Siyamak Khorrami on Why Making a Deal With Iran’s Regime Is So Hard, and What’s Happening in California

While they might be negotiating with the US, at the same time, they're negotiating with China. At the same time, they're building the weapons and they're making, signing a deal that we're not gonna do it. And unfortunately, this has become part of the culture of certain countries where if you do something unethical, it means you are very smart instead of, Showing that you're unethical, people would think that you're very smart, you're able to do that. You lied and you got what you wanted. Welcome to Bayer Renovators. I'm your host, Steve Ispas. Today we'll be talking to Siamak Korami, the host of California Insider and Market Insider. He's also from Iran, so I'll be asking him about the war in Iran, what happens next, which side is right, and how the war is affecting the whole world. We'll also talk about California issues. The things that he sees from guests that talk about California, is it housing issues, homeless issues, how they're being addressed. And finally, we'll talk about his show, what he sees as most challenging with his guests, as well as most rewarding. This is Steve Ispas, and this is Bay Area Innovators. Siamak, welcome to Bayer and Auditors. Thank you so much for having me. Well, awesome to have you here. So you're well known for California Insider and Market Insider, but you're also from Iran. And the Iran war, you know, it's been going on for a while now. And there's so many questions. In a way, it's a mysterious war because we have one side. They're saying that, yes, we need to get in there. We need to get rid of the nuclear weapons or program and finish this war. And the other side is we should have never started this war. Gas prices are going through the roof. And it's an endless war. Give us some sense of what's going on. There is another side of this too, the Iranian people. And they don't have any voice in the media. Yes. And this is where it gets very interesting. Because unfortunately, the media is not really able to go there and talk to the people and see what they want. Because there's a big percentage of Iranian people that want to have a change in Iran. A lot of times when people look at Iran, They might think there is a division among Iranian people and the Iranian government. Like how we have here Democrats and Republicans, we're fighting each other all the time. And it's like 50-50, sometimes Republicans win, sometimes Democrats win. In Iran, it's different. And about when I was there, when I was growing up there, in my class, I was in Tehran, a big city, capital. In my class, in my high school, I didn't know anyone that really supported the regime. And that was 25 years ago. And somehow it's surviving. Somehow it's surviving. And the question is, how? Because... At that time, there was a lot of restrictions on us, like you have to watch out to not make anyone angry. If you have a business, you have to probably bribe the government officials. There's a lot of corruption. And if you were wearing short sleeves, as a guy in some cities, you have to be careful. Somebody may not like it. And women, the way they dress. They have to cover. They have to cover their hair. At that time, they had to. Now it's gotten, people are fighting it. But at that time, the government was still functioning. You know, the basics of your needs, like electricity, water, power, those things were there. And the inflation rate was not as bad as now. Things have gotten a lot worse in the last 25 years. And then on top of it, in January, they did the killing. When they did the killing. Thank Those are protesters. There were like 40,000. The number is saying 40,000. We don't know what it is, but I've seen videos of thousands of people dead. you And they used machine guns in the streets and they didn't care if they were killing kids. very Yes. Cool. Adults, elders, and I've even heard stories Thanks so much. Have a good week, everyone. Thanks. of after they were doing the killing, We are out of time. much. Thanks. See you, guys. they went to the hospitals and they found Have a good week. Thanks. the wounded, they killed the wounded, Bye-bye. Stay safe. they ripped the nurses that they were helping the wounded. Bye-bye. Fortunately, it was really good. Thanks, everybody. So it was a very brutal crackdown. Thank you, guys. Have a good weekend. I appreciate it. Thanks everybody. To discourage any kind of... Peace. Thanks so much. Yeah, and this means like this regime really wants the power, See you. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Thanks, everybody. Have a good weekend. Bye-bye. whoever that's behind the scenes. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. And so, in terms of the Iranian people, a lot of them were supportive of the war. And they were, because this is the only way out for them. In terms of the America's interest, that's a good question. I'm not an expert into finding out did they have a nuclear weapons or not. But from what I gather and I know is that Iran's system, the way they work is they fund the proxies. And they cause a lot of trouble in the Middle East. And the government of Iran is not really a good match for the people of Iran. Because the people of Iran are very pro-West. They would support and work with Israel. They would be supportive in that region. And there's a lot of young people in the country. So they can produce, they can build a good economy. And there are other countries like UAE that doesn't have as much resources as Iran does. Iran has a lot of resources. I think we've got a couple of more questions. We've got a few more questions. But they have built an amazing country there And we're going to take a few more minutes before we get started. So if you have any questions, we will get to them. But if you have any questions, please feel free to post them that is not a democracy, but it feels like in the chat or in the chat room. And we'll get to them as soon as we can. So thank you for your time today. a first world country where you want to go there. We'll see you next time. Thank you. And Iran could be like that. So a lot of people in Iran, they want something different. So basically, there's almost no way out for the Iranian people because you have this regime that it's pretty powerful and they have weapons and they're going to kill people so they don't try to overthrow So, what's the solution, what can, how can this change? It's a good question, if it's, how powerful they are. They have a lot of propaganda, and they're using the propaganda, and the propaganda is even in, across the globe. Yeah. And then they have the Chinese Communist Party helping them too. And they have Russia, the Chinese Communist Party, and at the same time, the people of Iran don't have weapons, and they... They don't have that much leadership inside Iran because there's nobody, if you're in opposition, you're going to be killed or taken out. So it's a really good question, what will happen? And at what point will the system break? Because the same people that are serving this regime right now, They also must be stressed out because they're always wondering whether it's going to survive and there's going to be a point for them that they might want to say, this might not make it, so I need to get out and take my family. So that's another thought, like there might be, I think they're on the brink of collapse, but we'll see what happens. We'll see what happens. So I grew up in Romania and in 1989, there was some kind of a revolution in Romania. And it was the same thing. The population had no weapons, had no way to overthrow the government. The turning point was when the army shifted. So the army decided to take out the dictator, take out the old government and be with the people, or at least that's what it looked on the surface. Do you think that can happen? That's going to be a good question because they have done a lot of purges in the army. They always purge people, so people that get to the top may not be independent. And once they gain some power, they might get purged again. So it's a good question whether that's possible. And then they also have spies. It's kind of like the Chinese Communist Party. They have a spy system inside the network. So even you might be the number one, you want to switch, and then the number three will tell everybody else, and then they're going to come after you. And you know how the spies are there, so you have to be careful. Wonderful. The challenge right now with Iran is another challenge, too. There is a lot of corruption and the system has been corrupt. And people, unfortunately, this type of behavior, lying, cheating, this type of behavior is part of the system now. And it's going to be very challenging if there is a regime change, how people would overcome this. And putting boots on the ground is another question. It's above my pay grade. That's great. Now, Trump talks about, I think just a couple of days ago, he said Iran can be the greatest nation in the Middle East and maybe around in the world if they agree to stop this, or they can be annihilated. What do you think he means by annihilating them? How can that happen? That's a good question. I don't know that. He's talking about hitting the power plants and there might be a lot of casualties. And all of that. And the sanctions itself is all... Iran has been annihilated, unfortunately. If you look at what it is going through right now with all these sanctions, the Iranian passport is useless. But there's a lot of young, talented people. And the people that come to other countries, they always do really well if they get the chance, if they get the opportunity. So the talent is there. The natural resources are there. And But we don't have the access to the global economy. And that's where the opportunity is. If Iran was able to open up and let go and allow the people, if if the current government, current regime was able to come and say, very we're sorry, these things were going to change. And maybe there is a potential to make a deal with them and say, much. you guys go away and let... More new people come, but they may not want to do that because of financial benefits, whatever benefits they have. And then there is an element of them that is very radical, that more like religious, that they are very ideological and they are willing to die for their belief. Instead of saying sorry. Instead of saying sorry or like backing off. They're the ones that want to like eliminate Israel and they have a strong belief. And that's what they have been. They have grown up with this. A lot of these people, they grew up with death to America, death to Israel, and it's very hard for them to make a deal. And a few months ago when this negotiation started, I did an interview on my own show about this and I didn't think that they could make a deal with them because some of these radical people, They don't want to. They grew up with death to America. They cannot make a deal with America, especially after their leadership was hit. You know, I wonder if there's a parallel. I'm going to give you an example. I talked to a historian about Japan in 1945. I asked him, why didn't we have something like we did with South and North Korea, where you kind of have an armistice, where you have an agreement, you don't have to completely take down the government. or remove that kind of government and they said he told me that that kind of extreme government in Japan at that time it couldn't be dealt with even if you have an agreement with them. A few years later, they're going to attack you again or they're going to, you know, because it's ingrained in their DNA. So they had to completely remove it and start from scratch. And in Japan, of course, after that did great. Do you feel that that would be? That's the same thing with the Iranian government right now. Unless the people fundamentally change, which is very hard to change when you grew up with this system of cheating, lying. And while... They might be negotiating with the U.S. At the same time, they're negotiating with China. At the same time, they're building the weapons and they're making, signing a deal that we're not going to do it. At the same time, they might be building. That's the way. And unfortunately, this has become part of the culture of certain countries where if you do something unethical, it means you're very smart. Instead of... Showing that you're unethical. People would think that you're very smart. You're able to do that. You lied and you got what you wanted. And this kind of culture is very strong in Iran right now, especially among the government and the leaders. Wow, that's amazing. Well, let's move on to California. So you've been hosting the show California Insider. You have a new one, Market Insider. Give us a sense, what are some of the main issues that you have heard on your show with California? I mean, there's so much, but... Give us some examples of what you're hearing. Yeah, so housing is a big one. And we have a lot of challenges with housing issues. And we're in the Bay Area. You know how it is. The housing costs are very high. And there's a lot of competition for housing. People that work with the tech companies, these AI companies now, they have the income, they have the money, and then others that are having normal. Jobs that are not tech jobs. They cannot compete and they cannot buy homes. A lot of first-time homebuyers are not able to afford it. And same thing with Southern California. Across the state, we have this problem. And even in rural areas of California, we still have affordability issues. Some of it has to do with our laws, the way we plan. There's a mindset in California that some cities, they don't want any housing. And then the state is forcing the cities to have a lot of housing. And in the middle of that, there is another side of this where... The state wants people to commute less and walk so they won't have an environmental plan where you live close to your work and potentially in an apartment complex and and so there is that initiative as well so these all initiatives are competing with each other and as a result of it we'll see if there will be more housing but we might be building a lot of apartment complexes People may not. We see a lot of that, a lot of new apartment complexes being built and a lot of people complain because parking becomes a problem, it becomes very crowded. And it changes the whole way the city... And some people are complaining exactly that these apartments are going to be rentals. They're usually luxury rentals. And as a result of it, when you have renters versus homeowners, the way they come into the community, they act differently. When you have homeowners, they're much more committed to the community, they're committed to the city, they get more involved. And some people complain that these kind of apartment complexes are not good for good for homeownership. Now, there's changes in the state, and there's been a lot of effort to change these laws. There's one law that's about to get signed that would allow people to put townhomes, to build townhomes easily. But the cities are losing complete control over the buildings because the state is taking over with a lot of state laws. So before the cities had so much power and they could block a lot of development, but now the state is passing all sorts of laws that might force certain cities to have to build. This is something for us to watch. And at the same time, right now, the cost of a home in California, median cost is 900,000. It's like double the national average. Right. And a lot of people, this is the number one reason why people leave the state because of cost of housing. That reminds me, you had a documentary called Living California. So that was the number one reason in your documentary as well. We talked, we had a few different reasons. And we talked to people that were leaving the state to find out why they're leaving. And we found different reasons. Some were crimes, some were different reasons. Like businesses face a lot of lawsuits. We had some business owners that were frustrated with the lawsuits and that they were done with all the rules and regulations here. But housing is a key one. When People get to a certain age, they want to start a family, and they realize they can never buy a home with the income they have here. And then they look around and they say, I can go to Colorado, I can go to Arizona, I can go to Utah, and I would pay half the cost to buy a very nice home that I can start a family in, and and my salary would go down by 20, 30 percent. It's not... It's going to go down significantly, so people will end up going. And some jobs, some of these states have more jobs now, and so people end up leaving. Now, what other issues are hot in California right now? The other issue that's really hot that we've been paying a lot of attention to is the gasoline-diesel prices. And we had a number of refineries leave. So it's not just the war in Iran or Ukraine, it's a combination of things. It's a combination of things. So right now, the cost of gasoline in California is 50% higher than the national average. And when the cost goes up for everyone, the cost goes up for us as well. And some of it has to do with the war, especially with the diesel right now. What's going on with diesel is that... The refining capacity of the world got hit too, you know, certain refiners in Russia got hit by the Ukraine war recently, the Saudi Arabia refinery, some other refiners across the globe. There is a shortage of refining, so that's why diesel prices jumped. But in general, we had a couple of refiners that shut down in California. And the reason they shut down is because they faced significant regulation. We don't know exactly. They didn't tell us what was the reason they left because they tried to not say much. These are public companies. But we heard that one of them, Valero, faced a $180 million fine. And then they were, and this is secondhand information I got from some people, that the county was going to find them as well, the state find them, their local authorities found them. There's a couple of different groups that wanted to find them for the damage they did to the environment based on historical actions. So they decided that it's not worth it to do business in California. And the issue is the refineries are very important because they produce a lot of different types of material here. But the state is now going to end up importing more gasoline from other countries. And we have talked to experts in this space, and they think we have... in the supplies out there but we're relying on the other thing about gasoline in california is a very special kind of gasoline it's a special blend because of the regulation yeah and it does to some levels that the blend might be very interesting because it helps to avoid pollution right but some people argue that it's too much it's gone too far the blend has gotten too complex With this kind of gasoline, only few refiners across the globe can make it. It's not every refinery can make it for California. There's some refiners in South Korea and India that can make it. And with this war and this conflict, we were wondering whether they would make it for California. But we probably pay high prices, and we're probably good customers, so we will have the products we need. Cost might be higher and higher. The other factor is that a lot of times when we put policies in California on, when we have policies, environmental policies in California, we don't take the total cost of something in mind. So when we ship something from South Korea and to California, we don't count the emissions that is costing the world for the ship to get here from South Korea. We only count a few miles off the coast of California, and then it looks greener to have a ship bring your gasoline than actually a refinery that's causing pollution in your area. That's very interesting. Because I guess in that case, we only care about the U.S. borders. It looks like we only care about our own area, our own region. Yeah, yeah. But there is another philosophy is that we always have these environmental philosophies in the state where some people want the gasoline prices to be very high so that we don't drive. And so as a result, if gasoline is $10, $15, then people will drive less. And then hopefully that helps the planet. Well, you can argue that it also helps with traffic, you know, if you really want to drive, you're going to pay more so you're not in second traffic. So there's an argument on both sides, but still that's crazy to have those numbers. Any other hot topics that come up in your discussions? There's another thing that is, there's another trend that I'm seeing in California. It's like when we started California Insider, there wasn't that many people covering California issues. And we are an independent media. We came in from a fresh perspective and looked at the problems. Thank The media in California, they were very connected to the current policies of the state. And there is an element of advocacy, you know, for homelessness, you the cause of it, the media believes the cause is poverty. very So they will always tie homelessness to poverty. We came in and we covered the issues. much. We realized that there's factors inside home. There's drug addiction, there's poverty, there's mental illness, there's other factors as well. And when we covered it and we saw stories of people that... People wouldn't be able to read these stories in their newspapers, and the mainstream media, the old school papers, would not cover things holistically from a fresh perspective. So we started covering a lot of issues in California with a fresh perspective. We were getting a lot of viewership. And at the same time, I believe a lot of people got inspired to start new media, new programs, to talk about the problems of California, especially after the fires. When the fires in LA happened, people realized that we have some issues, the state is not operating at 100%, there's challenges, problems, and even the mainstream media is now looking at the problems of California. It's very positive to see that people are starting to see we have problems in California and we can do better. Do you think there has been any dent, did you make any dent in the legislation? Were you able to see as a result of what you covered and what people are talking about that somehow a law has been changed or at least attempt to make a change? I don't know specific ones, but I know that as a result of our coverage, things change. So, for example, we had one gentleman come on the show, talk about the RV homelessness encampments in his region. And two weeks later, they were all gone. And, you know, and people take action. And what the problems, back in the day, some people didn't even believe us when we talked to them about these issues, about homelessness. There's different sides to it, about issues with. Thank gasoline and refineries, and when we would talk to people, people, sometimes the viewers would not even believe this could be true because their newspaper would not tell the opposite. And homelessness is always about poverty and we need to give housing to people. But then we had a gentleman come on the show you. and say that he has an electrician. And so. Somebody has a tent in front of his house that is connected. Wire from the pole, and he has TV, and he talked to this gentleman and said, why are you living in a tent here? And the person said he's an electrician, he just has an addiction problem. And our guest was a construction expert. He's like, I'm in the construction field. I can hire him right now, pay him a lot of money. He doesn't need to live in the street. The problem was addiction. It was not the poverty. So when people started seeing these things, people started questioning what they're hearing. And the good part of this is that the more information that is out there, we are very innovative in California. And even the public servants we have, the people we have in the office, they can do things, and they do things based on the public opinion. And if the public opinion shifts on some issue, they're going to vote based on that. I've met with a lot of different senators, assembly members, Democrat, Republican, and they told me they look at the district and they assess what the public wants in that district, and they try to vote based on that. So if there's a change on the issues, if people realize we have problems, the only challenge here is that when we have a lot of independent people post on social media, sometimes there is an element of hate. And when you question that the government is not doing a good job or they might be misusing your taxes, there's an element of hate, which we have to watch out for. Because right now we have too much hate in the society. Yes, yes, yes. And too much hate will cause good people not want to run for office. Hmm. Because running for public office, if you are an honest public servant, you don't make much money. And then you have to deal with a lot of headaches, a lot of issues, and you have to go back to back to back to meetings. And every two years you're doing a campaign, every four years you're running for office. It's a lot of work. And so we need good people to run for public office. And I hope that we can get rid of this hate. And if we are covering these issues, we do it with a lot of compassion. And for California Insider, we want to try to have more panels, more discussions, and with different perspectives, and have civil discussions. To encourage a change in the right direction, without hate and without blocking people's minds. When you do your interviews and you talk to all these people, you know, what is the, what is most satisfying for you, the discussions you have, what's most rewarding? So we cover a lot of issues and it's great to learn from different experts and listen to how they explain the challenges, problems, and each expert has different knowledge. It is fascinating to see, like I've interviewed 20 people on homelessness and they all look at it differently based on how they were involved with the issue. But the most rewarding part is when people bring up certain moral And their moral compass that motivates them to do things in a certain way. I'll give you an example. I interviewed this lawyer from your area, from North Cal. And he was fighting for the Point Reyes National Park. They were going to shut down the ranching there. Oh, yes. The ranchers made a deal. But then they had about a number of workers that were Latino. They didn't speak English. And they had worked there for many years, for a couple of generations, I think. And he approached them to get them as a customer, pro bono. And here's someone that doesn't speak Spanish, but he wants to help them. And so he comes on the show. He explains the problem. He explains how he's fighting for these ranchers. And I ask him, why are you doing this? And usually we... um psychologically we have layers when when when i ask the why question people will give an under surface answer so he said oh i'm doing this because we need to do some charity work to help the community and then I said no why are you doing it and then he says well I want to motivate the young lawyers that are joining us to know that we want to help the community we should give back to the community and then I went the third layer I again asked him in another way so so why are you doing this pro bono and he said this is when he got very fired up and he said It's my duty as a California lawyer to to stand up for people that are not treated well. And in that moment I realized that if any lawyer is watching this show right now, they're gonna learn from this veteran lawyer that's willing to give his time for the community how to be a good California lawyer. And those are the moments that are very rewarding for me when I see somebody bring up A character that inspired them. We had these real estate developers on the show and we were talking about development and it was an interesting episode recently. And one of the developers mentioned, we were talking about the housing problem in California, how... People that have homes, they don't want to sell them. They have low mortgages. And as a result of them, you could be a couple that already like empty nested. You had like a six bedroom home or five bedroom home. You don't really need it. You can downsize, go to a smaller one and somebody else can buy this home. But people are not doing them because financially it doesn't make sense. And this developer told me that his mother told him that maybe we should sell our house so somebody else can use it. And there is this element of doing the right thing in the show that people bring up about their parents, about helping the community. That's when it's very rewarding. Wow. What's most challenging? You're There is a few challenging things in producing the show. We don't like to criticize individuals. welcome. We believe that different people have different values. They do things based on their values. And sometimes they do two good things here, two bad things there, and two things they thought it was good, but it turned out not to be that great. So we don't like it when the guests want to criticize people. And, um, And when things become very one-sided, and unfortunately politics will get people emotional. They make you charged up, so hate the other side. It doesn't matter how they grew up. It doesn't matter. You just want to hate them. So when we have those situations where we have somebody that's really angry or upset, they come on the show, and then we need to coach them and help them. to get their message across without without attacking others and so that that's the most challenging part and also sometimes when we have guests that are very calculated and they don't want to because the show is designed in a way where people open up their heart and they speak Speak from the heart. Right. And they really educate the audience. Because a lot of us don't know these issues. Thank you. Insurance issues in California goes back to three decades. If you read one article, two articles, it's not going to get you there. But if you have somebody that's in this space that's willing to open up their heart and explain what they've seen. and bring that honesty to the table in that 30 minutes you learn so much and and once you know all these topics insurance housing then you kind of have a good picture of what's going on around you and then you can make sense of the sound bites when you hear in the news that there's a change to this insurance situation so that's the key getting people to open up their heart and share the information with us in an honest way We cover a lot of issues, and to prepare is another challenge, to know different sides of the story. Sometimes we go in and we do something that's completely one-sided. To be fair, to be fair for one side. We look at one law, and we only see the side that the guest believes, but there's some details on the other side and how the law came to be. And usually these policies are, they're not like 90-10. 60, 40, 70, 30, 70% of the time, maybe this law is good, 30% is bad. Maybe 70% is bad, 30% is good. You can pick each one and make a case out of it. And that's why how these laws come into existence because somebody pitched it to a lawmaker and there was an emotional story and the media saw the emotional story and then they made that. But then after it's in effect for like 10 years, see the other 70% that it's negative. So that's the key thing, understanding how these issues in real life work and what's the positive side and what's the negative side. That's the hard part. Wow. Sema, we thank you so much. There's so many California issues. You bring them to life through your show. You know, I watch the show. It's been an amazing experience to watch it and understand what happens. Best of luck to you and keep bringing more guests. Thank you so much, Steve. Thank you for watching another episode of Bay Area Innovators. If you enjoyed this episode and you know someone who should be on our show, please send us an email at sfbay.epochtimes.com. We would love to hear from you. Thank you and see you next week.