And very happy Monday to you at 1207 in the West. It's the John Phillips show. Mr. Randy Wings in Culver city. John, we have a last minute entry for the Los Angeles mayor's race. The filing deadline was Saturday on Friday night. Lindsay Horvath said that she is not running. She's going to run again for LA County supervisor and Saturday morning, Nithya Raman of the LA city council and DSA member announced that she is challenging Karen Bass. And what's most hilarious about all of this is this is an unbelievable backstabbing because if I'm not mistaken and correct me if I'm wrong, because sometimes when you go back into time with your own memory, you get things wrong. But Randy, you follow this very closely. If I am not mistaken, Nithya Raman at some point in the past endorsed Karen Bass for reelection two weeks ago. So not only did Karen Bass believe that Nithya Raman was not a threat as a potential challenger to her. She thought Nithya Raman was going to be an enthusiastic supporter. I wonder what changed. We also know and again, correct me if I'm wrong, but the Democratic Party at some point in the past planned on getting behind Ethan Weaver, who was the challenger to Nithya Raman. He was running against her for city council. He is a Democrat. He's a registered Democrat. He's the same person and he wanted to just go back to basics and focused on local issues, trying to make life better for people in that district. And I believe it was Karen Bass who went to the Democratic Party and said, don't do that. Even though Nithya Raman is a socialist and not a traditional Democrat, you need to get behind her because she votes with me on the council and the Democratic Party did. And she won that primary outright and did not have to go to a runoff. She got like 51% support and the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for Karen Bass for moving heaven and earth on behalf of Nithya Raman is that Nithya Raman stuck the knife in the moment that report came out in the Los Angeles times, alleging that Karen Bass doctored up the after action report on the LA fires that burnt down the Pacific ball of Sades. No, couldn't happen to a better person. This race is now going to be incredibly ugly in the next four months because Nithya could definitely split the Bass vote. And there is no honor among thieves apparently as these two who once considered each other close allies are now going to be at each other's throats for the entire campaign. For more, let's go to a report from Fox 11 in Los Angeles. I'm Susan Harris. Soon it's not October, but you could call it a big surprise that right before the deadline, a notable name jumped into the race for LA mayor. LA city councilwoman Nithya Raman has announced her run for the position until today. The progressive Raman was viewed as a Bass ally. Fox 11's Rachel Aragon joins us now live from outside city hall in downtown LA with reaction. And it was a busy week for people jumping in and out of this mayoral race. Rachel, people are finally going to pay attention to this race. Oh, they will now Susan. That's absolutely correct. A pretty wild week here in Los Angeles, at least when it comes to the mayor's race. We know some people deciding to jump in last minute. Others, Susan, as you know, deciding to not run at the last minute. But regardless, though, we are now in February and it's really anyone's guess who will be mayor of Los Angeles in 2027. Mostly crime voters in studio city detailing the top issues they want to see improved in Los Angeles. For me, it's it's really about the unhoused. I really feel like right now the homeless, it needs to be addressed the area. Well, that's Nithya's district. So I don't think they're really getting to get any support there. No, and she is known for not returning anyone's phone calls. If you are a business owner or a constituent in her district, they just ignore you because in her mind, she is there to serve the homeless. The area represented by district for council member and Nithya Raman, who announced her run for LA mayor Saturday. During a news conference, Raman said Los Angeles is at a breaking point and people fill it in the most basic ways. And by the way, interesting thing about Nithya, Nithya was the whole reason there was that back room dealing going on when it came to redistricting, you know, the little incident that got Kevin De Leon and a bunch of trouble and Nuri Martinez had to resign. It was all about they hated Nithya and they wanted to put her and make her district with more homeowners instead of renters because they were trying to knock her out and it did not work. No, they're trying like hell to beat this woman, whether it was through redistricting or a Democratic challenger in the primary. Nothing has worked so far. During a news conference, Raman said Los Angeles is at a breaking point and people fill it in the most basic ways. But wait, you're on the city council and you're in charge of the homelessness and housing committee. So aren't you to blame for some of this? Keep in mind, her philosophy is that we should never break up any encampment ever, including ones that are right next to the schools. Revealing same issues like homelessness and affordable housing. She's going to run on the platform of its Toyota's fault that they have catalytic converters to steal because we don't want to criminalize our communities. Raman's last-minute announcement comes days after a bombshell report by the LA Times, alleging incumbent mayor Karen Baz watered down or softened an after-action report on the Palisades fire. I wonder how long Nithya has been thinking about this or was it just after that report and the immediate blowback where in LA people were actually paying attention to that story. She saw blood in the water. Okay. Think about this for a second. We know that the LA Times reached out to Karen Baz for comment before they published the story. Correct? Yes. And they didn't want to say anything, but they knew the story was coming. So the mayor's office knew the story was coming. So in theory, they would share that information with what they regard as their allies to just give them a heads up that this is coming. Maybe, maybe the mayor's office tipped off Nithya Raman that the story was coming. And that's how she found out about it. And instead of trying to figure out how to protect her ally, that's when she decided she was going to go on her own and she was going to challenge Karen Baz. And let me give you another theory. Someone had to tip the LA Times off that that report was altered. Someone in the know had to be the one that tipped off the news that that's what happened. Well, the sourcing for that story says that they had two different sources that specifically were talking to people in Karen Baz's office that verified what happened. Okay. So the city council is a co-equal branch of government to the mayor's office. Think about the separation of powers. The mayor is the executive branch. The council is the legislative branch. So in theory, they have just as much access to that report and how that report is put together as the mayor's office. So in theory, they would be aware of what's going on too. And if you were someone who works for the mayor and you are looking to jump ship for one reason or another, my guess is ideology is playing a role here because we know that in Washington, D.C. and Sacramento and other places, Democratic staffers are far to the left of their Democratic elected bosses. We saw this play out with Gaza, where different staffers have resigned from their offices. We saw it happen with John Federman. We saw people get upset at Joe Biden over his position on Gaza and they try to push their bosses to the left. If you're someone who's working for Karen Baz and you know it's a dumpster fire and you have an opportunity to throw her under the bus and then go ahead and work for someone who is more aligned with you ideologically if they're the one that ends up replacing her, that's when you become brutus. That's when you decide you're sticking the knife in due. Her office has denied the allegations. Baz, who is running for re-election, reacting to Roman's decision to run. First of all, it was a surprise and I will tell you that I will look forward to working with Letheor Roman in my second term. It's a little bitchy. Oh yeah. Well, she's got to be furious. Can you imagine privately how angry she is that this betrayal took place? Letheor was asked outside City Hall when she filed if she had told the mayor. Apparently, there was a phone call, but she didn't want to say what any of the details were. How many F words were on that call? Oh, Mother Goose found all kinds of ways to rhyme with words that rhyme with luck. If you're feeling down, if you're feeling blue, let's get help for you. Following that explosive report, businessman Rick Caruso confirmed he reconsidered a bid for mayor, but ultimately he's such a tease. Yeah, what's the deal with that? I'm thinking about running. Maybe I'm running. Maybe I'm not running. I don't know. Just say what you're going to do already. Do you know how excited media salespeople get every single time he says he's about to run and then to find out that he's not and they probably already spent all that commission money they thought they were going to get from those buys. Well, now they're going to have to kiss Tom Steyer's ass. But ultimately decided not to run. Roman enters a crowded field of candidates running for LA mayor, including former reality TV personality Spencer Pratt, who lost his home in the Palisades fire. He spoke to Fox 11's Matthew Cedar earlier this week. Karen Bass demanded changes to the after action report and there's like nine versions of it. There's no looking forward until we get the answers and the people that are responsible are fired. For now, many LA residents still unsure who they plan to support for the city's top job. Well, let's check in with the average California voter. What do you have to say about this race so far? No, I don't know enough to give you any good information, but good luck finding someone who does and therein lies the problem. I'm trying to keep an open mind this time around and I'm ready. Whoever's going to bring LA up again. That's that's who I'm going to vote for. There's a long list of other candidates who are now challenging Mayor Karen Bass. That list of by the way does not include LA County supervisor Lindsay Horvath. As you know, she announced last night in a social media post that she is not running for mayor of Los Angeles. Of course, when we can see what happens, but so much to really monitor Susan as we live up to that June primary. Pretty live in downtown tonight. Are Rachel ever gone? I'll send it back to you. Absolutely, Rachel. Well, 30 candidates at the last count, maybe 31. That's a lot of cat flies. Oh yeah. When you include this surprise announcement by Nithya Raman, but not very many people have a notable name. Austin Butener got out. Recrucso decide not to run. Lindsay Horvath decided not to run. So of those candidates, who are the most well known? Do you suppose? That's a very good question. The list of people who are running, though, how many people actually can name those candidates? I talked to people in Los Angeles and a lot of them couldn't name a lot of the candidates. But as you there's probably a lot of them that couldn't name the current mayor. No, there's three of them who have some degree of notoriety. Karen Bass, the incumbent, probably more than anyone else. Spencer Pratt, who comes from reality TV, whose home burned down in the Pacific Palisades fire and Nithya Raman. A lot of it is negative attention, but people know her name. But as you heard Susan, a lot of them did say homelessness seemed to be the number one issue for many residents here in Los Angeles. Well, whether it's a vote for Bass or for Raman, if you like what you're seeing when it comes to homelessness in LA, you're going to get more of that. Well, it's like having the option of getting shot in the head or shot in the torso. I don't know which one I'd prefer. Well, Nithya Raman, that was her role with the city council. So there you go. Nithya Raman is challenging Karen Bass and this race just got interesting. Okay. Nithya Raman poses a unique threat to Karen Bass here. And I say that because of two reasons primarily. One is that Karen Bass does not have the ability to say that she's had a successful four years as mayor. She can't ask voters the question, are you better off now than you were four years ago? Is the city cleaner? Do you notice fewer people living on the streets? Do you feel safer? Is it easier to buy insurance? Do you feel confident that the Olympics won't be a disaster? All of the questions that a mayor running for reelection that would be relevant, she can't ask because everything has gotten worse. So what the plan was was to rely on naked partisanship. She was going to say that she's the one fighting Donald Trump. She's the one standing up to ICE. She is the Democrat in the race and we all need to line up behind the Democrat because we all hate Donald Trump. That works if you're running against someone to the right of you. That's what she did versus Caruso. That's what she would have done versus Caruso. That's what she would do versus Spencer Pratt. It doesn't work if you're running against a socialist because there's no way you're going to get to the left of a socialist. That's just not possible if you're a standard hack Democrat. The socialist is always going to be to the left of you. Even if your personal politics are the same as Nithya Ramans, your public politics are different. And so that takes that tool out of the toolbox. The other problem for Bass is this is where Democrats are right now. They're voting for socialists over standard Democrats whenever you give them the opportunity. It's what just happened in New York City with Mom Donnie. They had the option of going with a former Democratic governor in Andrew Cuomo. They had the option of sticking with an incumbent Democratic mayor. They chose the socialist over both of them. In Chicago, that gremlin was running for reelection against a socialist that the teachers unions put up. Who did the voters of Chicago side with the incumbent Democrat or the socialist that the teachers unions wanted? They sided with the socialist. We saw a race in Seattle, same dynamic. Socialist incumbent Democrat, they went with the socialist in Seattle over the standard Democrat. And in Los Angeles, it looks like voters are going to have that opportunity. And if you are a left wing electorate, my guess is if you really want to indulge yourself, go with the socialist because Karen Bass comes from the House of Representatives. She comes from a world of partisan politics. She's close to Nancy Pelosi. She's close to Hakeem Jeffries. She's close to the power brokers in DC. So she knows where they are right now. And they know that things like abolishing ICE, you can't do that. That will kill them at the polls if the Democratic Party gets behind abolishing ICE. They know that defunding the police is poison nationally. So she can't do that. But Nithya Raman doesn't have any of those ties. She can come out in favor of eliminating ICE. She can come out in favor of defunding the police. She can say let's replace all of them with social workers. It's ice cream for breakfast for everyone in Los Angeles, whatever. She can do things that Karen Bass can't. And with an electorate that is far to the left and skewing more left wing every day, that makes her a threat to Karen Bass. What say you? Do you think a socialist could be the next mayor of Los Angeles? I do. 800-222-5222. Your calls coming up right here on the John Phillips show. 800-222-5222. Easy telephone number 1-800-222-5222. If you'd like to email the show, you can do so at JohnnyDon'tLikeShow at gmail.com. That's JohnnyDon'tLikeShow at gmail.com. And Randy, you're monitoring the mail bag. Sean and Carl's bad writes in at JohnnyDon'tLikeShow at gmail.com. Would LA elect a socialist mayor? What about a second communist mayor? I think Karen Bass qualifies as a card carrying communist. There's some alliteration for you. If it rhymed, Karen Bass might even repeat it. That is her thing. If you're feeling down, if you're feeling blue, let's get help for you. Or how about this one? Landowners, just take one, just take two and we'll work with you. That was to put homeless people in your apartment buildings. Oh yes. That worked out great for us, didn't it? A socialist candidate is now running against Karen Bass for mayor. It's actually the second socialist candidate because there's that Ray Huang, no relation who has got zero lift off whatsoever. Well, now there's a socialist candidate who's coming from the city council, a one-time ally of Karen Bass, who now wants Karen Bass's job. Do you think the city of Los Angeles could elect a self-described socialist to be mayor? I do. Let's go to Scott in Hollywood. Scott, hello. Good afternoon, gentlemen. Whoever would have thought that Karen Bass's biggest detractors would end up enthusiastically supporting her if she's in a runoff with Nithya Ramon. I think Nithya Ramon may very well take it, not because LA voters would be voting for her in a majority, but she has the ability to use the DSA to ballot harvest. Here's the problem with the DSA. I've been screaming at the local press to report a organized political group in town next to the unions. They'd be more uniform than the unions, but they have the ability, they have 100,000 members across the country, and there is nothing stopping the DSA from getting their members to register in Los Angeles for this upcoming election. They are that nefarious. Some of these DSA members are crossover Antifa people. Their recommended reading list includes the Communist Manifesto in a new book called A Fallish Rent written by a local LA journalist. Nithya is not going to play well with the average person, but we should not underestimate her ability to get ballots. Oh, I don't doubt anything you just said. I think that she poses a bigger threat to Karen Bass than Rick Caruso would have if he decided to put his name on the ballot and enter this race. This city is not the city that elected Dick Reardon as mayor after the Los Angeles riots. This city has moved farther and farther and farther to the left, and when you think about the population changes that have taken place, all we think about is the number of people who have moved out of state. Well, yeah, a lot of that has gone on. The state is going to lose between three and five congressional seats in the next census. However, another problem is the population changes that have taken place within the state where you had people who couldn't stand the lockdowns during COVID, and Barbara Ferrer was the shot caller in all of Los Angeles County. I can't tell you the number of people I personally know that includes myself that moved from Los Angeles County to other counties in California. I can't tell you the number of people I have talked to who have moved out of Los Angeles after the fires or who couldn't take the homelessness anymore or who couldn't take the crime. Their business was being destroyed because of all the crime, so they decided to move Orange County or the Inland Empire or Ventura County. The population shifts and changes that have taken place within the state are making politics in places like Los Angeles that much farther to the left, because the people who aren't offended by any of this, the people who stick around, are the people who think that Karyn Bass isn't going far enough. And I bet you there are a lot of Nithya fans that reside and vote in the city of Los Angeles beyond her district. Well, there are, but like going back, like I said, they have the ability to organize their registering homeless without any expectation of the homeless going across town, trekking across town to retrieve their ballot. These people that are registering the homeless are using their address for the ballot delivery, you know, by the U.S. Postal Service. And fooling that signature verification machine is extremely, extremely easy. If you look at the regulations, and the number of rejections are minimal, minimal, and they know it, and they're organized and they're funded. This is where the problem is going to be. This is where the problem is, and I think the average moderate Democrat needs to be schooled, and your station, your program, social media here and there, are the only people trumpeting and telling the public how dangerous these people are. They're not Democrats. They just use that modifier before their word, the word socialist. And if you go onto their website, the word Democratic disappears. It's just about socialism, socialism, socialism. And many of these people are self-described Trotskyists. They're all Marxists. 90% of them will admit it, and the other 10% are liars. This is the problem. And you know one thing I'm really upset, I like Rick Caruso a lot, but I think he's really led a lot of people down. I think he was so disappointing to hear the news on Thursday morning after he toyed with people on Wednesday and then doubled down by dissing Spencer Pratt. Spencer Pratt may not have much experience. He has actually no experience, but we know his heart's in the right place. And if he can broaden his appeal to South LA, the Valley, Central LA, maybe he can get into the top too, but with Karen Best, that might be his best avenue. But against Nithya Raman, he's got the history of being a Republican, although it's not a partisan seat. That's going to harm him against Nithya. It'll probably help him with one effect on Karen Best, because she can't point to a single, a single success, a single achievement. The enthusiasm has left the room for Karen Best. She knows it. I wouldn't even doubt that Karen Best just bows out of the race. All right. Thank you for the call, sir. Let's go to Ben in LA. Ben, hello. Oh, I'm so glad you chose me. Karen Best was my congressperson. And I'm telling you when we had her, we were having a terrible time with telemarketers. We're talking about thousands of calls per month, and we started getting swatted by somebody that owed us money. So we called Karen Best's congressional office, Help Us. We know who's swatting us. We're not getting help from the Nevada police, not getting any help from LA County Sheriff. And you know what Karen Best did to help us? It's your cue. She did nothing. She did nothing. And we heard a little while later, her telemarketing our home. So that's how tone-deaf they are. Not only do they ignore what you need, they'll run over you with their money-grubbing operation. I have voted Democrat pretty much my whole life. I'm never going to vote Democrat again. Not really happy with the Republicans, but I'm definitely open to independence. Mr. Spencer Pratt has lost his home, lost his home because of Karen Best's incompetency. She is incompetent. I mean, you not only know successes, there doesn't seem to be any concern that she hasn't had a success. And when she's confronted very rarely with a hard question, she freezes like when she came back from the fires. I see this city government as kind of like current price. I asked his office three years ago, have you guys even talked to a homeless expert? You've given away billions. No improvement in the homeless situation. Have you talked to experts? Why should we? The associate says. And now, of course, his boss is up for charges. So I'm telling everyone, wash your hands of the Democratic Party. It doesn't matter who's running, whether they're commie or whether they're incompetent, you're not going to get anything from the Democratic Party in California. They don't work for our votes. They don't have to because you vote for them no matter what. So I'm rebelling. I am a Democrat, but I'm not going to vote Democrat for the rest of my life because they're traitors. They're traitors to the working class. They're traitors to residents. They're traitors to immigrants because they don't have a long term plan. They don't want immigrants to really inculcate. They want immigrants to replace and displace residents because they don't want us. They want our money. We're just numbers to them. Rich Caruso is a traitor. He didn't run an effective campaign. In fact, he should have criticized Karen Bass, but the only people in his commercials were Hispanics. It looked very racist. Who was running his campaign because he drove a winning campaign into the ground? A competent developer who proved that he was competent by his success in preserving some of his developments. Why didn't he take his candidacy seriously? That's what I want to know. Definitely a better mayor candidate, but we don't have him right now. It's looking like Spencer Pratt. I hope that he has good people around him. He says people are sick of politicians. They don't trust them. He can't trust Karen Bass because she doesn't remember what lies she told the day before, and she's obviously trying to get promoted. I don't think she has any interest or love for the city of Los Angeles. I do, and I don't like her. I encourage everybody who's a disappointed Democrat, quit the party permanently, and let's build a new series of parties independently outside of these two monolith dead parties. Maybe we can develop a city with proper public safety, fire, law enforcement, housing, and maybe make housing affordable. The answer is certainly not to bankrupt landlords, which is what is happening right now, and I'm sick of it. Right now I have a liquidation and migration plan, and it is not even to another county. It's out of the country. The quality of life under Democrats is so bad that the president is actually targeting Democratic cities. I don't believe this is right, but he's doing this, I guess, to slander all the mayor and leaders, and he really doesn't have to try that hard. All right. Thank you for the call, sir. I appreciate it. Let's go to Frank and Sherman Oaks. Frank, hello. Now Frank dropped off. Okay. Let's go to John Burbank. John, welcome. Hi. Thanks for taking the call. Are you getting an echo from where I'm talking? A little bit. Are you in the men's room? Oh, no, I'm going to go outside then. A comment about both Bass and Laman. Laman is my county district post. We have been fighting for three years to get some homeless things in the Riverside homeless shelter removed. They've had homicides there. It's a drug-ridden site for the gang. She won't bring in funding up police to police the area. The local crime in the area has increased. She votes to leave homeless people next to schools and libraries and things like this. And we also now have a copy on the check. I think it's for about $41,000. She sets up these commissions. Oh, we don't know what to do. We need a study. They set it up. They give them a half a million dollars, and then they kick money back to her. We actually have a check showing that. She definitely shouldn't be there, but the thing is she is worse than Bass. And Bass is at the bottom of the bill. So it has to be someone else. I'll tell you, I would regret to have to vote for Bass in order to keep Laman out of the mayor's office. And we'll still have to put up with her for two more years as a county person. She's absolutely the worst. People should look into both of these people. But it is that socialist society that's funding all of it. Same group that put in the mayor of New York. And their whole deal is to change the values of the people of the United States and their religion and have a whole different realm of order. All right. Thank you for the call, sir. 500 orders a month was manageable. 5,000 is madness. Embrace intelligent order fulfillment with ShipStation, the only platform combining order management, warehouse workflows, inventory, returns and analytics in one place. What used to take five separate tools, ShipStation does in one. Go to ShipStation.com and use code start to try ShipStation free for 60 days. 800 222 5222 is a telephone number 1-800-222-5222. If you'd like to email the show, you can do so at Johnny, don't like show at gmail.com. That's Johnny, don't like show at gmail.com. And Randy, you're monitoring the mailbag. Tom from Corona writes in at Johnny, don't like show at gmail.com. How about Raul Castro from Cuba for LA mayor, like all socialists. He brings prosperity wherever he goes. Just look at Cuba's robust economy. Viva la Castro. Well, he could get the senior vote. Raul has been around for a while. Let's go to Dave and Calabasas. Dave, hello, John, I agree with your assessment that a socialist could win, especially since they're so passionate as voters. I believe it could happen. Spencer Pratt must be popping the champagne corks because let's face it, any vote for Nathya Raman would have gone to Bass and it's a flank attack for Bass. Of course, he's furious. I wish you would play that clip of her again saying, I look forward to working with Nathya Raman and by second term as mayor, you can feel the anger. So I'm here to say that it is over for Bass between Spencer Pratt on one side and he's just so well known and he's so beloved for the work that he's been doing over the past year. He's going to have a very passionate fan base. And then the Dheeram and the city's been moving leftist to socialist side anyway. If all those protesters we see on the street go to vote, they're all voting for Nathya Raman. Karen Bass, it's over. Thank you for the call. I don't even need a sound effects machine when we have these callers. Let's go to Martin in Los Angeles. Martin, hello. Yes, very good show, John. You do such a good job explaining technicalities in the various parties. Why don't you call a social democrat what they are, which are communists? Must your station approve what you call things or people? Well, they're socialists in the sense of what you learned in political science school, which is they believe the government should own the means of production. Now, that is very close to communism. You could certainly regard that as a communist belief. But part of what goes on when you talk about the rhetoric regarding political races is people slap labels on candidates that they frequently dispute. And one of the labels that candidates frequently dispute is when you call them a socialist. In this particular case, these individuals are providing that word for themselves. They're not saying I'm not a socialist. They're not running away from it. And whether you call it socialism or communism, it's a collectivist attitude. It's a collectivist idea as to how the government should run. Neither one of them work. Both of them are awful. Both of them would be a complete disaster for Los Angeles. And I'll also say this, Karen Bass is someone who certainly flirts with that side of the aisle. She was socialized into politics based on her love of Fidel Castro. She supports all the people who are burning the waymoes and burning the city and quote unquote protesting. She supports the DSA block on the city council because they vote with her. She helped create the monster that's going to take her out. And you know what? She deserves it.
