Latest / The Bill Handel Show / Democrats & White House Strike Deal | Canada’s Assisted Suicide Program (MAiD)

Transcript

Democrats & White House Strike Deal | Canada’s Assisted Suicide Program (MAiD) · The Bill Handel Show

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Speaker 1: You're listening to bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
0:04
Speaker 1: six forty. Let's make a deal to little how Dudy
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Speaker 1: AM six forty. Bill Handle here on a Friday morning,
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Speaker 1: and it's January thirtieth, tomorrow, of course, being the last
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Speaker 1: day of the month, as we're well into the year.
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Speaker 1: And a quick word about the rest of the show.
0:31
Speaker 1: All of the show, because very few people listen to
0:34
Speaker 1: all three hours. If you've missed any segment of the program,
0:38
Speaker 1: go to the iHeartRadio app and you can check into
0:41
Speaker 1: the podcast. I mean, we have some fun, fun segments
0:44
Speaker 1: like today at eight o'clock, it's foody Friday, and then
0:47
Speaker 1: ask Handle anything and I get hugely embarrassed by that.
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Speaker 2: Oh.
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Speaker 1: Also, real quick before we get to what's going on
0:54
Speaker 1: in terms of the shutdown, is the monarch butterfly population
1:00
Speaker 1: that comes to California. There are no monarch butterflies left.
1:05
Speaker 1: It's just it's just done. You know, I live near
1:08
Speaker 1: San Juan Capistrano, and you know, the swallows of Santo
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Speaker 1: Capistrano this year, you know, thousands of people lined up
1:14
Speaker 1: with binoculars to look at the swallows coming down, coming back,
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Speaker 1: one one, one bird. It's tough and they're not big either,
1:27
Speaker 1: not enough to cook at all. You know, swallow meat
1:30
Speaker 1: is just just not the same. Okay. Now, governmental shutdown,
1:35
Speaker 1: which theoretically, well not so theoretically, starts tonight December, I
1:41
Speaker 1: think it's tonight or tomorrow night where the government shuts down.
1:45
Speaker 1: And the only way the government keeps on going every
1:47
Speaker 1: year is to extend the budget, give itself the permission
1:52
Speaker 1: to borrow money in order to pay the governmental bills,
1:58
Speaker 1: because the government runs just in a deficit constantly. Matter
2:04
Speaker 1: of fact, in the modern era, the only time there
2:07
Speaker 1: was a surplus was during Clinton one year during Clinton,
2:11
Speaker 1: and before that during the Eisenhower years. And so we
2:14
Speaker 1: don't live in surplus in this country. So now huge
2:19
Speaker 1: debate that went on and what's going on in Minneapolis
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Speaker 1: is now really affecting the budget. So the fight was
2:27
Speaker 1: going on between Congress, the Republicans and the Democrats about
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Speaker 1: the budget, and the Republicans wanted just the continuation of
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Speaker 1: the budget and funding the Department of Homeland Security, which
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Speaker 1: oversees immigration enforcement. And because of the craziness that's happening,
2:45
Speaker 1: the Democrats said, we ain't going to fund DHS because
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Speaker 1: of what's happening, and the Republicans say, you have to
2:53
Speaker 1: fund DHS, and there was just a stop. I mean,
2:55
Speaker 1: they could not agree, much like what happened with the
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Speaker 1: last shutdown last year thirty eight days, the longest shut
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Speaker 1: down in the history of the United States. And the
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Speaker 1: Republicans caved on this. Why because of Minneapolis. Here's what
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Speaker 1: the Democrats demanded. No more masks on ICE agents. They
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Speaker 1: need a warrant before they go into anybody's house. More
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Speaker 1: targeted approaches to this. They can't just arbitrarily pull people
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Speaker 1: out of cars and go in front of buildings, lows
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Speaker 1: and home depots and factories. And the Republicans fought it. Well,
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Speaker 1: guess what, they just caved. They just caved. They have
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Speaker 1: agreed to the democrats demands, the Democrats and the meantime, well,
3:41
Speaker 1: they've agreed to talk about those demands, but in principle
3:44
Speaker 1: agreed that those demands will be made. And the Democrats
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Speaker 1: then said, okay, we will allow the budget to the
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Speaker 1: partial shutdown to disappear for two weeks while we discuss
4:01
Speaker 1: homeland security and ICE immigration tactics. And so they had
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Speaker 1: a deal, and then they didn't have a deal, and
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Speaker 1: so what ends up happening before this becomes law is
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Speaker 1: both houses of Congress, the Senate and the House, have
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Speaker 1: to vote agree to all the terms, and then take
4:22
Speaker 1: this bill and send it up to the President for signature,
4:25
Speaker 1: and the President will sign. He's already said he will sign,
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Speaker 1: and he's actually giving the Democrats some kudos for this
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Speaker 1: in terms of averting the shutdown. Problem is there was
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Speaker 1: a hiccup. It has not been signed. Congress has not
4:41
Speaker 1: been called back. They're on recess. Mike Johnson has the
4:46
Speaker 1: ability to call them back, but he has not done so,
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Speaker 1: and there's all kinds of question about that. And so
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Speaker 1: we may have a governmental shutdown. But the good news
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Speaker 1: is probably going to go for one or two days,
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Speaker 1: which is not going to affect paychecks. It is not
5:04
Speaker 1: going to affect vendors who sell to the government. It
5:08
Speaker 1: is not going to affect those in government who do
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Speaker 1: get paid. Now, some people in government get paid, come
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Speaker 1: hell or high water, members of the military get paid.
5:19
Speaker 1: Social Security is still issued, but many many parts of
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Speaker 1: the government are not. They just shut down, and that's
5:28
Speaker 1: why they call it a partial shutdown. Hey, here is
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Speaker 1: a story that I looked at this and I went
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Speaker 1: whoa wait a minute, and that is you know that
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Speaker 1: the future is going to be two wars are going
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Speaker 1: to be fought, one for water and the other one
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Speaker 1: cyber wars. And the US had military hackers that took
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Speaker 1: aim at computer servers and key personnel of at least
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Speaker 1: two Russian companies that were pumping out the propaganda in
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Speaker 1: the last two elections or the last elect certainly, oh no,
6:01
Speaker 1: and then the first election with Donald Trump, and Trump
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Speaker 1: talked about how it was all a fake that none
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Speaker 1: of this happens. And boy has he proved his point
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Speaker 1: because he is saying that none of this really happened,
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Speaker 1: and he's not fearful. Why is this? These trolls were
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Speaker 1: trying to influence election results in swing states and Trump said, naw,
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Speaker 1: they didn't. They published fictitious news stories that attacked American
6:32
Speaker 1: politicians who supported Ukraine. That was their big issue. In
6:37
Speaker 1: one case, it's called the Cyber Command. What operatives and
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Speaker 1: our government planned to do was knock offline servers base
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Speaker 1: in some European country we don't know exactly one in
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Speaker 1: which Russian companies continue to create content through election day.
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Speaker 1: And it was well, the president said, none of that
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Speaker 1: is true because Russia. You know, Russia had really interesting
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Speaker 1: reaction to Donald Trump. Basically, Donald Trump had a pretty
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Speaker 1: good relationship with Putin and has historically as a matter
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Speaker 1: of fact, if you remember that one incident in which
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Speaker 1: the allegation by US government authorities, by the intelligence community
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Speaker 1: of the US government, seventeen agencies said that Russia was
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Speaker 1: a hacking us the computer world in the US and
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Speaker 1: was getting in the way of the elections, interfering with
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Speaker 1: our election results. And Putin denied it, and Trump actually
7:45
Speaker 1: said I believe Putin more than I believe our intelligence community.
7:51
Speaker 1: That was a scary moment. So here we are. We
7:54
Speaker 1: have this military force, and it's a cyber force. We
8:00
Speaker 1: didn't know this. This is not the civil aspect of it.
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Speaker 1: This is military that the government is using that deals
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Speaker 1: with the hacking, the interference that we have not only
8:12
Speaker 1: in terms of elections, but in general trolling and just
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Speaker 1: issuing propaganda statements over and over again. Guess what happened
8:23
Speaker 1: here We are a year into the second Trump administration,
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Speaker 1: and what the administration has done is just shut down
8:30
Speaker 1: the military or a good part of the military program
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Speaker 1: that we have fighting the trolling, fighting the propaganda. So
8:40
Speaker 1: government centers that previously were involved with repelling foreign influence
8:45
Speaker 1: operations have been disbanded or downsized. And what's happening is
8:51
Speaker 1: local governments are preparing to face this onslaught on their own. Now.
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Speaker 1: The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI,
9:02
Speaker 1: and the State Department that helped warn us that China,
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Speaker 1: Russia in Iran targeting Americans with election related disinformation, they've
9:12
Speaker 1: been slashed, just slash. The election security teams slashed, and
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Speaker 1: the Trump administration has accused those federal programs of censoring
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Speaker 1: Americans and conducting domestic interference in US elections. So not
9:27
Speaker 1: only is Russia and it was all fake news that
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Speaker 1: Russia was doing this. The President has said there were
9:36
Speaker 1: American intelligence forces that were trying to interfere with the election.
9:42
Speaker 1: And I mean, it's just crazy. And this is all
9:46
Speaker 1: under homeland security. There is a former election security specialist,
9:51
Speaker 1: Mike Moser at the DHS Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
9:57
Speaker 1: I mean, we have so many agencies who they hell
9:59
Speaker 1: knows what they do. He resigned because the agency froze
10:04
Speaker 1: its election work last year. He says, you see these
10:07
Speaker 1: partnerships dismantled. We're losing human and technological infrastructure that protects
10:13
Speaker 1: our democracy. And here is the question, and a lot
10:16
Speaker 1: of people are very very upset obviously about the Trump
10:19
Speaker 1: administration and how it's Donald Trump is changing the United
10:25
Speaker 1: States and how we do business and how we simply
10:28
Speaker 1: exist as a society, changing it more than any president
10:32
Speaker 1: probably in the history of the United States. Maybe FDR,
10:36
Speaker 1: you can argue, was close to this, but I think
10:40
Speaker 1: Trump blows past FDR in terms of changing America. And
10:45
Speaker 1: that is Okay, we have the next president because Trump's
10:48
Speaker 1: in for three more years, unless, of course, he gets
10:51
Speaker 1: elected for life according to a couple of Republican congress
10:56
Speaker 1: people who want him to be the Grand Puba for
10:58
Speaker 1: the rest of his life and even beyond that. And
11:02
Speaker 1: so a new president is going to come in and
11:05
Speaker 1: unravel a lot of what this president is doing. Well,
11:11
Speaker 1: the point that's being made is there are certain aspects
11:14
Speaker 1: that are never going to come back. For example, in
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Speaker 1: this one, it takes years and years to train the
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Speaker 1: cybersecurity experts, and they're leaving. They've left, they've gone into
11:27
Speaker 1: private business, they've gone into other industries, other ways of working,
11:33
Speaker 1: you know, simply living in a different life. Well, they're
11:38
Speaker 1: not coming back, and no one's being trained, so coming
11:42
Speaker 1: back is going to be very, very difficult. Now, we
11:45
Speaker 1: can rejoin NATO, that's not going to be a problem.
11:48
Speaker 1: We can rejoin the World Health Organization. That's not going
11:52
Speaker 1: to be a problem because we just rejoined at the
11:54
Speaker 1: Paris Climate Accords. That can be rejoined. Although at this
11:59
Speaker 1: point every but he is thinking, come on, you burned
12:02
Speaker 1: us once, you're not going to burn us twice. But
12:04
Speaker 1: organizations like this are going to be almost impossible to
12:08
Speaker 1: bring back once they're disbanded. And this is a change.
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Speaker 1: This is where the change of this president is so profound,
12:19
Speaker 1: is so visceral. America is a different place and it's
12:24
Speaker 1: going to stay a different place because of what this
12:27
Speaker 1: administration is doing and some good some bad. I don't
12:31
Speaker 1: know which side of the coin. You may believe him,
12:33
Speaker 1: you may not. You may think that he's doing good,
12:35
Speaker 1: you may think that he's a disaster. It doesn't matter.
12:38
Speaker 1: What we have to agree, all agree is that he
12:42
Speaker 1: is changing fundamentally what the United States is about, defining
12:48
Speaker 1: this country not only nationally domestically, but internationally. Okay, that's
12:55
Speaker 1: the part that was a little depressing. Now let's have
12:59
Speaker 1: a little bit of fun death. And this has to
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Speaker 1: do with Canada and physician assisted suicide. How does that work?
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Speaker 1: I want to share that with you. Death. Death is
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Speaker 1: among us now a topic that you know how much
13:20
Speaker 1: I love death, and so this one has to be
13:22
Speaker 1: with Canada physician assisted suicide, which we talk about but
13:27
Speaker 1: very few people here in Well. First of all, California
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Speaker 1: is an assisted physician suicide state. And I think the
13:36
Speaker 1: first one was I think Washington, maybe I don't remember,
13:39
Speaker 1: but the point is it's very, very difficult here to
13:44
Speaker 1: have a physician assisted suicide because the criterion is so difficult.
13:50
Speaker 1: And once again, I remember, and I talk a lot
13:52
Speaker 1: about my mother dying because that was something that I
13:55
Speaker 1: was very involved with, and I remember going in when
13:58
Speaker 1: she was basically a vegetable, and this is when I
14:04
Speaker 1: thought physician assisted death would be fantastic. And I remember
14:08
Speaker 1: going in and.
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Speaker 2: Screaming, Hey, can anybody help out here? Come on, crickets,
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Speaker 2: crickets nobody. The point is here in California very difficult.
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Speaker 2: How about Canada?
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Speaker 1: One hundred thousand people in ten years, and that's how
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Speaker 1: quickly it expands and creates the culture of death once legalized.
14:31
Speaker 1: Except the criteria is so difficult here, and Canada makes
14:36
Speaker 1: it so easy. By the way, the first place in
14:39
Speaker 1: the world that had assisted physician suicide was the Netherlands Holland.
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Speaker 1: So Alex Schodenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition,
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Speaker 1: estimates that in twenty twenty four, around sixteen five hundred
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Speaker 1: Canadians killed themselves via assisted suicide, increase of roughly seven
15:02
Speaker 1: and a half percent over twenty three A couple days later,
15:05
Speaker 1: when he was asked by CNN what he meant by
15:10
Speaker 1: all of that, he couldn't help because they announced that
15:12
Speaker 1: he had just killed himself the day before. Suicide. The
15:18
Speaker 1: popularity shows no sign of decreasing at all, and here's why,
15:24
Speaker 1: because they're so much easier to do it. It's still
15:27
Speaker 1: not easy. There is strict quote eligibility criteria, but it
15:33
Speaker 1: really isn't that strict. You have to be eighteen years
15:36
Speaker 1: old and mentally competent. You have to have a grievous
15:39
Speaker 1: and irremedial medical condition. Now that one is up for discussion.
15:44
Speaker 1: Discussion here in California, doctors have to say you got
15:47
Speaker 1: six months to live or less, and if you have
15:50
Speaker 1: nine months to live, if they figure that one out.
15:53
Speaker 1: You ain't killing yourself making a voluntary request for physician
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Speaker 1: assisted suicide, informed consent to receive it, and you're eligible
16:05
Speaker 1: for health services funded by the province or territory or
16:08
Speaker 1: the federal government. If you're not on the national plan, yeah,
16:13
Speaker 1: you ain't doing it. And so here is the issue
16:19
Speaker 1: with Canada. There are two tracks, and both of them
16:25
Speaker 1: go to assisted physician suicide. Those that are above or
16:29
Speaker 1: a doctor recommending it and another doctor qualifying that recommendation
16:35
Speaker 1: and health insurance will actually do it. You imagine you
16:38
Speaker 1: have health insurance that will help you, will help pay
16:42
Speaker 1: for a doctor that then will give you the magic elixir.
16:47
Speaker 1: And I happen to be a huge fan of physician
16:51
Speaker 1: assisted suicide and all kidding aside. First of all, would
16:57
Speaker 1: I do it? Yeah, okay, guys, calm down, Yes I would.
17:03
Speaker 1: Why because sometimes the quality of life that is part
17:07
Speaker 1: of longevity in my world, I mean, living to eighty
17:11
Speaker 1: or ninety is kind of neat. However, living to eighty
17:15
Speaker 1: or ninety with a quality of life that's worthless is not.
17:20
Speaker 1: You know, again, I talk about my mother in all seriousness,
17:23
Speaker 1: and you know I joke about my mother, you know, dying. Well,
17:25
Speaker 1: I don't joke about it, but she lasted until she
17:29
Speaker 1: was ninety eight, and the last five years of her life,
17:32
Speaker 1: particularly the last three years for her life, it was
17:37
Speaker 1: she was a vegetable. The problem is, and here is
17:40
Speaker 1: the moral issue. I would have gladly put her down.
17:44
Speaker 1: A matter of fact, I wouldn't even have a doctor
17:46
Speaker 1: do it. I would have taken to her a vet
17:47
Speaker 1: to save so much money. But it was how am
17:52
Speaker 1: I going to make that decision? How are you going
17:54
Speaker 1: to make that decision? How many of you on the
17:56
Speaker 1: morning show would jump at the chance to help me
17:59
Speaker 1: kill myself.
18:02
Speaker 3: We've already, uh, we've already talked about this, and it's
18:09
Speaker 3: between me and Kno very close with Anne, but she
18:15
Speaker 3: needs more money in the pot.
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Speaker 1: And a cracker barrel breakfast this morning and a cracker
18:22
Speaker 1: barrel dinner today and we're still here having cracker barrel done.
18:28
Speaker 1: Oh that's cool. Where'd you find that? Cono? That's a
18:30
Speaker 1: great song. It couldn't be better. How appropriate? Okay, this
18:34
Speaker 1: is the story of cracker barrel, but it's more a
18:38
Speaker 1: story of what's going on in corporate America. This is
18:42
Speaker 1: just an example. So cracker Barrel is in a lot
18:46
Speaker 1: of trouble financially, and the stores are still there and
18:50
Speaker 1: they're still going to go on while it restructures. But
18:54
Speaker 1: while that's happening, and this is part of what Cracker
18:57
Speaker 1: Barrel is doing as well as company all over the country.
19:03
Speaker 1: When you work, when you travel for work, when you
19:10
Speaker 1: as an employee hits the road, here's where you eat
19:16
Speaker 1: at Cracker Barrel. If there's anyone in the city, that's
19:21
Speaker 1: where you eat. Don't place else. And if you're let's
19:25
Speaker 1: say a sales management person, you're flying off and visiting
19:28
Speaker 1: several Cracker barrels. That's lunch and dinner. Enjoy yourself. Employees
19:35
Speaker 1: are expected to dine at Cracker Barrel for all or
19:39
Speaker 1: the majority of meals while traveling. This is what the
19:41
Speaker 1: company said in internal email. Whenever practical based on location
19:46
Speaker 1: and schedule, it's called travel scrimping and man Corporate America
19:50
Speaker 1: has jumped onto this one big time, and these changes
19:55
Speaker 1: are stripping work trips of whatever shred of glamour they
19:58
Speaker 1: ever had, which is now tough. And this is after
20:02
Speaker 1: years of bell tightening, and it gets even worse if
20:06
Speaker 1: you're working for Cracker Barrel. Even in pretty high management
20:12
Speaker 1: one hundred dollars. Hotel rooms, you'll look for them preparing
20:16
Speaker 1: grocery bought meals in your room, going to laundromats to
20:23
Speaker 1: launder your shirts, as opposed to the hotel. Now inside
20:30
Speaker 1: Cracker Barrel, they're saying that these changes are minor. Yeah,
20:34
Speaker 1: you want to bet budgets are shrinking. And it makes
20:39
Speaker 1: sense because expense account abuse is out there, and that's
20:43
Speaker 1: one place where you can have costs a roll out
20:47
Speaker 1: of control. It's much easier to control costs inside the
20:51
Speaker 1: company manufacturing distribution, but when it comes to sales outside
20:57
Speaker 1: the company, you can go nuts. So Amazon, for example,
21:03
Speaker 1: they've long asked corporate workers to travel frugally, cheap seats
21:08
Speaker 1: when possible. They do not want to hear you buying
21:11
Speaker 1: for aisle seats or emergency exit seats. And one of
21:18
Speaker 1: the debates in Amazon is what is cheap enough? And
21:23
Speaker 1: no one really knows. And by the way, what does
21:29
Speaker 1: the winner get traveling the cheapest possible, the cheapest way
21:34
Speaker 1: Why a couple of free meals at cracker Barrel which
21:38
Speaker 1: the salesperson has already had a dozen of them. Well,
21:43
Speaker 1: some corporate travelers are saying they're going to the grocery stores.
21:48
Speaker 1: Other ones are skimping on breakfast and lunch and saving
21:51
Speaker 1: their allowance for dinner because usually it's a per diem
21:56
Speaker 1: and it used to be you'd have plenty of money.
22:01
Speaker 1: And European companies are even worse, even worse, so a
22:07
Speaker 1: lot of European companies is even to get a meal
22:12
Speaker 1: or get a beer that has to be okayed by
22:16
Speaker 1: the way cracker barrel is also. In addition, all this
22:20
Speaker 1: is cutting off the traveling workers from booze any booze,
22:23
Speaker 1: any alcohol. Even taking people to lunch. You can't order booze.
22:29
Speaker 1: Exceptions for special occasions. You can do it, but it
22:34
Speaker 1: has to be pre approved by an E team member.
22:37
Speaker 1: So can you imagine there is a salesperson executive who
22:41
Speaker 1: is taking someone out to lunch, a purveyor, let's say,
22:44
Speaker 1: of meat in that direction in that area. So he
22:48
Speaker 1: goes to lunch and the guy orders a beer. Can't
22:52
Speaker 1: pay for the beer. Excuse me a moment, I have
22:54
Speaker 1: to make a phone call, calls a member of the
22:57
Speaker 1: E team. They call it, Hey, my our guest wants
23:01
Speaker 1: a beer. Is it okay? And it's four dollars and
23:05
Speaker 1: fifty cents welcome to corporate America. See we're easy because
23:14
Speaker 1: does anybody hear travel? I mean not just us, but
23:17
Speaker 1: we used to do travel. When there were big stories
23:19
Speaker 1: that were breaking, there would be they would send out
23:23
Speaker 1: reporters to those stories. I remember when the Murrow Building
23:28
Speaker 1: office building blew up. You remember that when the terrorist
23:32
Speaker 1: attack blew up the building in one hundred and something
23:34
Speaker 1: people died, they flew me out to report on it. Today,
23:39
Speaker 1: if the same thing happened and I said, hey, I've
23:42
Speaker 1: got to go out there. You can walk. It's Oklahoma,
23:48
Speaker 1: all right, take an extra day. KFI AM sixty you've
23:54
Speaker 1: been listening to the Bill Handle Show. Catch my Show
23:57
Speaker 1: Monday through Friday, six am to nine am, and any
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