March 10, 2025 • 27 mins
(March 10, 2025)
Trump’s presidency moves into a new phase with a critical test of his power in Congress. The potential details come out about Gene Hackman’s final days. The right-to-repair movement is growing as wins stack up. Why does everyone have a podcast? Are there too many?
Trump’s presidency moves into a new phase with a critical test of his power in Congress. The potential details come out about Gene Hackman’s final days. The right-to-repair movement is growing as wins stack up. Why does everyone have a podcast? Are there too many?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty KFI AM six forty Bill Handle.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Here. It's Monday morning, March tenth. Tomorrow is the rain,
right Amy, And so today is going to be no rain.
How warm is it going to be.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
It's going to be sixties to mid seventies for the
inland areas. Wow, yeah, it'll be nice.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Yeah, it'd be nice.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
This is the wintertime, and welcome to southern California. Though,
we're going to get some rain, much needed, much wanted rain.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
It's a lot of itler tomorrow too.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Usually rain is cool unless you go to the tropics
where the rain is hot.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
And how much rain are we going to get?
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Well, not tomorrow, I mean tomorrow, we're going to get rain,
but then the heaviest rains expected Wednesday and Thursday, where
they're saying like one to two inches in the basin
and then more in the foothill areas, which could be
trouble for the burned scars.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Yeah, it's sound pretty heavy.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Yeah, those people that get nailed with the fires. It's
a double hit, no fund at all, all right. As
I said, it's Trump today, it's only one story and
reminded me that we are doing one Trump story because
I tend to do a lot of them.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
And the reason I tend to do a lot.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Of them is because they are so important and the
fundamental changes that are coming to America as a result
of this presidency. So the presidency moves into a new phase,
and this is another test of congressional power. And this
has to do with the budget. And the budget of
(01:33):
the United States must be voted in by Congress and
then it goes to the president and the president just
has a yay or n a on this. One can
accept the budget or say no to the budget. California,
the governor has a line on m veto. He actually
can go through the budget and cross out various programs
(01:55):
and the amount of funding. The president cannot. It's a
yay or an a. So now the Republicans are voting
on a bill to extend the federal funding until the
end of September, which.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Means it's an omnymous bill.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
I mean, we haven't had a budget on time for
I don't know how many years. It always is kicking
the can down the road. And so if they succeed,
they don't need the Democrats at all. They're going to
do it without Democrats and the other thing. So the Republicans,
even with its razor thin majority, have the ability to
(02:34):
shove this through. Now the Democrats have the ability to
stop it, Yes, but that means there's a federal shutdown
and the Democrats get blamed for the government running out
of money. And I mean the politics of this, it's
like a ping pong ball. Underlying all of this is
the President telling Congress what he wants, telling the Republican Congress,
(02:57):
this is what I want. He has set it outright.
I will brook no defense, no dissent. And so here
is the question, and that is does Congress have any.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Power at all anymore?
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Because the Republican Party is willing to seede to the
president virtually every bit of power that the government has.
There will be if Trump succeeds with the Republicans backing
him up, there will be two branches of government. The
checks and balances will then come down to the courts
(03:38):
and the presidency. Congress becomes irrelevant, and Republicans are saying,
fine with us. As a matter of fact, they're pushing it.
Mike Johnson has said outright, whatever the president wants I
give him out. I'm paraphrasing, but that's effectively what he's doing.
There is no backlash. And then the argument becomes how
(04:02):
powerful is the presidency? Can the president stop or spend
money that Congress has already allocated and has passed into law.
The Republicans and certainly Trump says yes. And here's what
some Democrats are saying, it doesn't matter whether he wins
(04:23):
or loses, and doesn't matter what we do, because the
president is taking all the power anyway. And then it
goes to the courts, and the Supreme Court has been
very pro Trump for the most part in giving him
the kind of power that he wants and that he
is showing. I mean, it used to be where the
(04:46):
power of the presidency was somewhat limited, Congress had enormous power.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Well, he has taken it.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
He has taken it unilaterally, and so far this court
has said yep, for a couple reasons. Number one, his
power deriving from the Constitution is far more than heretofore defined.
And there is a Congress now with a majority of
Republicans that are willing to give it to him because
(05:16):
of the fear that the Republicans have because Trump still
has the ability to say you don't go my way,
I'm going to primary you out and you will not
be elected.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
You're done with your career.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
He has said that he means it, and it's not
an idle threat. And when it comes to legislators, this
not for the good of the country for the most part.
I mean, I think they do believe in the good
of the country, but getting re elected is by far
more important than anything else. There's an argument there saying,
(05:51):
if I am not elected, I can't do anything. I
can't move, I can't do by job. Well, if you're
re elected and all you can care about is backing
up the move of the president, are you doing your
job anyway? So it's going to get tough. And here's
the other issue. Elon Musk.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Has unbelievable power.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
He is going through government with basically one of those
Zamboni machines that clean the ice off of what a
weird analogy off of skating rings, just taking it off
and going just going through like Sherman through Georgia better analogy.
And Republicans at these town halls are getting nailed because
(06:40):
you've got people, You've got Republicans in federal government who
have been let go and fired, and you've got agencies
that saved people's lives. USA, for example, the CDC is
being decimated. They're being decimated, and they're backlash and lots
(07:01):
of it, to the point where you know, Mike Johnson,
what Mike Johnson has said to his Republican legislators, don't
go to these town meetings anymore. Just don't go there
because the uproar. So we'll see what happens. Is the
president going to win? Well, yeah, the trend is the
(07:22):
government giving power to the president. Case in point, Congress
is the only body in the United States that can
declare war. Last time war was declared to was December eighth,
nineteen forty one. After that, the president did whatever the
hell he wanted, entering Vietnam, Johnson's choice, going to Grenada
(07:45):
for example, Clinton's choice Iraq Iran, George Bush's shot Afghanistan.
That been going on forever, that was twenty years and
it was the president who made that call.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
So it's gonna be a new phase. We'll see what happens.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
And you had hawks spending Hawks the Republican Party saying
we're spending way too much money. We have to put
a stop to it. Those guys are going right wing
legislators are just shutting up two billion, two trillion dollars
into deficit.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
That's fine.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
As long as President Trump wants it, We're fine with it.
The hockiness has disappeared. Okay, let's move over. I'm done
with Trump. I'm done with what's going on today. And
for those of you that argue, oh, you got too
much of that, it's too important, not too boys and girls.
All right now, the story that we have been following,
(08:45):
and that is the death of Gene Hackman and his wife, and.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
It was just so weird.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
It is weird, and at first it had to be
foul play. She was found in I believe it was
the mud No, he was in the mudroom. Was she
in the bathroom or the kitchen? But they were in
two separate rooms. There were a bunch of pills where
she was turned out to be thyroid medicine having nothing
(09:13):
to do with her death. Then the question was it
had to be carbon monoxide. They were found by a caretaker,
looks like about a week after he died and two
weeks after she died, and the coverage, the interest was
international because two time Oscar winner, I mean Gene Hackman,
(09:37):
one of the great actors of our generation. He was
ninety five, she was sixty five. And here is the heartbreaker,
because it looks like they both died of well, what's
considered natural causes. She died of hauntavirus, which is very rare.
(09:57):
You remember the haunt of IIS virus when it made news.
These were very young, successful super fit runners who were
dying of haunt haunted virus. They were running out in
the fields on these tracks and picked up the virus
is from rodent crap effectively, and it's not easy to transmit,
(10:22):
but it got into their system and they died.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Well, it looks like she died of haunted virus.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
They live out in New Mexico in an area where
there's a lot of open land, and somehow she contracted
it and ended up dying. Hauntavirus is about what sixty
percent fatal, something along those lines, And she was not
any particular youngster at sixty I guess sixty five was
she in the risk factor? Maybe he ended up dying
(10:52):
of Alzheimer's. He had advanced Alzheimer's and she was dead
a week in the home while he was We don't.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Know what he was doing. Maybe he was calling her name.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Maybe he didn't even realize, which is probably the case.
Clearly he needed some kind of a caretaker, and they
had caretakers, and she took care of him.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
He was suffering from severe.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Dementia, Alzheimer's disease and had heart trouble. I had a
ton of underlying, underlying medical conditions and ended up dying.
And people with advanced al Alzheimer's die of the Alzheimer's.
And the only way to really tell is, of course
an autopsy has done. They look at the brain and
(11:43):
there's all the plaque, and the medical examiner said, clearly
advanced advanced Alzheimer's. I mean, it was ninety five, and
there was only one picture I saw of him at
ninety five.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
All the other pictures were of.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Him in his younger days, even as he was older
and had already retired from the film business. Those photos,
and this is how much he was beloved, because usually
these photographs of elderly people are plaster all over the tabloids,
and everybody looks like crap at either old age or
(12:22):
wrinkled or in the worst positions and that wasn't the case.
But if you saw the pictures, he was an old
old ninety five, Not that ninety five is an old
to begin with, but you could tell that there was
something very seriously wrong. And the argument is, you know
(12:43):
ninety five, I mean, you know you lived to ninety five,
But how long was he there? My mother lasted until
she was ninety eight, but wasn't there for the last
three four years.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
Of her life? Wasn't there?
Speaker 2 (13:02):
And the argument is at that point, quality of life?
And then we're not going to get into that issue,
but we now know you talk about a weird combination.
She dies of hauntavirus, he dies of Alzheimer's and it
is heart wrenching. And the only thing I can think
(13:23):
of if you've got this old man who is groping
through the house, maybe looking for his wife, maybe not,
but that's unfortunately the way I see it. You know,
very old man calling out to his wife and there's
nobody there.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Okay, enough of that. Did I make you feel good? Huh?
Was that an up topic? Have a nice day? Okay?
Speaker 2 (13:51):
Now there's something called the right to Repair movement.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
What is that?
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Well, the founder of Fixed Clinic has turned this into
a big deal. It's a volunteer run group organized thirteen
hundred repair events around the country. People bring any broken
household items, warn socks for example, it's broken toaster, and
learn how to make them functional again. I guess the
(14:20):
darning people come in and show you how to darn
and repair your socks.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
Gosh darn.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
And here is a couple of reasons. The growing awareness
about the environmental impact of e waste, as well as
a whole bunch of new right to repair laws.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
So let me tell you why they're so important.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Because have you ever bought a computer that's broken down
and it's sat where When you buy a computer, say,
if you do anything to the computer that we don't do,
or an authorized dealer doesn't do, the warranty is history
forcing you to go to the Apple store or an
(15:00):
authorized dealer and of course charging those charges.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
How about unauthorized dealers? Nope?
Speaker 2 (15:07):
How about doing it yourself buying a part for example, Nope,
no warranty.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
And that was the law. Now, when I sold.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Stereos back in the day, and this was during my
college days, it's one of the jobs I had. We
had something called the fair Trade Laws, which meant that
a manufacturer can say, this product cannot be sold below
the price that we give you. Manufacturers suggested retail price.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Couldn't do it. Why because that was the law.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
And right now in the case of these fix it programs,
the law, and that's changing. As matter of fact, California
has changed the law where consumers can repair, modify their
products instead of having to go through the manufacture. And
(16:01):
this is simply a just the next step in consumerism
when you think of it, the fact that a manufacturer
is allowed to tell you, in this day and age,
in the day of free enterprise, that you can only
go back to the manufacturer to repair a product, otherwise
(16:21):
the warranty is history.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Man, How restrictive is that?
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Wouldn't you think you could repair your own computers or.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Bicycles or anything.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
In twenty twelve, Massachusetts mandated auto makers to allow independent
mechanics to access the diagnostic tools and cars. You know,
they have all kinds of diagnostic tools in cars, you know,
the black boxes, things that read, the sensors that read.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Do you know before before twenty twelve?
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Twenty twelve in Massachusetts, and this was the first law
that was passed, a non dealership couldn't even access those
diagnostic tools. It had to be us, which means you
independent repair person or owner of the vehicle couldn't have
access to repair to find out what was going on. Well,
(17:18):
that changed, and you know what changed it? And this
is the fun part. Mcfluury's. What is that about. How
is it that mcfluury's changed it. Well, we've done this
story and Neil's done this story a bunch of times.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
In about fifty percent of the time those.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
Shake machines that McDonald's are broken, you can't get served,
particularly the soft serve ice creams welly because the machines
were broken. Well, that's easy to repair. You know, there
are thousands of these across the country, tens of thousands.
Can you imagine fifty percent broke Cannan at any given time.
(18:01):
Why is that one company, one company has the contract
with McDonald's and has the exclusive right and a contract
with McDonald's saying that only this company is allowed to
repair those machines and the law allowed that, and it's
(18:23):
still there, although that's changing.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Have you ever had McDonald's soft serve.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
It's probably the best soft serve that I've ever had,
And when I go in to McDonald's and I'll go
in just to buy a soft serve, a cone of
that wonderful vanilla and chocolate swirl, and half the time
they tell me, oh, oh, the machine has gone is broken.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
We're waiting for a repair man. When is it going
to come out? When? When is a repair person going
to show up? I don't know. We put in the order.
The right to.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Repair movement is growing, and it should. Okay, let's move
into a totally different topic. And it's something that all
of you probably have. It's one of those things where
we all go to the bathroom, right, you know, remember
that kid's book Everybody Poops. Well, there's a new kid's book.
(19:20):
Everybody has a podcast, and why Well, because everybody's got
something to say. Now, it used to be that in
the world of talk radio, for example, and in the
world in general, your average Joe couldn't make himself for
herself known. If you had something to say, you had
(19:42):
a couple of ways of doing it. One, you could
stand on a street corner with a bullhorn. Boy, that's normal.
You could write a letter to the editor. Okay, fine, yeah,
that's gonna work. You could call in because our talk
shows used to be you calling in and giving your opinion.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
Have you noticed you don't do that anymore?
Speaker 2 (19:59):
And why because I don't give a rats ask what
you have to say that has a lot to do
with it.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
And then, technically speaking.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
The reason I don't do that because I like to
control my show and once you turn it over to
a caller, the caller controls the show and the host reacts.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
And that's not my idea or anybody's idea of a
talk show anymore.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Okay, so the Internet has changed things, but the Internet
isn't the same as you saying what you want to
say and people listening hopefully. And that's the world of podcasts. Now,
why have you noticed that every single major star, political
(20:38):
figure Gavin Newsom has one. What star does not have
a podcast? What major celebrity does not have a podcast?
Speaker 1 (20:49):
They all do? And why is that?
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Well, because they've got something to say and they can't.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
You've got an actor.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Who reads other people's words and doesn't really have much
to say. Every DJ I've ever met wants to be
a talk show host, every one of them, because they
want to talk, They want to make themselves heard instead
of spinning records where they're playing the next song for
(21:17):
the fifty six time in a given hour, and they're
going out of their minds with boredom. That's why cocaine
was such a big deal in drugs, because you had
the dj is going out of their minds with boredom,
and most of them were not getting their PhDs and
using the time between records to study. Well, today everybody
(21:41):
wants to talk, and so you've got a podcast.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
And how easy is a podcast? Well how about this.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
You throw your computer up and you start talking into it,
and then you release it on the internet and nobody
listens unless you are Joe Rogan, who, by the way,
has the most popular podcast in the country, maybe even
in the world, and he just sold that podcast for
two hundred million dollars.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
That's pretty rarefied.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
Here. You got Will Ferrell who has one. You've got
other major political figures who have one.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
I had one.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
I lasted I don't know how many twenty episodes and
then I was done.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
And why is that?
Speaker 2 (22:27):
And I even had some listeners. Well, two reasons I
gave it up. One, it's a lot of work and
I'm the laziest guy who ever lived.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Two you can't monetize a podcast. You can't.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
I mean the podcast that can be monetized are you
can count on one hand.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
It is so rare.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Out of the what four and a half million podcasts
out there that's according to podcast Index, you don't make
money and most of them, most of them last five
episodes and then people realize it ain't easy to do
a podcast. I found that podcast very difficult to do,
(23:14):
and I'll tell you some of the podcasts are full production.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
I remember one of the first.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
Podcasts, and only podcasts because I don't listen to podcasts,
was a guy with the named von Mader, And that
name may not seem familiar to you, but during the
Kennedy years, when John F. Kennedy was elected, this guy
did a right on impression of JFK I mean perfect,
and you released two albums of him impersonating Kennedy and
(23:45):
it was extraordinary, how popular, number one album in the country.
I mean, he made a fortune. And then November twenty second,
nineteen sixty three, his career sort of dropped and he
never even mentioned or did the impression again.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
For obvious reasons, Kennedy was assassinated.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
But I listened to a podcast the history of von
Meter and the production value. They went and interviewed everybody
who was any part of that, people that worked in
this in it literally did the engineering for the album, executives,
people that knew von Meter. The research that went into
(24:26):
that was insane. And if you if you listen to
some of the podcasts, and a lot of them, a
lot of them are now visual, so you've got television
studios and you have lighting.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
The music.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Some of them are original music. I mean the production values. Effectively,
they are television programs. Some of them have budgets of
thirty forty thousand dollars an episode. So it ranges all
the way from you sitting on the kitchen table talking
into a computer all the way up to full production.
(24:59):
And a number of podcasts, well, that's increasing because everybody
wants to hear themselves talk, and everybody wants to be
a talk show host. I don't want to be a DJ.
I have no desire to spin records. DJs want to
be me And why is that? And by the way,
(25:19):
not because I'm the most phenomenal person in the world
and I'm the most I'm not the most hugely talented
person in the world. Yes, I've gotten awards, But let
me tell you why I'm considered so good is because
everybody else is so bad. It's not a question of
I'm good, it's a question of them being bad. And
I compare pretty favorable to those people. If you've ever
(25:41):
listened to podcasts and radio programs around the country, talk
stations around the country, a lot to be desired, but
everybody wants something to say. I have the format here,
I am behind the mic and I'm talking, and I
give you my opinion, and I'm not spinning records.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
We're not playing music.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
Kono is the only one that plays music, and I
have no idea what he plays ConA hall.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
Often do I recognize the music that you play? Very rare,
very rarely.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
You know, I stopped listening to music when the Beatles
broke up.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
That was it. That was the word. That was a day,
that that's going to live an infamy.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
That was the music died for you.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
That's very strong.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Also, Salmon and Garfunkel when they broke up was kind
of bad for me. And then there are some groups
groups that I do like modern groups like which ones
well I can't really name them.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
Oh, hold on minute, hold on, let me get that copy.
Let me get the copy that yeah, yeah, we're.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
Uh yeah, and there's venus seal virtually no downtime, So
that isn't it.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Uh, let me see life source. That's not it. Oh
here it is? Okay, got it all right?
Speaker 2 (27:04):
Doja cat Megan Trainer one of my favorite David Guetta,
Oh man, I like David Gueta, cats Ie.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
I had a marble one so it was a cat's eye.
Then you have okay.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
I love music even though I have no idea, no
idea who these people are and what they sound like.
All right, this is KFI AM six four. You've been
listening to the Bill Handle Show. Catch my Show Monday
through Friday, six am to nine am, and anytime on
demand on the iHeartRadio app
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty KFI AM six forty Bill Handle.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Here. It's Monday morning, March tenth. Tomorrow is the rain,
right Amy, And so today is going to be no rain.
How warm is it going to be.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
It's going to be sixties to mid seventies for the
inland areas. Wow, yeah, it'll be nice.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Yeah, it'd be nice.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
This is the wintertime, and welcome to southern California. Though,
we're going to get some rain, much needed, much wanted rain.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
It's a lot of itler tomorrow too.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Usually rain is cool unless you go to the tropics
where the rain is hot.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
And how much rain are we going to get?
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Well, not tomorrow, I mean tomorrow, we're going to get rain,
but then the heaviest rains expected Wednesday and Thursday, where
they're saying like one to two inches in the basin
and then more in the foothill areas, which could be
trouble for the burned scars.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Yeah, it's sound pretty heavy.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Yeah, those people that get nailed with the fires. It's
a double hit, no fund at all, all right. As
I said, it's Trump today, it's only one story and
reminded me that we are doing one Trump story because
I tend to do a lot of them.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
And the reason I tend to do a lot.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Of them is because they are so important and the
fundamental changes that are coming to America as a result
of this presidency. So the presidency moves into a new phase,
and this is another test of congressional power. And this
has to do with the budget. And the budget of
(01:33):
the United States must be voted in by Congress and
then it goes to the president and the president just
has a yay or n a on this. One can
accept the budget or say no to the budget. California,
the governor has a line on m veto. He actually
can go through the budget and cross out various programs
(01:55):
and the amount of funding. The president cannot. It's a
yay or an a. So now the Republicans are voting
on a bill to extend the federal funding until the
end of September, which.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Means it's an omnymous bill.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
I mean, we haven't had a budget on time for
I don't know how many years. It always is kicking
the can down the road. And so if they succeed,
they don't need the Democrats at all. They're going to
do it without Democrats and the other thing. So the Republicans,
even with its razor thin majority, have the ability to
(02:34):
shove this through. Now the Democrats have the ability to
stop it, Yes, but that means there's a federal shutdown
and the Democrats get blamed for the government running out
of money. And I mean the politics of this, it's
like a ping pong ball. Underlying all of this is
the President telling Congress what he wants, telling the Republican Congress,
(02:57):
this is what I want. He has set it outright.
I will brook no defense, no dissent. And so here
is the question, and that is does Congress have any.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Power at all anymore?
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Because the Republican Party is willing to seede to the
president virtually every bit of power that the government has.
There will be if Trump succeeds with the Republicans backing
him up, there will be two branches of government. The
checks and balances will then come down to the courts
(03:38):
and the presidency. Congress becomes irrelevant, and Republicans are saying,
fine with us. As a matter of fact, they're pushing it.
Mike Johnson has said outright, whatever the president wants I
give him out. I'm paraphrasing, but that's effectively what he's doing.
There is no backlash. And then the argument becomes how
(04:02):
powerful is the presidency? Can the president stop or spend
money that Congress has already allocated and has passed into law.
The Republicans and certainly Trump says yes. And here's what
some Democrats are saying, it doesn't matter whether he wins
(04:23):
or loses, and doesn't matter what we do, because the
president is taking all the power anyway. And then it
goes to the courts, and the Supreme Court has been
very pro Trump for the most part in giving him
the kind of power that he wants and that he
is showing. I mean, it used to be where the
(04:46):
power of the presidency was somewhat limited, Congress had enormous power.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Well, he has taken it.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
He has taken it unilaterally, and so far this court
has said yep, for a couple reasons. Number one, his
power deriving from the Constitution is far more than heretofore defined.
And there is a Congress now with a majority of
Republicans that are willing to give it to him because
(05:16):
of the fear that the Republicans have because Trump still
has the ability to say you don't go my way,
I'm going to primary you out and you will not
be elected.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
You're done with your career.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
He has said that he means it, and it's not
an idle threat. And when it comes to legislators, this
not for the good of the country for the most part.
I mean, I think they do believe in the good
of the country, but getting re elected is by far
more important than anything else. There's an argument there saying,
(05:51):
if I am not elected, I can't do anything. I
can't move, I can't do by job. Well, if you're
re elected and all you can care about is backing
up the move of the president, are you doing your
job anyway? So it's going to get tough. And here's
the other issue. Elon Musk.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Has unbelievable power.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
He is going through government with basically one of those
Zamboni machines that clean the ice off of what a
weird analogy off of skating rings, just taking it off
and going just going through like Sherman through Georgia better analogy.
And Republicans at these town halls are getting nailed because
(06:40):
you've got people, You've got Republicans in federal government who
have been let go and fired, and you've got agencies
that saved people's lives. USA, for example, the CDC is
being decimated. They're being decimated, and they're backlash and lots
(07:01):
of it, to the point where you know, Mike Johnson,
what Mike Johnson has said to his Republican legislators, don't
go to these town meetings anymore. Just don't go there
because the uproar. So we'll see what happens. Is the
president going to win? Well, yeah, the trend is the
(07:22):
government giving power to the president. Case in point, Congress
is the only body in the United States that can
declare war. Last time war was declared to was December eighth,
nineteen forty one. After that, the president did whatever the
hell he wanted, entering Vietnam, Johnson's choice, going to Grenada
(07:45):
for example, Clinton's choice Iraq Iran, George Bush's shot Afghanistan.
That been going on forever, that was twenty years and
it was the president who made that call.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
So it's gonna be a new phase. We'll see what happens.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
And you had hawks spending Hawks the Republican Party saying
we're spending way too much money. We have to put
a stop to it. Those guys are going right wing
legislators are just shutting up two billion, two trillion dollars
into deficit.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
That's fine.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
As long as President Trump wants it, We're fine with it.
The hockiness has disappeared. Okay, let's move over. I'm done
with Trump. I'm done with what's going on today. And
for those of you that argue, oh, you got too
much of that, it's too important, not too boys and girls.
All right now, the story that we have been following,
(08:45):
and that is the death of Gene Hackman and his wife, and.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
It was just so weird.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
It is weird, and at first it had to be
foul play. She was found in I believe it was
the mud No, he was in the mudroom. Was she
in the bathroom or the kitchen? But they were in
two separate rooms. There were a bunch of pills where
she was turned out to be thyroid medicine having nothing
(09:13):
to do with her death. Then the question was it
had to be carbon monoxide. They were found by a caretaker,
looks like about a week after he died and two
weeks after she died, and the coverage, the interest was
international because two time Oscar winner, I mean Gene Hackman,
(09:37):
one of the great actors of our generation. He was
ninety five, she was sixty five. And here is the heartbreaker,
because it looks like they both died of well, what's
considered natural causes. She died of hauntavirus, which is very rare.
(09:57):
You remember the haunt of IIS virus when it made news.
These were very young, successful super fit runners who were
dying of haunt haunted virus. They were running out in
the fields on these tracks and picked up the virus
is from rodent crap effectively, and it's not easy to transmit,
(10:22):
but it got into their system and they died.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Well, it looks like she died of haunted virus.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
They live out in New Mexico in an area where
there's a lot of open land, and somehow she contracted
it and ended up dying. Hauntavirus is about what sixty
percent fatal, something along those lines, And she was not
any particular youngster at sixty I guess sixty five was
she in the risk factor? Maybe he ended up dying
(10:52):
of Alzheimer's. He had advanced Alzheimer's and she was dead
a week in the home while he was We don't.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Know what he was doing. Maybe he was calling her name.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Maybe he didn't even realize, which is probably the case.
Clearly he needed some kind of a caretaker, and they
had caretakers, and she took care of him.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
He was suffering from severe.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Dementia, Alzheimer's disease and had heart trouble. I had a
ton of underlying, underlying medical conditions and ended up dying.
And people with advanced al Alzheimer's die of the Alzheimer's.
And the only way to really tell is, of course
an autopsy has done. They look at the brain and
(11:43):
there's all the plaque, and the medical examiner said, clearly
advanced advanced Alzheimer's. I mean, it was ninety five, and
there was only one picture I saw of him at
ninety five.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
All the other pictures were of.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Him in his younger days, even as he was older
and had already retired from the film business. Those photos,
and this is how much he was beloved, because usually
these photographs of elderly people are plaster all over the tabloids,
and everybody looks like crap at either old age or
(12:22):
wrinkled or in the worst positions and that wasn't the case.
But if you saw the pictures, he was an old
old ninety five, Not that ninety five is an old
to begin with, but you could tell that there was
something very seriously wrong. And the argument is, you know
(12:43):
ninety five, I mean, you know you lived to ninety five,
But how long was he there? My mother lasted until
she was ninety eight, but wasn't there for the last
three four years.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
Of her life? Wasn't there?
Speaker 2 (13:02):
And the argument is at that point, quality of life?
And then we're not going to get into that issue,
but we now know you talk about a weird combination.
She dies of hauntavirus, he dies of Alzheimer's and it
is heart wrenching. And the only thing I can think
(13:23):
of if you've got this old man who is groping
through the house, maybe looking for his wife, maybe not,
but that's unfortunately the way I see it. You know,
very old man calling out to his wife and there's
nobody there.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Okay, enough of that. Did I make you feel good? Huh?
Was that an up topic? Have a nice day? Okay?
Speaker 2 (13:51):
Now there's something called the right to Repair movement.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
What is that?
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Well, the founder of Fixed Clinic has turned this into
a big deal. It's a volunteer run group organized thirteen
hundred repair events around the country. People bring any broken
household items, warn socks for example, it's broken toaster, and
learn how to make them functional again. I guess the
(14:20):
darning people come in and show you how to darn
and repair your socks.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
Gosh darn.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
And here is a couple of reasons. The growing awareness
about the environmental impact of e waste, as well as
a whole bunch of new right to repair laws.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
So let me tell you why they're so important.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Because have you ever bought a computer that's broken down
and it's sat where When you buy a computer, say,
if you do anything to the computer that we don't do,
or an authorized dealer doesn't do, the warranty is history
forcing you to go to the Apple store or an
(15:00):
authorized dealer and of course charging those charges.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
How about unauthorized dealers? Nope?
Speaker 2 (15:07):
How about doing it yourself buying a part for example, Nope,
no warranty.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
And that was the law. Now, when I sold.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Stereos back in the day, and this was during my
college days, it's one of the jobs I had. We
had something called the fair Trade Laws, which meant that
a manufacturer can say, this product cannot be sold below
the price that we give you. Manufacturers suggested retail price.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Couldn't do it. Why because that was the law.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
And right now in the case of these fix it programs,
the law, and that's changing. As matter of fact, California
has changed the law where consumers can repair, modify their
products instead of having to go through the manufacture. And
(16:01):
this is simply a just the next step in consumerism
when you think of it, the fact that a manufacturer
is allowed to tell you, in this day and age,
in the day of free enterprise, that you can only
go back to the manufacturer to repair a product, otherwise
(16:21):
the warranty is history.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Man, How restrictive is that?
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Wouldn't you think you could repair your own computers or.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Bicycles or anything.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
In twenty twelve, Massachusetts mandated auto makers to allow independent
mechanics to access the diagnostic tools and cars. You know,
they have all kinds of diagnostic tools in cars, you know,
the black boxes, things that read, the sensors that read.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Do you know before before twenty twelve?
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Twenty twelve in Massachusetts, and this was the first law
that was passed, a non dealership couldn't even access those
diagnostic tools. It had to be us, which means you
independent repair person or owner of the vehicle couldn't have
access to repair to find out what was going on. Well,
(17:18):
that changed, and you know what changed it? And this
is the fun part. Mcfluury's. What is that about. How
is it that mcfluury's changed it. Well, we've done this
story and Neil's done this story a bunch of times.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
In about fifty percent of the time those.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
Shake machines that McDonald's are broken, you can't get served,
particularly the soft serve ice creams welly because the machines
were broken. Well, that's easy to repair. You know, there
are thousands of these across the country, tens of thousands.
Can you imagine fifty percent broke Cannan at any given time.
(18:01):
Why is that one company, one company has the contract
with McDonald's and has the exclusive right and a contract
with McDonald's saying that only this company is allowed to
repair those machines and the law allowed that, and it's
(18:23):
still there, although that's changing.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Have you ever had McDonald's soft serve.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
It's probably the best soft serve that I've ever had,
And when I go in to McDonald's and I'll go
in just to buy a soft serve, a cone of
that wonderful vanilla and chocolate swirl, and half the time
they tell me, oh, oh, the machine has gone is broken.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
We're waiting for a repair man. When is it going
to come out? When? When is a repair person going
to show up? I don't know. We put in the order.
The right to.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Repair movement is growing, and it should. Okay, let's move
into a totally different topic. And it's something that all
of you probably have. It's one of those things where
we all go to the bathroom, right, you know, remember
that kid's book Everybody Poops. Well, there's a new kid's book.
(19:20):
Everybody has a podcast, and why Well, because everybody's got
something to say. Now, it used to be that in
the world of talk radio, for example, and in the
world in general, your average Joe couldn't make himself for
herself known. If you had something to say, you had
(19:42):
a couple of ways of doing it. One, you could
stand on a street corner with a bullhorn. Boy, that's normal.
You could write a letter to the editor. Okay, fine, yeah,
that's gonna work. You could call in because our talk
shows used to be you calling in and giving your opinion.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
Have you noticed you don't do that anymore?
Speaker 2 (19:59):
And why because I don't give a rats ask what
you have to say that has a lot to do
with it.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
And then, technically speaking.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
The reason I don't do that because I like to
control my show and once you turn it over to
a caller, the caller controls the show and the host reacts.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
And that's not my idea or anybody's idea of a
talk show anymore.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Okay, so the Internet has changed things, but the Internet
isn't the same as you saying what you want to
say and people listening hopefully. And that's the world of podcasts. Now,
why have you noticed that every single major star, political
(20:38):
figure Gavin Newsom has one. What star does not have
a podcast? What major celebrity does not have a podcast?
Speaker 1 (20:49):
They all do? And why is that?
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Well, because they've got something to say and they can't.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
You've got an actor.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Who reads other people's words and doesn't really have much
to say. Every DJ I've ever met wants to be
a talk show host, every one of them, because they
want to talk, They want to make themselves heard instead
of spinning records where they're playing the next song for
(21:17):
the fifty six time in a given hour, and they're
going out of their minds with boredom. That's why cocaine
was such a big deal in drugs, because you had
the dj is going out of their minds with boredom,
and most of them were not getting their PhDs and
using the time between records to study. Well, today everybody
(21:41):
wants to talk, and so you've got a podcast.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
And how easy is a podcast? Well how about this.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
You throw your computer up and you start talking into it,
and then you release it on the internet and nobody
listens unless you are Joe Rogan, who, by the way,
has the most popular podcast in the country, maybe even
in the world, and he just sold that podcast for
two hundred million dollars.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
That's pretty rarefied.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
Here. You got Will Ferrell who has one. You've got
other major political figures who have one.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
I had one.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
I lasted I don't know how many twenty episodes and
then I was done.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
And why is that?
Speaker 2 (22:27):
And I even had some listeners. Well, two reasons I
gave it up. One, it's a lot of work and
I'm the laziest guy who ever lived.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Two you can't monetize a podcast. You can't.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
I mean the podcast that can be monetized are you
can count on one hand.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
It is so rare.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Out of the what four and a half million podcasts
out there that's according to podcast Index, you don't make
money and most of them, most of them last five
episodes and then people realize it ain't easy to do
a podcast. I found that podcast very difficult to do,
(23:14):
and I'll tell you some of the podcasts are full production.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
I remember one of the first.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
Podcasts, and only podcasts because I don't listen to podcasts,
was a guy with the named von Mader, And that
name may not seem familiar to you, but during the
Kennedy years, when John F. Kennedy was elected, this guy
did a right on impression of JFK I mean perfect,
and you released two albums of him impersonating Kennedy and
(23:45):
it was extraordinary, how popular, number one album in the country.
I mean, he made a fortune. And then November twenty second,
nineteen sixty three, his career sort of dropped and he
never even mentioned or did the impression again.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
For obvious reasons, Kennedy was assassinated.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
But I listened to a podcast the history of von
Meter and the production value. They went and interviewed everybody
who was any part of that, people that worked in
this in it literally did the engineering for the album, executives,
people that knew von Meter. The research that went into
(24:26):
that was insane. And if you if you listen to
some of the podcasts, and a lot of them, a
lot of them are now visual, so you've got television
studios and you have lighting.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
The music.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Some of them are original music. I mean the production values. Effectively,
they are television programs. Some of them have budgets of
thirty forty thousand dollars an episode. So it ranges all
the way from you sitting on the kitchen table talking
into a computer all the way up to full production.
(24:59):
And a number of podcasts, well, that's increasing because everybody
wants to hear themselves talk, and everybody wants to be
a talk show host. I don't want to be a DJ.
I have no desire to spin records. DJs want to
be me And why is that? And by the way,
(25:19):
not because I'm the most phenomenal person in the world
and I'm the most I'm not the most hugely talented
person in the world. Yes, I've gotten awards, But let
me tell you why I'm considered so good is because
everybody else is so bad. It's not a question of
I'm good, it's a question of them being bad. And
I compare pretty favorable to those people. If you've ever
(25:41):
listened to podcasts and radio programs around the country, talk
stations around the country, a lot to be desired, but
everybody wants something to say. I have the format here,
I am behind the mic and I'm talking, and I
give you my opinion, and I'm not spinning records.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
We're not playing music.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
Kono is the only one that plays music, and I
have no idea what he plays ConA hall.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
Often do I recognize the music that you play? Very rare,
very rarely.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
You know, I stopped listening to music when the Beatles
broke up.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
That was it. That was the word. That was a day,
that that's going to live an infamy.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
That was the music died for you.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
That's very strong.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Also, Salmon and Garfunkel when they broke up was kind
of bad for me. And then there are some groups
groups that I do like modern groups like which ones
well I can't really name them.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
Oh, hold on minute, hold on, let me get that copy.
Let me get the copy that yeah, yeah, we're.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
Uh yeah, and there's venus seal virtually no downtime, So
that isn't it.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Uh, let me see life source. That's not it. Oh
here it is? Okay, got it all right?
Speaker 2 (27:04):
Doja cat Megan Trainer one of my favorite David Guetta,
Oh man, I like David Gueta, cats Ie.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
I had a marble one so it was a cat's eye.
Then you have okay.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
I love music even though I have no idea, no
idea who these people are and what they sound like.
All right, this is KFI AM six four. You've been
listening to the Bill Handle Show. Catch my Show Monday
through Friday, six am to nine am, and anytime on
demand on the iHeartRadio app
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