The Trump administration has canceled $33 million worth of federal funds meant to help pay for earthquake retrofits in California — sparking “grave concern” and a call to reconsider from one of the state’s highest elected officials. Los Angeles hotel operators are threatening to withdraw from agreements to provide discounted rooms for the 2028 Olympic Games over a city ordinance that will significantly boost the minimum wage for hotel and airport workers. American travelers plan to take shorter trips this summer, with 41% surveyed taking a trip of three nights or fewer compared with 37% last year, according to a Deloitte report. More than half of Americans expect to spend less on fun expenses — like entertainment, travel and eating out. Nearly two-thirds of Americans say they think a recession is coming, according to a new survey from LendingTree. In the survey, conducted in April, 47 percent of respondents say they think a recession is coming in the next six months, while 15 percent say they think a recession is coming “but not in the next 6 months.”
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Hi there, Chris Merril Can I am six forty more
stimulating talk There is a well, let's see what this
one is. I haven't seen this one. Kelly just sent
me another talkback, So I asked the question of the
talkback tonight. There was a study that was done about
NFL stadiums and which NFL stadiums are the best to
go to and which ones are you want to stay
(00:25):
away from if there is a zombie apocalypse. Now, this
spawned from the new hit on HBO, which is Last
of Us Not really zombies, but they basically are because
the fungus brains. And so the question is if the
apocalypse happens, where are you going?
Speaker 3 (00:43):
All right, where are you going? Hey?
Speaker 4 (00:45):
There, I'll tell you exactly where we're going. We have
a cabin up in the sierras up here. That's exactly
where we're going.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Smart.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
Uh, no one around, Yeah, and uh yeah the road
goes Yeah, we can't get out either. Plenty of food,
got all our springs. Yeah, gonna be great.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Yep, perfect. That is a great answer. Uh, you have
to be self sufficient. I think a lot of people
that have been in the city and never spent time
out of the city.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Are gonna be in.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Trouble because you're gonna have to survive, and surviving is hard.
It just it is just hard. It's gonna be really
tough for my wife because there's not gonna be any
TikTok and she's gonna go.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
I don't even know what to do anymore. I just
want to look at my videos.
Speaker 5 (01:31):
Hey Chris, Hey, So first of all.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Hey, roulll I would listen to this, so you might
want to get ready with the dump button there?
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Ready, all right? Thank you?
Speaker 5 (01:41):
And the missing hiker Gal, oh yeah, we.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Talked about her in the last segment.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
If you're just joining us, you remember this woman that
was missing for three weeks and then she turned up
at a cabin where she had she had made her way.
She claimed that she couldn't get cell service, but her
phone would pick up GPS signal and would direct her
to Starbucks, which, if you're if you've ever not had
sale service, the maps don't really work. So people are like,
wait a minute, what's going on here? Is there she's
(02:09):
embellishing the story or there's something more to it. Yeah,
And then she also claimed that she fell off a
cliff and she broke her leg, and then she she
dislocated her knee, she had to reset her knee, and
that she was able to to somehow climb or excuse me,
travel twenty miles through snowstorms to get to this cabin.
(02:29):
So there are some questions about the story, like is
it an amazing and incredible tale of human survival or
was there?
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Is it all being embellished? Right? These are the questions
that people are raising.
Speaker 5 (02:39):
Yeah, skeptical, skeptical, But how are you going to prove it?
Are you going to go interview the trees?
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Oh that's a good idea, you know.
Speaker 5 (02:47):
That's what they mean by there's nothing they can really
do about it, is there's no way to prove it
one way or the other. And two, I think apocalypse time. Yeah,
I know where I'm going. Where I'm going to hale because.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Ah, that's kind of funny. I didn't see that coming,
but I kind of liked it. Let's talk politics as usual.
The Trump administration has done some things that have upset
to California politicians.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
I know you're shocked. I know I am too. What
what Democrats in California don't like, Maga, You're crazy.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Maga is using California as an example of how tough
they are.
Speaker 6 (03:25):
What.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Wow, No I ever saw that coming. Yes, of course
he did.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
So one of the things that's happening though, And I
think this is really curious because I would love to
see how this plays out. Trump administration is canceling thirty
three million dollars worth of federal funds that are meant
to help pay for earthquake retrofits in California, and according
to elected officials, this is of grave concern. Adam Schiff
urging US Homeland Security Secretary Christine nom to reinstate the funds,
(03:53):
which would have been used to strengthen between they say,
seven hundred and fifty and fifteen.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Hundred apartment buildings. Okay, so.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
That could be a problem, right, if we have an
earthquake that hits and apartments fall on people, they're going
to go Wait.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
A minute, they cancel the funding.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Shift says in California, earthquakes are not a question of if,
but when, and this move must be reversed before tragedy
strikes next. Okay, I get it. We want the money,
we want to retrofit things.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
You get it.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
If the federal government cancels the money, which is these
are part of FEMA programs, and so if the federal
government cancels this, you know that California is still going
to try to get it done. So that means it's
going to come out of our taxes somewhere. Shocker, our
taxes are going up. I think if we were to
do a survey, do you think that taxes are going
(04:47):
to go down in California in the next five years,
I would get one hundred percent response that people would say, yes,
taxes are going up.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
I have no doubt, no doubt because that's what happens.
So I get it.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
But here's where I think this is curious to see
if this plays out. We have seen the federal government
cut back on a few different programs FEMA programs, and
there's been complaints about the FEMA programs being cut back
for for instance, recovery of in I'm sorry, my mind
(05:24):
is playing in Kentucky, right, they had flooding in Kentucky
or flooding in North Carolina, and people are like, wait
a minute, FEMA is ditching us or tornadoes I guess
in Kentucky and they're like, FEMA's not here for us,
and this is a problem. There's been an argument whenever
there's a natural disaster, especially when it's fires in California
or an earthquake in California which is then followed by
a hurricane in Florida, or a hurricane in Texas where
(05:45):
you'll have Ted Cruz or Ron DeSantis will say, FEMA
shouldn't be sending money to California. Why are we sending
money to the federal government only to send it to California. Now,
Texas and Florida both pay in more in federal taxes
than what they receive, and so they're saying, why are
(06:07):
we supplementing California.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
Okay, then we'll have.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
A hurricane hit Florida, and Florida's the first to raise
their hand and go, we need FEMA funds, And Texas
will say, wait a minute. Then Harvey was terrible, We
need FEMA funds. And California will then say, wait a minute.
You didn't want to send funds to us, Why are
we sending funds to you? Because California, like Florida and Texas,
we pay in far more than we receive in federal funds.
So who benefits, Well, who's supposed to benefit air places
(06:33):
like Kentucky, North Carolina, Alabama, who just got wrecked by
tornadoes as well. I don't know if you've been watching,
but Oklahoma City and Tulsa have been under a constant
severe thunderstorm for about the last three weeks. That's an exaggeration,
but not by a whole lot. They've had terrible weather
this year. They receive more in federal funding, not just
for emergency funding but other federal funding, then.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
They pay in Kentucky, Alabama, Carolina, Oklahoma. You get it.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
So where I think this might be interested And I
don't know that's going to happen because I haven't. I
haven't gone through the big beautiful bill with a fine
tooth combus. The spending package that the House passed is,
if you're not gonna pay money out in FEMA, and
you're gonna say every man for themselves, doesn't that mean
we should have a reduction in our federal taxes and
(07:23):
if so, more Californians will benefit. Of course, the State
of California is going to immediately raise taxes to compensate
for that, but just the same, shouldn't we see that
money coming back? If you're not spending the money on
these FEMA things, shouldn't our tax bill be decreased? I
don't think it's going to be. I think they're going
to extend the current tax cuts that have been in
(07:45):
place since Trump's first term, and they're going to call
that a tax cut because they say if it doesn't pass,
it's the tax hike, and it's it's all semantics, but
it's not going to reduce your it's not going to
reduce your taxes. Your taxes were already reduced when they
passed it before, so that's tax isn't gonna come down again.
So what happens is the money that FEMA would be
(08:08):
spending on, for instance, earthquake retrofits or helping people out
in flood ravished North Carolina or tornado ravished Alabama, Oklahoma
or Kentucky is then going somewhere else. And it's not
to pay down the deficit, because the Big Beautiful Bill
actually or the debt excuse me, the Big Beautiful Bill
actually raises the debt and depending on your source, anywhere
(08:30):
from two point three to I think four point six
trillion dollars over the next ten years.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
So there's that.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Now, one other thing that the federal government has done
that is changing the way we do things in California
is to try to undermine some of our emission standards,
and the governor was not happy about this.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Governor Batman says, hey, you can't do that.
Speaker 7 (08:51):
Over the protests of both California Senators Adam Schiff and
Alex Padilla, a historic vote ending this so called California waiver.
Speaker 6 (09:00):
All four and ins will be forced to breathe dirtier
air than they should have to.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
Yeah, well, we've been doing that for decades.
Speaker 7 (09:07):
Jorty Republicans said California needed to be rained in after
state officials and their effort at fighting pollution and climate
change had required a ban on the sale of new
fossil fuel engines by twenty thirty five. Under California's electric
vehicle mandate, automakers around the country would be forced to
close down a substantial part of their traditional vehicle production
with serious consequences.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
They didn't care.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
They want to pollute more.
Speaker 7 (09:32):
An outrage, Governor Gavin Newsom says the state will sue,
pointing out that.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
We're suing take it to the courts, right.
Speaker 7 (09:40):
That's Senate Republicans throughout the sixty vote filibuster rule so
that the measure could pass with a simple fifty one
vote majority.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
This is about the act of theft.
Speaker 7 (09:50):
Because pollutions a subsidy, it's an act of theft.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
What wait a minute, now, I'm not buying the whole
theft thing against our kids in grand kids.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
All right, I'm not gonna buy the theft thing's theft.
Change the rules though, I don't like it. So I
guess now every time we hear a game show try
to give away a car and they talk about all
the different power windows, power locks, cruise control, child safety locks,
and California emissions, I guess they don't have to say
(10:22):
that anymore. There won't be any California missions. They'll just
be emissions. I don't think we're gonna have. I don't
think we're gonna have all the car companies start changing things, though,
because I think they expect this, like so many other
things will be reversed. This reversal will be reversed as
soon as Democrats have control again. Then we're gonna see
it happen, all right. Could be some changes because of
(10:44):
something else that we did in Los Angeles, Specifically, some
changes to your Olympics twenty twenty eight.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
Tell you what that is.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Next, Chris Merrill, I AM six forty live everywhere in
the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
All right, good even, Chris Merril, KFI AM six forty eight.
More stimulating talk on demand anytime in the iHeart Radio app.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
We're just about an hour away.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Study came out talking about the best NFL stadiums to
go to in case of a zombie apocalypse.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
I'll be going to an NFL stadium is a great idea.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
However, I have seen it played out in different films
where people go to NFL stadiums or any sort of
a stadium and then they sort of try to rebuild
society in that setting. I'll tell you how so Fi
fared coming up here at about six thirty. But my
question to you, and if you're on the app and
the iHeartRadio app listening to KFI AM sixtorty, you're gonna
(11:42):
see atle micro fun icon you click on that, that's
our talkback that allows you to record a message.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
You get thirty seconds.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
So get to the point, and the question is, if
the apocalypse happens where are you going now? In the
scenario of the study, it was a zombie apocalypse, but
I'm gonna throw out there there could be any apocalypse.
So you tell me what one guy say, he's going
to a fallout shelter. Yea, if it's a nuclear nuclear attack,
it's a pretty good place to go. If it's a
(12:10):
zombie apocalypse, I don't know if that's a great place.
I haven't really thought about a fallout shelter because at
some point you're gonna have to come up.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
But uh, thinking about that, Hey, what was that roll
you were just telling me about it? What's that? What
was that show that we were watching? Where?
Speaker 2 (12:26):
And we don't know because there was kind of a cliffhanger,
but they had like an underground bunker in Colorado.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
Paradise Paradise that was it?
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Yeah, where everybody was told that there was an apocalypse
and now there may be indications we're not sure it
was kind of I mean spoiler alert, but it also
it did look like things were a little difficult on
the outside. So a lot of apocalyptic shows lately, Silo
is kind of an apocalyptic show. If you haven't seen that,
that's pretty great. Yeah, Paradise. Last of us love those
(12:56):
dystopian shows. Allows us to use our imaginations a little bit.
So anyway, I'm curious about that hit that talk back.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
Let me know.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
If the apocalypse happens, where are you going? Apocalypse coming
where you off to? All right, So the Olympics are
headed to Los Angeles, which I know, as crazy expensive
as it is here, and I know how frustrating it is.
It's cheaper than a lot of places around the world.
(13:23):
If you went to Tokyo. You know, one nay cheaper
in Tokyo. Right, If you take a look at some
other European countries where we've hosted Olympics, usually in winter Olympics,
but sometimes summer, not like Paris, was a whole lot
cheaper than Los Angeles, is going to be right, It's
not so as far as international travelers to the Olympics go,
Los Angeles is not going to give them sticker shock
(13:46):
unless we start seeing hotel rates skyrocket because of this new.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
Uh This new ordinance had just passed to raise wages.
Speaker 8 (13:56):
The Council today giving final approval to raising their minimum
way fifty percent over the next three years to thirty
dollars an hour by twenty twenty eight.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Wow, if you work at the hotels, you're thinking this
is cool. I'm getting raises. You might unless the job
isn't there anymore.
Speaker 9 (14:13):
It's like a weight lifted off. We've been fighting this
fight for two years. So overwhelmed with joy, I don't
know to scream, holland jumped cry.
Speaker 8 (14:22):
But hotels and businesses at LAX say the increase will
make a bad situation worse. They say they're still recovering
from the pandemic, and tourism is down even more from
the impact of the la fires and fears about tariffs.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Yeah, we're about to ten minutes away from hearing about
how those fears about tariffs are hitting everybody, not just
here but around the country.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
Because what are you gonna do? You think you think
we're headed toward a recession? What do you do?
Speaker 2 (14:51):
You don't go spending a bunch of money. The only
place is people are spending money right now is where
they think they would otherwise spend it in the future.
Theyre trying to get ahead of those tariffs. So people
are buying some cars and cell phones and things like that.
But as far as travel, I mean, this is the
busiest busiest Memorial Day in history. I think that's because
(15:14):
a lot of people are wondering if they're going to
be able to do some more summer travel.
Speaker 8 (15:17):
David Townsend, the general manager at the High Place Hide
House at Lax, says the hotel is losing four million
dollars a year.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
Dang, that's not chump change.
Speaker 5 (15:28):
Just to stay in business.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
The owners are paying four million dollars a year just
to stay in business.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Layoffs are already happening.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Yeah, you're not getting a raise if you ain't got
the job. See that's the catch on this one, and
I think a lot of the hotel workers don't realize that.
Speaker 8 (15:43):
Chad Mender of the Lax Coastal Chamber of Commerce says
the wage increase will mean more layoffs and higher prices.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
The four points shared in Lax.
Speaker 10 (15:51):
They close their doors on April twenty ninth and laid
off one hundred and ninety one people. And this is
completely against where we need to head.
Speaker 5 (15:58):
In terms of making sure that we're ready officials.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Yeah, closing the whole hotel, and I'm thinking, all right,
but there's still other sharedans you can say. But I
also kind of wonder, like do we expect it to
somehow get better all of a sudden, because I I
think we're gonna start seeing a lot of the mom
and pop type places shutting it down right, and that
(16:25):
that worries me. I mean the big dogs, they'll be
all right. It's the smaller operators I worry about today.
Speaker 8 (16:31):
The rising costs will mean some hotels will cancel contracts
for box of rooms for the LA twenty eight Olympics.
But workers believe it's the Olympics that will help pay
for their raises and their survival.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Okay, all right, all right, let me hear this argument
go on.
Speaker 9 (16:47):
It's gonna make a difference because I have the weight
of everything. There's no one to share the rent with.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
I'm a single parrot. I take care of myself, my
son by myself.
Speaker 9 (16:55):
The Olympics is coming, They're going to make the money.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (17:01):
On the top of the wage increase, workers will also
be getting an eight dollars an hour increase for their
health benefits. The first increase is scheduled.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
To take place in July.
Speaker 8 (17:10):
Reporting one from downtown Los Angeles, Ted Chen, NBC four News.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
All right, so you got the increase up to thirty
bucks plus another eight dollars increase just for the benefits.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Yeah. I if you've listened.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
To me before, a lot of the minimum wage hikes
I hear people arguing about and they go, oh, they say, oh,
this is going to devastate business, and I go, come on,
it's not. They go, oh, our profit margins and this
is going to drive inflation. And it just doesn't the
way that a lot of people claim. But I actually
believe that this is too much. I think that this
(17:46):
is going to be detrimental. And I think it's the
people that are going to get hurt the most or
the people who believe that it's going to help them.
And that's the tragedy of it. Now that said, we
have a number of hotels that are now saying, you
know what, we're not going to be around for them. Nope,
they're pulling out. You hear you heard them talk about
those that have provided the blocks of discounted rooms.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
They're saying, we can't do it.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
We're not going to be able to give away discounted
rooms when all of a sudden, we have to start
paying our employees fifty percent more. So at least eight
hotels say that they are going to back out of
the room block agreement, and that would be the discounted
rates for the officials, the sponsors, and even media media.
Wait a minute, hotel operators like Hilton, Hotel Angelino, Hotel Perla,
(18:34):
and Hollywood Roosevelt arguing that the increased labor costs are
financially unfeasible, So what are they going to do? Are
they going to shut them down when we start to
see it, And again you heard a big operator Sheridan
shutting down. When you start to see Hilton's that say
we're going out of business, that's going to be your
evidence that yeah, it was in fact too much. You
(18:55):
can't just set an arbitrary number and say, well you
got to make sixty grand, so that means you have
to pay all of your your hotel workers thirty thirty
dollars an hour. The margins aren't there, or they or
what else are they gonna do. They're gonna drive up costs.
They're gonna drive those costs, and they're gonna say we
had we had to hike our prices by fifty percent
in what is already an incredibly expensive town to stay
(19:18):
in in order to pay for this stuff. And then
that hurts tourism. I think this is going to have
I think this is gonna have negative consequences. And I
try to wigh all of these things very carefully rather
than just knee jerk reaction.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
No, I hate wage increases. Oh how dare you? I
hate I hate that, but in this case, I think
it's too much. Yep, all right.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Question on the talk back if you're on the Ieheurt
Radio app. If the apocalypse happens, where are you going?
Speaker 3 (19:43):
Find out? Why?
Speaker 2 (19:44):
We are asking that question coming up here at about
six thirty. But next, so many people say tariffs are coming,
recessions on its way, Then why are they traveling for
the holiday that is ahead? Chris Merril Kay? If I
am six forty live everywhere in the I Hurt Radio app.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand Chris.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Merril AM six forty more stimulating talk. We ask a
question every week about the talkback, looking for your feedback
on it, and so if you're listening on the KFI
APT the iHeartRadio A excuse me, then you hit that
talkback button and let us know what you think. Question
this week if the apocalypse were to happen, Where are
you going? It could be a zombie apocalypse. A story
that we have coming up here in about an hour
(20:25):
is all about a Last of Us style apocalypse, which
was like a brain mushroom. Basically, it took off and
turn people into zombies. Where are you going? I want
to think about your your zombie knowledge?
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Right?
Speaker 2 (20:39):
What is canon for zombies? They eat brains and you
have to you have to disable their brain or brain stem.
I guess, So where are you? Where are you hiding?
Speaker 3 (20:50):
All right? Or where are you going?
Speaker 11 (20:52):
Zombie apocalypse? I'm going to heaven.
Speaker 5 (20:55):
I just read John three sixteen, so I'm pretty sure.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
All right, there you go. There it is.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
We had one guy that said, no doubt, I'm going
to hell. She says, I'm going to heaven. Okay, I
would prefer to delay that as long as I can.
But or as we had one gentleman say earlier in
the show, I just want to be at ground zero,
and you don't want to be around much longer, Like
you know, this is going to be a nuclear bomb
and that's what's bringing about the apocalypse. I just want
to be at ground zero. Let that sucker land right
(21:25):
on my head. Yeah, I get it.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
I get it.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
Better be squished in a hurry than have to deal
with everything else die later on by being torn up
by zombies.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
Nobody wants that.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
That's the important topic that we have tonight, probably the
most important life and death.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
But we have something else happening.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
Memorial Day Travel Forecast Triple A is saying that this
could break the twenty year old record, that this is it.
This is going to be the biggest travel Memorial Day
in history. More people are on the roads, more people
are flying, and yet you keep hearing story about airfare
costs going up, about the rental car costs going up,
hotel costs are going up. Gas prices nationwide or down,
(22:09):
but in California they are going up because of refinery issues.
So it is interesting to me that we have all
of this doom and gloom and yet we're not behaving
like to reference another pop culture thing, that is, we're
not behaving like winter is coming. You know, Game of Thrones,
(22:32):
winter is coming, and they all prepared for winter. Okay,
As somebody that grew up in in northern Michigan, I
can tell you that Labor Day hit and you started
thinking about winter, right, you had to winterize some of
your your machinery, right, it could be your could be
your your lawnmower, your lawn tractor, could be your tractor tractor.
(22:53):
H And then you got out your winter stuff. You
got ready for winter. Winter is coming. You start to
prepare because it's gonna be a hard time. And yet
we overwhelmingly believe that there is a recession coming, something
like eighty five percent believe that a recession is on
its way. But we're not preparing. We're not behaving that
(23:16):
way yet. It's not to say some are not getting
ready by making some.
Speaker 11 (23:22):
Cutback as we head into summer.
Speaker 12 (23:24):
Many are already packing bags, dreaming of destinations unknown.
Speaker 13 (23:29):
Oh, we just got back from Spain and had a
great time there.
Speaker 12 (23:31):
And at the Burbank airport most admitted this may be
their last flight.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
Okay, all right, so we're thinking.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Ahead before fall, not that I know, before fall, before fall,
before fall, before falls. What any just drop in on
a recession and drop out so that we have Can
we just schedule this recession, like to schedule this sometime
for the summer.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
I'd like to.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
I mean, I could probably cut back on the fourth
of July, but I really don't want to cut back
on Labor Day.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
If we could just schedule the recession around that, it'd
be great, not that I know.
Speaker 12 (24:09):
Of, unless someone springs it on me and we just
plan on staying home this summer. Apparently most travelers agree,
as a new study by bank Rate shows less than
half of Americans are planning a summer vacation.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
Wow, it would be fewer than half, but that's fine.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Fewer than half of Americans are planning a summer vacation,
which is interesting because we have simply like twenty percent
that are traveling this weekend. So I guess, I guess
that accounts for the other half that are planning on traveling.
Speaker 14 (24:47):
If you go to the most popular places at the
most popular times, it's going to be crowded and expensive.
Speaker 12 (24:53):
Ted Rossman is a senior analyst for bank Rate. He
says the reason people are saying no, he simply cost.
Speaker 7 (25:00):
Have definitely skyrocketed, and I feel like it is much
more difficult to travel now than it was previously.
Speaker 11 (25:06):
And it's not just a feeling.
Speaker 12 (25:07):
Triple A says, although the cost of car rentals is down, yeah,
airfare and hotel prices have taken off.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
Oh okay, all right, I guess car rentals are down,
so that's good. Maybe rent the car.
Speaker 6 (25:19):
Then.
Speaker 12 (25:20):
Domestic hotels cost eight percent more than last.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
Year, and they're going up in California or at least
in Los Angeles because they just passed that mandatory pay
race that we talked about in their last segment.
Speaker 12 (25:31):
International hotels are up eighteen percent, and Bank great says
thirty percent of Americans traveling plan to pay for it
with a credit card.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
Yeah, of course we do. What anyway, We're gonna pay
for it in cash. No credit card balances are.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Walking in there with a suitcase full of cash, like
we just robbed the bank. That's how you get the
FEDS on you.
Speaker 14 (25:52):
Credit card balances are at a record high one point
two trillion dollars according to the New York Fed.
Speaker 11 (25:57):
But there are some ways to cut the cost.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
Yeah, stay home, which is what you just said. Half
of Americans are doing.
Speaker 11 (26:03):
Plan ahead and be flexible.
Speaker 14 (26:05):
Maybe fly midweek instead of on the weekend, or take
an early flight or a late flight, or a connecting flight,
you know, kind of zig one other's egg.
Speaker 11 (26:12):
Put in a little planning and shop around.
Speaker 12 (26:15):
The cheapest beach vacation may be further away.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
Or you can just drive to San Diego. It's a
nice place to be.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Oh they hate it when people from from riverside, from
Los Angeles venture. They just hate it when people from
north of them go to visit. But it's so nice.
Oh yeah, the locals hated, but forget them. Their entire
economy is based on you visiting. So San Diego is
a nice place.
Speaker 12 (26:39):
And when it comes to hidden fees, pack which you
can carry, we.
Speaker 15 (26:43):
Weren't even just talking about checking bags and luggage, and
so you take as minimal as you can just because
everything adds up.
Speaker 11 (26:49):
And don't underestimate this staycation.
Speaker 14 (26:51):
There are a ton of great things to go in
southern California.
Speaker 3 (26:54):
We keep driving distance, That's what I keep saying. That
can be a way to have fun on a budget.
Speaker 12 (26:58):
For you, don't watch your summer fun to end up
being a financial fall.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
All right, and it's k cal it's got the uh,
summer fun is a financial fall. Hey we're putty punny guys.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
Yeay, So it's not just us.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
According to that bank Rate survey, which I've found, the
large majority of US eighty two percent are worried about
a potential recession. That's pretty big eighty two percent worried
about a recession. I just I feel like we have
an awful lot of people that feel like they are
in a really secure place, or they don't understand finances.
(27:36):
There are two reasons that you don't. You may you
may see a recession coming, and you don't think ahead
on this. The first is you are supremely confident in
your situation. Maybe you have a job that you think
recession proof. Maybe you're a higher up in a company
that has been through this before, and you go, I'll
weather the storm. I've weathered the storm in the past.
(27:59):
I'll weather the storm now.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
We're good.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
My finances are in order, I've got my emergency fund,
I don't have a lot of debt. You've done all
those things as a responsible individual, I should say there's
a third.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
The third would be you're retired.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
And you're drawing your maybe you've got an annuity or
whatever else, and so you're not really necessarily worried about
a recession upsetting your your lifestyle. You're worried about inflation,
but not necessarily the recession because it's not like your
income is going to change, right, all right. The other
is you're an idiot. You have a lot of debt,
and you're saying, I'll just throw caution to the wind.
(28:32):
Who cares. Oh my goodness, I already have fifteen thousand
dollars in credit card debt. What's another five grand for
my family to have a vacation.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
That's dumb. Don't do that. That is incredibly foolish.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
And you're going to be paying that off next year
when you're planning another vacation and you're only down to
seventeen thousand dollars all because you had to go on
a trip this last time. You go, oh, yeah, but man,
we really wanted to go in Maui. But you didn't
need to.
Speaker 3 (28:59):
Park that credit card put away a little bit of
money throughout the year. It's a lot easier than you
think once you start doing it.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
And then and I hate to be like the financial
nag year, but take it from a guy who got
into a ton of debt, and my wife and I
made incredible sacrifices to get out of it. We lived
in a fifth wheel in northern Michigan on my parents'
property for two years. I don't know if you've ever
tried to live in a camper in the winter in
(29:26):
a place that actually has winter.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
It sucks.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
But we buckled down and we got out of debt,
and both of us have sworn we're not doing that again.
Cars get paid off at the end of every month.
Everything's paid off. We don't do it. We don't get
it into debt again. So take it from me. Your
life is much better when you don't have that debt
looming over your head. And when you feel like you're
gonna be short on cash for one month, that stress
feel stressful, But it's a whole lot better than I
(29:51):
don't have a lot of money and I have to
make this extra interest payment on something that is just horrible.
So start squirreling away a little the money and lo
and behold, by the time you get to labor day,
you might have an extra couple grand. You're putting away
an extra one hundred dollars a paycheck. You might have
an extra couple grand to go do that little staycation.
(30:15):
Who take that little little camping trip at one of
our beautiful parks?
Speaker 3 (30:19):
Who do that instead? You don't need to go to Maui?
All right?
Speaker 2 (30:24):
As more Americans are faring a recession, it's all about
the economy. Stupid and one thing that people can't wait
to go get their hands on because they're worried about
prices skyrocketing. I'll tell you what it is next, Chris
Meryl CAFI AM six forty. We're live everywhere in the
iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
That Chris Merril KFI AM six forty. More stimulating talk
coming up here at six thirty. There was a study
that was done that talked about the best NFL stadiums
in case of a zombie apocalypse. Now they were talking
about Last of Us, which is not technically zombies, but
basically the same thing.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
Uh in that case, Uh.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
Fun fun guy take over brains and then it makes
people cannabalistic.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
Whatever.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
So the question is if a zombie apocalypse happens, or
if you want to just say an apocalypse, you can say
something else too.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
Where are you going? All right? So where is it
that you would head?
Speaker 10 (31:21):
Hey, Chris love the show you always do?
Speaker 14 (31:23):
Such?
Speaker 2 (31:23):
Hang on, that's I want to use that guy last roll,
Save him for last See.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
I got what's this one?
Speaker 1 (31:31):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (31:31):
Follow up on my cataly No no no, I got these
all out of order for some reason what happened?
Speaker 6 (31:36):
Hey Chris, Hey, if zombie apocalypse happens, I mean, if
you're in Los Angeles, best places probably get on a boat,
go to Catalina Island.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
Okay.
Speaker 6 (31:47):
You know there's chances they'll be zombies there, but yeah,
they'll be smaller number and it's a finite amount. Once
you kill them all, you'll have the island to yourself
to you know, grow crops on and live out your life.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
Okay, all right, So I have a little bit of
an issue with that. I'll tell you what it is
in a second.
Speaker 13 (32:09):
I mean, the obvious answer is Catalina Islands.
Speaker 3 (32:11):
Okay, go there. Yeah, I think you're stock.
Speaker 13 (32:14):
Up on Zammo knives, food and just border up, take
out anything that's infected there, and we're good to go.
Speaker 3 (32:20):
Yeah, and no one else is allowed to come in there.
You go.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
There's the problem because it's you and that other guy
that are both trying to get there.
Speaker 3 (32:27):
All right, all right, so oh.
Speaker 13 (32:30):
Follow up on my Catalina trip. Yes, okay, I'm taking
out Mark Runner first because chances are we're going to
be on a boat together. Oh yeah, and he's gonna
flip me off while we're in the same boat.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
Yeah, and I'm going to drop him. Yeah that's fair. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
So Mark Ronner, who's the news anchor during mo Kelly
Show every week. Yeah, I can see that will be
the first one out. You raise a couple of really
good points that I want you to think about. Catalina
Island for all the reasons you just said, makes perfect sense,
except everybody wants to go there. So now Catalina Island's
(33:05):
going to be one of those places where you're fighting
one another if there is an apocalypse, society starts to
break down and then we no longer respect life, which
means we take people out like Mark Ronner.
Speaker 3 (33:18):
Fair.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
So just keep this in mind when you talk about
stocking up on guns and am a good plan, good plan,
but going to a destination where everyone else is going
could be a problem. Catalina Island does make a lot
of sense because zombies can't swim there, and I made
mentioned this earlier in the show. We have never had
(33:41):
I don't think ever have we seen zombies inspeedos. They
don't swim, they're terrible swimmers. So yeah, it does make sense.
And yeah, you can take care of the people that
are there if they've already been zombified. But what makes
you think that people that are residents of Catalina Island
aren't going to try to keep you out right, So
just think about that. You could do it, but there
(34:03):
would be some challenges.
Speaker 3 (34:04):
Along the way. What's the nearest island after Catalina.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
Well, there's a few, the Cornado Islands now by San Diego.
There's a few places you could go there. In fact,
there was one that's down there. It's not inhabited now.
I've fished around it and they used to have an
old casino out there, like a speakeasy and casino during prohibition,
and you can actually still see the.
Speaker 3 (34:28):
Old dock.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
Or I guess, like where the dock used to be
on that island. I don't know that there's any other wildlife.
The advantage to Catalina Island is that there's other wildlife
that you could hunt, right, you could find other proteins
on the island.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
But I just think that you're going to all of
a sudden have.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
I mean at least a million people trying to get
to Catalina Island, right, maybe not a million, but one
hundred thousand people trying to get the Catalina island, which
it's not going to sustain one hundred thousand people. So I
love the island idea. I just don't know that I
would go to a highly populated one. I think a
lot of people are going to be thinking about islands.
(35:06):
But you are right about something, and that is getting away,
getting away from people. All Right, More on the talk
back again. If you're listening on the iHeartRadio app, just
go ahead and hit that talkback button. Feel free to
comment on anything that we've got going on to the show,
or if apocalypse were to happen where you're going.
Speaker 10 (35:23):
Hey, Chris, love the show. You always do such a
great job. It's informative and entertaining.
Speaker 3 (35:27):
Thanks.
Speaker 10 (35:27):
I don't think this country has any clue what's about
to come down the pike.
Speaker 3 (35:30):
Here.
Speaker 10 (35:30):
You got the Republicans passing a four trillion dollar increase
in our debt. You also have the bond market is
in complete meltdown. Interest rates are going to have to
rise on the bonds, so people buy our debt because
they're not buying it. Bitcoin and gold are in a skyrocket.
We're in big trouble yet.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
I don't know that I've watched bitcoin before and it
doesn't always work.
Speaker 3 (35:53):
Inverse. Gold is someplace where people.
Speaker 2 (35:56):
Go to hide their money, right, storage of money, And
I don't know how many people trust the crypto right now,
So I'm with you on gold.
Speaker 3 (36:07):
I don't know about crypto.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
At some point that will turn and people will start
trusting crypto as a place for.
Speaker 3 (36:12):
Storage of wealth, but I don't know that we're there yet.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
The other thing, too, is that we keep getting these
mixed signals on what's going to happen with the tariffs,
and nothing is scaring the market faster than.
Speaker 3 (36:22):
Tariff talk on and off. And the latest, of course
is the iPhone.
Speaker 15 (36:25):
Ninety one percent of Americans have smartphones and as.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
You know, wow, ninety one percent of Americans have smartphones.
Do you realize that twenty percent of Americans can't read
past a third grade level, and yet ninety one percent
of Americans have smartphones.
Speaker 15 (36:42):
This is not a lifetime purchase. That tech changes, phones
break people upgrade roughly every two to three years.
Speaker 11 (36:48):
So if these tariffs.
Speaker 15 (36:49):
Were to take effect, we could be looking at a
much more expensive upgrade now. President taking to truth Social
earlier this morning, suggesting that you're looking at it right
now here that in this work.
Speaker 3 (37:01):
No, I'm not.
Speaker 5 (37:01):
It's radio post once.
Speaker 15 (37:03):
Again, Americans should be buying American made smartphones. That is
what he's asking for, and to get that, he's threatening
a twenty five percent tariff on Apple if they don't comply. Now,
the company, to put this in context, is the world's
biggest smartphone manufacturer. Now, of course, this is not the
first time the president's tariff plans have threatened Apple. Back
in April, when those large tariffs were proposed on China,
(37:24):
economists estimated that American made iPhones could cost anywhere between
fifteen hundred to thirty five hundred dollars. But look at
how much more than that is from the current twelve
hundred dollars cost it is when they're produced out of China. Now,
of course, the President says he wants Americans to be
buying American made phones, but as it stands, it's just
not possible. Apple doesn't actually make any iPhones in the
(37:46):
US zero, not a single one made here in the States.
And it's not as simple as Tim Cook just deciding
to move the factory's stateside. In China, labor costs associated
with manufacturing an iPhone come in at about forty US
dolls dollars.
Speaker 3 (38:00):
Forty bucks to make an iPhone.
Speaker 15 (38:02):
Look at the gap there. The cost of doing it
here in the US could be two hundred dollars.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
Okay, So immediately we're seeing our labor costs quintupling.
Speaker 15 (38:13):
That's just one of the manufacturing costs as well. You
have to think about all the parts that are going
to go into that. Where are we sourcing them, how
are we getting them, where would they be built, who
would be building them? So just the structure we would
need to get iPhones created, manufactured, and sold all here
in the United States would be very expensive and take
a lot of time.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
Yeah, and then what happens when the president realizes that
more than just Apple have phones?
Speaker 3 (38:39):
HGC.
Speaker 2 (38:41):
I mean that's a foreign company, Samsung, foreign company. Are
you going to you're gonna start hitting them to or
are they going to pay lower tariffs than the American company? Yeah,
we got trouble brewing, man, I agreed. Trouble is brewing,
all right, we do it every week at six o'clock.
There's no business like.
Speaker 5 (39:00):
Business.
Speaker 3 (39:01):
I was terrible. Okay.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
So Kayla is producing remotely. She's not here to participate
because she's a horrible for VISs okay.
Speaker 3 (39:09):
That was timely. Uh, there's no business like is next?
Chris Merril kfi AM six forty WeLive everywhere in the
iHeartRadio
Speaker 1 (39:14):
App, kfi AM six forty on demand
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Hi there, Chris Merril Can I am six forty more
stimulating talk There is a well, let's see what this
one is. I haven't seen this one. Kelly just sent
me another talkback, So I asked the question of the
talkback tonight. There was a study that was done about
NFL stadiums and which NFL stadiums are the best to
go to and which ones are you want to stay
(00:25):
away from if there is a zombie apocalypse. Now, this
spawned from the new hit on HBO, which is Last
of Us Not really zombies, but they basically are because
the fungus brains. And so the question is if the
apocalypse happens, where are you going?
Speaker 3 (00:43):
All right, where are you going? Hey?
Speaker 4 (00:45):
There, I'll tell you exactly where we're going. We have
a cabin up in the sierras up here. That's exactly
where we're going.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Smart.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
Uh, no one around, Yeah, and uh yeah the road
goes Yeah, we can't get out either. Plenty of food,
got all our springs. Yeah, gonna be great.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Yep, perfect. That is a great answer. Uh, you have
to be self sufficient. I think a lot of people
that have been in the city and never spent time
out of the city.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Are gonna be in.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Trouble because you're gonna have to survive, and surviving is hard.
It just it is just hard. It's gonna be really
tough for my wife because there's not gonna be any
TikTok and she's gonna go.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
I don't even know what to do anymore. I just
want to look at my videos.
Speaker 5 (01:31):
Hey Chris, Hey, So first of all.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Hey, roulll I would listen to this, so you might
want to get ready with the dump button there?
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Ready, all right? Thank you?
Speaker 5 (01:41):
And the missing hiker Gal, oh yeah, we.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Talked about her in the last segment.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
If you're just joining us, you remember this woman that
was missing for three weeks and then she turned up
at a cabin where she had she had made her way.
She claimed that she couldn't get cell service, but her
phone would pick up GPS signal and would direct her
to Starbucks, which, if you're if you've ever not had
sale service, the maps don't really work. So people are like,
wait a minute, what's going on here? Is there she's
(02:09):
embellishing the story or there's something more to it. Yeah,
And then she also claimed that she fell off a
cliff and she broke her leg, and then she she
dislocated her knee, she had to reset her knee, and
that she was able to to somehow climb or excuse me,
travel twenty miles through snowstorms to get to this cabin.
(02:29):
So there are some questions about the story, like is
it an amazing and incredible tale of human survival or
was there?
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Is it all being embellished? Right? These are the questions
that people are raising.
Speaker 5 (02:39):
Yeah, skeptical, skeptical, But how are you going to prove it?
Are you going to go interview the trees?
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Oh that's a good idea, you know.
Speaker 5 (02:47):
That's what they mean by there's nothing they can really
do about it, is there's no way to prove it
one way or the other. And two, I think apocalypse time. Yeah,
I know where I'm going. Where I'm going to hale because.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Ah, that's kind of funny. I didn't see that coming,
but I kind of liked it. Let's talk politics as usual.
The Trump administration has done some things that have upset
to California politicians.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
I know you're shocked. I know I am too. What
what Democrats in California don't like, Maga, You're crazy.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Maga is using California as an example of how tough
they are.
Speaker 6 (03:25):
What.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Wow, No I ever saw that coming. Yes, of course
he did.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
So one of the things that's happening though, And I
think this is really curious because I would love to
see how this plays out. Trump administration is canceling thirty
three million dollars worth of federal funds that are meant
to help pay for earthquake retrofits in California, and according
to elected officials, this is of grave concern. Adam Schiff
urging US Homeland Security Secretary Christine nom to reinstate the funds,
(03:53):
which would have been used to strengthen between they say,
seven hundred and fifty and fifteen.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Hundred apartment buildings. Okay, so.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
That could be a problem, right, if we have an
earthquake that hits and apartments fall on people, they're going
to go Wait.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
A minute, they cancel the funding.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Shift says in California, earthquakes are not a question of if,
but when, and this move must be reversed before tragedy
strikes next. Okay, I get it. We want the money,
we want to retrofit things.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
You get it.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
If the federal government cancels the money, which is these
are part of FEMA programs, and so if the federal
government cancels this, you know that California is still going
to try to get it done. So that means it's
going to come out of our taxes somewhere. Shocker, our
taxes are going up. I think if we were to
do a survey, do you think that taxes are going
(04:47):
to go down in California in the next five years,
I would get one hundred percent response that people would say, yes,
taxes are going up.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
I have no doubt, no doubt because that's what happens.
So I get it.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
But here's where I think this is curious to see
if this plays out. We have seen the federal government
cut back on a few different programs FEMA programs, and
there's been complaints about the FEMA programs being cut back
for for instance, recovery of in I'm sorry, my mind
(05:24):
is playing in Kentucky, right, they had flooding in Kentucky
or flooding in North Carolina, and people are like, wait
a minute, FEMA is ditching us or tornadoes I guess
in Kentucky and they're like, FEMA's not here for us,
and this is a problem. There's been an argument whenever
there's a natural disaster, especially when it's fires in California
or an earthquake in California which is then followed by
a hurricane in Florida, or a hurricane in Texas where
(05:45):
you'll have Ted Cruz or Ron DeSantis will say, FEMA
shouldn't be sending money to California. Why are we sending
money to the federal government only to send it to California. Now,
Texas and Florida both pay in more in federal taxes
than what they receive, and so they're saying, why are
(06:07):
we supplementing California.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
Okay, then we'll have.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
A hurricane hit Florida, and Florida's the first to raise
their hand and go, we need FEMA funds, And Texas
will say, wait a minute. Then Harvey was terrible, We
need FEMA funds. And California will then say, wait a minute.
You didn't want to send funds to us, Why are
we sending funds to you? Because California, like Florida and Texas,
we pay in far more than we receive in federal funds.
So who benefits, Well, who's supposed to benefit air places
(06:33):
like Kentucky, North Carolina, Alabama, who just got wrecked by
tornadoes as well. I don't know if you've been watching,
but Oklahoma City and Tulsa have been under a constant
severe thunderstorm for about the last three weeks. That's an exaggeration,
but not by a whole lot. They've had terrible weather
this year. They receive more in federal funding, not just
for emergency funding but other federal funding, then.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
They pay in Kentucky, Alabama, Carolina, Oklahoma. You get it.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
So where I think this might be interested And I
don't know that's going to happen because I haven't. I
haven't gone through the big beautiful bill with a fine
tooth combus. The spending package that the House passed is,
if you're not gonna pay money out in FEMA, and
you're gonna say every man for themselves, doesn't that mean
we should have a reduction in our federal taxes and
(07:23):
if so, more Californians will benefit. Of course, the State
of California is going to immediately raise taxes to compensate
for that, but just the same, shouldn't we see that
money coming back? If you're not spending the money on
these FEMA things, shouldn't our tax bill be decreased? I
don't think it's going to be. I think they're going
to extend the current tax cuts that have been in
(07:45):
place since Trump's first term, and they're going to call
that a tax cut because they say if it doesn't pass,
it's the tax hike, and it's it's all semantics, but
it's not going to reduce your it's not going to
reduce your taxes. Your taxes were already reduced when they
passed it before, so that's tax isn't gonna come down again.
So what happens is the money that FEMA would be
(08:08):
spending on, for instance, earthquake retrofits or helping people out
in flood ravished North Carolina or tornado ravished Alabama, Oklahoma
or Kentucky is then going somewhere else. And it's not
to pay down the deficit, because the Big Beautiful Bill
actually or the debt excuse me, the Big Beautiful Bill
actually raises the debt and depending on your source, anywhere
(08:30):
from two point three to I think four point six
trillion dollars over the next ten years.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
So there's that.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Now, one other thing that the federal government has done
that is changing the way we do things in California
is to try to undermine some of our emission standards,
and the governor was not happy about this.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Governor Batman says, hey, you can't do that.
Speaker 7 (08:51):
Over the protests of both California Senators Adam Schiff and
Alex Padilla, a historic vote ending this so called California waiver.
Speaker 6 (09:00):
All four and ins will be forced to breathe dirtier
air than they should have to.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
Yeah, well, we've been doing that for decades.
Speaker 7 (09:07):
Jorty Republicans said California needed to be rained in after
state officials and their effort at fighting pollution and climate
change had required a ban on the sale of new
fossil fuel engines by twenty thirty five. Under California's electric
vehicle mandate, automakers around the country would be forced to
close down a substantial part of their traditional vehicle production
with serious consequences.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
They didn't care.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
They want to pollute more.
Speaker 7 (09:32):
An outrage, Governor Gavin Newsom says the state will sue,
pointing out that.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
We're suing take it to the courts, right.
Speaker 7 (09:40):
That's Senate Republicans throughout the sixty vote filibuster rule so
that the measure could pass with a simple fifty one
vote majority.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
This is about the act of theft.
Speaker 7 (09:50):
Because pollutions a subsidy, it's an act of theft.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
What wait a minute, now, I'm not buying the whole
theft thing against our kids in grand kids.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
All right, I'm not gonna buy the theft thing's theft.
Change the rules though, I don't like it. So I
guess now every time we hear a game show try
to give away a car and they talk about all
the different power windows, power locks, cruise control, child safety locks,
and California emissions, I guess they don't have to say
(10:22):
that anymore. There won't be any California missions. They'll just
be emissions. I don't think we're gonna have. I don't
think we're gonna have all the car companies start changing things, though,
because I think they expect this, like so many other
things will be reversed. This reversal will be reversed as
soon as Democrats have control again. Then we're gonna see
it happen, all right. Could be some changes because of
(10:44):
something else that we did in Los Angeles, Specifically, some
changes to your Olympics twenty twenty eight.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
Tell you what that is.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Next, Chris Merrill, I AM six forty live everywhere in
the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
All right, good even, Chris Merril, KFI AM six forty eight.
More stimulating talk on demand anytime in the iHeart Radio app.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
We're just about an hour away.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Study came out talking about the best NFL stadiums to
go to in case of a zombie apocalypse.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
I'll be going to an NFL stadium is a great idea.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
However, I have seen it played out in different films
where people go to NFL stadiums or any sort of
a stadium and then they sort of try to rebuild
society in that setting. I'll tell you how so Fi
fared coming up here at about six thirty. But my
question to you, and if you're on the app and
the iHeartRadio app listening to KFI AM sixtorty, you're gonna
(11:42):
see atle micro fun icon you click on that, that's
our talkback that allows you to record a message.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
You get thirty seconds.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
So get to the point, and the question is, if
the apocalypse happens where are you going now? In the
scenario of the study, it was a zombie apocalypse, but
I'm gonna throw out there there could be any apocalypse.
So you tell me what one guy say, he's going
to a fallout shelter. Yea, if it's a nuclear nuclear attack,
it's a pretty good place to go. If it's a
(12:10):
zombie apocalypse, I don't know if that's a great place.
I haven't really thought about a fallout shelter because at
some point you're gonna have to come up.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
But uh, thinking about that, Hey, what was that roll
you were just telling me about it? What's that? What
was that show that we were watching? Where?
Speaker 2 (12:26):
And we don't know because there was kind of a cliffhanger,
but they had like an underground bunker in Colorado.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
Paradise Paradise that was it?
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Yeah, where everybody was told that there was an apocalypse
and now there may be indications we're not sure it
was kind of I mean spoiler alert, but it also
it did look like things were a little difficult on
the outside. So a lot of apocalyptic shows lately, Silo
is kind of an apocalyptic show. If you haven't seen that,
that's pretty great. Yeah, Paradise. Last of us love those
(12:56):
dystopian shows. Allows us to use our imaginations a little bit.
So anyway, I'm curious about that hit that talk back.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
Let me know.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
If the apocalypse happens, where are you going? Apocalypse coming
where you off to? All right, So the Olympics are
headed to Los Angeles, which I know, as crazy expensive
as it is here, and I know how frustrating it is.
It's cheaper than a lot of places around the world.
(13:23):
If you went to Tokyo. You know, one nay cheaper
in Tokyo. Right, If you take a look at some
other European countries where we've hosted Olympics, usually in winter Olympics,
but sometimes summer, not like Paris, was a whole lot
cheaper than Los Angeles, is going to be right, It's
not so as far as international travelers to the Olympics go,
Los Angeles is not going to give them sticker shock
(13:46):
unless we start seeing hotel rates skyrocket because of this new.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
Uh This new ordinance had just passed to raise wages.
Speaker 8 (13:56):
The Council today giving final approval to raising their minimum
way fifty percent over the next three years to thirty
dollars an hour by twenty twenty eight.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Wow, if you work at the hotels, you're thinking this
is cool. I'm getting raises. You might unless the job
isn't there anymore.
Speaker 9 (14:13):
It's like a weight lifted off. We've been fighting this
fight for two years. So overwhelmed with joy, I don't
know to scream, holland jumped cry.
Speaker 8 (14:22):
But hotels and businesses at LAX say the increase will
make a bad situation worse. They say they're still recovering
from the pandemic, and tourism is down even more from
the impact of the la fires and fears about tariffs.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Yeah, we're about to ten minutes away from hearing about
how those fears about tariffs are hitting everybody, not just
here but around the country.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
Because what are you gonna do? You think you think
we're headed toward a recession? What do you do?
Speaker 2 (14:51):
You don't go spending a bunch of money. The only
place is people are spending money right now is where
they think they would otherwise spend it in the future.
Theyre trying to get ahead of those tariffs. So people
are buying some cars and cell phones and things like that.
But as far as travel, I mean, this is the
busiest busiest Memorial Day in history. I think that's because
(15:14):
a lot of people are wondering if they're going to
be able to do some more summer travel.
Speaker 8 (15:17):
David Townsend, the general manager at the High Place Hide
House at Lax, says the hotel is losing four million
dollars a year.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
Dang, that's not chump change.
Speaker 5 (15:28):
Just to stay in business.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
The owners are paying four million dollars a year just
to stay in business.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Layoffs are already happening.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Yeah, you're not getting a raise if you ain't got
the job. See that's the catch on this one, and
I think a lot of the hotel workers don't realize that.
Speaker 8 (15:43):
Chad Mender of the Lax Coastal Chamber of Commerce says
the wage increase will mean more layoffs and higher prices.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
The four points shared in Lax.
Speaker 10 (15:51):
They close their doors on April twenty ninth and laid
off one hundred and ninety one people. And this is
completely against where we need to head.
Speaker 5 (15:58):
In terms of making sure that we're ready officials.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Yeah, closing the whole hotel, and I'm thinking, all right,
but there's still other sharedans you can say. But I
also kind of wonder, like do we expect it to
somehow get better all of a sudden, because I I
think we're gonna start seeing a lot of the mom
and pop type places shutting it down right, and that
(16:25):
that worries me. I mean the big dogs, they'll be
all right. It's the smaller operators I worry about today.
Speaker 8 (16:31):
The rising costs will mean some hotels will cancel contracts
for box of rooms for the LA twenty eight Olympics.
But workers believe it's the Olympics that will help pay
for their raises and their survival.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Okay, all right, all right, let me hear this argument
go on.
Speaker 9 (16:47):
It's gonna make a difference because I have the weight
of everything. There's no one to share the rent with.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
I'm a single parrot. I take care of myself, my
son by myself.
Speaker 9 (16:55):
The Olympics is coming, They're going to make the money.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (17:01):
On the top of the wage increase, workers will also
be getting an eight dollars an hour increase for their
health benefits. The first increase is scheduled.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
To take place in July.
Speaker 8 (17:10):
Reporting one from downtown Los Angeles, Ted Chen, NBC four News.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
All right, so you got the increase up to thirty
bucks plus another eight dollars increase just for the benefits.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Yeah. I if you've listened.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
To me before, a lot of the minimum wage hikes
I hear people arguing about and they go, oh, they say, oh,
this is going to devastate business, and I go, come on,
it's not. They go, oh, our profit margins and this
is going to drive inflation. And it just doesn't the
way that a lot of people claim. But I actually
believe that this is too much. I think that this
(17:46):
is going to be detrimental. And I think it's the
people that are going to get hurt the most or
the people who believe that it's going to help them.
And that's the tragedy of it. Now that said, we
have a number of hotels that are now saying, you
know what, we're not going to be around for them. Nope,
they're pulling out. You hear you heard them talk about
those that have provided the blocks of discounted rooms.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
They're saying, we can't do it.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
We're not going to be able to give away discounted
rooms when all of a sudden, we have to start
paying our employees fifty percent more. So at least eight
hotels say that they are going to back out of
the room block agreement, and that would be the discounted
rates for the officials, the sponsors, and even media media.
Wait a minute, hotel operators like Hilton, Hotel Angelino, Hotel Perla,
(18:34):
and Hollywood Roosevelt arguing that the increased labor costs are
financially unfeasible, So what are they going to do? Are
they going to shut them down when we start to
see it, And again you heard a big operator Sheridan
shutting down. When you start to see Hilton's that say
we're going out of business, that's going to be your
evidence that yeah, it was in fact too much. You
(18:55):
can't just set an arbitrary number and say, well you
got to make sixty grand, so that means you have
to pay all of your your hotel workers thirty thirty
dollars an hour. The margins aren't there, or they or
what else are they gonna do. They're gonna drive up costs.
They're gonna drive those costs, and they're gonna say we
had we had to hike our prices by fifty percent
in what is already an incredibly expensive town to stay
(19:18):
in in order to pay for this stuff. And then
that hurts tourism. I think this is going to have
I think this is gonna have negative consequences. And I
try to wigh all of these things very carefully rather
than just knee jerk reaction.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
No, I hate wage increases. Oh how dare you? I
hate I hate that, but in this case, I think
it's too much. Yep, all right.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Question on the talk back if you're on the Ieheurt
Radio app. If the apocalypse happens, where are you going?
Speaker 3 (19:43):
Find out? Why?
Speaker 2 (19:44):
We are asking that question coming up here at about
six thirty. But next, so many people say tariffs are coming,
recessions on its way, Then why are they traveling for
the holiday that is ahead? Chris Merril Kay? If I
am six forty live everywhere in the I Hurt Radio app.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand Chris.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Merril AM six forty more stimulating talk. We ask a
question every week about the talkback, looking for your feedback
on it, and so if you're listening on the KFI
APT the iHeartRadio A excuse me, then you hit that
talkback button and let us know what you think. Question
this week if the apocalypse were to happen, Where are
you going? It could be a zombie apocalypse. A story
that we have coming up here in about an hour
(20:25):
is all about a Last of Us style apocalypse, which
was like a brain mushroom. Basically, it took off and
turn people into zombies. Where are you going? I want
to think about your your zombie knowledge?
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Right?
Speaker 2 (20:39):
What is canon for zombies? They eat brains and you
have to you have to disable their brain or brain stem.
I guess, So where are you? Where are you hiding?
Speaker 3 (20:50):
All right? Or where are you going?
Speaker 11 (20:52):
Zombie apocalypse? I'm going to heaven.
Speaker 5 (20:55):
I just read John three sixteen, so I'm pretty sure.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
All right, there you go. There it is.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
We had one guy that said, no doubt, I'm going
to hell. She says, I'm going to heaven. Okay, I
would prefer to delay that as long as I can.
But or as we had one gentleman say earlier in
the show, I just want to be at ground zero,
and you don't want to be around much longer, Like
you know, this is going to be a nuclear bomb
and that's what's bringing about the apocalypse. I just want
to be at ground zero. Let that sucker land right
(21:25):
on my head. Yeah, I get it.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
I get it.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
Better be squished in a hurry than have to deal
with everything else die later on by being torn up
by zombies.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
Nobody wants that.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
That's the important topic that we have tonight, probably the
most important life and death.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
But we have something else happening.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
Memorial Day Travel Forecast Triple A is saying that this
could break the twenty year old record, that this is it.
This is going to be the biggest travel Memorial Day
in history. More people are on the roads, more people
are flying, and yet you keep hearing story about airfare
costs going up, about the rental car costs going up,
hotel costs are going up. Gas prices nationwide or down,
(22:09):
but in California they are going up because of refinery issues.
So it is interesting to me that we have all
of this doom and gloom and yet we're not behaving
like to reference another pop culture thing, that is, we're
not behaving like winter is coming. You know, Game of Thrones,
(22:32):
winter is coming, and they all prepared for winter. Okay,
As somebody that grew up in in northern Michigan, I
can tell you that Labor Day hit and you started
thinking about winter, right, you had to winterize some of
your your machinery, right, it could be your could be
your your lawnmower, your lawn tractor, could be your tractor tractor.
(22:53):
H And then you got out your winter stuff. You
got ready for winter. Winter is coming. You start to
prepare because it's gonna be a hard time. And yet
we overwhelmingly believe that there is a recession coming, something
like eighty five percent believe that a recession is on
its way. But we're not preparing. We're not behaving that
(23:16):
way yet. It's not to say some are not getting
ready by making some.
Speaker 11 (23:22):
Cutback as we head into summer.
Speaker 12 (23:24):
Many are already packing bags, dreaming of destinations unknown.
Speaker 13 (23:29):
Oh, we just got back from Spain and had a
great time there.
Speaker 12 (23:31):
And at the Burbank airport most admitted this may be
their last flight.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
Okay, all right, so we're thinking.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Ahead before fall, not that I know, before fall, before fall,
before fall, before falls. What any just drop in on
a recession and drop out so that we have Can
we just schedule this recession, like to schedule this sometime
for the summer.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
I'd like to.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
I mean, I could probably cut back on the fourth
of July, but I really don't want to cut back
on Labor Day.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
If we could just schedule the recession around that, it'd
be great, not that I know.
Speaker 12 (24:09):
Of, unless someone springs it on me and we just
plan on staying home this summer. Apparently most travelers agree,
as a new study by bank Rate shows less than
half of Americans are planning a summer vacation.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
Wow, it would be fewer than half, but that's fine.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Fewer than half of Americans are planning a summer vacation,
which is interesting because we have simply like twenty percent
that are traveling this weekend. So I guess, I guess
that accounts for the other half that are planning on traveling.
Speaker 14 (24:47):
If you go to the most popular places at the
most popular times, it's going to be crowded and expensive.
Speaker 12 (24:53):
Ted Rossman is a senior analyst for bank Rate. He
says the reason people are saying no, he simply cost.
Speaker 7 (25:00):
Have definitely skyrocketed, and I feel like it is much
more difficult to travel now than it was previously.
Speaker 11 (25:06):
And it's not just a feeling.
Speaker 12 (25:07):
Triple A says, although the cost of car rentals is down, yeah,
airfare and hotel prices have taken off.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
Oh okay, all right, I guess car rentals are down,
so that's good. Maybe rent the car.
Speaker 6 (25:19):
Then.
Speaker 12 (25:20):
Domestic hotels cost eight percent more than last.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
Year, and they're going up in California or at least
in Los Angeles because they just passed that mandatory pay
race that we talked about in their last segment.
Speaker 12 (25:31):
International hotels are up eighteen percent, and Bank great says
thirty percent of Americans traveling plan to pay for it
with a credit card.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
Yeah, of course we do. What anyway, We're gonna pay
for it in cash. No credit card balances are.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Walking in there with a suitcase full of cash, like
we just robbed the bank. That's how you get the
FEDS on you.
Speaker 14 (25:52):
Credit card balances are at a record high one point
two trillion dollars according to the New York Fed.
Speaker 11 (25:57):
But there are some ways to cut the cost.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
Yeah, stay home, which is what you just said. Half
of Americans are doing.
Speaker 11 (26:03):
Plan ahead and be flexible.
Speaker 14 (26:05):
Maybe fly midweek instead of on the weekend, or take
an early flight or a late flight, or a connecting flight,
you know, kind of zig one other's egg.
Speaker 11 (26:12):
Put in a little planning and shop around.
Speaker 12 (26:15):
The cheapest beach vacation may be further away.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
Or you can just drive to San Diego. It's a
nice place to be.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Oh they hate it when people from from riverside, from
Los Angeles venture. They just hate it when people from
north of them go to visit. But it's so nice.
Oh yeah, the locals hated, but forget them. Their entire
economy is based on you visiting. So San Diego is
a nice place.
Speaker 12 (26:39):
And when it comes to hidden fees, pack which you
can carry, we.
Speaker 15 (26:43):
Weren't even just talking about checking bags and luggage, and
so you take as minimal as you can just because
everything adds up.
Speaker 11 (26:49):
And don't underestimate this staycation.
Speaker 14 (26:51):
There are a ton of great things to go in
southern California.
Speaker 3 (26:54):
We keep driving distance, That's what I keep saying. That
can be a way to have fun on a budget.
Speaker 12 (26:58):
For you, don't watch your summer fun to end up
being a financial fall.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
All right, and it's k cal it's got the uh,
summer fun is a financial fall. Hey we're putty punny guys.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
Yeay, So it's not just us.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
According to that bank Rate survey, which I've found, the
large majority of US eighty two percent are worried about
a potential recession. That's pretty big eighty two percent worried
about a recession. I just I feel like we have
an awful lot of people that feel like they are
in a really secure place, or they don't understand finances.
(27:36):
There are two reasons that you don't. You may you
may see a recession coming, and you don't think ahead
on this. The first is you are supremely confident in
your situation. Maybe you have a job that you think
recession proof. Maybe you're a higher up in a company
that has been through this before, and you go, I'll
weather the storm. I've weathered the storm in the past.
(27:59):
I'll weather the storm now.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
We're good.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
My finances are in order, I've got my emergency fund,
I don't have a lot of debt. You've done all
those things as a responsible individual, I should say there's
a third.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
The third would be you're retired.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
And you're drawing your maybe you've got an annuity or
whatever else, and so you're not really necessarily worried about
a recession upsetting your your lifestyle. You're worried about inflation,
but not necessarily the recession because it's not like your
income is going to change, right, all right. The other
is you're an idiot. You have a lot of debt,
and you're saying, I'll just throw caution to the wind.
(28:32):
Who cares. Oh my goodness, I already have fifteen thousand
dollars in credit card debt. What's another five grand for
my family to have a vacation.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
That's dumb. Don't do that. That is incredibly foolish.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
And you're going to be paying that off next year
when you're planning another vacation and you're only down to
seventeen thousand dollars all because you had to go on
a trip this last time. You go, oh, yeah, but man,
we really wanted to go in Maui. But you didn't
need to.
Speaker 3 (28:59):
Park that credit card put away a little bit of
money throughout the year. It's a lot easier than you
think once you start doing it.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
And then and I hate to be like the financial
nag year, but take it from a guy who got
into a ton of debt, and my wife and I
made incredible sacrifices to get out of it. We lived
in a fifth wheel in northern Michigan on my parents'
property for two years. I don't know if you've ever
tried to live in a camper in the winter in
(29:26):
a place that actually has winter.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
It sucks.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
But we buckled down and we got out of debt,
and both of us have sworn we're not doing that again.
Cars get paid off at the end of every month.
Everything's paid off. We don't do it. We don't get
it into debt again. So take it from me. Your
life is much better when you don't have that debt
looming over your head. And when you feel like you're
gonna be short on cash for one month, that stress
feel stressful, But it's a whole lot better than I
(29:51):
don't have a lot of money and I have to
make this extra interest payment on something that is just horrible.
So start squirreling away a little the money and lo
and behold, by the time you get to labor day,
you might have an extra couple grand. You're putting away
an extra one hundred dollars a paycheck. You might have
an extra couple grand to go do that little staycation.
(30:15):
Who take that little little camping trip at one of
our beautiful parks?
Speaker 3 (30:19):
Who do that instead? You don't need to go to Maui?
All right?
Speaker 2 (30:24):
As more Americans are faring a recession, it's all about
the economy. Stupid and one thing that people can't wait
to go get their hands on because they're worried about
prices skyrocketing. I'll tell you what it is next, Chris
Meryl CAFI AM six forty. We're live everywhere in the
iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
That Chris Merril KFI AM six forty. More stimulating talk
coming up here at six thirty. There was a study
that was done that talked about the best NFL stadiums
in case of a zombie apocalypse. Now they were talking
about Last of Us, which is not technically zombies, but
basically the same thing.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
Uh in that case, Uh.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
Fun fun guy take over brains and then it makes
people cannabalistic.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
Whatever.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
So the question is if a zombie apocalypse happens, or
if you want to just say an apocalypse, you can say
something else too.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
Where are you going? All right? So where is it
that you would head?
Speaker 10 (31:21):
Hey, Chris love the show you always do?
Speaker 14 (31:23):
Such?
Speaker 2 (31:23):
Hang on, that's I want to use that guy last roll,
Save him for last See.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
I got what's this one?
Speaker 1 (31:31):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (31:31):
Follow up on my cataly No no no, I got these
all out of order for some reason what happened?
Speaker 6 (31:36):
Hey Chris, Hey, if zombie apocalypse happens, I mean, if
you're in Los Angeles, best places probably get on a boat,
go to Catalina Island.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
Okay.
Speaker 6 (31:47):
You know there's chances they'll be zombies there, but yeah,
they'll be smaller number and it's a finite amount. Once
you kill them all, you'll have the island to yourself
to you know, grow crops on and live out your life.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
Okay, all right, So I have a little bit of
an issue with that. I'll tell you what it is
in a second.
Speaker 13 (32:09):
I mean, the obvious answer is Catalina Islands.
Speaker 3 (32:11):
Okay, go there. Yeah, I think you're stock.
Speaker 13 (32:14):
Up on Zammo knives, food and just border up, take
out anything that's infected there, and we're good to go.
Speaker 3 (32:20):
Yeah, and no one else is allowed to come in there.
You go.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
There's the problem because it's you and that other guy
that are both trying to get there.
Speaker 3 (32:27):
All right, all right, so oh.
Speaker 13 (32:30):
Follow up on my Catalina trip. Yes, okay, I'm taking
out Mark Runner first because chances are we're going to
be on a boat together. Oh yeah, and he's gonna
flip me off while we're in the same boat.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
Yeah, and I'm going to drop him. Yeah that's fair. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
So Mark Ronner, who's the news anchor during mo Kelly
Show every week. Yeah, I can see that will be
the first one out. You raise a couple of really
good points that I want you to think about. Catalina
Island for all the reasons you just said, makes perfect sense,
except everybody wants to go there. So now Catalina Island's
(33:05):
going to be one of those places where you're fighting
one another if there is an apocalypse, society starts to
break down and then we no longer respect life, which
means we take people out like Mark Ronner.
Speaker 3 (33:18):
Fair.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
So just keep this in mind when you talk about
stocking up on guns and am a good plan, good plan,
but going to a destination where everyone else is going
could be a problem. Catalina Island does make a lot
of sense because zombies can't swim there, and I made
mentioned this earlier in the show. We have never had
(33:41):
I don't think ever have we seen zombies inspeedos. They
don't swim, they're terrible swimmers. So yeah, it does make sense.
And yeah, you can take care of the people that
are there if they've already been zombified. But what makes
you think that people that are residents of Catalina Island
aren't going to try to keep you out right, So
just think about that. You could do it, but there
(34:03):
would be some challenges.
Speaker 3 (34:04):
Along the way. What's the nearest island after Catalina.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
Well, there's a few, the Cornado Islands now by San Diego.
There's a few places you could go there. In fact,
there was one that's down there. It's not inhabited now.
I've fished around it and they used to have an
old casino out there, like a speakeasy and casino during prohibition,
and you can actually still see the.
Speaker 3 (34:28):
Old dock.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
Or I guess, like where the dock used to be
on that island. I don't know that there's any other wildlife.
The advantage to Catalina Island is that there's other wildlife
that you could hunt, right, you could find other proteins
on the island.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
But I just think that you're going to all of
a sudden have.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
I mean at least a million people trying to get
to Catalina Island, right, maybe not a million, but one
hundred thousand people trying to get the Catalina island, which
it's not going to sustain one hundred thousand people. So I
love the island idea. I just don't know that I
would go to a highly populated one. I think a
lot of people are going to be thinking about islands.
(35:06):
But you are right about something, and that is getting away,
getting away from people. All Right, More on the talk
back again. If you're listening on the iHeartRadio app, just
go ahead and hit that talkback button. Feel free to
comment on anything that we've got going on to the show,
or if apocalypse were to happen where you're going.
Speaker 10 (35:23):
Hey, Chris, love the show. You always do such a
great job. It's informative and entertaining.
Speaker 3 (35:27):
Thanks.
Speaker 10 (35:27):
I don't think this country has any clue what's about
to come down the pike.
Speaker 3 (35:30):
Here.
Speaker 10 (35:30):
You got the Republicans passing a four trillion dollar increase
in our debt. You also have the bond market is
in complete meltdown. Interest rates are going to have to
rise on the bonds, so people buy our debt because
they're not buying it. Bitcoin and gold are in a skyrocket.
We're in big trouble yet.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
I don't know that I've watched bitcoin before and it
doesn't always work.
Speaker 3 (35:53):
Inverse. Gold is someplace where people.
Speaker 2 (35:56):
Go to hide their money, right, storage of money, And
I don't know how many people trust the crypto right now,
So I'm with you on gold.
Speaker 3 (36:07):
I don't know about crypto.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
At some point that will turn and people will start
trusting crypto as a place for.
Speaker 3 (36:12):
Storage of wealth, but I don't know that we're there yet.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
The other thing, too, is that we keep getting these
mixed signals on what's going to happen with the tariffs,
and nothing is scaring the market faster than.
Speaker 3 (36:22):
Tariff talk on and off. And the latest, of course
is the iPhone.
Speaker 15 (36:25):
Ninety one percent of Americans have smartphones and as.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
You know, wow, ninety one percent of Americans have smartphones.
Do you realize that twenty percent of Americans can't read
past a third grade level, and yet ninety one percent
of Americans have smartphones.
Speaker 15 (36:42):
This is not a lifetime purchase. That tech changes, phones
break people upgrade roughly every two to three years.
Speaker 11 (36:48):
So if these tariffs.
Speaker 15 (36:49):
Were to take effect, we could be looking at a
much more expensive upgrade now. President taking to truth Social
earlier this morning, suggesting that you're looking at it right
now here that in this work.
Speaker 3 (37:01):
No, I'm not.
Speaker 5 (37:01):
It's radio post once.
Speaker 15 (37:03):
Again, Americans should be buying American made smartphones. That is
what he's asking for, and to get that, he's threatening
a twenty five percent tariff on Apple if they don't comply. Now,
the company, to put this in context, is the world's
biggest smartphone manufacturer. Now, of course, this is not the
first time the president's tariff plans have threatened Apple. Back
in April, when those large tariffs were proposed on China,
(37:24):
economists estimated that American made iPhones could cost anywhere between
fifteen hundred to thirty five hundred dollars. But look at
how much more than that is from the current twelve
hundred dollars cost it is when they're produced out of China. Now,
of course, the President says he wants Americans to be
buying American made phones, but as it stands, it's just
not possible. Apple doesn't actually make any iPhones in the
(37:46):
US zero, not a single one made here in the States.
And it's not as simple as Tim Cook just deciding
to move the factory's stateside. In China, labor costs associated
with manufacturing an iPhone come in at about forty US
dolls dollars.
Speaker 3 (38:00):
Forty bucks to make an iPhone.
Speaker 15 (38:02):
Look at the gap there. The cost of doing it
here in the US could be two hundred dollars.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
Okay, So immediately we're seeing our labor costs quintupling.
Speaker 15 (38:13):
That's just one of the manufacturing costs as well. You
have to think about all the parts that are going
to go into that. Where are we sourcing them, how
are we getting them, where would they be built, who
would be building them? So just the structure we would
need to get iPhones created, manufactured, and sold all here
in the United States would be very expensive and take
a lot of time.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
Yeah, and then what happens when the president realizes that
more than just Apple have phones?
Speaker 3 (38:39):
HGC.
Speaker 2 (38:41):
I mean that's a foreign company, Samsung, foreign company. Are
you going to you're gonna start hitting them to or
are they going to pay lower tariffs than the American company? Yeah,
we got trouble brewing, man, I agreed. Trouble is brewing,
all right, we do it every week at six o'clock.
There's no business like.
Speaker 5 (39:00):
Business.
Speaker 3 (39:01):
I was terrible. Okay.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
So Kayla is producing remotely. She's not here to participate
because she's a horrible for VISs okay.
Speaker 3 (39:09):
That was timely. Uh, there's no business like is next?
Chris Merril kfi AM six forty WeLive everywhere in the
iHeartRadio
Speaker 1 (39:14):
App, kfi AM six forty on demand
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