Latest / The Bill Handel Show / Year of the ‘Cranky Consumer’ | The Hottest Christmas Gifts!
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: You're listening to bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
- 0:04Speaker 1: six forty Get the Money.
- 0:07Speaker 2: Day KFI AM six forty Bill Handle. Here. It is
- 0:17Speaker 2: a Monday morning, December twenty two, and we're in the
- 0:21Speaker 2: holiday season, obviously, Thursday being Christmas, and I have no
- 0:27Speaker 2: idea what day next week is New Year's Day and
- 0:31Speaker 2: we're all kinds of modified programming here at KFI. I'm
- 0:35Speaker 2: Wednesday is my last day, and then the Jesus Show
- 0:39Speaker 2: comes in on Thursday.
- 0:41Speaker 1: Am I right on that? Yaresday is next Thursday. I
- 0:45Speaker 1: knew that, all right.
- 0:45Speaker 2: So Jesus comes back on Christmas, which he always does.
- 0:50Speaker 2: On his way to his Jesus goes, doesn't he go
- 0:54Speaker 2: in his sleigh and drop off drops off toys for
- 0:59Speaker 2: kids all over the world. Oh, because I thought Jesus
- 1:03Speaker 2: went up on Easter to get ready for the holiday
- 1:07Speaker 2: season to give toys to all the boys and girls.
- 1:10Speaker 2: So I have that confused. Yes, okay, thank you for that.
- 1:14Speaker 2: I'll straighten that out. We have a big, big winter
- 1:16Speaker 2: storm coming too, that is real, and we're going to
- 1:19Speaker 2: see the rains hitting us. What amy tomorrow night or
- 1:23Speaker 2: tonight is when it really starts.
- 1:25Speaker 1: Tomorrow is when the rain's going to roll in, yeah,
- 1:28Speaker 1: and then the heaviest of it's going to be on Wednesday. Okay,
- 1:32Speaker 1: I can't wait for that the day before Christmas.
- 1:33Speaker 2: So for those of you that are traveling, good luck
- 1:35Speaker 2: to you, you know, then take a kayak.
- 1:39Speaker 1: Okay.
- 1:40Speaker 2: Now I want to spend a minute talking about unintended
- 1:45Speaker 2: consequences when legislation is passed. I was involved in writing
- 1:52Speaker 2: the first surrogacy bill here in the state of California,
- 1:56Speaker 2: and that is controlling and dealing with safeguards.
- 1:59Speaker 1: Its area, etc.
- 2:00Speaker 2: In the world of surrogacy, we spent more time dealing
- 2:07Speaker 2: about dealing with unintended consequences than we ever did actually
- 2:12Speaker 2: writing the legislation, because that's what comes to bite you
- 2:17Speaker 2: in the ass. Whenever legislation or court cases have been decided,
- 2:23Speaker 2: here we go in unattended consequences.
- 2:26Speaker 1: So here's one that you might enjoy.
- 2:30Speaker 2: There was a criminal justice reform law that was passed
- 2:32Speaker 2: in twenty twenty allowing judges to basically erase as a
- 2:38Speaker 2: race a misdemeanor case from existence.
- 2:41Speaker 1: And what it does and we all thought, all right,
- 2:43Speaker 1: not bad.
- 2:44Speaker 2: It shields people accused of low level crimes from the
- 2:48Speaker 2: stigma of having a conviction on their record, because a
- 2:52Speaker 2: conviction of any kind on your record limits your workability
- 2:57Speaker 2: or housing opportunities getting hired. I mean, having convictions on
- 3:02Speaker 2: your record is not fun. And believe me, everybody that
- 3:05Speaker 2: you're that you're going to work for or wherever you're
- 3:09Speaker 2: gonna rent, is doing a background check because it's so
- 3:11Speaker 2: easy today, which means are you ready for this the
- 3:15Speaker 2: land of unintended consequences? You can face more penalties for
- 3:21Speaker 2: a speeding ticket than running someone over and killing that person. Now,
- 3:28Speaker 2: how is that? Well, here's an example. In April, a
- 3:33Speaker 2: twenty three year old Connor Lopez, who hamsby a piano teacher,
- 3:39Speaker 2: was riding his motorcycle when an oncoming car makes a
- 3:44Speaker 2: left turn right in front of him and collides. There
- 3:47Speaker 2: was a collision. Lopez dies right there in the driveway.
- 3:52Speaker 2: The DA's office charges the driver, hard Jit Cower, with
- 3:56Speaker 2: misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter, not a felony, no drunk driving here,
- 4:03Speaker 2: It was just he was in violation of the law.
- 4:05Speaker 2: He made an illegal left turn and ended up killing someone.
- 4:09Speaker 2: And one of the charges can be a vehicular manslaughter,
- 4:13Speaker 2: but misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter, and it was, of course a
- 4:19Speaker 2: legend at her failure to yield is what caused the
- 4:23Speaker 2: is what caused the crash. I mean, it was right there, right,
- 4:26Speaker 2: the dots were all connected. So the prosecutor said the
- 4:32Speaker 2: case could be wiped off of Cower's record completely and
- 4:36Speaker 2: sealed from view if Cower asks for diversion and the
- 4:42Speaker 2: judge grants it. Diversion programs have been around for decades
- 4:47Speaker 2: across the country.
- 4:48Speaker 1: What they do is let a judge stop a case.
- 4:51Speaker 2: Order a defendant to meet certain requirements over a period
- 4:53Speaker 2: of time, by going to rehab, going to traffic school,
- 4:56Speaker 2: et cetera, and usually doing community service, and if the
- 5:00Speaker 2: defendant completes those terms, the case is dismissed.
- 5:05Speaker 1: Done.
- 5:07Speaker 2: Now that twenty twenty law lets judges in California order
- 5:10Speaker 2: diversion for almost all misdemeanors, even this one, even over
- 5:15Speaker 2: the objection of a prosecutor. So five years after twenty twenty,
- 5:21Speaker 2: here we are twenty twenty five, and defense attorneys are
- 5:24Speaker 2: routinely requesting diversion, not just for shoplifting under nine hundred
- 5:29Speaker 2: and fifty dollars we changed that limit and drug possession,
- 5:34Speaker 2: but also for cases where someone has died.
- 5:37Speaker 1: Cal Matters looked.
- 5:38Speaker 2: Into this and they identified about three dozen drivers who
- 5:42Speaker 2: avoided the vehicular manslaughter charge by doing the diversion charges.
- 5:49Speaker 2: And can you imagine families in arguing against letting the
- 5:54Speaker 2: drivers off. The judge sometimes goes no because it's not
- 5:59Speaker 2: that much of a The judge views it as just
- 6:01Speaker 2: an accident in which someone unfortunately was killed, which means
- 6:07Speaker 2: that if a diversion program is removed or is enacted,
- 6:12Speaker 2: there are not even any points against your driving record
- 6:15Speaker 2: with a DMV. If you're caught speeding, yes you get points.
- 6:23Speaker 2: And in this case there was the left term, but
- 6:25Speaker 2: no cops saw it and there wasn't a ticket issued.
- 6:32Speaker 2: Welcome to unintended consequences, all right. Sixty minutes was supposed
- 6:40Speaker 2: to air an investigative peace about Venezuelan's hundreds of them
- 6:47Speaker 2: being deported to l Salvador under the immigration crackdown, and
- 6:52Speaker 2: they were sent to this prison, one of the I
- 6:56Speaker 2: think most is being described as one of the most
- 6:59Speaker 2: horrific prisons and all of El Salvador. And according to
- 7:03Speaker 2: the sixty minute piece, they endured systematic torture and abuse
- 7:08Speaker 2: I'm reading here, including sexual assault, and the report went
- 7:13Speaker 2: on to say, the conditions at sey Kat, it's the
- 7:15Speaker 2: name of the prison, breached the United Nations minimal rules
- 7:20Speaker 2: and that's according to the Human Rights Watch. So what happened, Well,
- 7:28Speaker 2: the decision came directly from the network's editor in chief,
- 7:32Speaker 2: new One, Bari Weiss. According to an internal email that
- 7:39Speaker 2: was produced from the correspondent of that piece, Sharon al Fonsei,
- 7:45Speaker 2: called the decision to yank the piece from the broadcast
- 7:50Speaker 2: ten amount to handing the White House a kill switch.
- 7:55Speaker 2: The team had sent questions and requested comments from the
- 7:57Speaker 2: White House, the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security
- 8:01Speaker 2: for the story. The administration denied or declined to grant
- 8:06Speaker 2: the interview. Alfonsi wrote, government silence is a statement, not
- 8:10Speaker 2: a veto, and their refusal to be interviewed is a
- 8:14Speaker 2: tactical maneuver designed to kill the story. Now, CBS said
- 8:19Speaker 2: the sixty minute report on inside Sikat will air in
- 8:23Speaker 2: a future broadcast. Don't know when we determine it needed
- 8:27Speaker 2: additional reporting, And then a question was asked of CBS
- 8:33Speaker 2: to comment on Alfonsi's statement. No comment from CBS. Matter
- 8:39Speaker 2: of fact, Alfonsi didn't comment after she said that, so
- 8:46Speaker 2: the segment is yell is yanked after tremendous promotional aspects
- 8:51Speaker 2: to this. I mean they were running it on TV,
- 8:54Speaker 2: the trailer and on their website.
- 8:56Speaker 1: And let me tell you a little bit about Weiss.
- 9:00Speaker 2: Weiss was named CBS's top editor this fall after David Ellison,
- 9:05Speaker 2: he owns Paramount Sky Dance with his dad. He ended
- 9:09Speaker 2: up buying The Free Press an opinion an opinion website
- 9:14Speaker 2: actually that Weiss had found it and by the way,
- 9:17Speaker 2: sold it for one hundred and fifty million dollars. She
- 9:19Speaker 2: did just great in her early days, rapid changes, restructuring, layoffs,
- 9:25Speaker 2: a town hall series, including an interview with Erica Kirk,
- 9:30Speaker 2: the widow of Charlie Kirk. I mean it went on,
- 9:33Speaker 2: and it went on and on, and in the email,
- 9:37Speaker 2: Alfonsi says, the sources in this segment risked their lives
- 9:42Speaker 2: to speak with us, and we have a moral and
- 9:45Speaker 2: professional obligation to these sources themselves who entrusted us with
- 9:50Speaker 2: their stories. And then she went on to say, and
- 9:54Speaker 2: here I'm going to quote, if the standard for airing
- 9:57Speaker 2: a story becomes the government must agree to be intervie dude,
- 10:00Speaker 2: then the government effectively gains control over the sixty minutes
- 10:03Speaker 2: broadcast and we go from investigative powerhouse to a stenographer
- 10:08Speaker 2: for the state.
- 10:09Speaker 1: And here's the allegation.
- 10:11Speaker 2: CBS management is saying that we needed the input of
- 10:16Speaker 2: the government, We had to have their response.
- 10:20Speaker 1: Nothing.
- 10:21Speaker 2: Therefore, without their response, we don't have a story and
- 10:25Speaker 2: we're not going to broadcast it. And Alfonsi writes, if
- 10:30Speaker 2: that is the standard for airing a story that the
- 10:33Speaker 2: government has to respond, then look what we have. We
- 10:38Speaker 2: don't have a free press, we don't have a robust,
- 10:41Speaker 2: investigated aspect. And she said, the story itself is factually correct,
- 10:48Speaker 2: rigorous internal checks have been meat. This is not an
- 10:52Speaker 2: editorial decision. This is all about a political decision. And
- 10:58Speaker 2: it is one of the things about this administration. It
- 11:02Speaker 2: is truly stretching the bounds of not only its power legally,
- 11:09Speaker 2: but its power psychologically.
- 11:12Speaker 1: It's political power.
- 11:14Speaker 2: And in these cases it is and I'm going to
- 11:17Speaker 2: talk about a minute some of the cases that have
- 11:23Speaker 2: been brought up Jimmy kimmelcase. A timeline of Trump's fights
- 11:29Speaker 2: with the media. I mean, it goes on and on,
- 11:32Speaker 2: and this one and I'll tell you the President has
- 11:36Speaker 2: won this battle.
- 11:37Speaker 1: It's that simple.
- 11:39Speaker 2: President won it because people are afraid people. You've got universities,
- 11:48Speaker 2: you have private companies, you have law firms, all scared
- 11:53Speaker 2: to death of what the president can do. Also, keep
- 11:56Speaker 2: in mind, Republicans in Congress are all lining.
- 12:00Speaker 1: Up to do exactly what the president wants.
- 12:03Speaker 2: If the President says A, we go to A, and
- 12:06Speaker 2: if he changes his mind and say let's go to B,
- 12:08Speaker 2: we go to B. Case in point, Epstein files screaming
- 12:12Speaker 2: about how they have to be released, and now his
- 12:15Speaker 2: ardent supporters who screamed about it are now staying completely silent.
- 12:20Speaker 1: Nope, don't want to talk about it.
- 12:23Speaker 2: And that's just a tip of the Iceberg presentative or
- 12:25Speaker 2: excuse me, she was a reporter. If it takes the
- 12:30Speaker 2: White House to respond, and it doesn't respond and we
- 12:33Speaker 2: kill the story, that means that the White House essentially
- 12:37Speaker 2: has the ability to kill a story.
- 12:39Speaker 1: All it has to do is not respond.
- 12:42Speaker 2: And the media and the President have had some very
- 12:47Speaker 2: interesting stories and very interesting episodes. The Kimmy Jimmy Kimmel
- 12:52Speaker 2: episode in which he was yanked off the air and
- 12:55Speaker 2: put back on because of the backlash, and what did
- 12:58Speaker 2: he do well. He had a monologue which included a
- 13:02Speaker 2: reference to the Charlie Kirk assassination. He also compared Trump's
- 13:07Speaker 2: grief to a four year old mourning of a goldfish.
- 13:13Speaker 2: And I find that offensive too, because I think a
- 13:16Speaker 2: goldfish mourns far for a far longer time. Okay, Am
- 13:21Speaker 2: I going to be yanked off the air for that?
- 13:23Speaker 2: Quite possibly? And the point is that if you have
- 13:29Speaker 2: an outlet, a news outlet, a broadcast outlet that says
- 13:33Speaker 2: anything derogatory about the president, that outlives a lot in
- 13:38Speaker 2: a lot of trouble. Now, Brendan Carr, who is the
- 13:40Speaker 2: FCC chair appointee of Trump's, threatened outright to pull the
- 13:45Speaker 2: license of ABC literally, to pull those broadcast licenses affiliates.
- 13:51Speaker 2: Although ABC does own I think five they used to
- 13:54Speaker 2: own five stations the major networks or five OHO to
- 13:57Speaker 2: zero owned and operated.
- 13:58Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't think there's a limit now.
- 14:01Speaker 2: Anyway, it was they were so frightened ABC that they
- 14:06Speaker 2: yanked Kimmel for a period of a few days. Thank goodness,
- 14:11Speaker 2: because can you imagine the government be able to tell
- 14:13Speaker 2: a network, here is who you're going to have on
- 14:15Speaker 2: the air, and who you're not. Stephen Colbert's show was yanked.
- 14:21Speaker 2: Now they're saying the network is saying CBS was for
- 14:27Speaker 2: financial reasons. However, the announcement came three days after Colbert
- 14:32Speaker 2: criticized the settlement between Trump and Paramount over a sixty
- 14:37Speaker 2: minute story, which in and of itself as a hell
- 14:39Speaker 2: of a story. Paramount decided to pay Donald Trump sixteen
- 14:43Speaker 2: million dollars to settle a lawsuit regarding the editing of
- 14:49Speaker 2: a sixty minute CBS sixty minute segment. The interview was
- 14:54Speaker 2: with then Vice president Kamala Harris and what the accusation was,
- 14:59Speaker 2: and it's a legit accusation that they edited the interview
- 15:04Speaker 2: and put pieces of it together to make Kamala Harris
- 15:07Speaker 2: look better.
- 15:10Speaker 1: Okay, true?
- 15:12Speaker 2: And so as a result of that, it's not just
- 15:14Speaker 2: a retraction that's usually the case. No, it was a lawsuit,
- 15:21Speaker 2: I think for twenty billion dollars. And what were the damages?
- 15:28Speaker 2: Trump could not argue that he lost the election because
- 15:31Speaker 2: of it. He suffered mental anguish as a result of
- 15:36Speaker 2: that interview. Now, every lawyer that they could find, that
- 15:46Speaker 2: we could find that anybody could find, said this is
- 15:50Speaker 2: ludicrous on its face.
- 15:53Speaker 1: How does Donald.
- 15:53Speaker 2: Trump argue mental anguish because that sixty minute piece made
- 15:59Speaker 2: Kamala Harris look better. They settled sixteen million dollars. They caved.
- 16:07Speaker 2: Trump also signed an order in which he defunded PBS
- 16:13Speaker 2: and NPR. They don't have governmental money anymore. Why because
- 16:17Speaker 2: they're considered liberal and they come out against Trump or
- 16:22Speaker 2: some policies against Trump. Then there was a fifteen million
- 16:27Speaker 2: dollar settlement from ABC News because George Stephanopolis on the
- 16:34Speaker 2: air said that the president elect. At that point, the
- 16:37Speaker 2: president had just been elected. He was found civilly liable
- 16:41Speaker 2: of raping the writer e Gen Carroll, and the network
- 16:44Speaker 2: agreed to pay the fifteen million plus a million.
- 16:47Speaker 1: Dollars in legal fees.
- 16:48Speaker 2: And why is this, Well, Stephanopolos repeatedly misstated the verdict
- 16:55Speaker 2: in the two civil lawsuits, and the verdict was not rape.
- 17:00Speaker 2: Is not what came down is rape as New York
- 17:03Speaker 2: under New York law. It was I think simply sexual assault,
- 17:07Speaker 2: which technically is not rape. And you would think, of
- 17:10Speaker 2: course ABC News would just settle it or just print
- 17:15Speaker 2: or broadcast or retraction, which is.
- 17:18Speaker 1: Always the case.
- 17:20Speaker 2: Fifteen million dollars plus a million dollars in legal fees.
- 17:25Speaker 2: CBS News just now the sixty minute piece. It's pretty
- 17:29Speaker 2: scary for the world of broadcasting. Also pretty scary for
- 17:32Speaker 2: law firms too. And how does he deal with law firms. Well,
- 17:35Speaker 2: he just said a lot of the major major law
- 17:38Speaker 2: rooms law firms are involved in federal cases and are
- 17:41Speaker 2: paid for in federal dollars. He decided, We're not going
- 17:44Speaker 2: to pay anymore. Major corporations. If you're woke, we are
- 17:49Speaker 2: going to make it miserable for you. Universities, colleges, they
- 17:53Speaker 2: get federal money and lots of it. If you are woke,
- 17:58Speaker 2: we are going to yank hundreds of mills millions of
- 18:00Speaker 2: dollars across the board.
- 18:02Speaker 1: It's scary stuff, it really is.
- 18:06Speaker 2: And the courts, well, Supreme Court has given President Trump
- 18:12Speaker 2: well effectively unbridled presidential power. I mean he has, I mean,
- 18:16Speaker 2: look at he's got the perfect storm going. He has
- 18:20Speaker 2: Congress in his pocket, he has the ability to shut
- 18:25Speaker 2: down networks. He has the ability of withholding hundreds of
- 18:30Speaker 2: millions billions of dollars from universities if they don't do
- 18:32Speaker 2: what he says, or if they don't stop doing what
- 18:38Speaker 2: he is arguing that they should stop.
- 18:41Speaker 1: Anyway, it's pretty scary stuff.
- 18:42Speaker 2: Let's have some fun now, Okay, all right, We're going
- 18:45Speaker 2: to end the show with holiday gifts, and I'll tell
- 18:50Speaker 2: you what's really hot.
- 18:52Speaker 1: Poop tests.
- 18:54Speaker 2: Now, really yeah, because what's happening is health tracking gifts
- 19:01Speaker 2: are really the hot. One. Micro biome tests, also known
- 19:08Speaker 2: as poop tests, in which you poop into I guess
- 19:15Speaker 2: some kind of a box or a thing. Actually not,
- 19:18Speaker 2: I think you put a little litmus test kind of strip. Anyways,
- 19:21Speaker 2: what it is not only is it completely disgusting, it
- 19:25Speaker 2: also measures the microbiomes, the bacteria in your gut. And
- 19:30Speaker 2: some of these tests measure blood sugar. And you can
- 19:33Speaker 2: get a panel of blood tests. Man, that's just something
- 19:36Speaker 2: you get a Christmas gift, for a holiday gift, and
- 19:39Speaker 2: there it is. It's a monitor show your blood, what
- 19:43Speaker 2: your blood levels are, and on top of that a
- 19:47Speaker 2: little kit that says here you go poop into here.
- 19:50Speaker 1: Now. I don't know how.
- 19:52Speaker 2: Great a gift that would be personally, I thought it'd
- 19:56Speaker 2: be kind of what does it say a value would
- 20:00Speaker 2: to say about someone that you are gifting. There are
- 20:06Speaker 2: devices like the Aura ring. Remember the mood ring. Well,
- 20:08Speaker 2: this is the Aura ring, which is a lot more
- 20:10Speaker 2: sophisticated and whoop, they track sleep, physical activity, health metrics.
- 20:16Speaker 2: Those are hotter than hell. It's health that we're giving
- 20:21Speaker 2: gifts to each other. And you know, am I going
- 20:26Speaker 2: to receive any? I know? I don't receive gifts for
- 20:28Speaker 2: the most part, nor do I want them. And everybody
- 20:33Speaker 2: you don't get you guys don't get gifts from me.
- 20:35Speaker 1: So there you go. I don't have you. Has anybody
- 20:38Speaker 1: gotten a Christmas card for me?
- 20:40Speaker 2: Well, okay, small gift, but have you ever received a.
- 20:46Speaker 1: Christmas card from me? Not an actual Christmas card? Okay?
- 20:50Speaker 1: Have you ever received a holiday card for me?
- 20:53Speaker 2: Amy?
- 20:54Speaker 1: Yeah?
- 20:56Speaker 2: I have never given a holiday card in my life. No,
- 21:03Speaker 2: it didn't come from me. And Lindsay was my name
- 21:06Speaker 2: on it? No it was not your signature, was it?
- 21:09Speaker 2: No it was not my signature, Yes it was. That
- 21:12Speaker 2: is a no, it's a fact simile. This is what
- 21:15Speaker 2: she uses to forge my name on checks.
- 21:17Speaker 1: All right.
- 21:23Speaker 2: And by the way, uh will don't expect a card
- 21:27Speaker 2: from me?
- 21:27Speaker 1: And uh yeah, hold way too late, although.
- 21:30Speaker 2: You know what, Lindsay does give New Year's cards, you know,
- 21:36Speaker 2: and people give us sometimes Thanksgiving cards because you're inundated
- 21:39Speaker 2: with cards.
- 21:42Speaker 1: What Why? Because it's a lot.
- 21:44Speaker 2: Of work to open up the envelope and then throw
- 21:48Speaker 2: the cards into the trash.
- 21:50Speaker 1: That is a lot of work. You're not supposed to
- 21:52Speaker 1: throw them in the trash.
- 21:53Speaker 2: You're supposed to display them. Yeah, I'll take a picture
- 22:01Speaker 2: of my empty mantle and I'll share that, I'll post that.
- 22:05Speaker 1: I can't think we're done. Guys, you've been listening to
- 22:07Speaker 1: the Bill Handle Show.
- 22:08Speaker 2: Catch My Show Monday through Friday, six am to nine am,
- 22:12Speaker 2: and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.