May 15, 2024 • 26 mins
Trump’s lawyers go after Michael Cohen on the stand. The shocking state of the Los Angeles restaurant industry is in crisis. Cheating on workplace drug tests hits a record. How Vietnamese lawmakers struck back when L.A. County declared Jane Fonda Day.
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(00:01):
You're listening to bill handle on demandfrom kf I AM six forty. You
are listening to the bill handle showInnocent and this is KFI AM six forty
bill Handle. It is a humpday, Wednesday, May fifteenth. H
(00:26):
We're looking at a bunch of stories, one of them being that President Biden
is in fact shipping lots and lotsof arms to Israel, a new package
worth over a billion dollars, andso that scuffle over those two thousand pound
bombs. I don't think those twothousand palm pound bombs are being shipped over.
(00:47):
So everything else is. And tariffson China. Yesterday, President Biden
announced eighteen billion dollars in tariffs onChinese imports, including one hundred percent on
evs. I'm going to talk moreabout that coming up at eight o'clock.
(01:07):
Now, yesterday was the day thatCohen, Michael Cohen was going to be
skewered by the defense in the Trumppush Mondy trial. And they tried man,
they tried. But here's the problem. I think the prosecution this happens
all the time because you have Cohen, who is a convicted perjurer, who
(01:29):
did jail time, who kept onlying on behalf of President Trump, and
now the prosecutor, the defense isgoing, so you're a liar, you
expect us to believe you? Well, yeah, were you lying then or
now? Well effectively said I waslying then to protect the president. And
I think that resonated certainly with me, if not the jury. And so
(01:53):
the first, I mean, thefirst thing that Todd Blanche, Trump's attorney,
brings up is a quote an insultfrom Cohen, and he made it
personal. So he asks Cohen,on April twenty third, you went on
TikTok and you called me a cryinglittle well a crap, you know,
(02:15):
obviously using the word, Blanche,asked Cohen, raising his voice to deliver
that word. Prosecutors objected, andyou know what, Coen blurted out,
Yeah, that sounds like something Iwould say. Moments later, he confronts
Cohen with more TikTok commentary that MichaelCohen had put up, including calling Trump
(02:38):
a dictator douchebag. And he saidthat that Trump leaves the courtroom to go
right into that little cage where hebelongs in an effing little cage like an
animal. And therefore that was goneundermine Collen's testimony as to whether the hush
(03:00):
money was paying, whether Trump wasat the center of it. Okay,
I don't think it did. Becausehe was asked, do you hate Trump?
Yeah? I do. Do youwant him convicted? Yeah? I
do. Therefore his credibility is atrisk, but I don't think so.
(03:20):
I think it all falls into place. He described in detail how he flipped
on Trump when there was a raidon his office and his house and they
grabbed it, grabbed all of hispersonal effects, business effects, and he
lied about it and he was charged, and he described how Trump told him,
(03:43):
don't worry about it. I'm thepresident. I'm going to cover you,
which, of course it didn't happen. So yeah, he flipped and
he was calm, and it's I'lltell you why. I don't think it
worked, because all it did wassimply try to amplify exactly what Cohen is
(04:05):
thinking, what Cohen is saying,and that has nothing to do with what
happened with the payments, the hushmoney payments. Now it's up to the
jury to disbelieve Cohen and disbelieve thewitnesses that the prosecution put up. That's
fine, or the defense is goingto argue that's not enough. There isn't
(04:26):
enough to tie Trump together to allof this and raise reasonable doubt. Now,
based on what I know, I'mconvinced that Trump did exactly that.
And here's why I have no doubts, because this is a man who believes
he's above the law. He trulybelieves the law doesn't apply to him.
(04:47):
For example, his defense in theclassified documents case, and he's already brought
it up when the prosecution said,you took classified documents as a citizen out
of the White House and move intotomorrow lago and these were classified secret,
top secret, And he said,I declassified them. And they said,
(05:11):
where where are the documents? Who'dyou say that to? And he said,
all I have to do is thinkabout declassifying, and that declassifies.
And in his arguments that he's beenmaking over and over again across the board,
that a president cannot be charged foranything. In one of the cases
(05:31):
that went before the Supreme Court,Elena Kagan asked his attorney, are you
telling me that as president he canorder the assassination of arrival and cannot be
prosecuted. Yes, a president iscompletely immune. That's what he believes.
(05:56):
And since he's president, he's immunefrom anything that's his mindset. So I
have no doubt that he did allthat, only because even if he knew
it was illegal, even if heknew that the law was being violated,
it doesn't matter. He can't beprosecuted. He could do no wrong no
(06:17):
matter what. That's why I believehe did it. Because he's a pretty
vindictive guy. How many times hashe said, you hit me, I
hit you twice as hard. Youcome after me, I come after you
twice as hard. And keep inmind, he has unlimited money, so
it's not a question of throwing thebest attorneys against anybody. And I mean
(06:42):
not just one or two either.So we'll see what happens with this.
I don't think that the defense didanything to harm Michael Cohen or his testimony,
at least that's the way I takeit. If I went, well,
I'm not in the jury, soand I have to look at all
the evidence. That's the other thing. There are parts of this that I
don't know. They're not telling useverything that has happened, And you know
(07:04):
what, you don't know what thejury thinks is important or not. It's
surprising afterwards. I've talked to manymany attorneys in jury trial. He said
there was something that was said thatthe jury thought was the most important thing
in the entire trial. It nevereven occurred to me or the most important
thing that I brought up in thetrial. The jury just ignored. This
is afterwards when they pull the juryand they can ask juror questions and they
(07:29):
do it all the time. Allright, I want to move over to
what's going on in the restaurant industryin southern California, and it is a
mess. I'm bringing Neil aboard becausehe knows so many restaurant tours and he
knows more about the restaurant industry thananybody I know. And there's a story
in the La Times about a coupleof owners of a husband and wife who
(07:50):
own a sandwich shop in downtown LAand they're shutting down. Except they can't
afford to shut down because they owetoo much money borrowed money from the government.
They owe money for rent that theydidn't pay because nobody's business are coming
in. And that's a spin thatI hadn't thought of that makes it just
(08:13):
so much more difficult. How doesthe restaurant stay in business? Neil,
with inflation, with the cost oflabor going up like crazy, the cost
of goods going up, the factthat you can't charge additional junk fees except
they're not junk fees. Well theyaren't junk fees, you know, they're
(08:37):
not. I mean there were legitimatecosts, okay in some circumstance. Now
we're looking at places that have shuddered. You're looking at great places, petty
cash, Takaia. Sorry, sorry, so many places have already shut down.
The strange thing about this is we'retalking about the place called wax Paper,
(08:58):
Chinatown sandwich shop, beloved. Actuallythey owe so much. The bills
are still coming in so as faras what they owe the government for any
money that was loans that were takenout during the pandemic. You've got the
rise in the minimum wage. Youhave a rise in gas costs. So
(09:24):
now anything being delivered or if you'rea bakery and you make bread for restaurants
and you deliver it, the costshave gone up. Flower costs have gone
up because of the war in theUkraine or in Ukraine, And so they're
looking at in some places, somewell known pizza places that have let's say
(09:45):
four locations have gone from a twentypercent margin to a two percent margin.
Yet it's what's happening is and theysuck up a lot of costs. But
so let's talk about restaurant going fora moment. First of all, let's
start with the fact I don't goto these high, high end restaurants.
One hundred and fifty bucks I had, two hundred dollars I had. I'll
(10:07):
do that once every three four years. Like I took my daughter to the
French laundry because she's a foody.Biggest waste of time in my entire life.
Yo, So she she, Ihated it. So to me,
a high end restaurant is the cheesecakeFactory. And that's about as high end
as I go. Nothing wrong witha cheesecake, No, no, no,
I love it, No, Ilove it. It's just you know,
(10:28):
it's considered moderately priced. But andI can afford to go out.
You know, I make a prettygood living. I will not pay eighteen
dollars for a cheesecase, Idia,I just won't do it. What you
know what I just said, No, thank you, I'll just cook it
home. You know, there wasa viral ad that has been circulating the
past week or so as prophetic,and it said thirty years from now you
(10:52):
will be paying fourteen dollars for ahamburger, and they're off by a couple
dollars. They were talking about fastfood, and that was thirty years ago
and it's coming. It is nowan absolute reality. You know, we
are dealing with the cost of somany things. And if that was just
(11:15):
it, if there was a way, you know, the reality is restaurants
have eaten the costs or moved themaround, or put on these other fees
to at least it in your mindmake you feel like you're not paying too
much. Because if you add twentyfive cents to the cost of something,
people balk or they don't. Theydon't shop there anymore, they won't go
(11:39):
to eat, they won't. Sowe have to first and foremost get over
the fact that food and eating outis just going to be more expensive.
That's the only way. Because you'vegot places that are beloved, that were
award winning, that were full everynight, that shut down. These aren't
just little and pop places that youknow can't make ends meet. These are
(12:03):
places that are popular and filled andon the one hundred best list in Los
Angeles that still couldn't make it.Uh. And it's unfortunate and they're not
coming out of it because all ofthese different things they have to pay for.
And in July, like you mentioned, the fact that you won't be
able that it will be illegal tohave these separate fees. You have to
(12:24):
roll it into the cost of thebreed and it's become prohibitive. Also,
our American model of tipping on topof the cost of food. I mean,
you know, when you think offifty dollars ahead, right, that
doesn't include tip usually, or let'ssay my eighteen dollar casadea. And I'm
(12:46):
a pretty generous tipper because I knowthese people are minimum wage and they live
on this, so twenty they're todeal with usually twenty twenty five percent.
I tip, and just because that'sthe way I feel. You go to
Europe and you don't tip because theservers get paid a living wage and it's
just the cost of food. Andin Europe, for example Italy, it's
(13:09):
less expensive than here, and youdon't tip. We have to switch to
a new model. This is broken. It's not going to work, and
we're not going to dig our wayout of it at the pandemic and the
decisions that were made, especially herein California. You heard Amy this morning
on wake Up Call talk about theimpending double, back to back rays of
(13:31):
fees for gas. You're going tobe over six bucks. And that rolls
into the cost of having food delivered. That rolls into the cost of having
ingredients delivered. Every time they takethey inhale a breath, they exhale another
problem in this industry. And ifwe want to go out to eat and
(13:52):
we want to have the art ofthe culinary arts be a part of our
landscape, we as people that goout to consume this need to change our
mindset. Yeah, we have choicesas consumers like not eating out as much.
Restaurant ors don't have choices. Theyare either in business or out.
And I don't know if you havenoticed. The other day, I forgot
(14:13):
what restaurant and I love rack oflamb. That's off the menu now now
it's rack of mutton. It's justwhat it's got too bad as it every
place is serving hagis, hagas andmanudah are the only things. Yeah,
yeah, and even that's become wayexpensive. All right, Moving over to
peeing. And by the way,in honor of this story, that's exactly
(14:39):
what I just did. And hereis where my P is your pe.
Your p is my pe. Andit happens to do with cheating on workplace
drug tests. And how do youtake a workplace drug test? You pee
in a bottle, well not abottle, but you pee in a little
specimen, little dixie cup kind ofthing, and then it's tested for drugs.
(15:01):
And I think it's just a littlelitmus strip that you test for that
they test for drugs. And accordingto Quest Diagnostics, which is the big,
big, big testing center, theincrease in tampered tests has grown at
the highest rate in more than thirtyyears. And why is that Well,
(15:26):
because if you fail to test,you're not getting hired. Now. As
far as marijuana, marijuana is thebig one. By the way, if
you have eaten a poppy seed bagelthat morning, you're going to be testing
for heroin. So here is here'sa takeaway. Here is my advice to
everybody looking for a job. Donot eat poppy seed bagels the morning of
(15:48):
your interview or the day you're goingto get tested. Why because heroin is
made out of poppy plants. Poppyseeds come from the poppy plants, and
the tests do not have any diffferencebetween the two. I don't know if
that's true or not. That couldbe an urban myth, but I've heard
that over and over again. Butthe issue is marijuana. And keep in
(16:10):
mind, marijuana is perfectly legal herein the state. Now. I can
see federal jobs fair enough, youknow, because marijuana is a Schedule one
drug federally speaking. And there's anargument of you don't want to be high
when you are using heavy machinery.Don't you love those little pill bottles?
(16:30):
Says do not, You may causedrowsiness. You don't drive heavy machinery.
I do that with Miambion where Ilook on my sleeping pill. Little bottle
is says, do not drive heavymachinery. This may cause drowsiness. That's
the whole point schmucks is to causedrowsiness. Excuse me. The point is
(16:52):
I understand the Feds. I evenunderstand. Well, I don't because if
it's lee, if marijuana is legal, cannabis is recreational. Cannabis is legal,
and you test positive because that staysfour I think a month in your
system that you can still determine whetherit's in your body or not. And
you only get high at night,you know, or you don't get high
(17:15):
during working hours? What do youdo with that? Hey, how would
they prove? How would they provewhen you were smoking? They don't,
They can't. All they do istest is it in your system? And
if you smoked last night or youtook a gummy last night, it's going
to show up. And it is. I mean, it is a mess.
(17:37):
So what do you do with that? And this is where employers are
trying to figure out how to goa lot of them just don't even care
about the marijuana park, the cannabispart. They just ignore that. Now,
testing for opioids, et cetera maybe a different issue. And so
when you're talking about safety and youare talking about issues of security, I
(17:59):
can understand that. Here's the problem. For example, there's no way to
test for alcohol. What if yougot screaming, falling down drunk the night
before, well, alcohol dissipates,they're going to tell you there A test
can't tell you. Breathalyzer, bloodtest is not going to tell you how
drunk someone is twelve hours later,fifteen twenty four hours later, it does
(18:19):
show up that you are testing formarijuana. So what's happening is people,
and they've always done this. They'llborrow someone's pee, they'll come inside.
I have heard of stories where yougo into the bathroom and they had a
little catheter and a bag that theytook someone's pee. Hey, would you
(18:41):
pee in this bag? Kind ofinteresting relationship you have to have with people
to do that. They may theyeven make a fake penis. Yeah,
because if you're being watched. Yeah, you know, they allowed to have
a full setup for that. Yeah, And a lot of people will use
it for other purposes those I don'teven want to go into that now.
(19:02):
No, no, no, that'snot what this is for. No,
it is not. But the pointis that people get caught, and this
story is about that cheating doing exactlythat has increased more than thirty percent in
the last few years because I primarilycannabis, and you just you know,
(19:25):
you smoke cannabis, you take agummy, you ingest cannabis. You still
work in But wait a minute,it's legal, so okay, I'll gain
the system fair enough, and guesswhat, they have ways of testing,
you know, for example, whenyou know, there you go using the
fake penis and you're trying to explainwhy you have two of them. It's
(19:48):
tough to explain two penises. Myissue was when I came to KFI,
they handed me that little jar andthey said urinate and I said thanks.
I always thought I was about afour. Okay, didn't you? I
got you? Do they do?Oh? I just it's a growner.
Do they do testing at KFI?No, I've never been drug testing.
(20:10):
I've never been drug tested either.Yeah. Matter of fact, I think
the argument if you're a drug ifyou are a talk show host, they
want you to be high on marijuanabecause you do a better show. I'm
sorry, we're gonna have to haveyou leave. You showed up sober.
That is correct, Okay, that'sa fun story. Cheating on drug tests,
(20:32):
It's been going on forever. It'sjust increasing dramatically. Hi, I'm
Jane Fonda. Welcome to the completeworkout. Get ready to change the step
now, Peter apart three four,march together two three four apart and lift
those knees together and swing your armsapart two three four, be together two
three four and apart two three fourtogether to Jane Fonda. Change right,
(20:57):
I'm gonna tell you the great shape. Boy. You talk about strong thighs.
What a step she must be.That's pretty impressive. Whoa, no,
no, nobody, Nope, nope, nope. I mean she's in
great shape. Yeah, I meanlook at her. Look at her thighs.
I mean they're incredible. I mean, now, I'm not gonna say
(21:22):
it. I was gonna go onestep for this. Oh yeah on this
one. This one would have gottenme in a little bit of trouble.
Although Amy would have laughed uproariously.So Amy, I'll tell you during the
break. Yeah, this is podcastmaterial. This is why we're going for
the podcast, so I can staystuff like that. Okay, Jane fondam
(21:47):
La County declared, Uh, you'reready for this. This is a bad
day to do this, h declaredJane Fonda day. And it makes sense
by the way. It has todo with her environmental active it has to
do with her charity work. Imean, she's had a lifetime of that
super liberalism. As you know,she's one of the big liberals out there,
(22:07):
always has been. But here's theproblem with Jane Fonda. Jane Fonda,
when she was in her twenties andjust an adamant opponent of the Vietnam
War early and massive, and tookher celebrity which a lot of celebrities do,
to mount her campaign or to addto the campaign fighting the Vietnam War.
(22:30):
Well, she at the invitation ofNorth Vietnam, enemies of the United
States at the time, went toNorth Vietnam, was photographed in North Vietnam,
went on radio in North Vietnam denouncingthe war, and in a move
that she has regretted her entire life, had her picture taken at a North
(22:52):
Vietnamese anti aircraft gun. Now Idon't know if it was used to shoot
down American flyers, but it mighthave been, and that cost her To
this day, Vietnam Vets and patrioticAmericans in many cases or people consider themselves
(23:14):
patriotic superpatriots, have never forgiven herfor it. She has apologized over and
over again. But out of theVietnam War, probably the greatest villain that
exists is Jane Fonda. And whilea lot of other people were given breaks,
even those who were adamantly in favorof the warst until the very last
(23:34):
second, they've all been given abreak historically not Jane Fonda. So that's
one problem. The other problem isthey chose, the county chose April thirtieth,
which is the day that celebrates orremembers the fall of Saigone, and
(23:57):
for the Vietnamese community, it iseffectively the worst day that they have ever
had. It's like the Holocaust MemorialService, the day the Holocaust is memorialized.
The Armenian Holocaust is memorialized in theArmenian community, and this is that
important to the Vietnamese community. Andoops, so we have some Vietnamese legislators,
(24:23):
assembly people, certainly people in localpolitics. Orange County, by the
way, it's Orange County, Ithink specifically has the largest population of Vietnamese
outside of Vietnam. I mean twohundred and fifty thousand Vietnamese in southern California
and so La County, which hasa huge number of Vietnamese. It makes
(24:45):
sense to honor it, honor theday the fall of Saigone as a very
solemn not a holiday, but verysolemn day. And you can't choose that
day to honor Jane Fonda. Doesn'twork. Now, the county supervisors were
told in no uncertain terms two things. That's not the day. And two
(25:07):
you rescind the proclamation. They didn'tdo that. They have changed the date,
however, and they said it wasan accident. No one thought it
through, no one can, noone put it together. So I'm going
to give La County Supervisors, whichI really do, a pass on this
one. Then the other issue,which I think is a bigger issue,
(25:29):
because I think that's a day thatgot mixed up. No one thought it
through. Okay, they moved itimmediately to April thirtieth. Now the issue
of Jane Fond today, and atsome point, this was forty nine years
ago. At some point you givesomeone a pass who has apologized over and
over again. So you know,I don't know how you feel about it.
(25:55):
She was known to this day stillknown as Hanoi Jane by many veterans
of the Vietnam Vietnam War. Andyou know, this is my generation,
and so you know I've known andI do know people who did fight in
the war. Boy, I'll tellyou across the board, Jane Fonda is
(26:18):
not a fond memory of what happened. Kf I am six forty live everywhere
on the iHeartRadio app. You've beenlistening to The Bill Handle Show. Catch
My Show Monday through Friday six amto nine am, and anytime on demand
on the iHeartRadio app
You're listening to bill handle on demandfrom kf I AM six forty. You
are listening to the bill handle showInnocent and this is KFI AM six forty
bill Handle. It is a humpday, Wednesday, May fifteenth. H
(00:26):
We're looking at a bunch of stories, one of them being that President Biden
is in fact shipping lots and lotsof arms to Israel, a new package
worth over a billion dollars, andso that scuffle over those two thousand pound
bombs. I don't think those twothousand palm pound bombs are being shipped over.
(00:47):
So everything else is. And tariffson China. Yesterday, President Biden
announced eighteen billion dollars in tariffs onChinese imports, including one hundred percent on
evs. I'm going to talk moreabout that coming up at eight o'clock.
(01:07):
Now, yesterday was the day thatCohen, Michael Cohen was going to be
skewered by the defense in the Trumppush Mondy trial. And they tried man,
they tried. But here's the problem. I think the prosecution this happens
all the time because you have Cohen, who is a convicted perjurer, who
(01:29):
did jail time, who kept onlying on behalf of President Trump, and
now the prosecutor, the defense isgoing, so you're a liar, you
expect us to believe you? Well, yeah, were you lying then or
now? Well effectively said I waslying then to protect the president. And
I think that resonated certainly with me, if not the jury. And so
(01:53):
the first, I mean, thefirst thing that Todd Blanche, Trump's attorney,
brings up is a quote an insultfrom Cohen, and he made it
personal. So he asks Cohen,on April twenty third, you went on
TikTok and you called me a cryinglittle well a crap, you know,
(02:15):
obviously using the word, Blanche,asked Cohen, raising his voice to deliver
that word. Prosecutors objected, andyou know what, Coen blurted out,
Yeah, that sounds like something Iwould say. Moments later, he confronts
Cohen with more TikTok commentary that MichaelCohen had put up, including calling Trump
(02:38):
a dictator douchebag. And he saidthat that Trump leaves the courtroom to go
right into that little cage where hebelongs in an effing little cage like an
animal. And therefore that was goneundermine Collen's testimony as to whether the hush
(03:00):
money was paying, whether Trump wasat the center of it. Okay,
I don't think it did. Becausehe was asked, do you hate Trump?
Yeah? I do. Do youwant him convicted? Yeah? I
do. Therefore his credibility is atrisk, but I don't think so.
(03:20):
I think it all falls into place. He described in detail how he flipped
on Trump when there was a raidon his office and his house and they
grabbed it, grabbed all of hispersonal effects, business effects, and he
lied about it and he was charged, and he described how Trump told him,
(03:43):
don't worry about it. I'm thepresident. I'm going to cover you,
which, of course it didn't happen. So yeah, he flipped and
he was calm, and it's I'lltell you why. I don't think it
worked, because all it did wassimply try to amplify exactly what Cohen is
(04:05):
thinking, what Cohen is saying,and that has nothing to do with what
happened with the payments, the hushmoney payments. Now it's up to the
jury to disbelieve Cohen and disbelieve thewitnesses that the prosecution put up. That's
fine, or the defense is goingto argue that's not enough. There isn't
(04:26):
enough to tie Trump together to allof this and raise reasonable doubt. Now,
based on what I know, I'mconvinced that Trump did exactly that.
And here's why I have no doubts, because this is a man who believes
he's above the law. He trulybelieves the law doesn't apply to him.
(04:47):
For example, his defense in theclassified documents case, and he's already brought
it up when the prosecution said,you took classified documents as a citizen out
of the White House and move intotomorrow lago and these were classified secret,
top secret, And he said,I declassified them. And they said,
(05:11):
where where are the documents? Who'dyou say that to? And he said,
all I have to do is thinkabout declassifying, and that declassifies.
And in his arguments that he's beenmaking over and over again across the board,
that a president cannot be charged foranything. In one of the cases
(05:31):
that went before the Supreme Court,Elena Kagan asked his attorney, are you
telling me that as president he canorder the assassination of arrival and cannot be
prosecuted. Yes, a president iscompletely immune. That's what he believes.
(05:56):
And since he's president, he's immunefrom anything that's his mindset. So I
have no doubt that he did allthat, only because even if he knew
it was illegal, even if heknew that the law was being violated,
it doesn't matter. He can't beprosecuted. He could do no wrong no
(06:17):
matter what. That's why I believehe did it. Because he's a pretty
vindictive guy. How many times hashe said, you hit me, I
hit you twice as hard. Youcome after me, I come after you
twice as hard. And keep inmind, he has unlimited money, so
it's not a question of throwing thebest attorneys against anybody. And I mean
(06:42):
not just one or two either.So we'll see what happens with this.
I don't think that the defense didanything to harm Michael Cohen or his testimony,
at least that's the way I takeit. If I went, well,
I'm not in the jury, soand I have to look at all
the evidence. That's the other thing. There are parts of this that I
don't know. They're not telling useverything that has happened, And you know
(07:04):
what, you don't know what thejury thinks is important or not. It's
surprising afterwards. I've talked to manymany attorneys in jury trial. He said
there was something that was said thatthe jury thought was the most important thing
in the entire trial. It nevereven occurred to me or the most important
thing that I brought up in thetrial. The jury just ignored. This
is afterwards when they pull the juryand they can ask juror questions and they
(07:29):
do it all the time. Allright, I want to move over to
what's going on in the restaurant industryin southern California, and it is a
mess. I'm bringing Neil aboard becausehe knows so many restaurant tours and he
knows more about the restaurant industry thananybody I know. And there's a story
in the La Times about a coupleof owners of a husband and wife who
(07:50):
own a sandwich shop in downtown LAand they're shutting down. Except they can't
afford to shut down because they owetoo much money borrowed money from the government.
They owe money for rent that theydidn't pay because nobody's business are coming
in. And that's a spin thatI hadn't thought of that makes it just
(08:13):
so much more difficult. How doesthe restaurant stay in business? Neil,
with inflation, with the cost oflabor going up like crazy, the cost
of goods going up, the factthat you can't charge additional junk fees except
they're not junk fees. Well theyaren't junk fees, you know, they're
(08:37):
not. I mean there were legitimatecosts, okay in some circumstance. Now
we're looking at places that have shuddered. You're looking at great places, petty
cash, Takaia. Sorry, sorry, so many places have already shut down.
The strange thing about this is we'retalking about the place called wax Paper,
(08:58):
Chinatown sandwich shop, beloved. Actuallythey owe so much. The bills
are still coming in so as faras what they owe the government for any
money that was loans that were takenout during the pandemic. You've got the
rise in the minimum wage. Youhave a rise in gas costs. So
(09:24):
now anything being delivered or if you'rea bakery and you make bread for restaurants
and you deliver it, the costshave gone up. Flower costs have gone
up because of the war in theUkraine or in Ukraine, And so they're
looking at in some places, somewell known pizza places that have let's say
(09:45):
four locations have gone from a twentypercent margin to a two percent margin.
Yet it's what's happening is and theysuck up a lot of costs. But
so let's talk about restaurant going fora moment. First of all, let's
start with the fact I don't goto these high, high end restaurants.
One hundred and fifty bucks I had, two hundred dollars I had. I'll
(10:07):
do that once every three four years. Like I took my daughter to the
French laundry because she's a foody.Biggest waste of time in my entire life.
Yo, So she she, Ihated it. So to me,
a high end restaurant is the cheesecakeFactory. And that's about as high end
as I go. Nothing wrong witha cheesecake, No, no, no,
I love it, No, Ilove it. It's just you know,
(10:28):
it's considered moderately priced. But andI can afford to go out.
You know, I make a prettygood living. I will not pay eighteen
dollars for a cheesecase, Idia,I just won't do it. What you
know what I just said, No, thank you, I'll just cook it
home. You know, there wasa viral ad that has been circulating the
past week or so as prophetic,and it said thirty years from now you
(10:52):
will be paying fourteen dollars for ahamburger, and they're off by a couple
dollars. They were talking about fastfood, and that was thirty years ago
and it's coming. It is nowan absolute reality. You know, we
are dealing with the cost of somany things. And if that was just
(11:15):
it, if there was a way, you know, the reality is restaurants
have eaten the costs or moved themaround, or put on these other fees
to at least it in your mindmake you feel like you're not paying too
much. Because if you add twentyfive cents to the cost of something,
people balk or they don't. Theydon't shop there anymore, they won't go
(11:39):
to eat, they won't. Sowe have to first and foremost get over
the fact that food and eating outis just going to be more expensive.
That's the only way. Because you'vegot places that are beloved, that were
award winning, that were full everynight, that shut down. These aren't
just little and pop places that youknow can't make ends meet. These are
(12:03):
places that are popular and filled andon the one hundred best list in Los
Angeles that still couldn't make it.Uh. And it's unfortunate and they're not
coming out of it because all ofthese different things they have to pay for.
And in July, like you mentioned, the fact that you won't be
able that it will be illegal tohave these separate fees. You have to
(12:24):
roll it into the cost of thebreed and it's become prohibitive. Also,
our American model of tipping on topof the cost of food. I mean,
you know, when you think offifty dollars ahead, right, that
doesn't include tip usually, or let'ssay my eighteen dollar casadea. And I'm
(12:46):
a pretty generous tipper because I knowthese people are minimum wage and they live
on this, so twenty they're todeal with usually twenty twenty five percent.
I tip, and just because that'sthe way I feel. You go to
Europe and you don't tip because theservers get paid a living wage and it's
just the cost of food. Andin Europe, for example Italy, it's
(13:09):
less expensive than here, and youdon't tip. We have to switch to
a new model. This is broken. It's not going to work, and
we're not going to dig our wayout of it at the pandemic and the
decisions that were made, especially herein California. You heard Amy this morning
on wake Up Call talk about theimpending double, back to back rays of
(13:31):
fees for gas. You're going tobe over six bucks. And that rolls
into the cost of having food delivered. That rolls into the cost of having
ingredients delivered. Every time they takethey inhale a breath, they exhale another
problem in this industry. And ifwe want to go out to eat and
(13:52):
we want to have the art ofthe culinary arts be a part of our
landscape, we as people that goout to consume this need to change our
mindset. Yeah, we have choicesas consumers like not eating out as much.
Restaurant ors don't have choices. Theyare either in business or out.
And I don't know if you havenoticed. The other day, I forgot
(14:13):
what restaurant and I love rack oflamb. That's off the menu now now
it's rack of mutton. It's justwhat it's got too bad as it every
place is serving hagis, hagas andmanudah are the only things. Yeah,
yeah, and even that's become wayexpensive. All right, Moving over to
peeing. And by the way,in honor of this story, that's exactly
(14:39):
what I just did. And hereis where my P is your pe.
Your p is my pe. Andit happens to do with cheating on workplace
drug tests. And how do youtake a workplace drug test? You pee
in a bottle, well not abottle, but you pee in a little
specimen, little dixie cup kind ofthing, and then it's tested for drugs.
(15:01):
And I think it's just a littlelitmus strip that you test for that
they test for drugs. And accordingto Quest Diagnostics, which is the big,
big, big testing center, theincrease in tampered tests has grown at
the highest rate in more than thirtyyears. And why is that Well,
(15:26):
because if you fail to test,you're not getting hired. Now. As
far as marijuana, marijuana is thebig one. By the way, if
you have eaten a poppy seed bagelthat morning, you're going to be testing
for heroin. So here is here'sa takeaway. Here is my advice to
everybody looking for a job. Donot eat poppy seed bagels the morning of
(15:48):
your interview or the day you're goingto get tested. Why because heroin is
made out of poppy plants. Poppyseeds come from the poppy plants, and
the tests do not have any diffferencebetween the two. I don't know if
that's true or not. That couldbe an urban myth, but I've heard
that over and over again. Butthe issue is marijuana. And keep in
(16:10):
mind, marijuana is perfectly legal herein the state. Now. I can
see federal jobs fair enough, youknow, because marijuana is a Schedule one
drug federally speaking. And there's anargument of you don't want to be high
when you are using heavy machinery.Don't you love those little pill bottles?
(16:30):
Says do not, You may causedrowsiness. You don't drive heavy machinery.
I do that with Miambion where Ilook on my sleeping pill. Little bottle
is says, do not drive heavymachinery. This may cause drowsiness. That's
the whole point schmucks is to causedrowsiness. Excuse me. The point is
(16:52):
I understand the Feds. I evenunderstand. Well, I don't because if
it's lee, if marijuana is legal, cannabis is recreational. Cannabis is legal,
and you test positive because that staysfour I think a month in your
system that you can still determine whetherit's in your body or not. And
you only get high at night,you know, or you don't get high
(17:15):
during working hours? What do youdo with that? Hey, how would
they prove? How would they provewhen you were smoking? They don't,
They can't. All they do istest is it in your system? And
if you smoked last night or youtook a gummy last night, it's going
to show up. And it is. I mean, it is a mess.
(17:37):
So what do you do with that? And this is where employers are
trying to figure out how to goa lot of them just don't even care
about the marijuana park, the cannabispart. They just ignore that. Now,
testing for opioids, et cetera maybe a different issue. And so
when you're talking about safety and youare talking about issues of security, I
(17:59):
can understand that. Here's the problem. For example, there's no way to
test for alcohol. What if yougot screaming, falling down drunk the night
before, well, alcohol dissipates,they're going to tell you there A test
can't tell you. Breathalyzer, bloodtest is not going to tell you how
drunk someone is twelve hours later,fifteen twenty four hours later, it does
(18:19):
show up that you are testing formarijuana. So what's happening is people,
and they've always done this. They'llborrow someone's pee, they'll come inside.
I have heard of stories where yougo into the bathroom and they had a
little catheter and a bag that theytook someone's pee. Hey, would you
(18:41):
pee in this bag? Kind ofinteresting relationship you have to have with people
to do that. They may theyeven make a fake penis. Yeah,
because if you're being watched. Yeah, you know, they allowed to have
a full setup for that. Yeah, And a lot of people will use
it for other purposes those I don'teven want to go into that now.
(19:02):
No, no, no, that'snot what this is for. No,
it is not. But the pointis that people get caught, and this
story is about that cheating doing exactlythat has increased more than thirty percent in
the last few years because I primarilycannabis, and you just you know,
(19:25):
you smoke cannabis, you take agummy, you ingest cannabis. You still
work in But wait a minute,it's legal, so okay, I'll gain
the system fair enough, and guesswhat, they have ways of testing,
you know, for example, whenyou know, there you go using the
fake penis and you're trying to explainwhy you have two of them. It's
(19:48):
tough to explain two penises. Myissue was when I came to KFI,
they handed me that little jar andthey said urinate and I said thanks.
I always thought I was about afour. Okay, didn't you? I
got you? Do they do?Oh? I just it's a growner.
Do they do testing at KFI?No, I've never been drug testing.
(20:10):
I've never been drug tested either.Yeah. Matter of fact, I think
the argument if you're a drug ifyou are a talk show host, they
want you to be high on marijuanabecause you do a better show. I'm
sorry, we're gonna have to haveyou leave. You showed up sober.
That is correct, Okay, that'sa fun story. Cheating on drug tests,
(20:32):
It's been going on forever. It'sjust increasing dramatically. Hi, I'm
Jane Fonda. Welcome to the completeworkout. Get ready to change the step
now, Peter apart three four,march together two three four apart and lift
those knees together and swing your armsapart two three four, be together two
three four and apart two three fourtogether to Jane Fonda. Change right,
(20:57):
I'm gonna tell you the great shape. Boy. You talk about strong thighs.
What a step she must be.That's pretty impressive. Whoa, no,
no, nobody, Nope, nope, nope. I mean she's in
great shape. Yeah, I meanlook at her. Look at her thighs.
I mean they're incredible. I mean, now, I'm not gonna say
(21:22):
it. I was gonna go onestep for this. Oh yeah on this
one. This one would have gottenme in a little bit of trouble.
Although Amy would have laughed uproariously.So Amy, I'll tell you during the
break. Yeah, this is podcastmaterial. This is why we're going for
the podcast, so I can staystuff like that. Okay, Jane fondam
(21:47):
La County declared, Uh, you'reready for this. This is a bad
day to do this, h declaredJane Fonda day. And it makes sense
by the way. It has todo with her environmental active it has to
do with her charity work. Imean, she's had a lifetime of that
super liberalism. As you know,she's one of the big liberals out there,
(22:07):
always has been. But here's theproblem with Jane Fonda. Jane Fonda,
when she was in her twenties andjust an adamant opponent of the Vietnam
War early and massive, and tookher celebrity which a lot of celebrities do,
to mount her campaign or to addto the campaign fighting the Vietnam War.
(22:30):
Well, she at the invitation ofNorth Vietnam, enemies of the United
States at the time, went toNorth Vietnam, was photographed in North Vietnam,
went on radio in North Vietnam denouncingthe war, and in a move
that she has regretted her entire life, had her picture taken at a North
(22:52):
Vietnamese anti aircraft gun. Now Idon't know if it was used to shoot
down American flyers, but it mighthave been, and that cost her To
this day, Vietnam Vets and patrioticAmericans in many cases or people consider themselves
(23:14):
patriotic superpatriots, have never forgiven herfor it. She has apologized over and
over again. But out of theVietnam War, probably the greatest villain that
exists is Jane Fonda. And whilea lot of other people were given breaks,
even those who were adamantly in favorof the warst until the very last
(23:34):
second, they've all been given abreak historically not Jane Fonda. So that's
one problem. The other problem isthey chose, the county chose April thirtieth,
which is the day that celebrates orremembers the fall of Saigone, and
(23:57):
for the Vietnamese community, it iseffectively the worst day that they have ever
had. It's like the Holocaust MemorialService, the day the Holocaust is memorialized.
The Armenian Holocaust is memorialized in theArmenian community, and this is that
important to the Vietnamese community. Andoops, so we have some Vietnamese legislators,
(24:23):
assembly people, certainly people in localpolitics. Orange County, by the
way, it's Orange County, Ithink specifically has the largest population of Vietnamese
outside of Vietnam. I mean twohundred and fifty thousand Vietnamese in southern California
and so La County, which hasa huge number of Vietnamese. It makes
(24:45):
sense to honor it, honor theday the fall of Saigone as a very
solemn not a holiday, but verysolemn day. And you can't choose that
day to honor Jane Fonda. Doesn'twork. Now, the county supervisors were
told in no uncertain terms two things. That's not the day. And two
(25:07):
you rescind the proclamation. They didn'tdo that. They have changed the date,
however, and they said it wasan accident. No one thought it
through, no one can, noone put it together. So I'm going
to give La County Supervisors, whichI really do, a pass on this
one. Then the other issue,which I think is a bigger issue,
(25:29):
because I think that's a day thatgot mixed up. No one thought it
through. Okay, they moved itimmediately to April thirtieth. Now the issue
of Jane Fond today, and atsome point, this was forty nine years
ago. At some point you givesomeone a pass who has apologized over and
over again. So you know,I don't know how you feel about it.
(25:55):
She was known to this day stillknown as Hanoi Jane by many veterans
of the Vietnam Vietnam War. Andyou know, this is my generation,
and so you know I've known andI do know people who did fight in
the war. Boy, I'll tellyou across the board, Jane Fonda is
(26:18):
not a fond memory of what happened. Kf I am six forty live everywhere
on the iHeartRadio app. You've beenlistening to The Bill Handle Show. Catch
My Show Monday through Friday six amto nine am, and anytime on demand
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