August 29, 2024 • 24 mins
Yelp is suing Google, alleging abuse of position to dominate local search. LA County has spent millions to recruit more court reporters, so why is the shortage dragging on? Pay your rent, get 2% cash back: landlords join the rewards craze.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listenings KFI AM six forty the bill Handle show
on demand on the iHeartRadio app KFI.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
AM six forty bill handle.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Here it is a Thursday morning, August twenty nine.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Some of the stories we're looking at.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Kamala Harris and Tim Wall sit down today with CNN's
Dana Bash for their first joint interview since the campaign started.
And at this point, if you look at the polls,
Kamala Harris and Donald Trump now locked in a very
close race across the seven key swing states.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
And that's the statistic I want to look at. The
rest of it is crap.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
It's those same swing states that are determined the presidency.
And if you go to Israel, another high profile militant
killed in a raid in the West Bank.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
So this conflict doesn't seem to be slowing down.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Oh also quick reminder that my podcast, which is a
bit up for a month or two, is now drops
two day every Tuesday and Thursday at nine o'clock and
it's on Spotify, it's on Apple, it's on the iHeartRadio app.
And today it's all about organ donation before and after
(01:12):
you die.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
It's good after, it's good before.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
I'm a big fan obviously, as is Neil because with
his kidney he is.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
The recipient of an organ donation.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
With his kidney, he now can pee with complete impunity,
pe with impunity.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
It's today.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
It drops at nine o'clock and you can go to
the Bill handleshow podcast dot com also lawsuits a plenty,
and this one happens to do with Google.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Google is being sued by Yelp.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
So let's start with how prevalent Google is, how much
of the market share? I mean, I talked last segment
about Kroger being not so much being sued but being
accused of price gouging, and that was a FTC hearing
that was had and Kamala Harris is saying it's got
(02:13):
price gouging, price couching, and the government comes in.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
You have too much of the market. How much of
the market.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Share do you think Google has as a search engine
in the nineties, in the nineties, and you talk about
a company being so prevalent that the term Google has
now become a verb. Even when you go on another
search engine, for example, bing, do you say I'm going
(02:42):
to bing it?
Speaker 2 (02:44):
No, No one says that.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
But if you have to look something up, what's the
first thing you say, look it up on Google, Go
google it.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
I mean that's just by default that happens.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Some people might even say google Google. I don't know.
Maybe that's true.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Well, by the way, Google is a mathematical term. How
many zeros is a Google? I think that's where they
came up with it.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
You've got the actual number Google?
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Yeah, I think Google is. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
It's like a bazillion, bazillion, quadrazillion.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
I don't even know what that is. I sort of
lose it. A trillion.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
What comes after trillion? I don't even know there's something
that does. I'm diverging for.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
A bit, but Google, it's followed by one hundred zeros?
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Okay, So well, thank you, kono. So what what is
the term before Google? What do you do after? What's
after trillion? Boy, this is a good story about the lawsuit.
Huh tell me, we're not going to go in another
segment with this one.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
But I'm just curious.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
You've got you know, you've got million, you got one
hundred million, you have a billion, you have trillion.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
After that, somewhere there's gazillion.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
I don't even know where was I lawsuit there it
was Wow, I diverge, all right. So yesterday YELP sue's
Google accusing it of abusing its dominant position. Bohy, they're
not certainly understand understating its position dominant position to boost
its bottom line and stifle competition in local markets. Now,
(04:34):
this is an accusation that I think is fairly legitimate
because this is what is considered predatory business practices in Europe.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Corporations do not do well. This is why the finds
in Europe.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Against Amazon, for example, are just ridiculously high, because Europe
really believes in the concept of predatory business practices. We
do too, but the b is so high. What companies
can do are absolutely astounding.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
So here's what I want to do.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
I don't come back talk about the lawsuit, what it's about.
And Amazon was accused of this too, And this is
what happens when you have big, big time corporations that
not only sell their own product, sell their own services,
but also are so dominant they can tamp down competitors
(05:28):
that you can't do. And of course Google is saying
we didn't do it, not us. Don't look at us.
We're in compliance with everything. Now, welcome to America where
if you're in business, you want to be as dominant
as you can. You want to boost your bottom line
(05:49):
as much as you can. I've been in business for
a whole, long, long time, and gee, I wake up
in the morning, I kind of want this to happen.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Now. What I'm not supposed to do, and this is not.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Me because I've obviously never been in this position, is
I'm not allowed to stifle competition. And what Help is
saying is you Google, take your position, and you're stifling
our ability to do business unfairly. It's an anti trust
lawsuit and accused of Google of using its general search
(06:24):
monopoly because, as you know, just Google anything and everything.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
It's become a.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Verb and it controls local search and local search advertising markets.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
That's what the accusation.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Putting Google's own products ahead of competitors in this case
help preventing businesses from reaching customers without paying the company,
starving competitors of traffic revenue that would allow them to compete.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
When I go to Google, I mean, how many pop
ups do you get? And the ads are all sponsored? Right,
the first ten ads are spawned. If I click the
wrong thing, I'm into one of their sponsored ads. Matter
of fact, to get a real search on Google and
other platforms is not easy to do, Neil, how often
(07:13):
have you gone or and how often have you gone
done a Google search looking.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
For a product or anything?
Speaker 4 (07:21):
If you're going through Google all the time, all the time,
and what comes up, whether you like, I see it.
But I got to tell you that when it comes
to Google versus Yelp, by use them both together.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Okay, but Yelp is saying what you're doing is you're
bypassing us. That's the problem. You're not making it fair.
We're back behind and Yelp, I mean it makes sense.
I mean how many of us go to yelp. That's
the other thing I can't stand Yelp and how many
people actually rely on Yelp.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
I think Yelp has its place, as does Google. You
have to you have to look through it and take
the time and not just take it for granted. Because
I have been some places that get bad Yelp reviews
that are wonderful, but they may not be the you know,
hippist that may be a mom and pop place or
something like that. So you have to use them as
(08:17):
a guide, but not as a definitive as to something
being good or not. Why didn't they like it? Was
it the atmosphere you get bad, you.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Have to eliminate.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Most of the people are fives and the the restaurants whatever.
I use them for restaurants.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
Obviously, I'm going to yelp even on Google if I
want to see a Yelp response.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
I don't.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
It's not about whether Google comes up for me first
or not. I'm looking at both of.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Them, but it does come up here. Here's the issue.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
If you put yourself first by default on your search engine,
then that does stifle competitors Amazon, for example, Amazon products
come up first, and even if you are going let's
say you're looking.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
For a walk. I bought a walk recently on Amazon right,
and it took me.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
I don't know how many searches I had to go down.
I don't know eight ten different versions of the walk
before I actually found one that was not Amazon sponsored.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
I can tell you when you dominate, you dominate.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
And is that fair well with Amazon if you have competitors.
If you have someone coming in and selling on Amazon
and their number eight or nine automatically by default, and
you can't get.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Anywhere near the top.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
And that's because Amazon or any company puts their own
products first. That argument is that's predatory pricing as predatory practices.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
That's what this loose lawsuit is all about.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
By the way, this federal judge that just ruled in
October that Google does exploit its market share, does exploit
its dominance to stomp out competitors or certainly weaken them.
That didn't help Google at all at Blue open lawsuits
like crazy, and you're gonna see this happening.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
See when it comes to when it comes to companies.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Like Amazon and Google, they are so dominant that they
have the ability to stomp out other products or at
least make.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
It very difficult to compete.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
It's not a fair It is not a fair playing field.
It's not a level playing field. Now, just because the
company is huge, that's fine, that's great, But it shouldn't
be huge and be able to make sure competitors don't
come near it just based on their size.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
That's the problem.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
They should do it on their prices, which is great.
If an Amazon product is five bucks less than a
regular product is sold. Amazon decides to get into the business, okay,
they decide to make their own walks and they're going
to sell them ten bucks less.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Couldn't care less. But if that other walk is number
twelve down the list and it's done there purposely, that's
a problem.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
It sure is scary, isn't it that kind of you know,
because of the Internet, you have the these these storefronts
have become more than that. Google is more than just
a search engine, and it is scary as to what
they can date you.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Yeah, it is. You know.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
It's like these dating sites where you say you have
a dating site that is so dominant controls the entire market.
It can say you, if you don't pay us enough money,
we're simply going to hook you up with ugly people.
And it doesn't you have no say it's only ugly
(11:51):
people that you're going to date.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Did that work on a legal level?
Speaker 4 (11:57):
You should start your own dating a little app it.
I think that'd be great.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Uh yeah, Now, I once tried taking an ad out
before I got married.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
I refuse.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
I will never walk on a beach under the moonlight.
I will never give anybody flowers. I do not believe
in romantic music. I hate jazz. I enjoy nothing. I
got no responses, it's all listen.
Speaker 4 (12:29):
Coming from the marketing background here at the station, I
would have if I were you said, lovable dog looking
for home.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Uh you got it?
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Okay, now, uh, you are not making enough money, right?
Have you ever thought of being a court reporter?
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Hmm?
Speaker 1 (12:50):
You know those people that sit in the courtroom or
at depositions and they have that magical little typewriter thing
that's about as big as it looks like a shoe box,
and it has weird lettering, it's like hieroglyphics. Well, what
they do court reporters stenographers as they listen to whatever's
going on in quarter a depositions and they just write
(13:10):
it down.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
And you have to have those if you're going to appeal.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
You don't necessarily have to have them in a court
during a trial or whatever, but if you're going to
appeal a case without them, you're done. There is a
shortage of court reporters, and it's being called a constitutional
crisis by LA County courts. Why because there ain't enough
in them, or there ain't enough of them. There are
(13:37):
simply not enough delays in civil cases, no verbatim record,
and as I said, almost impossible to appeal outcomes.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Actually it is impossible to appeal. So what are they
trying to do. We need new hires.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
We're gonna give signing bonuses for people that stay. How
about student loan repayments? How about equipment allowances? Those little
boxes cost about two thousand bucks? So why would you
consider it? Well, let's start talking about your base pay
as a court reporter. Fifty thousand dollars to ninety two
(14:13):
thousand dollars depending on if you're right.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Out of school. You started fifty. But let me tell
you how quickly that goes up, because if you.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Look at full time court reporters, you know what the
average income is one hundred and twenty five thousand dollars
a year.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Okay, now we're talking real money. Also, it's kind of fun.
I mean I've gone I've been in trials several times before.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
I said it was a was it? It was a
sort of want to be legal show on another radio
station at one point I don't want to mention any names.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
KBC, and they.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
They had a guy who was a lawyer and he
ripped into me constantly, and and you say, you know,
handle's never been even in a courtroom.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
And I resent.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
That so much because I have been five times I've
gone to trial. Of course I was the defendant each time,
but that is incidental to the story.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
By the way, that's true.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
So I have sat in court and you if you
ever want some entertainment, go to a courtroom, because it's
a you know, we have a.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Country that is it's open courtrooms. Man.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
You will see some stuff and hear some stuff that
is just stunningly brilliant, horrible entertaining court reporters.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
You know when a court reporter is.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Brand new, when all of a sudden someone says the
thing and the eyes go up, widen up, go what
they're not supposed to do? That The point of this
story is that there aren't enough and this is really
really bad stuff because court reporters are so in important
(16:00):
to the judicial system. Criminal trials you have to have
a court reporter. There some civil trials, you don't. All
felony criminal trials, all juvenile trials, you have to have
a court reporter. You've got misdemeanor cases and fraction cases
that you can use electronic recordings.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Now this is kind of new.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
This is when court reporters aren't mandated, then thousands of
people are left without a verbatim record.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
So here's what happens.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
There's another way of reporting court reporters do, and that's electronically,
and it's kind of interesting. What they do is they
basically set up a microphone and their license to say,
it's on your honor, you can now talk actually not
(16:51):
really much about it, but there is a machine with
keys on it and speaking into a device and then
I mean someone to oversee that works. It's like the
voice recognition software. But it's really old school. It takes
a couple of years to learn court reporting. By the way,
you got to take a course, I mean, there's no
way around it, and then you have to take a test,
(17:14):
which is no joke.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
I mean it is.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
I mean, imagine this law school is three years, and
then there's the state bar. Scenography course is a couple
of years, and then you have to take a test.
So you know, but if you're making one hundred and
fifty thousand dollars a year, you're better off being a
(17:38):
snographer than becoming a lawyer. Lawyers just don't do that, well,
not anymore.
Speaker 4 (17:44):
Does a court reporter would like if they were doing
it for this show, would they have to type in
slurping noises.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
Yes, turns off my cough.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Yes like that, Yes, that's exactly they I've been coughing
like crazy, I mean out of control coughing and at
the same but I'm turning off the mon so you
can't tell.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
Oh, I just turned off the mic.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
The thirty seconds of silence.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
But yeah, I know, I've just today, I'm just coughing
my brains out and I have and I'm not.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
I didn't even eat it for Tata with top of
Teo sauce on it.
Speaker 4 (18:15):
The exciting thing is the sales department is going to
start selling your sneezes. Like the silence there, We're going
to start putting in commercial spots.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Oh yeah, I mean they were long enough.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
This slurp brought to you by Yeah eleven.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
Yeah, that's actually the big slurp. So get ye to
court reporting school. You can make a pretty good buck
and they need. It's not like you're going to have
to look around to get hired either. I mean, this
is instantaneous hiring. It's one of those things where the
only analogy is at the top of the high tech boom,
(18:50):
you could literally go from one job and walk across
the street and get fifty percent more money. It's that
bad with court reporting. Okay. And by the way, for
it's expensive as health. You've ever been in litigation, ever
been in depositions? And you pay for a court reporter,
it's like one thousand dollars a day. I mean it's
(19:11):
crazy or more.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
No, it's expensive stuff to have a court reporter. It's
expensive stuff to go to litigation. I'll tell you what's
not expensive is listening to me Saturday mornings eight to
eleven o'clock Handle on the Law.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
That's free.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
But I must tell you if you do listen to
Handle on the Law for marginal legal advice, which is free,
you're overpaying across the board. Now, frequent flyer miles. Actually
you've got the craze of rewards. I happen to like rewards.
I'm not a big fan of cash back cards because
(19:46):
that money sort of disappears. My thing is frequent flyer
miles as rewards for using my credit cards because I travel, as.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
You know, a fair amount.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
And I just like the idea of upgrades because money
not that it's not valuable, but it's the end of
the year.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
It's not quite the same because I get it in increments,
So for me, it's miles.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Let me tell you what's going on with landlords across
the country. They have joined the craze for rewards, credit
card style incentives like two percent cash back or points
for home goods or gift cards. They're about a dozen
commercial companies out there steak in Senko Pinata, where I
(20:28):
guess you get to beat up a Pinata saying this
is a big benefit for landlords because people in these
programs are much more likely to renew a lease even
if the rent goes up. I mean, one of these companies, Pinata,
is they're claiming an extraordinary.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Re rental number.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
For example, they're saying that ninety seven percent of their
people sign up. Again, I'm talking about the renters versus
sixty five percent in the general market. Now, I must
tell you this is a national story. It is not
Southern California. Although the reward business is going to come
to you, a lot of it has to do in
places where even though there's a shortage in our case,
(21:15):
there's a shortage of all rental property and a lot
of the country the landlords are still struggling and they're
throwing out these rewards.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Okay, it's not gonna happen here, except.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
That it's good for keeping people in property and that
seems to be the magic here.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
So do you rent because of rewards coming out?
Speaker 1 (21:42):
No? No, except a lot of people do. And here
is one of the big reasons is because rent is
so expensive. You know, over half the people that rent
in this country pay more than fifty percent of their income.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
I mean, that is completely crazy.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
You should only pay a third huh, those days are gone,
should only pay a third for your mortgage, should only
pay a third for your rent. For those of you
that are making fifty thousand dollars or sixty thousand dollars
a year, you shouldn't pay more than twenty thousand dollars
a year in rent.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
And how much is that? Eighteen hundred bucks a month.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Yeah, so that's not gonna happen, but be prepared for
rewards coming up. And they make money on it because
it's a lot cheaper than giving people discounts.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
That's the other thing. It sort of fools you.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
You get into a credit card because of the cash back.
Where you get into a credit card because in my case,
the miles, is.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
It a good deal?
Speaker 1 (22:40):
No? Not particularly, but you know what's kind of nice
to have it? Yeah, just there it is. Your miles
are in your pocket. I go ooh, I get to upgrade.
And it only costs me what two hundred thousand dollars
worth of goods I have to buy, so at the
end of the year, I'm buying much much more.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
All Right, we're done, guys, coming up Handle on the Law.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
First of all, don't forget the podcast which drops in
just a few moments, the Bill handle Show podcast Today
organ Donation, Before and After you Die, and that's on
Spotify and Apple and the iHeartRadio app, the Bill Handleshow podcast,
also the Bill handleshowpodcast.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Dot com is the website that we have.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
And before I go, just quick reminder, I am taking
phone calls for Handle on the Law Marginal Legal Advice,
and I start in just a few moments eight seven
seven five two zero eleven fifty off the air eight
seven seven five two zero eleven fifty.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
And the same.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
Rules always apply, and that is they'll be no breaks,
no traffic, no commercials. You add that to the fact
that there's no patience on my side.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
We get through these calls pretty quickly.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
This is off the air, and sometimes people have a
hard time getting on the show on Saturday, so feel
free to jump in right now.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Wow, show is over already. Boy goes quick when you're
having fun.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
Right tomorrow we'll talk about Kamala Harris and her vice
presidential nominee Tim Walls, and they're going to be on
CNN this afternoon.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
I cannot wait for that.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
All Right, tomorrow morning, it is Wake Up Call with
Amy Neil and I come aboard at six o'clock as
we do the entire show.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
We're done, guys, catch you in the morning.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
This is KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the
iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
You've been listening to the Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
Catch My Show Monday through Friday, six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
You're listenings KFI AM six forty the bill Handle show
on demand on the iHeartRadio app KFI.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
AM six forty bill handle.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Here it is a Thursday morning, August twenty nine.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Some of the stories we're looking at.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Kamala Harris and Tim Wall sit down today with CNN's
Dana Bash for their first joint interview since the campaign started.
And at this point, if you look at the polls,
Kamala Harris and Donald Trump now locked in a very
close race across the seven key swing states.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
And that's the statistic I want to look at. The
rest of it is crap.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
It's those same swing states that are determined the presidency.
And if you go to Israel, another high profile militant
killed in a raid in the West Bank.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
So this conflict doesn't seem to be slowing down.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Oh also quick reminder that my podcast, which is a
bit up for a month or two, is now drops
two day every Tuesday and Thursday at nine o'clock and
it's on Spotify, it's on Apple, it's on the iHeartRadio app.
And today it's all about organ donation before and after
(01:12):
you die.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
It's good after, it's good before.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
I'm a big fan obviously, as is Neil because with
his kidney he is.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
The recipient of an organ donation.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
With his kidney, he now can pee with complete impunity,
pe with impunity.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
It's today.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
It drops at nine o'clock and you can go to
the Bill handleshow podcast dot com also lawsuits a plenty,
and this one happens to do with Google.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Google is being sued by Yelp.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
So let's start with how prevalent Google is, how much
of the market share? I mean, I talked last segment
about Kroger being not so much being sued but being
accused of price gouging, and that was a FTC hearing
that was had and Kamala Harris is saying it's got
(02:13):
price gouging, price couching, and the government comes in.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
You have too much of the market. How much of
the market.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Share do you think Google has as a search engine
in the nineties, in the nineties, and you talk about
a company being so prevalent that the term Google has
now become a verb. Even when you go on another
search engine, for example, bing, do you say I'm going
(02:42):
to bing it?
Speaker 2 (02:44):
No, No one says that.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
But if you have to look something up, what's the
first thing you say, look it up on Google, Go
google it.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
I mean that's just by default that happens.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Some people might even say google Google. I don't know.
Maybe that's true.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Well, by the way, Google is a mathematical term. How
many zeros is a Google? I think that's where they
came up with it.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
You've got the actual number Google?
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Yeah, I think Google is. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
It's like a bazillion, bazillion, quadrazillion.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
I don't even know what that is. I sort of
lose it. A trillion.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
What comes after trillion? I don't even know there's something
that does. I'm diverging for.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
A bit, but Google, it's followed by one hundred zeros?
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Okay, So well, thank you, kono. So what what is
the term before Google? What do you do after? What's
after trillion? Boy, this is a good story about the lawsuit.
Huh tell me, we're not going to go in another
segment with this one.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
But I'm just curious.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
You've got you know, you've got million, you got one
hundred million, you have a billion, you have trillion.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
After that, somewhere there's gazillion.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
I don't even know where was I lawsuit there it
was Wow, I diverge, all right. So yesterday YELP sue's
Google accusing it of abusing its dominant position. Bohy, they're
not certainly understand understating its position dominant position to boost
its bottom line and stifle competition in local markets. Now,
(04:34):
this is an accusation that I think is fairly legitimate
because this is what is considered predatory business practices in Europe.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Corporations do not do well. This is why the finds
in Europe.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Against Amazon, for example, are just ridiculously high, because Europe
really believes in the concept of predatory business practices. We
do too, but the b is so high. What companies
can do are absolutely astounding.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
So here's what I want to do.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
I don't come back talk about the lawsuit, what it's about.
And Amazon was accused of this too, And this is
what happens when you have big, big time corporations that
not only sell their own product, sell their own services,
but also are so dominant they can tamp down competitors
(05:28):
that you can't do. And of course Google is saying
we didn't do it, not us. Don't look at us.
We're in compliance with everything. Now, welcome to America where
if you're in business, you want to be as dominant
as you can. You want to boost your bottom line
(05:49):
as much as you can. I've been in business for
a whole, long, long time, and gee, I wake up
in the morning, I kind of want this to happen.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Now. What I'm not supposed to do, and this is not.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Me because I've obviously never been in this position, is
I'm not allowed to stifle competition. And what Help is
saying is you Google, take your position, and you're stifling
our ability to do business unfairly. It's an anti trust
lawsuit and accused of Google of using its general search
(06:24):
monopoly because, as you know, just Google anything and everything.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
It's become a.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Verb and it controls local search and local search advertising markets.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
That's what the accusation.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Putting Google's own products ahead of competitors in this case
help preventing businesses from reaching customers without paying the company,
starving competitors of traffic revenue that would allow them to compete.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
When I go to Google, I mean, how many pop
ups do you get? And the ads are all sponsored? Right,
the first ten ads are spawned. If I click the
wrong thing, I'm into one of their sponsored ads. Matter
of fact, to get a real search on Google and
other platforms is not easy to do, Neil, how often
(07:13):
have you gone or and how often have you gone
done a Google search looking.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
For a product or anything?
Speaker 4 (07:21):
If you're going through Google all the time, all the time,
and what comes up, whether you like, I see it.
But I got to tell you that when it comes
to Google versus Yelp, by use them both together.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Okay, but Yelp is saying what you're doing is you're
bypassing us. That's the problem. You're not making it fair.
We're back behind and Yelp, I mean it makes sense.
I mean how many of us go to yelp. That's
the other thing I can't stand Yelp and how many
people actually rely on Yelp.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
I think Yelp has its place, as does Google. You
have to you have to look through it and take
the time and not just take it for granted. Because
I have been some places that get bad Yelp reviews
that are wonderful, but they may not be the you know,
hippist that may be a mom and pop place or
something like that. So you have to use them as
(08:17):
a guide, but not as a definitive as to something
being good or not. Why didn't they like it? Was
it the atmosphere you get bad, you.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Have to eliminate.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Most of the people are fives and the the restaurants whatever.
I use them for restaurants.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
Obviously, I'm going to yelp even on Google if I
want to see a Yelp response.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
I don't.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
It's not about whether Google comes up for me first
or not. I'm looking at both of.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Them, but it does come up here. Here's the issue.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
If you put yourself first by default on your search engine,
then that does stifle competitors Amazon, for example, Amazon products
come up first, and even if you are going let's
say you're looking.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
For a walk. I bought a walk recently on Amazon right,
and it took me.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
I don't know how many searches I had to go down.
I don't know eight ten different versions of the walk
before I actually found one that was not Amazon sponsored.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
I can tell you when you dominate, you dominate.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
And is that fair well with Amazon if you have competitors.
If you have someone coming in and selling on Amazon
and their number eight or nine automatically by default, and
you can't get.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Anywhere near the top.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
And that's because Amazon or any company puts their own
products first. That argument is that's predatory pricing as predatory practices.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
That's what this loose lawsuit is all about.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
By the way, this federal judge that just ruled in
October that Google does exploit its market share, does exploit
its dominance to stomp out competitors or certainly weaken them.
That didn't help Google at all at Blue open lawsuits
like crazy, and you're gonna see this happening.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
See when it comes to when it comes to companies.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Like Amazon and Google, they are so dominant that they
have the ability to stomp out other products or at
least make.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
It very difficult to compete.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
It's not a fair It is not a fair playing field.
It's not a level playing field. Now, just because the
company is huge, that's fine, that's great, But it shouldn't
be huge and be able to make sure competitors don't
come near it just based on their size.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
That's the problem.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
They should do it on their prices, which is great.
If an Amazon product is five bucks less than a
regular product is sold. Amazon decides to get into the business, okay,
they decide to make their own walks and they're going
to sell them ten bucks less.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Couldn't care less. But if that other walk is number
twelve down the list and it's done there purposely, that's
a problem.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
It sure is scary, isn't it that kind of you know,
because of the Internet, you have the these these storefronts
have become more than that. Google is more than just
a search engine, and it is scary as to what
they can date you.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Yeah, it is. You know.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
It's like these dating sites where you say you have
a dating site that is so dominant controls the entire market.
It can say you, if you don't pay us enough money,
we're simply going to hook you up with ugly people.
And it doesn't you have no say it's only ugly
(11:51):
people that you're going to date.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Did that work on a legal level?
Speaker 4 (11:57):
You should start your own dating a little app it.
I think that'd be great.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Uh yeah, Now, I once tried taking an ad out
before I got married.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
I refuse.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
I will never walk on a beach under the moonlight.
I will never give anybody flowers. I do not believe
in romantic music. I hate jazz. I enjoy nothing. I
got no responses, it's all listen.
Speaker 4 (12:29):
Coming from the marketing background here at the station, I
would have if I were you said, lovable dog looking
for home.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Uh you got it?
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Okay, now, uh, you are not making enough money, right?
Have you ever thought of being a court reporter?
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Hmm?
Speaker 1 (12:50):
You know those people that sit in the courtroom or
at depositions and they have that magical little typewriter thing
that's about as big as it looks like a shoe box,
and it has weird lettering, it's like hieroglyphics. Well, what
they do court reporters stenographers as they listen to whatever's
going on in quarter a depositions and they just write
(13:10):
it down.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
And you have to have those if you're going to appeal.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
You don't necessarily have to have them in a court
during a trial or whatever, but if you're going to
appeal a case without them, you're done. There is a
shortage of court reporters, and it's being called a constitutional
crisis by LA County courts. Why because there ain't enough
in them, or there ain't enough of them. There are
(13:37):
simply not enough delays in civil cases, no verbatim record,
and as I said, almost impossible to appeal outcomes.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Actually it is impossible to appeal. So what are they
trying to do. We need new hires.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
We're gonna give signing bonuses for people that stay. How
about student loan repayments? How about equipment allowances? Those little
boxes cost about two thousand bucks? So why would you
consider it? Well, let's start talking about your base pay
as a court reporter. Fifty thousand dollars to ninety two
(14:13):
thousand dollars depending on if you're right.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Out of school. You started fifty. But let me tell
you how quickly that goes up, because if you.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Look at full time court reporters, you know what the
average income is one hundred and twenty five thousand dollars
a year.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Okay, now we're talking real money. Also, it's kind of fun.
I mean I've gone I've been in trials several times before.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
I said it was a was it? It was a
sort of want to be legal show on another radio
station at one point I don't want to mention any names.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
KBC, and they.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
They had a guy who was a lawyer and he
ripped into me constantly, and and you say, you know,
handle's never been even in a courtroom.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
And I resent.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
That so much because I have been five times I've
gone to trial. Of course I was the defendant each time,
but that is incidental to the story.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
By the way, that's true.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
So I have sat in court and you if you
ever want some entertainment, go to a courtroom, because it's
a you know, we have a.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Country that is it's open courtrooms. Man.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
You will see some stuff and hear some stuff that
is just stunningly brilliant, horrible entertaining court reporters.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
You know when a court reporter is.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Brand new, when all of a sudden someone says the
thing and the eyes go up, widen up, go what
they're not supposed to do? That The point of this
story is that there aren't enough and this is really
really bad stuff because court reporters are so in important
(16:00):
to the judicial system. Criminal trials you have to have
a court reporter. There some civil trials, you don't. All
felony criminal trials, all juvenile trials, you have to have
a court reporter. You've got misdemeanor cases and fraction cases
that you can use electronic recordings.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Now this is kind of new.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
This is when court reporters aren't mandated, then thousands of
people are left without a verbatim record.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
So here's what happens.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
There's another way of reporting court reporters do, and that's electronically,
and it's kind of interesting. What they do is they
basically set up a microphone and their license to say,
it's on your honor, you can now talk actually not
(16:51):
really much about it, but there is a machine with
keys on it and speaking into a device and then
I mean someone to oversee that works. It's like the
voice recognition software. But it's really old school. It takes
a couple of years to learn court reporting. By the way,
you got to take a course, I mean, there's no
way around it, and then you have to take a test,
(17:14):
which is no joke.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
I mean it is.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
I mean, imagine this law school is three years, and
then there's the state bar. Scenography course is a couple
of years, and then you have to take a test.
So you know, but if you're making one hundred and
fifty thousand dollars a year, you're better off being a
(17:38):
snographer than becoming a lawyer. Lawyers just don't do that, well,
not anymore.
Speaker 4 (17:44):
Does a court reporter would like if they were doing
it for this show, would they have to type in
slurping noises.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
Yes, turns off my cough.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Yes like that, Yes, that's exactly they I've been coughing
like crazy, I mean out of control coughing and at
the same but I'm turning off the mon so you
can't tell.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
Oh, I just turned off the mic.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
The thirty seconds of silence.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
But yeah, I know, I've just today, I'm just coughing
my brains out and I have and I'm not.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
I didn't even eat it for Tata with top of
Teo sauce on it.
Speaker 4 (18:15):
The exciting thing is the sales department is going to
start selling your sneezes. Like the silence there, We're going
to start putting in commercial spots.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Oh yeah, I mean they were long enough.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
This slurp brought to you by Yeah eleven.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
Yeah, that's actually the big slurp. So get ye to
court reporting school. You can make a pretty good buck
and they need. It's not like you're going to have
to look around to get hired either. I mean, this
is instantaneous hiring. It's one of those things where the
only analogy is at the top of the high tech boom,
(18:50):
you could literally go from one job and walk across
the street and get fifty percent more money. It's that
bad with court reporting. Okay. And by the way, for
it's expensive as health. You've ever been in litigation, ever
been in depositions? And you pay for a court reporter,
it's like one thousand dollars a day. I mean it's
(19:11):
crazy or more.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
No, it's expensive stuff to have a court reporter. It's
expensive stuff to go to litigation. I'll tell you what's
not expensive is listening to me Saturday mornings eight to
eleven o'clock Handle on the Law.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
That's free.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
But I must tell you if you do listen to
Handle on the Law for marginal legal advice, which is free,
you're overpaying across the board. Now, frequent flyer miles. Actually
you've got the craze of rewards. I happen to like rewards.
I'm not a big fan of cash back cards because
(19:46):
that money sort of disappears. My thing is frequent flyer
miles as rewards for using my credit cards because I travel, as.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
You know, a fair amount.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
And I just like the idea of upgrades because money
not that it's not valuable, but it's the end of
the year.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
It's not quite the same because I get it in increments,
So for me, it's miles.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Let me tell you what's going on with landlords across
the country. They have joined the craze for rewards, credit
card style incentives like two percent cash back or points
for home goods or gift cards. They're about a dozen
commercial companies out there steak in Senko Pinata, where I
(20:28):
guess you get to beat up a Pinata saying this
is a big benefit for landlords because people in these
programs are much more likely to renew a lease even
if the rent goes up. I mean, one of these companies, Pinata,
is they're claiming an extraordinary.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Re rental number.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
For example, they're saying that ninety seven percent of their
people sign up. Again, I'm talking about the renters versus
sixty five percent in the general market. Now, I must
tell you this is a national story. It is not
Southern California. Although the reward business is going to come
to you, a lot of it has to do in
places where even though there's a shortage in our case,
(21:15):
there's a shortage of all rental property and a lot
of the country the landlords are still struggling and they're
throwing out these rewards.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Okay, it's not gonna happen here, except.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
That it's good for keeping people in property and that
seems to be the magic here.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
So do you rent because of rewards coming out?
Speaker 1 (21:42):
No? No, except a lot of people do. And here
is one of the big reasons is because rent is
so expensive. You know, over half the people that rent
in this country pay more than fifty percent of their income.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
I mean, that is completely crazy.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
You should only pay a third huh, those days are gone,
should only pay a third for your mortgage, should only
pay a third for your rent. For those of you
that are making fifty thousand dollars or sixty thousand dollars
a year, you shouldn't pay more than twenty thousand dollars
a year in rent.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
And how much is that? Eighteen hundred bucks a month.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Yeah, so that's not gonna happen, but be prepared for
rewards coming up. And they make money on it because
it's a lot cheaper than giving people discounts.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
That's the other thing. It sort of fools you.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
You get into a credit card because of the cash back.
Where you get into a credit card because in my case,
the miles, is.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
It a good deal?
Speaker 1 (22:40):
No? Not particularly, but you know what's kind of nice
to have it? Yeah, just there it is. Your miles
are in your pocket. I go ooh, I get to upgrade.
And it only costs me what two hundred thousand dollars
worth of goods I have to buy, so at the
end of the year, I'm buying much much more.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
All Right, we're done, guys, coming up Handle on the Law.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
First of all, don't forget the podcast which drops in
just a few moments, the Bill handle Show podcast Today
organ Donation, Before and After you Die, and that's on
Spotify and Apple and the iHeartRadio app, the Bill Handleshow podcast,
also the Bill handleshowpodcast.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Dot com is the website that we have.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
And before I go, just quick reminder, I am taking
phone calls for Handle on the Law Marginal Legal Advice,
and I start in just a few moments eight seven
seven five two zero eleven fifty off the air eight
seven seven five two zero eleven fifty.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
And the same.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
Rules always apply, and that is they'll be no breaks,
no traffic, no commercials. You add that to the fact
that there's no patience on my side.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
We get through these calls pretty quickly.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
This is off the air, and sometimes people have a
hard time getting on the show on Saturday, so feel
free to jump in right now.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Wow, show is over already. Boy goes quick when you're
having fun.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
Right tomorrow we'll talk about Kamala Harris and her vice
presidential nominee Tim Walls, and they're going to be on
CNN this afternoon.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
I cannot wait for that.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
All Right, tomorrow morning, it is Wake Up Call with
Amy Neil and I come aboard at six o'clock as
we do the entire show.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
We're done, guys, catch you in the morning.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
This is KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the
iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
You've been listening to the Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
Catch My Show Monday through Friday, six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
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