April 30, 2025 • 24 mins
(April 30, 2025)
L.A. County approves largest sex abuse settlement in U.S history. The NATO country with no military gets serious about defense. The 4AM wake up call is not for superman CEOs anymore. Meta’s ‘digital companions’ will talk sex with users…. Even children.
L.A. County approves largest sex abuse settlement in U.S history. The NATO country with no military gets serious about defense. The 4AM wake up call is not for superman CEOs anymore. Meta’s ‘digital companions’ will talk sex with users…. Even children.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Bill Handle here on a Wednesday morning, April thirtiethday.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Everybody's back. We're all in the saddle again.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Yesterday La County Board of Supervisors voted and we knew
this was going to happen unanimously to approve a settlement
to victims of child abuse.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
We're talking four billion.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Dollars to victims who are abused as children in county
run juvenile facilities and foster homes. When we look at
the amount of sex abuse that has happened over the
years by various organizations, Oh, here we go, Sorry about that.
(00:49):
I don't have my phone. It's a scam. I'm sure, okay,
just turned it on silent. When we look at the
extent of child abuse over the last several years, well,
it's always been there. We're just now discovering with it,
actually dealing with it for some reason. And this children
had gotten screwed by. It's unbelievable the levels of child
(01:10):
abuse that society has allowed it to happen all the
way from well, we have four billion dollars now coming
out of the county which we are going to pay
for as taxpayers, And how are they going to come
up with forty or four billion dollars? Real easy, Let's
float a bond. County budget is forty eight billion, and
so this is almost ten percent of ourn annual budget.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
That is a big, big hit. So they're going to
float a bond.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
And there's a rainy day fund also, And so is
the county going to lose cut services.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
No, but it's going to pay big time. The City
of La we're at.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
A billion dollar deficit. That's a different story. That's a
political argument.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Here is this.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Settlement culmination of years of fighting by victims and saying
that no one is really pay the price for the abuse.
This is seven thousand claims from abuse that happened from
the nineteen eighties or the two thousands. And here is
the argument, and that is, why would the county be
responsible for all of this? If there is sexual abuse
(02:19):
and it's being perpetrated on someone in a juvenile facility
or in a let's say there's an abuse in a
shaff station, you fire the person, you disciplined the person
you immediately, well, you prosecute that person. The problem is
is a county knew about it and didn't do anything.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
That's the issue with the arsiasis.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
For example of Los Angeles, one point five billion dollars
they had to settle for victims of Catholic priests. You've
got Boy Scouts of America. Two point four to six
billion dollars had to be paid to victims. And this
is just a story of money. This is a story
(03:02):
of institutionally changing the institution of the fabric of America
turning its back.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
On these horrible abuses.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
I mean when you come to the Boy Scouts and
you come to priests particularly, not that this isn't bad,
but that takes it to another level. Why because those
poor kids, those victims who came forward, they were the liars.
How dare you accuse Boy Scout teacher, priest, someone who's
(03:34):
a foster parent, how dare you accuse them of sexual predation? Well,
you know, we've now learned that it is endemic. The
good news is we have learned it, I think, and
it's just a fraction. And now society and institutions are
(03:56):
much much more.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Apt to actually pay attention. Now.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Can I go the other way, of course? But it
was so horrible, These victims were so treated so badly,
and society. The county just let it happen. There was
plenty of evidence. It's like LA It's like US Gymnastics.
There was tons of evidence out there, and it just
happened over and over again. So I don't know who
(04:22):
would be upset about four billion dollars. And we are
all going to have to pay for it, because when
as governmental it's we get stuck with it and people
just don't pay enough. Certainly the perpetrators don't pay enough.
So four billion dollars is now being raised. It's going
to be the pay will happen over the next five years.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
The paying out of the bond is going to happen
over the next twenty five years.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
And as the head of the CEO of La County,
there is the management team. It's not just the board
of supervisors. There's also a day to day management team,
and there's a CEO. And what this county chief executive said,
we're going to be paying hundreds of millions of dollars
that could be invested into the communities, parks, libraries, beaches,
(05:11):
public social services. And we're going to be paying those
hundreds of millions dollars until twenty fifty and the vetting
process for foster parents is much much stronger now, and
accusations are being paid far more attention, and I think
society has changed just one hundred percent as it should.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
You know. Unfortunately, we think.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
That if someone wants to be a boy Scout leader
or a priest or a foster parent, all of a sudden,
that's a great human being. I've alreadys said, and I'm
going to use the Catholic Church because that's the poster
child of all this. I've always said, it's not that
priests have a proclivity for doing this, it's that people
(05:59):
who do this, it's a great place to be. Is
a priest, or a Scout leader, or a foster parent,
or someone who has a credibility presumed to be in
favor of the child that's going to take care of
the child, has the opportunity and the protection of those
(06:24):
agencies and governmental organizations. Put all that together and you've
got a very very miserable equation.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
So anyway, four billion dollars, who's going to argue with that.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
NATO was created in nineteen forty nine North Atlantic Treaty Organization,
and it's kind of interesting, to say the least, because
NATO was there at the start of the Cold War,
and it was part and parcel of the Cold War.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Once World War.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Two ended and Russia was allied with the Allies, then boom,
it's split.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Off, and now the Cold War started.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
The United States Western Europe on one side, war Russia
and the various nations around they're part of the Soviet
Union on the other side, And NATO was created to
defend Western Europe because the fear was that Russia was
going to go into Western Europe and co op annex
(07:17):
countries in Western Europe like it did with Eastern Europe.
It literally grabbed all the Balkan countries, Lithuania, Estonia, Yugoslavia
to some extent, even though it was somewhat independent, but Bulgaria, Romania,
those all became Ukraine, those all became Russia. And so
the fear was Russia was going to continue on. And
(07:39):
so here comes NATO, North Atlantic Treaty Organizations and originally
there were twelve founding members, including the United States. And
why would Russia why the United States be so upset
about Russia going into Europe, Well, because we were building
up Europe, were part of the.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Western World.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
And it really split up of the twelve nations, nor
Iceland was one of them, and part of NATO is
that Iceland and other countries have to build up their military.
Even though the United States produced the largest amount of
goods and men and equipment and training for NATO, the
(08:21):
deal was that these various countries they'd put in x
percent of their GDP gross domestic.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Product into their defense.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
And this is where Donald Trump has come in and
to his credit, said hey, you guys are lying or
you guys have reached your promise. Either you kick in
the amount that is required of you or we're walking
out the door.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
And they immediately said, okay.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
What Trump did is make them live up to their
contract agreement. This is where I give Trump credit because
I have to do that. I don't throw that out
very often. So here's what happened with Iceland.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
They don't have a army, even though they were supposed to,
they don't have one. They go, what's going on with that?
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Well, there were always a small nation really didn't have
much to do with it. Part of they know now
they're critical Greenland and Iceland.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
You've heard a lot about Greenland. We're going to take it.
We're gonna buy it, We're gonna invade it, whatever the
hell to be part of the United States.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
As Trump said that Greenland is absolutely imperative for a
national security There's a good argument there, by the way,
because Greenland is right in the middle. Iceland also right
in the middle. Reykievic the Capitol has this huge military
base which was critical World War One, world War two,
and is now becoming more and more critical, and does
(09:47):
not have an army, cannot protect itself, and is becoming
more and more critical.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
By the moment.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
It looks at growing risks from increased military activity up.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
There in the high North.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Climate change is opening up waterways that were once impassable,
which you know, Iceland big deal. Now it's at the
center of these waterways. And because the Trump administration and
Europe are being very antagonistic to each other, we have
(10:24):
the worst relationship with Europe that.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
We have had, I think in modern history.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
And Europe is now realizing that the United States is
no longer a friend. It's not an adversary, but it's
no longer we're going to protect you, come hell or
high water kind of relationship which we had. So that
puts Iceland right in the middle of all that, and
they're trying to figure out what the hell do we do.
(10:54):
What's changed completely in that part of the world is
a couple of things. The fact that Russia is becoming
much more belligerent has to the Western world because.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Of Ukraine and Putin becoming a.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Pariah to the United States, and Europe are at odds
with each other big time. And these countries up in
the North Sea, in that area, the Arctic area, have
become the center of all this. And so not only
do you have military, you have economic issues going on,
(11:32):
and Iceland's trying to figure out, what the hell.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Do we do?
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Do we build up defenses way as I said, no
standing army.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
You know what their army is. Their army is the
coast Guard.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
And the coast Guard is there to protect Icelandic waters.
They're fishing rights because that was their entire industry. Well,
Iceland is now a hub of high tech because energy
is basically free. They have geo thermal volcanicvity where they don't.
Their power plants are basically they stick a pipe in
(12:05):
the ground and the heat coming up from the volcanoes
underneath is produces all the energy you want.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
So it's fascinating what's going on right there.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
The other thing, I looked at this and I said,
do you know that the huge military base which was
basically left empty after World War Two and built up
to some extent during the Cold War, now is being
looked at. It is a very very important part of
NATO defenses. You know, it's run by the Coastguard in Iceland.
(12:40):
When's the last time you heard of the coast Guard
running the biggest military base in a country. That's how
crazy it is. So you're going to be hearing a
lot more about Iceland right now. It's all Greenland because
of the news. But put next to that Iceland, by
the way, ever into light Iceland. I thought it was
(13:04):
kind of a if you're an outdoorsy person.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
I'm not.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
You get to do a lot of hiking in the
geothermal and it's beautiful. Also, the Teutonic Plate is in Iceland.
You go there where the Northern Plate meets the Eastern
Plate and you can actually see where the plates meet,
I mean, and walk there and oh there. It is
kind of nice if you are interested in that stuff
at all, which I'm not. Okay, so much for that, Okay,
(13:31):
I'll tell you what else doesn't make any sense waking
up at three or four o'clock.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
In the morning.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Now, there are two types of people that wake up
at those kinds of hours, those of us who have
to wake up early because we're doing a night shift.
For example, Amy, what time do you get up? Amy's
working on her stuff, Will. Will's not paying attention. Kno,
you're not paying attention either. Jobs where people actually pay
(13:56):
attention and wake up early are one thing. And then
there are people that work on this show are It's
a whole different animal.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Will. What time do you wake up? Thirty? Three thirty?
All right? Amy?
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Two?
Speaker 1 (14:07):
See, I'm telling you this is crazy. Cono you have
I got three fifteen guy.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
See, we have to Now there is some kind of
an arms race going on really between particularly CEOs. Bob
Iger of Disney gets up before dawn works out. Tim
Cook CEO starts his emails before the sun comes out.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
It's almost the kinds of arm.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Race to see who can wake up the earliest and
go to work.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
And they don't have to, and they do it. There
is a guy but.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Named Dave dissipate Us, a forty year old digital guy.
He sets the alarm four thirty in the morning, gets
out of bed, pours himself a cup of black coffee
for forty five. He's at work, and it's a two
hour window before the kids get up. And I hear
that from a lot of people that their morning time
(15:01):
actually for me too, because I wake up really early.
On weekends, I wake up at five o'clock and I
will sit and sometimes I used to I'm sleeping more
these days. I used to get up at two thirty
three o'clock and spend a couple of hours reading with
my cup of coffee, and it was just magic time
for me. But then again, I have to go to
bed ridiculously early. And what time do you get up
(15:26):
to forty five? I'm assuming all of us get to
bed around eight o'clock.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
No, I go to bed at about eleven, ten thirty eleven.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Yeah, but then you take a nap in the afternoon,
otherwise you're yead.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
That's another question. Do these people nap? Will do you nap?
Speaker 2 (15:40):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Yeah? Will snapping? Right now? I am, yes, you are.
The problem is sleeping in like increments of three hours
is not exactly healthy. Now, it really isn't.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
It's a thing though, I mean, it has become a
thing and the you know, the doctors are looking at
it in one of the issue of the Metal World's
lookin in one of the issues, exactly as you say
in you're sleeping in different chunks of time?
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Is that good for you? Who?
Speaker 2 (16:10):
They?
Speaker 1 (16:10):
Hell know? Sometimes you have to do it. Cono, do
you nap? Are you a napper? No chance? I have
a one year old and a four year old.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Oh yeah, you don't sleep at all? Yeah, so you're
completely out of your mind.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
I don't know. I can't nap.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
I can't nap, and if I don't get in my
six hours of sleep, you know minimum I'm you know,
you can tell when I do the show.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Amy, Do you nap every day? Okay? But only for
not a long time? You're one of those power nappers.
It's like thirty minutes maybe. See I've never understood that.
How do you do that?
Speaker 2 (16:43):
If I take a nap in the afternoon, I'll nap
for two hours and I am groggy for the rest
of the night and cannot function until I go to bed.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
How do you nap a twenty minute power nap? What
is it?
Speaker 2 (16:54):
No?
Speaker 1 (16:54):
And I don't set alarms or anything. But I do
it every day religiously.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
That to me makes as much sense as a power tie.
I don't I've never understood that. Do you plug it in?
Speaker 1 (17:08):
I have no idea how that works.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
But the other thing is, and people don't understand this
for those of us that wake up at the crack
of the middle of the night, is you get used
to it it just if you've been doing it long enough, people, well,
how can you possibly do it?
Speaker 1 (17:28):
I don't know not to do it because I've been
doing it for so long.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
I mean, it'll be what July sixteenth, It'll be thirty
two years that I've been doing it, you know, waking up? Okay,
here's another one before we take a break. And this
is just kind of fun. Will yes, weekends when you
don't have to sleep, what time do you wake up?
Speaker 1 (17:46):
When you don't have to wake up? What time you doing?
I see that's sleeping in amy? How about you on weekends?
How late do I see? Yeah? Yeah? How sleep do you?
How late do you sleep or wake up?
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Usually about seven thirty on Saturdays in about six on.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Sun wow, and about eight eight o'clock. Yeah. And Cono
of course doesn't go to sleep because you got a
one year old and a four year old mailed it. Yeah, no,
I remember those days.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
By the way, for those of you that are thinking
of having kids, don't just do yourself a.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
Big, big favor. Okay.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
I cannot sleep past five point thirty, just can't do it.
And that's sleeping in for me. And so you just
get used to it becomes part of life. So the
point is, this is a Wall Street Journal article that
this is becoming more and more prevalent.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Everybody is proving their super people by waking up at
the crack of dawn.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
The only thing I'll buy is that nothing interferes in
the morning with you.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
I mean, it is dark, no one's there, there are
no phone calls. All right.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Some of the big stories that are trending A couple
of things. First of all, LA County Board supervisors yesterday
ok to four billion dollars set and for victims of
sexual abuse they suffered in juvenile facilities or foster care
run by the county all the way back to the
nineteen eighties. Also, oh, got a big one going on
(19:14):
right now with the market. We just got in the
news came out the FEDS have told us that the
economy shrank yzero point three percent this last quarter, so
that's not very good news.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Also, the terrif fight, the tariff wars.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
Continue with the President, as you know, still calling for
one hundred and forty five percent tariff against all Chinese goods,
hoping that the Chinese will cave and sit down and
give us a better deal. They're terroriffs versus ours, and
China has come back very strongly and has said mugou guy, no,
(19:51):
it's not going to happen. And that's what's going on
right now.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
So switching over to the world of tech.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Is a Wall Street Journal story and they had done
several months of this, an investigative peace.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
And it had to do with meta. You have Instagram, WhatsApp.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Meta platforms is racing to popularize a new class of
AI power digital companions. All right, These are bought companions
to talk to you and you have a great time
and they tell you what's going on, and you ask, hey,
how you doing?
Speaker 1 (20:27):
They say, hey, what are you wearing? Sailor and just
having a great time.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
So inside Meta, staffers across multiple departments have raised concerns.
They said, you know what, the company's rush to popularize
these bots may have cross ethical lines, including endowing AI
personas with a capacity for fantasy sex. Staffers also warned
(20:58):
that the company wasn't protecting under age users from these
discussions dealing with pretty explicit sexual material. And Meta has
allowed these synthetic personas to offer a full range of
social interaction.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
And this is Mark.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Zuckerberg who really wants to make this happen or has
and this includes romantic role play because you can banter
with some of these personas, and you can banner over
text and share selfies, engage in quote live voice conversations
(21:36):
with users because you're talking to these watts and they're
talking back. And here is where it gets really interesting,
because what Meta did is a cut deals for up
to seven figures with celebrities like Kristen Bell, Judy Dench,
the wrestler turned actor John sena not a big fan
(21:59):
for the right to you use their voices to engage
in conversations with you, and they can get pretty sexually explicit.
So can you imagine having a conversation with Judy Dench.
Now she's a little bit old, but you talk to
this bot and it's Judy Dench saying, Hey, I'd love
(22:21):
to do that with you. Yeah, I like bicycle chains
and bicycle seats and kangaroos too.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
I like all of that stuff.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
Sexually explicit material and way beyond me just joking about it.
So with the Wall Street Journal did over several months
is test Conversations.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Went into these conversations with some of.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
These bots and see how they performed in scenarios and
with users of different ages. And this was the real
problem here. This is where you get problematic. The test
conversation has found that Meta is official AI helper called
Meta AI, and then there's this huge user created chatbot
(23:06):
world and they'll engage in excuse me, and escalate discussions
that are decidedly sexual. I mean it's like my dad's
bigger than your dad, and it just goes up and
up and up. And what these bots are programmed to
do is to simulate the personas of people, and unfortunately
(23:30):
even minors, and the bots are using celebrity voices, and
those personas the bot Judy Dench, her voice, is willing
to engage in sexual chats, I mean graphic stuff. Now
(23:50):
I've done that only to myself. I do that to
the mirror occasionally. But this is technology to a whole
new level. I'm going to come back and continue on
with this. Give me that look, Neil, continue on with
this because there is a world to that. And then
coming at the bottom of the hour, Jim Keeney is
going to join us with some medical news. Kf I
(24:10):
am sixty. You've been listening to the Bill Handle Show.
Catch my Show Monday through Friday, six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Bill Handle here on a Wednesday morning, April thirtiethday.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Everybody's back. We're all in the saddle again.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Yesterday La County Board of Supervisors voted and we knew
this was going to happen unanimously to approve a settlement
to victims of child abuse.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
We're talking four billion.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Dollars to victims who are abused as children in county
run juvenile facilities and foster homes. When we look at
the amount of sex abuse that has happened over the
years by various organizations, Oh, here we go, Sorry about that.
(00:49):
I don't have my phone. It's a scam. I'm sure, okay,
just turned it on silent. When we look at the
extent of child abuse over the last several years, well,
it's always been there. We're just now discovering with it,
actually dealing with it for some reason. And this children
had gotten screwed by. It's unbelievable the levels of child
(01:10):
abuse that society has allowed it to happen all the
way from well, we have four billion dollars now coming
out of the county which we are going to pay
for as taxpayers, And how are they going to come
up with forty or four billion dollars? Real easy, Let's
float a bond. County budget is forty eight billion, and
so this is almost ten percent of ourn annual budget.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
That is a big, big hit. So they're going to
float a bond.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
And there's a rainy day fund also, And so is
the county going to lose cut services.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
No, but it's going to pay big time. The City
of La we're at.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
A billion dollar deficit. That's a different story. That's a
political argument.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Here is this.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Settlement culmination of years of fighting by victims and saying
that no one is really pay the price for the abuse.
This is seven thousand claims from abuse that happened from
the nineteen eighties or the two thousands. And here is
the argument, and that is, why would the county be
responsible for all of this? If there is sexual abuse
(02:19):
and it's being perpetrated on someone in a juvenile facility
or in a let's say there's an abuse in a
shaff station, you fire the person, you disciplined the person
you immediately, well, you prosecute that person. The problem is
is a county knew about it and didn't do anything.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
That's the issue with the arsiasis.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
For example of Los Angeles, one point five billion dollars
they had to settle for victims of Catholic priests. You've
got Boy Scouts of America. Two point four to six
billion dollars had to be paid to victims. And this
is just a story of money. This is a story
(03:02):
of institutionally changing the institution of the fabric of America
turning its back.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
On these horrible abuses.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
I mean when you come to the Boy Scouts and
you come to priests particularly, not that this isn't bad,
but that takes it to another level. Why because those
poor kids, those victims who came forward, they were the liars.
How dare you accuse Boy Scout teacher, priest, someone who's
(03:34):
a foster parent, how dare you accuse them of sexual predation? Well,
you know, we've now learned that it is endemic. The
good news is we have learned it, I think, and
it's just a fraction. And now society and institutions are
(03:56):
much much more.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Apt to actually pay attention. Now.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Can I go the other way, of course? But it
was so horrible, These victims were so treated so badly,
and society. The county just let it happen. There was
plenty of evidence. It's like LA It's like US Gymnastics.
There was tons of evidence out there, and it just
happened over and over again. So I don't know who
(04:22):
would be upset about four billion dollars. And we are
all going to have to pay for it, because when
as governmental it's we get stuck with it and people
just don't pay enough. Certainly the perpetrators don't pay enough.
So four billion dollars is now being raised. It's going
to be the pay will happen over the next five years.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
The paying out of the bond is going to happen
over the next twenty five years.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
And as the head of the CEO of La County,
there is the management team. It's not just the board
of supervisors. There's also a day to day management team,
and there's a CEO. And what this county chief executive said,
we're going to be paying hundreds of millions of dollars
that could be invested into the communities, parks, libraries, beaches,
(05:11):
public social services. And we're going to be paying those
hundreds of millions dollars until twenty fifty and the vetting
process for foster parents is much much stronger now, and
accusations are being paid far more attention, and I think
society has changed just one hundred percent as it should.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
You know. Unfortunately, we think.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
That if someone wants to be a boy Scout leader
or a priest or a foster parent, all of a sudden,
that's a great human being. I've alreadys said, and I'm
going to use the Catholic Church because that's the poster
child of all this. I've always said, it's not that
priests have a proclivity for doing this, it's that people
(05:59):
who do this, it's a great place to be. Is
a priest, or a Scout leader, or a foster parent,
or someone who has a credibility presumed to be in
favor of the child that's going to take care of
the child, has the opportunity and the protection of those
(06:24):
agencies and governmental organizations. Put all that together and you've
got a very very miserable equation.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
So anyway, four billion dollars, who's going to argue with that.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
NATO was created in nineteen forty nine North Atlantic Treaty Organization,
and it's kind of interesting, to say the least, because
NATO was there at the start of the Cold War,
and it was part and parcel of the Cold War.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Once World War.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Two ended and Russia was allied with the Allies, then boom,
it's split.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Off, and now the Cold War started.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
The United States Western Europe on one side, war Russia
and the various nations around they're part of the Soviet
Union on the other side, And NATO was created to
defend Western Europe because the fear was that Russia was
going to go into Western Europe and co op annex
(07:17):
countries in Western Europe like it did with Eastern Europe.
It literally grabbed all the Balkan countries, Lithuania, Estonia, Yugoslavia
to some extent, even though it was somewhat independent, but Bulgaria, Romania,
those all became Ukraine, those all became Russia. And so
the fear was Russia was going to continue on. And
(07:39):
so here comes NATO, North Atlantic Treaty Organizations and originally
there were twelve founding members, including the United States. And
why would Russia why the United States be so upset
about Russia going into Europe, Well, because we were building
up Europe, were part of the.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Western World.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
And it really split up of the twelve nations, nor
Iceland was one of them, and part of NATO is
that Iceland and other countries have to build up their military.
Even though the United States produced the largest amount of
goods and men and equipment and training for NATO, the
(08:21):
deal was that these various countries they'd put in x
percent of their GDP gross domestic.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Product into their defense.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
And this is where Donald Trump has come in and
to his credit, said hey, you guys are lying or
you guys have reached your promise. Either you kick in
the amount that is required of you or we're walking
out the door.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
And they immediately said, okay.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
What Trump did is make them live up to their
contract agreement. This is where I give Trump credit because
I have to do that. I don't throw that out
very often. So here's what happened with Iceland.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
They don't have a army, even though they were supposed to,
they don't have one. They go, what's going on with that?
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Well, there were always a small nation really didn't have
much to do with it. Part of they know now
they're critical Greenland and Iceland.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
You've heard a lot about Greenland. We're going to take it.
We're gonna buy it, We're gonna invade it, whatever the
hell to be part of the United States.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
As Trump said that Greenland is absolutely imperative for a
national security There's a good argument there, by the way,
because Greenland is right in the middle. Iceland also right
in the middle. Reykievic the Capitol has this huge military
base which was critical World War One, world War two,
and is now becoming more and more critical, and does
(09:47):
not have an army, cannot protect itself, and is becoming
more and more critical.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
By the moment.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
It looks at growing risks from increased military activity up.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
There in the high North.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Climate change is opening up waterways that were once impassable,
which you know, Iceland big deal. Now it's at the
center of these waterways. And because the Trump administration and
Europe are being very antagonistic to each other, we have
(10:24):
the worst relationship with Europe that.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
We have had, I think in modern history.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
And Europe is now realizing that the United States is
no longer a friend. It's not an adversary, but it's
no longer we're going to protect you, come hell or
high water kind of relationship which we had. So that
puts Iceland right in the middle of all that, and
they're trying to figure out what the hell do we do.
(10:54):
What's changed completely in that part of the world is
a couple of things. The fact that Russia is becoming
much more belligerent has to the Western world because.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Of Ukraine and Putin becoming a.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Pariah to the United States, and Europe are at odds
with each other big time. And these countries up in
the North Sea, in that area, the Arctic area, have
become the center of all this. And so not only
do you have military, you have economic issues going on,
(11:32):
and Iceland's trying to figure out, what the hell.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Do we do?
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Do we build up defenses way as I said, no
standing army.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
You know what their army is. Their army is the
coast Guard.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
And the coast Guard is there to protect Icelandic waters.
They're fishing rights because that was their entire industry. Well,
Iceland is now a hub of high tech because energy
is basically free. They have geo thermal volcanicvity where they don't.
Their power plants are basically they stick a pipe in
(12:05):
the ground and the heat coming up from the volcanoes
underneath is produces all the energy you want.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
So it's fascinating what's going on right there.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
The other thing, I looked at this and I said,
do you know that the huge military base which was
basically left empty after World War Two and built up
to some extent during the Cold War, now is being
looked at. It is a very very important part of
NATO defenses. You know, it's run by the Coastguard in Iceland.
(12:40):
When's the last time you heard of the coast Guard
running the biggest military base in a country. That's how
crazy it is. So you're going to be hearing a
lot more about Iceland right now. It's all Greenland because
of the news. But put next to that Iceland, by
the way, ever into light Iceland. I thought it was
(13:04):
kind of a if you're an outdoorsy person.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
I'm not.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
You get to do a lot of hiking in the
geothermal and it's beautiful. Also, the Teutonic Plate is in Iceland.
You go there where the Northern Plate meets the Eastern
Plate and you can actually see where the plates meet,
I mean, and walk there and oh there. It is
kind of nice if you are interested in that stuff
at all, which I'm not. Okay, so much for that, Okay,
(13:31):
I'll tell you what else doesn't make any sense waking
up at three or four o'clock.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
In the morning.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Now, there are two types of people that wake up
at those kinds of hours, those of us who have
to wake up early because we're doing a night shift.
For example, Amy, what time do you get up? Amy's
working on her stuff, Will. Will's not paying attention. Kno,
you're not paying attention either. Jobs where people actually pay
(13:56):
attention and wake up early are one thing. And then
there are people that work on this show are It's
a whole different animal.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Will. What time do you wake up? Thirty? Three thirty?
All right? Amy?
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Two?
Speaker 1 (14:07):
See, I'm telling you this is crazy. Cono you have
I got three fifteen guy.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
See, we have to Now there is some kind of
an arms race going on really between particularly CEOs. Bob
Iger of Disney gets up before dawn works out. Tim
Cook CEO starts his emails before the sun comes out.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
It's almost the kinds of arm.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Race to see who can wake up the earliest and
go to work.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
And they don't have to, and they do it. There
is a guy but.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Named Dave dissipate Us, a forty year old digital guy.
He sets the alarm four thirty in the morning, gets
out of bed, pours himself a cup of black coffee
for forty five. He's at work, and it's a two
hour window before the kids get up. And I hear
that from a lot of people that their morning time
(15:01):
actually for me too, because I wake up really early.
On weekends, I wake up at five o'clock and I
will sit and sometimes I used to I'm sleeping more
these days. I used to get up at two thirty
three o'clock and spend a couple of hours reading with
my cup of coffee, and it was just magic time
for me. But then again, I have to go to
bed ridiculously early. And what time do you get up
(15:26):
to forty five? I'm assuming all of us get to
bed around eight o'clock.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
No, I go to bed at about eleven, ten thirty eleven.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Yeah, but then you take a nap in the afternoon,
otherwise you're yead.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
That's another question. Do these people nap? Will do you nap?
Speaker 2 (15:40):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Yeah? Will snapping? Right now? I am, yes, you are.
The problem is sleeping in like increments of three hours
is not exactly healthy. Now, it really isn't.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
It's a thing though, I mean, it has become a
thing and the you know, the doctors are looking at
it in one of the issue of the Metal World's
lookin in one of the issues, exactly as you say
in you're sleeping in different chunks of time?
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Is that good for you? Who?
Speaker 2 (16:10):
They?
Speaker 1 (16:10):
Hell know? Sometimes you have to do it. Cono, do
you nap? Are you a napper? No chance? I have
a one year old and a four year old.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Oh yeah, you don't sleep at all? Yeah, so you're
completely out of your mind.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
I don't know. I can't nap.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
I can't nap, and if I don't get in my
six hours of sleep, you know minimum I'm you know,
you can tell when I do the show.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Amy, Do you nap every day? Okay? But only for
not a long time? You're one of those power nappers.
It's like thirty minutes maybe. See I've never understood that.
How do you do that?
Speaker 2 (16:43):
If I take a nap in the afternoon, I'll nap
for two hours and I am groggy for the rest
of the night and cannot function until I go to bed.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
How do you nap a twenty minute power nap? What
is it?
Speaker 2 (16:54):
No?
Speaker 1 (16:54):
And I don't set alarms or anything. But I do
it every day religiously.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
That to me makes as much sense as a power tie.
I don't I've never understood that. Do you plug it in?
Speaker 1 (17:08):
I have no idea how that works.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
But the other thing is, and people don't understand this
for those of us that wake up at the crack
of the middle of the night, is you get used
to it it just if you've been doing it long enough, people, well,
how can you possibly do it?
Speaker 1 (17:28):
I don't know not to do it because I've been
doing it for so long.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
I mean, it'll be what July sixteenth, It'll be thirty
two years that I've been doing it, you know, waking up? Okay,
here's another one before we take a break. And this
is just kind of fun. Will yes, weekends when you
don't have to sleep, what time do you wake up?
Speaker 1 (17:46):
When you don't have to wake up? What time you doing?
I see that's sleeping in amy? How about you on weekends?
How late do I see? Yeah? Yeah? How sleep do you?
How late do you sleep or wake up?
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Usually about seven thirty on Saturdays in about six on.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Sun wow, and about eight eight o'clock. Yeah. And Cono
of course doesn't go to sleep because you got a
one year old and a four year old mailed it. Yeah, no,
I remember those days.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
By the way, for those of you that are thinking
of having kids, don't just do yourself a.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
Big, big favor. Okay.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
I cannot sleep past five point thirty, just can't do it.
And that's sleeping in for me. And so you just
get used to it becomes part of life. So the
point is, this is a Wall Street Journal article that
this is becoming more and more prevalent.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Everybody is proving their super people by waking up at
the crack of dawn.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
The only thing I'll buy is that nothing interferes in
the morning with you.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
I mean, it is dark, no one's there, there are
no phone calls. All right.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Some of the big stories that are trending A couple
of things. First of all, LA County Board supervisors yesterday
ok to four billion dollars set and for victims of
sexual abuse they suffered in juvenile facilities or foster care
run by the county all the way back to the
nineteen eighties. Also, oh, got a big one going on
(19:14):
right now with the market. We just got in the
news came out the FEDS have told us that the
economy shrank yzero point three percent this last quarter, so
that's not very good news.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Also, the terrif fight, the tariff wars.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
Continue with the President, as you know, still calling for
one hundred and forty five percent tariff against all Chinese goods,
hoping that the Chinese will cave and sit down and
give us a better deal. They're terroriffs versus ours, and
China has come back very strongly and has said mugou guy, no,
(19:51):
it's not going to happen. And that's what's going on
right now.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
So switching over to the world of tech.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Is a Wall Street Journal story and they had done
several months of this, an investigative peace.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
And it had to do with meta. You have Instagram, WhatsApp.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Meta platforms is racing to popularize a new class of
AI power digital companions. All right, These are bought companions
to talk to you and you have a great time
and they tell you what's going on, and you ask, hey,
how you doing?
Speaker 1 (20:27):
They say, hey, what are you wearing? Sailor and just
having a great time.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
So inside Meta, staffers across multiple departments have raised concerns.
They said, you know what, the company's rush to popularize
these bots may have cross ethical lines, including endowing AI
personas with a capacity for fantasy sex. Staffers also warned
(20:58):
that the company wasn't protecting under age users from these
discussions dealing with pretty explicit sexual material. And Meta has
allowed these synthetic personas to offer a full range of
social interaction.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
And this is Mark.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Zuckerberg who really wants to make this happen or has
and this includes romantic role play because you can banter
with some of these personas, and you can banner over
text and share selfies, engage in quote live voice conversations
(21:36):
with users because you're talking to these watts and they're
talking back. And here is where it gets really interesting,
because what Meta did is a cut deals for up
to seven figures with celebrities like Kristen Bell, Judy Dench,
the wrestler turned actor John sena not a big fan
(21:59):
for the right to you use their voices to engage
in conversations with you, and they can get pretty sexually explicit.
So can you imagine having a conversation with Judy Dench.
Now she's a little bit old, but you talk to
this bot and it's Judy Dench saying, Hey, I'd love
(22:21):
to do that with you. Yeah, I like bicycle chains
and bicycle seats and kangaroos too.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
I like all of that stuff.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
Sexually explicit material and way beyond me just joking about it.
So with the Wall Street Journal did over several months
is test Conversations.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Went into these conversations with some of.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
These bots and see how they performed in scenarios and
with users of different ages. And this was the real
problem here. This is where you get problematic. The test
conversation has found that Meta is official AI helper called
Meta AI, and then there's this huge user created chatbot
(23:06):
world and they'll engage in excuse me, and escalate discussions
that are decidedly sexual. I mean it's like my dad's
bigger than your dad, and it just goes up and
up and up. And what these bots are programmed to
do is to simulate the personas of people, and unfortunately
(23:30):
even minors, and the bots are using celebrity voices, and
those personas the bot Judy Dench, her voice, is willing
to engage in sexual chats, I mean graphic stuff. Now
(23:50):
I've done that only to myself. I do that to
the mirror occasionally. But this is technology to a whole
new level. I'm going to come back and continue on
with this. Give me that look, Neil, continue on with
this because there is a world to that. And then
coming at the bottom of the hour, Jim Keeney is
going to join us with some medical news. Kf I
(24:10):
am sixty. You've been listening to the Bill Handle Show.
Catch my Show Monday through Friday, six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
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