EXCLUSIVE: DHS Reacts After Texas Woman Sentencing Over Fraudulent FEMA Claims Tied To Los Angeles Wildfires
'Anyone who steals from American taxpayers will be held accountable'
California Governor Gavin Newsom is being touted as the Democratic Party’s next presidential hopeful, but political commentator Kevin Dalton points out that his abysmal track record might be an issue.
“Obviously, leaving severely mentally ill, drug-addicted people on the streets to their own devices isn’t working. So, two or three years ago, Gavin Newsom came up with this great idea,” Dalton tells BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere on “Stu Does America.”
The idea is called CARE Court, which is meant to address homelessness and mental illness by offering those suffering things like free housing, medication, and job training.
“So, flash forward two years, we finally get some numbers from CARE Court. Hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars, of course, are gone. And Gavin Newsom promised that this would get around 50,000 people into the system, off the streets a year,” Dalton explains.
“I can’t even remember the exact numbers, but I think a few thousand ended up signing up, and then most of those were just kicked by the courts. ... It finally spiraled down to, 22 people ended up being forced into CARE by the CARE Court,” he continues.
“This is such a perfect example of millions of dollars, hundreds of millions of dollars, just going away and no results. And then Newsom just moves on to the next thing,” he adds.
Stu points out that the number spent was around a quarter of a billion dollars.
“Twenty-two people, almost a quarter of a billion dollars, absolutely amazing, even by California’s standards,” Stu says.
Meanwhile, the California wildfires have wiped out thousands of homes — and left thousands of families waiting for their permits to be approved to try to build new ones.
“In the meantime, their bills are adding up, and they’ve got these people, the corporate buyers are coming in, trying to scoop up their land now because it’s just easier. It’s just an absolute mess,” Dalton says.
“For somebody who wants to run for president, you’d think, maybe start to address the homelessness, maybe try to get people back in their homes from this apocalyptic fire,” he adds.
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Adam Carolla tried to warn us.
The contractor turned podcast star spent years telling Californians how hard it is to build anything in the Golden State. Decades, to be more accurate.
Carolla calls politicians like Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass 'somewhere between incompetent and nefarious.'
It’s a red-tape nightmare under one-party rule, Carolla cautioned.
Now, six months after wildfires devastated large swaths of the greater L.A. area, locals are learning that lesson the excruciating way.
Carolla is tracking the rebuilding effort, or lack thereof, on his podcasts and YouTube channel.
“You don’t get how pernicious these regulations are. Everything’s in triplicate. It makes it really hard to build stuff,” Carolla says.
He hates being right, but so far, the state’s Democratic machinery has proved to be as slow as predicted. He can see the results — or lack thereof.
“I’ve scoured the place on almost a daily basis,” the California native tells Align of looking for signs of construction in the afflicted areas. “There are a couple of structures, maybe three I’ve seen in the Palisades area being rebuilt. Zero in Malibu that I’ve seen.”
Newsom has suspended some environmental restrictions to allow for speedier recovery efforts, but even the left-leaning Wired admitted the progress has been agonizing.
Carolla, who flexed his home-building chops on his “Catch a Contractor” TV show, knows the visual cues that accompany a work site. Flatbed trucks. Stacks of plywood. Cement mixers.
All of the above are in short supply, he laments.
The hard-working comic started a new YouTube-based series chronicling the rebuilding process. “The Malibu Fires: 6 Months Later” video generated more than 900,000 views in two weeks along with 4,600 comments.
He’s struck a nerve following the wildfires, but it’s a lament he began during his days co-hosting the syndicated “Loveline” radio show in the 1990s with Dr. Drew Pinsky.
“Nobody ever gave a s**t about what I said,” he recalls.
Carolla broached the subject anew after leaving his Malibu home in early January. He recorded a raw, 45-minute monologue from a hotel room that day, and it swiftly went viral.
“Be prepared to deal with the city of Los Angeles, the red tape, the coastal commission,” he recalls saying at the time. He added insurance nightmares would only complicate the rebuilding efforts.
Carolla interviews a crush of personalities on “The Adam Carolla Show,” from celebrities to influencers. He even quizzed then-Mayor Gavin Newsom in 2013, a hardball Q&A that left the future governor reeling.
The Democrat isn’t likely to revisit their chat, and Carolla assumes other state Democrats will avoid his podcast studio, too. He calls politicians like Newsom and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass “somewhere between incompetent and nefarious.”
“They’re process people. They don’t know how to build anything,” he says. "[Bass] didn’t get elected to do this. She wants to fight ICE.”
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Carolla cracks wise for a living, but highlighting the California rebuilding process is no laughing matter. Some could consider his commentary “clapter,” the kind of political banter that plagues the now-canceled “Late Show” with Stephen Colbert.
Carolla makes sure to bring some wit to his monologues.
“I use half my comedic brain and half my construction brain,” he says, understanding that lives have been disrupted, or much worse, by the fires. “My job is to be accurate.”
He relies on a tried-and-true comic technique to broach the challenging subject.
“If you watch the vlogs, the humor is I’m the butt of the joke ... so as long as I’m the one who ends up looking foolish, there’s always room for some humor,” he says.
Carolla isn’t hopeful that the rebuilding efforts will suddenly pick up, mostly based on local restrictions. The state is still a relentlessly blue region, although for fellow Los Angelenos, the fires represent a “rock bottom” moment where voting preferences might change.
Might.
“I don’t know about California,” he says. “There’s still a broad Democratic stupidity that goes on in this state.”
Carolla already has his sights set on Nevada as his future home, but he sees a glimmer of hope for the Golden State.
He recalls spending time with the Army Corps of Engineers and has faith in the American people rolling up their sleeves when given the chance.
“When the workforce is unleashed, they’re pretty miraculous,” he says.