August 6, 2026 • 26 mins
(August 06, 2026)
Ships can’t move and power plants shut down as drought saps Europe’s rivers. ‘Peanut Butter’ pay raise are out, as employers shift to merit hikes. August 6th, 1945 American bomber drops atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty. You are listening to the bill Handle show.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
I am six forty bill Handle here on a Thursday morning,
August six, yes, say one years ago, two day it
was the bombing of Hiroshima. August ninth, it was Nagasaki.
I'll talk more about that coming up at eight thirty
this morning, half an hour from now.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Quick word.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Pageant of the Masters is here until September fourth. What
is Pageant of the Masters? One of a kind live
experience under the stars in Laguna Beach at their Amphitheater,
Real people transforming themselves into iconic work of arts. And
that doesn't even begin to explain how terrific this is.
It doesn't exist anywhere else on the planet. Full orchestra,
(01:00):
and it is well, I can't even describe it how
good it is. And this year is particularly good. And
so I'm going to suggest you take a look. Tickets
start only forty two dollars. Every seat is good in
the house. It's through September fourth. Just google Pageant of
the Masters in Laguna Beach and you'll email me and say, yeah,
(01:24):
is as terrific as you say it is?
Speaker 1 (01:26):
For sure. Okay, Now, climate change.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
We know about the oceans rising, and if you look
at Europe, even if you look at us, the wildfires
are out of control.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Europe is going crazy.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
I mean, Europe is on fire, Spain and Italy, France.
I mean they're still trying to control it with thousands
of firefighters coming in. So here is another aspect, which
is to spend that I haven't thought about and you
probably haven't either.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
That is the two big.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Rivers in Europe in this case, the Danube and the Rhine,
and this trout. Climate change has lowered water levels lower
than they've ever been. In Hungary, one of the four
reactors that packs nuclear power plant shut down because the
Danube lacks enough cooling water.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
And the Rhine cargo.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Ships have to reduce their loads because the river is
so low, so rates go up. Companies are curbing production
because there's just no way to move their goods. This
is the drought which is wreaking havoc along the rivers
in Europe. In Romania, authorities set off an explosion beside
(02:48):
a river to divert water to a power plant. In Bulgaria,
two hundred vacationers had to be evacuated from a stranded
cruise ship. It's just the mess over there, and all
signs of how perilously low water levels are on Europe's
most significant waterways. I mean, this is industry that ships
(03:09):
goods along these rivers, the major rivers, not just navigation
for fun and frolic on tours. It's a dry summer,
lack of rain, swelling temperature, stoking wildfires. And now you've
got these major stretches. Stretches of the Danube and the
Rhine have become trickles. And well, it's gotten so low
(03:34):
on the Danube you can walk parts of it, and
it's receated enough to explode World War two era bombs
and even older mammoth bones. You can see mammoth bones.
It's so low. Nuclear plants are shutting down because they
need massive amounts of water.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
They are near rivers.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
There are near for example, ours, the with San Dieglo
plant in San Diego, which is shut down but for
another reason. And so this week temperatures are set to
rise above one hundred degrees again, and Hungary's Prime minister
said the five most difficult days lie ahead.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
So how do they deal with it?
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Well, governments are going to be forced to step step
up financial support for the power sector, which means they
have less money to invest in companies and infrastructure. And
here's what happened also, and this is going to affect you.
If you happen to be on one of these river cruises.
Viking River Cruise, which is a great line, one hundred
(04:42):
and eighty six passengers had to come up ashore because
they hit a sandbag, a sandbank just too low. Cruise
operators have cancel voyages on the Danube and other rivers.
On the Rhine, there was a Viking ship that ran
a round water level gauge, delivering a daily dose of
(05:04):
unbelievable pain as rivers are just drying up. It is
a mess. It is a mess, and it's costing on
a tourism level, it's you know, I mean, it's small
potatoes to the economy, but on major industrial and transportation levels,
because you've got major companies shipping through Europe along major.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Waterways, they're drying up. Look at Lake.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Powell, the biggest lake we have, I think it's in Utah,
parts of Utah. If you ever watch Planet of the Apes,
when that spaceship comes down in that huge lake. That's
Lake Powell. Look at Boulder Dam or Hoover Dam. The
water is so low that it's about to become a
dead pool, not a movie, a dead pole. The water
(05:55):
is so low that the pumps are going to stop working.
And how many hundreds of thousands of homes rely on
the electricity.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
I gotta tell you, climate change is a mess.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
And for people that say, oh, no, climate change doesn't exist,
it's the hoax. Take a river cruise and just walk
along the Danube and go, boy, look at these wonderful,
wonderful sites.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
All right.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Now, peanut butter raises, what the god's name is? Peanut
butter raises? Well, what do you do with peanut butter?
You spread it, and you spread it evenly. So companies
are calling their hiring or actually their increase in pay
(06:45):
to workers getting away from peanut butter style pay raises.
And that is well, for example, unions, all right, the
same worker, if you work for a union or with
the union, you can be lazier than the other worker
and you're still going to get minimum pay, I mean,
short of being fired for cause or fired just because
(07:07):
you're doing that horrible a job.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
But in general, everybody.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Gets the same pay. Well, companies are moving away from that.
Why because well, they're a business model. Do they want
more profit? Major companies are doing great, but they want
more profit and they're moving to merit based pay raises.
And it is a little bit different. Now, there are
some merit pay raises out there, but they're few and
(07:33):
far between with especially non union shops. And you've got
this philosophy of everybody should be paid the same across
the board, and you only get merit.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
The merit ish only comes in when.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
People are promoted, when they're extraordinarily good at what they
do and they stand out. How about the rest of
the beat worker Beece, Well, it's peanut butter pay. The
average wage goes up three percent or three and a
half percent. Thirty two percent of employers say they're planning
a standard across the board increase for workers in twenty
(08:10):
twenty seven thirty two percent. Thirty six percent are doing
it this year, so it goes down again next year.
Ruth Thomas of Payscale, which is a compensation and benefit
software companies, said, we're seeing organizations realize they have to
deploy pay raises strategically.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
They have to deploy pay strategically.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
They have to think about business transformation because business is
changing dramatically and that includes allocating pay budgets differently. So
no more or far less peanut butter style pay raises.
So for twenty twenty seven next year, employers plan to
(08:55):
raise their base pay by three point five percent. This
year it was point one percent, So they're doing people
going to do better, but an average of three point
five percent. Because a lot of these companies are bringing
in a meritocracy. If everybody gets paid the same, and
let's say you're in a manufacturing facility and everybody gets
(09:17):
twenty two dollars an hour, Okay, that's what you get,
twenty two dollars an hour. Well, how about the person
does more work than the other person does a better job. Well,
it's still basically twenty two dollars an hour. Everybody gets paid. Now,
there are promotions, there are bonuses, but for the most part, it's.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Peanut butter pay. And the bottom.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Line, according to this company Payscale, is that the size
of the budget compensation budget. The size of the compensation
budget is not getting bigger. It's just how employers are
choosing to slice it. That's the difference. So there are
pay increases that are keeping ahead of pay inflation.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Not this year, hopefully by next year.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Consumer prices rose an annual three point five percent, and
there are a lot of pay raises that went up
three point two percent, three point four percent. This year
has been miserable. Next year, they're anticipating better and employees
in some industries could see larger and smaller raises than
(10:29):
the three point five percent inflation rate. Keep in mind
that the Fed wants a two percent inflation rate. That
is the sweet spot is a two percent inflation rate,
and we're almost double that right now. The cost of gasoline,
I don't even know the cost of oil. It's dropped
pretty dramatically over the last few days. Because this theoretical
(10:52):
piece with Iran, there is some news. Iran and Oman
just got to deal with each other. Nothing with the
United States. Thing with the rest of the world. Is
the straight of Hormuz open. No, not really, and the
President has said, you got one more day and we're
going to bomb you into oblivion. That bombing was so
(11:13):
supposed to take place on Monday. Okay, that didn't happen.
So Monday afternoon, for the eighth time. The President has said,
we're gonna bomb today, but I'm gonna hold off because
the Iranians are desperate for a plea. They begged us
to hold off on the bombing, and other Midi states
(11:33):
that have said the same thing.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
So I'm going to hold off.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Next couple of days, I guarantee you we're going to
go back to bombing Iran into oblivion. We'll see maybe
the ninth time. It's going to happen. Now, there have
been strikes, there's no question about it. But is it
a full scale war? A full scale war meaning that
the President goes balls to the wall on the bombing
(11:59):
of Iran. Iran takes its drones, missiles, drones and missiles there,
navy has navy has been decimated, but they take their
drones and missiles and attack Midy States and American bases
in the Mid East. That's going to be war. Hopefully
it doesn't happen. Hopefully the President is right that Iran
(12:20):
is going to cut a deal. And by the way,
I don't think he's making it up. I do not
think he's making it up. I think he is hearing
from factions in Iran that they really want a peace
a peace plan. The problem is that there are two
factions in Iran. There is the Government of Iran and
then there's the Revolutionary Guard the IRCG, which controls the economy.
(12:46):
So you've got the government saying yes, yes, yes, let's
sit down, the Revolutionary Guard saying not a chance.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
And therein lies a mess.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
And the president is relying on the Government of Iran
and not the RCG. I RCG that has made their statements. Okay,
enough of that. Now today, eighty one years ago the
bombing of Hiroshima when the United States dropped the first
(13:18):
atomic bomb that had ever been created and used in
warfare on Hiroshima three days from now August ninth. The
second city was bomb Nagasaki, and as Neil and I
pointed out, Neil actually three maybe three hundred thousand people
died in those two bombings, mainly civilians. And it is
(13:41):
well a lot of controversy in regard to atomic weapons
and even to this day and even war today, who
which countries have atomic weapons which do not? And the Iran,
the war in Iran is based on in most part,
for Iran creating an atomic bomb.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
So let me give you a little bit of history.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
The atomic bomb was created actually to bomb Germany. Japan
was really not in the mix when it was first
deemed possible. What really got President Roosevelt over the edge
was a letter by Einstein, Albert Einstein, who said, I
(14:26):
think we can create a weapon of enormous power based
on his theories which had not been tested. Actually, the
atomic bomb tested and confirmed Albert Einstein's theories. A group
of scientists, mainly Jewish scientists who had left Germany because
they had to in the thirties, ended up in the
(14:47):
United States, and they were professors and they were very
high end mathematicians. They got together based on Einstein and said,
we can come up with this, we can develop this weapon.
Because Germany was about to take over the world. Do it.
They knew it, and so they figured out, how do
we get how do we get FDR to pay attention
to us? A letter from FDR from Albert Einstein put
(15:10):
him over the edge. So the creation of the atomic bomb,
no one knew it could be done. It was literally
up in the air, and it was a theory. FDR
backed it up. FDR bought the premise that the United
States could conceive and create and deploy this bomb again
(15:35):
it was mainly for Germany. By the time Hiroshima started,
World War II was over in the Europe and the
only people that were left that was fighting the United
States was Japan. And of course the bomb was utilized
in Japan. I'm going to talk about whether or not
it should have been, because that's a bunch of controversy.
And so the creation of the bomb was an extraordinary
(15:58):
science fiction experiment. Basically no one knew. It was called
the Manhattan Project, and it was so important. It was
so big that the word Manhattan when they compare we're
going to do this like the Manhattan Project. Either it's
going to be a moonshot as describing how important how
big a program is, or it's like the Manhattan Project.
(16:20):
So the start of the Manhattan Project began, it was
as top secret as it could possibly be, except the
Russians were able to infiltrate and grab all the secrets,
and that is another story onto itself. And so at
point there were hundreds of thousands of people involved because
(16:41):
the plutonium and uranium had to be created in order
to effectuate critical mass so the bomb would explode. And
what Einstein basically said is that in mass that is,
in this case, uranium plutonium released the atoms would cause
(17:02):
this enormous, enormous explosion. And that was again a theory.
So FDR says, Okay, we're going to do it. How
do you pay for something like this? This was two
billion dollars in those days when two billion dollars was
real money in nineteen thirty nine, nineteen forty, nineteen forty one,
(17:26):
and so it had to be so secret. Congress didn't
know about it. The only people that knew about it
were a couple of people with the Pentagon and the
top leadership of the Senate and the House. Two people
on each side knew about it. So how do you
pay for this? The President went to the speaker and said, effectively,
(17:48):
I want you to put ten percent on top of
the budget of the United States and just give it
to me and don't ask questions. How would that happen today?
And so based on all of that, and then there
were nuclear plants at Tennessee that created the material, also
(18:11):
up in Washington in Hanford, Washington, and they finally got
together tiny little bits. It took hundreds of thousands of people,
massive massive factories to produce literally grams of nuclear material grams.
(18:32):
And by the time the bomb was dropped, and I
heard that it was enough for one more bomb. I
heard that it was enough for several bombs. And we're
hearing history tells us both stories. Okay, eighty one years
ago today, the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, followed
(18:54):
three days later August ninth with Nagasaki, followed by the
surrender of Japan. And I think I mean officially it
was I think August fifteenth, although hero Hito, who is
the emperor, was the emperor, stay the emperor, and then
his son became the emperor. Because it's a line that
(19:16):
goes back the chrysanthemum throne goes back thousands of years.
I think that is or is that China. I always
get the few confused, and I'm not going to say why,
because Neil will immediately start.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Screaming at me.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
All right, So the dropping of the bomb, the decision
to drop the atomic bomb has a lot of controversy.
It was Harry S. Truman that decided that Japan it
was a legitimate target. He had no idea when he
was Vice president that the bomb even existed. FDR did
(19:55):
not share with the Vice President of the United States,
the fact that the US had created an atomic weapon
and they didn't know if it was going to work.
The test that took place in Los Alamos and the
desert of New Mexico. The scientists had no idea. And
(20:16):
it was called Trinity. And it did explode, and when
did and it test did and explode?
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Do you know when it did?
Speaker 2 (20:23):
When Truman was meeting with Churchill and Stalin at Potsdam
to set up the post war world, and so Truman
told Stalin, we have a weapon and it is a
massive weapon. Stalin already knew about it because no matter
(20:44):
he may have known that before Truman, before FDR, because
Stalin was able to infiltrate the atomic pro the atomic
weapons program. And that's a whole different story with Klaus
Fuchs and Greenland, green Blatt and a few others. But
I'll do that at another point. Way. Japan is about
to surrender. Japan is decimated. There's nothing left of Japan.
(21:05):
And there were those in the not so much the military,
but certainly there were those in the know and scientists
who knew pushed for the bomb only to be used
as an example to the Japanese. Look what we can
do and then that would facilitate the surrender. In reality,
(21:27):
you have the war cabinet in Japan that literally controlled
the military Tojo who was both the prime Minister and
who was head of the war cabinet. These guys were nuts.
I mean, they were into taking over as much of
the world as possible, starting in the thirties, going against
Japan and then going into Indonesia and Vietnam and just
(21:52):
going through that whole area part of China, and they
were prepared to go to Warranta and they did and
attack all those countries. And they were fanatic. And the
military in Japan had been wiped out, their air force
had been wiped out, their navy had been wiped out.
The only thing was left was a smattering of army
(22:17):
and the citizens of Japan who were told and would
they would defend Japan to the last man. Woman and child.
Kids were giving were given stakes, were given wooden steaks
that were sharpened. Kids and were told and taught to
attack Americans who are going to invade. And the only
(22:38):
way to in fact win the war against Japan would
have cost would have won. I mean, there's no question
Japan would have caved but the military leaders in United
States figured there would be a million casualties because the
Japanese were so fanatic about defendingly to surrender.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
I hope the Japanese were in the process of no surrendering.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
They were nope, because you still had the war. You
still had they still had the war cabinet, and you
had tojo not doing it.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
He was hanged letter.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Later on, you had some within the war cabinet saying yes,
we're going to surrender. Most said no, and we're going
to defend the homeland every man, woman and child. It
took Herohito to make the final decision. The emperor decided
that we have to surrender because keep in mind that
(23:38):
Allied forces wanted unconditional surrender, no ifs ans or butts, unconditional.
And then one of the big issues was letting hero
Herohido stay as the emperor, which was agreed to. They
let him survive, and Herohito then agreed or actually he
told the military it's time to surrender. Because what Truman
(24:02):
did is he said, after the first bomb was dropped,
if you don't surrender unconditionally, there will be a rain
of death like you have never seen before.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
Didn't do it. That didn't do it.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
It took one more bomb and finally they realized that
it was over. And interestingly enough, Japan did surrender, and
they caved immediately. They no longer became a war power.
As a matter of fact, when the American forces went
into Tokyo and everybody, no one argued, I mean they
(24:39):
America had won. Do you know that the people as
the American in the tanks and were driving down the
road to Tokyo, the main road, all of the people
that were lining the road turned their backs on the Americans.
And the Americans thought that this was a sign of
this respect, and as a matter of fact, it went
(25:01):
the other way. It was a sign of respect. You
can never look at the Emperor, not allowed to be
looked at by people. He was just way about it.
He was basically a god. And that same kind of
respect was given by the by the Japanese population to respect.
We don't want to look them in the face because
that is not a sign of enough respect. It is
(25:23):
fascinating and I wish I could go on, and I
could go on for another hour. But that is a
little bit of history of the bombing of Hiroshima.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
And we're done. That's it.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
Tomorrow morning we come back again. I am not going
to be here tomorrow, so I'm not going to be
here tomorrow. I'm gonna pretend I be and take a
day off.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
Is it your birthday?
Speaker 2 (25:47):
I don't take my birthday off. As a matter of fact,
on my birthday, I do a double shift. I do
my show and then I asked to do Gary and
Shannon show. No, I just have a pre arranged that
I had to go to. You've been listening to The
Bill Handle Show, Catch My Show Monday through Friday six
am to nine am, and anytime on demand on the
(26:09):
iHeartRadio app.
You're listening to bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty. You are listening to the bill Handle show.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
I am six forty bill Handle here on a Thursday morning,
August six, yes, say one years ago, two day it
was the bombing of Hiroshima. August ninth, it was Nagasaki.
I'll talk more about that coming up at eight thirty
this morning, half an hour from now.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Quick word.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Pageant of the Masters is here until September fourth. What
is Pageant of the Masters? One of a kind live
experience under the stars in Laguna Beach at their Amphitheater,
Real people transforming themselves into iconic work of arts. And
that doesn't even begin to explain how terrific this is.
It doesn't exist anywhere else on the planet. Full orchestra,
(01:00):
and it is well, I can't even describe it how
good it is. And this year is particularly good. And
so I'm going to suggest you take a look. Tickets
start only forty two dollars. Every seat is good in
the house. It's through September fourth. Just google Pageant of
the Masters in Laguna Beach and you'll email me and say, yeah,
(01:24):
is as terrific as you say it is?
Speaker 1 (01:26):
For sure. Okay, Now, climate change.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
We know about the oceans rising, and if you look
at Europe, even if you look at us, the wildfires
are out of control.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Europe is going crazy.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
I mean, Europe is on fire, Spain and Italy, France.
I mean they're still trying to control it with thousands
of firefighters coming in. So here is another aspect, which
is to spend that I haven't thought about and you
probably haven't either.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
That is the two big.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Rivers in Europe in this case, the Danube and the Rhine,
and this trout. Climate change has lowered water levels lower
than they've ever been. In Hungary, one of the four
reactors that packs nuclear power plant shut down because the
Danube lacks enough cooling water.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
And the Rhine cargo.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Ships have to reduce their loads because the river is
so low, so rates go up. Companies are curbing production
because there's just no way to move their goods. This
is the drought which is wreaking havoc along the rivers
in Europe. In Romania, authorities set off an explosion beside
(02:48):
a river to divert water to a power plant. In Bulgaria,
two hundred vacationers had to be evacuated from a stranded
cruise ship. It's just the mess over there, and all
signs of how perilously low water levels are on Europe's
most significant waterways. I mean, this is industry that ships
(03:09):
goods along these rivers, the major rivers, not just navigation
for fun and frolic on tours. It's a dry summer,
lack of rain, swelling temperature, stoking wildfires. And now you've
got these major stretches. Stretches of the Danube and the
Rhine have become trickles. And well, it's gotten so low
(03:34):
on the Danube you can walk parts of it, and
it's receated enough to explode World War two era bombs
and even older mammoth bones. You can see mammoth bones.
It's so low. Nuclear plants are shutting down because they
need massive amounts of water.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
They are near rivers.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
There are near for example, ours, the with San Dieglo
plant in San Diego, which is shut down but for
another reason. And so this week temperatures are set to
rise above one hundred degrees again, and Hungary's Prime minister
said the five most difficult days lie ahead.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
So how do they deal with it?
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Well, governments are going to be forced to step step
up financial support for the power sector, which means they
have less money to invest in companies and infrastructure. And
here's what happened also, and this is going to affect you.
If you happen to be on one of these river cruises.
Viking River Cruise, which is a great line, one hundred
(04:42):
and eighty six passengers had to come up ashore because
they hit a sandbag, a sandbank just too low. Cruise
operators have cancel voyages on the Danube and other rivers.
On the Rhine, there was a Viking ship that ran
a round water level gauge, delivering a daily dose of
(05:04):
unbelievable pain as rivers are just drying up. It is
a mess. It is a mess, and it's costing on
a tourism level, it's you know, I mean, it's small
potatoes to the economy, but on major industrial and transportation levels,
because you've got major companies shipping through Europe along major.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Waterways, they're drying up. Look at Lake.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Powell, the biggest lake we have, I think it's in Utah,
parts of Utah. If you ever watch Planet of the Apes,
when that spaceship comes down in that huge lake. That's
Lake Powell. Look at Boulder Dam or Hoover Dam. The
water is so low that it's about to become a
dead pool, not a movie, a dead pole. The water
(05:55):
is so low that the pumps are going to stop working.
And how many hundreds of thousands of homes rely on
the electricity.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
I gotta tell you, climate change is a mess.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
And for people that say, oh, no, climate change doesn't exist,
it's the hoax. Take a river cruise and just walk
along the Danube and go, boy, look at these wonderful,
wonderful sites.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
All right.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Now, peanut butter raises, what the god's name is? Peanut
butter raises? Well, what do you do with peanut butter?
You spread it, and you spread it evenly. So companies
are calling their hiring or actually their increase in pay
(06:45):
to workers getting away from peanut butter style pay raises.
And that is well, for example, unions, all right, the
same worker, if you work for a union or with
the union, you can be lazier than the other worker
and you're still going to get minimum pay, I mean,
short of being fired for cause or fired just because
(07:07):
you're doing that horrible a job.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
But in general, everybody.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Gets the same pay. Well, companies are moving away from that.
Why because well, they're a business model. Do they want
more profit? Major companies are doing great, but they want
more profit and they're moving to merit based pay raises.
And it is a little bit different. Now, there are
some merit pay raises out there, but they're few and
(07:33):
far between with especially non union shops. And you've got
this philosophy of everybody should be paid the same across
the board, and you only get merit.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
The merit ish only comes in when.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
People are promoted, when they're extraordinarily good at what they
do and they stand out. How about the rest of
the beat worker Beece, Well, it's peanut butter pay. The
average wage goes up three percent or three and a
half percent. Thirty two percent of employers say they're planning
a standard across the board increase for workers in twenty
(08:10):
twenty seven thirty two percent. Thirty six percent are doing
it this year, so it goes down again next year.
Ruth Thomas of Payscale, which is a compensation and benefit
software companies, said, we're seeing organizations realize they have to
deploy pay raises strategically.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
They have to deploy pay strategically.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
They have to think about business transformation because business is
changing dramatically and that includes allocating pay budgets differently. So
no more or far less peanut butter style pay raises.
So for twenty twenty seven next year, employers plan to
(08:55):
raise their base pay by three point five percent. This
year it was point one percent, So they're doing people
going to do better, but an average of three point
five percent. Because a lot of these companies are bringing
in a meritocracy. If everybody gets paid the same, and
let's say you're in a manufacturing facility and everybody gets
(09:17):
twenty two dollars an hour, Okay, that's what you get,
twenty two dollars an hour. Well, how about the person
does more work than the other person does a better job. Well,
it's still basically twenty two dollars an hour. Everybody gets paid. Now,
there are promotions, there are bonuses, but for the most part, it's.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Peanut butter pay. And the bottom.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Line, according to this company Payscale, is that the size
of the budget compensation budget. The size of the compensation
budget is not getting bigger. It's just how employers are
choosing to slice it. That's the difference. So there are
pay increases that are keeping ahead of pay inflation.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Not this year, hopefully by next year.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Consumer prices rose an annual three point five percent, and
there are a lot of pay raises that went up
three point two percent, three point four percent. This year
has been miserable. Next year, they're anticipating better and employees
in some industries could see larger and smaller raises than
(10:29):
the three point five percent inflation rate. Keep in mind
that the Fed wants a two percent inflation rate. That
is the sweet spot is a two percent inflation rate,
and we're almost double that right now. The cost of gasoline,
I don't even know the cost of oil. It's dropped
pretty dramatically over the last few days. Because this theoretical
(10:52):
piece with Iran, there is some news. Iran and Oman
just got to deal with each other. Nothing with the
United States. Thing with the rest of the world. Is
the straight of Hormuz open. No, not really, and the
President has said, you got one more day and we're
going to bomb you into oblivion. That bombing was so
(11:13):
supposed to take place on Monday. Okay, that didn't happen.
So Monday afternoon, for the eighth time. The President has said,
we're gonna bomb today, but I'm gonna hold off because
the Iranians are desperate for a plea. They begged us
to hold off on the bombing, and other Midi states
(11:33):
that have said the same thing.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
So I'm going to hold off.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Next couple of days, I guarantee you we're going to
go back to bombing Iran into oblivion. We'll see maybe
the ninth time. It's going to happen. Now, there have
been strikes, there's no question about it. But is it
a full scale war? A full scale war meaning that
the President goes balls to the wall on the bombing
(11:59):
of Iran. Iran takes its drones, missiles, drones and missiles there,
navy has navy has been decimated, but they take their
drones and missiles and attack Midy States and American bases
in the Mid East. That's going to be war. Hopefully
it doesn't happen. Hopefully the President is right that Iran
(12:20):
is going to cut a deal. And by the way,
I don't think he's making it up. I do not
think he's making it up. I think he is hearing
from factions in Iran that they really want a peace
a peace plan. The problem is that there are two
factions in Iran. There is the Government of Iran and
then there's the Revolutionary Guard the IRCG, which controls the economy.
(12:46):
So you've got the government saying yes, yes, yes, let's
sit down, the Revolutionary Guard saying not a chance.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
And therein lies a mess.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
And the president is relying on the Government of Iran
and not the RCG. I RCG that has made their statements. Okay,
enough of that. Now today, eighty one years ago the
bombing of Hiroshima when the United States dropped the first
(13:18):
atomic bomb that had ever been created and used in
warfare on Hiroshima three days from now August ninth. The
second city was bomb Nagasaki, and as Neil and I
pointed out, Neil actually three maybe three hundred thousand people
died in those two bombings, mainly civilians. And it is
(13:41):
well a lot of controversy in regard to atomic weapons
and even to this day and even war today, who
which countries have atomic weapons which do not? And the Iran,
the war in Iran is based on in most part,
for Iran creating an atomic bomb.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
So let me give you a little bit of history.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
The atomic bomb was created actually to bomb Germany. Japan
was really not in the mix when it was first
deemed possible. What really got President Roosevelt over the edge
was a letter by Einstein, Albert Einstein, who said, I
(14:26):
think we can create a weapon of enormous power based
on his theories which had not been tested. Actually, the
atomic bomb tested and confirmed Albert Einstein's theories. A group
of scientists, mainly Jewish scientists who had left Germany because
they had to in the thirties, ended up in the
(14:47):
United States, and they were professors and they were very
high end mathematicians. They got together based on Einstein and said,
we can come up with this, we can develop this weapon.
Because Germany was about to take over the world. Do it.
They knew it, and so they figured out, how do
we get how do we get FDR to pay attention
to us? A letter from FDR from Albert Einstein put
(15:10):
him over the edge. So the creation of the atomic bomb,
no one knew it could be done. It was literally
up in the air, and it was a theory. FDR
backed it up. FDR bought the premise that the United
States could conceive and create and deploy this bomb again
(15:35):
it was mainly for Germany. By the time Hiroshima started,
World War II was over in the Europe and the
only people that were left that was fighting the United
States was Japan. And of course the bomb was utilized
in Japan. I'm going to talk about whether or not
it should have been, because that's a bunch of controversy.
And so the creation of the bomb was an extraordinary
(15:58):
science fiction experiment. Basically no one knew. It was called
the Manhattan Project, and it was so important. It was
so big that the word Manhattan when they compare we're
going to do this like the Manhattan Project. Either it's
going to be a moonshot as describing how important how
big a program is, or it's like the Manhattan Project.
(16:20):
So the start of the Manhattan Project began, it was
as top secret as it could possibly be, except the
Russians were able to infiltrate and grab all the secrets,
and that is another story onto itself. And so at
point there were hundreds of thousands of people involved because
(16:41):
the plutonium and uranium had to be created in order
to effectuate critical mass so the bomb would explode. And
what Einstein basically said is that in mass that is,
in this case, uranium plutonium released the atoms would cause
(17:02):
this enormous, enormous explosion. And that was again a theory.
So FDR says, Okay, we're going to do it. How
do you pay for something like this? This was two
billion dollars in those days when two billion dollars was
real money in nineteen thirty nine, nineteen forty, nineteen forty one,
(17:26):
and so it had to be so secret. Congress didn't
know about it. The only people that knew about it
were a couple of people with the Pentagon and the
top leadership of the Senate and the House. Two people
on each side knew about it. So how do you
pay for this? The President went to the speaker and said, effectively,
(17:48):
I want you to put ten percent on top of
the budget of the United States and just give it
to me and don't ask questions. How would that happen today?
And so based on all of that, and then there
were nuclear plants at Tennessee that created the material, also
(18:11):
up in Washington in Hanford, Washington, and they finally got
together tiny little bits. It took hundreds of thousands of people,
massive massive factories to produce literally grams of nuclear material grams.
(18:32):
And by the time the bomb was dropped, and I
heard that it was enough for one more bomb. I
heard that it was enough for several bombs. And we're
hearing history tells us both stories. Okay, eighty one years
ago today, the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, followed
(18:54):
three days later August ninth with Nagasaki, followed by the
surrender of Japan. And I think I mean officially it
was I think August fifteenth, although hero Hito, who is
the emperor, was the emperor, stay the emperor, and then
his son became the emperor. Because it's a line that
(19:16):
goes back the chrysanthemum throne goes back thousands of years.
I think that is or is that China. I always
get the few confused, and I'm not going to say why,
because Neil will immediately start.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Screaming at me.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
All right, So the dropping of the bomb, the decision
to drop the atomic bomb has a lot of controversy.
It was Harry S. Truman that decided that Japan it
was a legitimate target. He had no idea when he
was Vice president that the bomb even existed. FDR did
(19:55):
not share with the Vice President of the United States,
the fact that the US had created an atomic weapon
and they didn't know if it was going to work.
The test that took place in Los Alamos and the
desert of New Mexico. The scientists had no idea. And
(20:16):
it was called Trinity. And it did explode, and when
did and it test did and explode?
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Do you know when it did?
Speaker 2 (20:23):
When Truman was meeting with Churchill and Stalin at Potsdam
to set up the post war world, and so Truman
told Stalin, we have a weapon and it is a
massive weapon. Stalin already knew about it because no matter
(20:44):
he may have known that before Truman, before FDR, because
Stalin was able to infiltrate the atomic pro the atomic
weapons program. And that's a whole different story with Klaus
Fuchs and Greenland, green Blatt and a few others. But
I'll do that at another point. Way. Japan is about
to surrender. Japan is decimated. There's nothing left of Japan.
(21:05):
And there were those in the not so much the military,
but certainly there were those in the know and scientists
who knew pushed for the bomb only to be used
as an example to the Japanese. Look what we can
do and then that would facilitate the surrender. In reality,
(21:27):
you have the war cabinet in Japan that literally controlled
the military Tojo who was both the prime Minister and
who was head of the war cabinet. These guys were nuts.
I mean, they were into taking over as much of
the world as possible, starting in the thirties, going against
Japan and then going into Indonesia and Vietnam and just
(21:52):
going through that whole area part of China, and they
were prepared to go to Warranta and they did and
attack all those countries. And they were fanatic. And the
military in Japan had been wiped out, their air force
had been wiped out, their navy had been wiped out.
The only thing was left was a smattering of army
(22:17):
and the citizens of Japan who were told and would
they would defend Japan to the last man. Woman and child.
Kids were giving were given stakes, were given wooden steaks
that were sharpened. Kids and were told and taught to
attack Americans who are going to invade. And the only
(22:38):
way to in fact win the war against Japan would
have cost would have won. I mean, there's no question
Japan would have caved but the military leaders in United
States figured there would be a million casualties because the
Japanese were so fanatic about defendingly to surrender.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
I hope the Japanese were in the process of no surrendering.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
They were nope, because you still had the war. You
still had they still had the war cabinet, and you
had tojo not doing it.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
He was hanged letter.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Later on, you had some within the war cabinet saying yes,
we're going to surrender. Most said no, and we're going
to defend the homeland every man, woman and child. It
took Herohito to make the final decision. The emperor decided
that we have to surrender because keep in mind that
(23:38):
Allied forces wanted unconditional surrender, no ifs ans or butts, unconditional.
And then one of the big issues was letting hero
Herohido stay as the emperor, which was agreed to. They
let him survive, and Herohito then agreed or actually he
told the military it's time to surrender. Because what Truman
(24:02):
did is he said, after the first bomb was dropped,
if you don't surrender unconditionally, there will be a rain
of death like you have never seen before.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
Didn't do it. That didn't do it.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
It took one more bomb and finally they realized that
it was over. And interestingly enough, Japan did surrender, and
they caved immediately. They no longer became a war power.
As a matter of fact, when the American forces went
into Tokyo and everybody, no one argued, I mean they
(24:39):
America had won. Do you know that the people as
the American in the tanks and were driving down the
road to Tokyo, the main road, all of the people
that were lining the road turned their backs on the Americans.
And the Americans thought that this was a sign of
this respect, and as a matter of fact, it went
(25:01):
the other way. It was a sign of respect. You
can never look at the Emperor, not allowed to be
looked at by people. He was just way about it.
He was basically a god. And that same kind of
respect was given by the by the Japanese population to respect.
We don't want to look them in the face because
that is not a sign of enough respect. It is
(25:23):
fascinating and I wish I could go on, and I
could go on for another hour. But that is a
little bit of history of the bombing of Hiroshima.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
And we're done. That's it.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
Tomorrow morning we come back again. I am not going
to be here tomorrow, so I'm not going to be
here tomorrow. I'm gonna pretend I be and take a
day off.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
Is it your birthday?
Speaker 2 (25:47):
I don't take my birthday off. As a matter of fact,
on my birthday, I do a double shift. I do
my show and then I asked to do Gary and
Shannon show. No, I just have a pre arranged that
I had to go to. You've been listening to The
Bill Handle Show, Catch My Show Monday through Friday six
am to nine am, and anytime on demand on the
(26:09):
iHeartRadio app.
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