October 13, 2025 • 25 mins
(October 13,2025)
Prop 50: What does it all mean? Judge shuts down California tribes’ latest bid to crush their casino rivals. More employees at law firms, banks, and tech companies unionize.
Prop 50: What does it all mean? Judge shuts down California tribes’ latest bid to crush their casino rivals. More employees at law firms, banks, and tech companies unionize.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty cap on AM six forty bill Handle. It
is a Monday morning, October thirteenth. The Cairo Peace Summit
is on its way right now. The President just arrived
(00:21):
in Cairo and his limousine Wistoma off the tarmac and
he's on his way to meet with twenty world leaders
as Hamas and Israel signed their cease fire, not a
formal peace accord yet, where all the terms have been finalized.
Now let's get local for a moment, and this has
(00:43):
to do with Prop fifty. Prop fifty is the proposition
that we're going to see in November next month. That's it.
It's Prop fifty and the governor put Prop fifty on
the ballot and there's a special election for one proposition.
How important is it? It is a butte Okay. So
(01:08):
here is sort of the underlying facts, the backstory here.
Every ten years the census comes out with a population
where people live in California and other states, there is
an independent committee that decides what the district bounds are. Democratic. Well,
(01:33):
just what redistricting does. What they do is they look
at the map and they look at demographic changes, and
they go, Okay, here is the district thing that we're
going to do. It's independent here in California. And the
reason it's independent because of the politics, because whoever was
in charge, the Democrats and the legislature would do a
Democratic version and the Republicans would do a Republican version
(01:55):
just to take advantage of the ability to redistrict. And
it has to do with how many hours people are sent.
It's that simple, so are sent to Congress. So in
California it's an independent agency. I think it's four Republicans,
four Democrats, and a few independent people and politics, by
law is not allowed to be considered. Okay, that's California.
(02:20):
Texas doesn't have that. Texas, the legislator can do whatever
the hell it wants. The legislature, and what they just
did is redistrict in the middle of the census, midyear
because they're able to do that, and effectively, what they've
done is create five new Republican seats because they're able
(02:43):
to draw the line around neighborhoods and effectively bring purple
areas all into a Democratic stronghold and all the areas
around that are now Republican based that's what you can
do with the redistricting, and Texas just did that. Why
did Texas do this because the great leader in Washington said,
(03:06):
I want you to redistrict, and the legislature said, you
bet you, mister President, whatever you want, we're gonna do.
So they went ahead and did the redistricting. Okay, that's Texas.
You're gonna have five more Republican congress people. Newsom looks
at this and goes, wait a minute, if you guys
(03:29):
do it, we're gonna do it. However, there's a law
that says you can't. There's a law that says the
legislature can't redistrict. It's this independent commission. And Newsom says,
let's do this. Why don't we put on the ballot
a measure that undowes that law and allow us to
do what Texas does so we can put democratic congress people,
(03:49):
more Democratic congressmen women up into Washington. There is Prop fifty.
The people in favor of Prop fifty, that's an easy one. Okay,
we're fighting Texas. What's it? Fire with fire? The people
against Prop fifty are arguing it should be independent. How
(04:10):
can you take this away from an independent commission. Are
you going to bring this down to politics? And when
you ask them how about Texas? The answer is it
should be independent. We should not have the legislature do this.
We have an independent commission that is fair. But wait
a minute, look what Texas did? Deflection, deflection, deflection. So
(04:34):
now come, well, I just did my ballot and I
am in favor of Prop fifty. I mean I had
no problem. I do not like what Texas did, or
if I did like what Texas did, we got to
be able to do the same thing. No problem with that.
So the people who are against Prop fifty are running
the ads saying fair and we need an independent commission
(04:56):
and we can't have the legislature involved. Okay, by the way,
when they go to ten, it goes the other way naturally. Now,
the anti the pro Prop fifty people, I'm looking at
commercials and I'm going, what are you guys doing. So
one of the big commercials running is they talk about
this guy Munger who is put in the majority of
the money to kill fifty, that he's against LBGTQ rights
(05:20):
and he's a right winger. What does that have to
do with anything? And he's a bad guy. So if
he puts money in and he's in favor of if
he's against fifty, therefore you have to be in favor.
I don't know why they just the message is simple, Hey,
Texas is doing this, we have to fight Texas Prop fifty.
(05:41):
There's the ad. There's the ad. If they're putting five
Republicans up there, we have to put five Democrats up there.
That's it. What am I missing here? What I don't understand?
I don't get how is it any different?
Speaker 2 (06:00):
So Texas is doing it because they're defending themselves against
the Democrats, right, Okay, because it's now California, which had
a law, so it is different than Texas because the
people have already voted on it.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Right.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
So if you can do anything based on defending yourself
against the other side, then no side is wrong.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Texas wasn't wrong in what they did. No, you can't
at all.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Okay, So you can't say California is defending itself against
Texas because Texas was defending itself against Democrats.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
I mean, it's all. It's all the same. It's equally hypocritical.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
It made like the process of them doing it, and
therefore you stand on that or you don't.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
It's to your point. It is uh, Texas has allowed
itself or allowed its legislature to do this. California has not.
Because Texas allows itself and did do this, the Republicans,
which control the Texas legislature have given themselves a new advantage.
(07:05):
Here we go. We have five new Republican congress people
California which passed the law saying we can't do that.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
It's like it's now like an amendment for the California
that they're trying to over there, overturning an amendment.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
That's right, they're overturning the proposition Texas did. Yeah, Texas
never had this, Texas never had an independence. They were
allowed to do it. Yeah, of course they were. It's
not a question if they're not allowed to do it.
It's all we've been on.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
That's it's wrong for Texas. I think it's wrong for California.
I don't disagree.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
I think everybody should have independent commissions to take as
much of the politics out. The problem is the problem
is it doesn't work that way. It doesn't work that way,
so you can't come to now we stop the progress.
Oh yeah, absolutely, welcome to America. I mean there is
only politics, and so the pro Prop fifty p Well,
(08:00):
I'm pro Prop fifty only because you know what, I'm
not thrilled with the Republicans being in charge of Congress. Well,
I don't have a problem with the Republicans being in
charge of Congress. What I'm not thrilled with is President
Trump being in charge of Congress. That's my problem is
that we don't have a we don't have checks and
balances anymore, we don't have an independent judiciary.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
And owned by him now, because y's all he's got
to do is say something and to counter that's correct.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Well, no, no, no, no, not at all. What he
says you want the opposite. No, that's not true. That's
absolutely not true. There's plenty of what he says. I
agree with, plenty of what I agree with. My problem
is whatever he says. The legislature, which is supposed to
be a different branch than the executive, does everything the
(08:51):
president wants. The President says, you jump off of building.
The Republicans line up. They're pushing each other out of
the way to jump off the bill holding first.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
That's why California will do anything against Trump regardless.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Oh yeah, even though they voted for this, well, California didn't.
I mean it was overwhelming. California is an overwhelming blue state.
But the point is is that we're not talking about
the California legislature that hates everything. We're talking about the
US Congress and the Democrats hate hate Trump and the
Republicans love Trump. The only difference is that the Republicans
(09:30):
will take a bullet for Trump. The legislature there's no
independence at all. That's the problem I have. That is
the problem I have. Okay, now that we've told you
that Neil doesn't know what the hell he's talking about,
is that right? That is completely right. We will not look,
we will trying to be Trump now, No, we will
know a great the California tribes. California tribes. Let me
(09:57):
tell you what's going on with casinos and the tribe.
Look how late we're going because of you, Neil. Now
let's get local. Okay. The Indian tribes in California have
a deal with California, and that is they have exclusivity
for gambling. All right, that was given to the Indian tribes,
(10:19):
started with the bingo stuff, and now you've got a
whole it's basically Las Vegas. All right, we go there.
As a matter of fact, Tim Conway has his birthday
party next week, which Neil and I and whoever else
is going to be there. And it's owned by an
Indian tribe and it's gambling. I mean, it's a full casino.
(10:40):
So there are also card rooms you go to commerce
for example, these massive card rooms where you play poker
and you also gamble, and what the Indians, the tribes
have said, no, no, that's illegal because that's in violation
of our agreement. And they've sued, and they have gone
to the legislature and they have gone crazy, and they've lost
(11:03):
it every turn. They've lost every single time. So what
happened was last year Governor Newsom allowed them to sue
the card rooms over the claim that they have exclusive
rights to offer Las Vegas style gambling in the States.
Now there's a little crinkle here, a little wrinkle, and
(11:25):
that is the tribes are sovereign governments, so they couldn't
sue private businesses, so they were not allowed to sue
on that level. So Newsom signed a bill which gave
the tribes one shot to resolve their dispute in Sacramento
one shot, go to court once and the Superior Court
(11:45):
judge Lory Damroll dismissed the tribe's case, saying, Nope, you
have nothing here. Why is that because of the merits?
Because you're right, because it's not fair, because every treaty
the United States ever had with Indian tribes was broken.
And response to that, here's what we're giving you exclusive
rights to gambling. California is a total non gambling state,
(12:06):
except now it's opened up. And the I was always
in favor, always in favor of Indian tribes getting those
casino rights because the way the US government treated Native
Americans is like beyond horrible. So I'm fine with that.
I'm also fine with you know the card halls, you
(12:27):
know the card rooms. Why not? Well, what do the
card rooms do? They take away business from the casinos,
don't they? So it's over. And here's what the judge said.
It has nothing to do with the merits of the case.
It's federal law controls this, and you're relying on state law,
(12:48):
and you're relying on what the state can and cannot do.
That's not where you go. It's federal law that controls this.
Thank you, You're done. Chow baby, and of course the
card room industry applauded and went, just this is fantastic
and I love this. You can tell that someone has
hired a PR person to write this crap. We are
encouraged by today's decision. Fair enough, that's the California Gaming
(13:11):
Association president. Here's a fun one. Our member card rooms
will continue to support good jobs, vital public services, local
economies across California while upholding the highest standards of integrity, accountability,
and compliance. As people jump off of the parking structures
(13:35):
because they lost all of their money in the card rooms,
but we offer to clean the pavements. We will press
your wash the payments. Every time someone's head hits the
pavement after they commit suicide. Hey, you know what, go figure,
(13:57):
The chairperson of the California Nation's Indian Gaming Association said
this outcome is especially troubling given it was a state
law and acted just last year that explicitly gave tribes
standing in state court and the judge said, nah, federal
law controls here, and the tribe's lawsuit alleged that all
(14:20):
of those gambling halls throughout California. I think the biggest
one is in Commerce. I was just driving the station
from my house in Orange County the other day. There's
a big sign going along the five and those big
sign in Commerce as the world's largest card room is there.
(14:40):
I have no idea I've been to. I don't think
I've been to a card room once or twice when
I really I was driving along the freeway and I
really had to pee and it was desperate, so I
pulled in and Man, I'll tell you one thing. The
people that go to those card rooms. These are not
people that go to the Venetian in Las Vegas to gamble,
(15:02):
not quite.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
It's a real trez. Is the type of clientele that
goes to a curry.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Yeah, it's a pretty interesting group of people that go
to those card rooms. Yeah. So, in any case, the
the the tribes, of course, are appealing everything that's happening,
and they're saying that those card rooms are illegally offering
card games blackjack and pie goal poker that they now
(15:32):
offer and that's cutting into the tribes gambling revenues. Think
about this. It all started with bingo at the tribes
at the inside the reservations. A quick word before we
bail out of here, and go to the next topic
(15:52):
is on Friday, we do Ask Handle Anything, and it's
all about you recording phone calls, asking me all kinds
of personal fun questions and I don't know what they are,
and it's all about humiliating me. That's the whole point
of the process. And Neil chooses the questions and we
run them, we broadcast them, and I hear him and
(16:12):
you hear them for the first time and it's just
great fun. So here's how you do it during the
course of the show, and it has to be during
the show, even starting at five am with wake up call.
You go to the iHeartRadio app, turn on the just
click onto the Bill Handle show and then you will
click on to the microphone in the upper right hand corner.
You click on that and that starts the recording. You
(16:35):
have fifteen to twenty seconds to ask ask handle anything,
all right, So those are fun and without you it
doesn't work. So go ahead and embarrass me and you
humiliate me. Fair enough. All right. Now, let me tell
you what's going on in the world of commerce, business
the workplace here in the United States, and that is unionization,
(16:58):
white collar unionization. Now you don't think of white collar
jobs as being unionized, for example, law firms. I mean,
who unionizes a law firm? You don't. It's actually it's
blue collar. It's your electricians, it's your plumbers, it's people
that do labor. And I'm talking about union labor. We're
(17:19):
talking pretty high level labor. I'm not just talking about
guys who dig ditches. I'm talking about and by the way,
they have labor unions too in the construction industry. Nope,
we're talking about unionizing jobs that heretofore were not unionized.
Oh here's a little factoid. Oh I love this. Okay,
(17:39):
what was the first union in the United States? Neil,
any idea. This is a it's not even a trick question.
It's just a historical tidbit. Was it cars? Cars? No? No, no,
it goes back further than that a little bit. Seventeen
ninety four. Really yeah, yeah, it was the word waners
(18:02):
union guys who made Guys who made shoes, not cobblers. Cobblers,
by the way, are repair shoes. Early on, they didn't
make shoes. Of course, it all morphed into one. But
it was the cord weaners union shoe guys who made
shoes out of new leather. New leather didn't repair. That
(18:24):
was the first union about that, and it wasn't dangerous.
It was just the unionized. That's all they decided. You
know why, Why is a union created better benefits, work conditions,
better money. That's what unions are about. And therein lies
a story that has to be told about unions, and
(18:46):
that is a little bit of the history of the unions. Uh.
They are critical to any workforce in any economy. They
are the most dangerous for any workforce or any economy,
and it depends on the historical cycle. Desperately needed. For example,
in the late eighteen hundreds, because you had the economy
(19:09):
the Industrial Revolution, which wiped out the ability of a
workingman to make any money. I mean, the robber barons
took it over. And then you had the economy swinging
the other way back in the fifties, for example, where
unions were insanely powerful, way too much. Today, they very
(19:31):
few people are unionized, but they're moving into unionization. I'll
explain what that is. And then there's a personal story
or two I want to share with you the unionization
of America and the workforce. We are also unionized here
at KFI at least the quote talent I love they
call us talent. I don't know where they ever came
(19:52):
up with that concept. Talent anybody behind a microphone. We
are members of sag AFTRA, you know, Screen Actors Guilt,
which is not us, but the American Federation of Television
and Radio Artists. We are artists, fantastic. We're not just
(20:12):
workers in radio, right, We're not just people who put
together things and are manufacturing. No, we are artists. We
are artists.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
The listeners ears are your canvas.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
God, life is hilarious. Okay, We're gonna finish it up
with the unionization of white collar jobs. Employees at law
firms and banks and tech companies which we never heard
about unionizing, Well, guess what they're unionizing. And the reason
is that jobs are scarcer now AI is taking over.
(20:56):
Entry level jobs are basically gone. At tech firms they
don't exist. Uh. And law firms, for example, new lawyers,
well the research you don't know, you no longer need researchers,
so fewer lawyers are being hired. I mean, it goes
across the board. So what's the answer. Unionize and unions
do two things. One uh, they better better benefits, better pay,
(21:21):
better work conditions, and they keep you working. And herein
lies the problem with unions. Unions are either priceless or
they can really screw things up. How powerful can unions be.
I'm going to give you an example. One of the
most powerful unions that an early union were the railroad
(21:45):
rail employees railroad workers, you know, the engineers, the guys
who run rail railroads, the engines, and the caboosemen. Now
what is the caboozman. Well, if you look at any
of the the films deal with early trains or the
steam trains, and you see a caboose at the back
(22:06):
of the train, and the caboosemen they're the ones that
picked up the mail, for example, that were hanging on
this device, hanging on a hook, because that's the way
mail was picked up so the train didn't have to stop.
There's a bunch of reasons you would have a caboose. Well,
you don't need caboose people anymore. So how powerful was
(22:28):
the union, Well, you didn't need caboose people anymore, but
they kept the cabooses and per the union rules, there
were caboozmen sitting in the cabooses that did nothing except
play cards. Actually it was a single caboozman who would
just sit there because the union rules the negotiations were there.
(22:51):
Then it gets one better when the trains no longer
had cabooses and the union said, okay, they didn't mind,
but they still had caboose men who weren't on the
cabooses who still got paid. That is a union, I'm
(23:12):
telling you, that is a powerful union. So the point
is it gets ridiculous. On the other hand, look at
the history of unions when the workforce was working, when
they had kids working sixteen hour days, six days a
week or six and a half days a week, and
you had, starting at the modern day union starting in
(23:33):
the late eighteen hundreds, first one being the Ladies garment
workers because women were working in these sweatshops, so that
became a powerful union. And then you had the car
the automotive workers, which Henry Ford just did everything he
could to break the unions, even the point we're sending
in goons to kill people literally, to attack union members
(23:57):
with bats, with weapons in some cases there were. It
was horrific. The history of why unions were needed today
by the fifties, well you can get to the point
where you have cabuzmen. So it depends on unions and
depends union labor always does better for the workers, almost always.
(24:21):
And management companies hate unions hate them why because they
don't decide how much the employees get paid as a
negotiation with the union. Collective bargaining does it. And whenever
on handle on the laws, someone calls me about a
problem with a company. I've been fired, I've been transferred.
(24:41):
They won't give me a raise. They promised. I'm in
there for twenty years and they promised me. This first
thing I said, are you unionized? And if the answer
is yes, go to your union rep. They have power.
That's where you want to go. So if you are
working in a bank, in a law firm, tech companies,
(25:03):
we prepare to unionize. It's gonna be a good thing
for you, assuming you still have a job, which you
probably won't. That's it, guys, We're done. Gary and Shannon
are up next tomorrow morning, all over again with Amy
and Will Will Coleschreiber, who will be eating the entire show. Yes,
(25:24):
and then Neil and I come aboard at six am,
and we're here till nine and of course Ann and Kono.
I have no idea what they do, but they do
something on the show. Okay, we're done. This is KFI
AM sixty. 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 cap on AM six forty bill Handle. It
is a Monday morning, October thirteenth. The Cairo Peace Summit
is on its way right now. The President just arrived
(00:21):
in Cairo and his limousine Wistoma off the tarmac and
he's on his way to meet with twenty world leaders
as Hamas and Israel signed their cease fire, not a
formal peace accord yet, where all the terms have been finalized.
Now let's get local for a moment, and this has
(00:43):
to do with Prop fifty. Prop fifty is the proposition
that we're going to see in November next month. That's it.
It's Prop fifty and the governor put Prop fifty on
the ballot and there's a special election for one proposition.
How important is it? It is a butte Okay. So
(01:08):
here is sort of the underlying facts, the backstory here.
Every ten years the census comes out with a population
where people live in California and other states, there is
an independent committee that decides what the district bounds are. Democratic. Well,
(01:33):
just what redistricting does. What they do is they look
at the map and they look at demographic changes, and
they go, Okay, here is the district thing that we're
going to do. It's independent here in California. And the
reason it's independent because of the politics, because whoever was
in charge, the Democrats and the legislature would do a
Democratic version and the Republicans would do a Republican version
(01:55):
just to take advantage of the ability to redistrict. And
it has to do with how many hours people are sent.
It's that simple, so are sent to Congress. So in
California it's an independent agency. I think it's four Republicans,
four Democrats, and a few independent people and politics, by
law is not allowed to be considered. Okay, that's California.
(02:20):
Texas doesn't have that. Texas, the legislator can do whatever
the hell it wants. The legislature, and what they just
did is redistrict in the middle of the census, midyear
because they're able to do that, and effectively, what they've
done is create five new Republican seats because they're able
(02:43):
to draw the line around neighborhoods and effectively bring purple
areas all into a Democratic stronghold and all the areas
around that are now Republican based that's what you can
do with the redistricting, and Texas just did that. Why
did Texas do this because the great leader in Washington said,
(03:06):
I want you to redistrict, and the legislature said, you
bet you, mister President, whatever you want, we're gonna do.
So they went ahead and did the redistricting. Okay, that's Texas.
You're gonna have five more Republican congress people. Newsom looks
at this and goes, wait a minute, if you guys
(03:29):
do it, we're gonna do it. However, there's a law
that says you can't. There's a law that says the
legislature can't redistrict. It's this independent commission. And Newsom says,
let's do this. Why don't we put on the ballot
a measure that undowes that law and allow us to
do what Texas does so we can put democratic congress people,
(03:49):
more Democratic congressmen women up into Washington. There is Prop fifty.
The people in favor of Prop fifty, that's an easy one. Okay,
we're fighting Texas. What's it? Fire with fire? The people
against Prop fifty are arguing it should be independent. How
(04:10):
can you take this away from an independent commission. Are
you going to bring this down to politics? And when
you ask them how about Texas? The answer is it
should be independent. We should not have the legislature do this.
We have an independent commission that is fair. But wait
a minute, look what Texas did? Deflection, deflection, deflection. So
(04:34):
now come, well, I just did my ballot and I
am in favor of Prop fifty. I mean I had
no problem. I do not like what Texas did, or
if I did like what Texas did, we got to
be able to do the same thing. No problem with that.
So the people who are against Prop fifty are running
the ads saying fair and we need an independent commission
(04:56):
and we can't have the legislature involved. Okay, by the way,
when they go to ten, it goes the other way naturally. Now,
the anti the pro Prop fifty people, I'm looking at
commercials and I'm going, what are you guys doing. So
one of the big commercials running is they talk about
this guy Munger who is put in the majority of
the money to kill fifty, that he's against LBGTQ rights
(05:20):
and he's a right winger. What does that have to
do with anything? And he's a bad guy. So if
he puts money in and he's in favor of if
he's against fifty, therefore you have to be in favor.
I don't know why they just the message is simple, Hey,
Texas is doing this, we have to fight Texas Prop fifty.
(05:41):
There's the ad. There's the ad. If they're putting five
Republicans up there, we have to put five Democrats up there.
That's it. What am I missing here? What I don't understand?
I don't get how is it any different?
Speaker 2 (06:00):
So Texas is doing it because they're defending themselves against
the Democrats, right, Okay, because it's now California, which had
a law, so it is different than Texas because the
people have already voted on it.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Right.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
So if you can do anything based on defending yourself
against the other side, then no side is wrong.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Texas wasn't wrong in what they did. No, you can't
at all.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Okay, So you can't say California is defending itself against
Texas because Texas was defending itself against Democrats.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
I mean, it's all. It's all the same. It's equally hypocritical.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
It made like the process of them doing it, and
therefore you stand on that or you don't.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
It's to your point. It is uh, Texas has allowed
itself or allowed its legislature to do this. California has not.
Because Texas allows itself and did do this, the Republicans,
which control the Texas legislature have given themselves a new advantage.
(07:05):
Here we go. We have five new Republican congress people
California which passed the law saying we can't do that.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
It's like it's now like an amendment for the California
that they're trying to over there, overturning an amendment.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
That's right, they're overturning the proposition Texas did. Yeah, Texas
never had this, Texas never had an independence. They were
allowed to do it. Yeah, of course they were. It's
not a question if they're not allowed to do it.
It's all we've been on.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
That's it's wrong for Texas. I think it's wrong for California.
I don't disagree.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
I think everybody should have independent commissions to take as
much of the politics out. The problem is the problem
is it doesn't work that way. It doesn't work that way,
so you can't come to now we stop the progress.
Oh yeah, absolutely, welcome to America. I mean there is
only politics, and so the pro Prop fifty p Well,
(08:00):
I'm pro Prop fifty only because you know what, I'm
not thrilled with the Republicans being in charge of Congress. Well,
I don't have a problem with the Republicans being in
charge of Congress. What I'm not thrilled with is President
Trump being in charge of Congress. That's my problem is
that we don't have a we don't have checks and
balances anymore, we don't have an independent judiciary.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
And owned by him now, because y's all he's got
to do is say something and to counter that's correct.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Well, no, no, no, no, not at all. What he
says you want the opposite. No, that's not true. That's
absolutely not true. There's plenty of what he says. I
agree with, plenty of what I agree with. My problem
is whatever he says. The legislature, which is supposed to
be a different branch than the executive, does everything the
(08:51):
president wants. The President says, you jump off of building.
The Republicans line up. They're pushing each other out of
the way to jump off the bill holding first.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
That's why California will do anything against Trump regardless.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Oh yeah, even though they voted for this, well, California didn't.
I mean it was overwhelming. California is an overwhelming blue state.
But the point is is that we're not talking about
the California legislature that hates everything. We're talking about the
US Congress and the Democrats hate hate Trump and the
Republicans love Trump. The only difference is that the Republicans
(09:30):
will take a bullet for Trump. The legislature there's no
independence at all. That's the problem I have. That is
the problem I have. Okay, now that we've told you
that Neil doesn't know what the hell he's talking about,
is that right? That is completely right. We will not look,
we will trying to be Trump now, No, we will
know a great the California tribes. California tribes. Let me
(09:57):
tell you what's going on with casinos and the tribe.
Look how late we're going because of you, Neil. Now
let's get local. Okay. The Indian tribes in California have
a deal with California, and that is they have exclusivity
for gambling. All right, that was given to the Indian tribes,
(10:19):
started with the bingo stuff, and now you've got a
whole it's basically Las Vegas. All right, we go there.
As a matter of fact, Tim Conway has his birthday
party next week, which Neil and I and whoever else
is going to be there. And it's owned by an
Indian tribe and it's gambling. I mean, it's a full casino.
(10:40):
So there are also card rooms you go to commerce
for example, these massive card rooms where you play poker
and you also gamble, and what the Indians, the tribes
have said, no, no, that's illegal because that's in violation
of our agreement. And they've sued, and they have gone
to the legislature and they have gone crazy, and they've lost
(11:03):
it every turn. They've lost every single time. So what
happened was last year Governor Newsom allowed them to sue
the card rooms over the claim that they have exclusive
rights to offer Las Vegas style gambling in the States.
Now there's a little crinkle here, a little wrinkle, and
(11:25):
that is the tribes are sovereign governments, so they couldn't
sue private businesses, so they were not allowed to sue
on that level. So Newsom signed a bill which gave
the tribes one shot to resolve their dispute in Sacramento
one shot, go to court once and the Superior Court
(11:45):
judge Lory Damroll dismissed the tribe's case, saying, Nope, you
have nothing here. Why is that because of the merits?
Because you're right, because it's not fair, because every treaty
the United States ever had with Indian tribes was broken.
And response to that, here's what we're giving you exclusive
rights to gambling. California is a total non gambling state,
(12:06):
except now it's opened up. And the I was always
in favor, always in favor of Indian tribes getting those
casino rights because the way the US government treated Native
Americans is like beyond horrible. So I'm fine with that.
I'm also fine with you know the card halls, you
(12:27):
know the card rooms. Why not? Well, what do the
card rooms do? They take away business from the casinos,
don't they? So it's over. And here's what the judge said.
It has nothing to do with the merits of the case.
It's federal law controls this, and you're relying on state law,
(12:48):
and you're relying on what the state can and cannot do.
That's not where you go. It's federal law that controls this.
Thank you, You're done. Chow baby, and of course the
card room industry applauded and went, just this is fantastic
and I love this. You can tell that someone has
hired a PR person to write this crap. We are
encouraged by today's decision. Fair enough, that's the California Gaming
(13:11):
Association president. Here's a fun one. Our member card rooms
will continue to support good jobs, vital public services, local
economies across California while upholding the highest standards of integrity, accountability,
and compliance. As people jump off of the parking structures
(13:35):
because they lost all of their money in the card rooms,
but we offer to clean the pavements. We will press
your wash the payments. Every time someone's head hits the
pavement after they commit suicide. Hey, you know what, go figure,
(13:57):
The chairperson of the California Nation's Indian Gaming Association said
this outcome is especially troubling given it was a state
law and acted just last year that explicitly gave tribes
standing in state court and the judge said, nah, federal
law controls here, and the tribe's lawsuit alleged that all
(14:20):
of those gambling halls throughout California. I think the biggest
one is in Commerce. I was just driving the station
from my house in Orange County the other day. There's
a big sign going along the five and those big
sign in Commerce as the world's largest card room is there.
(14:40):
I have no idea I've been to. I don't think
I've been to a card room once or twice when
I really I was driving along the freeway and I
really had to pee and it was desperate, so I
pulled in and Man, I'll tell you one thing. The
people that go to those card rooms. These are not
people that go to the Venetian in Las Vegas to gamble,
(15:02):
not quite.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
It's a real trez. Is the type of clientele that
goes to a curry.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Yeah, it's a pretty interesting group of people that go
to those card rooms. Yeah. So, in any case, the
the the tribes, of course, are appealing everything that's happening,
and they're saying that those card rooms are illegally offering
card games blackjack and pie goal poker that they now
(15:32):
offer and that's cutting into the tribes gambling revenues. Think
about this. It all started with bingo at the tribes
at the inside the reservations. A quick word before we
bail out of here, and go to the next topic
(15:52):
is on Friday, we do Ask Handle Anything, and it's
all about you recording phone calls, asking me all kinds
of personal fun questions and I don't know what they are,
and it's all about humiliating me. That's the whole point
of the process. And Neil chooses the questions and we
run them, we broadcast them, and I hear him and
(16:12):
you hear them for the first time and it's just
great fun. So here's how you do it during the
course of the show, and it has to be during
the show, even starting at five am with wake up call.
You go to the iHeartRadio app, turn on the just
click onto the Bill Handle show and then you will
click on to the microphone in the upper right hand corner.
You click on that and that starts the recording. You
(16:35):
have fifteen to twenty seconds to ask ask handle anything,
all right, So those are fun and without you it
doesn't work. So go ahead and embarrass me and you
humiliate me. Fair enough. All right. Now, let me tell
you what's going on in the world of commerce, business
the workplace here in the United States, and that is unionization,
(16:58):
white collar unionization. Now you don't think of white collar
jobs as being unionized, for example, law firms. I mean,
who unionizes a law firm? You don't. It's actually it's
blue collar. It's your electricians, it's your plumbers, it's people
that do labor. And I'm talking about union labor. We're
(17:19):
talking pretty high level labor. I'm not just talking about
guys who dig ditches. I'm talking about and by the way,
they have labor unions too in the construction industry. Nope,
we're talking about unionizing jobs that heretofore were not unionized.
Oh here's a little factoid. Oh I love this. Okay,
(17:39):
what was the first union in the United States? Neil,
any idea. This is a it's not even a trick question.
It's just a historical tidbit. Was it cars? Cars? No? No, no,
it goes back further than that a little bit. Seventeen
ninety four. Really yeah, yeah, it was the word waners
(18:02):
union guys who made Guys who made shoes, not cobblers. Cobblers,
by the way, are repair shoes. Early on, they didn't
make shoes. Of course, it all morphed into one. But
it was the cord weaners union shoe guys who made
shoes out of new leather. New leather didn't repair. That
(18:24):
was the first union about that, and it wasn't dangerous.
It was just the unionized. That's all they decided. You
know why, Why is a union created better benefits, work conditions,
better money. That's what unions are about. And therein lies
a story that has to be told about unions, and
(18:46):
that is a little bit of the history of the unions. Uh.
They are critical to any workforce in any economy. They
are the most dangerous for any workforce or any economy,
and it depends on the historical cycle. Desperately needed. For example,
in the late eighteen hundreds, because you had the economy
(19:09):
the Industrial Revolution, which wiped out the ability of a
workingman to make any money. I mean, the robber barons
took it over. And then you had the economy swinging
the other way back in the fifties, for example, where
unions were insanely powerful, way too much. Today, they very
(19:31):
few people are unionized, but they're moving into unionization. I'll
explain what that is. And then there's a personal story
or two I want to share with you the unionization
of America and the workforce. We are also unionized here
at KFI at least the quote talent I love they
call us talent. I don't know where they ever came
(19:52):
up with that concept. Talent anybody behind a microphone. We
are members of sag AFTRA, you know, Screen Actors Guilt,
which is not us, but the American Federation of Television
and Radio Artists. We are artists, fantastic. We're not just
(20:12):
workers in radio, right, We're not just people who put
together things and are manufacturing. No, we are artists. We
are artists.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
The listeners ears are your canvas.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
God, life is hilarious. Okay, We're gonna finish it up
with the unionization of white collar jobs. Employees at law
firms and banks and tech companies which we never heard
about unionizing, Well, guess what they're unionizing. And the reason
is that jobs are scarcer now AI is taking over.
(20:56):
Entry level jobs are basically gone. At tech firms they
don't exist. Uh. And law firms, for example, new lawyers,
well the research you don't know, you no longer need researchers,
so fewer lawyers are being hired. I mean, it goes
across the board. So what's the answer. Unionize and unions
do two things. One uh, they better better benefits, better pay,
(21:21):
better work conditions, and they keep you working. And herein
lies the problem with unions. Unions are either priceless or
they can really screw things up. How powerful can unions be.
I'm going to give you an example. One of the
most powerful unions that an early union were the railroad
(21:45):
rail employees railroad workers, you know, the engineers, the guys
who run rail railroads, the engines, and the caboosemen. Now
what is the caboozman. Well, if you look at any
of the the films deal with early trains or the
steam trains, and you see a caboose at the back
(22:06):
of the train, and the caboosemen they're the ones that
picked up the mail, for example, that were hanging on
this device, hanging on a hook, because that's the way
mail was picked up so the train didn't have to stop.
There's a bunch of reasons you would have a caboose. Well,
you don't need caboose people anymore. So how powerful was
(22:28):
the union, Well, you didn't need caboose people anymore, but
they kept the cabooses and per the union rules, there
were caboozmen sitting in the cabooses that did nothing except
play cards. Actually it was a single caboozman who would
just sit there because the union rules the negotiations were there.
(22:51):
Then it gets one better when the trains no longer
had cabooses and the union said, okay, they didn't mind,
but they still had caboose men who weren't on the
cabooses who still got paid. That is a union, I'm
(23:12):
telling you, that is a powerful union. So the point
is it gets ridiculous. On the other hand, look at
the history of unions when the workforce was working, when
they had kids working sixteen hour days, six days a
week or six and a half days a week, and
you had, starting at the modern day union starting in
(23:33):
the late eighteen hundreds, first one being the Ladies garment
workers because women were working in these sweatshops, so that
became a powerful union. And then you had the car
the automotive workers, which Henry Ford just did everything he
could to break the unions, even the point we're sending
in goons to kill people literally, to attack union members
(23:57):
with bats, with weapons in some cases there were. It
was horrific. The history of why unions were needed today
by the fifties, well you can get to the point
where you have cabuzmen. So it depends on unions and
depends union labor always does better for the workers, almost always.
(24:21):
And management companies hate unions hate them why because they
don't decide how much the employees get paid as a
negotiation with the union. Collective bargaining does it. And whenever
on handle on the laws, someone calls me about a
problem with a company. I've been fired, I've been transferred.
(24:41):
They won't give me a raise. They promised. I'm in
there for twenty years and they promised me. This first
thing I said, are you unionized? And if the answer
is yes, go to your union rep. They have power.
That's where you want to go. So if you are
working in a bank, in a law firm, tech companies,
(25:03):
we prepare to unionize. It's gonna be a good thing
for you, assuming you still have a job, which you
probably won't. That's it, guys, We're done. Gary and Shannon
are up next tomorrow morning, all over again with Amy
and Will Will Coleschreiber, who will be eating the entire show. Yes,
(25:24):
and then Neil and I come aboard at six am,
and we're here till nine and of course Ann and Kono.
I have no idea what they do, but they do
something on the show. Okay, we're done. This is KFI
AM sixty. 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.
The Bill Handel Show News
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