¶ Fashion and Politics
you and I are told increasingly we have to choose between a left or right . Well , I'd like to suggest there is no such thing as a left or right . There's only an up or down .
This is the no doubt about it .
Podcast no doubt about it now your hosts christy and Mark Runcetti .
Wow .
Wow , it's Halloween . We're wearing Halloween gear today .
I'm not wearing Halloween gear .
Rude . No , it's brown and orange . That's Halloween , it's tan and coral .
Oh yes , Sir , so it's just a winter sweater . Okay , and from somebody who wears I don't know an array of hoodies , I'm not sure you should be delving out fashion tips .
No , it wasn't tips , it was in admiration .
No , it was judgment .
No , I don't think so .
It was like you were the fashion critic .
all of a sudden , yeah , no , oh , okay , oh okay , really .
Oh , I'm the fashion critic of of the two of us .
I know you are .
Yeah . Yes , yes , I try to get you out of the hoodies , but I can't seem to win that battle .
No , no , it's comfortable .
I know , but I bought you like some really cool sweaters for the show for Christmas . I haven't seen a single one on you .
Yeah , I know those are depends . I mean a couple of them uh are a little on the big side , yeah .
It was a little big , yeah , yeah , it went a little big yeah .
Yeah , it went a little big . I tried to get my shoulders in and then it looked like I was wearing a tent . Okay , and then a couple of the others . I like I just have used them in other environments , not in this one ?
Well , because they're a little dressier .
They are .
You know , yeah , I mean I appreciate you promoting our show and all .
Yeah , that's good .
That's what you do . That's how you market us out of people that already hear already know the name of our show .
You know that would . It would appear that you're probably right on that . I am right , I'm the marketing genius and the fashionista . So just kidding Actually .
Ella's the fashionista . Who are we ? Who are we kidding ?
Okay , all right , well , anyway lots to dive into . Yeah , there's a ton to dive into , and some of this I don't even know where to go with some of this , especially our first story . So just a quick heads up on where we're headed here .
We're going to talk a little bit about some of the people that are going through the hearings in the Senate , that are going to be part of Trump's cabinet here , and the one we're going to focus on , I think , is Pete Hegseth . At least a little bit of that , not a ton , but I did not enjoy any of his confirmation hearing , which I watched .
So it was like five and a half hours long .
Yeah , it was long and I'll explain the kind of the conflict there . We'll talk about that . We're going to talk about what's going on still with some of the fire situations and the reason we're going to talk about this fire stuff is the insurance issues that are developing in California are also happening in New Mexico .
And in fact , they're happening in some of our mountain towns right now Right , ruidoso , angel Fire . Some of these places are dealing with insurance companies that are not necessarily interested in insuring places that they think are at massive risk of fire , and government plays a huge role in that .
I want to kind of go through some of this with you , because it doesn't have to be that way at all , so we'll get into that . Also , this deal that has been worked out between Hamas and Israel is fascinating , because you have two different administrations that worked on a peace deal , and how they're divvying up credit is actually pretty amazing .
Or ridiculous .
Or ridiculous .
Like who gets the credit doesn't matter .
Well , that's a fair point . And believe me we are going to give credit to someone in the Biden administration for actually taking the right approach or not ? Joe Biden himself ? We'll get into that too . It's interesting .
How about we give credit to Israel ?
Well , we should give credit to Israel .
They do deserve it , okay .
Wallet Hub is out with a new study .
It's not good .
And it ranks the 50 states on best place to raise a kid and guess what ?
Who's at the bottom ?
We're not at number one .
No , we're not even in the top 40 .
We're not in the top 40 .
Or the top 49 .
We're not in the top 49 . So we'll get into that fact that we talked for a long time about what we should do with tax policy in this state and some of the things you proposed . Yes , one of the things we proposed was eliminating the income tax , which we could absolutely do . Paul Guessing put a little thing out on that .
Then there was a new state rep down in Lee County who does a really good job and she mentioned it in a special editorial for the journal about removing this . It's a good idea , but anyway , we'll talk about that . Plus , a woman who thought she was dating Brad Pitt .
Dumb , yes , and you go to the cold section of your local grocery store and you pull out an animal you never imagined . So we're going to do all those things , okay , well let's get right to it .
Let's start with a couple of comments . Just because our show was packed this past week , A couple of our shows the shows on the wildfire really got a lot of interest , you know , understandably , and we appreciate those of you who took the time
¶ Senators' Unserious Questioning in Confirmation Hearing
to write in . We had some fun ones I wanted to share . The first one comes in here from Elizabeth and she says love you guys and all the news you bring . My daughter and granddaughter were on the plane with you guys on their way to New York . Everything you guys showed on your trip they did as well and had a blast and , yes , the weather was so cold .
My daughter knows I love every one of your podcasts , so she told me she saw you guys and loved it . Thanks .
Very cool .
Very fun , kind of a fun little mention .
Tell your daughter say hey to us .
Yeah , how about that ? Just say hey what's going on , my mom ?
loves your show .
And we'd be like for free , for watching our show . I don't know what that is exactly , Maybe one of Mark's hoodies , austin , or one of Mark's A used hoodie . Yes .
Just what your mom would want . Elizabeth Pit stains in it and everything . It's very exciting it's going to be awesome .
Okay , Harold says another very interesting and informative podcast brought to you by the Ron Keddie's Great Show , Indeed , and Kat S said that fire tornado is terrifying . She is not lying . Great job on the podcast , by the way . Thanks you guys , and thanks for everybody that's writing in . Continue to make those comments on our YouTube channel if you would like .
If not , you're welcome to drop us a quick email at info at . No doubt about it , podcastcom . Thanks again you guys . Really appreciate you signing up or subscribing to our YouTube channel as well .
Okay , so quick thing on the Hegsys stuff . We're not going to spend a tremendous amount of time on it . So I'm watching this thing and two things made me uncomfortable at once . The questioning some of the questioning from him was ridiculous .
And as I sat there and watched it and I watched these senators just embarrass themselves and cover themselves in clownery I just sat there going what are we doing ? And the overall impression I got by the time we're all done is too often we have people that represent us that are completely and totally unserious and it's unbelievable .
And so let's start with Macy Hirono . Okay , she is a Senator from Hawaii and if you watch her line of questioning , it was ridiculous . Okay , it really was . And I'll just give you a little taste of this . Is the Greenland question . What's going to happen with Greenland , right ? Okay , so here's her question about the invasion of .
Greenland the invasion . Yeah . Okay .
Would you use our military to take over Greenland or an ally of Denmark ?
Senator , one of the things that President Trump is so good at is never strategically tipping his hand , and so I would never , in this public forum , give one way or another direct what orders the president would give me in any context .
It sounds to me that you would contemplate carrying out such an order to basically invade Greenland and take over the Panama Canal .
Why doesn't he say something like there is no plans to invade Greenland ?
Yeah , because again he kind of was playing the game with her a little bit , so it got worse than that with her right . So you sit there and watch that and you kind of go okay .
Feels like somebody who didn't do their homework .
Macy Ronald .
Yeah , yeah . Well , that's what
¶ Character, Morality, and Politics
it sounds like .
Well , look , I think that there are people now and this is this is the overall theme of what I'm talking about here I just I watch what it was like to watch these hearings growing up and I even watched them growing up and the difference now in the nature of the kind of people that are engaging back and forth is incredibly disappointing when you just see this
and watch it and go . What is happening ?
Is it just like a lack of formality now and or being prepared ? I feel like there was a seriousness to I don't know . I know this is a weird thing to say and a weird comparison .
I feel like there was a seriousness in church growing up that has somewhat disappeared , okay , okay , not in all churches , but in several churches there's a more relaxed environment , from the way you dress to the way you sing , to the way you , you know , act , I guess , to how prompt , not in the Catholic church .
We kept it between the lines , you guys ?
I don't know what I mean , then you start doing concerts .
Is that what worship music sounds ?
like to you . That is what happens . Oh , okay , I'll keep that in mind . I'll keep that in mind , all right , go ahead .
No , I just mean in like people showing up late into service . Like I would have been slapped if my mom you know my mom would never let me walk in 15 minutes late to church . Never , it would never be allowed . Okay , then you have like- . And you don't walking out early , especially in a Baptist church .
Without altar curl , you stay to the bitter end , that's right , the Baptist church .
The last person gives their life to Jesus .
Right , and then you shake hands afterwards and you go downstairs and you have fellowship together .
That's right . You do get out the donuts everybody . That's right . That's right .
Everybody brings a little potluck but also the formality it feels like with some of the things that we see in the Senate Right and I don't know if I'm right or wrong about that , but I mean even them discussing , like what they need to be wearing , what's appropriate , attire it through in states that are extremely unbalanced .
Okay , hawaii is a great example . Right , new York's an example . You know , california is an example .
We're an example .
We're an example . Texas would be an example , florida would be right . I mean , we just separate them out right . Well , mississippi , you know , alabama , those are probably better examples , right , where it's like if you've got an R by your name , you're getting elected , or if you've got a D by your name , you're getting elected .
And when you have more competitive States , I think you end up with better representatives . I really do that now , not that you can't have great representatives , you know , being in a in an all red state , or you know , maybe there are some great representatives in all blue state . Okay , but I'll let you know .
But but but I I think there's the , as the competition for these seats has become more , you know , determined before the election ever happens . You end up with people who you just look at and go what , and so you watch .
It's not the best people that you could put forward .
I agree . And look , and in some cases you even see this in presidential nominees too , where you say I think you got something here that doesn't quite add up . So let's go to Tim Kaine , who has been a longtime senator from Virginia . He was Hillary Clinton's VP . Ok , he decides he's going to go after Pete Hegseth on his marriages .
Ok , and I'll get into that in a second and why I'm so conflicted on this . But let's just listen to what Tim Kaine says to him .
Completely cleared . Can you so casually cheat on a second wife and cheat on the mother of a child that had been born two months before and you tell us you were completely cleared ? How is that a ? Complete , clear . Senator .
Her child's name is Gwendolyn Hope Hegseth , and she's a child of God and she's seven years old and she was , and you cheated on the mother of that child less than two months after that daughter was born , didn't you ?
Those were false charges . It was fully investigated and that was completely cleared .
Okay . So Tim Kaine talking about people's morals are rich from a guy who supported Bill Clinton and everything else . Right , I mean so this is so . That's one thing . But I will say this whole Hexet thing his behavior in his marriage is is deeply troubling to me . It is , and I'd be lying if I said , oh , who cares about that ?
Secretary of Defense , yeah , but that I do care about that . I'm not saying whether I vote for him one way or another , okay , but , but I am troubled by that and I don't know if I should be . But as I'm watching all of this unfold , I just sat there going this whole process and all of this makes me uncomfortable .
And I will say , as someone who takes their faith very seriously , I can appreciate that Pete says he's now been redeemed by his Lord and Savior . I feel the same way . I've made a lot of mistakes . You know my mistakes are different than Pete's , okay , but still I've been redeemed by Christ as well .
But I still see this and I see someone talking about this and it just all of this makes me deeply uncomfortable . I don't have an answer for this . I don't even know why . I'm saying it right , you know I really don't , but I was watching all this going . I don't like it at all .
Well , I I think you don't like it because it speaks to character and we've talked a lot about during the campaign . That character does matter and we want it to matter more right in our candidates . We want it to matter more . I would say I think the public has shown that in large waves with how they vote . Often it doesn't matter , especially adultery .
I feel like that's the one thing that people can let slide and I can't tell you why that is or why it's not . I guess I sit here and go well after reading that Kennedy book , I'm like we've had leadership for decades , yeah , but you didn't know that . With Kennedy , though , but you would today .
You absolutely would today . That's the difference is it's just been hidden . It's much more in the front and center now , I guess we did know it then to some degree , but it was more .
I don't know it was more of a theory that he was a womanizer . I just think you have a lot of this playing out . I don't like it . I mean , obviously we dealt with a case here in the governor's race with sexual impropriety and things of that nature .
Yeah , but that was different . Yeah , I understand that , but I don't even draw that connection . I'm like I don't even care about that portion of it . I'm like I'm thinking about his behavior , and then you tie in and the drinking stuff and everything else .
I think his biggest liability is going to be his drinking , and I get that . He's saying right now that he's not drinking anymore . That I don't buy that one is the one that I'm like man . I just kind of feel like you need to be willing to walk away 100% Like the .
To me , that's where you could put yourself at a real liability Cause if you drink to the degree where you're carried upstairs in a hotel or whatever they that they're accusing him of Okay . That does concern me in the fact that , like you , can make some really bad decisions If you're , if drinking to that level is like part of your lifestyle right , yeah .
Now here's the thing , though I will say I do appreciate the fact that he is coming in and saying listen , I want us to knock off all the DEI crap that's happening in the military .
We're spending money on gender neutral bathrooms .
We need to be spending money on training and getting the right people for this job . We need today's youth to be in shape enough to get into our military right .
No , I totally agree . I didn't like any of the main things you're talking about there . I don't have a problem with and in fact even the stuff that he did with nonprofits , where they're like , oh , you ran it into the ground or whatever .
A lot of times with nonprofits you run the nonprofit till you run out of donor money , like that's how it works , right , so that it's not always one of these things A nonprofit and especially when you're advocating for causes you will spend till you've spent out the money , like the money , like that's not unusual and I don't think he deserves to be tagged with
that or anything like that . And I agree with the DEI stuff and everything else . You want to make sure your standards are where they need to be . The lethality comments that all make sense . That's all I understand all that . But what just made me uncomfortable is we're talking about instead of what are we going to do to counteract China ?
What are we going to do to contain Russia ?
What do ?
we do about Taiwanwan and the attacks were taken on greenland . Well , plus , how are we going to set up the attack on greenland ? I mean , where , where are the ? You know ? Aircraft carriers ? Where are these coming from ? Are the b2 bombers like ? Are those going right into nook , greenland ? Like , where are we doing this ?
well , I don't want to hear like what's he to say about the stupid drones ? I'm still looking for that answer .
By the way , can we get an answer on the dang drones , like ask him about the ?
drones , I just think— , but it just bugs me . That's all it bugs you because his character does matter and it's slippery , like there's no way . This guy—I don't think I should say that there's no way , but I could be dead wrong .
I think there's so much garbage about him out there that I think people would let's say he was running for governor or he was running for a Senate position , something to that degree . It'd probably be more slippery for him because there are people out there that do care .
Oh , I agree with you on that , and they vote on character .
I mean , I talked to my girlfriend , a really good friend of mine . She's a retired colonel in the Air Force . She can't stand this guy . She says he is slime . I can't even read you what she said because we'd have to get the beeping . She's like she thinks he's completely unqualified . So that becomes the question is is he qualified ?
He's going to get confirmed .
At the end of the day , he's going to get confirmed . He is , because that's the world we're in , and I'm not even saying he shouldn't be . I'm just saying that I just didn't like any of it , right ? I just didn't like any of it , right , I didn't like any of it .
And then one thing I did like is mark wayne mullen comes out , then and starts calling people out for being hypocrites in the senate , right ?
and so I was like , okay , so then , mullins , I'm like , yeah , let's say so . Here's what he said . It was kind of interesting so quickly forget about that .
And then senator kane or I guess I better use the senator from virginia starts bringing up the fact that what if you showed up drunk to your job ? How many senators have showed up drunk to vote at night ? Have any of you guys asked them to step down and resign from their job ? And don't tell me you haven't seen it , because I know you have .
And then , how many senators do you know have got a divorce before cheating on their wives ? Did you ask them to step down ? no , okay so , but yeah , so I did like mark wayne mullen saying this .
I'm like yeah
¶ Personal Behavior vs Professional Capability
. So like where do I stand ? I don't know .
I stand all over the place you stand in hopes that that hegseth is actually a changed man , like he says he is . That's what you hope , right , you're a chronic . He's a chronic adulterer . That that's a pretty tough , I mean . He seems to have a pattern there , so that's wishy-washy Again .
Does that get in the way of his ability to do his job as Secretary of Defense ? I don't think it does . I think his liability I will hold to this is potentially being an alcoholic or drinking too much .
Okay . But if someone were to say , could I function in my job , whatever that job was , and I was running for office , okay , I'm running for dog catcher . And they say , christy , you should run for dog catcher , I should , let's do that . Maybe I'd win that . I don't know , we can't be sure . But they would say does my treatment of you ?
Is that indicative of the kind of job I'm going to do , representing people ?
No , I don't Okay , listen , I'm not backing him up for being an adulterer .
You think no matter how I treat you , it doesn't matter .
No , I don't think necessarily . His job is to defend , to make sure our military is strong and that we are doing the right things to get people ready in the military . Are we spending the right funds in military ? What are our weak ready in the military ? Are we spending the right funds in military ? What are our weak spots in the military ?
Do I think he can do that job or not be able to do that job , rather because of his infidelity ? I don't think those two things line up . I don't think they matter , not like in a job interview , so to speak . I don't think you sit down in somebody's like a case and say have you cheated on your spouse ?
I don't think that's a typical , normal question that comes up in an interview process .
I agree with that .
I think what you need to look at is is he a liability ? Could he put us at risk with another country because he's making bad choices ? To me , the alcohol matters a lot more than him being and to your point . I would never set him up with my sister or my best friend . I wouldn't write a guy like this .
I mean , I would never want anybody to have anything to do with him in a romantic sense .
Well , but into your point , alcohol could feed into the poor . Other poor decisions . So I totally okay , that's a very fair point and I think it's that's fine and and I get it . I just I don't know . I mean I just don't know , so but anyway , I just came away watching this thing going uh right , so they saw . Pam Bondi . She stood up for attorney general .
She was talking today . She did a good job . She's going to get through Marco , who I'm a big fan of . Marco Rubio did a very good job in his hearing , loved it today , but then in the house . So in the house they're go back and forth with now they're with now they're not . They're not appointee hearings , but they're they're .
There's a house committee meeting yesterday and there was a grease fire between jasmine crockett , who's a democratic rep , and nancy mace , and so just listen to this little grease fire bodies .
Campaign coffers really are struggling right now so she gonna keep saying trans , trans , trans , so that people will feel threatened . And child listen , I want you .
I am no child .
Call me a child . I am no child .
I want to find out which of those emails actually have . Mr Chairman .
I am reclaiming my time . You will not do that .
I am not a child . Mr Chairman , I am reclaiming my time . Mr Chairman , the committee is not in order . Order , order .
Order Order . Order Order yes .
¶ Political Dysfunction and California Wildfires
Mace asked if she wanted to take it outside . Oh my gosh , I just like this is what I'm saying .
How's that happen ? Well , I think it's ridiculous , exactly .
And no , that's a really good point . And Crockett , in the stuff she said , ridiculous . Mace's response back ridiculous . And so I just sit there watching all this going . Goodness , what are we doing ? You know , what are we doing with the people we elect . This country deserves better than some of the people we elect Now .
We have some really good people there are . There's some really principled people in government there are that have been elected , no doubt , and a lot of those people can cross party lines on both sides , but too often we have too many people that turn this into a clown show , and that's the part where you lose people .
That's why so many people roll their eyes when they talk about politics now , because they say so many of these people involved in this sort of thing are unserious and don't understand their problems .
That's what kills me about all this is that when you have people in this country that are paid to represent you and they're more interested in stupid name calling and juvenile back and forth garbage , it doesn't serve anybody well , and so that's the part of this that I have no understanding of , and I wish we would get back to a time when we had people that
were more serious about this , but I fear what gets you elected tends to attract people who are less serious and less concerned with real problems .
Yeah , I think they're trying to get like the limelight , so to speak , and with a social media age becoming such a big deal , I mean it is such a big deal right , it's how you get your message out . Half the time , we use social media for our show .
So I understand that the crazier you , maybe you can say something , or the wild you can become , the more likes you'll get or the more attention you'll get . It just should not have a role in um such a serious structured what should be a serious structured event . It feels to me it's like a middle school . Uh , I don't know class student council lead .
I mean I think I , I get , I mean actually that's insulting to the middle school .
That would never be allowed to start .
No middle school kid would tell some other kid that they're going back and forth with in a in a middle school debate to go outside . Yeah , I mean it's ridiculous , it's just , it's embarrassing .
Okay , so we are obviously we've been , you know , really paying attention to all this wildfire . The wildfires , some of those little fires actually started up again over the last couple of days , which is so sad just to see these things just still burning way out of control .
So I was super interested in a couple of things , and so Mark and I have been kind of investigating these things on our own .
One of those is just the first point is how much preparedness did LA do with the warnings that were coming their way with the winds you know going to be at what a hundred miles per hour , I think , is what they ended up being and so the , you know , the national weather service kind of issued those warnings . How prepared was LA County with that ?
And then the second thing we want to talk about , like we said at the beginning of the show , is really all the attacks back now on the insurance companies that kind of dropped a lot of these policyholders back in September . And why did that happen ? Because we've kind of looked more into that . And then how does that impact us ?
So first of all , let's dive into I did some , I did a little research According you , I did a little research According to New York Times , it said here that , in advance of those fires okay , I'm like , how ready were they ? Right ? Well , it said that they had filled three one-million-gallon storage tanks in Pacific Palisades alone . Okay , the problem with that ?
Even just that . And they had trucks allocated , they had more engines , they had more crew , they called in the Forest Service accordingly . What was interesting ? Two things that stood out to me . On this one , interestingly enough , none of those engines were stationed anywhere near Pacific Palisades . Okay , that's come out , which I'm not sure how you missed . That one .
That's right there near Malibu , it's right there on the coast , it's right there where you have that combustible winds up against the mountains . You're right there , right , and I've been there . So that's kind of what that is . But according to them , those three one million gallon storage tanks , they drained in just a few hours .
And because of that they drained because obviously the firefighters , private citizens , were obviously spraying their own homes to try to keep those fires at bay . And then I didn't know this , but mega rich homeowners have basically hired private bay .
And then I didn't know this , but mega rich homeowners have basically hired a private firefighters , and so I don't know if that's why some of those bigger homes are saved . I have no idea I don't know if we'll ever know that , but some of those homes you know we're using that water .
They basically have said that the system wasn't set up to manage hundreds of homes on fire at the same time that these fire hydrants and these systems . The other thing that to me , that I think has come out , that will be a major issue . I think in looking at these fires , there is an actual reservoir in Pacific Palisades .
It was shut down for maintenance okay , maintenance , which I guess in the winter that's not that unusual . However , again all these warnings coming out , why would they not put that back online ? Because they needed that water to refill those storage tanks and to funnel that water through those fire hydrants that were .
You know , we've heard now they were dry as a bone .
So Right and , I think , a couple of things that you're mentioning , so your point being hey , how do you miss the Pacific Palisades ? Let me say a couple of things on that . Number one no system is designed to handle hundreds of homes going up . It's never going to happen .
You're never going to be able to say oh we were , we were waiting for this sort of thing . We know we can put out 100 homes at a time . Never going to happen . What does need to happen , though , is a system that is set in place , with clearing brush and having enough water available that , years before this ever happens , you have the system in place .
For years , california has been pulling back water , been pulling back resources when they need to push more resources into the center of the table , and the problem is since the 70s here , where they had a pretty good system of delivering water across California , that has since been compromised . That must now change .
California must realize , through desalinization , through catching and impounding water that falls all at once where you hold onto it , you've got to do a much better job and realize that this is the sort of thing and these are the sort of fires that are a possibility here , and you have to have a system in place , and that doesn't get done in one fire .
It happens over a period of decades , but the overall situation in California is the perfect storm of a terrible weather situation combined with governance that made them incredibly vulnerable , and so that's where all of this comes together and that's why it's so bad . And then we delve into the insurance portion of this . It gets even worse .
Well , yeah , so I've been following this family . I don't have the video of him right now , but this family that lost everything in their home . He stuck around to the very end . He was really trying to hopefully salvage this house and really the fire got into his attic .
He's in there with the firefighters and you see their hose just drain right so there's no more water in the house . And it's toast right . He comes out that he gets on NBC National News because State Farm . He's one of the homes that State Farm dropped in September of this past year and he did not qualify for this . What is it ? California- .
Fair . It's the Fair Fund , which is basically the state-backed fire fund , right ? So in other words , the state , could you know , insure you up to $3 million on your home If you can't get other insurance . It's extremely expensive , okay , it's like 10 grand a year , but if you own a $3 million home , then maybe that's worth doing .
Well , well , it's interesting , though Do me add to that just really quickly I looked up the average home price point in Pacific Palisade , because that's where this guy lost his house . The average home there is $3.4 million , right .
So most of them , a good portion , won't even fit into that fair , wouldn't even fit into the fair thing .
But going back to you pulled this text from or this tweet from yeah , rob Schneider .
So let's just do this real quick . So former SNL actor Rob Schneider goes out with this and here's what he says . He says blank you , state farm . Uh , blank you and all your phony commercials . You are a pile of crap for canceling insurance policies of Californians . I will never use state farm insurance ever again .
So we start saying , okay , so what's really going on with this ? Why did state farm do this ? And you know , and what was the deal here ? And once you actually research it , you realize that Rob Schneider's aiming the gun the wrong way .
And so is his homeowner , by the way , because he was like , hey , listen everybody , if you are with State Farm , please send a name out for us or call , say our name . And people were like we should protest against State Farm . And I'm like , wow , you guys are really pointing this wrong .
You
¶ California Insurance Market Troubles
just learned the facts . So two years ago this article appeared in the Wall Street Journal and it's important because it lays out exactly how things played out . So we want to read you some of this so you understand exactly why State Farm did what they did . But here is the article and it was written by Stephen Greenhut and it says a couple of things .
It says by Stephen Greenhut and it says a couple of things . It says Proposition 103 , which Proposition 103 was passed in 1988 . Ok , and what Proposition 103 did is it requires prior approval of California's Department of Insurance before insurance companies can implement property and casualty insurance rates . The department's website explains .
The ballot measure also required each insurer to roll back its rates 20% prior to Proposition 103 . Automobile property casualty insurance rates were set by insurance companies without approval of the insurance commissioner . So basically , what happened is the government stepped in of California and said you can't raise rates on people unless we approve it .
Okay , so the problem with that is that it artificially pushed rates down . So companies like State Farm , which is the largest insurer in California , was absolutely operating at a loss or with lower premiums than they should .
Right .
Okay , because the government stepped in . So let's go with another little set here . And this is a perfect example of what happened when State Farm would go to the state of California and say we need to raise rates . So let's take a look at that , ella .
It says in 2016 , state Farm General Insurance , which provides insurance for 20% of the state's homeowners , proposed raising rates by 6.9% . The insurance commissioner at the time , democrat Dave Jones , instead ordered the company to slash rates by 7% and rebate customers $100 million . Small wonder that insurers avoid this process .
Instead , they quietly pull back from the market . And this starts to give you an idea of what was happening in California . So California says you've got to go through us . And sometimes you go through them and they say no , we're going to make you cut rates . Now sometimes they agree to a higher rate , which they have to .
You can't do business in a state where you're paying out more in claims constantly than you're bringing in .
It doesn't work , you go bankrupt . It just doesn't work , right .
So one more thing here , and there's one more quote from this story .
It says . This regulatory environment explains why California insurers can't charge rates that reflect their actual risks . It also shows why there's so little competition in the state's insurance industry . Over the long run competition rates . Keep low insurance or keep rates low Insurance .
Commissioners can certainly hold premiums down by edict , but the result is a contract contracting market .
Just a whole real thing , real quickly , right there . They've kept rates artificially low by government intervention instead of competition . Competition's always better at doing this .
So , if you have 10 companies in California that all are pushing to insure you , that's always going to keep rates more low , not necessarily lower than where the government put them , but competitive so everyone can get insurance Right . That's what makes this so dangerous . So by the state stepping in , you've pulled competition away . Nobody makes any money .
And all of a sudden , what do you think is happening with that government program that they've started ?
Oh it's , it's like it's booming right . I mean it's just , it's blooming to such a degree that I don't know how they're going to be able to not go bankrupt themselves . They are going to go bankrupt , but Ella .
One more thing on that quote with mom is reading what the one below says Proposition 103 isn't the state's only insurance problem . Brown signed a law banning insurance cancellations and non-renewals in wildfire affected areas for a year after the fires and Mr Lara continues to force the already overstressed fair plan to offer additional coverage .
So again Jerry Brown said you can't cancel policies . So all of a sudden you've got State Farm just shedding money in here and the first chance they got to cut people and cut their losses they took it . So , who ended up paying the price ?
Not the government of California , the people of California because of what the government did , and so that's why State Farm has done what they've done . And now you've got this fair program , which , again the fair program is a problem because you're not going to have enough money to insure everybody .
The money that is being shed from this program is off the charts . If you look at the numbers , which I know you have , we've got a Fox business article here that we looked at , and we looked at the numbers and said , in March of 2024 , you've got State Farm , who dumped 72,000 customers , right ?
So , ella , let's go to that article and we'd talk about the backlash . But one of the interesting things in this is that the state of California with their fair program , the numbers are scary and Ella's clip 15 . And just go ahead and read that , because what you start to see on those numbers is how much the numbers are exploding .
As far as California trying to insure its own people , not only is it unaffordable , but they don't have the money to do it .
It says here . State Farm , the largest home insurance company in California , announced in March of 2024 that it would discontinue coverage of 72,000 home and apartment policies in the summer . The company cited inflation and regulatory costs and increasing risk of catastrophes for its decision and had previously stopped accepting new applications in the state .
Right . And then the fair program , the numbers , because of what's happening with State Farm , right and all the other guys . By the way , it's not just State Farm , it's also farmers , all state , usaa . They're all pulling out of the state to varying degrees .
And it says the state of California offers what's called that fair plan all pulling out of the state to varying degrees . And it says the state of California offers what's called that fair plan . The fair plan exposure increased by $174 billion , or more than 61% , from September of 2023 to September of 2024 .
So this shows you literally thousands of people getting cut and they're dumping into this program that they're trying to run through the state , which they don't have the money to do . The number of dwelling policies in force under the fair plan rose from 320,000 people . Now it's 451,000 people . You don't have the money to do it .
That because of what California has done , because they made it impossible to operate in a profitable way in their state . The people who hurt the most are the people who don't get policies . So this thought process of we're going to stop the insurance companies from raising your rates , you can't do that . You have to rely on competition .
You have to create an environment where state farm drives down the price of all state and all state drives down the price of USAA Right , right , that's the way to do it . Government edict doesn't work . You've heard the Democratic Party talk about it all the time . Let's just set a price on groceries , right , say it doesn't work .
Right , the price on groceries will stay lower the more competition you have . So this is just one of those things . So when you hear people blaming state farm have , so this is just one of those things . So when you hear people blaming state farm , it's an unfair blame game because in this particular situation it's policy of the state of California .
Right and again , like when you think about the fact that there were so many policies put in place about you can't clear your space right , like you can't go and clear the dead or whatever near your properties , there was lots of rules could you put like a fire line around your house and there's a lot of permitting issues .
With all of that there's so much like red tape that the state isn't putting through that . When State Farm or any insurance agencies go through , they have like their system .
They look at the risk .
They look at the risk factor and they're like well , I mean , I'm not here to defend insurance companies by any stretch of the imagination , but they are a business . So a business has to do business and they have to weigh out . Like , how many policies are we going to pay out ?
Because if they go belly up , I hate to say it , but then nobody's covered either .
Yeah right , you don't want . You want them to make money . They have to make money so they can continue to to insure people , absolutely .
Now , I just hope the education starts on that , though , because I would love to see , like NBC News did this whole story on this guy that lost his house , right , and that he doesn't qualify for the fair , fair plan , right . I would love to see NBC News say what happened . Why did State Farm pull all these , these policies ?
That's not what the media does anymore , I know , but they should , because what happens is then State Farm is trying to defend itself , which , again , I'm not like sitting here .
Oh , Jake from State Farm is getting killed .
Well , I'm sure he is destroyed , but it's like you . You understand . Voter in California , you voted for these clowns that voted for these policies which now have damaged you in your house , and I feel terrible for people who've lost their houses . I feel terrible for it , but it's like you .
I hope that people are understanding what happened , how this is a snowball effect .
Yeah , absolutely Absolutely . And and I want to pivot to New Mexico because we're so we've had personal experience with this sort of thing . So up in the Northern mountains , where we do projects and we're doing another one for for a national network that will be out here in the next year , we're building up there again up in Angel Fire .
Now , something is interesting up there . There are certain places in Angel Fire where they're having trouble getting insurance .
Right .
There are certain areas that don't have the infrastructure that when they go and do the math they say you're too much of a risk .
You're too much of a fire risk . Yep , you're too much of a fire risk .
So when we start building , so we're building high up again . So here's one little clip . This is some of the stuff we're doing . You can see we're their peak in the background and we're having to now up this high where you're seeing this video . This is almost 11,000 feet in the mountains .
Okay , half the trees on this lot are dead already , okay , so we had to take those out . Some are not dead , some are , but you have to clear out .
So there was a forest service guy who came up and looked at what we did , and because we cleared out all the trees that were going to be anywhere near the house , we had to , and he looked at it and said this is the future . When you put up a house , this is the future .
When you put up a house , you have to clear out so that you do not have huge amounts of brush and or dead trees and or trees that are alive right next to your house .
So go to the next clip , ella , and what that'll show you is we had to clear out an area that was bigger than I wanted to clear out , right , but you do that because if you don't , you can't get insurance , you can't get what you need . So we've cleared out an area of the hillside here .
Now it's not huge and the house will cover the majority of it , but we're going to back away from the . But you can look on that left side of the screen and those trees are dead .
I mean , the trees are dead , okay , right on that edge , and if you just go into the woods there behind the , what you're looking at there with the Komatsu is there's a lot of dead trees up there that we're having to get rid of . So this is the sort of thing that's a that's a huge concern .
It's going to be a massive concern across Northern New Mexico because , remember , there's a ton paid out by insurance companies and unfortunately , too many families in Northern New Mexico weren't insured to begin with when we had the big fires a couple years ago . It's devastating .
So we have to figure this out , because it's a huge deal here too , and we have to be able to create an environment where people can get affordable insurance , even in these mountain communities across Northern New Mexico or down in Ruidoso .
And just to point out that we think of things that we can do with that wood that we take down too .
So there's a lot Well , you're building the house with some of it , right , you're giving it to people who want to burn it . Yeah , okay , okay , I'm sorry .
Just take all the words . Just take all the words . Yeah , sorry , go ahead , go ahead . Let's move on then . No , no , or should I just sit back and enjoy my Halloween ?
sweater . It took us 41 minutes in before things got a little .
Okay , let's move on
¶ Negotiating Gaza Ceasefire
. There's more news coming . You know , at this Gaza ceasefire , right when , who's going to get credit ? I think it's ridiculous , by the way , that that is like the kind of the lead out of this story is whose administration is going to get some credit for this ?
It looks like 33 hostages will be released . They don't know how many of them from Hamas will be released . They don't know how many of them are alive .
What is that ? I don't understand that . And then , in exchange for , like every I don't love this part of it , but I guess this is the way this goes . But for every person , every hostage released , this goes . But for every hostage released , israel has to release 30 prisoners .
And Israel has always released more than they've ever gotten back , because there's just a known fact and that is that Israel values their people at an incredibly high rate . I mean , and there have been some exchanges with people . There's been one prisoner exchange for a thousand people one time .
I mean , this is something that the Israeli people care very much for their people and they will do what they need to do . Now , you're right on the credit thing . That's one of those things that's fascinating here .
So I want to get into this for a second , because it's kind of rare here and I think it's an interesting back and forth what's starting to develop here . So the question is who gets that credit ? Wall Street Journal put out an article on this thing . How do you do it ? Who do you give credit to ? So Joe Biden announced the deal on Wednesday okay .
And he was asked a little bit about credit . Does Trump deserve credit or do you Listen to this ? Thank , you .
Who gets credit for this , mr President ? You or Trump ? Is that a joke ? Oh , thank you .
Okay , so Biden clearly doesn't , but is that a joke ? Biden clearly doesn't believe that Trump deserves any credit for this . Now remember back a week ago . Trump said by the time I get into office , if those hostages are not released , there's going to be hell to pay .
Right , he said he dropped the hammer .
He dropped the hammer , Okay . So not only did he do that , but he also made his Middle East envoy available to the Biden administration . They worked together to get this done . Now here's the person I want to give some credit to . Biden's guy at the State Department today gave a press conference as well , and so you see Biden basically say no right .
Here's what his State Department said .
The involvement of President-elect Trump's team has been absolutely critical in getting this deal over the line , and it's been critical because , obviously , as I stand here today , this administration's term in office will expire in five days .
Office will expire in five days , and one of the things that we have always said about this deal is that when you get from stage one to stage two , that the United States , egypt and Qatar are the guarantors of this deal , and Egypt and Qatar will push Hamas to stay at the bargaining table and to get from stage one to stage two , and the United States will
push Israel to stay at the bargaining table to get from phase one and phase two .
So obviously , those are promises we cannot make on behalf of the United States for any longer than the next five days , and so it's critical that all of the parties to the agreement and the other mediators see that when the United States is in the room making commitments , those are lasting commitments that extend beyond this administration into the next one .
I would just say , lastly , I don't know if it's unprecedented to have envoys from an outgoing and an incoming administration sitting at the same table negotiating a ceasefire agreement of this kind , but if it's not unprecedented , it's certainly unusual , and we , of course , thank the Trump team for working with this on this ceasefire agreement .
We think it's important that they were at the table . Yeah .
Very cool . I mean , that's the kind of adult in the room . It's like thank you , thank you , and yeah , you both deserve credit for this Right , but I will say so .
You know this has been made more difficult , though , by occasionally Biden getting more weak need on supporting Israel , because that empowered Hamas to keep this going Right , and when Trump gets in there then things start to shake up a little bit .
Scott Jennings kind of just lays it out how critical Trump's been to this whole operation , how important was the threat that Trump made . Let's hear what Scott has to say . All sides agree that Trump's hand in this has made a difference one way or another .
Yeah , they don't want to deal with Trump . He's been perfectly clear . He is not vacillated about his message that if they don't send our people back , there's going to be hell to pay , and thank God he has been on that message and he has not wavered from it .
He's not stepped back from it and I don't really care , candidly , who the president is when all this happens . I just want him back . I mean , I've worn this yellow ribbon out here every night for over a year because I think there's so many families who are just devastated .
They're hurting , they don't know what the situation is , and we need this to come to an end . There are Americans involved here . Look , I think we're going to end up paying a very heavy price in this deal . I'm sure some terrorists are probably going to wind up being let out of jails . I don't particularly like that .
But to settle this , to get peace and to get our people back , I think it took Trump winning the election and being clear eyed about it to make it happen .
OK , so that's really interesting , very , very interesting from him , right .
Yeah , very clear that he took a major role .
Ok , that he took a major role . Okay , another one quick little thing . So Marco was doing his um confirmation hearing on Wednesday you close with Marco . Well , we did do a fundraiser together . I know you did , I know we're tight .
Uh , I like Marco a lot , um , so he was doing his his hearing today and I just want you to listen to his tone and what he says about Israel , and this is one of the things points we've made about about , I think , the mistake that Biden made , which was , by the Biden administration , opened up and helped Israel , but then there were times when they pull back
and pull back and it would make things a nightmare instead of just pushing in saying we're going to support Israel all the way through . It would have ended earlier , it would have been done , it would have been better for the Biden administration .
They didn't do it and I do think what you're seeing out of Rubio and what you're seeing out of Trump is definitely something that helped move things along . Just listen to Rubio very briefly here .
Open question for the Palestinians is who will govern ? Who will govern in Gaza in the short term and who will ultimately govern ? Will it be the Palestinian authority or some other entity ? Because it has to be someone .
That was the initial goal for Gaza when the Israelis withdrew from there and they turned it over , and they turned it over with greenhouses and they turned it over with all kinds of economic development . Hamas won an election , they took over and they destroyed the place and built tunnels for terrorists to operate from .
¶ State Issues and Celebrity Scams
So the key is not simply governance , it's who will govern . You can't turn it over to people who seek your destruction , and so I do think this is a very complex issue , and I think that's understating it . We all recognize it .
But I also believe that we should not underestimate the potential opportunities that now exist and it'll take some time to fully understand what those are that perhaps open the door to things that were not open in the future .
But from the Israeli perspective , which I fully understand , it begins with their existence , because you cannot coexist with armed elements at your border who seek your destruction and evisceration . As a state , you just can't . No nation on it , we wouldn't tolerate it .
That's right . So it's interesting , right . That's good , yeah . So that's the kind of clear-eyed leadership that I think helps right and it quiets things down and makes it easier .
Right so well . Some not so great news . We made another list .
We did , we did . Let's a couple quick local state things yeah Go ahead .
Yeah , this one not so pretty . Also not so shocking if you actually live here , which is unfortunate . Wallethub ranks New Mexico worst state to raise a family . Basically , they release the best and worst states to raise your family in , and this is based on things like median family income , crime rates , school quality , health care quality and more .
According to WalletHub's rankings , new Mexico is ranked as the worst place to raise a family . New Mexico was ranked 50th overall .
Yeah . So we look at the states that did well and the ones that didn't . There's no real through line necessarily . Northern states tend to do a little better than Southern states did . States that obviously are more impoverished , like Mississippi and Alabama , you know , definitely struggled a bit more , along with New Mexico .
So here's a look at the top 10 states as far as how they did , and Massachusetts , Minnesota , North Dakota , Nebraska , New Hampshire , New York , Illinois , Wisconsin , Maine and Connecticut , and on the other side it's New Mexico , Now Mississippi .
By the way , reading rates in Mississippi have improved drastically and they've drilled us in education in the past five years .
Yeah , we met with the governor of Mississippi when we talked about it and we talked about his program and what they had done there which was really impressive , and so they kind of surpassed right by us and we thought these would be great things for us to implement too . But no dice .
Well , you know we'll see so interesting stuff and you see a few other states .
Arizona kind of surprised me that it was in the bottom 10 a little bit .
Yeah , I think Arizona . You have a few things there . One of the issues was crime for Arizona , but all right . So a couple other things . One thing we've talked about and we've advocated for and Paul Guessing put out a little something on this .
If you don't know him , he works with the Rio Grande Foundation and he has a little blog called Errors of Enchantment . He says , yes , new Mexico can and should eliminate the personal income tax . It's one of the things we've talked about here . Let's just show a map , ella , of the income tax rates across the country .
So if you go in on New Mexico , we're in about a top 10 rating of the highest income tax rates 5.9% here is our top and there are most people pay 5% in New Mexico . It's basically we have roughly a flat income tax . You know there are some people that pay slightly more , but for the most part it's not graduated and we pay .
If you go back to that map , we pay more than every other state around us . Texas has no income tax , colorado's is lower . Arizona's is significantly lower , utah's significantly lower . As you go over into Oklahoma's , theirs is lower . Nebraska's pretty close . Wyoming has no income tax rate .
So now if we were to get rid of the income tax in the state of New Mexico . It costs about $2 billion a year . We have a surplus of $3 billion a year . You could , literally , tomorrow , say enough of the income tax . Everybody in New Mexico who works and makes over roughly $30,000 a year gets a 5% raise Right out of the chute .
And then I guarantee you you would spur economic growth . So you wouldn't even cost you $2 billion . In fact , the additional economic growth would help to offset that $2 billion .
And even if you offset half of it which I think you probably would but let's say you offset a quarter , whatever , right now this state can absolutely afford it and the people of the state need that money .
And the state of New Mexico running $3 billion surpluses every year while we have more and more people that are getting crushed in this economy is devastating . And Elaine Cortez Sena or Sena Cortez actually sorry she's a new state rep down in southeastern New Mexico . She wrote a nice editorial for the journal on this , saying the same thing .
This is the kind of thing that we need to be jumping on . Right , I mean but now will it happen ? It absolutely will not happen . We have legislators on the far left who have no interest .
No interest in making this . There's plenty that do , but it won't be enough to pass .
I know it's , I know I think you could get some bipartisan support .
It also comes on the governor's desk too , correct ?
Yeah , of course You'd have to sign it , and I don't know if she would or she wouldn't . My guess is that none of it wouldn't happen . But anyway , just so you know , if anybody were to say , you could absolutely wipe out the income tax in the state and now is the time to do it . Absolutely and unfortunately , we're not going to do it .
We have said that for what ? Four years , three years now .
Yeah , yep , no doubt .
This one I don't get . I don't understand how anybody gets duped this way . I know that there's some tricky AI out there , but this woman believed she was a French woman . She believed that she was dating Brad Pitt . Okay , I'm not sure how you think you're dating Brad Pitt by getting a few pictures of somebody who's done their face as Brad Pitt .
Yes . So what happens is they ? She would , they they'd ask her for a little bit of money and then he would . They would send pictures and videos , video suits . So this is where AI deep fakes got her . Okay , so look at some of these pictures they sent . Brad said he was in the fake Brad said he was in the hospital .
These are some of the pictures he sent .
Oh , I love the one that he's in surgery and there's a picture of him in surgery .
Yeah .
Because that's what everybody gets when they go to surgery . What they do ? The nurses go in and they take pictures of you and then it's your Instagram reel . No way , some of these are so bad .
Oh , it's just dumb . This poor woman okay , she was getting a divorce . She ended up handing over $800,000 to these scammers . She's now broke . The poor woman . She attempted suicide after this .
It's awful Okay , it's an awful catfishing scam , but again , if you think you're dating bad , if you think you're dating someone famous that you've never met and they just send you videos , you're not , you're not dating them . It's not happening .
How about you just Google and see that Brad Pitt was dating ? Has he's been dating this girl ? That ? I mean , that's been out there . I don't even follow celebrity news anymore and I knew that he was involved with this girl correct , correct , and in fact , that's what ended up tipping her off .
She's like wait a minute , maybe I'm not dating brad , maybe he's dating this woman . He's holding hands with walking those . Yeah , no , that , eventually it's . I just feel terrible for well , I'm sorry .
I know it's ridiculous . I know you have to be nutbag if you think that you're dating brad pitt and he's never . You've never even met the guy I know like I mean we've fallen for some ai before . There's like videos that were like should we we ?
fell with a from a I . I fell for a polar bear video on AI . Okay , I didn't fall for the fact that I'm dating Heidi Klum . I'm like , yeah , it turns out I'm dating Heidi Klum . Babe , I'm sorry .
I'm dating Ryan Reynolds , so it all works out just fine . I totally get it , I understand .
I get a lot of videos from Ryan .
Reynolds all the time he's like I love your sweater , christine .
All right , last story .
Yes , last story , this one I just had to put in here because I just never expect you go to the grocery store , You're like I don't know this video . Once you start to look at it , they're clearly trying to pull something out of the produce .
And I'm thinking , oh gosh , please don't be a like a mouse , a snake . I thought it was gonna be a snake , yeah , but um , it's not keep paying attention here now , where do we know where this is ? Um , I think it's in the . Is it new york ?
I do think it's new york yeah , I thought so too , so he's grabbing something right here yeah , and it's big yeah , you could tell it's good size and I first thought is it an alligator ?
yeah , it's , no no , it's a coyote . Oh my Lord , that is a coyote . And then it went back and then it jumps back in Now . My question is is where's the back of that case go ? Like I don't work at a grocery store , I never have , but like doesn't that case just go back to like their storage area , or something . Yeah .
I then he's facing the wrong way . You're like man , he's like getting pulled out from his backside , it I mean it reminds you of the old um , but the road runner and um yeah .
And Bugs Bunny .
Yeah , wildy , coyote situation , yeah , yeah .
Produce section , which is not what you were expecting at all .
I don't know what store that is , but I'm not going to the produce section there .
No , we're not going to shop at that little produce section .
So anyway .
Well , we've filled you with all kinds of news today . So thanks for paying attention and tuning in . And , again , if you want to drop us a line or sign up for our email , just go to our website , which is NoDoubtAboutItPodcastcom . You can sign up for our shows as they come out . Okay , thanks so much , you guys , and have a great rest of your week .
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