On Scone wields Australia.
This is the winder Panalty Show.
Good evening and welcome to the Rita Patty Show. Great to be back with you. Coming up tonight, Opposition leader Peter Darton promises to cut red tape and green tape to kick up the economy. I'll discuss that and plenty more with Dan Ward also joining me tonight.
They always droll.
Alex Stein with the Latest from the US, and Kinsisco Field brings us to the latest from Hollywood where celebrities are battling the deadly California fires. And we have an extended edition of Left is Losing It for you before the first ad break, and it features the great Mick Jagger in Canada who was among the very first to learn just how unpopular Justin Trudeau is.
I mean, we love your mister Trudeau.
I mean his fan has always been such a big fans of our fans.
But first fresh polling has revealed a surgeon support for
Australia Day being celebrated on January twenty six. Despite the Left's attempts to demonize our national holiday, it continues to enjoy majority support it always has and that support is growing sixty nine percent of Australians agree that Australia Day should be held on January twenty six, compared to sixty three percent in last year's poll commissioned by the Institute of Public Affairs, and this figure includes a ten percent increase in support for the day amongst eighteen to twenty
four year olds, an age bracket that typically leans heavily left.
Joining me now with more on this is Deputy Executive director of the IPA, Dan Wild. Dan tell me more about what this polling revealed.
Yeah, Rita, Look what.
It shows is that we're getting a surge and support for Australia Day on the twenty sixth of January. As you mentioned, it's being driven by young Australians, those aged eighteen to twenty four, which is really significant. They are
rebelling against political correctness. They've had a gutful of it because they've been presented with a very negative, one sided view of our history and our culture at school and at university and they're just over it and they're saying that they want to support the national Day along with the rest of the population. What's so significant about this survey this year region and we've been doing this for
seven years now. Is it's the first time that we've had every single age group with majority support of our national Day. It's a very significant moment in our national history and what it shows is that Australia Day is back in a very big way and Australians are over this wokeness, They're over political correctness and I think that we.
Just want to get on with it and celebrate our national Day.
You know what, Anthony ALBERNEEZI has plenty of criticism, including from me, for the referendum. Nobody wanted the race based referendum, but I wonder whether in the long term is done the country a favor because it's starts to address some of these issues that have been ignored, where the majority opinion was ignored, and now the majority have had their voices heard through the referendum.
And they're demanding further changes.
They want to get rid of this racial division, this ridiculous agenda that the left is pushing that is just divisive.
Yeah, you spot on.
I think that in hindsight, the referendum was a very good thing for our nation because it did force us to think about, well, what does it mean to be an Australian and so we had to ask these tough questions that often were not asked, and a majority of Australians, a strong majority, said they don't want racial division. And it wasn't just a left right thing. Almost forty percent of those who voted no were labor voters, or forty percent of labor voters voted no, So it was across
the political spectrum. And since then what we've seen is a real pushback against the work corporations will Worst backing down, the Australia Venue Company, the pub conglomerate backing down, the UK or the Commissioner to the UK, Stephen Smith backing down. So we've seen this across the board. Sporting codes member Cricket Australia are now coming out and supporting Australia Day.
It was only a few years ago that they supported Black Lives Matter and remember when all the cricketers were standing around in a circle of bare feet to take on racial injustice. Now Australia Day is back on the agenda for Cricket Australia. So I think we're seeing a really big energy shift in our nation around our values, our flag and our national day. And I think it's incredibly encouraging.
Absolutely Now Peter Darton has revealed his policy agenda for the upcoming election under the banner of get Australia back on track.
His promised to lower taxes.
And eliminate or at least reduce the red and Green tape that is preventing private enterprises from investing in Australia and getting us out of the cost of lif living crisis is probably the number one issue going into the federal election. Some of these reforms is announced include expediting gas developments, slashing government spending and having approval times.
For resource projects.
Dan this is all music to my ears, But is this going to be a winning formula going into an election when you've got a first term government. It's unusual for Australians to get rid of a first term government.
It is unusual, but it's also an unusually bad government. So I think there's every chance Anthony Ibnezi could lose. If there ever was a government to go down in one term, that would be this one. Of course, in twenty ten, the rad Gillard government almost went down basically.
Abbot got them to a draw.
I think it'll be something probably fairly similar to that, I think that the agenda that Peter Dutton has outlined is showing very important leadership across a number of areas, including in relation to education where he mentioned the politically driven ideology of our education system, of course is the energy system and nuclear power. So I think it's very encouraging. What I would say is the coalition needs to take a.
Bit more risk.
They can get over the line, but they're going to need to take more risks, particularly around migration. Their migration policy is a good policy, but they need to go a bit further with that, and I also think they need to show now they need to tell Australians well, what are you going to get on day one? What are you going to get on day one of a government? To ease the cost of living, to rain back on migration, and to help achieve social cohesion. Those are the three
big issues. So I think in terms of the unofficial start of the campaign, it's a very good start and hopefully they build on this by having a bit more ambition as we head towards the actual election, which will probably be late March early April.
Absolutely, I think that is fantastic advice to have some courage conservatives need to have courage and need to be clear in articulating their message, and there are policies that are just easy for conservatives to explain to the electorate where they will have overwhelming majority support. A lot of those are the so called cultural war issues, something that Donald Trump capitalized on, and you'd love to see that locally you have a political leader come out and say
clearly that women deserve to have their own spaces. We know what a woman is, we know what a man is, and men don't belong in women's sport.
These are simple statements that.
The overwhelming majority of the country agree with, but certainly in states like Victoria, you've got both the liberals and the labor government on the same side of the activist
who may represent maybe ten percent of the population. And talking about Victoria, there's been a damning report by energy expert Professor Paul Simschauser who's warning that Victoria's renewables push is going to see demand outweighing renewable energy supply by more than thirty percent this coming winter, which could make Victoria's power devices even more expensive. And of course you've also got the risk of blackouts there.
Dan, Yeah, well, there will be blackhoats if those numbers are correct. And you know what we've what we've seen, now, what was I mean, We've been warning about this for years, you know, I mean we've been how long we've been talking about this issue, which is you know, Victoria is ground zero for net zero. They've gone faster and harder than any other state with this climate zealotry. And it's got to be said that the Liberals have been as bad as labor, sometimes worse than labor on energy policy.
And this is what happens when you get rid of your baselow power supplies, which is coal. You know, coal and gas is what gives you the capacity to operate an energy system twenty four to seven, three sixty five days a year, rain, hail, or shine, and you replace it with weather dependent, intermittent energy supplies from wind and solar. Of course, you're going to have these problems. It's totally predictable. I just don't understand for the life of me, while
we keep going down this path. Obviously, this was always going to happen, and I think what we need it's just a common sense energy policy.
Sure, if you want to have.
Some wind and solar where it's sensible, Go do that, but you're going to have to have at least eighty percent of your energy system based on coal or gas, or in certain circumstances, hydro where it makes sense. Otherwise you're going to have high prices and blackout risks. So look, the chickens are now coming home to roost the very bad policy decisions that have been taken over the past decade plus.
Now, Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has told its employees that it will be dismantling its DEI that's a diversity, equity and Inclusion team due to a shift in the legal and policy landscape in the US, announcing that it doesn't want there to be any impression that people were being hired based on race, or gender or other diversity factors. A Meta Australia spokesperson has told The Australian Financial Review that the company's new mantra is
to create a cognitively diverse workforce. We will always value teams with differences in knowledge, skills, political views, backgrounds, perspectives and experiences, the company has said dan this is another impact of the Trump landslide. These companies know that these policies are discrimination. You might call it positive discrimination, reverse discrimination,
but it's just discrimination. And you're basically saying that other factors other than merit are going to get people over the line to get that coveted job.
Yeah, that's right.
I mean, there's something positive about discrimination. I've never understood the term positive discrimination. It's sort of a weasel word that they used to use to get away with it, you know. I mean, firstly, this is an admission that Facebook has been doing that, that they have been meta have been discriminating based on political views and based on characteristics like race, ethnicity, or gender. And you shouldn't do
that as a company. Now, if you want to be discerning in terms of skills and knowledge, of course you can do that as a company, but you shouldn't be doing it based on political views. But I think this is an incredibly important development. I welcome it and encourage it, and I hope more corporates go down this path because we're all fed up with this diversity, equity and inclusion.
People should be hired on their capacity to make a contribution and to do a good job, regardless of their background. That's one of the basic fundamentals of our society. I think that you're right that this is the Trump effect, and it certainly he's not even president yet, he's President elects and they're already starting to change their corporate policy. So I really hope we start to see this in Australia. We should hire based on merit, not based on any
other characteristics. So you know, I think this is a very welcomed and positive development.
Absolutely, and again this can be something our conservative politicians are both at state and federal level, could emprace because I think it would enjoy enormous popularity. Most people do not like these sort of policies being instituted in their workplaces or anywhere else. Staying in the US, Donald Trump has lashed at at California Governor Gavin Newsom and la met Karen Bass over the states lack of preparedness for
the catastrophic wildfires ravaging the state. Trump wrote on truth Cecial the fires are still raging in LA, then competent politicians.
Have no idea how to put them out.
This is one of the worst catastrophes in the history of our country. They just can't put out the fires. What's wrong with them? Dan There has clearly been massive failure here with forest management, water management, with properly resourcing the fire department, those deipolicies we spoke about. They seem to be preoccupied with that rather than actually being prepared to fight these fires. And it's California, They're always going to have wildfires or bushfires as we call them.
Yeah, that's right.
I mean, look, nobody cares about the color or the gender of a firefighter, right. They want the fire put out and they want to be kept safe. You know, there's always going to be challenges no matter how hard you work, some fires can get out of control. But clearly this has been widespreading competence. As you mentioned, I don't understand how they can't have enough water. I mean, how is that possible? Don't have enough water coming out
the fire hydrants. That's just unbelievable that that could happen. But that's what happens when you have a state that's run based on woke identity politics rather than based on actually dealing with the issues that people are concerned with. What I have found so fascinating is I don't think anyone of any sort of credibility has really blamed these
bush fires on climate change. You know, I know there's probably a couple of academics out there that have done it, but I already think the debate is starting to change around climate change as well. More and more people understand that it's to do with preparing the ground. So you need to have proper burnoffs and native vegetation management and so forth, which often you can't do because of the red and Green tape. You've got to have the reservoirs which are for You've got to have fire access and
road access to deal with these things. So, you know, I really hope people stay safe, and I know there's over twenty casualties so far and I hope that doesn't climb. But in terms of the politics of it, it sort of feels like the debate has changed around climate change as well. When look, I think that's going to be a positive development as well, and.
Hopefully again that feeds through to Australia because we've got the exact same issues. We've got people in the bush who say there's no back burning happening, the fuel loads are out of control, and when a fire does come, it's going to burn more intensely than it should. It's going to be harder to put out. So we've got those exact same issues here, Dan, and let's just hope that we're learning from what's happening in California.
Dan Wile, thank you so much for your time this evening. Now it's time for.
Lefties losing it, and we have so much content. The lefties have been extra crazy over the Christmas break, so get ready for a barrage of woke lunacy. Let's start in Canada, where the neo Marxist timbo himself, Justin Trudeau finally realized how loathe he is and he is stepping down. I wonder if over the last few months there were any clues to his unpopularity.
Take it away, rock legend, Mick Jagger, I.
Mean we love your mister Trudeau.
I mean his fan has always been such big fans about fanis.
By the way, congratulations on the Canadian socer team.
In the.
Very skillful of MiG there to just quickly change the topic to soccer as the Rolling Stones, I don't think are too used to hearing booing at their concerts.
Justin Trudeau was a media darling.
The picture perfect progressive male feminist. But the people in Canada have finally seen through him. He has caused untold damage to the country.
And Canadians are no longer shy about.
Confronting him, whether it's in the streets or in a diner.
Mister Prime Minister, please get the PC.
Have a wonderful day, man, you zuck.
Now, many deranged folks have been utterly broken by Donald Trump. And there are also those who we once thought were sane and mildly intelligent who have allowed TDS trumped arrangement syndrome to completely destroy their standing among thinking people.
And no man better.
Demonstrates that than Sam Harris, a member of the intellectual Dark Web.
Remember that, but turns out he's just a massive hysteric.
Here's Sam Harris, who's now a ballistic expert, apparently embarrasses himself by questioning whether Donald Trump.
Was actually shot.
Even fellow TEDS sufferer Bill Maher was left shaking his head.
I'm surprised that a rifle round making any degree of contact with an ear wouldn't do more damage. I think I think a shattered piece of shrapnel from a teleprompter was far more likely to have done that to his ear than a rifle round. It's so silly well, he said, if you said, what rifle rounds doing the human bodies? I know, but like if it just hit it by the slightest possible degree, it just you know, it makes much more sense. The guy behind, No, but I do
know there's no question there are rifle rounds. Fine, I mean someone was killed. I'm not debating that at all.
He acknowledges that Corey actually died.
I mean, what an absolute descries Sam Harris's these days.
And if you think I'm being too hot on him, remember this from.
A couple of years ago when he said he didn't even care if Hunter Biden had dead bodies in his basement.
This guys deranged, I mean Hunter Biden.
At that point, Hunter Biden literally could have had the corpses of children in his basement. I would not have cared.
Right now, I'm going to bring you plenty on the suicidally stupid lefty policies that have devastated California and Hamstrong the ability of firefighters to fight fires. But first let's checking on a typical Californian lefters somehow finds a way to blame Donald Trump for the fire response in a state where the Democrats enjoy a supermajority, so we should.
Have seen this coming.
Instead of reaching out with compassion to the people in my city, Los Angeles for losing everything and the fires, miserable Trump and his cronies are politicizing it, of course, for their own advantage. They're blaming Gavin Newson. They're blaming the Democrats. Funny, he doesn't blame the Red States for hurricanes and tornadoes and floods. No, he's a miserable man out for his own good. And by the way, he doesn't live in climate change.
It's a hoax.
So you know what we are in big trouble.
Where do you start.
Well, the difference between hurricanes and tornadoes and fires is you can't cause a hurricane or tornado or fight a hurricane or tornado. You can only do a stella rescue and recovery job.
Which Ron de Santa's and others like him managed to do.
But you can do plenty to prevent the severity of fires, like managing the fuel loads, a forest management, water management, having a well resourced fire department plenty. Well, we'll speak about that a little bit later, but first let's check in on just how violently deranged the left have become where they literally defend and indeed celebrate murder on the streets.
So the CEO of the multi billion dollar you know I did healthcare insurance company was shot and killed this morning in New York City. And I will say that it is it is pretty tragic that the shooter was only able to get one of them.
But it's a good start. I mean, it's a good, good foundation. Good. We can only only move up from here. And before any of you come at me with oh my god, I can't believe you'd say that, go for yourself. Seriously, go for yourself.
Now, bring you worrying news about Rosie O'Donnell, who's teds maybe causing an outbreak off herpes.
And look what I have on my lip. Everybody's been saying you have herpes, You have herpes all this time. And I never had a cold sore in my life, and now I have a cold soar, and it makes me think that perhaps this weird pimple that had a tiny little head was a cold soar too.
So I don't know.
I will let you know tomorrow if I do in fact have herpes. As some of the taunting from the MEGA people in the last.
Couple uh of weeks.
Hasn't it been fun, ladies and gentlemen, to be standing in direct opposition to everything he is and represents and always happened and always will be.
She's right. The feud with President Donald Trump goes a long way back, years and years. You might remember this from twenty sixteen.
You've called women you don't like fat pigs, dogs, slavs, and disgusting animals.
Your Twitter account.
Only rosio o'donald, No, it.
Wasn't your Twitter account.
Now, let's check in with leftist Supreme Court Justice Katanji Brown Jackson. She's now made her Broadway debut, yes, in a production called Anne Juliet, which is a queer twist.
On Romeo and Juliet. Of course it is female empowerment sick. I like it too.
I think what I like about it is that I am having it very strongly negative reaction to it, like I hate it, which.
Makes me think it must be Oh, you'll remember that's the woman who didn't know what a woman was. She thought you had to have a biology degree to answer that question.
Let's go to the next next clip.
It's pretty incredible and if you want to see the decay, the lawlessness that exists in parts of America. Then this clip demonstrates it perfectly. Here you have thieves threatening to call the cops on the storekeeper if he doesn't open the doors so they can take their loot home.
Open.
Okay there, glhead Cola.
The sense of entitlement is off the charts. Let's look at a new Netflix program. I think this is a movie that looks like it was made by the jokesters at Babylon B. This is a true story. This is not something they've made up. But I've got to say, as lefties often do, they will destroy the telling of this important story with their usual self delight and idiocy. This is a movie called six Triple eight starring Oprah's president.
This is Simon is proven to be legistical nightmare.
The women's you mean the white women's, Amy col.
They did not send us because they thought we could do it.
We are here because.
They are sure we cannot.
Now to this attention saking victim who is complaining about a wine tasting at a castle because he was misgendered again, our.
Server said yes, sir, when I was asking some questions, and I said, oh no, no, no, I'm actually not a sir. And instead of apologizing or I don't know what else you would do other than apologize, they just walked away, did not acknowledge what I said, just walked away. We saw the server like whispering to a manager, and a few minutes later the manager came over in a really big smile, not acknowledging at all that the misgender had happened. And I say, hey, look, the last person
they misgendered me and that really hurt. And they just walked away, and the manager said, oh, well, some people just aren't as progressive as you. And then they gave us a nice little chocolate that suggested they wanted our money but didn't want to say sorry. So we left and got a full refund.
So they annoyed.
The servers got a free meal, and they're still complaining. Let's go back to the devastating California fives and that DEI madness that has afflicted the estate, the far left Democrat stronghold of California, where the LA Fire Department Assistant Chief Christine Larson has made statements like this. When we talk about woke lunacy, folks, this.
Is what we mean.
You want to see somebody that responds to your house, your emergency, whether it's a medical call or a fire call, that looks like you. It gives that person a little bit more ease knowing that somebody might understand their situation better. Is she strong enough to do this? Or you couldn't carry my husband out of a fire, which my response is he got himself from the wrong place. If I have to carry him out of a fire.
Where does one start.
I don't care if zero point five percent of firefighters a female. The last thing I and I think any sane person cares about if face with a deadly fire, is the diversity of those who are rescuing me.
Can you believe she actually said there?
It doesn't matter if she can't carry a man to safety because he shouldn't have got himself in the wrong place.
That's the attitude we've got in the fire department.
Now, let's check in with la Mayor Karen Bass, who had these words of comfort for her constituents after returning from an overseas junkard.
Do you owe citizens and apology for being absent while their homes were burning? Do you regret coming the fire department budget by millions of dollars, Madam, there have you nothing to say today that? Have you absolutely nothing to say to the citizens today? Elon Mosk says that you're utterly incompetent. Are you considering your position, madam mayor have you absolutely nothing to say to the citizens today who are dealing with this disaster?
Now?
She promised she will not use her position for these overseas trips, but she was gallivanting around Ghana when the fires started. But the lefties are turning on each other in California, here is La Fire Chief Chris and Cally admitting that she has been failed by the City of Los Angeles.
Does the City of Los Angeles fail you and your department and our city?
It's my job to stand up as a chief and exactly say justifiably what the fire department needs to operate to meet the demands of the community.
Did they fail you?
That is our job and I tell you that's why I'm here. So let's get us what we need so firefighters can do their jobs.
Do they fail you?
Yes?
Still to come, they always roll. Alex Stein joins me with the latest from the US AS, including increasing pressure on Donald Trump to release all of the January six prisoners, you're watching the Rita Panicky Show. Joining me now is comedian and host of Prime Time with Alex Stein on Blaze TV. Alex Stein, he is my second favorite Texan in the world.
Alex.
Let's start with jd Vance, the incoming Vice president, has said that Donald Trump will issue pardons for peaceful.
January six protesters only. Is that enough?
Should every January sixth prisoner now be released. They've been behind bars for several years.
Reader they should all be pardoned on day one.
This is something that I'm very passionate about because there was a lot of bad actors play that day, and there's people that were pushed in there that didn't even know what they were doing, and there was a lot of bad actors. And if Donald Trump does not pardon them, because what it comes down to is whether they acted bad or not. Nobody that had a trial in Washington, DC had a fair trial.
All of the trials were rigged against them.
So because of that, because they weren't on a level playing field legally, and nothing was fair when it came to the legal system, they all deserve a pardon, even if they did something that would be considered violent. Because none of them got a fair shake. So Donald Trump has to do that, not just on day one, but
it has to get done very fast. People will give them, the cabinets some time to get this done, but it has to be done, and it needs to be a high priority, probably the most important priority.
This is a big issue for a lot of Donald Trump's supporters. This is something the media doesn't seem to understand. This is not a secondary issue. The lawfare that has taken place in that country, not just against President Trump, but also against his supporters, against conservatives.
That was a big issue in the election campaign.
And I think the supporters of Donald Trump expect to see actions now. He's talked a big game and they now want to want to see him follow through with some of those promises.
You're exactly right, and he has to, I mean cash Mattel. A lot of people in the cabinet. They know that nobody got a fair shake, and they know that a lot of people's lives are ruined and just you know, having the Department of Justice weaponize against American citizen.
Trump knows that the Department of.
Justice was weaponized against him, So he should be more empathetic than anybody when it comes to January sixth, and all those people were there because you know, they didn't trust the election. And it's not Donald Trump's fault, but I think that he can make it better and rectify it, and he should use his power to do so.
Now there are reports that President Joe Biden, he's still president.
Is going to issue a preemptive.
Pardon for some of Donald Trump's enemies. He gave his son Hunter sort of a preemptive one. He cleared of all the charges he was facing in any charges he may face, and this suggestions he might provide something similar to the vice chairwoman of the January sixth Committee, Liz Cheney, What do you think about that?
I mean, when it comes to Liz Cheney, this guy's letting people out of Guntanamo obey.
I mean, there's nobody that Joe Biden won't pardon.
So the fact that he's going to pardon Liz Cheney, I don't even care. You know, he's literally partnering some of the most evil people in the world. So Liz Cheney doesn't even move the scale in my opinion, and.
The number of people he is using his pardon powers for is astonishing. We might look at that later in the week, but some would say he's abusing that privilege. Well, he's certainly abusing it in the people he's selecting to pardon. Special Counsel Jack Smith. I want to talk to you about him, Alex. He's the man who was at the forefront of the witch hunt against Donald Trump. He has now resigned from the Department of Justice after submitting his
final report yesterday. Donald Trump has reacted to his resignation. He said that Smith was fired. He wrote on truth Social Deranged. Jack Smith was fired today by the DOJ. He is a disgrace to himself, his family, and his country. After spending over one hundred million on the witch hunt against Trump, he left town empty handed. And let's have a listen to what incoming FBI Chief Cash Patel had to say about Smith.
A little while ago, the judge just unsealed documents in the Jack Smith case down in Florida, which says the prosecutors themselves have admitted to tampering with evidence, to moving the very boxes from one location outside of DC to
South Florida before they ever even charged Donald Trump. How in the world can you not be prosecuting and charging these constitutional gangers that are at DOJ, and they learn it from the same place, the top downs, the same ags, the same decks, the same FBI directors who are cheering them on. Judge Cannon should be implementing actual contempt proceedings against Jack Smith and the Department of Justice, flying to a federal judge and withholding evidence of exclusion and innocence.
From Donald Trump.
Those contempt proceedings would be righteous and I'd like to see those. Maybe we could put Jack Smith in prison.
Wow, that's Cash Ptel on the Benny Show.
What do you think, Alex Should Jack Smith end up behind Boz?
I mean, honestly, I don't disagree with anything that Cash said. I mean, these people have weaponized our Department of Justice or what we call the Department of Injustice against American citizens and the top American citizen, Donald Trump, and he hasn't gotten a fair shake.
And that's why you could say that.
You know, his first term and the presidency was constantly plagued by people like this attacking him and going after him, trying to impede.
So people like this need to learn their lesson.
I don't know if they will actually prosecute them but people need to stop messing with Donald Trump and try to help him make this country great again. I mean, California is on fire, we're having terrorist attacks, everybody's worried for their lives readA. And that's not really just an over exaggeration.
America.
We're just everything shifted and everybody's expecting something big to happen, and we need these people to all come together, whether they're liberal, it doesn't matter if they're conservative and support the president. He's been elected in my opinion, three times in a row, and definitely two times, so he deserves America's respect, and people like Jack Smith see you later.
I would not want to switch positions with you right now.
Yes, the rubbish is taking itself out, but I think you'd be naive to think the swamp, the bureaucracy, whatever you want to call them, are going to say the president has a mandate and we're going to implement his policies. I think they're going to do everything that can straight his agenda, to undermine him, to white hand him. But I think this time around you're going to get a very different Donald Trump. He's aware of what they're going to do, and I think he's going to going there
fully equipped to deal with that bureaucracy, let's hope. So there is a little bit of conflict within the MAGA camp though, and it's continuing. Steve Bannon has slashed out at Elon Musk, calling him evil. His slammed musk support for the skilled worker visa program, which Silicon Valley loves, and he said that he's planning to limit Musk's ability
to influence Donald Trump's agenda. He said, why do we have South Africans, the most racist people on earth, white South Africans making any comments at all on what goes on in the United States, He told an Italian newspaper, and he said, also.
Elon Musk should go back to South Africa.
Wow.
Is this causing many waves within the Trump camp? Or are you always going to have some level of disagreement even if it's a robust disagreement when you've got such a big majority of people with different world views who are fundamentally part of the Trump agenda, But they're not going to agree on every topic every time.
No, you know, I don't want to go as far as Steve ben and say that we need to deport Elon Musk, but a lot of conservatives have always been kind of a little bit more wary of Elon because you know, he's into neurallink, where he wants to hook a computer up to your brain, and you know, to us, that just seems kind of weird to normal human beings that they're going to have a computer hooks to their brain so they can park their tesla and listen.
Elon Musk has done so many great things when it comes to free speech on X.
I love Elon Musk, but at the same time, you know, he is a immigrant in our country and he's calling the shots, some really important shots, So I think that just makes people always skeptic call of you know, the people that are in power. But honestly, when it comes to Elon muss as long as he keeps Twitter where I can survive on there, I'm going to respect Elon. You know, he wants to go to Mars, so dang bad.
I think we need to worry about America first, you know what I mean, And I think we should put America before Mars. But rather than that, Elon's a good guy and I support him.
Now before you go, Alex.
Donald Trump has posted footage of his viral exchange with that President Barack Obama at President Carter's funeral. I've got to say, this is hilarious stuff, and I like to believe it's pretty close to the actual discussion they had.
Well, mister president, for a second term. Bro, I'm very nice to see.
Congratulations the hell you do it a lot.
Better, Dan Hell.
I bet I know when.
Totally well, come on, anyone could beat her.
I was just as a you know what happened.
He just didn't want to leave.
I know is what happened. I did what I could to help her. She was for a singer.
Do you know what?
I realized.
So much?
I know she'll never forget me.
I wonder if one day we will have lip readers tell us precisely what was said there. But what do you think of the fact that, after everything Barack Obama threw at Donald Trump, calling him a fascist, modern day hitler, spreading all sorts of lies about him, even the most debunked lies about the very fine people hoax, he sat down and had to chat with him, was very very friendly and polite. Is that a surprise or is everything forgiven in the world of politics.
Well, I don't think anything's for again.
And there's no love loss between Barack Obama and Donald Trump. But Barack is probably happy that he had an excuse to not bring Michelle so he could just have a boys trip with Donald And you saw him paling around with George Bush. So you know, Barack Obama realizes that they are in a special fraternity of men that very few people are. You know, there's only been forty seven presidents there.
I mean, let's excuse me.
There's been more presidents than that, less than that, but I'm saying.
There's actually presidents before the first president there.
So you know, there's a lot of conspiracies behind how many presidents you've ever had. And I'm saying that on Sky News, but you got to look into that. But Rita, I'm just saying they're in a very special fraternity. So they're all kind of friends, you know at the end of.
The day, right, Yeah.
And I always got the feeling that Barack never really rated Kamala Harris. He may have campaigned for her, but I mean he's campaigning wasn't very helpful, but he never thought he had his heart in it, just the same with President Biden, and I think he really thought he was up to it either.
Alex Stein, thank you so much for your time this evening.
Thank you, Rita.
It's a pleasure and I missed you so Happy Holiday's, Happy new Year. Let's go sky News, Thank you, Rita.
Still to come, we'll bring you the latest from Hollywood, where celebrities are battling the deadly California fires.
Kinsey Schofield joins me next. Welcome back.
Joining me now is celebrity and rural commentator Kinsey Schofield. Kinsey, let's hear from Joe Rogan and Mel Gibson.
And Mel Gibson had some very interesting.
Things to say about California Governor Gavin Newsom's failure to prepare the state for these catastrophic wildfires that are ravaging La.
Still in twenty nineteen, I think Newsom said, you know, I'm going to take care of the forest and maintain the forests and do all that kind of stuff. He didn't do.
Anything, didn't do anything.
And then on top of that, they cut the water off.
Yeah that's right. Yeah, it's all funny. And then I think all our tax dollars probably went for Gavin's Hairjill. I don't know, but it's like you know, it's that it's like the place is just on fire.
Well, the whole state is just so poorly mannered.
Kinsey is everyone knows he's conservative. There's not too many conservatives in Hollywood. He has to finance his own films these days, but it seems to be working for him. Is his opinion on this issue widely held in Hollywood in California? Or are they blaming Donald Trump.
And climate change for these fires? And the response?
Yeah, you know, I do think he's given a lot more credibility because his son is a firefighter out there. His son is fighting these fires, so he does have some inside information and some intel. But you know, I do believe that the majority of people believe that this is on the government. According to Fox News, Gavin Knewso cut funding for wildlife and forest resilience by more than
one million just months before these wildfires. Mayor Karen Bass initially tried to cut from the LA Fire Department's budget twenty three million in twenty twenty four, but settled for seventeen point six million in cuts, and she ordered an additional forty nine million dollars in cuts to the fire Department's budget a week before the fires started.
Kinsey Oscar nominee actor James Woods. He's a resident of the Pacific Palisades and he posted this on x He said, the work ahead to rebuild our beautiful Pacific Palisades and all areas destroyed by Gavin Newsom's hillatious fires will be monumental. We can't waste time and energy easing this creep out of office. If this piece of shiit had one ounce of decency, he would resign. The pretty strong words there.
How much pressure is there on Gavin newsm because it seems to be he has failed on just about every level when it comes to preparing the state for this sort of fire, which he would have known was coming. This is Calorfuna near after all that have wildfires.
And he keeps passing the buck. I mean, I have seen some journalists really press him and say, you know, you've got to give us a better answer than that. But what he continues to do is pass the buck and say, oh, well, that's LA's problem.
We're going to have to talk to La about that.
You know, at the end of the day, like I said, he cuts significant amounts of resources. When he did cut that one hundred million dollars. He does have to look in the mirror and figure out where he is to blame, because this does not all fall on Karen Bass.
Now, Harry and Meghan Markle have been meeting with victims of the LA fires along with first responders at the Pasadena Convention Center. This is an evacuation site for victims of the Eton fire and out of the devastation. Meghan is also delayed the launch of her new Netflix series to focus on the needs of those impacted by the wildfires in my home state of California.
She said, Kinsey, we've seen footage of.
Harry and Megan meeting with victims, hugging them.
Is that something that has.
Brought some comfort to those who are facing this deadly catastrophe.
I think I stand with Family Ties star Justine Bateman when she called this a photo op, she said, Megan and Harry are no better than ambulance chasers. What a repulsive photo op they achieved. They don't live here. They are tourists, disaster tourists. There are plenty of things they could do in Montecito, but they jumped in the car and drove over almost two hundred miles to be in the middle of ground zero. These are two people that
are paranoid about security. Why bring that drama and chaos to a place that's already hurting and a place that doesn't need any additional drama and chaos.
As many people said on x having these people suffered enough, the last thing they need is Aaron Meghan descending upon them with camera crews getting images that they know are going to go around the world. Don't they know if they're going to be there, they're going to get plenty of footage that we've played for you tonight now, Kinzi Kim Kardashian has prompted outrage on social media for posting ads for her Skims brand while these buyers are devastating, La,
what do you think about this? A lot of people are saying she should be doing what other celebrities are doing, which is showing solidarity and just sort of pulling back from the marketing and promotion whilst this is happening.
And you also saw Chloe Kardashian going after Karen Bauss, you know, saying what a joke you are for not being prepared for this, and Chloe saying that she sided with our fire chiefs. They are clearly if you watch our news, they are delivering different messages, and they are clearly behind the scenes going out at each other's throats. My favorite headline is Kim Kardashian was busy promoting her clothing brand while Los Angeles burned to the ground. Let's
hope that's not her legacy. I have heard that she has donated to some of the firefighters when it comes to meals and things, so she has tried to step up since those horrible headlines.
I think you're going to see a big fat donation from her coming because this is the sort of bad press that can stick. Actor Tyler Perry a good friend of Megan and Harry. He's posted a lengthy statement on Instagram slamming insurance companies for canceling millions of policies just.
Before the LA fires broke out.
He wrote, does anyone else find it appalling but insurance companies to take billions of dollars out of communities for years and then all of a sudden be allowed to cancel millions of polo for the very people they became rich on? Can you tell me more about this, kindsy, because it seems incredible that insurance company could cancel any policy. I mean, that's the deal. You pay them these premiums. You may never make a claim over thirty forty years, but it's therefore a disaster just like this.
You.
According to the insurance companies, they they were afraid they wouldn't be able to afford the payouts and that's why ultimately they canceled hundreds of these victims insurance policies months ago. There is one woman that stayed despite the evacuation. Her parents were ninety years old, they'd been in the home for seventy years, and she just stayed there with her fire hose sprang the house down. Thankfully, the last time I checked it had been spared. But that's all her
parents had. They were ninety years old. They were afraid they were going to lose their house, and she did that because they lost their insurance. They had no other option, so she risked her life. So this is not just a celebrity thing.
You know.
This is impacting a lot of different people of all age groups and different classes, and it's devastating.
Absolutely, and those people are less equipped to recover from this than your celebrities whose properties are worth millions and they probably have several of them. It's incredible. I mean the fact that they can cancel these policies. It's not just financially devastating, it can lead to loss of life because, like you said, people will stay back at their properties when they should be leaving to try to save them and this is just putting themselves in greater danger.
Kinsey Schofield, thank you.
So much for your time this evening, and that's all the time we have tonight. I'll see you tomorrow night at eleven up. Next is Newsnight.