January 12, 2026 • 25 mins
(January 12,2025)
The Trump administration launches probe of fed chairman Jerome Powell. OpenAI joins kids’ safety group for California chatbot ballot initiative. Hegseth’s fight against Kelly moves into untested legal waters. The rise and fall of the Sprinkles empire that made cupcakes cool.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Alf I AM six forty Bill Handle.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Here it is.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
A Monday morning, January twelfth, and the news, of course
continues on because it is the weekend, and the new
cycle doesn't stop. It is twenty four hour. It's twenty
four to seven. Okay, here's the latest. The Trump administration
is launching a probe of FED Chairman Jerome Powell, a
(00:33):
criminal investigation, and this is tied to the Central banks
renovation of its headquarters. And Powell accused the Justice Department
of using the threat of criminal prosecution to pressure him
and the Central Bank to lower interest rates. And then
he talks about the newly issued grand jury subpoenas.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
It's unprecedented.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
And it's not just going after Powell per se, but
also attacking the Fed's independence. And that's the one thing
I think that we have to be most frightened of,
at least I am. It's not just going after those
in the administration, those in government that Donald Trump perceives
(01:19):
as an enemy, because then you just go right after them.
It's also the independence of these agencies. The Department of
Justice that used to be independent is now at the
beck and call of the president. The FBI is at
the beck and call of the president. The CDC does
exactly what RFK.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Wants it to do. And RFK is the arm of the.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
President, and all the President has to do is pick
up the phone and go, here's the changes I want,
and it is happening. Tim Lower, who's a spokesman for
the top federal prosecutor in DC, said, we do not
comment on investigations. Actually, the top federal prosecutors Janine Piro,
(02:02):
who used to be sort of a judge on TV.
Now what's interesting is the president originally nominated Powell to
serve as his FED chair during the first term in
twenty seventeen, and now he has spent most of his
second term attacking, threatening to fire the FED chief, which
(02:23):
he's not allowed to do. Although he's pushing like crazy
because Powell is not slashing interest rates per the request
and the thinking of the President, saying that that's going
to juice up the economy. Senator Tom Tillis, a Republican
from North Carolina, went to X and said, if there
(02:44):
was any remaining doubt whether advisors within the Trump administration
are actively pushing to end. The independence of the FED.
There should be now none. It is now the independence
and credibility of the Department of Justice that's in question.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
What Tay talking about.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Does anybody even think the DOJ is independent of the president.
I mean, give me a break. President picks up the
phone and calls the head of any agency and says,
this is what I want. So the attack on Powell
(03:23):
has to do with the Justice Department. Wauney information about
his June testimony before a Senate panel on steps to
the Central Bank took to tone down a renovation of
the Washington headquarters. That's the argument. The renovation has cost
billions of dollars. And there was that meeting, if you remember,
(03:43):
Trump went to the Central Bank, went to the FED
building and literally took out a piece of paper and said,
look at this billions of dollars of waste. And pul said,
wait a minute. Those billions of dollars have been spent
over years and years. Is that what we're doing. Some
of this was years ago, completely embarrassing the president. Someone's
(04:05):
had rolled on that one, I'm sure. And so what
we know is that Department DJ has targeted several of
Trump's perceived political folks, any Republican by the way that
the president has gone after that you can think.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Of, I can't.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
And the criminal investigation went against New York Attorney general.
Attorney General Letitia James, and Adam Schiff, Democratic Senator of
California James Comey, former FBI director, all were investigated for
making false statement statements to Congress. Well, none of this
(04:43):
has worked. The efforts to convict has well, they haven't worked.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Really. A federal judge.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Last year disqualified the prosecutor that Trump appointed in Virginia
after firing the prosecutor who said, there's no evidence here
against Letitia James and Komy and so goodbye, you're gone.
New attorney general is put in, US attorney is put
(05:12):
in and indicted, and the judge throughout the indictments for
reasons that I told you about, and so okay, indictments
are throw on.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
So what is the throw it out?
Speaker 2 (05:23):
So what is the dog does is file again in
front of the grand jury against Letitia James and Komy.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
And the grand jury refused to indict. No, we're not
going to do it. There's no evidence.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Here, not enough evidence. So what's happening now is so
going after the court. Does the President have a right
to fire the chairman, remake the FED, and we'll see
what Supreme.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Court has to say.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Congress designed the FED to be insulated from political pressure,
and the President said, nope, the FED is under my control. Effectively,
the FED is under the control of the President as
he figures, as is Congress is the Court. Now he
(06:16):
hasn't said the Court is under my jurisdiction. What he
has done and any president can do this, by the way,
is he has nominated very conservative judges who believe in
what he says and does in terms of the power
of the presidency.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
In an extraordinary number of.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Decisions, those judges have gone like in ninety degrees ninety
percent give or take backing up President Trump's positions. Okay,
so much for that. It's getting to be a mess if,
of course it is.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Okay, let me.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Tell you about what's going on with an initiative here
in California. Chat gpt maker, open Ai and Common Sense
Media had rival initiatives that were designed to protect kids
from chatbots. But bottom line and what they did is
they merged their efforts. I'll tell you why, because when
(07:17):
you have competing initiatives they never pass.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
In order to.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Pass an initiative, you have to have a majority where
you have to have fifty percent plus one vote, and
if you have competing initiatives, it doesn't fly because they're
never going to get fifty plus one vote. So they merged,
which makes sense, and now they've merged and the initiative
(07:43):
is known as the Parents and Kids Safe AI Act.
It would require chatbot developers to use technology to estimate
a user's age range, which AI can do, apply filters
and protective settings for people predicted to be under the
age of eighteen, independent audits for child safety risks, and
(08:07):
report them to the California Age Ban child targeted advertising,
no sale or sharing of kids data without a parent's consent,
stop manipulation.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
And I don't know how.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
You determine what that is through emotional dependency, by preventing
aisystems from promoting isolation from family and friends. And I'll
tell you why, because this is research. By the way,
common Sense Media did some research and found that seven
and ten have used comp you were talking about kids
have used Companion chat Box, and the text is just
(08:44):
it's just too dangerous the tech to be used by
minors and The poster child for that premise was the
case of Adam Rain, who committed suicide and the parents
are suing open Ais chat GPT, saying that the AI program,
(09:05):
the algorithm, actually encouraged him to kill himself.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
And is it that dangerous, Well, it seems to be.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
The research seems to show that these various the AI,
particularly chat GPT in this media company, is that kids
are influenced big time. And if you have a real
depressive kid, really depressed kid, sometimes what the algorithm does
(09:34):
is encourage which way you're going to go and tell
you how to do it.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
You know, I'm thinking of killing myself. I'm not very happy.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Well, I want to back you up with your feelings,
and I know they're real, and you may consider and
then go through the whole list of ways of killing yourself. Now,
I don't know if that is specific, since I am
not an expert in this and I don't use AI.
This lawsuit says that that is exactly what the chat
(10:06):
GPT algorithm did and so you know, it's pretty dangerous
stuff and it can be. And now we're talking about
protecting minors, and I think teams are influenced, well, teens
are influenced. How much news do people get off the internet,
just adults get off the internet. Look at the conspiracy theories,
(10:27):
Look at the information that's going on. Look at the
fact that Americans in general look at the Internet and
think the news they get from there is certainly more
credible than anything they get with traditional media. I'm talking
about newspapers, TV, radio.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
So it's doesn't bring up other things Bill, the fact
that on one hand, people are saying that kids, very
young kids can make surgical decisions about their sexuality and
their bodies.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Yeah, that's the other end.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
On the flip side, they can't tell whether a robot
is telling them to kill themselves and they're okay with it.
If they don't have the ability of discernment at that point,
we have to protect them from, you know, any major decisions.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
There's no question about that.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
And then the issue is are are there enough controls?
Is the algorithm they're talking about, is it sophisticated enough
to do this?
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Well?
Speaker 2 (11:24):
It certainly is a start, and I don't think many
people have a problem with this, okay. In November, Mark Kelly,
who's a Senator Democrat from Arizona, was part of a
video in which he and five Democratic lawmakers issued. Well
(11:45):
basically said in the video, and this was targeted towards
members of the military, saying, do not listen to illegal orders.
You cannot follow illegal orders. You have no duty to
follow illegal orders, unconstitutional orders. And this is directly out
(12:06):
of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, you know US
law that controls the military. Well, Defense Secretary Pete Hegsitt's
a little bit upset about that. Promised a court martial
that was going to nail the Mark Kelly. The problem,
Oh he stopped that one. Why Well, because the court
(12:28):
martial you need evidence.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
There has to be some administrative basis. So what he.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Did instead, he is reducing or attempting. It's an administrative move.
Kelly's retirement rank and military pension. That's what he can
do to punish him, is to knock down his rank
and his pension is based on rank. Now, keep in
mind that Kelly was in the military for twenty five years.
(12:57):
He flew combat missions, decorated and has been an astronaut
and flew several space missions. But he in doing that
in that video, obviously, the implication was that President Trump's
order is illegal. We're talking about the military being used
around the country. So this is the response from Hegsath,
(13:23):
who is the Defense secretary, and he is taking him
into this administrative, administrative move.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
Which has never been done before.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Rachel Van lending him a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel,
former judge advocate who was involved in prosecuting and defending
people in the military. The bottom line, she says, this
isn't lawful. It's never been done. So heg Seth issued
a letter of censure to Kelly, claiming that his actions
(13:57):
were prejudicial to good order and discipline, which is part
of the uniform code. You have to have good order.
And this kicks off proceedings against Kelly. This here's what's
going to happen. Navy Secretary John Feelin has to make
a recommendation to Hegeth whether the reduction is warranted. Then
(14:22):
Hegseth decides if Kelly's rank is going to be removed
lowered to the pension will substantially be lowered. And this
is part of a ten US Code one thirty seven zero,
part F, and it determines it reduction is allowed.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
And here's the problem.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Under the law failin who is the secretary. Navy Secretary
is solely responsible for the Great Reduction recommendation. No bore
is involved, no evidence is required. It's simply a recommendation
that then the Defense Secretary decides one way or the other,
(15:12):
which way do you think it's going to go. But
by the way, Phelan or Felon was a major contributor
to the Trump campaign in twenty twenty four, zero experience
with the military, and he is. And by the way,
there have been seven non veterans to serve as Navy
secretary in the past seven years, so that's not alone.
(15:32):
Trump has also stacked the Navy with other loyalists, three
acting political appointees, all of them were Trump supporters. There
are four conditions under this subsection that allow for a
retirement grade determination to be opened. If the retirement was
procured by fraud, if a mistake and calculation happened when
(15:57):
the retirement was figured out, santial evidence comes to light
after retirement that would have affected that determination, or if
the Service secretary finds that good cause exists, guess what
they're going to find good cause.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
That's it.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
That's all he has to do. And there is no
controls over this one. There's no oversight it is automatic.
If the Secretary decides that Kelly's rank is going to
be lowered and his retirement based on that is going
to be not as much guess what it's going to happen. Initially,
(16:40):
Hegsith wanted a court martial Kelly, but turned out that no,
it's not as quite as powerful as what he does.
By the way, asked about his decision to not court
martial Kelly, what has said is that we went.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Through the regular process. I don't know that means. I
don't know what that means. All right, It's just it
doesn't stop.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
And hexeth Well, Kelly said clearly, if you say anything
against this president, under any circumstances, the administration goes after you.
And what's hilarious is that the Trump administration is arguing
that it was the weaponization of the Biden administration, and
(17:30):
we are fighting that weaponization in what we're doing. All right,
let's talk about cupcakes. I'm talking about the Sprinkles cupcakes.
December thirty one, they close all of their locations, no warning,
telling the employees, you're done, don't even bother coming in
tomorrow morning.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
And it became a cultural phenomenon.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
After launching the world's first cupcake atm all right, Neil,
I am not a fan of.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
This sprinkles cupcakes. I like cupcakes. Mane of were great.
What's the problem with them because there were I hate
sprinkles on anything. Well, no, they don't.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
Have sprinkles on their cupcakes. I mean they have, It
depends what you get. They're kind of known. They had
this little red disc candy disk on it with this
white dot in the center. That was their kind of
traditional one. I'm not a fan of like sugar. Like
when they sprinkle colored sugar on frosting, it's weird. It's
like putting sand in it.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Yeah. Also it's don't you find them cloying? These cupcakes?
They're full with sugar? Yeah, I mean frosting's frosting, man.
But I don't think that's the.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
Problem they It was a delicious product. It's a really
sad story. So you trace all this back to the
early two thousands, when you at the height of its popularity.
The television show Oh Gosh, I just blanked Sex in
the City. So you've got the two leads eating a
(19:00):
cupcake out of a Magnolia bakery is what I think
it is there in New York and it created this
kind of rush to this one particular bakery. From that
you started. Now you had TV shows about cupcakes. You
had everybody and their mom popping up with cupcakes.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
But at the lead of this.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
One of the ones that shown, shoned, shown the brightest, shine,
the brightest was Sprinkles. And they started a little six
hundred square foot shop in Beverly Hills. And this was
a woman and her husband who got who were in financing,
and you had, you know, the bubbles starting to burst,
(19:43):
because this was two thousand and five. Two thousand and
eight is when the big bubble burst. But there was
a lot of finance issues and people leaving their jobs,
are getting fired, and she says, I'm changing directions. Started
in her home with you know, kitchen aid mixer, and
she was selling out day in and day out there
(20:05):
in Beverly Hills and came up with this twenty four
hour Kiosk thing, the little ATM. I think there were
something like fourteen locations. At the end there four hundred employees.
But some years ago she sold it to this private
equity firm and so she did great.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
So she did great. Now this thing goes in the toilet.
It's just things. Taste change. Remember krispy Kreme.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
We did story after story about Krispy Kreme when they
first came to Southern California was huge and they were
in such demand that the krispy Kreme these locations, and
of course donuts are baked right there or cooked right
there on the premises, and they would have a light
a spink like a light you have on ambulances that
(20:54):
would spin and it would be a siren and people
would buy the one hundred line up for Krispy Kreme
donuts just waiting for that light on the next batch
the show up.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Well, you go to Ralphs and I shop at Ralphs.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
There it is in the food aisle, Krispy Kreme donuts.
The box is five a dozen for five bucks. And
then you go to the day Old Stuff and that's
stacked with Krispy Kreme donuts. I mean, it's just not
the same. People are very finicky in what they do.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
Tastes are changing, and you nailed that they are changing,
and people are looking ingredients more. But there's kind of
a couple of things at play. The weird thing is
nobody in management they all it just fell immediately, like
in a day, people's lives changed. Here is the private
(21:50):
equity is looking their profit centers. Sometimes they, as we know,
they can, you know, push more life into a company
by putting some money. But if they're just squeezing these
things for profit, they starts changing the the quality of
the ingredients. Not saying this is true for them, but
these are things that have happened and they just fall
(22:10):
by the wayside.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
Okay, I lost you an, Yeah, you know, and you're right.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
I think it's it's a combination of taste changing, which
we do.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
We're very finicky and overnight, and no one knows why.
You know.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
For example, you go to go fundme pages and some
are in the co fundme program and it's almost impossible
to get any money unless you click. And when you click,
oh my goodness, does money come pouring in. You just
don't know which one works and which ones don't. And
(22:46):
then in terms of big business coming in or profit centers,
for example, I look at Boeing before McDonald douglas spot Boeing.
Boeing's philosophy is we build the best planes, we do
the best engineering we can, and profit is secondary to
(23:07):
building a great plane. So McDonald douglas comes in and
all of a sudden, guess what, bean counters go to
work and profit becomes a superior motive. And Boeing has
suffered because of that because now you have a for profit.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
That's not to say that.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Boeing wasn't profitable before, but the engineering was far more important.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
They believed the money would come from quality.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
I would I have to ask, though, Bill, and I
haven't heard that about this particular story, but I've been
hearing that restaurants are trying to adapt to the GLP
one usage and have smaller plates. I wonder because you
can get like sugar dumps like you know that you had.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
No, Yeah, absolutely sure.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
I wonder if people are responding to sugar differently because
they're on GLP ones and it can make you sick
or you know, things like that.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Around We don't know. At this point. We don't know
because it just really started.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
And then the other example I want to bring about
sales of companies and profits. Margins are more important than
the actual product. And here I look at iHeart. iHeart
has been bought by several organizations. Here's the good news.
It's not a question of going from good to bad.
(24:25):
It's a question of going from bad to bad. So
that becomes very easy to discern what the financial thinking was.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
It's hard to spend money on the rest of us
when you pay the host so much just because.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
Well, I'm fine with that. Okay, bad deband I don't care.
That's fine. You can pay you know what. I get
paid money to go make my bagel and you don't.
How about that? Huh?
Speaker 3 (24:51):
Even on Zoom, you make yourself at the top and
the rest of us below you like eight, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
There you go, all right, KF I am six. You've
been listening to the Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Catch My Show Monday through Friday, six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Alf I AM six forty Bill Handle.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Here it is.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
A Monday morning, January twelfth, and the news, of course
continues on because it is the weekend, and the new
cycle doesn't stop. It is twenty four hour. It's twenty
four to seven. Okay, here's the latest. The Trump administration
is launching a probe of FED Chairman Jerome Powell, a
(00:33):
criminal investigation, and this is tied to the Central banks
renovation of its headquarters. And Powell accused the Justice Department
of using the threat of criminal prosecution to pressure him
and the Central Bank to lower interest rates. And then
he talks about the newly issued grand jury subpoenas.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
It's unprecedented.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
And it's not just going after Powell per se, but
also attacking the Fed's independence. And that's the one thing
I think that we have to be most frightened of,
at least I am. It's not just going after those
in the administration, those in government that Donald Trump perceives
(01:19):
as an enemy, because then you just go right after them.
It's also the independence of these agencies. The Department of
Justice that used to be independent is now at the
beck and call of the president. The FBI is at
the beck and call of the president. The CDC does
exactly what RFK.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Wants it to do. And RFK is the arm of the.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
President, and all the President has to do is pick
up the phone and go, here's the changes I want,
and it is happening. Tim Lower, who's a spokesman for
the top federal prosecutor in DC, said, we do not
comment on investigations. Actually, the top federal prosecutors Janine Piro,
(02:02):
who used to be sort of a judge on TV.
Now what's interesting is the president originally nominated Powell to
serve as his FED chair during the first term in
twenty seventeen, and now he has spent most of his
second term attacking, threatening to fire the FED chief, which
(02:23):
he's not allowed to do. Although he's pushing like crazy
because Powell is not slashing interest rates per the request
and the thinking of the President, saying that that's going
to juice up the economy. Senator Tom Tillis, a Republican
from North Carolina, went to X and said, if there
(02:44):
was any remaining doubt whether advisors within the Trump administration
are actively pushing to end. The independence of the FED.
There should be now none. It is now the independence
and credibility of the Department of Justice that's in question.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
What Tay talking about.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Does anybody even think the DOJ is independent of the president.
I mean, give me a break. President picks up the
phone and calls the head of any agency and says,
this is what I want. So the attack on Powell
(03:23):
has to do with the Justice Department. Wauney information about
his June testimony before a Senate panel on steps to
the Central Bank took to tone down a renovation of
the Washington headquarters. That's the argument. The renovation has cost
billions of dollars. And there was that meeting, if you remember,
(03:43):
Trump went to the Central Bank, went to the FED
building and literally took out a piece of paper and said,
look at this billions of dollars of waste. And pul said,
wait a minute. Those billions of dollars have been spent
over years and years. Is that what we're doing. Some
of this was years ago, completely embarrassing the president. Someone's
(04:05):
had rolled on that one, I'm sure. And so what
we know is that Department DJ has targeted several of
Trump's perceived political folks, any Republican by the way that
the president has gone after that you can think.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Of, I can't.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
And the criminal investigation went against New York Attorney general.
Attorney General Letitia James, and Adam Schiff, Democratic Senator of
California James Comey, former FBI director, all were investigated for
making false statement statements to Congress. Well, none of this
(04:43):
has worked. The efforts to convict has well, they haven't worked.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Really. A federal judge.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Last year disqualified the prosecutor that Trump appointed in Virginia
after firing the prosecutor who said, there's no evidence here
against Letitia James and Komy and so goodbye, you're gone.
New attorney general is put in, US attorney is put
(05:12):
in and indicted, and the judge throughout the indictments for
reasons that I told you about, and so okay, indictments
are throw on.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
So what is the throw it out?
Speaker 2 (05:23):
So what is the dog does is file again in
front of the grand jury against Letitia James and Komy.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
And the grand jury refused to indict. No, we're not
going to do it. There's no evidence.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Here, not enough evidence. So what's happening now is so
going after the court. Does the President have a right
to fire the chairman, remake the FED, and we'll see
what Supreme.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Court has to say.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Congress designed the FED to be insulated from political pressure,
and the President said, nope, the FED is under my control. Effectively,
the FED is under the control of the President as
he figures, as is Congress is the Court. Now he
(06:16):
hasn't said the Court is under my jurisdiction. What he
has done and any president can do this, by the way,
is he has nominated very conservative judges who believe in
what he says and does in terms of the power
of the presidency.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
In an extraordinary number of.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Decisions, those judges have gone like in ninety degrees ninety
percent give or take backing up President Trump's positions. Okay,
so much for that. It's getting to be a mess if,
of course it is.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Okay, let me.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Tell you about what's going on with an initiative here
in California. Chat gpt maker, open Ai and Common Sense
Media had rival initiatives that were designed to protect kids
from chatbots. But bottom line and what they did is
they merged their efforts. I'll tell you why, because when
(07:17):
you have competing initiatives they never pass.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
In order to.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Pass an initiative, you have to have a majority where
you have to have fifty percent plus one vote, and
if you have competing initiatives, it doesn't fly because they're
never going to get fifty plus one vote. So they merged,
which makes sense, and now they've merged and the initiative
(07:43):
is known as the Parents and Kids Safe AI Act.
It would require chatbot developers to use technology to estimate
a user's age range, which AI can do, apply filters
and protective settings for people predicted to be under the
age of eighteen, independent audits for child safety risks, and
(08:07):
report them to the California Age Ban child targeted advertising,
no sale or sharing of kids data without a parent's consent,
stop manipulation.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
And I don't know how.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
You determine what that is through emotional dependency, by preventing
aisystems from promoting isolation from family and friends. And I'll
tell you why, because this is research. By the way,
common Sense Media did some research and found that seven
and ten have used comp you were talking about kids
have used Companion chat Box, and the text is just
(08:44):
it's just too dangerous the tech to be used by
minors and The poster child for that premise was the
case of Adam Rain, who committed suicide and the parents
are suing open Ais chat GPT, saying that the AI program,
(09:05):
the algorithm, actually encouraged him to kill himself.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
And is it that dangerous, Well, it seems to be.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
The research seems to show that these various the AI,
particularly chat GPT in this media company, is that kids
are influenced big time. And if you have a real
depressive kid, really depressed kid, sometimes what the algorithm does
(09:34):
is encourage which way you're going to go and tell
you how to do it.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
You know, I'm thinking of killing myself. I'm not very happy.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Well, I want to back you up with your feelings,
and I know they're real, and you may consider and
then go through the whole list of ways of killing yourself. Now,
I don't know if that is specific, since I am
not an expert in this and I don't use AI.
This lawsuit says that that is exactly what the chat
(10:06):
GPT algorithm did and so you know, it's pretty dangerous
stuff and it can be. And now we're talking about
protecting minors, and I think teams are influenced, well, teens
are influenced. How much news do people get off the internet,
just adults get off the internet. Look at the conspiracy theories,
(10:27):
Look at the information that's going on. Look at the
fact that Americans in general look at the Internet and
think the news they get from there is certainly more
credible than anything they get with traditional media. I'm talking
about newspapers, TV, radio.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
So it's doesn't bring up other things Bill, the fact
that on one hand, people are saying that kids, very
young kids can make surgical decisions about their sexuality and
their bodies.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Yeah, that's the other end.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
On the flip side, they can't tell whether a robot
is telling them to kill themselves and they're okay with it.
If they don't have the ability of discernment at that point,
we have to protect them from, you know, any major decisions.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
There's no question about that.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
And then the issue is are are there enough controls?
Is the algorithm they're talking about, is it sophisticated enough
to do this?
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Well?
Speaker 2 (11:24):
It certainly is a start, and I don't think many
people have a problem with this, okay. In November, Mark Kelly,
who's a Senator Democrat from Arizona, was part of a
video in which he and five Democratic lawmakers issued. Well
(11:45):
basically said in the video, and this was targeted towards
members of the military, saying, do not listen to illegal orders.
You cannot follow illegal orders. You have no duty to
follow illegal orders, unconstitutional orders. And this is directly out
(12:06):
of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, you know US
law that controls the military. Well, Defense Secretary Pete Hegsitt's
a little bit upset about that. Promised a court martial
that was going to nail the Mark Kelly. The problem,
Oh he stopped that one. Why Well, because the court
(12:28):
martial you need evidence.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
There has to be some administrative basis. So what he.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Did instead, he is reducing or attempting. It's an administrative move.
Kelly's retirement rank and military pension. That's what he can
do to punish him, is to knock down his rank
and his pension is based on rank. Now, keep in
mind that Kelly was in the military for twenty five years.
(12:57):
He flew combat missions, decorated and has been an astronaut
and flew several space missions. But he in doing that
in that video, obviously, the implication was that President Trump's
order is illegal. We're talking about the military being used
around the country. So this is the response from Hegsath,
(13:23):
who is the Defense secretary, and he is taking him
into this administrative, administrative move.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
Which has never been done before.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Rachel Van lending him a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel,
former judge advocate who was involved in prosecuting and defending
people in the military. The bottom line, she says, this
isn't lawful. It's never been done. So heg Seth issued
a letter of censure to Kelly, claiming that his actions
(13:57):
were prejudicial to good order and discipline, which is part
of the uniform code. You have to have good order.
And this kicks off proceedings against Kelly. This here's what's
going to happen. Navy Secretary John Feelin has to make
a recommendation to Hegeth whether the reduction is warranted. Then
(14:22):
Hegseth decides if Kelly's rank is going to be removed
lowered to the pension will substantially be lowered. And this
is part of a ten US Code one thirty seven zero,
part F, and it determines it reduction is allowed.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
And here's the problem.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Under the law failin who is the secretary. Navy Secretary
is solely responsible for the Great Reduction recommendation. No bore
is involved, no evidence is required. It's simply a recommendation
that then the Defense Secretary decides one way or the other,
(15:12):
which way do you think it's going to go. But
by the way, Phelan or Felon was a major contributor
to the Trump campaign in twenty twenty four, zero experience
with the military, and he is. And by the way,
there have been seven non veterans to serve as Navy
secretary in the past seven years, so that's not alone.
(15:32):
Trump has also stacked the Navy with other loyalists, three
acting political appointees, all of them were Trump supporters. There
are four conditions under this subsection that allow for a
retirement grade determination to be opened. If the retirement was
procured by fraud, if a mistake and calculation happened when
(15:57):
the retirement was figured out, santial evidence comes to light
after retirement that would have affected that determination, or if
the Service secretary finds that good cause exists, guess what
they're going to find good cause.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
That's it.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
That's all he has to do. And there is no
controls over this one. There's no oversight it is automatic.
If the Secretary decides that Kelly's rank is going to
be lowered and his retirement based on that is going
to be not as much guess what it's going to happen. Initially,
(16:40):
Hegsith wanted a court martial Kelly, but turned out that no,
it's not as quite as powerful as what he does.
By the way, asked about his decision to not court
martial Kelly, what has said is that we went.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Through the regular process. I don't know that means. I
don't know what that means. All right, It's just it
doesn't stop.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
And hexeth Well, Kelly said clearly, if you say anything
against this president, under any circumstances, the administration goes after you.
And what's hilarious is that the Trump administration is arguing
that it was the weaponization of the Biden administration, and
(17:30):
we are fighting that weaponization in what we're doing. All right,
let's talk about cupcakes. I'm talking about the Sprinkles cupcakes.
December thirty one, they close all of their locations, no warning,
telling the employees, you're done, don't even bother coming in
tomorrow morning.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
And it became a cultural phenomenon.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
After launching the world's first cupcake atm all right, Neil,
I am not a fan of.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
This sprinkles cupcakes. I like cupcakes. Mane of were great.
What's the problem with them because there were I hate
sprinkles on anything. Well, no, they don't.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
Have sprinkles on their cupcakes. I mean they have, It
depends what you get. They're kind of known. They had
this little red disc candy disk on it with this
white dot in the center. That was their kind of
traditional one. I'm not a fan of like sugar. Like
when they sprinkle colored sugar on frosting, it's weird. It's
like putting sand in it.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Yeah. Also it's don't you find them cloying? These cupcakes?
They're full with sugar? Yeah, I mean frosting's frosting, man.
But I don't think that's the.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
Problem they It was a delicious product. It's a really
sad story. So you trace all this back to the
early two thousands, when you at the height of its popularity.
The television show Oh Gosh, I just blanked Sex in
the City. So you've got the two leads eating a
(19:00):
cupcake out of a Magnolia bakery is what I think
it is there in New York and it created this
kind of rush to this one particular bakery. From that
you started. Now you had TV shows about cupcakes. You
had everybody and their mom popping up with cupcakes.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
But at the lead of this.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
One of the ones that shown, shoned, shown the brightest, shine,
the brightest was Sprinkles. And they started a little six
hundred square foot shop in Beverly Hills. And this was
a woman and her husband who got who were in financing,
and you had, you know, the bubbles starting to burst,
(19:43):
because this was two thousand and five. Two thousand and
eight is when the big bubble burst. But there was
a lot of finance issues and people leaving their jobs,
are getting fired, and she says, I'm changing directions. Started
in her home with you know, kitchen aid mixer, and
she was selling out day in and day out there
(20:05):
in Beverly Hills and came up with this twenty four
hour Kiosk thing, the little ATM. I think there were
something like fourteen locations. At the end there four hundred employees.
But some years ago she sold it to this private
equity firm and so she did great.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
So she did great. Now this thing goes in the toilet.
It's just things. Taste change. Remember krispy Kreme.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
We did story after story about Krispy Kreme when they
first came to Southern California was huge and they were
in such demand that the krispy Kreme these locations, and
of course donuts are baked right there or cooked right
there on the premises, and they would have a light
a spink like a light you have on ambulances that
(20:54):
would spin and it would be a siren and people
would buy the one hundred line up for Krispy Kreme
donuts just waiting for that light on the next batch
the show up.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Well, you go to Ralphs and I shop at Ralphs.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
There it is in the food aisle, Krispy Kreme donuts.
The box is five a dozen for five bucks. And
then you go to the day Old Stuff and that's
stacked with Krispy Kreme donuts. I mean, it's just not
the same. People are very finicky in what they do.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
Tastes are changing, and you nailed that they are changing,
and people are looking ingredients more. But there's kind of
a couple of things at play. The weird thing is
nobody in management they all it just fell immediately, like
in a day, people's lives changed. Here is the private
(21:50):
equity is looking their profit centers. Sometimes they, as we know,
they can, you know, push more life into a company
by putting some money. But if they're just squeezing these
things for profit, they starts changing the the quality of
the ingredients. Not saying this is true for them, but
these are things that have happened and they just fall
(22:10):
by the wayside.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
Okay, I lost you an, Yeah, you know, and you're right.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
I think it's it's a combination of taste changing, which
we do.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
We're very finicky and overnight, and no one knows why.
You know.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
For example, you go to go fundme pages and some
are in the co fundme program and it's almost impossible
to get any money unless you click. And when you click,
oh my goodness, does money come pouring in. You just
don't know which one works and which ones don't. And
(22:46):
then in terms of big business coming in or profit centers,
for example, I look at Boeing before McDonald douglas spot Boeing.
Boeing's philosophy is we build the best planes, we do
the best engineering we can, and profit is secondary to
(23:07):
building a great plane. So McDonald douglas comes in and
all of a sudden, guess what, bean counters go to
work and profit becomes a superior motive. And Boeing has
suffered because of that because now you have a for profit.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
That's not to say that.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Boeing wasn't profitable before, but the engineering was far more important.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
They believed the money would come from quality.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
I would I have to ask, though, Bill, and I
haven't heard that about this particular story, but I've been
hearing that restaurants are trying to adapt to the GLP
one usage and have smaller plates. I wonder because you
can get like sugar dumps like you know that you had.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
No, Yeah, absolutely sure.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
I wonder if people are responding to sugar differently because
they're on GLP ones and it can make you sick
or you know, things like that.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Around We don't know. At this point. We don't know
because it just really started.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
And then the other example I want to bring about
sales of companies and profits. Margins are more important than
the actual product. And here I look at iHeart. iHeart
has been bought by several organizations. Here's the good news.
It's not a question of going from good to bad.
(24:25):
It's a question of going from bad to bad. So
that becomes very easy to discern what the financial thinking was.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
It's hard to spend money on the rest of us
when you pay the host so much just because.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
Well, I'm fine with that. Okay, bad deband I don't care.
That's fine. You can pay you know what. I get
paid money to go make my bagel and you don't.
How about that? Huh?
Speaker 3 (24:51):
Even on Zoom, you make yourself at the top and
the rest of us below you like eight, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
There you go, all right, KF I am six. You've
been listening to the Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
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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