October 20, 2025 • 22 mins
(October 20,2025)
President Trump pardons George Santos; Biden and Trump pardons come under scrutiny. Why these companies insist on a 72-hour work week. Here's why elite credit cards are fighting for affluent shoppers
President Trump pardons George Santos; Biden and Trump pardons come under scrutiny. Why these companies insist on a 72-hour work week. Here's why elite credit cards are fighting for affluent shoppers
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
AM six forty Bill Handle. It is a Monday morning,
October twenty. Some of the stories we're looking at in
light of the King No King's demonstrations across the country
on Saturday. The President has just called for a Department
of Justice investigation of the protests, trying to find out
(00:29):
who funded it and how much George Soros paid for it.
I was there, and would you do me a favor,
contact the Soros folks and ask where I can get
a check because I wasn't paid.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Damn it.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
I was there and I want that money. I want
some of that money. If they're paying, I want it
that damn. I can't believe I did it for free. Wow,
doesn't stop, does it? The politics don't no matter what? Okay,
talking about politics, and this is a fun one. George Santos,
our favorite former congress person, has had his prison sentence
(01:11):
commuted by the president. He got eighty seven months over
seven years and did exactly eighty four days. And he
went on CNN, He went on Fox and he slapped back,
you have a problem with my release, too bad? And
by the way, his release the commutation by the President,
(01:33):
and the President said this for the sole reason that
he is a loyal Republican. That's it, nothing more, nothing less.
He's a loyal Republican. Therefore I'm commuting his sentence.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Now.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Remember Santos was expelled from Congress in twenty twenty three.
He pled guilty to wire fraud, identity theft, admitted lying
to Congress, stealing money from campaign owners, fraudulently collecting unemployment benefits.
But hey, he's a loyal Republican. So now let's go
on the other side. Joe Biden. All right, he pardoned
(02:10):
every member of his family, particularly his son Hunter Biden,
who now, in reality, I don't believe that Hunter Biden
did as did as much damage as Santos did. I
believe Santos took Congress and brought it to a new
low level, and he should have been expelled and was
(02:32):
what Hunter Biden did is he lied on his application
for a gun.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
No, I'm not a current drug user.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
It turned out in his book he admitted that timeline
that he was a current drug user like a moron.
What he should have been done as convicted as being
he should have been convicted for stupid, and then there
was some tax issues he had. And here's the problem
is that during the course of the investigation and going
after Hunter Biden.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
And Biden was pretty good about that.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
The President he let it go and he didn't commute
the sentence or pardon his son until the very last
David Mure ABC News interviewed Joe Biden, and there was
an issue as to whether the president was going to
pardon his son and asked him outright, are you considering
(03:22):
pardoning your son if convicted? Absolutely not. I will not
pardon my son if convicted. The law will be followed
until he pardoned his son. Oh, okay, and then he
pardoned his entire family and his entire staff preemptively.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
You're done.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
There will be no prosecution at all under any circumstances.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Can a president do that? You bet a president can
do that.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Now.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
His argument was that the Hunter would been.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Attacked and attacked luciferously when the Trump administration came in,
which is true, by the way, because it's political attacks.
I mean, there's no question in my mind that a
lot of these commutations, a lot of these pardons are
in fact political in nature. George Santos deserved every bit
of his seven year sentence considering what he did. But
(04:21):
loyal Republican, being a loyal Republican, we're going to pardon him.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
We're commuted sentence.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
And by the way, I'm going to go next segment,
I'm going to go through some history of pardons and
what presidents have done, because President Trump with Santos, doesn't
hold a candle to what some presidents, both Republican and Democrats, have.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Been in the world, have done.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
In the world of pardons, what's that diversey in a
pardon and a commutation. A commutation, you're still guilty, it's
just you're out of prison. Sentence has been commuted. A
pardon is a full pardon of what you've done. It
never happened, done finished, you've been pardoned, right, that's the difference.
(05:05):
So with George Santos, this is a commutation with Hunter Biden,
a pardon with the rest of Biden's family and his
staff members who were going to be under the political
microscope of Donald Trump.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
And it was it was absolutely true. That was where
the pardon took place.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Hunter Biden completely guilty, by the way, no question about
number one guilty. I mean, is it a big deal,
I don't think so. You know, during the he lied,
he was on drugs. Okay, I think a bigger deal
is when he became the board of BuddhismA, which is
the gas company that's owned by the Ukraine government. And
he was on the board and was getting half a
(05:48):
million dollars a year from a government owned utility Ukraine.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
And the only thing.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
That Hunter Biden Biden knew about gas was he could
turn his stove on and know how many BTUs that
stove was.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
That is his involvement in natural gas.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Now, big story about George Santos, the congress Person extraordinaire
who was convicted and was given seven years in prison,
seven and a half years in prison for lying to
Congress and fraudulent tax returns and stealing campaign money, and
was just pardoned by the president.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
After eighty four days in prison. And what was the.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Reason of the pardoning. He is a loyal Republican.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
There it is. He's a loyal Republican. Okay. As obnoxious as.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
That is, Donald Trump's not alone as president. Presidents have
done some really weird stuff and some extraordinary stuff. When
it comes to parton first one out, ready for this
George Washington with the Whiskey rebellion.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
So the country was completely broke.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
The American Revolutionary War dead was going to destroy the country.
Alexander Hamilton, Treasury secretary, said Okay, we're going to raise
money by a tax on whiskey. Well, whiskey was pretty
important to a lot of people, and so there were
a lot of stills that were being done and people
weren't paying taxes. So what he did is he came
(07:25):
in with the armed forces. He came in with the
army and shut him down. And a bunch of them
were convicted. A bunch of these whiskey people were convicted.
And you know what he did, he pardoned them. Said
it's done, it's over. Thomas Jefferson, he actually fought the
(07:45):
Alien and Sedition Act, which, by the way, the president,
this president is looking at and this was John Adams
signed that into law. Even Johnson argued that. Johnson argued that,
you know what, there's far too much power to suppress opposition.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
You can't do this. So what did he do?
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Well, Jefferson becomes president and another presidential power the pardon
was issued over and over again. David Brown, a guy,
a veteran of the Revolutionary War, was convicted of sedition
overthrowing the government, and guess what, he pardoned them, all
of them.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
He pardoned him.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
There were a whole group of people that were saying
that the government sucks and we want to overthrow them,
and Jefferson did it. Now, one of the most famous
ones was Abraham Lincoln. What a pardon he made. Four
presidents have given pardons to family members, first one being
Abraham Lincoln. Why well, there was a woman by the
(08:49):
name of Emily todd Helm, known as the Rebel in
the White House, and she happened to be Mary Lincoln's
half sister and the widow widow of a Confederate generate
General Benjamin Helm.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
He was killed in September of eighteen sixty three.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Lincoln asked him actually to join the Union, but he
said no, went south and became a Confederate. After his death,
Emily todd Helm went through Union lines stayed at the
White House, which the rest of the country went, are
you crazy? She was known as the Trader of the
White House. Well, full pardon to all Confederates willing to
(09:33):
take on an oath of allegiance to the United States.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
She was part of it.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
And that's what Lincoln was really at unifier man. He said,
if you promised to give up your arms, I'm going
to pardon you. And now the big one, Andrew Johnson,
who became president upon Lincoln's assassination, he pardoned fourteen thousand Confederates,
(09:58):
including Jefferson David who was the President of the Confederacy.
But let's get a little closer to our own history.
The pardon of Jimmy Hoffa by Nixon. Nixon, for some reason,
liked Jimmy Hoffa. Jimmy Hoffa was the union leader, head
of the Teamsters who then connected the Teamsters union to
(10:21):
the mafia.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
No issue, and he.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Had been convicted going to was to go to prison,
and he then disappeared. Jimmy Hoffa just disappeared. That not
before the pardon took place. So that was one walked
out of federal prison. Haffa two days before Christmas, out
of because he was just beginning a sentence for jury
tampering and mail fraud and conspiracy. All right, Carter Well,
(10:51):
Ford and Nixon. That's that one is extraordinary. Gerald Ford
pardoned Nixon for the crimes that he was going to
be convicted of no question about it. Richard Nixon was
going to be convicted of obstruction of justice straight out.
He ordered the FBI to stop an investigation of the
Watergate and a few other things with the Department of Justice.
(11:14):
Can you imagine a president stopping well, you could imagine that,
but a legitimate investigation of a crime. President can't do that,
especially when he's involved. President can't do that. And Gerald
Ford pardon Nixon, and I must tell you on the
pardon issue, and I was so angry with Jerald Ford.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
It cost him his presidency the election.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Gerald Ford did not win the presidency, and I think
he knew it when he ran for president on his own.
And he's going to be given credit for basically healing
the country. His legacy is going to be extraordinary.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
What he did.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Carter and Vietnam Draft dodgers, that was one Ronald Reagan
deep throat, remember deep throat, yep, that was Mark Felt
and these Felton Miller another guy convicted of conspiracy to
violate civil rights of friends and relatives of the Weather
underground approving illegal searches. And they were pardoned for that,
(12:14):
having nothing to do with being deep throat. The really
good one that I like so much is Clinton's midnight pardons.
I mean, thirty seconds before he leaves the presidency, he
starts issuing one hundred and forty pardons, including former White
House business partner, newspaper errors Patty Hertz, former CI chief
(12:38):
John Deutsch. And then the two that I love the
best is tax evaders Mark Rich and pink A Screen
and I mean hundreds of millions of dollars of evasion
and theft. And they left, they left the jurisdiction. He
didn't even know them, he wasn't close to them, he
didn't do business with him. But there were friends who
(13:01):
were close to Clinton who said, why don't.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
You pardon these two guys? And he did. That is
so obnoxious.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
I'm more upset about that than I ever will be
about George Santos. These guys screwed the American people by
evading taxes and stealing money from so many people that
one just floored me. I was just so pissed off
at Clinton. So the latest one, of course, is George
(13:32):
Santos being a loyal Republican by the way they take
away there. Oh, don't forget the pardons by the president
of all fifteen hundred of the patriots who overran the capitol,
who were upholding the constitution.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
What's the takeaway here?
Speaker 2 (13:49):
You're on his side, You're fine, You're not, You're screwed,
all right? Oh god, I love this story. And that
is how many startups? Do you remember during when the
internet first exploded? I think someone has to mute up there,
(14:09):
and you had these twelve year olds become billionaires. And
you'd go with the startups and the startups, especially the
beginning of Facebook for example, YouTube, where you would have
these kids, young people come in work one hundred hour weeks.
And if you ever saw the movie about Zuckerberg and
(14:30):
it described how crazy it was. They all lived in
one house. By the way, today, you know what, they
still have houses.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Do you know?
Speaker 2 (14:38):
The startups are back to where it was where these
supercomputer nerds, all of them teenagers are younger, are working
at these startups. They work for very little money, but
they get stock and they're demanded to work. It's demanding
that they work seventy eighty hours week. It's the grind
(15:01):
culture and it's coming back with vengeance. Seventy two hour weeks,
eighty hour weeks. There's a San Francisco, AI startup called Sonatic.
You get a meal, you get they give you food.
Jim pickleball matches all of it. Yeah, well, there was
(15:23):
a job posted on X for a job opening there.
You've got to work seven days of work. You have
to work seven days a week and at least ten
hour days. But you get free housing in a hacker
house and free food credits. And don't forget a free
subscription to a dating service rea as if you're ever
(15:43):
going to be able to date. Frankly, here's the bottom
line with this one. You never You're never able to
get laid again if you start working for one of
these startups until they sell or they have their IPO.
And guess what happens Now you have a fourteen year
old billionaire that can do whatever the hell he wants.
(16:04):
What you're seeing is there are job openings. There are
plenty out there. They are available with startups, and imagine
the amount of hours you have to put in. There's
a company called Rilla in New York City and straight
out candidate should not work at the company if they're
(16:27):
not excited about working about seventy hours a week in person.
What they call this is nine nine to six, which
leads to burnout and a limited amount of time you're
going to spend there and nine nine to six basically
what you work from nine to nine every day, six
(16:49):
days a week, and that's at a minimum. And now
you've got there's a post that was up there. A
co founder of one of the ai posted a post
posted an open call for new talent, and it was,
as he said, simple, here's what the job title is,
(17:10):
simple amazing salary hacker house in San Francisco, crazy equity
nine six because everybody knows what that is in this
world now. And then that post got fifty three thousand
views and manned, there were comments harsh on nine nine
(17:31):
six nine nine six equals slaves with no life?
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Would you that worked that way?
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Well, let me ask you when Facebook first started, when
Amazon early days first started, and Bezos and Zuckerberg and
others demanded the kind of crazy, crazy hours and commitment
you could take all the time off you want, all
vacation time you want.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Guess what, no one took.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Off a minute, seven days a week they worked, and
it was they're all rich, they're all rich. We look
back and I go Zuckerberg, who is worth.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
I don't know. Is he worth a hundred billion dollars? Now?
How old is he now? Early thirties? Maybe? All right?
Speaker 2 (18:21):
All right, we're going to finish it up with a
story or two about credit cards. First of all, we
know that there is a disparity among rich and poor.
It's not that the rich or rich and the poor
are poor, that's a given, but that the disparity is widening.
The richer getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.
(18:42):
Not that they're making less money, but inflation is hit
and they're making less money if you look at the
way economics work. So the rich people are still spending
like crazy. Credit card companies are recognizing, recognizing now and
you know what they're doing. They want to attract people
(19:03):
with money more so than they're doing now. And the
problem is some people are worried that these additional rewards
because they have to reward people to get them to
use the credit cards. Whichever company it is that basically
the poor people and everyone else is subsidizing the wealthy
(19:24):
because everybody pays the same price when you buy something,
and the rich people get points. The poor people use
the cards don't get anything, but the companies still charge
for the processing the credit card companies, and the merchants
have to pay the credit card companies, so the prices
(19:45):
have to be included. And if you have a really
neat card with a lot of perks, guess what you
get a lot of perks and people who can't afford
certainly the card you have are subsidizing, and I mean
pretty expensive stuff. American Express and JP Morgan Chase just
added luxury perks to their top reward cards. The AMEX
(20:08):
Platinum Card two hundred dollars for an Aura ring two
hundred dollars off, okay, if you have an Horror ring.
Now the Chase Sapphire Reserve comes with a credit of
up to five hundred dollars for high end hotels, airport lounges. Now,
the Sapphire Reserve card costs eight hundred bucks. But if
(20:28):
you use the perks, you save a lot of money,
but you have to spend eight hundred dollars. Also, the
miles are terrific, So I'm jumping on this even though
I'm gonna pay eight hundred dollars. I travel, as you know,
and man if I can upgrade for two trips for
eight hundred bucks, I'll do it, but I've got to
(20:49):
pay it. I've got to pay a thousand bucks for
it or eight hundred dollars. So the bottom line is
people who can afford it do it. And for the
those of you that can't, thank you very much on
behalf of rich people for subsidizing everything. Here's a stat
before we go, about half of US consumer spending comes
(21:12):
from people in the top ten percent.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
That's a big one.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
And a majority of households who make more than one
hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year prefer credit cards. Well,
people who make less than that prefer in many cases cash.
Cash is not king. Credit cards are king. We're done,
(21:39):
we are finished. Tomorrow it's Tech Tuesday with Rich Tomorrow.
Gary and Shannon are up next. In the meantime, boy,
the week's almost over, isn't it. Monday is coming on
and we're almost there. So it starts again five am
tomorrow with Amy and Will and then Neil and I
(22:01):
come aboard, and of course Anne and Kono put all
of this together as ridiculous and as marginal.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
As it is great, perfect, wonderful show. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
Oh, by the way, Amy, thanks for pointing out that
Zuckerberg is worth two hundred and forty five billion dollars.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
I thought he was only worth one hundred billion dollars.
And how old is he? Forty one forty.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
Wild case older than I thought he was. Oh right,
have a good one, everybody. Uh. The Garyus Shannon Show
are up next. We'll see you tomorrow. JF I am
six forty.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
You've been listening to The Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
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):
AM six forty Bill Handle. It is a Monday morning,
October twenty. Some of the stories we're looking at in
light of the King No King's demonstrations across the country
on Saturday. The President has just called for a Department
of Justice investigation of the protests, trying to find out
(00:29):
who funded it and how much George Soros paid for it.
I was there, and would you do me a favor,
contact the Soros folks and ask where I can get
a check because I wasn't paid.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Damn it.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
I was there and I want that money. I want
some of that money. If they're paying, I want it
that damn. I can't believe I did it for free. Wow,
doesn't stop, does it? The politics don't no matter what? Okay,
talking about politics, and this is a fun one. George Santos,
our favorite former congress person, has had his prison sentence
(01:11):
commuted by the president. He got eighty seven months over
seven years and did exactly eighty four days. And he
went on CNN, He went on Fox and he slapped back,
you have a problem with my release, too bad? And
by the way, his release the commutation by the President,
(01:33):
and the President said this for the sole reason that
he is a loyal Republican. That's it, nothing more, nothing less.
He's a loyal Republican. Therefore I'm commuting his sentence.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Now.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Remember Santos was expelled from Congress in twenty twenty three.
He pled guilty to wire fraud, identity theft, admitted lying
to Congress, stealing money from campaign owners, fraudulently collecting unemployment benefits.
But hey, he's a loyal Republican. So now let's go
on the other side. Joe Biden. All right, he pardoned
(02:10):
every member of his family, particularly his son Hunter Biden,
who now, in reality, I don't believe that Hunter Biden
did as did as much damage as Santos did. I
believe Santos took Congress and brought it to a new
low level, and he should have been expelled and was
(02:32):
what Hunter Biden did is he lied on his application
for a gun.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
No, I'm not a current drug user.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
It turned out in his book he admitted that timeline
that he was a current drug user like a moron.
What he should have been done as convicted as being
he should have been convicted for stupid, and then there
was some tax issues he had. And here's the problem
is that during the course of the investigation and going
after Hunter Biden.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
And Biden was pretty good about that.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
The President he let it go and he didn't commute
the sentence or pardon his son until the very last
David Mure ABC News interviewed Joe Biden, and there was
an issue as to whether the president was going to
pardon his son and asked him outright, are you considering
(03:22):
pardoning your son if convicted? Absolutely not. I will not
pardon my son if convicted. The law will be followed
until he pardoned his son. Oh, okay, and then he
pardoned his entire family and his entire staff preemptively.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
You're done.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
There will be no prosecution at all under any circumstances.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Can a president do that? You bet a president can
do that.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Now.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
His argument was that the Hunter would been.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Attacked and attacked luciferously when the Trump administration came in,
which is true, by the way, because it's political attacks.
I mean, there's no question in my mind that a
lot of these commutations, a lot of these pardons are
in fact political in nature. George Santos deserved every bit
of his seven year sentence considering what he did. But
(04:21):
loyal Republican, being a loyal Republican, we're going to pardon him.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
We're commuted sentence.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
And by the way, I'm going to go next segment,
I'm going to go through some history of pardons and
what presidents have done, because President Trump with Santos, doesn't
hold a candle to what some presidents, both Republican and Democrats, have.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Been in the world, have done.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
In the world of pardons, what's that diversey in a
pardon and a commutation. A commutation, you're still guilty, it's
just you're out of prison. Sentence has been commuted. A
pardon is a full pardon of what you've done. It
never happened, done finished, you've been pardoned, right, that's the difference.
(05:05):
So with George Santos, this is a commutation with Hunter Biden,
a pardon with the rest of Biden's family and his
staff members who were going to be under the political
microscope of Donald Trump.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
And it was it was absolutely true. That was where
the pardon took place.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Hunter Biden completely guilty, by the way, no question about
number one guilty. I mean, is it a big deal,
I don't think so. You know, during the he lied,
he was on drugs. Okay, I think a bigger deal
is when he became the board of BuddhismA, which is
the gas company that's owned by the Ukraine government. And
he was on the board and was getting half a
(05:48):
million dollars a year from a government owned utility Ukraine.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
And the only thing.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
That Hunter Biden Biden knew about gas was he could
turn his stove on and know how many BTUs that
stove was.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
That is his involvement in natural gas.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Now, big story about George Santos, the congress Person extraordinaire
who was convicted and was given seven years in prison,
seven and a half years in prison for lying to
Congress and fraudulent tax returns and stealing campaign money, and
was just pardoned by the president.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
After eighty four days in prison. And what was the.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Reason of the pardoning. He is a loyal Republican.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
There it is. He's a loyal Republican. Okay. As obnoxious as.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
That is, Donald Trump's not alone as president. Presidents have
done some really weird stuff and some extraordinary stuff. When
it comes to parton first one out, ready for this
George Washington with the Whiskey rebellion.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
So the country was completely broke.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
The American Revolutionary War dead was going to destroy the country.
Alexander Hamilton, Treasury secretary, said Okay, we're going to raise
money by a tax on whiskey. Well, whiskey was pretty
important to a lot of people, and so there were
a lot of stills that were being done and people
weren't paying taxes. So what he did is he came
(07:25):
in with the armed forces. He came in with the
army and shut him down. And a bunch of them
were convicted. A bunch of these whiskey people were convicted.
And you know what he did, he pardoned them. Said
it's done, it's over. Thomas Jefferson, he actually fought the
(07:45):
Alien and Sedition Act, which, by the way, the president,
this president is looking at and this was John Adams
signed that into law. Even Johnson argued that. Johnson argued that,
you know what, there's far too much power to suppress opposition.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
You can't do this. So what did he do?
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Well, Jefferson becomes president and another presidential power the pardon
was issued over and over again. David Brown, a guy,
a veteran of the Revolutionary War, was convicted of sedition
overthrowing the government, and guess what, he pardoned them, all
of them.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
He pardoned him.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
There were a whole group of people that were saying
that the government sucks and we want to overthrow them,
and Jefferson did it. Now, one of the most famous
ones was Abraham Lincoln. What a pardon he made. Four
presidents have given pardons to family members, first one being
Abraham Lincoln. Why well, there was a woman by the
(08:49):
name of Emily todd Helm, known as the Rebel in
the White House, and she happened to be Mary Lincoln's
half sister and the widow widow of a Confederate generate
General Benjamin Helm.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
He was killed in September of eighteen sixty three.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Lincoln asked him actually to join the Union, but he
said no, went south and became a Confederate. After his death,
Emily todd Helm went through Union lines stayed at the
White House, which the rest of the country went, are
you crazy? She was known as the Trader of the
White House. Well, full pardon to all Confederates willing to
(09:33):
take on an oath of allegiance to the United States.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
She was part of it.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
And that's what Lincoln was really at unifier man. He said,
if you promised to give up your arms, I'm going
to pardon you. And now the big one, Andrew Johnson,
who became president upon Lincoln's assassination, he pardoned fourteen thousand Confederates,
(09:58):
including Jefferson David who was the President of the Confederacy.
But let's get a little closer to our own history.
The pardon of Jimmy Hoffa by Nixon. Nixon, for some reason,
liked Jimmy Hoffa. Jimmy Hoffa was the union leader, head
of the Teamsters who then connected the Teamsters union to
(10:21):
the mafia.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
No issue, and he.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Had been convicted going to was to go to prison,
and he then disappeared. Jimmy Hoffa just disappeared. That not
before the pardon took place. So that was one walked
out of federal prison. Haffa two days before Christmas, out
of because he was just beginning a sentence for jury
tampering and mail fraud and conspiracy. All right, Carter Well,
(10:51):
Ford and Nixon. That's that one is extraordinary. Gerald Ford
pardoned Nixon for the crimes that he was going to
be convicted of no question about it. Richard Nixon was
going to be convicted of obstruction of justice straight out.
He ordered the FBI to stop an investigation of the
Watergate and a few other things with the Department of Justice.
(11:14):
Can you imagine a president stopping well, you could imagine that,
but a legitimate investigation of a crime. President can't do that,
especially when he's involved. President can't do that. And Gerald
Ford pardon Nixon, and I must tell you on the
pardon issue, and I was so angry with Jerald Ford.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
It cost him his presidency the election.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Gerald Ford did not win the presidency, and I think
he knew it when he ran for president on his own.
And he's going to be given credit for basically healing
the country. His legacy is going to be extraordinary.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
What he did.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Carter and Vietnam Draft dodgers, that was one Ronald Reagan
deep throat, remember deep throat, yep, that was Mark Felt
and these Felton Miller another guy convicted of conspiracy to
violate civil rights of friends and relatives of the Weather
underground approving illegal searches. And they were pardoned for that,
(12:14):
having nothing to do with being deep throat. The really
good one that I like so much is Clinton's midnight pardons.
I mean, thirty seconds before he leaves the presidency, he
starts issuing one hundred and forty pardons, including former White
House business partner, newspaper errors Patty Hertz, former CI chief
(12:38):
John Deutsch. And then the two that I love the
best is tax evaders Mark Rich and pink A Screen
and I mean hundreds of millions of dollars of evasion
and theft. And they left, they left the jurisdiction. He
didn't even know them, he wasn't close to them, he
didn't do business with him. But there were friends who
(13:01):
were close to Clinton who said, why don't.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
You pardon these two guys? And he did. That is
so obnoxious.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
I'm more upset about that than I ever will be
about George Santos. These guys screwed the American people by
evading taxes and stealing money from so many people that
one just floored me. I was just so pissed off
at Clinton. So the latest one, of course, is George
(13:32):
Santos being a loyal Republican by the way they take
away there. Oh, don't forget the pardons by the president
of all fifteen hundred of the patriots who overran the capitol,
who were upholding the constitution.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
What's the takeaway here?
Speaker 2 (13:49):
You're on his side, You're fine, You're not, You're screwed,
all right? Oh god, I love this story. And that
is how many startups? Do you remember during when the
internet first exploded? I think someone has to mute up there,
(14:09):
and you had these twelve year olds become billionaires. And
you'd go with the startups and the startups, especially the
beginning of Facebook for example, YouTube, where you would have
these kids, young people come in work one hundred hour weeks.
And if you ever saw the movie about Zuckerberg and
(14:30):
it described how crazy it was. They all lived in
one house. By the way, today, you know what, they
still have houses.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Do you know?
Speaker 2 (14:38):
The startups are back to where it was where these
supercomputer nerds, all of them teenagers are younger, are working
at these startups. They work for very little money, but
they get stock and they're demanded to work. It's demanding
that they work seventy eighty hours week. It's the grind
(15:01):
culture and it's coming back with vengeance. Seventy two hour weeks,
eighty hour weeks. There's a San Francisco, AI startup called Sonatic.
You get a meal, you get they give you food.
Jim pickleball matches all of it. Yeah, well, there was
(15:23):
a job posted on X for a job opening there.
You've got to work seven days of work. You have
to work seven days a week and at least ten
hour days. But you get free housing in a hacker
house and free food credits. And don't forget a free
subscription to a dating service rea as if you're ever
(15:43):
going to be able to date. Frankly, here's the bottom
line with this one. You never You're never able to
get laid again if you start working for one of
these startups until they sell or they have their IPO.
And guess what happens Now you have a fourteen year
old billionaire that can do whatever the hell he wants.
(16:04):
What you're seeing is there are job openings. There are
plenty out there. They are available with startups, and imagine
the amount of hours you have to put in. There's
a company called Rilla in New York City and straight
out candidate should not work at the company if they're
(16:27):
not excited about working about seventy hours a week in person.
What they call this is nine nine to six, which
leads to burnout and a limited amount of time you're
going to spend there and nine nine to six basically
what you work from nine to nine every day, six
(16:49):
days a week, and that's at a minimum. And now
you've got there's a post that was up there. A
co founder of one of the ai posted a post
posted an open call for new talent, and it was,
as he said, simple, here's what the job title is,
(17:10):
simple amazing salary hacker house in San Francisco, crazy equity
nine six because everybody knows what that is in this
world now. And then that post got fifty three thousand
views and manned, there were comments harsh on nine nine
(17:31):
six nine nine six equals slaves with no life?
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Would you that worked that way?
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Well, let me ask you when Facebook first started, when
Amazon early days first started, and Bezos and Zuckerberg and
others demanded the kind of crazy, crazy hours and commitment
you could take all the time off you want, all
vacation time you want.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Guess what, no one took.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Off a minute, seven days a week they worked, and
it was they're all rich, they're all rich. We look
back and I go Zuckerberg, who is worth.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
I don't know. Is he worth a hundred billion dollars? Now?
How old is he now? Early thirties? Maybe? All right?
Speaker 2 (18:21):
All right, we're going to finish it up with a
story or two about credit cards. First of all, we
know that there is a disparity among rich and poor.
It's not that the rich or rich and the poor
are poor, that's a given, but that the disparity is widening.
The richer getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.
(18:42):
Not that they're making less money, but inflation is hit
and they're making less money if you look at the
way economics work. So the rich people are still spending
like crazy. Credit card companies are recognizing, recognizing now and
you know what they're doing. They want to attract people
(19:03):
with money more so than they're doing now. And the
problem is some people are worried that these additional rewards
because they have to reward people to get them to
use the credit cards. Whichever company it is that basically
the poor people and everyone else is subsidizing the wealthy
(19:24):
because everybody pays the same price when you buy something,
and the rich people get points. The poor people use
the cards don't get anything, but the companies still charge
for the processing the credit card companies, and the merchants
have to pay the credit card companies, so the prices
(19:45):
have to be included. And if you have a really
neat card with a lot of perks, guess what you
get a lot of perks and people who can't afford
certainly the card you have are subsidizing, and I mean
pretty expensive stuff. American Express and JP Morgan Chase just
added luxury perks to their top reward cards. The AMEX
(20:08):
Platinum Card two hundred dollars for an Aura ring two
hundred dollars off, okay, if you have an Horror ring.
Now the Chase Sapphire Reserve comes with a credit of
up to five hundred dollars for high end hotels, airport lounges. Now,
the Sapphire Reserve card costs eight hundred bucks. But if
(20:28):
you use the perks, you save a lot of money,
but you have to spend eight hundred dollars. Also, the
miles are terrific, So I'm jumping on this even though
I'm gonna pay eight hundred dollars. I travel, as you know,
and man if I can upgrade for two trips for
eight hundred bucks, I'll do it, but I've got to
(20:49):
pay it. I've got to pay a thousand bucks for
it or eight hundred dollars. So the bottom line is
people who can afford it do it. And for the
those of you that can't, thank you very much on
behalf of rich people for subsidizing everything. Here's a stat
before we go, about half of US consumer spending comes
(21:12):
from people in the top ten percent.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
That's a big one.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
And a majority of households who make more than one
hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year prefer credit cards. Well,
people who make less than that prefer in many cases cash.
Cash is not king. Credit cards are king. We're done,
(21:39):
we are finished. Tomorrow it's Tech Tuesday with Rich Tomorrow.
Gary and Shannon are up next. In the meantime, boy,
the week's almost over, isn't it. Monday is coming on
and we're almost there. So it starts again five am
tomorrow with Amy and Will and then Neil and I
(22:01):
come aboard, and of course Anne and Kono put all
of this together as ridiculous and as marginal.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
As it is great, perfect, wonderful show. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
Oh, by the way, Amy, thanks for pointing out that
Zuckerberg is worth two hundred and forty five billion dollars.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
I thought he was only worth one hundred billion dollars.
And how old is he? Forty one forty.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
Wild case older than I thought he was. Oh right,
have a good one, everybody. Uh. The Garyus Shannon Show
are up next. We'll see you tomorrow. JF I am
six forty.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
You've been listening to The Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Catch my show Monday through Friday, six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app
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