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Republicans Are On a Losing Streak · The Bill Handel Show

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to KFI AM 640, the Bill Handel Show
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: We're less than two weeks away from the midterms, and
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  Speaker 2: we'll be talking politics, quite a bit of it, as
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  Speaker 2: the midterms pan out. And it's going to be fascinating.
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  Speaker 2: President's approval rate dropped yet again. And some Republicans are
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  Speaker 2: bailing out. They realize that they're on a losing streak.
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  Speaker 2: I'll tell you what else some Republicans are doing. That's
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  Speaker 2: a backlash to what happened yesterday. U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff. Now,
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  Speaker 2: what is a U.S. Special Envoy? It's whatever the president
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  Speaker 2: wants him or her to be. Whatever job, whatever investigation,
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  Speaker 2: whatever negotiations, usually it's negotiation that goes on. That's what
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  Speaker 2: a U.S. special envoy is about. And then there are
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  Speaker 2: diplomatic envoys and then there are financial envoys. Yeah, it
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  Speaker 2: goes on. But the U.S. special envoy is basically whatever
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  Speaker 2: the president wants. And Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, both
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  Speaker 2: with vast experience in diplomacy, have been tagged to, well,
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  Speaker 2: represent American interests nationally. and certainly negotiate the peace in
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  Speaker 2: the Ukraine war and what's going on in the Mideast
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  Speaker 2: with the Iran war and what's happening with the Iran
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  Speaker 2: war with the United States and Israel specifically. All right,
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  Speaker 2: so here's what happened yesterday. There is an American who
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  Speaker 2: was being held in Russia for the last four years.
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  Speaker 2: He is a teacher. His name is Stephen Hubbard. He
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  Speaker 2: was picked up in Ukraine by Russian forces and was
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  Speaker 2: tried there. for fighting for Ukraine in Russia and was
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  Speaker 2: put into prison. And whenever Russia or any country holds
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  Speaker 2: an American, especially in which the government, our government, deems
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  Speaker 2: that there is no case here, this is an arrest
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  Speaker 2: and a conviction that has no merit at all. The
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  Speaker 2: negotiations start government to government and usually in an act
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  Speaker 2: of good faith. One or another prisoner is released or
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  Speaker 2: there's an exchange of prisoners, a spy for a spy
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  Speaker 2: kind of thing. Although in the world of Russia, everybody,
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  Speaker 2: anybody who is an American may very well be a spy.
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  Speaker 2: You're crazy to go to Russia anytime these days. So
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  Speaker 2: Stephen Hubbard was arrested, and Witkoff is meeting with Vladimir Putin,
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  Speaker 2: talking about ending the war with Ukraine. And then it
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  Speaker 2: was announced that Putin had released Stephen Hubbard. And there
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  Speaker 2: they are at a table, talking to each other across
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  Speaker 2: the table. And now we have Envoy Steve Wyckoff talking
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  Speaker 2: to Putin in front of the cameras. So everybody can
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  Speaker 2: see you talk so much about my president, President Trump,
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  Speaker 2: being a humanitarian, Witkoff tells Putin right there. And this
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  Speaker 2: was in response to Hubbard's release. And I quote, this
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  Speaker 2: is Hubbard to Putin. You are a humanitarian also, sir.
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  Speaker 2: And I salute that and I commend you and I
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  Speaker 2: thank you again. Well, calling Putin a humanitarian, that's a
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  Speaker 2: tough one. I mean, you can call Putin a whole
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  Speaker 2: lot of things, but humanitarian? I don't know. And the
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  Speaker 2: backlash immediately started, given every Democrat's going to scream no
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  Speaker 2: matter what the administration does. But even Republicans were upset. Now,
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  Speaker 2: not all of them. There were a few Republicans that
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  Speaker 2: just straight out said, this is disgusting. This is terrible.
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  Speaker 2: For example, Tom Tillis, who is a detractor of Trump
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  Speaker 2: and has been for a while. WTF, Steve? Look up
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  Speaker 2: the word, the definition of humanitarian. What an embarrassing and
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  Speaker 2: outrageous thing to do. And then you had several other Republicans.
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  Speaker 2: You had Cornyn, who was ousted in his primary race
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  Speaker 2: in Texas. He says, no, Putin is a stone cold killer. Now,
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  Speaker 2: the interesting part about this is who spoke against this.
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  Speaker 2: And as I said earlier, I'm going to talk about
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  Speaker 2: this for the next two weeks. More and more Republicans
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  Speaker 2: are going to distance themselves from the president during this
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  Speaker 2: election because his approval rating is dropping like a rock.
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  Speaker 2: But at the same time, there are plenty of Republicans.
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  Speaker 2: One or two things are happening. Either they're frightened or
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  Speaker 2: of saying anything negative about the president, which I think
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  Speaker 2: is the majority, or a few of them are straight-out
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  Speaker 2: MAGA supporters, and whatever the administration says is absolutely true. Yep,
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  Speaker 2: if Wyckoff and the president say he's a humanitarian, he's
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  Speaker 2: a humanitarian. Even though he invaded Ukraine, as everybody knows,
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  Speaker 2: according to the world of Trump, the fault is Ukraine.
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  Speaker 2: It's actually Ukraine that's keeping the war going, not Russia.
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  Speaker 2: Russia is innocent of all of it. Zelensky is who
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  Speaker 2: is at fault here. Well, what's round is square, what's
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  Speaker 2: square is round, what's up is down, what's left is right.
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  Speaker 2: And so there's a lot of backlash here. And the
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  Speaker 2: president wouldn't disavow it. The president said, and I think
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  Speaker 2: it was half clever, he said, well, for the purposes
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  Speaker 2: of releasing Steve Hubbard, basically it was appropriate to call
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  Speaker 2: Putin a humanitarian. Now, do I think he's a humanitarian?
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  Speaker 2: I'm paraphrasing here. I'm not going to say one way
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  Speaker 2: or the other.
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  Speaker 3: Why?
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  Speaker 2: Because Putin has become a friend. That's why. And we
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  Speaker 2: are going to see what happens. And I think you're
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  Speaker 2: not going to see many, even Republicans who are on
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  Speaker 2: Trump's side, even ardent Republicans are not going to be
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  Speaker 2: standing up and defending what Wyckoff did or what Wyckoff did.
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  Speaker 2: It's just not going to happen. OK, Vance yesterday. Oh, man,
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  Speaker 2: he did. He did himself a big favor. And the Republicans.
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  Speaker 2: This has to do with an ad that Ramaswamy ran
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  Speaker 2: yesterday all about Ramaswamy's opponent, Democrat A.B. Acton. And the
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  Speaker 2: run is for the governorship of Ohio. This is well,
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  Speaker 2: this is modern day politics is what this is. And
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  Speaker 2: what Vance said is exactly what you would expect. That's
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  Speaker 2: coming up.
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  Speaker 3: You're listening to Bill Handel on demand from KFI AM 640.
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  Speaker 2: Election in less than two weeks, the midterms, and it's
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  Speaker 2: really heating up. As I watch TV, I watch a
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  Speaker 2: lot of cable TV, the news, the propositions are being
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: thrown at us. Yes on 44, no on 44, maybe
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: on 44. What do you think about 44? And that's
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  Speaker 2: just one ad after another. I mean, and you can't
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  Speaker 2: pay attention to those ads because they're all liars. All
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  Speaker 2: of them. Whenever you see yes, it really means no.
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  Speaker 2: And so next week, I'm going to start with a
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  Speaker 2: little deeper dive into the propositions and maybe a couple
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  Speaker 2: of runs for Congress, too. As far as the Assembly
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: and the Senate is concerned here in California, it's a
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  Speaker 2: waste of time. Don't even bother.
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  Speaker 1: Why?
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  Speaker 2: Because I don't know why Republicans even show up in
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  Speaker 2: state offices. Okay, we'll talk about that starting on Monday,
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  Speaker 2: I think. Now, Television ads, what we're talking about, political ads,
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  Speaker 2: everybody says we're going to take the high road at
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  Speaker 2: the beginning of a campaign. And everybody immediately dives into
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  Speaker 2: the low road and starts the mudslinging.
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  Speaker 3: Why?
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  Speaker 2: Because it works. That's why it works. And then there
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  Speaker 2: are levels of it working. And then there was one
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  Speaker 2: that Ramaswamy, that's Vivek Ramaswamy, who was claimed to fame
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  Speaker 2: as he ran for president, and that fell apart very quickly.
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  Speaker 2: And remember Doge, Elon Musk? You think of Elon Musk
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  Speaker 2: as Doge. It was Ramaswamy also who disappeared completely and
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  Speaker 2: had nothing to do with it and was immediately ousted.
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  Speaker 2: But anyway, so Ramaswamy is in a race for the
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  Speaker 2: governorship of Ohio. He's a Republican. And you have Amy Acton,
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  Speaker 2: who is the Democrat, right? So Ramaswamy runs an ad
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  Speaker 2: that he initially, no one knew where it came from,
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  Speaker 2: maybe a PAC, maybe some contributor outside of the normal
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  Speaker 2: political spectrum. No, he said he did it. His campaign
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  Speaker 2: did it. And the ad is real simple. It's Acton's mother.
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  Speaker 2: who looks like she's about 180 years old, has not
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  Speaker 2: aged very well, having almost no teeth. And she looks
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  Speaker 2: at the camera and says, my daughter is a liar.
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  Speaker 2: Do not vote for her. Do not vote for Congress.
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  Speaker 2: Do not vote for her for the governorship. She make
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  Speaker 2: a terrible governor. Basically ripping into her. Now, here's the backstory.
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  Speaker 2: And this is the backlash. And this is where Ramaswamy
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  Speaker 2: is getting a lot of grief, even amongst Republicans. Because
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  Speaker 2: the backstory is that this woman lost custody of her daughter,
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  Speaker 2: Amy Alcott, when Amy was 12 years old. And why
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  Speaker 2: did she lose custody? Because she was married to the
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  Speaker 2: man who was charged with raping Amy, her stepdad who
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  Speaker 2: raped her. And it was real simple. Mom took the
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  Speaker 2: side of the stepdad. and lost custody. All of that
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  Speaker 2: is left off. All we see is a mother saying,
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  Speaker 2: don't vote for my daughter because she's a liar and
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  Speaker 2: would make a terrible governor. Oh, also, Alcott has not
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  Speaker 2: talked to her in over 50 years. Completely estranged. Well,
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  Speaker 2: Ramaswamy is, not only is he saying, yep, he ran
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  Speaker 2: the ad, I'm backing it up, but he's also pouring
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  Speaker 2: $ 4 million into into ad campaign, buying TV ad airtime,
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  Speaker 2: and he's going to be running that ad. Now, I
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  Speaker 2: think that's a little bit, he is running at this
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  Speaker 2: pretty blindly, because the optics are terrible, because this is
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  Speaker 2: considered pretty low, taking someone's mother's who they've been estranged
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  Speaker 2: for all those years. And we're talking about sexual abuse
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  Speaker 2: and rape and somehow ignoring that and portraying as if
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  Speaker 2: that never happened. And obviously, women are very upset. Republicans
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  Speaker 2: are very upset. And yesterday I was watching news programs
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  Speaker 2: and the whole discussion was not only how disgusting it is,
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  Speaker 2: because I think everybody except a few think it's disgusting,
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  Speaker 2: but how the backlash may affect it. We're going to
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  Speaker 2: see that in the next few days because it's a
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  Speaker 2: tight race, but Amy Alcott is starting to run ahead
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  Speaker 2: of them. The differential is starting to expand. Now, yesterday
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  Speaker 2: you had adding to this story is Vice President Vance.
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  Speaker 2: He is at a rally. He's at an event. And
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  Speaker 2: he was asked about this. And he said he agreed
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  Speaker 2: that it was disgusting. But where is his disgust? Quote,
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  Speaker 2: I have to admit that I'm a little bit disgusted
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  Speaker 2: when I see Republicans across the country who are whining
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  Speaker 2: more about that advertisement than they are about what the
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  Speaker 2: congressional Democrats and other Democrats want to do to the
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  Speaker 2: United States of America. This was a fraud task force
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  Speaker 2: press conference. So the problem is not the issue of
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  Speaker 2: the rape or the sexual abuse or losing custody. The
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  Speaker 2: issue is you Republicans who care more about that than
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  Speaker 2: you do about how the Democrats are going to destroy America.
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  Speaker 2: And he said politics is a tough business. Well, I'm
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  Speaker 2: wondering if there was an ad that was run about
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  Speaker 2: his mother saying, who he didn't talk to and was
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  Speaker 2: involved in. There was rape and sexual abuse in his family.
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  Speaker 2: Would he say that? Politics is a tough business. But,
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  Speaker 2: you know, it's the reaction that the Republicans have to this.
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  Speaker 2: That's the problem. So we'll see. We'll see. And women
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  Speaker 2: are particularly upset. As you can imagine, the Republican, even
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  Speaker 2: Republican women are talking and should be. And it's breaking down.
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  Speaker 2: Those who defend Ramaswamy, who, of course, defends the administration,
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  Speaker 2: he was selected very early on to be part of
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  Speaker 2: the administration, the Doge program, are going to stand firm.
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  Speaker 2: But I'll tell you, other than Vance, who said, this
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  Speaker 2: is OK, basically, stop whining. I don't know how many Republicans,
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  Speaker 2: especially running for office, are going to parrot that. Now,
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  Speaker 2: they may not say anything. They may say things like,
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  Speaker 2: that's Ohio. That's not my race. I have nothing to
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  Speaker 2: do with that. But I don't know how many are
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  Speaker 2: going to say Vance is right. That is a legitimate ad. OK,
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  Speaker 2: we'll see. That's one of those where I really, really
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  Speaker 2: want Acton to win. Normally, I don't care about gubernatorial
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  Speaker 2: races because what happens in Pennsylvania or Ohio or Texas
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  Speaker 2: or whatever other state really doesn't affect us. It's a
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  Speaker 2: state issue. What I care about are the federal offices,
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  Speaker 2: what's happening in Congress, what's happening in the Senate, certainly
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  Speaker 2: what's happening in the presidency. That I care about because
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  Speaker 2: it affects me. It affects us far more than a
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  Speaker 2: governor's race. But every once in a while, you run
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  Speaker 2: across crap like this. And you shake your head and
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: you go, come on, guys. Has it really gotten to
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: that point? Well, of course it's gotten to that point.
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: There are some ads that were crazy. When Lyndon Johnson
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: ran for president against Barry Goldwater in the biggest landslide
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: or close to the biggest landslide that we've ever had,
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: he accused Barry Goldwater outright. of uh starting world war
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: three that he would say if he becomes president he's
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: going to start world war three and a mushroom cloud
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: commercial is what you saw on tv you saw an
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: atomic weapon test going off that's barry goldwater that's what
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  Speaker 2: he's going to do uh yeah well welcome to the
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: world of uh attack ads okay uh we're coming back
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: and uh there is a political uh bogeyman bogeyman has
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: emerged in L.A. 's election. And I'm going to tell
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: you who it is, because you probably haven't thought about
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: him in a while. This is KFI.
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: You're listening to Bill Handel, on demand from KFI AM640.
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: Another lawsuit against the Trump administration, Democrats. And this, of course,
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: is California, because the administration is looking to block some
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: 20,000 ballots from being cast. because it suspects those ballots
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: may be, those people may be illegals or may not
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: have the non-citizens. All right, we'll see what happens. I
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: think the court's going to nail the administration on that.
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: All right. Now, a little bit more politics. What I
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: like about politics, and that's just in my wheelhouse and
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: I'm fascinated by this, is.
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: The lies, the obfuscations, the attempting to fool you and
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: me as voters, and basically not tell the truth. I
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: don't care who you are. I don't care what side
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: of the coin you are. I don't care if you're Republican, Democrat, progressive, conservative.
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: It's all insane. So here's another story. Who has come
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: up in the race for the mayor? Who has come
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: up as a boogeyman? George Gascogne, George Gascogne, former district
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: attorney of Los Angeles who was ousted, he was not reelected,
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: was thrown out of there very quickly because let's just
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: say he was fairly progressive. For example, he didn't believe
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: that anybody under 18 could commit a crime. That's it.
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: There's no such thing as criminals who are 17 years old.
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: And most felonies should be misdemeanors. And no one should
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: ever be charged with a capital crime. And, and, and, and.
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: And so he was tossed because we're more anti-criminal than
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: he appeared to be. Okay, so now he's come back because,
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: and this is, let's find someone that we can nail.
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: This is a lot like everything was Biden's fault when
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: it comes to the Republicans. Well, everything was Gascon's fault. everything,
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: if you look at it. And the rumor now is
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: that Nithya Raman is going to name him as a
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: new police chief. Okay. Now, Nithya Raman says no. George
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  Speaker 2: Gascon says no. Everybody involved says no, but sources say yes.
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: And not only sources, but the rank and file of
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: the police are saying this. One of the things the
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: police did not like is George Gascon. I mean, can
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: you imagine you're a police officer and you develop a case,
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: you hand it over to the DA? for prosecution and
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: the di says no no there's no crime here but
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: he took an axe and hacked a an entire kindergarten
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: to death no there's no crime there's no crime i'm
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: sorry obviously i'm obviously i'm exaggerating but uh it took
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: it was a good time to be a criminal defendant
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: during gascon's era so at this point uh that's what's
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: being bandied about uh let's attack nithya raman uh because
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: she's going to be naming him as a new police
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: chief now we know she doesn't like mcdonald who is
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: the current police chief at all, thinks that McDonald is
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: too pro-ICE. I don't get the idea that he's pro-ICE,
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: but I guess any cooperation with ICE at all is somehow...
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: politically motivated, and somehow politically unacceptable. So let's say an
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: ICE officer comes up to an LAPD officer under McDonald, right?
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: Then McDonald, who is so close to ICE, would say,
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: whatever you want, ICE agent, whatever you would like, I'll do,
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: I will do it. Okay, that's according to people who
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: are against Nithya Raman. Nithya Raman basically says to those
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: who favor ice. if an ICE officer comes up to
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: you and asks what time it is, you do not
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: even give the time of day because that's cooperating with ICE. Now,
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: am I being a little bit exaggerating here? A little bit,
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: but the bottom line, it has to do with, and
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: none of this has to do with the qualifications to
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: be chief, by the way, none of it. Gascon actually
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: has the qualification. Oh, you know, he has the creds.
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  Speaker 2: He spent a lifetime in policing and was a police
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: chief of several departments in for he ran for DA
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: and won. But here is another accusation coming up. The boogeyman.
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  Speaker 2: This is what's going to happen. Here it is. Nithya
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  Speaker 2: Raman gets elected. Look at you folks. If Nithya Raman
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: gets elected, be prepared for Gascon to be the police chief,
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: which means be prepared for no police to ever arrest anybody.
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: That if a burglar comes into your house, it's your fault.
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: That's where the politics of this is.
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: Why not? Why not? It's just getting ridiculous and it's
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: getting more fun. All right. uh coming up uh something
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: going on with yellowstone national park a lot of politics
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: a huge uh donation and what's happening and you know
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: even the parks themselves today are riddled with controversy and
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: politics and i'll share that story when we come back.
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: You're listening to Bill Handel on demand from KFI AM 640.
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: Oh, before I jump into this really interesting donation, I
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: got a text from Jim Keeney that I believe today
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: he is doing a show at the, again, I'm having
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: a hard time reading it, Charity Community Center in the
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: Dominican Republic. He's doing it for charity. That charity has
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: been involved with it for 20 years and the charity
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: is called del Corazon de Jesus and Del Corazon de Jesus.
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: The Heart of Jesus. Yeah, it's a Jewish organization. And
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: you can go to the website, delcorazon.org. That's D-E-L. Corazon
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: is C-O-R-A-Z-O-N. Corazon, delcorazon.org. And jump into that. And Jim's
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: been doing that for 30 years. And he would appreciate it. And,
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: you know, for me, this is a mercy shtoop. So
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: I have no problem sharing. Hey, doctor, next time, just
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: send it to me and I'll read it. Jeez Louise. Hey,
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: and it's Jesus, not Jesus. It's Jesus. You know, I've
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: never had a gardener that wasn't Jesus. Do you know that? Okay,
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: moving on. Oh, Neil, you always shake your head with
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: this stuff. Yeah. Look at the accusations you throw at me. It's,
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: you know, you're always accusing me of all manner of misdeeds.
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: I just have to wait through your show to get
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: to Gary and Shannon's news and brews today.
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there you go. That's okay. Okay. So now let
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: me dive right into what's happening with Blackstone. And Blackstone
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: is one of the world's largest private equity firms. And
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: it invests big time in data centers. So here's what
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: they did. And this is causing a little bit of questioning.
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: They donated $ 105 million to establish a conservation and stewardship
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: fund in Yellowstone National Park. And it's nonprofit. Actually, it's
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: the fundraising arm of the park. And the park's PR
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: folks said this will advance conservation research, strengthen park infrastructure,
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: expand visitor access to Yellowstone. That's their news release. Now,
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: the fund is supported by the Blackstone-backed Tallgrass, actually, is
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: the organization that is sending the money. Tallgrass is an
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: energy infrastructure company that operates about 10,000 miles of oil
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: and natural gas pipelines throughout the country. And Blackstone bought
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: Tallgrass in 2020, and now... $ 5 million being given to
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: the Yellowstone National Park. Now, Schwarzman... Stephen Schwarzman, the CEO
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: of Blackstone, has donated billions of dollars to Republican candidates
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: in super PACs over the years, including President Trump. Why
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: is it that an organization that is super conservative donating
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: $ 105 million to a national park? That is the question. Now,
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: is it because all of a sudden they have become
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: so pro-environmental? It could be. I have no idea what
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: the motivation is. But the fact that the president has
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: opened up national parks to development and that the company
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: Tallgrass runs all these pipelines and is building data centers,
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: by the way, probably one of the biggest in the
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: world in Cheyenne, Wyoming. The question is why? Because this
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: usually doesn't happen. And the environmentalists are saying this doesn't
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: make any sense. This isn't passing the smell test. Of course,
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: Tallgrass says, hey, we're just donating to an environmental program
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: that we think is very important. So far, Blackstone has
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: invested at least $ 200 billion in data centers. And those
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: data centers, we show the political side of data centers,
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: which started as, oh boy, that's neat. We need the
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: energy because that's what it's done is it is the
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: basis of... the AI revolution. You can't build AI centers.
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: You can't have that technology without these huge data centers.
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: And all of a sudden, people are realizing they are
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: really big. They are really noisy. They suck up unbelievable
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: amounts of power and water. And maybe we don't want them.
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: Maybe not. So the fight is going to go on
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: between these data centers, people that build them, and local folks, county,
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: city administrators and citizens. And in the middle of all this,
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: here's $ 105 million being donated. Questions. Now, again, it could
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: be that it's a straight donation that somebody said, you know,
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: we've got a ton of money. Blackstone is, it may
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: even have a trillion dollars in assets that it controls.
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: I wouldn't be surprised. If we're certainly in the hundreds
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: of billions, high hundreds of billions. And it could be
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: that somebody who has a pencil, who if someone has
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: the ability of giving out money, you know, we'll do
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: it for environmental purposes. In this case, $ 105 billion to
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: this particular fund. I will tell you that companies like
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: Blackstone and other major, major companies have big charity arms.
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: They donate lots of money. Corporations are a very big
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: part of the donation scheme of the United States. Americans
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: are the most generous people in the world when it
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: comes to donations for charities. And that's a whole different topic.
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: A lot of it has to do, we don't have
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: much of a safety net and it's necessary and it's
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: our model. The government is going to do it. Private
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: churches and private donations, foundations are going to do it.
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: But that's a whole different topic. The point is, is
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: that Companies like Blackstone do give out this kind of money.
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: But to national parks? Yeah, I don't know. Is it
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: worth questioning? You know, I'm not going to accuse them
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: of anything. I just go, okay, that's a question. Yeah,
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: why not? Okay, coming up, talking about AI. Man, there
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: is something that is so scary about AI that we've
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: sort of not paid enough attention to. And it's raising big,
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: big alarms. And I'll share that with you when we
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: come back. This is KFI AM 640.
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: You've been listening to The Bill Handel Show. Catch my
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: show Monday through Friday, 6 a.m.
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: To 9 a.m. and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.