July 25, 2025 • 29 mins
(July 25, 2025)
DEI is Dead at Paramount. They’re still discovering bodies 6 months after the fires… how many more are there? Why Amazon is buying Bee, an AI bracelet that records everything you say.Why people are buying $10,000 baby dolls… it’s becoming a global phenomenon.
DEI is Dead at Paramount. They’re still discovering bodies 6 months after the fires… how many more are there? Why Amazon is buying Bee, an AI bracelet that records everything you say.Why people are buying $10,000 baby dolls… it’s becoming a global phenomenon.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty. Yeah, why am six forty Bill Handle?
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Here? It is a Friday morning, July twenty five, Neil
back on Tuesday.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Now. Normally, when.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Political, well let me put this go the other way.
Let me start from the other end. Normally, administrations sort
of stay away from ardent political moves, at least blatant
political moves, which this administration is doing. For example, the attorney,
the US Attorney in New Jersey, woman by the name
(00:40):
of Alena Haba, who is completely totally unqualified to be
the US attorney, has never been a prosecutor, is a
political appointee, and there was a huge issue going on
with the prosecutor's office and the judicial system over there,
where everybody out there thought she was completely unqualified, to
(01:01):
the point where the court system itself said she has
no business being the US Attorney for New Jersey and
suggested a well seasoned, well qualified person, and the President
overran that one and named her interim. She'll be there
for another nine months pursuant to law. And what does
(01:22):
she do with is the US attorney. First thing she
does is start criminal investigations against democratic Congress.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
People who are anti Trump criminal.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Investigations against them, tell me that's not pure politics. And
of course Trump said she will do a phenomenal job
of representing the people of New Jersey.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
YadA, YadA, YadA.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
And so one of the things that the administration normally
does is stay clear of the FCC. Not only the
Department of Justice, which is usually independent, at least deemed independent,
even though it's under the presidency under the executive branch,
but also the FCC, which is and has traditionally been
(02:07):
someone independent. Now there are moves the FCC chair appointed
by the president. Of course, there are some biases, but
nothing like what's going on here, I mean nothing. So
who is head of the SCC at this point. The
FCC chair Brendan Carr, who is a Trump appointee. And
(02:31):
let me set this up for you. Sky Dance is
a company that wants to buy Paramount. It's run by
David Ellison, by the way, the son of the founder
of Oracle, Larry Ellison.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
So there's lots of money there.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
And sky Dance was in negotiations with Paramount to buy Paramount,
and that is the company owned CBS as well as
many other properties and as you know, CBS and the
Trump administration really got into it over the sixty minute interview.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
With Kamala Harris. Trump sued CBS.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
CBS caved and paid sixteen million dollars. Actually Paramount paid
sixteen million dollars, And all of a sudden, things are
just wonderful between Paramount and sky Dance in the administration
that was on hold that purchase. The FCC had some
(03:28):
real problems with that. Well, here's what happened. Sky Dance
tells the FCC. We are going to undo DEI completely.
It are already scaled back diversity programs earlier this year,
but now in a letter of the FCC, Skydance said,
(03:50):
if you allow the purchase to go through, we are
going to cancel diversity efforts completely, no longer maintain an
office of Golobu Inclusion, will not have any teams or
individuals role individual roles focused on DEI, and Paramount said
it will remove references to DEI and its public messaging,
(04:13):
including its websites and social media, along with culling DEI
language in internal messaging and training materials.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Now, you can agree or disagree with DEI. Is it woke? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Should someone be promoted simply because they're part of an
ethnic minority, or part of a sexual group or a
group of sexual people, sex gender. I'll get that, and
are being discriminated against? Is there discrimination? Tons and tons,
So you can argue either side of that coin. I'm
(04:47):
fine with that. However, the position of the administration saying
getting rid of DEI is so important that we're willing
to use the FCC to block any purchase of a
major communications company, which the FCC does have the authority
to do, and overseas communications, overseas networks, et cetera. You
(05:12):
are to block all of that and we will let
this purchase go through.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
That's what happened. That's exactly what happened. The SEC has
allowed the merger to go through.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
The new company, Skydance, which is now going to own Paramount,
has said all DEI disappears, we will no longer have
this program, we will no longer consider race whatsoever. And
you had well basically affirmative action. What was going on
because of the history of minorities not being represented, not
(05:48):
being promoted. I mean that's it. I mean that's there.
I mean you can't argue with that. Look at the
stats and so sky Dance and I love this, Okay,
The CEO said, we further reaffirm, after conservation of this
proposed transaction, that the new management will ensure the company's
(06:08):
array of news and entertainment program embodies a diversity of viewpoints.
And here is the other argument that the administration is
making is you have to incorporate the right wing views, effectively,
conspiracy views, as part of news, instead of just dismissing
(06:29):
them as crackpots, which they are. It's now part of mainstream, mainstream,
mainstream news. The crazy people have now come out of
the word work. You know it used to be. And
I've said this over and over again, these conspiracy nut tases.
The only way they could ever make themselves heard before
(06:53):
the Internet was on the street corner with a bullhorn,
where you had a guy just yelling and people would
pass them by. And if there was quote a demonstration,
it was six people. Matter of fact, there was once
a demonstration against something that I had said a few
years ago, and it was covered on Channel five. They
(07:13):
sent a news crew out there. There were six people
there and it was covered. And the way it was videoed,
the video of the six people and the implication were
it was a lot larger than that. We only got
a little tiny part of it. I have some enemies
(07:37):
at or had some enemies at Channel five. But the
point is, all of a sudden, the views of that
guy on a street corner with the bullhorn has become mainstream.
And now we've moved into where it has become a
solid political movement.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Crazy has become a political movement. All right.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
I want to share with you a story about the
Eaton fire and Altadena particularly, and this is a neighborhood
that got nailed big time during the fire. So the
story is from the La Times where they talk about
and interviewed Catherine al Kantera, and she was evacuating from
(08:22):
her home, I mean smoke filled home in West Altadena
during January's firestone storm, and she remembered seeing her neighbor
going back into his house across the street. She had
assumed that he went back to rescue his pets and
grab some important belongings before heading off to safety, and
(08:44):
she didn't imagine that he would simply never make it out.
She said, I remember hearing the dogs barking hysterically. Did
he try to save the house, did he pass out.
I can't believe they found the body. Now, they just
discovered the body, and this is six months later, and
officials this week confirmed the president's presidence of human remains.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
It is the only uncleared lot on this.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Street, this block where neighbors say seventy four year old
jan Francisco Espinoza lived alone with his dogs. And the
confirmation of another fatality brings the Eton fire death toll
to nineteen. The overall death from the January firestorm, including
Palisades thirty one. All but one of the Eton fire
(09:35):
deaths occurred in West Altadena, where of action orders for
residents came hours after the fire already started. All right,
let's talk about the neighborhood where Espinosa lived. It received
the most delayed evacuation orders. Electronic alerts going out to
(09:57):
this section of West Altadena came just before six am
on January eighth, almost twelve hours after the fire started.
You go a mile to the east where the community, well,
it's a lot richer and it's a lot less diverse.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Read white.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Electronic evacuation orders were sent out about an hour after
the fire broke out. So let me get this right.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Twelve hours.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
After the fire breaks out poor diverse neighborhood a mile away,
white affluent neighborhood an hour, and she said a contras
al Kantara said she got the electronic of action evacuation
order on from the county on her phone after waking
(10:50):
up to very thick smoke and the smoke alarms going
crazy in the house. We got the warning when the
roof was literally on fire. I could barely breathe, my
eyes were burning. Why did they evacuate so late? And
she went on to say a lot of people died
because of the alerts. It just feels like they really
(11:12):
didn't care about us. Well, I don't know. I mean,
you know, it's hard to say that the authorities didn't
care about this neighborhood. We're fine with everybody dying. Well,
of course that's not true, but there is an argument,
and the accusation here is poor black neighborhood. Twelve hours
after the fire started, they got the alerts. Go east
(11:35):
a mile. It's one hour. Now.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Let's talk about the lot. Espinosa's a lot.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Over the last month, workers had spent days searching the lot,
eventually gathering enough evidence of essentially cremated remains to even
confirm that someone died there. I mean we're talking about ashes.
And then it went to the La County Medical Examiner
(12:02):
and it's now going to take months if at all,
to positively, possibly positively identify the body now. Emily Tauscher,
the Assistant Chief of Investigations by the La County Medical
Examinator Coroner's Office, said, these are challenging situation.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
It's labor intensive.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
I mean, we're dealing with highly fragmented skeletal remains.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
It's they're not even there.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Typically, the corner's office is called to a scene after
law enforcement determines there is quote a compelling concern about
a death at a specific location, and that kicks off
a complicated, complicated search. Unless there's a dead body with
a bullet hole through the head, then they cart off
the body to the corner who then does the medical
(12:52):
examination and says things like, this is a dead body
with a hole through its head, and that's how this
dead body died because of a whole its head. That's
easy under these circumstances. It's a little more difficult to
say the least. It involves major debris removal, cadaver dogs.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
We're not dead dogs.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
That they pull on a leash. These are live dogs
that smell cadavers. I just don't want to confuse the two.
And the medical examiner began working with law enforcement in
June after a neighbor filed the missing person report in May.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
And here's the issue.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
He had no living family members, he had no next
of kin. No one even reported him missing until months later.
So Tasher said that circumstances around death like this, no
immediate family, no next of kin, complicates the already difficult
(13:52):
search and ID process, and this requires very slow, meticulous work.
Usually victims and other may your deadly fires then and
they're burned to a crisp are recovered within a few weeks.
But this is under tons and tons of debris. Lapd said,
no missing person's reports outstanding from the Palace Stades fire.
(14:15):
Espinoza is the last person considered missing, and according to
the acting captain of the Altadena station for the Sheriff's Department,
they're coming into the final stages of abating properties. We've
almost cleared everything. That's the last lot to be cleared.
Why because there's nobody there to either sign up. And
(14:38):
I don't know the way it works, whether or not.
There has to be a human being that has to
be notified, or a a human being has to notify
the police or the city that that was my lot
over there, and I want debris to start a debris
cleaning the start and the county and the city has
been pretty good about that. They clear most of it
(15:00):
within thirty days. So there's the two issues. Fair amount
of controversy, not so much on discovering the body or
parts of the body or remains of the body, but
the issue of the evacuation order that is, that's a
big one, and I would like to know where that
is going, all right, So let me give you a scenario.
(15:23):
I'm wearing a bracelet that I bought from Amazon, and
I step out of the shower and I look in
the mirror and I say to myself, Bill, you're a
pretty impressive guy. And then I hear from my bracelet
through buds, no you're not. You're a completely delusional handle.
(15:49):
Now can that happen? Will that happen? Yeah, that's not
far off. Not only my delusion, but where the technology is.
Amazon is buying bri, a company that makes an AI
bracelet that records everything you.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Say all day. Long, it always listens.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
And by the way, bri or Amazon in this case
is a growing market, has a grow joins a growing market.
There are these AI gadgets from Google and Meta and Samsung,
and it's all about personalized AI access. Now there is
a good part of this because of the technology. What
you get after a decade of Amazon saying Alexa is
(16:35):
not listening to every word, company is buying a bracelet
that can. By the way, for those of you that
have Alexa, Alexa Louder, turn the radio on Louder, I
love doing that to people, and when I do, we
get lots of complaints. What these wearable transcripts transcribes all
(16:57):
the conversations you're in your day, including talking yourself, like
looking at yourself in the mirror. Uses AI to turn
this giant word soup into a searchable history, offering up
key events to do lists. For example, Be's chief executive
Maria de lord Zolo said, the company imagines the world
(17:22):
where AI is truly personal, and Amazon believes that and
is spent buckets of money doing that. Now, we've had
devices listen, I have one at home. We've had devices
in our pockets, our homes, mine happens to beyond the
kitchen counter. It's an Alexa one and the Echo speaker
(17:44):
from Amazon was the first one, and Amazon kept on
reminding us for years and years. These voice activated speakers
only start listening once they hear the wake word Alexa.
What's the one for Google? I don't even know there's
a one for Hey Google? Is that what happens? If
(18:04):
you want a timer? Hey Google, start timer now? Or
give me a recipe for jalapeno cornbread. Mine is alexis.
So when you say Alexa, it kicks on. It can
listen to what you say, but without that word, it can't.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Well guess what.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Amazon is buying this device and a lot of other
companies are doing it. Wearable devices that are always listening,
no word needed at all. And the more context it
gathers on the doings of your life what you say.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
The more helpful it can be.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
And that data, when it's collected from enough people, trains
the AI models themselves to be more specific and to
be more accurate.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
I mean, that's what we're doing here.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Twice now we've done an AI generated segment of this
show using my voice. First time out was much better.
For some reason, but we're gonna probably do that a
couple of times. More So, Amazon stepped up its game
with the beta release of Alexa Plus, a smarter, more
(19:18):
conversational upgrade of the original Voice Assistant, and according to Amazon,
it can take on almost any query that chat GPT can,
but it's prone to mistakes well. B This wearable little
device is one of a growing pack of these AI gadgets.
Google has Pixel earbuds that puts.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
Gemini AI in your ear.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Meta Platform made of Platforms had the ray Band glasses
with the built in a bi buddy. Those are great,
by the way, My partner Savile has one. Samsung showed
off its new device. Apple is getting into it. They
all come in different shapes and sizes, but they all
do exactly the same thing. Is transcribe within the program,
(20:04):
within this algorithm, every single word that you say, and
if you mutter to yourself, which I do all day long.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
It's picking all of it up. So am I gonna
wear one of these things?
Speaker 2 (20:19):
I don't think so, because when I'm muttered to myself,
none of it makes sense. I'm not particularly interested in
if we have a conversation, I don't want it to
know what I'm saying, And then what do they do
with it?
Speaker 1 (20:33):
You know, what kind of privacy do we have? You know?
Do I find out what you're saying? You know, it's.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Technology, both good and bad. By the way, I am
pretty impressive when I look. Don't shake your head, gun, No,
how the hell do you know?
Speaker 1 (20:55):
Does your face and your head shape feel like the
rest of you can't be?
Speaker 2 (20:59):
And of my hands and the size of my feet yep,
And the fact that at my brist they took off
way too much.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
That's why it's non existent anymore, exactly all right.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Story out of the Wall Street Journal, which I looked
at and it went, really, I mean, are people this nuts?
Speaker 1 (21:18):
But there is a method to this madness. So it's
a story of.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
This woman, Kelly Maple is her name, and she has
this bundle of joy Naomi, and puts the and puts
Naoma into a Nuna car seat really expensive.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Drives her to the mall.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
Then when they arrive, she places little Naomi and she's
dressed in a onesie and hair bow and puts them
in to a high end stroller with the sound machine,
stuffed animal pacifier, all of that, and then they go
shopping for clothes for the baby, and most passersby say, okay,
there's typical mother and daughter, But Naomi is not real.
(22:03):
Naomi is a doll. They're called reborn dolls. They're collectible.
They can run up to ten thousand dollars each.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
Come on now.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
They've been around since the early two thousands, but in
recent years they have exploded into a global phenomenon.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Collectors consider themselves parents.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
They shell out for baby gear, and they dote on
these dolls like they were human. In Brazil, they're a
lightning hot rot or a lightning rod, and politicians have
already introduced bills to ban them in public places straight out.
And you think you've never seen one, well you may have.
(22:52):
The reborn doll is hidden in plain sight. Here in
the United States. It's a cottage industry. This is not
a big company that does this. Amateur crafter. They hand mold,
They paint their dolls in the basement, very labor intensive,
even to the point of painting these tiny little pale
(23:13):
blue veins onto the baby's soft sort of peachy skin,
hand rooting individual goat or alpaca hairs at a time
into the scalps and eyebrows, and if you've ever looked
at one, they are uncanny. So in Greensboro, North Carolina,
(23:34):
about fifteen hundred people gathered at the Dolls of the
World Expo. And the reporter who wrote this story and
went to the Dolls of the World Expo told a
doll maker, you know, I've never seen someone.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
Carrying a reborn in New York.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
And the doll maker smiled knowingly and said, oh you
have now. Detractors find the dolls creepy. They're not real.
As a matter of fact. Whenever you see a movie
or think about someone carrying a dead baby, they have
to hold on to this child they've just lost.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Well, there's sort of a modified world to that.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Some owners say they're taunted by families, online bullies. What
these owners say, I'll tell you what you've misunderstood, because
you're not looking at the therapeutic potential of these dolls.
Women who have lost babies or experienced miscarriage are comforted
by these dolls. They can sue the women with post
(24:42):
traumatic stress disorder or have Alzheimer's or dementia autism. Here's
a story you probably didn't know. Britney Spears, who said
she said she had a miscarriage, has been seen carrying
one of these dolls. Some women are just comphatic, fanatic
(25:04):
collectors and they have dozens of about hundreds of these dolls,
and they actually post online videos of diaper changes, trips
to the park. Children and teens play with them. Stunt babies.
I mean, they're so good that Hollywood uses them as
stunt babies. Kelly Maple, this gal who was interviewed, has
(25:31):
over two million YouTube subscribers. Come on, really, one of
the subscribers say, people think it's insane because it's a doll.
And by the way, this woman, Hannah ham On Hammond
is a teacher and collects reborns. But it's like any
other hobby. And there you go, here's the baby. And
(25:57):
went to the reporter and said, here you go and
let the reporter hold the baby. You have to support
her head though, like any other baby. By the way,
Maple sells her dolls for thousands of dollars. And if
you go to this Dolls of the World expo, the
one that just happened in the next year, there is
(26:19):
she is mob by fans for selfies and autographs and
she spent months in the room. She calls her nursery
putting the finishing touches on babies that she sells at
her booth at the fair, and awareness of these dolls
is an all time high. It's getting bigger, it's getting stronger.
(26:40):
According to Dave Stack, thefounder of reborns dot com, one
of the largest marketplace places for handmade dolls, this is
pretty strange stuff, it really is. Although the issue of
the therapeutic aspect of this makes a lot of sense,
(27:01):
I just don't get well, let me put it this way.
You have someone who is suffering from dementia and they
go back to the time when someone was a child.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
I mean, long term memory is the last to go.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
And so you see people with dementia and they talk
to their daughters or their sons as if they were
babies because that's where they remember them. It is a
pretty rare hobby except it. Boy, are people really involved
(27:41):
in this. A lot of women save all year to
be able to spend thousands of dollars at the fair.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
Pretty impressive, to say the least.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
I'd like to see a study done on this, I
really would, because the therapeutic aspects of this I think actually
makes sense.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
The rest of it is just crazy. I say it.
We're done, guys.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
Another week has gone By Tomorrow morning, it's Handle on
the Law, Marginal legal advice from Me to eleven o'clock,
followed by a Rich Dumurrow with the Tech Show, and
then Neil Savedra two to five pm on Tuesday.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
Neil comes back on our show.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
And then starting on Monday, guess who's back the same crowd?
Speaker 1 (28:28):
Amy and Will wake.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Up call at five o'clock for some reason and is
dancing behind Amy.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
I have no idea why because it's Friday, and she
brought me my weekly diet coke. Oh okay?
Speaker 2 (28:40):
And then Will is dancing for absolutely no reason at all.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
Do you know?
Speaker 2 (28:45):
Will you dance in your seat so you really could
be a double amputee and no one would know the difference.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
Thank you. I think you're welcome. So it's wake up
Call at five o'clock, five to.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
Six o'clock on Monday, and then I come aboard at
six and we do the Handle Show, Gary and Shannon
up next. I have a good weekend, everybody. This is
KFI AM six.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
You've been listening to the Bill Handle Show. Catch my
show Monday through Friday.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
Six am to nine am, and anytime on demand on
the iHeartRadio app.
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty. Yeah, why am six forty Bill Handle?
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Here? It is a Friday morning, July twenty five, Neil
back on Tuesday.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Now. Normally, when.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Political, well let me put this go the other way.
Let me start from the other end. Normally, administrations sort
of stay away from ardent political moves, at least blatant
political moves, which this administration is doing. For example, the attorney,
the US Attorney in New Jersey, woman by the name
(00:40):
of Alena Haba, who is completely totally unqualified to be
the US attorney, has never been a prosecutor, is a
political appointee, and there was a huge issue going on
with the prosecutor's office and the judicial system over there,
where everybody out there thought she was completely unqualified, to
(01:01):
the point where the court system itself said she has
no business being the US Attorney for New Jersey and
suggested a well seasoned, well qualified person, and the President
overran that one and named her interim. She'll be there
for another nine months pursuant to law. And what does
(01:22):
she do with is the US attorney. First thing she
does is start criminal investigations against democratic Congress.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
People who are anti Trump criminal.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Investigations against them, tell me that's not pure politics. And
of course Trump said she will do a phenomenal job
of representing the people of New Jersey.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
YadA, YadA, YadA.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
And so one of the things that the administration normally
does is stay clear of the FCC. Not only the
Department of Justice, which is usually independent, at least deemed independent,
even though it's under the presidency under the executive branch,
but also the FCC, which is and has traditionally been
(02:07):
someone independent. Now there are moves the FCC chair appointed
by the president. Of course, there are some biases, but
nothing like what's going on here, I mean nothing. So
who is head of the SCC at this point. The
FCC chair Brendan Carr, who is a Trump appointee. And
(02:31):
let me set this up for you. Sky Dance is
a company that wants to buy Paramount. It's run by
David Ellison, by the way, the son of the founder
of Oracle, Larry Ellison.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
So there's lots of money there.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
And sky Dance was in negotiations with Paramount to buy Paramount,
and that is the company owned CBS as well as
many other properties and as you know, CBS and the
Trump administration really got into it over the sixty minute interview.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
With Kamala Harris. Trump sued CBS.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
CBS caved and paid sixteen million dollars. Actually Paramount paid
sixteen million dollars, And all of a sudden, things are
just wonderful between Paramount and sky Dance in the administration
that was on hold that purchase. The FCC had some
(03:28):
real problems with that. Well, here's what happened. Sky Dance
tells the FCC. We are going to undo DEI completely.
It are already scaled back diversity programs earlier this year,
but now in a letter of the FCC, Skydance said,
(03:50):
if you allow the purchase to go through, we are
going to cancel diversity efforts completely, no longer maintain an
office of Golobu Inclusion, will not have any teams or
individuals role individual roles focused on DEI, and Paramount said
it will remove references to DEI and its public messaging,
(04:13):
including its websites and social media, along with culling DEI
language in internal messaging and training materials.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Now, you can agree or disagree with DEI. Is it woke? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Should someone be promoted simply because they're part of an
ethnic minority, or part of a sexual group or a
group of sexual people, sex gender. I'll get that, and
are being discriminated against? Is there discrimination? Tons and tons,
So you can argue either side of that coin. I'm
(04:47):
fine with that. However, the position of the administration saying
getting rid of DEI is so important that we're willing
to use the FCC to block any purchase of a
major communications company, which the FCC does have the authority
to do, and overseas communications, overseas networks, et cetera. You
(05:12):
are to block all of that and we will let
this purchase go through.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
That's what happened. That's exactly what happened. The SEC has
allowed the merger to go through.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
The new company, Skydance, which is now going to own Paramount,
has said all DEI disappears, we will no longer have
this program, we will no longer consider race whatsoever. And
you had well basically affirmative action. What was going on
because of the history of minorities not being represented, not
(05:48):
being promoted. I mean that's it. I mean that's there.
I mean you can't argue with that. Look at the
stats and so sky Dance and I love this, Okay,
The CEO said, we further reaffirm, after conservation of this
proposed transaction, that the new management will ensure the company's
(06:08):
array of news and entertainment program embodies a diversity of viewpoints.
And here is the other argument that the administration is
making is you have to incorporate the right wing views, effectively,
conspiracy views, as part of news, instead of just dismissing
(06:29):
them as crackpots, which they are. It's now part of mainstream, mainstream,
mainstream news. The crazy people have now come out of
the word work. You know it used to be. And
I've said this over and over again, these conspiracy nut tases.
The only way they could ever make themselves heard before
(06:53):
the Internet was on the street corner with a bullhorn,
where you had a guy just yelling and people would
pass them by. And if there was quote a demonstration,
it was six people. Matter of fact, there was once
a demonstration against something that I had said a few
years ago, and it was covered on Channel five. They
(07:13):
sent a news crew out there. There were six people
there and it was covered. And the way it was videoed,
the video of the six people and the implication were
it was a lot larger than that. We only got
a little tiny part of it. I have some enemies
(07:37):
at or had some enemies at Channel five. But the
point is, all of a sudden, the views of that
guy on a street corner with the bullhorn has become mainstream.
And now we've moved into where it has become a
solid political movement.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Crazy has become a political movement. All right.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
I want to share with you a story about the
Eaton fire and Altadena particularly, and this is a neighborhood
that got nailed big time during the fire. So the
story is from the La Times where they talk about
and interviewed Catherine al Kantera, and she was evacuating from
(08:22):
her home, I mean smoke filled home in West Altadena
during January's firestone storm, and she remembered seeing her neighbor
going back into his house across the street. She had
assumed that he went back to rescue his pets and
grab some important belongings before heading off to safety, and
(08:44):
she didn't imagine that he would simply never make it out.
She said, I remember hearing the dogs barking hysterically. Did
he try to save the house, did he pass out.
I can't believe they found the body. Now, they just
discovered the body, and this is six months later, and
officials this week confirmed the president's presidence of human remains.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
It is the only uncleared lot on this.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Street, this block where neighbors say seventy four year old
jan Francisco Espinoza lived alone with his dogs. And the
confirmation of another fatality brings the Eton fire death toll
to nineteen. The overall death from the January firestorm, including
Palisades thirty one. All but one of the Eton fire
(09:35):
deaths occurred in West Altadena, where of action orders for
residents came hours after the fire already started. All right,
let's talk about the neighborhood where Espinosa lived. It received
the most delayed evacuation orders. Electronic alerts going out to
(09:57):
this section of West Altadena came just before six am
on January eighth, almost twelve hours after the fire started.
You go a mile to the east where the community, well,
it's a lot richer and it's a lot less diverse.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Read white.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Electronic evacuation orders were sent out about an hour after
the fire broke out. So let me get this right.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Twelve hours.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
After the fire breaks out poor diverse neighborhood a mile away,
white affluent neighborhood an hour, and she said a contras
al Kantara said she got the electronic of action evacuation
order on from the county on her phone after waking
(10:50):
up to very thick smoke and the smoke alarms going
crazy in the house. We got the warning when the
roof was literally on fire. I could barely breathe, my
eyes were burning. Why did they evacuate so late? And
she went on to say a lot of people died
because of the alerts. It just feels like they really
(11:12):
didn't care about us. Well, I don't know. I mean,
you know, it's hard to say that the authorities didn't
care about this neighborhood. We're fine with everybody dying. Well,
of course that's not true, but there is an argument,
and the accusation here is poor black neighborhood. Twelve hours
after the fire started, they got the alerts. Go east
(11:35):
a mile. It's one hour. Now.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Let's talk about the lot. Espinosa's a lot.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Over the last month, workers had spent days searching the lot,
eventually gathering enough evidence of essentially cremated remains to even
confirm that someone died there. I mean we're talking about ashes.
And then it went to the La County Medical Examiner
(12:02):
and it's now going to take months if at all,
to positively, possibly positively identify the body now. Emily Tauscher,
the Assistant Chief of Investigations by the La County Medical
Examinator Coroner's Office, said, these are challenging situation.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
It's labor intensive.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
I mean, we're dealing with highly fragmented skeletal remains.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
It's they're not even there.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Typically, the corner's office is called to a scene after
law enforcement determines there is quote a compelling concern about
a death at a specific location, and that kicks off
a complicated, complicated search. Unless there's a dead body with
a bullet hole through the head, then they cart off
the body to the corner who then does the medical
(12:52):
examination and says things like, this is a dead body
with a hole through its head, and that's how this
dead body died because of a whole its head. That's
easy under these circumstances. It's a little more difficult to
say the least. It involves major debris removal, cadaver dogs.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
We're not dead dogs.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
That they pull on a leash. These are live dogs
that smell cadavers. I just don't want to confuse the two.
And the medical examiner began working with law enforcement in
June after a neighbor filed the missing person report in May.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
And here's the issue.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
He had no living family members, he had no next
of kin. No one even reported him missing until months later.
So Tasher said that circumstances around death like this, no
immediate family, no next of kin, complicates the already difficult
(13:52):
search and ID process, and this requires very slow, meticulous work.
Usually victims and other may your deadly fires then and
they're burned to a crisp are recovered within a few weeks.
But this is under tons and tons of debris. Lapd said,
no missing person's reports outstanding from the Palace Stades fire.
(14:15):
Espinoza is the last person considered missing, and according to
the acting captain of the Altadena station for the Sheriff's Department,
they're coming into the final stages of abating properties. We've
almost cleared everything. That's the last lot to be cleared.
Why because there's nobody there to either sign up. And
(14:38):
I don't know the way it works, whether or not.
There has to be a human being that has to
be notified, or a a human being has to notify
the police or the city that that was my lot
over there, and I want debris to start a debris
cleaning the start and the county and the city has
been pretty good about that. They clear most of it
(15:00):
within thirty days. So there's the two issues. Fair amount
of controversy, not so much on discovering the body or
parts of the body or remains of the body, but
the issue of the evacuation order that is, that's a
big one, and I would like to know where that
is going, all right, So let me give you a scenario.
(15:23):
I'm wearing a bracelet that I bought from Amazon, and
I step out of the shower and I look in
the mirror and I say to myself, Bill, you're a
pretty impressive guy. And then I hear from my bracelet
through buds, no you're not. You're a completely delusional handle.
(15:49):
Now can that happen? Will that happen? Yeah, that's not
far off. Not only my delusion, but where the technology is.
Amazon is buying bri, a company that makes an AI
bracelet that records everything you.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Say all day. Long, it always listens.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
And by the way, bri or Amazon in this case
is a growing market, has a grow joins a growing market.
There are these AI gadgets from Google and Meta and Samsung,
and it's all about personalized AI access. Now there is
a good part of this because of the technology. What
you get after a decade of Amazon saying Alexa is
(16:35):
not listening to every word, company is buying a bracelet
that can. By the way, for those of you that
have Alexa, Alexa Louder, turn the radio on Louder, I
love doing that to people, and when I do, we
get lots of complaints. What these wearable transcripts transcribes all
(16:57):
the conversations you're in your day, including talking yourself, like
looking at yourself in the mirror. Uses AI to turn
this giant word soup into a searchable history, offering up
key events to do lists. For example, Be's chief executive
Maria de lord Zolo said, the company imagines the world
(17:22):
where AI is truly personal, and Amazon believes that and
is spent buckets of money doing that. Now, we've had
devices listen, I have one at home. We've had devices
in our pockets, our homes, mine happens to beyond the
kitchen counter. It's an Alexa one and the Echo speaker
(17:44):
from Amazon was the first one, and Amazon kept on
reminding us for years and years. These voice activated speakers
only start listening once they hear the wake word Alexa.
What's the one for Google? I don't even know there's
a one for Hey Google? Is that what happens? If
(18:04):
you want a timer? Hey Google, start timer now? Or
give me a recipe for jalapeno cornbread. Mine is alexis.
So when you say Alexa, it kicks on. It can
listen to what you say, but without that word, it can't.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Well guess what.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Amazon is buying this device and a lot of other
companies are doing it. Wearable devices that are always listening,
no word needed at all. And the more context it
gathers on the doings of your life what you say.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
The more helpful it can be.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
And that data, when it's collected from enough people, trains
the AI models themselves to be more specific and to
be more accurate.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
I mean, that's what we're doing here.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Twice now we've done an AI generated segment of this
show using my voice. First time out was much better.
For some reason, but we're gonna probably do that a
couple of times. More So, Amazon stepped up its game
with the beta release of Alexa Plus, a smarter, more
(19:18):
conversational upgrade of the original Voice Assistant, and according to Amazon,
it can take on almost any query that chat GPT can,
but it's prone to mistakes well. B This wearable little
device is one of a growing pack of these AI gadgets.
Google has Pixel earbuds that puts.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
Gemini AI in your ear.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Meta Platform made of Platforms had the ray Band glasses
with the built in a bi buddy. Those are great,
by the way, My partner Savile has one. Samsung showed
off its new device. Apple is getting into it. They
all come in different shapes and sizes, but they all
do exactly the same thing. Is transcribe within the program,
(20:04):
within this algorithm, every single word that you say, and
if you mutter to yourself, which I do all day long.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
It's picking all of it up. So am I gonna
wear one of these things?
Speaker 2 (20:19):
I don't think so, because when I'm muttered to myself,
none of it makes sense. I'm not particularly interested in
if we have a conversation, I don't want it to
know what I'm saying, And then what do they do
with it?
Speaker 1 (20:33):
You know, what kind of privacy do we have? You know?
Do I find out what you're saying? You know, it's.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Technology, both good and bad. By the way, I am
pretty impressive when I look. Don't shake your head, gun, No,
how the hell do you know?
Speaker 1 (20:55):
Does your face and your head shape feel like the
rest of you can't be?
Speaker 2 (20:59):
And of my hands and the size of my feet yep,
And the fact that at my brist they took off
way too much.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
That's why it's non existent anymore, exactly all right.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Story out of the Wall Street Journal, which I looked
at and it went, really, I mean, are people this nuts?
Speaker 1 (21:18):
But there is a method to this madness. So it's
a story of.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
This woman, Kelly Maple is her name, and she has
this bundle of joy Naomi, and puts the and puts
Naoma into a Nuna car seat really expensive.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Drives her to the mall.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
Then when they arrive, she places little Naomi and she's
dressed in a onesie and hair bow and puts them
in to a high end stroller with the sound machine,
stuffed animal pacifier, all of that, and then they go
shopping for clothes for the baby, and most passersby say, okay,
there's typical mother and daughter, But Naomi is not real.
(22:03):
Naomi is a doll. They're called reborn dolls. They're collectible.
They can run up to ten thousand dollars each.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
Come on now.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
They've been around since the early two thousands, but in
recent years they have exploded into a global phenomenon.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Collectors consider themselves parents.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
They shell out for baby gear, and they dote on
these dolls like they were human. In Brazil, they're a
lightning hot rot or a lightning rod, and politicians have
already introduced bills to ban them in public places straight out.
And you think you've never seen one, well you may have.
(22:52):
The reborn doll is hidden in plain sight. Here in
the United States. It's a cottage industry. This is not
a big company that does this. Amateur crafter. They hand mold,
They paint their dolls in the basement, very labor intensive,
even to the point of painting these tiny little pale
(23:13):
blue veins onto the baby's soft sort of peachy skin,
hand rooting individual goat or alpaca hairs at a time
into the scalps and eyebrows, and if you've ever looked
at one, they are uncanny. So in Greensboro, North Carolina,
(23:34):
about fifteen hundred people gathered at the Dolls of the
World Expo. And the reporter who wrote this story and
went to the Dolls of the World Expo told a
doll maker, you know, I've never seen someone.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
Carrying a reborn in New York.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
And the doll maker smiled knowingly and said, oh you
have now. Detractors find the dolls creepy. They're not real.
As a matter of fact. Whenever you see a movie
or think about someone carrying a dead baby, they have
to hold on to this child they've just lost.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Well, there's sort of a modified world to that.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Some owners say they're taunted by families, online bullies. What
these owners say, I'll tell you what you've misunderstood, because
you're not looking at the therapeutic potential of these dolls.
Women who have lost babies or experienced miscarriage are comforted
by these dolls. They can sue the women with post
(24:42):
traumatic stress disorder or have Alzheimer's or dementia autism. Here's
a story you probably didn't know. Britney Spears, who said
she said she had a miscarriage, has been seen carrying
one of these dolls. Some women are just comphatic, fanatic
(25:04):
collectors and they have dozens of about hundreds of these dolls,
and they actually post online videos of diaper changes, trips
to the park. Children and teens play with them. Stunt babies.
I mean, they're so good that Hollywood uses them as
stunt babies. Kelly Maple, this gal who was interviewed, has
(25:31):
over two million YouTube subscribers. Come on, really, one of
the subscribers say, people think it's insane because it's a doll.
And by the way, this woman, Hannah ham On Hammond
is a teacher and collects reborns. But it's like any
other hobby. And there you go, here's the baby. And
(25:57):
went to the reporter and said, here you go and
let the reporter hold the baby. You have to support
her head though, like any other baby. By the way,
Maple sells her dolls for thousands of dollars. And if
you go to this Dolls of the World expo, the
one that just happened in the next year, there is
(26:19):
she is mob by fans for selfies and autographs and
she spent months in the room. She calls her nursery
putting the finishing touches on babies that she sells at
her booth at the fair, and awareness of these dolls
is an all time high. It's getting bigger, it's getting stronger.
(26:40):
According to Dave Stack, thefounder of reborns dot com, one
of the largest marketplace places for handmade dolls, this is
pretty strange stuff, it really is. Although the issue of
the therapeutic aspect of this makes a lot of sense,
(27:01):
I just don't get well, let me put it this way.
You have someone who is suffering from dementia and they
go back to the time when someone was a child.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
I mean, long term memory is the last to go.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
And so you see people with dementia and they talk
to their daughters or their sons as if they were
babies because that's where they remember them. It is a
pretty rare hobby except it. Boy, are people really involved
(27:41):
in this. A lot of women save all year to
be able to spend thousands of dollars at the fair.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
Pretty impressive, to say the least.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
I'd like to see a study done on this, I
really would, because the therapeutic aspects of this I think actually
makes sense.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
The rest of it is just crazy. I say it.
We're done, guys.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
Another week has gone By Tomorrow morning, it's Handle on
the Law, Marginal legal advice from Me to eleven o'clock,
followed by a Rich Dumurrow with the Tech Show, and
then Neil Savedra two to five pm on Tuesday.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
Neil comes back on our show.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
And then starting on Monday, guess who's back the same crowd?
Speaker 1 (28:28):
Amy and Will wake.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Up call at five o'clock for some reason and is
dancing behind Amy.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
I have no idea why because it's Friday, and she
brought me my weekly diet coke. Oh okay?
Speaker 2 (28:40):
And then Will is dancing for absolutely no reason at all.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
Do you know?
Speaker 2 (28:45):
Will you dance in your seat so you really could
be a double amputee and no one would know the difference.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
Thank you. I think you're welcome. So it's wake up
Call at five o'clock, five to.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
Six o'clock on Monday, and then I come aboard at
six and we do the Handle Show, Gary and Shannon
up next. I have a good weekend, everybody. This is
KFI AM six.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
You've been listening to the Bill Handle Show. Catch my
show Monday through Friday.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
Six am to nine am, and anytime on demand on
the iHeartRadio app.
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