August 6, 2025 • 26 mins
(August 06, 2025)
Trump names himself Chair of L.A. Olympics task force, sees role for military during games. After fires and a tsunami, a push for L.A. to look at evacuation routes. Should Lyft and Uber charge more if your battery is low? California may soon ban that. Tired of waiting for the city? Angelenos paint their own crosswalks… some become permanent.
Trump names himself Chair of L.A. Olympics task force, sees role for military during games. After fires and a tsunami, a push for L.A. to look at evacuation routes. Should Lyft and Uber charge more if your battery is low? California may soon ban that. Tired of waiting for the city? Angelenos paint their own crosswalks… some become permanent.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
If I am.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
Sixty forty Bill Handle, it is Aday, Wednesday, August six,
And as usual, we do a Trump story.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
It's kind of hard not to every day do a
Trump story.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Some of them have a profound impact on US Americans,
on certain segments of our population and the world economically speaking,
and changing alliances and what's going on with wars and
the United the US negotiating ceasefires and peace deals, et cetera.
(00:45):
Those are pretty profound. And then there are some that
are just fun. This one is just fun. Does this
have any major implications, No, it does not, but it's
just typical Trump.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
So what the President did.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
He named himself chair of the LA Olympics Task Force
and sees the role for the military during the games. Now,
as ridiculous as that sounds, it's been done a bunch
of times before internationally, certainly the Paris Olympics. Macrone was
(01:22):
all over it and there were military, there were federal
police guarding the venue well France.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
That are really weird.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
One opening ceremonies were along in almost a four mile
stretch along the Sane River and they had actors and
people dancing around in weird costumes and it was just
really strange and they, I mean, the security there was
crazy and the President was very heavily involved macrone And
(01:51):
it has happened before, but this one's kind of fun
because President Trump named himself chair the LA Olympics Task Force.
That's kind of that's kind of new. And is this
self aggrandizing look at me? Yeah, absolutely, and a couple
things are kind of interesting and fun in my life,
(02:16):
in my view, and that is one of the reasons
he gives for naming him self chair is to push
strongly across the world the premise of American exceptionalism, which
I don't buy at all. I think in many ways
America is the greatest country in the world, and in
(02:36):
many ways it is not. Its literacy rate is number
like twenty something in terms of the number of people
can read and write. Our mortality rate is way down,
birth rate I'm talking about way down in terms of
compared to other countries.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
So we are quote the best country in the world,
not when you.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Look at that, not when you look at the number
of people in prison, not when you look at the
number of people that live out in the streets, not
when you look at people who are hungry. We are
not the best country in the world. Now you put
it all together, we are. The opportunity in this country
is phenomenal. It's unlike any other country. I believe the
(03:18):
innovation is tremendous here in this country. So much technology
comes out of the United States. Its higher education system,
the university system is the best in the world. So
here's the problem with exceptionalism. We are the best. And
what happens when someone else wins the insert name of
(03:43):
event here where the American flag doesn't.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Come up, It doesn't go up on that stand.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Do you have a loudspeaker screaming rigged fixed, this is
fake news.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
These guys really didn't win.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
How do you promote exceptionalism during the course of the
Olympics when it's about everybody coming together and the world,
for a small period of time, coming to somewhat of
a peace relationship, even our enemies.
Speaker 4 (04:16):
Maybe he's going to have a maybe he's gonna have
a special Trump Gold Award that he's that every American gets,
regardless of how they place.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
You know, I would I wouldn't be surprised at all.
I said earlier this morning. And this is by an
executive directive, an executive order. And I don't know if
you caught it, Neil, but I am convinced that Donald Trump,
the President, by executive order, is going to issue a
statement that he is going to not only enter, but
(04:45):
he will win.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
The marathon is going to be carried by someone.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
No.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
No, because he is, as he has said, the most
fit president in the history of the United States, I guess,
including George W. Bush, who ran ten miles a day
every morning and in his fifties. The Secret Service agents
who were in their twenties could not keep up with him.
He was in that kind of shape. And if you
(05:14):
look at Barack Obama, you know pretty much of a
hard body.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
No, he is, okay.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
So a lot of tension in LA because Los Angeles
is at war with the Trump administration. We know that,
and our mayor Karen Bass actually is known sort of
stays away as a brawler. But after the Palisades fire,
(05:45):
she was determined to continue her relationship with the president.
Why because billions of dollars of federal aid that the
city was depending on was coming in, and even as
he had publicly attacked her, she was still diplomatic about it. Well,
that changed when the massed immigration agents and military personnel
(06:06):
descended on the city, and she accused the president of
waging an all out assault on Los Angeles, including chaos
and fear, and using the city as a test case
for an extremist agenda.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Whether you agree with that is one or the other.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Now every year now and this I think happened right
after the Reagan administration, where by Olympic law, by Olympic procedure,
the head of state opens the Olympics, stands up at
whatever viewing booth and he says, I declare the twenty eighth,
(06:46):
twenty ninth, whatever the number is, Olympics now open. And
then you know, the fireworks go off and they go
ahead and open the Olympics.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
That's fairly new.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
It used to be local officials. It used to be
maybe the governor would open up the Olympics. Now it's
head of state. And I won't say my favorite story.
I think the most historical, historically important opening up the
Olympics was nineteen well, nineteen thirty six. But it wasn't
(07:18):
a procedure that a president of a country opened it up.
And that's what Adolf Hitler opened the Berlin Olympics in
nineteen thirty six, and at that time he took all
the Jews and put him in corners and took away
the anti the anti Semitism, all the issues. And then
(07:39):
it went right back after the Olympics were over. So
here is a question. It's going to be President Trump
that is going to open up the Olympics. Guesses as
to what's going to happen, well, when he walks in,
certainly it'll be hailed to the chief, which I don't
(08:00):
know if that has happened before with the US president
opening up modern Olympics, one of the modern Olympics.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Don't know.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
I can't wait.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
I can't wait.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
But much like he named himself as chair of the
Kennedy Center, he is now.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Sorry.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
He is will be the first president since Ronald Reagan
in nineteen eighty four, which happened here in Los Angeles.
And what the President Reagan did He went to several
Olympic events, but kept on repeating over and over and
over the federal government's role was focused on security.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
That's it.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
And up to now President Trump is saying exactly that
he is not moving ahead beyond that, but he is
named himself head of the task force, because you can't
do better than that?
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Okay, oh, is he gonna be?
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Has he named himself chair of the fitness program? You
know they brought that back, the youth fitness program? And
do you see him doing jumping jacks?
Speaker 1 (09:12):
You know that was a lot of the response on
social media.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
It's like, can he even do any of the things
that the kids are supposed to do.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
I don't think that's a fair one. I never got
the presidential patch because I couldn't do the things that
the kids are supposed to do.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
You know, it was damn hard Arnold Schwarzenegger at one
point was head of that program.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Wasn't he?
Speaker 3 (09:36):
He was named by President Bush, I think, as head
of that program. And he expected every single school kid
in America to bench press three hundred pounds because it
was of course Arnold.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
The bow get to the top of all. Right.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
Now, this has to do with a little bit about
January seventh and a little bit about well, a lot
to do with evacuations. There was a law passed in
twenty nineteen requiring the city of Los Angeles to analyze
the and we're quoting now the capacity safety and and
the viability of its evaction roots. Guess what, nothing, Nothing
(10:20):
has happened. Nada. Councilmember Tracy Park, whose district is the Palisades,
said the city has yet to provide any satisfactory answers.
She said, in the wake of this disaster in the
Pacific Palisades, I don't know how we have a single
conversation about planning for the future that isn't tied to
(10:43):
public safety and evacuation routes and emergency preparation preparedness. Mark
Levine wrote the twenty nineteen law Assembly Bill seven forty
seven after hearing about the scenes of gridlock in Paradise,
cal he heard on the radio during the twenty eighteen campfire,
(11:03):
in which what eighty something people died and there were
no evacuation routes that were planned or that were broadcast. Now,
the law requires local governments to include evacuation analysis in
their general plans. Every few years, the city county comes
(11:24):
out with general plans as to what's happening for the future,
what we're going to do in terms of safety. They
serve as a blueprint for long term development for cities
and counties, and that's what they follow. No analysis about
the safety element, nothing, nothing about evacuation plans, I mean zero.
(11:49):
And she's been fighting for better evacuation plans since she
took office in twenty twenty two. And look at what
happened with the Palisades, slow and caseotic evacuation. She saw
that firsthand and said, we got real problems. So I
was out there January seventh, and the gridlock and the
choke points were everywhere. The chaotic communication, the inconsistent decorat
(12:12):
direction during the evacuation, the failure to start the evacuation sooner.
So you would think okay, based on her pressure and
based on the fact that the Palace Ades fire happened,
all that teaches us lesson A lesson Nope, nope. I've
(12:34):
repeatedly asked for information, plans, roots education with the community, simulations, drills. Nothing,
not a She has not seen any simulated evacuations, no
analysis predicting evacuations, which, by the way, we're recommended by
the state agency.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
When AB seven forty seven.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
Was passed now the La Times, of course asked for
a comment from the city and went to the city
Planning department, which opposed to write and update the safety elements,
and the Planning Department said it does not publicize evacuation
roots since large urban cities such as the city of
(13:18):
Los Angeles are high profile targets for terrorist attacks.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Boy, that one's abute, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
We're not going to publish where you're supposed to go
the e action evacuation routes because terrorists are out there
looking at these evacuation routes potentially and therefore could attack
people in.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Smaller groups and groups that are concentrated.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Come on, really, yeah, why don't you just say we
blew it, we haven't done it yet and we're gonna
get on it.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Nope.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
How much le could you be then saying we don't
publish these evacuation routes because the terrorists might be looking
at them. So what good are evacuation roots?
Speaker 2 (14:13):
They're not?
Speaker 3 (14:15):
Okay, politicians at their best, and that's what's going on
in this case. This is an administrative agency. By the way,
all right, before we jump into the lift and Uber story,
Oh boy, what a story.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
This one is. Neil, you have an event coming up?
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Why yes, Bill, thank you for that. Seguey, you are welcome.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
Neil, would you like to tell us about it.
Speaker 4 (14:41):
Oh boy, would I hair lip? All right, we're celebrating
my birthday. I mean that's the excuse, but the reality
is I just want to hang out. And it's this Saturday,
two to five pm. I'll be broadcasting at Desconso Restaurant
in Los Angeles. They also have one in Orange County.
We'll be at the Los Angeles location on Wilsher right
next to the tar pits, and I would love for
(15:03):
you to be my guest. We're also going to have
Tiffany Hobbs. She's going to join us and do her
show from five to seven. All you need to do
TURSVP is send an email to RSVP at Disconso Restaurant
dot com. That's RSVP at Disconso Restaurant dot com. Provide
your full name and number of guests. They'll be complimentary apps,
(15:26):
some drink specials, some giveaways. My buddy Simon Majumdar from
the Food Network is going to be there. It'll be
a lot of fun, So please join us this Saturday.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
It'll be a good time.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Thank you, Neil, you're welcome.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Bill good We always have a good time on the program.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
Okay, move into what's going out with dynamic pricing. Now,
dynamic pricing is something we've already already yelled with hotels
on weekends during holidays, of course, it's warm up money Disneyland.
Neil's going to Disneyland during holidays. During hot the summer,
it's more money. Airlines are charging more or less money
(16:09):
depending on the day. That's all dynamic pricing. Uber and
Lyft also do dynamic pricing, and it has to do
with how many people want to call Uber and Lyft
at a given time. For example, at a concert, the
prices go up pretty dramatically. They can triple because so
many people want Uber and Lyft and other ride shares.
(16:31):
But let me tell you what is going on Senate
Bill two fifty nine that's introduced by Hayward Democratic Senator
Aisha Wahab is it prevents retailers from using AI to
jack up prices.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Come on, that's everybody else does it. But here is
the kicker.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
The retailers read Uber and and Lift can't use the
information stored on customers' phones, which they can now because
with the technology today and the algorithms and certainly your
phone being connected to everybody and everything. Information stored on
(17:20):
your phones include your battery life, whether it's an older model,
what apps are installed, what time of day it is,
where you are located, and where you live. For example,
let's say your battery is really low, you're ten miles
from home, it is midnight, and you clearly and I
(17:46):
don't know how the algorithm works, but that's a good
time to charge a lot more money.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Wait, how is that not gouging? It is gouging, but
how is that not under gouging laws?
Speaker 2 (17:57):
It is? It's well, we don't know if it's under
gouging law.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
That's the issue at this point, and it really doesn't
matter because Senate Bill two fifty nine would stop it cold.
And I love the argument that first of all, the
ride share companies are giving us. Also who's against the
bill why Chambers of Commerce, of course, big tech, Silicon Valley.
(18:25):
And what they're saying is that the bill is unnecessary
completely because under California's existing privacy laws, which you can
opt out to to some agree opt out from that,
if this bill passes, it would stifle innovation and cut
(18:46):
into tech company profits and lead to higher prices. So
here's what they're arguing, higher prices lead to higher prices
and higher prices are good for you. Therefore, we should
allow this tech to move forward where these companies know
(19:07):
exactly where you are. You know, for example, let me
give you one of dynamic pricing, which is insane. If
you are calling and trying to book a hotel in
San Francisco and you're calling from Arkansas, you're going to
get one price. If you're calling from the Bay Area,
you're going to get another price because the hotels know
that you're willing to pay more money. You have more money,
(19:29):
and you're used to hotel rooms costing more. I was
just talking to Clark Howard yesterday, my friend Clark and
he a consumer advocate and consumer reporter, are probably the
best in the country other than.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Joel Larsgard who used to work for Clark.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
And he was saying over the holidays, because I was
inquiring thinking of taking a week into the New York area.
He said that a regular hotel room at a nice
this hotel is two thousand.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Bucks a night.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
Yeah, it's dynamic pricing. They got you at a good
hotel room. Everybody wants to go and it's they that's.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
What they're charging now.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
Off season, midweek you'll maybe pay four or five hundred dollars, which,
by the way, is insane in and of itself. I mean,
four or five hundred dollars for a hotel room is crazy.
Can you imagine in the thousands of dollars dynamic pricing?
But this one uses AI. The lift companies Uber ride
(20:40):
share are saying that we're going to know how desperate
you are. Not because there's a bunch of people trying
to get out of a concert and you're can pay
a lot more money. We're going to look at where
you are, We're going to look at what time of
day it is.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
There's no way because there's gonna be some algorithm or
pattern that affects people low income people in some way.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
But they know just be considered, you know.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
But they know.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
The point is they will know where you live, how
much money you make, what kind of job you have.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
Because it's all available. AI goes through all of it.
They know everything you do.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
And that's the problem with AI, and damn it is
so embarrassing. In my case, if they ever publish this,
I'm just completely dead in the embarrassment level.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
Okay, do they know you have an elevator in your home.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Probably because I bought an elevator. And by the way,
for those people that buy who understand elevators, my wife
Lindsay has a syndrome CRPS. You can look it up,
and it's very difficult for her to walk sometimes. And
I'm going to get old and decrepit at some point,
and I don't want to move because what happens is
(21:56):
as people retire and they live in two story homes,
they have to leave because they can't go upstairs.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
So I'm preactively doing it. Stop making fun.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
Of me on that, please, Oh, for God's sake, stop it.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Adding texture to the program.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
Yeah, all right, dude, I gotta have a story for you.
Let me give you a fact that I didn't even know.
According to Michael Schneider of Streets for All, actually a
governmental organization, he said, we have, per capita is some
of the most dangerous streets in the country to walk around.
(22:36):
And there's a story in Sawtell, West LA. And they
have a park called Stoner Park for real. Yeah, people
are sucking up on joints all day long and walking around. Yep,
very happy campers. Now people go to the park, they
go to a daycare near it. They're surrounding schools, and
(22:59):
the residents asks for crosswalks, and they didn't give them.
Crosswalks didn't give the residents. So he buys about two
hundred dollars worth of paint, recruits neighbors and they paint
their own crosswalks. And that's not the first time this
has happened. Some people get a lot of frustrated how
(23:20):
long it takes a city to respond. You call three
one to one and then they theoretically come out, and
you wait and wait, and they just end up doing
the job in themselves. And sometimes the city removes the
stripes the crosswalk. Sometimes it allows them to become permanent.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
No one knows why.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
Now it's a little complicated because there are accessibility requirements
before any permanent installation, and there are studies that have
to be done, and the governmental organizations have to be involved.
And you don't need any of that if you're a neighborhood.
If you're in the neighborhood and you go to home
Depo and a couple hundred dollars with the paint, you
(24:01):
do it yourself.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Now.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
Story in the La Times, the city officials didn't respond
to questions about the way they ignore or do or
comply or allow these crosswalks put in those crosswalks, and
whether they ignore state and local federal guidelines.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Oh no, no.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
The Transpatient Transportation Department said no requests for sidewalks have
even been made at the location near Stoner Park, although
the Mayor's office said that the bureau had received multiple
sidewalk accessibility requests surrounding Stoner Park, but not as far
(24:46):
as the crosswalks were concerned. And they have a limited
budget which they used.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
I didn't know this.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
I thought the City of La every single corner had
those ramps where on all four corners where wheelchairs and
wheelchair accessible.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
I thought it was all there.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
It's not.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
The city has to spend money, and rightly so fixing
sidewalks which buckle and they put in the wrong trees,
and accessibility for people in wheelchairs which heretofore could not
go outside and go down the street because they couldn't
get over the curb.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
And so the money is limited.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
And although the crosswalks are pretty easy, they could pass
legislation that makes them very easy enough. Complaints from people
neighborhood to throw in a crosswalk.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
And this is one of those.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
Really, how difficult, is it. It used to be the
people in wheelchairs couldn't even go into elevators and press
the buttons to go up on the floors and use
the elevator because the buttons were too high for people
in wheelchairs. So the law was changed in the city
of Los Angeles, and that is everybody, every building that
(26:02):
had an elevator had to move the panel down. They
had to rewire the elevator to bring the panel down.
And I always thought, as anybody ever ever thought, how
about putting a stick on a chain and you can
press the button with a stick. A little bit cheaper,
(26:25):
isn't it. Okay, we're done. KFI AM sixty.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
You've been listening to the Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 3 (26:34):
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):
If I am.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
Sixty forty Bill Handle, it is Aday, Wednesday, August six,
And as usual, we do a Trump story.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
It's kind of hard not to every day do a
Trump story.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Some of them have a profound impact on US Americans,
on certain segments of our population and the world economically speaking,
and changing alliances and what's going on with wars and
the United the US negotiating ceasefires and peace deals, et cetera.
(00:45):
Those are pretty profound. And then there are some that
are just fun. This one is just fun. Does this
have any major implications, No, it does not, but it's
just typical Trump.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
So what the President did.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
He named himself chair of the LA Olympics Task Force
and sees the role for the military during the games. Now,
as ridiculous as that sounds, it's been done a bunch
of times before internationally, certainly the Paris Olympics. Macrone was
(01:22):
all over it and there were military, there were federal
police guarding the venue well France.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
That are really weird.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
One opening ceremonies were along in almost a four mile
stretch along the Sane River and they had actors and
people dancing around in weird costumes and it was just
really strange and they, I mean, the security there was
crazy and the President was very heavily involved macrone And
(01:51):
it has happened before, but this one's kind of fun
because President Trump named himself chair the LA Olympics Task Force.
That's kind of that's kind of new. And is this
self aggrandizing look at me? Yeah, absolutely, and a couple
things are kind of interesting and fun in my life,
(02:16):
in my view, and that is one of the reasons
he gives for naming him self chair is to push
strongly across the world the premise of American exceptionalism, which
I don't buy at all. I think in many ways
America is the greatest country in the world, and in
(02:36):
many ways it is not. Its literacy rate is number
like twenty something in terms of the number of people
can read and write. Our mortality rate is way down,
birth rate I'm talking about way down in terms of
compared to other countries.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
So we are quote the best country in the world,
not when you.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Look at that, not when you look at the number
of people in prison, not when you look at the
number of people that live out in the streets, not
when you look at people who are hungry. We are
not the best country in the world. Now you put
it all together, we are. The opportunity in this country
is phenomenal. It's unlike any other country. I believe the
(03:18):
innovation is tremendous here in this country. So much technology
comes out of the United States. Its higher education system,
the university system is the best in the world. So
here's the problem with exceptionalism. We are the best. And
what happens when someone else wins the insert name of
(03:43):
event here where the American flag doesn't.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Come up, It doesn't go up on that stand.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Do you have a loudspeaker screaming rigged fixed, this is
fake news.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
These guys really didn't win.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
How do you promote exceptionalism during the course of the
Olympics when it's about everybody coming together and the world,
for a small period of time, coming to somewhat of
a peace relationship, even our enemies.
Speaker 4 (04:16):
Maybe he's going to have a maybe he's gonna have
a special Trump Gold Award that he's that every American gets,
regardless of how they place.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
You know, I would I wouldn't be surprised at all.
I said earlier this morning. And this is by an
executive directive, an executive order. And I don't know if
you caught it, Neil, but I am convinced that Donald Trump,
the President, by executive order, is going to issue a
statement that he is going to not only enter, but
(04:45):
he will win.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
The marathon is going to be carried by someone.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
No.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
No, because he is, as he has said, the most
fit president in the history of the United States, I guess,
including George W. Bush, who ran ten miles a day
every morning and in his fifties. The Secret Service agents
who were in their twenties could not keep up with him.
He was in that kind of shape. And if you
(05:14):
look at Barack Obama, you know pretty much of a
hard body.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
No, he is, okay.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
So a lot of tension in LA because Los Angeles
is at war with the Trump administration. We know that,
and our mayor Karen Bass actually is known sort of
stays away as a brawler. But after the Palisades fire,
(05:45):
she was determined to continue her relationship with the president.
Why because billions of dollars of federal aid that the
city was depending on was coming in, and even as
he had publicly attacked her, she was still diplomatic about it. Well,
that changed when the massed immigration agents and military personnel
(06:06):
descended on the city, and she accused the president of
waging an all out assault on Los Angeles, including chaos
and fear, and using the city as a test case
for an extremist agenda.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Whether you agree with that is one or the other.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Now every year now and this I think happened right
after the Reagan administration, where by Olympic law, by Olympic procedure,
the head of state opens the Olympics, stands up at
whatever viewing booth and he says, I declare the twenty eighth,
(06:46):
twenty ninth, whatever the number is, Olympics now open. And
then you know, the fireworks go off and they go
ahead and open the Olympics.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
That's fairly new.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
It used to be local officials. It used to be
maybe the governor would open up the Olympics. Now it's
head of state. And I won't say my favorite story.
I think the most historical, historically important opening up the
Olympics was nineteen well, nineteen thirty six. But it wasn't
(07:18):
a procedure that a president of a country opened it up.
And that's what Adolf Hitler opened the Berlin Olympics in
nineteen thirty six, and at that time he took all
the Jews and put him in corners and took away
the anti the anti Semitism, all the issues. And then
(07:39):
it went right back after the Olympics were over. So
here is a question. It's going to be President Trump
that is going to open up the Olympics. Guesses as
to what's going to happen, well, when he walks in,
certainly it'll be hailed to the chief, which I don't
(08:00):
know if that has happened before with the US president
opening up modern Olympics, one of the modern Olympics.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Don't know.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
I can't wait.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
I can't wait.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
But much like he named himself as chair of the
Kennedy Center, he is now.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Sorry.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
He is will be the first president since Ronald Reagan
in nineteen eighty four, which happened here in Los Angeles.
And what the President Reagan did He went to several
Olympic events, but kept on repeating over and over and
over the federal government's role was focused on security.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
That's it.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
And up to now President Trump is saying exactly that
he is not moving ahead beyond that, but he is
named himself head of the task force, because you can't
do better than that?
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Okay, oh, is he gonna be?
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Has he named himself chair of the fitness program? You
know they brought that back, the youth fitness program? And
do you see him doing jumping jacks?
Speaker 1 (09:12):
You know that was a lot of the response on
social media.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
It's like, can he even do any of the things
that the kids are supposed to do.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
I don't think that's a fair one. I never got
the presidential patch because I couldn't do the things that
the kids are supposed to do.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
You know, it was damn hard Arnold Schwarzenegger at one
point was head of that program.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Wasn't he?
Speaker 3 (09:36):
He was named by President Bush, I think, as head
of that program. And he expected every single school kid
in America to bench press three hundred pounds because it
was of course Arnold.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
The bow get to the top of all. Right.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
Now, this has to do with a little bit about
January seventh and a little bit about well, a lot
to do with evacuations. There was a law passed in
twenty nineteen requiring the city of Los Angeles to analyze
the and we're quoting now the capacity safety and and
the viability of its evaction roots. Guess what, nothing, Nothing
(10:20):
has happened. Nada. Councilmember Tracy Park, whose district is the Palisades,
said the city has yet to provide any satisfactory answers.
She said, in the wake of this disaster in the
Pacific Palisades, I don't know how we have a single
conversation about planning for the future that isn't tied to
(10:43):
public safety and evacuation routes and emergency preparation preparedness. Mark
Levine wrote the twenty nineteen law Assembly Bill seven forty
seven after hearing about the scenes of gridlock in Paradise,
cal he heard on the radio during the twenty eighteen campfire,
(11:03):
in which what eighty something people died and there were
no evacuation routes that were planned or that were broadcast. Now,
the law requires local governments to include evacuation analysis in
their general plans. Every few years, the city county comes
(11:24):
out with general plans as to what's happening for the future,
what we're going to do in terms of safety. They
serve as a blueprint for long term development for cities
and counties, and that's what they follow. No analysis about
the safety element, nothing, nothing about evacuation plans, I mean zero.
(11:49):
And she's been fighting for better evacuation plans since she
took office in twenty twenty two. And look at what
happened with the Palisades, slow and caseotic evacuation. She saw
that firsthand and said, we got real problems. So I
was out there January seventh, and the gridlock and the
choke points were everywhere. The chaotic communication, the inconsistent decorat
(12:12):
direction during the evacuation, the failure to start the evacuation sooner.
So you would think okay, based on her pressure and
based on the fact that the Palace Ades fire happened,
all that teaches us lesson A lesson Nope, nope. I've
(12:34):
repeatedly asked for information, plans, roots education with the community, simulations, drills. Nothing,
not a She has not seen any simulated evacuations, no
analysis predicting evacuations, which, by the way, we're recommended by
the state agency.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
When AB seven forty seven.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
Was passed now the La Times, of course asked for
a comment from the city and went to the city
Planning department, which opposed to write and update the safety elements,
and the Planning Department said it does not publicize evacuation
roots since large urban cities such as the city of
(13:18):
Los Angeles are high profile targets for terrorist attacks.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Boy, that one's abute, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
We're not going to publish where you're supposed to go
the e action evacuation routes because terrorists are out there
looking at these evacuation routes potentially and therefore could attack
people in.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Smaller groups and groups that are concentrated.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Come on, really, yeah, why don't you just say we
blew it, we haven't done it yet and we're gonna
get on it.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Nope.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
How much le could you be then saying we don't
publish these evacuation routes because the terrorists might be looking
at them. So what good are evacuation roots?
Speaker 2 (14:13):
They're not?
Speaker 3 (14:15):
Okay, politicians at their best, and that's what's going on
in this case. This is an administrative agency. By the way,
all right, before we jump into the lift and Uber story,
Oh boy, what a story.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
This one is. Neil, you have an event coming up?
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Why yes, Bill, thank you for that. Seguey, you are welcome.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
Neil, would you like to tell us about it.
Speaker 4 (14:41):
Oh boy, would I hair lip? All right, we're celebrating
my birthday. I mean that's the excuse, but the reality
is I just want to hang out. And it's this Saturday,
two to five pm. I'll be broadcasting at Desconso Restaurant
in Los Angeles. They also have one in Orange County.
We'll be at the Los Angeles location on Wilsher right
next to the tar pits, and I would love for
(15:03):
you to be my guest. We're also going to have
Tiffany Hobbs. She's going to join us and do her
show from five to seven. All you need to do
TURSVP is send an email to RSVP at Disconso Restaurant
dot com. That's RSVP at Disconso Restaurant dot com. Provide
your full name and number of guests. They'll be complimentary apps,
(15:26):
some drink specials, some giveaways. My buddy Simon Majumdar from
the Food Network is going to be there. It'll be
a lot of fun, So please join us this Saturday.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
It'll be a good time.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Thank you, Neil, you're welcome.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Bill good We always have a good time on the program.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
Okay, move into what's going out with dynamic pricing. Now,
dynamic pricing is something we've already already yelled with hotels
on weekends during holidays, of course, it's warm up money Disneyland.
Neil's going to Disneyland during holidays. During hot the summer,
it's more money. Airlines are charging more or less money
(16:09):
depending on the day. That's all dynamic pricing. Uber and
Lyft also do dynamic pricing, and it has to do
with how many people want to call Uber and Lyft
at a given time. For example, at a concert, the
prices go up pretty dramatically. They can triple because so
many people want Uber and Lyft and other ride shares.
(16:31):
But let me tell you what is going on Senate
Bill two fifty nine that's introduced by Hayward Democratic Senator
Aisha Wahab is it prevents retailers from using AI to
jack up prices.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Come on, that's everybody else does it. But here is
the kicker.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
The retailers read Uber and and Lift can't use the
information stored on customers' phones, which they can now because
with the technology today and the algorithms and certainly your
phone being connected to everybody and everything. Information stored on
(17:20):
your phones include your battery life, whether it's an older model,
what apps are installed, what time of day it is,
where you are located, and where you live. For example,
let's say your battery is really low, you're ten miles
from home, it is midnight, and you clearly and I
(17:46):
don't know how the algorithm works, but that's a good
time to charge a lot more money.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Wait, how is that not gouging? It is gouging, but
how is that not under gouging laws?
Speaker 2 (17:57):
It is? It's well, we don't know if it's under
gouging law.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
That's the issue at this point, and it really doesn't
matter because Senate Bill two fifty nine would stop it cold.
And I love the argument that first of all, the
ride share companies are giving us. Also who's against the
bill why Chambers of Commerce, of course, big tech, Silicon Valley.
(18:25):
And what they're saying is that the bill is unnecessary
completely because under California's existing privacy laws, which you can
opt out to to some agree opt out from that,
if this bill passes, it would stifle innovation and cut
(18:46):
into tech company profits and lead to higher prices. So
here's what they're arguing, higher prices lead to higher prices
and higher prices are good for you. Therefore, we should
allow this tech to move forward where these companies know
(19:07):
exactly where you are. You know, for example, let me
give you one of dynamic pricing, which is insane. If
you are calling and trying to book a hotel in
San Francisco and you're calling from Arkansas, you're going to
get one price. If you're calling from the Bay Area,
you're going to get another price because the hotels know
that you're willing to pay more money. You have more money,
(19:29):
and you're used to hotel rooms costing more. I was
just talking to Clark Howard yesterday, my friend Clark and
he a consumer advocate and consumer reporter, are probably the
best in the country other than.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Joel Larsgard who used to work for Clark.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
And he was saying over the holidays, because I was
inquiring thinking of taking a week into the New York area.
He said that a regular hotel room at a nice
this hotel is two thousand.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Bucks a night.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
Yeah, it's dynamic pricing. They got you at a good
hotel room. Everybody wants to go and it's they that's.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
What they're charging now.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
Off season, midweek you'll maybe pay four or five hundred dollars, which,
by the way, is insane in and of itself. I mean,
four or five hundred dollars for a hotel room is crazy.
Can you imagine in the thousands of dollars dynamic pricing?
But this one uses AI. The lift companies Uber ride
(20:40):
share are saying that we're going to know how desperate
you are. Not because there's a bunch of people trying
to get out of a concert and you're can pay
a lot more money. We're going to look at where
you are, We're going to look at what time of
day it is.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
There's no way because there's gonna be some algorithm or
pattern that affects people low income people in some way.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
But they know just be considered, you know.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
But they know.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
The point is they will know where you live, how
much money you make, what kind of job you have.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
Because it's all available. AI goes through all of it.
They know everything you do.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
And that's the problem with AI, and damn it is
so embarrassing. In my case, if they ever publish this,
I'm just completely dead in the embarrassment level.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
Okay, do they know you have an elevator in your home.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Probably because I bought an elevator. And by the way,
for those people that buy who understand elevators, my wife
Lindsay has a syndrome CRPS. You can look it up,
and it's very difficult for her to walk sometimes. And
I'm going to get old and decrepit at some point,
and I don't want to move because what happens is
(21:56):
as people retire and they live in two story homes,
they have to leave because they can't go upstairs.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
So I'm preactively doing it. Stop making fun.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
Of me on that, please, Oh, for God's sake, stop it.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Adding texture to the program.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
Yeah, all right, dude, I gotta have a story for you.
Let me give you a fact that I didn't even know.
According to Michael Schneider of Streets for All, actually a
governmental organization, he said, we have, per capita is some
of the most dangerous streets in the country to walk around.
(22:36):
And there's a story in Sawtell, West LA. And they
have a park called Stoner Park for real. Yeah, people
are sucking up on joints all day long and walking around. Yep,
very happy campers. Now people go to the park, they
go to a daycare near it. They're surrounding schools, and
(22:59):
the residents asks for crosswalks, and they didn't give them.
Crosswalks didn't give the residents. So he buys about two
hundred dollars worth of paint, recruits neighbors and they paint
their own crosswalks. And that's not the first time this
has happened. Some people get a lot of frustrated how
(23:20):
long it takes a city to respond. You call three
one to one and then they theoretically come out, and
you wait and wait, and they just end up doing
the job in themselves. And sometimes the city removes the
stripes the crosswalk. Sometimes it allows them to become permanent.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
No one knows why.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
Now it's a little complicated because there are accessibility requirements
before any permanent installation, and there are studies that have
to be done, and the governmental organizations have to be involved.
And you don't need any of that if you're a neighborhood.
If you're in the neighborhood and you go to home
Depo and a couple hundred dollars with the paint, you
(24:01):
do it yourself.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Now.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
Story in the La Times, the city officials didn't respond
to questions about the way they ignore or do or
comply or allow these crosswalks put in those crosswalks, and
whether they ignore state and local federal guidelines.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Oh no, no.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
The Transpatient Transportation Department said no requests for sidewalks have
even been made at the location near Stoner Park, although
the Mayor's office said that the bureau had received multiple
sidewalk accessibility requests surrounding Stoner Park, but not as far
(24:46):
as the crosswalks were concerned. And they have a limited
budget which they used.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
I didn't know this.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
I thought the City of La every single corner had
those ramps where on all four corners where wheelchairs and
wheelchair accessible.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
I thought it was all there.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
It's not.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
The city has to spend money, and rightly so fixing
sidewalks which buckle and they put in the wrong trees,
and accessibility for people in wheelchairs which heretofore could not
go outside and go down the street because they couldn't
get over the curb.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
And so the money is limited.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
And although the crosswalks are pretty easy, they could pass
legislation that makes them very easy enough. Complaints from people
neighborhood to throw in a crosswalk.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
And this is one of those.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
Really, how difficult, is it. It used to be the
people in wheelchairs couldn't even go into elevators and press
the buttons to go up on the floors and use
the elevator because the buttons were too high for people
in wheelchairs. So the law was changed in the city
of Los Angeles, and that is everybody, every building that
(26:02):
had an elevator had to move the panel down. They
had to rewire the elevator to bring the panel down.
And I always thought, as anybody ever ever thought, how
about putting a stick on a chain and you can
press the button with a stick. A little bit cheaper,
(26:25):
isn't it. Okay, we're done. KFI AM sixty.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
You've been listening to the Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 3 (26:34):
Catch my show Monday through Friday, six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
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