July 7, 2026 • 25 mins
(July 07, 2026)
President Trump’s criticism of NATO casts a shadow over U.S pledge to defend allies. Europe is restricting international tourism. Prepare for airline purgatory. U.S. life expectancy is on track to reach a record high as death rate falls to record low in 2025.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from kf I
AM six forty blackmun name was Donald Shrump, Donald Trump,
Donald Trump, Donald Trump, Donald Trump, Donald Trump KFI AM
six forty Bill Handle. Here. It is a Tuesday morning,
July seventh. Big news.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
We're covering the The US soccer team, which has just
added the word loser to its title, lost last night,
and I was sorely disappointed. Not that they lost, It's
just I'm okay with them losing because Belgium is a
one of the top ten teams in the world. It's
just the way they lost. They were sloppy, they didn't
(00:40):
come to the table. It's just come on, guys. They
almost they almost dialed it in.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Some news with the president right now. The President is
in Turkey. There's a NATO summit and he is there
as part of NATO forty two members of NATO member countries,
which the United States not only is one, it is
the leading country. NATO was created by the United States
(01:09):
after World War Two, right in the middle of the
Cold War, the start of the Cold War, to protect
Europe against a Russian invasion. It's all about protecting Europe,
and there are certain rules about NATO. The United States,
it does or did give the majority the money, the troops,
the weaponry, and based on the NATO Charter, the US
(01:32):
always has command and control of NATO. There's always an
American general who is head of NATO. Well, the President
has voiced a lot of skepticism about NATO and for
a long time too. I have mentioned many times at
one of the things about President Trump, no secret agenda.
I mean, this guy walks the walk and he talks
the talk. We know he says this is what I believe,
(01:55):
and this is what he believes. I mean, we're going back.
Let me tell you how long ago you could go.
When he talked about how NATO is a waste of
time in nineteen ninety a Playboy interview, he said that
the US was defending wealthy nations for nothing. Who would
be wiped off the face of the earth in about
(02:16):
fifteen minutes. So here we are two terms later. He
has repeatedly suggested he could quit NATO, which I don't
know if that's true or not, but you know, that's
another issue.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
And this is a guy.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Think about this in terms of how he deals with allies.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Earlier this year.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
He threatened to seize Greenland, which is part of Denmark
and NATO ally. He said during his last campaign that
he would encourage Russia to attack nations that don't spend
enough on defense. That's one of the things that he
has argued. Europeans don't spend enough on defense. They're relying
too much on us to protect them. Hey, those days
(03:04):
are over. And of course he went completely berserk on
the European criticism of the Iran War when the European
countries wouldn't come to the aid and helping the US
with the war, and so they're looking at it saying, Okay,
(03:26):
we've got to make some changes. And this is where
I agree with and understand Trump. Now, not the way
he does things, I mean, that is obviously questionable, and
I'm not a big fan of how he does things,
but his premise, I think is legitimate, and that is
it is time. You know, Europe is there to defend
itself now relying on the United States. Yeah, yeah, we
(03:49):
are an ally, but relying primarily on the United States.
Those days are over. And the President has said over
and over again and has demanded that the European nations,
which have not met their commitment to defend spending to
be part of NATO had not are now coming to
the table because of the Trump not only request, but
(04:14):
his requirement, and they're now figuring out what do we
do now.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
We've heard a lot about Article five, right, You've heard
that over and over again.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
What is Article five part of the NATO charter that
says if one country is attacked, all are attacked and
all have to go to war.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Well, they don't have to that. Article five is not automatic.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Once a NATO country is attacked requests under Article five
that the other NATO allies come in and defend.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
It has to be unanimous. All thirty two NATO members
have to vote to do that.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Much like any country trying to join NATO, all thirty
two NATO countries have to agree. One country says no,
thank you, blacklists the country applying done, they're not coming in.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Which is a big issue with Ukraine.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Ukraine has been trying for years and years to become
part of NATO and it just ain't happening, mainly because
of trying to appease and appeasing putin. There's a lot
of reasons for this and it gets a little complicated,
but The bottom line is, let's not offend putin. Europe
is a bunch of wosses anyway. I mean, they literally
are a bunch of paddy wastes. I mean that's the
(05:41):
way they have done their world, you know, appeasement to Hitler,
I mean just all of it. I mean they have
not changed. And now European leaders are turning around and saying, Okay,
maybe it is time.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Trump is certainly pushing it.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
For pushing it that way, and one of the reasons
and makes sense, we spend a fortune.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
On military aid to NATO.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Now the president decides where, with congressional approval, where and
how much the military is funded.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
And he's a big fan of the military, but not
of NATO. Not of NATO.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
And so what happens is you now have countries around
the world. Well, here's what happens. Reliance on the United
States is basically gone. Trusting the United States is not
there anymore. That's one thing that the president has done
is he's turned it over. I've said many times, we've
all known many times that he is changing the world order.
(06:46):
Even if a president, a new president comes in, let's
say it's a Democrat, which I think there's more than
a reasonable chance, and then puts us back in the
NATO fully and says, okay.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
We're part of the old school.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Of NATO, you know, the europe To wit a minute,
any president can say no, thank you. So what happens
if another Republican comes in after that? We have to
rely on ourselves, which is not a bad thing. It
really isn't. I mean, Europe is not the Europe of
post World War two when everybody was starving, you know.
(07:20):
And I remember, as in the fifties, my mother, in
order for me to clean the plate, would say, kids
are starving in Europe. And it was still very rough
for Europe even in the fifties. So I cleaned my
plate at dinner. Interestingly enough, I got fat and they
still starve. But that is something that we've talked about
(07:44):
and we'll talk about it at a later time. Yeah,
my mother was crazy. She was fat too, so hey,
life is life. But the bottom line is that this
makes a lot of sense. I think the president is
right on now threatening to take up Greenland and.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Not so good.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
And of course that wasn't going to happen. Maybe it was,
I have no idea, but the premise works. And I
agree with President Trump on this one calender that one.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
How often do I agree with the president? Huh? All right.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
The other thing about Europe that I want to talk
about is that European cities, particularly those that are tourist
attractions Barcelona, Paris, et cetera, are restricting international tourism. Now
it used to be they would just literally fall over
each other to get international tourism. These tourist boards come
(08:39):
to us, come to us, come to us. Now, don't
go to that city. Look at what you get in Paris,
look at what you're getting in Madrid. Well, those days
are gone because of a huge backlash against over tourism.
Too many people traveling these cities have now restricted short
term rental platforms like Airbnb. No, no way are we
(09:00):
going to do that. They've raised accommodation taxes, taxes, strict
caps on cruise ship disembarkments.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
And what does that mean?
Speaker 2 (09:12):
And bottom line, well, the poor tourists are just getting
n ale. The rich du just fine, but the poor turfs,
like everything else, being poor is never fun. And theyre
curbing the sheer volume of visitors. And it's a new
business model. And what it does is raise prices because
(09:34):
fewer people are even allowed there. For example, if you're
on a cruise ship that would normally, let's say it
would stop in Okay, Italy and Rome, and it is
not allowed to anymore, or the limitation, all of a sudden,
things get pretty expensive there because there are fewer people.
(09:55):
Love supply and demand, you know, if you don't have much,
supply and demand goes up and the prices go up.
And that's what's happening in Europe right now, particularly the airbnb.
The airbnb issue, the short term rentals are a very
big deal because what it does is it takes housing
out of the market, takes a rental market. It takes
(10:15):
a rental market just gone. It takes it well. It
takes those houses where people are gonna rent on Airbnb.
They makes you a lot more money than long term rental.
So you've got people in those places that are being
priced out, and so the cities are saying, no, we
don't want that to happen. Housing is very important to us,
(10:38):
and the other thing just to wear and tear of
all of these people. I don't know if you've ever
been to Venice, If you ever have during the summer
you go to Saint Mark's Square, it is literally bumper
to bumper people crossing those bridges over the Venice canals.
Is it's grid law as those bridges are being crossed,
(11:04):
and there's just too much. And one of the things
about tourism, tourism is neat for a country because it's
effectively it's an export. It's an export model economic model.
Money is flowing in and it's not costing very much money.
There aren't factories that are producing products. Is not a
(11:24):
caterpillar factory, for example, that is selling tractors overseas where
they have to build them. Here it's the Eiffel Tower,
it's already there and the only thing they have to
do is maintain it. And so it's a real good buck.
But there's just too many people, way too many people.
(11:45):
I mean, tourism has exploded to the point is a
point where I won't go and I travel constantly. That's
where my disposable income has always gone is to is
to travel. I take all the money when I buy
my costco shirts that I would that I would normally
spend no shirts that it goes into my travel fund.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
I won't go during the summer anymore. It's just too crazy.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
And the cities are absolutely reeling with over tourism. I
mean I just did a story or read a story
about Yosemite. Yosemite is just untenable. It used to be reservations,
and the Trump administration removed the reservation requirement for Yosemite.
You can't find a parking spot in the park, you
(12:36):
can't find any place to eat. There are lines even
for the restrooms. It is a tourism over tourism really
really hurts.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
And so the world is changing. So what does that
mean to us?
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Well, we're going to pay a lot more money for
those attractions and I go back, or the city is
being attracted, the cities being attraction, and so here is well, okay,
let me give you an example. New York City banned
short term rentals. When they did, the average daily rates
for hotels increased by as much as nineteen dollars per day.
(13:21):
It's the average rate increased by as much as nineteen
dollars per day. And that's because all short term rentals
were just taking off the market. Airbnb didn't exist. And
so you have, well a bunch of reasons. You have
an international retreat from all the rules that rules based commerce.
(13:41):
The World Trade Organization has been sidelined. We used to
be the leader of and the champion of free trade.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Not anymore.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
The tariffs have come into place. Protectionism is returned, and
so part of protectionism is saying, you know, we're gonna
protect ours elves. We don't want tourists. Because if you've
ever been on a cruise ship. Let's say you go
to Alaska. Cruise ships used to have I don't know,
eight hundred one thousand people on a cruise ship, and
that's attenable. Now cruise ships have five thousand people aboard
(14:17):
and five thousand people going for them. My daughter just
went to Alaska with a friend, and what a huge ship.
And these little towns catch a can for example, you
get off and there are tiny towns that only have
a few thousand people in them. It's tourist towns, totally overwhelmed.
(14:40):
The businesses love it. I mean, they're great, but the
people who live there are not so much. Okay, So
the bottom line is I love this story. You know why,
because if you do this, you are either going to die,
which is one of my favorite stories, or you're going
to be miserable when you go, and nothing makes me
(15:02):
happier than your misery.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
It's just part of what makes my life go around.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Okay, quick word about you sitting on airplanes. Have you
noticed or have you had the lovely experience of you
sitting on a tarmac for hours and generally to get
right to the gate doesn't happen very often.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
You land, if you're landing on time.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
And the pilot will say it's going to be ten minutes,
it's going to be fifteen minutes. We're waiting for a
gate to open. And you wonder how that works. And
there are a couple of reasons for it that you
may not know. One is just the airlines are screwing
with you. That's always a good reason. But it's a
couple of different reasons why this is happening. One is weather,
(15:49):
because of climate change, which of course doesn't exist. There
are a lot more cancelations. Look what's happening on the
East Coast right now with the flooding. Well, when you
have this kind of rain, these kinds of storms, well,
flights are canceled big time. And the other thing is
how the airports work. There are fewer gates than there
(16:12):
are planes flying in in terms of accommodation. And what
ends up happening is if one airplane is late, for example,
then all of a sudden, that dominoes down because the
gates opening are so restrictive. They have to be so
much on time, which is why we're waiting for a
gate to open up. And once that time has passed,
(16:38):
then it screws everything up and you're sitting out there
waiting on a tarmac. And I mean there are stories
of people waiting on tarmacs that has become crazy. I mean, oh,
for example, in May, United flights sixty six to one
Newark to Chicago. So the plane goes ready for takeoff,
a thunderstorm comes in, grounds a plane and everybody's all.
(17:01):
The storm fast moving, cleared a few hours later, and
it was seven hours later that flight six six to
one left the gate and then it was on the
tarmac and there you were passengers crammed inside. Around midnight,
the flight was canceled. Everybody got off. Isn't that fun.
(17:21):
The first five months of this year, three hundred and
forty two domestic flights were held on the tarmac for more.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Than three hours.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Now, that's not very many, except those numbers are exploding.
And it's which means if you sit on the tarmac
for two hours, that doesn't count as a huge delay.
The FAA doesn't come in and nail you or nail
the airline, or issue fines for delaying passengers for more
(17:52):
than three hours or under three hours. And you're getting
more and more of that. At the same time, you
have the Trump administration that is very pro airline and
not particularly pro consumer.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
And so do you know how many fines?
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Keep in mind, the number of flights that have been
delayed for more than three hours has exploded. Do you
know how many fines have been issued by the FAA,
which is allowed to issue fines of twenty seven five
hundred dollars per passenger on a flight that's more than
three hours, and there have been plenty of more than
(18:31):
three hours delayed.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
You know how many fines were issued?
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Zero?
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Zero?
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Now, to be fair, Biden issued far fewer than the
previous administration, and that's been going down. And Biden is
the Biden administration. Biden was as pro consumer as you
can get, and they didn't issue the fine, and passengers
are getting nailed. They're getting nailed because fewer flights strangely enough,
(19:04):
there may be fewer flights, but there's more congestion at
the gate. Because let me give you an analogy. Okay,
a little bit of handle history here. During right after
World War two, during the Cold War, there was the
Berlin Airlift where you had the Russians shutting down Berlin.
(19:26):
And Berlin is in the middle of East Germany, even
though so Western city and the food supplies came in
by rail, but it went through East Germany. So what
the Russians did, through their puppet government East Germany, they
just shut it down. So the supplies, the coal, the food,
(19:49):
the medicines were airlifted in and flights were going every
three minutes and if a flight was thirty second delay,
the airplanes had to pull out of the line because
a delay of thirty seconds or a minute a minute
dominoed back. And so that's what happened, and that's why
(20:13):
the Berlin Airlift worked. Well, you're not going to see
that with airlines, American carriers or any carriers, because what
are they going to do pull an airplane full of
people off of the line.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Of course not, but it is a mess.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
So it's weather cancellations, it is the number of gates
that are available, and it is the policy of the airline.
They're going to get that plane up as quickly as possible,
going back to the gate which doesn't exist. Taking people
off the plane is now losing money on that flight.
And the only way airplanes, the airlines make money is
(20:50):
when that plane takes off and in the air. On
the ground, that does not make money. So enjoy yourself
the big mazletov here when you fly now. International flights
are much better. International flights are affected the least. Okay,
interesting story out of CNN, it's a medical story, and
(21:13):
that is US life expectancy is on track to reach
a record high as the death rate falls to a
record low in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Boy, that's good news.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
You know why has it gone up? Well, how about
this COVID killed virtually everybody or killed what almost a
million people during COVID. That's a big hit. So if
you add COVID all a sudden the death rate, well
it goes up, doesn't it. And then you had the opioid,
(21:47):
the opioid debacle. And even then we had to used
to have what one hundred and twenty thousand people die
of opioid overdoses, and opioid is very hard to get.
Today's now still down to seventy but that's half for
a third of what it used to be. And it's
just there are a bunch of reasons for us living
(22:09):
longer and more people are doing this. Eating better. For
those of you that think eating healthy food somehow affects
your lifespan, yeah, I'll tell you something. I'd rather take
the shortage I take as soon a lifespan that's shorter
than give up my burritos from Costco. So exercise, which
(22:31):
I am doing. I mean, I've never exercised like this
in my life. And so people are just changing smoking, less,
drinking less, more social interaction, which I have no idea
what that's about. So am I going to live longer?
Smoking is way down, So that creates a situation where
(22:55):
we're living longer. Now. There's some caveats. Hey, A lot
of it has to do with access to nutrition and
medical facilities and medical care, which is why minorities don't
do as well as white people do in America because
minorities make less money and have less access to medical care.
And around the world, well, it's really different around the world.
(23:19):
We have good nutrition, among the best in this country,
including burritos from Costco. And if you go to the
Sudan or Yemen, tonight's dinner will be sand because that's
what they eat. They don't have anything else to eat,
and it's not particularly nutritious. So talking about us, you know,
(23:40):
I just did a stat At the beginning of last century,
nineteen hundred, which is not very long ago, the average
age around the world people dying was thirty five, and
I think it was in the forties here in the
United States.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
And this is your lifetime.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
And now I'm gonna bring it down to what we're
experiencing right now, and that is it used to be
sixty five was old. People retired at sixty five and
they were seriously old. How many people view sixty five
and being old today. I was talking to Lindsay the
other day, who constantly makes fun of me being older
than her, I mean constantly day and night, and we
(24:24):
talked about when I'm going to get old, and she said,
how about now?
Speaker 1 (24:29):
Bill?
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Does now work for you? But realistically, when are you old?
Not even in your seventies anymore, you start getting old
in terms of the way you're perceived probably in your eighties. Yeah,
I just read a story. Well, look at the rockers
(24:50):
that are out there. Paul McCartney is almost eighty, Mick
Jagger is in his seventies.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
Also, it's just.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
We're we're living longer and the other side of it,
we're living longer nutritionally and we're living longer in terms
of age. We still haven't beat Alzheimer's and the ability
cognitive abilities that hasn't been beat yet. And that's the
other thing that Lindsey talks to me about constantly is
(25:20):
you're losing your memory. Huh when did you say that?
Last five minutes ago? Coming up Tech Tuesday with Rich
Demurrow right here on KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
You've been listening to the Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
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 kf I
AM six forty blackmun name was Donald Shrump, Donald Trump,
Donald Trump, Donald Trump, Donald Trump, Donald Trump KFI AM
six forty Bill Handle. Here. It is a Tuesday morning,
July seventh. Big news.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
We're covering the The US soccer team, which has just
added the word loser to its title, lost last night,
and I was sorely disappointed. Not that they lost, It's
just I'm okay with them losing because Belgium is a
one of the top ten teams in the world. It's
just the way they lost. They were sloppy, they didn't
(00:40):
come to the table. It's just come on, guys. They
almost they almost dialed it in.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Some news with the president right now. The President is
in Turkey. There's a NATO summit and he is there
as part of NATO forty two members of NATO member countries,
which the United States not only is one, it is
the leading country. NATO was created by the United States
(01:09):
after World War Two, right in the middle of the
Cold War, the start of the Cold War, to protect
Europe against a Russian invasion. It's all about protecting Europe,
and there are certain rules about NATO. The United States,
it does or did give the majority the money, the troops,
the weaponry, and based on the NATO Charter, the US
(01:32):
always has command and control of NATO. There's always an
American general who is head of NATO. Well, the President
has voiced a lot of skepticism about NATO and for
a long time too. I have mentioned many times at
one of the things about President Trump, no secret agenda.
I mean, this guy walks the walk and he talks
the talk. We know he says this is what I believe,
(01:55):
and this is what he believes. I mean, we're going back.
Let me tell you how long ago you could go.
When he talked about how NATO is a waste of
time in nineteen ninety a Playboy interview, he said that
the US was defending wealthy nations for nothing. Who would
be wiped off the face of the earth in about
(02:16):
fifteen minutes. So here we are two terms later. He
has repeatedly suggested he could quit NATO, which I don't
know if that's true or not, but you know, that's
another issue.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
And this is a guy.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Think about this in terms of how he deals with allies.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Earlier this year.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
He threatened to seize Greenland, which is part of Denmark
and NATO ally. He said during his last campaign that
he would encourage Russia to attack nations that don't spend
enough on defense. That's one of the things that he
has argued. Europeans don't spend enough on defense. They're relying
too much on us to protect them. Hey, those days
(03:04):
are over. And of course he went completely berserk on
the European criticism of the Iran War when the European
countries wouldn't come to the aid and helping the US
with the war, and so they're looking at it saying, Okay,
(03:26):
we've got to make some changes. And this is where
I agree with and understand Trump. Now, not the way
he does things, I mean, that is obviously questionable, and
I'm not a big fan of how he does things,
but his premise, I think is legitimate, and that is
it is time. You know, Europe is there to defend
itself now relying on the United States. Yeah, yeah, we
(03:49):
are an ally, but relying primarily on the United States.
Those days are over. And the President has said over
and over again and has demanded that the European nations,
which have not met their commitment to defend spending to
be part of NATO had not are now coming to
the table because of the Trump not only request, but
(04:14):
his requirement, and they're now figuring out what do we
do now.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
We've heard a lot about Article five, right, You've heard
that over and over again.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
What is Article five part of the NATO charter that
says if one country is attacked, all are attacked and
all have to go to war.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Well, they don't have to that. Article five is not automatic.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Once a NATO country is attacked requests under Article five
that the other NATO allies come in and defend.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
It has to be unanimous. All thirty two NATO members
have to vote to do that.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Much like any country trying to join NATO, all thirty
two NATO countries have to agree. One country says no,
thank you, blacklists the country applying done, they're not coming in.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Which is a big issue with Ukraine.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Ukraine has been trying for years and years to become
part of NATO and it just ain't happening, mainly because
of trying to appease and appeasing putin. There's a lot
of reasons for this and it gets a little complicated,
but The bottom line is, let's not offend putin. Europe
is a bunch of wosses anyway. I mean, they literally
are a bunch of paddy wastes. I mean that's the
(05:41):
way they have done their world, you know, appeasement to Hitler,
I mean just all of it. I mean they have
not changed. And now European leaders are turning around and saying, Okay,
maybe it is time.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Trump is certainly pushing it.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
For pushing it that way, and one of the reasons
and makes sense, we spend a fortune.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
On military aid to NATO.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Now the president decides where, with congressional approval, where and
how much the military is funded.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
And he's a big fan of the military, but not
of NATO. Not of NATO.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
And so what happens is you now have countries around
the world. Well, here's what happens. Reliance on the United
States is basically gone. Trusting the United States is not
there anymore. That's one thing that the president has done
is he's turned it over. I've said many times, we've
all known many times that he is changing the world order.
(06:46):
Even if a president, a new president comes in, let's
say it's a Democrat, which I think there's more than
a reasonable chance, and then puts us back in the
NATO fully and says, okay.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
We're part of the old school.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Of NATO, you know, the europe To wit a minute,
any president can say no, thank you. So what happens
if another Republican comes in after that? We have to
rely on ourselves, which is not a bad thing. It
really isn't. I mean, Europe is not the Europe of
post World War two when everybody was starving, you know.
(07:20):
And I remember, as in the fifties, my mother, in
order for me to clean the plate, would say, kids
are starving in Europe. And it was still very rough
for Europe even in the fifties. So I cleaned my
plate at dinner. Interestingly enough, I got fat and they
still starve. But that is something that we've talked about
(07:44):
and we'll talk about it at a later time. Yeah,
my mother was crazy. She was fat too, so hey,
life is life. But the bottom line is that this
makes a lot of sense. I think the president is
right on now threatening to take up Greenland and.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Not so good.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
And of course that wasn't going to happen. Maybe it was,
I have no idea, but the premise works. And I
agree with President Trump on this one calender that one.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
How often do I agree with the president? Huh? All right.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
The other thing about Europe that I want to talk
about is that European cities, particularly those that are tourist
attractions Barcelona, Paris, et cetera, are restricting international tourism. Now
it used to be they would just literally fall over
each other to get international tourism. These tourist boards come
(08:39):
to us, come to us, come to us. Now, don't
go to that city. Look at what you get in Paris,
look at what you're getting in Madrid. Well, those days
are gone because of a huge backlash against over tourism.
Too many people traveling these cities have now restricted short
term rental platforms like Airbnb. No, no way are we
(09:00):
going to do that. They've raised accommodation taxes, taxes, strict
caps on cruise ship disembarkments.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
And what does that mean?
Speaker 2 (09:12):
And bottom line, well, the poor tourists are just getting
n ale. The rich du just fine, but the poor turfs,
like everything else, being poor is never fun. And theyre
curbing the sheer volume of visitors. And it's a new
business model. And what it does is raise prices because
(09:34):
fewer people are even allowed there. For example, if you're
on a cruise ship that would normally, let's say it
would stop in Okay, Italy and Rome, and it is
not allowed to anymore, or the limitation, all of a sudden,
things get pretty expensive there because there are fewer people.
(09:55):
Love supply and demand, you know, if you don't have much,
supply and demand goes up and the prices go up.
And that's what's happening in Europe right now, particularly the airbnb.
The airbnb issue, the short term rentals are a very
big deal because what it does is it takes housing
out of the market, takes a rental market. It takes
(10:15):
a rental market just gone. It takes it well. It
takes those houses where people are gonna rent on Airbnb.
They makes you a lot more money than long term rental.
So you've got people in those places that are being
priced out, and so the cities are saying, no, we
don't want that to happen. Housing is very important to us,
(10:38):
and the other thing just to wear and tear of
all of these people. I don't know if you've ever
been to Venice, If you ever have during the summer
you go to Saint Mark's Square, it is literally bumper
to bumper people crossing those bridges over the Venice canals.
Is it's grid law as those bridges are being crossed,
(11:04):
and there's just too much. And one of the things
about tourism, tourism is neat for a country because it's
effectively it's an export. It's an export model economic model.
Money is flowing in and it's not costing very much money.
There aren't factories that are producing products. Is not a
(11:24):
caterpillar factory, for example, that is selling tractors overseas where
they have to build them. Here it's the Eiffel Tower,
it's already there and the only thing they have to
do is maintain it. And so it's a real good buck.
But there's just too many people, way too many people.
(11:45):
I mean, tourism has exploded to the point is a
point where I won't go and I travel constantly. That's
where my disposable income has always gone is to is
to travel. I take all the money when I buy
my costco shirts that I would that I would normally
spend no shirts that it goes into my travel fund.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
I won't go during the summer anymore. It's just too crazy.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
And the cities are absolutely reeling with over tourism. I
mean I just did a story or read a story
about Yosemite. Yosemite is just untenable. It used to be reservations,
and the Trump administration removed the reservation requirement for Yosemite.
You can't find a parking spot in the park, you
(12:36):
can't find any place to eat. There are lines even
for the restrooms. It is a tourism over tourism really
really hurts.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
And so the world is changing. So what does that
mean to us?
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Well, we're going to pay a lot more money for
those attractions and I go back, or the city is
being attracted, the cities being attraction, and so here is well, okay,
let me give you an example. New York City banned
short term rentals. When they did, the average daily rates
for hotels increased by as much as nineteen dollars per day.
(13:21):
It's the average rate increased by as much as nineteen
dollars per day. And that's because all short term rentals
were just taking off the market. Airbnb didn't exist. And
so you have, well a bunch of reasons. You have
an international retreat from all the rules that rules based commerce.
(13:41):
The World Trade Organization has been sidelined. We used to
be the leader of and the champion of free trade.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Not anymore.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
The tariffs have come into place. Protectionism is returned, and
so part of protectionism is saying, you know, we're gonna
protect ours elves. We don't want tourists. Because if you've
ever been on a cruise ship. Let's say you go
to Alaska. Cruise ships used to have I don't know,
eight hundred one thousand people on a cruise ship, and
that's attenable. Now cruise ships have five thousand people aboard
(14:17):
and five thousand people going for them. My daughter just
went to Alaska with a friend, and what a huge ship.
And these little towns catch a can for example, you
get off and there are tiny towns that only have
a few thousand people in them. It's tourist towns, totally overwhelmed.
(14:40):
The businesses love it. I mean, they're great, but the
people who live there are not so much. Okay, So
the bottom line is I love this story. You know why,
because if you do this, you are either going to die,
which is one of my favorite stories, or you're going
to be miserable when you go, and nothing makes me
(15:02):
happier than your misery.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
It's just part of what makes my life go around.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Okay, quick word about you sitting on airplanes. Have you
noticed or have you had the lovely experience of you
sitting on a tarmac for hours and generally to get
right to the gate doesn't happen very often.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
You land, if you're landing on time.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
And the pilot will say it's going to be ten minutes,
it's going to be fifteen minutes. We're waiting for a
gate to open. And you wonder how that works. And
there are a couple of reasons for it that you
may not know. One is just the airlines are screwing
with you. That's always a good reason. But it's a
couple of different reasons why this is happening. One is weather,
(15:49):
because of climate change, which of course doesn't exist. There
are a lot more cancelations. Look what's happening on the
East Coast right now with the flooding. Well, when you
have this kind of rain, these kinds of storms, well,
flights are canceled big time. And the other thing is
how the airports work. There are fewer gates than there
(16:12):
are planes flying in in terms of accommodation. And what
ends up happening is if one airplane is late, for example,
then all of a sudden, that dominoes down because the
gates opening are so restrictive. They have to be so
much on time, which is why we're waiting for a
gate to open up. And once that time has passed,
(16:38):
then it screws everything up and you're sitting out there
waiting on a tarmac. And I mean there are stories
of people waiting on tarmacs that has become crazy. I mean, oh,
for example, in May, United flights sixty six to one
Newark to Chicago. So the plane goes ready for takeoff,
a thunderstorm comes in, grounds a plane and everybody's all.
(17:01):
The storm fast moving, cleared a few hours later, and
it was seven hours later that flight six six to
one left the gate and then it was on the
tarmac and there you were passengers crammed inside. Around midnight,
the flight was canceled. Everybody got off. Isn't that fun.
(17:21):
The first five months of this year, three hundred and
forty two domestic flights were held on the tarmac for more.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Than three hours.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Now, that's not very many, except those numbers are exploding.
And it's which means if you sit on the tarmac
for two hours, that doesn't count as a huge delay.
The FAA doesn't come in and nail you or nail
the airline, or issue fines for delaying passengers for more
(17:52):
than three hours or under three hours. And you're getting
more and more of that. At the same time, you
have the Trump administration that is very pro airline and
not particularly pro consumer.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
And so do you know how many fines?
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Keep in mind, the number of flights that have been
delayed for more than three hours has exploded. Do you
know how many fines have been issued by the FAA,
which is allowed to issue fines of twenty seven five
hundred dollars per passenger on a flight that's more than
three hours, and there have been plenty of more than
(18:31):
three hours delayed.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
You know how many fines were issued?
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Zero?
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Zero?
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Now, to be fair, Biden issued far fewer than the
previous administration, and that's been going down. And Biden is
the Biden administration. Biden was as pro consumer as you
can get, and they didn't issue the fine, and passengers
are getting nailed. They're getting nailed because fewer flights strangely enough,
(19:04):
there may be fewer flights, but there's more congestion at
the gate. Because let me give you an analogy. Okay,
a little bit of handle history here. During right after
World War two, during the Cold War, there was the
Berlin Airlift where you had the Russians shutting down Berlin.
(19:26):
And Berlin is in the middle of East Germany, even
though so Western city and the food supplies came in
by rail, but it went through East Germany. So what
the Russians did, through their puppet government East Germany, they
just shut it down. So the supplies, the coal, the food,
(19:49):
the medicines were airlifted in and flights were going every
three minutes and if a flight was thirty second delay,
the airplanes had to pull out of the line because
a delay of thirty seconds or a minute a minute
dominoed back. And so that's what happened, and that's why
(20:13):
the Berlin Airlift worked. Well, you're not going to see
that with airlines, American carriers or any carriers, because what
are they going to do pull an airplane full of
people off of the line.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Of course not, but it is a mess.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
So it's weather cancellations, it is the number of gates
that are available, and it is the policy of the airline.
They're going to get that plane up as quickly as possible,
going back to the gate which doesn't exist. Taking people
off the plane is now losing money on that flight.
And the only way airplanes, the airlines make money is
(20:50):
when that plane takes off and in the air. On
the ground, that does not make money. So enjoy yourself
the big mazletov here when you fly now. International flights
are much better. International flights are affected the least. Okay,
interesting story out of CNN, it's a medical story, and
(21:13):
that is US life expectancy is on track to reach
a record high as the death rate falls to a
record low in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Boy, that's good news.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
You know why has it gone up? Well, how about
this COVID killed virtually everybody or killed what almost a
million people during COVID. That's a big hit. So if
you add COVID all a sudden the death rate, well
it goes up, doesn't it. And then you had the opioid,
(21:47):
the opioid debacle. And even then we had to used
to have what one hundred and twenty thousand people die
of opioid overdoses, and opioid is very hard to get.
Today's now still down to seventy but that's half for
a third of what it used to be. And it's
just there are a bunch of reasons for us living
(22:09):
longer and more people are doing this. Eating better. For
those of you that think eating healthy food somehow affects
your lifespan, yeah, I'll tell you something. I'd rather take
the shortage I take as soon a lifespan that's shorter
than give up my burritos from Costco. So exercise, which
(22:31):
I am doing. I mean, I've never exercised like this
in my life. And so people are just changing smoking, less,
drinking less, more social interaction, which I have no idea
what that's about. So am I going to live longer?
Smoking is way down, So that creates a situation where
(22:55):
we're living longer. Now. There's some caveats. Hey, A lot
of it has to do with access to nutrition and
medical facilities and medical care, which is why minorities don't
do as well as white people do in America because
minorities make less money and have less access to medical care.
And around the world, well, it's really different around the world.
(23:19):
We have good nutrition, among the best in this country,
including burritos from Costco. And if you go to the
Sudan or Yemen, tonight's dinner will be sand because that's
what they eat. They don't have anything else to eat,
and it's not particularly nutritious. So talking about us, you know,
(23:40):
I just did a stat At the beginning of last century,
nineteen hundred, which is not very long ago, the average
age around the world people dying was thirty five, and
I think it was in the forties here in the
United States.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
And this is your lifetime.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
And now I'm gonna bring it down to what we're
experiencing right now, and that is it used to be
sixty five was old. People retired at sixty five and
they were seriously old. How many people view sixty five
and being old today. I was talking to Lindsay the
other day, who constantly makes fun of me being older
than her, I mean constantly day and night, and we
(24:24):
talked about when I'm going to get old, and she said,
how about now?
Speaker 1 (24:29):
Bill?
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Does now work for you? But realistically, when are you old?
Not even in your seventies anymore, you start getting old
in terms of the way you're perceived probably in your eighties. Yeah,
I just read a story. Well, look at the rockers
(24:50):
that are out there. Paul McCartney is almost eighty, Mick
Jagger is in his seventies.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
Also, it's just.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
We're we're living longer and the other side of it,
we're living longer nutritionally and we're living longer in terms
of age. We still haven't beat Alzheimer's and the ability
cognitive abilities that hasn't been beat yet. And that's the
other thing that Lindsey talks to me about constantly is
(25:20):
you're losing your memory. Huh when did you say that?
Last five minutes ago? Coming up Tech Tuesday with Rich
Demurrow right here on KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
You've been listening to the Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
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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