BHS - 7A – Californians Less Likely to Vote | Selling ADUs as Starter Homes

Californians less likely to vote because they don’t like presidential candidates, poll shows. This California City is letting owners sell ADUs as starter homes. Will it be a housing revolution? California is finally awash in water, but our farmers can’t get it. Amazon has upended the streaming ad market, and Netflix is paying the price.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
You're listening to Bill Handle on demandfrom KFI AM six forty. You are
listening to the Bill Handle Show onKFI AM six forty on a Monday morning,
June seventeen. The election, thepresidential election is quickly moving towards US,

(00:27):
and of course the polls are comingout. It seems like every day
there is there certainly will be apoll, a presidential poll coming up as
we get closer to the election.And when you hear polls are overall general
polls seventy seven percent. Trump isahead, Doe Biden is close and within

(00:50):
the margin of air. And thereality is no one should pay attention to
those polls. They really do nothing. What matters is which way the battle
ground states are going to go,which are not overwhelming, because the whole
point of the battleground states is thatcan go either way. And because we
have an electoral college, you havesmall states that could literally turn it around

(01:15):
by just a very few electoral votes. Okay, so here's a poll.
How unusual. It just came outby UC Berkeley. It was released last
Friday, a couple of days ago. And this has to do with California
because this is in La Times articlethat talked about Californians and Californians, well,

(01:37):
it's like a lot of the restof the country. First of all,
your vote in California really doesn't matter, although you have to vote simply
as a matter of exercising your franchise. You are an American citizen. It
is your duty to vote. Wewere the first democracy, modern democracy in
the world, and vote is critical. The first most important thing that we

(02:01):
have is your ability to vote.So you got to go out and vote.
Now does it matter in California.Absolutely not. California is so overwhelmingly
Democrat that it doesn't matter. TheDemocratic nominee is going to win, even
to the point where in twenty sixteen, even though I vote every time,
mine was a rite in because Iknew Hillary Clinton was going to get the
nomination. We're going to get thevotes in California. So I actually wrote

(02:23):
in Harambi, the dead gorilla whodied that year in the Cincinnati Zoo when
he mauled he remember, he grabbedthat little kid and threw him around,
and so they had to euthanize Harambeand he became internationally famous because he was
playing football with that little kid.You know, throwing him up in the
air, catching him. It wasvery distressing. In any case, Harambi

(02:46):
the dead gorilla was my choice MickeyMouse among many tens of thousands. Also
the battleground states, and this isnot unusual the way people feel and the
way that people we are going tovote. Is anybody in favor of Joe
Biden, anybody excited about Joe Biden. No, Like many other candidates and

(03:10):
presidentials, you vote for the personyou hate the least. Other than maga
Republicans who think Donald Trump is thereincarnation of Jesus Christ and he is there
to save us. Short of thatgroup, and there aren't that many the
rest of us are thinking. AmI excited about Joe Biden? Absolutely not,

(03:35):
absolutely not. Are Democrats excited aboutJoe Biden? Nope? Are Republicans
other than those maga Republicans, arethey excited about Donald Trump? Absolutely not.
So what is what are the issues? Well, the big one with
Joe Biden's too old. Then youhave those that are fairly liberal think that

(03:58):
Joe Biden screwed the proof with theborder, because any restriction on the border
somehow is immortal. Let's say openhands. Then the way he is dealing
with Israel because there are very fewRepublicans Conservatives who think are who are in
favor of the Gaza Guzzins, thatis, Hamas and the Palestinians and Gaza

(04:25):
that somehow well, we know,Joe Biden is as old as dirt.
And even though Donald Trump, whois seventy seven, if it weren't for
Joe Biden, they'd be talking aboutage with a seventy seven year old like
crazy. But for Joe Biden.Donald Trump is the oldest nominee for president
we've ever had, and Joe Bidenbeing four years older, and so people

(04:49):
perceive Biden as being substantially over andformer President Trump being substantially younger. That's
true. Joe Biden comes off likean older man. He shuffles, he
talks very slowly. He has alot of trouble putting words together. But

(05:12):
keep in mind the guy overcame stuttering, so really and people don't talk about
that, and he's not a particularlygood order. Donald Trump is a horrible
raditor, ordor orator. Huh.Easy for me to say, everything is
beautiful, everything is terrific. I'mgoing to make America great again. I
mean the platitudes are ridiculous, justridiculous. And yet those who believe in

(05:38):
Donald Trump take every word that hesays as a sermon on the mount.
And I don't think I'm exaggerating withthat one. I really don't. You
know, I tend to be hyperbolic. I mean that's what I do.
By the way, I'm hyperbolic inlife. I mean, people ask you,
Neil Amy, what is Bill like? You know off the air?

(05:59):
Is there any difference? Zero?Zero? Amy? Is there anydifference?
Yeah, yeah, it's a fewwords are different. I use the word
freaking instead of the appropriate word.I use the word crap instead of the
appropriate word. Kono is actually pointinghis finger at me and telling me to

(06:19):
be careful because all of us wanta job. We want to come back
tomorrow without the FAA shutting down theshow. I get that, But once
again, who do you not wantto vote for? I think the last
person there was excitement among Democrats wasObama. Their genuine excitement for a candidate

(06:40):
during the twenty sixteen Hillary and Trump? Who was hated the most? Now
who is hated the most? Shortof short of the mag Republicans? JFK.
Do you know that John F.Kennedy. Everybody is every but he

(07:00):
voted for him in the country.You know that, don't you? Everybody?
Oh yeah, I voted. Whowas old enough to voted? Oh
yeah, I voted for him.You know, the guy won by one
hundred thousand votes. And all ofthose votes came from Cook County cemetery.
They were all dead people that Bailey, who was the mayor, came up

(07:21):
with. But now, once jfkbecame president, there was genuine excitement.
But we don't have genuine excitement atleast we don't have anybody else at this
point. There's no one. Wellthat's the other thing. I could talk
about Biden all day long, howhe screwed the pooch, his megalomania,
instead of stepping down and saying I'mgetting a little bit too old. Oh

(07:44):
no, no, no, no, I'm I. It's important for me
because I personally am the only personthat can really run the country. Well
doesn't stop. So anyway, you'regonna see more polls all over the place.
You got to vote, even thoughin California it doesn't matter. We're
gonna have a lot of propositions thosematter, and you're going to see all
the money being spent in the battlegroundstates, which really pisses off iHeart here

(08:09):
in Los Angeles. Why because itdoesn't matter. The presidential doesn't matter.
You know, you go to NewHampshire, for example, you go to
a battleground state state, you cannotbuy TV or radio ads. They're all
sold out. In the meantime,we're scrambling for ads here. You know,

(08:33):
are we I think we're doing.Are we at doing prosthetic arms for
people who lost their arms in acar accident? We gone to that point
yet? Probably not? Okay.Now, I've been talking a lot about
ADUs. These buildings, these housesthat are on your lot, if you
have enough room, you're allowed tobuild this additional housing. And it's usually

(08:56):
they're called mother in law flefts andtheir houses. They have bathrooms, they
have kitchens. They're allowed to bebuilt by law. State law says,
local ordinances you cannot stop them frombeing built. And so they're being built
like crazy. So there's a moveto sell them. As a matter of
fact, every state other than Californiaallows people to buy ADUs. Now,

(09:22):
I'm gonna bring you get a questionto you that actually there's a very clever
answer to which I didn't think ofuntil I picked this story up, and
that is, when you buy anADU, you're not buying the land.
The land is owned by the homeowner, so you're only buying the building.

(09:46):
And that gets a little problematic becausewho wants to buy a house, even
a small one, in which youdon't own the land. When you buy
a home, you think you ownthe land. I mean, that's just
the way we think. And thishas a lot to do. And the
answer about ADUs and the push isit simply it makes housing number one more

(10:09):
affordable and more readily available. Lastnight I was at a dinner. I
had to crash it because everybody nobodyever invites me to dinner. But the
conversation was the cost of housing.How anybody in their twenties, people in
their thirties, how do you afforda down payment? Much less qualify million
dollar house is very common. That'sthe median price here in southern California or

(10:33):
the Bay Area. That's a twohundred thousand dollars down payment and a mortgage.
Who the hell in their twenties hasa two hundred thousand dollars down payment
when you're buying a house, andif you're putting down less than that,
your mortgage is unaffordable. I mean, no one, it's almost impossible.
So these ADUs are clearly an answerallowing people to buy them because they're half

(10:56):
the price or less than that.Now they're smaller, that's one of the
reasons they're cheaper. But land costsare zero. So how does this work?
How does someone buy an adu orsell an adu and overcome the rental
aspect or overcome the ownership aspect ofthe property. And you know what they're

(11:20):
doing. They're creating a condominium associationwith two properties on it. One the
homeowner to the ADU and a condominium. All the homeowners own all the land.

(11:41):
Condominiums. Let's say there's thirty twounits, you own one thirty second
of the property. And so here'san answer. And now you're talking about
the taxes are split. You're talkingabout the maintenance of even the guy who

(12:01):
mows the lines, which I've nevermowed my lawn in my life, so
I have no idea. You knowhow much money you paid for a lot
guy who mows the lot of gardeners. I'm not even going to go into
that because I will immediately be calleda complete racist. It is actually a
clever idea. So why are theyout there? Why is it becoming more
and more, more and more numberone available and more prevalent. Well,

(12:24):
because people can go into those homesthat they're smaller. That's a little bit
problematic. Actually they go from avery low of six hundred square feet,
so effectively it is an apartment upto twelve hundred square feet. Is the
average now a twelve hundred square foothome. I mean, look out the
window here. If you were heresitting in this studio, which I'll never

(12:45):
let you do, if you werehere sitting in the studio and looked out
the window. We have homes herein Burbank which started a million dollars and
twelve hundred square feet is considered aneither average too above average size home.
These two bedrooms, one bath homeson swall lots. Can you imagine a
million dollars? I mean, it'sjust breathtaking. If I told you this

(13:11):
was going to happen twenty years ago, you would sit and you would think
I'm out of my mind. Sothat is the answer, and that's what's
being pushed. There's a bill nowin the works to do exactly that,
allow the property become a condominium setup an HOA, have an HOA board

(13:33):
consisting of two people, because there'stwo homes on the property, an HOA
president, which should be one ofthem. The board votes two people,
two owners, and that seems tobe the answer. Now a couple other
things are happening with these ADUs,this little apartment, if you will,

(13:56):
this little unit in the backyard.Most people do for family members. That's
the vast majority, because they can'tbe condominius because you can't buy them.
And a lot of elderly people doit for a couple of reasons. If
they can sell an ADU, thenit really helps the retirement, their retirement

(14:16):
package. And a lot of elderlypeople, you know, the kids are
gone, they don't want the maintenance, They move into the ADU and they
sell the home and homeowners are well. It certainly helps because their property taxes

(14:39):
are going to go down. Itmakes a lot of sense to do this.
So you'll see more and more ofthis if this bill goes through,
and I think it's going to.I think it's going to now. Right
now, the City and County ofLa have not taken formal steps to implement
AB ten thirty three. That isa state law, and at this point

(15:03):
you can't create a condominium. Localordinances stop that from happening, and state
law does not mandate a homeowner fordoing that or mandates a local city ordinance
from stopping it like they do thebuilding of an adu. Okay, by

(15:24):
the way, the other law isthat you can't stop a solar system going
in. Do you know that understatelaw if you have a h o A
that says no, or in mycase, when I put in my solar
system, my son luck system,the HOA needs to okay it, but

(15:46):
under state law they have to okayit. And we went round and round
on that one because the city needsthe city automatically gives you the permit,
but you need a permit under theHOA, but they can't say no,
so the city won't even accept atHOA ok And we went round and round

(16:10):
and the president of the HOA said, just put it up, leave it
alone. You know you got thepermit from the city, forget about the
HOA. So there's all kinds oflaws that apply that are in contradiction of
each other between local and state.But it all boils down to more housing,
more housing available for more people.Now California is no longer officially in

(16:32):
drought. Actually California is. Imean, we are a wash good word
in water after all of this droughtbecause of well, we finally got it
because there's huge rains. Great newsright for farmers Wrongo Bongo. There's one
guy who sells equipment for plowing fields. It goes I'll be lucky if I

(16:53):
survive. WHOA, we're talking aboutthe farmers in the Central Valley. This
is the fruit and vegetable basket ofAmerica. They're going to get forty percent
of the federal water they're supposed tothis year. How is that when we've
got more water than we ever haveor we have in decades. Well,
endangered fish, particularly the smelt,the Delta smelt. Now there's a point,

(17:21):
and I'm listen. I'm a hugeenvironmentalist. Actually I'm not, but
I pretend to be so people thinkthat I am. I don't give a
rats about the environment. But letme tell you what's going on. For
those of you that do care.Let me tell you what happens the pumps
that transport water from northern California tothe south have been drastically slowed down to

(17:42):
protect migrating smelt, also steelhead,which means growers in the richest farming area
in California and the country are plantingfewer crops even though there's more water.
This is the decision by the USBReclamation and California officials. They can and

(18:03):
they can't help it because this isfederal law. They have to cut water
because of these fish. Now Hereis the problem with the environmentalists. You
can go a little bit too far, and they're saying, this little tiny
fish is more important than the farmersand the citizens or the residents of the

(18:29):
people who eat food. Oh no, we've got to save these smelt come
hell or high water. And you'vegot farmers, you got other people going,
wait a minute, come on,really, I mean, at some
point does it matter that you've gota fish that goes in extinct. I
don't care. By the way,can you eat smelt? Neil is smelt

(18:55):
edible? I don't listen. Here'smy theory. It's about three inches long.
I don't know, but if itwas delicious, nobody would care if
it went extinct. So it's probablynot very tasty. Yeah, but it's
important that that it doesn't go ininstinct, even though if you're not going
to be eating a lot. TheCentral Valley top producer of almonds, pistachios,

(19:18):
tomatoes and more. Boy, it'sbeen hard hit and science and we
know there's a strong correlation between localpoverty and available water. John Harris's chairman
of Harris Farm, says every dropof water creates jobs. So record rain
and snow this last year allowed farmersto receive their full allotment of federal water

(19:42):
last year. Guess what not thisyear? The Bureau of Reclamation originally forecast
only a fifteen percent water allocation inFebruary and move it up the forty percent,
which means you're sixty We're still sixtypercent off. And it is just

(20:02):
this god awful mess where you havefederal regulations and the environmentalists have prevailed.
Remember the snail darter, that littletiny fish. There's a great story about
the snail darter. So there wasa bridge, there was a dam being
built that somehow was going to getin the way of snail darters moving from
a to b some kind of migration. So they put several hundred million dollars

(20:26):
into this dam. The environmentalists suedand stopped the dam because the snail darters
were only going down that particular rivertributary where the dam was stop. The
colt lawsuits. FED said no,it's going to be an endangered species list.

(20:47):
And so now hikers a third ofa mile away discover a tributary that
is so filled with stale darters theycan't walk along, can't walk across the
tributary because they're going to be steppingon the number of sailed darters stopping the

(21:07):
bridge was ridiculous. There are plenty. They didn't know it. They didn't
see him, granted, but comeon, guys, at some point,
people eating, farmers, people workingon the farms. It's estimated that forty
thousand jobs over the last three yearshave been lost. Smelts are edible,

(21:32):
well, any fish is edible,but whether they're taste or not. They
say that they're actually low in caloriesand fat, high in protein, and
are tasty. There you go,and they're critical to our our food system
because we have to have those smelts. I mean, smelts are a lot
more important than every fruit and vegetablethat has grown in the Central Valley.

(21:55):
Yay, smelt, let's hear itfor the smelts. Whoever smelts it,
delts it right there you go.It's a smelta in the delta. Yeah,
we're gonna get there. We haveto figure all that out. But
the bottom line is these people arenuts and the Bureau of Reclamation can't do
anything because it's federal law, andmaybe it's time to sort of undo some

(22:18):
of the laws. Of course,the environmentalists will be fighting it all over
the place. You know, I'dlove to see as a group of environmentalists
stopping food trucks that are delivering foodto southern California. I mean literally on
the road and those trucks simply runningover them. That's all taking them out.

(22:44):
It's not gonna happen unless I wasdriving a truck. The world of
the streaming platforms has gone to hellin a handbasket. Why is that because
these heretofore free streaming, well,free programming, free ad free is what

(23:07):
I meant. Where you watch amovie, you watch a TV show,
and you don't have the stupid commercialsas most commial not all are stupid,
but you know it's in all ofa sudden, you have commercials on Netflix.
Amazon has just gotten into it.Amazon has just ruined it for everybody.
Why because Amazon is the big gorillaand they have now entered the fray

(23:32):
of ads on the platform. Now, what is that to do with Netflix
or Hulu? Well, because Amazonis so big, it is selling ads.
All the other ads have collapsed intheir ability to sell in price.
Now in the world of television adsand this is the same advertisers by TV,

(23:55):
by internet all right, they chargeper thousand viewers. And it used
to be thirty five to fifty bucksper thousand impressions, just to give you
an idea. Now it's twenty fivethirty dollars. They're just not making as
much money. Why because Amazon isstarting to put not banner ads, but

(24:18):
commercials. You go to Amazon andthere you have a commercial. Like podcasts,
now have commercials top bottom, inthe middle. Yeah, I mean
it used to be podcasts. We'rejust podcasts. You would listen to them.
I'd listen to them top to bottom. And now there's something called advertising
creep, commercial creep, And sohow do you get away from that?

(24:40):
Well, what Amazon is doing,Well, you're gonna have commercials on Amazon
come hell or high water because it'srevenue and someone figured out in there.
Or we can make just a boatloadof money Netflix and the other streaming Disney
plus etc. If you pay anadditional in the case of Netflix three bucks

(25:00):
a month, you can buy premiumso you don't have commercials in the programming.
Can you imagine a Netflix, aNetflix TV show or movie where you
have commercials? What's the world comingto the humanity of it? Oh?
The humanity? It drives me completelycrazy. So now that there ads,

(25:23):
how do the other streaming platforms competewith Amazon? Well, they are not
only selling their commercials, but theywant to put product placement into the shows,
which means what, Well, you'vegot Coca Cola ad, an ad
for Coca Cola, and in theepisode there's a can of coke on the

(25:49):
screen. Apple does this all thetime with the Apple computers. Most of
the time when you see a laptop, it's an Apple laptop, sometimes generic
nothing on there. Now does Applepay for that? I don't even know.
I'm assuming they pay something for it. Early on, No, as
a matter of fact, it wasthey may now, but early on what

(26:11):
Mac did is gave them away toschools and gave them away to use.
Okay, and then then okay,fair enough, So there was some value
to that. Now, product placementis all over the place. You use
whatever product and put it into theprogramming itself. I mean, they're having
a difficult time with feminine hygiene productsin terms of using them on the screen.

(26:33):
I understand that, but they're probablygoing to get around that at some
point. And here's what the advertisershave found is that if you have a
commercial for a product and you havean in placement in the show following very
shortly thereafter, it turbos the saleand the strength of the impression far more

(26:57):
than would otherwise be. In otherwords, it takes the ad and adds
a whole lot more umph to thead, and that year going to see
more and more total placement. Andit drives people completely nuts. Man,
I don't care. I have coke, you know, and they say the
same thing. Uh. During inthe ad there's a coke, you'll have

(27:19):
the announcer go, uh is pepsi? Okay? And they sell to Pepsi.
By the way, I asked await I asked a female waitress person
the other day when I was orderinga die of coke for dinner and I
and it was is pepsi okay?And I go, does anybody ever ask

(27:40):
for pepsi? Or do you haveto say? Is pepsi okay? And
she's been working at this restaurant foryears. I asked her and she said,
no one has ever asked for pepsi. They always ask for coke,
but never pepsi. Is pepsi okakf IM six forty live everywhere on the

(28:02):
iHeartRadio app. You've been listening tothe Bill Handle Show. Catch my Show
Monday through Friday, six am tonine am, and anytime on demand on
the iHeartRadio app