Latest / The Bill Handel Show / Federal Olympic Task Force | Countries That Cost Tourists the Most
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from kf I
- 0:04Speaker 1: am six forty. I am six forty Bill Handle Here
- 0:09Speaker 1: on a Monday morning, December eighth, we started another week
- 0:14Speaker 1: of fun and frivolity and then we get into Honic
- 0:19Speaker 1: a week happy hanik I have you ever notice how
- 0:21Speaker 1: great Christmas songs are? You know, Christmas songs are absolutely beautiful.
- 0:27Speaker 1: There's just something about them. Jews have one song, the
- 0:32Speaker 1: stupid ass Dradel's song. Oh, Dreid Old, Dreid Oldreida. Oh,
- 0:36Speaker 1: I come on, guys, really yeah. And I'm buying my
- 0:41Speaker 1: first Christmas tree today. I can't even begin to believe
- 0:44Speaker 1: how expensive that stuff is. Because I happen to have
- 0:47Speaker 1: a gooy wife coming from a complete Jewish family. That's
- 0:51Speaker 1: very it's very expensive to be Christian. Very expensive. Now
- 0:58Speaker 1: let's get into Olympics. One of the things that I
- 1:00Speaker 1: have promised many people. Anna and I have discussed this.
- 1:05Speaker 1: We have to do shows that do not have President
- 1:08Speaker 1: Trump in the stories. We just have to. We cannot
- 1:13Speaker 1: help but put Donald Trump's stories on the table because
- 1:17Speaker 1: there are so many every single day. So here's a
- 1:21Speaker 1: new one. If we talk about the Olympics. Oh, we
- 1:23Speaker 1: have to add President Trump to it. The LA Council
- 1:28Speaker 1: has a committee on the twenty twenty eight Olympic Games,
- 1:32Speaker 1: and it is always makes sense because the Games are
- 1:34Speaker 1: going to be here, and the city Council has asked
- 1:38Speaker 1: local organizing committees, which is a different organization that organizes
- 1:43Speaker 1: the games, to clarify the role and responsibility of the
- 1:48Speaker 1: federal task force that's going to be involved. Now everybody
- 1:52Speaker 1: has to work in concert with everybody else. You've got
- 1:55Speaker 1: local officials, you have county officials, and the Feds are
- 1:59Speaker 1: all all over the games, as they should be. President
- 2:04Speaker 1: Trump signed an executive order in August establishing a federal
- 2:07Speaker 1: task Force on the Olympic Games for Los Angeles in
- 2:12Speaker 1: twenty twenty eight. By the way, those task forces were
- 2:15Speaker 1: also established for the ninety six Summer Olympics in Atlanta,
- 2:19Speaker 1: the two thousand and two Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City,
- 2:22Speaker 1: for next year's World World the FIFA Cup, the World
- 2:28Speaker 1: Cup in soccer. But here's the difference. The President's repeated
- 2:33Speaker 1: threats to move the Games out of LA and the
- 2:37Speaker 1: World Cup because LA isn't doing enough. He believes we'll
- 2:44Speaker 1: do anything necessary to keep the Olympic Games safe, including
- 2:47Speaker 1: using our National Guard or military. By the way, you
- 2:51Speaker 1: know who's the chairman of both the Olympic and the
- 2:53Speaker 1: World Cup task forces? Yep, son of a gun, it's
- 2:55Speaker 1: the President. And in reference to the games coming up,
- 3:00Speaker 1: there was an August ceremony and he had mentioned that
- 3:04Speaker 1: Mayor Karen Bass is not very competent, and went further,
- 3:10Speaker 1: if I thought LA was not going to be prepared properly,
- 3:12Speaker 1: I would move it to another location. Now does he
- 3:17Speaker 1: need evidence, No, he can simply say I do not
- 3:21Speaker 1: believe that LA is the proper venue, and I want
- 3:26Speaker 1: a safer venue. Pick a Republican city. However, he cannot
- 3:32Speaker 1: legally remove the games. He doesn't have the authority. However,
- 3:38Speaker 1: do another. However, he does control federal spending, and the
- 3:45Speaker 1: FBI is all over these games. Usually certainly federal authorities
- 3:48Speaker 1: are all over these games. He can yank all of those,
- 3:52Speaker 1: for example, the venues that are on water. You see
- 3:55Speaker 1: the coast Guard going up and down. All of it's
- 3:58Speaker 1: to be removed if he does not like the way
- 4:02Speaker 1: the games are going, and so which way is this
- 4:06Speaker 1: thing going to go? Well, LA is hated by President Trump.
- 4:13Speaker 1: It is a sanctuary city within a sanctuary state, and
- 4:18Speaker 1: the President does not like any of it. Matter of fact,
- 4:21Speaker 1: one of the very first, if not the first attack
- 4:24Speaker 1: on the undocumented, those ICE campaigns to pick up and
- 4:29Speaker 1: deport undocumented, was right here in La. La is sort
- 4:34Speaker 1: of the front of the poster child of what's going
- 4:37Speaker 1: on with ICE for two reasons. Number one, simply the
- 4:40Speaker 1: population of LA. I mean, go to Salt Lake City,
- 4:45Speaker 1: go to South Dakota, You're not going to see too
- 4:48Speaker 1: many Hispanics up there. Go to La or San Diego
- 4:52Speaker 1: chalk full of Hispanics, of which a large number are undocumented.
- 4:57Speaker 1: That's a fact. And he is dealing with federal forces
- 5:03Speaker 1: coming in into a city that is doing it the
- 5:06Speaker 1: best it can to get to get in the way
- 5:09Speaker 1: of federal authorities, to get in the way of ICE.
- 5:13Speaker 1: Everything the city can do, it is doing. So there
- 5:16Speaker 1: is a lot of animosity now that translates to the
- 5:19Speaker 1: Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games. It's a little tough.
- 5:23Speaker 1: That's a little tough. There's also some talk of the
- 5:27Speaker 1: visas not being allowed for athletes who are coming from
- 5:32Speaker 1: countries that are deemed not friendly to the United States.
- 5:37Speaker 1: So you know, politics is entering everything, unfortunately it really is.
- 5:43Speaker 1: And Los Angeles being at the forefront of an enemy
- 5:48Speaker 1: perceived an enemy of the president. There is obviously a
- 5:52Speaker 1: federal task force that's involved. Trump is ahead of it,
- 5:56Speaker 1: and the fight is going to be I think it's
- 6:00Speaker 1: to be pretty aggressive. Then you have the LA twenty
- 6:04Speaker 1: eight board, and a number of Trump associates were added.
- 6:08Speaker 1: This is the federal LA twenty eight board. Former one
- 6:11Speaker 1: time Republican National Committee, Trump's first chief of staff in
- 6:16Speaker 1: his first term, Kevin McCarthy, former Speaker, and a couple
- 6:21Speaker 1: of leading Trump donors are going to be sitting on
- 6:25Speaker 1: that board. All right, Okay, with that being said, I
- 6:33Speaker 1: want to talk to you about vacations. And the reason
- 6:37Speaker 1: I want to is I'm putting together next year's vacation.
- 6:39Speaker 1: Now I tend to do that early early on because
- 6:43Speaker 1: of my contract issues here at KFI and some of
- 6:47Speaker 1: the places you go. You just need to just simply
- 6:50Speaker 1: need to plan ahead. I mean, it's that simple. Okay.
- 6:55Speaker 1: So there is a a company that looks at all
- 7:02Speaker 1: of this and they've analyzed this. It's go to Africa
- 7:08Speaker 1: and obviously they specialize in Africa and trips. But They
- 7:13Speaker 1: also look at the rest of the world and where
- 7:16Speaker 1: people go, and price is not synonymous with travel experiences.
- 7:23Speaker 1: You go there because it's an inexpensive way to go.
- 7:26Speaker 1: Well maybe getting there is inexpensive, but once you go there,
- 7:34Speaker 1: you can spend ridiculous amounts of money. For example, you
- 7:39Speaker 1: want to go to Europe, right, and a lot of
- 7:41Speaker 1: people do. That's a vacation, that's a bucket list thing.
- 7:44Speaker 1: And you know the number one country in the world
- 7:48Speaker 1: where people spend their money. That's the most to the
- 7:53Speaker 1: most expensive country in the world. And obviously you know
- 7:56Speaker 1: it's Europe because I gave you a hint. What country
- 7:58Speaker 1: would you think that's the case? Do Neil? Would you think, uh,
- 8:07Speaker 1: guaranteed human Maybe not. Let's see, you're taking away to Teris, No, Nope, nope, nope,
- 8:14Speaker 1: it's actually Luxembourg, Paris way down the list five thousand
- 8:20Speaker 1: dollars where tourists spend the most money. On the other hand,
- 8:25Speaker 1: countries that were tourists spend the least amount of money.
- 8:28Speaker 1: Is their vacation in Vatican City, a big fifteen bucks
- 8:34Speaker 1: when you go into Vatican City. But then again, you
- 8:36Speaker 1: know you've been there. There's not much to buy. They
- 8:39Speaker 1: don't have to go that little store right there where
- 8:41Speaker 1: you can buy it at it, you know, And they do.
- 8:45Speaker 1: I mean they do have a restaurant, but all you
- 8:47Speaker 1: can buy is wafers. It is just not that expensive
- 8:52Speaker 1: to go there. Yes, and then you figure out getting
- 8:56Speaker 1: there and the amount of money that you spend is
- 8:58Speaker 1: a good way to plan vacation because people don't think
- 9:01Speaker 1: about how much you're actually going to spend in those
- 9:04Speaker 1: places and how expensive it can be. Switzerland is astronomical,
- 9:10Speaker 1: is ridiculous. Yeah, it's crazy expensive and so and all
- 9:13Speaker 1: you're doing is going to Europe. So here is what
- 9:17Speaker 1: you have to think about. And I'm right in the
- 9:19Speaker 1: middle of it because I think next year, I'm literally
- 9:24Speaker 1: looking at my dollars and Idobelia, I am looking at
- 9:27Speaker 1: my dollars for real, Neil, because I'm looking to maybe
- 9:31Speaker 1: go on safari. And let me tell you how expensive
- 9:35Speaker 1: safaris are. I look at these prices, I go, no,
- 9:40Speaker 1: this is for a family of eight. That's what I've heard.
- 9:43Speaker 1: It's gone on a safari, right, Yes, he's gone on too.
- 9:46Speaker 1: And how much did you spend amy It was about
- 9:49Speaker 1: ten thousand, and that is incredibly cheap. Was that a
- 9:53Speaker 1: cluse to the bear ferre.
- 9:57Speaker 2: I don't think so, but this was that was probably
- 10:00Speaker 2: then years ago, well a few years ago.
- 10:04Speaker 1: Yeah, and ten thousand dollars. I'm sure you went on
- 10:07Speaker 1: one of the less expensive, cheaper safari. Oh you went
- 10:10Speaker 1: on a luxury safari. Oh yeah, wow, for only ten
- 10:14Speaker 1: thousand dollars.
- 10:15Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, we did a group thing though we didn't
- 10:17Speaker 2: do we didn't go by ourselves. We had a group
- 10:20Speaker 2: like forty people.
- 10:21Speaker 1: Forty Oh you can get a Yeah, you can get
- 10:23Speaker 1: a pretty good discount with forty people going at one time.
- 10:28Speaker 1: And that's very cheap. Ten thousand dollars for a single
- 10:32Speaker 1: person on a safari, not including airfare. Also, keep in
- 10:35Speaker 1: mind airfare, you're in the air about about twenty four
- 10:38Speaker 1: hours of actual flying time to get to Africa. How's
- 10:42Speaker 1: that for fun? Huh? And it's and it's a bloody fortune.
- 10:46Speaker 1: I'm looking at these costs and I'm going, really, I
- 10:50Speaker 1: don't know if I want to spend that much money.
- 10:52Speaker 1: I mean, safaris are neat You get to see all
- 10:55Speaker 1: of the animals, the Big five. Unfortunately you don't get
- 10:58Speaker 1: to shoot them an enem any more. I mean, those
- 11:00Speaker 1: days are gone. On. No, no killing of animals. That
- 11:04Speaker 1: was fun when you could do that. And those you've
- 11:07Speaker 1: ever seen pictures of Teddy Roosevelt when he was doing
- 11:10Speaker 1: the Africans apart was faring. I mean he was on
- 11:12Speaker 1: top of rhinos and elephants he killed and all. I
- 11:16Speaker 1: mean that they don't do that anymore. Well, they were
- 11:19Speaker 1: now dangered, probably back then even yeah, I don't think
- 11:22Speaker 1: they were. And then you have you sit on those vehicles.
- 11:25Speaker 1: How many were in those vehicles that you were on.
- 11:30Speaker 2: Amy, We had probably nine or ten okay in the vehicles?
- 11:34Speaker 1: All right? Did you take a balloon ride?
- 11:36Speaker 2: He did? That was one of the best things that
- 11:38Speaker 2: we did, worth every cent.
- 11:40Speaker 1: It were it was was it twenty people in the balloon?
- 11:44Speaker 2: It was a very large balloon.
- 11:46Speaker 1: Yeah, you get a lot of people in your you
- 11:47Speaker 1: know it almost I've done that. And some of the
- 11:50Speaker 1: downsides is if you're going to go on a balloon ride,
- 11:53Speaker 1: you want to go on a balloon that's not that crowded.
- 11:55Speaker 1: Because if you've ever seen a documentary on Emperor Penguin's
- 11:59Speaker 1: what happens in the middle of the dead of winter,
- 12:02Speaker 1: how some go on the outside for a few minutes
- 12:04Speaker 1: and then they go on the inside and they go
- 12:06Speaker 1: back and forth. That's what happened to you. I know
- 12:08Speaker 1: that for a fact. You keep moving, migrating from the
- 12:14Speaker 1: center to the outside.
- 12:15Speaker 2: That's ours was set up that we all had a
- 12:17Speaker 2: view the whole time. I don't remember how many people
- 12:20Speaker 2: were in it. I'd have to go look. Maybe it
- 12:22Speaker 2: was more like a dozen.
- 12:23Speaker 1: That Sarah is still pretty impressive for the big baskets
- 12:25Speaker 1: because you can put up to twenty people in the
- 12:27Speaker 1: big basket. It's waiting for you to drop out of
- 12:29Speaker 1: the sky.
- 12:30Speaker 2: Oh yeah, you up there, like look, here comes lunch.
- 12:32Speaker 1: Oh absolutely, all right. Here's a story that I've been
- 12:36Speaker 1: covering for years and years, and it has to do
- 12:38Speaker 1: with defective airbags and how millions have been recalled and
- 12:44Speaker 1: still not being fixed. From twenty fifteen to twenty twenty four,
- 12:49Speaker 1: twelve million vehicles were recalled for safety defects that could
- 12:53Speaker 1: result in air bags not deploying. We're just talking air
- 12:56Speaker 1: bags here. These recalls, thirty seven of them in total,
- 13:01Speaker 1: including GM Cars, Ford Cars, Mercedes, Benz Audi, and around
- 13:08Speaker 1: twenty two percent that's two point six million, remain unfixed.
- 13:14Speaker 1: This is a story from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration,
- 13:18Speaker 1: and the journal found that twelve people. This is a
- 13:21Speaker 1: Wall Street Journal story. I've found the twelve people died
- 13:25Speaker 1: not very much, but a lot of people have been
- 13:27Speaker 1: really injured. When an air bag goes south, shrapnel can
- 13:31Speaker 1: actually be created and goes through you. Although if you
- 13:35Speaker 1: look at statistically, you want an air bag in your vehicle.
- 13:39Speaker 1: What you don't want is an air bag. It doesn't work.
- 13:43Speaker 1: And you have these air bags, safety experts agree that
- 13:48Speaker 1: they are a crucial feature save thousands and thousands of
- 13:51Speaker 1: lives since they became standard equipment in new cars about
- 13:54Speaker 1: four decades ago. And so the NHTSA also has been
- 14:01Speaker 1: considering are we requiring and estimated forty nine million cars
- 14:05Speaker 1: with air bags using parts from one supplier that could
- 14:10Speaker 1: rupture when it's deployed, and counterfeit air bag parts are
- 14:15Speaker 1: also being used. Boy, that is crazy stuff. So here
- 14:21Speaker 1: was my question that I had, and I did this
- 14:23Speaker 1: years ago because to not guy, I think is a
- 14:27Speaker 1: Japanese company that made just a huge number of air
- 14:31Speaker 1: bags for cars, and they had twenty million of them
- 14:35Speaker 1: out there and there was a recall of the majority
- 14:39Speaker 1: of them. And so let's say you get a recall
- 14:43Speaker 1: notice and you're really and you want your car recalled
- 14:47Speaker 1: and you're really pissed off. So let's say eight million
- 14:51Speaker 1: people going to get their car recalled, and you're not
- 14:56Speaker 1: happy with where you are. Someone has to be seven
- 14:59Speaker 1: million in nine hundred ninety nine thousand, nine ninety nine
- 15:03Speaker 1: on that list. And it's not going to happen tomorrow. Okay,
- 15:08Speaker 1: that's one problem, And how severea gets here's another problem.
- 15:13Speaker 1: Then the NHTSA they don't specify how serious a recall
- 15:19Speaker 1: is or not. There have been recalls simply because a
- 15:22Speaker 1: page was missing from the from the manual, so they
- 15:26Speaker 1: recall the manual redid it also on break parts not working.
- 15:31Speaker 1: So the answer is, or one of the answers is
- 15:35Speaker 1: to sort of increase the severity of the not so
- 15:41Speaker 1: much the punishment towards a manufacturer, but the way that
- 15:49Speaker 1: you and I are being approached by and informed by
- 15:55Speaker 1: the manufacturers. It's just it's a one it's one page
- 16:00Speaker 1: that comes in an envelope in his first class mail
- 16:03Speaker 1: and it says your car has been recalled, and a
- 16:06Speaker 1: lot of people are saying, you know, people throw those
- 16:08Speaker 1: away because it's just another car. Either advertising or some
- 16:14Speaker 1: kind of a spiff. If I'm just getting these from
- 16:17Speaker 1: BMW right now, my lease is up and I'm getting
- 16:20Speaker 1: an email plus a, I'm getting a letter that says, hey,
- 16:25Speaker 1: your car lease, you have seventeen months to go. We're
- 16:27Speaker 1: going to put you in a new one for the
- 16:29Speaker 1: same price. Give me a break, like I'm going to
- 16:32Speaker 1: do it. But here is what the NHTSA is thinking of,
- 16:36Speaker 1: and it makes a lot of sense, and that is,
- 16:38Speaker 1: do what the big pharma is doing, or more importantly,
- 16:43Speaker 1: do what big Tobacco did with cigarette smokes smoke and
- 16:48Speaker 1: on the cigarette packs, put these really hard hitting messages
- 16:54Speaker 1: smoking will cause cancer in big letters. Recall if you
- 17:01Speaker 1: don't recall your car, serious damage or death may happen.
- 17:06Speaker 1: And put those in big letters across the envelope. Now
- 17:12Speaker 1: is that going to get my attention? Hell? Yes, okay.
- 17:16Speaker 1: Here is a story I want to share it with
- 17:18Speaker 1: your last one and it's entitled the Snake is Back.
- 17:23Speaker 1: And what does that mean? Well, Moholland Highway a one
- 17:28Speaker 1: and a half two point four mile stretch. It was
- 17:32Speaker 1: burnt down or the Wolseley fire burnt down the area
- 17:36Speaker 1: in twenty eighteen there were month slides the next year.
- 17:39Speaker 1: So what the county did, and this is County land
- 17:42Speaker 1: up there for more than six years, couldn't do it,
- 17:47Speaker 1: could not go around the corners of that stretch of
- 17:53Speaker 1: Mulholland Highway is dangerous as hell, and it certainly was
- 17:59Speaker 1: why speeding motorists, car races, collisions, people died like crazy.
- 18:07Speaker 1: If you've ever been to that area and I have,
- 18:10Speaker 1: it's winding curves, you cannot see who's ahead of you,
- 18:14Speaker 1: and people who drive there are nuts. They are completely
- 18:18Speaker 1: out of their minds. And I try to stay away,
- 18:22Speaker 1: but sometimes it's the only way you can go in
- 18:25Speaker 1: any case. Here's what the county did, a new set
- 18:28Speaker 1: of safety improvements, hoping that this dangerous reputation for real
- 18:36Speaker 1: reasons can somehow be shed. New curve warning signs, tightened intersections,
- 18:44Speaker 1: updated road strips, safety ballards. Wait, what's the ballard? By
- 18:47Speaker 1: the way? Are those those bumps in the highway? Ballard?
- 18:51Speaker 1: The ballards aren't they they're the I don't know. They're
- 18:55Speaker 1: like the big things that keep their posts that keep
- 18:58Speaker 1: you from going all those metal that metal fencing is
- 19:02Speaker 1: that with ballards? Yeah? Okay, don't know. Rumble strips. That one.
- 19:07Speaker 1: I don't know either.
- 19:09Speaker 2: There are the little bumps on the road that.
- 19:11Speaker 1: Bumps on the rollers are rumble strips.
- 19:17Speaker 2: Ballards are there. They are like at the entrance to
- 19:20Speaker 2: Third Street promenade, they have ballards up that block cars
- 19:24Speaker 2: from getting onto.
- 19:24Speaker 1: The bab I see the metal posts. Yeah, that block
- 19:29Speaker 1: car So were you now think about that ballards in
- 19:34Speaker 1: the middle of the road. That does slow people down.
- 19:37Speaker 1: There's no question about it. Putting up ballards is the
- 19:40Speaker 1: end all be all. But during the Woolsey fire, wow,
- 19:47Speaker 1: ninety seven thousand acres in Malibu alone. Uh, the snake's
- 19:52Speaker 1: guard rails, that's what those are on this side. Uh,
- 19:55Speaker 1: they actually all melted. The pavement actually burns, and there
- 20:00Speaker 1: was a bridge that was destroyed. So there is a
- 20:05Speaker 1: program called Vision zero. I guess that refers to you
- 20:12Speaker 1: losing your eyesight while driving in the road and getting
- 20:15Speaker 1: into a car accident. Maybe not, Maybe I have that wrong.
- 20:19Speaker 1: And La County established a goal to reach zero traffic
- 20:23Speaker 1: deaths on its roadways unincorporated roadways that's where La County
- 20:28Speaker 1: has jurisdiction. By twenty thirty five county roadways, more than
- 20:35Speaker 1: seventy five people die every year on those county roadways.
- 20:39Speaker 1: So you can now drive with impunity on the snake.
- 20:46Speaker 1: The snake is back, all right? What to give me
- 20:52Speaker 1: the weird look? Will? What all you heard is the
- 20:58Speaker 1: snake is back. I wasn't talking about pleasuring yourself or no,
- 21:03Speaker 1: none of that. Okay, No one was. Well, he was questioning.
- 21:10Speaker 1: He was questioning what I meant by the snake is back? Okay,
- 21:16Speaker 1: Well that also can refer to, okay, we are done
- 21:21Speaker 1: with the show. You've been listening to the Bill Handle Show.
- 21:24Speaker 1: Catch My Show Monday through Friday, six am to nine am,
- 21:27Speaker 1: and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app