January 7, 2025 • 28 mins
After 2 years of shortfalls, Newsom proposes $322BIL budget with no deficit. META is getting rid of fact checkers on Facebook and Instagram. Also making other major changes directly related to the changing administration. Jimmy Carter raised climate change concerns 35 years before the Paris Accords. Trump is returning to the White House but unlike most presidents before him, he won’t be bringing a dog.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty KFI AM Handle.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Here it is a taco Tuesday, January seventh, last day
we can say Happy New Year.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
I guess yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
I think that was the consensus this morning. A bunch
of things going on. First of all, somebody has died
of the bird flew, unfortunately, first American to die, but
over sixty five underlying conditions hung out with birds, you know,
a content provider for certain porno fyte sites dealing with birds.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
And I'm not going to get into it beyond that.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Now, let me tell you what's going on in terms
of our budget, ours being California. The governor just proposed
a new budget three hundred and twenty two billion dollars
without a deficit, because by law, California has to be
a balanced budget and we've had significant budget shortfalls the
last couple of years, which means more borrowing or make
it all happen. So to start with, let me do
(01:04):
a prelude to this story and talk a little bit
about politics. January twentieth, the fight begins, and I mean
a fight between the White House and California. That's going
to be the biggest state versus federal government fight that's
going to exist in the next administration. It's fair to
say Donald Trump hates California, and it's fair to say California,
(01:28):
at least most Californias is certain. The legislature and the
governor hate Donald Trump.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Putting that together, we have a new budget and the
governor has to propose a budget and has to be
passed by the legislature.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
And so new budget's.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Coming in three hundred and twenty two billion dollars and
it is a placeholder. Nothing is changing. Why, well, a
few things are changing. For the most part nothing because
the incoming president is he going to follow through on
his threats to revoke billions of dollars in federal dollars
to a third of the money that California receives, the
(02:05):
California spends is from federal dollars. So the President, the Congress,
they have a lot of say, for example, the bullet train,
the high speed rail project, which is one of the
biggest boon doggles in the history of boondoggles, which is
(02:26):
way over budget and it'll never be finished, and it
costs billions of dollars every year in his first administration,
Trump canceled about a billion dollars in federal funding, saying
this thing is a boondoggle.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
He was absolutely right, by the way.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Well, Joe Biden reinstated that billion dollars, and it's the
fight is.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Going to continue.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
And here what's going on with our budget first of
all in news and getting very few details. We're going
to find more out out about it into on Friday.
The Governor's said, we're walking into headwinds a radically different
moment in US history, No kidding.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
We have to be prepared.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Well, yeah, if you're going to fight everything the Trump
administration is doing, yes, and the Trump administration is going
to fight everything that California spends and believes in and
is dealing with.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
For example, immigration rights.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Right, Not only is the state of California basically a
sanctuary state.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
There are provisions in that are now pending.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
There are laws that are pending in the state Senate
that will actually provide state money to help illegal aliens
with their defense when the federal government is acting to
deport them, and the state saying, not only are we
going to help the illegal aliens the undocumented excuse me,
(03:51):
but we are going to pay money for their defense
to stop the deportation. Now you think that's not going
to piss off Trump, of course it is, and he's
threatening to withhold money all over the place. And by
the way, those threats are real because the Feds do
have the ability. And here is also the problem with California,
and it's just there's problem after problem California the way
(04:14):
he gets this money, and it's very weird. Not only
do we have state income tax, most states do, but
they don't come close to the state income tax that the.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
State charges us.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
But long term capital gain money made from investments, from stock,
from real estate investment, which is what rich people basically
deal with and invest in, that is taxed at the
same rate that ordinary income.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Ordinary income being.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Your salary wages, that's taxed at the high end of
thirteen percent. Well, capital gains you invest in a company,
you buy stock, and you sell the stock at a profit.
That's a different tax rate in virtually every state, and
certainly in our US tax system, not California.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
They're saying the same thing.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
And of course wealthy people investors are saying, you're making
it hard for.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Us to invest in the state. Stop it. We don't
want to live.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Here, although I don't understand. Well, California is sort of
equalizing on population. So because of the way capital gains,
work and income tax, half of the state's income tax
collection comes from one percent of the population. For those
(05:30):
people that think that the middle class pays the taxes,
it does not. The people that pay the taxes are
the top, are the wealthy, and California makes them suffer
big time.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
It's just that simple.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
California believes in taxing people that have money and make money.
And what that does since you have the vagaries of
the investment world. Stock market goes up and down, investments
go up and down. Real estate, for the most part,
is only going up, except not commercial real estate because
you know, all these office buildings are going vacant.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
What happens is that there's tons of volatility.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
We don't know from year to year we the state
how much money is coming in. For example, this year
sixteen and a half billion dollars more than projected. Why
because the stock market did or last year's stock market
did better.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
So it is going to be a complete zoo.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Oh one last one before we take a break. Governor
Newsom asked for and got twenty five million dollars just
to set up a fund to fight the Trump administration
all its policies to file lawsuits, either defend or initiate lawsuits.
(06:46):
That's how we are starting. So the next four years
it's going to be interesting. And the reason we don't
have a budget and it's going to be it's a
caretaking budget placeholder.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
It's because we don't know.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Now how far is the Trumpet administration going to go
in tariffs and withholding money to the state. Is the
United States actually going to buy Greenland?
Speaker 1 (07:09):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Is Greenland going to be put up for auction on eBay?
And are we going to be the highest bidder?
Speaker 1 (07:16):
I don't know. Is Canada going to be become the
fifty first state? Don't know?
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Meta Zuckerberg right, it has a program of fact checkers,
except they don't anymore now. There is something called user
generated community notes.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
What's all that about?
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Well, okay, there's a new chief of Global Affairs, a
guy named Joel Kaplan who just said who just announced
that metas partnership with third party fact checkers? Is this
all these allegations, these statements, this misinformation, vac information in
the conspiracy theorists. We're going to make sure that those
(08:05):
were at least moderated or left out. Well, the new
chief Global Affair says that was well intentioned when it
was set up, but there's just been too much political
bias against that stuff. Now we're talking about which side
of the political coin are you on? And here's what's
going on. It looks like, well, there is an ideological
(08:26):
shift to the right within Meta's top ranks, started by Zuckerberg.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
And how is that why? Well, it's real simple.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Zuckerberg is and has said he wants a closer relationship
with the Trump administration, and he is changing the way
Meta is fact checked, which you know, to me, it's
pretty important. I go on the Internet and I'm looking
at stuff that I can't believe. You know, where people
(08:56):
get the news? I mean, how many young people get
the news from TikTok? I mean just as huge number
of people who get their news from the internet. And
where do you get all these conspiracy theories from the internet?
You know, vaccinations will kill you, right, conspiracy theories?
Speaker 1 (09:12):
There is a deep state. There really is.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
A pedophile ring under a pizza parlor in Chicago, led
by a Democratic Congress people. Now, obviously that is that's
the high end of hyperbole. But the rest of it is,
you know, those allegations are out there and we've been
fighting them.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
I've said this over and over again.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
That it used to be these crazy people that you
hear talk of and have millions of followers who say, yeah,
there is a deep state. Yes, the FBI really is
out to get you. If you're a Republican, if you
are conservative, Yes, it's all true.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Those people the only way you would ever hear them is.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
They'd be on a street corner with bullhorns, and if
they were too loud, the police would rouse them.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Hey, too loud with your bullhorn? That was it.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Now you go on the internet and all of a
sudden you've got four hundred thousand people listening to that,
and I listened to people who I otherwise thought were
pretty bright, buy right into it. Why because part of
the conspiracy theories are part of a lot of this
I don't want to go across the board, is that
the major news outlets that's fake news. Real news that
(10:29):
we think of Israel news is really fake news. You know,
those of us who say the conspiracy theories are crazy
we are the crazies.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
I mean, you've heard the phrase the lunatics have taken
over the asylum. Man, that is true.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
So you have these platforms that have unbelievable influence, and
this crazy stuff was put on it, and there were
fact checkers that would go, no, no, this.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Is not true.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
You've got, for example, you've got Elon Musk, who has
no small influence now on the new administration coming up,
has said that X will publish, X will post.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
You can post anything on X. It's first Amendment.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
And if you post that liberals should not be allowed
to run, Democrats should not be allowed to run for office,
or are not allowed to run for office, or vaccines
really kill you, you think someone that the platform itself
will say that's not true.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Science does not say that.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Nope, all gone. That is terrible. Started at it, starting
by meta. I can understand X, because Elon Musk is
kind of crazy in his own way.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
But the fact that and it's good of other.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Platforms are going to follow, and it's cow telling to
the Trump administration. Unless you come up with lies about
the Trump administration, then that should be shut down. Conspiracy
theories against conspiracy theories should be shut down, but conspiracy
(12:11):
theories about things that we deal with, for example, Russians
interfering with the election.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Uh, fake news.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Uh, the FBI going after people without a political uh
political objective, fake news, the Department of Justice. All they
care about is weaponizing the Department of Justice the government
so they can go after conservatives. Right, Okay, that's real news.
(12:41):
So it's kind of crazy, it really is. It's it's
it's yeah, I'm I'm not particularly happy about that. We're
going to have a a new just a new way
of thinking, a new way, well, not so much thinking,
but it's just a new way of dealing with the reality. Uh.
Whatever I say, Uh, that's going to be against the
adminted coming up, and obviously there's gonna be plenty of it.
(13:03):
This is fake news. Do not believe a word I say.
Unless I am proposing and or backing up an administration
an administrative.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Policy, then it's real news.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Can you imagine me having said that five years ago
or ten years ago? And usually I exaggerate, and I
do a lot of that. I do a lot of
hyperbole on this show, exaggeration, a lot.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Of satire, a lot of parody.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
Not this time around, you know an interesting article Bill,
I came across the other day about the surge and
flat earthers since the Internet, and looking at an article
by or studied by you goov. It was an opinion poll.
Just sixty six percent of millennials firmly believe that the
(13:51):
Earth is round.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
That's crazy.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
How about flat birthers, women who believe in it and
have no boobs?
Speaker 4 (14:04):
Oh, I thought you're going somewhere else. She whiz wow.
I should have seen that come in.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Okay, And I'm going to keep on doing this over
and over again as the Trump administration is going to
be coming into power and describing new and old, mainly new.
And I'm now going to compare Jimmy Carter, who just
died at the age of one hundred on December twenty nine,
with Winston Churchill, and give me a moment and tell
(14:32):
you a little bit.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
About history here, all right.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Winston Churchill in nineteen thirty three warned the world of
Adolf Hitler. Actually everybody was pretty impressed with the Hitler
bringing Germany out of the.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Out of the depression.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
He had a lot of accolades, a lot of people
in the United States and all over the world thought
this guy was pretty neat. Churchill by himself warned the
world that is one bad guy.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
He was by himself. He was actually ridiculed for it.
He was right.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Years before World War two years before he became Prime Minister,
he was still he was at national figure by that point.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Jimmy Carter when he was president, and now we're going
back fifty years, warned of the world. Climate change is
going to kill us.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Fossil fuels are going to create climate change.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
We are in trouble. How many people paid attention to.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Him Al Gore remember the planet's got a fever, was
called a crazy person, was made fun of, called a fraudster.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
He was absolutely right, years and years before his.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Time, and environmentalists are looking at Jimmy Carter as actually
the first great environmental president.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
He created the Deparliament of Energy.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
He established the first regulations in terms of fossil fuel
emissions from cars. I mean, this guy really believed in
the environment, not only politically but personally. Joe Biden has
followed in those footsteps, pushing hard to reduce fossil fuel emissions,
(16:24):
to reduce everything we do that creates climate change, which
is going to be reversed by the way President Trump
has vowed to abandon the renewable energy investments that Biden
included in the Inflation Reduction Act, pointing out that Ronald
Reagan dismantled Ronald Reagan dismantled.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
The solar panels that Carter had put at the White House.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Now, it wasn't a matter of philosophy, it wasn't a
matter he didn't believe in it. It had to do
with a lot of different issues as to budgetary and they.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Weren't working or they were so there was a lot
more to it than that.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
But the point is what Carter did was undone by
President Reagan, who also was not a big believer in
climate change at all. This is years before people Now,
if you say climate change doesn't exist, your nuts. I mean,
do you really believe that there's no such sting as
climate change? Well, President Trump doesn't believe there's climate change.
He still says, he argues it's a fraud, it's a hoax.
(17:19):
Jimmy Carter, I mean, this man was years and years.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Ahead of his time.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
He left office in nineteen eighty one after receiving a
West Wing report that he asked for linking fossil fuels
to carbon dioxide levels in the Earth's atmosphere. His environmental
advisor urged quote immediate cutbacks on the burning of fossil fuels.
So the White House went ahead and released those findings. Now,
(17:48):
let me ask you, if the White House releases findings
today on a major policy or major findings regarding fossil
fuels use or the inner or climate change, do you
think that would make some news. When it was released,
and we're talking hundreds of pages. New York Times carry
(18:11):
it on page thirteen. There was a story of a
woman who has a clam in Alaska that was able
to speak. That was a much bigger story. Actually, I
don't think that's true, but it sounds good. Let's go
back to the seeing Eye Chicken. Reagan ended all high end,
(18:34):
high level of conservations about carbon emissions done, and people
are now looking back at Carter. Had he been re elected,
we would see a very different world in terms of
at least the United States approach to climate change. And
when you think of the influence that the United States
has did have and to a greater extent extent then
(18:57):
than now, when the United States is pushing for emission standards.
Let me tell you the world listens today while we're
going into an administration that doesn't believe in climate change
at all, who.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Believes that climate change is a hoax.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
So you had the climate tx right, the Paris Accords
gone pulled out, a bit that was pulled out when
Donald Trump was during his first term.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
The United States does.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Not care anymore about climate change. I'm talking about policy
wise coming into the next administration. So how can it
influence other countries and say we've got a problem here.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
It can't.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
Jimmy Carter, well Winston Churchill nineteen thirty two years before.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Everybody else got it. He got it. And that's Jimmy Carter.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
And then it is eulogy his grandson, I think it
was son said was his son during the eulogy said
something that I thought was wonderful.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
And that is everything that Jimmy Carter has done.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
And his influence and his greatness came way after his presidency.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
He was not one of the better presidents we've had.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
Matter of fact, his presidency sucked, but then he started
on his career post presidency and is probably that's been
the best career of any president that has ever existed
in the history of our country.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
What he has done since he had left office.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
And his son said, it's amazing how much life he
crammed into a short one hundred years.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
And I'm telling yeah, that's it.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
After Carter left office, I thought this guy had no
business being president, which I believe still. But the influence
he has had in terms of habitat for humanity, going
around the world, monitoring elections, winning the Nobel Peace Prize,
I mean, just an extraordinary person. And I'm not here
(21:00):
to eulogize. I'm not here to utilize Caesar. I'm here
to eulogize his position on climate change, because yes, I
am a believer in climate change.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
Isn't it ironic? Isn't it ironic? He's actually becoming fossil fuel.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
That's a good point, very Well said. Very Well said, yeah.
Not only am I a big, big believer in climate change,
which I am. I have an electric vehicle. I bought
an EV of course, I have complete range anxiety, and
I drive around looking to see where the next charging
station is going to be because I'm scared to death.
(21:38):
So there are some issues with that, but the bottom
line is I was influenced by Carter. I believed early
on that Al Gore had a point.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
See I'll tell you else. There's a little secret that
I hate to admit this, but I also recycle at home.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
I know you know, I've known you for thirty years
and I've heard you tell the same three jokes over
and over.
Speaker 4 (22:06):
I know you recycle.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Hello, top twenty in the country. Thank you for pointing
that out.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Now, a little bit of handle history and this has
to do with dogs at the White House, and we're
about to break precedent. Now we've got, oh, I don't know,
sixty seventy years, eighty years of history that is about
to be broken. And I'll explain why in a minute.
You know, new stuff with the Trump administration, and that
(22:39):
has to do with dogs.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
No dog.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Trump doesn't like dogs, or he doesn't want a dog,
never like pets, unlike other presidents where dogs have been
a huge part of the presidential world.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
Going back to Theodore Roosevelt, in his.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Family, he had a whole zoo running around, chickens and
snakes and birds and ponies, and his dog. His dog
was Skip and it was a little terrier. It was
a mutt, which in nineteen ninety nine was actually given
its own breed recognized by the American Kennel Club.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
It's the Teddy Roosevelt terrier.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
Warren g Harding had Lottie Boy, and there is Lotty
Boy photographed.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
With Warren g Harding.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
What these dogs do is they humanize the president. Calvin Coolidge,
who never said a word to anybody, he had Rob Roy.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
He was a collie, spoke more. The dog actually spoke
more than he did.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
Calvin Coolidge. Fun guy Herbert Hoover. I'll bet you didn't
know this.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
He had a dog and it was King Tut, which
is kind of neat.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
King Tut not only was in the White House, but
also he became part of the White House Police force
as a patrol dog.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
One of the most famous ones is Fala.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
Franklin Roosevelt's black Scottie became a big, big celebrity even
during the war drives. There were little toys that were
created that looked like Fala little stuff toys. Fala, I
would think, is probably the most famous one, next to
Checkers or it's either one two two one Checkers being
(24:31):
Richard Nixon's dog.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
It was given to the girls and it was a
little terrier.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
And there was a whole scandal about Richard Nixon receiving
a slush fund, and he went on TV.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
So wonderful history.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
He went on TV in nineteen fifty two to say,
I'm not basically, I'm not a crook. I don't have
this slush fund. Any money that I got I returned,
but I will not return checkers. It was a gift
to me to my girls. I will not return checkers.
It's called the famous Checkers speech. One of my favorite ones,
and this is not particularly known, is Pushenka. Pushenka was
(25:09):
the daughter of Lika, Laika being the first dog in
space and this and Pushika was one of Laika's daughters
that was given to Jacqueline Kennedy by Nikita Khrushchev at
the very beginning of the space race. And unfortunately laikah
(25:31):
died in space, the first dog being up there because
really didn't have a way of getting down. And there
was talk of whether Jacqueline Kennedy should get like a
dead dog, and they decided, no, we're not going to
give a dead dog to the president or his wife.
We're going to give a live dog. Pushenka, daughter of
(25:51):
and everybody wet nuts with Pushenka. It was great Lyndon
Johnson remember the Beagles, him and her and Lindzen Johnsen
raised the beagle by its ears playfully.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
A huge scandal. Also Yuki.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
President Johnson had It was a stray found at a
Texas gas station by his daughter, and that became part
of the presidency. Richard Nixon not only had Checkers, but
had King Timahoe. Okay, the Fords, they got a Golden
Retriever puppy named Liberty. Liberty was part of the Ford
(26:28):
White House. Jimmy Carter had Grits given to his daughter
by her elementary school teacher. Ronald Reagan actually came up
and he had a dog throughout the presidency, and I
thought it was the most clever name of any president
giving the dog a name.
Speaker 4 (26:47):
It was.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
The dog's name was Rex, highly unusual Millie in the
Bush White House Buddy Clinton's. The Obamas had the Portuguese
water dog bo At, two of them, Bow and Sonny. Joe,
(27:11):
Biden and Jill had two German shepherds, Champ and Major,
one of which kept eating Secret Service people and finally
they couldn't take it anymore, and the Secret Service couldn't
actually bitch too much.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
Now, if a presidential dog wants.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
To eat a secret service you know, police officer, it's hey,
what do you do? So? Anyways, gone, and so what's
the difference Today? There will be no presidential dog for
the first time in what one hundred years or more,
which is a shame because we love dogs to be
made fun of. And then I am not going to
(27:50):
do the first time we have an Asian president, I
won't go into that joke. Okay, we're done. KFI AM
six four. You've been listening to the Bill Handle Show.
Catch My Show Monday through Friday, six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty KFI AM Handle.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Here it is a taco Tuesday, January seventh, last day
we can say Happy New Year.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
I guess yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
I think that was the consensus this morning. A bunch
of things going on. First of all, somebody has died
of the bird flew, unfortunately, first American to die, but
over sixty five underlying conditions hung out with birds, you know,
a content provider for certain porno fyte sites dealing with birds.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
And I'm not going to get into it beyond that.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Now, let me tell you what's going on in terms
of our budget, ours being California. The governor just proposed
a new budget three hundred and twenty two billion dollars
without a deficit, because by law, California has to be
a balanced budget and we've had significant budget shortfalls the
last couple of years, which means more borrowing or make
it all happen. So to start with, let me do
(01:04):
a prelude to this story and talk a little bit
about politics. January twentieth, the fight begins, and I mean
a fight between the White House and California. That's going
to be the biggest state versus federal government fight that's
going to exist in the next administration. It's fair to
say Donald Trump hates California, and it's fair to say California,
(01:28):
at least most Californias is certain. The legislature and the
governor hate Donald Trump.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Putting that together, we have a new budget and the
governor has to propose a budget and has to be
passed by the legislature.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
And so new budget's.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Coming in three hundred and twenty two billion dollars and
it is a placeholder. Nothing is changing. Why, well, a
few things are changing. For the most part nothing because
the incoming president is he going to follow through on
his threats to revoke billions of dollars in federal dollars
to a third of the money that California receives, the
(02:05):
California spends is from federal dollars. So the President, the Congress,
they have a lot of say, for example, the bullet train,
the high speed rail project, which is one of the
biggest boon doggles in the history of boondoggles, which is
(02:26):
way over budget and it'll never be finished, and it
costs billions of dollars every year in his first administration,
Trump canceled about a billion dollars in federal funding, saying
this thing is a boondoggle.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
He was absolutely right, by the way.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Well, Joe Biden reinstated that billion dollars, and it's the
fight is.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Going to continue.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
And here what's going on with our budget first of
all in news and getting very few details. We're going
to find more out out about it into on Friday.
The Governor's said, we're walking into headwinds a radically different
moment in US history, No kidding.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
We have to be prepared.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Well, yeah, if you're going to fight everything the Trump
administration is doing, yes, and the Trump administration is going
to fight everything that California spends and believes in and
is dealing with.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
For example, immigration rights.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Right, Not only is the state of California basically a
sanctuary state.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
There are provisions in that are now pending.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
There are laws that are pending in the state Senate
that will actually provide state money to help illegal aliens
with their defense when the federal government is acting to
deport them, and the state saying, not only are we
going to help the illegal aliens the undocumented excuse me,
(03:51):
but we are going to pay money for their defense
to stop the deportation. Now you think that's not going
to piss off Trump, of course it is, and he's
threatening to withhold money all over the place. And by
the way, those threats are real because the Feds do
have the ability. And here is also the problem with California,
and it's just there's problem after problem California the way
(04:14):
he gets this money, and it's very weird. Not only
do we have state income tax, most states do, but
they don't come close to the state income tax that the.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
State charges us.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
But long term capital gain money made from investments, from stock,
from real estate investment, which is what rich people basically
deal with and invest in, that is taxed at the
same rate that ordinary income.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Ordinary income being.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Your salary wages, that's taxed at the high end of
thirteen percent. Well, capital gains you invest in a company,
you buy stock, and you sell the stock at a profit.
That's a different tax rate in virtually every state, and
certainly in our US tax system, not California.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
They're saying the same thing.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
And of course wealthy people investors are saying, you're making
it hard for.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Us to invest in the state. Stop it. We don't
want to live.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Here, although I don't understand. Well, California is sort of
equalizing on population. So because of the way capital gains,
work and income tax, half of the state's income tax
collection comes from one percent of the population. For those
(05:30):
people that think that the middle class pays the taxes,
it does not. The people that pay the taxes are
the top, are the wealthy, and California makes them suffer
big time.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
It's just that simple.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
California believes in taxing people that have money and make money.
And what that does since you have the vagaries of
the investment world. Stock market goes up and down, investments
go up and down. Real estate, for the most part,
is only going up, except not commercial real estate because
you know, all these office buildings are going vacant.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
What happens is that there's tons of volatility.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
We don't know from year to year we the state
how much money is coming in. For example, this year
sixteen and a half billion dollars more than projected. Why
because the stock market did or last year's stock market
did better.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
So it is going to be a complete zoo.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Oh one last one before we take a break. Governor
Newsom asked for and got twenty five million dollars just
to set up a fund to fight the Trump administration
all its policies to file lawsuits, either defend or initiate lawsuits.
(06:46):
That's how we are starting. So the next four years
it's going to be interesting. And the reason we don't
have a budget and it's going to be it's a
caretaking budget placeholder.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
It's because we don't know.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Now how far is the Trumpet administration going to go
in tariffs and withholding money to the state. Is the
United States actually going to buy Greenland?
Speaker 1 (07:09):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Is Greenland going to be put up for auction on eBay?
And are we going to be the highest bidder?
Speaker 1 (07:16):
I don't know. Is Canada going to be become the
fifty first state? Don't know?
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Meta Zuckerberg right, it has a program of fact checkers,
except they don't anymore now. There is something called user
generated community notes.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
What's all that about?
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Well, okay, there's a new chief of Global Affairs, a
guy named Joel Kaplan who just said who just announced
that metas partnership with third party fact checkers? Is this
all these allegations, these statements, this misinformation, vac information in
the conspiracy theorists. We're going to make sure that those
(08:05):
were at least moderated or left out. Well, the new
chief Global Affair says that was well intentioned when it
was set up, but there's just been too much political
bias against that stuff. Now we're talking about which side
of the political coin are you on? And here's what's
going on. It looks like, well, there is an ideological
(08:26):
shift to the right within Meta's top ranks, started by Zuckerberg.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
And how is that why? Well, it's real simple.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Zuckerberg is and has said he wants a closer relationship
with the Trump administration, and he is changing the way
Meta is fact checked, which you know, to me, it's
pretty important. I go on the Internet and I'm looking
at stuff that I can't believe. You know, where people
(08:56):
get the news? I mean, how many young people get
the news from TikTok? I mean just as huge number
of people who get their news from the internet. And
where do you get all these conspiracy theories from the internet?
You know, vaccinations will kill you, right, conspiracy theories?
Speaker 1 (09:12):
There is a deep state. There really is.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
A pedophile ring under a pizza parlor in Chicago, led
by a Democratic Congress people. Now, obviously that is that's
the high end of hyperbole. But the rest of it is,
you know, those allegations are out there and we've been
fighting them.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
I've said this over and over again.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
That it used to be these crazy people that you
hear talk of and have millions of followers who say, yeah,
there is a deep state. Yes, the FBI really is
out to get you. If you're a Republican, if you
are conservative, Yes, it's all true.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Those people the only way you would ever hear them is.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
They'd be on a street corner with bullhorns, and if
they were too loud, the police would rouse them.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Hey, too loud with your bullhorn? That was it.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Now you go on the internet and all of a
sudden you've got four hundred thousand people listening to that,
and I listened to people who I otherwise thought were
pretty bright, buy right into it. Why because part of
the conspiracy theories are part of a lot of this
I don't want to go across the board, is that
the major news outlets that's fake news. Real news that
(10:29):
we think of Israel news is really fake news. You know,
those of us who say the conspiracy theories are crazy
we are the crazies.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
I mean, you've heard the phrase the lunatics have taken
over the asylum. Man, that is true.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
So you have these platforms that have unbelievable influence, and
this crazy stuff was put on it, and there were
fact checkers that would go, no, no, this.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Is not true.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
You've got, for example, you've got Elon Musk, who has
no small influence now on the new administration coming up,
has said that X will publish, X will post.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
You can post anything on X. It's first Amendment.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
And if you post that liberals should not be allowed
to run, Democrats should not be allowed to run for office,
or are not allowed to run for office, or vaccines
really kill you, you think someone that the platform itself
will say that's not true.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Science does not say that.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Nope, all gone. That is terrible. Started at it, starting
by meta. I can understand X, because Elon Musk is
kind of crazy in his own way.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
But the fact that and it's good of other.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Platforms are going to follow, and it's cow telling to
the Trump administration. Unless you come up with lies about
the Trump administration, then that should be shut down. Conspiracy
theories against conspiracy theories should be shut down, but conspiracy
(12:11):
theories about things that we deal with, for example, Russians
interfering with the election.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Uh, fake news.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Uh, the FBI going after people without a political uh
political objective, fake news, the Department of Justice. All they
care about is weaponizing the Department of Justice the government
so they can go after conservatives. Right, Okay, that's real news.
(12:41):
So it's kind of crazy, it really is. It's it's
it's yeah, I'm I'm not particularly happy about that. We're
going to have a a new just a new way
of thinking, a new way, well, not so much thinking,
but it's just a new way of dealing with the reality. Uh.
Whatever I say, Uh, that's going to be against the
adminted coming up, and obviously there's gonna be plenty of it.
(13:03):
This is fake news. Do not believe a word I say.
Unless I am proposing and or backing up an administration
an administrative.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Policy, then it's real news.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Can you imagine me having said that five years ago
or ten years ago? And usually I exaggerate, and I
do a lot of that. I do a lot of
hyperbole on this show, exaggeration, a lot.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Of satire, a lot of parody.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
Not this time around, you know an interesting article Bill,
I came across the other day about the surge and
flat earthers since the Internet, and looking at an article
by or studied by you goov. It was an opinion poll.
Just sixty six percent of millennials firmly believe that the
(13:51):
Earth is round.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
That's crazy.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
How about flat birthers, women who believe in it and
have no boobs?
Speaker 4 (14:04):
Oh, I thought you're going somewhere else. She whiz wow.
I should have seen that come in.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Okay, And I'm going to keep on doing this over
and over again as the Trump administration is going to
be coming into power and describing new and old, mainly new.
And I'm now going to compare Jimmy Carter, who just
died at the age of one hundred on December twenty nine,
with Winston Churchill, and give me a moment and tell
(14:32):
you a little bit.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
About history here, all right.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Winston Churchill in nineteen thirty three warned the world of
Adolf Hitler. Actually everybody was pretty impressed with the Hitler
bringing Germany out of the.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Out of the depression.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
He had a lot of accolades, a lot of people
in the United States and all over the world thought
this guy was pretty neat. Churchill by himself warned the
world that is one bad guy.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
He was by himself. He was actually ridiculed for it.
He was right.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Years before World War two years before he became Prime Minister,
he was still he was at national figure by that point.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Jimmy Carter when he was president, and now we're going
back fifty years, warned of the world. Climate change is
going to kill us.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Fossil fuels are going to create climate change.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
We are in trouble. How many people paid attention to.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Him Al Gore remember the planet's got a fever, was
called a crazy person, was made fun of, called a fraudster.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
He was absolutely right, years and years before his.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Time, and environmentalists are looking at Jimmy Carter as actually
the first great environmental president.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
He created the Deparliament of Energy.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
He established the first regulations in terms of fossil fuel
emissions from cars. I mean, this guy really believed in
the environment, not only politically but personally. Joe Biden has
followed in those footsteps, pushing hard to reduce fossil fuel emissions,
(16:24):
to reduce everything we do that creates climate change, which
is going to be reversed by the way President Trump
has vowed to abandon the renewable energy investments that Biden
included in the Inflation Reduction Act, pointing out that Ronald
Reagan dismantled Ronald Reagan dismantled.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
The solar panels that Carter had put at the White House.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Now, it wasn't a matter of philosophy, it wasn't a
matter he didn't believe in it. It had to do
with a lot of different issues as to budgetary and they.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Weren't working or they were so there was a lot
more to it than that.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
But the point is what Carter did was undone by
President Reagan, who also was not a big believer in
climate change at all. This is years before people Now,
if you say climate change doesn't exist, your nuts. I mean,
do you really believe that there's no such sting as
climate change? Well, President Trump doesn't believe there's climate change.
He still says, he argues it's a fraud, it's a hoax.
(17:19):
Jimmy Carter, I mean, this man was years and years.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Ahead of his time.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
He left office in nineteen eighty one after receiving a
West Wing report that he asked for linking fossil fuels
to carbon dioxide levels in the Earth's atmosphere. His environmental
advisor urged quote immediate cutbacks on the burning of fossil fuels.
So the White House went ahead and released those findings. Now,
(17:48):
let me ask you, if the White House releases findings
today on a major policy or major findings regarding fossil
fuels use or the inner or climate change, do you
think that would make some news. When it was released,
and we're talking hundreds of pages. New York Times carry
(18:11):
it on page thirteen. There was a story of a
woman who has a clam in Alaska that was able
to speak. That was a much bigger story. Actually, I
don't think that's true, but it sounds good. Let's go
back to the seeing Eye Chicken. Reagan ended all high end,
(18:34):
high level of conservations about carbon emissions done, and people
are now looking back at Carter. Had he been re elected,
we would see a very different world in terms of
at least the United States approach to climate change. And
when you think of the influence that the United States
has did have and to a greater extent extent then
(18:57):
than now, when the United States is pushing for emission standards.
Let me tell you the world listens today while we're
going into an administration that doesn't believe in climate change
at all, who.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Believes that climate change is a hoax.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
So you had the climate tx right, the Paris Accords
gone pulled out, a bit that was pulled out when
Donald Trump was during his first term.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
The United States does.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Not care anymore about climate change. I'm talking about policy
wise coming into the next administration. So how can it
influence other countries and say we've got a problem here.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
It can't.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
Jimmy Carter, well Winston Churchill nineteen thirty two years before.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Everybody else got it. He got it. And that's Jimmy Carter.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
And then it is eulogy his grandson, I think it
was son said was his son during the eulogy said
something that I thought was wonderful.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
And that is everything that Jimmy Carter has done.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
And his influence and his greatness came way after his presidency.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
He was not one of the better presidents we've had.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
Matter of fact, his presidency sucked, but then he started
on his career post presidency and is probably that's been
the best career of any president that has ever existed
in the history of our country.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
What he has done since he had left office.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
And his son said, it's amazing how much life he
crammed into a short one hundred years.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
And I'm telling yeah, that's it.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
After Carter left office, I thought this guy had no
business being president, which I believe still. But the influence
he has had in terms of habitat for humanity, going
around the world, monitoring elections, winning the Nobel Peace Prize,
I mean, just an extraordinary person. And I'm not here
(21:00):
to eulogize. I'm not here to utilize Caesar. I'm here
to eulogize his position on climate change, because yes, I
am a believer in climate change.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
Isn't it ironic? Isn't it ironic? He's actually becoming fossil fuel.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
That's a good point, very Well said. Very Well said, yeah.
Not only am I a big, big believer in climate change,
which I am. I have an electric vehicle. I bought
an EV of course, I have complete range anxiety, and
I drive around looking to see where the next charging
station is going to be because I'm scared to death.
(21:38):
So there are some issues with that, but the bottom
line is I was influenced by Carter. I believed early
on that Al Gore had a point.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
See I'll tell you else. There's a little secret that
I hate to admit this, but I also recycle at home.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
I know you know, I've known you for thirty years
and I've heard you tell the same three jokes over
and over.
Speaker 4 (22:06):
I know you recycle.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Hello, top twenty in the country. Thank you for pointing
that out.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Now, a little bit of handle history and this has
to do with dogs at the White House, and we're
about to break precedent. Now we've got, oh, I don't know,
sixty seventy years, eighty years of history that is about
to be broken. And I'll explain why in a minute.
You know, new stuff with the Trump administration, and that
(22:39):
has to do with dogs.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
No dog.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Trump doesn't like dogs, or he doesn't want a dog,
never like pets, unlike other presidents where dogs have been
a huge part of the presidential world.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
Going back to Theodore Roosevelt, in his.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Family, he had a whole zoo running around, chickens and
snakes and birds and ponies, and his dog. His dog
was Skip and it was a little terrier. It was
a mutt, which in nineteen ninety nine was actually given
its own breed recognized by the American Kennel Club.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
It's the Teddy Roosevelt terrier.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
Warren g Harding had Lottie Boy, and there is Lotty
Boy photographed.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
With Warren g Harding.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
What these dogs do is they humanize the president. Calvin Coolidge,
who never said a word to anybody, he had Rob Roy.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
He was a collie, spoke more. The dog actually spoke
more than he did.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
Calvin Coolidge. Fun guy Herbert Hoover. I'll bet you didn't
know this.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
He had a dog and it was King Tut, which
is kind of neat.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
King Tut not only was in the White House, but
also he became part of the White House Police force
as a patrol dog.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
One of the most famous ones is Fala.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
Franklin Roosevelt's black Scottie became a big, big celebrity even
during the war drives. There were little toys that were
created that looked like Fala little stuff toys. Fala, I
would think, is probably the most famous one, next to
Checkers or it's either one two two one Checkers being
(24:31):
Richard Nixon's dog.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
It was given to the girls and it was a
little terrier.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
And there was a whole scandal about Richard Nixon receiving
a slush fund, and he went on TV.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
So wonderful history.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
He went on TV in nineteen fifty two to say,
I'm not basically, I'm not a crook. I don't have
this slush fund. Any money that I got I returned,
but I will not return checkers. It was a gift
to me to my girls. I will not return checkers.
It's called the famous Checkers speech. One of my favorite ones,
and this is not particularly known, is Pushenka. Pushenka was
(25:09):
the daughter of Lika, Laika being the first dog in
space and this and Pushika was one of Laika's daughters
that was given to Jacqueline Kennedy by Nikita Khrushchev at
the very beginning of the space race. And unfortunately laikah
(25:31):
died in space, the first dog being up there because
really didn't have a way of getting down. And there
was talk of whether Jacqueline Kennedy should get like a
dead dog, and they decided, no, we're not going to
give a dead dog to the president or his wife.
We're going to give a live dog. Pushenka, daughter of
(25:51):
and everybody wet nuts with Pushenka. It was great Lyndon
Johnson remember the Beagles, him and her and Lindzen Johnsen
raised the beagle by its ears playfully.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
A huge scandal. Also Yuki.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
President Johnson had It was a stray found at a
Texas gas station by his daughter, and that became part
of the presidency. Richard Nixon not only had Checkers, but
had King Timahoe. Okay, the Fords, they got a Golden
Retriever puppy named Liberty. Liberty was part of the Ford
(26:28):
White House. Jimmy Carter had Grits given to his daughter
by her elementary school teacher. Ronald Reagan actually came up
and he had a dog throughout the presidency, and I
thought it was the most clever name of any president
giving the dog a name.
Speaker 4 (26:47):
It was.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
The dog's name was Rex, highly unusual Millie in the
Bush White House Buddy Clinton's. The Obamas had the Portuguese
water dog bo At, two of them, Bow and Sonny. Joe,
(27:11):
Biden and Jill had two German shepherds, Champ and Major,
one of which kept eating Secret Service people and finally
they couldn't take it anymore, and the Secret Service couldn't
actually bitch too much.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
Now, if a presidential dog wants.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
To eat a secret service you know, police officer, it's hey,
what do you do? So? Anyways, gone, and so what's
the difference Today? There will be no presidential dog for
the first time in what one hundred years or more,
which is a shame because we love dogs to be
made fun of. And then I am not going to
(27:50):
do the first time we have an Asian president, I
won't go into that joke. Okay, we're done. KFI AM
six four. You've been listening to the Bill Handle Show.
Catch My Show Monday through Friday, six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
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