January 19, 2026 • 28 mins
(January 19,2025)
Europe is bracing for a new trade fight with President Trump. Indian and other say they were invited to join Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ for Gaza. Amid rising costs, California and L.A. initiatives aim to tax the ultra-rich… for now. U.S. overdose deaths fell though most of 2025 federal data reveals.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listenings kf I AM six forty the bill Handles
show on demand on the iHeartRadio app. Bill Handle here.
It is a Monday morning, January, the nineteenth couple of
announcements to make before we jump into the new trade
wars potential trade war, and number one, ask I handle anything,
which we do on Friday eight thirty. But you have
(00:24):
to be part of it. And it's all about you
asking me, recording personal questions so I get embarrassed. That's
what that's about. And during the show, you go to
the iHeartRadio app and click onto it and you'll see
the bill Handle show being broadcast, and click on the
microphone the app right hand corner and you'll be able
to record a question. I don't want your opinion on
(00:46):
what's going on, but certainly your question embarrassing questions. Also
next couple of days, we are still raising money for
Kono Cono's car blew up, as you know, and he
is a borrow car. He's CouchSurfing on a car. I
think he's using his grandmother's car and we're trying to
get him another car. He drives seventy two miles each
(01:08):
way and he unfortunately not a lot of money. Lives
under a tent. He lives under a bridge in a
tent in the Inland Empire. And you know how people
sell oranges and they sell flowers on the street corner,
he sells meth. Because it's the Inline Empire. Anyway, we're
(01:29):
asking you legitimately to help us to raise some money
for a KNO so he can get the car that
he needs. In any case, you go to our web
page because a lot of weird stuff happens on Go Fundme.
So go to KFI A M six forty dot com
(01:50):
slash cono, k O n O. That's KFI a M
six forty dot com slash cono, and we're gonna be
very close to what we want what we want to raise. Okay,
Now moving to what's happening between Europe and the United States.
Europe is bracing for a all out trade war with
(02:13):
the President, and I want to go through some of
the options that Europe is looking at and has. And
this all has to do with Trump's plan to take
control of Greenland, either buying Greenland or even threatening I
don't know how legitimate that is, threatening the possibility of
a military action. So the European Union can get involved
(02:37):
with trade retaliation, reduce defense ties and use the bazuka.
What is the bazooka, I'll tell you in a minute.
So Trump has threatened actually it will institute economic measures
against Europe starting February one. And you now have ten
(03:00):
percent tariffs. He's going to add ten percent, and if
the European Union doesn't cave on Greenland, it'll be another
twenty five percent. And the European Union, okay, they're going
to do the same thing retaliatory tariffs against the US.
(03:20):
And what is the bazooka. Well, it allows the countries
to fight back when under economic duress from another country.
And that's exactly what they're arguing. The European Union is
one trading block and its rules allow the entire block
to fight back when duress is being exercised by another country.
(03:45):
Read the United States. Now the ambassador didn't reach a decision,
Diplomats say there's still time for talks with the US.
You know, is Trump serious about this? I don't know.
One of the things that President Trump does, he says
pretty outrageous stuff and whether he means it or not,
or he says it just to keep everybody on tenter hooks,
(04:10):
wondering is it going to happen? Is it not going
to happen. We don't know, and that gives him That's
what he does, that's how he operates and always has.
So they're going to discuss this matter European leaders at
the start of the World Economic Forum. It happens every
(04:30):
year in Davos, Switzerland, and that's where billionaires heads a
state get together and they just schmooze and a lot
comes out of that. Trump is going to be there too,
and so originally, when Trump announced his quote Liberation Day
terrorists last year, the European leaders hesitated to strike back,
(04:51):
wanted to keep him involved in the military alliance, especially
in Ukraine's defense. But now they're saying and taking him soonuriously,
which I think they should after what happened in Venezuela.
And so what are they going to do? Well looking
at what Europe did to that lopsided trade deal with
(05:13):
the US that included a fifteen percent duty for most
EU goods imported the US. And again this is trump
method to his madness. He wanted tariffs, He went ahead
and established tariffs, and Europe did nothing, just sat back
and let it happen. Well, has a line been has
(05:33):
a ligne been crossed? Looks that way? Looks that way?
Denmark which effectively owns Greenland, it's a semi autonomous territory
of Denmark, and Denmark is saying you're not buying it
from this And if you invade and try to grab
it by force, well, Europe is already sending forces over there.
(05:57):
So what Europe can do the EU is well, they
have already drown up a list of one hundred billion
dollars of tariffs, retaliatory tariffs, including chewing gum. Didn't know
chewing gum was that big of an issue, motorcycles, peanut butter.
As the day progresses, yeah, from the height. All right,
(06:20):
Now here's the problem. Retaliation, And this is President Trump.
You hit me once, I hit you twice. Economic action
over Greenland might put everything over the edge. And we're
going to find out. Is it going to happen? Yeah?
Also a couple of things Europe may bounce. The basis
(06:40):
we have for example, Ramshein in Germany since World War
Two is the biggest base, twelve thousand people, and it
has incredible when anybody is wounded for example, in the
Middle East, Americans that are dreadfully wounded, they go to
Ramstein and it's considered literally some of the best medicine
on the planet. And you can get rid of those bases.
(07:05):
They can add more bases to Greenland. The whole thing is,
is it going to explode? Who the hell knows. But
it's another move by the president, an extraordinary move by
the president, really controversial move by the president. And if
it goes through, it changes our relationship with the European
Block completely. Keeping in mind that most of Europe is
(07:26):
a member of NATO. We are a member of NATO.
And remember Article five. Never let that leave the conversation
when you're talking about President Trump and any member of NATO,
and that is an attack on one, is an attack
on all. And it would be the United States invading
(07:48):
and going to war with a NATO ally. When NATO
was created, no one ever thought in a million years
that that could happen. All right, now I got a well,
here we go again, a Trump story, or a couple
of them, one kind of crazy, typical Trump that you
shake your head at, the other one not so crazy
(08:10):
that a good part of it makes sense. First of all,
as you know, the president is really upset about the snub,
but as he perceives it that he did not get
the Nobel Peace Prize. And he wrote to the Norwegian
president or prime minister actually quote, considering your country decided
(08:32):
not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having
stopped eight wars, plus I no longer feel an obligation
to think purely of peace, although it will always be predominant.
But keen, now you can think about what is good,
or we can think about what is good and proper
for the United States. The implication, of course, is giving
(08:52):
him the peace price. Then he bashed Denmark. It can't
protect Greenland from Russia or China claimed it. A question
is claim over Greenland, saying there are no written documents,
which is only that a boat landed there hundreds of
years before we had boats landing there also. And then
Trump ends the letter saying the world is not secure
(09:17):
unless we have complete and total control of Greenland. And
by the way, that letter has been forwarded by the
National Security Council to multiple European ambassadors in Washington. Kind
of fun. And now he talks about the threat Russia
(09:38):
and China, which according to a lot of experts, is
really not a threat. China's been around four years, no
ships have been around for ten years, and Russia is
so concentrating on the Ukraine issue that it's been doing
nothing for years. So here is the issue that I
(09:59):
want to share with you. The President, for some reason,
thinks that it is the country of Norway that gives
the Peace Prize. It does not. You think he would
know that it doesn't at all. There's a Nobel committee
(10:19):
that issues the price, and we don't even know who's
on that committee. By the way, that's super secret, and
we don't know who the votes are. We don't know
who finalists really are. And anybody can be nominated for
any prize. I was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
How is that possible? Well, here are the rules, because
(10:41):
any elected official from any country can nominate someone on
the Peace Prize or for the Peace Prize, and then
the nomination goes to the Nobel Committee. So what I
did is iet myself a congressperson to nominate me for
the Nobel Peace Price. Now the reality is, well, this
(11:03):
congress person whose name I can't share with you because
he or she has asked me not to in the
letter to the Nobel Peace Committee which he shared with me,
and I shared the letter that was shared had his
name redacted because he was so embarrassed by nominating me
(11:24):
for the Peace Prize. The point I am making is
that anybody can nominate. Now. The President of Hungary, for example,
nominated Donald Trump and he was pretty happy about that. Also,
the elected Mushadow of Venezuela, and she's been in hiding
(11:46):
and she won the Nobel Peace Prize because her surrogate
won the election in Venezuela overwhelmingly by seventy percent, and
Maduro pulled the results of the election. She went to
Washington and she had said she was going to do
this and handed the president her Nobel prize, saying, here
you go, you really deserve this. And he was beaming
(12:11):
upon the receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize. There he
was the recipient of the Peace Prize. And the Nobel
Committee said, no, no, we gave it to her. We
didn't give it to the president. Is he ever going
to get the Nobel Prize? Not a chance in hell,
(12:33):
Because I'll tell you they are not very happy. Well,
I'm assuming maybe they are happy. Maybe they think about it.
Maybe he is going to get it next year, but
he is saying to Norway that is, since I didn't
get the priest prize, I may go after Greenland militarily
(12:54):
because of the peace prize see peace and I gat ok.
Here's the logic here. Peace is the absence of war, right,
and if you give me the peace prize, I will
not attack. And that's kind of a neat way of
negotiating peace. I like it. I like it. It's kind
(13:19):
of crazy, isn't it. Matter of fact? Tomorrow, what I
want to do is eight crazy things or ten crazy
things that we have seen from this administration. And by
the way, some of the stuff that actually makes sense
and pretty good at but this one is, yeah, this
is the one that is really good. So now the
(13:40):
other thing that may be crazy but not so crazy,
is that the President has created a Board of Peace
for Gaza and that's pretty impressive. And Lindsay just walked
in with a hamburger hat. That is hilarious. It's why.
(14:02):
It's because last night we're making burgers and she makes
the actual burgers, and I always harass her on the
making of the burgers. They weren't big enough because I
wanted to make a hamburger, a hamburger sandwich. It was
very complicated. I should tell a picture for someone to
don't have somebody who's ninety eight pounds make your burger.
(14:25):
That's a good point because they're very small burger. That's correct,
That is correct. I made a much bigger burger. Okay, okay.
An issue when I do a lot of this, and
I know I talk a lot about Donald Trump, but
it's almost impossible not to across the board in terms
of impact, uniqueness as a president, entertainment value as a president.
(14:52):
And here is something that actually may make sense, but
it's being it's basically being produced as a Trump event,
a Trump esque And this is what's being called Trump's
Board of Peace for Gaza. Actually it's being called the
Board of Peace. And what is the Board of Peace?
(15:16):
The Board of Peace is a group of countries that
have been put together, have been invited to join this
organization that the President created to help Gaza and it
will oversee the next steps in Gaza. This is the
second phase of the war in Gaza. First phase now
(15:40):
in a semblance of a treaty, if you will, a
peace sort of kind of peace plan that came into effect, okay,
And what it does is include a new Palestinian Committee
and Gaza, the deployment of an international security for disarmament
(16:01):
of Gaza, which is way up in the air, of course,
and reconstruction of the war Batter territory, which I think
everybody is in favor of, and you know, Israel gives
it lip service, but is it really Is it really
in favor of that? I don't know. And what the
President did inviting world leaders on behalf of their countries
(16:23):
that the Board of Peace would embark on a bold
new approach to resolving global global conflict. Effect of what
he's doing is rivaling the UN Security Council. And the
UN Security Council is an organization that has really no
oomph to it. It's merely political statement. A lot of
(16:45):
it is anti US, Third world countries that hate us.
We have They just sit there in New York and
babble and get traffic tickets the members of the UN
and that they they don't have to pay because they
have unity. And what Trump is doing, and I agree
with him, is saying, okay, let's get an organization that
(17:06):
rivals the UN Security Council, that actually does something. Now,
the fifteen seat Council has been blocked by US, Vetos
has been blocked by China, and certain aspects have been
blocked by Russia. And why is that? Because you have
five members, five founding members of the UN, the Security Council.
(17:30):
Remember this was after the war, after World War two,
and it was part of the peace treaty. It was
part of the organization that was put together that after
the war got together and effectively became anti communists if
you were. And NATO was founded along the same grounds,
except this was for peace, this was not for defense.
(17:53):
Five members have veto power, can veto anything, and that's
what happens because you have different views. Russia has its interests,
the United States has its interests, you have China having
its interests. And the other one is France and England
(18:13):
are part of the Security Council. So the other reason
that the UN has its cloud has been diminished is
cut funding cuts from the Trump administration and other donors,
which I agree with completely. President Trump is absolutely right
on this one. The UN is a waste of time.
(18:34):
It's an organization that just babbles and does nothing and
doesn't enforce doesn't have well, it does have a police force,
but it's only peacekeeping. I mean, they certainly don't go
to war. So this council, Oh, in a couple of things,
is founding members with a billion dollar contribution can be
(18:55):
permanent members instead of a three year appointment. The three
year appointment does not require a contribution. Australia has been invited,
India says it has been invited, and Jordan, Greece, Cyprus,
Pakistan said they've been invited. Canada, Turkey, Egia, Paraguay, Argentina,
(19:16):
Albania have already said they were invited. And we'll get
an official list of the members in the next few days,
likely during the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland.
And I want to point something out in a very
unusual move that the President makes, is that he did
(19:41):
not name himself the chair of the board. He is
not the chair of the Board of Peace for Gaza.
Oh I'm sorry, I misread that he is the chair
of the Board of Peace. He created it and he's
going to run damn thing much like the Kennedy excuse me,
(20:02):
the Donald Trump slash Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts,
much like the one hundred thousand dollar visa, the B
one visa, which is the Trump visa, also the million
dollar visa, that gold card, as you know, it's like
an American Express gold card, except that has a picture
(20:22):
of the president on it. And we go on and on.
So does it make sense? Yeah, if it works, it
makes sense because here we're talking about putting together a
group of countries who will commit money to rebuild Gaza,
who will effectuate and move forward the peace plan, who
(20:47):
will disarm Haramas if that's going to be one of
the big ones. And also where is Israel going to
accept the borders? And I think right now controls about
half of Gaza, half is controlled by Israel. And the
war is, as I said, a war of attrition. There
(21:09):
are attacks being made, both terrorist attacks against Israeli soldiers
and citizens by members of Hamas. And every time that happens,
Israel goes ahead and attacks targets. And on top of that,
the border crossings are clothes. Humanitarian aid is not getting
in for the most part. Israel says that it is.
It is not. Israel is starving people, although fewer now
(21:34):
and there is no oil. This is the middle of
winter and when rains come. Most of the Palestinians in
Gaza are living in tents. Huge number living intents, eighty
or eighty five percent have been displaced. There is no infrastructure, none,
there's one, I think there's one hospital that's still standing.
(22:00):
There are no universities, there are no school rooms. It's
the only way they can live is on solar power,
and then they can they can charge batteries on that.
It's a miserable way to live, and Israel's not letting
it get any better. At the same time, Hamas has
(22:21):
yet to give up. It's a ridiculous belief that Israel
should not exist. In the Charter of Hamas says we
will destroy the Jews in Israel and we will take
all of it. Well, that worked out, didn't it. Look
what's happening now? Yeah, you know that attack on Israel,
that October seventh attack in which twelve hundred Israelis were killed.
(22:42):
How did that one work out for you? And we're
not hearing much from Palestinians that live in Gazam. Maybe
it wasn't such a good idea. We're not hearing that
because Hamas is a dictatorial government, and it is a
government that if you speak any if you speak against it,
if they speak against it, they are in a lot
(23:04):
of trouble. Okay, Now, a quick story about billionaires. We have.
We have more billionaires in California than any place basically
in the world. And guess what happens with billionaires. They
like the whole public public office. For some reason, they
(23:27):
just like to run for office. All the way from
Caruso running for mayor, which he didn't get to, Megan
Whitman ran for governor, didn't get there. We just have
Bill Donald Trump, billionaire who got there. And so we
have a lot of billionaires. Why because it's kind of
(23:48):
fun for them, you know, Okay, billionaires, Well, I don't
have anything to do. Wake up in the morning. Okay,
let's run for office. Because they have certainly succeeded in
any any and every way possible financially. And it is
really interesting. OXFAM which is a British non nonprofit and
(24:11):
it talks about economic justice. OXFAM America report just came out.
Seventy four of the world's two thousand billionaires held either
executive or legislative government positions in twenty twenty three. That's
the last year for figures Now that's not a lot.
That's three point six chance of holding office. According to Oxfam.
(24:38):
Now the average global citizen, which is we who are
not billionaires, we have a point zero zero zero nine
percent chance of holding public office. And according to Rebecca Riddell,
this year report really shines a light on the relationship
(25:00):
between political inequality economic inequality, and so why not why not?
Forbes came out of this and this is coinciding with
a kickoff of the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Big you will hear a lot about that. And this
is this elite gathering of some of the richest people
(25:20):
in the world as well as world leaders, and they schmooze.
Let me just walk around, have a good time. Major
deals are struck at DeVos. I think the sale of
Pixar to Disney happened at DeVos, and they just walk around.
Now I think there are breakouts and there's a keynote speaker,
(25:44):
But for the most part, I would think the food
tod be great. You know it's I want to do
a story about that. And So a quick word about
President Trump in this particular, in this term, he has
a se the wealthiest cabinet and team in modern American history,
multiple billionaires, multi millionaires leading government agencies. And that's what
(26:10):
is done. And here is one of the controversies, because
the Republican led Congress last year enacted a sweeping domestic
policy package, big tax cuts for the wealthy and cuts
to the safety net programs. But this is the president's view,
is the Republican's view, certainly the magaview that social programs
(26:34):
are not something the United States should move towards or have,
and should be cut relative to enforcement of the border
and our military defense. And it's simply a question of
what the priorities are. So the other thing about billionaires.
In twenty twenty five, their wealth grew three times faster
(26:57):
than the past five years, reaching eighteen point three trillion dollars,
And that's equal to about half of the entire wealth
held by four point one billion people on the planet.
The lower half of the population around the world has
(27:19):
less money than these billionaires. Unfortunately, most of the world.
We are so blessed because you have so many people
around the world, poor, poor, poor people in Africa and
in India, where they struggle for a dollar a day.
They wake up in the morning and all they do
(27:42):
is figure out how they're going to eat that night.
Families do that. Can you imagine living that way? Can
you imagine living because and having kids and they go
to work at six because families have to be fed,
and there's so much of the world that is that way.
It's really unfortunate. KFI am sixty. You've been listening to
(28:03):
The Bill Handle Show. Catch My Show Monday through Friday
six am to nine am, and anytime on demand on
the iHeartRadio app.
You're listenings kf I AM six forty the bill Handles
show on demand on the iHeartRadio app. Bill Handle here.
It is a Monday morning, January, the nineteenth couple of
announcements to make before we jump into the new trade
wars potential trade war, and number one, ask I handle anything,
which we do on Friday eight thirty. But you have
(00:24):
to be part of it. And it's all about you
asking me, recording personal questions so I get embarrassed. That's
what that's about. And during the show, you go to
the iHeartRadio app and click onto it and you'll see
the bill Handle show being broadcast, and click on the
microphone the app right hand corner and you'll be able
to record a question. I don't want your opinion on
(00:46):
what's going on, but certainly your question embarrassing questions. Also
next couple of days, we are still raising money for
Kono Cono's car blew up, as you know, and he
is a borrow car. He's CouchSurfing on a car. I
think he's using his grandmother's car and we're trying to
get him another car. He drives seventy two miles each
(01:08):
way and he unfortunately not a lot of money. Lives
under a tent. He lives under a bridge in a
tent in the Inland Empire. And you know how people
sell oranges and they sell flowers on the street corner,
he sells meth. Because it's the Inline Empire. Anyway, we're
(01:29):
asking you legitimately to help us to raise some money
for a KNO so he can get the car that
he needs. In any case, you go to our web
page because a lot of weird stuff happens on Go Fundme.
So go to KFI A M six forty dot com
(01:50):
slash cono, k O n O. That's KFI a M
six forty dot com slash cono, and we're gonna be
very close to what we want what we want to raise. Okay,
Now moving to what's happening between Europe and the United States.
Europe is bracing for a all out trade war with
(02:13):
the President, and I want to go through some of
the options that Europe is looking at and has. And
this all has to do with Trump's plan to take
control of Greenland, either buying Greenland or even threatening I
don't know how legitimate that is, threatening the possibility of
a military action. So the European Union can get involved
(02:37):
with trade retaliation, reduce defense ties and use the bazuka.
What is the bazooka, I'll tell you in a minute.
So Trump has threatened actually it will institute economic measures
against Europe starting February one. And you now have ten
(03:00):
percent tariffs. He's going to add ten percent, and if
the European Union doesn't cave on Greenland, it'll be another
twenty five percent. And the European Union, okay, they're going
to do the same thing retaliatory tariffs against the US.
(03:20):
And what is the bazooka. Well, it allows the countries
to fight back when under economic duress from another country.
And that's exactly what they're arguing. The European Union is
one trading block and its rules allow the entire block
to fight back when duress is being exercised by another country.
(03:45):
Read the United States. Now the ambassador didn't reach a decision,
Diplomats say there's still time for talks with the US.
You know, is Trump serious about this? I don't know.
One of the things that President Trump does, he says
pretty outrageous stuff and whether he means it or not,
or he says it just to keep everybody on tenter hooks,
(04:10):
wondering is it going to happen? Is it not going
to happen. We don't know, and that gives him That's
what he does, that's how he operates and always has.
So they're going to discuss this matter European leaders at
the start of the World Economic Forum. It happens every
(04:30):
year in Davos, Switzerland, and that's where billionaires heads a
state get together and they just schmooze and a lot
comes out of that. Trump is going to be there too,
and so originally, when Trump announced his quote Liberation Day
terrorists last year, the European leaders hesitated to strike back,
(04:51):
wanted to keep him involved in the military alliance, especially
in Ukraine's defense. But now they're saying and taking him soonuriously,
which I think they should after what happened in Venezuela.
And so what are they going to do? Well looking
at what Europe did to that lopsided trade deal with
(05:13):
the US that included a fifteen percent duty for most
EU goods imported the US. And again this is trump
method to his madness. He wanted tariffs, He went ahead
and established tariffs, and Europe did nothing, just sat back
and let it happen. Well, has a line been has
(05:33):
a ligne been crossed? Looks that way? Looks that way?
Denmark which effectively owns Greenland, it's a semi autonomous territory
of Denmark, and Denmark is saying you're not buying it
from this And if you invade and try to grab
it by force, well, Europe is already sending forces over there.
(05:57):
So what Europe can do the EU is well, they
have already drown up a list of one hundred billion
dollars of tariffs, retaliatory tariffs, including chewing gum. Didn't know
chewing gum was that big of an issue, motorcycles, peanut butter.
As the day progresses, yeah, from the height. All right,
(06:20):
Now here's the problem. Retaliation, And this is President Trump.
You hit me once, I hit you twice. Economic action
over Greenland might put everything over the edge. And we're
going to find out. Is it going to happen? Yeah?
Also a couple of things Europe may bounce. The basis
(06:40):
we have for example, Ramshein in Germany since World War
Two is the biggest base, twelve thousand people, and it
has incredible when anybody is wounded for example, in the
Middle East, Americans that are dreadfully wounded, they go to
Ramstein and it's considered literally some of the best medicine
on the planet. And you can get rid of those bases.
(07:05):
They can add more bases to Greenland. The whole thing is,
is it going to explode? Who the hell knows. But
it's another move by the president, an extraordinary move by
the president, really controversial move by the president. And if
it goes through, it changes our relationship with the European
Block completely. Keeping in mind that most of Europe is
(07:26):
a member of NATO. We are a member of NATO.
And remember Article five. Never let that leave the conversation
when you're talking about President Trump and any member of NATO,
and that is an attack on one, is an attack
on all. And it would be the United States invading
(07:48):
and going to war with a NATO ally. When NATO
was created, no one ever thought in a million years
that that could happen. All right, now I got a well,
here we go again, a Trump story, or a couple
of them, one kind of crazy, typical Trump that you
shake your head at, the other one not so crazy
(08:10):
that a good part of it makes sense. First of all,
as you know, the president is really upset about the snub,
but as he perceives it that he did not get
the Nobel Peace Prize. And he wrote to the Norwegian
president or prime minister actually quote, considering your country decided
(08:32):
not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having
stopped eight wars, plus I no longer feel an obligation
to think purely of peace, although it will always be predominant.
But keen, now you can think about what is good,
or we can think about what is good and proper
for the United States. The implication, of course, is giving
(08:52):
him the peace price. Then he bashed Denmark. It can't
protect Greenland from Russia or China claimed it. A question
is claim over Greenland, saying there are no written documents,
which is only that a boat landed there hundreds of
years before we had boats landing there also. And then
Trump ends the letter saying the world is not secure
(09:17):
unless we have complete and total control of Greenland. And
by the way, that letter has been forwarded by the
National Security Council to multiple European ambassadors in Washington. Kind
of fun. And now he talks about the threat Russia
(09:38):
and China, which according to a lot of experts, is
really not a threat. China's been around four years, no
ships have been around for ten years, and Russia is
so concentrating on the Ukraine issue that it's been doing
nothing for years. So here is the issue that I
(09:59):
want to share with you. The President, for some reason,
thinks that it is the country of Norway that gives
the Peace Prize. It does not. You think he would
know that it doesn't at all. There's a Nobel committee
(10:19):
that issues the price, and we don't even know who's
on that committee. By the way, that's super secret, and
we don't know who the votes are. We don't know
who finalists really are. And anybody can be nominated for
any prize. I was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
How is that possible? Well, here are the rules, because
(10:41):
any elected official from any country can nominate someone on
the Peace Prize or for the Peace Prize, and then
the nomination goes to the Nobel Committee. So what I
did is iet myself a congressperson to nominate me for
the Nobel Peace Price. Now the reality is, well, this
(11:03):
congress person whose name I can't share with you because
he or she has asked me not to in the
letter to the Nobel Peace Committee which he shared with me,
and I shared the letter that was shared had his
name redacted because he was so embarrassed by nominating me
(11:24):
for the Peace Prize. The point I am making is
that anybody can nominate. Now. The President of Hungary, for example,
nominated Donald Trump and he was pretty happy about that. Also,
the elected Mushadow of Venezuela, and she's been in hiding
(11:46):
and she won the Nobel Peace Prize because her surrogate
won the election in Venezuela overwhelmingly by seventy percent, and
Maduro pulled the results of the election. She went to
Washington and she had said she was going to do
this and handed the president her Nobel prize, saying, here
you go, you really deserve this. And he was beaming
(12:11):
upon the receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize. There he
was the recipient of the Peace Prize. And the Nobel
Committee said, no, no, we gave it to her. We
didn't give it to the president. Is he ever going
to get the Nobel Prize? Not a chance in hell,
(12:33):
Because I'll tell you they are not very happy. Well,
I'm assuming maybe they are happy. Maybe they think about it.
Maybe he is going to get it next year, but
he is saying to Norway that is, since I didn't
get the priest prize, I may go after Greenland militarily
(12:54):
because of the peace prize see peace and I gat ok.
Here's the logic here. Peace is the absence of war, right,
and if you give me the peace prize, I will
not attack. And that's kind of a neat way of
negotiating peace. I like it. I like it. It's kind
(13:19):
of crazy, isn't it. Matter of fact? Tomorrow, what I
want to do is eight crazy things or ten crazy
things that we have seen from this administration. And by
the way, some of the stuff that actually makes sense
and pretty good at but this one is, yeah, this
is the one that is really good. So now the
(13:40):
other thing that may be crazy but not so crazy,
is that the President has created a Board of Peace
for Gaza and that's pretty impressive. And Lindsay just walked
in with a hamburger hat. That is hilarious. It's why.
(14:02):
It's because last night we're making burgers and she makes
the actual burgers, and I always harass her on the
making of the burgers. They weren't big enough because I
wanted to make a hamburger, a hamburger sandwich. It was
very complicated. I should tell a picture for someone to
don't have somebody who's ninety eight pounds make your burger.
(14:25):
That's a good point because they're very small burger. That's correct,
That is correct. I made a much bigger burger. Okay, okay.
An issue when I do a lot of this, and
I know I talk a lot about Donald Trump, but
it's almost impossible not to across the board in terms
of impact, uniqueness as a president, entertainment value as a president.
(14:52):
And here is something that actually may make sense, but
it's being it's basically being produced as a Trump event,
a Trump esque And this is what's being called Trump's
Board of Peace for Gaza. Actually it's being called the
Board of Peace. And what is the Board of Peace?
(15:16):
The Board of Peace is a group of countries that
have been put together, have been invited to join this
organization that the President created to help Gaza and it
will oversee the next steps in Gaza. This is the
second phase of the war in Gaza. First phase now
(15:40):
in a semblance of a treaty, if you will, a
peace sort of kind of peace plan that came into effect, okay,
And what it does is include a new Palestinian Committee
and Gaza, the deployment of an international security for disarmament
(16:01):
of Gaza, which is way up in the air, of course,
and reconstruction of the war Batter territory, which I think
everybody is in favor of, and you know, Israel gives
it lip service, but is it really Is it really
in favor of that? I don't know. And what the
President did inviting world leaders on behalf of their countries
(16:23):
that the Board of Peace would embark on a bold
new approach to resolving global global conflict. Effect of what
he's doing is rivaling the UN Security Council. And the
UN Security Council is an organization that has really no
oomph to it. It's merely political statement. A lot of
(16:45):
it is anti US, Third world countries that hate us.
We have They just sit there in New York and
babble and get traffic tickets the members of the UN
and that they they don't have to pay because they
have unity. And what Trump is doing, and I agree
with him, is saying, okay, let's get an organization that
(17:06):
rivals the UN Security Council, that actually does something. Now,
the fifteen seat Council has been blocked by US, Vetos
has been blocked by China, and certain aspects have been
blocked by Russia. And why is that? Because you have
five members, five founding members of the UN, the Security Council.
(17:30):
Remember this was after the war, after World War two,
and it was part of the peace treaty. It was
part of the organization that was put together that after
the war got together and effectively became anti communists if
you were. And NATO was founded along the same grounds,
except this was for peace, this was not for defense.
(17:53):
Five members have veto power, can veto anything, and that's
what happens because you have different views. Russia has its interests,
the United States has its interests, you have China having
its interests. And the other one is France and England
(18:13):
are part of the Security Council. So the other reason
that the UN has its cloud has been diminished is
cut funding cuts from the Trump administration and other donors,
which I agree with completely. President Trump is absolutely right
on this one. The UN is a waste of time.
(18:34):
It's an organization that just babbles and does nothing and
doesn't enforce doesn't have well, it does have a police force,
but it's only peacekeeping. I mean, they certainly don't go
to war. So this council, Oh, in a couple of things,
is founding members with a billion dollar contribution can be
(18:55):
permanent members instead of a three year appointment. The three
year appointment does not require a contribution. Australia has been invited,
India says it has been invited, and Jordan, Greece, Cyprus,
Pakistan said they've been invited. Canada, Turkey, Egia, Paraguay, Argentina,
(19:16):
Albania have already said they were invited. And we'll get
an official list of the members in the next few days,
likely during the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland.
And I want to point something out in a very
unusual move that the President makes, is that he did
(19:41):
not name himself the chair of the board. He is
not the chair of the Board of Peace for Gaza.
Oh I'm sorry, I misread that he is the chair
of the Board of Peace. He created it and he's
going to run damn thing much like the Kennedy excuse me,
(20:02):
the Donald Trump slash Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts,
much like the one hundred thousand dollar visa, the B
one visa, which is the Trump visa, also the million
dollar visa, that gold card, as you know, it's like
an American Express gold card, except that has a picture
(20:22):
of the president on it. And we go on and on.
So does it make sense? Yeah, if it works, it
makes sense because here we're talking about putting together a
group of countries who will commit money to rebuild Gaza,
who will effectuate and move forward the peace plan, who
(20:47):
will disarm Haramas if that's going to be one of
the big ones. And also where is Israel going to
accept the borders? And I think right now controls about
half of Gaza, half is controlled by Israel. And the
war is, as I said, a war of attrition. There
(21:09):
are attacks being made, both terrorist attacks against Israeli soldiers
and citizens by members of Hamas. And every time that happens,
Israel goes ahead and attacks targets. And on top of that,
the border crossings are clothes. Humanitarian aid is not getting
in for the most part. Israel says that it is.
It is not. Israel is starving people, although fewer now
(21:34):
and there is no oil. This is the middle of
winter and when rains come. Most of the Palestinians in
Gaza are living in tents. Huge number living intents, eighty
or eighty five percent have been displaced. There is no infrastructure, none,
there's one, I think there's one hospital that's still standing.
(22:00):
There are no universities, there are no school rooms. It's
the only way they can live is on solar power,
and then they can they can charge batteries on that.
It's a miserable way to live, and Israel's not letting
it get any better. At the same time, Hamas has
(22:21):
yet to give up. It's a ridiculous belief that Israel
should not exist. In the Charter of Hamas says we
will destroy the Jews in Israel and we will take
all of it. Well, that worked out, didn't it. Look
what's happening now? Yeah, you know that attack on Israel,
that October seventh attack in which twelve hundred Israelis were killed.
(22:42):
How did that one work out for you? And we're
not hearing much from Palestinians that live in Gazam. Maybe
it wasn't such a good idea. We're not hearing that
because Hamas is a dictatorial government, and it is a
government that if you speak any if you speak against it,
if they speak against it, they are in a lot
(23:04):
of trouble. Okay, Now, a quick story about billionaires. We have.
We have more billionaires in California than any place basically
in the world. And guess what happens with billionaires. They
like the whole public public office. For some reason, they
(23:27):
just like to run for office. All the way from
Caruso running for mayor, which he didn't get to, Megan
Whitman ran for governor, didn't get there. We just have
Bill Donald Trump, billionaire who got there. And so we
have a lot of billionaires. Why because it's kind of
(23:48):
fun for them, you know, Okay, billionaires, Well, I don't
have anything to do. Wake up in the morning. Okay,
let's run for office. Because they have certainly succeeded in
any any and every way possible financially. And it is
really interesting. OXFAM which is a British non nonprofit and
(24:11):
it talks about economic justice. OXFAM America report just came out.
Seventy four of the world's two thousand billionaires held either
executive or legislative government positions in twenty twenty three. That's
the last year for figures Now that's not a lot.
That's three point six chance of holding office. According to Oxfam.
(24:38):
Now the average global citizen, which is we who are
not billionaires, we have a point zero zero zero nine
percent chance of holding public office. And according to Rebecca Riddell,
this year report really shines a light on the relationship
(25:00):
between political inequality economic inequality, and so why not why not?
Forbes came out of this and this is coinciding with
a kickoff of the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Big you will hear a lot about that. And this
is this elite gathering of some of the richest people
(25:20):
in the world as well as world leaders, and they schmooze.
Let me just walk around, have a good time. Major
deals are struck at DeVos. I think the sale of
Pixar to Disney happened at DeVos, and they just walk around.
Now I think there are breakouts and there's a keynote speaker,
(25:44):
But for the most part, I would think the food
tod be great. You know it's I want to do
a story about that. And So a quick word about
President Trump in this particular, in this term, he has
a se the wealthiest cabinet and team in modern American history,
multiple billionaires, multi millionaires leading government agencies. And that's what
(26:10):
is done. And here is one of the controversies, because
the Republican led Congress last year enacted a sweeping domestic
policy package, big tax cuts for the wealthy and cuts
to the safety net programs. But this is the president's view,
is the Republican's view, certainly the magaview that social programs
(26:34):
are not something the United States should move towards or have,
and should be cut relative to enforcement of the border
and our military defense. And it's simply a question of
what the priorities are. So the other thing about billionaires.
In twenty twenty five, their wealth grew three times faster
(26:57):
than the past five years, reaching eighteen point three trillion dollars,
And that's equal to about half of the entire wealth
held by four point one billion people on the planet.
The lower half of the population around the world has
(27:19):
less money than these billionaires. Unfortunately, most of the world.
We are so blessed because you have so many people
around the world, poor, poor, poor people in Africa and
in India, where they struggle for a dollar a day.
They wake up in the morning and all they do
(27:42):
is figure out how they're going to eat that night.
Families do that. Can you imagine living that way? Can
you imagine living because and having kids and they go
to work at six because families have to be fed,
and there's so much of the world that is that way.
It's really unfortunate. KFI am sixty. You've been listening to
(28:03):
The Bill Handle Show. Catch My Show Monday through Friday
six am to nine am, and anytime on demand on
the iHeartRadio app.
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