WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.520 --> 00:00:04.400 You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM 2 00:00:04.440 --> 00:00:09.080 six forty. KFI AM six forty. It's a Bill Handle show. 3 00:00:09.080 --> 00:00:12.119 He's on vacation, Dwayne Resnick sitting in. Some of the 4 00:00:12.160 --> 00:00:15.560 stories were following for you. At least eight LA County 5 00:00:15.560 --> 00:00:20.679 Shriff's deputies, including some sergeants, have been relieved of duty. 6 00:00:22.199 --> 00:00:25.280 It's pursued to a federal investigation into the beating of 7 00:00:25.320 --> 00:00:28.480 a man last year in a seven to eleven parking lot. 8 00:00:28.920 --> 00:00:33.640 He drove by a deputy who was talking to somebody 9 00:00:33.679 --> 00:00:37.200 on a call and flipped off the deputy, and the 10 00:00:37.280 --> 00:00:40.799 deputy chased him down and got him at the seven 11 00:00:40.880 --> 00:00:44.799 eleven and roughed him up pretty good, and there were 12 00:00:44.799 --> 00:00:48.960 some other indignities after he was booked. So that deputy 13 00:00:49.000 --> 00:00:51.439 has agreed to plead guilty in the incident. He had 14 00:00:51.479 --> 00:00:56.240 admitted lying to the FBI about what happened, and numerous 15 00:00:56.399 --> 00:01:01.240 other sheriff's officials and officers are accused of helping him 16 00:01:01.280 --> 00:01:04.040 obstruct it. And when I say accused, I've already seen 17 00:01:05.079 --> 00:01:09.280 some of the evidence against them. I don't have secret access. 18 00:01:09.319 --> 00:01:12.840 It's out there publicly and there are text messages and 19 00:01:12.879 --> 00:01:15.599 some other things that show that they concocted a story 20 00:01:16.959 --> 00:01:19.200 to cover up the fact that it looks like this 21 00:01:19.280 --> 00:01:23.079 guy was targeted and beaten up just because he pissed 22 00:01:23.120 --> 00:01:27.120 off the cop by flipping him off. Also, that plane 23 00:01:27.159 --> 00:01:30.640 crash Azerby John Airline's plane crash killed thirty eight entered 24 00:01:30.719 --> 00:01:36.760 twenty nine more crashed yesterday in a heavily militarized part 25 00:01:38.040 --> 00:01:42.319 of the Russia Ukraine conflict. And the speculation is that 26 00:01:42.400 --> 00:01:44.480 the airport where they were trying to land as an 27 00:01:44.480 --> 00:01:48.760 emergency landing was also being bombarded by Ukraine with drones 28 00:01:48.879 --> 00:01:52.560 and that Russia may have accidentally shut down a shotdown 29 00:01:52.599 --> 00:01:57.879 excuse me, this airplane. So the last story we did 30 00:01:57.879 --> 00:02:00.000 in Handle on the news is about the Starbucks works 31 00:02:00.239 --> 00:02:04.480 who had staged some wildcat strikes over the Christmas holiday. 32 00:02:04.480 --> 00:02:06.719 They're all back to work, but they're not done fighting. 33 00:02:07.599 --> 00:02:10.319 There also was a strike and is a strike going 34 00:02:10.360 --> 00:02:14.919 on by some Amazon employees. And these two situations have 35 00:02:14.960 --> 00:02:18.039 a lot in common and they reflect a larger trend 36 00:02:18.439 --> 00:02:21.680 that is happening in the workplace. So we'll talk about 37 00:02:21.719 --> 00:02:25.960 each of them, but the big picture is that we 38 00:02:26.080 --> 00:02:29.439 have a new administration coming in, so you know, there's 39 00:02:29.520 --> 00:02:34.479 this National Labor Relations Board, and they can make rules 40 00:02:34.479 --> 00:02:39.639 and regulations affecting how companies deal with employees who want 41 00:02:39.639 --> 00:02:44.159 to unionize and the current administration. Under the current administration, 42 00:02:44.719 --> 00:02:47.759 they have issued some rulings that have been very pro 43 00:02:48.560 --> 00:02:52.360 labor organizing. One of them, for example, and this is 44 00:02:52.560 --> 00:02:56.280 maybe the most important thing that's happened under the current 45 00:02:56.319 --> 00:02:59.840 administration in this regard, is a decision from twenty twenty 46 00:03:00.120 --> 00:03:07.240 three that says, when you have employees who a majority 47 00:03:07.280 --> 00:03:11.560 of them want to unionize, but they haven't yet conducted 48 00:03:11.759 --> 00:03:18.080 a representation election, you must still deal with them. You 49 00:03:18.479 --> 00:03:23.039 have to negotiate with them. You have to recognize the 50 00:03:23.199 --> 00:03:28.039 union even though they haven't yet officially voted to be represented, 51 00:03:28.319 --> 00:03:32.680 and you have to bargain with them, or you as 52 00:03:32.719 --> 00:03:36.719 the employer, have to get an election going within fourteen days. 53 00:03:36.759 --> 00:03:40.159 You cannot just refuse to acknowledge them and carry on 54 00:03:40.319 --> 00:03:44.199 per usual. And that's what's been behind that ruling, is 55 00:03:44.759 --> 00:03:48.840 what's been behind a lot of these organization attempts, particularly 56 00:03:48.879 --> 00:03:52.560 at Starbucks, because you're supposed to be able to get 57 00:03:52.599 --> 00:03:57.159 something going with your boss even though you haven't fully 58 00:03:57.199 --> 00:04:02.039 become unionized yet. Well, the new administration is highly likely 59 00:04:02.120 --> 00:04:05.960 to simply undo that ruling, in which case the companies 60 00:04:06.000 --> 00:04:10.120 will go back to the way it was before. So 61 00:04:10.319 --> 00:04:16.720 at Amazon, the main beef at Amazon is that they 62 00:04:16.800 --> 00:04:20.800 employ a lot of people, well employ I guess finger 63 00:04:20.879 --> 00:04:27.759 quotes employ. They have a lot of people working for them. 64 00:04:29.079 --> 00:04:30.920 The reason it's hard for me to express it in 65 00:04:30.959 --> 00:04:32.720 words is I don't know what to call it, except 66 00:04:32.759 --> 00:04:35.439 that they consider these people to be independent contractors. This 67 00:04:35.519 --> 00:04:39.360 is mostly the delivery partners, they call them delivery service partners. 68 00:04:39.959 --> 00:04:44.199 Those people do not work directly for Amazon. They work 69 00:04:44.279 --> 00:04:50.319 for third party companies that Amazon has contracts with. Up 70 00:04:50.319 --> 00:04:54.959 in Palmdale, there is a company called Battle Tested Strategies 71 00:04:56.480 --> 00:04:59.800 and it was a group of drivers working for that 72 00:05:00.079 --> 00:05:06.600 company who were the first in this triunion back in 73 00:05:06.680 --> 00:05:11.600 April of last year. And after that happened, guess what 74 00:05:11.639 --> 00:05:14.000 Amazon did. So you have a group of drivers. They 75 00:05:14.040 --> 00:05:16.319 work for this company, it's not Amazon, but they have 76 00:05:16.399 --> 00:05:21.639 contracts with Amazon. They unionize, and then Amazon ends its 77 00:05:21.720 --> 00:05:25.839 contract with the company. The union of the teamsters. They 78 00:05:26.199 --> 00:05:32.040 say that's retaliation. Amazon said no, Actually, the delivery company 79 00:05:32.160 --> 00:05:36.920 breached the contract a lot of times, so that's why 80 00:05:37.000 --> 00:05:39.120 they weren't doing what they were supposed to be doing, 81 00:05:39.959 --> 00:05:45.000 and a regional director for the National Labor Relations Board 82 00:05:45.000 --> 00:05:50.160 here in LA did throw out the retaliation claim, so 83 00:05:50.240 --> 00:05:55.639 that person found, nah, it probably was not retaliation. So 84 00:05:55.720 --> 00:05:58.439 now that's happening all over the country with Amazon, and 85 00:05:58.480 --> 00:06:04.040 it's this big, huge, which question. If you work for 86 00:06:04.160 --> 00:06:09.759 a company and that company works for Amazon, should Amazon 87 00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:14.199 have to deal with you when it comes to being unionized? 88 00:06:14.680 --> 00:06:20.040 Should Amazon have to negotiate with you? Or is it 89 00:06:20.079 --> 00:06:23.319 none of their business and none of their responsibility because 90 00:06:23.319 --> 00:06:25.959 you don't work for them? And this is what Amazon 91 00:06:26.079 --> 00:06:29.560 is saying. They don't work for us, they're not our employees. 92 00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:36.600 How can we negotiate with them? Which makes sense on 93 00:06:36.839 --> 00:06:40.879 paper you look at it. Why should any company be 94 00:06:41.079 --> 00:06:46.959 required to negotiate anything with people who don't work for them? 95 00:06:48.000 --> 00:06:52.519 Of course, the reason that Amazon can say this is 96 00:06:52.639 --> 00:06:57.399 because corporations have set up over the last I mean 97 00:06:57.399 --> 00:07:00.839 this kind of started, I'm gonna say, big time when 98 00:07:00.879 --> 00:07:05.040 the gig economy started up with Uber and Lyft and 99 00:07:05.079 --> 00:07:07.839 then the food delivery arms of Uber and so forth. 100 00:07:08.920 --> 00:07:13.399 Companies have arranged to put themselves at arm's length from 101 00:07:13.480 --> 00:07:17.680 people who do work work on their behalf they do 102 00:07:17.879 --> 00:07:22.519 work that benefits them. But because of this independent this 103 00:07:23.480 --> 00:07:29.079 rise of the use of independent contractors, companies are technically, 104 00:07:29.439 --> 00:07:33.639 I guess correctly able to say they don't work for us, 105 00:07:33.680 --> 00:07:37.920 we have no obligation to them. And the thing with 106 00:07:38.079 --> 00:07:43.079 Starbucks is not the same thing, because in the case 107 00:07:43.120 --> 00:07:47.040 of Starbucks, those people do work for Starbucks. So in 108 00:07:47.079 --> 00:07:49.279 the case of Starbucks, it has to do with their 109 00:07:49.319 --> 00:07:53.160 claim that Starbucks simply will not deal with them even 110 00:07:53.199 --> 00:07:56.800 though they are employees. Starbucks can't say they're not our 111 00:07:56.839 --> 00:08:01.040 employees the way Amazon can, but that Starbucks just kind 112 00:08:01.079 --> 00:08:05.199 of slow rolls everything and is not interested in negotiating 113 00:08:05.240 --> 00:08:08.800 and good faith, which is what the union say. Starbucks says, hey, 114 00:08:08.920 --> 00:08:11.519 unionizing would make it worse, and we treat our people 115 00:08:11.639 --> 00:08:13.600 very well and there should be no need for this. 116 00:08:15.319 --> 00:08:18.720 So one of these cases, the Amazon case, at some 117 00:08:18.920 --> 00:08:20.720 point there's going to have to be a court ruling 118 00:08:22.079 --> 00:08:25.920 that definitively says once and for all what the obligation 119 00:08:26.000 --> 00:08:28.720 of an Amazon is to the people who drive for 120 00:08:28.800 --> 00:08:31.839 the benefit of Amazon but aren't directly employed by Amazon. 121 00:08:32.240 --> 00:08:34.639 The Starbucks thing is going to be a matter of 122 00:08:34.679 --> 00:08:40.120 whether or not these baristas can cause enough hurt financially 123 00:08:40.919 --> 00:08:46.039 and enough hurt in the court of public opinion to 124 00:08:46.080 --> 00:08:48.960 make Starbucks start to believe that it's in their best 125 00:08:48.960 --> 00:08:55.919 interest to be more union friendly. Now LA Unified and 126 00:08:56.200 --> 00:09:01.200 the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, those are the two 127 00:09:01.279 --> 00:09:04.799 parties in a lawsuit over how money is being doled 128 00:09:04.840 --> 00:09:11.399 out for poor students in the district. LA Unified, of course, 129 00:09:11.480 --> 00:09:16.919 runs public schools primarily, and the Catholic Archdiocese they have 130 00:09:17.080 --> 00:09:20.000 their own kind of school district. Then they have their 131 00:09:20.039 --> 00:09:25.799 private Catholic schools, and they are entitled to the same 132 00:09:25.919 --> 00:09:29.440 pool of money that the public schools are under Title one, 133 00:09:29.600 --> 00:09:36.279 this is funding for low income students. Well, apparently LA 134 00:09:36.399 --> 00:09:40.559 Unified was playing a game of hide the ball and 135 00:09:40.759 --> 00:09:44.559 cutting the amount of money from this Title I funding 136 00:09:44.600 --> 00:09:48.159 that they were giving to the Catholic schools, not just 137 00:09:48.279 --> 00:09:51.000 cutting it a little bit here and a little bit there, 138 00:09:51.960 --> 00:09:59.480 apparently cut that funding by more than ninety percent over 139 00:09:59.600 --> 00:10:02.759 the peer period of the agreement that's in question here, 140 00:10:03.399 --> 00:10:06.480 the funding went from nine and a half million dollars 141 00:10:06.519 --> 00:10:12.200 to seven hundred and fifty seven thousand dollars. Man So 142 00:10:12.399 --> 00:10:15.039 this goes back to nineteen sixty eight when Congress said 143 00:10:15.039 --> 00:10:19.960 Title one funding for poor students should go to private 144 00:10:20.000 --> 00:10:23.399 schools and religious schools because we want to boost the 145 00:10:23.559 --> 00:10:29.240 chances for all poor students. However, we don't want and 146 00:10:29.279 --> 00:10:35.600 really can't, have the government directly giving money to religious schools. 147 00:10:36.159 --> 00:10:38.559 So here's what we're going to do. We're going to 148 00:10:38.799 --> 00:10:45.519 let the local what do you call secular school district 149 00:10:46.120 --> 00:10:51.000 handle the money, decide what the eligibility requirements will be, 150 00:10:51.879 --> 00:10:55.720 and talk with the schools about what services the students 151 00:10:55.759 --> 00:11:01.879 should get. So LA Unified, which mostly runs public schools, 152 00:11:01.919 --> 00:11:07.360 also gets to decide who's eligible, including the students who 153 00:11:07.399 --> 00:11:11.279 are going to private schools, religious schools, who's eligible and 154 00:11:11.320 --> 00:11:13.919 what they get, and how that money is gold out. 155 00:11:14.000 --> 00:11:16.639 So how do you gain that system? Well, let's start 156 00:11:16.679 --> 00:11:19.399 with this. Why would you gain that system if you're 157 00:11:19.559 --> 00:11:22.559 LA Unified, Because you would like to keep as much 158 00:11:22.559 --> 00:11:25.759 of that money for your schools and give as little 159 00:11:25.759 --> 00:11:28.440 of it as possible to the private schools and the 160 00:11:28.480 --> 00:11:32.480 religious schools. And because I'm not aware, and if somebody 161 00:11:32.480 --> 00:11:34.720 knows of cases, please bring them to my attention. But 162 00:11:34.759 --> 00:11:39.240 I'm not aware of any big lawsuits from secular private 163 00:11:39.360 --> 00:11:44.879 schools accusing LA Unified of doing this. It makes me think, 164 00:11:45.000 --> 00:11:50.039 it makes me wonder if they had a bias specifically 165 00:11:50.120 --> 00:11:54.919 against religious schools and maybe even more specifically against Catholic 166 00:11:54.960 --> 00:12:00.639 schools in doing what they did. There are different ways 167 00:12:00.759 --> 00:12:05.320 that you can determine who's eligible for this money. So 168 00:12:05.600 --> 00:12:10.799 the simple one, the one that is best for private 169 00:12:10.879 --> 00:12:15.279 schools and the one that's used in most big urban 170 00:12:15.360 --> 00:12:18.360 school districts, is you just look at the census data. 171 00:12:18.679 --> 00:12:22.200 You look at the level of poverty in a particular neighborhood, 172 00:12:22.399 --> 00:12:25.720 and you use that to calculate the eligibility of the 173 00:12:25.759 --> 00:12:33.039 students basically proportionately. Well, apparently LA Unified did this for 174 00:12:33.080 --> 00:12:36.759 a while and then Austin Butner came to be the 175 00:12:36.799 --> 00:12:42.240 superintendent and they changed the eligibility requirements, They changed the process, 176 00:12:42.519 --> 00:12:45.799 They used a different formula which was much less fair, 177 00:12:45.919 --> 00:12:50.360 if you will, to the private religious schools. And they 178 00:12:50.399 --> 00:12:54.159 didn't tell the schools that they were going to do 179 00:12:54.200 --> 00:12:58.000 that before. They gave no prior notice. They just one 180 00:12:58.080 --> 00:12:59.919 day said, oh, by the way, here's what you have 181 00:13:00.200 --> 00:13:02.960 to do now. And it had to do with getting 182 00:13:03.639 --> 00:13:09.840 surveys of families to determine their income, to look at 183 00:13:10.399 --> 00:13:14.600 federally subsidized meal programs and how many students are registered 184 00:13:14.639 --> 00:13:17.799 in those. In other words, instead of just looking at statistics, 185 00:13:17.799 --> 00:13:20.919 it became very granular, and it put a lot of 186 00:13:20.960 --> 00:13:26.559 responsibility on the Catholic schools and the families to kind 187 00:13:26.600 --> 00:13:32.200 of prove that they're eligible. And then they monkeyed around 188 00:13:32.399 --> 00:13:37.240 with the deadlines. At one point, apparently over a holiday break. Oh, 189 00:13:37.240 --> 00:13:41.080 it was a summer break, forgive me, over a summer break. 190 00:13:42.000 --> 00:13:46.720 They gave the archdiocese schools twelve days to come up 191 00:13:46.759 --> 00:13:51.159 with income surveys for the families, and any schools that 192 00:13:51.240 --> 00:13:54.759 couldn't do it were just removed from eligibility for the money. 193 00:13:55.399 --> 00:13:59.120 And that doesn't seem very fair at all. Well, I'm 194 00:13:59.159 --> 00:14:02.399 not the only one who so. Obviously the church thinks so, 195 00:14:02.519 --> 00:14:04.720 and that's why they filed the big lawsuit. And now 196 00:14:05.519 --> 00:14:09.600 it looks like LAUSD has maybe come to their senses 197 00:14:09.639 --> 00:14:13.960 a little bit, because that lawsuit has been settled and 198 00:14:14.000 --> 00:14:17.240 the district is gonna pay three million dollars that it 199 00:14:17.320 --> 00:14:21.279 withheld from the schools. It agrees now with I guess 200 00:14:21.399 --> 00:14:24.879 oversight of the court, that it'll comply with all the 201 00:14:24.879 --> 00:14:29.519 federal regulations about being transparent and talking to the in 202 00:14:29.559 --> 00:14:34.159 this case the archdiocese about what you're gonna do, and 203 00:14:34.159 --> 00:14:35.919 they've agreed to do it, But they didn't agree to 204 00:14:35.960 --> 00:14:40.240 settle until the church was successful in getting a judge 205 00:14:40.279 --> 00:14:43.799 to order LAUSD to turn over a bunch of documents 206 00:14:43.799 --> 00:14:47.240 and emails and other records pertaining to this issue. So, 207 00:14:47.360 --> 00:14:49.039 in other words, as long as they thought they could 208 00:14:49.120 --> 00:14:52.759 hide the ball, they weren't interested in settling the lawsuit. 209 00:14:52.759 --> 00:14:56.159 But as soon as they knew they couldn't anymore, then 210 00:14:56.200 --> 00:14:58.720 they wanted a quick settlement. And this three million dollars 211 00:14:58.759 --> 00:15:00.720 that they're going to pay, that is only a fraction 212 00:15:01.200 --> 00:15:06.200 of what was improperly denied. But sometimes you know, when 213 00:15:06.600 --> 00:15:10.720 you have a group acting badly like LAUSD and you 214 00:15:10.759 --> 00:15:14.039 have to go to a long court thing, sometimes you know, 215 00:15:14.080 --> 00:15:17.360 you take a fraction of what really you should be getting. 216 00:15:17.600 --> 00:15:22.440 So that's what happened the beginning of a clean energy 217 00:15:22.519 --> 00:15:28.559 boom when the Inflation Reduction Act was signed in twenty 218 00:15:28.600 --> 00:15:33.080 twenty two. And this was a big, a big thing 219 00:15:33.120 --> 00:15:36.159 in the Biden administration, one of their big accomplishments that 220 00:15:36.200 --> 00:15:41.399 they will point to. And when I say a boom, 221 00:15:41.679 --> 00:15:44.519 there's a group called the Rodium Group. They're a research 222 00:15:44.559 --> 00:15:47.279 group that focuses on energy. And then there's also a 223 00:15:47.279 --> 00:15:51.320 little place called MIT heard of it. They keep track 224 00:15:51.519 --> 00:15:55.759 of data and they agree that in the third quarter 225 00:15:55.879 --> 00:16:03.480 of this year, seventy one billion dollars in clean investment. 226 00:16:03.559 --> 00:16:08.240 This is renewable energy, it's also things like electric cars 227 00:16:08.279 --> 00:16:13.240 and batteries and solar panels, and it's been a big 228 00:16:13.279 --> 00:16:17.120 boon for that industry. Now we have a new administration 229 00:16:17.240 --> 00:16:23.240 coming in and President Elect Donald Trump called the Biden 230 00:16:23.360 --> 00:16:30.120 policies the green new scam during the campaign. So what's 231 00:16:30.159 --> 00:16:35.840 going to happen Because probably the new administration is not 232 00:16:35.919 --> 00:16:41.679 going to want to continue handing out subsidies to these 233 00:16:41.720 --> 00:16:49.159 industries and probably wants to undo regulations that were intended. 234 00:16:50.240 --> 00:16:54.559 But all industries that are interested in what do they 235 00:16:54.559 --> 00:16:59.039 call it decarbonization, because you may not be making solar 236 00:16:59.080 --> 00:17:03.799 panels or evs, but you might be making something else 237 00:17:04.039 --> 00:17:07.880 and there'll be economic reasons from the government for you 238 00:17:07.960 --> 00:17:10.640 to try to make those things in a cleaner way. Well, 239 00:17:11.200 --> 00:17:13.759 that may go away. It's a matter of to what 240 00:17:13.920 --> 00:17:19.160 extent will it go away and will it end this boom? 241 00:17:20.720 --> 00:17:24.480 And it might be directly by for example, pulling back subsidies. 242 00:17:24.920 --> 00:17:29.240 It might be bindirectly. One of the things we know 243 00:17:29.559 --> 00:17:32.480 that President elect Trump wants to do is extend the 244 00:17:32.519 --> 00:17:37.039 twenty seventeen tax cuts. He's going to have to reduce 245 00:17:37.119 --> 00:17:41.880 spending somewhere to do it, So a likely target would 246 00:17:41.920 --> 00:17:46.160 be clean energy tax credits, which you're going to be 247 00:17:46.759 --> 00:17:49.160 if he doesn't touch them. It'll be about three hundred 248 00:17:49.160 --> 00:17:52.279 and fifty billion dollars over the next three years. And 249 00:17:52.319 --> 00:17:55.640 that's according to the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation, so 250 00:17:55.720 --> 00:18:01.880 that's not a partisan motivated read. And the more they're 251 00:18:01.960 --> 00:18:07.200 paired back, the more that these clean investment projects don't 252 00:18:07.200 --> 00:18:13.440 make sense financially. And this speaks to this relatively new 253 00:18:13.519 --> 00:18:19.240 clean energy industry having the same problems as any other industry. 254 00:18:20.480 --> 00:18:24.079 One of the truths about the United States of America 255 00:18:24.440 --> 00:18:27.160 and the economy, and it may be true of other 256 00:18:27.200 --> 00:18:29.440 countries as well, but we're not talking about other countries 257 00:18:29.519 --> 00:18:36.359 right now, is that they're very, very few industries that 258 00:18:36.680 --> 00:18:42.000 operate purely on capitalism, which is to say, they make 259 00:18:42.079 --> 00:18:47.640 their products or they provide their services, they charge whatever 260 00:18:47.680 --> 00:18:51.200 they charge, and based on the money that they bring 261 00:18:51.279 --> 00:18:55.240 in from their customers, they continue to operate and make 262 00:18:55.279 --> 00:19:00.640 a profit. No, virtually every industry in this country benefits 263 00:19:00.799 --> 00:19:07.359 from favorable tax treatment from government subsidies and all and 264 00:19:07.400 --> 00:19:11.039 all kinds of other consideration. And the same is true 265 00:19:11.079 --> 00:19:15.960 of the clean energy industry. They rely on government subsidies 266 00:19:16.359 --> 00:19:20.599 to make some of their projects attractive to investors. If 267 00:19:20.640 --> 00:19:22.720 those go away, people aren't going to want to put 268 00:19:22.759 --> 00:19:29.200 their money into it. Now, it may not all be 269 00:19:29.440 --> 00:19:34.720 gloom and doom for the green energy and clean investment industries, 270 00:19:35.160 --> 00:19:39.960 because one thing that happened is a lot of the 271 00:19:40.039 --> 00:19:44.680 money from the Inflation Reduction Act, I'll go ahead and 272 00:19:44.720 --> 00:19:49.759 call it a Joe Biden, you know, thing that he 273 00:19:49.839 --> 00:19:55.279 pushed and he championed. A lot of that money disproportionately 274 00:19:57.200 --> 00:20:04.279 ended up in Republican state states that voted for Donald Trump. 275 00:20:05.799 --> 00:20:12.559 So if the Trump administration decides that whether it's to 276 00:20:12.680 --> 00:20:16.079 extend the twenty seventeen tax cuts or whether it's because 277 00:20:16.400 --> 00:20:19.960 they prefer fossil fuel industries and therefore don't want to 278 00:20:19.960 --> 00:20:24.279 help renewable energy industries, that they start cutting some of 279 00:20:24.319 --> 00:20:29.559 this money, they will disproportionately be taking money away from 280 00:20:29.720 --> 00:20:33.039 states that were supportive of Donald Trump in the election. 281 00:20:33.880 --> 00:20:40.240 If people in the new administration understand that and consider 282 00:20:40.319 --> 00:20:44.799 it to be relevant, they might not want to cut 283 00:20:45.240 --> 00:20:49.759 or cut very much, especially at a time when the 284 00:20:49.839 --> 00:20:52.799 demand for energy is going up for the first time 285 00:20:52.880 --> 00:20:58.759 in quite a long time. It's also true that generally now, 286 00:20:59.039 --> 00:21:07.200 renewable energy is a bipartisan thing. Generally speaking, Republicans, Democrats, 287 00:21:07.319 --> 00:21:11.039 everybody agrees renewable energy is a good idea. They may 288 00:21:11.079 --> 00:21:13.200 disagree about how much money to throw at it and 289 00:21:13.200 --> 00:21:16.000 how to make it happen, whether or not to mandate it, 290 00:21:16.319 --> 00:21:18.839 or whether to let the market work to have it 291 00:21:18.960 --> 00:21:21.880 rise in prominence, but they all agree it's a good idea. 292 00:21:24.039 --> 00:21:27.759 So it remains to be seen exactly what's going to happen. 293 00:21:27.799 --> 00:21:31.519 But there's some people, the gloom and doomers are saying 294 00:21:31.920 --> 00:21:34.839 what's going to happen is the policies are gonna shift 295 00:21:35.079 --> 00:21:39.720 and the old fossil fuel industries will become the favored 296 00:21:40.200 --> 00:21:43.759 industries again, and the clean energy and the renewable energy 297 00:21:43.799 --> 00:21:46.000 people will be left out in the cold. But other 298 00:21:46.039 --> 00:21:48.279 people who are looking at with a little more nuancer 299 00:21:48.359 --> 00:21:53.319 saying it might not really go that way, And as 300 00:21:53.359 --> 00:21:57.519 with anything like this, we won't know until it's happened. Now, 301 00:21:58.799 --> 00:22:02.519 let's get into this store about a demonstration out at 302 00:22:02.519 --> 00:22:05.200 a shooting range in San Bernardino last month. A couple 303 00:22:05.200 --> 00:22:10.359 of dozen people out there to watch a guy throw 304 00:22:10.440 --> 00:22:15.359 a rock at glass, hit glass with a metal baseball bat, 305 00:22:15.400 --> 00:22:21.519 and shoot a gun at this glass. And he's not 306 00:22:21.599 --> 00:22:27.279 just any guy, obviously. He is the head of a 307 00:22:27.319 --> 00:22:32.240 company called safe Haven Defense. His name is Stephen Johnson. 308 00:22:33.559 --> 00:22:38.359 And he was not demonstrating the glass. It was the 309 00:22:38.519 --> 00:22:42.359 film that had been applied to the glass that he 310 00:22:42.440 --> 00:22:46.880 wanted to show off. So he throws the rock, he 311 00:22:47.000 --> 00:22:49.920 hits the thing with the baseball bat, and he's got 312 00:22:50.319 --> 00:22:53.799 an employee of his company like down behind the glass. 313 00:22:54.319 --> 00:22:57.559 He's saying, look, I'll put this person in some danger here. 314 00:22:58.079 --> 00:23:00.519 That's how confident I am. And here's that's what happened. 315 00:23:00.559 --> 00:23:04.880 Apparently the glass did break, but it didn't go anywhere. 316 00:23:05.319 --> 00:23:10.920 It stayed within the sheets of film and the bat 317 00:23:11.000 --> 00:23:15.079 could not penetrate the glass. Then he fires a gun 318 00:23:15.119 --> 00:23:18.319 at the window and the bullet boom in the glass. 319 00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:23.920 So what is the point of this, Well, this has 320 00:23:24.000 --> 00:23:28.680 to do with a new trend. School districts spending millions 321 00:23:28.720 --> 00:23:34.160 and millions of dollars not to put in bulletproof glass, 322 00:23:35.440 --> 00:23:41.759 but to apply special films to their existing windows in 323 00:23:41.920 --> 00:23:45.880 order to try to stop shooters from shooting through the 324 00:23:45.880 --> 00:23:50.480 windows and getting into the school. There are at least 325 00:23:50.519 --> 00:23:53.799 two states that I can think of that have mandates now, 326 00:23:54.680 --> 00:23:57.119 actual mandates that all public schools have to put in 327 00:23:57.240 --> 00:24:00.200 some kind of window security measure. You could put in 328 00:24:00.240 --> 00:24:05.759 bulletproof glass or some kind of a window film on 329 00:24:05.799 --> 00:24:09.680 your existing windows, but the idea is they they're mandating 330 00:24:09.680 --> 00:24:13.480 that schools make their windows resistant to people shooting through 331 00:24:13.480 --> 00:24:15.480 them and shattering them and being able to get into 332 00:24:15.519 --> 00:24:18.039 the school. I know Utah is one that has this mandate, 333 00:24:18.240 --> 00:24:20.599 and Texas is the other one that I know of. 334 00:24:21.160 --> 00:24:25.440 I know that another state, Tennessee. I believe it is 335 00:24:25.960 --> 00:24:29.599 if you are a new school, or you're remodeling your school, 336 00:24:29.839 --> 00:24:31.599 you are going to have to put some kind of 337 00:24:31.640 --> 00:24:35.000 window film on your windows. So, as you might imagine, 338 00:24:36.519 --> 00:24:41.400 this is a growth industry for window film companies. Now. 339 00:24:41.559 --> 00:24:46.079 Most of the big manufacturers of window film, like three M, 340 00:24:48.200 --> 00:24:51.000 they say, hey, we can't. We don't have any film 341 00:24:51.039 --> 00:24:54.200 that can stop a bullet or stop a person from 342 00:24:54.200 --> 00:24:57.640 shooting through a window and coming in, but there still 343 00:24:57.680 --> 00:25:03.599 are some dealers that are saying that they can. Now 344 00:25:04.240 --> 00:25:08.279 a lot of these are false claims. They're just false claims. 345 00:25:08.319 --> 00:25:12.720 Some of them are exaggerated claims, and in some cases 346 00:25:12.799 --> 00:25:18.440 there may be something to it. Schools around the country 347 00:25:18.440 --> 00:25:22.039 are already over one hundred million dollars into chasing this 348 00:25:22.240 --> 00:25:26.400 idea of you apply a film to your windows and 349 00:25:26.480 --> 00:25:29.720 maybe the kids are safe, because bulletproof glass simply costs 350 00:25:30.039 --> 00:25:35.039 way way more. And that's why you have these live 351 00:25:35.119 --> 00:25:39.839 demonstrations because obviously smaller companies in particular want to drum 352 00:25:39.920 --> 00:25:41.880 up business and the only way you could do it 353 00:25:41.920 --> 00:25:44.720 is to have a demonstration that shows that it does something. 354 00:25:44.799 --> 00:25:48.920 And that's what that demonstration was last month, and it 355 00:25:48.960 --> 00:25:55.079 would appear that it did have some benefit. Now the 356 00:25:55.200 --> 00:26:03.279 skeptics are saying, well, look in this demon they used, 357 00:26:04.039 --> 00:26:08.039 they used a particular kind of glass called annealed glass, 358 00:26:09.000 --> 00:26:14.359 and it was thicker than the typical tempered glass that 359 00:26:14.400 --> 00:26:18.200 would be in a school. And so maybe that's a 360 00:26:18.200 --> 00:26:22.359 little you know, screwing around by using a thicker, different 361 00:26:22.440 --> 00:26:24.559 kind of glass. But here's the thing. Both of these 362 00:26:24.680 --> 00:26:27.680 kinds of glass. I'm not a I'm not a glazier folks. 363 00:26:28.920 --> 00:26:32.079 But I know that the main difference, if I understand it, 364 00:26:32.119 --> 00:26:36.079 is tempered glass. If it breaks, it breaks into little 365 00:26:36.680 --> 00:26:42.559 like pebbles almost, which won't cut you as badly, and 366 00:26:42.839 --> 00:26:50.160 annealed glass, uh, breaks into big shards which can hurt you, 367 00:26:50.400 --> 00:26:54.640 but it's less expensive. So he was using a mealed glass. 368 00:26:54.680 --> 00:26:57.200 And here's the thing. So so some people said, well, 369 00:26:57.240 --> 00:27:01.440 look he's he's juking the demon by using a thicker, 370 00:27:01.480 --> 00:27:04.960 different kind of glass than a school's gonna have. But 371 00:27:05.160 --> 00:27:07.799 he said, and this makes some sense, is yeah, but 372 00:27:07.920 --> 00:27:14.000 it's weaker. I actually used a weaker glass in my demonstration. 373 00:27:14.240 --> 00:27:17.920 If you put this on a tempered glass window, you 374 00:27:17.960 --> 00:27:22.880 would get or could get even more protection. The thing 375 00:27:22.920 --> 00:27:26.960 about it is, right now, it's kind of the wild 376 00:27:27.000 --> 00:27:30.599 West out there. There's really no regulations about claiming that 377 00:27:30.680 --> 00:27:33.400 you have a window film that can stop a bullet 378 00:27:33.799 --> 00:27:36.039 or at least stop the window for breaking, or at 379 00:27:36.119 --> 00:27:40.920 least stop the window from shattering. And so schools I 380 00:27:41.039 --> 00:27:43.400 fear that they're gonna throw a lot of money at 381 00:27:43.400 --> 00:27:48.039 stuff that may end up not working. And to the 382 00:27:48.200 --> 00:27:52.680 extent that protecting the windows is an important part of 383 00:27:52.720 --> 00:27:57.119 hardening the schools against these shootings. I feel like maybe 384 00:27:57.720 --> 00:27:59.279 let's look at some way to come up with the 385 00:27:59.319 --> 00:28:02.640 money to do it right. And by right, I mean 386 00:28:02.759 --> 00:28:08.279 bulletproof glass. I know it's very expensive, Well, how much 387 00:28:08.799 --> 00:28:13.200 would you pay? I'm bringing it down just to the 388 00:28:13.240 --> 00:28:18.640 personal level now, how much of your salary or savings 389 00:28:18.759 --> 00:28:23.519 or what have you would you pay to stop me 390 00:28:24.960 --> 00:28:31.680 from shooting your kid? It might be expensive, but I 391 00:28:31.720 --> 00:28:34.440 can see how it would be worth it. This is 392 00:28:34.519 --> 00:28:38.519 KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. 393 00:28:38.920 --> 00:28:41.160 You've been listening to the Bill Handle Show. Catch my 394 00:28:41.200 --> 00:28:44.240 show Monday through Friday six am to nine am, and 395 00:28:44.480 --> 00:28:47.599 anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.