July 24, 2025 • 24 mins
(July 24, 2025)
Edison offers to pay Eaton fire victims for damages, in move to avoid litigation. White House issues intimidating statement about “The View” being ‘pulled off the air’ over ‘irrelevant loser’ Joy Behar. USPS is about to turn 250… could its own pink slip be in the mail?
Edison offers to pay Eaton fire victims for damages, in move to avoid litigation. White House issues intimidating statement about “The View” being ‘pulled off the air’ over ‘irrelevant loser’ Joy Behar. USPS is about to turn 250… could its own pink slip be in the mail?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listen Saints k i AM six forty the Bill
Handles show on demand on the iHeartRadio f prayf i
AM six forty Bill Handled here. It is a Thursday morning,
July twenty four. Since Joe Larsgard is not going to
be here at eight o'clock this morning, he is often
(00:20):
running someplace. We're trying to put something together, playing with
Ai again like we did yesterday. I am just obsessed
with this and so Anne is working on this right now.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Tell you about it later on.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
In the meantime, let me tell you what is happening
with Edison and the Eton fire victims.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Now, this is only Altadena.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
This is not Pacific Palisades because Pacific Palisades is LA
Department of Water and Power, different utility. Edison is the
utility in Altadena where the Eating fire started. And so
what Edison is doing is they are launching something called
(01:03):
the Wildfire Recovery Compensation Program and it's starting this fall.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
That would pay people that have.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Lost their homes, businesses, rental properties, and the fire except
claims for injuries and fatalities. Also expand not only to
the victims where the homes were burnt or damaged themselves.
There's a big fight with insurance companies as to smoke damage.
Insurance company saying that is not fire damage, which is
(01:34):
ludicrous because smoke damage destroys a home too.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
The smoke actually goes into.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
The into the home, it goes into the boards, the
one of my god, what's that word? And I used
to build too, So anyway I'll get this, I'll start
screaming the description of the plight, not the ply with let.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Me move on.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
In any case, an attorney representing the fire victims said,
this is going to lead to victims being sort changed.
So what is Edison doing? What is so Cal Edison
is doing. It's seeking to avoid length, lengthy litigation. It
has not even been determined yet that so Cal Edison
(02:21):
is responsible for the fire. They're doing this preemptively and
this I've never heard of when you don't know who
is responsible now, although the I think the legitimate view
of this is that so Cal Edison is responsible because
there is video that a fire started at the base
(02:45):
of one of those transmission lines and that started the
fire in Altadena. So they're going to get nailed for it,
there's no question, and they do not want to go
in front of a jury.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
That will never happen. Can you imagine what a jury
would do.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
So what they're doing is they're setting up this fund
and it's going to be open to well, the people
who own homes, businesses, the rental properties. Nineteen people were killed.
Those families are going to be compensated. No idea how
much you have ninety four hundred homes and structures. The smoke,
(03:25):
of course, the smoke damage, physical injuries, people family members
who died. Now, they would have lawsuits anyway, and this
is to avert those lawsuits. Class action settlements happen. That
happen all the time, and they are settled simply because
(03:45):
whoever is the defendant does not want to go to trial,
and the settlement happens in most cases and virtually all cases.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
This is before the fact.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Now in class actions, everybody who has been affected is
part of the class. You don't join to be part
of the class. What you can do is opt out
of the class, and that puts you in a position
to sue directly. And I am willing to bet that
there are going to be a fair number of people
(04:17):
that are going to sue directly. They're going to opt
out of this settlement, and we don't know how many,
we don't know to what extent. At this point, Edison says,
even though the details of how the Eaton fire started
still being evaluated, it will offer an expedited process to
(04:38):
pay and resolve claims fairly and promptly, and this allows
the community to focus more on recovery instead of lengthy,
expensive litigation. Well, they left out a phrase right after that, lengthy, extent,
expensive litigation where we are going to get creamed on this.
(04:59):
We're lose our shirts to the point where I'm willing
to bet that Southern California Edison may very well go bankrupt.
Except as we talked about insurance, because Edison has reinsurance. No,
not Edison. The insurance companies have reinsurance. So they are
(05:20):
going to be made whole the utility that's going to
be in trouble. So the lawyers, one of the lawyers
representing some victims says, in the past, utilities have proposed
these programs as a means for shorting and underpaying victims. Well,
I guess in the end that's the argument, And in
(05:42):
the end, any settlement is going to short the victims
because there will be no victim that gets fifty million dollars.
Very well, could be in front of a jury, a
fifty million dollar award is given.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Those have up and all the time, who was that woman.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Suing Johnson and Johnson dealing with the talcum powder in
the baby powder or talcum somewhere wrong with the talcum
powder and cancer? She got ovarian cancer and got two
billion dollars for the jury. I mean, come on, although
there is a system in the law where the judge
has the ability, the right, the ability and generally does
(06:26):
bring down the award substantially to a reasonable amount. Could
be very high, but a reasonable amount.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
All right. We'll see what happens with that one.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
And this is before anything is done, and we don't
even know how much is going into that fund.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
And we are going to find out in the fall.
And this is going to go on for a while.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Even though they want to avert expensive litigation, it's still
going to go on for a while, not as long
as the trial would be believe me. Between the trial
and the appeals and the motions, I mean, this stuff
goes on for years, all right. Now in another Donald
Trump incident, and this one is just fun.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
This one doesn't have to do with constitutional issues, doesn't
have to do with the law, what's going on economically
or internationally, or tariffs or any of that. This goes
under the entertainment file with the capital e.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
This has to do with a view five women who
just sit there and talk about issues for an hour
a day, which is hugely popular in any case, in
the light of the statement that the President said about
Barack Obama, which is really interesting, he accused Barack Obama
(07:48):
of out and out treason, use that word treason in
dealing with the twenty twenty election or the twenty sixteen election,
and saying that rush interfered, and based on that, you
have Trump and the MAGA supporter saying that's not true,
that was conspiracy led by Obama and that's treasonous. Well,
(08:13):
that's a pretty harsh word, man, I gotta tell you.
And the President Obama came back and he never responds
to this stuff, saying that this is just ridiculous. I
wish the president, the former president, Barack Obama, had said, Hey,
if you think it's treason us, charge me. You have
the ability to charge me. Go ahead, charge me with
(08:35):
treason and then let's say he's going to be charged,
and so the White House or at this point the
DOJ says, we'd like to make an arrangement for you
to come in and surrender.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Not a chance.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
I'll give you my home address. You already know it.
Handcuffed me and dragged me out of my house. God,
I wish you would go that far, but of course,
orse it's not going to. But during the course of
the view, there were references to Donald Trump, and they
weren't particularly impressive, to say the least, and the White
(09:13):
House issued a statement that after the negative comments made
on the View, the show should be pulled off the air.
By the way, the allegation also is that Obama was
trying to lead a coup.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
I don't understand this anyway.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Joy Behar, who was is on the View, then started
with the criticism of her own and not even defending Obama,
just attacking President Trump, saying, first of all, who tried
to overthrow the government on January sixth?
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Who was that? Again? That was not Obama?
Speaker 1 (09:55):
And she continued the thing about him in referencing to
Trump is he is so jealous of jealous of Obama
because Obama is everything he is not. Trim, smart, handsome,
happily married, can sing Al Green's song Let's Stay Together
better than Al Green, which by the way, is true,
(10:17):
and Trump cannot stand it.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
It's driving him crazy.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Okay, you don't make that statement about this president without
this president responding. As we all know, the philosophy, the
basic philosophy of Donald Trump is you hit him and
he hits you back twice as hard.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
I mean, we knew that. That has been his philosophy forever.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
And so the White House spokesperson Taylor Rodgers tells Entertainment
Weekly carry the story in an email, and here is the quote.
Joy Behar is an irrelevant loser suffering from a severe
case of Trump derangement syndrome. And the show has hit
the lowest ratings in recent years, and Behar should self
(11:06):
reflect on her own jealousy of President Trump's historic popularity
before her show is the next one to be pulled
off the air. Well, from what I understand, the ratings
are fine, but that doesn't matter. I mean, this is
just one of those great great fights on the entertainment level.
(11:28):
And the reference to being pulled off the air, even
though it didn't say. It specifically comes at the time
Stephen Colbert's The Late Show is being canceled and FCC
the FCC chair okay, the Federal Communications, which is a department,
(11:49):
said Brendan Carr said, and I love this, and he
posted on x the partisan left's ritualistic wailing and gnashing
of teeth over Colbert is quite revealing. They're acting like
they're losing a loyal DNC spokesperson that was entitled to
an exemption from the laws of economics. My god, this
(12:09):
is the chair of the FCC that regulates the airwaves.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
That's what it does. It is a bi partisan position.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
And the quote is the partisan lefts ritualistic wailing and
nashing over Colbert is quite revealing. And this is what
this administration does is department heads, senior members of the
administration are absolutely not chosen for any expertise, for any credentials,
(12:48):
any experience.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
It's are you loyal? That's it. Are you loyal?
Speaker 1 (12:53):
And if you are, you get the you get the position.
And in this case, I think that what the FCC
chair said that that bothers me the most. And also
on that episode, Behar suggests that Obama should.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Sue Trump.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Accusing him of accusing him of treason. But of course
the president would be exempt because the president is exempt,
although I think Supreme Court did rule a non presidential
act is not granted immunity where the president is immune
from any lawsuit or any kind of criminal criminal violation
(13:39):
is accused of that.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
So you know, is anything going to happen.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
No, But again, I would love to see Obama charged
with treason. Now DCI TULCA Gabbart has referred a criminal
investigation to the Department of Justice, which she has done
over a number of Trump enemies, and the Department of Justice,
(14:08):
I'm assuming or opening up investigation, and what is the
DOJ going to say? Yep, we have found evidence that
Obama was head of this conspiracy in the allegation that
Russia interfered, and yes, we are going to charge him
with treason.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
I would love to see that.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
It's going to disappear, of course, because it's going to disappear.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
We all know that. All Right, A little bit.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Of handle history I want to share with you, and
this has to do with the United States Postal Service
because on Saturday, it's two hundred and fifty years older
than the United States and as you know, it delivers
mail no matter whether it rains or sleets, or snow
(14:56):
or gloom of night. And it has faithfully done so
two hundred and fifty years, regardless of distance, and does
it all for the price of a stamp. And I
think the United States at this point still has the
cheapest first class mail out there, if I am right. Now,
here's the history. It's not just to deliver mail. It's
(15:19):
integral was integral to the formation of our country. It's
in the Constitution that Congress shall establish a postal service.
And why well, let's go back in history. The post
Office was created a year before the Declaration of Independence
(15:41):
and has been with us set every step of American history.
It goes everywhere Americans have gone, keeps us united. And
this is Steve Koshchersberger, the postal historian. And to give
you an idea of some people who have carried mail,
Walt Disney, Morgan Freeman, Steve Carell, Rock Hudson, Folksager Singer,
(16:07):
John Prime, Jazz Bassis, Bassis, Charles Mingus, Jason Moraz, the
founding member of kiss Ace Freely. And just like it
did two hundred years ago, it's facing danger it's facing uncertainty,
although today it's financial and there is threats to see
(16:29):
it privatized with hearing it out, but that forever or
merge with the US Department of Commerce. If it is privatized,
believe me, the cost is going to explode. And this
privatization was proposed earlier this year by the President who
called USPS a tremendous loser for this country.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
It certainly is financially.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
He's right on on that one. Now is it worth
it for us to finance the United States Postal Service?
According to the US General Accountability Office, the agency has
operated a deficit for the last fifteen years, a net
loss of one hundred billion dollars since two thousand and seven.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Costs are outpacing revenue.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
And why is that Because the main revenue that the
post Office gets, the biggest profit center is first class mail,
and there just ain't enough first class mail being sold
those stamps. And to give you an idea of how
favorably Americans view the Postal Service, it trails only the
(17:38):
National Parks Service in terms of a public failure. That's
according to Pew.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Today.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
If you look at its website, the Postal Service serves
nearly one hundred and sixty nine million addresses nationwide, six
hundred and forty thousand employees, most of them career workers,
a fleet of two hundred and fifty thousand vehicles.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
In twenty twenty four, the agency handled more.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
Than one hundred and sixteen billion pieces of mail. Unfortunately,
most of it junk mail. We still get junk mail.
I go to my post office, I have a post
office box down the street that I have to open
with a key, which I don't understand.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
I've always had win in front of my house.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
And three quarters ninety percent is junk mail during election time?
Speaker 2 (18:31):
How many of those flyers and brochures do you get?
Speaker 1 (18:34):
It fills up your mailbox, drives you completely nuts.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
And those are issued the stamps.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
That they're paid, that are paid for by these organizations
and sometimes charities, but certainly the political organizations or the
companies that are sending you flyers brochures to sell you
a product or a service. Those are at a discount rate,
and those have always lost money, with first class paying
(19:05):
or making up the difference.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Well that's gone.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
The US Post Office on Saturday turns two hundred and
fifty years old, older than our country and why it
is so historically important to the creation of the United States,
not just delivering mail.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
It's integral to who we are.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
And you're going to see two separate stamps stamp releases Forever.
Series One is depicting a mail carrier on her community
rounds and then sort of a modern interpretation of a
five cent stamp that was issued in eighteen forty seven
that portrays the first Postmaster General of the United States,
(19:51):
Benjamin Franklin. Now in the US Constitution is a cause
that empowers Congress to establish the post Office. That's how important,
says and the delivery infrastructure, and why is that so important.
Let's go back to the beginning of our country. Democracy
the way we do it was still an experiment. We
were the first ones out, and democracy needed to have
(20:14):
informed voters, and the post office was integral in giving
information to potential voters. That is how important. By the way,
you know who have been postmas postmasters? A guy by
then Abraham Lincoln, remember him, Nobel Prize novelist William Faultner,
(20:41):
also a postmaster. Now, the basic mission of the Post
Office is not just delivering mail. In its early days,
its basic mission was ensuring an informed and connected public.
And that continues on because it delivers books and magazines
(21:04):
and newspapers at reduced rates. And also charities and nonprofits
get reduced rates. And if you look at post Second
World War social movements, civil rights movement, the environmental movement,
the main way they raise money and let supporters know
(21:25):
what was happening was through.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
The US mail.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Going back to seventeen seventy seven, a year before declaration
of Independence was issued, the Second Continental Congress appointed a
guy by the name of George Washington as a commander
in chief.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
How do you communicate with the military. I didn't have phones.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
The American revolutionaries couldn't use the British system of communication.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Of course they couldn't.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
So what they did is use the post office that
was created. You couldn't do it without the post office.
This country would not have existed without the post office.
So I Franklin, Well, he had spent four decades as
Philadelphia's postmaster because that was the earliest postal system, and
(22:23):
so that was local obviously, and then when a national
post office system was created, of course who was going
to do it other than Benjamin Franklin. So he devised
this system where military correspondence was delivered by messengers on foot,
riders on horseback, and that was very important, may have
(22:43):
been critical to the US win even in eighteen forty
eight the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, where the US expanded
a little bit California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, a lot
of Arizona, four other states. Hundreds of thousands of people
came into the West. How do they talk to their
(23:06):
families and friends and neighbors fifteen hundred miles away the
US post Office. It's been around, and then finally what
created our air transportation system, the airline system. It was
(23:27):
contracts with local airplane companies to deliver the mail. If
it weren't for those contracts and the government subsidizing those
airplane companies, you wouldn't have an airline industry, certainly not
the way we have it today. That's how important the
(23:47):
postal service is. Two hundred and fifty years on Saturday,
does anybody use the post office anymore? That's the problem
and the cost of deliver it delivers to every single
address in the country by air, where you can only
be reached certain areas like in Alaska, by dog, sled
(24:13):
in certain areas, hovercraft.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
By barge, by mule.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Do you know that the Post Office still uses mules
to deliver mail in parts of the Grand Canyon. It's
an amazing organization, absolutely amazing. All right, KFI am sixty.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
You've been listening to the Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
Catch my show Monday through Friday, six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
You're listen Saints k i AM six forty the Bill
Handles show on demand on the iHeartRadio f prayf i
AM six forty Bill Handled here. It is a Thursday morning,
July twenty four. Since Joe Larsgard is not going to
be here at eight o'clock this morning, he is often
(00:20):
running someplace. We're trying to put something together, playing with
Ai again like we did yesterday. I am just obsessed
with this and so Anne is working on this right now.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Tell you about it later on.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
In the meantime, let me tell you what is happening
with Edison and the Eton fire victims.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Now, this is only Altadena.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
This is not Pacific Palisades because Pacific Palisades is LA
Department of Water and Power, different utility. Edison is the
utility in Altadena where the Eating fire started. And so
what Edison is doing is they are launching something called
(01:03):
the Wildfire Recovery Compensation Program and it's starting this fall.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
That would pay people that have.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Lost their homes, businesses, rental properties, and the fire except
claims for injuries and fatalities. Also expand not only to
the victims where the homes were burnt or damaged themselves.
There's a big fight with insurance companies as to smoke damage.
Insurance company saying that is not fire damage, which is
(01:34):
ludicrous because smoke damage destroys a home too.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
The smoke actually goes into.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
The into the home, it goes into the boards, the
one of my god, what's that word? And I used
to build too, So anyway I'll get this, I'll start
screaming the description of the plight, not the ply with let.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Me move on.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
In any case, an attorney representing the fire victims said,
this is going to lead to victims being sort changed.
So what is Edison doing? What is so Cal Edison
is doing. It's seeking to avoid length, lengthy litigation. It
has not even been determined yet that so Cal Edison
(02:21):
is responsible for the fire. They're doing this preemptively and
this I've never heard of when you don't know who
is responsible now, although the I think the legitimate view
of this is that so Cal Edison is responsible because
there is video that a fire started at the base
(02:45):
of one of those transmission lines and that started the
fire in Altadena. So they're going to get nailed for it,
there's no question, and they do not want to go
in front of a jury.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
That will never happen. Can you imagine what a jury
would do.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
So what they're doing is they're setting up this fund
and it's going to be open to well, the people
who own homes, businesses, the rental properties. Nineteen people were killed.
Those families are going to be compensated. No idea how
much you have ninety four hundred homes and structures. The smoke,
(03:25):
of course, the smoke damage, physical injuries, people family members
who died. Now, they would have lawsuits anyway, and this
is to avert those lawsuits. Class action settlements happen. That
happen all the time, and they are settled simply because
(03:45):
whoever is the defendant does not want to go to trial,
and the settlement happens in most cases and virtually all cases.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
This is before the fact.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Now in class actions, everybody who has been affected is
part of the class. You don't join to be part
of the class. What you can do is opt out
of the class, and that puts you in a position
to sue directly. And I am willing to bet that
there are going to be a fair number of people
(04:17):
that are going to sue directly. They're going to opt
out of this settlement, and we don't know how many,
we don't know to what extent. At this point, Edison says,
even though the details of how the Eaton fire started
still being evaluated, it will offer an expedited process to
(04:38):
pay and resolve claims fairly and promptly, and this allows
the community to focus more on recovery instead of lengthy,
expensive litigation. Well, they left out a phrase right after that, lengthy, extent,
expensive litigation where we are going to get creamed on this.
(04:59):
We're lose our shirts to the point where I'm willing
to bet that Southern California Edison may very well go bankrupt.
Except as we talked about insurance, because Edison has reinsurance. No,
not Edison. The insurance companies have reinsurance. So they are
(05:20):
going to be made whole the utility that's going to
be in trouble. So the lawyers, one of the lawyers
representing some victims says, in the past, utilities have proposed
these programs as a means for shorting and underpaying victims. Well,
I guess in the end that's the argument, And in
(05:42):
the end, any settlement is going to short the victims
because there will be no victim that gets fifty million dollars.
Very well, could be in front of a jury, a
fifty million dollar award is given.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Those have up and all the time, who was that woman.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Suing Johnson and Johnson dealing with the talcum powder in
the baby powder or talcum somewhere wrong with the talcum
powder and cancer? She got ovarian cancer and got two
billion dollars for the jury. I mean, come on, although
there is a system in the law where the judge
has the ability, the right, the ability and generally does
(06:26):
bring down the award substantially to a reasonable amount. Could
be very high, but a reasonable amount.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
All right. We'll see what happens with that one.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
And this is before anything is done, and we don't
even know how much is going into that fund.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
And we are going to find out in the fall.
And this is going to go on for a while.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Even though they want to avert expensive litigation, it's still
going to go on for a while, not as long
as the trial would be believe me. Between the trial
and the appeals and the motions, I mean, this stuff
goes on for years, all right. Now in another Donald
Trump incident, and this one is just fun.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
This one doesn't have to do with constitutional issues, doesn't
have to do with the law, what's going on economically
or internationally, or tariffs or any of that. This goes
under the entertainment file with the capital e.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
This has to do with a view five women who
just sit there and talk about issues for an hour
a day, which is hugely popular in any case, in
the light of the statement that the President said about
Barack Obama, which is really interesting, he accused Barack Obama
(07:48):
of out and out treason, use that word treason in
dealing with the twenty twenty election or the twenty sixteen election,
and saying that rush interfered, and based on that, you
have Trump and the MAGA supporter saying that's not true,
that was conspiracy led by Obama and that's treasonous. Well,
(08:13):
that's a pretty harsh word, man, I gotta tell you.
And the President Obama came back and he never responds
to this stuff, saying that this is just ridiculous. I
wish the president, the former president, Barack Obama, had said, Hey,
if you think it's treason us, charge me. You have
the ability to charge me. Go ahead, charge me with
(08:35):
treason and then let's say he's going to be charged,
and so the White House or at this point the
DOJ says, we'd like to make an arrangement for you
to come in and surrender.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Not a chance.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
I'll give you my home address. You already know it.
Handcuffed me and dragged me out of my house. God,
I wish you would go that far, but of course,
orse it's not going to. But during the course of
the view, there were references to Donald Trump, and they
weren't particularly impressive, to say the least, and the White
(09:13):
House issued a statement that after the negative comments made
on the View, the show should be pulled off the air.
By the way, the allegation also is that Obama was
trying to lead a coup.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
I don't understand this anyway.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Joy Behar, who was is on the View, then started
with the criticism of her own and not even defending Obama,
just attacking President Trump, saying, first of all, who tried
to overthrow the government on January sixth?
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Who was that? Again? That was not Obama?
Speaker 1 (09:55):
And she continued the thing about him in referencing to
Trump is he is so jealous of jealous of Obama
because Obama is everything he is not. Trim, smart, handsome,
happily married, can sing Al Green's song Let's Stay Together
better than Al Green, which by the way, is true,
(10:17):
and Trump cannot stand it.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
It's driving him crazy.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Okay, you don't make that statement about this president without
this president responding. As we all know, the philosophy, the
basic philosophy of Donald Trump is you hit him and
he hits you back twice as hard.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
I mean, we knew that. That has been his philosophy forever.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
And so the White House spokesperson Taylor Rodgers tells Entertainment
Weekly carry the story in an email, and here is the quote.
Joy Behar is an irrelevant loser suffering from a severe
case of Trump derangement syndrome. And the show has hit
the lowest ratings in recent years, and Behar should self
(11:06):
reflect on her own jealousy of President Trump's historic popularity
before her show is the next one to be pulled
off the air. Well, from what I understand, the ratings
are fine, but that doesn't matter. I mean, this is
just one of those great great fights on the entertainment level.
(11:28):
And the reference to being pulled off the air, even
though it didn't say. It specifically comes at the time
Stephen Colbert's The Late Show is being canceled and FCC
the FCC chair okay, the Federal Communications, which is a department,
(11:49):
said Brendan Carr said, and I love this, and he
posted on x the partisan left's ritualistic wailing and gnashing
of teeth over Colbert is quite revealing. They're acting like
they're losing a loyal DNC spokesperson that was entitled to
an exemption from the laws of economics. My god, this
(12:09):
is the chair of the FCC that regulates the airwaves.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
That's what it does. It is a bi partisan position.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
And the quote is the partisan lefts ritualistic wailing and
nashing over Colbert is quite revealing. And this is what
this administration does is department heads, senior members of the
administration are absolutely not chosen for any expertise, for any credentials,
(12:48):
any experience.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
It's are you loyal? That's it. Are you loyal?
Speaker 1 (12:53):
And if you are, you get the you get the position.
And in this case, I think that what the FCC
chair said that that bothers me the most. And also
on that episode, Behar suggests that Obama should.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Sue Trump.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Accusing him of accusing him of treason. But of course
the president would be exempt because the president is exempt,
although I think Supreme Court did rule a non presidential
act is not granted immunity where the president is immune
from any lawsuit or any kind of criminal criminal violation
(13:39):
is accused of that.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
So you know, is anything going to happen.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
No, But again, I would love to see Obama charged
with treason. Now DCI TULCA Gabbart has referred a criminal
investigation to the Department of Justice, which she has done
over a number of Trump enemies, and the Department of Justice,
(14:08):
I'm assuming or opening up investigation, and what is the
DOJ going to say? Yep, we have found evidence that
Obama was head of this conspiracy in the allegation that
Russia interfered, and yes, we are going to charge him
with treason.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
I would love to see that.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
It's going to disappear, of course, because it's going to disappear.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
We all know that. All Right, A little bit.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Of handle history I want to share with you, and
this has to do with the United States Postal Service
because on Saturday, it's two hundred and fifty years older
than the United States and as you know, it delivers
mail no matter whether it rains or sleets, or snow
(14:56):
or gloom of night. And it has faithfully done so
two hundred and fifty years, regardless of distance, and does
it all for the price of a stamp. And I
think the United States at this point still has the
cheapest first class mail out there, if I am right. Now,
here's the history. It's not just to deliver mail. It's
(15:19):
integral was integral to the formation of our country. It's
in the Constitution that Congress shall establish a postal service.
And why well, let's go back in history. The post
Office was created a year before the Declaration of Independence
(15:41):
and has been with us set every step of American history.
It goes everywhere Americans have gone, keeps us united. And
this is Steve Koshchersberger, the postal historian. And to give
you an idea of some people who have carried mail,
Walt Disney, Morgan Freeman, Steve Carell, Rock Hudson, Folksager Singer,
(16:07):
John Prime, Jazz Bassis, Bassis, Charles Mingus, Jason Moraz, the
founding member of kiss Ace Freely. And just like it
did two hundred years ago, it's facing danger it's facing uncertainty,
although today it's financial and there is threats to see
(16:29):
it privatized with hearing it out, but that forever or
merge with the US Department of Commerce. If it is privatized,
believe me, the cost is going to explode. And this
privatization was proposed earlier this year by the President who
called USPS a tremendous loser for this country.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
It certainly is financially.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
He's right on on that one. Now is it worth
it for us to finance the United States Postal Service?
According to the US General Accountability Office, the agency has
operated a deficit for the last fifteen years, a net
loss of one hundred billion dollars since two thousand and seven.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Costs are outpacing revenue.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
And why is that Because the main revenue that the
post Office gets, the biggest profit center is first class mail,
and there just ain't enough first class mail being sold
those stamps. And to give you an idea of how
favorably Americans view the Postal Service, it trails only the
(17:38):
National Parks Service in terms of a public failure. That's
according to Pew.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Today.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
If you look at its website, the Postal Service serves
nearly one hundred and sixty nine million addresses nationwide, six
hundred and forty thousand employees, most of them career workers,
a fleet of two hundred and fifty thousand vehicles.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
In twenty twenty four, the agency handled more.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
Than one hundred and sixteen billion pieces of mail. Unfortunately,
most of it junk mail. We still get junk mail.
I go to my post office, I have a post
office box down the street that I have to open
with a key, which I don't understand.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
I've always had win in front of my house.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
And three quarters ninety percent is junk mail during election time?
Speaker 2 (18:31):
How many of those flyers and brochures do you get?
Speaker 1 (18:34):
It fills up your mailbox, drives you completely nuts.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
And those are issued the stamps.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
That they're paid, that are paid for by these organizations
and sometimes charities, but certainly the political organizations or the
companies that are sending you flyers brochures to sell you
a product or a service. Those are at a discount rate,
and those have always lost money, with first class paying
(19:05):
or making up the difference.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Well that's gone.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
The US Post Office on Saturday turns two hundred and
fifty years old, older than our country and why it
is so historically important to the creation of the United States,
not just delivering mail.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
It's integral to who we are.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
And you're going to see two separate stamps stamp releases Forever.
Series One is depicting a mail carrier on her community
rounds and then sort of a modern interpretation of a
five cent stamp that was issued in eighteen forty seven
that portrays the first Postmaster General of the United States,
(19:51):
Benjamin Franklin. Now in the US Constitution is a cause
that empowers Congress to establish the post Office. That's how important,
says and the delivery infrastructure, and why is that so important.
Let's go back to the beginning of our country. Democracy
the way we do it was still an experiment. We
were the first ones out, and democracy needed to have
(20:14):
informed voters, and the post office was integral in giving
information to potential voters. That is how important. By the way,
you know who have been postmas postmasters? A guy by
then Abraham Lincoln, remember him, Nobel Prize novelist William Faultner,
(20:41):
also a postmaster. Now, the basic mission of the Post
Office is not just delivering mail. In its early days,
its basic mission was ensuring an informed and connected public.
And that continues on because it delivers books and magazines
(21:04):
and newspapers at reduced rates. And also charities and nonprofits
get reduced rates. And if you look at post Second
World War social movements, civil rights movement, the environmental movement,
the main way they raise money and let supporters know
(21:25):
what was happening was through.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
The US mail.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Going back to seventeen seventy seven, a year before declaration
of Independence was issued, the Second Continental Congress appointed a
guy by the name of George Washington as a commander
in chief.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
How do you communicate with the military. I didn't have phones.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
The American revolutionaries couldn't use the British system of communication.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Of course they couldn't.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
So what they did is use the post office that
was created. You couldn't do it without the post office.
This country would not have existed without the post office.
So I Franklin, Well, he had spent four decades as
Philadelphia's postmaster because that was the earliest postal system, and
(22:23):
so that was local obviously, and then when a national
post office system was created, of course who was going
to do it other than Benjamin Franklin. So he devised
this system where military correspondence was delivered by messengers on foot,
riders on horseback, and that was very important, may have
(22:43):
been critical to the US win even in eighteen forty
eight the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, where the US expanded
a little bit California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, a lot
of Arizona, four other states. Hundreds of thousands of people
came into the West. How do they talk to their
(23:06):
families and friends and neighbors fifteen hundred miles away the
US post Office. It's been around, and then finally what
created our air transportation system, the airline system. It was
(23:27):
contracts with local airplane companies to deliver the mail. If
it weren't for those contracts and the government subsidizing those
airplane companies, you wouldn't have an airline industry, certainly not
the way we have it today. That's how important the
(23:47):
postal service is. Two hundred and fifty years on Saturday,
does anybody use the post office anymore? That's the problem
and the cost of deliver it delivers to every single
address in the country by air, where you can only
be reached certain areas like in Alaska, by dog, sled
(24:13):
in certain areas, hovercraft.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
By barge, by mule.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Do you know that the Post Office still uses mules
to deliver mail in parts of the Grand Canyon. It's
an amazing organization, absolutely amazing. All right, KFI am sixty.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
You've been listening to the Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
Catch my show Monday through Friday, six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
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