Speaker 1: You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
Speaker 1: six forty. That's good. You are listening to the Bill
Speaker 1: Handle show. You tell me how you and that.
Speaker 2: You at KFI AM six forty Bill Handle. It is
Speaker 2: a Tuesday morning Taco Tuesday.
Speaker 1: February twenty five.
Speaker 2: If anybody has any doubts whatsoever that Karen Bass is
Speaker 2: a political animal, I do not have any doubts but
Speaker 2: Karen Bass being a political animal.
Speaker 1: She won the mayor oralty simply because she's a Democrat.
Speaker 1: What's that? No other reason?
Speaker 2: Because when Caruso, Paul Caruso ran, they both were on
Speaker 2: the same page. The only difference is he has vast
Speaker 2: experience as a business person, is an administrator of the
Speaker 2: first order, and Karen Bass is simply political. How do
Speaker 2: I know, Well, let's look at what she just pulled off,
Speaker 2: firing Kristen Crowley has had the LA Fire Department. Now
Speaker 2: we start with Karen Bass promising she would not travel
Speaker 2: to Africa when she ran for office. I will not travel.
Speaker 2: Where was she when the fires broke out? Strangely enough,
Speaker 2: in Africa?
Speaker 1: Karen Bass says. The reason she didn't.
Speaker 2: Know the fires were going to be this bad this
Speaker 2: devastating is because Crowley did not tell her. That's the reason,
Speaker 2: even though the National Weather Service had reported days earlier
Speaker 2: that this fire it's going to be a life threatening
Speaker 2: situation because of the potential of fires because the winds
Speaker 2: were so high. So I guess by implication, Karen Bass says,
Speaker 2: no one in the Mayor's department looks at the National
Speaker 2: Weather Service at all.
Speaker 1: They ignore it.
Speaker 2: And it's the fire chief that has to tell the
Speaker 2: Mayor's office that there is a problem. So Karen Bass,
Speaker 2: who's already admitted it was a mistake to go to Africa,
Speaker 2: knows about the fire, or should have known, decides to
Speaker 2: stay in Africa until the next day after the fires
Speaker 2: break out, And she's blaming Crowley and why Crowley is
Speaker 2: being fired because of a lack of leadership, and it's
Speaker 2: in the best interests of the City of Los Angeles
Speaker 2: to can her And she cited report that's Bass that
Speaker 2: fire officials decided not to assign about a thousand available
Speaker 2: firefighters and dozens of water carrying engines for emergency deployment
Speaker 2: in the Palisades. Okay, what the United Firefighters of LA
Speaker 2: have said, and that is the biggest union. She was
Speaker 2: dismissed without a full investigation, and they went on.
Speaker 1: We still have.
Speaker 2: Nearly one hundred broken down fire engines, trucks, ambulances in
Speaker 2: the maintenance yard because of civilian mechanic job cuts.
Speaker 1: And who cut the budget.
Speaker 2: Of the fire department Why, strangely enough, Karen Bass cut
Speaker 2: tens of millions of dollars. But it's Crowley's fault. I mean,
Speaker 2: what a cheap shot at just pushing the blame on
Speaker 2: someone else. Just suck it up and say, yeah, we're
Speaker 2: gonna investigate before I'm at a can Crowley. We're going
Speaker 2: to see what happens. Now, Crowley has the ability to appeal.
Speaker 2: She's got ten days to appeal her firing, and that
Speaker 2: can be overturned by two thirds of the city council.
Speaker 2: City council in la is one of the strongest city
Speaker 2: councils of any major city in the United States. They
Speaker 2: wield enormous power and they can overturn the firing even
Speaker 2: though the mayor has the ability to fire department heads.
Speaker 2: And we'll see what happens. Lack of leadership. Really, I'll
Speaker 2: tell you where lack of leadership is going to hit.
Speaker 2: And I think that if Karen Bass loses the next
Speaker 2: election her second term, which I hope she does, because
Speaker 2: she's just throwing She's looking for a scapegoat and she
Speaker 2: found it with a fire chief. I think this is
Speaker 2: going to hurt her big time as it should. Just
Speaker 2: suck it up, you know, just say hey, you know
Speaker 2: I blew it. You know I made a mistake. It's
Speaker 2: going to hurt her in the next election. But I
Speaker 2: think the defense is I'd like to meet anybody who
Speaker 2: has not made a mistake, have them come up here
Speaker 2: and argue they have led an exemplarily an exemplary.
Speaker 1: Political or professional.
Speaker 2: Wife, never made a mistake. I think that's a terrific defense.
Speaker 2: God forbid honesty. And the problem is what she's doing
Speaker 2: is so hamhanded, so ridiculously transparent. Somehow people are going
Speaker 2: to agree with her. Oh yes, we don't need an investigation.
Speaker 2: Karen Bass is absolutely right. She has nothing to gain,
Speaker 2: She has no skin in the game, really, so I'm hoping,
Speaker 2: hoping that Kristin Crowley does appeal. Here's the other problem though,
Speaker 2: and I would think, and I put myself in the
Speaker 2: shoes of Kristin Crowley, is even if I get the
Speaker 2: city council to reinstate me. I still have to have
Speaker 2: a relationship with Karen Bass, and can you imagine how
Speaker 2: poisoned that relationship is going to be, how tainted it's
Speaker 2: going to be.
Speaker 3: You know what's a weird part of this bill is
Speaker 3: there's so much talk about out whistle blowers and protecting
Speaker 3: whistle blowers.
Speaker 1: Couldn't the chief be seen as.
Speaker 3: A whistle blower of sorts when she was saying, hey,
Speaker 3: we were let down and the city has been let
Speaker 3: down by.
Speaker 2: She No, she's not a whistle blower. A whistle blower
Speaker 2: is usually anonymous. It talks about how horrible what's going on.
Speaker 2: I guess you could argue that, but it wouldn't be
Speaker 2: in this circumstances.
Speaker 1: She just went public.
Speaker 2: This is what she said in front of the news
Speaker 2: cameras and said.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we failed the city, the city failed us. Oh
Speaker 1: does that mean Karen Bass failed the city?
Speaker 2: Oh no, no, no, no, because Karen Bass had no
Speaker 2: idea Because even though she promised not to be in Africa,
Speaker 2: she was in Africa. By the way, it was for
Speaker 2: the inauguration of the Ganadian president, the GANAD. What's the
Speaker 2: plural Gannadian? Is it Canadians to be confused with Canadians.
Speaker 3: I'm not sure anybody knows that.
Speaker 2: I don't either, Yeah, Ganonese Canadians Canadians, not Guinea Guinesians
Speaker 2: or Ganesians.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know, I know. You stop correcting me. Okay,
Speaker 1: that's not your job, all right.
Speaker 2: Coming up, as I have told you, Oh, I don't know,
Speaker 2: maybe two hundred times that whether Trump presidency, big changes
Speaker 2: are coming have already come, and I think the biggest one,
Speaker 2: certainly internationally, is Trump siding with Putin. Up to this point,
Speaker 2: the United States has been firmly on the side of Ukraine,
Speaker 2: even though there was some issues about supplying the latest
Speaker 2: weaponry out there.
Speaker 1: The United States high high end weaponry.
Speaker 2: But for the most part, the Biden administration was very
Speaker 2: pro Ukraine, as Europe has been. Now it's gone the
Speaker 2: other way. Putin is the good guy as far as
Speaker 2: Trump is concerned. The war in Ukraine was started by Ukraine.
Speaker 2: Putin is not a dictator. Zelensky is a dictator, and
Speaker 2: Putin and Trump are going to figure out the end
Speaker 2: of the war without Ukraine being involved in any of
Speaker 2: the discussion. Pete's talks, because what does Ukraine have to
Speaker 2: do with that. This is between Putin and the president.
Speaker 1: So a little bit of history.
Speaker 2: One of the things that the president, our president wants
Speaker 2: is basically out of NATO.
Speaker 1: NATO was created in nineteen forty nine.
Speaker 2: Because the fear of just the start of the Cold
Speaker 2: War big time, and the fear was a Russian invasion
Speaker 2: into Western Europe. There was a real fear of atomic
Speaker 2: weapons being used launched first by Russia, the space race,
Speaker 2: which Russia initially was winning, but the fear that Russia
Speaker 2: far outpaced the United States and technology, certainly missile technology.
Speaker 1: In reality, Russia was.
Speaker 2: Basically only concerned with the space race and did not
Speaker 2: have anywhere near the missile technology.
Speaker 1: Kennedy was the ultimate Cold warrior, just for your information.
Speaker 2: I mean, he came in and he stayed frightened, and
Speaker 2: he wanted to bulwark against Russia.
Speaker 1: Okay, so that's the background of NATO. NATO was created
Speaker 1: to make sure Russia doesn't invade.
Speaker 2: The United States was the primary source of not only men,
Speaker 2: but of money power, of money power and weaponry. Well,
Speaker 2: as the years go past, you know, not so much
Speaker 2: is Western Europe going to be invaded by Russia. Certainly
Speaker 2: Ukraine was, but Ukraine is an outlier and comparison is Hitler.
Speaker 2: Oh my, look what happened in Hitler in nineteen thirty
Speaker 2: eight with the annexation of Austria and then the attack
Speaker 2: of Poland.
Speaker 1: It's not the same.
Speaker 2: And the Western world at that time Europe just let
Speaker 2: it happen because they were frightened and they wanted peace.
Speaker 2: No matter what, It's a very different animal. Does anybody
Speaker 2: you know here?
Speaker 1: It is? No one believed that what Hitler was going
Speaker 1: to do.
Speaker 2: But is Russia going to attack any other country than Ukraine?
Speaker 2: Ukraine not being a member of NATO, NATO of which
Speaker 2: most of Western Europe, those countries are members of By
Speaker 2: treaty Article five of a NATO treaty, an attack on
Speaker 2: one is an attack on all, which means Europe is
Speaker 2: committed to going to war with Russia in the event
Speaker 2: of an attack on any of the NATO countries.
Speaker 1: Putin knows that.
Speaker 2: There is no sense that Europe would back down at all.
Speaker 2: Is Putin able to successfully fight Europeans? He can't even
Speaker 2: fight Ukraine. The number of men he has lost, the
Speaker 2: amount of equipment he has lost, The economy is a mess.
Speaker 2: All because of the war in Ukraine. Is he going
Speaker 2: to expand that? I can't imagine it. Also, he has
Speaker 2: since he has become President of Russia and the dictator,
Speaker 2: and then even way way before when he was a
Speaker 2: colonel in the KGB, in the spy services, he has
Speaker 2: always maintained that Ukraine, at least the eastern part of Ukraine,
Speaker 2: is part of Russia. It is part of Russia. He
Speaker 2: doesn't think Germany is part of Russia. He doesn't think
Speaker 2: France is part of Russia. He doesn't think Spain is
Speaker 2: part of Russia.
Speaker 1: So what does he do? He goes to war.
Speaker 2: So here is President Trump saying we don't want any
Speaker 2: part of it.
Speaker 1: Russia effectively has to grow up.
Speaker 2: Russia relying on Europe has to grow up Europe relying
Speaker 2: on the United States. Well, those days are basically done.
Speaker 2: And our involvement in NATO is big time. A lot
Speaker 2: of troops, for example, in Germany. Why are there troops
Speaker 2: in Germany? Well to protect Western Europe from the Russian invasion, which.
Speaker 1: At this point is kind of hard to believe. Maybe
Speaker 1: I'm wrong, I have no idea.
Speaker 2: Maybe Putin is crazy enough to invade a NATO country
Speaker 2: and go to.
Speaker 1: War with Europe, all of Europe don't know. My guess
Speaker 1: is no.
Speaker 2: So Trump's position, and I think to a great extent,
Speaker 2: he's right, Hey, it's time for us to stop being
Speaker 2: the policeman of the world. Now for those of you,
Speaker 2: and he's talking to Europeans, do you want that kind
Speaker 2: of security?
Speaker 1: You guys do it? Don't rely on us anymore.
Speaker 2: And the reality is Europe has relied on the United
Speaker 2: States as a default. They'll take care of us, the
Speaker 2: US will take carebus. So I think that's a legitimate argument.
Speaker 1: I do.
Speaker 2: There are many people that think, in the amount of
Speaker 2: money we spend the defense of Europe, is it really
Speaker 2: are battle? I mean, it will be if it turns
Speaker 2: out that Russia invades any one of the NATO countries.
Speaker 2: And how you think Russia is going to do with
Speaker 2: the United States as well as all the other European countries.
Speaker 1: The vast majority of Europe, you know, is proutent it
Speaker 1: and go to war.
Speaker 2: You know, I doubt that. So Europe has to grow up.
Speaker 2: Now you couple that, which is a legitimate stand. Whether
Speaker 2: you believe it or not, you can't argue it's a
Speaker 2: legitimate stand, at least in my opinion with the statements
Speaker 2: that it's Zelenski who is the dictator Ukraine started the war.
Speaker 1: Putin is the nice guy, He's the good guy. Do
Speaker 1: you remember during the first term where.
Speaker 2: Donald Trump said, I believe Putin more than I believe
Speaker 2: seven All of the intelligence agencies in the United States,
Speaker 2: all seventeen of them are liars.
Speaker 1: They are part of the deep state.
Speaker 2: Putin is the one who's telling the truth and said
Speaker 2: he's a good guy. On top of that, you know
Speaker 2: who's jumping up and down for joy Putin. He's getting
Speaker 2: exactly what he wants. He's the big winner on this one. Now,
Speaker 2: Trump may be considered the big winner in certain circles,
Speaker 2: those who want the US out of Europe, but there
Speaker 2: is no question to the extent that Donald Trump wins this.
Speaker 2: Putin is on a whole different level in terms of
Speaker 2: the wind, in terms of the win. All right, another
Speaker 2: chapter in the digital aid. On Sunday, our Governor Gavin
Speaker 2: Newsom announced an initiative, a new Digital Democracy initiative. And
Speaker 2: what it's going to do is connect residents, all residents
Speaker 2: in California who want to go online. It will connect
Speaker 2: those residents directly with government officials in times of disaster
Speaker 2: allow them to express their concerns. So how do normal people,
Speaker 2: those of us who are not in government. What is
Speaker 2: the way that we connect with our government officials? We
Speaker 2: go to town halls, we write letters or now send emails.
Speaker 2: We accost them on the street. That's the fun part,
Speaker 2: bashing them on the street. We do it via the
Speaker 2: news organizations who shove microphones in their faces.
Speaker 1: Well, most people don't have a chance.
Speaker 2: Keep in mind, California is what forty million people, I mean,
Speaker 2: how many of us actually deal directly with our politicians.
Speaker 2: So engaged California is going live with a focus on
Speaker 2: adying victims of the wildfires and Pacific Palisades now Tadina
Speaker 2: who are struggling to recover. And the comments shared online
Speaker 2: well could potentially will prompt government action regarding insurance coverage,
Speaker 2: for example, building standards, efforts to require utilities to bury
Speaker 2: power to bury power lines. But herein lies the problem,
Speaker 2: and that is already at town hall meetings, you get
Speaker 2: disparate views. You get people in favor, people against any
Speaker 2: proposed procedure and he proposed law.
Speaker 1: You get people that are.
Speaker 2: Saying you should change it. And these are the few
Speaker 2: hundred people that show up. How does government deal with
Speaker 2: millions or at least hundreds of thousands of comments coming
Speaker 2: in newsom thinks it's going to help. Maybe, I don't know.
Speaker 2: It seems like someone has to go through that. This
Speaker 2: is actually modeled after a program like that in Taiwan,
Speaker 2: and Taiwanese government loves this thing.
Speaker 1: It takes public.
Speaker 2: Comments and as a matter of fact, it actually acts
Speaker 2: on public comments and they view it as pretty valuable stuff. Now,
Speaker 2: the part that they do use or what they utilize
Speaker 2: these town forums, this digital town forum in Taiwan, is
Speaker 2: to stop the disinformation, just shut it. That I think
Speaker 2: is incredibly valuable because there's so much.
Speaker 1: Of that garbage going on, Because well, do we get.
Speaker 2: Our news anymore from normal news sources mainstream media, of course. Not.
Speaker 2: Where we get our news is from the internet, from
Speaker 2: crazy people. Well, these town halls the government is hosting,
Speaker 2: it's online. It's the same mechanism, it's the same platform
Speaker 2: that the crazy people use. And so to straighten out
Speaker 2: crazy people and conspiracy theories, etc. What the government is
Speaker 2: doing not just issuing press releases, not just going public,
Speaker 2: they're going to the same source. They're fighting fire with fire,
Speaker 2: and I think that one makes sense. I'm okay with that,
Speaker 2: so join up and you two can be heard. Also,
Speaker 2: talk radio used to be the mechanism where people could
Speaker 2: affect change. This was the days before the Internet and
Speaker 2: talk radio were people calling in. It was all about Collins.
Speaker 2: Now your regular Joe, which I don't know why it's
Speaker 2: a regular Joe. Why not regular George? Never figure that out.
Speaker 1: You could write a letter to the editor and how
Speaker 1: many get printed?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 1: Three?
Speaker 2: But you go on talk radio and you go ahead
Speaker 2: and spout your views or did spout your views? That
Speaker 2: was the mechanism because it was all about phone calls. Well,
Speaker 2: those days are gone, and there is a way for
Speaker 2: the regular Joe or George to go ahead and have
Speaker 2: people listen, and that is via the internet now TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, whatever,
Speaker 2: And unfortunately more influence is now.
Speaker 1: There is more.
Speaker 2: Influence from the crazy people than there are from the
Speaker 2: normal people. The only thing I found TikTok I loved
Speaker 2: was the cinnamon challenge that to me was the best
Speaker 2: simply the best use of the Internet that.
Speaker 3: Has ever pinnacle, yes, pinnacle of the you bet it
Speaker 3: is people coffing on cinnamon.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, it's just great.
Speaker 2: It's well worth looking up the cinnamon challenge. Okay, this
Speaker 2: segment is about the US Postal Service. Now, government is
Speaker 2: not particularly trusted by.
Speaker 1: The peoples of the United States. The Postal Service is.
Speaker 2: It's I think the country's most popular institution, approval rating
Speaker 2: as high as ninety percent.
Speaker 1: Okay, some stats the USPS US Postal.
Speaker 2: Service delivers forty eight percent of the world's mail. Half
Speaker 2: of the world's mail is delivered by the Postal Service
Speaker 2: one hundred and sixty million homes. So now, what's going on, Well,
Speaker 2: what happened in March, late March the post of this
Speaker 2: last late March, the Postal Service struggled to deal with
Speaker 2: the fallout of the pandemic.
Speaker 1: President Trump now threatens.
Speaker 2: To veto a version of a bipartisan Cares Act two
Speaker 2: point two trillion dollars stimulus package that contained a thirteen
Speaker 2: billion dollar grant to.
Speaker 1: The Postal Service.
Speaker 2: And the Post Service, saying we need it. We have
Speaker 2: to keep meeting payroll, we have to gas our vehicles,
Speaker 2: we have to pay suppliers.
Speaker 1: So what he.
Speaker 2: Finally signed was a ten billion dollar not a grant,
Speaker 2: a loan to the Postal Service, which is a quasi
Speaker 2: into independent agency of the United States, and the ten
Speaker 2: billion dollars has to be approved by the Treasury Department. Now,
Speaker 2: the Postal Service has been attacked by conservatives for years.
Speaker 2: Trump has said the post Office is a joke. This
Speaker 2: was on Friday, And what he wants to do, like
Speaker 2: many Republicans, is a go privatization of the Postal Service.
Speaker 2: And he keeps on saying that it is a mismanaged business.
Speaker 2: And so what's being argued now the Trump administration now
Speaker 2: wants drastic service facilities cuts, more non career labor, more
Speaker 2: out sourcing, and a rollback of employee benefits, which, of
Speaker 2: course that's across the board, that's not just Postal Service.
Speaker 2: And well, the laws have gone south on the Postal Service.
Speaker 2: In nineteen seventy, there was actually a wildcat strike that
Speaker 2: lasted eight days, and so out of that the nineteen
Speaker 2: seventy Postal Reorganization Act, and what it did is replace
Speaker 2: the Post Office Department with this semi government, high bred
Speaker 2: government agency and corporation, and it would provide collective bargaining
Speaker 2: rights to employees they could unionize. It was supposed to
Speaker 2: be financially self supporting and continue to provide universal service
Speaker 2: at reasonable rates. And the Postal Service had to compete
Speaker 2: with well now Amazon but FedEx UPS. But the difference
Speaker 2: is if you live in normal Alaska, UPS doesn't deliver.
Speaker 2: If you live in an igloo up in Burrough, Alaska,
Speaker 2: which is the northernmost city in the United States, it's
Speaker 2: just two feet below the north Pole, the US Postal
Speaker 2: Service delivers. If someone lives at the bottom of the
Speaker 2: Grand Canyon.
Speaker 1: Do they have postal service? Yeah? Buy mule. Post service
Speaker 1: still goes down to the bottom of the canyon, and
Speaker 1: it's the only mule route that the Postal Service has.
Speaker 2: Airplanes that fly into these little tiny villages in Alaska
Speaker 2: at a tremendous loss.
Speaker 1: It just costs more. The Postal Service just costs Is
Speaker 1: that cost a time?
Speaker 2: By the way, the Postal Service was created before the
Speaker 2: United States was Did you.
Speaker 1: Know that, Ben Franklin, That was the postal service? Go figure.
Speaker 2: I like the Postal Service. I just hate what is
Speaker 2: that first damp? A first class stamp now cost I
Speaker 2: think what ninety three cents something like that. Although you
Speaker 2: can go to costco and buy a roll.
Speaker 1: Is it that money? I think it is that high.
Speaker 1: How much is it? Yeah, oh, it's seventy three cents,
Speaker 1: So I got it.
Speaker 2: And they still lose money at seventy three cents. Where
Speaker 2: they lose money, they might they make money on the
Speaker 2: stamps first class, and they lose money in all that
Speaker 2: third class crap.
Speaker 3: What Why is it a quasi government entity?
Speaker 2: It's because it's a government run. It's well, it's it
Speaker 2: became an independent agency sort of because if it's a
Speaker 2: government agency has to be funded one by the government,
Speaker 2: and it brings in money, it should be a money
Speaker 2: a money maker. Most agencies are not money makers. And
Speaker 2: so it's just there was just a huge move to
Speaker 2: privatize it completely, and I think it was a compromise,
Speaker 2: just to compromise issue.
Speaker 1: That's my guess on this.
Speaker 2: All right, this is KFI AM sixty.
Speaker 1: You've been listening to the Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 2: Catch my show Monday through Friday six am to nine am,
Speaker 2: and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.