You're listening to Later with mo Kelly on demand from KFI AM six forty.
It's Later with mo Kelly Tiffy Hop sitting in with you until ten pm tonight.
Are you celebrating Juneteenth practically over? But did you celebrate Juneteenth? Were
you off of work today? Did you find yourself at any sort of community
event? Did you have a special meal? I don't know what you did,
but if you celebrate it June teenth, then this is probably something that
is a new addition to your life. It's a new addition to many people's
lives. Let's be honest, because before twenty twenty one, many people had
no clue what the heck Juneteenth was. June nineteenth was just another date on
the calendar. But now June nineteenth is a federal holiday, a holiday in
which many people get the day off, and, like other how holidays that
we may not know the significance of, we are happy to engage ourselves in
the fruits of that holiday so that we may get a day off. Right.
We don't really care what's going on as long as we can reap the
benefits. But I'm here to tell you a little bit more about June teenth,
and why it's a kind of a frustrating day for me as a black
American. Well, Juneteenth started in eighteen sixty five. And the significance of
June nineteenth, eighteen sixty five is that two years prior, in eighteen sixty
three, then President Abraham Lincoln, and you may know this, already signed
the Emancipation Proclamation making slavery illegal in the United States and the contiguous United States.
Those slaves, those people who were enslaved, because they are people first
slaved. Second, those people who were enslaved, were their rights as human
beings to be free. They were essentially freed, effectively freed from slavery,
from bondage. That was eighteen sixty three came with its own set of issues.
You take millions of people and changed their lives in an instant. There's
a lot to deal with two years later is what Juneteenth has now become.
Because for two more years, the state of Texas still observed slavery. They
did not tell their enslaved people that they were freed. They just kept up
with what was going on. You have a free workforce, a free labor
force. Why tell them that they don't have to work for you? Anymore.
They kept it up for two years successfully until eighteen sixty five, when
word finally made it to Galveston, Texas that enslaved people were granted their freedom
two years prior. They were very late, but sex six five everyone was
free, and that date became known as Juneteenth. It's a contraction between June
nineteenth, June and nineteenth, and so now it's June teenth. It's cute,
it's catchy, and it is highly marketable. With it being highly marketable,
it has become very corporatized. It has become yet another holiday in which
the focus seems to be on how much you can spend to observe the holiday
versus what the holiday actually entails and why it was created in the first place.
I wanted to give you that history so you can know a little bit
about the background if you didn't already, because honestly, a lot of people
don't know and they may be afraid to ask. So I'm here for you.
Just want to share that with you. But here's why I'm frustrated,
and I'm looking at actually an op ed piece that came out MSNBC by an
author who name actually don't have in front of me. Right now. But
this author wrote his own or their own opinion piece about why June teenth for
them is problematic. It's entitled the vibes are very off this June teenth,
And as I skimmed it, I said, I could have written this myself.
So instead of reading it too, I'm gonna tell you how I feel.
Okay, just a little bit about how I feel. June teenth is
great. I'm happy that people were freed two years after the initial freedom date,
but that in itself is problematic. I don't necessarily feel that June teenth
is a date in which we should be celebrating. Instead, I feel like
it requires a bit more somber of an observance and could very well be specific
to the region in which this happened right Instead, it has gone nationwide.
I saw a commercial today by I can't name it because it's a sponsor,
but by a company that was essentially talking about Juneteenth as a marketable ploy.
They said they were having a freedom sale. A freedom sale. I've seen
car companies say that they are having freedom deals. Buy this specific car,
and they tag on some cute little item to it, or some some sort
of adage, and now it's connected to June teenth. I've seen plenty of
companies capitalizing on the language around Juneteenth, namely the word freedom, but instead
of actually observing why we're having a holiday, they're just using it to make
more money, and that is very frustrating. When it became a corporate holiday
a national holiday in twenty twenty one, which was signed into law by President
Joe Biden, it mirrored the protests that were going on in the wake of
what happened with George Floyd and other sorts of civil unrests around the country.
But what was a holiday celebrating freedom again turned into a question of who is
this for? What is this for? And that question is one that's hard
to answer without offending people on any end of the spectrum. There are some
who just want to celebrate it, just enjoy it, take it for what
it is, they may say. And then there are others who might be
like myself, who are frustrated and want people to understand the gravitas of the
situation and actually don't want the cake and balloons and all of the fun stuff
that goes along with positive holidays, because this isn't necessarily a positive day.
It's a day that's built on what was a lie for two years? Why
are we celebrating a lie? Why are we celebrating a lie that was maintained
for two years or the absence of truth for two years. Because it's a
way for people to make money. Now you get a day off. I'm
here, I'm working. I don't get a day off, but most of
us get a day off. Banks are closed, the Dow was closed.
Everyone is reaping the benefits. And as this holiday continues to grow in popularity,
more and more companies will observe Juneteenth and will use it again as a
way to capitalize because it is an aspect of capitalism. It's a holiday that
is now part and parcel with capitalism. You go to Target, you see
Juneteenth shirts everywhere. You go again to your local whatever restaurant, and you'll
see deals for juneteen hamburgers. What does a hamburger have to do with freedom?
Very little, very little. So I just wanted you to consider that
today, that even though you get a day off, even though you may
not have been able to go to your bank, or you might have got
some special deal or whatever it might have been that was on sale for the
day, understand the true impetus behind Juneteenth and why not everyone is necessarily excited
about the commercialism of it and how widely spread this very specific, culturally specific
holiday has become. When we come back, we're going to talk about why
your avocado prices are going up and why you're not going to be able to
buy that avocado toast without grimacing. You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on
demand from KFI AM six forty. It's Later with Moe Kelly. I'm Tiffany
Hobbes sitting in till ten o'clock tonight with you. Do you like avocados?
I do. I love a good avocado. Have you noticed how expensive avocados
are? Avocados you need a second job to purchase avocado's At this point you
gotta take it a loan to get one. You know, there's a loan
that's required for the purchase of avocados. I am sure of it. And
then there may very well be a juneteen sale on avocados. So get to
your local grocer and say run faster now they do. There's it's a conspiracy.
It has to be. They know what they're doing. It's sponsored by
Big Avocado, right, So Avocados are already expensive. As we all agree.
That was Jackie Ray there and Steph. Avocados are super pricey and the
price is only going to go up. Why, you may ask, because
of cartels, and you're like, what the heck do cartels have to do
with avocados. Well, let's let's make the connection. Follow me here,
Okay. The us DA inspects everything that comes in and out of the United
States, especially into We don't want to bring in any sort of bugs or
any sort of diseases. So the USDA is very particular about inspecting fruit and
vegetables and other things. Avocados are a They're a fruit. They're vegetable.
They have a seed. What is it? They have a seed, It's
a fruit. They're a fruit, right, I always wonder because they're so
good and like a fruit can't tastes good. Avocados are amazing. They inspect
avocados. They also inspect mangoes. And the reason that these two are connected
in this story is because both avocados and mangoes are now at risk of not
making it to your shelves in time for Fourth of July and that guacamole that
you plan to make, so the USDA has employees on both sides of the
border. We have our American employees, we have our other employees, and
it just so happens that avocados are a big business. And when they are
a big business, that gets other people sniffing around trying to figure out how
they can make money off of avocados in more nefarious ways. Who am I
talking about? The cartels where Mitchella, Kan Mexico and Jalisco, Mexico,
two states where we get avocados from. We only get avocados from these two
states in Mexico. You think they would come from other places, but no,
there's something special about the soil there. They grow and we get them
from those two states, Mitchuacan and Jalisco. But there are two employees from
the USDA working in Mitchuacan who were kidnapped, assaulted, and held temporarily.
They were released, so that's important. Temporarily designates that they were released,
but they were assaulted. And because of that, the USDA has halted all
sorts of testing and the checks and balances system that the USDA goes through for
specifically avocados and mangoes due to these security concerns. They were attacked by the
cartel. Why because cartels want to make money and what makes money drugs,
and apparently avocados and mangoes. These three entities are very very lucrative money makers.
You would think that drugs might be something a little separate from fruits and
vegetables, but no, not in this case. Avocados are the new drug
trade. And in the last couple of years there have been numerous attacks on
us DA employees. These employees have been victimized in different ways, resulting in
the pausing temporarily of the USDA's operations in Mexico. And while they are paused,
the exporting doesn't happen. It just it's math. You can't check and
export if you don't have anyone to check if the whole entire system is shut
down. So when those avocados, mangoes, other things can't make it to
us, what then happens? The limited supply we do have goes up in
value and the prices skyrockets. So an avocado that might be two dollars today
when of those small little haas avocados may very well double in value. So
if you have avocados and you need to make some money. That might be
something you want to look into possibly selling on the side. I expect to
see more people selling avocados after this story. I think I might myself,
unless they go back, like Jackie said, really fast, because they are
manipulating the food so that we can buy more avocados. It's all connected.
But what we do know is that these USDA inspectors again who were released,
were victimized, were assaulted in such a way and it was severe enough that
security concerns were sparked by the entire government entity, and a spokesman for the
agency said that it will remain paused until it can ensure that it's Animal and
Plant Health Inspection Service inspectors working in Mexico are safe, so that pause date
is somewhat indefinite. They have not said yet when they will resume operations.
As of right now, it's open ended, which means again we'll be feeling
this for a while. And avocado season is something that is really really not
relegated, but it's it's we really buy avocados during certain times of year.
The fourth of July is a big one, Super Bowl is another one.
These are times in which we're buying this sort of food, expect again to
see your prices sky rocket stuff. Do you like avocados? Yeah, actually
yeah, I got kind of I'm new to it because I really kind of
you for a while. Yeah, I didn't like them for a while,
and then a couple of years ago, one of my friend's girlfriends made some
guacamole in a really like a unique way, to my opinion, and I
now I can't get enough. See, I was thinking about guacamole, and
I'm sad for producing Armando from the Gary and Shannon Show, because he's an
award winning guacamole person, guacam moly maker, and I just I fear for
what's gonna happen to him. You know, his prices are probably gonna go
up to unfortunately, and you know, if he's a business guy, that's
what he's got to do. That's what she gotta do. And that's what's
happening right there because of the USA and the Dagon cartel, Like, just
focus on the drugs, leave hands off the avocados and the mangoes. Please,
if anyone has any connections to them, can you please pass that along.
I would love to not have to spend that much money on avocados.
When we come back, we're going to talk a little bit about something else.
I spend a lot of money on too much money on Amazon. The
collective sigh and looks from everyone in the studio. Amazon has my heart and
also my pockets. Unfortunately. We'll talk about that when we come back.
You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from KFI AM six forty.
It's Later with Moe Kelly. Mo's not here, I am. I'm Tiffany
Hobbs. In with you until ten tonight. I love me some Amazon.
I love Amazon, love it, love it, love it. Probably an
unhealthy level of love for Amazon, and that's what they've created in me.
They may have created that in you as well, because of the convenience,
because of the cheaper prices, because of just how readily available everything is.
That's what drop shipping. Does you want something, it's practically there at your
fingertips with a few dollars, a few clicks, boom, it's on your
doorstep. You don't have to worry about anything, you have to contend with
any crowds. It's right there. And I really became an aficionado of Amazon
during the coronavirus shutdowns of twenty twenty. I didn't want to go anywhere,
so I had everything come to me and that became my relationship. I loved
it. I still use it. I have paper towels being delivered by seven
am right now because I can. But my benefit is not necessarily the gain
of the workers in the Amazon warehouses. California is actually finding Amazon almost six
million dollars five point nine million dollars to be exact for breaking warehouse safety rules
that are supposed to be in place to protect workers and reduce worker injuries in
its warehouses. And there are two warehouses specifically, one in Marino Valley and
one in Retlands, so they're out of the way and they are very popular.
I always see advertisements for employees or for open positions at these Amazon warehouses.
I know quite a few people who have passed through these warehouses as employees
or who have encouraged others to do it because of how quote easy it is
to get the job. But the common thread between all of these people is
that it is not a place. These warehouses are not places you want to
stay because your quality of life will degrade extremely fast due to the working conditions
within the warehouse as a result of these working conditions, again, California has
fined Amazon six million dollars and that may not seem like a lot, but
it is. It sends a message, and that message is you have to
take care of your workers. Why does this matter well, Labor Commissioner Lilia
Garcia Brower set that Amazon's performance evaluation system, the system that they use to
hold Amazon accountable as an employer to their employees, has led to undiscs,
closed quotas that pressure employees to work faster, work faster, work faster,
work faster, work faster. You're going too slow, you need to speed
it up. And this pace has become just a huge hazard to these employees
because the faster pace, these demands placed on the employees have resulted in an
uptick in workplace injuries and it has completely led to the degradation of morale within
the warehouse because employees are trying to meet their targets, and when they don't
meet their targets, they're trying not to be the slowest within their departments.
It's causing employee strife, internal complications, and it's led to just a horrible
workplace environment. That unfortunately you and I benefit from because our good are still
coming without us knowing that all this is going on in the background. This
law was created by Assembly Member Loraina Gonzalez, and the law states that there
has to be a disclosure, there has to be honesty about what these quotas
are. California demands that Amazon let the governing bodies know what these quotas are
and how employees are expected to reach them. But of course that hasn't been
happening, and the law was created because of the highlighting of demands again for
speed and production, which produce higher than average injury rates. Again, the
two warehouses in Retlands and in Marino Valley have reported that upwards of eight percent
six to eight percent of all employees have experienced workplace injuries, range from minor
to major. Most of them have to do with wrists and hands because of
the packing and the lifting of the heavy things, heavy materials, heavy boxes,
whatever it may be, the sorting. But they're all injuries and people
are expected, according to these warehouse workers to continue working despite their injuries lest
they forfeit their positions willfully, or because California is an at will state,
they can be dismissed, fired for not producing or meeting the quotas again that
remain unchecked. Always advertising jobs shows you that there is a high turnover rate.
These jobs are consistently turning over, and people are now reporting what's happening
within these warehouses. One worker said, if you don't work a certain number
of items per day and make sure that you meet your rate, you'll get
a right up or a verbal coaching. They will come over and chastise you
and wag their fingers at you if you do not meet your quota. But
what they're saying is they don't even know what their quotas are. How many
boxes am I supposed to move? I don't know, And if you don't
know, how can you meet that? It makes it very open ended,
It makes it very fluid and ambiguous, and it again avails these people to
being fired, being mistreated. That's what's happening. The worker goes on,
her name is Carrie Stone, and she said that if she missed her quota
by one percent then she would get written up, but that she never knew
what that one percent actually entailed. So the constant emotional toll, the constant
psychological toll of being told you're right at the brink of losing your job,
but you don't really know why. Is also something that's ever present in these
Amazon warehouses while we're just waiting for our goods to make it to our doorstep.
The law doesn't actually ban the use of quotas, so they can still
have quotas. It just requires that employers notify workers of these quotas in writing,
make it clear, and make it available to the employees so that when
they're hired, they can understand whether or not these quotas are something that's imposing
or something that they're willing to try and take on. Employees are also saying
that the quotas are so stringent that it restricts them from being able to use
the bathroom or take breaks. They're just so focused on getting the packages out,
getting my toilet paper and my paper towels packaged, that they can't take
a break. And that's no way for any worker, let alone a huge
warehouse worker to have to to have to exist, have to exist us for
our benefit because something's cheaper. When we come back, we are going to
talk about a woman's lost luggage, an air tag, and a homeless encampment
what happens when all three of those walk into a bar. You'll find out
when we come back. You're listening to Later with mo Kelly on demand from
KFI AM six forty. It's Later with mo Kelly. I'm Tiffany Hobbs sitting
in with you. Do you know what these little Apple brand AirTags are?
They're kind of a newer phenomenon. I don't have one. I've heard people
talk a lot about them. I've actually never seen one in the wild.
But this is something I'm interested in investing in because there are apparently this little
GPS tracking device that can be put in practically anything to assure that you know
where your belongings are. I've heard of people sewing Apple air tags into the
shirts of their children so that they know where their children are on field trips
or out with friends, whatever it may be. I've heard of people putting
Apple air tags in different possessions if they are moving, and in this case,
I'm now hearing of putting an Apple AirTag in your luggage. If you
travel a lot, like our dear beloved mo Kelly does and is currently right
now, and you check your luggage, perhaps using one of these Apple air
tag GPS tracking devices is something that should be a necessity for you. Here's
why. There's a woman, her name is Annie Grace, and she flew
from Denver to Bourbank Airport right here over the hill, and she checked her
luggage. She made it. She had a few connections, but her luggage
actually made it. And here is where the story gets a little strange and
goes right back to what I was talking about in the first hour of maybe
you shouldn't necessarily confront a crime. So Annie's traveling. She makes it to
Bourbank Airport, Hollywood Burbank Airport. Her luggage doesn't. She gets a phone
call from someone at the airport, because of course, she goes to the
office and she says, my luggage is missing, and the person in the
airport says, hey, no, no, no, your luggage actually made
it home. She's in Burbank and her luggage has made it to Denver,
where she came from. She calls home, it's not there. Then she
realizes, wait, I put an Apple air tag in there. I should
be able if it's still on and operating, to track my luggage and see
where it is. I don't think that Annie expected to find out what she
found out, But she did, and what she found out is that her
luggage was slowly at that time moving north down Western Avenue towards Santa Monica.
Western in Santa Monica. If you know anything about Los Angeles, Western in
Santa Monica is nowhere you want your luggage to be. You don't want to
be at Western and Santa Monica. But Annie's luggage was on Western and Santa
Monica. Let me paint the picture for you of what Santa Monica and Western
looks like. For those of you who are unaware, those of you who
are aware are probably shaking your head and waving your hands saying no, no,
no, no no, because there's some PTSD associated Western and Santa Monica
Boulevard has numerous stores, numerous businesses, a couple of new apartment complexes,
and also a metro station. The metro station has metro station activities, big
time metro station activities. The shops and stores around are essentially holding tanks for
those activities. It's a very transient area. There's a lot of crime that
goes on in that area. There's a lot of grime that is in that
area, and there are numerous homeless encampments on each corner. Annie's or Annie,
excuse me, Annie's luggage was at one of these homeless encampments. Annie,
her sweet Denver, Colorado self, decided she was going to go to
the homeless encampment to confront whoever had her luggage. Bless her heart, well
she did. Unfortunately, this story doesn't take a turn. We're not talking
about Annie's unfortunate demise or anything, but her luggage. WI was completely emptied.
She did find the luggage itself. The bag. She said her belongings
were kind of strawn about, and that people were just there kicking it,
just around her stuff, hanging out as if nothing ever was wrong. She
says, she started grabbing her stuff. She's grabbing it. She's crying.
She said. Vendors are looking at her like she's crazy, because guess what,
Annie, you were. You were a little crazy to do that,
girlfriend, but you did it. And she said she started grabbing stuff out
of a cart. The homeless person who had her bag said, hey,
wait a minute, I bought this bag Barren Square. This is my bag,
and Annie's like, no, this is my bag. Instead of going
back and forth, She's crying. Can you imagine this scene on the corner
of It's already a crazy scene. Now you add all these extra elements and
it's just something out of the best reality show ever or the worst. For
Annie, I imagine, she then pays to get her bag back. She
had a friend with her. They put their money together because of course,
now the bag itself is being held for ransom, and the homeless people are
telling her it will give you your bag for this nominal fee. They fork
over whatever it was. They get their bag back, They contact the airport,
and the airport just says, you know, we don't know what happened.
We don't know. We thought it got there, sorry to tell you,
They said, they're also working on addressing the issue, as if that
offers any sort of consolation to miss Annie. Right, so, she said
that after all of this happened, she felt however, she felt she felt
a little relieved that she had that reconciliation, she found her bag. But
how much confidence does this then? Does this then give you as a traveler,
knowing that your bag could make its way to Western and Santa Monica of
all places. What airline was this? I just need to know for future
reference. It is American Airlines. American Airlines. It's not even Spirit activities.
This is American Airlines, which has experienced its own share with their Boeings.
And people don't want to fly American because of the Boeings. But now
you're not gonna want to fly American because your back would make it to Western
and Santa Monica. Unsavory activities indeed. But congratulations to Annie for getting her
empty luggage back. I applaud, I applaud her bravery. I don't think
I would have done it, definitely, not without some police or some sort
of military militarized component, because that's that corner right there is whoo. I
don't want to do that one. It's KFI A M six forty live everywhere
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