August 14, 2026 • 26 mins
(August 14, 2026)
Lawmakers demand answers about USS Lincoln conditions as reports emerge of sailors attempting to jump overboard. Amid legal battle, LA couple’s surrogate gives birth in Texas to baby with heart defect. This year’s El Nino is huge and already changing the world. Effort to ban genetically modified animals died in California legislature… advocates blame politics.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty seven. Yes, you can put some.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
KFI AM six forty Is that the village people? Ah, okay,
that's a political statement there about who joins the Navy,
just saying okay, eh, well, not an interesting I guess
it is interesting, but a story that is troubling, and
it has to do with sailors aboard the USS Abraham
(00:39):
Lincoln and Lincoln has been out over two hundred and
fifty days out to sea, has not docked for two
hundred and fifty days. And that is a problem because
you now have sailors and marines and pilots staff aboard
that have but not hit a port in that long
a time, way over six months, and that gets a
(01:01):
little depressing, matter of fact, and get more than depressing.
And that's exactly what the reports are that since the
Lincoln left port there has been an issue of low morale,
horrible food, which is good food. I mean, you have
to feed the sailors. Submarines supposed to have spectacular food.
(01:24):
The news outlets Stars and Stripes and the Navy Times
reported there even had been multiple attempts by crew members
to jump overboard.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
They were so depressed.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
And I am very disappointed in both Amy and Neil
because they missed my reference to the number of suicides
aboard of the Abraham Lincoln or just an incredible uptick
of sailors trying to blow then their heads off, you know,
shoot themselves in the head.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
And it was missed by Amy and Neil. Come on, guys, well,
if it would have been funny, we would have got it.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
That's not the that's not the point. Funny is not
an issue here. My jokes being funny are never at issue.
It's whether you get them or not. Cono got it anyway,
some of course Abraham Lilcot assassination jokes. But it is
really serious that you've got us sailors and marines. I
don't even know what marines do aboard the ship other
(02:21):
than they're they're waiting to be deployed.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Well, there's a lot of marine aviators like top gun pilots.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Yeah, but they fly around, they're they're jumping up in
the air all the time and training so that they're
busy and they eat better because they're in the officers mess.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
It's the rest of the sailors. I was reading a report.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Yes, I heard a report that where it really is
depressing for a lot of the sailors are those ones
that live below deck, where they never even get up
on top of the deck, and they have jobs like
swabbing the floor, janitorial jobs day in and day out
for seven days a week. And this just wrote mechanical,
(03:07):
you know, the issues where you just do the same
thing over and over again and you're not thinking a lot.
They don't use your brains very much, so it's a
real problem. So what's happening. A couple of things are
going on. First of all, the George Washington USS George
Washington is on its way to replace the Lincoln and
(03:27):
all of these reports coming out and this is family members,
about two hundred of them. There have been town halls,
there have been stories on CNN, stories even on Stars
and Stripes, which is the military newspaper, and the Navy Times,
which is a military newspaper controlled by the Department of Defense.
They're coming out with these stories that would be the
(03:49):
last news outlets that would come out with this story,
so well it ended up happening. Richard Blumenthal Democrats. He
is a Senator and on the Armed Services Committee, he
writes to Defense Secretary Pete Hexith and the Acting Secretary
of the Navy to express serious concerns the increasing length
(04:12):
of deployments and demand answers, and said, in this letter
the widespread reports of shortages of basic supplies, water contamination,
plumbing issues, deteriorating mental health, deck safety concerns, disruptions in
the mail system, and as you would expect. Pete heg said, said,
none of that is true. We're doing just fine. The morale,
(04:34):
there's no problem. And so there was a town hall
in San Diego yesterday. Two hundred family members of the
crew members were talking about how difficult and how horrific
those conditions were.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
And then there were.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Photos of the food and it was looked like they
have these trays and the way people in the Navy
are fed aboard ships, aircraft carriers, it's like a cafeteria
line where you go down with these trays and they
throw food on there. You can as much as you want,
and there was very little food on the tray. Now,
(05:11):
I don't know was that set up. I mean, that
would be fairly easy to concoct. But in one meeting,
the Vice Admiral Joseph Cahill, commander of Naval Surface Forces. Yeah,
acknowledged the train on the sailors and their families. He said,
we hear you loud and clear regarding the impact this
has had on families and on service members and the
(05:35):
long term ability of US to stand sustain our forces health.
And then the US Navy went on and you know,
good for them. We have not observed an increase in
suicidal ideations or attempts. We take every service members well
being seriously. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, and have religious
medical mental health professionals available. Well, the problem is they
(05:56):
tried to kill themselves too, So it is difficult across
the board in any case. Is it going to happen?
Is it things going to change? I think things are
going to change. But at the same time, you can't
have any member of the administration admit that anything that
the administration touches is wrong or has some problems. No surprise,
Pete Hegseth has said none of that reporting is true
(06:19):
or it's all being taken out of context, and we're
doing fine, all right, We'll see. That's a tough way
to go. These deployments last forever. I mean, they're not
fun anymore. You joined the Navy today and can you
imagine you're on ship over six months have been People
have been on ship for a year and have not
hit port. And port is important for sailors. I mean,
(06:42):
you got to blow off a little steam.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
You gotta do the.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Drugs, you got to hook up with the hookers. I mean,
you got to do all the good stuff that sailors do.
You know, get the tattoos on your arms, you know,
the big anchor, the heart with the anchor that says, mom,
you don't have one of those tattoos, do you? Kneel?
Speaker 1 (07:00):
You're about as chatted up as anybody I've ever met.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
My brother Daniel, who was in the Marine Corps, he
has a rose with a little scroll on it.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
This his mom, oh's see that's sweet. That's vomitous. Actually,
so right now, what's going on? And threw this at
me because of course this is my wheelhouse. There's an
LA couple that had a baby with a surrogate who
lived in Alaska but delivered in Texas, And it's kind.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Of a strange story.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
And this is a case in first impression because I've
never heard about this. Okay, first of all, let's talk
about contracts. Contracts have been upheld, Contracts with surrogates have
been upheld. Now, when I first started doing this, in
a lot of states, it was criminal. I mean, he
went to prison for doing this, for doing surrogacy. And
I was lucky enough to live in California and I
(07:57):
was I even say the word privileged early early days,
so I could help and I did write the laws
in California is pretty liberal.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Texas not so much.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
So. The decision to deliver in Texas was because the
surrogate is very pro life.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
So here's what happened.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
So the surrogate gets implanted with the couple's embryo, so
they are the biological parents, which in most jurisdiction now
make them the parents, and the surrogate is carrying their child.
It's basically a womb for rent, is effectively what surrogacy is.
And so the baby is now going to be born
(08:35):
or has a very severe anomaly which the prognosis is
not very good and has to do with a heart defect,
and the couple asked the surrogate to abort the baby. Now,
most contracts, including my surrogate contract, did say that the
couple has the right to ask the surrogate to abort
(08:57):
a baby if it is hugely anomalous, and then that's
sort of vague. I don't know what hugely anomaloust is
because it has to be vague. And the surrogate mother,
in a huge letter, says she does not have to
comply with this. I mean, I gave boy that was
a huge end of the world headlines in my contract,
and that's exactly what happened here. The couple said, please
(09:19):
aboord and she says, not a chance. So the baby
is born, and she now argues to keep the baby
in lieu of the contract. She says that part of
the contract is not enforceable, especially now that rovi Waite
is gone.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
But here's the argument. This is what I haven't seen.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
They have the baby, they're going to raise the baby,
they love the baby, and she's saying, you wanted to
kill the baby. You asked for an abortion, that's.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
How much you wanted this baby.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
And now that the baby is born, all of a sudden,
you're the best parents in the world, and you love
and you want to keep the child. As of right now,
it looks like the law is on their side because
this has never been decided. Does a couple give up
their rights to their baby. That is just stating in
(10:13):
a surrogate if they have asked for the baby, for
the pregnancy to be terminated, no one knows. That's the argument.
It's a hell of an interesting argument. I mean, I've
never seen anything like it. I have never had a
surrogate mother changed her mind. I've had twenty five hundred
kids under my belt in my surrogacy program. Never had
(10:34):
a surrogate mother change her mind. Ever, that's never been
a problem, and there are so few that when they
do ask it becomes national news.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
But this one is really interesting.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
By the way, California was just let you know, and
I'm very proud to have been involved in this. The
first state in the United States to say that the
contract by which a surrogate mother carries a baby, a
couple's baby, is enforceable and that the parents of that
child are the intended mom and dad, notwithstanding how that
(11:07):
child was created, whether it's their embryo, whether it's the
mother's egg, whether it's the husband's sperm, whether it's a
sperm donor egg donor, it doesn't matter. Let's look at
the contract to see who the parents are and boy.
When I first started this, tell me, there wasn't a
lot of hassle saying, hey, look at a contract to
see who mom and dad are?
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Whoa boy? That was big news. And there were people
that tried to throw me in prison for that.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
And there were a bunch of other issues involve surrogacy
that we don't have to get into, which I've done
many times before. But here I want to repeat, here
is the baby's question. The big question. Does the couple
have the right to keep the child? Otherwise they would
I mean, there was no issue, it's their baby. If
the couple, the parents say kill it, we want this
(11:56):
pregnancy terminated.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Oh, and the baby has a different names.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
The anti abortion activists are on the side of the surrogate,
of course, are refer to the baby's baby Gabriel, and
the parents are saying that the baby's name is Roomy.
Just on the name alone, I'd go with Gabriel if
I were the judge. Okay, you got it, Gabriel. Is
it now climate change and well, it's not so much
(12:25):
in controversy anymore.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
It's sort of here.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
I think most people will have agreed that climate change
is upon us and one of the things that is
involved in climate change is El Nino.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
We've heard about El Nino and as.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
We are not surprised as being reported and rightly so,
scrambling weather patterns and spiking global temperatures. Look look what's
happening in Europe with these heat waves. They are now
bracing for the fifth heat wave this summer. That's Europe
out of control heat And then every night there are reports.
(13:04):
A matter of fact, it starts to watch the news,
national news starts with what's going on in the rest
of the country, sort of the eastern seaboard and midwest. Boy,
are we lucky here?
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Now?
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Do you know that Elmino's actually reach full strength in December?
We're not even close yet. And look what's been happening.
And this year is Elmino expected to be absolutely record
breaking and it's having some huge effect global temperatures going up,
dry spells, crop failures, way too much water.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
You've got these heat waves.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
For example, parts of Panama, one of the wettest countries
on Earth, they haven't had a major rain since early May,
which has never been heard of before. Ethiopia one of
their driest summer stretches in four decades.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
India fifth driest June since.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
They started keeping records in nineteen oh one, and it
is it is a mess. One of the things about
weather prediction that it is so difficult that when the
early major the supercomputers came out, you remember the CRAT
computer and other computers, they were built to deal with
(14:21):
or one of the things they were dealing with was
weather prediction. To this day, it is so complex that
even the most modern computers don't have an easy time
dealing with this. So right now the al nino is
on its way. Well, it's already here. Now, it's just
a question of the magnitude. And these episodes occur every
two to seven years.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Now. They've contributed.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
These al ninos have contributed to swings in temperatures going
back millennia. But this year it's on track to be
the strongest in nearly eighty years. But it's worse than
that because if you look at the strongest el ninos
in modern history, when were they nineteen eighty two, nineteen
(15:08):
eighty three, nineteen ninety seven, nineteen ninety eight, two fifteen
to two sixteen. Those are the three strongest el ninos
that have ever been recorded. And we're going to break
those records probably. I mean, it is crazy. Temperatures are
(15:31):
forecast to be in the ocean increasing three point six
six degrees fahrenheit, and that is way above what critical
mass is. You know, one of the things the scientists
tell us is that we have to stop the emissions.
We have to, of course stop the fossil fuel learning,
et cetera, because it's causing is so much damage to
(15:53):
the environment and is causing global warming. And as you know,
this administration is not particularly in favor with that. But
what you're hearing for from the scientists is we have
to stop yet. Well, now it's just a question of
slowing it down. And have we reached critical mass where
it doesn't even matter anymore? From what I understand, the
(16:15):
answer is yes. Now it's a question of slowing it
down if possible. It's like gang green moving up your arm,
and it's just a question of how far up your
arm it's going to go.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Where do you amputate?
Speaker 3 (16:29):
So is it going to be a wet summer or
a wet winter or no.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
It's going to be a depends where you are, depends
where you are. I'm here right here, No, We're not
going to have a wet winter.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Unless well I thought it was the other Wait on.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Hold on, no, we are not going to have one unless,
as a scientist tells us, we are going to have one. Gotcha,
it is yes or no or maybe ah. That again, Yeah,
I'm here to help it. Well. As I said, and
(17:07):
I've said this many times, the droughts are getting droughtier,
the rains are getting rainier, the hurricanes are becoming more intense,
and they all are. And unfortunately it's all true. I mean,
we've got a mess on our hands.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
You know.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
I used to and this is an aside, and I've
said this before many times, it used to be that
I really wanted to live a lot longer than I would,
or I wish I were born fifty years later than
I was, just because of what's going to happen in
the future kind of thing. But you know, it's just
I'm fascinated about where computers are going to go and
(17:41):
just how fast society and technology is moving. I don't
think that way anymore. I'm thinking, you know, thank goodness,
I'm not going to be there in twenty thirty.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Years or forty years.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
What do you suspect the first five mass extinctions that
have happened to our Earth were caused.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
By those were not caused. Well, it could be global warming,
but natural global warming.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Oh so that's better.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
Is better if it's natural?
Speaker 1 (18:05):
No, it's just different. It's just different.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Do you wait for And by the way, there are
no humans, then that is correct.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
I'm not arguing.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
But we do know that carbon dioxide is in fact
cause is the leading cause of warming because of the
ozone later, et cetera. And that's the argument that people
are using. That is an argument. Is the is the
is the natural? There have been warming trends, There has been,
There have been global warming and global cooling. It's just
that we are definitely speeding it up. And there's no
(18:35):
question that. Are you saying that emissions don't have anything
to do?
Speaker 3 (18:38):
Of course they do. But I'm saying if China doesn't
get on it, there's nothing Little Old America is going
to be able to do.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Except China's jumping on it faster than we are, and
that's the shame of it. At the same time, they're
building coal coal fire plants because they're using enormous amounts
of energy.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
Earth will be fine. We'll all be dead.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
But yeah, it will all be dead. I don't think
the Earth is going to be fine, but then you know,
I'm a pessimist. Nothing's gonna be fine. Now give me
a break. You know, what's my philosophy?
Speaker 2 (19:05):
You know? Hey, how's the things doing? I wake up,
I'm gonna work, I'm gonna retire, then I'm gonna die.
So what's new with you?
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Okay?
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Something that I've been talking about, matter of fact, years
and years, even way back in my law school days
is genetically modified people and or animals.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
One of the things.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
I've talked about and we've discussed is how science is
way ahead of the law or the law. Science happens first,
and then the law follows. How do you deal with science?
And one of sciences, I guess one of scariest or
more interesting aspect, just call.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Is genetic engineering.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Genetically modifying people and or animals. Now, a couple things,
we're there. Okay, we can genetically modify people. I mean,
is that scary? Go right into the genes and you
move those those genes around, and you can even tell
and the and the good part of it is you
can genetically modify uh An embryo to get rid of.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Diseases syndromes that are already there.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
In other words, you can go into an embryo and
pull out enough material to determine if someone going to
have Huntington's TASAC sickle cell anemia.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
So who's going to.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Argue that to create kids who don't have those diseases
is uh, is not a wonderful thing. However, that same
philosophy means can they make it? Can the doctors make
someone bigger, stronger, faster? Yeah, that too, And there is
the line, well, uh, it's moving forward on genetically modified
(20:42):
animals because that's going even quicker. And there was proposed
legislation to protect animals from Frankenstein like medical experimentation. In
other words, uh, what the glow in the dark rabbits,
which they've had. You can actually have a rabbit that's
glow in the darkically modifying the rabbit. And so there
(21:03):
was a bill introduced by assembly Member Leticia Castillo, Republican,
which would have banned the sale of genetically modified animals
in California, glow in the dark rabbits, horned unicorn horses,
for example. And what was interesting is while she introduced
(21:23):
the bill. She actually brought her three headed dog and said, hey,
we do not want this, okay, so who it makes sense?
Speaker 1 (21:35):
All right?
Speaker 2 (21:36):
I mean, do you really want it to Well, it's
kind of neat to have glow in the in the
dark rabbits, so you have to turn the light on.
Define them or all kinds of genetically modified animals. We
already do genetically modified corn, for example, do you know
most of the corn today that you eat is genetically modified.
It's very hard to even find corn that is not.
(21:59):
And the same thing with crops all over the world.
I mean it just this is what happens. You can
make crops last longer. You can have three crops per
year instead of two. You can make crops pesticide. You
can now so you don't pesticide, so they are pest resistance.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
That's all the good stuff.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
The problem is is that the bad stuff is right
there also, same technology does both. The example is you're
saying that these take the same technology to create civilian
aircraft that you do to create military aircraft. One is great,
one not so great. That was a terrible analogy, by
(22:37):
the way. In any case, the bill that was introduced
died it just died. Why, I mean, do we really
want modified animals? I don't know, Neil, you're not an
animal person. Let me ask Amy. You're an animal person.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
Why would you say I'm not an animal just because
I don't have it?
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (23:03):
And you know what you do with animals, slavery? Yeah,
you you eat them. I get that. That's that's your
connection to animals.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
Genetically modify a chicken with more legs and more wings
and be cheaper when you go out.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
All right, the three legged chicken. Why did the chicken
cross the road? It couldn't it has three legs? Amy, cat,
what about modify your cat?
Speaker 1 (23:31):
Would you? Nope?
Speaker 3 (23:34):
Even if you could make it sick illness free?
Speaker 1 (23:39):
Oh okay, so see that. I don't see there's the question.
Where is the line? You see?
Speaker 3 (23:49):
Well, with a cat who's had a running nose for
like six months, if I could stop that, yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
I mean, and and you can create the odd cats
that don't have running nose, that are not susceptible that
or was distant or no no no nose, good, no dose,
no nose. And I have two little doxies and I
want to be able to get them to really jack
up one of their paws to give me a zeghil,
And I am convinced that we can genetically modify those animals.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
And you have dogs, genetically modify your dog? Yes or no?
Absolutely not. Huh.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
That's the other thing I'm trying to I would genetically
modify my dogs to speak German and sing uh the
national anthem during World War two Deutschlen, Deutschlen dub ah.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
This all right? Uh? Yeah, we're going off on these tangents.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
One you know, not.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
We in any case.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
One of the downsides, one of the reasons that it
failed is that it's just too damn expensive. They're saying,
because the analysis this by in the Appropriations Committee said
of potentially significant workload cost to the state, the state
funded trial court system, because there are going to be
so many lawsuits, it's going to bog down the courts.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
Hmm, all right, see that's tough stuff. I mean, what
do you do.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
I had the same problem. What do you do with
different technology? How does the law keep up with all that?
And in many cases it doesn't and it takes a while.
All right, We're done with that. Genetically modified animals.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
How about that? Will do you have a dog or
a Cat, I did. They're dead. Thank you for reminding me.
Okay did they die because they were overweight? You fed
them too much? No, we're old, Oh like you? Okay, Okay,
we're done, guys. That's it. Peene coming up.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
It's Footy Friday right here on KFI A M six forty.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
You've been listening to The Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
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 seven. Yes, you can put some.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
KFI AM six forty Is that the village people? Ah, okay,
that's a political statement there about who joins the Navy,
just saying okay, eh, well, not an interesting I guess
it is interesting, but a story that is troubling, and
it has to do with sailors aboard the USS Abraham
(00:39):
Lincoln and Lincoln has been out over two hundred and
fifty days out to sea, has not docked for two
hundred and fifty days. And that is a problem because
you now have sailors and marines and pilots staff aboard
that have but not hit a port in that long
a time, way over six months, and that gets a
(01:01):
little depressing, matter of fact, and get more than depressing.
And that's exactly what the reports are that since the
Lincoln left port there has been an issue of low morale,
horrible food, which is good food. I mean, you have
to feed the sailors. Submarines supposed to have spectacular food.
(01:24):
The news outlets Stars and Stripes and the Navy Times
reported there even had been multiple attempts by crew members
to jump overboard.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
They were so depressed.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
And I am very disappointed in both Amy and Neil
because they missed my reference to the number of suicides
aboard of the Abraham Lincoln or just an incredible uptick
of sailors trying to blow then their heads off, you know,
shoot themselves in the head.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
And it was missed by Amy and Neil. Come on, guys, well,
if it would have been funny, we would have got it.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
That's not the that's not the point. Funny is not
an issue here. My jokes being funny are never at issue.
It's whether you get them or not. Cono got it anyway,
some of course Abraham Lilcot assassination jokes. But it is
really serious that you've got us sailors and marines. I
don't even know what marines do aboard the ship other
(02:21):
than they're they're waiting to be deployed.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Well, there's a lot of marine aviators like top gun pilots.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Yeah, but they fly around, they're they're jumping up in
the air all the time and training so that they're
busy and they eat better because they're in the officers mess.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
It's the rest of the sailors. I was reading a report.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Yes, I heard a report that where it really is
depressing for a lot of the sailors are those ones
that live below deck, where they never even get up
on top of the deck, and they have jobs like
swabbing the floor, janitorial jobs day in and day out
for seven days a week. And this just wrote mechanical,
(03:07):
you know, the issues where you just do the same
thing over and over again and you're not thinking a lot.
They don't use your brains very much, so it's a
real problem. So what's happening. A couple of things are
going on. First of all, the George Washington USS George
Washington is on its way to replace the Lincoln and
(03:27):
all of these reports coming out and this is family members,
about two hundred of them. There have been town halls,
there have been stories on CNN, stories even on Stars
and Stripes, which is the military newspaper, and the Navy Times,
which is a military newspaper controlled by the Department of Defense.
They're coming out with these stories that would be the
(03:49):
last news outlets that would come out with this story,
so well it ended up happening. Richard Blumenthal Democrats. He
is a Senator and on the Armed Services Committee, he
writes to Defense Secretary Pete Hexith and the Acting Secretary
of the Navy to express serious concerns the increasing length
(04:12):
of deployments and demand answers, and said, in this letter
the widespread reports of shortages of basic supplies, water contamination,
plumbing issues, deteriorating mental health, deck safety concerns, disruptions in
the mail system, and as you would expect. Pete heg said, said,
none of that is true. We're doing just fine. The morale,
(04:34):
there's no problem. And so there was a town hall
in San Diego yesterday. Two hundred family members of the
crew members were talking about how difficult and how horrific
those conditions were.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
And then there were.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Photos of the food and it was looked like they
have these trays and the way people in the Navy
are fed aboard ships, aircraft carriers, it's like a cafeteria
line where you go down with these trays and they
throw food on there. You can as much as you want,
and there was very little food on the tray. Now,
(05:11):
I don't know was that set up. I mean, that
would be fairly easy to concoct. But in one meeting,
the Vice Admiral Joseph Cahill, commander of Naval Surface Forces. Yeah,
acknowledged the train on the sailors and their families. He said,
we hear you loud and clear regarding the impact this
has had on families and on service members and the
(05:35):
long term ability of US to stand sustain our forces health.
And then the US Navy went on and you know,
good for them. We have not observed an increase in
suicidal ideations or attempts. We take every service members well
being seriously. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, and have religious
medical mental health professionals available. Well, the problem is they
(05:56):
tried to kill themselves too, So it is difficult across
the board in any case. Is it going to happen?
Is it things going to change? I think things are
going to change. But at the same time, you can't
have any member of the administration admit that anything that
the administration touches is wrong or has some problems. No surprise,
Pete Hegseth has said none of that reporting is true
(06:19):
or it's all being taken out of context, and we're
doing fine, all right, We'll see. That's a tough way
to go. These deployments last forever. I mean, they're not
fun anymore. You joined the Navy today and can you
imagine you're on ship over six months have been People
have been on ship for a year and have not
hit port. And port is important for sailors. I mean,
(06:42):
you got to blow off a little steam.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
You gotta do the.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Drugs, you got to hook up with the hookers. I mean,
you got to do all the good stuff that sailors do.
You know, get the tattoos on your arms, you know,
the big anchor, the heart with the anchor that says, mom,
you don't have one of those tattoos, do you? Kneel?
Speaker 1 (07:00):
You're about as chatted up as anybody I've ever met.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
My brother Daniel, who was in the Marine Corps, he
has a rose with a little scroll on it.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
This his mom, oh's see that's sweet. That's vomitous. Actually,
so right now, what's going on? And threw this at
me because of course this is my wheelhouse. There's an
LA couple that had a baby with a surrogate who
lived in Alaska but delivered in Texas, And it's kind.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Of a strange story.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
And this is a case in first impression because I've
never heard about this. Okay, first of all, let's talk
about contracts. Contracts have been upheld, Contracts with surrogates have
been upheld. Now, when I first started doing this, in
a lot of states, it was criminal. I mean, he
went to prison for doing this, for doing surrogacy. And
I was lucky enough to live in California and I
(07:57):
was I even say the word privileged early early days,
so I could help and I did write the laws
in California is pretty liberal.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Texas not so much.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
So. The decision to deliver in Texas was because the
surrogate is very pro life.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
So here's what happened.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
So the surrogate gets implanted with the couple's embryo, so
they are the biological parents, which in most jurisdiction now
make them the parents, and the surrogate is carrying their child.
It's basically a womb for rent, is effectively what surrogacy is.
And so the baby is now going to be born
(08:35):
or has a very severe anomaly which the prognosis is
not very good and has to do with a heart defect,
and the couple asked the surrogate to abort the baby. Now,
most contracts, including my surrogate contract, did say that the
couple has the right to ask the surrogate to abort
(08:57):
a baby if it is hugely anomalous, and then that's
sort of vague. I don't know what hugely anomaloust is
because it has to be vague. And the surrogate mother,
in a huge letter, says she does not have to
comply with this. I mean, I gave boy that was
a huge end of the world headlines in my contract,
and that's exactly what happened here. The couple said, please
(09:19):
aboord and she says, not a chance. So the baby
is born, and she now argues to keep the baby
in lieu of the contract. She says that part of
the contract is not enforceable, especially now that rovi Waite
is gone.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
But here's the argument. This is what I haven't seen.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
They have the baby, they're going to raise the baby,
they love the baby, and she's saying, you wanted to
kill the baby. You asked for an abortion, that's.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
How much you wanted this baby.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
And now that the baby is born, all of a sudden,
you're the best parents in the world, and you love
and you want to keep the child. As of right now,
it looks like the law is on their side because
this has never been decided. Does a couple give up
their rights to their baby. That is just stating in
(10:13):
a surrogate if they have asked for the baby, for
the pregnancy to be terminated, no one knows. That's the argument.
It's a hell of an interesting argument. I mean, I've
never seen anything like it. I have never had a
surrogate mother changed her mind. I've had twenty five hundred
kids under my belt in my surrogacy program. Never had
(10:34):
a surrogate mother change her mind. Ever, that's never been
a problem, and there are so few that when they
do ask it becomes national news.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
But this one is really interesting.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
By the way, California was just let you know, and
I'm very proud to have been involved in this. The
first state in the United States to say that the
contract by which a surrogate mother carries a baby, a
couple's baby, is enforceable and that the parents of that
child are the intended mom and dad, notwithstanding how that
(11:07):
child was created, whether it's their embryo, whether it's the
mother's egg, whether it's the husband's sperm, whether it's a
sperm donor egg donor, it doesn't matter. Let's look at
the contract to see who the parents are and boy.
When I first started this, tell me, there wasn't a
lot of hassle saying, hey, look at a contract to
see who mom and dad are?
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Whoa boy? That was big news. And there were people
that tried to throw me in prison for that.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
And there were a bunch of other issues involve surrogacy
that we don't have to get into, which I've done
many times before. But here I want to repeat, here
is the baby's question. The big question. Does the couple
have the right to keep the child? Otherwise they would
I mean, there was no issue, it's their baby. If
the couple, the parents say kill it, we want this
(11:56):
pregnancy terminated.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Oh, and the baby has a different names.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
The anti abortion activists are on the side of the surrogate,
of course, are refer to the baby's baby Gabriel, and
the parents are saying that the baby's name is Roomy.
Just on the name alone, I'd go with Gabriel if
I were the judge. Okay, you got it, Gabriel. Is
it now climate change and well, it's not so much
(12:25):
in controversy anymore.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
It's sort of here.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
I think most people will have agreed that climate change
is upon us and one of the things that is
involved in climate change is El Nino.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
We've heard about El Nino and as.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
We are not surprised as being reported and rightly so,
scrambling weather patterns and spiking global temperatures. Look look what's
happening in Europe with these heat waves. They are now
bracing for the fifth heat wave this summer. That's Europe
out of control heat And then every night there are reports.
(13:04):
A matter of fact, it starts to watch the news,
national news starts with what's going on in the rest
of the country, sort of the eastern seaboard and midwest. Boy,
are we lucky here?
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Now?
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Do you know that Elmino's actually reach full strength in December?
We're not even close yet. And look what's been happening.
And this year is Elmino expected to be absolutely record
breaking and it's having some huge effect global temperatures going up,
dry spells, crop failures, way too much water.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
You've got these heat waves.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
For example, parts of Panama, one of the wettest countries
on Earth, they haven't had a major rain since early May,
which has never been heard of before. Ethiopia one of
their driest summer stretches in four decades.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
India fifth driest June since.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
They started keeping records in nineteen oh one, and it
is it is a mess. One of the things about
weather prediction that it is so difficult that when the
early major the supercomputers came out, you remember the CRAT
computer and other computers, they were built to deal with
(14:21):
or one of the things they were dealing with was
weather prediction. To this day, it is so complex that
even the most modern computers don't have an easy time
dealing with this. So right now the al nino is
on its way. Well, it's already here. Now, it's just
a question of the magnitude. And these episodes occur every
two to seven years.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Now. They've contributed.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
These al ninos have contributed to swings in temperatures going
back millennia. But this year it's on track to be
the strongest in nearly eighty years. But it's worse than
that because if you look at the strongest el ninos
in modern history, when were they nineteen eighty two, nineteen
(15:08):
eighty three, nineteen ninety seven, nineteen ninety eight, two fifteen
to two sixteen. Those are the three strongest el ninos
that have ever been recorded. And we're going to break
those records probably. I mean, it is crazy. Temperatures are
(15:31):
forecast to be in the ocean increasing three point six
six degrees fahrenheit, and that is way above what critical
mass is. You know, one of the things the scientists
tell us is that we have to stop the emissions.
We have to, of course stop the fossil fuel learning,
et cetera, because it's causing is so much damage to
(15:53):
the environment and is causing global warming. And as you know,
this administration is not particularly in favor with that. But
what you're hearing for from the scientists is we have
to stop yet. Well, now it's just a question of
slowing it down. And have we reached critical mass where
it doesn't even matter anymore? From what I understand, the
(16:15):
answer is yes. Now it's a question of slowing it
down if possible. It's like gang green moving up your arm,
and it's just a question of how far up your
arm it's going to go.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Where do you amputate?
Speaker 3 (16:29):
So is it going to be a wet summer or
a wet winter or no.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
It's going to be a depends where you are, depends
where you are. I'm here right here, No, We're not
going to have a wet winter.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Unless well I thought it was the other Wait on.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Hold on, no, we are not going to have one unless,
as a scientist tells us, we are going to have one. Gotcha,
it is yes or no or maybe ah. That again, Yeah,
I'm here to help it. Well. As I said, and
(17:07):
I've said this many times, the droughts are getting droughtier,
the rains are getting rainier, the hurricanes are becoming more intense,
and they all are. And unfortunately it's all true. I mean,
we've got a mess on our hands.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
You know.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
I used to and this is an aside, and I've
said this before many times, it used to be that
I really wanted to live a lot longer than I would,
or I wish I were born fifty years later than
I was, just because of what's going to happen in
the future kind of thing. But you know, it's just
I'm fascinated about where computers are going to go and
(17:41):
just how fast society and technology is moving. I don't
think that way anymore. I'm thinking, you know, thank goodness,
I'm not going to be there in twenty thirty.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Years or forty years.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
What do you suspect the first five mass extinctions that
have happened to our Earth were caused.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
By those were not caused. Well, it could be global warming,
but natural global warming.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Oh so that's better.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
Is better if it's natural?
Speaker 1 (18:05):
No, it's just different. It's just different.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Do you wait for And by the way, there are
no humans, then that is correct.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
I'm not arguing.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
But we do know that carbon dioxide is in fact
cause is the leading cause of warming because of the
ozone later, et cetera. And that's the argument that people
are using. That is an argument. Is the is the
is the natural? There have been warming trends, There has been,
There have been global warming and global cooling. It's just
that we are definitely speeding it up. And there's no
(18:35):
question that. Are you saying that emissions don't have anything
to do?
Speaker 3 (18:38):
Of course they do. But I'm saying if China doesn't
get on it, there's nothing Little Old America is going
to be able to do.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Except China's jumping on it faster than we are, and
that's the shame of it. At the same time, they're
building coal coal fire plants because they're using enormous amounts
of energy.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
Earth will be fine. We'll all be dead.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
But yeah, it will all be dead. I don't think
the Earth is going to be fine, but then you know,
I'm a pessimist. Nothing's gonna be fine. Now give me
a break. You know, what's my philosophy?
Speaker 2 (19:05):
You know? Hey, how's the things doing? I wake up,
I'm gonna work, I'm gonna retire, then I'm gonna die.
So what's new with you?
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Okay?
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Something that I've been talking about, matter of fact, years
and years, even way back in my law school days
is genetically modified people and or animals.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
One of the things.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
I've talked about and we've discussed is how science is
way ahead of the law or the law. Science happens first,
and then the law follows. How do you deal with science?
And one of sciences, I guess one of scariest or
more interesting aspect, just call.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Is genetic engineering.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Genetically modifying people and or animals. Now, a couple things,
we're there. Okay, we can genetically modify people. I mean,
is that scary? Go right into the genes and you
move those those genes around, and you can even tell
and the and the good part of it is you
can genetically modify uh An embryo to get rid of.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Diseases syndromes that are already there.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
In other words, you can go into an embryo and
pull out enough material to determine if someone going to
have Huntington's TASAC sickle cell anemia.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
So who's going to.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Argue that to create kids who don't have those diseases
is uh, is not a wonderful thing. However, that same
philosophy means can they make it? Can the doctors make
someone bigger, stronger, faster? Yeah, that too, And there is
the line, well, uh, it's moving forward on genetically modified
(20:42):
animals because that's going even quicker. And there was proposed
legislation to protect animals from Frankenstein like medical experimentation. In
other words, uh, what the glow in the dark rabbits,
which they've had. You can actually have a rabbit that's
glow in the darkically modifying the rabbit. And so there
(21:03):
was a bill introduced by assembly Member Leticia Castillo, Republican,
which would have banned the sale of genetically modified animals
in California, glow in the dark rabbits, horned unicorn horses,
for example. And what was interesting is while she introduced
(21:23):
the bill. She actually brought her three headed dog and said, hey,
we do not want this, okay, so who it makes sense?
Speaker 1 (21:35):
All right?
Speaker 2 (21:36):
I mean, do you really want it to Well, it's
kind of neat to have glow in the in the
dark rabbits, so you have to turn the light on.
Define them or all kinds of genetically modified animals. We
already do genetically modified corn, for example, do you know
most of the corn today that you eat is genetically modified.
It's very hard to even find corn that is not.
(21:59):
And the same thing with crops all over the world.
I mean it just this is what happens. You can
make crops last longer. You can have three crops per
year instead of two. You can make crops pesticide. You
can now so you don't pesticide, so they are pest resistance.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
That's all the good stuff.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
The problem is is that the bad stuff is right
there also, same technology does both. The example is you're
saying that these take the same technology to create civilian
aircraft that you do to create military aircraft. One is great,
one not so great. That was a terrible analogy, by
(22:37):
the way. In any case, the bill that was introduced
died it just died. Why, I mean, do we really
want modified animals? I don't know, Neil, you're not an
animal person. Let me ask Amy. You're an animal person.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
Why would you say I'm not an animal just because
I don't have it?
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (23:03):
And you know what you do with animals, slavery? Yeah,
you you eat them. I get that. That's that's your
connection to animals.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
Genetically modify a chicken with more legs and more wings
and be cheaper when you go out.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
All right, the three legged chicken. Why did the chicken
cross the road? It couldn't it has three legs? Amy, cat,
what about modify your cat?
Speaker 1 (23:31):
Would you? Nope?
Speaker 3 (23:34):
Even if you could make it sick illness free?
Speaker 1 (23:39):
Oh okay, so see that. I don't see there's the question.
Where is the line? You see?
Speaker 3 (23:49):
Well, with a cat who's had a running nose for
like six months, if I could stop that, yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
I mean, and and you can create the odd cats
that don't have running nose, that are not susceptible that
or was distant or no no no nose, good, no dose,
no nose. And I have two little doxies and I
want to be able to get them to really jack
up one of their paws to give me a zeghil,
And I am convinced that we can genetically modify those animals.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
And you have dogs, genetically modify your dog? Yes or no?
Absolutely not. Huh.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
That's the other thing I'm trying to I would genetically
modify my dogs to speak German and sing uh the
national anthem during World War two Deutschlen, Deutschlen dub ah.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
This all right? Uh? Yeah, we're going off on these tangents.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
One you know, not.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
We in any case.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
One of the downsides, one of the reasons that it
failed is that it's just too damn expensive. They're saying,
because the analysis this by in the Appropriations Committee said
of potentially significant workload cost to the state, the state
funded trial court system, because there are going to be
so many lawsuits, it's going to bog down the courts.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
Hmm, all right, see that's tough stuff. I mean, what
do you do.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
I had the same problem. What do you do with
different technology? How does the law keep up with all that?
And in many cases it doesn't and it takes a while.
All right, We're done with that. Genetically modified animals.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
How about that? Will do you have a dog or
a Cat, I did. They're dead. Thank you for reminding me.
Okay did they die because they were overweight? You fed
them too much? No, we're old, Oh like you? Okay, Okay,
we're done, guys. That's it. Peene coming up.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
It's Footy Friday right here on KFI A M six forty.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
You've been listening to The Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 2 (25:59):
Catch my Show Monday through Friday, six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app
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