November 26, 2025 • 23 mins
(November 26, 2025)
‘A moment of rare alignment’: Most Angelenos believe L.A. County is headed in the wrong direction. O.C. city leaders designate street to honor political activist Charlie Kirk. The real magic of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade: Making it disappear.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listen Saints KFI AM six forty the bill Handles
show on demand on the iHeartRadio app KFI AM six
forty bill Handle here, and I'm trying to get KTLA
here because there is a car chase going on right
now and we're gonna figure this out and according to
and it's a good one. I'll get the TV going
(00:22):
in just a moment, which I didn't do this morning. Okay,
coming up tomorrow, of course, is the one and only Thanksgiving.
Were's gonna be a lot of fun. Neil would be
filling in for me. Also, I want to remind you
Pastaphon is coming up December second. We're broadcasting all day
and the auction items are up and ours is something
that we've never tried before. Neil and I broadcasting his
(00:44):
show Fork Report on a Saturday at my house and
we're gonna have grill Masters and Pitmasters and Anaheim White
Houses catering it.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
It's a big, big deal for us at least.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
So if you want to go to the auction site,
go to Pastathon or go to KFI AM six forty
dot com and there'll be a link to Pastathon. Okayh
New Study Studies says this is some Loyola Marymount. It
has to do with LA County. Now, whenever I mentioned
LA City or LA County, that does not exclude Orange County.
(01:17):
It's just LA County LA City are more problematic. If
there is a ten problem, let's say in the city
of Orange or Santa Anna our coast to Mesa, that
means it's a twelve in LA. I just wanted to
point out LA is the poster child of everything that's
wrong in southern California in many cases. Okay, new study
(01:39):
from Loyola Marymount a vast majority of LA County residents
or an agreement I mean across the board on one
specific topic, things are not going so great. Okay, This
is a study among registered voters in LA County that
they say that the government is off track, and which
(02:02):
way is it going to get on track? And here
is the general consensus. And I guess it makes some sense.
Things are perceived as so bad that we need sweeping
monumental changes. None of his bits and pieces and band
aid stuff, I mean sweeping changes.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
And here's the analogy.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
The Great Depression hit and Franklin Roosevelt became president. He
reinvented America, social Security, the SEC, various governmental programs, Civilian
conservation Corps. I mean governmental intervention in a major way.
Where beforehand the government stayed out of people's business. The
(02:50):
government did not do what it does today, monumental changes
to a lesser degree.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Ronald Reagan, who.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Got rid of an enormous amount of regulations that was
sweeping change. What Margaret Thatcher did in England totally turned
the country around. And this is what the people of
Los Angeles, La County are saying. And by the way,
the same thing would go in Orange County, or Ventura
County or the Inland Empire.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
I don't think there's any surprise at all.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Right now, voters have an extremely low confidence in elected officials,
who the voters say put the interests of the population
ahead of the big money interest, which is absolutely true.
And here is the way elections, or right now, the
elections work. And this is without a value judgment. Okay,
Republicans who believe there may be something wrong with the
(03:43):
administration now, it used to be that democrats, even though
they are democrats, would rip into a democratic administration saying
I disagree that's not true, or even though I am
in favor of that program.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
I'm an n in favor of this program.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Republicans are in lockstep, where you don't go off track
on one item.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Why is that.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Because they want to get re elected and what does
that mean? They need money to get re elected outside
of they need Donald Trump.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
And let's forget Donald Trump for a moment. The lobbyists
come in.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
And say, we're going to give you two million dollars
through your campaign, and here's what we want you to do.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
And that's precisely what the politicians do.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Big money interests are controlling and I don't know how
many people would disagree with that. The point is is
that we agree, and that's across the board. We agree
that our political leadership. And I'm not talking about on
a presidential letter level. Yeah, maybe only the presidential level.
And I think there would be some that would say
(04:55):
that even on a presidential level, big money does influence.
But that big money is Donald Trump. He does not
have to worry about donations. He does not have to
worry about money coming in at all. The rest of
the politicians do, and they want to get reelected. That's
more important. Here's the bottom line is it is more
important for a politician to become re elected than for
(05:18):
the good of the country or good of his constituency
or her constituency. And frankly, we're up to our eyeballs
in that we're done with that. We do not want
that to happen anymore, and it's done, not any going
to be these little bits and pieces, you know, the
homeless situation. Let's build one shelter over there, Let's build
(05:39):
one little housing project of thirteen homes over there, and
that's going to help. No. Sweeping, massive changes is what
we want. Until they happen. And then again, what happens
the detracted detractors go crazy, or power is taken away,
or influence is taken away, or the law changed to
(06:00):
hurt big money interests, and what happens, Oh, well, let's
rethink this. I I don't know about this all right.
I want to tell you about a story, a political story,
for a moment. It's kind of interesting. First of all,
in southern California, we have cities that are associated with
certain ethnicities. Glendale, for example, has a huge Armenian population. No,
(06:24):
I won't make the joke about gillett raisers here and
the women not gonna happen. There's Little Tokyo, for example,
in downtown la certain areas are designated and just where
ethnic folks, people of the same ethnicity congregator become part of.
Westminster is a city, and it is Vietnamese. This is
(06:45):
where the Vietnamese, the boat people came and it's the
population of Westminster is primarily Vietnamese or overwhelmingly Vietnamese. Vietnamese
immigrants are very conservative. They're for the most part Republican.
And so there is a small street parallel to the
Vietnam War Memorial in Westminster is going to bear a
(07:07):
brand new name, Charlie kirk way.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Now.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
There was a meeting of the city council all kinds
of accusation as a partisan politics debate over the role
of local government, and at the end of the meeting
the leaders in Westminster the city Council voted four to
one to partially rename All American Way to Charlie kirkway
(07:37):
and what his There's still the official name, of course,
still All American waying not necessarily of course, but in
three inch font below the street name is the name
Charlie Kirkwayer. Now the mayor Chi Charlie Wynn, a Republican
who is running for Congress next year, said the reason
(07:58):
he voted for it because Kirk reflects the values that
make Westminster truly special. Pride in our country, belief in
our freedom, and the spirit of civic engagement. One of
the things about immigrant communities and immigrants in general, they
are fanatically pro American. Those that become American American citizens
who were born here don't appreciate the fanaticism in a
(08:23):
positive way of immigrants who come from other countries. If
you live in another country that is not so good
and you come to the United States, let me tell
you believe in this country in a big way. I
think natural born citizens sort of take it for granted,
and I in many cases take it for granted because
I was naturalized at the age of eleven, you know,
(08:43):
since I started remembering. But in the meantime, this is
an immigrant population, very conservative and looking at this particular city,
looking at Kirk in a way that well almost deifies him.
And it's a whole range of emotions. Of course, were
triggered by the death of Charlie Kirk, and I didn't
(09:05):
understand it, and to some extent, I still don't the
levels of this. And so here it gets really interesting
because there was one one Democrat, and that's the mayor,
who voted against designating the street in Kirk's honor, and
when the proposal came down, he appeared like.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
At a loss for words. He goes, I don't understand what
you're going doing.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Kirk didn't live in Westminster, he had no ties the community.
And what he did is he accused his colleagues of
exploiting Kirk's death to score political points.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Now is that true or not.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
I think that there are people, and maybe on this
city council who legitimately believe that Kirk is the epitome,
is the face of American values, almost to the point
of deification. And let's go to the other side. Council
member Amy Fawn West criticized the font as not being
(10:06):
big enough on those signs. We need a bigger sign
as a way to honor Kirk. It's an inadequate way,
and she introduced to designate October fourteenth, Kirk's birthday, as
Charlie Kirk Day in Westminster. That past so you're going
(10:26):
the city of Westminster, it's Charlie Kirk Day. And she said,
I'd like to take this opportunity to recognize Charlie Kirk
as an American patriot and steadfast compend champion for freedom
of speech.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
And this is what's going on in America.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
This is emblematic, emblematic of what we're seeing. And Charlie
Kirk has become a well turning point, if you will,
as to the politics of this country, the polarization. He
is either a guy who is too conservative and way
(11:03):
right wing to the point of being ridiculous, or he
has literally become deified to the point where it's almost
Jesus I believe I see that.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
I mean, it is crazy stuff.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
There's also a move to have his face put on
Mount Rushmore, right next to Jefferson. And the only reason
that it's not is people realize there isn't Roome. We'd
have to get rid of one of the presidents. Well,
that's okay, Charlie Kirk is that important to us? Obviously
I'm exaggerating here, but the point I'm making is I
(11:34):
think it's almost to that level among those people.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
He has become a deity.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
And the analogy here I'm going to make to Abraham Lincoln,
not in terms of how politics or whatever. Abraham Lincoln
was vilified during his presidency by so many Americans. The
day he was assassinated, he went into the pantheons of myth.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
He became a myth. He was no longer a human being.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
And I'm going to say the same thing about Charlie
Kirk after his assassination. He meant so much to so
many people. He wasn't just a person with views that
are appreciated amongst conservatives. He became on a level that
is above that. Jfk Right, John F. Kennedy won the
(12:23):
election over Nixon by a hair I mean by literally
just almost no votes. I think it was one hundred
thousand votes. Something completely crazy. After the fact, after he
was assassinated, if you do a survey.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Everybody voted for John F. Kennedy.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
He stopped being a political figure. By the way, does
anybody know if I were to ask what were John F.
Kennedy's politics, I don't know. I think that's what's happening.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
So the city of.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Westminster, great Vietnamese food, by the way, it's great fu
or foe.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Okay, so much for that, all right.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
The Macy's Day Parade, the Thanksgiving Day parade happens tomorrow
and millions of us, millions of Americans are going to
tune in, and it ends the same way every year.
You have the roar of the crowds, you have this
blizzard of confetti, and then Santa Claus who ends at
(13:28):
ways goodbye to everybody.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Ho ho ho ho. All right.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
What we don't see, and this is the I love
the backstory stuff. What we don't see is what volunteers
do is take those floating icons, you know, those giant
balloons and the shape of Snoopy and other character, Santa Claus,
all those characters, and they're enormous.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
They're these huge.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Balloons and filled with helium, and they're held up by
they're held they're floating, and.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
They're connected to strings. Strings hold them up.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
And what ends up happening is they have volunteers that
walk along holding these ropes that actually keep the balloons
from floating away because they're helium.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
All right.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
So what you don't see is they are now taking down.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Those icons, those balloons.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Take them down to the ground, unzip these industrial grade zippers,
and this gust of helium comes out and then they
dive right on top of the balloon to get the
helium out, much like you see one of those kids
centers where you dive into the balls, the phone balls.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
That's what they do, and.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Then the balloon releases the helium. They're also told because
you all that helium that is coming out, you don't
want to sound like or maybe you do want to
sound like Alvin and the Chickmunks because you know, you
get that really high voice which is so much fun
with helium, which you do with kids with helium balloons.
(15:08):
The problem is there is so much helium that those
volunteers who work say, you will simply go unconscious. It's
not a question of sounding with a high pitched voice.
You will go unconscious. So that's one of the big
big things that are involved. By the way, it takes
(15:30):
ninety minutes to inflate these balloons and it takes just
fifteen minutes to deflate these balloons. Why because the pump
of helium is going in and moving the gas into
the balloon and it slowly inflates like massive balloons do.
And what they do when it hits the ground they
(15:50):
grab those ropes bring it to the ground is they
dive right on top of it, they take a swan
dive and the helium escapes fifteen minutes. And by the way,
the reason I'm talking about this, according to the director,
the urgency is real because if the team doesn't deflate
fast enough, the next balloon comes right over them and
(16:14):
walks on top, and the parade just keeps on coming.
And it's like when you get to the bottom of
an escalator. If you stop there and stand, everybody's coming
behind you, so you have to keep on moving. And
so these are hundreds of thousands of yards of cubic
feet of helium and dozens of floats and just fans
(16:36):
all over the place, two and a half miles going
down mid time, midtown Manhattan, and this started in nineteen
twenty four. In the late twenties is when the balloons
came out, and that's of course the iconic representation of
the Macy's Day balloon. And it used to be they
would just let it go in the air. They would
(16:58):
just let the balloons go until a pilot grabbed one
while flying. Now the pilot lost it, went into the
drink but survived. But after that they decided they weren't
going to release the balloons into the air.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
And so here's what they're fascinating. The balloons. The flate.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Sorry into six foot crates that collapse small enough to
go through the Lincoln to tunnel. Otherwise they can't get through.
So five thousand volunteers began with Macy's employees in nineteen
twenty four. Now it's friends and family and volunteers. Training
(17:46):
is months. It's called flight school, and they practice maneuvering
around obstacles and for quick deflation.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
They know what they're doing and everybody knows the drill.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
And if you think that this is just a local parade,
NBC just extended as contracts with Macy's for sixty million
dollars ago. Pretty impressive. Okay, so much for that. There's more,
but I'm not going to get into it. I just
like background stuff I wanted to share with you. If
you're going to see the parade, do you guys watch
the parade, Neil, are you a parade watcher?
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Eh? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Okay, Amy parade watcher, yes, oh sore you go?
Speaker 2 (18:26):
And parade watcher sure wow? And Cono parade watcher. Not
a chance. You ruined it. You ruined it. The fifteenth
Annual Pastathon is here.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Chef Bruno's Cherry Catarina's Club now provides twenty five thousand
meals every week to kids in need in southern California.
Without you, it just simply doesn't happen. So our live
broadcast we do it every year giving Tuesday, December second,
we'll be broadcasting starting with wake Up Call at five
all the way to eight pm with Tim Conway Junior
at the Anaheim White House.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
And there are tons of ways you can help. Just
go to Pastathon.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
Just go to KFIAM six forty dot com slash pastathon.
And there's another way you can do it, and this
is why you're having fun. Go to Yamavah Resort and Casino,
get out there play and when you cash your winning
tickets at the kiosk, it'll ask you.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Do you want to donate your change.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
You say yes, and then you pick Katerina's Club from
the four options on the screen.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
There is a fifth option.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
When you've lost money, you ask the kiosk to give
you money, and that works not at all, by the way.
They only take your money, they don't give you any back.
But at least you can donate to Katerina's Club at
yamavab All right, so when do we do Neil with
(19:47):
wild Fork?
Speaker 2 (19:50):
You want me to tell people about Wildfork? Now, I
don't know.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
It just says, you know, seven fifty before the segment,
So I don't know, Kno.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
When you want to do this, you can do it now?
All right? We do it now? Colin runs is so
I mean he is our guy, right, get it?
Speaker 3 (20:08):
But yes, just a reminder that you can go to
a southern California Wild Fork Foods location, of which there
are eleven Costa Mesa and Sanitas and Sino Ounington Beach,
Laguna de Gal and so on and so forth.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
And you can go to any of.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
These wild Fork Foods locations and simply say KFI Pastathon
when you check out, and fifteen percent of your purchase
will generously be automatically donated to the KFI Pastathon for
Katina's Club. They've obviously been a great partner with thanks
grilling and the events that we do on the show,
(20:45):
So big thanks to Wildfork Foods for doing that. Again,
fifteen percent of your purchase will automatically be not donated
to KFI Pastathon for Katerina's Club. Just be sure to
mention KFI Pastathon at check out at any of the
Southern California Wildfork Foods.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
And you can also go to the smart and Final.
There are partners Jess Wendy's Where and Neil and I
were there the other day broadcasting and talking about their
chicken strips. And this year we hope to raise more
than last year, which was one point three million dollars.
I do not think there is a local station in
the United States that has ever come close to raising
(21:27):
one point three million dollars for a local charity. And
it's without you, as simply doesn't happen. It's that simple.
And don't forget, Oh, and don't forget our auction items.
Our auction items this year, they're phenomenal. This is where
we auction off. The hosts here on KFI Things to Do,
Gary and Shannon Dodger Game, Dean and Tina Sharp Dodger Game,
(21:50):
and Cobalt an hour an hour of co hosting with him.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
I think I'm going to start bidding on that one.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
The thought of co hosting with co Belt is belief
and then ours.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
It's Neil and Mola.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
We are broadcasting a Fork report live and we don't
have the date yet, but we will, and we're gonna
do it at my house and the top bidder is
going to be invited to come to my house and
you will partake in the tremendous food. We're gonna have
grill masters and pitmasters. Anaheim White House is catering it.
(22:27):
Lindsay will have the Lindsay Prosecco, of which she drinks
morning new noon to night. There'll be lots lots to
do there and it's going to be great, great fun.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
And so you start bidding.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Just go to kf I am six forty dot com
and there's a link to postiphon. All right, what we're
gonna do is the story that I was going to
do about this AI companion, and it has to do
with teenagers saying, oh no, you can't take it away
from me. We'll do that next week because we're gonna
try something with that. There's gonna be part one and
(23:01):
two and that is going to be a hell of
a lot of fun and it involves me and involves
the crew here and you.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
So that's coming up next week.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
When we do that, don't have the exact time yet,
but we'll get that together.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
This is KFI AM six forty you've been listening to
the Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Catch My Show Monday through Friday, six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app
You're listen Saints KFI AM six forty the bill Handles
show on demand on the iHeartRadio app KFI AM six
forty bill Handle here, and I'm trying to get KTLA
here because there is a car chase going on right
now and we're gonna figure this out and according to
and it's a good one. I'll get the TV going
(00:22):
in just a moment, which I didn't do this morning. Okay,
coming up tomorrow, of course, is the one and only Thanksgiving.
Were's gonna be a lot of fun. Neil would be
filling in for me. Also, I want to remind you
Pastaphon is coming up December second. We're broadcasting all day
and the auction items are up and ours is something
that we've never tried before. Neil and I broadcasting his
(00:44):
show Fork Report on a Saturday at my house and
we're gonna have grill Masters and Pitmasters and Anaheim White
Houses catering it.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
It's a big, big deal for us at least.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
So if you want to go to the auction site,
go to Pastathon or go to KFI AM six forty
dot com and there'll be a link to Pastathon. Okayh
New Study Studies says this is some Loyola Marymount. It
has to do with LA County. Now, whenever I mentioned
LA City or LA County, that does not exclude Orange County.
(01:17):
It's just LA County LA City are more problematic. If
there is a ten problem, let's say in the city
of Orange or Santa Anna our coast to Mesa, that
means it's a twelve in LA. I just wanted to
point out LA is the poster child of everything that's
wrong in southern California in many cases. Okay, new study
(01:39):
from Loyola Marymount a vast majority of LA County residents
or an agreement I mean across the board on one
specific topic, things are not going so great. Okay, This
is a study among registered voters in LA County that
they say that the government is off track, and which
(02:02):
way is it going to get on track? And here
is the general consensus. And I guess it makes some sense.
Things are perceived as so bad that we need sweeping
monumental changes. None of his bits and pieces and band
aid stuff, I mean sweeping changes.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
And here's the analogy.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
The Great Depression hit and Franklin Roosevelt became president. He
reinvented America, social Security, the SEC, various governmental programs, Civilian
conservation Corps. I mean governmental intervention in a major way.
Where beforehand the government stayed out of people's business. The
(02:50):
government did not do what it does today, monumental changes
to a lesser degree.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Ronald Reagan, who.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Got rid of an enormous amount of regulations that was
sweeping change. What Margaret Thatcher did in England totally turned
the country around. And this is what the people of
Los Angeles, La County are saying. And by the way,
the same thing would go in Orange County, or Ventura
County or the Inland Empire.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
I don't think there's any surprise at all.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Right now, voters have an extremely low confidence in elected officials,
who the voters say put the interests of the population
ahead of the big money interest, which is absolutely true.
And here is the way elections, or right now, the
elections work. And this is without a value judgment. Okay,
Republicans who believe there may be something wrong with the
(03:43):
administration now, it used to be that democrats, even though
they are democrats, would rip into a democratic administration saying
I disagree that's not true, or even though I am
in favor of that program.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
I'm an n in favor of this program.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Republicans are in lockstep, where you don't go off track
on one item.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Why is that.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Because they want to get re elected and what does
that mean? They need money to get re elected outside
of they need Donald Trump.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
And let's forget Donald Trump for a moment. The lobbyists
come in.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
And say, we're going to give you two million dollars
through your campaign, and here's what we want you to do.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
And that's precisely what the politicians do.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Big money interests are controlling and I don't know how
many people would disagree with that. The point is is
that we agree, and that's across the board. We agree
that our political leadership. And I'm not talking about on
a presidential letter level. Yeah, maybe only the presidential level.
And I think there would be some that would say
(04:55):
that even on a presidential level, big money does influence.
But that big money is Donald Trump. He does not
have to worry about donations. He does not have to
worry about money coming in at all. The rest of
the politicians do, and they want to get reelected. That's
more important. Here's the bottom line is it is more
important for a politician to become re elected than for
(05:18):
the good of the country or good of his constituency
or her constituency. And frankly, we're up to our eyeballs
in that we're done with that. We do not want
that to happen anymore, and it's done, not any going
to be these little bits and pieces, you know, the
homeless situation. Let's build one shelter over there, Let's build
(05:39):
one little housing project of thirteen homes over there, and
that's going to help. No. Sweeping, massive changes is what
we want. Until they happen. And then again, what happens
the detracted detractors go crazy, or power is taken away,
or influence is taken away, or the law changed to
(06:00):
hurt big money interests, and what happens, Oh, well, let's
rethink this. I I don't know about this all right.
I want to tell you about a story, a political story,
for a moment. It's kind of interesting. First of all,
in southern California, we have cities that are associated with
certain ethnicities. Glendale, for example, has a huge Armenian population. No,
(06:24):
I won't make the joke about gillett raisers here and
the women not gonna happen. There's Little Tokyo, for example,
in downtown la certain areas are designated and just where
ethnic folks, people of the same ethnicity congregator become part of.
Westminster is a city, and it is Vietnamese. This is
(06:45):
where the Vietnamese, the boat people came and it's the
population of Westminster is primarily Vietnamese or overwhelmingly Vietnamese. Vietnamese
immigrants are very conservative. They're for the most part Republican.
And so there is a small street parallel to the
Vietnam War Memorial in Westminster is going to bear a
(07:07):
brand new name, Charlie kirk way.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Now.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
There was a meeting of the city council all kinds
of accusation as a partisan politics debate over the role
of local government, and at the end of the meeting
the leaders in Westminster the city Council voted four to
one to partially rename All American Way to Charlie kirkway
(07:37):
and what his There's still the official name, of course,
still All American waying not necessarily of course, but in
three inch font below the street name is the name
Charlie Kirkwayer. Now the mayor Chi Charlie Wynn, a Republican
who is running for Congress next year, said the reason
(07:58):
he voted for it because Kirk reflects the values that
make Westminster truly special. Pride in our country, belief in
our freedom, and the spirit of civic engagement. One of
the things about immigrant communities and immigrants in general, they
are fanatically pro American. Those that become American American citizens
who were born here don't appreciate the fanaticism in a
(08:23):
positive way of immigrants who come from other countries. If
you live in another country that is not so good
and you come to the United States, let me tell
you believe in this country in a big way. I
think natural born citizens sort of take it for granted,
and I in many cases take it for granted because
I was naturalized at the age of eleven, you know,
(08:43):
since I started remembering. But in the meantime, this is
an immigrant population, very conservative and looking at this particular city,
looking at Kirk in a way that well almost deifies him.
And it's a whole range of emotions. Of course, were
triggered by the death of Charlie Kirk, and I didn't
(09:05):
understand it, and to some extent, I still don't the
levels of this. And so here it gets really interesting
because there was one one Democrat, and that's the mayor,
who voted against designating the street in Kirk's honor, and
when the proposal came down, he appeared like.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
At a loss for words. He goes, I don't understand what
you're going doing.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Kirk didn't live in Westminster, he had no ties the community.
And what he did is he accused his colleagues of
exploiting Kirk's death to score political points.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Now is that true or not.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
I think that there are people, and maybe on this
city council who legitimately believe that Kirk is the epitome,
is the face of American values, almost to the point
of deification. And let's go to the other side. Council
member Amy Fawn West criticized the font as not being
(10:06):
big enough on those signs. We need a bigger sign
as a way to honor Kirk. It's an inadequate way,
and she introduced to designate October fourteenth, Kirk's birthday, as
Charlie Kirk Day in Westminster. That past so you're going
(10:26):
the city of Westminster, it's Charlie Kirk Day. And she said,
I'd like to take this opportunity to recognize Charlie Kirk
as an American patriot and steadfast compend champion for freedom
of speech.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
And this is what's going on in America.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
This is emblematic, emblematic of what we're seeing. And Charlie
Kirk has become a well turning point, if you will,
as to the politics of this country, the polarization. He
is either a guy who is too conservative and way
(11:03):
right wing to the point of being ridiculous, or he
has literally become deified to the point where it's almost
Jesus I believe I see that.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
I mean, it is crazy stuff.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
There's also a move to have his face put on
Mount Rushmore, right next to Jefferson. And the only reason
that it's not is people realize there isn't Roome. We'd
have to get rid of one of the presidents. Well,
that's okay, Charlie Kirk is that important to us? Obviously
I'm exaggerating here, but the point I'm making is I
(11:34):
think it's almost to that level among those people.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
He has become a deity.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
And the analogy here I'm going to make to Abraham Lincoln,
not in terms of how politics or whatever. Abraham Lincoln
was vilified during his presidency by so many Americans. The
day he was assassinated, he went into the pantheons of myth.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
He became a myth. He was no longer a human being.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
And I'm going to say the same thing about Charlie
Kirk after his assassination. He meant so much to so
many people. He wasn't just a person with views that
are appreciated amongst conservatives. He became on a level that
is above that. Jfk Right, John F. Kennedy won the
(12:23):
election over Nixon by a hair I mean by literally
just almost no votes. I think it was one hundred
thousand votes. Something completely crazy. After the fact, after he
was assassinated, if you do a survey.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Everybody voted for John F. Kennedy.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
He stopped being a political figure. By the way, does
anybody know if I were to ask what were John F.
Kennedy's politics, I don't know. I think that's what's happening.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
So the city of.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Westminster, great Vietnamese food, by the way, it's great fu
or foe.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Okay, so much for that, all right.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
The Macy's Day Parade, the Thanksgiving Day parade happens tomorrow
and millions of us, millions of Americans are going to
tune in, and it ends the same way every year.
You have the roar of the crowds, you have this
blizzard of confetti, and then Santa Claus who ends at
(13:28):
ways goodbye to everybody.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Ho ho ho ho. All right.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
What we don't see, and this is the I love
the backstory stuff. What we don't see is what volunteers
do is take those floating icons, you know, those giant
balloons and the shape of Snoopy and other character, Santa Claus,
all those characters, and they're enormous.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
They're these huge.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Balloons and filled with helium, and they're held up by
they're held they're floating, and.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
They're connected to strings. Strings hold them up.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
And what ends up happening is they have volunteers that
walk along holding these ropes that actually keep the balloons
from floating away because they're helium.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
All right.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
So what you don't see is they are now taking down.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Those icons, those balloons.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Take them down to the ground, unzip these industrial grade zippers,
and this gust of helium comes out and then they
dive right on top of the balloon to get the
helium out, much like you see one of those kids
centers where you dive into the balls, the phone balls.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
That's what they do, and.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Then the balloon releases the helium. They're also told because
you all that helium that is coming out, you don't
want to sound like or maybe you do want to
sound like Alvin and the Chickmunks because you know, you
get that really high voice which is so much fun
with helium, which you do with kids with helium balloons.
(15:08):
The problem is there is so much helium that those
volunteers who work say, you will simply go unconscious. It's
not a question of sounding with a high pitched voice.
You will go unconscious. So that's one of the big
big things that are involved. By the way, it takes
(15:30):
ninety minutes to inflate these balloons and it takes just
fifteen minutes to deflate these balloons. Why because the pump
of helium is going in and moving the gas into
the balloon and it slowly inflates like massive balloons do.
And what they do when it hits the ground they
(15:50):
grab those ropes bring it to the ground is they
dive right on top of it, they take a swan
dive and the helium escapes fifteen minutes. And by the way,
the reason I'm talking about this, according to the director,
the urgency is real because if the team doesn't deflate
fast enough, the next balloon comes right over them and
(16:14):
walks on top, and the parade just keeps on coming.
And it's like when you get to the bottom of
an escalator. If you stop there and stand, everybody's coming
behind you, so you have to keep on moving. And
so these are hundreds of thousands of yards of cubic
feet of helium and dozens of floats and just fans
(16:36):
all over the place, two and a half miles going
down mid time, midtown Manhattan, and this started in nineteen
twenty four. In the late twenties is when the balloons
came out, and that's of course the iconic representation of
the Macy's Day balloon. And it used to be they
would just let it go in the air. They would
(16:58):
just let the balloons go until a pilot grabbed one
while flying. Now the pilot lost it, went into the
drink but survived. But after that they decided they weren't
going to release the balloons into the air.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
And so here's what they're fascinating. The balloons. The flate.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Sorry into six foot crates that collapse small enough to
go through the Lincoln to tunnel. Otherwise they can't get through.
So five thousand volunteers began with Macy's employees in nineteen
twenty four. Now it's friends and family and volunteers. Training
(17:46):
is months. It's called flight school, and they practice maneuvering
around obstacles and for quick deflation.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
They know what they're doing and everybody knows the drill.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
And if you think that this is just a local parade,
NBC just extended as contracts with Macy's for sixty million
dollars ago. Pretty impressive. Okay, so much for that. There's more,
but I'm not going to get into it. I just
like background stuff I wanted to share with you. If
you're going to see the parade, do you guys watch
the parade, Neil, are you a parade watcher?
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Eh? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Okay, Amy parade watcher, yes, oh sore you go?
Speaker 2 (18:26):
And parade watcher sure wow? And Cono parade watcher. Not
a chance. You ruined it. You ruined it. The fifteenth
Annual Pastathon is here.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Chef Bruno's Cherry Catarina's Club now provides twenty five thousand
meals every week to kids in need in southern California.
Without you, it just simply doesn't happen. So our live
broadcast we do it every year giving Tuesday, December second,
we'll be broadcasting starting with wake Up Call at five
all the way to eight pm with Tim Conway Junior
at the Anaheim White House.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
And there are tons of ways you can help. Just
go to Pastathon.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
Just go to KFIAM six forty dot com slash pastathon.
And there's another way you can do it, and this
is why you're having fun. Go to Yamavah Resort and Casino,
get out there play and when you cash your winning
tickets at the kiosk, it'll ask you.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Do you want to donate your change.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
You say yes, and then you pick Katerina's Club from
the four options on the screen.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
There is a fifth option.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
When you've lost money, you ask the kiosk to give
you money, and that works not at all, by the way.
They only take your money, they don't give you any back.
But at least you can donate to Katerina's Club at
yamavab All right, so when do we do Neil with
(19:47):
wild Fork?
Speaker 2 (19:50):
You want me to tell people about Wildfork? Now, I
don't know.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
It just says, you know, seven fifty before the segment,
So I don't know, Kno.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
When you want to do this, you can do it now?
All right? We do it now? Colin runs is so
I mean he is our guy, right, get it?
Speaker 3 (20:08):
But yes, just a reminder that you can go to
a southern California Wild Fork Foods location, of which there
are eleven Costa Mesa and Sanitas and Sino Ounington Beach,
Laguna de Gal and so on and so forth.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
And you can go to any of.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
These wild Fork Foods locations and simply say KFI Pastathon
when you check out, and fifteen percent of your purchase
will generously be automatically donated to the KFI Pastathon for
Katina's Club. They've obviously been a great partner with thanks
grilling and the events that we do on the show,
(20:45):
So big thanks to Wildfork Foods for doing that. Again,
fifteen percent of your purchase will automatically be not donated
to KFI Pastathon for Katerina's Club. Just be sure to
mention KFI Pastathon at check out at any of the
Southern California Wildfork Foods.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
And you can also go to the smart and Final.
There are partners Jess Wendy's Where and Neil and I
were there the other day broadcasting and talking about their
chicken strips. And this year we hope to raise more
than last year, which was one point three million dollars.
I do not think there is a local station in
the United States that has ever come close to raising
(21:27):
one point three million dollars for a local charity. And
it's without you, as simply doesn't happen. It's that simple.
And don't forget, Oh, and don't forget our auction items.
Our auction items this year, they're phenomenal. This is where
we auction off. The hosts here on KFI Things to Do,
Gary and Shannon Dodger Game, Dean and Tina Sharp Dodger Game,
(21:50):
and Cobalt an hour an hour of co hosting with him.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
I think I'm going to start bidding on that one.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
The thought of co hosting with co Belt is belief
and then ours.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
It's Neil and Mola.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
We are broadcasting a Fork report live and we don't
have the date yet, but we will, and we're gonna
do it at my house and the top bidder is
going to be invited to come to my house and
you will partake in the tremendous food. We're gonna have
grill masters and pitmasters. Anaheim White House is catering it.
(22:27):
Lindsay will have the Lindsay Prosecco, of which she drinks
morning new noon to night. There'll be lots lots to
do there and it's going to be great, great fun.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
And so you start bidding.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Just go to kf I am six forty dot com
and there's a link to postiphon. All right, what we're
gonna do is the story that I was going to
do about this AI companion, and it has to do
with teenagers saying, oh no, you can't take it away
from me. We'll do that next week because we're gonna
try something with that. There's gonna be part one and
(23:01):
two and that is going to be a hell of
a lot of fun and it involves me and involves
the crew here and you.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
So that's coming up next week.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
When we do that, don't have the exact time yet,
but we'll get that together.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
This is KFI AM six forty you've been listening to
the Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
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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