February 9, 2026 • 23 mins
(February 09, 2026)
The latest on the Nancy Guthrie investigation. Why a 2026 World Cup boycott is unlikely to be successful. A wargames shows just how vulnerable Europe is to a Russian attack. This bill would ban ICE agents from future hiring as a public employee in California.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six FORTYFI.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
AM six forty Bill Handle here, good morning. It is
a Monday morning, February ninth. We quick word about what
goes on during the week at eight thirty every Friday,
it's ask Handle anything. If you miss it, by the way,
it's certainly worth going to the podcast because it is
hugely entertaining and is designed to embarrass me, and it's
(00:30):
all about you going to the iHeartRadio app during the
show listening to the Bill Handle show which is being broadcast,
and then there's a micro microphone in the upright hand corner,
and you click on that and record a question, and
then Neil chooses the one that are embarrassing me the most.
And it's great fun because I answer those spontaneously, and
(00:52):
what comes out of my mouth generally is way ahead
of what comes out of my brain, and so I
tend to do a lot of blurting to the least. Okay,
fair enough, Oh and what else I want to say?
The podcast. Keep in mind that any segment, all segments
of this show are podcast, so if you miss any
(01:12):
one of these segments, feel free to jump in on
the podcast and go to the iHeartRadio app and you'll
see the podcast section and this show. Okay, the latest
on the Nancy Guthrie investigation. The big story is that
Nanthy Guthrie's children posted a new plea for their mom's
return on social media and Savannah Guthrie saying outright in
(01:36):
a very short statement, we will pay.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
And we have more information on the ransom notes. There's
two of them.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
The purported abductor or abductors demanding six million dollars and
bitcoined by five pm today and the note includes a
threat to Guthrie's life if the deadline is is not met.
No suspects yet at all. Officials are continuing the investigation
on the second note because they're looking into the authenticity
(02:10):
of the second note. Send to TV station KOLD on Friday.
That note, the note mentioned no deadline, included some sensitive information.
The second note, no deadline. And this, by the way,
the cash batl the FBI director is in Tucson, Arizona,
but not for this case. They said, is something that
(02:32):
was planned before. So it's a weird coincidence here, and
so let's go through this a little bit. At least
three media outlets TMZ CNN. Two son affiliates, Kold and Kgun,
received these ransom notes demanding the millions of dollars in bitcoin,
(02:54):
and it was Kold received that second note on Friday,
no deadline, but sensitive information to prove.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
That they in fact have Nancy Guthrie.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
And the latest the first social post by the Guthrie family,
that is, Savannah and her siblings or brother and sister
were asking for the return of their mom and saying Mom,
if you're hearing this, you're strong. It was very very moving,
and this last one was very cryptic, just we will pay,
(03:30):
and we're hearing that.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
There is no issue.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
That was very carefully crafted by the FBI and they
know the Guthree family will pay and six million dollars
they're prepared to pay.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Now.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
The FBI strongly suggests you do not pay terrorists, you
don't pay people who you don't pay kidnappers. However, if
the family decides to pay, then what ends up by
happening is the support the family in any way they want.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
You know.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
For example, when terror is kidnapped French and Italian people,
the government pays, they let the finana, they let the
family pay.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
And the government's right checks.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
The US government does not, which is why American abductees
have it much much worse.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
So a quick deadline or a quick timeline.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Saturday, Nancy Guthrie takes an uber to her daughter's home
Annie around five thirty in the afternoon. Family members take
her back home. The garage door opens at nine forty eight,
closes at nine point fifty.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Sunday the next day one for seven am, a few
hours after Nancy Guthrie is believed to have returned home.
Her doorbell camera is disconnected. They know that happened at
one am. At two twelve am, the surveillance CA surveillance
camera detects software detects some movement outside her home. Her
(05:11):
pacemaker app data shows it was disconnected from her phone
at two twenty eight.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Relatives at eleven fifty six.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Am well they go out to look for her because
she was absent from church and she never is, and
they discover she wasn't home. At twelveh three pm, they
report her missing. The sheriff's department arrives at twelve fifteen,
twelve minutes later. By the way, the Pina County Sheriff's
(05:41):
office is still guarding Nancy Guthrie's home. It's almost well,
it's the eighth day and it's not looking very good, mainly.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Because of the medication part.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
If the kidnappers are still demanding money, each answers are
they have Nancy gut Thrie and she's still alive, except
for the fact that day one, the sheriff of Pima
County said that she needs medication and if she doesn't
have it, it's life threatening. And this is up to
day day eight, and we don't know at this point
(06:18):
whether she had it or not. My guess is she
didn't Otherwise I don't know if the sheriff would have
said that she needed that medication. And investigator investigators are
ramping up the search as a matter of fact. In
one instance, there is a video of a sheriff investigator
(06:40):
going into the septic tank, or at least opening the
septic tank up and poking it with a stick.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
And we have no.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Information that God forbid, her body was found. And this
is it has connections to the Lindbergh baby, Lindbergh baby
that was kidnapped in the early thirties, Charles Lindberg's child,
and they found the baby in a well near the house,
(07:13):
and certainly we hope that this doesn't happen. All right,
that's the latest on that, and obviously any news that's
breaking will report to you.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
It doesn't matter when.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
All right, Okay, the World Cup is coming to the
south Land. Well this year twenty twenty six. We know
exactly when is it coming. What day is it arriving here?
First day?
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Amy? Do we know you would in July? July? That's good?
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Okay, Yeah, it's gonna be great, and I think Anne's
gonna be there so she'll be able to enjoy yourself. Anyway,
Calls for a European led boycott had actually grown and
grown in recent weeks even louder. How about the possible
ability is this going to happen? Nope, absolutely not. Alan
(08:06):
Rothenberg organized the soccer tournament in the nineteen eighty four
LA Games and that was boycotted by nineteen countries. Here
we are ten years later, and he led the organization
that put on the nineteen ninety four World Cup and
that was the first held in the US and still
to this day the best attended in history. So you've
(08:28):
got politicians and soccer official soccer officials in several European countries,
Key Ones, Germany, France, Denmark, the United Kingdom. They've raised
the idea of skipping this summer's World Cup, and mainly
in response to President Trump, and mainly in response to
(08:49):
President Trump's demands that Denmark hand over Greenland, and that
has really pissed off Europe. But even with that, boycott
is not going to happen. And why is that? Well,
because the World Cup is run by FIFA, which shank
sanctions every level of soccer globally. It both rights and
(09:11):
enforces its own laws. It can ban a federation and
by extension, the national teams from any from all competition.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
So here's an example.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Let's say FIFA bans a country and its women's team
from the next summer World Cup. Okay, it ends up
costing the federation itself millions of dollars in revenue, and
that makes them think twice.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
Now, the case of Russia.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
After Russia invaded Ukraine in twenty twenty two, FIFA, under
enormous political pressure, banned Russia from international soccer, completely barring
it from competing and qualifying for the twenty twenty two
the twenty twenty six World Cups. And keeping it out
of twenty twenty four euros. See how that works, and
(10:06):
as a result, Russia hasn't played in any competitive match
since November of twenty twenty one. Now it gets interesting
because FIFA's penalties can be really arbitrary inconsistent. In twenty fourteen,
four days after the Winter Games in Soshi, Russia, Russia
invade Ukraine first time, an annexus CRIMEA less than four
(10:27):
months later, Russia played in the World Cup.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
Four years later, it hosted the World Cup and.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
FIFA president Gianani Infantino sat right next to Putin. Okay,
so wait a second pressure for FIFA to boycott, not
a chance, and now Infantino is pushing to lift the
sanctions on Russia completely, even though Putin has stepped up
(10:55):
the war. No country has boycotted a World Cup since
World War Two. Now the Olympic, Olympic, the Olympic boycotts, Oh,
they've been more frequent, and you've got coalitions on that one.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
For example, you've got.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Five dozen countries refused to take part in the Summer
Games four times between nineteen fifty six nineteen eighty four.
But these were coordinated by politicians, not athletes, not the federations.
The biggest one was President Carter, the largest boycott and
he rallied more than sixty countries to skip the nineteen
(11:31):
eighty Moscow Olympics. Following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Four
years later, you have the Soviet Bloc countries stayed home
from the la Olympics in response. So there were no
Russian Bulgarian athletes at all. And my favorite athletes, as
I did in the promo, are the Bulgarian weightlifters, particularly
(11:54):
the women who weighed four hundred pounds and have a
tremendous amount of back hair.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
There.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
I mean big throng Russian women, Bulgarian women, And as
I said in the promo, horse gets stuck in mud,
they pull out without tractor.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Very strong women. So what do you do. You're not
going to boycott, that's it.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Germany officially ruled out of boycott last Saturday. By the way,
in Germany, one of the Germans Soccer federations eleven vice
president did say it's seriously time to consider a boycott.
The federation president said that ain't gonna happen. So is
there going to be a boycott? No, But by the way,
(12:44):
still being kept alive because the possibility, the possibility of
a boycott can be just as effective as actually following
through with the boycott. And here's an example. Talk of
the World Cup protest is being noted by Russian It's
being argued that may have played a part in Trump's
(13:05):
decision to back off the threats of invading Greenland.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Don't know that.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
And the other issue of boycotting here are games, immigration raids,
threat by Trump's to bomb Iran, which happens to be
a qualifier in the World Cup. The Ranian athletes are
going to be here, and the issue of using military
to get rid of or to capture Madura.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
So right now there.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Is a University of Segovia, Spain professor who says the
perceptions are the United States is in a very valuable
or volatile political situation is very unusual. Now, that doesn't
mean that fans aren't going to boycott. And I have
to tell you why FIFA loves the idea of fans boycotting,
(13:56):
because fans boycotting that already bought their tickets are going
to resell their tickets. And who isn't FIFA gets fifteen
percent from the seller and fifteen percent from the buyer
after having sold the original tickets. So I don't know
(14:16):
why FIFA isn't talking about fans boycotting all right, now,
let me tell you something about wargames. Wargames are their
exercise in virtually every country, and what wargames do is
anticipate and plan for invasions and or attacks on other countries.
(14:40):
We even have wargames in which we envision a war
with Canada, and not that that's going to happen, but
that's what these exercises are all about. Making sure that
the country, in our case Rkur country has plans, has
the criteria, has the ability to defend itself and in
(15:03):
some cases invade. So here are the wargames that are
going on right now, and they're really very serious. They're
more than wargames. European countries are preparing for war with Russia.
There's just a war game that was released. A Russian
incursion or a straight out Russian invasion is probably more
(15:30):
likely right now than in decades because of the tensions
Europe has with Trump and particularly over Greenland and Ukraine
and trade and other matters. And here is why wargames
are becoming much more serious and why European countries are
moving far deeper into these wargames. They point out that
(15:51):
Russia has switched to a war economy, focusing its national
resources on a rearma and rearm and rearmament program. That's
the word I'm using military recruitment. We know that's happening,
but military recruitment that goes beyond what they need for Ukraine.
(16:12):
Why are they doing that? And here's the quick key question,
and that is is there going to be an invasion
and how soon?
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Now?
Speaker 2 (16:23):
The earlier belief up to these what happened this release
of this war game information is that Russia wouldn't be
able to even threaten NATO realistically until twenty twenty nine.
Now there is a consensus and it's growing that this
could happen a whole lot sooner before Europe is in
(16:48):
a position to fight back. The Netherlands Defense Minister said,
our assessment is that Russia will be able to move
large amounts of troops within one year, and we see
their already increasing their strategic inventories, expanding their presence and
assets along the NATO borders. And I'm going to explain
(17:10):
in a few minutes what's going to happen, and what
the NATO countries are going to and not going to
do and throw some history at you. Prudin wants to
resurrect the glories of the Russian Empire, and he said
that over and over again, going way back, and he
wants to bring Russia back to where it was during
the Soviet Union. He was around during the Soviet Union
(17:32):
and he was a KGB spy and he worked for
intelligence or at least, if not a spy, certainly an
official intelligence. And he looked at the Soviet Union, this
is where we are going to be strong, this is
where we are going to go. By the way, that
look goes back to Peter the Great, when there was
(17:56):
a great empire, the great European Empire. And that's what
he wants to do is resurrect those glories. And he
wants to bring back into the fold the Soviet Union,
the old Soviet Union, and now Russia. He wants to
bring back the Baltic nations, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia obvious obvious targets,
(18:22):
and they became independent countries of course after the fall
of communism, and those countries Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia for instance,
have been members of the European Union and NATO for
two decades, knowing that Russia has designs on Swedish, Finnish,
(18:42):
Danish islands and the Baltic Sea parts of Poland.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
And how close.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Are is Russia to invading? Well, as I said before,
they have assets lined up at the borders. They've switched
to a war econ bringing in more soldiers than they
would need for an invasion or continuing the war with Ukraine.
And here's the way it's going to work, by the way,
(19:11):
much like it did in Crimea and in the Ukraine,
Russia is going to use the pretext of a humanitarian
crisis and they are there then to rescue the Russian
speaking people from the discrimination and the attacks of these
governments Ukraine for example. And so what happens when Russia
(19:36):
invaded Ukraine? No boots on the ground. NATO countries didn't
fight Russia. I mean, they loaded Ukraine with weaponry, but
that was it. Why did not Russia fight back or
invade right backer come to the aid of Ukraine militarily? Well,
because there's Article five of NATO, attack on one country
(20:01):
is an attack on all countries. Ukraine is not part
of NATO. However, virtually every other country that is closer
surrounds Russia is NATO and have been for twenty years
most of them. So Russia is looking at NATO to fight.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Now. Is NATO really going to come back and fight.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Not a chance, because Russia is a bunch of panty
waste and Russia and excuse me, NATO countries are a
bunch of pantywytes, and there's no way they're going to
actually fight. Go back to nineteen thirty eight with Hitler
and Czechoslovakia. The Allies just caved instantly in giving up
(20:45):
the major part of Czechoslovakia. Just stabbed Czechoslovakia in the back.
So let's say one of these NATO countries gets invaded
for quote humanitarian purposes. You think the rest of NATO
is going to start fighting Russia putting boots on the ground.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
Not a chance.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
They're not going to go to war because they just
no one wants to go to war except Putin. Maybe
Putin's got the balls to do it. Look at what
he did Ukraine. Now he says he has absolutely no ideas,
no compunction, or he has absolutely no desire to attack
(21:21):
those countries.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Oh, by the way.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
He said the same thing about Ukraine just before he
invented Ukraine. I have no desire to attack Ukraine, and
as he was going in, he still had no desire
to attack Ukraine as he was sending in troops. So
I don't think Russia is I don't think the NATO
countries are going to react militarily. And the shame of
(21:44):
it is Russia is really in no position to do
much about it. When you look at Russia versus NATO,
NATO is all of Europe and the United States.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
How does Russia fight that?
Speaker 2 (21:59):
If the NATO country trees get into a war, or
if not a war, a full out war, certainly a
let's say, a tactical fight. So do I think Russia
has the balls to do it? If anybody does, it
would be putin guessing that NATO countries would not get involved.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
Looking back at history saying.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Russia Germany stood up to Europe, Russia, I Russia, I
Russia putin, will stand up to NATO, and NATO's probably
going a cave.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
That's the way I view it.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
A bunch of horses, Europeans, a French, you know, bunch
of surrender monkeys. Okay, Gary and Shannon coming up next,
and then we're back again tomorrow morning with a wake
up call Will and Amy, and then Neil and I
jump in, and then there's Cono and An and Kono's
(23:00):
the only one that laughs at my stuff. So Kono,
contrary to what everybody else is looking at, you're going
to be here next week.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
But he's drunk. This is KFI on Monday. That's the
whole point.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
I'm giving you an entire week to start laughing, Oh
at my bad jokes?
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Gotcha of the host Kfi A m six. You've been
listening to the Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
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 FORTYFI.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
AM six forty Bill Handle here, good morning. It is
a Monday morning, February ninth. We quick word about what
goes on during the week at eight thirty every Friday,
it's ask Handle anything. If you miss it, by the way,
it's certainly worth going to the podcast because it is
hugely entertaining and is designed to embarrass me, and it's
(00:30):
all about you going to the iHeartRadio app during the
show listening to the Bill Handle show which is being broadcast,
and then there's a micro microphone in the upright hand corner,
and you click on that and record a question, and
then Neil chooses the one that are embarrassing me the most.
And it's great fun because I answer those spontaneously, and
(00:52):
what comes out of my mouth generally is way ahead
of what comes out of my brain, and so I
tend to do a lot of blurting to the least. Okay,
fair enough, Oh and what else I want to say?
The podcast. Keep in mind that any segment, all segments
of this show are podcast, so if you miss any
(01:12):
one of these segments, feel free to jump in on
the podcast and go to the iHeartRadio app and you'll
see the podcast section and this show. Okay, the latest
on the Nancy Guthrie investigation. The big story is that
Nanthy Guthrie's children posted a new plea for their mom's
return on social media and Savannah Guthrie saying outright in
(01:36):
a very short statement, we will pay.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
And we have more information on the ransom notes. There's
two of them.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
The purported abductor or abductors demanding six million dollars and
bitcoined by five pm today and the note includes a
threat to Guthrie's life if the deadline is is not met.
No suspects yet at all. Officials are continuing the investigation
on the second note because they're looking into the authenticity
(02:10):
of the second note. Send to TV station KOLD on Friday.
That note, the note mentioned no deadline, included some sensitive information.
The second note, no deadline. And this, by the way,
the cash batl the FBI director is in Tucson, Arizona,
but not for this case. They said, is something that
(02:32):
was planned before. So it's a weird coincidence here, and
so let's go through this a little bit. At least
three media outlets TMZ CNN. Two son affiliates, Kold and Kgun,
received these ransom notes demanding the millions of dollars in bitcoin,
(02:54):
and it was Kold received that second note on Friday,
no deadline, but sensitive information to prove.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
That they in fact have Nancy Guthrie.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
And the latest the first social post by the Guthrie family,
that is, Savannah and her siblings or brother and sister
were asking for the return of their mom and saying Mom,
if you're hearing this, you're strong. It was very very moving,
and this last one was very cryptic, just we will pay,
(03:30):
and we're hearing that.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
There is no issue.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
That was very carefully crafted by the FBI and they
know the Guthree family will pay and six million dollars
they're prepared to pay.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Now.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
The FBI strongly suggests you do not pay terrorists, you
don't pay people who you don't pay kidnappers. However, if
the family decides to pay, then what ends up by
happening is the support the family in any way they want.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
You know.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
For example, when terror is kidnapped French and Italian people,
the government pays, they let the finana, they let the
family pay.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
And the government's right checks.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
The US government does not, which is why American abductees
have it much much worse.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
So a quick deadline or a quick timeline.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Saturday, Nancy Guthrie takes an uber to her daughter's home
Annie around five thirty in the afternoon. Family members take
her back home. The garage door opens at nine forty eight,
closes at nine point fifty.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Sunday the next day one for seven am, a few
hours after Nancy Guthrie is believed to have returned home.
Her doorbell camera is disconnected. They know that happened at
one am. At two twelve am, the surveillance CA surveillance
camera detects software detects some movement outside her home. Her
(05:11):
pacemaker app data shows it was disconnected from her phone
at two twenty eight.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Relatives at eleven fifty six.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Am well they go out to look for her because
she was absent from church and she never is, and
they discover she wasn't home. At twelveh three pm, they
report her missing. The sheriff's department arrives at twelve fifteen,
twelve minutes later. By the way, the Pina County Sheriff's
(05:41):
office is still guarding Nancy Guthrie's home. It's almost well,
it's the eighth day and it's not looking very good, mainly.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Because of the medication part.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
If the kidnappers are still demanding money, each answers are
they have Nancy gut Thrie and she's still alive, except
for the fact that day one, the sheriff of Pima
County said that she needs medication and if she doesn't
have it, it's life threatening. And this is up to
day day eight, and we don't know at this point
(06:18):
whether she had it or not. My guess is she
didn't Otherwise I don't know if the sheriff would have
said that she needed that medication. And investigator investigators are
ramping up the search as a matter of fact. In
one instance, there is a video of a sheriff investigator
(06:40):
going into the septic tank, or at least opening the
septic tank up and poking it with a stick.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
And we have no.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Information that God forbid, her body was found. And this
is it has connections to the Lindbergh baby, Lindbergh baby
that was kidnapped in the early thirties, Charles Lindberg's child,
and they found the baby in a well near the house,
(07:13):
and certainly we hope that this doesn't happen. All right,
that's the latest on that, and obviously any news that's
breaking will report to you.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
It doesn't matter when.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
All right, Okay, the World Cup is coming to the
south Land. Well this year twenty twenty six. We know
exactly when is it coming. What day is it arriving here?
First day?
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Amy? Do we know you would in July? July? That's good?
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Okay, Yeah, it's gonna be great, and I think Anne's
gonna be there so she'll be able to enjoy yourself. Anyway,
Calls for a European led boycott had actually grown and
grown in recent weeks even louder. How about the possible
ability is this going to happen? Nope, absolutely not. Alan
(08:06):
Rothenberg organized the soccer tournament in the nineteen eighty four
LA Games and that was boycotted by nineteen countries. Here
we are ten years later, and he led the organization
that put on the nineteen ninety four World Cup and
that was the first held in the US and still
to this day the best attended in history. So you've
(08:28):
got politicians and soccer official soccer officials in several European countries,
Key Ones, Germany, France, Denmark, the United Kingdom. They've raised
the idea of skipping this summer's World Cup, and mainly
in response to President Trump, and mainly in response to
(08:49):
President Trump's demands that Denmark hand over Greenland, and that
has really pissed off Europe. But even with that, boycott
is not going to happen. And why is that? Well,
because the World Cup is run by FIFA, which shank
sanctions every level of soccer globally. It both rights and
(09:11):
enforces its own laws. It can ban a federation and
by extension, the national teams from any from all competition.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
So here's an example.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Let's say FIFA bans a country and its women's team
from the next summer World Cup. Okay, it ends up
costing the federation itself millions of dollars in revenue, and
that makes them think twice.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
Now, the case of Russia.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
After Russia invaded Ukraine in twenty twenty two, FIFA, under
enormous political pressure, banned Russia from international soccer, completely barring
it from competing and qualifying for the twenty twenty two
the twenty twenty six World Cups. And keeping it out
of twenty twenty four euros. See how that works, and
(10:06):
as a result, Russia hasn't played in any competitive match
since November of twenty twenty one. Now it gets interesting
because FIFA's penalties can be really arbitrary inconsistent. In twenty fourteen,
four days after the Winter Games in Soshi, Russia, Russia
invade Ukraine first time, an annexus CRIMEA less than four
(10:27):
months later, Russia played in the World Cup.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
Four years later, it hosted the World Cup and.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
FIFA president Gianani Infantino sat right next to Putin. Okay,
so wait a second pressure for FIFA to boycott, not
a chance, and now Infantino is pushing to lift the
sanctions on Russia completely, even though Putin has stepped up
(10:55):
the war. No country has boycotted a World Cup since
World War Two. Now the Olympic, Olympic, the Olympic boycotts, Oh,
they've been more frequent, and you've got coalitions on that one.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
For example, you've got.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Five dozen countries refused to take part in the Summer
Games four times between nineteen fifty six nineteen eighty four.
But these were coordinated by politicians, not athletes, not the federations.
The biggest one was President Carter, the largest boycott and
he rallied more than sixty countries to skip the nineteen
(11:31):
eighty Moscow Olympics. Following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Four
years later, you have the Soviet Bloc countries stayed home
from the la Olympics in response. So there were no
Russian Bulgarian athletes at all. And my favorite athletes, as
I did in the promo, are the Bulgarian weightlifters, particularly
(11:54):
the women who weighed four hundred pounds and have a
tremendous amount of back hair.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
There.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
I mean big throng Russian women, Bulgarian women, And as
I said in the promo, horse gets stuck in mud,
they pull out without tractor.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Very strong women. So what do you do. You're not
going to boycott, that's it.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Germany officially ruled out of boycott last Saturday. By the way,
in Germany, one of the Germans Soccer federations eleven vice
president did say it's seriously time to consider a boycott.
The federation president said that ain't gonna happen. So is
there going to be a boycott? No, But by the way,
(12:44):
still being kept alive because the possibility, the possibility of
a boycott can be just as effective as actually following
through with the boycott. And here's an example. Talk of
the World Cup protest is being noted by Russian It's
being argued that may have played a part in Trump's
(13:05):
decision to back off the threats of invading Greenland.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Don't know that.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
And the other issue of boycotting here are games, immigration raids,
threat by Trump's to bomb Iran, which happens to be
a qualifier in the World Cup. The Ranian athletes are
going to be here, and the issue of using military
to get rid of or to capture Madura.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
So right now there.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Is a University of Segovia, Spain professor who says the
perceptions are the United States is in a very valuable
or volatile political situation is very unusual. Now, that doesn't
mean that fans aren't going to boycott. And I have
to tell you why FIFA loves the idea of fans boycotting,
(13:56):
because fans boycotting that already bought their tickets are going
to resell their tickets. And who isn't FIFA gets fifteen
percent from the seller and fifteen percent from the buyer
after having sold the original tickets. So I don't know
(14:16):
why FIFA isn't talking about fans boycotting all right, now,
let me tell you something about wargames. Wargames are their
exercise in virtually every country, and what wargames do is
anticipate and plan for invasions and or attacks on other countries.
(14:40):
We even have wargames in which we envision a war
with Canada, and not that that's going to happen, but
that's what these exercises are all about. Making sure that
the country, in our case Rkur country has plans, has
the criteria, has the ability to defend itself and in
(15:03):
some cases invade. So here are the wargames that are
going on right now, and they're really very serious. They're
more than wargames. European countries are preparing for war with Russia.
There's just a war game that was released. A Russian
incursion or a straight out Russian invasion is probably more
(15:30):
likely right now than in decades because of the tensions
Europe has with Trump and particularly over Greenland and Ukraine
and trade and other matters. And here is why wargames
are becoming much more serious and why European countries are
moving far deeper into these wargames. They point out that
(15:51):
Russia has switched to a war economy, focusing its national
resources on a rearma and rearm and rearmament program. That's
the word I'm using military recruitment. We know that's happening,
but military recruitment that goes beyond what they need for Ukraine.
(16:12):
Why are they doing that? And here's the quick key question,
and that is is there going to be an invasion
and how soon?
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Now?
Speaker 2 (16:23):
The earlier belief up to these what happened this release
of this war game information is that Russia wouldn't be
able to even threaten NATO realistically until twenty twenty nine.
Now there is a consensus and it's growing that this
could happen a whole lot sooner before Europe is in
(16:48):
a position to fight back. The Netherlands Defense Minister said,
our assessment is that Russia will be able to move
large amounts of troops within one year, and we see
their already increasing their strategic inventories, expanding their presence and
assets along the NATO borders. And I'm going to explain
(17:10):
in a few minutes what's going to happen, and what
the NATO countries are going to and not going to
do and throw some history at you. Prudin wants to
resurrect the glories of the Russian Empire, and he said
that over and over again, going way back, and he
wants to bring Russia back to where it was during
the Soviet Union. He was around during the Soviet Union
(17:32):
and he was a KGB spy and he worked for
intelligence or at least, if not a spy, certainly an
official intelligence. And he looked at the Soviet Union, this
is where we are going to be strong, this is
where we are going to go. By the way, that
look goes back to Peter the Great, when there was
(17:56):
a great empire, the great European Empire. And that's what
he wants to do is resurrect those glories. And he
wants to bring back into the fold the Soviet Union,
the old Soviet Union, and now Russia. He wants to
bring back the Baltic nations, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia obvious obvious targets,
(18:22):
and they became independent countries of course after the fall
of communism, and those countries Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia for instance,
have been members of the European Union and NATO for
two decades, knowing that Russia has designs on Swedish, Finnish,
(18:42):
Danish islands and the Baltic Sea parts of Poland.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
And how close.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Are is Russia to invading? Well, as I said before,
they have assets lined up at the borders. They've switched
to a war econ bringing in more soldiers than they
would need for an invasion or continuing the war with Ukraine.
And here's the way it's going to work, by the way,
(19:11):
much like it did in Crimea and in the Ukraine,
Russia is going to use the pretext of a humanitarian
crisis and they are there then to rescue the Russian
speaking people from the discrimination and the attacks of these
governments Ukraine for example. And so what happens when Russia
(19:36):
invaded Ukraine? No boots on the ground. NATO countries didn't
fight Russia. I mean, they loaded Ukraine with weaponry, but
that was it. Why did not Russia fight back or
invade right backer come to the aid of Ukraine militarily? Well,
because there's Article five of NATO, attack on one country
(20:01):
is an attack on all countries. Ukraine is not part
of NATO. However, virtually every other country that is closer
surrounds Russia is NATO and have been for twenty years
most of them. So Russia is looking at NATO to fight.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Now. Is NATO really going to come back and fight.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Not a chance, because Russia is a bunch of panty
waste and Russia and excuse me, NATO countries are a
bunch of pantywytes, and there's no way they're going to
actually fight. Go back to nineteen thirty eight with Hitler
and Czechoslovakia. The Allies just caved instantly in giving up
(20:45):
the major part of Czechoslovakia. Just stabbed Czechoslovakia in the back.
So let's say one of these NATO countries gets invaded
for quote humanitarian purposes. You think the rest of NATO
is going to start fighting Russia putting boots on the ground.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
Not a chance.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
They're not going to go to war because they just
no one wants to go to war except Putin. Maybe
Putin's got the balls to do it. Look at what
he did Ukraine. Now he says he has absolutely no ideas,
no compunction, or he has absolutely no desire to attack
(21:21):
those countries.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Oh, by the way.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
He said the same thing about Ukraine just before he
invented Ukraine. I have no desire to attack Ukraine, and
as he was going in, he still had no desire
to attack Ukraine as he was sending in troops. So
I don't think Russia is I don't think the NATO
countries are going to react militarily. And the shame of
(21:44):
it is Russia is really in no position to do
much about it. When you look at Russia versus NATO,
NATO is all of Europe and the United States.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
How does Russia fight that?
Speaker 2 (21:59):
If the NATO country trees get into a war, or
if not a war, a full out war, certainly a
let's say, a tactical fight. So do I think Russia
has the balls to do it? If anybody does, it
would be putin guessing that NATO countries would not get involved.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
Looking back at history saying.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Russia Germany stood up to Europe, Russia, I Russia, I
Russia putin, will stand up to NATO, and NATO's probably
going a cave.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
That's the way I view it.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
A bunch of horses, Europeans, a French, you know, bunch
of surrender monkeys. Okay, Gary and Shannon coming up next,
and then we're back again tomorrow morning with a wake
up call Will and Amy, and then Neil and I
jump in, and then there's Cono and An and Kono's
(23:00):
the only one that laughs at my stuff. So Kono,
contrary to what everybody else is looking at, you're going
to be here next week.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
But he's drunk. This is KFI on Monday. That's the
whole point.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
I'm giving you an entire week to start laughing, Oh
at my bad jokes?
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Gotcha of the host Kfi A m six. You've been
listening to the Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
Catch My Show Monday through Friday, six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app
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