Latest / The Bill Handel Show / Former VP Dick Cheney Dies at 84 | CA Special Election
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
- 0:04Speaker 1: six forty KFI.
- 0:06Speaker 2: AM six forty Bill Handle here on a Taco Tuesday.
- 0:11Speaker 2: Election Day, Tuesday, celebrating the Dodgers win Tuesday, and we
- 0:16Speaker 2: have a whole lot to cover, all right, Today is
- 0:20Speaker 2: election Day. We'll talk about that coming up in the
- 0:23Speaker 2: next segment, and it's all about Prop fifty here in California.
- 0:27Speaker 2: We also got the news that Dick Cheney died at
- 0:30Speaker 2: the age of eighty four, and I, as I said
- 0:33Speaker 2: earlier this morning, he should.
- 0:35Speaker 1: Have died much a long time ago, and not.
- 0:39Speaker 2: Because of any politics. It's just the medical issues that
- 0:43Speaker 2: were wrong with him. I mean five heart surgeries, heart
- 0:46Speaker 2: transplant bypasses, and he made it till he was eighty four,
- 0:51Speaker 2: which is one less modern medicine for you.
- 0:53Speaker 1: But let's talk about who he was. He started.
- 0:58Speaker 2: He was a college out who ended up graduating, I
- 1:02Speaker 2: went back to college, and he went to the Capitol
- 1:05Speaker 2: as a congressional fellow and rising in very quick order
- 1:10Speaker 2: to become the White House Chief of staff for President
- 1:13Speaker 2: Gerald Ford. Now that he made it at thirty four,
- 1:19Speaker 2: who the hell becomes the chief of staff at the
- 1:22Speaker 2: age of thirty four. I mean that is extraordinary, and
- 1:26Speaker 2: that goes to show you what an extraordinary man he was.
- 1:29Speaker 2: He became a congressman from Wyoming. Then he was tagged
- 1:36Speaker 2: as Secretary of Defense for George HW.
- 1:39Speaker 1: Bush.
- 1:40Speaker 2: Then he spent eight years as vice president for President
- 1:45Speaker 2: George W.
- 1:46Speaker 1: Bush.
- 1:47Speaker 2: And the way he got to be vice president fascinating.
- 1:51Speaker 2: He had no ambitions. I mean, he did not go
- 1:54Speaker 2: out there. He didn't run. As a matter of fact,
- 1:56Speaker 2: what made him so powerful is almost contradictory, because he
- 1:59Speaker 2: didn't want to be powerful, and that gave him the power.
- 2:01Speaker 2: He had no ambition, and so he is tagged by
- 2:07Speaker 2: George W. Bush to run the transition team. Every president
- 2:12Speaker 2: who gets elected has to have a transition team to
- 2:16Speaker 2: matter of fact, eve before the election. Usually some of
- 2:19Speaker 2: them have transition teams to select various heads of departments.
- 2:24Speaker 2: I mean, there are thousands of appointments that have to
- 2:27Speaker 2: be made and there's always someone who is head of
- 2:29Speaker 2: the transition.
- 2:30Speaker 1: That was Dick Cheney.
- 2:32Speaker 2: And as he started going through the various candidates, George W.
- 2:38Speaker 2: Looked at him and said, you know, you're.
- 2:41Speaker 1: As good or better than anybody you're talking to.
- 2:45Speaker 2: You know, you're gonna be my vice president, and I'm
- 2:49Speaker 2: choosing you, Okay, So he ran and became vice president.
- 2:57Speaker 1: Pretty impressive. Now.
- 2:58Speaker 2: He was known as very right wing during his tenure.
- 3:01Speaker 2: Today he'd be a radical leftists for so many people.
- 3:05Speaker 2: But he had a central role in the approach towards terrorism,
- 3:12Speaker 2: the electronic surveillance in this country, the alleged torture that
- 3:16Speaker 2: took place of foreign combatants also known as terrorists. He
- 3:22Speaker 2: was an architect of the decision to invade Iraq. On
- 3:27Speaker 2: foreign affairs, national security, energy, he was second only to
- 3:32Speaker 2: the president in shaping policy. Probably was the most powerful
- 3:36Speaker 2: vice president we have ever had. Now, it used to be,
- 3:40Speaker 2: I mean, prior to actually even FDR.
- 3:43Speaker 1: I think it started. I don't know when it started.
- 3:47Speaker 2: I guess al Gore was probably a vice president who
- 3:52Speaker 2: actually actually had something to do. Before that, vice presidents
- 3:57Speaker 2: were like nothing. Their only job constitutionally is to preside
- 4:02Speaker 2: over the Senate, break a tie when it's fifty to fifty.
- 4:05Speaker 1: And become president.
- 4:06Speaker 2: If the president is no longer available, he is assassinator,
- 4:10Speaker 2: becomes incapacitated. One of the vice presidents of FDR said
- 4:15Speaker 2: being vice president isn't worth the spit in a bucket.
- 4:21Speaker 1: I think that's.
- 4:21Speaker 2: Close to it, and I don't think he used the
- 4:23Speaker 2: word spit either. In any case, Cheney became the most
- 4:28Speaker 2: powerful vice president, to the point where the Late night
- 4:33Speaker 2: Comics and Saturday Night Live made fun of Cheney as
- 4:37Speaker 2: the puppet master for the president. And he just what
- 4:44Speaker 2: interesting guys, just an interesting guy he was. When his
- 4:50Speaker 2: chief of staff, Scooter Libby was convicted in two thousand
- 4:54Speaker 2: and seven of obstruction of justice, he backed him up
- 4:58Speaker 2: completely and there was no question of the guy was
- 5:01Speaker 2: absolutely guilty as hell. I'm going to end with what
- 5:04Speaker 2: happened with his daughter Mary, not Liz Cheney, the other daughter,
- 5:09Speaker 2: but for a man who is super conservative across the board,
- 5:13Speaker 2: I mean voted against funding for abortion, voted against LBGTQ rights,
- 5:19Speaker 2: I mean vote across the board, voted conservative. He came
- 5:23Speaker 2: out in favor of LGBTQ rights because it turned out
- 5:26Speaker 2: that his daughter Mary was lesbian. She was gay, and
- 5:31Speaker 2: he changed his tune realizing that these are real people.
- 5:36Speaker 2: You know, it's easy to say big picture, oh, I
- 5:39Speaker 2: hate the gays, I hate people with LGBTQ, and they're
- 5:42Speaker 2: all perverts. When it's your child, all of a sudden
- 5:46Speaker 2: you look at it in a very different way. And
- 5:50Speaker 2: he also backed up Liz Cheney, his daughter, and was
- 5:54Speaker 2: part of ripping into Donald Trump. One of the very
- 5:57Speaker 2: few conservatives that has called on Trump and out right
- 6:01Speaker 2: coward hated, hated Donald Trump. That's Dick Cheney. It's worth
- 6:08Speaker 2: googling him to find out. I did even touch I
- 6:10Speaker 2: didn't even scratch the surface of everything that he has done. Okay, Now,
- 6:16Speaker 2: today's election day, as you know, it really is an
- 6:19Speaker 2: election day because the vast majority of Californias have already voted.
- 6:23Speaker 1: Because we make it here in California. We make it
- 6:26Speaker 1: very easy to vote.
- 6:27Speaker 2: For example, you can actually vote for propositions before they're
- 6:32Speaker 2: even thought of. It's minority report here in California. We're
- 6:38Speaker 2: thinking of this, of this proposition, we've already voted.
- 6:42Speaker 1: Okay, that's what's going on today.
- 6:44Speaker 2: So the vast majority of people have already voted in California.
- 6:48Speaker 2: But what makes Prop fifty so interesting? And Prop fifty
- 6:51Speaker 2: and I don't remember ever this happening. It is the
- 6:53Speaker 2: only measure on the ballot, one question, yay or nay.
- 6:59Speaker 2: And what Prop fifty does is remove the Independent Commission
- 7:05Speaker 2: that redistricts the congressional districts in California to make them
- 7:11Speaker 2: not ask well, actually to take the politics out of
- 7:13Speaker 2: it completely, to make the redistricting independent. Now that's California,
- 7:19Speaker 2: and certain other states have the same, have the same
- 7:24Speaker 2: requirements or the same limitations, and usually it's done at
- 7:28Speaker 2: the end of ten years on the basis of the census. Now,
- 7:32Speaker 2: some states, both Republican and Democratic states, do not have that,
- 7:37Speaker 2: and the legislator's legislatures can do whatever the hell they want.
- 7:41Speaker 2: So we had some Democratic states who elected to redistrict
- 7:45Speaker 2: to help out democratic their democratic position basically create new
- 7:50Speaker 2: Democratic congress people. And what makes this one so interesting
- 7:54Speaker 2: and what Prop fifty is about. It's specifically against Texas.
- 7:59Speaker 2: And this is where President Trump, he's the one that
- 8:03Speaker 2: requested the Texas in fact.
- 8:05Speaker 1: Redistrict their congressional districts.
- 8:09Speaker 2: Based on the fact that you never say no to
- 8:11Speaker 2: this president if you're a Republican.
- 8:13Speaker 1: They went ahead and did it. And now here's Prop.
- 8:15Speaker 2: Fifty, which says, Okay, we're going to remove the safeguards
- 8:19Speaker 2: that we have, We're going to remove the independent part
- 8:21Speaker 2: of the redistricting. Bring it back to the legislatures or
- 8:24Speaker 2: the legislature, and guess what, it's a super democratic legislature.
- 8:29Speaker 2: So we're going to have more democratic congress people. And
- 8:34Speaker 2: Texas I think they're adding and this is not specifically
- 8:38Speaker 2: adding seats.
- 8:39Speaker 1: It's redistricting.
- 8:40Speaker 2: So you move all of for example, Democrats into one
- 8:44Speaker 2: district that you give up, and then the districts around there,
- 8:48Speaker 2: all of a sudden, they're not swinging anymore. What they
- 8:51Speaker 2: are is belonging to a party or the other. And
- 8:56Speaker 2: that's what redistricting is about.
- 8:59Speaker 1: So what.
- 9:01Speaker 2: The what California is doing is fighting Texas. Specifically Texas.
- 9:05Speaker 2: They figure will be about five districts that are going
- 9:08Speaker 2: to switch over to Republican California. They'll be about five districts.
- 9:14Speaker 2: And it's the problem is it's going all over the country.
- 9:18Speaker 2: And what I fear is the move towards an independent
- 9:22Speaker 2: commission to redistrict which happens every ten years based on
- 9:27Speaker 2: the census. As I told you, the independence part will
- 9:30Speaker 2: be gone. It's finished now. It's whatever legislature is in
- 9:36Speaker 2: power changes the district to their party, and so the
- 9:46Speaker 2: part about independence is gone. Insteadily, just let you know
- 9:49Speaker 2: I voted in favor of Prop fifty because I don't
- 9:52Speaker 2: like that other states are doing what we can't do,
- 9:56Speaker 2: and I believe.
- 9:56Speaker 1: In fighting fire with fire.
- 9:58Speaker 2: I don't usually agree with Gavin Newsom because I really
- 10:00Speaker 2: think he's a sleevez ball extraordinaire, but he did say
- 10:06Speaker 2: that you can't let Texas and the other states do that,
- 10:09Speaker 2: and we can't do it too. Schwarzenegger and those against Prop.
- 10:15Speaker 1: Fifty very interesting.
- 10:17Speaker 2: They talk about how we need to maintain a fair, balanced, equitable,
- 10:23Speaker 2: and nonpartisan way of redistricting. We need an independent commission.
- 10:29Speaker 2: They don't mention a word about Texas. They don't mention
- 10:32Speaker 2: a word about other states that are doing exactly the opposite.
- 10:37Speaker 1: Not a word.
- 10:38Speaker 2: It's just we have to stay independent. We have to
- 10:41Speaker 2: have a commission that's fair. Well, guess what if they're
- 10:44Speaker 2: not fair? And by the way it started, I think
- 10:46Speaker 2: they may have started with the Democrats for all I know.
- 10:48Speaker 1: And it doesn't matter. Both sides are at fault here.
- 10:50Speaker 2: The shame of it is is that does anybody really
- 10:53Speaker 2: care about an independent commission actually doing their job? No,
- 10:58Speaker 2: that day is gone now it's just politics, nothing more,
- 11:02Speaker 2: nothing less. If you're a Democrat, you're going to try
- 11:05Speaker 2: to get as many democratic districts as you can. If
- 11:07Speaker 2: you're a Republican, it's the other way around. And it's well,
- 11:11Speaker 2: it's another it's just another level of polarization that that's
- 11:14Speaker 2: where politics are today. Oh incident, he Prop fifty is
- 11:17Speaker 2: going to pass. I think the word landslide is going
- 11:21Speaker 2: to be attributed to Prop fifty. Now, Mom, Donnie, this
- 11:27Speaker 2: is going to get it very interesting because there is
- 11:29Speaker 2: going to be a at least a socialist who is
- 11:33Speaker 2: going to be elected mayor today. It'd be shocked if
- 11:35Speaker 2: he didn't win. And that's Solhan, Mom, Donnie. He is
- 11:39Speaker 2: a Muslim and he is, well, it's interesting guy. He
- 11:45Speaker 2: calls himself a democratic socialist.
- 11:48Speaker 1: He probably is. He's pretty liberal.
- 11:50Speaker 2: Things like free bus rides, metro rides for everybody, free
- 11:56Speaker 2: pizza on Friday, much like when you ran for class
- 11:59Speaker 2: press in the fourth grade. Also moratorium, no rent increase,
- 12:05Speaker 2: which I don't know how good an idea that is.
- 12:07Speaker 2: Ask a landlord or too how they feel about that. Now,
- 12:12Speaker 2: what's going on is that the president is not very
- 12:16Speaker 2: happy and he has called Mamdani a communist straight out.
- 12:21Speaker 1: He's not a communist. As a matter of fact. The
- 12:24Speaker 1: only true form of communists that exists.
- 12:26Speaker 2: In the world happens to be in Israel on the kibbutz,
- 12:31Speaker 2: where these kibutsim it's the plural nice word. Those are
- 12:35Speaker 2: true communist organizations. The kibbutz owns everything. Even members of
- 12:42Speaker 2: kibbutz who work outside of the kibbutz, their salaries go
- 12:46Speaker 2: into the kibbutz. I mean, that is real communism. The
- 12:49Speaker 2: rest of it, eh, you know, Mamdani isn't calling for
- 12:53Speaker 2: government ownership of all businesses, government ownership of all transportation,
- 12:58Speaker 2: all your cars.
- 12:59Speaker 1: For example, in Israeli kibitz owns the cars for and.
- 13:02Speaker 2: People line up, they actually ask for and they that
- 13:08Speaker 2: they were Actually what they do is they sign up
- 13:11Speaker 2: to use the cars. I mean, it's fascinating that that
- 13:14Speaker 2: is real communism. But he is so left wing. I'm
- 13:17Speaker 2: talking about Zorn Mamdani that he's a threat to literally everybody.
- 13:24Speaker 2: I don't know why the president views him as a
- 13:26Speaker 2: threat so much.
- 13:27Speaker 1: I don't know.
- 13:28Speaker 2: He's the mayor of New York, even to the point
- 13:31Speaker 2: where the President has said, if you elect Mom Donnie,
- 13:36Speaker 2: I am not going to send New York money. I'm
- 13:39Speaker 2: going to stop the funding I've never heard of that
- 13:41Speaker 2: happening before, or if not, stopping all the funding, limiting
- 13:46Speaker 2: the funding to the very bare minimum.
- 13:49Speaker 1: I'm allowed to do under the law.
- 13:52Speaker 2: By the way, read LA for that one too, Read
- 13:54Speaker 2: Chicago for that one too. Now, if you happen to
- 13:58Speaker 2: be a a.
- 14:01Speaker 1: Red city, you'll be fine.
- 14:04Speaker 2: And he's made no bones about it. Trump's comments and
- 14:10Speaker 2: he remembered, did you see the interview he gave him
- 14:12Speaker 2: sixty minutes, which is pretty extraordinary. He said, it's going
- 14:16Speaker 2: to be hard for me as president to give a
- 14:17Speaker 2: lot of money to New York, because if you have
- 14:19Speaker 2: a communist running New York, all you're doing is wasting
- 14:22Speaker 2: the money you're sending there.
- 14:24Speaker 1: Here's the problem.
- 14:26Speaker 2: The president doesn't directly determine how much money in New
- 14:28Speaker 2: York gets from the federal government. That appropriation is a
- 14:33Speaker 2: function of Congress by law. Well, one of the issues
- 14:39Speaker 2: of this president, as you know, is he is stretching
- 14:42Speaker 2: the definition of presidential power. Certainly, Congress, the Republican Congress,
- 14:48Speaker 2: has given him all the power he wants and then some.
- 14:51Speaker 2: And the courts are very the Supreme Court is very
- 14:55Speaker 2: pro presidential power. And so he has a lot of leeway.
- 14:58Speaker 2: Can he actually stop the money from going in? Well,
- 15:02Speaker 2: I mean, we'll see.
- 15:04Speaker 1: I don't know.
- 15:05Speaker 2: And on the other hand, you've got Mam Donni and
- 15:08Speaker 2: his political baggage, if you want to call it baggage.
- 15:12Speaker 2: Is he has to He is a Muslim, and he's
- 15:16Speaker 2: very pro Palestinian. And you know where the biggest population
- 15:19Speaker 2: of Jews are outside of Israel, New York, New York,
- 15:27Speaker 2: and so Jews have a lot of power. And there's
- 15:29Speaker 2: a mixed bag there is is Mom Donnie is the
- 15:35Speaker 2: anti Semitic. He said things are pro Palestinian for sure,
- 15:39Speaker 2: and literally derides Israel for doing what it did.
- 15:42Speaker 1: But so do I.
- 15:45Speaker 2: I think killing sixty eight thousand people and cutting off
- 15:48Speaker 2: aid humanitarian aid so people starve, which they did.
- 15:52Speaker 1: I've rippened Israel. I have ripped into Israel.
- 15:55Speaker 2: So I have not and I may not have heard everything,
- 15:58Speaker 2: and correct me if I'm wrong on this one.
- 16:00Speaker 1: And I'm sure I'm going to get emails. I have
- 16:02Speaker 1: not heard about.
- 16:02Speaker 2: Right antisemitic statements. I have not heard Jews are terrible.
- 16:06Speaker 2: I've heard Israel is terrible. I've heard Palestinian's rights are
- 16:10Speaker 2: being subjugated, are not being upheld?
- 16:13Speaker 1: He that have for a million years.
- 16:14Speaker 2: As a matter of fact, when you think about it,
- 16:16Speaker 2: there really are There really are no Palestinian rights when
- 16:20Speaker 2: you talk about Gaza or certainly the West Bank that's
- 16:24Speaker 2: controlled by Israel. So we're going to see the bottom
- 16:28Speaker 2: line is he's young, he's a socialist, he's a Muslim.
- 16:33Speaker 2: It's going to be an interesting ride for New York,
- 16:36Speaker 2: isn't it. And you get free metro rides because the
- 16:42Speaker 2: metro is so much fun to ride the subway system.
- 16:45Speaker 2: And if you move to here's the other good news.
- 16:47Speaker 2: You moved to New York because they go to Manhattan
- 16:49Speaker 2: and you live and you move and rent let's say
- 16:54Speaker 2: a three hundred square foot apartment studio apartment, and you're
- 16:58Speaker 2: paying nine thousand dollars a month for it.
- 17:00Speaker 1: There won't be a rent increase. How about that?
- 17:06Speaker 2: Now, this is a very weird one. Okay, this is Friday.
- 17:11Speaker 2: It happened a few days ago. California Attorney General Rob
- 17:13Speaker 2: Bonta announced the legal settlement with four major plastic bag
- 17:17Speaker 2: manufacturing companies to stop selling bags in California or stop
- 17:22Speaker 2: selling those bags.
- 17:24Speaker 1: But they're recyclable.
- 17:26Speaker 2: No, no, now.
- 17:28Speaker 1: Here's what's really weird. They have to.
- 17:31Speaker 2: They agreed to stop selling these bags effective January first.
- 17:38Speaker 2: There is a law effective January first that doesn't allow
- 17:43Speaker 2: them to manufacture those bags. So what a month out,
- 17:48Speaker 2: two months out, all of a sudden, this settlement, well,
- 17:52Speaker 2: it gives one point seven million dollars in penalties, and
- 17:56Speaker 2: it establishes that they did violate state law. Usually it's
- 18:00Speaker 2: not our fault or we take no blame any liability,
- 18:03Speaker 2: but this one is real clearcut and Bonta said, billions
- 18:07Speaker 2: of plastic carry out bags and the landfills, incinerators, the
- 18:11Speaker 2: environment and do not are not recycled as the bags
- 18:16Speaker 2: and the manufacturers say. And so he said that the
- 18:20Speaker 2: companies right now, we're violating California law put in by
- 18:23Speaker 2: Governor Jerry Brown in twenty fourteen and then state white
- 18:26Speaker 2: ballot measure in.
- 18:27Speaker 1: Twenty sixteen Prop.
- 18:28Speaker 2: Sixty seven that banned those single use plastic bags to
- 18:35Speaker 2: reduce litter and ocean pollution. They ended up in the ocean,
- 18:38Speaker 2: and that I guess that isn't good to have those
- 18:41Speaker 2: bags suffocating the fish. It did allow, for an exception,
- 18:46Speaker 2: those thick plastic bags that cost you a dime as
- 18:50Speaker 2: long as they were reusable and recyclable. Well, it turns
- 18:54Speaker 2: out they are reusable, certainly, but not recyclable.
- 18:59Speaker 1: Just doesn't happen.
- 19:01Speaker 2: As a matter of fact, ABC News did an investigation
- 19:04Speaker 2: and they put electronic tracking tags on forty six bundles
- 19:08Speaker 2: of these plastic bags left in recycling bins in Walmart
- 19:12Speaker 2: and Target stores around the country. Of the forty six bundles,
- 19:16Speaker 2: four ended up at recycling centers.
- 19:20Speaker 1: That's it.
- 19:22Speaker 2: And they well, they're simply they didn't do what they're
- 19:25Speaker 2: supposed to do, so they're done. It makes a lot
- 19:27Speaker 2: of sense if you're not gonna What plastic bags do
- 19:30Speaker 2: is unbelievable.
- 19:31Speaker 1: Hey, have you gone to the.
- 19:33Speaker 2: Store produce the produce section of the store recently and
- 19:36Speaker 2: they have those new incredibly flimsy plastic I guess compost
- 19:41Speaker 2: paper plastic bags that are so thin that I have
- 19:47Speaker 2: visions of one of those being put over your head
- 19:49Speaker 2: to suffocate you when you stick your tongue right through
- 19:52Speaker 2: it is. It's that flimsy. I get are those well,
- 19:57Speaker 2: I guess those are recyclable. Those are well, not recyclable.
- 20:00Speaker 2: They do decompose, but not these plastic bags. So here
- 20:04Speaker 2: we are settlement effective January first, You're not going to
- 20:09Speaker 2: be able to find these recyclable big you know, those
- 20:13Speaker 2: heavy duty plastic bags. And not only is the settlement
- 20:16Speaker 2: saying we're not going to stop doing it January first,
- 20:18Speaker 2: the law says we're not going to keep on doing
- 20:20Speaker 2: it January first. And okay, I'm glad that the Attorney
- 20:25Speaker 2: General's Office of California decided to do that two months
- 20:28Speaker 2: before the new law kicks in. This is KFI AM sixty.
- 20:34Speaker 1: You've been listening to the Bill Handle Show.
- 20:35Speaker 2: Catch My Show Monday through Friday, six am to nine am,
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