess it up, but it goes something like this. There are some fights that you must fight even if you lose, and there's some fights that aren't worth

fighting. You should never fight even if you win. You have to make sure that you're on the right side of that equation. Are you sure that this fight, if it's not winnable, it's the fight that you must have. Are you willing to sacrifice everything? If you're not, you're wasting your time and you need to get out now. You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on Demand from KFI AM six forty. I was on my way up

to Sacramento on Friday, and then the news alert came in. I said, damn it, damn it, I need to be in a studio. I need to be covering this. I need to talk about the Metro. And I said, okay, I'll just do it on Monday. But as I was traveling up to Sacramento, literally while I was traveling, a man was stabbed near a Metro bus. Laid us to the string of Metro violence

stab and it was unclear at the time. It wasn't clear whether it was stabbed on the bus, exiting the bus, getting on the bus in the University Park area of Los Angeles. We don't know if it was connected in any way to the protest, but it was another act of violence connected to Metro and attack was reported around twelve thirty five PM and officers responded to the intersection of Adams and Figure Row, which is right next to USC right there

so it can go either way, and then a little bit further down the road ind my trip to Sacramento. Another story breaks LA Metro board member supervisor Catherine Barger says she's afraid and will not ride Metro by herself. You damn skippy, I won't ride Metro by myself. Hell, I won't even ride with Towala. I wouldn't ride with Mark. I wouldn't ride with anybody. Okay, I barely trust them in the studio. You put them on Metro, they might lose their damn mind and flip out and stab everybody. Hi'm

Mark, glad to be back. I missed you so much. And here's the serious response to all of this. It's going to keep happening. Why because nothing has changed. There's no reason for it to stop, because there is no impediment, there is no deterrent, there's no reason. Crime doesn't necessarily stop on its own. It doesn't get tired, it doesn't get bored, it doesn't just give up. It's like, what are we gonna do today? I don't know. I crimed yesterday and I don't feel up to

it today. I think I'll go to sleep, No, go back out and crime some more. When you have an LA County supervisor saying publicly publicly she will not ride Metro alone, what do you think that she has been saying privately for the past six or seven months. You think she just woke up on Friday Supervisor Barker and said, oh my gosh, just last stubbing. That's the last straw. I've had enough. I am now afraid to ride Metro because of this sixth stabbing in two weeks. If we're just five,

I would have been okay, but the sixth gone too far. I'm now afraid. No, no, no, no, no, let's use common sense. She's just now verbalizing it publicly. And I don't know tall. I think I sent the message to nice young lady. I assumed she was nice, and I assume she was young, definitely. The lady sent me this message on Instagram asking, and I'm paraphrasing, asking, why was I picking on Mayor Bass? Moe, don't you know that she's the mayor

of Los Angeles and Metro is a county agency. Fair question, but if you've actually been paying attention to what has been going on Karen Bass. Mayor Bass is the chair of the Metro Board of Directors, and she has been the chair of the Metro Board of Directors since July twenty twenty three. She

is, lily the person in charge. He is literally the person to direct all of my frustration, all of my vitriol, all of my anger, all of my disbelief, I don't pick on politicians or elected officials just for the hell of it, for just to have fun, to entertain myself or to entertain you. I try to make it very clear, I'm very serious

and very sincere about this particular issue. Yes, I may laugh and joke about others, but when it comes to Metro again, I take it very personally because it was something that I used to do every single day, and so I couldn't stand it anymore. I couldn't take it anymore. So yes, I've done my homework, and the person who I direct my comments and commentary too is La Mayor Karen Bass, the head of the Metro Board of Directors of that La County agency. My civics are clear. Yes, I

still believe that there is a power in shaming, the power full. And yes, I do believe that all this public shaming of Metro has led to the change in the public behavior of Supervisor Barger, which will also impact what Mayor Bass will do going forward. I believe it's all connected. I believe that better informing the general populace like you listening right now, you may not have known of all these incidents which were happening on Ellie Metro on just about

a daily basis. You may not have known, but since you've been listening to a Lady with mo Kelly, since you've been listening to KFI, you are better informed and you now know that this is a problem which must be addressed. Because once again I say, if you're not if you don't feel safe on public transportation, then you can't feel safe anywhere in the city. I believe that you're constantly bringing this to the airwaves, You're constantly shaming those

in charge. Is actually what led to the declaration of emergency. Yes, they declared a public safety emergency because of this latest incident. That's not my opinion, that's not sensationalism. That is Metro bowing to not only public pressure but also internal pressure like Supervisor Barger making it clear that we cannot turn a blind eye to this anymore. We cannot disregard, try to diminish or delegitimize the seriousness of people dying dying on public transportation. And we always want to

talk about the statistics. We want to say crime is down. Tell that to the family of the woman who just was murdered last week. The statistics do not matter when it impacts you personally. The statistics never are more important than the specifics of what's going on and who wants to you roll the dice. Now, let me put it another way, who wants to roll the dice and put their mother in that situation? I have no problem if I

want to accept the risk and danger of a situation. Why, because then I've made an affirmative choice to do X, Y or Z. If I stop at a gas station late at night, I have made a choice to possibly put myself in more danger than I necessarily would have been if I stopped in the daytime. But I'm doing so knowingly. I should not have to have that conversation with myself in the sense of putting my mother, my mother, or my wife or my child on Metro knowing what I know, Nacie,

that's the difference. I know better. You know better because we've been talking about this just about every freaking day. You know that someone is getting harmed every single day. Let me look at my watch. Yes, someone's getting stabbed right now somewhere on Metro. We'll probably hear about it. We'll have the news report late tonight, and I'll say, damn, I wish I was on the air because I could talk about it. But then maybe Mark Ron will be able to do it overnight and the late night newscasts,

and I have to wait all the way till the next day. But the point is we know better. And if you get on Metro right now and you're listening to me, or you have been listening to me, you know that you're getting on Metro and you cannot you cannot play ignorant. You're too smart to play dumb at this point. You do so knowing that it's more dangerous than just getting in an uber with Stephan Okay, I know he looks kind of shady, but it's more dangerous than that, far more dangerous.

You have to make a decision, La. You have to make a decision. Mayor Bass. Now that you've declared this public safety emergency, what is your decision to actually address it? Because last week you said everything was fine. I remember I played the damn audio from your budget press conference. He said everything is fine in so many words. Remember, I said, you're doing everything you could do. I ken't playing the audio, Gein, I

said, no, you're not. You're lying. You're lying, You're not doing everything you can because there are other things that you could have done that you still haven't done, and until you have done those things, you can't honestly say, sincerely say that you're doing everything you can because you hadn't even declared the public safety emergency. Ah, I see what I mean. There's still more things that you can do, and until you do them, well,

I'll be here complaining. It's later with mo Kelly if I Am six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app and on the other side of this break, are you earning enough to be considered middle class here in California? Well, I got bad news for a lot of you, really bad news. You're listening too. Later with Moe Kelly on demand from KFI AM six forty. Pop Quiz Everyone, Pop Quiz. Stephan. Let's start with you. What does it mean to you to be middle class? What does that middle

class lifestyle mean to you? I would say being able to just work, well, I guess if you're a couple, but being able to own a house at this point, okay, I think, all right, Mark Ronner, a house. Huh, you're aiming high. I think middle class is maybe not breaking into a flop sweat when you check your balance after you pay for dinner, or also not thinking you have to check your balance twelve sharp. I'm actually a combination of both home ownership and not having to sweat every

single thing you pay for. Every bill you pay isn't going to put you on the street. Yeah, I'm somewhere in the middle of that. The whole idea of home ownership in today's world is not like when my parents middle class bought a house in the mid nineteen seventies, the house that my mother still lives and they bought in nineteen seventy five for fifty four thousand dollars In theory that could could have been paid for or qualified for by one household income.

Today two is often not enough, So the idea of middle class has shifted over the years. And with health care, if you put that in mind, middle class means that your one health diagnosis away from bankruptcy. So

let's put it in quantifiable terms now. And this is coming from a new report from personal finance site smart asset, and it reviewed data from the US Census Bureau as well as the Pew Research Center to determine what does it take financially at least on paper to be considered middle class in all fifty states and three hundred and forty five of the nation's largest cities. We won't go that deep, but will but we will talk about California. In California from a

salary, you're considered middle class for a household salary. Going to Stephan's point, a household salary of sixty one thousand dollars to one hundred and eighty three thousand dollars. There is no way in the world a household salary of sixty one thousand dollars can be middle class. When I say household, I'm not assuming kids. I'll just say two people living in an apartment sixty one thousand dollars, by no means Is that middle class, by no means not in

California. No. One hundred and eighty three thousand. Maybe maybe, depends on how many kids you have. Maybe middle class and a student loan and right a number of other classes, all those things. If you're one hundred eighty three thousand dollars and you're not in debt, possibly possibly, I don't know what your situation was before that one hundred eighty three thousand. You may have been in debt you know, may have student loans for example, you

may have had a bankruptcy. There's no way to tell. But if you have any of those, you're not middle class in California. You're digging yourself out of that hole. I know because I live through it. In the Bay Area northwest of San Jose, you need to have a household salary of at least one hundred and thirteen thousand dollars to be quote unquote middle income.

And if you want to be considered upper class in Sunny Vale, smart ass that determined that you would need a salary of at least three hundred and thirty nine thousand, and I still think that's kind of low given for real estate. For real right, Yeah, you're not care free at three hundred and forty thousand dollars. I'm not saying that that's you know, chicken scratch.

I'm saying you're not fancy, footloose and fancy free. Every house towards that area is a million to start, So that's why I'm like this three hundred and thirty three that's and I'm still stuck on household. If if you have two adults and two kids, and let's say both parents are contributing. Both parents are making one hundred and sixty seven one thousand, five hundred dollars each per year. Maybe they could be civil servants or something, or attorneys or

something like that, and they have two kids. They're still watching their money. If they're in that million dollar house, which is not a big deal in that particular area, Yeah, she'd be middle class. But I guess the larger point is in California, you can go from middle class to the

poverty line in a heartbeat. Yeah, it's a lot easier, I believe, to suffer in California as opposed to other states where you might be a give me a comparison point mark in Spokane three hundred and thirty nine thousand dollars. And I know it's getting more expensive in the state of Washington all across. But is the housing as expensive the real estate is expensive as down here? Oh not even close, not even close. So what's the average for

a house here? It's just under seven hundred thousands. Nothing's closer to eight, is it? Okay? So yeah, for that, you could get your own mansion Inokan, not in Seattle. Seattle's pretty close to the way it is here. M h and I guess if you go to certain parts of California, if you would go to Baker or even Sacramento, the cost of living, yes, is much less than San Jose, Los Angeles,

San Francisco. But by and large, when they say that sixty one thousand is the low end of the middle class, I don't know if you were just a single person living by yourself, which you mean middle class, on sixty one thousand, it's the way low end, just rent alone. Maybe in Lancaster, like you're moving up towards Lancaster, Barstow, you're having way out of la Orange County, Victorville, Victorville, Yeah, sixty one thousand,

Victorville, Yeah, yeah, yeah. Last week there there was a study that came out showing a handful of places in the California area where you didn't have to essentially sell your kidney to afford a house. But they were all places that were so remote nobody wants to live there. Right. There

was a time and before Palmdale blew up to what it is now. I want to say this is maybe about two thousand and one, two thousand and two, I was thinking about buying a house out there, and the houses were new house, new build, it's about two hundred and forty two to

three hundred thousand. That would be a steal in today's well, but now it's so over developed out there, it's like eight to nine hundred thousand, and that is a good forty five minutes to an hour at best at best on the outside of Los Angeles, because I was trying to drive it to see if I was willing to drive it. When I was working in Sherman Oaks for Ryan Seacrest at the time, that would have been my drive. There's nowhere you can live in the Los Angeles area on sixty one thousand dollars

a year household income and be considered middle class. There's no way unless your household is of one person, and even then you are really really stretching it. Now say yes. In Lancaster right now, meeting income for a single adult is forty two thousand or actually uh, and that's switched from the not looking at the national figure, So now it's down to thirty eight thousand for a meeting income for singles, So two adults sixty plus thousand. Yeah,

they must be talking about Lancaster, but that's deep in Lancaster. That's deep. I've driven out there because we're one of our school cats where bodies are buried. Yeah, there's a place in Lancaster where they leave dogs, right, God's sake, right, So everyone all cheered up. Now, God the dog thing did it? Thank you? You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from KFI AM six forty. We'd love giving away free stuff. The Coast makes a return of Disney's Aladdin opens May seventh at sac or

Some Center for the Arts for a limited engagement of one week. Just one week through May twelfth. Aladdin will play Tuesdays through Friday at seven thirty pm, Saturday at two and seven thirty pm, and Sunday at one pm and six thirty pm. Aladdin, the hit musical based on the Academy Award winning animated film, opened on Broadway at the New Amsterdam Theater to critical acclaim ten years ago on March twenty, twenty fourteen, and quickly established itself as one

of the biggest new blockbusters in recent years. Having played over three thousand performances, the New York production is among the top twenty longest runs in Broadway history, but it's back now in Coast to Mesa and later with Moe Kelly, will be giving away a pair of tickets to opening night on May seventh. Tomorrow, We're gonna give away the tickets tomorrow to opening night. We're gonna do it tomorrow is part of our conversation with actor performer Marcus Martin, who

will be starring in the Coast to Mason return of Disney's Aladdin. He'll be starring as Genie, So tomorrow night we will be giving away a pair of tickets to Opening Night to Aladdin at Sega Strom Center for the Arts. I don't know if there's anybody cooler than we are. No, Nobody, Nobody. And Also, Beach Live Festival returns to the sands of Redondo Beach May third through May fifth with performances by Sting, Incubus, Defo, Dirty Heads,

zz Top, and more. Keep listening for your chance to see the Fork Report live at Beachlife Festival, brought to you by the Porta Fino Hotel and Marina. Catch their exhilarating brunch experience before the Beach Life Festival on May fourth. Enjoy live music, panoramic ocean front vistas, and a lavish feast book online now at Hotel Portofino dot com. And let me go back to

Aladdin real quick. I have not seen the Broadway stage show. I didn't get a chance to see it when it was laughed out in southern California. Oh, man, I hope you do get to go see this one. Man, I know you like plays, and I plays musicals, live theater, love all that. I saw the Aladdin production the mini play at California Adventure and it's amazing. I can only imagine what this a full on play is like, taking it to the next level. Wow. I love all

that stuff and it was instilled in me as a we lad. But my parents say would take me to see shows and musical theater, and I've just always grown up with that love and affinity for live performances. And if you're like me, you'll definitely want to try to win the tickets. When just gonna give away one pair of tomorrow night. But it's to opening night, opening night, May seventh, So if you should call in, know that you have to be available to attend May seventh, which is Friday night.

If I'm not mistaken, I believe. So have you been to the second Yeah? I saw Wicked there. Okay, okay, what is the house like? Is it like ever see the good seat? What house? The staging all that it is? Acoustically it's fantastic, like if you walk in and you can you can hear the performance with little amplification acoustically, it's it's beautiful. It's it's it's newer than The Pantagious. Obviously, I'm not trying to make a direct comparison, but a seg Storm is it's kind of asymmetrical.

The way that the theater is laid out. It's hard to it's hard to describe. But it's a fabulous, fabulous theater experience. It's very intimate. I have no complaints about it. But when I saw a wake it there, it was just great. I've seen some other things there, but

we could I think it was the most recent one. Okay, okay, yeah, I was curious about just the theater, Like I haven't gone, but I know, like my my family they talk about like the Pantagious all the time, like the Papantageous. I'm like, and I know that the Sega Storm gets such rave reviews. I was just wondering, as a comparison point like what what does each theater offer amenity wise as far as like for sound, for sight stuff like that. The sight lines I I think are

better at seg from. It's only because it's a it's a newer theater obviously. The pantages is the pantago is because you just have the awesome history which is yeah, so attached to it. But you know, if you're in Orange County and you're not drive all the way to LA you should do that. Yeah. Remember when we had Clifton Davis on? Yes, that was why. That's when I end up going to see Wicked. Oh yeah yeah yeah, nice Mark? Are you a theater guy? Let me just dropped

his microphone. No, no, sorry, I had been doing something else and I had to switch the board back. You just mentioned Clifton Davis. You mean the guy from the seventy sitcoms. Yes, amen and all that. Yeah, deep cut, Yes, well I'm jealous. Yeah, it was a couple of years ago. A couple years ago. Absolutely, Wow, that would have been cool. I completely forgot about your other question because

I was focused on that theater. Are you fan? You know? Ever since a freshly out of the closet friend, all that a bunch of Andrew Lloyd Weber plays in New York City. I've avoided them because I think I still have PTSD. It's okay, does it? That's what they say. I probably did for him, but I've still got the scars. You didn't see Cats, did you? Unfortunately? Yes? I did? You saw Cats? YEA horrible. It's a war crime. It's people. People responsible

for Cats need to go to the Hague. I will never understand why anyone like Cats. I don't get it, because I've even followed a couple of people that are like hardcore musical theater nerds, and they're like, why is this so big? They do? No one gets it. The only thing worse than Cats the Musical was Cats the movie. I kind of wanted to see that just because of knowing going in and it's going to be terrible to see cat Woman with Hally Barry. But here this is an important question.

Did you see the version with the cats tailpipes digitally removed or were they still there? I don't think I paid that close of the old you know, when I saw it. Unfortunately, when it came out it was with tailpipes inlet. It was very weird. It was a very where I was like, I've got to go. I'm doing way too much sitting in this theater. I really despised myself for being in here right now, just myself.

I felt bad for myself watching this movie. I didn't understand. I said to myself, See, this is why people say bad things about Broadway. If this is their first experience, my first experience going in to see anything related. Bro, if it's cats, that would be my last experience. Fortunately that was not Yeah and adding insults to entry. Wasn't James Cordon also in that Yeah? Yes, oh god. No, I didn't like Phantom of the Opera. I know people say, how could you not like it?

No, you're correct. I saw that. I endured that I didn't like forty second Street, and I didn't like Chicago. But by and large the plays or the movies the place. No, no, not not the movies. I will say the Sunset Boulevard is tolerable. But if you have the choice, just sit it all out, all of it. Oh goodness, that's why I would love to go. Look, we gotta go.

Look at the clock k if I age at forty five. Everywhere in the iHeartRadio app critical thinkers won it. K s I M K O S T HD two Los Angeles, Orange County, live everywhere on the eart radio app

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