July 14, 2025 • 31 mins
KFI – Michael Monks – Texas confronts Hollywood, JD Vance at Disneyland, Homeless Count released today, and LA Ports update.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Gary and Shannon and you're listening to KFI
AM six forty, the Gary and Shannon Show on demand
on the iHeartRadio app. Gary will be back on Monday.
In the meantime, we bring in friends and entertainers like
Michael Monks.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Good morning, always good to be with you.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
I don't know why I bring in an accent. How
was your weekend? How was Michael Monk's reports?
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Oh it was great.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
I know people who listen to us are probably wondering
why I was in the studio. But we had one
of those weird scheduled days. Where are you know, people
are on vacation in the summer. So the show aired twice,
two weeks in a row, on Saturday and Sunday. So
I recorded it. That means a lot of work for
me on Friday. But it was a recorded program that
I hope people enjoyed. It was fresh, all new stuff.
(00:45):
And then my family was in town, so they got
to listen to it over the air rather than through
the app wishes, So you know, it's a little different.
It's a little bit exciting, it's more real.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
I guess, did they have a review for you?
Speaker 2 (00:54):
They love me?
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Of course they love you.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Yeah, they are very proud.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
You say they love me? Does that mean they love me?
So they tell me it's great, even if they didn't
think it was great.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
I think that my family being competitive. They like going
home to Kentucky and saying, my baby boy is on
the radio in Los Angeles.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Yeah, it doesn't matter the content.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Not at all. I have to know what I'm doing.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
They also heard the podcast you and I did on Thursday,
and you guys are doing a weekend show now with
Gary Gone. I got to sit in for that too,
and we talked a little bit about my family and
me getting a smack across the face as a child.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
I don't change my life. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
So my mom started to listen to that and said,
should I be listening to this? I was like, why
don't you listen to that at home with Papa together
and don't call me after?
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Oh gosh, Yeah, my mother did listen to our weekend podcast.
She likes to listen to it as she walks around
the block.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
It's a good walking podcast.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
I was actually like a little bit surprised because I say, oh,
when I listened to your Michael your podcast with Michael
Monks and I expected her this is how you know
we're best friends by the way, I expected her to say,
oh my god, I love him, like he is so great. Yeah,
And she didn't say any of that. She was like,
I listened to it, it's so as nice makes the
time passed by, and it was fine. She didn't say
but she wasn't as effusive as I wanted her to
(02:13):
be about you.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Do you think I brought it down a peg?
Speaker 1 (02:15):
No, I just was expecting more adoration right off, right
off the bat. You a new call her a little bit.
I don't know. I want her to love you as
much as I love you. Isn't that weird?
Speaker 2 (02:27):
You know what, I'm an acquired taste. I know that
with our listeners, I don't think so.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
I think if she didn't like anything, she would have
said something, because she's not a shrinking violet. But I
wanted her to be like, wow, you know, because you
don't want her to feel the things I feel about you. Well,
I appreciate that she might. She may have just been
to give it time, give it time, give it time,
all right, but see, do you see how much I
love you? That's how much I like.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
I appreciate that and that is shared, that a shared
across this table.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
All right, so what do we have? Oh, we've got
Texas that wants to hone in on the Hollywood payday.
We've talked about how production has gone to Georgia, We've
talked how it's gone to Canada. PS. I love all
the shows filmed in Georgia and Canada, and most recently,
I think it was Ransom Canyon is filmed. I want
(03:15):
to say, in New Mexico. There is something serene and
beautiful about not a Hollywood set or just these beautiful
nature areas. Sullivan's crossing in Nova Scotia. I want to
move to all these places. I don't think I am
alone in yes, wanting Hollywood to be thriving and for
(03:37):
LA to get that money, that production money, and at
the same time love all these shows that are not
filmed here.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
There's something authentic about shooting on location, of course, and
it used to be cross excuse me, a cost prohibitive
to do so. But now so many states, so many
other countries have gotten into the game that Hollywood does,
and they've done so by substing these productions through tax incentives,
tax credits. And we're talking all the far corners of America,
(04:06):
places you wouldn't think would even want the word Hollywood.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Associated with it.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
If a film comes to town for that three weeks
or even six months that a film is shooting, or
even a television series, that's an economic boost to your shops,
to your restaurants. So it is attractive and it's exciting.
It's exciting for places that aren't LA. It's still exciting
for folks here, but it's exciting to see a production
taking place on Main Street, USA where it does not
happen every day. So what has happened more recently is Texas,
(04:34):
which has already lured so many of California's headquarters. It's
just approved its first ever batch of massive tax credits
to film producers, three hundred million for two years for
the next ten years. So three hundred million dollars over
two years for the next ten years.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
That cycle will repeat.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
How smart is Texas right? How smart are they to say, listen,
we have already collected a bunch of Californians, a lot
of people have left California for Texas. Why not go
in there and make a play for all the Hollywood cash.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
And they had some Hollywood players speaking on behalf of this.
They approved this earlier this year, and it started with
this campaign that featured actors Dennis Quaid, Renee Zellweger, Billy
Bob Thornton. We saw Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson recreate
their true detective style characters to push Texas to support
(05:30):
this legislation. Texas politicians, while while most of them did
vote for it, some of them opposed it fervently, as
did some conservative groups because of the connotations that come
with Hollywood. Don't Hollywood my Texas basically, so it plays
to what I was saying. A lot of places don't
want to be associated with what Hollywood represents in the
minds of so many people. But there is money to
(05:53):
be made if you bring these productions to town. California
just passed a big expand of its own credits because
it's feeling the heat. It's hearing from the industry. It's
hearing from actors, and not just actors. The people that
cater the sets, the people that lay down the red
carpet at red carpet events. These are all union workers
(06:13):
in Hollywood who are not getting enough work here. So
California used to have a three hundred million dollar per
year tax credit that is now more than double to
seven hundred and fifty million dollars because they've been feeling
the heat.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Well, see, there should be enough money to go around,
shouldn't there.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Well, there should.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
But there's a lot of movies and television shows being
made more than ever before. And I mean we're talking Kentucky.
Cincinnati has a huge man presence in the Hollywood industry
right now.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
I do not pooh pooh a lot of cities. I
know you hate Cincinnati, and I didn't. I will be
honest and say I did not give it a total
fair shake. I was there for one weekend, but I
did not find the joy in Cincinnati.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
You do have to dig for it, Okay, it doesn't
come at you fast.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
And kept calling back, which I thought was.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
As you call emergency responders, Yeah in Cincinnati.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Yeah, and they call you back there you back in LA.
I could be dying and bleeding out and called twenty
seven times. They don't answer, and they don't call God,
they call back. Come on, Cincinnati, they don't stop calling back.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Hey, sugar, you all right.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
I finally had to pick up the phone and say,
I just I was fumbling around my phone and I
clicked that emergency.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Oh you called them by accident?
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (07:32):
What did you think was going to happen?
Speaker 1 (07:33):
I don't In La, nothing happens.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Like I said, this is why films are shooting and
safer environments.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
All right, I don't want to help. Michael Muggs will
continue to join us. We'll be talking about this crisis
at Disneyland. Not really, we will be talking about what
would what did? What did you bring to the show?
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Okay, so the homeless members are coming out today. The
official was present from the Spouse.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
It's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
It's got an engraving on the back special message. What
does it say? I can't tell you. I'll tell you
after the break.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Okay, there's your tease.
Speaker 4 (08:10):
You're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
I'll tell you what the back of my watch says.
There's especial engraving on it. I know that you had
asked about it. It just says don't forget the free
holes with a heart on it. That's from the Spouse
and that is a reference to my low Freejles monks.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Our cat right, so I have Why would you forget
the free Holays.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Because free Holays is our word for him, right, But
why would you forget him? We may be separated someday.
The world is chaotic and as long as i'm you know,
can't you see the action sequence of the city falling apart?
But I'm hunting them both down on the other side
of the world, and all I've got is this watch
to keep me going.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
I'm dying in a building. I'm sweating again.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Like what happens when the cat dies?
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Cats don't die.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Free Holays is going to go over the rainbow.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
I was assured that cat don't die.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Unfortunately, it's going to happen. So then, like when free
hol is, it's just don't forget that he ever existed.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
We have talked about.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
No, they'll maybe have the beans for Hol's middle names
throughout history.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
I think you should. I have a girlfriend who's named
every cat she's ever owned kitty, and uh simple, it's simple.
It works. It transcends time. The kid the first kitty
I met was in nineteen ninety two, and there's still
a kitty. It's not the same.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
It's not the same.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
I may not the same cat.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
No, we've talked about maybe taking the toes the toe
beans off when he dies and making a necklace. O.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Sorry, the toe beans.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
That's where the free holies comes from.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
The padding on the on the pop.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
The little toes those are called, you know, the kittie beans.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
I don't think you should dismember your cat well while
he's alive. Michael Monks is with us, and besides not
forgetting the freeholes. We are talking about all of this
much do about so much nothing at Disneyland with jd Vance.
Orange County officials received intel of jd Vance's visit to
(10:15):
the area on Thursday. One of my girlfriends her her
husband's a commander in the military and I think he's
retired now. But Jade Vance and his wife and their
kids were in their neighborhood in San Diego last week
and met them. Kids had a great time, all playing together,
(10:37):
what have you. And that's what it's about, guys, like,
that's what it's about. It's not about politics or Trump
or who hates who. It's about kids playing together in
the summer. And when you've got people going to Disneyland
with their kids, that's not an opportunity for you. To
go after them on Twitter. Gavin Newsom, I understand what's
(10:58):
happening to family is awful, and he tried to, and
I'm not going to pull it up because then I'll
just be fed more So. It's like when I was
doing a deep dive on the Jeffrey Epstein stuff. The
more i pull up on Twitter slash x, the more
I'm fed the algorithm of whatever it is I pulled up.
And I don't want that. I'm reading about, you know,
(11:19):
the Teddy Bears covered with human flesh, and Victorville and
the Clinton's and their underground sex trafficking scheme, and I
don't want that either. So I'm not gonna pull up
Gavin Newsom's tweets. But he said something to the effect of,
you know, oh, so great that you're having fun with
your family when so many families are being pulled apart
by your raids something of that nature. Just leave the
(11:42):
kids alone. Just leave it alone. And Michael and I
were talking off the air about these barbs on both
sides of the aisle. Jd Vance does it as well
on Twitter. Just seems so juvenile.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
I think what has happened in American politics and perhaps
this is the culmination or the combination of the ever
presence of social media in our daily lives and the
rise of Donald Trump because he has embraced social media
all the years back even before he first ran for president,
he was an active user and kind of a troll
(12:16):
on social media.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
But to have the president of the United.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
States, in addition to all of the functions of that job,
to also take on this persona as America's top troll online.
It has been attractive to a lot of people because
he has been a successful politician. You know, he's won
the presidency twice and he squashed a bunch.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
And I hear that, And there is a school of
thought of you've got to take him on on his
playing field. And I'm talking about Gavin Newsom if that's
where he's starting the fight, Donald Trump is and I'll
take my fight to him. But isn't there also a
school of thought of we want a better politician, we
want someone who rises above this, or are we just
(13:00):
completely pass that as a society and there is no
higher ground.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
I keep waiting for what might be a moderate revolution.
Is there such a thing? Is there a place not
necessarily even policy driven. But can America take a breath
and get back to actual policy debates and conversations and
get stuff done.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
It needs a cigarette break, It needs a smoke. I
wish America would have a cigarette and.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Go outside, take a little walk, go outside, have a
little me time, relax, breathe in that carcinogen, delight and delightful,
and then come out with a fresher frame of thinking.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
You know, the Governor Knewsome wasn't just tweeting about jd Vance,
who's also a very effective Twitter troll. I mean jd
Vance is somebody who will troll on Twitter. There's really
no issue too small for them to come at you with.
But it pits state against state in a weird way.
We've got Newsom tweeting at Florida today because Rohn DeSantis,
(14:01):
the governor of Florida, tweeted out for the third straight year,
CNBC has ranked Florida the number one economy in the
nation among all fifty states. Okay, that was the tweet.
And then California says California Governor Newsom's press account says, cute,
Florida isn't even in the same league. California just became
you know. That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Everything has to be a fight.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
It's this odd.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
I thought it was going to be non violent civil
war that we're living through right now, this civil war
of words.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
I thought it was going to be something clever like, oh,
now you're watching NBC.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Well some of them.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
You know.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
It's even worse because the Governor's press office also tweeted
at Stephen Miller, one of the top advisors in Trump's
White House, who is often described as the architect of
this immigration policy, and Stephen Miller commented on a remark
the governor made thirty five percent of Anaheim's residents or immigrants.
Disneyland doesn't run without them, enjoy their labor.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Jd Vance.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
That's what Governor Newsom's office said. Stephen Miller responded, according
to the Governor of California, no theme has ever successfully
operated in any time city or plays without mass migration.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
To wish.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
The Governor's press.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Office responded with an animated picture of what appears to
be Captain Hook and it says, Captain Hook stop yelling
at the pretzel cart.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Okay, all right, I'm done. I'm gonna go home.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
But that's where we are is that. I mean, policy
is being decided.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
And I understand this isn't Gavin Newsome or Ronda Santas.
This is you know, twenty five year olds running these
Twitter wars back and forth. And maybe that's working for
that base. Like now that I'm saying it out loud,
maybe that's what twenty five year olds want. That's how
they speak, that's their language. That's not you know, that's
(15:43):
not being juvenile. That's just the way you operate. You
operate throwing barbs at each other on Twitter.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
I think there's no question that in this second iteration
of a President Trump White House, you are seeing the
influence of right wing media figures in a way that
you didn't in the first time around. There's more of
that in the administration directing.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
They have completely taken over the meme game.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
That's right, Yeah, And so when you see the effectiveness.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Of it, it's very effective.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
You see why others are drawn into it. And at
some point will anybody rise above and say this just
does not work.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
You're totally right, yeah, I always am. I wouldn't go
that far. Let's pump the brakes on dismembering baby free
hooliss Okay, we will talk about what I say.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
Okay, So the homeless counts in La County is coming
out this afternoon.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
We'll talk about what we might expect from that and.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
Also expect there are homeless people. There still are homeless people.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
So we're going to get the official count from that
delayed count from February, pushed back by the wildfires and
then the Port of LA and the tariff impact that
more evaluation was announced today, including a small business owner
who was brought on to a press conference hosted by
the Port of Los Angeles to talk about how the
terraffs on China are taking products off his shelves.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
You're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
We have Michael hang out with us in the ten
o'clock hours. We tackle our local stories because Michael Monks
and KFI News is our go to when it comes
to what is going on in Los Angeles, and one
of the themes that refuses to cease being a problem
is the homelessness issue in Los Angeles. Yes, we have
(17:26):
another homelessness count coming this afternoon, and from everything that
I've read recently, things are working. The number is dwindling,
albeit is still vast, but things seem to be working
when you look at everywhere but skid Row. You look
at Venice and Santa Monica and not Santa Monica. I'll
(17:47):
leave that u because it's not LA. But you look
at different areas that they have pinpoint as being homeless hotspots,
and it seems like there has been a decrease in
all of the areas except for skid Row.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
This is the annual homeless count the LA Homeless Services
Authority loss UP puts on and will continue to put on,
even though they're kind of being a funded by the
county and maybe eventually by the city as well. It
was supposed to happen in January, the wildfire's happened in January,
so they push it back to February. So this is
what they call the Place in Time count, where the
volunteers go out and for three days. It's kind of
(18:18):
like the US senses. We have a limited number of time,
but people are going to be knocking on your door
to see how many people are inside this building in
this case, in this tent or under that bag, or
wherever these folks are living.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Ps just pulling the car over real quick. I saw
two young gentlemen, black pants, white dress shirts, short sleeve
outside a neighbor's house, and I thought, is this still
a thing that Jehovah's witnesses? Oh, there were probably Mormons
or Mormons. Yeah, of Mormons.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
If they had that outfit on, I would say, oh,
that's the Mormon.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Probably the Mormons.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
Interesting, they're still doing that with the door to door
with the children.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Kind of their thing still though.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
If I were a Mormon, you know, you get sent
places to do that, and random places maybe Decatur, Iowa
or something. You know, if you get sent to Los Angeles,
that's kind of cool. So they're not from here. I
think most often there you're sent on a mission. I'm
not a Church of Latter day Saints.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
It is their mission, yes, because I've heard about the
missions in other parts of the world where you're doing things,
you're building things or what have you. But I've never
there are supposed to be saved all around. I didn't
know door to door was part of the mission. Interesting.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Oh yeah, you never had the knock on your door.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
I have, but I didn't know it was part of
that that coming of age milestone. Yeah, okay, right, anyway.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
So it's similar to that, except they're not pushing an orthodoxy.
They just want to know how many people there are inside.
And today this afternoon, at one o'clock, ellemyre Bass and
officials from the county and LASA will announce what they found. Now,
last year was the first time they reported to decline
in years, so they're expected to see another decline. The
(19:49):
questions will be, are we declining quickly enough? Because we
hate at about seventy five thousand homeless people in Los
Angeles County, more than half of them in the city
of Los Angele list. If you knock that down five percent,
what percent is.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
That of seventy five thousand?
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Yeah, what is it about? Seven thousand? Is that about
somewhere around there?
Speaker 3 (20:10):
Sure seven thousand would be ten percent of seventy five thousand,
So let's cut that hat to yeah, thirty five. I
apologize for even bringing this up. I've set us both
up for failure here. Let's just say, well, if you.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
Cut it down five percent is twelve regardless, there's still
gonna be seventy thousand homeless people.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
All right, That's what I'm trying to get to here.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
Okay, So there's seventy thousand people, so Holmes in La County,
with more than half of them in the city of
Los Angeles. Yes, it's a good thing that the number
is going down.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Percent of seventy five, it's three point seventy five.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Okay, yeah, all right, I was getting there.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
I was getting there out back and put an end
to this.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
But like you noticed, there are obvious visual declines in
certain parts of our community. We're seeing it in a
multi communities, as indicated by some new numbers released by
the Santa Monica based Rand Corporation. They say that the
number of unsheltered people in Hollywood, skid Row and Venice
combined decreased fifteen percent. But when you break that down,
(21:15):
they found that the homeless population actually went up on
skid Row. So you might also have a situation where
bodies are being moved around. And I live in the
Fashion District, skid Row adjacent and skid Row is completely
consuming parts of the Fashion district. Now right outside my building,
their tents where there were not tense.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
They need to rename it. It's not a row, it's a grid.
It's an entire section of the city.
Speaker 3 (21:41):
It's a neighborhood and if you go down there and
there's these weird murals that celebrated as a neighborhood. But
I don't know that it's had neighborhood qualities that we
typically associate with neighborhoods.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
Your definition of neighbor But it's.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
A mess, and it's starting to spread. It's spreading into
parts of the downtown area, that part of downtown where
it hasn't before.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
To your point of why are we just accepting this
as the way things are? Why are we you know,
you were talking last week about how downtown is not
a hub where people want to go, and I said,
well that's the way it's been for the twenty years
i've been here. And you said, but why is it okay?
And I thought about that over the Why is that okay?
Why is it okay that we're just like, oh, well
that's skid row. Oh it's it's expanded to five square blocks,
(22:25):
six square blocks. Oh that's just okay, it's skid row.
Why is that okay?
Speaker 3 (22:29):
That is my question I ask a lot in Los Angeles,
whether it's about homelessness or even some of the traffic,
like why is this okay?
Speaker 1 (22:36):
You know, that's just the way things are are out
of town, or you think you know everything, you have
breezing here and two years later you have all the answers.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
And I don't claim to but.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
You need fresh eyes.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
You do need fresh eyes, and frankly, you should be
on your knees thanking anybody who moves in here with
the conditions that we find la in California. And so
I'm here to help. I'm here to help, and we
will find out today what these numbers look like. But
you also the most important thing that we need to
keep in mind outside of this, the humanitarian aspect of this.
We spent a lot of money, billions and billions of dollars,
(23:08):
and we know that some of that is not properly
accounted for. What these numbers represent today are the results
of billions. Are you getting your money's worth? And we'll
be able to talk about that later this afternoon, and
we'll have it covered for you right here on GAYFI.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
That's exciting. When are you coming? Are you going on
John Show?
Speaker 3 (23:26):
I'm sure they'll pass me around. You know, I'm a
bit of a tramp here at KFI. Almost show around.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
Yeah, okay, Well I'm glad I got in first.
Speaker 4 (23:37):
You're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
We need your family traditions. Let us know you have
any weird or non weird family traditions. Maybe you get
all together at a park, or you take a vacation,
or you have celebration. Maybe you go out to a gravesite.
I don't know that was dark, but whatever it is
that you do, let us know. Use a talkback feature
on the iHeartRadio app. You just tap that little microphone
(24:02):
and we will revisit your thoughts your family traditions. Coming
up at eleven fifty, I'll tell you my odd family
tradition and it is not going to die with my father.
Sometime in the early nineties, my dad, probably after a
couple pops on Christmas Eve, he would get a pair
(24:24):
of boxer shorts. My mom's going to kill me for
telling the story. And I've done it before, so I'm
going to keep doing it. And they were like the
boxer shorts had Santa on them. And it was like
one year, I want to say, early nineties, and he
did this thing. It was all about the camquarterer. He
was an early adopter of the big massive cam quarters right,
this is before phones, and it with a big old
camera and you put it on your shoulder and you'd
(24:46):
go around the family events and you have everyone say something.
It was all very fun anyway. So he would take
the camcorder outside of the front door where there would
be a Christmas wreath, and he would hang a pair
of his Christmas boxer shorts on the wreath and do
like a whole proclamation about these are the Christmas shorts
and they are for Santa. And it was a whole thing,
(25:09):
and we did it every year and it drove my
mother crazy. It was just my brother and my dad
and I would go out and she she got rid
of the Christmas shorts. She would if she saw a
pair of underwear with Christmas anything. Those were gone, and
so we had to get creative. One year we just
used normal boxer shorts I think they were blue, and
we did that as the Christmas shorts.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
Anyway, what was the motivator, There.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Was no It was that it pissed her off and
it was so irreverent and I just like making your
mad at the holidays, Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Did you like this ceremony, this tradition?
Speaker 1 (25:39):
Oh sure, sure? And I won't say what we did
one year that was pretty sacrilegious. But anyway, he died.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
You need a visit from those Mormons.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
He died, and my mom continued the Christmas shorts.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Yes, well, I'm going to cry over boxed.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
And she's so cute and sweet when she does it.
It's not irreverent, it's just really sweet and wholesome. So anyway,
that's our weird family tradition that we do, so let
us know yours. Michael Monks, do you have any weird
family traditions?
Speaker 3 (26:14):
I think being you know, a white trash from the
upland South. Your entire existence is kind of a weird tradition.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
So underwear on the wreath is like a Tuesday.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
No, they may have not been placed there purposefully thrown
at somebody in anger and no one cleaned it up.
I kid, I kid, My house was very clean. I
do want to say that if you're ordering boxer shorts
from China, it's been a tough row to get them here.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
Yeah, let's talk about these tariffs and the problems.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
We will if I take you back to last month
when the Port of Los Angeles, and they do this
every month, they say this is how trade has looked
so many of those you know, the containers that we've had.
This is what we're seeing, and this is what it
means for the economy. Last month in June, when they
reported the May numbers, they said, we're down thirty five percent.
And this is a direct relationship to the tariffs that
(27:11):
have been on again and off again as announced by
President Trump. So it's been a little bit uncertain, but
as Trump often does, he's kind of gone softer on
some of these issues. And now what we just saw
as announced this morning by the Port of Los Angeles,
is that imports in June were up ten percent compared
to last year, so even higher than last year before
(27:33):
Trump came back into office. So you're seeing how quickly
things can swing based on a tweet or an announcement
or a feeling that President Trump has about these tariffs.
But they did include an exploration of that uncertainty the
port being they invited the president of YETI Houseware, a
guy named Bobby Java.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Harry is.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
This is a business here in Los Angeles. He joined
this and here's part of what he had to say
about the feelings as a small business owner in Los Angeles.
In the context of the weirdness of the tariffs, I.
Speaker 5 (28:09):
Felt like I was stabbed in the back in a
sense by my own government because they didn't even offer
any type of relief or or any type of mechanism
in place to say, hey, small business, medium sized business, uh, importer,
we're going to do this, trust us, and we're going
(28:30):
to assist.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
You with this type of relief to get through this.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (28:34):
One, Two, how about all all importers in the United
States from anywhere outside of America. You have two years
to find a source.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
They're basically there should have been transition money set aside
for small businesses than being the backbone of our economy.
Speaker 3 (28:54):
Now, he's a guy who owns this I said hardware.
I think heety housewares. What I meant to say, so
it's items that you might buy for your house. And
he does get a lot of his products from China.
So he was asked, look, have you thought about diversifying
your imports and getting them from somewhere else.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
Here's what he said.
Speaker 5 (29:10):
There is no country outside of China that could make
giving an example, hundreds of thousands of air friers in
a year in the same quality and same standards as
we expect. Some of our factories in China are looking
to outsource to sister factories in Malaysia.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
So he says that they haven't gotten any additional details
on those other explorations, whether China can outsource to Malaysia
and bypass some of the tariffs. But he did say
explicitly at the end of that quote that there will
be some things not on your shelves because stuff that
would have been imported for Halloween, for Christmas, for the
back to school shopping, they might have been on the
cargo list that was missed in May, and so you
(29:55):
will eventually see the impacts of these plus those tariffs
still exists. The China bound was because we had a
what one hundred and fifty percent tariff, it's now thirty percent.
That's still high and what might it be next month?
Speaker 1 (30:07):
Right then that's a wait and see game there. But
with China, yeah, we get so so much, so much.
There's really not a lot of room for pussy footing around.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
But now we might have new tariffs on the EU,
there's another threat against Mexico. We already know that we're
in trouble with Canada, so you're going to feel this
at some point. There's just a bit of a slow
realization of these things. Or does he back off exactly?
You to back off? You just don't know.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
But we'll be all here together to follow all the developments.
Michael Monks, thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
My pleasure.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
An hour with you feels like about twenty two seconds,
which is good, just flies by and you're a delight.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
Michael Monks will be passed around this afternoon. You can
hear him on the John Cobalt Show, Tim Conway as well.
Moe Kelly maybe even gets in on there.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
I've been on George nor before you have. You know
they just what do he want you for? Oh?
Speaker 3 (31:03):
When the immigration demonstrations were working. Oh, I was on
there for three days in a row. It was on
every show except Handle. He doesn't like me, really, he
likes me. He's just a board with me.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
I think he just doesn't know it yet. All right,
Thanks Michael Monks. Coming up plenty to get to it.
Looks like Kim Jong un is partnering up with Vladimir
Putin bad news. Also, we've got a family values guy,
Ken Paxton there, the Attorney General in Texas with divorce
issues that some people are calling his behavior dirty and disgusting.
(31:35):
We'll tell you what we know when we come back.
You've been listening to The Gary and Shannon Show.
Speaker 5 (31:40):
You can always hear us live on KFI AM six
forty nine am to one pm every Monday through Friday,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
This is Gary and Shannon and you're listening to KFI
AM six forty, the Gary and Shannon Show on demand
on the iHeartRadio app. Gary will be back on Monday.
In the meantime, we bring in friends and entertainers like
Michael Monks.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Good morning, always good to be with you.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
I don't know why I bring in an accent. How
was your weekend? How was Michael Monk's reports?
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Oh it was great.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
I know people who listen to us are probably wondering
why I was in the studio. But we had one
of those weird scheduled days. Where are you know, people
are on vacation in the summer. So the show aired twice,
two weeks in a row, on Saturday and Sunday. So
I recorded it. That means a lot of work for
me on Friday. But it was a recorded program that
I hope people enjoyed. It was fresh, all new stuff.
(00:45):
And then my family was in town, so they got
to listen to it over the air rather than through
the app wishes, So you know, it's a little different.
It's a little bit exciting, it's more real.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
I guess, did they have a review for you?
Speaker 2 (00:54):
They love me?
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Of course they love you.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Yeah, they are very proud.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
You say they love me? Does that mean they love me?
So they tell me it's great, even if they didn't
think it was great.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
I think that my family being competitive. They like going
home to Kentucky and saying, my baby boy is on
the radio in Los Angeles.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Yeah, it doesn't matter the content.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Not at all. I have to know what I'm doing.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
They also heard the podcast you and I did on Thursday,
and you guys are doing a weekend show now with
Gary Gone. I got to sit in for that too,
and we talked a little bit about my family and
me getting a smack across the face as a child.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
I don't change my life. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
So my mom started to listen to that and said,
should I be listening to this? I was like, why
don't you listen to that at home with Papa together
and don't call me after?
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Oh gosh, Yeah, my mother did listen to our weekend podcast.
She likes to listen to it as she walks around
the block.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
It's a good walking podcast.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
I was actually like a little bit surprised because I say, oh,
when I listened to your Michael your podcast with Michael
Monks and I expected her this is how you know
we're best friends by the way, I expected her to say,
oh my god, I love him, like he is so great. Yeah,
And she didn't say any of that. She was like,
I listened to it, it's so as nice makes the
time passed by, and it was fine. She didn't say
but she wasn't as effusive as I wanted her to
(02:13):
be about you.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Do you think I brought it down a peg?
Speaker 1 (02:15):
No, I just was expecting more adoration right off, right
off the bat. You a new call her a little bit.
I don't know. I want her to love you as
much as I love you. Isn't that weird?
Speaker 2 (02:27):
You know what, I'm an acquired taste. I know that
with our listeners, I don't think so.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
I think if she didn't like anything, she would have
said something, because she's not a shrinking violet. But I
wanted her to be like, wow, you know, because you
don't want her to feel the things I feel about you. Well,
I appreciate that she might. She may have just been
to give it time, give it time, give it time,
all right, but see, do you see how much I
love you? That's how much I like.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
I appreciate that and that is shared, that a shared
across this table.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
All right, so what do we have? Oh, we've got
Texas that wants to hone in on the Hollywood payday.
We've talked about how production has gone to Georgia, We've
talked how it's gone to Canada. PS. I love all
the shows filmed in Georgia and Canada, and most recently,
I think it was Ransom Canyon is filmed. I want
(03:15):
to say, in New Mexico. There is something serene and
beautiful about not a Hollywood set or just these beautiful
nature areas. Sullivan's crossing in Nova Scotia. I want to
move to all these places. I don't think I am
alone in yes, wanting Hollywood to be thriving and for
(03:37):
LA to get that money, that production money, and at
the same time love all these shows that are not
filmed here.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
There's something authentic about shooting on location, of course, and
it used to be cross excuse me, a cost prohibitive
to do so. But now so many states, so many
other countries have gotten into the game that Hollywood does,
and they've done so by substing these productions through tax incentives,
tax credits. And we're talking all the far corners of America,
(04:06):
places you wouldn't think would even want the word Hollywood.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Associated with it.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
If a film comes to town for that three weeks
or even six months that a film is shooting, or
even a television series, that's an economic boost to your shops,
to your restaurants. So it is attractive and it's exciting.
It's exciting for places that aren't LA. It's still exciting
for folks here, but it's exciting to see a production
taking place on Main Street, USA where it does not
happen every day. So what has happened more recently is Texas,
(04:34):
which has already lured so many of California's headquarters. It's
just approved its first ever batch of massive tax credits
to film producers, three hundred million for two years for
the next ten years. So three hundred million dollars over
two years for the next ten years.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
That cycle will repeat.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
How smart is Texas right? How smart are they to say, listen,
we have already collected a bunch of Californians, a lot
of people have left California for Texas. Why not go
in there and make a play for all the Hollywood cash.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
And they had some Hollywood players speaking on behalf of this.
They approved this earlier this year, and it started with
this campaign that featured actors Dennis Quaid, Renee Zellweger, Billy
Bob Thornton. We saw Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson recreate
their true detective style characters to push Texas to support
(05:30):
this legislation. Texas politicians, while while most of them did
vote for it, some of them opposed it fervently, as
did some conservative groups because of the connotations that come
with Hollywood. Don't Hollywood my Texas basically, so it plays
to what I was saying. A lot of places don't
want to be associated with what Hollywood represents in the
minds of so many people. But there is money to
(05:53):
be made if you bring these productions to town. California
just passed a big expand of its own credits because
it's feeling the heat. It's hearing from the industry. It's
hearing from actors, and not just actors. The people that
cater the sets, the people that lay down the red
carpet at red carpet events. These are all union workers
(06:13):
in Hollywood who are not getting enough work here. So
California used to have a three hundred million dollar per
year tax credit that is now more than double to
seven hundred and fifty million dollars because they've been feeling
the heat.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Well, see, there should be enough money to go around,
shouldn't there.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Well, there should.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
But there's a lot of movies and television shows being
made more than ever before. And I mean we're talking Kentucky.
Cincinnati has a huge man presence in the Hollywood industry
right now.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
I do not pooh pooh a lot of cities. I
know you hate Cincinnati, and I didn't. I will be
honest and say I did not give it a total
fair shake. I was there for one weekend, but I
did not find the joy in Cincinnati.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
You do have to dig for it, Okay, it doesn't
come at you fast.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
And kept calling back, which I thought was.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
As you call emergency responders, Yeah in Cincinnati.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Yeah, and they call you back there you back in LA.
I could be dying and bleeding out and called twenty
seven times. They don't answer, and they don't call God,
they call back. Come on, Cincinnati, they don't stop calling back.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Hey, sugar, you all right.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
I finally had to pick up the phone and say,
I just I was fumbling around my phone and I
clicked that emergency.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Oh you called them by accident?
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (07:32):
What did you think was going to happen?
Speaker 1 (07:33):
I don't In La, nothing happens.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Like I said, this is why films are shooting and
safer environments.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
All right, I don't want to help. Michael Muggs will
continue to join us. We'll be talking about this crisis
at Disneyland. Not really, we will be talking about what
would what did? What did you bring to the show?
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Okay, so the homeless members are coming out today. The
official was present from the Spouse.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
It's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
It's got an engraving on the back special message. What
does it say? I can't tell you. I'll tell you
after the break.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Okay, there's your tease.
Speaker 4 (08:10):
You're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
I'll tell you what the back of my watch says.
There's especial engraving on it. I know that you had
asked about it. It just says don't forget the free
holes with a heart on it. That's from the Spouse
and that is a reference to my low Freejles monks.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Our cat right, so I have Why would you forget
the free Holays.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Because free Holays is our word for him, right, But
why would you forget him? We may be separated someday.
The world is chaotic and as long as i'm you know,
can't you see the action sequence of the city falling apart?
But I'm hunting them both down on the other side
of the world, and all I've got is this watch
to keep me going.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
I'm dying in a building. I'm sweating again.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Like what happens when the cat dies?
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Cats don't die.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Free Holays is going to go over the rainbow.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
I was assured that cat don't die.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Unfortunately, it's going to happen. So then, like when free
hol is, it's just don't forget that he ever existed.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
We have talked about.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
No, they'll maybe have the beans for Hol's middle names
throughout history.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
I think you should. I have a girlfriend who's named
every cat she's ever owned kitty, and uh simple, it's simple.
It works. It transcends time. The kid the first kitty
I met was in nineteen ninety two, and there's still
a kitty. It's not the same.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
It's not the same.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
I may not the same cat.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
No, we've talked about maybe taking the toes the toe
beans off when he dies and making a necklace. O.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Sorry, the toe beans.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
That's where the free holies comes from.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
The padding on the on the pop.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
The little toes those are called, you know, the kittie beans.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
I don't think you should dismember your cat well while
he's alive. Michael Monks is with us, and besides not
forgetting the freeholes. We are talking about all of this
much do about so much nothing at Disneyland with jd Vance.
Orange County officials received intel of jd Vance's visit to
(10:15):
the area on Thursday. One of my girlfriends her her
husband's a commander in the military and I think he's
retired now. But Jade Vance and his wife and their
kids were in their neighborhood in San Diego last week
and met them. Kids had a great time, all playing together,
(10:37):
what have you. And that's what it's about, guys, like,
that's what it's about. It's not about politics or Trump
or who hates who. It's about kids playing together in
the summer. And when you've got people going to Disneyland
with their kids, that's not an opportunity for you. To
go after them on Twitter. Gavin Newsom, I understand what's
(10:58):
happening to family is awful, and he tried to, and
I'm not going to pull it up because then I'll
just be fed more So. It's like when I was
doing a deep dive on the Jeffrey Epstein stuff. The
more i pull up on Twitter slash x, the more
I'm fed the algorithm of whatever it is I pulled up.
And I don't want that. I'm reading about, you know,
(11:19):
the Teddy Bears covered with human flesh, and Victorville and
the Clinton's and their underground sex trafficking scheme, and I
don't want that either. So I'm not gonna pull up
Gavin Newsom's tweets. But he said something to the effect of,
you know, oh, so great that you're having fun with
your family when so many families are being pulled apart
by your raids something of that nature. Just leave the
(11:42):
kids alone. Just leave it alone. And Michael and I
were talking off the air about these barbs on both
sides of the aisle. Jd Vance does it as well
on Twitter. Just seems so juvenile.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
I think what has happened in American politics and perhaps
this is the culmination or the combination of the ever
presence of social media in our daily lives and the
rise of Donald Trump because he has embraced social media
all the years back even before he first ran for president,
he was an active user and kind of a troll
(12:16):
on social media.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
But to have the president of the United.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
States, in addition to all of the functions of that job,
to also take on this persona as America's top troll online.
It has been attractive to a lot of people because
he has been a successful politician. You know, he's won
the presidency twice and he squashed a bunch.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
And I hear that, And there is a school of
thought of you've got to take him on on his
playing field. And I'm talking about Gavin Newsom if that's
where he's starting the fight, Donald Trump is and I'll
take my fight to him. But isn't there also a
school of thought of we want a better politician, we
want someone who rises above this, or are we just
(13:00):
completely pass that as a society and there is no
higher ground.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
I keep waiting for what might be a moderate revolution.
Is there such a thing? Is there a place not
necessarily even policy driven. But can America take a breath
and get back to actual policy debates and conversations and
get stuff done.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
It needs a cigarette break, It needs a smoke. I
wish America would have a cigarette and.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Go outside, take a little walk, go outside, have a
little me time, relax, breathe in that carcinogen, delight and delightful,
and then come out with a fresher frame of thinking.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
You know, the Governor Knewsome wasn't just tweeting about jd Vance,
who's also a very effective Twitter troll. I mean jd
Vance is somebody who will troll on Twitter. There's really
no issue too small for them to come at you with.
But it pits state against state in a weird way.
We've got Newsom tweeting at Florida today because Rohn DeSantis,
(14:01):
the governor of Florida, tweeted out for the third straight year,
CNBC has ranked Florida the number one economy in the
nation among all fifty states. Okay, that was the tweet.
And then California says California Governor Newsom's press account says, cute,
Florida isn't even in the same league. California just became
you know. That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Everything has to be a fight.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
It's this odd.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
I thought it was going to be non violent civil
war that we're living through right now, this civil war
of words.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
I thought it was going to be something clever like, oh,
now you're watching NBC.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Well some of them.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
You know.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
It's even worse because the Governor's press office also tweeted
at Stephen Miller, one of the top advisors in Trump's
White House, who is often described as the architect of
this immigration policy, and Stephen Miller commented on a remark
the governor made thirty five percent of Anaheim's residents or immigrants.
Disneyland doesn't run without them, enjoy their labor.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Jd Vance.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
That's what Governor Newsom's office said. Stephen Miller responded, according
to the Governor of California, no theme has ever successfully
operated in any time city or plays without mass migration.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
To wish.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
The Governor's press.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Office responded with an animated picture of what appears to
be Captain Hook and it says, Captain Hook stop yelling
at the pretzel cart.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Okay, all right, I'm done. I'm gonna go home.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
But that's where we are is that. I mean, policy
is being decided.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
And I understand this isn't Gavin Newsome or Ronda Santas.
This is you know, twenty five year olds running these
Twitter wars back and forth. And maybe that's working for
that base. Like now that I'm saying it out loud,
maybe that's what twenty five year olds want. That's how
they speak, that's their language. That's not you know, that's
(15:43):
not being juvenile. That's just the way you operate. You
operate throwing barbs at each other on Twitter.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
I think there's no question that in this second iteration
of a President Trump White House, you are seeing the
influence of right wing media figures in a way that
you didn't in the first time around. There's more of
that in the administration directing.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
They have completely taken over the meme game.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
That's right, Yeah, And so when you see the effectiveness.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Of it, it's very effective.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
You see why others are drawn into it. And at
some point will anybody rise above and say this just
does not work.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
You're totally right, yeah, I always am. I wouldn't go
that far. Let's pump the brakes on dismembering baby free
hooliss Okay, we will talk about what I say.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
Okay, So the homeless counts in La County is coming
out this afternoon.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
We'll talk about what we might expect from that and.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
Also expect there are homeless people. There still are homeless people.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
So we're going to get the official count from that
delayed count from February, pushed back by the wildfires and
then the Port of LA and the tariff impact that
more evaluation was announced today, including a small business owner
who was brought on to a press conference hosted by
the Port of Los Angeles to talk about how the
terraffs on China are taking products off his shelves.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
You're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
We have Michael hang out with us in the ten
o'clock hours. We tackle our local stories because Michael Monks
and KFI News is our go to when it comes
to what is going on in Los Angeles, and one
of the themes that refuses to cease being a problem
is the homelessness issue in Los Angeles. Yes, we have
(17:26):
another homelessness count coming this afternoon, and from everything that
I've read recently, things are working. The number is dwindling,
albeit is still vast, but things seem to be working
when you look at everywhere but skid Row. You look
at Venice and Santa Monica and not Santa Monica. I'll
(17:47):
leave that u because it's not LA. But you look
at different areas that they have pinpoint as being homeless hotspots,
and it seems like there has been a decrease in
all of the areas except for skid Row.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
This is the annual homeless count the LA Homeless Services
Authority loss UP puts on and will continue to put on,
even though they're kind of being a funded by the
county and maybe eventually by the city as well. It
was supposed to happen in January, the wildfire's happened in January,
so they push it back to February. So this is
what they call the Place in Time count, where the
volunteers go out and for three days. It's kind of
(18:18):
like the US senses. We have a limited number of time,
but people are going to be knocking on your door
to see how many people are inside this building in
this case, in this tent or under that bag, or
wherever these folks are living.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Ps just pulling the car over real quick. I saw
two young gentlemen, black pants, white dress shirts, short sleeve
outside a neighbor's house, and I thought, is this still
a thing that Jehovah's witnesses? Oh, there were probably Mormons
or Mormons. Yeah, of Mormons.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
If they had that outfit on, I would say, oh,
that's the Mormon.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Probably the Mormons.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
Interesting, they're still doing that with the door to door
with the children.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Kind of their thing still though.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
If I were a Mormon, you know, you get sent
places to do that, and random places maybe Decatur, Iowa
or something. You know, if you get sent to Los Angeles,
that's kind of cool. So they're not from here. I
think most often there you're sent on a mission. I'm
not a Church of Latter day Saints.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
It is their mission, yes, because I've heard about the
missions in other parts of the world where you're doing things,
you're building things or what have you. But I've never
there are supposed to be saved all around. I didn't
know door to door was part of the mission. Interesting.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Oh yeah, you never had the knock on your door.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
I have, but I didn't know it was part of
that that coming of age milestone. Yeah, okay, right, anyway.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
So it's similar to that, except they're not pushing an orthodoxy.
They just want to know how many people there are inside.
And today this afternoon, at one o'clock, ellemyre Bass and
officials from the county and LASA will announce what they found. Now,
last year was the first time they reported to decline
in years, so they're expected to see another decline. The
(19:49):
questions will be, are we declining quickly enough? Because we
hate at about seventy five thousand homeless people in Los
Angeles County, more than half of them in the city
of Los Angele list. If you knock that down five percent,
what percent is.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
That of seventy five thousand?
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Yeah, what is it about? Seven thousand? Is that about
somewhere around there?
Speaker 3 (20:10):
Sure seven thousand would be ten percent of seventy five thousand,
So let's cut that hat to yeah, thirty five. I
apologize for even bringing this up. I've set us both
up for failure here. Let's just say, well, if you.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
Cut it down five percent is twelve regardless, there's still
gonna be seventy thousand homeless people.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
All right, That's what I'm trying to get to here.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
Okay, So there's seventy thousand people, so Holmes in La County,
with more than half of them in the city of
Los Angeles. Yes, it's a good thing that the number
is going down.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Percent of seventy five, it's three point seventy five.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Okay, yeah, all right, I was getting there.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
I was getting there out back and put an end
to this.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
But like you noticed, there are obvious visual declines in
certain parts of our community. We're seeing it in a
multi communities, as indicated by some new numbers released by
the Santa Monica based Rand Corporation. They say that the
number of unsheltered people in Hollywood, skid Row and Venice
combined decreased fifteen percent. But when you break that down,
(21:15):
they found that the homeless population actually went up on
skid Row. So you might also have a situation where
bodies are being moved around. And I live in the
Fashion District, skid Row adjacent and skid Row is completely
consuming parts of the Fashion district. Now right outside my building,
their tents where there were not tense.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
They need to rename it. It's not a row, it's a grid.
It's an entire section of the city.
Speaker 3 (21:41):
It's a neighborhood and if you go down there and
there's these weird murals that celebrated as a neighborhood. But
I don't know that it's had neighborhood qualities that we
typically associate with neighborhoods.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
Your definition of neighbor But it's.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
A mess, and it's starting to spread. It's spreading into
parts of the downtown area, that part of downtown where
it hasn't before.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
To your point of why are we just accepting this
as the way things are? Why are we you know,
you were talking last week about how downtown is not
a hub where people want to go, and I said,
well that's the way it's been for the twenty years
i've been here. And you said, but why is it okay?
And I thought about that over the Why is that okay?
Why is it okay that we're just like, oh, well
that's skid row. Oh it's it's expanded to five square blocks,
(22:25):
six square blocks. Oh that's just okay, it's skid row.
Why is that okay?
Speaker 3 (22:29):
That is my question I ask a lot in Los Angeles,
whether it's about homelessness or even some of the traffic,
like why is this okay?
Speaker 1 (22:36):
You know, that's just the way things are are out
of town, or you think you know everything, you have
breezing here and two years later you have all the answers.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
And I don't claim to but.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
You need fresh eyes.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
You do need fresh eyes, and frankly, you should be
on your knees thanking anybody who moves in here with
the conditions that we find la in California. And so
I'm here to help. I'm here to help, and we
will find out today what these numbers look like. But
you also the most important thing that we need to
keep in mind outside of this, the humanitarian aspect of this.
We spent a lot of money, billions and billions of dollars,
(23:08):
and we know that some of that is not properly
accounted for. What these numbers represent today are the results
of billions. Are you getting your money's worth? And we'll
be able to talk about that later this afternoon, and
we'll have it covered for you right here on GAYFI.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
That's exciting. When are you coming? Are you going on
John Show?
Speaker 3 (23:26):
I'm sure they'll pass me around. You know, I'm a
bit of a tramp here at KFI. Almost show around.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
Yeah, okay, Well I'm glad I got in first.
Speaker 4 (23:37):
You're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
We need your family traditions. Let us know you have
any weird or non weird family traditions. Maybe you get
all together at a park, or you take a vacation,
or you have celebration. Maybe you go out to a gravesite.
I don't know that was dark, but whatever it is
that you do, let us know. Use a talkback feature
on the iHeartRadio app. You just tap that little microphone
(24:02):
and we will revisit your thoughts your family traditions. Coming
up at eleven fifty, I'll tell you my odd family
tradition and it is not going to die with my father.
Sometime in the early nineties, my dad, probably after a
couple pops on Christmas Eve, he would get a pair
(24:24):
of boxer shorts. My mom's going to kill me for
telling the story. And I've done it before, so I'm
going to keep doing it. And they were like the
boxer shorts had Santa on them. And it was like
one year, I want to say, early nineties, and he
did this thing. It was all about the camquarterer. He
was an early adopter of the big massive cam quarters right,
this is before phones, and it with a big old
camera and you put it on your shoulder and you'd
(24:46):
go around the family events and you have everyone say something.
It was all very fun anyway. So he would take
the camcorder outside of the front door where there would
be a Christmas wreath, and he would hang a pair
of his Christmas boxer shorts on the wreath and do
like a whole proclamation about these are the Christmas shorts
and they are for Santa. And it was a whole thing,
(25:09):
and we did it every year and it drove my
mother crazy. It was just my brother and my dad
and I would go out and she she got rid
of the Christmas shorts. She would if she saw a
pair of underwear with Christmas anything. Those were gone, and
so we had to get creative. One year we just
used normal boxer shorts I think they were blue, and
we did that as the Christmas shorts.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
Anyway, what was the motivator, There.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Was no It was that it pissed her off and
it was so irreverent and I just like making your
mad at the holidays, Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Did you like this ceremony, this tradition?
Speaker 1 (25:39):
Oh sure, sure? And I won't say what we did
one year that was pretty sacrilegious. But anyway, he died.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
You need a visit from those Mormons.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
He died, and my mom continued the Christmas shorts.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Yes, well, I'm going to cry over boxed.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
And she's so cute and sweet when she does it.
It's not irreverent, it's just really sweet and wholesome. So anyway,
that's our weird family tradition that we do, so let
us know yours. Michael Monks, do you have any weird
family traditions?
Speaker 3 (26:14):
I think being you know, a white trash from the
upland South. Your entire existence is kind of a weird tradition.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
So underwear on the wreath is like a Tuesday.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
No, they may have not been placed there purposefully thrown
at somebody in anger and no one cleaned it up.
I kid, I kid, My house was very clean. I
do want to say that if you're ordering boxer shorts
from China, it's been a tough row to get them here.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
Yeah, let's talk about these tariffs and the problems.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
We will if I take you back to last month
when the Port of Los Angeles, and they do this
every month, they say this is how trade has looked
so many of those you know, the containers that we've had.
This is what we're seeing, and this is what it
means for the economy. Last month in June, when they
reported the May numbers, they said, we're down thirty five percent.
And this is a direct relationship to the tariffs that
(27:11):
have been on again and off again as announced by
President Trump. So it's been a little bit uncertain, but
as Trump often does, he's kind of gone softer on
some of these issues. And now what we just saw
as announced this morning by the Port of Los Angeles,
is that imports in June were up ten percent compared
to last year, so even higher than last year before
(27:33):
Trump came back into office. So you're seeing how quickly
things can swing based on a tweet or an announcement
or a feeling that President Trump has about these tariffs.
But they did include an exploration of that uncertainty the
port being they invited the president of YETI Houseware, a
guy named Bobby Java.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Harry is.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
This is a business here in Los Angeles. He joined
this and here's part of what he had to say
about the feelings as a small business owner in Los Angeles.
In the context of the weirdness of the tariffs, I.
Speaker 5 (28:09):
Felt like I was stabbed in the back in a
sense by my own government because they didn't even offer
any type of relief or or any type of mechanism
in place to say, hey, small business, medium sized business, uh, importer,
we're going to do this, trust us, and we're going
(28:30):
to assist.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
You with this type of relief to get through this.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (28:34):
One, Two, how about all all importers in the United
States from anywhere outside of America. You have two years
to find a source.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
They're basically there should have been transition money set aside
for small businesses than being the backbone of our economy.
Speaker 3 (28:54):
Now, he's a guy who owns this I said hardware.
I think heety housewares. What I meant to say, so
it's items that you might buy for your house. And
he does get a lot of his products from China.
So he was asked, look, have you thought about diversifying
your imports and getting them from somewhere else.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
Here's what he said.
Speaker 5 (29:10):
There is no country outside of China that could make
giving an example, hundreds of thousands of air friers in
a year in the same quality and same standards as
we expect. Some of our factories in China are looking
to outsource to sister factories in Malaysia.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
So he says that they haven't gotten any additional details
on those other explorations, whether China can outsource to Malaysia
and bypass some of the tariffs. But he did say
explicitly at the end of that quote that there will
be some things not on your shelves because stuff that
would have been imported for Halloween, for Christmas, for the
back to school shopping, they might have been on the
cargo list that was missed in May, and so you
(29:55):
will eventually see the impacts of these plus those tariffs
still exists. The China bound was because we had a
what one hundred and fifty percent tariff, it's now thirty percent.
That's still high and what might it be next month?
Speaker 1 (30:07):
Right then that's a wait and see game there. But
with China, yeah, we get so so much, so much.
There's really not a lot of room for pussy footing around.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
But now we might have new tariffs on the EU,
there's another threat against Mexico. We already know that we're
in trouble with Canada, so you're going to feel this
at some point. There's just a bit of a slow
realization of these things. Or does he back off exactly?
You to back off? You just don't know.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
But we'll be all here together to follow all the developments.
Michael Monks, thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
My pleasure.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
An hour with you feels like about twenty two seconds,
which is good, just flies by and you're a delight.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
Michael Monks will be passed around this afternoon. You can
hear him on the John Cobalt Show, Tim Conway as well.
Moe Kelly maybe even gets in on there.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
I've been on George nor before you have. You know
they just what do he want you for? Oh?
Speaker 3 (31:03):
When the immigration demonstrations were working. Oh, I was on
there for three days in a row. It was on
every show except Handle. He doesn't like me, really, he
likes me. He's just a board with me.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
I think he just doesn't know it yet. All right,
Thanks Michael Monks. Coming up plenty to get to it.
Looks like Kim Jong un is partnering up with Vladimir
Putin bad news. Also, we've got a family values guy,
Ken Paxton there, the Attorney General in Texas with divorce
issues that some people are calling his behavior dirty and disgusting.
(31:35):
We'll tell you what we know when we come back.
You've been listening to The Gary and Shannon Show.
Speaker 5 (31:40):
You can always hear us live on KFI AM six
forty nine am to one pm every Monday through Friday,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
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