Latest / The Bill Handel Show / Desperate for Diesel
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: You're listening to KFI AM 640, the Bill Handel Show
- 0:04Speaker 1: on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
- 0:08Speaker 2: Exactly three weeks to go before the midterm elections. News
- 0:13Speaker 2: that just broke. The new White House press secretary, who
- 0:17Speaker 2: is not very impressive, by the way. Yeah, there's not
- 0:21Speaker 2: a whole lot there. She did announce that Kimberly Guilfoyle,
- 0:27Speaker 2: who is the ambassador to Greece has been asked to resign.
- 0:33Speaker 2: We knew that was going to happen. That was inevitable
- 0:35Speaker 2: because Guilfoyle, just some bonehead, bonehead moves. Some were just stupid,
- 0:42Speaker 2: like bragging about her being on private jets and being
- 0:45Speaker 2: flown around the world on jets that were owned by
- 0:50Speaker 2: business people that were dealing with the United States. And
- 0:52Speaker 2: then that private donor or that former Trump donor that
- 0:56Speaker 2: she literally, and this is a text that came out,
- 0:59Speaker 2: pay my 100, please, honey, pay my $ 100, 000 American Express card,
- 1:05Speaker 2: and I will make sure that you are well-connected. I mean,
- 1:08Speaker 2: just come on, guys. So anyways, she's done. We knew
- 1:12Speaker 2: that was going to happen. That was just a question
- 1:14Speaker 2: of time. Now, the president picks his political fights. Matter
- 1:19Speaker 2: of fact, he picks all of them. And in this case,
- 1:21Speaker 2: it's a little unusual because he's picking a fight with
- 1:24Speaker 2: GOP senators. And it has to do with that export
- 1:29Speaker 2: diesel deal between the U.S. and Russia. And here is
- 1:34Speaker 2: the problem. Two months ago, the Senate passed a very
- 1:38Speaker 2: tough Russia sanctions package. which Trump had delayed for months,
- 1:43Speaker 2: even though there's a lot of pressure from fellow Republicans
- 1:45Speaker 2: to embrace it. Why? Well, because China and India were
- 1:51Speaker 2: buying diesel from Russia, and diesel is, at this point,
- 1:56Speaker 2: by far the most expensive fuel out there. It has
- 1:59Speaker 2: exploded in price, far more than gasoline, and the world
- 2:02Speaker 2: runs on diesel. I mean, every truck out there is diesel.
- 2:07Speaker 2: Machinery in factories, diesel. And so it affects prices horrifically.
- 2:14Speaker 2: So what the president did was, even though there was
- 2:17Speaker 2: a law that was passed saying these sanctions are going
- 2:21Speaker 2: to hit not only Russia, not only we're not going
- 2:24Speaker 2: to buy because they sell on the open market, but
- 2:26Speaker 2: we are going to stop everybody else from buying Russian
- 2:29Speaker 2: diesel because that's what Russia produces. Its entire oil industry
- 2:32Speaker 2: is diesel for the most part. And what he has
- 2:34Speaker 2: done without talking to Congress, without giving any consultations, which
- 2:39Speaker 2: he's supposed to do, He just woke up and said,
- 2:42Speaker 2: you know what, I'm opening it up. I'm buying diesel
- 2:44Speaker 2: fuel from Russia. And there are two problems here. One,
- 2:49Speaker 2: that Russia is going to get hundreds of millions of
- 2:52Speaker 2: dollars almost instantly. And it uses that money to fight
- 2:57Speaker 2: the war in Ukraine. And the U.S., certainly Congress, is
- 3:02Speaker 2: very adamantly opposed to Russia and is pro-Ukraine, as is
- 3:05Speaker 2: most of the world. except for a couple of governments
- 3:09Speaker 2: out there that really don't care much about what's right
- 3:12Speaker 2: and what's wrong. And up to this point, the president said, okay,
- 3:17Speaker 2: I'm going to allow, I'm going to force those sanctions.
- 3:20Speaker 2: And then he turns around and says, you can't buy
- 3:25Speaker 2: diesel from Russia, but I'm going to. And he made
- 3:29Speaker 2: an arbitrary decision, which is what President Trump does. He
- 3:34Speaker 2: does not consult with Congress. He does not particularly care
- 3:37Speaker 2: what Congress says or does. The president truly does not
- 3:40Speaker 2: believe in the check and balances issue of the United States.
- 3:45Speaker 2: Number one, he only believes that Congress is there to
- 3:47Speaker 2: rubber stamp whatever he does, even way after the fact,
- 3:51Speaker 2: after he makes a decision and believes that following the
- 3:55Speaker 2: court's order is voluntary. If the court orders something that
- 4:00Speaker 2: he doesn't like, doesn't want to do, or he wants
- 4:03Speaker 2: to do, violation of whatever court order, he just ignores
- 4:06Speaker 2: it and moves forward. And that's what's happening here. And
- 4:08Speaker 2: the backlash is hitting pretty strong. Now, four Republican senators
- 4:14Speaker 2: have come down publicly against him. A lot more privately
- 4:17Speaker 2: think that way from all of the sources. And Where
- 4:23Speaker 2: do you stop? You don't. You don't stop. So are
- 4:26Speaker 2: we going to be buying diesel fuel from Russia? Trump
- 4:31Speaker 2: is in between a rock and a hard place here. Man,
- 4:34Speaker 2: where do you go with this? First of all, desperate
- 4:37Speaker 2: for diesel. Look at the cost of diesel fuel here
- 4:41Speaker 2: in the United States or anywhere around the world. And
- 4:44Speaker 2: it's costing, we talk about inflation, it's going to ramp up.
- 4:47Speaker 2: It turbos inflation because everything is more expensive because all
- 4:51Speaker 2: the goods are, in fact, transported on vehicles that use diesel. Trains, diesel. Trucks,
- 5:00Speaker 2: certainly diesel. So he's got to do something, especially before
- 5:04Speaker 2: the midterms. And at the same time, what do you
- 5:07Speaker 2: do with the United States' policy position regarding Russia? and
- 5:13Speaker 2: Russia intervention, and Russian attack on Ukraine, and he's choosing,
- 5:16Speaker 2: I'll choose the lesser of the evils, and that is
- 5:21Speaker 2: trying to somehow affect the diesel prices. Oh, is there
- 5:26Speaker 2: going to be an effect? Yeah, it will be temporary.
- 5:28Speaker 2: It will not be a whole lot. However, I'll tell
- 5:33Speaker 2: you exactly what's going to happen. Diesel drops 5 cents
- 5:36Speaker 2: or 10 cents a gallon. Look what I'm doing for you.
- 5:40Speaker 2: It's on its way to being under $ 2 a gallon.
- 5:43Speaker 2: Just elect The Republicans, because remember, if you elect Republicans,
- 5:48Speaker 2: I'm going to I'm going to end the war after
- 5:50Speaker 2: the election. Remember that. Oh, and if you vote all
- 5:54Speaker 2: Republicans in, if Congress stays Republican, both Senate and House,
- 5:58Speaker 2: every American gets five thousand dollars plus free pizza on Fridays.
- 6:03Speaker 2: That's how my fourth grade class president won when he
- 6:08Speaker 2: ran for class president. And that is this platform was
- 6:11Speaker 2: free pizza on Fridays. Overwhelmingly one. Free pizza? Not even
- 6:17Speaker 2: a slice. Bastard. Bastard. Coming up, fire departments. A little
- 6:23Speaker 2: bit of news about fire departments and something you may
- 6:25Speaker 2: not know. You may not know. And I'll share that
- 6:28Speaker 2: with you when we come back.
- 6:30Speaker 3: You're listening to Bill Handel on demand from KFI AM 640.
- 6:36Speaker 2: Exactly three weeks before the midterms. And we'll be talking
- 6:40Speaker 2: about that. Also, I've been watching TV, as all of
- 6:42Speaker 2: us do, of course, and the propositions are, the commercials
- 6:47Speaker 2: for propositions starting to hit hot and heavy. We are
- 6:50Speaker 2: not going to see much advertisement being done for major offices,
- 6:56Speaker 2: congressional offices, or the Senate. It's just, well, first of all,
- 7:00Speaker 2: we don't have a senator running, but... Oh, do we?
- 7:03Speaker 2: I think is... Do we have an election with a
- 7:05Speaker 2: Senator Becerra running against... I think Hilton this time around.
- 7:11Speaker 2: Do I have that right? Maybe I'm conflating everybody here.
- 7:14Speaker 2: But in any case, we're not going to see much
- 7:16Speaker 2: except for the propositions, for sure. Okay, now, I want
- 7:22Speaker 2: to switch gears and talk about what's happening in the country,
- 7:25Speaker 2: which I'd like to do, obviously. And this one has
- 7:28Speaker 2: to do with American fire departments. short on people big time.
- 7:34Speaker 2: And there's something that I want to share with you,
- 7:35Speaker 2: which I didn't think about, and I'm sure you didn't.
- 7:38Speaker 2: And the answer here may be AI. So let's start
- 7:41Speaker 2: with fire departments in general. Big cities, of course, have
- 7:45Speaker 2: their own fire departments. Medium cities usually have their own
- 7:48Speaker 2: fire departments. A lot more small cities than there are
- 7:51Speaker 2: big cities in this country. So who comprises those fire departments? Volunteers.
- 7:57Speaker 2: We've all heard about volunteer fire departments. Oh, and these
- 8:01Speaker 2: fire people, firemen and women, are very highly trained. I mean,
- 8:06Speaker 2: they go through academies. They actually receive the same training
- 8:10Speaker 2: and are demanded of exactly the same skill set that
- 8:15Speaker 2: a professional firefighter has. So it's not easy to become
- 8:18Speaker 2: a firefighter volunteer. Problem is there aren't enough of them
- 8:21Speaker 2: out there, and now they're getting old. And it is
- 8:26Speaker 2: it's heavy duty work. I mean, have you seen those
- 8:28Speaker 2: hoses of fire hoses? I mean, they weigh a ton.
- 8:33Speaker 2: These big, heavy cans of canvas fire hoses getting off
- 8:37Speaker 2: a truck, unrolling them. And you don't have many 50,
- 8:39Speaker 2: 60 year old people that really do a good job.
- 8:42Speaker 2: And that's who comprises most of these volunteer fire departments.
- 8:47Speaker 2: So one of the things that's going on is, oh,
- 8:49Speaker 2: that's because of money, because no one has any money
- 8:51Speaker 2: and they can't afford equipment, much less training of firefighters.
- 8:55Speaker 2: And it's just they're out of funds, inevitably. However, how
- 8:59Speaker 2: does AI get involved? And I didn't know this. And
- 9:02Speaker 2: whenever there is a fire, one of the first things
- 9:07Speaker 2: the fire department does is is send a group of
- 9:11Speaker 2: fire folks, female and male firemen, going around the building
- 9:18Speaker 2: to see for hot spots, what's going on, how to
- 9:21Speaker 2: enter the building, where the flames are going, what are
- 9:26Speaker 2: the susceptible areas, the vulnerable areas around the building. And
- 9:30Speaker 2: that takes time before they actually start fighting a fire
- 9:32Speaker 2: because they have to know where to put the hose.
- 9:35Speaker 2: You don't just see a fire and stick the hose
- 9:37Speaker 2: in front of it because what's going on behind it?
- 9:39Speaker 2: So they have to circle around and that takes time.
- 9:42Speaker 2: That takes energy, obviously. And that also takes personnel. Well,
- 9:48Speaker 2: what happens when you don't have personnel? You bring in
- 9:50Speaker 2: a drone that does that work for you. And the
- 9:54Speaker 2: drone figures out and does the planning of how a
- 9:59Speaker 2: fire is going to be fought. Most buildings have a
- 10:02Speaker 2: fire plan in place. Certainly big buildings. where you have
- 10:07Speaker 2: floor plans and the fire people show up and they're
- 10:10Speaker 2: handed the floor plan and they're handed the plan that
- 10:14Speaker 2: has already been established with the fire department, very sophisticated.
- 10:18Speaker 2: It really minimizes the amount of time and effort it
- 10:21Speaker 2: takes to successfully fight a fire. Well, that also takes money,
- 10:25Speaker 2: but AI can come in and figure out based on,
- 10:29Speaker 2: for example, building permits, so they know exactly what the
- 10:33Speaker 2: floor plan is. And where the windows are. And AI
- 10:38Speaker 2: can figure out where the hotspots would be. All of
- 10:42Speaker 2: that with AI allowing firefighters to do a better job.
- 10:47Speaker 2: That's the positive use of AI. Because when we talk
- 10:51Speaker 2: about artificial intelligence, we're now talking about the negatives, which
- 10:55Speaker 2: are enormous negatives. Not only the physical aspects of these
- 11:00Speaker 2: data centers, which are just insane in terms of energy
- 11:04Speaker 2: and the footprint that they consume, but also the sociological
- 11:11Speaker 2: and just the humanity of AI. Is it going to
- 11:14Speaker 2: take over the world? Well, sometimes you want AI to
- 11:17Speaker 2: take over the world. In this case, you do. And
- 11:21Speaker 2: it's a very, very clever use of technology. The artificial
- 11:27Speaker 2: intelligence aspect of what we're living with. So there isn't
- 11:33Speaker 2: a public safety crisis. There's an organization that deals with
- 11:37Speaker 2: volunteer firefighters, FASNY, F-A-S-N-Y, which I have no idea what's
- 11:42Speaker 2: an acronym for. But talking about the fact that we're
- 11:47Speaker 2: not going to get many volunteers anytime soon because it
- 11:51Speaker 2: used to be if you were a volunteer fireperson, boy,
- 11:54Speaker 2: you were at the top of the heap socially. Everybody
- 11:56Speaker 2: loved you in your neighborhood, in your city, and you
- 12:00Speaker 2: had that badge and you walked around. Hey, look at me.
- 12:03Speaker 2: I'm a bitching guy. Well, it turns out that not
- 12:07Speaker 2: that many people are that impressed with themselves. I tell you,
- 12:10Speaker 2: I think about it, would I ever be a fireman,
- 12:14Speaker 2: volunteer fireman? No, I'd sooner be a volunteer pyromaniac than
- 12:20Speaker 2: I would be a volunteer fireman. But, you know, there's
- 12:24Speaker 2: a world to that, and it makes a lot of sense.
- 12:29Speaker 2: So scene of a fire, they call it the 360,
- 12:32Speaker 2: circling around before the actual fighting the fire. And the
- 12:38Speaker 2: argument is, or the question is, what if a 911
- 12:41Speaker 2: dispatcher could launch AI-driven drones to the scene of a
- 12:46Speaker 2: fire to do that 360 of the structure? And then
- 12:50Speaker 2: it feeds back video in real time or images from
- 12:54Speaker 2: every approach of the building, every entrance. And so by
- 12:58Speaker 2: the time the firefighters get there, the plan has already
- 13:01Speaker 2: been laid out because the drones have been launched from
- 13:05Speaker 2: the dispatch, the dispatch center. I want to report a fire. Boom,
- 13:08Speaker 2: up it goes. And it starts transmitting immediately. It's kind
- 13:13Speaker 2: of neat. So it's a double hit that the story
- 13:17Speaker 2: has two aspects of it. Number one, there aren't enough
- 13:19Speaker 2: volunteer firefighters out there and they're going to have to
- 13:21Speaker 2: figure out a way of, you know, establishing if you're
- 13:24Speaker 2: a real man is a firefighter. If you want to
- 13:27Speaker 2: be a man's man, you get to be a volunteer firefighter,
- 13:31Speaker 2: which is why you don't have volunteer firefighters, for example,
- 13:33Speaker 2: in West Hollywood. Okay, we are done. It's a look.
- 13:41Speaker 2: Will is going, huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? What's that about?
- 13:44Speaker 2: You haven't seen the parade. Oh, yes, I have. And
- 13:49Speaker 2: there are a few, you can see people in firefighter outfits,
- 13:52Speaker 2: but the hat, the vest, they're wearing the chaps. Nevermind.
- 13:59Speaker 2: With nothing underneath them. Why do you try, Will? Why
- 14:03Speaker 2: do you even try? It's a visual. Yes, it certainly is.
- 14:06Speaker 2: It's a visual. All right. We're going to come back.
- 14:11Speaker 2: New kind of mortgage out there. And this may be
- 14:15Speaker 2: an answer, not the answer, but an answer to blighted
- 14:18Speaker 2: cities like Detroit and housing. So I'll share that story
- 14:23Speaker 2: with you. And then coming up at the top of
- 14:25Speaker 2: the hour, Rich DeMuro. So we've got a lot to
- 14:27Speaker 2: cover yet today.
- 14:29Speaker 3: You're listening to Bill Handel on demand from KFI AM 640.
- 14:33Speaker 2: A couple of other things. Newt Whitehouse, press secretary. Her
- 14:38Speaker 2: first press conference this morning, not impressive. I think the
- 14:42Speaker 2: general consensus is not impressive. She did announce that Guilfoyle,
- 14:49Speaker 2: our lovely ambassador to Greece, is resigning, has been asked
- 14:54Speaker 2: to resign, which is another way of saying you're canned,
- 14:56Speaker 2: of course, when you're asked to resign. Because when you
- 14:58Speaker 2: say no, then they go, OK, you're fired. So things
- 15:02Speaker 2: are heating up, but she is no Caroline Leavitt. I'll
- 15:05Speaker 2: tell you that right now. Her hair is longer. She's
- 15:08Speaker 2: not as blonde either. If you notice that, Caroline Leavitt
- 15:12Speaker 2: is a little blonder, which gives her more credibility. All right,
- 15:16Speaker 2: let's talk about a way to revive neighborhoods that are
- 15:21Speaker 2: in the toilet. East Cleveland, Ohio doesn't get much real
- 15:26Speaker 2: estate investment. In the 30s, the feds marked the city
- 15:30Speaker 2: as definitely declining and warned banks that lending there was risky.
- 15:35Speaker 2: And so nothing happened for a very long time. It
- 15:39Speaker 2: was a blighted neighborhood. Well, now there's a new kind
- 15:41Speaker 2: of mortgage for landlords flooding the area. And it helps
- 15:46Speaker 2: real estate investors buy, renovate, rent out dilapidated homes. Now,
- 15:51Speaker 2: when you talk about big city investors coming in and
- 15:54Speaker 2: buying up homes and then renting them out, I mean,
- 15:57Speaker 2: these are the boogeymen and they don't care about the neighborhoods.
- 16:01Speaker 2: They just care about making money. The majority of real
- 16:03Speaker 2: estate investors are actually individuals. many of them home flippers,
- 16:09Speaker 2: and they come in, they buy a house, they renovate it,
- 16:11Speaker 2: and boom, out it goes. They resell it, and if
- 16:14Speaker 2: they can't get it sold, the house is foreclosed on. Well,
- 16:17Speaker 2: there's this new instrument that allows these small investors to
- 16:23Speaker 2: come in buy a home in the toilet, and they
- 16:28Speaker 2: don't have to qualify. In other words, the issue is
- 16:33Speaker 2: they have to qualify, usually have to qualify for a loan,
- 16:36Speaker 2: spend money renovating, and then flip it. Well, the argument here,
- 16:40Speaker 2: and boy, is it working in these blighted areas, is
- 16:43Speaker 2: we are going to allow you, the potential investor, to
- 16:46Speaker 2: go in and buy one of these horrible homes, fix
- 16:49Speaker 2: it up, and rent it out. that instead of a flipper,
- 16:52Speaker 2: you become a landlord and we're going to give you
- 16:56Speaker 2: a mortgage, a 30 year mortgage, not based on your
- 17:00Speaker 2: income or credit score, because otherwise you're not going to
- 17:03Speaker 2: qualify because we want you to do this. Well, what
- 17:07Speaker 2: happens if you can't qualify? Well, you don't have to
- 17:11Speaker 2: because the loan is predicated on the value of the
- 17:14Speaker 2: property and its potential rental market. It is a loan
- 17:18Speaker 2: that assumes you are going to be a rental. which
- 17:21Speaker 2: basically knocks out the flipping aspect of it, which it
- 17:25Speaker 2: can still do. But a lot of homes are not bought,
- 17:30Speaker 2: especially in neighborhoods, because the sale of these homes, people
- 17:35Speaker 2: can't qualify to buy them. So you go into Detroit,
- 17:39Speaker 2: for example, you can buy a house for next to
- 17:40Speaker 2: nothing in Detroit, but you have to qualify. And what
- 17:43Speaker 2: happens if you can't qualify? Well, people can't qualify. What
- 17:45Speaker 2: are they doing? They're renters. The majority of people out
- 17:48Speaker 2: there are renters. not because they elect to be renters,
- 17:52Speaker 2: they would love to be homeowners, because they don't have
- 17:54Speaker 2: the income, they don't have the credit. Well, at this point,
- 17:57Speaker 2: it really doesn't matter because you're going to rent, but
- 18:02Speaker 2: you're going to rent at a reasonable price. And theoretically,
- 18:06Speaker 2: what happens is these neighborhoods with these kinds of loans
- 18:10Speaker 2: made available to, quote, new investors, previously flippers, All of
- 18:16Speaker 2: a sudden, they're going to bring the neighborhood up. And
- 18:18Speaker 2: that's exactly what's been going on throughout the country. It's
- 18:22Speaker 2: a way of renovating entire neighborhoods. I remember going to
- 18:26Speaker 2: New York. Oh, my God, this must have been, I
- 18:28Speaker 2: don't know, 30 years ago, 40 years ago, maybe. And
- 18:31Speaker 2: you go north into Harlem, 110th Street, 115th Street, even
- 18:36Speaker 2: past 105th Street. And they had these burnt out. This
- 18:40Speaker 2: was in the 70s, actually, if I remember correctly, when
- 18:42Speaker 2: New York was about to go bankrupt. And you could
- 18:44Speaker 2: buy these burnt out, the housing over there, the brownstone housing.
- 18:51Speaker 2: There were all windows were cracked and it was just
- 18:54Speaker 2: the whole, the whole neighborhoods were blighted. And the city
- 18:57Speaker 2: of New York, which now owned the property because it
- 19:00Speaker 2: foreclosed on everything, would sell the house for $ 1. You
- 19:04Speaker 2: could buy a house for $ 1. However, you also had
- 19:08Speaker 2: to commit to renovating it and bringing it up, which
- 19:12Speaker 2: was hundreds of thousands of dollars. But here's the equivalent.
- 19:15Speaker 2: You buy a house in a horrible neighborhood and you
- 19:19Speaker 2: pay a buck for the house, the land and half
- 19:22Speaker 2: the building because you have to renovate the other half
- 19:24Speaker 2: and bring it up. So now you're building half a home.
- 19:27Speaker 2: Land is free and it's a crappy neighborhood. So let
- 19:32Speaker 2: me tell you what happened in New York. This is
- 19:34Speaker 2: the gay community that started this. You have members of
- 19:39Speaker 2: the gay community with prescient look at this saying, you know,
- 19:43Speaker 2: at some point this is going to be worth money.
- 19:45Speaker 2: And they came in and started buying the homes and
- 19:48Speaker 2: renovating them. And if you go north now, if you
- 19:51Speaker 2: go to 110th Street, these are just incredible neighborhoods. And
- 19:55Speaker 2: those properties become super expensive properties, completely gentrified. And just
- 20:03Speaker 2: some very, very clever people who did this very early on.
- 20:07Speaker 2: It's almost like cryptocurrency. You know, the first few people
- 20:10Speaker 2: that get in on Bitcoin that were paying pennies or
- 20:14Speaker 2: a penny for several Bitcoin. How well do you think
- 20:17Speaker 2: they've done? All right. Coming up, the Houthis and Saudi
- 20:23Speaker 2: Arabia and the Iranian war and what the president has
- 20:29Speaker 2: to do or can't do or will or won't do.
- 20:33Speaker 2: And this is three weeks before the election. This is
- 20:36Speaker 2: some really hard stuff. And the president has to make
- 20:40Speaker 2: some very tough decisions, although he's already made one. That
- 20:43Speaker 2: is let's put him in some political jeopardy or it's
- 20:46Speaker 2: not him, but certainly put the Republicans that are running
- 20:49Speaker 2: for Congress and the Senate.
- 20:51Speaker 1: All right.
- 20:51Speaker 2: We're going to come back with that.
- 20:53Speaker 3: You're listening to Bill Handel on demand from KFI AM 640.
- 21:01Speaker 2: Midterm elections coming up, and we no doubt will be
- 21:04Speaker 2: speaking of those elections just a little bit over the
- 21:07Speaker 2: next three weeks. Oh, and a quick word about my vacation.
- 21:11Speaker 2: I haven't talked much about it, but I just got back.
- 21:13Speaker 2: There is a video of Lindsay and I feeding our
- 21:18Speaker 2: favorite giraffe, Eddie the giraffe. And it's kind of fun.
- 21:23Speaker 2: And it's at Bill Handel show. We have TikTok also,
- 21:27Speaker 2: and that's on TikTok. It is, I believe, Excessive Baggage Podcast,
- 21:35Speaker 2: if I have that right. I'm trying to remember. And
- 21:38Speaker 2: also on Instagram, Excessive Baggage, which is sort of the
- 21:42Speaker 2: new podcast that's coming up. that I'm involved with. So
- 21:47Speaker 2: go to Instagram at Bill Handel Show. That's the easiest
- 21:50Speaker 2: one right now. And you will see Eddie the giraffe
- 21:53Speaker 2: having breakfast with me. and Lindsey. That's our favorite giraffe,
- 21:58Speaker 2: by the way. It's our new pet favorite giraffe, Eddie. Okay,
- 22:03Speaker 2: moving on. The Houthis, which are a proxy for Iran,
- 22:09Speaker 2: once the war started and the United States attacked Iran
- 22:11Speaker 2: with Israel attacking Iran, the Houthis immediately came up to
- 22:17Speaker 2: the plate for Iran and started attacking Saudi Arabia, an
- 22:22Speaker 2: ally of the United States. And these were missile strikes
- 22:26Speaker 2: that the Houthis sent over. And what they did is
- 22:30Speaker 2: they hit Riyadh's international airport three days in a row now.
- 22:33Speaker 2: A dozen people killed, more than 300 injured. The airports
- 22:37Speaker 2: have been shut down. And what's happening in Riyadh over
- 22:42Speaker 2: the next few days is there are some big, big
- 22:46Speaker 2: business events because Saudi Arabia wants to portray itself and
- 22:50Speaker 2: is moving towards not just a seller of oil, which,
- 22:54Speaker 2: of course, it gets enormous revenue, but it wants to
- 22:57Speaker 2: be a financial center. It wants to be a world
- 23:00Speaker 2: player in the financial world. And it is moving very
- 23:04Speaker 2: quickly in that regard. Well, these two major conventions that
- 23:10Speaker 2: are being held are still going on. According to the
- 23:13Speaker 2: government of Saudi Arabia, they're still happening. So here is
- 23:16Speaker 2: what's unfortunately happening at the same time. Saudi Arabia is
- 23:21Speaker 2: almost at the mercy of the Houthis. This is asymmetric fighting,
- 23:25Speaker 2: which means they're not going to war on the ground.
- 23:28Speaker 2: They're not sending fighter jets up against each other because
- 23:30Speaker 2: the Saudis have a very sophisticated air force. We supply them.
- 23:34Speaker 2: It's these missile drones. It's these missiles and drones which
- 23:38Speaker 2: are attacking, in this case, the airport and attacking also
- 23:43Speaker 2: oil infrastructure. And so what does Saudi Arabia do? What
- 23:46Speaker 2: does the United States do? Well, Saudi Arabia is a
- 23:49Speaker 2: huge ally of the United States. And so clearly we're
- 23:52Speaker 2: on the side of Saudi Arabia. So you would think
- 23:55Speaker 2: that we would attack the Houthis. That's certainly what Saudi
- 23:58Speaker 2: Arabia is calling for. However, what does the president do?
- 24:02Speaker 2: Does he go to war with the Houthis and expand
- 24:04Speaker 2: the war? Remember No More Forever Wars? Remember he kept
- 24:09Speaker 2: us out of war? Remember that one? We're not going
- 24:12Speaker 2: to see Afghanistan. We are not going to see anything
- 24:15Speaker 2: like that. All of a sudden, we're at war with Iran,
- 24:18Speaker 2: which is sort of on a truce, if you will.
- 24:22Speaker 2: And then we– or Saudi Arabia is at war with Houthis.
- 24:26Speaker 2: Do we get involved or not? And either way, it's
- 24:29Speaker 2: a bad choice. And here's what's going to end up happening, probably.
- 24:33Speaker 2: Saudi Arabia is going to either have the United States
- 24:37Speaker 2: join forces with this fight against the Houthis, which is
- 24:40Speaker 2: going to cost the United States a whole lot, or
- 24:43Speaker 2: it's going to negotiate with Tehran and cut a deal
- 24:45Speaker 2: with Tehran. And that is, well, it changes the entire
- 24:49Speaker 2: Mideast is what it does. That's what Israel wants, is
- 24:53Speaker 2: to change the entire makeup of the Mideast, but to its,
- 24:57Speaker 2: of course, to its benefit. Tehran wants it the other way.
- 25:01Speaker 2: So the president, I tell you, it was a pretty
- 25:03Speaker 2: bonehead move for the president to get involved in Iran,
- 25:06Speaker 2: because when you look at the fallout of this thing,
- 25:09Speaker 2: it is horrific. You'll see. Well, yesterday, when the president
- 25:15Speaker 2: announced on the diesel, the diesel wars opening up the
- 25:21Speaker 2: sale of Russian diesel oil, the reason or the reason
- 25:27Speaker 2: diesel fuel is so expensive, it's Zelenskyy. It's his fault.
- 25:31Speaker 2: Not mine. Not mine. It's not the war. It's Zelensky
- 25:34Speaker 2: who is causing diesel fuel to be so high. You're
- 25:38Speaker 2: going to see a lot of it ain't my fault.
- 25:40Speaker 2: It ain't my fault. And a lot of finger pointing.
- 25:42Speaker 2: So anyway, that's going on. And I don't even know
- 25:44Speaker 2: what's going to happen in the next few days. I
- 25:46Speaker 2: don't think anybody does. I don't think the president does.
- 25:48Speaker 2: I think what he thinks tonight is going to change tomorrow.
- 25:51Speaker 2: And then by tomorrow afternoon, it'll be another change. All right.
- 25:54Speaker 2: Coming up, Rich DeMuro. Oh, we're going to just move
- 25:58Speaker 2: on to things that are not. particularly serious. Rich DeMuro
- 26:02Speaker 2: is going to tell us how AI is going to
- 26:04Speaker 2: kill you and how various other pieces of technology will
- 26:10Speaker 2: kill you too. Hey, it's an up show. What can
- 26:12Speaker 2: I tell you? KFI AM 640.
- 26:16Speaker 1: You've been listening to The Bill Handel Show. Catch my
- 26:18Speaker 1: show Monday through Friday, 6 a.m.
- 26:20Speaker 2: To 9 a.m. and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.