Welcome back to Dont get this Twisted

In this episode, Robb and Tina discuss the various challenges facing California, including the housing crisis, homelessness, drug epidemics, and the impact of rising costs on residents. They share personal experiences and observations about the changing landscape of their communities, the struggles with traffic, and the political accountability needed to address these issues. The conversation highlights the urgent need for solutions to make California a more livable place for its residents. In this conversation, Tina and Robb discuss various pressing issues facing California, including rising crime rates, the impact of liberal policies on public safety, economic challenges for small businesses, immigration concerns, and the need for political change. They emphasize the importance of community safety, the responsibility of citizens to vote, and the necessity of addressing the needs of veterans and the homeless. The dialogue reflects a deep concern for the future of California and the desire for a more effective governance.

Explicit

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This podcast and website represent the opinions of Robb Courtney and Tina Garcia and their guests to the show and website. The content here should not be interpreted as medical advice or any other type of advice from any other type of licensed professional. The content here is for informational purposes only, and because each person is so unique, please consult your healthcare or other applicable licensed professional with any medical or other related questions. Views and opinions expressed in the podcast and website are our own and do not represent that of our places of work. While we make every effort to ensure that the information, we are sharing is accurate, we welcome any comments, suggestions, or correction of errors. Privacy is of the utmost importance to us. All people, places, and scenarios mentioned in the podcast have been changed to protect confidentiality. This website or podcast should not be used in any legal capacity whatsoever, including but not limited to establishing “standard of care” in a legal sense or as a basis for expert witness testimony related to the medical profession or any other licensed profession. No guarantee is given regarding the accuracy of any statements or opinions made on the podcast or website. In no way does listening, reading, emailing, or interacting on social media with our content establish a doctor-patient relationship or relationship with any other type of licensed professional. Robb Courtney and Tina Garcia do not receive any money from any pharmaceutical industry for topics covered pertaining to medicine or medical in nature. If you find any errors in any of the content of this podcast, website, or blogs, please send a message through the “contact” page or email DGTTwisted@gmail.com. This podcast is owned by "Don’t Get This Twisted,” Robb Courtney.

And welcome to another show of Don't Get This Twisted. I am Rob, along with my co-host as always, Tina. How you doing, Tina?

I'm hanging in there, Rob, how you doing?

you know, nasally and, I have splints in my nose and I'm trying to hang in there and I know I wanted to get a show off this week. So I was like, let's just, you know, get through it real quick, but sorry if I sound not the tip top.

It's okay because I woke up with a headache and I'm barely out of the shower trying to do this with you. And after this I think I'm going to go back to bed.

It's like we're both just dragging ass. So funny. So, this week, my friend down the street sent me a bunch of shit, you know, ideas out of the top of her head, but she goes California and like what we were talking about and how it's so bad. So we were talking about California at lunch a while back. think like maybe a week ago.

It happens.

Yeah, I think the Friday before I had surgery. So that was last Monday. And we were just talking about California and just how difficult it is comparative to the rest of the country. And look, I know everyone is going through hard times right now because the economy is shitty everywhere. But I think people who listen to the show outside of our friends that are in the state, you know, really realize

how difficult it is to live in California. And we were talking about just everything. Like obviously rent, she owns a house and her payment's decent. My rent, I have a two bedroom, two bath apartment. It's about thousand square feet and I pay 22.17 a month.

Wow.

So yeah, and I pretty much paid all myself even though I had started making my son pay a little bit. My rent went up like 110 bucks. was like, well, you're going to have to cover the 110 a month at least, you know, in the meantime. I mean, so much that I was seriously talking to my friend down the street about just moving into her house and renting out two rooms because I would save money.

Mm-hmm.

So, but so we were like, know, Tennessee back and forth all these like, you know, things about California, like obviously rent, unemployment's bad. What we all make isn't enough to cover a lot of the stuff for most people here.

Mm-hmm.

And then, you know, then you can just go down the slide of like the other crappy things that are going on, like homelessness. I know where you live, where you live, it's bad, bad. You don't see it where I live as much, although she kind of told me a few little secret spots that like they hide out at, cause we have this really long bike trail where I live. mean, like, and I mean long, it's like,

That which is bad right now.

six or seven miles long through the city. And she goes, down on this street behind the Del Taco, there's like a bunch of homeless people, but you can't, they're not like, like I was in the Valley not too long ago and they're everywhere. And it's like tents and just, it's very, not the Valley I grew up in for sure.

Yeah, well the drug epidemic here is horrible too. People are dying daily from, I'm drawing a blank, fentanyl. Yeah, so we're having, so people are literally walking zombies around here. There was a guy one day that was walking around, he was a rather tall black man and he was wearing a very short tiny mini skirt that looked like somebody had played tennis in at one point.

Fentanyl. That shit is horrible.

And that's all he had on. he was strung out of his mind, and he was banging on cars and yelling at people. And I'm trying to get gas going, shit, I got to get out of here, because he's seriously not within his right mind. And then I watched him walk around the corner. And I went around the corner because I was done getting gas. And there was a huge encampment.

right behind all the businesses so the businesses couldn't even use their parking lot because everybody was out there. And if you look at their faces, I was looking at their faces because I was driving slow down that area and they were all completely strung out. And that doesn't help the homeless situation because you cannot go into a shelter, which they have right down the street from where this place was. You can't go in the shelter if you're not sober.

So all these really bad cases are stuck outside in the elements. They burn up underneath the bridge. The cars are driving down the freeway on. They burned something into the bridge, like into the side of it. they were cleaning up all the homeless people, and they were trying to get the fire and whatever they had thrown underneath there.

Wow.

All right.

There was junk and there was tons of things that were set on fire. So it's gotten a little dicey here for sure. There's places I won't go at night and I've never been afraid to go anywhere. as you get older and you see what's out there, it is a little bit scarier than when we were in our 20s and 30s, even 40s. It's gotten bad since COVID. They tried to pick up everybody during COVID.

But as soon as that was over, everybody had to scramble. And we've just got a huge number of homeless people.

Yeah, I was in Riverside not too long ago and I was driving towards the freeway on ramp. And there was somebody strung out like, like you said, like a zombie. It was like walking and it would stop and just like lean sideways for like minutes and then just start walking again. So it's hard. Look, I feel for anybody who's homeless. I don't want to say that, you know.

Hmm.

Yeah, it's one of my biggest fears, is being homeless.

Yeah, yeah, don't get me wrong. Me too. But it's one of those things that like, it's out of control in this state because they refuse to take care of it. I was in downtown LA on Saturday doing a photo shoot. Thankfully, the GPS took us a different way back to the freeway. But...

Mm-hmm.

It was me and my friend from down the street and we were doing going back to freeway and I was telling her she used to go down to downtown LA all the time and get her daughter dresses for pageants and some other things. So she was like very familiar where we were at and she was like, it looks kind of the same except there's more homeless people. So we went back going towards the freeway. We did see a little small encampment.

Mm.

but it wasn't like as bad. But I was down there probably like eight months ago and I happened to go down fourth street, which is like a one way street towards the freeway. And literally for five, six or seven blocks, it was just tents all the way to the curb on both sides. And like you said, people were cooking out there. They had like built these massive...

you know, houses out of, yeah, forts out of shit right in front of people's businesses, like all kinds of stuff. So I feel for them. I feel for the people who are the business people too. So like these are, that's another thing that's big, you know, in the state of California. And then traffic. I don't think people really understand how bad the traffic is in this state.

Forts.

Hell yeah.

We left early Saturday morning to get to this photo shoot and thankfully we made it from where we live to downtown LA in about 58 minutes somewhere, which was awesome. Made it home in about an hour and 30 minutes, which is still not horrible, but.

Pretty good.

Still not bad. Yeah.

You know, it was a Saturday, I'm sure, on a weekday.

How many miles is it from the place that you were at to the place that you were going?

Let's see, I can actually tell you when you look at my GPS here just so I can give you.

Because I guarantee you, way was just a straight shot. You were in traffic at some point on both directions. Yeah.

Yeah, so it's 43 miles and right now, if I left right now, it would take me an hour and two minutes. Now, I'm not, it's not because I take different freeways than you would. All these freeways took me to the 101 to get off the freeway. I couldn't imagine taking the 101 there. It would have taken two hours easily.

That's not bad.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

I don't take the one-on-one ever.

Yeah, I try not to. But we were talking about that too and it's just like even I don't care where you live. The traffic is horrible. It's horrible in California. There's just too many people here. And when you talk about like when I was in other states, when you talk to people, they talk like, hey, we're going to this town. How long is it going to take us to get there? And they go, it's about 58 miles.

And in my head, I literally asked the girl, I went, how long is it going to take? And she's like, I don't know, like 58 minutes, 65 minutes. Because here we don't talk in miles, we talk in time. How long is it going to take me to get there? Not how far away is it? Because that doesn't matter here. What matters here is how long is it going to take me? So I think, you know,

Mm-hmm.

Look, we've had a mass exodus in the state. People are leaving without a doubt. Well, because people are still moving here because they still think California is California. This is no way the California of the 80s. I mean, the California that me and you went to high school in.

Doesn't seem like it.

And it is, for sure. No.

is very very long gone. When you saw homeless people in the late 80s or early 90s it was like one or two and it was you know they had a shopping cart and you never saw them much. You know now it's like groups of people you know they they travel in packs it's like gypsies.

Mm-hmm.

So for me, it's this one thing where you have to start thinking of like California as of what is the future of our state, right? Where do, you know, my kid can't afford to live here. He knows it. That's.

They do.

Shit, can we afford to live here? I mean, if you think about it, since I got divorced, if I wasn't putting the ADU on my dad's house and living here in the meantime with him, where would I be? would be wouldn't be able to put in put up an ADU. I would be blowing it all in rent and rent here is astronomical. We're talking like thirty five hundred dollars for just a two bedroom. And it's not a big two bedroom. We're talking a small two bedroom.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, like 850 square feet.

Yeah, yeah. And I'm grateful that I can live with my dad and that I can build here and that I'll be staying here, you know, close to home, like right next door. but if I didn't have what I had, it would be a very different story and I would be very worried for my future.

Yeah, and I think that's the bigger thing is, you know, my friend down the street, she's worried that if someone gets in as president, that, know, they're talking about raising property taxes and charging on what it could be worth, you know. Yeah.

Mm-hmm and and Getting rid of part prop 13. I don't even know why everybody wants to mess with prop 13 It's it was voted in it's in That would be a huge huge problem It for everybody

it would be a killer. no, it for everyone. It's it's going to be a huge killer. So she's worried like and and for good reason. Like she was, you know, seriously kind of saying like, you know, if if certain things fall into place, she'll just sell her house. Because paying rent would probably be easier or, you know,

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

more affordable because I'm not having to pay property taxes, blah, blah, whatever it is. And it's crazy, we grew up in the own a home and now if things go the way they are with BlackRock buying up all these homes and then wanting to rent them out, we're all going to be renters, no one will own a home anymore.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, and you should see in our neighborhood Everybody's that's selling it's all these investors coming in picking up the property gutting the places and then they're adding two and three homes on the same property There was once just a one family

dwelling. Yeah. I, right down the street from my house, and I'm talking probably, well, maybe a full block, maybe, but like, with a light in between, but a full block. There's been a empty piece of property for the four years I've lived here. It's big. It's a big piece of property. They're like double, double slots, but

property.

Mm-hmm.

for each home. Well, I was driving by the other day and I saw a big sign, because you know they have to put a sign outside saying that they're gonna build something. It's all 16 unit duplex. And here's the crazy thing, it's in the middle of houses. So it's gonna be house, house, house, house, house, duplex, house, house, house, house. I'd be pissed if I lived next to that.

Mm-hmm.

Wow.

Mm-hmm.

They're doing that right down the street from us on the other side of the 118. They're doing the same thing.

So you're going to presumably 16 families and all their cars on a city street that doesn't have parking.

and all their cars on the streets.

Well, not only that but across Just the other side of Woodley. They're putting up an a hundred unit hundred unit single-family Apartments right now with underneath is going to be Stores that they're going to you know have there and then all their housing will be above that

department.

and they're only giving one parking spot to each place. Well, so if two people are living there and they're both drivers, what are those hundred extra cars going to do? Where are they going to be? And they're butted up right next to the high school. And it's just insane. It's insane. And they're supposed to be low income.

Peace.

Yes.

Yeah, great. similar over here. I live in the Inland Empire. So I was talking to her about the same thing. She works in the metal industry. And right down the street from her business, there's been a big lot for, again, years. And out of nowhere, I started seeing them dig a hole. It's going to be an apartment complex.

So we'll see what happens next with that.

Mm-hmm.

there's a old strawberry field out here that has like this really bitching barn in front of it and I thought it was open forever and out of nowhere another sign they want to build a stack and pack apartment building on top of it but I had heard that the people are bitching and moaning trying to get them to keep the strawberry field open so but generally that's not what's going to happen

Wow.

So lots of stack and packs and just getting people, but now traffic. So it's traffic on the street, parking will be impossible. If you own a home, everyone's gonna be parking in front of your house. So it's like these things where the more people that are in this state, and again, people, there's no jobs. There's not a lot of jobs at least that can support.

Mm-mm.

you know, living here, first of all. So you're gonna have, tons.

And a lot of restaurants have gone out of business too. So around where I am, there's not the same businesses that there were. There's not the same restaurants by any means near us that are any good. It's a different place here.

Yeah, well, didn't that cool pizza place down the street from you go out of business?

It did, and then it came back up with other owners, and the other owners are really nice, and their food is good, but it's not the same. So you got the old-timers bitchin', then nothing's the same, and then you got the new ones that are coming in, and everybody's like, it's a bougie place. It's not a bougie place. It's a really good place. The food is excellent, but it's just not the same, and if you're not gonna give them a chance, of course it's gonna be everything but happy over there.

It's just not.

Right and look we've lost there's a shopping center over by me that when I moved here full there's four empty slots in it now down the street from where she lives there's another similar one

Mm-hmm.

where our gym is and there was a cafe in there and matter of fact we were just there picking up a pizza the other day and I was like she goes you should try this cafe right here they have good breakfast I'm like cool I go what about that one over there and she goes it's out of business and I was like I just saw people there like not too long ago she was like yep they said they were trying to raise the rent and they closed it so so again it's not just our rent it's everyone's rent and they're

Mm-hmm.

And I think people think if you own these properties, I'll just fill them. They're not going to fill these things. They're going to be empty because they're trying to raise rent because I'm sure cost of everything is going up. So, you know, this state is just it's getting to a point where. You either don't want to live here for whatever reasons, the government here is horrible, our governor is a piece of shit.

I mean, unless you support him, but I just think that...

I don't support Newsom after being a hairdresser during COVID.

Yeah, no, well, I mean, I'm saying any of our listeners that that may, you know, I don't know, I know people who are pretty hardcore Democrats and fucking hate him. They're just like, we are over it. I just think that that's the biggest thing for us now is to just revolt against the system. It's like we have to find a way to fix California again, make it affordable. But for people to live here, because most of us

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

But the problem is they keep raising taxes, but they're not accountable for what they use the money for. So we have enough money to fix the problems of California. We just need somebody to balance the books, be right about it, and start putting the money where it belongs instead of in their pockets. We're having a hard time with that.

They do them. Absolutely.

Right. Yeah, I mean, well, I mean, I know he had, he had tons of money, but we're in a deficit now. I don't know where they got rid of, yeah, we're in a huge deficit. I remember, I wanna say it was maybe in the early 2000s, which is scary to say 24 years ago. But I remember when they were talking about the state being bankrupt, like,

huge.

Mm-hmm.

How? We're the fifth largest economy on this planet. Not in America, we're a country and it's because they keep giving the money away for nothing.

Mm-hmm.

and we have the highest taxes of anywhere in America. The second is New York, the third is Hawaii.

Yeah. So we're we're just burning bridge after bridge after bridge and and it sucks because you know you were born here and raised. I was yeah I was born and raised my friend down the street born and raised in California. So

I was born two miles from where I've lived my whole life, in either place.

Mm-hmm.

And that's kind of what we were talking about because we were at her work eating lunch and just bitching and moaning about like, you know, rent because she's like, man, rents are my mortgages and they want to fucking raise my property taxes and they want to do this. And she's like, they're making it impossible for me to live here. And again, she's in the medical industry. She does quite well for herself. And even even her, who's

Mm-hmm.

been doing it, she's like, I think she just did 25 years where she's at. She's stressed out over, you know, bills. And I went across the board and asked a bunch of other friends of mine after, and we're all like that. Everyone's like, fuck. And like, it was funny, because she asked me like, how do you do it? Like, because my, obviously, my car payment is more than hers and my rent's more than hers.

Mm-hmm.

And I sent her a screenshot of my, my outlet calendar that has all my bills and shit on it. And I was like, I go, because I, I do this way. Plus I go, look, you know, like I'll take your lunch, but I go, I don't do that very often. So like I pinched pennies here and do this and do that. And you know, whatever it takes. but we shouldn't have to do that. You know what I mean? Like.

Agreed, yeah.

you know, this state, look, we talked about leaving the state, what, like what would happen? And she's like, I looked at these states just for shits and giggles. She wasn't like really looking to leave just to find out what she would make elsewhere. And she's like, I won't make, you know, near as much. And I was like, yeah, but the cost of living in that state is way different.

Mm-hmm.

I'm like, you know, a house payment in that state instead of, you know, 2100 is probably 1400. So you're, you know, apples for apples, orange for orange, whatever. So I said, look, you would be okay. And you know, you're in a medical field, you're going to be okay. Now me, you know, I might have a harder time because I'm in sales and, you know, I would have to move to a state that

because I'm in wholesale electronics. So I sell to custom installers. So you have to have a market for custom installs, right? So California is great because people here want to spend money on TVs and speakers. So I'd have to go somewhere where that is prevalent. I also come from the alarm side. So I could really kind of go anywhere in this country.

Mm-hmm.

because people put in alarms regardless, know, thank goodness that crot.

Well shit, with the way everything is going they have to.

Yeah, well, crime, like I hate to say it, but crime for that industry is amazing. You know, the more crime, more, yeah, the better we do. We used to joke that we needed a serial killer. Because when there's a serial killer, man, you, everyone's putting in alarms. Yeah.

Mm-hmm. The better you guys do. Yeah.

Everybody's getting them. Yeah. You know, the other the other night I was taking a walk down the street and and people fly down the street like it is. It's an interstate like it's amazing how fast they go. And this person ran into the back of a truck and kept going, pushed the truck up on the curb and kept going. And and so it was a hit and run. Everybody came out because the noise was so loud. I turned around and went back in like

you know, was being nosy, of course, to see what had happened. And we saw this car making all kinds of noise going down the street, and they're probably going to get away with it because crime is, excuse me, is also up. And so, and they're dealing with the homeless and they're dealing with all this other crap. And now all these smashing grabs that are going on, they will probably never catch that person. They ran into the back of that truck. And I went kind of looking because I'm just nosy and...

Correct. Yeah.

wanted to, but there was nothing to see. couldn't find the people.

Well, and then the police are so busy that mostly where you live, try calling the police in the San Fernando Valley and see what happens. I guarantee you it's probably at least 20 minutes. I'm guessing.

Mm-hmm.

I don't know. I've had really good luck because there's the PlayStation right down the street now, but it's right. It's on Sepulveda, but it's actually across the street from the homeless homeless. Yeah, the homeless. No, the mission like it's like a mission situation. They take people in. Yeah. Yeah, so.

on mission,

Alright. I have a friend who works there, actually.

encampment.

yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I know what you're talking about.

I don't know, we get really good response and there's actually, I see a lot of police driving up and down the street. I like to sit in my car and listen to music before I go in just because all the construction and everything. So if I have a call I need to make or a text I need to do, I'll sit out in my car and you'll see three or four cup cars roll by on any given day. So I'm lucky for that, but.

Yeah, where I live, have a police department, but they're contracted sheriff, San Bernardino sheriff. So they're everywhere here. Like I see them driving all the time. So, and from what I understand, good response time here. Cause where I live, there's not as much crime. So, it's, mean, either way that I always tell people cause,

Mmm.

The better the area, the more likely your house is to get broken in. Because they're not breaking into the shitty neighborhoods because there's nothing there. When we were talking, she was telling me about some of the doctors that she works for live up above in these really nice houses and they're all getting hit. Like, yeah, because they have shit. And the criminals know that these big houses

Mm-hmm.

Mm-mm.

That makes sense.

are going to have nice stuff in it. like, yeah, I mean it.

You know what we're also having are the kids having their races down the street and also doing their donuts in the intersections now. yeah, yes. San Fernando Mission in Woodley, they're spinning their wheels going around, it sounds horrible.

Really? There? Wow.

There was a couple accidents the other night because of it and then everybody zooms down the streets. You can hear them zooming down the street as if, you know, they're trying to get away from police. And there's hundreds of kids in cars doing it. And you know, you see if you're on social media at all, kids are getting hit. I these people don't know how to make their cars go in a way that's safe and they're running into people trying to videotape them for their, you know, their...

YouTube channel or whatever they're on all the time.

Yeah, all the time. see those stupid videos all the time of people getting wrecked. I don't see that around here where I live, or at least haven't heard of it. Yeah, that's probably very true. Pretty lucky.

yeah. yeah.

You're lucky.

Balboa and San Fernando Mission, which is always a very high traffic area, has all those right now. All the circles from the donuts. I swear, come on down, check it out, I'm not lying.

No way.

That's a crazy intersection right there. Like very busy, like right off the 118. Wow, wow, what happened? That's...

Mm-hmm.

There's not, you know, we defunded the police and we brought down the criminal responsibilities for doing what they do. And so what did we expect? You know?

Yeah.

Yep. I just saw something on.

I wanna say Instagram, it might've been YouTube, but I'm not sure. But there's a store, and they didn't say what they sold, but there's a sign on the door, and this is no bullshit, because I saw the actual pictures in front of the store. It said, all items in store are $950. And it goes,

Mmm.

when it says your non-criminal discount will be taken off at the register. And it said it. So what they're saying is if you walk through the door, they're telling you that everything that's in the store is above the limit and you're gonna go to jail. I was like, but it was great. It's all your non-criminal discount will be taken off at the register. I was like, damn.

that's hilarious.

There you go, and that's how it should be.

I'm

That's awesome.

I mean, I think it's awesome, but it's sad that California has come to something like that, that you have to do something so stupid.

Well, is there such a thing as too liberal? Because that's what we've become. And the more liberal we are, the more we're taking five in the ass. So this is just our punishment for not taking a stand on crime. They have right now, they have teenage gangs that are coming into 7-Elevens and they're robbing three and four in a couple hour period.

Yeah, I agree.

They're taking all the money, they're taking whatever else they want, and they're walking out. And they come out with their bikes and their skateboards, and then they go to the next place and they do the same damn thing. They don't even have cars. Now where in the hell are these parents because they all need a good ass kickin'. I guess one lady saw that her son was a part of it, and she turned him in. She's like, I'll be damned if you're gonna turn into a criminal. Let's stop this now.

Yeah, I I hate to say it, but do you blame them? I mean, we've made it okay to be a criminal in this state, like literally.

No.

Well, we also made them feel like they're entitled to everything and every whim that they have. So why would they not just walk in, take what they want? We taught them to be like that. Kids don't work for shit anymore. And then when they work, they're so obnoxious. You can't even go to a Jamba Juice where one is working. And if you say thank you, they just look at you like you're a dumbass. They don't even know how to interact with people.

Right. No, that's what I mean.

Yeah.

True, I totally agree with that. They're just, this is different. I mean, I hate to be that guy that just sounds like the old fart, but we've become the old farts. I mean, I get it. mean, look, I'm just as much one of those people that like to un-people and just go away.

But now we have become the old farts.

That's what my friend down the street said one time. She was at work and she was going to lunch and she goes, yeah, I think I'm just gonna go un-people at lunchtime today. And I was like, un-people, that's perfect. That is the greatest thing I've ever heard. Just like get away from every human being in the building. Like I'm gonna un-people. I guess she goes, I went to my car and just sat in my car and just un-peopleed. I was like, and the funny thing is is that for me, I totally understood it right away.

What does that mean?

Mmm.

because sometimes you have to just get away because we've made even the people in this state are so condescending and so like entitled. Everyone thinks they're entitled to everything. Now you say no to a customer and they don't know what to fucking do. They're like, what do mean no? No, I can't do that. We have a guy who comes in to my work and I'm utterly not bullshitting. Every single time he buys something and I'm in wholesale.

Mm-hmm.

So very small margins anyway. He goes, is that my price? Yeah, dude, this is wholesale. You have to have an account to buy here. That's everyone's price. so, and I think it's rolling over, and this guy is an older guy, but it's rolling over now to everything. Everybody's like, it's my price. It's, you what's my price? Or, you know, no one haggles with Walmart.

Mm-hmm.

But heaven forbid you have a small business and they want to haggle you to the ground. So, and soon there won't even be small businesses in this state because no one can afford the rent. So, you know, I think what we are kind of talking about in the bigger scheme of thing is you get what you paid for, right?

you

Right?

You put in shitty politicians to make shitty laws and now it's gonna drive away. You're gonna have no choice but to go to Walmart and Target because that's all that's gonna be left.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Or you could buy online. Go through Amazon like everybody else is doing.

or you're gonna, yeah. you know, so where there won't be the American dream anymore. No one's gonna have a business. It's gonna be five companies are gonna run the planet. you know, look, we don't have a lot of time left. And I say that like 25, 30 years isn't a lot of time, but you know, what's gonna happen to this state in...

Mm-hmm.

40 years.

I don't know, we need to take it back. was saying today, you know, like we're supposed to be voting tomorrow. And everything that I'm reading up on is bullshit one way or another. You know, it's like, well, you know, if we do this, then the schools will get more money. Schools got so much damn money, where's it going? Show me where the money is going. Or, you know, we need more police officers. Well, that was an understatement. I thought we'd...

huh.

Defunded them so you want to give them money back or you know, and they're talking about taxes raising taxes again You can't bleed money out of a turnip and that's what they're doing But where is all the money that you're already getting because if our taxes are the highest in the whole country What are you doing with that money? And why are we not living better than we are and? why are Yeah, yes, and why are our veterans and our homeless not handled?

No.

Why isn't someone libel?

You know?

Veterans should be taken care of they should not be living on the streets by any means They should have all the medical that they need to fix what's whatever is going on with their PTSD or their their You know their phobias and things that they've come back that should be handled first We the borders are just bleeding into the US now I'm Native American. I don't believe in the borders So, you know we we come up from a place where everybody got along and they traded as they needed to and and

Absolutely.

We took care of our own, but that's not the case anymore. Now we've got all these people just bleeding into our country to where it's taking from us. We can't take care of ourselves. So it's time to like stop bleeding our economy, stop the borders. Everybody has to come in the same way. You're gonna do it legally or you can't do it at all. And that's what we should be doing because we need time to be able to take care of the people that we already have here and the people that are actually.

Correct.

Native to hear that need to be handled first and foremost before anybody else

Correct. And look, I think a lot of people think Mexico, right? Because all these Mexicans are coming in. It's not. mean, there are, but it's everywhere on the... I saw video of people coming over the border that were from another continent. And that means not South America or Central America.

It's not Mexico.

Mm-hmm.

another a whole nother continent. No, there is. Look, the Honduras, there's tons of places. Look, there's a lot of communist countries down there that, you know, people want socialism and communism. Look at Central America. And yeah, trust me, you'll be you'll think you're in the greatest country on the planet. But I mean, there's a lot of people coming from other continents. And and for me, I don't give a shit if you're coming from England. Don't come here.

There's a lot coming from South America though for sure.

Yeah, they'd just go and stay there for a while.

Mm-hmm.

We don't have room. You're right, we have to kind of stop, sustain, see what we need to do, you know, and that kind of thing.

And we don't need to bring in everybody. I get it, that we're a melting pot. I totally get that. But why can't we bring them in as we could afford them, as we could accommodate them, as we could help them, as we could take care of our own and whoever else is coming in? That's just smart business. That's just being smart in general. So why is that not happening?

Me too.

Right.

Correct.

And why is all this money that's already going, all these billions of dollars that's going out for it, why isn't it getting better?

huh. I agree. I mean, and look, whatever your your opinion is on what's going on in Europe, you know, we have to stop sending money to fund these wars. You know. No, you know, and then you look at this state.

They're not our problem.

Like I said, at the end of the day, you have to look at this state as like a country. And why we're in this mess has a lot to do with what we just talked about. Unresolved tax money. Could you imagine if you sent your taxes into the IRS, you fuck up one line and they wanna audit you, but no one's audited the state of California. If property taxes go up, how they're talking,

Mm-hmm.

A lot of people are going to lose their homes. And I mean a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot of people.

Mm-hmm.

That's why you gotta be careful of how you're voting right now. And you can't trust who you're voting for anyway, so how's that?

Yeah, and well, and just.

I just think that first grassroots shit, if you can, regular people need to start trying to get into these positions of power instead of letting a bunch of people who are career politicians suck them dry and live in big houses while we live in nothing. California, look, we have a governor who's more worried about traveling.

to become the president than he is about governing his own state. So I just think that, you know, after an hour conversation at lunch about this state, and like, look, I love this state. I left it for two years and it was so nice to come back home. But it's getting harder and harder to see the future here because I don't know if we're gonna be able to, you know.

Mm-hmm.

with the rent situation, like I said, I seriously, and I mean, a hundred percent serious was like, I should probably, you know, rent your rooms because everyone will win. Like she would now pocket $2,000 that I could pay for her mortgage. And then me, and if she paid the bills, I would, I would pocket that that I pay here.

Mm-hmm.

I think we're all going to be in very weird situations with with renting rooms from people or or tons of roommates like I told my son because he kind of said something about you know when you grew up it was different and I was like okay my first apartment I got was in 1991 I made six dollars and fifty cents an hour my rent was 900 bucks it was me and

Mm-hmm.

right.

Slicy and dicey and kind of shitty so My whole thing is just you know for people who are listening to this show that are outside of the state and look I'm sure A lot of them have the same stories because I've heard that rent all over the country is kind of out of control

but this state is just a different monster. And for the people who listen that are in the state, look, it is a good state. can't, there's some great parts about this. The weather is impeccable. There's years that in February it's been 70 degrees. No, I talked to...

Mm-hmm. We've had Christmases where we're outside riding our bikes and t-shirts and shorts. And that's the majority of the time. Yeah.

Short, yeah. It is. Within reason, mean, I talked to my dad when he moved to South Dakota. The first year, they had four and a half feet of snow. Yeah, so, and they were like, you should move here. I'm like, are you out of your mind? Like, I can't move to a state like that. My whole thing is just, you know, to talk about the mess that this state is in is,

Hell no.

is an understatement and I just think that, you look, I'm sure there's stories out there that are very similar to this because of economies and, you know, inflation and the cost of groceries. But here, gas prices are out of control because we are so environmentally friendly, they won't fucking drill for gas off of here because the progressives are out of control. My thing is

Look, California is a great state. Are we gonna end up living here forever? Who knows? But there is a bigger crisis in this state that I think going forward, we're going to have to try to fix it. I hope, I really hope that after this mess of years, the next time...

the governor comes up for a re-election, they finally dump his ass and see if we can't restart.

I think everybody that's been in a position of power, we need to get rid of and start putting different people in.

Yeah, yeah, and that's all over the country. But this state, there's just too many. There's two, because I live in a pretty red city. There's a lot of American flags here. There was a Trump rally down the street from here on on Saturday.

There were people driving their cars and honking and yelling at people. And it was so scary because I was walking. Excuse me. And there was almost a fight. Just the people screaming from corner to car because they don't believe in it. And I was like, shit, just get me out of here. I don't want to be a part of all of this.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's crazy. and again, I just think that look, there's always going to be Democrats and Republicans. I just think that this state is I think shifted a lot. I think that you're going to see like the Trump's not going to win California for sure. But I think that you're going to see a lot more votes than you think. This is a pretty red state outside of San Diego, LA and San Francisco.

But anyway, look, my last thing is I love the state. I'd love to stay here forever, but I just don't know if that's going to be the reality going forward. I guess we'll see in the next few years, but let's hope that we can at least change something up. Because I'd love to have the 90s back.

We'll see how goes. I would like to be able to walk down the street without worrying about being hit by a car or have the homeless, you know, shake me down. That I'm not worried about because we have so many people in and out of our house all the time that you can't tell who's gone and when they're gone or what. I don't worry about that. But the houses across the street's been hit several times because the man lived alone.

Yeah. Or someone breaking your house or, you know, that kind of thing.

Right, right.

Yeah.

So yeah, that's something that we should worry about. I just don't because...

Yeah, I should just walk into your car crimes up so much that and people are now getting desperate and when desperate times, you know shit happens All right, darling. Well nice seeing you again after a week off of my nose surgery I'm I'm doing all right and hopefully Wednesday I get out my splints and I won't sound like I'm Pinching my nose shut but

Mm-hmm.

Glad you're feeling better, yeah.

Peabody.

Yeah, any last words?

I that y'all get out and vote tomorrow. This is gonna come out after voting, but I hope that you got your asses up and actually helped out the situation instead of just bitch about it. Yep.

Yep, try to change the world. All right, well, this is an opinion show. Don't get it twisted. Keep coming back every Wednesday. Check us out on the social medias. Listen to us. I'll share it. All that good stuff. Until next Wednesday, I'm Rob Dastina. Talk to you later.

See ya.