Speaker 1: You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
Speaker 1: six forty.
Speaker 2: KFI AM six forty Bill Handle. Here it is a
Speaker 2: Thursday morning, April seventeen. As we continue on, I want
Speaker 2: to spend a minute talking about revisiting the fires, and
Speaker 2: there's a bunch of controversy going on, primarily and the
Speaker 2: Palisades fire. Why that reservoir was empty and it held
Speaker 2: I don't know two three million gallons of water and
Speaker 2: why it wasn't used, and the lack of water pressure,
Speaker 2: and that is continuing on. I mean, lawsuits have been
Speaker 2: filed against the Department of Water and Power, and that's
Speaker 2: one story we've been covering. Now we're not spending a
Speaker 2: whole lot of time talking about the Altadena fire, the
Speaker 2: Eaton fire, and because there's no water pressure issue, there's
Speaker 2: no Department of Water and Power. That's screwed up. Everybody
Speaker 2: ran out of water. But you know Woody in his
Speaker 2: soothe city for running out of water even when everything
Speaker 2: is going balls to the wall. That fire was just
Speaker 2: out of control. No one anticipated it. So the issue
Speaker 2: is when was the evacuation called for? And that has
Speaker 2: reared its head because nine to one one logs show
Speaker 2: that more than a dozen calls from Altadena we were
Speaker 2: made before the evacuation or was ordered.
Speaker 1: Twelve to fifty five.
Speaker 2: Am, January eighth, first one Sheriff's official reports of flaming
Speaker 2: structure on the corner of Las Floris Drive, few doors
Speaker 2: down from where a seventy one year old would die
Speaker 2: in the fire two thirty three am. Now that's just
Speaker 2: a while away. I mean, this is not yet exploded.
Speaker 2: A Pasadena cop tells nine to one to one dispatcher's
Speaker 2: flame had consumed Monterrosa Drive the street.
Speaker 1: A man would die.
Speaker 2: Remember the guy who died, hold the garden hose in
Speaker 2: his front yard.
Speaker 1: That's where this fire was.
Speaker 2: Ten minutes later, a sheriff's calls that the fire was
Speaker 2: encroaching on Wapello Street.
Speaker 1: That's where a ninety four year old Korean War veteran died.
Speaker 2: The first evacuation order for that area came at three
Speaker 2: point twenty five am, an hour after the cop first called.
Speaker 2: And then the calls came screaming into the nine to
Speaker 2: one center call center. And the argument here is going
Speaker 2: to be how long did they wait and what was
Speaker 2: this disconnect between dispatchers receiving reports of homes on fire
Speaker 2: more than one, and the officials deciding what homes to evacuate.
Speaker 1: When you look at the fire deaths, seventeen out of eighteen.
Speaker 2: Of those deaths happened in West Altadena, which got the
Speaker 2: first alert eight hours.
Speaker 1: Before the evacuation orders hits.
Speaker 2: That is the problem, and the investigation is going on now.
Speaker 1: A lot of this is no one.
Speaker 2: Understood the ferocity. The ferocity of this fire. The ferociousness
Speaker 2: of this fire, I think that's the word, because it
Speaker 2: just caught everybody by surprise.
Speaker 1: I mean, there were.
Speaker 2: People that looked at a fire in the distance half
Speaker 2: an hour that it was half a mile away, and
Speaker 2: they turned around and they looked back, and all of
Speaker 2: a sudden, it's a quarter of a mile away. I mean,
Speaker 2: these fires were moving well, the winds were one hundred
Speaker 2: miles an hour plus, and fires were roaring at someone
Speaker 2: far faster.
Speaker 1: You could drive away, you could run away.
Speaker 2: So they're trying to figure out was there a disconnect
Speaker 2: there seems to be was the anticipation.
Speaker 1: Here's I think what's going on.
Speaker 2: Even in the lawsuit against the Department of Water and Power,
Speaker 2: where the reservoir should have been full, you should have
Speaker 2: had more water pressure. The defense is going to be
Speaker 2: not that they shouldn't have done what they should have done,
Speaker 2: not that there shouldn't have been the reservoir working, It's
Speaker 2: that it wouldn't have mattered. The fire was so ferocious,
Speaker 2: so unanticipated hurricane force winds.
Speaker 1: That were whipping this fire. And I don't know the
Speaker 1: answer to this.
Speaker 2: By the way, this is going to come out of trial,
Speaker 2: and if they settle, it will never come out at
Speaker 2: a trial that could anything have helped. No water pressure
Speaker 2: from the city's mains. They ran out of pressure. Well,
Speaker 2: the city main water lines are not designed to have
Speaker 2: full water.
Speaker 1: Pressure for hour after hour after hour.
Speaker 2: And pump up these mountains. They just aren't designed. And
Speaker 2: as a matter of fact, we go beyond that, there's
Speaker 2: no municipality on the planet that can successfully deal with
Speaker 2: a fire like this at its early stages or while
Speaker 2: it's roaring through the various housing areas.
Speaker 1: All right, we're going to find out a whole.
Speaker 2: Lot more than that. I mean, these are incredible stories
Speaker 2: of individuals.
Speaker 1: What happened.
Speaker 2: La Times went and looked at the fire logs, looked
Speaker 2: at the summaries, checked out individuals who were caught in
Speaker 2: the fire and when phone calls were made, it's some heartbreaking.
Speaker 1: So of course the story is not going to go
Speaker 1: away any soon.
Speaker 2: All right, Now here's a question, and this is a
Speaker 2: story that's been a massive story having to do with
Speaker 2: Kilmar Abrego Garcia. This is the l Salvadorian who was
Speaker 2: deported by accident. He was picked up and thrown on
Speaker 2: an airplane and sent down to El Salvador. And the
Speaker 2: Trump administration admitted that it was done by accident. And
Speaker 2: you would think if you were the president, you were
Speaker 2: an official, you go, okay, we blew it. We sent
Speaker 2: him down by accident. Something happened and fell between the cracks.
Speaker 2: Now let's see what we can do to bring him back.
Speaker 2: And he was deported because he was a member of
Speaker 2: MS thirteen, which not a whole lot of proof, as
Speaker 2: in there was no proof that the government was able
Speaker 2: to come up with because now they're being the government
Speaker 2: of course, is being attacked. He has not been charged
Speaker 2: with any crime either here or in l Salvador, and
Speaker 2: he was sent to one of the most if not
Speaker 2: the most notorious prisons in El Salvador. And no idea
Speaker 2: if he is ever going to come out and what's
Speaker 2: happening to him because even the Maryland Senator who went
Speaker 2: down on his own to at least talk to an
Speaker 2: official to talk to him.
Speaker 1: Government of L.
Speaker 2: Salvador said absolutely not, might as well go home nothing.
Speaker 2: So what is going to happen as a result of
Speaker 2: all this, we don't know. The government is about to
Speaker 2: be hit with a contempt charged by the judge because
Speaker 2: the judge had ordered the government to facilitate bringing him back.
Speaker 1: And the administration said no, just ignored it.
Speaker 2: So now we have a contempt hearing where I guess
Speaker 2: they are going to be nailed with contempt. I don't
Speaker 2: even know what you do with a contempt charge against
Speaker 2: the federal government.
Speaker 1: And then up came this.
Speaker 2: Weird discussion where the President, when he was sitting with
Speaker 2: the L. Salvadorian president, was somehow it came up about
Speaker 2: American American citizens being deported to L.
Speaker 1: Salvador, and the L. Salvadorian president said.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you pay for it, And we're okay with
Speaker 2: that because all the prisoners are being sent down and
Speaker 2: are still being sent down to L. Salvador, those who
Speaker 2: are illegal that are being sent down properly according to law.
Speaker 2: The US is paying Salvador six million dollars so far
Speaker 2: for the two hundred that are sitting there. And when
Speaker 2: the President said, yeah, we're gonna send down American citizens,
Speaker 2: you know, the worst of the worst. We're going to
Speaker 2: send down the criminals, the terrorists, and it really doesn't
Speaker 2: matter if they're American citizens or not.
Speaker 1: Everybody went whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait a minute.
Speaker 2: The Constitution specifically says that an American citizen is basically
Speaker 2: an American citizen.
Speaker 1: That if you live in the United States.
Speaker 2: And you are either born here or are naturalized here,
Speaker 2: you're an American citizen and you can't be deported to
Speaker 2: another country. Because where is an American being deported too?
Speaker 2: He or she is an American. My parents, for example,
Speaker 2: when they came to the United States and had Brazilian citizenship,
Speaker 2: which I had to give up when they became US citizens,
Speaker 2: where were they going to be deported to? Okay, Brazil,
Speaker 2: Brazil says, these aren't Brazilians. Why would we take non
Speaker 2: Brazilians just because you the United States or you Germany
Speaker 2: want to kick him out. That's not on us. And
Speaker 2: so the President is saying one of two things. First
Speaker 2: of all, getting a country that's willing to accept American
Speaker 2: citizens in this case El Salvador, that is saying, yeah,
Speaker 2: we'll accept them. You pay us well, will take them.
Speaker 2: And number two, how do you circumvent the constitution? Now,
Speaker 2: can an American citizen have citizenship taken away? That's different
Speaker 2: because if you are a citizen and it's taken away,
Speaker 2: then you are open for deportation and the US government
Speaker 2: can in fact remove you. But it's not taking American
Speaker 2: citizens and removing them. It's making these citizens non citizens.
Speaker 1: And how do you do that?
Speaker 2: Well, you can do that if in an application for naturalization,
Speaker 2: for example, fraud was committed.
Speaker 1: Lied about who I was.
Speaker 2: There was a case of this war criminal by the
Speaker 2: name of Artukevich from Yugoslavia. My dad was involved in
Speaker 2: that trial as a witness, and he came to the
Speaker 2: United States and I think it was right after World
Speaker 2: War Two as a quote expert on communists, and he
Speaker 2: was an American citizen and he lied on his application
Speaker 2: to be an American citizen, lied about who he was,
Speaker 2: lied about his identity. Now, it took twenty years, but
Speaker 2: his citizenship was removed and he was deported back to
Speaker 2: It wasn't even Yugoslavi at that time, it was sent
Speaker 2: back to Croatia, where he ended up dying over there in.
Speaker 1: Prison or awaiting trial.
Speaker 2: But that is removal of American citizenship also under very
Speaker 2: weird circumstances, convicted of treason and a few other things
Speaker 2: during wartime, but that becomes virtually impossible. So I don't
Speaker 2: know how the president is going to get around that one.
Speaker 2: I really don't. The scary part is that if he does,
Speaker 2: let's say he has ice pick up someone. All right,
Speaker 2: someone points a finger. Neil, Neil is Savedra. It is
Speaker 2: a Hispanic Latito name. Let's throw him out of here
Speaker 2: and send him to Al Salvador and Cono is copying
Speaker 2: a plover. Yes, okay, now how is it. How do
Speaker 2: we stop the government from doing that? Well, you go
Speaker 2: to court immediately and the court say says to the government,
Speaker 2: you can't do that. Nil's an American citizen. And the
Speaker 2: administration says, fine, don't care.
Speaker 1: What do you do with that?
Speaker 2: And unfortunately, that is what's going on right now with
Speaker 2: kar Abuego Garcia.
Speaker 1: So not an American citizen. No, he is not. And
Speaker 1: I was about to say he is not an American citizen.
Speaker 2: But he was here legally, and they're bypassing that concept.
Speaker 2: You cannot deport someone who is here legally and is
Speaker 2: not committed a crime. Now the argument is going to be,
Speaker 2: but he was a member of MS thirteen, he was
Speaker 2: a member of a terrorist organization. Just based on that,
Speaker 2: we can deport him. Fine, where's the evidence? We don't
Speaker 2: have any whoa, I mean, that's the fear. So how
Speaker 2: is this going to shake out?
Speaker 1: I have no idea.
Speaker 2: We'll see what the judge says. I mean, the contempt
Speaker 2: order is going to be issued. But what difference does
Speaker 2: it make. The judges already ordered, the Supreme Court ordered
Speaker 2: the administration to return this guy or to facilitate his retard.
Speaker 2: The administration instead of going back and said, yeah, we've
Speaker 2: made we've made a phone call. Yeah, someone called the
Speaker 2: the embassy over here. I think that would have been
Speaker 2: enough for the judge or the Supreme Court.
Speaker 1: Nothing crickets.
Speaker 2: And now the argument is that the courts have no
Speaker 2: jurisdiction to tell the administration who are not to deport.
Speaker 2: That's on the administration making a decision arbitrarily and if
Speaker 2: they make a mistake, Okay, they make a mistake, don't
Speaker 2: get picked up, all right, Be really careful when you
Speaker 2: go to home depot. Don't park anywhere near the driveway.
Speaker 1: All right. Costco.
Speaker 2: Oh, I always talk about Costco. I live at Costco
Speaker 2: twice a week. I was at Costco a couple of
Speaker 2: days ago. I'm going to Costco this afternoon. So the
Speaker 2: bottom line is Costco does hold on.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna a little fraud there.
Speaker 2: Costco does stuff completely counterintuitive, unlike like any other store.
Speaker 1: Let me give you an example.
Speaker 2: I go to my nearest Rouse and I go there because,
Speaker 2: first fall, I'm a Rouse buyer. It's reasonably priced food
Speaker 2: as opposed to Gelson, which is even closer.
Speaker 1: And I go there because I know where stuff is.
Speaker 2: I know where the cheese is, the isle in the
Speaker 2: back of the store, I know if I'm looking for cookies,
Speaker 2: I know exactly what his ale is on.
Speaker 1: If I don't, but I know, I look at those signs.
Speaker 2: You know, there's Aisle thirteen, and it'll tell you it's
Speaker 2: cookies and crackers and chips and whatever.
Speaker 1: It tells you what the food is. Costco doesn't do that.
Speaker 1: Costco does the exact opposite.
Speaker 2: There is nothing on the aisles indicating what's down the aisle?
Speaker 1: Nothing.
Speaker 2: You go on a Tuesday and you're looking for a
Speaker 2: specific item and you find it. Okay. As you're rolling around,
Speaker 2: you're finding the item, and then a week later you go,
Speaker 2: you know what, I didn't get enough of it, so
Speaker 2: I've got to go back and I have to pick
Speaker 2: some more up. And you go to the spot where
Speaker 2: you had first purchased the item.
Speaker 1: It's not there. It's not there.
Speaker 2: So you go to the nearest Costco person and you ask, hey,
Speaker 2: where is and then whatever it is, you know.
Speaker 1: Where's the luggage? You need another piece?
Speaker 2: And you're told, oh, it's on Isle eighteen, the other
Speaker 2: end of the store. I go, wait a minute, it
Speaker 2: was here last week. Yeah, yeah, we moved it. And
Speaker 2: I've always wondering why they did that. Michelle her husband Tim,
Speaker 2: works for Costco, and they do that because they want
Speaker 2: you to walk around looking for stuff, and you're looking
Speaker 2: for something specific and it can take you twenty minutes
Speaker 2: to find it. In the meantime, you take your cart
Speaker 2: and this is what I do all the time. I
Speaker 2: take my cart and I am walking the aisles figuring
Speaker 2: out what I'm going to look for, and then.
Speaker 1: All of a sudden. Wow, that's a great deal.
Speaker 2: I kind of like the idea that there's a bat
Speaker 2: I have to like shrimp chips, and there's a bad
Speaker 2: and they don't have them all the time. There's a
Speaker 2: bag of shrimp chips that's in a fifty five gallon
Speaker 2: trash bag size, and so I'm going to buy that
Speaker 2: for four dollars. So rule number one at Costco is
Speaker 2: you move the inventory around, or they do purposely so
Speaker 2: you don't know what's where, forcing you to walk around.
Speaker 2: When you walk in the door, what do you see?
Speaker 2: You see the TVs, the soundbars, the computer us that's
Speaker 2: walking in the door. You see the jewelry walking in
Speaker 2: the door. Now, a lot of people don't know that
Speaker 2: Costco sells very high end jewelry at great prices. Clark
Speaker 2: Howard spent a fortune on buying a diamond ring for
Speaker 2: his wife, but he made sure it was from Costco
Speaker 2: because that was the best deal out there. Also, they
Speaker 2: sell caskets. I don't know if you know that. When
Speaker 2: my dad died and I was buying a casket for him, Costco. Now,
Speaker 2: the mortuary match the price, but Costco is half the price.
Speaker 2: You can go to their website and if you need
Speaker 2: a casket, just hang around the house.
Speaker 1: You have it all right.
Speaker 2: So that's their rule in terms of where you walk in. Okay, next,
Speaker 2: stuff changes all the time. You never know what they're
Speaker 2: going to sell, and you go wow and know it's
Speaker 2: not going to be here next week.
Speaker 1: You end up buying it.
Speaker 2: For example, a hot tub for four thousand dollars that
Speaker 2: normally you would see someplace else for six thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: Or the other day. As a matter of fact, I
Speaker 1: just bought it. I just bought it. What is it
Speaker 1: that I bought? I bought an outdoor umbrella.
Speaker 2: At some point I was going to buy one for
Speaker 2: my backyard, but they had this Blasto five thousand umbrella. Yeah,
Speaker 2: the blast of five thousand, which only cost seven hundred dollars,
Speaker 2: where normally it's nine hundred bucks any place else. Of course,
Speaker 2: I ended up buying it. I went for a chicken.
Speaker 2: I went in for a chicken, a rotisserie chicken. At
Speaker 2: five bucks. They get you in the store and they
Speaker 2: know what's going to happen. They have fewer items than
Speaker 2: most giant retailers, but when you do buy, you know
Speaker 2: you are getting quality and you are paying less money
Speaker 2: for it being a barbecue on Sunday. Lindsay's folks are coming,
Speaker 2: and where am I going to get the meat? I'm
Speaker 2: going to Costco. That's all I want. I'm going to
Speaker 2: Costco for some stakes. Are you guys going to be
Speaker 2: celebrating the resurrection of our Lord? H? Well, I'm not
Speaker 2: particularly going to be doing that, but yeah, I think
Speaker 2: so for the most part.
Speaker 1: You celebrate the death and may celebrate the resurrection. Yeah,
Speaker 1: pretty much.
Speaker 2: Matter of fact, that's going to be my next Zelman's commercial,
Speaker 2: which I have done regularly every Easter, and that is,
Speaker 2: of course indicating bad breath.
Speaker 1: And how do I do that? Well, rolling that.
Speaker 2: Rock you know outside the entrance three days after he died.
Speaker 1: His breath had to be unbelievable.
Speaker 2: Man Zelman's mint mouths so hot.
Speaker 1: Good for you, buddy. Yeah.
Speaker 2: But the point is all of this is done with
Speaker 2: Costco and they know exactly what they're going to get.
Speaker 1: So I'm going to go. I'm going to look for stakes.
Speaker 2: All I want is stakes, and then I'm going to
Speaker 2: get one of their shopping carts, which are as big
Speaker 2: as dump trucks, and walk in and fill up the cart.
Speaker 2: And I will spend three hundred dollars for stakes and
Speaker 2: a few other items. They just know what they're doing.
Speaker 2: No store maps. Anytime you want to look for something,
Speaker 2: you're in there for forty minutes looking around. And of
Speaker 2: course where do they How do they get prices so
Speaker 2: good because they make me They get membership one hundred
Speaker 2: and forty million people paying what an average of sixty bucks.
Speaker 2: I pay one hundred dollars because I have the you know,
Speaker 2: membership executive puba membership one hundred and forty million people.
Speaker 1: That's why their prices are so good.
Speaker 2: And their philosophy is they are fanatic about quality. I
Speaker 2: mean fanatic. You know, you're getting good quality stuff for
Speaker 2: very very, not even reasonable inexpensive. Okay, we're done with that.
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