April 25, 2025 • 28 mins
L.A. COUNTY FIRST RESPONDERS FOUGHT THE WORST FIRE OF THEIR CAREERS. NOW THEY WANT RAISES
CORPORATE AMERICA IS SOUNDING THE ALARM ON TARIFFS
ARE THERE MORE PLANE INCIDENTS RECENTLY OR DOES IT JUST SEEM THAT WAY?
TIPPING IS EVERYWHERE AND CONSUMERS ARE FED UP. HERE’S HOW SOME ARE COPING.
CORPORATE AMERICA IS SOUNDING THE ALARM ON TARIFFS
ARE THERE MORE PLANE INCIDENTS RECENTLY OR DOES IT JUST SEEM THAT WAY?
TIPPING IS EVERYWHERE AND CONSUMERS ARE FED UP. HERE’S HOW SOME ARE COPING.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
The bill handles show on demand on the iHeartRadio app
Handle here Morning Crew, except for Neil, who's sick, except
for kno who's sick. And I'm here and I'm sick.
But that's questionable as to how sick I am? And yes, yes,
and that is correct? What part is sick? Interesting negotiation
(00:25):
going on right now between La County first Responders and
the county because contracts are rep so the union is
representing the deputies and firefighters and lifeguards made a public
pitch yesterday for more support in their contract negotiations, which
are not going particularly well. And they released a half
(00:47):
hour documentary highlighting first responders harrowing tales from the very
first day of the fires. And it is footage showing
these firefighters and cops really going all out. I mean,
it was dangerous, dangerous stuff, and they came to the
table for sure. And what this foot It's a piece
(01:11):
of propaganda. I mean, there's no issue about that. And
it's being used to pitch more money for first responders.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
And they're all little incidents.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
One is a sheriff's deputy talking about as she was
in the middle of the inferno. She was driving her car.
The tires melted on her car. A lifeguard talks about
from his body camera. There's video of him driving through
black smoke and spotting a beam from the flashlight and
finding a man whose house was about to be consumed
(01:43):
by flames. And firefighters sharing double working, double shifts without
food or sleep. And the union rep said, my members
don't whind. They don't complain, but they did a good job.
Well they're whinding. They're complaining. And has to do with
them getting more money.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Fair enough now.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
A month ago, La County Chief Executive Fescia Devenport told
the unions no raises because of unprecedented financial pressures. First
of all, the county has a four billion dollar sex
abuse settlement on his hands, two billion dollars in wildfire costs,
and the White House. It looks like are you going
(02:24):
to cut hundreds of millions of dollars worth of public
health grants? So put all that together, no money, And
so the chief executive did his bit of propaganda. Los
Angeles County appreciates the essential contributions of our workforce, YadA, YadA, YadA,
but no rasis because we are facing serious budgetary challenges.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Now the county.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
The county actually balanced its forty eight billion dollar budget
for the upcoming fiscal year. The City of Los Angeles
not so much. It's a billion dollars short. The officials
of the county are going to be able to balance
the budget even with the settlement, which can be paid
(03:11):
with bonds, and they have a rainy day fund which
is very rarely touched. It will be this time. That's
worth a billion dollars now. The City of La recently
gave its first responder significant pay raises, now a major
factor in the nearly billion dollar budget.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
The budget deficit.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Unions are saying, you've got money left over for raises
and we want it now. I have a question about that.
Do they deserve raises? Well, everybody deserves a race. But
let me ask you something. Didn't they sign up for this?
Am I missing something here? You know, a cop saves someone, Okay,
(03:55):
that's their job. You know, firefighters go in and the
fire is worse than they anticipated. Therefore they should get
a raise.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Hold on a minute, you sign up for.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
It, that's your job, and if it's tougher, it's tougher,
then don't then do something else. And I have no
problem asking for raises because that's the job of the
unions and using everything they can to document how much
(04:28):
work they have to justify extra money.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
I get that.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
I get that, you know, I don't hold them negatively
for doing everything they can. But at the same time,
do you cave on that one? I mean, it's oh,
you know, you sign up for it, you know, I mean,
what did we sign up for? We signed up for
(04:54):
sitting on our asses screaming into a microphone. However, threats
come down the pike, you know when you know, we
get fed free food when they come in. Sometimes we
don't get it as fresh as we would like it.
I mean, you know, there's sacrifices that we make. But
(05:15):
in reality, well that is reality actually, And for those
people who want to pitch from restaurants, which restaurants, which,
by the way, I'm going to promote that right now.
If you have a restaurant, you want a free pitch,
you give us free food, and we're fine with that.
That doesn't have much to do with this topic, but
just a good reason just to go out there and
put it on the table.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
So you know, hey, we don't have money, we don't
have the money.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Now depends on how much money you're talking about. One
of the things that the shriff's deputies, the unions are
saying is other agencies, other departments are paying more money
than La County is, and we are losing deputies because
they're leaving LA and they're going over there in LA
(06:00):
trained them at no small expense, and the attrition rate
is going down. Okay, that's a different story, got it.
But short of that, I don't think so. I don't
think so, because the philosophy is you signed up for
this deal and just because it became harder. I mean,
(06:21):
a lifeguard wants more money because a lifeguard was driving
down the street and was able to pull someone out
of a fire. Okay, you know now, And right coming up, oh,
the terroriffs. We have to talk about the tariffs, don't we.
There's a lot of bad news coming down the pike
(06:42):
with the tariffs. And let's talk about corporate America and
what's going going on and how it's responding. Now, keep
in mind, corporate America loves Donald Trump. Loves Donald Trump
because under Donald Trump's philosophy, corporate America does just rate.
Except so I'll talk about accept when we come up
(07:07):
and come back.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
So guess who comes in?
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Amy comes into the broadcast our room and leaves her
little booth and is talking to Anne. And do you
know what we were talking about, which is general conversation
during the course of the breaks. Is the discussion is
what a dick I am? And that's basically our general conversation. Amy,
(07:39):
Is that not true? It is true? Thank you so much.
Now I want to talk about what's going on with
corporate America. Corporate America is basically hand in hand with
Donald Trump. Donald Trump's basic philosophy is corporate America is good,
very good, and let's help corporate America. And there's a reason,
(08:01):
I mean, you can be on one side or the
other of that argument. However, corporate America is going wait
a minute, sounding the alarm big time.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Why because of tariffs?
Speaker 2 (08:12):
I mean, the world is reeling because of Donald Trump's
tariff position, and not just his philosophy on tariffs, Because
if his tariff position were consistent or was consistent, the
world could deal with that.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Business can deal with consistency.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
What it can't deal with economies, markets, business. What can't
be dealt with is inconsistency and not knowing what the
hell is going to happen. And that's exactly what's going
on is I don't even think so much. It is
the implication and implementation implementation of the tariffs.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
It's the fact that they're going all over the places.
Every day. It's different every day, it's different.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Right, And we're talking about the largest companies in America. PepsiCo,
American Airlines, Chipotle, IBM, Proctoring, Gamble, a bunch of others
announced quarterly earning this week, and earnings not only are down,
but the forecast because what the companies do is not
only here are earnings, but here is what we anticipate.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Here, here are our projections. And then the market comes
back with here is our projections. And this is what
a stock does well is, for example, when stock does better,
a company does better than projections. Stock goes up worse
than projections, even if they're making a lot of money,
the stock goes down. And so the markets are.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Very very sensitive to what is happening. Now, think of
what's going on with this because forecasting is so important
to any company, and how how do you forecast when
you have one hundred and forty five percent tariff coming
in on Chinese goods and the next day, well, we're
(10:08):
not going to have one hundred and forty five percent terroriffts,
but we're going to have some tariffs. We don't know
how much we're going to play in tariffs and when
they're going to go down or up.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
No one has any idea. But I'll tell you what
is going on.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
And it's not the major technological companies. They're fine. Apple
is fine. You've got the manufacturers of the iPhone, the
importers of the iPhone, those distributors, they're fine because those
were exempt from any tariff.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Now, originally it was going to be one hundred and
forty five percent.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Trump turned around and said, okay, we're going to exempt
or I'm going to exempt those companies because you know
it's a one hundred percent importation from China. Well, then you
have these small companies like mine and as you know,
I'm a partner, my partner Savil, we have a small
(11:00):
company that inputs, imports, cookwear from China one hundred percent
made in China.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
We have stopped everything everything.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
We have a container at the Port of China ready
to go, and we stopped it done. We don't know
what the hell is going on. China, on the other hand,
doesn't know what's going on. So you know what they're doing.
Even if we wanted to release that container, because we
have already paid the deposit on it, if we wanted
(11:32):
to release it, China isn't allowing it to leave. They
have stopped all exportation. We have stopped all importation. That's
what's called the tariff war because nobody knows what the
tariff is going to be. Trump calls one hundred and
(11:53):
forty five percent tariff on Chinese goods coming in with
certain exemptions. China goes to all one hundred and twenty
five percent. That's an embargo. That's not a tariff, that's
a straight out embargo. No products are coming in, no
products leaving the United the United States going there, no
products coming here from China, and that is an embargo,
(12:17):
and that is a trade war. Especially now that the
world economy is predicated on exports and imports. You can't
you can't run your country without that happening. So the
companies are running scared. They are running scared, as they
should because you can't do that, Jerome Powell.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
We're gonna I'm gonna fire Jerome Powell. I'm going to
figure out a way to.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Fire him legally, even though it is very difficult, it's
a little complicated. The only way that a fed share
can be fired is for cause. And Trump was looking
and this administration was actually exploring, let's figure out how
to fire him, and let's figure out cause. He makes
that announcement, and the stock market tanks a thousand points.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
The world market reacts.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
The IMF, the International Monetary Fund, comes out and says.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
The world global growth is going.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
To slow dramatically because of these announcements. Next day, I'm
not going to fire Jerome Powell. No, I don't have
no intention of firing Jerome Powell. But yesterday said you were,
I have no intention of firing Jerome Powell. Well, how
about one hundred and forty five percent tariff on China? Well,
(13:37):
China and I, she and I are talking and we're
negotiating it. The Chinese government says, no, we're not. No
one's sitting down with the administration. Nobody now from China.
What are you saying, Well, we're in talks, We're in
good talks.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
No, well you have to believe someone. I don't know
who to believe.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Is she making this up? Is Trump making this up?
At this point, I don't know. One hundred countries have
come to the table with Washington, and eighteen have proposals
on the table, which ones, well, we're not saying what
are the terms. Well, we're not saying, how about the proposal?
(14:23):
What does the proposal look like?
Speaker 1 (14:24):
Well, we're not saying. You know, I don't know who
or what to believe at this point.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
More importantly, all I know is that my company is
at a dead stop.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
That's it.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
I mean, we are stopped and we're just waiting to
see what happens. And we're not alone because there are
hundreds of thousands of companies in the same position. That's
why you had the leaders of Walmart, CEOs of Walmart
and Home Depot went to the White House and said,
you know what, we all the stuff that's on our
(15:01):
shells comes from China. We're a huge majority of it.
We're gonna have empty shells.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
In three weeks.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
And Trump comes back and says, Okay, it won't be
one hundred and forty five percent, it'll be it'll be less.
It won't be zero, but it'll be less. How much
will it be? Well, I can't tell you when is
right now? With one hundred and forty five percent. At
this moment, it's one hundred and forty five percent. I
bring in one hundred dollars worth of goods, I am
(15:31):
writing the government a check. By the way, with accumulative taxes,
ours is one hundred and eighty seven percent. So if
I bring in one hundred dollars worth of goods, I
have to write the government one hundred and eighty seven
dollars more for that hundred dollars worth of goods.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
It's untenable. I mean, you can't do it.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Business is over, and so everybody is waiting, and Corporate
America is just reeling.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
As we're all reeling.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
I mean, yeah, I can understand that you want to
level playing field. I get that that's fair. Is it
true that we are being ripped off? I don't know
if by the I don't know if it's ripped off.
Certainly there's no level playing field. You know, China charges
a lot more in tariffs and on American goods than
we do on Chinese goods by a long shot.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
But do you do it this way? Okay?
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Coming up playing incidents, have you noticed that there are
just a lot more of these crashes and near crashes
and these incidents of airlines you know we're about to
hit each other. I'll give you some real stats on that.
And it's kind of interesting stuff.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from kf I
Am six forty.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
It's not Foody Friday because Neil is sick this morning.
So we're gonna hold off Foody Friday until next Friday.
And we're still going to do ask Handle anything, which
we do on a Friday. And it's always great, great
fun when people ask me questions, personal questions, and generally
I'm a well first of all, I answer them. You know,
my life's an open book. I don't keep much I hidden,
(17:14):
and they're generally humiliating and it's just fun.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
All right.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
So now let me move over to why we don't
fly on airplanes or why you are concerned about flying
on airplanes.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Because you're gonna die.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
I mean, look at videos planes crashing.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
It's gotten to the point.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Now where even small planes crashing somewhere out and you know,
buffalo breath wyoming.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
It becomes national news. Well, there's a.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
Plane with a single pilot and it crashed into a
parking lot and the pilot was killed. Okay, I mean
that's rough for the pilot and his family. I get that,
but okay, that's national news. The point is that we're
seeing videos because everybody as a video of everything, and
so if there is a fire on a jet, right
(18:08):
on an airliner, and an airliner lands safely, okay, that's
all you would get. Oh no, no, you have the
video now of that fire and people screaming in the
cabin and the panic which you never had before, and
all of a sudden, you know.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
That's become news.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
There is nothing that happens in the air, on the ground,
in a store, in your house that can't and won't
be covered by a video. So now we have some
stats that crash between the helicopter and the plane in Washington,
DC was the first of those fatalities with big airlines
(18:51):
in twenty years in the United States, when you used
to hear the stat that flying on an airliner in
the United States or anywhere around the world is the
safest form of transportation that exists, far safer than you're
getting in the car and driving far safer than you're
(19:11):
getting on a motorcycle or getting on a bicycle or
taking a train, because trains do have head ons and
you do have derailments more often than you can imagine.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Far safer.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
And when we used to say far safer, it is
now far safer than far safer, it's actually far safer
than that. That is that is the actual truth and
the stats, and that's according to the NTSB National Transportation
Safety Board NTSSE. NTSB data shows that last year, for example,
(19:46):
was the lowest number of helicopter fatalities in the US
since two thousand and seven, and that's with fifteen people
since two thousand and seven last year.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
Now, most of the incidents are with small planes.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
That because there are a lot more and many more
small planes out there. Again, we go to the Bureau
of Transportation Statistics, five hundred and.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
Seventy two commercial aircraft in the air.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
This is in twenty twenty three, general aviation civilian owned
small airplanes two hundred and ten thousand. So just by
sheer numbers, you're going to see more crashes and incidents
with small airplanes.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Oh, I'm not going to get on a small airplane.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
You know, what's gotten to the point where small airplane
pilots general license are almost the equivalent of having commercial
license that the airline pilots have. Now, airline pilots have
a lot of thousands of hours in the air before
they're even made captain. But at the same time, it
is tough as nails to take that test. Example, in
(21:02):
order to get the test, you need a specific number
of flight hours, and you have to pass a written test,
and then you have to go through a check ride,
and that check ride is no fund by the way,
and at the end of that, here's your private pilot license.
And every two years got to take another check ride
with a certified flight inspector and or instructor. And you
(21:25):
have to have a physical every two years to make
sure you're not going to croak on an airplane, because
occasionally you have a pilot have a heart attack and
you know, someone brings down the plane. You know, you've
seen those where the tower goes and now you move
this switch over here, by the way, that's a crop.
That's that's movies. When the pilot dies, you die. It's
not that it's it's pretty simple. Every year, every airplane
(21:48):
has to go through a very extensive annual inspection. A
maintenance suspection has to be done by a certified airframe
and power plant mechanic.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
You don't do that with your car. So on, people die.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
How many people die in car accidents every year? What
thirty thousand something like that? Amy was the figure on
that one. You know, all right, you don't have to
look that up panel look it up. I'll look it up, hey, siri.
How many Americans die in car crashes every year? Thirty
eight thousand Americans die in car crashes every year, all right?
(22:25):
And we're talking how many people died in plane crashes
this year? I don't know, you know, a few dozen,
that's it.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
But ours is one hundred, over one hundred a day.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
It averages out to you're talking what the thirty eight thousand, yeah,
is over one hundred?
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Yeah? I don't There aren't a hundred crash.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
There aren't one hundred fatalities a year, not even close
in the United States the airline fatalities in the air
So it really is safe.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
It's much safer, although it is still scary. Do you
know that.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
George Norri, who of course does coast to coast over
night here on CAI. It's nationally syndicated show. I've run
into him three times on my way to Las Vegas,
and so we grab each other, sit each other on
the plane next to each other. Do you know what
the conversation is every single time? Who gets top billing
if the plane goes down? Is it George?
Speaker 1 (23:14):
Isn't me?
Speaker 2 (23:16):
That's our argument who It depends on the day. George says,
I do. I say, George does?
Speaker 1 (23:22):
All right? Coming up?
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Ooh, tipping, tipping, tipping, tipping. Oh, I had an incident
yesterday that I want to share with you about tipping
and this we're all suffering from this.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
All right now, Oh, yesterday, So I'm taking my vacation.
I'm going to go in September, and yesterday I was
on the phone with one of these travel agent kind
of people that you know, find great deals for you.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
And it took about an hour and a half and
the guy was terrific.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
We were going through all the different flights and how
much I am going. Can't go direct to where I'm going,
so I had to take connecting flights. So you know
how much time layovers and which flight, and it took,
it took a long time, took an.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
Hour and a half. And this is what he does.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
And we found one and it was fantastic, and so
he did a great job. And so took the credit
card and they confirmed and then popped up in the
confirmation tip starting at one hundred dollars because it was
an expensive flight. A tip for somebody who is helping
(24:37):
me put together a flight because he works for the company.
I go, what is that about?
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Last night? Went to a restaurant right there? Tip starting
at eighteen percent.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
Now I go to a restaurants sometimes and it starts
at twenty percent and they put it right on the
check and it's sort of embarrassing. Or how about the
tip jar? Oh, that was another one. So I went
to a bagel shop yesterday, my favorite bagel shop, Western Bagels,
and there is and I paid with a credit card.
(25:13):
So I asked for onion bagels, Western bagels, of course,
real jew bagels West. So I asked for onion bagels,
and I asked for playing bagels, and the guy bends over.
Just so happens those bins that where the bagels were
the two types of bagels were closest to the cash register.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
He literally reached over, picked.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Up bagels, put him in a bag, put him on
the counter. I gave him a credit card tip on
the credit card starting at eighteen percent for someone reaching
three feet to pick up bagels and put him in
a bag, And it took thirty seconds.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
Go here's the sip.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
People are getting really upset about that as I am,
and diners are pushing back big time. And now it's
turning out where he used to be that tips went
up dramatically because of the way they presented, you know,
the tip jars. I don't know if a Starbucks still
does tip jars. I have no idea. I mean, and
(26:15):
if you don't put it in, they give you a
weird look. Come on, really, and then you put it
with a credit card and you sort of feel bad
if you don't. So it used to be that those
suggestions that would help you tip are actually backfiring. Now
tips are going down and people are eating less. So
(26:39):
I went to BJ's restaurant, which I really like.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Last night.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
I took my daughter and we had three appetizers. I
had my diet coke and she had two of their
drinky things. Don't know what they call them, those fruity
alcoholic things. It was one hundred and ten dollars. It's
one hundred and ten dollars. And the tip starts at
(27:05):
eighteen percent. Twenty percent would be twenty what is it?
Twenty two dollars, twenty four dollars. I don't know something
like that. What is that about? So I'm going to
have three appetizers and a couple of drinks plus the
die coke, and I'm going to spend one hundred and
twenty two one hundred and twenty five dollars. I did
(27:29):
I pay tips in cash? Telling the server I'm giving cash,
but you have to promise me. You're going to declare
this to the irs. Give me your word and I
will give you in cash. Okay, I promise you. The
point is the backfiring is going on big time, and
(27:50):
it's hurting.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
It's hurting. You know where it works. You know what
works in Europe? They don't.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
You don't tip in Europe. If you have phenomenal service,
you give five percent. Nobody tips. Why Because it's a
career to be a server. It is a career. You
sit down at a restaurant. Here server comes up and goes,
would you like to read my screenplay? That does not
happen in Europe? All right, enough of that, What are
(28:19):
we talking about? Coming up at eight o'clock? Ooh, fiasco
at the National Security Council, Let's talk about that inside
the administration. And then at eight thirty ask Candle anything
our fun Friday two segments, How we end the week.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
This is KFI AM sixty. You've been listening to the
Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Catch my Show Monday through Friday, six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
You're listening to KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
The bill handles show on demand on the iHeartRadio app
Handle here Morning Crew, except for Neil, who's sick, except
for kno who's sick. And I'm here and I'm sick.
But that's questionable as to how sick I am? And yes, yes,
and that is correct? What part is sick? Interesting negotiation
(00:25):
going on right now between La County first Responders and
the county because contracts are rep so the union is
representing the deputies and firefighters and lifeguards made a public
pitch yesterday for more support in their contract negotiations, which
are not going particularly well. And they released a half
(00:47):
hour documentary highlighting first responders harrowing tales from the very
first day of the fires. And it is footage showing
these firefighters and cops really going all out. I mean,
it was dangerous, dangerous stuff, and they came to the
table for sure. And what this foot It's a piece
(01:11):
of propaganda. I mean, there's no issue about that. And
it's being used to pitch more money for first responders.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
And they're all little incidents.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
One is a sheriff's deputy talking about as she was
in the middle of the inferno. She was driving her car.
The tires melted on her car. A lifeguard talks about
from his body camera. There's video of him driving through
black smoke and spotting a beam from the flashlight and
finding a man whose house was about to be consumed
(01:43):
by flames. And firefighters sharing double working, double shifts without
food or sleep. And the union rep said, my members
don't whind. They don't complain, but they did a good job.
Well they're whinding. They're complaining. And has to do with
them getting more money.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Fair enough now.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
A month ago, La County Chief Executive Fescia Devenport told
the unions no raises because of unprecedented financial pressures. First
of all, the county has a four billion dollar sex
abuse settlement on his hands, two billion dollars in wildfire costs,
and the White House. It looks like are you going
(02:24):
to cut hundreds of millions of dollars worth of public
health grants? So put all that together, no money, And
so the chief executive did his bit of propaganda. Los
Angeles County appreciates the essential contributions of our workforce, YadA, YadA, YadA,
but no rasis because we are facing serious budgetary challenges.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Now the county.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
The county actually balanced its forty eight billion dollar budget
for the upcoming fiscal year. The City of Los Angeles
not so much. It's a billion dollars short. The officials
of the county are going to be able to balance
the budget even with the settlement, which can be paid
(03:11):
with bonds, and they have a rainy day fund which
is very rarely touched. It will be this time. That's
worth a billion dollars now. The City of La recently
gave its first responder significant pay raises, now a major
factor in the nearly billion dollar budget.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
The budget deficit.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Unions are saying, you've got money left over for raises
and we want it now. I have a question about that.
Do they deserve raises? Well, everybody deserves a race. But
let me ask you something. Didn't they sign up for this?
Am I missing something here? You know, a cop saves someone, Okay,
(03:55):
that's their job. You know, firefighters go in and the
fire is worse than they anticipated. Therefore they should get
a raise.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Hold on a minute, you sign up for.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
It, that's your job, and if it's tougher, it's tougher,
then don't then do something else. And I have no
problem asking for raises because that's the job of the
unions and using everything they can to document how much
(04:28):
work they have to justify extra money.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
I get that.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
I get that, you know, I don't hold them negatively
for doing everything they can. But at the same time,
do you cave on that one? I mean, it's oh,
you know, you sign up for it, you know, I mean,
what did we sign up for? We signed up for
(04:54):
sitting on our asses screaming into a microphone. However, threats
come down the pike, you know when you know, we
get fed free food when they come in. Sometimes we
don't get it as fresh as we would like it.
I mean, you know, there's sacrifices that we make. But
(05:15):
in reality, well that is reality actually, And for those
people who want to pitch from restaurants, which restaurants, which,
by the way, I'm going to promote that right now.
If you have a restaurant, you want a free pitch,
you give us free food, and we're fine with that.
That doesn't have much to do with this topic, but
just a good reason just to go out there and
put it on the table.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
So you know, hey, we don't have money, we don't
have the money.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Now depends on how much money you're talking about. One
of the things that the shriff's deputies, the unions are
saying is other agencies, other departments are paying more money
than La County is, and we are losing deputies because
they're leaving LA and they're going over there in LA
(06:00):
trained them at no small expense, and the attrition rate
is going down. Okay, that's a different story, got it.
But short of that, I don't think so. I don't
think so, because the philosophy is you signed up for
this deal and just because it became harder. I mean,
(06:21):
a lifeguard wants more money because a lifeguard was driving
down the street and was able to pull someone out
of a fire. Okay, you know now, And right coming up, oh,
the terroriffs. We have to talk about the tariffs, don't we.
There's a lot of bad news coming down the pike
(06:42):
with the tariffs. And let's talk about corporate America and
what's going going on and how it's responding. Now, keep
in mind, corporate America loves Donald Trump. Loves Donald Trump
because under Donald Trump's philosophy, corporate America does just rate.
Except so I'll talk about accept when we come up
(07:07):
and come back.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
So guess who comes in?
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Amy comes into the broadcast our room and leaves her
little booth and is talking to Anne. And do you
know what we were talking about, which is general conversation
during the course of the breaks. Is the discussion is
what a dick I am? And that's basically our general conversation. Amy,
(07:39):
Is that not true? It is true? Thank you so much.
Now I want to talk about what's going on with
corporate America. Corporate America is basically hand in hand with
Donald Trump. Donald Trump's basic philosophy is corporate America is good,
very good, and let's help corporate America. And there's a reason,
(08:01):
I mean, you can be on one side or the
other of that argument. However, corporate America is going wait
a minute, sounding the alarm big time.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Why because of tariffs?
Speaker 2 (08:12):
I mean, the world is reeling because of Donald Trump's
tariff position, and not just his philosophy on tariffs, Because
if his tariff position were consistent or was consistent, the
world could deal with that.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Business can deal with consistency.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
What it can't deal with economies, markets, business. What can't
be dealt with is inconsistency and not knowing what the
hell is going to happen. And that's exactly what's going
on is I don't even think so much. It is
the implication and implementation implementation of the tariffs.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
It's the fact that they're going all over the places.
Every day. It's different every day, it's different.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Right, And we're talking about the largest companies in America. PepsiCo,
American Airlines, Chipotle, IBM, Proctoring, Gamble, a bunch of others
announced quarterly earning this week, and earnings not only are down,
but the forecast because what the companies do is not
only here are earnings, but here is what we anticipate.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Here, here are our projections. And then the market comes
back with here is our projections. And this is what
a stock does well is, for example, when stock does better,
a company does better than projections. Stock goes up worse
than projections, even if they're making a lot of money,
the stock goes down. And so the markets are.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Very very sensitive to what is happening. Now, think of
what's going on with this because forecasting is so important
to any company, and how how do you forecast when
you have one hundred and forty five percent tariff coming
in on Chinese goods and the next day, well, we're
(10:08):
not going to have one hundred and forty five percent terroriffts,
but we're going to have some tariffs. We don't know
how much we're going to play in tariffs and when
they're going to go down or up.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
No one has any idea. But I'll tell you what
is going on.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
And it's not the major technological companies. They're fine. Apple
is fine. You've got the manufacturers of the iPhone, the
importers of the iPhone, those distributors, they're fine because those
were exempt from any tariff.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Now, originally it was going to be one hundred and
forty five percent.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Trump turned around and said, okay, we're going to exempt
or I'm going to exempt those companies because you know
it's a one hundred percent importation from China. Well, then you
have these small companies like mine and as you know,
I'm a partner, my partner Savil, we have a small
(11:00):
company that inputs, imports, cookwear from China one hundred percent
made in China.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
We have stopped everything everything.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
We have a container at the Port of China ready
to go, and we stopped it done. We don't know
what the hell is going on. China, on the other hand,
doesn't know what's going on. So you know what they're doing.
Even if we wanted to release that container, because we
have already paid the deposit on it, if we wanted
(11:32):
to release it, China isn't allowing it to leave. They
have stopped all exportation. We have stopped all importation. That's
what's called the tariff war because nobody knows what the
tariff is going to be. Trump calls one hundred and
(11:53):
forty five percent tariff on Chinese goods coming in with
certain exemptions. China goes to all one hundred and twenty
five percent. That's an embargo. That's not a tariff, that's
a straight out embargo. No products are coming in, no
products leaving the United the United States going there, no
products coming here from China, and that is an embargo,
(12:17):
and that is a trade war. Especially now that the
world economy is predicated on exports and imports. You can't
you can't run your country without that happening. So the
companies are running scared. They are running scared, as they
should because you can't do that, Jerome Powell.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
We're gonna I'm gonna fire Jerome Powell. I'm going to
figure out a way to.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Fire him legally, even though it is very difficult, it's
a little complicated. The only way that a fed share
can be fired is for cause. And Trump was looking
and this administration was actually exploring, let's figure out how
to fire him, and let's figure out cause. He makes
that announcement, and the stock market tanks a thousand points.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
The world market reacts.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
The IMF, the International Monetary Fund, comes out and says.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
The world global growth is going.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
To slow dramatically because of these announcements. Next day, I'm
not going to fire Jerome Powell. No, I don't have
no intention of firing Jerome Powell. But yesterday said you were,
I have no intention of firing Jerome Powell. Well, how
about one hundred and forty five percent tariff on China? Well,
(13:37):
China and I, she and I are talking and we're
negotiating it. The Chinese government says, no, we're not. No
one's sitting down with the administration. Nobody now from China.
What are you saying, Well, we're in talks, We're in
good talks.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
No, well you have to believe someone. I don't know
who to believe.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Is she making this up? Is Trump making this up?
At this point, I don't know. One hundred countries have
come to the table with Washington, and eighteen have proposals
on the table, which ones, well, we're not saying what
are the terms. Well, we're not saying, how about the proposal?
(14:23):
What does the proposal look like?
Speaker 1 (14:24):
Well, we're not saying. You know, I don't know who
or what to believe at this point.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
More importantly, all I know is that my company is
at a dead stop.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
That's it.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
I mean, we are stopped and we're just waiting to
see what happens. And we're not alone because there are
hundreds of thousands of companies in the same position. That's
why you had the leaders of Walmart, CEOs of Walmart
and Home Depot went to the White House and said,
you know what, we all the stuff that's on our
(15:01):
shells comes from China. We're a huge majority of it.
We're gonna have empty shells.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
In three weeks.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
And Trump comes back and says, Okay, it won't be
one hundred and forty five percent, it'll be it'll be less.
It won't be zero, but it'll be less. How much
will it be? Well, I can't tell you when is
right now? With one hundred and forty five percent. At
this moment, it's one hundred and forty five percent. I
bring in one hundred dollars worth of goods, I am
(15:31):
writing the government a check. By the way, with accumulative taxes,
ours is one hundred and eighty seven percent. So if
I bring in one hundred dollars worth of goods, I
have to write the government one hundred and eighty seven
dollars more for that hundred dollars worth of goods.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
It's untenable. I mean, you can't do it.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Business is over, and so everybody is waiting, and Corporate
America is just reeling.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
As we're all reeling.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
I mean, yeah, I can understand that you want to
level playing field. I get that that's fair. Is it
true that we are being ripped off? I don't know
if by the I don't know if it's ripped off.
Certainly there's no level playing field. You know, China charges
a lot more in tariffs and on American goods than
we do on Chinese goods by a long shot.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
But do you do it this way? Okay?
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Coming up playing incidents, have you noticed that there are
just a lot more of these crashes and near crashes
and these incidents of airlines you know we're about to
hit each other. I'll give you some real stats on that.
And it's kind of interesting stuff.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from kf I
Am six forty.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
It's not Foody Friday because Neil is sick this morning.
So we're gonna hold off Foody Friday until next Friday.
And we're still going to do ask Handle anything, which
we do on a Friday. And it's always great, great
fun when people ask me questions, personal questions, and generally
I'm a well first of all, I answer them. You know,
my life's an open book. I don't keep much I hidden,
(17:14):
and they're generally humiliating and it's just fun.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
All right.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
So now let me move over to why we don't
fly on airplanes or why you are concerned about flying
on airplanes.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Because you're gonna die.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
I mean, look at videos planes crashing.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
It's gotten to the point.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Now where even small planes crashing somewhere out and you know,
buffalo breath wyoming.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
It becomes national news. Well, there's a.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
Plane with a single pilot and it crashed into a
parking lot and the pilot was killed. Okay, I mean
that's rough for the pilot and his family. I get that,
but okay, that's national news. The point is that we're
seeing videos because everybody as a video of everything, and
so if there is a fire on a jet, right
(18:08):
on an airliner, and an airliner lands safely, okay, that's
all you would get. Oh no, no, you have the
video now of that fire and people screaming in the
cabin and the panic which you never had before, and
all of a sudden, you know.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
That's become news.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
There is nothing that happens in the air, on the ground,
in a store, in your house that can't and won't
be covered by a video. So now we have some
stats that crash between the helicopter and the plane in Washington,
DC was the first of those fatalities with big airlines
(18:51):
in twenty years in the United States, when you used
to hear the stat that flying on an airliner in
the United States or anywhere around the world is the
safest form of transportation that exists, far safer than you're
getting in the car and driving far safer than you're
(19:11):
getting on a motorcycle or getting on a bicycle or
taking a train, because trains do have head ons and
you do have derailments more often than you can imagine.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Far safer.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
And when we used to say far safer, it is
now far safer than far safer, it's actually far safer
than that. That is that is the actual truth and
the stats, and that's according to the NTSB National Transportation
Safety Board NTSSE. NTSB data shows that last year, for example,
(19:46):
was the lowest number of helicopter fatalities in the US
since two thousand and seven, and that's with fifteen people
since two thousand and seven last year.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
Now, most of the incidents are with small planes.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
That because there are a lot more and many more
small planes out there. Again, we go to the Bureau
of Transportation Statistics, five hundred and.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
Seventy two commercial aircraft in the air.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
This is in twenty twenty three, general aviation civilian owned
small airplanes two hundred and ten thousand. So just by
sheer numbers, you're going to see more crashes and incidents
with small airplanes.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Oh, I'm not going to get on a small airplane.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
You know, what's gotten to the point where small airplane
pilots general license are almost the equivalent of having commercial
license that the airline pilots have. Now, airline pilots have
a lot of thousands of hours in the air before
they're even made captain. But at the same time, it
is tough as nails to take that test. Example, in
(21:02):
order to get the test, you need a specific number
of flight hours, and you have to pass a written test,
and then you have to go through a check ride,
and that check ride is no fund by the way,
and at the end of that, here's your private pilot license.
And every two years got to take another check ride
with a certified flight inspector and or instructor. And you
(21:25):
have to have a physical every two years to make
sure you're not going to croak on an airplane, because
occasionally you have a pilot have a heart attack and
you know, someone brings down the plane. You know, you've
seen those where the tower goes and now you move
this switch over here, by the way, that's a crop.
That's that's movies. When the pilot dies, you die. It's
not that it's it's pretty simple. Every year, every airplane
(21:48):
has to go through a very extensive annual inspection. A
maintenance suspection has to be done by a certified airframe
and power plant mechanic.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
You don't do that with your car. So on, people die.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
How many people die in car accidents every year? What
thirty thousand something like that? Amy was the figure on
that one. You know, all right, you don't have to
look that up panel look it up. I'll look it up, hey, siri.
How many Americans die in car crashes every year? Thirty
eight thousand Americans die in car crashes every year, all right?
(22:25):
And we're talking how many people died in plane crashes
this year? I don't know, you know, a few dozen,
that's it.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
But ours is one hundred, over one hundred a day.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
It averages out to you're talking what the thirty eight thousand, yeah,
is over one hundred?
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Yeah? I don't There aren't a hundred crash.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
There aren't one hundred fatalities a year, not even close
in the United States the airline fatalities in the air
So it really is safe.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
It's much safer, although it is still scary. Do you
know that.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
George Norri, who of course does coast to coast over
night here on CAI. It's nationally syndicated show. I've run
into him three times on my way to Las Vegas,
and so we grab each other, sit each other on
the plane next to each other. Do you know what
the conversation is every single time? Who gets top billing
if the plane goes down? Is it George?
Speaker 1 (23:14):
Isn't me?
Speaker 2 (23:16):
That's our argument who It depends on the day. George says,
I do. I say, George does?
Speaker 1 (23:22):
All right? Coming up?
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Ooh, tipping, tipping, tipping, tipping. Oh, I had an incident
yesterday that I want to share with you about tipping
and this we're all suffering from this.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
All right now, Oh, yesterday, So I'm taking my vacation.
I'm going to go in September, and yesterday I was
on the phone with one of these travel agent kind
of people that you know, find great deals for you.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
And it took about an hour and a half and
the guy was terrific.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
We were going through all the different flights and how
much I am going. Can't go direct to where I'm going,
so I had to take connecting flights. So you know
how much time layovers and which flight, and it took,
it took a long time, took an.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
Hour and a half. And this is what he does.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
And we found one and it was fantastic, and so
he did a great job. And so took the credit
card and they confirmed and then popped up in the
confirmation tip starting at one hundred dollars because it was
an expensive flight. A tip for somebody who is helping
(24:37):
me put together a flight because he works for the company.
I go, what is that about?
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Last night? Went to a restaurant right there? Tip starting
at eighteen percent.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
Now I go to a restaurants sometimes and it starts
at twenty percent and they put it right on the
check and it's sort of embarrassing. Or how about the
tip jar? Oh, that was another one. So I went
to a bagel shop yesterday, my favorite bagel shop, Western Bagels,
and there is and I paid with a credit card.
(25:13):
So I asked for onion bagels, Western bagels, of course,
real jew bagels West. So I asked for onion bagels,
and I asked for playing bagels, and the guy bends over.
Just so happens those bins that where the bagels were
the two types of bagels were closest to the cash register.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
He literally reached over, picked.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Up bagels, put him in a bag, put him on
the counter. I gave him a credit card tip on
the credit card starting at eighteen percent for someone reaching
three feet to pick up bagels and put him in
a bag, And it took thirty seconds.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
Go here's the sip.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
People are getting really upset about that as I am,
and diners are pushing back big time. And now it's
turning out where he used to be that tips went
up dramatically because of the way they presented, you know,
the tip jars. I don't know if a Starbucks still
does tip jars. I have no idea. I mean, and
(26:15):
if you don't put it in, they give you a
weird look. Come on, really, and then you put it
with a credit card and you sort of feel bad
if you don't. So it used to be that those
suggestions that would help you tip are actually backfiring. Now
tips are going down and people are eating less. So
(26:39):
I went to BJ's restaurant, which I really like.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Last night.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
I took my daughter and we had three appetizers. I
had my diet coke and she had two of their
drinky things. Don't know what they call them, those fruity
alcoholic things. It was one hundred and ten dollars. It's
one hundred and ten dollars. And the tip starts at
(27:05):
eighteen percent. Twenty percent would be twenty what is it?
Twenty two dollars, twenty four dollars. I don't know something
like that. What is that about? So I'm going to
have three appetizers and a couple of drinks plus the
die coke, and I'm going to spend one hundred and
twenty two one hundred and twenty five dollars. I did
(27:29):
I pay tips in cash? Telling the server I'm giving cash,
but you have to promise me. You're going to declare
this to the irs. Give me your word and I
will give you in cash. Okay, I promise you. The
point is the backfiring is going on big time, and
(27:50):
it's hurting.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
It's hurting. You know where it works. You know what
works in Europe? They don't.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
You don't tip in Europe. If you have phenomenal service,
you give five percent. Nobody tips. Why Because it's a
career to be a server. It is a career. You
sit down at a restaurant. Here server comes up and goes,
would you like to read my screenplay? That does not
happen in Europe? All right, enough of that, What are
(28:19):
we talking about? Coming up at eight o'clock? Ooh, fiasco
at the National Security Council, Let's talk about that inside
the administration. And then at eight thirty ask Candle anything
our fun Friday two segments, How we end the week.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
This is KFI AM sixty. You've been listening to the
Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Catch my Show Monday through Friday, six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
The Bill Handel Show News
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