You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM six forty. You want
listening to the Bill Handle Show. And good morning everybody. It is a
Thursday Solstice, Thursday, Thursday, June twentieth, longest day of the year.
And I think this is the official start of summer. And okay,
the only time I really mattered when I was getting out of school. Remember
it would be third week in June. I would get out of school today.
When did they get out of school? I don't know. February is
when the semester ends, and it starts in January. Who the hell knows?
But I cared, and my kids are out of school. So I
cared when I was a kid. Now, all right, how unusual?
Now? Amy reported this in the news and that is LA's latest homeless housing
project has opened up in skid Row. And skid Row, by the way,
it's going to be one of those terms that we're never going to be
able to use again because it stigmatizes. It has to be that street which
houses many homeless people. I don't know what kind of a name comes up
with it, but I guarantee you come from skid Row, like hitting the
skids, probably probably you know I come up with do I use that line
again that I used last hour skid row? Amy says no, no,
Sorry, you have to listen to the Last Hour where I came up with
the origin of the term skid row. Anyway, this is the first of
two high rise buildings are going to make up the Wine Guard Towers, and
the first one is open. Nineteen story two hundred and seventy eight units overlooking
downtown, La Cafe, club room, Jim Music, art rooms, computer
lab, dog runs, terraces, two hundred and twenty eight studio apartments,
fifty one bedroom apartments. Each apartment fully furnished, full kitchen, private bathroom,
heating and air conditioning, described as high quality apartment living. And Kevin
Murray, the president's CEO of the Wineguart Center Association, says, this is
not just a building. It's about people, about giving people dignity and respect.
By the way, I agree with that. There is no question this
is about taking the homeless and doing something with them. And by the way,
this is where you could call me a socialist on this one. We
have so many homeless in society that I think we have to do something about
it. Other countries do I have a real problem with the fact that healthcare
and food is not a fundamental right. Okay, housing, I don't know,
but you know, through tax dollars, through tax dollars, we are
funding this. It comes to five hundred and sixty five thousand dollars or five
hundred and ninety five thousand dollars per unit, six hundred grand for every unit.
Now am I in favor of this? I am still a little bit
of math. How many people in La County are considered homeless? Sixty thousand,
okay, how many of them are Let's say forty thousand units are necessary
because summers couple some families, So let's call it forty thousand. What is
forty thousand times a six hundred thousand Figure that number out. Yeah, yeah,
it's pretty impressive. And I have said, and here is the flaw
is to deal successfully with homelessness, to make a real dent is going to
take every dime of the budget of this county and probably the state to make
this happen. And where do you put this on the burner? Front burner,
okay, back burner, the burner behind that. And I don't know
what I do know if it's going to be incremental couple one hundred, few
hundred units at a time, so forty six years from now will actually make
a real good den unless you take all the money. And how are they
going to get some of the money. Well, guess what. We've got
a ballot measure coming up in November, and we now have a one quarter
cent sales tax in La County to fund affordable housing and homeless services. This
ballot measure is going to replace that which expires in twenty twenty seven from a
quarter cent to half a cent. Now that means almost nothing, right,
except as these taxes go up a quarter of a cent half a cent.
Guess where we are, boys and girls. We're at what one and a
half percent? One of the most expensive tax, sales tax in the United
States, and it's going to go up, much like next month are our
tax on gasoline is going to go up. I'll be announcing that July first,
and no small amount either. Oh, by the way, California taxes
on gasoline the most expensive tax in the United States. It used to be
fifty percent premium. Because of the summer blend and all of that. It
is. We used to have a fifty percent premium when it was two bucks.
Let's say around the country it was two fifty here. Now it is
a dollar fifty to two dollars premium because of the taxes that are being nailed,
and it's going to go up by the way July first, So sales
tax, which by the way, is going to pass because Proposition H passed
with a quarter of a cent to deal with the homeless, now is going
to be half a cent, which is going to be permanent because H expires
in twenty twenty seven. And do they have enough signatures? Buy twice?
The coalition of Housing Authority and the mental health sector, those who advocated this,
submitted four hundred and ten thousand signatures to the County Register's office to qualify.
Organizers need about two hundred and forty thousand signatures. They've got it.
Are we going to vote it in? Oh? Yes we are. And
that's not to say that we can't deal with the homeless. I mean we
have to to some extent. But are we willing to pay these kinds of
taxes? Yeah? When they go up a quarter of a cent here,
half a cent here, it's death of a thousand cuts. And that's particularly
important in Chinatown, where I'm not going to do that because that's a reference.
Okay, So anyway, the point is, I agree the homeless should
be sheltered. Do I agree that every dime we have goes to the homeless
and that's the only way to make a real dent. Fair enough, Now,
we heard the news about Boeing and the problems it's had with the Max
and the Dreamliner and its aircraft. So let's move over to its space division,
where there is a Boeing star Liner spacecraft flying to and reaching the space
station with two veteran NASA astronauts round trip to the International Space Station and back
it goes. So now the two veteran astronauts have been invited to stay longer
at the space station because the inhabitants like them. And oh yeah, by
the way, there is a real problem with the spacecraft. They have to
straighten out before the astronauts get back and come on home. And so there's
staying aboard the space station for a second time while engineers on the ground scrambling
to learn what happened on the journey up because there was there were some problems
troubles the spacecraft experience on its way to the iss, including helium leaks and
thrusters that abruptly stop working, and all kinds of questions had been raised about
how the back half of the mission is going to work out. The first
half of the mission went fine except for the helium leaks and the thrusters that
don't work. And it's a little issue. Now Is that big a deal?
Not really, because, as you can imagine, every news outlet reporting
this went to their go to experts, former astronauts, engineers, etc.
And they said, this is a small deal. It's not considered life threatening
in any way because that part of the spacecraft in which the thrusters didn't work
so well, and the helium leaks weren't even expected to and designed to come
back to Earth. They were going to go into the atmosphere and burn up.
It just wasn't part of the plan. So problems with that did not
create any danger to the astronauts. But it does prove that there's some real
problems with this and now the astronauts are going to return no earlier than June
twenty six. And I love this. This is pr from Boeing. It's
describing the mission as a success and a learning opportunity. Now, Elon Musk
who started with his spacecraft, he had a learning opportunity three times as it
blew up three times. And it really was a learning op opportunity for real.
I mean there's no question about it. I think it blew up twice
and on his third go round it succeeded. Let me tell you, let's
go back a few years, and that is what year with that. It
started twenty fourteen and NASA tapped both Boeing and SpaceX to develop spacecraft capable of
carrying astronauts to the ISS, the International Station space Station. Boeing was the
leader. By the way, everybody expected Boeing to be first up because SpaceX
was creating this technology of returnable spacecraft WELLX crew Dragon spacecraft. The Dragon safely
completed the first mission in twenty twenty. We're four years out and Boeing just
launched its first spacecraft to the ISS. SpaceX has been doing this for years,
and so the perception that Boeing was way ahead of the game as opposed
to this upstart SpaceX. Of course, that's reversed completely and the star Liner,
the Boeing craft, has been faced with setbacks and mar Well marred was
setbacks and problems every step of the way, years of delays, added expense.
I mean, it just is not gone well. The first test mission
in twenty nineteen with a star Liner just made no sense. It had so
many problems. So now twenty twenty is the second uncrewed flight test additional problems.
This is Boeing. Now it is being pointed out by the people at
Boeing that the spacecraft, the space program of Boeing is totally separate from the
aircraft manufacturing division. It's really two different companies. So you can't really conflate
the two except the ownership happens to be Boeing. And you know, so
let me ask you this. Let's say you're going to pay for a ride
to the ISS. Are you going to look at the max Starliner? Probably
not. SpaceX now has eighty percent of the world market both for government including
NASA and other governments and private customers. Private customers meaning throwing up satellites for
communications for various scientific programs, you know, looking at the Earth and weather
forecasting, et cetera. And SpaceX and Elon Musk visionary that he is crazy,
but visionary that he is also has a Star Link satellite system which gives
the entire world access to the Internet. He went in a different direction.
Boy, that he do well with that. Now, we did a story
last week about Legos. A thief broke in and I think it were six
Lego stores in southern California that were broken into and a bunch of Legos were
stolen. You go, come on, Legos, Well, let me tell
you what legos are about. First of all, he stuffed the garbage bag
with about ten thousand dollars worth of figures at one store to a waiting car
and speeding off. Now, come on, Legos. You know there are
billions and billions of Lego pieces out there. But let me explain what happened
with legos. Okay, the COVID nineteen pandemic, turbocharge, Lego collecting hobby
and home bound collectors blitzing online resellers in search of coveted items, driving up
prices, attracting criminals. So how did legos be come from these little blocks
into collectibles. Well, it's not the building of them. It's not the
Eiffel Tower built out of legos, or the White House built out of legos
and the giant dinosaurs. What it is are these limit little figures, these
tiny little figures, characters. They're about one point five inch, they're figurines,
and they're known as minifigs. And Neil, you've talked about minifigs in
cooking, where you take these very small figs and they're wonderful. They're minifigs
and those can trade for now upward of one thousand dollars each. And there's
a story there because one owner of the store, and let me tell you
about the stores bricks and minifigs, for example, franchise chain or the one
hundred location around the country. They don't sell individual little pieces. What they
sell are sets, expensive sets and figurines that are no longer in production.
And those are the ones that have exploded. And man, what a story
that is, because these little tiny figurines which you can put in your pocket
are getting more valuable by the minute. One of the owners of the stores,
woman named Katie Leuscher or Lesher, who owns a store and Wittier,
says, you can't steal in nineteen sixties mustang and hide that, but you
sure as hell can hide a mini figure and stockpile them for years. And
they're going up in value. And here's a case in point. I saw
a documentary finished it yesterday about collectibles sports collectibles, and it's about Golden,
which is a company that this guy, Ken Golden created and he sells memorabilia.
Started with sports memorabilia and now he's into everything and does massive tens of
millions, hundreds of millions of dollars of business. And so one of the
collectibles that he talks about and you actually see it and is owned by the
owner of the Diamondbacks, the Arizona Diavabacks is the best Honus Wagner baseball card
in existence. There are only two hundred and six that were even printed.
This is back in the late eighteen eighteen nineties when he was still you know,
professional baseball was still there. Now these cards were printed by tobacco companies.
On the back with the tobacco company logo card and on the front was
the baseball player. Well, this guy was a teetotaler and a non smoker,
and he went out of his mind and he told the company, pull
the advertise, pull the cards. Well, two hundred and six were released,
maybe there's a dozen left out there. And then they're graded by the
condition, and this one is the most expensive or the best conditioned Honus Wagner
card in existence. I'm referring to the value of things going up and collectibles.
It's known as the Gretzki card because Wayne Gretzky, the great hockey player
in nineteen ninety two, paid four hundred and fifty one thousand dollars for the
card, which was considered astronomical money. Why would you do that, Well,
the owner of the Diamondbacks, I don't know how many years ago,
paid two point eight million dollars for the same card, and today it is
valued by Ken Golden at fifty million dollars for a baseball card. The val
look at the amount of money you pay for a Kobe Bryant jersey or Mike
Jordan pair of sneakers in the millions of dollars a pair of you sneakers.
Amy did this story last week about thieves breaking into Lego stores and stealing these
little figurines like one hundred thousand dollars worth. You to go, come on,
well, it's a collectible, and it's a collectible that's going up in
value by the day, because that's what these collectibles are doing. Boy what
an investment. Now, these are not Lego blocks. These are little figurines
that are being manufactured, and that is the secret here. They're known as
minifigs, small figurines, and they are well, I mean, it's incredible.
Here's the difference though, and why these are worth more and more.
This is kind of a manufactured rarity companies send out or what they do is
manufacturing small number and they tell them for a pretty good price, and they're
rare. Versus what I said, the Honus Wagner card was not a manufactured
rarity for the purpose of making it a rarity. The Michael Jordan tennis shoes
use his sneakers used in a championship game, which goes for over two million
dollars or did that was not quote a manufactured product. However, the line
of Michael Jordan is manufactured and Nike keeps it very limited numbers of this model.
Immediately they're worth a pile of money. Legos was about to go broke
in the nineties and then somewhere with the company figured out it's not those blocks,
it's these little figures connected to Star Wars, Jurassic Park, connected to
movies and story. Harry Potter is one and the rare ones are worth the
fortune, and sometimes they manufacture only a few of them. As I talked
about that documentary on Netflix that's on that's well worth it about collectibles and the
value. There's one guy for I don't know how many millions of dollars one
little figurine. One little figurine, a Star Wars figurine. There are only
three in existence because this was a prototype of a figure that was never made.
There's only three that exists. And it's worth north, wasn't it.
I think it was worth more than a million bucks. I mean it is
crazy. As I said earlier, and Neil nodded on this one. A
Pokemon card worth a million dollars. Jerseys that are worth the people have bought
for tens of thousands, Jackie Robinson jersey Babe Ruth jerseys that are game used
where they can prove it was used in a championship game. Just crazy prices.
And that's what brought Lego into a company that now does over nine billion
dollars a year, grew by fifty percent over the last five years. And
I'll tell you, and I'm going to repeat what I said, because this
is a story that's almost incomprehensible. The famous Gretzky Honus Wagner card baseball card.
Only two hundred were ever actually printed, very rare. Maybe it doesn't
exist. There's one in the best quality you could imagine. He paid for
it in the nineties four hundred and fifty one thousand dollars in people, you're
out of your mind. The guy who owns it now, who owns the
Arizona Diamondbacks, paid two point eight million dollars for it, maybe ten twelve
years ago. It has now been assessed by Ken Golden, the guy who
owns the company that sells this stuff, at over fifty million dollars for one
baseball card. It is the holy Grail of collectibles. Nothing like it in
the world. Just insanity. Babe Ruth Baseball's crazy Babe Ruth jerseys Jackie Robinson
jersey that was used during his first year in baseball, where he still has
bloodstains on it for when he cut himself shaving. The guy turned down seven
and a half million dollars, turned it down. Who owns it? All
right? We're done with that. This is KFI AM six forty live everywhere
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