August 13, 2025 • 26 mins
(August 13, 2025)
What is redshirting? New parents’ rights controversy stirs in D.C. UFC boss Dana White says White House cage fight Is ‘going to happen.’ Schools to open with unprecedented protections for children and their parents amid ICE raids. The era of big raises for low-paid workers is over.
What is redshirting? New parents’ rights controversy stirs in D.C. UFC boss Dana White says White House cage fight Is ‘going to happen.’ Schools to open with unprecedented protections for children and their parents amid ICE raids. The era of big raises for low-paid workers is over.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listenings k I AM six forty the bill handle
show on demand on the iHeartRadio fi AM sixty bill
Handle Here it is a Wednesday, August thirteenth. I now
have it written up and so I know it is
a Wednesday, August thirteenth. Otherwise I have absolutely no idea.
(00:25):
What is red shirting? Well, red shirting is about parents
keeping back kids for a year, and it happens quite often,
and there's really mixed reviews about red shirting. Let me
give you the advantages of red shirting. And this reminds
(00:45):
me of a Malcolm Gladwill philosophy where he explains effectively
what red shirting is or actually a type of natural
selection of red shirting. So you've got a kid, and
you've decided that the kid's going to be held back,
and instead of kindergarten starting at five, you start kindergarten
(01:07):
at six, which means that your kid is bigger, has
had another year of education, but real world education, and
just has huge advantages. The same thing happens with kids
that are born at the first part of the year
versus kids that are born at the latter part of
(01:28):
the year.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
The last few days of the semester.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
The kids born early are bigger, and this is where
Malcolm Gladwell talked about how they have huge advantages. And
you looked at Canadian stats and hockey in school and
it was a direct correlation between the kids that were
born younger because they're bigger, they're more mature, they've had
more practice at whatever sport or reading, and.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
It's just a huge advantage.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
And if you hold a kid back a year, that
becomes really advantageous. So a lot of parents are doing that,
holding back kids, and they're saying they're saying it's because
the kid is not ready for school, because the kid
(02:19):
is not mature enough to enter, in this case kindergarten.
There's a story USA today about Jennifer Lilan Tall.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
She has a five year old.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
And she says wasn't ready to learn how to read
with kids her age in kindergarten, so she held back.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Well, guess what the school is doing.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Lafayette Elementary School in Chevy Chase, Maryland, near Washington, d C.
The school is saying, too bad, too bad, We're not
going to have a kid held back because of the
huge disadvantage of the other kids. Now, I was at
a huge disadvantage. I was born the last couple of
(02:58):
days of the school semester, and therefore I would be smaller.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
I would not have a year's more experience.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
It just so happens. I was a big kid, so
that wasn't a problem. And I didn't speak a word
of English, so the teachers the administration had no idea
where to put me. So I went into kindergarten and
I had to learn English. None of this English is
the second language crapola for me. Either it was sink
(03:29):
or swim. So red shirting is there is the controversy.
Parents are saying, this is for my kid, so my
kid can benefit because emotionally, maturity wise not ready.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
School boards are.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Saying and many those that are against red shirting are saying, no,
it's not fair. You're giving your kid an unfair advantage.
And it's that it's not even for your benefit, it's
for the benefit of the other kids who are not
going to have the same advantage. And a quick story
about my daughter Pamela. When she entered kindergarten at the
(04:11):
appropriate age, she was already reading.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
And it's not like we taught her how to read.
We never did.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
She was reading, and I mean really reading, and I
thought she was a genius.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
I went, oh my god, this is a Nobel Prize
winner in the future. I mean, she's so smart.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Well, it turned out that she just cracked the code early.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
That was it.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Reading is about cracking the code, that's all it is.
And she just cracked the code. And all of a sudden,
the joys I had and thinking she was the smallest
smartest person person in the world went downhill. And then
they gave her an IQ test and it turned out
she had an IQ of eighty two.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
So that got a little depressing.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Okay, you're the worst, You're the worst person. You're the
worst father, the worst husband.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Geez rah, Well, thank you for that. Thank you. I
appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
So it and so red shirting is it's advantageous big
time for parents. And who knows whether parents, what is
the motivation, Whether parents are holding back kids because they
genuinely believe and the kids need that extra year, or uh,
it's strictly advantageous and the kid would be fine in
(05:37):
the normal grade, but we want this child to have
the advantage of red shirting. And some school districts have
just stopped it they're just saying too bad, which is
another problem, and that is kids that do need that
extra year because they're immature, because they haven't reached the
level of what other kids are in the grade. They
(06:02):
get screwed and the school district which way do you go?
Speaker 2 (06:06):
And they don't know at this point.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
It is a real dilemma because both sides are right
and both sides are wrong.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Okay, oh god, I love this story. Now.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
I have spent many an hour talking about how unique
our president is relative to other presidents. And sometimes he
goes off in a direction that I love, not only
a direction that no one could figure out which way
was going, just something had never been done by any president.
(06:42):
I mean, he's done a lot of that, but this
one is just fun, fun, fun. Now he happens to
be a big fan of UFC, and that's mixed martial
arts if you were will and that's just beating the
crap out of each other in cages.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
If I have that right, Neil, you've done that.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
No, I have not done UFC. I remember the very
first one in the nineties. I have gone to see them.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Yes, No, but you actually engage in fighting.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Maybe not UFC, but you've done mixed martial arts.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Yeah, if you want to call it art, it actually
it is.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
It's an amazing art form, as does mister Mo Kelly,
who is a multiple high ranking.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Oh I didn't know that is he he was a black.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
No, I had no idea that Mo most surprises us
with his stuff.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
I mean he is so rounded.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
He is, he is very high up there, and he
has studied hard. He's been doing it since he was
a kid.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
But yeah, I used to compete and glorified slap fighting
whatever you want to call it. But it is the original.
The original mixed martial arts was was that it was?
I mean you had sumo wrestlers against Jeet Kundo. You
had all kinds of mixed craziness. Now it's mostly focused
(08:11):
on ground fighting or grappling, all right, beating the crap
out of su Brazilian jiu jitsu and the like. All right,
a big fan happens to be our president. And would
you ever think there would be a cage fight which
they sometimes do locked up in cages, which is well,
it's the octagon, it's got Yeah, it's not a cage like.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
A Yeah, but you don't care. You can't get out
of it.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Yeah, well you get out through the top anyway. It
doesn't it doesn't matter.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Uh, Now we're getting very technical, which I don't understand.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
But the point is two men enter, one man leave.
No I understand that.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Well, actually say it is when one man wons wins
and the other one doesn't.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
But the story is that the President is.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
A big fan and Dana White, who happens to run
all of this fifty six year old promoter, he and
the president, or he's talked the President into a one
of these UFC fights on the front lawn of the
White House, setting up that cage. Now, the lawn of
(09:21):
the White House is where Marine one lands, where they
do the Easter egg rolls, where events are held that
are benign and their pr and it shows a gentle
side of the President, the White House, the First Lady,
where they go out and you know he pardons the turkey,
(09:44):
I mean.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Just does all of that stuff.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Well, we've got a cage fight going on, and Dana
Whie said, oh, this is going to happen, and it's
going to happen on the south lawn.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Now, what's UFC.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Fighting used to be something that was really it was
not only niche, it was an outlier. It did not
have a good reputation. I mean it was sort of
the bottom of the barrel.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
The early days were brutal. Bill they were brutal. I
mean it was bloody and brutal. In the earlier days.
You couldn't even get places of states that would allow
it early on. But it's the fastest growing sport right now.
I mean it's massive.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
It once demonized by politicians around the world. Today it
is the preferred sport of our president, who goes to
these fights with close associates. And whether he is part
of making UFC this global behemoth a behemoth, I don't know.
(10:51):
It's a publicly traded company. It's just wrapping a five
hundred and fifty million year, five hundred and fifty million
dollar a year deal with.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
ESPN and that stopped.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
Why Paramount came in and bought the entire Chabang for
over a billion dollars.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
That's for a season.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
By the way, they're not buying UFC and they're changing
the model. Also, this a new arrangement a Paramount screaming
streaming service. Subscriber will have access to the UFC fights
as and I am Paramount plus and it used to
be a pay per view. Now I would never do
(11:37):
a pay per view for a boxing match, certainly not
a UFC match.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
That's just not me.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
However, since it is now part of my streaming package,
you know what you know, basically the premise of someone
hurting the other person so desperately bad, which is the
way I feel about you, Neil is you know, that's entertainment.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
That's entertainment.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
I will absolutely get into the octagon with you.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Oh yeah, that's going to happen in this lifetime. But
there are logistical challenges. But they're going to overcome those
logistical challenges because they happen to have a president who
is a huge fan.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Now let me ask you.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Let's say there would be another president another time who
also had just loved USC right happened to like mixed
martial arts. Do you think he or she would go
public with that? No, not a chance. But as I've said,
(12:44):
this is one outlier president.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Would you freak out if they had a boxing ex.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Not as much, no, no, but not as much as UFC.
It's a question of appropriateness. I mean, do you you know,
put the presidency in the same category. I do believe
that the only person that can pull that off in
the history of the American presidency would be Donald Trump.
And it's not even getting away with it, it is
(13:15):
just who and part of what he is about. And
I can't imagine anybody else having a UFC fight on
the south lawn of the White House. And I guess
they put up stadium seating, and I mean, it's gonna
be a logistical issue. And how much do they do
people buy tickets or is it buy invitation only? No
(13:39):
one knows yet. Okay, that one's done. That is just fun,
all right, Now we're gonna get a little serious. Unfortunately,
school opens tomorrow in many districts Orange County. Many schools
are open La LA Unified. I'd love to talk about
LA Unified because that's the poster child in my life
(14:00):
because I grew up in LA Unified and I came
out of LA Unified actually literate, which is a miracle
both for the school board and for me.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
So what's going on, Well, you're normal, back to school.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
You know, the kids wear new clothes, and you go
to Target and you buy that stuff and oh yeah,
you've got ice coming in and picking up kids and
over their parents. And that is the fear that not
only parents have, but the school boards and the superintendence
and they, I mean all of them are frightened because, frankly,
(14:38):
these ice raids are picking up people that should not
be picked up. That's even part of the philosophy of
our government, and that is they're only interested in the
bad guys. Well, it turns out there are people that
are not so bad being swept up in school boards
across the country are sweating bullets, and what they're doing
(15:02):
is preparing for the raids by helping parents, by helping students.
You've got thirty school board school board members in La County.
LA County has about eighty school districts, and LA Unified
has about four hundred thousand students.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
So what the school's.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Doing is building safe passage networks two or three blocks
out from the campus, and those are effectively guarded by parents.
To some extent, they have scouts that are telling folks
the ice is on its way, go hide, deal with it,
(15:47):
go someplace else.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
And these are schools all.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Over southern California, and I don't know about the rest
of the country, but right now, as safe passage presidents
has expanded, according to carbon Is, a superintendent of LA
so far expanded from.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Forty schools last year to one hundred this year.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
And that's total about one thousand campuses throughout the country.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
So here's what they do.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Starting a task force to coordinate safe passage with local cities,
setting up donors supported compassion funds to help families with
legal and other costs, coordinating food aid for families in hiding.
There are families that are actually hiding, fearful that Ice
(16:39):
is going to come and pick them up.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
I mean, do they go to the schools? I mean,
come on, I mean.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
There are a few outlier events that does happen, but
for the most part, no, you know. For example, Pam
Bondi the reason, one of the reasons she gives for
DC the the federalization of DC police that the president did.
(17:06):
And she referred to one one person being killed by
an illegal alien or illegal migrant, okay, now providing legal referrals. Also,
the school districts are doing contacting more than ten thousand
families to encourage them to actually send their kids to
(17:27):
school because they're not because they're frightened, particularly in Latino
districts obviously providing information about online schooling options because these
are this is policy from the school themselves. This is
not parents wanting online because I don't want my kids
(17:49):
going to school and I don't like what the school
is teaching. No, this is actually to keep people, keep
kids safe by the person received notion. And in some
cases it's true that not so much kids are being
picked up, but parents are being picked up in getting
(18:10):
their kids and distributing a family preparedness guide. Here's what
you do to prepare when ice comes around. And I've
never heard of this happening. I really haven't.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
So we get them.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
In our we're LAUSD and we get them all these
guides and to be prepared and all of that.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
I find that absolutely fascinating. Schools have gone.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
When I went to school, and I was at LA
Unified in the late fifties sixties, Okay, the fear was
the atomic bomb, and you would duck and cover because
and I don't know why, but you would dive under
the desk and you'd put your hands over your neck
(19:01):
and you're asked towards the window, and I guess that's
to protect you that the front of your head is
going to be vaporized one one thousandth of a second
after your ass is okay, So we've gone from that
to earthquake preparedness.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
What do you do in an earthquake? We've always had fire.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Drills, now active shooter drills and in Latino schools now
or primarily Latino ice raids. Man, look where we have gone. So,
uh you Max goes to l A Unifi, doesn't he?
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Okay, And you're getting all Oh and Max is Hispanic
like you are, Yes, Mexican.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Oh, Max's history.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
You're gonna be able to visit him in a nice
attention center.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
Oh and he and he looks it. He's oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
You know what's up.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
It's not people aren't going out to buy clothes this year.
They're they're bleaching their their children's hair, getting them blue contacts.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
It's a whole new fad. Seriously, no, no, okay, I
didn't think. So what do I know? You know you're
the one that has a kid at LA Unified. By
the way, are you teaching him? Oh my name is Trevor.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
Have you started have you teached have you taught him
to scream? Your say I'm adicano?
Speaker 2 (20:31):
No, no, okay, he is American of Mexico. Yes he is,
Yes he is.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
All right, Okay, I want to share with you what's
happening happening economically, and it's really weird. I mean, the
world is very strange right now. And that is the
premise of the people getting richer, rich people getting richer,
poor people getting poorer. That actually changed a little bit
(20:57):
during before and especially after the pandemic, and that is
the lower income workers actually their wages were growing faster
than the wealthy people, the high end people. Now, you know,
obviously someone making three hundred thousand dollars a year is
(21:17):
very different than someone making forty or fifty thousand dollars
a year, but relatively speaking, the lower end workers were
getting more money percentage wise.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
Well, that's kind of changed.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Although now at this point, and maybe that's one of
the reasons that the stock market is doing as well
and the economy is at this point buzzing along.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Business is making money. Now. The economists are.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Saying, man, we're on the verge of a big change
with the tariffs coming in, but they have not yet
come in so so far President Trump is on a win.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
For the most part.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
But the labor market is cooling, and it is harder
for low wage workers to even switch jobs. Remember you
used to get a job. You go to Taco Bell
and then you go to Target, or you go to
in and out Burger, and you'd get instead of minimum wage,
all of a sudden it was two bucks three bucks
an hour more. Well gone, those days completely gone.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
And why is that?
Speaker 1 (22:24):
Well, businesses are not hiring as much. They're actually shrinking,
not necessarily in terms of business per se, but in
terms of employees. Look what happened to us at KFI.
There's no one working anymore. We used to have janitors,
(22:45):
for example, And as Kono walks out the door every morning,
he's handed up broom and a mop and he says,
go to work, or management says, go to work. They
do this same thing for me. But then I turn
around and give Neil the room and I go here,
sweep up now exactly Now, The reality is we really
(23:11):
don't have anywhere near the number of employees, and the
amount of money that employees coming in get is well,
it used to be different, but I think no, it
started at minimum wage, it sort of stays at minimum wage,
and it will keep on going at minimum wage. But
that's just this company. You have companies that would give workers.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
What was it.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
We were talking about a taco bell that was paying
twenty three dollars an hour and they couldn't get enough workers. Well,
can you today twenty three dollars an hour? People would
be screaming for now. It was the pandemic that changed everything.
Businesses laid off the number of workers they had to.
(23:56):
Low wage employees were sort of the quickest ones to go.
Retails stores shut down, hotels, restaurants shut down, and then
they reopened and desperate to find workers.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Not so much anymore. Now you've got.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
Lower paid workers at are well, they still get lower paid,
but it's a cooler labor market that has happened. One
of the things about employers, they've been reluctant to fire people.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
One of those things.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
If you still have a job at this point, you
are very lucky. Forget about a raise, just hanging on
to your job as a raise. But employers are also
not hiring, which puts poor workers in particular disadvantage because
they're more likely to work jobs where turnover is frequent,
(24:52):
highly seasonal, for example, hotels, restaurant. This seasonal stuff and
they're it's tough. What do you do retail? And so
you can work during the summer, and then all of
a sudden you're looking for work during the winter. It's
tough in America, particularly southern California and New York and
(25:13):
the Bay Area. It is not a good place to
be poor. It is a rough place to be poor.
It's wonderful to be rich. Not that if you're rich,
other places aren't great. But if you're poor, you definitely
want the Scandinavian countries because of the safety net. You
want Europe far more than US. Next comes US. And
(25:35):
then if you're really lucky your parents are Sudanese or
Yemenese and you're born in Yemen or Africa, that is
a tough one, not so easy. This is KFI Am sixty.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
You've been listening to the Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
Catch my Show Monday through Friday six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
You're listenings k I AM six forty the bill handle
show on demand on the iHeartRadio fi AM sixty bill
Handle Here it is a Wednesday, August thirteenth. I now
have it written up and so I know it is
a Wednesday, August thirteenth. Otherwise I have absolutely no idea.
(00:25):
What is red shirting? Well, red shirting is about parents
keeping back kids for a year, and it happens quite often,
and there's really mixed reviews about red shirting. Let me
give you the advantages of red shirting. And this reminds
(00:45):
me of a Malcolm Gladwill philosophy where he explains effectively
what red shirting is or actually a type of natural
selection of red shirting. So you've got a kid, and
you've decided that the kid's going to be held back,
and instead of kindergarten starting at five, you start kindergarten
(01:07):
at six, which means that your kid is bigger, has
had another year of education, but real world education, and
just has huge advantages. The same thing happens with kids
that are born at the first part of the year
versus kids that are born at the latter part of
(01:28):
the year.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
The last few days of the semester.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
The kids born early are bigger, and this is where
Malcolm Gladwell talked about how they have huge advantages. And
you looked at Canadian stats and hockey in school and
it was a direct correlation between the kids that were
born younger because they're bigger, they're more mature, they've had
more practice at whatever sport or reading, and.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
It's just a huge advantage.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
And if you hold a kid back a year, that
becomes really advantageous. So a lot of parents are doing that,
holding back kids, and they're saying they're saying it's because
the kid is not ready for school, because the kid
(02:19):
is not mature enough to enter, in this case kindergarten.
There's a story USA today about Jennifer Lilan Tall.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
She has a five year old.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
And she says wasn't ready to learn how to read
with kids her age in kindergarten, so she held back.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Well, guess what the school is doing.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Lafayette Elementary School in Chevy Chase, Maryland, near Washington, d C.
The school is saying, too bad, too bad, We're not
going to have a kid held back because of the
huge disadvantage of the other kids. Now, I was at
a huge disadvantage. I was born the last couple of
(02:58):
days of the school semester, and therefore I would be smaller.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
I would not have a year's more experience.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
It just so happens. I was a big kid, so
that wasn't a problem. And I didn't speak a word
of English, so the teachers the administration had no idea
where to put me. So I went into kindergarten and
I had to learn English. None of this English is
the second language crapola for me. Either it was sink
(03:29):
or swim. So red shirting is there is the controversy.
Parents are saying, this is for my kid, so my
kid can benefit because emotionally, maturity wise not ready.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
School boards are.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Saying and many those that are against red shirting are saying, no,
it's not fair. You're giving your kid an unfair advantage.
And it's that it's not even for your benefit, it's
for the benefit of the other kids who are not
going to have the same advantage. And a quick story
about my daughter Pamela. When she entered kindergarten at the
(04:11):
appropriate age, she was already reading.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
And it's not like we taught her how to read.
We never did.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
She was reading, and I mean really reading, and I
thought she was a genius.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
I went, oh my god, this is a Nobel Prize
winner in the future. I mean, she's so smart.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Well, it turned out that she just cracked the code early.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
That was it.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Reading is about cracking the code, that's all it is.
And she just cracked the code. And all of a sudden,
the joys I had and thinking she was the smallest
smartest person person in the world went downhill. And then
they gave her an IQ test and it turned out
she had an IQ of eighty two.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
So that got a little depressing.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Okay, you're the worst, You're the worst person. You're the
worst father, the worst husband.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Geez rah, Well, thank you for that. Thank you. I
appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
So it and so red shirting is it's advantageous big
time for parents. And who knows whether parents, what is
the motivation, Whether parents are holding back kids because they
genuinely believe and the kids need that extra year, or uh,
it's strictly advantageous and the kid would be fine in
(05:37):
the normal grade, but we want this child to have
the advantage of red shirting. And some school districts have
just stopped it they're just saying too bad, which is
another problem, and that is kids that do need that
extra year because they're immature, because they haven't reached the
level of what other kids are in the grade. They
(06:02):
get screwed and the school district which way do you go?
Speaker 2 (06:06):
And they don't know at this point.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
It is a real dilemma because both sides are right
and both sides are wrong.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Okay, oh god, I love this story. Now.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
I have spent many an hour talking about how unique
our president is relative to other presidents. And sometimes he
goes off in a direction that I love, not only
a direction that no one could figure out which way
was going, just something had never been done by any president.
(06:42):
I mean, he's done a lot of that, but this
one is just fun, fun, fun. Now he happens to
be a big fan of UFC, and that's mixed martial
arts if you were will and that's just beating the
crap out of each other in cages.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
If I have that right, Neil, you've done that.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
No, I have not done UFC. I remember the very
first one in the nineties. I have gone to see them.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Yes, No, but you actually engage in fighting.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Maybe not UFC, but you've done mixed martial arts.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Yeah, if you want to call it art, it actually
it is.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
It's an amazing art form, as does mister Mo Kelly,
who is a multiple high ranking.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Oh I didn't know that is he he was a black.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
No, I had no idea that Mo most surprises us
with his stuff.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
I mean he is so rounded.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
He is, he is very high up there, and he
has studied hard. He's been doing it since he was
a kid.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
But yeah, I used to compete and glorified slap fighting
whatever you want to call it. But it is the original.
The original mixed martial arts was was that it was?
I mean you had sumo wrestlers against Jeet Kundo. You
had all kinds of mixed craziness. Now it's mostly focused
(08:11):
on ground fighting or grappling, all right, beating the crap
out of su Brazilian jiu jitsu and the like. All right,
a big fan happens to be our president. And would
you ever think there would be a cage fight which
they sometimes do locked up in cages, which is well,
it's the octagon, it's got Yeah, it's not a cage like.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
A Yeah, but you don't care. You can't get out
of it.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Yeah, well you get out through the top anyway. It
doesn't it doesn't matter.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Uh, Now we're getting very technical, which I don't understand.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
But the point is two men enter, one man leave.
No I understand that.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Well, actually say it is when one man wons wins
and the other one doesn't.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
But the story is that the President is.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
A big fan and Dana White, who happens to run
all of this fifty six year old promoter, he and
the president, or he's talked the President into a one
of these UFC fights on the front lawn of the
White House, setting up that cage. Now, the lawn of
(09:21):
the White House is where Marine one lands, where they
do the Easter egg rolls, where events are held that
are benign and their pr and it shows a gentle
side of the President, the White House, the First Lady,
where they go out and you know he pardons the turkey,
(09:44):
I mean.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Just does all of that stuff.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Well, we've got a cage fight going on, and Dana
Whie said, oh, this is going to happen, and it's
going to happen on the south lawn.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Now, what's UFC.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Fighting used to be something that was really it was
not only niche, it was an outlier. It did not
have a good reputation. I mean it was sort of
the bottom of the barrel.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
The early days were brutal. Bill they were brutal. I
mean it was bloody and brutal. In the earlier days.
You couldn't even get places of states that would allow
it early on. But it's the fastest growing sport right now.
I mean it's massive.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
It once demonized by politicians around the world. Today it
is the preferred sport of our president, who goes to
these fights with close associates. And whether he is part
of making UFC this global behemoth a behemoth, I don't know.
(10:51):
It's a publicly traded company. It's just wrapping a five
hundred and fifty million year, five hundred and fifty million
dollar a year deal with.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
ESPN and that stopped.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
Why Paramount came in and bought the entire Chabang for
over a billion dollars.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
That's for a season.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
By the way, they're not buying UFC and they're changing
the model. Also, this a new arrangement a Paramount screaming
streaming service. Subscriber will have access to the UFC fights
as and I am Paramount plus and it used to
be a pay per view. Now I would never do
(11:37):
a pay per view for a boxing match, certainly not
a UFC match.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
That's just not me.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
However, since it is now part of my streaming package,
you know what you know, basically the premise of someone
hurting the other person so desperately bad, which is the
way I feel about you, Neil is you know, that's entertainment.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
That's entertainment.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
I will absolutely get into the octagon with you.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Oh yeah, that's going to happen in this lifetime. But
there are logistical challenges. But they're going to overcome those
logistical challenges because they happen to have a president who
is a huge fan.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Now let me ask you.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Let's say there would be another president another time who
also had just loved USC right happened to like mixed
martial arts. Do you think he or she would go
public with that? No, not a chance. But as I've said,
(12:44):
this is one outlier president.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Would you freak out if they had a boxing ex.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Not as much, no, no, but not as much as UFC.
It's a question of appropriateness. I mean, do you you know,
put the presidency in the same category. I do believe
that the only person that can pull that off in
the history of the American presidency would be Donald Trump.
And it's not even getting away with it, it is
(13:15):
just who and part of what he is about. And
I can't imagine anybody else having a UFC fight on
the south lawn of the White House. And I guess
they put up stadium seating, and I mean, it's gonna
be a logistical issue. And how much do they do
people buy tickets or is it buy invitation only? No
(13:39):
one knows yet. Okay, that one's done. That is just fun,
all right, Now we're gonna get a little serious. Unfortunately,
school opens tomorrow in many districts Orange County. Many schools
are open La LA Unified. I'd love to talk about
LA Unified because that's the poster child in my life
(14:00):
because I grew up in LA Unified and I came
out of LA Unified actually literate, which is a miracle
both for the school board and for me.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
So what's going on, Well, you're normal, back to school.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
You know, the kids wear new clothes, and you go
to Target and you buy that stuff and oh yeah,
you've got ice coming in and picking up kids and
over their parents. And that is the fear that not
only parents have, but the school boards and the superintendence
and they, I mean all of them are frightened because, frankly,
(14:38):
these ice raids are picking up people that should not
be picked up. That's even part of the philosophy of
our government, and that is they're only interested in the
bad guys. Well, it turns out there are people that
are not so bad being swept up in school boards
across the country are sweating bullets, and what they're doing
(15:02):
is preparing for the raids by helping parents, by helping students.
You've got thirty school board school board members in La County.
LA County has about eighty school districts, and LA Unified
has about four hundred thousand students.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
So what the school's.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Doing is building safe passage networks two or three blocks
out from the campus, and those are effectively guarded by parents.
To some extent, they have scouts that are telling folks
the ice is on its way, go hide, deal with it,
(15:47):
go someplace else.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
And these are schools all.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Over southern California, and I don't know about the rest
of the country, but right now, as safe passage presidents
has expanded, according to carbon Is, a superintendent of LA
so far expanded from.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Forty schools last year to one hundred this year.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
And that's total about one thousand campuses throughout the country.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
So here's what they do.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Starting a task force to coordinate safe passage with local cities,
setting up donors supported compassion funds to help families with
legal and other costs, coordinating food aid for families in hiding.
There are families that are actually hiding, fearful that Ice
(16:39):
is going to come and pick them up.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
I mean, do they go to the schools? I mean,
come on, I mean.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
There are a few outlier events that does happen, but
for the most part, no, you know. For example, Pam
Bondi the reason, one of the reasons she gives for
DC the the federalization of DC police that the president did.
(17:06):
And she referred to one one person being killed by
an illegal alien or illegal migrant, okay, now providing legal referrals. Also,
the school districts are doing contacting more than ten thousand
families to encourage them to actually send their kids to
(17:27):
school because they're not because they're frightened, particularly in Latino
districts obviously providing information about online schooling options because these
are this is policy from the school themselves. This is
not parents wanting online because I don't want my kids
(17:49):
going to school and I don't like what the school
is teaching. No, this is actually to keep people, keep
kids safe by the person received notion. And in some
cases it's true that not so much kids are being
picked up, but parents are being picked up in getting
(18:10):
their kids and distributing a family preparedness guide. Here's what
you do to prepare when ice comes around. And I've
never heard of this happening. I really haven't.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
So we get them.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
In our we're LAUSD and we get them all these
guides and to be prepared and all of that.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
I find that absolutely fascinating. Schools have gone.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
When I went to school, and I was at LA
Unified in the late fifties sixties, Okay, the fear was
the atomic bomb, and you would duck and cover because
and I don't know why, but you would dive under
the desk and you'd put your hands over your neck
(19:01):
and you're asked towards the window, and I guess that's
to protect you that the front of your head is
going to be vaporized one one thousandth of a second
after your ass is okay, So we've gone from that
to earthquake preparedness.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
What do you do in an earthquake? We've always had fire.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Drills, now active shooter drills and in Latino schools now
or primarily Latino ice raids. Man, look where we have gone. So,
uh you Max goes to l A Unifi, doesn't he?
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Okay, And you're getting all Oh and Max is Hispanic
like you are, Yes, Mexican.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Oh, Max's history.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
You're gonna be able to visit him in a nice
attention center.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
Oh and he and he looks it. He's oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
You know what's up.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
It's not people aren't going out to buy clothes this year.
They're they're bleaching their their children's hair, getting them blue contacts.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
It's a whole new fad. Seriously, no, no, okay, I
didn't think. So what do I know? You know you're
the one that has a kid at LA Unified. By
the way, are you teaching him? Oh my name is Trevor.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
Have you started have you teached have you taught him
to scream? Your say I'm adicano?
Speaker 2 (20:31):
No, no, okay, he is American of Mexico. Yes he is,
Yes he is.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
All right, Okay, I want to share with you what's
happening happening economically, and it's really weird. I mean, the
world is very strange right now. And that is the
premise of the people getting richer, rich people getting richer,
poor people getting poorer. That actually changed a little bit
(20:57):
during before and especially after the pandemic, and that is
the lower income workers actually their wages were growing faster
than the wealthy people, the high end people. Now, you know,
obviously someone making three hundred thousand dollars a year is
(21:17):
very different than someone making forty or fifty thousand dollars
a year, but relatively speaking, the lower end workers were
getting more money percentage wise.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
Well, that's kind of changed.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Although now at this point, and maybe that's one of
the reasons that the stock market is doing as well
and the economy is at this point buzzing along.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Business is making money. Now. The economists are.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Saying, man, we're on the verge of a big change
with the tariffs coming in, but they have not yet
come in so so far President Trump is on a win.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
For the most part.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
But the labor market is cooling, and it is harder
for low wage workers to even switch jobs. Remember you
used to get a job. You go to Taco Bell
and then you go to Target, or you go to
in and out Burger, and you'd get instead of minimum wage,
all of a sudden it was two bucks three bucks
an hour more. Well gone, those days completely gone.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
And why is that?
Speaker 1 (22:24):
Well, businesses are not hiring as much. They're actually shrinking,
not necessarily in terms of business per se, but in
terms of employees. Look what happened to us at KFI.
There's no one working anymore. We used to have janitors,
(22:45):
for example, And as Kono walks out the door every morning,
he's handed up broom and a mop and he says,
go to work, or management says, go to work. They
do this same thing for me. But then I turn
around and give Neil the room and I go here,
sweep up now exactly Now, The reality is we really
(23:11):
don't have anywhere near the number of employees, and the
amount of money that employees coming in get is well,
it used to be different, but I think no, it
started at minimum wage, it sort of stays at minimum wage,
and it will keep on going at minimum wage. But
that's just this company. You have companies that would give workers.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
What was it.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
We were talking about a taco bell that was paying
twenty three dollars an hour and they couldn't get enough workers. Well,
can you today twenty three dollars an hour? People would
be screaming for now. It was the pandemic that changed everything.
Businesses laid off the number of workers they had to.
(23:56):
Low wage employees were sort of the quickest ones to go.
Retails stores shut down, hotels, restaurants shut down, and then
they reopened and desperate to find workers.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Not so much anymore. Now you've got.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
Lower paid workers at are well, they still get lower paid,
but it's a cooler labor market that has happened. One
of the things about employers, they've been reluctant to fire people.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
One of those things.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
If you still have a job at this point, you
are very lucky. Forget about a raise, just hanging on
to your job as a raise. But employers are also
not hiring, which puts poor workers in particular disadvantage because
they're more likely to work jobs where turnover is frequent,
(24:52):
highly seasonal, for example, hotels, restaurant. This seasonal stuff and
they're it's tough. What do you do retail? And so
you can work during the summer, and then all of
a sudden you're looking for work during the winter. It's
tough in America, particularly southern California and New York and
(25:13):
the Bay Area. It is not a good place to
be poor. It is a rough place to be poor.
It's wonderful to be rich. Not that if you're rich,
other places aren't great. But if you're poor, you definitely
want the Scandinavian countries because of the safety net. You
want Europe far more than US. Next comes US. And
(25:35):
then if you're really lucky your parents are Sudanese or
Yemenese and you're born in Yemen or Africa, that is
a tough one, not so easy. This is KFI Am sixty.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
You've been listening to the Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
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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